say when the Kingdome of the Beast that Whore which yet desperatly triumpheth in the confidence of her stately Babylon x Chap. 18.7 sitting in her throne and saying in her heart I sit a Queen and am no widow and shall see no sorrow shall bee destroyed y Verse 8. whose plagues shal come in one day death and mourning and famine when she shal be utterly burnt with fire for strong is the Lord who judgeth her and so when all the Kingdomes aforesaid shall resume their power and strength from the Beast Esop and Horace and leave him naked as the Birds did the Crow when each bird tooke his owne feather wherewith the Crow had pranked himselfe exalting himself above his fellows and when they shall submit their Scepters unto Jesus Christ by receiving his government over them as aforesaid then their Kingdomes become the Kingdomes of our Lord and of his Christ and he shal reigne for ever and ever But we finde Chap. 18.9 how the Kings of the earth who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with the Whore of Babylon seeing her ruine shall bewaile her and lament for her c. and yet Chap. 17. that the ten hornes the ten Kings that gave their power and Kingdomes to the Beast shal hate the Whore and make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire These two places seeme to contradict one another But being rightly understood there is no contradiction For first most sure it is that the ten Kings aforesaid shal hate the Whore and be the instruments of her desolation God will surely bring his word to passe But yet some of those Kings may at first bee brought to it against their wils or with an ill will having beene formerly so much enamoured on the gay painted Whore and made drunke with the wine of her fornication We see those two milch-kine of the Philistins by a strange instinct carried Gods Arke to his place yet lowed all the way after their Calves 1 Sam. 6. So the Lord will have his work done upon the whore though some of the chiefe instruments may have still a yearning of affection after the Whore for old acquaintance sake Yet though some for their own persons may doe this for a time and because the Whore fals with her goodly Babylon notwithstanding because the Kings alone shall not make Babylon desolate but their Kingdomes to wit their people taken altogether therefore the particular pitie of some for a time shall not hinder the generall hatred of the Whore and so the Kingdomes of this World mainly and universally shal become the Kingdomes of our Lord and of his Christ And this making desolate of the Whore by the Kings and their people shall be with such violence of passion and zeale which God shall kindle in their hearts and brests as when it is done they shal stand amazed to behold the smoke of her burning and spend some human compassion and pitie upon those terrible and suddaine desolations Even as Titus that noble Roman Generall when through the obdurate obstinacie of the Jews in their extreame misery his souldiers were so enraged that not only the Citie Jerusalem but the most beautifull Temple it selfe were set on fire hee beholding it wept over it to see such a goodly and glorious building so miserably destroyed the like compassion may even those Kings have in weeping over Babylon when they shall behold the ruines thereof wherein themselves notwithstanding with their people were the chief Actors Thus the same Kings whom the Lord shall employ in the making desolate of Babylon may bee moved with humane compassion when they behold even those ruines which themselves by divine instigation have made And as the same Titus though hee cryed to his Souldiers to save that glorious Monument the Temple and not to burn it and seeing it notwithstanding all on a flame cryed out the more vehemently to quench it but could not prevail to rescue it So the Kings of the earth when they shall see the smoke of Babylons burning and shall thereupon be moved to lament her saying Alas Alas that great Citiy Babylon that mighty Citie yet such is the Lords fury kindled against her that they shall not be able with all their power though they would never so fain to rescue her out of the flames For the Lord will have it so and therefore as he hath put in their minds to fulfil his wil in giving their strength and Kingdome to the Beast until the words of God be fulfilled So when the words of God shal be fulfilled he wil also put in their minds to fulfil his wil in the utter destruction of Babylon And from this time Christ shal reigne for evermore over his people when the usurping Beast with all his power shall be put downe and so when all Kings Princes and States shal submit their Scepters to Christs authority as before is shewed Then shall be great joy and thanksgiving in the Church as Verse 16.17 and in the end of this last Trumpet which how long it shall sound and the sounding thereof last he only knows Acts 1.7 Matth. 24 36. who hath reserved it in his owne brest shall come the generall judgement of quick and dead wherein God shall powre wrath upon his wrathfull enemies and shall reward all his faithful servants as Verse 18. Now there be sundry other things very mysticall and darke which seeme to come under the time of this last Trumpet as besides the remainder of this Chapter Verse 19. which gives some light of the generall conversion of the Jewes the whole twentieth Chapter of this Booke but because they be very obscure and will require longer time and stronger Prayers for assisting and illuminating grace in the opening of them therefore I will here put an end for the present till it shall please God to give a further opportunitie In the mean time a Chap. 11.17 We give thee thanks O Lord God Almighty which art and wast and art to come because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned Even so AMEN
signified which the Lord is about to doe in the time of this Sixt Trumpet For the finding out whereof we are to compare these words with that prophecie which we finde written in the fourth Chapter of Zechariah where Ver. 1. the prophet is by the angell awaked as out of sleep Which noteth a stirring up of the Prophet to great attention to what was now in a vision shewed unto him as being a matter of great moment and diligently to bee marked In the vision the prophet Saw a golden Candelstick with Seven Lamps and on each side thereof two Olive trees This vision came in the time when the Temple at Hierusalem was a reparing by Zerubbabell and it was by the word of the Lord to signify unto him as V. 6. Saying This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel saying Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of hosts This was to comfort and incourage Zerubbabel in the work as also Verse 9. which the enemies of Gods people did so much deride and mock at as a worke which could never be finished as we read Nehem. 4.2 3. Where Sanballat spake to his brethren and the army of Samaria having great indignation and mocking the Jews said What do these feeble Iews Wil they fortifie themselves Wil they sacrifise Wil they make an end in a day Wil they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burnt And Tobiah the Ammonite said Even that which they build if a Fox go up he shal evē break down their stone wal Now against all this the Lord incourageth Zerubbabel and his people by this Vision of the Candlesticks and two Olive-trees shewed to the Prophet whereof the Lord himselfe is the Authour and not man Therefore he saith Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of hosts That like as the Spirit of the Lord shewed this Vision to his Prophet wherein is shadowed out the indeficient and never fayling Kingdome of Jesus Christ who is the fountain of grace and the good u Ro. 11.17 24 Olive-tree which runneth and floweth forth with Oile continually to supply his x Revel 1. golden Candlesticks his Ministers and Prophets by the light of whose Prophecie as the Temple was founded and finished by the Prophecie of haggai and Zechariah the Prophets of the Lord at that time so the Church of Christ in all ages shall be built up repaired and in fine fully finished But in speciall this worke this great worke of repayring the Temple and restoring true Religion unto its primitive purity is to be accomplished under this sixt Trumpet wherein the Lord hath his two witnesses answerable to those two Prophets Haggai and Zechariah by whose Prophecie the ancient Temple the figure of the Church under the Gospel was repaired by the power of whose prophecie through the Grace and Spirit of Christ his true Church and Religion shall bee repaired maugre all the malice of Sanballat and Tobiah with their Samaritan Army to withstand the building and notwithstanding all the scorne and mockerie power and policie of Antichrist and his nimble Foxes that thinke by their treading upon the wall to overthrow it This work I say is to be performed and is now already begun to be acted under this Sixt Trumpet And therefore hath the Spirit of Christ in this place compared his two witnesses and their prophecie unto two golden Candlesticks and two Olive-trees that stand before y Zech. 4.14 the Lord of the whole Earth as it is said in Zechariah as it were pointing us with the finger to that whole vision of the Prophet setting forth the perfect reparation of that Temple to the end wee might be out of all doubt that the Lord under this Trumpet is about the like great work of reparation and restauration of his Church and Religion which shall prosper and be accomplished not by might nor by power of men but by the Spirit of the Lord in the mouth of his two witnesses and by the word of their prophecie crying as in Zechariah z Zech. 4 7. Grace grace unto it And for our further confirmation in the truth hereof have wee not a cleere and evident demonstration of it in that admirable worke of Reformation of the Kirke of Scotland at this day whereof we are all eye-witnesses And was this done by might and power of man No. They indeed as a Neh. 4 17 18 those Jewish builders and repayrers as aforesaid began to build working with the one hand with the other holding a weapon or having their sword at their side to defend themselves against the Antichristian yoke of the Herarchie as against Sanballets and Tobiahs and chiefly to vindicate the honour crown throne Scepter and Kingdome of Jesus Christ over his people from Antichrists proud and impious usurpations which all Christian Princes and people are bound to doe as also they had their Prophets with publike fasting prayer such as the Jews also used at the repairing of the Tēple whereby they so prospered and God gave them such favour in the eies of their Sovereign that they altogether laid aside their weapons and so not by might nor by power but by the Grace of God that great work notwithstanding all their adversaries plotting and labouring against it was in some good measure accomplished to the everlasting honour and prayse of our Lord Jesus Christ the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and to the renowne of that King the Lords Anointed whose heart was moved to become the Lords great Instrument in permitting and assenting unto so glorious a worke whereby as Christs Kingdome and Temple is now in a faire way restored and established in that Nation and freed from Antichrists yoake So the Kings throne also is established in that Kingdome and shal be unto the comming of Jesus Christ by whom alone b Prov. 8.15 Kings do reigne and Princes decree justice And as the Lord hath thus begun his great glorious work of repayring his Temple and restoring Religion so evidently represented before our eyes as in a most cleere Vision in this sixt Trumpet as hath beene shewed by comparing this Prophecie with that in Zechariah aforesaid so certainly the Lord will finish his own worke in other Kingdoms also where both Princes and people are deluded and brought into at least Spirituall bondage under the Antichristian yoake which though it be curiously painted and guilded over and as it were faced and lined with Pharisaicall broad Phylacteries woven with goodly words As The Church most Reverend Fathers holy Hierarchie Christs Vice roys and the like pompous and pretended titles yet these be but golden chains and silken cords purple coloured wherein to lead captive even Kingdoms and States to make up the traine of Antichrists triumph And here for a close of this excellent Prophecy in this fourth Verse give mee leave to relate a true story My selfe having certaine yeers agone
thus crucified O England blush and be abashed yea confounded in thy self at these things return at length to a sober minde repent and reforme thy selfe lest thou perish with the Beast and his Kingdom whose wofull ruine hasteneth on a pace as Verse 14. But now what becomes of these thus dead bodies Surely they lie in the Street of the great Citie unburied How long Three dayes and an half How so The people kindreds tongues and nations seeing them wil not suffer them to be put in graves Just so did the barbarous heathen with the Martyrs not permitting their bodies to be buried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Euseb Eccl. H ist l. 5. c. 1. Eusebius reports Thus our Antichristian heathen or Gentiles here so called Verse 2. as before Now for dead bodies to lie in the open street unburied three dayes and a halfe is enough to make their smell odious and abominable in the nosthrils of all men So as this appeares to be the meaning these Witnesses being slaine or so as is before said they are kept above ground to become an object of abomination to all that behold them and by their long keeping they are made so to stink as men pass by them stopping their Noses and will not or doe not or dare not come neere them And who doth or dare visit the dead bodies of those Witnesses aforesaid But they are not in the Street True they are dragged or drawn out of the Street they doe so stinke in the nosthrils of the Beast and his kindred and people But yet they are above ground they are not yet buried under the earth though they lie buried within strong walled vaults that none can come any more at them then at the dead bodies of those that lie in their graves But not lying in the street and having lyen now above three dayes and a halfe yea some of them three yeeres and a halfe and the least and last is now going upon the last halfe yeere how come they to bee reckoned here in the account and numbred with the dead bodies of these two witnesses lying three dayes and a halfe in the street of the great Citie For this we must take the sense and not the strict Letter The lying of dead bodies three days and a halfe in the open street where all passengers are to passe is to note unto us that as is before noted they lie so long till none can endure their smell but of force they must bee removed out of the way And is it not so done with these Their smell grew so strong that they were faine to remove them Whither Into their Graves No they are above ground still For it is added here The people and kindreds and nations and tongues will not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves Who are these people and kindreds and tongues and nations Surely all those of this great Citie which is spiritually called Sodome and Egypt such as are the members of the Beast For though sometimes these termes as people kindreds c. are taken in the good part for those of Christs Kingdome as Chap. 7.9 10.11 yet here they are taken as Chap. 17.15 for those of Antichrists Kingdome And for proofe hereof they will not suffer the dead bodies of the two witnesses to be buried As wee read of the Pope as I remember Hildebrand who after hee had by his Thunderbolt of Excommunication blasted the Emperour Henrie the Fourth and driven him out of his Kingdome by his own Son and he dying in that his exile his Holinesse would not suffer him to be buried so as his dead body continued unburied for five yeers space So here with the same spirit of Charity doe these his people and kindreds and tongues and Nations the whole body of that Beast not suffer the dead bodies of these two witnesses to enjoy the ordinary honour of Christian buriall which even the Law of Nature and common humanity commands The summe of it is they will not allow them any benefit nor any right which by the Law of God and the Law of Nature and Nations is due unto them in that case So as being banished in a remote Country in a close imprisonment living indeed but as dead men as before they may there rot above ground before either Wife or children or friend or acquaintance shall be suffered to come at them to performe that last duty which all are bound unto the buriall of their dead Thus if any shall deny this also concerning these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or dead bodies to be a true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Symptome of this Trumpets sounding which wee ought not to thinke gives an uncertain sound he may with as good reason deny the fulfilling of all Prophecies even then when their proper effects being seene of all men become to every mans reason and understanding cleere demonstrations thereof Except wee are yet to looke for more monstrous beastly cruelties under this Trumpet which can hardly be imagined by any Creature It followeth And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoyce over them and make merry and shall send gifts one to another because these two Prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth These Earth-dwellers are the same with those people and kindreds and tongues and nations those of the Beasts Kingdome in the former Verse These are said to dwell on the earth because their Kingdome and happinesse is altogether earthly They minde earthly things and place their felicitie in them contrary to Gods children who living on earth yet have their conversation in heaven and their treasure in heaven and their Country Heaven So as to be said to dwell on the earth is opposed to those who are y Heb. 11.13 1 Pet. 2.11 Gen. 47 9. Exod. 6.4 Psal 119.54 every where in Scripture called pilgrims and strangers in the earth and the earth it selfe called not their habitation but the land or house of their pilgrimage Whereas on the contrary to be said to dwell on the earth is usually put in Scripture for all the wicked of the earth as els-where in this Booke Chap. 8.13 13.12 14. 17.8 Where we see that these earth-dwellers are all those people over whom the Beast reigneth And so on these all the plagues are powred as Chap. 8.13 12.12 16.1 Luke 21.35 and in many other places And in this Verse it is twice repeated Thus we see who they be Now what doe they further First These earth-dwellers rejoyce over the dead bodies of the witnesses Secondly they make merry Thirdly they send gifts one to another by way of congratulation And the cause is added because these two witnesses tormented them that dwelt upon the earth First they rejoice over their dead bodies as the Philistins did over Sampson when they had put out his eyes they made sport with him as with a Fool in a Play Hee whom they durst not looke upon when he had his eyes and liberty
now they insult over him at their pleasure So these people of Antichrist doe with the dead bodies of the two Witnesses Sir Phil. Sydneys Arcadia as the cowardly Shepherd did in Arcadia with the dead body of the Lion he came and trampled upon him and beat him with his sheephook and spake big words unto him and when hee had done boasted he had overcome the Lion So these here do with these witnesses in the seventh Verse the Beast overcomes them and here his brood triumphs over them who living were a terrour to the beast and all his crew Secondly they make merry The Father in the Gospel when he had received his lost Son is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make merry the same word is used here upon the slaying of these witnesses as a fat Calfe to feast withall And such a kind of mirth is here implyed as is used at feasting As in Amos Chap. 2.8 They drinke the wine of the condemned in the house of their God to wit of those whom themselves have unjustly condemned So these Perhaps they have their Minstrels too as Fidlers and Pipers dance about the May-pole that on the Sabbath day in despight of these Witnesses who while they lived spake and wrote against these inhabitants of the spirituall Sodome But let their mirth be what it will in the third place they send gifts one to another They doe not send gifts to the poore of whom they can receive none again but one to another by way of retaliation or congratulation this is their charitie as if they would now celebrate the funerall of these dead witnesses would they but suffer their dead bodies to be buried But what 's the matter they are so jocund and frolick Even this because these two Prophets had tormented them that dwell on the earth It seemes they were such tormenters of these Earth-dwellers as the Prophet z Kings 22.8 Michaiah was of Ahab who therefore hated him and could not indure him because saith he be never prophecieth good to me but evil So these two Prophets they tormented all those of the Beasts Kingdome by prophecying of judgements and punishments that should fall upon them from God for all their idolatries superstitions humane inventions in the Service they pretend to God for all their abominable infidelitie in their Altars and Altar-worship for their open and avowed prophanation of the Sabbath for their stopping of the mouthes of Gods painfull Ministers for oppressing and silencing the Doctrines of the Gospel and of the Grace of God for overturning all true Religion for persecuting of all true godlinesse in Ministers and people for their favouring of drunkards adulterers swearers Sabbath-breakers and all manner of prophanesse in their Courts with other the like things as tedious to rehearse as to them to heare Thus these Prophets tormented them Now I pray you what torments shall such finde in Hell for their living in all kinde of sin when they find Gods Word it self to be a tormentor of them in reproving their sins and moving them to repentance Is it a marvaile then that all the woes in this Book fall upon these dwellers on the earth They doe so dwell on the earth that they are glued unto it so as they will not upon any termes no not to get Heaven and so escape Hell part with the love of it and with the lusts of it And therefore they hold none their greater enemies then Gods Prophets that tell them their own And of other prophane Worldlings none hate Gods Prophets more than the Beast and his Hierarchie For their Kingdome being altogether earthly and sensuall I might adde also the Apostles third word which he applyes to the wisdome that is from beneath from the bottomlesse pit and that is a Iam. 3.15 Devillish they cannot endure Christs Kingdome which is altogether Spirituall nor the Heralds thereof who proclame war against the Beast and his Armies for his notorious hypocrisie who under the titles of Holinesse and Spirituall and the like advance their earthly Kingdome both above and against Christs Kingdome It followeth Verse 11. And after three dayes and a halfe the spirit of life from God entred into them and they stood upon their feet and great feare fell upon them which saw them Wee shewed before what is meant by the three days and a halfe namely the time in which the Beast and his people doe expose these witnesses to derision denying them even that common humanity which the very Heathen freely afford to all as buriall of the dead And although the time of their suffering may bee much longer then three days and a halfe yea three yeeres and a halfe yet it is reckoned here but three dayes and a halfe both because the Beasts crueltie is so great that he takes no more compassion or consideration of the time of their suffering though long and tedious then as if it were but three dayes and a half and secondly because such is the patience and alacritie of these Witnesses in suffering for the Name of Christ and for the love of the Truth that the time though long and the afflictions they indure though very grievous yet it seemes to them but b 2 Cor. 4 17. light and momentany and as it were but of three dayes and a halfes continuance in comparison and Thirdly it is expressed here by three dayes and a halfe because the Lord himselfe will shorten the time and hasten the deliverance in due time in due time I say because it is a certaine time determined and prefixed of God as three dayes and a halfe and because but as three dayes and a halfe therefore it is a very short time as will appeare more fully when the deliverance commeth But lastly by three dayes and a halfe wee may understand three yeeres and a half as in Daniel 7.25 by a time times and part or halfe a time three yeeres and part of another As Revel 12.14 And why should I here conceale that speech which I used to some Ministers at Coventry in my passage to Lancaster Castle who being sad at my departure I said unto them Come be not sad for three yeers and a half hence wee shall meet again and be merry And truly absit invidia verbo reckoning from the fourteenth of June 1637 whereon we were censured in the Star-Chamber to perpetuall imprisonment it was just three yeeres and a halfe when wee returned from exile even in the last moneth of the three yeers and a halfe my selfe being sent for the very first day of that moneth Well when this time appointed of God is expired what then Then after three dayes and a half the spirit of life from God shall enter into them and they shall stand upon their feet and great feare shall fall upon the beholders All this sheweth unto us thus much that God shall miraculously restore and deliver his witnesses even as the restoring of the dead to life again to the
that despise mee shall be lightly esteemed Now blessed bee our God for evermore for this his great and glorious worke and hee ever blesse his King that as hee hath made him a mighty instrument thereof so hee would strengthen him to the finishing of that work which yet remaynes to be done in the purgation and reformation of his other Kingdomes that so hee may prove the most glorious Prince that ever raigned in the Christian World And it is said here And great feare fell upon them which saw them That is when they on the Beasts side saw those witnesses whom the Beast had cruelly slaine and whose dead bodies they had barbarously used not suffering them to have common buriall but insulted and triumphed over them now to be as it were revived and raised from the dead againe when they behold such a wonderfull increase to come of their bloud so cruelly shed such a spirit of life from God so to possesse many other witnesses as those slain seem 1 1 Here let the Reader still remember that this Treatise was written before his returne from banishment and so towards London on that Saturday the solemnitie whereof was so conspicuous and glorious as it doth without any other application even naturally apply it self as if it were the most proper fulfilling of this Prophecie if either wee consider the manner of that return or the effect it wrought in the adversaries thereof which caused in them extreame indignation and rage even unto gnawing of their tongues and gnashing of their teeth And yet feare so possessed them that all â—heir power and policie could not help now to live againe in them they are struck with terrour they are surprized with feare For whereas they fondly imagined that the slaying or cruell handling of two or three prime witnesses making them sure as dead men would so have queld all the rest that not one durst ever after peepe contrary to their expectation they see a generation of witnesses to rise up after them and so to affright their enemies as if they saw an apparition of the Ghosts of the former witnesses returned from the dead And if a man did now but feele the pulse of those Prelates in England who have seene their brethren Prelates late of Scotland to bâ— cast out of Church and Countrey and utterly cashiered without all hope of restitution should he not trow you find the spirit of trepidation leaping and panting as it were for life as if their owne turne should be next But it followeth Verse 12. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them Come up hither And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud and their enemies beheld them They that is the two witnesses thus raised and restored to life as before heard a great voice from heaven Here Christ either by an extraordinary voice inwardly calling or by the ordinary voice of his word outwardly cals his servants to take Sanctuary as in heaven Now heaven here may bee taken for the Church of God hereupon earth So it 〈◊〉 often taken in this Booke As in this Chapter Verse 19. So Chap. 12.1 the woman there in heaven is the Church Militant here on earth as appeareth plainly in the whole Chapter as Verse 3. 7. 8. Chap. 13.6 and in other places Now the Church of God here on earth is compared unto and called Heaven as in many other respects so specially in this because it is holy and pure being purged both for Doctrine and Discipline from all damnable Heresies and errours in faith and from the vain Inventions and Traditions of men in the worship of God m Revel 14.4 following the Lambe whithersoever he goeth that is in all things obeying Christ and observing his Ordinances and subjecting their souls and consciences to none other King but only Christ They from this Heaven heare a great voice this is Christs voice in his word calling his witnesses from having any more to doe with the Beast and his brood having sealed this their testimony with their bloud which the Beast hath sucked and drunk up So as hee now being found to be incorrigible and incurable so as hee grows worse and worse is to be utterly abandoned As the Lord saith in Jeremy n Ier. 51.6.45 Flee out of the midst of Babylon and deliver every man his soule be not cut off in her iniquitie for this is the time of the Lords vengeance he will render unto her a recompence And the reason of Gods peoples thus abandoning of Babylon is rendred Verse 9. Verse 9. We would have healed Babylon but shee is not healed forsake her and let us goe every one into his owne Countrey for her judgement reacheth up to heaven and is lifted up even to the skies And the like warning God gives to his people Revel 18.4 concerning the spirituall Babylon where Iohn saith I heard another voice from heaven saying Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues for her sins have reached unto heaven and God hath remembred her iniquities So here the witnesses heare a great voice from heaven saying Come up hither as much to say as Have no more to doe with Babylon nor with the Beast and his members who will heare no reason but have now filled up the measure of their cruelty not only to you but to all my witnesses that went before you so as now there is no more hope of them o 2 Kings 17. See also 2 Chron 36.16 no remedie for them being like those incorrigible and obstinate revolted Tribes of Israel or like the Jews that persecuted my Apostles and p Acts 13.46 drove them away to the Gentiles therefore come out from among them admonish them no more but come up hither keepe you close to my Church which I have altogether purged and purified from the dregs of Babylon and there only hold your communion Come up hither And as it followeth they ascended up to heaven in a cloud and their enemies beheld them Wee read that Elias was carried up to heaven in a fiery Chariot And Christ ascended up to Heaven in a cloud Here these witnesses ascend up to heaven in a cloud But to Heaven as before is shewed namely from their enemies to take Sanctuary as in the Church of God here on earth it being compared to a high and holy Mountain to which we must ascend So as this ascending in a cloud and that in the enemies view sets forth the admirable providence of God who will miraculously make his Church a sure and safe Sanctuary as Heaven to his persecuted ones under this Trumpet from the power and fury of their enemies who may behold them afarre off but are not able any more to touch them for they are now out of their reach as being in Heaven For in this Trumpet God is preparing a way to the seventh and last Trumpet wherein hee will
that Princes must leave all government of the Church to them as the sole Fathers thereof and such like Prelaticall Principles which are not to be found in rerum natura as they beg when once they have obtained credit to these things how doe they then bestir themselves especially where a pragmaticall pate and the Metropolitan Chaire meet together Then what Laws of the Kingdom shal bind them Who shall dare to controule them If Parliaments whose Laws they break as straws offer to meddle with them presently they must be dissolved and with their good will there shall never be Parliament more And in fine they grow to that heighth of insolencie that their meere lust must be a Law as all their practices proclame Reprinted Conference p. 338. 376. c. Nor doe their practices only overthrow all true religion but they come to make open profession that the religion and faith of Prelaticall Protestant Churches and by name of that of England is one and the same with that of Rome and the Church of England one and the same with that of Rome with many such like bold assertions all which tend to make a reconciliation and a re-union with Rome to whom al Prelaticall Churches in the World and they allow no other Churches for true but only the Prelaticall doe make up one intire Catholike Church Now all these being summed up together what doe they amount unto but this that all Prelaticall Churches hold with Rome as members of the same Catholike body and the Pope being the Head of this body at least a Pag. 183. 184. ordine primus which the Prelate saith is necessary Ergo all Prelaticall Churches are members of that Church whereof the Pope is the Head or at least ordine primus and consequently all Civill Kingdomes and States where the Prelacie or Hierarchie hath got any footing and much more where it hath gotten head must bee a member thereof Now this being so as so it is the way is now made plaine to come to know what is meant by the fall of the tenth part of the Citie What is it but the fall of one of the ten Kingdomes from the Pope which are the ten horns of his Hierarchie in the time of this sixt Trumpet But where shall we find such a Kingdome as was one of the ten horns of the Beast and now broken off and falne from that great head Where What say you to the Church of Scotland Had not the Prelates there throwne down to the ground Christs throne and consequently with it the Kings Throne his Vicegerent and in stead thereof mounted aloft the Throne and Kingdome of the Beast with their Tyrannicall and lawlesse Government But now we see the Beasts Throne in that Kingdome dismounted For now the Prelats with their Hierarchie are there cashiered And thus the tenth part of the Citie is falne But what was the occasion of this great fall Surely Pride will have a fall The Prelats intolerable insolencie and unsufferable Tyrannie did cause it Which makes mee remember a notable saying or I may call it rather a prophecie of a b Mr. Throgmorton godly Minister late of London As said he nothing cures the biting of the Scorpion but the oile of the Scorpion So nothing will cure Popery but Popery And this was here verified What cured the Popery which the Prelacie had brought and set up in Scotland but their extream haste and mad zeale to finish the building up of Rome in one day To this purpose I remember an other usuall saying of another Minister also late of London who when any spake of a bad or mad Prelate hee would still say The worse the better and the better the worse His meaning was that the worse the Bishops grew and the more insolent and tyrannicall the more they did hasten the fall of their proud Hierarchie As Christ said to the Pharisees Fill yee up the measure of your Fathers As the people of God could not come to their promised inheritance till the d Gen. 15 16. sins of the Amonites were growne to their full And the e Revel 14.18 19. Angell thrust not his sickle into the earth to gather the Vine thereof to cast it into the great Winepresse of the wrath of God till the clusters were ripe And now in Scotland the clusters of the f Deut. 32. Vine of Sodome were growne ripe and so they are cut down And thus the tenth part of the Citie is falne thus the Beast hath lost one of his ten horns And to conclude this The immediate instrumentall cause of this fall was the Earthquake And an Earthquake wee know is the immediate worke of God alone So as this sheweth unto us that it was Gods owne hand and work principally that did overthrow this tenth part of the Citie and Kingdome of the Beast For it was a building too deep-founded in the earth for mans either power to overturn it or policie to undermine it And therefore let all the glory be given to God alone It followeth And in the Earthquake were slain of men seven thousand We shewed before that an Earthquake may be taken tropically for some civil Commotion in a State as of late in the state of Scotland when all stood up as one intire body to vindicate their liberty from the Beasts Tyranny which the Prelates did exercise upon the people so as the issue hereof proved to be the fall of the tenth part of the Citie or Kingdome of the Beast in Scotlands falling quite off from the Papall Hierarchie Now these words And in the Earthquake were slaine of men seven thousand have reference to the same Earthquake h Objection But no men were slaine in that Scotland Earthquake and here seven thousand men are said to be slaine 'T is true But as the Earthquake is taken tropically so also the slaying here as we spake before of a slaying of the two witnesses in a civill respect or in a figure So here by slaying we understand a ceasing of a thing to be that which it was before As a man is said to be i Rom. 6.2 dead to sin because hee no longer lives the life of sin Now for the seven thousand here slain in the Earthquake seven we know is a perfect number and often comprehends a whole society or all of such a Profession or qualitie in the same place or Countrey As the k Chap. 1. 2. seven Churches the seven Stars the seven Candlesticks comprehending all the Churches and Ministers in Asia the lesse So l 1 King 19.18 seven thousand men were reserved of God in Israel even all those who did not bow to Baal And so here seven thousand may comprehend all those who in the said Earthquake in Scotland were slaine that is were cast out of their places and so ceased to bee that which they were before and those were the Prelates with all their Officers and train even the whole Hierarchie And the
word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the text is not altogether to be slighted for it signifieth not only names but men of fame and m Gen. 6 4. renowne such as were the Giants and Tyrants of old and those n Gen. 11.4 Babel-builders who would get them a Name by building that Towre And such are those men we speak of these Giants Tyrants Babel-builders they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men of Renown terrible men yea not only the Lord-prelates themselves but their whole retinue for not a Pursuivant and Apparitor and the least Boy in their Kitchin but he is a mickle man Well all these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even seven thousand the whole generation of them in Scotland is slaine in that Earthquake that is utterly cast out as dead men For still I say these plagues fall only on them that have the Beasts marke or the number of his Name as the Prelats and their followers And if any here stand strictly upon the just Number of seven thousand I answer whether there were more of them or whether fewer the Number of seven thousand being a perfect and compleat number is sufficient to comprehend all of that ranke in that Countrey This number here being like that Chap. 9.16 an Army of Horsmen of two hundred thousand thousand Which number comprehends all those in the Armies though they were by many degrees short of that huge number as before And so here It followeth hereupon That the remnant were affrighted and gave glory to the God of Heaven The remnant whether the whole people in that tenth part as aforesaid or whether those that were a kind of Retainers or favourers or parties siding with the Prelates faction or altogether they were struck with feare as beholding the Almightie power of God in the effecting of that great and admirable work and thereupon gave glory to the God of Heaven I will conclude this with that of David n Psal 64.7 8 9 10. But God shall shoot at them with an arrow suddainly shall they be wounded So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves all that see them shall flee away And all men shall feare and shall declare the work of God for they shall â—isely consider of his doing The righteous shal be glad in the Lord and shall trust in him and all the upright in heart shall glory Even so Amen Now a word of the next Trumpet the seventh or last But by the way we find these words o Verse 14. The second woe is past and behold the third woe commeth quickly Chap. 18.13 Wee finde three woes woe woe woe The first woe belongeth to the fift Trumpet as Chapter 9.12 the second woe to the sixt and the third woe to the seventh So as the sixt Trumpet being ended it is said here The second â—oe is past and the seventh Trumpet now following is it added And behold the third woe commeth quickly That is the seventh Trumpet commeth quickly bringing its woe with it to the Beast and his Kingdome The seventh and last Trumpet Verse 15. And the seventh Angel sounded and there were great voices in heaven saying The Kingdomes of this world are become the Kingdomes of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reigne for ever and ever c. This seventh Trumpet as it bringeth woe even the last woe that is utter ruine and destruction to the Beast and his Kingdome to Antichrist the Whore of Babylon that great p Ver. 8. Chap. 17.18 Citie and to the whole Hierarchie where ever it be in any part or Kingdome of the World so it brings great joy and triumph to all the people of God under the Sun This is that great voice from Heaven yea great voices that is generall acclamations of the whole Church of Christ in all places which is here called Heaven as q Verse 12. before Saying The Kingdomes of this world are become the Kingdomes of our Lord even of God the Father and of his Christ and he shal reigne for ever and ever That is when this Trumpet shall sound which shall be quickly as V. 14. all the Kingdoms of the World shall consent to the rooting out of Antichrist and his kingdome they shall cast downe his Throne which is exalted in and by the Hierarchie and his whole Hierarchie shall they cast out and shall set up Christs throne over them shall subject the Kingdoms to Christs Government in submitting and conforming to his Doctrine Discipline according to his Word For till they doe this so long as they uphold and take part with the Beast in admitting and mayntaining his Hierarchie in their Dominions they r Chap. 17.13 give their strength and power unto the Beast and subject their Kingdomes unto him making warre against the Lambe Jesus Christ and so their Kingdomes the while are not Christs Kingdomes but Antichrists rather A thing well to be considered of Christian Kings and Princes and States But when this seventh Trumpet shall sound which will bee shortly if not rather already begunne then is that time fulfilled which was forelimited of GOD when they even the ten Kings to wit all Christian Kings and States which before took part with the Beast against the Lambe even Å¿ Chap. 17.16 17. these shall hate the Whore and shal make her desolate and naked and shal eat her flesh and burn her with fire For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his wil and to agree and give their Kingdome unto the Beast until the words of God shal be fulfilled And although this may seem strange and almost incredible to mans reason and apprehension yet God shall as certainly bring it to passe as his Word hath said it And that we might not be diffident herein God hath given us a famous and remarkable instance and as it were a sensible taste hereof in that late glorious worke of his in the Kingdome of Scotland which we noted before in throwing down that proud Antichristian throne of the Beast which the Prelates thought impossible to be done and which seemed at first but as a t Psal 126.1 dreame even to Gods people when the Lord brought againe the captivity of his Sion in that Land in so good a measure begun whereas now that out-cast Hierarchie hath as little hope ever to be restored as in their prosperitie they had feare or doubt ever to bee so cast out Yet wee see it with our eyes that God hath brought to passe this great thing And shall we doubt of the rest when he hath given us such a sure earnest of his never fayling word and of his invincible power Hee that hath puld off one of the the Beasts hornes shall shortly breake off all his hornes as the Lord saith u Psal 75.10 All the hornes of the wicked also will I cut off but the hornes of the righteous shall be exalted And then then I