witnesse unto employ their power and policy to suppresse the Testimony of Jesus Doubtlesse none but the Dragons regiment will fight against Christ and his Gospel Elymas the Sorcerer is wont to withstand Saul and Barnabas seeking to turne away the Deputy from the faith Men of corrupt minds of no judgement concerning the faith resist the Truth as Jannes and Jambres did Moses But Paul will keepe backe nothing that is profitable for their soules teaching them publikely and from house to house Acts 20.20 And also charge Timothy that he preach the Word be instant in season and out of season 2 Tim. 4.2 Doe the worke of an Evangelist fulfill thy ministery Oh how unlike to Paul and Timothy are many of the Prelatical Tribe whom yet they pretend to succeed What successors of Paul and Timothy by preaching against preachings and using their power to undermine the Testimony of the Gospel No rather they unhappily tread in Jesuiticall steps complying with Contzens rules whether occasionally or intentionally they best know for the overthrowing of the power of the Gospel His very engines have they used to pillage our Churches of afternoone Sermons of weekely Lectures and to turne praying into bidding of prayer c. and according to his subtile counsell were extorting such an approbation of the Prelacy amongst us as would soone have plundered England of many of her faithful Ministers or at least their consciences of their sweete peace if not of their liberties And are too like those soule-murdering Jewes 1 Thes. 2.16 enemies to Christ and to the salvation of others forbidding the Apostles to speake to the Gentiles that they might be saved No wonder they lie under so much contempt God makes good his owne word by Malachi chap. 2.9 Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people according as yee have not kept my wayes but have beene patriall in my Law They who smother the Testimony of Christ taking away the key of knowledge do the most dishonourable work must expect answerable wages here and hereafter use 2 Mat. 23.13 Luke 11.52 Do the Souldiers of Christ carry on the Churches victories by holding forth the Word of their Testimony Then if we prevail not against the Devil and his Angels in these Gospel conflicts we may blame our selves and our own remissenes as not being valiant for the truth which was their defect Jer. 9.3 We are too ready to translate the fault to others an old prank our first Parents taught us as soon as they had fallen Parliament complains of the army Army of the Parliament City against both and Countrey will spare none of them Thus most unhappily by the secret policy of Malignants jealousies are fomented and multiplyed to the prejudice of all our hearts and hands thereby weakned in the Churches cause It were more like Christians upon a day of mourning to be bewailing our owne coldnesse and want of appearing as active souldiers under so good a Captaine God forbid it should be verified of us what the Lord said Jer. 8.6 I harkned and heard but they spake not aright no man repented him of his wickednesse saying What have I done Oh that you would call your selves to a particular account it is opus diei a worke sutable to the day saying How much evill have I done to enflame these warres and how little good have I done to extinguish them Might not some Nehemiah contend with many of our Nobles and say What evill thing is this that you doe and profane the Sabbath day But is this all though too much Might not some Peter contend with many of our Gentry who walk in lasciviousnesse lusts excesse of wine revellings banquettings and abominable idolatries thinking it strange that others runne not with them to the same excesse of riot And might not some Jeremiah complaine A wonderfull and horrible thing is committed in the Land the Prophets prophesie falsely and the Priests beare rule by their meanes and my people love to have it so and what will yee doe in the end thereof Many blesse God heartily for that Religious Ordinance of Parliament set forth some months since to stirre up England to repentance for nationall and personall sinnes Did you more exemplarily commend it to us by your owne practice it would have a more commanding influence upon us What though we talke against Atheists if we still wallow in prophanenesse cry out against Papists and still continue lukewarme Protestants inveigh against Malignants and yet remain ful of Malignant Antipathy against Scripture Reformation This is not to hold forth the Testimony of the Gospel as becomes a good souldier of Christ The Lord lead us all into our owne hearts and teach so to judge our selves that we be not judged Doe the souldiers of Christ carry on the Churches victories by the Testimony of the Gospel As ever you desire they should prevaile in so good a cause it concernes you who are the grand Counsellors betrusted with so much superintendency for the liberty as well of our Religion as of our persons and estates that you emprove it faithfully for the advancing and propagating the Gospel of Christ so will you be fitted to give a more comfortable account of your great Stewardship when your Master cals for it Luke 16.2 Be pleased worthy Senatours to accept these few hints for this purpose Patronize protect reward preferre faithfull witnesses of Christ If a Prophet come with a word of reproofe though sharpe if seasonable doe not therefore count him your enemy as Ahad did Elijah 1 King 21.20 because he dealt plainly with him nor send him away as Amaziah did the Prophet when he came to discover his sinnes Art thou made of the Kings Counsell forbeare 2 Chron. 25.16 Check restraine disable Diotrephes Demetrius and that fraternity who undermine not onely Parliament Ordinances but even the Ordinances of Jesus Christ making no small stir in England about the way of Reformation and all maintaine their owne Diana as Act. 19.23 24. c. Have a vigilant eye upon such intemperate Preachers and Writers as pervert truth and disturbe peace Papists would take away the Cup and leave us but halfe a Sacrament Antinomians would abolish the morall Law and leave us but halfe a Bible If such be suffered our Religion will grow lame and licentious Forget not I beseech you forget not the purging and pruning of the Universities the Nurseries of piety and learning If Satan have a seate there if there be such that hold the doctine of Balaam who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eate things sacrificed to Idols and to commit fornication what Papists such Tutors are like to send abroad we have found by too much unhappy experience And they loved not their lives unto death Christs souldiers first pleaded the Churches cause by the word of their Testimony and by such Gospel weapons they
promoted the victory Then this Testimony of Jesus representing unto their owne spirits as well as unto others the infinite excellency of the Lambe raised their hearts to such a pitch of love to Him and to his cause that they loved not their lives unto the death and so grew more compleatly victorious over the Dragon and his Angels {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} They overcame as by the strength of their Testimony so by the constancy of their resolution to hazzard their lives for Christ and his Gospel observation 4 In the Churches conflicts they prove victorious souldiers who love not their lives so dearely as they love Christ and his cause Two things being cleared we may the better improve this observation in the application of it to our selves The degrees of this love to Christ and his cause by which they overcame The influence such love hath into the Churches victories First Victorious souldiers in the Churches conflicts must love Christ better then their best beloved sinnes Psal. 97.10 Yee that love the Lord hate evill Love is a prime radicall affection when the heart cleaves to any good by love it hates that evill which is most contrary to it How will they submit their lives unto a violent death who have not so much love unto Christ as to make them willing to die a carnall death to die to sinne for him will they lose their lives who cannot leave a lust for Christ Secondly victorious souldiers for Christ must love him better then their most beloved worldly comforts when he made that promise to us Mar. 10.29 30. There is no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the Gospels but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time c. He thereby intimated what he expects from us even amare Deum usque ad contemptum mundi We may use the world as a servant but not grow into league with it as a friend Jam. 4.4 Know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God and that is a searching place 1 John 2.15 Love not the world nor the things in the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him These two are inconsistent and therefore certainely he will never be a good souldier of Christ in whom love to any worldly excellency is predominant They must deny their dearest selfe It is hard to protest against our bosome sinne though grossely evill in it selfe it is harder to renounce our alluring worldly comforts which in themselves are lawfull hardest to deny our selves which nature and Religion in a due order teaches us to love Yet Christ makes this a distinguishing character of his Disciples and doubtlesse is a proper badge of his souldiers Luke 14.26 If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother wife and children and brethren and sisters yea and his owne life also he cannot be my Disciple Comparatively love them all lesse then Christ as appeares Matth. 10.37 When friends or selfe come in competition with Christ or stand in opposition to him in this case saith Jerome we must Patrem calcare c. Here solum pietatis genus crudelem esse We must exercise an holy cruelty to our friends and selfe And indeed Christ hath no more true Disciples or faithfull souldiers in this Assembly then such onely as love not their owne lives in comparison of their Saviour Such is the nature and working of love that it swayes much with the soule like sailes to the Ship it carries one forward even against the streame and tide It was love that brought Christ from Heaven to the Crosse and will draw any where it prevailes from a Palace to a Stake for Christ and his cause Love to Christ and his cause is ingenious and full of consideration how to carry on its designes for his advantage 1 Cor. 13.5 Love thinketh no evill rather it studies and plots how to communicate it selfe in all good offices The Spouses love cost her many serious thoughts how she might enjoy and serve her Beloved Hence some persons are much more usefull to Church and State then others because their love to Christ puts them upon the best improvement of their parts honours interests and influence for his service Love to Christ and his cause will be at any cost and charges to gratifie him it runnes over to Christ himselfe and towards all Saints Phil. 6.5 It was love in Paul that made him willing to spend his strength his spirits his bloud for the Corinthians 2 Cor. 12.15 I will very gladly spend and be spent for your soules and for his Philippians Phil. 2.17 be offâ—red as a sacrifice for the service of their faith Christs love to his poore servants thinks nothing in Heaven or Earth too much or too good for them true love to him will be reciprocall giving up to him sua suos se thinking all best bestowed on him Nothing makes a Christian so unweariedly operative as Love In 1 Thes. 1.3 Paul blesses God for their worke of faith labour of love patience of hope True love to Christ is laborious for him so expressely Heb. 6.10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your worke and labour of love which yee have shewed towards his Name in that yee have ministred to the Saints and doe minister One cord of this love will draw more then a Yoake of Oxen and carry you with a pleasing violence from service to service Amongst many other sweete discoveries Paul makes of love in that short chapter 1 Cor. 13. there are divers expressions to shew you how patient love is enduring any thing for the person it loves v. 4.7 When the heart is full of love to Christ it makes us willing to forsake to undertake to undergoe any thing for Christ and his cause This no question made Ignatius so cheerefully to invite and meete killing sufferings having such burning love to Christ that was crucified for him Be pleased to give me leave this day in behalfe of the Vse 1 Lambe to put in a Caveat against carnall selfe-love which so much blunts and weakens the love of Christs souldiers in the Gospels Conflicts If you love your soules better then the Lambe you will never be victorious for him They overcame which loved not their own lives unto the death All men naturally love themselves and consequently may have some kind of selfe-seeking love to Christ as being the chiefest good and so congruous to their necessities But Christians must goe further we should love Christ for himselfe as the primum diligibile for his owne infinite excellencies and then love our selves and all other things with reference unto him Paul was a true Prophet 2 Tim. 3.1 In the last dayes perilous times shall come {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}
our mourning be turned into Hallelujahs Your Honours to serve You faithfully for the honour of the Lambe THOMAS HILL Errata PAge 18. line 11. for puls read puts pag. 23. l. 5. and all maintaine r. and all to maintaine pag. 23. l. 19. for Papists read pupils THE MILITANT CHVRCH TRIUMPHANT OVER THE DRAGON AND HIS ANGELS REV. 12.11 And they over-came him by the blood of the Lambe and by the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives unto the death THEY who study the Providence of God about his people will finde all his dispensations towards them full of Wisdome and Love If being provoked by their sinnes he let loose Oppressours amongst them withall he provides Saviours for them even when they feele a smarting rod they may see it in the hand of an indulgent Father so sweetely is he pleased to intermingle refreshings with troubles and to put some Sugar into their bitterest potions Thus kindly dealt he with his Ancient People stirring up Ezekiel and Daniel whom he sent captives with them to be their comforters in that darke captivity and thus tenderly dealt he with the Christian Churches when John and they were under persecution revealing such rich secrets unto them by him as might strongly support them and all suffering Saints under the most bloody troubles that should succeed This is the very tenour of this Propheticall History and Historicall Prophesie the Revelation of Christ to John intending doubtlesse by him to send unto the conflicting Churches such a standing and Soveraigne cordiall as might cheere them when they were at the lowest with hope of triumphing over their most potent adversaries And is it not pity any Christians should have this cordiall with-held from them for whom it was by God himselfe provided If Christ say Rev. 1.3 Blessed is he that readeth and they that heare the words of this Prophesie why should any under pretence of difficulty fondly imitate and exceed the superstition of the Jewes who permitted none to reade the beginning of Genesis Canticles the beginning and end of Ezekiel before thirty yeares of age but ours the Booke of the Revelation publickely scarse at all Admit it be true that in this Booke Quot verba tot sacramenta as many mysteries as words this may awaken study and quicken prayer but not take off our inquiry into these secrets intended for us But though Prophesies may be aenigmata riddles to others before they be fulfilled wee have the advantage of many events and accomplishments to be our Interpreters Yea we have reason to hope most of the bitter passages concerning the Churches of Christ are already fulfilled that there is much Sugar at the bottome reserved for these last ages which may animate us to seeke with all humble sobriety a revelation of the Revelation And that which may embolden us to looke for more glorious victories hereafter we finde in this 12 Chapter of the Revelation even the infant Primitive Church becomming triumphant when opposed by the fiercest of those heathenish Emperours In the six first Verses Gods dealings with the old Israelites and with the Primitive Christians seeme to run parallel They for a time were in the Egyptian bondage under Pharaoh who sought to devoure them At last Gods mighty hand brought them out into the wildernesse where though unsetled for a while yet he preserved and fed them graciously and at the last brought them into Canaan Thus did the Lord dispense himselfe towards his Church who is represented v. 1. as a Woman clothed with the Sunne Chrâ—sts spouse is made glorious by his beames who is the Sunne of Righteousnesse This Woman is travailing with Christ mysticall under sharpe throwes and pangs of persecutions for three hundred yeares together v. 2. and all this while the red Dragon like a bloody Pharaoh stood â—efore the Woman which was ready to be delivered â—or to devoure her childe as scone as it was boâ—ne v. 3. 4. Yet she brought forth a Man Childe v. 5. a Masculine birth vigorous Christians who in Constantines time were caught up to God and to his Throne were advanced to beare much sway Yet when the Church was set at liberty from the oppression of the Heathen she fled into the Wildernesse v. 6. where she had a place prepared of God that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and threescore dayes Propheticall dayes i. e. so many yeares It pleaseth God to keepe us in the darke for the punctuall beginning of these dayes as he did his people about the beginning of the Babylonish captivity It was easily knowne it should continue but 70. yeares yet there being three steps of it one in the dayes of Jehoiakim a second in the dayes of Jechonias a third under Zedekiah it was very hard without speciall direction where to fasten that beginning which should terminate the 70. yeares We may be confident the Christian Church shall be in the Wildernesse but one thousand two hundred and threescore yeares and had we so much divine Wisdome as to know exactly where to beginne to reckon them wee might speake more than conjecturally of the time of the Churches deliverance In the five following verses you have a more full amplification of this story from severall passages and circumstances First The Wars betwixt Michael and the Dragon Christ and the Devill and their Angels on both sides v. 7. Secondly The issue The Dragon and his Angels prevailed not but was cast out and his Angels with him v. 8 9. The Devill was cast downe from that open rule he had under Heathen Emperours Thirdly The Churches acknowledgement of her successe v. 10. Fourthly The meanes by which the Devill and his party were conquered v. 11. 1. Principall by the blood of the Lambe 2. Organicall which is twofold First By the word of their Testimony Herein they were sincerely active Secondly They loved not their lives unto death Herein 〈◊〉 were resolutely passive Here you have first not onely Christ himselfe overcomming but also his Angels as he engages his people in the conflict so he allowes them to share in the honour of the victory They overcame Yet secondly so as Christ is chiefely acknowledged The Crown is first set upon the Captaines head their overcomming was by the blood of the Lambe Thirdly Something his Souldiers contribute though the Devils Angels may carry on their designes by lyes equivocations reservations for a time yet in conclusion are conquered by the word of their Testimony and that especially when it is held forth by a zealous selfe-deniall And they loved not their lives unto death These foure Generals as they lie in the words will afford us foure naturall Observations flowing from them In the Warre betwixt Michael and the Dragon and their object 1 Angels though the true Church be Militant for a time yet it proves victorious and triumphant In the field of the Church behold two potent Armies under two Generals Michael and the