locusts if they might haue good maintenance to hold vp better truth and liberall artes that serue trueths honor Of the third woe and last Trumpet The second woe is past behold the third woe commeth And the seuenth Angell sounded the Trumpet and there were great voices in the heauen saying the Kingdomes of the world are now of our God and his Christ And he shall reigne for euer and euer Where the kingdome of the beast Abyssigena bred from the Pit is gone all the Church proclame that CHRIST will haue no more alterations vntill he shew heauen to all his So the speach passeth to the worlds end The Prophets communely passe ouer matters of cōmon state as needlesse to be handled specially and stepp from one thing of plague presently to Messiahs kingdome as notably in Hosea after mention of Israels scattring the kingdom of Messias is ioyned So wen Esay had spoken of Babels fall after Sanecheribs then he steppeth thence to CHRIST his preaching By the voice of a crier in the wildernesse So Daniel telleth of his kingdomes their comming vp their vrging of Idolatrie their chastisement their ouerthrow omitting matters of ordinarie course where the present age would looke to it selfe So Apoca. 6. handleth the prophane Caesares and thence omitteth the Churches sliding away till it come to an absolute fall And then telleth of tyranny and after tyrannies end steppeth to the worldes end The third woe is the plague of the enimies by Kings of good religion continually vnto the end The summe of the Bible Great voices expresse the voice of whole nations and the Kingdome of God Christ the matter of all the Bible Adam had that theme to preach 930. yeares Sem the great by S. Paul and Gamalies likened to the eternal author of iustice peace figured this matter and confirmed Abraham in this 75. year reioyced in Elam troden downe by Abraham And all the large writings breathed by the holy Trinitie teach no other matter but this and punishments for contempt of this and nothing should be suffred in the Church but to this summe In the prayer which our Lord prescribed for a cōmon forme to the whole Congregation this conteyneth all Thy Kingdome come thy will be done on earth as it is in heauen So when Iohn Baptist opened the kingdome of Christ when the Leuiticall policie was to cease and all nations should serue God by Lawes writtē in the heart Rom. 2. Ier. 31. Then the kingdome of heauen is said to come when men humble themselues to receiue the iustice of Christ and to be clothed with the SVN The fulnesse of kingdome cōmeth when the holy soule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leaueth this world goeth to God and there reigneth for euer and seeth the Locusts pitt-bred in Haides torment fryed in fire for euer and euer The pitt-bred beasts had sunne and aire much darkened when they knew not whether mans soule ascendeth or descendeth and whither the holy goeth to heauen or to hell This saying Caterchesthaeis haidon is neither more nor lesse then to goe to God when the godly haue a light place of ioye and the godlesse a darke place of torment And this exposition cutteth off at the least fifteene bad opinions direct bad for this article by consequents fifteene score The Kingdome heere spoken off is termed Haides in the Creede and wee may not put Hell for Heauen nor descending for going to God Purgatorie falleth when Haides hath but two partes Heauen and Hell and with it all Poperie Satan entred into many vnthankefull Caytifes that could not suffer the holy soules going into the kingdome to be most eloquentlie spoken in the Greeke Creede if they descend not to Hell as our Lord did in the Creede they shall ascend vp and before Gods throne haue an hell for euer and euer And the 24. Elders which sate on their thrones before God fell vpon their faces and worshipped God saying Wee praise thee O Eternall who is and who was and who will bee that thou takest vpon thee thy great power and doest reigne As the Nations haue kept a stirre thine anger is come and the tyme of the dead to be iudged and to giue rewardes to thy seruants the Prophetes and to the holy and to such as feare thy name The Elders be the Gouernors of Gods people in all offices specially in sage vsage of Scripture on assembly dayes all learned in the scriptures and able to giue faithfull exhortatiō out of it and all borne in wealth are brought vp amisse that are not gronuded in yong yeares to read with delite in the holy Booke Albion seeth who hath opened that way and faithlesse Iewes cōfesse though Atheā pāches for enuy burst These haue thrones before God not Buyshops and Archbuyshops of Papists But chosen of the holy congregation to teach what God telleth but as Moses gaue no commandement of his owne head nor Christ in the flesh but as he taught in Moses so these speake all frō scripture few wordes by old playne warrant and yet in few lines shake of all poperie all errores In number they be 24. as knowing the XII tribes story how the tribe should not depart from Iudah till his childe came and how the XII Apostles gathered the XII tribes to make them the foundation of the heauenly Ierusalem These are not many but 24. yet a resonable good number Many nobles in Albion and others that liue by their owne reuenues studie the Bible with as good dexterity as any feed-men and know it better then some after 42000. Brabant Gilders charges againe 40000 crownes charges such be humble and know Iehouah who is who was who will bee still the same to rule all ages to one summe of saluation in Christ how in him GOD was manifested in the flesh and taken vp in glory and the saluation of all ages Enosh age the flood Babel Ieroboam felt the price of despising this life And after the great saluation begun by the Lord himselfe to be spoken and confirmed by his hearers with all guiftes of the spirit for contempt the world was soone giuen ouer to Arius Pope and Turke yet God sealed a few and at length placeth them in open kingdomes to be seene though stil the greater part in open policy careth but for this life as in Salomons dayes all were of great shew but soone after his death Ephraim turned all but Iuda to worship calues not God So great Constantinus holpe Christians but few of his men cared for God So heere Popes Idols murder of the saincts cause God to shake him to dust as he shoke the Macedonians after Antiochus Epiphanes persequution That the Iewes receiued their owne kingdome vnder the Maccabees and that meanes the psalmes 97. and 99. and others about them howe the power of Christ breaketh Idoll kingdomes that God should take the protection of all into his owne handes So heere Elders shewe Popes strength cast of that others be so
That is If a heavy day had now first shined vnto me neither had sailed before so troublesome seas there would be iust cause of sorrow c. So sea is Dan. 7. Apo. 12. where Empires arise so the men of the seas policie called fish such as seemed aliue Chap. 3. Forsooke the waters Esa 55. and Eze. 48. which giue life to all where they come turned here to haerefie be turned to death and traffique of ciuill policie is turned to corruption The third blast expounding the second The third explication of the learned great telleth that the messinger of the holy Synagogue or heauen for the kingdome of heauen shall fall from his calling to be as Babilons king Isai 14. A star setting Nemrod his house on fire will soone corrupt the third part of the Bible called waters Isa 55. Ioh. 3. and 1. Ioh. 3. and infinitely in Rabbins Hee shall turne Iustice of faith into Idolatry as Ephraim in Amos. That many men died the second death called fish afore by Idols worship So the Pope turning the holy doctrine into idolous waters is called wormewood Articles of the Popes corruption of Scriptures First He holdeth not the Hebrew and Greeke holy text in vse God owne holy wordes penned by the Eternall Spirit speaking all of life by the SON in dayly esteeme for all in leisure of studie to know and which all of leisure to studie should know But in steed of it brought in a Latin worke of which tongue none is bound to haue regard and brought vnto schooles Latin for Greeke and Ebrew II. The Apocrypha bookes were all made by Men of Iuda And speake not a syllable of CHRIST yet helpe Iosephus for all Israel against Appiones Instim Diodorus Siculus Cornelius Tacitus in madd Antiochus and so far haue their vse The fable of Tobi is made to busie heathen for Assurs captiuitie which heathen neuer mention nor Iudahs deportation to Babel or returne For it Barucs forged Epistles Susannaes allegorie for the whole state King Ioakims wife polluted by the Babilonian Iudges but reuenged by Daniel is wittilie fabled The enuious heathen neuer mention the fire quenched by Daniels most noble Cousins Therefore a Rhetoricall song was formed to shew what in the fyer their cause might speake to Idol-seruers But Daniel recordeth nothing spoken who knew all and would omitt nothing of glorie So no heathen tell as Ieremi of Babell Bels seruants who thought Bell gaue them kindoms that GOD by Cyrus would take out of Bels throte all the kingdomes which he had deuoured therefore the fable of Bell mocked heathens blindnesse No heathen tell of Daniel cast into the Lions den for not worshipping the Persian Emperor or Dragon as Pharaoh is Isa 27. and mouing the K. to renounce that the fable of the Dragon worshipped in Babel and destroyed telleth of their enuy and folly And vpon Darius speach to Daniel that GOD in whom he belieued would saue him and Daniel said he was saued because justice to GOD and the K. were found in him Abbakuks saying the iust man shall liue by faith is enlarged by a fable that Abakuk brought Daniel pottage from Iudea The heathen knew not Gods counsell that God by Iewes would teach in Babels fall how he hated the pompe of this world and hath another world for soules Rest where wicked shal be plagued for euer and telleth that true happinesse standeth in the knowledge of Christ who gaue Cyrus all Croesus gold to send Iewes home from all quarters to preach of their Eternall hope and to confute Greeke sages The 3. of Esdras is much true much in fable to smooch this in a greek stile familiar for heathen and such fables be the additions to Hester The fourth of Esdras was made to keepe Esdras another Moses from contempt amongst heathen who would thinke him base that handleth but Iewes genealogies and the Temples building without telling the reason and diuorcements therefore they faine for him deepe speculations as the greeks Clem. Strom. 1. feigne all the Law was lost and Esdras by reuelation restored all The Persians for religion were a new Nebuchadnezar their warriers one Holophernes Herodotus nameth one so The Iewes states Iudith Gods justice against Elam Iudiths sword And thus heathen that would mocke truth are mocked by fables Wicked Diodorus Sicul. and Tacitus commend madde Antiochus for his endeuor to ouerthrow the Iewes religion Two workes of seuerall Iewes the later very foolish and vnlearned yet good enough for prophane heathen were receiued to stop such mouthes The whole nation is of wicked Tully termed barbarous and superstitious to stoppe such a mouth eloquent Syracides passing him in sentences and shewing all the Lawes glory and eloquent Philo imitating Salomons wisedome for mans good end were receiued to check heathen though one knew not Christ Of these the fable of Toby is by the Pope made Gods word The Thal. Ieru in Ros Hasana for Michael and Gabriel make it a late fable wicked For Manasses caried to Babel by the King of Assur some tryfling declamer would shew what one in his case might speake as doth Homer for Agamemnon Achilles Calchas Nestor and such but it were a ridiculous babishnes to hold that trifling worke better then Tobies fable A plaine fable throughout and no fitter to be read in sadnesse in the Church then Lucians dialogues The Popes ioyning of these to the Bible is wormewood III. Wormewood holdeth not these 3. principles true which all should 1. The text of the old Testam is kept in letter most sure by the orthographie dictionarie or Massoreth that no letter was more nor lesse nor of other orme in Moses tyme with vowels and accents margine reading expounding the text then we haue it at this day 2. That the Rabbins expound all in grammer sense well for our vse 3. That all good for religion and life is in Moses as the Prophets and Apostles draw him foorth at large IIII. The Pope in Bellarmine and others peruerteth or contemneth euery whit of the Bible V. He maketh a whole policie wicked against all points of faith and ciuill lawes and would bee as a God in the Church so set foorth 2. Thes 2. Thus he is wormewood it selfe How he groweth vp to be a great mountaine to be able to vexe the world that followeth in the next Trumpet and keyes of the deepe The fourth expounding the third The fourth Angell sounded and the third part of the Sun Moone and Starres were stricken for their third parte day and night Gen. 37. Iacob expoundeth Sun Moone Starrs for his Church so it is heere day and night are ruled by the starres and meane the tymes more or lesse prosperous scholars and learned falling away corrupted scriptures make an ecclesiasticall mountaine from a burning lampe falling from God The occasions of the Churches fall from heauen The two Testaments shew that CHRIST is the Angell of the Couenant standing by his humanitie at the Altar
great asseueration that if I went to Zwitzerland I should remoue war I went presently to Basil and Zurick and Berne heard and vsed me with all kindnes Mine host of Basil a D. of Law D. Iacobus Henric-petri had occasion to goe to Friburge to D. Pistorius and on a thursday at Supper spake much of me to him Then D. Pistorius sayd The scholers of England be learned in the tongues but it were better they knew the Fathers better On Fryday my Doctor telleth me what he sayd On Saterday I gaue a Greek reply to the Post as Pistorius triumphed in Greek to this summe The Greek Fathers were in eloquence vnmatchable and in handling of the Trinity and Incarnation of Christ and Iustification by faith and of holy soules passage hence to heauen and of wicked to Gehenna they all agreed and none euer of 1400. yeares thought of Purgatory as their oration in the Synode of Basil shewed 160. yeares ago which D. Iacobus Zwinger yet hath And so much learning as their age could vse against eloquent heathen God gaue them But they had no occasion to deale much for text of scripture with such and therefore lesse studied it But for the Lords Supper This was their common opinion that the Bread and Wine were Icones and Symbola Images and Tokens of the body and blood of Christ As Origen spake the consent of his age and Eusebius from his great Librarie the recorder of common graunts And eloquent Nazianzen and others by Typi and Antitypa and as the most sage Theodorite in sad disputation to clear other matters bringeth the same as a graunted common matter to proue douted so Macarius Monachus sheweth his dayes opinion calling the bread Symbolon of the body And none wise could doubt marking vpon what prophecy the Lordes Supper stood The Angell Gabriel told holy Daniel that after 490. yeeres Christ the King by his death would end sacrifice and offrings And the Iewes dated all dayes in common Epistles and conueyances the yeares since the returne from Babel as wee the yeres of our Lord in whose last yeare they By Daniel looked the Kingdome of heauen should appeare Luc. 19. though they knewe not in what manner Nowe when sacrifice was to end at the Supper of the Lambe our Lord to seale the end of sacrificing gaue for beasts flesh and blood which figured his body and blood bread and wine to bee in couenant speach his Body and Blood All Graecians knewe proper speach and civill that hee should bee bad that knew not the place of both In proper speach a Father begetteth his Son in ciuill speach Romulus was ancester to Iulian Apostata Baasa to Achab Iechonias Salomontiades to Salathiel Nathanides So the token of a Kings seale is called his seale This all the Greeke Fathers knewe and tottering Theophylact your onely turneth to this And the taking of the Lords Supper is our oth that wee beleeue hee died in due tyme to bury Moses by his buriall and that by grace his spirit is with vs to sure saluation as mighty as by his word it made the world More is needlesse and cannot bee but is wickedly forged So farr the Fathers were rare not alwayes in commenting vpon the Byble But extremely deceiued almost all in honouring the Apocrypha which Iewes kept to play for Iosephus against Appiones that denyed all the Iewes story Therefore not to plead with them from the Law full of paradoxes they object failes and humane workes to busy them for all And they meant litle further great matter in them The Greeke Fathers sawe not this much though Eusebius told the true law had but 22. bookes Nazianzen agreeth for the number but misseth in regarding one Apocryphon for holy Iudith as I remember and Athanasius casteth out holy Hester So we like of the fathers for learning controverted in their age not aey for comment And these groundes ye shall graunt me or combat The Hebrew text is kept by the Massorites so that nothing can be corrupted to alter one wordes signification The Iewes knew their owne tongue and teach vs the native of it In honour of the two tables of 613. letters they bring all speches of lawes bidding or forbidding into 613. And hold that all which faith or life may think of is in them And the New Testament never goeth further And no one syllable helpeth Rome but Italy is expresly cursed by your owne translation as by all Iewes exposition Numb 24. vpon which all the Apocalyps maketh a reuelation This England holdeth and will not give place to Rome but will dispute with D. Pistorius Protonotary of the Pope at Basil one day in Hebrew an other in Greek with penners of every syllable of our speach Protonotarius is stout in these tongues as he hath written de arte Cabalistica though he hath missed altogether and sayth all Rabbins say Melchisedek sacrificed bread wine where none ever thought so but all hold it offred to Abrahams souldiers to eat and drink as he was a King and blessed Abraham as a sacrificer And for Greek Protonotarius and Pope are yet to learne how to defend the purity of the New Testament and to see Antique Septuagint Thalmudique and Apostolique dialects And no Papist ever could speak or write Ebrew Greek as coūtrey speach Thou knowest if thou dare dispute I may overthrow the Pope Therefore tell thine own hart and write to him that an English man wrote to thee that the chalenger will give over his chalenge or hee bee counted a shamelesse lier To this effect I wrote to him a Greek oration and sent R. Rubens Chananean epistle which honoured England above all nations that he might see he had not to deale with a Thraso Three dayes after he wrote to Zurick great commēdations of my poor studies specially of Greek eloquēce as native Attique And at three monethes end after much combat in all Greek he writeth thus I will not dispute nor have our old Religion to be called into question Then both sides Cantones showted that the feare of war was gone seing the Popes chalenger putteth vp this that the Pope hath not one syllable in the Bible for his defence But is vnvinciblie accused and hath none that dare dispute in the holy tongues for his defence Now he dareth not for stark shame require supremacie being so broken After this what Basil spake to English of me how for one all England should heare better while Basil stood one M r Brand of Londen and M. Ward of Cornewall they told me and belike at home How they told Netherlanders that this combat ended warres and sware so they will never deny it noble Danes know and doubtlesse told their K. how they staying for me at a ferry neare Leopoldus buriall which they had seen and I would see a Zurick hearing my name sayd wee were in great feare of war till the Englander brake Pistorius I would gladly see his countenance which argueth the mind that in
Now this false Prophet forging himself taught by the Angel Gabriel taketh Daniels terme in the highest sense Machmad delite it self Rashi telleth that because he humbled himself before GOD in fasting and prayer he was so called But Turk and Pope will have the holynes of Apollo past repentance CHAP. X. Now commeth a most lively description of Christ opening himself from Esa 19. and 54. and Genes 9. and Apoc. 4. Daniel 10. and Exod. 14. and Dan. 12. and Es 31. and Iob for the thunder of his power which is past vnderstanding and shall not be perceived of the Pope till the next trumpetter or common place teacher soundeth and endeth the world Now the Angel biddeth Iohn take from Christ the litle book of the Gospell and to eat it which was sweet in his mouth in preaching but bitter in affliction and to the enemy also as Ezekiels book CHAP. XI Iohn sheweth that the Church shall be built as Ierusalem freed from Babel vnder Zorobabel and Iesus when Zachary seeth an Angel with a reed meating the length breadth So Iohn hath a reed to meat the tēple and altar that is from the litle book to shew the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of God in Christ Christ himself is the temple Therefore to check Thalmudiques which to this day look for a third temple as sheweth Rambam whom vpon Koheleth Salomon the oratour I have cited and translated to check them he sheweth court of sacrificing is geven to the heathen and Ezekiels goodly citie is a city of affliction as Christ was afflicted 42. monethes Zacharies olive trees Zorobabel with Israel and IESVS with Levi and candelstick of Gods fauour Churches Chapter 1. revived Here is a new Elias a new Moyses to call fyer from heaven and to stay all dew of grace and successe and to turne their waters of armies into blood to plague their enemies with all kind of plague The experience followeth The combat of the King of Locusts with the Martyrs When the Martyrs begin to revive the Gospell the city which is called for spiritual vncleannes of religion spiritually Sodoma for cruelty against Israel Aegypt setteth fourth the King of Locustes who commeth with his Locustes winges of chariots and warre horses and fighteth in all nations with these two captaynes of Martyrs and killeth them and their case is playne how they are murthered as if a Crowners quest went vpon the policy that crucified Christ after his preaching 42. moneths or dayes 1260. or yeares three and an half Now as Beda and Carthusianus well note in three yeares and an half all time of preaching Christ in memorie of his preaching so long so the time of their noted death while their ashes may be seen and they are not put in grave is in a proportion called three dayes and an half Now that all may know that two yeare is not proper twise one but as all the returned from Chaldea Babylon be two Zach. Ch. 4. and 5. So the witnesses of truth that leave spirituall Babel all are in that sense called two and the citie which killeth them in peoples tribes tongues and nations is not a building of houses but a building of policie So the two be not two men but two companies and the dwellers in earth would not reioyce and send giftes one to another as Iewes against Haman in Ester for two but for the companies of two sorts rare wightes full of eyes 24. Bishops and the troupes that give glorie to God and the Lambe and pray onely to the Lambe the great God and Saviour these in all nations where the king of Locustes tyranny reacheth are the two Prophets who vexe them whose mindes dwell on earth and cannot see the heavenly policy of Christ In that sense after three dayes an half spirit of life from God entred into them and they stood vp and feare fel vpon their enemies and they heard a great voice from heavē saying vnto them come vp hither and they ascēded vnto heaven in a cloud and their enemies saw it Iohns vision went vpon two and vpon one city one beast But Romes policy the king of pit keyes with his Locustes and the states that write and fight against them must be meant of whom when one is dead an other is alive iump in the same veine as though it were the same man and their enemies see they goe vp to heaven and the beast which is ascended out of Abyssos that is all his corporatiō millions of millions these visions represent corporations and vnder one millions of men be told all Papistes goe from their Abyssos of black ignorance vnto Abyssos Luke 8. and Zohar vpon Genes 1. 2. whither the Divels shall come in their time but are yet in this world to be tormented for ever and ever After this teaching and fighting a great earthquake shaketh a tenth part of the king of Locusts city which crucified Christ and prayeth to the virgin Mary to commaund her sonne the Eternall God by the right of a mother as though she were mother to the godhead because shee was mother to the Person one of two natures And they are very wise who thinke the mother of God in schoole phrase can finde no better speculation in heaven then to listen to the Citie that crucified the Lord of glory Iscariot the traitour confessed his fault yet Christ gave him over to hang him selfe Rome that kild Christ after justifying him sinning so against the holy Ghost and sinning more then if they had kild all the men in the world yet is worse then Iscariot and wil not cōfesse sin but clayme right to rule the world because once they durst crucifie the maker of the world and pray to the Virgin Marie to forgive the Popes holynes the Vicar of Pilate In Elias 7000. bowed not the knee to Baal and live In this Citie 7000. that bow the knee to Baal dye are kild in vision 7000. in storie seaventie millions of thousandes with this 120. yeares of the Gospell revived And full many give glory to God and leave the virgin Mary alone to be happy as other faithfull Bathshebagh Ruth Thamar and Sarah al her mothers and who more in sin yet stayed vpō her sonne who was then in their loynes Thus the second woe is past The Popes fall the seaventh trumpet of common place Since Kingdomes match the Pope in strength and have brought him that he dare not queck but be content to hold his owne An open voice is in kingdomes that whereas the Pope hath been once cast out and now God reigneth wee looke for no chaunge till the resurrection at 6000. by old guesse Hence at 463. For our Lord was borne at 3927. adde 1610. then now Adams soule and dust hath 55 37. at 463. the gesse will shew it self At 3000. the Arke was brought into Salomons Temple at 4000. exactly the Romanes destroyed Zerobabels temple And as the Pope falleth by steppes as he
came vp not all at once so 463. yeares may Spain and Italy holde him vp while Archbishops and Bishops Pastours and Curates have too much stipend and authoritie but litle learning in the holy booke for wisedome vnto life As Agamemnon sayd of Nestor that ten such would soone fel Priamus citie so ten Kinges that would clear the Revelation to Hebrewes Greekes Latines and all tongues might hasten the Iewes calling but I am afrayd none saving our own will performe any promise that way to agree with Iewes that the Arke in the Temple is the holy man which is golden within without and hath the tables of 613. letters to which answer 613. lawes into which all wisedome falleth and none fayleth written in his hart and vpon the mercy seat all of gold stay the Cherubims looke When Christ is seene in his Temple of humanitie thus Papistry fayleth and falleth and from the Church dayly till the end lightening and voices and thundrings and earthquake and great hayle would make Aegypt and Rome to quayle But few desirous of divinitie have maintenance and ambitious in wealth spurne at soules health and kings see how much is spent in vaine and how scholers bend to gaine and so courts fall at Sardis Ch. 3. and the Pope may live yet Hebers yeares this present and 463. That this Trumpet may then speak to Ezekiels dead bones make them arise Ch. 37. as Apo. 20. all arise Thus in seales and Trumpets God hath once shewed all By seavens spirits hornes seales and trumpets to teach the prophane world of resurrection The same shal be repeated in beastes seaven headed and seaven Angells vnto a newe mention of the resurrection CHAP. XII A goodly signe appeared in the heaven The faithfull company is a Woman their abundance of grace of the gift of justice in Christ and regeneration in putting on Christ is a garment of the sun their contempt of all things vnder the sun is an having of the moon vnder her feet their doctrine from the twelve Apostles is a crowne of twelve stars Their desire to teach Christ to other soules is a travelling of child As the Sun is all bright so is the soule iustified in Christ bright as the sunne Cant. 6. though in it selfe it is black Cant. 1. and as the Moone often not all lightened but when it hath the Sunnes full light it appeareth as the morning as faire as any moon Cant. 6. Our crowne is the twelve Apostles doctrine who were all of equall truth though S. Paul laboured more then they all and from Rome wrote enough to have warned that city not to fight against Christ and so much as might teach the world that Peter was never near Rome but kept where God scattered the twelve tribes as the 12. most laboured to call the Iewes to teach the Gentiles This travelling of child teacheth vs what a care wee should have to teach Christ and so first to learne GODS book God is our first Bishop Ioh. 20. 29. in the 70. for El the ebr the Almighty Of men the King should be best learned as King Moses was King Iesus King Samuel King David King Salomon King Ezekias the wealthier by wisedome and greater then many Kings Daniel Belt es-sar that brake out a flame of sorrow to the wicked Chaldean who thought that Bel tas a far Bel held wealth Kings might soone be learned who might learne the holy words of both testamentes in two moneths and the concent of scripture in an houre and might commaund that every sermon should either abridge the whole Bible as S. Paul doth to the revoulting Ebrewes or tell the afflictions of our Lords family as Daniel doth seaven times over or weaknes of Salomons Kinges or how Aharons twelve stones tell the tribes story or the golden chayn of Chronicle and Iubilees or the mysteries of Moyses Ceremonyes or collations of prophecies with event or like revolutions to shew Gods facility in teaching Christ or some whole book in one sermon So Kings without payne might passe all in learning And our Vniversities might be so ruled but that the God of this world doth hinder that our DD. should speak Ebrew and Greek better then English and be readier in the Bible then in any other book or from their first preferment in collegies fast oftener then the Iesuites do for S. Laurence and all the Sainctes in heaven or live without college allowance A Samuel would make a Naioth And an Archbishop worthy of his place would make Daniel plaine in one houre and the Apocalyps in an other It is a wonderfull sinn to give men honour without desert and to be doltish scholers to vnlearned teachers We travel as Esay speaketh but we bring foorth onely a wynd The God of this world being incarnate in the Romans is busy in his generation Pharaoh Esa 27. was not such a Dracon nor the Persian God Dan. 6. to whom onely prayer must be The Goddes borne in Asia as Aeschylus termes them The Dracon whom Babylon worship in the fable Apocryph These were not such Dragons as the Romane Pompey Crassus Iulius Antonius Brutus with Cassius Augustus with the whole Empire till it died and the Empire revived by Pope these seaven heads of the Divel teach vs to know the Churches danger when their whole corporation maketh a great Dracon and their hornes ten be not as they in Daniel then Kings of ten men but ten kingdomes And the tayle the Prophet that telleth lyes Esa 9. draweth the third part of the starres to be wandring starres Iud. v. 13. and cast them into the earth as Daniel 8. Antiochus made Iewes Pharisees and Sadducees When our tongues trauel of Christ the Divel would by Rome devour that But he is taken vp into heaven who wil bruse all nations with an iron rod And the Church fled into the wildernes as Ioseph and Mary with Christ into Aegypt and is nourished as Christ in his half seaven Dan. 9. in his persecutions dayes 1260. Michael who in the forme of God held it no robery to be equall with God Michael who in Dan. 10. is the chief of the chief Princes the holy Angels and defendeth Iudah against the enemies Michael his angels the marryrs overcome Satan the Caesars that the Church shuts thē out of all accompt though Satan still accused them to the ten Persecuters So the Dragons tayle is busy in the Popes But the Church had as Israel Exod. 19. two wings of an Egle to flee from Dracon Pharaoh into the wildernes to be again fed after Christs persecutions a yeare two yeares half a yeare from Pope serpent that the Thebanes borne of this serpents teeth gnash Where was your Church before M. Luthers time when the King of Locusts A bad one Abaddon a new Apollo had from his keyes of the pit brought a smoke to darken sun and ayer And although the cloysters Idolatrous deserved as Israel in Amos to be caryed as with the river of Aegypt
yet the Pope would so vse the Church though heathen policy bridle him yet Pope Dracon is fierce against remnants as in his Spanish Inquisitions CHAP. XIII Caesars and Popes the Dracon and his tayle are expressed past all deniall who are meant The empire hath armes from the foure kindomes in Daniel So God forceth vs to be ready in Daniel and to compare together the brase of the Angelique men Then Greek Leopard had foure heades that of 23. Captayne 's al made Kings all came to fower quickly and every one dyed a violent death saving old Antipater to have blood for blood as the Romanes here The Beare had but one head the Lyon one and the fourth beast the parted Macedonians but one that beast is not named because it was the same nation with the former but is distinguished from the former by ten hornes or Kings five Ptolemies and five Seleuci or Antiochi that vexed Iudah From these the Romanes have their armes beginning with a beast with ten hornes with this difference Ten Diademes betokening so many kingdomes This beast was coloured like a Leopard footed like a Beare mouthed like a Lion As Nab. said who can deliver you from my hande was a Lucifer and would be equall to God So here it is sayd who can warre with the beast Alexander would be a God So Divi Iulij and Divi Augusti so the Persians And Antiochus Epiphanes hath a mouth speaking great thinges so hath this beast Now the sixt head being as dead sheweth that the Empire should be dead and revived otherwise five heads were gone and the seventh was not yet come But in a speciall sense one head seemeth as dead The time of Tyrannie was 300. yet by Metonymia meaning the argument of persecution from our Lords time it is called three yeares and an half Antiochus Epiphanes raged against the temple properly three yeares and an halfe as Elias plagued Israel properly three yeares and an half But the matter sheweth Ch. XI and twice in the XII and here that proper time cannot be meant Again I must advise the reader to learne Daniel before he learne this booke Twentie yeares ago I made him plain enough and plainer of late though the Dragon cast out of his mouth a river of water The whole Realme by this houre might else have knowne Daniel clearely The Tyrannie and blasphemie of the Caesars and their destructions are knowne The Popes description A beast arising from the earth that is without war having hornes like a Lambe that is Christes Vicar having the mouth of the Devill for divelish lawes restoring the Empire and working Miracles of deceit as though he were Elias a restorer of truth The Iesuites report of their miracles comment well on this And the Popes endevour since great Constantine left hateful Rome to set it vp by revived Empire to destroy the East this matter is famous in continuall stories And Canon lawe telleth that none may live vnder the Empire but by yeelding vnto the Popes lawes in subscribing or oth or some open token as a marke in the forehead And where a nūber given to a man as the sonnes of Adonikam were 666. that being called the number of the beast and to a sense of wisedome which is vsuall in notation A God stāding vp that is Adoni-kam this describeth plainlie the man that stands vp in the temple of God as if hee were God CHAP. XIIII The reviving of the Gospell by worship of God onely in Christ as on mount Sion of old religion taught with as great concent of law and gospell as any harpes can make by rare men of courage patience wisdome and high policie by virgin mindes vnstayned by Idolatry renued by Christ and following him is taught Ch. 14. as Ch. 7. 11. And the Pope is told of fall and of eternall death to all of his bent and the Martyrs of present heavens ioy without purgatorie And Christ sitting on a cloud at prayer of the Church and an Angel comming out of the Church bid by an Angel Lord over fire and Gods heat with sicles cut off Papistes that their blood would reach to the horse bridles over a Land as Canaan made to a square by the Thalmud 1600. furlongs 400. every way The new Testament speaking to Iewes is applyed to their manner of speach plaine to a Thalmudique where it is hardest to vs. The destruction which rebellion in Ireland wrought by the Pope in Desmonds countrey if all the blood of the dead were poured out would a good way reach to horse bridles as that also of Ostend And what would al that war now 40. yeares yeeld in blood of Papistes going withall to eternall destruction Happie are the soldiers that dye with a good heart for the gospell for they rest from their labours CHAP. XV. A new vision telleth the gospels restoring and the enimies punishment persecution borne sincerely through fire and faggot is a sea of glasse mixed with fyre and praise is against Romes Aegypt and Dragon Pharaoh and Romes Babylon from Exod. 15. and Ier. 10. And seaven Angels clothed with pure Iustice come out of the temple in heaven Angels represent what God by men will doe vpon earth when sincere harted fight in his cause These have golden girdles about their brestes as the Sacrificers were girded Maymoni in the holy implements sweateth to prove from Ionathan vpon Ezekiel and Kabalah that the Sacrificers were girded about their brests Iohn made no doubt of the matter but as a Thalmudique taught from God telleth resolutely the whole truth Chap. 1. and here Such poincts shewed would make Iewes all learned Iewes confesse that God penned the New Testament All Christians bee Kinges and Sacrificers and should consider that they must weare crownes of golde which no goldsmith but Christ maketh to rule them selves in order and to obey all in Gods law and the girdle of truth to bind their hartes in stedfastnes Now where one of the fower wightes giveth the Angels seaven cuppes of Gods anger the learned full of eyes teach the people who are the temple to pray vnto God for vengeance vpon Christs enemies and vpon the peoples petition the Angels have charge to serve them as in Dan. 4 Heb. 1. and men are fortifyed by them as Darius Gabriel Dan. 11. 1. As the temple Es 6. was filled with a smoke of Christ his anger and Seraphim the Angels which were instruments of fyer did attend so here the smoke is in all the Church that the enemies shall not perceive the truth till they be cōsumed having sinned against the holy Ghost as the Iewes Esa 6. even by Rambam his graunt could not amend by ten chastisements till the temple was brent CHAP. XVI Vnder the seaven trumpets the earth the sea the fountaynes and rivers the sun the King of Locustes Euphrates and earthquake is celebrated The seaven Angels in plagues keep that order The Popes earth or earthly hold of his possessions is full
of incense and in his golden Mediation receyuing the prayers of the holy that with his incense they come before God so he sitteth a sacrificer for euer figured in Sem described as God without father without mother without beginning of dayes without ende of life witnessed in Moses description that he liueth for euer a King of Iustice and a King of peace so S. Paul to Scribes after their owne manner yet extant in Zohar and Menachem and others describeth his Vicar Sem the great as Rabbins terme him to haue figured the Redeemer to the world now of Noahs house The SON thus knowen in our Sonne How the old Testament came turned into wormewood Of the age before the flood God said I repent me that I made man therefore water tooke their bodies prison aeternall their spirits The tower-masons making Gods of starrs in contempt of SEM the high sacrificer and prating daylie against his faith were cut off froÌ„ Sems tongue to let it alone and in Babels captiuitie ended it from commune vse and soone after Daniels age from speach of all but schole learned But Moses by Sabbath reading was some what knowen to the people Besides God made Sems tongue so hard that a mans whole life will hardly catch it and left no authors of it but Sems prophets to make vs search how rare wordes in them open themselues and they vsed but once by the argument So Sems tongue is an hid pearle of it Iob cost me more paines alone then all Greeks who now coÌ„meth to open iudgemeÌ„t Churches had no Hebrew Rabbins for graÌ„mer of yer neare 1000. nor graÌ„mars or dictionaries Origen did put forth Ebrew in Ebrew letters and spell'd in Greeke much cited in Epiphanius with six Greeke translations The 70. hid their minde much specially in 3600. yeres alteration of liues from Moses truth as thus Adam liued 230. yeares and begate Seth. And afterwardes 700. for 130. in Moses and 800. our notes say Moses omitted 100. y. before Seths birth they may as well say he gaue 100. too many afterwardes and so in 3600. yeres Yet though Arabique were neare Hebrew and Aethiopian they translate the 70. And not the Ebrew and Greekes with Muscouia follow them But if Princes had allowed in euery land so big as Canaan 42. great Cities for Hebricians only they had beene Ezdrae for readinesse in the Law and had beene Atlantes to beare vp heauen God saw that his justice could chose but few and of eternitie did set many to anger and therefore gaue not Princes that iudgement nor to scholars one of a thousand millions a minde to such hard paines but to be such monachos as Nazianzenus taunteth giuen all to feed them selues and to enuie all paines and Athanasius Gregorie and his deare brother Basil felt for the holy Trinitie And West Monachos rested in Ierome for text and in S. Augustin for explication Of the New Testament The New Testament penned in Greeke by the H. Spirit is to be esteemed in Greeke better then all the world can euer conceiue Part I hope to vtter but conceiue more The preparation to bring Greeke ouer the world must heere be knowen To Iapheths Iauan God left it and spread his race from Cilicia ouer the West that Bardi Caesar CoÌ„ in France and our Cambria kept Greeke Philosophi And when God meant in open action to end by Babel Sems tongue which he kept in Canaan 500. yeares that Babilons coÌ„fusion hurt not the Kings house but the Chananean dialects twelue came neare his when God would end this tongue in holy Daniels age when hee had shewed the strict yeare and Pascha day of Christ his Pascha who being the first from the dead would shew light vnto the world And Aggei Zacharie and Esdras Malachi had commented vpon holy Gabriels oration when God would haue no more Diuinitie written all being spoken that could bee told he sheweth a miraculous prouidence to fiâ—t the Greeke tongue to the Gospell by Athenes and all Grecia Pisistratus of holy Iosiahs time brought noble Homers wit into more reuerence then Monkes the holy Gospell that children should learne him euery whit without booke and parted him twice in Iliade Odissea into Alpha Beta c. As the vnknowen God dealt Psal 25. 34. 37. 111. 112. 119. 8 tymes 145. Pro. 31. Lamen 6. tymes And Aristarchus made a commeÌ„tarie vpon his hard wordes so that S. Peter by Gods reuelatioÌ„ vseth his noble phrase and him not Eustathius I cited though Bil. and Bar. would win spurres to prick their owne sides Didimus elder then S. Peter kept Aristarchus remnants and froÌ„ Didimos not from Eustathius I brought Aristarchus and Homer whom I am sure S. Peter neuer read but the holy Ghost read him and led Peter This honor to Homer set on Solon to write senteÌ„ces and Theognes Phocillides Minermus that ciuill groundes were made pleasant in braue Greeke to make all eloquent in speach Then arise tragiques Aeschylus an Heroique equall to Homer or old Corinnos of Troyes age and P Alamedes scholar who in other warres gaue Homer his timber Euripides the painter of mans lot and Lyriques rare and Commediques as witty Aristophanes Phisitians Historiques from Hesters age Hellanicus and Herodotus and Plato and Aristotle and tenn Oratores and Theopompus innumerable of all sortes while Iuda was in Babilon and vnder Persian taught Dan. 10. that soone they should bee vnder Grecia till Christ came in some parte and therefore they taught their children Greek that the 70. flaunted in store setting 80. seuerall Greek sometime to one Hebrew tree as to Shub 70. 60. 50. 40. 30. 20. 10. and so to very many Now Macedonians of Selleucus Nicatores people being in 72. Kingdomes East and North were forced to knowe Greeke and by the Ptolomies South learned Greek and the Iewes scattred by them brought the 70. ouer all and mention of Moses So before our Lordes redemption tyme all nations as Tully for Archi saith knew Greek when Latin was kept in a narrow compasse And thus a fundation was laid for elegant timber to the N. Testament The Iewes note in Ierusalemi Megila that Noah prophecied how Sems house should bring Iapheth to faith in the tongue of Iauan the Greeke And Midras Rabba citeth the same and in Megilah theysay that no tongue but Greeke can giue Hebrew fitt termes Christians should vrge their owne testimonie that as a Tribe failed not from Iuda till Messiah came so all nations then spake Greek but not many ages after that And as Abben Ezra confesseth vpon Dan. 9. that the 70. seauens are 490. yeres from Daniels prayer to sealing of Messias the holy of holy wherein not one of a hundreth thousand millions speaketh so truely for our victorie as the sharpest enimy doth So Ierusalemi should haue confessed that the fishers of Gallile were to write in Greeke from Ierusalem after 490. yeres And before it should be destroyed as we see Actor 15. Of the
they had coined Phrases to new vexation of our spirits and make the word seeme a nose of wax Thus we hinder our owne fight but some still hold the truth that the accusation cannot be generall The rest should be wise with them The Diuell and his Angels by MICAEL that standeth vp for his people who be his Angels are banished from the Church and knowen to be vnclean spirits A second and playner exposition of the Dragons warre And I heard a great voice saying in the heauen now is come the saluation and power and Kingdome of our GOD and the auctority of his CHRIST because the accusar of our brethren who accuseth them before GOD day and night is cast downe And they haue ouercome by the blood of the Lambe and by the word of his Testimony and despised their liues vnto death Therefore reioyce yee heauens and they who dwell in them wo be vnto them which dwell in the Land and the Sea because the Diuell is come to you hauing great wrath knowing that he hath but a litle while Where a company by Martyrdome shew that saluation commeth onely by the death of CHRIST and are constant in that Testimony then troupes that make the heauens kingdom heere protest they know how saluation cōmeth know Gods power that falleth the mighty state of the Pope and know wherein the Kingdome of God standeth And the auctority of Christ where the Pope had a Kingdome of Satan in his policy through all partes of all common weales euen from ruling Emperours to the poorest that had but a chimney to pay a Peter-peny The holy Testament playnelie shewing our Creatores And how the spirit of CHRIST flootereth vpon all the waters of both Testaments and cleared the holy story And cleareth our hearts to call vpon GOD with a good heart this sheweth in this plaine sum what the Kingdome of God and auctority of CHRIST is Gouernement standeth vpon plaine rules The wealthy that know CHRIST Kinges Dukes Earles Barons Knights will study to excell in Diuinity to be true Bishopps and Elders to eate vp the Booke of the Gospell and to see all miscariage sagely restreined being those that Saint Paul and the Talmudiques meant by Pastors And will see how by Church lands an infinite company may be made cunning in tongues and sense of both Testaments That the Angelos Ecclesiae and daylie Seniores may be so taught in Diuinity as men are in liberall artes to know the wholle facultie and the propre vse of euery holy booke And what concent all the scripture hath and where one error putteth all out of tune but may soone be remoued so a faithfull minde will often in a day runne ouer all the Bible and see all ages faithfull as trees planted by waters and all wicked as dust scattred by the winde And such will be true Bishopps as Cucullus non facit monachum so a courtiers fauor and title maketh not a Bishopp for saluation and power and kingdome of God and authority of Christ Buy-shopps mocke with GOD but all Mordecaies will vse them as Agagites and as leprous to the Church So when all Gouerners in state be learned Bishopps ioy will be in the Church that the Diuell must goe to Land or quiet state of the Pope or sea warres of Emperors bad to seeke whom he can deuour The learned dealers for the Church will finde for it meanes in persequution to be protected Yea and to make the Land or Papisticall state as King H. VIII did drie vp the riuers of the Popes persequution In the middle of Papistry he ouerthrew the Pope by Papistes Who were content to buy the Abbeies that fed Idolatrous Locusts could not for starke shame denie a common prayer booke made from the masse booke turned to English so so much was chosen from the masse booke to be in English as seemed not directly to fight with Gods trueth and subscription for allowance to that was no further meant but that the Papists could finde no fault with it Vnder K. E. 6. and Q. E. the best Bishopps allowed the communion booke no further and gaue others leaue to expresse that how they bare with it vntill fitt tyme of amendement Of the Dragons short tyme. This speach sheweth the tyme neere the seauenth trumpet for the worlds end by the Dragons tayle the Pope heere meant in his persecution that the Diuell is fierce knowing that he shall not be long the God of this world And the Pope feareth least his Kingdome shall soone fall And our Buyshopps that vrge his canons damned by our common Lawes are now in rumores that they incense some to begge all Buyshopps lands Leicester went farre to chaing 40000. lib. for rack rent but more harme is bred by Buyshopps tyranny now Bishopps vnder King Edw. haue beene such as none but of Satans spirite would deny them to bee lawfull Bishops And such as agreed well with Nobles Gentry and all The name troubleth none but the Barbarous They who hold the place without teaching the people the trueth and with tyranny breake the cōmon lawes of the realme which stand with reason that is the Law of God such should chainge their minde and obey the Gospell lest their short tyme be for Sarans seruice and for euer And when the Dragon saw that he was cast into the earth he persequuted the woman which brought forth the male child This common place toucheth all the Popes persequutions though it be vttered as at one tyme. The Pope had still ready cruell torment for all of his that descried wickednesse in his religion And to the woman were giuen two winges of an eagle to flee into the wildernesse into her owne place to bee nourished there a tyme and tymes and halue a tyme from the praesense of the Serpent The Pope driueth the Church into the Wildernesse as Pharaoh droue Israel Saul Dauid Antiochus the holy Iewes the Pharisees he Lord of glory for a tyme two tymes and halfe a tyme three yeeres and an halfe and as I shewed all tyme of persecution is called in remembrance of our Lordes a persecution of dayes 1260. as chap. XI or of a tyme two tymes and halfe a tyme As Beda and Carthusianus well noted In Exo. 19. God saith hee brought Israel from Egypt as with eagles winges so the persecutor heere is a newe Pharaoh and Rome is Egypt spiritually as in chap. XI And the Dragon Pharaoh is heere a new Dragon And the Pope which will bee worshipped for a God is as Darius Dan. 6. and in the fable vpon that as the Dragon which the Chaldeans worshipped The Phrase of the fable folowed a true storie Of the tyme of these persequutions And the Dragon did cast after the woman out of his mouth water like a riuer to make her riuer-caried But the earth holpe the woman and the earth opened her mouth and dranke vp the riuer which the Dracon cast out of his mouth And the Dracon was angry with the
the Pope be sitting vpon the Empire by litle and litle And England at 1200. yer would not grant him supremacy Sigibert And good father WICKLIFE now 200. yeares ago preached that if the commune lawes of England might stand the Pope should haue no stroke in England And good Lady Margareth a pearle for a woman the mother to K. Henry the seauenth when she built Christs Colledge S. Iohns in both which I was fellow and owe them this dutie she in those dayes made lawes to aduance knowledge to ruinate the Pope And the valiant Henry VIII trust him out from being head or taile in our Church so the Empire ridden by the Pope stood but a litle while in sundrie places And all the while of the arising the Grecians as Chrysostome Andreas Oecumenius taught that the Romane Empire would be reuiued though in Greek stories Sysimus and the ecclesiasticall Alaricus Giezerichus wrought much harme and there Antichrist should reigne And if the Greeke old Doctores had bene well known the Pope had neuer gotten peny by his Masse Areopagita taketh the worde in the Law sense the token of the body so Eusebius the Image and Symbolon and so elder Origene and later Nazianzene Antitypes and later Theodorit in a full disputation and Macarius the Greeke Monke calleth it Symbolum and full many moo Then the Pope had no auctoritie for turning bread into the body of Christ to make him haue 1000. bodies and to make Religion a stage to Angels and men This long warning of the Popes arising was a warning to all ages that they should not suffer the starr falling to make bitter the waters of the Law nor darken the starrs and in all ages he had gainesayers And both Princes and People who contemned the warning of this book were worthie to be giuen ouer to all force of error And the Beast which was and is not the same is also the eight and one of the seauenth The Pope shall be the eight chaleng place aboue all follow all heathen superstitiō in name staffe apparel of Caesares and Temples setting but a face of Christianity vpon them A plaine description of the Popes comming vp And the tenne hornes which thou sawest are tenne Kings which haue not yet receiued the kingdome but receiue auctoritie as kings one houre with the beast These haue one minde and shall part their power and auctoritie to the Beast These shall make warre with the Lambe and the Lambe shall ouercome them for he is Lord of Lordes and King of Kings and they which are with him are called and chosen and faithfull Steuchus against Valla reckoning the Countries which held of the Pope bringeth them to ten But we must know that ten vsually is a great number about ten fewer or moo These kingdoms vnder the first Caesares were not so parted as when Iulian the Apostata kept at Paris who neuer heard that his Fathers brother the great Emperor Constantine gaue the West to the Pope and if any such matter had bene it could neuer be hid from him But when the Pope of Rome by long begging for S. Peter and so for Monasteries in many Countreies had gotten much wealth and ready good wills in Rome and the West to set vp againe the Empire at Rome He picketh quarrels with the Patriarch of Constantinople for procession of the holy Ghost and Pascha day and supremacy still of old labored to extinguish the Greek tongue and puritie of Latin and weakneth the East Empire that barbarous Gothes reigned whom to ouerthrow Princes gladly ioyne with him and he with them still for great Countreyes that in the end they sweare to helpe him to hold Constantinus donation and to bring the East the Greeke to agree with Rome And after 1000. yea the king of Locustes hath Satans throne in such power that his winges bee chariots and horses to cause kinges to doe what hee will As for Ierusalem warrs to ouerthrow all their kingdomes And in these tymes Satan bare sway that scant any learned were in the West But Monasteries and Collegies were built to fortifie haeresie that Greeke was vnknowen till our age and Ebrew to this houre for skill in the tongue able to hold water and to make a translation of good warrant to all learned iudgements In this blindnesse still some Abates and such fought well by pen and at the last by Martyrs whom the Pope damned and the secular power put to death But in the end Christ by his martyrs roareth like a Lion and seauen thunders tell his anger seauen Angels poure it out and men eate the little booke of Scripture and preach to nations and kinges to bethinke them how they did set vp Rome And hee saith to mee The waters which thou sawest where the Where sitteth are people and folke and nations and tongues The phrase is from Babel Ierem. 51. O thou which sittest vpon many waters and from Dan. 3. These phrases teach the simple how plaine Gods Law is lightning the eyes to call old matters into minde and to teach by old euents howe other matters will fall out Moreouer this open speach of manie waters to meane people and nations would making a commentarie in the margin vpon many places of the old Testament inlighten much Of the Popes fall And the tenne hornes which thou sawest vpon the Beast these shall hate the Whoore and make her desolate and naked and eate her flesh and shall burne her in the fire The same kingdomes which cleaued to the Pope for profite or deceipt when they see all profit gone and how he by terror of forged purgatorie gate Princes great lands wil alter their minde to hate the Pope Many millions in England hate his keies in Canterburies armes as a mockage to the true keies of knowledge so they hate the title grace in Scotland as doth the learned M. Meluin others hate Leuies Linen Cope Priest and Kneeling at receiuing bread which should bee receiued with most holy iudgement not in the Popes gesture others hate the Leprosie of the Apocrypha books the writers of which shew no more faith in Christ then did Flauius Iosephus nor so much Others hate the Popes forme of prayer patched vp for his vse to content the people not to spend that tyme in requiring of them opening of the Bible And many would haue our Bishops caught in praemunire to loose all Others make great sute to haue their lands Now if in England most reuerend right reuerend fathers so learned as they take vpon them to bee bee so hated for remnant of Papistrie what hatred shall open Popery haue where the Pope dareth excommunicate kinges Thal. Ierusal noteth that the King might not be excommunicated nor any chiefe Ruler But be sagely warned to keepe his house for a time and to saue his honor But the high Sacrificer was whipped with as many stripes as any other for his faultes Ierus in Sanedrin But our Pope will bee excommunicating
praise our God all his seruants and they that feare him both small and great This short summe of Diuinitie distinguisheth vs from Papists who make Gods of Creatures and giue praise to them where God only will be feared And I heard the voice of a great multitude and as the voice of many waters as the voice of strong thunders saying Halelu-iah for the Lord God of hostes doth reigne let vs reioyce and be glad and let vs giue him glory For the mariage of the Lambe is come and the wife hath praepared her selfe and it was giuen her to put on white linen pure and shining For the linen is the iustice of the sainctes When whole kingdomes call vpon God and fight for the Gospell with successe it is fitted to continual noise of waters as Ezekiel 1. 24. the kingdomes that made Gods iudgements knowen are likened to much water the thunder of Gods power is well expressed by thunder of the ayer Psalm 29. All tendeth to Aleluiah Praise God in whom wee breath for rescuing vs from Satan with manifestation of his kingdome And let not England forget the goodnesse of the Lord but acy remember it and not hide it from their children but to the generation to come to shewe the prayses of the Eternall his power also his wonderfull workes that he hath done The light of the Gospell now these hundred yea hath bene exceeding great to greater knowledge then euer since the Apostles tymes the Church had And all reformed Countreies flow with learned men And sage cariage is heere laid out to the eye in white linen This short rule must alwayes hold God will make known who bee his and all must depart from sinne that call vpon the name of God And he saith vnto mee write Blessed are they that are called to the supper of the mariage of the Lambe This should be written in all hearts that they only be happie which in the Lords Supper protest the aboundance of grace of the gift of iustice The bread bare wine bare taken in the sage vse that our soules feed vpon his incarnation and redemptioÌ„ is as strong as the frame of the world to stay vs in Christ The auctority of the speaker who made the world by his word must be looked vnto and as our eyes iudge of the frame of the world and our minde to what inuisible vse all was made subiect to a man so our eyes must iudge of bread wine our minds that Christ suffring for vs ended sacrifice offring By seale of things without life by bread and blood of the grape by the terme supper the whole tenor of Christianity is meant but the acceptation of the seale is an open action to distinguish vs froÌ„ others The Pope corrupted from the playnesse that is in Christ and making Priest sacrifice hath missed wholy of the trueth in Christ as Iannes â—nd Iambres resisted Moses Papists would make fooles belieue that Calvin bread this symbolum corporis and in other matters if Calvin hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a rash word they vrge that vpon whole Churches Their eyes might tell that the ancient Grecians neuer made question heere neither had combat with haeretiques heere Eusebius after Origen recorder of the whole Churches opinion in praep calleth Bread and Wine Icones symbola Neither did any after him striue against that but full many followed him God is light and all the Bible is so plaine to a sound student that none can moue doubt but to his plague The Papists cary in a siluer chest a wafer of meale as the bodie of Christ making themselues a scoffe to God and his Angels and the barbarous thinke by vnlearned prating to make their cause good They come 40. yer short of learning to defende the common groundes against a subtill Iew or Turke as to this syllogisme of Machmad If the scripture be corrupted another iudge must be had The Pope not only granteth but vrgeth also this this But the scripture is corrupted Therefore another iudge must be had I will ioyne with Turke Iew and Pope to grant the Preposition But against Turke Iew and Pope our side I deny the assumption and hold the text pure This no Romist yet euer saw Therefore their studies must bee holden vnfitt to rule in Diuinity And he saith to mee these words of God be true By reason that the carnall man cannot see the glorie of the wisedome which is in the couenant of CHRIST in plaine simplicitie full of heauenly trueth The Angell stayeth vpon this doctrine as opposite to Rome working Romes fall handled chap. 18. And I fell downe at his feete to haue worshipped him he saith to me do not For I am fellow seruant to thee to thy brethren which haue the testimonie of IESVS Worship God for the spirite of prophecie is the testimonie of IESVS Heere Iohn sheweth mans weaknesse to Idol-seruice in his transe ready to worship the Angel And telleth that Angells be ministring spirites for our saluation God only must bee worshipped The spirites that teach teach of Christ that he only must bee worshipped In the old Testament Christ is called an Angel and is worshipped but no created Angel is worshipped The warres of Christ and Christians against the Empire and Pope And I saw the heauen opened and behold a white horse and hee that sate vpon him was called faithfull and true and in Iustice doth he iudge war And his eyes were like a flame of fire he had vpon his head many Diademes hauing a name written which none knew but himselfe and clothed in a garment dipped in blood and his name is called the WORD OF GOD. The heauen opened sheweth what shall be opened in the Church the white horse is sincere might the Ryder is called faithfull and true to assure vs of victory against mighty states and he iudgeth warreth in righteousnesse vnable to abide sinne still to reigne his eyes bee a flame of fire searching in iustice to the bottome as Daniel 10. for the ouerthrowe of Xerxes armie and Apo. 1. and 2. And his many Diademes sheweth that he will rule Kinges in many Countreyes And the name written which none knoweth but himselfe signifieth the Godhead dwelling in light that none can come to His garment dipped in blood is expounded Esai 63. shewing that the enemies blood shall make him known as vnder old Assur and Cittim And his name is the WORD OF GOD as in Iohn the first and infinitely in Onkelos Iehouah is the WORD of IEHOVAH These mightie titles comfort the Church that they shall bee sure of a victorie Reigne still O King MESSIAS for we rest on thee reigne still O King of Sainctes and wee will folow after thee And the armies in the heauen folow him vpon white horses clothed in linen white and cleane The valiant Christians with speed and courage folow Christ and in synceritie of truth though Lutherans
and holy scriptures should be our prayers Athanasius sheweth vse in them for all life and to euery part of holy story certein Psalmes might fitly be quoted The prayers wich wee haue from the Pope were penned for his drifte in Diuinity and offer great hold of blame in euery point and no wight full of eyes wil be taught but by God to what prayer hee shall say Amen The Prayer which the Lord gaue is commended to be the common-prayer of the Church assembled But without Battalogie or often repetitions And for it Math. chap. 6. the Pope corrupteth the Greek text filching away the sentence of greatest light Thine is the Kingdome Power and Glory for euer and euer which calleth Daniel chap. 7. and all Daniel thither To bee a Carbuncle-wall to the Sermon If the Bishopps translate the Bible well and add tables for skilfull reading of Conference in Places This will best build walls of Carbuncle when all pray as their heart and God best liketh And the Citie was of pure gold like to pure glasse By the Citie is meant the whole lawes of policy which should be as pure as gold and as cleare as glasse Tyrannicall and superstitious anger God and where the policy is disputable it is foolish And the foundations of the wall were trimmed with euery pretious stone Before I shewed vpon ch 7. how the Tribes were fitted to their stones and more largely in my aduertisement of errors in our handling of religion How the warriers the frontiers were two noble of Lea but of some blemish Reuben and Simeon and of each handmaid Dan and Gad had stones of color for a warriers coate The water men likewise fit colored stones fit notationed Isachar Zabulon Aser Nephtaly the noble statesmen also fit Leuy Iuda Ioseph Beniamin So that the dum stones assuring Israel of the Land when they misbelieued argued them to be but common sand The order of the Tribes Apoc. 21. Sundry orders very many be of the tribes in the old Testament to shew that one is not better then another but that in some points the meane is as the best Heere they are placed in speciall regard of storie Beniamin not Reuben nor yet Ioseph first Issachar not Simeon second Because Leui and Iuda held themselues all wayes better Then Iuda third not Leui. Then Leui in Iudahs old place Then Zabulon fift as next to Isachar Then Reuben sixt to come before the handmaides S. Then Aser the handmaides son Ancestor to Anna the Dau. of Phanuel Then Ioseph the eighth Then Simeon to come before the rest baser borne Then Nephtali of the first bearing handmaid before Dan his elder brother Then Dan before the later bearing handmaides S. And Gad in the place left This situation commeth not from Iohns witt as hee nameth the tribes chapter 7. but from eyesight of a building set by God Reason of their order Reuben lost his glory first falling from the land Then by Ciuill right Ioseph should haue had it For in Iacobs purpose he was eldest and had the birthright But Ieroboam after seauen defenders falling and felling ten tribes cast him to the eight place For that cause his Beryll in Aharons shoulders holding six Tribes on the one and six on the other is translated of the 70. Smaragdus because heathen could not see why God should plague proud Ephraim Ioseph bearing vp all in Aegypt and in Iosuah So the Sardius of Reuben is not in the first place not the Beryll of Ioseph But the Iasper of Beniamin Ioseps brother by ciuill right As the Temple was built in the tribe of Beniamin whereby halfe Beniamin claue to Iudah and Beniamin by Ester Atossa and Mordecai repressed the decree of destruction from Aman of Amaleke and Esther became the mother of great Darius Artaxerxes bringeth the Persian King that built the Temple to be of Beniamin and all his seed and caused fauor to the Iewes vnder Persia Whereby doubtlesse many of Beniamin before S. Paul his sisters sonnes and the named Rom. 15. were great pillars of the Church And S. Paul alone building three gates of Ierusalem Westward is ynough to make Beniamins Iaspar the first foundation seeing he filled all frō Ierusalem to Illyrico with the Gospel of Christ after to Rome where he first taught the Synagogue what the Gospell was Act. 28. and Caesars Pallace Phil. 1. and taught two yeares without let and went to Spaine for he spake from God that he would so doe and from wicked Rome that crucified Christ hee built many Churches by others sending Crescens into France and Titus into Dalmatia and calling Marke from the East who had beene with Peter at Babylon keeping deere Luke the Phisitian with him to make many Princes Theophilos And in his beginning of Epistles he warned 2. Thess 2. that cursed policie of the world should come and Rom. 13. warned them not to take superioritie ouer the Ciuill Officer and recording matters small and many persons neuer hath one syllable that Peter should euer be at Rome But being a Prophet as Saint Luke hath arguments innumerable and inuincible that hee neuer was there What a companie doth he reckon in the Epistle to the Romanes without any mention that Peter had been there but of his owne desire to build where others had not laid a foundation And from Rome to the Galathians he telleth expresly that Peters charge was for the Iewes scattred by captiuitie to whom the twelue Apostles were charged chiefly to goe and to iudge the 12. Tribes To the Ephesians he mentioneth Tychicos whom he sent to them but nothing of Peter And to the Philippians he mentioneth that the Gospell by his bondes was manifested in Caesars pallace It had bene a stale newes if another had done that afore and if Peter had turned any of Caesars house which to record it toucheth the glory of Christ he had as well mentioned that And S. Luke who enuied not S. Peter in the Actes but told high glory had not hid his praise in Rome if desert had bene And he telleth the Collossians that Luke was with him without mention of more or token that Peter euer had beene there And in the second to Timothie he nameth many Demas leauing of him Crescens and Titus as I told and Lucas only to bee with him and that Marke who was in Chaldea 1. Pet. 5. should be brought to him Also he mentioneth Eubulus Pudens and Linus and where hee left Trophimus sicke and how Alexander the Copper-smith hindred him and if sainct Peter had laid any fundation in Rome to his helpe hee had neuer hid that And when Timothie came to Rome and was sent from him he telleth the Hebrewes of him but because they knew howe Paul many yeeres after his calling agreed with Peter to bishop the East he mentioneth nothing of him That by Beniamins Iasper S. Paul should be the fundation of the heathen borne among heathen and borne Citizen of the chiefe West
of Constantinus and he removeth the Empire to Byzantium calleth it new Rome and indueth it with the privilegies of old Rome Our West brought him to the East and one of our Helena despiseth old Rome buildeth new Rome near Troy where the wicked Helena wrought destruction to the house of Assaracus that after 300. yeares old Rome should begin by blood and spoyling And this may be noted that Q. Elisabets agent did that in Constantinople that none of other nations could That the Turkes Princes and Iewes there desired to have from England the Gospell preached there in Greek and Hebrew and the Kings royall mynd is to be commended for his bent to allowance that way L. Barton wrote that if N. could be gotten thither it were like to turne to the common good of Christendome So God offered our nation againe glory in the stateliest soyle But Satan hindreth by his servants that can turne themselves into Angels of light God will look to it One libeller would perswade that the Iewes letter comming in severall copies and translated there and thence sent to Basil and printed there was forged there A strange dealing a strange impudency None learned would think that all Christendome setting their wittes together could forge such a letter The slaunderer could not read one line of it And what a barbarous vnthankfull wight is the Libeller of these words Because your armes are the owles you think you must bring owles to Athens and because the Iew saluteth you as you feigne you think you are the onely Rabbin of the world If the base borne wight had bene of Constantinus kindred he had bene of an other spirit but now he could not consider the height of that cause The like vnto him is he that sayd these words The knight which said the King would give 500. lib. annuitie did but flatter and I will stay the King that he shall give no allowance to Iewes matters All the Oratours that ever were can not sufficientlie expresse the deadly hatred that these men have to the truth of God There is no other way to make Christians readie in the Bible but by handling the Gospell by Thalmudiques to whose tenour of studie all the new Testaments stile is bent The best learned Iesuits at Francfurt in the hearing of a gentleman of England hartily requested this done saying that by me they ready to cleare the new Testament could soone turne the Indians The Iewes over Germanie hartely desire this Princes made great promises but the old serpent wil be hindring whom the great Angel can tye in chaynes that he deceive not and deale with his factours as they wil be boūd with chaynes of darknes To which matter I require the cuppes of the foure wights and 24. Bishops full of incense to be powred before the Lambe that Iannes and Iambres may receive according to their workes that no more regard whence the sixt seale brought on a new world nor how the fallen must be lifted vp CHAP. VII Three hundred yeares were passed ere that men were sufficient in number to have kingdomes of Christianitie Then Schollers began to remit zeale and Hebrew studie which had soone overthrowen Arians shewing GOD to bee our Creatour Eccles 12. and Christ Iehova our righteousnes Yea the Apocalyps had most tamed Arians and Iewes and had been clear at the first by Thalmudique veine of studie By 300. moe Byshops pride and sloth made but a gaine and ambition of the Gospell Antioch would have chief Patriarkship following Antiochus old pride Alexandria would as Alexāder would be a God Old Rome would as it crucified Christ New Rome would for the Empires seat None considered that the Scholers of Patmos should be the sealed martyrs whē neither North-wind rose nor South-winde blasted in the garden that the spices might flow the beloved come into the Garden and eat of his precious fruites Cant. 4. But foure Angels held the foure windes God favoured Antioch that where sinne abounded mercy might more abound That men should not therefore be high minded but feare in the ende Hagarenes take it Cush or Abushini in Keturahs house had Abrahams familie and long held well but in the end held but the Gospel and few Epistles and the Psalmes for all the Bible That which Colen Rome hath printed Moscovia from Constantinople held litle sound Rome was the cause of falling to all still weakening the East Empire that should have holp the rest So God telleth that a generall fall shall come that not the open be the true but the hid bee the servantes of God such as God sealed As in Ieremies dayes in Ierusalem the ill figs the troupes of Ierusalem were a Synagogue of Sathan when all the Levites condemned him to dy and God in Ezekiel sealeth all his whom Israel condemned So here an apostasie is told which groweth vp 300. yeares by many wicked steps And then commeth to the Popes supremacy and soon maketh the open Church a Synagogue of Satan That onely men vnknowen few to mens sight but many to Gods ey that seeth all be the Church Here the Papists might have their answer when they aske where our Church was The tribes all have ech one twelve thowsand Though Dan is not named he is vnderstood But when Iosephs two sonnes and Levi be reckoned one is left out as Symeon Deu. 33. So Dan here They be shallow who hence gesse that Antichrist commeth of Dan. S. Paul taught Chrysostome 2. Thes 2. that he should come from Rome The latter halfe of the Chapter sweetly expresseth the poinctes wherevpon all standeth that salvation is from God and the Lambe All more in religion is from the serpent All honor to Mary Saincts Also Martyrs and their comfort is sweetly expressed This matter in time followeth the eight and ninth CHAP. VIII Out of the seventh seal come matters more to bee sounded thē six afore had The Church had peace a small while but angels seven are prepared to sound wrath arising Christ the Mediatour is ready to receyve prayer he is contemned by Rome dallying with his mediation Therefore hee powreth voyces thundrings lightnings and earthquake Angels here tell it Men in playn work The first common place Warre Hayle and fire mixt with blood sheweth vexation with warre ever since Constantines house fell the Popes bestird them to stirre warres to overthrow the East Empire and to set the West by the eares The second common place The Popes supremacy The arising to be a great mountayne became a mountayne of fyre when he cast himselfe into the sea of nations That a third part of men became dead in sin in profane trafique of life The third common place Corruption of Scripture wrested to his policie A great star burning as a torch fell from heaven and fell into the rivers and fountaynes of waters the name of the star is wormwood c. Angelus ecclesiae the Doctor is a star Ch. 1. heaven is the Church burning
as a lampe is kindling of wrath the waters be the Scriptures falling into them is wresting of them to mainteyne his kingdome so the sense is bitter and the D. is wormwood that many finde deadly haeresies by this wormwood The fourth trumpet Great fall They which were principall as the sun moone and stars Iacobs familie in Iosephs dreame lose much light Gagnaeus a Papist telleth this to touch Popes Cardinals Bishops A preparation to marke triple woe vpon this An Angell flyeth in the open sky telleth of three woes vpon this CHAP. IX The V. common place The Angel or Doctor falling from heaven the Church hath giuē to him not S. Peters keyes of knowledge but keyes of a deepe pit to darken sun and ayer the office of Christ and law by which we see him So infinite millions of mōkes and fryers come forth locusts for devouring the earth with scorpions stings to torment harts when Christ is obscured and Scripture that men find no comfort but bee worse for their soule then Iob for his body Iob 3. To make warres their wealth will make many horses and they have authority as Kinges with their crownes though they pretend to be as private men Dan. 7. The Chaldean stript of Kingdome is so termed And Antiochus having no right to the kingdome and they keep within doores as of womens hayre but they have Lyons teeth to hold fast all forged and wringed giftes openly forged as Constantinus donation and wringed of kingdomes which they help vp and from deceived by terrour of purgatory They have brest plates of iron to defend themselves and the noyse of their wings is like the noyse of horses running to warres while stil they set Kings by the eares for the first common place that haile and fyre be mixed with blood And their scorpion stinges sting men five moneths till Princes compell them by a cold winter to hide themselves in hedges as Nahums Locustes of Ninivy hide them by enemies An excellent name of the Pope THE ANGEL OF THE PIT KING OF LOCVSTS ABANDDON APOLLYON Our common name which we give the Pope is Daemon in Greek for Popes be Daemones in Eustathius from the Commentaries of old Aristarchus and Didymus and others His Commentaries are from ancient Heathen not from himself as Erasmus well noteth in his observations vpon the Apocalyps Whereas I cited Homers Commentary followed by S. Peter D. B. the learned thought that a foolish oversight as though I must mean Eustathius who was of late And he doubteth whether S. Peter read Homer I am out of doubt he never read him But the holy Ghost gave words of old for S. Peters vse afterward by instinct not by reading And so much a simple Doctor might have knowen B. L. shewed himself in his vnlearned skophing most Athean And as Iannes and Iambres Symon Magus Elymas and Alexander the Coppersmyth are for eternall memorie in the hart of the Bible so deserve such for to be Now as wee vnawares and Papists call the Pope Daemona a Divel vnawares we call him so GOD ruling our tongues that is specially worthy noting When Iulian the Apostata was kild and Libanius commended him that he now was with the Daemones the Greek Doctors took him vpon his word and what an asse he was to speak that which the enemy would wish D. Iohannes Pistorius the Popes chalenger wrote to me that IOHN CALVIN was Dactylodeictes of Antichrist Who shewed by the finger who was Antichrist I took his graunt that so the Pope was For Calvins finger aymed at him So the Popes chalenger overthrew the Pope The same wrote to me the Anathema But God dealt with him as with Balaam the son of Beor in Italy pronuntiation of Bosor in Chaldean where S. Peter kept where the Galilaean his voice told he wrote not from Rome The Doctours Anathema was this to me I Anathematize thee as Paul did Barnabas I take it sayd I. And so thou makest me better then any Pope that ever was at Rome Paul thought him of the same faith and happines But I anathematize D. Iohn Pistorius as S. Paul did Anathematize Elymas Magus Vpon this he yeelded as Helvetia knoweth And to his dying day spake most reverently as some English heard of his checker So here we must mark not what men call the Pope Holy father and vicar of Christ and head of the Church and King of Kings and Lord of Lords but what GOD doth call him and God taught Adam to give fit names Here the Popes names be many One is the Angel of the pit as the star falling had the keyes of the Pit to bring forth his Locusts And the King of Locusts is the fittest name for him In Ebrew he is called Abaddon Num. 24. and Abdan in the Thalmud is the worst name Aruch will teach the place Also he is called Abaddon chiefly for remembrance of Num. 24. where Balaam endeth his prophecy in Italy going on to destruction Iohn Chap. 17. 8. 11. translateth Balaam most properly as D. Kimchi in hard Grammer Adey obed goeth on to destruction In Greek he is another Apollo a Divel of Delphos destroying such as seek to him as Apollo destroyed rich Craesus deceiving him to war against Cyrus He knew well enough that Cyrus should have the victory Esay had told him so and though Craesus gave to Apollos temple very great gifts yet when he asked him whether he should fight with Cyrus he answered Craesus passing over Halys shall overthrow a great King So he did in hope of good But overthrew his own kingdome and rich Craesus became poore Irus So the Pope maketh but a mock of Kings Thus one who of the sixt seale is fully described what the Pope is and what he meaneth to do as Chap. 11. shall tell And this first of the three woes thus set forth reacheth from the Popes supremacy after the yeare of our Lord 600. vnto Ierusalems war ended at 1200. For which 600. yeares the Pope still made haile and fyre to be mixed with blood Now the second woe is in his punishments by the Turk and by the Gospell and Martyrs teaching Princes to cast him off The sixt trumpet and common place Of the Turks comming vp and dealing Cedrenus and Volaterranus in Arabia triplici teach of the Turks and Saracens conjunction and sundry others how they afflicted Spain and Italy Their history I have touched in my book of Scripture Concent I would any of cleane spirit that rageth not against the Concent which GOD gave to Scripture I do but shew to have my best help thence There is a full explication of the second woe Bibliander in Chronologia sheweth that after the Popes supremacie graunted by wicked miserable Phocas to impudent Boniface the third Machumed began to be as gratious a Father as the Pope in Rome Machmad is in Cant. the title of Christ Graces it self And Chamudoth partaker of graces to rare Daniel Chap. 9. by the Angel Gabriel