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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09442	Lectures vpon the three first chapters of the Reuelation: preached in Cambridge anno Dom. 1595. by Master William Perkins, and now published for the benefite of this Church, by Robert Hill Bachelor in Diuinitie. To which is added an excellent sermon, penned at the request of that noble and wise councellor, Ambrose, Earle of Warwicke: in which is proued that Rome is Babylon, and that Babylon is fallen	Perkins, William, 1558-1602.; Hill, Robert, d. 1623.	1604 (1604)	STC 19731; ESTC S114472	318,460	389

vp to the third heauen 2. Cor. 12. It is called Paradise because it is a place of pleasure for so the word signifieth Of God that is most excellent and most infinite For so Gen. 30. 8. Rahell wrestled with Leah with wrestlings of God that is excellent or great wrestlings So in the Psalmes to shew how huge and high the hilles were Dauid calleth them the hilles of God the mountaines of God that is excellent or huge mountaines So here he calleth it the paradise of God to shew it is a place most excellent full of pleasure and ioy This place is set out at large Reu. 22. Then seeing this is so excellent a place we should labour aboue all things to come thither to weane our minds from earthly paradise which is but a prison and lift our heads vp to heauen set our hearts and minds on things aboue Phil. 3. Vers. 8. And to the Angell of the Church of Smyrna write From this eighth verse to the twelfth is the second Epistle or letter to another Church of Asia namely to the Church of Smyrna And before this second Epistle is a second particular commandement to Iohn for the writing of it in these words And to the Angell of the Church of Smyrna write which particular commaundement is prefixed before the Epistle to assure them and euery Church that S. Iohn had sufficient calling to write the same and that he did it not of himselfe And so should all they which come to speake or write the word of God haue a sufficient calling that so the Church may receiue their doctrine and without doubt beleeue the same as the true word of God So the Ministers of the Gospell must haue their calling for if the Apostles of Christ which were of more excellent gifts had it then such which be but ordinarie men This commandement and the meaning of it is in the first verse of this Chapter After the particular commandement is the Epistle it selfe standing of three parts first a Preface secondly a Proposition thirdly a Conclusion The preface or entrance is in the eighth verse and containeth a preparation to the matter of the Epistle to be deliuered In the preface he sheweth in whose name it is to be deliuered namely in Christs He which is and was which is the first and last This he doth for two causes first to stirre the Church of Smyrna to a religious care and receiuing of the same as the pure word of God secondly because no commaundement concerning religion and Gods seruice is to be propounded in the name of any creature but onely in the name of God and Christ. Now this Epistle being concerning religion and Gods worship he propoundeth it in Christ his name alone And Christ in this preface is described by two notable arguments first that he is first and last secondly that he was dead but is aliue but these words are expounded in the first Chapter where he saith he is first and last that is he is euerlasting God which hath neither beginning nor end afore all creatures after all He was dead but now liueth that is being God tooke vpon him our nature became subiect to death and rose to giue euerlasting life to vs. In which words note two points of doctrine first that Christ is a person consisting of two natures namely his Godhead and manhood for as he is said to be first and last he must be God and as he was dead but now is aliue he is man and as the bodie and soule make one man so the Godhead and manhood of Christ concurre to make one Christ. The second point of doctrine is a comfort or the foundation of all ioy and comfort to the Church of God first that he is God ergo he is able secondly he is man ergo he is willing to helpe to deliuer his Church from all miseries or else ease them for he is first and last ergo true God ergo able to helpe Secondly he was dead but liueth therefore willing seeing he came to take our nature vpon him to be subiect to death and to rise againe to giue to vs eternall life So then this is the scope and end of these words to comfort the Church in miserie and hence is the very fountaine of all comfort in this life If the Lord lay any crosse on thee as persecution tribulation miserie or calamitie then consider these two things Christ is God able to helpe he is man willing to deliuer thee And this may be a proppe to stay and hold vs vp that we sinke not in persecutions or crosses I know thy works After the Preface followeth the Epistle it selfe containing the matter and contents to be deliuered to the Church of Smyrna in the ninth and tenth verses The Epistle hath two parts first a commendation of the Church secondly counsell for her concerning time to come The commendation is in the ninth verse I know thy workes In these words as there is a commendation of her there is also a comfort for he doth not onely commend her but comfort her being in miserie I know thy workes We heard these words before expounded I know that is I see thy workes wayes dealing the course and tenour of thy life I know and approue of the same it liketh and pleaseth me well In that Christ saith he knoweth her workes here is a notable propertie of Christ that he seeth all Churches he beholdeth all mens actions he seeth their words workes affections and actions As he spake to the Church of Ephesus before so now to the Church of Smyrna to shew them that he is alwaies present in the midst of the Church he seeth and beholdeth all her dealings And this consideration is most necessarie and the ground of all grace and religion when a man is perswaded that Christ seeth his heart heareth euery word beholdeth all his actions and marketh all his words Dauid 139. Psalme The Lord beholdeth all my secrets there is not a word in my toung but he knoweth it So should we perswade our selues and this would make vs make conscience of all our words our thoughts our actions of all we do or say nay where this is wanting there is no true grace no faith no conscience for if a man were perswaded that Christ seeth his workes beholds and markes them he durst not for his life sinne as he doth And thy tribulation Here he ioynes workes and tribulation together where we may gather that tribulation must needs go with workes and with the grace of God where grace is there must be tribulations where God giueth grace he addeth tribulation first to humble them secondly to trie them thirdly to preuent other sinnes which they should else commit I know thy tribulation This then is added to comfort the Church as if he should say It is true thou art in tribulation but it comes not by chance but from God my father I know it I see and behold it and haue care of

is for brethren to dwell together in vnitie Aristotle could say that parents were not blessed vnlesse they were after their death blessed in their children And surely it is no small part of a fathers blessednesse to see his children like to flourish when he is gone Nay of all monuments that parents can leaue behind them there is none as one saith like to a vertuous sonne But all parents are not so blessed Adams two sonnes could not agree in one field Abrahams in one house Isaaks in one wombe Dauids in one pallace nor those two brethren in the diuision of an inheritance And though concord amongst brethrē especially such as must deuide the inheritance be very rare yet do you euen in this most comfortably agree You are not as Simeon and Leui Romulus and Remus Eteocles and Polynices Atreus and Thyestes Aeta and Perseus but as Castor and Pollux Dauid Ionathan Ioseph and Beniamin and as a true friend is described to be one soule in two bodies It seemeth that as Agrippa the brother of Augustus was beholding to Salust for that one sentence Small things increase by concord but perish through discord so you haue all learned the same lesson as being perswaded that as the members of a bodie being once dismembred they cannot possibly be ioyned againe so if naturall brethren be once vnnaturally disioyned no glue will conioyne them fast againe It were infinite to shew examples of brotherly loue and hatred and others haue eased me of this paines Now that good God who hath brought you from one roote placed you in one countrie aduanced you to like credit and giuen you one heart giue you also one inheritance in the kingdome of heauen Thus right worshipfull I am bold to speake vnto you and the world knoweth I speake the truth and the Lord knoweth I desire not to flatter Go on therefore I beseech you continue in loue be setled in the truth and labour to honor him who thus honoureth you Be not caried away with the shew of this world but thinke religion the best nobilitie and that as Prudentius said Generosa Christi secta nobilitat viros Cui quisquis seruit ille verè est nobilis He noble is that comes of Christ his race Who serues this Lord he surely is not base And this made Theodosius more to thanke God that he was a Christian then a king considering that he must lose the one he could not lose the other Now as to one of you I am bounden in particular and by him being a Minister the despised Ministry is not a litle graced so for him I pray that he may be an Abraham to our Abimelech a Nathan to our Dauid a Iehoida to our Ioash an Ebedmelech to Ieremiah an Elisha to the widow of this Prophet deceased a light in the Court a trumpet in the Church and that Ahashuerosh may long hold out his golden scepter vnto him that by his meanes great men may not want such as will tell them the truth no earthly Alexander accounted a sonne of Iupiter and that no man may be more respected then a good Pastor and that he may euer remember that saying of wise Salomon He that loueth purenes of heart for the grace of his lips the King shall be his friend His Cyrus will not be spoken to verbis bissinis in silken words to his Alexander he needeth not speake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either sweet words or no words For if one Antiochus might be surnamed holy another good Prince called the Good King much more may he whose religious knowledge surpasseth all the Princes that haue bene of this nation and whose humilitie is such that he will haue his sonne to remember that he dissereth not in stuffe but in vse from the rest of his people and that by Gods ordinance I am the bolder for that one to make choice of you all in the dedication of this booke no man knew loued conuersed with and respected this Author more then he He resorted to him in his health visited him in sicknesse and preached a learned Sermon for him at his death Concerning this author as he said of Carthage I had rather be silent then say litle and his worthie labours do speake enough for him by name that his Posthume dedicated to his excellent Maiestie by an excellent Diuine In a word therefore whatsoeuer this man did he desired to profite others by it he thought as it is written of Bernard in his life that he was not his owne man but deputed to the seruice of others He was neuer idle but as Hierome reporteth of Ambrose and Bernard of himselfe he did either reade or meditate or pray or conferre or counsell or comfort or write or preach And thus as the Embleme is of a faithfull Teacher he like a waxe candle in giuing light to others in a short time extinguished himselfe Yet in this short time of his what art was he not a maister of what vertue was he not endued with He was a complet Diuine and hath this blessing in the Church that no mans writings are read of all sorts and in all countries with greater grace and profite then his He was peaceable in the Church patient of wrongs and free from ambition For as Ierome said of Nepotian aurum calcans schedulas consectabatur he regarded not his purse but followed his booke and as Bernard said he liued in terra auri sine auro in a kingdome of gold without gold An excellent gift he had to define properly deuide exactly dispute subtilly answer directly speake pithily and write iudicially and how he preached if these Sermons do giue a testimonie what witnesse had they who often heard him themselues I haue published of his now two Discourses and I onely did it that these his labours might not perish I haue no benefite by them but exceeding great paines And since I vnderstand that his other labours are in the hands of his friends to make benefite for his children I will ease my selfe of the like labour be a means that they may haue the benefit of the future impressions of this booke the which how faithfully I haue published I appeale to the godly and indifferent Reader and I hope no honest minded man will be hired to calumniate it Thus as one desirous to be seruiceable in my calling profitable to the Church not forgetfull of my friend and to testifie the happinesse of your house which was in your fathers time and is now as it is said of Aurelian the Emperors Referta piis Ecclesia Dei replenished with the godly and a Church of God and withall to leaue a monument of my dutie to you all I haue as you see published this exposition of seuen Epistles vnder your eight names nothing doubting but it will be as welcome to you as

chose Babylon a citie of confusion and abhomination So he hath chosen Rome which is become of a famous Church the throne of Satan So Ierusalem the citie of God the temple of God first began to be a denne of theeues and then the citie fell to wickednesse so the diuell getteth Gods temple and the holy citie to be his throne And in our time he getteth the great cities shire townes for his throne for in thē is greater ignorance and the Gospell more contemned then in small villages in which after litle preaching it is willingly embraced Now the cause of this is because the diuell laboureth especially to haue his throne where he may do the most harme and conuey his doctrine to moe places and liue without controlment If this or any other shire towne or any great citie liue in sin in ignorance and contemne the Gospell take heed for they shall become in time a denne of theeues and a synagogue of Satan he will haue his throne there Now then it is our dutie to labor against him to haue his throne plucked downe to haue him defaced and cast out haue our bodies and soules subiect to Christ renounce our selues relye wholly on Christ forsake our owne waies neuer lend our eares to Satan let him haue no footing in vs neuer suffer him to come to haue his throne begunne but still labour to haue it razed and turned vpside downe and withall suffer Christ to rule suffer him alone to possesse our hearts that so the kingdome of Satan being ouerthrowne the kingdome of Iesus Christ may be increased daily in vs. Wheras the Church of God is gathered out of that place where the diuell hath his kingdome erected we note that the Church of God is a companie of men deriued and taken out of the Synagogue of Satan the kingdome of the diuell though it be a chosen people yet it is picked out of the kingdome of the diuell where he ruleth Col. 1. 12. 13. for all men are by nature the vassals of Satan and subiects in his kingdome Then no man must stand of his gentilitie and of his nobility and bloud but all our true ioy must be in this that we are the members of the true Church of God for what will it auaile a man to haue a golden chaine on his necke and haue his will and affections vnder the slauerie of the diuell or to be the sonne of a Prince and yet to be out of the true Church and to be in the companie of the wicked a slaue and vassall of the diuell But our ioy must be in this that we are members of the Church of God and haue right to the kingdome of heauen Sundrie men thinke a man may be saued by any religion and most of the common people thinke that good meaning will saue them but a man may professe any religion and haue good meaning and yet not know one step to the kingdome of heauen but remaine the vassall and slaue of Satan For a man may haue outward ciuill iustice and ciuill pollicie and meane well yet be the seruant of the diuell We see the children of God gaine a priuiledge aboue all other for in affliction and persecution though they be cast into dangers yet they may assure themselues seeing they be members of Gods church they be freed from the kingdome of the diuell and so from that place of darknesse Seeing the preaching of the word gained a Church in the middle of the kingdome of the diuell we see the word hath a diuine power for there is no creature which hath greater power in earth then the diuell except good Angels yet the preaching of the word draweth one out of the kingdom of the diuel and gathereth a Church in the midst of his kingdome Seeing in Pergamus where the throne of the diuell was Gods children were we see that God will haue his seruants to dwell in the middle of the wicked and mingled with the vassals of the diuell yet so as he doth this for good causes first that their faith obedience and repentance might be exercised secondly that so they might be kept frō many grieuous sins into which else they would fall So when the Lord brought the Israelites into the land of Canaan he would not cast all their enemies out at once but they must be mingled and dwell with the Canaanites for if they should destroy them at once the wild beasts might haue destroyed the land so the Church must be mingled with euill men that the godly may be exercised and that they might be kept from more grieuous sinnes Secondly he will haue his children to dwell with wicked vngodly men that their godly life might shine as lights among them Philip. 2. 17. and so to winne them to the Gospell for a godly life is most effectuall to win men to Christ. Thirdly that the Lord might shew speciall tokens of his loue and fauour to them that when he bringeth his iudgements on the wicked yet he defendeth them Ezech. 9. 4. He marked them which mourned that they might escape the iudgement which was brought on Ierusalem Then if any man dwell among such as contemne and hate religion and the doctrine of the Gospell let them be cōtented seeing it is Gods will they should dwell with the wicked and the Lord will haue his Church on earth proued and exercised by them We see it is lawfull for men to dwell with and by such wicked men but they must not communicate with them in their sinnes but abstaine from their wickednesse as Lot in Sodome and Noah dwelt with the wicked men of the old world and the church of Pergamus in the place where the diuels kingdom was erected For 1. Cor. 7. there is a question whether a seruant hauing a maister which is an infidell may forsake him or not the answer is made he must dwell with him but so that therby he deny not the principall grounds of religion but keepe a good conscience towards God in all things And hence we may see how to answer that old obiection of the Papists Where was our Church fourscore yeares agone before Luther preached when the doctrine of Antichrist was in all Europe By the like I aske Where was the Church of Pergamus when the kingdome of the diuell was there The holy Ghost telleth vs that in the same time when the diuell had erected his throne mightily in that place yet there was the church of God So when the man of sinne had spread his doctrine of wickednesse in all Europe yet there was a Church amongst vs in this and other lands as appeares in that euer there was some which both openly and priuately oppugned his doctrine by word and writing in all ages which shews that though sin ruled in this church many hundred yeares yet the Lord had professors though not so visible as now it is when men may professe openly in euery place without feare And

to seek the sea of Antichrist at Rome They themselues to proue their doctrine catholicke alleage authoritie of eleuen or twelue hundred yeares antiquitie behold this opinion is thirteene or foureteene hundred yeares old that Antichrist should be a Romaine and that the sea of his tyrannie should be at Rome The second witnesse of this assertion that Babylon is Rome is Tertullianus a very auncient writer also who in plaine words affirmeth that Babylon signifieth Rome in the third booke against Martion which denied that Christ had a true bodie Wherefore Tertullian vseth this reason against him That thing which hath a figure of it must be a thing of truth and so discoursing of many things figured and the figures of them cometh to these words Sic Babylon apud Iohannem nostrum Romana vrbis figuram portat perinde magna regno superbae sanctorum debellatricis that is to say euen so doth Babylon in the Apocalips of our S. Iohn beare the figure of the citie of Rome which is altogether as great and as proud in raigne and as great a persecutor of the Saints as Babylon was You see therefore most clearely and plainely that Tertullian with all his learning could not interprete these things that be written in this Reuelation concerning Babylon to be applied to any other citie then Rome and he is also a witnesse voide of all partialitie or affection to either part of them that striue in our dayes for he departed neare about foureteene hundred yeares before our time why should he not then be credited in this case Well next vnto him I will ioyne Chrysostome in his Commentarie vpon the second Epistle to the Thessalonians the second chapter in his fourth Homilie where as S. Paul speaking of the manifestation of Antichrist saith they knew what was the stay that he was not presently reuealed But when that stay is taken away he should be reuealed in his due time Chrysostome expoundeth this stay to be the Romaine Empire which must giue place vnto Antichrist that like as the Persians came in place of the Chaldeans the Grecians in place of the Persians and the Romaines in place of the Grecians euen so Antichrist should inuade the Empire of the Romaines Vacantem imperij principatum inuadet tentabit ad se rapere hominum Dei imperium Antichrist saith he shall inuade the vacant principalitie of the Empire and shall assay to draw vnto himselfe the Empires both of God and men And is it not manifest that the Papacie grew and tooke increase by the decay of the Empire and at the fall of the Monarchie chalenged full possession of all dominion both spirituall and temporall Of the same iudgement is S. Ierome writing vpon the same place of Paul vnto Algasia in the eleuenth question whose words are these Nec vult apertè dicere Romanum imperium destruendum quod ipsi qui imperant aeternum putant vnde secundum Apocalypsim Iohannis in fronte purpuratae meretricis scriptum est nomen blasphemiae id est Romae aeternae c. that is neither will he openly say that the Romane Empire shold be destroyed which they that gouerne it thinke to be euerlasting wherefore according to the Reuelation of Saint Iohn in the forehead of the purple whoore there is written a name of blasphemie which is Rome euerlasting Lo here another witnesse of good antiquitie and sufficient credite which not onely agreeth plainely with Chrysostome that Antichrist should take possession of the Romaine Empire when it should be decayed in the Emperours but also most plainely agreeing with Tertullian calleth that Babylonicall strumpet which is described in the seuenteenth chapter of this Apocalypse that purple whoore of Rome and the name of blasphemie to be Rome euerlasting as though he had heard the Pope brag of the eternitie of his sea which he saith is the rocke against which the gates of hell cannot preuaile But he is foully beguiled for Rome the sea of his Popedome is by Saint Ieromes iudgement that Babylom of whom the Angell preached that howsoeuer she boasts of her eternity She is fallen she is fallen euen Babylon that great city and neuer shal rise againe They crie out against vs that we raile and speake contumeliously of the holy sea of the Pope when we cal Rome the whore of Babylon but when the old Doctors to whose iudgement they themselues appeale from the authoritie of the Scriptures feare not so plainely in their writings to paint out the Babylonicall Strumpet in her right colours and in flat words to say she is Rome the mother of all abhomination and the sea of Antichrist why should we be blamed for saying as we are taught by them And especially of those men that make so great vaunts that the iudgement of the Fathers is altogether on their side by whom they offer to be tried when they dare not abide the iudgment of the Scriptures Againe consider I pray you if the old Doctors before Antichrist were openly reuealed did vnderstand by the Scriptures that he should sit at Rome what thinke you would they haue said and written if they had liued in these daies and knowne and seene all that was prophesied to be fulfilled in him With what confidence suppose ye would they haue inueyed against him With how open mouthes would they haue cried out vpon him At least wise do you not thinke in your conscience that when they had considered the authoritie of the Pope and his wholesome doctrine they would haue changed their minds and recanted their writings against Rome and repented that euer they had called her the purple whoore of Babylon seeing she is the holy mother Church of Rome the sea of the most holy father the Pope the head of the same Church I must needs say thus much in your behalfe ô ye Papists as ill as I loue you that if Ierome Tertullian and the rest of the Doctors did so account of Rome as you affirme of them they were much too blame to defame her with such odious names as to call her the whoore of Babylon which must needs make her vehemently suspected to be the Church of Antichrist and not of Christ for what Papist in these dayes dare say that which Ierom said that Rome is that purple Harlot Babylon which S. Iohn speaketh of in the Apocalypse The same Ierome in his 13. booke of Cōmentaries of the Prophecie of Esay vpon the 47. chapter writeth in this maner Licet ex eo quod iuxta 70. scriptū est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est filia Babylonis non ipsam Babylonē quidam sed Romanā vrbem interpretantur quae in Apocalypsi Iohannis Epist. Petri Babylō specialiter appellatur c. That is to say For as much as the seuentie Interpreters write not the daughter Babylon but the daughter of Babylon some do interpret thereof not Babylon in Caldea but the citie of Rome which in the Reuelation of S. Iohn and the Epistle of