worthy of credit assure me they are for what Blasphemy in the world can there be greater then to make the Holy Spirit of God that flieth from deceit and dwelleth not in the body that is subject unto sin to be the foul Spirit of Darkness and the Author mover and promoter of such most horrid and execrable acts acts never acted by any Christians and but seldome if ever known by the worst of Pagans and never before adventured or invented as I conceive to be justifiable by the most impudent of all the Hereticks And besides all this have not their Assembly and Preachers Wisdome 1.5 as I told you before by consequent and in effect denyed the Father and the Son and so the Holy Ghost which is amor nexus spiritus patris filij Let the Reader judge what Blasphemous acts the Assembly of Divines and the adherents to the Parliament did and have they not obliterated and cashiered some of the chiefest heads and maine points of the long received truths of our Christian Religion and did not that Parliament Authorize that Apostate assembly and countenance the swarms of their lay-sword-Preachers to discountenance the 39 Articles of our Church to dispute about the expunging of the fift Article of the Apostles Creed to Antiquate the Lords Prayer out of the Church Service for fear that if they should use to say the same they should quench the Spirit as if the spirit of Christ would be offended with the Prayer of Christ and to turne out the long setled service of God and the book of Common-prayer out of the Church to give way as one saith well to a long-winded extemporary non-sence and Blasphemous repetitions Such Blasphemies as never were in the Church of Rome are broached in the books and Sermons of the Presbyterians and most sawcy expostulations with God in the steed thereof which is the readiest way to introduce Athiesme and to abrogate Christianity out of the world which is the desire of the Dragon and the proper work of the Antichrist And therefore the Religion of the Fauterers and adherents to that Parliament being but a meer complication and a syncretisme or rather a sink and common sewer of all errors Heresies and Blasphemies may we not well say that upon the heads thereof there is not onely the name but in the plurall number the names of Blasphemy especially if I should set down which would swell to a huge Volume all the Blasphemous tenents that some of their members many of their Preachers and more of their adherents have broached scattered and printed throughout these three Kingdomes since the unhappie birth of that most unhappy Parliament to most of the Kings most Loyall Subjects and so you see how this Appendix of the Beast may be said to cohere with that long Parliament Fiftly It is said v. 2. that this Beast was like a Leopard 5. The Beast was like a Leopard Jun. in annotat in loc As after the 2d Pun warr Maced Grec syria caeteraque omnia quasitorrente sequnta sunâ— Dan. 7.6 Vt loquitur florus l. 2. c. 7. Diodorus siculus de success Alexandr 2. and Junius following his former exposition saith this ought to be understood of the Roman Empire that was like a Leopard propter velocitatem by reason of their swiftness and speedy expeditions and their extraordinary successes to subdue their Enemies when their Generalls might say with Caesar veni vidi vici assoone as I came I overcame all the adversaries that opposed me whereby they have suddenly prevailed to inlarge their dominions over the better part of the then known world But indeed that Empire cannot be understood by this Leopard for Daniel speaking of the four great Empires of the world saith that the third Beast which betokened the Macedonian or Greek Empire was like a Leopard that is propter velocitatem by reason of the sudden increase and speedy inlargement thereof when Alexander the great did most suddenly in less then 10 years space subdue the Persian Monarchy and brought under his subjection the most part of the visible Dominions of the world and his Empire was as suddenly divided when he bequeathed the same to the Worthyest of his Captaines and almost as quickly againe translated unto the Romans and therefore I say that not the Roman Empire Eodem c. v. 7. 23. which was the fourth beast in Daniels Vision and had Iron teeth and stamped the residue of the Kingdomes with the feet of it but the beast that is the Antichrist which was typified by the little horne that came up among the hornes of the fourth beast â— v. 8. that Daniel saw is here likened to a Leopard and that not only propter velocitatem for the great speed that he maketh in all his actions but also in respect of all the other chief properties of the Leopard which is observed to be 1. The three properties of the Leopard Velox very swift 2. Crudelis very Cruel 3. Maculosus very much spotted And so was that many-headed beast that our Evangelift saw And truly I may justly demand if that these three properties of the Leopard might not be perfectly seen in the long Parliament The parallel for 1. 1. The great speed of the Parliament Were they not most swift in their expeditions and executions and subduing all that have opposed them either Domestick and homebred Enemies or any other forreigne foes and have they not conquered these three Kingdomes and prevailed more in less then ten years space then either the Warlike King of Sweden or any other King or Common-wealth if you consider all circumstances since Alexanders time 2. 2. The cruelty of the Parliamen As they were most speedy in their actions so I may demand if they were not as cruel in their executions and more cruell then all the examples that ever I found in any History to parallel them more cruel as it is conceived then John Vasilowich that was the greatest Tyrant of Russia and as they say greater then any other former Tyrant and yet he never persecuted any man as these men did onely for being loyall Subjects unto their King and faithfull Servants unto their God though we might say of Vasilowich that Saevior est tristi Busiride Saevior illo Qui falsum lento torruit igne bovem And therefore when I duly weigh the decenniall slaughters practised in these Christian parts by those that profest themselves to be the best Saints on earth especially when I consider not the bloudy killing of men but the many deaths that in a lingring death they have imposed on many good men and the piece-meale taking away of the lives of many quos oderunt gratis whom they hated without cause but only for seeking to do them the greatest good and to prevent the greatest evil that can be imagined from falling on them I cannot choose but cry out with the Poet O mites Diomedis equi Busiridis arae
that some good men would relieve them or to be put to death whereby they should have had an end of their miseries and enjoy the Glory of Martyrdom but to make their Tyranny to exceed all cruelty and the miseries of the distressed and ejected persons the more miserable when their enemies as the Prophet saith whom they ever honoured as friends chased them sore like a Bird without cause Lament 3.52 and they that did feed delicately even with Kings Dishes Cap. 4. v. 5. must now lie desolate in the streets and they that sate in their Robes of Scarlet even with the best Lords in the Kingdom must now embrace Dung-hils and when the Parliament are told of the unjust and cruel proceedings of their Committee men yet that must not be regarded not their injustice so much as questioned because they are not to consider now quid sit honestum but quid utile what is just and honest but what is availeable be it never so vile and so wicked to further their design and if they did not uphold and countenance these their Instruments and not check them their own Projects might be obstructed And therefore The seeming mercies of tyrants most cruel as Tiberius and other Fox-like cruel Tigers worse than the bloudy Nero would never put them to a present death whom they hated most but said they loved them not so well as to take away their life and therefore in a seeming favour and mercy they suffered them to enjoy some space and liberty but it was in extream cruelty and malice to make them the more miserable by thus inflicting upon them a daily death So the subtle Tiberians of these times have dealt with Gods Servants to prolong their miseries and to make their lives more grievous than any death could be unto them cosque sibi-ipsis graves ponere And as one saith to set themselves to be the heaviest burdens and the greatest Maladies that possibly could be unto themselves when as all men may be assured of that truth What it is to be most miserable quod miserrimum est fuisse foelicem nothing can be more miserable than to have been most happy and then to fall into the depth of infelicity for what other thing is this but to make themselves to become the lingring Executioners of themselves Which is a death worse than any other death even by the Testimony of the holy Prophet For they that are slain with the sword saith he are better than they that are slain with hunger Lament 4.9 because these pine away stricken through for want of the fruit of the field And that nothing might be wanting to fill up the measure of this part The persecution of the Church under the long Parliament how great and how general it was of the iniquity of that Long Parliament and to make their cruelty most cruel and the persecution of Gods Servants most bitter because the more general and the more extensive and spreading the mischief is the more it prevents the persecuted persons of all shelter and deprives them of all Relief and Comfort this course must be taken not with a few of the choicest men of this or that Calling as Capita rerum which might be thought to be the Heads of any disorder after the manner that the Severest of the best Generals in war use to do when they decimate the Mutinous in their Army to be punished ut poena ad paucos metus ad omnes that the punishment of some few might strike a terrour and cause amendment in them all How well the Parliament was acquainted with all Church-Ministers but they must deal more universally with all the most Reverend Bishops all the worthy Deanes Sub-Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons Priors Chancellors Chauntors Sub-Chauntors Treasurers Sub-Treasurers Succentors Sacrists Prebends Canons Canon-Residents and non-residents Petty-Canons Chorals Vicars-Chorals Choristers Old Vicars or New These be the very words of their Act they were so well acquainted with all the Particulars of the Church-Officers that as Jehu dealt with the Idolatrous Priests of Baal so they might deal with the Faithful Messengers of Jesus Christ and suffer not one of them all to escape but they must all down in Ingland and Wales yea in Scotland and in Ireland in all these Three Kingdoms and you may be sure if their power could reach neither Bishop Dean nor Prebend nor any one of all that depended on them should remain in Italy France Spain or any other part of all the Christian world they must all down and down with them even to the ground and then being cast down Montes insuper altos Imposuit They must lay weight enough upon them all that they may be never able to rise up again until they rise in Judgment against them The long Parliament deal with Christs servants as the Jews dealt with Christ For as the Jews when they had laid Christ in his Grave were afraid he would rise again and therefore laid a huge Stone upon the door of the Sepulcher and hired the Watch-men to keep him down so these men their Scholars for fear that the foresaid Servants of Christ might rise again must sell all their Lands and Possessions and put them into the hands of Captains and Collonels and other men of Armes that with the edge of the Sword should keep them bare enough and naked of all support if ever they should chance to arise Good God saith a Father Si Diabolus nocere posset quantum vellet aliquis justorum non remaneret If the Devil had power to destroy as many as he would and as he desireth there should not remain any one righteous man upon the face of the earth And yet this is not all that the prevalent Faction of the long Parliament have destroyed and extirpated out of house and home for to these afore-named Church-men whom the Devil spited most of all you may add the Catalogue of such Heads and Fellows of Colledges and other Learned and Religious Gentlemen of the famous University of Cambridge as have been plundered that is robbed ejected imprisoned and banished only for their constancy in the True Religion and right Service of God and their Loyalty and Faithfulness to their Lawful King And the like Catalogue of the Heads and Fellowes of the other Famous University of Oxford The great and large extent of the late Persecution of the Parl. besides the great number of Grave Doctors and other Learned Divines in and about the City of London and throughout these Three Kingdoms that have been deprived of all their Means and Livelihoods and many of them most barbarously killed Of all which you may see such a number as is scarce credible yet nothing more than is true in a little Book printed at Oxford in Anno 1647 and entituled Mercurius Rusticus Querela Cantabrigiensis A-Book worthy to be read of all that desire to know the Extent and to understand the Greatness of
as Thomson and some others think it should be understood or for the proper name of the man that should be the Antichrist it is more agreeable to that false Prophet than to the Pope or it may be to any of all the Popes that have been for Mahomet's rising against Christ to obscure the true light of his Gospel was in the sixt Century as divers Authors do affirm and Hierusalem was taken by Homar his Successor about the year 666. and the name of Mahomet written in Greek the Language in which S. John wrote his Revelation The name of Mahomet containeth the number of 666. doth make up the just number of 666. as 40. 1. 70. 40. 5. 300. 10. 200. μ α ο μ ε τ ι ς which is in all just 666. as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is so much insisted upon by them that make the Pope to be the Antichrist Reason 4 4. It is observed by the Learned in the Eastern Languages that the word Turca which is the name of the chief Prince of Gog and Magog doth signifie the same thing that Apollion and Abaddon doth which is a Destroyer and is a name ascribed to the King of those Locusts Revelat. 9.11 that came out of the bottomless pit and are interpreted by the best Authors to be the Arrabians that were the prime Subjects and the first setters up of Mahomet that great Impostor Reason 5 5. The Mahometans in these dayes and the Saracens of old are the grand professed enemies of the Christians qua tales as they are Christians and do call themselves Musulmans that is the right believers which I confess the Pope and Papists likewise do as indeed the Arians Donatists and all other Hereticks did Reason 6 6. That Deceiver and false Prophet Mahomet though he made a great shew of Sanctity and a strict holy life as all such Deceivers do yet personally as a private man he was a man of sin given up to all Licentiousness and in his Alcoran tolerating all prostitutions unto his Sectaries and promising unto them a Paradise of all carnal pleasures after death which as yet no Pope that we read of ever did Reason 7 7. That great Lyar Mahomet and his heir and successor the Turk literally exalteth himself above Christ above all the holy Prophets and Apostles of Christ and above all the Kings and Monarchs of the earth and as St. Paul saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above all that is called God and stileth himself the Lord of Lords and the God of the earth that hath the power and right to dispose all the things of this world at his pleasure as it is to be seen in divers of the Letters of Solyman Amurath and others And his Alchoran which is but a tyrotarichon an hotch-potch of lies and fables patched together by his Jew-Scribe and the Nestorian Sergius of Jewish paganish Manichaean and Arian Heresies and Superstition he commended as received from his friend and old familiar acquaintance the Angel Gabriel to his followers above the Law of Moses and above the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he promised his carnal Paradice to all the observers thereof and threatned eternal torments to all the despisers of it and I think no Pope exceeded this impiety Reason 8 8. The Heir and Successor of Mahomet the Turk is and hath been a long time possessed of Hierusalem the Temple of God and the land of Promise ever since Homar took it except some few years that the French held it from him after that in the Holly War Godfrey of Bulloigne took it and because that Mahomet was circumcised and the Turk and all his followers in like manner the Jews flocked unto this Conquerour when he wan the holy City as unto their Messias and advancing his Enterprise they paid him Tribute and assisted him in all his impiety and proceedings against the Christians which they never did in the like manner to any Pope whatsoever Reason 9 9. Having thus taken and possessed the holy City he now sitteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Temple or Church of God take the Church in what sense you will materially formally or figuratively for he was buried in the Church of God at Meca and they make Pilgrimages to his Sepulchre and adore his reliques to this very day and Homar his Successor having taken Hierusalem templum acquisivit quod Solomon extruxerat ad blasphemiae suae oratorium constituendum he made the Temple which Solomon first built and afterwards Zorobabel and Herod exceedingly beautified to be the oratory of his blasphemy saith Theophanes and Sophronius then Patriarch of Hierusalem cryed out in veritate ista est abominatio desolationis stans in loco sancto in very truth that is the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel and our Saviour standing in the holy place and afterwards when Mahomet the great took Constantinople he made his Pallace in the great cathedral Church of san Sophia and made the Bishops house and the Priests lodgings his serà glia to this very day And if you take the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Church or Temple for the living Temples of God and the faithfull servants of Christ he sitteth upon them and against them more than the Pope ever did for he hath brought into confusion many many Christian Churches and Congregations in Syria Palestina Egypt Persia Armenia Arabia Affrica Grecia Thracia and Asia the less and in many other Countryes besides whose candles he hath put out and removed their candlesticks out of their places and instead of the Gospel of Christ he hath taught them to blaspheme his name and hath set the mark of the beast upon those that were the servants of Christ by circumcising them in their flesh and renouncing their former Baptisme which is the marke and badg of the lambe and those that will not thus renounce their Saviour Christ though he suffereth them to live quietly so long as they pay him their allotted Contribution as I shewed to you before Yet he doth extreamly tyrannize over them in those taxes and contributions and especially in that barbarous tribute of the Christians children which every third year are to be taken away from their Parents from their Religion and from their God to become the worshippers of Mahomet and to be his seraglian Eunuchs Reason 10 10. He is seated in Constantinople which is new Rome and so termed by the old Writers ever since Constantine made it the Imperial throne of the Roman Emperors and is now made a greater Babylon and fuller of confusion than ever old Rome was since Constantines time And surely in my judgment these Reasons do sufficiently and demonstratively evince that the great Turk is a great and a very great Antichrist and indeed a far greater Antichrist than the Pope or any Pope that hath yet been take the very worst of them 3. 3. Others conceive that out of the Turkish and Pepish polity conjoyned together the Antichrist shall arise Some other
Kingdoms 4. The judgment of the Idol shepherd So the right eye i.e. the understanding of divine things shall be taken from the Antichrist though his left eye shal be quick-sighted enough in all worldly things and tore their clawes i. e. their strength and power all to pieces I think I may say this without question 4. Tâ—e Lord denounceth the Judgment of this Foolish Idol shepherd saying Wo to the Idol shepherd that leaveth the flock and much more wo to him that thus spoileth the flock the sword shall be upon his arm and upon his right eye his arm shall be clean dried up and his right eye shall be utterly darkned And so it fell out accordingly to this Idol shepherd the Scribes and Pharisees and the rest of the false Prophets of the Jews for though they thought themselves safe and had done all things well when they had broken the two staves of Beauty and Bands and had bought and sold their King Priest and Prophet and had put to death the true Bishop of their soules Jesus Christ yet the just God that is slow to anger and of great patience and was formerly forty years grieved with this generation when their Fathers tempted him proved him and saw his works forty years after this direful tragedy And so this Beast for doing as the Jews did kill his King and his Bishop let him fear the like judgment as the Jews had executeth this very judgment upon this Idol shepherd as Josephus ben Gorion and Josephus the Son of Mathathias 1.7 de Bello Judaico setteth down the same at large and in his 18th Book of Antiquit. he confesseth the same to be for their malice against their King Jesus Christ and the killing of the holy Apostle St. James that was Bishop of Hierusalem And this much shall serve to be spoken of the foolish Idol shepherd of the Jews that the Lord raised in the time of Christ and was the Type of the great Antichrist who in all the foresaid particulars did or will imitate this his Predecessor so far as the type doth agree with the thing typified So that I need not spend any longer time to tell you what the Prophet sheweth the great Antichrist that is here exprest under the title of the Idol shepherd should do when the Lord should raise him and for our sins send him amongst his flock because you have heard many points of his lewd and foolish pranks already in the doings of his type that was the Idol shepherd of the Jews that the Lord raysed for their sins in the time of Christ And you may see The a Staves never broken in any Church till now in the Church of Ingland as I said before how this Prophesie is now and never till now fulfilled since the type in the time of Christ for 1. As Christ the king of the Jews was bought and sold and crucifyed when the staff of beauty was broken so Charles our King was bought and sold and beheaded when the true Doctrine of faith and true obedience to our Governors were corrupted and this staff of beauty broken all to pieces 2. The time that the Antichrist should rise The Antichrist must be those new raised Preachers that do cohere with this foolish and idâ—l shepherd of the Jews As when the staff of bands was broken the Lord raised this foolish and idol Shepherd among the Jews so when our Bishops and Governors were supprest and their Discipline which is the staff of bands was broken all Sects increased all errors and heresies appeared and the great Antichrist manifested himself unto the world and did as he is here typified by the doings of this foolish and idol shepherd But now that which is more considerable to be understood is to know who is or should be the great eminent and transcendent Antichrist that is here typified by this Idol-shepherd I know the Divines of Gappe and the most of our Presbyterians are as sure as Gabriel Powel was that believed iâ— as he believed the Apostles Creed that the Pope is that great Antichrist and therefore when other matters fail them they fill their Sermons with exclamations against the Pope and deal with him as the Collier did with the Major of London when he came to High-gate and yet I am as sure that they are altogether mistaken in their faith and knowledg herein for though the Pope should be The Pope is an idol-shepherd yet not meant here tipified by this idol-shepherd as he is an Antichrist and a foolish Idol-shepherd as many others of our Presbyterians be and doth imitate this Idol-shepherd of the Jewes in all or most of the foresaid particulars as the little or no good that he doth to the flock of Christ and the great honor and service that he expecteth from all the Kings and Princes of the earth yet there are many other signal Characters notes and acts of the great Antichrist exprest in other places of the holy Scripture which are no wayes coherent and applicable to the Pope which I could shew unto you but that nunc non est narrandi tempus But then you will demand of me Who is that Antichrist if the Pope be not the Antichrist I answer that as S. Augustine saith satius est dicere quid not sit Deus Yet by Gods help I shall hereafter tell you whom I take him to be quam quid sit Deus for God is not the Sun he is not the Moon he is no created substance and I erre not in any of these answers so I say tutius est dicere quis non est Antichristus quam quis est Antichristus and he is not the Pope I am sure of it but I am sure he is a foolish and an idol shepherd whosoever he be yet not the Pope because these have not as yet happened unto the Pope for that his strength and power are not clean taken away though much diminished neither is the knowledge and Doctrine of the Roman Church utterly or totally perverted and the truth of Christian Religion quite extinguished nor yet the right way of serving God wholly corrupted as I shewed unto you before but whether the power and strength of the Long Parliament be not mouldred away from a mountain to a mole-hill and themselves vanish away like smoak let those members that are yet unnihilated answer it or if they be not yet come to nothing how long they are like to continue let my Reader judge 2. The next testimony of the Old Testament 2. The prophesie of Daniel under the person of Antiochus that is said to have any reference to the Antichrist and his doings is found in the Prophesie of Daniel But St. Paul tels us that to the Jews and Fathers under the Law omnia in figura contingebant illis all things happened and fell out to them in types and figures and most of those types and figures that were delivered unto them reached no further than
Christ which was the true substance and to be understood in and by those shadows and so for the Antichrist I sind no Prophesie concerning him in all the Book of Daniel but as he is typified in the person of Antiochus Epiphanes and you know that as Theologia Symbolica non est argumentativa symbolick divinity will not hold argument so types and figures non currunt quatuor pedibus do not hold correspondency in all things but only in such particulars whereunto they are applied and therein you shall find how the Antichrist is typified and declared unto us in the person and by the doings of Antiochus For The Prophet Daniel describing the four Beasts Dan. 7. that typified and signified the four great Monarchies of the world the Assyrian the Persian the Graecian and the Roman and the little horn that sprang up among the other ten horns saith the 10 horns are interpreted by the Holy Ghost to be ten Kings that is saith Tremellius 1. The 10 horns in Dan. 7. who they are Seleucus Nicanor 2. Antiochus Soter 3. Antiochus Theos 4. Seleucus Callinichus 5. Callinicus being expelled Ptolomeus Evergetes 6. Ptolomeus expelled Seleucus Ceraunus 7. Antiochus magnus that was surnamed Hyerax the Hawk for his speedy expedition of the greatest affairs and was the Father of Seleucus Philopater and of Antiochus Epiphanes 8. This Antiochus magnus being ejected Ptolomaeus Philopater 9. This Ptolomaeus Philopater being ejected by Antiochus magnus and his Sons Seleucus Philopater 10. This Seleucus being killed Antiochus Epiphanes that was the little horn that sprang up among the ten horns and was not another horn besides the ten horns but cornu ultimum the last of the ten horns and was at his first beginning but a very little horn indeed that had no right at all unto the Kingdom and is the most lively type of the Antichrist that is to be found in all the Scriptures both in respect of his entrance into his Dominion and of his dealings with the Jewish Church just as the Antichrist should enter into his rule and deal with the Church of the Christians And the Prophet tels us of this Antiochus and under his person of the Antichrist That 1. 1. The things that Daniel saith Antiochus should do As you see how he comes to his power and dominion by the suppression and destruction of others the lawful Kings so should the Antichrist do and we know many of the Popes came to that dignity and authority by the ejection and destruction of other Popes as the Histories do sufficiently declare unto us but whether the Long Parliament came to their rule and dominion by the expulsion and destruction of their lawful King I leave it for my Reader to judge And 2. 2. An opposer of Monarchy and very successful Dan. 7.24 The Prophet tels us that Antiochus shall be diverse from the first Kings that is as some Interpreters do expound it he shall be a grand enemy of regal Government and Kingly Majesty so will the Antichrist ex diametro contradict and oppose the Monarchical Government which the Pope never did but upholdeth the same to the uttermost and you know who turned the Regal Government of these Kingdoms to a Commonwealth or as Montanus reads that place ipse erit major prioribus he shall be greater than the former Kings that is in his successes in his victories in his reveâ—ues in his taxes in his absolute authoritie and in his esteem among his Neighbour-Kings and Princes so was Antiochus so the Antichrist will be So is not the Pope when as many former Popes were greater than this is in all the foresaid respects but whether the Long Parliament laid greater taxes upon the people and had more victories and better successes in their proceedings than many other former Kings 3. An overthrower of three Kings or Kingdoms let them be their own Judges 3. The Prophet saith this little horn that is this Antiochus Epiphanes tres reges humiliabit shall bring to the ground or humble three Kings as Montanus reads it Or tres reges deprimet he shall depress and overthrow or subdue three Kings as Tremellius translates it For he drave out of Syria 1. Ptolomaeus Philopater 2. His own eldest Brother Seleucus And 3. Demetrius the Son of Seleucus to whom the right of the Kingdom did appertain So the Antichrist shall overthrow three Kings saith Cornelius a Lapide And I did not read that any of the Popes have done so yet but I know who is said to have suppressed tres reges in uno rege and to have subdued three Kingdoms as some do expound these words and may well be the mystical meaning of this Prophesie 4. A great blasphemer 4. The Prophet goeth on and saith he shall speak great words against the most High that is saith Tremellius blasphemus erit in Deum he shall utter such blasphemies against the most high God as the Jews could not endure to hear them So the Antichrist should do saith the Evangelist Rev. 13.6 And so no doubt but many Popes have done Rev. 13.6 I will excuse none of them and I have shewed to you before and shall yet shew to you hereafter what intollerable blasphemies have been broached and are published in many places by the Sectaries adherents and off-spring of that Long Parliament which may therefore very well go hand in hand with Antiochus and with the Antichrist whosoever he be 5. 5. A destroyer of the Saints and Servants of God 2 Maâ—h 7. The Prophet saith that this Antiochus Sanctos excelsorum deteret as Tremellius reads it i.e. saith he contumeliosissimus atrocissimus Tyrannus erit in populum Dei he shall be the bitterest and the cruellest Tyrant that ever was far worse than Pharaoh against the people of God And so the Books of the Maccabees and especially the cruel butchering and torturing of the Mother and her seven Children only because they would not eat swines flesh which the Law of God forbad them to do do sufficiently declare that neither the Aegyptian Pharaoh Dan. 7.25 nor the Chaldean Nebuchadnezzar nor any other forreign or domestick enemy was ever so bloody and so cruel unto the Jews as this Assyrian Antiochus was and our Bibles read it he shall wear out the Saints of the most High and so the Antichrist shall do And our Histories tell us the Popes have worn out and been the death and destruction of many of the Servants of God this cannot be denied and it grieves me much to think and it would grieve me much more to set down a Catalogue of what and how many worthy noble and faithful Servants of Christ have been worn out of these three Kingdoms within these few years 6. A changer of the Lawes and of the times by whom and by what meanes you know And I fear that when God maketh inquisition for bloud the Long Parliament will not be found guiltless 6. The Holy Ghost
informed Daniel that the little Horn which at the first was but little indeed and then did succrescere grow so great by the suppression of the three Kings and the accession of three Kingdomes should think to change the times and the Lawes and so we finde that Antiochus did use all possible endeavours to abolish the times of the Jewish Sabbaths and feasts and their circumcision legem ipsam Dei juâ—áque omnia nefariè convellere and to overthrow the very law of God and tear in pieces all humane rights most wickedly saith Tremelius Tremel in loc and so the Antichrist would indeavour to do the like to put down all the festival times and the holy dayes of the Christians and to change all the Lawes and Customes that they had learned and observed even from the Apostles time And I am sure the Pope is not guilty of this sin of the Antichrist for he is so far from putting down their feasts and holy dayes See the History of Independency and there you shall finde how the Author of that Book sheweâ—â— how that long Parliament proceeded contrary to all Lawes part 3. A Book fit for the understanding of this point that he multiplied the same added unto their primitive feasts a great many more holidaies than were needfull or indeed fitting to be observed But I pray you tell me what horn did ever change so many Laws and Customs both of the Church and of the Kingdome as the long Parliament hath done for hath it not troden under foot not one nor two but all the ecclesiastical Laws and Canons of the Church and hath it not very often transgressed and in many things nullified our Magna Charta the great Charter and the fundamental Laws of this Kingdome that for so many hundred years were confirmed to our forefathers and Predecessors by I know not how many Parliaments I am sure above 30 at least And for the times I would fain know if any good Christian heart can look upon these times without bleeding or hold his eyes without weeping for the greatest love and favour that ever God shewed to mankinde was the giving of his own natural coessential and coeternal Son to be made of a woman and made under the Law to redeem us from the curse of the Law and from sin death hell and Satan when a greater good than this the omnipotent God himself could not do for us for what could God give better than God himself but as the Apostle saith because God could swear by no greater he sware by himself so when he could give no better he gave himself Heb. 6.13 and therefore S. Ambrose saith plus Domine Jesu debeo tuis incuriis quod sum redemptus quam tuis operibus quod sum creatus O sweet Jesus Christ I ow thee more love and thanks and service for thy care and pains and sufferings by which I am redeemed than for thy work whereby I was created because that in my creation dedit me mihi deus God gave me unto my self but in my Redemption dedit se mihi deus The greatest good that ever God did for mankinde God gave himself unto me and because in the creation of me and all things else dixit facta sunt he did but speak the word and they were made he commanded and they stood fast but in the accomplishment of our Redemption multa dixit magna fecit dira tulit he spake many gracious words he did many wonderfull works and he suffered many execrable and intolerable things Therefore as God commanded the Israelites Why the Jews were commanded by God to keep their Feasts in remembrance of their deliverance out of Epypt That was but the type of this our deliverance from the bondage of sin and Satan to keep the feast of Passeover and in remembrance of the reception of the Law on Mount Sinai which was an inferiour favour and lesse than our receiving of the Gospel to observe the feast of Pentecost and in remembrance of their wandering 40 years in the wilderness and their feeding there all that while with the Manna that came down from heaven which notwithstanding is no waies comparable to our feeding with the Word of God and the blessed Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ which is God himself to keep the feast of tabernacles and whosoever neglected to keep these feasts and to observe these times that soul should be cut off from Israel that is from among the people of God as an ungratefull person unworthy of the favour of God And as Mardocheus and Queen Hester commandeth all the Jews to keep the feast of Purim that was to be kept upon the 14 and 15 dayes of the Month Adar which is answerable to our February Hest 9.23 24. throughout all their generations for ever for dayes of rejoycing and Thanks-giving for their deliverance from the malicious plot and wicked designe of proud Haman the which feast was observed by Christ himself John 10.22 The Geneva notes on John 10. 22. and as in like manner Judas Machabaeus injoyned the feast of dedication to be observed upon the 25th day of the Moneth Casteu which is our November for a thankfull remembrance of the like benefit which was the casting out of Antiochus his Garrison from Hierusalem so that the Apostles and their immediate Successors the Bishops and Fathers of the Church and all the other succeeding Governors of Gods people considering that the Jews temporal favours aforenamed were but types of our favours and shadowes of those substances that we have and so no wayes neer so comparable to the benefits that we receive by the birth circumcision resurrection and ascention of Christ and the gifts that is the Apostles the Teachers and Governors of Gods Church furnished with the gifts of the Holy Ghost that Christ sent unto them on the day of Pentecost 50 dayes after his ascention into heaven by which favours and great blessings we obtain a deliverance not from a small temporal bondage as that of the Israelites was under Pharaoh far less then the bondage of many good Christians in these dayes under the Turk or from such an enemy as was Haman or Antiochus but from sin death hell Satan and eternal damnation have in their own persons observed and injoyned all other Christians to observe That is Christmas New years day Easter day Holy thursday Whitsunday and the rest the feast of Christs Nativity and of his circumcision resurrection and ascention and the other dayes prescribed by them as dayes of rejoycing and meeting together in the Church to praise God and to thank him for those great and inestimable favours and benefits that he hath conferred upon us and we received as upon those dayes and I may demand What Pope was ever so wicked and committed such and so horrible a sin as to prophane these holy times in so high a measure as Antiochus-like to command them to be prophaned
c. 3. as some say otherwise called Belus by the Gentiles or of Belus the son of Nimrod as others say for an idol to be worshipped well nigh 2000 years after man was made yet our saviour saith he was a murderer from the beginning John 8.44 because it was he that murdered our first parents and made them liable unto death in paradise and it was he that taught Cain to kill his own brother Abel 5. It is not only one but it is also the first and the greatest one of those crying sins 5. The greatest of the 4 crying sinnes Revel 6.9 10. that are onely so called in the Scriptures because they do continually crie and call for vengeance against the transgressors and say with the soules of them that were slain for the word of God How long O Lord holy and true doest thou not judg and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth for the other three crying sins that is Sodomy oppression and detaining of our servants wages they are but parts and parcels of this great crying sin of murder because that in Sodomy that seed is spilt which might have been the matter and substance of the humane flesh and blood and by the other two that is oppression and wages detained from the labourers the life of the oppressed and poor labouring man is made to languish and to be shortened by little and little for want of means because the life of man and the means to maintain that life are like ens bonum voces convertibiles equivalent and therefore the wise man saith The bread of the needy is their life he that defraudeth them thereof is a man of blood but in murder and the killing of a man root and branch and all the tree seed and fruit is wholly destroyed and cut down all at once 6. It is a sin which produceth that irregularity 6. An irregular sin that although the sinners should truly repent and have their sinnes pardoned by God which is but seldome seen that they do yet they cannot promoveri be advanced or proceed on in Gods favour and be so acceptable in Gods service and for to do him service 1 Chron. 28.3 as any other sinners may be upon their repentance as it appeareth plainly by what the Lord saith unto David that otherwise was a man according to Gods own heart and had heartily repented and made 7 paenitential Psalmes for his murder thou shalt not build an house for my name because thou hast been a man of war and hast shed blood not only the blood of Urias but also very likely the blood of others that were innocent in the wars as Souldiers use to do many times slay the righteous with the wicked 7. 7. A sin worse than Adams sin Gen. 4.11 12. The odiousness of this sin is seen by the punishment that the most just God imposed on this sin For when Cain slew his Brother the Lored said unto him the voice of thy Brothers blood crieth unto me that is the voice of the bloods of thy Brother for so it is in the Original that thou hast spilt that is of all the bloud and progeny that should have sprung from Abel to have replenished the earth if thou hadst not spilt it doth most justly require that I should take vengeance on thee therefore thou art cursed from the earth And this his curse was so great and of so large extent that it reached to the very earth that bare him up and therefore the Lord addeth when thou tillest the ground it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strongth a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth the which seems to be a far heavier sentence inflicted upon him so killing his brother then that which was imposed upon Adam for offending Gods own Majesty though there was a straight charge and a Commandment sub poena The punishment of Cains murder heavier than the punishment of Adams sin given to Adam that he should not eat of the forbidden tree lest he die and as yet no precept given to forbid the shedding of mans blood For 1. God doth not say to Adam thou art cursed for thy sin but cursed is the ground for thy sake but unto Cain he saith thou arâ— cursed from the ground as if he had said the curse shall not fall to the ground but it shall light upon thine own head 2. He doth nor say to Adam when thou tillest the ground it shall not yeild her strength unto thee but thorns and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee that is naturally and of it self which if thou hadst not sinned would of it self have brought thee all sweet and pleasant fruits shall now bring thee nothing else but weeds and noysom flowers but unto Cain he saith when thou tillest the ground and manurest it and usest all the art and skill that thou canst to make it fruitful yet it shall not yield her strength unto thee so that the unfruitfulness of a well tilled and well manured ground is the punishment of Cains murder and an additional curse to that which was formerly imposed upon Adam 3. He doth not say to Adam that he should be a vagabond and have no resting-place upon the earth Gen. 3.19 but that he should eat his bread in the sweat of his face until he should return to the earth but unto Cain he saith a Fugitive and a Vagabond shalt thou be in the earth And therefore Cain that knew well enough his Fathers censure before and now hearing his own sentence so far exceeding his Fathers punishment crieth out Gen. 4.13 my punishment is greater than I can bear And yet it is no marvel that the punishment of this sin of murder should seem greater than the punishment of Adams sin or indeed of any other sin whatsoever for in nature Why the punishment of this sin is so great let reason shew you who doth offend you most he that disobeyeth your voice and breaks your Command or he that seeks by all that he can to take away your life And in Adams sin and so in all other sins that are but the transgressing of Gods Command there seems to be a leaving of the Being of God or the suffering of God still to be a God as in the great sin of Idolatry though we make an Idol which is a thing that hath no being in the world as St. Paul saith to be our God and fall down and worship that no being with that worship which belongeth to the true God yet we do not thereby seek to annihilate and to destroy the Being of the true God we only rob him of his honour but we seek not to take away his life we leave him still to be a God though we serve him not But in the murdering or killing of a man we do what lieth in us to destroy and to bring to nothing the very Essence and being of God because we deface
Caesar and so many more such wicked Servants have by the foresaid steps ascended to the slaughtering of their Kings and Masters to teach the way for others that would not be without presidents to do the like But here likewise we must well observe that there are many kinds and degrees and waies of this bloudy sin which is the actual killing of a man and therefore we must look over those degrees and waies of murder and the several kinds of this man-killing before we can find out the worst of them which is the proper and peculiar sin of the Antichrist and which is most hateful unto God for the bloud-thirsty murderer brings his design to pass by killing whom he hateth Murderers do actually kill men two waies Either 1. With his own hands Or 2. By the aid means and performance of some others For 1. Some are so impatient and the fire of their malice is so hot 1. By their own hands Isa 37.38 that they must presently be the death of their brother with their own hands whensoever or wheresoever they find him with the first opportunity So Cain killed Abel So Joab killed Amasa So Adramelech and Sharezzer killed their own father Sennacherib So Brutus and Cassius killed Caesar So Antoninus killed his own brother Geta in his Mothers lap and so did many thousands more kill and murder their Neighbours with their own hands 2. 2. By others Others are so crafty and so witty as they suppose to find a way to effect their own wicked end that to blind the World and to evade the Sword of justice and as they think to escape the hand and judgement of God they will keep their own hands free from bloud and wash the same with Pilate from the blood of the innocent person whom they intend to destroy But yet they will for all this do as Pilate did deliver Christ unto the Souldiers to be crucified so will they be the men that are the chief murderers of him And that two waies And that Either 1. Secretly by their Assassins and those bloudy butchers whom they procure to be their Instruments to bring whom they hate to an untimely death Or 2. Publikely by a Court of justice which is to pronounce judgement against Malefactors that ought to be put to death by the Laws of God and Man and which Courts they procure to condemn whom they hate upon false suggestions though the party be never so innocent The first way Richard the Third procured the death of his two innocent Nephews 1. Secretly the Sons of Edward the fourth and Edward the Second came unto his death the same way though it is not so well known who procured it and so King David did the like by causing Joab to be the death of Urias whom he ought rather to have rewarded than to have murdered him and so do all they that procure their wicked Instruments to poyson those whom they hate as the Earl of Sommerset procured the Lieutenant of the Tower Sir Francis Eleway to poyson Sir Thomas Overbury And such secret contrivings of their intentions are very fine shifts for Murderers and Malefactors to free themselves from blame and from punishment if they could as well blind the eyes of the All-seeing God as they do many times the eyes of simple men but though Davids hands were far from the Fact and he seeming free from the bloud of Urias that was slain by the Sword of the Enemy yet God tells David He was the Murderer and his subtilty shall not serve his turn to wipe away his punishment for as the Devill Aug. super Johan saith S. Augustine is said to be a Murderer Non gladio armatus non ferro accinctus sed quia ad hominem veniendo verbum seminando occidit eum not because he killeth with any weapons Sword or Spear but because he destroyeth Man by his wicked Counsels and by setting on others his Instruments to destroy him And therefore procul dubio decipiuntur Idem habetur de paenit dist 1. Periculose saith the same Father They are very much deceived that think them only to be Murderers which lay violent hands upon their Neighbours and not them also Per quorum concilium fraudem hortationem homines extinguntur by whose counsel deceit subtlety perswasion or procurement any man is unjustly brought unto his death whether it be suddenly by the Sword or any other violent way or lingringly by poyson The 2. 2. Publikely way that the blood-thirsty murderers use to bring whom they hate and would have killed unto their death I finde twice practised and but twice that they brought their purpose to effect that I can remember in all the book of God 1. And this is likewise done two waies By a personal and an inferiour Court of justice where one or 2. or very few judges are deputed to sit and judg the delinquents that are brought before them 2. By a national and the highest Court of the whole Kingdom where flos medulla regni the choicest Peers and members of the Common-wealth do sit to judg and to determine of the offences and the greatest affairs of the Kingdome And 1. 1. By an inferiour Court of Justice I finde that the inferiour Court of few Judges did once condemn an innocent person unto death in the holy Scriptures for so you may read how Ahab and Jezabel procured the Judges of Jesreel to condemn innocent Nabaoth unto death and though we finde not such another president in all the Scripture yet I fear that the like practice is used in many other places where you may finde such an Ahab and such Judges but though Ahab thought he might with the harlot that commits adultery and then wipes her mouth and is clean be freed from this fact because his wife procured it and the Judges of Jezreel did judicially secunduns allegata probatae condemn him to death yet the Prophet tells Ahab that God will condemn and punish him and all his posterity for it 1 Reg. 21.19 and 21. for in the place where doggs licked the blood of Naboth shall doggs lick thy blood and God will bring evil upon thee and will take away thy posterity and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth-against the wall and him that is shut up and left in Israel and so accordingly Jehu caused the Rulers of Jezreel the very same Town where-Nabaoth was condemned and likely the very same Judges 2 Reg. 10.7 17. that condemned him to cut off the heads of 70 of Ahabs children And when he came to Samarta he slew all that remained unto Ahab untill he had destroyed him according to the saying of the Lord by his Prophet 2. I finde one other example in the holy Scripture and but one that I can remember 2. By the highest Court of Justice where the national Court or the Synopsis and the Representative of the whole Nation did
thus judicially condemn an innocent person unto death and that was when the Sanhedrim or High Parliament of Israel where the High Priest and the Elders sate as chief Judges condemned our Saviour Christ to death And I conceive that the very like sin is the proper and peculiat sin of the Antichrist What the proper sin of the Antichrist is and why that is a judicial condemning of an innocent person or persons their Superiors as Christ was unto death and that by the Representative of a whole Kingdome Reason 1 1. Because no one man can commit this sin neither Pope nor Turk when it is to be acted by the Representative of a whole Kingdome therefore it can be no common sin but a sin only proper to such a Court when as none but such a Court can commit it Reason 2 2. Because it is not usually done when we cannot read in any History since the Jews condemned Christ to these our times of any national Court that agreed to condemn an innocent person or persons their Superiours unto death therefore this sin is proper and peculiar to that Court that commits it when as no other Court in an other place or at any other time hath committed it Reason 3 3. Because that if any other murder or homicide be odious and wicked and detestable in the sight of God then certainly this judiciary murder whereby the innocent person is not killed as was Abell or Amasa but is condemned to death deliberately by a Court of Justice as was Nabaoth by the Judges of Jezreel and especially by the Highest Court of the Kingdome as Christ was by the Sanhedrim and Parliament of the Jews at Hierusalem must needs be most transcendently abominable and wicked above all other kinde of murders whatsoever for that this is not a single and simple sin of Homicide or murder and shedding of mans blood to the defacing of Gods image which I shewed you was bad enough but it is morbus complicatus a twifted decompound multiplyed sin of many many branches so that neither Cain's malicious killing of his brother Abell nor Joabs traiterours murdering of Amasa nor Adramelech his unnatural parricide of Sennacherib nor David's crafty killing of Vrias nor Brutus and Cassius conspiring the death of Caesar nor Rich. the 3. secret murdering of his Nephews nor any other kinde of Murder whatsoever can be near comparably so haynous and so abominably odious as this judiciary murder which uno ictu by one single and simple sentence doth cast an infinite number of persons into a multiplicity of sinnes and bindes them all together to be liable to the fevere judgment of the just God and wrongs many more whom thir sin and malice cannot defile for that hereby 1. The seat of judgment is made the stool of wickedness the throne of Satan The manifold mischiefs of a judicial condemning of an innocent person to death John 8. and the shambles and slaughter-house of innocent blood to do the greatest wrong that can be done where we should expect the greatest right 2. The persons here offending are many many persons as the Witnesses forsworn and perjured the Jurie corrupted and involved in the blood of the innocent and in the sin of the Prosecutor and the Judge or Judges Devills that were Lyars and murderers as our Saviour saith from the beginning and they do here by their unjust judgment wrong 1. The innocent person that is condemned 2. The place that is abused and defiled 3. And they that do all these things against Christ can be no other than the Great Antichrist All good people that are scandalised and grieved to see this unjust proceeding 4. All light-headed credulous people that hold and believe the innocent condemned person to be a malefactor and justly condemned 5. God himself that is here by this unjust sentence 1. Cast out of his throne of justice and the Devil placed for a Judg in his stead 2. He is made a liar to pronounce false sentence 3. He is made that which is worse an unjust God to condemn an innocent person 4. He is made a murderer to kill a man that by the Law deserveth not to die 5. and Lastly He is made hereby a very Devil for he that doth all these things can be none other than the Devil And you know the Judg standeth here loco Dei as Gods Vicegerent and Deputy in God's stead and God saith of them dixi dii estis I said you are Gods and commands the people to reverence and to honour them as Gods because they possess the place 2 Chron. 19.6 and execute the judgment of God as the good King Jehoshaphat tells them Therefore this judicial condemning of an innocent man to death doth as much as lieth both in the Judg and Prosecutors make the just God to be an unjust devil which is far worse than to ungod him or making him no God at all because as Plut arch saith and proves it too satius est nullos deos esse credere quam deos noxios it were better to believe there were no God than to be â—eâ—e that he is an unjust and a wicked God as it is more honor to think there was never such a man as Alexander or Julius Caesar than to think they were such savage men and bloody murderers and Caniballs as would kill and eat their own wives and children And may not God therefore much rather say to such transcendent offenders as he doth in a lower degree say unto the Jews for swearing by them that are no Gods and assembling themselves in the Harlots houses how shall I pardon thee for this as if the hainousness of this sin of a judicial murder and mankilling unjustly prosecuted and sentenced to death being far more odious than any of those sinnes of the Jews went beyond the understanding of the omniscient and all-knowing God to finde out the way and the means to pardon it especially if you consider these four particulars that are evidently to be seen in the unjust judicial sentence and killing of Christ and in that sin of the Antichrist killing the Witnesses of Christ 1. Four special things considerable in the Jews sin murdering Christ and in the sin of the Antichrist in killing the a witnesses The sin it self which is not a private but a publick sin not a rash furious and precipitate manslaughter but a solemn deliberate unjust judiciall murder and defacing of Gods image 2. The sinner or murderer not a single person as Cain or Joab but a collected multitude of people the nobility and gentry and the Representative of the whole Nation 3. The person killed not our inferior or subject as Urias was unto David and Naboth unto Ahab nor our equal as Abel was unto Cain and Amasa to Joab but our superiour our King our father our Priest and our Prophet as Christ was unto the Jews and as the two witnesses of Christ are whom the Antichrist will destroy 4. The
Priest and to command him to discharge the same as he ought to do and to reprove and correct him when he doth neglect it which are the principal things duties and Prerogatives of any King or prime Magistrate of any Kingdom or Commonwealth And thus all the best Orthodox Interpreters both Papists and Protestants do agree that the Apostle meaneth here Vide Tremellium in Joh. 10.34 that the Antichrist should exalt himself above his King because the Scripture doth most properly and plainly speak it of Kings when God saith Dixi Diiestis I have said you are Gods and our Saviour doth primarily and principally mean Kings when he citeth the same saying against the Pharisees as Beza witnesseth saying Testimonium quod citat Christus in Psal 82. v. 6. Habetur That in Psal 82.6 Kings are understood by Gods ubi expostulat Deus cum regibus terrae qui imperio potentia quam â Deo acceperant abuterentur hoc Christus ad presentem causam accommodat quod deorum nomine ornemur qui ad regendum mundum sunt ministri that is the testimony which Christ citeth against the Pharisees is found in Psal 82. v. 6. where God exâ—ostulateth with the Kings of the Earth which abused that rule and power which they received from God Beza in Annotat in Joh. 10.37 and this Christ applieth to the present occasion that they which are Gods Ministers and Deputies to govern the World are honoured with the name of Gods And so the first words of that Psalm do sufficiently shew that Kings are to be understood there by Gods for God standeth in the Congregation of Princes saith the Prophet he is a Judge among Gods and therefore by God in this place the Apostle meaneth the King that God hath set over this man of sin to rule him as well as others because the Kings are appointed by God to governe and to judge the people of God and therefore he tells his people plainly By me Kings do reign that is Prov. 8.15 not only by my permission and suffering of them to reign as I suffer many disorders and many evills to be done but they reign and rule by my authority and by my appointment that have ordained and set your Kings to reign and rule over you for they do sit in the thrones of judgement as Gods Deputies and Vicegerents in Gods stead to exercise a part of Gods power here on earth which is as the Poet can tell you Parcere subjectis debellare superbos The lawful power of Kings To defend and to reward the good and obedient Subjects and to punish the rebellious the wicked and the wrong doers and to that end as God hath the Keys of heaven and of hell to let the Godly enter into glory and to shut up the wicked within the Chambers of death so Kings have potestatem vitae necis the power of life and death that is to preserve the life of the innocent and to put the transgressors unto death or to pardon them if they see cause and to spare their life which is the greatest power on earth but not to put to death whom they please and for what cause soever they list which is the property and practice of an unjust Tyrant and not the liberty of a good and a righteous King So you see the honour power and prerogative that God hath conferred upon Kings and is warranted and confirmed by our Saviour Christ and therefore ought to be ascribed and yielded unto them by their Subjects especially if they be Christians and such as profess to know the will of God Let the Reader Judge whether this be not fulfilled in the long Parliament And yet the Apostle tells us that this man of sin which is the Antichrist will exalt himself above his King and I will not judge but refer it to the World to judge whether the long Parliament and their adherents have not denied this honour worship and obedience and indeed every part and parcel of that honour which God hath granted and commanded to be yielded unto their King Or whether they have not actually exalted themselves above their King And whether their words in their Petition to the King The words of the Parliament in their Petition to the King wherein they say The humble Petition of the Lords and Commons in Parliament and therein further say That his Majesties most humble and faithful Subjects have represented their most dutiful affections in advising and desiring those things which were most necessary for his Majesties safety and honour and in the Conclusion thereof do say That his Majesties personal safety and royal honour and greatness were much dearer unto them than their own Lives and Fortunes being put in one end of the ballance and the warring against him and especially the cutting off of the Kings head in the other end of the ballance where both their love and their hatred might be seen at once do not prove just like the Souldiers dealing with Christ to bow their knees unto him Mat. 27.29 to put a Crown on his head and a Scepter in his hand and to say Hail King of the Jews as if his personal safety and royal honour and greatness were much dearer unto them than their own lives and fortunes and yet immediately to spit in his face and to hang him up upon a tree Which is the most paelpable the greatest and the grossest hypocrisie and mockery in the World or I may justly say with the words of Agur Prov. 30.2 Surely I am more brutish than any man and have not the understanding of a man For Quid audiam verba cum videam contraria facta Will any wise man believe mens words when their deeds tell them to their faces that they lie And how shall I believe that his personal safety and royal honour and greatness were much dearer unto them than their lives and fortunes when I see them taking away his Life And after they had finished the Tragedy of his life and had taken off his Head to do as the Athenians did with Herostratus that burnt the Temple of Diana that is to extinguish with his Person his Name his Memorial and his Office When they would not suffer his Friends and his Servants to keep their King and their Masters Picture in their private Chambers but searched their houses as they did my house to see if they could find the Kings Picture And when as the Prophet tells us the lawless Jews said Hos 10.3 We will have no King because we fear not the Lord and what then should a King do to us For we that fear not the Lord will never reverence any King no more than they that will have no King will never fear the Lord because God hath coupled the fear of the Lord and of the King together with such an indissoluble knot that whosoever feareth God cannot choose but fear and reverence his King and he
conceive more agreeable to the meaning of the Holy Ghost then her Son and the Dragons eating of it would be a speedy devouring of her Child whether it were Male or Female so the Dragon was watching this woman and is still watching to devoure every Child of the Church Male or Female And in the fifth verse the Angel saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 V. 5. The diversity of opinions who this Child should be and the woman brought forth a man Child who was to rule the Nations with a rod of Iron and the Child was caught up to God and to his Throne where we are past the plaine and are come into the Wilderness wherein the way is not so easie to be found out when we do find so many pathes and such a great diversity of opinions among the learned who is meant by this Man child and what is to be conceived of his birth and of his taking up to the Throne of God Rupertus de victoria verbi dei l. 9. c. 28. l. 12. c. 2. Math. 2.16 c 4.1 for some Interpreters by the Birth of this Man child do understand the Birth of Jesus Christ in the Jewish Synagogue of the Blessed Virgin whom the red Dragon the Devill by Herod his grand instrument sought immediately to destroy as soone as ever he was borne as St. Mathew sheweth and also tempted him as soon as ever he was Baptized as the same Evangelist declareth But against this E. H. doth rightly oppose E. H. de Apostasia pag. 44. that the Revelation is not of known things that are past but as the Angel saith of things that must shortly come to pass and the incarnation or Birth of Christ of the Virgin Mary was not to come the same being already past well nigh an 100. years before and therefore though we deny not but the Dragon sought to destroy Christ as Rupertus saith as soon as ever he was brought forth out of his Mothers Womb yet we say that cannot be the meaning of this place which is to be understood of another Child that is to be borne of another Woman E. H. Lococitato By this Child understandeth the great Constantine and therefore E. H. and some other Authors do understand this woman to be the Primitive Church of the Christians groaning to be delivered from under the bloody Tyranny of the Red Dragon that is from the cruel dealing and sad condition that she sustained under the Pagan and persecuting Emperours and the Lord delivering her from those Tyrants by raising up Constantine who as they say is the Man-child that the Church then brought forth a good Christian to rule the Nations with a Rod of Iron that is to subdue Licinius and Maxentius and the Nations that adheared to them with his Victorious Sword and he was caught up to God when he was converted from an Infidell to become a Christian and he was placed in Gods Throne when he attained to the Imperiall Majesty The which exposition The former exposition rejected though it seem very probable and plausible yet cannot I yield unto it to be the meaning of the Holy Ghost in this place because this woman doth not crie to be delivered from her enemies that were without her but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having in her belly that is a Child within her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she cryed by reason of her child birth pain which the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that cometh from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to bring forth a Child from whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth properly signifie dolor parturientis the very pangs and pain of bringing forth the Child into the world and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that comes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 torqueo to be grieved or vexed and wrested with pain doth make it manifest that she cryed not to be delivered from her enemies but to be delivered of her child that she had in her womb and would faign have him to be brought forth into the world That Constantine is not the Man-child here meant Neither can I see any reason to perswade me to yield that this man-child should signifie Constantine the great Reason 1 1. Because this woman which signifieth the Church was not as then before Constantines time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 circumcinctasole cloathed or girded and compassed about with the great light of the Sun that is fully inlightened and instructed with the Doctrine of Christ and the many points of particular truths of Christian Religion nor can we finde her to be thus inlightned untill the time of Theodosius alter the death of Valens and Gratian which was about the year of Christ 382 when those great lights The woman not cloathed with the Sun till 382. that God then raised in his Church to expell the foggy mysts of errors and clouds of heresies that were formerly raised by the Hereticks and still pestered the Church St. Hierome St. Ambrose St. Augustin St. Basil Bishop of Caesaria that for his great learning and wisdom was rightly termed Basilius Magnus great St. Basill Gregory Nazianzen that for his excellent skill and knowledge in Divinity was styled Theologus the Divine as the writer of these Revelations is called John the Divine Epiphanius Cyrillus Bishop of Hierusalem When the Bishops were like Stars and when like the Sun and many more most worthy men of great learning and piety made the truth of the Gospel of Christ that was left unto us by the Evangelists and Apostles to shine in the Church as the Sun in the Firmament that formerly while those hereticks that Irenaeus Tertullian Epiphanius and St. Augustine record troubled the Church and darkned the truth of the Gospel the said truth shined but as the light of the Starres and therefore during those times of the grand Hereticks the very Angels of the seven chiefest Churches of Asia that is the Bishops and prime Pastors of those Churches Revelat. 1.20 were called seven Starres for the seven Starrs are the Angels of the seven Churches saith the Holy Ghost and the twelve Apostles are compared unto twelve Starres as I shewed to you before and the Church could not be inlightned with the light of the Sun when her chief teachers were but Starres and shined to her but as Starres though the light which these Starres sent forth was the light which they received from the Sun that is the Sun of righteousness as the Prophet calleth him but in the year 382. and about that time Reignolds Devitis Imperat. fol. 115. was the flourishing time of the learned when the Doctrine of Christ did shine as the Sun saith Reignolds Reason 2 2. Because that although the Church like the woman that is with Child is pained before the time of birth yet is she most of all tormented when the child is nearest to be born so the Church had her pangs in those that she brought forth in the
the Divines into their Cloysters which was the Churches Heaven upon Earth and he will not so part with her Mr. Mede pag. 40. What is meant by the War of Michael and his Angels against the Dragon and his Angels as there to let her escape free from his assault but be will now prosecute another kind of Combate with her which he had only begun before when he saw himself like to be worsted in the former conflicts and that Combate shall be not as E. H. and Mr. Mede do imagine the bloody Warrs of the persecuting Tyrants which was already past and the Dragon failed of his purpose therein but bellum dogmaticum a verball Warr that is a spirituall Scholastick and Ecclesiasticall War like the Pharsalian civil War of the Romans when a Kingdome is divided amongst it self which is the Worst and most dangerous of all Wars and so is this Ecclesiasticall War that the Hereticks and their grand Captaines the Proselites of Arius Nestorius Eutyches Pelagius Manichaeus Aerius the Trinitarians Millenaries and the rest of that litter did still prosecute to molest the Church of Christ And my reasons to prove this War to be no Bloody War The hereticall War but rather a spirituall and Ecclesiasticall War are these Reason 1 1. Because this War is said to be in Heaven which cannot signifie the seat and place of the Blessed Angels and of the Saints departed out of this life because that neither War nor sorrow nor any other trouble can come there and therefore the seat of this War must be not the World simply considered which is never called Heaven but the Church of God which is the Christians Heaven here upon Earth and the Arke that carrieth us through the Seas of this World into the Eternall Heaven and therefore this War being said to be rather in the Church then in the World when as our Saviour speaking of our bloody Wars saith in the World you shall have Tribulations must needs be an Ecclesiasticall Hereticall and no bloody War no worldly War Reason 2 2. Because it is said that Michael and his Angels that is Christ and the true Bishops and Pastors of his Church that are called the Angels of the Churches and not Michael and his Princes Revelat. 1.20 fought against the Dragon and his Angels and not as it is said in Daniel that he affisted his Angel against the King of Persia but with the Dragon and his Angels Dan. 10.13 that is the Devil and his false Prophets the Hereticks that molested the Church and corrupted the true faith and the right Service of God and yet as their Master the Devil transformeth himself into an Angel of light as the Apostle speaketh so will the false Prophets be deemed and esteemed Angels but this Heavenly Angel tells us they are the Angels of the Dragon that make this War with the Angels of Christ Reason 3 3. And lastly because that in this War we find none slaine nor any blood spilt as they were under the persecuting Tyrants as well the Arian Kings as the Pagan Emperors and therefore this War must needs be understood of no Forreigne bloody War but of a Verball spirituall Warr waged within the bosome of the Church that happened after the death of Theodosius who had freed the Church from all externall Wars and bloody persecutions but could not stop the mouth of the false Prophet nor hinder the Dragon and his Angels to raise and prosecute this Hereticall War And yet now How the Church prevailed against the Hereticks as the Woman formerly prevailed in the first War against the bloody Instruments of the Dragon that were vanquished in patientia Martyrum through the patience of the Martyrs and the sufferings of the Saints so here in this second War she gets the Victory over her Enemies and the Dragon is overcome c. 12. v. 11. by the blood of the Lamb and his Angels vanquished by the word of their Testimony v. 11. that is the Hereticks and Scismaticks were confuted and silenced in prudentia Doctorum by the Wisdome of the Bishops that were the Governours of the Church and by their learned writings and faithfull Preaching of Gods truth and not with the Sword or Cannon shot or any other such outward force which the Angels of Jesus Christ the Ministers of the Gospel never use as the Angels of the Dragon do and now did in many places because they are commanded with St. Peter to put up their Sword into the sheath and it is for none but the satellites of the high Priests Math. 26.52 and the Jannizaries of the Antichrist to come out against Christ and to fight against his Witnesses with Swords and Staves Then Mr. Mede pag. 40. Michael significat quis sicut deus certe nullus nifi Jesus Christus the Dragon being by Michael that is by the power and Wisdome of God that is Jesus Christ which Michael fignifieth and not by any one of the chief Princes or of the seven Arch Angels as Mr. Mede thinketh cast out of Heaven that is driven from the Church as he did the buyers and sellers out of the Temple when all the errors heresies and superstitions which the Devil by his prime Angells the Heresiarches had invented and sowed amongst Gods people were confuted and rooted out of these our reformed Churches and these Churches restored to their Pristine purity and setled in the right forme of serving God by the painefull diligence of the learned Bishops the Pastors and the Protestant Preachers of Gods word which was fairly begun in Queen Elizabeths time The Victory in this War when obtained continued and bettered in King James his Reign but not clearly done and perfectly finished untill King Charles his dayes nor any where so purely done as in these our dominions as I have fully proved unto you before there ensued a two-fold act or a double consequence of this great Victory of Michael and his Angels over the Dragon and his Angels 1. The Tryumph rejoycing and Jo-paean of the Conquerors The twofold Consequence of the Church his Victory over the Hereticks cap. 12.11 the Inhabitants of Heaven 2. The fretfull wrath and continued malice of the Conquered Dragon 1. In Heaven that is in the Church of God as I said before St. John heard a loud voyce saying now is come Salvation and strength and the Kingdome of our God and the power of his Church c. 12. v. 10. where you must first observe the Emphasis in the word now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now is Salvation come and it was come long before when Christ had fully purchased our Redemption before his Ascention into Heaven but I conceive this Salvation to be meant not of our spirituall and eternall Salvation from Sin Hell and Satan which was come by Christ long before but for our Temporall Salvation and deliverance from the power and malice of our Enemies and that was now come that is fully and perfectly
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
bour Kings and States being made afraid of that power that could so suddenly subdue these three Kingdoms should very gladly yield themselves to become friends and Associates and to make a league of friendship with this Beast which Exposition may possibly be very near unto the truth when we see little lesse then this already come to passe The Commentator supposed to be Grotius makes these 10 Kings to be the Kings of Armenia Thracia Galatia Judaea Arabia c. which were under the Roman Empire and the Ministers of their Idolatry Et sic alii atque alii aliud atque aliud opinati sunt And truly I do not wonder that these learned men transported with a desire to make the World believe that the Pope is the great Antichrist and so misunderstanding whom the Holy Ghost meaneth by this Beast should in like manner mistake what or whom they should conceive to be the heads and horns and all other parts of this Beast quia uno absurdo dato mille sequuntur one absurdity draweth on another But how far those Expositions of Junius and Alcazar and that likewise of Mr. Mede and of all others that would have these 10 horns to signifie 10 Kings pertaining to the Roman Empire are from the meaning of the Holy Ghost in this Text will most evidently appear if you consider that the particulars of the description of these 10 horns do no wayes square and cohere with these 10 Kings that they speak of for these 10 Kings The former expositions rejected and the reasons shewed in the Text have interest but in one kingdom as you may see in the 17th Chapt. v. 12. and 17. where the spirit of God speaks in the singular number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they had received no Kingdom as yet v. 12. and in the 17. v. it is said that God hath put it in their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree which those Kings never did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to give their Kingdom unto the beast and not their Kingdoms whereas the Kings that were under the Emperour and are become under the Pope were and are properly Kings and have every one of them his own proper and peculiar Kingdom neither can it be said of them as it is said here of these Kings that they have received power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one houre with the beast that is a very very small time when as they came to their power and dominion by descent or by Conquest and did not receive it as these did from any Master that gave it them and they continued therein during their life some of them very long and some of them at one time and some at another time yielded themselvee unto the Pope and all of them were of so different a time one from another that it can never agree The unlikelihood of Mr. Medes Exposition with this one houre or a short space wherein these 10 horns do agree to give their strength and power and Kingdom which they have received unto the Beast Neither is there any likelihood that those 10 Kings which Mr. Mede nameth should be the 10 Kings here meant because they were but transient by the success of Warre and of small Provinces half or quarter of a Kingdom as Vortimer and Hengist here in Ingland Childerick and Gunderick and Theodorick in Gallia and Sumanus but in a little Continent between the Rhene so that they might be better termed Reguli then Reges and because also they were as I said before of a different time one from another which might be the reason as I conceive that made Junius to passe them over un-named because he saw the unlikeliness of these men to be the 10 Kings that are here meant neither could they be said to be the horns of the Roman Empire because they revolted from it and became horns against it and pushed very hard to overcome it but as I said dato uno absurdo mille sequuntur so these learned men mistaking the beast did easily mistake both his heads and his horns But if that by this Beast you understand the long Parliament The 10 horns paralelled with the Parliament you shall finde that as all the other particulars which are here set down in this Prophesie do in every point seem to accord and agree with that Parliament so doth all the description of these 10 horns that is these 10 Kings that had no Kingdom The 10 Horns may be taken to signifie one of these three things 1.10 Of their prime Commanders but the power Authority and strength of Kings which is potestas vitae necis the power of life and death and is the greatest power that any King can have and which they give unto the Beast v. 13. that is use for the service of the Beast doth agree with the Parliament if we understand by these 10 horns either 1. Ten of the prime Generalls and Commanders of that long Parliament which you will confess had no Kingdom and yet had the honour and power of Kings Or 2. If by these 10. horns we understand all their Chieftains 2. All their Chietrains and Commanders whereof not one of them had any Kingdom and yet each one of them had the power and authority of Kings for one hower that is for a small time and you may well remember the best and greatest of them had it not very long and you know likewise they all devoted this their power and strength for the service of them from whom they had received it and they were all of them as the Holy Ghost saith of one mind Gen. 31.7 41. 1 Sam. 1.8 Job 19.3 Eccles 17.19 Revel 2.10 and did all run the same way to fight against the Lamb to overthrowe the true Church and to slay the witnesses of Christ and yet they did all of them as they said hate the Whore the Whore of Babylon that is as they expound it the Church of Rome and all the Romish superstition for 10. being a perfect number the Holy Ghost doth in many places put down this number as he doth many other perfect numbers for an uncertain number as when Jacob said unto Laban Thou hast changed my wages ten times that is many times and the Holy Ghost saith unto the Church of Smyrna thou shalt have tribulation ten dayes that is sever all times so by these 10 horns or 10 Kings we may understand many Chieftains that had the power of Kings which they all imployed for the service of that long Parliament or else 3. If by these 10 horns we understand the greatness and perfection of that power strength and authority which was given and was shewed in those Generalls The horn an Emblem of Strength Psal 18.2 Psal 22.21 Psal 75.10 and they used for the advancement of the Parliament for the Scripture useth to express our strength and power by the Epithite of a horn as you may most frequently finde it in
the path of thy feet and let all thy wayes be established that is let all thine actions and thy dealings be just and honest and these feet of this Beast are said to be like the feet of a Bear which are the most ugly the most ill-favoured and the most filthy and dirty of any feet and so are all the actions and proceedings of this Beast And are not the doings The Parallel the Ordinances and practises of the long Parliament so for what face soever they bear what colour soever they make and how pious soever they seem to be in their preambles and pretences No Pope Turk nor Tyrant did ever commit viler actions then have been done in these Dominions within these 20. years yet if you look downwards towards the feet of these Peacocks and search into the depth of their actions and find out the secret intentions of these glorious Birds the Birds of Juno as the Poets faigne and the Saints of God as themselves say then I demand if you shall not see that there lieth under their glorious trayl feet as black as the Swans or Turkie-cocks and every way as ugly and as filthy as the Beares feet that is as hatefull and as abominable proceedings as ever were masked under such specious shewes and pretences of so much holiness let the Reader judge hereof A speciall Instance of the long parliaments doings I will instance out of many but in one or two examples of the incomparable justice of this Parliament Dr. Wren a very learned man a most Reverend Bishop a painfull Preacher a prudent Governour and a blameless Christian in his life and conversation yet because a Bishop strict in his Government as all Bishops should be he must be cast into prison have all his goods rifled and plundered and have nothing left to him to maintain himself his Wife and many Children and yet because he was so Orthodox in his Doctrine so regular in his life and so circumspect in his Government I could not learn of any of the members of the Parliament the least crime besides a generall clamour and you know that in universalibus latet error that could be justly layed to his charge and though he is worthy neither of death nor of bonds yet for all that to see if his bonds will bring his death the good man must be detained still in prison for many years together and why is all this The Jewes demanded if the Christ when he came would do greater things then this man that was Jesus did so it may be demanded if these men be not the Antichrist will the Antichrist when he cometh do greater villanies cruelties and outragious mischiefs then these men have done that have overdone all that went before them but to see if the length of his miseries would end his life and his injuries because they hated him without a cause and laid to his charge the things that he knew not and they proved not and so could find no colourable cause of death against him a most admirable example of a very just Parliament let Heaven and Earth admire it but I fear that in other such cases God not suffering them to do so in this when they can find no just fault against the persons that they hate they will say with Caesar aut viam inventam ant faciam and will imitate those flies that finding no sores will fasten upon the sound flesh to make sores that they may suck our blood to forge faults and to suborn witnesses to prove them and to shew the reason of this my fear I would adde here the proceedings of this Parliament and the great justice that Col. Eusebius Andrews and some others found at the hands of that long Parliament but that a better Pen hath set forth the same already In the Hist of Independency p. 63. Yet I may not passe the justice that this Parliament hath shewed in their publique printed Act for the Assesment of that great and heavy Tax which they imposed upon the Kingdom to maintain their Army that when it was assessed and all payd by the Countrey every peny yet if their receiver that is appointed receiver by their Committee-men whom they nominated and appointed to be their Committee-men should fail to pay the monies to their Treasurer and should run away with all the Countries money why then because the Army must have money the Countrey must be newly assessed and what they had formerly payd they must pay again so toties quoties as often as their receiver cheates the Countrey the Countrey must still repay it till the Souldiers receive it And according to this Act a brave receiver of Carnarvonshire left the poor Inhabitants of that poor County to repay what they had formerly payd about 4300 l. Let my Reader therefore judge if the seet of the long Parliament be not as the seet of a Beare and odd money as was reported by some of the Committee-men unto me whereof a 1000 l. was payd again to the great wrong and prejudice if not the undoing of a great many of the poor men of that County and whether this act be just or not I refer it to the judgement both of Jewes and Gentiles and to the Heathens and Pagans that know not God and yet may know by the light of nature what is just for if you give full authority to your servant to come to me for money and require me to pay it him and I according to your direction do so if he runs away with your money will any Law make me to pay it again credat Judaeus Apella non ego And besides all this and all particular acts of their illegitimate Justice History of Independency Part 1. Pag. 3. they have passed an Ordinance of Indempnity not onely for them that acted for the Parliament but also for such as have over-acted and have gone beyond the authority that was given them by the Parliament and had sequestred men most unjustly and leavied the same Taxes three or four times over and so they secured them from the Law and from Justice which made the Authour of the History of Independency to say that you might as easily finde Charity in Hell as Justice among any of their Committees And I must here add Idem Part. 1. Pag 7. how justly and how charitably they have dealt with the Reverned Bishops Deanes and worthy Divines and other Gentlemen in Ireland for when the Irish Popish Rebels had causelesly and most inhumanely used them expelled them from their Inheritances and robbed them of all their Estates the Parliament as thinking this load of misery was not enough to be laid upon their backs but adding still more sorrows unto the afflicted instead of relieving them do make an act to take away all their Lands and possessions for ever And whether the Irish Popish Rebels or the English Parliament Saints dealt with us more Christian-like and whether more devilish-like herein I
is above all Kings and above the Emperor and being so silled with herefies idolatries and blasphemies and such a cruel bloody tyrant and persecutor of Gods true servants as our Protestants have amply shewed in their books and the Turke directly and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thrusting himselfe into the place and office of Christ and exalting himselfe above Christ above the Prophets and above all the Apostles of Christ and challenging to himselfe and his successors absolute independant power over all the Kings and Monarchs of the earth and commanding his Alcoran which is made up of Paganish Jewish and Arian herefies and superstitions to be received and preferred before the Gospel of Jesus Christ and most cruelly tyrannizing over those poor Christians that are under him because they renounce not their Saviour Bishop Mountague in his Appello Casarem pag. and adore his false Prophet and that religion which directly leadeth them to perdition as learned Montague sheweth it is incredible and not possible to be beleeved that the Parliament and specially the Presbyterians that professe themselves to be regulated neither by Fathers nor Councils nor any other Canon or rule but onely by the pure Word of God and doe so indefatigably labour to bring men to Christ and to inlarge the kingdome of his Grace and have hazarded their fortunes and lost their blood and some their lives in the defence of Gods cause should be the great Antichrist and a greater Antichrist more batefull and a more abominable adversarie unto God and his Church then either the Pope or the Furke To this I answer that I never intended to excuse or to lessen Sol. The Aurhor excuseth neither Pope nor Turk the impieties of the Pope or the cruelties of the Turke or to denie them to be Antichrists and great adversaries both to Christ and to the Church of Christ I am no Proctor to plead for either of them especially against the truth but I say the neerer men are to God the more profession they make of faith and the better christians they think themselves to be the more faithfulness and the more holiness and sincerity is required at their hands for to whom much is given of them much shall be required saith our Saviour and it was wisely said of a fool that dying cried to God that he would require no more of him The wise prayer of a Fool. then what he gave him though wiser men must imploy their tallents to the best advantage of their master who expecteth a plentifull harvest of all good fruits where he hath plentifully sown his good seed of knowledg and of grace and so the sins of such men as should be Saints are far more heinous and more abominable in the fight of God then the sins of those that know not God yea sins less heinous in their own nature are more heinous in these offenders then other sins far more odious in themselves are in those that are further off from God and less acquainted with his lawes and therefore Act 17.30 Ps 106.21.22 Rom. 3.2 the Iodolatrie of the heathens that knew not the true God God winked at saith the Apostle and it was not neer so odious in Gods fight as the Idolatrie of the sons Israel that had seen his wonders in Egypt and had the heavenly Oracles delivered unto them and so though Pilate for condemning Christ to death is branded with great infamie by the mouth of everie christian that saith his Creed that Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate yet Annas John 19.11 and Caiphas that profest to know Gods will and thought themselves the chiefest of Gods people majus peccatum habuerunt sinned more by our Saviour's testimonie for delivering him unto Pilate then Pilate did in condemning him unto death so likewise though the sins of the Edomites were verie great when the Prophet saith thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Edom and for four Amos 1 11. I will not turn away the punishment thereof because he did pursue his brother that is the seed of Jacob that was Esaus brother which is Edom and did cast off all pittie and his anger did tear perpetually and kept his wrath for ever And so in like manner though the sins of Damascus and of Moah also were exceeding grievous v. 3. c. 2.1 c. 1.13 when the former threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of Iron and the others rage was so great that death could not satisfie his wrath but he must burn the bones of the King of Edom into lime How and whose sins doe become most odious and in like manner though the sins of the children of Ammon were no less grievous then the sins of Moab when they ript up the women with child of Gilead that they might inlarge their borders yet because these nations were not the peculiar people of God nor had received so many favours from God nor the knowledge of his lawes so as the Iewes had done these horrible sins and sins against nature seemed not so horrible and so offensive in Gods sight as Iudahs despising of his lawes and their lies which caused them to err and Israels selling of the righteous for Silver and the poor for a pair of Shoes c. 2. v. 4. and 6. which seem to be but veniall fins in respect of the other bloody murthers and inhumane cruelties because as I said before to whom God hath given much of them he requireth much and where he expecteth most holinesse there the fins are most sinful and as St. Bernard saith of the Priests and Ministers of Christ Quae in aliis nugae sunt in illis sunt blasphemia so the sins that are but trifles in the Pagans and Infidels are most odious in the Christians and therefore after that the Lord had recapitulated both the fins of those nations and the many favours he had heaped upon the Israelites with the rejectment of the Amorites and the rest of the foresaid nations for their former transgressions c. â—3 5 The sins of Israel more displeased God then the sins of the Amorites and why he addeth of the Israelites you onely have I chosen of all the Families of the earth that is for mine own peculiar people to serve me and to be protected and favoured by me therefore seeing you have done these things I will punish you for all your iniquities and when others that you think worse and greater finners then you be may have some savour yet you shall have none at all because these things in you offend me more and are more abominable in my fight then are all the abominations of the Amorites And so according to this determination of the Prophet though the sins of the publicans and harlots murderers and robbers and the like were more flagitious and more heinous in their owne nature then the sins and delinquencies of the Scribes and Pharisees that for the uprightness of their outward carriage were deemed the onely Saints among