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
dominions 2. The Hierarchie or Episcopal government of Gods Church which is as requisite for the Church as the Monarchie is for the Common-wealth for the Church of Christ is said to be Gods vineyard and the vineyard must be well fenced or if the hedge be broken down all the wild beasts of the Forest will destroy the vine so must the Church be well fenced and guarded by wise discreet and careful Governours which are as the fence and hedges that by their spiritual Courts and censures do keep out all Sectaries and hereticks and all errrours and heresies and false doctrine from the Vineyard of God which is the Church of Christ And if these hedges and fences of Gods Church the Bishops and Governours thereof be broken down their Court supprest and themselves nullified and annihilated as that long Parliament did it is as impossible to keep out Sects Hereticks and false Prophets from the Church as it is to keep the civil state and common-wealth in peace and to have justice and equity duly preserved among all men without the civil Magistrates and their Courts of justice for as these protect the innocent and punish the Malesactors with the powerful sword of justice so must the Bishops and Governours of the Church which are best able to judge of divine questions defend the truth and as Christ whipped the buyers and sellers out of the Temple so must they by their censures whip all those Sectaries and Heteticks that will not other wise by fair means be driven out of Gods Church because as Saint Bernard saith qui nolunt duci debent trahi And it is not unknown to any that hath taken notice of the transac ions of these times how that long lasting and intended to be an endlesse everlasting Parliament hath killed our most heroical religious and renowned King the most constant Martyr and the first and chiefest of the two witnesses of Jesus Christ and also Doctor William Laud Arch-Bishop of Cantcrbury and suppressed all the Bishops that were the other witnesse of Christ But our good God hath promised that he would resuscitate and revive the slain and slaughtered Witnesses and restore them to the Church and their charge again Revel 11.11 12. And now you see how the wise and great God whose wayes are in the seas his paths in the great waters and his foot-steps are not known hath by unlikely unprobable and almost in mans judgement impossible wayes through the many many transmutations of things and alterations of governments brought his own purposes to this passe to make you the instruments to effect his will to perform his promise and to be that Cloud in which and by which the two slain Witnesses shall ascend to heaven chapt 11. verse 12. and hath given you power and authority and inabled you to do the same And now most honourable and most renowned Patriots you have most justly most religiously and most gloriously to your everlasting praise revived the first and chief Witnesse of Jesus Christ and restored the government of these nations to be Monarchicall that doth most resemble God himselfe which is the sole Monarch of all the world and is the government that the most nations of all the world hath ever used and especially this kingdome since the first peopling of it and you have put the Crown upon His head to whom your wisdomes knew It justly belonged which was the onely way to bring Peace and to make these kingdomes happy It resteth that the other Witnesse of Christ be revived and the Government of the Church be restored as it hath been ever fince the Apostles time to be Episcopal and so to raise the Bishops and other Ministers their dependants that as yet lye unburied in the streets of the great City to their pristine dignity to their offices their authority and their former estates for their inabling to discharge their duties in the government of God's Church they having suffered wrongs and indignities enough already And I hope your wisdomes will direct you to let the Ark of God be carried upon the Levite's shoulders as the Lord commandeth and suffer the worship and service of God to be used as it was in the reign of Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles and confirmed by all the Acts of Parliaments and royall edicts in their times and not to suffer the depravers of Gods honour and disturbers of the Peace of the Church out of any singularity or sinister end either to suppresse the same or any wayes to alter it or any part of it unlesse your wisdomes do appoint a full and lawful Synod congregated after the usuall manner of this Church to confider what is fit if any thing be found fitting to be added diminished or altered therein for this care of Gods service to uphold the same in its integrity and purity is the onely thing that will bring a blessing and continue the happinesse of this or any other nation and they are to do the same to whom God hath committed the government of his Church and the teaching of his people And because of the multiplicity of Sects and diversity of opinions that have sprung in this our Church since the killing of the witnesses and that the faith of Christ is to be perswaded by the word of God and not forced by the sword of man I humbly beseech you to grant such toleration as your wisdomes shall think fitting to such weak and tender consciences as cannot on the sudden comply with us in our service to God untill that by a friendly conference painfull preaching and writing of learned books we captivate their understanding and bring them so to the truth and true faith of Christ and service of God and not by rigid wayes and too severe censures and punishments to compell them either to be hypocrites in our Church or Apostates to run out of our Church For I would not have the people of God to be driven hurried and harrased like as we drive wild beasts but to be led gently and eafily like sheep Leni spiritu non dura manu by an inward sweet influence and not by any outward violence And here I humbly beseech your Honours to give me leave to tell you what I am not suffered to be silent videlicet that to take away the Lands and possessions of men that never rebelled nor offered any violence nor the least wrong to any of our Protestant people in Ireland but relieved them and hindred others as much as they could to abuse them and yet to dispossesse and to cast them out of their inheritances because they were Papists and profest themselves Roman Catholicks as the long Parliament and their subordinate instruments in Ireland have done to the utter ruine of many ancient families both of Brittish and English extract is not onely as I conceive most unjust but also contrary to all Christianity and farre enough from humanity it selfe When the Apostle bids us to honour all men that is because
and multiply by the means of Constantine And 2. The Reformation of this Church better then any other Church by the means of those holy Martyrs and godly Bishops that did the same he was fully resolved to be revenged upon this Church of Great Brittain Therefore as not long after Constantines times he stirred up the Picts the Scots the Danes and the Saxons to punish plague and tyrannize over the poor Brittains as it appeareth by the lamentable address that they made unto the Romans for their aid and help against their enemies for the first good service they had done to the honor of God How the devil revengeth the good service that this Iland did to Christ so immediately after that those godly Reformers of this Church had rooted out those evil weeds of Errors and Superstition that the Devil had planted therein he stirred up Penry Martin Marprelate Cartwright Broughton and divers others that in Q. Maryes dayes fled beyond seas to save their lives and there suckt that transmarine poyson that infected both their own and many other mens soules to make invectives against our Church far worse and more bitter than all the Actions that Cicero did against Verres or his Philippicks against M. Antonius to revenge the second good service that this Iland had done to Christ And these that were reasonable good Schollars but fiery mad and furious men did through their violent proceedings get so many Proselites and Disciples after them that as S. Bernard saith of the former Hereticks in a very short space numeri eorum multiplicati sunt super numerum they increased like the rats of Egypt that do super-faetare beget young ones before they be delivered of their old brood And this grand host of his Instruments the Devil perswaded and egged them forward to prosecure their enterprise and never to give over and desist untill they should effect these 3 things The three especial things that the devil perswaded his instruments to effect 1. Unking the Kingdome and make it like the Israelites after the time of the Judges that every man might do what seemed right in his own eyes 2. Unbishop the flock of Christ that the foxes wolves and other savage beasts the Hereticks and Scismaticks might destroy them at their pleasure and so 3. To unchurch this formerly pure and famous Church of great Brittain and to cause it totally to apostatize from the true faith of Gods elect to be divorced from Christ and to be no wayes answerable to the usual and right definition of a true visible Church to which the infidels and unbelievers being converted might be incorporated And then after that they had more than desperately opposed their King and risen up against the pious Defender of the true faith he perswaded them that if he would not consent to defile that faith to abolish the right form of Gods worship to corrupt the Christian Religion and to destroy the witnesses of Christ the governors and upholders of Gods truth in this so well reformed Church with fire and sword to war against him and never leave untill they should bring him to a bitter death and a glorious martyrdome and after that they had like Jannes and Jambres withstood their Governors and cashiered their Bishops and supprest the Articles and Liturgy of the Church he perswaded them to fill the same Church with damnable Heresies not privily as the Apostle saith the former Hereticks would do but most openly How Satan perswaded his instruments to fill the Church with all impiety and villany in the sight of the sun and at last as our Saviour saith out of Daniel to bring the abomination of desolation that is such abominable blasphemies heresies errors and absurd opinions among the people and such wicked deeds of perjury oppression pride lasciviousness and the like corruptions of Gods true service that do more highly provoke the wrath of God than all the sinnes of ignorance negligence or infirmity and cause him to bring utter ruine and desolation upon any Kingdome to stand in the holy place that is in the Churches Chappels and all other consecrated and holy places that were dedicated for the true service of God and for the people of God that did formerly truly and holily serve the Lord in those places And this the Devil did to this end videlicet That so the Kingdome being without a King the flock of Christ without Pastors and the Church of Christ without her Discipline and true Doctrine he might raise that cruel beast which S. John saw rising out of the sea from these narrow seas and bring up the great Antichrist out of this pure Church of great Brittain to root out the true service of God to be the plague of his servants and the death of his saints and to be fully revenged on this Iland for the twofold displeasure it had done to him before Now whether Satan hath by his Instruments done all this or not I leave it to the wise and judicial impartial Reader to determine it only I finde that Mr. Alexander Rose in his animadversions against Mr Hobbs his Leviathan p 18 Alexander Ross saith the Instruments of Satan brought such abominable blasphemies heresies errors and absurd opinions among the people more in these few years than were all the time hitherto since christianity was imbraced which is a shreud suspicion if not an infallible proof that the great Antichrist is come amongst us CHAP. III. That the Antichrist is no single Person but a Collected Multitude of men Who those men might be Of the Grand Apostasie whereof the Apostle speaketh that made way and opened the Door wide for the Antichrist to enter in That it is neither the Apostacy of the Prime Hereticks nor of the East Churches nor of the Roman Church but of some purely Reformed Particular Church supposed to be and demanded if it be not the Church of Great Brittain BUT here it is a great Question among the Learned Whether the Antichrist be one sing le Person or else a multitude of men either succeeding one another or collâ—cted together whether this Great Antichrist be one single and singular Person or a certain Polity Kingdom or Multitude of men Hyperius saith Est multitudo aliqua diversi sibi invicem succedentes qui unum quodammodo Antichristi vastum corpus efficiunt It is a multitude of men succeeding one another which after a sort do all make up the vast Body of the Antichrist and so saith Tilenus and all those that would have the Pope to be the Antichrist Brightman saith the Antichrist must be understood to be a wicked Kingdom Rule or Dominion which he affirmeth to be not the Kingdom of Ingland which in his time indeed could not be but the Papacy the Roman Hierarchy and the Rule and Dominion of the Pope Tilenus exeg de Antichristo p. 9. Achor is 66. in Italy France Spain or wheresoever his Jurisdiction reacheth and Mr. Mede Mr. Potter and
informed Daniel that the little Horn which at the first was but little indeed and then did succrescere grow so great by the suppression of the three Kings and the accession of three Kingdomes should think to change the times and the Lawes and so we finde that Antiochus did use all possible endeavours to abolish the times of the Jewish Sabbaths and feasts and their circumcision legem ipsam Dei juâ—áque omnia nefariè convellere and to overthrow the very law of God and tear in pieces all humane rights most wickedly saith Tremelius Tremel in loc and so the Antichrist would indeavour to do the like to put down all the festival times and the holy dayes of the Christians and to change all the Lawes and Customes that they had learned and observed even from the Apostles time And I am sure the Pope is not guilty of this sin of the Antichrist for he is so far from putting down their feasts and holy dayes See the History of Independency and there you shall finde how the Author of that Book sheweâ—â— how that long Parliament proceeded contrary to all Lawes part 3. A Book fit for the understanding of this point that he multiplied the same added unto their primitive feasts a great many more holidaies than were needfull or indeed fitting to be observed But I pray you tell me what horn did ever change so many Laws and Customs both of the Church and of the Kingdome as the long Parliament hath done for hath it not troden under foot not one nor two but all the ecclesiastical Laws and Canons of the Church and hath it not very often transgressed and in many things nullified our Magna Charta the great Charter and the fundamental Laws of this Kingdome that for so many hundred years were confirmed to our forefathers and Predecessors by I know not how many Parliaments I am sure above 30 at least And for the times I would fain know if any good Christian heart can look upon these times without bleeding or hold his eyes without weeping for the greatest love and favour that ever God shewed to mankinde was the giving of his own natural coessential and coeternal Son to be made of a woman and made under the Law to redeem us from the curse of the Law and from sin death hell and Satan when a greater good than this the omnipotent God himself could not do for us for what could God give better than God himself but as the Apostle saith because God could swear by no greater he sware by himself so when he could give no better he gave himself Heb. 6.13 and therefore S. Ambrose saith plus Domine Jesu debeo tuis incuriis quod sum redemptus quam tuis operibus quod sum creatus O sweet Jesus Christ I ow thee more love and thanks and service for thy care and pains and sufferings by which I am redeemed than for thy work whereby I was created because that in my creation dedit me mihi deus God gave me unto my self but in my Redemption dedit se mihi deus The greatest good that ever God did for mankinde God gave himself unto me and because in the creation of me and all things else dixit facta sunt he did but speak the word and they were made he commanded and they stood fast but in the accomplishment of our Redemption multa dixit magna fecit dira tulit he spake many gracious words he did many wonderfull works and he suffered many execrable and intolerable things Therefore as God commanded the Israelites Why the Jews were commanded by God to keep their Feasts in remembrance of their deliverance out of Epypt That was but the type of this our deliverance from the bondage of sin and Satan to keep the feast of Passeover and in remembrance of the reception of the Law on Mount Sinai which was an inferiour favour and lesse than our receiving of the Gospel to observe the feast of Pentecost and in remembrance of their wandering 40 years in the wilderness and their feeding there all that while with the Manna that came down from heaven which notwithstanding is no waies comparable to our feeding with the Word of God and the blessed Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ which is God himself to keep the feast of tabernacles and whosoever neglected to keep these feasts and to observe these times that soul should be cut off from Israel that is from among the people of God as an ungratefull person unworthy of the favour of God And as Mardocheus and Queen Hester commandeth all the Jews to keep the feast of Purim that was to be kept upon the 14 and 15 dayes of the Month Adar which is answerable to our February Hest 9.23 24. throughout all their generations for ever for dayes of rejoycing and Thanks-giving for their deliverance from the malicious plot and wicked designe of proud Haman the which feast was observed by Christ himself John 10.22 The Geneva notes on John 10. 22. and as in like manner Judas Machabaeus injoyned the feast of dedication to be observed upon the 25th day of the Moneth Casteu which is our November for a thankfull remembrance of the like benefit which was the casting out of Antiochus his Garrison from Hierusalem so that the Apostles and their immediate Successors the Bishops and Fathers of the Church and all the other succeeding Governors of Gods people considering that the Jews temporal favours aforenamed were but types of our favours and shadowes of those substances that we have and so no wayes neer so comparable to the benefits that we receive by the birth circumcision resurrection and ascention of Christ and the gifts that is the Apostles the Teachers and Governors of Gods Church furnished with the gifts of the Holy Ghost that Christ sent unto them on the day of Pentecost 50 dayes after his ascention into heaven by which favours and great blessings we obtain a deliverance not from a small temporal bondage as that of the Israelites was under Pharaoh far less then the bondage of many good Christians in these dayes under the Turk or from such an enemy as was Haman or Antiochus but from sin death hell Satan and eternal damnation have in their own persons observed and injoyned all other Christians to observe That is Christmas New years day Easter day Holy thursday Whitsunday and the rest the feast of Christs Nativity and of his circumcision resurrection and ascention and the other dayes prescribed by them as dayes of rejoycing and meeting together in the Church to praise God and to thank him for those great and inestimable favours and benefits that he hath conferred upon us and we received as upon those dayes and I may demand What Pope was ever so wicked and committed such and so horrible a sin as to prophane these holy times in so high a measure as Antiochus-like to command them to be prophaned
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
of Expositors to make good their own conceits Esdras 14.41 to run unto tropes and figures when we may literally without tropes expound the same more agreeable unto the truth and without violence unto the Text therefore I conceive that the two Testaments cannot with any probability be understood by these two witnesses that are said to be killed by the beast and especially because they cannot be said to be the two Olive Trees or the anointed ones nor the two Candlesticks that hold up the light when as they are the light that these Candlesticks do hold nor to be confined to such a time as 1200 and 60 dayes when these two Testaments maugre all the malice of the Antichrist shall continue to the last day And therefore I do rather expound these two witnesses to be the preservers and the interpreters or preachers of these two Testaments that being living creatures Who are these two Witnesies that is 1. The King 2. The Bishop may be killed by this Beast and these are rightly termed the two Olive Trees or the two Sonnes of Oyl that is the anointed of God and the two Candlesticks that stand before the God of the Earth that is to hold up the light of the two Testaments to inlighten the Church of God with the truth of his holy word in despight of the Devill which is termed the God of the Earth And these preservers and Interpreters of these two Testaments are as E. H. truly observeth 1 Pet. 2.13 the civill Magistrates and the Ecclesiasticall Governours of Gods Church that is Moses and Aaron or the King as the supreme Magistrate and the Bishop as the chief Pastor that hath the oversight of the rest of the subordinate Ministers as St. Paul sheweth 1 Tim. 3. c. 4.1 for the King is custos utriusque tabulae the defender of the faith and obliged to take care as well of the Church and service of God as of the Commonwealth All good Kings took speciall care to have God truly served so Moses testifieth and so David Solomon Jehosophat Ezechias Josias and all the godly and good Kings of Israel and Judah had and so Constantine Theodosius and our own pious Princes Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles and all other good Christian Kings shewed that they took speciall care to see the truth purely preached and the service of God duly and rightly executed and therefore may most truly and literally without any trope or figure be said to be one of these two witnesses of Jesus Christ and the Bishop is to take upon him curam animarum the speciall care and charge of souls and the charge of them that are under him Act. 20.18 and undertook the charge of souls to see that they do carefully feed the flock of Christ whereof the Holy ghost hath made them overseers and therefore also the Bishops and the Ministers of Gods word may be rightly said and none can deny it to be the other witnesses of Jesus Christ and so Christ saith unto his Apostles and in them to all the Bishops that were to succeed the Apostles that they were his Witnesses Act. 1.8 and they should testifie and bear witness of him in Hierusalem and unto the uttermost parts of the Earth which they themselves could not do but in and by those Bishops that succeeded them in all the ordinary duties of the Apostles and therefore no forehead were it of Brasse can deny these to be the witnesses of Christ without blushing when Christ himself doth affirm it And so you see plainly Zechary 4.14 that these two which are indeed the Sonnes of the Olive Tree the two onely Offices and Callings that are the annointed of God and the two Candlesticks that hold up the light of the two Testaments the King by the strength of his Sword and the Bishops by the faithfull preaching of Gods word are the two witnesses of Jesus Christ and therefore well may the King and the inferiour Magistrates under him and the Bishop with his subordinate Clergy like Moses and Aaron the supreme Magistrate and the High Priest be rightly termed the two Witnesses of Jesus Christ in every Kingdom and Commonwealth Then after that the Angell had intimated unto the Apostle c. 11. v. 4. who are to be understood by these two Witnesses by terming them the two Olive Trees that is the two annoynted Officers of Gods Church and the two Candlesticks that do beare and uphold the true light of the Gospel unto the people he proceeds to shew the Power and Abilities c. 11. v. 5. 6. the gifts and Endowments that God would bestow upon them both for to inable them to build up the Temple that was measured that is to edifie and to enlarge the Christian Church and also to protect themselves against their Enemies and to punish those that should be refractory and to shew for how long a time they should freely and fairely enjoy this power and liberty to build this Church for saith the Angel these two Witnesses shall have power to poewr out fire out of their mouth Numbers 16. 2 Reg. 1. Jerem. 5.14 Their power was the same as Christ gave to his Apostles and God to Moses to destroy their Enemies that go about to hurt them and they shall have power to shut the Heavens that it raine not in the dayes of their Prophesie and they shall have power over waters to turn them to blood and to smite the earth with all Plagues as often as they will And these powers and Abilities are the very same that Christ had formerly given unto his Apostles and their successors the Bishops and Governors of his Church and the very same powers and abilities that God long before had given and granted unto Moses and to all his successors that supply his place and office the Kings and cheif Magistrates that are as he was to rule over and to govern Gods people for our Saviour tells St. Peter that he will give to him the Keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven that is of the Church which is the way that brings us to the Kingdome of Heaven and whatsoever he shall bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever he shall leose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven and this power he gave not only to St. Peter but also to all the rest of the Apostles and their Successors for ever as you may see in Math. 18. v. 18. and John the 20. v. 23. Math. 16.19 so Mr. Mede part 2. pag 11. And so according to this power granted unto the Apostles and Bishops that are the Governours of the Church and have the Keyes thereof the sentence of Excommunication or the shutting out of the Church and the delivery of the lewd and wicked refractory person unto Satan as the Apostle speaketh 1 Cor. 5.5 The sentence of excommunication is the fire and the key is the fire that proceedeth out of the mouth of
this Ecclesia sticall Witnesse and the Key that shutteth the Gate and the Windows of Heaven that the rain of grace and the comforts and consolations of Gods word cannot fall on such a person so long as he continueth in that excommunicate condition And as God hath given unto Moses power by his Rod to turn the Rivers and all the waters of Egypt into blood and to bring all the other Plagues that were brought upon Pharaoh and upon all the Land of Egypt The extent of the power of the witnesses for their obstinate refusall to let Israel go to serve the Lord So he hath given unto his Kings a power and a Sword that is signified by Moses his Rod to punish and to draw blood even the hearts blood of such wicked offendors as will be like Pharaoh rebellious and obstinate against the Commandements of God And herein you may observe the extent of their power which he granted unto them that is to smite the Earth but not the Heaven with all Plagues and that is to punish the earthly and worldly minded men that are wicked and do follow after the vanities impieties and iniquities of this sinful life but not the godly men whose conversation is in Heaven and which are obedient to the Lawes of God and man with fines mulcts imprisonments banishments and death it self for if they smite the Heaven that is the righteous and the innocent with any of these Plagues that power is not given them from God but from the Dragon that is the Devill gives it them Revel 13 2. as the Apostle sheweth And so you see the powers and the abilities that God hath given to these his two witnesses the King and the Bishop the Civill and the Ecclesiasticall Governours of his People the one exercising his power in the Church with the word of his mouth and the other in the Commonwealth with the Sword in his hand And for the time The time that the two Witnesses shall continue to prophesie c. 11. v. 3. Fran. Jun. in loc Ezek. 4.6 Dan. 9.24 Numb 14. v. 34. Mat. 3.2 Luc. 3.3 that these two Witnesses shall quietly and peaceably execute their Offices and Prophesie that is discharge their Duties to govern the Commonwealth and to build up the Church of Christ the Angell saith it shall be 1200 and 60 dayes cloathed in Sackcloath and that is as Junius here and divers others do rightly take a day for a year 1200 and 60 yeares as they do collect out of Ezekiel and Daniel and other places of Scripture where under the number of so many dayes as are expressed so many years are to be understood And so we find that with the favour and under the protection of Christian Emperors and Godly Kings the Orthodox Bishops and true Pastors and Preachers of the Gospel of Christ did freely without fear publish the Doctrine of faith and repentance which was the Doctrine of John Baptist and the Doctrine that Christ continued to preach and commanded his Apostles in like manner to preach the same unto the people and which I take to be signified by their Cloathing in Sackcloth in their so conforming themselves unto their Doctrine as John Baptist did Mat. 3.4 cloathing himself in a Garment of Camells hair and a girdle of Leather about his loines and not mourning for the pollution of the true Church which during the time of their Prophesie was not polluted as Mr. Mede and others do suppose but Mr. Mede part 2. p. 7 8. as I conceive much amiss that we should think the true Church was or that God would suffer his true Church to be so long polluted for the full space of 1200 and 60. years before the persecution of the Antichrist should begin or that his persecution should last so long And that is if you begin to account not as Junius would have it Junius in annotat in loc immediately after the passion of Christ because this power of free publishing the Doctrine of repentance was not yet given them while they were prohibited and persecuted from place to place for preaching the Gospel of Christ but it was given them after the end and determination of the ten former persecutions of the Church by the Heathen Tyrants and after the other storms and afflictions that were raised against them by the meanes and procurement of the Arian Hereticks and were as violently prosecuted by Constantius and other Arian Kings of the Gothes and Vandalls as the persecution of the Heathen Emperours as the life of Athanasius and the story of the Church doth sufficiently testifie when the Church was setled and established in peace and quietness and the governing Bishops freely permitted and royally protected by the Christian Kings and Emperours to preach the faith of Christ and to exhort their people to repentance from dead works yea and to injoyn the transgressors to repent in Sackcloth and to abhorre themselves and their former courses in dust and ashes And this was not The time when the two witnesses received their full power to prophesie about the year 382. till after the death of Valens which was about the year of Christ 382. When Theodosius had vanquished the Huns and the Gothes and the rest of those boysterous Northern enemies of the Empire that exceedingly troubled and brought infinite crosses and molestations not much inferiour if not some wayes worse then the Heathen persecutions upon the Church as you may easily find in those excellent Books of St. August de civitate Dei and others the Ecclesiasticall Writers of those times And from this suppression of those fierce and cruel enemies both of the Orthodox Church and the Roman Empire which was as I said about the year 382. to the beginning of the long Parliament we shall find about the summe of 1200. and 60 years When the time of their prophesying in Sackcloth was ended throughout all which time the true Orthodox Bishops the one of the two witnesses of Gods truth in all the Christian Kingdoms as Spain France Germany Ingland Scotland Ireland and the rest had full power and free liberty to preach the Doctrine of faith and to injoyn penance unto their people and they were not onely protected from the wrongs violence and malice of all their opposers About the year 1642. but they were also assisted to reduce all transgressors to repentance as above all other times in these Kingdoms that are best known unto us the happy Reign of Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles can sufficiently justifie this truth unto you and the Christian Kings and Princes that were the other witness of Gods truth and the nursing Fathers of the Church were through the faithfull preaching of Gods word and the strict and godly Discipline of the Church most loyally obeyed and religiously observed as they ought to be in all the Christian Kingdoms and so both the witnesses by their mutuall helping and assisting one another were throughly strengthned
conceive more agreeable to the meaning of the Holy Ghost then her Son and the Dragons eating of it would be a speedy devouring of her Child whether it were Male or Female so the Dragon was watching this woman and is still watching to devoure every Child of the Church Male or Female And in the fifth verse the Angel saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 V. 5. The diversity of opinions who this Child should be and the woman brought forth a man Child who was to rule the Nations with a rod of Iron and the Child was caught up to God and to his Throne where we are past the plaine and are come into the Wilderness wherein the way is not so easie to be found out when we do find so many pathes and such a great diversity of opinions among the learned who is meant by this Man child and what is to be conceived of his birth and of his taking up to the Throne of God Rupertus de victoria verbi dei l. 9. c. 28. l. 12. c. 2. Math. 2.16 c 4.1 for some Interpreters by the Birth of this Man child do understand the Birth of Jesus Christ in the Jewish Synagogue of the Blessed Virgin whom the red Dragon the Devill by Herod his grand instrument sought immediately to destroy as soone as ever he was borne as St. Mathew sheweth and also tempted him as soon as ever he was Baptized as the same Evangelist declareth But against this E. H. doth rightly oppose E. H. de Apostasia pag. 44. that the Revelation is not of known things that are past but as the Angel saith of things that must shortly come to pass and the incarnation or Birth of Christ of the Virgin Mary was not to come the same being already past well nigh an 100. years before and therefore though we deny not but the Dragon sought to destroy Christ as Rupertus saith as soon as ever he was brought forth out of his Mothers Womb yet we say that cannot be the meaning of this place which is to be understood of another Child that is to be borne of another Woman E. H. Lococitato By this Child understandeth the great Constantine and therefore E. H. and some other Authors do understand this woman to be the Primitive Church of the Christians groaning to be delivered from under the bloody Tyranny of the Red Dragon that is from the cruel dealing and sad condition that she sustained under the Pagan and persecuting Emperours and the Lord delivering her from those Tyrants by raising up Constantine who as they say is the Man-child that the Church then brought forth a good Christian to rule the Nations with a Rod of Iron that is to subdue Licinius and Maxentius and the Nations that adheared to them with his Victorious Sword and he was caught up to God when he was converted from an Infidell to become a Christian and he was placed in Gods Throne when he attained to the Imperiall Majesty The which exposition The former exposition rejected though it seem very probable and plausible yet cannot I yield unto it to be the meaning of the Holy Ghost in this place because this woman doth not crie to be delivered from her enemies that were without her but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having in her belly that is a Child within her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she cryed by reason of her child birth pain which the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that cometh from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to bring forth a Child from whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth properly signifie dolor parturientis the very pangs and pain of bringing forth the Child into the world and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that comes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 torqueo to be grieved or vexed and wrested with pain doth make it manifest that she cryed not to be delivered from her enemies but to be delivered of her child that she had in her womb and would faign have him to be brought forth into the world That Constantine is not the Man-child here meant Neither can I see any reason to perswade me to yield that this man-child should signifie Constantine the great Reason 1 1. Because this woman which signifieth the Church was not as then before Constantines time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 circumcinctasole cloathed or girded and compassed about with the great light of the Sun that is fully inlightened and instructed with the Doctrine of Christ and the many points of particular truths of Christian Religion nor can we finde her to be thus inlightned untill the time of Theodosius alter the death of Valens and Gratian which was about the year of Christ 382 when those great lights The woman not cloathed with the Sun till 382. that God then raised in his Church to expell the foggy mysts of errors and clouds of heresies that were formerly raised by the Hereticks and still pestered the Church St. Hierome St. Ambrose St. Augustin St. Basil Bishop of Caesaria that for his great learning and wisdom was rightly termed Basilius Magnus great St. Basill Gregory Nazianzen that for his excellent skill and knowledge in Divinity was styled Theologus the Divine as the writer of these Revelations is called John the Divine Epiphanius Cyrillus Bishop of Hierusalem When the Bishops were like Stars and when like the Sun and many more most worthy men of great learning and piety made the truth of the Gospel of Christ that was left unto us by the Evangelists and Apostles to shine in the Church as the Sun in the Firmament that formerly while those hereticks that Irenaeus Tertullian Epiphanius and St. Augustine record troubled the Church and darkned the truth of the Gospel the said truth shined but as the light of the Starres and therefore during those times of the grand Hereticks the very Angels of the seven chiefest Churches of Asia that is the Bishops and prime Pastors of those Churches Revelat. 1.20 were called seven Starres for the seven Starrs are the Angels of the seven Churches saith the Holy Ghost and the twelve Apostles are compared unto twelve Starres as I shewed to you before and the Church could not be inlightned with the light of the Sun when her chief teachers were but Starres and shined to her but as Starres though the light which these Starres sent forth was the light which they received from the Sun that is the Sun of righteousness as the Prophet calleth him but in the year 382. and about that time Reignolds Devitis Imperat. fol. 115. was the flourishing time of the learned when the Doctrine of Christ did shine as the Sun saith Reignolds Reason 2 2. Because that although the Church like the woman that is with Child is pained before the time of birth yet is she most of all tormented when the child is nearest to be born so the Church had her pangs in those that she brought forth in the
to be a Type and figure of the New Testament The things of the old Test types of the things that should be done in the New Testament 1 Cor. 13.12 and the Gospel not onely in the Legal Sacrifices that were but the shadows of the True Sacrifice Jesus Christ but also in most of the ritual things and Ceremonies that are mentioned to be used about the Service of God in the Old Testament whose soul or substance should be far more transcendently imployed in the service of God under the New Testament for as the New Testament and the service of God under it is the very expresse image of the Celestial and Heavenly things and a figure of those things that we shall see in Heaven as St. Paul teacheth so those things that chanced and were commanded to be observed in the Synagogne of the Jews were types and figures of these things that should be done in the Church of Christ Gal. 3.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz. inorat de S. pas cha and they are termed pedagogia ad Christum introductions leading us unto Christ and Greg. Nazianzene calleth the Old Testament vallum quoddam inter Deum idola medium a certain trench or wall set indifferently betwixt God and idolls so as we might passe by that from the idell unto God and from the Law as from the Sampler unto the veritie from the figure to the thing and from the shadow to the substance And therefore the Apostle in many places citeth the old Law for the verie figure of the New Deut. 25.4 as where it is written in the Law Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn he saith this was written for us 1 Cor. 9. 9. that live under the Gospel to teach us that God would have the Lay men to relieve their spiritual Pastors and where he saith that Hagar and Mount Sinay did represent the old Law Gal. 4.24 and Ismael the Jewesh Synagogue and on the other side Sarah and Hierusalem fignified the Gospel and Isaac represented the Church of Christ and again where he saith that the fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized by Moses in the cloud 1 Cor. 10.1.3.4 and all did eat the same spiritual meat and then he addeth haec omnia in figura contigerunt illis that all these things happened to them in a figure to fignifie the baptism that we receive and the spiritual food that we take in the blessed Eucharist under the New Testament 1 Pet. 3.20 21. The Cerem sanctisying of the old Test Priests was a type of the sanctitie required in the ordaining of the priests of the New Test and St. Peter likewise sheweth how Noahs Ark was a Type and a figure of our baptism And so I say that the Ceremonial sanctifying of the Priests of the old Law was but atype and a figure of that true and real sanctitie and holiness and spiritual indowments that are requifite to be in the Priests of the New Testament Or if our novices and Lay-intruders into this sacred Function be not so learned as to understand types and figures nor so quick-fighted as to perceive things spoken in enigmate then let them look into the New Testament and they shall find there how our Saviour Christ Luke 6.12 before the choosing of his Apostles continued all night in prayer and when it was day he called his Disciples and out of them he chose 12. Apostles and was not this done for our instruction to teach us what we should do before we send forth Preachers and Priests to feed the flock of Christ and after his Resurrection Luke 24.50 before he sent his Apostles to preach he lifted up his hands and blessed them and St. John saith he breathed on them and said receive ye the holy Ghost John 20.22 and when the holy Ghost said Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them the other Prophets and Teachers which were Simon and Lucius and Manaen fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them Acts 13.3 and then sent them away to discharge their Function And so as I told you all the Primitive Bishops and Fathers of the Church in imitation of Christ and his Apostles have observed the same course Acts 14.23 of fasting and prayers and imposition of hands before they send any man to be the Preaecher and Minister of any Parish so careful were they heretofore in this point to see that no unlearned or unworthy person should be admitted to be the servant and Embassadour of Christ to declare his message to administer at his Table to dispence his graces and to be the shepherd to feed his flock which are Offices of so high an esteem for if man will not receive every kind of person especially such as he knoweth to be vain vitious or idle that offereth himself to be his servant shall we think that God will accept of every one Ignatius in epist ad Smyrnenses that will presumptuovsly thrust himself to be the Embassadour of Jesus Christ no questionlesse and therefore Ignatius that was Bishop of Antioch in the Apostles time next after Evodius writing to the Smyrnenses or Church of Symrna saith Let no man do any thing appertaining to the Church Yea let not the Administration of the Eucharist that is the Lords Supper be lawful but by the Bishop or by him that is admitted and hath his authority from the Bishop God foretells us of these intruders that we might shun them Jerem. 23.21 And yet he that before all time foresaw these times God himself and Christ himself tells us that many false prophets would intrude themselves into his service and many false Apostles would very presumptuously thrust themselves into the Ministerie for the Lord saith I have not sent these Prophets yet they run that is more greedily then the true Prophets that do know the weight of this heavy churge and again he saith I have not spoken to them yet they prophesied therefore their preaching must needs be vain and erroneous Jerem. 14.14 and so the Lord testifieth saying they prophesie lies in my name for I sent them not neither have I commanded them neither spake I unto them but they prophesie unto you a false vision and divination and a thing of naught and the deceits or devices of their own bearts And our Saviour saith Matth. 24.24 ver 5. ver 11. there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and shall shew great signes and shall deceive many and if it were possible the very Elect for they will come as he saith in his name that is professe themselves to besent from him and to be his most faithful servants and the very Saints of God and thereby they shall deceive the people which otherwise if they came in Mahomets name or in the Popes name they could not prevail
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
ipsetemplum Dei S. Aug. de civ Dei l. 20. c. 19. quod est Ecclesia sicut dicimus sedet in amicum id est velut amicus vel si quid aliud isto locutionis genere dici solet which think it may be spoken in Latine as it is in the Greek he sitteth not in the temple of God but for the temple of God as if he were the temple of God which is the Church of God as we say he sitteth for our friend that is as our friend Whereby you may see St. Aug. understandeth that the Great Antichrist would pretend to be the only great friend of the true Church and so in the true Church and not out of it and consequently not to be the Turk in any wise that pretendeth not to serve Christ nor the Pope if we deny the Church of Rome to be the true Church of Christ and therefore we may conclude with Bellarmine Bp Downam de Antichrist lib 10. cap. 3. 4. that the Pope cannot be said to be the Great Antichrist nor Rome the proper Seat of the Antichrist as Downam Thomson and others would have it to be because as I said before the Antichrist must arise in the midst of the truest and purest Church of Christ which we utterly deny Rome to be For the Apostle saith 2 Theff 2. the man of Sin and the child of Perdition which all Interpreters do expound to be the Antichrist shall sit in the temple of God which as the greatest of the School-Doctors Aquinas saith Aquin. in loc and so Tilenus Exegesis 74. pag. 21. must not be understood of the Jewish Temple at Hierusalem that hath been destroyed and shall never be re-edified as some of the best Jewish Rabbines do believe but as S. Chrysostom and the Greek Scholiast pag. 333. and Gorhan and many others do understand it of the true Church of God The Antichrist riseth and reigneth where God dwelleth where the Gospel of Christ by his Faithful Bishops and Painful Ministers is truly preached the Sacraments duly administred and the Flock of Christ rightly Governed and instructed to serve God as they ought to do there the Antichrist will seat himself and there Satan will assist him to overthrow the Bishops to persecure the true Ministers to neglect and nullifie the holy Sacraments to corrupt the Truth of the Gospel and to ruine that Church which Christ thus buildeth For it is observed that the Apostle useth in this place the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Observ which is derived from the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifies to dwell or to inhabit God dwelleth in the best Saints and where they dwell because that is the House or place where God resideth that is among his Saints and in his Saints as God himself doth testifie unto his People that will truly serve him And therefore Constantinople where the Turk resideth and hath made the Chancel of San Sophia where the High Altar and the Patriarchal Throne stood to be a Turkish Moschy whither the Grand Signior goeth to the Blasphemous Ceremonies of their False Prophet and the City of Rome where the Pope sitteth and hath apostatized from the true Faith in many Points and corrupted the Gospel of Christ at leastwise with many Superstitions cannot be said to be that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where God resideth and the Antichrist sitteth as god to destroy it but it must be that Church wherein God in the most Special manner dwelleth and delighteth in it and that is in the Purest Church that can be found on earth in respect of all the outward things that do constitute the same for you must know that the Church is to be considered two manner of waies 1. Respectu divinae illius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so God only knoweth his Church The Church considered two waies and who are the Members thereof as the Apostle sheweth 2. In respect of that Discipline Rule and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is apparent to our eyes and consisteth chiefly in these four special things Four things do constitute a true outward visible Church 1. In the Prayers of the Saints 2. The Preaching of the Gospel 3. The Administration of the Sacraments And 4. Obedience to the Discipline of the Lawful Governours And that Church which in these respects is the truest and purest is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Temple and House of God where he dwelleth and which the Devil by his dear Servant the Antichrist laboureth by all means to overthrow Object But you will say Constantinople was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the true Church and dwelling place of God and so was Rome when her Faith was published throughout the whole world Rom. 1. and so both continued until the Antichrist suppressed the Truth and seated himself therein To this usual Objection I answer Solut. 1. That it is agreed of all sides and by all Interpreters old and new Papists and Protestants that the Great Antichrist should come towards the end of the world 1. That the Antichrist should come towards the end of the world 1 Tim. 4.1 and in the last Period of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 last times as the Scriptures testifie the same most evidently for though the Mystery of him and his iniquity began by those Hereticks that sprang up in the Apostles time yet was not he to be revealed in his strength and fulness until the last and latter end of times and therefore not any waies like to come and to appear so many Hundred years agone as they prescribe which make either the Turk or the Pope to be the Antichrist 2. 2. That God suffereth not the enemies of his Church to tyrannize long I say that God being so good and so gracious a God especially to his Church and true Servants will not alwaies be chiding neither will he shut up his loving kindness in displeasure but as the Poet saith Nocte pluit tota redeunt spectacula mane Which in the Prophets words I may express that although heaviness may endure for a night yet joy cometh in the morning and he may be sure of it because God himself tells his Church that for a moment in mine anger have I forsaken thee but with everlasting compassion will I have pity upon thee and so accordingly he suffered not Antiochus that was the most lively type of the Antichrist that is in all the Scripture to rage against the Church of the Jews for all their wickedness any longer than Three years and a half neither did he suffer the Captivity of his People in Babylon for their great sins recorded 2 Chron. 36.14 15 16. to last any longer than 70 years nor the Children of Israel to be opprest by Pharaoh for the wrong they had done to their Brother Joseph any more after the Death of Joseph than about 200 years as Helvicus collecteth which is the longest time that I find God seems to sleep and
to forget the Afflictions of his Church And therefore I cannot sufficiently wonder that Mr. Mede Maresius Tilenus the Gappe Synod and others of the Divines aforenamed should imagine that God would be so regardless so unmindful and so severe though in Justice we confess he might be much more severe unto the Christian Church Note this well as to suffer the Great Antichrist the greatest and the cruellest enemy unto his Church that ever the world bred to reign and rage against his Saints and Servants for so many hundred of years as the Pope and Turk have now ruled since they conceive them to be the Antichrist and the Great Antichrist that should be so signally revealed 3. 3. That the Antichrist was to arise not out of a true planted Church but out of a truly reformed Church I say that it is manifest the Antichrist should arise not out of a true converted Church from Paganisme and the serving of their Idols to Christianity as both Constantinople and all the rest of the Eastern Churches were when Mahomet corrupted them and also Rome and the Western Churches when the Pope replenished them with his Superstitions but the Antichrist was to spring and to appear out of the true and purely Reformed Church after it should be purged and cleansed from all Heresies Errours and Superstitions For it was prophesied and fore-shewed by the Apostle St. That it was foretold us seducers false prophets should come into the Church Acts 20.29 30. 1 Pet. 2.1 Paul that after his departure Seducers Corrupters of Gods Word and false Prophets should creep into the Church and introduce many damnable Doctrines amongst Gods people to poyson the Souls of the Flock of Christ And St. Peter likewise foretels us that there should come False Teachers into the Church who should privily bring in damnable Heresies And so we find that not only Ebion and Cerinthus two Heretical Jews and after them Arius Pelagius Manichaeus Nestorius Entyches and the like brought in most wicked Errours and Heresies that did most palpably and grossely infest and trouble the Church of God and therefore were the sooner perceived and the easier prevented and confuted by the Grave and Godly Fathers but also the Church of Rome the Popes and their Parasites have privily that is insensibly and unperceived by the very Doctors of the Church brought in many strange Doctrines and thereby corrupted in many things the true Faith of Christ and defiled the Church of God with many most Pernicious Errours as specially in forbidding the Priests to marry commanding us to abstain from Meats besides many other Superstitions and Points of less moment and most of all in that strange Metaphysical and incredible Doctrine of Transubstantiation and the consequents of that Doctrine in the Idolatrous adoration of the consecrated Host and other very frivolous Superstitions which have brought much Misery and have been most Pernicious unto the Church of Christ That a reformation of the abuses in Gods service was foreshewed And after that the Field of Gods Church should be thus overgrown with Tares and with Thornes and Thistles the same Apostle sheweth that God would look upon his Church and there should come a Reformation and he would raise Reformers to root out those erroneous weeds and Bastard Plants and to prescribe a form of Godliness or a set form of Gods Worship whereby the Church of Christ and Servants of God should be guided and directed how to serve God aright in the true Faith of Jesus Christ And these Reformers of the foresaid Errours and Prescribers of that set form of Gods Service and Teachers of the People to worship God according to that form of wholesom Doctrine are stiled by St. Paul as they were indeed good men and the good Ministers of Jesus Christ 1 Tim. 4.6 1 Tim. 4.6 Hypocritical proud Saints the worst of all sinners And because the Devil can never rest quiet but when we strive to be best then will he labour and strive to make us worst of all and to become proud Saints that are more odious in the sight of God than the greatest sinners when they be humbled for their sins as our Saviour testifieth the same quick-sighted Argos being illuminated by the Divine light of Gods Holy Spirit saith there should spring up a company of Hypocritical Professors that would be proud and boasting of their knowledge though it were never so erroneous and proud of their Godliness though they were never so great worldlings and Hypocritical Dissemblers And these E. H. rightly termeth the black guard of the Antichrist and he counteth eighteen Troops or as I think he might have rather said eighteen Legions of them 1. Self-Lovers which is the Root of all Mischief That abundance of hypocritical professors no lesse then 18 troops or legions should under the pretence of Religion corrupt Gods service and destroy his servants 2 Tim. 3.2 3 4 E. H. de Antichristo p. 145. 2. Covetous men that long for the Lands and Livings both of King and Priest 3. Boasters of what great things they would do 4. Proud men of their strength of their Knowledge and of their Goodness and Holiness 5. Blasphemers of God of the King and of the Saints of God 6. Disobedient to Parents especially to their Spiritual Parents the Bishops and the Church 7. Unthankful men to those that have best deserved and done them most good 8. Unholy men without any spark of true Holiness or Religion in them 9. Without natural Affection to their Kins-folk and those of their own flesh and blood 10. Truce Breakers without any regard of their Oaths Promises or Articles of Agreement 11. False Accusers and Make-bates by charging men with those things that they never knew 12. Incontinent and given over to all uncleanness and all fleshly lusts 13. Fierce and cruel men thirsting after the Lives and blood of those whom they hate and nothing satisfying them but their death 14. Despisers and so haters of those that are good 15. Traytors that is Betrayers of their King of their Governours and of their Friends 16. Heady that is obstinate and wilful men that will have nothing done nor said but what they themselves think good 17. High-minded men and such as from a low estate and mean extract aimed at great matters and aspired to high places to be Knights Lords and Princes 18. Lovers of Pleasures more than Lovers of God whatsoever Pretence they made of their love to God yet indeed their own Pleasure was and is their god and their main end is for their own good And all these eighteen Troops which the Apostle cloatheth in the same Livery that is a pretended form or shew of Godliness and a Directory to seem more zealous in Religion and to bear a greater love and care of Gods Honour than all others but should notwithstanding all their Pretences their Zeal and their Saintship deny the Power and vertue of the right and true Form of
Godliness 2 Tim. 3.5 and thereby 2 Tim. 3.5 saith the Apostle they shall turn the Grace of God into wantonness that is turne the true Service of God into vain jangling and a foolish senceless prating and so probably prove themselves to be just like Jannes and Jambres that resisted Moses who was their chief Governour and King in Jeshuron and like Corah Dathan and Abiram that as the Prophet saith angred Moses in their Tents and Aaron the Saint of the Lord Psal 106.16 and so despised rebelled and would have destroyed both the Civil Magistrate and the Ecclesiastical Governours of Gods Church which Offices themselves desired and aimed at and would have obtained if God by his fearful Judgment had not prevented them And according to these Prophesies and Predictions That all the aforesaid things came to pass according as they were foreshewed and the like 1. Of Deceivers and Corrupters of Gods Truth 2. Of a Faithful Reformation of all in-crept Errours and Abuses And 3. Of a Faithless Apostasie and Rebellion against the Reformers of the same and the Defenders of Gods Service by a company of Hypocritical Zealots we find by the successes saith one and I think very right that all these things happened just as they were fore-shewed by the Apostle as in other places so likewise in this our Church of Ingland For after that the Pope and the Church of Rome had fallen away from some Points of the true Faith Arise Evans in his voice from Heaven p. 18 19. and had privily as I shewed before brought in divers Errours Abuses and Superstitions which defiled the Purity and blemished the Beauty of our Church as of many other particular Churches besides Martyn Luther steps up and falls out with the Pope for and about the Sale of his Indulgences by his Factor Tercelius whom the Pope then employed for that business and then he bitterly inveigheth against his Holiness for this and the other Corruptions of the German Church that were no less as they said than centum gravamina a hundred grievances Fasciculus rerum extendarum King Hen. the 8. writes against Luther which were presented to Pope Adrian the 6th with an earnest desire of a speedy redress as you may find it in fasciculo rerum expetendarum Hereupon King Henry the 8. it may be in Requital of the Popes favour that granted him a dispensation to marry his Brothers Wife writes a Book against Luther and therein blames him very much for apostatizing and starting aside from his Mother the Church of Rome and contrary to his Faith and Oath and all good manners so eagerly to oppose and so bitterly to rail against his holy Father the Pope and so to the uttermost of his Learning that was both an understanding wise and Learned King he defends the Faith together with the Corruptions of the Roman Church or rather maintaines the Errours and Superstitions of that Church together with so much of the true Faith as the Pope and the Church of Rome did then profess King Hen. 8. his double recompence for his book against Luther 1. Recompence and for this Royal Engagement of the King against Luther the King receives a double Recompense 1. The one from Luther his great Antagonist 2. The other from the Pope his dear Client For 1. Luther in the heat of his Fury and the heighth of his German spirit railes as much against the King and calls him as I read it in his own Book and not out of any other Transcriber asinissimus Rex an unseemly term as I conceive for a poor Monk to give to so great a King and as I said none of the meanest Clerks as he had formerly done against the Pope which bitter Invectives against a Father in the Church and the Patriarch of all the Western Churches Tilenus exeges pag. 29. Aphor. 104. p. 20. as the Primitive Counsels term him qui in ordine primus fuit inter Patriarchas primum ordine in Apostolorum collegio eum esse non inviti concedimus saith Tilenus and such uncivil behaviour towards Kings Luther blamed for his too much bitternesse and unseemly terms Matth. 11.29 that are the Lords Anointed be they what they will when I read not upon the credit of others but in his own Tractates as I thought very well of many things that he wrote so I should have thought much better of all the rest but that I conceived so much bitterness mingled with such a measure of Gall and Vinegar as dropped from his Pen not against the sins but against the Persons of men could not be distilled from the spirit of God which is a Spirit of Meekness and Lowliness as our Saviour testifieth But 2. 2. Recompence The Pope for this Scholastick Defence of the Faith of the Roman Church by the King which the Pope himself should have done by his Pen and desired the King to have assisted him by his Sword gives to him and to his Successors the Kings of Ingland the just good and honourable Title of Defender of the Faith that is the True and Christian Faith or the Faith of Gods Elect which was pretended to be then in Rome and is now defended by the King And though King Henry obtained this Eulogy this Title and this Authority upon a wrong ground because he defended a wrong Faith yet as Jacob got the blessing upon an untrue suggestion that he was his father Isaac's eldest son even his first-born Esau but being once gotten he still retained it So did the King Genes 27.19 when he fell out with the Pope and fell from the Pope about his divorce from Queen Katherine which the Pope upon good grounds would not admit still retain that Title How the Faith was defended in Ingland and especially the truth and substance of that Title and maintained the same as a King with his sword which he had gained as a Priest with his pen and so did his son and his Successor after him Edward the 6th continue a royal defender of the true faith and when Queen Mary would have remitted the Title and permitted the faith to be undefended and the truth to be corrupted in this Kingdome the witnesses of Christ his Gospel the holy Martyrs of our Church Cranmer Latymer Ridley 3 reverend Bishops and the rest of those holy Champions stood up and defended the same unto death with the sheding of their blood and the loss of their dearest lives And after Queen Maries time Q. Elizabeth like another Deborah with the advice and assistance of all the godly Bishops and the best of all the Divines in her Kingdom concluded and set forth the Articles of our Church and that perfect form of Godliness the Liturgy and book of common prayer and service of God which they composed with a free liberty from her majesty at home and without any fear either of Pope or any other forraign Authority abroad And this faith
concluded and expressed in our 39 Articles to which all Ministers subscribed and this uniformity of Gods worship thus purged from all abuses errors and Superstitions and so perfectly composed by all those holy men for the honor and service of God was fully authorized by the Queen and all the Parliaments that were convened and held in her time to be observed without any omission or alteration in all Churches as you may see by the Act prefixed before the Book of common Prayer And afterwards it was continued and preserved by that wise and learned King K. James and above all and more strictly than all by that ever blessed King and glorious Martyr of Jesus Christ Charles the 1. that defended the true faith and this true form of serving God against all opposers both the superstitious Papists and the apostate Puritanes and Separatists even to the loss of his life And I presume all good Protestants will yield unto me and I am perswaded That the Church of Ingland in King Charles his raign was the purest Church on earth that the Pope and his Cardinalls if they would speak according to their consciences could not deny but that the Church of Ingland as it was purged from Idolatry and Superstition and established in such purity of Doctrine and excellency of Discipline in the raign of King Edward the 6th and especially in Queen Elisabeths time and so continued in the raign of King James and King Charles was the truest and the purest Church unless they did except their own Church that way-fared and was militant here on earth where the faith of Gods elect might infallibly be found the service of God was rightly observed and was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Temple the House and the Church which he hath purchased and wherein he dwelleth And So E. H. truly confesseth that amongst all the reformed Churches E. H. in his Preface to the Reader the Church of Ingland hath alwayes been esteemed the purest as being most conformable to primitive purity and the word of God both in Doctrine and Discipline B. Montague in apello Caesarem c. 5. p. 47 48. And this appears even from the pens of the heads of other reformed Churches as Bucer Melancthon Calvin Camerarius Beza Zanchius Molinaeus Casaubon Sergevil Saravia and others who many of them confess in plain words and all by consequence conclude that the Church of Ingland of any particular national Church in the world cometh nearest to the apostolick rule for though all the Churches that protested against the superstitious tenents and errors of the councill of Trent and the Church of Rome have borne the name of reformed Churches yet neither all nor any of them all are indeed well and perfectly reformed when as many of them are corrupt in many points of Doctrine as I could shew you amongst the Calvinists and especially the Lutheran Churches that maintain that foul error of the ubiquity of the humanity of Christ their consubstantiation of his body in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and their many mistakes about the communication of the Properties of both his natures as Danaeus sheweth most excellently against Chemnitius and most of them are deficient in the rule of primitive Government not any one of them indeed following the Apostles Discipline And the reason of their deficiency is The reason of the deficiency of the Reformation of the other reformed Churches because that in the French and German Churches and the Churches beyond the Seas the Reformers of them by reason of the innumerable number of their potent enemies and the civil broyles and diffentions that were then in those parts and especially the want of a King in Israel that is a supream Monarch in some of those places over the people which made way for every one of the vulgar sort to do as we read in the Book of Judges what seemed right in his own eyes Judges 21.25 were constrained to do what they might and not what they would have done what could be effected and not what they desired to be performed But the Church of Ingland not by popular or any one particular mans reformation as John Knox that furious puritane did in the Church of Scotland but by a national Synod of all the Bishops and best Divines called by the King and confirmed by the King Peers and Commons of the whole Kingdome reformed her self not as other Churches did tumultuarily but with a great deal of advice diligence and deliberation that so it might be effected as the Apostles left it as the sacred rule required and as it was premonstrated it should be performed and weeded from all the dross the tares and the darnells that should spring to choak the pure wheat And therefore seeing the Church of Ingland until these late times was the truest and the purest reformed Church on earth it is conceived and I do believe it that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Antichrist should arise not out of Rome that hath corrupted many truths and superadded many errors and Superstitions upon the fundamentalls of our Religion and is as yet unreformed nor out of Constantinople which hath likewise apostatized from the true faith of Christ and doth still continue unreturned to Christ from their false Prophet nor out of Hierusalem as some men do most fondly dream but out of this Church this very Church of great Brittain For as heretofore Speed l. 6. cap. 45. Camden britan pag. 74. Euseb in vita Constant. Zechar. 10.11 this Iland of great Brittain brought forth Constantine the son of Helen the daughter of King Coylus which was the best instrument that ever the Church of Christ had to further and to honor the Christian Religion as Eusebius sheweth the same at large And as according to the Septuagint the Prophet saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath passed through the narrow sea with affliction and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down and the scepter of Aegypt shall depart away which may signifie that Christ hath first of all purged this Church that lyeth within the narrow seas and hath made the purest Reformation here that was made in any place by the afflictions and sufferings of the aforenamed Martyrs in Queen Maries dayes and hath thereby brought down the pride of the Pope and of the Roman Church that were then as powerfull as the Assyrians were when the Prophet wrote the same and hath driven away his usurpation and freed us from his tyranny as the Israelies were delivered from the bondage of the Aegyptians so the devil bearing an inveterate hate and infinite malice against this Iland more than against any other place The 2. special Reasons why the devil beareth a greater malice to this Iland more than to any other place for these two grand services that it did to God 1. The toleration of the Christians to profess their faith in peace and the Plantation of the Church of Christ to encrease
without adding the prevalent faction as sometimes for brevity sake I may omit I desire my Reader to remember that I mean only those and that party of whom it is demanded Whether they have not all and every one of the notes and marks of the great Antichrift and have done all the things and fulfilled all the Prophesies that should be fulfilled and done by the Antichrist And because the event of things are the best commentaries upon Prophesies The Events of things are the best Comments upon Prophesies if so it be apparent that all the things sayings and doings that are prophesied and foretold should be done by the great Antichrist are all manifestly seen to be done and fulfilled in them and by them aforenamed and by their confederates and adherents I know not how to give satisfaction to them that demand this question or how to deny them to be the Antichrist and to acquit them from that suspicion But I will leave the answer of these demands and resolution of those Questions to be de ermined by those unpartial Judges that are quicker sighted than I am and I will proceed not to foretel any thing but to explain unto you what the Prophets have foretold us should come to pass and should be done in the time and by the members of the great Antichrist and for the application of those Prophesies as fulfilled in these dayes and by these men I leave it to the better observers of the transactions of our time whether they can rightly do so or not And first That Apostasie or rebellion is the door through which the Antichrist entereth into the Church I finde the Apostle telling us that the door and breach or gap whereby the Antichrist shall have way to enter into the Church and sheepfold of Christ to destroy his flock will be apostasie or rebellion for when the Thessalonians had heard that such a great egregious Antichrist should come and thereupon did presently expect him and then thought the day of Christ his coming to judgment should instantly follow because they had heard that his coming should be towards the end of the world and but a little before the day of Christ his coming the holy Apostle to rectifie their misapprehension of what they had heard and to explain the truth and time of both their comings saith the day of Christ shall not come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quin venerit defectio prius until there be first a failing or falling away 2 Thess 2.3 as Beza translates it or nisi venerit prius rebellio unless there comes a rebellion first as the Syriac hath it and as very many of the best Interpreters say the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth because every rebellion is a falling away from what we should be And this rebellion is conceived by some Authors to be that which the people made in Rome against Nero and by others it is thought to be that which the Jews made against Florus or that which the grand rebell Barchochebas made against Rufus in the time of the Emperour Adrian who did therefore sufficiently chastice the Jews for their apostasie and revolt and others of no small esteem do understand it of the ruine of the Roman Empire and the Provinces revolt from the Roman Empire under the Turk and other apostate Governors of the Provinces as Niger Albinus and the rest that proved false against their Emperors but Mr. Calvin which is ever held the best textuary B. Hall in his Revelation unrevealed Ensebius l. 4. c. 6. even since the Apostles time as B. Hall saith wonders that so many learned men as understood these words of the Apostasie or rebellion of those revolters from the Roman Empire should so far mistake the Apostles meaning nisi quod cum errasset unus turmatim alii sine judicio sequuti sunt eum unles sit be that when one hath erred others without judgement or any further search for the truth have followed him which is an usual fault and a great fault amongst many writers where they see one run they are often ready like sheep without reason to follow after him And yet I wonder not so much herein as Mr. Calvin doth because the Apostle might well mean The rebellion against the Magistrate doth ever precede a recession from the faith and Gods service both the apostasie and rebellion from the temporal Monarchy of Rome as the type or Prodromos and also from the spiritual Kingdome of Christ which is the Church as Estius Anselmus and very many more of our best Protestant writers do interpret it because commonly they that rebel against the one will never stick at the other but when they kick against the Magistrate they will presently spurn against the Priest and God requireth obedience to be observed towards the civil Magistrate as well as to the spiritual Minister neither shall you ever finde that any departed from his true and obliged obedience to his lawfull Governor but he presently apostatized and made a recession from the true service of God as when Jeroboan◠rebelled and made a recession from his obedience to his King he presently made a defection from the true God and a discession from his worship to serve his golden calves and when the Satrapasses and Tetrarchs of the Provinces rebelled against the Roman Emperors they presently fell away from the Church and instead of Christ took Mahomet for their Prophet and the Jews tell us plainly we have no King or will have no King because we feared not the Lord to shew unto us Hosea 10.3 that a discession from Gods service doth ever accompany the rebellion from the civill Government and the rebellion against our Governors is the fore-runner of our discession from the true service of God and the faith of Christ because that our Governors which have the charge to see that the true faith and right service of God be preserved do while they are obeyed hinder this Apostasie and falling away from Gods service but when they are resisted and the bond of our obedience to them broken there is no stop of this apostasie but that every one may be of what faith and do what service he pleaseth and as he pleaseth unto God And therefore I take this apostasie and rebellion that the Apostle speaketh of here What apostasie or rebellion is here meant by the Apostle to be chiefly meant for a civil rebellion against the supreme Magistrate as he is custos utriusque tabulae the defender of the faith and preserver of Gods publique service and a spiritual opposition or withstanding of our spiritual Governors and the discipline of Christ his Church and so a falling from the true Doctrine and the faith of Christ which is the end of that progression and last step of this apostafie that begins in our disobedience and rebellion against Moses and Aaron and ends with our discession from God and Gods service for thus S. Paul saith the Spirit
speaketh evidently that in the later times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 4.1 some shall depart from the faith and so in Acts 21.21 it is said they heard of thee quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that thou teachest a defection or discession from Moses that is from the lawes and Ordinances of Moses and so Theodoret calleth this apostasie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a secession and departure from God which is the last step and period of our rebellion against the King or civil Magistrate And this falling away from God and from Gods service must be of such men as formerly have made shew to be the true subjects unto their Governors and the Professors of the Gospel of Christ and the obedient children of his Church because apostasie or rebellion is a falling away off and from that which we either were or seemed to be before as subjects that pretend obedience and not strangers of another kingdome are said to rebell against their Governors This Apostafie is of such as have professed the Gospel which strangers never acknowledged to be their Governors but as Julian was termed the Apostata because that during all the time of his Predecessor Constantius he professed himself a Christian and afterwards when he himself came to be the Emperor he renounced the faith of Christ fell into the Heathenish idolatry and persecuted all the best Christians and therefore this Apostasie cannot be ascribed to Caius Caligula as some think because that he being bred up in Idolatry cannot be said to depart from the worship of the true God which he never professed nor can it indeed be ascribed to any manner of men The Turks and Papists cannot be guilty of this Apostasie but to such as have receded and departed from that faith and service of God which they professed or seemed to profess before and therefore also the Turks that are bred in the Mahometan Religion and the Papists that are misled up in idolatry and superstition cannot be guilty of this apostasie nor be said to apostatize and to depart from the true faith and service of God because they never had it nor profest it for how can he be said to depart from the truth that never knew nor understood the truth or how can any man be said to depart and recede from London that never was in London therefore it is most certain that this apostasie is a discession and departure from that true faith and service of God Object which men professed or seemed to profess before E. H. de apostas pag. 36. cornel â—lapide in loc And whereas E. H. and some others say that this Apostacy whereof the Arostle speaketh here 2 Thes 2.3 must be understood of an universal and a general Apostasie universalis defectis as Cornelius à lapide termes it an universel falling away that is of all the particular national Churches in the world both the Western and the Eastern Churches because the Apostle speaks indefinitely and limiteth not the apostasie to this or that particular Church Solut. I answer with the leave of so great and so learned a Clerk as Cornel. à lapide is that as here the Apostle intendeth not to speak of the Antichrists in general when as then Eusebius l. 3. c. 7. l. 4. c. 14. Apoc. c. 2. Clemens Alexand Stromat lib. 3. in his time there were many Antichrists as St. John sheweth such as were the Ebionites Cerinthians Marcionites Nicholaitans and the like but he speaketh of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a particular Antichrist that should be an Antichrist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a more eminent egregious Antichrist than all other precedent or subsequent Antichrists whatsoever were or should be so he meaneth here by this Apostacy not every petty apostacy or single Heresie or any small and little stubbornness of some particular Churches that should fall away and rebel against their Governours and Teachers and so make a defection from some Points of the true Faith or corrupt the Profession and Faith of Christ by their evil Manners and wicked Conversations as in St. Pauls time the Church of Corinth did by denying the Resurrection prophaning the Lords Supper and suffering the incestuous Corinthian to communicate amongst them which was no small apostasie And in St. Johns time the Churches of Asia did not much less than the Church of Corinth fall away from the Truth but the Apostle would have us to understand that the Day of the Lord shall not come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 until there shall come that falling or the falling away first that is such and so great so eminent and so full a falling away and so foul a rebellion against their Governours and from the Faith of Christ and the true Service of God as the like rebellion and falling away from the Truth and specially from the right worshipping of God was never known before in any Church Greek or Latine Eastern or Western Church nor ever shall the like be seen after it until the day of Christ his coming And this the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Apostle â—peaketh of some particular eminent rebellion and apostasie of some particular well reformed Church and not of a general apostasie of the Catholick Church against which the gates of Hell shall never prevail Mat. 16.18 set before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth sufficiently shew unto us that as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth deâ—gn and particularize some great transcendent Antichrist so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth shew a particular and a most egregious foul and enormous Apostasie and so the meaning of the Apostle in few words seems to be this that before the day of the Lord that is the great day of Judgment there shall arise a grand rebellion against the Governours of the people and against the Pastors and Discipline of the Church and a huge apostasie defection and falling away from the true Faith of Christ and especially from the form of wholsom Doctrine and the right worship and usually accustomed and received Service of God And then when you see such an unnatural rebellion as the like was scarce ever known if ever and such a corruption of the true Doctrine of Christ and opposition to the chief Governours of the Church as the like was never seen in any age nor found in any other Church nor read in any History the whole Church of Christ and all the Servants of God then in being may know for certain that an exceeding great Antichrist greater than any of all the other former Antichrists that were seen before will arise in that Church which formerly was the best and purest Reformed Church of all other Reformed Churches though now it doth recede and thus apostatize from the Faith of Christ and her own former purity And after the Coming and appearance of that Great Antichrist and the Tragical Acts that he shall do within a while and some short space best known to God how long
or how soon Christ will come to Judgment to make a final end of the Antichrist and to deliver his Servants out of all their troubles And this Author wrote a Book entituled The Grand Rebellion that they shall suffer by the Means and procurement of the Antichrist And so first the grand Rebellion will shew it self and the great Apostasie will appear then the great Antichrist will come and settle himself in the Church of Christ and he shall be revealed and made known not to all men no more than Christ was when he came into the world but to as many as the Spirit of God shall enlighten and open the eyes of their understanding to take notice of him that they may avoid him and not be seduced by him E. H. de Antichristo c. 6. pag. 101. to follow his pernicious waies as E. H. hath most truly declared And then as the Apostle saith the Day of the Lord will come and we may certainly expect it and believe it will not be long before he cometh Question Now it is demanded where in what Kingdom and in what Reformed Church or in what other Church this Grand Rebellion and huge apostacy hath happened and appeared And it is answered Respons That the apostacy here spoken of cannot be 1. The apostafie of the prime grand Hereticks 1. That this apostacy here spoken of cannot be meant of the apostasie of the prime grand Hereticks For though the Nicolaitans the Ebionites and the Cerinthians in the time of St. John and afterwards the Montanists Valentinians Arians Nestorians Eutychians and the succeeding Hereticks Manichaeans Pelagians Donatists and all the other Brood of the prime Hereticks fell into many most fearful errours and so rebelled against their Governours and drew many Disciples after them to make a defection from the true Faith and have by their apostasie and subtilty corrupted whole Churches and Congregations of Christ yet that their backsliding and apostasie cannot be said to be this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the grand Rebellion and the special great falling away from the Faith which the Apostle here speaketh of because their apostasie was not so general and so extensive from the most and the chiefest points of Faith as this is but each Heretick and each Sect of those Hereticks started aside from some particular point of the true Catholick and Christian Faith as Arius denied the Divinity of Christ Nestorius made Christ to subsist of two Persons and Eutiches on the other side to confute him confounded the true Properties of both Natures Manichaeus would have God to be the Author of evil or that there be two Gods the one good and the author of all goodness and the other evil and the author of all the evil that is Pelagius taught the too large extent of mans Free-will All the prime grand Hereticks far better than our present Presbyterians and others with the Stoicks ascribed all events to a fatal necessary and so the rest of those Heresiarchs defiled themselves and their Churches with some particular errour or with some very few at the most and yet still they retained the rest and the most points of the true Faith and especially the setled Form of Gods Service and defired alwaies to be in the Commnion and to keep the unity of the Catholick Church and they ever observed the right Government and Discipline of the Church none of all the Hereticks until Aerius nor after he was therefore condemned for an Heretick as Epiphan sheweth any other Heretick till this last Century produced a Brood of Aerius Proselites were ever found to deny the Episcopal Government of the same and they all generally retained the established Creeds and Articles of wholsom Doctrine Lyturgies Catechismes and the right manner of the Worship of God with that reverence and devotion as he ought to be worshipped though they started aside and apostatized from some particular points of the Foundation of the Catholick Faith And 2. 2. Nor the apostasie of the Eastern Churches The like may be said of all the Asiatick and Affrican Churches that succeeded them and were many of them corrupted by those grand Hereticks that they professed the Creeds observed the Lyturgies and reverenced their Governours as the Apostle enjoyneth and receded only like their Leaders from some few Points of the true Faith and therefore the grand apostacy here spoken of cannot be fastned nor applied to any of them And 3. As the Eastern Churches are free from this apostacy so the Church of Rome 3. Nor the apostasie of the Church of Rome and all the rest of her subordinate Western Churches though they have corrupted the Doctrine of Christ with many Errours Ceremonie and Superstitions yet because they retain the main Heads the true Scriptures the Catholick Creeds and the gross sum of the Christian Religion though mingled with many erroneous accessions and is therefore rightly compared to a field of goodly Wheat but very full of Tares and Darnels cannot be said to be guilty of this grand Rebellion and apostasie Reason 1 1. Because all their Errours and Superstititions are not so foul as those of the foresaid Hereticks and the additions which they agglutinate unto the Truth as a bad super-structure upon a good Foundation cannot be liable to this transcendent apostasie when as all the errours of the Church of Rome are rather Superstitions and additions of more Articles than ever the Apostles left or the Primitive Church professed to the true Faith and Catholick Creeds than a defection or discession and departure from the Faith and therefore that Church cannot be guilty of this apostasie and departure from the Faith but rather of creating a new Faith and new Articles of Faith which God never requireth us to believe Reason 1 2. Because the now Church of Rome of France Spain and other Churches under the Popish Jurisdiction did never profess all the Articles of our faith in the true and right sence as they ought to be believed and interpreted but they were born nursed and nusled in the errors and Superstitions that they are in continually and how can they be said to recede and depart from the faith and from the truth that never knew them nor profest them and therefore seeing they never were in the true faith they can no wayes be said to be guilty of this apostasie from the faith Object But you will say as E. H. doth and many others with him that when after Constantines time E. H. in the Preface of his book de Autic the Church began to be wealthy and as the envious said venenum intravit in Ecclesiam poison that is the poison of riches honors and authority especially after Phâ—cas his time that gave unto the Pope the title of universal Bishop entred into the Church and among the Clergy then the Monks brought tapers into the Church and they induced the trisagium that is sancte Deus sancte fortis sancte immortalis which as
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
world and therefore to encourage all the Christians to be constant in their Profession unto their death it was requisite to use all the Eulogies and praises that might well and rightly be given especially in the funeral Orations of the Martyrs unto those holy men that had so manfully fought the good fight of faith and so christianly died for the defence of the Gospel of Christ when as the contrary would have been a great disheartening of the weak Christians but these Eulogies a spur to inflame them to all readiness to undergo the like Martyrdome rather than to start aside from their Christian profession Neither do I see how those Eulogies and praises that these Fathers gave unto the Martyrs are any wayes contrary to the truth of our faith or the Word of God because we know that as the Prophet saith Psalm 116.15 right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints and no doubt but he hath some love and care of their dead bodies to preserve them from that spirit of malice and contempt that the Devil and his wicked assassinates bear against them and therefore as he preserved all that were in the ship for S. Paul's sake Act. 27.24 so he may be pleased to preserve others his servants with the preservation he extendeth and would have shewed to the bodies of his Saints and especially of his holy Martyrs the which he would have no wayes to be abused as the Prophet sheweth and doth exceedingly complain of them that give the dead bodies of Gods servants to be meat unto the fowles of the air Psal 79.2 and the flesh of his Saints to the beasts of the field as now I have seen it in many places how the hogs are rooting in their graves and the dogs gnawing the bones of Gods servants That the aforesaid Errors make not this Apostasie And I say that although the Roman Church hath failed in the Premises and erred in the points aforenamed yet all that doth not make this grand apostasie which the Apostle here speaketh of Reason 1 1. Because here in the Roman Church we finde no rebellion against their Governors but qui ducunt eam seducunt eam the leaders of that Church deceive the Church and so her apostasie is not so odious but the more excusable and the less abominable in the sight of God Reason 2 2. Because these Errors and Superstitions aforenamed and the like have only defaced but not nullified bespotted and polluted but not destroyed that Church which is now like unto a false woman that hath played the whore but is not divorced nor run away from her husband That the Church of Rome holdeth all the foundation and preservation of the Christian Religion for so long as they profess to believe as the three authentick Creeds that is the Apostles Creed the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed teach us and use the Lords Prayer and publish the ten Commandements and receive the two Gospel Sacraments that is Baptisme and the Lords Supper and retain the wholesome form and reverent manner of Divine worship and service of God with the rightly authorized and lawfully called Pastors and Governors and a dutifull submission to the established Discipline of the Church which things are both the foundation and preservation of the Christian Religion and which they say are all observed and performed in the Roman Church I believe no good Christian can deny her to be a true Church though not a pure Church of God because that while the foundation remaineth sure and undigged up all superstructures of wood hay stubble doth not evert and overthrow the whole edifice but is rather a going beyond Eccl. 7.16 17. than a going back from the faith of Christ like the being too righteous and not too wicked as Solomon speaketh that is the being too precise and making more sinnes than ever the Law of God made and not too prophane and so exceeding in the works of supererrogation and observing many other commandments of men besides the commandments of God Mr Mede P. 612. just as the precise Pharisees required the people to do in the time of Christ and Mr. Mede resolves Mr. Hartlib that the Roman Church hath not erred in the fundamental Articles of the Faith but in the assumentis which they added unto the foundation so likewise D. Crakenthorp B. Hall and most of our best Divines are of the same minde And therefore questionless the Church of Rome cannot be guilty of this grand rebellion and Apostasie here spoken of And 4. 4. Nor the falling away of the Protestants from the Church of Rome As the African and Afiatick Churches of the East under the Greek Patriarchs and the Europaean Churches of the West under the Pope of Rome are not liable to this grand Apostasie so neither can the Church of Rome nor any other Master of that Church say and say truly that the falling away of Luther Calvin Beza and the rest of the Protestants and protestant Churches from the Roman errors and superstitions and from their obedience to that Church can be this falling away and apostasie here spoken of because we with them and they with us do hold and profess the same 3 authentick Creeds that do contain the sum and substance of our Christian Faith and are agreeing in all or at least in most of the essential and fundamental points of the Christian Religion and the differences betwixt us in the most points that are of moment are not so capital but that for the most part a charitable construction and a right distinction might well and fairly reconcile most of them especially as they are held by the best Interpreters of the Scripture in that Church and by the most temperate and soberest Divines of our Church because as the Apostle saith charity is kinde and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 charity is not rash that is in her judgment no more than in her actions 1 Cor. 13. but beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things and endureth all things and the want of this divine grace of Charity maketh those faults that are indeed but mole-hils to appear like mountains and this want of charity is too too common a fault both among the popish and the Protestant writers which doth make the breach wider and the differences to seem far greater and far worse than indeed they are which made me often to pray that God would send more love betwixt us and suffer not the devil to send so much misprision and distaste betwixt us as there is Question And now the foresaid Churches being freed from being liable to this apostasie the question is What Church can be said to be found guilty of it What Church is guilty of this Apostacy and instead of answering it it is now demanded If this now present Church of great Britain be not liable to this charge of a grand Rebellion and apostasie such as the Apostle speaketh
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
God I would have all wise men to consider whether the Presbyterians Independants and all the brood of our new and lay-Preachers have not moved and preswaded the long Parliament to suppress the Governors of the Church and to lay aside the ancient Discipline and Government thereof and have they not themselves abandoned and cast off not only the Apostles Creed and the other 2 authentick Creeds so that you shall seldome or never hear any one of all three repeated by the Minister to any of their Congregations but also the Lords prayer the 10 Commandements and all the whole former service of God which was formerly used in the Church and is now wholly neglected and seldome or never used to be read and practiced to be done by these men unto the people which in divers Parishes have not had the holy Sacraments in many years administred unto them Et non ignota cano And the Reason hereof is What Pope did ever cast away the whole publick service of God as I conceive it because the service-book as we term it that is the Book of common Prayer that containeth these 3 Creeds and the Lords Prayer and the Decalogue and the form of the Administration of the Sacraments and all the other Prayers that are the principal and most essential parts of Gods publick service is so straitly prohibited and rejected And the Disciples of these new masters and the Adherents of that long Parliament tore the Bibles threw down the fonts The enormities that were done by the disciples of the Presbyterians cast away all crosses spoyled all pictures prophaned the Churches and did many other sacrilegious and outragious things whereby as many men conceived the whole reformation of this Church is nullified and the apostasie that is here spoken of by the the Apostle is fully come to pass and accomplished and they pray that there may never come to any national Church as they hope there shall not come a greater apostasie and falling away both from the truth of faith and the service of God than this is whereof the like as many good men and great Schollars do believe hath never been hitherto by the worst and the most dangerous Sect of Hereticks Because the Church being as the Scripture testifieth acies crdinata Bellarm. de Ecclesia milit cap. 2. like an army that is well ordered under their lawful Commanders Or as Bellarm. saith Coetus hominum ejusdem christianae fidei professione colligatus sub regimine legitimorum Pastorum ac pracipuè unius Christi in terris Vicarii Romani Pontificis In stead of which last Sentence I say sub legitime regimine or regimine legitimorum Pastorum And they are no lawfull Pasters nor Ministers of Gods Church that have not their lawfull Ordination and go no further that is a Company of men gathered together and professing the same Christian Faith under the rule and government of their lawful Governours the true and lawful Government being dissolved and the Governours suppressed and the Symboles of our Faith rejected the true Doctrines corrupted and the right Service of God cast away and the like enormities that are used do eradicate the foundation and not only pollute but also destroy and unchurch the Church of Christ and make it not to be as it should be visible here on earth and do provoke the Lord to leave his Habitation and to remove our Candlestick to another place For you may remember what the Prophet Zechary saith I took unto me two staves Zech. 11.7 the one I called Beauty the other I called Bands and I fed the Flock this flock is the Church of God and the two staves are the Doctrine and the Discipline of the Church the Doctrine is the Beauty and the Discipline is the Bands and preservation thereof and therefore when the Discipline is rejected and rebelled against the Doctrine must needs then be corrupted with Heresies and Errors and the service of God neglected and prophaned For as a Garden or Vineyard which the Church of God is Esa 5. cannot be kept undestroyed from the wilde boar and the beasts of the field without their fence so no more can the beauty of the Church the service of God nor indeed the Church herself be preserved without her bands which are the Lawes Canons and Discipline of the Church and therefore the Devil instigateth all his instruments to break these bands asunder and to cast away the cords from them Psal 2.3 And so you may remember we presently found that when the Bishops the Governors of our Church that preserved the Discipline which was the fence and the hedg of Christ his vineyard to keep out the foxes that is the Hereticks and Schismaticks out of the Church and the hoops of Gods barrel to keep in the wine Judges 9.13 that cheareth God and man that is the true Doctrines of faith and the right service of God were thrown down nay thrown away and the Government of this our Church dissolved by that long Parliament which never happened to the Church of Rome then instantly the beauty of this Church which formerly for learning Doctrine Cant. 2.1 and Discipline was the flower of all the Churches in Christendome as the rose of Sharon and the lilly of the valies became quite defaced and the Church her self became Lo-ammi her whole usual service was rejected the service-book Hos 1.9 that was the rule of Gods worship broken all to pieces and straightly prohibited to be used the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue seldome or never repeated the fundamental points of our faith either corrupted or omitted to be taught and all sorts of damnable long-buried Heresies were revived preached and printed in every place whereby our well-reformed and lately glorious Church became like an Army routed a barrel unhooped and a vineyard unfenced and then filled with all corruptions both of life and doctrine to make way for the man of sin as John Baptist did to Christ to enter in And to shew the enormities of these times more plainly I will out of their own mouth and from their own books quote unto you what a Presbyterian Tho. Hall in his Book intituled The pulpit guarded in Eâ—ist dedicat Domino Joâ—nr Trap pastoride Bello-vado as I conceive him to be saith Vetus est illa oratoris quarela proveniebant oratores novi stulti adolescentuli prâ—veniunt hac nostra tempestate non oratores sed aratores novi stulti fabri ferrarii aerarii lignarii rastris quam rostris aptiores pistores nunc pastores textores tonsores sutores sartores coquinarii cupedinarii milites mulieres puelluli puelluiae c. necnon quamplurimi alii ejusdem furfuris quos vulgo vocamus Gifted brethren hem lingua utendum est belluina ne belluae ist a nos dilacerent and whom I pray you doth this man mean should be the beast and these beasts that he speaks of and is afraid
to betorn in pieces by them unless he means those locusts that assisted and adhered to the long Parliament but Mr Hall to make good his charge sets down the names of their Preachers in margine as Paul Hobson a Taylor and Rice a Tinker and Lambe a Soap-boyler and Symmes a Shoemaker and Oates a Weaver and Web a Souldier and Heath a Coller-maker and Field the bodies-maker and Green a Felt-maker and Potter the Smith and Spencer a Coach-man and Durance the Wash-ball-maker and Debner the Cooper that can neither write nor read besides many women-preachers and he quoteth Edwards Edwards in his gangraena part 2. pag. 81. another Presbyterian in his Gangraena part 2. page 81 and 88. and in the 1 page of his Book he nameth Lawrence Williams a Naylor publick Preacher Tho. Hinde a Plowright publick Preacher Tho. Palmer a Baker Preacher Sergeant Oakes a Weaver Preacher and Humfrey Rogers lately a Bakers boy publick Preacher and how many more such Preachers might he have found if he had further searched into Ingland and Ireland so many as I think would fill a Volume of no small size And if these brave Preachers be not the false-Prophet and the Preachers of the Antichrist I know not who shall be the Prophets of Christ so my good Presbyterian ex tuo ere out of thine own mouth and from your own books I believe it is apparent that these men sprung from the proceedings of the long Parliament and the Adherents of it and ch 19.20 are the false Prophet spoken of in the Revelat. 16.13 and the second Beast that the Apostle saw arising out of the earth and is as the soul and the very life of the Antichrist and of which Prophet the same Tho. Hall saith All their Preachers women boyes or men From Master Calamy to Mistress Venne Are perfect Popes in their own Parish grown For to out-goe the story of Pope Joan Their women preach too and are like to be The whores of Babylon as much as she And all the preaching of these men and these women Preachers is but a tyrotarichon and hotch-potch of all errors Heresies and Blaspemies as Alexander Ross in his Animadversions upon Mr Hobbs his Leviathan and Edwards in his Hell broke loose and his Gangraena do partly shew unto you what stuffe they bring and what manner of men they are how blinde and how ignorant and yet how impudent they be for who so bold as blinde bayard A Story shewing how an impudent preaching Trooper affronted and disturbed a reverend and learned Bishop in his Sermon And here I must crave leave to tell you a story and some doings belonging to this business quorum pars magna fui and an eye-witness of the same my self Not long ago a grave and a reverend Bishop that had been a Doctor of Divinity admitted in Cambridg Oxford and Dublin of above 40 years standing and well known for his learning and abilities in many Kingdomes travelling from Ireland towards London came on the Saturday night to a Gentlemans house of good quality and his special good friend which then told the Bishop how they had for their Parson and Preacher a man that as they were informed had been a Trooper in the Parliaments Army and he only preached unto them and received their Tythes but did neither baptize their children not bury their dead nor deliver the Sacrament of the Lords Supper nor let them have any other service of God but to preach or expound some Chapter and thus they had been for 7 or 8 years without any of these things but what they procured by some of their neighbour Ministers and he desired the Bishop that he would bestow a Sermon upon the Parishioners on the morrow which was the Lords day the Bishop answered that he loved not that any man should intrude himself into another mans charge but if they would send unto their Preacher and he gave way to it he would willingly preach the next day which the Gentleman did that night and the Preacher was contented the Bishop should have the place but when the Bishop had done his Prayer and read his Text in Nehem. 8.2 and 3. and divided the same and had past over the 1 part that the Preacher was Ezra the priest and thereupon shewed That none should prefume to intrude themselves to do the publick Offices of Gods service in the Church of God but they that were lawfully called as was Aaron and then had entred upon the 2. part the place were Ezra preached which was in the street before the water-gate and thereupon shewed that either in the time of plague or war or persecution or sailing at sea or demolition of Gods Temple as now the Temple of Solomon was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and was not as yet fully re-edifyed or the like just occasion the Preacher might pray and preach as Christ and his Apostles did in any place but when neither of these nor any other exigent like unto these did require it he said the Church that was appointed and consecrated as Solomon did the Temple for Gods publick service was the fittest and the enjoyned place for the Preacher to preach and pray and the people to come to hear and to do the service of God and as he was amplifying this point the more at large because on that very day the Preacher had moved the Parishioners according to a brief from the Lord Protector to a liberal contribution towards the repairing of a famous neighbour Church that was ruined by the warrs the Preacher steps out of his seat among the people and opening his book said The Bishop preached lies and false Doctrine unto them which he would prove to be so and read a place of Scripture that was nothing at all against the Bishops Doctrine and after he had for a good space stood in confuting the Bishop and the Bishop silent all that while and had made an end of his confutation the Bishop demanded if he would now give him leave quietly to go on and to make an end of his Sermon the Parson and his Disciples answered he had preached false Doctrine and lies enough already and therefore he must come down and proceed no further which the Bishop presently did and the Parson got up into the pulpit but thereupon the Gentlemen and the Parishioners on the one side and the Parsons Proselites and Disciples on the other side rose up in a tumult and very bitterly out-bearding and chiding one another so that the Bishop was mightily afraid they would have gone together by the ears and have done some great mischief and had much adoe for a very great while to perswade them and to entreat them for Gods sake on all sides to be quiet And this tumult ended the Gentlemen and the better sort of the Parishioners that were much offended and grieved for this affront that was done unto the Bishop resolved to prefer a Bill of inditement against the Parson and his
2. The contradictions of the Popes Their Popes do follow the same steps for Stephan the 6. abrogated all his Predecessors Decrees but Formosus took up his body after his burial for it and cut off two of his fingers and then buried his body again and the next succeeding Popes Theodorus the 2. Ex Polychron Romanus and John the 10. confirmed all the Acts of Formosus but Sergius disannulled them all again and took up Formosus his body and threw the same into Tiber. 3. 3. The contradictions of their Orders The Oppositions among their Orders is never a whit less than betwixt their Popes for the difference betwixt the Dominicans and the Franciscans about the conception of the blessed Virgin Mary the Dominicans holding that she was conceived in original sin and the Franciscans denying the same was so great and their fury was so hot Anno 1476. against each other that Pope Xistus the 4. joyning with the Franciscans burned 4 of the Dominicans for defending that truth Neither are their Schooles free from this fault for the Scotists Ochamists and Thomists could never be reconciled Erasmus in loc contr Laton Alphoas l. 1. c. 6. Genchrard in Chron. untill the Thomists got the conquest and at this day the Seculars and the Jesuits can never agree nor the Jesuits that are indeed the better learned accord well among themselves for Alphonsus de Castro and his Adherents do hold the Council above the Pope but Card. Bellarm. and all his Schollers do hold the contrary and it is observed by Genebrard that there were 20 several Sects and Schismes amongst the Romanists at the same time and others have collected 80 several different Opinions amongst them about that one only point of the Eucharist And I could yet further inlarge this point how they do not all agree in the Doctrine of our Justification nor in many other points beside nor indeed any one of them long with himself quia oportet mendacem esse memorem because the teacher of errors and false Doctrine had need to have a good memory ea falsitatis atque erroris est natura ut nemine repugnante a seipsa tandem juguletur and that is the nature of Error and falsehood that a length it will overthrow it self though there were no man to speak against it and therefore we finde Bellarmine himself confuting and contradicting himself in many places as our learned Bishop Morton hath most excellently observed but I stood too long on this point already 2. 2. The collusion of the Roman Church There Collusion is and especially in former times was such that they did not onely deceive one another but almost all the world besides Presbyter amplectens faeminam presumitur benedicendi causa fecisse and old Lyra saith fit aliquando in Ecclesia dei maxima deceptio in fictis miraculis à sacerdotibus the greatest decepts and cosenage shall happen sometimes in the Church of God by the false and faigned miracles that shall be done by the Priests and so indeed as our Presbyters do now so their Priests and Jesuits by their faigned sanctity false miracles and subtle insinuations into the hearts and bosomes of the vulgar people seduxerunt gentes have seduced them and made them drunk with the wine of their abominations and abominable flatteries 3. 3. The oppression of the Romanists For their oppression vexation and cruelty towards the servants of God it exceeded all humanity and the Chaldean Babylon must not compare with them herein for they did not only vex the children of God and lay heavy yokes upon their necks which was all that Babylon did unto the Israelites but they did also persecute the best Protestants with sword fire and faggot burning them as they did John Hus and Hierom of Prague and take their bones out of their Graves if they cannot lay hands on them alive as they did the bones of Bucer and Phagius in the time of Queen Mary Scaeva sic in manes manibus arma dabant And so they warred Amos 2.1 And as the King of Moab burned the bones of the King of Edom so they raged against the very Ghosts of the Saints And therefore if we had nothing else to say against them but this their cruelty against the Saints and Servants of Christ yet this alone is a sufficient argument to prove their City and Church a Babylon and themselves rather Citizens of Babylon than Members of the Church of Christ for as he that was born after the flesh Galat. 4.29 persecuted him that was born after the Spirit even so it is now saith the Apostle The Church of Christ doth never persecute but doth alwaies suffer Persecution for Christian Religion is to be maintained enlarged and defended non occidendo sed monendo non saevitia sed patientia not by killing but by monishing not by cruelty but by patience nam si sanguine tormentis religionem defendere velis jam non defendetur Lact. l. 1. c. 19. Religion not to be planted by the sword sed polluetur saith Lactantius For if thou wouldst defend Religion with shedding of blood and inflicting torments it is not defended but polluted and thou dost defile it and spoil it in seeking to maintain it And this is plainly seen by the example of Christ himself who neither instituted his Kingdom by any foreible meanes nor would have himfelf defended by any outward power of the sword but biddeth S. Peter to put up his sword into his sheath Matth. 26.52 and he sheweth the reason of it unto the Governour because his Kingdom is not of this world nor like unto the Kingdoms of this world for they are enlarged and defended by force of Armes and by the sword Rom. 10.14 but the Kingdom of Christ is encreased and continued by the reading and the preaching of the word and Faith cometh ex auditu non ex metu by hearing not by threatning ex dono Dei non ex imperio hominum from the Gift of God and not by the Command of any man And therefore S. Bernard saith that suadenda fides non cogenda Faith is to be perswaded and not compelled And S. Paul saith 2 Cor. 10.4 Damasc 3. sent c. 32. that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but spiritual And Damascene saith that the Gospel was preached throughout all the world without weapon armour or Battel by a few naked poor afflicted men and if men believed they saved their souls if not the Apostles were to take none other revenge but to shake off the dust of their feet to be a witness against them that refused their Doctrine Object But the Romanists against this do answer for themselves and say that our Saviour bids his Servants to go to the high waies and compel the people to come into his Wedding that his House might be full Luke 14.23 Solut. I answer 1. That the Word compell doth not alwaies imply
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
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Will-Worship but will have the substance of his Service to be as himself prescribeth Yet wilt thou have God to set thee down every particular circumstance and punctilio in and about his Service Hath he not left Teachers and Governours over his Church and given them both a power to do and a Command that all things should be done in Order and as they should be done in the Church of God And if Christ hath left this power with his Apostles and their Successors the Governours of his Church to set all things in Order touching his Service in respect of the times places and manner and they have ordered it from the beginning that this 25th day of December should be kept holy for the remembrance of the blessed birth of Christ and the whole Church have ever since observed the same Why shouldst thou deny this power unto them and disobey their Order Or who but the Antichrist would speak against the same And he that would have thee as well to reject Christ himself as to neglect the day of his Nativity Thus you see how illustrious Antiochus for so Epiphanes signifieth though he was indeed as the Holy Ghost testifieth Dan. 11.25 a vile person doth antecede the Saint-like Antichrist in all vile actions and I could proceed further in the parallel and especially in the time of their continuance and their judgement which do immediately follow ver 26. but that I had rather pass before my Book doth swell too big from the types and the shadows that the Prophets shew us unto the plainer testimonies of the New Testament and the Apostles of Christ that do so signally demonstrate and so punctually paint out the Antichrist that the true Saints and Servants of Christ which desire to know him and would not be over-awed with terrors nor over-joyed with flatteries and great promises nor yet blinded with worldly love might well and easily understand who he is when they see him to have come into the World that so they might flee from him and not be seduced by him for though that these things which Daniel speaks of the little horn which was Antiochus may in some sence be applied by way of Analogy as the type to the doings and proceedings of the Antichrist Yet I think rather that all Daniels Prophesies and their relations should more properly and in their first aspect be confined to the Jewish Church and their extent to the death of Christ the destruction of that Temple and the dissolution of the polity of that people than reach any further to express the state and the accidents that should befall unto the Gospel Church that were designed for the Apostles to express and especially because that as we say of Similitudes so it may be said of Types and Symbolical Divinity they do not universally in all points hold parallel nec sunt argumentativa as the Schools do speak and as I said before neither are they for sound proofs therefore I will proceed to the plainer and fuller description of the Antichrist by the testimonies of the New Testament CHAP. V. Of the special particular sin that is the proper sin and peculiar only to the Antichrist and to none else and the sin that is most destructive to Mankind and most hateful unto God and what is meant by the Antichrist his exalting himself above all that is called God and that is worshipped and of his sitting in the Temple of God as God 2. HAving waded through the Enigmata's of the Prophets we are come to the transparent evidences of the New Testament that do foretell us of the coming of the Antichrist who as he should fulfill the Prophesie of Zecharie by following the steps and doings of that foolish and Idol-shepherd and likewise the Prophesie of Daniel by his imitation of the wicked acts of Antiochus so he shall accomplish all the Prophesies of the New Testament that do concern him and shall do all the impieties and the tragical acts that the Pen-men of that Testament do foretell us that he should do And all the evident and unquestionable Predictions that we find set down concerning him are set down only in three several places and by three special Instruments of the Holy Ghost that is St. Paul the Apostle St. John the Evangelist and he that goeth under the Title of John the Divine Joh. 10.43 which was indeed St. John the Apostle for that place of St. John alledged by Bellarmine doth not mean the Antichrist but any other false Christs such as Judas Galilaeus or Theudas or Barchochebas or the like that should come as a Christ in his own name as I shewed to you before and the Predictions of Christ in the 24th of S. Matthew are not properly to be referred to the Antichrist but to those false Christs that should come to deceive the Jews and those false Prophets and Pseudo-Apostles the Preachers of the Antichrist that should come towards the end of the World to seduce and to deceive the people and therefore I shall only pass over the places of these three describers of him and the first place that properly concerneth the coming of the Antichrist is in 2 Thes 2.3 where S. Paul describing him as he was the best Scholar and more learned in the Arts and Languages than any of all the Apostles so he doth more signally and evidently shew him than any other he sets him forth as a City upon an hill that all men may see it and makes him so visible and so intelligible by that palpable mark and proper note and badge that be fasteneth on him 1. What S. Paul foretels us of the Antichrist that he might easily be known when men do behold that mark and observe that note and badge which the Apostle layeth upon him for he saith he will be an egregious sinner that is a sinner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an extraordinary sinner and transcendent above all other sinners and therefore the Apostle termeth him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that man of sin as if he were all made of sin That is peccator ille sceleratissimus that most wicked sinner and more wicked than any other 1. That he should be an egregious finner saith Tirinus totaliter peccatis deditus that is wholly given over to sin as having his heart and his hands eminently sinful as our Learned Zanchius saith for as Christ is melior omnibus sanctis better and holier than all the Saints so the Antichrist will be pejor omnibus malis worse than any of all the wicked men saith Aquinas insigniter scelestus notably wicked saith Maresius worse than Ahab that sold himself to work wickedness And Cornelius â Lapide faith the tricks and fallacies of the Antichrist to get Proselites and followers after him The sixfold art of the Anchrist to effect his wickednesses are sixfold 1. A feigned and dissembled Sanctity to be well thought of by all men 2. Smoothness of Language and fair
that feareth not his King cannot be truly said to fear God Prov. 24.21 So the Parliament said We will have no more Kings but we will be as our Neighbour Nation is a Free State and a Commonwealth But for all this their saying That they will have no King it is demanded If these men proved not apt Schollars of those dissembling Jews and imitate those their good Masters to a hair for as those Jews said We will have no King that is no Kingdom Gods appointment or no lawful King that hath a just right and title unto his Kingdom yet if you look but two Chapters before you shall find how God complaineth they had set up Kings Hos 8.4 but not by him and this was first in their intention before they rejected their lawfull King that God had set over them but last in the execution because the Old King must be first ejected before any new Kings can be established So have nor the Parliament when they beheaded their Old King of Gods appointment and their lawful King without question made themselves new kings over Gods people I do not say Usurping Kings that had no right nor tyrannical Kings that did no right unto the people but as the Prophet saith of the Jews so it is questioned if the Parliament have not set up Princes yea such Princes as were but Bankrupts Shooe-makers and Taylers Drapers and Tinkers Carters and Coblers and the like Scum of men of no learning Job 30.1 of no breeding of no bloud and of no worth but such as Job describeth whom the ancient Gentry and Nobility of this Land would have disdained to have set with the dogs of their flocks and made these or such as these to be Rulers in all Lands the Justices of the peace that as the Prophet saith the Jewish Rulers would sell the poor for a pair of shooes so would these younger brethren that are to make their Fortunes for a Print of Butter or a groars-worth of eggs sell Justice and betray the right of their poor Neighbours Such Rulers and such Princes as no people in any Country would have endured the like to Lord it over them but those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Silly souls and poor spirited men whose hearts and courages the Lord hath taken from them and given up their best nobility and Gentry to be quite befooled besotted and bafled by such Baffoons when he intendeth to plague that Nation and utterly to lay all their glory and honour in the dust even as the Poet elegantly sheweth Hoc placet O superi Lucan Pharsal l. 1. cum vobis vertere cuncta Propositum nostris erroribus addere crimen Thus it pleaseth God when for their sins he intends to plague and to end the glory of any people to blind them so that they commit error upon error adding thirst unto drunkenness basenese unto their beastliness and Pharaoh-like harden their hearts in their follies that they cannot do what is honourable and what they ought untill they be destroyed and made Subjects to those that were their Servants But God tels the Jews that those new Kings of their own election were no Kings of his setting up nor any Princes of his making but of their own establishment Hos 8.4 Usurping Kings no Kings of Gods making and so meer Usurpers through the pride of their hearts and the violence of their hands such as Athalia was among that people and some others of our former Kings That I could name of this Land and therefore the Author of the Treatise of Usurpation saith That the people of any Nation do owe unto such Usurpers such Kings of their own setting up neither reverence nor obedience nor can any Officer with a safe conscience act under them Though I say not this which is true to deny that obedience to any Usurpers or to the unworthiest of our Rulers which may stand with Gods Word and may be yielded unto them without sin because I wâ—â—ld have no weak people stirred up to make an insurrection against their powerful Governours but when God that casteth down one and raiseth up another takes away the right of our former Princes and Rulers and suffereth others how mean or how base soever they be to step into their places and to sit upon the thrones of Majesty and the seats of Justice howsoever this be come to pass Deo permittente my advice is to all private men to rest themselves contented for the present and as the Apostle saith to study to be quiet and for peace and quietness sake to think it far better to obey than to rebel and to leave all things to Gods disposing Dan. 2.21 Rom. 8.28 2. The Antichrist will exalt himself above the Bishops qui disponit omnia suaviter and will set all things right in his good time and as S. Paul saith Worketh all things together for the best to them that love him 2. The Apostle tells us That as the Antichrist will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and exalter of himself above every one that is called God and that is principally as I shewed to you above his King because that in the first place the King is chiefly termed God so he will likewise be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lifter up of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is supra numen as Tremellius reads it or adversus numen as Beza renders it above all that is worshipped saith our last and the Geneva Translation and the meaning is in few words that the Antichrist will exalt himself above the Bishops and the Ecclesiastical Governours of the Church as well as above the King wich is the civil Governour of the Commonwealth for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word which the Apostle useth coming from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is read in prophane Authors as Pasor saith and signifieth colere that is religiously to worship or the thing that we worship for Religion sake from whence a Proselite or a religious man is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pious and religious person and all sacred and holy things that are dedicated and consecrated for Divine Service are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Religious things or things that appertain to Religion which made Beza and Tremellius to translate it Numen which appertaineth to God doth sufficiently make it plain and manifest that the Apostle meaneth here not the Emperour nor any other King or civil Magistrate which had formerly exprest under the name of God as some Interpreters without reason would have it because that it is said Act. 27.1 that S. Paul was delivered to Julius that was a Centurion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Augustus Band saith our Translation whereas it should have been translated of the Band of Augusta That by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostle meaneth the spiritual Governors of the Church or Augusta's band which was the wife of Casar and was stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Augusta as Caesar himself was called Augustus nam Augustos Graeci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vocant for the Graecians call Augustus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Maresius but the Apostle understandeth as I said the ecclesiastical Governors of Gods Church whom we reverence and worship for their callings sake even as the same Apostle injoyneth the same Thessalonians to hold them worthy of double honor for their works sake that is for the administration of the sacred Mysteries the preaching of the Gospel and the deliverie of the blessed Sacraments with the powring forth of their prâ—yers to God for a blessing unto the people and other the like religious acts and office they do in the service of God and above whom notwithstanding their sacred function and all the holy offices they do to God in the behalf of the people the Antichrist will exalt himself and throw those reverend Bishops whom all other good Christians honour unto the ground And therefore That the Pope cannot be here understood to exalt himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supra numen as this cannot be applyed to the Popes exalting of himself above the Emperors and the Kings of the earth because he had shewed this before how the man of sin would exalt himself above them and it had been but a frivolous repetition and tautalogie which S. Paul never used so suddainly to express the same thing twice and the later expression that should be plainer to be obscurer than the former contrary to all rules of Rhetorick so can it neither be any wayes applyed to the Popes exalting of himself above the rest of the Bishops and ecclesiastical Governors of the Church because he is one of those persons and a special one too whom the people worship and reverence for his calling and Religion sake and therefore it were a Solicisme and a very improper speech to say it was such a transcendent sin for a man that is worshiped for his Religions sake to exalt himself above him that is worshipped for his Religion sake which seems to be none other than to say he will exalt himself above himself or above those that are no wayes his superiors but his equalls at the most and at the best as many other men do besides the Antichrist But the meaning of the Apostle is that this man of sin being but a subject will notwithstanding lift up himself above his King that is in the place of God over him and being but a secular lay-person he will for all that exalt himself above his spiritual Pastors whom he ought to worship and to honour as all good Christians do for their offices and calling and Religion sake this is the true meaning of the Apostles words And whether the long Parliament and their adherents have not been Adversaries Let the Reader judg whether this he not fulfilled in the long Paliament opposed and exalted themselves above the most reverend of all the Clergy whom the people honoured and reverenced for their Calling and Religion sake and not only above the dispensers of the holy things and sacred Orders and the chiefest of all that have or ought to have any Government in the Church but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above all the formes of Religion and religious worship in the Church of Christ let the indifferent and judicious Reader judg of it 3. 3. That the Antichrist will be an Usurper and an intruder into the office of the Church Governors as well as of the civil Magistrate The Apostle still goeth on to explain his former meaning and to shew further the impieties of the Antichrist and saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that he sits in the temple of God as God which words immediately following 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that thing or that person whom we worship for religion sake doth likewise confirm the former exposition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie the Bishops and the dispensers of the holy things of the sacred Orders and of all the rest of the divine Mysteries because he exalteth himself above them to this end and for this very purpose that he as God may sit in the temple of God that is that he may be as well a Pope in the Church as a King in the Common-wealth the supream Governor and disposer of all things as well the Religious Worship of God as the civil Government of the people for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here which as Pasor truly saith cometh from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habito to dwell must not be raken for the Jews Temple at Hierusalem as the Greek Scholiast testifieth which is the error of some Papists What 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifieth and of Grotius also because Caligula intended to set up his Statue in that Temple under the name of Jupiter optimus maximus which notwithstanding was not done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but it must be understood of the Church of God where God dwelleth and in the same sence as our Saviour useth the same word in John 2.19 John 2.19 where he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 destroy this temple that is where the Godhead dwelleth and I will rear it up in three dayes for so the Church of Christ where God dwelleth is every where in the new Testament called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Temple of God as Ephes 2.21 Apoc. 11.19 1 Cor. 3.16 2 Cor. 6.16 and so Theophilact saith he shall sit non in templo specialiter quod est Hierosolymis sed in Ecclesiis simpliciter in omni divino templo not in the temple specially understood which is at Hierusalem but in the Churches simply and in every divine temple and S. Hierome saith in templo dei sedebit vel Hierosolimis Hieron q. 11. ad Algas ut quidam putant vel in Ecclesiis ut verius arbitramur he shall sit in the temple of God either at Hierusalem as some think or else in the Churches as we more truly suppose And this clearly sheweth that the seat of the Antichrist can be neither at Rome nor at Constantinople as I have shewed to you before unless you will yield That neither Rome nor Constantinople but the true Church is the seat of the Antichrist either Rome or Constantinople to be the truest and purest Church that Christ hath on earth because the Antichrist will arise and settle himself in that Church saith the Apostle which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the dwelling place of God and not where he hath dwelt that so he may do the most dishonour unto God and the most mischief unto his servants and God dwelleth in the purest Church no man can deny it and therefore the Antichrist must arise and inthrone himself in the purest Church as I have fully proved before and there in that Church saith the Apostle he sheweth himself as God or as Erasmus doth best translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 demonstro ostentans
boasting and bragging or prae se ferens as Beza translates it pretending that he is God or as Tremellius saith ostentet seipsum ac si Deus esset he will carry himself as if he were a God that is in Gods stead the true King to rule the people and the right Bishop to govern the Church of Christ or That the Antichrist will wholly direct the Clergy and dispose of all things in the Church and about the service of God as some do read it he would be esteemed and taken tanquam sit Deus for such a supream Monarch and chief Governor over Gods Church as God said unto Moses he should be to Aaron his God to direct him in all the service of the Tabernacle and the whole worship of God so will the Antichrist be such a God to order direct and dispose of all the worship of God and how all the Clergie in order and without order should behave and carry themselves in the whole service of the Church which I take to be the true meaning of the Apostle in this place For this shewing himself or bragging that he is God is not to be understood that he would have himself believed to be the true and everliving God and worshiped with divine worship as the Historians tell us Alexander Antigonus Augustus Caligula Domician and divers others of the Caesars and Emperors were transported to that height of pride and ambition as believing themselves to be more than men to require the people their subjects to take them for Jupiter Apollo or some other of those anciently esteemed Gods and to ascribe the honor and worship that was usually given to those Gods unto themselves as Altars Sacrifices and the like whereof Virgil speaking of Augustus saith Virgilius eglog 1. Illius aram Saepe tener nostris ab ovilibus imbuet agnus And Horace also saith Horatius epist. l. 2. Jurandásque tuum per nomen ponimus aras But the meaning of the Apostle is that this man of sin the Antichrist will bragge and boast unto the people that he is all for God and for the honor and service of God and therefore sits in the temple of God to set out the right directory of serving God that so God through him and by his only means and endeavors might be rightly served and worshipped according to his directory as the Mahometans worship Mahomet according to his Alcoran and we formerly worshipped God according to the form prescribed unto us by our Governors in the book of Common-prayer and so he sheweth that he is God that is most godly and so a God by the participation of the godliness and holiness of God which exposition doth most fitly agree with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what he sheweth himself to be which is the rediest way to deceive the people And whether the long Parliament hath not usurped this ecclesiastical power and jurisdiction over all the holy things Let the Reader judge whether this be not fulfilled in the long Parliament and to set forth the sole Directory of Gods service tanquam sit Deus as if they alone had Aarons Office to order all the other Priests and Levites or had the spirit of S. Paul infallibly to direct the Church of Christ as well as Moses his Authority and the power of a King to rule the people Let the Parishes and people of God that have none other form of Gods service but what the Parliament Preachers and the observers of their Directory do use be the Judges both of what service and of what Doctrine is brought unto them I make small account though I will not pass it unsaluted of that Observation which some men have made that the Parliament House where the members of the long Parliament sate Arise Evans in his Voice from heaven was a Chappel consecrated by King Edward the 3. to be the Temple of God as appeareth by many Records because many other Parliaments have sate in that Chappel and yet not any of them all have usurped this power to be the supream disposers and directors of all the holy service of God the Commanders of all the Bishops and Priests of the most high God how to do his service and what service should be done unto him and to make themselves the sole Possessors the right owners to dispose sell or give all the Revenues lands states Tythes and offerings of the Church as it is said the Antichrist would do and which he may no better nor so well do as Scyrus and Procrustes the two vilest robbers that we read of could take thy purse and all thy mony by the High-way side And here also I cannot omit to observe Note the word fit in the temple that the Apostle saith that the man of sin shall not stand but sit in the Temple of God where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifieth to fit as where it is said that Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 4.6 and 20.12 sate by the well and so the two Angells were seen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sitting in white raiments is to be distinguished from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which betokeneth and signifieth collocare to place or to set a thing in some place as it is where the Apostle saith if you have judgments of things pertaining to this life 1 Cor. 6.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 set such or place them to judg who are least esteemed in the Church and so where it is said that the Disciples brought the Asse and the Colt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as it is in some Copies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they set him Matth 21.7 or placed him thereon And therefore it is rightly concluded by Maresius that this sitting in the Temple of God is ill applyed by Grotius to Caius Caligula his causing of his Statue to be placed in the Temple at Hierusalem but it may most properly signifie the sitting of the Parliament Let the Reader judge of this or the like society of men in that place where they intend to acquiesce and rest themselves whether the place be physical or Metaphysical And whether the Parliament resolved not only to stand in that their dignity and Authority for a while or intended to sit and acquiesce and continue themselves and their Successors for ever in the Parliament-House and in the Temple of God to govern the Church of God as God themselves know best I will not judge of their Intention CHAP. VI. That the Antichrist is a great Professor of Religion and a seeming Saint That he belyeth his Profession and is indeed the greatest Hypocrite in the world What the great Lye of the Antichrist is What 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth What it is to deny Jesus to be the Christ And how the Father and the Son may be denied two manner of waies 2. THough I might go on
upon the transgressors then as is conceived the Pope ever did for the omission of his Breviary and Missal or the Turk for the neglect of using his Alcoran Yet as the Author of the French History relating the horrible rebellion of the holy Leaguers in France saith that the essential form of a zealous Catholick in this League was to rob and to prophane Churches ravish widows spoyl the Clergy and murder them even against and before the Altars Mercurius Rustic printed at Oxford and to vomit out all kinds of indignities and scandalous imputations against their King so the author of Mercurius Rusticus saith the Zealous Covenanters limbs of the Beast and members of the Antichrist the Proselites and adherents of the Long Parliament he doth not say the very members of the Parliament themselves have done the very same things if not worse and have out-gone and out-done those holy Leaguers and all examples of impiety in justice and wickedness and have also passed all Presidents of Sacriledge and prophanation of Gods Holy Worship So that whatsoever the old Eustathians Messalians Fratricelli and the rest of those hair-brain'd and mad Hereticks durst never attempt to do or say these holy Schismaticks and Covenanters that put no difference betwixt holy and prophane whether persons times places or things have acted ever with greediness and taken delight and pleasure in those that did them so as if the devil would shew in them the master-peece of all infernal impiety And what are these doings but as Christ saith of the Scribes and Pharisees that would be counted the only Saints among the Jews to sit in Moses Chair Mat. 15.3 Mar. 8.7.8 9. which they usurped and to teach for Doctrines the traditions of men that were indeed but the Doctrines of devils And as the Apostle saith to sit in the Temple of God as God When they have presumed to teach more errours and heresies than the Pope and the Romish Church ever taught and to act more impieties than the Turk or Mahometans ever durst presume or adventure to do Or as St. John saith here 1 Joh. 2.2 what is all the great profession of holiness that they make but a great lie When they say one thing and do another profess Religion and follow all Abomination and with the Jews draw near unto God with their lips Esa 29.13 and to have their hearts far enough from him And this is the first and main branch of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lyar Judge whether the long Parliament hath not fulfilled this when the Antichrist doth bely his Profession and his doings his practises and his works do rell and testifie to his face that all his words and sayings are very plain and palpable Lies 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lyar doth imply that the Antichrist is a great Covenant-breaker and a false Deceiver of those that trust him because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. By Covenant breaking and deceiving those that unst him that is derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doth properly signifie decipere fallere to deceive to couzen and cheat from whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a false brother and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a false witness is derived doth betoken a falsifying of ones faith and the breaking of the Oath and Promise that we make to any one So that from hence you may likewife see how that the Antichrist is an eminent Christian in Profession promising and vowing in his Baptisme to forsake the World the Flesh and the Devill and protesting in his words that he renounceth them all and yet but an hypocritical Apostata by all his Actions and demeanour both towards God and Men whenas he violates his Oaths falsifieth his Faith and breaks the Promises and Vows that he hath made to his God to his King to his Country and to all that trusted him and believed him to be such a Saint and good Christian as he profest himself to be But whether the long Parliament and their adherents have broken their Covenants and their Articles and deceived their King and their Country and have falsified their Oaths their promises and protestations both to God and Man I leave it to God and their Country to judge 2. The Apostle sheweth he meaneth not that every petty Lyar 2. What the great lye of Antichrist is whereof we have too too many in every place is the Antichrist or that the Antichrist is but a petite Lyar but his meaning is that the Antichrist is both an ordinary lyar cozener and deceiver of men and also an eminent notorious and a transcendent Lyar no small Lyar but a Lyar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beyond and above all other Lyars whatsoever for this great Lyar doth not only belye his holy Profession by his lewd and wicked actions as I shewed to you before and as very many other worldly men and nominal Christians do but he tells also this great lye this capital Lye the worst of all lies especially for a Professor of Christianity to lye that is to deny Jesus to be the Christ The Antichrist is a negative Lyar. which is a negative lie not the simple telling of an untruth but a malicious denial of the chiefest truth and the most beneficial truth of all truths to all mankind and therefore a lye worse than any other lye whatsoever and a lye that doth as you shall see hereafter co-incidate and cohere with that sin of the Antichrist that S. Paul meaneth that I have expressed to you before and doth make the esse formale the very very being of that Antichrist that could never devise a worser and a more pernicious lye than this and therefore in denying this truth in denying Jesus to be the Christ he denieth the Father and the Son and discovereth himself plainly by this denial of Jesus to be the Christ as by a proper undeniable mark and character to be that great Antichrist that was expected to come into the World For the better understanding of which great and special point whereby you may infallibly know the Antichrist you must consider these two things 1. 2. Special things to be observed What is the meaning of denying Jesus to be the Christ 2. Whom we can find to have denied Jesus to be the Christ and if we can find any that hath or doth deny Jesus to be the Christ than we have found the Antichrist let us take heed of him And for the clearing of the first point A special observation Luk. 12.8 9. Mat. 10.33 you are to observe here that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Lyar is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a denier of Christ or of Jesus to be the Christ and you know what Christ saith Whosoever shall confess me before men him shall the Son of man also confess before the Angels of God but he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the Angels of God or as St. Matthew saith more emphatically
say that we must understand not only the name Jehova and Lord and God and the other usual and proper titles and names of God which S. Hierome and others have collected out of the Scriptures but also any other thing that discovereth and maketh God known unto us as his works his word his titles his attributes and the like because God hath no proper name that can make him known unto us or fully express his nature and his being as God himself saith unto Moses Exod. 13.14 when he desired to know his name that he might thereby know him So whosoever denyeth the things and rejecteth the words notions and expressions that bring us to know God or to know the Father and the Son to be the true God doth therein and thereby deny God and is as the Apostle saith the great Lyar and the Antichrist that denyeth the Father and the Son Leber Secundus CAP. I. The measuring of the Temple the two Witnesses that should erect and build the Christian Church who they are how long they should Prophesie how they should be killed and used after their killing how they shall be resuscicated and revived and in what time they shall be revived after they be killed and of the great mystery of God what it is and when that shall be finished OUr loving Lord and Master Jesus Christ having left us here on earth was not like Pharoahs Butler so unmindfull of us as we are of him when he was glorified in Heaven but he sends his Angel to informe his best beloved Desciple and Servant Ichn of those chiefest afflictions and persecutions that the Christian Church should find and must so undergoe here amongst the Sons of men from that time that the Angel came unto him untill he should come to judge the World and to deliver his distressed Servants out of all their troubles To what end Christ foretells the troubles of his Church and he foretells us of them that they being foreshewed unto us we might the better either study by our endeavours and prayers to God wisely to prevent and avoyd them or manfully with Gods assistance to undergoe them which might the better and the more patiently be done being expected for to come quia tela previsa minus nocent because expected troubles are alwayes less dangerous and not any wayes so grievous as those that do suddenly surprize us and rush upon us like an A med man and this sad and wofull condition of the Church the Wars and Conflicts that she must pass through and the troubles and persecutions that she must suffer the Blessed Evangelist and Apostle St. Iohn setteth down in this book of the Revelation as the Holy Ghost by his Angel hath shewed them unto him And of all the things that are foreshewed I intend only to handle What things the Author chiefly aimeth to treat of by the assistance of Gods Holy Spirit and to treat in this place what I conceive to be the chiefest things that are observable in the 11th 12th and 13th Chapters of this Book of the Revelation and which are as I beleive principally meant or at least most probably applicable to these very times wherein we live and in all likelihood to this particular Church of great Britany and Ireland that to many men seemeth to be the Stage whereupon all or most of the sad spectacles and Tragedies here in these three Ghapters mentioned are evidently seen acted as they were foreshewed I confess the burthen that herein I took upon me is very heavy and the charge very great and I have often Prayed to the same Holy Spirit The weight of the burthen that he undertaketh that as Daniel saith giveth Wisdome and revealeth Secrets Dan. 2.21 22. and that hath revealed these secrets unto his Servant Iohn that he would be pleased to reveale the meaning of them unto me who without his help can understand just nothing but with his assistance may find out the true meaning of these mysteries which wiser men and greater Schollers without his help cannot do and herein I presume not positively to affirme any thing as Articles of Faith for others to beleive but I only do set down what I verily do conceive to be the true meaning of the Holy-Ghost and say with the Poet Si tu quid rectius istis Candidus imperti si non his utere mecum Now the summe of these three Chapters The summe of the three Chapters that are explained by the Author 11 chap. in brief is this 1. In the 11th Chapter the Angell setteth down to St. Iohn the state and condition of the Governours and Pastors of Gods Church the two Witnesses of Jesus Christ and their fiery tryall their persecution and their suffering under the rule and Reigne of the great Antichrist termed here the Beast that ascendeth from the bottomless pit 2. 12 chap. In the 12th Chapter he sheweth the troubles Crosses and Persecutions of the whole Church and the chiefest members of the same and how that notwithstanding all the malice of Satan and the spite of her persecutors the Church should be assisted and delivered from them all 3. 13 chap. In the 13th Chapter the Apostle describeth unto us the great Antichrist that should most of all persecute the Witnesses of Christ and the false Prophet that should instruct and instigate the Antichrist to proceed on in all his impieties and he sheweth the Combination of these two and of others the chiefest Enemies of the Witnesses and of the Church of Christ First 1. Of the measuring of the Temple and of the Worshippers therein Chap. 11.1 After that the Apostle had eaten 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the little book which the Angell gave him and was told by the Angell that he must Prophesie againe before many People and Nations and Tongues and Kings he saith there was given unto him a Reed like to a Rod or a measuring Pole and the Angel said unto him arise and measure the Temple of God and the Altar and them that Worship therein And we find that this measuring Reed was used sometimes to pull down to ruine and to destroy the measured place and sometimes to build and to reare up the same and some Interpreters whom E. H. followeth do understand it here for the ruine and Rejection of the Jewish people the dissipation of them by the Romans What is meant by the Temple that was to be measured The building of the Church of Christians and the end of their then Temple their Sacrifices and their Religion that was now approaching on and very nigh at hand but I rather conceive that by the Temple of God that was now to be measured we should understand the Church of God that is the Christian Church that was now to be edified to be reared up and to be reduced to a new forme and to have new Ordinances and new Sacraments far better then those that were in the Jewish Temple as Beza
saith Reason 1 1. Because the Old Temple at Hierusalem was already destroyed by Titus and the Jewes vanquished and scattered by the Romans after they had won their City before this measuring Reed was delivered unto the Apostle which was about the latter end of Domitians Reigne after the dectruction of Hierusalem therefore not likely that the Angel would give him a Reed to measure their dissipation after they were dissipated and their destruction after they were destroyed Reason 2 2. Because this Temple was committed to the two Witnesses of Christ as is plaine out of the third verse which Beza therefore Translateth by adding illam sciliet Ecclesiam that is the Church of Christ or illud scilicet Templum which signifieth here the same thing unto the words of the Text saying and I will give her that is the Church unto my two Witnesses to be instructed and to be governed by them and not as our last Translation hath it I will give power unto my two Witnesses but I will deliver my Church unto my two Witnesses to be guided and edified whereas the Jewish Church that was already dissipated and their Ceremonies now were to be quite abolished was rather taken from the Witnesses and the Witnesses from it and not given unto it to be edified by them when it was to be ruinted as the Apostle sheweth Reason 3 3. Because the Apostle is here likewise commanded to measure together with the Temple them that Worship in the Temple which therefore must needs be understood of their building up and not of their destroying when God will not destroy them that Worship him But the Court saith the Angel which is without the Temple and into which all sorts of people were admitted to come 2 Chron. 4.9 the same being answerable to our Church-yard leave out and measure it not saith the Angel and the reason is because this Common Court was given to the Gentiles that is not only to the Christian Church Apostatized to Idolatry as Mr. Mede saith but also to the Infidels Worldlings Mr. Mede part 2. page 3. Hypocrites and all other wicked and prophane people that were and would be such as those whom the Jewes termed Gentiles that is not the true Worshippers of God which notwithstanding are permitted to come to the Court of Gods house as the Gentiles were to the Court of the Temple and to be there in the materiall Church among Gods people and to seem to be as good Christians as the best and yet they are not measured to be built and to be made true Christians right Saints and Servants of God because they are as the Gentiles were accounted to be among the Jews that is not the right Worshippers and servers of the true God whom the Jews profest and believed that he was only known in Jury Psal 79.1 and his name only great in Israel as the Prophet sheweth but Idolaters and the Worshippers of stocks and stones and those Images that were no Gods for so are all the Hypocriticall professors and prophane worldly men and leud livers that will not be reduced and brought by the Witnesses of Christ to a better forme to be built in the true service of God and the right faith of Jesus Christ none otherwise then as the Gentiles were among the Jews not any of Gods people And these Gentiles that is these Hypocrites Worldlings and prophane people that are as the Gentiles were admitted to the Court of Gods Temple received into the visible material Church amongst Gods people are accounted as Gods Children and good Christians yet being not measured nor built by the Witnesses whom they regard not upon the right foundation that is truly ingrafted by a lively faith into Jesus Christ whom they refuse to obey and to believe in him shall at last faith the Angel that is when the two Witnesses shall have finished their testimony and that will be after 1200 and 60 dayes tread the holy City under foot that is How long the Wicked Worldlings should afflict the true Servants of Christ c. 13.5 most grievously persecute and vex the true Church of Christ and the Faithfull Servants of God that are measured and rightly built and instructed in the true faith and the right manner of Gods Worship by the Witnesses for the full space of 42 moneths which space and length of time doth sune chronize and is the very same space and exprest in the very same phrase that the Antichrict is said that he should continue to prevaile in the molesting and persecuting of the Saints and Servants of God which is 42 moneths cap. 13. verse 5. whereby it appeareth that these prophane Worldlings Hypocrites will be the followers and the adherents of the Antichrist that they will joyne with him to molest persecute the true Worshippers of God when he appeareth in the world untill which appearance and comming of him the true Christians which is the holy City shall be quiet in a faire manner and the two Witnesses shall have power saith our Translation to Prophesie and to build up the Temple of God that is to edifie and to instruct the true Church of Christ as Christ hath committed the same to be instructed guided governed by them Ther after that the Angel had commanded the Apostle to measure the Temple 2. Of the two Witnesses the Builders and Governours of Gods Church that the Christian Church might be edified and amplified by the labour and the Testimony of his two Witnesses he proceeds to describe the Witnesses that should erect and build up his Church and to shew their indowments qualifications and abilities and what things should happen unto them how they should be destroyed and yet restored againe But now touching these two Witnesses Who are to be understood by the two Witnesses the first thing that is most requisite to be known for the better understanding of all the rest of the things that are said of them is to find out who are meant by these two Witnesses this is the greatest question and most of all unconsented who they are for the most learned Cardinall of Rome quoteth 4 Penmen of the Holy Scriptures as Malachy 4. and 5. the Son of Syrach Eccles c. 48. 10. c. 44.16 S. Math. relating the words of Christ Math. 17. c. 11. and St. Iohn in this very place here treated of Reve. 11. c. 3. and to these he adjoyneth seven or eight Ancient Fathers and some other learned Commentators upon the Apocalips Bellarm. de româ—n pontific l. 3. c. 3. that do all say if we will believe his Interpretation of the foresaid Scriptures these two Witnesses are Henoch and Elias that shall come from the place where they are now preserved by God to resist the Antichrist when he commeth and appeareth in the world and to Preach unto the people that they should not be seduced by the Antichrist the which office they shall do for the space
godliness whereof Saint Paul speaketh 1 Tim. 3.16 that is the mystery of Christian Religion which is the greateft of all mysteries and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 termed the mystery of God and a mystery indeed to the World and all worldly men that know nothing and believe nothing of it shall then be finished and be at an end and what God hath declared unto his Servants the Prophets and the Prophets unto his People John 1.1 and c. 3.16 Jude Ep. v. 16. that God sent his Sonne his eternall wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the word God to be made flesh to save all that believe in him and repent them of their evill wayes and that this Son of God will come to receive the beleevers in him to everlasting life and to execute judgement and to render vengeance unto all the ungodly that will neither obey God nor believe in him and to cast them for their injustice and impiety into everlasting fire which is prepared for the Devill and his Angels shall then come to passe and the truth of this great Mystery which now the worldlings and Atheists will no wayes believe shall then appear most manifest unto all the Sonnes of men good and bad For though there be some other particular mysteries of a lower degree spoken of in Rom. 11.25 1 Cor. 15.51 2 Thes 2.7 Ephes 5.32 Revel 1.20 c. 17.5 and in other places of the holy Scripture yet this onely mystery is the great mystery and the mystery of God which is principally and most specially spoken of in the new Testament as the mystery that was hid from the ages Collos 1.26 and from the wise and prudent of this World and was declared unto all his servants the Prophets The great mystery of Christian Religion when finished and which shall be finished when the seventh Angel shall begin to sound whose founding shall put an end to the third woe and the 7 last Vialls of Gods wrath and shall begin the felicity of all Gods Servants And this I take to be the true sence and meaning of the Holy Ghost touching the particulars that are prophesied of and foretold us in this 11th Chapter of this Book whereof you may apply to these present times and our own proper Church what you conceive to be already fulfilled and may unquestionably be applied unto them and for the rest that is unfulfilled Predictions unfulfilled may easily be misapplyed I dare not presume to determine any thing for as the Philosopher saith de futuris contingentibus non est facile determinanda veritas so I say more truly de futuris praedictionibus aenigmatice praedictis to explain the predictions of the Prophets and the Prophesies of the holy Scriptures that are so mystically foreshewed unto us before they be fulfilled may as easily be mistaken and misapplied I desire the Reader to judge of things as he seeth them fulfilled Act. 1.7 as rightly expounded by the best Interpreters that can but conjecture at things to come especially for the times and seasons of their fulfilling which the Father hath put and reserved in his own power Therefore for our two witnesses of Jesus Christ that were here killed amongst us whether they be these two witnesses here spoken of in this 11th Chapter of this Book or not I leave it for others to determine I must leave them dead and unburied in the streets of the great City in the manner that I shewed you before and the people making merry feasting and rejoycing for their suppression and I hope we may without offence I am sure to all good Christians expect when the spirit of life from God shall raise them up again and accomplish the manner of their restauration to their offices and places which is yet unfulfilled and unbelieved especially in the little hope we have of the raising of the last which is the Ecclesiasticall witness but the time of their reviving is the more uncertain when it shall be because we cannot well set down the exact time when the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy chorus prophetarum were quite killed for though the beheading of the King and of the chief Pastor of our Church William Land is well known to a day yet the deadly wounds and strokes of the rest of the Bishops were many and not all imposed at one time but 1. They were thrust out of their unquestionable right of sitting as Peers and members of the upper House of Parliament which we confess was the royall favour of pious Christian Kings and Princes that conceived them to be fit men to be consulted with and was confirmed by many acts of Parliament unto them 2. They were put out of their calling whereunto God had called them and cast out of their office wherein Christ by his blessed Apostles had placed them and their Hierarchy was utterly denied them and their dignity trodden under-foot 3. The Hierarchy being like a great Oak had many stroaks to throwe it down Their whole meanes and maintenance the Patrimony of the Church which the Parliament gave not to them were taken from them and either sold or given away and most of the faithfull Ministers Livings were sequestred and bestowed upon young novices or worse and the godly Incumbents left with their diocessans either to live on alms if they have none other meanes or else to starve as many of them did want 4. They were excluded from all benefit of Law and all Lawyers Atturneys and Solicitors straitly prohibited to assist them in the legall seeking of their due and just right which was also a wrong to the Lawyers 5. They were silenced and made speechless by that Thunderbolt which proclaimed them enemies to the state and should be proceeded against as enemies if they presumed to open their mouthes to preach the word of God either publickly or privately which is their spirituall killing and may be feared to be the forerunner of their corporall slaughter But whether all those strokes afore spoken have laid the Ecclesiasticall witness down for dead or that yet some heavier blow then all those will be given them to make a finall extinction of them I am not sure and therefore I must at this time leave them either as the poor Traveller that fell amongst Theeves betwixt Hierusalem and Hiericho half dead and to expect their deadly wound or as the Levites Wife For an Army must be maintained to hinder their rising and that Army must be maintained by the sweat of the poor people quite killed and parted among the twelve Tribes of Israel and so must lie not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mouthless and speechless by this last blow that cannot be healed but even dead till the spirit of life from God shall rayse them up till which rising of them if they be these witnesses here spoken of Chap. 11. Revel the second woe shall not be past but afflictions shall be added to our troubles and sorrowes to our afflictions and
miseries to our sorrowes taxes upon taxes oppressions upon oppressions and troubles upon troubles more and more shall be powred out and heaped together to fill up the measure of the second woe that shall be inflicted for the killing of Gods two witnesses But if this stroke that makes them speechless be the last blow that killeth them and that our late ever blessed King and Bishops be the very witnesses that are here meant in this Chapter as I conceive they are then do I expect their rising and do hope their restauration will be about June 1660. that is just about 3 years and a half after this last blow was given and is the very time prescribed for their rising by the holy Ghost for you must observe that although the actuall and litterall killing of the King and the Arch Bishop was done long before yet this mysticall metaphoricall and civilly finall slaughtering of the Ecclesiasticall witness the rest of the Bishops was not till about Novemb. 1656. when this last blow was given them and therefore seeing the spirit of God doth not say that the two witnesses shall be killed by the beast at the same time but that after they are both killed and lain both dead 3 dayes and a half though the one of them hath lain dead somewhat longer the spirit of God shall raise them up What time should we expect the restoring of the King and the Bishops it cannot be expected that the time of their rising taken to be as most Interpreters take it for the set time of 3 years and a half or thereabout can be to either of them untill about June 1660. and it may be to the other a while after and not both raised together as they were not killed together but that as the one was the longer before he was killed so he should be the longer before he should be raised and to expect the help of him that shall be first raised to raise him also which we hope will soon be effected that we may render the prayses and thanks that follow in this Chapter unto our God CAP. II. Who is here meant by the Woman Cloathed with the Sun Cap. 12. Of the Revelation treateth who is meant by the Dragon and by the Man child when the Church began to be freed from her bloody persecution how long she was freed from it what is meant by the War of Michael and the Dragon the last bloody War and persecution of the Dragon how long it lasteth how the Church is relieved in this bloody persecution and Junius his interpretation of this Woman rejected 2ly AS the Holy Ghost setteth down the slaughtering of the two Witnesses 1. Of the Vision of the Woman and what it signifieth the Magistracy and Ministry the Civil and the Ecclesiasticall Governours of Gods Church by the Beast that ascendeth from the Bottomless pit that is the Antichrist and the reviving of them againe in their Successors and restoring them to their former state and condition to execute their Offices as before by the Spirit of God that hath done all this for them in the 12th Chapter of this book so here in this 12th Chapter he setteth down the State and condition of the Church it self how she shall be persecuted and afflicted both at first and at last in her beginning and throughout her continuance especially in the time and by the meanes of this beast that is the great Antichrist for as the Apostle saith V. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there appeared a great Wonder in Heaven that is in the aire which in this place is signified by Heaven as where the birds of the Aire are called the Fowles of Heaven and what may that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great wonder be Psal 104.12 Jer. 7.33 Ezech. 31.6 It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Woman Cloathed with the Sun and what meaneth that surely this Woman signifieth the Spouse of Christ that is the Church of God and this Church is Cloathed that is inlightened not with the new lights of Phantastick upstarts that are but old errours and heresies heretofore buried and now revived by our Novices Deut. 32.17 even as Moses saith unto the Idolatrous Israelites that their new Gods were nothing else but old Devills but this Church and Spouse of Christ was Cloathed with the old and unspotted light of the Sun which is the Fountaine of our light wherewith she was girded and compassed about as with a bright shining garment for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that cometh of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 circundo cingo to gird about signifieth and this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sun wherewith she was inlighted and cloathed is none other then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Son of God Malachie 4.2 John 1.9 Jesus Christ who as the Prophet saith is the Sun of Righteousness and the garment that the Apostle biddeth every Christian man to put on and so she was Cloathed and enlightened with the true light What is meant by the Moon that lighteneth every man that commeth into the World And this woman thus Cloathed had the Moon under her feet that is the true Church of Christ trampled all sub-lunar and mutable things as is the Moon under her feet as deeming them no better then dust and dross and things of no value as the Apostle speaketh or as Mr. Mede saith by the Moon we may understand the Mosaicall Ceremonies as the Jewish feasts of new Moones Mr. Mede Pag. 33. of the Passover of Pentecost and of Tabernacles that were all ordered and observed according to the motion of the Moone all which the Christian Church Colloss 2.14 as they were shadowes of things to come as the Apostle sheweth trampled under her feet and cast them all away when Christ the true substance of them came in place or else the Moon which God made to rule the night may signifie the power of darkness Gen. 1.16 What is meant by the Crown of 12 Starrs as the Worshipping of Idols and all the gentile superstitions there following after their Oracles and the like works of darkness which the Church of Christ quite Cashiered and abandoned And this Woman had upon her head a Crown of twelve stars that is as St. Ambrose saith the glorious and Heavenly Doctrine of the twelve Apostles that is briefly comprised and knit together like an unvaluable Crowne in the twelve Articles of our Christian Faith which these twelve Apostles have composed and delivered to this Woman for the instruction of her Children and which therefore should be deerer unto them then the fairest Crowne of the purest Gold v. 2. though now our Presbyterians have cast them quite away And she being with Child cryed travelling in Birth and pained to be delivered even as other women that are with Child use to do for the Church as Rabbi Kimchi saith is compared to a Mother Rabbi Kimchi Hos 2.2.3 in respect of Vniversality and
time of the persecuting Emperours but now after the death of Valens when Theodosius had freed the Empire from the Northern blasts and delivered the Church from those grievous troubles and molestations of the Arian persecution not much if any thing inferior to the Pagan persecution that the Gothes the Huns the Alans and the other cruel enemies under Gensericus Attalus Alaricus and others had continually brought as well upon the Church as upon the Empire the Church was neere her time that she should peaceably bring forth Children very plentifully unto God and that is to beget Christ by our Regeneration and to bring him forth by faith in the heart of many Sonnes and Daughters At what time the Church like a woman with Child was near the time of her Child-birth which is the Child that is now spiritually to be born in every true member of the Church in every Christian soul and in that respect as the throwes and pangs of the Church are the thicker and come the oftner by reason of the plenty of Children that she now brings forth so her pain and cry is the greater and therefore I say that this her travell was not in the time of Constantine that was born about 284 when the Church comparatively brought forth but very few Children unto God but in the dayes of Theodosius about 382. when those great lights aforenamed encompassed and cloathed the Church round about with the heavenly truth as with the glorious light of the Sun the Church did then most plentifully bring forth very many Children unto God and so her pangs were the more and her cry the greater Reason 3 3. Because that although Constantine subdued Licinius Maxentius and the rest of his and the Church his enemies and attained to the imperiall dignity to protect the Church of Christ as he did within his Dominions from all those Tyrants that formerly vexed and molested her yet it cannot be said that he should be able to feed or rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Nations but this power must be left to that Child whose Government is upon his shoulders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 2. Esay 9.6 the strongest part of his body to support it and is therefore able to rule them with a Rod of Iron even while he is a Child as being by reason of the hypostaticall union of the Godhead to and with the manhood of perfect power and ability to rule or feed the Nations Luk. 2.46 47. as he was of perfect knowledge and understanding to pose and to confute the Doctors which Constantine whose Government was in his hand by the strength of his Sword was not able to do for to this holy Child Jesus as St. Peter calls him God had given the Heathen for his Inheritance Act. 4.27 30. and the uttermost parts of the Earth for his possession which he gave neither to Constantine nor to the Pope nor Turk nor to any man else and therefore he onely and no man else but he hath right as well as power to rule them with a Rod of Iron and therefore when Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and people of Israel which two species comprehended all Nations of the World were gathered together in a confederacy against this holy Child Jesus and did to him what God before determined to be done Act. 4.27.30 yet did the Apostles then many signes and wonders by the name of the holy Child Jesus as Saint Peter freely telleth all his enemies Reason 4 4. Because that if Constantine should be meant by this Child that is here spoken of then many men might conceive that Helen his Mother must be understood by the woman that was cloathed with the Sunne and cryed to be delivered and being delivered fled into the Wilderness where she was fed 1200 and 60 dayes By this man-child is understood Jesus Christ spiritually conceived and brought forth in every Christian man Gal. 4.19 So Mr. Mede takes this man-child to be Jesus Christ p. 37. which is most absurd to imagin and therefore the other is as absurd to conceive And therefore I understand that by this Child is meant not Constantine but Jesus Christ not as he was born in Bethlehem of his Mother the blessed Virgin Mary which was past long before this time but of his spirituall birth by faith in the heart and soul of every true member of the Church that is here signified by this woman which cried to be delivered and to bring forth Christ into her member even as St. Paul plainly sheweth unto the Galathians saying My little Children of whom I travel in birth again until Christ be formed in you as the Child is formed in his Mothers womb where the Apostle useth the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to travel in birth as the Holy Ghost doth in this place for so doth the Church labour and travel as the Mother of a Child doth to beget and to bring forth Jesus Christ in every one of her members and as the Devill carried Christ himself as soon as ever he was baptized into the Wilderness where he sought by many temptations to overthrowe him so doth the same red Dragon the Devill watch and labour to destroy every Sonne of the Church as soon as ever Christ is begotten in them and to extinguish and devoure the spirit of Christ that is all the graces of Gods spirit as soon as ever they be regenerated and made the Children of the Church Christ is no sooner brought forth by them that is the grace of Christ doth no sooner appear to be in them but the Devill is presently ready to eat up all the graces the faith the hope the love and all the other fruits and gifts of Christ and to take them quite away from them But the love of God towards all sincere Christians is such and so great that he takes up every truly regenerated Child of the Church unto himself and to his own protection How God preserveth every faithfull Child of the Church and placeth them in his own Throne even the Throne of Majesty by advancing them to regall dignity and making them Kings and Priests to sit and to remain where himself resteth and delighteth to reside and that is among his chosen Children which is the Church of God where every faithfull Child of the Church shall be as safe from the malice of the Dragon as Noahs Children were in the Ark from the waters of the deluge Satan being not able to pluck them from thence out of Gods hands Object But against this you will say that this Child of the woman is to rule all the Heathen with a rod of Iron and to break them that are stubborn and refractory in pieces like a Potters Vessel and this every Christian Child that the Church bringeth forth cannot do Sol. I answer that we do not say the Christian child which is regenerated and brought forth unto God by the Church is the
come A speciall observation of the time of this rejoycing and not before because that till now the Church was exercised either with bloody persecutions from without or with intestine broyles and heresies from within but now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the accuser and false traducer of our Brethren the Holy Prophets and the Apostles of Christ by misapplying their sayings misconstring their words and perverting their meaning and making them to say that which they never thought as all Hereticks do being cast out of the Church and quite vanquished consuted and silenced 1. By the blood of the Lamb that is by the faith which the true Christians had in the death of Christ and by the patient sufferings of the Martyrs for the defence of that faith in the former persecutions both of the Pagans and Arians when they loved not their lives unto death but valued them as nothing and yielded them most freely for the maintenance of that Faith which they had in the blood of the Lamb. and 2. by the word of their Testimony that is the breif Articles of their faith and the uniforme rule of Serving God and by the constant firme and faithfull justifying and maintaining the truth of that Doctrine and Service which they professed and published unto the people against all Hereticks whatsoever Therefore now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 12. rejoyce you Heavens Use 12 1. The rejoycing of the Angels and Saints the Church tryumphant and militant for the suppression of the Hereticks and ye that dwell in them that is the highest Heavens and all you Blessed Spirits and Holy Angells that do rejoyce at the Conversion of one Sinner rejoyce now much more for these great Victories and especially for this last victory that Michael and his Angels hath obtained against the Dragon and his Angels and you the Metaphoricall Heavens the Churches of God wherein God resideth rejoyce you as you have most cause to rejoyce that the accuser of your brethren and the false traducer of the Apostles and Holy Fathers of the Church is cast out from amongst you and your Churches are purely reformed the doctrine of faith truely taught and the service of God righty administred and all errors heresies and superstitions swept out of the Church But woe to the Inhabitants of the Earth and of the Sea v. 12. that is Who are meant by the inhabitants of the earth and of the Sea to the Worldlings Hypocrites bloody men and loose livers for the earth signifyeth earthly men and the Sea is a loose roaring and raging element cold and moyst and therefore signifieth the loose and dissolute livers roarers and furious men that have not any heat of Love and Charity in them and those also that for the love of gaine and profit only and not out of love to benefit their Countrey and their Neighbours and to shew the bountifull goodness of God to all places but onely out of a covetous desire to inrich themselves do passe all Seas into all forreign Lands woe woe unto all those because that he which could not and can not prevail against the true Christians that do so firmly stand and so stoutly oppose him will be sure to catch these soon enough within his net and hold them fast enough to make them pay for all because as the Holy Ghost saith he hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great wrath and is exceedingly troubled and vexed not onely for his former foyl and his casting out of Heaven but also most especially for that now after these victories he knoweth or as the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he seeth that he hath but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a short space to recruit and to see if he can revenge his former foyls and therefore 2. 2. The bloody and the most malicious persecution of the Dragon after the suppression of the Hereticks He goeth presently among the Inhabitants of the Earth and of the Sea and perswades them to throw all the stones of the Earth and to stir up all the waves of the Sea and to use all possible arts to vex and oppress the woman and to overwhelm the Ship of Christ which is the Church in the Seas of all miseries and afflictions And so now the Dragon begins a fresh to rage and to persecute the woman saith the Holy Ghost v. 13. which brought forth the man-child and to vex and molest all her Children all the true and faithfull members of the Church whereof most of them especially her lay children were left prety quiet while the spirituall and dogmaticall warre lasted that raged most of all amongst the Clergy but now that warre being ended the Church reformed superstitions expunged and all the Heresies confuted the Dragon vanquished his Angels suppressed and the service of God purely and rightly discharged the true Church and all her members the corrupted unreformed Churches he hath them in his hands already so that he need not trouble himself to meddle with them are newly molested and exceedingly persecuted with great wrath saith the Angel and that is with a bloody warre and a greater warre and a far more unnaturall and unchristian warre and a more violent and more malicious prosecution of the warre and persecution of them that were quiet in the Land then ever was done by this Dragon at any time before this time And the reason of the exceeding greatness and sharpness of this persecution of the true Church The reason of the sharpness of this persecution shewed signified by this woman is not omitted to be set down by the Holy Ghost for the comfort and consolation of all the persecuted Saints and distressed members of Christ and for to incourage them with the more constancy to persist and to withstand the assaults of the Dragon unto the end and that is because the Dragon that in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had many hundred years to prosecute that heriticall and dogmaticall war yet now knoweth and seeth that he hath but a short time to rage and to wage this newly revived bloody war and therefore he must bestir himself or he shall lose his Harvest that hath but a short time to gather in his fruit and that time that he is permitted thus to rage against the woman as the spirit of God sets it down Cap. 12.14 c. 11 8 v. 11. c. 13 5. c. 11.2 is but a time and times and half a time which signifieth the three dayes and a half that the two witnesses of Christ shall lie unburied in the streets of the great City and the 42 moneths wherein the beast should prevail against Gods Servants and should tread the holy City that is the purest Church under feet for all these times thus exprest by severall termes and expressions The suppression of the witnesses and persecution of the Church the same time as of time times and half a time and three dayes and a half and 42 moneths and do synechronize and cohere for the
worthy of credit assure me they are for what Blasphemy in the world can there be greater then to make the Holy Spirit of God that flieth from deceit and dwelleth not in the body that is subject unto sin to be the foul Spirit of Darkness and the Author mover and promoter of such most horrid and execrable acts acts never acted by any Christians and but seldome if ever known by the worst of Pagans and never before adventured or invented as I conceive to be justifiable by the most impudent of all the Hereticks And besides all this have not their Assembly and Preachers Wisdome 1.5 as I told you before by consequent and in effect denyed the Father and the Son and so the Holy Ghost which is amor nexus spiritus patris filij Let the Reader judge what Blasphemous acts the Assembly of Divines and the adherents to the Parliament did and have they not obliterated and cashiered some of the chiefest heads and maine points of the long received truths of our Christian Religion and did not that Parliament Authorize that Apostate assembly and countenance the swarms of their lay-sword-Preachers to discountenance the 39 Articles of our Church to dispute about the expunging of the fift Article of the Apostles Creed to Antiquate the Lords Prayer out of the Church Service for fear that if they should use to say the same they should quench the Spirit as if the spirit of Christ would be offended with the Prayer of Christ and to turne out the long setled service of God and the book of Common-prayer out of the Church to give way as one saith well to a long-winded extemporary non-sence and Blasphemous repetitions Such Blasphemies as never were in the Church of Rome are broached in the books and Sermons of the Presbyterians and most sawcy expostulations with God in the steed thereof which is the readiest way to introduce Athiesme and to abrogate Christianity out of the world which is the desire of the Dragon and the proper work of the Antichrist And therefore the Religion of the Fauterers and adherents to that Parliament being but a meer complication and a syncretisme or rather a sink and common sewer of all errors Heresies and Blasphemies may we not well say that upon the heads thereof there is not onely the name but in the plurall number the names of Blasphemy especially if I should set down which would swell to a huge Volume all the Blasphemous tenents that some of their members many of their Preachers and more of their adherents have broached scattered and printed throughout these three Kingdomes since the unhappie birth of that most unhappy Parliament to most of the Kings most Loyall Subjects and so you see how this Appendix of the Beast may be said to cohere with that long Parliament Fiftly It is said v. 2. that this Beast was like a Leopard 5. The Beast was like a Leopard Jun. in annotat in loc As after the 2d Pun warr Maced Grec syria caeteraque omnia quasitorrente sequnta sunâ— Dan. 7.6 Vt loquitur florus l. 2. c. 7. Diodorus siculus de success Alexandr 2. and Junius following his former exposition saith this ought to be understood of the Roman Empire that was like a Leopard propter velocitatem by reason of their swiftness and speedy expeditions and their extraordinary successes to subdue their Enemies when their Generalls might say with Caesar veni vidi vici assoone as I came I overcame all the adversaries that opposed me whereby they have suddenly prevailed to inlarge their dominions over the better part of the then known world But indeed that Empire cannot be understood by this Leopard for Daniel speaking of the four great Empires of the world saith that the third Beast which betokened the Macedonian or Greek Empire was like a Leopard that is propter velocitatem by reason of the sudden increase and speedy inlargement thereof when Alexander the great did most suddenly in less then 10 years space subdue the Persian Monarchy and brought under his subjection the most part of the visible Dominions of the world and his Empire was as suddenly divided when he bequeathed the same to the Worthyest of his Captaines and almost as quickly againe translated unto the Romans and therefore I say that not the Roman Empire Eodem c. v. 7. 23. which was the fourth beast in Daniels Vision and had Iron teeth and stamped the residue of the Kingdomes with the feet of it but the beast that is the Antichrist which was typified by the little horne that came up among the hornes of the fourth beast â— v. 8. that Daniel saw is here likened to a Leopard and that not only propter velocitatem for the great speed that he maketh in all his actions but also in respect of all the other chief properties of the Leopard which is observed to be 1. The three properties of the Leopard Velox very swift 2. Crudelis very Cruel 3. Maculosus very much spotted And so was that many-headed beast that our Evangelift saw And truly I may justly demand if that these three properties of the Leopard might not be perfectly seen in the long Parliament The parallel for 1. 1. The great speed of the Parliament Were they not most swift in their expeditions and executions and subduing all that have opposed them either Domestick and homebred Enemies or any other forreigne foes and have they not conquered these three Kingdomes and prevailed more in less then ten years space then either the Warlike King of Sweden or any other King or Common-wealth if you consider all circumstances since Alexanders time 2. 2. The cruelty of the Parliamen As they were most speedy in their actions so I may demand if they were not as cruel in their executions and more cruell then all the examples that ever I found in any History to parallel them more cruel as it is conceived then John Vasilowich that was the greatest Tyrant of Russia and as they say greater then any other former Tyrant and yet he never persecuted any man as these men did onely for being loyall Subjects unto their King and faithfull Servants unto their God though we might say of Vasilowich that Saevior est tristi Busiride Saevior illo Qui falsum lento torruit igne bovem And therefore when I duly weigh the decenniall slaughters practised in these Christian parts by those that profest themselves to be the best Saints on earth especially when I consider not the bloudy killing of men but the many deaths that in a lingring death they have imposed on many good men and the piece-meale taking away of the lives of many quos oderunt gratis whom they hated without cause but only for seeking to do them the greatest good and to prevent the greatest evil that can be imagined from falling on them I cannot choose but cry out with the Poet O mites Diomedis equi Busiridis arae
servants to meet in to serve God and in which God sheweth his will and promiseth his blessing and his presence among his people for this is the place where Gods honour dwelleth and is most perspicuously seen here on earth because he is most honoured in this place Psal 51.1 and of this place and the type thereof which was Moses his Tabernacle the Prophet David demanded of God Who shall dwell in his Tabernacle and saith Psal 122.1 that he was glad when the people said unto him We will go into the House of the Lord. And truly this material house and place dedicated and consecrated for Gods service our Saviour Christ out of the Prophet Isay calleth Gods House and saith it is so called Mar. 11.17 and to be called not of the Jews onely but of all Nations the House of Prayer and so we find that this Tabernacle Temple and house of God hath been ever reverenced and beautified as the holy Sanctuary and dwelling-place of God by Jews Turks and Papists yea and the very Pagans that knew not the true God Act. 7.48 but knew that as Solomon and Saint Steven do say that he could not be circumscribed in any place and therefore dwelleth not essentially in Temples made with hands when as so the heaven of heavens cannot contain him yet did they very much honour and adorh the Templess that were dedicated to the service of any of their false gods as Herodotus writeth Herodotus l 1. Clio. how exceeding bountifull Craesus King of Lydia was to the Temple of Apollo at Delphos and to the Oracle of Amphiaraus and so many other heathens spared no cost to inrich and beautifie the Temples of their idols and the neglect of this duty of beautifying Gods House as well as the prophaning thereof is every where most sharply reproved by the Prophets as where Haggai demands of the Jews if it were time for them to dwell in sieled houses and to suffer the House of God to lie wast Haggai 1.4 Matth. 21.13 and you know how our Saviour Christ blamed the Jews for making the House of God a house of Merchandise and yet their Merchandise was not within the Temple but in the outward Court of the Temple which was answerable to our Church-yard and was also called the Temple because it was very fairly and strongly walled about and preserved from all prophane uses untill these prophane men began to abuse the same And therefore it is admirable to consider how the Primitive Christians Euseb l. 10. c. 3. and c. 4. as Eusebius recordeth erected such Oratories and Basilica's that is Royal houses as stately as any Kingly Pallace and beautified the same with excessive charges for the Christians to meet in and to serve their God and so the Church of Saint Paul in London and of Saint Peter in Westminster and the rest of the Cathredrals throughout Ingland and Ireland to passe no further can bear sufficient witnesse of the zeal and devotion of our Christian Predecessors to erect such great and adorn such beautifull houses unto God as became so great and so glorious a God as our God is And to prove that the first Christians who lived under persecutions even from the Apostles time had Churches though as then not so magnificent you may see 1 Cor. 11.8 and 22. and c. 14.19 and 23. Clemens recognit l. 10. Tertul. l. contra Valent. Socrates l. 1. c. 14. and so the most ancient of the Fathers do bear witness as Clemens Tertul Socrates and Eusebius proves the same out of the book of Philo Judaeus l. 2. c. 17. and Lactantius in carminibus de Passione Domini saith Quisquis ades mediisque subis in limina Templi Siste parum Whosoever thou art that comest to the House of God stay a while that is to consider where thou goest and as Solomon saith Eccles 5.1 to keep thy foot when thou goest to the House of God which is as God himself expoundeth the meaning thereof unto Moses saying pull off thy shoes from thy feet that is to make clean thy wayes Exod. 35. and bring no filth nor any carnal affections or wordly desires into the house of God because the place whereon thou standest is holy ground by reason of the gracious presence of God in that place where Moses stood and where God is prayed unto and praised by the Minister and the rest of his faithfull servants Bellarmin de cultu Sanctorun l. 3. c. 4. Let my Reader judge whether this Prophesie be not fulfilled by the long Parliament or their adherents The Parallel and if any man defires fuller proof of this truth I refer him to Cardinal Bellarmin and to the excellent and learned Sermon of Mr. Mede upon 1 Cor. 11.22 And yet I demand if these houses of God the Tabernacles of the most high that were thus consecrated beautified and adorned in the best manner for the Christians to meet for the service of Jesus Christ were not most barbarously prophaned and most odiously blasphemed by the Members of the long Parliament and their adherents the instruments of the Beast for if you read Mercurius Rustiens or the Countrey Complaint Printed at Oxford you shall there find how the Cathedrals which are the Mother Churches and the chiefest of the material or inanimate Tabernacles of God that are in Ingland as the places where the Sacred fire never went out and where the morning and evening Sacrifice of prayers and praises of God were alwayes used and the Ministers How the long Parliaments Party abused our Churches together with their Bishop praying in the Church for them that laboured in the field or pleaded at the barr were defaced prophaned polluted and abused by the servants and the instruments of that Parliament and not onely made Stables for their horses Jakes for themselves and brothel-houses for their wenches whom they abused as is there said at the very Altars but also had I know my self their windows broken their carved works burned their fonts where themselves and their fathers received their Baptisme and the badge of their Christianity thrown out of doores and the dead bodies of Gods Saints not permitted to rest in their graves but their memorials and statues that wronged no man I am sure of it were backed and bemangled by pulling out their eyes cutting off their noses chopping off their Arms and tearing the other parts of them all to pieces and the Swine were suffered to root up their flesh In all this I say but what I do professedly known having seen the same with mine eyes and the dogs to gnaw their bones as if they had been the bones of beasts and not of men such inhumane dealings with dead Saints that were interr'd in holy ground as Savages and Cannibals could not exceed in cruelty and beastiality And what is this but to blaspheme God and his Tabernacle with the highest degree of blasphemie that can be imagined to be
which as the Apostle saith no man should assume Heb. 5.4 but he that is called of God as was Aaron And I would to God I might see the like good Josias that would deal in like manner with the Ministers of the Beast or at least some other way stop the mouths of these base unworthy and unlawfull Priests and most ignorant Preaches of Blasphemous Doctrines that do now abuse Gods Service and broach such damnable Heresies and wicked Errors as are able to Poyson the souls of the simple people 2. The other device of Jeroboam was 2. To do the Service of God in unlawfull places Deut. 12.5.11.13 14 26. to appoint the service of God to be done in Dan and Bethel when as the Lord required they should serve him in the place where he should choose and this place for the Israelites before their settlement in Canaan and the building of their Temple was in any place where the Ark of God resided in the Wilderness in Shilo in the house of Obed Edom and after their setling in the Promised Land and the subduing of their Enemies by King David it was to be done in Mount Moriab where Abraham was commanded to Sacrifice his Son Isaac otherwise called as it was afterwards Mount Sion where the Son of God of whom Isaac was a type was Crucified for us 2 Chron. 3.1 and which David took from the Jebusites and built it round about from Millo and inward and called it the City of David where he intended to build an house to God in the threshing floore of Arnon or Arauna the Jebuzite where the Angel appeared unto him 1 Chron. 17.1 and he built an Altar and offered Sacrifice unto the Lord and where the Arke of God should be placed and God should be there publickly served by all the people of Israel after that time but the Prophet told him 1 Chrou 21.18 c. 22. that the Lord accepted of his intention yet because he was a man of War and had shed much blood wherein the Lord taketh no delight though it was the blood of Gods Enemies he should not build him any house because Gods house is not to be built in blood 2 Chron. 3.1 c. 6. See Eusebius his Ecclesiasticall History l. 10. c. 3. 4. and there you shall find the particulars of the Temple and what every thing signified Esay 5 6 7. Jerem. 7.10 11. Math. 21.13 Mark 11.17 How God requireth to be Worshiped 1. At the time that he appointeth Exod. 20. c. 12.18 2. By the Priests whom he chooseth nor with the Sword as now the new builders of the Beast have and do most eagerly strive to build it but Solomon his Son that was the Son of peace should build his house in that very place where he intended it and God commanded Solomon so to do which he did accordingly as you may see in 2 Chron. 3.1 c. 6. where you may read the Prayer that Solomon made at the Consecration of this house and the benefits that they should reap which served God in that house And I desire every good Christian to read over that Chapter at his leasure and to read it often and then seriously to consider it and withall to remember that of this and the like consecrated place that is dedicated for Gods Worship the Prophet Esay saith it should be called of all Nations the house of Prayer therefore not of the Jews only but of the Christians also and the Prophet Jeremy saith the same and our Saviour Christ confirmeth it and no marvel for God will be served 1. In the Time That he himself appointeth 2. By the Persons That he himself appointeth 3. After the Manner That he himself appointeth 4. In the Place That he himself appointeth 1. As he will be served at all times so specially at that time which he pleaseth to prescribe as you may see in the 4th Commandement where he chargeth us to remember to keep Holy the Sabbath day and in Exod. 12.18 he chargeth the Jews to observe the 14th day of the first moneth to eat unleavened bread and whosoever neglected to observe this time that soul should be cut off from the Congregation of Israel and this he repeateth againe in c. 13.5 2. As God will be served in the time that he prescribeth so he will have his service performed by the persons whom he chooseth and good reason he should have the honour and the liberty to chose his own Servants when a mean man will scarce indure to have Servants of another mans choice intruded upon him therefore Christ did choose his 12 Apostles and the 70. Disciples and the Evangelist tells us he hath chosen quos voluit whom he would and not those that would be whether he would or not 3. 3. With the service which himself prescribeth He will be served with that service which himself by his Prophets and Apostles hath prescribed in the holy Scriptures and not as every upstart novice deviseth which being not according to the received service that is deduced by the grave Governours of the Church from Gods word is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a will-worship no wayes accepted by God but rejected and reproved as Idolatrous by the Apostle and demanded by the Prophet quis requisiuit haec who required these things at your hands wherein you please your selves and not God 4. 4. In the place where the Lord commandeth As God will be served in the time that he appointeth and by the persons that he chooseth and after the manner that himself ordaineth so he will be worshipped in the place that he commandeth for you may see in Levit. 17.8 how the Lord professeth that whatsoever man there be of the Children of Israel or of the strangers that sojourneth among them Levit 17.8 that offereth a burnt-offering or Sacrifice and bringeth not the same unto the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation i.e. the Church-door to offer it unto the Lord even that soul shall be cut off from among his people Exod. 23.19 and in Exod. 23.19 he saith That the first of the fruits of the Land they should bring into the house of the Lord Exod. 25.8 and in c. 25.8 he chargeth them to make him a Sanctuary or a Tabernacle i.e. an holy House or Temple consecrated for his service that he might dwel among them And therefore the Prophet David before the Temple was built desired that he might dwell in his Tabernacle and saith that he was glad when the people said we will go into the house of the Lord Psal 27.4 that was the Tabernacle which Moses appointed to be made by the Commandement of God for the place where God should be worshipped Psal 122.1 Joh. 18.20 before Solomon had built his Temple and when Christ came he did frequent the Temple and saith I ever taught in the Synagogue and in the Temple that is for the most part and
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
the greatest Doctors and best Scholars in Gods Church must follow Saint Augustines rule to understand Gods word S. Augustines rule how we may come to understand the Scriptures where he saith agant orando querendo legendo bene nivendo ut intellig ant that is earnestly pray to God for the assistance of his Spirit and diligently to search and seek by continual studies in the reading of Gods words and consulting with the best learned Authours which God hath given for our help and constantly to lead an upright and a holy life that God may be intreated by these means to enlighten their understanding that they may understand his revealed will And now all the premises considered I demand how dares the Lay-Preacher the rustick Plow-man and the City trades-man and the blood-thirsty souldier with their miry shoes upon their unwashen feet approach to that place of Gods presence which Moses himself while he was thus was forbid to do and there with defiled hands and prophane mouthes not rightly divide the word of God but most miserably to teare and Massacre the Holy Scriptures so shamelesly that it would make not onely our eares to tingle but also our hearts to tremble when we consider how the Divine Truth is abused and the Name of God blasphemed by these rude and ignorant Interpreters that are the best Seedes-Men in the World to sow the Tares of errors heresies and blasphemies among the pure wheat in the field of Gods Church because as St. Augustine saith hine ownes Hereses The premises teach three things dum Scripturae bonae intelliguntur non bene all heresies do spring from hence when the good Scriptures are ill interpreted So this that I have shewed of the difficulties of many places of the Scriptures and how hard it is to explaine and to reconcile them should teach us these three things 1. It should deterre and stop the presumptuous attempts of ignorant men from medling with the interpreting of Holy Mysteries 2. It should move all good people to love and honour all those learned Clergy that are able to Teach them the Truth and to unfold the Scripture truely unto them and not regard the bawling and barking of those whelpes that speake against Learning and Learned Men for if many of the Apostles were unlearned God inabled them with the gifts of Tongues and fitted them with learning Miraculously Act 14.12 2.1 2 3 4 c. and doth not that Miraculous descending of Learning and Languages upon the Apostles shew unto us how necessary Learning and Languages are for the Ministery or is the Learning of St. Paul any thing the worse because he had it not miraculously he needing it not so but in an ordinary way being brought up at the feet of Gamaliel so is Learning and the gift of Tongues now any thing the worse because we have it not as the Apostles had it miraculously but in an ordinary way as St. Paul had it and left more ample fruits of it unto the Church then most of them that had it miraculously But the truth is that Learning and the understanding of Arts and Tongues howsoever gotten in an ordinary or an extraordinary way miraculously or by industry it is from above and a speciall gift of God for so the Scripture saith the Lord hath given me the tongue of the Learned Esay 50.4 and therefore learning is not to be slighted nor these Lay-Preachers that want it to be regarded because the Scripture cannot be vnderstood nor the Divine Mysteries well expressed without a competent measure of Learning and Languages even as the Apostles themselves could not well do it untill they received the same miraculously 3. It doth in the second place make good my second Argument and sufficiently prove these Lay Preachers to be one of the heads of Cerberus and a speciall branch of this false Prophet here spoken of because of tâ—eir ignorance and want of good literature to inable them to expounâ—d the Scriptures Why the Presbyterians charge the Roman Clergy to be this false Prophet And neither of both these Arguments can be justly urged and applyed against the Roman Clergy to prove them to be this false Prophet as Junius and our Presbyterians would have them to be but as the Fox that being hunted for his knavery shewed a hare unto the hounds that the dogs running after the hare he might laugh in his sleeve and passe away so they by making the people to believe that the Priests and Jesuitâ—s are this false Prophet do think that themselves may pass unsuspected and to be taken for the true Ministers of Jesus Christ For though materialiter they of Rome may as they do Teach many points of false Doctrine yet formaliter The Roman Clergy are noâ— liable to these reasons that demonstrats this false Prophet they cannot be said to be this false Prophet modo forma as he is here described 1. Because they are by a successive unbroken line from the Apostles time lawfully called and Ordained by prayers and the imposition of the hands of those that have the Lawfull Power and Authority to ordain them none dares in that Church intrude himselfe into any of these Sacred Functions but such as are lawfully admitted into Holy Orders 2. The works of those Clergy men do sufficiently demonstrate they are no ignorants but learned enough in all arts and sciences if they had the grace to make a right use of their learning And here before I passe from this point you must know that we have now two sorts of Lay-Preachers 1. One without any Ordination And this 2. The other of a false Ordination And this False Ordination that is done only by other Presbyters without the Bishop is no Ordination at all no otherwise then when my Lord Chancellor makes one a Justice of Peace and that Justice of the Peace will presently take upon him to make others Justices of the Peace like himselfe and you know the Authority of such second Justices is of no validity because the one had no power to give it nor the other any right to use it and so it is with those Presbyters that are made onely by the Presbyters they are none other then meere Laicks 2. 2. The Independant another branch of the false Prophet Another head of Cerberus and a speciall branch of this false Prophet is the Independant and this Independant is but a bastard Presbyterian or an illegitimate child begotten of the luxurious seed of the Prtsbyterians and the frothy sperme of the fanatick people that disdains as much to be subject and guided by the Classis of the Presbyterians as the Presbyterians do kick against the Government of the Bishops and both the one and the other do spring from the same root of pride and ambition and they run the same way of disobedience and opposition to their lawfull Governors and they aime at the same end to be Masters and Rulers themselves and therefore
such affectionate addresses and passionate prayers for the continuance of Richard Cromwell in his Protectorship as may be seen in their Diurnalls and inquire if any one of the Bishops or of all the Episcopall party did the same and then to consider whether such men that are so unjust to their King to their Civil Governors be fit men to be made Governors of the Church of Christ as they imitate this malicious King in their actions so they are the disciples of railing Rabsheca in their Sermons for letting passe those doctrines that derogate from the goodnesse truth and justice of God they stuffe their Sermons with most unsavory expressions and ridiculous things in the eares of men as a Presbyter Preacher in Christs Church said that hell was paved with Kings Crowns and Bishops sculls another said that God might as rightly be said to be the Authour of sin as of Monarchy and a third said that Monarchy was such a beast as he would venture his life to fight against it these and the like were the doctrines of this beast and yet now who pretends to be more zealous to reduce our David to his throne then these Presbyters when as other men knowing their doings think it strange they should have the impudencie to look any King in the face And to justify what I say of these Presbyters the chiefest branch of this false Prophet as I will not refuse a pearle from a dung-hil so I will not disdain to alledge the testimony of George Fox the younger in the eleventh page of his book whose copy was delivered into the hands of his Majesty the fourth day of the fourth moneth 1660. where he saith unto the King if thou shouldst come in upon the account of the Prethyterians or shouldst refuse to bow to what they should set up or not Jatisfy the covetousnesse of their Priests there be several of them would be ready to serve thee as they did thy Father and a little after he saith how abominably have these durty deceitful covetous Priests acted in all these changes i.e. which he had formerly spoken of Oh! it is hard to utter their deceit who one while have prayed for a King and Parliament and when they saw the King was like to fall and no ways likely to maintain them they turned against him and prayed onely for the Parliament and asserted their authority and cursed them that would not go out to help against the mighty and shortly after when Oliver Cromwell had turned out the Parliament and set up himself they cryed him up and prayed for him and many of them began to assert his authority to he just and when he died many of these Preachers began to addresse themselves to his Son and fawned upon him that he might provide for their God which is their belly and they appeared to be sorrowful for his Fathers death and blasphemously termed him the Light of their eyes and the breath of their nostrills and they told Richard that God had left him to carry on that glorious work which his Father had begun and some of these Preachers compared Ol. Cr. to be like unto Moses and Rich like unto Joshua who should carry them into the promised land and how soon did some of them turn to cry for a Parliament again when the Army turned out Richard and when George Booth made a rising then they cried out against the Parliament and began to curse such as would not go out against them and when George Booth was taken they petitioned to the Parliament to excuse themselves and that they had no hand in the rising and now they are for thee O King and if thou wilt believe them thou art worthy to be deceived by them But I should be overtedious if I should relate unto you the abundant blasphemies of their vile Doctrine Which you may find at large in Arise Evans his Euroclydon per totum and obliquity of all the actious of these new Presbyters and their Proselites and therefore I will pass to those things that are here mentioned and shew the description of this second beast as the H.G. doth here set it down and leave my Reader to judg whether they be not all fulfilled and every way appliable to our Presbyterians to prove them and none else to be this false Prophet here mentioned in this Book of the Revelation Where notwithstanding I would have you to observe that there are two sorts of the now and new Presbyterians that is 1. Rigidi superhi ambitiosi 2. Moderati molles timidi 1. The proud ambitious and rigid Presbyters that sate at Westminster like the Synedrion under Cayphas an Assembly of Divines that chalked out the way for the rest to follow them in their extravagant and exorbitant courses and these are the partes constitutivae the chiefest and the principall parts of this false Prophet 2. The moderate remisse and fearful Presbyters are such as to preserve their livings do unwillingly observe the Directory of the rigid Presbyters that are here so amply described by the holy Ghost and do in all things correspond and are conformable to every point of the description of this two-horned beast as hereafter I shall shew unto you The seed of this beast though begun to be sowen When the seed of the beast was first sown in the Church as the Apostle saith of the my tery of iniquity by Simon Magus Ebion Cerinthus Nicholas and the like in the first age of the Church yet did not this beast shew his hornes nor this mystery so visibly with any strength appear in our Church of Great Britain till now of late Indeed when the godly professors of the Gospel in King Edward the sixth his time and in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths reign began to fow good corn in the field of this our Church and to make a reformation and a rooting out of those weeds of superstition that the Ministers of the said mystery had spread and now began to be discerned among the wheat then presently the envious man super-seminavit Zizania that is When Puritanisme began amongst us in these dominions which you may see more fully shewed in Mr. Fullers History of our Chuch Brightman in Revelat. c. 2. Detrahunt noâ—is perimus detrahunt Canoni veritati non detrahant Aug de verbis Aposteli Sermone 14. And so may we say of these men the devill stirred up his seeds-men John Knox in Scotland and Thomas Cartwright in Ingland to mingle our wine with wormwood and to scatter darnells and tares among our good wheat whereby they infected very many with an epidemical and most deadly disease then termed Puritanisme the offspring of the old Catharists that is a dissembling pharisaical purity and pretended holinesse far excelling the rest of their brethren both in life and doctrine especially in the conscientious refusall to subscribe and to submit themselves to the established Liturgy and the orderly observation of the discipline and
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beast speaketh like the Dragon that is though their words are pretended to be the words of Christ yet that which they aim at to effect are the plots of the Dragon and I beseech you mark it the first beast had a mouth like a Lion but this second beast spake like the dragon and why so because the first spake Magnalia great and glorious things what would they not do The paralel if they might have what they desired so you may remember what fair promises the Parliament made unto the King and the second spake mendacia lies and falshood which is the first language of the old Serpent the devill who is a lyar from the beginning and the father of lyes saith our Saviour Job 8. John 8. and so is the false Prophet and as the Dragon cloathed his lyes with sair speeches and large promises saying you shall be like Gods knowing good and evill so the Apostle tells us Rom. 16.18 2 Pet. 3.26 Mat. 4.6 these false teachers that make divisions in the Church and Rebellions in the Common-Wealth and dissentions among neighbours do with good words and faire speeches deceive the hearts of the simple and what are those good words but the very words of the Holy Scriptures then which no words can be better yet St. Peter tells us the Scriptures may be wrested abused and misapplyed as the Devill did to Christ and so do the false Prophets Trenens l. 1. c. 1. for seeing they come in sheeps clothing it behoves them to bring nothing but good words even the most blessed words of the Holy Scriptures in their mouthes but as Ireneus speaketh adaptare â—upientes ea quae bene dicta sunt iis quae male adinuenta sunt ab ipfis they are alwayes striving to fit those things which are well spoken in the Scriptures to what they have misinvented so did the Valentinians to establish their thirty couples of Gods and Goddesses so did the Arians to deny the Divinity of Christ so do the Papists to justifie their Purgatory and so this Beast the Presbyterians and their Disciples do to uphold all the wicked Tenents that they have invented to oppose their King to expell their Bishops and to extirpate our Lyturgy and service of the Church out of the Church and to spread many other points of their desperate Doctrine which is if any thing be the Language of the Dragon though they speak it in the good words of the Holy Scriptures and fair speeches which is a counterfeit shew of much purity and holiness that so with this shadow of piety they might the sooner make the people believe they are the onely Saints Stap in his counter blast and their words the very truth and language of the Lamb. And I think the adherents of the Long Parliament and this false Prophet scattered as many lies in their Bookes and Pamphlets as Stapleton collecteth out of Bishop Horne if we had but such another Stapleton to pick them out and if you can name any Pope that published more lies then this false Prophet I shall subscribe to the opinion of the Prosbyterians that he is the beast which speaks like the Dragon But Sir John Presbyter confesseth that although they pretend nothing but Scripture yet the Blasphemies Treasons Heresies Incongruities Tantalogies and Absurdities of his brethren and children the Presbyterians in the large measure of their Prayers and Sermons observed by the people hath been a great cause of his untimely death p. 5. 3. It is said v. 12. that this two horned beast exerciseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Power of the first beast or rather all the Authority which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth more properly fignifie and he causeth the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast Bezius de regno Ital. l. 4. c. 5 1. c. 6. which cannot be applyed to the Pope and his Cardinalls that say the Temperall Sword is and ought to be subject to the Spirituall as Bozius Hostiensis Bellarmine and the rest of that Church do avouch and I shewed you before how this false Prophet the Presbyterians Independants and Lay-Preachers did all that they acted by the Authority aud under the Power of the Parliament Hostien in can quod supor his c. Bellarm. de rom pontif l. 5. c. 5. The parallele Of the power of the second beast plainly fulfilled in the Presbyterians and therefore they Preached and perswaded all men especially the Inhabitants of the earth as the holy Gh. saith all such as were as earthly and as worldly minded as themselves to adhere and to assist the Parliament against the King and his Party which is just as is the worshipping of the first beast that is the temporall state and which is and hath been alwayes the property and practice of all false Prophets to shelter themselves as the Arians did under Constantius and to further their Projects under the wings of their Powerfull Protectors whom they do therefore magnifie perswade all others to worship them that they might thereby effect their own wicked deeds and be secured from the Power of the Church Then 4. Of the miracles of the false prophet 4. It is said v. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he doth great wonders where I take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not for a disjunctive or causative as Mr. Mede takes it but as it is commonly used for a copulative to that which went before as that this second beast used the Power and Authority of the first beast and being protected and furthered by the Power and strength of the first beast they did thereby great wonders and so St. Paul saith 2 Thes 2.9 the Antichrist should come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with signes and lying wonders and our Saviour saith Bellar. Antichr prodigia potius praestigia daemonum mera mira quam vera miracula statuit de notis eccles c. 14. the false Christs and Prophets that are the followers and promoters of the Antichrist should arise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and should shew great signes and wonders whereby you may see that both the beast and his instruments the Antichrist the false Prophet and the whole troope of his disciples shall pretend to shew signes and wonders to deceive the people and the signes that they shew are just like the signe that Judas gave unto his followers a kisse which is a pretence of love and great kindnesse but it was both destructive to Christ and deceitfull to the followers of Christ so the beast and the false Prophet do kisse those their Proselites with good words and faire promises whom they intend to allure to foule acts and to betray them to evill enemies and so the people are thereby deceived and the Church of Chrift destroyed But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a wonder which the false Prophets are said by Christ to do Aquinas in 2 Thes 2. Prodigia quasi
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
Rome for as the Prophet saith that the Lord would search Ierusalem with candles so have our men searched everie corner of Rome that there is not a stone of it unfound out but everie point of the Popes faith Zephan 1.12 and everie act of his Court and of his Councill are all discovered to the world and if I did the like to Constantinople or Paris or Antwerp or London or any other such great Cittie as Rome is Perphaps I should finde as many 25 Particular things therein as he findes in Rome and as many 25 things in other Churches as he found in the Church of Rome But let it be granted that Rome is answerable to Ierusalem and the Pope and his Cardinalls to Christ and his Apostles which is the sum of of his 14. c. yet take it not in his sence but as Aleazar saith utque successit antiquae Hierosolimae in co quod fidelium omnium eaput et metropolis sit effecta and so take the Pope and his Cardinals not as enemies but as successors unto the Apostles and Vicegerent unto Christ then all that he saith is rather an argument to approve and commend them for their desire to imitate Christ and his Apostles then any wayes to condemn them for the Antichrist and for the 25 number of their Cardinals which at first in the time of Clemens were but 15 and then were augmented by Anacletus the 3 Pope or the 2 as some count him and a most holy Martyr within the 1 centurie in anno 94 to 25 and the 25 number of the articles of the Roman faith into which Pope Pius the fourth reduced the sum of the Tridentine Councill as Mr. Potter reckoneth them even as the articles of our Church which we beleeve are augmented to 39 and the 25 gates of Rome which notwitstanding are not agreed by the best authors to be just so many when plinie saith there be but 24 and Liuius saith there be 27. and the 25 figures and characters that he saith are ingraven upon their chiefest Altar and all the other 25 particulars that he collecteth from his authors to belong to any thing either in their Cittie Church or religion as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contrarie positions to all the 12 things that are found in the new Ierusalem as the 12 gates 12 angels 12 Tribes 12 foundations 12 thousand furlongs 12 fruites of the tree of life doe no way convince and prove the Pope and his Heirarchie to the beast and the antichrist no more then the Mayor and the four and twenty Aldermen and if I should finde 25 gates and 25 Presbyters and some other 25 particulars either in London or Lisbon or Paris to be the verie seat of the Antichrist But I have been too long in the pursuance of these things that he saith are to be found in Rome and we are better to beleeve him then to goe there to see but I beleeve few wise men upon such an implicite faith of things not apparant nor approved by any of the ancient authors nor understood by verie good scholers except perfect arithmeticians as I take Mr Potter to be will make this inference to conclude the Pope and his Hierarchy to be the beast and the antichrist that is more perspicuously and plainely deciphered and shewed unto us in the holy scriptures which I have applied to nothing but to what wee have seen with our eyes and all men know to be true except the actors of these impieties and those that will be wilfully blinde And so to proceed upon plainer evidences then these arithmeticall ridles to discover the beast unto you 4. The name of Independents is most proper to the antichrist I demand if the verie name of Independants that is usaully and generally given them and by which the prevalent faction of that Parliament was best known and distinguished from the rest of the House and of all other true Christians apostate hereticks and wherein both themselves and their adherents doe so much glorie doth not sufficiently mamanifest the same thing and evidently prove them to be this beast and the antichrist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that was prophesied by the Apostles and expected by the Church to come into the world for though in the dayes of Aurelius Bishop of Carthage that lived in the fift centurie there were some that as the Cannon saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lest their absurdities and novelties should be discovered refused to submit themselves unto the Councill and so became Independants from the Church of Christ for which cause Aurelius caused them to be removed by the Councill as obstinate and rebellious from all rule and authoritie over the people yet these men never assumed the name of Independants neither was it given them for ought I read by any others because they persisted not in their obstinafie to draw more proselites after them but our Independants of these times as flat and fully oppsite to the Church of Christ are and are so generally termed and taken Independants from the Catholique Church and from every particular nationall Church and therefore they doe gather Churches and congregations unto themselves and in that respect are most properly stiled Independants as fit a name as any is in the world for the followers of the antichrist when as all other creatures men and Angels good and bad and not any of all the former hereticks excepted but that they acknowledged themselves to be entia dependentia not only depending upon him Heb. 1.3 that beareth up all things by his mighty word or the word of his power that is Jesus Christ but also desired to be received into that unitie and to depend upon the communion and society of the Church as Arius that arch heretick made great friends to be admitted into the communion of the Church of Alexandria as Theodoret writeth Theodor. haret fabul l. 4. The paralel But these men as A per se A or as the arctick pole is from the antarchtick so are they fully opposite ex diametro to their head and have assumed and let them have it this antichristian name of Independants they say not from Christ but I say certainly from Christ because it is from the Church of Christ for whosoever hath not the church for his mother 1 pet 3.20 shall never have God for his Father but as all perished by the deluge that were not in Noahs Arke that was the type of the church as St. Peter sheweth so shall they perish everlastingly that are not the members of Christ and of his church and within the communion of Saints which is a speciall article of the christian faith Then 5. The ancient Fathers as St. Aug. upon the words of Christ 5. The great persecution of the Parliament a concomitant signe of the antichrist Aug. de civit Dei l. 20. c. 8. and 9 Hypol. in erat de consumwat mundi Cyrillus cateches 15. Bellarum de rom Pot. l. 3. c. 7. The
Spirit of God spake by the tongues of his learned pen-men Saint Luke Saint Paul and the rest of them and I am sure that neither Aristotle nor Plato nor any other Moralist or naturalist can shew such pure Ethicks and true Physicks or any other kind of Philosophy as is to be found in the sacred writ 10. 10. The many seeming contradictions of the Scriptures The many seeming contrarieties and contradictions that are obviously found in these Scriptures do sufficiently prove how difficult it is to reconcile the difference and to give the right sense and the true meaning of every place as 1. Where in 2 Reg. 17.24 2 Reg. 17.24 Verse 34. it is said that the men which came from Cutha and from Ava and from Hamath and from Sepharuaim and were placed in the cities of Samaria feared not the Lord and so it is reiterated in v. 34. that they feared not the Lord And yet in the 32. verse and in the 33. verse and in the 41. verse it is thrice repeated that they feared the Lord. And how can these things be that the same spirit with the same breath should say and unsay the same thing they feared the Lord and they feared not the Lord Non benè conveniunt nec in una sede moruntur It is answered that if you mark it well and understand it right here is no contradiction at all for the fear of the Lord is here put for the whole service of God and so they feared not the Lord as it is said in the 17. and 34. verse that is more debito they served him not as the Lord required his people to serve him but yet feared the Lord and served him as it is said in the 32 33 and 41. verse that is more gentilium as the Gentiles Cultus Dei ex humano cerebro excogitatus and the other nations did and this fear of the Lord and service of God being but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a will-worship is said to be not the fear of the Lord nor the service of God because the Lord neither commandeth it nor accepteth it when as he tells us plainly that he will be served as himselfe prescribeth and not as man deviseth 2. Where our Saviour saith Matth. 6.1 3. Take heed that you do not your almes before men but when thou dost thine almes Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth and when thou prayest go into thy closet and shut thy dore and he that seeth thee in secret will reward thee openly and yet in another place he saith Let your light so shine before men that they maysee your good works Verse 6. Matth. 5.16 and glorify your Father which is in heaven And how shall men see them if I shut my dore and do them so close in my chamber and do mine almes so secretly that none may see them It is briefly answered that Christ doth not forbid you to bestow your almes to pray and to do the other duties of religion in the fight of men but he adviseth you not to do them as the Scribes and Pharisees did them onely to this end that they might be seen of men let men see them but do them not that they might be seen 3. Where Saint Paul saith Rom. 3.28 c. 5. v. 1. James 2.21 we conclude a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law and yet Saint James saith that Abraham was justified by Works and Rahab was justified by Works and then concludes it positively and saith you see how that by works a man is justified and not by faith onely And therefore Luther that was all for faith and not finding the way to reconcile these two Apostles rejecteth the whole Epistle of Saint James as not Canonical and calleth it Stramineam Epistolam an Epistle not worth a straw whereas he might as easily have reconciled the two Apostles How the words of Saint Paul and S. James are reconciled if he had considered that Saint Paul speaks of that perfect and most absolute justification that freeth us from all sin and is fully able to acquit us coram Tribunali Dei before the throne of Gods judgement and so Abraham and all the sons of Abraham can be justified no otherwise then by a lively faith in Jesus Christ and Saint James speaks of the manifestation of the faith whereby we approve our selves to be justified coram hominibus both to the satisfaction of our selves and others and this is by gâ—od works which are the fruits of our faith and so no contradiction at all betwixt Saint Paul and Saint James Many more seeming contradictions and many more reasons of the difficulties of the Scriptures I might produce unto you but out of this that I have set down you may very easily see that the best divine the quickest wit the sharpest sight and the greatest Schollar when he considereth the depth of this Ocean and the mysteries of these Scriptures and his own shallow reach to comprehend them 2 Cor. 2.16 may cry out with the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is sufficient for these things And what then shall a Taylor or a Shoemaker or a Weaver or any the like unskillful tradesman or unealled Lay man be sufficient for these things wherein such a masse of treasure and so much of Gods wisdom is contained I beseech you to consider what Saint August saith and your selves know to be true that a reasonable good Schollar will not read Horace or Terence without a Comments and wilt thou presume to expound the deep mysteries and the high secrets of Gods word without the help of learned Authors that have bestowed much paines and made many prayers to God for the help and assistance of his Spirit to understand them Quicquid est crede mihi in Scripturis istis altum divinum est whatsoever is in these Scrriptures believe me saith the same Father it is high and dâ—vine and you know the Prophet David saith thy commandement is exceeding broad and therefore he doth often pray for understanding Psalm 119. that he might understand his Commandements and yet the Commandements which were things that appertained unto all men for to know are the easiest to be understood as being delivered in the plainest manner of all the Scriptures that they might be understood of all because they were to be observed by all And you know likewise that it was prophesied of Christ Matth. 13.35 that he should open his mouth in parables and declare hard sentences of old so hard to be understood that his own Apostles and disciples who were alwayes conversant with him yet of themselves understood them not as you may perceive by that reprehension of our Saviour are ye yet without understanding Matth. 15.16 whose apprehensions and understanding neverthelesse was as you may believe far better then the best of our Lay-Preachers And therefore seeing the Apostles and disciples of Christ and