occur about Lands Wills Trades and other Actions which concern human affairs and society yea they that have perused the Talmuds and writings of the Jewish Doctors do find that notwithstanding the body of Laws given by God himself yet by reason of the varying of cases many resolutions there are added by their Judges or Lawyers which they receive as Laws And this was thought so necessary that God erected a Senate among them with strict injunction to the Jews to do according to the sentence which they of that place which the Lord shall choose should shew them and to observe to do according to all that they informed them Deut. 17. 10. which was in effect all one as to impower them to make Laws for them Sure notwithstanding the written Laws of Moses Solomon had been at a stand how to give sentence in the case of the two Harlots had not God given him an extraordinary Spirit of wisdom to do Judgment 1 Kings 3. 28. Nor can the Mosaical or Jewish Laws fit the government of this Nation unless there were the same distribution of Lands the same State of People and neighbour Nations the same manner of Trade and living as they had And it is to be considered whether this asserting of the Laws of the Jews as a constant standing rule to us Gentiles be not indeed the same error of Judaism which was condemned by the Synod at Jerusalem Acts 15. and the writings of the Apostles and counted as an Heresy which did evacuate the benefit of our Christian liberty which Christ hath purchased by losing of which we may forfeit our interest in Christ and their Lawes be so far from being the only Lawes fit for the Government of Christs Kingdom that they may in many things be most unfit and contention for them to be imposed on gentile belivers more justly to be counted Antichristian than the Civil Lawes of the Nations which they so much oppose as Antiehristian nor can those Lawes be fitted for the Kingdom of Christ which they look for For that Kingdom will be when all Christs enemies shall be made his Footstool Christ shall personally raign as they conceive on earth it shall be a Kingdom which shall have a sâ—at sâ—nless sorrowless deathless superiorless having no humane Ruling Majesty no Church censures no superiority of persons no fears no wants no desertions no painful labour no decay no procreation of Children as Dr. Homes reckons them in his Resurrection revealed lib. 5. c. 4. And therefore this supposition and the inference that is made thereupon is false and insufficient and it would be not only a sin against God but also a most extream degree of wickedness to destroy our Lawes Records Government upon this pretence and all men are truly bound in conscience to defend them and to oppose those as Antichristian and Enemies to Christs Kingdom who would disanul them As for the Common-wealth of Israel its being the only type of the Lambs Government Gal. 6. 16. it is so in respect of the spiritual Kingdom of Christ in which believers are an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ a Royal Preisthood to shew forth Gods praises 1 Pet. 2. 5. 9. and if this reason be of validity to tie us to their Lawes it will tie us to the Lawes about the Jewish Temple Priesthood Sacrifices and the rest of the Ceremonial Lawes which were to reduce us from Christ to Moses and compleat Judaism As then it was a pretious benefit which the Gospel brought that the Gentiles were not tied to those particular Lawes of Religious service which were required of the Jews that the Yoke was not put upon the Neck of the Disciples which neither the Fathers nor the Apostles were able to bear Acts 15. 10. but that many things even in Gods worship were to be determined by prudence of Rulers according as might best fit the service of God with respect to the condition of several people so much more in Civil affairs it was the great goodness of God and a great advantage to the furthering of Christs Kingdom among the Gentiles that the Gospel did not impose on the Nations either the Mosaical or any other particular Lawes or Civil Government but left them to their own Lawes and Government in such things and required Christians to submit to them without which there is no likelihood Christianity had been embraced as it was nor Christians to have subsisted and been multiplied among infidels as they were And therefore whereas the Quinto-Monarchians have made such great stirs as they have done not only for a reformation in Ecclesiastical discipline and worship but also to bring the Government and Lawes Civil to the Jewish platform in the holy scriptures which is their Diana they have therein followed their own fancy not the holy scriptures but to the great wrong of the Church of God and injury to his name and truth caused many to follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth is evil spoken of so that of them may be verified which we read Rom. 3. 14 15 10 17. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood destruction and misery are in their ways and the way of peace have they not known 11. It is granted by them that the powers of the great Image might be taken for the Ordinance of God so long as they kept their pure Civil and unmixed estate so saith Paul the powers that be i. e. the Civil powers of old Rome tho a bloody persecutor and devourer of the creation and Gods heritage are ordained of God In which passage they intimate 1. that the Civil powers of old Rome were a bloody persecutor and devourer of the creation and Gods heritage 2. That then they kept their pure Civil and unmixed estate 3. That so long though they were the powers of the great Image yet they might be taken for the Ordinance of God according to St. Paul Rom. 13. 1. 4. That therefore so long they were to be obeyed and not resisted For discovery of the fallacy that is in these speeches it is needful that it should be inquired into what they mean by the Civil powers of old Rome keeping their pure Civil and unmixed estate The opposite estate is thus expressed When the power of Rome adulterated from it's pure Civil state became a mixt Antichristian state the Beast and a Whore the power of Rome was in the Apostle Pauls time the power of the Emperors whether Caius Caligula Claudius Nero and the Senate and Consuls of Rome the Praetors Kings Presidents such as Herod Agrippa Pilate Felix Festus and others under them The unmixed estate seems to be their not taking upon them that which after the Emperors or Popes did when they became Antichristian Now sure what ever it were that after the Civil powers of Rome assumed or did it is certain that they were as it is
confessed the powers of the great Image bloody persecutors and devourers of the creation and Gods Heritage and I may add as wicked and impure in their lives as they were afterwards yea and as Monstrously Idolatrous as afterwards The Emperors then took to themselves the Title of Pontifex Maximus which was kept till the Christian Emperors time and that Title imported their power and inspection about the Idolatrous rites of the Romans whereby they took charge of the worship of Jupiter and other Roman Deities and were zealous for it so as to persecute them to death with extream cruelty who would not offer incense to their Idols nor swear by them yea they did some of them urge Jews and other people to worship either themselves or their Statues as Gods as Caligula Domitian and caused the abomination and desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet to stand in the holy place of which our Saviour foretels Matth. 24. 15. And though the Popish Idolatry in the worshiping of the Host bowing down to Crucifixes Images praying to deceased Saints creeping to Crosses adoring of Reliques and other superstitions of the Romanists be horribly impious and their cruelty in destroying them that will not adore their consecrated Host be very satanical and so their power and the exercise of it whereby they take on them to condemn as Hereticks them that will not worship their Idols and whereby Princes at their beck do execute their sentences cruelly be from Satan or the Dragon in the use of it in these things yet it is doubted whether the Popish Idolatry be greater or so bad as the Heathenish Idolatry of the Romans in St. Paul's time Yea Dr. John Burges in his Answer rejoined to the reply to Dr. Morton's defence of the Ceremonies ch 4. sect 28. hath maintained against Mr. Parker that the popish Idolatry is not as vile in it self as ever was any of Turks or Pagans And it is plain that in the Revelation the power of the Emperors as they used it in persecution of Christians for not worshipping Idols is ascribed to the Divel before the pretended mixt Antichristian state as well as after Revel 2. 10. Behold the Divel shall cast some of you into prison when he did it by the Pagan Emperors and their Officers v. 13. I know thy works and where thou dwellest even where Satans throne is and thou holdest fast my Name and hast not denied my Faith even in those daies wherein Antipas was my faithfull Martyr who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth On which saith Brightman it is not obscure why it is called the throne of Satan For the City where the heathen Emperors had their seat who professedly warred against the Lamb is called the throne of the Dragon ch 13. 2. so of the daughters and lower Cities those which come nearer to the mind of this Prince because they yield a Palace more prepared for the Divel are notified by the same name And Revel 12. 3. where it is said Behold a great red Dragon having seven heads ten horns seven Crowns upon his head on its saith Mede A wonder or representation of the Empire of Rome Heathen worshiping the Dragon the large Annotations on the Bible A great red Dragon the Heathen Roman Emperors succeeding one another who did the Divel service as in other things so chiefly in persecuting the Church v. 9. ch 2. 10. The like if need were might be shewed to be the opinion of Brightman Diodatâ— Pareus Piscator and others By which and many other passages in holy Scripture it may appear that the heathen Emperors had that power whereby they persecuted the Church of Christ from Satan and were as great Idolaters as those under the Papacy and were as serviceable to the Divel and yet are granted to be the Ordinance of God and though the Powers of the great Image even the Iron legs yet were not to be resisted but the saints even every soul the holy Apostles themselves not excepted were to be subject to them under pain of damnation Whence it follows that there is no warrant for English pretended or real Saints to smite the present Powers to oppose resist overthrow the present Laws Government and Governors though it were yielded which is not that they were part of the fourth Monarchy kept not their pure civil and unmixed State were oppressors shed the blood of the Saints and what ever else the Quinto-Monarchians do object against them Doubtless however Sir Walter Raleigh have aggravated the cruelties of King Henry the 8th of England and perhaps others may represent in the most odious manner the government of other Princes yet they exceed not Nero Domitian and other of the Roman Heathen Emperors in cruelty to the Christian believers nor in uncleanness and unrighteousness and yet St. Paul and St. Peter and our Lord Christ himself command subjection even to such And therefore these things cannot release the Quinto-Monarchians from subjection but their pleas for their smiting work are proved to be damnable and Antichristian 12. It is supposed when the power of Rome was adulterated from its pure civil State and becomes a mixt Antichristian State the Beast and a Whore which they conceive of the present civil powers of the Nations even the Protestant and particularly those of England then it is said of that beastly Antichristian power that the Dragon or Satan gave him his Power his Seat and great Authority and what then is this save the Ordinance of Hell To examine this it is to be observed 1. That they suppose it was the civil power of Rome which is meant Revel 13. 1. 2. by the beast and that it is meant of the civil powers since they became in name Christian. Which I will not gainsay because of the words of the Angel Revel 17. 12. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten Kings which have received no Kingdom as yet but receive power as Kings one hour with the beast though there are or have been that understand by it Heathen Emperors afore they embraced Christianity or an Emperor not yet extant that I may omit other conjectures and therefore this is not to be taken as so certain that on it should be grounded so strange a work as the smiting of all the civil powers of Europe which is deduced from it 2. It is supposed that then the civil Powers were adulterated from their pure civil and unmixed estate By pure civil and unmixed estate they must mean if I be not mistaken that afore that time the Roman Emperors did not meddle with the matters of Religion or of the Church which is most notoriously false for they took the title of Pontifex Maximus ruled in the business of the worship of their Gods did forbid Christian worship and persecuted Christians to the death And that they did afterwards which is also false For the Emperors Christian did reject that title and demolished the temples of Idols promoted the Christian worship contended
abhor any thing sometimes that which is otherwise right which they conceive to come from Rome or the Pope being terrified with the threatnings Revel 14. 9. 10 11. against those who worship the Beast and his Image and recieve his mark in their forehead or in their hand and warned by the voice from Heaven Revel 18. 4. Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues Which having been found by experience to be a very taking way especially with the vulgar and common sort of Schollars who are little versed in antiquity and know not the true state of the Roman Church in former ages nor by what degrees the corruptions thereof came to that height they are now attained to it is now a very common course with them who endeavour to render their opposites their Doctrine or practise odious and so to uphold their faction to fasten on them by clamour or calumnies or any other way they can the name of Antichristian Babylon the mark of the Beast and to perswade men that what they dislike is from Rome as being sufficient without any other proof to make them abominable and to be destroyed Thus in our daies with us some have cried down prelacy their Liturgy Ceremonies Ordination National Church it 's Government Ministry Titles and whatever belongs thereto as Antichristian others have done the like to the Presbyterial Classical Parochial Churches their Ministery Directory Government Maintenence others have done the same to the Congregational and in General Seekers and Quakers have in a Clamorous way like Scolds bespattered all that 's opposit to them with this reproach of Antichristian and at last these Fifth-Monarchy men have furiously battered Civil powers all that belongs to them with the engine of this odious brand of Antichristian and Babylonish whereby much irreconcileable hatred enmity and opposition is raised among Christians to the great dammage of Christian Protestant Churches and states and without the great power and goodness of God making way for some accommodation of these differences likely so to weaken and wast us by intestine broiles that we shall at last become a prey to the common adversary For my part it was still opposed by me long since when Saltmarsh wrote that I had proved Infant-Baptism Antichristian I made him alter it and when a meeting was for union between dissenters I urged thâ—s as one thing necessary that the term Antichristian should be forborn and when Richard Hubberthorn entituled his book against my serious consideration of the Oath of the Kings Supremacy Antichristianism reproved in my Epistle to the Reader before my Supplement I not only shewed the falsehood of his calumny but also endeavoured briefly to shew the evil of that course of defaming opposites and their tenents by that title I deny not but that there is sufficient cause given to Protestant Divines to charge the present Romanists with Antichristianism in the arrogant title given to the Pope of Universal Bishop in the assertion of his supremacy over all Churches his infallibility in their worship of Saints Angels Images in their doctrines of invocation of Saints humane merits and satisfactions for sin nor shall I deny but that there may be found some practises or doctrines among others which may in a qualified sense be termed Antichristian But to make the Protestant Churches or their Government Antichristian in State and to be separated from and to be destroyed when they hold the Faith of Christ aright because of some corruptions in points of Doctrine or Worship or Discipline which overthrow not the foundation of Christian Religion is intollerable much more to make civil powers who reject the Roman Popes supremacy and their doctrine and idolatrous worship to be Antichristian from Rome Babylon from an imagined mixture that is not or perhaps justifiable shews either phrensie or a meer proud arrogant factious and quarrelsome humor in them not to be born the title of Antichrist being as may appear by St. Johns words to be applyed to seducing Teachers not to civil powers though persecutors as the Roman Emperors then were yet by St. Paul termed the Ordinance of God 5. It is supposed That then when the Power of Rome adulterated from its pure Civil state became a mixt Antichristian state the Beast a Whore a Beastly Antichristian Power that the Dragon or Satan gave him his Power and his Seat and great Authority It is true that it is said that St. John saw a Beast arise out of the Sea having seven Heads and ten Horns and upon his Horns ten Crowns and upon his Heads the name of Blasphemy and that the Beast which he saw was like unto a Leopard and his feet were as the feet of a Bear his mouth as the mouth of a Lion And the Dragon gave him his Power and his Seat and great Authority Which description being like that whereby the Babylonian Persian and Greek Monarchies are characterized gives occasion to judge that the Beast mentioned Revel 13. 1. 2. was to be some future Civil Empire like to them and the having seven Heads and ten Horns and upon his Horns ten Crowns because of the descriptions Daniel 7. 23 24 25. and Revel 17. 3. 9. 12. Argnes that it was to be the Roman Empire divided into ten Kingdoms nor is it to be denied that Satan gave to this Beast his Power that is his forces and his Seat that is Rome and the Dominions belonging to it great Authority that is Power to command whereby the Idolatry termed Blasphemy which the Christian Emperors had cast down was revived and the persecution that for a time ceased was renewed But that this Power and Seat and great Authority was not given before by the Dragon to the Civil Powers of old Rome tho a bloody persecuter and devourer of the creation and Gods Heritage is to be denied For by comparing Revel 13. 1 2. with Rev. 12. 3 4. 7. It may be rather gathered that Satan had given the same Power Seat and great Authority to the Roman Emperors before as he did to the Kings after though it were exercised in another manner and upon other pretences The Power and Seat and Authority given by the Dragon is not to be meant of Civil Power to make Laws and to execute them for the well-ordering of Common-wealths and Civil states but the Power Force or Authority which was usurped by Nebuchadnezzar when he set up a golden Image to be worshipped and cast the three Jews into the fiery furnance and this may be gathered from v. 4 5. And they worshipped the Dragon which gave Power unto the Beast and they worshipped the Beast saying who is like unto the Beast Who is able to make Warr with him And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and Blasphemies and Power was given unto him to continue or to make War forty and two months Whereby may be perceived that the
injury oppression or persecution though it extended to the slaying the Lords Priests to an endeavour to slay the annointed Captain of the Lords Host is not to be attempted by a private person or subject but to be referred to the Lord. Therefore the Doctrine of Quinto-Monarchians urging subjects and private persons to smite their superior civil powers and to avenge the supposed injuries and persecutions of Saints by their own hands is contrary to Christ's his Apostles and Davids determinations in the holy Scriptures and consequently damnable and Antichristian That which I find alledged for their practise is in these words The Banner of truth displayed p. 59. All the blood of Gods people is found in Babylon For they i. e. her civil powers Revel 16. 6 6. have shed the blood of the Saints and Prophets Rev. 17. 6. ch 18. 24. and 19. 1. Jer. 50. 14. now therefore God by way of recompence and retalliation hath ordained that the Saints shall be his instruments by which he will execute his vengeance upon the powers of the world who are all of them murtherers accordingly God commands his people and 't is their duty to obey to reward Babylon double as she rewarded them yea and double unto her all those plagues deaths and stripes that she hath inflicted on you Revel 18. 6. and they shall give her blood to drink and she shall be burnt with fire for strong is the Lord that judgeth her Wherein many things are taken as granted which are false and the whole if it were granted would be insufficient to acquit them from guilt of opposing Christs precepts in that way of recompence and retaliation which they incite to 1. That all the powers of the world are murtherers Which proposition contains such a crimination as God only is fit to charge them with if it were true sith he only knows all the powers of the world and is privy to all their thoughts designs and actions 2. That the civil powers of the world are Babylon or her civil powers Now Babylon is termed the great which shall become the habitation of Divels Rev. 18. 2. and I think it is undoubted with all sorts of Writers and intelligent persons that Babylon the great there meant is the same with the woman Rev. 17. 4. termed v. 1. The great whore upon whose forehead was a name written Mystery Babylon the great the mother of Hariots and abominations of the earth v. 5. which is interpreted v. 18. And the woman which thou sawest is that great City which reigneth over the Kings of the earth Which commonly those who are acquainted with the Histories of the times in which St. John received his Revelation even Papists themselves do take to be Rome known to be the only City which sate on seven mountains as v. 9. is expressed and reigned then over the Kings of the earth But how all the powers of the world now in being or the Nations of Europe even the Protestant should be Babylon or her civil powers or as elsewhere they say the streets of that great City and Rome-Babylon is unintelligible to me Rome it self and that which is called the Patrimony of St. Peter and the territories in Italy now subject to the Pope may be termed Babylon and the Civil powers therein may be termed her Civil powers and perhaps all the territories subject to the Pope in Ecclefiastical affairs may be meant by the streets of the great City mentioned Revel 11. 8. because they yield subjection to the Roman Pope in spirituals But how the States which do reject the Pope's power in Temporals as the King of France or the Duke and Senate of Venice who stood out against Pope Paul the fifth when he interdicted them because they would not repeal their Laws or release their prisoners though Ecclesiasticks should be termed the civil powers of Rome-Babylon is not easie to be understood much less how the Kings of England Denmark Sweden and such other Protestant States Nations and Princes as have rejected the Popes jurisdiction and authority both in civil and Church matters and impose oaths of disclaiming the Popes supremacy in Spirituals and their authority in Temporals through their Dominions on their Subjects should be nevertheless the civil powers of Babylon and their Countries the streets of the great City Rome-Babylon is it conceiveable by me If the Predecessors of these did subject themselves to the Pope in former ages yet they are not therefore termed Babylon but Kings of the earth who commit fornication with her and give their power to her but neither of these can be said of those Princes though Successors to them who have abandoned the Popes errors and corruptions in Religion and his jurisdiction wholly 3. It is suggested that all the blood of Gods people is found in Babylon For they i. e. her civil powers Rev. 16. 6 7. have shed the blood of the Saints and Prophets Rev. 17. 6. ch 18. 24. and 19. 1. Jer. 50. 14. And it is true that Jer. 50. 14. it is said put your selves in array against Babylon round about all ye that bend the bow shoot at her spare no arrows for she hath sinned against the Lord. But this is not meant of Rome-Babylon nor of her civil powers but of Babylon in Chaldaea many thousand miles distant from Rome and long before these daies or St. Johns wasted And yet it is not said of that Babylon that it shed the blood of the Saints and Prophets though I deny not she is charged with the blood of the Inhabitants of Zion Jerusalem-Israel Jer. 51. 35. 49. It is rather charged on Jerusalem by Christ that she killed the Prophets and stoned them that were sent unto her that upon her might come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias Son of Barachias whom ye saith Christ slew between the Temple and the Altar Matth. 23. 34 35. 37. It is said Rev. 16. 4 5 6. And the third Angel poured out his vial upon the Rivers and Fountains of waters and they became blood And I heard the Angel of the waters say thou art righteous O Lord which wast art and shalt be because thou hast judged thus For they have shed the blood of Saints and Prophets and thou hast given them blood to drink for they are worthy And it is most probable though there be that conceive the Rivers and Fountains of water to have been the Cities and Provinces of the Roman Empire under the Pagan Emperors and that to them is ascribed the sheding of the blood here mentioned that this is meant of the Papal Empire sith it is the same which is charged on the woman Revel 17. 6. and Babylon Rev. 18. 24. who must be different from Rome Pagan by reason of the things said Rev. 17. 10 11 12. concerning the ten Kings which had then received no Kingdom when St. John received this Revelation but should receive power as
all men James 3. 17. The wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable v. 18. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace 1 Pet. 3. 10 11. He that will love life and see good daies let him seek peace and ensue it From hence I argue that doctrine is damnable and Antichristian which is opposire to Christs and his Apostles commands approbation and beatification concerning meekness and peaceableness But such is the doctrine of the Quinto-Monarchians which stirs up enmities and hostility among men teacheth separations from men even such as they hope are godly from Churches gathered in a pastoral way reducing things to primitive practise and breaths out nothing but Wars and smiting of all that denie or oppose their smiting work which are as contrary to meekness and peaceableness as hot to cold black to white Therefore their doctrine is damnable and Antichristian Nor can they be acquitted by alleging such texts as Psal. 139. 21 22. and 137. 9. Amos. 5. 15. Hab. 2. 6 7 8. Revel 17. 16. unless they can shew all civil powers extant and those whom they hope to be godly Churches gathered in a pastoral way reducing things to primitive practise yet count enemies to Christs Kingdom because they oppose that which these call the smiting work of the Stone to be indeed haters of God and Babylon and also that these are the Stone or the ten Horns that are to hate the Whore and make her desolate Till this be done which I expect to be done at later Lammas we may say as Christ did ye know not what spirit ye are of or rather determin that they are indeed of an Antichristian or Diabolical spirit For a further inforcing of this argument I shall adjoyn a tenth taken from those many texts of scripture especially in the New Testament which both require patience in the Saints and assigne blessedness to it and make suffering the portion of the Saints and necessary to their entrance into the Kingdom of God that to continue till Christs coming Matth. 5. 10 11 12. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven Luke 21. 19. In your patience possess your souls Acts 14. 22. Paul and Barnabas confirmed the souls of the Disciples and exhorted them to continue in the faith and that we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God 2 Thes. 1. 4 5. So that we our selves glory in you in the Churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God that ye may be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God for which ye also suffer 2 Tim. 3. 12. Yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution Heb. 12. 6. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every Son whom he receives James 1. 4. Let patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing James 5. 7. Be patient therefore brethren unto the coming of the Lord. Hence I argue those who teach smiting when Christ and his Apostles teach patience those who count them Antichristian who would have Christ his Saints his cause in and on the earth a sufferer though Christ and his Apostles call it Christian to suffer and require patience until the coming of the Lord these teach doctrine which is indeed damnable and Antichristian But so do the Quinto-Monarchians as may be seen before Sest 2. Therefore the doctrine of their smiting work is damnable and Antichristian § 12. The Eleventh and Twelfth arguments from contrariety to the Martyrs agreement with Papists THIS also leads us to an eleventh argument which is from the constant profession of the Saints and Martyrs in all ages that they were to suffer for the Kingdom of God not to fight for it so speaks St. John Revel 1. 9. I John who also am your Brother and companion in Tribulation and in the Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Christ was in the Isle that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the Testimony of Jesus Christ. Where he makes these conjunct the Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Christ and styles himself their Brother and companion in Tribulation and in the Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Christ therefore he took all that were Brethren to be companions therein and these to be conjoyned together This was the profession of the Saints in the times of the ten great persecutions as may be seen in the writings of Justin Martyr Tertullian Cyprian and such as wrote Apologies for the Christians and the Acts and monuments of the Church which relate their practise suteable to their profession even when they were armed and were a considerable part of the Emperors Armies yet exposed themselves rather to butchery than they would attempt to fight Yea when the Beast was risen to whom the Dragon gave his power and his seat and great authority from which time as is shewed before Sect. 4. the Quinto-Monarchians make civil powers not to be the Ordinance of God but Antichristian and the Ordinance of Hell yet the Holy Ghost foretels not the smiting work of the Stone or turning their Plow-shares into Swords for the pulling down civil powers and setting up the fifth Kingdom on earth but saith Revel 13. 10 He that killeth with the Sword must be killed with the Sword Here is the patience and the faith of the Saints Which shewes that even they were not to set up the Kingdom of Christ by fighting but by patience and faith And Revel 14. 12. after the prediction of the fall of Babylon and the daughter of those who worship the Beast and his Image and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name it is added Here is the patience of the Saints Here are they that keep the Commandments of God the faith of Jâ—sus shewing that even in those times the Saints would patiently suffer not avenge themselves by smiting or by destroying civil powers seek to set up Christs Kingdom on earth the contrary whereto is taught by the Quinto-Monarchians and thereby the generation of the just even the holy Martyrs their profession and practise is condemned which is damnable and Antichristian On the other side which yeilds a twelfth argument these â—enents of the smiting of civil powers to set up Christs Kingdom tend to the justifying or countenancing of the Popish former and later doctrine and practises wherein they have challenged and usurped a power over Emperors and Kings to depose and deprive them of life when they have opposed the Popes Authority or the Roman Church and Religion which opposition was counted by them to be against the Kingdom of Christ and thought
hatred as we see and find a Remnant do at this day p. 55. The Lord will use and engage his people to act in and perform such a destroying work upon the world as this work of the stone is namely the total commotion and dissolution of the old Heavens and old Earth and all the created powers ruling therein because it is the decree determination promise and appointment of the Father p. 56. The Lord by these figurative expressions holds forth the dissolution of all old things formal Antichristian Church-state Ordinances Worship Discipline and Doctrine all beast-like wordly Governments Institutions Laws politick Constitutions Powers c. In a word the Heavens and the Earth of all the Nations Isai. 5. 30. p. 57. So that Jesus Christ will admit of no competitors but will have the sole legislative power and exercise of the chief Magistracy and be Lord Paramount over the whole Earth and therefore God is engaged to appear with his smiting Stone to make way for this glorious Mountain of peace p. 59. That all the blood of Gods people is found in Babylon For they i. e. her Civil powers Revel 16. 6 7. have shed the blood of the Saints and Prophets Revel 17. 6. ch 18. 24. 19. 1. Jer. 50. 14. now therefore God by way of recompence retaliation hath ordained that the Saints shall be his instruments by which he will execute his vengeance upon the powers of the World who are all of them Murtherers accordingly God commands his people 't is their duty to obey to reward Babylon double as she rewarded them Revel 18. 6. and they shall give her blood to drink p. 62. The call which the stone shall have to act in its smiting work is for the greatest part thereof now pertinent and fitly applicable to a faithful remnant now extant in England and fulfilled in and upon them and also seeing that the signes laid down in the word of God for the time of the end are in a grâ—at measure now fulfilled and accomplished in Englands Remnant therefore we conclude and assert that 't is lawful and warrantable and is a duty incumbent for captivated Sion and oppressed Saints to stand up in Gods name and fear and deliver themselves and that glorious Gospel of the Kingdom now by them declared to the world from persecution oppression and that long Captivity and Bondage which she hath remained in and to break the Yoak of the oppressor which is now upon her Neck according to the word commandment of the Lord. Zach. 2. 7. Isai. 52. 2. We are perswaded that the work of the Stone is the present work of this generation and our present work and do accordingly exhort the Saints to arise to fall upon the enemy p. 63. The Saints in order to this smiting work shall be converted from all the Civil power and Rule of Antichrist and the ten Horned Beast upon which the mystery harlot sitteth p. 65. That it is their duty to withdraw their Hands Hearts Affections Purses and prayers from the Civil power or power of the Beast that they shall quit all their interest and claim in and to the old Heavens and Earth and state of things shall forsake Father Mother c. And shall convert Houses Lands Possessions and Enjoyments commanded to be prudently beat into Swords and Spears into one common stock to be consecrated for the management of this great Affair p. 66. And in such a practise they shall be no loosers Christ will give them an hundred fold even the spoile of all their great and rich Enemies who are his opposers and in the end an eternal Crown The Saints are with Moses to refuse Court Honour and favor and preferment Egyptians wisdom Learning Revenues and great Riches with David to leave their common duties as matters of small value and little concernment in comparison of this noble and worthy imployment to fight against the Philistines so are the Civil powers or common Enemy to the Common-wealth of Israel p. 71 We do profess we cannot be content or satisfied until Christs Kingdom flourish but will in Gods name and strength press forward till we come to the mark which is the state of the true rest so we call that Kingdom and power where the Saints shall cease from all their labours in and with Christ. p. 69. Doth not the Lord call the Saints to arise also unto the prey p. 71. The work of God against Nations Provinces Universities Corporations Cities Townes Kings Rulers chief Captains mighty Men in Church and Common-wealth Enemies of Christ's Kingly Office shall be the lesson of faithful Saints the true way will be discovered and made plain all Rebels and Traitors open and prophane more close pretenders and formally Godly discovered hatred in and among his Saints against those several parts forms powers of Babylon doleful howling and mourning among the Merchants of Babylon who are the great and rich men whose hearts dwell on the Earth p. 75. The Saints must separate not only from the Romish Universal National Provincial and Diocesan Church-state of Babylon and Antichrist together with their Discipline Doctrine Worship and Ceremonies But also and more particularly which is most properly a work precedent to be done by the Saints in order to the smiting work of the Stone from the national and parochial Parish Church State and assemblies forms and classes of this and other Antichristian Nations which we call the Politick and no more than Civil Stratagem and cunning invention of Antichrist to divide unto himself the whole Land for gain whereby all men to the lowest ranck are compelled forcibly to contribute to the maintenance of his false Prophet and so wickedness is established by a Law Again further from those Churches that are select more pure as being seemingly refined which are the gathered in a pastoral way reducing things to primitive practise so far as they are corrupted and adulterated and found opposers of the Kingly Office of Jesus Christ in and over the whole world and more especial in the Administration of this part or dispensation of that Kingdom to wit that of the Stone or War against his Enemies for even in this generation there be a sort of people and those we hope godly that do acknowledge and wait in the expectation of the later yea and hold forth the personal appearance of our Lord as King yet nevertheless oppose and deny and quite leap over this Stone and its work thereby endeavouring to render the Saints useless and uncapable of destroying Babylon which must make â—way and without which we cannot attain to the peaceable and more glorious Administration of this Kingdom by removing those Mountains Hils and powers of darkness which do oppose and hinder it p. 76. And from those humane heathenish and Antichristian wayes means and helps for the attainment whereof men study which they practise in the Schools and Universities of these Nations as things necessary for the Fitting Preparing
called ch 8. 10. The host of Heaven v. 24. The holy People or People of the holy ones ch 9. 15 16 19 24. Gods People and their City Jerusalem called by Gods name his Sanctuary the holy City ch 11. 28. 30. The holy Covenant ch 12. 7. the holy People Yea sundry of those that are much followed in this argument as Mr. Mede Comment on Revel 16. 12. do conceive that by the Kings of the East who shall have their way prepared for expedition against the Beast are meant the Jews And sundry Prophecies there are in the Old and New Testament which do seem to foretel the Kingdom to be restored to Israel according to the question Acts 1. 6. And therefore the more likely when they are converted to Christ if any Saints on Earth to be chief instruments of destroying Babylon which hath oppressed them Or that fourth Kingdom which hath been as strong as Iron and broken in pieces and subdued all 9. It is supposed that this smiting work is the work of this generation and to be begun by the pretended publick spirited Saints of this Nation Whereas Mr. Tillinghast himself Serm. 1. p. 25. saith the work of Christs Kingdom the glorious beginning of it it shall be about the time of the Jews coming in And indeed the coming in of the Jews shall be a very great advancement of this Kingdom I omit what Mr. Parker conceives of the Waldenses and others as long since beginning and carrying it on There is nothing yet appears but a violent heady presumptuous spirit in those persons who have thought themselves fit to begin the work nor in the times but the commotions that have been which gives colour to this supposition § 6. Quinto-Monarchians Hypotheses about the Civil Governments being from the Fourth Monarchy Rome and the Dragon are shewed to be groundless 10. IT is supposed That the Civil Powers that be are of old Rome or the Fourth Monarchy or as they speak growing upon the old Root of wickednesse and bitternesse or being a remnant of the old foundation which is their expressions in the Banner displayd p. 1. There will be no rest till the fourth Kingdom which divides it self into two iron legs ten toes and a little horn be wholly destroyed in all the laws constitutions Governments and reliques thereof p. 29. The fifth Kingdom which is Christs with its holy just and righteous Laws and Officers must arise with destruction to and stand up in the place of the fourth Kingdom and the Laws and Officers thereof shew to be the Laws Constitutions Governments and orders of the Roman Empire and they assert a Legislative Power to make Laws to govern the Nations only in Christ and his Laws and Officers only are to have place and in the Book entituled The Standard set up Printed 1657. p. 15. they say That the Scriptures being given by Inspiration of God with his Holy Spirit are the revealed will and Rule of this Legislator to be constantly owned and submitted unto in times of War and Peace as a constant standing Rule for the inward and outward man wherein are Laws Statues Precepts and Judgments for all cases conditions and actions of Civil Military and Spiritual concerns either in particular or more general terms For so they were to the Common-wealth of Israel the only type of the Lambs Government But these suppositions in a great part are notoriously false For the Government by King Lords and Commons as it is constituted in England is quite different from old Rome whether under the Caesars or Popes not derived from them but from the Saxons of Normans or some other of the ancient Rulers of this Island nor are the Laws of England by which it is governed in civil Affairs the Laws of the Emperors which are that which we call the Civil Law consisting of the Edicts and constitution of Roman emperors nor the Canon Law consisting of Popes Decrees and Decretals but the Common and Statute Laws of these Nations which he that reads the Chronicles of England the Writings of Sir Thomas Smith of the Common-wealth of England Mr. Cambdens Britannia Sir Edward Cookes Institutes the Preface of Sir John Davis to his Irish Reports the Book of Statutes may easily perceive to have another original and to be much different from them If there were no more but the daily practice of the Courts of Justice and the manner of choosing making Judges and Officers to refute this Calumny it were enough to shew the grosse falshood of this supposition And yet were the Laws and form of Government the same with old Rome they were not therefore Antichristian and we released from obedience to them For not only Christ and his Apostles required obedience to them but also S. Paul both made use of them and commended them Acts 16. 37. and 22. 25. and 25. 10 11 16. which if they had been Antichristian as they give out clamorously but ignorantly and to be opposed with greatest hatred doubtlesse they would not have done As for the other part of the supposition though we grant that our Lord Christ is the supreme Legislator and wherein he hath determined any thing his Laws are to stand in force above and against all constitutions and Laws of men yet we find not that Christ did or intended to make any particular Laws for thousands of things which pertain to Civil Government no nor for many things pertaining to Gods worship and Church-Government which yet require a determination by some Laws or Rules for good order to be kept thereabout When one of the company said unto him Master speak to my Brother that he divide the inheritance with me he said unto him man who made me a Judge or divider over you Luk. 12. 13 14. Nor did the Apostles or the Governors after them or Christians as such intermeddle with making laws or judging civil Affairs any farther than they were intrusted either by the Roman Governors or according to Christs appointment Matth. 18. 15 16 17. or the Apostles directions about composing differences between Christians 1 Cor. 6. 1. c. or the exercise of Ecclesiastical censure or miraculous power did require Though it is not to be denied that in aftertimes too much of this work was either commited by Christian Emperors or assumed by the Rulers and Governors of Christian Churches especially by Popes of Rome to the great detriment of Christianity As for the holy Scriptures though we acknowledge their sufficiency for a rule in matters of Faith and holy life in order to the end wherefore they were inspired of God to wit the honouring and serving of God and our own salvation yet we do not find in them sufficient Laws in particular for the governing of all civill Commonwealths but that Judges and Officers notwithstanding what we find in the books of Mâ—ses and the Prophets and other holy writings would be to seek how to pass sentence and to administer Justice in thousands of cases that
with the Bishops that did set up Images in the Churches and if by the mixture be meant their assuming Ecclesiastical power I suppose these Objectors will not charge them with this it being to their great vexation that the Bishops especially the Bishops of Rome claimed and usurped authority over Emperors and Kings as he doth at this day to excommunicate them if they reconciled not themselves to them to depose them and many of the Emperors and Kings did contend against this usurpation in many sore Wars If by mixture of State be meant the assisting of the Popes to destroy the opposers of the Papacy I acknowledge it true that there were too many that did so But in this there was no mixture of civil Ecclesiastical power but rather a concurrence the Ecclesiastical keeping to themselves the judgment of Heresies and putting upon the secular power the execution of their sentence whereby they did debase the civil power in making it subservient to them but made no mixture of State Which appeared in that some of the civil powers that kept their civil government as before yet did oppose this usurpation in Popes and Prelates in making them their Executioners to destroy those who were judged Hereticks by them and therefore this act of theirs was the evil of those persons that did it but not of the civil Government it self 3. It is supposed that then the civil powers were the beast and a whore Which no doubt alludes to that which we read Revel 17. 1 2 c. of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters and v. 3. 7. the whore is resembled by a woman sitting upon a scarlet coloured beast and v. 18. it is said and the woman which thou sawest is that great City which reigneth over the Kings of the earth Which few do deny to be meant of Rome some of the learned Papists themselves granting it to be meant of Rome though they would have it believed that Rome is so called the Whore while it was heathen not since it became Christian. Others there are chiefly Those of the Protestant Churches who do conceive by the Whore is meant Rome Papal as conceiving the descriptions ofher and her practises cannot be applied to Rome as it was Paganish or Ethnick Whether this or the other or any other opinion be right it is not needful now to discuss It is sufficient that the Civil Powers of Rome whether Ethnick or Christian or in a future estate cannot well be termed the Beast and a Whore too sith the text makes them distinct or if they may yet sure the Civil Powers are not the Whore sith it is said v. 2. The Kings of the earth have committed fornication with the Whore and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication therefore the Kings of the earth and inhabiters of the earth must not be confounded with the Whore And v. 16. It is said And the ten Horns who are ten Kings which had received no Kingdom then v. 12. And therefore not while Rome was Ethnick but after it's being Christian Which thou sawest upon the Beast these shall hate the Whore and shall make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire Therefore the Kings which are the Civil Powers are not the same with the Whore but though at first beguiled by her shall at last hate and consume her when they shall be undeceived 4. It is supposed that then the Power of Rome when adulterated from its pure Civil Estate became a mixt Antichristian state or a beastly Antichristian Power What is meant by Antichristian state or Antichristian Power is not easy to resolve It is true the Apostle John makes mention of many Antichrists that should come in the last time among which his words intimate that there should be a special Antichrist that they had heard should come 1 John 2. 18. And v. 22. He saith He is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son And ch 4. v. 3. He saith And every Spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God And this is that Spirit of Antichrist whereof ye have heard that it should come and even already is it in the world And in his second Epistle v. 7. For many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh This is a or the Deceiver and an or the Antichrist which words seem to import that those erroneous seducing teachers whether gnosticks or other who were risen in that time when these Epistles were written were it is likely called Antichrists from their opposition to the true Doctrine concerning the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh-Nevertheless many of the ancients in after ages did often give hints of the expectation of Christians commonly entertained whether from St. Johns words or some other tradition that there would arise some more remarkable Antichrist who should whether by Power or deceit corrupt or infest the Church of Christ beyond what was done in his daies And this hath been imagined by some of them should be a Roman the same with the man of sin 2 Thes. 2. 3. That wicked or lawless one v. 8. the Beast Revel 13. 11. And the Whore of Babylon Revel 17. 5. which in many ages the great corruptions in the Popes of Rome and their Courts caused to be applied ever and anon by some or other of the best and learnedst of their times to the Popes and Papacy And since the time of Luther it hath been almost generally received by Protestant Writers of all sorts that the Popes and Papacy especially since Pope Boniface the third usurped the Title of Oecumenical Bishop as proper to his See and Gregory the seventh the Power of deposing Emperors and Boniface the eight the welding of both swords Civil and Ecclesiastical are the Antichrist Man of sin Beast and Whore of Babylon foretold that he should come by St. Paul and St. John And not a few very learned and sober godly men both of Bishops and Presbyters in England Ireland France and other Nations have asserted it by Preaching and writing and have made it one of their chief pleas for their refusing communion with and enmity against the late Bishops of Rome and the Papal Church although some of late have thought otherwise and have endeavoured to apply those passages to some other whether rightly or not I do not now determin Whence it hath come to pass that as the Papists who still adhere to the Bishop of Rome as Christs Vicar and St. Peters Successor swallow down all that comes from Rome be it never so vain and erroneous so on the other side those who have been induced by the arguments inforced from the places of holy scripture alledged to conceive that the Popes or Papacy or Roman Synagogue have been and are the Antichrist Man of sin Babylon the Whore therein mentioned have been apt to
against God to reward Babylon but it may be understood as a prediction of what should be not as a command of what ought to be done by them as their duty as the like expressions Jerem. 50. 2. 14 15. 21. 26 27 28 29. which are imitated Rev. 18. 4. 6. Revel 19. 17. Isai. 56. 9. are to be expounded or as a permission allowing a person to do it as when St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 10. 27. Whatsoever is set before you eat asking no question for conscience sake which doth not injoyn them to eat whatsoever was set before them so as that if they did not eat it would be their sin for then they should be required to be gluttons but is an indulgence to them allowing them liberty to eat as a thing not unlawful but indifferent which unless further admonished they might eat without scruple of conscience 4. That it is not a command to the people who did come out of Babylon nor their act to reward double to Babylon and fill to her double but a prediction of what shall be done by others may be gathered in that the reward to them is to be construed to have been the slaughter of them and the cup which Babylon filled was the cup of blood which she was to drink of Revel 16. 6. now then those persons who were rewarded to whom this cup was filled by Babylon are such as had been put to death by Babylon and therefore could not reward her double or fill her double in the cup which she hath filled unless they were raised from the dead and consequently could not be the same individuals who are invited to come out of Babylon Revel 18. 4. 5. Upon this consideration it is also probable that the rewarding and filling Revel 18. 6. is ascribed to the Martyrs killed because God did it by reason of the cry of their blood which is intimated by the words v. 20. Rejoyce over her thou Heaven and ye holy Apostles and Prophets for God hath avenged you on her and other words Revel 11. 18. do intimate the same Which if true is nothing to the smiting work of the Quinto-Monarchians by military power turning their Plow-shares into swords but only intimates the efficacy of the blood of Martys to bring divine vengeance on Babylon 6. But were it granted that the people of God invited to come out of Babylon Revel 18. 4. were the same numerical persons who are commanded to reward Babylon double and to fill her double in the cup which she hath filled and they are to do this by smiting with the sword yet this is nothing to the Fifth-Monarchy-Men in England unless they should be in Babylon at that time when Gods people should come out of her and did so come out of her And therefore there is no command Revel 18. 6. for them to smite till then but they are to put up their sword into the sheath and to lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty under their Governors else they will be guilty of resisting and self-revenging condemned by Christ and his Apostles which was to be proved § 10. Quinto-Monarchians Doctrine tends to murder and ruine of humane society HEnce also a seventh argument is deduced that the smiting work to which the Doctrine of Quinto-Monarchians incites is wilful murder yea the most horrible murder that ever was except his who was a murderer from the beginning John 8. 44. or theirs who crucified the Lord of glory For it incites to a professed smiting and spoyling of all the civil powers on earth even those to whom they are bound to be subject by all Lawes of Religion nature country and reason and to act these things with all extremity out of imagined zeal for Christ which if it be not according to knowledge is a fire of Hell which will hardly be ever quenched and in prosecution thereof to smite those who resist them which must of necessity be all those who adhere to civil powers who will be doubtless the most conscientious Saints on earth and the greatest part of mankind which must needs be wilful Murder and Robbery if they have no warrant to do it But they have none neither Revel 18. 6. nor any other scripture or Revelation of God that we or they do know nor Lawes of nature or men do in the least warrant or permit it but all condemn it And therefore if they should be permitted to act their design which God forbid there would be more destruction and wasting than ever yet was made by men since the world began and more truly they might be termed Babylon in whom the blood of the Saints is found than any civil powers yet extant now murder-makes persons the Children of the Divil there being no sin more resembling him John 8. 44. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer and ye know saith St. John 1 Epist. ch 3. 15. That no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him therefore such are no Saints but Antichristian and the Doctrine moving to it is damnable and Antichristan To which I shall add an eighth argument taken from the direful effects to which the Quinto-Monarchians Doctrine of overturning and smiting civil powers and Lawes tends which are all the miseries which anarchy and confusion brings on the world even to the destruction of the Church of Christ on earth or rather according to the project they propound humane society if not the extirpation of mankind For by taking away civil powers safety of persons and all comforts of life are either taken away or much endangered When the Prophet Isaiah threatned calamity to the people of the Jewes Isai. 3. 1 2 3 4 5. He tels them the Lord the Lord of hosts doth take away the mighty man and the man of War the Judge and the Prophet and the prudent and the ancient the Captain of fifty and the honourable man and the Counsellor and the cunning Artificer and the eloquent Orator and I will give Children to be their Princes and Babes shall rule over them and the people shall be oppressed every one by another and every one by his neighbour the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient and the base against the honourable Whereby it may be perceived that God took it to be a curse next after the taking away the stay and the staff the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water to take from the Jewes their Rulers Teachers Nobles Scholars and therefore there cannot be a greater calamity to a people after the destruction of the fruits of the earth whereby famine comes than to smite time their civil powers and eminent persons who have been the Protectors and Guides of the people For then people become Murderers and Robbers one of another and all places are filled with fears dangers cries and miseries of all sorts The evils we have felt in our own civil Wars shew what misery it is to have Soldiers rule and not Princes and
Judges And yet the evils we have seen are small in comparison of what the Jewes felt by the factions there when Jerusalem was besieged by Titus But the evils which would come on the world by the insurrection of the Quinto-Monarchians if their project did take place would far exceed them their design being an universal destruction of them that oppose them in all the world and when the conscience is perverted there being no stay to mens furious zeal If any say that they would only smite oppressors of the Saints I reply by their own rules they are bound to separate from those Churches which are select and more pure as being seemingly refined which are the gathered in pastoral way reducing things to primitive practise so far as they are corrupted and adulterated and found opposers of the Kingly office of Jesus Christ in and over the whole world and more especial in the administration of this part or dispensation of that Kingdom to wit that of the Stone or War against his enimies for even in this generation there be a sort of people and those we hope godly that do acknowledge wait in the expectation of the later yea and hold forth the personal appearance of our Lord as King yet nevertheless oppose and deny and quite leap over this Stone and its work thereby endeavouring to render the Saints useless and uncapable of destroying Babylon which must make way and without which we cannot attain to the peaceable and more glorious administration of this Kingdom by removing those Mountains Hills and powers of darkness which do oppose and hinder it Banner displayed p. 75. There are no Churches or at leastwise very few of the pastoral way in these Nations or elsewhere but have something of Antichrist in them having forsaken and apostatized from the primitive and first love and have and do in many principle and practises strike hands with the interest of Antichrist and mystery of iniquity 2 Thes. 2. 3 4. p. 79. We accompt it a duty for the Saints to separate from all the forms practises doctrines and spirit of the Antichrist in the world in their brethren in the Churches c. And to be plain we accompt him and that spirit which either in act or deed wilfully and obstinately denies the smiting work of our Lords Kingdom Antichristian inasmuch as that such would alwaies have Christ his Saints his cause in and on the earth a sufferer but the scripture clearly manifests the contrary p. 81 82. now then if men be they never so holy as they hope a sort of people be who oppose deny and quite leap over the Stone and its smiting as they confess there are no Churches or very few of the pastoral way in these Nations and elsewhere but have opposed them yet are Antichristian they by their principles are to smite them and so must oppress Saints as well as others And if any Saints be civil powers Ecclesiastical Rulers Governors in Corporations Graduates in Universities Pastors in Churches as no doubt thousands are who love the Lord Jesus and wait for his appearing and Kingdom yet these must be smitten too And who can secure in such confusions as would arise upon the Quinto-Monarchians smiting work any man yea of their own party from violence and slaughter when there is nothing but rage in private persons whose proceedings are in heat of mad zeal without any distinction by legal trial and just judgment or certain Rule Sure no Tyrants have ever done more mischief than this way of the Fifth-Monarchy-Men would do if it were prosecuted nor is any doctrine more hellish Antichristian and damnable than this that tends to overthrow all the civil powers Lawes Doctrines Forms Degrees Offices in Church and State which these term the spirit of Antichrist in the world And if it were supposed that these furious zelots should accomplish their design after the mixture of hypocrites and the rabble of the worst most foolish men who could hope there would be any peace good order or justice in the world or any remainder of sober men The world would be an Acheldama or field of blood which they impute to the Nations of Europe even the Protestant and the prevailing persons to use their own phrase Blood-Monsters and instead of a visible Kingdom of Christ in the earth a solitude Chaos tohu vebohu as was afore the first creation and the Kingdom of Antichrist or the Devil would be set up under pretence of making Christs enemies his footstool What Lawes Order or Rule tending to further Religion or Righteousness can any expect from men of such cauterized consciences as not to discern the mischievousness of such doctrine and practises as these have vented especially after they have inured themselves to shedding of blood and rapine with extremity § 11. The 9th and 10th arguments against the smiting work of Quinto-Monarchians from the meekness peaceableness and patience of Saints TO these arguments which have been confirmed I shall add a ninth taken from the opposition of spirit and practise which their doctrine begets to the precepts of meekness and peaceablness which the Gospel requires of Christians and to which it assigns blessedness Our Lord Christ in his sermon on the Mount Matth. 5. 5. saith Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth v. 9. Blessed are the peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God v. 22. He forbids rash anger contemptuous speech and opprobrious language v. 23 24 25. requires speedy endeavours of reconciliation with adversaries nor is it any thing against this precept of Christ that he tels us Luke 12. 49. 51. I am come to send fire on the earth and what will I if it be already kindled Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth I tell you nay but rather division For these expressions do not shew his approbation of division but his foresight of it not as a thing which he affected or as a thing desirable of it self or which he studied to promote but as a thing which he knew was unavoidable in the event that while he endeavoured to promote the truth of the Gospel by accident divisions would follow not from his doctrine which was the Gospel of peace but through the perversness of mens spirits who would oppose it But that it was the will of Christ that all Christian Saints should be meek and peaceable appears from the many precepts injoyning them in the Apostles writings Rom. 12. 18. If it be possible as much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men Rom. 14. 17. For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Ghost v. 19. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace Gal. 5. 19 20. The workes of the flesh are hatred enmities variance wrath strise seditions divisions or factions v. 22. 23. The fruit of the spirit is love joy peace meekness Heb. 12. 14. Follow peace with
their subjection Sure Paul when he reasoned with Felix Acts 24. 25. did nor go about to terrify him with threatning of any judgment he or the Saints on earth had but minded him of the judgment to come Nor did our Lord Christ himself either to Pilate or the High Priest use any menacing speeches but only told the High Priest Matth. 26. 64. Hereafter ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of Heaven 2. This will nothing concern the King of these three Nations nor any other Kings or Rulers who do acknowledge they Rule under Christ and Rule for Christ and therefore cannot with any colour be adjudged as enemies to Christ by those who have no cognizance of the secrets of mens hearts nor any way or power of judicature in such things but must leave them to the trial of the Universal Judge 3. We grant that so far as Christ hath made any lawes pertaining to civil or Church Government Kings have no power to abrogate or alter them but are bound according to that Authority they have to see them executed and observed yea and to repress them that pretend themselves Saints as Traitors both to them and Christ from whom they have authority who appose their power and hinder their actings in that which is agreeable to Christs lawes For if they be not Officers under Christ as mediator which I assert not yet they are Rulers under Christ as the Son of God and will be owned and assisted by him in doing his work against any that pretends himself Christs Vicar or lurks under the Vizour of a Saint But as I said before Sect. 6. 1. The lawes of Christ are not sufficient without other lawes to settle and order thousands of particulars whether belonging to the Church or Common-wealth but that there is need of humane lawes to determin them 2. That the Jewish lawes are not fitted for the Government of Christian states and Churches of the Gentiles except in some few 3. That the Lord Christ and his Apostles did of purpose leave us at liberty concerning them lest the Gospel should be hindered by them and permitted all Nations to order their own lawes and civil Government according to general precepts of the word and the exigence of civil affairs 4. That to tie men to Mosaical civil precepts any further than the general equity of them requires would be to Judaize 5. That the most holy Saints that are on earth are and will be bound to observe humane lawes of their civil seperiors under pain of God wrath till Christ at his coming put down all rule and all authority and power 6. That it no whit detracts from Christs supreme dominion to have Kings to be Rulers under him and therefore we abhor that speech cited sect 2. Jesus Christ alone is Lord and King and all men are equals A fourth position deduced from the third is that the Saints of the most high are by themselves a Common-wealth and Free-state which is somewhat like the opinion of Papists who exempt men in holy orders from the secular power and it is not unlikely to have been instilled into the minds of Quinto-Monarchians by some of the popish party But is a false and foolish conceit refuted by all the arguments before produced requiring subjection to civil powers even such as are evil and proving even agreeably to the state of mankind corrupt that civil power and natural power of government belongs to Infidels over Saints and therefore Saints cannot without injury shake off the yoke of allegiance and obedience which is upon them by the imposition of civil and natural powers though unbelievers It is also foolish For 1. it supposeth Saints may be by themselves which is contrary to the express Doctrine of our Lord Matth. 13. 30. which tels us that the tares and the wheat are to grow together until the Harvest which he expounds after v. 40 41. that it shall be the end of the world afore the wicked and the children of the Kingdom shall be separated which he also teacheth by another parable v. 47 48 49 50. All those who are for gathered Churches though they would have none in Church communion but visible Saints yet are forced to acknowledge from these Scriptures that they must live together whether they will or no in the world and therefore this and indeed the whole project of the Quinto-Monarchians is but a fond dream and too like the Donatists and Circumcellions of old in Africa But were it granted that there may be or have been Plantations of godly persons unmixt yet experience hath shewed that even amongst them differences quickly arise by reason of different apprehensions and divisions and enmities and in a little time heats animosities factions oppositions and other corruptions follow Besides who can secure the generation following from corruption Moses and Joshuah settled the Common-wealth of Israel with order laws rites of Religion and all by immediate direction from God yet quickly did they corrupt themselves The like may be said of the times succeeding David and Solomon Our own times yield like instances that the posterity of the best and holiest Planters though free from many provocations which the people have from whom they remove yet in an age do degenerate from their predecessors holiness and in their manners and government become like other people And what we have seen in our daies of the giddiness shallowness instability selfishness of the choicest men for government and holiness whom men could find in a Nation should me thinks awaken men from continuing in that dream no better than the fancy of a golden mountain as if they might have a Common-wealth or Free-state or gathered Church by themselves on earth of pure Saints 2. But were this feasible that there were a Common-wealth or Free state of uncorrupt Saints by themselves on earth afore Christs appearing yet without such promise and provision made for them by Christ as we yet have no assurance of they would not subsist long but perhaps be as the Historians phrase is populus unius aetatis a people of one age by reason of the weakness they would have to resist their enemies which would be more in number than themselves perhaps a thousand fold and their enmity be encreased as Pharaoh's was to the children of Israel and either oppress them or destroy them If after the thousand years reign the Divel could go out to deceive the Nations which are in the four quarters of the earth Gog and Magog to gather them to battel their number being as the sand of the Sea and they go up on the breadth of the earth and compass about the Camp of the Saints and the beloved City Rev. 20. 8 9. It is much more likely while Satan is at liberty and millions of enemies infidel Pagans cruel Mahometans bloody Papists profane and vitious Protestants unquiet and unruly members in the gathered Churches loose Libertines and
If Saints have the rights and priviledges in respect of Government then those only have power to make Governors as Kings and their Officers who make Saints especially Preachers Ministers and Pastors of Churches But the Scripture makes this no part of a Ministers work he is not to intangle himself in affairs of this life 2 Tim. 2. 4. this is never intimated to have been done or that it should be done they are said to be of God his ministers not the Ministers of the Saints or Pastors of Churches nor did ever any pretend it to be the right of Church Officers to constitute Kings and civil Governors till the Popes of Rome usurped that power to create the Emperors whose Predecessor Gregory the great acknowledged the Emperor Mauricius to be his Lord and the like was done by other Popes to the Emperors of Rome until the time of Hildebrand named Gregory the seventh whom Becket in England followed taking upon him to annul the English Laws and asserting the Kings power to be from the Church 17. If the rights and priviledges in respect of Government be the Saints then they cease to be Governors when they cease to be Saints and so the opinion heretofore charged unjustly on Wickleff that a Prelate or Prince falling into mortal sin should be disavowed which is even by Romanists decried then might those that have power to excommunicate and to declare them Hereticks Apostates depose them yea then should Princes be at the mercy not only of Popes but also of every Ecclesiastical Consistory yea they themselves should be bound in such cases to lay down their Government and Ecclesiastical Rulers and godly persons to abandon them as being no Governors of right because no Saints which would make Governments which are the great supporters of human society to be the weakest and silliest invention among men not like the Ordinance of God by whom Kings reign and Princes decree justice Prov. 8. 15. but rather a device of Idiots bring the greatest confusions and mischiefs incident to human affairs deter infidel Princes to become Christians if they see they must possesse their Dominion at the will of Ecclesiasticks with many other great absurdities We find in Scripture Kings have deposed Priests as Solomon did Abiathar by Gods allowance but no where Priests to have deposed Kings with any approbation This hath been but of late a thing hatch'd at Rome and fetch'd from Hell 17. If the Saints have the rights and priviledges in respect of Government regained in Christ then is temporal dominion founded in grace But that is not true sith it is given out of common providence for the good of human society not out of special love to the Saints For it is one of the things that is for the benefit of the bad as well as the good as the shining of the Sun and the falling of the rain Matth. 5. 45. and therefore the benefit of it is sometimes denied to the good and granted to the bad so that in these things all are alike one event is to the righteous and the wicked Eccles. 9. 2. 18. If government of others were the Saints right God would not have made Saul King nor David acknowledged him King over Israel nor adjudged him to death that slew him nor would God have termed Cyrus his Shepheard Isa. 44. 28. his anointed Isa. 45. 1. nor Daniel have said to Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 2. 37. thou O King art a King of Kings for the God of Heaven hath given thee a Kingdom power and strength and glory or to Darius O King live for ever Dan. 6. 21. 19. If the Saints have regained in Christ the rights and priviledges in respect of Government then all offices of government or some only if all then every Saint is of right a King and so a King by inheritance succession or election is no more a King than the meanest Saint yea than a child if a Saint and so no wo when the King is a child contrary to Eccles. 10. 16. then one person hath no more right to an office than another which would introduce anarchy and take away all government which is indeed the event to which Fifth-monarchy-mens principles and actings tend under shew of the Saints right to put power into the hands of the most violent Spirits whereby all orderly government will be demolished and tyranny of a few with the common robbery of all promoted If some only have rights to some offices and priviledges in respect of government who shall distinguish how shall the right of each be tried what Court shall there be to decide controversies of this kind Is there any that hath discerning of Spirits to find out each ones fitness Is there any Oracle of God any Priest by Urim and Thummim who can declare what is to be done Sure such devices are not of God but of Satan which tend to unsettle things placed in order and involve men in inextricable difficulties not to be avoided without a miracle Lastly If the Saints have regained rights and priviledges in respect of Government in Christ then are those unjustly debarred from them who are Saints But the Quinto-Monarchians in their Banner of truth displayed do not only declare the Saints are to separate from the Romish Universal national Prelatical Parochial Presbyterian Churches but also from the congregational Churches though they hope godly if they oppose them or concur not with them in their smiting work though they be brethren in the Churches yet they accompt him and that spirit which either in act or deed wilfully and obstinately as blessed be the Almighty they did both before by the Quinto-Monarchians own confession and in the year 1660 denies the smiting work of our Lords Kingdom as they pretend it to be though it be but their own work and for themselves moved by their own Phrenetick fury or intemperate blind zeal Antichristian terming them formally godly if they be not as violent as themselves and degrading them as if they had no sanctity who are not sâ—â—dementate as themselves which shews that they account them only for Saints that are of their spirit and mind and appropriate the rights and priviledges in respect of government to those of their party excluding those who join not with them though confessedly godly and brethren for whom they cannot deny Christ hath regained as much as for themselves which shews their injustice if not hypocrisy and overthrows their assertion that the Saints as Saints have regained in Christ the rights and priviledges in respect of government sith they will have no Saints but their own party to have regained them The sixth position to which all their consultation and doctrine tends and which is indeed the venom and poyson of all their tenents boyled up to the heigth is that the Kingdom and power in these Nations is the Saints birthright as freemen of the Common-wealth of Israel and heirs of the whole world with Christ Gal. 3. 29. whence 't is that
expresly declared by the Apostles Acts 4. 25 26 27. to have been fulfilled in the conspiracy of Herod and Pontius Pilate the Gentiles and Princes of Israel putting Christ to death The other text Revel 19. 19. is confessedly meant of Christs enemies that shall be near the time of the rise of the Kingdom of Christ and therefore is madly applied to a duty of Non-assisting or ressisting present powers It 's against all Rules but those of frayes when Tinkers and Pedlers and the rabble Rout fall to fighting to strike Richard for Robert to oppose the present powers in this Generation the civil and Ecclesiastical because the Beast and the Kings of the earth and their Armies shall be gathered together to make War against him that sate on the Horse and his Army No marvel men that thus argue should hate Lawyers and Universities which would hisse out such Law and Logick no marvel godly Brethren desert them when they vent such things as befit Devils rather than Saints and better agree with the doctrine of Hell than of the Church of Christ to whom that may be applied which Christ saith Revel 2. 9. I know the Blasphemy of them which say they are Jewes and are not but are the Synagogue of Satan As for us who have not known the depths of Satan as they speak we judge we may be friends and subjects of men even such as do oppose the righteous Kingdom of Jesus Christ if we do not concur with them nor love nor favour nor yeild obedience to them in that opposition we may be subject to them in the things of men though we oppose them according to our duty as did the three Children Dan. 3. 16 17 18. in the things of God when they act contrary thereto Nor need we fear to be charged with serving Christ and Belial or being found secret or open Traitors to Christ while we assist them in matters of civil Government and good order of Churches though they be adversaries to some truths we hold or some practises which we conceive and perhaps are our duty The power is not Belial alwaies when those that have the power be men of Belial A believing servant may serve with a good conscience an unbelieving Master enough hath been said of this before I am ashamed that any that hath the name of a Protestant or Saint should thus argue and it is altogether inexcusable in these men who acknowledge in this their writing that the persecuting powers in the Apostles dayes were the Ordinance of God to which Christians should be subject Rom. 13. 1. 3. Say they because the very life well-being rest and happiness of the Saints both in the external and internal sence consisteth and is laid and wrapt up in the Kingdom of Christ which is granted they add and not in this Kingdom of Antichrist and Babylonish state which is a filthy and polluted thing Heb. 11. 26 27. 2 Pet. 3. 13. But how doth it appear that the present civil powers are the Kingdom of Antichrist and Babylonish state or that owning or assisting them is resting in such a Kingdom or state Sure Heb. 11. 26 27. 2 Pet. 3. 13. there 's not a word to prove that which they take for granted yea we may perhaps better retort this reason and say it is the happiness of Saints to separate from these Fifth-Monarchy-men who instead of the Kingdom of Christ would bring us into the Kingdom of Antichrist and Babylonish state by inciting us to separate from and smite civil powers and charge them as denying the power and authority of Christ who would have to Caesar the things of Caesar given even from this their own speech of forbidding us to be under the power of men which is Gods Ordinance Rom. 13. 1. And though the followers of Christ ought to travel and cry and be restless until the man-child be brought forth to rule the Nations and until Zions righteousness go forth as brightness and her salvation as a Lamp that burneth Mic. 4. 10. Isa. 62. 1. c. yet are they not to give their goods or to use their endeavours to further the Quinto-Monarchians project Nor do the words Micah 2. 10. warrant them to relinquish powers which be over them but we may justly exhort all holy persons in the words of Moses Numb 16. 24 26. Get you up from about the Tabernacle of the Quinto-Monarchians who are seditious against their Governors as Corah Dathan and Abiram were depart I pray you from the tents of these wicked men though pretended Saints and touch nothing of theirs lest ye be consumed in all their sins 4. Say they Because 't is prophesied of the Saints that they shall take the Kingdom power and dominion from the Beast Dan. 7. 18. 26. we therefore conclude that 't is a duty incumbent upon the Saints of the later daies to endeavour the translation of the Kingdom and power from the Beast to Jesus Christ else how shall they fulfil the Word of God which is a sure word of prophecy now how can Saints be instrumental in this great work except they first perform this act of separation which being done renders them in a great measure ready for that which follows Answ It is prophesied of the Saints of the most High that they shall take the Kingdom and possess the Kingdom for ever even for ever and ever But it is not said that the Kingdom they shall take shall be the visible Kingdom on earth after or towards the time of the end of the fourth or Roman Monarchy or that the Saints are the Gentile Saints or the Gentile Saints of this Age or this Island or of the City of London or that they shall take it from the Beast or that the Beast is the civil power of England or that they shall take it by their separation or smiting work or that the Saints shall take away the Dominion of the Horn to consume and to destroy it unto the end by some fighting Act of theirs or any such as the Quinto-Monarchians design But in the reading and meaning of those words there is so much difficulty and uncertainty that no sober person would ever have made such an inference as these men make from it For first it is not very certain whether the fourth Beast be the Kingdom of the Seleucidae or the Roman Kingdom though I incline to the later 2. It is uncertain whether the little Horn be Antiochus Epiphanes or the Roman Papacy though I incline to the later 3. Nor is it certain that it is to be read the Saints of the most High shall take the Kingdom which I follow with our interpreters the same persons being to take the Kingdom who are to possess it for ever and not as some read they shall take the Kingdom of the Saints of the most High meaning the four Beasts shall take the Kingdom of the Jewes 4. Nor is it certain that v. 26. when it is said they shall take away his
of absolution merit Martyrdom and Heaven Answ I should not think it worth while to make any answer to this reason which proves that which is granted that the worshipping the Beast and his image the receiving the mark of the beast in his forehead or in his hand or the name of the beast or number of his name or the mark of his name makes men obnoxious to Gods wrath and proves not at all that which is to be proved that to have relation affection subjection to civil power or any of its appertainers is to worship the Beast and his Image to receive the mark of the Beast in the forehead or hand to receive the mark of his name his name or the number of his name but that I find this is made commonly the pretence of separations of every party and their oppositions thereupon Thus not only the Protestants separate from the Papists counting subjection to the Pope receiving the mark of the beast but also among Protestants dissenters term the practice they dislike and are averse from the mark of the beast whence especially the common sort who have most heat and least light as they are prejudiced so they inveigh against their opposites as the beast and the owning them as the re-receiving his mark So Brownists count any acknowledgment of Bishops receiving ordination from them using the Cross Surplice kneeling and such ceremonies as they injoin going to Common-prayer paying tythes being of a national or parish Church with many more things which they except against in Prelatical yea and Presbyterian and congregational government the worshiping the beast and receiving his mark which being got once into the heads of the common sort who usually talk much against that which they understand little inflames them with hatred against those they judge to be the beast and that which they think is his mark so as that without measure they inveigh against them delighting in satyrical scotts and jests put upon them in tales that disparage them are averse from any conference with them or hearing of them speak and altogether irreconcileable to them This fashion which heretofore was only used against Ecclesiasticks the Fifth-monarchy-men it seems have here taken up against the civil powers as useful for their demagogical design to affright the people and to hold them to their party But to shew the vanity of it it is to be observed that they apply the threatnings Rev. 14. 6 7 8 9 10. to the worshipping of the second beast described Revel 13. 11. and to the times near unto Christs coming now that beast by all the descriptions of it appears not to have gotten his power by the sword as civil powers have but by deceit as by pretended miracles v. 13. 14. whence he is termed the false Prophet Rev. 16. 13 14. which stirred up the Kings of the earth to make war against the Rider on the white horse Rev. 19. 19 20. the Whore with whom the Kings of the earth committed sornication Revel 17. 1 2. which being plainly expressed to be Rome or at Rome v. 18. cannot be applyed with any shew or colour to the civil powers of England or other Countries besides Rome especially the Protestants they being no Prophets nor using any arts or devices to draw men to the worship of the first beast or Dragon or to set up any forreign power but seeking to uphold their own civil power and requiring the subjects to renounce the Popes supremacy and power to depose them and therefore it is a most impudent false accusation to make the Protestant civil powers to be either the beast or the Kings that commit fornication with the Whore or the having relation affection subjection to them and their appertainers the worshiping the beast or his image or the receiving his mark name or number of his name But they say 6. We might also further add because the Civil power is that which enforces and compels the consciences and spirits of men to the Antichristian forms and worship of Babylon accordingly the great Harlot or Mystery of iniquity i. e. Antichristian worship and Church state rides upon the Beast Rev. 17. 3. that is she has the preheminence and makes the Beast use his sword for her advantage upon pain of excommunication curses and such like baubles Answ. The Beast which carrieth the Woman Rev. 17. 3 7. is said to have seven heads and ten horns and so is not the Beast with two horns like a Lamb Rev. 13. 11. but the first Beast Rev. 13. 1. of which they say That the Image Mark Name and Number of the Beast are of a later date than the first Beast and his ten horns and so consequently men in former generations might have worshiped the Beast and yet not his Image nor receive his mark c. But if the Beast might be then worshiped then might the Beast be worshiped when the Dragon gave him his Seat and Power and great Authority Rev. 13. 2. at which time they term the power of Rome the Ordinance of Hell p. 51. And if then the Civil power of Rome might be owned as the Ordinance of God Rom. 13. 1. when they compelled men to worship their Idols in like manner the Civil powers now should be owned as Gods Ordinance though they should compell men to the Antichristian forms and worship of Babylon which though idolatrous are not worse than the Pagan worship to which the persecuting Emperors did compell the Christians But however this Reason may give some colour for separating from those Kings and States which use the Roman Inquisition and force their Subjects to go to the Masse and to worship the consecrated wafer Cake which they call The Hoste and the Body of Christ and to acknowledge the Pope as the Head of the Universal Church the Roman Church as the Mother of all Churches which may be truly termed the Antichristian forms and worship of Babylon the mystery of iniquity the Antichristian worship and Church-state yet this doth not at all reach the Protestant Kings and Civil powers who do not enforce and compell men to these Antichristian forms and worship of Babylon nor support the great Harlot nor let her have the preheminence nor use their sword for her advantage nor regard her Excommunication Curses and such like baubles but use their power and sword against her deride her Excommunications Curses Indulgences and Threats and urge their Subjects to disclaim her jurisdiction and worship If any say that the Civil powers in England do compel men to be under Diocesan Bishops and Priests who have their succession and ordination from Rome and to be present at the Common Prayer which is nothing but the Masse translated out of Latine into English and to be members of a National Church which is Antichristian I answer that neither do the Bishops derive their succession from Rome nor is their consecration as the Roman with any oath to the Pope though Mr. Francis Mason have pleaded against