be so called in respect of a civill death as dead to the whole World in a civill respect having no communion nor commerce with the World And the bodies are here named not the persons because persecuting Tyrants as we touched before have no power over the soule but only over the body this they may torment imprison ſ Matth. 10.28 kill but that 's all they can doe Well what of those dead bodies take them in any sense They shall lie in the street of the great Citie which spiritually is called Sodome and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified What great City is this Surely it can be no other but the Citie of the Beast together with the Suburbs And the Suburbs are all those Cities or States which are either subject to or confederate with the Head-Citie which is Rome We can not have a fitter exposition hereof then that which the Prelate of Canterbury gives us in his reprinted Conference with the Jesuite Fisher For there he saith That the Church of Rome and the Church of England as also all other Prelaticall or Hierarchicall Churches are all one and the same Church no doubt of that as he saith and as is noted before This is his Catholike Church And so this is that great City which stands in opposition to the Holy Citie and treads it under feet as Verse 2. For as Christs Church is called a Holy Citie though it be dispersed over the World So Antichrists Synagogue is here called a Great Citie as comprehending in it all those Cities and States which make up one body of the Beast This great City is spiritually called Sodome and Egypt Sodome for the wickednesse voluptuousnesse prophanenesse pride and other sins of Sodome raigning therein and where they make open warre against all holinesse and all good Laws of GOD and Man And secondly it is called Egypt for its tyranny in oppressing and afflicting of Gods people with their intolerable burthens And for this they have their Task-masters to wit the Prelates and their multitude of officers who force Gods people through their whole Egyptian Provinces to fill up their tale and task of bricks in the strict observation of all their Rites and Ceremonies Constitutions and Canons the Spirituall burthens of their spirituall Egypt and for default thereof in the lest degree or kind the Taskmasters beat and abuse them if they t Exod. 5.15 complaine 't is to no purpose they can have no remedy Thus not without cause is this Citie called not only Great but spiritually Sodome and Egypt So as in what Country soever in the World this Beast sets his paw that is where ever hee hath his Taskmasters the Prelates and their Officers as where almost are they not there is the Kingdome of the Beast there be the Suburbs of this Great Citie And whatever Countrey or State doth incorporate it self into an union or confederation with this Papall Hierarchie becomes thereby ipso facto a member of this great Citie which is spiritually called Sodome and Egypt And this being so tell me ô England art thou not become a member of this great body of this Great Citie of this spirituall Sodome of this spirituall Egypt For wherein dost thou differ from Rome it selfe Doth not thy great Arch-prelate who is as thine Oracle professe in thy name and in Print with an unblushing forehead that England is of the u Conference Reprinted Epist Ded. pag. 16. And pag. 376. 338. c. same Church same faith same Religion with Rome And doth he not shrowd this his Book under the name of the highest Authoritie in England as commanded by the King to be published And hast thou not set forth Edicts dispensing with the open profanation of the Sabbath by heathenish Sports and others prohibiting Ministers to preach in the after-noons on Lords Days as preferring thy prophane Sports before the holy and divine Ordinance of Preaching and so consecrating at least the one halfe of the Lords Day to Bacchus or Belial Art thou not then a part of that great Citie which is spiritually called Sodome Again dost thou not permit if not command thy Prelates the Roman Pharoahs Taskmasters to vex afflict and grievously oppresse the people of God with the intolerable burthens of their and thine endlesse Ceremonies And not x These things were then in force when this Treatise was written content with the old thou addest new burthens as the Egyptians did in denying straw and those most abominable as thy Superstitious yea Idolatrous Heathenish Altars with all their Idolatrous Altar-Service wherein thou art utterly falne from being a member of the Holy Citie which thou treadest under thy feet and even professest thy selfe to be of that Great Citie which for its inthralling and oppressing of Gods people is spiritually called Egypt O England England Repent hereof cast out thy cursed and cruell Taskmasters like as thy Neighbour Scotland hath done so suffer thy people Gods people to serve their God as he hath commanded and to enjoy their Christian Libertie which Christ hath deerly purchased for them and no longer to be under the Antichristian Babylonian yoake and the Egyptian Taskmasters Thus we have seen as it were in a Map the large Territories and bound lesse bounds of this great City here mentioned spiritually called Sodome and Egypt in the street whereof lie the dead bodies of Christs two witnesses and where as here is added our Lord was crucified Which is to be understood not simply and personally of our Lords crucifying but mystically For our Lord in Person was crucified at Jerusalem and yet not within the Citie but without the Gate And yet Christ in his Person was crucified by the first Roman Beast the Emperour whose Successour both in his Seat and in the Image of his Power and State and in all his bloudy persecutions of the Saints the Papall Beast now is as also of the Scribes and Pharisees and High Priests who put Christ to death and so hee with them is guilty of his bloud as Matth. 23.35 36. Verse 31. But he is crucified mystically in his mysticall members even in the open Streets of this Great Citie Witnesse all those persecutions and Martyrdomes which the Beast in all Ages and Countries hath caused wherein the Lord himselfe hath been crucified to wit in his Saints and Witnesses And what thinke you of those Witnesses of whose crucifying on the Pillory in the open street or rather spacious Palace-yard in the Citie of Westminster we have been all eye-witnesses and spectators Was our Lord there then in them on those Pillories crucified or not If he were and that upon such an eminent Theatre and in the view of that Court where they were so censured the High Priests themselves with others of high note beholding and pleasing themselves with such a Tragedie of the Beasts cunning contriving and cruell execution was not this trow you a part of that Great Citie where our Lord hath been
take full vengeance upon Babylon And therefore before the storme come God hath a hiding place to secure his As hee saith in Esay q Esay 4.5 6. The Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Sion and upon her assemblies a Cloud and Smoake by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night for upon all the glory shall be a defence And there shall be a Tabernacle for a shadow in the day time from the heat and for a place of refuge and for a covert from storme and from rain r Exod. 12. Thus the Lord did when he was about to destroy the first-born of Egypt he shut up his people in their houses sprinkling them with the bloud of the Paschall Lambe Exod. 13. 14. that the Avenger should not touch them And when the Egyptian host pursued them as farre as the Red Sea the Lord separated them by the pillar of a Cloud by day and of fire by night untill hee had overwhelmed the Hoast in the Sea And when he was about to destroy Sodome he first separates Lot from among them So before hee destroy Babylon hee Å¿ Revel 18.4 c. cals his people out of her and then quickly after in the same Chapter follows her ruine and desolation So here the Lord calling his witnesses away and they ascending up to their Sanctuary in a cloud in the fight of their enemies it is a sure and certain signe and immediate forerunner of the destruction of this Babylon that great Citie which is spiritually called Sodome and Egypt And it is very remarkable that before the destruction of all these three Sodome Egypt and Babylon the Lord doth immediatly before separate his people and provide a Sanctuary for them Yea not long before the utter and finall u Iosephus Of the wars of the Iews destruction of Ierusalem which was once Gods true Church but now was become the Synagogue of Murtherers and Persecutors of Christ and his Saints there was a voice heard in the Temple as from Heaven Migremus hinc Let us depart hence whereby Gods small remnant yet there being warned presently fled to Pella a Coast-Citie in Iudea and not long after followed the sacking and burning of the Citie and Temple with the inhabitants therein Thus by these many famous examples we may cleerly see what God is now about in this Trumpet to doe when he cals away his Servants out of Babylon and Egypt and Sodome and the Synagogue of Antichrist and puts them in a safe Sanctuary even because he will speedily bring destruction upon those his enemies It followeth Verse 13. Verse 13. And the same houre was there a great Earthquake and the tenth part of the Citie fell and in the Earthquake were slaine of men seven thousand and the remnant were affrighted and gave glory to the God of Heaven See here no sooner have the witnesses taken Sanctuary but by and by even the same houre there is a great Earthquake Now though there have been in the World and still fall out sundry great Earthquakes in diverse Countries as in Asia and other places yet in this place under this Trumpet this great Earthquake here is not to be taken literally no more then heaven in the former Verse for the place of the highest heaven But the great Earthquake here is to be understood of the great and terrible shaking of the Kingdomes of the earth under the sound of this Trumpet as namely by great Commotions Wars and the like especially in Christendome throughout the Kingdome of the Beast And when was Christendome ever more embroyled in wars then at this day But here it is said that the tenth part of the Citie fell This is joyned to the former as an effect of this great Earthquake First what is meant by the Citie here Surely that great City mentioned V. 8. Which we have before described even the Kingdom of the Beast And still all the plagues and woes which both the Trumpets sound forth and the seven Vialls powre out fall upon the Beast and his Kingdome So as there is no questiâ—n but this Citie here is that great Citie Antichrists large Kingdome And what is meant by the tenth part of the Citie For resolution hereof wee read that the u Chap. 17.7 Beast with seven heads hath ten hornes And these x Verse 12. ten hornes are said to be ten Kings These ten Kings are said to be the ten hornes because they are the strength of the Beast And the ten Kings have their ten Kingdomes which make up the Beasts Kingdome or his great Citie Now what Kingdoms are those which are said to be of this great body of this great Citie Surely those which doe admit and maintaine the Papall power The Papall power is maintained by Civill States or Kingdomes two ways Either when they directly and professedly subject their Thrones and Crowns to the Pope as to the Head of the Church by vertue of which title he arrogates to himselfe a Supreame power over Kings and Princes which is to y 2 Thess 2.4 exalt himselfe above all that is called God to depose and dispose at his pleasure or when they doe it only implicitly or by some privy compact or league or otherwise by admitting in their Kingdomes the Popes Hierarchie for the Hierarchie is meerly Papall where ever it be erected which Hierarchie consisting in the Prelates as it is in it selfe a proper and principall member and prop of his Kingdome So it is a mighty and maine instrument of bringing into Subjection to the Pope those Kingdomes and people wherein and over whom they are exalted in their Episcopall Thrones as they call them And although in a Civill Kingdome or State where the Gospel is professed the Popes Supremacy disâ—lamed and the jurisdiction of Prelates by Law limited as being of humane institution meerly and not by divine authoritie Prelats when they are pinched and held close to it may perhaps pull in their hornes and arrogate no more unto themselves then the Laws of the Land or pleasure of the Prince do allow unto them yet when their inbred pride and ambition an inseparable accident or rather essentiall qualitie of a Prelate findes opportunitie meeting with a debonaire and benigne Prince into whose gentle brest they can easily insinuate themselves and by their dexteritie in the art of flattery and nimblenesse of tongue and wit perswade and work upon his sweet nature so as to draw it to conceive a reverend opinion of their counterfeit sanctitie which they set out in a goodly garbe of their superstitious guises in their wil-worship and by this means to a credulitie in believing all to be Gospel which they say as for the purpose that they are the true Church that they have a power to ordain Ceremonies in the Church that Christ ordained them to be his x Reprinted Conference p. 200. 210. 211 Vice-roys that they are the only Judges in controversies of faith
say when the Kingdome of the Beast that Whore which yet desperatly triumpheth in the confidence of her stately Babylon x Chap. 18.7 sitting in her throne and saying in her heart I sit a Queen and am no widow and shall see no sorrow shall bee destroyed y Verse 8. whose plagues shal come in one day death and mourning and famine when she shal be utterly burnt with fire for strong is the Lord who judgeth her and so when all the Kingdomes aforesaid shall resume their power and strength from the Beast Esop and Horace and leave him naked as the Birds did the Crow when each bird tooke his owne feather wherewith the Crow had pranked himselfe exalting himself above his fellows and when they shall submit their Scepters unto Jesus Christ by receiving his government over them as aforesaid then their Kingdomes become the Kingdomes of our Lord and of his Christ and he shal reigne for ever and ever But we finde Chap. 18.9 how the Kings of the earth who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with the Whore of Babylon seeing her ruine shall bewaile her and lament for her c. and yet Chap. 17. that the ten hornes the ten Kings that gave their power and Kingdomes to the Beast shal hate the Whore and make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire These two places seeme to contradict one another But being rightly understood there is no contradiction For first most sure it is that the ten Kings aforesaid shal hate the Whore and be the instruments of her desolation God will surely bring his word to passe But yet some of those Kings may at first bee brought to it against their wils or with an ill will having beene formerly so much enamoured on the gay painted Whore and made drunke with the wine of her fornication We see those two milch-kine of the Philistins by a strange instinct carried Gods Arke to his place yet lowed all the way after their Calves 1 Sam. 6. So the Lord will have his work done upon the whore though some of the chiefe instruments may have still a yearning of affection after the Whore for old acquaintance sake Yet though some for their own persons may doe this for a time and because the Whore fals with her goodly Babylon notwithstanding because the Kings alone shall not make Babylon desolate but their Kingdomes to wit their people taken altogether therefore the particular pitie of some for a time shall not hinder the generall hatred of the Whore and so the Kingdomes of this World mainly and universally shal become the Kingdomes of our Lord and of his Christ And this making desolate of the Whore by the Kings and their people shall be with such violence of passion and zeale which God shall kindle in their hearts and brests as when it is done they shal stand amazed to behold the smoke of her burning and spend some human compassion and pitie upon those terrible and suddaine desolations Even as Titus that noble Roman Generall when through the obdurate obstinacie of the Jews in their extreame misery his souldiers were so enraged that not only the Citie Jerusalem but the most beautifull Temple it selfe were set on fire hee beholding it wept over it to see such a goodly and glorious building so miserably destroyed the like compassion may even those Kings have in weeping over Babylon when they shall behold the ruines thereof wherein themselves notwithstanding with their people were the chief Actors Thus the same Kings whom the Lord shall employ in the making desolate of Babylon may bee moved with humane compassion when they behold even those ruines which themselves by divine instigation have made And as the same Titus though hee cryed to his Souldiers to save that glorious Monument the Temple and not to burn it and seeing it notwithstanding all on a flame cryed out the more vehemently to quench it but could not prevail to rescue it So the Kings of the earth when they shall see the smoke of Babylons burning and shall thereupon be moved to lament her saying Alas Alas that great Citiy Babylon that mighty Citie yet such is the Lords fury kindled against her that they shall not be able with all their power though they would never so fain to rescue her out of the flames For the Lord will have it so and therefore as he hath put in their minds to fulfil his wil in giving their strength and Kingdome to the Beast until the words of God be fulfilled So when the words of God shal be fulfilled he wil also put in their minds to fulfil his wil in the utter destruction of Babylon And from this time Christ shal reigne for evermore over his people when the usurping Beast with all his power shall be put downe and so when all Kings Princes and States shal submit their Scepters to Christs authority as before is shewed Then shall be great joy and thanksgiving in the Church as Verse 16.17 and in the end of this last Trumpet which how long it shall sound and the sounding thereof last he only knows Acts 1.7 Matth. 24 36. who hath reserved it in his owne brest shall come the generall judgement of quick and dead wherein God shall powre wrath upon his wrathfull enemies and shall reward all his faithful servants as Verse 18. Now there be sundry other things very mysticall and darke which seeme to come under the time of this last Trumpet as besides the remainder of this Chapter Verse 19. which gives some light of the generall conversion of the Jewes the whole twentieth Chapter of this Booke but because they be very obscure and will require longer time and stronger Prayers for assisting and illuminating grace in the opening of them therefore I will here put an end for the present till it shall please God to give a further opportunitie In the mean time a Chap. 11.17 We give thee thanks O Lord God Almighty which art and wast and art to come because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned Even so AMEN
with the same spirit namely such as prophesie against the Beast and his Throne and all those that by their constant profession of the Truth and refusing communion with the Beast doe become thereby the witnesses of Christ For the Beast wars with the Saints Chap. 13.7 But what be those weapons and what those forces wherewith this Beast warreth against Christs witnesses and Gods Saints Surely hee useth all manner of weapons whereby to execute his beastly cruelty And these may be reduced to two kindes The Spirituall Sword and the Temporall Sword His Spirituall Sword is the brute Thunderbolt of his execrable Excommunication direfull Curses and dreadfull Courts as his Court of Inquisition and of High Commission and other his Prelaticall and Hierarchicall Courts which are so many Dens wherin this hideous Beast once inclosing the Saints doth prey upon them he and his Cubs But if this his Sword prove not strong enough as meeting with some mettle too tough for it to â—â—â—rce then he can command with a wet finger the helpe of the Temporall Sword which is like Tamberlains black and bloudy Banner which being displayed by the Beasts power and inspired with his fiery-mettled spirit breathes nothing but either fire and faggot or Pillory with shedding of bloud perpetuall close imprisonment banishment and all other evils of this life more bitter and cruell by many degrees than death it selfe And this is his kinde of warre But how comes he to do these things by the help of the Temporall Power when commonly all his proceedings are without either law or colour of justice except according to the Beasts owne lawlesse Law For this hee wants not his devices for hee will so contrive the matter and lay his snares as either the innocent being brought into the Temporall Court where also he himself wil sit a Judge and where his spirit is wondrously predominant shall be forced to assent to the condemnation of his own cause before the hearing or else if hee refuse so to doe he shall be censured as guiltie of all those hainous crimes laid to his charge though never so false and maliciously devised yea hee can so handle the businesse as the censure shall be agreed upon and concluded before ever his day of hearing come and when it is come his Legall Defence shal never be heard This needs no application And this is the Beasts manner of warring right nor should it be properly the Beasts warre were it not altogether bestiall void of all Law or conscience or honesty or humanitie And ever his mayn forces and battery are bent against the two witnesses namely such as doe constantly testifie and maintain the Prerogative of Christs Kingly Government over his Church against the Beasts proud and tyrannicall usurpations and the truth of the Gospel and Word of Christ against all Antichrists lyes and the authoritie and sufficiencie of the Holy Scripture against the Beasts unwritten Traditions and Ecclesiasticall Canons the authoritie whereof hee preferreth above and opposeth against the Law of God As for all wicked prophane and impious persons his Holines hath no quarrell against them for either they are such as belong to the Beasts Den or at least though they be not of it yet they are not much against it Thus he warreth Secondly as the Beast warreth against the witnesses so hee shall overcome them How shall hee overcome them Their faith and testimony hee shall not overcome so as to force them to recant or desert their cause or betray their conscience For Chap. 12.11 those on Christs side overcame the Dragon by the bloud of the Lamb and by the word of their Testimonie and they loved not their lives unto the death Nor shal the Beast be able to overcome them by force of arguments and reasoning for he is a Beast yea the Beast of all Beasts his Arguments are fire and faggot Pillory and bloud-shed as before down-right club-law or a push with his ten q Revel 17.12 hornes or a by-back-blow with his paw So as thus hee comes to get the conquest over their bodies indeed he can shut them close up hee can pillory them hee can mangle and torture them and a thousand ways subdue r Matth. 10.28 their bodies but can doe no more Luke 12.4 Not only so but in the third place hee shall kill them Famous is the Beast for his infinite bloudy victories over Christs Witnesses in this kinde by putting them to death But now there is a twofold kind of death which he puts them to The first is by a violent separation of their soule from their bodie as in the flames of Martyrdome This hath bin the Beasts practice of old But this subtile Dragon finding by experience that his kingdome rather suffered damage this way then wonne any ground and that it proved rather an advantage to his Adversaries and brought much hatred to his barbarous cruelty in so putting them to death hee hath found out another kinde of death and that though not in show yet indeed farre more cruell than the other and that is by a violent and perpetuall separation of a living man from all the delights comforts and contentments in the World from his wife and children from his meanes and livelihood friends and acquaintance from the Communion of Saints yea from all societie of men and in a word from all the means of comfort in this life Spirituall or Temporall So as a man in this case may be said to be killed or deprived of life when he is deprived of all those things without which life cannot well be called a life but a death rather or such a life as that in hell where not one drop of comfort is allowed to those tormented souls And as dead men neither see nor heare nor speake nor write nor have any commerce with the living So these may neither see their living friends nor heare from them by letters nor speake nor write unto them nor have any commerce with them Thus far dead they be And in this sense we have seen some eminent Witnesses of Christ yet living in their close Prisons in remote Lands thus to bee killed in these our dayes Which being so may it not bee one evident signe that we are now in the sixt Trumpet wherein wee have seene so many things to be come to passe and fulfilled so particularly set forth in this Prophecie It followeth Verse 8. Verse 8. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great Citie which spiritually is called Sodome and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and Nations shall see their dead bodies three dayes and a halfe and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoyce over them and make merry and shall send gifts one to another because these two Prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth Now these dead bodies as we said before may
thus crucified O England blush and be abashed yea confounded in thy self at these things return at length to a sober minde repent and reforme thy selfe lest thou perish with the Beast and his Kingdom whose wofull ruine hasteneth on a pace as Verse 14. But now what becomes of these thus dead bodies Surely they lie in the Street of the great Citie unburied How long Three dayes and an half How so The people kindreds tongues and nations seeing them wil not suffer them to be put in graves Just so did the barbarous heathen with the Martyrs not permitting their bodies to be buried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Euseb Eccl. H ist l. 5. c. 1. Eusebius reports Thus our Antichristian heathen or Gentiles here so called Verse 2. as before Now for dead bodies to lie in the open street unburied three dayes and a halfe is enough to make their smell odious and abominable in the nosthrils of all men So as this appeares to be the meaning these Witnesses being slaine or so as is before said they are kept above ground to become an object of abomination to all that behold them and by their long keeping they are made so to stink as men pass by them stopping their Noses and will not or doe not or dare not come neere them And who doth or dare visit the dead bodies of those Witnesses aforesaid But they are not in the Street True they are dragged or drawn out of the Street they doe so stinke in the nosthrils of the Beast and his kindred and people But yet they are above ground they are not yet buried under the earth though they lie buried within strong walled vaults that none can come any more at them then at the dead bodies of those that lie in their graves But not lying in the street and having lyen now above three dayes and a halfe yea some of them three yeeres and a halfe and the least and last is now going upon the last halfe yeere how come they to bee reckoned here in the account and numbred with the dead bodies of these two witnesses lying three dayes and a halfe in the street of the great Citie For this we must take the sense and not the strict Letter The lying of dead bodies three days and a halfe in the open street where all passengers are to passe is to note unto us that as is before noted they lie so long till none can endure their smell but of force they must bee removed out of the way And is it not so done with these Their smell grew so strong that they were faine to remove them Whither Into their Graves No they are above ground still For it is added here The people and kindreds and nations and tongues will not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves Who are these people and kindreds and tongues and nations Surely all those of this great Citie which is spiritually called Sodome and Egypt such as are the members of the Beast For though sometimes these termes as people kindreds c. are taken in the good part for those of Christs Kingdome as Chap. 7.9 10.11 yet here they are taken as Chap. 17.15 for those of Antichrists Kingdome And for proofe hereof they will not suffer the dead bodies of the two witnesses to be buried As wee read of the Pope as I remember Hildebrand who after hee had by his Thunderbolt of Excommunication blasted the Emperour Henrie the Fourth and driven him out of his Kingdome by his own Son and he dying in that his exile his Holinesse would not suffer him to be buried so as his dead body continued unburied for five yeers space So here with the same spirit of Charity doe these his people and kindreds and tongues and Nations the whole body of that Beast not suffer the dead bodies of these two witnesses to enjoy the ordinary honour of Christian buriall which even the Law of Nature and common humanity commands The summe of it is they will not allow them any benefit nor any right which by the Law of God and the Law of Nature and Nations is due unto them in that case So as being banished in a remote Country in a close imprisonment living indeed but as dead men as before they may there rot above ground before either Wife or children or friend or acquaintance shall be suffered to come at them to performe that last duty which all are bound unto the buriall of their dead Thus if any shall deny this also concerning these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or dead bodies to be a true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Symptome of this Trumpets sounding which wee ought not to thinke gives an uncertain sound he may with as good reason deny the fulfilling of all Prophecies even then when their proper effects being seene of all men become to every mans reason and understanding cleere demonstrations thereof Except wee are yet to looke for more monstrous beastly cruelties under this Trumpet which can hardly be imagined by any Creature It followeth And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoyce over them and make merry and shall send gifts one to another because these two Prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth These Earth-dwellers are the same with those people and kindreds and tongues and nations those of the Beasts Kingdome in the former Verse These are said to dwell on the earth because their Kingdome and happinesse is altogether earthly They minde earthly things and place their felicitie in them contrary to Gods children who living on earth yet have their conversation in heaven and their treasure in heaven and their Country Heaven So as to be said to dwell on the earth is opposed to those who are y Heb. 11.13 1 Pet. 2.11 Gen. 47 9. Exod. 6.4 Psal 119.54 every where in Scripture called pilgrims and strangers in the earth and the earth it selfe called not their habitation but the land or house of their pilgrimage Whereas on the contrary to be said to dwell on the earth is usually put in Scripture for all the wicked of the earth as els-where in this Booke Chap. 8.13 13.12 14. 17.8 Where we see that these earth-dwellers are all those people over whom the Beast reigneth And so on these all the plagues are powred as Chap. 8.13 12.12 16.1 Luke 21.35 and in many other places And in this Verse it is twice repeated Thus we see who they be Now what doe they further First These earth-dwellers rejoyce over the dead bodies of the witnesses Secondly they make merry Thirdly they send gifts one to another by way of congratulation And the cause is added because these two witnesses tormented them that dwelt upon the earth First they rejoice over their dead bodies as the Philistins did over Sampson when they had put out his eyes they made sport with him as with a Fool in a Play Hee whom they durst not looke upon when he had his eyes and liberty
word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the text is not altogether to be slighted for it signifieth not only names but men of fame and m Gen. 6 4. renowne such as were the Giants and Tyrants of old and those n Gen. 11.4 Babel-builders who would get them a Name by building that Towre And such are those men we speak of these Giants Tyrants Babel-builders they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men of Renown terrible men yea not only the Lord-prelates themselves but their whole retinue for not a Pursuivant and Apparitor and the least Boy in their Kitchin but he is a mickle man Well all these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even seven thousand the whole generation of them in Scotland is slaine in that Earthquake that is utterly cast out as dead men For still I say these plagues fall only on them that have the Beasts marke or the number of his Name as the Prelats and their followers And if any here stand strictly upon the just Number of seven thousand I answer whether there were more of them or whether fewer the Number of seven thousand being a perfect and compleat number is sufficient to comprehend all of that ranke in that Countrey This number here being like that Chap. 9.16 an Army of Horsmen of two hundred thousand thousand Which number comprehends all those in the Armies though they were by many degrees short of that huge number as before And so here It followeth hereupon That the remnant were affrighted and gave glory to the God of Heaven The remnant whether the whole people in that tenth part as aforesaid or whether those that were a kind of Retainers or favourers or parties siding with the Prelates faction or altogether they were struck with feare as beholding the Almightie power of God in the effecting of that great and admirable work and thereupon gave glory to the God of Heaven I will conclude this with that of David n Psal 64.7 8 9 10. But God shall shoot at them with an arrow suddainly shall they be wounded So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves all that see them shall flee away And all men shall feare and shall declare the work of God for they shall â—isely consider of his doing The righteous shal be glad in the Lord and shall trust in him and all the upright in heart shall glory Even so Amen Now a word of the next Trumpet the seventh or last But by the way we find these words o Verse 14. The second woe is past and behold the third woe commeth quickly Chap. 18.13 Wee finde three woes woe woe woe The first woe belongeth to the fift Trumpet as Chapter 9.12 the second woe to the sixt and the third woe to the seventh So as the sixt Trumpet being ended it is said here The second â—oe is past and the seventh Trumpet now following is it added And behold the third woe commeth quickly That is the seventh Trumpet commeth quickly bringing its woe with it to the Beast and his Kingdome The seventh and last Trumpet Verse 15. And the seventh Angel sounded and there were great voices in heaven saying The Kingdomes of this world are become the Kingdomes of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reigne for ever and ever c. This seventh Trumpet as it bringeth woe even the last woe that is utter ruine and destruction to the Beast and his Kingdome to Antichrist the Whore of Babylon that great p Ver. 8. Chap. 17.18 Citie and to the whole Hierarchie where ever it be in any part or Kingdome of the World so it brings great joy and triumph to all the people of God under the Sun This is that great voice from Heaven yea great voices that is generall acclamations of the whole Church of Christ in all places which is here called Heaven as q Verse 12. before Saying The Kingdomes of this world are become the Kingdomes of our Lord even of God the Father and of his Christ and he shal reigne for ever and ever That is when this Trumpet shall sound which shall be quickly as V. 14. all the Kingdoms of the World shall consent to the rooting out of Antichrist and his kingdome they shall cast downe his Throne which is exalted in and by the Hierarchie and his whole Hierarchie shall they cast out and shall set up Christs throne over them shall subject the Kingdoms to Christs Government in submitting and conforming to his Doctrine Discipline according to his Word For till they doe this so long as they uphold and take part with the Beast in admitting and mayntaining his Hierarchie in their Dominions they r Chap. 17.13 give their strength and power unto the Beast and subject their Kingdomes unto him making warre against the Lambe Jesus Christ and so their Kingdomes the while are not Christs Kingdomes but Antichrists rather A thing well to be considered of Christian Kings and Princes and States But when this seventh Trumpet shall sound which will bee shortly if not rather already begunne then is that time fulfilled which was forelimited of GOD when they even the ten Kings to wit all Christian Kings and States which before took part with the Beast against the Lambe even Å¿ Chap. 17.16 17. these shall hate the Whore and shal make her desolate and naked and shal eat her flesh and burn her with fire For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his wil and to agree and give their Kingdome unto the Beast until the words of God shal be fulfilled And although this may seem strange and almost incredible to mans reason and apprehension yet God shall as certainly bring it to passe as his Word hath said it And that we might not be diffident herein God hath given us a famous and remarkable instance and as it were a sensible taste hereof in that late glorious worke of his in the Kingdome of Scotland which we noted before in throwing down that proud Antichristian throne of the Beast which the Prelates thought impossible to be done and which seemed at first but as a t Psal 126.1 dreame even to Gods people when the Lord brought againe the captivity of his Sion in that Land in so good a measure begun whereas now that out-cast Hierarchie hath as little hope ever to be restored as in their prosperitie they had feare or doubt ever to bee so cast out Yet wee see it with our eyes that God hath brought to passe this great thing And shall we doubt of the rest when he hath given us such a sure earnest of his never fayling word and of his invincible power Hee that hath puld off one of the the Beasts hornes shall shortly breake off all his hornes as the Lord saith u Psal 75.10 All the hornes of the wicked also will I cut off but the hornes of the righteous shall be exalted And then then I
that Princes must leave all government of the Church to them as the sole Fathers thereof and such like Prelaticall Principles which are not to be found in rerum natura as they beg when once they have obtained credit to these things how doe they then bestir themselves especially where a pragmaticall pate and the Metropolitan Chaire meet together Then what Laws of the Kingdom shal bind them Who shall dare to controule them If Parliaments whose Laws they break as straws offer to meddle with them presently they must be dissolved and with their good will there shall never be Parliament more And in fine they grow to that heighth of insolencie that their meere lust must be a Law as all their practices proclame Reprinted Conference p. 338. 376. c. Nor doe their practices only overthrow all true religion but they come to make open profession that the religion and faith of Prelaticall Protestant Churches and by name of that of England is one and the same with that of Rome and the Church of England one and the same with that of Rome with many such like bold assertions all which tend to make a reconciliation and a re-union with Rome to whom al Prelaticall Churches in the World and they allow no other Churches for true but only the Prelaticall doe make up one intire Catholike Church Now all these being summed up together what doe they amount unto but this that all Prelaticall Churches hold with Rome as members of the same Catholike body and the Pope being the Head of this body at least a Pag. 183. 184. ordine primus which the Prelate saith is necessary Ergo all Prelaticall Churches are members of that Church whereof the Pope is the Head or at least ordine primus and consequently all Civill Kingdomes and States where the Prelacie or Hierarchie hath got any footing and much more where it hath gotten head must bee a member thereof Now this being so as so it is the way is now made plaine to come to know what is meant by the fall of the tenth part of the Citie What is it but the fall of one of the ten Kingdomes from the Pope which are the ten horns of his Hierarchie in the time of this sixt Trumpet But where shall we find such a Kingdome as was one of the ten horns of the Beast and now broken off and falne from that great head Where What say you to the Church of Scotland Had not the Prelates there throwne down to the ground Christs throne and consequently with it the Kings Throne his Vicegerent and in stead thereof mounted aloft the Throne and Kingdome of the Beast with their Tyrannicall and lawlesse Government But now we see the Beasts Throne in that Kingdome dismounted For now the Prelats with their Hierarchie are there cashiered And thus the tenth part of the Citie is falne But what was the occasion of this great fall Surely Pride will have a fall The Prelats intolerable insolencie and unsufferable Tyrannie did cause it Which makes mee remember a notable saying or I may call it rather a prophecie of a b Mr. Throgmorton godly Minister late of London As said he nothing cures the biting of the Scorpion but the oile of the Scorpion So nothing will cure Popery but Popery And this was here verified What cured the Popery which the Prelacie had brought and set up in Scotland but their extream haste and mad zeale to finish the building up of Rome in one day To this purpose I remember an other usuall saying of another Minister also late of London who when any spake of a bad or mad Prelate hee would still say The worse the better and the better the worse His meaning was that the worse the Bishops grew and the more insolent and tyrannicall the more they did hasten the fall of their proud Hierarchie As Christ said to the Pharisees Fill yee up the measure of your Fathers As the people of God could not come to their promised inheritance till the d Gen. 15 16. sins of the Amonites were growne to their full And the e Revel 14.18 19. Angell thrust not his sickle into the earth to gather the Vine thereof to cast it into the great Winepresse of the wrath of God till the clusters were ripe And now in Scotland the clusters of the f Deut. 32. Vine of Sodome were growne ripe and so they are cut down And thus the tenth part of the Citie is falne thus the Beast hath lost one of his ten horns And to conclude this The immediate instrumentall cause of this fall was the Earthquake And an Earthquake wee know is the immediate worke of God alone So as this sheweth unto us that it was Gods owne hand and work principally that did overthrow this tenth part of the Citie and Kingdome of the Beast For it was a building too deep-founded in the earth for mans either power to overturn it or policie to undermine it And therefore let all the glory be given to God alone It followeth And in the Earthquake were slain of men seven thousand We shewed before that an Earthquake may be taken tropically for some civil Commotion in a State as of late in the state of Scotland when all stood up as one intire body to vindicate their liberty from the Beasts Tyranny which the Prelates did exercise upon the people so as the issue hereof proved to be the fall of the tenth part of the Citie or Kingdome of the Beast in Scotlands falling quite off from the Papall Hierarchie Now these words And in the Earthquake were slaine of men seven thousand have reference to the same Earthquake h Objection But no men were slaine in that Scotland Earthquake and here seven thousand men are said to be slaine 'T is true But as the Earthquake is taken tropically so also the slaying here as we spake before of a slaying of the two witnesses in a civill respect or in a figure So here by slaying we understand a ceasing of a thing to be that which it was before As a man is said to be i Rom. 6.2 dead to sin because hee no longer lives the life of sin Now for the seven thousand here slain in the Earthquake seven we know is a perfect number and often comprehends a whole society or all of such a Profession or qualitie in the same place or Countrey As the k Chap. 1. 2. seven Churches the seven Stars the seven Candlesticks comprehending all the Churches and Ministers in Asia the lesse So l 1 King 19.18 seven thousand men were reserved of God in Israel even all those who did not bow to Baal And so here seven thousand may comprehend all those who in the said Earthquake in Scotland were slaine that is were cast out of their places and so ceased to bee that which they were before and those were the Prelates with all their Officers and train even the whole Hierarchie And the