the Monks say was first uttered by an Angel in the Cathedral Church of Canstantinople and about the year 605. Boniface the 8. usurpeth the Title of Universal Bishop and after that the Churches became Sanctuaries for malefactors holy-dayes were appointed Priests were forbidden to marry Latine-service was injoyned the Lyturgies were augmented the Pax was commanded to be kissed Images were adored the Saints were invocated and prayed unto which Mr Mede saith is the Doctrine of Daemons that makes the Apostasie which the Apostle speaks of 1 Tim. 4.1 2. Vestiments and other Church Utensils were consecrated Mr Mede in his Apostasie of the latter times the Emperours and other civil powers were shouldered out by the Pope and Church Indulgences were sold and abundance more of such absurdities were brought into the Church And when the godly Christians petitioned unto his Holiness the Pope The manifold Errors of the Church of Rome confirm'd by the Council of Treâ—t for a reformation of these abuses did not the Council of Trent confirm them Did it not in their first meeting Sess 3. decree that the vulgar Translation that hath some errors and much rude Latine in it should be authentical in all places and Sess 4. That original sin is so taken away by Baptisme that concupiscence or lust in renatis the regenerate is no sin untill they give consent unto it and Ses 5. That there remains in us a freedome of mans will to good which being excited and stirred up by grace concurs with grace to do the good we do and Sess 7. That seven Sacraments were to be received Vide etiam Tiâ—â—num exegesis de Antichristo pag. â—5 dâ—inceps And then at their second meeting in Bononia Sess 2. did they not establish the Doctrine of Transubstantiation And Sess 3. have they not made Penance and extream Unction two Gospel-sacraments or Sacramenta novae legis as they term them And 9 years after at their third meeting Sess 5. have they not impowered the Pope to mutilate the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist or Lords Supper and to take away the cup from the Laiety and Sess 6. have they not concluded the whole Masse to be a propitiatory Sacrifice both for the quick and the dead and Sess 8. Did they not give full power unto the Church to dispense with Gods Law in Levit. 18. concerning Marriages And at their last Sess Have they not confirmed the Doctrine of Purgatory invocation of Saints worshipping of images giving of Indulgences and preservation of Reliques And was there ever since Christ his time or could there be a greater and a more general extensive apostasie and departure from the truth and true faith than this where the Pope and his Faction have thus prevailed against the Protestants to put out the light of truth to corrupt the Gospel of Christ and to defile the service of God in this manner Respon To this great and bitter charge against the Church of Rome I answer That some men are so addicted to this Church that they see nothing to be evil in her but all truth and all to be imbraced without question and others are so transported with passion such hatred unto the Pope and such a prejudicate opinion of that Church that they think nothing good in her and nothing to be followed that she holdeth so that they are willingly ready to reject the Gospel as they do all Prayers and service the Papists use to God because they are approved by the Church of Rome it is an Argument sufficient to cast away all the service of God all good works and all the acts of Pieâ—y and Charity if they be but once perswaded they are Popery For my part The Authors resolution touching the Roman Church I do unfeignedly from my heart profess my self a true and right Protestant and an obedient Son of the Church of Ingland as it was reformed and the 39 Articles of our faith approved and confirmed in Q. Elizabeths time and so continued in King James and King Charles his time untill the Beast that ascendeth from the bottomeless pit I may mean the Devil endeavoured to remove our candlestick and to put out the light of Israel And for the Church of Rome I do perfectly and throughly hate and renounce all the errors and Superstitions of it and for her truths and good things that she holdeth and doth I do heartily love and embrace them and will therein joyn the right hand of fellowship and desire communion with them as a man that will not refuse a pearl because it was taken up from a dung-hill but for the aforesaid things and points that E.H. and others speak of and object against her I believe some of them may in some sence be justified some others not altogether so offensive as a groundless haâ—red against Popery makes them seem to be to such as Martial speaks of Non anto te Sabide nec possum dicere quare I love thee not ô Sabidus but why I cannot tell thee only this I can tell that I do not love thee Hoc tantum possum dicere non amo te I love thee not but why to tell thee I cannot Yet this I can tell for truth I love thee not And for most of them I confess they are either enormous or superstitious or some way or other justly offensive to Gods people and do sufficiently prove that the Church of Rome hath apostatized and receded from many points of the true Doctrine of Christ that her self had formerly professed especially when S. Mr. Mede in his Apostasie of the later times Plato in cratilo Apuleius de deo Socratis Plutarchus de defect oracul Paul wrote unto her and as that learned and worthy Divine Mr. Mede hath fully shewed how that Church hath backslided in worshipping Mahuzzims invocating of Saints and adoring of their Images and relicks so I confess the same to be a foul and mighty error and a great abuse of Gods service in them and not much inferior or less fault than the Gentiles adoring of their Deastri or Daemones which was the deifying of their deceased Heroes such as Hercules Romulus Numa Pompilius and the like were as Plato Apuleius Plutarch and others testifie the Heathens did Though notwithstanding I am so far from blaming S. Basil S. Chrysostome Fortunatus S. Gregory S. Hilary James Bishop of Nisibis Eucherius Theodoret and others that Mr. Mede chargeth to have done too undiscreetly to say no more for so much commending the holy Martyrs and calling them walls and fortresses and as Gregory Nyssen termes them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Guardians and Protectors of those Cities and places where those Martyrs were interred Mr. Mede's crimination of the Fathers answered that I do exceedingly approve their discretion and commend their wisedome and piety herein because those times were times of Persecutions and Christianity sought by the enemy of mankinde and his Instruments to be expunged and rooted out of the
of the Antichrist or the Babylon that is meant in Rev. 17. and some other Places of the Holy Scripture from which we are commanded to go out lest we should be partakers of her Plagues For they do nimium haerere cortici too much adhere and stick to the Letter and outward bark of the Text that do so expound it Whereas the meaning of the Holy Ghost is more mystical and spiritually to be understood for the great and spacious confused City of this world that as the Church of Christ is Civitas Dei the City of God whereof S. Aug. wrote 22 Books which he styled de Civitate Dei and is typified and signified in many places of the holy Scripture by Hierusalem the City of peace that is at unity within it self and by that little City that hath but few men within it when as our Saviour saith his flock is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little flock which a little City would well contain so the Synagogue of Satan Ecclesia malignantium the congregation of the wicked is indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that very great City that sits like a Queen to tyrannize over Gods Servants and is no less than the whole world and can be no less to contain the whole Army of Satan when as caetus impiorum the congregation of the ungodly is a mighty multitude and therefore must have a great and a very large City to inhabit And because the Citizens of this world are as the Citizens of Hierusalem were when Titus besieged it at odds among themselves and yet agreeing to rob and slay all the good and godly men that were amongst them until Titus for their wickedness had destroyed them all And as the builders of Old Babylon were when God confounded their Language of several minds and dispositions so that when the one called for a stone the other brought him clay and when he called for Mortar he brought him Bricks until at last they brought both their work and themselves unto confusion so are the Citizens of this great Metropolis of several desires and ambitions the one hunting after wealth the other after honours another filled with malice and aimes at nothing more than revenge and yet all of them agree to persecute the poor helpless man to kick against their Governours to despise their Teachers and to rob their Brethren until they do confound all things both the Servants and Service of God and at last themselves by an utter ruine and a most fearful confusion therefore their city is termed Babylon And so I say that neither of the three forenamed Cities nor any other one material City of the world can be here in the Apostles sense understood by this great City of Babylon but rather that City whereof the Fellow of whom the Philosopher demanded what Countryman he was answered that he was Civis hujus mundi The Reasons of the foresaid Exposition a Citizen of the great City of this world And this I say for these special Reasons Reason 1 1. Because neither of the three forenamed Cities nor any other one City of the world hath made the Kings of the Earth and all Nations drunk with the wine of her Fornication as this City of Babylon is said to have done For neither old Rome corrupted all Nations with her heathenish and Idolatrous Service of her many gods nor new Rome hath spread her Mahometan Religion over all the parts of the earth nor especially the Pope defiled all the Regions of Christendom much less then all Nations with his Superstitions But the great City of this world I may freely speak it without a figure hath bewitched intoxicated and made all the Nations of earth drunk with the sweet wine of the vanities and pleasures thereof none can deny it quia totus mundus in maligno positus Reason 2 2. Because all that had ships in the Sea that is all the Merchants that traded to bring commodities from one Nation to another were not all made rich by either of the three forenamed Cities or by any other one City of the world whatsoever as the Holy Ghost saith they were all made rich by this Babylon but all the Merchants that had ships and were at any time or in any place made rich were inriched by the great City of this world Reason 3 3. Because the City of Babylon that is here in the Revelation meant is said to have killed the holy Apostles and Prophets of God and though S. Peter and S. Revelat. c. 18. 20. Paul are recorded to have been killed at Rome yet neither Rome nor Constantinople nor the Assyrian nor the Egyptian Babylon nor any other one City of the world did ever see any or if any certasnly not many of those holy Prophets that God sent unto the Israelites and were killed not by any of the foresaid Cities but by the Jews and in Jerusalem and by the Citizens of this world that have indeed killed all the holy Apostles and Prophets that were killed and do still continue Ribera in Apoc. 18.20 to kill the best servants of Jesus Christ even as our Saviour foretelleth us in the world not in Rome nor in Constantinople but in the world you shall have tribulation because the world hateth you as it hated me before you and therefore Ribera demandeth rightly quem apostolum aut quem Prophetam persecuta est Ecclesia Romana seu Roma papalis ut Sancti debeant laetare de ejus paenis which of all the Apostles or of all the Prophets did the Church of Rome since Rome became Christian persecute and kill Revel 18.24 that the Saints should rejoce at her Punishments Reason 4 4. Because it is expresly said that in that Babylon which is there meant was found the blood of Prophets and of Saints and of all that were slain upon the earth mark this of all that were slain upon the earth and tell me how this can be refered to any one City of the world but only to the great City of this world and so is literally true without Trope or figure and why should we run to figures when the sence is true in the letter Reason 5 5. Because of many other particulars that you may finde in the 17 and 18 Chapters of the Revelation and elsewhere in the Scriptures ascribed to this great City of Babylon which without tropes and figures and many other shifts can no wayes be referred or applyed either to old Rome or new Rome or to any other one city whatsoever but may properly without stretching or any violence offered unto the Text be applyed to the great City of this world And therefore by this Babylon that is spoken of in Revel 17. and elswhere and said to be the seat of the Antichrist I conceive that we are to understand not Rome as J.W. and all the rest that make the Pope to be the Antichrist and would rather bring the Holy Ghost to mean as they think then submit
wisdom of God yet glorified not himself to he made an High Priest but he that said unto him thou art a Priest for ever Verse 5. after the Order of Melchisedech And therefore none ought like these Lay Preachers thrust himself into the Office of a Priest or Minister of God but such as are Lawfully Called and sufficiently allowed and approved by them that have their Authority from God as Moses had to confirm Aaron to be Ministers of Christ because they are as the Apostle termeth them Embassadors of Christ and you know every Embassador must have his lawfull Commission or else he shall be taken for an impostor and a seducer as he that came from the King of Ingland to the States of the Low Countreys As the Answerer of W. Apollonius testifieth and was sumptuously entertained the first day but being found an impostor was clapt up in prison the next day which is the just reward of Intruders Therefore the Apostlos and Disciples of Christ though filled with the Spirit of Christ in a far greater measure then the best of these Lady Preachers yet went they not to Preach the Gospell Matth. 10.5.28.19 Marck 16.15 John 20 21. untill they had an outward injunction and Commission from Christ as you may see in Matth. 20.5 28.29 Mark 16.15 John 20.21 where our Saviour saith as my Father sent me even so send I you which is a plain and a full Commission to them that they were no intruders into the Sacred Function And so after the Ascention of Christ we never find that any of the true Servants of God did ever undertake this calling to be the Embassador of Christ and a Publick Preacher of Gods word but such as were Lawfully allowed and Canonically Ordained to that Function by those that had a lawfull Authority to admit them And that Ordination of them consisted chiefly of these two parts 2. Things requisite in the Ordination of Priests 1. Fervent prayers As you may see in Acts 6.6 2. Imposition of hands As you may see in Acts 6.6 Where the seven Deacons are set before the Apostles and when they had prayed they laid their hands on them so Timothy was ordained by Prophesie with the laying on of the hands of the Presbyterie 1 Tim. 4.14 and least we should mistake his meaning as the Presbyterians do by making this place their bulwark to protect their new erected Presbyterie St. Paul sheweth what he meaneth by the hands of the Presbyterie when in the singular number he saith I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee 2 Tim. 1.6 by the putting on of my hands because he had the sole Power of Ordination residing in him though as the Bishops now following his example do use to call two or three grave Ministers for their assistance so he called the Presbyterie that is some other of the Elder Ministers to lay their hands with him as he joyneth Sylvanus and Timotheus with himselfe 1 Thes 1.1 in his Salutation to the Thessalonians And so because Timothy was Ordained to be the first Bishop of Ephesus as not onely the postscript of his second Epistle testifieth but also Eusebius and all other Ecclesiesticall Writers without any contradiction do affirm St. Paul chargeth him in particular as whom it particularly concerned to lay hands suddenly on no man that is 1 Tim. 5.22 not rashly and carelesly to admit any kind of men to be the Ministers of Jesus Christ but advisedly to consider What the Primitive Church Ordered should be done about the Ordination of Priests and Religiously to Ordain such as he found most fitting for so High a Calling And therefore according to this Charge of the Apostle to Bishop Timothy the Bishops of the Primitive Church and the immediate successors of the Apostles took such special care to provide worthy Ministers for Gods Church that in imitation of the Apostles Acts. 14.23 1. They Appointed and Ordained that the whole Church that is 1. Thing all the faithfull people of God that Professed to believe in Christ should observe foure Ember weeks in every yeare wherein all the Christians should Fast and Pray to God that he would vouchsafe to send them godly and able Ministers because that 2. They Ordained that each Bishop on the next Lords day 2. Thing after each Ember week should with the assistance of some of his Grave Clergy Ordain such as they found most fitting and worthy of this High Calling and I feare that the neglect of the performance of this duty of Prayer and Fasting on those Ember weeks among the people have produced such defects as be in many Ministers and perhahs the Bishops as well as the people were not all so carefull and so circumspect as they ought to have been in the Ordination of their Clergy for as you may see in the 1 Tim. 3.10 and in Titus 1.5.6 1 Tim. 3.10 Tit. 1.5 6. those that were to be admitted Priests or Deacons were to be proved and examined and being found blameless and qualified as the Apostle requireth in the foresaid places prayers were to be made for them The great care taken in former times in the Ordination of Priests and Deacons and hands to be laid on them and then Authority was given unto them to execute that Holy Fuction so great was the care that was formerly used in the Ordination of Priests and Deacons and no man durst presume to intrude himself into this Holy Office nor any man was suffered to execute these Functions but such as were thus Religiously Ordained And no wonder fot this calling being fo transeendently high non collectio pecuniarum not the gathering of Rents or the Kings Revenues but custodia animarum the care and custody of mens souls which are the living images of the Eternal God The great care that should be taken in ordaining priests and Deocons and which is onus Angelicis humeris formidandum a burthen saith S. Hierome that is able to make Angels shoulders to shrink under it so heavy that St. Paul cries out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is sufficient for these things And the Lord God himself sheweth unto Moses what care ought to be had in the choosing approving and sanctifying of them that were to serve at his Altar for Aaron and his sons that were but types and figures of the Evangelical Priests were to be consecrated seven daies together and a bullock was to be offered for a sin offering every day Exod. 29.35 before they were admitted to administer in their office Object But I know that our Lay-Preachers will object that these were Jewish Rites and shadows that are vanished with their temple and therefore no waies pertaining to us Christians Sol. I answer that the Old Testament or the Law Heb. 10. which was the shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things is acknowledged by all
Lords Table though Christ admitted Judas whom he knew far better then these men do know those whom they reject and cast away and we can and ought to do no more to the lewdest offenders but to shew them the danger of the unworthy receivers and exhort them to repent and to believe in Christ and upon the confession of their faults and profession of their Faith and repentance we ought to believe them to be Gods children and receive them among the Faithfull and leave them all for Christ to judge which of the guest doth want his wedding garment Yet we confess That the Apostles had two manner of gifts 1. Extraordinary it is true that the Apostles had a double qualification 1. The one extraordinary which was requisite for the planting of a new Church and that consisted chiefly in these two things 1. Infallibility of the Doctrine which they taught 2. A powerful working of miracles to confirm that doctrine and to win the hearers to give credit and to believe the same And when the Churches were converted these graces determined and ceased with the Apostles 2. Ordinary which were either 2. The other was ordinary which was requisite for the instructing guideing and ruling of the Church so long as the Church should continue till Christ should come to judgement And these graces that were thus requisite for the continuance of the Church in the service of God were likewise of two sorts 1. Common 1. Common to the Apostles and Presbyters and Deacons as reading the Scriptures preaching or expounding the word administring the Sacraments provision for the poor and other like christian duties 2 Proper which the Apostles reserved unto themselves 2. Proper which consisted in two things and to the Bishops that were to be their successors to guide and to govern the Church after them And this proper qualification of the Apostles which they left as peculiar to the Bishops that were to succeed the Apostles was and is likewise two-fold 1. Ordination 1. Ordination of Presbyters and Deacons to read the word and to preach and to administer the Sacraments and to do all the other common duties of the Church 2. Jurisdiction which was twofold 1. The lesser censure 2. The greater censure 2. Jurisdiction in censuring those that were refractory and walked disorderly in the Church and this Ecclesiasticall censure is either 1. The lesser which is a debarring of the offendor from the Lords Supper 2. The greater censure which was by such an excommunication as excluded the offender quite from the Churh and was not received into it untill he had satisfied the Church by his confession of his fault and repentance shewed for the scandall he had given Now such is the pride and ambition of every Presbyterian that he would have nothing left proper unto the Bishop but that all must be common as well to him as to the Bishop How the Presbyterians do usurp the authority of the Bishop he cannot indure to be excluded or debarrd from any thing but cryeth out as Corah Dathan and Abiram did against Moses and Aaron that the Bishops take too much upon them And therefore 1. They usurp and assume unto themselves the office of ordination and do make Priests themselves the which boldnesse of theirs I intend not to stand now to confute but do assure the people Lay-preachers and tradesmen to execute the Ecclesiastical function have as good authority and calling as the new Presbyterian Priests that the Priests of their making have no better calling nor authority to enter upon that sacred function then he that is made a Judge or a Justice of Peace to rule the countrey by a company of high-way thieves and robbers and the Lay-preachers be they what they will husband-men or trades-men Taylors Shoemakers or Weavers or the like may as lawfully and perhaps more blamelesly do all the service of the Church as any of them that have their ordination from these Presbyters 2. They usurp the jurisdiction over the Church as well as the ordination of the Priests unto themselves and they are more rigid in their censures that are also more illegally done then either Bishop or Pope See the translation of Grallae pag 69. to pag. 90. and you shall find how these Presbyterian censures do exceed the tyranny of the Pope who exercised their discipline and censures in open Court in forma juris and secundum allegata probata when the Presbyterians do it secundum beneplacitum as it seemeth good in their own eyes because they have the discerning spirit to know who are worthy to be received and who ought to be excluded both from Christ and from the Church of Christ And yet I do not wonder so much that the Presbyters should be so ambitious to lay hold of this authority as I do admire that the people should be so foolish as to hate us for telling the truth unto them for their own benefit and shewing the other mens iniquity But I remember a story that Sir Thomas Moore tells us of two famous Philosophers that by their great skill in astronomy foresaw that at such a constellation A pretty story of Sir Thomas Moor. there would fall such a shower of pestiferous rain upon the earth that all the men which scaped not the drops of that rain should presently prove frantick and be distracted of their sences whereupon those Philosophers concluded that they would hide themselves in a Cave untill that shower was passed over and so they did and all things succeeded as they expected for when they came out of their hole where they were hidden they found all the people like mad-men playing the Anticks and therefore they being sober thought to do them good by advising them to leave their fooleries and to follow after sobriety but the mad people told the Philosophers that they themselves were mad and they would take a course with them for saying that they were out of their wits and knew not what they did and so they laid hold on the Philosophers and beat them and they had much adoe to escape from these mad people with their lives this was the reward they had for their well-wishes and desire to do those mad people good to guide them and to direct them in the right courses I wish it may not be so with us that the people prove not themselves like those upon whom that fatal shower descended and that they would not deal with us It is easier to find few wise men then to find many wise men for telliug the truth of these mens doings for their good as those mad men did with those Philosophers And I would the people that are so affected to the Presbyterian government would consider whether it be as easie to find ten thousand wise and sober moderate men as to finde out ten The Kings and Emperours heretofore were very careful to make choice of the best and wisest men that
is above all Kings and above the Emperor and being so silled with herefies idolatries and blasphemies and such a cruel bloody tyrant and persecutor of Gods true servants as our Protestants have amply shewed in their books and the Turke directly and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thrusting himselfe into the place and office of Christ and exalting himselfe above Christ above the Prophets and above all the Apostles of Christ and challenging to himselfe and his successors absolute independant power over all the Kings and Monarchs of the earth and commanding his Alcoran which is made up of Paganish Jewish and Arian herefies and superstitions to be received and preferred before the Gospel of Jesus Christ and most cruelly tyrannizing over those poor Christians that are under him because they renounce not their Saviour Bishop Mountague in his Appello Casarem pag. and adore his false Prophet and that religion which directly leadeth them to perdition as learned Montague sheweth it is incredible and not possible to be beleeved that the Parliament and specially the Presbyterians that professe themselves to be regulated neither by Fathers nor Councils nor any other Canon or rule but onely by the pure Word of God and doe so indefatigably labour to bring men to Christ and to inlarge the kingdome of his Grace and have hazarded their fortunes and lost their blood and some their lives in the defence of Gods cause should be the great Antichrist and a greater Antichrist more batefull and a more abominable adversarie unto God and his Church then either the Pope or the Furke To this I answer that I never intended to excuse or to lessen Sol. The Aurhor excuseth neither Pope nor Turk the impieties of the Pope or the cruelties of the Turke or to denie them to be Antichrists and great adversaries both to Christ and to the Church of Christ I am no Proctor to plead for either of them especially against the truth but I say the neerer men are to God the more profession they make of faith and the better christians they think themselves to be the more faithfulness and the more holiness and sincerity is required at their hands for to whom much is given of them much shall be required saith our Saviour and it was wisely said of a fool that dying cried to God that he would require no more of him The wise prayer of a Fool. then what he gave him though wiser men must imploy their tallents to the best advantage of their master who expecteth a plentifull harvest of all good fruits where he hath plentifully sown his good seed of knowledg and of grace and so the sins of such men as should be Saints are far more heinous and more abominable in the fight of God then the sins of those that know not God yea sins less heinous in their own nature are more heinous in these offenders then other sins far more odious in themselves are in those that are further off from God and less acquainted with his lawes and therefore Act 17.30 Ps 106.21.22 Rom. 3.2 the Iodolatrie of the heathens that knew not the true God God winked at saith the Apostle and it was not neer so odious in Gods fight as the Idolatrie of the sons Israel that had seen his wonders in Egypt and had the heavenly Oracles delivered unto them and so though Pilate for condemning Christ to death is branded with great infamie by the mouth of everie christian that saith his Creed that Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate yet Annas John 19.11 and Caiphas that profest to know Gods will and thought themselves the chiefest of Gods people majus peccatum habuerunt sinned more by our Saviour's testimonie for delivering him unto Pilate then Pilate did in condemning him unto death so likewise though the sins of the Edomites were verie great when the Prophet saith thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Edom and for four Amos 1 11. I will not turn away the punishment thereof because he did pursue his brother that is the seed of Jacob that was Esaus brother which is Edom and did cast off all pittie and his anger did tear perpetually and kept his wrath for ever And so in like manner though the sins of Damascus and of Moah also were exceeding grievous v. 3. c. 2.1 c. 1.13 when the former threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of Iron and the others rage was so great that death could not satisfie his wrath but he must burn the bones of the King of Edom into lime How and whose sins doe become most odious and in like manner though the sins of the children of Ammon were no less grievous then the sins of Moab when they ript up the women with child of Gilead that they might inlarge their borders yet because these nations were not the peculiar people of God nor had received so many favours from God nor the knowledge of his lawes so as the Iewes had done these horrible sins and sins against nature seemed not so horrible and so offensive in Gods sight as Iudahs despising of his lawes and their lies which caused them to err and Israels selling of the righteous for Silver and the poor for a pair of Shoes c. 2. v. 4. and 6. which seem to be but veniall fins in respect of the other bloody murthers and inhumane cruelties because as I said before to whom God hath given much of them he requireth much and where he expecteth most holinesse there the fins are most sinful and as St. Bernard saith of the Priests and Ministers of Christ Quae in aliis nugae sunt in illis sunt blasphemia so the sins that are but trifles in the Pagans and Infidels are most odious in the Christians and therefore after that the Lord had recapitulated both the fins of those nations and the many favours he had heaped upon the Israelites with the rejectment of the Amorites and the rest of the foresaid nations for their former transgressions c. â—3 5 The sins of Israel more displeased God then the sins of the Amorites and why he addeth of the Israelites you onely have I chosen of all the Families of the earth that is for mine own peculiar people to serve me and to be protected and favoured by me therefore seeing you have done these things I will punish you for all your iniquities and when others that you think worse and greater finners then you be may have some savour yet you shall have none at all because these things in you offend me more and are more abominable in my fight then are all the abominations of the Amorites And so according to this determination of the Prophet though the sins of the publicans and harlots murderers and robbers and the like were more flagitious and more heinous in their owne nature then the sins and delinquencies of the Scribes and Pharisees that for the uprightness of their outward carriage were deemed the onely Saints among
of that is such a rebellion as Corah Dathan and Abiram stirred up against Moses and Aaron and such a discession and falling away from the true faith and the right service of God which they formerly professed as neither leaves the fundamentals of Christian Religion undigged up or unshaken nor the appearance of a true visible Church among the people For that all the people of Ingland were very faithfull and loyal Subjects and most respectively obedient unto their Governors both their Kings and their Bishops That the people of Ingland were good subjects true believers and right worshippers of God during all the raign of Q. Elizabeth King James and many years of King Charles as any Nation under heaven I think I do verily believe no man can justly deny So likewise that all the subordinate Clergy did ex animo subscribe and unfainedly profess to uphold and maintain the 39 Articles of the Church of Ingland and the established Discipline thereof and did accordingly for well nigh a century of years use to teach the people to believe that Doctrine and to observe that discipline as the true Christian Faith and the right Government that Christ and his Apostles for the preservation of that faith hath left unto his Church and also that the people and Congregations throughout all this Kingdome had the true faith preached unto them and the right service of God the 3 authentick Creeds repeated the Lords Prayer used the 10 Commandments published the 2 blessed Sacraments administred and all the other prayers and service of God that the Governors of Gods Church prescribed were observed practised and professed by them I am very sure and consident hereof and I believe no man will gainsay the same And therefore this Church had and did profess the true faith and Doctrine of Christ and did use to serve God rightly and to be obedient to their Governors both Magistrates and Ministers for many years according to the form prescribed unto them And you may remember how you read in Revel 6.9 that the soules which S. John saw under the altar and cryed to God to avenge their blood on them that dwell on the earth are said to be slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held and why I pray you doth the holy Ghost make such a distinction betwixt the word of God and the testimony which they held but to shew unto us that these soules had collected out of the Bible which containeth all the word of God the chiefest heads and points that are to be known believed and practiced for the true worship of God and their own Salvation and so compiled an abstract of Gods word into another book which is here called their testimony and that is the communion Book or Book of Common-prayer and publick service of God which is sometimes called the Book of life Revel 22.19 and ch 20.21 as Revel 20.12 and Revel 22.19 where you may observe how mention is there made of 2 special Books and the one is termed the book of this prophesie which is the word of God and the other is termed the book of life because the sum and the substance of all that is in the Bible which is the word of God and which is necessary to attain unto Eternal life is contained in this book of their testimony for which book and the constant practice of Gods service according to this book as well as for the other book of the word of God those faithfull soules were slain and it is well known the Presbyâ—erians caused the Parliament to destroy us for the testimony that we held of these Books but the Answer that God gives unto these slaughtered soules may serve for a sufficient comfort unto us yet this gives occasion to demand Whether the prevalent faction of the long Parliament and their adherents the Sectaries of these 3 Kingdomes have not hereby resisted their Governors whom formerly they had so religiously observed and rebelled warred killed and beheaded both Moses and Aaron that is the supreme Magistrate and the chief Priest I leave it for my Reader to determine And whether the Assembly of Divines at Westminster and all their followers and Adherents contrary to their former oathes practices and profession have not generally apostatized and totally relapsed and fallen away from the most essential and most material points of our Christian Religion and from all the right service of God which themselves formerly taught and observed and have led their Congregations after them to the same apostasie let the observers of our new teachers what Doctrines are now taught and what service is now used in every Church judg hereof For I read it in Arise Evans Arise Evans in his Voice from heaven pag. 15. that you may easily finde it every foolish man gets up into the Pulpit and poureth out his folly and so now the false Christs and false Prophets do appear for the Independant saith here is Christ the Presbyterian saith loe here is Christ but the Anabaptist saith no he is not amongst you but here is Christ with us 1 Cor. 1.13 and so all the other Sectaries crie and have as the Apostle saith divided Christ And you may consider what Tilenus saith Vetus Ecclesia primis temporibus solo Apostolorum quod vocant symbolo ex sacris literis excerpto contenta erat The ancient Church in the first times was contented only with that faith which they call the Aposties Creed that is taken out of the holy Srciptures this was the faith of the Christians in the Apostles time and this was the sun and the substance and the abstract of all the whole Scripture for so much as concerned the saving faith and this faith contained in this Creed is the Faith of Gods elect and sufficient to save all the elect people of God though afterwards for the suppression of those Hereticks that sprang up to corrupt the same formulam illam per novas formulas ex iisdem sacris litteris collectas luculentius copiosius explicuerunt episcopi The Bishops and he saith not the Presbyters did more fully and more clearly out of the same sacred Scriptures explain that form of faith by other new formes as the point in question Tilenus exegesis pag. 57. aphoris 169. and controverted by the Hereticks did require as First in the Council of Nice then in the Constantinopolitan after in the Ephesine and at length in the Chalcedon Council And the whole Catholique Church and all the particular Churches of God the Greek Church and the Latine Church and every other particular national Church of the world have ever professed to observe and to retain this form of faith thus left to us by the Apostles and thus explained by the reverend and godly Bishops in these Councills and never to discede from the same And yet now That our new Preachers have and do recede from the true faith and the right service of
to explain unto you what S. Paul further setteth down concerning this man of sin that is the Antichrist yet because they are not such Characters and acts as are proper to him alone and not also common to his Proselites and Followers and some of them likewise do rather shew his judgment how he shall be destroyed than his description how he may be known therefore I will proceed from those sins doings and demeanour of him whereby St. Paul hath painted and set him forth as I have shewed you in the former Chapter to what the holy Ghost informeth St. John he should do whereby the people of God might by what sins and description of him as St. John setteth down plainly know him and avoid him when he should appear in the world for St. John sheweth many of the very same sins and the same doings of the Antichrist though exprest in other terms as St. Paul had done before the same sins by other names and some other like sins added unto what you heard before because he is not satisfied with few sins And first after that the holy Apostle and Evangelist St. John had said they had heard that the Antichrist should come even as St. Paul told the Thessalonians 2 Thes 2.5 that the Antichrist should come that is a great eminent and transcendent Antichrist he addeth that now that is in his time there were many Antichrists that is of a lower form and of lesser mischief than the great Antichrist would be even as St. V. 7. Paul likewise told the Thessalonians that the mystery of iniquity had begun to work in his daies that is by the ministry of those Hereticks and false hypocritical Professors that abused the truth of their Christian Profession then the Apostle St. John distinguisheth betwixt the true Christians and those false dissembling Professors that were those many Antichrists that he speaketh of and the forerunners of the great Antichrist St. John sheweth there be a sorts of Antichrists and he sheweth how the true Christians might be discerned and known by the unction or the anointing of the true Christians with the Grace of Gods holy Spirit whereby they came to know to confess and to profess the truth that is the Faith and truth of our Christian Religion and on the other side he doth say and positively affirm that the denial of this Truth by the hypocritical Professors in the main head that is to deny Jesus to be the Christ is the proper note and the undeniable mark and Character of the great Antichrist which is the head of all the other many inferiour Antichrists that are all destitute of that Unction whereby the true Christians do believe and confess Jesus to be the Christ let them make what Profession soever they please of their Faith and Christian Religion yet indeed they are no true Christians but the great Antichrist if they deny Jesus to be the Christ For saith the Evangelist and that by an Interrogation which is the strongest asseveration that can be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 John 2.22 that is Who is the Lyar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ he is the Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son Here is the full description of the Antichrist two things observeable Touching which words you must observe these two special things 1. Two things observable That St. John calleth the Antichrist a Lyar. 2. You are to understand what his Lye is 1. St. John sheweth us plainly herein that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Antichrist is a great Lyar 1. That the Antichrist is a Lyar 2 waies 1. By belying his Christian Profession and in that he is a Lyar it implyeth two special things 1. That he is an hypocritical and apostate Professor 2. That he is a crafty and cunning deceiver of the poor people As 1. It is apparent that the Antichrist is an hypocritical and an apostate Professor such as the other lesser antichrists that have been with us and went from us are For this great Antichrist will make a great profession of Religion as if he were the only Saint and the best Christian upon the earth that hath the greatest care that can be of Gods Service for the observing of his Sabbath and the preaching of his Word and the refraining from all Swearing and the like and yet all is but a great Lye only for an outward shew and no more when he speaks that with his tongue which he cares not for in his heart Rev. 13.11 and therefore he is said to speak like the Dragon And why like the Dragon Because that as the Dragon flattered Evah with many great and fair promises to make them like gods and to fill them with knowledge both of good and evil yet all were but lies and every word against his Conscience that knew well enough the listning to his voice and believing his Words would make them like devils so will the Antichrist flatter and fawn promise and profess great matters and make you believe he is a Saint and will bring you all to Heaven when with the Dragon he tells you nothing but lies and leads you straight to Hell And therefore doth St. John say that he is a Lyar that belyeth his own Profession Whether the Parliament members and their adhereÌ„ts did not bely what they professed let the Reader judge And it is demanded whether the Long Parliament Proselites and adherents did not even the like and follow the very same course as the Antichrist is said he should do and prove themselves such Lyars as he should prove himself to be For did they not profess themselves to be the truest Saints the best Christians and the purest Church of Christ that is or that men do know here on earth and that there were no Tares in their field no Chaffe in their floor no Trash in their Net and nothing but Gold on their foundation Psal 26.4 5. And do they not say that they hate the Assembly of the Malignants neither will they sit among vain persons And besides all this have they not tanquam Deus as God and chief ordâ—iner and ruler of all Church-matters rejected cashiered and abolished the formerly established Orders and Ordinances of the Divine Service and as Christ when the old Covenant of works and Legal Ceremonies was to be expired and those rites were to be nullified and done away Heb. 8.9 did in the stead of it set up his new and better Covenant of Grace as the Apostle sheweth So have they not devised and set forth a new and as they say a better Directory than ever was before that is a new form of Divine Worship new Canons of Gods Service and a Service of the new fashion such as neither we nor our Fathers did ever know the like and far better than ever they had and for the observance of that Directory have they not made stricter Ordinances and imposed severer punishments
a King and a Priest and so in denying him to be Christ he denieth him to be Jesus and a Saviour which he saith he beleeveth him to be and therefore he must needs be a great Lyar in saying that now which he presently denieth Question But here the question may be demanded How is it or how can it be that the Antichrist which professeth himself to be not a Jesuit from the name of Jesus but a Christian as they were first termed in Antioch from the name of Christ and saith he doth acknowledge and beleeve and will not and doth not deny Jesus to be both a King and a Priest yea his King and his Priest whom he doth above all others both honour reverence and obey as his King and as his Priest should notwithstanding be said and said truly without any unjust impuration laid upon him to deny Jesus to be the Christ that is the King to rule and the Priest to govern and to instruct his Church I answer that the Apostle meaneth not Respons That the Antichrist should in plain words positively and peremptorily deny Jesus to be a King and a Priest He that sayeth thou art my King and I am thy Subject but thou shalt not rule me neither will I obey thee is not he a Lyar as the Jews Turks and other Infidels do when as he confesseth publikely and in plain terms and never denieth with any manner of words that Jesus is not the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and that he is not a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedech but professeth the same as much and more than any man living and yet herein he is the great Lyar because that what he saith in words Factis negat he apparently denieth by his deeds which are the chiefest affirmation or negation of any truth and the best witnesses to confirm both what we say and what we deny as both our Saviour and his Apostle St. Paul do sufficiently testifie And so What it is to deny Jesus to be the Christ the meaning of denying Jesus to be King and Priest is not to be understood of any verbal denial but that the Antichrist though he doth in words confess him to be his King and his Priest and denieth him not to be anointed by God with the true Oyle of grace He that denieth Jesus to execute the Office of King and Priest denieth him to be King and Priest the oyntment of Gods Spirit above and beyond all others that ever were anointed to be the King and the Priest of the whole Church yet by his deeds and his actions he would most treacherously and maliciously deny and hinder Iesus to exercise and execute those Offices that is his Kingly Offices and his Priestly Office by those his deputies and Vicegerents whom he appointeth and placeth under him and in his stead to rule govern and to instruct his people here on earth for he being ascended into heaven executes these Offices of King and Priest none otherwise now in his personal absence than by his Substitutes and Deputies that he placeth to be Kings and Priests under him and whosoever denieth and hindereth them to discharge their duties and to execute those Functions and Offices of King and Priest denieth Jesus to execute the same and to discharge the duties of his Kingly and Priestly Office And we must not understand the Apostles words that the Antichrist denieth Jesus to be the Christ or his denial of him to be the true Messias and Saviour of the World and for that end to be anointed both for a King and a Priest which he never denieth or otherwise if this were his denial of him to be a King and a Priest to this end That thousand thousands deny Christ to be Jesus but the Antichrist only denieth him whom he confesseth his Jesus to be the Christ we should have ten thousand thousands of such Antichrists as Iews Turks and all the Infidels over all the World that deny Iesus the Son of Mary to be anointed for a King and a Priest to become the true Messias and to save his people from their sins for we know that all those do thus peremptorily deny Iesus to be the Christ or to be thus and to this end anointed to be King and Priest and yet they are not said to be the Antichrist nor the great Lyar which the Antichrist is said to be because their lye doth not contra mentem ire nor deny that which they affirm deny by their doings what they affirm by their sayings but their hearts and their tongues do conceive and confess the same thing that Iesus is not the Christ neither their King nor their Priest and the Antichrist doth the clean contrary saying in words that he is his Jesus and yet by his deeds utterly deny him And therefore by this ample Explanation of this mystical Sentence that the Antichrist is a great Lyar because he denieth Iesus to be the Christ I hope it is made plain enough that the meaning of the Apostle is that the Antichrist which mendaciously and falsely like a great Lyar professeth himself a Christian and acknowledgeth in his words that the Lord Iesus is the Christ that is his King and his Priest and himself his loyal Subject and the most faithful Servant of Christ will notwithstanding all this great profession maliciously deny and most rebelliously hinder and oppose the lawful Deputies Lieutenants and Servants of Christ our King and Priest to execute and to discharge their Kingly and Priestly Offices under Christ and in Christ his stead and will as I shewed you from the force and true meaning of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so deny them to execute their functions that nothing will satisfie or serve his turn untill he hath utterly destroyed both King and Priest and so denied them both to serve their Offices and to live in their places that is to be King and Priest Thus the Antichrist denieth Iesus to be the Christ by denying his Deputy-Kings and Priests He that resisleth Christ his Deputies resisteth Christ himself to execute their Kingly and Priestly Offices under him for as he that resisteth the lawful Magistrate resisteth the Ordinance of God saith the Apostle and so far as he resisteth Gods Ordinance he resisteth God himself because Man can make no other visible resistance of God than by the resistance of his Ordinance So he that revolteth from or rebelleth against the execution of these Offices of Christ by those deputies that he sets under him here on earth is rightly said to revolt from and rebel against Christ and so he that denieth them to execute their Offices of Kings and Priests under Christ may justly be said to deny Iesus to execute his Office of King and Priest even as you see he that resisteth against the Kings Sheriffe or Lieutenant is justly said to rebell against the King For though Christ be now in heaven yet he hath his Kingdom here
on earth and he is still our King as the Prophet saith The Lord is King and hath put on glorious apparel Psal 93.1 and he placeth other Kings to be his Substitutes and Vicegerents to guide and to govern his people according as he doth command and therefore he saith By me Kings do raign Prov. 8.15 and as he is still our King so S. Peter saith He is still the Bishop of our souls 1. Pet. 2.25 and the Priest that maketh an atonement to God for us and he placeth other Bishops and other Priests under him to teach and to govern his Church in the truth of his Service and Religion And you know what Christ saith to these his Deputies and Vicegerents Luk. 10.16 He that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me So he that denieth and hindereth you to execute your Offices denieth me mine Offices to be both King and Priest and so denieth me to be the Christ and in denying me he denieth him that sent me Psal 2.8 and gave me the Gentiles for mine Inheritance and the uttermost part of the earth for my Possession and also Sware that I should be a Priest for ever Psal 110.4 after the Order of Melchizedech Therefore it is most plain and apparent that whosoever professeth himself a Christian and yet maliciously opposeth and trayterously denieth the execution of the Kingly and Priestly Offices of Christ to be performed by his Deputies Kings and Priests that he appointeth under him and so far denieth them to do it as utterly to destroy them and deny them to live as the Jews denied Christ before Pilate to be Kings and Priests in Christs stead to Govern and to Teach his Church is here meant by the Apostle to be the Grand Lyar and the Great Antichrist that denieth Jesus to be the Christ and so you have seen what is the meaning of denying Jesus to be the Christ 2. The other Point to be considered is to enquire and search if we can find 2. Whom can we find to have denied Jesus to be the Christ Neither Pope nor Turk who have thus as I shewed you denied Jesus to be the Christ and if you find who hath done so you shall find out the Antichrist and I beleeve we shall find him neither in Rome nor in Constantinople for the Pope I am sure of it denieth not the Bishops as Christs Depuâ—ies to execute their Priestly Office when he professeth himself to be Christs Deputy and Vicar to discharge that Office to instruct and to govern his Church and for the Turke he will not extirpate Monarchy nor cast down Kings when he professeth himself to be the chief Monarch of the earth and a King of Kings as his own Letters testifie But whether the Long Parliament and their adherents Let the Reader judge whether the long Parliament hath not fulfilled this saying of the Apostle that in words do constantly affirm and profess that Jesus is the Christ and themselves good if not the best Christians that are on earth have not by their deeds in opposing their King the Substitute and Vioeroy of Christ and denying him either to execute his Regal Office or to live and in suppressing all the Bishops and so many Orthodox Loyall Preachers so that they shall never as Bishops execute the Priestly Office of Christ denied Iesus to be Christ by denying those Substitute Officers of Christ to execute those Offices or to live in those Offices I leave it to them that can judge who is the Lyar and the Antichrist and that denieth Iesus to be the Christ Only I must say That if I were a Pagan and an Infidel and had seen no more of the Parliaments doings but these two things i.e. 1. Their words and great profession of holiness and Christianity And The two chiefest things that do most of all regret the mind of the Author 2. Their deeds in the cutting off of their own just and lawful Kings head and the head of their chief Priest and the suppression exclusion and extirpation of all the godly Bishops in these three Kingdoms and likewise the prohibition and sileneing of them and the rest of the Orthodox Preachers from preaching of the Gospel of Iesus Christ not for any supposed Errour in their Doctrine but for a suspition they had that those faithful men would publish the truth and villanies of their Acts and Proceedings unto the People I should beleeve none could be a greater Lyar or a greater Antichrist than they that did such things Being confident that neither Decius nor Dioclesian nor any other of the primitive Persecutors nor Pope nor Turk nor any later Tyrant hath ever done the like And yet herein That the Author can very well endure dissentients I am not so wedded to mine own opinion as that I cannot endure dissentients for I am not of their mindes that hold him not for their friend and will bear no correspondence with him that will not per omnia in omnibus in all things be of their minde neither do I propose my conceptions notions and Expositions as infallible Articles of faith for others sub paena to be believed but I only set down what I conceive and do verily believe to be true and my Reasons and Arguments that induce me thereunto leaving to all others the liberty of their own conscience to believe what they will and whom they will to be the Antichrist Pope or Turk or whomsoever they please 3. 3. That the Antichrist denying Jesus to be the Christ denieth the Father and the Son which may be done 2 waies 1. Way Mat. 10.40 Luc. 10.16 S. John proceedeth and saith that the Antichrist not only denyeth Jesus to be the Christ but also by this denial he denyeth the Father and the Son and this as I conceive may be done two manner of wayes 1. By separating himself from the rule Government and Ministry of Christ and maliciously suppressing the ordinances and the substitute Governors of Christ which is a most observable and inseparable mark of the Antichrist and of all his followers for thus our Saviour tells us that whosoever despiseth rejecteth and suppresseth the officers Embassadors and Ministers that Christ sendeth and setteth over us to ruâ—e us and to instruct us despiseth rejecteth and by as much as in him lieth suppresseth Christ himself and whosoever despiseth rejecteth and denyeth him despiseth and denieth God the Father that sent him and therefore you may plainly see hereby Vide R. W. in lib. The Doctrine of the Scripture touching the original of Government pag. 117. that the rebellious risers against their King Prince or any other their supream Governor that Christ placeth over them and the suppressors of the Apostles Bishops and Pastors of Gods Church the successors of the Apostles that Christ sends to teach and to govern his Church throughout all ages do rebell reject and deny Christ which is
of 1200 and 60 dayes that make three years and a half just so long as Christ Preached after he was Baptized among the Jewes and at the end of those 1200 and 60 dayes they should be slaine by the Antichrist about one moneth before the Antichrist should be destroyed and it is a wonderfull thing to consider how many Papists are led away with the belief of these fictions of which I will not stand to confute and to shew their Vanity for that Bibliander and Chytraeus have sufficiently answered to these places Chytraeus in c. 11. Apoc. Math. 11.14 and have fully shewed howthese were the mistakes of those Fathers and but meere fancies of the Papists when our Saviour tels us plainly that Iohn Baptist was the Elias which was for to come and which the Jewes dreamed as the Papists do should be Elias the Tisbite that was taken up to Heaven in a Fiery Charet Exposition 2 Dr. Hammond in Apoc c. 11. Eusebius l. 4. c. 6. Others by these two Witnesses do understand two Bishops of Hierusalem wherof the one was Bishop over the Converted Jewes and the other of the Gentile Christians and these Berchochabas a Seditious and Rebellious Jew whereof Eusebius writeth did kill in the civil dissention of the Jewes as some Authors testifie but as unlikely as the former fiction of the Papists Reason 1 And the acts of the Apostles seem not to intimate any such thing but rather the clean contrary 1. Because we cannot yield that there were two Bishops of Hierusalem one of the Converted Jewes and another of the Gentile Christians as if they meant to make two distinct and severall Churches which might produce a great division and bring many Inconveniences betwixt the Jewish Christians and the Gentiles whereas now the partition Wall betwixt Jews and Gentiles was broken down and as both people were to have but one chief Shepheard that is Jesus Christ so they were to have but one fold and one Deputy Shepheard that is one Bishop under Christ in one City though I deny not but there might be subordinate Presbyters and Deacons under that Bishop to assist him to instruct the people and to Govern the Church Reason 2 2. Because the Revelation is not of known things that were already past for that is not properly a Revelation but a Narration of things especially things publickly done and not concealed but it is of things that were to come to pass and though Berchochabas was supprest by Rufus in the time of the Emperor Adrian about the 130 year of Christ yet it is thought that these men which are supposed to be two Bishops were slain long before this Revelation was shewed unto St. Iohn and not unlikely because Eusebius nameth 15 Bishops of Hierusalem that succeeded one another before Xistus that was but the sixth Bishop of Rome after the Apostles and lived about the beginning of Adrians time Reason 3 3. Because it is manifest that Berchochabas cannot be understood by the Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit and the great Antichrist which is here said to kill the two witnesses because none of the notes and marks of that Beast under which notes the antichrist is described in the Scriptures do any wayes agree with Berchochabas for he never apostatized and fell away from Christ whom he never professed neither did he ever sit in the Temple of God as God nor wrought any signes or wonders nor went about his work slily mysteriously as the Antichrist doth but he went about his design openly and plainly aperto marte with armed Troops and therefore he cannot be understood to be the killer of these two witnesses nor these witnesses to be those two supposed Bishops of Hierusalem Exposition 3 Francisc Junius in loc Others by these two witnesses do understand it generally of the Ministers and Preachers of Gods word that are expressed by the number of two because of their weakness contemptibleness and fewness according to our Saviours words The harvest indeed is great but the labourers are few and yet they are two that they might the better assist one another and especially Deut. 19.13 2 Cor. 13.1 Mat. 18. v. 16. to confirm the Testimony of one another unto all other men according as the Law requireth that by the mouth of two or three Witnesses every word might be made good unto men as the Apostle sheweth But I can see no reason that all the Ministers and Preachers of Gods word should be expressed by the number of two when as though in the beginning when Christ spake it the number of the Apostles and Disciples were but very few yet the Psalmist prophesying of the succeeding time of the Gospel after the day of Pentecost saith that God gave the word and great was the Company of the Preachers and they could not be weak and contemptible during the time of their prophesying and before the coming of the Antichrist because they were the two Olive Trees and the two Candlesticks that stand before the God of the Earth and if any man hurt them that is during the time of their Prophesie Apoc. c. 11.4.5 fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies and therefore our last translation addeth for the explanation of the point the word power unto the Text saying and I will give power unto my two witnesses and they shall prophesie that is Apoc. c. 11.3 during the time alotted them 1200 and 60 dayes so that none shall be able to hinder them Exposition 4 Others do conceive that by these two witnesses we may better understand the two Testaments that is the holy Scriptures of the old and new Testament whereof our Saviour saith Search the Scriptures for they testifie of me John 5.39 and thus do they expound them that make the Pope to be the Antichrist because he hath supprest the Scriptures both of the old and new Testament and hath offered violence and so killed the true sence and meaning of these two Testaments For the violence that the Pope and his Cardinalls and the whole Church of Rome have offered unto the holy Scriptures I cannot and I will not go about to excuse them neither do I think that they can excuse themselves but though the two Testaments are witnesses of Christ and do bear witness of him yet because they are but a dead letter and so dead witnesses as are the Heavens and all the works of God the witnesses of God though the Scriptures truly expounded are by far the clearer and the surer witnesses of him but being turned like a nose of wax by the Hereticks as they are very often I assure my self they are not here meant by these witnesses because they cannot properly nor indeed any wayes be said to be killed when the truth may onely be wounded and for a time suppressed but never killed and quite extinguished quia magna veritas prevalet as Zorchabel proveth and it is but an idle shift
the great Antichrist Bestia haec non Idolo atria non magia non Trajanus ut piscator videtur suspicari non Domitianus ut Grotius sed imperium Rom. significat inquit Maresius pag. 173. Irenaeus l. 5. c. 28. Nazian in Jam. 5. Cornelius a Lapide in apoc 13. That this beast signifieth the Antichrist for which the Aeolians use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fera which signifieth not every kind of wild beast but a fierce cruel and savage beast doth here betoken the great Antichrist that the Dragon stirred up to kill the witnesses of Christ and to persecute the true Church of God for though Haymo Albertus and Pineda do by this beast understand Lucifer the Prince of Devills and Beda Primasius and Richardus do expound it to signifie Corpus diaboli the body of the Devill that is caetum multitudinem impiorum all the whole multitude of wicked Reprobates that as all the elect and godly men are termed the Church and body of Christ so are they termed the Synagogue of Satan and the body of the Devill who is the head of this monstrous body and so indeed it signifieth this whole multitude of Reprobates in some places as in c. 19. 19. 20. when all them shall be taken and cast into the Lake of fire and brimstone and Antoninus Euthymius and Salmeron do by this beast understand Mahomet the first founder of the Turkish Empire and the first inventor of that wicked Alcoran yet Irenaeus Tertullian Victorinus Hypolitus Prudentius Prosper Ribera Thomas Rupertus and long before them Greg. Nazianzen that saith Quid est antichristus vir opibus amplis Apostata ille pessimus bellua venenum vomens And many more even of the most ancient do by this beast understand the great Antichrist that the Apostle speaketh of 2 Thes 2.3 and that St. John saith should come into the world that is to do the feats which we have seen lately done and Cornelius a Lapide whom not onely all the Divines in Europe but also all good Christians are obliged to honour for the great pains that he took for the good of Gods Church saith this is the common received opinion of Divines to understand the Antichrist by this beast and our learned Bishop of Worcester Dr. Prideaux saith that antichristus typice demonstratur a Daniele topice a paulo sed plenissime a Johanne Apoc. 13.1 and I should shew my self too bold Dr. Hammond in apoc 13. ante eum Comentator m. c. 13. in v. 1. p. 32. without apparant extraordinary good reasons to depart from the judgement of such a Cloud of Interpreters as I could cite as well of the modern as of the ancient Doctors that do with such unanimous consent expound this beast to signifie the Antichrist and nto the Heathen I doll Worship of the Romans as some Learned Divines conceive it nor the Ethnick Empire of Rome as Alcazar takes it For though the Commentator supposed to be Grotius a man more then ordinarily learned doth understand by this 7. headed and 10. horned beast the Idolatry of the Romans or Ethnick Rome as Alcazar thought and by the horns of this beast he conceives those Kings that were subject to the Roman Empire ought to be understood Yet Caracotta in his strigil against this Commentator doth most fully convince this conceit of these men because Daniel Dan. 8.20 and v. 2. whom this our Evangelist seemes to imitate even in the very Phrases of him by the beasts that he nominates understandeth not any vices or errors but the domineering Kings that reigned and ruled over the people as the Ram which thou sawest having two horns are the Kings of Media and Persia and the rough Goat is the King of Grecia and the great horne that is between his eyes is the first King so the four Beasts which he saw c. Dan. 8.20 v. 21. 7. are said to be four Domineering Kings as the first of the Assyrians the second of the Medes and Persians the third of the Grecians and the fourth of the domineering Senate and people of Rome under their Counsells and their Emperors And therefore the spirit of God This Beast signifieth a domineering Senate following the same stile and the same expression here to our Evangelist as he had formerly done unto the Prophet by this Beast that rose out of the Sea doth meane some domineering Senate that like unto the fourth Beast in Daniel that is the Senate and people of Rome should reigne and rage over Gods people And so it is to be observed that the Antichrist expressed by the Apostle under the name and title of the man of the Sin and here by the Evangelist under this Beast That the Beast here spoken of signifieth a pack and society of most wicked Hypocriticall men doth not betoken any one particular man either Mahomet or the Pope or any other Tyrant or imposter how great or how wicked soever he be but as I shewed before a pack or knot and a confederate company of the most nefarious and most ungodly Hypocriticall reprobates that either were before or should ever come after their time And though Beda Primasius and Richardus do by this beast understand the whole multitude of the ungodly yet we do more especially and particularly take it in this place and attribute it to the worser part and a confederated united pack of that whole multitude of wicked and ungodly men and do conceive that as Solomons Song for the excellency thereof is termed Canticum canticorum the Song of Songs And why called the Beast and the Antichrist So this transcendent wicked pack of extraordinary sinners that is like the Catelinarian Conjuration or rather far worse then that when as that sought only to subvert the Common-wealth and this to ruine both the Church of Christ and secular state for the extreme impiety thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is called the Beast and the Antichrist And so August de civitate dei l. 20. c. 9. c. 14. c. 20. St. Augustine long since understandeth this Beast to signifie not any one impious wicked man but a society or company of wicked Christians and the confederate communion of naughty men that Hypocritically under the name of Christ and upon pretence to propagate the Gospel of Christ do fight against Christ Et faciunt unitatem contra unitatem and do binde themselves together in juncto Esay 28.15 Who are to be understood by this Beast by a most solemne oath and Covenant such as the Prophet speaketh of to fight against the City of God to overthrow the true Saints and Servants of Jesus Christ to slay the Witnesses of God and to prophane his House and to prohibite his accustomed Service these men are the Beast that is bellua multorum capitum the beast of many heads such as the Heathen Philosophers and Orators termed and deemed the vulgar people especially when they do madly and maliciously run on in their Wickedness
ordinarily and alwayes when he came to the Temple Matth. 21.14 and opportunity offered him so to do and St. Matthew saith that the blind and the lame came to him in the Temple and he healed them and so must we come to him into his Temple if we desire to be healed of our infirmities and so the Apostles and Disciples of Christ after his ascention into Heaven met and worshipped God in the Temple Act. 2.46 c. 5.25 and when the Christians began to be multiplied they presently erected Churches and consecrated them for Gods service as you may see in 1 Cor. 11.22 and from the 14th Chapter of the said Epistle where the Apostle bids the women to be silent in the Church which must not be understood of any other House or Congregation but the Congregation that meeteth for Gods service in Gods House And because that place was set apart from all prophane uses for to pray to God and to preach unto the people and to do all other exercises of Religion as administring the Sacraments catechizing the youths collecting the alms for the poor and the like services of the Lord and was hallowed and sanctified by the prayers of the Bishop onely for that end and that God hath promised his more speciall presence for our help and assistance in a most speciall manner in that House more then in any other place 2 Chron. 6. as you may see by Solomons prayer therefore the true Saints and servants of God did ever honour and reverence this very place of Gods Worship more then any Chamber of presence of the greatest Monarch in the World and none but prophane Atheists wicked Hereticks and the members and adherents of this Beast that are worse then the worst of worldlings have ever abused prophaned or blasphemed these materiall Churches whereof the Prophet saith holiness becometh thy house for ever for Though originally In what sence all things are alike holy and in respect of their own nature all places are alike holy and so are all persons all dayes and all meates and so all other things that are ejusdem speciei of the same kind they are all alike holy and there is no difference nor any more Sanctity or Holiness in the one then in the other being all alike Holily created by God Yet if we consider Gods designation of any of these things and the Sanctification In what sense some things are more holy then others For the further clearing of this point I desire the Reader to look into Mr. Mede's learned Discourse de sanctitate relativa and his answer to Dr. Twisse pag 660 and in Levit. 19.30 of the same by the appointment of God for such and such uses in the service of God then you shall find a great deale of difference betwixt the one and the other and a great deale of a relative accidentall Holiness in and belonging to the one more then to the other otherwise what difference will you make betwixt the common bread that we eat of the finest Wheat Flower and the most Holy and Blessed bread of the Holy Eucharist or the Lords Supper but the Sanctifying of it by Prayers for this use to be the Body and Blood of Christ this makes the difference so that now after the consecration of it with the words of Christ hoc est Corpus meum we cannot without prophaneness and a mighty offence give the same to Doggs or unbelieving Jewes or any other that we know to be altogether unworthy of it as we can give the other bread that is made of the same lump to either of these without any offence or what difference is there betwixt one day and another but because the Lord designed the 7th day to be set apart for his Service and hallowed it for that end therefore it is more Holy then all the other six dayes and so are the dayes and feasts that are appointed by the Church to honour God in them as the Commemoration of Christs Nativity Circumcision Resurrection Ascention and other dayes of Thanksgiving for some speciall blessings and extraordinary favours that as on those dayes we have received from God which none will prophane but the neglectors of Gods honour and the prophaners of his Service So what difference or what Holiness is there naturally betwixt one man and another but when the Lord chooseth one before another to be his Servant to be sent as his Embassador to Preach his Word and to administer his Sacraments and causeth him to be consecrated or hallowed by Prayers and impositions of hands for that purpose there is a great deale of difference betwixt them and much additionall Holiness in the one more then in the other in so much that our Saviour saith of these men he that receiveth you receiveth me Luc. 10.16 Zech. 2.8 and he that despiseth you despiseth me and the Lord saith of them he that toucheth you toucheth the Apple of mine eye and you see this difference in the Embassadors and other Officers of Kings Princes and Potentates whom we honour and reverence more then others because they are deputed and Authorized to be the Judges Sherifs or other Officers of the Kingdome where they are designed so to be and so likewise what difference or what Holiness is there in one place more then in another in the Church ground more then in the Barne floore surely not any at all originaliter in respect of themselves but when such a piece of ground is designed and dedicated for Gods Service and consecrated by Prayers for that purpose and God promiseth his presence to be more especially there for our comfort then in any other ordinary place then certainly there is a great deale of difference and a great deale of Holiness in that place and Consecrated ground more then in any other common ground whatsoever Therefore Jacob said of the place where God shewed his presence to him Gen. 28.17 this is Gods house and the gate of Heaven and the Lord said unto Moses Exod. 3.5 pull off thy shoes from thy feet for the place where thou standest is Holy ground and why was that ground more Holy then any other ground not in respect of any innate Holiness but because the Lord revealed himself there to Moses more then in any other place and I pray you look what the Spirit of God injoyneth us to do when we come into Gods House Eccles 5.2 for if we make no difference of these things but that every man that will may intrude himself to do the Service which God requireth to be done by another and he may do that Service any where in any one place as well as in another in a Common Barne as well as in a Holy Church then surely we need not observe any time when any one day is as good and as Holy as another the Munday as well as the Lords day and so confounding persons times and places we shall confound all Religion and
among the people and the Antichrist began to appear in Gods Church but if it be so that it is to denote the time of his rising it agreeth far better with the long Parliament for omitting one thousand which is a full and a perfect number and which is not an unusual thing in Scripture to omit one part and to set down the other especially to make the matter mysterious and not to be understood by all but as our Saviour saith by them onely Matth. 13.11 In page 109. to whom it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven Et exploratum est atque compertum habraes alios numerum mille narium in calculis ratiocinisque suis omittere solitos ut Munsterus Calendario suo haebraico p. 6. optimè indicat Basil edit 20. Au. 1527. And as a late Divine saith very well a thousand years being the number of perfection and eternity it is seldome used to be expressed in our ordinary computes but it is usually left out for brevities sake as we say the Spanish Armado was in 588. for 1588. and the Gun-powder plot was in 605. for 1605. and so forth of the like and then confider that in Anno 1646. the great Sunedrion the Parliament A thing which I believe never any subject in any other kingdom durst presume to ask Balaeus makes it to begin in the time of Boniface the third about 607. l. 3 fol. 39. and expounds the 666. to be expired after Hierusalem was taken by Pompey l. 3. fol. 37. Feuard in notis in Iraen l. 5. c 30. Sixt. Senensis Bibl. l 2. pag. 9 and others have collected 12. names that contain 666. Vide Thomson de Antich pag. 44. c. Chytr in Apoc. c. 13. Bibl. ad Chronolog tabula 11. Bellarm de Rom. Pontif. l. 3. c. 10. Names that do contain the number of 666. demanded of the King to have the Militia that is the strength and Soveraign power and rule over the King and kingdom whereby they might unmake and make what Lawes what Warres what Peace and whatsoever else pleased themselves for the full space of 20. years which 20. years being added to 1646. and we shall find that they do make the just number of 666. And therefore this their demand cohereth with the fulfilling of this mystery if it be to be referred to the time of the birth and coming of this beast as all the Divines of Magdesborough and many other learned men think it is though they do not all agree about the beginning of that time But you will say the Holy Ghost telleth us it is the number of a man therefore Luther and Calvin do think that Boniface the third who first took the name of Vniversal Bishop from the Emperour Phocas the murderer of his own Master Mauritius about the year 600. to be the first originall of this beast and the great Antichrist but Cornel à lapide answereth that the taking the name of Vniversall Bishop doth neither shew the number of the beast nor prove the Pope to be the Antichrist because we find that Leo the first in the Councill of Chalcedon and other Bishops before Boniface were called Papae aecumenici Universal Bishops therefore Alcazar saith the name that in the Greek letters conteineth the number of 666. and sheweth the natural properties of the beast is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the pride of life and truly I know not how the Parliament and Presbyterians can quit themselves from this mark when it was their pride and haughty spirits that spurned them on to do all the mischief that they did but that excellent Cronologer Chytraeus and Bibliander and others do collect out of Irenaeus l. 5. c. 30. that first found out this number in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Pope which is now the Latine Prince and rules in Italy must needs be this beast and the Antichrist to which charge Bellarmine answereth and confutes this conceit because the word Latinus as it signifieth Romanus a Roman is not and ought not to be written with et but with a single iotu and then it wanteth five of the number and besides Latinus noteth rather the name of the countrey then of the person and I have shewed you many reasous to Prove that the Pope cannot be meant by this beast and therefore the beast cannot be signified by Latinus unlesse you mean that he is the greatest enemy to Latinus that is to the Pope and to the Latine service as the Parliament profest himself to be Rupertus and Haymo say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is like to be the name of the beast because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth Seductor Gentium a deceiver of the Nations as the Holy Ghost saith the beast should do and it containeth the just number of 666. and this likewise agreeth very well with the late long Parliament who as I believe hath many wayes deceived the people and the nations round about him more and worse then any beast living Hyppel in orat de Consum Mundi Hypolitus and Primasius say the beast taketh his denomiuation from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nego which containeth 666. and signifieth to deny because that as Trajan and Decius requireth the Christians to deny Christ so the beast the Antichrist would have them that were Christians to deny their Baptisme which is the badge and them mark of Christ and of our incorporation into Christ and now we see all the Parliament Anabaptists and most of their Independants which both together I think were the most prevalent party of that Parliament deny their former Baptisme very stiffely and therefore must needs be the beast according to Primasins and Hyppolitus Anselmus Richardus and Tyconius say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth agree with the number of the beast and signifieth honori contrarius because the Beast should trample all Honour and even the honour and reverence that we owe to God under-foot and doth not this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agree passing well with that Parliament that hath put down King Dukes Lords Bishops And all of them may fitly be applyed to the Long Parliament and the House of Peeres and all other Titles of Honour and hath placed all Titles of Dignity Rule and Authority in the Plebeyans the common and the vulgar sort of people and have they not also throwen away and hindered any Reverent gesture and decency of behaviour to be used in the Service of God and therefore in this respect I suppose that Parliament might justly be termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so the beast according to these mens judgement because that like a beast they have shewed themselves contrary to all Honour which the Apostles do require to be observed of all Christians Arethas and some others say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 containeth 666. Rom. 12.10 1 Pet 2 17. Hefiod in Theog Natalis Com. Mytholog l. 6. c. 20. and fignifieth a Giant to shew
concernment to the whole Church it should be very well plainly and sufficiently proved and manifested and not darkly and improbably demonstrated or else it ought hardly to be received and not at all to be beleeved 4. Whereas pag. 2. of this interpretation he saith that because oppositorum eadem estratio and that the mysterie of 144. to which this number of 666 is opposed is contained in the roote thereof which is 12 therefore the mysterie of this 666. must be contained in the roote thereof which is 25. I say that the misterie of 144. is indeed interpreted to consist in the roote thereof which is 12. which being 12 times multiplied doe make up just 144. and yet the Holy Ghost maketh no such interpretation of it but that those spirits which beleeve nothing but the expresse text of scripture may as easily reject it as receive it but being granted that this is rightly interpreted because the twelve Apostles St. Paul left out that laboured in the building more then any if not then most of them all were the foundations of the wall of the new and spirituall Jerusalem yet it followeth not that because this mysterie must be explained by the extraction of the roote of 144. therefore the other mystery that denoteth the beast must consist in the roote of 666 no more then the mysteries of many other numbers expressed in scripture can be said to consist in their extracted rootes and though the beast be opposite to Christ and the Synagogue of Satan opposite to the Church of Christ or Babylon to Jerusalem yet this doth not in any understanding prove that 666 is more opposite to 144. as it is a set number then it is to 444 or to any other definite number 333 being as I conceive a more oppofite number in respect of division to 666. Onely this 666 is said to be the number of the beast in direct and plain termes and the other number of 144 is interpreted by some authors to be understood of the Church militant here on earth and by others of as good repute to be the typicall expression of the Kingdome of Heaven Besides the twelve Apostles were but the foundations of this wall as having their names in them v. 14. the wall being made up of other stones that is of all the beleeving christians and so it comprehendeth the whole Church and then the opposition must be not betwixt the Hierarchie of the Pope and his Cardinals and the Hierarchie of the Christian Church but betwixt the whole Church of Christ whose wall and not whose foundation v. 17. was 144 cubits and the whole Synagogue of Satan that is made up of theeves infidels and all other wicked reprobates therefore the Pope and his Cardinals cannot be the the beast that by this exposition of opposites must fignifie all the whole companie of reprobates which is far contrarie to the meaning of the Holy Ghost that plainly differenceth the beast and the worshipers and followers of the beast as the Lambe and the followers of the Lambe are not the same But indeed contrarie to the opinion of Mr. Forbes and some other that make this vision of the new Ierusalem to be typus presentis ecclesiae a type of the militant Church I shall with many of the most ancient interpreters denie this discription of the new Ierusalem to be the type of the Christian militant Church and say that ad captum nostrum that can reach no higher then demonstration this admirable explication of this citty is thus set down to shew unto us those ineffable excellencies and most glorious estate which the servants of Christ shall enjoy in the kingdome of Heaven for if you observe the coherence of this 21 c. with the former you shall finde there c. 20. that the beast and the false prophet and the devill are cast into the lake of fire to be tormented for ever and ever v. 10. and the dead both smale and great were all judged according to their works v. 12 and death and bell and all that were not written in the booke of life were cast into the lake of fire which can be no other then the last judgement against all the reprobates this is the end of them And then after St. Iohn had shewed the end of them and their sad condition for ever he proceeds in the 21 c. to shew unto us according to the best of our apprehension the most happie state and condition of the children of God in heaven which he expresseth under this type that he saw a new heaven and a new earth even as St Peter and before him the prophet Esay long agone had prophysied and foretold the servants of God how happie they should be and because that which is no where is not at all as St. Aug. Tolle spatia locorum corporibus nusquam erunt et quia nusquam erunt non erunt saith therefore he describeth the place where they shall remain in bliss under this type of the new Ierusalem whose excellent frame and figure he doth here so amply describe unto us wherein you may observe that the things attributed to the Cittizens of this new Ierusalem are incompatible with the members of the church militant for it is said that God shallwipe away all teares from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more paine v. 4. which cannot be referred and applied to the members of the purest church on earth and so many other things are set down c. 22. to be in this heavenly Cittie which cannot without apparant violence unto the text properly be thought to be in the militunt church but are most elegant expressions by way of allusion of those incomprehensible excellencies that the saints shall finde in the kingdome of heaven 5. Whereas he saith pag. 3. that it is not said as it is observed by many let him that hath understanding count the name of the beast but count the number of the beast I answer that in c. 13. v. 17. it is said that no man might buy or sell but he that had the marke or the name of the beast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the number of his name therefore the number of the beast and the number of his name are all one and so both the one and the other both signifying the same thing are said to contain therein the just number of 666 when as the number of the beast is put down for the number of the name of the beast 6. Whereas he saith c. 2. pag. 5. that the mysterie of 144. consisteth in the square roote of it which is 12. I answer as before that I doe not gain-say it but for the oppositio of 666 to this 144 that the mysterie of the 666. must consist in the square roote of it which is 25. as the mysterie of a 144 confisteth in the square roote of it which is 12 I utterly denie untill he can bring me
with their adherents to repentance and to forsake the courses that heretofore they have most wickedly walked in 2. To disswade all others from adhering to them or approving of their unjust proceedings 3. To perswade the godly seruants of Jesus Christ that have suffered so much and such indignities at the hands of the beast and his assassinates to continue constant in their former resolutions and not to be dejected for any adversity or to approve and affect the prosperity of the beast and to imbrace the doctrine of the false Prophet 4. That as our predecessors recorded the truth of those things that happened in their times to us which otherwise we should never have known so likewise we should deliver the truth of what we have seen done in our time to our posterity that the sad condition of the Church and especially of the witnesses of Jesus Christ in these dayes of the Antichrist might be made known to after-ages that as Johns disciples said to Christ so the disciples of Christ might demand in like manner of the Antichrist Art thou he that should come or shall we look for another and I suppose none can give a better answer then what our Saviour gave to the Jewes in the like case The works that I do testifie of me so the works that these men of our time have dones shall testify unto all posterities what they are for as Demodocus said of the Milesians that they were no fooles but they did the same things that fooles do so if these men of our time say they are not the Antichrist yet I believe the world seeth they did and still do the very same things that the holy men of God prophesied the great Antichrist should do And this is all that I do and no more in this whole book 1. To shew you out of the holy Scripture of the old and new Testament what the great Antichrist should do when he should come into the world 2. To set down what is seen done by the men of our time the prevalent faction of the long Parliament and their adherents together with the Presbyterians Independants and Lay-preachers to continue their names and their memories to the generatons that are to come which is all that shall be left of them when they have left their pomp behind them and shall carry nothing with them but the deeds that they have done And as Queen Hester said so say I if for this I perish I perish yet the truth is great and will prevail and continue true when the greatest tyrants shall be reduced to dust and ashes And in the Interim I do professe that I neither fear the sharpest sword of the bloodiest tyrant nor the most virulent tongues or malicious pens of the most railing Rabsheca quia nec melior si laudaverint nec deterior si vituperaverint because the praise of men makes me not one jot better nor the aspersions and dispraise of enemies one title worse then I am and my conscience tells me that I have so lived Ut nec pudet vivere nec piget mori as that I am neither ashamed to live nor afraid to die And if any man shall blame me for any acrimonie or bitternesse that he findeth in this book I call God to record that it proceeded not as I said before out of any excessive sense that I ever conceived of any particular injury that was done unto my self when as I found my friends favourable enough to me and granting me more then I expected from them nor out of any hatred or malice to any one of all the Presbyterians Independants or Lay-preachers or to any other of all the long Parliament men when as very many of them were my best Patrons and my singular good friends that offered me great preferments which I would have accepted if my conscience had not utterly disliked of their wayes but whatsoever gall or vinegar hath distilled from my pen it proceeded only out of the vehemencie of the zeal which I bear to the true service of God and the love that I had to the piety and goodnesse of our good King and especially the extream hatred that I conceived against the injustice impieties and evil doings of the men anatomized in this book for my faith is that although heretofore many particular tyrant heretick and wicked man might be noted out of Histories that perhaps might be worse and more detestable then any one of these men here meant yet that such a pack such a society and such a multitude of wicked hereticks tyrants and malefactors that combined and were like sworne brethren to effect such un-heard-of mischiefs injustice and impieties as they have done the sun in above 5000. years revolution never saw the like except that wicked councill which condemned the Son of God to death And therefore seeing we are fallen into such times wherein Nec vitia nostra nec eorum remedia ferre possumus I may justly say quis iniqui Tam patiens orbis tam ferreus ut teneat se c Who can hold his tongue at the sight of such doings And old Chaucer saith The words must be of kinne unto the deeds And the wisest Writers do loath to trimme up vices in Vertue 's raiment and we that are rude know not how to call a spade otherwise then a spade Rudes sunt populi Macedonum Scapham vocant Scapham as King Philip of Macedon answered a Traytor whom he had pardoned and complained that the people called him a Traitor And though I earnestly desired to be moderate in my expressions yet the height of that wickednesse which I found acted could not otherwise with all my rhetorick be set forth in any fairer terms unto my Readers Ο ' ΑννιχÏιστος The GREAT ANTICHRIST REVEALED Before this time not Discovered CHAP. I. To what end Christ foretels the Afflictions and Persecutions of his Church that her greatest Persecution should be in the time of the great Antichrist and of the strange Persecution and extream Cruelty Oppression and Injustice that have been lately acted against Gods servants in these parts and in our daies by the Ministers of the Antichrist OUR blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ out of his great and infinite love to his Church forertels her of the many troubles afflictions and persecutions that his best servants and her chiefest members should finde and must undergo here in this world To what end Christ foretels the persecutions of his Church amongst the sons of men to this end that she might earnestly pray to God he would be pleased either to avert them from her or to strengthen her with patience most constantly to endure them and still to keep her garments clean and her conscience undefiled in the midst of this froward and crooked generation Euseb Eccles Histor. l. 4. c. 5. l. 5. c. 1. And after this prediction of our Saviour Christ St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles and Eusebius Socrates and others
in their Ecclesiastical Histories have left it recorded to all Posterities what direful Torments the poor harmless Christians have endured in the first ten grievous Persecutions under Nero Domitian Dioclesian Decius and others Heathen Tyrants that were so cruel and so tyrannical to the Saints and Servants of God that most good men and religious minds cannot read their Sufferings without weeping nor remember them without pity For Claud. in Ruff. lib. 1. Quis prodere tanta relatu Funera quis caedes posset deflere nefandas It is not credible for Infidels that know not the Gospel to believe so many slaughters and such exquisite Tortures as the Christians endured when as alii flammis exusti alii ferro perempti alii patibulo cruciati or that they can be looked upon by any humanity with dry eyes And yet Isidorus tells us August de civ Dei l. 20. c. 8. Cyrillus catech 15. Hypolit Orat. de fine seculi The time of the greatest persecution and so doth S. Aug. S. Cyril and Hyppolitus the holy Martyr in his Oration de consummatione mundi that in the time of the Antichrist which would be towards the end of the world and not long before the Coming of Christ to Judgment the Synagogue of Satan and the worldly Senate or Citizens of this world should more furiously rage and more cruelly persecute the true Church of Christ and the most Faithful Servants of God than ever was done in the Primitive Times And besides the accession of above 5000 years experience unto Satans natural and inbred sagacity and sharpness of knowledge and understanding to find out new waies and subtiller devices to afflict Gods Servants they render this Reason for their Assertion because that The reason of the foresaid assertion as the Scripture testifieth Satan was to be bound and fettered as a dog in a chain for 1000 years that is after the end and determination of the first 10 great Persecutions and the Persecutions of the Goths and Vandals and the other Arian Kings that were no less Persecutors and Tormentors of the Orthodox Fathers and the Professors of the Faith of one Substance which is the right Catholick Faith than the Heathen Tyrants were of the Faithful Christians In all which time of 1000 years Satans 1000. years binding how understood that is either the full and determinate number of 1000 years as some Expositors would have it or else a very long season and much about the time of 1000 years though not precisely such a term as others would have it the Malice of Satan was so locked up and chained and his Power so abridged that he could not destroy as many nor persecute the Saints so much as he desired and would have effected si potuisset quantum vellet had he been suffered to do what he would But when his 1000 years Imprisonment should be expired and he loosned out of his Chains and more Liberty granted to him then his inveterate spite and his revengeful Malice for his former Imprisonment would devise the Means and find out the waies to vex and persecute the Servants of God and the Witnesses of Jesus Christ more than ever he had done before in any of the former Persecutions And truly I think Francisc Junius Tilenus ad Bellarm. l. 3. c. 7. de Rom. Pontif. Balâ—us de Antich cap. 6. that although Satan was not fully loosned and set at liberty till now of late yet whosoever readeth Thuanus Tilenus and Chamier and the Book of the Martyrs of our English Church written by Mr. Fox and other Authors that have written the History of these two last Centuries and doth rightly consider the Sufferings and Massacres of those Christians that they within the Compass of those years have undergone in France Germany Spain Italy and other places round about and that only for their Religion and not for any worldly Dominion which was the Sufferings of the People in former ages Dr Abbots in his brief description of the world pag. 141. in the time of the first 4 Monarchies and is still the condition both of the Jews and Christians within the Territories of the Turk that tolerateth any Sect and permitteth all Religions and all Nations to live peaceably and quiet throughout his whole Dominion so they yield themselves subject to his Rule and pay to him their allotted Contribution and meddle not with the Mahometan Laws and Superstition he must ingeniously confess the Truth of this Assertion and the unquestionable Certainty of this Prophetical Prediction of Isidorus and the other Fathers aforenamed videlicet that the sorest Troubles and the greatest Persecution of all that Satan raised or shall stirre up against the Christians as they are Christians hath been is and will be that which he hath and still doth prosecute and will persevere to do it by the Ministers and Ministry of his prime General and his dearly beloved Son of Perdition the great Antichrist And if according to the Counsel of Moses and Job Deut. 4.32 c. 32. v. 7. Job 8.8 Sr Walter Rawleigh in his Preface to the History of the world and M. Fox in his book of Martyrs we ask the daies of old and enquire of our Fathers that were before us what they suffered and how they were handled heretofore either in France Italy Spain or Germany or else nearer home where the Truth may be sooner found and better known of us in Ingland and that under K. Hen. 8. and Q. Mary the two greatest Persecutors of Gods Servants for their Religion that our Chronicles do mention and compare their sufferings in the just and even Ballance of an impartial judgment with that Oppression Persecution Injustice and cruelty and that joyned with such subtilty and a pretence of Piety as cannot by my dull Pen be expressed which for the space of 14 or 15 years hath been acted and continued here in this Island of Great Brittain against Loyal Subjects none can deny and Faithful Christians as we hope God will bear witness and that only for their Loyalty unto their King and their Piety towards God in the constant retaining of the true Faith wherein they were baptized and Christened and a good Conscience wherein they lived we shall find the Cruelties of those two forenamed Princes to be favourable and great mercies and all the Favours and Mercies of our new and now pretended Saints towards the true Ministers of Christ and the Faithful Servants of God to be the greatest Cruelties that ever were recorded in any History and I think such Injustice and so great as was never heard of in any Nation For 1. When King Hen. the 8. became sacrilegious 1. The Persecution of the Clergy and wrongs done in K. Hen. the eighth's time I have no other term for his Doings to rob the Church and to take away the Lands and Possessions of the Abbies and the Priories he did the same with the leave and consent of many if