learn in these books what is good for thy bodie and not learn what is good for thy soul Open thy eyes wider and then thou shalt see that there could be no goodnesse in the creature except God had made it and that if the effect be good then the cause of this good must needs be infinitely more good and therefore he above all things is to be sought of us And this is so cleare a lesson that except a man will shut his eyes he must see it and understand it because the Apostle saith Rom. 1. 19 20. That which may be known of God is manifest in them For the invisible things of him that is his eternall power and Godhead are seen by the creation of the world being considered in his works that they should be without excuse And these preachers are of S. Paul acknowledged for preachers in the 10 chapter following and the 18 vers having relation to the 14 verse Have they not heard no doubt their sound went into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the world Secondly Gods Word is thy preacher And this is proved by the book of Solomon called Ecclesiastes for that book as the learned know signifieth a preacher Again turn to Acts 15. 21. and there the holy Ghost will tell thee that Moses was preached every day in the Synagogues while his words were read unto them If thou saist that Gods scriptures are too high for thy capacitie then what sayest thou to the 19 Psalm vers 7. which teacheth that the testimony of the Lord giveth wisdome to the simple And art thou so simple to think that when God gave his scriptures to the Church he gave them so darkly that men might not understand them then he might as well not have given them Thou wilt object that of the Eunuch in Acts 8. 30 31. where when Philip asked the Eunuch whether he understood what he read he answered How can I except I had a guide And I answer thee again that there is a great difference between the Eunuch and thee and this place of scripture which he read and the places of scripture which to thee are propounded for he was out of the Church which is the house of light and thou art in it Again that scripture was to him a mysterie but to thee it is no mysterie For in Isaiah no name is exprest but it is read He was led as a sheep to the slaughter but what he this was the articles of our faith expresse to the simplest that it was Jesus Christ the Messias of the world who was delivered by the Jews to Pontius Pilate to be slain for our redemption and therefore this excuse of darknesse is utterly taken from thee because the Gospel is the blazing of the Law and there is nothing so dark in one place but in some other it is so bright that the very blear-eied may see it Therefore Fulgentius saith In verbo Dei abundat quod perfectus comedat abundat etiam quod parvulus sugat Ibi est enim simul lacteus potus quo tenera fidelium nutriatur infantia solidus cibus quo robusta perfectorum juventus spiritalia sanctae virtutis accipiat incrementa In the word of God aboundeth that which the perfect man may eat and that which the little one may suck For there is both drink of milk whereby the tender infancy of the faithfull may be nourished and solid meat whereby the strong youth of the perfect may receive the spirituall increase of holy vertue Thirdly Gods holy Sacraments are our preachers while by visible and sensible signes they teach us what we are to beleeve for which they are of the learned called visibilia verba words visible Therefore when we see the water in Baptisme this bringeth to our remembrance the water and bloud which came out of our Saviours side and when we see the bread and wine this preacheth to us that his bodie was broken and his bloud shed for our sinnes as the water signifieth the washing away of our transgressions And these Sacraments do that for us that all the preachers of the land cannot do For they by their words can but onely teach us and enlighten our understanding but these preachers the Sacraments besides the light which they give to our understanding infuse through Christs power and effectuall ordinance grace into our souls and make us acceptable before God Yea so effectually do they this that they can never want grace after who rightly receive them and preserve the vertue of them Therefore our Lord said to the woman in John 4. 14. Whosoever shall drink of the water that I shall give him shall never be more athirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into eternall life This water is that grace which is bestowed upon us in Baptisme which after the Eunuch had received as we reade in Acts 8. 39. he went away rejoycing and we reade not that he heard any more sermons or received any other Sacraments for his well of water which he carried away with him into a farre heathen countrey was sufficient for him But oh the lamentation of our times Who shall make our people to beleeve that Christs Sacraments bestow grace they say they signifie onely and that faith cometh by hearing onely yet when they have heard what they can and beleeve what they will they shall never be saved without the grace of the Sacraments at least in desire I can shew you of some that are saved without the hearing of the word preached our baptized infants but I can shew you of none saved ordinarily without the Sacraments in regard of our Saviours exception in John 3. 5. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdome of God Therefore the men which shut up all in the preaching of the word evacuate Christs Sacraments and do they know not what for preaching is but a preparation for the Sacraments and there the principall grace lies hid For this cause our Saviour said to his Apostles Matth. 28. 19. Go teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost For people must first be taught that God bestoweth grace in the Sacraments or els they will not receive them And the principall Sacrament is Baptisme because that onely bestoweth new life and the rest strengthen and preserve it Fourthly printed sermons are thy preachers For assoon as there is any rare sermon preached by and by it is put to print and from the presse it is disperst all the land over There is scarce a house in any town but one or other in it by reading can repeat it to thee Then how shouldest thou starve for want of preaching when the best preachers in the land such as thou never sawest nor they thee yet by this means continually preach unto thee Fifthly Gods Spirit
Go saith he and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost Were people now to be called and converted to the Gospel then not onely this kinde of preaching but miracles also were needfull but as S. Augustine saith When all the world beleeveth what need miracles and what need is now of Apostles and Evangelists and 70 Disciples Lastly when much needlesse and some unsound teaching by tract of time had sued into the ark of Christs Church by the prelates and priests thereof then in the 19 yeare of King Henrie the 8 began licenses to be granted by the court of Starre-chamber to preach against the corruptions of the time like to that of King Jehoshaphat But now thanks be to God the corruptions are removed and the ancient and true doctrine of the primitive Church by settled articles is restored therefore this extraordinarie kinde is not now so necessarie except it be upon some notorious crimes breaking in upon our people or some exorbitancies of green heads broaching the froth of their own brains which will hardly be reformed untill many of these be unfurnisht of their licenses and those that are permitted be restrained to certain times and seasons For better were it for our Church and people to have but one sermon well premeditated in a moneth which is insinuated by the Canon then two upon a day proceeding from a rolling brain and mouth without due preparation Such sermons are abortive like cast calves coming out of the wombe before the time and they runne into the curse of the Prophet Jeremiah Maledictus qui facit opus Domini negligenter Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord negligently Many of these men partly to serve the expectation of others and partly to seek their own applause after they have been in the high place and saluted after the descent take it upon them as though they were young prophets and new apostles to preach a new Gospel to the world as our Puritanes Brownists and other Novelists have done I reade in Socrates Scholasticus l. 5. c. 20. that at Alexandria the inferiour priest did not use to preach but that order first began when Arius turned upside down the quiet estate of the Church But we have so many inferiour and young priests preaching among us that all the Bishops in the land can hardly keep down their wrong and unseasoned doctrine if Vox populi may be judge Such are work-makers and not finishers of work See Calvine upon 1. Cor. 1. 17. Sed cùm paucorum esset docere pluribus autem baptizare datum fuerit And S. Paul saith Are all teachers 1. Cor. 12. 29. Having shewed this kinde of preaching to be extraordinarie for speciall men speciall times and occasions it followeth that the preaching by reading proved out of Acts 15. and other places of scripture is the ordinarie preaching ordained by God himself in his Church as you may see in the 4. chapter of the epistle to the Colossians and 16 verse where S. Paul writeth thus And when this epistle is read of you cause that it be read in the church of the Laodiceans also and that ye likewise reade the epistle from Laodicea This was the ordinarie preaching in our Church before king Henrie the eighth and this was the ordinary preaching in the synagogues of the Jews as you may see in Acts 13. 15. and by the division of the three Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Hebrew Bible And by this demonstration of the extraordinarinesse of the kinde person and time we may answer all objections made of confused and undistinguishing wits out of 2. Tim. 4. and all other places of scripture because particular precepts do not binde all persons and confine all times For who can expect those gifts in the ordinarie Ministers of our dayes which God bestowed upon the extraordinarie Ministers and times of the first preaching of the Gospel And as for our large-carving professours in their way of preaching and knowledge this I finde that they which professe least live more justly then they which professe and know most because as my text directeth me knowledge puffes them up and upon their knowledge they presume for the more they know the lesse they fear and the lesse they fear the more they offend Who are more bold then they which know most and fear least The skilfullest captain he most hazardeth the cunningest physician he kills most and the ripest wits runne into greatest oversights Why because they presume so much of their knowledge and presuming draws carelesnesse Wherefore they which know lesse are the more industrious Knowledge puffeth up but Charitie edifieth Now to conclude with thee which runnest after this extraordinarie kinde where thou thinkest best I will shew the inconvenience First thou breakest the Church-canon and when thou fallest on breaking of Canons then follows nothing but confusion disorder Secondly thou discreditest thine own Minister though he hath better parts and gifts then the men that thou runnest after Thirdly thou troublest thy neighbours seats in a strange church Fourthly thy servants and children will no◠come to catechizing because thou art absent the hatchet flies one way and the helve another thou gainest and thy family loseth Fifthly when thou shouldest help thy neighbours in singing psalmes to Gods praise then thy trumpet is abroad in another parish Lastly if all the rest should follow thee some would fall short under hedges and there pray lewd parts The Lord open thine eyes to give thee more discretion that thou mayst give a better example Knowledge puffeth up but Charitie edifieth HAving spoken of the first part of my text now I must proceed to the second in which I must as much extoll Charitie as before I disabled unformed knowledge for it was never the Apostles minde nor mine to speak any thing against well qualified knowledge which belongs to perfect men as the learned have noted nor yet against moderate and sober knowledge fit for all sorts of men taught by the forenamed preachers but onely to withstand the immoderatenesse and misgovernance of it in the vulgar who know no better how to use it then a mad man doth a sword If thy knowledge be greater then thy charitie then it will do more hurt then good but if thy charitie exceed thy knowledge then that by its government makes all good because charitie is the master and governour of knowledge You may surfet with knowledge so you cannot with charitie Knowledge puffeth up but Charitie edifieth The word but signifieth a difference between charitie and knowledge because the conjunction is discretive And indeed the difference is great as the Apostle expresseth because charitie is to use the School phrase an act giving life and perfection it edifieth among the vertues theologicall and morall but knowledge without charitie is a matter of vanitie because it puffeth up it is like a bladder or bubble which have
father and mother and cleave to his wife and they twain shall be one flesh So they that have charitie will leave all things to cleave to God to be one spirit with him Yea so fast doth charitie glue the good soul to God as the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expresseth that it will die before it leave him as is to be seen in all the holy Martyrs Nothing may quench this fire as Solomon singeth Set me as a seal upon thy heart and as a signet upon thy arm for love is strong as death jealousie is cruell as the grave the coals thereof are fiery coals yea a vehement flame Much water cannot quench love neither can the flouds drown it if a man would give all the substance of his house for love they would greatly contemne it For what is that which makes all the marriages in the world is it not love if they did not love one another they would never come together Now this charitie is nothing else but divine love and this makes God and man one spirit as naturall love and marriage makes man and wife one flesh and it is called Charity to distinguish it from naturall love for that it is the most deare and precious love in regard it is between God and mans spirit Again that must be the most excellent vertue which makes man most like to God but there is nothing that makes man more like to God then charitie because S. John saith God is charitie therefore they that have charitie must needs be most like him It is the holy Ghosts child as I may say sanctifying the soul. It is no where said that God is faith or God is knowledge for then the devils should be more like to God then man because they know more and beleeve more then any man but he is called in scripture onely charitie in regard of goodnesse and sanctitie for that all goodnesse of sanctification proceeds from charitie So God loved the world saith our Lord in John 3. 16. that he gave his onely begotten Sonne that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Now as all good of sanctitie comes from Gods love to man so from mans charitie comes all the like goodnesse toward God and our neighbour Light comes from faith and understanding from knowledge but goodnesse and sanctitie come onely from charitie And if God be charitie then what interest have they to God and his kingdome who live continually in malice and quarrels Moreover Charitie is called of Divines the universall grace because S. Paul Colos. 3. 14. calleth it the bond of perfection Above all these things put on charitie which is the bond of perfectnesse He saith above all because this is the best of all and he calleth it the bond of perfectnesse first because it tieth man to God in the heart who is perfectnesse it self and next because it tieth all vertues together as we are taught in the Collect of Quinquagesima Hast thou charitie then canst thou want no vertue because all are bound up in it There is justice there is mercy there is liberalitie there is fidelitie there is the highest there is the lowest there is magnanimitie there is humilitie charitie bindes all together in one man Then get charitie and thou needest not run from parish to parish to get understanding because it dwells in charitie According to this S. Austine saith Scriptura nihil praecipit nisi charitatem nihil culpat nisi cupiditatem The scripture commandeth nothing but charitie and blameth nothing but concupiscence Now what charitie is the Father in that place thus defineth Charitatem voco motum animi ad fruendum Deo propter ipsum se atque proximo propter Deum I call charitie saith he a motion of the minde to the fruition of God for himself and of himself and his neighbour for God Lastly there is yet another title of eâ—cellencie belonging to charitie and this is Queen of vertues because it commandeth and governeth them all to right ends For say I had all knowledge and could confute all men and say I had all eloquence that I could with Orpheus move the stonie heart say I had all patience and could give my body to be burned and say I had all faith that I could remove mountains yet if I did not know to Godward speak to Godward suffer to Godward and beleeve to Godward and so of all other vertues all this would do me no good Why because the Queen of vertues Charitie which should bend and order all these to Godward is wanting For every action as the learned know proceeds from election election is in the will and the principall power of the will is love and charitie therefore look which way that goeth that way go all thy actions of heart and minde If thy love be naturall then it orders and carries all thy actions to a naturall end and that leadeth to hell but if thy love be divine and spirituall which my Text calleth Charitie then that like a Queen regulates all thy actions to a supernaturall end which is to serve God and to gain his kingdome And the more good actions thou dost in this kinde the more thou edifiest as my Text saith Knowledge puffeth up but Charitie edifieth that is to say Charitie buildeth As the carpenter and mason build with wood and stone so charitie buildeth with good and godly actions Faith is often idle knowledge sleepie and hope is drousie but charitie is alwayes working because it is the hearts pulse to God-ward As the pulse never leaves beating so charitie never leaves working and the more it worketh the greater is the edifying Little charitie makes a little Christian and great charitie makes a great Christian and perfect charitie makes a perfect Christian. The main Tenet of the scripture is that God will reward every man according to his works Therefore the more good works a Christian doth in the kingdome of grace the greater shall be his crown in the kingdome of glorie For as S. Paul saith 1. Cor. 15. 41 42. As one starre differeth from another in glory so is the resurrection of the dead the body with the more good works it riseth the more it shall shine in heavens glory In my Fathers house are many mansions saith our Saviour John 14. 2. Every man here strives to have the fairest house if he be a man of worth Then if thou desirest one of the better mansions in the kingdome of glorie thou must build for it here in the kingdome of grace The more good works thou preparest here the larger shall be thy house there the holier works the higher habitation in heavens majestie Wherefore brethren be never weary of well doing but as S. Paul exhorteth 1. Cor. 15. 58. be abundant alwayes in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. There is nothing lost but all gotten by good life and good
feoffe it upon true doctrine and by writing when they forge a letter and put another mans name unto it Now denying the proceeding of impostours by these three he utterly barres the Thessalonians from admitting this false doctrine that Christs coming was then at hand And therefore he adjoyneth this generall to these particulars Let no man deceive you by any means Though they prophesie in the spirit though they preach out of the pulpit though they shew a letter signed as it were with mine own hand yet beleeve it not according to the like monition Gal. 1. 8. Though we or an angel from heaven preach unto you otherwise then that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed The two antecedents of Christs coming For that day shall not come except there come a falling away first and that man of sinne be revealed the sonne of perdition The Apostle having bound the Thessalonians from the hasty expectation of Christs coming now he gives them two infallible antecedents which must go before so that till these be come Christ may not come and when both these are come then the time which we look for must be at hand so saying our Saviour When ye see all these things know that the kingdome of God is neare even at the doores The first antecedent is the falling away the second and last is the uncovering of the man of sinne These two by reason of congruitie must go before for before these two parts be acted how should Christ come to judgement Cuique sua est tempestas saith Ecclesiastes Every thing must have his time Before Christ can judge the deficient they must have a time to fall away in before Christ can crown the constant they must have a time to be tried in before Christ can fight with his adversarie his adversarie must first shew himself and come into the field so there must be a world before there can be an end of the world besides in generation there is privation ever before form therefore in the breeding of Antichrist before the end defection must precede The falling away Whereas the first antecedent is a falling away we must enquire what is meant by this 'T is not a falling away from the Romane empire as some have imagined for what hath Christ empire to do with the Romane empire but it is a falling away from the faith of the Gospell it is the greatest defection that can be because it is a falling from Christ to the breeding of Antichrist Thus S. Paul expoundeth himself in 1. Tim. 4. 1. Now the Spirit speaketh evidently that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith He saith some because all shall not But that this some shall be the greatest some our Saviour sheweth in the Gospel by an interrogation But when the Sonne of man cometh shall he finde faith on the earth Defection spirituall is like a river the further it runneth the greater it groweth therefore the fittest time for the great Antichrist is the last time Where the falling away is Next the question is where this apostasie is to be found in what part of the world whether in the east church or in the west church Let us search the new Testament and see if we can finde any thing for it there First the Gospel was preached to the Jews many embraced it at the first as we reade in the Gospel but now they be all gone from it looking for a new Messias Where is the Church of the Corinthians the Church of the Galatians the Church of the Ephesians the Church of the Philippians the Church of the Colossians the Church of the Thessalonians to all which S. Paul wrote what is become of the twelve tribes to which Saint James wrote and whither are gone the seven great Churches of Asia to whom S. John wrote All these East Churches founded by the scripture are fallen from Christ and become Mahometans and Nestorians Their falling away was prophesied by S. John in the 2 of the Revelation The Church of the Ephesians was challenged for leaving their first love and were threatned with the removing of their candlestick if they did not repent The Church of Pergamos was challenged for maintaining the doctrine of Balaam the doctrine of the Nicolaitans and was threatned to be fought against with the sword of Christs mouth The Church of Thyatira was charged for suffering of Jezebel to deceive the people and was threatned to be cast into a bed of affliction The Church of Sardis was challenged for being then dead or at least a dying and was threatned to be come upon as a thief comes unexpectedly The Church of the Laodiceans was challenged for that they were neither hot nor cold but luke-warm and were threatned to be spewed out of Christs mouth All these with all the Churches of Africa as lamentable experience proveth a long time ago are gone in denying Christ totally and in receiving of circumcision the mark of the beast Therefore here that is in these Churches of the east which at this day are all under the great Turk this apostasie of which S. Paul speaketh of necessitie must be understood Thus the Church which rose in the east like the moon in the firmament is going down in the west expecting Christs coming Then from this great defection let us acquit Christendome whether they be Papists Protestants or Lutherans because though there be some differences amongst us in ceremonies and expositions which destroy not yet still our head Christ by Baptisme standeth upon our bodie and the substance of the Gospel is entire and whole amongst us by retaining the articles of the faith the volume of the new Testament and the practise thereof by faith and good life But where Baptisme is removed there is perfect apostasie because there the head is cut off from the body And this is contrarie to the commission of our Saviour Matth. 28. 19. The authours of the falling away To proceed in this point next it is expedient to know the authours of this defection how long it hath continued and who is the upholder of it For the first we finde that the first authour was the arch-heretick Arius who as we reade in S. Austine held the Sonne of God to be a creature and the holy Ghost to be the creature of a creature Hence he is called of S. Hilarius Principium Antichristi the beginning of Antichrist and in the Councell of Sardis he is named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fighter with Christ. The second authour was the heretick Nestorius who affirmed Christ to be onely man And he was termed Ecclesiae incendium the firebrand of the Church as we reade in Socrates and officina blasphemiarum the shop-house of blasphemies as we reade in Euagrius The third and last authour was the false prophet Mahomet who by the help of Sergius the Nestorian Monk forged his Alcoran in which as in the sink of heresies is contained
abode Sedulius saith Templum Hierosolymae reficere tentabit He shall go about to repair the temple at Hierusalem Hierome He shall sit in the temple of God either at Hierusalem as some think or in the Church as we more truely suppose S. Chrysostome to whom I attribute most saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He shall command himself to be worshipped for God and to be placed in the temple not onely at Hierusalem but also in the Churches He shall seat himself in the temple to give satisfaction to the Jews his principall followers and he shall place himself in the Church to oppose the Christians to the one he shall counterfeit the Messias to the other he shall disclose himself to be the Antichrist And this sense doth Theodoret and Theophylact follow Lactantius saith In Antichrists time the chief kingdome shall be in Asia the east shall rule and the west shall obey And Irenaeus hath Antichrist on a sudden shall rush into divers kingdomes of the Romane empire to challenge a kingdome to himself Sibyl saith that the greatest terrour and furie of his kingdome shall be by the banks of Tybur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A king shall rise with whitish head and neighb'ring seas name bear Viewing the world with poyson'd foot obtaining gifts by fear All mysteries of magick arts he shall exactly know An infant god himself he 'l shew what 's worshipt here below He will deface and then begin his errours to unfold Then all shall mourn like turtle sole which do this beast behold Then fathers grave with children small shall direfull fates blaspheme Alas alas thus howl and curse on banks of Tyburs stream Thus farre of Antichrists seat and next follows his ostentation shewing himself that he is God Because he cannot be God in deed he will seek to be God in shew He shall be but an earthen God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. John describeth him Revel 11. 4. These are the two olive-trees and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth Beza translateth passively put before the God of the earth signifying that they are so placed by the true God against the false God thus agreeing with the adverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 è regione vel ex adverso posita placed overthwart to him Wherefore for all his ruffe in his fourtie two moneths time yet he shall not have his full will and pleasure because Gods two witnesses shall interrupt him by prophesying against him and by vexing his earthen worshippers with plagues 1260 dayes which is the just time of his fourtie two moneths But here a great question ariseth Who shall be these two witnesses Our late Divines say The ordinarie Ministers of the Church for that time But the Fathers understand them to be Enoch and Elias Though there be no expresse warrant for either of these yet untill I understand better I follow the Fathers because their sense fitteth best with the circumstances of the text and the description of the persons And first because the persons are but two but the ordinarie Ministers are many And if it be said that the number of two is put for all the rest I reply that this is not agreeing with the scripture which in such cases useth numbers of perfection or numbers of allusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The number of seven being a number of perfection is thus commonly used through this book of the Apocalyps as the seven starres are put for all the Ministers of Asia and the seven lamps for all the vertues of Gods Spirit and the number of twelve thousand for all them that were sealed of every of the twelve tribes But the number of two is no such number and therefore not fit to comprehend a whole Secondly for the word witnesses this is fit for Enoch in that he rebuked the first world and testified of Gods coming to judgement against them And this squareth as just with Elias in rebuking of sinne and testifying for God insomuch as John the Baptist the great reformer is prophesied to come in the spirit and power of Elias Thirdly it is said that if any man will hurt them fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies And so again assoon as Elias opened his mouth to command fire to come down from heaven the fire fell and devoured two captains with their two fifties Fourthly it is said that these have power to shut heaven that it rain not in the dayes of their prophesying and this power had Elias and executed it as we reade in 1. Kin. 17. 1. Fifthly it is said that these two vexed them that dwelt on the earth and thus did Elias vex king Ahab when he said unto him Art thou he that troublest Israel and again when he provoked Baals prophets to cut themselves with knives and lancers Sixthly it is said that their enemie shall kill them and this is fit for Enoch and Elias because hitherto they have not tasted of death but one day they must die because the scripture saith It is appointed to men that they shall once die Their death therefore seemeth to be deferred to a more famous end to a congresse with the great Antichrist Seventhly and lastly it is said They shall ascend up to heaven and their enemies shall see them and so have Enoch and Elias alreadie done and therefore they know the way to do so again These two therefore be they who they may be may well be called Enoch and Elias because in their deeds they so resemble them as if they were themselves And these reasons I have for the reverend Fathers whose understanding and judgement I much regard And I see no reason why these two may not as well in the end of the world come to this service as Elias and Moses in Christs time came to him upon the mount upon the like service that is to testifie to his disciples that he was the true Messias and that he was to suffer death according to Moses law to make satisfaction for the sinnes of the people and therefore it is said in Luke 9. 31. that they spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem Elias before his translation testified for the true God against the false God after his translation he came again upon earth to testifie for Christ the true Messias then being thus his approved witnesse why may he not come once again in the end of the world to contest with Antichrist and his false prophets for the true Christ against that false Christ And if it be objected that Elias did not in substance come to Christ upon the mount but as a spectrum to such Calvin upon the place will give this honest
and reasonable answer Quanquam res est in utramque partem disputabilis mihi tamen magis probatur ipsos verè in eum locum adductos esse Neque enim absurdum est quum Deus corpora animas habeat in sua manu mortuos ad tempus in vitam ejus arbitrio restitui dum ità expedit Tunc autem Moses Elias non sibi resurrexerunt sed ut praestò adessent Christo. Calvin Harm Evang. in loc Though the thing be disputable on both parts yet to me saith he it seemeth more probable that they were truely brought into that place Neither is it absurd seeing God hath in his hands bodies and souls that at his will the dead should for a time be restored to life when it is so expedient c. But for this businesse the coming of Enoch and Elias is most expedient for that it is said of Antichrist that he shall come after the working of Satan with all power and signes and lying wonders and therefore they who are to buckle with him had need to be more then ordinarie men such to whom none were like as Ecclesiasticus reporteth of Enoch and Elias and endued with true miracles And this is further confirmed by the prophesie of Malachi Behold I will send you Elias the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. But this our late Divines turn aside by applying it to John the Baptist and to Christs first coming according to that in Matt. 17. 12. I say unto you that Elias is already come To this I reply that as there are two comings of Christ a first and a second so there are also two Eliahs the true and proper Elias who was the Prophet and the spirituall Elias which was John the Baptist so called because he came in Eliahs spirit This spirituall Elias as our Saviour most truely reporteth came before Christs first coming and the proper Elias is to come before his second coming And this as Jansenius on this point in the Gospel saith communiter intelligitur Thus are both true Elias is come and not come The spirituall Elias is come and hath done his part but the proper Elias is yet to come because Malachi saith He shall be sent before the great and terrible day of the Lord. Now it is manifest that Christs first coming was not that great and terrible day because the scripture calleth it the day of salvation and the acceptable time Therefore it is left that the true and proper Elias is yet to come before the great and terrible day so called of the prophets because it is a day of judgement and revenge Vers. 5. Remember ye not that when I was yet with you I told you these things Vers. 6. And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time After the Apostle hath laid out the two antecedents of the worlds end the apostasie and the Antichrist now he confirmeth his doctrine and chideth these Thessalonians for being so soon removed from the tradition of the truth as if he should have said Did ye heare me so slightly that ye have so soon forgotten me I told you something then which is not fit to be written namely that the apostasie cannot yet be ripe nor the man of sinne be revealed for that the Romane Emperour will not suffer it He will admit no man to play Rex or to display the banner of Antichrist But the time shall come when his date shall be out then shall defection flourish and after that the man of sinne shall be in his colours This S. Paul would not write lest the publick prediction of the ruine of the Romane Empire should spurre them up to an exasperation against the Christian profession for it is not good to wake a sleeping dogge nor to draw troubles which will come too fast of their own accord When sheep are sent among wolves they had need to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves And this doctrine both S. Ambrose and S. Chrysostome confirm upon these words Ye know what withholdeth S. Ambrose saith Post defectum abolitionem regni Romani appariturum Antichristum After the defect abolishing of the Romane kingdome Antichrist is to appeare And S. Chrysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When the Romane Empire shall be taken away then shall Antichrist come Antichrists originall and seed Vers. 7. For the mysterie of iniquitie already worketh Here is demonstrated Antichrists seed and originall which is iniquitie Iniquitie in the Greek text is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anomie or a life without law and is the mother of apostasie and apostasie is the breeder of Antichrist In the primitive Church before canons were made and government established men would preach what they listed for without law no man is confined and then were heresies broacht in plentie Satan wrought cunningly and by degrees upon their green wits and therefore their anomie S. Paul calls a mysterie Anomie began in the Apostles dayes and continued to Mahomets time apostasie stood up in Mahomets time and to this day expecteth Antichrists time The Turks daily look for their Mahomet and the Jews for their Messias when both these are met in one then shall be that great monster the man of sinne Then if we will not be deluded in the birth and originall of Antichrist we must look for him out of the apostasie there is the fittest matter of his breed He must be no Christian that shall be the Antichrist by reason of the opposition But it is wondered at that he should be so long in breeding for the mysterie began in the Apostles time and S. John saith that then were many Antichrists which were his fore-runners and yet as yet he is not come I answer As the great Comet is a longer time in gathering then the ordinarie stella cadens and as all great works have long and great preparations so hath this man of sinne In the first six hundred yeares after Christ he was an embryon since that time to this he hath been in his animation and now we expect his viperous birth Vers. 7. Onely he who now letteth will let till he be taken out of the way Why doth the Apostle applie this let onely to the Romane empire seeing there were other and farre higher causes of this dilation as Gods will of sufferance and the administration of angels Of the first it is said Psalme 115. 3. Our God is in heaven and he doth whatsoever he will And S. Paul Rom. 9. 19. saith Who hath resisted his will Of the second we reade in Daniel 10. 13. that the angel who was prince of the kingdome of Persia withstood that other angel who was prince of the holy nation untill Michael one of the chief princes came in to his help To this we say that where divers causes be concurring to one end there the naming of one doth not exclude the other but
ex ignorantia non ex rata malitia not directly but indirectly of ignorance and not of confirmed malice In which case they travelled along with the blessed Apostle before his conversion he saying of himself I was a blasphemer and a persecuter and an oppressour but I obtained mercie because I did it ignorantly in unbelief The Doctors reasons against the Pope in that he acknowledgeth other Kings Priests and Prophets beside Christ and other means in the mysterie of mans salvation besides Christs merits are not worth the answering because these officers and means are instituted and commanded by Christ himself the officers for agencie under him and the means for application of his merits and conformitie to his life without which Christs merits can profit nothing But laying aside this wringing of scripture in denying Christ we must understand it of the direct and absolute denying of him in words because he cannot be a full opposite and Antichrist such an one as S. Paul describeth shewing himself that he is God and exalting himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped but he must denie extinguish and disable Christ as openly and as publickly as he can that he may be taken for Christ in Christs room And to effect this insinuations half speeches and oblique inferences will not serve the turn We blinde judges children in our non-age take upon us to judge before our time and who do not say as we say though they do better then we do yet we condemne them as Antichristian which is as much as Anathema Maran-atha the greatest of all censures And wherefore judge we so eagerly For holding of errours And are any without them The Prophet David saith Who can understand his errours cleanse thou me from secret faults Some errours we may bear with because they distermine not from the head no more then a wound or maladie extinguisheth the life of the bodie Again errours of ignorance and not of affected malice commonly finde mercie as S. Paul sheweth I was a blasphemer a persecuter and an oppressour but I was received to mercie for I did it ignorantly in unbelief Thus charitie teacheth me to judge errours of Christians are errours of ignorance and not of intention or affected malice For I beleeve that wittingly and willingly neither Papist Protestant nor Lutheran would wrong their Head Christ whom they daily professe and therefore let us brethren pray for one another and help one another and not envie and hurt one another Fourthly to return again to argument None is to be held for the great Antichrist before the Church which onely hath power to determine of hereticks and to judge malefactours hath declared him so to be But the Church hitherto hath neither declared the Pope nor any other to be the great Antichrist Therefore as yet he is to come The major is proved first from Christs precept Matth. 18. 17. Dic Ecclesiae Tell it to the Church From whence it followeth that if the Pope or any other have carried themselves so badly that they have deserved to be denounced that man of sinne we should appeal to the Church and require her definition and not intrude our selves into publick magistracie which is the ruine of States Secondly this is proved from the institution of Synods and the Apostles practise Act. 15. 6. Then the Apostles and Elders came together to look to this matter Though Paul and Barnabas being Apostles had of themselves power to determine the question then raised yet they yeelded to go to the Synod the Church assembled for example sake to teach us what we ought to do in like cases Thirdly Moses Deut. 1. 17. saith Judicium Dei est The judgement is Gods With this consent the words of our Saviour concerning Synods Matth. 18. 20. Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them Again Acts 15. 28. it is said It seemed good to the holy Ghost and to us But no private men though they be never so many have this authoritie of judgement therefore this is well forbidden in the ancient verses Est verum vitae doctrinae justitieque Primum semper habe duo propter scandala linque There is a truth of life doctrine and justice have thou the first two leave as scandalous Fourthly in all difficult points the law commandeth us to go to the Senate of Priests and to the Judge for resolution Deut. 17. 8 9. If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgement c. thou shalt come unto the Priests of the Levites and unto the Judge that shall be in those dayes and ask and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgement But to define of Antichrist is a difficult point and therefore King James in his book of Antichrist would not urge it pag. 51. As for the definition of Antichrist I will not urge so obscure a point as a matter of faith to be necessarily beleeved of all Christians The minor is manifestly true because no universall Synod can be found to bring forth such a definition and it is fit that such an universall enemie should have an universal sentence neither is there any such declaration to be found in the harmonie of the reformed Churches printed at Geneva in the yeare 1581. From whence I conclude that forsomuch as the Church hath not yet detected and determined the Antichrist therefore as yet he is to come And were there no other argument to free the Pope from being the Antichrist among the Fathers this is sufficient for that he maintaineth images For so jealous is Antichrist of his usurped deitie that he cannot secure himself of it so long as he sees them set up Therefore Irenaeus saith of him Idola quidem seponet c. He shall put away idols to perswade that he is God but he shall extoll himself the onely Idol And Hippolytus saith Antichristus idololatriam non admittet Antichrist will not admit idolatrie And Cyrillus hath Idola odio habebit Antichristus Antichrist shall hate idols I am not of minde that all images are idols but onely when they are worshipped for Gods This is manifest first from the word Idololatria which signifieth the worshipping of idols with divine worship which in Greek as it is used of Divines is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Again this is shewed from the distich Qui sacros facit ex auro vel marmore vultus Non facit ille Deos qui colit ille facit Otherwise our Geneva bible should maintain idolatrie in picturing Ezekiels vision of God in the form of an old man Yet such is Antichrists jealousie that he will be afraid of every shadow Images statues idols all must down before him because he will admit no other God neither in substance nor in representation Antichrists warres Fourthly and lastly the great Antichrist is not yet come because the scriptures which speak of his troubles and foretell of his warres are not
yet fulfilled In the 12 of Daniel where the end of the world is prophesied it is said that then there shall be such a time of trouble as was not since there began to be a nation untill that time And in the sixth and seventh verses where question is moved of the time and durance of this trouble the angell sware by him that liveth for ever that it should be for a time times and an half that is to say for three yeares and an half and after this it is said in the text And when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people that is to say when Antiochus hath made an end of oppressing the Jews and Antichrist of treading down the holy citie among the Christians then all these things shall be finished that is to say then shall be an end of the Jews persecutions and then shall be an end of the Christians oppressions when the world shall end and the day of resurrection come With this consenteth the threefold cable of prophesies in S. Johns Revelation The first of the blowing of the sixth trumpet in the ninth chapter where the foure angels bound at Euphrates were loosed to slay the third part of men And the horsemen of warre were twenty thousand times ten thousand which multitude as M. Fox saith agreeth best with the Turks armies The second of pouring out of the sixth viall in the sixteenth chapter where Euphrates is seen to be dried up that the way for the kings of the east might be prepared that is that the Scythians or Tartars might joyn with the Beast and the false Prophet in the battell of that great day of God Almightie And the third of the loosing of Satan in the twentieth chapter to gather Gog and Magog together that is the Turks and Tartars with the people of the foure quarters of the earth whose number shall be like the sand of the sea to compasse the camp of the saints about and the beloved citie which is the Church and the Christians And that this great warre is to be understood of Antichrists warre in the end of the world it is apparent both from the testimonie of interpreters and specially from the evidence of scriptures and the effects following For the interpreters I will use one for all which is S. Augustine in the 20 book of the citie of God and 11 chapter This shall be the last persecution when the last judgement shall hang over our heads which the holy Church through the world shall suffer that is the whole citie of Christ from the whole citie of the devil For the scriptures in the 24 of Matthew we reade that immediately after the tribulation of those dayes the sunne shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light and the starres shall fall and after this the Sonne of man shall come in the clouds with power and great glorie In the 10 of the Apocalyps after the blowing of the sixth trumpet and the warre ended the mightie Angel that is Christ lift up his hand to heaven and swore that time should be no more and that in the dayes of the voice of the seventh trumpet which S. Paul calleth the last trumpet and the trumpet of God the mysterie of God should be finished In the 16. chapter after the pouring out of the sixth vial and the warre ended the seventh angel poured out his into the aire and there came a loud voice out of the temple of heaven and from the thrane saying It is done And the isles fled away and the mountains were not found Lastly in the 20 chapter after the gathering together of Gog and Magog after they had compassed the camp of the saints and the beloved citie after they had had their full pleasure over them then fire fell down from heaven upon them the devil the beast and the false prophet were cast into a lake of fire and brimstone the white throne was set up the books were opened and the dead were judged All these testimonies being testimonies of the last warres shew them to be Antichrists warres because they jump together with the abomination of desolation in Matth. 24. 15. and with S. Johns saying Little children it is the last time and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come even now are there many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time Hitherto we have seen the intestine and civill warres of Christians as yet we have not seen the troups of the Ottomans we have not seen Gog and Magog the Scythian nations we have not seen the kings of the whole world gathered together by the three spirits of the dragon the beast and the false prophet we have not seen the armie whose number imitateth the sand of the sea as yet they have not spread the breadth of the earth as yet they have not compassed the camp of the saints as yet the Beast hath not imprinted his character upon us but we use our libertie we buy and sell great thanks be to our God Therefore as yet that great Antichrist is not come but we look for him to resist him in the faith and to overcome him with suffering What if he handle us as Antiochus handled the mother and the seven brethren if he kill us in the morning shall not our souls be crowned with joy in the evening shall not he for whom we suffer take away the edge of our pains is not the death of the sword shorter and easier then the death of the bed and is not the weight of the recompense above all rewards would not a man runne through a river of bloud to go to a kingdome oh this shall be the joyfullest suffering that ever was seen because our Lord Jesus shall come from heaven in person to make an end of it and to crown it When ye see these things begin to come to passe saith our Redeemer lift up your heads for your redemption draweth neare And again Know that the kingdome of God is neare even at the doores Wherefore we will not faint at Antichrists great looks nor at the multitude of his armies nor at the crueltie of his souldiers For though at first he get the field of us yet in the end the victorie and triumph shall be ours when that man of sinne shall be consumed with the spirit of Christs mouth and destroyed with the brightnesse of his coming when all his armies shall be gathered into Armageddon where were slain the kings of Canaan and into the valley of Hamon-Gog where they shall be buried to free the holy nation from their stink for ever Wherefore rejoyce ye Christians of a true heart for the overthrow is determined and the place of buriall is appointed before the enemie come Antichrists furniture Vers. 9. Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signes and lying wonders Hitherto we have