in our time that we neede not doubt but that this is the time of the Sixt Trumpet under which wee now live How are the godly and painfull Ministers of God in England misused their mouths stopped their wives children and families dispossessed and cast out of their habitations all holy and true professors among the People vexed wearied and even worried by the Pursivants and courts of Prelates so as they are forced many of them to forsake their houses and sweete native country to go seeke for refuge among wild beasts and wilde Salvages and wilde deserts b Heb. 11.37 38. wandring up and down as the Apostle speakes in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth of whome the world is not worthy c. Thus is not the holy City trodden under foote of these Gentiles yea worse then the old Gentiles the Babylonian Beast and his broode having lost all humanity and all the properties of reasonable men like c Dan. 4. Nabuchadnezzar when he grazed among the beasts of the field when nothing will satisfie them but the utter desolation and extirpation of the Saints of God and of all holinesse What neede then have Gods people to cry and pray with David d Psal 83.1 2 3 4. Keepe not thou silence o God hold not thy peace and be not still O God For loe thine enemies make a tumult and they that hate thee have lift up the head They have taken crafty counsell against thy people and consulted against thy hidden ones They have said come let us cut them off from being a Nation that the name of Israell may bee no more in remembrance For they have consulted together with one consent they are confederate against Thee But do thou unto them as unto the Madianites as to Sisera c. as it followeth to the end of the Psalme Let them be confounded and troubled for ever let them be put to shame and perish that men may know that thou whose name alone it Jehovah art the most high over al the earth But e Psal 94.3 4 5 6 7. how long shall these wicked thus triumph How long shall they utter and speak hard things and all the workers of iniquitie boast themselves How long shall they breake in pieces thy people O Lord and afflâ—ct thine heritage How long shall they slay the Widow and the stranger and murther the fatherlesse How long shall these Atheists say The Lord shal not see neither shal the God of Jacob regard it How long shall these Gentiles thus tread under foot the holy Citie of our God It is said here Two and forty moneths Surely as the words doe sound no very long time Two and forty moneths make up three yeers and a halfe and not much more then those thousand two hundred and threescore days in the next Verse Now whether these forty two moneths be taken literally and strictly or whether they signifie some longer or shorter time is uncertain to us this we may certainly build upon that the time of Antichrists afflicting of Gods Church under this Trumpet shall not be long But this number of forty and two moneths being so precisely laid downe as containing three yeeres and a halfe we may be the bolder to take it literally for this space of time Nor is it unusuall in Scripture so to number according to the strict letter thereof as of Israels affliction in Egypt from Abrahams calling just foure hundred and thirtie yeeres and the Jews Captivitie in Babylon just seventy yeeres And in Daniel f Dan. 7.25 A time times and halfe or part of a time is taken for three yeers and part of the fourth wherein that proud King Antiochus who was a type of Antichrist should and did afflict the people of God A time or times being interpreted by Daniel himselfe to bee so many g Dan. 4.16 11.13 yeers The like phrase whereunto wee have Revel 12.14 that the Church should be persecuted of the Dragon a time times and halfe a time Which is to bee interpreted according to those times in Daniel three yeers and a halfe And hereupon it is that the Jesuits as Bellarmine and others stand so stiffe that Antichrists Reigne shall continue but three yeeres and a halfe by which they think to excuse the Pope from being Antichrist But it will not serve their turn For we easily grant that three yeers and a halfe being the summe of fortie and two moneths is that space of time wherein the Beast out of the bottomlesse pit that Antichrist shall afflict Gods Church under this sixt Trumpet And so likewise this space of time doth answer that time times and part of time wherein Antiochus the type of Antichrist afflicted the ancient people of God which was a good part of three yeeres and a halfe as Tremelius well sheweth in his notes upon Daniel And if we consider the practices of Antiochus in that time and compare them with Antichrists practices in this sixt Trumpet we shall find a marvellous correspondence between them Now of Antiochus Daniel saith h Dan 7.25 He shall speak great words against the most High and shal weare out the Saints of the most High and think to change times and Laws and they shall be given into his hand untill a time and times and the dividing of time Whereupon Tremellius notes that this Antiochus was most blasphemous against God and a most cruell Tyrant over Gods people in so much as he took upon him and did arrogate unto himselfe divine authoritie in abolishing the Sabbaths and other Laws of God and did institute and impose new Laws and Ceremonies according to his owne humour and pleasure Now what doth Antichrist and his Limbes the Prelates in these our days Doe they not most proudly i See the Prelate of Canterbury his last Book throughout togeâ—her wiâ—h all his practices arrogate to themselves divine authoritie and impiously blaspheme God and Christ in saying Christ thought it fittest to appoint them as his Viceroys in governing his Church Doe they not hereupon beare themselves as so many gods sitting in Christs throne imposing their owne devices Ceremonies Canons upon the consciences of Gods people Doe they not vilifie the holy Scripture as an insufficient and imperfect Rule of Faith and preferre the Tradition of their prelaticall Church before it Doe they not abrogate the moralitie of the fourth Commandement as not binding us Christians to keep the Lords day for our Sabbath day Do they not dispense with the profanation of it by most licentious and lascivious Sports and Pastimes to all youth and others thereby also dispensing with the fifth Commandement when Masters may not restrain their own Servants nor Parents their Children from their laudable Sports as they call them that day Doe they not forbid Ministers to preach twice on that day Doe they not altogether forbid sound preaching of the doctrines of Grace And do they not i Dan. 7.25 weare out
from heaven and consumed him and his fifty And the like befell the second Captain and his fifty Thus fire came out of Elias his mouth and it consumed or devoured his enemies And this was done twice Accordingly here it is twice repeated If any man hurt them c. Now by fire comming out of their mouth is not meant literally that fire proceedeth out of their mouth but that as Elias by his word brought fire down from Heaven wherin his Word took effect so the judgments which these two witnesses shall denounce against their injurious adversaries the implacable furious enemies of Gods Church that will not be brought by the word of their prophecie to repentance shall as certainly come to passe and fall upon them to their destruction as that fire did fall from Heaven upon those men according to Elias his word I say if they repent not For the third Captaine with his fiftie we see humbled himselfe and intreated Elias so as Elias went with him to the King but being come what judgement hee denounced against that wicked idolatrous King fell upon him also that hee died of his sicknesse And in this respect Gods Word in the mouth of his Prophets is compared to a fire so as he that resists this word is as the foolish fly that flappeth against the flaming of the Candle and so is consumed in the flame And the like manner of speech the Scripture useth elswhere As Revel 2.16 Repent or else I will come unto thee quickly and will fight against thee with the sword of my mouth And Chap. 19.21 And the remnant were slaine with the sword of him that sate upon the horse which sword proceeded out of his mouth Which is all one with that speech 2 Thess 2.8 And then shall that wicked one be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth So wee see what is here meant by the fire whith proceedeth out of the mouth of these two witnesses And this word If any man hurt them in the originall it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is If any man will doe them injury or offer them violence against all law and equitie fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies that is the word of their prophecie shall bring as certaine destruction upon their injurious enemies as Elias his word brought fire from Heaven upon those that were sent to take him And therefore the word is here doubled as before is noted for the certainty of it as was i Gen. 41. Pharaohs dream Againe it is said here These have power to shut heaven that it raine not in the dayes of their prophecie This also alludes to Elias whose word of prophecie did shut up the heavens that it rained not for the space of three yeers and a halfe in the time of Ahabs Reigne So as here again is set forth the power of these two witnesses prophecie in bringing judgements upon the Land where Gods Word is not received and entertained in that love and respect as it ought to bee but that the witnesses even for no other cause but the words sake which they prophesie are injuriously and violently handled against all Law and justice yea and all humanity in all best iall crueltie And therefore no marvail if in the time of their prophecie being thus evill intreated manifold judgments in sundry kindes doe fall upon a Land as the Sword Famine Pestilence or the like Yea and if God send extraordinary foule weather in an extreame abundance of a long continued raine and that against harvest as we have seen lately this very last Summer in England so as the harvest suffered much damage thereby it were good that they should enquire and consider what is the cause that hath so of late provoked God to send forth from Heaven so many tokens of his wrath and indignation threatning even desolation to the whole Land if they repent not Are there no witnesses abroad at this time Or hath not England defiled it self with the violent and lawlesse cruelty of shedding the innocent bloud of some at least of Christs witnesses If it be so as England can neither wash her hands from the guilt nor stop the eares of Heaven from the hideous cry of that innocent bloud no marvail I say if England be many wayes plagued For these witnesses have power to shut Heaven that it raine not in the dayes of their prophecie as Elias did Not only so But they have also power over waters to turne them to bloud and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they wil. These words have an allusion to Moses as we said before Who in Egypt had power given him of God with his Rod to turn their waters into bloud and so smite the Land with manifold plagues And here seemes to be more couched then so in this parallell of these two witnesses power to that of Moses and Aaron For the words here imply thus much that as those many Plagues which Moses brought upon Egypt by his Rod word of prophecy were so many forerunners of the utter desolation of hard-hearted Pharaoh his obstinate Egyptians who would not suffer Gods people to go sacrifice to the Lord their God So those many tokens of Gods wrath which have bin powred upon England of late days for their sore afflicting oppressing of Gods people by the Prelats and their officers those Egyptian Taskmasters not suffering them to enjoy that freedom liberty of conscience which Christ hath by his precious bloud purchased for them but holding their noses to the Grind-stone as wee say and enslaving them to the Egyptian tasks in the observation of those many Popish Ceremonies so tyrannically imposed and pressed upon them as also for that most impious crying downe of the Sanctification of the Sabbath and stopping Ministers mouthes for preaching the sincere Word of God throwing them out of their Ministery and many such like worse then Egyptian out-rages and such as were never done in any Christian State since the Apostles times to this present those tokens I say doe plainly shew that without speedy repentance and a thorow reformation of these intolerable iniquities God will certainly bring the Taskmasters to desolation and in the same sea of destruction to the Egyptians will make a way for his peoples libertie from that Egyptian bondage wherein they have been so long so miserably captived Nor let it seeme strange that I match Englands Taskmasters with those of Egypt for by and by wee shall find a spirituall Egypt wherof that in England will hardly acquit it selfe from being apart or party at least if all circumstances be but well weighed And so we passe to the Verses following Verse 7. Verse 7. And when they shall have finished their testimonie the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomlesse pit shall make war against them and shall overcome them and kill them c. Here begins a battaile wherein three circumstances
court without the Temple here by a Metonymie taking the continent for the thing contained may signifie the company of those in generall that professe to be Christians but yet are indeed and in truth no true members of the true Church they are not of and in the Temple but they are out of the Temple And therefore that which is translated in our English Leave out is in the Originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cast out as also the p Eâ—jce forat Latine and the * jette hors French rightly render it This is as the Lord saith to Ieremie q Ier. 15.19 If thou take forth the precious from the vile thou shalt be as my mouth So here Iohn having measured the true people of God such as worship him according to his Word is bid here to cast out the refuse such as do not worship God in purity and verity such as worship not in his Temple and at his Altar to wit in Christs only Name who though they beare the common name of Christians yet they are not within the Temple but without in the common-outer court which here is cast out and not to be reckoned to bee of the Temple And this court Iohn must not measure it sufficeth that having measured the true worshippers by describing their true properties out of Gods Word it followeth consequently that all those which are fals worshippers are those of the court without the Temple so to be cast out as r Gen. 21.10 Gal. 4.30 the bond woman and her sonne were cast out of Abrahams house and not to be measured nor nuÌ„bred with Gods people And it is added here For it is given unto the Gentiles that is they of this court are to be reckoned among the Gentiles and to bee accounted as Heathen and Infidels For the purpose what are all Papists and all other altar-worshippers and bringers in and setters up and Conformists to strange Service invented by men but Heathen and Infidels For as we said before the very setting up of an Altar and Altar-Service is a flat deniall of Christ the only true Altar and so is meere Heathenisme and Infidelitie Or else by the Gentiles here is understood the antichristian Kingdome or the spirituall Babylon under which the formall Protestants and cold professours of this age under the sixt Trumpet shall be brought in bondage as back-sliding Israel of old was given into the hands of the King of Babylon For these back-sliders and Formalists are those of the outer court that is cast out and the Spirituall Babylon is properly so called for her Heathenish and Babylonish manners as Psal 59.5.8 David calls Saul and his bloudy persecutors Heathen and Esay 1.10 the Prophet calls the degenerate Princes and people of Israel Princes of Sodome and people of Gomorrha as being in manners like unto them especially her manifold Idolatries wherein she resembleth old Babylon as shee is set out Chap. 17. And how truly is this verified of our cold or rather luke-warme Laodiceans in England at this day Is not all England in generall and for the greatest part brought under the Babylonish yoke in her universall conformitie to Popery in setting up of Altars and Altar-service after the manner of Rome Are not all the Ministers and People therein I say for the most part made the Prelates vassals who have of late more then formerly set up the Image of the Beast and his Throne almost in all the Churches and over all the Congregations of England What Minister almost is there at this day dare stand against the Antichristian Tyranny now so highly exalted over all mens consciences Are they not then brought under the Babylonish Captivitie Are they not given to the Gentiles into the power of the Spirituall Babylon a farre worse and more intolerable bondage then that of the ancient people of God either in Egypt or Babylon For that was a bondage of the body but this of the Soule and Conscience And thus this very phrase It is given to the Gentiles alludes to the like speeches in the Prophets concerning revolted and degenerate Jerusalem whereof it is said very frequently in Å¿ Ier. 32.24 25 28. Jeremy that the Citie is given into the hands of the Caldaeans or Babylonians So here the Court without the Temple is cast out and given to the Gentiles that is as is said before to the Kingdome and power of the Babylonian Beast which succeeds old Babylon in all her Idolatries and bestiall crueltie in captiving of Gods people And it is added here And the holie Citie shall they tread under foot two and forty months This holy City here alludes to the old City Hierusalem as the Gentiles here allude to old Babylon which did tread under feete that holy City 70. yeeres But what is meant here by this holy City This holy City is the true church of God called the t Psal 46.4 city of God and the u 1 Kin. 11.32 elect City and the x Rev. 20.9 beloved city and againe Revell 22.19 the holy city and the y Heb. 12.22 City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem This holy City this Church of God shal the Gentiles to wit the Spirituall Babylon called the Beast out of the bottomlesse pit Verse 7. tread under foote that is shall exceedingly oppresse and afflict making havock of the Saints of God the citizens of this holy city making no more account of them then of dirt and mire in the Streets yea they shall defile and destroy the holy assemblies of the Saints by corrupting the pure worship and service of God and crying downe all holinesse both of life and conversation and Sanctification of the Sabbath or Lords day in the publike assemblies and private families forbidding preaching of the doctrine of Grace and restraining Sermons on the Lords day in the Afternoone and persecuting all Godly powerfull and painfull Ministers and giving publike dispensation to youth and others for following of profane sports on the Lords holy-day to wit his own day many such like outrages they do Thus they trample upon the holy city as labouring to destroy and bring into contempt as it were by setting their foule foot upon all holinesse Like those wicked and false Shepherds in Ezechiel z Ezech. 34.18 19. that devoure the good pasture and tread the residue under their feet that drinke of the deepe waters and foule the residue with their feete so as the flock of God must eate and drink that which their filthy feete have trodden upon and fouled a Note here good Reader that the Author writ this before this time of Reformation happily in part begun and hopefully expected unto a perfection Now when was ever the holy City the true Church of God in all these respects more trodden upon with the feete of false shepherds when was all holinesse ever more hated despised railed upon reviled persecuted oppressed trampled upon then now
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