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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86683	Lingua testium: wherein monarchy is proved, 1. To be jure divino. 2. To be successive in the Church (except in time of a nationall desertion) from Adam untill Christ. 3. That monarchy is the absolute true government under the Gospel. 4. That immediately after extraordinary gifts in the Church ceased, God raised up a monarch for to defend the Church. 5. That Christian monarchs are one of the witnesses spoken of Rev. 11. 6. That England is the place from whence God fetched the first witnesse of this kind. 7. England was the place whither the witnesses, (viz. godly magistracy and ministry) never drove by Antichrist. Where is proved, first, that there hath been a visible magistracy, (though in sackcloth,) these 1260. yeares in England. ... Amongst these things are proved that the time of the calling of the Jews, the fall of Antichrist, and the ruine of the Beast of the earth is at hand. Wherein you have the hard places of Mat. 24, and Rev. 17. explained with severall other hard texts: ... / Written by Testis-Mundus Catholicus, in the yeare of the Beasts of the earth's raign, 1651.	Hall, Edmund, 1619 or 20-1687.	1651 (1651)	Wing H327; Thomason E632_22; ESTC R202496	43,212	57

The Offices that are slain are Two a lawful Magistracy and a lawful Ministery The lawful Magistracy is that which hath the Christ and his Apostles ordained in the Church and established untill his second coming for to teach instruct rebuke and comfort the Church Now these two must be slain in that place where they have all their time been in sackcloth but a lawfull visible Magistracy and a lawfull visible Ministery have since 390. been visible in England though in sackcloth under the Popes tyranny treachery and oppression Now let these Countreys that brag of the slaying of the Witnesses amongst them first shew me for these thousand two hundred and sixty years A lawfull Magistracy and Ministery and then those so long in sackcloth if they shew me not this I 'le not believe the Witnesses shal be slain where they are not but confident I am England can only shew these Witnesses no Nation els so long together in the world as God continued Monarchy in the Church from the Creation untill the mighty Monarch of the world came So that mighty Monarch the Lord Jesus after his Ascention chose him his first Vice-Gerent here in England Lucius by name who swaid the Scepter for Christ from that Christian Race the Romans received their Christian Magistracy as Constantine and Christian Monarchy except in a National discertion hath continued visible in this Kingdome of England well nigh 1500 years so that England above and before all other Nations since the profession of the Gospell hath retained Gods Witnesses a lawfull Ministery being established by that good King Lucius that Christian Monarch let us then look for the Witnesses where God hath placed them and never till this day totally plucked them up I say I here challenge all the Historians and Antiquaries in the world to shew me where or when since these fourteen hundred years past that the two great Offices in the Church and State the lawfull Magistracy and the lawfull Ministery were in so sad a slain abject condition as at this day in England let Historians bring me the blackest night that ever came upon these two Offices and I dare undertake to make it appear that this day is seven times blacker and sadder to these great Offices then any heretofore may I not add one thing more to prove that the Witnesses have onely been in this Kingdome visibly in sackcloth before William the Conquerors time our Chronicles make mention of godly Kings which for their piety were called Saints Th●se you shall find them opposing the insolency and wickednesse of the Church of Rome King Edgar acknowledged no supremacy in the Pope but saith that the care of the Church of Christ ad nos spectat it belongeth to the King not to the Pope and this he did saith Hoveden by the advice and means of Ethelwood Bishop of Winton and Oswald Bishop of Worcester so that seven hundred years since we have had Magistrates and Ministers against the Popes supremacy and before that as is evident in Malmsbury de Gest. Reg. lib. 2. P. 57. afterwards from William the Conqueror to the last King of England we have it clear they have testified against the Popes usurpation and have in every Age suffered much and been put into sackcloth by the prevailing treacherous rebellious factions of the Popes raising against the Kings of England no Kingdome in Europe can say the like and which is one of the remarkablest passages in the world the King that wast cut off when he had finished his testimony was the only Protestant King in the world therefore the only Witnesse say I yea he was as learned Sir Robert Naunton proves in his fragmenta regalia cap. 1. p. 2. the lawfull Successor by lineall dissent of the ancient British Kings so that if any Magistracy in the world be the slain Witnesse 't is that of England which is lawfull in it's self hath been visible for Christ before Antichrist in sackcloth visible under Antichrist and in the sight and hearing of all the world cut off with the Axe for finishing the testimony against Antichrist Now as for the Ministery of England the other Witnesse of Christs against Antichrist that it hath been as ancient as the Christian Magistracy and as visibly suffered under Antichrist and now lieth under the greatest reproach ignominy and slain condition is as clear as the former I shall say nothing to this Office that Office will speak for it self I am sure 't is of age and ability enough to gainsay all his opposers you see how much probability we have from the persons that are slain that the English Magistracy and Ministery are the Witnesses Now we proceed to shew what probability there is that these Witnesses are to be slain in these Northern Islands I will say the lesse of the Beast that slaies them because I portrayed him in the ensuing tract I shal only discover him where he is to be found in Scripture Prophecies and then what those Scripture Prophecies say of his downfal in Rev. 11. 7. he is called the Beast that ascendeth out or the bottomlesse pit after the Witnesses have finished their testimony where note that this Beast that slaies the Witnesses is not the Pope but one that riseth when the Witnesses have finished their testimony and his raign is but three years and an half and this all the Greek and Latin Fathers assent unto and 't is as clear as the Sun from this text In Rev. 13. 11. he is called the Beast of the Earth to have us to observe that he is one distinct from the Sea ver. 5. 't is wonderfull to behold how many learned Protestants joyn these together in one when God by his Word hath severed they are distinguished by their originall the one ariseth out of the earth and the other out of the Sea The Holy Ghost calls the Beast of the Earth another and many Protestants though not all of them for Bishop Cooper saith 't is one distinct from the Beast of the Sea make them notwithstanding the same the Beast of the Earth hath but two horns and and the Beast of the sea ten more arguments may be picked out of the texts to prove the Beast of the Earth which slays the Witnesses shall rise and raigne but three years and an half during the time the Witnesses shall lie slain as 't is clear Rev. 11. 7. 12. this Beasts rising is the Witnesses falling and the Witnesses rising in this Beasts ruine That the Beast of the Earth and the Beast of the bottomlesse pit are one and the same is clear for Rev. 13. 10. 11. he riseth then when the faith and patience of the Witnesses are exercised here is the faith and patience of the Saints their suffering graces when the Beast of the Earth ariseth are exercised and the Beast of the bottomlesse pit is he that exerciseth their defensive graces so Rev. 11. 7. he makes war with them and overcomes and kills them This Beast of the

unquestionable title both by succession and conquest after his ascension according to his promise sent his holy spirit in an extraordinary way upon his twelve Apostles who dividing the world amongst them went forth in the power of the Holy Ghost conquering the people During their time there was no need of any Magistracy for their protection for the Holy Ghost protected them beyond all the Magistracy in the world it released them out of the strongest prison brake open the strongest gates and knockt down their stoutest enemies as Paul who was doubtlesse some great Magistrate amongst them for he was the companion of Herod and when he was converted the Church had peace round about which argues there was none before his conversion greater then he he punished the scandalous as Ananias and Saphira it gave like a Monarch large boons to those that desired it it healed the sick gave limbs to the lame raised the dead and by its imperiall power made spirits of men in every Nation bow down to the Apostles commands this extraordinary presence of the spirit with the Apostles was beyond all the Monarchs in the world for this Spirit saved all the passengers in the Ship when the Ship was broken all in pieces which all the Monarchs in the world could not do this Spirit raised Paul from death to life after he was stoned which all the powers in the world could not do therefore there was no need of a Magistracy to protect them in that Age the power of working Miracles was their Magistracy at this time say some We may truly affirm that since Christs universall conquest on the Crosse after his Resurrection from that day Matth. 28. 18. that he divulged this universall power in heaven and earth the Church hath not been left without a true Monarch for Christ is that Monarch who gave Commission to his Disciples to divulge his Laws and command the world to observe them and he would be with his Embassadors to the end of the world so that the true Church cannot be without a Monarch who by a naturall right according to the flesh raigns over them and will raign in the midst of his enemies and make all their designs promote his honor and his Churches good this grand priviledge only the Gospell Church injoys for the Jews had only temporall Monarchs according to the flesh who died away but they had not a spirituall Monarch who by right of Succession came whom through unbelief they reject to this day though for certain he is their lawfull naturall King by a naturall right of Succession being of the Linage of David and he is our naturall King we being Gentiles by a right of Succession from Adam and he is spiritually the King both of the Jews and Gentiles by that spituall infinitely glorious Conquest which he got over the Wrath of God and his Divine Justice over the Powers of hell and all their malice and over the souls of the Elect and all their sinnes so that he is by Conquest the Monarch of the Gospell Church so that the Church under the Gospell can never be without a Throne and one to sit upon that Throne In the last place this we do affirm that soon after extraordinary gifts ceased and that extraordinary Succession of Ministers which Christ promised to be with til the end of the world Mat. 28. 20. succeeded God raised up a civil Magistracy for the protecting of the Church propagation of the Gospel and preservation of the Ministery This Magistracy was visible in England before any other part of the world and as Rome furnished our Magistracy with a godly orthodox Christian Ministery so not long after our Magistracy furnished Rome with a godly Magistracy to rescue the Ministery out of the Jawes of those Heathen Dragons Lucius about 170 years after Christ being a Brittish King of this Nation was called to be Gods Vicar as Elutherius Bishop of Rome terms him this Christian King sets up Christs Lawes and Faith in his Kingdom pulling down Paganism and setting up Christian Bishopricks in the room of the Pagan Flamins About 130 years after out of the same Royall Brittish bloud God raised up that famous Witness for his Truth Constantine who became the first great protecter of the Christians throughout the habitable world he was the first that made Rome which for a long time had been the Devils Throne to become Gods Throne Rev. 12. He threw down the bloudy Dragons the Emperours and Rome afterward became famous in her Magistracy and Ministery for Christ beyond all the world untill Antichrist arose and drove these Witnesses into the Wilderness and made them war sackcloth since which rising and tyrannizing of Antichrist there hath been a visible Magistracy and Ministery in England as Witnesses to the Truth of Christ though many times in great obscurity through outward persecutions it would be here too tedious to relate what might be said of the Magistracy and Ministery of England we will onely say thus much that the Kings and Bishops of England testified to the Truth against the Popes Antichristian Usurpation more then others and before any other Witnesses for about the time Anno 800. when the Popes were swelled to their height even then shall we find when other Kings kissed the Popes feet the Kings and Bishops of England opposed their Usurpation What if I did assert this That the first lawfull Christian Magistracy under the Gospell arose in England from England it went to Rome wherefore a little while half an hour it flourished and caused great peace in the Church but when Antichrist arose he drove the lawfull Magistracy and lawfull Ministery of Rome into Sackcloth and into the Wildernesse that is into some remote place from Rome observe it Rev. 12. 14. The Woman that is the Church that brought forth such a happy Son as Constantine this Woman by Antichrist is drove into the Wildernesse saith the Text into her place whence I conclude that England is this Wildernesse For first this was the place from whence a godly Magistracy went unto Rome and secondly this was the place unto which the Witnesses were drove again where I say have been visible in sackcloth since the Popes usurpation of Rome nay let me add this to my assertion that the lawfull Monarch of Rome by a true Line of Succession was Charles the King of England who was beheaded on a lofty Scaffold at noon at his own door January 30. 1648. For if noble Sir Robert Naunron that learned Antiquary and noble Lawyer say true in his Fragmenta Regalia cap. 1. p. 2. whose words are these Remarkable it is saith he concerning the violent desertion of the Royall house of Britains by the invasion of the Saxons and afterward by the conquest of the Normans that by the vicissitude of times and thought a discontinuance almost a thousand years the Royall Scepter should fall back into the Corrent of the old British bloud in the person of Henry VII

together with whatsoever the German Norman Burgundian Castalian and French atchievements with the intermarriage which eight hundred years had acquired incorporated and brought back into the old Royall Line Hence then I prove if Henry VII were the lawfull Successor of the British Kings then he was the lawfull Successor of Constantine King of England who conquered Rome and if Henry VII be the lawfull Successor of Constantine then those lawfully descended of Henry VII but this lawfull Family of the Stuarts are lawfully descended of Henry VII ergo The Stuarts are the lawfull Successors of Constantine the Great the first Christian Emperor of Rome there are very many other waies which to some seem clearer whereby to prove this truth If so know Oh Rome that the Lion of the North thy lawfull Emperor and true Christian Magistrate will suddainly arise to the utter confusion of that bloudy usurping Prelate which by his subtill treacheries hath caused the lawfull Magistrate the lawfull Emperor of Rome drove into this Wildernesse where in sackcloth the office hath continued having finished that prophetick testimony in the year 1648. to become a slain Witnesse for Christ the other office of the Ministery lying dead ever since but the three years and an half of their lying dead is almost expired and then the same Offices shall arise to the eternall ruine of the Pope and Popish Idolatry but no more of this in this place I hope some Antiquaries will be so truly Noble that they will plead a distressed Kings cause and clear this Title of his which is doubtlesse to them an easie thing and may procure them great renown in after Ages for my part I shall say no more of it in print unlesse I am challenged and then if no body will take up the Cudgells in the Quarrell I am resolved neque clipeum objicere neque causam deserere though indeed I have as much upon my weak arme as I am well able to beare well able to doe I say I professe my selfe as in the undertaking so in the defending of so great a cause as I have taken in hand utterly unable without the Divine hand to support me The reason why I have discoursed so much of Monarchy is because I am fully perswaded that the great Reformation to be wrought amongst Jewes and Gentiles shall be wrought by Monarches when God shall open the eyes of the Jewes to know assured that the Lord Jesus is their true and naturall Monarch according to the flesh and their naturall Priest that is by Birth-right as Melchisedech was then shall they look on him whom they have pierced and mourn over him they shall then be converted Now this conversion is designed in that Gospell Epistle written to the twelve Tribes called the Epistle to the Hebrewes As the knowledge of their true Monarch and Priest shall work wonderfull conversion amongst the Hebrews so the knowledge of a lawfull Magistracy and a lawfull Ministery shall work a wonderfull change at the same time amongst the Gentile Churches who are now overwhelmed with the cruell tyranny of the usurping Prelaticall power of Rome A lawfull Monarch rising shall be the instrument of a glorious Gospel-reformation of restoring the Witnesses and of the overturning of the Roman Empire in its pontifick Head Much of this opinion is that Dutch Divine in his Clavis Apocalyptica to whom Iohn Durie the Scotch man binds himself as in a Dutch duell where he falls to stick and snee with him for saith the Dutch Divine in pag. 89. A high Potentate amongst Evangelicall Professors shall arise and be exalted to the terror of the Papists and shall open again a free course to the Gospell and reestablish the exiled and oppressed Gospellers And Iohn Durie out of the sootie region of a dark intellect gives us this dark notion in p. 70. which he cals the Preface to this Dutchmans Book intending that the Reader should put on his black spectacles to read the Dutchmans white Booke withall I believe saith John Durie that we shall not have any great earthly Potentate at all ever to appear for the Lamb in this battell but that they shall joyn alwayes against the lamb-like nature of the Saints to oppose and destroy it How can two be more contrary I must leave them though I leave Iohn in the dark who participates more of the man of his countrey then of the nature of his Countrymen There are some questions that betray ignorance rather then discover wit as this say some How can it be said that in Henry 8. dayes when the Abbies were pulled down in Q. Elizabeths dayes when the Kingdom it flourished and Religion prospered and was countenanced and so in King Iames's time How can the Witnesses be said then to be in sackcloth In part we have answered to this elswhere but let such take this as one great part of the answer let them read diligently the history of our Nation since Henry the sevenths time and observe the counterworkings of the Pope against the Protestant Reformers and they will say they were in sackcloth I shall conclude this Preface with a short discourse of our former reformations not so much by way of information as premonition to him whom it concerns The objects of every reformation have either been civill 〈◊〉 ●●clesiastick matters A civill reformation hath respect either to the offices in the State or to the Laws in the State the office of State in the Head hath been unquestionable in all ages except in times of rebellion or usurpation and then not the office but the persons in the office have been aspersed and questioned In all which ungodly actions the Pope and the Popish Clergie alwayes had a hand Indeed the Popes have grapled with the supremacy of Kings and usurped a supremacy in this Kingdom over the Kings in Ecclesiastick affairs and in that respect their offices have been questioned but the Kings of England never yeelded up their right to the Pope but kept the supremacy of Church and State affairs in their own hands not only since the Norman line came in but in the time of the Saxon Kings as appears by many of their Lawes and Charters which respect the Clergie wherein the King as Head of the Church doth Ecclesiastica authoritate dispose of the Rites of the Church and the great Offices thereto belonging promoting some and debarring others whom they please from the office of Archbishop or Bishop This supremacy the Norman Kings kept which was mostly the ground of this quarrell betwixt the Kings of England and the Popes who were the cause of the English Kings wearing Sackcloth for the Popes never suffered them to live quietly but alwayes either raised their own subjects to rebell against them or foraigne Princes to invade them but most commonly the Pope sets the Religious Houses against the King for there the Pope kept the Band-dogs to werry Royalty when it opposed this supremacy The insolency strength and wealth of the Clergie caused

and in great numbers and this shall be Ezek. 37. 11. when Israel gave themselves for lost and their hopes were cut off then the whole house of Israel like bones exceeding dry came together and they that were in the Valley of dry bones v. 1. became an exceeding great Army ver. 10. How cleer there doth the Holy Ghost prophesie of the conversion of the whole house of Israel that is the twelve Tribes Now if it should be objected 't was prophesied of their restauration under the second Temple to that I answer it cannot be because onely the two Tribes returned and not the ten Tribes to the second Temple as Manass-Ben-Israel affirms and generally all Historians hold that very few of the ten Tribes returned with the two But now this Prophesie extends to the whole house of Israel ver. 11. i e. the twelve Tribes So that from the time of the Prophesie untill this day it hath not as yet been fulfilled and therefore 't is to be fulfilled and when 't is fulfilled it will be suddenly as Romes ruine will be sudden so the Jews conversion will be sudden and therefore our Lord Jesus and their true Messia's prophecying of their conversion Matth. 24. in ver. 24 25 26. he tells them Antichrist shall be busie with his false Prophets immediatly before the day of Christs coming to destroy Antichrist and to convert the Jewes and then shall he come as the lightning which comes from the East and is quickly in the West so shall the coming of Christ be This coming of Christ cannot be meant of his coming to judgment but of his coming to call the Jews to repentance and to destroy the Roman Monarchy or the Roman Antichristian Pontifick state in ver. 29. the destruction of Rome is prophesied and ver. 30. prophesies of the repentance of the twelve Tribes in the day of his spiritual appearance to them in the Gospel ver. 31. prophesies of the time when this shall be it shall be at the sounding of the great voyce and the Trumpet that is at the sounding of the seventh Trumpet Rev. 11. 16. when the Witnesses shall rise Antichrist shall fall and Euphrates shall be dryed up ver. 32 33. tells us that the Tribulation of the Gospel-church under the rage of Hereticks as Separatists Blasphemers Seducers Antichrists and false Prophets is as sure a sign of the downfall of Rome and the conversion of the Jews as the budding and sprouting of the trees are of the approaching of the summer Now these Heresies and these false Prophets shall be eminent in the Gospel-Gentile Church which shall be the true sign of the Jews conversion ver. 34. plainly tells us this cannot be meant of the day of Judgement for this generation saith Christ shall not passe that is the stock of Israel shall not be extirpate untill they have seen all these things fulfilled this day is called Luke 21. the day of the redemption of the twelve Tribes Now if this day as some would have it be the day of Judgement this day would be the damnation of the Tribes if they must be in the world untill this day and unconverted therefore this day is the day of the Jews conversion not the day of Judgement ver. 25. The next verse is to confirm the certainty of the Prophecy For heaven and earth shall passe away but not one title of the Word shall passe away ver. 36. But of that day and of that hour i. e. of the heavens and earth passing away knoweth no man by this 't is manifest that Christ in the whole Chapter speaks not one word of the day of Judgement untill ver. 35. which he forbids any to pry into for God only knew that but of the day of his coming to ruine Rome and convert the Jews he bids us by the foregoing signes know for certain that it was near even at the doors ver. 33. Now this glorious coming of Christ in his spirituall and corporall punishments on his enemies and his spirituall and corporall favors to the Jews shall be as the lightning which is swift in it's motion it gives light from East to West presently so shall all the Kingdomes in this world become the Lords and his Christs on a suddain Therefore far be it from any Protestant to have such a malignant thought as that God hath forgot to be gracious or that his hand is shortned that he cannot help the poor Jews which are this day many of them looking listening and admiring at us in England and Scotland whose eyes I trust shall see some glorious sign of good to them ere long Forty times more may be said in vindication of this manifest truth concerning the twelve Tribes conversion but considering how little is said against it I shall say no more but proceed The subject of my ensuing Discourse in this and Manus Testium which should be joyned with this is concerning this great day My opinion is that the three grand Enemies of the Church shall neer about the end or within a year of 1650. begin to rise and never fall more at this time also the morning of the Jews conversion shall begin and shall shine more and more untill it come to a perfect day These Opinions the Reader shall find bottomed on Scripture which Scriptures are not of any private interpretation but such as are matched with Scripture which illustrate the things proved by them and also have several learned Authors concurring in the confirmation of the same thing so that if I am laughed at for my opinion I doubt not but in that particular what ever it be of moment I shall make the Remonstrant confess he scoffs not onely at me but at his betters I write not this to deter any from endeavouring to confute this ensuing Tract for one end of my writing so briefly on so large a subject is that I may have a speedy answer and a seasonable confutation which if it be cleer from Scripture-grounds I shall readily and willingly submit and return a thankfull Reply to my Corrector and promise him to retract my Errours As for the time of Antichrists fall which I conceive to begin presently after 1650. it is well known that 't is no new opinion for Brightman and several other learned men have so conjectured upon this ground which is humane because 't is drawn from humane story for he begins the Jews great afflictions in An. 360. so that their 1290. years afflictions must necessarily be expired in this year 1650. and Dr. Homes and several others well-versed in the study of the Revelations and of History do gather that Antichrist appeared visibly in the Church in Anno 390. so that the Gentile and Jewish church afflictions seem both to expire at one time for Antichrist is to rage over the Gentile church but 1260. years which by the compute is accomplished Anno 1650. Now as Dr. Homes saith very well in so many years possibly there may be lost-time in the account so