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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	city_n	government_n	representative_a	751	4	16.1177	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66360	Ho Antichristos the great antichrist revealed, before this time never discovered, and proved to be neither pope, nor Turk, nor any single person, nor the succession of any one monarch or tyrant in any policies, but a collected pack, or multitude of hypocritical, heretical, blasphemous, and most scandalous wicked men that have fulfilled all the prophesies of the Scriptures ... and especially have united ... together by a solemn league and covenant to slay the two witnesses of God, Moses and Aaron ... that is, the supreme magistrate of the Commonwealth, and the chief pastors and governours of the Church of Christ, and the Christian world is requested to judge whether the Assembly of Presbyterians consulting at Westminster, together with the independents, Anabaptists, and lay-preachers be not the false prophet ... and whether the prevalent faction of the long Parliament ... that killed the two witnesses of Jesus Christ, 1. Charles the First ... 2. William Laud ... be not the grosse and visible body of the same antichrist / by Gr. Williams.	Williams, Gryffith, 1589?-1672.	1660 (1660)	Wing W2662; ESTC R25201	504,825	313

themselves to his meaning Genes 11.9 do interpret it but the great city of this world that is in all things agreeable to every particular thing that is spoken of this great Babylon for as that place and city was chiefly called Babylon that is confusion because as Moses sheweth God confounded the Languages of those grand rebells that endeavoured in that City 1 John 2.15 1 John 17.9 to scale the walls of Heavens and as it were to desie God himself so this world is just like unto the same the receptacle of all confusion and disorders and it is one of the three capital enemies of mankinde that we profess in our Baptisme to renounce and that we are charged not to love but still to fly from the baits and the deceipts thereof and John 5.19 for which our Saviour that prayed for his enemies which crucified him denieth his prayer saying I pray not for the world because God hateth all those that work wickedness and S. John saith the whole world all of it lieth in wickedness and will not be raised from it and besides God is the God of order and the whole world is out of order the very babel of all confusion The great Antichrist shall rise in such a place as shall be like Babylon when first it was called Babel Genes 11.79 and confusion is the mother that bringeth forth the Antichrist into the Church and it is the nurse that fostereth cherisheth upholdeth and protecteth him against Christ and against his Church But though the world in General is that great citie whith is meant Revel 17. and elsewhere in that book and wherein the great Antichrist will settle himself yet must he rise and spring in some place City or Kingdome of the world that is not as Rome or Constantinople a Babylon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 respectively but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 simply and transcendently like as the Chaldean Babylon was and in all things resembling her when first she was called Babel the City of Confusion and that was when all the Inhabitants thereof were without any settled just and lawfull Governors or Government among them but were as the children of Israel were in the later time of the Judges Judg. ult and Ver. ult when there was no King in Israel but every man did that which was right in his own eyes and so they did now in Babel they understood not one another they obeyed not one another but when the Master or Governor required one thing they did another and when they called for bricks they brought them straw and so forth And what Kingdome Rome not like Babylon when first it was called Babel City or Church is or hath been thus like Babel without any setled just and lawfull Government or Governors I will not determine but I am sure Rome hath her Governors and the Church of Rome her settled strict and well observed Orders and Lawes which none dares disobey nor do what is right in his own eyes nor preach what Doctrines he please unto the people But in what Kingdome City or Common-wealth soever we see no settled just and lawfull Government but the Governors like pegs driving out one another and settling first one kinde of Government then another of greater power cometh and changeth that Government then a third then a fourth and so forth and the Commonwealth standeth like a windmill upon the top of a hill that must turn with every winde and submit it self to every Government that is most prevalent and where you see the Church without Rulers without order and without Law but every Presbyter doth what he pleaseth and serveth God with what service his own fancy liketh best I believe that City Kingdom and Church doth in all things parallel the first Chaldean Babel and must be if any place be the very seat of the Antichrist and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 simply most eminently and transcendently a Babylon and the fittest place for the Antichrist to reside And so the Antichrist having learnt his lesson divide impera i.e. by confusion and division and setting the Father against the Son and the Daughter against the Mother the subject against his King and the King against the subject the people against their Pastors and their Pastors against the people and so of all the rest he will settle and inthrone himself in that imperial seat of his rule and authority where there is most confusion and where there is no settled just and lawfull Government and this is that Babylon thus mystically expressed by the Holy Ghost and thus clearly explained unto you where the Antichrist shall rule and reign and rage over Gods people even in that place of the world and in that street of this Great City where there is most division and confusion both in the Church and Commonwealth this confusion being his chiefest consolation and the furtherance of his progression and which as the Poet saith Turbabit faedera mundi will soon bring the world out of order and to be ruled as he listeth And now the question is demanded Whether in any other place of all the world you can finde more divisions and confusions and a more unstable unjust and unsettled Government both in Church and Commonwealth then you may finde in these Churches and Common wealths and formerly the Kingdomes of Ingland Scotland and Ireland for though that in this Babylon this place that is so full of disorders and confusion Where discord reigns in realm or town The wicked win the chief renown Plutarchus in vita Niceas pag. 547. you may finde many zealous and religious men that do fear God and mourn for the sin of the Antichrist and abhor all his wicked wayes yet it is demanded if ever there were more faction in Hierusalem in the time of their last siege more Sects in Amsterdam more malice in Rome in the time of the proscription or more corruption in the time of the Pope and more division among the Reubenites and confusion in great Babylon in the land of Shinar than may be found now in this relapsed Church and among the people of these Dominions And for the diversity of Sects multiplicity of opinions and the manifold confusions in the Church it is demanded if the errors and heresies of the Sectaries Presbyters Independents and lay-Preachers are not only published printed and permitted but also cathedrally and autoritatively if not maintained yet countenanced or connived at at the least And if here in the field of Gods Church and out of this Babylonish chair you may not finde any error or heresie that hath been formerly invented and broached by the grand Hereticks and confuted by the Fathers of the Church now again in some place or other and by some Sect or other resuscitated and refined unto the people and whether you may not uncontroulably choose any Religion and be of any Sect either Antinomian Anabaptist Arian Aerian Brownist Barrowist Dipper The manifold

the generation of them that seek the Lord and refuse to serve the beast because both of them shall continue and neither of them shall passe away the members of the Antichrist and the false Prophet shall not be quite destroyed nor the members of Christ rooted out by the Antichrist do what he can untill all these things that Christ speaks of be fulfilled and Christ come to judgement to defend the one sort and to destroy the other And this I believe if there were nothing else doth sufficiently confute the charitable yet groundlesse fancie of all those that dream of a generall and glorious restauration of the twelve tribes of Israel and a reformation of the Gentile Churches after the destruction and quite abolition of the Antichrist before the coming of Christ to judgement for if it be a general received opinion that the Jewes general conversion to the Gospel shall not be untill the Antichrist be quite destroyed E. H. De Antiocho c. 12. pag. 130. as E. H. confesseth and the Antichrist shall not be quite destroyed till the day of judgement when both he and the false Prophet shall be cast alive into the burning lake then is it manifest that the discourse and expectation of their general conversion and especially their replantation in Palestina is but like a sick mans dream that seems to enjoy many glorious things but when he awakes he find just nothing But this that I have proved videlicet that the beast which is the Antichrist must not be taken for one single person as the Papists and some of our Protestants do conceive The limbs of the beast remaining undestroyed may teach the servants of Christ three things nor for the Pope or succession of Popes nor Turk nor the seventh head of the Roman Empire nor for any other Tyrant in any polity but for a pack or knot and confederacie of most wicked Covenanters hypocrites and prophaners of Gods service and persecutors of the true servants of Christ and that this knot and collected multitude and assembly in their progenie and successive offspring in wickednesse and impiety shall not be quite rooted out and destroyed till Christ shall come to the last judgement may teach the servants of Christ these three specaill Lessons Lesson 1 1. Not to look for a glorious world and Halcion days of pleasure and prosperity while they live among such Antichristian Canaanites in this vale of misery under the frozen zone of hatred malice and all uncharitablenesse especially considering that the Antichrist though dissolved and scattered like an Army that is routed yet shall not be quite extinguished but shall still live to recruit and continue in most of his chief members still to rage afflict and persecute the Saints of God Lesson 2 2. To prepare themselves for afflications and to pray to God for patience that they may through many tribulations arrive at last to a happy Port and attain unto the Kingdom of heaven Lesson 3 3. To fear that yet the times may grow worse and worse and troubles arise more and more because that Satan being let loose and the hypocritical members of the beast mad with fury that they should be dismembred and the loose lives of the worldlings wholly neglecting Gods service as the Antichristian crew does abuse and prophane his service they shall provoke the wrath of God against his people more and more and move him at last to send his seven Angells spoken of in this book that have the seven last plagues in seven golden vials that are full of the wrath of God to powre out the same upon the earth For as God when he began to plague Pharaoh and saw that nothing would prevaile to work repentance in him and to mollifie his heart to let Israel go to serve the Lord never left to send trouble upon trouble God will not be our enemy by our wickednesse and to adde plague upon plague untill he had utterly destroyed him so will he do with the beast and the false Prophet that is the Antichrist and all their adherents when as neither their dismembring and scattering of them nor any other scourge nor plague nor token of his wrath falling upon many of them can work repentance in the remainder and cause them to return from their evil wayes and permit the witnesses of Christ to arise and the true servants of God to worship him in the right way then will he arise as a Gyant out of sleep he will whet his glittering sword and his hand shall take hold of vengeance Gyant and he will raise up his witnesses in despight of the beast that hath killed them and he will little them in their thrones maugre all the malice of the Antichrist and all the strength of his adherents and as the Holy Ghost saith their enemies shall behold them and shall not be able to binder them but a great and a terrible fear shall fall upon them because now they shall begin to find that the Almighty God will not suffer himself to be overcome by wretched man nor forget the deep sighing of his Saints and suffer the patient abiding of the meek to perish for ever but seeing they have despised his patience and his long suff●●●●● 〈◊〉 and abused his lenity and his great goodnesse he will send those sev●●●●gels with these seven vials of his wrath that our Evangelist spake of and they will powre them out one after another upon the remaining members of the beast and the false Prophet and their adherents that oppose him and his witnesses and do abuse his name and his service untill they be all emptied And when all those plagues shall be powred out The method how the seven plagues shall be powred out The first upon the formal professors The second upon the great Cities The third upon the Villages The fourth upon the fruits of the earth in that method which the Evangelist setteth down that is The first upon the earth which fignifieth the worldly men and the carnal and the formal professors of his service The second upon the seu which signifieth the great Cities where the most multitudes of people are that are compared unto the sea The third upon the rivers and fountains of waters which betokeneth the country towns and villages that have but few inhabitants within them The fourth upon the Sun to scorch and burn both men and beasts and to drie up the fruits of the earth thereby to bring sicknesses and famine amongst men The fifth upon the seat of the beast The fift upon the rule of the beast which may signifie either the city or kingdom where the beast and false Prophet did arise and were upheld or upon the rule and government the strength and domineering power that the remaining scattered members of the Antichrist shall exercise over those people that they tyrannize upon and keep under them because a Seat signifieth the place whereupon we rest and the power that upholdeth us in

or at least a defect of Christian Charity And therefore we adhere to these in love and pity and deem them as our Brethren in Christ Jesus But for the rest that are the wilful and obstinate Abettors of the Romish Idolatry and impiety we will not only follow the counsel of our Lord and Master and of his blessed Prophets and Apostles to get out of this Babylon and to separate our selves from amongst them and to have nothing to do with their stool of wickedness Jer. 50.14 but we will also do as our God commandeth us by his Prophet Jeremy lay siege against it and spare no arrowes because she hath sinned against tho Lord. And thus I have shewed unto you that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 respectively yea and in many respects that Rome and the Church of Rome is a Babylon a City of Confusion and the Popish Hierarchy full of many iniquities and impieties And I have been the more large and ample in this Point to let the world see how falsly and unjustly the Presbyterians Puritans and their Adherents have and do throw their scandalous imputations and aspersions upon my self and the rest of our Reverend Bishops for being Papists and Popish and Popishly affected when as indeed all wise men know that none propagated and defended the Gospel of Christ and the true Protestant Religion and impugned the Romish Babylon and shewed confuted and here with us Bishop Bilson Bishop Baclow Bish Montagu Bish Abbats suppressed the Superstitions Heresies and Idolatries of the Church of Rome better and more learnedly than Bishop Jewel Bishop Babington Bishop Horne Bishop Andrews Bishop Downam Bishop Usher Bishop Prideaux Bishop Hall Bishop Morton Bishop White Bishop Laude and the rest of our Reverend Bishops And on the other side the Presbyterians and Puritans that hated and opposed our Bishops though they railed against the Pope and Popery and stuffed their Sermons with Invectives against them yet through their Ignorance for want of Learning have insensibly against their own wills dispersed and taught many Popish points and the flat Errours of the Romish Church unto their Auditors who as the blind do swallow many a flie so do their simple Proselites suck those poysonous Tenets which are thus insensibly by their ignorant Teachers infused into them But to return you see Rome and the Church of Rome is a mystical Babylon And yet 2. The City of Rome not to be understood to be the Seat of the Antichrist and the Babylon spoken of in Rev. c. 17. 1 Pet. 5.3 2. As the Chaldean City of Babylon cannot be said to be the Babylon that is spoken of in Revel 17. and the proper peculiar Seat of the Antichrist so no more can the Italian City of Rome be said to be the same And though that after the eclipsing of that great Assyrian Babylon first by Cyrus the Persian then by Alexander the Graecian that was here poysoned by Thessalus with poyson in a horse hoof and after that exhausted and almost unpeopled by Seleucus Rome was for the splendor strength and dominion thereof termed Babylon and for her Pride Idolatry and confusion in the service of her Idol Gods is so stiled by S. Peter and is acknowledged by the Fathers afore-cited and by most of the Learned Jesuits that confess the Assyrian Babylon to be the Type and figure of the Italian Rome and to be so understood by the Apostle in that place Yet I say it cannot be meant by any place of Scripture to be the Seat and Throne of the great Antichrist and the Babylon spoken of in Rev. 17. For though Martial saith Terrarum Dea gentiumque Roma Cui par est nihil nihil secundum And Though Rome be somtimes signified by this name of Babylon as I said before and is therefore interpreted by all those that would have the Pope to be the Antichrist to be that great City and that great Babylon spoken of in Rev. 17. And Ovid saith imperii Roma deumque locus l. 1. trist eleg 4. Athenaeus l. 1. Tacitus Annal lib. 4. and elsewhere in that Book And I confess it is often called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that great City yet not simply in respect of the quantity or circuit thereof when we read of many Cities that were bigger than it but in respect of the Power and Authority that her Consuls and Emperors had over all other Cities and Dominions in which sense she is said by Athenaeus to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Heavenly City and by Julius frontinus she is said to be Domina Regina orbis terrarum the Lady and Queen of the world which made the Smyrnenses to erect a Temple and dedicate the same to the City of Rome as to a Goddess Yet I say this is not that great City nor that Babylon which is to be understood in Rev. 17. and is to be the Seat of the great Antichrist 3. The City of Constantinople cannot be the Seat of the Antichrist that must have a greater room than the great City of Rome And 3. As neither Babylon in Assyria nor the mystical Babylon of Rome can be said to be that Babylon the Seat of the Antichrist so no more can the City of Constantinople which is known to be called New Rome be understood to be his Throne and the Babylon there spoken of For though Constantine the Founder of this City Bish Montagu in his apello Caesar●m Constantinus apud Thraces qua Bosphorus aequor thracius ●●xinus granted unto it in both slates of Church and Common-wealth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every way equalized Priviledges with the Old Rome as having Senators and one of the yearly Consuls and being the Imperial City and seared upon seven Hills as well as Old Rome and is therefore called by Nicetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by Paulus Diaconus urbs septicollis the City of seven hills and being likewise in a fore-land or Land-straight where two seas meet Aegaeumingurgacat undis constituit sedem Imperii latiumque relinquit Christo Bizantium oppidum maritimum inter Pontum Euxinum propontidem orientalibus Thraciae finibus situm est 4. No one City of the world is to be understood by this Babylon What place is meant by this Babylon Eccles 9.14 Luke 12.32 and therefore the only seat in the world for an Imperial City far more convenient than old Rome yet I say she cannot be understood to be the peculiar place or City that the Apostle here meaneth by that Babylon where the great Antichrist must locally reside and set up his domineering Throne and Court therein 4. As none of these aforesaid great Cities can be understood by that Babylon which is to be the Seat and Residence of the Antichrist so no more indeed can any one City of the world how great and how powerful soever she were be properly and literally said to be the Throne or residing place

saith Reason 1 1. Because the Old Temple at Hierusalem was already destroyed by Titus and the Jewes vanquished and scattered by the Romans after they had won their City before this measuring Reed was delivered unto the Apostle which was about the latter end of Domitians Reigne after the dectruction of Hierusalem therefore not likely that the Angel would give him a Reed to measure their dissipation after they were dissipated and their destruction after they were destroyed Reason 2 2. Because this Temple was committed to the two Witnesses of Christ as is plaine out of the third verse which Beza therefore Translateth by adding illam sciliet Ecclesiam that is the Church of Christ or illud scilicet Templum which signifieth here the same thing unto the words of the Text saying and I will give her that is the Church unto my two Witnesses to be instructed and to be governed by them and not as our last Translation hath it I will give power unto my two Witnesses but I will deliver my Church unto my two Witnesses to be guided and edified whereas the Jewish Church that was already dissipated and their Ceremonies now were to be quite abolished was rather taken from the Witnesses and the Witnesses from it and not given unto it to be edified by them when it was to be ruinted as the Apostle sheweth Reason 3 3. Because the Apostle is here likewise commanded to measure together with the Temple them that Worship in the Temple which therefore must needs be understood of their building up and not of their destroying when God will not destroy them that Worship him But the Court saith the Angel which is without the Temple and into which all sorts of people were admitted to come 2 Chron. 4.9 the same being answerable to our Church-yard leave out and measure it not saith the Angel and the reason is because this Common Court was given to the Gentiles that is not only to the Christian Church Apostatized to Idolatry as Mr. Mede saith but also to the Infidels Worldlings Mr. Mede part 2. page 3. Hypocrites and all other wicked and prophane people that were and would be such as those whom the Jewes termed Gentiles that is not the true Worshippers of God which notwithstanding are permitted to come to the Court of Gods house as the Gentiles were to the Court of the Temple and to be there in the materiall Church among Gods people and to seem to be as good Christians as the best and yet they are not measured to be built and to be made true Christians right Saints and Servants of God because they are as the Gentiles were accounted to be among the Jews that is not the right Worshippers and servers of the true God whom the Jews profest and believed that he was only known in Jury Psal 79.1 and his name only great in Israel as the Prophet sheweth but Idolaters and the Worshippers of stocks and stones and those Images that were no Gods for so are all the Hypocriticall professors and prophane worldly men and leud livers that will not be reduced and brought by the Witnesses of Christ to a better forme to be built in the true service of God and the right faith of Jesus Christ none otherwise then as the Gentiles were among the Jews not any of Gods people And these Gentiles that is these Hypocrites Worldlings and prophane people that are as the Gentiles were admitted to the Court of Gods Temple received into the visible material Church amongst Gods people are accounted as Gods Children and good Christians yet being not measured nor built by the Witnesses whom they regard not upon the right foundation that is truly ingrafted by a lively faith into Jesus Christ whom they refuse to obey and to believe in him shall at last faith the Angel that is when the two Witnesses shall have finished their testimony and that will be after 1200 and 60 dayes tread the holy City under foot that is How long the Wicked Worldlings should afflict the true Servants of Christ c. 13.5 most grievously persecute and vex the true Church of Christ and the Faithfull Servants of God that are measured and rightly built and instructed in the true faith and the right manner of Gods Worship by the Witnesses for the full space of 42 moneths which space and length of time doth sune chronize and is the very same space and exprest in the very same phrase that the Antichrict is said that he should continue to prevaile in the molesting and persecuting of the Saints and Servants of God which is 42 moneths cap. 13. verse 5. whereby it appeareth that these prophane Worldlings Hypocrites will be the followers and the adherents of the Antichrist that they will joyne with him to molest persecute the true Worshippers of God when he appeareth in the world untill which appearance and comming of him the true Christians which is the holy City shall be quiet in a faire manner and the two Witnesses shall have power saith our Translation to Prophesie and to build up the Temple of God that is to edifie and to instruct the true Church of Christ as Christ hath committed the same to be instructed guided governed by them Ther after that the Angel had commanded the Apostle to measure the Temple 2. Of the two Witnesses the Builders and Governours of Gods Church that the Christian Church might be edified and amplified by the labour and the Testimony of his two Witnesses he proceeds to describe the Witnesses that should erect and build up his Church and to shew their indowments qualifications and abilities and what things should happen unto them how they should be destroyed and yet restored againe But now touching these two Witnesses Who are to be understood by the two Witnesses the first thing that is most requisite to be known for the better understanding of all the rest of the things that are said of them is to find out who are meant by these two Witnesses this is the greatest question and most of all unconsented who they are for the most learned Cardinall of Rome quoteth 4 Penmen of the Holy Scriptures as Malachy 4. and 5. the Son of Syrach Eccles c. 48. 10. c. 44.16 S. Math. relating the words of Christ Math. 17. c. 11. and St. Iohn in this very place here treated of Reve. 11. c. 3. and to these he adjoyneth seven or eight Ancient Fathers and some other learned Commentators upon the Apocalips Bellarm. de rom●n pontific l. 3. c. 3. that do all say if we will believe his Interpretation of the foresaid Scriptures these two Witnesses are Henoch and Elias that shall come from the place where they are now preserved by God to resist the Antichrist when he commeth and appeareth in the world and to Preach unto the people that they should not be seduced by the Antichrist the which office they shall do for the space

I refer it to any mans judgement I know the Pope challengeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as great authority as can be imagined but whether he hath this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a militarie Force of gold and filver men and munition so plentifull and so powerfull as the Parliament had it I leave it to the world for to judge But Then it is said that the Dragon gave his Throne or Seat unto the Beast The Throne of the beast what manner of Throne it is Isa 14.13.14 Luke 46. Matth. 4.9 and what Throne hath the Dragon but an usurped Throne when with the King of Babylon that said in his heart I will ascend into heaven and I will exalt my Throne above the stars of God and above the heigth of the clouds and I will be like unto the most high so he will assume to himself what is none of his own and as he said to Christ all these things will I give thee when as they were none of his to give so he gives unto the Beast no other Throne but an usurped Throne such as himself had no right unto nor any power to give but as the thief can give away my purse which by force he hath taken from me The parallel And so the Author of the Historie of Independency sheweth how the long Parliament entred and possessed this usurped Throne of the Dragon when in answer to the Kings offered Act of Oblivion they intended as they did afterward to pass an Act of general pardon for which they expected a general obedience and submission to their Government for the future because pardon and protection implies obedience to the Protectors without which they may be handled as publick enemies and outlaws that ought to be destroyed as Traitors and Rebels against the State as Politicus the States interpreter sets it down numb 16. from Sept. 19. to Sept. 26. But how came they saith that Author to that Majesty How the long Parliament came to the Throne of their claimed authority to whom for birth and the highest of their education that they should have the power and authority of granting pardons imposing Laws and requiring obedience from the people and without that to plunder them and to punish the refusers as they please You see what the Holy Ghost saith from whence the Beast had it from whence soever they have it But our new Statists saith he will answer you that the Supreme power is originally in the people and so the Parliament voted the same to be and the people have delegated and committed the same to them as the Representative of the people and so having this derivative authority from the people which had this authority but from them and their vote they use this authority to yoke their Soveraign Lord the people whose delegates they profess themselves to be and to make them yield Allegeance and obedience unto them that are but their own delegates and servants of the Common wealth under the penalty of depriving them of their goods Lands and lives Such a piece of circular Logick for them to give a power unto the people who had no power to give it A strange piece of Logick and then to take it to themselves from the people to master and to destroy the people as I think neither Aristotle nor Ramus nor all the School of Athens did ever know the like yet hereby we see how they have got to the Throne of Supreme Majesty and though it be but an usurped Throne saith that Author and their authority a self-created authority meerly to cheat fools and to domineer over the weak and helpless people yet as Vespasian said dulcis odor lucri ex re qualibet so they thought it a brave thing to rule by what Logick Art or means soever they can attain unto the Throne be it right or wrong So cruelly hatefull and beastly is the nature of Ambition and the desire of bearing Rule and Plutarch saith Plutarch in vita Pyrhi And now the Parliament having gotten possession of this usurped throne as we may call it and cloathed himself with this new created Majesty it is said that he exerciseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that great Authority with such and so great severity and in so large and transcendent a manner over the people as neither King nor Keisar neither Pope Turk nor Tyrant Walter Raleigh in his Prerace to the History of the world nor any other Pagan Infidell did ever the like for omitting others further from us though Henry 8. that was Praecursor Antichristi the Gentleman Usher to bring in the Antichrist and of whom Sir Walter Raleigh saith If all the pictures and patterns of a merciless Prince were lost in the world they might all be painted to the life out of the story of this King that neither spared Woman in his Lust nor man in his Fury hath mightily magnified his Authority over his Subjects to make his Lustfull will stand for law yet he came far short multis parasangis by many degrees of the power and Authority that this Parliament hath used over his Brethren and over his own Soveraign Lord and Master the people for though neither Henry the 8th nor any other King of this Land did ever attempt to do any publick Act of moment as to levy monyes press Souldiers Vieount verulam in the life of Hen. 7. commit Prisoners and put men to death but according to the Lawes of our Land howsoever they caused these Lawes to be sometimes wrested by their judges to satisfie their own wills as Sir Francis Bacon saith Henry the 7th sometimes did yet that Parliament without Law and ex diametro contrary to our Lawes saith the Author of the History of Independency have made themselves Masters of our Estates of our liberties and of our lives that as the Centurion said he was a man under Authority and needed but say to this man go and he goeth and to another come and he commeth and to his Servant do this and he doth it so this Parliament is above all Authority and needs but set down what sum soever he would have he must have it and what men soever he would have dead they must dye for whatsoever this Parliament voteth that is a Law and they can vote what they will And what Authority in the world can be greater then this the Pope can do nothing without his Cardinalls nor the Cardinalls without the Pope and King Ahassuerus could do nothing without his seven Counssellors nor the seven Counsellors without the King Hester 1.13 Ezra 7.14 yet this Parliament will do any thing without the King and against the King and therefore mine Author saith that when this Parliament voted that whatsoever the Commons in Parliament Voted and shall Enact The strange Vote of the long Parliament Hist of Independ pag. 11. part 3. shall have the power and force of an Act of Parliament or Law without the consent of