are not rehearsed expressely in the vision of the first Chapter They doe greatly helpe to declare the administration of this Church Touching the city Philadelphia it selfe we finde no other thing but that in the age following there abod in that place a famous congregation of the faithfull over which Demas had the charge as is gathered from the Epistles of Jgnatius In the Antitype a divine power specially shineth forth sanctifying the Church by kindling the desyre of godlines and in making it in Christ Iesus fit and cheerfull to every good worke Let my wordes be without envy the true doctrine soundeth no where purer the worship lesse corrupted more flourisheth the faithfull diligence of the Pastours is performed more willing obedience of the people nor greater reverence of all religion among all degrees But this holines seemeth chiefly to respect manners In which thing is not to be passed over that famous testimony of Iohn Bodin speking of them of Geneva Of whom that thing saith he is prayse worthy if any thing any where in the earth and which maketh a comon wealth to flourish if not in riches and greatnes of Empire yet certenly in vertues and godlines namely that censure of the Popes then which nothing greater and more divine could be devised to bridle mens lusts and to represse those vices which by no meanes could be amended by any humane lawes and iudgements How be it that this restraint is directed after the rules of Christ first privatly and friendly after some what more sharply then if thou obey not there followeth an heavie grave and effectuall prohibition from the holy things after the interdiction is the punishement of the Magistrate And so it cometh to passe that those things which are punished no where by the lawes are there restrained without any force and sturre or great adoe Therefore noe whoredomes no drunknesses noe daunâ—ings noe beggars noe idle persons are found in that city Those are his wordes in Meth. of History chap. 6. Worthyly is the sanctifyer of the Church to be praysed who hath wrought that they should will and effect these things according to his free good will There is the same care and fruit also of the rest according to the measure which Christ vouchsafeth to every congregatioÌ„ of them Neither is his trueth lesse excellent both in as much as he is a Propheâ— in teaching and also a Surety in promising Wee shall see this double trueth in the following Church to be distinguished by their proper wordes both which the Greeke worde true seemeth to containe when it is put absolutely and by it selfe And as touching trueth of doctrine wher is it more pure and more sincere in the whole earth The whole Papacy hath here his throate cut The Anabaptists Antitrinitaries Arians and such like monsters raysed up againe from hell partly in Germany partly in Transylvania have founde no where a fiercer enemy What also hath it not assayed that shee might pull away from the Germane Churches their errours Neither doth shee keepe onely the doctrine of salvation uncorrupt but also shee both delivereth and teacheth in writings and exerciseth in practise a syncere maÌ„ner of administring wherby salvation is bestowed Certenly the whole will of God is communicated with his saints so as Christ taketh to himselfe not undeservedly this prayse of true in governing this Church He doth also performe plenteously that which he promised that he would keepe safe and sound those that seeke him with an upright heart What have not endevoured the Franch man the Spuniard the SavoyaÌ„ the Pope to roote out them of Geneva a small people and environed on every side with enemyes and shut up from all ayde of friends Neverthelesse it flourisheth yet still thankes be to God and shall flourish hereafter while all her adversaryes burst with envy as long as shee shall continue in this holy order The French Church hath ben preserved hitherto no other wise then the three children in the fornace Who would have beleeved that the Lowe Countryes had ben able to resist and withstande the raging Philip the cruell Duke d'Alve and so many bloudy Tyrants But true is he who hath promised this honour to his saints that they should binde the Kings with chaines and their nobles with fetters of iron Psalme 149.8.9 And that I may not speake of every each one they can be safe onely by thy protection o most high God who art constant in all thy promises whom both enemyes almost infinite doe persecute with deadly hatred and also to whom many of their freindes through envy wish not very well ¶ Who hath the key of David The third property perteineth also to the same administration Christ openeth and shutteth to whom he hath thought it good the entrance into the kingdome of Heaven by his regall power Which faculty in deede he bestoweth upon all his which doe declare and preach the worde purely and syncerely but which is principally to be seen in that part of governement wherby obstinate sinners which will not yeilde to admonitions are delivered to Sathan by the Ecclesiasticall censure and are cast out of the Church which is the Kingdome of Heaven according to that Whatsoever yee shall binde on earth shal be bound in heauen and whatsoever yee shall loose in earth shal be loosed in heaven For where two or three are gathered togither in my name there am J in the middes of them Mat. 18.18.20 By these therefore is shewed that the power of opening and shutting of binding and loosing is very effectuall in these congregations and more over also the whole administration of the censures And what godly man doth not thanke God from his heart and extolleth not with worthy ptayses the holy paines of this Church which restored discipline fallen into decay and brought it backe to the rule of trueth and use of the primitive Church But it is to be observed that this key was sayd before to be the key of Death and Hell in the first Chapter and 18. verse by one part denoting the whole force of them Therefore that key is to be feared which locketh up the gate upon the wicked being thrust into Hell howsoever they despise the same with security And yet notwithstanding no lesse pleasant to them that feare God because it unlocketh to them the dores by which they may enter unto life But why is it called of David seeing it is of Aaron rather whose office was to keepe away the leprous and uncleane from the holy things and to shut up the Temple against them Certenly the Priest onely could pronounce men uncleane he was not wont by an ordinary proper power to use force to compell the disobedient Christ both King and Priest is very mighty in both facultyes and powers and ioineth togither both in this Church who not onely rayseth up Pastours that they should denounce men uncleane but also together adioyneth the civile Magistrate that he should give his ready and diligent labour
to men is translated unto the state and condition of men shewing as before was said that not onely men shal be punished with some greevous punishment but also that the thing it selfe shal be utterly taken away never for to raise againe even as they who are cast to hell must not expect any returning or setting free Certenly we may gather and that not rashly from this strange and unacustomed taking of vengeance that God will shew by some visible signe how damnable and detestable he hath alwayes esteemed the Papacy And this last is that destruction of which in chap. 17.18 shal goe into destruction a iust reward of the Antichristian tyranny 21 And the rest were slaine with the sword Such then is the destructiō of the Prince of wickednesse now of his armies and souldiers Of whō ther is a differing punishment not so horrible at least in shew they shal be slaine with the sword of him that siteth on the horse that is by the word comming out of his mouth as though he should say they shal undergoe the punishments threatned in the word against the disobedient and such as resist the truth as in Ieremy Behold I wil make my words as fire in thy mouth and this people as wood and it shal devoure them chap. 5.14 What singular thing thē shal the destructiō of the Pope have For he also hath bin slaine with this sword That is true indeed but the word threatneth divers punishments according to the manner of the wickednesses the most greevous to the greatest the lighter to the lesse Peradventure because the ruine of the Papacy shal be more horrible than wee think it is exempted from the common order not because it is not denounced in the word but perhaps because it is lesse regarded of us and that we suspect it to be lighter then the event will shew Or as we have declared in ver 15. it may be that these souldiers after the overthrow received shall yeeld their vanquished forces to the truth and subiect their neckes to her yoke ¶ And all the foules were filled with their flesh The Victory being obtained the foules gather to the pray doo fill themselves with the spoiles That whole late Popish natiō shal be subiect afterward to the reformed Churh Every country being a nourrisson of the purer truth shal have some part of the regions before time given up to superstition made subiect to them Which thing seemeth to be signifyed by the foules satiated with the flesh of the slaine army Such then is the end of the Romish Pope and Papacy that remained a few yeeres after the city yet at length so much the more miserable because shee had such as did adorne her funerall with their teares and performed the last duties by weeping But ther shal be none left for the Pope to bewaile his misery but he shal die infamous without mourners or other funeral pompe Wherby at last is accomplished that prophetical parable of the ghests called to the marriage Mat. 22. Doubtlesse those good and evill sent for out of the high wayes are the Gentiles that embraced the calling after that the Iewes had refused it Among them the man that had not a wedding garment is the Church of Rome which despiseth the righteousnesse of faith neither regardeth to be clothed with the merit of Christ by imputation The King comming in and beholding her clothed with her ragges but not with that garment which onely he approoveth now at length biddeth his servants to bind her hād and foote and to cast her into utter darkenesse where is weeping gnashing of teeth For Christ speaketh not there of any one man but collectively of a very great multitude as the sentence added in the end declareth that many are called but few are chosen ver 14. From which at length we understand that the bright comming of the Lord with which Paul foreshewed that the man of sinne should be abolished 2 Thes 2.8 is not his last coming to iudgement but that wherby Christ shal take the Iewes into the fellowship of his holy Church at which time his Kingdome shal flourish most gloriously and shal exceed by infinite degrees all the brightnesse of the ages past as shal be made more evident from the things following After the Pope is destroyed the Dragon shal be abolished many other things accomplished on earth CHAP. 20. AFTER I saw an Angel comming down from heaven having the keye of the bottomlesse pit and a great chaine in his hande 2 And he tooke the Dragon that old serpent which is the Divill and Satan he bound him a thousand yeeres 3 And cast him into the bottomlesse pit which he shut up and sealed upon him that he should deceive the nations no more til the thousand yeeres were fulfilled for after that he must be loosed for a little season 4 And J saw seats and they sate upon them and iudgement was given them I saw the soules of them which were beheaded for the witnes of Iesus and for the word of God and which did not worship the Beast neither his Image neither had taken his marke upon their foreheads or on their hands and they lived and raigned with Christ a thousand yeeres 5 But the rest of the dead men lived not againe until the thousand yeeres wereful filled this is the first resurrection 6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection for on such the second death hath no power but they shal be the Priests of God and of Christ and shall raigne with him a thousand yeeres 7 And when the thousande yeeres are expired Satan shal be loosed out of his prison 8 And shall goe out to deceive the nations which are in the foure quarters of the earth Gog and Magog to gather them togither to battell whose number is as the sande of the sea 9 And they went up into the plaine of the earth and they compassed the tentes of the Saints about and the beloved city but fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them 10 And the Divill that deceived them was cast into a lake of fire and brimston where was both that Beast and also that False Prophet and they shal be tormented day and night for ever more 11 Then I saw a great white throne and one that sate on it from whose face fled away both the earth and heaven and their place was no more founde 12 And I saw the dead both great and smal stand before God and the bookes were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were iudged of those things which were written in the books according to their workes 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in her and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they were iudged every man according to their workes 14 And hell and death were cast into the lake of fire this is the second
promised to free them that overcome He doth not promise to deliver them from the first being too light a thing either to be given by such a great price Rewarder or to be expected by those that ar his And what need is there to be defended from the first death which the necessity of nature will bring at length but to prevent it for the truths sake procureth a farre greater crowne He promiseth therfore that which is best and doth not allure us with a vaine shew of some light thing Analysis SO is the Epistle to the Smyrneans That to the Church of Pergamus is inscribed likewise to the Angell he that sendeth hath a two edged sworde The narration commendeth his constancy illustrated by the throne of SathaÌ„ and the comon times in which Antipas suffered ver 13. then he reproveth the sinne which he sheweth both of what quality it is consisting in suffering Baalamites ver 14. and Nicolaitans ver 15. and also the remedy for it namely repentance which he setteth forth by the danger of refusing the same ver 16. Lastly he concludeth with a solemne Epiphoneme and proposeth a reward the hidden Manna the white stone an unknowne name written upon it ver 17. Scholions 12 And to the Angell of the Church of Pergamus Towred Pergamus Pergamus so farre as the Spirit seemeth to respect the notation thereof in this place is as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the tower of Troye as Hesychius expoundeth it to with a towred city high and superbe agreable to that which followeth in the next verse where the throne of Sathan is It is distant from Smyrna Northward about five hundred and fourty furlongs with a greater distance then Smyrna is from Ephesus in the last border of the North latitude as touching those seaven cityes A great diminishing of light fell out in the Smyrnean corner under Constantine Constance Valence even at the first turning from Ephesus first purity But nowe he goeth from Smyrna to Pergamus into the utmost darkenes the Church being about to suffer a greater defect of light then ever before this time since Christ was borne The Antitype of this Church is of longer time then the former as also the distance of place is greater conteining a great part of the kingdome of darkenes from the three hundred and foure score yeare to wit from Gratian where the former period ceased unto about the yeare one thousand three hundreth as in the explication we shall see ¶ These things saith he which hath c. The furniture of him that enditeth the Epistle is taken out of chap. 1.16 Which now he taketh before the other because he would shew himselfe such in practize in this Church For he would punish the rebells as he speaketh after ver 16. on whom no light punishement should be layd by a two edged sworde and that sharpe and the sword is the worde of God it selfe whose force should now be manifested in the subduing of the man of sinne Although this sword in this period is shaken rather then inflicted For he threatneth a fight against those that repent not ver 16. he cometh not forthwith to handy strokes 13 I know thy workes A narration of his more approved condition which is set forth two wayes that he neither denyed the faith allthough he dwelt in that place where Sathans throne is sâ—condly that neither in those dayes wherin Antipas was slaine It is not hard to know why it is called the throne of Sathan For the city where the Ethnike Emperours had their seat made warre professedly against the Lambe is called the Throne of the Dragon chap. 13.2 So of the foster inferiour cities which come nighest to the disposition of this chiefe city because they make a pallace more garnished for the Devill they are noted with the same name Nowe was the mother city of the Romane Empire in Asia For it is likely that this region being brought into a Province after that Atalus Philometor King of Pergamus had named the people of Rome his heire the Proconsull being sent to governe the same placed there the seat of his iurisdiction Plinie in his 5 booke of his naturall History chap. 30. saith that this City was by farre the most famous of Asia which glory should lesse agree unto it if the Proconsuls had had their dwelling in any other place seeing honour is wont eyther to come to cities or to departe from them together with the chief rulers Although before it perteined to the Romane power it was the head city of the Kingdome of Asia For so Livius speaketh entreating of Scleuchus the sonne of Antiochus He leadeth saith he to the assailing of Pergamum the head and tower of the Kingdome Decal 4. book 7. It was therefore a great thing to professe Christ in the hearing sight of so mighty a city spiteful against the truth There may not be prophecying in Bethel for it is the sanctuary of the king and the Kings house Amos 7.13 Aretas reporteth of Antipas that he gave testimony to the truth at Pergamus and that his martyrdome was kept even to his times But I finde noe more in any author worthy credit From this place it is evident that he was a very famous Martyr by whose sufferings was signified the rage of a most grievous persecution This is another praise that Pergamus had continued constantly in the faith when a fierce tempest raged very greatly It is an easy thing to professe Christ when a man may doe it either with honour or without danger But to reteine the profession of him without feare even with the danger of life is an excellent commendation and a point of true courage Wee have said that the Antitype was the Church from the foure hundreth yeare to the three hundreth above the thousandth When after Constantius Iulianus and Valence Smyrna being left it went further toward the North unto Pergamus that is was hidden in thicke darknes being brought under the power of that City where The Throne of Satan is namely ROME This is that Towred City The Tower of Troye whose Daughter shee boasted her selfe to be once the Mother City almost of the whole world the proude Lady and Queene of the Nations noe lesse famous for the stately Temples Theaters Highe Places then for the ample and large dominioÌ„ and Empire It is plainly called the Throne of Satan in the 13. chapter of this booke both because it was once the Seate of the Ethnike Emperours as at the place wee will shewe And also because they being taken away it was made the Seate of the Popes who during this time have most plainly shewed that they reigned by the helpe of the Devill and not of God Foure and twenty Popes were all given to Divelish arts some of which gave up themselves wholy to Sathan by covenant to obtaine the Popedome Yea by the space of whole foure scoâ—e yeares from Sylvester II.
any adversity trouble them which is signifyed by hunger and thirst moreover also all causes of calamityes shal be driven farre away the Sūne shall not burne them neither shall there be any heat which shall bring scarsity the whole creature shall consent to further the happines of the holy people Here the things are set before us in fewe wordes for a tast which shal be declared more at large afterward 17 For the Lambe that is in the middes of the Throne shall governe them Now the cause is rehearsed of the former happines to every part of which it is distributed conveniently shall governe answereth to those wordes shall not hunger shall lead them to the lively fountaines of waters respecteth the thirst which he said should be sufferred no more and shall wipe away all teares hath regarde to the heate of the Sunne which he promiseth shall not be trobelsome afterward ¶ From their eyes The teares falling from the eyes Montanus hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were abiding in the eyes as if God by drying thoroughly the eyes should leave no faculty to weepe Isayah the teares from all faces ch 25.8 So then is the common type while the trumpets and viols endure that is even to the last ende About the beginning and proceeding of the Trumpets the number of the elect should be sealed about the ende there should be a more ioyfull more plentifull and more evident multitude which afterward under the viols encreasing every day at length should have their brethren the Iewes ioyned togither with themselves when there shal be a full happines at last so great as can be expected on earth which shall not be discontinued againe by any generall miseries of the times untill Christ himselfe shall come to iudgement This common type is to be declared by every member in those thinges that are behinde according to the severall mutations and notable events that shall happen this whose space CHAP. 8. AND when he had opened the seaventh seale there was silence in heaven about halfe an houre 2 And I saw the seaven Angels which stoode before God to them were given seven trumpets 3 Then another Angell came stood before the altar having a golden censer much odours were given unto him that he should offer with the prayers of all the Saints upon the golden altar which is before the throne 4 And the smoke of the odours with the prayers of the Saints wēt up before God out of the Angels hande 5 Afterward the Angell tooke the censer and filled it with fire of the altar cast it into the earth there were voices thundrings lightnings an earthquake 6 And the seaven Angels which had the seaven Trumpets prepared themselves to blowe the trumpets 7 So the first Angel blew the trumpet and there was haile and fire mingled with blood and they were cast into the earth and the third part of the earth was burnt the third part of the trees was burnt and all the greene grasse was burnt 8 And the seconde Angell blewe the trumpet and as it were a great mountaine burning with fire was cast into the sea and the third part of the sea became blood 9 And the third part of the creatures which are in the sea the livings things I say dyed and the third part of the shippes were destroyed 10 Then the third Angell blew and a great starre fell from heaven burning as a torche and it fell into the third parte of the rivers and into the fountaines of waters 11 And the name of the starre is called wormwood therefore the third part of the waters was turned into wormwood and many men dyed of the waters because they were made bitter 12 Afterward the fourth Angell blewe the trumpet and the third part of the Sunne was smitten and the third part of the Moone and the third part of the starres so that the third part of them was darkened and the third part of the day was darkened and likewise of the night 13 And I beheld and heard one Angell flying through the middes of heaven saying with a lowde voice woe woe woe to the inhabitans of the earth because of the soundes to come of the trumpet of the three Angels which shall blow Analysis THE cōmon type being declared the Silence which is proper to the seaventh seale remayneth Which of what it is is declared in the first ver Afterward he proceedeth to the following period of the trumpets which is cōprehended in the compasse of this and is distinguished into seaven trumpets the preparation of which is double common and speciall that cōsisteth first in the seaven Angels furnished with so many trumpets ver 2. Afterward in one other Angell who executeth the office of the High Priest as it appeareth from the furniture in respect both of the instrument and ende ver 3. and also of his ministery toward the elect ver 4. and against the enemyes partly by casting fire into the earth partly in raysing up from thence voices thundrings and great perturbation ver 5. The speciall preparation is of the seaven Angels making themselves ready unto the businesse appointed to them The Execution also hath likewise some thing comon to wit a warning by the blowing of the trumpets and also something speciall even the proper effect of every blowing of the trumpet which is distributed in the foure first lighter and the last three heavier They are handled in the rest of the chapter by their distinct articles At the first blowing of the trumpet there was hayle and fire ver 7. At the second a burning mountaine is cast into the sea ver 8. At the third a starre fell from heaven into the rivers ver 10.11 At the fourth the third part of the sunne was smitten ver 12. As touching the three last more grievous trumpets the preparation commō to them is had in ver 13. where the Angell flying through the middes of heaven denounceth with a mourning voice more horrible calamityes from them following Scholions 1 But when he had opened the seaventh seale Such then is the sixt the sevēth seale followeth whose effect which proceedeth from the opening is called Silence which sometime is used for any resting as why are yee silent in bringing home the King that is why doe yee rest 2 Sam. 10.11 Sometime it is opposed unto tumulte from whence the still waves of the waters Psal 107.29 Of which sorte is this silence made in Heaven that is in the Church on earth which often times is called of Christ the Kingdome of Heaven The space of this silence is about halfe an houre surely very shorth which should almost ende assoone as it should beginne In which is taught that the Church afterward shall enioy for a small time happy rest after that the open enemies should be driven away and that confortable Angel Constantine the great should arise from the East For this silence is ioined togither with that subduing
his scourges These seven thousande Papists are slaine their bodies being not killed but they deprived of their great revenues of Monasteries Collegies and such yeerly rents without any hope of recoverie Was it not as death to those idle bellies to be bereaved of their delights that men who lately gave their mindes to feede themselves onely should be constrained nowe to feede others by word life or some profitable labour or themselves to be an hungred But by the Angustane decree the right of such possessions was confirmed to the Princes of the Protestants and that afterward without danger the same might be bestowed upon the Ministres of the word Schooles the poore and other godly uses without any feare of extortion This doubtlesse was the thing that slewe them that nowe they should be brought to poverty in trueth who before abounding in all riot onely counterfaited the same But to what ende is the number of the slaine lesse then according to the certaine portion of the falling city For seven thousande onely were killed but the tenth parth of the city falleth surely because the calamity of the ruine should be greater then that of the death For that perteined to the whole multitude of the Popish name the killing was peculiar to the Ecclesiasticall men whom this alteration vexed most of all bringing with it the losse of their goods The common people who suffered the losse onely of their former opinion bare it more patiently Therefore whose griefe was small noe death of theirs is mentioned Howe doeth the Spirit declare unto us these events one after an other and conveniently He doth all things alone who before the things come to passe doth tell the condition of them so distinctly and exquisitely The rest of the Popish religion before acknowledging the iust vengeance of God in the destruction and calamity of those Church men gave glory to the God of Heaven that is were converted to the true creatour in whose stead they worshipped late Images made of some matter and Idols And who knoweth not that almost an infinite number of men stirred up by these scourges opening their eyes to the shining light did forsake their former superstitions Wee see thē from the beginning to the ende howe this whole Prophecy agreeth exactly with the event The seven last bookes of Sleidans Commentaries doe afforde a more full declaration both of the battell and death and resurrection of the Prophets The whole Prophecy is of about a thousand two hundred fifty Julian yeeres from Diocletian unto the yeere 1555. how farre also Sleidane proceeded both in writing and living Analysis And thus farre is the sixt trumpet second Periode the last followeth declared by the seventh trumpet which is declared summarily in the rest of this chapter afterward particularly through al the rest of the booke The summarie exposition commendeth the Kingdome of Christ partly by word partly by a signe that is both of the Rulers of the Christian assembly ver 15. and also of the foure and twenty Elders whose gesture is mentioned in ver 16. Secondly their speach ver 17. which setteth forth the glory of this Kingdome by the rage of the enemyes the manifest wrath of God in subduing them and finally by the rewarding of the good and evill ver 18. Last of all the signe is the temple open the Arke seene lightnings sent forth and voices ver 19. Scholions The second woe is past A transition from the second more grievous trumpet to the last But whereas he saith that the second woe is past it is not to be understood as though nothing of it at all should nowe remayne but onely that the strength of it was broken and much weakened which should decay more also every day while at length it should be utterly destroyed For those foure Angels of the ninth Chapter whom wee have shewed to be the Turkes are not altogither destroyed at the sounde of the seventh Trumpet but are onely hastening to destruction So they came after the LOCVSTS not expecting till not one Locust should remaine but when they waxed olde rushing in furiously as wee have shewed in the ninth chapter at the 12. verse And beholde the third woe willcome anon Why is the last Trumpet called a voice which shall give a full and right forme to the Church In regard of the wicked whose ende nowe appeareth and the rewarding of all their sinnes both by punishements begun on earth and also eternall in hell It is said to come anon because of that small delay which should come betweene that resurrection of the Prophets which even nowe he spake of and the last sound of the Trumpet and also because shortly the last calamity of the wicked is brought to passe which shal not stay so long a time as the former Trumpets but shall come quicly with swift winges 16 Therefore the seventh Angell blewe the Trumpet and there were great voices in heaven Blewe the Trumpet to wit in the yeere 1558. as the events doe make manifest for then were there great voices in heaven that is great ioy arose in the reformed Church for so the word heaven doth signify as often before neiter are these voices terrible such as are ioyned with the thunder and lightnings after and else where but of praise and thankesgiving as their argement is shewed in the next following wordes Whose voices they are is gathered from that which is said by and by that when they were heard the Elders fell downe upon their faces in the next verse which they are wont to doe at the voices of the foure beasts chap. 4.19.20 Therefore they are the Rulers of the Churches who for some notable benefit which the sound of the seven Trumpet brought doe provoke their flockes to the praysing of God They shewe what manner of benefit this is when they say the Kingdomes of the world are become our Lords and his Christ c. What meaneth this Doth Christ nowe first reigne Surely he shall reigne alwayes even in the middes of his enemies But nowe chiefly his Kingdome is to be praised when he maketh his maiestie visible after a sorte in the very Kinges in so fashioning and forming their harth that they cast downe their crownes and scepters at his feete and wholly doe give their minde to the promooting of his glory But neither is this any newe thing He raigned so in olde times by Constantine and other godly Emperours Also in these last ages those famous Princes of Germany had restored this Kingdome long since Tho whom may be ioyned Gustavus King of Suevia and Christian King of Dennemarke who in the yeere a thousande five hundred thirty eight changed away the Antichristian impiety for the Ghospell I answere that the Prophecy meaneth not that the Kingdomes nowe first became of the Christian name but onely that they should be greatly encreased at the sound of this Trumpet for then especially wee doe say that one doth raigne when wee see the boundes of his
Empire enlarged albeit it is proper to this time that the Kingdome of Christ begun from hence shall never againe be darkened as in the former raignes it came to passe which in processe of time fell into utter decay For so it is said that he shall raigne for ever more Therefore the first entrance of this Trumpet should be famous for the accesse of newe Kingdomes as it came to passe in our England to which Christ at the sound of the seventh trumpet in the yeere one thousand five hundreth fiftieth eight gave the most gratious Queene Elizabeth who againe gave her Kingdome to Christ in rooting out through all her dominions the most part of the Romish superstitions and in restoring to her people the syncere and wholesome trueth that wee might worship the Lord our God according to his ordinance King Edward her brother as an other Iosias performed the same thing with an upright heart the whole time of his raigne but that his raigne was shorte For the Angell had not yet soundeth the trumpet when Christ should raigne for ever Therefore the storme of persecution in Queene Maries time seemed to cast downe from the lowest foundations that which began notably to be built After this at length appeased and a faire skie appearing againe when the comfortable and most beautifull starre Elizabeth arose then the Christian Empire was encreased with England and Ireland the next yeere was Scotland added that all Britannie with the Ilands might be Christs Howe famous an increase was this to be augmented with so great nations But this glory is greater because it shal be eternall For so the voices speake who shall raigne for ever The former Kingdomes of Christ after a sorte perished either abolished by the trouble of warres or chaunged into Antichristian bondage but after this beginning Christian Princes shall never be wanting who should maintaine the trueth whole sound in their dominions For now that time is begun when Christ shall rule in all the earth his enemies subdued on every side of which Daniell speaketh in chap. 2.44 and the Prophets every wherein so many places so honourably Wee shall see from the things that follow that this dominion over the Gentiles shal be continued unto him till it be infinitely encreased among the Iewes and at length be translated from hence into heaven And is it not a cleare proofe of the eternall Kingdome that so great entreprises of so many and so mighty enemies against one country England and our most gratious Queene doe vanish away as the smoake He whose scepter they fight against laâ—gheth at their foolish and vaine endevours And I hope that he who hath begun his eternall Kingdome will make the Queene also a type of his eternall Kingdome Every good man doth earnestly desire it in all their prayers Onely wee must beware least whose singular power and trueth wee have had experience of in defending us his truth wee suffer to be corrupted and his maiesty to be offended by Antichristian superstitions brought in againe afresh Wee have Christ angry with us because wee are farre from a perfect reformation but if wee returne to our vomite how mightily shall he rage against us Therefore they who favour the Papists secretely and labour to get liberty for them to pollute the holy Kingdome by bringing in againe their ceremonies hated of God they endevour the overthrow of our Kingdome and which my hart dreadeth to thinke the death of our most sacred Queene For howsoever Christ hath begun his eternall Kingdome yet he hath not bound himselfe to certaine countries he shall not want a KingdoÌ„ though he shall remove his court to another place which doubtlesse he may doe at his pleasure But I hope that this Revelation shall declare by such certen arguments that the Bishop of Rome is that Antichrist that if any yet be not persuaded thereof when the thing at length shal be more plainely perceived he will runne away from him as a most certen and infernall pestilence But that I may returne to my purpose wee see now why those voices reioyced to with that the Kingdome of Christ was increased by the accesse of newe people Surely it could not be but the whole reformed Church should have reioyced soundly for our ioy Neither can it be doubtfull but that the first beginning of this Kingdome was farre most pleasant to our country men comming out of Queene Maries raging sourges of persecution let us gâ—sse by our selves who although wee have seene noe other Kingdome at any time yet desire noe mortall thing more then a very long use of this And therefore according to that regard of our duty which is meete wee solemnize that yeerly day which was unto us the beginning of this benefite in which wee come togither publikely with ioint affections doe give as great thankes as wee can to our God by Chr. After that manner which is foreshewed in this place where the chiefe Rulers of the wholy assembly praise God in conceived wordes and the Elders give their consent who are in the stead of the rest of the congregation Although that I may not hide any thing it came into my minde to merveil why contrary to the manner of other places as chap. 4.9 and .5.8 and 7.11 and 14.3 and 19.4 in this one onely they are not called Beasts by their owne names Whither is it because the Beasts are a type as wee have shewed of such Ministers as are approved of God but our doe erre so gleatly from Gods ordinance that the Spirit of purpose refused to give them the name of Beasts Surely the things that wee have spoken of the Laodicean Church confirme this doubte I wish that this one thing were not wanting to the rest of our happinesse 16 Then those foure and twenty Elders The faithfull congregation by the conduct of their Ministers worshipped God as in our wonted Ecclesiasticall assemblies chiefly in that yeerly assembly where of I have spoken 17 Because thou hast obtained thy great might For all this time in which Christ sufferred hitherto his Church to be afflicted he seemed to the world to be weake and of noe strength nowe he would put on his might and would manifest to all men his supreme maiesty over all things 18 And the Gentiles were angry This verse setteth before us a short abridgement of the whole last period which consisteth in three things in the wrath of the Gentiles in the beginning of Gods vengeance in the full reward at length of both good and evill The wrath of the Gentiles is that rage and furie wherby they grudge and grinde the teeth tegither for seeing the Kingdome of Christ so marveilously to be increased contrary to their desire In howe great a fume was the Pope when liberty to enioy a purer religion was granted to the Germane Princes by a publike decree But because at the sounde of the seventh trumpet the dominion of Christ should especially shewe it selfe the chiefe
interrogation hath a certaine blaming of negligence and unskilfulnes as though he should say unlesse men had shamefully despised the observatioÌ„ of former times now they should not have had need to wonder at the Whore because they saw her flourishing in this whatsoever felicity But the merciful father who pardoneth all sinnes to his children for Christs sake forgiveth also this carelesnes And therfore he sendeth his Angsl to make the whol thing most plaine For this is that which followeth I wil shew thee the mistery c. yet warning not darkely that also the interpretation it selfe shall not be cleare to all men but shal remaine yet hidden to all that are hardened as before at verse 3. 5. 8 The Beast which thou hast seen The first interpretation is of the Beast according to the whole in this verse as we have distinguished in the Analysis wherin is declared his divers condition according to 4. alterations of times such as at length he should be known to be most playnely under this vial The first time wherin he was the second wherin he is not the third wherin he ascendeth out of the bottomlesse pit the fourth wherin he shal goe into destruction As touching the first it is not to be understood of any time which went before the age of Iohn or this Prophecie given to him For the Angel avoucheth plainely that this Beast was not yet come ver 10. that is that he was not yet when Iohn received this Prophecy but should receive power at the same houre with the ten Kings who in Iohns time had not yet received a Kingdome ver 11. Therfore this Beast is not properly the Devil as some of the auncient Fathers expound it and the Iesuite Ribera snatcheth it greedily Of him it could not be said that he was not yet come or that he had not yet received power whose Kingdome then both flourished very greatly and did flourish before Christ came in the flesh Afterward we shall see that the original of this Beast is to be set at that time wherein the Dragon was thrust out of heaven and gave him his Throne And so there are two and fourty moneths of his cheife power which same is the space of the woman lying hid in the wildernesse and of the two Prophets cloathed in sackcloth These chapters 13.5 and 12.6 and 11.2 will challenge the same beginning to all these Which wee have shewed to have falleÌ„ about the times of the beginning of the raigne of CoÌ„stantine the Great some ages after that Iohn was dead After which beginning the first part noteth that there was a time when the Beast flourished for a season to weet at the end of the publike persecutions by open enemies whom the prowesse of Constantine put to flight The second that after that prosperous tranquility a new tempest arose which afflicted the Beast so vehemently that for iust cause men should say that he was in time past but that now he is not as whom they should thinke to have perished utterly in those troubles as it came to passe after that refreshing under some fewe Emperours in which time the authority of the Bishop of Rome increased marveilously when the invasion of the Barbarous people spoyled miserably all Italy cruelly destroyed Rome it selfe the Throne of the Beast and did cut off almost to the very roote the authority of the Pope growing too rankely Should not men then have cryed out by right that the Pope was but is not whose not onely authority but also seate they might thinke to have ben altogither past recovery This second time was caled the wounded head in chap. 13.3 which did bring with it the knowledge of the former of which there could be no knowledg until this alteration had befalleÌ„ But the Beast lay not alway in this destruction he rose out of it againe as the third member declareth he came out of the bottomlesse pit which came to passe when he lifted up his head againe after that Barbarian storme of adversity was mitigated This time comprehendeth both the curing of the wouÌ„d by Iustinian and Phocas and also his rising out of the earth or out of the bottomlesse pit by Gregory the second of both which in chap. 13.3.11 11.7 and 9.2.11 This Gregory exercised that power which his Ancestours had obtayned of the Emperours yea a farre greater not onely as an Vniversall Bishop but as the highest Dictatour taking away and giving the Empire to whom he thought good It is sufficient in this place to observe the first beginning of things Who first bestowed the name of an Emperour upon men in the West part wee have shewed in an other place Therfore the Beast ascended then when the Popes had gotten this terrene power to themselves as in chap. 13.11 hath ben sayd which earth he called here the bottomlesse pit as elswhere in the Psalmist and makest me to ascend from the depthes of the earth Psal 71.20 And so is the third time The fourth is shall goe into destruction which declareth that this dignity revived shall not remaine for ever but be diminished by little and little and leasurly consumed while it be at length utterly abolished as wee have heard before in the second chapter of Jezabell lying sicke in her bedde the paramour of this Beast and languishing of an incurable consumption Even as at this daie thankes be to God wee see in Rome and in the Pope but the buriall funeralls are yet to come about what time the Revelation will shew us afâ—er These are the foure notable changins wherby the Beast might become known to men being not blind willingly from which wee have a most strong argument to prove both the time when Rome is the whore of the person of Antichrist For that City is the whore in which reigneth Antichrist to weet the very Beast which was which is not which ascendeth out of the bottomlesse pit and goeth into destruction But Rome is the City in which froÌ„ Constantine the Great the Pope hath reigned which was which is not which asceÌ„deth out of the bottomlesse pit and goeth into destruction Therefore Rome since Constantine is the whore and the Pope of Rome since the very same time is the Beast and Antichrist in whom wee see all these alterations at this time so farre as doubtlesse may be done the same being not wholly takeÌ„ away From whence it is not to be doubted but that he is that adversary that man of sinne that great Antichrist whom all ought to flee and to feare greatly and to wish dâ—struction to him and procure it to his power If any thinketh the Beast caÌ„not be knowne before his last destruction which surely is to know too late let him observe that the Angell doth stop in the ende of the verse in the third member seeing saith he the Beast which was and is not and yet is Whereby he declareth that a sure knowledge may be had at this third chaunging ¶ And
which are ten absolute Kings had their soveraingntie after that the sixt head was fallen that is after that the Hethen Emperours were expelled For from the time that the Beast begaÌ„ first to reign they never wanted crownes chap. 18.7 And crownes have place no where ells but on the heads and hornes therfore of necessitie so soon as they be taken away from them they are transferred unto these But seing the seventh head that is Antichrist receiveth power at the same howr with the ten horns it foloweth that then began he to exist when the Roman Hethen tyrants ceased Fourthly the woman fled into the wildernes when the Dragon was cast out of heaven that is when the HetheÌ„ Emperours were deposed as is largely declared in the 7.11 and 12. chapters And whom should she more fear and flee than Antichrist Therfore she getting her selfe into the wildernes at his rising up it plainly sheweth that Antichrist came at the same abdication of the Emperours Fiftly since the Hethen Emperours have been doon away Rome hath most vaÌ„ted of the defense patronage of the Pope And at that time should this City be both the whore dnd seat of Antichrist when she should be caried of the Beast and shine cheifly with his dignity Sixtly the consent of the whole Prophesie confirmeth it which according to this account very wel agreeth with it selfe both in the whole and in al the parts therof wheras otherwise as it were with members rent and torn asunder it yeildeth a pourtrature of inexplicable confusion Lastly even the Papists themselves unwares doo acknowledge that Antichrist hath drawn his original froÌ„ this very beginnin For whiles they boast of Constantines donation and the whole West to be subiect to the Bishop of Rome they shew sufficiently by their own coÌ„fession about what time this Adversarie of Christ came forth Now was poyson sown in the Church as a voice from heaven said as Platina recordeth in the life of Sylvester And if any doo obiect that after this time ther were some godly Bishops or at least weise tollerable I answer that Antichrist is not paâ—ticular men but a certayn Kingdome and successioÌ„ from which God may exempt according to his owne wil wherin he sheweth the riches of his immesurable mercy But al these things we hav more largely handled and unfolden in opening the words of the Apostle now we would but gather them into a breif summ that the things which were spoken dispersedly being set under one view might shew more clearly how by the Apostles few words al Popish and Iesuitish subtilties as toucht with lightning from heaven doo fly on fyre and come to nothing These therfore be the common arguments and to be applyed unto al the chapters of the disputation folowing which we thought good to warn thee Reader of that thou mayst set them rather from hence unto every question than that we should often repeat them Things that properly belong to every place we wil relate as the matter shall require Now therfore let us enconter with Bellarmine hand to hand and not baulk any of his demaunds that he may the better see how in vayn he hath tried his strength against the truth The first cheife point is of this common name of Antichrist which he enforceth to signify one contrary to Christ and not contrarie in what sort soever but so as that he striveth with him for seat and dignitie that is one which is Christs envious adversarie and would be accounted the Christ when he which is indeed the Christ is cast down The first part of which interpretation I easily grant that Antichrist is one contrary to Christ but wheras not content with this he requireth such a contrariety as was between Marius Sylla Pompey Caesar that openly warred one with an other the Spirit convinceth that of falshood teaching that the Beast hath two horns like the Lamb Revel 13.11 that he is a false Prophet and that it is a point of singular wisdome to knowe and perceive the Beast Here is the mind saith he that hath wisdome Revel 17.9 Can any man be so blockish that if opeÌ„ warre be waged against Christ he should not know his enemie Need any man be deceived wher the matter is carried by professed force The great Antichrist shal deceive more than he shal compel he shal come with al deceaveablenes of unrighteousnes among them that perish saith th'Apostle 2 Thes 2.10 wherto the Apocalypse agreeth and he shal seduce the inhabitans of the earth chap. 13.14 Shal this seducer have his deceits and sleights in open view Nothing is more contrary to his disposition Be it therfore that ther is some Antichrist which wil openly vaunt himselfe to be Christ yet is not this the property of the Great Antichrist But think not therfore that any goeth before him in wickednes The Divil hurteth more under the shape of an Angel of light then under the horrible hiew of a Dragon But you goe about to prove the thing three manner of wayes First because the name Antichrist cannot by any meanes signify Christs Vicar For Anti in composition never signifyeth subordination as is manifest by the exemples of all such names But a Vicar signifyeth not opposition but subordination and the Pope is Christs Vicar and therfore not Antichrist I answer Though I should grant you that Antichrist cannot signify Christs Vicar yet were the Pope no whit the further from being Antichrist For the argument is framed of an aequivocation and therfore concludeth nothing In the first proposition you put a true and proper Vicar such as Antichrist in deede cannot be who is a malicious although a secret enemy that it is a true name wherby the Scriptures doo describe him of Adversary Man of sin Angel of the bottomlesse pit Beast In the second you assume a Vicar not naturall lawful but one that is such by wicked ambition sacrilegious usurpation and false boasting From which no other thing can be concluded than this that the Pope is not Antichrist by his own confession which I easily graunt you For we reason not I trow by what name Antichrist shal call himselfe but what name he is worthy of and what the Scriptures give unto him It is not to be exspected that he will bewray himselfe and freely confesse that he is the man of sin the son of perdition the Angel of the bottomlesse pit the Beast and the like which if he should doo verily he should not play the false Prophet Fayrly therfore have you freed your Pope in arguing that he is not Antichrist by his owne testimony Secondly I answer that it is false which you affirm of the signification of this word Anti though now it be little to the purpose what force it hath which I will make playn also by examples Antimist hotos is one that is hyred in an other mans sted Antibasileus is a Vice-roy or one in the Kings stead Antistrategos is the Lievtenant or he
purpose by very small thinges and having a faire colour He would abhorre Idols in words as much as any other and would cry out that the honour which he commaundeth to be given to Jmages is farre from this ungodlines by such wordes deceaving the unskilfull and bringing them into this offence of which the Spirith speaketh 15 So thou hast c. The reddition of the similitude whose proposition is not spoken a word of Thus it should be full As once the Israelites had those that held the doctrine of Balaam so thou hast them that holde the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes In stead of the proposition he attributeth the doctrine of Balaam to the Pergamen Church because it was proper to his Antitype but from whence may be gathered the first part of the similitude But this poison of the Nicolaitanes had infected doubtlesse Pergamus ¶ Which J hate as before the comon translation is repent likewise And so he beginneth the verse following in this sense as I have warned the Ephesine Church so doe I admonish thee But this is weaker then if he did commaund simply repent 16 I will come against thee quickly and fight against them He threatneth a double punishement one against the Church it selfe against which he saith that he wâ—ll come quickly The other against the corrupters against whom he saith he will fight with the sworde of his mouth For wee may not thinke that he will come against the Church onely to take away those plagues destructions of men for this could have no feare but would be a thing to be chiefly wished but shee also must suffer the punishment of her negligence as they of their wickednes Therfore this violent breaking into the Church was a certen chastisement by warre or some such calamity as is manifest in the Antitype whose times were very troublous partly by the overflowing of the Northerne Barbarians partly by the Saracens whom the Devill armed against the seed of the woman after shee fled into the wildernes as we shall shew at the chap. 12. to which times these things perteine but here generally and obscurely shewed because this place suffered not any ampler light The other punishment is against the Balaamites against whoÌ„ he will use the sworde of his mouth For we must observe how he distinguisheth these from the Church of her he sayd I will come against thee then turning his speach to the Balaamites and J will fight saith he against them But what is it to fight with the sworde of his mouth Whether to inflict the punishments which he hath threatned in his word Certenly Paul saith that he had in readines wherewith to punish all contumacy 2 Cor. 10.6 And Ieremy is set of God over the nations and Kingdomes to root out and destroy c. chap. 1.10 For there is no weapon in the whole armory of the world so effectuall on both partes Wherfore seeing by the iudgement hereof all fornications and Idolatries are appointed to a iust punishment worthily may he say that he will fight with that sworde according to the rule whereof the pronounced iudgement is exercised But nowe when in an other place it is sayd of Antichrist that Christ shall consume him with the spirit of his mouth 2 Thes 2.8 which maner of speaking what force it hath we have learned by experience to wit that his errours convinced his lyes detected then his fraude and deceits set in the open light he shal be brought to destruction these wordes seeme to have the same meaning And certenly after that the Church was for a while scourged by those Norther Souther barbariaÌ„s Christ begaÌ„ to vexe those PerganieÌ„ impostours with the light of the truth for about the yeare 1120 arose certeÌ„ godly men which preached openly that Antichrist was come that the holy dayes Ecclesiasticall broken songs prayers for the dead pilgrimages oyle extreem unction the rest of that sorte were superstitious things Worke Trip. Henric. Mon. Thol To these were added in a short time after the Waldenses the Albingenses Parisienses who published a booke of the perils of the Church many other private men FroÌ„ theÌ„ce began this fight which was soft in the beginning terrible rather in the shaking of the sword then in wonding but after coming to a iust full battaile as after we shall see which hath fallen out prosperously to the godly hitherto by the grace of God but most unhappily to them that dwell at Rome in the throne of Sathan 17 He that hath an eare Let every one drowned in the Romish superstitioÌ„s give eare let him attende hearken in what account with God is that unmaried Vicar of Christ of what price is that famous much spoken of Rome that Chaire of Peter the piller of truth mother of the faith of all Churches to wit that chief Prelate that wicked Balaam the very city which is renowmed with the vaine praising of men the gate of heaveÌ„ is the very palace throne of the Devill Neither let any thinke that hatred doth wring these words from a man that is an adversary but let him compare the prophecy the event which if he shall see to agree in all things let him know that he is warned of the daÌ„ger not so much by the words of maÌ„ as by the H. spirit ¶ To him that overcometh I will c. The reward is threefould hiddeÌ„ MaÌ„na a white stone an unknowne name written upon it Every one of which fit the times in a wonderfull manner As for Manna it is the meat of the wildernes ministred froÌ„ God when there was no meanes to have other bread And in this Pergamen state when the company of the Nicolaitanes Balaamiticall ofspring that is Romane Jdolaters possessed all places the Church was conversant in a waste unpleasant terrible wildernes whether wee shall see the woman betake herselfe flying from the Dragon ch 12. But Christ feedeth the same with the meat of the wildernes as once the Israelites For he will not be wanting to his in the most hard times but bestowe aboundaÌ„tly the ioy of the Spirit wherby not onely they may be preserved in life but also be very glad as for the greatest ioyes Therefore this Manna is the same meate with the fruite of the tree of life in Paradise as hath bin observed afore ver 7. but the manner of ministring of it is divers there in a most chast pure and flourishing Church it was the fruit of the tree in the middes of the paradise of God here the truth being despised contemned trode under foot utterly opressed with most thicke darknes it is MaÌ„na the foode of the wildernes this meate should be hiddeÌ„ froÌ„ the world they should suppose theÌ„ famished who had fled into this wildernes as the Egyptians did thinke the Israelites for this cause would perish suddeÌ„ly But God did sustaine his extra ordinarily with this bread of Angels Yet there is this
to the Pastors in this So before Bod. the punishmeÌ„t of the Magistrate foloweth the debarring froÌ„ holy things Therfore both swordes are drawn in this Ch but severally by those to whoÌ„ the one the other beloÌ„geth And indeede this society is most sweet seeing all the industry of civill Magist ought to have respect therto that we may live with all godlines honesty 1 Tim. 2.2 The wordes seeme to be taken out of Isaiah chap. 22 22. J will lay saith he the key of the house of David upon his shoulder when he openeth no man shall shute when he shutteth no man shall open But in this place the worde house seemeth to have ben omitted purposely for he sayth not which hath the key of the house of Dauid but that hath the key of David There is a difference because that seemeth to perteine to an inferiour minister and that onely in the family of David this to a supreme Governour and that of a whole kingdome So the omitting of one worde putteth a difference betweene the type the truth Eliakim Christ See also Isay 9.6.7 The Complutent Edition the Kings Bible read somewhat otherwise who openeth and no man shall shut the same who openeth not and no man shall open Arethas hath except him that openeth 8 J knowe thy workes beholde I have set before thee an open doore He entreth into the narration and first of a present good thing And it is an opeÌ„ dore Which sometime signifyeth the faculty of preaching the Gospell From whence Paul would have that it should be earnestly desyred of God in his behalfe that the dore of utterance may be opened to him Col. 4.3 And that speach may be given unto mee in opening my mouth Ephes 6.19 And worthily is it so called seeing by the word a dore is opened to us into heaven which being taken away and removed the dore is shut and loked so as noe man can enter in Luk. 13.25 And not onely the faculty of the Ministers is the doore but also the readines of the hearers as For a great dore and effectuall is opened unto mee and there be many adversaries as though he should say although there be many that doe resist and strive against the truth yet there are many whose desyre is prompt and ready 1 Cor. 16.9 And againe coming to Troas to preach the Gospell and a doore being opened to mee in the Lord. This dore is opened when the hearts are opened to receive the truth as Lyd a whose heart the Lord opened that shee might attende to those things which were spoken of Paul Act. 16.14 But although the name of dore be attributed to those a parte yet most of all the dore is then opened when all these things meet ioyntly togither the word discipline the care of the Magistrate and of the people Then is there free leave to pearce into the consciences of men unto which an entrance is shut up after a sorte where any of these shal be wanting This then is that open dore wherby this Church was famous Which in deede no strength of wit hath opened which consisteth either in the vertu of speaking or in the sharpenes of wit and prudence in understanding but onely that chiefe key-bearer who hath given freely that which no man could have obtayned by humane streÌ„gth How ungodly therfore doe they which doe checke by reprochefull words that which Christ hath conferred for an excellent benefite They whet their tongues against heaven yea against God himselfe But they shall not escape uâ—punished let them clatter as much as they will ¶ Neither can any shut it The endâ—vour of the adversaryes hath not ben wanting some have loboured to barre these dores by slandering reproching inveighing with all manner of contumelyes others by force and weapons as it were by a rushing downe violently to shute this gate but he hath perfoâ—med his promise who hath confirmed that none shall prevayle the enemyes have lost their labour and have got no other thing theÌ„ shame in the world for their cruell minde against the truth and puniâ—hement at Gods hande meet for their desertes Let the experience of the time past be a confirmation against future feare ¶ Because thou haâ—t a little strenth The comon translation hath because thou hast a little vertue the sensâ— if I be not deceaved being wâ—ll expressed which dependeth on that which followeth neither is it absolute of it selfe as though he should say because although thou hast but a little strength yet thou hast k pâ— my words And in deede the fortitude in the greater danger is more famous And this manner of speaking is frequent among the Hebrewes who use the copulâ—â—ive vâ—u for the discretive particule the custome and manner of whom iâ— frequent with Iohn as Neyther shall any straw be given you and yee shâ—ll deliver the whole tale of bricke for yet shall yee deliver c. Ex. 5.18 So And behold an escaping remayning in her for yet shall some remayne who shall escape Ezech. 14.22 Afterwardes also Iohn in the same manner And men raged in heart and blasphemed and repented not for and yet repented not chap. 16.9 If he had praysed a part their small strength how should there not be in the same thing much depravating For this is wont to abounde where that which is opposed is but little and small Sardis had a fewe names wherupon death had possessed the greater part Neyther would the Spirit have passed over in silence the corruption if he had found any worthy reprehension Therefore the comon translation ought here to holde in that seÌ„se which I have shewed This Church is of weake streÌ„gth which dwelleth here and there and the greater parte under a popular state one onely people enioyeth a Monarch for their patron But neither is this Church able to doe much either by her owne or by her friendes riches Therâ—fore the greater is the prayse of thy fortitudo o Philadelphia who hast not yeelded to the threats of the adversaryes neyther forsaken the truth by being dismayed with the vaine feare of men 1 Behold I give of the Synagogue of Sathan Here is a defâ—ct of the word some I will give some of the Synagogue of Sathan of those which say that they are Iewes This is the future good thinge as we have shewed in the Analysis and it may be manifest from the latter member of the verse Beholde I will make them come unlesse peradventure this verbe of the present tence didomi respecteth the present time wherein some of the Iewes submitted themselves to this Church for a token and pledge of a full subiection afterward which it may be the last words meane We shewed upon the ch 2.9 howe they which by nation are Iewes doe ly saying they are Iewes to wit in bragging that they are the onely people when in the meane time they refuse Christ in whom onely we are counted children and doe continue and rest in the abolished
ceremonies of the law By which thinges they have made themselves to be the Synagogue of Sathan and not a congregation of saints whatsoever they affirme to the contrary in wordes In the Antitype are Iewes as many as intangled in errours challenge to theÌ„selves alone the trueth faith salvation and promises of God speaking of nothing but the temple the temple of which sorte were the Arian Bishops under Constantine Constance and Valence and such as are at this day the Romanists glorying no lesse in the Chyre of Peter then of olde the Iewes in their temple These onely will be Catholikes their Church to be the onely spouse of Christ that noe salvation can be found out of their congregations But let them deceave themselves with as goodly wordes as they will by their true name they are false Iewes in shew onely Christians who gather congregaâ—ions in the honour of the Devill God acknowledgeth theÌ„ not which thrust upon him an other worship theÌ„ that which he hath appointed froÌ„ heaven Some of these therefore are giveÌ„ to this holy Philadelphia seeing there are many dayly whoÌ„ God of his singular mercy plucketh out of the iawes of Antichrist enlightneth their eyes that they may acknowledge embrace the truth AmoÌ„g which are Peter Vergerius Peter Martyr Hier. ZaÌ„chius MartineÌ„gê° many other both ItaliaÌ„s other natioÌ„s who first being papists were afterwards converted to the trueth ¶ Behold J say Excellent doubtlesse was once the victory of the PhlladelphiaÌ„s over the Iewes no lesse famous shal be at leÌ„gth the triuÌ„phe of this Church over the Papists Hitherto we have fought with theÌ„ by pen inke but the time shortly cometh wheÌ„ they shal be rooted out by weapoÌ„s chiefly by the labour of this Church as after shal be shewed more playnly Rome shal be destroyed of some other but being overthrowne holy Philadelphia shall pluck up by the rootes the remnaÌ„ts of the Popish kingdome so as no name of it shal be left as wee shall shew in chap. 19. For this worship of the false Iewes perteineth to that time wheÌ„ the Romish beast being cast into hell all his hostes shal be killed with the sword that cometh out of the mouth of him that sitteth upon the horse ¶ And they shall know that J have loved thee For hitherto thou art made a mocking stocke neither doe unthankefull men acknowledge any love of mine by the singular gift of godlines which I have bestowed on thee But then I will adorne thee with those things also which are in account with the world thou shalt set up a token of victory over thy enemyes shalt inrich thy selfe with their spoyles that every one may be compelled to coÌ„fesse that thou art dearly beloved whoÌ„ contrary to all hope they shall see increasâ—d so woÌ„derfully O holy Philadelphia cherish thy hope with these things neither be grieved in minde whatsoever the world saith otherwise 10 Because thou hast kept c. My worde doctrine which I have taught the world with great patience and which is also to be preached allwayes with the like patience which I see thee to have used to thy great perill yet thou hast abode constantly in thy duty ¶ J will keepe thee also c. But what is it to keepe froÌ„ the houre Would not God suffer the teÌ„tatioÌ„ to touch the PhiladelphiaÌ„s at all It could scarse be done that they should be free altogither in the comoÌ„ calamity of all the world To keepe therfore is to deliver as the Lord did keepe them out of the handes of their enemyes that is delivered Iud. 2.18 as though he should say I will not suffer thee to be overcome in that teÌ„tatioÌ„ but I will give thee strength by which thou mayest not onely beare conragiously the calamity but also overcome be victor But what is this houre of teÌ„tatioÌ„ In the type it selfe that persecutioÌ„ doubtles under Traian which Philadelphia togither with all the other Churches susteined Neither is it to be omitted why in the Epist to the Ang. of Smyrna he sayd that the same afflictioÌ„ was of x dayes which in this place he included in one houre in both places he respecteth the coÌ„curring of the type Antitype there because uÌ„der CoÌ„staÌ„tine CostaÌ„ce ValeÌ„ce within which times wee have shewed that the Antitype of the Smyr Church is to be limited there should be a loÌ„g calamity raging in the greatest part of that space he defyned that afflictioÌ„ by x. dayes in which he noted both the yeares so many as TraiaÌ„ should go on with rage also that loÌ„g delay in the Antitype under the ChristiaÌ„ Emperours But seeing in the Antit of the Philad Church there should be afflictioÌ„ farr greater then all yet short he hath ioyned the same trouble of times in one houre in the type This teÌ„tatioÌ„ therfore yet to come which shall come upon the whole world is the last fight of the Rom. Antichrist in the west of the MahumetaÌ„ Turke in the East very terrible in the whole preparatioÌ„ but on which the Church shall carry away the victory to be preferred farre before all the triumphes and the victoryes of all men Of which is here giveÌ„ a tast the full declaration is reserved to his owne place But seeing in this battell there shal be a comoÌ„ victory of the whole Church and here seemeth to be promised some thing proper to this alone peradventure this tentation shal be an other which shall goe before that warre And before wee have heard that in the Church of Germany some grievous thing doth hang over their head For he threatneth that he will come as a thiefe Then also in the Church following wee shall see that some storme is to be expected Wherefore it is to be feared that shortly this tentation wâ—ll come upon us and shake the Christian Churches with an horrible teÌ„pest Besides the coniâ—cture of this place the sinnes which reigne every where not without causâ— indeede may increase this feare It shal be profitable for every one to prepare himselfe that he may stand firme in that day And wee may gâ—ssâ— at the greatnes of this tempest in some sorte from the very words themselves For they promise that this alone shal be kept pure sound and undefiled whereto belongeth also the reward of Pillars ver 12. What then shal be done with the other Churches The future disturbance of all things seemeth so miserable that there shal be left noe face of any Church any where besides For it seemeth that those Churches at length shall by the iust iudgement of God come to nothing which have not regarded a full reformation 11 Beholde I come quickly Hitherto the good thing the way to preserve is by constancy unto which he exhorteth first by his quicke coming The Philadelphike Church felt the houre oftentation by and by after this writing For Traiane succeeded next after Domitian under whom Iohn receaved this Revelation Neither shall the newe
that by the negligence or pryde of the Teachers And it is manifest frō Hierome that an other kinde of governing was by and by growne in use in stead of those Elders For he mentioneth to Rusticus of the Ecclesiasticalll Senat The Church saith he hath a Senat a company of Elders without whose counsell the Monkes may doe nothing And againe And wee have our Senate of Presbyters Gratian. C. 16. q. 1. The Church But the Senate was become much unlike to the integrity and institution of the first time as wee learned even nowe from Ambrose after whose time age men labour in vaine to finde out this kinde of Elders which he complayneth to have perished and come to nothing before his times Those winges therfore togither with the eyes are those Deacons and Elders Of which what picture more fitte could have ben given In them is required simplicity in these diligence Rom. 12.8 That first is signifyed by the eyes in the wings this second by the wings with eyes From which first is perceyved howe necessary these Offices are in the Church For they are the winges of the Ministers What is a bird without winges Yet this lacke is more dammageable because a bird being destitute of winges perisheth her selfe alone the Pastours being voide of thē the whole flockes are set in daunger of destruction For they are winges of helping as wee have said wherby aide is ministred not so much to the Ministers themselves as to the people And seeing the Apostles had need of Deacons that a more necessary worke might not be left of them could they by themselves observe every on s life without the hinderance of the administration of the word Therefore they tooke to themselves the winges full of eyes which the Beastes have before the Throne and have taught by their owne example howe maimed and lame the Pastors are to whom these winges are wanting Againe wee learne that these Offices are advantages and additions as parts hanging to the Pastours ioyned to them as necessarily as winges to the body from whence they drawe life and by whose benefit they are moved and upholden And that therefore a divorse is not rightly made betweene them as in the common wealth of the Scaphusians where none of the MINISTERS are present in the Consistory but learned men out of the Senate and for the most part some DOCTOR of the Lawes is chosen amonge the Iudges of the Consistory See for this Iosias Simlerus in his treatise of the Common Wealth of the Helvetians Neyther are those excuses of any moment wherby it is pretended that another manner of governing not lesse profitable is used in stead of ELDERS and DEACONS as it is done in Englande Is it not say they provided in a speciall manner for the poore by the statutes of this Kingdome And doe not the Church-Wardens present wicked men unto the Commissaryes What neede is there of other Elders and Deacons especially indeede seeing all that way is wholy severed from all overseeing of the Pastors to whome alone these winges ought to be fastened and not to any other body of Commissaries God give therefore Winges to the Beasts that his people may be holpen all whose holines almost is lost because the Pastors being destitute of their winges full of eyes there is none that with an earnest and true affection of minde will looke into the diseases and sikenesses and fly speedily for to heale them Lastly our brethren are to be intreated that they will speake more modestly of the ordinance of God least giving themselves to reproaches and raylings they be found to open their mouth against heaven it selfe ¶ Day and night without ceasing saying Hitherto hath ben the preparation unto their Office nowe it followeth of what sorte their Office it selfe is which is shewed by their unwearisome diligence in praysing the Lord. Which one thing in deede sheweth sufficiently that these Beasts by their charge and Office are stewards of the Mysteries of God to wit Pastours in whom he hath put the word of recenciliation and whom he hath made his Ambassadours who should intreate and pray the people in CHRIST steade that they would be reconciled unto God It is in deede the duty of every one to prayse God without ceasing Such diligence the Apostle requireth in all Christians saying Pray continually in the first Epistle of the Thessalonians chapter five ver 16. But especially it belongeth to them who ought to give themselves to this study with their whole mindes and thoughts For as Paul councelleth Virgins that they might cleave fast to the Lord without any distraction in the first Epistle to the Corinthes chapter seaven ver 35. That should be the onely care of them that bende themselves with all diligence unto holy things all whose businesse both in the day time and in the night is bestowed in meditating on the things of the Lord You sayth the Psalmist which stand in the house of God every night Psalme 134. ver 1. Were there any prayers before day breake or in the night time as in the Monasteryes of the superstitious Monkes Not at all But this kinde of speaking sheweth that their whole labour was spente in worshipping the Lord Such as then was the study of the Levites and of them especially who departed not from the Temple neither day nor night for the space of the weekes of their course in the second booke of the Kinges 11.5 in Luke chapter first ver 23. And such ought to be the care of all who deale with holy thinges by profession They who are deteyned with the affaires of this life because they have their mindes withdraen from the contemplation of heavenly things worthily may be sayd to leave sometime their care of serving God by cōparisō with the Ministers Seeing then so continuall a paynes is required to the Ministers may they intermeddle with other Politicall and civill affaires Shall they whose mindes ought never to be vacant from holy meditations so farre intangle themselves with earthly cares that they can minde very little divine thinges Christ who alone was fitte for every administration would not be a iudge to divide the inheritance between the disagreeing brethren Which office he refused not for any inability to performe it but onely for our exemple To whom also he hath appointed boundes of our power least by wandring without our limites wee should be unprofitable both to our selves and also to others The Princes saith he of the Gētiles beare rule over them and the Nobles exercise power over them but it shall not be so amonge you Mat. 20.25.26 Of which commandement when the Apostles understood this to be the meaning that they should take upon them nothing that might hinder never so little their holy function they would not suffer so much as that the care of the poore should be layd upō them though most neerly ioyned with godlines that they might not wāder any whit from their duty Therefore the Romish
elect shall he not also obtayne all things for us that may avayle any way for our good The seaven hornes is that supreame power wherby the man Christ sitting at the right hande of the Father ruleth and governeth all things according to that which Christ being raysed froÌ„ the dead sayd to his disciples all power is given mee in heaven and in earth Mat. 28.18 Therefore that most meeke Lambe wanteth not those weapons wherby he chaseth away his enemyes althoug by his great patience he seemeth not to regarde the iniuries which they doe And thou mayest observe that it is not needfull that the parables and similitudes should agree in all thinges seeing here to the Lambe contrary to nature are attributed seaven hornes and as many eyes that is gifts of the Spirit wherewith Christ endueth the faithfull They are sent from him seeing noe man can be partaker even of the least gift unlesse he bestowe it on them For God heareth not sinners but from his fulnes wee all receive and he being gone to his Father sendeth the Conforter unto his which leadeth them into all trueth as in the Gospell of Iohn chapter sixteene ver seaventh and thirteene A visible token whereof were once the cloven tongues like fire sitting upon the Apostles and that miraculous gift of speaking suddenly with other tongues Act. 2.3 c. With which faculty not onely the Apostles were endued but afterward also others embracing the faith Neither are they onely sente into all the world that they may conferre the comfortable knowledge of salvation to the Elect But that CHRIST may search out all thinges that are done in his Church yea which are done in any other place of the world Wherefore howe great impudency is it to thrust upon the Church a visible head seeing the LAMBE is furnished with so many eyes neither hath them idle and unoccupied but sendeth them forth with all diligence into the whole world The care of Christ taketh not indede away the Ministers eyther Ecclesiasticall or Politicall which he hath ordained But to faine and invent a newe kinde and degree and that under a pretence that CHRIST is absent is proper onely to that man who is directly opposite to Christ As touching the wordes some Copies reade as is noted in the Greeke Bibles lately set forth at Frankeford which are that the relative may be referred as well to the hornes as to the eyes After which manner also Aretas readeth this verse And the Hornes may be sayd to be sent into the whole world when CHRIST putteth forth his power in succouring his owne servantes and destroying his enemyes But it agreeth more properly to the eyes which when wee turne toward any thinge wee are sayd to cast them upon the same 7 He came and tooke the booke out of the right hand of him that sat on the throne There is a double consideration of Christ one so farre as of the eternall God sitting togither in the Throne with the Father chap. 4. ver 3. The other so farre as he is of the Mediatour attending on the throne and prepared and ready to performe those things which make for the salvatioÌ„ of his people There is the like regard of the Spirit who as he is the Eternall God partaker of the Throne compassing the same about as in the fourth chap. and third verse But according as he sanctifyeth the Church with created giftes there are seaven Spirits before the Throne seaven burning Lampes seaven Hornes and seaven eyes 8 Having every one Harpes and vials A reioicing and thankesgiving of the Church for this greate benefite of taking and unsealing the Booke Therefore they take unto themselves fit and proper instruments for this purpose Harpes and Vials that is to say Prayses and thankesgiving For Vials full of odours are the harts of the Saints which the Spirit hath filled with a fervent desyre of calling upon GOD the Harpes perteine to gladnes of minde and reioicing in prayers is the very thankesgiving But he alludeth to the manner of the Temple where the LEVITES praysed GOD with Musicall Instruments and the PRIESTES had their Pottes and Bowles set before the Altar full of odours as wee reade in the Prophete Zachary chap. 14. ver 20. ¶ Which are the prayers of the Saints He speaketh not of the offerring of prayers for the dead which are made of them that are alive on the earth but as I have shewed in the former chapter all that which is attributed to the Beasts Elders declareth what exercises the Saints goe about with all diligence in the militant Church So also after in verse 10. And wee shall raigne say the Elders upon the earth not preaching doubtlesse the Kingdome of the soules departed but of the holy men on earth The heartes of these as golden vials doe breath out and yeeld up prayses and thankes for those greate benefites which are obtained for us by Christ If the Elders ofâ—er onely the prayers of other men as the Iesuite interpreteth they should be dumbe in the common ioy of all things Nay rather the benefite is theirs for they themselves shall raigne say they therefore they offer not other meÌ„s but their owne prayers 9 And they sung a newe sunge It is called a newe songe in respect of more plentifull grace ministred nowe since Christ hath ben exhibited then was in olde time under the shadowes of the Lawe The auncient people did not prayse the man Christ so openly and clearly before he had taken unto him our flesh as at this day the faithfull doe prayse him clothed with oâ—r nature from whence not without cause this more manifest praysing is called a newe sung But he alludeth unto the manner of the Lawe where newe greater benefites are celebrated in newe formes of prayses conceaved of purpose whereupon there is so often mention of a newe songe in the booke of Psalmes ¶ And hast redeemed us Therefore the Beasts and Elders are men redeemed by the blood of Christ neither in deede some twelve chiefe men of the Iewes and as many Christian twelve Apostles with the foure Evangelists For this whole company was not chosen out of every Tribe and tongue and people and nation but out of the nation of the Iewes onely but of all the faithfull in every place all which this holy company and bande mustered indifferently from all places of the world doe worthyly note out as wee have observed upon the fourth verse of the 4. chapter And it is sayd significantly out of every Tribe c. not all Tribes c. because all men are not redeemed by the blood of Christ but onely the elect as Aretas hath well observed 10 And hast made us to our God Kinges Some copies doe reade them so this whole verse in the third person but Aretas and the common Latine translation doe reade in the first person wee have expounded these thinges before But why doe they mention this benefite in the cause of taking the
they should be vexed To wit the men that were without the marke There is a defect of the relative they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifieth to be tryed here it is used for to be afflicted tormented or any way to be vexed as every where in the holy Scriptures elsewhere Montanus and Plantines edition reade that they should vexe which they seeme rather to take that the sentence might be lesse harsh but Aretas and the Common translatiō have it in the passive as also Theod. Beza Neither is it in vaine that there is made so sudden a passing frō the verbe active to the passive but to shewe that this sorrowfull time is not to be measured by the furie of them that tyrannize but by the calamity of the sufferers which thing bringeth great light to understand the continuance of the torment of which in the next wordes which follow ¶ Five monthes Primasius readeth sixe monethes but the Greeke copies with one consent and the Common translation have five This place is indeede very darke and such as hath alwayes much troubled the Interprepreters For howe may so small a space agree to the Kingdomes either of the Sarracenes or of the Papists Let every day be counted for so many yeeres that five monethes should be at least as much as an hundred and fifty yeeres after the manner of the Scriptures in other places as in Ezechiel fourty dayes every day for a yeere I give thee and according to the continuall custome of this booke as hereafter wee will shewe God willing yet neverthelesse what is this so small and short a distance of time to these so longe continuing tyrannies Wherfore Bullinger and some others of our countrymen doe thinke that this number is assigned as it were of the hotter monethes in which especially the Locusts are wonte to be in chiefe strēgth for all the graunted space of tyrannizing how great soever it shall be The which opinion seemeth to mee like to be true unlesse that the very great care of the accounte which is used in other places required here also some certen and limited thing The Iesuites being like unto the Cuttell doe purposely as I thinke powre out here their darkenes to the ende that all thinges being confounded and disordered they may lurke the more safely they will have so many common monethes to be signified as though that woe had ben in vaine which the Angell flying through the middes of Heaven had sung before the three last trumpets Did he not foreshewe by the same that the plagues to come should be more grievous then those which were past What greater thing shall this trumpet have then the former if the Locusts in whō lieth the whole force of it neither are endued with power to kill and also that the power which they have is of so short time It was a great destruction which the former trumpets brought in and full of terrour neither passing over in a moment yea not in a fewe yeeres as wee have shewed but if this calamity be so shortened neither shall it compare with the former evils in grievousnes of torment and also in respect of the shortnesse of the paine it would be found much easier But I will not stād long in refuting the toies of the Iesuites It is most iust that they who will coyne figures at their pleasure where they are not should not see the same where they are in very deede having as it were their eyes blinded The thing peradventure may be somewhat more apparant if wee observe certaine positions the first of which is this whole Kingdomes and their Kinges are not spoken of here but onelie the Locusts and their exceeding great power which wee see to rise up by certen degrees First they come forth out of the smoke the smoke out of the pit opened the pit is not opened before the key be given neither is the key given assoone as the starre fell but some long time after From which it is necessary that the Angell be farre more auncient then the infernall generation For who requireth the issue of ones body to be equall to the parent Wherefore that is not to be cast upon the Kingdome it selfe and Kings which is proper to the Locusts Whose age is not to be regarded from hence but onely the sommer time vigour of this overflowing cōpany of vile persons The sommer time I say because neither the first originall of the Locusts nor the last ende seemeth to be limited in this space For they must needes have a beginning to growe before they have a power to hurte But after their power should be diminished they should hurt noe small time through the stinke of their rotten carkeises The seconde the time is not to be counted from the bringers of the paine but from the sufferers Whereunto have refference that verbe passive that they should be vexed of which we spake even nowe For it importeth much from whether of them wee make the accounte if the reckening be from the Locustes themselves they should have power to vexe in noe place of the world but for the space of these five monethes onely but if respect be had to the sufferers the same distance of time shal be given to certaine countries and shal be esteemed according to the diversity of places howsoever the continuing of the Locusts in some place it may be shal be longer Frō which followeth a third position that the five monethes are not once onely to be numbred but so many to be understood figuratively as there are countries which were to undergoe the same calamity for so greate a space of yeeres Which foundations being laid we shall see noe small consent of the History The first troupe of Locustes was of the Saracenes who beginning about the yeere 630. to fly about Mahomet being their captaine in the first five monethes that is the first hundred fifty yeeres afflicted most miserably the whole Arabia Syria Mesopotamia Armenia Persia they tooke likewise Egypt spoiled Afrique and at length entred into Spaine True wilt thou say but they have helde all these places except peradventure Persia Armenia and some parte of Arabia not onely for an hundred and fifty but more or lesse foure hundred yeeres I deny not but in the meane time it is to be considered howe long they were trou belsome to men of the Christian name in those places It is certaine that there were congregations of Christians in great number when first the Saracenes invaded and that they were not utterly rooted out by and by but after a long continuing misery at lēgth they were wholy destroyed by death by slaughter by falling away to that impiety waxing strong which became every day more confirmed by an accesse of newe strength By which things it came to passe that the countries which before time perteined to the worshippers of Christ in the space of those five monethes became all to the infidels either noe Christians at all or
are kept certenly from the holy place with brasen walles Albeit the discerning now is not so heard as it was in time past while the Church had no place in the publike Read but the writings of our men by the grace of God thine eyes shall waxe cleere to perceive the trueth Mayest thou not worthily suspect the Popes craft restraining thee from buying and selling of our bookes and of all familiarity Yet neverthelesse doe thou strive so much the more to knowe the trueth that thou shalt see the same to be hated of thine through the conscience of their owne deformity ¶ Two and fourty moneths The time wherein the true Spouse should lie hid and the false should rule But how great darkenesse is here And noe marveile in so great blindnesse of mans understanding Wherefore be thou present who hast received these thinges that thou mightest disclose them to thy servants to the ende that by thy guiding I may goe safely For to dispell the obscurity it is to be observed first that there is not signifyed in these two and fourty moneths three common yeeres an half going about I hope that the accord of the things hath proved already that the foure Euphratean Angels in the 9. chapter are the Turkes To whom power being given for one houre and moneth and yeere seeing that the three hundreth yeere is nowe slipt away is there any so obstinate who will yet avouch that these two and fourty Moneths are to be restrained togither within the narrowe limites and straights of their owne and naturall-signification Hereunto is to be added that seeing these moneths pertaine to the Beast chap. 13.5 that the same was not yet borne in the time of the revelation For Iohn sawe her rising up afterward chap. 13.1 which thing no where is either said or can be said of the Romane Empire this is certenly that space in which Antichrist shal be borne shall growe be wounded and recover health againe wherein he shall exercise power over eveâ—y tribe tongue and nation shall make the dwelling place of his tyranny the queene of the whole earth in which finally both he himselfe and also all the Ministers of his pleasures shal be altogither given to exceeding riot as is cleere from chap. 13. and 17. and 18. But can all these thinges be performed in three common yeeres and an halfe Peradventure Therapontigonus Platâ—gidorus shall recover life who conquered the halfe part of all nations well nigh within twenty dayes Alexander of Macedonia is compared to a Leopard which had foure wings on his backe notable tokens of his swiftnes that he should obtaine the Empire of Asia in twelve yeeres all that time dwelling in tents neither giving himselfe to any other thinge Dan. 7.6 But Antichrist should for iust cause ride on the very Sunne to subdue all countries none excepted in three yeeres and an halfe and in the meane while to give up himselfe through idlenes to all delights wretched intemperancie But it is more plaine yet after in the chap. 20.4 Where the enemies of the Beast refusing to be subiect to his governement and raigning with Christ a thousand yeeres on earth to with all that space of time in which the Divell is bound and tyed in chaines and the subiects of Antichrist lie dead before the first resurrection doe proove necessarily that the Beast also Antichrist was through all that time otherwise how were they able to resist him not onely commanding nothing but also not living The same thing also shal be minifest from the person of Antichrist which in his place wee will shewe not to belong to one man alone but to a certen kingdome and succession chap. 17. Secondly seeing this account is not common it is needfull that wee recken these moneths after the manner of the other scriptures for almost all things in the Revelation are expressed after the maner of the auncient types But what is that maner Shall every severall moneth note seaven yeeres as the weekes in Daniell It is wholly without all example and reason to compare the moneths to the weekes Neither will the wordes suffer it by any meanes For the Angell sheweth that every eche day is to be counted from whence he noteth commonly this space sometime by two and fourtie moneths some time by a thousand two hundred and threescore dayes as in the next verse and in chap 12.6 But that way whereby the moneths are brought unto the weekes and there is made the number of two hundred ninetie foure yeeres numbreth not the fourth part of the daies Wee therefore thinke that every one is to be reckened and that so many yeeres are to be assigned as there are dayes in these moneths which agreeth wholly unto the manner of the weekes in Daniell Thirdly that these are not Iulian yeeres For these two and fourty moneths make onely a thousand two hundred threescore dayes But so many Iulian moneths doe effect a thousand two hundred seventie eight dayes more Whereupon there wante of the Iulian foure score dayes and some what more how many yeeres the thousand two hundred and three score dayes doe lacke every one by it selfe being taken for one yeere of the thousand two hundred three score Iulian yeeres What moneths then doeth the Angell use here Not the Lunarie nor Iulian but onely the AegyptiaÌ„ moneths every of whâ—ch consist of thirty dayes He hath shewed that according to the custome of this nation onely wee must recken the moneths because it was it that should kill the Prophets of the Lord and in the streete of whose great city they should lie troden under foote unburied for a mocking stock after in ver 8. After the manner of these moneths wee have limitted by thirty daies every of those five moneths chap. 9. Fourthly that this account is not to be begun either from the passion of the Lord or any other time which went before this writing For as wee have told you divers times these wordes I will shewe thee the things that must be done hereafter in chap 4.1 will not beare it Neither by and by after the giving of the RevelatioÌ„ For next after followeth the dwelling in heaven the cloathing with the Sunne the crowne of twelve starres and the Moone trode under the foote chap 12.1 For with all this glory shined that first most holy Church or else wee can not finde to what times wee may referre it But of what sort I pray you is this space of two and fourty moneths Namely of a most waste wildernesse of sackcloth uncleenes corruption and lamentable deformity As touching that the wordes are expresse that this wonder appeared in heaven where afterward the Dragon warred at length throwne headlong from thence chap. 12.7 c. But what had the Dragon to doe in heaven but that he might lie in waite for the woman travailing with childe From whence also did the woman flee if shee dwelt in the wildernes before the time of her
wherin a Dragon was painted thrust thorough with a dart and layd under his and his peoples feete see Euseb upon the life of Constantine in the third oration leafe 137. a. 9 And that Dragon was cast into the earth That is beiond the boundes of the true and holy Church not onely among the prophane nations but also all other people altogither without true godlines howsoever peradveÌ„ture they pretended a shewe of it and are marked with the names of Christians That which is here called the heaven and the earth was in the former chapter called the Temple and the Court. In that the Church lay hid in this the Gentiles ruled a people who because of their vicinitie did take to themselves the name of the Church Therefore the Devill being cast unto the earth he is thrust out togither with his Angels into this court having receaved power to vexe the whore who lately exercised all his strength against the true spouse 10 And J heard a great voice The Song of triumphe of the Saincts celebrating God for his great benefit which first of all is declared by those things wherein the benefit it selfe consisted in this verse afterward it is set forth by his causes ver 11. by his effects ver 12. The benefit it selfe in respect of men is safety the tyrants being destroied who did labour to satisfy their hatred with the destruction of the Christians in respect of God it is the glory of his might of the Kingdome and power of Christ For then his power doth appeare when he utterly destroyeth abolisheth his enemies Also his visible Kingdome is seen after a sort when he placeth godly Princes in the governement of the common wealth from hence likewise the power of Christ was much declared which before seemed weake being so troden under soote by the enemyes neither punishing them according to their deserts But Christ now by taking unto him the Kingdome declared sufficiently that the former want of punishement and sufferance came not from imbecillity but onely from patience In respect of the Devill this benefit was a iust reward of his ungodlines who coÌ„tinually accuseth the godly before God But we must observe that the servants are noted with the same names wher with the Pâ—â—â—câ— himselfe is named because there is an equall good will to hurt in both although hiâ— power be greater But this accusation are those taunts reproches railings with which the spitefull enemies overwhelmed the Saincts continually obiecting unto them the suppers of Oedipus incests adultery mutuall lusts murders conspiracies against Princes pestilences famine burnings and whatsoever publike calamity there was of which and the like things the auncient History is full Surely the children learned of their father the Devill that auncient false accuser so as it is not to be wondered at if wicked men doe excell in the same arts 11 But they overcame Who The Angels of Michaell for now the streÌ„gth of the souldiers is commended the praise of the Emperour being celebrated in the former verse But as touching the causes of the victory the principall is the blood of the Lambe the instrumentall is the synceritie of the faith and a very great constancy even unto death The blood of the Lambe is the fountaine of all the benefits which the elect enioy either in this life or in the life to come For his sake alone God both delivereth his people from all the miseries of this life and at length will make them ioyfull with eternall felicity The integrity of faith is shewed in the next wordes by the word of his testimony that is by the truth of the Ghospell which they professed freely boldly Before it was alwaies called the testimony of God or of Iesus as in ch 1.2.9 ver c. here it is called the testimony of themselves which kinde of speaking neverthelesse commeth to the same ende For it doth not respect the subiect of which but in which In the last place is their constancy because they esteemed more of the truth and faith in Iesus then of their owne life It seemeth to be a comparative speach as if he should say they loved not their soules even unto death more then God But this last member of the comparison is wanting uÌ„lesse perhaps they loved not be put for they despised But even so the force of the comparison remaineth to with they despised in comparison of the truth This is a notable constaÌ„cy of the Saincts that by no tormeÌ„ts they could be remooved froÌ„ faith in Christ For which cause at leÌ„gth God gave uÌ„to them the reward of victory But observe how this soÌ„g of tâ—iumphe addeth those things which were wanting to declare the coÌ„dition of the first Church we have seen by the description of the woman that shee was famous for souÌ„dnes of faith purity of actions sincerity of the teachers also we have understood that she was destitute of a pâ—tron for because that in great sorow and griefe shee brought forth a sonne Adde to al these from this triumphant song that the enemies of the truth heaped all reproches upon the Saincts they used a great violence to their power yet the faithfull could not be remooved eveÌ„ with the losse of their life froÌ„ their holy profession wherby it came to passe that those times were made famous by almost an infinite number of most couragious Martyrs 12 Therefore reioice yee heaven c. The fruict of this benefit is the ioy of the Saincts the sorrow of the wicked For why should not they triuÌ„phe having attained safety seeing the glory of God so notably amplified But many calamities doe remaine true but these shall not touch the Saincts whome God hiddeth in his tabernacle And therefore he seemeth to say yee which dwell in them because this is heaven that the temple or tabernacle wherein the Church lyeth hid from whence at length it shall goe into the holy mountaine to an everlasting habitatioÌ„ before in chap. 11.7 c. 2 Cor. 5.1.2 c ¶ Woe to the inhabitans c. The effect in respect of the wicked is a very great sorrow for these are the inhabitans of the earth and the sea And from heÌ„ce may be confirmed this metaphoricall signification of these wordes For if the earth be properly taken the Devill should be in like sorte trobelsome to all the Saincts who dwell togither with the wicked and unseparated Moreover who are the inhabitans of the sea besides men The Devill doth not spit out his poison upon the whales Neither doe good and bad men dwell togither lesse in Ilands then in the continent land Thus therefore we doe distinguish that the inhabitans of the earth are every wicked multitude either of Heathen or Christians who have onely a counterfait shew of religion But the inhabitans of the sea are the Church men as they call them who profer to their false Christians grosse foule saltish and bitter doctrine which doeth rather bring to the
the death of Gregory the first although this is to be understood of his birth for our men doe make his conception to be more auncient that I may not seeme alone to have enterprised to doe a thing unheard of I will yeeld reasons of this my judgement which seeme to me to be most strong First this Beast ruleth all that time wherein the woman lyeth hid in the wildernes and the two witnesses prophecy cloathed in sackecloth as is manifest after from the fift verse where power is givē to him to doe two and fourtie moneths which is the same space of the woman and Prophets Now wee evince by necessary arguments that the woman went into the wildernes and the witnesses tooke mourning apparell at that time which wee have said when Constantine began his raigne therfore also the Beast began in the same time to arise out of the Sea Furthermore what other thing meaneth that of Socrates who lived when Theodosius Iunior ruled in the times of Celestine Bishop of Rome about the yeere 424. foure score yeeres after Cōstantine The Romane Bishopricke likewise that of Alexandria being advanced long since beyond the Priesthood unto a Princedome booke 7. chap. 11. Had he promoted himselfe beiond the boundes of the Priesthood Whither else I pray then unto an Antichristian tyranny Had it done this long since and of a certen long time Certenly So crates commeth to my accounte or rather I to his or as it is more agreable to the trueth both of us to the reckening of the Holy Ghost himselfe But he speketh no more of the Romane either here or before in book 7. 7. then of the Alexandrine That is true indeede he in common toucheth sharply the ambition of both but the Romane Bishop had many more peculiar properties of the true Antichrist which in no sort did belong to the Alexandrine and therefore although at the first they ranne togither it may be with equall steppes yet in short time the Romane got afore and left the Alexandrine many miles behind him Hereunto more over is added the third Carthaginean Councill about the times of Syricius to wit in the yeere three hundreth ninetie which decreed that the Bishop of the first seate should not be called the Prince of Priests or Chiefe Priest or any such thing but onely the Bishop of the first Seate but universall let neither the Bishop of Rome be called Can. 26. as it is cited in the ninetieth distinction Wee learne frō this Decree what those times had brought forth otherwise it had ben foolish and superfluous to make an ordinance touching this matter Neither is the confession of the Papists in this thing to be passed over Dost thou thē aske the cause why the Romane Bishops were never present at the generall Councills in the East part Bellarmine declareth that it came not to passe by chāce in his first booke of the Councill and of the Church chap. 19. but for a certen consideration Which howsoever it was not knowne peradventure to many others yet it ought to be throughly understood of him a man that is a secretarie of the Popes Kingdome He rendreth two reasons of this absence the first It seemed not to be convenient that the head should follow the members c. The second because the Emperour was alwaies present at the Councils in the East part or some Ambassadour of his who challengeth to himselfe the first at least materiall place otherwise then was meete That either this therefore might not be tolerated or a tumult mooved he went not to those Councils but sent only his letters Such are his wordes he hath hit the nayle on the head For the Pope disdaineth to be present at those Coūcils in which the Emp. should sit before him How fayre were words givē both to the Emp. Constantine and also all the Nicene Fathers The good men thought as Eusebius speaketh that olde age was a let that the President of the Lady City of Rome could not be present and therefore were content with the Elders which supplyed his place But the true cause was that he could not abide to give place to the Emperour For I beleeve Bellarmine rather then Eusebius touching the minde of the Bishop of Rome VVherefore in the times of the first Nicene Councill there was a man at Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that lifted up one who albeit not yet openly neverthelesse within and secretly with himselfe was exalted above all that is called God 2 Thes 2.4 Not that he vaunted himselfe to be superiour to God in Heaven for that is not the meaning of the Apostle but to all the Gods in earth to wit the highest Magistrate who is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Imperiall from whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is worshipped seemeth to be added in stead of an exposition But why doe I be stowe much time in these things The matter is out of controversie from chap. 17. afterward The seventh head of the Beast succeedeth next after the Heathen Emperours for these make the sixt as shal be said in his place But Antichrist is that seventh head and therefore hath his beginning by and by after the Heathen Emperours Shall I then thinke that all from Miltiades are utterly cast away as who doe make this Beast that is the very Antichrist Farte be from mee so great rashnes of judging This Beast is the state of a Kingdome as I hope shal be most cleare after And therefore God could deliver from the common destructiō some peculiar men whō he thought good though furtherers and ministers of this Kingdome The impiety was not so wicked at the first and the yong Antichrists did not knowe for what mischiefe they prepared a way Therefore wee leave these to the infinite and unsearcheable mercy of God yet wee doubt not but wee have found out the originall of the rising Beast which nowe wee see to have fallen on that time in which the Dragon was cast unto the earth ch 12.9 For being about to leave heaven he provided himselfe of a Vicar who in his absence should governe his affaires whose busines he looked unto nor carelesly as wee shall finde afterward These things being thus set in order wee see how from this fountaine every each thing will flowe most easily every part of this Prophecy agreeing most fitly one with another The true original doubtlesse not being perceived of the Interpreters disordered all consideration of the times made a harsh constrained and absurd exposition and tooke wholly away the right searching out of the event Now as touching the words the cruelty of Antichrist is signifyed most fitly by a Beast as often in the Scriptures Tyrants are compared unto Wolves and Lions equall to them in fiercenes but for hurt worser by how much iniquity in men is more armed because of the force of reason He did rise out of the Sea because he hath his originall from corrupt doctrine to wit the authority of Peters Chaire
citizens And that I may not rehearse these many blasphemies Could not Antichrist in his chiefe pride having a desperate mouth raile against the humble and despised Church when hee being now without Spirit and almost halfe dead stayeth himselfe from no reproches against the same shee being by the grace of God restored and florishing Thirdly hee blasphemeth them that dwell in Heaven These are Citizens meÌ„bers of the true Church on earth His opened mouth barked at the Tabernacle against the whole congregation of the faithfull But the blasphemy is intended chiefly at those which dwell in Heaven against particular holy men His foule mouth revileth them with all manner of reproches Are not all that set themselves against the Romish impietie defamed as if they were Schismatiques Heretiques Rebells most wicked men unworthy to enjoy the light in common with other Read that one Bulla of Leo the x. agaâ—n t Luther and thou shalt have a most oboundant proofe of these blasphemies But all Papisticall bookes are full of them yea their tongues doe scarce talke of any other thinge 7 And it was given him to make warre with c. This is that warre which was made in the 11. chap. ver 7.8 To wit the Tridentine Councill and that lamâ—ntable battell of the Pope and Emperour against the ProtestaÌ„ts in Germany This is also that victory wherby he triumphed over the two Prophets that were slaine For the Beast warreth his whole fourty two moneths as before in the 5. ver but at the ende of that time this warre should be the most memorable of all whereof he maketh here mention Therefore this Beast is the Angell of the bottomelesse pit in chap. 9. ver 11. and 11.7 There remaineth yet another warre but in that the Beast shall not overcome but be overcomed ¶ And power was given unto him over every Tribe and tongue nation The third part of his power as wee have distinguished in the Analysis which consisteth in the largenesse of his dominion This should spread it selfe farre and neere as before time the Empire of the Dragon For there is the same Throne of both the same Kingdome also and Empire see before in verse 3. upon those wordes the whole world 8 Therefore all that dwell on the earth shall worship him whose names c. A setting forth of the large jurisdiction from a description of the subiects Of which sorte are all whom God hath not accounted in the nuÌ„ber of those that shal be saved Which words have prevented that doubt whereby one peradventure might thinke that it were past remedy as concerning the salvation of all seeing all almost did seeme to be servaÌ„ts of the Beast Feare not saith the Spirit none of the elect shall perish I have all these written with mee by name onely they shall be permitted to worship the Beast who are not written in this Catalogue But thou wilt say it is as hurtfull a thing to worship the Heathen Emperours But hat is not the matter how daungerous it is to worship either him or those but onely the Beast is described by the multitude of the reprobate whom he hath for his worshippers as though he should say this Beast is he whom all the reprobate of the earth shall worship that is to whom they shall give Divine honours To which propositioÌ„ if thou shalt adde But the Pope of Rome is he whoÌ„ all the reprobate of the earth have worshipped giving unto him divine honours it will followe that he is this Beast Some Heathen Emperours arrogated to themselves a Godhead but eveÌ„ the Heathen men derided this madnes so farre off were they from approoving thereof by worshipping Suetonius reporteth how great a mocking stock the Dodecatheos that is the secret supper of Augustus was in which twelve ghests sat downe in the habite of Gods and Goddesses but Augustus himselfe in the apparell of Apollo The hoasen the golden beard and lightening the ensigne of the Gods which he bare were despised But assoone as the Pope had taken to himselfe the name of God his worshippers by and by consented unto it Wee heard in the thirteenth verse of the Adoration which the Ambassadours and Bishops performed in their generall Councills With whom the Canonists accord as in a certaine Glosse printed at Lions in the yeere a thousande five hundreth fiftie five in Extravag Ioann 22. VVhâ—n it was counted an Hereticall thing to beleeve that our Lord God the Pope had not ben able to ordaine as he hath ordained In Sixtus of Election and the foundâ—tions of Elect. In the Glosse The Pope is not a man Clement in the Proheme in the Glosse Neither art thou God nor man thou art as it were neither bâ—tween both Finally when they preach that the Pope is all and above all that his power exteÌ„deth it selfe to thinges in Heaven in Earth and Hell That he can commande the Angels that he hath such power in Purgatorie and â—lso in Hell that he can deliver by his Indulgences as great a number as he will of soules which are tormeâ—ted in those places and set them by and by in Heaven and in the seates of the blessed VVhen I say they attribute these and many such blasphemous thinges unto him who seeth not whom the reprobate of the earth doe worship and adore with divine honours Not that all who some time have adored the Beast are reprobates for it may be that they did repent and were converted to God but because all the reprobate doe worshipe him Neither let any prate foolishly that there are many countries in the world in which even the name of the Romane Pope hath not ben heard I doe not otherwise take the whole world and all the reprobate then the Holy Spirit himselfe if the Papists have any thing wherby they may cut the throate of this Vniversality let them strike at it Seeing therefore that these thingâ—s are so now let the Pope cry out that it is altogither of necessity to salvation to be subiect to the Romane Pope The Spirit contrariwise saith that to be undâ—r the Romane Bishop is to be ioined wholly with the losse of salvation if any doe so diâ— without repentance VVhether of these two must thou beleeve He will haâ—e it that he cannot erre but how foolish is it to bring the tryall of the same thing thither where if thou shalt erre in beleeving there shal be given thee noâ— leave to correct the errour This Beast is worshipped of all the reprobate whom as long as thou conspireâ—t with in worship who will secluâ—e thee from the condition of the reprobate He therefore breaketh not â—nitie who departeth from the Romish Synagogue but he procured unâ—voidable destruction to himselfe whosoever is ioyned to her and repented not O yee most wretched recoÌ„cilers who seeke to bring back againe the people to Rome Is it not enough for your sâ—lves to perish uâ—lesse you increase your condemnation by drawing others with you into the same
rivers but for to give them a kind of force and edge wherby they may prick the sharper and peirce the deeper How notable the goodnes of God is in this respect towards these last times ther is no man unlesse he be shamefully unthankfull and envious but doth acknowledge For by the paynes of some very excellent for why may I not so cal those learned men which have so greatly holpen Christian religion with their studies many things are made unto us most easy and playn in which the ages past have been much deceived Neither is this a vayn boasting of our times but a true preaching of the bounty of God Notwithstanding ther shal be a time at lēgth whē the light of the Moone shal be as the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun shal be seven fold like the light of seven dayes in the day that the Lord shall bind up the breach of their wound Isa 30.26 as partly by the things that folow wil appeare more manifest Many things ther are in the Scriptures not yet sufficiently explayned but the neerer we come unto that day the more copiously wil the light increase dayly by the neer beams of the rising Sun That I may tel the very thing Antichrist is in deed layd open now long agoe through the grace of God in marvelous manner but seing in these yeeres wherin now we live and wherunto the order of time hath brought us the wayting men of the seat of Rome have felt nothing heavier then that their Iesuits should be put to death which was the sentēce of the vial next before this burning heat of the Sun is to be expected ere long even some greater perspicuity of the Scriptures wherby the man of sin may be more vehemently scorched His filthines shal be discovered yet more wherupon men will the more hate him which wil drive him and his unto such intemperance that he wil gnash and rage against the Sun which hath manifested to the world his so horrible hiew that himselfe shal not indure to behold the same Wherfore I am to exhort you yee learned men whom God hath adorned above others with a singular facultie of perceiving and illustrating the truth that ye would diligently employ your selves in this noble work for the Church You hear what a garlond God hath reserved for these last times Great is the prayse of our Ancestors which first plucked off Antichrists vizar no lesse will theirs be which shal utterly hysse him and drive off the stage Yea they are wont in special to make the triumphe which doo make an end of the battel This onely conflict seemeth to be left for learned men the more are they to be styrred up to apply their studies That which further dooth remayn fyre and soword shal performe and shall not be accomplished by ynk and pen. ¶ And it was given unto him to torment men by fyre The first event it shall torment men with heat But what men why is nothing here added as the mark of the Beast or some such like wherby we may know unto what flock it perteyneth Shall others also be burned with this Sun besides the houshold of Antichrist verily so it seemeth Hypocrites and all others that ar not indued with true godlines whatsoever religion they professe cannot endure that their wickednes should be manifested and reproved by the light of the heavenly truth Wherupon it is no marvel if many other earthly men also which are not of the Popes profession be molested by this heat of the Sun But the words of the next verse which hath power over these plagues seem to be of those men as I sayd which have felt the former scourges also But to what ende is this added by fire seing the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 burn doth sufficiedtly expresse the burning of the Sun It is that wee may know that the heat wherwith they shall boyle shall not be heavenly but earthly such as is fire to weet envy contention strife and al bitternes of minde For fire is here metaphorical which playnly sheweth that this is not the proper Sun seing it worketh not by it own but by an others vertue Such then shal be the first event that men shall boyl in heat not onely by a secret exacerbation of their mindes but even by open brawles and reproches But shal the Angel of the Sun receave such a reward It had bin better for him to have stopt his vial that it might not distill such trouble unto him But let him not be discouraged God will prepare him a secret place with himselfe to keepe him from the virulence of tongues The same hath been the condition of al the Prophets alway so it is with the holy book that being tasted it is sweet in the mouth as honey but being eaten it maketh the belly bitter chap. 10.9 Wherfore let ungratious men reproch freely so as the manifestation of their wickednes doo move their choler 9 And men boyled with great heat The second effect shal be marvelous unusual vexations when ther shal be no shelter no not in the thickest forrest that men can use to alay their heat Therfore they blaspheme the name of God that hath power over these plagues like the men of Atlas which curse the Sun with al execrations because it parcheth them with too much heat as Herodotus relateth These last words seem to make this plague peculiar unto them that were vexed also with soates and whose fountains were turned into blood Notwithstanding we are not to think that it shal be open blasphemy against God so as his holy name shal be manifestly violated after the manner of the Hethens and them that know not God but that then men doo also commit this wickednes when they difame his truth and use cursed speaking against it such manner of indirect blasphemy it seemeth it shal be ¶ And they repēted not to give him glory A defective speech which is more full in chap. 9.20 as if he should say And they repented not of their workes to give him glory and so after in ver 11. Now therfore see what this greater light and heat shal effect it shal drive men to blasphemy but they shal persist in their wickednes no lesse then before Least perhaps thou shouldst look that they being convicted in conscience should submitt themselves to so manifest truth This therfore take thou knowledge of before that thou be not offended at the obstinacy of men 10 And the fift Angel powred out his vial upon the throne This vial upon the Beasts throne hath for the first event the darkning of his kingdome for the second rage blasphemy darkning of the Beasts brood ver 11. VVho this Angel is we shal see in the next chapter upon ver 17. wher the declaration of this thing is purposed What the Throne is the things that wee have heard before doo sufficiently teach us for it is the City which the Dragon gave to the Beast
earth but for to bear the yoke onely for never shal they be able to hurt the Church more which now shal have the cheifty throughout al the earth And thus have we a breif and distinct representation both of things present and to come even until the end CHAP. 17. AND ther came one of the seven Angels which had the seven vials talked with me saying unto me come I wil shew thee the damnation of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters 2 With whom the Kings of the earth have committed fornication and the inhabitans of the earth are drunken with the wine of her fornication 3 So he caryed me away into the wildernesse in the Spirit and J saw a woman sit upon a skarlet coloured Beast full of names of blasphemy which had seven heads and ten hornes 4 And the woman was arayed in purple and skarlet and gilded with golde and pretious stones and pearles and had a cup of golde in her hand full of abominations and filthines of her fornication 5 And in her forehead was a name written a Mysterie that great Babylon that mother of whoredomes and abhominations of the earth 6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the Saincts with the blood of the Martyrs of Iesus and when I saw her J wondred with great marveile 7 Then the Angel sayd unto mee wherfore marvailest thou J wil shew th eeth◠mysterie of the woman and of that Beast that beareth her which hath seven heads and ten hornes 8 The Beast that thou hast seen was and is not and shal ascend out of the bottomlesse pit and shall goe into perdition and they that dwel on the earth shall wonder whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world when they behold the Beast that was and is not and yet is 9 Here is the minde that hath wisedome the seaven heads are seven mountaines wheron the woman sitteth 10 They are also seven Kings five are fallen one is and an other is not yet come and when he shall come he must continue a short space 11 And the Beast which was and is not is even the eight and is one of those seven and goeth into destruction 12 And the ten hornes which thou sawest are ten Kings which yet have not received a Kingdome but shal receive power as Kings one houre with the Beast 13 These have one minde and shall give their power and authority to the Beast 14 These shall fight with the Lambe and the Lambe shall overcome them for he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings and they that are on his side called and chosen and faithful 15 After he sayd unto mee the waters which thou sawest where the whore sitteth are people and multitudes and nations and tongues 16 And the tenne hornes which thou sawest upon the Beast are they that shall hate the whore and shall make her desolate and naked and shall eate her flesh burne her with fire 17 For God hath put in their hartes to fulfill his will and to consent and give their Kingdome to the Beast until the words of God be fulfilled 18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great citie which reigneth over the Kings of the earth The Analysis THVS farre hath bin the distinct Prophecy of the last Period divided in to his seven articles after the manner of the Seales and trumpets ther followeth a continual narration and more large explication of the three last vials as which are of greatest waight and special moment The fift of which is handled in this chapter and also in the whole chapter following and in the first five verses of the nineteenth the sixt is comprehended in the next fifteene verses of the same nineteenth chapter unto the twentith verse The seventh is continued through chap. 20. and 21. and unto the sixt ver of the two and twentieth And from thence followeth the conclusion of the whole book It maketh much for perspicuity to know what things agree to the time and nature of the matter As touching the fift it is wholly bestowed against the throne of the Beast as in the chapter afore ver 10.11 partly in declaring what and of what sort this throne is in this whole chapter partly in relating what things doe goe togither with the ruine of it in the chapter following and in the beginning of the nineteenth The declaration of the throne hath first a preparation inviting to know the damnation of the whore ver 1.2 And the better to know it carying him away into the wildernesse ver 3. Secondly a description by a double type one of the Beast ver 3. the other of a woman setting on the Beast sumptuous and most filthy ver 4. the mother of all whoredomes ver 5 a Murtherer of the Martyrs ver 6. The interpretation wherof is set forth by the occasion of it which Iohns wondering ministred ver 6.7 afterward it is propounded in very deed shewing what the Beast is in respect of his whole ver 8 attention being stirred up the disclosing might not passe without fruit ver 9. Secōdly in respect of the parts and heads ver 9.10.11 and hornes whose rising up is shewed in verse 12. the humble service which they shall giv to the Beast ver 13. and at length their overthrow by the Lambe ver 14. Such is the Beast Of the woman the interpretation is first of her dominion both flourishing ver 15. also afflicted by ten hornes as instruments and the will of God as the principal cause ver 16.17 afterward of her palace ver 18. Scholions 1 Then came one of the seven Angels We sayd in the Analysis that this cōtinuall declaration which is contained in the chapters following even unto the conclusion of the whole booke belongeth onely to the three last vials Which how true it is the thing it selfe will shew In the meane time it may be demaunded why the explication of the former is omitted The reason wherof seemeth to be this because those former partly were before past partly present at what time the vial was powred out upon the throne and therfore had no neede of a larger exposition then eyther the late memory or present use and condition of things should give but the other to come did need a more ample declaration and for the same cause all the labour remayning is converted to that point Therfore as touching the Angel one of the seven this is the fift who shall bring calamity to the throne chap. 18.10 Of which calamity neverthelesse there be certaine degrees so as by the labour of some certaine easie sprinklings are made before that the whole vial is powred forth Who yet all are reckened in the common name of the fift Angel VVhich thing appeareth from that chapter which is wholly spent in declaring the damnation of the whore although her last destruction is reserved unto the next These things set downe in this wise let
2.18 Yee have heard that the Antichrist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shal come and even now are there many Antichrists wher the article you say is set before Antichrist properly so caled but none before him as he is cōmonly taken and therfore that the first is one certayn person but this later in general is al heretiks I answer the greatest succour of this cause seemeth to consist in this new feigned force of the article and therfore have wee the coleworts twise sodden set againe before us But we have sufficiently refuted this your eyther ignorance or craftynes in the argument nex before with which this is altogither one and the same Yet least you should complayn that you have no answer Be it that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Antichrist with an article is some diverse thing from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antichrists without an article must it therfor by and by be one certayn persō I deny such an ill coherent cōsequence It may note out a singular kind of Antichrists of whō the Apostles taught the Church so diligently even as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wicked is often a kind of wicked mē 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the tempter and so in other In which the article respecteth not one singular but some thing common egregious in his kinde This might have bin manifest to you by Iohn himself whiles he warneth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Antichrist was in his time For manie deceivers are entred in the world saith he which confesse not that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh he that is such a one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the deceiver the Antichrist 2 Iohn 7. where yet he speaks not of that chief Antichrist which was to come but of some such like sorte By which it sufficiently appeareth that Antichrist with an article is not a singular person The fourth place is Daniel 7. and 11. and 12. Out of the 7. chapter you take those things which are spoken of the little horn ver 8. c. which you say are to be expounded of Antichrist and that for two reasons First from the authoritie of certain Fathers then from the words of Daniel himselfe I answer as touching the authority of the Fathers I know many learned men doo interprete these words of Antichrist but this Apocalypse dispelleth the darknes which taking away the sight before suffred not to behold the thing it selfe For it teacheth that that little horne differeth much frō this Antichrist whom Iohn describeth For Antichrist is one of the heads of the Beast which is of many formes both in Daniel and in Iohn but a little horn is onely some addition ioyned to the head Moreover this ariseth after the ten hornes but Antichrist riseth togither and at one houre with al his That subdueth three horns under it the other unsubdued are eyther foes of the same or at least freinds of equal power but Antichrist is over al the 10. horns which willingly serv him until the appointed time Finally that is caled little Antichrist is not litle who hath power over every tribe tongue and nation Apoc. 13.7 who also beareth the whore to whom peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues doo obey and which reigneth over the Kings of the earth Apoc. 17.15.18 But you wil say it may be it is caled litle in the beginning not in the full age I answer the chiefest heighth of dignity when he shal most flourish shal lift it self no higher then over the 3. horns which he shal depresse Doubtles the Spirit would have made mention of moe if he had had power over moe That horn therfore is not this Antichrist but if we wil rightly consider the thing it is that Dragon of the sixt vial of this Apocalypse chap. 16.13 namely the Turk for of him and the other enemies that should oppress the Iewes doth Daniel onely speak without any mention of the Western Antichrist as it may be occasion wil be given elswhere to declare more fully This disparitie therfore wil by no means suffer these two to convene in one Wherupon you may now see that we ar not so much to look either who or how many they be that say a thing as with what reasons they so perswade themselves Secondly you say from the words of Daniel chap. 7.24 that this Antichrist whom ancient writers wil have to be meant by the little horn is a singular person for he is not caled one Kingdome but one King who of ten Kings that he should find in the world should take three quite away and subdue the other seven under him I answer first these last words and shal subdue the other seven under him is a very bold comment seing no footstep of them appeareth in Daniel For he onely sayth ver 8. so that three of those former horns were rooted out from before him and againe ver 24. and three Kings shal he depresse but of the subduing of the other 7. he no where maketh mention And how I pray you should he be a little horn if he should destroy three and have cōmand over al the rest These things are unadvisedly brought in by some old writers but worse reteyned by you for to darken the truth But this is little to the purpose for the force of the argument Therfore secondly I say that it is false to affirme because he is caled one King he is one person for the Angel before speaketh thus These great Beasts which are fowr are fowr Kings that shal rise out of the earth ver 17. which yet are not fowr singular persons but so many Kingdomes as your self can not deny The other place of Daniel is from chap. 11 ver 21. 36. where literally is treated of Antiochus Epiphanes but allegorically as Calvin and Ciprian and Jerom you say doo interpret it of Antichrist whose figure Antiochus did bear Therfore seing he was one certayn and singular person Antichrist also must be one certayn person I answer great in deede is the agreement of the wicked and needs must many things in them be found alike who are governed by one and the same Spirit for which cause those learned men avouched him to be the type of Antichrist after a common sort but that the Spirit intended him for the type properly as he is wont in the other scriptures I see not how it can be rightly said It hath not such agreement with that which they make the truth therof as is wont to be found in other types For example this Antiochus is the litle horn of the Goat of whom it is said ch 8.14 that he should rage two thousand and three hundred dayes Shal this be the type of Antichrist Then shal he not reign onely three yeres and a halfe but six yeres and more then an halfe and so an other Antichrist is to be looked for then yee yet feighn Or if you wil have it that al things are not so exactly answerable in the type and antitype
while the Apostles lived The Apocalypse speaking of Antichrist under that seventh head saith and the other is not yet come cha 17.10 which manner of words we are wont to use in things so neer as they may seem to be come though as yet they are not come and not of things that are to fal out fifteen hundred yeres after Idle therfore are all those things that you gather of Peter and Paul to be Antichrists and of Simon and Nero to be Christs Why prove you not I pray you that the rising of Antichrist was not then neer Is not this ynough to refell his singular person if he were to beginn a few ages after Paul But you like a rude fenser bear off with your bukler from the part which you ar not layd at but where you are beaten even unto death you leav your self unfensed and bare The second argument of Th. Beza is that by the singular names of Beasts the Bear the Lion the Libbard in Daniel chap. 7. ar not meant singular Kings but singular Kingdomes wherof one did conteyn even many Kings After the same manner therfore Paul 2 Thes 2. who marvelously agreeth with Daniel by the man of syn and son of perdition meaneth not one singular person but a certen body as it were of many tyrants You answer two things First denying that Daniel alwayes by singular Beasts dooth mean singular Kingdomes for in the 8. chapter by the Ram he meaneth Darius the last King of the Persians by the Goat-buck Alexander the Great Secondly you deny the consequence of the argument because Paul by the man of sin meaneth not any of the 4. beasts described by Daniel but onely that litle horn I answer to the first It is false that which you say of the Ram and the Goat-Buck For by the Ram is meant the whole Kingdome of the Medes Persians and which ended in Darius by the Goat-Buck the Kingdome of the Greeks which began by Alexander For so saith he ver 3. there stood bâ—fore the river one Ram with two hornes and his two horns were high but one was higher than an other and the highest came up last These two hornes at the two Kingdomes of the Medes and Persians of which that was first smallest this last and largest Have these things place in Darius onely or in the whole Kingdome Then it foloweth in the next verse I saw the Ram pushing against the West against the North against the South so that no Beasts might stand before him neyther did any deliver out of his hand but he did what he listed and that very great things What did Darius of these things who in the second yere of his reign being provoked unto warr by AlexaÌ„der weÌ„t to ruine dayly Last of al explayning this vision in the 20. verse he saith The Ram which thou sawest with two horns are the Kings of Media and Persia he saith the Kings not Darius onely So also the Goat-Buck is the Kingdome of the Greeks not Alexander alone He is caled in deed King of Graecia ver 21 but it is playn that King there is taken collectively as in other places namely for Kingdome as in the end of the verse it is taken partitively when he saith the horn between his eyes is the first King namely Alexander who seing he is the horn he is not the whole Goat Wherfore no where in Daniel is a singular person designed by a Beast but a whole Kingdom Vnto the second I say By the Man of Syn is not meant the litle horn but the Beast For Antichrist is the seventh head which also is a Beast as Apoc. 17.8.11 And although this Beast be none of those that ar in Daniel yet the argument from the like is firm For by the same reason that it is a whole Kingdome in Daniel it is so likeweise in the Apocalypse Our third argument is Io. Calvins who thus gathered that Antichrist is no singular person because the head of the universal Apostasie which dureth moe yeres than can be fulfilled under one King is not one certain man and Antichrist is the head of such an Apostasie You answer five waies that Calvins impudencie as you say may the more appeare First that by the Apostasie may rightly in Paul be understood the Antichrist himselfe Secondly that by the same may be meant the defection from the Roman Empire Thirdly that ther is no need it should be of many ages Fourthly that it requireth not one head Fiftly that it is yet a question who have departed from the faith and religion of Christ whither the Papists or the Lutherans I answer to every of these and first where by the Apostasie you unnerstaÌ„d by a metonymie Antichrist himselfe you confirm the same thing that Calvin saith so is your wont to represse his impudency Vnto the second I say that the Apostasie is not a defection from the Roman Empire but froÌ„ the true faith to weet from the love of the holy truth as Paul openeth it and as shal be made playn after chap. 5. and 14. Vnto the third concerning the durance of the Apostasie we have already learned by the Apocalypse that it hath prevailed more than a thousand two hundred sixtie yeres and this more evidently than that any of your subtil reasonings caÌ„ elude the thing Vnto the fourth if you can find any other multitude besides that of the whole earth which foloweth the Beast I wil not hinder you from setting up as many heads of the Apostasie as you wil Apoc. 13.3.8 Vnto the fift namely that the question is not yet decided as you say whither Papists or Lutherans have made defection we make this offer let al holy men be iudges With whom ther is found Idolatry let them be condemned of defection as the Scriptures every where teach But if any credit be to be giveÌ„ unto the most holy oracles of the Scriptures al that your worship of Images invocation of Saincts adoration of the feighned body in the sacrament veneration of reliques and many such like things is horrible Idolatry and therfore Apostasie But Idolatry is spiritual whoredome and therfore as the way of the whorish woman which eateth and then wipeth her mouth and sayth I have doon no iniquity Prov. 30.20 so is the way of Idolaters by no means can they be brought to acknowledge their impiety This Bellarmine shal be the true trial both of you and of us before God his holy Angels The things that you propouÌ„de are ridiculous You wil have it that we have made defection because we have departed froÌ„ the superstition of our predecessours both in doctrine and rites ful of Idolatry as though we were not bidden goe out of Babylon and to have no communion with her at al. We have made defection from the whore defection from Antichrist namely defection from your Pope of Rome but thanks be to God we have made defection unto the one true God who of his infinite mercy wil
that the fal of the world and time of Antichrist is at hand Ierom in his Epistle to Ageruchia concerning Monogamie saith He that did hold is taken out of the way and doo we not understand that Antichrist is neer Also Gregory lib. 4. Epist 38. All things foretold are come to passe the King of prid is neer For if Antichrist were neer thirteen hundred yeres agoe or a thousand at the least as is evident by these testimonies how can it be that he is not yet come You answer that the ancient Fathers were deceived with opinion that the worlds end was neerer than in deede it was and that therfore Antichrist was then neer in false opinion not in very deed Wherunto I say If the ancient Fathers had grounded their sentence upon the persuasiō onely of the worlds end it must needs have been as they erred in this so also they had erred in Antichrist but seing they persuaded themselves so by other arguments and gathered not so much that Antichrist was neer because the end of the world was at hand as that the worlds end was at hand because Antichrist was neer needs must that be firm and stable which they avouched of this thing unlesse beside that vain opinion you can prov the other reasons also to be light But it is manifest by their words that they had suspicion of the worlds end by Antichrists coming not contraryweise For Ierome reasoneth from the impediment taken away that Antichrist was neer He that held saith he is taken out of the way and doo we not understand that Antichrist is neer Gregorie by the fulfilling all things that were foretold than which what can be a more certayn argument And you confesse that al the ancients minding the evilnes of their times suspected that Antichrists times were at hand They did not therfore upon suspicion of the end conclude of Antichrist For the last end is never made a signe of things going before but the things that goe before are determined to be signes of the last end The end seing it is the last and the most unknown even to the Angels in heaven and to the Son of man himselfe Mark 13.32 can give no fore-perceiving of things that are before more known By sure argumēts therfore they knew that Antichrist was at hand but that which they joyned therto of the last end relyed but upon an unsure humane conjecture They had received from Clemens Alexandrinus Strom. lib. 1. a false Chronologie of five thousand seven hundred foure skore foure yeres two moneths and twelve dayes past from Adam unto the death of Cōmodus the Emperour Therunto was added an opinion of the worlds durance six thousand yeres wherupon Cyprian in the preface de exhort Martyr saith the six thousand yeres are now almost fulfilled since the Divil impugned man And Lactantius lib. 7. cap. 25. Divinar Institut All exspectation seemeth to be more than of two hundred yeres Add unto these the conjecture of the worlds speedy end after Antichrists coming and then it will easily appear that great difference ther is between those things which are handled of Antichrist and of the end of the world The first they had found out by many Prophesies and undoubted signes the later they did persuade themselves by some likelyhood of truth and the infirme authority of men The like we doo see in Christs disciples which exspected as we knowe a temporal Kingdome Yet when they preached that Christ was come that the Kingdome was thē to be restored to Israel should any which saw not the Kingdom restored disanull their faith touching Christs coming surely he should doo them wrong For that Christ was come they knew by most sure arguments which could not deceive but their opiniō of the temporal Kingdom they drew from the dreggs of the common error Even so the ancient Fathers understood by true signes from the Scriptures that Antichrist was at the dores but that which they affirmed of the last end was of their own should not diminish the credit of that wherwith it is joyned Therfore you have not escaped by this your answer but by the sentence of the ancient Fathers it remayneth firm and stedfast that Antichrist is come and therfore it was not for nought that the Bishop of Florence one of your owne men openly avouched five hundred yeres agoe that Antichrist was then come to stop whose mouth the Councel of Florence was gathered But you thought it better that the fame of this Coūcil should rather come ūto posterity than that the acts therof should come unto their knowledge As touching the later men in the first place you mention the Samosatenians of Hungary whith whom I wil have nothing to doo Whatsoever they think or think not is al one to me until they return unto soundnes of mind The other learned men have a threefold difference Illyricus Chytraeus and Luther make Antichrists coming to be about the yere of our L. 500. Bullinger at the yere 763. Musculus about the yeere 1200. Surely the second rising of the Beast in whose territories they remayned did cast so strong a smel to those prudent men that they could retch their minds to no further thing even as hownds which when they fal upon the denn of the wild beast doo run with ful course and cry not senting anie more the several footsteps Therfore for the most part they transfer unto this second rising the things which belong to the first and bring in here some other things that are not to the purpose Neverthelesse this light aberration of the time of his rising taketh not away his rising but by their voices and cryes we know that Antichrist is though the moment when first he began to be was hidd from them Let us therfore run through your answers unto every of them that you may perceive how they have not so much erred as your selfe have laboured in vayn in oppugning their judgements Secondly therfore you encounter with Illyricus who saith Antichrist was thē born when Phocas grāted to the Bishop of Rome that he should be caled Head of the whole Church which fel out in the yere 606. You answer that he was not born at this time for two causes first because Antichrists temporal reign of 666. yeres which Illyricus would have to begin at that arising should now long since be ended and Antichrist should be dead Secondly that by his spiritual reign which Illyricus wil have to be of 5260 yeres the Centurie writers might exactly know the end of the world contrary to our Lords words Acts. 1. Mat. 24. I answer unto the first It is a foolish thing which you gather of Antichrists death at the end of 666. yeres when you see they give unto him a spiritual reign of 1260. yeres Can any one reigne 594. yeres for so many is this reign proroged beyond the temporal after he is dead But perhaps your spiritual Pope hath no more vital life without
the East and unto al the countrie round about by whose wholsomnes a verie great multitude of fish shal be ingendred Ezech. 47. And then after the litle horn is taken away the Kingdom shal be given to one like the son of man that al peoples nations tongues may serv him Dan. 7.14 which Kingdome is not that which shal be in heaven where no distinction is of peoples nations and tongues but shal come in earth and be administred by the scepter of his word Wherupon after the cutting off of this Horn which men commōly doo interpret partly of Antiochus partly of Antichrist but is in verie deed the Turk who shal be rooted out within a while after the true Antichrist ther shal be a most ample promulgation of the Gospel with much larger limits than ever heretofore For then all the nations indeede shal serve him Psal 72.11 and Jehovah shal be King over all the earth and in that day shall Iehovah be one and his name one Zach. 14.19 These things and many such like doo make it playn that howsoever the doctrine of salvation surveyed many lands before Antichrist yet after he is extinguished the tents of the sacred truth shal be much more amply displayed so that into them shal assemble a very great congregation in respect wherof the assemblies of former times have been smal or rather none These things doo the scriptures teach of the universal preaching they are constant firm sure ful of maiesty power mercy if you look unto God and if you turn your eies unto our selves they are no lesse full of al joy and confort Wheras on the contrarie the things which you have brought are either uncertayn guesses or vaine fictions which wil both deceive at least your expectation and in the mean while lead into error and destruction Chapt. 5. Against the second Demonstration from the desolation of the Romane Empire The second Demonstration you say is taken from the other signe that goeth before the times of Antichrist which shal be the utter desolation of the Romane Empire which seing it yet endureth Antichrist is not yet come Hereupon you take in hand to prove two things first that Antichrist shal not come til after the utter desolation of the Romane Empire secondly that the Romane Empire dooth yet indure The first you confirm by fowr scriptures of which the three first namely Dan. 2. and 7. Apoc. 17. doo rely upon the interpretation of Irenaeus book 5. But let us leav I pray you mens names and let us weigh the thing it selfe in the ballance of truth If the matter should be discussed by the contrary opinions of men which might be found many in these dark places ther would be no end Let us deal rather from such principles as may lead and bring us to some certainty As touching therfore the 2. of Daniel and that succession of the chief Kingdomes until the worlds end which the Images sheweth nothing out by the golden head the sylver brest the brazen belly the leggs and the feet partly yron and partly clay the 4. cheif Kingdoms on earth of the Assyrians Persians Greeks Romanes the last wherof the Romane you say was a long time parted in two as the leggs are two and long Moreover that of the two leggs should spring ten toes and in them the whole Jmage have an end to weet because the Romane Empire should at last be divided into ten Kings of whom none should be King of the Romanes as no toe is a leg As touching these I say what one word is ther in al this vision which intimateth that Antichrist should come after the Romane Empire is utterly defaced I hear there are tow leggs and the feet divided into ten toes but not a whit concerning Antichrist whither he should come after this division or before it or in the time of the divisiō Doo you goe on thus to build your Demōstrations without any so much as shew of a foundation wheron they should rely Yea what if the contrary may from hence most firmly be concluded that Antichrist shal come before Christ cometh But the Romane Empire shal not altogither be destroyed until Christ be come For thē feet of iron and clay shal dure until the stone out of the mountayn cutt without hands shal smite them beat them to peeces as is plainly shewed ver 34. thou sawest until a stone was cut out which is not in any hands and smote the image on his feet of yron and clay and brake them to peeces and agayn in the 44. verse And in the dayes of these Kings shall the God of Heaven ryse up a Kingdome which shall never be destroyed c. But these feet are the Romane Empire weaker in deed than it was before of the leggs yet is it the Romane Empire notwithstanding For the Image deciphreth fowr Kingdomes onely but if the feet should have an other Kingdome than the leggs ther should be five Wherupon also that is false which you say that the Romane Empire shal at last be divided into ten Kings of which none shal be King of the Romanes as no toe is a leg For thus you bring in a fift Kingdome which the Spirit by the Image sayth not Neither is that of weight that a toe is not a leg seing no one member is an other though both be parts of one whole thing even as the toe and legg be of the fourth Kingdome Now therfore you may see how fayrly you have made demōstration of your nakednes which the more you seek to cover and hide the more conspicuous and filthy you doo make it The second place is out of Dan. 7.7 where you say the ten hornes which come out of the last Beast are the ten last Kings which shal arise out of the Romane Empire but shal not be Romane Emperours as the hornes arise out of the Beast but ar not the Beast it selfe I answer as even now I did to the former argument which was the selfe same that this If these ten hornes have a Kingdome divers from that of the Beast then ar ther not fowr Kings onely but five contrary to that the Angel affirmeth ver 17. these great Beasts which are fowr are fowr Kings which shal rise out of the earth Moreover doo you think that the 4. hornes of the Goat which rose up in place of that broken horn was another distinct Kingdome from the Kingdome of the Goat to weet an other than of the Greeks Dan. 8.8 If so you think the Prophet sheweth you are playnly deceived who teacheth that this Goat of the 8. chapter is the Leopard of the seventh and that the Leopard is one Kingdome onely and the third chap. 7.6.17 As therfore the Goats horns make not a different Kingdome from the Kingdome of the Goat so neither doe the ten horns of the fourth Beast make a different Kingdome of the 4 Beast Ther be also the ten horns of the Dragon in this Apocalypse which are not
rebellious Princes agaist the Dragon but his cheif defenders legates and administrators by whose help he most exercised his tyranny Apoc. 12.3 Besides the ten horns ar not the dissolution of that Empire whose body remayneth after they are risen up But so the vision teacheth evidently that the Beast namely the fourth should not be slayn and his body destroyed before the horn which springeth up after those ten wer broken and taken away Dan. 7.11 Wherfore the ten horns doo no way signify the dissipation and fal of the Roman Empire wherby to afford us any help for the finding out of Antichrists coming Vnto these may be added that which this argument hath common with the former that neither is ther any mention of Antichrist here In deed the litle horn growes up after the rest and some learned men doo apply it hither but neither doo your selfe now insist upon this horn and we have shewed before in the second chapter herof that this exposition is untrue The third place is out of Apoc. 17.16 where the ten hornes you wil have to be ten Kings which shal reigne togither but shal not be Romanes because these Kings shal hate the whore and make her desolate and so shal divide the Romane Empire among themselves and utterly destroy it I answer It is even marvelous that you see not the playn contrarie to that you intended here proved For if this hatred wherwith the ten Kings shal hate the whore make her desolate be the fal and ruine of the Romane Empire then shal Antichrist come before the Romane Empire be desolate For ther shal be hatred long before this and the ten Kings shal serve her a great while before they shal thus rise up in wrath against the whore according to that which is written ver 12.13 And the ten hornes which thou sewest are ten Kings which have not yet received a Kingdome but shal receive power as Kings at one houre with the Beast These have one mind and shal give their strength and power to the Beast Moreover these are the hornes of the Beast not of the Romane Empire divided ver 3. Which if they signify any division the Beast shal be divided from his first arising And further seing they shall rise at the same houre with the Beast they shal not goe before him whereby to declare by some praecursion that he foloweth behind them VVherfore nothing at al can be concluded from hence concerning the desolation of the Romane Empire as of any signe of Antichrist coming The fourth place is out of 2. Thes 6.7 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be reveled in his time onely that he which now holdeth may hold til he be taken out of the way and then shal the wicked man be reveled c. Where the Romane Empire you say hindreth Antichrists coming who shal take his Empire out of the way for their sinns and so doo the Greek and Latine Fathers expound this place I answer I doo acknowledge that the ancient Fathers as I hav often sayd did not level aright in these matters for that being farr distāt from the event of things they were led onely by coniectures They knew so much as concerned their owne times Yet remember I pray you what manner desolation Ierom understandeth who wil have him that did hold to be taken out of the way in his time he that did hold saith he is taken out of the way c. as before I cited him So that by his judgement the Romane Empire was then so desolate that ther was no let on this behalfe to hinder Antichrists coming And surely Gregorie sayd not right All things are doon that were foretold the King of pride is nigh if such a desolation had been to be looked for as you speak of or such ten Kings should goe before as you Papists doo mention Therfore those Fathers were eyther altogither ignorant that ther was this let or they so wavered to fro in a doubtful opinion as no firme and stable thing can be gathered from their sayings But the Apocalyps being now very much illustrated by the event putteth the matter out of controversie and explaineth Paul most certainly and faithfully teaching that the withholder is not the Romane Empire but the sixt Romane King Five saith he are fallen one namely the sixt is the other is not yet come chap. 17.10 that is the Hethen Emperours which make the sixt King doo now reign which being at length removed and delivering Rome empty to the Pope the seventh King shal come evē Antichrist The Romane Empire is after a sort one but the manner of administring it by divers Magistrates and the kinds of governing was manifold Neither could it be said five Romane Empires are fallen but five Kings which were the Rulers and Moderators of that one Empire More over Antichrist is the sevēth Romane King for so the Angel plainly saith and the Beast which was and is not and is the eight and is one of the seven verse 11. Should the Romane Empire be desolate whiles the King therof was alive nay verilie but rather by bearing of him the whore Rome should greatly flourish Therfore when Antichrist cometh the Romane Empire is not to be destroyed but during that time fore-appointed of God is marvelously to be conserved increased amplifyed We may understand therfore Paul and the Angel to speake of the same impediment but the Angel more plainly and clearly describing it by place dignity and number by which most playn and true signes we might be led as by the hand unto Antichrists cradle Wherfore Antichrist should come whiles the Romane Empire is safe and flourishing and ther was need that the Emperour should give place to the Pope and leav his habitation free You therfore Bellarmine rely upon a manifest errour wherby it wil come to passe if in time you take not heed that not expecting Antichrist before the last overthrow of the Romane Kingdome you wil be by him oppressed destroyed before you perceive that he is come Your second propositiō is that the Romane Empire dooth yet endure which I grant without contradiction and now as you see without any detrimēt to the cause which I have in hand Although in the head of this Empire which I wil tel you in few words you are surely much deceived You think the Emperour hath this dignitie and in deed I confesse he hath it in name and title but the Pope hath the thing it selfe For the Romane King must be the head of the whore Rome which the Emperour is not but the Pope who maketh the seventh eight head as is declared Apoc. 17.11 Moreover the Emperours since first the Beast began have wholly served him as the Apocalyps also sheweth saying and they shal give their power their authoritie to the Beast and the practise of al times confirmeth it Which servitude proceeded so farr that they received a marke and yeilded an oath of fealtie that I
chapter against your third Demonstration But because it skilleth nothing for the force of this argument what the names of these Prophets be we let that passe for the present and doo say that that which you tell us how they are to be killed in Jerusalem is false For the Spirit designeth not Ierusalem by name but onely by this circumlocution where our Lord was crucified which agreeth as wel unto Rome seing Christ was crucified by the sentēce of Pilate the Romā Deputie By which fact he made his Citie guilty of this bloud which was shed by this cities authoritie as we have shewed on chap. 11.8 This argument therfore is worthlesse and weak assuming that which cannot be proved yea the contrary wherof is plainly evident by the Scriptures Neither was ther anie cause why either Chytraeus should purposely passe by these words as you feyn where the Lord also was crucified or why you should so trouble your selfe to prove against Ierom that Ierusalem may be caled Sodome which we acknowledge to be so caled otherwhere Although in the Apocalypse your Rome onely is Sodom you should rather have streyned your sinewes to acquitt your selves of this than have spent your strength in a matter for which ther is no fight The second place is Apoc. 17. where Iohn saith that the ten Kings which shal divide the Roman Empire to themselves and in the time of whose reign Antichrist should come shal hate the purpled whore that is Rome and make her desolate and burn her cke with fire How then say you shall it be Antichrists seat if at the self same time it must be overthrown and burnt I answer the Apocalypse easily taketh from you this scruple You ask how Antichrists seate can be burnt he being alive and seing it The Apocalypse telleth that the fift vial shal be powred out on the Beasts throne and his kingdome shal be made dark so that they shal gnaw their tongues for so row chap. 16.10.11 which vial verily is no other thing than this burning wherby the ten Kings shal consume the whore to ashes For you see that this citie which is to be consumed with fire is Queen of the nations which agreeth not to Ierusalem that hath been laid even with the groūd now manie ages since And if you doubt how the ten Kings should be inflamed with such hatred who so dearly loved the whore before hear how the Angel saith that for a time they would yeild themselves wholly to the Beast but should at length be stirred up of God to destroy her whom they most honoured before ver 16.17 This hatred therfore wil afford your Rome no comfort The other things which you heap up to exaggerate this argument are of no weight at all For that Antichrist the Iewe we have chased away in the former disputation and those things that are mentioned of the Kingdome of Asia are some smal peeces of truth shining clearly in the fabulous heap of confuse earth Certayn it is that the Empire shal return thither again but which Antichrist shal not constitute but Christ himselfe shal build taking pitie on his people and declaring himselfe in his Church to be King of al nations The third place is in those words so that he sitteth in the Temple of God 2. Thess 2.4 wher you bring four expositions of the Temple The first is theirs that by the Temple understand the minds of the faithfull The second is Augustines who interpreteth the Temple to be Antichrist himselfe with his whole people which wil have himselfe and his to be thought the true spiritual Temple of God The third is Chrysostoms that takes the Temple for Christian Churches The fourth is theirs that understand it of Salomons Temple Of these four expositiōs you chose this last worst and furthest from the truth even as women when they ar troubled with the green sicknes doo long for coles lether more then for wholsome meats The Temple in this place must needs be that peoples whose the apostasie is for which Antichrist is sent and this we have shewed to be the Gentiles onely which came in deede unto Christ but served him not with such affection as was meet and that it can not by anie means agree to the Iewes who never would be writtē citizens of this Kingdome Moreover neither did Antichrist come while the old Temple stood neither shal he sit therin afterwards seing it was overthrown long since never to be reedified more as the Angel teacheth And the desolatiō shal continue even to the consummation and end Dan. 9.27 Besides how could the Apostle cal that Gods temple which God would detest and which shal not be founded by anie authoritie of his but by Antichrists commandement alone as you wil have it vaūting himselfe for the onely God These and many other things doo teach that it is least of al to be understood of Salomons Temple Yet you say this opinion is the more common probable and learned But by what reason I pray you Beeause say you in the Scripture of the New Testament by the Temple of God is never meant the Christian Churches but alwayes the temple of Jerusalem VVhich short sentence conteineth two notable falshoods The first is that you say by the temple of God is never meant in the Apostles writings the Christian Churches For Paul in Ephes 2.21.22 speaketh thus of the Christian Church Jn whom al the building fitly coupled togither groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord in whom ye also are built togither to be the habitation of God by the Spirit And what other thing dooth the Apocalypse mean by that so often name of the temple but the holy Christian assemblies Arise and measure the temple of God chap. 11.1 Then was the temple of God opened chap. 11.9 And they came out of the temple neither could any enter into temple chap. 15.6.8 The temple of Ierusalem was destroyed before this Revelation was made least perhaps yow should think that that is meant by these words This is the first falshood The second is wher you say the temple of God evermore signifieth the temple of Jerusalem in the new testament For what Are ther so manie Ierusalem temples as ther are faithful persons Vnto the Corinthians Paul speaketh in words commō to everie Christian Know you not that ye are the temple of God And if anie destroy the temple of God c. 1 Cor. 3.16.17 Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6.19 To let passe the things I mentioned a litle before You certes are a more speedy builder than Salomon which can build so manie temples in so short a space but what cā not you doo which make a Christ everie day of Bread But this is a smal matter you say that the Scriptures doo so speak Therfore you bring some greater thing namely that the ancient Fathers Latin and Greek for manie ages never caled the Churches of Christians temples but Oratories
relate one or 2. both publikly testified and fresh in memorie than manie other almost forgot with age Wherfore your Pope dooth so lively expresse Antichrist both in multitude and falsitie of miracles that none I beleev is so sharp sighted as that he can discern any even the least difference Ther remayn those three special miracles namely of fyre coming down frō heaven of the Jmage of the Beast to speak and of the resurrection of Antichrist mētioned Apoc. 13. where I have shewed how these all doo fitly agree to the Pope of Rome For first we declared that these things are to be expounded figuratively not properly for these are miracles common to a Kingdome such as by the Apocalypse we have proved the great Antichrist to be and not of a singular man And that commonly they cannot agree to many singulars save figuratively Moreover if these miracles should be personal and proper to one how could they so come to the knowledge of the whole world that it should folow the Beast with such admiration as the Apocalypse sayth Things heard doo move lesse than those that ar seen with the eyes And Antichrist should excel with such efficacie of miracles as he should seduce if it were possible the verie elect therfore it is altogither absurd to interpret these properly We shewed that the fyre coming down from heaven is the fear and terrour of Gods iudgement which Antichrist should strike into men that obey not his will that his resurrection is the curing of his wounded head when the papal dignitie which by the invasion of the Barbarians seemed to have perished began agayn to wex strong and flourish that speech given to the Jmage of the Beast is the authoritie of commaunding unto which the relived Pope did aspire pretēding that al that eminencie which he desired was no more than the ancient Popes possessed of old wherupon his dignitie was but onely an Image of the ancient These are the natural interpretations of these miracles unto which the consent of the whole Apocalypse leadeth although if yow would strictly hold the letter we shewed examples of fyre descending frō heaven at the will of the Popes Apoc. 13.13 Francis Xavier Iesuite raysed the dead by heaps a few yeres since among the Indians and we related even now out of Peucerus that an Image in Berne by means of your men gave answers to them that asked therof Neither need we seek anie other until you have shewed that these things must be understood as the words doo sound Here we have nothing but your bare affirmation In the mean while ther is no doubt but those three things which the Scriptures mention of Antichrists miracles are al found in your Pope both multitude and fraud and special examples and therfore that he is the man of syn whom the Apocalypse describeth and Paul foretold to the Thessalonians Epist 2. But although you could bring nothing in the whole first part of the chapter wherby to purge the Pope of this impietie by testimonie of miracles yet that you might seem to have said somthing you wil answer our men which let us see of what sort it is The writers of Maydenburgh say you doo obiect that manie lying miracles have been doon by the Papists such as by visions of sowles telling tales of Purgatorie and begging masses to be sung for them and cures of diseases which have happened to such as worshiped Images or made vowes unto Saincts And you answer two things first that these are not the miracles which John writeth that Antichrist shal doo but to dye and rise again to let down fyre from heaven to give the Jmage power to speak which you require to be shewed to have been doon by the Pope or Papicts I answer that I have shewed the Pope was dead when Rome was taken by the Barbarians who being driven away and he promoted to his former glorie he rose again That he let down fyre from heaven after he had persuaded the world that it was of necessity to salvation for to be under the Bishop of Rome for thē his wrath terrified all men as if it were the wrath of the great God That he gave the Image power to speak when he came to such boldnes as he freely boasted both in deed and word By me Kings reign Al which miracles ar also doon by the Papists which apply their labour for the Pope wherby he may the more easily delude the world with these persuasions Though Images also doo speak among you Xaverius raiseth the dead for the Popes sake flames have appeared from heaven Secondly you answer that those three kinds of Miracles namelie visions of sowls craving masses to be sung for them healths obteined by worshiping of Jmages for vowes made to Saincts were usual in the Church before that time when the adversaries say Antichrist appeared I answer that which you affirme is partly false partly of no moment to prove your Miracles not to be lyes False it is which you say that the sowl appearing to S. German Bishop of Capua about the yere 500. was before Antichrists time For the Apocalypse teacheth that Antichrist was born when the Hethen Emperours were taken away which fel out about the yere of our Lord 300. Infirme altogither it is which you allege of the like miracles doon before Antichrist as Eusebius relateth lib. 7. Hist cap. 14. of the brazen Statue which the woman that had the bloody yssue erected to our Saviour and Theodoret lib. 8. ad Graecos For both before Antichrist and after his coming lying signes should be doon For now sayth Paul the Mysterie of iniquitie worketh 2 Thess 2.7 And the Mysterie wrought as wel by Myracles as by superstition and false doctrine as appeareth by the Heretik Mark who made the wine in the Cup to appear bloud of whom Irenaeus speaketh lib. 1. cap. 9. So the Montanists also had their miracles as Tertullian testifieth lib. de Anim. cap. Nihil animae And the difference between the great Antichrist and these litle ones is in more and lesse For these forerunners did Miracles by a shorter and straiter kind of power But the great Antichrist should come with the efficacy of Sathan with al power namely to deceive in larger borders Wherupon he should exceed in greatnes multitude and impudency of guiles and al kind of hurting Miserable therfore is your defense of the Pope by Miracles which if in any thing ells doo plainly shew him to be the great Antichrist Neither was it as I think without the singular providence of God that you which make miracles to be one chief mark of the Church should at length know by experience that they wil turne to your destruction who hoped by them to have greatest safegard Chapt. 16. Of Antichrists Kingdome and warrs TOVCHING the Kingdome and warrs of Antichrist we have taught the certainty from the Apocalypse chap. 11.7 and chap. 13. entyre from whence the Reader may fetch the things that are to
be holden of them both and not from these durty ditches of the Iesuits But you about these matters doo propouÌ„d four things from the Scriptures as you say First that Antichrâ—st coming from verie low degree shal by fraud and guiles obteyn the Kingdome of the Iewes Secondly that he shal fight with three Kings to weet of Aegipt Libya and Aethiopia and conquering them shal possesse their Kingdomes Thirdly that he shal subdue under him other seven Kings and in that manner he shal become Monarch of the whole world Fourthly that with an army innumerable he shal pursue the Christians through the whole world and that this is the warr of Gog and Magog Of al which things seing none doo agree to the Pope of Rome it foloweth manifestly that he can no way be caled Antichrist I answer neither dooth anie of these agree unto Antichrist properly so caled wherfore though the Pope of Rome be discharged of al these yet never the lesse he wil be the Antichrist As touching the first Antichrists base original is onely touched for that which is joyned with it of getting the Kingdom of the Jewes in the coÌ„firmation nothing is sayd of it and reason good seing it is most vain as hath been already before declared His base original therfore is prooved out of Dan. 11.21 Ther shal stand up in his place a despised person and the honour of the Kingdome shal be given to him and he shal come privilie and shal get the Kingdome by frawd You confesse being moved by Ieroms authority that these things are to be understood in some sort of Antiochus Epiphanes yet by the same Ieroms iudgement are to be farr more perfectlie fulfilled in Antichrist as the things which are spoken in Psalm 71. of Solomon are meant verily of Solomon but more perfectly fulfilled in Christ I answer this is altogither unlike Solomon was appointed of God a type of Christ but so was not Antiochus of Antichrist unlesse you wil proroge Antichrists reign and for three yeres and a halfe grant him six and a halfe as many as Antiochus tyrannized over the Saincts Moreover Antiochus was constreyned to be quiet by commaÌ„dement of the Roman Legat shal any in like sort command Antichrist which shal be cheif Monarch Again Antiochus was an Ethnik and altogither an aliant froÌ„ the Church shal Antichrist also be such an one Learn therfore at last not to take anie thing of anie body indifereÌ„tly but use the ballance to try what is spoken if you have any care of the truth Certainly if you would cast a right account you wil rather acknowledge the original of the true Antichrist to be famous Doo you not see that he weareth crowns on his horns so soon as he is born Apoc. 13.1 Was he not to arise at Rome the Emperial citie where what can be base that is placed in any dignitie The Bishop of Rome as yee are willing to mention was of great authoritie because of the dignitie of the citie with all Christian Churches before the Emperours gave place unto him And I hope that I have shewed you such signes of Antichrist as you wil now doubt no more but this Bishop is even he if so be you wil freely confesse the thing as it is Therfore the testimonies which you bring of the amplitude and gloriousnes of the Bishop of Rome doo more vehemently prove him to be Antichrist than that which you bring out of Daniel prove that he is not Secondly for his fight with the three Kings of Aegipt Libya and Aethiopia you relate that of Daniel chap. 7.8 J considered the horns and loe an other litle horn came up among them and three of the first horns were pluckt away before him and after explaining it he saith and the ten horns shal be ten Kings c. which three are explained you say who they are chap. 11.47 namely the Kings of Aegipt Libya and Aethiopia I answer that litle horn is not Antichrist properly so caled as I have shewed in the second chapter of this Refutation and often other where but the Mahumetan Turk Wherupon in that your Pope of Rome hath killed no Kings of Aegipt Libya and Aethiopia it may in deed be proved that he is not the MahumetaÌ„ Turk but it dooth no more appear from hence that he is not Antichrist than that David of old was not King of Israel because he never subdued these same 3. Kings The killing of these Kings by the Pope perteyns nothing to this cause He is fowl ynough with the bloud of Europe and at home though he never come into the Libyan and Aethiopian deserts Moreover it may also be that these three Kings are not those 3. horns plucked away for they are the horns of the fourth Beast as is plainly said three of those first hornes were rooled out from his face But these three Kings neither aâ—e nor ever were horns of the Roman Empire Aethiopia was never subject to the Romans who inlarged not their borders southward further than Aegipt Again three horns are pluckt away from bâ—fore him but these three wer not al to be overcome but the Libyans and Aethiopians should be onely at his footsteps as peoples ayding him rather than subdued who should afford him souldjers for his expeditions and not themsâ—lveâ— suffer hostile invasioÌ„ Surely if Antichrist should wage no other warr than this his martial power were not much to be feared The third point of subduing seven Kings is of like strength Buâ— so say you Lactantius and Jreneus doe interpret it But whither should we hearkeÌ„ to them or to Daniel rather Certainly the Prophet plainly confirming that three horns are pluckt away exempteth al the rest from his power otherweise he should have said that al ten shal perish or how should he be a litle horn which should get the command over al But whither seven or three be subiected to that litle horn this is nothing to Antichrist unto whom all his ten horns as we have shewed doo service from the beginning not compelled by warr but willingly and of their own accord The Fathers in deed perceived not what those three horns should be but the event hath taught us that the Turk hath robbed the third part of the RomaÌ„ Empire which hath yet notwithstanding seveÌ„ hornes left of which he shal not be Lord but so farr forth as he may bring upon them some short and suddeyn overthrow Therfore this horn belongeth nothing at al unto this great Antichrist But where you say he shal be a Monarch shal succeed the Romans in Monarchie as the Romans did the Greeks the Greeks the Persians the Persians the Assyrians this hath more ground seing Antichrist shal lift up himselfe above al which Is caled God 2 Thess 2.4 the whole earth wondring should folow the Beast neither acknowledgeth he any his like or able to fight with him Apoc. 13.3.4 As also seing he should have for a throne the great citie which reigneth over the Kings
shal be manifest then to al men that Christ is the supreme King which was not so evident to the world in former ages The Christian name hath bin spread before now into al contries but how miserably did the Heathen Romane Emperours vexe that first when it began Since that time by how sundry entreprises hath the Pope of Rome endevoured to bring destruction unto it Neither yet at this time doth he surcease from his former practise having now the Turk also a partner in the same trafick although both follow a divers way of obtaining their desire Doubtlesse since that Christ hath bin made known to us Gentiles he hath not seemed so much to raigne a to serve a miserable service Yet neverthelesse he gave alwayes some proof of his Kingdome even in the middes of these miseries because he preserved his Church against al mēs willes howsoever he yeelded her to the lust of the enemies and to be over whelmed almost with all calamities and miseries But now at length the contrary shal be manifest to al men Christ himselfe wil take the governement into his hands wil give the soveraigntie over the things on earth to his Church then shal be the time when the stone being cut of the mountain without hands shal breake in peeces the yron the clay the silver and the gold and shal obtaine a Kingdome that shal never be destroyed neither shal be left to another people Dan. 2.44.45 VVhich thing is made more apparant from the name written on the thigh as it were in the lowest parts of the body and even as though it were in the foote For the scriptures are wonte to call all beneath the belly the feete Gen. 49.10 Isay 7.20 Therfore he hath this name written in this part not onely because that which is lowest in Christ scarce reaching to his feete is higher then the highest thing in mē Monarches bearing the titles of Empire on their head on their crownes and Diademes but Christ carying a loftier title on his thigh then any Monarch ever hath obtained not I say for this cause onely but chiefly because this shal be the time wherin his feete that is his Church shal beare rule Before time they were fine Brasse burning in a fornace yet free from any hurt chap. 1.15 But now after the fierie trial they shal enioy a most noble Kingdome Now Christ shal honour the place of his feet Isay 60.13 This is that Kingdome which al the Prophets doo praise with so great decking of words of which ther shal be no ende but after that it hath flourished a long time on earth it shal be translated from hence at length into heaven at the second comming of Christ So then these foure names cōtaine the whole state of the Church from the calling of the Iswes unto the last ende of al things Al which time may be distinguished into three parts the first of which goeth before the battel with the Beast and the Dragon wherunto the first two names with the whole preparation are applyed The second is bestowed in the battel it selfe signifyed by a third name The third is al the other space from the victory until Christ shal come to which the fourth most mighty name agreeth 17 Then I saw a certain Angel stand in the Sunne Thus farre the description of the Captaine now of certain soldiers who must fight with the Beast These ar mustered by the voice of an Herald of armes standing in the Sunne who differreth from him that powred out his vial upon the Sunne for this by interpreting the Scriptures shal bring a plague that other shal provoke the Saincts to warre by exhorting Neither perhaps doth he that powreth out the vial stande in the very Sunne but set in an other place shal sprinkle his liquour upon it This sitting as it were in the charet of the Sunne hath his standing in the very light But how wilt thou say can we conceave any such thing yea by meditating upon it I think light may be given to this Sunne from the 12. chap. 1. where we heard that the woman was clothed with the Sunne that is shining round about with a most cleare light of the Scriptures with the clearnesse wherof being adorned as it were with a garment shee came forth abroad among the people shewed her selfe in the sight of the world But one may be said to stand in his clothing as the wife standing at the right hand of the King in gold of Ophir Psal 45.10 Vherfore this Angel shal be some cityzē of that particular Church which shal shine most clearly by the approbatiō of the very sacred truth shal be a natural daughter of the woman clothed with the Sunne VVe know that there is not the same purity of al particular Churches which professe Christ but that one doth take out more dreggs than an other But this Angel shal be a member of a most pure and chast congregation which above others shal shine with this glorious apparell This is not one of the converted Iewes of whom he began to speake even now but an Angel of the VVest part calling the VVesterne men to warre against the Beast and the false Prophet the plagues of our world And indeed al the force of this last warre in the VVest seemeth to be converted against that holy cōgregation which even now I said did shine as the Sunne For which cause a cityzen of it before the rest shal sound the alarme and cal togither the rest not so much to the battel as to the spoile Frō which things in some sort may be understood what is that place Armagedon in the VVest part wherof we heard in chap. 16.16 To weet such a particular holy congregation or city which shal be the place of this warre For this is har gbei qodhesch the hill of precious fruits which God esteemeth deerer to him then al delights And it is like that after Rome is overthrown that the Pope will againe place his chaire at Avenion but I have no certenty concerning this thing I follow onely coniecture but if he shal sit there where shall he sooner and more gladly streine to doo his uttermost than against the Genevean people of Savoy hardby a heart sore thankes be to God now for some yeeres which shal then also be the totment of their eyes And verily farre be it that my words should grieve any man the Sunne of our world shineth there and from thence that alwayes it may shine more every godly man desireth earnestly of God neither let my repeated admonition be superfluous Hold that thou hast let no man take thy crowne In the meane time our prayers shal not be wanting for thee that the Sunne of righteousnesse may ever shine upon thee and drive farre away all darkenesse ¶ Saying to all the foules that did fly by the middes of heaven It hath bin observed in chap. 8.13 14.6 that mesouranema signifyeth between heaven and earth not
streame neither is ther at this day almost found any hold so strong that can withstand his furie But the time of this tyrāny is but short to weet onely for an houre a day a moneth a yeere that is about three hundred ninety yeeres if wee count the yeere by twelve moneths and every moneth by thirty daies after the account of two and fourty moneths and three dayes and an halfe chap. 11. If we follow the reckening of the Iuliā yeeres the impious kingdome shal not be prolonged beyond seven yeres more then utterly to be abolished without leaving so much as the footsteps of his name after him as shal be said afterward 4 Then I saw thrones Hitherto the brief History of the Dragon the same now is handled somewhat more fully there being added togither also the state of the Church wherin it was in every of those times The two first of which are shewed elegantly in the same words For when after the Dragon is bound the thrones set are seen and also the soules of them that were beheaded sitting upon them and iudgement given to them by these is signifyed that the primitive Church was miserably afflicted before that mortal enemie was cast into prison Then was ther no seat established for her no iudgement was given but she lay on the ground trode under foote every moment spending the life of many of her members for the truth whereunto belongeth the cry of the soules which desired vengeance of their most cruell enemies chap. 6.10.11 Therfore all that time from Iohn even until the binding of the Devill by Constantine was a time for the hatched for flaming fires for the racke and all manner of torments as is very wel shewed here Againe the same thrones and iudgement given after that the Dragon was delivered to prison by Constantin doo shew the notable felicity of the second distance of time which the Church enioyed having obtained Emperours for her Defendours For these thrones belong not to the saincts raigning in heaven as the Iesuite will have it intangling himselfe in many absurdities but they which dwell on earth in a better estate in regard of the open enemy then in former time For why should the raigne in heaven be limited with a thousand yeeres Or why should they beginne to raigne after the Dragon was bound as if the raigne in heaven wer not perpetual Moreover such ar counted in this raigne who ar dead a thousand yeeres agoe as in the next verse which can not be understood of the raign in heavē in which unlesse the soules of them that die fly forthwith they shal never afterward come thither But more plainly of this matter at the next verse ¶ And they sate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it may be put and perhaps better transitvely they did set So the order of construction runneth easily being reduced by the accusative cases which folow et animas and the soules et illos c. and them which worshiped not in the same sense vidi thronos I saw thrones and they did set on them to whom iudgement also was given both the soules of them which were beheaded and also those which worshipped not the Beast c. who all lived and raigned with Christ a thousand yeeres and iudgement was given them they were dealt with according to their righteousnes themselves being set at liberty and their enemies suffering the punishments of their cruelty Even as on the other side on s iudgement is said to be taken away when a man is oppressed with iniuries and the doers of them goe away scotfree as Iob complaineth God liveth who hath despised my iudgement c. chap. 27 2 and 34.5 Or iudgement to be given may belong to the raign as in the Psalmist O God give thy iudgements to the King thy righteousnes to the Kings sonne Let him iudge thy people iustly and thy poore with equity Psal 72.1.2 as though he should say the Church now is advanced to that dignity wherby shee should give lawes to others which but lately was accustomed to receive them being most abiect and obscure and of no estimation with the world ¶ And the soules of them that were beheaded If ekathison they sate be taken as a verbe neuter then these words are to be referred to the verbe eidon vidi animas and I saw the soules c. These are the soules of the godly Martyrs of the first period who under the Heathen Emperours laid downe their lives for Christs sake who now at length by meanes of Constantine obtaine glory and honour But how is this wilt thou say they not being on the earth Their soules were placed on thrones when they who tooke away their lives uniustly were iustly punished by Constantine that is whē the tyrants were killed and condigne punishment inflicted upon them for their cruelty The iust man shall reioice when he seeth the vengeāce of the wicked and shal wash his footsteppes in their blood as the Psalmist describeth And againe a two edged sword is in the hand of the Saincts to execute vengeance on the Heathen which honour shal be to all the Saincts Psal 149. It is a glorious thing for the Saincts that their iniuries are nor neglected but ar at length recōpensed with iust punishment This is it which the soules desired earnestly chap. 6.10 And these seats are that deliverance which they obtained a promise off in the same place ¶ And which worshipped not the Beast These also were placed or sate in the seates which are men then living in the second period wherupon he not onely mentioneth their soules as even now of the Martyrs which were in the age past but the whole man saying those which worshipped not c. From which we must observe seing the godly are described by those marks that they worshipped not the Beast neither suffered themselves to be noted with his marke either in the forehead or on the hand and that in the second period whē the Devill was bound which took the beginning at Constantine himselfe and continued from thence by the space of a thousand yeeres that the Beast was all this time Otherweise ther could have bin no praise of the Godly living in this time if there had bin no occasion and matter for them to get praise by Wherfore the Beast was bred togither with Cōstantine when the Dragon being thrust out of heaven and going into prison gave his power and his throne and great authority to the Beast chap. 12.13 and 13.2 He could not suffer that any truce should be granted to the Church but when he saw his open furie to be repressed he ordained the Beast his Vicar in his roome being absent by whose endevour at least he might satisfy his hatred Therfore the three yeeres raigne of Antichrist is a trifling toy a part wherof we see here manifestly to extende unto a thousand yeeres Secondly let the Papists consider what a vaine forgerie that Antichrist is whom they dreame off
seeing see not being by the iust iudgemēt of God altogither blinded 6 O Blessed and holy is he They are blessed who doo embrace from their heart the truth restored againe to the world For this is to have part in the first resurrection As Christ saith to Peter thou shalt have no part with mee Iohn 13.8 as though he should say unlesse thou suffers these things to be done which I will have thou art not indeed partaker of mee Therfore no man hath part in this resurrection which either embraceth the truth with a dissembling hart or hath obtained some certain knowledge therof but onely he in whose hart it taketh roote bringing forth fruit unto eternal life For al that is borne of God overcometh the world 1 Iohn 5.4 and Christ loveth his even to the end Iohn 13.1 suffering none of them to be lost Iohn 17.12 For who shall ravish them out of his hands Iohn 10.28 Which most certen salvation of the faithful sealed up to them in their harts by the Spirit being unknowen to the Iesuit he findeth this blessednes which the Spirit speaketh off no where but in heaven But he erreth as his manner is This blessednesse is of the life present necessarily to be published chiefly at the new appearing againe of the light of the Ghospel seing it should come to passe that they who should ioine themselves to the truth should both be striken with the lightning of excommunication of the Beast and also should be cōdemned of the world as most wicked men Who would not tremble to be banished from the onely holy Catholike Church as the Romish vaunteth her selfe to be unlesse the Spirit had confirmed those to be blessed and holy who should receive with a syncere affection the truth raising again◠and therewithall had taught that that Romish Church calling her selfe Catholique by a true name is a most impudent horlot This resurrection is onely of those who forsaking the Romish Synagogues doo become the true citizens of the reformed Churches they which still abide in the Popish corruptions have no part in the first resurrection neither shal have any in the second unlesse they repent ¶ He that hath part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 melaq A metaphore taken from portions distributed once by lot to this ende that we might acknowledge Gods mercy and providence in every one converted without attributing any thing to chaunce and fortune ¶ On such the second death hath no power The second death is destruction in the lake of fire burning with brimstone before in chap. 19.20 But why doth he onely exempt them frō the second death because the partakers of this resurrection have not yet finished the first to weet the death of the body which being inflicted upon them by the Beast yet shal they be altogither free from the second which ought to be a comfort to them in their sufferings Surely ther is no need of this consolation in the last resurrection wher we shall no longer live by faith but shall behold the very inheritance hoped for Therfore this is the comfort of men warring on earth which are sure of the victory but have not yet got the crowne ¶ But they shal be the Preists of God and Christ chap. 1.6 and 5.10 It is said in the dative case Preists to God but this explaneth the other All the faithfull are Priests Kings in Christ that is partakers of these dignities and in some sorte also endued of the faculty and power of them but here some greater thing seemeth to be spoken after the manner of the Hebrewes who attribute the name of God to those things which are most excellent in their kinde as a Prince of God c. as was noted before After which sort they seem to be called Priests Kings of God for that which is most excellent Priests ¶ And they shal raigne with him a thousand yeeres These thousand yeeres doo beginne where the former ended to weet in the yeere 130. In which is promised a cōtinuing of the truth by the space of a thousand yeres frō that restoring of it wherof wee have spoken in these our nations of Europe to which also this first resurrection belongeth But whither then againe it shal cease security possessing men until Christ shal come as a thiefe in the night as it is foreshewed in the Ghospel he to whom all things are known knoweth We find nothing wherby to determine any certēty touching this matter Onely wee have seen three hundred yeeres now to have passed since this first resurrection and that every day thankes be to God the truth groweth mor in use We must also yet tary som short space before that our brethren the Iewes shal come to the faith But after that they are come and Christ shal have raigned some ages most gloriously on earth by his servants in advancing his Church to most high honour abov all Empire then also the Nations shal embrace true godlinesse according to that saying And the Gentils shal walke in the light therof and the Kings of the earth shal bring their glory and honour unto it the glory and the honour of the Gentils shal be brought unto it see chap. 21.24.26 For which cause it was promised to the Church of Philadelphia that shee should be a pillar in the temple of God and that shee should goe out no more chap. 3.12 that is that it should have a firme stable abiding in the new glorious Church VVhich Church of Philadelphia we have shewed in the same place to be of the Gentils From which it is proved that the truth shal remaine for a long time yet among the Gentiles For this is the Kingdome of Christ when by the Scepter of his word he ruleth among any people And this is the most true raign of any people when it is subiect to the government of Christ alone and is ruled by his onely disposition Now at length we perceive of what sort that millenarie raigne is of which we are a part thākes be to God concerning which almost al the Fathers Papias Irenaeus Iustin Tertullian Lactantius and Augustine also in some part spake so many things and so highly VVithout doubt they would have this Kingdom to be spiritual whose unmeasurable pleasantnes they expressed by corporall things after the manner of the Prophets Yet neverthelesse I wil not deny that perhaps some leaned too much in their opiniōs to the delights of the body but was it to this end to overfill themselves with them as men altogither lost in riots and given over to all dishonest pleasures It cannot be that any such thing should ever come into the minde of learned and holy men but because they knew that under this raign of Christ his Church should enioy very great felicity also of this life they made mētion of the abondance of such pleasures VVhich we shortly expect when the Romish Antichrist and the Turke shal be utterly abolished Vntill this victory be gotten the
they wer removed froÌ„ their place office whose genealogie was not found Nehem. 7 61.64.65 The Gospel is in truth savoury to no man neither doth any man give his name to it from his heart but he who is written in the book of life and in the booke of his heart hath a writing answering the same word for word 13 And the Sea gave up her dead The way wherby they that are to be iudged are presented before the iudgement seate to weet the Iewes wer gathered from all the corners of the earth as in the generall resurrection nothing shal hinder by what kinde of death soever any hath perished but that a body shal be restored to him Yet notwithstanding when as the Sea signifyeth corrupt and false doctrine by this also is noted that those Iewes which live in Christian countreyes of which sort are very many in Spaine France Germany Italy as it were in the bosome and compasse of the Popish sea of which we have spoken so many things before shal open their eyes to acknowledg the truth and shal fly togither at the light thereof ¶ Death ulso and hell gave up A Synecdoche of the general as though he should say and al that have dyed of any other death It must needs be that the karkeise be drowned in the sea or be covered with earth or rot in the aire or be consumed of the fire or devoured of beasts or some like thing As touching the drowning he said before the sea as touching the grave now he saith hell Death conteineth all the rest But seeing death restoreth those Iewes which live in the Christian landes and are infected with the Romish superstition death and hell shal restore them that shall live among Turkes and Heathen who are banished further off from salvation and are conversant in the inner parts of hell it selfe For so are al those nations of whom the name of Christ is either hated or not heard Neverthelesse it maketh no matter whither a man perish by sea or land either among Christians or among the enemies of this name 14 But hell and death A special execution on death Therfore as after the general resurrection no death shal raigne any more in the world besides that eternal which shal alwayes feed up and not consume the wicked so after the Church shal be restored by that full calling of the Iewes death and the grave shal raigne no more in her as of old while as scourges they alwayes lay upon the shoulders of the offenders but onely they shal serve to translate the elect into the Kingdome of heaven whereupoÌ„ they shall loose their former name They are cast into a lake of fâ—re not because either death or hell susteyne any person but because that which is proper to men is attributed to them as though he should say there shal be no torment any more eyther of death or hel but in the lake of fire where the reprobate dye for ever But from hence observe that seing hel is cast into the lake of fyre that is into hell properly so caled that it obtaineth an other proper signification then that which commonly is given to it in our mothers tongue It is takeÌ„ of many for the place of the damned but commonly it noteth not any thing but the grave and the common state of the dead as may be learned from this and other places of this booke 15 And whosoever was not found None shal be gathered into this Church but he that shal be of the elect How excellent is this preheminence of the Church which shal not be defiled with any hypocrites and counterfait Christians as before time How faire is this field which shall abounde with most fruitful corne without any tares and darnel Whatsoever is found in this nette may be laied up in a safe vessel Therfore it cannot be declared in words how amiable this most glorious spouse shal be It may come to passe that some may fall some time through humane infirmitie but holy admonitions and wholsome correction shal bring them againe to good thrift and repentance But shal every one of the Iewes be such Some shal not embrace the truth as is manifest from Daniel many arising to shame and perpetual contempt chap. 12.2 And we shal learne from the chapter folowing that some doggs shal be excluded without this city But they which now shal refuse the truth shal shew forth a manifest token of their reprobatioÌ„ that the Church shal not be subiect to be deceived any more Wherfore in this renewing the goodnesse and power of God shal be most famous through the whole world VVhich shal restore wretched men so wonderfully and make so singular choise of them whom he wil redeem But see how the godly shal receive comfort from hence For wheras every most holy man might iustly tremble through conscience of their sinns against this feare we have here a notable confirmation that election by Christ setteth us free from guilt CHAP. 21. AFTER I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and the sea was no more extant 2 And J Iohn saw the holy city the new Ierusalem come down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride trimmed for her husband 3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying behold the tabernacle of God is among men and he wil dwel with them and they shall be his people and God himselfe shal be with them their God 4 And God shal wipe all teares from their eyes and death shal be no more neither neither sorow neither crying neither shal ther be any more paine because the former things are past 5 And he that sate upon the throne said behold J make all things new And he said unto me write for these words are true and faithfull 6 And he said unto mee it is done J am Alpha and Omega the beginning the ende I wil give to him that is a thirst of the well of the waters of life freely 7 He that overcometh shall inherite all things and I will be his God and he shal be my sonne 8 But the fearfull and unbeleeving and abominable and murtherers whore mongers and sorcerers and Idolaters and all lyars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death 9 And ther came to mee one of the seven Angels which had the seven vials ful of the seven last plagues and he spake unto mee saying come I will shewe thee the Lambes wife 10 And he caried mee away in the Spirit in a great and high mountaine and shewed mee that great city that holy Hierusalem descending out of heaven froÌ„ God having the glory of God 11 And her brightnes was like unto a stone most pretious as a Iasper stone shining as Crystal 12 It had beside a great wall and hie having twelve gates at the gates twelve Angels and names written which
at your hands that thou would have those first burdened with so great a sinne Thou confessest that Plurality is an evill thing and to be corrected yet thou permitest this mischiefe to them In deede it is a notable privilege of their degree wherby they first are licensed to be evill But whether thoughtest thou that the destruction by these meanes would slay more secretly There are so many thankes be to God as if all letted by no other religion should use of the liberty of thy constitution more parishes I beleeve should want Pastours resident with them then at this day they wante So thou doest stay and represse prudently the evill by augmenting of it But peradventure it is enough for thee to deceave men onely with a title and pretence of repressing plurality Moreover there is an ordinance made touching hospitality in the Benefices cared for And this is the calamity of our Church that the Ministers doe not feede the poore with beefe That of binding the Regulars to make sermons in their owne proper persons would seeme to belonge to a sharper sight unlesse peradventure it should call them away from other places where their labour is more necessary I let passe the Matrimoniall ordinances That is worthy remembraÌ„ce touching excesse about Excommunication to be reformed For thou seest it to be defiled shamefully with many pollutions I would to God thou wouldest see and regarde as well those thinges which belong to the holy and lawfull reforming of it But why doest thou first deny that herein any thing can be inovated or altered without a great mutation to the whole Ecclesiasticall iurisdiction and of very many lawes of this Realme yet afterward thou wouldest reduce the same to his auncient honour and dignity Wouldest thou make a reformation without an alteration Thou wilt have nothing to be changed that the lawes may not be violated yet thou pretendest to recall the former comelines It pittiest mee that thou canst not see thyne owne blindenes But by this provision thou hast openly shewed what reformation wee must expect such indeede by which noe amending maye be made Therefore the Title might had ben enough for this thing Yet that thou mightest seeme to doe that which thou doest not at all thou usest a certen forme of ordinances For let us see howe they answere and agree to the promise First thou ordainest That in grievous crimes the sentence be pronounced either by the Archbishop Bishop Deane Archdeacon or Prebendary in his owne person What is this auncient use of prononcing the sentence by them whose names except onely the Bishop had not ben heard in deede in the Church as long as the true honour and dignity of excommunication remayned Why is there noe place left for the Pastour of every congregatioÌ„ to whom once it belonged to pronounce the sentence Peradventure it makes noe matter to him what is done to his sheepe or it maye be that he is not fit nor endued with iudgement and wisdome enough In very deede this feaâ—e might peradventure have prevayled some what in time past But nowe it ought not seeing thou hast set us free enough from it in the first booke of the Decrees For it is not to be doubted but that he that hath ben furnished with Presentation Certificate and the other things with which thou hast in the same place instructed him should be fit enough and more then fit unto every parte of his office Or if I must deale with thee in earnest what letteth that the Pastour using the counsell of others and making diligent inquiry may not pronounce the sentence as well as either the Bishop or Prebendary or any other But thou wilt say wee will not have this matter to be handled by common advise but to stande to the iudgement of one alone Is this the meaning of thy reformation and yet darest thou make mention of the honour and dignity of the auncient use Christ commaunded to tell the Church Shall any one susteyne the place of this Church One in deede for order sake did pronounce the sentence but the matter was iudged not by his sentence onely but by the advise of the whole assemblie and Councill Neither would PAVLE have the Jncestuous man to be excommunicated but when the brethren were gathered togither and consented as wee reade in the first Epistle of the Corinthes chapter five verse fourth And so the Church for some ages after as is cleare from Origene Tertullian Cyprian and others Wherfore I woulde mervayle that thou doest promise so boldly concerning the former and ancient dignity but that I knew that blinde men feare not the faces of men But what if this thyne amending which thou pretendest doth lay open a way to impunity of grievous crimes The Commissary as long as it perteined to him twice at least every yeere did compell the Church WardeÌ„s by vertu of an othe that they should present wicked men Nowe while he should doe that there is noe cause peradventure when the Priest associated with him cannot denounce the sentence against such man And in deede it is not to be hoped for that the Church Wardens willingly will flee unto the Bishops Archdeacons or Prebendaryes whom they knowe not where they may finde or who peradventure are farre of from them and a iourney cannot be made without charges when being present and that at other mens costs they can scarce be driven by othe to bewray the guilty Thou oughtest to have minded these things and not to have used a remedy worse then the disease it selfe Secondly thou speakest of Excommunication for contumacy which hath noe newe thinge from thy former decrees But the repeating of the old manner is with thee a reformation least peradventure any boxe should want a superscription although there be nothing in it I passe by the ChaÌ„ge of Penance the foule things of the Officials the excesse of Apparitors of taking away whoÌ„ you ought rather to have intreated then of moderating them and Registers Thou thy selfe howe mayest speake howe well thou hast used thyne eyes who passing by many great evills eyther art wholy occupyed about tryfles or if peradventure thou hast touched any weygty matters thou makest them either worse by curing or in deede nothing better Certenly by many reasons thy blindnesse is proved But Christ open thyne eyes I will not so much deale with thee by wordes as for thee by prayers For I have not purposed the handling but onely the iudging of these things The third part of the disease is nakednesse garments are used that wee may provide for shamefulnes Out of which when one is put his ignominy is set openly in the sight of men according to that of the Prophete Beholde I am against thee saith the Lord of hosts and will uncover thy skirts unfolding them upon thy face that J may shewe thy nakednesse to the nations and to the Kingdomes thy nakednes Nah. 3.5 Therefore this nakednesse is a reproch dishonnour and contempt whereof this
Angell is sicke For it cannot be that our Clergy should not be contemned of men who manifestly cleerly doe see howe beggerly Ecclesiasticall stipends are sought and desyred howe filthily and negligently the holy offices are administred howe all care of the flocke is naught set by the study of Gods glory is cast away When I say men see these thinges can it be that they should not despise the Angell seeking onely his owne things not those which are Christs And the Angell himselfe at certen times seeth the same thing in some sorte as can testify the often complaintes of their publike sermons although he knoweth not the cause or he would not knowe it fearing more as it were the remedy then the disease But it appeareth plainly howe greatly he is despised from that which happened a fewe yeares since A certen man set forth bookes who called himselfe a Marrer of Prelates in which he dealt boldly with the Angell Howe acceptable to the people were those merry conceites in wordes Howe plausible almost to all men Howe gladly and greedily and with howe great pleasure were they received every where Noe man is so ignorant and unskilfull in thinges but that minding the time he may say thus with himselfe For Iehovah hath poured contempt upon the Princes those that honour him he honoureth and the despisers of him shal be made light he hath made our Priests to be abiect to all the people because they have broken his Covenant These things I say a man considering with himselfe had not swerved from the trueth For if there had ben any estimation of the Angell men would rather have mourned then laughed and delivered those writings to the fire before they would had worneth them with fo often handling and looking on them I would not tell thee these thinges unlesse the Spirit did affirm plainly that thou doest not know thyne own nakednes That false glory wherein thou flourishest suffereth thee not earnestly either to minde or regarde what men speake and thinke of thee But learne from hence if thou be wise howe servants going before in great number and having chaines and a great troupe of serving men folloing after are of no force to drive away contempt and to deliver from the despising of the comon people or if thou canst not perceive these things so well in thy selfe beholde the Papists and the Pope their Prince howe doth he nowe stincke for his desert with the greatest part of men contemned naught set by vile and hated of all the godly whose feete notwithstanding some Princes being bewitched yet doe kisse and then whom noe mortall man hath ben in time past of more imperiall maiesty Remember our former Prelates whose riches were greater then thyne their authority greater their power more to be feared yet because the common sorte of people did see them to be meere gluttons howe did they deryde them The pride of our Wolsey was mocked openly For the honours of this world are figge leaves or as it were torne and ragged clothes which cover not the nakednes but make more deformed through the loupes Minde these things and be not proude of thy golden feathers but rather where thou art naked cover thy shame least through vaine boasting of the part adorned thou lye despised with the common people for thy other deformity And thus at the length I have opened this rotten sore if my paines travaile shal be acceptable and if being cleansed it doth farre well howe great thankes shall I give to our God but if the evill onely shal be stirred up and provoked and the handling shall disquiet them that are sicke I will conforte my selfe with the conscience of duty and the usuall wages of the Physitian 18 I counsell thee to buy of mee Golde Hitherto the cause nowe the remedy is taught both from whence it is to be fetched and by what meanes and also what is the matter of the medicine it selfe It is to be fetched from Christ alone he alone hath borne all our infirmities and alone yet can heale our griefes The way to fetch is by buying not because he requireth a pryce for he selleth wine and mylke without mony or chaunging of my thing Isayah 55.1.2 But because he will have a desire to be brought even as in getting of things with greate cost in which togither also he sheweth the dignity of the remedy which otherwise is not deare at any price The medicine is threefolde after the manner of the disease which wee have shewed to be threefold Golde white garments and eye salve Golde is set against poverty white garments doe cover nakednesse and eye salve doth helpe against blindnes Wee have sayd that wretchednes and misery were accidents which forthwith vanish when their fountaynes are taken away Of what sorte every one of them is may easily be understood by their contraryes Golde is opposed to the riches and poverty of the Angell that is to the hegging of Benefices and Ecclesiasticall Offices For the former riches are not true and doe not let but that the Angell may be the most base and vile begger But the Golde of Christ driveth farre off this beggery It is therefore that most holy manner appointed by Christ himselfe of calling chusing ordayning appointing Ecclesiasticall men every one to his office Wherby Pastors doe not seeke for the office but are sought for are not promoted for a peace of money but for goodnes and vertue not for favour but learning not at the will and pleasure of any man but by the election and consent of his flocke Christ will have this Golde to be bought of him because he himselfe hath described playnly this whole way end hath not left it free to men to deale in this matter at their pleasure As long as the thing shal be in the power of one Patrone and Bishop there will never be wanting bribe givers and such as will suffer themselves to be corrupted with rewardes But if Christ rule be kept this begging poverty would flee away never to returne againe For this golde is tryed in the fyre proved often times wholy fined Wee see the excellency of it in the primtive Church also amonge our neighbours at this day It dreadeth not any touch stone it feareth not any fyre it bursteth nor asunder by any knocking of the hammer but it abode invincible in time past yet doth abide with the great glory of them that are made rich therby Whyte apparell is opposed to the former honours nakednes that is contempt These garments also Christs will have to be bought of him having them most pretious most prayse worthy For what contēpt can come to thē whō their worthynes hath chosen their learning ordained their holines put in authority Whom many have earnestly desired for their tryed godlines doe admire for their diligēce in teaching doe feare because of the most free truth reverence as exemples of all vertue honesty Be an exēple