in ordine ad spiritualia as they spake they might dispose of their Kingdoms as the Vicars of Christ and visible Monarchs of the Universal Church Which things these Fifth-Monarchy-Men count Antichristian and therefore their teaching and doing the like upon pretence of setting up of Christs Kingdom on earth is by parity of reason there being not better proof for the one than for the other damnable and Antichristian § 13. The smiting work of Quinto-Monarchians is grounded on falsities or uncertainties concerning the agents means and time of smiting mentioned Dan 2. 34. 44 45. HItherto I have prosecuted those arguments against the Quinto-Monarchians doctrine and practise which shew it to be damnable and Antichristian in respect of the act it self of smiting civil powers I shall add further more arguments against them shewing the falsity and uncertainty of those grounds and principles on which their determinations concerning separation from smiting of civil powers rest The first whereof is that afore the Fifth-Monarchy be set up and in order thereto afore Christs coming all civil powers that are now extant as part of the fourth Monarchy are to be disannulled Which hath no foundation but in their own fancy or hatred of the civil powers as withstanding their design For it is said Revel 17. 16 17. That the Kings which formerly supported Babylon shall hate the Whore and shall make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will and to agree and give their Kingdom unto the Beast until the words of God be fulfilled and Revel 18. 9. It is said That the Kings of the earth who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her shall be wail her and lament for her when they shall see the smoke of her burning which shewes that Kings even those that have joyned with Babylon shall remain after her fall yea and some Kings shall be the instruments of her destruction And the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 24. tells us Then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God even the Father when he shall have put down all Rule and all Authority and Power Which words plainly intimate that afore the end when Christ shall deliver up the Kingdom to God even the Father all Rule and Authority and Power shall not be put down Which may be also gathered from Revel 11. 15. where it is said And the seventh Angel sounded and there were great voices in Heaven saying the Kingdoms of the world are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever and ever which is said v. 18. To be the time of the dead that they should be judged and therefore till that time there shall be the Kingdoms of this world and consequently civil powers A second is That civil powers are to be dissolved by men Whereas this is still asserted in Scripture as Gods prerogative that the most High ruleth in the Kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will Dan. 4. 25. 32. 34 35. and 5. 21. And even in the business of the fourth Monarchy the stone that is said to smite the image upon his feet is said to be cut out of the mountain without hands Dan. 2. 34. 45. which is more likely to be meant of Christ who was cut without hands out of the mountain that is without natural generation as other men whether by the Mountain be meant Eternity or Heaven or the Roman Empire or the Universe of human kind as I conceive then of any other man or men And if it be meant of the Kingdom as v. 44. doth expound it that it shall break in pieces and consume all these Kingdoms it must be meant in respect of Christ the King whose dominion is set up by the God of Heaven and not by men and therefore take it any way agreeable to the Text the stones breaking in pieces and consuming all the Kingdoms must not be expounded of Subjects now calling themselves Saints destroying civil powers to which they are subject A third is That men shall dissolve civil powers by fighting with swords which is very false For the stone that smote the Image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth which if it be understood of Christs spiritual Kingdom it smote the Image by preaching the Gospel by which the power of the Idols who ruled in those Kingdoms was cast down and by it the stone became a great mountain and filled the whole earth if it be meant of smiting hereafter it is to be as 2 Thes. 2. 8. it is said that wicked one the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming or if it be meant of the Saints as Mr. Thomas Parker conceives they are thus cut out by professed separation and victorious exemption without hands that is by the only power and finger of Almighty God as it is interpretted Dan. 2. v. 44 45. Thus saith he in his Exposition of that Vision they began to be cut out anno 1160 in the Waldenses and continue so unto this day And the extraordinary hand of God was seen therein as the strange arising growth prevailing of them doth manifestly declare But their absolute cutting out an exemption from the power of Antichrist is that which is to be expected at the term of the slaughter of the two Prophets when their rising by the power alone of God Almighty without the help of man is thus described Revel 11. 11. And after three daies and an half the spirit of life from God entered into them and they stood upon their feet and great fear fell upon them that saw them they ascended up to Heaven in a Cloud and their enemies beheld them And the same hour was there a great Earth-quake and the tenth part of the City fell and in the Earth-quake were slain of men or names of men as in the Greek expounded by Mr. Mede men of name seven thousand presently after which it followes The Kingdoms of the world are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and his Christ. Now be the Earth-quake as Mr. Mede thinks a great commotion of the Nations and alteration of Politique Affairs or some thing else it is caused by Gods power either without man or only by the witnesses and their testimony and if the falling and slaughter thereby be in whole or in part the smiting of the Stone Dan. 2. 34. 44 45. as it is probable it is not by fighting sure not by such as overthrowes civil powers for they shall be altered and be instrumental to destroy Babylon Revel 17. 16 17. And therefore this which is the hinge on which the smiting work of Quinto-Monarchians turns being very uncertain or rather very false all their inferences thereupon must of necessity be groundless and unwarrantable A fourth is that the smiting work ascribed to the Stone shall be
the time of the Saints of the most high taking the Kingdom and possessing the Kingdom for ever even for ever and ever Dan. 7. 18. it is expressed v. 13. to be when one like the Son of man came with the Clouds of Heaven and came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him which in the New Testament is applied to Christs second coming Matth. 24. 30. and 26. 64. Mark 13. 26. and 14. 62. Luke 21. 27. Revel 1. 7. Acts 1. 11. 1 Thes. 4. 17. which Mr. Mede in his fourth letter to Mr. Hayn proves to be at Christs second coming by the brightness of which shall be the consumption of the man of sin 2 Thes. 2. 8. and at his appearing shall be his Kingdom 2 Tim. 4. 1. and then shall the Saints of the most high which overcome sit with him in his Throne even as he also overcame and is set down with his Father in his Throne Revel 3. 21. To them he will give power over the Nations to Rule them with a Rod of Iron so that as a potters vessel they shall be broken to shivers even as he received of his Father Revel 2. 26. 27. then the Kingdoms of the world shall be the Lords and his Christs and he shall reign for ever and ever the Lord God Almighty takes to him his great power and reigns and the Nations were angry and his wrath was come and the time of the dead that they should be judged and that he should give the reward unto his servants the Prophets and to the Saints and to them that fear his name small and great and should destroy them which destroy the earth Revel 11. 15. 17 18. And Revel 20. 4. the Thrones are said to be set as Dan. 7. 9. And they sate upon them and judgment was given to them as Dan. 7. 26. then the Dominion or Kingdom given To the Saints who are troubled rest shall be given by God with the Apostles when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels 2 Th. 1. 7. The Saints shall judge the world 1 Cor. 6. 2. And Jesus said unto them verily I say unto you that ye which have followed me in the regeneration when the Son of man shall fit in the Throne of his glory ye shall also fit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel Matth. 19. 28. Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations And I appoint unto you a Kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me that ye may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdom and fit on Thrones judging the Tribes of Israel Luke 22. 28 29 30. And for the means of obtaining this Kingdom as it is said the Stone was cut out of the mountain without hands that is human help so it is said in the daies of these Kings shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed Dan. 2. 44 45. which therefore our Lord called the Kingdom of Heaven and gives the reason because his Kingdom was not of this world nor from hence John 18. 36. but from Heaven And where it is said that the Saints of the most high shall take the Kingdom and possess the Kingdom for ever even for ever and ever Dan. 7. 18. it is added v. 21 22. I beheld and the same horn made war with the Saints and prevailed against them until the ancient of daies came and judgment was given to the Saints of the most high and the time came that the Saints possessed the Kingdom v. 26 27. But the judgment shall fit and they shall take away his dominion to consume and to destroy it unto the end And the Kingdom and Dominion and the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven shall be given to the people of the Saints of the most High whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and all Dominions shall serve and obey him The Saints take it not by their getting it but by gift not by conquest but donation Suteably in the new Testament Luk. 12. 32. Fear not little Flock for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom Matth. 25. 24. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world Out of which passages we may well infer 1. that it is great temerity in the Quinto-Monarchians to be so peremptory as they are in setting down the time of the Saints taking the Kingdom especially if we consider that when our Lord Christ was asked immediately afore his ascension into Heaven Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel He said unto them it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power Acts 1. 6 7. wherein he gives us to understand that the times and seasons of restoring the Kingdom to Israel are put by the Father in his own peculiar power and therefore were not to be then known to the Apostles nor to us till by the events shewing the foregoing signs and the special instinct of Gods Spirit was shewed the just period of the mystical numbers in which they are to be fulfilled 2. We may infer that it is very great folly pride and arrogant presumption for a number of Gentile Saints in an Island or Continent to think to smite the fourth Monarchy by Arms which is to be destroyed by the Spirit of the Lords mouth and the brightness of his coming and to take to themselves a Kingdom which God only can give and to set up Christs Kingdom which God makes his prerogative Ps. 2. 6. Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion Ps. 110. 1 2. The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool The Lord shall send the Rod of thy strengh out of Zion Rule thou in the mids of thine enemies and to think to do this by armes a feeble means which is to be done not by might nor by power but by his spirit The monstrous arrogance of this attempt is made the more hainous 1. because when it hath been begun heretofore by any they have found God against them the Lord by his providence dissipating their counsels and frustrating their attempts so as that in fine they have only brought ruin to themselves and occasioned hatred of the wayes of God and a hard hand in civil powers on the innocent Which argument although it do not Universally hold that what succeeds not well in the event pleaseth not God yet is good against these men who have no other ground or warrant to their attempts but the opinion they have of Gods putting it into their heart and assurance of his help this being their own speech Banner displayed p. 89. So that we make our conclusion with Manoahs Wife of old if the Lord were pleased to kill us or suffer our enemies to kill us he would
insufficient Rule to guide us to God about the Oaths of the King's Supremacy and Allegiance to him and upon that occasion somewhat an ample Treatise about Swearing asserting That under the Gospel there is yet a lawfull use of swearing being now debarred of other Ministerial imployment I have conceived it a necessary work to shew the weakness of those suppositions upon which the Quinto-monarchians have been drawn to such an hideous practice as that accursed action forementioned was § 2. The words of Quinto-monarchians expressing their Opinions about seeking Christ's Kingdom in this Age are recited THere was a Book printed made in the year 1656. as is noted pag. 18. bearing this Title The Banner of Truth displayed or a Testimony for Christ and against Antichrist being the substance of several Consultations holden and kept by a certain number of Christians who are waiting for the visible appearance of Christs Kingdom in and over the World and residing in and about the City of London In the first page of the Epistle Dedicatory are these words And truly it evidently appeareth that Rome and the Nations of Europe commonly called the Protestant but are the Antichristian Countries which are the streets of the Great City and Rome-Babylon are the Akeldama or Field of bloud And some pages after mentioning powers since the rise of the Beast with ten horns and ten crowns and their success it is said Now for that we apprehend that the present Generation in which we live is that time in which this great work of Reformation rending and tearing the very foundations of the Beasts Civil power up by the roots the fall of the tenth part of Rome's Dominions a great slaughter amongst the great men and implacable Enemies of Christ and the final result the Kingdoms of the world becoming Christ's possession will begin and that time in which the first dispensation of our Lord's Kingdom shall take place and that it shall not pass before these things be fulfilled Therefore we are against these Governments as now constituted and growing upon the old root of wickednesse and bitternesse that time out of mind have brought forth and produced nothing but bloud-Monsters and to Rule by those Laws that Bastards Tyrants and Conquerors have made for their Lusts sake in opposition to the Law and the Testimony Isay 8. 20. We cannot contend for any Government whatsoever that is of Mans erecting building and planting where any thing of this old Foundation may remain and be left and which good men moral men civil men may exercise upon a meerly civil accompt for all men as they are men have lost their rights and priviledges in respect of Government in the first Adam but Saints have regained them in the second Adam or Lord from Heaven and by force and vertue of mens Laws though but the best of those Laws those called fundamental so they are where no more righteous is found for the Lord will pluck up and destroy root and branch and the Lord will not have a stone of Babels confused building for a corner nor a stone for a foundation We cannot therefore but as in duty by our Allegiance to this King bound proclaim That Jesus Christ is the only lawful and true begotten Heir and lawful King and Potentate of these three Nations and of all the Nations of the Earth and as he is the seed of Abraham shall possesse the Earth yea and the very Gates of his Enemies and that the sole Legislative power of the Nations is and doth of right appertain and belong to him and shall be exercised by him Dan. 7. 27. Jer. 10. 7. Isa. 9. 6 7. Gal. 3. 16. c. Hence then it necessarily follows That those beast-like powers now in being in the world and those if any which shall succeed upon that bottom that Rebel-like will not assign their said power Crowns and Scepters to this great Monarch are and shall be deemed and adjudged Traytors and proceeded against accordingly by vertue of this Kings Laws And truly we are soberly and humbly bold in the Lord Jehovah's strength to assert That the Saints of the most High be they who or where they will and faithfull remnant are a people distinct from the world and formal Professors and are but Pilgrims and strangers in this state of affairs men of another Kingdom and World and are by themselves a Common-wealth and Free-State and therefore 't is to be desired from good and sound grounds that they would exercise that Royal Authority which God has given unto them and invested them with as they are Saints by calling And upon this accompt we humbly conceive that 't is lawful for them to use all honest and just means to defend themselves and offend their enemies and to contend against those that do or shall oppose them in their work and business which is according to the pattern shewed unto them in the Mount and Law of Christ ordained and declared throughout the Scriptures It is observable that we are even already arrived the overturning daies we mean those times in which God will begin to smite the Governments and powers of the great Image which is a little after expressed thus the total annihilation and subversion of all the powers of this World of what quality soever ruling either in Antichrists earth or civil State or in his Heaven or Christ-state by the first dispensation of Christs visible Kingdom which we have spoken of or that of the stone Hence it is that we bear a constant and publick testimony against powers as the subject of Gods displeasure and that which must be plucked up We expect the Gentile Saints shall begin this great work In the Book it self having p. 1. said They were resolved to proceed in their way of Consultation for the clearing up these matters of their faith and principles of their hope they thus write That there is oppression in the earth in all Nations as also in England at this present time is undeniable for no man can say that there is no oppression unless we will also affirm that there is no Dragon in power no Antichrist Beast Babylon Whore nor false Prophet which how absurd a thing it is let all judge But the Man of Sin is still in the Seat of Authority the Governments of these Nations are Antichristian therefore oppression is not ceased Neither will there be any lasting Cessation of cruelty untill the fifth Kingdom be set up when the whole Earth shall be at rest and the fourth Kingdom which divides it self into two Iron legs ten toes and a little horn be wholy destroyed in all the Laws Constitutions Governments and Reliques thereof for the Spirit and life that is in that Beast or Kingdom is the Spirit of the old Dragon who is the Devil and Satan that old Serpent whose seed do continually war against the Woman which is Christs Mystical body there being great enmity between them two p. 4. That dispensation which Jehovah by his
providence hath cast us under is the overturning dispensation the time of War and beating of Plough-shares into Swords which Christ and the Scriptures speak of that day in which Christ will appear in his stone the stone of Israel against the powers of the world to the end he may be invested in his possessions which is the Kingdom and Dominions and their greatness under the whole Heavens and therefore we conclude that it is an unlawful thing and therefore men ought not to contribute to the upholding and maintaining of those powers which shall be broken by this dispensation left happily they be found fighters against God p. 6. The will of man having been corrupted ever since the fall of man the Lawes that proceed from that will must need be so p. 11. We say the oppressor which makes us to groan is Babylon in her several parts and powers in England Rulers Lawyers Priests and Soldiers for the present Government in England must of necessity be confessed to be either a part of the ten Horns of the ravenous fourth Beast or else that wicked little Horn Dan. 7. Because they are the last evil powers that shall be over the Nations of Europe and therefore we may safely conclude this to be an Assyrian else we must conclude him to be a part of that Kingdom set up by the God of Heaven but that cannot be because he rules by the Lawes of his Predecessors and shall Christ be beholding to Antichrist for Lawes No certainly he is of the fourth and therefore we need not run far to look this oppressor having already found him to be the present Government with its dependents and appurtenances being a piece of that monstrous Beast whom the Dragon i. e. the Devil Revel 20. 2. Assignes Power and Seat and great authority unto who branches himself into so many Monarchical Governments in the Nations of Europe and which men would perswade us to submit to as being lawful and of God but they execute the Laws of Antichrist and rule for him in Tyranny oppression and persecution by politick Laws which they make and for which the Priests and Lawyers plead and mercinary Soldiers and Officers execute p. 12. The persons oppressed we take it are the most spiritual enlightned Saints in these Nations whose spirits and affections are stirred up to follow Christ in the work of the Generation the good interest now contended for whom we call the Generation of publick spirited Saints The administration of Christs visible Kingdom and rule over the Nations is endeavoured to be suppressed in this juncture of time And not only the thing it self is opposed as dangerous and endeavoured by Matchiavil's principle argument and power as heretical as monstrous but the Doctrine and Gospel of that Kingdom and Office of Christ which shall be preached for a witness to all Nations is slighted and rejected by self-interested men and contemned by most p. 13. They have made a Law that those that shall speak against the powers must be Traytors which in effect is to make those Traytors that speak for this Kingdom The conversion of the Gentiles and poor ignorant sinners to the Faith of Christs visible Kingdom is opposed And p. 14 The establishment of Justice and righteousness in the world and therfore with us arise for the lot of our inheritance prepare therefore your victuals your purse and your scrip but especially your sword though you sell your coat for it p. 23. The Parliament as being built upon the old foundation was a part of the beast p. 24. It is clear that the dispensation of the Stone shall begin to smite the power of the Beast or Civil power and that quarrel is begun and taken up and continued chiefly against that power p. 25. Found to be from Hell and not from Heaven p. 27. The glass of the beasts powers being almost run out in these Nations what remains but that the Saints take into their own possession the Kingdom and power which is their birth-right as freemen of the Common-wealth of Israel and Heirs of the whole world with Christ Gal. 3. 29. which the Beast and his powers hath unjustly detained from them some hundreds of years p. 28. That the work of this Stone is a smiting work or a work wherein the Saints imployed shall visibly appear in a military posture for Christ which we call the great combat between Christ and the Kings and Rulers of the world For the Saints shall fall upon or smite that great Image the Feet and Toes thereof and the whole Roman Monarchy as now divided or all those powers whose derivation is from Rome others not excepted nor freed shall be thereby smitten we mean the Kingdoms of the Romish Iron-legs or the Roman Kingdom divided into the Eastern and western Monarchies wherein the whole Dominion Power and Monarchy of the Ottoman Family or that of the Turks is comprehended and the Beasts ten horns or Antichrists civil powers equivalent to the ten toes and also the little Horn together with all powers whatsoever that shall be found opposers of the Lords Kingdom whether they be of the golden Babylonish silver Persian brasen Grecian or Iron Roman Dan. 2. and ch 7. Revel 13. ch 17. So that we comprehend the whole Kingdom of Antichrist in the Civil Ecclesiastical parts thereof made up of Persons and things p. 29. The fifth Kingdom which is Christs with its holy just and righteous Lawes and Officers must arise with destruction to and stand up in place of the 4th Kingdom and the Lawes and Officers thereof p. 30. Because it is the purchase of the blood and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. p. 15. Now then we say that called the Ordinance of God proves the Ordinance of the Devil and though the powers of the great Image might be taken for the Ordinance of God so long as they kept their pure civil and unmixed state so saith Paul the powers that be i. e. the civil powers of old Rome tho a bloody persecutor and devourer of the creation and good heritage are ordained of God yet when the power of Rome adulterated from its pure civil state and becomes a mixt Antichristian state the Beast and a Whore then it is said of that Beastly Antichristian power that the Dragon or Satan gave him his power and Seat and great authority and what then is this save the Ordinance of Hell God hath revealed this by his Spirit from his word unto a little remnant who see the rottenness and hellish foundation of all the Civil powers of the Beast And how great an argument is this also to us that the rise and work of the Stone is near Which is principally against the Civil power p. 52. It is certain that it is a duty in Saints to hate Gods Enemies yea and more particularly to hate the Civil or Beast-like power because it is that which upholds the great Whore and is a fighter against Christs Kingly office even with a perfect
hatred as we see and find a Remnant do at this day p. 55. The Lord will use and engage his people to act in and perform such a destroying work upon the world as this work of the stone is namely the total commotion and dissolution of the old Heavens and old Earth and all the created powers ruling therein because it is the decree determination promise and appointment of the Father p. 56. The Lord by these figurative expressions holds forth the dissolution of all old things formal Antichristian Church-state Ordinances Worship Discipline and Doctrine all beast-like wordly Governments Institutions Laws politick Constitutions Powers c. In a word the Heavens and the Earth of all the Nations Isai. 5. 30. p. 57. So that Jesus Christ will admit of no competitors but will have the sole legislative power and exercise of the chief Magistracy and be Lord Paramount over the whole Earth and therefore God is engaged to appear with his smiting Stone to make way for this glorious Mountain of peace p. 59. That all the blood of Gods people is found in Babylon For they i. e. her Civil powers Revel 16. 6 7. have shed the blood of the Saints and Prophets Revel 17. 6. ch 18. 24. 19. 1. Jer. 50. 14. now therefore God by way of recompence retaliation hath ordained that the Saints shall be his instruments by which he will execute his vengeance upon the powers of the World who are all of them Murtherers accordingly God commands his people 't is their duty to obey to reward Babylon double as she rewarded them Revel 18. 6. and they shall give her blood to drink p. 62. The call which the stone shall have to act in its smiting work is for the greatest part thereof now pertinent and fitly applicable to a faithful remnant now extant in England and fulfilled in and upon them and also seeing that the signes laid down in the word of God for the time of the end are in a grâ—at measure now fulfilled and accomplished in Englands Remnant therefore we conclude and assert that 't is lawful and warrantable and is a duty incumbent for captivated Sion and oppressed Saints to stand up in Gods name and fear and deliver themselves and that glorious Gospel of the Kingdom now by them declared to the world from persecution oppression and that long Captivity and Bondage which she hath remained in and to break the Yoak of the oppressor which is now upon her Neck according to the word commandment of the Lord. Zach. 2. 7. Isai. 52. 2. We are perswaded that the work of the Stone is the present work of this generation and our present work and do accordingly exhort the Saints to arise to fall upon the enemy p. 63. The Saints in order to this smiting work shall be converted from all the Civil power and Rule of Antichrist and the ten Horned Beast upon which the mystery harlot sitteth p. 65. That it is their duty to withdraw their Hands Hearts Affections Purses and prayers from the Civil power or power of the Beast that they shall quit all their interest and claim in and to the old Heavens and Earth and state of things shall forsake Father Mother c. And shall convert Houses Lands Possessions and Enjoyments commanded to be prudently beat into Swords and Spears into one common stock to be consecrated for the management of this great Affair p. 66. And in such a practise they shall be no loosers Christ will give them an hundred fold even the spoile of all their great and rich Enemies who are his opposers and in the end an eternal Crown The Saints are with Moses to refuse Court Honour and favor and preferment Egyptians wisdom Learning Revenues and great Riches with David to leave their common duties as matters of small value and little concernment in comparison of this noble and worthy imployment to fight against the Philistines so are the Civil powers or common Enemy to the Common-wealth of Israel p. 71 We do profess we cannot be content or satisfied until Christs Kingdom flourish but will in Gods name and strength press forward till we come to the mark which is the state of the true rest so we call that Kingdom and power where the Saints shall cease from all their labours in and with Christ. p. 69. Doth not the Lord call the Saints to arise also unto the prey p. 71. The work of God against Nations Provinces Universities Corporations Cities Townes Kings Rulers chief Captains mighty Men in Church and Common-wealth Enemies of Christ's Kingly Office shall be the lesson of faithful Saints the true way will be discovered and made plain all Rebels and Traitors open and prophane more close pretenders and formally Godly discovered hatred in and among his Saints against those several parts forms powers of Babylon doleful howling and mourning among the Merchants of Babylon who are the great and rich men whose hearts dwell on the Earth p. 75. The Saints must separate not only from the Romish Universal National Provincial and Diocesan Church-state of Babylon and Antichrist together with their Discipline Doctrine Worship and Ceremonies But also and more particularly which is most properly a work precedent to be done by the Saints in order to the smiting work of the Stone from the national and parochial Parish Church State and assemblies forms and classes of this and other Antichristian Nations which we call the Politick and no more than Civil Stratagem and cunning invention of Antichrist to divide unto himself the whole Land for gain whereby all men to the lowest ranck are compelled forcibly to contribute to the maintenance of his false Prophet and so wickedness is established by a Law Again further from those Churches that are select more pure as being seemingly refined which are the gathered in a pastoral way reducing things to primitive practise so far as they are corrupted and adulterated and found opposers of the Kingly Office of Jesus Christ in and over the whole world and more especial in the Administration of this part or dispensation of that Kingdom to wit that of the Stone or War against his Enemies for even in this generation there be a sort of people and those we hope godly that do acknowledge and wait in the expectation of the later yea and hold forth the personal appearance of our Lord as King yet nevertheless oppose and deny and quite leap over this Stone and its work thereby endeavouring to render the Saints useless and uncapable of destroying Babylon which must make â—way and without which we cannot attain to the peaceable and more glorious Administration of this Kingdom by removing those Mountains Hils and powers of darkness which do oppose and hinder it p. 76. And from those humane heathenish and Antichristian wayes means and helps for the attainment whereof men study which they practise in the Schools and Universities of these Nations as things necessary for the Fitting Preparing
and qualifying a man how carnal soever to be a Preacher of the Gospel as they say And this together with the Offer of some large stipend or yearly salary and fat benefice is their call to Preach therefore we disown and abominate their qualifications and their call as an accursed thing Yet mistake us not we are not against humane learning and the knowledge of the languages but do repute it honourable good and commendable yet when it is abused and the plea of necessity put upon it in that habit we utterly declaim against it as a derogation to the holy spirit and its Office who gave out the Scripture and imprints them in the hearts of the godly for all scripture is given by the inspiration of God and cannot be convincingly and profitably expounded by mans Art and Learning p. 77. Separation is to be from the parochial Church and Hireling Ministry of England their Ordination and Institution After they have for some time been trained up in the Arts and Sciences of Egypt in the Universities they take their several degrees and commencements Masters of Art Batchelors of Divinity or godliness and in case they sit long under the skirts of the great Whore she makes them Doctors in Divinity Men skilful and perfect in Heavenly Mysteries These are those that during the defection and apostacy are the Rabbies which look more after the Fleece than the Sheep Lording it over Gods heritage We therefore are against those degrees Offices Places and their vain which are indeed Blasphemous Titles which they arrogate from God and Jesus Christ the great Prophet and Teacher of his People Gal. 1. 1. Matth. 23. 8. Joh. 3 9 10. Rev. 1. 9. p 79. The enlightened Saints or the more pure and holy part of those called the gathered and which are corrupted Churches in these Nations or elsewhere ought to separate and withdraw from the more grosse dark defiled and corrupted part of the said Churches because there are no Churches or at leastwise very few of the pastoral way in these Nations or elsewhere but have something of Antichrist in them having forsaken apostatized from the primative and first love and have and do in many principles practise strike hands with the interest of Antichrist and mystery of iniquity 2 Thes. 2 3 4. p. 83. Our position we give thus that in this ending time of the mystical numbers wherein the Stone shall arise the Saints must disown and in the strength of God separate from and according to that power which God shall give unto them by his Spirit engage against all and all manner of Civil power of what quality soever now lift up over the whole Earth or any part Kingdom Nation or Corner thereof together with all its dependents Upholders Lawes and Appurtenances whatsoever whose derivation has been from Satan ruling in all the several Parts Powers and Forms of the devouring fourth Beast And which are of and belonging to that Beast though descended into the very lowest last and most refined and pretended Christian-like power of that Beast As having their root and foundation upon Satan the great Dragon p. 81 82. We accompt it a duty for the Saints to separate from all the forms practises Doctrines and spirit of the Antichrist in the world in their Bretheren in the Churches c. And to be plain we accompt him and that spirit which either in act or deed wilfully and obstinately denies the smiting work of our Lords Kingdom Antichristian inasmuch as that such would alwaies have Christ his Saints his cause in and on the earth a sufferer But the Scripture clearly manifests the contrary Agreeably to these positions or rather exceeding them are the speeches of some whether Levellers or Quinto-Monarchians in the first and second part of Pamphlets printed 1648 1649. p. 1. The creature man was priviledged with being Lord over other inferior creatures but not over his own kind for all men being alike Priviledged by birth so all men were to enjoy the creatures alike without propriety one more than another p. 3. The Beast hath its power from the Dragon Revel 13. 4. And the Dragon Revel 20. 2. is the Devil so that it is plain that Kings are of the Beast and the Beast is of the Devil and it is as plain they that worship the King worship the Beast and they that worship the Beast worship the Devil Revel 13. 4. Now let us a little behold our English powers all that which is called Magistracy is from the Kings Patent and his is from the Devil for the Kings Predecessors the outlandish Bastard William came to be King by conquest and murther now murtherers are saith Jesus the Devils Children for saith he the Devil was a murtherer from the beginning and he abode not in the truth Now Kings are utterly against the truth and persecutors of the Saints for saith Jesus they shall bring you before Kings so that Kings are enemies unto the Kingdom of Christ taking licenses and grants patents and Charters from the King is taking the Beasts mark p. 8. We take this power of William the Conqueror to be that little horn in Dan. 7. 24. p. 13. Kings Lords and Commons the little Horn. Part. 2. p. 5. Titles of honour are termed vain titles forbidden by our Saviour as heathenish although some good men were Kings yet it was not in regard to their Office but persons for in that they were Kings they were Tyrants p. 6. It was wickedness in the Israelites in advancing a man one of their own kind in the place of a God and so to Idolize their own flesh above God p. 7. Kings are the worst of men p. 8. Lawyers being worse than the Devil who scorns to take a penny Fees to torment any but will do it freely p. 9. Pharaoh-like they have their Juglers who can play the Hocus Pocus and invent a thing they call Religion like Jereboams Calves who the first invented state worship p. 10. All those oppressors before named do live altogether out of Gods way and in Rebellion to his Lawes first because they live without a calling and so are idle being Vagabonds and wasters of the creatures by drunkenness pride gluttony and so but vermin in a Commonwealth and by their own Law ought to be put into a house of Correction and to be made work Jesus Christ alone is Lord and King over man and all men are equals p. 11. All men are to enjoy alike freedoms and none more than another so that they are equal and none have to do to command another no more than another him but in a joynt union and agreement that any be set up it is but a trusted humane power and they but servants to the whole and may be removed at pleasure p. 13. There are Vice-Kings viz. Those that are Deputies as Mayors in Cities and Towns Corporate that are Kings of patents which patents are meer monopolies and serve to inhance Trading and Commodities in a
few mens hands to beggar the whole these take towls and customs of their brethren p. 14. Why may not the Soldiers pull the Judges out of Westminster Hall and take all their rusty Records Laws c. And make a fire on them That so we may have honest godly Laws according to the Scriptures and reason In the preface to the 8 last Sermons of Mr. Tillinghast who was much for the Fifth-Monarchy are these words Let none take offence at this language for I cannot forbear vilifying the Kingdoms of the fourth Beast when my thoughts are upon the magnifying of the Kingdom power and glory of Jesus Christ our Lord. And if the Virgin daughter of Sion without any disparagement to her holy modesty might of old be allowed by God himself to dispise the great King of Assyria and to laugh him to scorn I know no reason to the contrary but one of the Lambs followers may without breach of rule in an holy triumph of faith express contempt of the Kings of the Earth who are all of them the lovers of the Mother of Harlots and Abomination of the Earth In the first Sermon p. 2. Of the third edition 1659. Mr. Tillinghast saith Davids Kingdom was a type of Christs Kingdom and indeed whereas this Kingdom here Jerem. 33. 20 21. Promised is shadowed forth by that of David it doth hold thus much that the Kingdom is not only a spiritual Kingdom but an outward visible Kingdom for such a throne and Kingdom Davids was p. 14. Yet the woman hath not had her day upon the Serpent but there is a time wherein the woman must have a day upon the Serpent to break his head therefore there is such a Kingdom wherein the Saints of Jesus Christ shall crush all the enemies of Jesus Christ in the world p. 39. The Devil plays his game thus in the new Testament times he made men to look for an outward Kingdom only when Christ was about to set up a spiritual Kingdom now that Christ would set up an outward Kingdom saith the Devil look only to the spiritual Kingdom p. 41. Gods Peoples faith is not grounded on fancies but they see and know that God is doing some glorious thing in the world he is overturning Kingdoms and setting up the Kingdom of his Son Serm. 3. p. 57. He conceives The work of Christs visible Kingdom over the world the work of the present time one great article of our faith the work that God doth call his Children to at this day and he calls upon them from Heaven to attend to that they are to expect it before Christ come forth bring his Kingdom with him p. 60 61. He distinguisheth in Christs visible Kingdom between the Kingdom of the Stone and of the Mountain this he calls the Kingdom of glory wherein the Saints shall not work but receive that the working Kingdom of the Saints wherein Saints are by the Lord imployed to do some notable service against his coming which is the breaking down the great Image the bringing down all his enemies that when he comes he may find them his footstool for he is to fit at the Fathers right hand until all his enemies be made his footstool it 's a Kingdom wherein Plow-shaers are to be beaten into Swords there shall be wonderful use of Swords Weapons of War out of Daniel 12. 12 13. He gathers the beginning of each of these p. 62. Truly I look upon it as being a main and principal part of that faith once delivered to the Saints as touching the fifth Kingdom p. 63. Though this Stone fundamentally is Christ himself yet considered as smiting the great Image it can be no other but Christ mystical Christ in his members and the cutting out of this Stone cannot be meant as some would have it of Christs first coming p. 65. Now if it can be made appear that that with which the fifth Kingdom doth begin the work of the great Image the over-turning the Thrones of the Kings is to be performed by the Saints as chief instruments in the management of it then it follows of necessity there must be such a thing as the Civil and Military power to be in the hands of the Saints and that before the day of Christs appearance they must have this power in their hands for the performance of that work and if so then it 's not evil for the Saints and People of God to seek for it to pray for it to plead for it for it 's to come into their hands for the doing of their work before the day of Christs appearance And then endeavours to prove that this work with which the fifth Kingdom doth begin is a work to be performed by Saints as the chief and principal instruments in the doing of it p. 74. There 's the coming forth of Christ when his enemies by his Saints are made his footstool p. 79. He gives some figues that this work is near at hand and p. 82. He makes this to be a general sign that never was there a principle that did run so much among the Churches of Christ as this hath done within these twelve months I have set down the words of those persons that I shall oppose in their positions that I may not be thought to impose upon them Out of them it is manifest that they assert that all the powers not only Ecclesiastical but also Civil and Military of the Nations even the Protestant as well as the Turkish and Romish Kingdoms are Antichristian and all their Laws Officers Schools Corporations Titles Priviledges Degrees and ranks of men in their politick and military as well as Ecclesiastical state Babylonish from the fourth Monarchy that those that they call publick spirited Saints of this age distinct from Notional professors and formally Godly are to hate separate from them deny any assistance to them rise up against them to destroy them utterly to smite them in order to the setting up a fifth Monarchy of Christ's visible Kingdom on earth that the Saints may be a free Common-wealth of themselves subject to no Laws but Christ's and free from all oppressions of men § 3. The Doctrine of smiting Powers is proved from Scripture Precepts to be Wicked THis Doctrine is damnable and Antichristian as is proved by these Arguments following whereof the first is taken from those Precepts of the New Testament and the Old which forbid such disobedience vilifying refusing assistance smiting of Powers over us Dignities Officers but command Honour Obedience Assistance Fear to Powers Dignities and their Laws and may be thus formed That Doctrine is damnable and Antichristian which commendeth and urgeth Practises and Actions contrary to the Precepts of Christ his holy Apostles and other holy men in the holy Scriptures This Proposition is of it self manifest unlesse that be not acknowledged damnable which is condemned by so holy persons nor Antichristian in a large sense which is flatly opposite to Christ's and his holy
confessed the powers of the great Image bloody persecutors and devourers of the creation and Gods Heritage and I may add as wicked and impure in their lives as they were afterwards yea and as Monstrously Idolatrous as afterwards The Emperors then took to themselves the Title of Pontifex Maximus which was kept till the Christian Emperors time and that Title imported their power and inspection about the Idolatrous rites of the Romans whereby they took charge of the worship of Jupiter and other Roman Deities and were zealous for it so as to persecute them to death with extream cruelty who would not offer incense to their Idols nor swear by them yea they did some of them urge Jews and other people to worship either themselves or their Statues as Gods as Caligula Domitian and caused the abomination and desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet to stand in the holy place of which our Saviour foretels Matth. 24. 15. And though the Popish Idolatry in the worshiping of the Host bowing down to Crucifixes Images praying to deceased Saints creeping to Crosses adoring of Reliques and other superstitions of the Romanists be horribly impious and their cruelty in destroying them that will not adore their consecrated Host be very satanical and so their power and the exercise of it whereby they take on them to condemn as Hereticks them that will not worship their Idols and whereby Princes at their beck do execute their sentences cruelly be from Satan or the Dragon in the use of it in these things yet it is doubted whether the Popish Idolatry be greater or so bad as the Heathenish Idolatry of the Romans in St. Paul's time Yea Dr. John Burges in his Answer rejoined to the reply to Dr. Morton's defence of the Ceremonies ch 4. sect 28. hath maintained against Mr. Parker that the popish Idolatry is not as vile in it self as ever was any of Turks or Pagans And it is plain that in the Revelation the power of the Emperors as they used it in persecution of Christians for not worshipping Idols is ascribed to the Divel before the pretended mixt Antichristian state as well as after Revel 2. 10. Behold the Divel shall cast some of you into prison when he did it by the Pagan Emperors and their Officers v. 13. I know thy works and where thou dwellest even where Satans throne is and thou holdest fast my Name and hast not denied my Faith even in those daies wherein Antipas was my faithfull Martyr who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth On which saith Brightman it is not obscure why it is called the throne of Satan For the City where the heathen Emperors had their seat who professedly warred against the Lamb is called the throne of the Dragon ch 13. 2. so of the daughters and lower Cities those which come nearer to the mind of this Prince because they yield a Palace more prepared for the Divel are notified by the same name And Revel 12. 3. where it is said Behold a great red Dragon having seven heads ten horns seven Crowns upon his head on its saith Mede A wonder or representation of the Empire of Rome Heathen worshiping the Dragon the large Annotations on the Bible A great red Dragon the Heathen Roman Emperors succeeding one another who did the Divel service as in other things so chiefly in persecuting the Church v. 9. ch 2. 10. The like if need were might be shewed to be the opinion of Brightman Diodatâ— Pareus Piscator and others By which and many other passages in holy Scripture it may appear that the heathen Emperors had that power whereby they persecuted the Church of Christ from Satan and were as great Idolaters as those under the Papacy and were as serviceable to the Divel and yet are granted to be the Ordinance of God and though the Powers of the great Image even the Iron legs yet were not to be resisted but the saints even every soul the holy Apostles themselves not excepted were to be subject to them under pain of damnation Whence it follows that there is no warrant for English pretended or real Saints to smite the present Powers to oppose resist overthrow the present Laws Government and Governors though it were yielded which is not that they were part of the fourth Monarchy kept not their pure civil and unmixed State were oppressors shed the blood of the Saints and what ever else the Quinto-Monarchians do object against them Doubtless however Sir Walter Raleigh have aggravated the cruelties of King Henry the 8th of England and perhaps others may represent in the most odious manner the government of other Princes yet they exceed not Nero Domitian and other of the Roman Heathen Emperors in cruelty to the Christian believers nor in uncleanness and unrighteousness and yet St. Paul and St. Peter and our Lord Christ himself command subjection even to such And therefore these things cannot release the Quinto-Monarchians from subjection but their pleas for their smiting work are proved to be damnable and Antichristian 12. It is supposed when the power of Rome was adulterated from its pure civil State and becomes a mixt Antichristian State the Beast and a Whore which they conceive of the present civil powers of the Nations even the Protestant and particularly those of England then it is said of that beastly Antichristian power that the Dragon or Satan gave him his Power his Seat and great Authority and what then is this save the Ordinance of Hell To examine this it is to be observed 1. That they suppose it was the civil power of Rome which is meant Revel 13. 1. 2. by the beast and that it is meant of the civil powers since they became in name Christian. Which I will not gainsay because of the words of the Angel Revel 17. 12. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten Kings which have received no Kingdom as yet but receive power as Kings one hour with the beast though there are or have been that understand by it Heathen Emperors afore they embraced Christianity or an Emperor not yet extant that I may omit other conjectures and therefore this is not to be taken as so certain that on it should be grounded so strange a work as the smiting of all the civil powers of Europe which is deduced from it 2. It is supposed that then the civil Powers were adulterated from their pure civil and unmixed estate By pure civil and unmixed estate they must mean if I be not mistaken that afore that time the Roman Emperors did not meddle with the matters of Religion or of the Church which is most notoriously false for they took the title of Pontifex Maximus ruled in the business of the worship of their Gods did forbid Christian worship and persecuted Christians to the death And that they did afterwards which is also false For the Emperors Christian did reject that title and demolished the temples of Idols promoted the Christian worship contended
disclaim not only Ecclesiastical Rulers but also civil powers in order to their smiting work and also to smite them is damnable and Antichristian Nor can here the pretences of their being of the fourth Monarchy from Rome Oppressors Idolaters Antichristian salve the matter fith those Priests of the Jewes and Roman Governours to whom Christ yeiled Subjection were as bad and every way as obnoxious to their criminations of the present Governours as any now be Assuredly the present Governours in these Nations cannot be charged with such things as Pilate Caiaphas and the rest of those Governors to whom Christ was subject were chargable wth without extream impudence This argument is further confirmed from the examples of all the holy Apostles Martyrs and Confessors in the primative times of Christianity Instances might be given in James Peter Paul who doubtless could as easily have killed their persecutors as Ananias and Sapphira or strucken them blind as St. Paul did Elymas the Sorcerer yet submitted themselves to imprisonment pleaded their cause before Roman Rulers appealed to Caesar suffered even to death In the times following the Christians served under the persecuting Roman Emperors in their Wars and though they were in number many dispersedover their Empire and had Arms in their hands whereby they might in appearance have been able to have defended themselves against the violence of their persecutors yet they chose to suffer under the tyrannous Emperors that then were rather than to rise up against them to revenge themselves because their Christian profession did forbid them as Tertullian Apolog. c. 37. ad scapulam c. 2. Cyprian ad Demetr and others plead for them Out of these and other examples which might be produced we may argue thus That Doctrine which teacheth men to do contrary to the examples and profession of our Lord Christ Jesus his Apostles Martyrs Confessors Saints in the first and best ages of Christianity is damnable and Antichristian But such is the Doctrine of the Quinto-Monarchians concerning their smiting of civil powers as is manifest by comparing them therefore it is damnable and Antichristian § 8. More arguments are urged from censures and determinations in the New Testament A Fourth argument I deduce from those places of holy scripture which censure condemn and denounce woe unto those practises which the Doctrine of the Quinto-Monarchians incites men to and they magnify as the fruits of Gods Spirit The Apostle Peter 2 Epist. 2. 9 10 11. The Lord knowes how to deliver the Godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and dispise Government or Dominion presumptuous are they self-willed they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities whereas Angels which are greater in power and might bring not a railing accusation against them before the Lord. Which is seconded by St. Jude v. 8 9 10. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh despise Dominion and speak evil of dignities Yet Michael the Arch-Angel when contending with the Devil he disputed about the body of Moses durst not bring against him a railing accusation but said the Lord rebuke thee But these speak evil of the things they know not In which passages those holy Apostles rank the despisers of Dominion those that speak evil of dignities not among the Saints but amongst the most accursed reprobates though those Dominions and dignities were as bad as might be in respect of their personal qualities and actions yea the Arch-Angels example is brought in as not daring to bring against the Devil himself when there was a contention about Moses his body a railing accusation but referred it to the Lord to rebuke him teaching thereby that such terms as contain threatning contempt reproach of Governors and dignities are altogether unsuteable to Saints and such as they should not dare to utter though they contended with the Devil himself much less with men that are in Power and Authority much less to smite them and directing how to deal with them when they be injurious to wit to defer their cause to God for his suppression of them and threatning wo to the practisers of contempt of Dominion and speaking evil of dignities All which are contrary to the Doctrine of Quinto-Monarchians who revile dispise threaten them commend the smiting of them as the generation work promise rewards to them that do it Whence I infer that Doctrine which animates men to such practises as are damned by the holy Apostles St. Peter and St. Jude is damnable and Antichristian But such is the Doctrine of Quinto-Monarchians concerning their vilifying and smiting civil powers therefore it is damnable and Antichristian If any object our Saviours answer Luk. 13. 32. to some Pharisees who said to him get thee out and depart hence for Herod will kill thee bidding them go ye and tell that Fox behold I cast out Devils and I do cures to day and to morrow and the third day I shall be perfected I answer these words do not at all contain any vilifying of the Kingdoms of the fourth Beast or contempt of the Kings of the earth But a reproof of Herods evil qualities of craft and crueltie and a professed resolution of his going on in his work with undanted magnanimity till the time came of his laying down his life with a prediction that it should not be where Herod had jurisdiction but at Jerusalem As for that which we read Isai. 37. 22. This is the word of the Lord which he hath spoken concerning Sennacherib King of Assyria the Virgin the daughter of Sion hath despised thee and laughed thee to scorn the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee it gives no allowance for one of the Lamb's followers to express contempt of the Kings of the earth though they were all of them as they are unjustly charged the lovers of the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the earth this being a breach of a plain rule in the New Testament requiring subjection to them and condemning contempt of them which is not in a holy triumph of faith but rather in a proud self magnifying or factious animosity not a deriding of their threats and Blasphemous desparaging of God as was that which the Prophet from God fore-told the Jews should do to a King that had no Authority over them but was an hostile Invader of them and by express warrant from God but a vilifying of the powers that are termed the Kingdom of the fourth Beast as opposite to the Kingdom power and glory of Jesus Christ our Lord though the Apostle Peter expressely bid Honour the King even then when the King was of the fourth Beast as they speak and opposite to the Kingdom power and glory of Christ Jesus The Prophet Isaiah never taught the Jewes to vilify Manasseh his Kingdom or Authority notwithstanding his reprehension of his wickedness and prediction of his calamity And in
Judges And yet the evils we have seen are small in comparison of what the Jewes felt by the factions there when Jerusalem was besieged by Titus But the evils which would come on the world by the insurrection of the Quinto-Monarchians if their project did take place would far exceed them their design being an universal destruction of them that oppose them in all the world and when the conscience is perverted there being no stay to mens furious zeal If any say that they would only smite oppressors of the Saints I reply by their own rules they are bound to separate from those Churches which are select and more pure as being seemingly refined which are the gathered in pastoral way reducing things to primitive practise so far as they are corrupted and adulterated and found opposers of the Kingly office of Jesus Christ in and over the whole world and more especial in the administration of this part or dispensation of that Kingdom to wit that of the Stone or War against his enimies for even in this generation there be a sort of people and those we hope godly that do acknowledge wait in the expectation of the later yea and hold forth the personal appearance of our Lord as King yet nevertheless oppose and deny and quite leap over this Stone and its work thereby endeavouring to render the Saints useless and uncapable of destroying Babylon which must make way and without which we cannot attain to the peaceable and more glorious administration of this Kingdom by removing those Mountains Hills and powers of darkness which do oppose and hinder it Banner displayed p. 75. There are no Churches or at leastwise very few of the pastoral way in these Nations or elsewhere but have something of Antichrist in them having forsaken and apostatized from the primitive and first love and have and do in many principle and practises strike hands with the interest of Antichrist and mystery of iniquity 2 Thes. 2. 3 4. p. 79. We accompt it a duty for the Saints to separate from all the forms practises doctrines and spirit of the Antichrist in the world in their brethren in the Churches c. And to be plain we accompt him and that spirit which either in act or deed wilfully and obstinately denies the smiting work of our Lords Kingdom Antichristian inasmuch as that such would alwaies have Christ his Saints his cause in and on the earth a sufferer but the scripture clearly manifests the contrary p. 81 82. now then if men be they never so holy as they hope a sort of people be who oppose deny and quite leap over the Stone and its smiting as they confess there are no Churches or very few of the pastoral way in these Nations and elsewhere but have opposed them yet are Antichristian they by their principles are to smite them and so must oppress Saints as well as others And if any Saints be civil powers Ecclesiastical Rulers Governors in Corporations Graduates in Universities Pastors in Churches as no doubt thousands are who love the Lord Jesus and wait for his appearing and Kingdom yet these must be smitten too And who can secure in such confusions as would arise upon the Quinto-Monarchians smiting work any man yea of their own party from violence and slaughter when there is nothing but rage in private persons whose proceedings are in heat of mad zeal without any distinction by legal trial and just judgment or certain Rule Sure no Tyrants have ever done more mischief than this way of the Fifth-Monarchy-Men would do if it were prosecuted nor is any doctrine more hellish Antichristian and damnable than this that tends to overthrow all the civil powers Lawes Doctrines Forms Degrees Offices in Church and State which these term the spirit of Antichrist in the world And if it were supposed that these furious zelots should accomplish their design after the mixture of hypocrites and the rabble of the worst most foolish men who could hope there would be any peace good order or justice in the world or any remainder of sober men The world would be an Acheldama or field of blood which they impute to the Nations of Europe even the Protestant and the prevailing persons to use their own phrase Blood-Monsters and instead of a visible Kingdom of Christ in the earth a solitude Chaos tohu vebohu as was afore the first creation and the Kingdom of Antichrist or the Devil would be set up under pretence of making Christs enemies his footstool What Lawes Order or Rule tending to further Religion or Righteousness can any expect from men of such cauterized consciences as not to discern the mischievousness of such doctrine and practises as these have vented especially after they have inured themselves to shedding of blood and rapine with extremity § 11. The 9th and 10th arguments against the smiting work of Quinto-Monarchians from the meekness peaceableness and patience of Saints TO these arguments which have been confirmed I shall add a ninth taken from the opposition of spirit and practise which their doctrine begets to the precepts of meekness and peaceablness which the Gospel requires of Christians and to which it assigns blessedness Our Lord Christ in his sermon on the Mount Matth. 5. 5. saith Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth v. 9. Blessed are the peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God v. 22. He forbids rash anger contemptuous speech and opprobrious language v. 23 24 25. requires speedy endeavours of reconciliation with adversaries nor is it any thing against this precept of Christ that he tels us Luke 12. 49. 51. I am come to send fire on the earth and what will I if it be already kindled Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth I tell you nay but rather division For these expressions do not shew his approbation of division but his foresight of it not as a thing which he affected or as a thing desirable of it self or which he studied to promote but as a thing which he knew was unavoidable in the event that while he endeavoured to promote the truth of the Gospel by accident divisions would follow not from his doctrine which was the Gospel of peace but through the perversness of mens spirits who would oppose it But that it was the will of Christ that all Christian Saints should be meek and peaceable appears from the many precepts injoyning them in the Apostles writings Rom. 12. 18. If it be possible as much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men Rom. 14. 17. For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Ghost v. 19. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace Gal. 5. 19 20. The workes of the flesh are hatred enmities variance wrath strise seditions divisions or factions v. 22. 23. The fruit of the spirit is love joy peace meekness Heb. 12. 14. Follow peace with
all men James 3. 17. The wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable v. 18. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace 1 Pet. 3. 10 11. He that will love life and see good daies let him seek peace and ensue it From hence I argue that doctrine is damnable and Antichristian which is opposire to Christs and his Apostles commands approbation and beatification concerning meekness and peaceableness But such is the doctrine of the Quinto-Monarchians which stirs up enmities and hostility among men teacheth separations from men even such as they hope are godly from Churches gathered in a pastoral way reducing things to primitive practise and breaths out nothing but Wars and smiting of all that denie or oppose their smiting work which are as contrary to meekness and peaceableness as hot to cold black to white Therefore their doctrine is damnable and Antichristian Nor can they be acquitted by alleging such texts as Psal. 139. 21 22. and 137. 9. Amos. 5. 15. Hab. 2. 6 7 8. Revel 17. 16. unless they can shew all civil powers extant and those whom they hope to be godly Churches gathered in a pastoral way reducing things to primitive practise yet count enemies to Christs Kingdom because they oppose that which these call the smiting work of the Stone to be indeed haters of God and Babylon and also that these are the Stone or the ten Horns that are to hate the Whore and make her desolate Till this be done which I expect to be done at later Lammas we may say as Christ did ye know not what spirit ye are of or rather determin that they are indeed of an Antichristian or Diabolical spirit For a further inforcing of this argument I shall adjoyn a tenth taken from those many texts of scripture especially in the New Testament which both require patience in the Saints and assigne blessedness to it and make suffering the portion of the Saints and necessary to their entrance into the Kingdom of God that to continue till Christs coming Matth. 5. 10 11 12. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven Luke 21. 19. In your patience possess your souls Acts 14. 22. Paul and Barnabas confirmed the souls of the Disciples and exhorted them to continue in the faith and that we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God 2 Thes. 1. 4 5. So that we our selves glory in you in the Churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God that ye may be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God for which ye also suffer 2 Tim. 3. 12. Yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution Heb. 12. 6. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every Son whom he receives James 1. 4. Let patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing James 5. 7. Be patient therefore brethren unto the coming of the Lord. Hence I argue those who teach smiting when Christ and his Apostles teach patience those who count them Antichristian who would have Christ his Saints his cause in and on the earth a sufferer though Christ and his Apostles call it Christian to suffer and require patience until the coming of the Lord these teach doctrine which is indeed damnable and Antichristian But so do the Quinto-Monarchians as may be seen before Sest 2. Therefore the doctrine of their smiting work is damnable and Antichristian § 12. The Eleventh and Twelfth arguments from contrariety to the Martyrs agreement with Papists THIS also leads us to an eleventh argument which is from the constant profession of the Saints and Martyrs in all ages that they were to suffer for the Kingdom of God not to fight for it so speaks St. John Revel 1. 9. I John who also am your Brother and companion in Tribulation and in the Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Christ was in the Isle that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the Testimony of Jesus Christ. Where he makes these conjunct the Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Christ and styles himself their Brother and companion in Tribulation and in the Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Christ therefore he took all that were Brethren to be companions therein and these to be conjoyned together This was the profession of the Saints in the times of the ten great persecutions as may be seen in the writings of Justin Martyr Tertullian Cyprian and such as wrote Apologies for the Christians and the Acts and monuments of the Church which relate their practise suteable to their profession even when they were armed and were a considerable part of the Emperors Armies yet exposed themselves rather to butchery than they would attempt to fight Yea when the Beast was risen to whom the Dragon gave his power and his seat and great authority from which time as is shewed before Sect. 4. the Quinto-Monarchians make civil powers not to be the Ordinance of God but Antichristian and the Ordinance of Hell yet the Holy Ghost foretels not the smiting work of the Stone or turning their Plow-shares into Swords for the pulling down civil powers and setting up the fifth Kingdom on earth but saith Revel 13. 10 He that killeth with the Sword must be killed with the Sword Here is the patience and the faith of the Saints Which shewes that even they were not to set up the Kingdom of Christ by fighting but by patience and faith And Revel 14. 12. after the prediction of the fall of Babylon and the daughter of those who worship the Beast and his Image and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name it is added Here is the patience of the Saints Here are they that keep the Commandments of God the faith of Jâ—sus shewing that even in those times the Saints would patiently suffer not avenge themselves by smiting or by destroying civil powers seek to set up Christs Kingdom on earth the contrary whereto is taught by the Quinto-Monarchians and thereby the generation of the just even the holy Martyrs their profession and practise is condemned which is damnable and Antichristian On the other side which yeilds a twelfth argument these â—enents of the smiting of civil powers to set up Christs Kingdom tend to the justifying or countenancing of the Popish former and later doctrine and practises wherein they have challenged and usurped a power over Emperors and Kings to depose and deprive them of life when they have opposed the Popes Authority or the Roman Church and Religion which opposition was counted by them to be against the Kingdom of Christ and thought
hope wherein those whom they believe to be godly oppose them and their violence of spirit beyond all sobriety in moving persons so earnestly to that smiting work in this age upon no better grounds than their own conjecture though they foresaw it would bring common calamity and the bodies and lives of godly persons perish by reason of their opposition to this Stone which shewes they were resolved to smite all that stood in their way though godly as it fell out in the year 1660. Mr. Tillinghast in his first Sermon p. 26. saith the work of Christs Kingdom the glorious beginning of it shall be about the time of the Jewes coming in and p. 39. saith the Lord make us wait on him for his own time and yet Serm. 3. gives signes of its being near even in this generation which he makes it the duty of Saints to observe though not one of the signes is from any Revelation of God but from things which may happen and have without such signification as he would put upon them I omit what Mr. Mede in his letter to Arch-Bishâ—p Usher and in other writings and many others write of the mystical numbers in Daniel and in the Revelation which I would not have slighted so as to give no heed to them it being not in vain that the Holy Ghost hath delivered them to us only this I conceive it very dangerous and unsafe to make them the warrant or motive to such an attempt as the smiting of civil powers or the beginning of any War against the known Rules of scripture and Lawes of civil Government it being in it self wicked shewing bitter furious zeal without the wisedome from above and likely hereafter as it hath done formerly to others to bring destruction of soul and body on the agents and much misery on others whether opponents or neuters § 14. Many things are groundless and false which the Quinto-Monarchians suppose and take as articles of their faith concerning the Fifth-Monarchy and its setting up TO the uncertainties and falsities about the smiting work of the Stone whereby the evil of their attempt is demonstrated I shall next add the uncertainties or falsities of those things which thâ—y make as articles of their faith about the Stones becoming a Mountain and filling the whole earth Where 1. they shew their inadvertency in making Gentile Saints who are but subjects the Stone meant Dan. 3. 34 35. Excluding the Jewes from being the Stone in the beginning whereas the Stone is expresly termed the Kingdom which shall stand for ever v. 44 45. which cannot be understood of the Saints who are subject they are not the Kingdom nor do they stand for ever though they receive a Kingdom that cannot be shaken Heb. 12. 28. But the Stone is Christ the King and his Dominion which must fill the whole earth with Subjects Lawes and Administrations of Rule and Justice which cannot be said of the Saints Gentile or Jewish Which inadvertency causeth them to speak confusedly p. 19 20. and throughout their Book termed the Baaner of truth displayed sometimes terming the Stone Christ sometimes his Kingdom sometime the Gentile Saints sometimes the Jewes joyned to the Gentiles Now the same Stone which smites the great Image becomes a great Mountain and fils the whole earth but this is not true of the Gentile Saints or Jew and Gentile joyned together they become not a great Mountain nor fill the whole earth therefore they smite not the Image 2. That the Stone or fifth Kingdom is an outward visible Kingdom not the spiritual Kingdom which was begun by Christ in the days of his flesh is much insisted on as the chief ground of their faith and hope in this matter But in the Banner of truth displayed p. 20. in answer to the question what this Stone is They say this Stone is called in Scripture the Kingdom of Christ and the Kingdom of Christ this stone Dan. 2. 44 45. Matth. 21. 43 44. which they say hath a twofold dispensation i. e. 1. An internal dispensation or the inward Kingdom which is the Kingdom of Christ in the hearts of his Saints and in and over his Church 2. An external dispensation 1. Of war in subduing and conquering his stubborn enemies and opposers in the world whereby they shall be compelled to yield and shall become subjects though Kings and Princes 2. Of peace upon the earth in and over the whole world which is the new creation and restitution of all things where will be perfection no sin among the Saints immortality no mortal nor corruptible thing where death shall have no sting nor grave victory but all shall be swallowed up in Christs fulness which is victory And for this they cite many scriptures in the margin Now 1. I grant that the stone Dan. 2. 44 45. is the Kingdom of Christ or of God Mat. 21. 43 44. 2. The distinction of the internal external Kingdom is not denied 3. Nor do I oppose the double dispensation of this Kingdom 4. Nor do I deny the description of either dispensation But 1. hence I infer that the stone Dan. 2. 44 45. notes the internal Kingdom or the dominion Christ had by the preaching of the Gospel termed the Gospel of the Kingdom Matth. 24. 14. meant Matth. 21. 43 44. For 1. that Kingdom is meant there and no other which was to be taken from the Jews but that could be no other than the internal Kingdom for no other Kingdom was then among them but it therefore no other is there meant 2. That Kingdom was there meant which was to be given to another Nation meaning the Gentiles but that was no other but the internal 3. That Kingdom is there meant whose fruits were to be brought forth by the Nation to whom it was to be given now the fruits of the Kingdom are expressed to be righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. which belong to the internal Kingdom and therefore no other there meant Which thing is also confirmed by other passages of Scripture as namely that of our Saviour Luk. 17. 20. When he was demanded when the Kingdom of God should come he answered them and said The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation or with outward shew therefore the Kingdom of God meant in the Gospel is not the outward visible Kingdom which the Quinto-Monarchians expect which is also proved from v. 21. where it is added Neither shall they say Lo here or lo there for behold the Kingdom of God is within you or among you which could be no other than the Kingdom set up by the preaching of the Gospel To which is to be added Christs good confession before Pontius Pilate John 18. 36. Kingdom is not of this world if my Kingdom were of this world then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews but now is my Kingdom not from hence Wherein our Lord Christ declares his Kingdom foretold by
not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands neither would he have shewed us all these things nor would as at this time have told us such things as these Judges 13. 23. which shewes that the chief thing animating them to that bloody attempt was the opinion they had that their determinations were of God and that they were assured of help from him which was the very thing that Thomas Muncer and Hacket and such like unquiet spirits were of Satan incited by and ended in nothing but blasphemy of God and reproach of Religion 2. Their abuse of scriptures wrested by unstable and unlearned persons to their destruction arguing from obscure passages against plain precepts doth aggravate their evil acts it being no small evil to make the holy scriptures which are for humility meekness patience trust in God peaceableness an instrument to commotions disobedience to superiors shedding blood such like horrid wickedness So in the Banner despâ—ayed p. 19. Mal. 3. 3. Rev. 14. 4 5. are alledged to prove the Stone Dan. 2. 34 35. is Christ Jesus in the pure sanctified and refined Gentile Christians when the former speaks of the Sons of Levi and the other mentions the 144000. who it is likely are the same with 144000. Revel 7. 4. Sealed of all the Tribes of Israel and p. 59. the words of the Prophet Jerem. 51. 19 20 21 22 23. spoken either of Cyrus or the King of Babel are alleged to prove that the Lord hath elected and made choice of Zion his people to act in this work and service of smiting civil powers unto whom he saith thus thou art my Battle-Axe and Weapon of War So extremely are they deceived and deceive others 3. Which is the worse in them in that they urge their notions as matters of their faith when yet they use conjectural expressions p. 40. Probable conjecture p. 41. seems to favour p. 42. we do not ascertain or determin only suppose p. 44. This our opinion p. 48. we may probably conclude p. 55. humbly conceive about them and sometimes vent inconsistencies as that the stone is Christ and yet the Gentile Saints the Jewes excluded though they shall be the stone when made a Mountain with many more uncertainties about the stone the little Horn Dan. 7. and other things too tedious to be insisted on 4. To these we may add the uncharitable conceits of their Governors their Revilings of them their unquietness in separating from those that concur not with them their contention and ejection from their society such as do oppose them in their heady and violent practises all which shew that they are animated by the infernal spirit and not from above and in all likelihood have received their opinions and practises from Jesuites and Emissaries of Rome who have crept into societies of zealous Christians and sown their tares among them The Tenents about civil powers being too near of kin to one another § 15. The claim which Quinto-Monarchians make to Civil government on earth in the Saints afore Christs coming is false HAving shewed the sinfulness of smiting civil powers the vanity of the conceits about the Stone Dan. 2. 34 35. the falsity of the notions about the fifth-Monarchy I shall now examin their assertions about the Saints right to the Kingdom on earth before Christs coming about which are held many false and pernicious positions which I shall now discuss The first is that before cited by me sect 2. in these words The creature man was priviledged with being Lord over inferior creatures but not over his own kind for all men being alike priviledged by birth so all men were to enjoy the creatures alike without propriety one more than another Which position is manifestly false even concerning the state of nature uncorrupt For even then the man was the head of the woman as the Apostle asserts 1 Cor. 11. 3. and proves v. 8. 9. from the womans creation For the man is not of the woman but the woman of the man neither was the man created for the woman but the woman for the man which plainly proves a dominion and propriety of the man over and in the woman who is of his own kind and the contrary Doctrine would infer not only polygamy but also community of Wives which was the very Doctrine of the Nicolaitanes of which Christ saith in two Epistles Rev. 2. 6. 15. which thing I bate The same also may be said concerning Father and child even in nature uncorrupt if there had been any child born in that state they would not have been all alike priviledged by birth but the creature man was priviledged with being Lord over his own kind nor were all men to enjoy the creatures alike without propriety but one more than another the Father being priviledged by birth above his child so as to be Lord over his child and enjoy him with propriety and not another his child nor he anothers nor is it to be conceived but that in Goods Cattel and Fruits of the earth there would have been propriety in them so as that the Wife was to be at the Husbands disposing and allowance concerning them and the child at the Fathers 2. The second which is the Quinto-Monarchians opinion cited Sect. 2. is that all men as they are men have lost their rights and priviledges in respect of Government in the first Adam Which is false For 1. Our Lord Christ in the point of divorce doth determin that divorces allowed by the Jewes were not right because they agreed not with the law of marriage in the beginning Matth. 19. 4 5 6. which argument of our Lord rests on this proposition that what law was made in the beginning was in force still and consequently the right of Government which a Husband had above his Wife a Father above his Child continue still 2. If all rights and priviledges in respect of Government in the first Adam were lost then they are still lost to them that are not in Christ which if it were true all unbelievers would be usurpers But this is false For 1. the government of Husbands over Wives remains to infidels the Author to the Hebrewes ch 13. 4. tels us that marriage is honourable in all therefore in infidels If not then the Apostle 1 Cor. 7. 13. did not rightly determine that the woman which had a husband that believed not if he were pleased to dwell with her was not to put him away or leave him which supposeth that the right and power of a husband remained in him though an infidel for where the bond of marriage continues the right and priviledge in Government belonging to it still continues The same also is to be said concerning the right priviledge of a parent in respect of the child it remains as well to infidels as believers and also Masters over servants For even such as were evil or froward from whom they were likely to suffer yet the Apostle 1 Peter 3.
they say 't is to be desired from good and sound grounds that they would exercise that royal authority which God has given unto them and invested them with as they are Saints by calling which is to defend themselves and offend their enemies and to contend against those that do or shall oppose them in their work and businesse which is to smite powers and to take the Kingdoms of the world into their own possession the glass of the Beasts power being almost run out in these Nations p. 27. the call which the stone shall have to act in its smiting work is for the greatest part thereof now pertinent and fitly applicable to a faithful remnant now extant in England and fulfilled in and upon them and also seeing that the signs laid down in the word of God for the time of the end are in a great measure now fulfilled and accomplished in England's remnant therefore we conclude and assert that 't is lawful and warrantable and is a duty incumbent for captivated Sion and oppressed Saints to stand up in Gods name and fear and deliver themselves and that glorious Gospel of the Kingdom now by them declared to the world from persecution oppression and that long captivity and bondage which she hath remained in and to break the yoke of the Oppressor which is now upon her neck according to the word and Commandment of the Lord Zech. 2. 7. Isa. 52. 2. we are perswaded that the work of the stone is the present work of this generation and our present work and do accordingly exhort the Saints to arise to fall upon the enemy p. 62. Now these positions conceits and exhortations are impious and vain For 1. it is proved before that their separation from their brethren deserting their Superiors to whom they owe subjection their reviling and speaking evil of powers their taking up arms against them are not honest and just means 2. It is not proved that the smiting work Dan. 2. 34 35. is that work which they exhort to 3. Nor is it proved to be the work of Saints as Saints 4. Nor is there any thing they produce that shews it to be the work of this generation 5. Nor any thing that shews that it is pertinent and fitly applicable to a faithful remnant now extant in England 6. Nor can any thing be deduced from the signs laid down in the word of God which they only say are in a great measure fulfilled and accomplished in England 's remnant for the time of the end to warrant their acting sith no signs are sufficient for acting against plain precepts without a clear Commission by extraordinary revelation or miraculous power much lesse when they are not wholly fulfilled and that accomplishment they are encouraged by is taken either from conjectural calculations of mystical numbers or from the heat of some perhaps real Saints excited by the oratory and confidence of their magnified Teachers and Leaders opposed by other sober and considerate persons as godly though not so hot-spirited as themselves which heat hath cooled much and many have been withdrawn from them as themselves complain and experience shews which also hath proved that they have much deluded themselves and others who have rested upon their calculation of mystical numbers 7. Nor is there any thing deprehended in those whom they call the faithful remnant in England why they should be called to this work rather than others of former time or in other Countries For though they magnify them that are of their party as pretious Saints publick-spirited self-deniers illuminated disparaging others as formal professors leavers of their first love and the like yet experience hath proved them to be but as other men or rather many of them to have been worse than others far from Saints and a faithful remnant and by their uncharitablenesse rashnesse cruelty contempt of and disobedience to their Governors to have been more like Divels than Saints 8. The falling off of many who perhaps inclined to them and favoured their design apprehending it to have been at first out of good meaning and to a good end but since finding it to have been out of a factious spirit and tending to blood and rapin likely to beget when the rabble of loose persons agents for Rome and men of desperate fortunes should with a shew of sanctity and zeal for Christ join with them an horrible wasting and depraedation of mens estates which these men as holy as they would be taken to be its likely aimed at when they used those words p. 66. In such a practise they shall be no losers Christ will give them an hundred fold even the spoil of their great and rich enemies who are his opposers and in the end an eternal Crown together with an universal enmity and dreadful anarchy have deserted them is a good evidence of the madnesse and impiety of their assertion and exhortation 9. It is evident that they have been deluded in their conceits and their wild positions and attempts by the want of power and authority which are necessary for that work which they imagined the faithful remnant in England called to For as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 4. 20. the Kingdom of God is not in word but in power and therefore there being no such power of calling down fire from Heaven of smiting the earth with plagues or any other extraordinary power such as is foretold of the two witnesses Rev. 11. or in the Prophets Judges or Apostles sent by God we cannot take their attempts or call to be any other than heady rash not from Gods spirit but fond opinion of the power of their prayers because of their vehemency as Hackets was in Q. Elizabeths daies and Satans delusion of them 10. It is a very great delusion they are transported with which makes them imagin they shall by their arms subdue all the enemies of Christ make them the footstool of Christ and take the Kingdom which is made the work of God when he sends the rod of his strength in the day of his power in the day of his wrath Psal. 110. 1 2 3 5 6. which to attempt by themselves is a most monstrous giant-like enterprise 11. Nor is it a small vanity and folly in them to presume to antedate the Saints exaltation afore Christs appearing which is to be accomplished at his coming and in his Kingdom 12. It shews the want of sobriety in these men that they abuse holy scriptures and scripture expressions altogether impertinent to their purpose for so evil purposes as they alledge them As for instance in applying those words Zech. 2. 7. Isa. 52. 2. which are spoken of the people of the Jews and their delivery from the captivity of Babylon in Chaldaea or some other dispersion proper to them to the people of England which were never under such captivity making their subjection to civil Rulers Babylon which is Gods Ordinance and exhorting them to deliver themselves by arms in the imitation
he speaks of in the 7. ch they must of necessity be one and the same they are contemporary for they do one and the same work the very work that is done by the one is done by the other The stone smites the toes of the fourth Monarchy and Daniels Ancient of daies sitting casts down the Thrones and Judges and destroys the fourth Beast here 's one and the same work therefore they are one and the same time the time of the cutting out of the stone is the same with the time of the sitting of the Ancient of daies Now if they are the same in time the stone cannot be cut out so high as Christs first coming for the Ancient of daies sitting it's clear it is not till the ending time of the fourth Monarchy then comes the Ancient of daies and sits in judgment and casts down and destroys the beast and not before therefore the cutting out of the stone cannot be the first time but at the close of the fourth Monarchy Answ. The casting down of the Thrones is not the putting down of the Thrones of the ten Kings but in allusion to the manner of settling or placing seats for the Sanhedrin to sit on it is said the Thrones were set as it is observed by Mr. Mede Comment on Reâ— 20. and the Ancient of daies did sit or v. 26. But the Judgment shall sit which is the same with Rev. 20. 4. And I saw Thrones and they sat upon them and judgment was given unto them Now the time of the sitting Dan. 7. 9. is the time when one like the Son of man came with the clouds of Heaven and came to the Ancient of days and they brought him near before him And there was given him dominion and glory and a Kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him which to be referred to the time of Christs second coming when all rule and authority power shall be put down and every knee shall bow to him is intimated by our Lord Christ himself allusively to this of Daniel expressing his second coming by the coming in a cloud Luke 21. 24. in the clouds of Heaven Matth. 26. 64. If then the stone be not cut out till then it will not be cut out till Christs second coming and so no smiting work till then which is absurd and contrary to this Authors own tenet But neither is it true that the Ancient of days sitting and the stones smiting do one and the same work if by the same work be meant the same numerical action the Agents being not the same the sitting is of the Ancient of daies who is not the same with the stone but he that cuts out the stone or the God that sets up the Kingdom If it be meant of the same work that is the same event fact or accomplishment then there 's no necessity that they should be contemporary that is in the same age as the building of the Temple was the same work yet not the time of laying the foundation and finishing it the same the raising up the fourth Monarchy was the same work yet not the several governments of it contemporary and in like manner the demolishing of it is the same work yet part of it to be done by Christ at his first coming and part at his second and so the cutting out of the stone may be at his first coming and the sitting of the Ancient of daies at his second and it 's not necessary that the Fifth-Monarchy should begin at the later end of the Fourth Monarchy or the smiting work be the overturning the Thrones of the Kings to be performed by the Saints as chief instruments in the management thereof nor doth it follow of necessity there must be such a thing as the civil and military power to be in the hands of the Saints and that before the day of Christs appearance for the performance of that work which is the thing he contends for and endeavours to prove by these eight reasons First Because the work of breaking the great Image is done by the stone cut out of the Mountain it 's not done by mountains considered as mountains it 's not done by Nations considered as Nations Kingdoms considered as Kingdoms for then it would be done by the Mountain but it 's done by a stone cut out of the mountain by a people pickt out by God himself out of the Nations and Kingdoms of this world formed and united together by God himself which shall fall upon the great Image and break it to pieces i'ts these that do this work and further it 's cut out without hands Dan. 2. 34. 45. that is without worldly powers but more immediately by God without the hands of men It s clear it shall be by the Saints as chief principal and leading instruments because they are called the stone in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ called a stone of whose nature and image the Saints are partakers not so the Nations between whom and Christ there 's no agreement Answ. This reason proves not the Saints to be meant by the Stone nor that they are to break the Image but the contrary For they are not cut out withâ—ut hands but are begotten by men in the ordinary way of generation nor if this Authors way should be meant of smiting the Image by civil or military power should they break the Image without hands but with hands not is there a word in the Text that shews the Saints to be meant by the Stone much lesse the Saints of the later times of the fourth Monarchy or of this Nation or that it excludes Kings who may be Saints and Christs instruments to break the Image for they may be Saints and if not instruments of Christ as Cyrus was to break the Babyloman Monarchy and to restore the Jews and therefore there is no consequence in this reasoning which is out of figurative expressions to proper though the thing be not interpreted so but only imagined by this Arguer without any cogent reason It 's done by a stone cut out of the mountain therefore by a people pickt out by God out of the Nations for neither doth the Text expound mountain by the Nations and Kingdoms of this world nor by the Stone a people pickt out but the stone may be meant of Christ personal or his Kingdom as the text explains it and he be cut out that is formed without hands in his Mothers womb as when David said he was curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth Psal. 139. 15. and the Kingdom cut out of the Mountain that is set up among men without hands by the God of Heaven by the preaching of the Gospel and by the power of his spirit Zech. 4. 6. The 2. reason from Dan 7. 21 22 25 26 27 is the same with the 4. in the Banner displayed and is fully answered before in this section The 3. reason is That Generation of men shall destroy the
Kingdom of the Beast in the time when his Kingdom is to be destroyed that did bear witness against the Beast for Christ all the time his Kingdom stood This is grounded upon Revel 11. Which tels us that the witnesses for 1260 dayes prophefied in the end of this time they are kil'd by the Beast they rise up again and rising up they knock the Beast down for immediately thereupon the tenth part of the City fell and there was a great Earth-quake there were slain of men seven thousand and great fear fell upon all the rest and they gave glory to the God of Heaven this is not done by worldly powers but the witnesses therefore they that have born witness against the Beast shall give the deadly blow to the Beast Answ. If this reason were good it should be done by the Saints that have been not by those that shall be by them risen again not to be born hereafter by them that have born witness all the time the Beasts Kingdom stood not by them that only stand up near the time of the end it shall be done by supernatural or prophetical power not by civil and military which this author contends for In a word in all this there is nothing but uncertainty concerning these witnesses who they are whether already existent or future the Beast meant the time of their prophesying and the event and the manner and means of its accomplishing and therefore this proof is ignoti per ignotius of a thing unknown by that which is more unknown which is vain Fourthly saith he The Angel that enlightens the earth with the glory of the truth of the Lord that is that Angel or instrument that shall ruin Babylon Rev. 18. 1. But the earth hath not been enlightened with the glory of God by the generation of the world but the world hath been enlightened by the generation of the faithful that God hath revealed his truth to and this Angel that enlighteneth the earth with the glory of God gives the deadly blow unto the Beast there where light comes forth God will carry on the work by those hands Answ. The Angel is another Angel therefore not the generation of the faithful coming down from Heaven therefore not a man having great power therefore not using humane Weapons enlightens the earth with his glory it is not said with the truth or glory of God nor enlightening men by revealing Gods truth to them nor that he gives the deadly blow to the Beast but only that he cried mightily with a strong voyce saying Babylon is fallen therefore this proves not that a company of private Saints in the ending time of the Fourth-Monarchy shall destroy it by a military or civil power yea if where light comes forth God will carry on the work by those hands all the preachers of the truth shall be instrumental to the ruin of Babylon and that by preaching not a company of private Saints by fighting The fifth reason from Revel 18. 6. is fully answered before sect 9. The 6. is The work of God against Rome shall be so mannaged as there may be singing of Hallelujabs in the Churches for the carrying it on this is clear from Revel 19. 1. But now if this should be done only by the clattering of a company of Nations falling upon the Beast and ruining him what singing would there be in the Churches for this What would there be more in this then in the work of Cyrus destroying Babylon or in Alexanders destroying the Medes and Persians Monarchy or in the Romans destroying the Grecians Monarchy For that was a part of Gods decree as well as this what should the people therefore now sing Hallelujahs more for more than in those times But because of the difference of the instruments things done in a more holy sanctified way to a more pure end and there shall be more of the Image of God appear upon those that shall do this work now and therefore they shall sing Hallelujahs otherwise the work did not go beyond the work that had been done before Answ. When the work of destroying Babylon was done by Cyrus there was singing of Hallelujahs as was foretold Jerem. 51. 1. and that because it was the work of God who ever were the instruments And indeed that is the reason expresly given Revel 19. 1 2. not this which is here imagined contrary to the express text Revel 17. 16 17. yea it is more joyous to the Saints and more redounds to Gods glory that he ruines Babylon by those that did support her as that by death procured by Satan God destroyed him that had the power of death And this was Gods way in destroying the former Monarchies and therefore is more likely to be his way in destroying this not a work by other meanes then the former though exceeding or going beyond it in the conspicuity of it and consequents of it and therefore occasioning more praise to God and not for the holiness of the instruments which the text mentions not Seventhly saith he The Kingdom of the stone when it comes to smite Rome then shall be in it a resemblance as it were of the reign of Christ and the glory of the Kingdom of the Mountain therefore it is said in v. 6. For the Lord God omnipotent raigneth which could not be said if the work were done by a company of carnal Nations and yet this is before the end before Christs coming for after this appearance we have the Bride making her self ready and the Kings of the earth come together to destroy the Bride preparing for her Husband and then you have Christ coming forth in his fury destroying his enemies and rescuing his Bride But before that day there shall be such a glorious appearance in the world and such power in the hands of the people of God that it shall be said when men look upon it The Lord God omnipotent raigneth the Lord Jesus Christ who is King of the world and King of Saints raigneth therefore it shall be done by Saints as leading instruments Answ. Such an acclamation is usual upon any glorious work of God as Exod. 15. 18. and in the Psalms often and therefore it is but a vain conceit as if that speech could not be used unlesse the Saints were leading instruments In this book of the Revelation we have acclamations where no act is expressed of the Saints as Rev. 4. 8 9 11. and 5. 9 10 12 13. and 7. 12. and 11. 15 17. and 12 10. and 15. 3 4. and 16. 5 7. 'T is granted that before Christs coming upon the ruin of Babylon there will be occasion of the acclamation Rev. 19. 6. but not because private Saints shall destroy Babylon by their smiting work but because Gods power and might is thereby manifested and the dominion of God will be thereby promoted Eighthly saith he Look through the old and new Testament where ever we have a description of the persons that shall do the
glorious work of God at the last day and you shall ever find them described and characterized as Saints as Zech. 9. 13 against thy Sons O Greece that is against the Turkish power Obad. 18. 21. when all his enemies are brought down and become his footstool then shall he come forth and take the Kingdom and the Kingdom shall be the Lords sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool then the Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion rule thou in the midst of thine enemies there 's the coming forth of Christ when his enemies by his Saints are made his foot-stool Micah 4. 11 12. Thou shalt beat in pieces many people Jacob is his battle ax Jer. 51. 20. Rev. 15. 2 6. Rev. 14. 1 2 3 4 5. Answ. Psal. 110. 1 2. it is not said by the Saints Christs enemies are made his foot-stool nor Jer. 51. 20. is meant of Jacob but of Cyrus or the King of Babylon as Mr. Gataker in his Annot. Zech. 9. 13. Obad. 18. 21. Micah 4. 11 12. if meant of a time to come is to be verified of the Jews and not of Gentile Saints Rev. 14. 1 2 3 4 5. if the same with Revel 7. 4. is meant also of the Jews if of others neither there nor Rev. 15. 2. is any act ascribed to them but acclamation to God for his work why the seven Angels Rev. 15. 7. should be any other than holy spirits I see no reason and therefore this reason is impertinent and none of them prove that which he undertook To the objection from Rev. 17. 16. that the horns shall do it he answers the meaning is this that the ten horns as conquered to the Lamb and the power of them being gotten into the power of the Lamb so shall the horns be turned against the Whore which we cannot see at present I reply this is enough to prove that they be not Saints as Saints that shall burn the Whores flesh with fire that Saints shall not do it without Kings and therefore are not to attempt it without them much less to destroy them that they are rather to serve them and to acknowledge what they have done and may see though they see not all done they would have done If for present they see not the horns ruled by the Lamb the seeing of which only prejudice hinders neither do we see such Saintship in the Quinto-Monarchians as by their own rules should qualify them for the smiting work or setting up Christs Kingdom but rather such a spirit as tends to ruine it To the objection from John 18. 36. he saith my Kingdom is not of this world that is of this Monarchy all the world being put for the Roman Monarchy Luke 2. 1. whereto I reply Christ saith his Kingdom is not of this world in opposition to from above as is manifest from John 8. 23. and the phrase not from hence and his proof from his servants not fighting for his rescue which is sufficient to shew that his Kingdom should not be from his Servants nor by fighting nor is the particle now used to intimate that either his Kingdom should be from hence or his servants fight but only is used to declare his present state without intimation of any thing concerning the future as John 9. 41 c. He then adds something about the signs of the nearness of the Kingdom and omitting the computation of the time from the numbers left us in Scripture which I have considered before sect 13. there are ten signs set down of the nearness of it taken from accidents and observations of men favourers of his opinion and opponents of it with his judgment concerning them and their signification none of which but may happen and have happened concerning other things which have failed and been found mistakes in the conclusion and being not certain evidences or prognosticks as miracles prophesying and such like signs I therefore let them pass as things either false and perhaps unrighteous censures or uncertain and unfit for mine or any mans examination or judgment but Gods only and contenting my self to have demonstrated that the holy Scriptures yield them no warrant to separate from or engage against the civil powers set over them I shall commend this work to the Lord for his blessing praying God to teach those who have been or are led away with the Quinto-Monarchians opinion to prove all things and to hold fast that which is good 1 Thes. 5. 21. FINIS Errata PAg. 7. l. 39. r. and God's p. 17. l. 2. d. to p. 19. l. 4. r. Judge p. 25. l. 7. r. to determin p. 27. l. 3. r. Dan. 2. p. 45. l. 13. r then p. 45. l. 7. r. our p. 51. l. 39. r. heat p. 57. l. 25. r. it is p. 60. l. 28. d. time p. 65. l. 2. r. and agreement l. 32. r. danger p. 84. l. 22. r. oppose p. 90. l. 10. r. an l. 41. r. spiritual p. 94. l. 6. r. reins p. 111. l. 10. r. there 's p. 102. l. 4. these words are to be inserted who oppose the Beast if the Beast be the Pope and Papacy The next Psal. 2. 1 2 3. cannot be meant of the Protestant Princes or Prelates p. 111. l. 40. r. whole See Dr. Homes Resur reveal lib 7. ch 3. â—ee Bp. â—aveant's â—eterin 30. p. Anâ—rew's esp ad â—ellarm polog 13. p. 99.