men much lesse of our brethren but yet if Christ will set up his Throne upon the carkases of the slaine heerein we may and will rejoyce 4. Fourthly he that will be thankfull must enlarge his thoughts by the remembrance of former mercies and all the circumstances of mercies present So doeth Deborah vers 4.5 Lord when thou wentest out of Seir when thou marchedst out of the field of Edom the earth trembled and the heavens dropped the clouds also dropped waters the mountaines melted from before the Lord even that Sinai from before the Lord God of Israel You must prayse God from the fountayne of Israel and sing both the song of Moses and of the Lambe And you must enlarge your thoughts in all the circumstances of the present mercies so doth Deborah by the violence of the enemy the kings came and sought then fought the kings of Canaan in Tanach by the waters of Megiddo they tooke no gaine of money By their confident expectations and their hopes Why is his chariot so long a comming why tarry the wheeles of his chariot have they not sped have they not divided the prey to every man a damsell or two to Sisera a prey of divers colours a prey of divers colours of needle worke of divers colours of needle worke of both sides meet for the necks of them that take the spoyle By the falshood and desertion of their friends Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds to heare the bleatings of the flocke for the divisions of Ruben were great thoughts of heart Gilead abode beyond Iordan and why did Dan remaine in ships Ashur continued on the sea shore and abode in his breaches Curse ye Meroz curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof because they came not out to the helpe of the Lord to the helpe of the Lord against the mighty By the immediate hand of God in the deliverance his arme was made bare They fought from heaven the starres in their courses fought against Sisera the River Kishon swept them away that ancient River the River Kishon 5. Fifthly a heart truly thankfull gives the instruments their due honour those that God hath honoured in the worke doe you honour also and God in them Out of Ephraim was there a root of them against Amalek after Benjamin among the people Zebulon and Nephthali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field Blessed above women shall Iahel the wife of Heber the Kenite be blessed shall she bee above women in the Tent. It is the property of a beast to crop the Tree that shelters it and of an unskilfull soldier to dismantle that Towne that must defend him Israel was never in a worse condition then when all their businesse was to murmur under their present sufferings and to quarrell with the Instruments of their deliverances 6. Sixthly mercies received with prayses must be followed with prayers As prayer should engage the heart to prayse so prayses should encourage the heart to prayer and those prayses are heartlesse and faithles that doe not end in prayers for when God is giving is our fittest season to be asking So heere prayse for a deliverance from one enemy drawes out the hearts in prayer against all Gods enemies So let all thine enemies perish ô Lord. Thus we are come home to the Text. The particuculars thereof are three 1. The persons prayed against Gods enemies with their note of universality All thine enemies 2. Secondly the end of these men Let them perish with that particle which directs us to the maner with an eminent utter and finall overthrow So let them perish 3. Thirdly the meanes which is by the power the prayses and the prayers of the Saints Hence the points are also three 1. First All the Churches enemies are Gods enemies 2. Secondly That perishing is their portion 3. Thirdly That they shall perish under the power by the prayers and prayses of the Saints All the Churches enemies Gods enemies Doctrine It is a question the Schoolmen usually put Num Deus possit odio haberi Whether it be possible for the creature to be an enemy to God who is goodnesse it selfe seeing evill onely is the object of hatred which is not to be found in him It is answered That as God is bonum universale hee cannot bee hated by the creature but inparticulari being a good that is contrary to us so men doe hate the Lord. For Men and Angels in their fall as some Schoolemen observe lost three things in respect of God Delectationem pulchritudinis adorationem Majestatis imitationem bonitatis They neyther delight in his beauty nor adore his glory nor imitate his goodnesse Thus all men by nature are Gods enemies But the enemies heere spoken of are Israels enemies enemies to God in his Church as Psal 78.1 Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered Isay 57.23 I know they going forth and comming in and thy rage against me Yea even all their neglects and omissions towards the Church referre to God and hee will judge them accordingly at the last day I was hungry and ye gave me no meat inasmuch as ye did it not to the least of these ye did it not to me Therefore Gods enemies heere spoken of are his Churches enemies In the opening of this point there are three things to be explayned First the Church of God in all ages and places hath met with enemies Secondly that these enemies are not onely theirs but Gods Thirdly some short discoveries who these enemies are First the Church of God hath from the beginning met with enemies For the nature of Christs kingdome in this world is to rule in the midst of his enemies in the world to come he shall rule over them The Apostle sayth There is a schema a fashion of the world that passeth away 1 Cor. 7.31 it continues not alwayes in one fashion but yet cast it into what shape you will and the Church of God hath alwayes found enemies in it and usually they have beene the greatest persons and the most prevayling party These enemies are of two sorts from without or from within While the Church was wandring among the Heathen as sheepe among wolves what else could be expected When Israel went downe into Aegypt they met with a Leviathan who by cruelty and subtilty sought to destroy them Ps 74.14 and when they came into the Land of Canaan they were as a speckled bird all the bordering Nations hated them Jer. 12.9 There arose fowre great Monarchies or principall kingdoms in the world called Beasts Dan. 7.1.2 chiefly for their cruelty to the Saints Under the Chaldean Monarchy Israel is as a scattered sheepe the Lions have driven him away the former Kings of Assyria Tiglath Pileser and Salmanaser have devoured him and Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon hath broken his bones Jer. 50.17 In the Persian Monarchy there was an Haman and a Cambises who with a Samaritan faction of their
it Zach. 14 4. Ut Jerosolyma non fit in umbrosa valle quemadmodum prius sed pateat longe latè ejus prospectus ita ut gentes omnes eam scypiciant Calv. Rev. 11 7 8 9. Ezech. 37 11.12 when the Mount of Olives shall cleave asunder in the midst towards the East and towards the West That is whatsoever doth now overshadow and hide the Churches glory and hinder her prospect shall be removed And God doth not use to afford his people great and eminent deliverances till they are deeply humbled and brought low the slaying of the witnesses doth precede their resurrection and they must be dry bones first and then the Lord sayth I will open your graves Upon these grounds I doe conclude that the last at empts of the enemies shal be the fiercest and that the bitterest afflictions and the shâ—rpest persecutions of the Church of God are reserved for these lâ—st times And that this enmity may not seeme strange to you the grounds of it and all the persecution that flows from it are principally these two 1. First Reas 1 from the contrariety and antipathy that is in their natures there being an enmity in judgement put betweene the seed of the woman and the feede of the Serpent It is part of the Divels curse Gen. 3.15 and it is the curse of all those that are of their father the Divell This enmity being founded in nature must needs be aniversall and indefatigable Vniversall for hatred carryes a man against all the kinde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist as grace carryes a mans love sincerely to all the Saints so this enmity founded in nature and in judgement carryes with it a contrariety unto all the Saints And though some ungodly men may pretend fayre and may with their mouths shew much love and this enmity may be hid yet are they only wolves in sheepes clothing and whensoever occasion and opportunity is offered will appear so to be for that Rule will hold to the end of the world Tertul. Apol. Tot hostes quot extranei they that be strangers to godlinesse are all of them enemies to it And indefatig able it must needs be A man would sometime thinke that Satan and wicked men having their plots so often defeated and brought to nought and all the mischiefe of them turned upon their heads should at last sit down discouraged and give over but they cannot doe it because it is founded in nature and judgement and when the five shall cease to burn and the stone to move towards its centre then shall their attempts and acts of hostility cease and never till then 2. Secondly this enmity is exceedingly acted in them by the spirit of the Divell whose name is in regard of his opposition to the Saints Rev. 9.11 called Abaddon and Apollyon the Destroyer All sinnes indeed are from the Divell Ephes 2.2 and all sinners are acted by the Divell he rules in all the children of disobedience but yet some sinnes are from him per modum servitutis as a man serves Satan in them but some sinnes are from him per modum imaginis as a man resembles Satan in them and such is this of enmity against the Saints and in these sins in which a man in an especiall maner becomes the seed of the Serpent Satan doth more directly and immediately act men then he doth in other sinnes and therefore Rev. 3.10 he is sayd to cast the Saints into prison it being done by his speciall instigation and command And therefore it s noted as a speciall misery that shall befall the Divell after all the persecuting Monarchies shall be destroyed that Dragon the old Serpent the Divell and Satan Rev. 20.2.3 shall be bound for a thousand yeares and shut up in the bottomlesse pit that he may not deceive the Nations sc to draw out the rage of their spirits in a way of persecution as he did in times past no more And there is no sacrifice that the Divell is so well pleased with as he is the God of this world as when there is offered to him the bloud of the Saints and therefore men that are more immediatly ruled by him this he doth put them upon as that with which he is chiefly delighted It s sayd of Julian the Apostate that he had two great designes one the subduing of the Persians and the other the rooting out of the Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazian Orat. 2. Cont. Julian and when he went in that Persian expedition in which he perished he vowed if he had succes in that enterprise he would at his returne sacrifice to his Idols sc to the Divell in them the bloud of all the Christians that were in the whole Empire which had beene a sacrifice with which Satan would have beene well pleased And as Satan loves to stir up the rage and enmity of wicked men to destroy the saints so he doth very much delight to make them instruments in their owne destruction and that temporall as well as eternall and hee knowes there is no speedier way to destroy a person or people then for men to rall upon the reere of the Lords host This is the ready way to take away their owne defence and put themselves out of the protection of God Esay 49 8. for it is for the Saints sake and by their Covenant that the world is continued and the earth established it would soone sinke under your feet else they beare up the pillars of it they are the rocke upon which your City and safety is built and had the Lord once disposed of his sonnes and daughters in their great mariage with the Lambe he would quickly dissolve this frame of heaven and earth and breake up the house keeping of the world and Satan doth set men in a way of persecution to this end that they may thereby take away their own defence And the Divell knowes there is no speedier way to set God in vengeance against a person or a Nation then this is because the heart of the Lord is exceeding tender towards his holy ones hee that toucheth them toucheth the apple of his eye Zach 2 8. which no man shall doe impune or unrevenged I now come to the second branch in the Text which is the portion of these enemies they shall perish All the Churches enemies shall assuredly perish in their owne opposition perishing is their portion For explication I shall lay downe these positions Posit 1 First The destruction of the Churches enemies shall be effected by their opposition against the Church Mich. 4.11.12.13 There are many Nations gathered together against Zion and their purposes are that she may be defiled and destroyed but Gods purposes are not so they know not the thoughts of the Lord neither understand they his counsell for his intention is that they should perish in their opposition associate themselves that they may be broken in peeces Esay 8 9. that they may
first 6000. yeares of the World as Justine Martyr and after him Lactantius and others have observed And then shal be another condition of the Church which shall be even in this life compared with the former may wel be stiled Triumphant and glorious When Christ that great and mighty Angell shall come downe from Heaven clothed with a Cloud and a Rainbow upon his head and shall set his right foot upon the Sea and his left foot upon the Earth and thereby take to himselfe the dominion of both Revel 10.5.6 which is called taking to himselfe his great power and reigning Revel 11.17 when hee shall give the kingdome and dominion under the whole heaven which was before in the enemies hand unto the Saints of the most High and they shall possesse it for ever and ever When their enemies shall bow down before them and licke the dust under their feet In this militant condition hath the Church of God beene ever since the fall and how long it shall so continue no man can certainly determine But it is the concurrent judgement of our Divines that it drawes neere an end While this estate of the Church lasts their condition will be like that described by the Prophet A day wherein the light shall neither be cleare nor darke Zach. 14.6 full of uncertainties and subject to continuall changes and vicissitudes not so light that they shal say there is an end of our feares nor so darke that they shall say there is an end of our hopes Sometimes they may be under the power of the Enemy as prisoners in a pit wherein there is no water and by and by God will rayse up a deliverer for them that shall proclaime their liberty and be as a covering Cherub to the Ark of God for their defence A resemblance of this condition of the Church we have in the Jewish State which therefore is made the prototype of all the Gentile Churches thorowout the whole Book of the Revelation the Prophesie of the last times An embleme whereof you have in the former Chapters First the children of Israel did evill in the sight of the Lord and he gave them into the hand of Cushan Rishathaim the king of Mesopotamia and hee ruled over them eight yeeres Then the Lord raysed up a deliverer to them Oihoniel the sonne of Kenaz Calebs yonger brother and the Land had rest forty yeeres Then the chilren of Israel did evill againe in the sight of the Lord and he strengthned against them Eglon the king of Moab and they served him eighteene yeeres and then the Lord raysed up a deliverer for them Ehud the sonne of Gera and the Land had rest fowrescore yeeres Afterwards they were oppressed by the Philistines and the Lord delivered them by Shamgar the sonne of Anath And they did evill againe in the sight of the Lord and he sold them into the hand of Iabin king of Canaan the most potent of all these enemies for he had nine hundred Chariots of iron and twenty yeeres hee mightily oppressed Israel And then the Lord raysed for their deliverance Deborah the wife of Lapidoth and Barach the son of Abinoham and gave the enemy into their hands Thus God never leaves his people in affliction but provides Saviours aswell as Persecutors not onely hornes but Carpenters also to beat them to pieces Zach. 1.21 A song of thanksgiving for this last victory and deliverance is the contents of this Chapter In which by way of context wee may observe these six particulars all which will helpe us in the duty of the present day 1 First the heart that shal be thankfull for a mercy must be gracious the song must be sung by a Deborah and a Barak they must have golden vials hearts refined and not drossie that shall have the harpes of God in their hands Revel 5.8 And they that shall sing the Lords song must be redeemed from the Earth being the first fruits to God and to the Lambe in whose mouth is found no guile Revel 14.4.5 An earthy spirit may put a man upon a prayer his owne necessity will therein carry him on to howle upon his bed for his corne and wine and oyle but it is a heart only redeemed from the earth that will enable a man to returne prayse so that if there bee ten cleansed we may say with our Saviour Where are the nine 2. Secondly whosoever shal be thankful for a mercy must prize it and rejoyce in it Gaudentis est gratias agere Levit. 3.1 Peace offrings are called in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Retributions and they that thinke they have received little will make little conscience of returning There is an evill generation among the sonnes of men that undervalue mercies and despise them saying Would God we had died in Egypt Canaan is a Lâ—nd that eats up his inhabitants These men are so far from accepting the punishment in an affliction that they accept not the mercy in their redemption Mercies will distinguish men aswell as Judgements Some are delivered to everlasting life some to shame and everlasting contempt Dan. 12.2 O poore murmuring soules to whom mercies are a burthen 3. Thirdly a thankfull heart must stir up it selfe unto prayse Awake Deborah awake awake utter a song arise Barak and let captivity captive Eph. 5.19 thou sonne of Abinoam Thanksgiving is melody in the heart of the Lord and before you can make melody your Instrument must be in tune Awake my glory awake lute and harpe I my selfe will awake right early Yee prophane and unthankfull spirits ingratus est qui injuriam voc at finem voluptatis that repine at blessings Sen. ad Polyb. â— 20 and looke upon your mercies as your injuries incredulous men that are scarce willing to beleeve the things you see that endeavour to bring up an evill report upon all the goodnesse of God procul hinc heere is no place for you in the worke of this day The garment of prayse is comely only for the upright ye wayward spirits that slight the gift because your selves did not chuse the messenger and because you like not the hand that brings it And yee seemingly compassionate that say shall we give thanks for the killing of men and that of our owne Nation in a Civill Warre In this case the Heathen man did forbeare his Triumph and therefore such Thansgivings seeme not only unchristian but inhumane To such I answer The War in which at first ye of this City were eminently ingaged and by you the Kingdom was eyther just or unjust if it were unjust then hide your Tropheyes and be ashamed of your victories for he that gives thankes to God because he prospers in a sinne makes God a patron thereof But if it were just you ought to rejoyce in the successe being the publike execution of divine justice and to glorifie God in those things wherein hee hath glorified himselfe T is farre from us to rejoyce in the bloud of
battell And when the Lord will use an ungodly people as weapons in his hand they shall mightily prevayle If hee will use Babylon as his battle axe Jer 51.20 he will with him breake in peeces the Nations and destroy the Kingdoms how much more when he will make Judah his battle axe and his weapons of war Joannes Foxe in Comment suis whom he doth much more delight to use and honour some do conceive that in reference to this victory heere by the waters of Megiddo that last great battell hath its name which shall bee betweene Christ and Antichrist called therefore the battell Armageddon Brightm Rev. 16.16 which some render mons deliciarum the mountayne of delights unto God and his people and others render it mons excidii Par. the mountayne of slaughter and destruction to the Churches enemies The Churches enemies have comonly fallen by their hand in the end Esa 31.8.9 The Assyrian shall fall by the sword not of a mighty man and the sword not of a meane man shall devoure him Whence then shall his destruction come Not so much from any instrument but from the hand of God made bare therein Ignem hanc accendi foveri dicit in medio populi sui ut significet impios non impune Ecclesiam persequi c. Calv. in loc and the Lords fire is in Zion and his furnace in Ierusalem it is out of Zion that the fire comes that consumes the enemies and it is into this fiery fornace they are cast when they are destroyed Ezech. 24.14 I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel and they shall doe in Edom according to mine anger and according to my fury saith the Lord God They that are with the Lamb called and chosen and faithfull Rev. 17 14 18 6. they shall burne Rome with fire and reward her according as she hath rewarded them and shall double to her double according to her works in the cup that shee filled to them they shall fill unto her double 2. By their prayers Rom. 4 13. The Lord Jesus having made the Saints together with himselfe Heyres of the world hee hath also given them a great hand in the Governement of the world as they shall have in the Judgement of it at the last and great day 1 Cor. 6 1 2. therefore their prayers are Decrees as wel as the prayers of the Angels and are called by the same name Iob. 22.28 Dan. 4.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the great executions and transactions of things in the world doe passe through their hands Psal 49 8 9. they binde Kings in chaynes and Nobles with fetters of iron this honour have all his Saints It s observable that in all the great turnings of the world the prayers of the Saints have had the great hand Exod. 14 15 16 17. Exod. 17 11 12. Psal 76 2. Aegypt is destroyed in the red sea but it is by the prayer of Moses Amaleck is routed by prayer Thereby armies discomfited victories woon in Salem God breakes the arrowes of the bow the shield the sword and the battell And they that scape the fiercest pursuers among men prayer will overtake them hee that escapes the sword of Hazael and Iehu shall Elisha slay 1 King 19 17. Gladionon corporali sed spirituali A Lap. Ad horribilem famem sub Joram refertur quia Deo impe travit Elisaeus cum ab idololatria Israelitae nollent discedere Pet. Martyr in loc Rev. 4 5. Rev. 6 10. and yet we know he was not a man of war one that did handle the sword onely the word did goe out of his mouth and tooke effect upon them And all the great turnings in the Christian world since Christs time have beene no other then the fruit of the praiers of the Saints The Seales in the booke of the Revelation set forth the judgement of God upon Pagan Rome and they are all in answer to prayers for out of the throne sc the presence of the Lord in the midst of his people proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voyces And in answer to the cry of the soules under the Altar who cryed with a loud voyce How long Lord holy and true doest thou not judge and avenge our bloud on them that dwell on the earth The Trumpets set foorth the judgements executed upon Rome Christian and these also proceede from the prayers of the Saints for the fire cast upon the earth in those plagues was taken off the Altar Rev. 8 5. and there were voices and thundrings and lightnings and an earthquake c. The Trumpets sounded but it was in answer to prayer after there had beene silence in heaven for the space of halfe an howre sc during the time of the incense offering The Vialls set forth the judgements of God upon Rome Antichristian and the great voice that commanded these Angels to powre out their Vials upon the earth came out of the Temple that is Rev. 16 1. De Templo venit quando precibus sanctorum aliquid impetratur quibus mandandi partes hic tribuntur ut sciamus quantam vim habent fideles precationes Brightm Rev. 11 5 6. from the prayers of the Saints and whosoever shall observe the great changes in the world that all these set forth wil be forced to acknowledge what a mighty power there is in the prayers of the Saints And that it may appeare it was not only so in ancient times he sayth the witnesses even in these latter dayes shall have a power to shut heaven that it shall not raine to turne waters into bloud and to smite the earth with plagues as often as they will And that this is the misery of all the Churches enemies If any man will hurt them fire shall proceed out of their mouthes and devour them and who ever he be he must in this maner be killed 3. By their praises for out of the mouthes of babes the Lord hath ordained them Psal 8 2. that he should still the enemy and the avenger when Iehosophat and all the people promised God in the beauty of holinesse the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon Moab 2 Chron. 20 22 23. and Mount Seiâ—… which were come against Iudah and they smote one another When Paul and Silas sung in the prison the earth did quake and so it commonly doth at the praises of the Saints The enemies of the Church doe fall before their praises as well as their prayers Let us now come to the Application of these three points for a conclusion They serve for Admonition for consolation and direction First Vse 1 for Admonition unto all the enemies of the Church cease your rage against them your plots your hopes refraine from them let them alone they are but passengers and Pilgrims they are going unto Canaan if the world be your countrey let them quietly and peaceably passe through it without
lesse time 2. Secondly these last sufferings shall be an inlet to the most glorious deliverances that ever the Church of God had for the killing of the witnesses shall make way for their resurrection Rev. 11.12.15 when they shall ascend to heaven in a cloud their enemies beholding them And then shall the Kingdomes of the earth become the Kingdomes of the Lord and the dominion under the whole heaven shall be given to the Saynts of the most High Dan 7.27 and they shall possesse it for ever and ever 3. Thirdly all your sinfulnesse and unworthines shall not hinder your redemption though the people of God fall yet they shall rise and though they may sit in darknesse the Lord will bee light about them Indeed the great discouragements to the Saints are their sinnes and their unanswerable walking unto meanes and mercies but yet the Lord cannot alter the word gone out of his lips nor suffer his faythfulnesse to fayle Esay 10.27 The burden shall bee taken away from off thy shoulder and the yoke from off thy necke and the yoke shall bee destroyed because of the annointing Glass Rhetor sacr Calv. in loc Some take the annointing for Christ the annointed of the Lord and others for the Kingdome of Christ which by an unction the Lord had established whether Christ or the Kingdom of Christ be understood yet there is an annointing that will breake every yoke Their sinnes may procure their affliction but they shall never hinder their redemption 4. Fourthly The enemies shall never bee able to set up Popery in this kingdome againe and to establish any of those things that relate to it that the Lord hath removed in these late yeeres they shall never bee able to root out the Saints out of the Reformed Churches but they shall grow by their opposition Christ will surely keepe the ground that hee hath won in a way of Reformation and what the former vialls have destroyed shall never be made up againe for hee will not lose the fruit of his conquest in any one of them His shakings of heaven and earth are to this end that hee may remove the things that are shaken as of things that are made that those things that cannot be shaken may remain Heb. 12.27 There is nothing that is made by man in the things concerning God but he will have a shaking time for it and his end in shaking it is that hee may remove it and he doth not so remove it that the enemies should againe establish it And therefore what ever of Popery the Lord hath shaken and removed I doe conclude that all the power of the enemy shall never set up againe I doe not doubt but there will bee many and desperate attempts for it but they shall never bee able to prevayle as when the Heathenish way of worship was destroyed there were many endeavoured to set it up againe Fiftly God will in an especiall manner owne you in all your sufferings as he calls you forth for him so will hee assuredly appeare for you and therefore he saith when men reject them and cast them out Rev. 11.3 they are my two witnesses and they shall have the same power with him that any of the ancient Saints have had in times past they shall turne water into bloud with Moses and Aaron they shall shut Heaven that it shall not raine with Elijah they shall be two Olive trees standing before the God of the earth with Joshua and Zorobabel if any man hurt them fire shall come out of their mouthes and devour them and they shall smite the earth with plagues as often as they will so that the greater persecution they shall meet with all from men the nearer accesse they shall have to God and the greater acceptance with him and as the affliction shall abound so shall also the consolation and to be owned eminently by God and to be looked upon as those of whom the world is not worthy when they are disowned by men and accounted not worthy to live in the world is a great meanes to beare up mens spirits in the greatest sufferings Sixtly It shall end in their finall and utter destruction for there shall follow an earthquake Rev. 11.13 in which the tenth part of the City shall fall Christ shall be clothed with a vesture dipt in bloud Rev. 19.13.15 and he shall tread the wine presse and fiercenesse of the wrath of Almighty God and all those ancient Prophesies as well for the enemies destruction as for the Saints redemption shal be fullfilled for time or delay shal be no more Rev. 10.6.7 the mystery of God shal be finished as he hath declared to his servants the Prophets and then shall that ancient prediction of Lactantius be fullfilled De divino praemio lib. 7. c. 15. Romanum nomen quo nunc regitur ab orbis horret animus dicere sedd cam quia futurum est tolletur de terra All that power of Rome which hath for many hundred yeares as the fourth Beast tyrannized over the Churches all this shall be destroyed in the little horne Dan. 7.11.26 and the Beast given to the burning flame to be consumed and destroyed unto the end But especially by Iulian who did in dispight to Christ and Christianity use all meanes to bring in Pagan Idolatry againe and to build the Temple at Jerusalem and to set up againe the Jewish worship and to this end set a great multitude of poore deluded Jewes about this worke but when they had gotten materialls together and thought to set about the building that night the Lord sent a whirl-winde and scatered all the materialls but they were not thus discouraged from the worke but they sought out the ancient foundation of the Temple to build upon it and having found it the Lord sent an earthquake which cast up all the former foundation and then that Prophesie was full filled there was not a stone left upon a stone not throwne downe Ecce globus igneus e fundamentis Templi erumpeus laborantibus occur tens operarios multos ambussit incendio illo per totum diem durante Ea miracula quosdam Iudaeos ita permoverunt ut Christum Deum agnoscerent Religio vero indurati cum indignatione opus caeptum dereliquerunt Osiander Epitom hist Ecclesiast Cent. 4 l. 3. c. 34. but such was their blindenesse and desperate madnesse that they would not desist from the enterprise therefore the Lord sent a fire out of the foundations of the Temple which consumed many of the workmen their materialls and instruments for the building and then at last they began with shame and indignation to give it over The like endeavours wee may expect for Rome Antichristian and with greater violence but they shall be alway so crossed that they shall at last perish in their owne opposition what ground the Lord hath won upon Rome he will maintayne for he will by degrees destroy her Neyther shall