the death of Gregory the first although this is to be understood of his birth for our men doe make his conception to be more auncient that I may not seeme alone to have enterprised to doe a thing unheard of I will yeeld reasons of this my judgement which seeme to me to be most strong First this Beast ruleth all that time wherein the woman lyeth hid in the wildernes and the two witnesses prophecy cloathed in sackecloth as is manifest after from the fift verse where power is givē to him to doe two and fourtie moneths which is the same space of the woman and Prophets Now wee evince by necessary arguments that the woman went into the wildernes and the witnesses tooke mourning apparell at that time which wee have said when Constantine began his raigne therfore also the Beast began in the same time to arise out of the Sea Furthermore what other thing meaneth that of Socrates who lived when Theodosius Iunior ruled in the times of Celestine Bishop of Rome about the yeere 424. foure score yeeres after Cōstantine The Romane Bishopricke likewise that of Alexandria being advanced long since beyond the Priesthood unto a Princedome booke 7. chap. 11. Had he promoted himselfe beiond the boundes of the Priesthood Whither else I pray then unto an Antichristian tyranny Had it done this long since and of a certen long time Certenly So crates commeth to my accounte or rather I to his or as it is more agreable to the trueth both of us to the reckening of the Holy Ghost himselfe But he speketh no more of the Romane either here or before in book 7. 7. then of the Alexandrine That is true indeede he in common toucheth sharply the ambition of both but the Romane Bishop had many more peculiar properties of the true Antichrist which in no sort did belong to the Alexandrine and therefore although at the first they ranne togither it may be with equall steppes yet in short time the Romane got afore and left the Alexandrine many miles behind him Hereunto more over is added the third Carthaginean Councill about the times of Syricius to wit in the yeere three hundreth ninetie which decreed that the Bishop of the first seate should not be called the Prince of Priests or Chiefe Priest or any such thing but onely the Bishop of the first Seate but universall let neither the Bishop of Rome be called Can. 26. as it is cited in the ninetieth distinction Wee learne frō this Decree what those times had brought forth otherwise it had ben foolish and superfluous to make an ordinance touching this matter Neither is the confession of the Papists in this thing to be passed over Dost thou thē aske the cause why the Romane Bishops were never present at the generall Councills in the East part Bellarmine declareth that it came not to passe by chāce in his first booke of the Councill and of the Church chap. 19. but for a certen consideration Which howsoever it was not knowne peradventure to many others yet it ought to be throughly understood of him a man that is a secretarie of the Popes Kingdome He rendreth two reasons of this absence the first It seemed not to be convenient that the head should follow the members c. The second because the Emperour was alwaies present at the Councils in the East part or some Ambassadour of his who challengeth to himselfe the first at least materiall place otherwise then was meete That either this therefore might not be tolerated or a tumult mooved he went not to those Councils but sent only his letters Such are his wordes he hath hit the nayle on the head For the Pope disdaineth to be present at those Coūcils in which the Emp. should sit before him How fayre were words givē both to the Emp. Constantine and also all the Nicene Fathers The good men thought as Eusebius speaketh that olde age was a let that the President of the Lady City of Rome could not be present and therefore were content with the Elders which supplyed his place But the true cause was that he could not abide to give place to the Emperour For I beleeve Bellarmine rather then Eusebius touching the minde of the Bishop of Rome VVherefore in the times of the first Nicene Councill there was a man at Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that lifted up one who albeit not yet openly neverthelesse within and secretly with himselfe was exalted above all that is called God 2 Thes 2.4 Not that he vaunted himselfe to be superiour to God in Heaven for that is not the meaning of the Apostle but to all the Gods in earth to wit the highest Magistrate who is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Imperiall from whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is worshipped seemeth to be added in stead of an exposition But why doe I be stowe much time in these things The matter is out of controversie from chap. 17. afterward The seventh head of the Beast succeedeth next after the Heathen Emperours for these make the sixt as shal be said in his place But Antichrist is that seventh head and therefore hath his beginning by and by after the Heathen Emperours Shall I then thinke that all from Miltiades are utterly cast away as who doe make this Beast that is the very Antichrist Farte be from mee so great rashnes of judging This Beast is the state of a Kingdome as I hope shal be most cleare after And therefore God could deliver from the common destructiō some peculiar men whō he thought good though furtherers and ministers of this Kingdome The impiety was not so wicked at the first and the yong Antichrists did not knowe for what mischiefe they prepared a way Therefore wee leave these to the infinite and unsearcheable mercy of God yet wee doubt not but wee have found out the originall of the rising Beast which nowe wee see to have fallen on that time in which the Dragon was cast unto the earth ch 12.9 For being about to leave heaven he provided himselfe of a Vicar who in his absence should governe his affaires whose busines he looked unto nor carelesly as wee shall finde afterward These things being thus set in order wee see how from this fountaine every each thing will flowe most easily every part of this Prophecy agreeing most fitly one with another The true original doubtlesse not being perceived of the Interpreters disordered all consideration of the times made a harsh constrained and absurd exposition and tooke wholly away the right searching out of the event Now as touching the words the cruelty of Antichrist is signifyed most fitly by a Beast as often in the Scriptures Tyrants are compared unto Wolves and Lions equall to them in fiercenes but for hurt worser by how much iniquity in men is more armed because of the force of reason He did rise out of the Sea because he hath his originall from corrupt doctrine to wit the authority of Peters Chaire
after a Councill being gathered in the same place under Gratian and Theodosius the elder shee ordained in plaine wordes that the Bishop of the City of Constantinople ought to have the honour of Primacy next after the Romane Bishop because that it is newe Rome see the first Councill at Constantinople Canon the fift By which things both shee bewrayed her owne ambition and also shewed some what more fully what those some thing obscure circunstances of wordes in the Nicene decree meant ¶ And the third part of the Sea became blood The Second effect is the corruption of Doctrine the death of the things in the Sea The Doctrine is turned into blood that is into a nature wholy growing out of kinde Before indeede it began to be foule and thicke defiled with many superstitions but afâ—er the desire of Lordship Primacy was mixed with it it became an horrible blood But what this third part is the History sheweth clearly In the former sounding of the trumpet the East was smitten with the haile nowe the West is punished with the bloody waters as some time Egypte Now Rome must play her part which not content with the Primacy of Order the which the Niâ—â—ne Fathers gave her strove as much as shee was able to get her selfe the highest estate also of power over all the rest And shee had many opportuniâ—â—es doubtlesse before others as to be the head City of olde time and noâ— y t longe agoe that preiudice of the Nicene Decree the exceeding peace the which shee enioyâ—d when in the meane time the whole East was inflamed with the deadly firâ—brandes of dissentions finally ordained as it were a sanctuary the orthodoxes being driven out of their seâ—tes under a coulour of defending of whom shee crept in by stealth to that dominion which in her heart shee sought so greedily For while both the banished Bishops of whom shee seemeth to deserve well praysed her of a gratefull good will more then was meete and shee vaunting her selfe the more freely in a good cause shee exercised a certen empire and dominion unwarres over all men Which coming of hers appeareth evidently in Sozomenus in his 3. booke chap. 8. Athanasius of Alexandria Paulus of Constantinople Marcellus of Ancyra and Asclepa Gazensis being cast out of their people fled for succour to Rome the defence of whom Iulius Romain tooke freely neither was that to be reprooved unlesse he had made craftily to himselfe from hence a steppe unto tyranny For so he writeth to the Churches in their behalfe as though the power were his owne to command any thing imperiously As if it were meete that he because of the dignity of his seate should be carefull for all he restored to every one his owne Church But when letters were sent every where touching this matter through the East being as I said full of authority and power which he arrogated to his seat the Easterne Bishops in other things not to be approved did this well and according to their duty that they thought the arrogancy of the man was to be convinced of them and the Romish ambition to be reprooved freely And from hence is that which they answere that the Romane Church doth strive and contende with all men about honour as if shee were the schole of the Apostles made at the beginning the mother City of Godlines although the teachers themselves of the doctrine came from the East and were men of that country c. There was added to his cunning of boasting so insolently of the Apostolike Chaire a crafty interpretation of all duty as of due obedience the saluting of his brethren and fellowes in office by the name of honourable Sonnes and other notable fraudes of that sorte as Damasus in his Epistle to the Constantinopolitane Councill doe shewe in these wordes In that saith he your charity most honourable sonnes giveth due reverence to the Apostolike Chaire by the same thing you procure very much reverence to your selves For although it apperteineth to us chiefly to order the sterne and rudder which wee have taken upon us to governe in the holy Church in which the holy Apostle sate a teacher yet wee confesse our selves to be unworthy of so great an honnour Theodor. booke 5. chap. 9. Incredible is the charity of the Romane Pope who embraceth noe otherwise then as Sonnes so many Bishops present in the Councill In the next age his unsatiable desyre brake forth more evidently Three most Holy Popes who could not erre Zozimus Bonifacius and Celestinus are convinced of falshood belying the Nicene Councill to stablish their owne Principality The sixt Councill of Carthage albeit they reprove so great a naughty act more gently then was meete writeth to Celestinus that they could not finde any such thinge in the truer Councils which are received for Nicene being sent them from holy Cyrill and Atticus of Constantinople out of the originall which they long a goe sent from thence by Faustinus as out of a part of the Nicene Council and therefore they warne him that he would not doe that wherby he may seeme to bring into the Church of Christ the smokie pride of the world So in short time their impudency increased neither from hence forth did they cease before that Rome the conqueresse had taken from all the rest the apple of contention The Nicene Fathers tought to provide for the peace of the Church by placing some chiefe Patriarches as it were in a watchtower above the rest but the issue convinceth them both of an exceeding great errour and aberration and of their labour to be very ill and unprofitably bestowed and togither also it teacheth howe much safer and better it is to continue and keepe within the boundes and simplicity of the divine and most holy word of GOD then that wee should alter or change any thing in it leaning unto humane wisdome and inventions of men Such is this third part into which the burning montaine was cast and that the doctrine afterward became most fouly corrupted marred now it is mor knowne thankes be to God theÌ„ that is needfull to spende time in proving it Wee shall finde that this is the continuall Cokou song of all the Papists an immoderate boasting of the Apostolique Seate whether they doe refferre all things wrestingly the Sunne and Moone the two swordes and the Church built upon Peter 9 And the third part of the creatures dyed There remaine yet two partes of the second effect one touching the death of the creatures in this Sea the other of the dâ—stroying of the shippes The creatures in the Sea are all that basest company of the Clergie as they call them of which sorte are the Doore-keepers Râ—â—ders Singers Exorcists Acobythes Subdeacons Deacons Archdeacons Deanes Religious Monkâ—s Brethren and the rest of that kinde The Shippes are those of a higher degree whose office was to take paines in preaching the word and to transporte it hither and thither as merchants
For what other thing were so many skâ—rres and prints with which many Bishos were marked who after the tempest of tyrannicall persecution driveÌ„ awaie did meete in the Nicene Counsell then so many triumphant bowes of the victory gotten against the enemies Paulus Neocesariensis was bereft of the use of both his hands the sinewes being shrunke and cut by the persecutours with a whote iron Others had both their eyes put out Others their right handes cut of by the elbowe among which was Paphnutius Aegyptius In summe a man might have seen a company of famous and picked Martyrs gathered togither Theod. book 1. chap. 7. He was an Angell of an invicible courage whom so many calamities could not breake yea not bowe never so litle Now therefore if we shall gather all these things into one summe we shall see a most beautifull image of any excellent Church For beholde an Angell sparing noe trouble of his owne in the labout of teaching administring the disâ—ipline most religiously suffering none that should offende the Church with his naughtines either keeping farre away the leven of heretiques or taking it away most carefully at the very first And last of all for all these thinges undergoing boldly whatsoever the wicked enemies were able to inflict upon him Doth he in any thing need amending In nothing in deede if onely he had continued in his integritie but godlines fainteth by little and little unlesse it be kindled continually and often times a certen naked profession remaineth where all his power is utterly dead lyeth quenched as we shall see by by to have happened here As touching the wordes Montanus and the vulgar translation doe distinguish this verse otherwise also they put out and change some wordes And hast borne a burden and hast patience for my name hast not fainted So Aretas but the first words set out of order And hast patience and hast borne a burden But these readings want expresse signification which our kookes have which conioine togither burden trouble and perseverance The sentence becometh much more weake where this worde trouble is taken away 4 But I have somewhat against thee Hitherto was the praise The reprehensioÌ„ is for the leaving of their first love Of which even a light slaking had not wanted great faulte But to put of the same wholy how great wickednes For so the word thou hast left soundeth as if the Ephesine Angell were like to those widowes given to riot which Paul saith are to be condemned because they have cast awaie their first faith 1 Tim. 5.12 Although this losse of love was nothing to the heinous offence of the widowes For their Apostacy was manifest his onely a faint or rather no care and a very great negligence of godly duties the profession of the truth being kept But the Spirit speaketh of divers tymes as it appeareth from this that he saith that thou hast left thy first love and in the verse folowing biddeth them to doe the first workes FroÌ„ which it is perceaved easily of what sorte was this coldnes to it that the Angell who in the first times of the Gospell receaved faithfully executed the office of teaching observed diligently every on s maners to which forthwith he applyed a remedie by ecclesiasticall discipline afterward in the latter yeares did so languish that he was negligently occupied in the first labour permitted some of his floke to perish through ignoraÌ„ce some through the infirmity of the flesh to be carried headlong into destructioÌ„ no lawfull curing undertaken This is that love which Christ taketh grievously to be layd aside so shamefully For he sheweth that he is then truly loved when his sheepe are fed faithfully and with a syncere minde Wherto perteineth that thrise repeated commandement to Peter Yf thou lovest me feede my sheepe Ioh. 16.17 But in processe of time in this Church this fervency waxed colde or rather altogither vanished away as is manifest by the reprehension Such is our infirmity rushing a pace no lesse to the losse and destruction of spirituall life then our bodies hast continually to the graves Wherfore then is there too much cure of this none of that The Ephesians reteined an outward profession neither were any calamities able to take it from them as the former verse even now taught yet in the meane time they decayed by little and little neglecting those thinges without which true godlines cannot consist And this leaving of love seemeth to have come to passe then when Iohn had bin sent away into Pathmos Doubtlesse while he abode at Ephesus he suffered not either doctrine or discipline to decay but being at length bereft of so vigilant a watchman they fell into this detested drowsines The Bishop may be for an example although not of that city yet of a neighbour place who thorough the negligence of holy discipline suffered a certen yong man delivered to him of Iohn to be kept to become a thiefe and a robber Wherefore Iohn did worthily hit and cast in his teeth his good keeping Euseb Hist booke 3.23 But howsoever the history be silent in this matter it is certen that the Ephesine Angels fell together into shamefull negligence about these tymes Of which sort also wee finde the carelesnes of the Church growing in use by little and little In the first times while it had the Apostles for presidents and eye witnesses of all things the diligence of the Elders was fervent who did both preach the word of God faithfully and also further the godlines of their flocke carefully by discipline but at length after two hundred yeares froÌ„ Christs birth they suffered all things to waxe worse and worse by a manifest declining How began the discipline to be loosed and corrupted wheÌ„ the Martyrs Confessours gave rest to those that had falleÌ„ not onely without the Bishops counsell but also against their willes How this outragious disturbance of the heavenly rule troubled Cyprian we may see from his Epistles from whence among other causes of the incumbent persecution many of which he rehearsed at length he descendeth to this And what plagues what stripes doe we not deserve when noe not the Confessours doe keepe discipline who ought to have bin an exemple to others to good manners Epist book 4. 4. And not many yeares after Eusebius relating the condition of the Church in which it was a little before Diocletian began his persecution They saith he which were thought to be our Pastours reiecting the bond of godlines were busily occupyed in mutuall contentions among themselves These thinges onely increasing beiond measure contentions and threatnings and emulations and mutuall grudges and hatred folowing with all their might preheminence and dominion as it were kingdomes book 8. of Hist chap. 1. It must needs be that the edge of holy discipline was made blunt in wonderfull manner which was of no force to cut of such noxiour herbes But Ambrose who rehearseth that the divine rule was vanished
there was a certen Chiefe and famous woman an Idolatrice Sorceresse Harlot like the ancient Iezabell which was the wife of Ahab yet by thus much more furnished to destroy because this shewed her selfe openly an enemy and adversary to the truth that would be accounted for a Prophetisse From that which followeth appeareth that shee was taught to the naughtines in the schoole of the Nicolaitans of which shee became a schoole mistres teaching others the same rules For the Heretiques abused the labour of women to sparse abroad their poysons Simon Magus hath his Helena Carpocrates his Marcellinam Apelles his Philumenam Montanus after in the latter times in places nigh to this Thyatira his Priscilla Maximilla In the Antitype the thing is clearer For this Iezabell is Rome Queene Idolatrice Sorceresse Whore Killer of Martyrs Prophetisse the head of all Churches and the whole way of salvation which never yeelded to any heresyes and many such like with which wee shall see her adorned by the Holy Spirit partly in this book partly shee boastingly setteth forth her selfe impudently Lately we learned tha the Pope was signified by Balaam now we have the city shewed by Iezabell Both which perteine to the describing of the same Synagogue of Sathan see in the Bishop and City are things very neerly conioyned And how doth it fit the times that the Spirit doth set before our eyes now such a city How long time did the Pope deceive under a shew of godlines as the Hypocriticall Balaam in the former ages about the beginning of increasing honour and reputation but after he was groweÌ„ to an inmeasurable greatnes lifted up above Kings Emperours so as now all meÌ„ quaked at the very name of the Pope of Rome his Rome became the Queene Iezabell an impudent and painted whore Balaam therefore and Iezabell declare the same kinde of impiety onely they are distinguished by the increase an times Rome in her infancy as Balaam handled her matters more warily and secretly shee pretended that shee could not speake but that which the LORD should put in her mouth being grown to full age as the Prophetisse Iezabell preacheth openly that shee caÌ„not erre and that shee is the rule of faith and all godlines That abused the labour of Kings to bring in and set up Idolatry This by her owne authority commandeth to committe fornication and to eate thinges sacrificed to Idols in exacting the worshipping of Idols Images Who can admire enough the singular art of the Spirit who hath so lively set forth this matter This then is Iezabell the holy men of this time shaking too softly modestly this peste have therein so much the lesse approved themselves to Christ our head who would have no earnestnes spared in repressing so great impudency Learned men have dealt some what more boldly and freely then they had done in former times yet they used not that earnestnes that was meete in a cause of this sorte ¶ And I gave her time to repent In these words is shewed the stubburnes of Iezabell Christ dealt some while patiently with that impure Thyatiren woman so also with the city of Rome the stormy trouble of Barbarians being quieted and the Longobardes being overthrown Neverthelesse this peace brought noe amendement but increased rather the apostacy while they came to this height of impudent Jezabell For wee shall see that after those times all ungodlines did grow the Papists striving to oppresse the former dimnes with infernall darknes 22 Behold I will cast her in a bed The punishement of Iezabell The bed is sometime to delights and riot as in the Prophet sitting downe on beds of yvory and abounding upon their heds Amos 6.4 Sometime to sicknes and weaknes as The Lord will upholde bim on the bed of feeblenes and turne all his bed in his sickenes Psal 41.4 Of which in this place Not of delights although this be a great punishment to be given up to the occasion of sinning but of grief as appeareth from this that by and by after followeth where they that committe adultery with her shal be cast into great affliction Therefore the Thyatiâ—eÌ„ womaÌ„ hath languished Rome also hath bin sicke since the year 1300 coÌ„suming more every day as being sicke of a consumption For since that time palenes hath covered her face her stomake is grown weaker her soule is become heavy her flesh consumed yea her infirmity hath grown so farr that if thou beholde her at this day thou wilt say that shee is a dry carkase in respect of her former plight and good liking O the infinite wisdome of God which even in one worde hath given so lively image and picture of a time so farre of Could the languishing destruction of Rome be noted out more elegantly and evidently God would not have her perish on a swift or speedy disease that the peoples should not forget her but with a wasting consumption to be corrupted and waxe rotten both to the end that her lingering punishement should be an image of the eternall paine and also that shee might be a spectacle to many ages whom shee had led in errour so long a time Certenly unlesse Rome doe feele and acknowledg this her consumption shee must needs be sick not onely of a consumption but also of a Phrenesy ¶ And those that committe adultery with her The punishement of the adulterers who are the Kinges and Princes of the earth as is after in the 17. chap. 2. Vnlesse these shall forsake the whore they shall feele great affliction Have not yet the Kings learned this sufficiently by experience the most fierce and savage Turke on the one side vexing the Emperour the Spaniard on the other side Remember the ages past since the yeare one thou sand and three hundred in which Iezabell began to languish Who can attaine to declare the great evils which Transilvanie Polen Boheme the house of Austriche the Emperour The Venetians the Spaniards have suffered at the handes of this barbarous Turke Did not this your affliction begin at the same time wherein Iezabell Rome was cast into this her sicke bed Why doe ye not observe that your adultery which this whore hath brought forth and caused all these evills unto you But this calamity hitherto while Jezabell lyeth sicke in bed is nothing to that wherewith at length yee shal be punished unlesse yee renounce betime her ungodly commerce and society when shee shall yeeld her last breathing as wee shall shewe afterwardes Is it then now time o yee Princes and Peers to fly like cowards from the true God unto the whore of Rome They have noe pardon or excuse who bewitched with her beauty while shee flourished companied with her What torment awaiteth your wretched lust whoe doe nowe embrace a stinking carkasse For the love of Christ provide for your selves in forsaking with all speed this Harlot least suddenly at length yee be overwhelmed when your repentance shall be too late both with the most
the first period is to be set at that time from whence wee shall see every ech thing which followeth to flowe with a ready course stopped and stayed with noe uneven places The event in the unfolding will shewe what is the limite of every Periode These things being thus established let us returne unto the declaration of the wordes afterward wee shall see the thing it selfe and coherence thereof The first preparation is of the Lambe opening the first seale For he is the word of the Father who doth minister unto us whatsoever understanding wee have of Gods will And the events are called Seales both because they containe a mystery most hidden from the understanding of the prophane multitude Isay 8.16 and also because these first experimeÌ„ts should be pledges of future thinges Not that wee should undersâ—aÌ„d these to be bare forshewings of things and empty promises who doe onely denounce the troubles in word the execution whereof is coÌ„manded in some other place in this booke for that is no where to be founde but that they are signes of that kinde which bring togither with them their eâ—ecution and doe give a firme pledge of future things He openeth the sealeâ— in order one after another and not all togither with one labour both because the manner of the thinges to be donâ— did so require that also the whole Prophecy was not to be uttered at once but to be drawen 〈◊〉 peece-meale as it wâ—re for abâ—â—â—ty of a dâ—yly pâ—ttance The second pâ—â—pâ—â—tion is of one of the foure Beastâ— calling Iohn to come and see And this one Beast is the first to wit a Lion Chap. 4. â— But the â—â—â—stâ— are Goâ—â—â—â—â— of the Churches as hath ben observed in the foresaid plâ—ce â—hoâ—e laboâ—â— Gâ—d useth to instruct others These call men to see and obsâ—â—â—e â—ot onâ—ly bâ—caâ—se it is their office to forewarne the Chuâ—ch of thâ—â—â— that â—re to â—oâ—e to passe whether good or bad but especially â—ee◠〈…〉 thingeâ— next to come should be notable through their faithfulnes diâ—â—â—â—nce in this â—â—â—ter But the Lion speaketh first because they wâ—ich firâ—t â—hâ—â— begâ—â—ne the coÌ„bate should have like courage successe noâ— lesse prâ—vâ—iliâ—g in thâ—â— tâ—ey goe about then Lions making their pray The voice is â—n it 〈…〉 â—â—der penetring very farre that it might be heard of many Câ—â—â— saith he see speaking to Iohn representing nowe the person of the faithfull who likewise should be stirred up by the voice of the ministers to observe thâ—se wonderfull events which thing also is common to the three sâ—â—es following that being once spoken here it may be understood in the rest 2 J behelde therefore and loe a white horse The first type is a white horse and the sitter on him with a bowe and a crowne As touching the horse he is a warlike and swift beast to which worthily God compareth his actions both here in other places because with great courage swiftnes they will breake through whatsoever men shall make against Zach. 6. The white colour is ioifull proper to some famous solemnity as in the triumphe of Diocletian and Maximian After saith Pomponius Letus the chariot of the triumphers of golde and pretious stones which foure horses drewe comparable in whitnesse with the snowe But a rider is attributed to this and the rest that wee may knowe that they wander not up and downe rashly at their pleasure but are ruled and governed by the raines of Gods Providence And it may easily be gessed what manner of sitter it is from the analogie of the 8. verse For there he is noted by name that sitteth on the pale horse whose name seeing it is death his name may be life or trueth that hath so noble and pleasant a forme But whereas he is furnished with a bowe and crowne and went forth conquering that he might overcome by the same thinges is signifyed that an assault farre of shal be made and that a notable victory shall ensue thereof which should not vanish away with the present successe but should even also flourish with future happines For a bowe is a weapon of that kinde as with which the enemyes are hiâ—te both farre and neare But the Crowne is a token of victory so as both in the horse sitter on him all things are ioyous prosperous So is the interpretation of the wordes wherwith the History doth agree so wonderfully that noe picture doth more lively represente his paterne then the type of this seale the condition of those times Wee know that while Traiane was Emperour after Iohn was gone from Paâ—mos to Ephâ—sus that is by and by after the Revelation was written a most lamentable persecution waxed very hotte and fierce which raging even unto the fourteenth yeere at length by the letters of Pliny second Proconsull of Bâ—thyâ—ia it was some â—hat quenched and mitigated Neverthelâ—ssâ— the first Beasâ— had not yet spoken For Pliny was a heathen man and noe member of the Châ—rch much lesse the chiefe ruler Neither sâ—â—â—d the trouble wholy through his admonition onely this was obtayned that the Christians should not be searched for unto punishement but onely should be punished wheÌ„ they were brought unto the Governours accused Eus Feel Hist book â— 33. Wherfore the fight yet coÌ„tinued TraiaÌ„ being dead a fewe yeares after it waxed more fierce under AdriaÌ„ who at leÌ„gth going on with rage unto the destructioÌ„ of the name of ChristiaÌ„s the Lion roared out even the first Beast as the thuÌ„der For God raysed up Quadratus the Bishop of Athens also Aâ—stides a Philosopher citizen of the same city who as lioÌ„s stoutly regarding not the daÌ„ger of their life in respect of the good of the Church spake to AdriaÌ„ by Apologies then also in face pleaded the cause of the Christians By which the mindes of the faithfull were raised up with attente of the eveÌ„t not in vaine seeing froÌ„ thence followed a great change forthwith For the white horse his sitter with a bowe crown weÌ„t forth that is the truth triuÌ„phed ioyfully wheÌ„ the Emperour being overcome by the oration of those godly men did ordaine that noe Christian should be condemned unlesse he were convicted of some crime punisheable by the Civile lawes This was a manifest victory of the trueth and a greate token of future hapines Euseb Hist booke 4 ch 3. But her power was more excelleÌ„t under the next Emperour Antonin Pius about the beginning of whose Empire the Christians being againe miserably oppressed from the former hatred at length Iustin Martyr Leo administring the word of God in the habite of a Philosopher as sayeth Euseb booke 4.11 wrote Apologies for the Christians unto Antonin to his sonnes and to the Senate of Rome wherby he effected God working togither with him that it was enacted by publike decree that noe man should trouble Christians in that respeâ—t because they were Christians but if any would proceede to molest them the acâ—usâ—d
usâ—d should be free and absolved from the accusation although fouÌ„d to be such a one but the accusâ—r should be made subiect to punishement as it appeareth by the Decree of the same Antonin in Iustin and Euseb booke 4.13 Nowe surely the trueth triumphed wearing a crowne and the Emperours did lye downe bâ—ing stroken by the bowe who seemed to be farre beyond the lot of private men Yea in the most remote countryer one Apologie being throwne the enemyes were so restrayned that they could attemp nothing against the trueth The same Iustine also by his most learned writinges stopped the mouthes of the Iewes and Grecians so as the victory of the trueth was famous Euseb booke 4.18 Therefore this time next after Iohn excellent for Apologies ioyfull fruict of the persecution staied is the voice of the Lyon the first Beast and that onely pleasant solemnity which the trueth did keepe being sit on the white horse with the bowe and crowne 3 And when he had opened the second Seale So is the first Seale The second as touching the LaÌ„be that openeth it there is nothing newe But the Beast is an other namely an Oxe whose place was the seconde in chap. 4 7. And wee knowe that this beast is borne to labour not to be compared with the LioÌ„ in the glory of overcoming yet farre more noble in the praise of enduring sorrowe Neither is the voice here so terrible and roaring as was that of the thundering Lion but vulgar and common wheÌ„ce he saith that he heard the second beast saying which yet should have his force to stirre up men to hearken to the event 4 And another horse came forth that was reade The second type is a read horse the sitter upon him to whom was given a great sword Of the horse wee spake at the second verse That fiery colour signifyeth warre contentions slaughters blood as in Isaiah Who is this that cometh from Edome with stieped garments from Bozrah Wherfore art thou red in thy garments and thyne apparell as of him that treadeth in the wine presse chap. 63.1 The sitter on him is furnished with power because he should order the matter not at his owne pleasure but by an others commandement Power is given partly by word partly by signe By word leave being graunted to take peace from the earth For so the verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to take is taken for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to take away as wee have observed before in chap. 3.11 But the Earth in opposed to Heaven And seeing Heaven in this booke doth note out the true and holy Church as after it shal be manifest the earth contrarywise signifyeth the ungodly world from which peace is taken and not from the Church Which is yet more playne from the declaration of the power which proceedeth so farre that it should set meÌ„ togither by the eares to kill one an other as these wordes shewe that one should kill another but the Church avengeth not her selfe by slaughter of the enemyes much lesse by a certen furie in murdering her owne friendes But this butchery one of an other groweth from the strifes and battells amonge the Gentiles wherby one should runne headlong to an others destruction Wherefore it is not here spoken of the persecution of the Church but of the tempest of warres wherewith the whole world should be shaken Which is declared to be very great by the signe and Instrument of the power that is a great sword given to the sitter on the horse Which thinge came to passe after that Antoninus Pius was dead For his sonne Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Verus by name a Philosopher by deede a greate enemy of the trueth being blinded with the Heathens superstition moved a mercilesse persecution against Christians Which that the second Beast might restraine he uttered a voice For Iustin sent a second Apologie to the Emperour Euseb booke 4.16 of the Eccl. Hist Melito Bishop of Sardi Apolinarius Bishop of Hierapolis doe the same pleading earnestly the cause of the Christians in bookes written to the same Emperour Euseb Hist booke 4.26 But the Emperour more learned then his Father lesse godly receaved the defense with deafe eares From hence the voice of this Beast became the voice of an Oxe as which prevailed not as before the voice of the Lion did prevayle But the Beast neverthelesse after his lowing did beare a grievous yoke of the former calamity Iustin himselfe before in strength a Lion nowe in patience an Oxe killed for Christ his sake obtayned the name of Martyr Euseb Hist booke 4. 16. The residue did mourne under the crosse without any rest given them Notwithstanding howsoever the voice prevailed not to appease the cruelty yet it was instead of an alarme to warne the faithfull howe great evill was like to come shortly upon the world for their cruell hardeâ—ing against the trueth Peace shal be taken away straiteway from men seeing it should be most iust that they which would refuse eternall peace should not also enioy this earthly and they which so greedily thirsted after innocent blood should be satiated at length with their owne blood Therefore by and by all thinges are on fire wâ—â— warres The Parthians nowe first of alâ— afâ—â— Trâ—ianâ— fall away fâ—â—â— he Romanes Thither the brother of the Emperour goeth be in adâ—â—â— as a â—â—â—forte to the Empire and at length a very great disconfiture 〈…〉 he returneth home with triumphe to whom this felicity was bu◠〈…〉 being suddenly dead of an Apoplexiâ— whâ—le he sate with his brotâ—er in the chariot Eutrop. Brev. booke 8. Shortly after arose the warre of the people of Bohemia so great as ther hath not bin the like in any time as the sâ—â—e Eurropius saith worthily to be compared with the warres of Caâ—thâ—gâ— which togither with the Bohemians the Qâ—â—dâ—â— Vandâ—â—s the Sarâ—â—â—es and Suâ—ves and all Barbary from the Câ—â—â—â—e of Paâ—â—onia even to the middes of the Gaulles Hoâ—â—e misâ—table was then the face of things the same author dâ—scribeth excellently after thiâ— manner For saith he there was not rest any where from warre and through all the East Illyrâ—â—um Italy France battayles were hotely applyed these were earthquakes not without the destruction of cityes inundations of rivers often pestilence kindes of locusts hurtfull to the fieldes so as nothing at all almost wherby moâ—â—â—ll men are wont to be wasted with very great sorowes can be spoken or thought which raged not when Antoninus was Emperour Those are his wordes It was a great and cruell sword which was moyst drunken with so much blood If any doe thinke that warre was noe strange thing to the Romanes neither to be like to be true that a thing so comon and â—â—uall should here be signifyed let him compare the Empire of this Antoninus with theirs which went before he shall see that the warre had â—â—â—â—ed by the Providence of God for a loÌ„ge space to the end that this iudgâ—â—ent of God when it
their owne power to cōsist in the observatiō of such thinges there was no superstitiō frō which they could stay thēselves Surely a man is scarce more begottē of a mā thē these Locusts frō that smoke Whatsoever pleasant thing was any where in any coūtries flying thither in troupes placing themselves there they devoured it wholy neither was their living more dainty then secure as though all the rest of mankinde had bin created for to be the cookes of these banketers Howe great troupes there have bin in time past any man may coniecture from hence that a certaine Generall of the Minorites which one secte filled fourty Provinces promised to the Pope towards his expedition against the Turkes out of the Seraphicall family of the Franciscanes thirty thousande wariours who could performe valiantly warlike offices without hindring at all the service of holy things Sabel Ennead 9. booke 6. Howe huge a multitude must there have bin of all the religious men considering that one family of them ministred so copious an army To which is to be added Polydore Virgill affirming that there was never any ordinance of humaine godlinesse that grewe more in a short time for this alone family of the Franciscanes filled the whole earth so as the common people astonied did suspect that godlines was not so much regarded of many as idlenes and slouthfulnes of Invent. booke 7. chap. 4. Behold the Locusts even by the iudgement of the common people There were Mōkes indeede of olde time but such as lived by their labour neither were they at all of any Ecclesiasticall degree but this newe generation sowing nothing of their owne devoured other mens harveses and that it might be evident whose ofspring they are The Monkes are inrolled by Boniface the 4. among the tribes of Priests and power is given to them to preach the word and minister the Sacraments Boniface the fift added the power of binding and loosing Nowe therefore they are made the creatures of the Pope of whom alone they receave their dignity and authority which before they could obtaine no further then the opinion of their godlines would procure unto them And not without cause it is noted of learned men although minding nothing as it seemeth this Prophecy that in this age three great miracles came to passe the Monasteries of Monkes were builded Kinges themselves became shaven Monkes dayly fornication was amonge the holy canonized state Beleus Centurie the first on Vitalianus Surely the Monkery of this time had some peculiar thing which did cause astonishement unto men although they had litle regard to this Prophecy ¶ And power was given them as the Scorpions of the earth have power Nowe followeth hereafter a description of the Locusts and first from the power given them which they obtaine like to that of the scorpions of the earth This creature is of the infects it hath five armes toothed with forked clawes the cruell plague of the poison of serpents as sayth Plin. They are of an angry dispositiō whence the proverbe thou provokest the eight-footed scorpion and Scorpio among the Greekes is to exasperate to stirre up to make very angry after the manner of a Scorpion And as it becometh their outragious madnesse they carry alwayes a drawne and ready weapon to inflict a deadly wounde The rest of the insects have their stinges hidden within the scorpion alone is armed with a longe stinge hanging out which is not idle but alwayes striking giving himselfe noe reste at any time that he may not be wanting at any occasion his going is with a winding steppe by which he striketh the more unwarres Such doubtlesse is this smoky breed in the power of hurting which at the first were Locusts in multitude and sloughtfulnes The thing is cleare in the Saracenes a furious nation prompt and ready alwayes to kill which by stealth privily is wonte to assaile men and to come on with rage in those places in which it was least of all feared Also our Religious Locusts in the west which seemed to breath forth no other thing then charity gentlenesse courtesie were as quickly mooved as the Scorpions If a man did offende but one even the least of that shaven heard he stirred up the whole troupe neither did he carry it away scotfree although placed in the higest estate of nobility Don Pluto dares not ta assay though he be Prince of Hell So much as dares th' unruly Monke crafty beldame fell In which two verses Pope Pius who before his Popedome was Aeneas Silvius was not afraide to pronounce that the rage of the Devill is milder then the monkish They carried their weapon standing out and knowne to all men the terrible lightening of excommunication but they gave a blow for the most part fetching a compasse secretly and they pretended alwayes fained causes of their forie Although if they pleased not to drawe this weapon at the least way they tormented with feare of Purgatory and Hell whither they thrust downe all their enemies Nowe therfore was the time when men dwelt among scorpions as in time past Ezech. 2.6 4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grasse of the earth These thinges shew over whom power is given them First all Hay is excepted simply secōdly also in part the greene and trees onely men unsealed ar left to their lust As touching the hay fOr so may the Greeke worde with the olde Interpreter be well translated specially seeing that the word green followeth next after it is the dry grasse cut of from the earth which seeing it is the company of the wicked as wee have often shewed the grasse cut of from thence shal be men separated of God from the society of other wicked by certaine playne and knowne markes The Locusts should not hurt these not because there lacked will and endevour but because they should loose all their labour in attempting their destruction whom God would defende by his mighty arme against their violence As wee reade that it came to passe in the East when Constantine Pogonatus was Emperour about the yeere 674. For then the Saracenes with great armies by lande and sea invaded Thracia they assaulted Constantinople the very seate of the Kinge but after that by the space of seven yeeres togither they could effect nothing by violent assaults at last many shippes being burnt by a fire newly found out of one Callimcus and the rest of the navie being partly drowned through a storme partly dashed against the rockes they were discouraged and weakened so that having lost all hope they desyred peace for thirty yeeres which they redeemed by a yeerly tribute of a thousand poundes of Golde and 40 men prisoners But doe you aske the cause why the Saracens fought here so unprosperously There was a certen Hay time in those countryes when Constantine abandoned the impiety of Heraclius and Constans his Father rooted out utterly Monothelisme the sixt Councill of Constantinople being
asssembled Indeede Martin Agatho Bishops of Rome condemned also the same Heresy who yet cannot be counted among this haie being tied to the earth by other veines to wit a most fowle Idolatry of which the Church of Constantinople was more pure which received not true and expresse Images before the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coūcill a fewe yeeres after under Iustinianus second as sheweth Antonius Contius in the third part of the Decrees in the third chap. of distinctions the sixt holy Councill and Polydor. Virgil. in his 6. booke and 13. chap. concerning the Inventours In the times of Leo Isaurus the same Locusts came flying againe about the yeere 719. with a farre greater number of shippes and more hurtfull armies But God sufferred them not to hurt his haie which he himselfe doubtlesse had moved in stirring up Leo to prohibite that wicked Idolatry which haie time became yet more evident when Gregorie the second excommunicated the Emperour and deprived him of the Empire and of his felowshippe that is cut him of frō the wicked earth because he had ordayned that holie images and pillars should be throwne downe and destroyed Therefore the Locusts are driven away by battaile by famine by a sea-fire by tempest and haile mingled with fire that they might acknowledge God to be the defender of his haie and the whole navie of shippes tenne onely excepted did perish of which tenne five also were intercepted of the Emperours souldiers the rest at length arriving at Syria that they might be tidings bringers of that horrible slaughter It was Doubtlesse a manifest example of the haie saved from the iniurie of the Locusts Besides these Locusts the whole East was also full of Monkes but as the scorpions in some landes doe not hurt as in the Jlande Pharo in the Norike Alpes and elswhere so in very many places they bring death without any remedy and as the Locusts destroy very often whole nations with famine some time also they are for meate so the poison of the Monkes was more sharpe in the West part in that it did not enter into the East neither were they much hurtfull in the West to the cut grasse Discreete men to whom the trueth did shew it selfe more clearly despised the hypocrites without feare and sufferred not themselves to be devoured of them as the other unskilfull multitude which through a shewe of Godlines became a pray ¶ Neither all greene thing neither all trees but onely those men which have not c. The meaning is that some greene thing and some trees should be delivered from this vexation of the Locusts all the rest being yeelded up to their cruelty who had not the seale of God in their foreheades In the former chapter and seventh verse the third part of trees was burnt and all greene grasse to wit of that third part because all that part of grasse and of trees should be of the cōpanie of the cast awayes But unlesse some trees should be counted in the number of the elect the foure Angels should not have bin forbidden before to stay their rage even for one moment of time ch 7.1 Here therefore a fewe are taken out of a great number as the naturall force of the wordes doth shewe sufficiently The wordes doe beare doubtlesse that interpretation which the most learned Theod. Beza bringeth thus neither any greene thing nor any tree but onely the men c. For the universall signe all is taken some time for any as chap. 7. ver 1. neither upon all tree that is upon any where the Complutent edition readeth upon any tree and chap. 21.27 any thing that defiled or any defiled thinge as hath the Common translation Also the particles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be understood by way of opposition but onely the men c. as but they onely which are written in the booke of life of the Lambe chap. 21.27 But here I thinke that it is rather to be translated according to the proper signification of the wordes by way of exception thus except onely the men which have not the seale c. The difference is that exception is alwayes of a thing of the same kinde opposition may be of any divers thing whatsoever And this placeth every greene thing and every tree in the number of the sealed that attributeth the same thing to some certen trees and onely to some greene thing counting the rest of the grone in noe place of those that are to be saved more agreably to that which wee mentioned before chap. 8.7 Neither is it needfull in the other places alleadged to departe from the naturall property of these particles if wee shall consider the matter diligently From these thinges then it is prooved that there are some within the compasse of the false Church whom God chalengeth to him selfe by a privie sealing and that this greene thinge and trees are men as wee have interpreted chap. 7.1 the exception requiring it which noteth expressly men sealed that also the greene thinge and trees should be men out of the number of which men are excepted And surely there were many men yea some Kingdomes England Denmarke Germanie c. whether the rage of the Sarracenes came not and in those places where they raged did they exercise tyranny over any other then those men who had not the marke of salvation What other strife doe the History-writers of those times and places report then about the sepulchre and the crosse of the Lord and such vaine things wherewith Christians were bewitched Neither did superstitious Locusts vexe any other men but those which were addicted to their superstition as even nowe wee said 5 And to them was commanded that they should not kill them Howe great is their power wee may perceive from the degree of torment from the continuance of it estimation of death as a lighter thing As touching the first it was not permitted them to kill but to tormente Howe may this agree to the Saracenes who shed so much Christian blood These thinges seeme to be spoken not simply but in comparison Yf consideration be had of that slaughter which in the next trumpet was to come the Saracenes may well be thought not to kill At their first beginning the Christian name was not so much hated neither was there neede of any great murder when the nations which they set upon gave out their vanquished handes yeelding almost of their owne accord to have fellowshipe in that ungodlines In the latter times there was a more fierce and bloody victory by howe much the battell was more eger But the Spirit did purposely chose out that kinde of speaking which might agree very well to both the troupes of Locusts For those in the West should not be so fierce and cruell in killing the bodies But this comparative speach noteth both the cessing of these in this respect neither taketh from the other all killing though farre lesse then that which was to come ¶ But that
unlesse yee load him also with the spoiles of Christ himselfe But learne from these that did speake by publike authority in their Generall Councills what was the voice of the whole world In the same route of wonderers are the Iesuites at this day all the Papists Neither can it be otherwise but that they must thinke that he is to be followed in all things and worship him as God whom they judge for a surety to be free from errour hath not the Englis man written justly in his Poetrie that the Pope is the astonishment of the world Especially if one set before his eies the Emperour leading his horse by the bridle and holding the stirrop while the Beast mounteth on horseback 4 And they worshipped the DragoÌ„ That is men acknowledged the power of the Beast to be by right the chiefe because of the auncient majesty of Rome which the Heathen Emperours who are those Dragons procured unto it For was not this to adore and worship the Dragon for his sake to give the supreme dignitie to his successour But this was the first foundatioÌ„ of the Romane Primacy because this Citie was a fore time the head city of the Empire From hence every where in Eusebius and other Ecclesiasticall writers it is called the raigning Citie But most clearly doth the Councill of Chalcedon shew this in the 16. Act. For the Fathers in order gave privilegies to the Seate of olde Rome because of the Empire of that Citie An hundred and fifty Bishops most loving to God and of equall Seate moved with the same intention gave privilegies to the newe Rome iudging according to reason that the Citie adorned with the Empire and Senate should enioy the like privilegies of the auncient Rome and in Ecclefiasticall affaires to have authority as shee and to be the next after her c. Therefore the Empire and Senate did bring forth the Primacy to the elder Rome which being graunted unto her by those first Fathers because of the Heathen Emperours who raigned there afore time the Successours afterward did for the same cause amplify the dignity graunted and prostrate themselves all shamefully before the Dragon worshipping him as the authour of this honour By the same argument the Bishop of Constantinople would have obtained the like dignity But the Dragon sufferred it not who had made the Bishop of Rome his heire of the whole Wherefore the Legates of the Romane Bishop withstood that Decree Neither would Pope Gelasius who in other things approved the Concill of Chalcedon confirme this one Canon concerning the privilege of the Church of CoÌ„stantinople Therefore that Decree was of noe force especially when the same Gelasius to whom the Dragon had committed his power had ordained wisely before and warily that no Act of any Councill whatsoever should be of any force unlesse it were confirmed the Bishop of Rome ¶ And they worshipped the Beast saying who is like to the Beast who can warre with him Such was the worshipping of the Dragon now followed of the Beast which consisteth in the extolling of his power above all that wee may not thinke that adoration is in the gesture onely And was there not iust cause of boasting so highly of the Beasts power Leo Isaurus the Emperour of Constantinople fought unfortunately with Gregory the second excommunicated by the same and put from all the Empire of the West Childericke the King of France was too weake for to encounter with the Pope Zachary wherefore forced by his authority he gave over his Kingdome to Pipine The Longobards not using the Beast well when he was sicke of his wounde at length wheÌ„ he began to be recovered and to waxe well were cast into the jawes of this Leopard by the helpe of Pipine and Charles the Great Neither lost Charles his cost being made Emperour for his labour Great indeede was thy power ô Beast who wert able at thy pleasure to take away and to give againe that which is the highest in meÌ„s affaires Lamentable is the History of Henry the fourth who in the heart of a terrible winter bare foote and fasting from morning to night for the space of three dayes waited for sentence craving pardon before the gates of the Canusine Castell of the Romane Bishop who yet prevayled nothing eyther by his owne or others teares or by the intercession of any Sanct save onely of a certen whore whom the Holy Pope had made his darling The Emperour was deceived who thought that the Pope could be pacifyed by prayers and fasting this God required an other kinde of sacrifices But that is horrible that the Pope drove rhe Sonne of Henry to that wickednesse that he should assault his Father with warre spoiled him of all dignity and at length constrained him to ende his life in extreame miseries Frederike Barbarossa a man of an heroicall disposition hath set foorth greatly the triumph of the Beast being troden upon with his feete while he in the meane time did sing this verse of triumphe Thou shalt walke upon the Aspe and Bisiliske and tread upon the Lion and Dragon What should I rehearse Frederike the second Lodovike of Bavaria contemning indeed at the first the Popes but at length having tried their strength prooving all meanes to winne their favour againe Our England hath affoarded us a sorrowfull exemple of King Iohn From all which may be perceived how unequall a conflict any Prince on earth had with this Beast Therefore Rudulphâ—s Halsbergensis the Emperour when the Princes desired earnestly that he would goe visit Italy not dissembling that he did wholly abhorre this voyage answereth wisely that he was made afraide by all men footsteppâ—s tâ—nding toward it and none backeward from it What was this else but Who shall be able to warre with him 5 And there was a mouth given unto him speaking great things Hitherto the honour of the Beast now followed his power of blaspheming and doing Of which both the power given is first recited afterward the execution of blâ—sphâ—ming in the sixt verse of doing in the seventh verse It is profitable for uâ— to understand that those horrible impietyes doe enter into the world not by any blinâ—e force of fortune but by the most just judgemeÌ„t of God Who doth so puniâ—h naughty acts and especially mens despising of his trueth The power of blaspheming is the freedome from errour which the Romane Pope chalengeth to himselfe and his Seate and that men of a blinde and perverse minde doe willingly graunt unto him What blasphemies may not he proffer to the world every one of whose Decrees are held for Oracles The power of doing is that exempt and most free ability to doe all what one will without rendring a reason to any man Wherein notable is the power of the Romane Pope above all other For such Decrees doe they ordaine No man shall iudge the first Seate desiring to moderate iustice for the Iudge shall be iudged neither of the Emperour neither of all the
interrogation hath a certaine blaming of negligence and unskilfulnes as though he should say unlesse men had shamefully despised the observatioÌ„ of former times now they should not have had need to wonder at the Whore because they saw her flourishing in this whatsoever felicity But the merciful father who pardoneth all sinnes to his children for Christs sake forgiveth also this carelesnes And therfore he sendeth his Angsl to make the whol thing most plaine For this is that which followeth I wil shew thee the mistery c. yet warning not darkely that also the interpretation it selfe shall not be cleare to all men but shal remaine yet hidden to all that are hardened as before at verse 3. 5. 8 The Beast which thou hast seen The first interpretation is of the Beast according to the whole in this verse as we have distinguished in the Analysis wherin is declared his divers condition according to 4. alterations of times such as at length he should be known to be most playnely under this vial The first time wherin he was the second wherin he is not the third wherin he ascendeth out of the bottomlesse pit the fourth wherin he shal goe into destruction As touching the first it is not to be understood of any time which went before the age of Iohn or this Prophecie given to him For the Angel avoucheth plainely that this Beast was not yet come ver 10. that is that he was not yet when Iohn received this Prophecy but should receive power at the same houre with the ten Kings who in Iohns time had not yet received a Kingdome ver 11. Therfore this Beast is not properly the Devil as some of the auncient Fathers expound it and the Iesuite Ribera snatcheth it greedily Of him it could not be said that he was not yet come or that he had not yet received power whose Kingdome then both flourished very greatly and did flourish before Christ came in the flesh Afterward we shall see that the original of this Beast is to be set at that time wherein the Dragon was thrust out of heaven and gave him his Throne And so there are two and fourty moneths of his cheife power which same is the space of the woman lying hid in the wildernesse and of the two Prophets cloathed in sackcloth These chapters 13.5 and 12.6 and 11.2 will challenge the same beginning to all these Which wee have shewed to have falleÌ„ about the times of the beginning of the raigne of CoÌ„stantine the Great some ages after that Iohn was dead After which beginning the first part noteth that there was a time when the Beast flourished for a season to weet at the end of the publike persecutions by open enemies whom the prowesse of Constantine put to flight The second that after that prosperous tranquility a new tempest arose which afflicted the Beast so vehemently that for iust cause men should say that he was in time past but that now he is not as whom they should thinke to have perished utterly in those troubles as it came to passe after that refreshing under some fewe Emperours in which time the authority of the Bishop of Rome increased marveilously when the invasion of the Barbarous people spoyled miserably all Italy cruelly destroyed Rome it selfe the Throne of the Beast and did cut off almost to the very roote the authority of the Pope growing too rankely Should not men then have cryed out by right that the Pope was but is not whose not onely authority but also seate they might thinke to have ben altogither past recovery This second time was caled the wounded head in chap. 13.3 which did bring with it the knowledge of the former of which there could be no knowledg until this alteration had befalleÌ„ But the Beast lay not alway in this destruction he rose out of it againe as the third member declareth he came out of the bottomlesse pit which came to passe when he lifted up his head againe after that Barbarian storme of adversity was mitigated This time comprehendeth both the curing of the wouÌ„d by Iustinian and Phocas and also his rising out of the earth or out of the bottomlesse pit by Gregory the second of both which in chap. 13.3.11 11.7 and 9.2.11 This Gregory exercised that power which his Ancestours had obtayned of the Emperours yea a farre greater not onely as an Vniversall Bishop but as the highest Dictatour taking away and giving the Empire to whom he thought good It is sufficient in this place to observe the first beginning of things Who first bestowed the name of an Emperour upon men in the West part wee have shewed in an other place Therfore the Beast ascended then when the Popes had gotten this terrene power to themselves as in chap. 13.11 hath ben sayd which earth he called here the bottomlesse pit as elswhere in the Psalmist and makest me to ascend from the depthes of the earth Psal 71.20 And so is the third time The fourth is shall goe into destruction which declareth that this dignity revived shall not remaine for ever but be diminished by little and little and leasurly consumed while it be at length utterly abolished as wee have heard before in the second chapter of Jezabell lying sicke in her bedde the paramour of this Beast and languishing of an incurable consumption Even as at this daie thankes be to God wee see in Rome and in the Pope but the buriall funeralls are yet to come about what time the Revelation will shew us afâ—er These are the foure notable changins wherby the Beast might become known to men being not blind willingly from which wee have a most strong argument to prove both the time when Rome is the whore of the person of Antichrist For that City is the whore in which reigneth Antichrist to weet the very Beast which was which is not which ascendeth out of the bottomlesse pit and goeth into destruction But Rome is the City in which froÌ„ Constantine the Great the Pope hath reigned which was which is not which asceÌ„deth out of the bottomlesse pit and goeth into destruction Therefore Rome since Constantine is the whore and the Pope of Rome since the very same time is the Beast and Antichrist in whom wee see all these alterations at this time so farre as doubtlesse may be done the same being not wholly takeÌ„ away From whence it is not to be doubted but that he is that adversary that man of sinne that great Antichrist whom all ought to flee and to feare greatly and to wish dâ—struction to him and procure it to his power If any thinketh the Beast caÌ„not be knowne before his last destruction which surely is to know too late let him observe that the Angell doth stop in the ende of the verse in the third member seeing saith he the Beast which was and is not and yet is Whereby he declareth that a sure knowledge may be had at this third chaunging ¶ And
cannot be purged with any other nitre which day commeth with speed as may be understood from the things before spoken but wee shal heare of a nigher term from the things following 17 For God hath put in their harts Now he sheweth the fountaine wherupon the Emperours should be for so long a time so obedient and why at length they should alter their mindes both commeth from him in whose hands are the hearts of Kings He in his iust iudgement blindeth whom he will and bestoweth the light of trueth on others whom he will embrace with his trueth But which thing is almost incredible that the elect might be more assured of this future iudgement he setteth before their eyes the remeÌ„berance of the time past saying God hath put into their hearts to give their Kingdome to the Beast until the words of God be fulfilled as though he should say as ye know for a surety that overpassed consent of the Emperours unto humble service so certen is this future alienation of their mindes and at length that final destroying which I spake of There is one and the same authour of both Neither let us take it grievously if the iudgement seeme to stay long the divine wisdome hath set a time which to accuse of too much slackenes would be a token of overhastie desire and importunate wish for until saith he the words of God be fulfilled that is until the decree shal be ended and accomplished which by his word he hath foreshewed to be hereafter VVherby is signifyed the time of the fift vial at the powring out wherof shal be fulfilled all those things touching the whore which wil be shortly seing our times have reached unto the fourth as wee have shewed in the former chapter 18 And the woman which thou sawest So was the interpretation of the Dominion now of the Palace which all circumstances omitted declareth most playnely that this woman is the great City which raigneth over the Kings of the earth Therfore this Citie is not the whole state of the wicked whose dominion is no more famous over the Kings then over the multitude of people but a City in deed wel knowen for her rule over the highest among mortal men and so much the more because these words are in stead of an interpretation neither is the Spirit wont to give an exposition darker theÌ„ the things that are to be expounded Therfore it is a city properly so called great indeede and the Lady of other Princes there can be no other such Head City in the Christian world then Rome an abridgement of the whole world the Queene of the nations Lady of Kings and once in warres now in superstition the chiefe to whom even in this decrepite age her former large possessions being greatly minished the Emperours Spanish FreÌ„ch and Polonian Kings yet submit themselves besides other Princes of inferiour degree Therfore this whore can no longer be hid shee is found out at length shee hath ben warned to come to her tryal shee hath appeared her cause is heard shee is found guilty shee is condemned to be burnt I have exhibited unto you the sealed writings of the publike actes neither doo any thing now remaine but the last punishement which is to be left to them for whom God hath reserved this glory So at length wee have now seen the true face of the whore and Antichrist it remaineth that wee examine in few words what the Papists teach concerning these things and especially because if this one cause be throughly knowe tryed the discerning of all other things shal be easie For if the Pope of Rome be Antichrist what need is there to contende about the Church of Rome about the seven Sacraments about free will about good workes or about any other point in controversie It is evident inough to all men that the doctrine of Antichrist is to be suspected avoided detested Therfore my brethreÌ„ strike at this roote throw your axes against it with al your might This one controversie is inough for us All the branches shal be cut down togither with the tree with much labour spared in which respect I will not be loth to digresse to this point a little while A refutation of the Antichrist which Bellarmine desscribeth and confirmeth by such arguments as he can in his 3. book of the Bp. of Rome Chap. 1. Of the common name of Antichrist ALTHOVGH I suppose it cannot be obscure unto any that dâ—sirous of the trueth hath diligently marked the things before written but that the Pope of Rome is the great Antichrist and how long he hath so been yet least the mist wherby the Papists endevour to hide the trueth should dazel the sight of any I have thought it expedient before I goe on with the rest of the interpretation to scatter it all into thinn aier that so the Sun may henceforward shine with clear beams on whomsoever Bellarmine deduceth this whole question into nine chiefe points of which the first is Of the nâ—me of Antichrist the second whither Antichrist be one man or a kind of men The third of the time of his comming and death The fourth of his proper name The fift of what stock he is to be born and by whoÌ„ he is cheifly to be received The sixt where he shall fixe his seate The seventh of his doctrine and manners The eight of his miracl s The ninth of his reign and warrs What is to be minded of these all and how the desperate Papists ar deceived in every of them may be manifest to any by the things which the Angel hath taught us in the former chapter touching the condemnation of the whore For if Antichrist be come and hath fixt his seate at Rome ever since the Empire was taken away from the hethen Emperours then can it not be doubted but Antichrist in a common name is a secret adversary an impious Kingdome and not one singular man that the time of his coming is past and not now to come that his proper name is Lateinos that he is not to be born of the Iewes stock nor to reign otherwhere then at Rome that his doctrine is in name Catholik and Christian that his mitacles reign and warrs ar no other then we have had experience of these many ages But Antichrist came at the sayd time for the Angel hath taugh us that Antichrist is the Beast which was and is not should ascend out of the bottomlesse pit and goe into destruction chap. 17.8 And wee have shewed that the Bp. of Rome from the time of the Hethen Emperours hath long since undergone the three first of these fowr notable chaÌ„ges giving most sure documents of the fourth also Secondly Antichrist is the seveÌ„th head of the Beast which next succeeded the hethen Emperours who made the sixt which then was when Ihon wrote Rev. 17.10.11 Therfore so soon as they ceased came forth he that had the dignity of the next head Thirdly the then hornes
that the fal of the world and time of Antichrist is at hand Ierom in his Epistle to Ageruchia concerning Monogamie saith He that did hold is taken out of the way and doo we not understand that Antichrist is neer Also Gregory lib. 4. Epist 38. All things foretold are come to passe the King of prid is neer For if Antichrist were neer thirteen hundred yeres agoe or a thousand at the least as is evident by these testimonies how can it be that he is not yet come You answer that the ancient Fathers were deceived with opinion that the worlds end was neerer than in deede it was and that therfore Antichrist was then neer in false opinion not in very deed Wherunto I say If the ancient Fathers had grounded their sentence upon the persuasiō onely of the worlds end it must needs have been as they erred in this so also they had erred in Antichrist but seing they persuaded themselves so by other arguments and gathered not so much that Antichrist was neer because the end of the world was at hand as that the worlds end was at hand because Antichrist was neer needs must that be firm and stable which they avouched of this thing unlesse beside that vain opinion you can prov the other reasons also to be light But it is manifest by their words that they had suspicion of the worlds end by Antichrists coming not contraryweise For Ierome reasoneth from the impediment taken away that Antichrist was neer He that held saith he is taken out of the way and doo we not understand that Antichrist is neer Gregorie by the fulfilling all things that were foretold than which what can be a more certayn argument And you confesse that al the ancients minding the evilnes of their times suspected that Antichrists times were at hand They did not therfore upon suspicion of the end conclude of Antichrist For the last end is never made a signe of things going before but the things that goe before are determined to be signes of the last end The end seing it is the last and the most unknown even to the Angels in heaven and to the Son of man himselfe Mark 13.32 can give no fore-perceiving of things that are before more known By sure argumēts therfore they knew that Antichrist was at hand but that which they joyned therto of the last end relyed but upon an unsure humane conjecture They had received from Clemens Alexandrinus Strom. lib. 1. a false Chronologie of five thousand seven hundred foure skore foure yeres two moneths and twelve dayes past from Adam unto the death of Cōmodus the Emperour Therunto was added an opinion of the worlds durance six thousand yeres wherupon Cyprian in the preface de exhort Martyr saith the six thousand yeres are now almost fulfilled since the Divil impugned man And Lactantius lib. 7. cap. 25. Divinar Institut All exspectation seemeth to be more than of two hundred yeres Add unto these the conjecture of the worlds speedy end after Antichrists coming and then it will easily appear that great difference ther is between those things which are handled of Antichrist and of the end of the world The first they had found out by many Prophesies and undoubted signes the later they did persuade themselves by some likelyhood of truth and the infirme authority of men The like we doo see in Christs disciples which exspected as we knowe a temporal Kingdome Yet when they preached that Christ was come that the Kingdome was thē to be restored to Israel should any which saw not the Kingdom restored disanull their faith touching Christs coming surely he should doo them wrong For that Christ was come they knew by most sure arguments which could not deceive but their opiniō of the temporal Kingdom they drew from the dreggs of the common error Even so the ancient Fathers understood by true signes from the Scriptures that Antichrist was at the dores but that which they affirmed of the last end was of their own should not diminish the credit of that wherwith it is joyned Therfore you have not escaped by this your answer but by the sentence of the ancient Fathers it remayneth firm and stedfast that Antichrist is come and therfore it was not for nought that the Bishop of Florence one of your owne men openly avouched five hundred yeres agoe that Antichrist was then come to stop whose mouth the Councel of Florence was gathered But you thought it better that the fame of this Coūcil should rather come ūto posterity than that the acts therof should come unto their knowledge As touching the later men in the first place you mention the Samosatenians of Hungary whith whom I wil have nothing to doo Whatsoever they think or think not is al one to me until they return unto soundnes of mind The other learned men have a threefold difference Illyricus Chytraeus and Luther make Antichrists coming to be about the yere of our L. 500. Bullinger at the yere 763. Musculus about the yeere 1200. Surely the second rising of the Beast in whose territories they remayned did cast so strong a smel to those prudent men that they could retch their minds to no further thing even as hownds which when they fal upon the denn of the wild beast doo run with ful course and cry not senting anie more the several footsteps Therfore for the most part they transfer unto this second rising the things which belong to the first and bring in here some other things that are not to the purpose Neverthelesse this light aberration of the time of his rising taketh not away his rising but by their voices and cryes we know that Antichrist is though the moment when first he began to be was hidd from them Let us therfore run through your answers unto every of them that you may perceive how they have not so much erred as your selfe have laboured in vayn in oppugning their judgements Secondly therfore you encounter with Illyricus who saith Antichrist was thē born when Phocas grāted to the Bishop of Rome that he should be caled Head of the whole Church which fel out in the yere 606. You answer that he was not born at this time for two causes first because Antichrists temporal reign of 666. yeres which Illyricus would have to begin at that arising should now long since be ended and Antichrist should be dead Secondly that by his spiritual reign which Illyricus wil have to be of 5260 yeres the Centurie writers might exactly know the end of the world contrary to our Lords words Acts. 1. Mat. 24. I answer unto the first It is a foolish thing which you gather of Antichrists death at the end of 666. yeres when you see they give unto him a spiritual reign of 1260. yeres Can any one reigne 594. yeres for so many is this reign proroged beyond the temporal after he is dead But perhaps your spiritual Pope hath no more vital life without
Iewes wil never receive a man that is not a Jew and uncircumcised it makes against you For hence it foloweth that they wil never receive Antichrist properlie so caled whom by necessarie reasons wee have evinced to be a Gentile and uncircumcised Secondly you say Antichrist feynenth himselfe to be of Davids familie because such a one the Jewes doo expect I answer either Antichrist shal fein it or you now feyn it of him VVhere I pray you dooth the holy Ghost amoÌ„g al other notes of the true Antichrist describe him unto us by this But it is Gods just iudgmeÌ„t that you which turn the truth into shadows should be deluded by shadowes in stead of the truth And so as your custome is being destitute of al scripture and probable reason you flee to the patronage of humane authoritie wherunto besides the other things already fore mentioned I oppose this reason in sted of a conclusion The Iewes shal have no dominion before they return unto Christ and therfore the Antichrist shal not be of them who should be the highest ruler and as you feighn by help of the Iewes should subdue the Gentils The first part of the reason is plainly confirmed by manie scriptures some of which I wil set down not so much for your sake Bellarmine though for yours also if so be at last you shal affect the truth as for my brethrens whom I would have to be stirred up by this iudgment unto a more diligent serch of manie places which being commonly counted plain and evident are yet altogither unknown The first is Lev. 26.39.40 c. Where the last plague of the chapter is this greevous casting of of the Iewish nation in which they lye for despising Christ from the time he was crucified unto this verie day whose solution and deliverance at last is conjowned with the extreme miserie wherin they shal be at the time when this deliverance shal happen unto them But if that Antichristian glorie which you doo feyn doo come between how shal this bounteousnes of God finde them so miserably afflicted The second is out of that excellent song of Moses Deut. 32.36 c. When the Lord shal have judged his people then wil he repent towards his servants when he shal see that their power is gone and that the shut up with the left abroad is nothing and he wil say wher are their Gods the Rock in whom they trusted There Moses singeth of the same times tâ—â—cheth that they shal be brought unto the lowest ebb when God shal arise to avenge his people The third is that of Esay 49.14 And if Sion say the Lord hath forsaken me c. Vnto these shal be adioyned Ier. 30.8 c. Ezek. 37. Dan. 12.1 Hos 3.4.5 Which few places may suffice to open the meaning of many From which I conclude although the Bishop of Rome be neither at any time a Iew nor by the Iewes received for the Messias but rather be by them hated yet this is no cause why he should not be the great Antichrist yea and unlesse these things were he should be farr from being the principal Antichrist as in their places we have declared Chapt. 13. Of Antichrists seat IN expounding the words of the Prophesie we concluded by most firm arguments taken therfrom that Rome is the seat of Antichrist and that forthwith after the Empire is taken from the Hethen Emperours For the heads of the Beast abide fixed to Rome where are both those Hills and Kings that the Angel speaketh of And wher these heads abide fixed there must the seat of Antichrist needs be Moreover seing Antichrist then also shewed himselfe when Constantine began to reign as before is proved at large he hath no other seat than Rome For wheras he abode a few yeres at Avenion he did that with purpose to sojourn for a time not with a mind to change his seat But on the contrarie you Bellarmine doo contend that Antichrists seat shal be Ierusalem not Rome and Solomons Temple and Davids Throne not S. Peters Temple or the seat Apostolical Which you endevour to prove two wayes First by an argument unto the man then by the Scriptures and Fathers The argument is this If the Pope of Rome be Antichrist sitting in the Church of Christ then the Lutherans and Calvinists and as manie as are aliens from the Church which is under the Pope doo live out of the true Church of Christ For Christs Church can be but one as Christ is one And our men doo affirm the Pope of Rome to be Antichrist therfore our men all doo live out of the Church I answer the Proposition is false and relyeth onely upon the Churches unitie misunderstood For the Church is both commonly so caled and properly The first hath pietie corrupted the word adulterated the Sacraments depraved is ful of superstition and humane devises reteyning Christs name onely and boasting in the title therof and also commonly so accounted whiles any whit of the foundation is remaining The other is chast pure entire clean hearkning to Christs voice in al things and not departing from his praescribed rule any whit at all so farr as mortal infirmitie suffereth and this alwayes is the onely and true spouse of Christ how ever the whore also taketh this name to her selfe So before the Temple Altar was proper to the elect and mesured by the Angel but the Court was not set forth with any description but cast out and permitted to the Gentils to weet the prophane multitude which for their neernes falsly chalenged the name of the Temple To whom the holy city also was given which having their seat in the sayd court they trode under foot at their pleasure during the appointed time Apoc. 11.1.2 More plainly in the 7. Churches which all ar Christs though Sardis lived but in name onely and the Angel of Laodicea was neither hot nor cold forthwith to be spued out unlesse he repented chap. 3.1.16 Therfore that is not rightly transferred unto the common Church which perteineth unto it properly so caled One may be an alien from the Church commonly so caled and yet be a true citizen of the true Church If you could shew that the Pope of Rome hath his chair in this which properly inioyeth this name you might rightly conclude us all to be fugitives and very miserable But whiles you shuffle togither things disjoined and contrarie and dally as your manner is with a playn aequivocation the absurditie which you thought to throw against us is lighted upon your own head So your argument unto the maÌ„ is lying like him whose cause you have in hand Secondly you prove it from three Scriptures the first wherof is Apoc. 11.8 where you say John saith that Henoch and Elias shal fight with Antichrist in Ierusalem and there be killed I answer that which is spoken of Henoch and Elias to come and fight with Antichrist is altogither vain as I have proved in the 6.
chapter against your third Demonstration But because it skilleth nothing for the force of this argument what the names of these Prophets be we let that passe for the present and doo say that that which you tell us how they are to be killed in Jerusalem is false For the Spirit designeth not Ierusalem by name but onely by this circumlocution where our Lord was crucified which agreeth as wel unto Rome seing Christ was crucified by the sentēce of Pilate the Romā Deputie By which fact he made his Citie guilty of this bloud which was shed by this cities authoritie as we have shewed on chap. 11.8 This argument therfore is worthlesse and weak assuming that which cannot be proved yea the contrary wherof is plainly evident by the Scriptures Neither was ther anie cause why either Chytraeus should purposely passe by these words as you feyn where the Lord also was crucified or why you should so trouble your selfe to prove against Ierom that Ierusalem may be caled Sodome which we acknowledge to be so caled otherwhere Although in the Apocalypse your Rome onely is Sodom you should rather have streyned your sinewes to acquitt your selves of this than have spent your strength in a matter for which ther is no fight The second place is Apoc. 17. where Iohn saith that the ten Kings which shal divide the Roman Empire to themselves and in the time of whose reign Antichrist should come shal hate the purpled whore that is Rome and make her desolate and burn her cke with fire How then say you shall it be Antichrists seat if at the self same time it must be overthrown and burnt I answer the Apocalypse easily taketh from you this scruple You ask how Antichrists seate can be burnt he being alive and seing it The Apocalypse telleth that the fift vial shal be powred out on the Beasts throne and his kingdome shal be made dark so that they shal gnaw their tongues for so row chap. 16.10.11 which vial verily is no other thing than this burning wherby the ten Kings shal consume the whore to ashes For you see that this citie which is to be consumed with fire is Queen of the nations which agreeth not to Ierusalem that hath been laid even with the groūd now manie ages since And if you doubt how the ten Kings should be inflamed with such hatred who so dearly loved the whore before hear how the Angel saith that for a time they would yeild themselves wholly to the Beast but should at length be stirred up of God to destroy her whom they most honoured before ver 16.17 This hatred therfore wil afford your Rome no comfort The other things which you heap up to exaggerate this argument are of no weight at all For that Antichrist the Iewe we have chased away in the former disputation and those things that are mentioned of the Kingdome of Asia are some smal peeces of truth shining clearly in the fabulous heap of confuse earth Certayn it is that the Empire shal return thither again but which Antichrist shal not constitute but Christ himselfe shal build taking pitie on his people and declaring himselfe in his Church to be King of al nations The third place is in those words so that he sitteth in the Temple of God 2. Thess 2.4 wher you bring four expositions of the Temple The first is theirs that by the Temple understand the minds of the faithfull The second is Augustines who interpreteth the Temple to be Antichrist himselfe with his whole people which wil have himselfe and his to be thought the true spiritual Temple of God The third is Chrysostoms that takes the Temple for Christian Churches The fourth is theirs that understand it of Salomons Temple Of these four expositiōs you chose this last worst and furthest from the truth even as women when they ar troubled with the green sicknes doo long for coles lether more then for wholsome meats The Temple in this place must needs be that peoples whose the apostasie is for which Antichrist is sent and this we have shewed to be the Gentiles onely which came in deede unto Christ but served him not with such affection as was meet and that it can not by anie means agree to the Iewes who never would be writtē citizens of this Kingdome Moreover neither did Antichrist come while the old Temple stood neither shal he sit therin afterwards seing it was overthrown long since never to be reedified more as the Angel teacheth And the desolatiō shal continue even to the consummation and end Dan. 9.27 Besides how could the Apostle cal that Gods temple which God would detest and which shal not be founded by anie authoritie of his but by Antichrists commandement alone as you wil have it vaūting himselfe for the onely God These and many other things doo teach that it is least of al to be understood of Salomons Temple Yet you say this opinion is the more common probable and learned But by what reason I pray you Beeause say you in the Scripture of the New Testament by the Temple of God is never meant the Christian Churches but alwayes the temple of Jerusalem VVhich short sentence conteineth two notable falshoods The first is that you say by the temple of God is never meant in the Apostles writings the Christian Churches For Paul in Ephes 2.21.22 speaketh thus of the Christian Church Jn whom al the building fitly coupled togither groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord in whom ye also are built togither to be the habitation of God by the Spirit And what other thing dooth the Apocalypse mean by that so often name of the temple but the holy Christian assemblies Arise and measure the temple of God chap. 11.1 Then was the temple of God opened chap. 11.9 And they came out of the temple neither could any enter into temple chap. 15.6.8 The temple of Ierusalem was destroyed before this Revelation was made least perhaps yow should think that that is meant by these words This is the first falshood The second is wher you say the temple of God evermore signifieth the temple of Jerusalem in the new testament For what Are ther so manie Ierusalem temples as ther are faithful persons Vnto the Corinthians Paul speaketh in words commō to everie Christian Know you not that ye are the temple of God And if anie destroy the temple of God c. 1 Cor. 3.16.17 Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6.19 To let passe the things I mentioned a litle before You certes are a more speedy builder than Salomon which can build so manie temples in so short a space but what cā not you doo which make a Christ everie day of Bread But this is a smal matter you say that the Scriptures doo so speak Therfore you bring some greater thing namely that the ancient Fathers Latin and Greek for manie ages never caled the Churches of Christians temples but Oratories
marchandise not so much by sea as by land from whence they are called the marchants of the earth Furthermore these are the Peres and great men of the earth ver 13. in a higher place and honour then they which sell marchandise Last of al we shal see that the soules also of men are amoÌ„g the wares of these men ver 13. which by no meanes wil not suffer us to stick to the proper nature of the words Therfore certaine common marchants are not here to be minded although these also shall suffer great losse but the stately Lords Cardinals Archbishops Popish Bishops who exercise a marchandise of soules and flourish by this marchandise with the glory of Noble men For we shal see after that Rome is compared to Tyrus because she is no lesse noble a marte town of spiritual things then once Tyrus of al those things which belong to the deligts of this life as we may see in Pope Alexander of whom was this sung common Alexander sels the keyes the Altars yee Christ also First of all he had bought them then by right he may doo so But Baptista Mantuan writeth more fully not of Alexandre alone but of the whole company and daily custome of the Romish court with us are to be sold The Temples Preists Altars the Holy things the Crown The fyre Jncens the Praies Heaven God is to sell Who can desire a better furnished market Neither mayest thou think this to be the overmuch libertie of railing Poets but a iust complaint of more holy reformers Bernard saith that the sacred degrees are given unto an occasion of dishonest luâ—re and that gaine is counted godlinesse in his first sermon of the conversion of Paul Budaeus in his Pandects saith the Popes decreâ—s are not profitable for the governement of manners but I had almost said doo seeme to give authority to occupie a banke for love Ludovicus Vives on August of the Citie of God book 18. chap. 22. saith though all things almost are sold and bought at Rome yet thou mayest doo nothing without a law and rule and also of a most inviolable authority But it were an infinite thing to sayle in this sea no shore of which thou canst see howsoever thou shouldest obtaine a prosperous winde for some few dayes Such therfore are both the marchants wares Although I wil not deny the huge excesse also of things which perteine to the body by conveying wherof thither many have waxed verie rich But here chiefly the marchaÌ„dise of soules seemeth to be understood than which no science hath been more gainful now for manie ages Augustine the Monk perhaps at home of no estimation yet because he had brought the Britaines into bondage under Rome was made Archbishop of Canterbury Venefride the English man called Boniface his name being changed by this way became Bishop of Mentz and togither also Governour of the Church of Coloine Who can recken up all who have made a way for themselves to verie great dignities by this same meane Alan an English man a traitour betraying the faith his countrey Prince to the Pope deserved by this trade of marchandise to be amoÌ„g the Peeres of the earth having gained the dignitie of a Cardinals hat Yea that this trafique might not be cold whom gaine and profits moved not those the crafty whore inflamed with honours and glory The King of Spaine was made the Câ—tholike King of France the moâ—t Christian King The Swissers the Defenders of the Church and furthermore endued with two great banners both the Cappe Sword Some reward is wanting to no man to the end that they may exercise the more diligently that profitable marchandise Threefold therfore is the cause of the destruction of Rome because â—he is the mother of Idolatry the corruptresse of Kings and nations and that may be sâ—ffered no longer for her arrogancy and pride and buying selling of soules By which things this right excellent Captaine being moved shal undertake this expedition against her 4 And I heard an other voice Such is the first Angel and the Prince as it seemeth of this warre the second as an under Captaine dooth his office in counselling and exhorting But here is no mention made of the Angel but onely of a voice from heaven as though this exhortation were without an authour his name being concealed from whom it commeth For which cause we have said in the Analysis that this Angel is namelesse It is in deed an odious argument which he handleth wherupon peradventure he will conceale his name which being known would bring no profit but might procure some danger the adversaries being of so spitefull minds His speech is continued even unto the one and twentith verse so copious shal be the admonition of some faithfull man which togither with the preparation to this warreÌ„ shal be spread abroad godly and truly warning men of the present punishment of Rome Notwithstanding that which wee have spoken of his name concealed is not of such necessity as that it must needs be so seeing the like voice from heaven did shew his author as the event declared chap. 14.13 But it is likely to be true that the name is to be concealed ¶ Goe out of her my people The exhortation consisteth of two parts the first part perteineth to them which live in Babylon warning them that acknowledging at the length the filthinesse of that citie they forsake the same and depart to an other place that they would no longer for her sake expose themselves to certain destruction Wherfore some elect lie hidd yet in the dreggs of the Romish impietie whom God remembreth in the coÌ„mon destruction of the wicked He will not suffer Lot to perish togither with the Sodomits and he used the like exhortation long since to his people when the mother of this Babylon was to be razed Ier. 51.45 And this commandement shal not be made in vaine to his people to whom alone it is proper to obey his voice Therfore even as the mises perceaving before hand that the house will fall doo runne away out of their holes so they being wakened out of sleep by the Angels voice shal convey them selves by and by out of this detestable city ¶ Least ye be partakers of her sinnes For of what sinners the felowship is not forsaken their guiltines is conveyed to men Therfore he saith not that ye be not partakers of her punishments but which is farr more greevous of her sinnes This feare wil provoke and inforce them to runne away who are convinced in their consciences of the Romish wickednes 5 For her sinnes are heaped up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one following an other as chained togither at length they hav reached eveÌ„ unto heaven But if through the whole Papistical Kingdome Rome be the holy city Peters chaire which cannot erre this chained row hath suffered a great interruption which as it much exceedeth the ages of the Heathen Emperours so much the more
God to depart from the felowship both of her wickednes and punishments ver 20. and chap. 19.1 c. Moreover after the time is finished of giving their Kingdome to the Beast the ten hornes with a constant minde shal detest the whore so farr off is it that they shal be greeved for her miserable condition chap. 17.16.17 Therfore that device falleth down concerning the ten Kings in whose power shal be the dominion of the whole earth who if with ioyned forces as the Iesuite wil have it they shal bring the last destruction upon Rome they should leave no King to bewayle her great miserie VVe have shewed by truer arguments that those x hornes pertaine to the onely degree of Emperours some one of which at length shal execute this destruction who yet keepeth the name of the whole number as it is done for the most part when speach is had of the mēbers or parts of some whole thing VVhile he shal spoile Rome some other Kings of Spaine Polonia and the like confederate with the whore shal make this miserable wailing 10 Standing a farr off for feare But what need shal there be then of lamentings VVhy shal they not rather make hast to help her They shal not dare to doo it for feare they shal be greatly afraid of their own safetie Therfore they shal behold a farr off her miserie taking heed that they thē selves burne not with the same fire if they shal come neere You therfore holy Princes take the matter in hande it shal not be a thing of so great trouble as peradventure you thinke Doo you think that Spaine France or other I know not what huge armies wil come to aide her These are altogither Goblins and vaine Scarcrowes Her friends shal stand a farre off with waitings testifying their love but taking no paines to deliver her from peril And who would expect that fornicatours wil undergoe anie dāger for a stale VVhore Therfore it is onely needful that you take upon you the matters valiantly the other things shal have prosperous successe Euphrates shal open away into Babylon for Cyrus if he cannot break through the walles ¶ Alas alas that great city A lamentable song of the Kings the often defect of which doth verie fitly expresse the truth of the affection The sentence shal be perfit in this wise Woe woe to us because that great city Babylon that mighty citie is overthrown and because in one houre thy iudgement is come They bewaile the ruine and the sudden comming of it 11 And also the marchants of the earth The marchants doo accord in the lamentations of the Kings but of the earth of which sort are the Kings we have shewed at the 3. verse that they were marchants rather of spiritual things then of those which respect the body For which thing there is an argument from hence Because saith he no man buyeth their wares anie more Therfore gold or silver is not here spoken of or sylke or fine linnen or spices or any such thing in the proper signification the estimatiō wherof dependeth not on Rome onely Vnlesse peradventure then they shall be of farre lesse price whē so greedy a buyer is taken away But the words are expresse neither is any such thing spoken of Tyre from whence this whole allegorie is taken out of Ezech. 27. VVhere the place no lesse required an amplification of the matter VVherfore these wares are labour study industry to adorne and enrich the city of Rome which thinges shal be most cheape and of no price after shee is fallen For who then wil give a rotten nut for them 12 The warrs of Gold and silver Even now we said that this whole allegorie was taken out of Ezech. 27. where it is spoken of the destruction of Tyrus Neither without cause as we have shewed in ver 3. when as at Rome there is no lesse famous a sale of soules then was at Tyrus of things necessarie for our use Ezechiel dooth so recken every nation that togither also he rehearseth the proper cōmodities of everie countrey in which both they abounded and carried to Tyrus According to which manner sundry kindes of wares seeme here to be reckened up to note out sundry nations to which either they belong or at least by whose travell they are brought to Rome Therfore although the names of the countries ar not expressed in plain words as in Ezechiel yet notwithstanding they may easily be understood according to that rule from the wares themselves The wares therfore of Gold and silver and the other outlandish things which are rehearsed in this verse may signify Spayne which fetched those things from the furdest Indies by whose travel they are to be sold in this part of the world Cinnamon Odours Ointments Frankincense wine doo note out Italy not because all these things doo grow in the same place but because as Spaine by the Ocean Sea so this by the intern sea affoardeth aboundāce of those things to Europe from Greece Cilicia Aegypt Africk Her selfe also being the most fertill in all delicious dainties of all the countries of Europe Fine floure and Wheate may signify the Ilands of the interne sea Cicilia Sardinia the garners and storehouses of Italy The Beasts Germanie abounding with them even as the Sheepe our England being greatly frequented with this kinde of cattel Horses Charets the French men who have great store of horses and from whence the use of charets have bene conveyed to others Bodies the Swisers who follow an externe and mercenary warfare and in which men Rome chiefly delighteth to make them her guard The soules of men are the common wares of all countries which Rome dooth hunte after by her marchants everie where desiring the same to be instructed in her superstitions which that so she may gaine and purchasse for hir owne proper goods she spareth no cost The makers of portsale of these wares are they that by their paines have brought these nations to be obedient to Rome Even as we know special provinces to have bin cōmitted to some Cardinals Iesuits whose care though it be bestowed in common yet it lyeth upon every one severally to declare his diligence in some certain nation Which if he can either retaine in their dutie or recall forsaking her by knitting it againe in friendship with Rome he bringeth wares of that sort to be sold wherby that nation is signified upon which he hath bestowed his labour As touching everie of the several wares by name Gold Silver Pretious stones Pearles they wer before in the whores apparell chap. 17.4 And it seemeth to be for that cause that Spaine in these last times shal be a special ornamēt to the whore And of fine linnen and Purple two for one the Purple of fine linnen which is a cloath made among the Indians of that kinde of flaxe so and of silke and of skarlet are spoken asunder for of skarlet silke Of skarlet we have spoken elsewher Silke
which goeth before may be in the place of the concrete and the autumnal desire of thy soule as also in the 2 Thess 1.9 And from the glory of his strength for and from his glorious strength In which sense the autumnal desire noteth out that wanton greedines of rath-ripe fruits which the richer sorte and the dainty ones have getting the first fruits for them by a great price the more plentifull store of which afterward they loath as though he should say Once thou didst lash out huge costs upoÌ„ things of little value but now thou art not so wantonly ready to buye that thy former strange longing is gone those things now would be acceptable which of late thou despisedst according to that of the Poet the empty stomake doth seldome despise coÌ„mon things which of the two wayes we wil take them we see that these things doo very well hange togither with the former wherby the mourning of the merchanâ—s is greatly amplified that buyers shal be now wanting altogither whereas lately when Rome flourished they had so quick ready a market Wherof the Spirit tendreth a double reason by this mourning first that nowe ther was no lust to buy secondly that al ability was utterly lost ¶ And al things which were fatte excellent That is al plenty abounce is departed from thee which doo more confirme the former interpretation For seing these things doo signify a rich plenty it is like that that which went before is to be referred rather to lust that the same thing may not be spoken twice although so it is wont to be some time when the latter is added in stead of a more full exposition The Compl. the K. Bible read are perished from thee So Aretas and the common translation but the sense is nothing altered 15 The marchants of these things The cause being declared now he commeth to the manner of mourning with a breif repetitioÌ„ of the cause The marchants saith he of these things that is they who bestow al their labour about the associating and retaining of these countreys ioyning them to the service of Rome VVho were made rich of her getting ample rewards of this their labour VVe have seen before briefly with how great gaine they travelled about this marchaÌ„dise which openeth a way to Bishopriks Cardinalships yea eveÌ„ to the highest Prelateship And who seeth not men of every couÌ„try being either of great wit or learning of great force either by riches or favour or famous for noblenes of birth descent of blood whose industry may be profitable for the beautifying of Rome to be hyred by what meanes soever to bend al their cares thoughts to this point Wolseius Polus flourished in our countrey in our Fathers dayes The first descended of base parents but ambitious tumultuous notably framed for the profit of Rome and therfore promoted to so great honours that he was not afraid to vaunt himselfe somewhat above the King The other of a milder disposition but of great authority for noblenes of pareÌ„tage for which cause he waxed rich by the Romish aboundance until he gave suspition of a contrary mind bewrayed some desire to knowe the truth Then he perceived that Petoum a certain begging fryar to be set against him of the Pope whom he should have seen adorned with his spoiles booties if the thing had come to passe as the Pope wished This labour is in so great account as that he who onely begged a reward should be equal by by to the highest States of the earth But after that Rome shal be cast down no man wil hyre this labour eveÌ„ for one farthing This evil shal take these marchants when they have lost all hope of their gaine ¶ Shal stand a farre off To weet Cardinals Bishops others which at that time shaâ—be conversant in other places than at Rome They being set without danger with a lamentable voice shall bewaile her ruine a farr off but they shal hav neither ability nor courage of mind to repel the danger 16 And saying alas alas It is the same concealing which was in the mourning of the Kings in ver 10. wherby the truth and greatnesse of the sorow is expressed The argument is somwhat divers for they agreably to their persons did lament that so great a power was abolished These complain that so huge wealth was spoiled which marchaÌ„ts chiefly regard Notwithstanding seing this fine linnen purple skarlet the other decking signifyeth the pride of Rome upheld chieâ—ly by the riches of Spaine as at the 12 ver the marchants lament ar altogither dismayed that al these richesses have profited her nothing as thou they should say how is she come to naught that was fortifyed by so great aide of the Spaniards against which if the whole christian world had conspired worthily might any maÌ„ think that they should doo nothing worth the paines taking 17 And also every shipmaster The third mourning is of the mariners watermen that is of the inferiour ministers of the Romish court Deanes Abbots Priors General Iesuits such like These al live of the sea by promoting the ordinances decrees of the whore Of which sort were the Spips and Shipmasters in chap. 8.9 ¶ And al the company of them that dwel in shipps The Complut the Kings Bible and Aretas read thus and every one that sâ—ileth in shipps the common translation and al that sale in the lake this is further off but as it seemeth fetched from hence that ploion is a little shippe rowed with oares of which there is more often use in Rivers and flouds VVhich interpretation is not altogither to be refused in so great variety of copies and declareth more plainly a certain distribution of the general comprehension into certen classes And whosoever trafike on the Sea word for word in the Greek doo labour on the Sea as in the Gospel of Iohn labour the meate that is for the meate cha sixe verse twentie seventh In this last member are comprehended all which doo study to the Popish doctrine teaching learning and setting forth the same eyther by voice or writings defending the same to their power or by any other way or meanes whatsoever advauncing and promoting it Of which sorte are the Masse Priests Monkes Fryars above the rest at this day the Iesuits who doo leane upon their cares lustily and smite this sea with all their strength without which if the shippe of the fisher man had bin it had dashed long since on the rockes Although while they in rowing labour to avoide Scylla they rush upon Charybdis by disputing they sâ—â— more openly in the sight of men the whores and Popes filthinesse which they strive to cover 18 What city was like to this great city As the mariners speak of Tyrus Ezek 27.32 What city was like Tyrus destroyed in the middes of the sea And for iust cause did they astonished aske this when they considered with them selves the
former riches of the citie flourishing of late by the commerce of so many and so great nations which they thought could be vanquished by no strength of man How much trouble wrought it Nebuchadnezar Ezech. 29.18 How much Alexander afterward Who repented him of the siedge he so despaired of the winning thereof by force who yet at an other time thought nothing impossible for him But these watermen should be dismayed for iuster causes at Rome late the Queene of the whole world The most auncient city the chaire of Peter which alwâ—yes hath overcome all calamities and should be mighty and flourishing even to her very old age both by her owne riches and her friends These and many such things wil compel them to cry out what citie was like to this great city Who would not have thought that so eminent excellency in all things should have bin free from destruction How have we bin deceived dreaming of her everlastingnesse How have we deceived others vanting that this shippe shall never be drowned How unexpected are all these things contrary to our persuasion opinion and vaunting Such a force hath this wondering question 19 And shâ—l cast dust upon their heads After the manner of mourners Iob. 2.12 For these shall waile so much the more earnestly by how much they are lesse able to upholde themselves by their owne riches But this Angel speaketh in the time past they did cast dust on their heads and also in the former verse and they cryed seing the smoke Yet these things goe before the ruine which they have ioyned and knit unto them For which cause he seemeth to change the time and not onely for the most certen truth of the thing to come as the Prophets are wont elsewhere ¶ Wherin were made rich all Not onely those chiefe purpled Fathers but also they who were of the basest state and condition Behold the whole Hierarchy how doo all flowe in exceeding great riches In everie country very much and the best ground came to them Moreover it is a thing woÌ„derfull to be spoken they which fained to sustain their life by begging froÌ„ towne to towne lacked nothing which might serve even for ryot Miserable common people who were so deceived that they bestowed money on beggars farre richer then they themselves that did give But such is the cunning of Rome to enrich her friends In these daies how bountifully liberally are our traitours wanting their countrey goods friends entertained at Rome in Spaine and elswhere They get that reward of their treason abroad which by honest meanes they could not obtaine at home A reward is not wanting at home for well doing But they hate true vertue the fruite wherof they would receive Rome maketh these men rich counting it an unworthy thing for here the whore wil be godly that the maintainers of her honour should not become rich by her wealth alone howsoever they shal be destitute of all other aides These may therfore for iust cause bewaile the destruction of the whore with whom they found the wages of their naughtinesse which now they shal be compelled to practise for nothing For some are too fully minded never to be thrifty 20 O Heaven reioice of her Thus farre the mourning of the wicked now he sheweth what aboundant ioy shal come from thence to the godly Heaven is the whole multitude of the Saincts on earth as often hath bin observed Apostles and Prophets are not those famous preachers of the Divine truth which were in auncient times but all the godly executing the office of teaching in the Church For what doo our affaires on earth pertaine to the holy soules resting in heaven The dead saith the wise man know nothing at all to weet of our affaires who in the body are strangers from the Lord Eccle. 9. And therfore the Prophet saith that Abraham is ignorant of us and that Israel knoweth us not Esay 63.16 Therfore they ar living saincts on the earth whom the Spirit calleth Apostles Prophets for a comfort in those troubles which they finde in the world that although they be inferiour by manie degrees in gifts to the auncient Apostles yet they may know themselves to be in the same state and account with God He speaketh to them by name because the chiefe ioy shal be theirs as their sorow shal be greatest because of the more deadly hatred wherwith the whore was inflamed against them From which we perceive as hath bin said before seing the ioy is common to all the elect that those wayling marchaÌ„ts are not of this number and therfore that they are said to be such raâ—her for likenesse sake than for the truth of the thing ¶ For God hath punished her The Hebraisme is more significant For God hath iudged your iudgement on her This kind of speaking dooth shew a punishment but yet iudgment and lawful examination of things going before not inflicted rashly This is the matter of the ioy because God at length would avenge the Saincts on the whore which so many ages hath raged against them scotfree with all manner of iniuries 21 Then a certain Angel tooke up Hitherto hath bin declared the destruction by words onely now a signe likeweise is used wherby it may be declared that it shal be sudden and eternal And this is done by the ministery of a certain third Angel of whom there is no mention made from whence he came peradventure because he is that first whose place from whence he came is shewed in ver 1 who now is brought in againe to performe that very thing which thar preparation said would come by and by For unlesse this casting of a milstone into the sea be the very overthrowing of Rome it is not described by what way it shal be done In the beginning of the chapter following we shal understand that the thing is accomplished And the former Angels went but a litle before the destructioÌ„ Wherfore either now is handled the same overthrow or he wholly concealeth how it should be performed ¶ A milstone cast into the sea may be a fit signe of the ruine as the burning mountaine cast into the sea was of the beginning of Antichristian tyranny chap. 8.8 But yet the thing is darke to us The event wil manifest it at length This Angel is caled strong taking up a stone like a milstone casting it into the sea for by so many degrees is the type proposed Which things declare an admirable swiftnesse of this ruine and no more repairable A great stone by his waightinesse falleth down with a great violeÌ„ce yet with a greater if it be cast but with much more being thrown of some valiant and strong man Neither is ther hope that that shal flote againe in the toppe which both his owne weight and outward force have fastened in the lowest bottome So shal Babylon be cast with violence neither shall it be found any more Yet these things are not spoken so as if hee were
shal come to passe between that signe given this thankesgiving The first gratulation is of a great multitude in heaven that is of the mixed multitude of the Church conversant on earth for we keepe in the common signification of this word which beareth not that these things should be referred to any knowledge which the heavenly soules have of things done with us The citizēs therfore of this militant Church in every countrey where the fame shal come they shal leape for ioy and shal breake forth into this grateful commemoration ¶ Hallelujah Halleluiah is an Hebrew word praise ye the Lord wherby the faithfull exhort one an other to give thākes and prepare their minds as it were with this preface True joy suffereth not it selfe to be contained in the bosome of any one but taketh to her selfe fellowes to whom shee may both impart her selfe and also may be more stirred up by the joint affection of others This one word containeth large matter of very great ioy But why doth the heavenly multitude speake now in Hebrew Is ther more holinesse in these lettres and syllables than in other They ar toyes Are then some Hebrew words kept as Osanna Amen Abba and the like which we shal use as tokens of our cōcord with the ancient Church that both wee beleeve in the same God and invocate him alone This indeed is a profitable cause of retaining these words but especially this seemeth to be the reason in this place that the Church of the Gentiles after Rome be overthrown shal provoke their brethrē the Iewes to the faith that impediment being taken away which most of all hindred their conversion it could not be that the crucifyers should acknowledge the same Lord while this flourished or was at all which gave leave to crucify him This is the cause why the Hebrew word now soundeth againe so often Praises were not in these words before time but whē the conversion of the Iewes is at hand ioyned next to this reioycing for iust cause now the Saincts doe speak with the tongue of one sheepfold ¶ Salvation and honour and glory That is the prayse of salvation honour and glory and praise of power be given to our Lord. Glory is a certaine very excellent opinion which a man hath of any ones excellency therfore called of the Grecians doxa Wherfore in this destruction of Rome so bright a beame of Gods goodnes and power shal shine forth that al the faithful shal admire it and be astonied Honour is that worship both inward and outward wherby we doo reverence so great excellency It is ought alwaies to be ioyned with glory otherweise vaine is that estimation of one which no dutie accompanieth the vulgar latine readeth prayse glory and powr be to our God The Complut and the Kings Bible have Salvation and power and glory of our God 2 Because true and righteous The truth in iudgments respecteth the promise righteousnes rewarding according to their deserts The credit of both these falleth into utter decay with the world because of delaying frō whence now for good cause God is praised of his people in both these respects wheras he hath proved sufficiently to the world that he dooth punish naughty acts and that he neglecteth not the iniuries which are done to his 3 And againe they said An other thankes giving the thing being more certenly known The first tidings of the taking of the city shal cause the first as it seemeth but when the faithful shal have learned that the same is utterly overthrown without al hope of renewing they shal renew their ioy and shal give new thankes a fresh The second is done in fewer words than the former peradventure according to our disposition whose first brunt is most vehement ¶ And her smoke rose up That is now is shee delivered up to eternal punishment to be tormented For an everlasting fyre is shewed by the smoke ascending for evermore by which kind of speaking is signifyed that the continual remembrance of her punishment shal be with al the godly alwayes A token wherof they shal have continually before their eyes the smoke ascending without intermission least perhaps they should forget it He alludeth to the eternal torment of the wicked Therfore the eternity of the punishment shal give a new cause of gladnesse And not without cause when they knowe that the insolency of the wicked whore shal not onely be restrained for the present but also that none shal have any feare of her for the time to come 4 And those fowr and twenty Elders fell down Such was the reioycing of the mixed multitude ther followeth the assembly of the faithfull gathered togither solemly which doo labour openly and ioyntly to the same duty of thankes giving For this multitude of Elders and Beasts giveth a shew of an Ecclesiastical assembly which God the Father for his sonnes sake coūteth such as this most holy company representeth And therfore as oftē as any thing is performed by a common name that is shewed by this sacred Senat as we have shewed in chap. 4. Such therfore shal be the order of giving thankes that the end and conclusion of the common thankes giving be reserved to the publike congregations And so it hath come to passe that private reioycing alwayes goeth before the common publik Any blast of report is wont to stirr up that first this is not undertakē but when the things are throughly known and undoubted But the foure and twenty Elders fall down when the Beasts give glory and thankes to him that sitteth on the throne It belongeth to these to moderate the whole action in the publike assembly the rest of the congregatiō ought to ioine their praiers and to testify their consent by a common voyce in the ende According to this custome there are rehearsed here onely two words Amen Allelujah As though that former were of the Elders this latter the summe of the thankes giving which the Beasts utter in conceived words But this order hath bin declared more fully in chap. 4. from whence this ought to be understood the same which now is shewed briefly But observe that the last songs of the Church of the Gentiles shal be gratulatory which yeeld no other song then Halleluiah Even as the book of the Psalmes is concluded with songs of praises Shee sunge in time past many lamentable songs and hymnes of a mixt kinde but the last part of the Comedy shal be doubtlesse a most joyful tryumph And these are the funerals of the city of Rome and the rites by which her burial shal be celebrated The day and yeere cannot certenly be set downe in which her funeralls shal be yet from other scriptures I think it to be clear that they shall not be differred at the furdest beyond three score yeeres The sixeteenth chapter hath taught that next after that the vial is powred out upon the throne Euphsates shal be dryed up that is after Rome destroyed
not to blowe untill they were driven in to the Skarlated Fathers as it were into the read Sea But that none may obiect that their stinking carkeises doe even hitherto infect the aire noe man can deny but that since that time they have lost their stinges which thinge onely this Prophecy respecteth ¶ And their paine should be as the paine of a Scorpion Not that they should kill as Scorpions for this was forbiddē them before but that they should inflict a wound causing noe lesse sharpe griefe then the stinging of a Scorpion It is likely that some great inflammation of blood striking pearsing througly doth thereof arise especially seeing it is a chollerick creature as wee have declared before ver 3. But what torment is to be compared with that whereby men are spoyled of their goods are pulled asunder from their wives are berefte of their children the chiefe comforts of this life neither this by any necessity of death the griefe whereof is forgotten with the time but wherby the living strong are separated away from the living that the griefe may be renewed dayly and a man onely left alive for misery That men sufferred all these thinges at the handes of the Sarracens is more knowne then that it needeth examples and wee shall see that they endured noe lesse the same at the handes of the begging fryers if wee shall well marke somewhat more diligently For these heires spoiled of their inheritances in sitting by their parents ready to dy and wringing from them partly by threates of Purgatory partly by an hope to be delivered frō thēce through their singing of masses for their soules and by their prayers possessions of great revenew farmes in the country lands Lordshippes and great summes of money For which thing any word of the sick man halfe dead was sufficient or if the breath were gone yet any sigh uttered at their demaundes It was a grievous thinge to the heires for to be dispoiled of their goods by this fraude but it was more grievous to be bereaft of their wives and children What was it else but under colour of a vowe to breake marriages to withdrawe children from the governement of their parents that against their willes they would keepe themselves close in their Monasteries And here are to be referred those most famous decrees If any shall say that a ratifyed marriage is not broken of by a solemne profession of religion of one of the two yokefellowes let him be accursed This decree is of the Councill of Trent but it was in use in former times chiefly whē these Monkes abounded And many exāples doe proove that not onely marriages ratifyed were undone when as it is wonte to be a hotter fire and greater torment not to obtaine the thing desired but also those that were accomplished which examples being sufficiently knowne I doe passe over purposely More over that it is lawfull for children to enter into a religion against the will of their parents An other torment of miserable men They tooke then away husbandes and wives and children from those to whom God and Nature had conioyned them Whom when they had in their keeping as pledges what could they nowe be afraid of their most loving mates and most tender parents who durst not to attēpt to doe any thing against it least they should be cruell towards their owne bowels yea rather what should they not hope for and carie away This tyrannie therefore brought noe lesse wealth and security to the spoilers then vexation to the spoyled That I may not say howe greatly it did molest the Priests and Bishops that the sickle should be thrust into their harvest of the superstitious Locusts and that they are wiped both of all estimation and also money with the people while the Fryars bare the sway in hearing confessions and doing other things which by right perteined to the secular Priests as the Archbishop of Biturim complaineth in an assembly of the French Bishops Maidenburg Centur. 13. chap. 9. colum 964. But peradventure this was a more easy torment consisting wholly in thinges of this life that was farre greater which did cast a snare upon the consciences by enioyning a necessity of confessing all their sinnes with every circumstance Jnnocent the third to whom the Westerne Locusts owe their stinges powred the first poison and strength of vexing into this superstition Whosoever sayth he confesseth not alone all his sinnes faithfully at least once a yeere to his owne Priest let him both living be kept from entring into the Church and also dying let him want Christian buriall in the Councill of Lateran canon 21. The Locusts armed with this stinge afflicted men with most grievous torments And certenly what racke could be more painfull Not to confesse was to betray their salvation as they were made to beleeve But to confesse was all one plainly with this for a man to offer his throate to the tormenter when as those holy hypocrites would absolve most readily the wolves Foxes from great sinnes and would devoure the poore Asses for one bundle of litter stollen away as a certen man wrote pretily in the Penitentiarie of the Asse The iniury which thou hast done to a stranger in taking away the litter from him is an exceeding great wickednesse Such then is the torment so farre as may suffice to manifest the trueth the full declaration whereof would be longer then would fitte our purpose 6 Therefore in those dayes Men shall be so weary of their life that they shall seeke death even as a thing which they desire very earnestly that is Death shal be esteemed a lesse evill then this torment Hence it came that the Mardaitae did fortify Libanus flying from the Saracenes to whom assembled many captives servants and that were home-bred because they were not able to endure any longer the tyranny of the Saracenes Although the safety which they sought by falling and flying away did runne from them who were compelled againe by force and armes to their former bondage as saith Zonar in Constant Pogonatus Our England was so grievously vexed and polled by these Westerne Locusts that it complayned in vaine that shee was more miserable then Balaams Asse clubbes spurres did pricke their sides and suffered them not to rest even a very little while but to go forward and to obey their most uniust exactions which the Holy Pope did urge continually by these Horsleaches was nothing else then to goe willingly into certen destruction set before their eyes Certenly during the reigne of Henry the third men by the iust iudgement of God being given up to the lust of these Locustes were sicke of a disease more grievous then death Neither did this misery belong to one Kingdome alone but also the neighbours Scotland France Germany groned under the same burden From whence not without cause Iohannes Camotensis as he is alleadged of Agrippa in the booke of the vanity of sciences said the Legates of the Popes of
Rome did so play the Devill in the Provinces as if Sathan had gone forth from the face of the Lord to scourge the Church But chiefly men sought death and founde it not being terrifyed of these locusts with the feare of Purgatory They would willingly have died the common death of the body which all antiquity iudged alwayes to be the Haven and ende of all miseries but when the Locusts thundred out that the flames of Purgatory were not inferiour to hell fire in torment they quaked for feare being about to die and felt themselves to be spoiled of all confort of death From hence it was that for to be freed from this their feare they did give to the Locusts whatsoever they would aske yea often times when they did aske nothing at all Yet neverthelesse howe of necessity did the miserable soule stagger and was vexed when even common sense did teach that sinnes cannot be purged by any corruptible price Thought therefore anguish of minde did presse them downe on every side considering that a bought confidence did free them from paine little or nothing at all 7 And the forme of the Locusts A description of the Locusts which first in cruelty are like unto horses prepared unto battell There is a great alacrity of this beast unto fight he diggeth his feete in the valley and reioyceth in his strēgth going forth to meete the weapons he moketh at feare and is not made afraid turneth not backe through feare of the sword Iob. 39 25. There should be no lesse promptnesse in the Locusts Famous are the invasions of the Sarracenes in all the Histories the warlike prouesse of the Popes bande hath not peradventure ben so observed of all which yet is as cleare and famous if wee consider the thing neerly What souldiers used Innocent the third to roote out the Albingenses Besides Dominicus the mourninge trumpetour and Heralde of this warre who a little after was made one of the foure Princes of the Begging Fryards he mustered an army of the Crosse-bearers by whose aide as it were of horses running to the battell he hoped to represse the heresy as they call it to abolish it utterly This order had indeede their originall before nowe but shortly after being brought almost to utter decay Innocent restored it for this warre that the mischievous persons as it were halfe dead might be brought againe from Hell by the authority of the same man by whose meanes they should have power to tyrannize and to vexe the world a fresh more spitefully see Polydore Virgill of Invent. in the third chapter of the 7. booke Neither did the POPE whose manner was to confounde all thinges and to set KINGES togither by the eares as PROBVSTVLLENSIS sheweth in an assembly at Wirizburg under Honorius the fourth afterward use any other incensours to raise up hatred Yea as often as the Popes were to make warre for the Pope is martiall not without cause when as the Locusts his subiects are so warlike a full armie of Crosse-bearers was at hande to fight for their King Hildegardis fore-shewed worthyly that these Hypocrites should be sowers of privie grudges who reioice in nothing so much as in cōtention and bickering ofmen ¶ And on their heads were set as it were crownes The first propertie was generall nowe he followeth on the thing he began by every mēber The Crownes on their heades like unto Golde are the shaving and rasing of the head which in time past was of great estimation among men even as a crowne of Gold so called doubtlesse because the crowne of the head being shaven seemeth to appeare in the middes like to a crowne In howe great account it hath bene some time Bellarmine sheweth out of Hierome in an Epistle to Augustine which is the 26 among the Epistles of Augustine I pray thy crowne saith he that thou wouldest salute in my name thy brethren my Lord Alipius and my Lord Evodius And Augustine in an Epistle to Proculian a Bishop Epist 147. Yours doe adiure us by our crowne ours doe adiure you by your crowne Mee thinke I heare yea by this Scepter Homer Iliad 1. Both kinde of Locusts was notably knowen by these crownes Herodotus in Thalia maketh relation to the Arabians that their haire is shorne as Dyonisius himselfe was wonte And they are shorne beneath like a globe shaving their temples But the shaving of the Monkes religious men was of all other most famous Polyd. Virgil speaking of the Benedictines They are shaven saith he with a rasour from the crowne of the head lower then halfe of the skull the haire beneath cut of after the forme of a small circle about the eares and the temples compasseth the head like crowne from whence the crowne of the head it selfe being shaven is called a crowne booke the 7. chap. 2. See howe fitly he interpreteth Herodotus minding noe such thing but onely moved with the conveniency of the thing it selfe For that which he saith they are shorne belowe rounde he hath translated elegantly The haire belowe cut of in the likenes of a little circle a thing longe a goe forbidden to the Iewes you shall not cut rounde the crowne because of the Arabians neighbours as it seemeth who were shorne after that manner that in noe thing they should be like the Jdolaters Levit. 19.27 But it is meet that these Monkes who differ onely in name from the ungodly Gentiles should agree with them in the likenes of polling their heades The golde of this crowne that is the authority and dignity of this shaving wee may see from hence that they were wont to make obtestations by their tonsure as even nowe in the Epistles of Hierome and August Ys the dignity thereof was so great when yet the superstitiō was very yōg of what gravity and authority was it after it came to a perfit ripenes Frances de Ribera will have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be an Helmet after the māner of speaking of the Greekes but he is deceived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indeede sometimes is used in that signification in Homer as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but never 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as may be understood from Plutarch Sump 8. Problem 6. The Latines sayth he doe call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a crowne from the head as Homer by similitude have called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an helmet So Hesychius describeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But there is noe such thing concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To that saith he Servius affirmeth upon that of Virgill all according to the custome had shorne haire hid with an helmet on which place Servius writeth thus a crowne that is an helmet and he hath used the speech of Homer for he called an helmet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I doubt not but Servius knewe that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in Homer and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but because of the likenes of the wordes the Printers