to explain unto you what S. Paul further setteth down concerning this man of sin that is the Antichrist yet because they are not such Characters and acts as are proper to him alone and not also common to his Proselites and Followers and some of them likewise do rather shew his judgment how he shall be destroyed than his description how he may be known therefore I will proceed from those sins doings and demeanour of him whereby St. Paul hath painted and set him forth as I have shewed you in the former Chapter to what the holy Ghost informeth St. John he should do whereby the people of God might by what sins and description of him as St. John setteth down plainly know him and avoid him when he should appear in the world for St. John sheweth many of the very same sins and the same doings of the Antichrist though exprest in other terms as St. Paul had done before the same sins by other names and some other like sins added unto what you heard before because he is not satisfied with few sins And first after that the holy Apostle and Evangelist St. John had said they had heard that the Antichrist should come even as St. Paul told the Thessalonians 2 Thes 2.5 that the Antichrist should come that is a great eminent and transcendent Antichrist he addeth that now that is in his time there were many Antichrists that is of a lower form and of lesser mischief than the great Antichrist would be even as St. V. 7. Paul likewise told the Thessalonians that the mystery of iniquity had begun to work in his daies that is by the ministry of those Hereticks and false hypocritical Professors that abused the truth of their Christian Profession then the Apostle St. John distinguisheth betwixt the true Christians and those false dissembling Professors that were those many Antichrists that he speaketh of and the forerunners of the great Antichrist St. John sheweth there be a sorts of Antichrists and he sheweth how the true Christians might be discerned and known by the unction or the anointing of the true Christians with the Grace of Gods holy Spirit whereby they came to know to confess and to profess the truth that is the Faith and truth of our Christian Religion and on the other side he doth say and positively affirm that the denial of this Truth by the hypocritical Professors in the main head that is to deny Jesus to be the Christ is the proper note and the undeniable mark and Character of the great Antichrist which is the head of all the other many inferiour Antichrists that are all destitute of that Unction whereby the true Christians do believe and confess Jesus to be the Christ let them make what Profession soever they please of their Faith and Christian Religion yet indeed they are no true Christians but the great Antichrist if they deny Jesus to be the Christ For saith the Evangelist and that by an Interrogation which is the strongest asseveration that can be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 John 2.22 that is Who is the Lyar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ he is the Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son Here is the full description of the Antichrist two things observeable Touching which words you must observe these two special things 1. Two things observable That St. John calleth the Antichrist a Lyar. 2. You are to understand what his Lye is 1. St. John sheweth us plainly herein that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Antichrist is a great Lyar 1. That the Antichrist is a Lyar 2 waies 1. By belying his Christian Profession and in that he is a Lyar it implyeth two special things 1. That he is an hypocritical and apostate Professor 2. That he is a crafty and cunning deceiver of the poor people As 1. It is apparent that the Antichrist is an hypocritical and an apostate Professor such as the other lesser antichrists that have been with us and went from us are For this great Antichrist will make a great profession of Religion as if he were the only Saint and the best Christian upon the earth that hath the greatest care that can be of Gods Service for the observing of his Sabbath and the preaching of his Word and the refraining from all Swearing and the like and yet all is but a great Lye only for an outward shew and no more when he speaks that with his tongue which he cares not for in his heart Rev. 13.11 and therefore he is said to speak like the Dragon And why like the Dragon Because that as the Dragon flattered Evah with many great and fair promises to make them like gods and to fill them with knowledge both of good and evil yet all were but lies and every word against his Conscience that knew well enough the listning to his voice and believing his Words would make them like devils so will the Antichrist flatter and fawn promise and profess great matters and make you believe he is a Saint and will bring you all to Heaven when with the Dragon he tells you nothing but lies and leads you straight to Hell And therefore doth St. John say that he is a Lyar that belyeth his own Profession Whether the Parliament members and their adhereÌ„ts did not bely what they professed let the Reader judge And it is demanded whether the Long Parliament Proselites and adherents did not even the like and follow the very same course as the Antichrist is said he should do and prove themselves such Lyars as he should prove himself to be For did they not profess themselves to be the truest Saints the best Christians and the purest Church of Christ that is or that men do know here on earth and that there were no Tares in their field no Chaffe in their floor no Trash in their Net and nothing but Gold on their foundation Psal 26.4 5. And do they not say that they hate the Assembly of the Malignants neither will they sit among vain persons And besides all this have they not tanquam Deus as God and chief ordâ—iner and ruler of all Church-matters rejected cashiered and abolished the formerly established Orders and Ordinances of the Divine Service and as Christ when the old Covenant of works and Legal Ceremonies was to be expired and those rites were to be nullified and done away Heb. 8.9 did in the stead of it set up his new and better Covenant of Grace as the Apostle sheweth So have they not devised and set forth a new and as they say a better Directory than ever was before that is a new form of Divine Worship new Canons of Gods Service and a Service of the new fashion such as neither we nor our Fathers did ever know the like and far better than ever they had and for the observance of that Directory have they not made stricter Ordinances and imposed severer punishments
the late persecution of the Christians under the Long Parliament how Gangraena-like it spread it self beyond Decius or Dioclesians Tyranny and almost in these parts like Adams sin that went over all so did their Persecution run over all the most Faithful Sons of the Church and the Loyal Subjects of these Kingdoms And I would faign know what Busiris or Phalaris Dionysian Dioclesian or Nero or John Vasilowic the great Russian Tyrant or what other Tyrant of the world hath ever undone so many worthy men without once questioning them for any fault or charging them with any Crime that they had done or who did ever attempt to destroy so many only for being ill affected to their evil deeds But now The unparallel'd Persecution and cruelty of the prevalent Faction of the long Parl. being thus afflicted destitute and deprived of all their Means how shall all these these thousands of most worthy men live These men that were not brought up to work and used not to dig and are ashamed to beg and therefore without a great measure of Gods Grace to support them and to sanctifie their Afflictions they might fall into desperate conditions They will answer as one of them did to me and like as the High Priests the Crucifiers of our Master Christ answered Judas What is that to us Let them live how they list or let them perish sic periere ruinae and so for them they shall all utterly perish And therefore I may well demand what Tyrant did ever live since the day that God created the Heavens What King What Pope What Hildebrand * That is Gregory the 7th that was one of the worst Popes of Rome What Hel-brand What Turk What Jew What Man What Devil would besuch an Apollyon as to cut off not all the necks of the Heathenish Romans with that bloudy Emperor who wished that they all had but unum Collum one neck that so he might chop it off uno ictu with one blow but all those good Christians and the Faithful Servants of God uno halitu with one Vote one Breath and one Act which was an Axe indeed and was laid to the root of every Tree that bare the good fruit of Faith and Obedience in these Kingdoms Surely I think none could have devised such a Plot so full of mischief so far beyond the Sicilian Vespers and Gunpowder Treason and so void of Humanity and stuffed up with all cruelty and abominable Impiety especially if you consider the large extent and the evil Consequents thereof except the infernal Apollyon the great Destroyer of Christianity and the Hellish Misanthropos that laboureth continually to root out all the Christian Faith and the true Service of God out of the world did unmoveably reside in their hearts to prompt them and to spur them on unto the same or else that Beelzebub the chief of the Devils would send a pack of his Prime Captains and best Instruments out of Hell to root out all the true Servants of Jesus Christ For if you compare this our last persecution and afflictions under the Long Parliament with the former Persecutions of the Heathen Tyrants or the Arian Kings which they brought upon the Church you shall find 1. That there was but one Nero one Dioclesian one Constantius and one Julian in all the world at one time to persecute the Christians that were spread over all the world but here amongst us we suppose to have I know not how many hundred Dioclesians and Julians together at one time in one City to vex and persecute the Christians of one poor little Island 2. The Forme◠Tyrants persecuted them for their Disloyalty as they alledged unto their Emperors and Governours which was most false as appeareth by the Apologies of Tertullian Minutius Foelix and others But we were persecuted for being Faithful and Loyal unto our King and to our Governours as all the Kingdom knoweth CHAP. II. That neither the Pope nor the Turk is the great Antichrist that the Antichrist when he should come into the world should arise out of the Truest and Purest Reformed Church on Earth which was the Church of Ingland in King Charles his time being fully reformed of those Errors and Abuses that should creep and had crept into the Church which other Reformed Churches had not so perfectly purged And wherefore they did it not and could not do it THE serious consideration of the former things What moved the Author to enter upon this discourse of the great Antichrist and the sad condition of the Distressed Persecuted Members of Christ and the Testimony of the foresaid Authors touching the Persecution that should happen in the time of the Great Antichrist which I conceived to be now so visibly seen and so universally spread through the Subtilty and Cruelty of the Prevalent Faction of the Long Parliament have moved me to settle my Thoughts upon the search of those Texts of Holy Scripture wherein the holy Prophets and the blessed Apostles had treated and foretold us of the coming of the Great Antichrist and the sufferings of the Saints and true Servants of God in his time and under his unjust and cruel Government and to pray to God most earnestly and constantly night and day for the help of his Grace and assistance of his Holy Spirit to guide me to the true and right understanding thereof And then by reading the best Authors that I could find to explain those obscure Mysteries and to further me to undertake the same I found and saw I. Many good and probable Arguments produced by Luther Calvin Beza 1. That many learned Authors do hold the Pope or Papacy to be the Antichrist Balaeus de vit Pontif. l. 3. Jun. in Apocal. cap. 12. Thomson in the arraignment of Antichrist pag. 90 91. Brightman in Apoc. Downam de Antichristo l. 10. c. 3. 4. Thomson pag. 77. Junius Chytraeus Tilenus Maresius and our own Countrymen Powel Whitaker Brightmen Downam Thomsom Mede and others very Learned Protestants and worthy men to prove that either the Tyrannical State and Polity of the Papacy is that Great Antichrist as some would have it or else Series Paparum the Succession of Popes from Boniface the 3d in Phocas his time that usurping Emperor who got to the Imperial Throne by the Murder of his own Master Mauritius and his Wife and his Brother and his Children and gave to the Pope the Preheminency and the Title of Universal Bishop about the year 605 as Balaeus saith Or from Boniface the 8th that seduced and imprisoned his Predecessor Celestine the 5th about the year 1294 as Junius saith Or else from Vitellianus the Musical Pope about the year 666 as Thomson saith to this present Pope is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Antichrist spoken of by St. Paul in 2 Thes 2.8 and by St. John in Revel 13.1 And that Rome is the place of his abode and the proper Seat of him as Brightman Downham
So it was blasphemie in the Caesars to be called divi dii aeterni as Prosper saith in dimid temp c 7. Nam aeterna cum dicitur quae temporalis est utique nomen est blasphemiae 2. Way Psal 50.18,19 20.21 James 2.7 that upon the heads of this Beast there were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the names of blasphemies for so it is in some Copies and it agreeth better with heads then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the name upon many heads now blasphemy may be committed two special wayes 1. When we assume unto our selves that Deity and Divine Honour and Right either of power or knowledge which is onely due to God as when Christ told the Jews that he was the Son of God that is his essential and coeternal Son otherwise we are all his sons by Creation and the elect by grace and adoption the Jews not knowing and not believing him to be so said that he blasphemed because that he being but a man as all other men were and no more as they thought assumed to himself the honour and title of God or else when we give and ascribe the divine honour to any other creature whatsoever as all idolaters do and therefore idolatry in the Scripture phrase is usually termed blasphemie as you may see Ezech. 20.27 and Isa 65.7 2. When we derogate from God that Deity and divine honour and right which is due and we do ow to ascribe unto God or do conceive and attribute unto him any unseemly act or thing whether words or deeds which do no wayes agree with the excellency and purity of his divine Majesty as when we do oppresse the poor consent with Thieves and be partakers with the adulterers and then think wickedly as all such Actors for the most part do that God is such an one as themselves or as Jupiter Apollo and the rest of the adulterous gods of the Gentiles were that hath no regard of these things as the Prophet speaketh these do blaspheme that worthy name by which they are called as Saint James testifieth And is not the long Parliament The parallel That the Parliament Sectaries are said to Blaspheme both wayes 1. Way or some of their adherents justly said to be guilty of Blasphemy both these wayes for 1. Did they not assume to themselves or at least their flatterers ascribe to them those attributes and Prerogatives that are only due and proper unto God as among others to break the powers of the earth in pieces to levell the Hills and to fill up the Vallies to bruise the Nations with a rod of Iron and to break them in pieces like a Potters Vessel as my self have heard one of their Sword Preachers and adherent to the Parliament Preaching the same unto the people and as he ascribed unto them this attribute of Gods power which they made use of reasonable well in these three Kingdomes so do they not arrogate to themselves that attribute of Knowledge 2. Tim. 2.19 which as the Apostle saith is only proper and peculiar unto God and that is to know qui sunt ejus who are his for I refer it to the judgment of the people if these mens Chaplains and Preachers take not upon them to discerne and discriminate the elect from the Reprobate And the Independants gathering of Churches is a sufficient proof hereof The History of Independency part 3. pag. 28. 2. Way and so accordingly do what Christ did not to Judas exclude them from Christ and from the Communion of Saints and being such to assure their followers that they may justly rob and kill these Reprobates at their own pleasure as men that have no right to the good things of this world but are unworthy to live upon the earth as the Author of the History of Independancy witnesseth and which is a most dangerous and destructive doctrine to all humane society and if the ground thereof be not extreame Blasphemy let any sober christian judge 2. For the other way as the Worshippers of this Beast Blasphemed so did not the adherents unto the Parliament commit more Blasphemies and more odious Blasphemies then I am able to express for our Saviour saith Whoscever speaketh a word against the Son of man it shall be forgiven him but unto him that Blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost Luc. 12.10 Math. 11.32 it shall not be forgiven neither in this World nor in the World to come saith St. Mathew and yet did not that Parliament and especially the independant party of the Parliament and the whole pack of their proselites with all reverence be it spoken by me make the Holy Ghost to be the pack-Horse to carry all their vile and wicked sins upon his back and the spirit of God doth exceedingly complaine against this lewd practice of such wicked men saying supra dorsum meum fabricaverunt peccatores Psal 129.3 The Plowers Plowed upon my back these sinners do not onely commit sin but they will also build up their sins and fasten them all upon my back as if I were the Author the mover and contriver of all their wickednesse and impieties for when they are pulling down and setting up new Doctrines and new disciplines and change their Faith and Religion as the Nomades do change their Cottages as they are led by the Lesbian rule of their own fancies which is the very square by which they interpret the Holy Scripture The Common Doctrine of the Independents as you may see in the History of Independency do they not usually alledge that the Spirit which Sanctifyeth and illuminates them bloweth when and where he will sometimes this way and sometimes that way and oftentimes contrary wayes and therefore that they can make no profession of any certaine rule of Doctrine or Discipline because they know not which way the spirit will inspire them and to justifie this their inconstancy and their continuall chopping and changing of their minds and resolutions they abuse that Text of Scripture where our Saviour saith to Nichodemus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the winde or Spirit bloweth where it listeth John 3.8 and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it commeth and whether it goeth So is every one that is borne of the Spirit as every one of them is without question in their own conceit and therefore when contrary to their Oaths Protestations and Covenant they beheaded and murdered the King saith the Author of Independency part 3. if he saith true did they not pretend that they could not resist the motions of the Spirit and so when they break their faith their Articles as they did I know with whom their promises their Declarations and their Covenant do they not avouch that the Spirit moves them to it which is most true if they understand it right of the spirit of darkness which they make to be the Spirit of God And I would faine know what greater Blasphemy then these if these things be true as men
' Ο ΑÎΤΙΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ 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 Policie BUT A collected pack or multitude of Hypocritical Heretical Blasphemous and most scandalous wicked men that have fulfilled all the Prophesies of the Scriptures which have forespoken of the coming of the great Antichrist and especially have united and combined themselves together by a solemn League and Covenant to slay the two witnesses of God Moses and Aaron as Christ interpreteth them They have Moses and the Prophets Luke 16.29 that is The supreme Magistrate of the Common-wealth 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 the mystical soul of that great Antichrist And Whether the prevalent Faction of the long Parliament termed of late the Rump Parl. and their Adherents that killed the two witnesses of Jesus Christ 1. Charles the first King of Great Britain and in him civilly all his Magistrates 2. William Laud Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and civilly all the suppressed Bishops and silenced Preachers of these 3 kingdoms be not the grosse and visible body of the same Antichrist By Gr. Williams L. Bishop of Ossory Impii homines qui dum volunt esse mali nolunt esse veritatem qua condemnantur mali August Me me adsum qui feci in me convertite ferrum Virg. Jehovae Liberatori London Printed at the charge of the Authour 1660. A strong faith fenced with a golden helmet Need not fear the beast his hatchet But his wicked deeds will ring And shew the prayses of the King Whom the cruell beast hath kill'd And all the Prophesies fulfill'd Of our blessed Saviour Christ Touching the accursed Antichrist The Authours Protestation I Call God to be my witnesse and heaven and earth to testifie against me if I aym at any thing or desire any thing by the publishing of these books but the glory of God the true service of Jesus Christ and the good the peace and the happinesse of the Church of Christ and the people of these Kingdomes without envie to any mans good or hatred to any mans person or the ambition and desire of any place profit or preferment for that I thank God I have learned in any state to be contented Et contemnere contemni The Authours Prayers which Morning and Evening he useth to say to Almighty God and to his Saviour Jesus Christ The Authours first addresse to Almighty God Our Father which art in Heaven c. O Eternal Almighty Lord God our good God sweet Saviour Jesus Christ Holy and blessed Spirit glorious Trinity three persons and one God have mercy upon us most miserable sinners have mercy upon us most miserable sinners O Lord God pardon and forgive us all our sins those great and many sins that we have most hainously committed against thy divine Majesty Lord enter not into judgement with us thy servants for no flesh is righteous in thy sight and deal not not with us according to the multitude of our transgressions but according to the multitude of thy mercies and compassion do away our offences and give us thy grace that ever hereafter we may serve thee in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our life make us truly thankfull unto thee for all those mercies and favours and loving kindnesses that thou hast continually so graciously and so mercifully bestowed upon us for thou hast created us after thine own image thou hast redeemed us with the precious blood of thy dear Son Jesus Christ and thou hast called us and sanctified us in some measure with the graces of thy most blessed Spirit thou hast delivered us out of all our troubles from all dangers and from the hands of all that hate us from the snare whereunto we were fallen and from those dangerous Sea-voyages wherein we had utterly perished if thou hadst not most mercifully preserved us thou hast given us meanes and maintenance whereby we were inabled to serve thee and thou hast restored the same to us again when we had utterly lost it thou hast given us faith to believe in thy Son Jesus Christ hope to attain to eternal life love and charity both towards thee and our neighbours for thy sake repentance for our former sins and a resolution ever hereafter to lead a holy and a godly life thou hast blest us in all our wayes prospered all our journeys delivered us from all evill helped us in all our necessities preserved us in health and restored thy servants to life when they were at the point of death for all which and for all other thy mercies and loving kindnesses both spiritual and temporal we heartily praise thy glorious name and magnify thee with all our souls we honour thee we blesse thee we praise thee we thank thee and we will magnify thee for the same for ever and ever And we do most humbly beseech thee of thy goodnesse O Lord to continue still thy loving kindnesse towards us and to preserve us still from all evill and mischief from all sin from the crafts and assaults of the devil from thy wrath and from everlasting damnaation save and defend us from shame reproach and discredit in this world from violent and sudden death and from the malice and hatred of all our enemies O let them never prevail against us let them never have the upper hand over us and let them not say There there so would we have it neither let them say We have devoured them but be thou with us be our helper and defender be our shield and our buckler be our strong Tower whereunto we may alwayes resort and we will not fear what man can do unto us We pray thee also good God give me wisdom and understanding O Lord I beseech thee give me wisdom and understanding memory boldnesse and utterance help and assist me at all times and in all places to preach thy holy word for the glory of thy name and the benefit of thy people And as thou hast helped and assisted me the last time and all other times heretofore for which I do heartily praise and thank thy glorious name so I do most humbly beseech thee to help and assist me the next time and at all other times hereafter that I may set forth thy praise and glory blesse O Lord the holy Catholick Church blesse and preserve thy servant Charles that is our lawful King and all the servants of Jesus Christ that are with him comfort them now after the time thou hast chastised them and for the years wherein they have suffered adversity give them patience to endure whatsoever thou layest upon them and in thy good time deliver them out of all their troubles and restore them to their
just rights again As for their enemies cloath them with shame confusion And for those that trouble them wrong them open their eys that they may see their own most odious most abominable sins touch their hearts with the finger of thy holy Spirit that they may be truly penitent and sorrowful for all their wicked ways and that they may turn unto thee with weeping fasting and prayer And though we be a sinful nation a nation laden with iniquity corrupt children and the seed of evill doers yet do not thou cast us off from being thine inheritance Let not thy wrath burn like fire and let not thine anger continue from Generation to Generation but be thou pleased and reconciled with us in the death passion of Jesus Christ and for his sake be thou merciful unto us and forgive us all our sins and give us thy grace that ever hereafter we may serve thee in holinesse and righteousesse all the dayes of our life make us more and more thankful unto thee for all those favours and mercies and loving kindnesses that thou hast continually so graciously and so mercifully bestowed upon us increase our faith more and more stirre up our hope and kindle our charity both towards thee and our neighbours for thy sake give us true repentance for our former sins and a constant resolution ever hereafter to lead a holy and an upright life Grant us that meanes and maintenance whereby we may be inabled to serve thee not too much lest we be too proud and so forget thee nor too little lest we should want and so despaire of thy mercy but of thy goodnesse grant us that competencie and sufficiencie whereby we may be inabled to serve thee and not be chargeable but rather helpfull unto others Blesse O Lord my family my wife and children and all that belong unto me Blesse the two Universities of Cambridge and Oxford And blesse likewise the Tribe of Levi the Ministers of the Gospel that do continually wait at thine Altar and especially those reverend Bishops that are yet alive in these dominions and thou that art the Judge of all the world be a just and a righteous Judge betwixt us and them that have taken away the reward of our labours and have hindred us to discharge our duties and caused us that have sate in scarlet to imbrace dunghils we do acknowledge and confesse that we have most worthily deserved all the miseries that are come upon us and much more if thou shouldest deal with us according to our deserts and punish us according to the multitude of our sinnes But we know Lord that thou desirest not the death of a sinner thou takest no pleasure in the destruction of the living but rather that they should turn from their wicked ways and live and if thou Lord shouldst be extream to mark what is done amisse O Lord who may abide it when as the best of us all is not able to answer Thee one of a thousand and therefore we do most humbly and most earnestly beseech thee not to deal with us according to our deserts nor to punish us according to the multitude of our sins but according to the multitude of thy mercies to do away our offences and to give us thy grace that ever hereafter we may serve thee in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our life Make an end of this wasting division that is amongst us free us from these dangers and deliver us from these troubles O let not our enemies still prevail to triumph over us and to trample us under feet as mire and clay in the streets but let the light of thy countenance shine on us let thine ears hear our prayers let our cry come unto thee and let thine eyes behold our miseries and our troubles which we suffer at the hands of them that hate us And as thou didst deliver the Israelites thy people from the oppressions of the Egyptians so deliver us O Lord our God out of all our troubles and afflictions and let not our sins hinder thy mercics towards us but be thou gracious and merciful unto us to pardon and to forgive all our sins and to make speed to save us to make haste to help us because we have none in heaven nor in earth to make our complaint unto but only unto thee O God and therefore we do most humbly and most earnestly beseech thee to be our good God gracious and mercifull unto us to pardon and to forgive us all our sins to deliver us out of all our troubles and to restore every man to his full and perfect right again So shall we praise and glorify thee O Lord we shall honour and magnify thee in the great congregation through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with thee O Father and thee O blessed Spirit three persons and one immortal invisible indivisible and onely one wise God be given and ascribed from the botof our hearts as is most due unto thee all possible thanks praise power might majesty dominion and glory both now and evermore world without end Amen O eternall God Son of God Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world I pray thee take away my sins and call them not to remembrance to lay the punishment thereof either upon me or upon any other for my sake but be thou gracious and merciful unto me to pardon and forgive me all my sins and to give me thy grace that I may lead all my life according to thy most holy and blessed will And now Lord I do most humbly and earnestly beseech thee to accept this morning sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving which I offer unto thy divine majesty from the bottom of my heart for all those mercies favours and loving kindnesse both spiritual and temporal which thou hast shewed unto me from the hour of my birth to this very day and aspecially for these favours that thou hast delivered me from all dangers both by Sea and Land and hast brought me hither safe to give thanks and praise unto thy holy name thou hast also freed me from the fiery purgatory from the Laborinth of Law-suits and thou hast finished my businesse according to my desire and far better then I could expect thou hast helped and assisted me to preach thy word unto thy people and hast granted me their love and favour for the same O Lord my God I do thank thee with all my heart and praise thee with all my soule for these as for all other thy mercies that thou hast shewed unto me and if it be thy blessed will to grant me that favour which I desire of thee that I may not offend thee I shall thank thee while I live and praise thee while I breath but let thy will be done and not mine for mine is fraile and thou knowest what is best which I do not and therefore I humbly beseech tee to give me thy grace that whatsoever thou doest I may
Divines there be that think it is probable and most likely the Mahometan Religion and the Turkish State that profess and uphold the Religion of that false Prophet may be conjoyned in association with the Pope and Papacy to constitute and make up the great and transcendent Antichrist that shall most virulently oppose the State and Kingdome of Christ and oppress the true servants of God for though these two states of the Turk and Pope be opposite ad invicem one against the other in temporalibus in respect of their temporal Rule and Government yet they may both combine and be alike in oppugning the truth of Christ and corrupting his true service though differently respectu mediorum in respect of the wayes and means that either of them doth it B. Montague in his apello Caesarem as the Turk directly and the Pope obliquely the Turk vi aperta by fire and sword and the Pope fraude insidiis by fraud and deceit and yet both of them respectu finis to aim at the same end to uphold their own wicked state and polity by opposing the Gospel and suppressing the Kingdom of Christ And for my part I shall never be any Advocate to plead for either of them neither would I have any man to imagine that I would ever seem to diminish or lessen much less then The Author excuseth neither the Turk nor the Pope to excuse the wickedness and impieties either of Turk or Pope the Christian world knoweth that either of them and both of them are bad enough each of them an Antichrist and a very great Antichrist the best of them that hath much opposed the Kingdome of Christ and blemished the true service of God with many errors Heresies and superstitions Yet as I said of the Pope so I say of the Turk that I cannot believe him to be that great and egregious Antichrist which the Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaketh of because I cannot see him fitted and filled with all the marks signes and actions of that Antichrist Why he believeth neither the Pope nor Turk to be the great Antichrist to the full so as no acception can be taken against the proof thereof in any point or because I cannot finde nor can it be found by any other that all and every one of the marks and Characters and all the actions that are foretold by the Prophets and Apostles should be done and seen in the great Antichrist are fully seen to be done and fulfilled either in the Pope or in the Turk but that there are many particular things and acts foretold us should be done by that Antichrist that can no wayes be found in them nor done by them or fulfilled in either of them as hereafter in this Treatise I shall more fully declare the Particulars that are unful filled by them and the marks and Characters of that great Antichrist that are no wayes applicable to either of them And so Zanchius miscel lib. 3. Lambert in apoc Andren◠tort torti Montagu appello Caes pag. 159. as I said before the more moderate Divines and for learning not inferiour to the best as Zanchius Lambert Andrews Montague and many more are of the same opinion and do believe that neither the Pope nor the Turk is that great transcendent Antichrist but do conceive that out of these two estates polity and Government different in the means the one from the other but agreeing in the end to oppose the Kingdome of Christ or else out of some other estate polity rule and Government in many things like to these and in some things unlike to either of them but in some respects far worse than the worst of both the other the great enormous Antichrist that singular notorious Antichrist prophesied of in the holy Scripture shall arise and come and in fraudulent malicious craftiness and execrable wickedness shall through heretical impostures and lying miracles go beyond all others against the honor of Christ and the service of God and do more mischief unto his servants than any other that ever lived in the world The doings of the great Antichrist more odious to God and more destructive to his church than the acts either of Pope or Turk and so shall do such feats and acts as in some respects are more odious and detestable in the fight of God and more pernicious and destructive both to the bodies and soules of men than are the doings either of the Pope or Turk And therefore seeing we finde so many of the most learned men varying in their opinions and judgements about the Antichrist and the concomitants of that great beast spoken of in Revel 13. and about the Prophesies and mysteries of the holy Scriptures that do concern that man of sin because the secrets of the spirit of God are like the deep ocean not easily wadeable but as St. Gregory faith deep enough for the greatest Elephant to swim that is surpassing the Reach of the quickest wit The Scriptur◠like the deep ocean sea and no waies intelligible unless they be revealed by the same Spirit And because the Prophesies that are contingent and to come are not perspicuous and cannot be well explained by the best expositors before we see them fulfilled Prophesies not well understood untill they be fulfilled and therefore Patrum Doctorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 venia non insectatione dignos censemus but as Riddles are never perceived what they be or what they mean until they are unfolded but are clear enough when they are explained so Prophesies are hidden until they be fulfilled but perspicuous and plain enough to them that will look and search after them when they are accomplished and already past In respect whereof Irenaeus saith most truly that certius sine periculo est expectare usque ad impletionem Prophetiae quam temerè divinare it is a surer and a safer course without danger to expect and wait for the fulfilling of a Prophesie than rashly and presumptuously to go about to explain it before we see it fulfilled And therefore I do not so much wonder that many of the Fathers and the other Learned men afore-named have erred which by seeing some things come to pass that the Apostles said should be done and happen in the time of the Antichrist did presently apply them some to the Pope and others to the Turk and concluded them to be the Great undoubted Antichrist because they did anticipate and made such a Conclusion before many other things of the Prophesies touching the Acts Markes and Characters of the Antichrist were fulfilled and made manifest unto the Church But I hope I may the more freely pass with less censure to set down what I and others that are of my mind do conceive concerning the Great transcendent Antichrist when I shall only treat in this Discourse and set before you these three Points 1. What the Scriptures say by what way the Great Antichrist should
to forget the Afflictions of his Church And therefore I cannot sufficiently wonder that Mr. Mede Maresius Tilenus the Gappe Synod and others of the Divines aforenamed should imagine that God would be so regardless so unmindful and so severe though in Justice we confess he might be much more severe unto the Christian Church Note this well as to suffer the Great Antichrist the greatest and the cruellest enemy unto his Church that ever the world bred to reign and rage against his Saints and Servants for so many hundred of years as the Pope and Turk have now ruled since they conceive them to be the Antichrist and the Great Antichrist that should be so signally revealed 3. 3. That the Antichrist was to arise not out of a true planted Church but out of a truly reformed Church I say that it is manifest the Antichrist should arise not out of a true converted Church from Paganisme and the serving of their Idols to Christianity as both Constantinople and all the rest of the Eastern Churches were when Mahomet corrupted them and also Rome and the Western Churches when the Pope replenished them with his Superstitions but the Antichrist was to spring and to appear out of the true and purely Reformed Church after it should be purged and cleansed from all Heresies Errours and Superstitions For it was prophesied and fore-shewed by the Apostle St. That it was foretold us seducers false prophets should come into the Church Acts 20.29 30. 1 Pet. 2.1 Paul that after his departure Seducers Corrupters of Gods Word and false Prophets should creep into the Church and introduce many damnable Doctrines amongst Gods people to poyson the Souls of the Flock of Christ And St. Peter likewise foretels us that there should come False Teachers into the Church who should privily bring in damnable Heresies And so we find that not only Ebion and Cerinthus two Heretical Jews and after them Arius Pelagius Manichaeus Nestorius Entyches and the like brought in most wicked Errours and Heresies that did most palpably and grossely infest and trouble the Church of God and therefore were the sooner perceived and the easier prevented and confuted by the Grave and Godly Fathers but also the Church of Rome the Popes and their Parasites have privily that is insensibly and unperceived by the very Doctors of the Church brought in many strange Doctrines and thereby corrupted in many things the true Faith of Christ and defiled the Church of God with many most Pernicious Errours as specially in forbidding the Priests to marry commanding us to abstain from Meats besides many other Superstitions and Points of less moment and most of all in that strange Metaphysical and incredible Doctrine of Transubstantiation and the consequents of that Doctrine in the Idolatrous adoration of the consecrated Host and other very frivolous Superstitions which have brought much Misery and have been most Pernicious unto the Church of Christ That a reformation of the abuses in Gods service was foreshewed And after that the Field of Gods Church should be thus overgrown with Tares and with Thornes and Thistles the same Apostle sheweth that God would look upon his Church and there should come a Reformation and he would raise Reformers to root out those erroneous weeds and Bastard Plants and to prescribe a form of Godliness or a set form of Gods Worship whereby the Church of Christ and Servants of God should be guided and directed how to serve God aright in the true Faith of Jesus Christ And these Reformers of the foresaid Errours and Prescribers of that set form of Gods Service and Teachers of the People to worship God according to that form of wholesom Doctrine are stiled by St. Paul as they were indeed good men and the good Ministers of Jesus Christ 1 Tim. 4.6 1 Tim. 4.6 Hypocritical proud Saints the worst of all sinners And because the Devil can never rest quiet but when we strive to be best then will he labour and strive to make us worst of all and to become proud Saints that are more odious in the sight of God than the greatest sinners when they be humbled for their sins as our Saviour testifieth the same quick-sighted Argos being illuminated by the Divine light of Gods Holy Spirit saith there should spring up a company of Hypocritical Professors that would be proud and boasting of their knowledge though it were never so erroneous and proud of their Godliness though they were never so great worldlings and Hypocritical Dissemblers And these E. H. rightly termeth the black guard of the Antichrist and he counteth eighteen Troops or as I think he might have rather said eighteen Legions of them 1. Self-Lovers which is the Root of all Mischief That abundance of hypocritical professors no lesse then 18 troops or legions should under the pretence of Religion corrupt Gods service and destroy his servants 2 Tim. 3.2 3 4 E. H. de Antichristo p. 145. 2. Covetous men that long for the Lands and Livings both of King and Priest 3. Boasters of what great things they would do 4. Proud men of their strength of their Knowledge and of their Goodness and Holiness 5. Blasphemers of God of the King and of the Saints of God 6. Disobedient to Parents especially to their Spiritual Parents the Bishops and the Church 7. Unthankful men to those that have best deserved and done them most good 8. Unholy men without any spark of true Holiness or Religion in them 9. Without natural Affection to their Kins-folk and those of their own flesh and blood 10. Truce Breakers without any regard of their Oaths Promises or Articles of Agreement 11. False Accusers and Make-bates by charging men with those things that they never knew 12. Incontinent and given over to all uncleanness and all fleshly lusts 13. Fierce and cruel men thirsting after the Lives and blood of those whom they hate and nothing satisfying them but their death 14. Despisers and so haters of those that are good 15. Traytors that is Betrayers of their King of their Governours and of their Friends 16. Heady that is obstinate and wilful men that will have nothing done nor said but what they themselves think good 17. High-minded men and such as from a low estate and mean extract aimed at great matters and aspired to high places to be Knights Lords and Princes 18. Lovers of Pleasures more than Lovers of God whatsoever Pretence they made of their love to God yet indeed their own Pleasure was and is their god and their main end is for their own good And all these eighteen Troops which the Apostle cloatheth in the same Livery that is a pretended form or shew of Godliness and a Directory to seem more zealous in Religion and to bear a greater love and care of Gods Honour than all others but should notwithstanding all their Pretences their Zeal and their Saintship deny the Power and vertue of the right and true Form of
divisions corruptions and confusions that are now conceived to be in the Churches of these Dominions Donatist Cradokist Cerinthian Catharist Ebyonist Eutychian Familist Gnostick Hugonite Hussite Jesuit Libertine Lollard Marcionist Manichean Montanist Millenary Nestorian Nicholaitan Origenist Petagian Puritan Quaker Ranter Sadduce Socinian Seeker Tritheist Valentinian Winterist or if you will Atheist or Adamite or Independant From all these and from all other Seâ—â—â—â—d or new and have liberty of Conscience to profess and be of what Sect you 〈…〉 so you profess to believe in Jesus Christ as all the very worst hereticks did and 〈◊〉 and so you take the Oath of abjuration and renounce popery and 〈◊〉 which are the only men as I see that although they do believe in Jesus Christ as well if not better than any of the foresaid Hereticks are excluded from this benefit and excepted from this liberty of conscience to serve God as seemeth good in every mans eyes And though all these Sects differ one from another and are in confusion The common and joynt practise of all the Sectaries and execrating one another yet all of them do agree to dissociate themselves from the true Professors of the primitive Christianity to tear the Apocriphal Books out of our Bibles to cast away the service Book and to cashier the Articles of our Church and the Book of Homilies they are no Saints if they do not this But for the resolution of the foresaid Questions though I could say much therein Yet I will only refer the same to what you may read in a little Treatise intituled Hell broke loose that so as it seemeth the Antichrist might come forth out of the bottomless pit as S. John saith he should do and to a book of Mr. Edwards intituled Gangraena which is set out at large and three times printed where you may finde very orderly and methodically set down such a ferrago and hodg-podg of Heresies and such a multitude of most horrible blasphemies so odious and so hideous Mr. Alexander Ross in his animadversions upon Mr. Hobbes his Leviathan sheweth how the Leviathan blasphemeth 1. God 1 Errour that my hairs do stand and my heart doth tremble at the thought of them and my soul is very much afraid to name them least thereby the Devil should intice some wicked men that as yet know them not to embrace them and likewise to another book of Mr. Alexander Ross against Mr. Hobbs his Leviathan which Mr. Ross saith is like that beast in the Revelation cap. 13. and that is the Antichrist which opened his mouth into blasphemy against God and his Tabernacle and against them that dwell in Heaven 1. Against God himself and that many waies as specially 1. In saying that God made the world by nature and so by consequence of necessity according to the course of nature whereas indeed he did it voluntarily and freely and might have chosen whether he would have created any thing or nothing for he being liberrimum agens a most free and no waies necessitate agent whatsoever pleased the Lord that did he in heaven and in earth and in the Sea and in all deep places saith the Prophet Errour 2 2. In making the Three Persons of the Trinity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost to be rather Names than Substances which is contrary to our very Creeds and the Faith that we do profess Errour 3 3. In making Christ only to personate God the Son as if he were not so indeed but takes upon him only that Office Place and Title Whereas in very truth Christ by reason of the Hypostatical union of his Manhood to the Godhead is rightly said to be as he is the Son of God Errour 4 4. In making God with the Manichees to be the author of sin and so unjust if he punisheth us for doing that whereof himself is the author when as the Scriptures tell us plainly he hateth all those that work vanity vide Hab. 1.13 1 John 1.5 much more them that work wickedness and that he is of pure eyes neither shall any evil dwell in his sight he being that light in whom is no darkness at all and that perfect order in whom is no Ataxie or disorder at all Errour 5 5. In making God to be corporeal and a part of the Universe when as Christ tels us plainly God is a Spirit and the Scripture tels us so in many places 2. Against Gods Tabernacle that is his Church 2. The Tabernacle by labouring to overthrow her Faith her Knowledge her Miracles and her Ordinances 3. 3. The Angels and the blessed souls of the Saints Against them that dwell in Heaven that is the Angels and separated Souls of the Saints in making the one but Fancies and dreams that are indeed created substances of a pure spiritual being and the other mortal and not capable of any other happiness than what is earthly which is the greatest discouragement that can be to all Christians 1 Cor. 15.19 and would make them if this were true of all men the most miserable and would be the very poyson of all Piety and vertue And besides all this he saith that the said Hobbes in his Leviathan affirmeth that Faith is not by inspiration or infusion but 〈…〉 and industry that to believe in God is not to trust in Gods Person 〈…〉 confess the Doctrine of the Scripture that our Belief is in the Church The manifold errours heresies and blasphemies that Ross collecteth out of the Leviathan that they â—â—e not Devils but mad men that confessed Christ in the Gospel that Covetousness Ambition and Injustice with Power able to uphold them are honourable that wicked Tyrants and good Princes are all one and no such difference betwixt them that a man may sin against his Conscience that is do the things which his own Conscience tels him he should not do that men should not render a reason or an account of their Faith that Kings and Princes are not subject to their own Lawes that private men have no propriety in their own Goods that our natural reason is the Word of God that divine dreams cannot win our Belief that it was but a wind and not the holy Spirit of God that moved on the waters in the Creation Gen. 1.2 that the Dove which lighted on Christ in his Baptisme and the fiery Tongues which sate upon the Apostles in the day of Pentecost may be called Angels that Christ hath no spiritual Kingdom here upon earth that Christ did not cast out Devils Mat. 3.16 Acts 2.3 but only cured Madness that Satan did not enter into Judas that we may dissemble in matters of Religion and that we may disobey both Christ and his Apostles without sin Such Job 41.20 and much more like stuffe and smoak saith Ross doth this Leviathan send out of his Nostrils as out of a boyling Cauldron and herein contrary to all truth and without shame he raked up the
propagate the Gospel for the honour of God and the service of his Son Jesus Christ even as Christ hath formerly told us by his Apostles and Prophets that the Antichrist would do And if you have observed any collected multitude to have done these things you may know what to judge though you may not say what you think And though these demoxstrations are very plain A special thing to be observed by most Commentators yet methinks I do observe somewhat in this description of the Antichrist by S. Paul that I find not observed by any of the Interpreters that I have read save what is briefly touched by E. H. in Pag. 76. De Antichristo For the Apostle in this Character of the Antichrist seems to set such an astarisme or as it were a dash with his pen whereby he should be made most palpable unto our hands and most visible unto our eyes if we would but diligently observe it we should not miss to know who he were For 1. The Apostle speaking of the wickedness of this Antichrist speaketh in the singular number and calleth him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the man of sin and not the man of sins the which expression besides the Hebraisme that signifieth he should be a very sinfull man as the childe of death signifieth one that is destined and condemned to death doth most certainly give us to understand that the Apostle meaneth that the Antichrist should commit some singular peculiar sin that should only and properly be the sin of the Antichrist and of none else And therefore 2. To inforce the particularity of his sin his proper and peculiar sin That as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 noteth and designeth thiâ— proper and particular Antichrist so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 designeth the proper peculiar and particular sin of the Antichrist Epiphan heresi 9. the Apostle doth not simply say that he should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the man of sin but with the Article of a special designation both of the man and of the sin that you might take notice as well of the one as of the other he saith he should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the man of the sin or the man of that sin by which sin he may undoubtedly and apparently as by a proper badg and character be known to be that great Antichrist that should come into the world when as he only committeth that sin which none but he did ever commit the like for as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie God King and man that is any one of them indefinitely but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do determinately note forth unto us this particular person of God or King or man because as I said before out of Epiphanius the Greek Articles contrahunt significationem ad rem certam leave not the thing they spoke of like an individuum vagum but do tie the signification to a proper and a certain thing so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth any one sin whetsoever but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 noteth and pointeth out this very particular sin and not another And therefore they that would know who is the Antichrist 2 special things to be inquired after must consider and inquire diligently after these 2 special things 1. What sin is that which is the formalis ratio that gives esse 1. What is the peculiar sin of the Antichrist the very being unto the Antichrist and by which sin he may be undoubtedly known to be the Antichrist and without the committing of that sin no sinner be he never so great or tainted with never so many sins can properly be said to be this great Antichrist 2. If we can finde the sin that makes the great Antichrist we are in the next place to enquire and search whom we can finde if we can finde any 2. Who hath committed that sin that have committed that sin and when we have found the sin and who hath committed that sin if we can finde them we have found out the great Antichrist that is spoken of by the Prophets and hath been long expected and much feared by the Church for as John Baptist saith of Christ I knew him not but he that sent me to baptize with water John 1.33 said unto me upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost and is the Messias and the Christ so whosoever coâ—â—itteth this proper and peculiar unusual sin the sin of the Antichrist only the same is he because the Antichrist only is the man of that sin that is which only committeth that sin and none else but the Antichrist committeth it 1. Then we are to ask and seek and to search disigently to know what sin is the proper and peculiar sin of the Antichrist and I shall with the help of Gods holy Spirit do my best to finde it out and I am sure this sin of the Antichrist is like the Antichrist himself a most notorious eminent and transcendent sin unheard of among the Heathens unknown in the world and uncommitted by any other sinner That all sinnes are not equal untill committed by the Antichrist and a sin when it is committed so perspicuous to all mens eyes as is the beacon upon a hill so destructive unto mankinde so odious so abominable and so hatefull in the fight of God as that no other sin whatsoever is altogether so destructive unto mankinde or so hatefull unto God as is this sin of the Antichrist for it is a paradox among the Philosophers and much more among the Divines to say that all fins are equal when as this sin of the Antichrist is more detestable in the sight of God than any other sin whatsoever as I hope to make it very plain unto you before I have done the canvassing of this beast And what sin may that be which is so transcendent so destructive unto man 1. Oservation and so odious unto God as none more May it not be the sin against the Holy Ghost which is a known wilfull malicious What sin is the peculiar sin of the Antichrist total and final Apostacy from the formerly professed truth of the Gospel and faith of Christ and a perpetual persecuting of the same impenitently unto the end with a most obstinate refusal of all grace and a despair of all pardon from God Surely this must needs be a most haynous sin and I believe the most hurtfull and destructive to the sinner that commits it of all sins because as our Saviour saith it shall never be forgiven him either in this world 1. Not the sin against the Holy Ghost 1. Reason or in the world to come yet I am perswaded this is not the sin that is most destructive to mankinde and most hatefull unto God or that is the proper sin of the great Antichrist 1. Because many others besides the
boasting and bragging or prae se ferens as Beza translates it pretending that he is God or as Tremellius saith ostentet seipsum ac si Deus esset he will carry himself as if he were a God that is in Gods stead the true King to rule the people and the right Bishop to govern the Church of Christ or That the Antichrist will wholly direct the Clergy and dispose of all things in the Church and about the service of God as some do read it he would be esteemed and taken tanquam sit Deus for such a supream Monarch and chief Governor over Gods Church as God said unto Moses he should be to Aaron his God to direct him in all the service of the Tabernacle and the whole worship of God so will the Antichrist be such a God to order direct and dispose of all the worship of God and how all the Clergie in order and without order should behave and carry themselves in the whole service of the Church which I take to be the true meaning of the Apostle in this place For this shewing himself or bragging that he is God is not to be understood that he would have himself believed to be the true and everliving God and worshiped with divine worship as the Historians tell us Alexander Antigonus Augustus Caligula Domician and divers others of the Caesars and Emperors were transported to that height of pride and ambition as believing themselves to be more than men to require the people their subjects to take them for Jupiter Apollo or some other of those anciently esteemed Gods and to ascribe the honor and worship that was usually given to those Gods unto themselves as Altars Sacrifices and the like whereof Virgil speaking of Augustus saith Virgilius eglog 1. Illius aram Saepe tener nostris ab ovilibus imbuet agnus And Horace also saith Horatius epist. l. 2. Jurandásque tuum per nomen ponimus aras But the meaning of the Apostle is that this man of sin the Antichrist will bragge and boast unto the people that he is all for God and for the honor and service of God and therefore sits in the temple of God to set out the right directory of serving God that so God through him and by his only means and endeavors might be rightly served and worshipped according to his directory as the Mahometans worship Mahomet according to his Alcoran and we formerly worshipped God according to the form prescribed unto us by our Governors in the book of Common-prayer and so he sheweth that he is God that is most godly and so a God by the participation of the godliness and holiness of God which exposition doth most fitly agree with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what he sheweth himself to be which is the rediest way to deceive the people And whether the long Parliament hath not usurped this ecclesiastical power and jurisdiction over all the holy things Let the Reader judge whether this be not fulfilled in the long Parliament and to set forth the sole Directory of Gods service tanquam sit Deus as if they alone had Aarons Office to order all the other Priests and Levites or had the spirit of S. Paul infallibly to direct the Church of Christ as well as Moses his Authority and the power of a King to rule the people Let the Parishes and people of God that have none other form of Gods service but what the Parliament Preachers and the observers of their Directory do use be the Judges both of what service and of what Doctrine is brought unto them I make small account though I will not pass it unsaluted of that Observation which some men have made that the Parliament House where the members of the long Parliament sate Arise Evans in his Voice from heaven was a Chappel consecrated by King Edward the 3. to be the Temple of God as appeareth by many Records because many other Parliaments have sate in that Chappel and yet not any of them all have usurped this power to be the supream disposers and directors of all the holy service of God the Commanders of all the Bishops and Priests of the most high God how to do his service and what service should be done unto him and to make themselves the sole Possessors the right owners to dispose sell or give all the Revenues lands states Tythes and offerings of the Church as it is said the Antichrist would do and which he may no better nor so well do as Scyrus and Procrustes the two vilest robbers that we read of could take thy purse and all thy mony by the High-way side And here also I cannot omit to observe Note the word fit in the temple that the Apostle saith that the man of sin shall not stand but sit in the Temple of God where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifieth to fit as where it is said that Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 4.6 and 20.12 sate by the well and so the two Angells were seen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sitting in white raiments is to be distinguished from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which betokeneth and signifieth collocare to place or to set a thing in some place as it is where the Apostle saith if you have judgments of things pertaining to this life 1 Cor. 6.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 set such or place them to judg who are least esteemed in the Church and so where it is said that the Disciples brought the Asse and the Colt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as it is in some Copies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they set him Matth 21.7 or placed him thereon And therefore it is rightly concluded by Maresius that this sitting in the Temple of God is ill applyed by Grotius to Caius Caligula his causing of his Statue to be placed in the Temple at Hierusalem but it may most properly signifie the sitting of the Parliament Let the Reader judge of this or the like society of men in that place where they intend to acquiesce and rest themselves whether the place be physical or Metaphysical And whether the Parliament resolved not only to stand in that their dignity and Authority for a while or intended to sit and acquiesce and continue themselves and their Successors for ever in the Parliament-House and in the Temple of God to govern the Church of God as God themselves know best I will not judge of their Intention CHAP. VI. That the Antichrist is a great Professor of Religion and a seeming Saint That he belyeth his Profession and is indeed the greatest Hypocrite in the world What the great Lye of the Antichrist is What 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth What it is to deny Jesus to be the Christ And how the Father and the Son may be denied two manner of waies 2. THough I might go on
say that we must understand not only the name Jehova and Lord and God and the other usual and proper titles and names of God which S. Hierome and others have collected out of the Scriptures but also any other thing that discovereth and maketh God known unto us as his works his word his titles his attributes and the like because God hath no proper name that can make him known unto us or fully express his nature and his being as God himself saith unto Moses Exod. 13.14 when he desired to know his name that he might thereby know him So whosoever denyeth the things and rejecteth the words notions and expressions that bring us to know God or to know the Father and the Son to be the true God doth therein and thereby deny God and is as the Apostle saith the great Lyar and the Antichrist that denyeth the Father and the Son Leber Secundus CAP. I. The measuring of the Temple the two Witnesses that should erect and build the Christian Church who they are how long they should Prophesie how they should be killed and used after their killing how they shall be resuscicated and revived and in what time they shall be revived after they be killed and of the great mystery of God what it is and when that shall be finished OUr loving Lord and Master Jesus Christ having left us here on earth was not like Pharoahs Butler so unmindfull of us as we are of him when he was glorified in Heaven but he sends his Angel to informe his best beloved Desciple and Servant Ichn of those chiefest afflictions and persecutions that the Christian Church should find and must so undergoe here amongst the Sons of men from that time that the Angel came unto him untill he should come to judge the World and to deliver his distressed Servants out of all their troubles To what end Christ foretells the troubles of his Church and he foretells us of them that they being foreshewed unto us we might the better either study by our endeavours and prayers to God wisely to prevent and avoyd them or manfully with Gods assistance to undergoe them which might the better and the more patiently be done being expected for to come quia tela previsa minus nocent because expected troubles are alwayes less dangerous and not any wayes so grievous as those that do suddenly surprize us and rush upon us like an A med man and this sad and wofull condition of the Church the Wars and Conflicts that she must pass through and the troubles and persecutions that she must suffer the Blessed Evangelist and Apostle St. Iohn setteth down in this book of the Revelation as the Holy Ghost by his Angel hath shewed them unto him And of all the things that are foreshewed I intend only to handle What things the Author chiefly aimeth to treat of by the assistance of Gods Holy Spirit and to treat in this place what I conceive to be the chiefest things that are observable in the 11th 12th and 13th Chapters of this Book of the Revelation and which are as I beleive principally meant or at least most probably applicable to these very times wherein we live and in all likelihood to this particular Church of great Britany and Ireland that to many men seemeth to be the Stage whereupon all or most of the sad spectacles and Tragedies here in these three Ghapters mentioned are evidently seen acted as they were foreshewed I confess the burthen that herein I took upon me is very heavy and the charge very great and I have often Prayed to the same Holy Spirit The weight of the burthen that he undertaketh that as Daniel saith giveth Wisdome and revealeth Secrets Dan. 2.21 22. and that hath revealed these secrets unto his Servant Iohn that he would be pleased to reveale the meaning of them unto me who without his help can understand just nothing but with his assistance may find out the true meaning of these mysteries which wiser men and greater Schollers without his help cannot do and herein I presume not positively to affirme any thing as Articles of Faith for others to beleive but I only do set down what I verily do conceive to be the true meaning of the Holy-Ghost and say with the Poet Si tu quid rectius istis Candidus imperti si non his utere mecum Now the summe of these three Chapters The summe of the three Chapters that are explained by the Author 11 chap. in brief is this 1. In the 11th Chapter the Angell setteth down to St. Iohn the state and condition of the Governours and Pastors of Gods Church the two Witnesses of Jesus Christ and their fiery tryall their persecution and their suffering under the rule and Reigne of the great Antichrist termed here the Beast that ascendeth from the bottomless pit 2. 12 chap. In the 12th Chapter he sheweth the troubles Crosses and Persecutions of the whole Church and the chiefest members of the same and how that notwithstanding all the malice of Satan and the spite of her persecutors the Church should be assisted and delivered from them all 3. 13 chap. In the 13th Chapter the Apostle describeth unto us the great Antichrist that should most of all persecute the Witnesses of Christ and the false Prophet that should instruct and instigate the Antichrist to proceed on in all his impieties and he sheweth the Combination of these two and of others the chiefest Enemies of the Witnesses and of the Church of Christ First 1. Of the measuring of the Temple and of the Worshippers therein Chap. 11.1 After that the Apostle had eaten 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the little book which the Angell gave him and was told by the Angell that he must Prophesie againe before many People and Nations and Tongues and Kings he saith there was given unto him a Reed like to a Rod or a measuring Pole and the Angel said unto him arise and measure the Temple of God and the Altar and them that Worship therein And we find that this measuring Reed was used sometimes to pull down to ruine and to destroy the measured place and sometimes to build and to reare up the same and some Interpreters whom E. H. followeth do understand it here for the ruine and Rejection of the Jewish people the dissipation of them by the Romans What is meant by the Temple that was to be measured The building of the Church of Christians and the end of their then Temple their Sacrifices and their Religion that was now approaching on and very nigh at hand but I rather conceive that by the Temple of God that was now to be measured we should understand the Church of God that is the Christian Church that was now to be edified to be reared up and to be reduced to a new forme and to have new Ordinances and new Sacraments far better then those that were in the Jewish Temple as Beza
far greater then the troubles of many of them that were within the Walls of Hierusalem And therefore their being in Pella could not fignifie the earths opening of her mouth to swallow up the flood of their afflictions which no doubt but they endured in full measure Reason 4 4. In that Pella being but a little Village it is not likely that it could containe so many of the Jews or that so many should go out of Hierusalem unto it as should move the Holy Ghost to express them here under the notion of this Woman that was persecuted by the Dragon when as these were not the men against whom Titus waged his War being so few and so contemptible and no wayes opposing him Reason 5 5. In that this persecution of the Woman and her flight into the Wilderness is after the Warre in Heaven and after the Dragon was throwen into the earth as the Text makes it plain v. 13. 14. but these Jewes being in Pella was long before this warre and therefore they cannot be meant by this woman Reason 6 6. In that according to the old rule non est distinguendum ubi non distinguit lex we may not chop and change times places and persons where Scriptures change them not to fit our own purposes and to make good our own best liked Interpretations which is but as the Poet saith to stagger Nunc huc nunc illuc exemplo nubis aquosae Much like a waterish Cloud which sometimes hither is driven with the wind How men should fairly proceed in their interpretations without wresting of any Text. and sometimes thither or as another saith Praxitiles like to make beguiled mindes to bow down to the painted strumpet either of these high conceits of the great Scholars or of the brain-sick fancies of the weaker wits but we ought fairly to proceed according to the most genuine sence of the place that we enterpret and such as crosseth no other truth nor carrieth any absurdity or impossibility with it And who seeth not prima facie at the first sight and reading of this 12th Chapter how the Holy Ghost proceedeth therein to set forth the dangers troubles and persecutions of this woman that signifieth the Christian Church from the time that she became cloathed with the Sun and the beginning of her pain in travell unto the end of her persecutions as how she should flie into the Wilderness how long she should be nourished and fed in that place what Warres she should undergo in that time and after the ending of that Warre and the stepping out of her place how she should be therefore punished and persecuted and for what time she should be distressed in that persecution and how she should be helped and relieved out of the hands and power of her enemies which are all successively in a continued Series and a just order set down by the spirit of God of the same woman that was the Christian Church in this 12th Chapter of the Revelation And as not all this by Junius his concession so indeed not any part of this can be referred to the believing Jewes in Pella as understood by this woman v. 14. but to the Christian Church converted and collected both out of the Jewes and Gentiles especially considered after the time of Theodosins as I have shewed to you before And this last persecution of this woman can be no otherwise understood Why this last persecution of the woman is to be referred to these our times as I conceive then of the sufferings of the reformed Protestant Churches and servants of Christ in these our times wherein we live because they fall out just at the end of 1200 and 60 years wherein the two witnesses after that the woman was cloathed with the Sun should prophesie and the woman should be fed by the witnesses before they should be slain and before the beginning of this her great persecution and flood of all miseries that the Dragon by the service of the Antichrist should raise against her and throw after her And I say that although Arethas Rupertus and Barradius do with Junius understand this woman to signifie the Jewish Synagogue and Alcazar takes it for the primitive Church of the Christians to whom I do assent she may be taken for that Church at that time when the Dragon began to watch her that he might devoure her Child yet St. Ambrose Ticonius and Primasius do with me understand this woman here flying to avoid the Dragons flood to signifie the true Christian Church in her last persecution sub finem mundi a little before the end of the world when Satan should be let loose after his 1000 years imprisonment and should then powre forth a flood and deluge of all crosses troubles and miseries upon the true Church and the faithfull servants of Jesus Christ the which I think he hath now within these late years done to the uttermost Reason 7 7. And lastly in that these times of the womans being fed and nourished in the Wilderness for 1200 and 60 years wherein the Hereticall war betwixt the Angels of Michael and the Angels of the Dragon was made and was not ended here in our Church until King Charles his dayes in whose time both the Brownists and Puritans were suppressed and the Jesuite Fisher the great Golias of the Papists That the times here spoken of cannot cohere with the Jewes in Pella in these parts was quite vanquished and confuted by Bishop Laud and these times that are here expressed by time times and half a time which are the time of the Churches persecution after the 1200 and 60 years and the end of the hereticall warre cannot be referred to the believing Jewes in Pella but rather for the persecution of our Protestant Churches and the preservation of them from being ruined by the earths opening of her mouth to swallow up the flood of afflictions that the Dragon casteth after them because the Holy Ghost saith that after three dayes and a half which is the very same time though expressed in other termes with time times and half a time the spirit of life from God shall enter into the witnesses that is ministris verbi as Junius confesseth the Bishops and Preachers of Gods word or as E. H. more rightly thinketh the Magistrates and Ministers which formerly had been slain and they shall stand again upon their feet that is in their successors by a Monarchicall and Episcopall Government to shew that God will not suffer his Church and Servants to be alwayes nor long trodden underfoot and to want her lawfull Pastors and Governours but should have the witnesses of Christ within a short space restored unto her And we are confident that such a thing as this never happened to the believing Jewes in Pella nor to any other believing Church in the World that we know of that both the witnesses of God That we cannot remember where it happened that the chief Magi. strate and the
neither of these can be said to have been and not to be and yet to be at the same time as the Holy Ghost affirmeth of this Beast for though Domitian was chosen by the Souldiers whilst his Father Vespasian was in Judaea Vide Caracott◠pag. 52. and then gave up his right and title to the Empire when Vespasian returned to Rome yet this doth not cohere with he is not and yet is which is affirmed of this Beast and though it might have been said that he was and is not and yet shall be if this Vision of the Beast had been shewed to St. John in Vespasians time but it could not possibly be said that he was if according to Epiphanius his Testimony St John was banished to Patmos and had these visions revealed unto him in the Emperor Claudius his time because that after Claudius Nero reigned 13 years Galba seven moneths Otho four moneths and Vitellius eight moneths before Vespasian was made Emperor nor could it be well said that he was whilst Vespasian was in Judaea when he was but an Vsurper and an Intruder while his Father lived or though it might be truly said in some sence that he was and in some other sence that he was not yet can it not be said in any way or in any sence that he was and is not and yet is as the Holy Ghost saith of this Beast How then shall we unfold this Riddle and untie this Gordian knot I answer That the Words in c. 17.8 do seem most coherent to the long Parliament That 1. Was a true Parliament that I have often thought of it and assayd it divers wayes and yet could never see how this Testimony of the Holy Ghost touching this beast that he was and is not and yet is can be applied either to Domitian or to any other of all the Emperours or Kings or Society of men so fitly and so probably agreeing with the meaning of Gods spirit as it is or may be applycable to the long and lately dissolved Parliament for that was a true Parliament when the King called them together and they sate to consult with their King de arduis rebus regni about the great affaires of the Kingdom and took their Oaths and made their solemn Protestation to protect the Kings Person and to maintain the true Protestant Religion 2. Is believed to be no Parliament But I heard many wise men judge it no Parliament when they did expell and cast out their guides and their leaders the Messengers of Christ from among them and endeavoured as the Giants did of old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make Warre against God and raised an Army against their head and with all their might did fight against their King and at last like did most disloyally cut off his Head that was the head of them and of us all and as the Prophet speaketh of the like godly King 3. And yet still is a Parliament the breath of our nostrills and yet still it is a Parliament in their own esteem and with their adherents and by their peremptory Acts and Ordinances that are still accounted most excellent and binding and are so urged and observed by their adherents and compelled to be observed by all others and by the greatness of that power and authority which they assumed unto themselves and do by their Acts and Lawes execute over all people to this very day more then any other ordinary Parliament ever used whereby you see how this may be understood that is said of the beast that he was and is not and yet is though I leave it to the judicious Reader to judge whether he conceives this to be the meaning of the Holy Ghost or not or whether all this may be so as may thus be coherent and applicable to that long Parliament or not And as this which I have now expressed doth seem very shrewdly to prove Some conceive it thus to be fulfilled I will not determine it the long Parliament is or may be here signified by this beast so that which is set down by the Angel in the 17th Chapter and the 10th verse which is the explication of this vision that is here shewed c. 13. doth more fully seem to illustrate and confirm the same thing for there he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and there are seven Kings that is which have been and will be great and grievous extraordinary persecutors of my people The 5 Kings that were fallen before this Revelation was shewed whereof five are fallen that is dead and gone which we understand by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fallen and these five saith Junius are 1. Servius Sulpitius Galba the seventh Emperour of the people of Rome 2. Marcus Salvius Otho 3. Aulus Vitellius 4. Flavius Vespafianus 5. Titus the Sonne of Vespasian and one is saith the Holy Ghost that is saith he Flavius Domitian another Sonne of the foresaid Vespasian in whose latter Reign saith he St. John wrote this Revelation and another is not yet come saith the Text that is saith he Cocceius Nerva and the beast that was and is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Translators render Junius in annotat in c. 17. joyned to Beza's Translation even he is the eighth even he especially to be observed above any of the other seven saith the Angel and this even he saith Junius is Nerva Trajan that is as I conceive him Cocceius Nerva the last that was aforenamed or rather as the stories shew Vlpius Trajanus qui hic vario respectu Septimus octavus appellatur who himself in divers respects is called here the seventh and the eighth for that although in number and order of succession he be the eighth yet saith he because this man obtained his power and authority with Nerva and did execute his consular office with him when Nerva died he is also said to be the seventh c. 17.11 and is reckoned together with Nerva as if Nerva and Trajan were but one head according to which sence our former Translation though very corruptly reads the beast that was and is not is even the eighth and is one of the seven or as the Geneva notes do understand those Kings The 1. is Nero. 2. Galba 3. Dr. Hammond in permonit pag. 907. Ex Hugone Grotio qui conjutatur Maresio pag. 169. Otho 4. Vitellius 5. Vespasian 6. Titus 7. Domitian 8. Nerva or as Doctor Hammond saith which is more likely to be right if St. John was banished to Patmos in Claudius his time and far more unlikely if his banishment was in Domitians time the 1. is Claudins 2. Nero. 3. Galba 4. Otho 5. Vitellius 6. Vespasian 7. Titus 8. Domitian But indeed all these Expositions and the like annumeration of these Kings that were fallen and extant and to come which would be too tedious for me to rehearse do seem to me to be far wide from the meaning of the Holy Ghost in this place
worthy of credit assure me they are for what Blasphemy in the world can there be greater then to make the Holy Spirit of God that flieth from deceit and dwelleth not in the body that is subject unto sin to be the foul Spirit of Darkness and the Author mover and promoter of such most horrid and execrable acts acts never acted by any Christians and but seldome if ever known by the worst of Pagans and never before adventured or invented as I conceive to be justifiable by the most impudent of all the Hereticks And besides all this have not their Assembly and Preachers Wisdome 1.5 as I told you before by consequent and in effect denyed the Father and the Son and so the Holy Ghost which is amor nexus spiritus patris filij Let the Reader judge what Blasphemous acts the Assembly of Divines and the adherents to the Parliament did and have they not obliterated and cashiered some of the chiefest heads and maine points of the long received truths of our Christian Religion and did not that Parliament Authorize that Apostate assembly and countenance the swarms of their lay-sword-Preachers to discountenance the 39 Articles of our Church to dispute about the expunging of the fift Article of the Apostles Creed to Antiquate the Lords Prayer out of the Church Service for fear that if they should use to say the same they should quench the Spirit as if the spirit of Christ would be offended with the Prayer of Christ and to turne out the long setled service of God and the book of Common-prayer out of the Church to give way as one saith well to a long-winded extemporary non-sence and Blasphemous repetitions Such Blasphemies as never were in the Church of Rome are broached in the books and Sermons of the Presbyterians and most sawcy expostulations with God in the steed thereof which is the readiest way to introduce Athiesme and to abrogate Christianity out of the world which is the desire of the Dragon and the proper work of the Antichrist And therefore the Religion of the Fauterers and adherents to that Parliament being but a meer complication and a syncretisme or rather a sink and common sewer of all errors Heresies and Blasphemies may we not well say that upon the heads thereof there is not onely the name but in the plurall number the names of Blasphemy especially if I should set down which would swell to a huge Volume all the Blasphemous tenents that some of their members many of their Preachers and more of their adherents have broached scattered and printed throughout these three Kingdomes since the unhappie birth of that most unhappy Parliament to most of the Kings most Loyall Subjects and so you see how this Appendix of the Beast may be said to cohere with that long Parliament Fiftly It is said v. 2. that this Beast was like a Leopard 5. The Beast was like a Leopard Jun. in annotat in loc As after the 2d Pun warr Maced Grec syria caeteraque omnia quasitorrente sequnta sunâ— Dan. 7.6 Vt loquitur florus l. 2. c. 7. Diodorus siculus de success Alexandr 2. and Junius following his former exposition saith this ought to be understood of the Roman Empire that was like a Leopard propter velocitatem by reason of their swiftness and speedy expeditions and their extraordinary successes to subdue their Enemies when their Generalls might say with Caesar veni vidi vici assoone as I came I overcame all the adversaries that opposed me whereby they have suddenly prevailed to inlarge their dominions over the better part of the then known world But indeed that Empire cannot be understood by this Leopard for Daniel speaking of the four great Empires of the world saith that the third Beast which betokened the Macedonian or Greek Empire was like a Leopard that is propter velocitatem by reason of the sudden increase and speedy inlargement thereof when Alexander the great did most suddenly in less then 10 years space subdue the Persian Monarchy and brought under his subjection the most part of the visible Dominions of the world and his Empire was as suddenly divided when he bequeathed the same to the Worthyest of his Captaines and almost as quickly againe translated unto the Romans and therefore I say that not the Roman Empire Eodem c. v. 7. 23. which was the fourth beast in Daniels Vision and had Iron teeth and stamped the residue of the Kingdomes with the feet of it but the beast that is the Antichrist which was typified by the little horne that came up among the hornes of the fourth beast â— v. 8. that Daniel saw is here likened to a Leopard and that not only propter velocitatem for the great speed that he maketh in all his actions but also in respect of all the other chief properties of the Leopard which is observed to be 1. The three properties of the Leopard Velox very swift 2. Crudelis very Cruel 3. Maculosus very much spotted And so was that many-headed beast that our Evangelift saw And truly I may justly demand if that these three properties of the Leopard might not be perfectly seen in the long Parliament The parallel for 1. 1. The great speed of the Parliament Were they not most swift in their expeditions and executions and subduing all that have opposed them either Domestick and homebred Enemies or any other forreigne foes and have they not conquered these three Kingdomes and prevailed more in less then ten years space then either the Warlike King of Sweden or any other King or Common-wealth if you consider all circumstances since Alexanders time 2. 2. The cruelty of the Parliamen As they were most speedy in their actions so I may demand if they were not as cruel in their executions and more cruell then all the examples that ever I found in any History to parallel them more cruel as it is conceived then John Vasilowich that was the greatest Tyrant of Russia and as they say greater then any other former Tyrant and yet he never persecuted any man as these men did onely for being loyall Subjects unto their King and faithfull Servants unto their God though we might say of Vasilowich that Saevior est tristi Busiride Saevior illo Qui falsum lento torruit igne bovem And therefore when I duly weigh the decenniall slaughters practised in these Christian parts by those that profest themselves to be the best Saints on earth especially when I consider not the bloudy killing of men but the many deaths that in a lingring death they have imposed on many good men and the piece-meale taking away of the lives of many quos oderunt gratis whom they hated without cause but only for seeking to do them the greatest good and to prevent the greatest evil that can be imagined from falling on them I cannot choose but cry out with the Poet O mites Diomedis equi Busiridis arae
the holy City under foot as the Holy Ghost setteth down the time in the self same phrase c. 11.2 But Mr. Mede excepts against this time of three years and a half because all the things that are to be acted in the time of the Beast could not be performed in so short a time as that 1. Ten Kingdoms to be founded in that time 2. Peoples and Nations and Tongues to become to serve the Beast 3. To make war with the Saints and to overcome them 4. Mr. Medes exception against the continuance of the Beast three years and a half Sixfold The foresaid exceptions answered To cause all that dwell upon the earth to worship the Beast 5. The whore of Babylon to ride the Beast so long that all Nations shall drink the wine of her fornication and the merchants that had ships should grow rich by trading with her And 5. That the time of the Beast followed immediately after him that is said to continue but a short space c. 17.10 therefore if the time of the Beast be but three years and a half how short must the other that preceded him be or doth not this expression of his precedents short space imply that the other which is the Beast should continue a long space when the Holy Ghost doth insert so singular a note of difference to the time of the former from the time of the latter To which I answer that all the things requisite to be acted in the time of the Beast may very well be accomplished as we see it already acted within three years and a half for 1. There is no such thing to be done as the founding or setting up of 10. 1. Exception answered Kingdoms as I shewed to you before But Mr. Mede produceth many Authours of the old Fathers to prove that the Beast should rise when 10. Kings should spring out of the Roman Empire and that was in Anno 456. when Gensericus took the City of Rome I confess that divers of the ancient Fathers supposing that the Roman Empire was that 2 Thes 2. which the Apostle meaneth to be the lette which hindered the rising of the Antichrist and therefore prayed in their Liturgies that the Roman Empire might long continue Tertul. in apolog cap. 32. Aug. de civit dei l. 20. c. 19 that the coming of the Antichrist might be deferred and be long before it came did imagin that when the Empire should be shared among 10. Kings the Beast would then shew himself as you may see in St. Hierome in Dan c. 7. and ad Ageruchiam de monogamia and in Ireneus l. 5. c. 21. 25. and others But the Roman Empire being not the thing that hindered the rising and the manifesting of the man of sin that is the Beast who is the Antichrist it followeth not that the Beast must then rise when the Empire falls to be divided among those 10. E. H. de Antichristo part 3 p. 114 Kings for the stop and remora that hindered the man of sin to be revealed is clearly and sufficiently proved by E. H. to be not the Roman Empire but the two witnesses that were as a Serpentine barre in his way that he could not rise and tyrannise over Gods flock untill they were killed and you know when they were killed as I have shewed to you before 2. I say that peoples and Nations and Tongues 2d Exception answered might well serve the Beast in a lesse time then three years and a half as we see they have done to the long Parliament 3. He might as Antiochus that was his type did warre with the Saints 3d Exception answered and overcome them in that or lesse then that time and the issue of that Parliaments Warre ending much about that time proves this to be true 4. He might by an hyperbolicall speech which is not unusuall in the Scripture 4th Exception answered cause all that dwell on the Earth that is to cause abundance of people and most of his Neighbour Nations to worship him that is to reverence and to respect him to send Embassadors unto him and to court him for otherwise all that dwell on the Earth will never worship him nor reverence him as the true Servants of Christ that never did nor ever will and therefore by all that dwell on the Earth we must understand all the earthly minded men or else as the Evangelists say Matth. 3.5 Mark 1.5 there went out to John Baptist all Judaea and all the Region round about Jordan that is most of the people of those parts or a great many out of all the parts of Judaea and this we have seen done in lesse then three years to the long Parliament 5. It is not requisite that Babilon or the Whore should ride the Beast 5th Exception answered so long as Mr. Mede saith neither doth the Text alot any time nor determine how long the Whore should ride the Beast but saith I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured Beast c. 17 3. 5. And I will tell thee the mystery of the woman verse 7. and the Beast that carrieth her and this doth not shew but that the Whore which signifieth the superstitious and Idolatrous Church might be of a long continuance and yet that she hath not rid the Beast all that while for I do not find that the beginning of the Whore and of the Beast do synchronize and are of the same time but that the Whore began to play the harlot that is the Church began to apostatize long before the Beast rose out of the Sea and when the Beast did rise and began to appear then the Whore began to ride him the meaning of which riding I shall hereafter declare unto you 6. I say that the precedent Kings continuance is termed a short space 6th Exception answered not in opposition to the long space of the Beast but for the consolation of those distressed Christians that suffered under that seventh King and I shewed you that Julian which I conceive to be understood by that seventh King continued not in all his whole Reign and likely not so much in persecuting the Saints above three years which certainly is but a short space neither doth it follow that because this is said to continue a short space it implieth that the other shall continue a long space nor that the Holy Ghost doth insert this as a singular note of difference of the formers time Why the Holy Ghost saith the Antichrist should continue a short space from the time of the latter but that the spirit of God for the comfort of his Servants foretells them that as well this as the other shall continue but a short space God having alwayes this respect to his Children Si languor longa sit levis est Si gravis brevis est when their afflictions are long as the Israelites vexation in Egypt and in Babilon was then are they but light and when
ordinarily and alwayes when he came to the Temple Matth. 21.14 and opportunity offered him so to do and St. Matthew saith that the blind and the lame came to him in the Temple and he healed them and so must we come to him into his Temple if we desire to be healed of our infirmities and so the Apostles and Disciples of Christ after his ascention into Heaven met and worshipped God in the Temple Act. 2.46 c. 5.25 and when the Christians began to be multiplied they presently erected Churches and consecrated them for Gods service as you may see in 1 Cor. 11.22 and from the 14th Chapter of the said Epistle where the Apostle bids the women to be silent in the Church which must not be understood of any other House or Congregation but the Congregation that meeteth for Gods service in Gods House And because that place was set apart from all prophane uses for to pray to God and to preach unto the people and to do all other exercises of Religion as administring the Sacraments catechizing the youths collecting the alms for the poor and the like services of the Lord and was hallowed and sanctified by the prayers of the Bishop onely for that end and that God hath promised his more speciall presence for our help and assistance in a most speciall manner in that House more then in any other place 2 Chron. 6. as you may see by Solomons prayer therefore the true Saints and servants of God did ever honour and reverence this very place of Gods Worship more then any Chamber of presence of the greatest Monarch in the World and none but prophane Atheists wicked Hereticks and the members and adherents of this Beast that are worse then the worst of worldlings have ever abused prophaned or blasphemed these materiall Churches whereof the Prophet saith holiness becometh thy house for ever for Though originally In what sence all things are alike holy and in respect of their own nature all places are alike holy and so are all persons all dayes and all meates and so all other things that are ejusdem speciei of the same kind they are all alike holy and there is no difference nor any more Sanctity or Holiness in the one then in the other being all alike Holily created by God Yet if we consider Gods designation of any of these things and the Sanctification In what sense some things are more holy then others For the further clearing of this point I desire the Reader to look into Mr. Mede's learned Discourse de sanctitate relativa and his answer to Dr. Twisse pag 660 and in Levit. 19.30 of the same by the appointment of God for such and such uses in the service of God then you shall find a great deale of difference betwixt the one and the other and a great deale of a relative accidentall Holiness in and belonging to the one more then to the other otherwise what difference will you make betwixt the common bread that we eat of the finest Wheat Flower and the most Holy and Blessed bread of the Holy Eucharist or the Lords Supper but the Sanctifying of it by Prayers for this use to be the Body and Blood of Christ this makes the difference so that now after the consecration of it with the words of Christ hoc est Corpus meum we cannot without prophaneness and a mighty offence give the same to Doggs or unbelieving Jewes or any other that we know to be altogether unworthy of it as we can give the other bread that is made of the same lump to either of these without any offence or what difference is there betwixt one day and another but because the Lord designed the 7th day to be set apart for his Service and hallowed it for that end therefore it is more Holy then all the other six dayes and so are the dayes and feasts that are appointed by the Church to honour God in them as the Commemoration of Christs Nativity Circumcision Resurrection Ascention and other dayes of Thanksgiving for some speciall blessings and extraordinary favours that as on those dayes we have received from God which none will prophane but the neglectors of Gods honour and the prophaners of his Service So what difference or what Holiness is there naturally betwixt one man and another but when the Lord chooseth one before another to be his Servant to be sent as his Embassador to Preach his Word and to administer his Sacraments and causeth him to be consecrated or hallowed by Prayers and impositions of hands for that purpose there is a great deale of difference betwixt them and much additionall Holiness in the one more then in the other in so much that our Saviour saith of these men he that receiveth you receiveth me Luc. 10.16 Zech. 2.8 and he that despiseth you despiseth me and the Lord saith of them he that toucheth you toucheth the Apple of mine eye and you see this difference in the Embassadors and other Officers of Kings Princes and Potentates whom we honour and reverence more then others because they are deputed and Authorized to be the Judges Sherifs or other Officers of the Kingdome where they are designed so to be and so likewise what difference or what Holiness is there in one place more then in another in the Church ground more then in the Barne floore surely not any at all originaliter in respect of themselves but when such a piece of ground is designed and dedicated for Gods Service and consecrated by Prayers for that purpose and God promiseth his presence to be more especially there for our comfort then in any other ordinary place then certainly there is a great deale of difference and a great deale of Holiness in that place and Consecrated ground more then in any other common ground whatsoever Therefore Jacob said of the place where God shewed his presence to him Gen. 28.17 this is Gods house and the gate of Heaven and the Lord said unto Moses Exod. 3.5 pull off thy shoes from thy feet for the place where thou standest is Holy ground and why was that ground more Holy then any other ground not in respect of any innate Holiness but because the Lord revealed himself there to Moses more then in any other place and I pray you look what the Spirit of God injoyneth us to do when we come into Gods House Eccles 5.2 for if we make no difference of these things but that every man that will may intrude himself to do the Service which God requireth to be done by another and he may do that Service any where in any one place as well as in another in a Common Barne as well as in a Holy Church then surely we need not observe any time when any one day is as good and as Holy as another the Munday as well as the Lords day and so confounding persons times and places we shall confound all Religion and
suddenly bring Atheisme and all Prophaneness among the people which I beseech All-mighty God of his mercy to keep from his Servants and to turn away this Blasphemy of the Beast against Gods Tabernacle And I may demand if the false Prophet the Preachers and the adherents of the long Parliament have not brought this contempt of Gods Tabernacle in too great measure among the simple people and which very sin I am confident cannot be fastened either upon Jewes Turks or Papists CAP. IV. The Blasphemy of the Beast against the Saints in Heaven the first despisers of them the Blasphemy against the Godly Saints on earth who are the Saints with whom the Beast warreth the successes of the Beast that we ought not to wonder at his Victories what the successes of the Beast should teach us and of the end and downfall of the Beast 3. IT is said that the Beast opened his mouth to Blaspheme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. The Blasphemie of the Beast against Gods servants 1 Perfectos them that dwell in Heaven and this may be understood for two sorts of Gods Servants 1. For the blessed Angels and the Saints that are departed and do now rest and reside with the Holy Angels in Heaven 2. For those holy men that do wayfare here as yet and are the lively members of the Militant Church of Christ 2. Inchoatos Maledicta in Sanctos dicuntur blasphemiae quia Deus in Sanctis maledicitur Cajetan in Thom 22. q. 88. Artic. 5. which warreth against the Beast and which is often to be understood by the name of heaven in this book And the Beast hath not spared to blaspheme both these kinds of Saints whose abuses are called blasphemies because God is blasphemed in them saith Cajetane for 1. Touching these blessed souls that are with Christ I speak not for the invocation and praying to the best of those Saints nor the adoration of their relicks and images for that might well be thought to be flat Poperie and a sin to be punished by the Judges or at least not well to be justified neither do I argue for the worshipping of them no not the blessed Virgin with any kind of Divine worship either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but onely for a reverent opinion and a charitable estimation of them free from contempt and shewed by good words and the addition of some reverent title and honourable Epithite added unto their names as we use to do to the Heroes and noble persons The Parallel Calvinus instruct contra libe tinos c. 9. or our honourable benefactors that are on earth which as I conceive is but the minutest honour that can be given them and yet this is a great deal more then this Beast can afford to bestow upon the most deserving of them for as Mr. Calvin relates of Quintinus the father of the Libertines in France and a near kinsman of this Beast here spoken of adeo petulanter in sanctos debacchabatur he did so insolently rail against all the Saints that he termed Saint Paul no otherwise then a broken vessel Saint John a foolish youth Saint Matthew an usurer Saint Peter a denier of his Master and I heard say that some one of the spawn of this Beast hearing a worthy Preacher citing Saint Augustine replied Saint Augustine Saint Devil and I am sure the adherents of the long Parliament as limbs of this Beast do for the most part hold it blasphemie to call the holy men departed Saints and therefore you shall never hear any of them to say in their Sermons or Writings And Mr. Love gives to Mr. Greenham the Epithite of holy Greenham Saint Peter or Saint Paul but the bare naked nameof Peter Paul John and so of the rest is good enough for the best of them though they can be pleased to give far more honourable titles to their own impure proselites and some of them to become so impudent as to compare their own sinfull mothers with the unspotted mother of God the blessed mother of Jesus Christ whom the Holy Ghost saith all generations shall call blessed as they all do that love Christ except it be this cursed generation of vipers that gnaw out the bowels of their own mother But this contempt of the heavenly Saints The first despi sers of the blessed Saints these new Scholars have learn'd of their old Masters the first despisers of the Saints and Martyrs Leo Isaurus and Constantinus Capronimus that said the blessed Virgin after she was delivered of Christ was like a purse that had been full of gold and that made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an universal Law that none of Gods servants should be called Saint saith Cedrenus Apud Surium to 6.28 and so Steven the Martyr of that time sheweth that the Constantinopolitan-Council of 338. Bishops assembled by Leo Isaurus had proscribed against holy things and had cast away in contempt this epithite Saint from all the righteous men of God and would give no other title to the Apostles and Martyrs of Jesus Christ but as their Disciples do now the bare name of Matthew Mark and the like and thought it an hainous crime to say Saint Peter whereby you see this new practice of the Beast and of his followers that have unsainted all the holy inhabitants of heaven and Sainted all the hypocrites on earth is but raked up out of the old dunghill of these Hagiomastices the Saint-scourgers that I named unto you Yet you hear what the Spirit of God saith that to speak evil of the Saints whom we ought to honour as those that sit with Christ on his Throne Rev. 21. as Christ himself doth testifie is no less then hainous blasphemie and therefore if we will not yield them that due respect and honour that we ow them as the friends of God and as the brethren of Christ and the sons of God and for the manifold good that they have done unto us yet I hope this will bridle all those that fear God from uttering any contumelious speeches against them 2. For the other sort of Gods servants that remain still in the world The Parallel 2. The blasphemie of the Beast against the inchoative Saints that are on earth and reside in the earthly heaven that is the Church militant the Beast termeth them not onely sinners which they confess themselves to be and confess it with grief of heart that they are so bad and can not be better but calleth them also Reprobates Malignants Members of the Beast Sons of the Whore of Babylon Limbs of the great Antichrist and faggots destined for hell-fire And for themselves that are indeed the Members of the Beast they pretend to be the right Saints and the onely true servants of God The strange Divinity of the Beast In the Historie of Independency part 3. p. 29. and therefore they may commit any Act that is a sin in us whom they deem Reprobates and yet
in the eares of the Lord from off the Earth And so all their Narratives of their extraordinary Victories and most fortunate successes in Ingland Ireland and Scotland do not prove them to be the Saints of God nor their doings acceptable in his sight but they do sufficiently prove that they have made Warre with the Saints and have overcome them and as the Prophet Daniel hath typically prophesied of the Beast The Parallel Dan. 7.25 2 Thes 2.3 have worn out the Saints of the most high and they may confirm the faith of those that believe them to be the Beast here spoken of and the great Antichrist that is prophefied of by the Apostle Yet to shew the weakness of flesh and blood and the blindness of frail man to understand and to judge of things the Holy Ghost saith v. 8. that the Victories and successes of the Beast do so far prevail with all that dwell upon the Earth that is all earthly and worldly minded men And as H. Grotius rightly saith morem ejus imitari that they are moved thereby to worship the Beast that is to admire him to adhere unto him and to assist him in all his projects and persecution of the Saints which is done as the spirit of God saith by all those whose names are not written in the Book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World that is by all carnall and worldly men that are not inlightned with the truth of Gods spirit But I would advise both them and all men else seriously to consider how fearfull is the condition of those Worshipers and assistants of the Beast when as God himself doth testifie they are not in the Catalogue of Gods Children but are bletted out of his Book as Reprobates to be tormented with the Beast in the Lake of fire burning with brimstone for evermore And therefore our good God gives a Caveat to all the Servants of Christ in the next verse saying if any man have an ear to hear that is a will and desire to hear let him hear that is so attentively and considerately that he might rightly understand what he heareth for that is not a matter of small moment and slightly to be passed over but they that have any regard of their eternall salvation or desire to avoid everlasting destruction ought carefully to examine who are meant by the Beast and then seriously to weigh in what sad and lamentable condition the Worshippers and adherents of this Beast do remain in Then for the comfort of the persecuted distressed and subjugated banished Captives and for a just reward and retaliation to the oppressing Conquerours Of the end and downfall of the Beast that is the body of the Antichrist the spirit of God addeth v. 10. He that leadeth into Captivity shall go into Captivity and he that killeth with the Sword must be killed with the Sword for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth and you know the Proverb must is for the King truth it self hath spoken it that it must be so and he hath spoken it often therefore it shall undoubtedly be performed and the Beast shall not rule for ever Let my Reader judge if this Prophesie of the downfall of the Beast be not now fulfilled blessed be our good God for it nor the persecuted Saints be oppressed for ever but the Saints shall be delivered out of the hands of the Beast and the Beast shall be excluded out of his Dominion and shall receive his pay when God the just avenger of all wrongs and specially of all blood unjustly spilt shall render their due deserts unto all the members assistants and adherents of this outragious monstrous Beast in the time that they look not for it onely let the Saints with patience constantly expect it and with faith assuredly believe it even as the Holy Ghost hath said Here is the patience and the faith of the Saints i. e. patience quietly to suffer while they are under the rule and the rod of the Beast and faith undoubtedly to believe the dethroning and the downfall of the Beast which will be but the beginning of his sorrowes when as his greater punishment and destruction is still behind and I shall more fully declare it unto you hereafter Liber Tertius CHAP. I. Who is to be understood by this beast of the earth not Mahomet nor the Idolatrous Priests of the heathen Temple when S. John was banished into Patmos That the Preachers of the antichrist and not the Bishop of Rome and his Clergy but the assembly of Presbiters Independants and Lay Preachers are the Prophets of the first beast when the seed of this beast of the earth was first sown and when it became first apparant in these parts and that this beast of the earth is far worse then the first beast that arose out of the sea THen after that the Evangelist had exprest the forsaid particulars of the seven headed and ten horned beast 4. The vision of the second beast which is as the soul of the Antichrist he proceedeth verse 11. to tell us of another vision how he saw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another beast coming out of the earth where the holy Ghost followeth the same method as he did with the Prophet Ezechiel Ezech. 8.6.13 15. to shew him greater abomination then he had formerly seen in as much as the most opposite place to heaven is the earth and is farthest from it and a far baser Element then the Sea so is this beast that rose out of the earth far more wicked more odious and more abominable in the fight of God and all good men then the other that arose out of Sea as the Sequel of what we read in this thirteenth Chapter will make it plain unto you But first we are to inquire who is to be understood by this beast Who is to be understood by this beast of the earth that can be worst then that beast that ascended from the bottomlesse pit and is the same with the great Antichrist And I find some Divines as Rupertus and others that think this beast of the earth and the other beast of the sea to be the same beast that first rose out of the sea Not the same with the beast that rose out of the sea and then was seen again to spring out of the earth But the description of this beast and his actions likewise do so far differ from the first beast that it cannot be the same especially considering the Evangelist saith plainly it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another beast therefore not the same with the former And yet as the soul and body that are not the same do notwithstanding constitute and make up one and the same man so doth this beast and the other former beast make up the same man of sin and the same great Antichrist this being as the form that as the matter this as the soul that as the body
they could find to put these offices and the government of the Churches into their hands and they thought it well in such a kingdom as this of Ingland if they found 26. men that with the help and advice of their brethren their Deans and Prebends were sufficient to govern the Churches so wisely and so orderly as they ought to do it and do you think it is as easie to finde 6000. men that are fit to do it that you may place a Bishop in every Parish I think you will faile and your selves at last will see your own folly and smart for your mistaking when every Parish Priest will be as imperious over you as Hildebrand was over Henry the fourth But 2. Touching the working of strange miracles we say it was a great miracle 2. To work strange miracles 1 Reg. 17.23 Acts 9.4 John 11.44 that Elias did to raise the dead child of the widow of Sarepta and a great miracle that Saint Peter did to raise Dorcas an old widow that was dead to life again and it was a greater miracle that Christ did to raise up Lazarus out of his grave when he had been dead four dayes And yet besides their many meaner miracles that these Presbyters say they do they pretend if you will believe them to do things that are far more miraculous and greater wonders then any of these or them either that Moses or Elias or any other of all the Prophets or Apostles ever did for we are sure that neither of all those either did or could raise a soule dead in trespasses and sins to the life of grace but this being as it were a new creation it must be left alone to God for ever whose proper work it is to create a new heart and to renew a right spirit within us yet this beast and the disciples of this false Prophet do boast and brag unto the people of the multitude of Saints that they have begotten to God when as indeed they have of late seduced them to be as false and as rebellious as themselves What wonderful thing the Presbyters do Psalm 51.10 The discourse of a Presbyterian with the Authour Esay 53. â—â— And so one of them asked me where were the Seales of our Apostleship the signes and evidences of our Bishops and Prelatical mens ministery how many soules had they converted unto God and where were those converts whereby they might approve themselves unto the people to be the true Ministers of God as they could do by the confession of their Proselytes and I answered that I feared their converts were but perverted and that I conceived it was not in mans power to convert soules when as the Prophet cryeth who hath believed our report and again all day long have I stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and a gainsaying people and if it had been in mans poower to work faith in the hearts of the hearers then questionlesse Rom 10 1. c. 9.3 We have not the power to convert souls this great Prophet would have done it in the children of Israel and Saint Paul would have converted the Jewes his own brethren according to the flesh whom he did so dearly love as himself doth testify to have believed in Christ but we know that although the false Prophets may easily pervert men to disloyalty and wickednesse because the devill is alwayes ready to help them and natural men are prone to evill yet we cannot convert men to the true faith and to goodnesse Acts 15.19 unlesse the Spirit of God cooperateth with us to open the hearts of our hearers as he opened the heart of Lydia when the Apostle preached unto her because as Saint Hierom saith inanis est sermo docentis nisi intus sit qui docet the Preacher may say with the Prophet in vacuum laboravi I have laboured in vain if God by his spirit doth not preach unto the heart And therefore their wonderful brags of converting soules are but lying wonders not to be regarded by any man that regards the truth Psal 15.12 and these hornes are not the hornes of the Lamb but ungodly horns and the horns of the ungodly which as the Prophet saith shall be broken by the Lord all to pieces That the two horns may signifie the two Testaments Torres in sua Philosophia morali pag. 849. Texeda pag. 6. of his miracles unmasked Or else these two horns as Cornelius à lapide saith to whom I subscribe may signify the two testaments which are robora ornamenta Christi the strength and ornament of Christ and the language of the lambe which bring men to believe in Christ rather then then all the miracles of Christ for as Torres out of Lactantius saith non idcirco à nobis creditur Christus quia mirabilia fecit sed quia vidimus facta esse omnia quae nobis annuciata sunt vaticinio prophetarum Christ is not therefore believed by us because he wrought miracles which Vespasian did and the idolatets of China do and the false Prophets by our Saviours testimony may do but because we have seen all things accomplished which were foretold us of him by the Prophets The paralell This is infallibly fulfilled in the Paesbyterians And the beast layeth claim to these hornes and so of all the Preachers and Prophets Papists or Protestants it is well known that none pretend more love and more right to these hornes then the Presbyterians and the Independant and Lay-Preachers do for they reject all other learning and all authorities of Counsells Fathers Poets Orators Histories and all other Books and will allow of nothing but the pure book of the holy Scripture they will have none other horns but these which they say are the hornes of our Lamb and no Christian will denie them to be so nor gainsay the strength and authority of these hornes And yet as A lapide rightly observeth as I told you before of it A good obserservation of Cornel à lapide in loc this beast is said to have not the two hornes of the Lamb but two hornes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like to the horns of the Lamb and every Sophister can tell you that nullum simile est idem that which only is like a thing is not the thing and therefore though they cry out with the false Prophets of the Jewes os Domini loquutum est the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it for they preach nothing but Gospel and the pure Scriptures of the two Testaments and it is we and not they if you believe them that run to the puddles of humane authorities yet in very deed it is no such matter for the holy Ghost that best understandeth both the language of the Lamb and of this beast tells us plainly in the very next words that although their horns be like the horns of the Lamb yet in truth Why this second beast is said to speak like the Dragon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Bellarmine well observeth out of Arâ—thas this beast is said to do his wonders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the sight of menj that is so appearing to men whose sight and judgement are thereby deceived for that they do nothing of what they pretend and seemed to do but the things that they do are no such things indeed in the sight of God 4. 4. Difference Whereas true miracles do exceed all naturall causes tam occultas quam manifestas as well the hidden secrets of nature as those causes that are knowen to us and are done onely by the hand and Power of God and therefore they are wonders and not onely in the fight of men but also in the sight of Angells and Devills the wonders of the Antichrist and his adherents the Presbyterians and Lay-Preachers have all of them their naturall causes though they be hidden from the sight and understanding of the people as the victories of the beast and his successes are obtained meerely by his subtle tricks his cunning carriage of the war and the desperate valour of his soldiers God giveth them leave so to prevaile over the pufillanimity and security of his children that offendeth him and they are not obtained by the immediate hand of Gods active Power The Presbyterians gaining so many Proselites to what it is ascribed and a miraclous effecting Providence from heaven as the beast pretendeth and so desperately blasphemeth God in making him the author of all his bloody cruelties and the shedding of all the innocent blood that was spilt which can no wayes stand either with the goodness or justice of God and the Presbyterians winning of so many simple men to follow after them and to become their disciples to believe their erronius heresies and damnable positions it is to be ascribed to their sedulity vehemency and good oratory wherewith Aeschines Demosthenes and Cicero perswaded their Auditors to follow them and not to the powerfull working of Gods Holy Spirit who though for their sins he permitteth the simple people to believe strong delusions and to be misled into most damnable conclusions by this beast yet he never worketh and leadeth them into the same And therefore what Vulteius Remensis saith of some Franciscan Monkes that played many jugling tricks in Orleance Anno 1534. the same may be rightly applyed to these Presbyterians Cum clamat larvas furiosa caterua leonum Infestare suam nocte dieque domum Res vera est falsi larvati denique fratres Quos vestis sanctos prodigiosa facit Sunt lemures larvae furiae vulpesque lupique Qui infestant vitiis seque suamque domum Which I may very well thus translate When Presbyters do cry that scisme and heresie Do spoile the Church of Christ The thing is true for so these Saints in shew Are furious Fiends the limbs of Antichrist That with their Lies and Heresies given in a golden Cup Have poysoned all the whole Flock of Christ And so themselves are the Mischief that have spoyled all things both in the Church and Common-wealth But though all the wonders and workings of this false Prophet be but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lying wonders and no truth in them yet hereby he deceiveth the people and especially when as the Holy Ghost sayth He maketh fire to come down from heaven on the earth Touching which fire What is here meant by the fire that the beast maketh to come down from heaven 1 Reg. 18.38 we must not understand it to be such a fire as Elias brought down to consume the two fifty men that the King sent to fetch him nor such a fire as by his prayers came down to consume the Sacrifice upon Mount Carmel because those fires were true fires and truly miraculously brought down by the Prophet when as the sire that this false Prophet pretendeth to bring down is no such thing neither must we take it for such a fire as Philostratus sayth Apollonius Tyanaeus fetched down from Heaven in the fight of many people because this was some elfe-fire that he procured to appear as the flash of a Meteor by the help and procurement of the Devil when as this false Prophet pretendeth not to bring down any such a fire neither yet can I yeild it should be taken as Mr. Mr. Medes Expofition rejected Mede and others of our late Writers do expound it for the lightnings and thunders of the Popes Buls and Excommunication against those that submit not themselves to him and to his Decrees because as I shewed to you before the Pope and his Cardinals cannot be understood by this false Prophet But I take it as a proverbial Hyperbole for the application of that which was sayd before That this Beast doth great wonders so that he maketh fire to come down from Heaven The parallel The fire that Christ came to send on earth the Beast pretendeth to bring from heaven because the Jews do commonly attribute so much to the miraculous fire of Elias that they use for all wonderful works proverbially to say He bringeth down fire from heaven sayth Graserus Or else it must be taken as I rather conceive in that sense as our Saviour takes it when he sayth I came to send fire upon the earth because this Prophet would fain seem to imitate Christ and to do all the things that he should do and can do as Christ did and therefore he pretendeth to bring the same fire that Christ brought down and that is the fire of zeal and a most ardent affection to Christ and to the truth of his Religion and this fire the Presbyterians and the Independant and Lay-preachers pretend to bring down from heaven to the earth above all other men whatsoever but in very deed this fire of their is but an ignis fatuus a deceitful fire and their seeming zeal as well as all the rest of their doings is but as the Apostle saith a lying-wonder for the true fire that these men do bring is of another kinde from another place and to another end and that is the fire of hatred and persecution which they bring from Hell Not the fire of persecution and not from Heaven and they bring it into the Church and upon the true Members of Christ and not on the earth but this their fire is not to be understood in this place Reason 1 1. Because the Holy Ghost sayth The Beast bringeth the fire upon the earth that is the earthly minded men whom only he perswadeth to worship the Beast and to adhere unto him as being deceived by his false wonders and this he doth by the fiery zeal of Gods worship which he pretends to bring unto them and the persecution of the Beast is against the Saints and not against these earthly men that by the sight of this fire are perswaded to serve and assist the beast and to afflict the Saints Reason 2 2. Because it is immediatly sayd that hereby he deceiveth them that dwell
the words which is least usuall as a thing that is onely understood by the learned in the Language or else according to the proper and most accustomed sound and pronunction of the words which is the common and most usuall course of writing if Ingland ought not according to the prouunciation be written rather with and then with an e and if so as it is and ought to be so then have you the number of the name of the beast in the name of the Parliament and the Holy Ghost tells you here is wisdom for him that hath understanding to count the number of the beast And besides this whereas it is conceived that this Kingdom was called England from Hengist that came hither out of Saxony with his brother Horsus to assist the Britaines against their Enemies as if it were Hengist-Land and by contraction England I say this is a meere fiction Sam. Daniel in his History p. 7. because Hengist had at first but the Isle of Thanat assigned for his Colony and it was an Heptarchy seven Kingdomes a long time after Hengist untill Egbert reduced the same into a Monarchy but I find it was vulgarly called Ingland and not England from a Queen called Angles from whence and for whose Honour in Latine it is called Anglia to this day And Anglia may as well be translated Ingland as England when the common writing is not according to the common sound of our pronunciation of it And I am not the first that did write it Ingland and not England but I have read it so divers times in good Authors and as you may see it in the three conversions of Ingland page 51. and in Epistle dedic and in other places of that book and in many other old Authors besides if you do well observe it and if any out landish Alien that knoweth not the custom of writing England with an e were to write the same you may be sure that the sound of the word Ingland would presently make him to write it with an I and not with an e. But as you have the name of the beast The Keepers of the Liberties of Ingland by the Authoritie of our Parliament which containe the just number of 666. So we must examine who they were that took upon them to be those Keepers of the Liberties of Ingland and we shall find them to be The House of Commons vvith the Lords or the House of Lords vvith the Commons and herein omitting them as I said before the numericall letters we find to be u. c. u. u. 1. l. d. just 666. A strange thing to me that such things should thus succeed in every thing unlesse you do ascribe them to the secret influence of the all disposing Providence of him qui disponit omnia suaviter which disposeth all things wisely and bringeth all things to passe by secret strange and wonderfull wayes And then the Holy Spirit addeth that this number of the beast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the number of a man a man no doubt either eminently bated and persecuted by the beast or else exceedingly advanced to some eminent place and Authority under the beast or both and it hath been shewed by Arise Evans that Will. Laud a man whom all men know how the Parliament affected him contained the just number of 666. and I do assure you that I have found this just number of 666. in the Latine name of another eminent man that belonged to the Parliament and loved not the Latine Beast who is no other then dominus Crumwelus wherein you may finde d. 1. u. c. u. l. u. that make 666. Object If you object that he wrote his name Cromwel and not Crumwel and so five is wanting to make 666. Sol. I Answer to this as I did for Ingland that the Spirit of God might mean that the number of the name of the beast should be taken as it is commonly pronounced and so known of all and not as it is written and so known only of those that are Scholers and thus should make up 666. and so Dominus Crumwelus doth And besides all this I will not here omit to proceed to shew unto you how it is observed that this very number of 666. is found out of their newdeviced Covenant as you may see it in querela Cantabrigensi page 24. where those Learned and judicious Divines say it will not be more then what upon triall Mr. Geast a learned Divine and a prisoner for his conscience sake will be found true if we here mention a Mysterie which many as we conjecture will not a little wonder at that this Covenant of these Rebells for which all this perfecution hath been raised confisteth of six Articles and those Articles consisting of 666. wordes and this is not the first time that persecution hath risen in Ingland upon fix Articles Mr. Foxe in his acts and Mon. vol. 2. p. 443. Edit Lod. 1631. as witnesseth those in the Reign of Henry the eighth the which Master Foxe will shew you more at large but as for the number of the beast that they should so directly answer to the number of words in those six Articles of their Covenant if we consider Gods Blessed Providence in every partitular thing it hath made many of us and so many others no doubt seriously and often to reflect upon it and I wonder that it is not more generally and more seriously thought upon And therefore though I professe with Master Calvin that I am no Pythagorian for matters of number nor a Jewish Talmudist to set my Faith and to ground my Religion upon them yet I say that seeing it hath pleased the Spirit of God to take up the same termes of numeration for dayes moneths yeares and times in the case of the Christian Church which he made use of in the Jewish Church and to set down his Mysteries which he would have his children to understand in numbers and seeing 1. the cause that is the Covenant for which the Parliament prosecuted his warre so eagerly 2. the time for which they demanded the Militia 3. the Name which they assumed to themselves 4. the Name of a speciall Man both persecuted by them and advanced under them and 5. all the other particular wordes and names which the Fathers afore-cited and other Learned Divines have observed to contain the number of 666. do so fully and so punctually cohere and agree with the impudency cruelty impiety and all other the wicked practises of that Parliament is it not apparant that this Mysterie of the Name of the Beast which is set down for our instruction that we might take notice of the Beast when he came into the World if ever it was any where discovered or accomplished in any Persons is now plainly and evidently seen to be fulfilled in that Long Parliament which is therefore concluded and beleeved by many good Christians and of no small Learning to be the Beast here spoken of and
concernment to the whole Church it should be very well plainly and sufficiently proved and manifested and not darkly and improbably demonstrated or else it ought hardly to be received and not at all to be beleeved 4. Whereas pag. 2. of this interpretation he saith that because oppositorum eadem estratio and that the mysterie of 144. to which this number of 666 is opposed is contained in the roote thereof which is 12 therefore the mysterie of this 666. must be contained in the roote thereof which is 25. I say that the misterie of 144. is indeed interpreted to consist in the roote thereof which is 12. which being 12 times multiplied doe make up just 144. and yet the Holy Ghost maketh no such interpretation of it but that those spirits which beleeve nothing but the expresse text of scripture may as easily reject it as receive it but being granted that this is rightly interpreted because the twelve Apostles St. Paul left out that laboured in the building more then any if not then most of them all were the foundations of the wall of the new and spirituall Jerusalem yet it followeth not that because this mysterie must be explained by the extraction of the roote of 144. therefore the other mystery that denoteth the beast must consist in the roote of 666 no more then the mysteries of many other numbers expressed in scripture can be said to consist in their extracted rootes and though the beast be opposite to Christ and the Synagogue of Satan opposite to the Church of Christ or Babylon to Jerusalem yet this doth not in any understanding prove that 666 is more opposite to 144. as it is a set number then it is to 444 or to any other definite number 333 being as I conceive a more oppofite number in respect of division to 666. Onely this 666 is said to be the number of the beast in direct and plain termes and the other number of 144 is interpreted by some authors to be understood of the Church militant here on earth and by others of as good repute to be the typicall expression of the Kingdome of Heaven Besides the twelve Apostles were but the foundations of this wall as having their names in them v. 14. the wall being made up of other stones that is of all the beleeving christians and so it comprehendeth the whole Church and then the opposition must be not betwixt the Hierarchie of the Pope and his Cardinals and the Hierarchie of the Christian Church but betwixt the whole Church of Christ whose wall and not whose foundation v. 17. was 144 cubits and the whole Synagogue of Satan that is made up of theeves infidels and all other wicked reprobates therefore the Pope and his Cardinals cannot be the the beast that by this exposition of opposites must fignifie all the whole companie of reprobates which is far contrarie to the meaning of the Holy Ghost that plainly differenceth the beast and the worshipers and followers of the beast as the Lambe and the followers of the Lambe are not the same But indeed contrarie to the opinion of Mr. Forbes and some other that make this vision of the new Ierusalem to be typus presentis ecclesiae a type of the militant Church I shall with many of the most ancient interpreters denie this discription of the new Ierusalem to be the type of the Christian militant Church and say that ad captum nostrum that can reach no higher then demonstration this admirable explication of this citty is thus set down to shew unto us those ineffable excellencies and most glorious estate which the servants of Christ shall enjoy in the kingdome of Heaven for if you observe the coherence of this 21 c. with the former you shall finde there c. 20. that the beast and the false prophet and the devill are cast into the lake of fire to be tormented for ever and ever v. 10. and the dead both smale and great were all judged according to their works v. 12 and death and bell and all that were not written in the booke of life were cast into the lake of fire which can be no other then the last judgement against all the reprobates this is the end of them And then after St. Iohn had shewed the end of them and their sad condition for ever he proceeds in the 21 c. to shew unto us according to the best of our apprehension the most happie state and condition of the children of God in heaven which he expresseth under this type that he saw a new heaven and a new earth even as St Peter and before him the prophet Esay long agone had prophysied and foretold the servants of God how happie they should be and because that which is no where is not at all as St. Aug. Tolle spatia locorum corporibus nusquam erunt et quia nusquam erunt non erunt saith therefore he describeth the place where they shall remain in bliss under this type of the new Ierusalem whose excellent frame and figure he doth here so amply describe unto us wherein you may observe that the things attributed to the Cittizens of this new Ierusalem are incompatible with the members of the church militant for it is said that God shallwipe away all teares from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more paine v. 4. which cannot be referred and applied to the members of the purest church on earth and so many other things are set down c. 22. to be in this heavenly Cittie which cannot without apparant violence unto the text properly be thought to be in the militunt church but are most elegant expressions by way of allusion of those incomprehensible excellencies that the saints shall finde in the kingdome of heaven 5. Whereas he saith pag. 3. that it is not said as it is observed by many let him that hath understanding count the name of the beast but count the number of the beast I answer that in c. 13. v. 17. it is said that no man might buy or sell but he that had the marke or the name of the beast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the number of his name therefore the number of the beast and the number of his name are all one and so both the one and the other both signifying the same thing are said to contain therein the just number of 666 when as the number of the beast is put down for the number of the name of the beast 6. Whereas he saith c. 2. pag. 5. that the mysterie of 144. consisteth in the square roote of it which is 12. I answer as before that I doe not gain-say it but for the oppositio of 666 to this 144 that the mysterie of the 666. must consist in the square roote of it which is 25. as the mysterie of a 144 confisteth in the square roote of it which is 12 I utterly denie untill he can bring me
Downam and many others that follow them doe imagine because not any one of all the Popes can be justly proved to be the Antichrist but many arguments may be produced which I have touched in this treatise to prove that neither of these can be this beast here spoken of and much less can I assent to the fancies of these men that dream of the reduction of the long lost tribes to their ancient possessions and least of all of the opinion of Mr. Mede and some others far less learned and indeed far absurder then he that speake of a 1000 years reigning of the Saints with Christ here in an earthly Paradise after the destruction of the Antichrist and the conversion of the Jews which unprobable paradoxes are most gravely and truely demonstrated so to be by the reverend Author of the Revelation unrevealed but I say as I shewed to you before that this beast the Antichrist must be taken for a collected multitude and an ungodly pack or knot of the worst and most wicked men that cold live which doe covenant and unite themselves like the Jewish Sanhedrim to slay the two witnesses of Iesus Christ and so to accomplish and to fulfill all the rest of the predictions that are set down in Scriptures concerning the Antichrist And for the continuance of that unchristians Antichristian companie I conceive it must be considered in a two fold notion 1. Of their prevalencie and domineering successful time The continuance of the beast to be considered 2 speciall wayes 1. The prevalent time of the beast 2. Of their industry and endeavours stil to rule and domineer 1. For the prevalent time of the beast I am cleer of the Papists and Fathers mind that say the Antichrist shall domineer in his full strength and power to the terror of the true saints but three years and a halfe or some short space expressed by that time of three years and a halfe or three years and halfe three years that make four years and a halfe or much about that length of time though not precisely such a time to a day for as when the scripture saith that Adam when he was an hundred and thirty years old Gen. 53. 5. Casman Cosâ—â—piae cap. 5. pag. 269. begat Seth and died when he was nine hundred and thirtie year old shall we think it necessary to beleeve that he begat Seth on that verie day wherein he did precisely fulfill the hundred and thirtie years or that he died on the last day of the nine hundred and thirtie years complete So it is not requisite that by these three years and a halfe we should understand that exact quantity of time without more or less but a short space much about those years and no such length of time as Balaeus Brightman Downam The prevalent time of the beast much about three years and a halfe and the rest of their followers doe attribute unto the Antichrist because the holy Ghost saith the ten hornes of the beast that is his chief generals and captaines shall receive power with the beast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one bour c. 17.12 that is as the same spirit expoundeth it of the predecessor of this beast in the same 17. c. v. 10. a short space saying that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he must continue a short space and that space of the beast his continuance is more cleerly and precisely explained c. 13.5 to be 42 months which must be taken as Bellarmine and the Fathers before him tooke them for three years and a halfe and as many other Protestant writers doe now gramatically expound them for that time or some small quantity of time much about that space more or less as I said before for otherwise if you take everie day of thee 42 months for a year to make them to synchronize with the 1200 and 60 dayes that the witnesses should prophesie in sack cloth as Mr. Mede doth and as Iunius doth and before them the Magdeburgenses did and as the scriptures doe set a day for a year in many places as in the words of Ezechiel I have set thee a day for a year and the words of Christ Mr. Mede in Clavi apoc Jun. in loc Magdcbur cent 1. l. 2 c. 4. Ezech. 14. Luke 13.33 I must walk to day and to morrow and the day following that is three yeers as it is generally expounded by most interpreters and the 40 dayes wherein the explorators and searchers of the Land of Canaan were searching the same signified that for their false report they should bear their punishment 40 years and Ionas his 40 dayes respite for Ninive before it should be destroied was extended as the Lord meant thereby to 40 years and the 70 weeks of Daâ—â—el are by all interpreters taken for so many years as there be dayes in those weeks if I say you take it so here then these 42 months cannot agree with one hour nor with a short space wherein this beasi and his hornes shall prevail when as thus taking a day for a year the 42 months doe amount to 1260. years which is no short space nor can any wayes signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one hour which is the time of the beast Neither can I altogether assent to Bullinger and Chytrans that say Bulling and Chytrans in a poc c. 13. this certain number of months is absolutely put for an uncertain time though we find a certain number often time put down for an uncertain number yet this is never used as Divines observe but when some full and perfect number is put down as 10 100 1000 and the like as where Iacob said unto Laban thou hast changed my wages ten times that is severall times Genes 37.7 Eccles 6.3 Dan. 5.1 and when Solomon saith if a man beget a bundred children that is verie many children and where Daniel saith Belshazzar made a feast to a thousand of his Lords that is a great many Lords and so many Interpreters do take the binding of Satan for a 1000 years to signifie a long time euen from the determination and ending of the ten primitive persecutions to the comming of this beast or as some thinke from Christ his time to the time of the Antichrist and so they take the 1000 years raigning of the Saints with Christ to signifie all that indefinite time of Satans binding and so likewise our Saviour saying to St. Peter that he must forgive his brother not till seven times Math. 18.22 but seventy times seven times signifieth that he must forgive him as often as he doth offend him but though Aug. de civitate Dei l. 20. in these and the like places a certain number is put for an uncertain Yet is it never so used and taken where several numbers of few and many are assigned and coupled together as time times and halfe a time and here 42 months and three dayes and a halfe as both Bellar. and St. Angust doe observe
because the varietie of numbers had bin to no purpose if an uncertain number had been to be understood thereby when he might as well have said 40. monthes as 42 months neither shal you finde that ever the greater number signified a determinate lesser number as a year tosignifie a month or a week or a month to signifie a week or a day Therefore these 42. months wherein this beast shall raign and rage over Gods servants must be litterally and precisely understood to signifie three years and a halfe or as some do expound a time and times and the dividing of time for three years and halfe three years or there abouts or as I said even now for some short time and smal space though not so exactly and precisely determined as containing the just and full measure of three years and a half without somewhat either more or less And thus it is observed The prevalent time of the long Parliament just three yeers and a halfe that the long Parliament which is answerable to the first beast continued prevalent in their good successes just so long or much about that time for Ingland was proclaimed a free state the ninth of May 1648. and the Dutch did beat them at Sea which was the beginning of their declination upon the ninth of November in 1651. which from their first peeping to be masters to this first blow that they received is the just time of three years and a half and in Aprill the 22 Anno. 1653. which was but a little more then four years and a halfe the Lord generall Oliver alias Crumwell disolved that Parliament with a word of his mouth even as the Apostle foreshewed how easily and after what manner the Lord of heaven would consume or rather dissolve that man of sin and this beast here spoken of that signifieth a knot of rebels which the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Apostle useth 2. Thessal 2.8 most properly signifieth with the breath of his mouth saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom the Lord wil unbinde and separate or scatter as the Clouds are scattered by the wind which both the words And so this man by the will of God did put an end to that long Parliament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betoken with the breath of his month The which dissolution of the long Parliament and the suppression of their more then most bloody Ingagement that was formerly done by the same hand the Lord General Crumwel did and was the only good deed that ever he did to the oppressed Cavaleers and to all disaffected to that long Parliament Ob. But is it like that the head will destroy his body how shall he then subfiff when his body is lost Sol I answer that it is not alwayes alike with the politique head as it is with the naturall nor with the Head of the Church of God as with the head of the beast and the Synagogue of Satan but as Christ which is our Head saveth his body that is the Church so the head of the beast and of the Antichrist A special observation Revel 17.27 will everie way destroy his body and dissolve the knot and scatter the pack of those wicked reprobates for I would have it well observed how the Holy Ghost saith that God hath put it in the hearts of the ten hornes of the beast and I told you these ten hornes may be taken for ten or many of the Comanders to fulfil his wal to agree to give their kingdom unto the beast until the words of God shal be fulfilled no longer but when they have fulfilled his will they shall be no more hornes of the beast nor give their kingdom unto him but hornes against the beast to take away their kingdome from the beast to dissolve his members and to sever them from their Head so the body of the beast shall continue together intire and with his Head and horns on but 42 months or thereabouts and after that time it shall be disjointed and dissolved by his head and seperated from his head which will then become the head of another body and to remain to fulfill more of the will of God it may be to doe further mischeif and to give the lsst deaths wound unto the witnesses or rather to restore the witnesses against his will and to setle the right King in these kingdomes and the Bishops in the Church of Christ 2. We must consider that although the Lord by the breath of his mouth 2. The declining and de jected time of the beast after his dislolution 2. Theffal 2.8 dissolveth and scattereth this proud beast here spoken of as the Lord Generall disjointed and dissolved the long Parliament with a word of his lips so that now the beast and his adherents are like an armie routed yet he is not quite destroyed for as the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord will destroy him with the brightnesse of his coming and this can be understood of no other time then of his coming to the last judgement as Faber Stapulensis rightly collected for howsoever Grotius thinks that both these expressions tend to signifie the same thing after the manner of the Hebrews who in setting down any thing certainly and vehemently do often use to expresse the same by a double form of speech yet with that learned mans favour I rather conceive that this Apostle by these two fold expressions meaneth two speciall things that should come to passe The two fold expressions doe shew two things at two severall times 1. The dissolution and dispertion of the beast and his members by the breath of the Lord. 2. The destruction and finall dissipation and ruine of him 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the dissipation dissolution and scattering of the beast and of all his adherents at the last day by the brightnesse of his coming And for the 1. I am of Cornelius a lapides mind that the breath and spirit of Christ his mouth doth not here signifie the preaching of the Gospel as those interpreters that make the Pope and papacie to be this beast that should be overthrown by the faithfull preaching of Gods truth doe imagine because the Antichrist and his followets regard not the truth of any preaching but being Sermon proof he slayeth the witnesses silenceth the preachers and destroyeth all that preach anything against him and his proceedings as you know the Parliament Protector did but the disjointing of the beast with the breath of his mouth signifieth as Grotius well observeth the facilitie of the work Tho facilitie of the work as we commonly say of a weak adversarie that we will blow him away so easily Christ can scatter and dissolve this beast sooner and easier then Alexander could untie the Gordian knot when with his sword he cut it all to peices and so did Christ most easily scatter that companie
because the spirit of God here in this Book setteth down the state and condition of his Church The main end and scope of the whole Book of the Revelation The fourfold enemies of the Church 1. The beast conceived to be 2. The Ecclesiasticall Whore or false Church which is the Church of Rome 3. The secular Whore or worldly Professors 4. The false Prophet or lying Preachers what piety they pretend and what great mischief they do and foresheweth her what afflictions and persecutions she should undergo through the malice of the Devill and by the meanes of those wicked Tyrants his Instruments that brought the first 10 great persecutions upon the Church and especially by those quaternion of adversaries that towards the end of the world should arise and seek to make an end of the true Church as 1. The beast the man of the sin the great Antichrist that would be an Antichrist that is an adversary unto Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most eminently and therefore is termed the beast that ascendeth out of the buttomless pit 2. The Ecclesiasticall Whore that breaks her faith with Christ and makes the Kings of the Earth and the Inhabitants of the Earth drunk with the wine of her fornication that is the fair glosses and the sweet conceits of her Idolatries and superstitions and makes her self drunk with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus and that is because they will not imbrace and follow her in her fornications 3. The secular Whore that followes after the World and will not take upon her the yoke of Christ but hateth all them that seek to withdraw her from the sweet pleasures of the flesh and the deceitfull vanities of the world 4. The false Prophet that by a pretended zeal to reclaim the Whores and to reduce the one from the world and the other from her errors unto Christ deceiveth all them that dwell on the earth and instigateth spurreth and setteth on the beast to proceed and to go on in all his villanies and wickedness against the Servants of Christ all which that should happen unto the Church from the time of the Angels revealing them before the end of the world the spirit of God would foreshew unto St. John that St. John might foreshew them unto the Church And this I take to be the main end and the chiefest scope of the whole Book of this Prophesie and therefore after he had told us of the beast that should so extremely persecute his Church in the 13th Chapter and would now further decipher him here in the 17th Chapter he addeth and there are 7 Kings that is which have and shall in like manner vex and persecute my Servants and this he saith Why the persecutions and afflictions of the Church are foreshewed and foresheweth to this end videlicet to teach the true believers in Christ by the examples of those former Martyrs that had already suffered under those five persecutors that were fallen and dead to be now in the time of this 6th and after in the 7ths time and under the Tyranny of the beast which is the 8th most patient in all their sufferings and to comfort themselves in all their miseries and afflictions when they do consider and weigh their own present state and condition with the precedent condition of those holy Martyrs that have suffered as much or more then they and are now for their constancy and patience in their persecutions crowned by Christ with eternall glory and also to put his servants in mind from what divine providence and to what end these persecutions are sent unto them when they do consider they come not by chance being thus foretold so long before they come but by the speciall appointment of Almighty God that knoweth what is best and disposeth all things for the best and for the speciall good of them that love him and then lastly to assure them of a glorious success and an undoubted Victory to become Conquerours even when they are conquered and do suffer their persecutions unto death because the same spirit that foretells us of their coming tells us also how our Brethren that went before us overcame all their sufferings and how we shall overcome them in like manner even when our enamies seem to overcome us And therefore immediately after the description of our enemies Chap. 13. and the setting down of our sufferings v. 7. the spirit of God addeth v. 9. v. 9 Here is the patience and the faith of the Saints that is their patience in suffering and their faith concerning their sufferings to believe that they come from God for their good and shall produce all good success unto them But these forenamed Emperors that are alledged to be here meant The foresaid Emperours not all so great persecutors of the Church were not all such great persecutors of the Christians but some of them were very Gentle and meek as Titus the Son of Vespasian who was therefore called deliciae generis humani the delight of mankind though indeed he was not altogether so delightfull nor so gentle to the Christians and others ruled but a very short space as Galba reigned but seven moneths and nine dayes Otho but four moneths Vitellius but eight moneths and we read of no great evills that these three men did unto the Christians though they were no good men and after these Vespasian reigned but nine years and eleven moneths and Titus but two years and twon moneths So that all these five from Nero to Domitian reigned not above fourtee years and therefore I conceive that these five could not be meant to be set in the Catalogue of the chief persecutors of Gods Church nor be ranked in the same Class with the beast and his adherents when as neither Eusebius nor any other Ecclesiasticall Historian reckoneth the first three amongst the persecutors And whereas Junins That the 8th is not said to be a King which ought to be specially observed in his Annotations annexed to our Bibles makes Trajan to be the 8th and others make Nerva and others Domitian I say that neither of them is here meant to be the eight and of the seven for I would have it observed that the eight is not said to be a King but there are seven Kings saith the Holy Ghost and but seven Kings are said to be and the Antichrist which is the beast and the eight is no where said to be a King or to have a Crowne upon his Head but upon his Hornes So that if either of these or any one of the other Roman Emperours or any other King whatsoever had been here meant to be the eight the Holy Ghost in all likelihood would have said and there are eight Kings Divers attributes of the the 8th not ascribed to any of the other seven whereas he saith and there are seven Kings Besides you may observe many other speciall marks and additionall differences that are
said unto Abraham 6. The Scripture phrases and the manner of speech 6. The Scripture phrases that the Hebrews used is not an easie matter to be understood as where Naaman said to Elisha when the Prophet refused to receive his gifts shall there not then I pray thee be given to thy servant two mules burthen of earth whereupon 2 Reg. 5.17 many men and I heard some Preachers expounding it so in the Pulpit did think that Naaman meant hereby two Mules load of silver Habac. 2.6 which he calleth earth as the Prophet calleth gold red or thick clay to shew the baseness of the best kind of worldly wealth as if he should say seeing thou wilt receive nothing at my hands then I beseech thee let me bestow it upon thy servant which Exposition is far enough from the true sense of Naamans words Naamans words mistaken by many and much further from his meaning for he meant no such thing but his thoughts were far better and his meaning more religious none otherwise then shall there not be given to thy servant that is to me who for the favour that thou hast done me do professe my self to be thy servant two Mules burthen of this earth of Jurie that I may carry the same into Syria and therewith erect an Altar there unto the God of Israel for so the words immediatly following do make this exposition most plain because saith he thy servant that is not Gebazai but himself whom in a complement used commonly among the Jews as many now likewise amongst us use to do he calleth his servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto any other god but unto the Lord thefore I pray thee let me carry two Mules load of this your earth to build him an Altar otherwise if he had meant let me give two mules load of silver to Gebazai what sence or coherence had been in his reason that he alleadgeth for his desire because thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt-offering nor sacrifice to any God but to the Lord the Prophet might have answered 2 Reg. 5.18 no more he did heretofore which Naaman did in the house of Rimmon So when Benhadad King of Syria sent Hazael unto Elisha to inquire whether he should recover from his disease or not and Elisha said unto him go say unto him that is to Benhadad thou shalt certainly recover howbeit The Lord hath shewed unto me that he shall surely die and if this was the meaning of the Prophet 2 Reg. 8.10 as the words seem to intimate what can you make of it but that Elisha teacheth Hazael how to tell a fair lie and to say to his Master Benhadad he shall recover when the Prophet tells him he knew that he should surely die therefore Tremellius translates it abi dic non omnino revalesces Particula negant cum antecedente verbo in Prosodia conjâ—â—ngitur Euphoniae causa Tremel grammat l. 4. c. 8. Origen in Rom. c. 1. nam ostendit mihi Jehova eum omnino moriturum go tell him thou shalt not altogether recover for the Lord hath shewed unto me that he shall altogether die and he addeth that the negative particle is joyned with the antecedent verb in the Prosodie euphoniae gratia onely for the better sound sake to make the speech seem the sweeter the which manner of speech saith he is often used in the Hebrew language as we have shewed in our Grammar l. 4. c. 8. And so in the New Testament we find the like difficulty in the phrases thereof as Origen hath observed upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and others upon these words in the first Chapter of Saint Johns Gospel verse 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Translators turned right according to the words and grace for grace the sence of which words hath puzled many of the best interpreters but from the use and nature of the phrase they are now found to fignifie nothing else but that of his fulnesse we have all received and thanks be to him for that grace and great favour towards us otherwise the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and would be such a tautalogie as cold never he brought to good sence according to the Geneva Notes upon that place and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 often signifieth thanks as well as grace 7. 7. The visions of the holymen of God The visions of Ezekiel Daniel and especially of S. John in the Revelation and of the rest of the Prophets and Apostles I hope will be acknowledged as divers of the most learned Fathers have ingenuously confessed to be of a greater depth and harder to be understood then can be easily fathomed by every unskilfull Seaman or unartificial and unlearned tradesman 8. 8. The predictions of the Prophets The Prophesies and predictions of the Prophets are no lesse obscure then their visions as Aquinas saith they are not understood sometimes of the Prophets themselves nor infallibly of any other though never so learned untill the time come that we see they are fulfilled as the prophesie of the Antichrist 2 Thes 2.3 the man of sin and the child of perdition which is the beast that ascended from the bottomlesse pit some understood it of Nero others thought he was Domitian and many conceived him to be Dioclesian that was one of the bloodiest of the persecutors and after that Mahomet and his successors Prophesies never certainly and infallibly known untill they be sulfilled the great Turk must be the beast and that great Antichrist and now of late our new Presbyterians will needs have him to be none other then the Pope and at last he is found by some others to be none of these but nearer home and of a higher pitch and greater wickednesse then any of them so hard it is to unvaile the face of many a prophesie and therefore it is most truly said of Irenaeus satius est expectare impletionem prophetiae quam temere divinare it is a safer course and a surer way to expect the fulfilling of a prophesie then rashly to expound it to be fulfilled and if it be so for the best Divines 9. The divine Majesty that shineth in the Scriptures Dan 4.19 Acts 26.29 what think you then of these lame and Lay-Preachers when they shall undertake to expound dark Prophesies 9. The divine Majesty that shineth in the expressions of the holy Scriptures sheweth that it is not for every mechanick to trade therein for you may observe in it such civil complements as that of Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar and that of Saint Paul to Agrippa and the like and also such eloquence such tropes and figures that neither Demosthenes among the Greeks Dan. 4.19 Acts 26.29 nor Cicero among the Latines nor all the Schooles of Athens can equalize the excellency and the exact language of the holy Scriptures as Paesor truly sheweth when as no Orator could speak purer Greek then the pure
Spirit of God spake by the tongues of his learned pen-men Saint Luke Saint Paul and the rest of them and I am sure that neither Aristotle nor Plato nor any other Moralist or naturalist can shew such pure Ethicks and true Physicks or any other kind of Philosophy as is to be found in the sacred writ 10. 10. The many seeming contradictions of the Scriptures The many seeming contrarieties and contradictions that are obviously found in these Scriptures do sufficiently prove how difficult it is to reconcile the difference and to give the right sense and the true meaning of every place as 1. Where in 2 Reg. 17.24 2 Reg. 17.24 Verse 34. it is said that the men which came from Cutha and from Ava and from Hamath and from Sepharuaim and were placed in the cities of Samaria feared not the Lord and so it is reiterated in v. 34. that they feared not the Lord And yet in the 32. verse and in the 33. verse and in the 41. verse it is thrice repeated that they feared the Lord. And how can these things be that the same spirit with the same breath should say and unsay the same thing they feared the Lord and they feared not the Lord Non benè conveniunt nec in una sede moruntur It is answered that if you mark it well and understand it right here is no contradiction at all for the fear of the Lord is here put for the whole service of God and so they feared not the Lord as it is said in the 17. and 34. verse that is more debito they served him not as the Lord required his people to serve him but yet feared the Lord and served him as it is said in the 32 33 and 41. verse that is more gentilium as the Gentiles Cultus Dei ex humano cerebro excogitatus and the other nations did and this fear of the Lord and service of God being but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a will-worship is said to be not the fear of the Lord nor the service of God because the Lord neither commandeth it nor accepteth it when as he tells us plainly that he will be served as himselfe prescribeth and not as man deviseth 2. Where our Saviour saith Matth. 6.1 3. Take heed that you do not your almes before men but when thou dost thine almes Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth and when thou prayest go into thy closet and shut thy dore and he that seeth thee in secret will reward thee openly and yet in another place he saith Let your light so shine before men that they maysee your good works Verse 6. Matth. 5.16 and glorify your Father which is in heaven And how shall men see them if I shut my dore and do them so close in my chamber and do mine almes so secretly that none may see them It is briefly answered that Christ doth not forbid you to bestow your almes to pray and to do the other duties of religion in the fight of men but he adviseth you not to do them as the Scribes and Pharisees did them onely to this end that they might be seen of men let men see them but do them not that they might be seen 3. Where Saint Paul saith Rom. 3.28 c. 5. v. 1. James 2.21 we conclude a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law and yet Saint James saith that Abraham was justified by Works and Rahab was justified by Works and then concludes it positively and saith you see how that by works a man is justified and not by faith onely And therefore Luther that was all for faith and not finding the way to reconcile these two Apostles rejecteth the whole Epistle of Saint James as not Canonical and calleth it Stramineam Epistolam an Epistle not worth a straw whereas he might as easily have reconciled the two Apostles How the words of Saint Paul and S. James are reconciled if he had considered that Saint Paul speaks of that perfect and most absolute justification that freeth us from all sin and is fully able to acquit us coram Tribunali Dei before the throne of Gods judgement and so Abraham and all the sons of Abraham can be justified no otherwise then by a lively faith in Jesus Christ and Saint James speaks of the manifestation of the faith whereby we approve our selves to be justified coram hominibus both to the satisfaction of our selves and others and this is by gâ—od works which are the fruits of our faith and so no contradiction at all betwixt Saint Paul and Saint James Many more seeming contradictions and many more reasons of the difficulties of the Scriptures I might produce unto you but out of this that I have set down you may very easily see that the best divine the quickest wit the sharpest sight and the greatest Schollar when he considereth the depth of this Ocean and the mysteries of these Scriptures and his own shallow reach to comprehend them 2 Cor. 2.16 may cry out with the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is sufficient for these things And what then shall a Taylor or a Shoemaker or a Weaver or any the like unskillful tradesman or unealled Lay man be sufficient for these things wherein such a masse of treasure and so much of Gods wisdom is contained I beseech you to consider what Saint August saith and your selves know to be true that a reasonable good Schollar will not read Horace or Terence without a Comments and wilt thou presume to expound the deep mysteries and the high secrets of Gods word without the help of learned Authors that have bestowed much paines and made many prayers to God for the help and assistance of his Spirit to understand them Quicquid est crede mihi in Scripturis istis altum divinum est whatsoever is in these Scrriptures believe me saith the same Father it is high and dâ—vine and you know the Prophet David saith thy commandement is exceeding broad and therefore he doth often pray for understanding Psalm 119. that he might understand his Commandements and yet the Commandements which were things that appertained unto all men for to know are the easiest to be understood as being delivered in the plainest manner of all the Scriptures that they might be understood of all because they were to be observed by all And you know likewise that it was prophesied of Christ Matth. 13.35 that he should open his mouth in parables and declare hard sentences of old so hard to be understood that his own Apostles and disciples who were alwayes conversant with him yet of themselves understood them not as you may perceive by that reprehension of our Saviour are ye yet without understanding Matth. 15.16 whose apprehensions and understanding neverthelesse was as you may believe far better then the best of our Lay-Preachers And therefore seeing the Apostles and disciples of Christ and