that despise mee shall be lightly esteemed Now blessed bee our God for evermore for this his great and glorious worke and hee ever blesse his King that as hee hath made him a mighty instrument thereof so hee would strengthen him to the finishing of that work which yet remaynes to be done in the purgation and reformation of his other Kingdomes that so hee may prove the most glorious Prince that ever raigned in the Christian World And it is said here And great feare fell upon them which saw them That is when they on the Beasts side saw those witnesses whom the Beast had cruelly slaine and whose dead bodies they had barbarously used not suffering them to have common buriall but insulted and triumphed over them now to be as it were revived and raised from the dead againe when they behold such a wonderfull increase to come of their bloud so cruelly shed such a spirit of life from God so to possesse many other witnesses as those slain seem 1 1 Here let the Reader still remember that this Treatise was written before his returne from banishment and so towards London on that Saturday the solemnitie whereof was so conspicuous and glorious as it doth without any other application even naturally apply it self as if it were the most proper fulfilling of this Prophecie if either wee consider the manner of that return or the effect it wrought in the adversaries thereof which caused in them extreame indignation and rage even unto gnawing of their tongues and gnashing of their teeth And yet feare so possessed them that all â—heir power and policie could not help now to live againe in them they are struck with terrour they are surprized with feare For whereas they fondly imagined that the slaying or cruell handling of two or three prime witnesses making them sure as dead men would so have queld all the rest that not one durst ever after peepe contrary to their expectation they see a generation of witnesses to rise up after them and so to affright their enemies as if they saw an apparition of the Ghosts of the former witnesses returned from the dead And if a man did now but feele the pulse of those Prelates in England who have seene their brethren Prelates late of Scotland to bâ— cast out of Church and Countrey and utterly cashiered without all hope of restitution should he not trow you find the spirit of trepidation leaping and panting as it were for life as if their owne turne should be next But it followeth Verse 12. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them Come up hither And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud and their enemies beheld them They that is the two witnesses thus raised and restored to life as before heard a great voice from heaven Here Christ either by an extraordinary voice inwardly calling or by the ordinary voice of his word outwardly cals his servants to take Sanctuary as in heaven Now heaven here may bee taken for the Church of God hereupon earth So it 〈◊〉 often taken in this Booke As in this Chapter Verse 19. So Chap. 12.1 the woman there in heaven is the Church Militant here on earth as appeareth plainly in the whole Chapter as Verse 3. 7. 8. Chap. 13.6 and in other places Now the Church of God here on earth is compared unto and called Heaven as in many other respects so specially in this because it is holy and pure being purged both for Doctrine and Discipline from all damnable Heresies and errours in faith and from the vain Inventions and Traditions of men in the worship of God m Revel 14.4 following the Lambe whithersoever he goeth that is in all things obeying Christ and observing his Ordinances and subjecting their souls and consciences to none other King but only Christ They from this Heaven heare a great voice this is Christs voice in his word calling his witnesses from having any more to doe with the Beast and his brood having sealed this their testimony with their bloud which the Beast hath sucked and drunk up So as hee now being found to be incorrigible and incurable so as hee grows worse and worse is to be utterly abandoned As the Lord saith in Jeremy n Ier. 51.6.45 Flee out of the midst of Babylon and deliver every man his soule be not cut off in her iniquitie for this is the time of the Lords vengeance he will render unto her a recompence And the reason of Gods peoples thus abandoning of Babylon is rendred Verse 9. Verse 9. We would have healed Babylon but shee is not healed forsake her and let us goe every one into his owne Countrey for her judgement reacheth up to heaven and is lifted up even to the skies And the like warning God gives to his people Revel 18.4 concerning the spirituall Babylon where Iohn saith I heard another voice from heaven saying Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues for her sins have reached unto heaven and God hath remembred her iniquities So here the witnesses heare a great voice from heaven saying Come up hither as much to say as Have no more to doe with Babylon nor with the Beast and his members who will heare no reason but have now filled up the measure of their cruelty not only to you but to all my witnesses that went before you so as now there is no more hope of them o 2 Kings 17. See also 2 Chron 36.16 no remedie for them being like those incorrigible and obstinate revolted Tribes of Israel or like the Jews that persecuted my Apostles and p Acts 13.46 drove them away to the Gentiles therefore come out from among them admonish them no more but come up hither keepe you close to my Church which I have altogether purged and purified from the dregs of Babylon and there only hold your communion Come up hither And as it followeth they ascended up to heaven in a cloud and their enemies beheld them Wee read that Elias was carried up to heaven in a fiery Chariot And Christ ascended up to Heaven in a cloud Here these witnesses ascend up to heaven in a cloud But to Heaven as before is shewed namely from their enemies to take Sanctuary as in the Church of God here on earth it being compared to a high and holy Mountain to which we must ascend So as this ascending in a cloud and that in the enemies view sets forth the admirable providence of God who will miraculously make his Church a sure and safe Sanctuary as Heaven to his persecuted ones under this Trumpet from the power and fury of their enemies who may behold them afarre off but are not able any more to touch them for they are now out of their reach as being in Heaven For in this Trumpet God is preparing a way to the seventh and last Trumpet wherein hee will
seven Angels with their seven Trumpets prepared to sound And who so compareth their seven severall Soundings and the severall effects thereof with the severall pourings forth of the seven Vials and the effects thereof hee shall observe such a similitude between them as will put him out of all doubt that the seven Trumpets and the seven Vials are all one and the same Prophecie Take a brief view hereof The c Chap. 8 7. Chap. 16.2 sounding of the first Trumpet and the pouring forth of the first Viall smites the Earth the d Chap. 8.8 Chap. 16.3 second Trumpet and Viall the Sea the third Trumpet and Viall the Rivers the fourth Trumpet and Viall the Sun the fifth Trumpet and Viall the Kingdome of the Beast the throne whereof is chiefly in Rome so as under this Trumpet and Viall the Beasts Kingdome is exceedingly e Chap. 16.10 Chap. 9.1 2 3. darkned as with smoke out of the bottomlesse pit and the limbes of the Beast the vass is of his Kingdom of darknesse even all such as have f Chap 9 4. Chap. 7.3 not the Seale of God in their fore-heads are tormented by sundry plagues as Chap. 9. and 16.10 11. So as this fifth Trumpet and Viall seems to set forth not excluding the former for they have all a concurrence in some degree one with another from the very first to the last more cleerly the State of the Kingdome of the Beast upon and since the Councell of Trent whereby through smokes out of the bottomlesse pit his whole Kingdome and Throne grew more darke then formerly they had been of that smoke never such Locusts bred which for multitude greatnes and power far exceed those of Egypt full of Martiall terrour as Chap. 9.7 8 9 10 11. whose King over them is the Angell of the bottomlesse pit Abaddon or Apollyon a most cruell and mercilesse destroyer And that this is that Great Beast of Rome with all his crew of Jesuits and Friers no question is to be made And here by the way wee may cleerly see that by the darkning of the throne of the Beast upon the powring out of the fifth Viall is not to be understood the destruction of Rome it selfe as some have imagined but thereby is meant that universall darknes arising from the smoke out of the bottomlesse pit wherewith the Kingdome of the Beast is altogether covered like that palpable Egyptian darknesse the immediate fere-running plague of the destruction of their First-borne and so of Israels finall and full deliverance in the destruction of the whole power and flower of Egypt That this is so compare but the fifth Viall with the fifth Trumpet in neither of which you shall find any touch or footstep of Romes Ruine but in both a wonderfull darknesse over that whole Throne and Kingdome so as unto them by reason of the smoke out of the pit namely grosse palpable and damnable colours and pretences as a blacke veile to cover their Mystery of iniquitie most cunningly woven up in the Councell of Trent but first contrived in the Popes Conclave the Beasts Den at Rome the Sun and aire are altogether darkned as with the black cloud towards the Egyptians while the bright pillar of the Gospell shines forth cleerly to Gods people And that this is the sense aforesaid is manifest not only by comparing the fifth Viall with the fifth Trumpet but also by considering and comparing the sixth Viall with the sixth Trumpet For if it shall appeare that we are now come within the Sound of the sixth Trumpet and under the time of the powring out of the sixth Viall then certainly the fifth Vial and the fifth Trumpet are alreadie past saving only that all the Vials are still powring out and all the Trumpets still a sounding til they all conclude in and with the last And if for the mayn past and yet Rome the seat of the Beast unruined then certainly by the darkning of the Seat of the Beast in the fifth Viall cannot be meant the destruction of the Citie of Rome And thus having by way of preface premised these things which also may serve as a key to introduce us now to take a view of our proposed matter namely the sixth Trumpet wee now come by the same Grace of God leading and guiding us to such Observations as the Text all along presents unto us and wherin our eyes are infallible witnesses of those things which our eares doe heare from the sound of this Trumpet Chap. 9.13 And the sixt Angell sounded and I heard a voice from the foure hornes of the golden Altar which is before God saying to the sixt Angell which had the Trumpet loose the foure Angels which are bound in the great River Euphrates And the foure Angels were loosed which were prepared for an houre and a day and a moneth and a year for to slay the third part of men c. In the former verse after the sounding of the fifth Angell it is said One woe is past and behold there comes two woes more hereafter Whereupon it is added And the sixth Angell sounded c. This shews us by the way that the sounding of these seven Angels brings with it so many woes even as the seven Vialls are called the seven last plagues And these woes are denounced and doe fall upon the Beast and his crew as those seven last plagues also do as yee may see Chap. 9.4.20 Chap. 16.5.6.10 c. Now by the voice from the foure hornes of the golden Altar which is before God is cleerely meant Christs own voice who is that golden Altar even that only true Altar whereof that Levitical four-horned golden Altar was a type and to which the Scripture here alludeth For as on that Leviticall Altar all Sacrifices and offerings were presented unto God otherwise they were not accepted So Christ is our only g Heb. 13.10.15 Altar h 1 Pet. 2.5 in whose Name we offer up all our Spirituall Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ And as offendors under the law fled for refuge to the hornes of the Altar So we being offendors against God by our sins do fly for i Heb. 6 18. 1 Iohn 2.1.2 refuge to Christ so as the pursuer man or devill may k Rom. 8.33 34 not meddle with us Againe Christs voice here shewes unto us that he is the great King and Lord that commands all things in heaven and earth he it is that sendeth woes and plagues upon the enemies of his Church He commandeth his Angels and they execute his commands Loose the foure Angells saith hee to his Angell which are bound in the great river Euphrates Before we can come to know what 's meant by these four Angells it behoves us first to enquire what 's meant by the great river Euphrates Of this great river Euphrates mention is made also in the l Chap. 16.11 sixth viall answering to this sixt Trumpet Now this great river Euphrates is
and behind And in that their tayls are said to have heads like Serpents it doth argue that this army against Babylon is not only potent but prudent and politicke in managing of the warre And where it is said Verse 20. That the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands that they should not worship Devils and Idols of gold and silver and brasse and stone and of wood which neither can sea nor heare nor walke Neither repented they of their murthers nor of their sorceries nor of their fornication nor of their thefts hence we note these particulars First that all this warre all these plagues as is touched before are against spirituall Babylon against the Kingdome of the Beast and the head and body of Popery Secondly for confirmation hereof this Spirituall Babylon notwithstanding all her smooth evasions and shifts to put it off as the r Prov. 30.20 whore in the Proverbs wipes her lips and saith I have done no wickednesse is found to be a notorious and egregious Idolatresse in as much as all her Images of gold silver brasse stone wood are here in plain termes called Idols as which can neither see nor heare nor walke Yet Papists doe give that worship and honour unto them as if they did both see and heare and walke yea as if they had a very Deity in them And this is that Spirituall fornication of that great Whore Chap. 17.3 with whom the Kings of the earth have committed fornication and the inhabitants of the earth have beene made drunke with the nine of her fornication as being no lesse mad upon her Images and Idols and other service devised by men then Drunkards are upon new Wine Therefore is this Babylon the Great called the Mother of whordoms and abominations of the earth Ver. 5. But yet for al this you must not cal her so She wil be called no other but the Holy Catholike Church the chast Spouse of Christ Thirdly I note here that all her idolatrous Service in her Image-worship is the worship of Devils cōsequently all Papists are the Devils vassals and servants A hard doome you will say but it is as true as Gods Word here is true Fourthly Notwithstanding all this and that God plagues the Beast and his brood and wars against Babylon with his terrible armies and doth and will prevaile against her yet she is altogether incorrigible incurable though they see the third part of them slain yet the rest will not repent of their Idolatry and other Babylonian sins as murthering of Gods Saints and Martyrs using Witchcraft and Sorcery authorizing of publike Stews and that for money and robbing and cheating the simple people of their money by their Mountebanke Masses Dispensations and Pardons and a thousand such like trumpery being those sins that are proper to Babylon to this Kingdome of the Beast Fiftly I note here that God rayseth armies against Babylon cuts her short and powres many and grievous plagues upon her thereby to bring her to repentance or otherwise to leave her unexcusable And so much of the ninth Chapter Now follows the tenth Chapter wherein are some things observable that fall under this Sixt Trumpet And so what wee find written in this and the next Chapter till we come to the Seventh belongs all to this Trumpet This tenth Chapter is very mysticall For here are voices of seven thunders uttered but sealed up and unwritten Yet because the very sound of thunder leaves some impression behind it and though mans understanding cannot interpret it yet the Conscience being strucke with terrour will pick some meaning out of it therefore taking the Scripture still for our guide we will assay to speak something of this Chap. by the way In the first Verse an Angel is sent out with great Majesty This requires attention to what followeth He hath a Little Book in his hand Verse 2. Verse 2 3 4. Of which more is spoken from the eighth Verse to the end of the Chapter The next thing of marke is the seven Thunders uttering their voices but sealed up and this followeth immediatly upon the Angels setting his right foot upon the Sea and his left foot on the Earth crying with a loud voice as when a Lion roareth This is very mysticall But this Angell by his description should bee Christ the same that is described Chapter 1.13 14 15 16. His standing with one foot on the Sea and another on the Land seemes to allude to ſ Exod. 14.15.16 Moses standing on the Sea side and stretching his Rod over the Sea and crying with a strong voice of Prayer to God Or it alludeth to the t Iosh 3.14 15 16. dipping of the Priests feet in the brim of Iordan so soon as the one foot touched the water the Streame recoyled and gave way Both these were Types of Christ and of his Church And this which is here written falling under this Sixt Trumpet is a prophecie of the destruction of Babylon and of the deliverance of Gods people Upon this cry follows the voice of the seven thunders but sealed up The voice of Thunder is the u Psal 29. voice of God So the Heathen called their God x Iupiter Altitonans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. Iupiter the thundring God But this voice uttered is sealed up But these thunders will speak plain enough in the next Trumpet as also under the seventh Viall when they shall take their effect in blasting and consuming the Kingdome of the Beast For the voice of the Thunders is a Prophecie to be fulfilled in the Next Trumpet As also Verse 5 6 7. the Angell speaketh what shall be under the voice of the Seventh Angell And there is a secret meaning in the voice of the thunder which is expressed not in words but in the effects As the Lord saith y Psal 81.7 Thou calledst in trouble and I delivered thee I answered thee in the secret of thunder This is spoken of Israels deliverance from Egypt where they cried to the Lord and he plagued the Egyptians by his thunder and of their passage thorow the Sea when Moses cried to the Lord and he answered his cry in giving passage for his people and in the secret of his thunder in destroying the Egyptians Even as David saith also in another Psalme where elegantly describing that miraculous deliverance through the Sea The waters saw thee O God the waters saw thee they were afraid the depths also were troubled the clouds powred out water the Skies sent out a sound thine arrows also went abroad he addeth The voice of thy thunder was in the Heaven the Lightnings lightned the World the earth trembled and shooke This is that thunder in the secret whereof the Lord heard the cry of his people in delivering them and in discomfiting and destroying their enemies And thus here the voice of these seven thunders is sealed up and reserved to be
published in print and that also by Authority an Answer entitled The Bayting of the Popes Bull to a Bull of Pope Vrban the eighth which passed up and down in England inciting his Roman Catholikes to stand for the Catholike Cause and having set in the Frontispiece of the Book a Picture representing King Charles with a sword in his hand the point whereof was directed so as it put off the Popes triple Crowne in the other picture over against it representing the Pope with Verses interpreting the same and having a young daughter then of three or foure yeeres old at most to whom I my wife holding the child in her armes shewed this picture interpreting the same unto her the childe presently thereupon replyed O Father Our King shall cut off the Popes head Jt must be so Jt must be so And this so redoubled she spake with such an extraordinary vigor and vivacitie or quicknesse of spirit and utterance as both my selfe and wife were struck with great admiration Now if a man should have said then when this was uttered that such a speech proceeding so strangely from a child was sure some Prophecie inspired into her by Gods Spirit of what should after come to passe would have found but a few to give credit thereunto but rather would have beene laughed to scorn Although I presently thereupon said to my wife surely this in time may prove to be a true Prophecie God is able to bring it to passe though never so unlikely But now that wee see the Hierarchie utterly raced and rooted out of the Kingdom of Scotland and that by King Charles his Royall assent ratifying the same in Parliament tell mee what think yee Was not here a cutting off of the Popes head by the King as touching his Kingdome of Scotland For is not the Popes headship upheld in chiefe in the Prelates and Hierarchie Might not then the childes speech be a Prophecie being thus far verified in so great and unexpected a work as this And if so why may it not reach to be a like verified in cutting off the Popes head also in England as it is now in Scotland Is any thing hard to the c Pro. 21.1 Lord who hath the Kings heart in his hand as the rivers of waters turning it whithersoever hee will But for this we must patiently wait and incessantly pray that the Lord will bring to passe his owne counsell and finish his worke thus begun and that Antichrists Throne and Kingdome being throwne downe and destroyed Christ alone may reigne in the hearts and consciences of his people and the Kings Crowne may ever flourish and shine forth in the beauty of abundance of peace and prosperitie till time shall be no more Nay whither the child prophesied or no here we have a most sure word of Prophecie which tels us what Christ is now a working namely the great Reformation of his Church and Restauration of Religion which as he hath so gloriously begun to doe in Scotland so I trust hee will shew the like mercie to England though a sinfull Nation in rooting out those wicked limbes of the Beast by whom Religion and the whole Land is so of late more than ever before since Queene Elizabeths dayes defiled Yea wee may be as sure hereof as wee are sure this is Gods Word that the Lord will and that very speedily so finish this worke now begun within the compasse of this sixt Trumpet as not all the power and policie of Antichrist and his Confederates shall be able either to prevent it or ever to overthrow it For Christs Word here must needs bee fulfilled which saith These are the two Olive-trees and the two Candlesticks which stand before the GOD of the earth As if hee had said Even as the vision of the golden Candlestick and of the two Olive-trees on each side thereof standing before the Lord of the whole earth was shewed unto the Prophet Zechariah to be a word of the Lord to incourage Zerubbabel the Prince and the people of God in repayring and finishing of the Temple in Jerusalem then in hand which the enemies of Judah resisted and withstood with all their might and malice but were not able to frustrate the worke So I have here purposely named my two witnesses the two Olive-trees and the two Candlesticks standing before the God of the earth that it may be the like vision as it were to my people living under the sixt Trumpet to encourage them not only to begin but to proceed to the finishing and perfecting of the worke of Reformation of Religion and restauration of my spirituall Temple the Church and though the adversaries be potent and labour tooth and naile to hinder the worke and my people are weake yet know that it is d Zechar 4.7 not by might or by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of hosts For e Esay 46 10. my Counsell shall stand and I will do all my pleasure And as for thine enemies O my people feare them not but say unto them f Esay 8.10 Take counsell together and it shall come to naught Speake the word and it shall not stand for God is with us And I say to thee O my people Behold g Esay 54.16 17. I have created the Smith that bloweth the coals in the fire and that bringeth forth an Instrument for his worke and I have created the waster to destroy No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper and every tongue that shal rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousnesse is of me saith the Lord. And thus much of this Verse Now follows Verse 5.6 Verse 5.6 And if any man shal hurt them fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies and if any man wil hurt them he must in this manner be killed These have power to shut heaven that it rain not in the dayes of their prophecie and have power over waters to turn them into bloud and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they wil. In these two Verses is set forth the efficacie of that power which Christ giveth to his two witnesses in their prophecying And this power is such as that of Elias and that of Moses was For first here is an allusion to the power and spirit of Elias in the fifth Verse wherein this speech is redoubled thus If any man shal hurt them fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies and if any man wil hurt them he must in this manner be killed How is that h 2 King 1. Elias we know when the first Captain with his 50 men were sent to fetch him by force to King Ahaziah saying unto him Thou man of God the King hath said come downe answered If I be a man of God then let fire come downe from heaven and consume thee and thy fifty And there came down fire