not of most of the chief Abbots and Priors whom with other rewards and compensations he had allured thereunto volenti non fit injuria and so though they ought not to have consented to such an impious Act to be Partakers in his Sacriledge yet the injury that was done unto themselves cannot be deemed so great because they were consenting and those honester men How K. Henry the 8 provided for the Abbots and Priors whom he could not perswade with other better Preferments to yield their consent to his desire to pass away their Patrimony he took that course and care for them that they should be very competently provided for some one way and some another way and many of them with Pensions out of his own Exchequer that they might not want what was necessary for them while they lived And as I am credibly informed Mr. John Pymme a most Noted and Notorious Member of the Long Parliament when he was in that Office hath paid the Pension alotted to one of them that lived to these our own times And this kind of proceeding cannot be thought so great a Persecution or so grievous an Oppression of them or so odious an Impiety in the King especially if you consider the Lazy life and little good that many of them did and the single condition of these men that lived without Wives without Children without Families But the Long Parliament How the long Parl. dealt w th all Bishops Deans and Prebends without the least colour of the Consent of any one of all our Bishops Deans or Prebends but altogether against their wills and against the will of the King that should have a Vote in every Act and a Negative Passage as we conceive hath taken all even from all and every one of them that had for the most part Wives and Children and Servants and allowed them not one Half-Penny out of all the great Means they took from them to relieve themselves and their Families but let them live as they will and as they can dig or beg or starve and die when they can live no longer and so I my self have seen many worthy Divines and some Reverend Bishops in great want and misery And this was worse dealing than the Pirate that took me at Sea dealt with me when he took away all my Money and yet gave me as much as might well carry me home to my House And 2. In Q. Maries time 2. The Persecution of the Protestants in Qu. Mariâ—s time when our Godly Bishops and other Grave Doctors were burned and many good Protestants imprisoned and persecuted for their Religion and the Profession of the true Faith of Christ by the Instruments of the Dragon the old enemy of mankind yet then they were cited to the Courts of Justice they had Articles exhibited against them they had time alotted them for to answer and all the Proceedings against them passed on as against all others in forma Juris according to the Law And they had neither suffered nor been deprived if they had recanted Some of the Lay Protestants I presume from their Ignorance and want of understanding of the School-terms and Scholerlike distinctions wherein their Adversaries were most Skilful and although the Constancy of these Pious Martyrs and the Resolution of those whose Zeal to the Protestant Religion and Desire of Reformation and perhaps Ambition to be Martyrs transported them it may be in some things beyond their Knowledge have moved them rather to suffer themselves to be deprived of their estates and to suffer death than to deny their Faith which the more Learned sort knew and the other good-meaning men believed to be the true Faith of Gods Elect yet the death that was imposed on them and the punishment that they suffered The Martyrs in Q. Maries daies far more fairly dealt withall than we are was not if you consider all circumstances especially the extent of the persecution and the fewness of the persons suffering in comparison of the sufferers in these times near so bitter and so bad nor any waies so cruel and so insufferable as this most inhumane dealing which hath been used and the punishment that was inflicted so extensively and universally upon all the Reverend Bishops Deans Prebends and abundance more of most Learned Divines and other Loyal Subjects and good Christians of these Kingdoms by the subtle tormentors and new tyrants of these daies For seeing as the Poet truly saith Dulce mori miseris To die is sweet and a favour to them that are in misery either through want sickness sorrowes or the like insufferable disasters and as another saith Morsque minus poenae quam mora mortis habet Death is a lesser punishment than to be alwaies as we are at the door of death and still in fear Job 7.15 Ecclesiasticus 41.2 and expecting when death shall come to attache us which is the very same in effect that both holy Job which had most reason to know it and the Son of Syrach that so well understood the state of our mortanty do testifie unto us for both of them do affirm that an honourable death is far better than a miserable life and will sooner be chosen by any Heroick and Noble mind theâ—efore Claudian demands Nonne mori satius Claudian vitae quans ferre pudorem Who would not chuse rather to die than to endure shame and be in contempt and disgrace while he liveth as they must needs be that from the height of honour are tumbled down to the lowest pit of Confusion to become the scorn of the vilest in the world which the Long Parliament hath made us to be Therefore it is apparent to all the world at least to all understanding men that those Martyrs were in a far better condition and used by those Tyrants after a far better manner than our Ministers and others were Their Committee men were told they were ill affected that was enough Sed si satis accusasse quis innocens by the now pretended Saints they were more justly proceeded against more fairly handled and less cruelly dealt withal than our men are the poor Christians that have been utterly undone by the Long Parliament For I speak by the Experience of some that I knew my self to be thus handled and thus dealt withal before ever they were called in question or charged with any crime or accused for any fault or have leave to answer for themselves or be suffered to speak one word in their own behalf and for the relief and support of their Wives and Families to be adjudged yea and oftentimes contrary to their own Articles and Engagements to be deprived of all their Means their Lands and their Livings and all that they had to be taken from them And because they had done nothing worthy of death or of bonds Act. 23.29 they shall not have the honour I speak of many that were thus used either to be imprisoned where it is likely
never do And therefore questionless these men must yeild that the Antichrist signifieth not any one single person in the series and succession of Popes but the Prince or prime leader with his followers and so it must signifie a multitude together Who are to be understood by the Antichrist and not any one singly and alone And so it comes to what I say that the beast and the Anitchrist doth betoken a collected multitude of wicked men army or Senate whereof one may be the ringleader and this multitude knit and combined together is and will be the worst pack and the most wicked totius coetus diaboli of all the servants and souldiers of the devil and they are like the choicest Legion or regiment of Caesars veteran souldiers unto the dragon his life-guard and a confederacy of the prophanest hypocrites and corruptest wicked men that ever assembled and continued to consult and act together since their elder brother the Synedrion and council of the Jews condemned Christ himself John 5.43 such another pack or company of men as killed Christ I take the Antichrist to be for they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one and the first great adversarie of Christ and this confederate pack is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other which Bellarmin speaketh of And the restrictive Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to each one of his names as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like doth not so infallibly evince that he must be one single person which as I shewed you could not effect and do all that the Antichrist doth as E. H. thinketh Epiphan quo supra haerâ—s 9. and the cardinal endeavoureth to prove as it doth most certainly contract the signification as Epiphanius saith huic coetui huic senatui vel huic Ecclesiae malignentium to this singular pack this very Senate this peculiar and particular company and association of wicked men that do consist of many single persons whereof as in all other confederation one may be the prime and principal leader in all exploits Eudaem p. 151. For it is observable that as Eudaemon truly admitteth the article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth give a double limitation the one to designe the nature only the other to limit the universal nature to this or that particular of that nature yet so as it may agree to any other of the same kinde and thus the Greek article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 designeth and compriseth not only the head but also every particular member of the beast and so they do indeed tie the signification ad unam rem certam to some one certain thing as I say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth here this one pack knot company and society of men and every particular member head and tail of that association and none other And it is more agreable to all reason that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Antichrist That united malice and a confederate power do alwaies the greatest mischief should rather designe this very society and collected pick and multitude of men than this or that single man because we all know by experience daily seen that united malice and confederate poweâ— do alwayes the strangest villanies and we finde it in the devil himself that although he be the Prince of darkness and hath alone a very great and powerfull malice yet even he without fellowes raging about cannot do nigh so much mischief as he doth in conjunction with more associates and therefore when he hath any great and notable villany to effect as to subvert kingdomes to ruine Churches to suppress Gods true service and to destroy the prime and chiefest servants of Christ â—e associates himself with many hands and heads and saith unto them venite come my dear friends and leâ—us joyn our wits and powers together to do such and such acts as will well produce so much pleasure and profit both unto me and you and I shall reward you very liberally besides And we finde it also that in such an association of wicked instruments and the combination both of infernal and terrestrial malice where the devil is the devicerr and councellor and men the actors and the more men do unite themselves to produce the mischief God permitteth a great deal of mischiefs and villanies more abundantly to be done both to the Church and state both to private and publick persons than he usually doth to any single malice as he suffereth more slaughters to be done by a multitude of blood-thirsty men than he doth by any single though never so bloody a tyrant and more roberies by a company of robbers than by any one of the greatest thieves And therefore we do confidently avouch that the great Antichrist is a great company of men collected together and combined together in association by a solemn League and Covenant to do such and such feats and facts as shall prove the greatest prejudice mischiefs and villanies to Christ and his servants that ever were done since the crucifying of the Son of God That the great Antichrist is like a great oak that hath many boughs and branches And so the great Antichrist is like a great and a might oak-tree consisting of many many boughes and branches of whom we may justly say as the Poet doth of the like case uno avulso non deficit alter Tartareus ramus when one branch of that tree or one member of that corporation decayeth another presently as bad or worse springeth up and succeeds in the place thereof and so you see who is meant by and to be understood by the great Antichrist Question But then the Question is who should be this association and collected multitude of such wicked men so trascendently wicked above all others And I finde many men answering this Question Who should be that collected company as our Saviour answered the Jews when they questioned him and asked of him by what authority he did those things by demanding of them Whether the baptism of John was from heaven or of men so do they answer this question by demanding the question whether it may not be conceived that the Assembly of Presbyterians consulting at Westminster together with the Independant and lay-Preachers are not as it were the soul that moveth guideth and directeth to all actions and the prevalent faction of that long Parliament that beheaded their King and suppressed their Bishops be not as it were the body and organical instrument that produced and effected all the acts of that great Antichrist the man of sin and the childe of perdition that was to come into the world For you must observe that as a man consisteth of body and soul so the man of sin the great Antichrist must be confest to consisteth of body and soul and as sometimes the mysticall body of Christ that is the church is termed Christ as in Act. 9.4 and
sometimes the head alone is called Christ A necessary Observation as Christ hath also once suffered 1 Pet. 3.18 and thus Christ is most usually taken and sometimes the head and the body joyned together by the Spirit is called Christ as Galat. 3.16 and 1 Cor. 12.12 So the Antichrist and the beast sometimes signifieth all the pack knot or company that are as it were the body of the beast and of the Antichrist as 2 Thess 2.8 sometimes it is put for the visible head Revelat. 11.2 and Ch. 13.5 or most polypragmatical actor of that company the General of that army the Speaker of that Senate and the ringleader of all that association as in Revel 11.7 and sometimes it signifieth both the head and the body of the beast as Revel 13.6 7 8. and so likewise the beast and the Antichrist is sometimes put to signifie only the soul as it were of the Antichrist and sometimes it is put for that pack which is as it were the body of the Antichrist and sometimes it signifyeth both the body and soul of the Antichrist And if you would rightly understand the actions and the things that are spoken of the Antichrist and the beast in general you must distinguish in particular of the acts that are applicable and ascribed unto him as they are in respect of these several significations and several agents because many things are done by the head of the army or the ringleader of a company alone and are only applicable to him alone and to none else other things are done by the body alone and are applicable only to the body though they could not be effected by the body without a head and other things are so done that they are applicable and may be ascribed to be done both by the body and the head and as the acts and operations of the body and the soul are different and must be thus rightly distinguished if you would understand the proper acts and operations of each of them so are the acts and operations that are ascribed to the Antichrist different How the actions of the Antichrist are to be considered if we would rightly understand them and must be rightly applyed to the proper agents either in respect of his head or members or in respect of his body or soul if you would truly and rightly understand them because that as I said before the man of sin consisteth both of body and soul that is an assembly of Divines which are as the soul of the beast and are called the false Prophet and a pack or company of most wicked laicks that are as the body of the beast and are most commonly termed the Antichrist because they are the more visible and the instrumental agents of all or most of the impieties and wickednesses that are committed And the not observing of these distinctions and proper application of the acts and things done to the right agents when as in the general they are produced by such mystical and compound agents hath caused many men to erre in their Exposition◠and to misapply the acts and doings of the Antichrist but being thus distinguished and all the acts and operations of the Antichrist rightly understood and properly applyed to the right agents head or members body or soul it is further demanded The desire of satisfaction in this Question moveth the demand of the former question Whether all the notes arguments acts sayings and testimonies of the Scriptures which the pen-men of Gods word have set down as the marks badges fignes and tokens whereby the saints and true servants of Christ might know the Antichrist when he came into the world that they might avoid him which cannot all be found applicable and fulfilled either in the Pope or Turk or in the series and succession of either of them or any single tyrant whatsoever are not all and every one of them most properly and punctually found sutable and agreeable in all things and in every point with the acts sayings doings and proceedings of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster and the swarm of Independants and lay-preachers and the prevalent faction of that long Parliament that have agreed to slay the witnesses of Gods truth Neither do they mean in this Question or think it requisite that the Assembly of Divines at Westminster and the prevalent members of that long Parliament should do all and fulfill every point that is prophesied should be done and fulfilled by the Antichrist themselves but that all and every thing should be acted and fulfilled by them and by those that were their confederates and assisted and adkered to them as being the members of the beast though not of the Assembly nor of the Parliament Neither do they comprehend nor understand all the members of the Parliament in this Question but as I say the prevalent party only For you must know that it is certain without question that as a righteous Lot was in Sodom among those wicked Citizens and a godly Joseph among the idolatrous Aegyptians and many good Christians in bloody Nero's Court That many good and godly men were in the long Parliament so many good and godly men were members of that very Parliament that we call the long Parliament and did no more consent nor like of those wicked actions and proceedings of the rest than Nicodemus and Gamaliel did approve of the wickedness of the high Priests and the rest of the Council that condemned Christ to death therefore you must conceive that under the name of that long Parliament they the demand the question before specified do understand only the prevalent faction of that Parliament which like a violent stream have carried things and either through their subtlety or by the absence of some of the members of the House in a thin Assembly have out-voted the rest of the more honest and sober men in every wicked vote and so wheresoever I speak of that Parliament without adding the prevalent faction as sometimes in many writings totum denominatur à parte praestantiori the woole takes his denomination from the better part and sometimes à parte minus praestantiori from the worser and viler part so here in this Discourse the whole is named from the worser part as being indeed in the absence of the resr Who are to be understood and whom the Author meaneth under the name of the long Paliament the major part and I mean only the prevalent party and partial faction of that Parliament clergy and laity and their disciples abettors and adherents wheresoever dispersed over all Ingland Scotland and Ireland for otherwise if you speak of the long Parliament in general as it consisted of King Lords and Commons or of the 2 Houses of Lords and Commons as compleat and not partially taken or subtilly circumventing one another I honour that Parliament and do approve of all their acts and Ordinances that they have so made and therefore wheresoever I name that Parliament
the Turk could it be done Who then hath done it This Book was written in the time of the Usurper Truly if any Court hath done such an Act I think I need not if I knew it digito demonstrare dieier hic est because such a publick Fact and so abominable in the sight of men that is as the Apostle speaks of the death of Christ not done in a corner is known far and near and talked of by young and old Yet this much I will tell thee my friendly Reader for I think none but my friends will read me that I have read very many Histories both of the Greeks and Latines and many of the Histories of the Church Whence the 9 Speeches in Parliament were collected and the Lives of many Kings and Emperors both of our own Kingdom and of other Nations and the Nine several speeches as I believe of the best anti-regal Orators of the Long Parliament concerning the Power of Parliament to proceed against their King for mis-government The which Speeches if I be not much mistaken were all taken and collected out of Dolmans Book that was the great Jesuite and arch-enemy of Queen Elizabeth Father Parsons that printed a Book full of treason against the Queens Majesty under the feigned name of Dolman and the Book was condemned by Act of Parliament the 35th year of Queen Elizabeth and now with the change of the Title the most of it is reprinted to shew the Power of Parliament to proceed against their King which by that Act of the 25th of the Queen I conceive to be then judged no less than crimen laesae Majestatis a crime of High Treason against the Queen though in the Long Parliament it was thought a point of just proceeding against our Kings especially against King Charles And yet in all the Histories that I have read and in all those Nine Speeches and all those Examples What Kings were deposed or killed by their Subjects that those Orators do produce of the Kings and Princes that were deposed banished or killed by their Subjects for their Tyranny and mis-government as Saul and Ammon by the Jews Romulus Tarquinius Julius Caesar Nero Domitian Heliogabulus Maxentius Constantine the 6th and Irene by the Romans Childereck and Charles of Lorein by the French Flaveo Suintilla Don Alonso el Sabio and Don Pedro by the Spaniards Don Sancho by the Portugals Henry the 3. by the Polonians Gustavus by the Swedes Cisternus by the Danes Edwin John Edward the 2. Richard the 2. Henry the 6. and Richard the 3. by the English Which are all but obliquely and poorly produced and might by a reasonable Historian be fully answered especially because according to that true Rule Vivitur praeceptis non exemplis We are to frame our lives by Precepts as God commandeth us and not by examples as other men have done For I can have examples enough beyond number of men that have committed murders and that have been Robbers and Adulterers and the like And shall I therefore follow their examples God forbid So many Nations have done thus and thus unto their Kings And will that warrant us That we ought not to follow unjust examples do to the like By no means Because we are to look not what other Nations do but what God commandeth us to do and he commandeth us not to touch his Anointed nor to speak evil of the Governour of the people be he good or be he bad for if he be good nutritor est tuus he is thy preserver and thank God for him and if he be bad tentator est tuus God sent him for thy trial and thou must not kick against God but receive thy trial with patience until he that sent him in his anger takes him away in his wrath against him and in his love to thee and he can take him away when he pleaseth till which time with David thou shouldst rest thy self contented as he did to endure the Tyranny of Saul though I say that I read of those foresaid Princes that were deposed or killed by the foresaid Nations and of many others Kings and Princes that as the Poet saith came not to their graves sicca morte And as the Parliament proceeded against King Charles without blood yet I find not any one of them all in any Nation whatsoever to have been proceeded against and to have been condemned and killed modo forma as the Jews proceeded against Christ and the Antichrist would proceed against the Witnesses and the Parliament did against our King And therefore this sin of the Antichrist is not an usual or a common sin as Idolatry blasphemy murder and the like but such a murder as is to be the proper and peculiar sin of the Antichrist and of none else in which respect the Apostle calleth the Antichrist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the man of the sin by which sin so done as I shewed you you might know him to be the Antichrist Object But it may be some will say that I do hereby positively and plainly conclude the Long Parliament to be the great Antichrist and to have committed the proper sin of the Antichrist because that they being the highest Court of Justice have condemned their Superiours their King and chief Pastor judicially as the Jews did Christ unto death Solut. I answer that God hath not made me a Judge to determine whether the Long Parliament hath justly or unjustly condemned them to death for if they have done justly therein they have done well and no waies committed the sin of the Antichrist which is such a condemning as I shewed of an innocent person unto death and of such persons as God requireth not but forbiddeth to be condemned but if they have unjustly condemned them let them look to it and answer to God for it I will not be their Judge let who will determine the question but I will proceed in the Apostles description of this man of sin that is the Antichrist And to shew that the Antichrist is full of other sins though this man-killing thus That the antichrist will be full of other sins as I shewed be his Master sin St. Paul goeth on to set out some other of his sins that tend to produce and to perfect the former sin saying that he should oppose and exalt himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped So that He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an opposer or an adversary 1. A Rebel an opposer of his King and of his Passor as both the Syriack and the vulgar Latine reads it and as learned Zanchius saith this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek answereth to the word Satan in Hebrew and as the Son of Perdition which the Apostle here ascribeth unto the Antichrist so this word adversary alludeth unto Judas of whom Christ saith have not I chosen twelve and one of you is a Devil And why a Devil but because he
godliness whereof Saint Paul speaketh 1 Tim. 3.16 that is the mystery of Christian Religion which is the greateft of all mysteries and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 termed the mystery of God and a mystery indeed to the World and all worldly men that know nothing and believe nothing of it shall then be finished and be at an end and what God hath declared unto his Servants the Prophets and the Prophets unto his People John 1.1 and c. 3.16 Jude Ep. v. 16. that God sent his Sonne his eternall wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the word God to be made flesh to save all that believe in him and repent them of their evill wayes and that this Son of God will come to receive the beleevers in him to everlasting life and to execute judgement and to render vengeance unto all the ungodly that will neither obey God nor believe in him and to cast them for their injustice and impiety into everlasting fire which is prepared for the Devill and his Angels shall then come to passe and the truth of this great Mystery which now the worldlings and Atheists will no wayes believe shall then appear most manifest unto all the Sonnes of men good and bad For though there be some other particular mysteries of a lower degree spoken of in Rom. 11.25 1 Cor. 15.51 2 Thes 2.7 Ephes 5.32 Revel 1.20 c. 17.5 and in other places of the holy Scripture yet this onely mystery is the great mystery and the mystery of God which is principally and most specially spoken of in the new Testament as the mystery that was hid from the ages Collos 1.26 and from the wise and prudent of this World and was declared unto all his servants the Prophets The great mystery of Christian Religion when finished and which shall be finished when the seventh Angel shall begin to sound whose founding shall put an end to the third woe and the 7 last Vialls of Gods wrath and shall begin the felicity of all Gods Servants And this I take to be the true sence and meaning of the Holy Ghost touching the particulars that are prophesied of and foretold us in this 11th Chapter of this Book whereof you may apply to these present times and our own proper Church what you conceive to be already fulfilled and may unquestionably be applied unto them and for the rest that is unfulfilled Predictions unfulfilled may easily be misapplyed I dare not presume to determine any thing for as the Philosopher saith de futuris contingentibus non est facile determinanda veritas so I say more truly de futuris praedictionibus aenigmatice praedictis to explain the predictions of the Prophets and the Prophesies of the holy Scriptures that are so mystically foreshewed unto us before they be fulfilled may as easily be mistaken and misapplied I desire the Reader to judge of things as he seeth them fulfilled Act. 1.7 as rightly expounded by the best Interpreters that can but conjecture at things to come especially for the times and seasons of their fulfilling which the Father hath put and reserved in his own power Therefore for our two witnesses of Jesus Christ that were here killed amongst us whether they be these two witnesses here spoken of in this 11th Chapter of this Book or not I leave it for others to determine I must leave them dead and unburied in the streets of the great City in the manner that I shewed you before and the people making merry feasting and rejoycing for their suppression and I hope we may without offence I am sure to all good Christians expect when the spirit of life from God shall raise them up again and accomplish the manner of their restauration to their offices and places which is yet unfulfilled and unbelieved especially in the little hope we have of the raising of the last which is the Ecclesiasticall witness but the time of their reviving is the more uncertain when it shall be because we cannot well set down the exact time when the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy chorus prophetarum were quite killed for though the beheading of the King and of the chief Pastor of our Church William Land is well known to a day yet the deadly wounds and strokes of the rest of the Bishops were many and not all imposed at one time but 1. They were thrust out of their unquestionable right of sitting as Peers and members of the upper House of Parliament which we confess was the royall favour of pious Christian Kings and Princes that conceived them to be fit men to be consulted with and was confirmed by many acts of Parliament unto them 2. They were put out of their calling whereunto God had called them and cast out of their office wherein Christ by his blessed Apostles had placed them and their Hierarchy was utterly denied them and their dignity trodden under-foot 3. The Hierarchy being like a great Oak had many stroaks to throwe it down Their whole meanes and maintenance the Patrimony of the Church which the Parliament gave not to them were taken from them and either sold or given away and most of the faithfull Ministers Livings were sequestred and bestowed upon young novices or worse and the godly Incumbents left with their diocessans either to live on alms if they have none other meanes or else to starve as many of them did want 4. They were excluded from all benefit of Law and all Lawyers Atturneys and Solicitors straitly prohibited to assist them in the legall seeking of their due and just right which was also a wrong to the Lawyers 5. They were silenced and made speechless by that Thunderbolt which proclaimed them enemies to the state and should be proceeded against as enemies if they presumed to open their mouthes to preach the word of God either publickly or privately which is their spirituall killing and may be feared to be the forerunner of their corporall slaughter But whether all those strokes afore spoken have laid the Ecclesiasticall witness down for dead or that yet some heavier blow then all those will be given them to make a finall extinction of them I am not sure and therefore I must at this time leave them either as the poor Traveller that fell amongst Theeves betwixt Hierusalem and Hiericho half dead and to expect their deadly wound or as the Levites Wife For an Army must be maintained to hinder their rising and that Army must be maintained by the sweat of the poor people quite killed and parted among the twelve Tribes of Israel and so must lie not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mouthless and speechless by this last blow that cannot be healed but even dead till the spirit of life from God shall rayse them up till which rising of them if they be these witnesses here spoken of Chap. 11. Revel the second woe shall not be past but afflictions shall be added to our troubles and sorrowes to our afflictions and
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
the same method as the 7th did And I heard it demanded very often if any Beast any like them with whom St. Paul fought at Ephesus or any other Beast in the world did or could possibly more evenly immitate passibus aequis even to a haire and over immitate that wicked Apostata in all points of subtlety and cruelty and specially in this preposterous and most odious course now specified against the Messengers of Christ for the quite rooting out of them and their Message the Gospel of Christ as the Rump Parliament hath done for as Julian did before them The Parallel so did not they by the same course of plundering and ejecting the Clergy and taking away all livelihood from the Bishops and other grave Doctors and Preachers cause many learned men even all whose names are not written in the Book of life as the Holy Ghost speaketh and some that seemed Starres and not of the least lustre in the firmament of the Church to fall from Heaven and to start aside like a broken Bowe and rather to follow the indirect Directory of the Parliament then for the observance of the direct form of serving God to forgoe their rich Rectories yea and did they not cause them to take the mark and Livery of that Beast and against their Consciences to take the Covenant of the Beast and so to forswear themselves that they might preserve their Lands and their Livings which otherwise they must have forgone as they saw others do in every place Quam sunt laudandi qui te florente juventa sprevere luxus deliciasque tuas So bewitching a thing is the love of this World as Demas can well testifie and all that have not learned St. Peters lesson to forsake all and to follow Christ and so you see how the 8th that is the Beast is of the 7th and practiceth the same acts and the same wayes as the 7th did Or else we may understand these words the 8th is of the 7 to signifie that this Beast is of the same subtlety cruelty and condition and hath as much gall and bitterness in him against the true Church and the true servers of God as all or any one of all the other 7. had So that you can finde no villany or mischief in any or in all the other 7. but you shall finde the same fully in this Beast that hath as many heads and more heads himself then all the other 7. Kings had and indeed this Exposition is most agreeable to the Originall Text that doth not say the 8th is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the 7th but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the seven And whosoever readeth the first and second part What the Authour of the History of Independency saith of the long Parliament and especially the third part of the History of Independency I should wonder if he finde it not there shewed that all the devices conspiracies hypocrifies and cruelties of those Kings or Emperours here mentioned yea and Parallel 7 times 7 more unto them are not reaching and answerable to the plots and devices iniquity and impiety of the long Parliament conceived by some men as I said before to be this beast to possess the estates destroy the liberties take away the lives of Gods Servants and to overthrow the true service and Religion of Jesus Christ for the Authour of that History proveth evidently as he saith by the very Acts and Votes the Ordinances and writings of that long Parliament that they are more bloody and cruel then the proscriptions of Sylla more unreasonable then the Articles of High Treason that were made by the Duke de Alva then which the Devill could not devise much worse and that their High Court of Justice is a new Slaughterhouse for the murthering of the free Subjects of Ingland without any just proceeding but in all things contrary to all the Lawes and Statutes of this Land which are there abundantly produced by that Authour to make good his assertion and to condemn that Court and their proceedings therein for usurpation treason tyranny The History of Independency part 3. p. 42. theft and murther for which illegall arbitrary and most barbarous bloody proceedings every mans hands would be about their eares if they did not keep an Army of Janizaries to suppress them saith that Authour And what viler baser and more abominable things then these could any beast any Antichrist or any Devill devise to do I cannot tell but I leave it to my Reader to judge whether these things be true or not CAP. II. The 10 Horus of the Beast who they are and what they may signifie their Crowns what they signifie their blasphemy the three chief properties of the Leopard how agreeable to the long Parliament of the feet and mouth of the Beast what they betoken of the power and authority of the Beast and the head that was mortally wounded who or what is meant thereby and how the Beast shall continue to make Warre 2. 2. Of the 10. Horns of the Beast IT is said that the beast had ten horns and the Holy Ghost expoundeth the meaning of this expression in the 17th Chapt v. 12. saying that these 10 horns are 10 Kings which have received no Kingdom but receive power as Kings with the Beast whereupon Junius to make good his former Interpretation of the Beast saith hos decem Reges jam olim numeraverunt circumscripserunt multi these Kings long agoe many have numbred and described to be 10 which did arise and spring out of the Roman Empire Junius in annotat in c. 13. in c. 17. quum politicum illud imperium arte pontificum maxime capit labascere when that civill Empire began by the craft and subtlety of the Popes to fall unto decay and Mr. Mede names these Kings to be 1. Vortimer 2. Hengist 3. Childeric 4. Gunderic 5. Theodoric 6. Viciarins 7. Gensericus 8. Sumanus 9. Theodomir 10. Marcianus Alcazar saith that these 10 Horns do signifie Polyarchiam Romanorum Mr. Mede in his Apostat of the latter times p. 82. Anno 456. the multitude of the Roman Senators which gave their strength and power by which they formerly ruled unto the Emperour and Cornâ—a Lapide saith these 10 Horns are 10 Kings equibus tres profligabit antichristus caeteri septem territi ei sponte se subdent whereof three shall be vanquished by the Antichrist as Daniel saith of the little horn tres Reges deprimet he shall suppress three Kings and the other seven being terrified that is by the humbling of those three shall willingly submit themselves unto him and it may be the three Kings that A Lapide speaketh of might be 1. The King of Ingland The Parallel A Lapide his Exposition how fulsilled M. Mede names the other three which the Pope suppressed p. 83. 2. The King of Scotland 3. The King of Ireland and the other seven that is most of the Neigh
I refer it to any mans judgement I know the Pope challengeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as great authority as can be imagined but whether he hath this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a militarie Force of gold and filver men and munition so plentifull and so powerfull as the Parliament had it I leave it to the world for to judge But Then it is said that the Dragon gave his Throne or Seat unto the Beast The Throne of the beast what manner of Throne it is Isa 14.13.14 Luke 46. Matth. 4.9 and what Throne hath the Dragon but an usurped Throne when with the King of Babylon that said in his heart I will ascend into heaven and I will exalt my Throne above the stars of God and above the heigth of the clouds and I will be like unto the most high so he will assume to himself what is none of his own and as he said to Christ all these things will I give thee when as they were none of his to give so he gives unto the Beast no other Throne but an usurped Throne such as himself had no right unto nor any power to give but as the thief can give away my purse which by force he hath taken from me The parallel And so the Author of the Historie of Independency sheweth how the long Parliament entred and possessed this usurped Throne of the Dragon when in answer to the Kings offered Act of Oblivion they intended as they did afterward to pass an Act of general pardon for which they expected a general obedience and submission to their Government for the future because pardon and protection implies obedience to the Protectors without which they may be handled as publick enemies and outlaws that ought to be destroyed as Traitors and Rebels against the State as Politicus the States interpreter sets it down numb 16. from Sept. 19. to Sept. 26. But how came they saith that Author to that Majesty How the long Parliament came to the Throne of their claimed authority to whom for birth and the highest of their education that they should have the power and authority of granting pardons imposing Laws and requiring obedience from the people and without that to plunder them and to punish the refusers as they please You see what the Holy Ghost saith from whence the Beast had it from whence soever they have it But our new Statists saith he will answer you that the Supreme power is originally in the people and so the Parliament voted the same to be and the people have delegated and committed the same to them as the Representative of the people and so having this derivative authority from the people which had this authority but from them and their vote they use this authority to yoke their Soveraign Lord the people whose delegates they profess themselves to be and to make them yield Allegeance and obedience unto them that are but their own delegates and servants of the Common wealth under the penalty of depriving them of their goods Lands and lives Such a piece of circular Logick for them to give a power unto the people who had no power to give it A strange piece of Logick and then to take it to themselves from the people to master and to destroy the people as I think neither Aristotle nor Ramus nor all the School of Athens did ever know the like yet hereby we see how they have got to the Throne of Supreme Majesty and though it be but an usurped Throne saith that Author and their authority a self-created authority meerly to cheat fools and to domineer over the weak and helpless people yet as Vespasian said dulcis odor lucri ex re qualibet so they thought it a brave thing to rule by what Logick Art or means soever they can attain unto the Throne be it right or wrong So cruelly hatefull and beastly is the nature of Ambition and the desire of bearing Rule and Plutarch saith Plutarch in vita Pyrhi And now the Parliament having gotten possession of this usurped throne as we may call it and cloathed himself with this new created Majesty it is said that he exerciseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that great Authority with such and so great severity and in so large and transcendent a manner over the people as neither King nor Keisar neither Pope Turk nor Tyrant Walter Raleigh in his Prerace to the History of the world nor any other Pagan Infidell did ever the like for omitting others further from us though Henry 8. that was Praecursor Antichristi the Gentleman Usher to bring in the Antichrist and of whom Sir Walter Raleigh saith If all the pictures and patterns of a merciless Prince were lost in the world they might all be painted to the life out of the story of this King that neither spared Woman in his Lust nor man in his Fury hath mightily magnified his Authority over his Subjects to make his Lustfull will stand for law yet he came far short multis parasangis by many degrees of the power and Authority that this Parliament hath used over his Brethren and over his own Soveraign Lord and Master the people for though neither Henry the 8th nor any other King of this Land did ever attempt to do any publick Act of moment as to levy monyes press Souldiers Vieount verulam in the life of Hen. 7. commit Prisoners and put men to death but according to the Lawes of our Land howsoever they caused these Lawes to be sometimes wrested by their judges to satisfie their own wills as Sir Francis Bacon saith Henry the 7th sometimes did yet that Parliament without Law and ex diametro contrary to our Lawes saith the Author of the History of Independency have made themselves Masters of our Estates of our liberties and of our lives that as the Centurion said he was a man under Authority and needed but say to this man go and he goeth and to another come and he commeth and to his Servant do this and he doth it so this Parliament is above all Authority and needs but set down what sum soever he would have he must have it and what men soever he would have dead they must dye for whatsoever this Parliament voteth that is a Law and they can vote what they will And what Authority in the world can be greater then this the Pope can do nothing without his Cardinalls nor the Cardinalls without the Pope and King Ahassuerus could do nothing without his seven Counssellors nor the seven Counsellors without the King Hester 1.13 Ezra 7.14 yet this Parliament will do any thing without the King and against the King and therefore mine Author saith that when this Parliament voted that whatsoever the Commons in Parliament Voted and shall Enact The strange Vote of the long Parliament Hist of Independ pag. 11. part 3. shall have the power and force of an Act of Parliament or Law without the consent of
be plundered their estates sequestred and themselves if they resisted them and assisted the King should be killed as disaffected and malignants against the Parliament and enemies to the State and Comon-Wealth and was not this their voice and their act an act I am sure bad enough to undoe so many 2. The second thing and to kill so many as they did and yet their second act is far worse For 2. After they had killed as many as they could finde opposing them and their proceedings did they not make and frame an Ingagement in January 3. 1649. that is an iniunction for all persons to subscribe to be true and faithfull to the Common-Wealth of England as it is now established without a King or House of Peeres Camerar l. 5. c. 4. pag. 333. A most malicious enemie and did they not likewise vote that whosoever did not subscribe and take this Ingagement this marke of his subjection unto them should be totally deprived of all benefit and protection of the Law A mischeife far greater and worser then the former for as I read in Camerarius of a most malicious enemie having taken his adversary by some wile and being desirous to be throughly revenged on him for some wrongs that he conceived he had done unto him he said he would most cruelly butcher him if he did not sweare unto him that he would for ever afterwards denie his Baptisme and renounce Christ for his Saviour which if he did that should preserve his life and the poor captive fearfull of his cruelty and desirous to save his life did swear as his adversarie required but as soon as he had sworn to his enemies engagement he drew out his sword and said now I shall be fully revenged on thee seing I shall both kill thy body and damn thy soul and so he run him thorow that he died and then he bragged that he had made his adversarie to loose both body and soule and so I demand if the Parliament by this engagement did not endeavour to destroy the soules of those good Christians that had formerly sworn and taken the oath of alleageance to the King to his heirs and to his lawfull successors and by this suare and gin to bring them to the pit of perjurie and perdition But The damnability of the Engagement to make the damnability of the marke of the beast that exposeth the liberties of the non-engagers that is the not takers of it to false imprisonments their estates to rapine spoile and injustice and their lives and persons to wounds and murders at the will and pleasure of such as will engage to take the marke of the beast to appear more manifest unto you from the extent and generality of those that must receive this marke it is said that both small and great rich and poor free and bond must receive this marke in their right hand or in their forehead that is either privately or publiquely privately by those in whom the beast confided and whose heart he knew to be as Jehu said to Jonathan as himselfe was or publiquely by all those Three speciall things to be observed whom the beast suspected and was jealous of them and no man might buy or sell but he that had the marke or the name of the beast or the number of his name where you are to observe two or three severall things 1. The marke of the beast or the name of the beast The marke of the beast by what note known for the marke is properly of his name and therefore it is said no man might buy or sell save he that had the marke or the name of the beast and in Chap. 14.11 it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the marke of his name and this marke of the beast is exprest by the effects and attributes thereof that none might buy or sell without the taking of that marke which is the onely note that the Holy Ghost giveth us to know the marke of the beast Apud viegam in c. 13. Apoe and therefore the conceit of Primasius and Ansbertus that think the marke of the beast shal be composed of three Greek letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which being joyned and framed into one forme and figure do compendiously represent the name of Christ which the beast pretendeth to honour above all men is but a meere fancie without any ground in Scripture 2. The name of the beast is no where that I find set down in all the Scripture but is left unill the beast should come to assume it unto himselfe for as we name not the child untill he appeares in the Church to be Christned so the Antichrist is not named till he appeares in the world Yet 3. For the number of his name which the Beast taketh to himself when he cometh the Holy Ghost tells us that we might marke the beast and avoid him when he cometh it is 666. And truely if my life did lie upon it I cannot find by any search to whom all these things do fit and agree so well and so aptly as to the Long Parliament For 1. As the Arians under King Hunericus Victor Vticencis l. 3. compelled the Orthodox to be re-baptized and thereof gave them a Chirography that is a Testimoniall under their hands as Victor Vticensis writeth and as Dioclesian did set forth a most cruell Edict that no man might sell or administer any thing unto the Christians unless the Christians would first offer Sacrifice unto the idolls and heathen Gods as venetable Beda testifieth in the hymne of S. Justin saying Non illis emendi quidquam aut vendendi copia Nec ipsam haurire aquam dabatur â—oentia Beda in Hym. Sti. Justini Ante quam thurificarent detestandis idolis So those many Dioclesians that were in one house when as before The Parallele the Devill had but one Dioclesian in all the world they have imitated that great Collonell or rather Generall of the Dragon and made an Act agreeable to his edict that whosoever subscribed not his name or put not his marke to the ingagement The Act for the ingagement June 2. 1649. Agreeable to the mark of beast which is done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the right hand as the holy Ghost saith should have no benefit of any law in any Court in the kingdom so that he can neither buy nor sell or if he doth he can neither recover what he bought nor the moneys for which he sold his commodities nor any other debts that are due unto him except he hath taken this ingagement and so received this mark this new invented trick that they devised to hook in men into their faction and to conglutinate them unto their impieties Neither is this all the iniquity of this infernall ingagement The great iniquity of the ingagement that as the Text saith no man might buy or sell save he that had received the marke of the beast but this goeth a
dominions 2. The Hierarchie or Episcopal government of Gods Church which is as requisite for the Church as the Monarchie is for the Common-wealth for the Church of Christ is said to be Gods vineyard and the vineyard must be well fenced or if the hedge be broken down all the wild beasts of the Forest will destroy the vine so must the Church be well fenced and guarded by wise discreet and careful Governours which are as the fence and hedges that by their spiritual Courts and censures do keep out all Sectaries and hereticks and all errrours and heresies and false doctrine from the Vineyard of God which is the Church of Christ And if these hedges and fences of Gods Church the Bishops and Governours thereof be broken down their Court supprest and themselves nullified and annihilated as that long Parliament did it is as impossible to keep out Sects Hereticks and false Prophets from the Church as it is to keep the civil state and common-wealth in peace and to have justice and equity duly preserved among all men without the civil Magistrates and their Courts of justice for as these protect the innocent and punish the Malesactors with the powerful sword of justice so must the Bishops and Governours of the Church which are best able to judge of divine questions defend the truth and as Christ whipped the buyers and sellers out of the Temple so must they by their censures whip all those Sectaries and Heteticks that will not other wise by fair means be driven out of Gods Church because as Saint Bernard saith qui nolunt duci debent trahi And it is not unknown to any that hath taken notice of the transac ions of these times how that long lasting and intended to be an endlesse everlasting Parliament hath killed our most heroical religious and renowned King the most constant Martyr and the first and chiefest of the two witnesses of Jesus Christ and also Doctor William Laud Arch-Bishop of Cantcrbury and suppressed all the Bishops that were the other witnesse of Christ But our good God hath promised that he would resuscitate and revive the slain and slaughtered Witnesses and restore them to the Church and their charge again Revel 11.11 12. And now you see how the wise and great God whose wayes are in the seas his paths in the great waters and his foot-steps are not known hath by unlikely unprobable and almost in mans judgement impossible wayes through the many many transmutations of things and alterations of governments brought his own purposes to this passe to make you the instruments to effect his will to perform his promise and to be that Cloud in which and by which the two slain Witnesses shall ascend to heaven chapt 11. verse 12. and hath given you power and authority and inabled you to do the same And now most honourable and most renowned Patriots you have most justly most religiously and most gloriously to your everlasting praise revived the first and chief Witnesse of Jesus Christ and restored the government of these nations to be Monarchicall that doth most resemble God himselfe which is the sole Monarch of all the world and is the government that the most nations of all the world hath ever used and especially this kingdome since the first peopling of it and you have put the Crown upon His head to whom your wisdomes knew It justly belonged which was the onely way to bring Peace and to make these kingdomes happy It resteth that the other Witnesse of Christ be revived and the Government of the Church be restored as it hath been ever fince the Apostles time to be Episcopal and so to raise the Bishops and other Ministers their dependants that as yet lye unburied in the streets of the great City to their pristine dignity to their offices their authority and their former estates for their inabling to discharge their duties in the government of God's Church they having suffered wrongs and indignities enough already And I hope your wisdomes will direct you to let the Ark of God be carried upon the Levite's shoulders as the Lord commandeth and suffer the worship and service of God to be used as it was in the reign of Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles and confirmed by all the Acts of Parliaments and royall edicts in their times and not to suffer the depravers of Gods honour and disturbers of the Peace of the Church out of any singularity or sinister end either to suppresse the same or any wayes to alter it or any part of it unlesse your wisdomes do appoint a full and lawful Synod congregated after the usuall manner of this Church to confider what is fit if any thing be found fitting to be added diminished or altered therein for this care of Gods service to uphold the same in its integrity and purity is the onely thing that will bring a blessing and continue the happinesse of this or any other nation and they are to do the same to whom God hath committed the government of his Church and the teaching of his people And because of the multiplicity of Sects and diversity of opinions that have sprung in this our Church since the killing of the witnesses and that the faith of Christ is to be perswaded by the word of God and not forced by the sword of man I humbly beseech you to grant such toleration as your wisdomes shall think fitting to such weak and tender consciences as cannot on the sudden comply with us in our service to God untill that by a friendly conference painfull preaching and writing of learned books we captivate their understanding and bring them so to the truth and true faith of Christ and service of God and not by rigid wayes and too severe censures and punishments to compell them either to be hypocrites in our Church or Apostates to run out of our Church For I would not have the people of God to be driven hurried and harrased like as we drive wild beasts but to be led gently and eafily like sheep Leni spiritu non dura manu by an inward sweet influence and not by any outward violence And here I humbly beseech your Honours to give me leave to tell you what I am not suffered to be silent videlicet that to take away the Lands and possessions of men that never rebelled nor offered any violence nor the least wrong to any of our Protestant people in Ireland but relieved them and hindred others as much as they could to abuse them and yet to dispossesse and to cast them out of their inheritances because they were Papists and profest themselves Roman Catholicks as the long Parliament and their subordinate instruments in Ireland have done to the utter ruine of many ancient families both of Brittish and English extract is not onely as I conceive most unjust but also contrary to all Christianity and farre enough from humanity it selfe When the Apostle bids us to honour all men that is because
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
Kingdoms 4. The judgment of the Idol shepherd So the right eye i.e. the understanding of divine things shall be taken from the Antichrist though his left eye shal be quick-sighted enough in all worldly things and tore their clawes i. e. their strength and power all to pieces I think I may say this without question 4. Tâ—e Lord denounceth the Judgment of this Foolish Idol shepherd saying Wo to the Idol shepherd that leaveth the flock and much more wo to him that thus spoileth the flock the sword shall be upon his arm and upon his right eye his arm shall be clean dried up and his right eye shall be utterly darkned And so it fell out accordingly to this Idol shepherd the Scribes and Pharisees and the rest of the false Prophets of the Jews for though they thought themselves safe and had done all things well when they had broken the two staves of Beauty and Bands and had bought and sold their King Priest and Prophet and had put to death the true Bishop of their soules Jesus Christ yet the just God that is slow to anger and of great patience and was formerly forty years grieved with this generation when their Fathers tempted him proved him and saw his works forty years after this direful tragedy And so this Beast for doing as the Jews did kill his King and his Bishop let him fear the like judgment as the Jews had executeth this very judgment upon this Idol shepherd as Josephus ben Gorion and Josephus the Son of Mathathias 1.7 de Bello Judaico setteth down the same at large and in his 18th Book of Antiquit. he confesseth the same to be for their malice against their King Jesus Christ and the killing of the holy Apostle St. James that was Bishop of Hierusalem And this much shall serve to be spoken of the foolish Idol shepherd of the Jews that the Lord raised in the time of Christ and was the Type of the great Antichrist who in all the foresaid particulars did or will imitate this his Predecessor so far as the type doth agree with the thing typified So that I need not spend any longer time to tell you what the Prophet sheweth the great Antichrist that is here exprest under the title of the Idol shepherd should do when the Lord should raise him and for our sins send him amongst his flock because you have heard many points of his lewd and foolish pranks already in the doings of his type that was the Idol shepherd of the Jews that the Lord raysed for their sins in the time of Christ And you may see The a Staves never broken in any Church till now in the Church of Ingland as I said before how this Prophesie is now and never till now fulfilled since the type in the time of Christ for 1. As Christ the king of the Jews was bought and sold and crucifyed when the staff of beauty was broken so Charles our King was bought and sold and beheaded when the true Doctrine of faith and true obedience to our Governors were corrupted and this staff of beauty broken all to pieces 2. The time that the Antichrist should rise The Antichrist must be those new raised Preachers that do cohere with this foolish and idâ—l shepherd of the Jews As when the staff of bands was broken the Lord raised this foolish and idol Shepherd among the Jews so when our Bishops and Governors were supprest and their Discipline which is the staff of bands was broken all Sects increased all errors and heresies appeared and the great Antichrist manifested himself unto the world and did as he is here typified by the doings of this foolish and idol shepherd But now that which is more considerable to be understood is to know who is or should be the great eminent and transcendent Antichrist that is here typified by this Idol-shepherd I know the Divines of Gappe and the most of our Presbyterians are as sure as Gabriel Powel was that believed iâ— as he believed the Apostles Creed that the Pope is that great Antichrist and therefore when other matters fail them they fill their Sermons with exclamations against the Pope and deal with him as the Collier did with the Major of London when he came to High-gate and yet I am as sure that they are altogether mistaken in their faith and knowledg herein for though the Pope should be The Pope is an idol-shepherd yet not meant here tipified by this idol-shepherd as he is an Antichrist and a foolish Idol-shepherd as many others of our Presbyterians be and doth imitate this Idol-shepherd of the Jewes in all or most of the foresaid particulars as the little or no good that he doth to the flock of Christ and the great honor and service that he expecteth from all the Kings and Princes of the earth yet there are many other signal Characters notes and acts of the great Antichrist exprest in other places of the holy Scripture which are no wayes coherent and applicable to the Pope which I could shew unto you but that nunc non est narrandi tempus But then you will demand of me Who is that Antichrist if the Pope be not the Antichrist I answer that as S. Augustine saith satius est dicere quid not sit Deus Yet by Gods help I shall hereafter tell you whom I take him to be quam quid sit Deus for God is not the Sun he is not the Moon he is no created substance and I erre not in any of these answers so I say tutius est dicere quis non est Antichristus quam quis est Antichristus and he is not the Pope I am sure of it but I am sure he is a foolish and an idol shepherd whosoever he be yet not the Pope because these have not as yet happened unto the Pope for that his strength and power are not clean taken away though much diminished neither is the knowledge and Doctrine of the Roman Church utterly or totally perverted and the truth of Christian Religion quite extinguished nor yet the right way of serving God wholly corrupted as I shewed unto you before but whether the power and strength of the Long Parliament be not mouldred away from a mountain to a mole-hill and themselves vanish away like smoak let those members that are yet unnihilated answer it or if they be not yet come to nothing how long they are like to continue let my Reader judge 2. The next testimony of the Old Testament 2. The prophesie of Daniel under the person of Antiochus that is said to have any reference to the Antichrist and his doings is found in the Prophesie of Daniel But St. Paul tels us that to the Jews and Fathers under the Law omnia in figura contingebant illis all things happened and fell out to them in types and figures and most of those types and figures that were delivered unto them reached no further than
that feareth not his King cannot be truly said to fear God Prov. 24.21 So the Parliament said We will have no more Kings but we will be as our Neighbour Nation is a Free State and a Commonwealth But for all this their saying That they will have no King it is demanded If these men proved not apt Schollars of those dissembling Jews and imitate those their good Masters to a hair for as those Jews said We will have no King that is no Kingdom Gods appointment or no lawful King that hath a just right and title unto his Kingdom yet if you look but two Chapters before you shall find how God complaineth they had set up Kings Hos 8.4 but not by him and this was first in their intention before they rejected their lawfull King that God had set over them but last in the execution because the Old King must be first ejected before any new Kings can be established So have nor the Parliament when they beheaded their Old King of Gods appointment and their lawful King without question made themselves new kings over Gods people I do not say Usurping Kings that had no right nor tyrannical Kings that did no right unto the people but as the Prophet saith of the Jews so it is questioned if the Parliament have not set up Princes yea such Princes as were but Bankrupts Shooe-makers and Taylers Drapers and Tinkers Carters and Coblers and the like Scum of men of no learning Job 30.1 of no breeding of no bloud and of no worth but such as Job describeth whom the ancient Gentry and Nobility of this Land would have disdained to have set with the dogs of their flocks and made these or such as these to be Rulers in all Lands the Justices of the peace that as the Prophet saith the Jewish Rulers would sell the poor for a pair of shooes so would these younger brethren that are to make their Fortunes for a Print of Butter or a groars-worth of eggs sell Justice and betray the right of their poor Neighbours Such Rulers and such Princes as no people in any Country would have endured the like to Lord it over them but those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Silly souls and poor spirited men whose hearts and courages the Lord hath taken from them and given up their best nobility and Gentry to be quite befooled besotted and bafled by such Baffoons when he intendeth to plague that Nation and utterly to lay all their glory and honour in the dust even as the Poet elegantly sheweth Hoc placet O superi Lucan Pharsal l. 1. cum vobis vertere cuncta Propositum nostris erroribus addere crimen Thus it pleaseth God when for their sins he intends to plague and to end the glory of any people to blind them so that they commit error upon error adding thirst unto drunkenness basenese unto their beastliness and Pharaoh-like harden their hearts in their follies that they cannot do what is honourable and what they ought untill they be destroyed and made Subjects to those that were their Servants But God tels the Jews that those new Kings of their own election were no Kings of his setting up nor any Princes of his making but of their own establishment Hos 8.4 Usurping Kings no Kings of Gods making and so meer Usurpers through the pride of their hearts and the violence of their hands such as Athalia was among that people and some others of our former Kings That I could name of this Land and therefore the Author of the Treatise of Usurpation saith That the people of any Nation do owe unto such Usurpers such Kings of their own setting up neither reverence nor obedience nor can any Officer with a safe conscience act under them Though I say not this which is true to deny that obedience to any Usurpers or to the unworthiest of our Rulers which may stand with Gods Word and may be yielded unto them without sin because I wâ—â—ld have no weak people stirred up to make an insurrection against their powerful Governours but when God that casteth down one and raiseth up another takes away the right of our former Princes and Rulers and suffereth others how mean or how base soever they be to step into their places and to sit upon the thrones of Majesty and the seats of Justice howsoever this be come to pass Deo permittente my advice is to all private men to rest themselves contented for the present and as the Apostle saith to study to be quiet and for peace and quietness sake to think it far better to obey than to rebel and to leave all things to Gods disposing Dan. 2.21 Rom. 8.28 2. The Antichrist will exalt himself above the Bishops qui disponit omnia suaviter and will set all things right in his good time and as S. Paul saith Worketh all things together for the best to them that love him 2. The Apostle tells us That as the Antichrist will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and exalter of himself above every one that is called God and that is principally as I shewed to you above his King because that in the first place the King is chiefly termed God so he will likewise be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lifter up of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is supra numen as Tremellius reads it or adversus numen as Beza renders it above all that is worshipped saith our last and the Geneva Translation and the meaning is in few words that the Antichrist will exalt himself above the Bishops and the Ecclesiastical Governours of the Church as well as above the King wich is the civil Governour of the Commonwealth for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word which the Apostle useth coming from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is read in prophane Authors as Pasor saith and signifieth colere that is religiously to worship or the thing that we worship for Religion sake from whence a Proselite or a religious man is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pious and religious person and all sacred and holy things that are dedicated and consecrated for Divine Service are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Religious things or things that appertain to Religion which made Beza and Tremellius to translate it Numen which appertaineth to God doth sufficiently make it plain and manifest that the Apostle meaneth here not the Emperour nor any other King or civil Magistrate which had formerly exprest under the name of God as some Interpreters without reason would have it because that it is said Act. 27.1 that S. Paul was delivered to Julius that was a Centurion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Augustus Band saith our Translation whereas it should have been translated of the Band of Augusta That by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostle meaneth the spiritual Governors of the Church or Augusta's band which was the wife of Casar and was stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
the Divines into their Cloysters which was the Churches Heaven upon Earth and he will not so part with her Mr. Mede pag. 40. What is meant by the War of Michael and his Angels against the Dragon and his Angels as there to let her escape free from his assault but be will now prosecute another kind of Combate with her which he had only begun before when he saw himself like to be worsted in the former conflicts and that Combate shall be not as E. H. and Mr. Mede do imagine the bloody Warrs of the persecuting Tyrants which was already past and the Dragon failed of his purpose therein but bellum dogmaticum a verball Warr that is a spirituall Scholastick and Ecclesiasticall War like the Pharsalian civil War of the Romans when a Kingdome is divided amongst it self which is the Worst and most dangerous of all Wars and so is this Ecclesiasticall War that the Hereticks and their grand Captaines the Proselites of Arius Nestorius Eutyches Pelagius Manichaeus Aerius the Trinitarians Millenaries and the rest of that litter did still prosecute to molest the Church of Christ And my reasons to prove this War to be no Bloody War The hereticall War but rather a spirituall and Ecclesiasticall War are these Reason 1 1. Because this War is said to be in Heaven which cannot signifie the seat and place of the Blessed Angels and of the Saints departed out of this life because that neither War nor sorrow nor any other trouble can come there and therefore the seat of this War must be not the World simply considered which is never called Heaven but the Church of God which is the Christians Heaven here upon Earth and the Arke that carrieth us through the Seas of this World into the Eternall Heaven and therefore this War being said to be rather in the Church then in the World when as our Saviour speaking of our bloody Wars saith in the World you shall have Tribulations must needs be an Ecclesiasticall Hereticall and no bloody War no worldly War Reason 2 2. Because it is said that Michael and his Angels that is Christ and the true Bishops and Pastors of his Church that are called the Angels of the Churches and not Michael and his Princes Revelat. 1.20 fought against the Dragon and his Angels and not as it is said in Daniel that he affisted his Angel against the King of Persia but with the Dragon and his Angels Dan. 10.13 that is the Devil and his false Prophets the Hereticks that molested the Church and corrupted the true faith and the right Service of God and yet as their Master the Devil transformeth himself into an Angel of light as the Apostle speaketh so will the false Prophets be deemed and esteemed Angels but this Heavenly Angel tells us they are the Angels of the Dragon that make this War with the Angels of Christ Reason 3 3. And lastly because that in this War we find none slaine nor any blood spilt as they were under the persecuting Tyrants as well the Arian Kings as the Pagan Emperors and therefore this War must needs be understood of no Forreigne bloody War but of a Verball spirituall Warr waged within the bosome of the Church that happened after the death of Theodosius who had freed the Church from all externall Wars and bloody persecutions but could not stop the mouth of the false Prophet nor hinder the Dragon and his Angels to raise and prosecute this Hereticall War And yet now How the Church prevailed against the Hereticks as the Woman formerly prevailed in the first War against the bloody Instruments of the Dragon that were vanquished in patientia Martyrum through the patience of the Martyrs and the sufferings of the Saints so here in this second War she gets the Victory over her Enemies and the Dragon is overcome c. 12. v. 11. by the blood of the Lamb and his Angels vanquished by the word of their Testimony v. 11. that is the Hereticks and Scismaticks were confuted and silenced in prudentia Doctorum by the Wisdome of the Bishops that were the Governours of the Church and by their learned writings and faithfull Preaching of Gods truth and not with the Sword or Cannon shot or any other such outward force which the Angels of Jesus Christ the Ministers of the Gospel never use as the Angels of the Dragon do and now did in many places because they are commanded with St. Peter to put up their Sword into the sheath and it is for none but the satellites of the high Priests Math. 26.52 and the Jannizaries of the Antichrist to come out against Christ and to fight against his Witnesses with Swords and Staves Then Mr. Mede pag. 40. Michael significat quis sicut deus certe nullus nifi Jesus Christus the Dragon being by Michael that is by the power and Wisdome of God that is Jesus Christ which Michael fignifieth and not by any one of the chief Princes or of the seven Arch Angels as Mr. Mede thinketh cast out of Heaven that is driven from the Church as he did the buyers and sellers out of the Temple when all the errors heresies and superstitions which the Devil by his prime Angells the Heresiarches had invented and sowed amongst Gods people were confuted and rooted out of these our reformed Churches and these Churches restored to their Pristine purity and setled in the right forme of serving God by the painefull diligence of the learned Bishops the Pastors and the Protestant Preachers of Gods word which was fairly begun in Queen Elizabeths time The Victory in this War when obtained continued and bettered in King James his Reign but not clearly done and perfectly finished untill King Charles his dayes nor any where so purely done as in these our dominions as I have fully proved unto you before there ensued a two-fold act or a double consequence of this great Victory of Michael and his Angels over the Dragon and his Angels 1. The Tryumph rejoycing and Jo-paean of the Conquerors The twofold Consequence of the Church his Victory over the Hereticks cap. 12.11 the Inhabitants of Heaven 2. The fretfull wrath and continued malice of the Conquered Dragon 1. In Heaven that is in the Church of God as I said before St. John heard a loud voyce saying now is come Salvation and strength and the Kingdome of our God and the power of his Church c. 12. v. 10. where you must first observe the Emphasis in the word now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now is Salvation come and it was come long before when Christ had fully purchased our Redemption before his Ascention into Heaven but I conceive this Salvation to be meant not of our spirituall and eternall Salvation from Sin Hell and Satan which was come by Christ long before but for our Temporall Salvation and deliverance from the power and malice of our Enemies and that was now come that is fully and perfectly
Ceremonies of our Church which they spared not most loudly and lewdly to bark against and to call it the Laodicean luke-warm Church and the Governours and upholders of all the good orders uniformity and discipline of this Church of Christ they blushed not to style Popish Bishops and proud Prelates and the Book of Common Prayer as if it had been the Turkish Alcoran They perswaded the people to believe it was the English Masse-Book and all the Ceremonies thereof the ragges of Rome and so belched out their poyson against out Church And to what incurable mischief this disease was like to grow that wise and reverend Arch-Bishop Bancraft did foresee and with all his might endeavoured to prevent by discovering and publishing the same unto the world so did worthy Doctor Whitgift before him and so did Doctor Dove Doctor Covell Doctor Gardiner Doctor Leon. Hutton and Mr. Thomas Hutton and many other godly and learned men labour to unvaile this beast his face to shew his hornes and the weaknesse of his reasons unto the weak and seduced people But as the harlot said unto Socrates ego tibi Socrates multum praesto I do much excell thee O Socrates because I can sooner allure the youths of Athens and intice far more of them to my house of leudnesse then thou canst with all thy rhetorick and eloquence perswade to thy School of Philosophy so these locusts and their Proselites prevailed more with those that were such as Socrates answered the harlot her customers were proclives ad malum inclinable to be misled and easily drawen to evill as we are all by nature then all the wise Governours and grave Doctors of the Church could do to hindet them so that in a short space notwithstanding the execution of Martin Mar-prelate Penry and some others in Queen Elizabeths dayes which did a little stop their gallopping course and the careful industry of King James to suppresse them yet multiplicati sunt super numerum they increased exceedingly like the frogges and rats of Egypt that do super-faetare beget young ones before they be rid of their old brood and then being so multiplyed they that formerly pulled in their horns like a snaile did begin in King Charles his time to set up their hornes on high and to speak with a stiffe neck and now to set their instruments the disconteuted Nobility and Gentry and their own seduced disciples on work to bring their long-wished purposes to an end for as the soule worketh no corporeall act but by the organs of his body so these men being spiritual men could not themselves prevaile to attain unto their ends against the power of the King but having so plentifully sowen their seed among their Proselytes and so well instructed the body that was their instrument they can with their help produce the acts that they intended and which they do suggest into the heads of the other beast which is their body And therefore as in every sinful act the soul which is actus primus corporis organici causa actuum secundorum Arist de anima l. 2. c. 1. Text. 4. Is more liable to judgement and deserves more punishment then the body so as I said before this spiritual beast is far the worst of the twain and the worst of all other beasts that ever were so bad that I am no wayes able to shew unto you the badnesse and to display the wickednesse of this second beast yet as the Arian hereticks gave forth of themselves Aug. epist 48. ad Vincent that they onely were the true Catholick Church of God and those that were the members of the true Church indeed they called Athanasians Ambrosians Joannites and as Nestorius being a pestilent heretick covered himself notwithstanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the cloak or vaile of the Catholick faith saith Theodoret so I know these men think themselves to be the onely true servants and the most faithful Ministers of Jesus Christ but indeed as David did worse then Joab in the murther of Vriah and as the teacher of a man to sin is worse then he that commits the sin as the Serpent that inticed the woman to eat of the forbidden fruit was worse then the woman so this second beast that seduced and taught the first beast to do all or most of the evills and wickednesse that he did is far worse then the first beast that was but his instrument to effect all those vile acts and mischiefs whereof this second beast was the prime Authour instructor instigator and no marvell for as corruptio-optimi est pessima The second beast farre worse then the first beast and so I deem the Prerbyterians the worst of all the men in Ingland and the Authours of all the mischiefs done in this kingdom Jerem. 24.23 Tertul. l. de prescript advers haeres c. 42. and as Jeremy his figges were either exceeding good or extream bad so are the Preachers and teachers of men either the best of men and so worthy of double honour if with the true Prophets they go the right way to work or else the worst of all men and so worthy of many stripes if with this second beast and false Prophet they go about to corrupt the truth to seduce the people and as Tertullian saith of the hereticks of his time cum hoc sit negotium illis non ethnicos convertendi sed nostros evertendi to labour more to overthrow us then to build others in the faith of Christ And as the Arian Prelates and Preachers were more cruell and greater persecutors of the Orthodox then either the heathen tyrants or the Ariankings that were but their instruments and were indeed lesse bloody and more consciencious then their teachers so are these Presbyterians and Independents and Lay-Preachers more proud and more cruel and of lesse conscience and lesse honesty as being the prime Authours fomenters and devisers of all villanies miseries and mischiefes that have been acted in these dominions ever since they were hatched then were the members of that long Parliament as the sequele of their description and their actions here specified will make it plaine and the Author of the Last Will and Testament of Sir John Presbyter in his Epitaph that concludes too uncharitably doth briefly paint them forth saying Here lies Jacke Presbyter void of all pitty Sir John Presbyter his Epitaph That ruin'd the Country and fooled the City He turn'd Preaching to prating and telling of lies Caus'd Jarres and Dissentions in all Families He invented new Oathes Rebellions to raise Deceiving the Commons whil'st on them he preyse He made a new Creed despised the old King State and Religion by him bought and sold He foure yeares consulted and yet could not tell The Parliament the way Christ went into hell Resolved therein he never could be Therefore in great hast he goes thither to see And I would to God they had the Grace to see the mischiefes that they have done and to repent
but not right beause his Highness the Lord Protector gave life and being to that pettyte Parliament but the false prophet the assemblie at Westminster and their disciples gave life and breath to the other the long Parliament and to their impieties which were but the very image of this false prophet which was the primum mobile the first author and the first wheel that moved all the rest to act and doe all the evill that hath been done in these Kingdomes and therefore as the teachers of all wickednesse are by our Saviours testimonie to be accounted the least that is none at all in the kingdome of heaven but the greatest and well deserving the greatest punishment in the place that is provided for them so are they if they pray not for grace to repent And yet notwithstanding all these transcendent impieties of these Presbyterians it is a wonder to me that the people should be so affected and so wedded to the new Presbyterian government that never yet attained to the age of some men The inconstancie of the people But as the people in the begining of the long Parliament were mad to have Monarchy rooted out of the world and to erect a Common-wealth and to have a state government yet when they had it they were soon wearie of it and were as mad and more mad to have it cashiered so though they be now mad after that Presbyterian government yet I doubt not but after they have it a while and felt the smart of it they will he soon weary of it and be as mad to have it changed for that at the last they shall perceive their own error and finde that those were the leaders and the Teachers of them that murdered our King destroyed the Bishops and did all the mischiefe that hath been perpetrated And will the People or Parliament as they have done most justly condemn the Actors that were but the schollers Remember whose auditors were the murderers of the King and not onely suffer the Teachers to go free but also magnifie them to be their Masters still or will they punish the poore hares for their trespass and gratifie the crafty Foxes for their wickedness for I beseech you tell me whose Schollars and whose Auditors were those King murderers the Bishops or the Presbyterians the whole Kingdom knoweth and the setting up of these Teachers may prove to be the setting forward of the like tragedy Verbum sapienti sat est But to proceed it is said in the same ver 15. that the image of the beast The first ten horned beast animated by the false prophet acteth two things 1. thing that is the first seven headed and ten horned beast having received life and breath by the meanes of the false Prophet the two horned beast whose image the the first beast was as I shewed unto you did presently act and work these two observable things 1. To speake and to make orders and ordinances that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as many as would not worship that is himselfe which was nothing else hut the very representation of the false prophet should be killed 2. To cause all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both small and great 2. Thing rich and poor free and bond to receive a marke or as the originall hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some copies read it that he should give them a marke or marks in their right hand or wrist or arme Rhodiginus l. 5. c. 53. saith servants were branded in their foreheads soldiers in their hands Vege◠l. 2. c. 5. which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fignifieth all from the hand to the sholder and which aludeth to the custome of Syria and the neighbour countreys that used even as our own Countrey formerly did and yet sometimes doe to weare badges on their armes to demonstrate whose servants they were or in their foreheads as the Roman servants did and the Soldiers used to doe to signifie to what Master or Captaine they did belong and that no man might buy or sell save he that had the marke or the name of the beast or the number of his name for so Lipsius saith that they were branded in the hands and marked with the name of their their general or the Emperor Lipsius de milit rom l. dialog Revel f 14 1. that they served and so the followers of the Lambe as contrary to the followers of the beast are said to have his fathers name written in their foreheads which was likewise done to shew to whom they belonged that so by the sight of these marks and tokens they might buy and sell and have all the other priviledges and benefits that belonged to such servants De Sheld pag 15. Yet you must not thinke this marke of the beast to be a corporeall marke to be ingraven by incision or to be burnt by inustion as the fashion of men is to do with their cattell in the heads or upon the foreheads of the followers of the beast for to dream of such a marke were to contemn all learned antiquity and to fall into a laborinth of contrarieties absurdities and impossibilities but as the marks of Christ his flock and his fathers name written in their foreheads are not any reall marks by incision or inustion but the profession of his faith and obedience to his law with the acceptance of some godly Sacraments King James in his premotion haeg 111. and religious Ceremonies for the testifing of the same so the marke of the beast must be conceived to be metaphoricall as King James sheweth by some rite of profession and misticall by some rite of obedience and subjection unto the beast as that in the forehead must be some plain and publique act or thing whereby the authority and government of the beast is professed that in the hand must be likewise some mpious act or Ceremonie The paralel I onely demand if that the Parliament after it received life from the false Prophet acted not the foresaid things that the beast is said to doe 1. The first thing either accepted of in our hands or subscribed to under our hands whre by subjection and obedience to that beast is professed to be performed And here I would faine know if the long parliamtnt did not act and doe those two forenamed things that this image of the beast is said to have done and thereby to have imitated the Romans and Syrians in the main point and to have fulfilled this prediction of the doings of the beast to a hair For 1. Did they not speake and speake loud enough by their votes orders and ordinances that as many as would not worship them the image of the beast and the actors of all things according as the Presbyterian assembly out of Gods Word doe prescribe and approve of their doings i. e. contribute to their war submit unto their power and assist them against the King their goods should