sea and hee that poured his Vial upon the rivers and fountains did but pour it out upon earthly rivers and fountains and therefore he that pours his out upon the Sun doth but pour it out upon an earthly Sun not an heavenly Sun I mean not any spirituall Sun of heavenly brightnesse or glory Minde therefore that it cannot be allowed to interpret this Sun to be the Lord Iesus Christ as some good Interpreters have expounded it he is indeed the Sun of true visible reformed Churches but not of Antichristian Now will it be in like sort allowed to interpret it of the Scriptures as some of our best Interpreters have expounded it for these are but one for the Scriptures reveal Christ and the woman cloathed with the Sun that is Christ she is cloathed with him as he is revealed in the Scripture 12 Revel 1. But I do not see how it should well be allowed that that should be the Sun here meant For first the Angels that pour out these Vials are all godly men at least generally so reputed and accounted and acknowledged by the Churches they are cloathed with pure white linnen which is the righteousnesse of the Saints inherent and imputed They are also girded with gelden girdles sincere profâ—ssors of the truth and how these can be imagined to pour out wrath upon the Lord Iesus or the Scriptures it is not to be beleeved or conceived And besides all these had command to pour out the wrath of God on those subjects upon which they poured out their Vials as in the first Verse Now God forbid we should conceive that any wrath of God should be poured out upon Christ ever since his Resurrection or that any wrath of God should be poured out upon the Scriptures For although they that thus expound this Vial to be poured out upon the Sun do not say that the wrath of God was poured upon the Sun but upon the Antichristian state yet the Text tels us they poured out the Vials of the wrath of God upon that subject that they poured them on they poured them all upon the earth So that all these things are but earthly matters and such earthly matters as have been open justly to the wrath of God It is therefore but an earthly sea and they are but earthly rivers and fountains and it is but an earthly Sun and an earthly air corrupt air an unwholsome Antichristian air upon which the Vials are poured So that I cannot go so freely along with that Exposition that the Sun here is Christ revealed in the Scriptures or the Scriptures revealing Christ If any man shall say but the Sun spoken of in the Trumpets was Christ in the Scriptures or the Scriptures revealing Christ those Trumpets hold forth a like degree of judgement upon the Roman-Christian Empire as here upon Antichristian Rome For upon the sounding of the first Trumpet judgement fals upon the earth common Christians The second Trumpet sounding judgement fals upon the Sea as in the 8 Revel 7 to 12. And the third upon rivers and fountains And the fourth Trumpet sounding did bring an hand of God upon the Sun a third part of the Sun was smitten that is the Son Christ Iesus was much darkned in that degenerated Christian-state and so it was with the Scriptures with the Church state and with humane Learning they were all darkened as it is there described But minde you the Sun is one thing to a Church that hath truth in it though degenerated CHRIST was their light though they were darkened in a third part But now when Religion is wholly corrupt that all the whole Sea is the bloud of a dead man now the world is altered and if you have a new world you must have a new Sun That was a Christian world and CHRIST might still be the Sun and light of that though in many degrees corrupted and the Scriptures might be still the light of the world But now when you come to an Antichristian world so wholly degenerated that there is no power of CHRIST to be seen as they administer any Ordinance now the case is so far changed that you must look for another Sun in another world Here is another earth and another Sea that Sea was not like the bloud of a dead man though corrupt but this is and those waters though their Teachers were corrupt yet it was but a third part but here all is become bloud and they drink of bloud for they are worthy And here is another Sun in this new world and what must that be In a word there be others that interpret it of the greatest and most illustrious light most eminent and glorious light in the Antichristian world And what may that be If you look through all the Antichristian world what should be the most eminent and most glorious and most illustrious light that shines in the greatest glory amongst them all What doth more readily offer it self then the house of Austria the chief governour in the Antichristian state of eminent lustre and hath been so for 200 yeers as they call it the Lumen and Columen of that state the light and pillar of that state And they that so expound it they wrote just in this time when the king of Sweden came forth to represent the Angel he with his followers to pour out a Vial of GODS wrath upon the Imperiall state of Germany and consequently upon the rest of that house that were allyed to them whether Spaniards or others and that to the provoking of so much indignation you know what scornfull derisions they put upon him as if he came in like a Tinker with his Copper money rather then a worthy Generall and you know what indignation and wrath hath been kindled by that means against all Germany what a world of bloud hath been spilt how fire and sword hath pursued those attempts to this very day What might be said against this Interpretation is not much but yet so much as to make some addition to this Interpretation The Papists will by no means bear and acknowledge it that any Civil state should be the most Illustrious light of their Religion they will tell you that the Emperour is but a borrowed light from the Sun and doth owe homage to the Pope for his Imperiall Crown that have translated the Empire from Greece to France and from France to Germany They will tell you the Pope is as much above the Emperour as the Sun is above the Moon And they are not ashamed to speak to the Pope in the amplification of his glory Thou art the light of the world the flower of Paradise the gate of Heaven And if they make the Pope their greatest light their most transcendent and Illustrious light the Sun in the primest and chiefest glory then you must look and search somewhat further for some further Interpretation then meerly the Imperiall state or the state of that same Family combined and united unto it And yet
will doe it for he hath promised it and hath begun to power out this Viall and will not cease untill he have left the Pope neither roote nor branch Vse 2 Secondly this may serve to teach us the ready way to subdue the Tyrants of the World and to take away all their supportance their walles and Bullworkes How should you take Babylon dry up Euphrates and Babylon is taken with a wet finger as when they dryed up Euphrates they found it but a worke of burning of Reedes to take old Babylon And how shall you overcome the Turkes dry up but the Fountaines of the Corruptions of Religion and you remoove Antichrist and make the Turkes easily Conquerable he will not be defenceable then whereas now he standeth like a wall of brasse and so will doe untill these streames of corruption be dryed up It was a notable practise that which the Lord directed his people unto Iudges 10. When they cried unto the Lord to deliver them from their enemies that oppressed them The Lord recounteth the gratious deliverances which he had shewed them yet saith he Verse 13. you have forsaken me and served other Gods wherefore I will deliver you no more goe and cry unto the Gods which you have chosen and let them deliver you in the time of your Tribulation When they heard that they confessed their sin and put away the strange Gods from among them and served the Lord and his soule was grieved for the misery of Israel then the Lord stirreth up the people to thinke upon Iephthah and they easily goe through the worke of vanquishing the oppressing Enemies In like manner bring but in false Doctrine worship and government into the Church and you bring in monsters of men among you the grand seigniours of the World will oppresse and rule over you On the other side let the Churches be reformed in France in England in Scotland c. Whatsoever other nations there be by that have defiled themselves with Popish doctrine worship and government let them but fall to this worke of reformation and verily the Lords Soule will be grieved for their misery that they are so oppressed with a base Priest and his Clergy who is in the meane while nothing else but a dunghill of corruption and what need have we earnestly to strive in prayer with God for these things and as great Nations are healed so are particular persons also by being purged from their Idolatries Fornications Thefts and Murders they are preserved from those personall evills which by Sea or Land might prevails against them And the Lord is able to doe it for great Nations as well as for particular persons for as he puts it into the hearts of Princes to agree and give their Kingdomes unto the Beast so he can as easily withdraw their hearts from him and cause them to see the vanity of their subjection to him Let us therefore give the Lord no rest untill he have fulfilled his word and overturned all his Enemies That the powring out of the wrath of God upon the Romish Doct. 2 Superstition and Tyranny as it will be the drying up of the Popish and Turkish Tyranny so it will prepare a ready way for the conversion of the Iewes When they shall see Christ riding upon a white horse and going forth conquering to conquer then shall they be gathered unto him Rev. 19. Because popish delusions Idolatry and Superstitions are the Reason greatest impediments of their conversion No man is acquainted with their writings but knoweth that these things stand in their way when the streames of Idolatry Sorcery Martyrdome of the Saints of God Fornication and robbery be dryed up then will there be a prepared way for the glorious conversion of the Iewes together with the rest of the Nations which cannot enter into the Temple untill the seven plagues of the seven Angels are fulfilled and then will they come in as honourable maides attending upon the Queene it will be like unto the resurrection from the dead unto them many devises there are in the mindes of some to thinke that Jesus Christ shall come from Heaven againe and reigne here upon Earth a thousand yeares but they are but the mistakes of some high expressions in Scripture which describe the judgements powred out upon Gods enemies in making a way for their conversion by the patterne of the last judgement Vse This may serve to provoke us and all the Churches of Christ to hold fast the purity of Doctrine worship and government in the Church of Christ let no streames of Idolatry nor love of the world run in our hearts If our Cowes be our Gods the Lord will power out a Viall upon them that from 25l. they shall fall to 5l. price the Lord hath sometimes threatned that he will famish all the Gods of the Earth Zeph. 2.11 So that all the Gods of the Gentiles shall not be able to provide any more offerings to be brought unto their Altars neither Apollo nor Iupiter nor Hercules can have any victuals and so will God deale with our Cattell if they be our Gods they shall either be worth little or else he will deny us todder for them if they devoure our spirits and take off our mindes from the Ordinances of God he will rend away any thing that standeth between him and our soules Therefore as ever we desire that we may prosper and that their may be a ready way prepared for our comfort let no streames of Idolatry be found among us then will the Lord make way for many of his deserved ones to come in among us or else wil make us wel without them For all the silver and gold in the world is his as the Cattell are his on a 1000 Hills Only let us take part with this Angell in powring out Vialls upon the corruptions that are found in our own hearts looke that their be no corruptions in us but such as are stil drying and drying up and see if God be not faithfull and gratious to us aboundantly stir we up our selves therefore and one another hereunto and pray that God would stir up other Nations and People hereunto then shall we see Gods ancient people brought home and the Lord shall be one over al the Earth and his name one which wil prove a Resurrection unto all the Churches of the Saints The second part of the sixth Viall VIALL 16. REVEL 12 Ver. to 14. XII And the sixth Angell powred out his Viall upon the great River Euphrates and the water thereof was dryed up that the way of the Kings of the East might be prepared 13. And I saw three uncleane spirits like Frogs come out of the mouth of the Dragon out of the mouth of the Beast and out of the mouth of the false Prophet 14. For they are the spirits of Devills working miracles which goe forth unto the Kings of the Earth and of the whole World to gather them to the battell of that great day of
Antichristian are but earthly they fast from flesh indeed and from white meats but they have the dainties of the Apothecaries shops preserves and conserves and such kind of pleasant meats and what have they done all this while these their practises are not sanctified of God and therefore doe leave the soules of men still vnder carnall delusions being no other but earthly and bodily exercises Goe and poure out the vials of the wrath of God vpon the Earth and the first went and poured out his viall vpon the earth This is vpon the lowest and basest element in the antichristian world Thence we may observe That God in his Iudgements vpon wicked persons and Doct. 3 states beginneth first with the least and lowest amongst them this is evident in the Text first upon the earth and the sea is next which like the naturall sea is above the earth and the Rivers and fountaines are higher then it and the sunne higher then they and then vpon the throne of the Beast and when we come to open the sequell you shall see that all things goe in a gradation And in this sort did the Lord deale when hee brought antichrist into the world Rev. 8.7 The first judgement came vpon the earth The second vpon the sea The third vpon the rivers and fountaines of water The fourth vpon the Sunne then commeth Antichrist the King of the Bottomelesse pit Rev. 9.11 and here in the 5. Viall his throne is smitten and upon the sounding of the sixt angell the foure angels in the River Euphrates were loosened and here pouring out the 6th Viall the River Euphrates is dryed up And the consideration yeeldeth great light to helpe us in the exposition of these seven vials for by the same steps wherby antichrist came into the world by the same steps doth the Lord vndermine him and bring him downe For as first the common sort of Christians were corrupted when antichrist was brought in so first the Common sort of Catholiques are blasted when antichrist beginneth to fall The like course did the Lord take in the plagues of Egypt Exod. 7.19 c. He beginneth with the lowest first to turne their waters into bloud and thereby killeth their fish but still men subsist well enough but then he bringeth frogs into all the land of Egypt and they crawle into their kneading troughes then he changeth the dust of the land into lice and that was a great deale more loathsome to men and at length hee killeth all their first borne and at last overwhelmeth Pharaoh and his hoste in the bottome of the red sea and all this is according to the old covenant of his justice Levit. 26.18 21 24 28. If you will not for all this hearken vnto me J will punish you yet seven times more for your sins so he threatneth againe and againe in all those verses untill at last he bring upon them such feareful and horrible Iudgements that they become an hissing to all nations The Reason of Gods dealing thus is to magnifie Gods patience Reas 1 vnto all knowest thou not that the long suffering of God leadeth thee to Repentance Rom. 2.4 It becommeth the Lord to magnifie his patience and when he doeth strike he will not suddenly stirre up all his wrath therefore when here he commeth to judge Antichrist he first poureth out his wrath where it is least of all sensible to the great Lords of the Antichristian world to magnifie the equity of his Iustice and that he might also leave them without excuse if the lowest judgements doe not prevaile this God doeth that he might be justified when he judgeth Ps 51.4 Thus though his wrath bee revealed from heaven against all vngodlinesse and vnrighteousnesse of men Rom. 1.18 yet such is the holinesse of Gods proceedings that hee will shew his patience and will strike gently vpon the least and lowest in estate first and afterwards hee goeth on further in wasting to waste untill he have overspread a state with punishment thus doth hee together magnifie his patience and justifie his justice and leave men without excuse This may serve in the first place to teach all men in the feare of Vse 1 God to become wise by light Iudgements and gentle afflictions those which you would thinke may least of all concerne you sleight them not nothing more distant from the chiefe men in a State then the common multitude A Iudgement upon them doth not matter much if a Famine were upon the common sort of people Princes and Great men would not be much affected therewith But the least of his judgements should be warnings unto us to teach us that the Lord hath taken his Sword into his hand and will go on in judgement untill he make the soules of men to tremble What if a judgement begin upon mens cattell That is farre off It will come next upon your Servants and Children and it may be reach to the wife of your bosome and if all this prevaile not it may be He will strike you with grievous diseases in your body and if you hearken not for all this what if he let the Devill loose upon the soules and consciences of men and women What will the heart of a poore Creature doe in such a case O consider this all ye that forget God! least hee teare you in pieces and there be none to deliver When the Lord striketh aloofe from us It is but the Viall of the first Angell but when the Lord beginneth he will go on further therefore it must be the wisdome of the sonnes of men to take heed of his stroakes afarre off This also is the Method of Gods dealing with his owne Children He did not fall upon the Conscience of his Servant Iob at the first but upon his Cattell then upon his Servants after that upon his Children and nextly upon his Body and at last writeth bitter things against his soule Be we warned therefore by the first hints of chastisements by small and gentle visitations and happy they that learne to profit by such to turne unto God and to make their peace with him before his wrath breake forth like a devouring fire and there be none to quench it Vse 2 The second use is unto the common sort of Christians if there be any more poore and common and of lesse esteeme then other Marke what I say and take it from the word of the Lord it behoveth you in speciall manner to take heed to your Religion for if corruptions grow therein you will be the first that will suffer by them And why so It is because Religion concerneth the common sort of Christians as well as any other and yet they commonly leave their Religon as they say to men that are wiser then themselves well if you cannot read in the Book of God the broade Characters of Salvation and the way thereof looke for it that when the smarting providences of God come upon any State where you are you shall first taste
lie much of them in Common Well what ever things may be though Christian love will passe by much yet beleeve it if men make no conscience of their bargaines but that they doe defraud others If men make no conscience of heavenly mindednesse of purity and zeale and thinke it needs not but rest in meer formes of Church Ordinances you will unavoydably poure a Viall of Gods wrath as much as in you lyes on all the purity of Gods Ordinances and judge you how dishonourable it is to God and holy religion and how blame-worthy it is in such as are faulty herein however you will answer this before the Lord at his comming For you cannot avoide it this will be the issue either we are counterfeit Professors of Reformation or that our reformation is counterfeit you say you came over for puritie of Ordinances But in truth you did but dissemble however you thought it was not in your hearts the event proves the contrary if you be not sincere but hollow Members of the Church and corrupt livers under the governement and worship of God heere established and ordered I say you will force all whose eyes are on you throughout the Christian world to thinke these are but the inventions of men there is no truth no true heartednesse in the Religion here established and for the Religion established in England what ever you talke of humane inventions we know there is no such unfaithful dealing and hollow heartednesse no such bitternesse between Christians A Ministers Presence is amiable and his feet beautifull and where hee comes it is not thought too homely to be regarded of better then himselfe If Religion in our Native Countrey of them that are sincere if it hold foorth more puritie there beleeve it it beares more evident witnesse to the truth of God there so much as is truth then as we doe that professe greater simplicitie these are but the names of things but the reality is wanting It is never to be forgotten the Argument of the blessed Apostle the Corinthians tooke offence at him as they were humerous though godly men yet a generation of them were haughty by their great gifts Paul said he would come to Corinth he promised to come but he did not and they thought he used lightnesse it was an easie thing with him to be Yea and Nay What saith the Apostle When I said I would come did I use lightnesse that with me there should be Yea and Nay Nay saith the Apostle I pray yon marke it and I could wish it were engraven on the tables of godly mens hearts in the 2 Corinth 1.18 as God is true our word toward you was not Yea and Nay How doth hee prove that For the Sonne of God Iesus Christ who was preached amongst you by us was not yea and nay but in him was yea and all the promises of God in him are Yea and Amen What is this to the purpose If the Gospel he preached be not yea and nay then neither are his prâ—mises yea and nay this is his intendment else his inference is nothing I you will say Ministers and Apostles ought to be such but this that followes wraps in all professours Now hee which stablisheth you with us in Christ it is not Elders onely and he that anointed us is God who anointeth with such oile as falls on every member of his body who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the spirit in our hearts and makes us every way like himselfe therefore saith he I call God to record that to spare you I came not yet to Corinth otherwise as the Gospell preached by him and Silvanus Timotheus was not yea and nay but in him was yea no more was his promise this is the spirit of Christians and Ministers and so of al that are established together with their Ministers anointed and sealed and confirmed in grace with their Ministers and have received the earnest penny to bind the bargaine of eternall salvation to faithfull soules So looke what a Christian doth promise he is bound by the earnest penny of Gods Spirit hee dares no more alter his words to the discredit of his profession then the Spirit of God to lie So that consider if Professors grow corrupt Religion wil grow corrupt and on the discovery of the corruption of common Christians corrupt religion will be discovered else you will be discovered to be carnall professors But there will be these two events either it will cast aspersion on you and so they will say none are better the spirit of the Country is deceitfull in their bargaines there is no constancie in their words Or else that your Religion is corrupt and this will also follow unavoidably though your Religion bee of God and the Lord himselfe will beare witnesse it is of God and according to the true patterne of the Word yet if we in this generation shall defile it by our unfaithfulnesse unspiritualnesse unheavenlinesse and ungodlinesse this will be the issue on the corruption of the lives of Professors followes corruption of Religion and upon the discovery of the one followes the discovery of the other That Religion which by the blessing of God and the power of his grace is dispensed heere in simplicity will bee corrupted in the very next generation you will finde your Children after you of whose state you ought to have as much care and I thinke I may speake it without inconveniency more then of your owne you may know the worst of it for your selves being neere the grave many of you but verely what will befall your Posterity They will degenerate out of measure by the unfaithfulnesse of your lives and unrighteousnesse of our promises they will fall to bee starke nought in point of Doctrine Worship and Government they will utterly degenerate from their Ancestors let but us bee polluted and all the waters that come from us will be polluted it cannot be sweet water that runnes through a poysonous earth if the earth bee unsavoury the Waters and Deepes and Rivers be poysoned what will the issue bee all will bee corrupt and therefore as you desire to leave Religion with a blessing leave it pure in the conversation of Brotherly love and purity and faithfulnesse and fruitfulnesse and heavenly mindednesse that so as Religion always loves to lye cleane as was a grave speech of an ancient Saint it will not lye nasty as a Swine and a Dogge in a kennell it must lye sweet and cleane if the hearts and waies of men be not pure and holy you shall not alway have the Sea cleane but Religion will grow to Apostacy and that which is our glory will be our confusion It became as the blood of a dead man Doct. 2. The faithful Ministers and Professors of Reformed Religion and Churches by powring out the wrath of God on Popish Religion have discovered it not to hold forth the blood of the Lord Iesus but to bee as the blood of a
Catholiques that make them beleeve they may be saved in that religion so they live honestly and well Oh Brethren doth not the Text expresly say every one that lived in that Sea died and died everlastingly there is no living bloud of the Lord Iesus there there is no saving grace there but workes all and there is no lively faith there but dead saith no repentance but hardnesse of heart or legall contrition at the vttermost nor obedience but such as is too good for him to apply the Bloud of Christ unto for it is able to keepe the whole Law and make satisfaction for the breaches of the Law or if their owne obedience bee not so perfect they have some other saints whose obedience may bee imputed unto them so that though they abhorre Christs Righteousnesse to be imputed to them they have found out a way that the righteousnesse of Saints may bee applyed to make others righteous so that they put more honour upon the servants of Christ if some of them were the servants of Christ then upon Christ and say it were well their righteousnes should be imputed but that Christs owne righteousnesse should bee imputed they looke at it as aputative righteousnesse as they are not ashamed to call it so that see the desperate danger of living and dying in that state in the Romish religion in that Sea Vse 2. Secondly Let me exhort all Christians to hold stedfastly to the puritie of Religion whether in our publicke Ministrations or private conversations let all savour and reake foorth the warme blood of the living Lord Iesus for there is the difference of our Religion from Popery Their religion holds forth such a Christ as leaves him and his blood like the blood of a dead Man The soule is dead for any true Grace or Faith or Repentance or Obedience or living Comfort the heart is still dead no life of Gods favour no life from the Word no hope of Salvation but all conjecturall there is indeed the life of Papists no live-blood of Christ Jesus among them But for Christians It is for us to live as those that are made partakers of the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things then that of Abel that doth pacifie and purifie the Conscience and both worke effectually more and more untill the soule bee established in perfect peace thou wilt keepe them in perfect peace whose minde is staid on thee because he trusteth in thee I speake of perfection that may be attained in our measure in Esay 26.3 So that be diligent to looke up to the Lord Christ still as out of Grace to accept us and by the grace of Faith to receive us and so drawing the soule to lively repentance from dead works and quickning and awakning us to lively obedience In this lively estate we may walke before him according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of his Grace in Christ Iesus THE THIRD VIAL REVEL 16. VER 4 5 6 7. And the third Angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters and they became bloud And I heard the Angel of the waters say Thou art righteous O Lord which art and wast and shalt be because thou hast iudged thus For they have shed the bloud of Saints and Prophets and thou hast given them bloud to drinke for they are worthy And I heard another out of the Altar say Even so Lord God Almighty true and righteous are thy iudgements THese seven Angels as you heard that had the vials of the last wrath of God to poure out they poure it all out upon the Antichristian world upon the Beast or something or other pertaining to the Beast for the first that poured his vial on the earth vexed them that had the mark of the beast he begins therefore with the beast And the fift Angel poured forth his vial upon the throne of the beast in the 10. ver and when the seventh Angel poured forth his vial Great Babylon came up in remembrance before God c. in the 19. ver So that in a word all these vials being poured out from first to last upon the earth and the earth being the Antichristian state opposite to heavenly and pure Churches all the vials are poured upon the Antichristian world or state And as you see they begin with the lowest elements first The first upon the earth the next upon the sea the third upon the rivers and fountaines the fourth upon the sun in that world the fift upon the throne of the Beast the sixt upon Euphrates the seventh upon the ayre Now the second Angel of which you heard the last day having poured out his vial upon the sea it became as the bloud of a dead man and all that lived in that sea dyed The sea you heard is the confluence of waters anld rivers and doth hold forth the confluence or concurrence of all the oracles and ordinances and meanes of grace and salvation or those that are pretended so to be The concurrence or confluence of them all to one body which in one word was their Religion in the old Temple it was resembled to a brazen sea wherein the Priests washed themselves In the Apostolique Church of the New Testament it is resembled unto a sea of glasse like unto crystall wherein you might see the face of Christ as in a mirrour In Reformed Churches it is as the of glasse mingled with fire In Popish Churches it is as the bloud of a dead man no living bloud is there to be found to wash the people in but as the bloud of a dead man without life to them that are washed in it and rather fit to choake and poison and kill then to give life Now that being the sea Then here the next vial is poured out upon the rivers and fountains of waters that run into this sea and derive this sea up and downe the earth The third Angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters And the pouring out of his vial is described First by the subject on which it is poured Vpon the rivers and fountains of waters Secondly by the effect and they became bloud Thirdly the pouring out of this vial is amplified by the testimony given to it and the effect of it What is the testimony It is double 1. Given by the Angel of the waters in the 5. ver I heard the Angel of the waters say what doth he say he gives to God the glory of his righteousnesse and of his unchangeable righteousnesse which art and wast and shalt be because thou hast iudged thus And the reason of it he gives is taken from the equity of the law of retaliation in the 6. ver For they have shed the bloud of Saints an Prophets and thou hast given them blood to drinke for they are worthy The second Testimony by which this powring out of the Viall is amplified and the effect of it is justified is by another
Angell out of the Altar in the 7. ver who saith Amen to this Even so Lord God Almighty true and righteous are thy iudgments For the meaning of the words The sea being Religion the confluence of ordinances such ordinances as are dispensed in any religion The rivers and fountains of water that spring from the sea and returne to the sea and derive all their springs and waters from thence they are and it is generally so received and therefore with more freedome of spirit a man may declare it these rivers and fountains of waters are generally conceived to be the Priests and Ministers of the Popish Church who carry Popish Religion as Fountains and Rivers do the Sea up and down the earth so do they Popish Religion up and down the Nations carry it to and fro only there is this difference between them and ordinary rivers and fountains ordinarily rivers and fountains are fresh though the sea be salt but here the fountains rivers are salt and brackish also as those salt springs be that run through salt mineralls which are of like nature with the sea and these keep their brackishnesse still And so it is with these rivers and fountains they run through the earth on which the first Angel poured out his vial they run through the cursed earth as it is plagued of God and therefore still retaines the like unwholsome streams which are found in the bloody sea And therefore it is said that as the sea became bloud so these rivers also became bloud and carryed but the like kind of water which they received from the sea corrupt As the Religion it selfe is corrupt so are these fountaines and rivers the Priests and Jesuites whether secular or regular that is the Parish Priests of their Churches or Regular Monkes that are in Religious Orders or who ever are sent forth by these they are these rivers and fountaines of waters that run to and fro to fill all the world with their sea with their Religion It is the same word which the Apostle Peter hath in expressing the nature of false teachers though there it is wells yet the words are both one They are wells without water meaning without water of life carrying their owne drugs and dregs 2 Pet. 2.17 A fit expression therefore of such kind of Priests or Prophets as doe convey unwholsome liquor or water up and downe a countrey Now of these it is said that on the pouring out of this vial they became bloud not onely in regard that their waters themselves are bloud the doctrine and worship which they doe hold forth to the people are corrupt as their sea is like the plague in Egypt when their waters and rivers were turned to bloud but that chiefly in regard of the punishment which they inflict on them for so doing which is a bloudy death as bloud is expounded in the 5. and 6. verses where the Angel of the waters saith Thou art righteous O Lord c. because thou hast iudged thus Why For they have shed the bloud of Saints and Prophets and thou hast given them bloud to drinke for they are worthy So this is bloud which God hath given them to drinke And that is an usuall phrase to give a man bloud to drinke is to kill him As Tomyris of old said to King Cyrus Thou hast been a bloud-thirsty man drink thou bloud which thou hast thirsted When you give a man bloud to drink you put him to death So this Angel who ever it was that poured out this vial he puts these Priests to death he gave them bloud to drink both made themselves to undergoe a bloudy death to drinke bloud and also made all that received and entertained them to drinke bloud too and this was effectually accomplished by Queene Elizabeth when in the 27. yeare of her raigne in the yeare 1581. by the consent of the Parliament she made it a Law that if any Priest or Jesuite that had received Orders from the Sea of Rome or any authority from that Sea should come into the Realme and goe about or practice to seduce any of the Queenes loyall Subjects from their allegeance to the obedience of the Sea of Rome or practice to draw them to that religion he should be judged guilty of high treason and suffer in the case of a Traitor And this was another branch of that Statute That if any gave entertainment to such Priests and Jesuites after certain dayes and knew them to be such should suffer as in case of Felonie without the benefit of his Booke so that both of them must drinke bloud both the Jesuites and Priests themselves and their abettors and entertainers and the ground was because they had bloudy intendments in their comming intending to kill the Queene or corrupt the State with unwholsome and pernicious Doctrine to draw the people from their allegeance to the obedience of the Sea of Rome that so as it was said a generation of Catholiques was the corruption of her subjects To prevent which mischiefe this Law was enacted and so upon this occasion many suffered that yeare and others in after yeares most part of her Raigne Now what is then the meaning of the next words I heard the Angel of the waters say Thou art righteous O Lord which art and wast and shalt be because thou hast iudged thus so it was bloud recompenced with bloud This Angel of the waters it was he or she that poured out this vial on these waters She with the consent of her Councel and Parliament they were this Angel of the waters that had this power over these rivers and fountaines and this was accomplished two or three yeares after when she set Secretary Cicill on worke to write a Booke with this Title JUSTITIA BRITANNIAE The Iustice of Britaine wherein Secretary Cicill by her appointment doth make it cleare to all neighbour Nations and for that end published his Book in sundry Languages French Dutch and Spanish that what was decreed in that Parliament was just according to the Law of God and the true principles of Christian State Policie that there was no hope of safety to the Queenes Person or of peace to the Common wealth or of liberty to true Reformed Religion if such persons were suffered to goe up and downe in that pestilentious manner to pervert and corrupt the people and withdraw them from their Allegeance and subject them to the Bishop of Rome that they did not suffer meerely on point of Religion though on those points of their Religion which gave them occasion so to work he doth not deny that neither but in respect that the frame of their Religion was not compatible to any Protestant State And the very Booke it selfe holds forth this in effect that the Lord was just herein and as the Text here tels us Thou art righteous O Lord because thou hast iudged thus And he attributes not onely righteousnesse to God in this but immutability and constancie which
And therefore we may feare the righteous hand of God in disturbing the Countrey whereto wee owe so much love and faithfulnesse if there be a suspending of the holy and righteous Law of God that these rivers and fountaines should drinke of bloud for they are worthy Thirdly this may serve to teach all Magistrates and Governours Vse 3 in every Common-wealth to looke that all your Lawes be righteous lawes If you will act any thing justly the Lord takes it as his act he is the actor of it And therefore though this Law was made by Queene Elizabeth with the consent of the whole body of the Parliament and though her Secretary by her direction and consent published the justice of the Law the Text saith it is the Lord Thou art just and righteous just and true are thy wayes because thou hast judged thus They have shed the bloud of Saints and Prothets they have given them bloud and thou hast given them bloud to drinke for they are worthy Even so saith another Angel Lord God Almighty true and righteous are thy judgements If there be any wholsome and just Law in a Kingdome the Lord ownes it as his owne and it is to be obeyed as a righteous Law of God if it be unjust it is not Gods for his law is just an adequate rule of righteousnesse So that what ever is lesse then the Law of God if it suit not with the Law of God and keep correspondencie therewith you cannot say it is a Law of God Therefore Law givers and Law makers should ever have respect what doth the Lord our God say If it be Gods Law and Gods will let it be established if not let it be antiquiated But if you can finde a hint from the Law of God for it then let it stand Vse 4 And fourthly this must teach confederate States or such States whether neere for co-habitation or farther off if they heare of others proceedings it is good to confirme what they have justly done Queene Elizabeth makes a Law in the yeere 84. against Priests and Jesuites the Decree is righteous when others heare of this righteous section they make it also a capitall crime for any such persons to be found amongst them if it be capitall in England it is so in Holland they will require it of the necks of them that shall be found delinquent What then This is Even so one State must say Even so upon the just act of another and they must record it in their Statutes unlesse there be some apparent dissimilitude which is not in case of this nature for there is the same equity in all Ages and all Nations and therefore it is for them to say Amen or Even so to it And what is that It is no more but this If you enact a Law which is in another Countrey you say Amen to Gods justice in your own Countrey as others doe in theirs Vse 5 The fift Use that you may make of this Point is to teach you a tender respect in all lawes to the judicials of Moses to all the judiciall laws of Moses that are built upon moral equity that is where the reason of a Law holds in one Nation as well as in another in the New Testament as in the Old There are sundry Laws particular to that Polity which had peculiar reasons for them as to marry in their kindred to keep their inheritance to their Tribe we have not that reason But where the Laws are of like morall reason as will hold in all Ages and in all Countreys as it is in all the capitall Laws of Moses there is no reason why a Jew should be put to death for point of Adultery or Incest or for stealling a man and selling him to a Pagan more then a Christian I say therefore look what was the Law of God by Moses if it were of perpetuall reason and equity it lyes on every Common-wealth to establish the same and to take your selves as much bound to it as the Jews why for the Text tels us the very righteousnesse of God is in it And looke as he was then a hater ofall wickednes with a perfect hatred and as he was just so he is still heresie is no more pleasing to him nor blasphemy nor seducing nor to change the way of his worship and to draw men to wayes wherein they cannot enjoy the Lord in peace murder of soules is no more welcome to him now then of old And therefore if there were a Law to punish such with capitall punishment it is a like justice of God to enjoyne such Laws in every Christian Common-wealth And therefore if we look at Gods justice as unchangeable we may not prevaricate judiciall laws setting aside some typicall considerations or some peculiar consideration in regard of their Polity But such as were to punish men by death or were received on morall equity and ground looke what was for them to doe there is the same proportion for us put the same case and you will finde the like reason for the same punishment It is true some ceremonies were there punished with death and so the like kind of profaning the Sabbath is as justly punishable with us if profaned with an high hand to gather sticks with an high hand in contempt of the Sabbath of the Lord is as justly punishable with death now as then And so you may say of any other law justly punishable by death and that are built on perpetuall moral equity Our God is the same God that he was and so you shall have him count that righteous whiles the world stands For a sixt This may serve to take off a corrupt interpretation Vse 6 which some have made of this place or a collection that they have gathered from hence that the Angels of God are deputed to severall offices here is one Angel of the waters and some are deputed to governe the earth some fire some the waters and sea as I might tell you if it were meet to trouble you with humane inventions and collections of mens braines the collection is chiefly grounded on this place but it is wholly mistaken for the Angel of the waters here is not any particular Angel of God any of those heavenly spirits but the Angels and Ministers of Gods justice upon metaphoricall seas and waters It is true those here were Governours of the narrow seas and the that gave commission to execute the righteous judgement of God upon those rivers she was Admirall of the narrow seas but that is not the meaning But the Angel that poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters it is he or she that did execute the righteous judgment of God upon the Popish Priests and Jesuites and that did both Queene Elizabeth and he that had a great hand in executing that judgement and the Angel from under the Altar they ratified that Law and justified it when they had done Now it is true the Angels of
God assist the servants of God in this glorious work but they are sent forth indifferently to protect Gods servants by sea or by land And I finde no Scripture to shew that they are more particularly sent to the sea or to the earth but indifferently to protect Gods servants in their out-goings and in-commings Vse 7 Lastly it may serve to teach us a true estimation of Ministers If Popish Priests be rivers and fountaines of waters drinking bloud because they have made Gods servants and Prophets drink bloud then it shews what place other Ministers be in where the sea is cleare as glasse like chrystall where you may see the face of Christ as in a glasse 2 Cor. 3.18 what then where the sea is pure all Ministers of the Countrey and Elders of Churches carry forth the doctrine and worship of Christ they are as rivers and fountaines and being living water rivers of fresh water and water all the Countrey This is the office of of them in opposition to those in 2 Pet. 2.17 that are wells without water without sweet water Godly Ministers therefore are fountaines of sweet water and from them issue forth streames of living water In Psal 88. ult All my fresh springs are in thee I would onely apply it thus and leave it and the Text with the time That therefore looke as a man when he would goe forth to a new Plantation or sit downe in any place or if he would set his dwelling house in a place he would wisely fore-cast to have a fountaine of living water a living spring neere to his house or some sweet spring run neere him Why If he be without fresh water it is a great want for the provision of his houshold Water they must have either a fresh tiver or a fresh spring the one of the two if they can have both they covet both and there is great need of both not onely to quench fire and water gardens c. but for boiling of meat and drink washing of cloathes and sundry victuals Water is ever necessary as any thing nothing more This is mens care when they goe about Plantations or whether they plant townes or villages or their owne dwelling houses they have a care to provide for fresh water All I would say is this Take heed you doe not provide for fountaines of ordinary water and neglect rivers of sweet water That is beware of going about such work without carrying such fountaines with you as may from the sea of pure Religion pure doctrine and pure worship carry forth some such sweet streams as may make glad the hearts of your families and Church of God where you goe But you will say Have not Christians so much liberty a Ob. company of godly men liberty to enter into covenant and make some beginning of things and so call some or other whom they know are well gifted men furnished with gifts may we not call them to come and help us and have we not that liberty purchased by the bloud of the Lord Jesus All this is true brethren I would infringe no part of it Onely Answ this let me say you would be loth to provide no better for temporals you would be loth to set a towne where there are no rivers nor fountaines and if you doe sit downe where there are no fountaines yet you have liberty to fetch water from other places Christ hath purchased it True he hath purchased all liberties for his Church but you will not think it wisdome to sit downe where there are no rivers because you have no right to them by the bloud of Jesus that would not be a sufficient reason in things concerning this naturall life why then doe not build further on the bloud of Christ for spirituall rivers then you will doe for naturall but rather prize spirituall rivers above naturall as more worthy then all naturall comforts to be looked after Therefore when ever you are about such a work as this take the Lord Jesus Christ along with you and take rivers and fountaines of waters that as you look for rivers and fountains for the refreshment of your cattle and servants and children you may finde a living fountaine of the bloud of Christ conveighed and running in the plantation where you intend to sit downe otherwise you will finde the springs there and the fountains and rivers you sit downe by rise up in judgement against you that these are the things you sought for and out of regard to these you left the fountains and rivers of Gods house the ordinances of God behind you and goe and live in the outmost corners of a countrey or in some other countrey all is one Therefore sit downe no where without good Ministers if it be possible and sure possible it is else Christians may resolve to tarry where they are as Ezra tarried by the river Ahava in the 8. of Ezra 15. till he had got some Levites to goe with them that they might goe and make a comfortable worke of it that they might not leave the Ordinances behind them and yet there were some there before whither they went It is true some may goe and make a beginning but yet never make a beginning but where you may come and partake of the waters of Gods house every Lords day and let them that cannot so travell let them continue where they are and drink of the waters of eternall life rather then run such hazards You have seene when some have made a beginning without Ministers they have staid three or foure yeeres before they have got any help and when they have got them they have had much adoe to settle they have been suddenly unsettled though they have not gone rashly about it but with good advice but for want of this there not taking these rivers and fountaines with them they have been at a losse and therefore in such a case let it be the wisdome of sincere hearted Christians that come from old England for liberty and purity of Ordinances not to leave them now for fresh medows and fountaines and for want of planting ground and the like it will not be suitable to these ends for which you left your native Countrey The Fourth VIAL Revel 16.8 9. And the fourth Angel poured out his vial upon the Sun and power was given to him to scorch men with fire And men were scorched with great heat and blasphemed the name of God which had power over these plagues and they repented not to give him glory ALl the seven Angels that are described to pour out the seven Vials of the last fierce wrath are all of them said to come out of the Temple of the Tabernacle opened in heaven in the 5 Verse of the 15 Chapter That is to say all of them to proceed and to come forth out of reformed Churches such as had gotten the victory over the Beast and his Image and his Name and the number of his Name In the 6 Verse of this
Chapter they are all of them further described to be cloathed with pure and white linnen and to have their breasts girded with golden girdles that is to say all of them to be cloathed with the righteousnesse of Christ which is pure linnen both justifying and sanctifying of them the one imputed the other inherent and all of them to be sincere profâ—ssors of the truth of Christ their breasts girded with the golden girdles of truth Further they are all of them said to receive a command from God to pour out the Vials of his wrath and all of them to pour out the Vials of his wrath upon the earth in the first Verse of this Chapter and yet it was but the first that poured out his Vial upon the earth for the second is said to pour it out upon the Sea and the third upon the rivers and fountains and the fourth you read in my Text upon the Sun and the fifth upon the Throne of the Beast and the sixth upon the great river Euphrates and the last upon the air yet all are commanded the whole seven to pour out the wrath of God upon the earth in the first verse The earth being opposed to the Church in heaven the visible Church open in heavenly purity it is so taken for some earthly carnall Antichristian state or Church but when it is not opposed to heaven but other elements then it is the lowest of all the rest and so it is according to this double opposition interpreted in this Chapter If you look at the earth as opposite to heaven the heavenly pure Churches so he means the earthly and Antichristian Church the Romish Popish Church that then was Now if you say as in the first verse it is said The first onely poured out his vial upon the earth now you mean the lowest element of the Antichristian state the common Catholicks whereupon there fell a grievous sore upon all that received the mark of the Beast and worshipped his Image When those holy servants and faithfull Ministers of Christ did discover the corruption of Religion in common Catholicks the Catholicks were afflicted with much confusion and indignation as being convinced they were bedabled with grosse superstition ignorance and idolatry and many other evils which you have formerly heard So that you see the first of them fell upon the Beast and so from the first to the last the first began with the Beast and in the last Babylon is fallen in the 19 Verse of this Chapter So that all these Vials poured out the wrath of God upon something or other of the Beast the first upon the common worshippers of the Beast the second upon the Sea that is the confluence of all the Ordinances that is such Ordinances as the worshippers of the Beast have in their Religion and they discovered that Sea to be but the bloud of a dead man not to have the life of Christ in it And the third poured out his Vial upon the Fountains and Rivers of water which are the Priests and Jesuits of that Church which carry that Religion up and down the earth as the Rivers and Fountains do the water of the Sea and of these you heard at large the last day And look as the opening of the Seals mentioned before in this Book did open the wrath of God and his judgements aginst the Roman-Pagan Empire and the seven Trumpets did sound out the wrath of God against the Roman-Christian Empire and Church so these last Angels with the last wrath in the seven Vials they pour it all out upon the Antichristian Roman state So that all the judgements in this Book are still upon Rome either Rome Pagan or Rome Christian or Rome Antichristian the one falls under seven Seals the other under seven Trumpets and this last under seven Vials So that if the earth upon which the first Angel poured out his Vial be the common sort of Catholicks and the Sea upon which the second Angel poured out his Vial be their Religion and convinced it to be the bloud of a dead man and no life of the bloud of Christ in it to wash sin from the souls and consciences of men nothing else but unwholsome and unsavoury choking corruptions ready to destroy all that were washed in it or drank of it And the third Vial being poured out upon the Jesuits and Priests they were thereby adjudged to capitall punishment as you have heard for they were forced to drink bloud as they were worthy having caused the Martyrs of CHRIST JESUS to drink bloud This fourth Vial therefore comes to be poured out upon something of the Beast as all the rest of the Vials were The fourth Angel poured out his Vial upon the Sun to wit something of the Beast which resembles the Sun in his world even as the Sun is the greatest light in this materiall world which GOD created in the beginning In these words then you may see described the pouring out of the Vial of the fourth Angel which is set forth by the subject upon which it is poured Vpon the sun Secondly by the effect which followed upon that He had power given him to scorch men with fire and secondly Men were tormented with great heat upon it And a third Argument by which this Vial poured out is described is the event which followed and that is double Men blasphemed the name of God and God here described to have power over these plagues as an aggravation of that blasphemy to blaspheme the name of God that had power over these plagues And secondly they are described by another event their Impenitencie their not repenting they repented not to give him glory So that here the fourth Vial is poured out Upon what Upon the Sun What is the effect of that Power is is given to that Angel to scorch men with fire and men were scorched with heat and the event of it was they that were so scorched continued still impenitent they repented not to give God glory but on the contrary blasphemed the name of the great God that had power over these plagues For opening the meaning of the words briefly By the Sun cannot here be meant that body of the Sun that gives light to us in these visible heavens For how shall an Angel comming out of the Temple out of a reformed Church pour out his Vial upon that Sun Or if he should be able so to do how should he work any distempered heat in it but it would annoy reformed Churches as well as Antichristian How will it reflect a peculiar plague upon Antichrist It must therefore be some other Sun and indeed such a Sun as is wrapped up under the generall Notion of Earth for all the Angels poured out their Vials upon the earth they had no other Commission given them to pour out their Vials but upon the earth in the first Verse And therefore he that poured out his Vial upon the Sea it was but an earthly sea a worldly
saw them out of those mouthes out of those mouthes they had came thence they had their originall and from thence they sprange Much inquiry there is who they should bee I will not trouble you with variety of mens judgements The Dragon is no more here the Turkish Empire then before but the Dragon here is hee that is before called Satan acting Rome and so hath seven Heads and ten Hornes which are the Armes of Rome as yee have heard before not of Constantinople And it is hee that consults and conspires with the Beast of Rome to send forth these three uncleane Spirits Now if you shall put all together that hath beene observed by different Interpreters and consider withall what kinde of spirits the Catholique Church and the head thereof the Bishop of Rome hath troubled the Church withall yee shall finde they all fall under three sorts three sorts of spirits they doe all issue from and these have all inspired and breathed into them the very Character of the nature which is found in the Dragon the Beast and the false Prophet There are many rables of popish orders which were endlesse to name now But they are all summed up in three Heads for all the other are but hangbies and traines to them all the Emissaries of Rome the spirits whereby shee hath troubled the Church they all fall under these three either Cardinalls Bishops or Jesuites and under the Jesuites I ranke all regular Fryers they are all of them of one nature regular men Cloyster-men of which the Jesuites are the cheife and I would rather instance the Jesuites because the rest of that rabble the other orders of Fryers and Monkes they are described not under the name of Frogs but under the name of Locusts chirping Creatures as the Frogs are Croking and both come out of the bottomlesse pit But the other are more like to Locusts in the 9 Revelations 3 to 11. They be both of them mischeivous both the Locusts and the Frogs too but the Frogs are a little too dull for this kind of imployment which is attributed to the Frogs but these three the Dragon the Beast and the false Prophet send forth the Cardinalls the Bishops and the Jesuites yee shall finde the quintessence of nimble wits in these Spirits active and nimble spirits yee shall finde them close and secret in their conveyances like spirits no part can be so secretly watcht but they will enter in no Gates of Princes Pallaces so secret but thy will enter them And uncleane they be as neither fit for meat nor for sacrifice as uncleane Beasts were They are neither fit for Church nor Common-wealth neither fit for the one nor the other neither for meate nor sacrifice uncleane also arising out of the mud uncleane in their Doctrine rooting out the Doctrine of Life uncleane in their conversation as all false Teachers more or lesse bee Iude 8. and 10 Verse And making the Countries uncleane where they come they let loose the raines and open a doore unto all Licentiousnesse and Prophanesse Three unclean Spirits like Frogs This description of them likening of them to Frogs doth exclude them from the Locusts for they are not Amphibia as they call them such as can live upon the Waters or Earth for Locusts love not to be in the Waters but these are indifferent on Earth or Waters Therefore these three can indifferently live either upon the waters or upon the Earth and even as well in the one as in the other It is indifferent to them whether yee imploy them in Church worke they can domineer there or whether you imploy them in state matters they are as free and as busy there in the Courts of Princes and the states of Commonwealths and as impetuous there and as active there and as cunning and as dominering and Lordly there as they are in the Church And therefore looke as were the plagues of Egypt which is called Sodom so are these plagues of spirituall Sodom The Frogs they came upon them cunningly and would come into the Kings Pallaces and no place could be kept free from them Even such are these three uncleane spirits no place can they be kept out from And like unto Frogs are they for their continuall croking nothing but one kinde of tune their own matters they never leave croking of not like these Frogs here in America that have a severall tune in each part of the yeare but they are alwayes in one or two or three at the most either the Catholique visible Church or the Pope the Judge of controversies or of visible succession And then looke as yee see it is with Frogs they are most busy with their notes when it growes darke and in the heat of the day they are a great deall more silent for then they get them downe into the mud so it is with these uncleane spirits they ly close if the light of the Gospell shines forth brightly And if it grow warme in the zeall of the spirits of Christians then yee here no newes of them but they are in some muddy places then they are husht then I if you should come with a Torch in the midnight they are silent and still then But now when there is want of light or want of heat of Religion then it is indeed that these spirits are most croking and tumultuous and unquiet but otherwise if the spirits of Christians and States-men grow warme in Religion ther 's no noise nor newes of these spirits so these are the three uncleane spirits that come out of the mouth of the Dragon and out of the mouth of the Beast and out of the mouth of the false Prophet And these three have left a spice of their own nature in them the Devill hath left a spice of his murther and malice against religion and well ordered government tending to disorder the Catholique Church hath left them hir state and preheminence hir Lordly Dominion and spirituall supremacy and authority carying all before him The false Prophet hath left them corrupt Doctrine and corrupt worship These corrupt all where they come and with cleanly conveyance in the Name of the Lord and thus saith the Lord when indeed it is nothing but the meere inventions of the sinfull false hearts of the sonnes of men To goe on a little further in the exposition of these spirits They are the spirits of Devills That is to say all of a devillish nature they are not Gods spirits men they will be accounted to be but they are spirits of the bottomlesse pit the spirits of Devills Devills for learning and Devills for deceit and Devills for mischeife Working miracles It is a proper worke of the second Beast but they are all but lying wonders they come saith the Apostle Paul with all power of signes and lying wonders 2 Thes 2.9 And these being all thus furnisht the Text tells you They goe forth unto the Kings of the Earth by Earth in this booke is meant the
give her the wine first of distraction secondly of destruction Secondly the cities of the Nations fell the great Citie was destroyed it fell to ruine The second sort of subjects upon which this distraction fell were Every Island and every mountaine the Islands fled away the mountaines were not found The third sort was the sonnes of men and the plague that fell upon them was a great haile out of heaven which is amplified 1. By the measure or weight of it every stone about the weight of a Talent 2. By the effect it wrought in men They blasphemed the God of heaven set forth by the cause of their blaspheming againe repeated because of the plague of the haile for the plague thereof was exceeding great 3. Let us first open the words and then summe them up into some doctrinall observations 1. What in the first place is here meant by Ayre doubtlesse not the element of ayre that wee breath in for all the Vials are Vials of wrath therefore poured upon subjects of Gods displeasure Now God is not offended with the ayre which is his creature but as you reade in the first verse of the Chapter All these Angels received a commandement to poure out their Vials upon the earth and that is meant of the earthly Antichristian Church and they all fulfill this Commandement upon whatsoever they poure out their Vials it is still upon the Antichristian state nor are the messengers of Gods wrath which come out of the Temple and have their loynes girded with golden girdles provoked against the Ayre which themselves doe breath in nor could a plague be upon the Ayre but it would fall upon Christian Churches as well as Popish Others doe interpret it with much more probabilitie to be upon the kingdome of Sathan for he is called the Prince that ruleth in the ayre Eph. 2.2 he also rayseth up stormes in the ayre and fiery meteors therein Job 1.16 So they conclude that wheresoever the Devill hath to doe whether it be in Popery or Paganisme this Viall is poured upon all his kingdome I thinke the doctrine is truly gathered from this place that the holy Ghost intendeth to poure out a judgement upon all his kingdome yet I cannot say that the words doe so properly hold forth a judgement upon the Element of ayre for all the Vials are to be poured upon the earth the Antichristian Church called earth in opposition to the heavenly and pure Church mentioned Revel 15.5 there being in it the whole Fabricke and Systeme of the world there is an earth and that is the lowest and basest common sort of Catholickes in that world and there is a Sea their corrupt Religion there be Rivers and fountaines of water those that derived their corruptions into all countries Priests and Monkes c. there is a Sunne in this world the great light thereof the family of Austria in the common wealth and the Popes supremacy in the Church there is the throne of the beast the forme of their government and manner of judicature Afterwards comes in Euphrates the streame of all those corruptions that make glad the Citie of Rome Therefore this Ayre seemeth to be the Ayre of that Antichristian Church Looke therefore what you can conceive to be the Ayre which this Antichristian Church doth breath in and that is the subject whereupon this Viall is poured And although indeed Mahumetry and Paganisme come to be afflicted here by it yet is it but an effect of pouring out this Vial upon the Ayre Now if you looke into Chap. 9.1 2. of this booke you shall finde that the Ayre of this worldly Church is the smoake which arose out of the bottomlesse pit and darkned the Ayre so that you could not see the Sunne much lesse the Moone and Starres and what was that smoake out of the bottomlesse pit but the darkenesse of ignorance from whence sprung all those Locusts and that King over them vers 11. the angel of the bottomlesse pit whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon he destroyeth the hope of the conversion of the Jewes and in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon he destroyeth them also and sprung out of this ignorance There is a double use of Ayre and this darkenesse corrupted both 1. There is an use of it for sight for through the Ayre if is bee cleare you see all the heavenly lights and by their help all inferiour bodies 2. It is the breath of life which maintaineth the life of men and is the supportance of their vitals And in both these things doth it fitly resemble heavenly and saving knowledge by which 1. In the first place we see Jesus Christ the Sun of righteousnesse to our justification by which we see the Moon that is the true state of Churches according to the Gospell by which we see the Stars the people of God and who indeed are his people that shine like lights in the world And hereby they see all things here below and judge rightly of them And 2. by the same saving knowledge doe we breathe in our vitals that we may so speak our spirituall life By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many Esay 53.11 And this is life eternall to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent John 17.3 Now if this Ayre be choaked you can neither see Jesus Christ to your justification nor breath in any ordinance of his to your salvation nor can you see what is the true Church nor who are the true Saints of God you can rightly discerne of nothing if once the Sun and the whole body of the ayre be darkened but if how there come an Angel that shall poure out his Vial upon his smoke of the ayre and dispell thereby the clouds of darknesse and ignorance then shall you clearly see Jesus Christ and the true state of his Church and of all visible Saints then shall you draw in true and lively breath from every ordinance of God This is therefore the ayre whereupon this Vial shall be poured and that will be the dispelling of the darknesse of it The Lord will send forth such a bright and cleare knowledge of his Christ and Church and Saints and holy things which will prevaile so far as to dispell all the fogs and mists of darknesse not alone in the Antichristian State but in all the world so that all Nations shall be brightened with the knowledge of God All Asia shall see the vanity of Mahumetry and all the Pagan Nations the fondnesse and blindnesse of their Superstitions And the Jews shall then see and bewaile their blindnesse and wretchednesse in standing out against Jesus Christ So that most true it is which godly Interpreters have said that hereby all the kingdomes of Satan are threatened though it be rather an effect of it then the true and proper sence 2. What is then the adjunct that followeth or goeth along with it There came a great voice out of the Temple
such an earthquake as this will be so mighty and so great that will blast not Popery alone but all the Hotamocks in this countrey and all that are found among other Indians in other parts of the world an Haile storme shall fall upon them all and blast all their green groves and arbours wherein they were wont to be worshipped Thus have you seen as the Lord hath been pleased to help the meaning of these words Let us now gather one note from them For I would not long dwell upon there Aenigmaticall I meane Parabolicall Scriptures The Doctrine is That when the darknesse of Popish and hellish Doct. ignorance is dispelled so that a man may clearely see heavenly light and breath in heavenly knowledge then It is done That is to say then all the mystery of iniquity is abolished and the mystery of God is fulfilled For thus you see it is evidently here expressed in the Text. The seventh Angel did poure out his Vial upon the Antichristian ayre and that was such an ayre as was darkened with the smoake of the bottomlesse pit as with a foggy mist Now when this ayre shall againe bee cleared and the foggy darknesse thereof dispelled so that men may have the true use of it to see through it those heavenly bodies which were darkened by that smoake Rev. 9.2 then shall men see Jesus Christ to be all in all unto Justification Sanctification Consolation which in Popery you could not then shall the true Church be seen which like the Moon borroweth all the light it hath from the Sun true indeed if the Moone be taken for the world then she treadeth it under her feet Rev. 12.1 In Popery you could not see what a true Church was they will tell you of this and that Church but they are no true Churches But when this vaile shall be removed then shall you clearely know that the true Church is not a Catholike visible nor a Cathedrall nor a Diocesan nor a Provinciall Church Then shall you see the Stars of heaven you shall know who are the true officers of the Church not Paratours and Proctours Deacons and Archdeacons Bishops and Archbishops over many Churches they are not the lights which the Lord hath set therein And you shall then see who were the true members of the Church Not the Canonized Saints not such as Saint George who was an ancient Heretick but you shall see them to be such as are spoken of Phil. 2.15 blamelesse and harmlesse the Sons of God without rebuke shining as lights in the world then shall you see the Scripture more clearely true doctrine and worship and government as it is held forth in the Gospell of Christ and when you shall see these things then It is done Even all that God hath to do in the world for any further Reformation expect it not Rev. 10.7 when the time is come that the seventh Angel hath blowne his Trumpet the Lord will not delay but it shall then be fulfilled and the Lord will clearely manifest to all Nations the great grace which he hath to show to the sons of men and this is long agoe foretold Esay 25.6 7 8. In this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things a feast of wines on the Lees of fat things full of marrow of wines on the Lees well refined And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people and that is the pouring out of this Vial upon the ayre for the face of the covering is the ayre in my Text Then will the Lord make a feast of fat things then will he swallow up death in victory and wipe away teares from off all faces and the rebuke of his people shall be taken away from off all the earth this is also prophesied of Esay 11.6 7 8 9. They shall not huâ—t nor destroy in all mine holy mountaine and the reason is for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea and then It is done The mystery of iniquity is abolished there is no more darknesse nor destruction and the calling of the Gentiles which was a mystery to the Jewes shall be then fully accomplished and the calling of the Jewes which the Apostle calleth a mystery to us Gentiles Rom. 11.25 shall be then fulfilled and so the mystery of God is finished Reas 1 Three Reasons doth the Text give us hereof 1. First from the manner of the entrance of this heavenly glory into the hearts of men whether it come into private persons or publique States It commeth terribly with lightnings and thunderings the which comming from God doe so terrifie the hearts of men and the state of the world that they shall see plainely how they have beene deluded with desperate follyes and when men are put unto such an earthquake in their spirits this will be the point they come unto Men and brethren what shall we doe to be saved as did the Jaylor when he had been soundly shaken with the earthquake Acts 16.26.30 and so it will be with Kingdomes when God hath in like sort shaken them they will contend for true Religion and will not then be baffled out and deluded with vanities as now they be when the spirits of men are terrified and they feele no salvation in their Religion they know not what shall become of their precious soules this will set all the world on worke to looke about them for upon this ground you shall see Indians and Jews and Pagans gaping after salvation when they see by these terrible stormes and thunders that all their Religions are but so many refuges of lies then is there worke in hand indeed which when God hath begun hee will also finish it unto the day of Christ and it will be such an earthquake as was never heard of in the world Heretofore so long as this worke was found among poore Christians the great Lords of the world persecuted them and devised all manner of cruell torments for them but when they felt that the wrath of God was kindled against them then their hearts fell and they were all in a combustion for the state of their soules before the Lord now they were glad to renounce their Jupiters and Junoes and to embrace Christianity and to hearken to a better Covenant this is the effect of thunderings and lightnings and voyces it soone blasteth Idolatry and forceth man to seeke after a clearer passage to heaven The second Reason is taken from the power of the saving knowledge Reas 2 of Christ to dispell this Popish ignorance and to carry an end the heart of a man with such power that he can no longer lie at quiet in his naturall estate but it worketh in men these foure effects 1. It subdueth and tameth the hearts of men that now they will joyn themselves unto the people of God Esa 11.6.7 8. the Wolfe shall lie with the Lambe the Leopard
neither would I wholly wave that Interpretation of the Imperiall state because the matter is not what Papists will acknowledge or what the Church of Rome will own Whether they will own the Emperour to bee the primest and chiefesf light or others for the holy Ghost speaks of things as they be as well as how they are conceived to be Now in Scripture Interpretation the greatest lights are Magistrates that hold forth the greatest lustre and splendor but yet in the Churches and when you speak of spirituall Administrations they that are to derive light from CHRIST to the Church they are the greatest lights for spirituall things But wee come to speak therefore of the great light they set up they set up him as the chiefest and greatest light which derives light to the very Scriptures for they conceive that they should not bee Authenticall unlesse the B of Rome count them so and if he do count them authenticall then they shall be so though they be Apocrypha and no sence of Scripture allowed for the light of truth unlesse it be acknowledged by him nor no Decrees go for currant unlesse he ratifie them So that that which they take for the light of their world is chiefly the Bishop of Rome If then he be their greatest light then this Angel pours his Vial of Gods wrath upon the Pope his transcendent light whereby he gives authority to the Scriptures to Doctrine to Worship to Government to Councels and whereby he gives power to all his Officers to administer Discipline and Church-power in all Christendom as they call it all Christian Churches over Then they are the Angels that pour out the Vial upon that Sun that take from him that transcendent Prerogative of the Sun which is to rule by day 136 Psal 8. Take then from him his rule by day for you must speak of things metaphorically in this place though in the Psalm is meant another Sun but in this Sun take from the Pope from this Sun Popish rule of Religion the rule of all Churches the Soveraign power in all Ecclesiasticall affairs and what then Then you will pour out a Vial of wrath upon him And so did Queen Elizabeth in her time and the Parliament then by making the Popes Supremacie and the defence of it high Treason against her person and the State of the Kingdom and against the Lord Iesus It poured forth such a Vial of Gods wrath upon this great Light the Antichristian State that it rules no more by day neither in England nor Scotland nor Ireland nor divers other neighbour Nations who by her precedent example did abandon the like usurpation the supreme rule of the Pope in Ecclesiasticall affairs which is the very Rule of the Churches of Christ Thus you see take the one or the other both will stand together Let the house of Austria be the Sun as it is in his kinde and Sphaere the greatest light of all their created Civil power and hath been a great light indeed and both an ornament and nourishment to the See of Rome Or take the Pope himself who will be the greatest Church-light and claims to himself Supreme power not onely in Ecclesiasticall causes but Civil too It is no unusuall thing in Scripture to make a graduall Interpretation of dark Scriptures as in the 17 Chapter The seven beads saith the Text are seven mountains upon which the woman sitteth and in the 10 verse they are also seven Kings the same that represent seven mountains doth represent seven Kings And so both these are great lights of that state the Imperiall and the Spanish power combined in that house by bloud and affinitie and the Pope himself in his sphaere are both the great lights of that state and it hath pleased â—od to pour out his Vial of wrath upon them both and both the one and the other suffer and they shall suffer more and more because they do not repent to give God glory of their due and deserved punishment but continue still in their blaspheming against the Lord and his people and when men grow worse and worse both civil state and Ecclesiastical state both growing worse and worse doubtles their plagues will be multiplied Sweden began with one and hath been followed Queen Elizabeth in England and others elsewhere have begun with the other the Lord by sundry instruments in one kinde or other hath gone forth and will go on stil to let them know that the most high hath power over all the earth and will not be driven out When once he begins to execute judgement he will go on destroying to destroy and though the ministers of this wrath may conflict with doubtfull and various events yet the issue will be blessed and Popish Princes and States shall stand a far off and cry Alas alas that great city Babilon that mighty city for in one hour is thy judgement come That will be the finall issue of the great wrath of God upon it and how far both these have proceeded you cannot chuse but know How far queen Elizabeth scorched that Antichristian state with fiery indignation it is universally known which provoked Catholick Princes so much that what with pouring out the former Vials upon the Rivers and Fountains when she decreed it Treason for any to carry Popish Religion to England and to reconcile men to that See the pouring out of that Vial there and this here so far provoked them that they brought in their whole power against her in 88 and would have swallowed her up quick they were so exasperated with heat and fury and had not the Lord by his out-â—â—retched arm and wisdom prevented there had been no hope of preservation but desolation of her and her Kingdom Thus have I shewed you as shortly and plainly as I could what should be the meaning of this fourth Vial and the Angel by whom it was poured out Let us shortly come to gather a note or two from the words and very briefly First this Doctr. 1 When the wrath of GOD is kindled against a State for corruption of Religion he pours out his judgements against them by degrees first upon the common sort of people then upon Church Officers and then upon the principall Rulers and lights of that State That is the first note This is evident in the Gradation of the Text here is the wrath of the Lord kindled against the Antichristian state called here the earth an earthly Kingdom an earthly state brought forth of the earth and minding earthly things and all their Ordinances savouring of the earth of humane inventions and wisdom and power The Lord then when his wrath is kindled and sends forth Messengers of his wrath on that State how begin they They begin first with the earth the lowest Element they begin not with the Sea nor with the Sun nor with the Air but first the Vial fals upon the Earth Common Catholicks they first feel the shame and confusion thereof as you have
heretofore heard Then as he discovers their Religion to be generally corrupt as the bloud of a dead man so hee pours out the next Vials upon the Rivers and Fountains of water those that carry this Religion up and down the Countries and Nations the Lord exasperates Civil States so far against them that they force them to drink bloud their own bloud as they made Martyrs to drink bloud so the Lord gave them to drink bloud for they are worthy as you heard it opened this day seven-night He first begins with the common Catholicks then with Priests and Jesuits Well doth he here stay when the Lord sees what little fruit groweth hereby Verily no for here is no Reformation of the common sort they still continue in their Ignorance and Superstition and Idolatry And what are the Priests and Jesuits any thing reformed It is nothing so nor do the lights of that State either the lights of the Imperiall world of the Provinces or their generall and grand holy Father the Pope as they call him none seek Reformation what then Then let the Imperiall state and Pope that claims Lord Paramountship over all let him look it the next Vial fals upon his head and the Lord doth this by degrees first upon his supreme lustre and glory as he rules by day And the next fals upon his Throne and that is a great blow to him and still the Lord goes on pouring to pour out and striking to strike till at length he crusheth the man of sin and all his abettors For their religion is corrupt and all that drink of it perish and the cōmon people Priests Jesuits shall smart and then the Pope Emperor whoever are their great lights let thē be lights in Church or Common-wealth for I will exclude neither they both partake in the sin and shall partake in the punishment of it The four Angels they may be severall persons but they have one common work they pour Vials upon the lights of both States and truly so the Lord did in Christian Rome this is Antichristian but when Rome was once Pagan and then became Christian in Constantines time and under the Christian Emperors Constantine and the rest opened the doors of the Church so wide that all the garden of God was become a wildernesse by an inundation of carnall people Christians in name but Pagans in heart that were let in and then that which was once a garden inclosed was now made a wildernesse when they took down the Pale and let in all dogs and swine that will come in the wrath of God breaks out against them then the Trumpet sounds a shrill sound and what was that In the 8 of Revel 7. The first Angel sounding there followed hail and fire mingled with bloud and they were cast upon the earth c. and that is upon the lowest sort of Christians there was given grievous hail cold hail-storm they received not the truth in love and being cold in Christianity they were hot in Emulation and Contention And then the second Trumpet sounding there was as it were a great Mountain burning cast into the Sea and there was a third part of the Sea became bloud there was high preferment cast into the Officers of the Church and a great part of the Administrations grew corrupt Then the third Angel sounded and there fals a Star from Heaven called Wormwood Wormwood of Heresie and corrupts the Priests many were infected with the Heresie of Arrius and Nestorius and Eutyches Afterwards all Scriptures came to be darkned with Allegoricall and Hereticall and corrupt Interpretations that Christ is scarse discerned in all their writings and the light of Scripture is darkened and the light of humane Learning that there is little light left And then the next Angel he sounds and smoke comes out of the bottomlesse pit and there comes Locusts upon the earth and they have a King set over them which is the Angel of the bottomlesse pit which is the Pope over the Friars and Monks So thus the Lord begins to deal with men first he fals upon them in one degree upon the earth first and then upon Religion in them and then upon Ministers the publishers of that Religion and after grows higher and higher till in the end there comes the Antichristian state the seventh head and he surmounts all Christian Emperors leads them all captive and hath the Key of the bottomlesse pit to destroy their souls whose name is Abaddon in Hebrew but in the Greeke Apollyon and then comes the Turk in the sixth Trumpet and he destroys and swallows up all So the Lords manner is first he breaks forth against the common people then against the Ministers then at last he riseth to the great Lords of the world the Rulers of the State they smoke for it at last What should be the Reason of the Point The Reason is Reas 1 First because ordinarily the first beginning of corruption is with the people and they being first corrupted then indeed it is meet that they should first be plagued for look as the Church grew to be corrupted in the Christian Emperors time so the Church came to be plagued in Antichristians time the earth was first corrupt in the Christian Emperors time and the first that is plagued is the earth then the sea then the rivers so by degrees The Lord goes the same way in plaguing as they did in degenerating the same way in executing judgement as they in sinning Reas 2 And secondly when the cōmon people are corrupted for their sin sake it pleaseth God either to send them corrupt Rulers like themselves or else to lead their good leaders into temptation to corrupt themselves and their people You read Prov. 28.2 For the wickednesse of a land many are the princes thereof many and wicked Rulers too They never lived long nor well after once the house of Israel had cryed out What portion have we in David or what inheritance in the son of Iesse The Lord never gave them good King in Israel after not in Israel I say Judah indeed had sundry times good Kings but for Israel the 10 Tribes that rejected the yoke and the house of David in regard of the hard payments that Solomons son put upon them and therefore in their prophanenesse cryed out What portion have we in David c. Then immediatly after that the Lord never gave them any good King 1 King 12.16 So there grows Religion to be corrupted in the people and then for their wickednesse God gives them wicked Princes I gave them a King in mine anger and took him away in my wrath O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self Hos 13.9 10. Israel corrupts it self provokes God and he gives them a King in his anger and takes him away in his wrath And it is written as a heavie curse of God in Lev. 26.17 If you still trespasse against me I will set Princes over you that shall hate you Mischievous