Jerem. 3.22 as the Lord saith that backsliding Israel hath justifyed her self more than treacherous Judah so have these men given way to the Roman Church to justifie her self more than the now English Church because these men did not purge our Lyturgy and weed the errors and faults that they pretended to be found in our service Book but did wholly reject it and cast it quite away and never brought any other in the room thereof And the Roman Church can never be taxed with the like proceedings when as they often mended their Missalls and Breviaries but never quite exploded any of them and the Reformers of our Church did the like which is indeed a reformation and the other a rejection of Gods worship And if these things do not make up the grand rebellion and the huge Apostacy that the Apostle here speaketh of I only wonder at it and leave it to better Judges than I am to determine it CHAP. IV. Of the Literal and Mystical Babylon That Rome is a Babylon That neither the great Babylon in Assyria nor old Rome nor Constantinople which was called new Rome is that Babylon spoken of Rev. 17. and where the Antichrist seateth himself but that is to be mystically and not literally understood for some City of confusion and what the Prophet Daniel intimateth the Antichrist should do by the doings of Antiochus that was the most lively type of the great Antichrist in his rebellion against his Superiours and his persecution of Gods People the Jews 2. THE Antichrist well perceiving the Apostasie 2. That the Antichrist will set up his throne in the City of Babylon the relapse and falling away of the true and purest Reformed National Church from her Lawful Government and from the true Faith of Christ and the right Service of God by her rebellion both against the civil Magistrates and the spiritual Pastors thereof begins to shew himself and finding the door so wide opened entreth upon the stage and will establish his Court and set up his Throne and principal Seat of his Residence as the Scripture sheweth in the City of Babylon Jer. 50.14 And therefore the Prophet Jeremy saith Put your selves in array against Babylon round about all ye that bend the Bow shoot at her spare no arrowes cap. 51.8 for she hath sinned against the Lord And all the children of God are charged not to go to Babylon but to get out of her because she came in remembrance before God Rev. 18.4 c. 16.19 c. 18.5 c. 14.8 c. 18.3 And he determined to destroy her and to give unto her the wine of the fierceness of his wrath for that her sins have reached unto Heaven and she hath made all Nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her Fornication But here the question is what Place or what City is to be understood by this great and glorious proud City of Babylon which is so sinful and from which we are commanded to flee away and to fight against her For the better understanding of which point what Place is specially meant by this Babylon spoken of Rev. 17. Babylon taken two manner of waies you must remember that the Scripture speaketh of a two-fold Babylon or of Babylon two manner of waies that is 1. Literally 2. Mystically And 1. For the Literal Babylon 1. We find two Great Cities specially of this Name the one in Egypt 1. Literally 1. The Assyrian Babylon not to be understood here Justin l. 1. Herodot l. 1. the other in Chalde That of Egypt was the lesser and less famous than the other which was the Greater and far the more glorious City whereof the Poet saith Atque superba foret Babylon spolianda Trophaeis Ausoniis Which was not that Babylon which is in Egypt but that ancient and famous Babylon which Nimrod founded Ninus enlarged Semiramis walled about Nebuchadnezzar amplified Nitocris beautified and enriched and Cyrus reduced to his obedience For this Old Babylon the Metropolis of Assyria That the Assyrian Babylon excelled all other Cities in four respects and the Seat of the Assyrian Emperors for many years might for Four special things That is 1. For Strength and Bigness 2. For commodious Scituation 3. For the pregnant wits of her Inhabitants 4. For the puissance and the might of her Kings compare with any one City in all the world For 1. After the death of Nimrod and his Son Ninus her chief Foundress 1. For strength Coelius Rhodigin antiquit lâ—ct l. 8. c. 12. Semiramis the Wife of Ninus that was a Woman of more than Masculine Wit and Courage whose Garb of wrapping her head in Lawn after the death of her Husband the Persians imitate to this very day did first surround this City with walls of 32 foot thick and 50 cubits high betwixt the Turrets the Towers being raised 10 cubits higher Plin. l. 8. c. 26. and in compass the walls were 355 Stadia and every Stadium being 139 Paces Or according to Plinie's description of it the breadth of the wall was 50 foot Julius Solinus c. 69. and the heighth of it 200 each foot containing 3 fingers breadth more than our ordinary measure and in circuit it was 60000 paces so bigge that Aristotle thought it might have an equal dimension with all Peloponesus because that when it was first taken by Cyrus the furthest part of the City knew not in three daies after what had happened 2. 2. For scituation For the Scituation of this City the great and famous River Euphrates that was of a stadium broad brought his Channel through the midst of it and it was so arched over and adorned with such beautiful pensil Gardens that it seemed afar off to be like a wood upon the top of a mountain and the Lands about this City were so exceeding fruitful that the ground commonly produced 200 for one and somtimes more Gen. 10.9 c. 11.2 as Caelius and Curtius write for Nimrod that was the mightiest hunter living would have the finest and the best place that could be found even the very Plain of Shennar 3 For the Wits and Ingenuity of her Breed her wisdom and her knowledge were such and so great Es 47.10 that as Esayas testifieth they caused her to fall and to say with the Poet Ingenio perii qui miser ipse meo Mine own too much wit hath undone me For this City had the honour to produce the first Teachers of Astronomy and they were so expert therein that neither the Indian Gymnosophists nor the Egyptian Priests and Magicians were any waies comparable unto them as you may observe it out of Daniel c. 2. v. 2 4 10. And this City likewise bred the first Inventers of that curious Art of working with needles those rare and specious works Josh 7.21 that were done of divers colours which enticed Achan the Israelite to hide the gay and goodly Babylonish Garment 4.
For the Puissance of her Kings and Princes she outwent all other Cities whatsoever Nimrod called Belus by the Gentiles but indeed his Father that was Noahs Granchilds Son being the first and the stoutest man then on earth then Belus Nimrods Son whom the Gentiles honoured as a god in after times and after him Ninus that built the great City of Nineveh then his Wife the Mirrour of all women Semiramis afterwards omitting all those Eighteen Kings which Berosus nameth and Twenty more that Sleidan setteth down Phul-Belochus that swayed the Scepter 48 years 2 Reg 15.19 and Philazzar whom the Holy Scripture nameth Phul-Assur that reigned 23 years and Salmanazar that reigned 10 years and subdued all Phoenicia The Monarchs of Assyria that reigned in this Chaldean Babylon excepting Tyrus and carried away the King of Israel and the Ten Tribes Captives into Media and Sennacherib that for reviling God and the good King Hezekiah by a rayling Rabsheca was forced to return home with dishonour and then slain by his own Sons in the Temple of his Idols after he had reigned seven years and Esar-haddon whom Josephus calleth Asaracoldus reigned Eleven years Esa 39.1 and Berodac whom Esayas calleth Ben-Merodac that after the revolution of Twelve years translated the Kingdom to the Assyrians and reigned afterwards Eighteen years And Nebuchadnezzar that said Is not this great Babylon that I have built that is so great and so glorious as now it is for the House of the Kingdom and for the Glory of my Majesty Dan. 4.30 And then Belshazzar his Son whom Darius did succeed And many other famous Kings and Princes reigned and ruled in and over this Great and Glorious City of Babylon more than we read to have done over any one other City of the world And therefore this City in these and many other respects was the most resplendent of all the known Cities of the whole Universe and is in that respect termed by the Prophet Esay Esa 13.9 and said to be the Glory of Kingdoms But it is yielded of all sides that this Literal Chaldean Babylon is no where meant to be the Seat of the Great Antichrist that must arise in and out of the true Church of Christ and seat himself in a greater and a more Mystical Babylon And therefore II. Babylon mystically understood which must be so understood to be the Seat of the Antichrist is taken two waies 2. Mystically understood two manner of waies 1. Generally for the whole world of Wickedness 2. Particularly for some special Place of this world Generally 1 1. When the Prophet saith By the waters of Babylon we sate down and wept when we remembred thee O Sion And again O Daughter of Babylon wasted with misery yea happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us Ps 137.1 ult and blessed shall he be that taketh thy children and throweth them against the stones Though literally and in the first sense they are to be understood of the Chaldean Babylon yet mystically they are to be taken for this wicked world which is the City of Satan and the Metropolis of his Empire For although God be the King of all the earth both by the right of Creation and Preservation yet Satan is said to be the King of this Babylon by the unjust Title of usurpation and therefore he is called the Prince of this world that ruleth in the hearts of the children of Disobedience And this world is resembled compared and doth symbolize Babylon in very very many things but especially in these five respects The world resembled to Babylon in five respects Propter 1. Amaenitatem Pleasantness 2. Cacitatem Blindness 3. Celsitudinem Height of Spirit 4. Confusionem All kind of Disorder and Confusion 5. Iniquitatem The Multiplicity of all kind of Iniquity For Respect 1 1. Babylon was the delight of the Nations and a most sweet and pleasant place as I shewed to you before even so the world ab ornatu dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is so called by the Grecians from the beauty of it Quid enim mundo praestantius For what can be more excellent and pleasanter than this world saith Lucius Apuleius Respect 2 2. The Assyrian Babylon was full of blindâ—ess and ignorance Jer. 59.17 For as the Prophet saith Every man was brutish in his knowledge so is the world as our Saviour sheweth I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter whom the world cannot receive quia non videt eum nec scit eum because it seeth him not John 14.17 and knoweth him not for though the light shined in darkness yet the darkness comprehended it not and though the Ministers of Christ do preach the Truth daily unto the world yet the children of this world are still drowned in Darkness and will not receive the knowledge of the Truth that they might be saved John 1.5 Respect 3 3. The Assyrian Baâ—ylon was full of Pride so high and so haughty that they would build a Tower which should reach to Heaven And the Prophet saith of her Jer. 50.29 She hath been proud against the Lord against the Holy One of Israel And so is the world full of Pride Maxima quaeque domus servis est plena superbis Not a great House but hath a great deal of Pride and proud Servants in it saith the Poet. Respect 4 4. The Assyrian Babylon was full of all Disorder and Confusion the Labourer would be a Director and a Master-worker the Mason would play the Carpenter and the Carpenter would be the Joyner and so none was contented with his own station not any man dutiful in his own Place but when the Masters called for Bricks the Servants brought them Clay when they desired Bread they gave them Stones and therefore it was called Babel because of this disorderly confusion Even so it is in this world no man is contented with his own state none dutiful in his place and none satisfied with his own condition but as the Poet saith Optat ephippia bos niger optat arare Caballus The Oxe would bear the saddle and the Horse would draw the Plow Respect 5 5. Babylon in Chaldea was full of Sins for she hath sinned against the Lord saith the Prophet So the whole world lieth in wickedness saith the Apostle And all that is in the world Jer. 50.14 John 2.16 is either concupiscence of the eyes or concupiscence of the flesh or Pride of life Haectria pro trino numine mundus habet Particularly 2 2. And more Particularly Many other Cities and Kingdomes of this world are and may in this Mystical sense be rightly stiled Babylon And that either Two waies 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Respectively secundum quid For so 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eminently exceeding all the rest For so Respectively 1 1. 1 Pet 5.13 The City of Rome is called Babylon by the Apostle and is
or at least a defect of Christian Charity And therefore we adhere to these in love and pity and deem them as our Brethren in Christ Jesus But for the rest that are the wilful and obstinate Abettors of the Romish Idolatry and impiety we will not only follow the counsel of our Lord and Master and of his blessed Prophets and Apostles to get out of this Babylon and to separate our selves from amongst them and to have nothing to do with their stool of wickedness Jer. 50.14 but we will also do as our God commandeth us by his Prophet Jeremy lay siege against it and spare no arrowes because she hath sinned against tho Lord. And thus I have shewed unto you that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 respectively yea and in many respects that Rome and the Church of Rome is a Babylon a City of Confusion and the Popish Hierarchy full of many iniquities and impieties And I have been the more large and ample in this Point to let the world see how falsly and unjustly the Presbyterians Puritans and their Adherents have and do throw their scandalous imputations and aspersions upon my self and the rest of our Reverend Bishops for being Papists and Popish and Popishly affected when as indeed all wise men know that none propagated and defended the Gospel of Christ and the true Protestant Religion and impugned the Romish Babylon and shewed confuted and here with us Bishop Bilson Bishop Baclow Bish Montagu Bish Abbats suppressed the Superstitions Heresies and Idolatries of the Church of Rome better and more learnedly than Bishop Jewel Bishop Babington Bishop Horne Bishop Andrews Bishop Downam Bishop Usher Bishop Prideaux Bishop Hall Bishop Morton Bishop White Bishop Laude and the rest of our Reverend Bishops And on the other side the Presbyterians and Puritans that hated and opposed our Bishops though they railed against the Pope and Popery and stuffed their Sermons with Invectives against them yet through their Ignorance for want of Learning have insensibly against their own wills dispersed and taught many Popish points and the flat Errours of the Romish Church unto their Auditors who as the blind do swallow many a flie so do their simple Proselites suck those poysonous Tenets which are thus insensibly by their ignorant Teachers infused into them But to return you see Rome and the Church of Rome is a mystical Babylon And yet 2. The City of Rome not to be understood to be the Seat of the Antichrist and the Babylon spoken of in Rev. c. 17. 1 Pet. 5.3 2. As the Chaldean City of Babylon cannot be said to be the Babylon that is spoken of in Revel 17. and the proper peculiar Seat of the Antichrist so no more can the Italian City of Rome be said to be the same And though that after the eclipsing of that great Assyrian Babylon first by Cyrus the Persian then by Alexander the Graecian that was here poysoned by Thessalus with poyson in a horse hoof and after that exhausted and almost unpeopled by Seleucus Rome was for the splendor strength and dominion thereof termed Babylon and for her Pride Idolatry and confusion in the service of her Idol Gods is so stiled by S. Peter and is acknowledged by the Fathers afore-cited and by most of the Learned Jesuits that confess the Assyrian Babylon to be the Type and figure of the Italian Rome and to be so understood by the Apostle in that place Yet I say it cannot be meant by any place of Scripture to be the Seat and Throne of the great Antichrist and the Babylon spoken of in Rev. 17. For though Martial saith Terrarum Dea gentiumque Roma Cui par est nihil nihil secundum And Though Rome be somtimes signified by this name of Babylon as I said before and is therefore interpreted by all those that would have the Pope to be the Antichrist to be that great City and that great Babylon spoken of in Rev. 17. And Ovid saith imperii Roma deumque locus l. 1. trist eleg 4. Athenaeus l. 1. Tacitus Annal lib. 4. and elsewhere in that Book And I confess it is often called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that great City yet not simply in respect of the quantity or circuit thereof when we read of many Cities that were bigger than it but in respect of the Power and Authority that her Consuls and Emperors had over all other Cities and Dominions in which sense she is said by Athenaeus to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Heavenly City and by Julius frontinus she is said to be Domina Regina orbis terrarum the Lady and Queen of the world which made the Smyrnenses to erect a Temple and dedicate the same to the City of Rome as to a Goddess Yet I say this is not that great City nor that Babylon which is to be understood in Rev. 17. and is to be the Seat of the great Antichrist 3. The City of Constantinople cannot be the Seat of the Antichrist that must have a greater room than the great City of Rome And 3. As neither Babylon in Assyria nor the mystical Babylon of Rome can be said to be that Babylon the Seat of the Antichrist so no more can the City of Constantinople which is known to be called New Rome be understood to be his Throne and the Babylon there spoken of For though Constantine the Founder of this City Bish Montagu in his apello Caesarâ—m Constantinus apud Thraces qua Bosphorus aequor thracius â—â—xinus granted unto it in both slates of Church and Common-wealth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every way equalized Priviledges with the Old Rome as having Senators and one of the yearly Consuls and being the Imperial City and seared upon seven Hills as well as Old Rome and is therefore called by Nicetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by Paulus Diaconus urbs septicollis the City of seven hills and being likewise in a fore-land or Land-straight where two seas meet Aegaeumingurgacat undis constituit sedem Imperii latiumque relinquit Christo Bizantium oppidum maritimum inter Pontum Euxinum propontidem orientalibus Thraciae finibus situm est 4. No one City of the world is to be understood by this Babylon What place is meant by this Babylon Eccles 9.14 Luke 12.32 and therefore the only seat in the world for an Imperial City far more convenient than old Rome yet I say she cannot be understood to be the peculiar place or City that the Apostle here meaneth by that Babylon where the great Antichrist must locally reside and set up his domineering Throne and Court therein 4. As none of these aforesaid great Cities can be understood by that Babylon which is to be the Seat and Residence of the Antichrist so no more indeed can any one City of the world how great and how powerful soever she were be properly and literally said to be the Throne or residing place
themselves to his meaning Genes 11.9 do interpret it but the great city of this world that is in all things agreeable to every particular thing that is spoken of this great Babylon for as that place and city was chiefly called Babylon that is confusion because as Moses sheweth God confounded the Languages of those grand rebells that endeavoured in that City 1 John 2.15 1 John 17.9 to scale the walls of Heavens and as it were to desie God himself so this world is just like unto the same the receptacle of all confusion and disorders and it is one of the three capital enemies of mankinde that we profess in our Baptisme to renounce and that we are charged not to love but still to fly from the baits and the deceipts thereof and John 5.19 for which our Saviour that prayed for his enemies which crucified him denieth his prayer saying I pray not for the world because God hateth all those that work wickedness and S. John saith the whole world all of it lieth in wickedness and will not be raised from it and besides God is the God of order and the whole world is out of order the very babel of all confusion The great Antichrist shall rise in such a place as shall be like Babylon when first it was called Babel Genes 11.79 and confusion is the mother that bringeth forth the Antichrist into the Church and it is the nurse that fostereth cherisheth upholdeth and protecteth him against Christ and against his Church But though the world in General is that great citie whith is meant Revel 17. and elsewhere in that book and wherein the great Antichrist will settle himself yet must he rise and spring in some place City or Kingdome of the world that is not as Rome or Constantinople a Babylon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 respectively but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 simply and transcendently like as the Chaldean Babylon was and in all things resembling her when first she was called Babel the City of Confusion and that was when all the Inhabitants thereof were without any settled just and lawfull Governors or Government among them but were as the children of Israel were in the later time of the Judges Judg. ult and Ver. ult when there was no King in Israel but every man did that which was right in his own eyes and so they did now in Babel they understood not one another they obeyed not one another but when the Master or Governor required one thing they did another and when they called for bricks they brought them straw and so forth And what Kingdome Rome not like Babylon when first it was called Babel City or Church is or hath been thus like Babel without any setled just and lawfull Government or Governors I will not determine but I am sure Rome hath her Governors and the Church of Rome her settled strict and well observed Orders and Lawes which none dares disobey nor do what is right in his own eyes nor preach what Doctrines he please unto the people But in what Kingdome City or Common-wealth soever we see no settled just and lawfull Government but the Governors like pegs driving out one another and settling first one kinde of Government then another of greater power cometh and changeth that Government then a third then a fourth and so forth and the Commonwealth standeth like a windmill upon the top of a hill that must turn with every winde and submit it self to every Government that is most prevalent and where you see the Church without Rulers without order and without Law but every Presbyter doth what he pleaseth and serveth God with what service his own fancy liketh best I believe that City Kingdom and Church doth in all things parallel the first Chaldean Babel and must be if any place be the very seat of the Antichrist and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 simply most eminently and transcendently a Babylon and the fittest place for the Antichrist to reside And so the Antichrist having learnt his lesson divide impera i.e. by confusion and division and setting the Father against the Son and the Daughter against the Mother the subject against his King and the King against the subject the people against their Pastors and their Pastors against the people and so of all the rest he will settle and inthrone himself in that imperial seat of his rule and authority where there is most confusion and where there is no settled just and lawfull Government and this is that Babylon thus mystically expressed by the Holy Ghost and thus clearly explained unto you where the Antichrist shall rule and reign and rage over Gods people even in that place of the world and in that street of this Great City where there is most division and confusion both in the Church and Commonwealth this confusion being his chiefest consolation and the furtherance of his progression and which as the Poet saith Turbabit faedera mundi will soon bring the world out of order and to be ruled as he listeth And now the question is demanded Whether in any other place of all the world you can finde more divisions and confusions and a more unstable unjust and unsettled Government both in Church and Commonwealth then you may finde in these Churches and Common wealths and formerly the Kingdomes of Ingland Scotland and Ireland for though that in this Babylon this place that is so full of disorders and confusion Where discord reigns in realm or town The wicked win the chief renown Plutarchus in vita Niceas pag. 547. you may finde many zealous and religious men that do fear God and mourn for the sin of the Antichrist and abhor all his wicked wayes yet it is demanded if ever there were more faction in Hierusalem in the time of their last siege more Sects in Amsterdam more malice in Rome in the time of the proscription or more corruption in the time of the Pope and more division among the Reubenites and confusion in great Babylon in the land of Shinar than may be found now in this relapsed Church and among the people of these Dominions And for the diversity of Sects multiplicity of opinions and the manifold confusions in the Church it is demanded if the errors and heresies of the Sectaries Presbyters Independents and lay-Preachers are not only published printed and permitted but also cathedrally and autoritatively if not maintained yet countenanced or connived at at the least And if here in the field of Gods Church and out of this Babylonish chair you may not finde any error or heresie that hath been formerly invented and broached by the grand Hereticks and confuted by the Fathers of the Church now again in some place or other and by some Sect or other resuscitated and refined unto the people and whether you may not uncontroulably choose any Religion and be of any Sect either Antinomian Anabaptist Arian Aerian Brownist Barrowist Dipper The manifold
these that were his enemies sought his life were made his Judges to take away his life And whether this was good Justice in the Parliament to make his enemies to be his accusers Witnesses and Judges I leave it to wiser men then I am to judge of it Serjeant at Law President of the Pretended High Court of Justice John Lisle William Say O liver Cromwel Henry Ireton Esqs Sir Hardresse Waller Valentine Walton Thomas Harrison Edward Whaley Thomas Pride Isaac Ewers Esqs Lord Gray of Groby Sir John Danvers Knight Sir Thomas Maleverer Baronet Sir John Bourcher Knight William Heveningham Esquire Alderman Pennington Alderman of London William Purefoy Henry Martin John Barkstead John Blackiston Gilbert Millington Esqs Sir William Constable Baronet Edmond Ludlow John Hutchinson Esqs Sir Mich. Livesey Baronet Robert Tichbourne Owen Roe Robert Lilburne Adrian Scroope Richard Deane John Okey John Hewson William Goffe Cornelius Holland John Carey John Jones Miles Corbet Francis Alinn Peregrine Pelham John Moore John Aldred Henry Smith Humphrey Edwards Gregory Clement Thomas Woogan Esqs Sir Gregory Norton Knight Edmond Harvy John Venn Thomas Scot. Esqs Thomas Andrews Alderman of London William Cawly Anthony Stapley John Downes Thomas Horton Thomas Hammond Nicholas Love Vincent Potter Augustine Garland John Dixwel George Fleetwood Symon Meyne James Temple Peter Temple Daniel Blagrave Thomas Waite Esqs The Counsellers that were appointed to be assistants unto the Court and to draw up the charge against the King I find to be Dr. Dorislaus Mr. Aske Mr. Cook Serjeant Dandy Serjeant at Armes and Mr. Philips was Clark unto the Court. The Messengers and doore-keepers were Mr. Malford Mr. Rudley Mr. Paine Mr. Powell Mr. Hull and Mr. King was the Cryer all which do make up 77. and of those that were to be his Judges any 20 of them were to condemne him And so this High Court of Justice adjudged him that was one of the Witnesses of Christ to Death And for the other Witnesse of God which is the Ecclesiasticall governour of the flock of Christ which is the Bishop and his subordinate Clergy I doubt not but the most part of the Christian world understandeth how William Laude Bishop of Canterbury whose works do sufficiently prove him to be an Orthodox man and a faithfull Witness of Christ was adjudged to be beheaded by that Parliament and all the rest of the Godly Bishops and the Faithfull teachers of Gods truth and Witnesses of Jesus Christ are spiritually and Civilly killed by the suppression of their Office and calling and silencing them from Preaching and some of them actually brought to their Graves either through want or grief or some other ingredient which that Parliament administred unto them and not any of them but is brought to such contempt and scorn among the generality of the people and so spitefully used in many places that the like was never known since the Arian or the Heathen persecutions Mr. Mede pag. 15. and this dejection of them from their Offices had none of them been actually killed is sufficient to prove the killing of the Witnesses as Mr. Mede confesseth most truly But though we say that the King as supreme Magistrate and the Bishop For the Parliament will say that they did most justly put these witnesses to death as chief Priest are meant by these two witnesses here spoken of yet we do not positively say though we might that these two witnesses that were thus killed by that Parliament are the very witnesses that are meant in this place c. 11.7 by the spirit of God or that the Parliament which killed them is to be understood by the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit but we leave that to God and to them that are better able to determine whether they be or not Onely I say that we cannot finde the Pope to have either actually killed or civilly suppressed these two Offices of the two witnesses of Christ but that he to the uttermost of his power upholdeth both the regall dignity of Kings and the divine calling of the Bishops and therefore that he can no wayes be meant by this beast That the Pope never killed these two witnesses that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit and shall either actually or civilly or both actually and civilly kill these two witnesses and suppress these two Offices and callings of the two witnesses of Jesus Christ which herein in that which befell to our witnesses fell out most unhappily here amongst us in these Dominions and makes many men to think that as the Poet saith haec haec non sine numine divum Eveniunt All this was done that the Scripture might be fulfilled that saith the two witnesses of Christ should be killed by the beast that is the Antichrist and therefore if they be not killed already in those that I have named as we believe they are I am certain that they shall be killed in the two forenamed Offices of King and Bishop because the Scripture must be fulfilled And now the Witnesses being killed that is the chief of them How the two Witnesses being killed shall be unburied as the King and Bishop Laud actually slain and beheaded and the rest subordinate unto them civilly killed by their ejectment out of their Offices and quite put out of all hope of recovery which happened not all at once to the Bishops and which was not till the good King was made away and the Parliament had prevailed and fully vanquished all their enemies and the assistants of these witnesses the dead bodies of the witnesses saith the Angel shall lye in the streets of the great City which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt that is Sodom The full description and Character of the City where the witnesses shall be killed for their great and abominable sins and filthiness and Egypt for their blindness in the Religion and service of God and for their cruel oppression and persecution of Gods right servants where also the Lord was crucified and that was the great and holy City of Hierusalem so that the dead bodies of these slain witnesses shall lie in such a City as shall be like Sodom and Egypt for impiety and iniquity and yet like Hierusalem for profession of true piety and sanctity hearing of Sermons and hating all superstition for as Hierusalem the City where our Lord was crucified was then pretended to be the onely holy City of the World the City of God and the Inhabitants thereof the onely people of God so that City where the two witnesses of God shall lie unburied and where our Lord Christ was crucified in his annointed witnesses the King and the Bishop and the rest of their subordinate Officers his members as he said unto Saul why persecutest thou me when he persecuted his Servants will pretend to be the onely zealous and best Protestant City Act. 95. and the most opposite to Popery that is in the World And I know not how London will
that place The fixth upon the river Euphrates which is to be understood not literally no more then the other places aforenamed but in the similitude for which the Holy Ghost applyeth it and that is as the great river Euphrates was like a wall of brass to the City of Babylon to preserve it from all invasion so will the Army of the beast the wealth and great riches of the Antichrist that he hath heaped together and the wit and subtlety of the false Prophet be as an impregnable fortress to protect them in all their impiety tyranny and oppression but as Cyrus divided the mighty river Gyndes that fed Euphrates into 360. brookes Hgrodotus l. 1. Clio. and then turned aside Euphrates out of her own channel into that huge poole which was formerly made by Queen Nitocris and so took away the strength and considence of the City and having thus made way for his souldiers he entered and took that great and famous City of Babylon through the Channell of this mighty river so will Christ by the ministrie of the first Angel divide all the strength and take away all the confidence of the remnant of the beast and will dry up or wast all the wealth of his adherents and befoole the wit and devices of the false Prophet and so remove all the impediments that were like the river Euphrates the hinderers of his servants to overthrew the kingome of the Antichrist and to take away his Rule and Dominion and to suppresse his tyranny over Gods servants And when all this will not avail to cause this shaked beast and disjointed routed armie of the Antichrist to return from his unjust wayes and most wicked courses but that three unclean spirits like frogs shall come out of the mouth of the Dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false Prophet which are the spirits of devills working â—â—â—â—cles and going forth to the Kings of the earth and of the whole world 〈…〉 them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty that is a great many lying and deceitful spirits What is meant by the warre and battle that the beast maketh with God and false prophets because the number of three as of seven hath verie often none other importance then a great many shall be still sent forth to everie place to oppose the true service of God to lay his honour in the dust and to suppresse and trample his servants under feet which is all the war that the beast and all his hornes and all other beasts in the world can make against God Almighty then saith Christ Behold I come as a thief that is suddenly and unexpected and he will send the seventh Angell with the last viall of Gods wrath and the seventh Angel will pour out his Vial into the River and a great voice shall come out of the Temple of heaven Revel 5.14 2 Pet. 3.10 Esay 14.4 and from the Throne saying it is done that is the Preachers of Christ shall by the light of the truth tell the people that will not repent the time is at hand that Christ shall come to judgement and that the heavens shall depart as a scroule and the Elements shall melt with servent heat and there shall be an end of all things Then the Son of a man Jesus Christ ere it be long though how long or how soon no mortall man can tell shall come in the glorie of his Father with his Angels to take the heast that shall be then alive and the false Prophet and all his adherents and all those that past away before to make a finall and a total end of them and to throw them into the Lake of sire and brimstone and to render unto everie man according to his deeds to them that by patient conthâ—uance in well doing seeke for glorie and honour and immortalitie eternall life but unto them that are contentions rebellious murderers oppressors idolaters lyars and all such transgressors of Gods Lawes that obey not the truth but take pleasure in unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish and eternall destruction to everie man that doth evill And this is the end of the Antichrist Amen Jamque opus est exegi Et plena jam Margine libri Scriptus in tergo nec dum finitus Orestes But I look that some Alter ater Ecebolius Some bold blind and ignorant Presbyterian Zoilus like an Orlando furioso will run at me as Don Quixot ran against the Wind-mill and like an angry Wasp sting both me and my book animamque in vulnere ponet yet as gold is gold though the Chimick say it is copper and copper is but copper though the deceitful Mountebank say it is gold so the truth of my writings will be found true when their lies and raylings like another Rabsheka will appear of what stuffe they are unto the world si tantus amor if they have such love and longing desire of a rayling digladiation as one of them did against my Book The Grand Rebellion Mr. John Goodwin they may chance to find their mate that may fitter undertake them then it is for a man of my place and calling as leni fluit agmine tibris so will I gently and charitably pray that God would give them more grace to have lesse malice Trini vni deo sit omnis laus honor et gloria in secula seculorum Amen Amen Jehovae Liberatori FINIS
others are of the same judgment and do take the Antichrist to signifie the Papal State and Kingdom and so Bishop Downam Thomson Shelden and many more do say he can be no single and one singular Person but a multitude of men which many of the best Authors do conceive to be made up of single Persons succeeding one another as Hyperius saith and they can be none other as they suppose than Series Paparum the whole Classie of the Popes On the other side E. H. de Antichristo p. 82. E. H. doth constantly and confidently affirm that not only the restrictive Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prefixed to each one of his Names and Titles as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like but also the things attributed to him and likewise the time of his continuance and many other particular Circumstances and reasons do evince Bellarm. de Romano Pontifice l. 3. c. 2. Montagu appello Caesarem P. 148. that the Great Antichrist can be but one single singular and individual Person and so Cardinal Bellarm. though he confesseth that somtimes this name of Antichrist is taken communiter for any wicked Opposer of Christ and his Kingdom as Bishop Montagu likewise saith and as it is most true yet he averreth that where the Apostle prefixeth the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it signifieth none or no more than one only single and singular Person because as Epiphanius saith Articuli Graeci contr ahunt significationem ad unam rem certam the Greek Articles do contract and tie the signification to one certain thing Epiphan Haeresi 9. quae est Samaritanorum John 5.43 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth any man in common but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 noteth this or that singular man And the Cardinal would needs prove him to be but a singular and single Person because our Saviour saith I came in my Fathers name and you receive me not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but if another shall come in his own name him you will receive but indeed here is a Fallacy saith Thomson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be the Singular number yet the Grammarians tell us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth another as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 noteth the second of any two but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intimateth any one of many and so our Saviour meaneth not here to single out any one only opponent to him Acts 5.35 36. Eusch l. 4. c 6. Dr Abbats de Antichristo but he speaketh of any one indefinitely whether Theudas or Judas of Galilee whom Gamaliel mentioneth or Barchochebas of whom Euseb speaketh or any other false Impostor whatsoever And therefore it is well observed by Dr. Abbats that what our Saviour speaketh here in the singular number indefinitely of any one he delivereth the same thing expresly in the Plural number when he saith Many shall come in my Name Matth. 24.5 saying I am Christ and shall deceive many though our Saviour doth not in this Chapter speak of the Great Antichrist but of those false Prophets that should come and deceive the Jews and so likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not determinate any one single Person nor mean here the Great Antichrist but indefinitely signifieth that the Jews which refused to receive Christ would receive as they did any other false Christ that came in his own Name which is the very Exposition of Maldonat Maldonat in Johan c. 5.43 and yet the truth is that as Ecclesia Credentium corpus cum Capite the whole Church of the Faithful the Body with the Head is said to be and is but one Christ as where our Saviour saith no man ascendeth up to Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but he that came down from Heaven the Son of man which is in Heaven John 3.13 where I hope the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 twice prefixed doth not so sinifie the Person of Christ as to exclude the rest of his Faithful Servants his Members from ascending thither but this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Son of man signifieth Christ mystically understood that is That Christ the head and the Church his members are termed Christ whole Christ the Head and all his Members and so taken none ascendeth but he that descended though as St. Bernard saith aliter ascendit quam descendit he ascendeth otherwise than he desended for he descended naked only in his Divinity but he ascendeth cloathed with our Humanity and he descended only as the Head of his Church but he ascendeth with all his Members and his whole Body that is his Church which together with the Head do make but one Son of man and one Christ for so Christ saith unto Saul Why persecutest thou me because in good propriety of speech Acts 9 4. that may often be well spoken of the whole and so understood which is truly proper to any one part as I am ill when my Head only aketh or they have put me into the stocks when my feet alone were set therein And so in Gal. 3.16 Gal. 3.16 By Christ is understood the whole Church of Christ united unto Christ as to her Head And so likewise when the Dragon is said to stand before the Woman that when she was delivered he might devour her Child the Child saith Junius Junius in Annot in Apoc. 12. signifieth Christum quem vocant mysticum id est totum ex Persona Christi velut capite ex corpore cum capite per spiritum adunato constantem that is whole Christ which they call mystical Christ consisting of the Person of Christ as the Head and of the Body as is the Church united unto the Head by the spirit and so saith he the appellation of Christ is taken in 1 Cor. 12.12 Where the Apostle saith as the Body is one 1 Cor. 12.12 and hath many Members and all the Members of that one Body being many are but one Body so also is Christ And I say That the great Antichrist is a collected multitude of most wicked men and an Armageddon which being compounded of cherem and gedud fignifieth exercitus maledictus an accursed Army that as thus Christ our Saviour and the whole Company of the Godly and Faithful Christians are termed Christ so likewise Ecclesia Malignantium the Congregation of the wicked and as Primasius calls them the whole Body of the Devil which are all the Company of wicked Reprobates and ungodly men are in the singular number somtimes termed the City of Babylon somtimes the Beast somtimes the great whore and Jezabel the painted Harlot as if they were all but one woman and one spouse of their Head and Husband the Devil somtimes the Synagogue of Satan where they meet and combine themselves to serve and to worship him and somtimes the Antichrist that is the adversary and opposer of Christ and the man of sin
the Monks say was first uttered by an Angel in the Cathedral Church of Canstantinople and about the year 605. Boniface the 8. usurpeth the Title of Universal Bishop and after that the Churches became Sanctuaries for malefactors holy-dayes were appointed Priests were forbidden to marry Latine-service was injoyned the Lyturgies were augmented the Pax was commanded to be kissed Images were adored the Saints were invocated and prayed unto which Mr Mede saith is the Doctrine of Daemons that makes the Apostasie which the Apostle speaks of 1 Tim. 4.1 2. Vestiments and other Church Utensils were consecrated Mr Mede in his Apostasie of the latter times the Emperours and other civil powers were shouldered out by the Pope and Church Indulgences were sold and abundance more of such absurdities were brought into the Church And when the godly Christians petitioned unto his Holiness the Pope The manifold Errors of the Church of Rome confirm'd by the Council of Treâ—t for a reformation of these abuses did not the Council of Trent confirm them Did it not in their first meeting Sess 3. decree that the vulgar Translation that hath some errors and much rude Latine in it should be authentical in all places and Sess 4. That original sin is so taken away by Baptisme that concupiscence or lust in renatis the regenerate is no sin untill they give consent unto it and Ses 5. That there remains in us a freedome of mans will to good which being excited and stirred up by grace concurs with grace to do the good we do and Sess 7. That seven Sacraments were to be received Vide etiam Tiâ—â—num exegesis de Antichristo pag. â—5 dâ—inceps And then at their second meeting in Bononia Sess 2. did they not establish the Doctrine of Transubstantiation And Sess 3. have they not made Penance and extream Unction two Gospel-sacraments or Sacramenta novae legis as they term them And 9 years after at their third meeting Sess 5. have they not impowered the Pope to mutilate the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist or Lords Supper and to take away the cup from the Laiety and Sess 6. have they not concluded the whole Masse to be a propitiatory Sacrifice both for the quick and the dead and Sess 8. Did they not give full power unto the Church to dispense with Gods Law in Levit. 18. concerning Marriages And at their last Sess Have they not confirmed the Doctrine of Purgatory invocation of Saints worshipping of images giving of Indulgences and preservation of Reliques And was there ever since Christ his time or could there be a greater and a more general extensive apostasie and departure from the truth and true faith than this where the Pope and his Faction have thus prevailed against the Protestants to put out the light of truth to corrupt the Gospel of Christ and to defile the service of God in this manner Respon To this great and bitter charge against the Church of Rome I answer That some men are so addicted to this Church that they see nothing to be evil in her but all truth and all to be imbraced without question and others are so transported with passion such hatred unto the Pope and such a prejudicate opinion of that Church that they think nothing good in her and nothing to be followed that she holdeth so that they are willingly ready to reject the Gospel as they do all Prayers and service the Papists use to God because they are approved by the Church of Rome it is an Argument sufficient to cast away all the service of God all good works and all the acts of Pieâ—y and Charity if they be but once perswaded they are Popery For my part The Authors resolution touching the Roman Church I do unfeignedly from my heart profess my self a true and right Protestant and an obedient Son of the Church of Ingland as it was reformed and the 39 Articles of our faith approved and confirmed in Q. Elizabeths time and so continued in King James and King Charles his time untill the Beast that ascendeth from the bottomeless pit I may mean the Devil endeavoured to remove our candlestick and to put out the light of Israel And for the Church of Rome I do perfectly and throughly hate and renounce all the errors and Superstitions of it and for her truths and good things that she holdeth and doth I do heartily love and embrace them and will therein joyn the right hand of fellowship and desire communion with them as a man that will not refuse a pearl because it was taken up from a dung-hill but for the aforesaid things and points that E.H. and others speak of and object against her I believe some of them may in some sence be justified some others not altogether so offensive as a groundless haâ—red against Popery makes them seem to be to such as Martial speaks of Non anto te Sabide nec possum dicere quare I love thee not ô Sabidus but why I cannot tell thee only this I can tell that I do not love thee Hoc tantum possum dicere non amo te I love thee not but why to tell thee I cannot Yet this I can tell for truth I love thee not And for most of them I confess they are either enormous or superstitious or some way or other justly offensive to Gods people and do sufficiently prove that the Church of Rome hath apostatized and receded from many points of the true Doctrine of Christ that her self had formerly professed especially when S. Mr. Mede in his Apostasie of the later times Plato in cratilo Apuleius de deo Socratis Plutarchus de defect oracul Paul wrote unto her and as that learned and worthy Divine Mr. Mede hath fully shewed how that Church hath backslided in worshipping Mahuzzims invocating of Saints and adoring of their Images and relicks so I confess the same to be a foul and mighty error and a great abuse of Gods service in them and not much inferior or less fault than the Gentiles adoring of their Deastri or Daemones which was the deifying of their deceased Heroes such as Hercules Romulus Numa Pompilius and the like were as Plato Apuleius Plutarch and others testifie the Heathens did Though notwithstanding I am so far from blaming S. Basil S. Chrysostome Fortunatus S. Gregory S. Hilary James Bishop of Nisibis Eucherius Theodoret and others that Mr. Mede chargeth to have done too undiscreetly to say no more for so much commending the holy Martyrs and calling them walls and fortresses and as Gregory Nyssen termes them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Guardians and Protectors of those Cities and places where those Martyrs were interred Mr. Mede's crimination of the Fathers answered that I do exceedingly approve their discretion and commend their wisedome and piety herein because those times were times of Persecutions and Christianity sought by the enemy of mankinde and his Instruments to be expunged and rooted out of the
acknowledged by the Rhemists and the Fathers and Jesuits before cited to be understood in that place of S. Peter 1 Pet. 5 13 and I think none can well deny it to be the Symbole similitude and resemblance of the Chaldean Babylon Rome resembled to the Chaldean Babylon in two respects 1. In respect of her excellencies Terrarum Dea gentiumq Roma cui â—â—nl par nihil secundum saith Martial in two special respects 1. In respect of the Excellencies 2. In respect of the Impieties thereof For 1. As Babylon excelled all other Cities for strength and bigness commodious scituation pregnant wits and puissant Kings so the City of Rome was strong and big enough sited in Italy the very Garden of Europe and upon the famous River Tiber not much inferiour to Euphrates and for the Pregnant wits of the Romans I presume their Poets Orators and Lawyers might well compare with Athens or Babylon or any other City of the world and as the Assyrian Empire continued for above a 1000 â—eâ—rs from Nimrod to Belshazzar so the Roman Emperors have ruled from Julius Caesar to this very day above sixteen hundred years And we may well say that what other excellencie soever was in Babylon the same might be found in Rome 2. In respect of her impieties and iniquities 2. As the City of Rome doth thus parallel Babylon in her excellencies so the Church of Rome doth equalize or exceed the City of Babylon in all Impieties For to make this plain the sins of Babylon were of two sorts 1. Against God 2. Against Man And 1. Against God three waies Her sins against God were principally three 1. Ignorance that she knew not God For every man was brutish by his Knowledge 2. Jer. 51.17 c. 50.29 38. Pride that she contemned God For she hath been proud against the Lord saith the Prophet 3. Idolatry in worshipping those that were not gods For it is the Land of Graven Images to shew their Idolatry and they are mad upon their Idols saith our Prophet Dan in the story of Bel and the Dragon and those Idols were Bell and Succoth-Benoth 2 Reg. 17.20 These were the sins of Babylon which Jeremy noteth and to these Esay addeth Sorcery and Enchantments c. 47. v. 9 12 13. And in all these things the Church of Rome may shake hands with the City of Babylon For 1. The Ignorance of the Roman Church 1. Though as Babylon abounded in many Arts and was excellent in all humane Learning when they had their Astronomers Magicians and many other Sects of Learned men that while their Empire flourished did likewise flourish in all Learning and from hence Learning first proceeded unto the Greeks as afterwards it spread it self from the Greeks unto the Romans And this the Prophet Esay plainly acknowledgeth Esay 47 10. when he saith Thy wisdom and thy knowledge O Babylon have caused thee to rebel And yet as the Prophet Jeremy noteth She was most brutish in the true knowledge of God So in the Church of Rome I confess they are Scholars and Scholars great enough in all Arts and Sciences and they that deny the same do either bewray their own Ignorance of their works or their partial judgment of their worth c. 47. v. 9 12 13. and therefore I will never deny the truth and their due they are for the most part great Scholars good Artists expert Linguists and politick States-men And no marvel because they have better helps and means to attain unto these things than any other Scholars have in any other parts of Christendom Yet in the knowledge of many points of the greatest moment and mysteries of the Divine Verity they come short of their poorer Brethren And no wonder neither because as it is in Job God taketh the wise in their own craftiness Job 5.13 and the counsel of the froward he carrieth headlong And as Christ saith He hideth these things from the wise and prudent and revealeth them unto Babes when as the Apostle saith Mat. 11.25 1 Cor. 1.27 29. God chuseth the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and the weak things to confound things that are mighty that no flesh should glory in his presence And therefore let no man wonder that they are great Scholars and very learned men and yet overwhelmed in great errours For so Arius Pelagius and divers others were great Scholars and yet great Hereticks And so doctissimus Patrum Tertullianus ingenisissimus Origines Tertullian was the most Learned of the Fathers of his time Euscbius and as Euseb writes of him Origen the wittiest and most excellent and yet both of them were tainted with foul Errours condemned since for foul Heresies For the truth is that non ni si ex magnis ingeniis magni errores great errours could never be so insensibly ingendred and so probably defended without great Learning and good wits 2. For the Pride of the Church of Rome I will not stand so much upon that 2. The Pride of the Church of Rome Esa 47.5 7 8. whereby as Babylon of old exalted her self above all her sister-Cities and said I shall be a Lady for ever I am and none else beside me I shall not sit as a Widow neither shall I know the loss of children So the Church of Rome doth arrogate unto her self the prime Title and exalt her self above all other Churches of the world Though this be so great a sin that St. Gregory saith quicunque desiderat primatum in terris inveniet confusionem in coelis Seeing our Saviour exhorteth him Mat. 20.27 Jer. 50.29 that would be chief of all to become the Servant of all But I will insist upon that Pride of hers whereby as Babel exalted her self in Pride against God so this Church doth lift up her self against God and spurn against the Grace of Christ and that as in many other Points so especially in these Four principal Points The pride of the Roman Church against God in four points 1. Of Free-will 2. Of Justification 3. Of Satisfaction 4. Of Merits and the works of supererrogation For 1. Though our Saviour tells us sine me nil potestis facere without me 1. In the Doctrine of free-will you can do nothing that is nothing that is good no not to think a good thought saith the Apostle For as St. Bernard saith Homo in Paradyso male utens suo arbitrio perdidit se arbitrium man in Paradise abusing his free-will lost himself and his will that is to do any good that can be acceptable to God And therefore the Apostle saith that God worketh in us both velle agere as well to will good as to do good Philip. 2.13 And St. August saith nolentem prevenit ut velit volentem subsequitur ne frustra velit he prepareth and preventeth the unwilling mind to make him willing and he followeth it being willing to do the good that he
it and prosper which you may see more at large in the History of the Machabees lib. 2. from the beginning of the third Chapter to the fifth Chapter thus far Mr. Mede Wherein habemus confitentem virum we have this learned man Hucusque ingenuously confessing enough to make good what I assume that the Witnesses should be slaine in the reformed Church and the cause that moveth God to suffer them to be killed and the Church to be deprived of them to be our sins our Sacriledge in robbing them of their revenues and our neglect and contempt of their persons which doth alwayes follow the pillaging of their Estates And if Mr. Mede had seen the unparalleled sacriledge and the incredible contempt of the best men in holy Orders and the trampling of the highest form in Christ his school underfoot that we see now what would he have said then to these things I think as much as I if not more But if the witnesses be taken away and killed as he feareth Therefore he is not the Pope nor Turk in the reformed Churches and their killing must be there because there is the place where they do bear witness and it is the Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit that killeth them and that Beast is the great Antichrist as hereafter I shall make plain unto you therefore it must needs follow that the Antichrist must needs rise in like manner out of the reformed Church and so neither Pope nor Turk can be the Antichrist Then after the witnesses be killed ejected and deprived of all respect it is said How the worldly and carnall men rejoyce for the killing of the two Witnesses For the manner of sending gists See Hest 9.19 and 22. Isai 9.3 Earthly men accounted those that restrained them from their wickedness their tormentors vers 9. that they which dwell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the earth that is the carnall earthly and worldly minded men shall rejoyce over them and make merry and send gifts one to another that is for very joy that those witnesses are vanquished and suppressed they shall be the more Joviall and much more exercise the jollity of their mirth and Jubilee now and send gratulatory presents and make feasts for Colonels and Captains that had followed the war and suppressed these two witnesses and so rejoyce according to the joy in harvest and as men rejoyce when they divide the spoil Gaudebunt gaudio maximo they will rejoyce with the greatest joy that can be more then ever they did rejoyce before And the Reason of this their Jubilee and great joy is not omitted to be here rendred by the Holy Ghost and therefore not to be passed over in silence and that is saith he because these two Witnesses that is the King by his just Lawes his powerfull sword that formerly turned the waters of their unlawfull lusts and pleasures as Moses did the waters of Egypt into blood and the Bishops by their spirituall Courts and sentence of excommunication that like fire proceed out of their mouth to root out the refractory carnall and lewd livers out of the Church or to reduce them to repentance tormented them that dwell on the earth that is by rebuking them in their Sermons punishing them in their Conrts and so the witnesses vexed them by their reproofs and by their lawes both Ecclesiasticall and Civil which inflicted penance and imposed fines imprisonment and death it self upon the scandalous transgressors of the Lawes of God and the King by which means of the said civil Rule and Government there was some restraint to bridle those earthly and carnall men to curb them that they should not gallop so fast as they desired and as otherwise they would have done in their lewd and ungodly courses for which bridling and hindering of them to run on in their evil and wicked wayes these two witnesses were deemed by all those that dwell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the earth and had their conversation and delight in the things of the earth to be their very enemies and their greatest tormentors And now I demand How the carnall worldly men do rejoyce to see the King and the Bishops supprest If the earthly and carnall men the lewd livers adulterers Sabbath breakers Drunkards and the like transgressors of the Law of God and the Church did not rejoyce and leap for joy to see the King killed and all the Bishops suppressed and their Courts that restrained their outrages and impieties quite abolished for though all godly men and all honest men do mourn and are grieved at the heart for those things that were done to these witnesses of Christ yet they that dwell upon the earth and are onely cives hujus mundi the free citizens of this world and have none of their conversation in heaven are exceeding glad that there is no king in Israel and no Bishop in the Church of God that is no Monarch or supreme Governour to punish their unjust doings and no Bishops Court to question them for any of their prophaneness or to prohibite any lewdness and exorbitances but that they might as now they do in many places live after their own lusts And do now what they list in all lasciviousness and wantonness and do what they list run and preach without a calling and so fill the Church with sects heresies and errours and as it was said of some lascivous Friers Mane filium virginis praedicant in choro Nocte filium veneris agitant in thoro So may we far more justly say it of these unlawfull uncalled and unlearned earthly Preachers that prate and preach and say and say and all to none other end but to hide their wantonness and worldliness and to deceive the world Thus you see how the two witnesses of Christ are killed That the Church that is the true and farthfull Christians shall be troden underfoot so long as the witnesses shall remain dead and shall for three days and a half lie unburied without their last honour without favour and without any respect in the world but the worldly men rejoycing for their dejection And all this while that the witness-bearers of Gods truth shall be as dead men in the world and as stincking carkasses in the nostrils of them that dwell on the earth the holy city that is the true Church of Christ which is as St. Augustine calleth it the City of God shall be as the Angel saith c. 11.2 troden under foot by the Gentiles that is the uncircumcised that served not God and were none of Gods people but such as followed after their Idols and their own ungodly wayes so shall the wicked hypocrites worldlings and carnall men that are here understood by these Gentiles prophane the Houses of God the Temples the Oratories and all other places consecrated for Gods service when the fonts wherein they were baptized shall be thrown out of the Churches the windows shall be
Worldlings and Prophane livers whatsoever and whersoever they be and upon many of Gods Servants that cannot escape a common plague while they live among the wicked And so you have the determination and extention of these three great woes The 3 great Woes upon whom they are to sall 1. Woe troubles and afflictions that have and shall fall upon the World thus more plainly expressed The first woe fell heavy upon the Eastern Churches by the comming in of the Turks and Mahometans for their Blasphemous Heresies and denying the deity both of Christ and of the Holy Ghost and likewise the deniall of all the due reverence and respect which they owed to the Martyrs and Saints of God whereof Leo Isaurus and Constantinus Capronimus and the Constantinopolitan Councill that consisted of 338. Bishops were the chief causers and the Principal Authors of that contempt and were sufficiently chastised for the same The second woe is now fallen or falling 2. Woe or most like to fall upon these Western Protestant Churches by the comming in of the Antichrist that was long expected and Prophesied that he should come amongst them to play his part for that having the true Doctrine of Christ and the right forme and manner of Gods service settled and established amongst them they would notwithstanding in a wild wantonness be seduced by the false Prophet to reject the same to suppress their Governours to slay the Witnesses of Christ and being most perfect Hypocrites to lead a most worldly life farr worse then either Papists or Pagans under the Cloak and Visard of piety and Saintship The third and last woe that we are certaine is yet to come and will come as the Angel saith very speedily after the end and determination of the second woe shall fall most Heavily as I said upon the Mahometans and the Antichrist and his adherents and the false Prophet and upon all the Enemies of God and the bringers of the former woes upon his Church and all other Lewd and wicked livers whatsoever And now I should proceed to the 13th Chapter 3. Woe but that there is an exposition of this 12th Chapter annexed to our Bibles which might if not answered cross much of what I have formerly explained for Francis Junius a very Worthy man and not meanely learned in his notes joyned to Theodore Beza's translation of the New Testament upon this 12th Chapter understandeth by this Woman Junius his interpretation of the Woman in his notes on the 12. Chapter Eusebius l. 3. c. 5. sometimes the Christian Church of the Jewes and sometimes he would have the Woman to signifie the gentile Christians and he saith that the Woman which fled into the Wilderness where she was fed for a time and times and half a time signifieth the Jewish Christians or Christian Jewes that fled out of Hierusalem when the Romans were comming to besiege it into a little Village called Pella as Eusebius writeth and remained there a postrema Judaeorum defectione ad urbis excidium usque from the last falling away or revolt of the Jewes untill the destruction of their City and Temple which was just three years and a half and by the earth that opened her mouth to swallow up the flood that the Dragon cast after her he saith it signifieth the unbelieving and Rebellious Jewes that underwent the War and sustained all the miseries that the Romans brought upon that Nation whereby those believing Jewes that were in Pella did escape that flood of afflictions that otherwise must have fallen upon them if they had not fled out of Hierusalem when they heard the voyce that cryed in the ayre migremus hinc let us depart hence And so he conceiveth this passage of the Woman into the Wilderness expressed in the 14th v. where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time which he rightly expoundeth for three years and a half to be not the same with that passage of the Woman The foresaid interpretation of Junius rejected expressed in the sixt verse where she is fed 1200 and 60 dayes which he also rightly expoundeth to signifie 1200 and 60 years but he misapplyeth this second passage of the Woman into the Wilderness to a Woman that cannot be understood in that place as appeareth Reason 1 1. In that the Woman for there is no mention made in all the Chapter but of one and the same Woman that is the Christian Church or the Christians that believed in Jesus Christ is said to be fed that is to be guided Governed and instructed by the two Witnesses that is 1. The Kings and their under Magistrates and 2. The Apostles and the Bishops that succeeded the Apostles and the rest of Gods Ministers for 1200 and 60 dayes that is as Junius himself expoundeth it 1200 and 60 years and we are sure the believing Jewes in Pella were not so long guided and instructed by these Witnesses in that place nor in any place else that we know of and therefore they cold not be signified by this Woman Reason 2 2. In that this Revelation was not of known things that were already past but of things that were hereafter to be fulfilled that is after they were revealed unto St. And c. 4.1 Dr. Hammond in apoc ex Epiphanio baeresi 51. Irenaeus adversus haereticos libro 5. Balaus l 3. saith it was in the 15th year of Domitian John as the Angel telleth plainly unto our Evangelist c. 1. 19 And this time when St. John was banished into Patmos and wrote this book was not in the reigne of Claudius Caesar that banished all the Jewes out of Rome as some men out of Epiphanius do imagine and as hereafter I shall make it more fully to appeare but it was about the latter end of Domitians reigne as both Justin Martyr and Irenaeus testifie and as Balaeus Beza Maresius and the most of our best late Writers do assent to Irenaeus testimony and that was about the year of Christ 98. and these believing Jewes fled to Pella either when vespasian began the War or when Titus his Son came to besiege Hierusalem which was about 40 years after Christ his Ascention that is in the year of our Lord 73. and in the second year of Vespasians reigne that was proclaimed Emperor in 72 and therefore those Jewes could not be here mentioned Reason 3 3. In that their being in Pella that was neer enough to Hierusalem though it was beyond Jordan during all the time of the siege could be but little better if we consider the miseries of billetting our enemies Souldiers and our plundering our commanding and other abuses that are incident unto us by and from them that follow the Wars of whom the Poet saith Nulla fides pietassque viris qui castrasequuntur then if they had been within the City of Hierusalem save only the freedome of their lives when perhaps their other troubles and abuses were no wayes Iess if not in some respect
yet Junius doth expound it of the civil Empire of the Romans Alcazar saith it is to be understood de Romano imperio athnico of the Romane Ethnick Government under the Heathen Emperors Mr. Mede understands it of the Caesarian Empire parted into ten Kingdomes and Dr. Hammond makes it to signifie the Heathen Idoll worship of the Romans and so as St. Augustine saith of the like case alij atque alij aliud atque aliud opinati sunt and it is not my purpose neither will my time and my book give me leave to shew the mistakes and to confute all and every one of the assertions of these learned men that be they never so learned may be easily deluded by the strength of their own fancies especially when they are byassed to some wrong end or carryed away with any prejudicate conceit but I hope the Testimonyes of so many ancient and worthy Fathers that I have before named and the particular description of this Beast which I shall explaine unto you and likewise his acts and doings together with many other circumstances and particularities That this Beast signifieth the Wicked state and Government of the Antichrist that are hereafter to be specified will overweigh the opinions of these and other worthy men that think otherwise then I set downe and will make it plaine unto you that by this Beast is signified the great and greatest Antichrist that should come into the world or the flagitious State and Government of the Antichrist opponent and set up against the true Government of Christ though pretending very strongly to be the very same in all things with that Government which Christ himself hath instituted and for the inlargement of the Church and Kingdome of Christ for 1. 1. The Beast had 7 heads This Beast is said to have seven heads and these seven heads say some of them that by this Beast do understand the Ethnick Empire of Rome are the seven principall persecutions of the Christians betwixt the time of Nero and of Julian the Apostata Ut refert Cornelius alapide as first Domitian second Traian third Antoninus fourth Severus fifth Decius sixt Valerianus seventh Dioclesian and those of Maximinus and Aurelianus Dr. Hammond in c. 17 pagina 985. c. 13. pag. 967. are not accounted as any heads of the Beast because the commands of Aurelianus were not executed and that of Maximinus was not universall but only against the Pastors and Preachers of the people or as some others do account these seven heads first Claudius second Nero third Galba fourth Otho fifth Vitellius sixth Vespasian seventh Titus But against this Caracotta strigil pag. 52. it is justly objected that six of these never made any Cruel edict against the Christians and if these seven be the seven heads of the Beast then these being taken away the Beast shall remaine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a body without a head and if Domitian be the Beast that was and is not as both Grotius and Dr. Hammond think then these seven heads must be heads without a body because they had all been and had all past before Domitian came Alapide saith C. a lapide in loc Mr. Mede hac septem capita sunt septem reges qui praecesserunt Antichristum these seven heads are seven Kings which have gone or shall come and go before the Antichrist commeth Mr. Mede takes these seven heads for the seven states of the Roman Government pag. 49. 1 Kings 2 Consuls 3 Tribunes 4 Decemviri 5 Dictators 6 Emperors 7 Popes And so Maresius saith these seven heads do signifie not the seven Kings which Grotius nameth Mares pag. 17.2 pag. 118. but the seven politique formes of Government whereof five were now already past the sixt that was of the Caesars was then in being and the seventh which was to continue but a very short time under Odoacer was to succeed in his time for whereas Mr. Mede maketh the 7th Order of their Government to be that of the Popes Maresius makes it of Odoacer King of the Heruli which extinguished the Government of the Caesars in Augustulus Baron ad ann 476. n. 1. when the Westerne Empire wholly ceas't and was divolved unto the Barbarians and the forme of Government quite altered because saith he nomen regis assumsit Odoacer cum tamen nec purpura nec regalibus uteretur insignibus Alcazar saith they be the seven deadly sins that are the seven heads of this Beast Which Endaemon confuteth pag. 122. c. and 128. c. Apud Thomson pag 53. as first the pride of a Lyon second the Covetuousness of a Tygar third the Luxury of a Bear fourth the Anger or wrath of a Viper fifth the Gluttony of a Wolfe sixth the Envy or malice of a Serpent seventh the Sloath and Laziness of an Ass seven heads that are very great and very bad heads indeed and he must needs be a very bad Beast that hath all these seven bad Heads but The Holy Ghost expounding these seven Heads saith they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seven Mountaines and Theodore Beza c. 17.9 Francis Junius with the most part of our latter Interpreters that would faine make the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy of the Pope to be the Beast and Rome to be his seat do expound them to be the seven hills whereupon the City of Rome was built which are Mount 1. Palatine 2. Capitoline 3. Quirinall 4. Caelius 5. Esquiline 6. Aventine 7. Viminall In respect whereof the Grecians call the City of Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and varro calls it Septiceps seven headed Rome and others call it the City of seven Hills Virgilius georgic lib. 2. versus sinem as Virgil speaking thereof saith Scilicet rerum facta est pulcherrima Roma Septemque una sibi muro circumdedit arces and Propertius saith Vrbs Septem alta jugis toti quae presidet orbi and Ovid saith Ovid. trist l. 1. eleg 4. Sed quae de Septem totum circum spicit orbem Montibus imperij roma deumque locus But though the Greeks and Latines call Rome the City of seven Hills That the seven Hills are not the seven Heads of the Beast yet this seemeth not to me to be the meaning of the Holy Ghost in this Text to understand these seven Hills by the seven Heads of the Beast Reason 1 1. Because that besides these seven Hills Rome had three other Hills that were of speciall note though not included within the pomaerium so soon as the other Hills were as 1. Collis Hortulorum where the cirque or shew place of Flora was 2. Janiculus where Janus was buried and which is now called Montorius Rosinus antiquit l. 1. c. 11. or Mons aureus the golden Hill 3. Vaticanus from vaticinium from whence they had their predictions and Prophesies and therefore seeing this City had ten Hills it is not likely that the Holy Ghost meant the first
named seven Hills should be understood by these seven heads Reason 2 2. Because Rome as now it standeth is not as then the old Rome was seated upon the foresaid seven hills but after it was sacked and destroyed by Alaricus and the other her most furious Enemies the Goths and Vandalls it was re-edified out of the ruines of the old Rome and both the Temples and the Vaticane and the Popes Pallace and many other faire buildings were seated somewhat distant from the former scituation of the old City as many good Authors and Travellers of good credit testifie unto us and therefore it is not probable that the Holy Ghost by these seven Heads should meane the seven Hills of old Rome lest we should be deceived in the predictions that do concerne the new Rome Reason 3 3. Because these seven Mountaines are termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seven heads c. 13. 1 Therefore they cannot be taken litterally in a proper sence c. 17.9 v. 1. for the seven hills of Rome which should be then rather called the feet of the Beast or the Foundation whereupon he stood and not the heads of the Beast Obj. But you will object that it is said the Woman sitteth upon these Mountaines Not this Beast but the Woman and the Whore do sit upon the Mountaines and the waters as upon the Waters therefore though called heads yet may they signifie these hills upon which the City is seated and sitteth upon them Sol. I answer that by sitting upon these Mountaines as the sitting upon many waters is meant nothing else but that the Whore and not the Beast or the Beast here termed the Woman and v. 1. the great Whoore because she is the Spouse and Synagogue of Satan that hath falsified her faith to Christ doth rest and rely upon the Plots and devices of her own head as all the wicked do indeed whatsoever they say in their words for though they cry out Providence Providence hath produced such and such victories and successes unto them yet do they wholy rely stand and sit upon their own Prudence and the plots of their own heads because no man can truly rely on Gods Providence that wandereth out of Gods wayes or else by the Woman here may be understood not the Beast but the Hereticall Church it may be the Church of Rome that hath plaid the Harlot with Christ and yet sitteth rideth and seeketh to tame the Beast and to subvert all the Plots and devices of his Heads Reason 4 4. Because the Holy Ghost doth not say that either the Beast or the Woman sate upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which do properly signifie a Hill but he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seven heads are seven Mountaines which do very much differ from seven hills as much as little differeth from great which in quantity is a difference great enough neither may we think that Rome was built upon seven Mountaines or that the Holy Ghost spake improperly and called seven Hills seven Mountaines And therefore I conceive rather that the sence and meaning is mysticall The meaning of the seven heads mystical c. 17.9 and not literally to be understood and that by these seven Heads which the Holy Ghost saith are seven Mountaines we may understand seven great and mighty things as Mountaines are in comparison of the little Hills and so we may take these seven heads as Alcazar thought for seven most haynous and most odious deadly sins not that every sin is not deadly enough and brings death to every sinner but that those seven are more hatefull and more abominable both to God and man then are all the other usuall sins that are committed What are the seven heads of the Beast that is these seven sins or a great many sins like unto these because the number of 7. importeth many c. 17.9 and those seven sins of the Beast I take them to be or may be 1. Hypocrisie 2. Lying 3. Perjury 4. Oppression 5. Subtlety 6. Sedulity 7. Cruelty To dye and colour all the rest with blood to make them all Scarlet sins which is the Livery of the Beast for these be the heads whereupon the Beast resteth and wholly relyeth and beleiveth that by these heads he shall effect all his prejects Or else because the number of seven as of three and of ten are persect numbers and do very often import much or many we may well understand by these seven heads the many plots and devices of this many-headed Beast which I take to be the best and truest exposition of these seven heads because this Beast is made up with very many heads and these heads are likened unto Mountaines and so stiled by the Holy Ghost because that by these meanes and these practises of dissembling lying forswearing themselves and using all kind of subtlety sedulity and cruelty with many more the like wicked wayes and tricks the Beast hath effected and brought to pass very great and mighty things and hath attained to all his strength and power which is often signified by the Mountaine as the Psalmist sheweth when he saith Thy Righteousness Psal 36.6 Psal 95.4 O God is like the strong Mountaine which can neither be removed nor shaken for if the hills of the Robbers be so strong as is intimated in the Scripture then the Mountaines must needs be thought much stronger And I can see neither incongruity nor absurdity to say that these Septem capita rerum Why the heads of the Beast are termed Mountaines these seven chief heads that produced all the plots and devices of the Beast should be termed Mountaines for the greatness of the strength power and Authority that the Beast hath attained unto by the tricks of these heads and that these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seven Mountaines should be stiled seven heads in regard of their originall Fountaines from whence they spring because the heads of this hydrian Beast have produced these bitter fruits and have plotted all the Villanies and mischiefs that have befallen to the two Witnesses and to all the true Servants of Jesus Christ. But if these seven heads betokened seven Emperors or seven Kings that belonged unto the Beast as the aforenamed Authors do conceive then the Crownes should have been said to be upon their heads whereas you may observe that upon their heads are the names of blasphemy which do well agree with their lies perjuries and the like and the Crowns are said to be upon the 10. Horns and not upon the heads of the beast And to make it yet more plain That neither the Idol Worship of the Romans nor Domitian can be this Beast that this beast can neither signifie the Idoll-Heathen-worship of the Romans and that Domitian cannot be the beast as some do think that was and is not and yet is for so the words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Holy Ghost saith of this Beast it is apparent that
which as the Apostle saith no man should assume Heb. 5.4 but he that is called of God as was Aaron And I would to God I might see the like good Josias that would deal in like manner with the Ministers of the Beast or at least some other way stop the mouths of these base unworthy and unlawfull Priests and most ignorant Preaches of Blasphemous Doctrines that do now abuse Gods Service and broach such damnable Heresies and wicked Errors as are able to Poyson the souls of the simple people 2. The other device of Jeroboam was 2. To do the Service of God in unlawfull places Deut. 12.5.11.13 14 26. to appoint the service of God to be done in Dan and Bethel when as the Lord required they should serve him in the place where he should choose and this place for the Israelites before their settlement in Canaan and the building of their Temple was in any place where the Ark of God resided in the Wilderness in Shilo in the house of Obed Edom and after their setling in the Promised Land and the subduing of their Enemies by King David it was to be done in Mount Moriab where Abraham was commanded to Sacrifice his Son Isaac otherwise called as it was afterwards Mount Sion where the Son of God of whom Isaac was a type was Crucified for us 2 Chron. 3.1 and which David took from the Jebusites and built it round about from Millo and inward and called it the City of David where he intended to build an house to God in the threshing floore of Arnon or Arauna the Jebuzite where the Angel appeared unto him 1 Chron. 17.1 and he built an Altar and offered Sacrifice unto the Lord and where the Arke of God should be placed and God should be there publickly served by all the people of Israel after that time but the Prophet told him 1 Chrou 21.18 c. 22. that the Lord accepted of his intention yet because he was a man of War and had shed much blood wherein the Lord taketh no delight though it was the blood of Gods Enemies he should not build him any house because Gods house is not to be built in blood 2 Chron. 3.1 c. 6. See Eusebius his Ecclesiasticall History l. 10. c. 3. 4. and there you shall find the particulars of the Temple and what every thing signified Esay 5 6 7. Jerem. 7.10 11. Math. 21.13 Mark 11.17 How God requireth to be Worshiped 1. At the time that he appointeth Exod. 20. c. 12.18 2. By the Priests whom he chooseth nor with the Sword as now the new builders of the Beast have and do most eagerly strive to build it but Solomon his Son that was the Son of peace should build his house in that very place where he intended it and God commanded Solomon so to do which he did accordingly as you may see in 2 Chron. 3.1 c. 6. where you may read the Prayer that Solomon made at the Consecration of this house and the benefits that they should reap which served God in that house And I desire every good Christian to read over that Chapter at his leasure and to read it often and then seriously to consider it and withall to remember that of this and the like consecrated place that is dedicated for Gods Worship the Prophet Esay saith it should be called of all Nations the house of Prayer therefore not of the Jews only but of the Christians also and the Prophet Jeremy saith the same and our Saviour Christ confirmeth it and no marvel for God will be served 1. In the Time That he himself appointeth 2. By the Persons That he himself appointeth 3. After the Manner That he himself appointeth 4. In the Place That he himself appointeth 1. As he will be served at all times so specially at that time which he pleaseth to prescribe as you may see in the 4th Commandement where he chargeth us to remember to keep Holy the Sabbath day and in Exod. 12.18 he chargeth the Jews to observe the 14th day of the first moneth to eat unleavened bread and whosoever neglected to observe this time that soul should be cut off from the Congregation of Israel and this he repeateth againe in c. 13.5 2. As God will be served in the time that he prescribeth so he will have his service performed by the persons whom he chooseth and good reason he should have the honour and the liberty to chose his own Servants when a mean man will scarce indure to have Servants of another mans choice intruded upon him therefore Christ did choose his 12 Apostles and the 70. Disciples and the Evangelist tells us he hath chosen quos voluit whom he would and not those that would be whether he would or not 3. 3. With the service which himself prescribeth He will be served with that service which himself by his Prophets and Apostles hath prescribed in the holy Scriptures and not as every upstart novice deviseth which being not according to the received service that is deduced by the grave Governours of the Church from Gods word is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a will-worship no wayes accepted by God but rejected and reproved as Idolatrous by the Apostle and demanded by the Prophet quis requisiuit haec who required these things at your hands wherein you please your selves and not God 4. 4. In the place where the Lord commandeth As God will be served in the time that he appointeth and by the persons that he chooseth and after the manner that himself ordaineth so he will be worshipped in the place that he commandeth for you may see in Levit. 17.8 how the Lord professeth that whatsoever man there be of the Children of Israel or of the strangers that sojourneth among them Levit 17.8 that offereth a burnt-offering or Sacrifice and bringeth not the same unto the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation i.e. the Church-door to offer it unto the Lord even that soul shall be cut off from among his people Exod. 23.19 and in Exod. 23.19 he saith That the first of the fruits of the Land they should bring into the house of the Lord Exod. 25.8 and in c. 25.8 he chargeth them to make him a Sanctuary or a Tabernacle i.e. an holy House or Temple consecrated for his service that he might dwel among them And therefore the Prophet David before the Temple was built desired that he might dwell in his Tabernacle and saith that he was glad when the people said we will go into the house of the Lord Psal 27.4 that was the Tabernacle which Moses appointed to be made by the Commandement of God for the place where God should be worshipped Psal 122.1 Joh. 18.20 before Solomon had built his Temple and when Christ came he did frequent the Temple and saith I ever taught in the Synagogue and in the Temple that is for the most part and
the generation of them that seek the Lord and refuse to serve the beast because both of them shall continue and neither of them shall passe away the members of the Antichrist and the false Prophet shall not be quite destroyed nor the members of Christ rooted out by the Antichrist do what he can untill all these things that Christ speaks of be fulfilled and Christ come to judgement to defend the one sort and to destroy the other And this I believe if there were nothing else doth sufficiently confute the charitable yet groundlesse fancie of all those that dream of a generall and glorious restauration of the twelve tribes of Israel and a reformation of the Gentile Churches after the destruction and quite abolition of the Antichrist before the coming of Christ to judgement for if it be a general received opinion that the Jewes general conversion to the Gospel shall not be untill the Antichrist be quite destroyed E. H. De Antiocho c. 12. pag. 130. as E. H. confesseth and the Antichrist shall not be quite destroyed till the day of judgement when both he and the false Prophet shall be cast alive into the burning lake then is it manifest that the discourse and expectation of their general conversion and especially their replantation in Palestina is but like a sick mans dream that seems to enjoy many glorious things but when he awakes he find just nothing But this that I have proved videlicet that the beast which is the Antichrist must not be taken for one single person as the Papists and some of our Protestants do conceive The limbs of the beast remaining undestroyed may teach the servants of Christ three things nor for the Pope or succession of Popes nor Turk nor the seventh head of the Roman Empire nor for any other Tyrant in any polity but for a pack or knot and confederacie of most wicked Covenanters hypocrites and prophaners of Gods service and persecutors of the true servants of Christ and that this knot and collected multitude and assembly in their progenie and successive offspring in wickednesse and impiety shall not be quite rooted out and destroyed till Christ shall come to the last judgement may teach the servants of Christ these three specaill Lessons Lesson 1 1. Not to look for a glorious world and Halcion days of pleasure and prosperity while they live among such Antichristian Canaanites in this vale of misery under the frozen zone of hatred malice and all uncharitablenesse especially considering that the Antichrist though dissolved and scattered like an Army that is routed yet shall not be quite extinguished but shall still live to recruit and continue in most of his chief members still to rage afflict and persecute the Saints of God Lesson 2 2. To prepare themselves for afflications and to pray to God for patience that they may through many tribulations arrive at last to a happy Port and attain unto the Kingdom of heaven Lesson 3 3. To fear that yet the times may grow worse and worse and troubles arise more and more because that Satan being let loose and the hypocritical members of the beast mad with fury that they should be dismembred and the loose lives of the worldlings wholly neglecting Gods service as the Antichristian crew does abuse and prophane his service they shall provoke the wrath of God against his people more and more and move him at last to send his seven Angells spoken of in this book that have the seven last plagues in seven golden vials that are full of the wrath of God to powre out the same upon the earth For as God when he began to plague Pharaoh and saw that nothing would prevaile to work repentance in him and to mollifie his heart to let Israel go to serve the Lord never left to send trouble upon trouble God will not be our enemy by our wickednesse and to adde plague upon plague untill he had utterly destroyed him so will he do with the beast and the false Prophet that is the Antichrist and all their adherents when as neither their dismembring and scattering of them nor any other scourge nor plague nor token of his wrath falling upon many of them can work repentance in the remainder and cause them to return from their evil wayes and permit the witnesses of Christ to arise and the true servants of God to worship him in the right way then will he arise as a Gyant out of sleep he will whet his glittering sword and his hand shall take hold of vengeance Gyant and he will raise up his witnesses in despight of the beast that hath killed them and he will little them in their thrones maugre all the malice of the Antichrist and all the strength of his adherents and as the Holy Ghost saith their enemies shall behold them and shall not be able to binder them but a great and a terrible fear shall fall upon them because now they shall begin to find that the Almighty God will not suffer himself to be overcome by wretched man nor forget the deep sighing of his Saints and suffer the patient abiding of the meek to perish for ever but seeing they have despised his patience and his long suffâ—â—â—â—◠〈◊〉 and abused his lenity and his great goodnesse he will send those sevâ—â—â—â—gels with these seven vials of his wrath that our Evangelist spake of and they will powre them out one after another upon the remaining members of the beast and the false Prophet and their adherents that oppose him and his witnesses and do abuse his name and his service untill they be all emptied And when all those plagues shall be powred out The method how the seven plagues shall be powred out The first upon the formal professors The second upon the great Cities The third upon the Villages The fourth upon the fruits of the earth in that method which the Evangelist setteth down that is The first upon the earth which fignifieth the worldly men and the carnal and the formal professors of his service The second upon the seu which signifieth the great Cities where the most multitudes of people are that are compared unto the sea The third upon the rivers and fountains of waters which betokeneth the country towns and villages that have but few inhabitants within them The fourth upon the Sun to scorch and burn both men and beasts and to drie up the fruits of the earth thereby to bring sicknesses and famine amongst men The fifth upon the seat of the beast The fift upon the rule of the beast which may signifie either the city or kingdom where the beast and false Prophet did arise and were upheld or upon the rule and government the strength and domineering power that the remaining scattered members of the Antichrist shall exercise over those people that they tyrannize upon and keep under them because a Seat signifieth the place whereupon we rest and the power that upholdeth us in