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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66360	Ho Antichristos the great antichrist revealed, before this time never discovered, and proved to be neither pope, nor Turk, nor any single person, nor the succession of any one monarch or tyrant in any policies, but a collected pack, or multitude of hypocritical, heretical, blasphemous, and most scandalous wicked men that have fulfilled all the prophesies of the Scriptures ... and especially have united ... together by a solemn league and covenant to slay the two witnesses of God, Moses and Aaron ... that is, the supreme magistrate of the Commonwealth, and the chief pastors and governours of the Church of Christ, and the Christian world is requested to judge whether the Assembly of Presbyterians consulting at Westminster, together with the independents, Anabaptists, and lay-preachers be not the false prophet ... and whether the prevalent faction of the long Parliament ... that killed the two witnesses of Jesus Christ, 1. Charles the First ... 2. William Laud ... be not the grosse and visible body of the same antichrist / by Gr. Williams.	Williams, Gryffith, 1589?-1672.	1660 (1660)	Wing W2662; ESTC R25201	504,825	313

Priest and to command him to discharge the same as he ought to do and to reprove and correct him when he doth neglect it which are the principal things duties and Prerogatives of any King or prime Magistrate of any Kingdom or Commonwealth And thus all the best Orthodox Interpreters both Papists and Protestants do agree that the Apostle meaneth here Vide Tremellium in Joh. 10.34 that the Antichrist should exalt himself above his King because the Scripture doth most properly and plainly speak it of Kings when God saith Dixi Diiestis I have said you are Gods and our Saviour doth primarily and principally mean Kings when he citeth the same saying against the Pharisees as Beza witnesseth saying Testimonium quod citat Christus in Psal 82. v. 6. Habetur That in Psal 82.6 Kings are understood by Gods ubi expostulat Deus cum regibus terrae qui imperio potentia quam â Deo acceperant abuterentur hoc Christus ad presentem causam accommodat quod deorum nomine ornemur qui ad regendum mundum sunt ministri that is the testimony which Christ citeth against the Pharisees is found in Psal 82. v. 6. where God ex●ostulateth with the Kings of the Earth which abused that rule and power which they received from God Beza in Annotat in Joh. 10.37 and this Christ applieth to the present occasion that they which are Gods Ministers and Deputies to govern the World are honoured with the name of Gods And so the first words of that Psalm do sufficiently shew that Kings are to be understood there by Gods for God standeth in the Congregation of Princes saith the Prophet he is a Judge among Gods and therefore by God in this place the Apostle meaneth the King that God hath set over this man of sin to rule him as well as others because the Kings are appointed by God to governe and to judge the people of God and therefore he tells his people plainly By me Kings do reign that is Prov. 8.15 not only by my permission and suffering of them to reign as I suffer many disorders and many evills to be done but they reign and rule by my authority and by my appointment that have ordained and set your Kings to reign and rule over you for they do sit in the thrones of judgement as Gods Deputies and Vicegerents in Gods stead to exercise a part of Gods power here on earth which is as the Poet can tell you Parcere subjectis debellare superbos The lawful power of Kings To defend and to reward the good and obedient Subjects and to punish the rebellious the wicked and the wrong doers and to that end as God hath the Keys of heaven and of hell to let the Godly enter into glory and to shut up the wicked within the Chambers of death so Kings have potestatem vitae necis the power of life and death that is to preserve the life of the innocent and to put the transgressors unto death or to pardon them if they see cause and to spare their life which is the greatest power on earth but not to put to death whom they please and for what cause soever they list which is the property and practice of an unjust Tyrant and not the liberty of a good and a righteous King So you see the honour power and prerogative that God hath conferred upon Kings and is warranted and confirmed by our Saviour Christ and therefore ought to be ascribed and yielded unto them by their Subjects especially if they be Christians and such as profess to know the will of God Let the Reader Judge whether this be not fulfilled in the long Parliament And yet the Apostle tells us that this man of sin which is the Antichrist will exalt himself above his King and I will not judge but refer it to the World to judge whether the long Parliament and their adherents have not denied this honour worship and obedience and indeed every part and parcel of that honour which God hath granted and commanded to be yielded unto their King Or whether they have not actually exalted themselves above their King And whether their words in their Petition to the King The words of the Parliament in their Petition to the King wherein they say The humble Petition of the Lords and Commons in Parliament and therein further say That his Majesties most humble and faithful Subjects have represented their most dutiful affections in advising and desiring those things which were most necessary for his Majesties safety and honour and in the Conclusion thereof do say That his Majesties personal safety and royal honour and greatness were much dearer unto them than their own Lives and Fortunes being put in one end of the ballance and the warring against him and especially the cutting off of the Kings head in the other end of the ballance where both their love and their hatred might be seen at once do not prove just like the Souldiers dealing with Christ to bow their knees unto him Mat. 27.29 to put a Crown on his head and a Scepter in his hand and to say Hail King of the Jews as if his personal safety and royal honour and greatness were much dearer unto them than their own lives and fortunes and yet immediately to spit in his face and to hang him up upon a tree Which is the most paelpable the greatest and the grossest hypocrisie and mockery in the World or I may justly say with the words of Agur Prov. 30.2 Surely I am more brutish than any man and have not the understanding of a man For Quid audiam verba cum videam contraria facta Will any wise man believe mens words when their deeds tell them to their faces that they lie And how shall I believe that his personal safety and royal honour and greatness were much dearer unto them than their lives and fortunes when I see them taking away his Life And after they had finished the Tragedy of his life and had taken off his Head to do as the Athenians did with Herostratus that burnt the Temple of Diana that is to extinguish with his Person his Name his Memorial and his Office When they would not suffer his Friends and his Servants to keep their King and their Masters Picture in their private Chambers but searched their houses as they did my house to see if they could find the Kings Picture And when as the Prophet tells us the lawless Jews said Hos 10.3 We will have no King because we fear not the Lord and what then should a King do to us For we that fear not the Lord will never reverence any King no more than they that will have no King will never fear the Lord because God hath coupled the fear of the Lord and of the King together with such an indissoluble knot that whosoever feareth God cannot choose but fear and reverence his King and he

worthy of credit assure me they are for what Blasphemy in the world can there be greater then to make the Holy Spirit of God that flieth from deceit and dwelleth not in the body that is subject unto sin to be the foul Spirit of Darkness and the Author mover and promoter of such most horrid and execrable acts acts never acted by any Christians and but seldome if ever known by the worst of Pagans and never before adventured or invented as I conceive to be justifiable by the most impudent of all the Hereticks And besides all this have not their Assembly and Preachers Wisdome 1.5 as I told you before by consequent and in effect denyed the Father and the Son and so the Holy Ghost which is amor nexus spiritus patris filij Let the Reader judge what Blasphemous acts the Assembly of Divines and the adherents to the Parliament did and have they not obliterated and cashiered some of the chiefest heads and maine points of the long received truths of our Christian Religion and did not that Parliament Authorize that Apostate assembly and countenance the swarms of their lay-sword-Preachers to discountenance the 39 Articles of our Church to dispute about the expunging of the fift Article of the Apostles Creed to Antiquate the Lords Prayer out of the Church Service for fear that if they should use to say the same they should quench the Spirit as if the spirit of Christ would be offended with the Prayer of Christ and to turne out the long setled service of God and the book of Common-prayer out of the Church to give way as one saith well to a long-winded extemporary non-sence and Blasphemous repetitions Such Blasphemies as never were in the Church of Rome are broached in the books and Sermons of the Presbyterians and most sawcy expostulations with God in the steed thereof which is the readiest way to introduce Athiesme and to abrogate Christianity out of the world which is the desire of the Dragon and the proper work of the Antichrist And therefore the Religion of the Fauterers and adherents to that Parliament being but a meer complication and a syncretisme or rather a sink and common sewer of all errors Heresies and Blasphemies may we not well say that upon the heads thereof there is not onely the name but in the plurall number the names of Blasphemy especially if I should set down which would swell to a huge Volume all the Blasphemous tenents that some of their members many of their Preachers and more of their adherents have broached scattered and printed throughout these three Kingdomes since the unhappie birth of that most unhappy Parliament to most of the Kings most Loyall Subjects and so you see how this Appendix of the Beast may be said to cohere with that long Parliament Fiftly It is said v. 2. that this Beast was like a Leopard 5. The Beast was like a Leopard Jun. in annotat in loc As after the 2d Pun warr Maced Grec syria caeteraque omnia quasitorrente sequnta sun● Dan. 7.6 Vt loquitur florus l. 2. c. 7. Diodorus siculus de success Alexandr 2. and Junius following his former exposition saith this ought to be understood of the Roman Empire that was like a Leopard propter velocitatem by reason of their swiftness and speedy expeditions and their extraordinary successes to subdue their Enemies when their Generalls might say with Caesar veni vidi vici assoone as I came I overcame all the adversaries that opposed me whereby they have suddenly prevailed to inlarge their dominions over the better part of the then known world But indeed that Empire cannot be understood by this Leopard for Daniel speaking of the four great Empires of the world saith that the third Beast which betokened the Macedonian or Greek Empire was like a Leopard that is propter velocitatem by reason of the sudden increase and speedy inlargement thereof when Alexander the great did most suddenly in less then 10 years space subdue the Persian Monarchy and brought under his subjection the most part of the visible Dominions of the world and his Empire was as suddenly divided when he bequeathed the same to the Worthyest of his Captaines and almost as quickly againe translated unto the Romans and therefore I say that not the Roman Empire Eodem c. v. 7. 23. which was the fourth beast in Daniels Vision and had Iron teeth and stamped the residue of the Kingdomes with the feet of it but the beast that is the Antichrist which was typified by the little horne that came up among the hornes of the fourth beast ● v. 8. that Daniel saw is here likened to a Leopard and that not only propter velocitatem for the great speed that he maketh in all his actions but also in respect of all the other chief properties of the Leopard which is observed to be 1. The three properties of the Leopard Velox very swift 2. Crudelis very Cruel 3. Maculosus very much spotted And so was that many-headed beast that our Evangelift saw And truly I may justly demand if that these three properties of the Leopard might not be perfectly seen in the long Parliament The parallel for 1. 1. The great speed of the Parliament Were they not most swift in their expeditions and executions and subduing all that have opposed them either Domestick and homebred Enemies or any other forreigne foes and have they not conquered these three Kingdomes and prevailed more in less then ten years space then either the Warlike King of Sweden or any other King or Common-wealth if you consider all circumstances since Alexanders time 2. 2. The cruelty of the Parliamen As they were most speedy in their actions so I may demand if they were not as cruel in their executions and more cruell then all the examples that ever I found in any History to parallel them more cruel as it is conceived then John Vasilowich that was the greatest Tyrant of Russia and as they say greater then any other former Tyrant and yet he never persecuted any man as these men did onely for being loyall Subjects unto their King and faithfull Servants unto their God though we might say of Vasilowich that Saevior est tristi Busiride Saevior illo Qui falsum lento torruit igne bovem And therefore when I duly weigh the decenniall slaughters practised in these Christian parts by those that profest themselves to be the best Saints on earth especially when I consider not the bloudy killing of men but the many deaths that in a lingring death they have imposed on many good men and the piece-meale taking away of the lives of many quos oderunt gratis whom they hated without cause but only for seeking to do them the greatest good and to prevent the greatest evil that can be imagined from falling on them I cannot choose but cry out with the Poet O mites Diomedis equi Busiridis arae

that some good men would relieve them or to be put to death whereby they should have had an end of their miseries and enjoy the Glory of Martyrdom but to make their Tyranny to exceed all cruelty and the miseries of the distressed and ejected persons the more miserable when their enemies as the Prophet saith whom they ever honoured as friends chased them sore like a Bird without cause Lament 3.52 and they that did feed delicately even with Kings Dishes Cap. 4. v. 5. must now lie desolate in the streets and they that sate in their Robes of Scarlet even with the best Lords in the Kingdom must now embrace Dung-hils and when the Parliament are told of the unjust and cruel proceedings of their Committee men yet that must not be regarded not their injustice so much as questioned because they are not to consider now quid sit honestum but quid utile what is just and honest but what is availeable be it never so vile and so wicked to further their design and if they did not uphold and countenance these their Instruments and not check them their own Projects might be obstructed And therefore The seeming mercies of tyrants most cruel as Tiberius and other Fox-like cruel Tigers worse than the bloudy Nero would never put them to a present death whom they hated most but said they loved them not so well as to take away their life and therefore in a seeming favour and mercy they suffered them to enjoy some space and liberty but it was in extream cruelty and malice to make them the more miserable by thus inflicting upon them a daily death So the subtle Tiberians of these times have dealt with Gods Servants to prolong their miseries and to make their lives more grievous than any death could be unto them cosque sibi-ipsis graves ponere And as one saith to set themselves to be the heaviest burdens and the greatest Maladies that possibly could be unto themselves when as all men may be assured of that truth What it is to be most miserable quod miserrimum est fuisse foelicem nothing can be more miserable than to have been most happy and then to fall into the depth of infelicity for what other thing is this but to make themselves to become the lingring Executioners of themselves Which is a death worse than any other death even by the Testimony of the holy Prophet For they that are slain with the sword saith he are better than they that are slain with hunger Lament 4.9 because these pine away stricken through for want of the fruit of the field And that nothing might be wanting to fill up the measure of this part The persecution of the Church under the long Parliament how great and how general it was of the iniquity of that Long Parliament and to make their cruelty most cruel and the persecution of Gods Servants most bitter because the more general and the more extensive and spreading the mischief is the more it prevents the persecuted persons of all shelter and deprives them of all Relief and Comfort this course must be taken not with a few of the choicest men of this or that Calling as Capita rerum which might be thought to be the Heads of any disorder after the manner that the Severest of the best Generals in war use to do when they decimate the Mutinous in their Army to be punished ut poena ad paucos metus ad omnes that the punishment of some few might strike a terrour and cause amendment in them all How well the Parliament was acquainted with all Church-Ministers but they must deal more universally with all the most Reverend Bishops all the worthy Deanes Sub-Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons Priors Chancellors Chauntors Sub-Chauntors Treasurers Sub-Treasurers Succentors Sacrists Prebends Canons Canon-Residents and non-residents Petty-Canons Chorals Vicars-Chorals Choristers Old Vicars or New These be the very words of their Act they were so well acquainted with all the Particulars of the Church-Officers that as Jehu dealt with the Idolatrous Priests of Baal so they might deal with the Faithful Messengers of Jesus Christ and suffer not one of them all to escape but they must all down in Ingland and Wales yea in Scotland and in Ireland in all these Three Kingdoms and you may be sure if their power could reach neither Bishop Dean nor Prebend nor any one of all that depended on them should remain in Italy France Spain or any other part of all the Christian world they must all down and down with them even to the ground and then being cast down Montes insuper altos Imposuit They must lay weight enough upon them all that they may be never able to rise up again until they rise in Judgment against them The long Parliament deal with Christs servants as the Jews dealt with Christ For as the Jews when they had laid Christ in his Grave were afraid he would rise again and therefore laid a huge Stone upon the door of the Sepulcher and hired the Watch-men to keep him down so these men their Scholars for fear that the foresaid Servants of Christ might rise again must sell all their Lands and Possessions and put them into the hands of Captains and Collonels and other men of Armes that with the edge of the Sword should keep them bare enough and naked of all support if ever they should chance to arise Good God saith a Father Si Diabolus nocere posset quantum vellet aliquis justorum non remaneret If the Devil had power to destroy as many as he would and as he desireth there should not remain any one righteous man upon the face of the earth And yet this is not all that the prevalent Faction of the long Parliament have destroyed and extirpated out of house and home for to these afore-named Church-men whom the Devil spited most of all you may add the Catalogue of such Heads and Fellows of Colledges and other Learned and Religious Gentlemen of the famous University of Cambridge as have been plundered that is robbed ejected imprisoned and banished only for their constancy in the True Religion and right Service of God and their Loyalty and Faithfulness to their Lawful King And the like Catalogue of the Heads and Fellowes of the other Famous University of Oxford The great and large extent of the late Persecution of the Parl. besides the great number of Grave Doctors and other Learned Divines in and about the City of London and throughout these Three Kingdoms that have been deprived of all their Means and Livelihoods and many of them most barbarously killed Of all which you may see such a number as is scarce credible yet nothing more than is true in a little Book printed at Oxford in Anno 1647 and entituled Mercurius Rusticus Querela Cantabrigiensis A-Book worthy to be read of all that desire to know the Extent and to understand the Greatness of

tree that hath many boughes and branches or rather like a long Ladder that hath many staves before you can come to the top of it and the highest degree of this mischief the uppermost staffe in this Ladder and the worst kind of all the many many kinds of murders and man-killing is the proper and peculiar sin of the Antichrist which since the death of Christ never any man nor any degree of men committed but the Antichrist And therefore that we may more perfectly see and the more plainly understand the sin of the Antichrist we must untwist the Cable and unfold the multiplicity of this many-headed Monster Two kinds of hom cide or man killing 1. Lawful the murdering and slaughtering of a man And First of all we must remember that this man-killing or shedding of humane blood is distributed into two several species 1. The one lawful and required by God himself to be done as of those that maliciously kill any man or those that prove Traytors Idolaters or any such high transgressors of the Law of God or of the Kingdom or Commonwealth that enjoyn such penalties upon such obstinate and great Offenders as will not submit themselves to observe the Law And this kind of man-killing comes not within the sphear and compass of my discourse neither is it the sin of the Antichrist nor any waies if rightly done distastful but most acceptable in the sight of God 2. The other kind of man-killing 2. Unlawful three waies is that which is altogether unlawful and most odious in the sight of God and all good men And this kind of man-killing may be done three manner of waies that is 1. With the Heart and this is very bad 2. With the Tongue and this is far worse 3. With the Hand and this is the worst of all 1. We may kill our neighbour 1. With the heart in our heart and with our heart four special waies 1. By Desire 2. By Anger 3. By Envy 4. By Hatred For 1. Psal 5.6 The Prophet saith the Lord abhorreth the blood-thirsty and deceitful man that is the Lord hateth him that desireth and longeth after a mans death as he that is thirsty desireth drink and I fear that too too many are guilty in this kind the Lord rectifie our desires 2. Our Saviour saith Mat. 5.22 Whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause he shall be in danger of the judgment and therefore we should study to suporess our anger which is furor brevis and doth rest in the bosom of fooles saith the wise man 3. The Apostle speaking of the wickedness of the Gentiles saith They were full of envy Rom. 1.29 Sap. 14.4 murder debate And the wise man saith alius alium per invidiam occidit one man slayeth another through envy as Cain through envy slew his own Brother Abel and the Jews through envy crucified our Saviour Christ and therefore periere quia maluerunt invidere quam credere Cyprian in sermone de livore 1 John 3.15 they perished saith St. Cyprian because they chose rather to ervy him than to believe in him 4. St. John saith that whosoever hateth his brother is a manslayer and the Lord saith thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart For as he that looketh on a woman to Iust after her hath committed adultery in his heart so he that hateth his brother hath killed him in his heart 2. The Tongue killeth many men and killeth them many waies yea 2. With the Tongue Jam. 3.6 7. plures lingua quam gladio periere the Tongue hath slain more than the Sword for as S. James saith the tongue is a fire and a world of wickedness it is an unruly evill full of deadly poyson and the Son of Syrach saith It hath destroyed many that were at peace And the Tongue besides those that it killeth by bearing false witness against them Eccles 28.13 as the men of Belial did against Naboth and the Jews against Christ killeth men two special waies 1. By Flattery 2. By Detraction And 1. S. Augustine saith that Plus nocet lingua adulatoris quam gladius persecutoris the Tongue of the Flatterer doth more mischief than the Sword of the persecuter and Antisthenes was wont to say It was better for a man to fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among Ravens than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among Flatterers that do fasten men in their faults 2. The Prophet saith Viri detractores fuerunt in te ad effundendum sanguinem Ezek. 22.9 In thee are men that carry tales to shed bloud and Job saying to his friends that slandered his integrity Why do you persecute me as God and are not satisfied with my flesh Doth intimate thereby that Detractors and Slanderers are like cruel Canibals that eat mens flesh and drink their bloud Nam qui aliena detractione pascitur procul dubio alienis carnibus saturatur for without doubt saith S. Gregory whosoever delighteth himself with detraction and the slandering of his neighbours doth feed and satisfie himself with mans flesh And these murders and killing of men with the heart and with the tongue are but steps stairs and progresses to the murder of the hand For first we begin to distaste and to dislike the man then we grow angry with him for some thing that displeaseth us and if he hath any vertue or good part in him or any honourable place or preferment or any love and good opinion from the people then presently we envy him and then hate him and so hate him more and more The steps progress and ascent of this sin of man-killing and now the Tongue will begin to play his part and though in his presence it will flatter him whom the heart detesteth yet in his absence it will lay loads of scandalous imputations upon his person and upon his actions even as Absolon did upon the government of his own father King David and Maion against the Government of William the King of Sicily and abundance of such varlets as I could name have done the like against the Government of some other Kings and most excellent men And when those bloud-thirsty men have proceeded thus far to envy his happiness and to hate his person as Cain hated Abel and the way is thus made by scandalous aspersions and false imputations to make him odious and distasted among the people 3. With the hand there wanteth nothing but the stroke of the hand to effect the tragical murder and killing of that man whom they desire to destroy be he King Priest or Prophet for so Zimri killed his King and his Master Ela So Phocas slew his Master Diodorus Siculus lib. 11. the Emperour Mauritius So the Servants of King Amon slew their King and their Master So Artabanus Captain of his Guard killed his own King and his Master Xerxes after he had retired out of Greece So Brutus and Cassius with their Associates killed Julius

chief Prelate were killed about the same time by the same persons and for the same cause as it seemes the two witnesses of Christ were to be and our King and Bishops were for the pretence of fear of bringing in Popery as here it did 1. The King which is the supreme Magistrate and 2. The Bishop which is the chief Praelate Pastor of the People should be killed about the same time by the same persons and indeed upon the matter for the same cause whatsoever pretences should be alledged the which cause is shewed to be the malice of the Dragon to the woman and her Child and to slay the witnesses And I do verily believe that if learned Junius Beza and others the like wise and learned men had lived in these times and had seen the things that were and are done in these dayes of the last Century of years among Protestants and in the best reformed Churches they would have interpreted this and many other parcels of Scriptures far otherwise then they have done and no marvel nor any disparagement to their learning and wisdom because as I said before Prophesies and Predictions mystically set down are not perfectly understood untill they be fully accomplished and fulfilled And therefore as the Holy Ghost had set down in the 11th Chapter how the two witnesses of Gods truth and the Governours of his Church should be used persecuted and killed by the Ministers of the Antichrist the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit so here in the 12th Chapter he sheweth how the Church her self and all her members should be molested afflicted and persecuted by the Serpent that had formerly seduced her out of Paradise and now followeth her into the Wilderness makes Warre against her and throwes a whole flood of miseries and mischiefs upon her to see if he can utterly destroy her and being exceedingly vexed and filled with wrath that the woman should be any wayes helped as she was by the earth and earthly members that opened their mouthes to speak for the innocent Children of the woman and thereby swallowed up many of those bitter waters that the Dragon had spued upon her that all the Servants of Christ and the observers of the witnesses should not be wholly and irrecoverably destroyed he goeth about to make warre with the remnant of the womans seed and yet it is not said that he made this warre with the remainder of the womans seed after the death of the witnesses because they were so few that they were not able to warre with him but he went about to make warre with them and to that end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he stands upon the Sands of the Sea for these words are the conclusion of the 12th Chapter and not the beginning of the 13th Chapter and they are to be referred to the Dragon and not to St. John as our English Translation mistakes it and the meaning is that the Dragon intending to prosecute this warre against the remainder of the faithfull Christians that observed the witnesses and did their duties in the service of God as they ought to do and so kept the Commandements of God and had the Testimony of Jesus Christ that they were 〈◊〉 true and faithfull servants stands upon the Sands that is upon the rest of the Preachers of Gods word and those faithfull Clergy-men and other zealous and conscionable Christians that used and observed the right form of divine service or the right mazner of serving God Who are meant by the Sands upon which the Dragon standeth which the faithfull and slain witnesses of Christ had prescribed and obeyed their Governours and submitted themseives to the Discipline and to the uttermost of their abilities justified and defended the same Government which the true Governours of Gods Church had ordained and he trezdeth and trampleth these Sands under his feet for as the Sands are placed by God to keep in the Seas within their bounds that they should not overflowe the Lands so is the Lawes and Discipline of the Church and those faithfull Ministers and others that observe the same a stop and a bridle to refrain the people and to hinder them from passing over the bounds of equity and piety and though the Discipline and sentence of the Church seemes but a weak fence to keep out the wild beasts and to retain in the fold of Christ his sheep and of little force like a paper bullet to terrifie the wicked from any evill yet as the Sands that are but of a small substance do notwithstanding keep in the raging Seas and as the twigs that tie the hoopes of a Hogs-head or Tun are but very small and yet are the preservatives of the Wine so are the Lawes and Discipline of the Church though not capitall nor bloody yet sufficiently able like the Sands to suppress the raging waves of wickedness from all the Children of the Church How the Dragon stands upon the Sands But now saith the Angel the Dragon stands upon these Sands treads down all holy orders rageth against all the Discipline of the Church throwes the observers of them out of their Churches deprives them of their livings stops their mouthes with terrors and threatnings and as he had formerly slain the witnesses so now he raiseth the windes stirreth up storms and all the Tempests that he can Judge if this also be not fulfilled in the time of the long Parliament to blow away these Sands that adhered to the witnesses and endeavoured to keep in and to restraine the waters of the Seas and the wickedness of the people from overflowing and wheresoever these windes do blow and these Sands are stood upon I pray God to give them patience to overcome these stormy winds and Tempests Amen CAP. III. The three principall enemies of Gods Church Satans 1000 years imprisonment when begun and when ended when the Christian Religion tryumphed over the Idolls of the Gentiles and over all the Gods of the Heathens that the beast signifieth the great Antichrist and a pack or confederacy of most wicked men from whence it sprung of the seven heads of the beast what they are handled at large and the Authours opinion of the seven Kings and the eighth that is the beast and the Antichrist 3. AFter that the Angel which Christ sent unto St John had informed him of those sad accidents that should befall unto the witnesses in the 11th Chapter and the state and condition of the Church of God under the person and title of the woman for the space of 1200 and 60 years and the persecutions that she must undergo after the end and expiration of those years that began as I shewed unto you about 382. and ended in or about 1642. in the 12th Chapter he proceedeth in this 13th Chapter to shew unto him the Instruments that the red Dragon raiseth up and the Devill useth to become the murtherers of the witnesses and the persecuting enemies of Gods Church and I

I need not stand any longer to unkennell this Beast seeing that the same things that are incident to the Presbyterians may be truely applyed to the Independants but that in my judgement the Independant is less rigid more tolerable and quiet and of far better faith and principles then the Presbyterians 3. 3. The Presbyterians the first fountain and the chiefe Head of this false Prophet The Presbyterians not as they are Presbyters but as they now shew themselves to be under this notion and name of Presbyterians are the primum mobile and the maine stock from whence do spring all the branches of this false Prophet and though I might collect many more yet I will infist and that briefly but upon these foure points besides their correspondency with what the Spirit of God setteth down here that do sufficiently shew them to be this false Prophet and they are 1. Their Apostasie 1. Their Apostasie For 2. Their Perjury For 3. Their Hypocrisie For 4. The obliquity of all their actions For 1. 1 John 3.19 They were with us and as St. John saith they went out from us because they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but in the height of their pride they left their station forsook their coulors and started aside like a broken bowe And so 2. 2. Their Perjury The Oath of the Presbyters when they are made Ministers In Apostatizing from that Profession which they made at their Ordination and denying their Bishops and Diocessans to be their Guides and their Governors they became perjured to break their faith and to falfifie their Oath which they made in the presence of God and his Congregation when they were ordained for when any one is to enter into the Holy Order of Priesthood the Bishop demands of him will you reverently obey your Ordinary and other chiefe Ministers unto whom the Government and Charge is committed over you following with a glad mind and will their godly admonitions and submitting your selfe to their godly judgements and he that is to be admitted Priest answereth I will so do the Lord being my helper which is a promissory Oath that requireth performance and may no way be dispensed with and violated at our pleasure as that Learned Regius Professor of Oxford Doctor Sanderson Vide Dr. Sanderson de Juramento Promissorio in that excellent Book De Juramento Promissorio hath most amply declared unto us and shall we think that they can be true Prophets to us that have been false and perjured to themselves or shall we commit our soules to their custody that have forfeited their own soules unto the Devill or shall we not believe that these rather then the Roman Clergy are this false Prophet For 1. They have not refused to be subject and obedient to their Governors nor stepped aside from their station and therefore cannot be taxed with this Apostasie that the Apostle ascribeth to the many Antichrists that were in his time 2. They have not falsified their faith and perjured themselves in not performing their Oath and observing their promise which they made when they entered into Sacred Orders but to proceed 3. For their hypocrisie I leave it to the world to judge of it And 4. For the obliquity of their actions it is well observed by one that in all their doings they and their Proselites do imitate King Saul to a haire for first King Saul without any respect or regard to the Office and Authority of the Priest would presume to offer sacrifice 1 Sam. 13.9 10. as afterwards Vzziah would have done so the new Presbyters though they cannot show that they have any authority descentive from hand to hand from the Apostles as all 2 Chron. 26.16 17. and every true Presbyter ought to have yet will they intrude themselves to do the offices of the Ministers of Christ 2. Saule had an evill spirit that could not abide any musick but would have killed David when he played before him 1 Sam. 18.10 11. so the Presbyterians cannot endure any Organs or Musick in the Worship of God 3. Saul made no conscience of his Oathes but through the vehemency of his Zeal forsooth to Gods Honour he despised the wisdom of his fore-fathers and therefore he breaks the Oath that they made unto the Gibeonites and would needs slay those harmeless Gibeonites and the whole Nation of the Jewes must smart for his foolish rashness and his bloody act so the Presbyterian or Rumpe Parliament and their Teachers the Presbyters were such Zelots and so Holy that they despised the wisdom of our former Parliaments and so brake their Oathes of their Alleageance and Supremacy to the King and as I said before of their obedience and subjection to the Bishops and the Church of Christ and slew the two Witnesses of God and the whole Kingdom hath ever since smarted for the same 4. Saul was a most malicious man and as cruell as any one of those times as you may read how he persecuted and hunted after the life of David 1 Sam. 18.11 Chap. 19.1.10 Chap. 21.1 c. without any cause and against all Reason would have put his own son Jonathan to death and did not the Presbyterian Parliament as maliciously hunt after the Kings life and the Bishops and abundance more of the Kings Party let my Reader judge 5. This goodly King for Davids sake caused fourscore and five persons of the Lords Priests that did weare a linnen Ephod saith the Text to be slain and all that they had to be destroyed and did not the Proselites of these Presbyters for King Charles his sake because they were honest and faithfull unto their King as he was loving and like a Father unto them run and ruinate well-near as many Bishops besides the Deanes Prebends and many more godly Ministers that were Canonicall and wore the linnen surplice though they that hated the surplice escaped their brethrens fate and were protected and advanced by these Presbyters as those that rejected the linnen Ephod were preserved by Saul for it is most evident that the Spirit of God would not have set down the garments of those Priests that were destroyed but to intimate unto us that some other false Priests that could no more abide the linnen Ephod then our Presbyters can now endure the white surplice were joyned with Saul and whispered in his ears against those that did wear the Ephod as the Presbyterians did alwayes ring in the ears of the Parliament men against the wearers of these holy garments otherwise it had been enough to say that Saul had caused to be slain so many Priests of the Lord without any further mention of wearing the linnen Ephod but the holy Ghost setteth not down the least title to no purpose And I could wish his Majesty would well consider how that very very many of the prime Presbyterians in London and the country made

Clementes Busiris or Orus the second was the King of Aegypt and the first oppressor of the Children of Israel jam Cinna pius All former Murderers were very mild and all Tyrants gentle and light in comparison of these Leopards when as Vix erit ulla fides tam saevi criminis hostes Tot paenas cepisse pios And we may demand quis prodere tanta Funera quis cedes posset deflere nefandas Quid tale immaenes unquam gessisse feruntur How is it possible to beleive that men should do such acts as they have done For though I read of the cruelties of Phalaris Busiris Dionysius Nero Dioclesian and the Roman proscriptions in the times and warrs of Sylla Marius Cynna Augustus Antony and the like Yet the Tyranny and cruelty of these men was but of a single thred of one Tyrant at one time save only 30 in Athens and that but once and the Decemvirj in Rome and that but once neither they were soon weary of their Polyarchy but I know not when or where you shall read of such a pack and knot of Tyrants and such a multitude of persecutors conspiring together as one man to vent their malice and to shew their cruelty against innocent men and each one of them striving to become more famous then the rest by being the more odious in the severity of his censure Patercul l. 2. c. 26. and as Paterculus saith where the emulation was wont to be about vertuous actions the contention is now onely for the height of mischief and he thinks himself the best man who doth most transcend in Villany when they are become all such men as Aristophanes speaks of in Acharnensibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quibus nec ara nec fides nec jus jur andum manet that neither care for faith nor oath nor God where you can find such a pack and society of men there I do believe you shall find this beast that is like a Leopard Besides the former Tyrants and the most bloody persecutors of the Church executed their cruelties onely except against some sew malefactors or some others as the Christians that were most innocent against men for neglecting their commands which the Christians would never have refused had they not been repugnant to the Commands of God or those men that they hated for some despight done unto themselves and but very few good and innocent men except the Christians either in the Proscriptions or by the other Tyrants were otherwise causelesly spoiled and executed but I pray you consider without partiality what a number of noble persons what an infinite number of good Christians that were so quiet that they medled not at all on neither side He that would see more and more particular examples of the cruelty of this long Parliament let him look into the Historie of Independency part 3. pag. 19. c. what huge armies of faithfull Subjects besides all the Reverend Bishops grave Doctors and learned Preachers that offended no man were utterly undone in the last war by those men that had no Command over them nor received any the least in jurie by them but as Aristides was banished out of Athens justus quia justus onely because he was too just so were these poor innocents plundered robbed persecuted imprisoned buffeted stripped banished and killed and their wives and children left either to beg or starve onely because they would not be wicked and are they not then that do such things for their cruelty most rightly said to be like a leopard when their feet are so swift to shed blood and they so mercilesse and so universally malicious in their proceedings of bloodshedding 3. Can any Child be more like the Father then the long Parliament and their adherents are unto the Leopard propter versicolorem 3. The dive●sity of the stains and spots of the Parliament and their adherents by reason of their divers and bespotted colours the Leopard being not so bespotted with diversities of colours as they are maculated and besprinkled with the varieties of all kind of wickedness if that be true which is written of them that they were as the Apostle saith of the Gentiles repleti omni injustitia filled with all unrighteousness farragine haeresewn a hodge-podge of all Heresies old and new and a world of all kinds of sins Rom. 1.29 as treason rebellion murders thefts sacriledge rapes adulteries oppressions lyings perjuries hypocrisies and abundance more of such stuffe that are most amply explained by the Authour of the History of Independency for as the Poet saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Depravant publica jura Justitiamque fugant divum nil verba verente● Which sheweth in a word that the adherents favourers and followers of that long Parliament did neither fear God nor love man but have notwithstanding all their pretence of piety sold themselves like Ahab to commit ail wickedness even with greediness and so for the love of being great in the World to become the very bondslaves of Satan And are they not therefore bespotted with more spots and more diversities of colours then the Leopard or The divers coloured Regiments of the long Parliament and their adherents have they not all the colours of the Rain-bow and some more then either of these if you consider 1. The white Regiment of their Hypocrites 2. The black Regiment of their Independants 3. The Scarlet Regiment of Presbyterians 4. The yellow Regiment of Anabaptists 5. The green Regiment of Levellers 6. The blew Regiment of Seekers 7. The Azure Regiment of Dive-dippers 8. The tawny Regiment of lay-Preachers and a great many more Regiments of Sectaries then I can find colours to discriminate them and though all these severall Sects and Regiments of divers colours do peevishly differ in some inconsiderable Tenents Vide the History of Independency part 3. p. 26. yet they have some common principles to soader them together that they may attain unto that main end and scope at which they all principally aym and that is power preferment and profit to rule all and to have all the wealth and estates of the Antichristian Bishops as they terme them and the reprobate Royalists the Cavaliers and the Laodicean Newters all which three sorts of Cast-awayes they may as well rob and take away all that they have in their conceit as the Israelistes did from the Egyptians and may as lawfully kill them as they killed the Canannites and divide their Lands and goods among themselves that are if you will believe them the true Saints of God as I was told one of their great Knights said to the plundered Inhabitants of Anglesey and therefore 6. 6 The feet of the Beast like the feet of a Beare Prov. 4.26 Most ugly It is further said v. 2. that the feet of this Beast were as the feet of a Bear and by feet in the Scripture phrase we are to understand their doings and their wayes as Solomon saith ponder