and creeks of it The like you shall see in the sequels of this business they are four all set down ver 13. The first of them this The same hour the witnesses rose there was a great earthquake A violent shaking of Church and State even of the whole Kingdom in the breaking out of these late Wars between King and Parliament there have been such Commotions amongst us as may well be called a great earthquake and it began presently upon the quickening or return of these men The second this The tenth part of the city fell Conceive as I touched before the great Mystical City made up of the ten Kingdoms that gave their power to the Beast and when one of these Kingdoms fell off utterly and irrecoverably from Rome by means of the earthquake then the tenth part of the city fell If you would know which peradventure the Greek may give some hint of it the Holy Ghost seems to lay a great Emphasis upon the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that tenth part where the last of the Witnesses were killed in so different and signal a way that tenth part that is so easily discernable from all the rest Et penitùs toto divisi ab orbe Britanni in plain terms England You 'le say was England but shaken off from Rome by this late Earthquake I answer it was in part but not wholly in Doctrine but not in Worship and Discipline for as I told you Rome and we were fast tyed together by the tails of Episcopacy Ceremonies and Formes of Worship though their bodies were loose and heads looked several ways Yet truly let me tell you this that in our times the heads were turning and looking one upon another with marvellous benigne aspects and were working their bodies together again as fast as such great and unweldy bodies could be moved There were such Popish Doctrines Popish Practises and Popish ordering of Church-affairs to say nothing of the State in most points and places that the Pope had good cause to assure himself of Englands return into the Bosom of the Romane Church But when the Parliament arose for Parliaments themselves rose from the dead you know how long we had been kept without them and at last a Proclamation set forth that men should not think of a Parliament and quickened the dead Witnesses Voted down Episcopal Government with all the Appurtenances of it and being forced to 't took up Arms resolving to live and die in the defence of those Votes then and not till then I dare boldly say it did England a tenth part of those Kingdoms that had given their power to the Beast utterly totally fall off from Rome that in reason they can have no hope of ever fetching it back again to serve the Popish Interest The third is this In the earthquake were slain of men 7000. This being a round and perfect number you need not understand it of just so many and no more for indeed 7000. is not a proportionable number for such an earthquake but it may be a certain number for an uncertain and in the earthquake were slain 7000. i. e. thousands upon thousands But searching the Original I finde That runs thus In the earthquake were slain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 names of men that is men of name men of renown the like Hebraisme you have Gen. 6.4 So in this Fall of the tenth part of the City were slain men of name note quality besides the common sort of People 7000. meaning of the Witnesses enemies some lost their blood and lives others their places powers livings livelyhoods and thus there were slain of noted Statesmen and noted Churchmen 7000. which in reason may be conceived a competent number in this late earthquake The fourth sequel is this And the remnant were affrighted and gave glory to the God of Heaven Observe 't is not said the remnant repented but were terrified and indeed nothing is more evident then that an awe and terrour is fallen upon the spirits of those that remain and as Joshua exhorted Achan to confess and give glory to God so they are constrained it bursts out of their mouths fore against their wills that since the restoring of those men every Providence of God hath fought against them And though they speak evil of dignities and instruments as Jannes and Jambres did against Moses yet they will confess that this is digitus Dei the just handy-work of God upon them they have nothing to accuse God of for such his Dispensations to them Whatever they think or say concerning men and present Powers yet being terrified they confess and give glory to the God of Heaven Tell me now in the singleness of your Spirits have not Providences suted marvellous patly to the Text Hath not something fallen out in our days that may with more perspicuity of Reason be called the signal killing of the Witnesses then hath in any Kingdom you can name all Circumstances complying fully with the standard of the Word Confident I am that since the quickening and Resurrection of these men there can no Kingdom in the World be named where the Beast hath prevailed against the Zealous Protestant party so as it may be said he is yet killing Witnesses he hath enough to do to hold his own and in many places is apparently on the loosing sinking hand Wherefore if I may draw the conclusion it shall be this That which we all so much fear is past and let Antichrist and those of his Faction take what follows I remember what our Saviour said to his Disciples Mat. 24.32 33. When the Fig-tree putteth forth her leaves you uknow that Summer is nigh Likewise ye when ye shall see all these things know that it is near even at the door So say I to you When something hath passed before our eyes which we cannot in reason but call the killing of the witnesses and resurrection of the witnesses from that time from that sign know that Antichrists utter ruin is near even at the dore Vse The first use shall inform you of the ground and cause of God's thus severe proceeding with them A Vial of wrath is poured upon every thing that belongs to Antichrist and the latter still more hot and scalding then the former till he 's utterly burnt up and ruind by them Why it lies in this The justice of God God hath a nature that constrains him to give to every one according to their works but such have been Antichrists works and carriage that it is the equallest thing in the world that God should execute and pour out upon him all those fearfull things which Daniel Paul and the Apostle Iohn have foretold and threatned him withal He who hath made himself the Man of Sin God can do no less then make him The Son of Perdition as t is in the Text Rev. 18.2 An Angel cryed with a strong voyce saying Babylon the great is fallen is fallen the reason is laid down in the 5. ver Her
perfect Victory is got Now let me shew you but very briefly how the Circumstances of that Providence stand in joynt with the Text both the thing itself and the sequeles of it For the thing itself First The Beast set upon them when they had finished their testimonie ver 7. The strictest sense may not be put upon this for when they have quite finished their testimony the beast will be absolutely ruined he and they being contemporaries Rev. 11.2.3 they both begin and end together else Christ should have none to be for him during some part of Antichrists raign therefore it must be understood when they were about to finish their testimony had brought it almost to a period because the Beasts raign and Kingdom was come almost to a period This war is to be when Antichrist is near upon his fall may it not then be looked for in our time when he is grown so old and gray-headed of his 1260. years having run up a 1240. or little less Seeing that from Daniel Paul and the Apostle Iohn we understand the ruine of the man of sin to fall into the lap of the Century wherin we live the more safely may any man conclude that what hath fallen out in our times may be the killing of the witnesses and signal token of his ruine It consists well enough with the Text for the time wherein the Witnesses are to be killed Secondly The text well looked into and considered doth clearly give it to be not a bloody but mystical or civil slaughter ver 7. compared with verse 11. their resurrection is not a proper but a civil or Mystical resurrection as shall anon be made good therefore it must needs follow to those who love not to be contentious that such also must be their death there being still the same reason of Opposites turned out of their places silenced disabled from speaking moving or acting in a publike way but thus we know the men spoken of were killed and lay dead Thirdly They thus lay dead the text saith In the street of the great City which is spiritually called Sodom Egypt where also our Lord was crucified ver 8. Rome is elegantly here described to be Sodom for uncleanness Egypt for idolatry Jerusalem for murther Oh Ierusalem thou that killest the Prophets c. It is called the great City as being made up of its ten Kingdoms and in the street t is not streets but in the street or in that Kingdom where they shall be killed there they shall lie that whole Kingdom or dominion being a street of the great City so made up whereto agrees the slaughter of these men being killed in one place which then was within Romes boundary and that in divers respects Fourthly In the street they lay unburied they were not suffered to be put in graves ver 9. this also must be expounded mystically those that are put in graves are out of every ones eye these dead men their friends were not suffered to afford them graves that is to allow them any harbour or hiding place all must shut them out of doores but they lay there where their Enemies might feed and glut their eye upon their miseries Fifthly They were in this condition for the space of three dayes and a half ver 9. Which being a broken number do certainly point out a determinate time neither can they be taken strictly for three natural days and a half for in that time the news of their killing could not be sent throughout the Antichristian World and what space were that to congratulate and solace themselves and one another in the slaughter of them and besides how litle is half a day perceived in such feasting and jocand solemnity and therefore they must be understood prophetically three days and a half for three years and a half and t is well known that these men were under the bands of Confinement or power of their civil death just so long neither more nor less three years and a half a die ad diem Sixthly It is sayd They that dwell upon the Earth shall rejoyce over them make merry and send gifts one to another because these two Prophets tormented them that dwelt upon the Earth ver 10. All the witnesses did torment them but these last especially whom having conquered and killed the Popish Prelatical party please and content themselves in this Conquest exceedingly as those of old upon their Pompous Solemnities and Feasting dayes did use to do they made merry and sent gifts to which the Holy-Ghost here alludes and says they rejoyced over them observe rejoyced over them for they had these men still in their clutches Seventhly At the end of the forementioned time the Spirit of life from God entered into them and they stagger up again ver 11. God by unexpected means did loose the bands of their death they are suspended no longer silenced no longer kept in Antichristian clutches no longer and after three years and an half through a principle of life from God bestowed upon them they get upon their feet again even those same men that were killed had the space of their lying dead been an Age or 2. or 3. Ages I should have sought this Resurrection in their Successors or men of such like Spirits risen up after them but it being but three years and a half I can easily believe that those same numerical men that were silenced suspended and so killed might have their suspensions taken off their mouths opened and they set upon their feet to Prophesie again and so 't was a Mystical or Civil Resurrection Eightly They heard a voice from heaven saying come up hither The Decree or Vote of Parliament calling them out of their low and dead condition into Liberty Freedom to a competent Maintenance and comfortable Estate wherein they also protected them in the sight and spight of Antichrist and all their enemies so that they were as secure from those that had lately killed them as if they had been taken up into heaven it self Ninthly They ascended up to heaven in a cloud Heb. 12.1 There a multitude of Believers are called a cloud of witnesses When these men returned from their imprisonment 't was wonderfull to see what a cloud of witnesses they were accompanied withall rejoycing greatly at this their unexpected and happy Freedom every one helping and lifting them up into their Heaven what they could Tenthly Their enemies beheld all this but could not hinder it and great fear fell upon them As easily apprehending that being tormented with them before they should be now much more plagued by them for the late injury done them to say nothing of old quarrels and besides a fresh and more full supply of the Spirit of God was come upon them and now are days fear swallows up and devours their whole three years joy and more so that there is no sign left of it amongst them You perceive how this piece of Providence agrees with the Text in all the joynts
Popes times who was so far from putting a stop to it that he eagerly closed with it made it wider and deeper then before and his actions have justified all the murthers of the Saints that ever were yet committed in the world There hath not been a war in Christendom for this thousand years and upwards but a Priest or some eminently of the Popish Faction hath been the incendiary and they have so taken up their cups that they have made themselves dead drunk Rev. 17.6 I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Iesus and when I saw her I wondered with great admiration as at their sin what that was so at their punishment how great in justice and equity it must needs be when it should come upon them To be drunk is a great sin to be drunk with blood is monstrous but to be drunk with the blood of the Saints and Martyrs of Jesus is strangely hellish I could tell you how at Burges they buried one Marion alive how in Queen Maryes dayes a woman being delivered at the stake and the Infant by its sprawling like to get out of the fire they threw it with their forks into the fire again they digg'd up Wickliffs bones and burnt them forty years after his death Peter Martyrs wife at Oxford Mr. Bucer and Paulus Phagius at Cambridge were served no better We use to say Vrsinon saeviunt in Cadavera savage Bears will not rage against dead Carcasses Now Lord if these be Saints who are Scythians if these be Catholiks who are Canibals Fourthly The Bishops of Rome are the star that 's sayd to fall Rev. 9. from Heaven to Earth Their falling away from Christ and the Faith is called the great Apostacy of the latter times 1 Tim. 4. as Learned Mr. Mede hath judiciously observed Fifthly It is sayd Rev. 13.5 6. That he had a month speaking great things and blasphemies and he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name and Tabernacle and them that dwell in Heaven They take those Titles to themselves that are peculiar unto God and so blaspheme his name They call the true Doctrines and worship of Jesus Christ Heresie and Schisme and so blaspheme his Tabernacle Those that God hath damned they canonize and affirm them to be in heaven and those that God hath glorified in heaven them they affirm to be damned souls in Hel and so they blaspheme Heaven and the inhabitants thereof One of them would eat his Pork in spight of God another of them if God were so angry with Adam for eating an apple might not he much more for his Peacock says a third quantas nobis divitias comparavit ista fabula Christi what a deal of wealth hath that Fable of Christ speaking of the Gospel broguht us in A Bishop here in England when one he knew well was brought before him for medling heretically with Scriptures what a devil sayd he made thee meddle with Scriptures Sixthly We read of their Fornication Rev. 9. and last v. t is true enough there was once of shee-Pope Ego non dubito says Functius the Chronologer quin divinito ita sit permissum ut faemina fieret Pontifex eadem Meretrix I make no question of it but that God in his wisdom permitted a notorious strumpet to be advanced to the Popedom that he might in her shew to all the World what the Popes of Rome were even that great whore with whom the Kings of the Earth committed Fornication I say t is true enough there was once a shee-Pope who cried out I mean fell into the pangs of travel as she was going on procession which afterward occasioned their Porphery Chair and so God openly declared her to be not onely mystically but even literally the whore of Babylon Rome calls herself the Mother of all Churches but the Holy Ghost much truer calls her the mother of Harlots Rev. 17. Common notorious stews are upheld in the Holy City if self Seventhly Their covetousness is so base that they make merchandise even of mens souls as you may see Rev. 18.11.12.13 It is storied of Pope John the twenty two that when he dyed there was found in his treasure two hundred and fifty tuns of gold And t is recorded of Boniface the eight that he was able to shew more mony then all the Kings in Christendom Surely God hath long since smitten his hands at their dishonest gain and that endless wealth the inventions of their covetousness Pardons Indulgences Pugatory c. hath brought them in Eighthly We read of their idolatry Rev. 9. and last verse worship a piece of bread kneel before the Cross kiss it also the Images of Saints Boniface the 4 th in the year 610 beg'd of the Emperor the Pantheon he presently throws out the Heathen Images and sets up the Image of the Virgin Mary as chief and fills it with the Images of all the rest and thereupon instituted the Feast of all Saints Ninthly we read in the same place of their Sorceries Their own Historians tell us as I touch'd before that two and twenty of their Popes were abominable Negromancers of whom Bellarmine faith they were parum probi homines scarce to be called honest men but Platina speaks out and calls them Monstra et portenda hominum divels clad with flesh and shapes of men onely Tenthly They have kept Christ out of his brithright and lawfull inheritance above a 1240. years already and he shall never have it but by strong hand If it went so hard with Ahab for taking Naboths Vineyard awhile what will become of them who have seized Christs own inheritance so long a time and killed those he hath sent unto them to demand his right out of their hands Lastly They are the most impenitent wretches that ever breathed upon Gods ground they have had the witnesses to call them to repentance from the very beginning and God reaifed up the Turk as a scourge of Popery yet the rest of the men says the text Rev. 9.20.21 that is they of the West repented not God gave the old World a 120. years to repent in before the broght the Flood upon them he hath given these as much since Luther first preached the Gospel but they are as far from repenting as the old World was when Noah entered into the Ark. Rev. 16. ver 9. When a Vial was poured upon the Sun they blasphemed the name of God they repented not ver 10.11 the fifth is poured upon the Throne of the Beast they gnawed their tongues blasphemed God and repented not of their deeds but prepared war against God ver 14. When great hail-stones fell upon them out of heaven You read not of their repenting ver the last but that they blasphemed God to the last because of the plague of hail Impenitent blasphemous wretches they have lived and impenitent blasphemous wretches for the generality of them they 'l