Elizabeth and to give her her just praise made some encrease or improvement of King Edwards Reformation but yet for all that if the real truth might be spoken out Rome and England were still fast tied together by the tails of Episcopacy Ceremonies and form of worship the waters whereof swelled high in King James time and became a Land flood all over the three Nations after his decease drowning some carrying others full Tyde back again to Rome I 'le tell you if you 'l hear me with meekness and patience of spirit what satisfies me that he fell for the Popish Antichristian Interest which if well understood Peoples spirits would more acquiesce in his fall then now they do 1. There was this upon his account the profanation of the Lords day by a Law I mean by that wretched book of ungodly Sports and Liberties The day which our Lord Christ and the reformed Laws of the Land had set apart for all sorts of People to have studied the Scriptures encreased their Spiritual knowledge and their faith against all false Doctrine and Worship and for the People to be authorized and instigated by the edict of a King to gaming sporting mixt danceing on that day as you know they were what could the Pope himself had be been in England considering the state of the Nation have done more or been more Popishly politique for the undermining for the undoing of our religion as the best and speediest means of ushering in his own Had the Sabbath taken its name according to his desire in that edict it might rather have been called Dies Daemoniacus then Dominicus the Divels day then the Lords day Secondly Never was any man a more stiff upholder of Episcopacy then he was which indeed is nothing else but the Popes Supremacy only under another name multiplied or broken into so many peices everyone whereof hath the form and nature of the whole Was not every Bishop in his Diocess a little Pope lording over both the flock his co-presbyters This peice of Popery he held fast to his dying day Thirdly He suffered the Bishops so to mannage and improve the reliques of Rome in this Kingdom the whole rabble of Ceremonies Calvin called them tolerabiles ineptiae by give me leave as wofull experience hath taught to call them intolerabiles ineptiae intolerale fooleries I say to improve them so to the Popish interest that many hundred precious witnesses of Jesus Christ were imprisoned persecuted forced into strange Countries yea many of them to take up their dwellings in a Wilderness amongst wild beast and more savage men Nay some blood was shed in a publike and juridicial way by Gallio cared for none of these things stood an idle unconcernd spectator I fear I am too benignus interpres more favourable to him as to this particular then he deserved We use to say you know qui non vetat peccare c. He that doth not forbid yea suppress sin when he 's able commands it Fourthly There was Masse and Masse Priests Idols and the worship of the Beast I might say of divels for so Saint Iohn speaks Rev 9.20 set up by conjugal promise and Covenant and accordingly kept and observed I mean the French Court amongst us from whence went no small animation and protection to Priests and Popery clean throughout the Kingdoms Fifthly I cannot but lay at his door that new common prayer book that had first been at Rome I have had it from some of deep inspection into State-affairs and was there confirmed by the Popes own hand and then sent by that Arch-prelate into Scotland about fourteen years ago Their throats being too narrow to swallow it they were presently proclaimed Rebells in all the parish Churches and Chappels in England proclaimed Rebells Observe the King was affronted and disobayed in their rejection of it VVhereupon an Army was raised against them thinking to have forced that English Mass upon them but at Barwick God gave him the Check Sixthly His arming Papists by Proclamation to destroy his Parliament of England and his making peace with the Irish rebels and proclaiming them his good Catholike Subjects what other language could have come out of the Popes own mouth Thus he openly professedly joyned interest with the Antichristian Party You may be sure Papists in both Kingdoms would never have run the hazzard of their Lives and Estates with him in so desperate a war but that they well saw and knew if the day were his whereof they made no question how to make no small advantage to themselves against the true Protestant yea and had promises and assurances thereof from him Seventhly That title of Defender of the faith for which I know I shall be much wondred at was found upon him as likewise upon his Predecessors First He for his part had been a sorry defender of godly zealous Protestants the Lord knows from first to last Secondly that it is a Mark set upon the Kings of England by the Popes own hand is better known then can be denyed King Henry the eighth wrote a book against Luther I have seen it he inflicted death upon diverse that owned Gospel light and disclaimed Popery whereupon the Pope sent him this Title Defender of the faith with a great sword to slaughter indeed the true servants of Jesus Christ Let any man judge whether this was not a mark of the Beast upon him and t was ambitiously derived one from another King Edward and and Queen Elizabeth should have cast off this as soon and as zealously any of the rest I remember Luther says in one place That if the Pope as Pope should command him to read the Scripture or preach to the People he would not therefore do it Christ would not suffer the divels to call him the Son of God though indeed he were so yea he would not own his own name and Titles out of their mouth he took it as no honor at all to him Thus our Kings when this Title came to them from the Pope they should have thrown his title at his face again and told him that God had given them the civil sword which they would not bear in vain but zealously and constantly defend the true Gospel faith of Jesus Christ without his command and for his Title they looked upon it as no honor at all to them but a dangerous dishonour Well now that Christ is gone forth to make Inquisition not onely for Popery it self but even for the least dregs of it in all places of the world this mark of the Beast also was found upon him yea and actions tending to the Popes mind and sense upon it Where Christ finds the least signes or marks of the Beast such shall certainly feel his wrath much more cause had Christ to pour out a Vial of wrath and justice on him upon whom so much of Antichrist and his Interest was manifestly found and if one Instrument will not do it another shall I am perswaded
find out a name but such a name out of them as will grasp in all the other descriptions of Antichrist such a name as sutes to all that is said of him in the Rev. or elsewhere such a name as will hold forth the man that succeeds the Emperors in the Government of the Roman State or that is the seventh head of Daniels fourth beast that sits in the temple of God as the great Church man Lording it over the Faith and Consciences of all men in the world and in ordine ad spiritualia subjecteth all civil rule and Authority to himself that highly pretends to be for Christ and yet in every thing crosseth and contradicteth Christ That looks like a Lamb speaks like a Dragon and exerciseth the Power of the first beast viz. King Consuls c. When we put them to find a name out of this number that points out a man to whom all these particulars do agree they are at a stand they cannot give us one though their Kingdom and their All lie upon it Wherefore I conclude That that name whereto all the descriptions of Antichrist do agree is that Saint John bids us here seek after and is the name of the great Antichrist but the names before given pointing out the Pope are such as in every one of them all the descriptions of Antichrist do meet and concentrate therefore this is the name and consequently the Pope is the man of sin the great Antichrist Thus you have a sevenfold-scripturall demonstration of the point It 's good to make sure-work when we have to do with so unruly a beast But why did not the Holy-Ghost speak expresly who it was might not he as easily have said the Popes of Rome are the man of sin the great Antichrist as expressed it thus darkly and left it so liable to doubt and controversie I answer T is not for us to teach God how he shall speak but duty when he hath spoken to set our selves with reverence to spell out his mind I might put you off with this But yet think I may with safety venture to give you some reasons why God carried it on thus in the clouds and in the dark I. 'T was out of a tender respect he had to his People the prevention of their utter ruine for had he said that the Bishops of Rome and consequently Christians should be Lords of Rome yea make Kings and Emperors bow before them nay be Masters of the World this inhumane conjecture would have armed the Heathen Emperors as one man against the Christians and Christians talked so much of a Kingdom that they had some thoughts and jealousies in their heads and hearts of them already therefore certainly if Saint John had spoke out their jealousies had kindled into a flame against them that they would have set themselves to have destroyed the name of Christian from of the Earth which was this way prevented Secondly God would shew himself to be the God of secrets and depths of wisdom above weak shallow man This book of the Revelation hath brought many great and learned men to let fall their plumes the high thoughts of their own wisdoms and sufficiencies hath set them a studying hath exercised their best Intellectuals brought them upon their knees to God in prayer that he would be pleased to give them a Revelation of the Revelation the things he hath opened in this book that he would open them more and give them his own key for none else can unlock the Cabinet How hath it set men of admiring that if there be such hardness such depths in Gods Revelations what unsearchable secrets and depths of Mysteries are there in the heart and bosome of God himself infinitely above the reach of the understanding of all Men and Angels God loves to lay vain proud men low he loves to bring them to the knowledge of themselves and t is a great mercy to us that he doth so Thirdly God sent Antichrist as the greatest judgement on men that ever was in the World Rev. 6.2 God there sends forth Christ in his Apostles Evangelists and others riding swiftly on the white horse of the Gospel and you know how quickly they rid clean through the world Psal 19.34 with Rom. 10.18 but the world did generally despise the Gospel of Salvation offered to them In the following verses of that chapter God sends out The red horse of War The black horse of Famine The pale horse of Pestilence and his name that sate upon him was Death and Hell followed him verse the twelfth There comes a great Earthquake which upon the same account shakes down all the heathen Gods and Monarchies brings Constantine the great into the Throne sets up Christianity in the World and now Regis ad Exemplum every one turns Christian but yet the meer formality of name and notion served their turn the generality of men received the Christian faith but not in the love of it they held the truth of God in unrighteousness and this doubtless angered God more then the Heathens open contempt of the Gospel whereupon God set himself to bring forth some greater judgements on the Christian world then he had on the Heathenish when first he had secured his own By sealing the servants of God in the forehead Chap. 7. In the eighth Chapter the Trumpets sound whereby all Expositors agree haereses corruptelas verae Doctrinaepraesignificari In the four first chiefly Heresies Corruptions of sound Doctrine are presignified Temporal miseries not excluded but t is something hard I find to assign the right heresie and who was the broacher to every Trumpet Chap. 9.1 2. Tht fifth Angel sounded and I saw a star fall from heaven and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit And he opened the bottomless pit and there arose smoak out of the pit as the smoak of a great furnace and the sun and the air were darkned by reason of the smoak of the pit Here Hell breaks loose upon them and now in the Popes of Rome or the great Antichrist was wrath come upon the Christian World to the uttermost there were all Judgements in this one 2 Thes 2.8 to 13. Then shall that wicked be revealed whose comming is after the manner of Satan with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that Perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be sved for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lye that they all might be damned c. Now if God had named the Person and time of Antichrists coming there are such fearful things spoken of him that all the World would have set against him and so God had crossed the decree of Divine Justice but being expressed thus darkly the Pope hath been able to corrupt and deceive all the Nations of the Earth whereby the determined wrath is come upon the souls and bodies of Hypocritical and ungodly Christians This kinde
Vial into their hands and poured it out upon Episcopacy to some purpose Then came the Parliament of England and rooted up Episcocal Government by the very roots and in both Nations it was done with a great deal of Judgement Wisdom Courage Piety And his Kingdom was full of darkness So our translation but the Greek imports but this his kingdom was darkned what Scotland had done in a judicial way and the Parliament of England had done in a judicial way I say when the news thereof came to the Popes ears to the ears his Cardinals Jesuites and all his religious orders and Churches in Europe can you imagine less but it was black and sad news to them and news of a dangerous consequence and a shrewd persage to all the lovers and upholders of that Government what a deal of Popish lustre and glory was there in the three Nations by reason of Episcopacy East Host Altar Tapers Copes Surplesses dressing up of Chappels with the Pictures of Christ Virgin Mary Apostles Adorning Church-Widdows with the stories of the Bible in time to have become Laymens books Altar-adoration Sacrament-adoration Organs Singing of service that travellors from beyond Seas when they saw the posture of things would say one to another we are at home were but the service in Latine as t is in English And what great hopes had the Pope of the reconciliation of these Kingdoms to himself again and all by means of that height of Episcopacy amongst us But when a Vial full of wrath was poured out upon it according as you have heard how was the popish lustre and glory in England Scotland and Ireland quite put out and a very considerable degree of loss sorrow and darkness brought in upon the Popes whole dominions so as made them generally bite their tongues for madness and blaspheme The sixth Vial is poured out upon the great river Euphrates Euphrates must be here taken mystically for that which is the maintenance and defence of Rome Antichristian as that river was anciently of old Babylon There are five streams of baseness that run into one and so make up this great Euphrates Saint John mentions them Rev. 9.20 21. Images Murthers Sorceries Fornications Thefts by these Rome hath encreased her wealth and by these Rome hath been upheld and secured Now when the ten Christian Kings or Supream Powers shall be so far converted to God and have the eyes of their understanding so far enlightned as to see all this their perverting of Religion and these gross abuses out the Christian world their hearts will then rise against her so as to dry up and withdraw these streams of base revenues by which they have been so enriched and defended They 'l pull down Images whereby the simple people have been deluded severely punish their Sorceries whereby they have so awed and terrified the World their fornications and whorish stews whereby so many have been daily drowned in sensuality and undone eternally they 'l put an end to their Inquisitions whereby so many precious Servants of God have been cruelly murther'd an end also to their spiritual Thefts and Robberies when they perceive the merits of the Alsufficient sacrifice of Jesus Christ is held forth to them freely for the remission of sins according to that Isaiah 55.1.2 They 'l refuse to trade with them any more for their rotten creature-righteousness their Pardons and Indulgences shall bring in no more treasures into the Popes Coffers they 'l part with no more monies to have the souls of their departed friends prayed and sung out of Purgatory and will cast all their Trumperies out of their dominions And thus shall the great river Euphrates be dryed up That be way may be prepared for the Kings of the East that is that the ten Kings or Supream powers now finding in the eye of reasons the ruine of Rome feasable may encourage one another to the work and dispatch it they are called Kings of the East in allusion to Cyrus who came East from Babylon and took it Or thus that way may be made for the Kings of the East i. e. for the briging home the People of the Jews who are here called Kings You may see another notable interpretation of this Vial in Mr. Reynolds Sermon preaced before the House Aug. 28. 1644. page 41. The seventh and last Vial is poured out into the Air. The Air in which the Antichristian world lives is the smoak of the bottomless Pit Rev. 9. or the darkness of Ignorance for out of this came their Locusts all their hellish Doctrines and Worship Upon the pouring out of this Vial the Glory of the Son of Righteousness and of Gospel Ordinances doth so break forth as quite prevails against that Infernal Darkness and Spiritual Ignorance which bred Papacy and in which Papacy had so long breathed and lived and so the Antichristian Air being destroyed they fall a gasping and the pangs of Death come upon them for immediately there comes a voyce from Heaven saying T is done there 's an end of the Pope and his Kingdom and all the Mystery of iniquity Let me speak a little to the following verses Verse 18. There were voyces and thunderings and lightnings and as it were the sound of Trumpets upon mens Spirits that make their hearts quake and tremble within them and also a great earth-quake such a one as was not since men wer upon the earth so mighty and so great These will be sad days with the Antichristian party such thunderings voyces lightnings from above such an earth-quake from beneath them the face of things threatning as if Heaven and Earth would come together Do you marvel if at their Worlds end they be at their Wits end The effects of these lightnings thunders earthquake follow verse 19. First The great City was divided into three parts But by this Great City I understand Rome it self which was shaken into three factions and so became weak that it could not defend it self against the Besiegers There have been three factions amongst us I call them Factions onely because each have so esteemed of other peradventure it will run upon a threefold Party of Faction to the end of the War Then the Citits of the Nations fell i. e. fell off from her and left her dosolate of all former help and comfort and so Babylon the great came into remembrance before God to give unto her the cup of the wine of the feirceness of his wrath See how this is expressed Rev. 18.8 Her plagues come in one day Death and Mourning and Famine and she shall be utterly burnt with fire The latter end of that nineteenth verse doubtless looks as far as the great battel of God Almighty the issue whereof is set down Rev. 19 20. the Beast was taken and with him the false prophet and were both cast alive into the Lake of fire burning with brimstone Yet all this contents not Christ he still goes on to pursue his Victory Rev. 16.20 Every
perfect Victory is got Now let me shew you but very briefly how the Circumstances of that Providence stand in joynt with the Text both the thing itself and the sequeles of it For the thing itself First The Beast set upon them when they had finished their testimonie ver 7. The strictest sense may not be put upon this for when they have quite finished their testimony the beast will be absolutely ruined he and they being contemporaries Rev. 11.2.3 they both begin and end together else Christ should have none to be for him during some part of Antichrists raign therefore it must be understood when they were about to finish their testimony had brought it almost to a period because the Beasts raign and Kingdom was come almost to a period This war is to be when Antichrist is near upon his fall may it not then be looked for in our time when he is grown so old and gray-headed of his 1260. years having run up a 1240. or little less Seeing that from Daniel Paul and the Apostle Iohn we understand the ruine of the man of sin to fall into the lap of the Century wherin we live the more safely may any man conclude that what hath fallen out in our times may be the killing of the witnesses and signal token of his ruine It consists well enough with the Text for the time wherein the Witnesses are to be killed Secondly The text well looked into and considered doth clearly give it to be not a bloody but mystical or civil slaughter ver 7. compared with verse 11. their resurrection is not a proper but a civil or Mystical resurrection as shall anon be made good therefore it must needs follow to those who love not to be contentious that such also must be their death there being still the same reason of Opposites turned out of their places silenced disabled from speaking moving or acting in a publike way but thus we know the men spoken of were killed and lay dead Thirdly They thus lay dead the text saith In the street of the great City which is spiritually called Sodom Egypt where also our Lord was crucified ver 8. Rome is elegantly here described to be Sodom for uncleanness Egypt for idolatry Jerusalem for murther Oh Ierusalem thou that killest the Prophets c. It is called the great City as being made up of its ten Kingdoms and in the street t is not streets but in the street or in that Kingdom where they shall be killed there they shall lie that whole Kingdom or dominion being a street of the great City so made up whereto agrees the slaughter of these men being killed in one place which then was within Romes boundary and that in divers respects Fourthly In the street they lay unburied they were not suffered to be put in graves ver 9. this also must be expounded mystically those that are put in graves are out of every ones eye these dead men their friends were not suffered to afford them graves that is to allow them any harbour or hiding place all must shut them out of doores but they lay there where their Enemies might feed and glut their eye upon their miseries Fifthly They were in this condition for the space of three dayes and a half ver 9. Which being a broken number do certainly point out a determinate time neither can they be taken strictly for three natural days and a half for in that time the news of their killing could not be sent throughout the Antichristian World and what space were that to congratulate and solace themselves and one another in the slaughter of them and besides how litle is half a day perceived in such feasting and jocand solemnity and therefore they must be understood prophetically three days and a half for three years and a half and t is well known that these men were under the bands of Confinement or power of their civil death just so long neither more nor less three years and a half a die ad diem Sixthly It is sayd They that dwell upon the Earth shall rejoyce over them make merry and send gifts one to another because these two Prophets tormented them that dwelt upon the Earth ver 10. All the witnesses did torment them but these last especially whom having conquered and killed the Popish Prelatical party please and content themselves in this Conquest exceedingly as those of old upon their Pompous Solemnities and Feasting dayes did use to do they made merry and sent gifts to which the Holy-Ghost here alludes and says they rejoyced over them observe rejoyced over them for they had these men still in their clutches Seventhly At the end of the forementioned time the Spirit of life from God entered into them and they stagger up again ver 11. God by unexpected means did loose the bands of their death they are suspended no longer silenced no longer kept in Antichristian clutches no longer and after three years and an half through a principle of life from God bestowed upon them they get upon their feet again even those same men that were killed had the space of their lying dead been an Age or 2. or 3. Ages I should have sought this Resurrection in their Successors or men of such like Spirits risen up after them but it being but three years and a half I can easily believe that those same numerical men that were silenced suspended and so killed might have their suspensions taken off their mouths opened and they set upon their feet to Prophesie again and so 't was a Mystical or Civil Resurrection Eightly They heard a voice from heaven saying come up hither The Decree or Vote of Parliament calling them out of their low and dead condition into Liberty Freedom to a competent Maintenance and comfortable Estate wherein they also protected them in the sight and spight of Antichrist and all their enemies so that they were as secure from those that had lately killed them as if they had been taken up into heaven it self Ninthly They ascended up to heaven in a cloud Heb. 12.1 There a multitude of Believers are called a cloud of witnesses When these men returned from their imprisonment 't was wonderfull to see what a cloud of witnesses they were accompanied withall rejoycing greatly at this their unexpected and happy Freedom every one helping and lifting them up into their Heaven what they could Tenthly Their enemies beheld all this but could not hinder it and great fear fell upon them As easily apprehending that being tormented with them before they should be now much more plagued by them for the late injury done them to say nothing of old quarrels and besides a fresh and more full supply of the Spirit of God was come upon them and now are days fear swallows up and devours their whole three years joy and more so that there is no sign left of it amongst them You perceive how this piece of Providence agrees with the Text in all the joynts
concernment to him to prosper and speed well in it that ever any was in the world and therefore be assured he will interpret manifest Neuters to be close Enemies those that are not with him of them he will conclude they are against him which cannot but end in a bitter destructive curse 2. Gather we courage and valour to our selves though the enemies and difficulties of this work be never so many never so great and make up the number of those Called Chosen Faithful ones that go forth after Christ upon this expedition Rev. 19. Let Magistrates dispense Justice Minsters dispense Ordinances every man do the duty of his place as much as possibly we can to the difadvantage of Romes Interest More particularly 1. Let us wait with patience Rev. 13.10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity he that killeth with the sword shall be killed with the sword here is the Patience of the Saints saith St. John to be exercised in waiting for it For yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry Give Christ his own time and when it comes it will come with so much advantage every way that thou wouldst not for any thing it should have come sooner Christ times his Peoples mercies and his time is still the best blessed are those that wait for him 2. Get Faith believe all that God hath said in this business that he will fully execute each title of his threats upon him Let thy Faith trade daily in the blood of Christ for the more effectuall speeding of it for t is said They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb Rev. 12.11 that is by exercising their Faith in the blood of Christ 3. Endeavor to be skilfull in the Word especially in all the windings and turnings of this business made known It is both sin and shame that Christians especially we Ministers study and understand no more of the Book of Revelations then we do I am sure the contents of it are of as near concernment to us as any are in all the Book of God and I am sure God hath given out an encouragement to it in the beginning of it such as he hath not for the reading of any other in all the Bible Rev. 1.3 Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophesie and keep those things that are written therein that reads and studies them himself that hears others expound and preach the Word and keeps the weighty things thereof in his heart to support comfort him in these troublous sinking time to direct and guide him amidst these many cross ways and strange turns of affairs And he hath given out a command for it in the latter end of the Book Rev 22.10 Seal not the sayings of the Prophesie of this book for the time is at hand that they must be acted therefore let the book lie open for every one to read and study that they may have understanding of the times and know what they have to do The Word is the sword of the Spirit 't is a hammer a helmet t is a fire an engine of Battery 't is any thing thou canst stand in need of in this expedition against him Rev. 12.11 They overcame him by word of his testimony 4 Give thy self much to Prayer by Prayer thou mayest shut Heaven upon Antichrist and his Factions as the Witnesses Rev. 11.6 that they shall get no showers of refreshment no help no mercy no hope from God By Prayer thou mayst arm all the Hosts of Heaven and Eath against them Psal 18.6 7 8. In my distress I called upon the Lord I cryed unto my God he heard my voice out of his Temple and my cry came before him even into his ears Then the earth shook and trembled the foundations of the hills moved and were shaken because he was wroth There went up a smoak out of his nostrils and fire out of his mouth devoured coals were kindled by it Davids praying undid Saul Much more will the prayer of Faith unanimously put forth by all the Saints raise Heaven and Earth up in Arms against him Prayer-blast him I le warrant thee thou mayest do it 5. Carry thy life in thy hand Rev. 12.11 They overcame him how Why they love not their lives unto the death A dying time thou must have thou canst never lose thy life if I may call that a losing which is indeed the greatest gaining so gloriously comfortably safely as in this quarrell for God against Antichrist say with Paul I count not my life dear unto me so I may but finish the work Rev. 14.13 I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me Write blessed are the dead which die in the Lord they rest from their labours and their works do follow them The sense of this verse as it stands in conjunction with the former verses is a Cordial reach'd forth to those who shall lay down their lives for Christ in the quarrell thus they die in the Lord blessed are they they rest from the labours strifes combustions terrible broils that are in the World for the pulling of him down their services and sufferings shall not be in vain they shall follow them in the rewards of them triumphal Crowns exceeding eternal weights of glory Happy are the men of this generation according as they lay forth their parts and power for Antichrist his ruine it is the great work and business that God hath cut our for these times into which we are fallen and blessed are they who know their Masters Work and earnestly pursue his and their true Interest They are deaf that do not hear this voice from the mouth of Christ Who will rise up for me against the evil doers and who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquitie Psal 94.16 Cursed is he that doth work of the Lord deceitfully and cursed is he that keepeth back his sword from blood Jer. 48.10 You will say none of all this was spoken concerning Antichrist true for they were spoken concerning far inferiour enemies and left upon Record to be an alarm to us then especially when Christ should be up in Arms against his greatest adversaries if any should then with-hold his sword from blood or do the work he engages for deceitfully and is not in good earnest for the utter ruin of Pope and Popery surely such shall be cursed of God and cursed again And do not say that in this I am cruel lest you charge God foolishly from whose mouth you are witnesses I speak Rev 18.6 Reward her even as she rewarded you and double unto her double according to her works in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double as if he had said spare her not who never spared the dear Saints of God give her judgement without mercy who did never know to shew mercy you can never give her more then her iniquities have deserved Reflect we every one of us upon our selves
and carriage and see what we contribute to this great design Christ is gone forth upon Do ye so dispence Justice and Judgement so administer Gospel-Ordinances Word and Sacraments so act your Faith so Pray so Fight as may help to shake out the remaining Vials of wrath faster and faster upon them There is never a man or woman in this Congregation but may carry the matter so as when Christ hath got the day and conquest may without lying or vanity of spirit say Through the goodness of God upon me I was a weapon a poor instrument in the hand of Jesus Chirst for the effecting of it when Rome is all on a flaming fire may say I was one that helped to set it on fire when Babylon is fallen I was one that helped to pull it down which if thou hast done not Jehu-like out of pride and for thy own ends but as service due to Jesus Christ and for the bringing in of his Kingdom doubtless thy seed shall be blessed upon Earth and great shall be thy reward in Heaven Vse 4. The last Use is to you who in reason may live to this great day of Romes ruin when you shal see the great Earthquake shaking their Politicall Heavens and Earth all to pieces and the greatest temporall glories now in Christendom brought down laid low and trodden under foot let it not trouble you at all for let me tell you those in Rev. 18. That shall tament her burning are none of Christ friends but carnal wretches and indeed his enemies Your duty upon it is of a clean contrary nature Rev. 18. you read of Babylon fallen as when a milstone is cast into the bottom of the Sea of the smoak of her burning and that in one hour she is made desolate saith the Holy Ghost Rejoyce over her thou Heaven and ye holy Apostles and Prophets for God hath avenged you on her Rev. 19.1 After these things that is after Rome burnt and laid in ashes I heard a great voyce of much People in Heaven in the true Church of Christ saying Allelujah salvation and honour and glory and power unto the Lord our God ver 2. For true and righteous are thy Judgements for he hath judged the great whore which did corrupt the Earth with her Fornication and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand ver 3. And again they said Allelujah and her smoak rose up for ever and ever ver 5. A voyce came out of the Throne saying praise our God all ye his servants ye that fear him both small and great It was one of S. Austins three wishes that he could have rejoyced greatly in to have seen Rome in her glory though but heathenish but I am confident were he upon earth now one of his greatest wishes wherein he would most please and solace himself would be to see Rome all on a flaming fire and burnt to ashes O quam pulchrum spectaculum And truly there is cause why you should rejoyce in it with exceeding great joy 1. When the Witnesses were dead in the streets you know what was their carriage Rev. 11. They rejoyced over them made merry sent gifts and God will have you to tread forth the law of retaliation as they rejoyced over your misery so Gods tels you t is an equal thing and he requires it as a duty of you to rejoyce greatly over their miseries 2. You know what postures they stand in in reference to Christ and his Church they provoke God daily with the highest hand that ever any did as I have shewed you they wrong Christ strangely keeping him out of his just rights they are the proudest enemy the cruellest enemy and enemy of the longest continuance the most hopeless of ever being brought in by repentance that ever the Church had any and therefore if ever the people of God might rejoyce in the downfall of an enemy you may certainly in this 3. Consider the sequel of their ruin which will be this A Kingdom that cannot be shaken as the Apostle speaks Heb. 12.27 28. and if the Text be rightly understood it speaks to this very time and business Out of the ruins and ashes these wars shall make Christ will bring the most glorious frame of Government that ever the world saw and let men and States do what they can it will not be brought forth till then but then it shall and can any Saint but rejoyce in that which ushers in those good and blessed times Scripture is so abundant in promising which shall be the subject of the ensuing discourse THE REIGN OF CHRIST By Ed. Hawghton LONDON Printed for Francis Tyton 1652. TO THE READER I Would not have any one think that I am able no nor any man now alive to set forth the so-much-expected Kingdome of CHRIST in the true worth and glories of it let it suffice if I give you some rude draughts of it The Prophets of old did speak very clear and excellent things concerning the Messiah his Birth Life Miracles Doctrine Death Resurrection and what was to follow thereupon insomuch that Isaias is usually called by Divines the Evangelical Prophet But when John was come our Saviour saith of him Mat. 11. He was the greatest of those that had been born of women meaning in respect of his knowledge of the Messias nay that he was was more then a Prophet i. e. he had more abilities to speak of Christs nature offices and excellencies of his kingdome then any or all the Prophets that had been before him But yet sayes he The least in the kingome of God is greater then John the Baptist After the ascension of Christ and descension of the Holy Ghost the meanest Minister of the Gospel was able to hold him forth in all points more excellently then John the Baptist was To bring this home to the present businesse We that now speak concerning this great this blessed Kingdome of Jesus Christ onely as Prophets yet not by any private spirit but groundedly from the Word may speak very clear undoubted and in their eares especially to whom this subject is somwhat strange and new very wonderful things almost incredible but when Rome shall come to be buried in its own ashes and after that the great Battel of God Almighty fought and finished and Christ hath his Kingdome actually upon the Anvil hammering and working it out those whose lot it shall be to stand forth Ministers of the Gospel then and be eye witnesses of Christ so at work of them it may be said They are the greatest of those that have been born of women in respect of their distinct knowledge of the Kingdome of our Lord nay more then Prophets men far more accomplish'd to speak of the parts government glory of his Kingdome then any or all the most holy learned men that have been before them who saw it only at a distance through the Prospective of the more dark and general Promises and spake of it by way of