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A34679 An exposition upon the thirteenth chapter of the Revelation by that reverend and eminent servant of the Lord, Mr. John Cotton ... ; taken from his mouth in short-writing, and some part of it corrected by himself soon after the preaching thereof ; and all of it since viewed over by a friend to him ... wherein some mistakes were amended, but nothing of the sense altered. Cotton, John, 1584-1652.; Allen, Thomas. 1656 (1656) Wing C6432; ESTC R6199 216,496 285

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down to the pit I have found a ransome Job 33. 24. He now pleads satisfaction to the justice of his Father and having satisfied for all there is a sufficient plea in his mouth for all the Elect of God whatever our actual transgressions have been the Lord hath aboundant plea for all his people that so he may both obtain of the Father the spirit to bestow good things upon us and having given us such things as faith and love and repentance he may plead our sincerity of heart and that argues communion with himselfe and saith in his bloud But that which doth make us stand righteous before him is this that he himselfe was a Lamb without spot and yet did not plead his own innocency but did bear all for us and for us all that we might ever be righteous in the sight of God And thus will God have all his servants plead or else they shall not have salvation First to plead silence That then thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done saith the Lord God Ezek. 16. 63. Secondly to plead our iniquity Psal 51. 3 4. I acknowledg my transgression and my sinne is ever before mee Against thee onely have I sinned and done this evill in thy sight that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest c. But purge me with by sope and I shall be clean Looke therefore unto this point mainly and principally that if we come to plead before the Lord our God hee doth require we should examine our selves and in the end be so surprized when we have done as not to have what to answer Christ could not tell what to answer and we must not wonder if wee doe not finde what to answer For here God magnifieth his love in setting forth himselfe unto a believer to be a God justifying him that cannot justifie himselfe He seeth there is the way of the grace of God the Lord hath done this in Christ and the manifestation and declaration of it doth so possesse the hearts of Gods children that it causeth them to cleave unto him for all their righteousnesse and peace And this is of great necessity and of continuall practice for the Saints of God to attend unto that we might not be at a losse in this great question of our soules Conscience cryes out unto us and wee know not in the world what to say for wee are wicked beyond measure in the sight of God our own sincerity will not plead our righteousnesse before God But all it will do will come to this end that we shall be convinced we have nothing to say Nay an Angel nay the Sonne himselfe could not tell what to say for us but wee look to be justified freely by his grace And the God of all grace doth so justifie Christs cause that all the world that are justified shall be justified by his plea who hath done all things for us that concern our everlasting salvation For a third use of the point it may be for reproof to unconscionable Advocates but I have not I thinke so much cause to speak of it here but in most places of the world I might speak of it It might teach all Advocates to take heed of bolstering out a bad Case by qui●ks of wit and tricks and quilets of Law the Lord abhors such things If you will have the Lord to smell a savour of rest plead the cause of the faithful and of the widow but thou shalt not accept the person of the poor nor of the rich And for men that professe Religion as many Lawyers do to use their tongues as weapons of unrighteousnesse unto wickednesse it is a professed practice against the doctrine of mortification For a man to give his tongue his glory as David calls it to become a member of unrighteousnesse to plead in corrupt Causes and to strain the Law to that purpose were I to speake in place where I should think it meet to speak more But I shall not be accounted a good Lawyer may some say No Christ was the best Advocate that ever was and yet he could not answer Let the cause be what it is where the tree fals let it lye If Christ do keep silence in point of our righteousnesse let us keep silence also in point of our own Fourthly It may be a use of instruction unto all those that professe fellowship with Christ and the saving knowledg of Christ Jesus You see here how Christ is described a Lamb slaine from the foundation of the world None more innocent and yet none more me●k and pa●ient If you speak of Christ as a Minister the spirit of a Dove doth come upon him For the Sacrifice he is a Lamb. The wolfe shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lye downe with the Kid and the Calfe and the young Lyon and the Fa●ling together and a little child shall lead them And the Cow and the Beare shall feed their young ones shall lye down together and the Lyon shall eate straw like the Oxe and the sucking child shall play on the hole of the Aspe and the weaned child shall put his hand on the Cock-atrice den They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountaine Isa 11. 6. to 9. Doe you see a man boysterous in his spirit and in his own will and wayes and will not be willing to see a difference in himselfe from the spirit of Christ Jesus as it is possible that a child of God may be rough in his way yet hee dare not allow himselfe long in it it is a body of death But if you see a man that doth allow himselfe in a passionate frame of spirit that a man will have his owne will and will not be crossed in it whether it be right or wrong doubtlesse this is not the spot of Gods children It is not the spirit of those whose names are written in the Lambs b●ok of life God did not indeed elect us because either we are such or would be such but he did elect us to be made such first or last before we come to enjoy the everlasting Inheritance which this book hath written us downe unto And therefore it must cut off all our boysterousnes and churlishnes of spirit all this ruggednesse and churlishness it must be taken off The wolf shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lye downe with the kid and a little child shall lead them Therefore all bitternesse of contention and pangs of passion that prevaile that are farre from the spirit of love must be removed But this will prevaile in all Gods people that God will carry an end your spirits in conformity to the spirit of his own Be of that spirit therefore in all your Transactions that is to say mild and patient and innocent And so it will require all the children of God in the same
is such power as is far above the reach of man None of them all have such power as he not those that are called Gods So they admire his power what he can do to inward or outward man to publique or private States And they do not only admire the Catholick Church and the head of it and adore them but in both these they adore the Dragon that gave all this power to the Beast The meaning may be exprest in two branches 1. The Dragon is expressed as animating heathen Rome for that hath seven heads and ten horns which are the armes both of heathen Rome and of this Beast Now he is called the Dragon as he acted heathen Rome and as he was Lord of heathen Rome he gave all this power to the Pope For they thought it meet since it was the Imperiall City when it was Pagan that therefore it should be the mother of all Churches And being the Imperial City it was the bloud-sucker of many millions of the souls of Gods servants that caused the Dragon to put that honour upon Rome 2. But that is not all There is another branch comes neerer the full meaning of the Text that was for the honouring of the Bishop of Rome and of the Catholick Church viz. taking another doctrine for the Gospell their Idolatry for pure worship their Government for the discipline of Christ their pardons for Justification of sinne by Christ In all this they doe indeed give true worship to the Dragon for what are all these but Images they are none of Gods Ordinances if you referre them to the heads of Scripture they are but Images of Christ In stead of the Ministery of Christ you have doctrines of men In stead of justification by the righteousnesse of Christ you have justification by works In stead of pardon of Sin from Christ you have it from the Pope All things are in another forme an Image of another forme set up devised contrary to what the word establisheth Now you shall finde this to be true if you doe vary from the kingdome of God and Christ then you worship the Dragon You read in 2 Chron. 11. 15. Jeroboam ordained him Priests for the high places and for the Devils and for the Calves which he had made he had no Preists but for the golden Calves and what were they they were but Images and his intendment was not to bring in another object of worship but another manner of worship Jeroboam worshiped Jehovah in Images which God had not appointed and so he worshipped the Divill and not God And you shall read when the Turke was brought in to revenge the Idolatry of Christendome Rev. 9. 20. It is said The people that were not cut off with the plague they repented not of the worke of their hands that they should not worship Devils and Idols of Gold and Silver and brasse and Stone and of wood which neither can see nor hear nor walk which shews that when men worship Images that is God in Images it is not God that is so worshipped but the Divill and all such worship doth not advance the kingdome of God but the kingdome of the Devill therefore it is reall honour to him and therefore this their taking all this vast honour all Churches receiving all from them is none of Gods Institution but the Devils practice for it was the Devill that gave him his power and great authority Therefore saith the holy Ghost they worshiped the Dragon who gave power unto the Beast and they worshipped the beast This worship of the beast they gave it all to him that gave this power to him which was to the Dragon and therfore you read that he had the key of the bottomlesse pit Rev. 9. 1 2. And he opened the bottomlesse pit and there arose a smoke out of the pit as the smoke of a great furnace and there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth There went out Monks Friars and a rabble of all superstition Now if you shall aske the reason why people upon the healing of this wound did so mightily admire both the visible Catholick Church and the head of it and adore both and Satan himselfe in both The reason was First from the wrong Interpretation of some Scriptures which were very frequent with them in those dayes and are still and that was that the Catholick Roman Church was builded upon a rock and that rock was the Bishop of Rome and into his hand the Lord Jesus by Peter had given the keys of the kingdome of Heaven and these keys had absolute universall power to binde on Earth and upon his binding on earth Christ would bind in heaven this was an error in judgment that did so possesse their hearts that upon the healing of this wounded head all the world did admire him Therefore Bellarmine makes a large discourse Behold I lay in Zion a chief corner stone and they that trust in him shall never be confounded and so never was there any man that was an enemy to the Catholick Church but was confounded nor never did any man stand for the Catholick Church but was preserved and so they did admire him A great inundation of barbarous Nations were all driven out by the piety of the Bishop of Rome they were able to overturn the Emperors of the East and it was overturned and bring them to his feet and all to be at his disposing This was some confirmation to them that he was the successor of Peter that now whoever is saved it must be by the power of this key or else never look for any saving in this world A second reason may be taken from the correspondency and plausablenesse of such a kinde of Religion and Government to carnall reason especially when it is subdued by any terrors of consceence for it was a season and that held many years together wherein the Priests Friers and Monks had marvellous power to sting the consciences of men with the loathsomnesse of their sinne in the sight of God and they had admirable dexterity therein These foure things were all the matter of their Sermons Vertue and vice Heaven and Hell If you be vertuous then you shall go to Heaven If you be vicious then you must go to Hell Now they would so convince mens consciences and upon conviction binde the conscience under terror as eternally shut out of Heaven for want of virtue which they had not that indeed when these mens consciences are thus perplexed and wounded here is a Religion that findes them so many salves and medicines as ease the power but not remove the cause of the disease that is they set men a course well though you be vicious and though Hell be dreadfull yet Purgatory may ease you by Prayer and you may be dispensed with from going to Hell especially by the Popes pardon or by your own workes by your confessions by selfe-whippings and scourgings or by going a Pilgrimage you may be
of fire and brimstone But those that worship the Beast are not written in the Lambs booke of life that is in the Text Here are two propositions very evident All that are written in the Lambs booke of life doe not worship the Beast But those that worship the Beast are not written in the Lambs baok of life Then the conclusion is They shall be cost into the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone That if it appear that this Beast is the Roman Catholick Church and the head of this Beast is the Pope The conclusion will be most evident that no man living and dying a Papist can go beyond a Reprobate I dare not say but some that are ignorant whom devotion hath carryed to that Religion it is possible some of them when they come to death may see the vanity of that Religion of worshipping Saints and of confining their Faith to them but that is not by their Religion but if they dye in that Religion and if their faith and worship be thrust upon them from the Roman Catholick Church and they worship Saints and Angels and believe in their owne merits for their justification I do pronounce to you that a Papist living and dying a Papist cannot go beyond a Reprobate I meane such an one was not written in the Lambs booke of life And they that are not are cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone that is the issue And therefore what a fearfull thing is it in such that do all they can to reconcile Nations to the Church of Rome and are mad upon Romish religion what desperate service do they undertake to bring men to such a religion as destroys many millions of soules It is true Those that are written in the Lambs booke of life God looseth none of his sheep but it is evident they are bloody Butchers of many Christians not chosen yet devout Christians many an one under pang of Conscience with sence of many sinfull passions and lusts are not able to get out but by a Priests absolution and if they be covered with a Fryars coule they hope they shall do well enough Such a conscience as can be opened and healed by such wooden keys as these if they know no more such cannot be saved I will not enlarge it but it were necessary to be pressed and urged in some places look not at it as a matter of curiosity and circumstance what Religion a man dyes in and think as some States-men doe that if it were not for hot-spur'd Jesuites on the one side and hot-spur'd Puritans as they call them on the other side Protestants and Papists might be easily reconciled These are the whisperings of flesh and blood but that which is written in the word doth bear expresse testimonie against such a conclusion For if Jesuites were removed and Puritans too yet if there were any left that thought they could worship the Church of Rome as they require that you must believe as they believe your faith is built upon the Church and upon the dispensation of the keyes of that Church such a faith and obedience as fals short of Christ Jesus that all salvation is to be expected from him if both Jesuites and those they call Puritans were removed if there were none but that take up their faith and obedience in that worship they hold forth I say there is not any one of them that so live and so dye knowing what they believe that can be saved Indeed you read in Rev. 3. many know not the depth of Satan and it is another matter what God may dispence to them in private but men that know what they do and believe according to the doctrine of that Church and worship according to the direction of it I say men living and so dying there is not one of them whose names are written in the Lambs book of life and therefore shall be cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone This may teach us a true ground of any mans preservation from the pollutions of the world bewitching pollutions sometimes a Catholick Strumpet carries all the world after her as in those times Sometimes the world swallows up the Church and every man thinkes him happy if hee may be clad with thick clay others are taken up with provisions for their belly and sensuall Epicurean lusts there be a world of such people Now what doth preserve the people of God that they are not carryed away either with the Catholick religion or with worldly ambition they are not taken with these but see the vanity of them what are any of us better then those that have been bewitched by these but what puts the difference The originall difference is God hath written them in the Lambs book of life and what hee hath written he hath written as Pilate sayd Hee hath written such to life and his decree is irrecoverable My counsell shall stand and I will do all my pleasure Isa 46. 9 10. Therefore there is the Originall from thence it flows the Lord Jesus Christ concurring with the Fathers counsell he hath given us redemption from the blood of Ancestors and redeemed us from the present evill world and will seek up every stragling Lamb and presents us spotlesse to his heavenly Father and then the spirit of God by which he works all in the hearts of his people that receives us for Christ and the spirit for Christ comes and takes possession of us and so thereby girds up our loyns to a dependance on him and his grace that we are preserved and saved from those fearfull temptations that overcome others and all the world are over-whelmed withall It may teach us the marvellous freedome of the love of God and therefore to admire the wonderfull love of God the cause of all this our preservation from such prevailing evills as swallow up the whole world how doth it appear why I pray you consider when the Lord wrote down thy name or mine or any mans name who stood by at his elbow if I may so speak to put him in mind of my name or thine he thought of us if our names be there and he set us downe and he delivered us to Christ Jesus by name what ever thy name is he took notice of thy name such a man in such a place he will live in this or that Countrey he is one take notice of him lay down a price for him in fulnesse of time send a spirit into this heart if he live in a Popish Countrey save him from Popery If in a worldly Countrey save him from the world where ever he lives save him from himself and bring him to my heavenly Kingdom but what was there in us that could commend us to God or what could there in us but what he appointed but what he should put into us he could not fore-see any thing but that hee must work it therefore it must certainly be his undeserved love that must