places which a little before had bene destroyed by the impious deuises of Tyrants with a new building arise more costly and statly and the huge Temples were erected insteed of meane meeting places Heere S. Cyril Hierosol catech 14. These Kinges which now are by their piety couering this holy Church of the Resurrection in which now we are with siluer and gould built it vp and made it resplendens with siluer ornaments See besides if you list of the magnificence of Christian Temples and the splendour of holy Vessells of the Church Eusebius lib. 3. 4. de vita Constantini S. Greg. Nissen orat de S. Mart. Theodoro S. Greg. Nazianz. orat in Iulian. S. Chrys hom 66. ad Pop. Antioch S. Cyril Alexand. lib. de rect fide ad Regin S. Damas in vit S. Siluestri S. Ambrose lib. 2. de offic cap. 21. S. Hierom. in commen cap. 8. Zachar. S. August in psal 113. S. Paul in natal 3. S. Felicis Prudentius in hymno de S. Laurentio Procop. in lib. de aedificijs Iustiniani Certainly all these liued before the tymes of Antichrist and yet they witnesse that there were such buildinges and ornaments of Christian Temples euery one in their owne age that those which we see now can in no sort be compared to them Illyricus Seauenthly Daniel saith that Antichrist shall inrich his fellowes that the Pope hath done Bellarmine Doubteles he greatly inriched Iohn Eckins Io. Cochlâ—us Io. B. of Rochester Latomus Driedon Tapper Peter à Soto and so many other most learned men who hauing laboured night and daie to suppresse your furies neuer receaued one half-penny of the Bishop of Rome although neither did they desire reward of man who laboured chiefely for the glory of God And if the Bishop of Rome giueth rich benefices to Cardinalls and Bishops he is not so much to be thought to enrich them as the piety of the faithfull who gaue these rents to the Church Illyricus goeth on Paul 2. Thess 2. putteth 5. notes of Antichrist besides the aforesaid The first that he shall sit in the Temple of God This the Pope doth feigning himselfe the Vicar of Christ and reigning in the consciences of men For if he should professe himselfe the enemy of Christ as Mahomet doth he should be out of the Church But S. Paul Illyricus doth not only say that Antichrist shall sit in the Temple of God for euery Bishop sitteth in the Temple of God but he explicateth the manner how he shall sit in the Temple of God saying shewing himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Pope by thy owne Testimony maketh himselfe the Vicar of God and consequently not God for the Vicar of God cannot be God vnlesse thou feignest lesser greater Gods Besides I aske of thee if the Pope be not out of the Church as thou saist in this place and consequently is within the Church where I pray thee art thou and thine art thou not out of the Church for the Church is one and the Pope sitteth in it wherefore you who are not in that are in none But let vs heare the rest Illyricus The second because he faith that the mystery was then dooing this I thinke to signify that the Bishop of Rome began a little after to list his head aboue others Bellarmine This is that which I briefly noted before following Nicolas Sanders who before had seene and written the same that in your opinion S. Peter is Antichrist and Simon Magus or Nero Christ For S. Paul saith not the mistery shall worke a little after but it worketh now wherefore if this Mystery belongeth to the Bishop of Rome it must nedes belong to S. Peter and if S. Peter which my hart abhorreth to thinke and my hand trembleth to write was Antichrist who seeth not that Simon and Nero S. Peters enemyes were Christ and God But keep to thy selfe such Gods and Christs for we enuy thee not but go forward Illyricus The third because he saith that Antichrist shall come with lying signes which the Pope hath donne as experience witnesseth The fourth that God shall send the efficacy of illusion which hath manifestly hapned in the Papacy for we belieued in all things the Pope more fâ—mely then God We treated before of the miracles of Antichrist cap. 15. and it is a most impudent lye that Illyricus saith of experieÌ„ce for the Popes haue done neither true nor false miracles either in this age or in the former with which notwithstanding they say that Antichirst doth chiefly reigne And that which he addeth of the efficacy of illusion euery man seeth how easily it may be returned vpon our aduersaryes for what greater efficacy of illusion can be imagined then that there should some be found in these tymes who choose rather to belieue two or three Apostataes then the whole Church all Councells and all the Fathers who besides their admirable doctrine and excellent sanctity of life were renowned also with many signes and myracles Now that which Illyricus bringeth out of S. Ambrose to explicate the fifth note is before refuted in the second demonstration with which we proued that Antichrist is not yet come Illyricus in the last place addeth somewhat out of ep 1. ad Tim. 4. In the last tymes same shall depart from the saith The Pope denieth that there is any other saith but hestoricall They shall attend to deceauing spirites The Pope proueth all things with visions of spirits and soules They shall prohibite marriage and the vse of meates both these are most true and manifest of the Pope But good Syr the Pope hath learned of S. Paul that there is one Faith looke thou from whence thou hast learned another faith Besides one God saith the Apostle Ephes 4. one faith one baptisme Neither did S. Paul euer define this one faith to be a confidence relying vpon the promise and word of God as you define it cent 1. lib. 2. col 262. but he saith Rom. 10. This is the word of faith which we preach because if thou confessest in thy mouth one Lord Iesus and hast belieued in thy harte that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saued And Hebr. 11. he saith by Faith we belieue that the worldes were framed by the word of God And who knoweth not that it pertayneth to the sacred history that Christ hath rysen from death and that the worldes were framed by the word of God And yet we name not this one only and true Faith by which we most certainely belieue whatsoeuer God hath vonchsafed to reueale by the Apostles and Prophets an historicall faith but the Catholike faith for we leaue to you the nouelties of wordes That which thou addest that the Pope proueth all thinges with the visions of spirites and soules I know not what spirit hath reuealed vnto thee For we somtime bring somthing out of the apparitions of soules written by approued and ancient authors to confirme those things which belong to the state of
in great part because he is supposed though falsly to arrogate more to himselfe in Temporall affayres then of right he ought how much more would the same imputation fall vpon such a Prince as did first vsurp spirituall Iurisdiction without eyther example or other probable pretense But I will not vrge these odious inferences any further your Maiesty will easily conceaue how far this proiect might be pursued And by perusing this small labour of myne which I now offer to your Maiesty it will manifestly appeare that we haue euident and inuincible Arguments taken out of Scripture and all Antiquity to free our chiefest Pastour the Popes Holynes from this most absurd and false calumniation and that whatsoeuer any Protestant can answere to these our proofes is without any difficulty ouerthrowne and confuted As likewise their rayling inuectiues and friuolous obiections are presently dissolued returned vpon themselues All which considered I account it no presumption to be an humble Suppliant to your most Excellent Maiesty for some release and mitigation in the pressures and persecutions which Catholicks endure vnder this pretence of the Popes being Antichrist For how can it possibly stand with iustice or reason that a lawfull Prince should punish his loyall subiects for performing their duty to their spirituall and lawfull Pastour That Rebells should vphold Hereticks who are Traytors against God and his Church it were no meruaile since they all agree in the impugnation of superiour powers And yet it is too notorious to the world what Catholicks suffer for their conscience in your Maiestyes Dominions what losse of lyuings liberty yea sometyme of life it selfe How busy are Purseuants in ransacking their houses abusing their seruants and apprehending their persons What insolencyes and vexations are they constrayned to endure And to omit the generality and seuerity of this persecution from which neither frailty of sex nor band of matrimony nor Nobility of birth can exempt any how many things lye hid and vnknowne which would astonish and amaze the world if they were laid open to the view therof What prying and inquiring into mens secret actions in somuch that euen ordinary prouision for the sustenance of nature cannot be made without suspition of Treason as appeared not long since by the pot of peares which were supposed to haue bene balls of wildfyre How many are beaten and tormented euen to death in priuate houses without any publick tryall Some Prentises in the Citty of London can giue good testimony heerof I might adde such other particulers as the rods kept in store by some of no small account for yong youths vnder twenty yeares whom they vse like schollers thinking it not to be against their grauity to whip them priuately with their owne hands But I will not offend your Maiestyes eares with the recitall of such base and vnworthy actions Only I will humbly beseech our Blessed Sauiour to moue your Maiestyes hart to take pitty and compassion of these abuses by giuing present Order for the redresse and reformation of so much as your Maiestie already misliketh which we hope to be the greatest part And for the rest we only craue this fauour that we may be spared vntill vve be heard for vve nothing doubt but that if your Maiesty vvould once resolue to informe your selfe thoroughly of the truth God vvould not be vvanting to our iust desires and to your Maiesties so Honourable and necessary endeauours GOD of his goodnes direct and protect your Maiesty AMEN Your Maiesties most faithfull Subiect and humble Oratour Michael Christopherson P. THE PREFACE to the Reader TO some I doubt not this my labour which I haue taken in discussing this question of Antichrist will seeme superfluous or at least not so well bestowed as it might haue bene in many other subiects And they will be much confirmed in this their opinion if they consider that among so many learned men as haue written in our language and euidently confuted the heresies of our tymes none of them haue vouchsafed to yield so far to our Aduersaries as to handle this question of set purpose which doubtles they omitted not without great consideration and weighty reasons the chiefest of which if I be not deceaued was for that they perswaded themselues that few or none especiallie of the prudent and moderate sort did indeed and in their hart hold this absurd paradox though they were content to let it passe because it serued for a motiue to withdraw the common people from the Catholike faith which in their conceipt conteyned other errors And for this cause those worthy and zealous writers endeauored chiefly to take away this false perswasion of the Churches erring partly by confirming and demonstrating the infallibility of her authority and partly by descending to particuler controuersies and most euidently conuincyng the Churches doctrine in euery one of them to be conformable to the diuine Scriptures and all antiquity For they did easily discouer that by this course they should not only confute this abhominable bâ—asphemy but also with one and the same labour confirme and establish the contrary truth viz. that the Catholike Church togeather with her supreme Pastour is the piller of Truth and the building of Christ against which no force of errors or heresies either hath or euer shall be able to preuayle Which course of theirs as most prudent in it selfe so likewise most profitable to others I am far from mysliking but doe altogeather approue and admyre it And yet notwithstanding I hope that this my labour may be in some sort profitable also For all are not so quick wytted as to make these necessary inferences but rather many are with-held from yielding to the manifest truth in other pointes by a preiudicate opinion which they haue conceaued in this and the iust and discreet silence which hath hitherto bene vsed ministreth to them some cause of suspition that the Protestants haue reason for that they say especially since they vrge this point so much both in their Writings and Sermons and the matter is of so great importance and consequence that whosoeuer hath the truth on his syde in this ought iustly to be belieued in the rest since that Antichrist can neither agree with Christ nor so great a calumniation as this is of the Pope if it be false can agree or stand with the spirit of truth Besides the Protestants out of this their doctrine make most odious inferences against Catholikes as to go no further we may see in M. Downams last Chapter where he deduceth out of it six conclusions First that out of this all other controuersies may be decided and that the doctrine of the Catholike Church is to be reiected as the errors of Antichrist Secondly that their separation from vs is warranted yea commaunded by the word of God and all returning forbidden Thirdly that all they which partake with vs are reprobates and to be damned Fourthly that the Recusant Papists but especialy Iesuites and Seminary Priests
to thinke how it hath byn and is still possible that either they themselues or others by them should be so bewitched Neither can there any probable cause be giuen of so great blindnes and so enormous a cryme but only the want of Gods grace which their sinnes haue with drawne and deserued that they should be in this sort as it were giuen ouer to a reprobate sense What can be said in defence of this detestable excesse Deny it they cannot the thing being so euident and so often reiterated And dare they excuse it by telling vs That the Fathers are only forsaken when they forsake the Scripture Is not this plainely to make Infidells and Heretikes better Interpreters of Scripture then the Church of Christ and all Christians in generall and the most learned Pastours thereof in particuler If they answer that it is not the authority of these Infidells which they follow but the inspiration of the Holy Ghost which they experience in themselues is this any thing els in effect then to acknowledge that Porphiry and the Iewes had the true spirit of Christ and that the ancient Fathers and the Church of Christ in their tyme had it not For if the Protestants haue the spirit of Christ now it is manifest that those others had it then since their expositions be all one But who is so foolish and sacrilegious as to depriue Gods Church and Saintes of his spirit and it tribute it to his professed enemyes and consequently how shall we belieue the Protestants when they tell vs that they are full of Gods Spirit since we see their spirit to agree with that of the Diuells instruments and to be quite opposite to that of Gods elect Heere is no starting hole to be found neither haue they any thing to reply but only to stand vpon their bare affirmation which M. Downam doth so often in his disputation still desiring to haue that graunted which is chiefly in question But I will omit this and the rest of his absurdities remitting the Reader to his owne experience after that he hath with diligence perused the whole Heere I would make an end of this Preface hauing said asmuch as I thinke necessary concerning the disputation which followeth But because I haue lately seene two Sermons not long since preached by this our Doctour by which it seemeth that he hath resolued to relinquish Puritanisme and turne Protestant I thought it good to admonish my Reader of this point also because I rather inclined before to thinke that he was a Puritan and insinuated so much in a place or two And withall Chap. 10. 13. by this occasion I must intreat my Reader to marke the great difference betwixt M. Downam in these his Sermons and the same man in his booke of Antichrist for in this he euery where reiecteth all antiquity as I haue said but in his Sermons he singeth vs a new song and can tell vs. that it neuer yet happened that the newest thinges did proue the truest and argueth chiefely from authority obiecting still to his Puritan Aduersaries That they go against the whole streame of all Antiquity yea he can alleadge S. Augustine lib. 4. de Bapt. con Donat. cap. 24. ep 118. to proue that the consent of the whole Church argueth either the definition of a Councell or an Apostolicali Tradition though he corruptely translateth Traditum Ordayned and likewise in the second place where S. Aug. affirmeth that Insolentissimae insaniae est it is a most insolent madnes to dispute against that which vniuersa Ecclesia the whole Church obserueth he addeth of his owne the word Primitiue that so he may haue some stareing hole against vs when he is vrged with the same Authority of S. Augustine which if he would follow himselfe as he would now haue the Puritans do he must of force retyre himselfe from the Protestants also and betake himselfe to the Catholike Church which all Antiquity most manifestly defendeth And surely whosoeuer considereth the arguments which Protestants make against Puritans cannot but euidently perceaue that the very same principles do ouerthrow the Protestants themselues And I meruaile much how they can defend themselues from that terrible sentence of S. Paul Inexcusabilises o homo omnis qui iudicas quo enim iudicas alterum teipsum condemnas eadem enim agis quae iudicas And the very same iudgment falleth vpon the Puritans themselues when they go about to impugne the Brownists Familists Anabaptists Arians or any other sect whatsoeuer For this they cannot do but by Antiquity which notwithstanding they are forced to reiect in all those pointes in which they differ and dissent from the Cathelike Roman Church I will not descend to any particulers though I easily might for what can be more euident then that the autherity of S. Cyprian other Fathers who vrge the necesâ—ity of a Bishop for the conseruation of vnity is much more to be vnderstood of one chiefe Bishop in the whole Church then of particuler Bishops in particuler Diocesses since there can be no question that vnity is as necessary in the whole world as in one Diocesse and much more easily mayntained in this then in that Likewise M. Downam can tell vs not only of Bishops but also of Metropolitans and Patriarches and alleadgeth for his purpose the Councell of Nice but he will not acknowledge that in the same Councell Rome hath the first place and is preferred before all others as likewise Alexandria and Antiochia are before Ierusalem which M. Downam would willingly haue the chiefe of which there can be no other true reason giuen but the excellency of S. Peter aboue the other Apostles who founded three Churches and placed or fixed his Sea in Rome where he ended his life with a most happy Martyrdome Now if we aâ—ke M. Downam a reason why he seeth not this aswell as that which fauoureth the Protestants against the Puritans I cannot imagine what he can answere vs but only that by this meanes he should incurre the disgrace and ouerthrow of his Ministry which he esteemeth so highly But I intreat both him and all other euen as they tender their owne saluation to looke about them in tyme and not to suffer themselues to be carried away with the sway of the tyme and the desire of worldly pleasures and preferments which M. Downam and all others may easily conceaue not to be very great if his complayntes of pouerty and contempt which he maketh in his former Sermon be true as no doubt they are in great part and these miseryes will daylie increase as their credit doth decrease so that if now that pittifull yâ—t ridiculouâ— complaint of M. Downam be true That not only euery meane man almost Ser. 1. pag. 67. preferreth himselfe before the Minister but also disdayneth to bestow either his Sonne on the Ministry or his Daughter on a Minister the tyme no doubt will come and that shortly also that they â—halbe inforced to marry
Empire as M. Downam rashelie auoucheth only because he would exceed Bellarmine in wordes since he cannot come neere him in proofes THE SIXT CHAPTER Conteyning the third Demonstration THE third demonstration saith Bellarmine is taken from the comming of Henoch and Helias who liue still and to this end that they may oppose themselues to Antichrist when he commeth conserue the elect in the Faith of Christ and at length conuert the Iewes which notwithstanding without doubt is not yet fulfilled There be foure places of Scripture concerning this matter the first Malac. 4. Behould I will send Elias the Prophet vnto you before the great daie of the Lord commeth and he will conuert the hartes of the Fathers to the Children and the hartes of the children to their Fathers The second Eccle. 48. where we read of Helias VVho wert receaued in a whirle-wynd of fire in a whirle-wynd of fyery horses who art written in the iudgments of tymes to asswage the Lordes anger to reconcile the hart of the Father to the sonne and to restore the Tribes of Israel And cap. 44. Henoch pleased God and was translated into Paradise to giue to Nations pennance The third Matth. 17. Helias indeed is to come shall restore all thinges The fourth Apoc. 11. I will giue to my two witnesses and they shall prophesie 1260. dayes Theodorus Bibliander alleadgeth also all these places in his Chronicle tab 14. but he saith that by Henoch and Helias are vnderstood all faithfull Ministers which God rayseth in the tyme of Antichrist of which sort were Luther Zuinglius and the rest and at length he concludeth VVherfore saith he it is a childish imaginatiō or a Iewish dream to expect either Helias or Henoch as persōs described by their particuler proprieties And the same teacheth Chytraeusin Comment Apoc. 11. and they prooue it because those thinges which are said of Helias by Malachie our Lord taught vs to be vnderstood of S. Iohn Baptish Matth. 11. He is Helias who is to come And S. Hierom in cap. 4. Malach. expoundeth it of all the quire of Prophets that is to say of the doctrine of all the Prophets But to vs it seemeth not a childish imagination but a most true opinion that Henoch and Elias shall come in their persons and that the contrary is eyther an heresie or an errour next doore to heresy It is proued first out of those foure Scriptures for that the wordes of Malachie cannot be vnderstood of any Doctors whatsoeuer as of Luther Zuinglius the like it is manifest for Malachie saith that the Iewes are to be conuerted by Helias and that he is chieflie to be sent for the Iewes as is manifest by that I will send vnto you And in Ecclesiasticus to restore the Tribes of Iacob But Luther and Zuinglius haue conuerted none of the Iewes That also they cannot be vnderstood litterallie of S. Iohn Baptist but only of Helias it is manifest because Malachie speaketh of the second comming of our Lord which shal be to iudge for so he saith Before the great and horrible day of the Lord commeth for the first comming is not called a great and horrible daie but an acceptable tyme and the day of saluation For which cause it is also added Least perhappes comming I strike the earth with anathema and curse that is to say least comming to iudgment and finding all wicked I condemne all the earth therfore I will send Helias that I may haue some to saue But in the first comming our Lord came not to iudge but to be iudged not to destroy but to saue To the wordes of our Lord Matth. 11. we wil answere a little after To S. Hierome Isay that though in Comment Malach he did not thinke that Malachie did speake of the true Helias yet in comment Matth. 11. 17. he thinketh teacheth the contrary Finallie S. Augustine lib. 20. Ciu. cap. 29. witnesseth that this is the common interpretation of the faithfull That likewise Ecclesiasticus speaketh of the persons of Henoch Helias and not of some other it is prooued for Ecclesiasticus saith that Henoch shall come to giue the Nations pennance who is translated into Paradise and that Helias shall come to restore the tribes of Israel who was taken away in a chariot of fiery horses which certainely agree not but to those particuler persons In which place I cannot sufficientlie meruaile what came into Bishop Iansenius his mind that expounding this place he should write Although it be the opinion of all the Ancients that Helias shall come yet it is not conuinced out of this place for it may be said that Ecclesiasticus wrote that according to the opinion receaued in his tyme by which it was belieued out of the wordes of Malachie that Helias shall trulie come before the Messias in his owne person whereas it was not to be fulfilled in his owne person but in him who was to come in the spirit and vertue of Helias For if it be so as Iansenius saith it followeth that Ecclesiasticus erred and wrote false thinges But if I be not deceaued Iansenius changed his opinion for writing in Cap. 17. Matth. he teacheth that the place of Malachie cannot be litterallie vnderstood but of the true Helias which he is likewise compelled to say of the place of Ecclesiasticus who without doubt expoundeth Malachy Now that the wordes of our Lord Matth. 17. are vnderstood of the true Helias yt is plaine because S. Iohn was alreadie come and had absolued his course and yet our Lord saith Helias shall come and that they are not vnderstood of all doctors but of one true Helias it may be proued first because the Apostles who moued the question of Helias where S. Peter S. Iames and S. Iohn and they tooke occasion by the Transfiguration of our Lord where they saw Moyses Helias wherefore when they aske why therefore doe the Scribes say that Helias must come first they speake of that Helias whome they had seene in the mountayne with Christ Therefore Christ answering Helias indeed shall come restore all thinges speaketh also of that particuler Helias who had appeared in the Transfiguration Secondly the same is manifest out of those wordes and he shall restore all thinges for S. Io. Baptist nor any other hath don that for torestore all thinges is to recall all Iewes and heretikes and perhappes many Catholikes deceaued by Antichrist to the true Faith But Bibliander vrgeth because our Lord Matth. 11. saith of S. Io. Baptist He is Helias who is to come as if he had said He is the Helias promised by Malachy I answere Our Lordes meaning is that S. Iohn was the Helias promised not litterally but allegoricallie for therefore he said first and if you will receaue him as if he said Helias indeed promised in his owne person is to come in the last comming yet if you will haue also some Helias in the first comming receaue Iohn Therefore also he addeth
take vpon them to know that which Christ said was so hydden that without an euident reuelation as that of Daniel is after Antichrists death no man nor Angell can know it So that Bellarmine vseth that argument only to disprooue the tyme which Illyricus and others appoint of Antichrists comming and not absolutly to reproue that interpretation as M. Downam would haue his reader think Wherefore in all this Chapter in which he so largelie refuteth that interpretation he neuer vrgeth that illation But this is no iugling at all in M. DownaÌ„s conceipt Thirdly saith M. DownaÌ„ It is incredible if not impossible that so many and so great thinges as they assigne to Antichrist should be effected and brought to passe in so short a tyme as Hentenius a learned Papist doth confesse and as hath bene shewed heretofore If M. DownaÌ„ In praefat translat Areth. had set downe these many and great thinges wee might perhaps haue shewed him how many of them were not to be done in these 3. yeares and a halfe in which notwithstanding Antichrist may doe very many by himselfe and his Ministers hauing all the world at command and thus is Hentenius to be expounded who only thinketh it impossible for Antichrist to obtaine so many Kingdomes and Prouinces in so short a space which maketh nothing at all against vs who rather think that this short tyme is to begin after those victoryes be ended M. DownaÌ„s other proofes are to be examined in their due places Fourthlie saith M. DownaÌ„ VVhen wee proued that Antichrist is not any one man alone but a whole State and succession of man we proued this by consequence that his raigne was not to continue only three yeares and a halfe He saith well for when he can prooue the one he may proue the other but he will neuer be able to proue either as the Reader will easily see by conferring See chap. 2. his proofes and my answeres togeather which now it is no tyme nor place to do Fiftly saith M. Downam Antichrist according to the conceipt of the Papists is to raigne before the preaching of the two witnesses and as Enoch Elias shal-begin to preach in the beginning of Antichrists Raigne Bell saith is to coÌ„tinue one moneth after their death Seeing theÌ„ the two witnesses preach 1260. dayes which as Bellarmine also saith make three yeares a halfe precisely how can the terme of Antichrists raigne be three yeares a halfe precisely First M. DownaÌ„ might haue done well to haue named those Papists who coÌ„ceipt Antichrists raigne before the preaching of the two witnesses for we would haue byn so bould as to haue tould them that they were in a wrong conceipt vnles they meaÌ„t that he should be of great power before but yet not of so great as he shal be for the space of three yeares and a halfe in which these two glorious witnesses shall preach as neither in his last moneth after their death by which he shall receaue such a blow that his kingdome shal be so much diminished that the last moneth is not accompted to belong to the height of his raigne as before we also explicated out of Apoc. 11. and so there remayneth iust three yeares and a halfe for Antichrists reigne Supra nu 2. and these two holy witnesses preaching Lastly he remitteth himselfe to his proofes that Antichrist was come in the Apostles tyme and reuealed in the yeare 670. for answere of which bare assertion for heere he goeth not about to proue any thing I must likewise remit my Reader to the answers See Chap. 3. which I gaue to those his proofes in their due places and so leaue him to iudge how well M. Downam hath answered Bellarmines allegations and confuted his assertions 5. After Bellarmine had proposed his owne argument out of Scriptures he setteth downe three distinct answeres of the Protestants to those places which he refuteth first by the authority of the Fathers who with one accord expound Downam insolently reiecteth the Fathers those places in that sense to which M. Downam giueth no other answere but that they could not vnderstand those prophesies which is plaine dealing indeed and sufficiently manifesteth DownaÌ„s proud priuate spirit which dareth tell so many holy Fathers and pillars of Gods Church that he knoweth more then they all and that they sayd they knew not what when they interpreted those prophesies in that sort which I would thinke should be sufficieÌ„t for all soules to fly from such proud Luciferian spirites as this fellow and his Companions haue To Bellarmines secoÌ„d proofe M. Downam hath more to say for first he reprehendeth Bellarmine for saying that the Scriptures affirme the tyme of the diuels loosing Antichrists raigne to be breuissimum Bellarmin vniustly charged very short or most short they only saying that it is short or smal But his VVisdome should haue considered that Belarmine putteth that breuissimum for the sense and not for the wordes of the Scripture which afterward he alleadgeth as they ly so that if they import a very short or most short tyme Bellarm. is not to blame But M. DownaÌ„ denieth this also shewing at large that many tymes a thousaÌ„d yeares or more Apoc. 12. in Scripture are accoumpted but as a day or a very short tyme in respect of the Lord who speaketh in the Scripture which we willingly graunt but he should haue shewed vs that these places now in question are to be vnderstood in respect of the Lord and not rather in respect of the thousand yeares in which the Diuell was bound And cap. 17. it is yet more pâ—aine that Antichrist shall raigne a small tyme in respect of The tyme of Antichrists raigne verie short Apoc. 17. the 6. Kinges which went before him which howsoeuer M. Downam vnderstandeth them cannot be said to haue raigned much more then a thousand yeares a peece Neither is it true that Antichrist not only was but also persecuted those that refused his marke within the thousand yeares of Sathans imprisonment though S. Iohn Apoc. 20. saw the Martyrs in the tyme of Antichrist Apoc. 20. togeather with those which were before of which only he speaketh when he saith that they liued and raigned with Christ in the thousand yeares except some will say with S. Ambrose that the Martyrs in the tyme of Antichrist are said to raigne before they were in the former Martyrs because they were members of the same body or that the thousand yeares are diuersly taken And thus wee see plainly that the tyme of Antichristes raigne and the Diuells being loose is said to be a very short tyme. 6. To the third argument he answereth briefely that S. Augustine c. did mistake the place Matth. 24. 21. and that Matth. 24. Downam reiecteth S. Augustine S. Gregory it is to be vnderstood of the calamitie of the Iewâ—s as he hath manifestly prooued if you will belieue him but if you will