1639. and the first and second of the yeare 1640. upon his weekly Lecture at Boston in New-England where he went over the other Chapters of the Revelation as he did this thirteenth Chapter and indeed they that were acquainted with his Preaching may easily discern his very spirit in them all along Now that the holy spirit of the Lord may breath in these holy Labours of his precious Servant so as the Reader may experience the truth of that divine sentence mentioned in the beginning The tongue of the righteous is as choise silver is the unfeigned desire of The servant for Jesus sake Thomas Allen. Norwich the 1. day of the 1. month 1654-55 AN EXPOSITION Upon the thirteenth Chapter of the REVELATION Revel 13. 1 2. And I stood upon the sand of the Sea and saw a Beast rise up out of the Sea having seven heads and tenne horns and upon his horns ten Crowns and upon his heads the name of blasphemy And the Beast which I saw was like unto a Leopard and his feete were as the feete of a Beare and his mouth as the mouth of a Lyon and the Dragon gave him his power and his seate and great authority YOU have heard from the last Chapter that when the Dragon that is the Devill as he ruled the Roman Pagan Empire was cast downe out of Heaven that is dethroned from his heavenly and Divine worship he endeavoured by all meanes to oppresse the Church that is the woman that brought forth a Christian Emperour her and her seed 1. By persecution 2. By an inundation of damnable Heresies and barbarous Nations 3. By open War which open war is exprest in the last verse of the former Chapter and here more fully described in this Chapter a whereof hath been now read The warre which is made against the Church is here described to be managed by two beasts which the Devill raised up One he calls a Beast rising up out of the Sea described from the first verse to the end of the tenth Another Beast hee beheld coming up out of the Earth from the 11 th verse to the end of the Chapter Now the former of these Beasts is described by three arguments 1. By his Originall or Fountain from whence he springs he riseth up out of the Sea which is amplified by the place of Johns beholding him I stood upon the sand of the Sea 2. He is described by his shape here is his figure and resemblance For his head he had seven heads and they amplified by honourable Ornaments or rather dishonourable indeed but honourable in the beasts view namely upon his heads the name of blasphemy 2. For his horns he had ten horns and they are set forth by their Crowns which he had on his horns He had so many horns so many Crowns upon his ten horns ten Crowns And as his shape is set forth by his head and horns so also by his resemblance or likenesse the whole shape or bulk of the Beast is like a Leopard The Leopard is of the femenine gender and signifies the female of the Panthers the she Panther spotted and ravenous famous for her speedy race and yet of a good smell by which she allures other beasts to her and as she hath occasion doth devoure them And as his resemblance for his whole shape is like a Leopard so for his feet he is like a Bear And for his mouth he hath the mouth of a Lyon This is the second argument by which he is described 3. The third argument whereby he is described is his state and that amplified by three arguments 1. By the efficient cause 2. By the variable change of it And 3ly by a wise conclusion and observation For the efficient cause of it it is said to be the Dragon he gave him his power and authority For the variable change of it it was 1. Great for it is here called Power and Seate and great Authority 2. One of his heads was wounded I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death And thirdly this wound was healed this is the variable change of it 1. Great authority honourable seate 2. Wounded to death And thirdly healed of that deadly wound And this healing is amplified by five Effects or Consequents The first was the worlds wondering All the world wondered after the Beast The admiration was aâ— this great change so happily atchieved as they thought that he should recover that desperate danger The second effect it wrought was worship both towards himselfe And secondly to the Dragon that gave him power The third effect of this healing was liberty to blaspheme There was a mouth given him to speake great things blasphemies A fourth effâ—ct was Authority and Power to do what First To continue forty two moneths vers 5. Secondly Power to make warre with the Saints and to overcome them that was the fourth effect that followed his healing The fifth effect was amplitude or largenesse of his Dominion Power was given him over all Kindreds Tongues and Nations vers 7. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him vers 8. Which worshippers are described by their estrangement from the number of Gods elect whose names are not written in the book of the life of the Lamb and the Lamb set forth by the eternall efficacy of his death Slaine from the foundation of the world This is the second part of the description of the Beast The third part is a conclusion which contains a word of Caution and Consolation or a word of Attention and Consolation in the ninth and tenth verses If any man have eares to heare let him heare as if it were a matter worthy of observation and diligent attention and of exact understanding and of consolation in the tenth vers He that leadeth into captivity shall goe into captivity he that killeth with the sword must he killed with the sword c. This is the former Beast and his description The latter Beast is in the eleventh verse to the end I beheld another Beast coming up out of the earth c. He is described by his variety from the former beast For his Original he comes not as the other Beast out of the Sea but from the Earth And for his resemblance he hath two horns like a Lamb and he spake lik a Dragon 2. He is described by his power as in the twelfth verse but I will not now speak further of him Now for the meaning of the words It is that which the holy Ghost calls us diligently to attend unto He that hath cares to heare let him heare If any man have an eare to understand any apprehension of spirituall mysteries any capacity of matters of Religion let him heare what manner of beast the Devill stirred up and set against the Church to make war against the Saintâ— as if it were a matter that few would understand but such as were of spirituall understanding and who will listen duly to a diligent observation
of this description the matter whereof is weighty and challengeth all our intentions and the more because it is very rare to meet with that which will satisfie a diligent Reader in the Exposition hereof But yet so much light God casts almost into the head of every man that takes this Book in hand especially in his name and feare according to his promise Cap. 1. vers 3 that he adds some light more than hath been before brought to his hand Here you see are two Beasts what is the former Many take it to be the Roman Empire some take it to be the Roman Pagan some the Roman Christian Empire but I feare neither of them are right It is not the Roman Papan Empire that is take the Empire as it was before the conversion of Rome from Pagan to Christian in the dayes of Tyberius and other persecuting Emperours till Constantine This Beast was not the Roman Pagan Empire I will give you a double reason from the Text the first is this 1. The Pagan Empire was described as this Beast is in Rev. 12. 3. Behold a great red Dragon having seven heads aud tenn horns but with this difference The seven heads had seven Crowns upon their heads Now this Beast hath also seven heads which make it like the other but these Crowns are not upon the heads but upon the horns which maketh a great difference an evident signe it is not the Roman Pagan Empire 2. Againe it is said of this Beast that he continues 42. moneths and that is as long as the Church was in the wildernesse for the Church continues in the wildernesse as in chap. 12. 6. a thousand two hundred and three-score dayes which is just 42. moneths And so Chap. 11. 2. It is said The holy City they shall tread under foot forty two moneths all the time that the two witnesses prophecyed in sackcloath which was a thousand two hundred and threescore dayes Now it is certain the Roman Pagan Empire did not continue as long as the Church was in the wildernesse for the Church went not into the wilderness till the Pagan Empire ceased to be Pagan and was translated to Christian Now the Roman Pagan Empire was removed as by a great Earth-quake in Constantines time and changed from Pagan to Christian it cannot therefore be the Roman Pagan Empire though many judicious Divines have gone that way What then may it be the Christian Empire Many have run that way but neither is it so 1. For it is said this Dragon gave to him his power his seate and great authority now the seat of the Roman pagan Empire indeed was Rome but the Dragon did not give the Christian Emperors Rome for their Seat they would never sit there but theâ—e sate at Constantinople and prepared it to sit there and for that end Constantine named it after himselfe Constantinople and if they had occasion to come into the Western parts of Italy they would sit at Ravenna but at Rome they would not come unlesse it were Guest-wise 2. Though it be true as they say the Roman Christian Emperour had a deadly wound given him by barbarous Nations yet when it was healed the whole world did not admire him When Charles the great did heale the wound yet all the world did not wonder after him It is true France and Germany and Italy did admire him but all the Eastern parts did not submit to him no nor England nor Scotland nor Sweden nor many other parts they did not acknowledg the Western Emperour gave him neither civill nor religious worship 3. Neither doth this suffer it to be the Roman Christian Empire that it should be a note of perdition and reprobation to honour the Roman Christian Emperours for they that have lived under the Roman Christian Emperour have not hazarded their salvation by that subjection but here it is said in the eighth verse that they that honour this beast are such whose names are not written in the booke of the life of the Lambe So that for these reasons I dare not so conceive this Beast to he either Roman Pagan or Roman Christian Empire What then is it Antichrist The third sort of Interpreters run that way and I would not exclude that wholly but yet neither dare I consent to rest in it for when we open the Oracles of God we must not alwayes give the Comments and Judgments of men for Scripture truths though the men be highly to be reverenced But in this place their Interpretation doth not satisfie me I will give my reason Antichrist doth evidently appeare to be the other Beast that comes out of the Earth which is sayd to have two hornes like a Lamb c. You may say but Antichrist may be more wayes considered then one as he is invested with temporall soveraâ—gnty and dominion and so he may be the former beast and as he is invested with spiritual supremacy and so he may be the latter Beast and indeed so many Interpreters take it but consider these descriptions 1. They differ in number John saith I saw a beast rise out of the Sea and then it is said in vers 11. I beheld another beast it is not therefore the same 2. They differ as in number so in their originall the first rose out of the sea the second out of the earth 3. They differ in their shape The first beast had ten horns the second had but two horns like a Lamb. 4. They differ and are apparantly distinguished in the exercise of their power for he exerciseth all the power of the first Beast in his presence And it is said also in the 12th vers He causeth the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast and he causeth them to make an image of the first beast and he had power to gve life to the image of the beast c. So that the description seems to be different The second beast gives all his power to the first and yet honours himselfe too But that which most of all prevailes with me and which wholly captivates my Judgment to leane another way is this That whereas they say the first beast was the Pope as Dominus in Temporalibus as Lord in Temporalls and the second beast is the Pope as he is Dominus in Spiritualibus It is evident that the Pope did not invest himselfe with temporall authority at the first But at first claimed spirituall and universall Episcopacy over-sight over all the Churches he was first supream head of the Church in his spirituall Jurisdiction and did not claime dominion in Temporalls till after his wound was healed and then he took power to depose the Emperour of the East and translated his Empire from Greece to France this was his Dominion in earthly Monarchies which he took in the latter place And therefore I would rather say that the second beast is the Pope in both respects as Lord and Soveraign high Priest in Spiritualls and the high
Priest also over the Kings of the world in Temporalls Hee had two hornes like a Lamb as the successor of Peter and as if he had nothing but from Christ but he spake like a Dragon When he had once power by his Lamb-like horns he then spake like a Dragon Therefore to speak that which I conceive to be the truth I do look at this first beast as indeed of like condition with the Pope and very nearly joyned to him The Pope is one of the heads and rulers of this Beast but yet distinguished from the beast it selfe and is not the same with the beast This therefore all things weighed according to the Text I conceive to be the first beast the Roman Catholick visible Church The seven heads and ten horns are a clear description of the Roman State Now this State here is neither the Pagan Roman Empire nor the Christian Roman Empire as hath been shewed And therefore it must needs be a third Roman State distinct from the former and succeeding in their place and what is that but the Roman Catholicke visible Church Of this Church the Pope is the head both as universall Bishop over all Churches and chiefly Lord in Temporalls that had both Swords and obtained both Authorities to be highest supream head in Spirituals as also supream head in Temporalls he was Soveraign Governour in all And the Roman-catholick visible Church it comes just in the room of the Roman Empire how was it described The beast that had seven heads and ten horns this comes in his room the one governs all the world in his way and the other all the Churches another way This is the Beast that the Dragon stirs up to make War with the Saints Now to appply this description to this Church for the better understanding of the Text. Qâ— I saw a beast rise out of the Sea You may aske what is the Sea from whence this beast ariseth Answ The Sea is the collection of many waters The gathering together of the waters called the Seas Gen. 1. 9 10. And what are the waters The waters which thou sawâ—st are People and Nations and Languages and Tongues Rev. 17. 15. So then what is the beast here that ariseth out of the Sea It is some soveraign State that ariseth out of the connexion of many Nations into one body as you know the Roman Catholick Church is not confined within the lifts of the City of Rome though there the head is seated but the whole Roman Sea it is well called a Sea in that respect it is that which comprehends all Nations whether subject to the Eastern or Western Emperour yea and other Nations that did not submit themselves to the one or other as if they did recollect themselves as into one Sea all banks are broken down in the Sea yet there is no distinction but all is one Sea one vast body And such is the Roman Catholick visible Church all partitions are here broken downe all Churches make but one visible Catholick Church And again it is well said to arise out of the Sea according to the like description which Daniel makes of the foure Monarchs in Dan. 7. Hee saw the foure windes of heaven strive upon the great Sea and foure Beasts came up from the sea divers one from another From the multiplyed agitations of the Sea it came to passe four great Monarchs did arise Just thus from the tumult of particular Churches did this Beast arise for when they could not agree in the Churches but some were of one minde some of another it was the wisdom as they thought of Christian Princes and Bishops but it was but humane wisdome and was indeed from the Dragon and not from Christ they thought it would be best to have but one church and the Bishop of Rome to be the head though at first they divided them to four but in the end they would have the Bishop of Rome over all that so they might have unity for they say unity springs from one head and unlesse you have one head you cannot have unity Therefore from the particular Church of a Congregation they came to Diocesan from Diocesan to Metropolitan from Metropolitan to Patriarchal from Patriarchal to Cecumenical And so it comes to pass all Churches must be gathered into one Sea that is one Catholick Church For look what reason they had to set Bishops over particular Churches So having many Bishops by the same reason they must have some Metropolitan and of many Metrapolitans foure or five Patriarchs and of them one Chief that is the Pope the Father of Fathers he must be the grand Governour of all Therefore doth he rise out of the Sea out of the Sea of Tumult and Sea of Contention And if you take Sea for corruption in Doctrine and worship and Government as some good Interpreters do it was from thence also that this beast did arise This beast did arise out of them all for had either pure Doctrine or worship or Discipline been well looked unto it had not been possible that such a beast as the Catholick visible Roman Church should have bin raised up It is further described to have seven heads and ten horns The holy Ghost describes them so fully that we need no further interpretation of them He tells us in the 17. Chapter of this book the ninth and tenth verses The seven heads are seven Mountaines on which the Woman sitteth which are the mountaines of the City of Rome it is built upon seven hills and the seven heads are also seven Kings that is seven Kingly governments soveraign governments The first were Kings then Consuls then Decemvins then Dictators then Tribunes and then the Caesars Five were fallen that is were past in John's time the sixth were then extant and they were the Caesars the Pope he makes the seventh Now the Pope then is the seventh of these Heads but the seventh head and the beast are two distinct things though he be one that rules the beast and hath a great influence in the guiding of it Hee was to receive a deadly wound and after became an eighth head whereas he was but one of the seven So that he is one of the Heads but there is difference between the head and the beast and the beast it selfe And it is said He exerciseth all the power of the first Beast that in conclusion what the Pope decrees that stands So that it is not a generall Councell that determines any thing authentically without him but he doth all that the first beast doth Hee would have the Catholick Church honoured but it is that himselfe may be honoured as the Lord of the Church So therefore for the heads these are the seven Heads And for the Hornes he tells you they are so many Kings which were not then risen to Soveraigne Power but John saw it in a Mystery afore hand But when this Beast ariseth this Pontifex maximus then they receive a Kingdome at the same
time Chap. 17. 12. And the severall Kingdomes that then were broken off from the Roman Empire whereof England was one they were so many severall Kings that all gave their dominion to the Beast with one consent and so were his protectors ver 17. They were his Beauty and his Strength as the Hornes are to the Beast So it is true here is a great Beast indeed of a vast comprehension here is an universall visible Church and he hath seven Heads that is Seven Hilles there he sits and seven Governments There are seven Heads both of the one and other both Hills and Governments whereof five were fallen and the sixth was when John wrote The seventh was to rise in their roomes and that is He that hath two Hornes like a Lambe and spake like a Dragon and doth exercise all the Power of the first Beast what power is in the Church the Pope hath the ordering thereof And it is said here that these Hornes had ten Crowns but so had not the Hornes of Pagan Rome The heads of Pagan Rome had soveraign Authority and lived like Princes but so had not the Pope they did not wear the Crowns though they affect temporall dominion but leave the Crowns to the hornes leave them to Crowned Kings that give their power to him Now upon these Heads are names of Blasphemy The old High-Priest of the Jewish Synagogue he had a plate of pure Gold and there was graven upon it holiness to the Lord Exod. 28. 36 37. This Beast hath not holinesse to the Lord but names of Blasphemy the Pontifex maximus His head is full of names of Blasphemy But the Pope exceeds all in this case for who ever took upon him as he to pardon Sinne A name of Blasphemy To be Judge of Scriptures a name of blasphemy Hee hath many other names of Blasphemy he will dispence with Oaths of allegeance and all civil subjection he will dispence with marriages most incestuous and doth exalt himself above all that is called God especially the Gods of the Earth His heads are full of names of Blasphemy as we shall come to speak God willing in the 5 and 6 verses Now it is said of this Beast he is like a shee Leopard It is in the 17 Chap. compared to a woman to shew that the Roman catholick visible Church is as fitly resembled by a woman as a she Panther such is this Beast Can a Leopard change his spots Jer. 13. 23. Is it not a State full of spots and the spots are not the spots of Gods people but spots of herisie and spots of Idolatry spots of Tyranny and great variety of all spots of Blasphemy To tell the spots of that Sea were ineeed to enter into a Sea of wickednesse which that Church abounds withall Can a Leopard change his spots This church they make account cannot erre so how should they change for they that cannot erre to what purpose should they change yet of a very sweet fragrant smel as they they perfume their Temples with incense and love to please ambitious minds and to fill covetous hearts they are sweet also and faire to voluptous spirits with their Brothel houses c. But for the Leopard Bear and Lyon I suppose there is speciall reference to them all In Dan. 7. 4 5 6. where he resembles the Monarch of Babell to a Lyon and the Monarch of Persia to a Bear and the Monarch of Greece to a Leopard There the Leopard is the last of the three here it is the first to shew a direct contrary course that this Beast takes in his rise to the old Monarchies Of the great Monarchies the first was a Lyon full of magnanimity the next was a Beare full of cruelty a Bear that devoures mucb flesh and the Leopard the spotted Beast comes after cruell as the former Now here the Leopard is first the whole shape is sweet and savoury other beasts would follow him by the smell and so this church seemes in the wole bulk sweet and savory to inveagle all unstable Soules But where he gets hold he layes his paw like a Beare presseth hard and holds fast and will not let goe Just like the Persian State they hold fast Never did any of the States last so long as the Papall State The Assyrian lasted long but yet did not continue above a thousand years but this is to continue 1260. dayes that is so many yeares in a great deal of Power and Authority And therefore as by subtilty he drawes others to him so them hee holds fast that it is marvellous hard to root out where he hath got hold you may cut off his head as it is in England but it is a wonder to see what paines there is to have the Government of Christ brought in and of the Beast cast out they will make so many Statutes in Parliament that you can have no wills confirmed nor Marriages made but by them nor no Parliments Acts passe but through their hands you have so many matters in the State depending on them that one would think it impossible ever to root them out you may take off the Beast his head you may thrust the Leopard out at windows but he will take hold with his feet that you shall have much ado to root him out The great profits and great preferments they sink deep in the hearts of carnall men And he hath a mouth like a Lyon How did the Lyon of Babell speak presumptuously what God is able to deliver you out of the firey furnace c. and he commands all that will not worship his Image should be cast into the fyery furnace Just such is the mouth of this Beast who so will not worship the Image of this Beast shall be killed in the 15 v. of this chapter So you see this is the Roman Catholick visible church And the Dragon gave this church power All that the Roman Emperor could doe before that doth the Catholick church that w ch the old Roman Emperor did by force of arms that doth the Roman Church by the power of Religion and conscience The Dragon gave him his power and Seat and great Authority And Satan will worke by the power of conscience making them believe that all must be subject to them He gave them his Seat what was the Seat of the old Roman Emperor It was Rome Satan gave that to the Beast There is his Seat and great Authority insomuch that all the world were deeply taken with the reverence they owe as to the Imperial mother City So to this soveraign mother Church their holy Father the Pope that was the head of that Church This is the plain description of this first Beast I canot proceed now to open the wounding of one of the heads of this Beast nor of the healing of that wound nor of his warre against the Saints I am the longer in this because the more clearly these things are opened the more fully will
the counsell of the holy Ghost appear in the sequell If any man have eares to heare let him heare doe not think that these things concern Students onely and Scollars But what is this to common christians He that hath an eare let him heare what the holy Ghost saith It is the same charge which he gave concerning the Epistles which were common to all churches If any man have an eare let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches Those generall doctrines necessary for all Christians to understand the same charge is laid upon all to heare what is spoken concerning this beast If thou understandest Religion if thou wouldst be or art a member of a Church of Christ know this point If any man have an ear let him hear this But you will say to me shall we make it an Article of our Creed to believe the Catholick Church and shall we now make it an Article of Faith to beleive it to be a Monster I believe the holy Catholick Church and shall we make it a Beast To this I answer The holy Catholick Church we make it an Article of our Creed that is a company of the Godly called out of the world we look at them all as those for whom Christ shed his bloud But we must not look at this as a visible Catholick Church much lesse the Roman Church as the Catholick Church we believe the Catholick Church is invisible we believe no visible Church but Congregations and therefore if you come to heare of a Roman Catholick visible Church whereof the Pope is the head and who takes upon him all this Soveraignty and power here described we look at such a body as a great Bâ—ast Communion of Saints wee acknowledge and that all the Churches of Christ have one and the same power amongst them The Church of this Congregation hath power within it selfe equall to what others have and none have power one over another None of us are like Leopards to other beasts perfumed to draw other beasts after us and then like Beares to clasp them in to be subject to this Church then speak like Lyons that all shall be subject to our commands This is a Beast and this is no Catholick Church This is a Catholick Church of the Devill but not of Christ Thus have you the two first verses opened unto you Come we now to gather one briefe note from the words The visible Catholicke Roman Church is in the esteem of the holy Ghost a monstrous Beast that is the note That it is the beast here described you have heard it opened Some Roman State it must be and you have heard it can neither be Rome-Pagan nor Rome-Christian It must therefore be the Roman Church for it is described by seven heads and ten horns which are the Arms of Rome as they are described in the Revelations That it is in the eyes of the holy Ghost a monstrous beast is here evident for imagine a beast set before you with seven heads and ten horns would it not seem a monster and unnaturall that it should look like a Leopard all sported and feete like a Beare and look at his mouth and that 's like a Lyon is not this a monster to say nothing of his blasphemies which makes him a wicked beast but look at his visage which is here resembled and what is here deciphered but a monster It holds forth his description in other places in Chap. 16. 13. There came forth three unclean spirits out of the mouth of the Dragon that is the Devill and out of the mouth of the Beast out of the mouth of the false Prophet And you shall also read that the beast was taken and with him the false Prophet these were two still they could not be made one Rev. 19. 20. And they were both cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone both the the first beast and the latter beast the beast and the false Prophet He like a Lamb comes in sheeps cloathing but inwardly is a ravening wolfe Now why is it such a monstrous beast If God had made such a kinde of creature a Leopard is no monster nor a Beare nor a Lyon But if you make a Beast of all these that will be a monster that is contrary to the course of nature cleare besides the ordinary course of naturall generation that makes a thing monstrous this then is the reason of the point A beast ingendred against the course of nature that is a monster especially if there be so many uncouth shapes of which it is composed And it is not so with this universall Catholick visible Church Doe but consider what kinde of Church the Lord instituted the Church of a particular congregation If thy brother trespasse against thee goe and tell him his fault between thee and him c. If he will not hear thee take with thee one or two more c. If he shall neglect to heare them tell it to the Church Mat. 18. 15 16 17 18. What the Catholick visible Church when will that meet think you And is it ever to be expected that when they do meet that every brother of this countrey and other countreys must go to Rome and tell the Trespasses of his brother against him and send for those that have offended him and thus and thus plead with them And when do you think that a Catholick Church will heale all offences between brethren Will not this be a monstrous beast when the Catholick Church must heare and remove offences That Church which Christ hath ordained will heare the offences of brethren and a brother hath liberty to tell his offence to the Church and at length the matter will be brought to an issue when they they have two witnesses then the Church sees what is to be done Now to have a Catholick visible Church what a monstrous disturbance will that be to the free dispensation of the government of Christ and yet the rulers thereof will be the only visible Church-governnours of the world Again you read in 1 Cor. 14. 23. When the whole Church saith the Apostle shall come together into one place c. The Church therefore which the Apostles instituted may be gathered into one place that all may heare and all may be edefied Why is it possible that all Churches should be gathered into one place or should all heare if they were gathered or will they be ever so gathered what a wondrous beast will this be Againe whereas Christ hath said his Kingdome is not of this world and hath appointed to his Disciples that they should not be Lords over Gods heritage 1 Pet. 5. 3. and in Mat. 20. from 23. to 29. It shall not be so among you But whosoever will be great among you let him be your Minister and let every soule be subject to the authority of the higher powers Well now if there must be a Catholick Church and an Officer that shall rule all
may be the more able to finde the free passage of joy and the power of godlinesse in all your private or publique conversation Revel 13. the latter part of the 2 d. verse And the Dragon gave him his power and his seate and great authority THe next note is this That the Dragon that is Satan as he had the government of the Pagan Roman Empire so being cast out of it he gave or procured and obtained to the Roman Catholicke visible Church his power and seate or Throne and great authority For so it is plainly here said That the Dragon gave to the Beast his power and his seate and great authority The Dragon who is that You heard the Dragon is the old Serpent called the Devill and Satan but the Dragon considered as he sometimes swayed the Roman Pagan Empire as in Rev. 12. 3. There appeared a wonder in heaven a great red Dragon having seven heads and ten horns they are interpreted by the Angell Rev. 17. 3 4. 9 10. 12. 18. The seven heads to be the seven hills of Rome and the ten horns so many Kings that arose with the last head of the Beast Therefore he means the Dragon as he sometimes swayed the City of Rome and so the Seate and State of the Pagan Roman Empire And being now cast out and seeing he cannot maintaine his State and divine honour as before to whom doth he give his honour what to the Roman Christian Empire No his rage is against them and the Church amongst them Neither did he give them his Seate they sate not at Rome but at Constantinople Neither can he easily fasten upon the civill State such delusions as to cause the Christian Emperours to take to themselves divine honour though the Pagan Roman Emperours had so done But now hee doth choose to fasten them upon the Ecclesiasticall State and thinks he shall more prevaile with Church-men as I may speak to drinke in an inundation of Heresies in Doctrine and Tyranny in Government and Superstition in Worship he thinks he shall sooner prevaile with the Ecclesiasticall State then with the Civill Therefore upon this Beast which can neither be Roman Heathen nor Christian Empire but the Roman Church doth he fasten his power and seate and great authority His power A three-fold power did the Devill fasten upon the Roman Catholick visible Church 1. The power of signes and lying wonders Hee gave him great power to worke great wonders 2 Thes 2. 9. Of which there is more spoken in the sequell of the Chapter where some of his miracles are mentioned 2. He gave him the power of effectuall Sophistry or as the Scripture calls it 2 Thes 2 9 10. of deceit of unrighteousnesse partly in the Schoolmen and partly in their Votaries or Cloyster-men and partly in their Canonists By the efficacy of Sophistry in School-men he corrupted all Doctrine By the deceit of the Cloyster-men the Monkes he corrupted all their devotion and worship And by the policy of their Canonists he corrupted all Church-government and this was carryed with such efficacy of deceit that those School-Divines were accounted the most profound and the Monks most devout and the Canonists most judicious and exquisite Polititians Now these three did mightily deceive the Christian world by their power and all this power Satan gave to this Beast 3. He gave him the power also of making war for in vers 7. It was given him to make warre with the Saints and to overcome them putting into the hearts of christian Kings to give their power to the Beast and to wage all their Battels at their own charges whiles he sate still this was the power which was given him by the Dragon And for his seate what was it It was the City of Rome which ruled over the Kings of the earth Rev. 17. 18. And for that end he would not suffer Constantine nor other Emperors to dwell at Rome If they were in Italy they should dwell at Ravenna So that the Dragon granted his owne Seate or Throne not to the Emperors for they never cared for it but he reserved it for this Beast to be the center and chief Seate of the Roman Catholick Church And he gave him also great authority transcendently great indeed Great Authority 1. Over the Scriptures 2. Over the consciences of men 3. Over the treasury of the church Over Church-Rulers and Churches over the merits of Christ over Kingdoms and Common-wealths over Purgatory and for mitigating the paines of Hell All this he gave to the Roman Catholick visible Church 1. He gave him power over the Scriptures 1. As Judg of them The Church is the Judg of controversies and the head of that Church is the Judg of all places of Scripture by his authority it is authenticall This the Catholick Church doth challenge 2. He doth prefer the vulgar Latine before the Originall Scripture a transcendant power 3. It is in his power to make Apocrypha Scripture to be of like power with the canonicall Scripture 4. It is his power and authority that gives unwritten Traditions like power with the canonicall Scripture 5. He takes upon him to be the infallible Interpreter and Judge of the meaning of Scripture and that is Blasphemy 6. He takes upon him power to dispence with Scripture Hee hath power to dispence with the morall Law of God in point of Marriages even in incestuous Marriages this is a power beyond Scripture 2. He hath great authority over the consciences of men making Laws and Canons to bind the conscience and releasing and loosing them from the power of Gods Lawes either in point of Marriage or in point of Oaths and Covenants or in point of naturall relation He can dispence with children in respect of duty to Parents if they come into Monasteries and with duty which Subjects owe to Magistrates 3. They have power over the Church Treasury by which they meane the supererogation of the merits of Christ and of the Saints They say Christ merited for a thousand worlds and because he saved but a few it is free for the Pope to take the surplussage of merit He can take them and apply them by Indulgences for the pardoning of them that pay well for them And thus they who despise Gods imputation of the righteousnesse of Christ for justification they take upon them to impute it to themselves and to this and that notorious wicked man 4. They have power over Kingdomes and Common-wealths to depose Kings and to dispose of their Kingdoms as they please and to absolve Subjects from all Allegiance to civill power and for that end to nullifie their Oath for that end you know what the Pope sent to Henry the fourth Christ say they gave this power to Peter and Peter to the Pope and to that end abuse Jer. 1. 10. See I have this day set thee over the Nations to root cut and pull downe and to destroy and to throw downe to build and to plant 5. They
very offer Christ had once made to him by this Dragon he came to Christ and said Luke 4. 6 7. All this power will I give thee and the glory of them for that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will I give it if thou therefore wilt worship mee all shall be thine Hee said thus far true that he had a great stroke in the Kingdomes of the world but yet it was limited to him for it's true hee was the god of the world in the time of Heathenish and Popish apostacy He offers Christ he will give it all to him if he will fall down and worship him The Lord Jesus rejects him It is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve When he offers such baites and barbarous temptations as these be we are to rejâ—ct him The Devill comes and offers this to the Vicar of Christ as they call him I wil give you government over all the Churches in the world and Kingdoms and States and he in very deed takes Satans offer and doth take all the pomp and state of the world Time was when Naaman the Assyrian offered large matters to Elisha for healing him of his Leprosie but the Prophet would have none of them though he was no Pagan for when he came home they would aske what did it cost you he might say it cost me not a groat but what it cost me in the Innes where I lay this is honour to Religion His servant Gehezi indeed runs after him As the Lord liveth he shall not goe so away but he will have a reward He makes an excuse There are two sonnes of the Prophets come and he desires a talent of silver and two changes of garments and hee very liberally fastens a great deale more on him then he asks What saith Elisha Is this a time to take money and to receive garments and Olive-yards and Vine-yards and sheep and oxen and men-servants and maid-servants Hee meant such money as would buy all these The leprosie therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee And so truly the leprosie of Antichrist and of the Catholick Church cleave to us if we take up any thing that derogates from the simple and naked and sheep-like government of Christ Jesus It will be a Leprosie that wil cleave to us make us grow more more leprous And therefore it must teach us not to regard the profits and pleasures of this world I speak chiefly to men as we are Church-members Such simple government though it hath horns for the Lamb hath horns and can tell how to push yet meeknesse and simplicity is best Just and faithfull Administrations becomes the simplicity of civill government but how much more the Church of Christ that so this great and vast Beast may be kept away from us Lastly it may teach us all as ever wee desire not to grow monstrous and ugly in the sight of the Lord Jesus to take heed of hearkning to any power of Nationall Churches you will finde that this will grow to such ugly deformity that God will turn away his face from you You will never finde him as in times of ignorance Though God hath pardoned what we did in ignorance not knowing what wee did as Christ prayed Luke 23. 34. Father forgive them they know not what they doe And I doubt not but he doth the like for many of our deare brethren who in their ignorance do submit to the Beast and the image of the Beast and doth vouchsafe his gracious presence with them But for us here if we shall in our hearts turn back againe to Aegypt and be content to stoop to these Superstitions and be thus ruled for order and forme of worship believe it then we may looke for an end of all our prosperity and liberty of the Churches here Then look we should grow mishapen and monstrous and look ugly we shall then soon see an end of all the comforts of the Churches here As therefore God hath betrusted us with such a handsome body as hee is pleased to own so continue in your profession and in the maintenance of the same even to death Revel 13. 3. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death and his deadly wound was healed and all the world wondered after the Beast IN these words is described the variation of the state of the Beast in respect of one of his heads 1. John saw it as it were wounded to death and all men thought it unrecoverable that is one State 2. A State of recovery His deadly wound was healed 3. The effects of this healing 1. The worlds admiration after the Beast 2. Their worship both of the Dragon the Beast For a little opening of the words I saw one of his heads You heard before that the Beast had seven heads Now as the Scribes asked Christ concerning the woman that had seven Husbands whose wife shall she be of the seven So here is a Beast hath seven heads and one is wounded which of the seven must it be To this the Apostle John tells us Chap. 17. That five of them were gone they had been but were not now and these are the seven governments of the Roman State These five had been Kings and Consuls Decemviers Dictators Tribunes The sixth yet was and that was the Caesars the Roman Emperours they were the sixth head whether Christian or Pagan it differs not much the state of the Government for they were all governed by Roman Laws under one head or other Now therefore what is this that is here spoken of One of his heads were as it were wounded to death was it the Roman Emperour whether Pagan or Christian you heard reasons before why it could not be Pagan nor indeed Christian Rome 1. That head was crowned but this hath no Crown All the seven heads were crowned they governed and exercised their Administrations in the world Rev. 12. â— But here these heads are not crowned but the Crowns are upon the Horns 2. Neither can it be they because of this wound upon this head The Roman Christian Emperours they never chalenged to themselves Head-ship over the Church of Rome Constantine doth utterly abandon it He professeth he ought to be judged by them and not they by him And Theodosius doth submit himselfe to Ambrose censure and doth not exercise any Head-ship over the Church It was not therefore the Emperours for they were not heads of the Church 3. It is said the wound here given was healed to the admiration of the world Now certaine it is the wound given by the Goths and Vandalls it was never healed to this day but the Eastern part was swallowed up by the Turk And for the Emperors of the West Charles the great and his Successors though they healed a branch of it yet it was far off from healing the wound of the Roman Empire those wounds have decayed and fall short of that which was the
is such power as is far above the reach of man None of them all have such power as he not those that are called Gods So they admire his power what he can do to inward or outward man to publique or private States And they do not only admire the Catholick Church and the head of it and adore them but in both these they adore the Dragon that gave all this power to the Beast The meaning may be exprest in two branches 1. The Dragon is expressed as animating heathen Rome for that hath seven heads and ten horns which are the armes both of heathen Rome and of this Beast Now he is called the Dragon as he acted heathen Rome and as he was Lord of heathen Rome he gave all this power to the Pope For they thought it meet since it was the Imperiall City when it was Pagan that therefore it should be the mother of all Churches And being the Imperial City it was the bloud-sucker of many millions of the souls of Gods servants that caused the Dragon to put that honour upon Rome 2. But that is not all There is another branch comes neerer the full meaning of the Text that was for the honouring of the Bishop of Rome and of the Catholick Church viz. taking another doctrine for the Gospell their Idolatry for pure worship their Government for the discipline of Christ their pardons for Justification of sinne by Christ In all this they doe indeed give true worship to the Dragon for what are all these but Images they are none of Gods Ordinances if you referre them to the heads of Scripture they are but Images of Christ In stead of the Ministery of Christ you have doctrines of men In stead of justification by the righteousnesse of Christ you have justification by works In stead of pardon of Sin from Christ you have it from the Pope All things are in another forme an Image of another forme set up devised contrary to what the word establisheth Now you shall finde this to be true if you doe vary from the kingdome of God and Christ then you worship the Dragon You read in 2 Chron. 11. 15. Jeroboam ordained him Priests for the high places and for the Devils and for the Calves which he had made he had no Preists but for the golden Calves and what were they they were but Images and his intendment was not to bring in another object of worship but another manner of worship Jeroboam worshiped Jehovah in Images which God had not appointed and so he worshipped the Divill and not God And you shall read when the Turke was brought in to revenge the Idolatry of Christendome Rev. 9. 20. It is said The people that were not cut off with the plague they repented not of the worke of their hands that they should not worship Devils and Idols of Gold and Silver and brasse and Stone and of wood which neither can see nor hear nor walk which shews that when men worship Images that is God in Images it is not God that is so worshipped but the Divill and all such worship doth not advance the kingdome of God but the kingdome of the Devill therefore it is reall honour to him and therefore this their taking all this vast honour all Churches receiving all from them is none of Gods Institution but the Devils practice for it was the Devill that gave him his power and great authority Therefore saith the holy Ghost they worshiped the Dragon who gave power unto the Beast and they worshipped the beast This worship of the beast they gave it all to him that gave this power to him which was to the Dragon and therfore you read that he had the key of the bottomlesse pit Rev. 9. 1 2. And he opened the bottomlesse pit and there arose a smoke out of the pit as the smoke of a great furnace and there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth There went out Monks Friars and a rabble of all superstition Now if you shall aske the reason why people upon the healing of this wound did so mightily admire both the visible Catholick Church and the head of it and adore both and Satan himselfe in both The reason was First from the wrong Interpretation of some Scriptures which were very frequent with them in those dayes and are still and that was that the Catholick Roman Church was builded upon a rock and that rock was the Bishop of Rome and into his hand the Lord Jesus by Peter had given the keys of the kingdome of Heaven and these keys had absolute universall power to binde on Earth and upon his binding on earth Christ would bind in heaven this was an error in judgment that did so possesse their hearts that upon the healing of this wounded head all the world did admire him Therefore Bellarmine makes a large discourse Behold I lay in Zion a chief corner stone and they that trust in him shall never be confounded and so never was there any man that was an enemy to the Catholick Church but was confounded nor never did any man stand for the Catholick Church but was preserved and so they did admire him A great inundation of barbarous Nations were all driven out by the piety of the Bishop of Rome they were able to overturn the Emperors of the East and it was overturned and bring them to his feet and all to be at his disposing This was some confirmation to them that he was the successor of Peter that now whoever is saved it must be by the power of this key or else never look for any saving in this world A second reason may be taken from the correspondency and plausablenesse of such a kinde of Religion and Government to carnall reason especially when it is subdued by any terrors of consceence for it was a season and that held many years together wherein the Priests Friers and Monks had marvellous power to sting the consciences of men with the loathsomnesse of their sinne in the sight of God and they had admirable dexterity therein These foure things were all the matter of their Sermons Vertue and vice Heaven and Hell If you be vertuous then you shall go to Heaven If you be vicious then you must go to Hell Now they would so convince mens consciences and upon conviction binde the conscience under terror as eternally shut out of Heaven for want of virtue which they had not that indeed when these mens consciences are thus perplexed and wounded here is a Religion that findes them so many salves and medicines as ease the power but not remove the cause of the disease that is they set men a course well though you be vicious and though Hell be dreadfull yet Purgatory may ease you by Prayer and you may be dispensed with from going to Hell especially by the Popes pardon or by your own workes by your confessions by selfe-whippings and scourgings or by going a Pilgrimage you may be
patience I pray consider it I do not enter into a common place of faith and patience but let me say thus much of it Patience is a virtue mortifying and moderating greifs and fears or afflictions and subduing our wils to the will of God not onely in contentment but comfort My brethren saith James count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations James 1. 2. That whereas other men or our selves in time of prosperity when as God applies his will to our wils are joyful and this is no great matter This is the joy of Gods people when God shall apply our wils unto his As Christ did comforme his will unto his Fathers will and say O my God I delight to do thy will It is written in thy book I came to do thy will Psal 40. 8. This indeed doth make us compleat christians A man is a happy man that hath his will and Gods will together in all that his heart does desire If God would have me suffer then certain it is best it should be 〈◊〉 And 〈◊〉 should christians come armed with faith and patience and with wils subdued to the will of the most high not onely to be contented but comfortable in suffering all things for Christ And let your faith fasten upon it and let your patience moderate your greifs and make your hearts comfortable also and this is that which God delights in Here is the patience and faith of the Saints And so I will end with that speech of the Apostle My brethren be ye followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises Heb. 6. 12. Both by faith of well doing and of suffering evill by faith and patience Ye have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God ye might receive the promise Heb. 10. 36. You have need of patience that ye may be faithfull and you have need of faith that you may be patient When a man is confident in Christ above all creatures this works patience So we shall follow the steps of our blessed Ancestors we shall still go on in maintayning the same faith and worship and Government wherein our Fathers were taught of God to walk and whereby they did inherit promises both in life and death Rev. 13. 11. to the end of the 17. And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth and he had horns like a Lamb and he spake as a Dragon c. WEe come now to the description of the second Beast I beheld another Beast c. I do not love to be large in those Scriptures that do not so narrowly concern us as knowing how farre and what a vast distance by the grace of God we stand in here from them but yet because it is a part of Gods counsell and some-what largely described give me leave to declare the meaning of the words and gather such notes from them as they hold forth Observe then here is a description from the 11th verse to the end of the Chapter of the second Beast I saw another Beast The Originall sets him forth by his nature they that know the language knows it signifies only a wild beast and in proper speech it signifies such a wilde beast as was venomous and therefore the remedy for the venome of this beast they call it Therion a proper preservative against venome or poyson This beast is described by four arguments 1. By his originall He comes out of the earth 2. By his similitude or resemblance in three things First to a Lamb in his horns Hee hath two hornes like a Lamb. Secondly he is resembled to a Dragon in his speech He spake like a Dragon Thirdly he is resembled to the former beast in the exercising of his power He exerciseth all the power of the first beast 3. This beast is described by the particular exercises 〈…〉 power or the effects of his power which are these 1. He causeth the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed he procures adoration to the first Beast 2. He doth great wonders making fire come downe from heaven in the sight of men vers 13. 3. He deceives them that dwell on the earth by the meanes of those miracles 4. He doth prevaile with them that are on earth to make an Image to the Beast which had the wound by the sword and did live vers 14. 5. He doth animate and give life to this image of the Beast that this image of the Beast should have both power to speak and to cause as many as would not worship the image of the Beast to be killed A sixth effect is he causeth all sorts of men rich and poor free and bond to receive a mark in their hand c. or at least his name or the number of his name or otherwise hee excludes them not only from spirituall but civill commerce vers 16 17. For the Notes that these words afford I will handle them all in two They will not need much enlargement the Explication and Application of them will reach the meaning and scope of the words Remember what the first Beast was and then you will more easily know what this Beast must be You know this first Beast being described to have seven heads and ten horns was taken by all for the Roman Empire and this being not that but another that comes in his room after him Is is evident then that this Beast must either be the Roman-Heathen Empire or the Roman-Christian Empire or the Roman-catholick visible Church one of these three Roman States it must be Not the first for this rose after that was cast down after the Dragon was cast out of Heaven and had no more to rule that State Also you heard in Chap. 12. that Beast had ten crowns on the heads this hath not Crowns on the heads but on the horns the Princes and heads of that State were crowned This doth not weare the temporall Crown but those Princes that mayntaine him they weare the Crowns Againe that Beast Pagan Rome did not begin his time of prosperity and flourishing with the womans flight into the wildernesse and the two witnesses prophecying in sackcloath a thousand two hundred and sixty dayes for their government ended when the Christian State began and therefore it could not be Pagan-heathen Rome Nor could it be the Christian Imperial Roman State For 1. It is said in the second vers That the Dragon gave him his power and his seate and great authority but that he did not to the Christian Emperours for they would not live at Rome but at Constantinople 2. It was never made a signe of reprobation to worship the Roman Christian Emperors but it is made a sign of reprobation to worship this Beast It remayns therefore that this Beast described in the former pare of the Chapter is the third Roman State which being not Rome-Pagan nor Rome-Christian it must needs be the Roman Papall State under
heart we are not returned from Babell but every new occasion puts us to a new plantation and when we are there we cannot rest And therefore I feare because we have not judged our selves for our inordinate walking in polluted Churches but have rather sought for our own peace then purity from these pollutions which there have defiled us or do not see any great need of judging our selves in that kinde thence it is that to this day the Lord hath much ado to quiet our hearts in his peace and purity and in power but still we are much destitute of inward purity and power of godlinesse and therefore dead heartednesse hangs about us to this day And therefore as we desire the power and purity and peace of Ordinances stamped upon our hearts so we are to bewaile the contagions we have had in this Image of the beast with Officers or people that so the Lord may give a reviving according to the desire of our hearts Lastly let it be of much praise and thanksgiving to God that hath delivered us and ours from these Contagions and pollutions in which you see all that dwell on the earth have been intangled and polluted in time past That he hath delivered us from the power of this Beast the Roman Catholick Church that he hath freed us from making an Image to that Beast we own none of his Ordinances and that God hath removed us from the marke of this Beast that we desire not to be accounted Catholicks nor Hirarchies nor stand members of a Diocesan or Provinciall or Cathedrall or Nationall Church but beare witnesse against them all And also that he hath freed us in some measure from the number of his name that many things that are of number and account with them are not of any number with us if there be any thing of the Beast in it And therefore it is matter of great praise to God You shall read of the hundred and forty foure thousand that God had gotten victory over the Image and mark of the Beast and over his name and the number of his name or had not left them in any bondage they sung as it were a new song before the Throne It is great matter of praise that here we may enjoy no head but the Lord Jesus Saul indeed was head of the Tribes of Israel but not of the Church 1 Sam. 15. 17. That the Lord hath given us to enjoy Churches and Congregational Assemblies by his Covenant to worship him in all his holy Ordinances that he 〈◊〉 given us to look for no Laws but his word no rules nor forms of worship but such as he hath set downe in his word no platforms of Doctrine but such as are held forth in the word of the Prophets and Apostles It is such a priviledge that for 1260. years the Christian world knew not the meaning of it unlesse it were here and there a few whom God had sealed this was the priviledg of a few sealed ones but this the Lord vouchsafeth to us this day above all Nations that have power of the civill sword It is true there is a great deale of these things in sundry other Churches but yet there is a tang of the image of the Beast that a company of Elders and Ministers they shall have power to impose Officers upon Churches and to excommunicate Officers and Members It is too much the image of the first Beast and too much of the power of both Beasts and therefore it is to be lamented but that the Lord should give us such liberty that all our Churches are not subordinate one to another and none arrogate nor plead Supremacy but are preserved and kept from all contagion of the first and second beast this calls us to abundant thankfulnesse and wee are to desire that the Lord would keep us at such a distance that we may never return to the image of either of the beasts Rev. 13. the last vers Here is wisdome Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast for it is the number of a man and his number is six hundred threescore and sixe THese words are some part of the description of the second Beast which arose after the former continued from the 11 th verse of this Chap. unto the end of it The former beast as you have often heard is the Roman-Catholick visible Church described at large from the first verse to the end of the 10 th The latter Beast is the head of the Catholique Church the Bishop or Antichrist of Rome and he is here described 1. By his Originall He came out of the earth 2. By his resemblance which is three-fold To the Lamb in his hornes To the Dragon in his tongue and speech and to the first beast in his power He exerciseth all the power of the first beast 3. As he is described thus by his Originall and by his resemblance so he is described by his great power and his power exerciseth it selfe in divers acts First He exerciseth all the power of the first beast Now the first beast being the Roman Catholique Church he exerciseth all the power of the Roman Catholique Church that look what the Roman Catholick Church can do the Pope can do with them or without them He can call Councels and make their Canons authenticall He can make Lawes to bind Conscience he can make Lawes to bind whole Churches as well as the Aecumenicall power of the whole Councell He can forbid any other doctrine or worship or government but what himselfe establisheth He can adde to the Scriptures the Apâ—crypha and he hath infallible power to judge Controversies Hee can binde and loose Conscience he can depose Kings and dispose of their Kingdoms and he can absolve Subjects from the oath of Fidelity He hath power to pardon sinne and to sell out pardons to them that buy them All that the first beast can do he will do and more but yet he doth it as the Text sayes in the sight of the first beast that is in the face and countenance of the first bâ—ast He is so modest that he will not take all that honour to the head but the whole body and derives all that honour expresly to himself The second act of his power He causeth all that dwell on the earth to worship the first beast The third act of his power He doth great wonders even to call downe fire from Heaven in the sight of men Not the fire of Acceptance which Eliah brought to consume the Sacrifice but the fire of Vengeance upon the Rebellious as the Prophet called for fire upon the Captains that came to attach him 4. He doth by his miracles deceive all that dwell upon the earth 5. He causeth them all to make an Image like unto the first beast The first beast as you heard was the Roman visible Catholicke Church then the image of the beast are all such like models and forms of Churches as are Diocesan
60 why pleasing to the flesh 117 Power of the Beast whence it iâ— p. 22. 115. and what it is 23 What Power Princes have over the Church what not 39 Princes Power ought to be limited 73 We should pray for the Beasts ruine 95 Christs Purchase for his people 171 R. THe blood of Christ a Ransome for sinne page 176 Popish repentance no better then Judas repentance 212 Reconciliation with God the purchase of Christs blood 171 Roman Catholicke visible Church described p. 2. 7. And whence this first Beast did arise 9 When Rome-Pagan ended and Rome-Christian began 5 S. SAints alwayes victorious page 106 No Salvation in the Romish Church 215 What is meant by Sea 8 Christ slaine p. 168 and wherefore p. 170. and how slaine from the beginning of the world 189 The Spirit is purchased by Christs death 172 Sufferers for Christ and his cause are blessed 219 Sweden is one of the ten Horns 50 T. TEnths is the number of the beasts name pag. 253. 257 Thâ—odosius overâ—hrew the Temples 88 The Turk invincible whilst the Pope stands 50 V. UNiversality and prosperity no notes of a true Church page 57 Union purchased by Christs death 172 W. VVAldenses and Albingenses slaine to the number of 1000000. page 100 Saints are Saints in Warre as well as in Peace 108 Such as War against Antichrist are called Saints 106 A warning from checks of Providence 44 The Beast makes War with the Saints 98 The great words of the Beast 65 Works and grace opposite 210 Popish worship is the worship of the Devill 58 ERRATA PAge 2. l. 2. r. a part l 17. r. they are p 4. l. 17. r. Pagan p 8. l. 19. r. partions p. 9. l. 26. r. Decemviri l. 28. r. was p. 14. l. 34. r is it p. 16. l. 17. r. is it l. ult r. edefied p. 18. l. 3. r. examination p. 29. l. 34. r. edefied l. 35. r. bring p. 30. l. 25. r. passeth p 31. l. 37. r. Church will p. 32. l. 3. r. they p. 33. l. 24. r. Decemviries p. 34. l. 23. r. some such l. 35. r. must therefore p. 43. l. 32. r. sacrifice p. 62. r. delegation p. 6â— l. 27. r. Dan. 7. 8. p. 64. l. 16. r. audible p. 82. l. 28. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 38. r. there p. 37. l. 17 r. prevaricate p. 90. l. 14. r. many p. 91. l. 22. r. talke p. 123. l. 21 r. Albigenses l. 29. r. suiâ—â— p. 124. l. 24. r. without p. 129. l. 29 r. men p. 132. l 24. r. acceptation p. 145 l. ult r. irrevocable p. 159. l. 6. r. unexcusable p. 157. l. 31. r. many p. 160. l. 6. r. antiquity p. 178. l. 23. r. applyed to p. 181. l. 19. r. repetitions p. 182. 29. r. the. p. 184. 36. r. grace p 211. l. 28. r. stony p. 229. l. 36. r. appeals FINIS The Analysis of this 13. Chapter of the Revelation This Chapter contains the Warr which the Dragon or Devill made against the Woman or Church mentioned in the last verse of the foregoing Chapter which is managed by two Beasts as his Instruments First beast is described v. 1. to 11 by his 1 Originall or Fountaine whence he springs viz. the Sea vers 1. 2. Shâ—pe or Figure having 7. Heads with the Title of blasphemy upon them ib. 10. Horns with Crowns upon them ibid. A Body like unto a Leopard or Panther v. 2. Feet as of a Beare ibid. A mouth as of a Lyon ibid. 3. State which is set forth by 1. The efficient Cause viz. the Dragon he gave his power and authority ibid. 2. The variable change of it 1. 'T was great being cal'd Power Seat Authority 2. One head was wounded as it were to death v. 3. 3. That Head was healed ib. and the effects thereof 1. The worlds wondring ibid. 2. The worshipping of the Beast and Dragon v. 4. 3. Liberty to blaspheme v. 5. 6. 4. Power to continue 42. moneths overcom the Saints v. 7. 5. The amplitude or largenesse of his Dominion v. 7 8. 3. A Conclusion containing a word of Attenttors and Consolation v. 9 10. 1. His Originall He comes on t of the earth vers 11. 2. A Similitude or Resemblance in 3. things viz. to 1. A Lamb in his horns ibid. 2. A Dragon in his speech ibid. 3. The first Beast in the exercise of his Power v. 12. 3. The particular Exercises of his Power or effâ—cts of it viz. Hee 1. Procures Adoration to the first beast ibid. 2. Doth great wonders making fire come down from heaven in the sight of men ver 13. 3. Deceives them that dwell on the earth by those miracles v. 14. 4. Doth prevaile with them that are on earth to make an Image to the Beast which had a wound by the sword and did live ibid. 5. Animates and gives life to the Image of the Beast that it should have both power to speake and to cause as many as would not worship the Image of the Beast to be killed v. 15. 6. Causeth all sorts of men small and great rich and poor free and bond to receive a mark in their right hand or forehead or at least the Name of the Beast or the number of his name or otherwise he excludes them not only from spirituall but also civill Commerce v. 16 17. The number of his Name is also ver 18. illustrated 1. By the wisdome needfull to the understanding of it 2. By an exhortation to search out and count it 3. To be the number of a man expresly decyphered to be 666. The Reader is desired to correct with his pen these faults amongst others which through precipitance of the Press have fallen to the prejudice of the sence Page Line Read 2 2 a part 6 31 give 9 26 Decemvirs 11 30 much  34 whole  last lasted long 13 34 persumed 14 36 is it not 16 17 is it not  29 Metropolitan  last edefied 29 35 bring  37 primitive 36 11 head of the.  37 Supremacy 37 6 incompatible 64 10 premeditation  16 audible 65 29 derision 66 10 Pope that is the 69 6 Cantury  20 could not for would 73 11 clouds to keep them from the earth  ib. Firmament to the clouds  31 blot out a. 75 27 Pontifex 82 2 limited  28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉   blot out ever 83 35 a definite or indefinite time 87 17 prevaricate  25 there was no place 88 8 Theodosius  20 for scores of r. number 90 13 time for the moneth  14 many for may 95 1 the children of Israel in the land of Aegypt 101 36 readinesse for necessity 102 2 even for him and 107 32 they are not hereticks  35 if not they 109 13 not lift up  22 holinesse  28 hand for head 115 6 blot out Exasia 116 24 the Pope was 117 10 Abominations 123 21 Waldenses and Albâ—ngenses  29 suite for smite 124 24 Without mixture 129 penult of life for of the life 134 1 else they may not  3 the booke of life of  25 Wherein whoever is not  33 blot out out of 141 34 35 the world it carryeth away them 145 lâ—st irrevocable 146 8 receive him  31 there be in us 148 13 blasting 150 10 how for now  13 many times  30 seale for search  32 after worke for Christ make 155 34 that for as 159 4 This is for this this  6 unexcusable 165 31 many times  23 applyed to thee 178 29 the stay 182 1 of temptations 184 36 way of grace  19 in Sauls and Solomons 197 â—â— take it at the best 198 â—9 And 〈…〉 201 2 blot out in doing and suffering all for them 206 12 which be haâ—h 208 21 not for nor  29 tells you of the.  30 blot out to in that sentence and to the holy Citie they 209 4 not for nor 210 19 subtile 211 7 word for world 215 28 â—â—ony for strong 218 27 tale for taile 229 15 appointed time is come 231 36 appeals 236 12 the Church 237 23 the head of this beast 239 10 Congregations to  4 5 speech of the sins of Christians in c.  35 blot out as  36 for a great 240 16 loth for loft 241 28 given for gotten 246 9 me for men  2 account 247 27 〈…〉 249 25 as well 251 31 then let all 252 14 of it more 253 8 pretty 256 6 victory  10 born witnesse against  11 a Papist so far 257 6 sixe more in 259 17 in the foundation 〈◊〉 Doct. Reason Vse 1. Vse 2. Vse 3. Vse 4. Doct. 2. Reason 1. Reason 2. Vse 2. Vse 3. Vse 4. Vse 5. Doctr. 1. Reason 1. Reason 2. Vse 1. Doctr. 2. Reason 1. Reason 2. Vse 1. Vse 2. Vse 3. Doctrine Reason 1. Reason 2. Reason 2. Vse 1. Vse 2. Vse 3. Vse 4. Doctr. 1. Reason 1. Reason 2. Reason 1. Reason 2. Reason 3. Vse 1. Vse 2. ☞ Note Vse 3. Vse 4. Vse 5. Vse 6. Doctr. 2. Quest 1. Answ Quest 2. Answ Quest 3. Answ Vse 1. Vse 2. Doctr. 3. Reason 1. Reason 2. Reason 3. Reason 4. Reason 1. Reason 2. Reason 1. Reason 3. Vse 1. Vse 2. Vse 3. Vse 4. Vse 5. Doctr. 4. Reason 1. Reason 2. Reason 3. Answ Vse 1. Vse 2. Vse 3. Vse 4. Doctr. 1. Reason 1. Reason 2. Reason 3. Vse 1. Vse 2. Vse 3. Vse 4. Vse 5. Doctrine 2. Reason 1. Reason 2. Reason 3. Reason 1. Reason 2. Vse 1. Vse 2. Vse 3. Vse 4. Vse 5. Reason 1. Reason 2. Vse 1. Vse 2. Vse 3. Vse 4. Vse 5. Vse 6. Vse 7. Doct. 4. Reason 1. Reason 2. Vse 1. Vse 2. Vse 3. Vse 4. Doct. 1. Reason 1. Reason 2. Reason 3. Reason 4. Reason 1. Reason 2. Reason 1. Reason 2. Vse 1. Vse 2. Vse 3. Doctrine 2. Reason Vse 1. Vse 2. Doct. 3. Reason 1. Reason 2. Vse 1. Vse 2. Vse 3. Doctrine 1. Doct. 2. Vse 1. V se 2. Vse 3. Vse 4. Vse 5. Vse 6. Vse 7. Doctrine Parker Vse 1. Vse 2. Vse 3. Vse 4.
Nations and that in so many Nations with Spirituall and Temporall Dominion carry all before him will it not be a Monster What a disproportion is this to the Churches of Christ and to the Officers thereof Not to speak of their other monstrous usurpations of the head of this Church but take the body as it is how they speak like a Lyon and hold fast when they get like a Beare and are spotted like a Leopard that they are nothing but hotch-potch and mingle-mangle If any man have understanding let him understand what kind of Church this is that is thus deciphered and described this visible Catholick Church For the Use It may first teach us the great and just reason which all Protestant Churches have to with-draw themselves from the fellowship of the Church of Rome from the Catholick visible Roman Church though they look at those that submit not to them as Schismaticks and Hereticks I pray you consider would they have us submit to this great beast would they have the Lambs of Christ for such are the Churches of Christ to submit to a Lyon Beare or Leopard Hath any Lamb in the world much lesse a Lamb of Christ so many Heads and Horns and such spots and such feeâ— and such a mouth Therefore I pray you consider it is not time for the Lambs of Christ and for all the Churches of Christ to flye off from this Monster and to abandon them utterly as having no part nor portion with such a beast as this Secondly let this be another Use it may teach us how Christian Protestant Churches wrong themselves that leave any footsteps of this government in their Churches For that is part of the image of the beast for the second beast when he was advanced he would have an image of the first beast they must have Provinciall and Diocesan Churches and National Churches and carry I know not how many hundred congregations into one Nationall Church and there must be some Diocesan and Metrapolitan church and the rest must be inferiour to that Though this be not so great a monster as the great Beast yet it is an image of this beast can any brother tell his offence to such a church And will you have him stay till the whole National church meets Or will you have him stay till the Diocesan church meets and carry his offences to the Visitation Do you think they will right his cause then Are a few such kind of men the Chancellor and Register and Surrogate and Apparitor do you think the church that our Saviour bids us tell Are these they that are gathered together that all may heare and all may be edefied Do these serve the Lord Jesus and not their owne bellies I say therefore you may see what great reason men have to with-draw from subjection in spirituall matters to the Image of this great beast that in some measure represent the same state as they Thirdly let it be a seasonable advertisement to all if I were to speak to Princes to all Princes but however to all Magistrates how to make use of their Authority to be as Protectors of the Church in respect of their spirituall estate as children of the church but not to give the horns to the church though horns be for beauty and strength you see it makes the Church a monster and it is to make a beast of the Church And so if you should make Church-Officers Justices of Peace or Councellors or prostitute your own Government to them that if the Church condemn any then you must do so too as heretofore if a man were condemned by the Church and by them delivered to the secular power then burn him presently this puts your Horns upon the Churches head unto monstrous deformity And therefore it is necessary for Magistrates to keep their power in their owne hands and not to take things Ipso facto from the Church but to consider what is done and then they are to confirm what the Church doth according to God Here are ten horns and these are tenne Kings by the holy Ghosts interpretation and they adde to the monstrousnesse of this Beast by giving their power thereto Why doth this mishape a Christian Church for Magistrates to submit their crownes to the Church No God forbid it is an honour and happinesse to them when Kings are nursing Fathers to the church and bow down their faces to the earth Isa 49. 23. But why then doth he put it as a part of the mishapen state of the Church that it had tenne hornes to wit because these Kings did give their strength and power to the Beast that the Beast did act these Horns acording to the power of his lust as Chap. 17. v. 17. as it was truly accomplished in all the Kings of Europe that did submit all their Scepters and Thrones and Crowns and Dignities to the Bishop of Rome That if hee command this or that there must be room for him what ever becomes of Princes Laws and Endeavours and all acts and enterprises of War or Peace He had their horns on his head he might push with them as he would This made the Church a monster when soveraign power was obnoxious to the Bishop of Rome when without Excomunication whether a cause were of God or no Magistrates proceeded if the Church had censured As a Beast that hath horns on his head as hee turns so must the power of his horns be set and put forth If therefore the Catholick Church or any Officer of it shall condemn a man as an Heretick and then deliver him to the secular power they never dispute the cause but take it for granted If their holy mother Church condemn him the Secular Power must push and crush him to the very Earth and trample him under foot and rend his bowels from his body if he once be delivered to them Now this makes the Church a beast that hath this power over the Princes of the Earth that look what is their lust or their ignorance or their errour and the contrary adjudged by them to be Heresie that the Secular power must mayntain the one and condemn the other It is a comfortable thing for Churches to be strengthned and protected by civill Magistrates But if they captivate their power to the Church that what Church Rulers call for not according to the Word but their Lusts that the civill Magistrate must confirm that makes the Church a Beast And therefore be wise now O ye Kings be instructed O ye Judges of the earth serve the Lord with feare and rejoyce with trembling c. Psal 2. 11 12. Kisse the Lord Jesus submit to him and in him to the church Lick the dust off the feet of the church dispensing his counsell and will But when by implicite obedience the Common-wealth must he prostitute to the Beast it makes the Beast more monstrous then it is The authority of Princes in that kind makes such churches to be
Dragon gave him his power and Authority and such Authority that he exalts himself above all that is called God The use is thus much First it serves to shew the vanity of all that admiration of the Roman Catholick visible Church and devotion to that Church which hath so long for many Ages deluded the world and with which Jesuites and Seminaries doe to this day delude devout but carnall souls Here is great power given to them and great authority but whence hath the Church all this They pretend they have it all from Christ but they have it from the Dragon of the bottomlesse pit He gave him his power and seat and great authority It never came from Christ he never gave this power to any Church nor State in the world it is from the Dragon And whereas they plead it is the keys of the kingdome of Heaven Mat. 16. 19. It is verely as the Text calls it Rev. 9. 1. The key of the Bottomlesse pit There fell a star from Heaven to the Earth and to him was given the key of the Bottomlesse pit It is he that hath power to let out smoak out of the bottomlesse pit Not to let out men from thence as some have pretended or from Limbus which is the suburbs of Hell But to let out smoak damnable doctrine and false Government He hath power to open it but no power to shut it power to sting mens consciences but no power to heal them And therefore when Bellarmine makes the Roman Catholick visible Church to be the true Church he makes this the first note of a true Catholick Church whereas our Divines make Preaching of the word and administration of the Sacraments and holy Diâ—cipline he refutes them and sets down three other universall Catholick visible Church to be the true Church And the truth is it is the very Beast to which the Devill gave this great Authority and power Wherefore let not men be bewitched with them but let us know they are all but efficacies of delusions what ever have been in this kinde spoken If any man say shall we disclaim an Article of our Creed to despise the holy Catholick Church God forbid we doe believe the holy Catholick Church spread over all Nations But a Church Catholick that shall have one visible head and be the Mother Church verily we look at it as the greatest and ugliest beast that ever was raised in the world Take all other Monarchies that the Scripture describes the Leopard of Greece the Lyon of Babell and the Bear of Persiae and they are either of them but a beastly state but here all these Beasts are mingled and confounded in one And besides It hath seven heads and ten horns A Leopard a Lyon and a Beare they are orderly creatures according to some Institution But here is a Beast that runs besides all institution and description of Scripture and societies of men that ever was raised The Catholick visible Roman Church is the most monster God forbid we should blaspheme any Church but I do but speak Scripture Let the world be judg if the Scripture can be accommodated to any but to this Roman-Catholick mother Church It is evident in Scripture these seven heads and ten horns must be some Roman State the Roman Pagan State it cannot be nor yet the Roman Christian State and a Roman State it is but there hath been no other Roman State but the Roman-Catholick visible Church and that hath claimed such great power and authority which is doubtlesse as incompatible to Scripture as may be which by the wit of man hath not been invented but by the Dragon and yet so goodly in the eyes of the world which great Princes are deluded and besotted withall and happy they that can be reconciled to that State Secondly Learn we to magnifie the free rich grace of God that hath delivered us from this great Beast and the worship of it and hath restored us in a great measure to the government of primative simplicity that now we may meet every Lords day that all may heare and all may be edefied where every one may brign his offence if hee cannot be satisfied in private and may be heard and the case in due time searched into and healed according to God This is Primative simplicity and this is direct proceeding without Lordly Prelacy which overwhelms all the world like a great Sea And it i well called a Sea for it swallows up all like a vast Ocean And the more thankfull ought we to be that he hath delivered us from the Image of the Beast as well as from the beast it selfe A Catholick Church that beareth sway over so many hundred Churches and overwhelms them all Such Lawes they shall make as shall binde all Nations and whether they give consent or no they must subscribe to them in point of government Were we sensible how odious this Beast were in the sight of the holy Ghost and of the Apostle John it would affect us with strong thankfulnesse and hearty enlargednesse to God that hath delivered us from so great a beast and from any image and picture of it unto which all the world is subject unlesse in some few places Thirdly It may teach all Church Officers not to affect any Lordly pomp and state For Officers of a Church to take upon them any great State or to see a Church composed in any such form you see in the eyes of the holy Ghost it is a Beast There is nothing more disproportionable to us then for us to affect Supremacy for us to weare the hornes that might push Kings to throw downe any or to desire Magistrates to execute what we shall think fit verily it is not compatible to the simplicity of the Church of Christ Neither may they give their power to us nor may we take it from them That when an Excommunication passe in the Church then to leave it to the Magistrate that so a man being excommunicated is left Ipso facto to civill censure upon the Churches censure this will cause the Magistrates to submit their power to the Church unavoidably that if a Church censure the Magistrates must proceed against them Now it is good to have these two States so joyned together that the simplicity of the church may be maintained and upheld and strengthened by the civill State according to God but not by any simplicity further then according to the word Beware of all secular power and Lordly power of such vast inspection of one church over another Take heed of any such usurpation it will amount to some monstrous Beast Leave every church Independant not Independant from brotherly counsell God forbid that we should refuse that but when it comes to power that one Church shall have power over the rest then look for a Beast which the Lord would have all his people to abhor Fourthly let it be in the feare of God an use to beware how we take Satans offers This
Sacrafice to Baal for that was one of the worst dunghill gods It is out of Gods righteous judgement when a man will not be reclaimed when the Lord wounds and crushes him and brings him to the last gaspe if he have a licourish affection still now it is an usuall thing with God to pay men to their own perdition And therefore in Rev. 17. 11. It is said the beast that was and is not shall goe into perdition that 's the head of this Beast that is the next newes you heare of this second beast here in the Text and therefore it is called both the beast and the head of the beast where the first beast is presented in the form of a great whore who is to be brought to the last gaspe A whore she was but he presents her to John as a great beast Now hee gives him leave to rise againe to his own perdition and of many thousands more Thus you see the truth of the point Now for the use of it First it may be a just watch-word and warning to all the Sons of men to beware of Gods checks When the Lord checks you crushes your Crowns and exposeth you to this and that danger in one kind or other beware of this whether you be the children of God or not yet come home effectually to him for this you shall finde if you be in distress and call he is ready to heare He will heare Ishmael and he hears the Lyons that roar and seek their meat of him He will many times once or twice or thrice do thus But if the Lord once strike and almost crush you beware now that you lay aside all carnall ends and ambitious designes for otherwise if you shall recover againe and persist in your former wayes without repentance then the next news is you goe on to perdition And therefore when ever the Lord affects us and afflicts us in any kind it is heavenly wisdome to be warned by the least phylip of his finger be warned by any sicknesses crosses danger by Land or Sea by any thing whatsoever the Lord is pleased to exercise you with this is both childrens bread and the bread of strangers Beware you goe not on still but if the Lord check you then turn back again but if you go forward be sure you go to God-ward and according to Gods will and after Gods ends This is that which God calls for that you walke more exactly and more accurately Ephes 5. 15. See then that yee walke circumspectly not as fooles but as wise redeeming the time because God hath thus and thus taken paines with you and hath thus and thus been as a Leopard in your paths It is a strong speech that in Amos 3. 5. Will a man lay a snare and the word is a deadly snare will a man lay a deadly snare and take it up and catch nothing The Lord will catch a prey when he layes a trap for us and he will not leave till he have girded our loynes and our hearts close to him and made us more exact in our way or otherwise if he let us slip it will be to perdition And therefore let all that heare the word ever be sensible of the least wounds checks especially if they grow to some bulky frame I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death and this deadly wound was healed and it was healed to immortall perdition and therefore all that wonder after the Beast they are such as have no part in the Lambs book of Life they have no part in Christ Secondly It may teach us the more earnestly to wrestle with God by faithfull and earnest prayer for any of the Churches of Christ in any parts of the world that if the Lord give them an opportunity to wound the head of any Image of the Beast any of his heads or horns then it will be necessary that all such Churches do take the hint and opportunity that God puts into their hands and that they do not rather close with such heads whom God wounds and be loath to lay hold of those liberties that he procures for them But let this be the constant care of Christians to desire that such heads may not be usurping but if the Lord gives an opportunity the Lord looks that all Christians should improve it to vindicate themselves when the Lord gives any hint thereof When he gives an opportunity then is the time when the iron is hot then strike Intreat God that when he puts a prize into their hands that they then may learn to get wisdome and not in their hearts turn to tolerate arrogant designes and such as are ugly in the sight of God When God wounds the head of Enemies and casts shame upon them and hath rescued his people from them If Churches shal again comply with them then what will the end of that be It is a fearfull thing such kind of Heads goe to perdition and those that dote upon such Heads It is a check especially for this great beast of Rome but it will be dangerous for other States too This will be the finall issue they shall have enough of it they shall be filled with Hirarchicall power and with their Agents in Civill States their feete like a Beare will raven in all that they shall all be weary of the burden and shall be so filled with them as to spew them out of their mouths And therefore how should we help the people of God to traverse that wounded Head that it never rise up more Thirdly this may serve to teach such whose Heads have at any time been wounded As there is none of the servants of God but sometimes he will have them sacrifice their Isaac that which is most deare to them The Lord will rend away our most desirable comforts he will follow us there where we most of all are affected And let this teach the people of God that if the Lord then bow their hearts to unfeigned repentance turning from all evill in their hands and hearts how then If the Lord will restore the wounded head of a beast a beastly head of a beastly shape will he not much more restore the hearts of his servants that seek to him for healing of all their corruptions and scattering all their temptations that they may walke before him according to to his will What saith the holy Ghost Hos 6. 1 2. Hee puts words into their mouths come let us return unto the Lord He hath torne and he will heale us he hath smitten and he will bind us up after two dayes will he revive us and the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight Wherein he shewes the meanes whereby the Lord will apply this medicine to his own servants namely by the death and resurrection of Christ to which he doth allude that as Christ dyed and rose the third day so shall all that have part and portion in him
They may lye in danger but they shall come out in due time but however it should be a warning to the sonnes of men how they adventure their lives by going into any danger where God calls them not But if you be brought into danger when the Lord doth deliver you have cause to blesse him and to render your selves and Families back to him that you may walke with more girt up spirits to God that so he may not repent of what deliverances he vouchsafeth to you Rev. 13. the latter part of the 3. 4. ver And all the world wondered after the Beast And they worshipped the Dragon who gave power unto the Beast and they worshipped the Beast saying who is like unto the Beast who is able to make Warre with him I Come now to speak of the sequell of the healing of this wound upon the healing of it there is a double effect 1. The admiration of the world after the Beast 2. A worship set forth by a double object the Dragon and the Beast 3. The causes are set forth that made them to worship them both The Dragon in that he gave power to the Beast and the Beast for his unmatchable power Who is like unto the Beast who is able to make war with him Here might be three or four Notes justly gathered from hence but because I affect brevity in mysticall Scriptures I shall compact them into one The note is this That upon the healing of the Beasts wounded head all the world fell into an admiration of the Beast and of his power yea into an adoration of worship both of the Beast and of the Dragon This containes both the latter end of the third and part of the fourth vers For the causes of this Admiration they will be just reasons of the point To open the Doctrine upon the healing of this wounded head of the Beast Remember the Beast is the Roman Catholick visible Church whereof Rome was the mother City and mother Church accounted of all the Churches in the world and the Pope is the visible head of this Church in this Chapter called the seventh head Observe 2ly the healing of this seventh Head wounded by the captivity and calamity it fell into by barbarous Nations Upon the healing of this wounded Head by the removal and scattering and subduing of these Enemies as also by the playster that was put to him when such Titles of Soveraign Authority were put upon him by the Emperors Now this was the Originall of that wonder for so it comes in His deadly wound was healed and all the world wondered after the beast And so he expresseth it Chap. 17. 8. All that dwell upon the earth shall wonder when they behold the Beast that was and is not and yet is He was when he flourished as that which was the great Authority of the world He is not when he is wounded in his head but as it were troden under foot wounded to death as if he had not been But yet he is againe that is he is restored And they that dwell on the earth when they saw that wondered to behold the Beast that was and is not and yet is A Beast that cannot be crushed and beaten downe with such desperate calamities so that 's the occasion of their wonderment now upon this occasion they fell into an admiration of the Beast and of his power An admiration implies some high esteem of some great happinesse betiding this Beast not only beyond their expectation but transcendant beyond their apprehension and capacity to understand For a man doth not admire a thing unlesse it goe not only beyond expectation but is transcendant above his reason and understanding Yea beyond any meanes he could use to bring such a thing to passe Therefore when they see this great change they fall admiring of the Beast and the head of the Beast and of the Dragon that gave power to the Beast and worship them both For their Admiration then let me speak something of that and then of their Adoration both of the Beast and of the Dragon It was in a way of Admiration I will not say what expressions some have made of it some that were called Fathers of the Church and have left such things in writing It would mightily possesse one with Admiration of the Sea of Rome looking at him as the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah looking at him as by his Primacy to be like Adam for his Faith like Abraham for his government like Noah gathering all the world under him for Order like Melchisedech for his function to be Christ himselfe deservedly to be God after sometimes called the Vicar of Christ and of God marvellous transcendant strains put upon him which argues a high esteem of him But to omit such things as are but flourishes these are reall 1. That all the Churches of the world are to receive all their doctrine and worship from them Though it were never so superstitious as worshipping of Angels and Saints and making use of their meditation besides Christ and they did receive from them more then all this which is the life and quintiscence of all They looked from the Father of the Catholick visible Church to receive Indulgences and pardon of all their sinnes If he retained them then they were retained if he remitted them they were remitted This they looked for from him not only for Doctrine and worship but for sealing up their Pardon for so many hundreds and thousands of years and not sealed with waxe but with a wap of Lead and a Seale set on that And this was the chiefe comfort of troubled minds in those ages these things they received from them and admirable honour they put upon that Beast to receive all such things from them 2. They made to Rome all their Appeals What ever government there was in the Christian world from thence were their Laws and thither were their Appeals as out of England and many other places to the great disturbance of Church and Common-wealth as also large and bountifull payments were made to them It were a vast thing to sum up the totall sum of constant payments that were from every Kingdome repayed to the Sea of Rome And as their Appeals Payments went to Rome so did their bodies on pilgrimage and it was thought a great devotion to kisse the feet of the Pope and to see those blessed Shrines Thus was their admiration of the Beast 3. They fetched from Rome the Ordination of all their chiefe Officers Any Arch-bishop who-ever chose him yet he was not installed but he must fetch it from Rome and pay well for it And from thence they fetched all their Coronation of Kings and Emperors and sundry fundamentall Lawes of every Catholick Kingdom were derived from thence All their Dispensations were fetched from thence that Princes might marry where they would And dispensation from Oaths and from Marriages contracted all these things they fetched from Rome It was
God for all Blasphemy against the name of God or hâ—s Tabernacle or those that dwell in heaven it is blasphemy against God It is said here there was power given to the Beast to speak great things and blasphemyes wherein did that lye against Gods name and against his Tabernacle and those that dwell in Heaven So that blaspheme any of these and you blaspheme God blaspheme the name of God the Tabernacle of God and those that dwell in Heaven whether Saints above or Saints on Earth and you blaspheme God himself And therefore it should be farre from us to abuse any ordinance or providence of God for it is blasphemie against God himselfe they are the name of God Gods name is called on his providences If we speak evill of Gods ordinances or providences as for a man to say would to God I had never known such a woman it is blasphemy Gods wisedome and righteousnesse hath ordayned it If we be in distresse or in any sicknesse and we snarle against God and mutter at our poverty and sickness it is to blaspheme the name of God all these are providences of God To speak evill of Churches as if they were Congregations of Heriticks or Schismiticks or Congregations of Rebels or Libertines and Brownists and such like it is blasphemy against the God of Heaven Besides it is blasphemy against the Body of Christ in the Sacrament to think every Baker can make it that is Popish blasphemy To speak evill of the Saints of God on earth to thinke to take liberty because they are absent Our tongues are our owne who is Lord over us Little do we know how tender God is of his people we cannot speak evill of any in the Church but we blaspheme God And so if we speak evill of his providences it is as much as if we speak evill of God himself And therefore how precious ought the name of God to be to us to whom our names are pretious It is but a scandall to a christian brother but it is blasphemy to God and therefore speak not evill as thinking it shall never come to his eare If we speak evill of Authority of Churches of Saints or evill of them that doe evill unlesse you may take order to represse it the Lord himself looks at it as blasphemy and therefore we must not look at it as a light matter our tongues are our own and we may have liberty to speak I you have liberty but not to speak blasphemies either small or great There is not the least blasphemy but it is a great Sinne and therefore greatly to be avoyded Rev. 13. latter part of the 5. vers And power was given him to continue forty and two moneths THis is the continuance of the description of the former Beast which the Apostle John saw rising out of the Sea to be the instrument of the Dragons power that is Satans rage against the Woman and her feed Among other parts of the description which have been opened this Beast is described by the change that befell him in his head wounded and healed the effect whereof was 1. The admiration of the world 2. The worship of the Beast and of the Dragon The third effect or event was the authority or power that the Beast did receive and did exercise and that power was 1. To speake great things and blasphemies which accordingly he did exercise in blaspheming the name of God and his Tabernacle and the Saints 2. There was a power of continuance as it is here translated forty and two moneths 3. There was given to him power to make warre with the Saints and to overcome them Of the first part to speak blasphemy we have already spoken Now come we unto the second part of the power given him which is his continuance There was power given him to continue forty and two moneths The note from thence is shortly this That power and authority was given to this Beast that is to the Roman Catholicke Church to continue that is to be active and doing to be busie fortie and two moneths This expresseth the sum and sence of the words they are obscure as any place in the word and therefore need your more diligent attention and the power of the Lord Jesus to clear his counsel and will in this point who alone openeth the Seales and none can shut them To open the words Power was given to him The word in the Originall is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies the power of Authority or Jurisdiction a soveraign kind of power as it is here described in the seventh verse over all Kindreds and Tongues and Nations Such power that all the world wondered at it and adored especially that which they call the Christian world did exceedingly magnifie the power and authority of this Beast and he speakes here principally of Spirituall Authority though it grew to Temporall Power in making Warr in the 7. vers for he riseth by degrees to further power but authority was given him Given him by whom 1. By God that put it into the heart of the tenne Horns that is the tenne Kâ—â—gs to give their Kingdoms with one consent to the Beast Rev 17. 17. So God by his wise and just providence gave him authority such as God hath ordained in his word but he put it in their hearts by his wise and just providence 2. This authority was given by Satan who assisted Antichrist in the mystery of Iniquity in working signs and lying wonders with all deceivablenesse of unrighteousnesse till hee lift up himselfe above all that is called God 2 Thes 2. 9 10. And indeed Satan wrought mightily what by the sophistry of the School-men and by the policy of the Canonists and what by the devotion of Cloyster-men and Fryers it was a wonder to see how he gained a mighty power against Churches all the world over 3. This power was given him by those States the ten Horns which gave their Crowns with one accord to the Beast that he should rule in their Dominions The chiefe Kingdoms in Europe are in these ten our Native Countrey for one France and Spaine and Navarre Sweden Denmarke and the rest they did with one accord give their Kingdomes to the Beast that in point of Religion they should establish all Ordinances according to the wisdome of his soveraign power And in Temporall matters they gave him greater power to depose and dispose of their Kings then the Roman Emperour had in sundry respects for his was limâ—ed by Laws but this was without Laws 2 Thes 2. 4. He opposeth and exalteth himselfe above all that is called God That without all power of Laws he did out-rage out of measure Given it was by their Devotion and Superstition God piercing their hearts much in those times by the Ministery of their Fryars that did wound their consciences with the sense of their murthers and lusts that they were willing to do any thing for the peace of their
more and more after that time Rev. 13. 7. And it was given unto him to make warre with the Saints and to overcome them and power was given him over all Kindreds and Tongues and Nations WHen the Devill that is to say the Dragon could not find any longer resting place in heaven that is to say he could no longer enjoy Soveraign and divine worship as the great God Constantine and his Successors having brought in Christ and his worship alone instead of all the gods of the Gentiles He therefore to revenge himselfe makes warre against the Church that were the rooters out of Pagan Idolatry This warre because he could not manage by himselfe it being very strong he therefore raiseth two Beasts out of his power the first and second Beasts in this Chapter the first from vers 1. to the 10. The second from vers 10. to the end of the Chapter It was a third Roman State not Rome-Pagan nor Rome-Christian but Rome-antichristian that is to say the Roman visible Catholick Church This is described many wayes by a wound given him upon one of his heads for a season that when Rome was sacked he was almost in a forlorn estate and despairing of recovery but being healed the effects were 1. The worlds admiration after the Beast 2. Their worship both of the Beast and of the Dragon which is Satan himselfe The third event is Power or as the word signifies Authority ver 5 6 7. And this Power and Authority did stretch forth it selfe to three employments First He had power given him to speake great things and blasphemies He might speak blasphemy by authority The second power that was given him was to continue or to be doing to be acting and working all in all for the number of 42. moneths which in the former Chapter is described by dayes and the dayes meant years 1260. yeares which have been at large spoken to The third power and authority given him was To make warre with the Saints and that not a vain and loose war but an effectuall prevailing war a victorious war It was given him to make warre with the Saints and to overcome them There was also a fourth power given him and that was dominion over all the Kindreds Tongues and Nations All Christian Kingdomes they did all of them submit their Crowns and Scepters to this Beast the Roman Catholick visible Church whereof the Pope is the seventh head for he had seven heads and ten horns Five of them were fallen the sixth then which was the Caesars and the Pope he was the seventh Two of these Powers have been opened Power to blaspheme and Power to continue and be doing I come now to the third Power or Authority given to this Beast and that is to make war with the Saints and to overcome them The note then is shortly this The Roman visible Catholicke Church had power to make warre against the Saints yea and to overcome them They are in a manner the words of the Text explained in their true meaning The warre that he speaks of as I conceive in this place is not a spirituall warre though that also this beast did make for he caused all that dwelt upon the Earth to admire and adore him and that was spirituall war But he speaks of such a warre here the effect whereof is killing with the Sword Hee that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword vers 10. As if God would reward him in his owne kind He that slayes many thousands of Christians with the sword that is by the power of warre he himselfe shall at length be destroyed by warre also So that he speaks of a war fought by Arms by slaughter and blood-shed by open expedition of Military persons fighting in the quarrell of this beast against the Saints of God There is another warre mentioned in the 17. Chap. of this book where it is said this Beast and the ten Horns that is the Christian Kings that shall give their power and authority to this Beast shall make warre with the Lamb and they which are of the Lambs side are called and chosen and faithfull and here they are called Saints But there you shall see it is not the same kinde of warre but differing there from what is here for there it is sayd They shall make warre with the Lamb and the Lamb shall overcome them but here it is said He shall make warre with the Saints and overcome the Saints So that one of these warres he speaks of when he that hath smitten others he shall be smitten himselfe that is towards the end of his Authority then the Lamb shall make warre and overcome him but in the meane time he hath power to make warre and overcome them it is therefore a bloody warre And it is not said that he began this war as soon as he began to do for here are sundry acts and passages of Authority before he comes to this transcendant power to violent warre Hee was admired and adored in the consciences of all Roman Catholicks Hee had done many things spake great blasphemies many a day and yeare together And in the end he receives also this power to make warre with the Saints that he was able to muster up such an Army of his owne or his Horns that is those Princes that were obedient to him as he was able to make warr Now this Scripture I conceive was accomplished in his wars against the Waldenses and Albingenses in the 12. Century after Christ they held all things conformable to the Scriptures and the Fathers as they called them and every way Orthodoxall only they blasphemed the Church of Rome this Beast could not tell what he had against them otherwise but otherwise he commended them for their honesty piety and good dealing and there was nothing culpable in their doing but that they spake against the Church of Rome now against them did the Pope and the Catholick Church procure many expeditions of sore warre for many yeares together and in conclusion rooted them out of the Countrey and scattered them up and downe some to some part of France some to Bohemia some to Germany some to England and some to one place and some to another though the Papists did confesse that the people were not rooted out but scattered and where-ever they came they propagated their Religion that it was more and more spread where they came but they overcame them for they slew as stands upon Record about ten hundred thousands of them and did burn up their Cities and Cattell fel'd their wood that there might be no more Hereticks nestled in that wildernesse and they did take a course that Midwives and Mothers and Infants in the womb all should be slaughtered by fire and sword that there might be no more continuance of that Generation So that in this War the Pope did mightily prevaile and prospered so farre that he spread all Christendom and in one battle did overcome a great many
very beastly and ugly monsters Fourthly let it be of this use to raise up our hearts in holy thankfulnesse to God that hath delivered us from this Monster both our Fathers from this great beast and our selves from the remnants of the Image of this beast from all Dioceâ—san and National Churches and from Metropollitan Catholick visible Churches that are Images of this great beast You know how much the civill Laws of Christian Kingdoms doe strengthen Ecclesiasticall power that if once a Church excoÌ„municat a man you know the power of the Law if once this or that court excomunicate a man though it be but for not paying fees when it may be he hath no money or thinks it not lawfull to maintain them by his purse yea when he is excommunicate it may be for going to hear a Sermon in another place when he hath nothing but reading at home or if a man fast with his neighbors in his house then what power there is out of such a Court civill Courts of Justice confirme there comes a Significavit that if he shall live so excommunicate and if he continue and stay out a certain time then the Common-wealth apprehends him and never considers whether the cause be just or unjust I confesse there is a liberty to traverse such a cause but if a man want money or want friends he may be taken and carryed to Prison and there he may lie and rott for any of these mishapen Clergy men But I say it is a great liberty to be freed from this great beast that he hath no finger amongst us we are out of his paw and out of his smell It was a matter in question here not long agoe whether the Court should not take a course to punish such persons as stood excommunicate out of the Church if they should stand long excommunicate but it was a good providence of God that such a thing was prevented Let not any Court Ipso facto take things from the Church If such a Law were made the Fathers live not for ever and if such a Law were once established that a Church-member standing so long excommunicated the Common-wealth then should proceed against him were this established it would make a Beast of the Church we are subject to erre and our posterity that comes after us may erre it may be feared worse It is therefore a mercy to be freed from the beast from the paw of the Bear and the mouth of the Lyon It is such a mercy that they that got the victory over these they stood praising God as Chap. 15. 1 2. The Lambs company that stood on mount Siâ—on they stand and praise and wonder at the gracious hand of God in this case And therefore we should in the fear of God be unfeignedly thankfull to God for our present liberties and withall that we may be so Let him that hath an eare to heare heare If you be of Spirituall discerning and know what these mercies mean you will be really thankfull Therefore shew this thankfullnesse not onely in searching the true meaning of the Text and the true nature of this beast described in it but also in standing fast in these great liberties wherewith Christ hath made us free Gal. 5. 1. You shall have many poore creatures that came hither to this Country and will be ready to go back againe they looke at things as mean and poor here believe it such a man hath not an eare nor an eye open he knows not whether he goes Hagar Sarahs maid whether goest thou saith the Lord to her And so may I say to such whether will you goe will you be gone back againe to Egypt God forbid I should count all our Native Country as Egypt but if you goe thither you will have much adoe to escape the paw of of the Bear If you be once incorporated into any of their Parishes you will finde such beastly work in Church Government I may speak it without wrong to any but that I may bear witnesse against what is corrupt that you will then finde the blessing of those that enjoy liberty and piety together you must worship the beast or the Image of the beast A Diocesan or Nationall Church it is but an Image of the great beast it is a plain pattern of the same and you will finde the body of the Church rent from you or you will be rent from the body if you shall walk roundly and sincerely in the ways of God you will finde sad work to have your own officers or others to rise up against you but we have here cause to praise God for our present liberties and therefore you are to be wary what you doe If this be cause of thankfulnesse turn not againe to that from which the Lord by his stretched out arme hath delivered you And this let me say further as it may provoke us to thankfulness so to forego all the Profits of this life rather then to be drawn to subjection to such a Spirituall Government you see what the holy Ghost counts it seven heads ten horns heads full of names of blasphemy horns crowned and here is a beast like a Leopard with feet like a Bear that all the Government of it looks like rapine and robbery catching and snatching rending and tearing this is the sum and scope of it And therefore be not deceived if men shall tender you faire termes that may smell sweet you shall have liberty in this and that and protection of a good State but it is but the smell of a Leopard when you have yielded to such Conditions as may be tendred you will finde such strong hold got of you that you will never get out And then you shall finde what ever Conditions are put in at first the last Edition will be a mouth like a Lyon They will bring you in with subtilty like a Leopard lay fast hold upon you like a Beare and before they have done there will be a mouth like a Lyon And therefore as we are to be thankfull so we are to be faithfull to God that hath purchased these great liberties for us and be no more willing to be intangled with your former state than you would be willing to fall into the mouth of a Lyon or come under the paw a Beare Qâ— But you will say what is this to me I am but a private Christian Answ Private Christians must not live alwayes in a private State for that darkens a mans estate if he knows not the order of Gods house nor addresseth himselfe to it It is true if a man either were in the Temple or looked towards it his prayers were accepted but if a man have no minde to know the orders of Gods house his ignorance of Church matters will darken his own spirituall estate And therefore whosoever thou be Sonne or Daughter If any have eares to heare let them listen to what is here spoken that so by the blessing of God you
admiration of the Nations Nor was it the healing of this wound from the first time it was given that was the admiration of the world Therefore it must be some head that was so wounded as all the world wondered at it and were captive to it You heard it was not the Roman Christian Emperors it must be him that claimes to be head over all the Churches and who is that but Pontifex maximus It was that which Theodosias abhor'd he thought it an unworthy style for a Christian Emperour to be accounted the great high Priest of the Church but what he laid down they willingly took up to be accounted the great Pastor of the Church and therefore he is the head of the Church For if it be neither Pagan nor Christian Emperours it must be the government that succeeded them they were the sixth and hee is the seventh It is the seventh head that was thus wounded and whose wound was afterward healed Qu. 2. Now a second Question will be If he be the seventh head the head of the Church of Rome If he be this head then when was he wounded Answ When the Goths and Vandalls and Hunnes and other barbarous Nations overwhelmed Italy and the western parts 1. Alaricus about the yeare 415. took Rome aâ—d I remember in a Treatise of Hierom saith he The government which then was left of the Church before was wholly taken away as if a man were beheaded and yet it fell after into worse calamity 2. It was after taken againe by Adulphus who thought to change the name of it and call it Gothia 3. It was taken againe by Gensericus Vandalus 4. Odoacer Rugionus reigned in it fourteen years 5. After him Theodoricus King of the Goths having slaine him his Successor Totilas destroyed it and brought it to such desolation that there was neither man woman nor child seen in it for forty dayes Now this was such a wound that all the Bishops in the world that were wont to give homage to him they now began to neglect his Head-ship that was but a servant at home They despised him to be the head of the Church that was a servant to Barbarians Insomuch that the Bishop of Revenna he challengeth universall Supremacy he takes indignation at him that he will be Lord Paramount But so great was the wound that indeed the Roman Bishop was utterly discouraged and this continued for 140. yeares together and though he would have used many meanes for his cure and have called in help from the Emperor of Greece yet he was not willing to help him for they had fallen out before about worshipping of Images he was constant for Images the other was against them and so he might sinke or swim for them so his wound seemed incurable Quest 3. When was this wound cured and how Answ By degrees 1. In the yeare 555. the Lord stirred up Justinian who by his Generalls Belisarius and Morses drove and destroyed the Goths out of Italy 2. By Justinians novell Constitutions we decree according to the Canons of the holy Councels the most holy Bishop of old Rome to be the first or to have the Primacy of all Priests 3. Phocas the Parricide about fifty yeares after about the yeare 606. healed up the wound granting to Boniface the third that he should be universall Bishop not only the first in order but in honour also and that all the whole world should be his Diocesse And this was the healing of his Head which was so perfectly cured that all the world wondered at the preservation of the head of this Church and began by degrees more and more to adore both the Church and the Head of it Obj. There is an Objection made against this exposition That by this means the Bishop of Rome should be healed before he be a head of Beast for this was his headship when he was allowed to be chief Lord over all the Churches and all the rest to be under him and the Pope was not this head till the Act of Phocas Answ I answer He had not the peaceable possession of this Headship till this time but yet it is evident in story that he did claim this supremacy before he sought it ambitiously and it was given him by the devotion of many Bishops and Churches and Nations it was usually rendred to him long before that time Socrates saith that Ballo the Pope had broken forth into the Government over the Churches And Bellarmine himselfe confesseth when he is put to it that the Bishop of Rome would never goe to any Consultation in the East but sent his Legat for saith he it is not meet the head should follow the members A second reason he gives the Emperor saith he is at least Vice-gerent of the East he well may have the materiall Seat that was taken up by the Emperors where shall the Bishop of Rome sit then and this he gathers out of some of their writings So that it is evident that he did ambitiously desire it and the manner was being elderly men all his beloved and dear children they call him Father and so he takes in good part all their honorable Titles and he destributes to them such parcells of respect as may stand with his own Sumpremacy and their subjection and therefore they need not say The wounded head was healed before he was a head of the Beast for it was in conception long before He did from Constantines time seek Supremacy They confesse little respect was had to him in Constantines time But when order was set in Churches he took all advantages for his exaltation and did take all appeals from others that what others did to him in respect of his gravity learning and understanding he takes as done to him as sitting in Peters Chaire and so did challenge headship in those times and they thought it was meet to give it And after this he was ratified and confirmed and established in peace then was his wound healed Come we then to gather a note or two from the word The first note you may observe is this The ambition and arrogancy of Church Officers clayming headship over the Church of Christ the Lord plagues it with a mortall wound and crusheth it even to the death I gather it out of these words I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death It was one of the heads of the Catholick Church As the body was a Monster so was the head to set a head over such a vast body it was a Monster in Gods sight The Lord wil not suffer him to go on in this ambitious designe but will meet him as he did Balaam when he crushed his foot against the wall and if he had gone on he had sleine him Numb 22. 32 33. So doth the Lord here meet the Bishop of Rome if he will be the head of the visible Church and animate such a Body what will the Lord doe He will wound him to death and
slay him and crush his spirituall arrogancy that under pretence of Vicarship to Christ will yet be the Lord of the Church The Reason of the point is From the dishonour put upon Christ to take the headship from him to whom it belongeth This honour to be the head of the Church is the proper right of the Lord Jesus It is his First by guiâ—t from the Father Ephes 1. 22. To be head ever all things to the Church and Col. 1. â—8 He is the head of the body the Church Secondly it is his by Purchase He gave himselfe to death even the death of the Crosse and God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name Phil. 2. 8 9. He dyed and rose again that he might be Lord both of the dead and living Rom. 14. 9. So that now when the Lord hath this headship of the Church granted him and also hath purchased it by his own death now for another to claym headship it must needs imply either that the head is a non-resident or else thrust out of his headship he doth administer And though the Lord be not present in body yet in his spirituall presence he is as truely present and more effectually then any that can be devised And therefore in regard of injury done to Christ which the Lord will not bear he will therefore crush and wound such heads 2dly From the sacrilegious injury put upon the Church It is an usurpation of all power from the Church that if a Catholick Church be met they will give power and Lawes to other Churches and look what the second Beast doth he administers all the power of the first Beast Look what power is given to the Catholick Church that doth the Bishop of Rome incorporate to himself and he causeth an Image of that Church to be made in Provinciall Nations which when they have taken hold like a Bears claws they will not easily be rooted out Now this is such injurous usurpation that from that day to this they have never been free That where the Pope hath had to doe the Churches are spoiled of the authority that is given to them by Christ And therefore you must not wonder if the Lord wound the head of such as goe on in their wickednesse Psal 68. 20 21. The jealousie of the Lord riseth against such usurpations For a visible Catholick Church to be set over the world who may make Lawes to rule conscience and make Officers for the ordering of all Churches It is such a Monster and the Government of it is so odious in the sight of God that he wounds it to death For the use of the point It may serve to provoke us all to pray heartily and faithfully for the repressing of all such heads as either the Bishop of Rome is or any Images of him whatsoever they be You read of a little horn in Daniel whose root was stubbed up wherever you read of any horns that will usurpe power over the Church look at it as it is abominable to Christ it provokes the spirit of Christ Soveraign Authority is his If the Lord be set upon the hill of Sion he will wound the Bishop of Rome or any that shall take his Image He will give them a deadly blow especially when they are more arrogant then his Indignation ariseth against them to execute judgement on such The headship of the Church is a singular priviledge to the Lord Jesus and incompitable to any They must either take Christs office out of his hands or think him negligent or non-resident and that he doth not sufficiently discharge his headship and therefore they will usurpe an office in his name but that is abominable to Christ Obj. But you will say So wee shall pluck the Crowne off from the heads of Christian Princes for they challenge that stile to be head of the Church Answ I doe not know any Christian Prince that chalengeth that stile That which was sometimes given to Saul may be given to Princes 1 Sam. 15. 17. When thou wast little in thine eyes wast thou not made the head of the Tribes of Israel That is true and so the King is head of all the Peeres and head of all the Shires and the Churches are in some or other of them that is 1. They have power over the Church in all civill matters 2. And I will say thus much that they have power to redresse and reforme inordinate abuses in the Church provoking Church officers to doe it If they doe not other Churches are to treat with them and if their corruptions be prejudicial either to the doctrine of the Gospell or if they degenerate to any Tyranny they are to look to redresse such things but this gives them not headship over the Church over their persons it doth but not over the Church that is 1. They have no power either to call Church-officers or to depose them 2. They have no power to dispence Church-censures 3. They have no power to suspend Church liberties 4. They have no power to appoint Church-ordinances nor power to administer any matter further then any other member of the Church and this did the Church of England acknowledge and no more then this was due Therefore we allow some power and authority to Princes and Magistrates in the sence spoken of If they claime any further it will so kindle the jealousie of the Lord that the Lord wil certainly wound it to the cracking of the Crowns of all that take it upon them which may be a notable warning to all Church-men I mean Church officers to beware of cleeking into their hands the power which God hath not given them the Lord will wound their heads he will not endure it 't is a priviledge that he hath purchased with his owne bloud I think there is no need here to presse it but this let me say it is a just motive to pray the more ardently and faithfully for the crushing of such heads wherever the Lord findes any arrogant head that any Church-officer will undertake to give Lawes to the Churches in their diocesse that they will put Officers upon them that they will suspend them at their pleasure and put in and put out whether the Church will or no This kinde of insolency in such a state let it look for a wound for a wound it shall have And therefore we are the more encouraged to pray for and to look for deliverance from these Heads for John tells us 1 John 5. 14. that if we aske any thing according to his will he heareth us And this is according to the will of God that all ambitious heads be wounded What he hath done he will doe There is no new thing under the Sun he spares and changes and wounds in every change Persons are changed but Gods administrations are one and the same If Gods indignation have been ardently kindled against the Bishop of Rome he will certainly visite such powers
as take upon them to put doctrine upon the Church to take away Church liberties and sometimes to scater one Church from another the Lord will certainly visit it we may pray for it and comfortably expect it The next note is this That though God doe wound and crush and represse the arrogance of Church officers affecting headship over all Churches for a time yet he doth sometimes again heal their wounds and binde up their breaches and give free passage to their ambitious designes This is evident here I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death and you have heard when and how and yet which is wonderfull His deadly wound was healed and that to the admiration of all the world And all the world wondred after the Beast to see a wound so really and perfectly healed when this Church was wounded afterwards the Pope was perfectly recovered but the wound of Caesars head was left bleeding both in the East and West This head must therefore be the spirituall head of Rome God though he represse some insolency yet he doth many times give free passage to their designes at length He did so with Balaam he met with him in the way and had not the Asse hindred certainly he had slain him Numb 22. 32. Because thy way was perverse before me saith God Balaak had sent him word that if he would come and curse the people that were come out of Aegypt that he would give him this and that he saw he had an eye to these outward things The Lord seeing his way perverse he would have killed him but yet at length in v. 35. The Angell of the Lord said unto Balaam if it be thy minde to go I will give thee leave go with the men but onely the word that I shall speak unto thee that thou shalt speak And when he comes he doth blesse the people to the Indignation of the King of Moab but afterwards when Balaam saw that he should loose all that he came for come saith he to the King take some course to invite the Gallants of Israel to a feast and it was an Idolatrous feast to the honour of Baal Peor and so the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and there were foure and twenty thousand dyed of the Plague and at length Balaam was slaine also But yet you see he gives way to his coveteous designes to satisfie himselfe to the full though he afterward visited his Sinne upon him So did the Lord here with the Bishop of Rome he wounded him as it were to death and afterwards he heals him and raiseth him up again and sent Justinian to destroy the Goths out of Italy and he being a wise man gives him his Titles and makes him Bishop of Bishops inspector over all the rest and perfectly cures him That whereas before he had lost his Titles and one or other wrote against him the Emperor being loath to make their own Arch-Bishop that lived in their City with them chief for disturbing their civill Government They had rather conferre all that honour upon him that had been so admired worshiped for so many years especially having had 32 Mâ—nasteries had been more Orthodoxall then all other Churches These were great inducements to give all honour to the Pope though they saw him desperately wounded but when they see him recovered they wonder at him and every one submits to him especially the Western parts though they in the East also would consult with him and be led and guided by him and all their decrees in counsell were referred to him if he did dislike them they were antequated if he did approve them they were received as Authenticall Lawes of the Church You may aske why the Lord would heal such an abominable and ugly Beast this visible Catholick Church and this Beast that was one of the heads of this Church for he had a beastly shape take him alone without the other Beast and take them together here is a great Beast afterwards he is called in Chap. 17. the great whore and she sits upon this Beast and he hath all his supportance from her he restores the Church and the head of the Beast to that state they were in before The reason why God doth this is double First in regard of his just displeasure against the backsliding apostacies of the Church in such times When the Lord sees the spirits of men are bent to apostacy and backsliding so as that they reject the simplicity of the Gospell of Christ and if they might have it they will not now it is a righteous thing with God to plague them with the arrogance tyranny of Antichrist If I come in my Fathers name you will not receive me if another come in his own name him you will receive Now it is a just judgement of God if Christ come and offer himself in the simplicity of his Ordinances and they think this is too mean and doth not reach the state of an Imperiall City but they must have such and such orders in all Churches and Churches must be distinguished by such Patrons and it is fit that one be Lord Paramount over them all and none is so fit as the Bishop of Rome If people dote upon such some goodly shape but drawn by the inventions of men well you shall have such Bishops This head that sometimes hath been thus wounded that some have had cause of solemn praise for his wounding and God hath by this means given the Churches liberty to take some better way of worship but they would not well you shall have enough of him It is one of Solomons Proverbs Chap. 14. 14. the Backslider in heart shall be filled with his own wayes If you dote after inventions of men you shall be filled with vain Superstition to the contentment of your own hearts God out of his tender faithfulnesse to his Church he will redeem some and doth give them faire opportunities to undertake their own liberties out of the usurpations of men but if they will rather sit under the shadow of Aegypt then feed upon Manna then goe you back again saith God none of you shall eat of that which I have prepared that is one Reason Such backsliders that delight in such communion in such heads over their Churches it is just with God to fill them with their own inventions The second Reason is taken from the just judgement of God upon such kinde of heads that doe affect such ambition the Lord will shew them this favour he will crosse them as he did Balaam but if their hearts be bent to go on in their mischevous course he gives them leave to fulfill their own lusts to their own perdition And thus he did Balaam he gave him leave not onely to blesse the people but to draw them aside from God for he could not have taken a more ready course to have cast them out of Gods favour then to draw them to offer
discharged of this burden This was very plausable to carnall reason especially if they gave so much to such a Monastery that they may offer so many Sacraments for them for they look at the bread in the Lords supper as a propiatory Sacrament here were so many means to satisfie the consciences of those that were superstitious as nothing could be devised to give better content to the spirits of men in those dayes any man that knowes it shall finde it true that when the conscience is terrified with the curse of Gods Law and never shewed the true way of fellowship with Christ no man is so tender and conscionable in the performance of all duties as they If you will have them kisse the Popes foot or give so much to a Monastery and by this means Hell shall be shut against them and Purgatory discharged But for assurance of Salvation in Christ they could not endure that they that stood for that they tell them what you will not have men doe good workes away with that faggot and halter for such Hereticks Thirdly there was a third Reason and that was from the great reverence of all Councells and Synods to the Sea of Rome The City of Rome had wont to be the imperiall City now in such a case as this they thought it but reasonable In heathenish Rome they gave all worship to them and so let Christian Rome give all their worship to the chief Head there and so to their mother Church all Catholicks would incourage others so to doe and so by this means there were such incouragements laid for admiration and adoration that you may not wonder at what the holy Ghost saith That when the wound was healed all the world wondred after the beast saying who is like unto the beast who is able to make war with him Not the Emperors of the East and West not the King of England France Spain nor all that have been of greatest force they were none of them able to hold up their heads against this great Beast The use of this point is thus much First you may observe from hence that Universality and Prosperity though they be given for two notes of a true Church by the Papists yet indeed they are but sopisticall deceitfull delusions They are not such marks of a Church as are peculiar to a true Church here is Universality All the world wondred after the beast and here is Prosperity all the world adore and admire the Beast Who is like unto the beast who is able to make war with him Not all the Princes of the world So that here is externall prosperity for so they call it here are both these concur and they doe indeed argue a Catholick Church as Bellarmine saith but note this that Catholick Church which is visible which is the Roman visible Catholick Church the Scripture holds it forth as a great and ugly and monstrous Beast look not therefore at these as any good marks and signes by which Jesuites and Seminaries are wont to draw to deep devotion to the Catholick Church for all the world have run this way there is but a handfull a few of such as are otherwise minded what is Genevah and some others to Rome what have they been able to doe in comparison of the Church of Rome which is the Church of Churches none have been able to doe as they Secondly we may see the danger of this admiration and adoration the deadly and desperate danger of adoring the Catholick visible Church and the Dragon It is the cunning of these Priests and Jesuites to draw men by all means to be at least devoted to the Catholick Church and to submit their power thereunto for they say there is no union with Christ the head unlesse you be united to the visible head on Earth this is their usuall plea Now marke what the holy Ghost speaks in this Text he doth say that all the worship of this mother Church is but the worship of the Dragon Men are devoutly adicted to give up their souls to the Devill when they give up themselves to the Catholicke visible Church the Lord professeth he is not honoured by them they professe honour to he-Saints and shee-Saints and dead Saints and to all relicks and remnants of them the honour of them is given unto the Devill and not to God That look what Paul saiâ—h of heathen Rome John speaks of christian Rome This I say saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. 20. That the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to Devils and not to God and I would not that ye should have fellowship with Devils And so this saith John the holy Apostle equall to the Apostle Paul or next him but here guided equally with Paul in the Authentical word of God he saith They that worship God according to the prescript of the Church of Rome they worship the Devils and not God they worship the Dragon the old Serpent So that it is not so light a matter as Gallants at Court and great Kings apprehend they will be reconciled to their mother Church they will goe a Pilgrimage that is devised by the Pope and perform duties as their ghostly Father directs them and have their bead-prayers In all this what do they doe This is a worship to the great beast but this is the issue and substance of it they doe indeed worship the Dragon It is not the Lord Jesus nor God the Father nor the blessed spirit that is thus worshipped but this is indeed the worship of the Devill Thirdly this may serve to teach us to blesse the name of the Lord that hath delivered us from this admiration and adoration from this wofull Captivity and Calamity whereto our Fathers have been enthralled All those of them whose names are not written in the Lambs book of life they were all led this way and it is a marvellous deliverance that God hath wrought for us in taking our Religion from universality and from outward prosperity It is sometimes a snare to Christians this kinde of Government that we have and they are apt to say what doe any of the great Nations of the world for worship and Government did you ever know any such thing authorised in any Kingdome There is an inward principle in us by nature to doe as all the world doe what are we more wise then they It is a great temptation but we have cause to blesse God that hath wrought deliverance for us But what if all the world did worship the Devill as time was when they did what if all the world worship the Beast and the Dragon that gave power to the Beast must we doe so And as they are not grounds of our worship so they are fit grounds of unfeigned thankfulnesse to God that hath delivered us from that Religion by which all the world was bewitched to give their Crownes Honours Bodies and States to the devotion of the visible Catholick Church and to the
head of that Church It is cause of everlasting thankfulnesse and watchfulnesse not to be deluded by fine shewes of worldly men but let us see and know where true worship lies as the Lord hath declared himself in Christ and held him forth in the Gospel of truth Forthly let it teach us all where to bestow our admiration and adoration It was a charge that our Saviour gave to the Devill and which accordingly he himself practised and requires us to doe Mat. 4. 10. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve The Devill askes this of Christ to bow downe to him and worship him The Lords Indignation is kindled his holy Zeale is inflamed against such a Sacriligious request Get thee hence Satan for it is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve And as we are to worship him alone and no God but him so we are to admire none but him Who is like unto thee O Lord amongst the Gods who is like unto thee glorious in holinesse fearfull in praises doing wonders Exod. 15. 11. There is matter of admiration who is a God like unto the Lord that forgiveth Iniquity Transgression and Sinne of which you read Mic. 7. 18. and which the Church holds forth there upon this very ground who is a God like unto thee why what is there in him that you so magnifie him he is a God that forgives Iniquity Transgression and Sinne here is cause indeed of admiration They admire and adore the Pope why Because they had satisfaction to their consciences in their way and an ungrounded hope of a better state in another world and pardon of Sinne in this and now they come to fellowship with Christ by the worship of the Devill But who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth Iniquity Transgression and Sinne So that here is indeed matter of due admiration and let it be fastned there When a mans soul is brought low with the sence of Sinne and overpoured with the burden that lyes upon his conscience by reason of the guilt of Sinne what is matter of admiration now who is a God like unto thee that passeth by Iniquity transgression sin It is not the Pope of Rome that can take away sin it is not all the cunning of the Dragon that can do it And therefore to what end are all the admirations and worships that are put upon the Bishop of Rome and the Dragon that gave him his power They may please themselves in what satisfaction they apprehend they have but their own principles possesse them that they can never come to see the admirable goodnesse of God in forgiving their Sinnes But now when the Lord sheds abroad a spirit of grace and peace in the conscience and applyes the goodnesse of Christ to the discharge of the burden of Sinne and of quickning the heart in the peace of Christ Jesus this breeds admiration Blessed be God the Father of mercy and God of all consolation that of his aboundant mercy hath begotten us again to a lively hope I say this blessing is worthy of admiration and not onely of wonderment but of acknowledging all glory and blessednes to him When the conscience is not pacified by a sorry duty done from man but by a sealed pardon from the spirit of God witnessed by the breath of the holy Ghost this is such a mercy to the soule as indeed raiseth the heart above all admiration of such a Beast I to a true detestation of this Beast and of the Dragon that hath so long bewitched and carried them captive to the imaginations of their own hearts and in the end to their everlasting perdition But let it be the care of Gods people as ever you desire to be blessed from the admiration of such a worm-eaten Religion so grow to an admiration of the God of mercy and grace and so we shall doe that upon just grounds which our Fathers did without grounds to this Beast and to the head of it Upon this ground this head being wounded and afterwards healed all the world wondred after him Here is an Image of Christ he was wounded to death and his deadly wound was healed and he riseth againe and he proclaims all power is given him in Heaven and Earth Now see how this Vicar of Christ as they call him usurps as Christ was wounded and is risen againe so it is with this Beast he is wounded to death and afterwards healed and restored and now all the world admire and worship him Have they forgotten that Christ dyed for our Sinnes and was raised again for our Justification and doe they stand admiring at this Beast as he that was wounded and healed Therefore let it be a ground of true thankfulnesse to the Lord for the great change that is wrought in Christendome and let us give the Lord the admiration that is due to him that we may be preserved from those delusions wherewith others have been deceived and may goe on in this way constantly which the Lord hath established and called us unto Revel 13. 5 6. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and power was given unto him to continue forty and two moneths And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God to blaspheme his name and his Tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven THE events that followed upon the healing of the Beast the first was That all the world admired him The second was Vniversall worship given both to the Beast and to the Dragon that gave power to the Beast of which wee have already spoken The third event remains now to be spoken to and that is the deligation of power to this Beast upon his recovery and the power given him is four-fold 1. There was power given him to speak great things and in particular great blasphemies 2. There was power given him to continue that is as the word signifies to be doing to be active to be powerfull and efficacious in his worke 42. moneths 3. There was power given him to make war with the Saints and to overcome them 4. Power was given him of dominion over all Kindreds Tongues and Nations First There was given him a mouth speaking great things Secondly There was power given him to continue 42. moneths and both these Authorities or Liberties they are amplified by the effect it wrought in the Beast He did effectually take that power which was given him and employed it to the utmost As he had a mouth given him so he opened his mouth in blasphemies and that amplified by the object of his blasphemy against God and God distributed his Name his Tabernacle and those that dwell in Heaven The note then that the words do afford first is this That after the healing of the wounded head of the Beast there was given to him power to speak great things even blasphemies which also he did effectually and abundantly exercise or
put forth For so it is here said There was given him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and he opened his mouth accordingly abundantly against God and against his name and his Tabernacle and them that dwell in Heaven Every thing of God he did with open mouth blaspheme Let me a little open the words and the Doctrine for the doctrine is in a manner the words of the Text. There was given him a mouth what mouth had he more then other men The meaning is he had such liberty of speech as no man had There was given him liberty and power and authority to speak great things Given him by whom 1. It was given him by God in his just judgment that gave up men to efficacy of delusions 2 Thes 2. 11. 2. It was given him by Satan in the efficacy of whose power Antichrist comes with all deceivablenesse of unrighteousnesse 2 Thes 2. 9 10. 3. It was given him by the generall consent of Princes and States Ecclesiasticall and Civill In Ecclesiasticall Councels great was the authority that was given him none of all them thought themselves equall to him And for the Civill State God put it into their hearts to give their power and Throne unto the beast Rev. 17. 17. What power did they give him to speak great things and in particular blasphemies It is an allusion to the horn in Dan. 2. 8. There came up a little horne which had a mouth speaking great things whether it be the same Beast or a type of him I will not now stand to determine but great things he spoke as indeed this was a great thing that the Catholick Church had power to speak for he did open his mouth to speak great things that is such things as for other men to speake were too great arrogance and too much affectation of inordinate Vain-glory but for this Church or the head of it to speak they had a mouth given for the same purpose And Blasphemies They make many distinctions in Schools of Blasphemies which I will not trouble you with they may be brought to two heads either in attributing to God something unworthy of him things incompatible to his divine nature as in Acts 17. 29. It is blasphemy to ascribe to God likenesse of four-footed beasts or creeping things and the like Or otherwise if you attribute to the Creature that which properly doth belong to God you hurt the name of God and crush it when you so speak Now what is it for the Beast to open his mouth to speak great things and blasphemies The phrase is very significant in the Hebrew It implies three things 1. That a man speaks upon the meditation He opens his mouth to speak that is to say he hath something to say and power to deliver it and he sets himselfe of purpose to speak it I will open my mouth in wisdome and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding Psal 49. 3 4. He tells you of his meditation and then he will open his mouth and declare it 2. To open the mouth implies an audable and full and bold and confident expression of a mans minde that a man doth not whisper but lift up his voyce and declare with open mouth what he hath to deliver as in Exod. 3. 23. Open thy mouth and tell them that is speak boldly Though they be a rebellious People and will brow-beate thee yet open thy mouth and speake unto them speak boldly and confidently as one that goes not behind the door but speaks plainly And I put in plainly with boldnesse because they are ever concomitants If a man speak boldly he doth not extenuate what he hath to deliver but speaks it plainly 3. This opening of the mouth doth imply that hee speaks fully and abundantly his heart was full of it and he doth accordingly powr out that which he delivers As Elihu tells you in Job 32. 18 19 20. I am full of matter the spirit within me constraineth me Behold my belly is as wine which hath no vent it is ready to burst like new bottles c. So the meaning is this That as the Pope saw which was the head of this Beast that he had a mouth given him that is uncontrollable liberty to speak what he would He did not sodainly or rashly speake some inconsiderate or erroneous or arrogant speech which he did eate in againe but he spake advisedly in his grave and considerate Councell upon advised judgment he did speak great things and blasphemies And this he did plainly and boldly not in ambiguous or obscure phrases but plainly in such expressions as could beare no other meaning and that with such confidence that you may see he cared not who heard nor what Construction might be made of it And this he did not in a word or two that dropped from him but as flowing from him Hee was full of matter as 2 Cor. 6. 11. O ye Corinthians our mouth is open to you our heart is enlarged He did poure forth his matter with no little State it was stout matter that he did poure forth to the world What did hee speake that which was given him to speake What was that Great things As for instance to sum up the great things he speaks The Catholick Roman Church in Scripture is accounted the mother of Harlots and abomination of the earth Rev. 17. 5. There is not such an adulterous Church in the world 1. And yet is not this a great word and a great blasphmy for the mother of Harlots to hold forth her selfe as the only immaculate Spouse of Christ upon the face of the Earth Is not this a grand word for a common Harlot the mother of Harlots the lewdest Harlot that ever the earth bore for her to arrogate this stile as the only Church of Christ And that which is parallel to this that the Pope who is the head of this Beast is the head and Husband of this Church and is without controule He hath a mouth given him and he is not ashamed to speak great things and blasphemies 2. It is a great word to make himselfe the infallible Interpreter and absolute judge of Scriptures that cannot erre in derision or determination of any controversies of Religion nor may it be for any mortall man to controll his judgment nor practice In Judgment he cannot erre in practice though he may erre yet other men may be judged but God hath put such an uncontrollable power upon him as he thinks that none may meddle with him Though he should carry millions of soules to Hell yet no man must say Sir why do you so Councels may not judge Princes may not judge inferiour States may not judge him all the world may not judge him He stands and falls to the Canonists his owne well-studied Canonists have so determined it A great word to be infallible judge of Scripture and to be uncontrollable it is a great matter and greater then any man can reach unto Never
that might be felt From the ninth Centuary to the tenth both Protestant and Popish Divines complaine that had not some lived in the 800. year and in the thousand yeare after Christ they should not have known what had beene done in the nine hundred a whole hundred years together Men were so full of darknesse and ignorance that scarce any set pen to paper to tell us what was done in those dark times that men did not know what were principles of Christianity much lesse were able to discern of Cases of Church-government or the misterie of godlinesse which requires more diligent attendance And thence it was that they were so taken with the pretended claymes of the Catholick visible Church that it would not erre because it was built upon a Rock and had the keys of Peter and he had the keys of heaven What he bound on earth was bound in heaven and what he loosed on earth was loosed in heaven that had there not been palpable grosse ignorance it had not been possible such grosse things should have been suffered to come in And a second thing that moved them was the strange successe of the Beast in recovering of his wounded head for that made them wonder after the Beast when they saw such a mortall wound so throughly healed They thought had it not been above the power of mortall men it had not been possible it should have been healed but certainly there was a power above mortall men in it and that is the reason in the Text to give him a mouth to speak great things to speak what hee would And a third reason why Princes gave this power was their devout superstition many were convinced by Matchivilian policy of their great sins and they had in those dayes a notable dexterity to apply the Law of God and to sting mens consciences like a Cockatrice Rev. 9. 5. and then they would do any thing for ease out of the bondage they lay under and this was a great meanes Then they directed them to give so much to such a Monastery or to goe a Pilgrimage or fast such a time and such devotion which a mans own unsanctified heart could reach That when this Beast speaks great things that he can pardon sinne and his Shavelings will take a course for redeeming souls and preserving them out of hel this was such satisfaction to them that you need not wonder if all Princes gave their Kingdomes to the Beast And so having advanced him as supream over them all he hath a mouth he may speak what he will Princes may make Laws on this hand or on that but if they do not suite with him they are disannulled And they must be reconciled to the mother Church and so this Harlot gives them all to her and hath a mouth speaking great things and therewithall great blasphemieâ— Thus have you the point and the reasons of it For the use of it I might from hence first speak to this point that it were therefore a necessary counsell to all Roman Catholicks to consider diligently the grounds of the great priviledges of the visible Catholick Church they stretch their authority beyond all degrees of Churches beyond all Temporall States or particular Churches Now necessary it were for them to reverse all the great things which are delivered and which the Pope hath set open his mouth to speak though they be delivered with never such fulnesse and boldnesse and plentitude of power It behoves men to consider whether all these great words be not the words of a Beast and blasphemies which the head of the Beast had taken upon him to utter for it is not enough that they are spoken boldly and confidently and with good advisement and grave Counsell Provinciall Decretals and Decrees for they are distinct things It behoves Catholicks not to be gulled with Titles and great things for it is not alwayes that power which God in mercy gives to men when they dare speak great things they think the Pope is not Antichrist but when Antichrist comes will he do greater things then these as they sayd of Christ when Christ comes will he doe greater workes then these And so when Antichrist comes can he speak grater things then these And if I were to speak to Lay-men as they say in their Religion I might advise them to take heed they be not taken with the confidence of their Priests that speak with good advisement even to impudency and with such resolute courage that many thousands are carryed away with it and say certainly men would never be so bold if they were not possessed with the goodnesse of their cause Let them not be deluded the Beast hath power to speak great things and he opens his mouth with all courage and confidence and whispers it not but speaks with impudency and abundance of resolution Secondly This may serve to teach us the danger of allowing to any mortall man an inordinate measure of power to speak great things to allow to any man uncontrollâ—bleness of speech you see the desperate â—â—â—ger of it Let all the world learn to give mortall men no greater power then they are content they shall use for use is they will and unlesse they be better taught of God they will use it ever and anon it may be make it the passage of their proceeding to speake what they will And they that have liberty to speak great things you will finde it to be true they will speak great blasphemies No man would think what desperate deceit and wickednesse there is in the hearts of men And that was the reason why the Beast did speak such great things hee might speak and no body might controll him What saith the Lord in Jer. 3. 5. Thou hast spoken and done evill things as thou couldst If a Church or head of a Church could have done worse he would have done it This is one of the straines of nature it affects boundlesse liberty and to runne to the utmost extent What ever power he hath received he hath a corrupt nature that will improve it in one thing or other if he have liberty he will think why may he not use it Set up the Pope as Lord Paramount over Kings and Princes and they shall know that he hath power over them he will take liberty to depose one and set up another Give him power to make Laws and he will approve and disprove as he list what he approves is Canonicall what hee disproves is rejected Give him that power and he will so order it at length he will make such a State of Religion that he that so lives and dyes shall never be saved and all this springs from the vast power that is given to him and from the deep depravation of nature Hee will open his mouth His tongue is his owne who is Lord over him Psal 12. 3 4. It is therefore most wholsome for Magistrates and Officers in Church and Common-wealth never to affect
in blaspheming all Turkish or Popish blasphemies the Lord will muzzle them In the mean time it it our part to sanctifie his name that gives this vast liberty that for so long they shall speak great things and no longer Fourthly it may teach us that there is a pronenesse in our natures to abuse all the providences of God whether of speciall mercies or speciall judgements and it warns us to beware of the same in the enjoyment of any mercy or in feeling of any stroak of God upon us Here was this Beast so wounded in one of his heads as it seemed to be deadly he was again healed The Lord visits this Church with a deadly blow by acts of his justice and he also visits it with great deliverances and acts of his mercifull providence and when he hath done see his great admiration and adoration would you not think this should melt the heart of a Beast but the Oxe knowes his owner saith the Lord and the Asse his masters crib but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider Isa 13. Though this deadly wound be healed to the admiration of the world yet consider what little use he makes of it when he gives him power to doe what he will what doth he He opens his mouth to speak great things and blasphemies and he makes war with all the Saints of Heaven he doth much abuse his glory He was knocked on the head because he would affect such vast Authority to be Pontefex Maximus the Lord cracked his Crown breaks the head of this enemy and wounds the hairy scalpe of such as go on in wickedness He heals him again and gives him great power but what doth he with it He abuseth it against God and against the Church of God and speaks great things even blasphemies So there is a nature in us that will abuse every mercy of God to the corrupting of our hearts and every judgment of God and every deliverance from that judgement one would not think what wofull distempers there are in our natures If a body be stuft with choller it will turne the whole body to feed the humour So it is with us we turne all the providences of God into distempers and outragious licentiousnesse But you will say he was a Beast and the Church a Beast we hope Christians shall do better See it in Hezekiah when the Lord had wrought great deliverances for him brought the Sunne ten degrees back and avenged him of his Enemies afterwards he recovered him from sicknesse when his soule was brought to the jaws of death yet when the Princes of Babylon sent to him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the Land God left him to try him that he might know what was in his heart and then he shews them his great Treasures and works and fortifications that he had throughout his Kingdome and it is said He rendred not according to the benefits done unto him for his heart was lifted up 2 Chron. 32. 25. 31. You see good Hezekiah is apt to forget sicknesse It argues the depth of the body of Sinne which is not onely in wicked men such as these proud Prelats be but in the Godly in those that are most eminent in Grace they are not able to bear great Sailes if God shews us mercy and judgement it is a wonder to see what poore work we make Many a carnall heart will say if he be delivered from sicknesse or if he be at Sea in danger if he get a shore or if in Prison if he get but liberty God and men shall see what a new man he will be O the bottomlesse depth of a deceitfull heart let the Lord chastise us and raise us up again we forget our humiliation and grow to exaltation and if God helpe us a little we grow to such out-runings of spirit as we exceed therein no gift that a man hath no ordinance of God but he will thus abuse And therefore we have cause to sit down in dust and ashes that we should abuse such mercies as we dayly partake in Fiftly since this is the nature of wicked men let God give them but liberty and men give them liberty and they will take it to the full let God give a mouth he will speak great things and if he have liberty to speak great things he will speak great blasphemies against God and his Tabernacle and the Saints Then this will be a shame to Godly men if the Lord give us great things a mouth to speak all the good we can and liberty to do all the good we can if we doe not open our mouths and hearts to be speaking and doing all the good we can It is not for us to stand snorting out the time which God hath carved out for us but if a beast have this liberty if you tether a Beast at night he knows the length of his tether before morning he will goe to the end of it before he have done And you see this Bishop the head of the Church if God give him a mouth he will open it wicked men will take the utmost bounds of their liberty will wicked men doe so why should not the children of God then and all that fear his name take the like care to improve all their liberties and power to doe all the good we can doth God give a liberty for laying foundations for establishing jurisdictions and liberty for well ordering our Families and Town-ships if the Lord give us opportunities why should we want a heart to improve them If the Beast hath a heart to improve his wickednesse to the utmost why should not we improve all our Talents to Gods best advantage to make it our whole study to doe all which the Lord requires that so we may bear plentifull witnesse in our Generations to all the liberties the Lord hath betrusted us with It is not for men that have received five Talents that is to say five opportunities to render to God as those that have received but one or two To whom much is given of them will much be required Luke 12. 48. And therefore is behooves us all as to know the liberties of Church Common-wealth so to set hand and affection a work to be doing all the good we can If it were the Beast take a patterne from him but they must go fast that the Devils drives he would improve all his liberty And why should they not goe fast whom the Spirit of God drives and improve the liberty they have of God And therefore it is for us to doe all the good we can and to leave nothing to those that shall come after us but to walk in the righteous steps of their fore-Fathers And therefore let us not leave nor give rest to our eyes till in Family Church and Common-wealth we have set a patterne of holinesse to those that shall succeed us Lastly it may teach us a reverend use of the things of
down the Temples would suffer none of them to stand rooted them out from East to West Wherever there was any famous Temples down he throws them he utterly renounceth the Pontifex maximus and will have no Temples he doth confiscate the revenues to the Emperors treasury and from that time forward indeed they never recovered there was no more place found in Heaven It is true Constantine began that war in the Empire but war it is not a Skirmish or a Battell it is not soon done but many times continues long as between the house of David and the house of Saul and that for some scores of yeares So in this case the war began with Constantine there holy Brightman takes it most right but for the accomplishment of it for the Devill to be wholly cast out and no more place found in Heaven that was not till Theodosius time now from that time the Emperors renouncing the title of Pontifex maximus the Popish sort thought it was a marvellous providence for the advancing of the Roman Catholick Church that is this Beast so the next year the Pope took up that name and holds it to this day what ever the Popes name be it is Pontifex maximus that is his ordinary style not Bishop or Arch Bishop or Primate or Metropolitan these are but Images of the Beast but the head of this Beast is Pontifex maximus the chiefe Bishop of Rome Now this was to the best observation that I can finde in the year 395. about 90. years after Constantines time or wanting one or two of that Now that is therefore one Reason why I doe not conceive that these 42. months are only at least to be reckoned from Constautines beginning of his reigne for they are reckoned from the time when there was no place found for the Dragon in Heaven which was afterwards accomplished about 90 years after Another Reason why I cannot goe so fully with that holy man of God is because of the end of it when he comes to 1546. It is evident that in that year the Councell of Trent did condemn the Scriptures and advance the vulgar Latine to be the authenticall word of God And Charles the fifth did prevail against the Lant-grave of Hesse Prostestant Princes of Germany in the year 1547. So by that reason it cannot end aright for the Beast hath power given him to continue to make war for 42 moneths now he continued longer then so though it is true his time was limited soon after and therefore I cannot with so full assurance go so clearly with him in that as usually I do in his Interpretation yet still reserving this liberty according to the gift of the spirit of Prophecy he had you may many times read the context of the word of God it may be sometimes somewhat more exactly according to the true meaning then allwayes is exprest which I speak not to impeach the faithfulnesse and learning of the holy man of God but would give every man the honour that God hath put upon them make use of their gifts and leave them where they may at any time mistake the like liberty God forbid but may be left to others that come after us 2. Therefore if you doe a little more narrowly search the Text and weigh every circumstance in it you may observe as I take it a double computation of this time in respect of the beginning and ending of it for you shall read which M r. Brightman rightly observes that the woman fled into the wildernesse at Constantines coming to the Crown it is true for so it is expresly sayd Revel 12. 6. She fled into the wildernesse where she had a place prepared of God and this was before the battell was sought and then he tells you of the battell that was fought in vers 7 8 9. The end of which was there was no place for the Dragon in Heaven and now there is given two wings of an Eagle unto the woman that she might flee into the wildernesse into her place where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the face of the Serpent which is just 42 moneths So that take both these places and it will appear there is a double beginning of this time the one from Constantines Reigne the other 96 or 97 years after there abouts it was there is the beginning of it Now if you take it by moneths and take it not as holy Brightman doth the Aegyptian yeare but the Roman yeare methinks it is most probable to take the account of the Roman Affaires to be registred by Roman computation not Aegyptian though it is true Rome is spiritually called Egypt but that 's in another sence they did not follow them in computation and though the Aegyptians count 30 dayes to a moneth which sutes well with this yet it is not usuall in Scripture for roundnesse of number sake they pitch a certain time of the moneth 30 dayes for a moneth and therfore if you count so may years in the Roman Kallender you shall come somewhat neere the account of the continuance of the Power and transcendant Authority of this Beast and if you so reckon 1260. years if you adde them to 300. and the odde four years after before Constantines beginning there-abouts it was and computations are not clear the expiration will fall somewhat after the beginning of the reigne of Queen Elizabeth And especially if you take the account from more exact Chronologies it will come in the year wherein the Pope sent a Bull that is an excommunication agaist Queen Elizabeth to deliver her to Satan which brought forth new treasons against her that followed every year and brought her at length the Spanish invasion hostile invasion but from that time it was that the blast of his power was then broken that whereas before if he had excommunicated a Prince it was fatall he could never have stood out he had been everlastingly blasted with his hopes but from that time forward it hath been truly said by some that have spoken of this time that from that time all the Popes Bulls were but baubles they could not prevaile against her though they brought the Excommunication and fastned it upon the Cathedrall Church as they call it and afterwards read it she going to prayer used the words of the Prophet Psal Though they curse blesse thou let them be confounded that rise up against me but let thy servant rejoyce God heard her prayer and marvellously broke his power he had not the power that the great Bishop of Rome had who by his power should rend rocks in peices and blast all before him he never had that power after God delighting by weak means to bring mighty things to passe By her hand the Lord did maintain the low Countries that this beast had great power over his arme was broken there and so against the King of Navar by her assisting him and so in Scotland she mightily
prevailed to break his power there and so in Ireland where she set her hand she brake mightily his power and the power of Catholick Prinâ— though mightier then she She renounced the Catholick Church that is this great beast and cut off his head to her best understanding which was about the sounding of the seventh Trumpet Rev. 11. 15. When the Kingdomes of this world became the Kingdomes of our Lord and of his Christ For then did begin the seventh Trumpet to sound which brought the conversion of Kingdomes and States that though the beast still continued yet he still lost his Authority which he had before what he did approve before that stood and what he did not that fell to the ground Now he hath so much power that if France be more pravalent or Spaine he will take with them as he thinks he may with his Catholick Sons for his own security but his power is so blasted that though he doth continue still and will continue yet a great Beast that rules all the world that power the Catholick Roman Church hath lost though he prevail with his superstitious inventions with those that are his in a carnall way or from an opinion of their fathers honesty c. But yet the power is not left to the Bishop of Rome to doe all things as in those former times he might his word is not a law nor his decrees so Authenticall they are now considered of even among Catholicke Princes It is not now in his power to take up Controversies between France and Spain if they will make war Time was they durst as well have eaten a Bears foot as have ventured upon any war without his likeing but that was the time when the armes of his power and his jawes were not broken Thus if you take this Scripture as Brightman takes it from Constantines coming to the Crown it will expire then about the time when the Bull came forth against Qâ— Eliz. and as they thought would be sufficient to blast her and all the Huguenots with her But yet that makes but one beginning and ending of this account whereas the Text makes two for in Chap. 12. 6. when the child was caught up to God and to his throne and the woman fled into the wildernesse then there was a great battle that battle lasted 90 years and then was the Devill cast out of Heaven and his Flamins and Arch-flamins were blasted with him they had no power in Theodosius time from that time the Dragon was cast out of Heaven and persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child and there was given to her two wings of a great Eagle that she might flee into the wildernesse Now I say according to this there is another computation of this time there was no more place found for him in heaven w ch was in the year 395. for two or three years we must not pinch much it is hard to keep exact account by reason of taking up one year from the Predecessor which in so many years come to sometimes more sometimes lesse Now if you shall take the Computation from that time t is true from Constantines time the Church might fly into the wildernesse for it is true the Church is made a wildernesse if you set the doores of the Church so wide and pull down the walls that whereas before it was a Garden inclosed Cant. 4. 12. now you let in vast territories bring in the whole world now you make it Catholick now though it had no Catholick power a Garden is made a wildernesse if you pull down the pales take down the narrow watch of Officers and let in all men that will thrust in ambitiously to gratifie them The Church was full of covetousnesse whoredomes adulteries deceivers haters of God and the true power of Godlinesse even in his time and so forward was almost worn out and never was so in all the time of persecution but after that the Bishop of Rome had taken the stile of Pontifex maximus and Theodosius slept with his Fathers then the Church grew more transcendantly Catholick and that they thought he would be Lord Paramount but yet his transcendant power did spring as he was cheif Bishop then he was universall Bishop for his power grew by degrees Now I say if you take this latter computation which also the Text doth then if you reckon from 395. years and adde to that 1260. years putting these two together they will expire in the yeare that shall be according to the Roman account 1655. I will not be two confident because I am not a Prophet nor the Son of a Prophet to foretell things to come but so far as God helps by Scripture light about the time 1655. there will be then such a blow given to this beast and to the head of this beast which is Pontifex maximus as that we shall see a further gradual accomplishment and fulfilling of this Prophecy here You must not think it strange that some Prophecies receive a graduall accomplishment Sometimes you have a Prophecy of the 70. yeares captivity which is accomplished by the redemption of the Church out of Babell yet a more full accomplishment shall be when the Church shall be delivered from this whore of Rome and the Church of the Jewes shall be called againe So it is here according to the different computation of time the wise God hath all seasons in his hand he doth foresee and foretell to his people when they shall come to passe So that though the arme of his glorious power be broken and his bones broken that he is nothing that beast in power that he was and hath not been since the sending of that dreadfull excommunication which was thought to be so dangerous to the famous Princesse I spake of yet a power he hath over many Churches and the power given him by the ten horns they are not all broken as in Chap. 11. 13. The tenth part of the City fell by reason of the earthquake There was such a fall that a tenth part fell but yet a great part stands still to this day in some measure that will take their Religion from him as they see cause but not all in Religion neither for the King of France will not yield to the Councell of Trent to this day it falling out that his Ambassadors did not sit in the cheife place he will not authorize that Councell Thus is his power broken but yet it continues in some measure till a further accomplishment of it but for two or three years I cannot limit that for there may be some uncertainty by reason of the variation of Chronicles that have sometimes more sometimes lesse in the beginning and ending of the Reign of Princes But otherwise about that time will be the expiration of the power and great authority of this Beast But already we see by the blessing of God his power weakned but we look for a further accomplishment The matter hath
of the Saints Whereupon the Waldenses being warned by a Religious man sent by the Bishop of Tholouse to confesse the hand of God against them for Hereticall pravity in blaspheming the Roman Catholick visible Church and continuing so long in it and to turn to the Catholick Church For their defence to answer the Temptation that was put upon them said they it is written The Beast shall make war with the Saints and overcome them therefore it is no argument of Gods being against us in respect of our Religion for he may acknowledg us Saints though we be slain to this day and therefore though there were but a handful left they would rather dye then yeeld to conformity to the Church of Rome So you see the point opened For the Reasons First how this Beast comes to have this power to make warre Secondly how the Saints come thus to be warred upon And thirdly how they come to be overcome for all these would be opened First this beast had power given him to make warre by severall hands First the devout subjection of the ten Christian Kings to him that gave their kingdoms and swords into his hand Rev. 17. 17. God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree and give their Kingdoms unto the Beast The principall Kings of Christendome in those dayes came and gave their power to the beast and by their power he was able to do wonders against all A second reason and cause of his power to war against the Saints was because of the prosperous successe which they had in the warre against Christians a hundred yeares before and that was in an expedition of Godfrey of Bulloign in Greece and Duke Dalbo that went forth to recover the holy Land as they call it to overcome the Turks and Sarazens and Godfrey Bullen a Christian Prince as they call him they made him King at Jerusalem there he continued and prospered mightily in this war and held it for many years together and Christian Princes seeing the prosperous successe of this War which he had raised up to recover the holy Land and the Sepulchre of Christ therefore upon the same tearms that he did procure that Expedition against Infidels he doth procure warre against these Hereticks and out of the same notion there were gathered an innumerable company A third Reason was from the zealous Sermons of Fryars and Monks exciting all Christendom to this Warr under the Standard of the Crosse in promise of equall pardon as if the Expedition had been against the Sarazens thence came he to make such authority to make Warre with the Saints that if he call for it it is done He agrees upon it in his own Councell and he gives instruction to all Abbots and Fryars and Governours of religious Orders that they should send out chiefe Preachers to call upon all the people as in Psal 94. 16. Who wil rise up for me against the evill doers or who will stand up for me against the workers of Iniquity Sometimes complayning of the slacknesse of men to holy zeale for Gods glory and maintenance of purity of Religion and sometimes a necessity of taking part with those that are Infidels abroad and Hereticks and Schismaticks at home They found their Explication amounting to that use that whereas there had been many Hereticks nestled up in this Countrey therefore it pleased him and the Apostle Peter to stirre up the Bishop of Rome to vouchsafe the like plenary pardon to those which would go to warre against these Hereticks as those which had prevailed against Infidels and the premise of pardon did so farre prevail that they shortly gathered together 300000. that in hope of plenary pardon of sinne did give up themselves to go on upon their owne charges they would sell goods and Lands for pardon of sin and peace of conscience And in those dayes men were wont to be troubled at the Sermons of the Fryars and Monkes and never found setled peace by pardon from Christ Jesus and never thought to look for pardon where it was and they told them it was to be had by bestowing their goods and lands thus and those Fryars and Monks did so inculcate and drive the nayl to the head in the hearts of people that they were never at rest till they went about this Expedition there were raised a matter of ten Captains Simon Munford was one a notable instrument for the Devill and this great Beast The last Reason was the superstition of those times the deep devotion and dejection of spirit that was in the bodies of Christians in those dayes in regard of their spiritual estate They being deepely convinced of sinne and sharply reproved by the Fryars and Monks who had a notable dexterity to sting the consciences of men and wound them by the terrour of Gods wrath sometimes for their great exactions sometimes for their incest sometimes for their whoredome and neglect of the Ordinances of the Church and they had things so full against them that it made them strictly devout and so were taken up in devotion to this great Beast and the head of it that all the world admired and adored him for his admirable and transcendant power and keyes that he had to heaven as they thoughtâ— they all yeelded themselves some their bodies to fight and some that had not sufficient to maintaine themselves other good Catholicks were ready to cast in some more some lesse to maintaine them according to their abilities and happy he that could make something to make warre aginst these Hereticks So that lay all these together and you will see how he had this great power to make war with the Saints Here was a great and vast change from the Institution of Christ who confined all Churches into one Congregation that all may heare and all may be edefied that one Parish Church should grow to that vastnesse to levy 300000. to the warre and that by a word of his mouth to have them all mayntained without grudging for every man did thinke the worke as pious a marvellous change and well doth the holy Ghost say Hee had great power that the power of that Church should reach over all Churches and shall have such an influence into Kings that look what they shall dictate all shall be ready body and goods and life and all to maintain them you see the reasons of it how he comes by this power But secondly how comes he to make War against the Saints There is a double reason for that one is taken from the profession and practice and conversation of these Saints This was their practice They followed the Lamb as in the next Chapter I looked and loe a lambe stood on the mount Sion and with him an hundred fourty and four thousand having his Fathers name written in their foreheads These are they which are not defiled with women for they are Virgins These are they which follow the Lamb whether soever
he goeth They kept themselves undefiled of this Antichrist of Rome were not defiled with the whoredome of this great beast in all things they consented with the Doctrine of the Primitive Church and their hypocrisies and whoredomes and coveteousnesse were things that would by no means be borne therefore the Pope who was the great head discerning he was thus contested against and as they say blasphemed he thinks he does nothing though he destroy Turkes and Sarazens and Aegyptians and whoever took the Sepulcher of Christ as long as those Heretickes at home were not subdued therefore he thinks it as meritorious a worke to subdue them as ever to fight for the holy Land But there was another thing that made the war for no warre can be made but by levying of Forces on both part◠And therefore a second was their taking up of Armes in the just defence of their liberties both of conscience and outward man For if the Catholick Church had raised up all these Forces and they had quietly submitted themselves like sheep to the slaughter there had beene no warre then there had been massacres It would have amounted to that as the massacre in Paris that a man did not lift up his hand but they were slaughtered like dogs in the street Though they come with fire and sword yet unlesse they resist with fire and sword it cannot be said to be war Some set in against them though their weaknesse caused them to presume but it was to weak a businesse for flesh and bloud Wee wrestle not against flesh and blood but against Principalities and Powers and spirituall wickednesses They which trust to flesh and bloud shall be deceived as these men they stood out and sometimes prospered while the Earl of Tone and some other Princes joyned together though they were but few they prospered but war is not one Battel or two and in the end they were overcome and this Beast prevailed and that 's the reason of the 2 d part how he came to make warre against the Saints For the 3 d How came he to overcome them Truly not by strength he had very little that way but First he overcame them by their a little too much confidence in the arme of flesh when they see the King of Aragon set on they come to be a little set on by the power of the King and a great Battell recoyled by trusting to the arme of flesh You read in Heb. 11. 34. That by faith the Saints waxed valiant in Fight turned to flight the Armies of the Aliens but when our faith runne in another channell that we grow confident not in the Lord Jesus by trusting in him but on the arme of flesh we know what is said in Jer. 17. 5. Cursed be the man ye though he be a good man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arme and whose heart departeth from the Lord It withers it cannot stand against the potent Army that rise up against them though their enemies were never lesse in number nor never lesse provided yet they prevailed more then ever before The second Reason was by their attention to politick and deceitfull Treaties of peace for when they saw the men were good Souldiers valient in battell and able to fight it out and they found the 3000. that were to fight for plenary pardon three years had served out their time and they had got as they thought their souls saved they would go home now and they had got peace by this carnall confidence of theirs So they perceived this war would be troublesome and the Hereticks were like to prosper therefore they gather in the cheif Leaders to Treaties about peace and great pitty that such bloud should be shed therefore for the honour of Rome it were needfull to cease the warre and so would draw their cheif Leaders to firme leagues of Peace and then they kept their best Generals in Prison and thus when they had got them to yeild to their pretences then they had their neckes under their girdles and their throats under their axes they might hew them out of measure Insomuch that the King of France hearing of such cruell massacre he sent to know what their Religion was and though he sent expresse charge that none of his Souldiers should offer violence to them yet they concealing his Letters they went on in massacring the poor Saints and scattering them up and down in so much that they prevailed partly by the Saints cleaving to the arme of flesh and by trusting their false pretences And there is a third Reason mentioned in the 10. vers saith he Here is the Faith and Patience of the Saints It was Gods pleasure to make it the season of the Patience of the Saints It was the season wherein Antichrist should swell to his height and the Saints be brought low and their Patience be tryed to the utmost and it being a time of the Saints Patience it must needs be a time of their suffering and suffer they did with much patience but yet they were not utterly exterpated for some fled to France and some to England and so propagated Christian Religion which after turned to the conversion of many John Husse and Jerome of Pragues Doctrine grew and spread more till God raised up Luther to set forward the power of the Gospell Thus you see the truth of the Doctrine For the use then First it may serve to let us see whence is the power of waging war for the Text saith it was given To him it was given to make war with the Saints All men cannot receive this as our Saviour saith in another case but they to whom it is given It is not an easie matter for any to be 〈◊〉 to wage war it requires great store of persons and great store of Treasury and Fountain to maintaine both And besides all this it require◠no small measure of Wisdome and Policy to undertake such designes all these you see the Lord gives and gives them to those that his soul take no pleasure in and to those that in his esteem are men of beastly spirit◠yet he gives them power to make warre He may blesse himself in his rule and bravery that they were able to 〈◊〉 against Infidels and after against Heriticks as they called them but indeed the Saints of God but you see God gave power unto this Beast which is therefore no cause of triumph or glorying that he hath recived such a power for you see it may be given to these that are enemyes to the Lord Jesus Secondly observe this much That the Lord himselfe doth acknowledge even his poor children on Earth to be that which is commonly by priviledge sequestred to the holy Saints in Heaven He calles them Saints We think Saint-ship is a peculiar priviledge to the Saints in Heaven when they have ended their dayes in peace and a good conscience then they are accounted Saints and Angels but the Lord accounts
ten Kings that is to say the body of Christian Princes and all the Nations subject to them they all gave their power unto the Beast Rev. 17. 17. No nation professed Christianity but professed also subjection to the Sea of Rome that is to the Romon Catholick visible Church And the Papists are large in this Bellarmine makes it a 4 th note of the visible Church amplitude of power and he gives sundry instances Stories are evident that all Nations did professe this Religion specially after the subduing of the Waldences though they did before setting aside that remnant of the womans seed that were fled into the wildernesse Now no Nation in Christendid professe other Religion then Popery especially from the time of Charls the Great to Charles the fifth which was a matter of 720. years There was no visible profession open unlesse in some secret corners of the world no Nation held forth any other Religion then Popish nor professed subjection to any other Church Now in every Nation there are or may be divers Tongues as in England you have the English and Welsh and Cornish Tongues besides others that are discrepant from English But he saith not only every Nation but every Tongue that is every Language they all gave their power to the Beast And in every Tongue we have many Kindreds and there is no man that could ever say but some of his kindred have been Popish or are Popish to this day if not all yet some of the ancientest and those the greater part here is the universality of it And I say further he had ample and great power for to have power over all argues amplitude It is said in the beginning of the 8 vers which I will take in and open here it is said They shall worship him That 's a great power when it doth amount to inward worship not civill but divine worship It was divine worship that he challenged and all Nations gave him To give Laws of faith and worship and government to all Churches in Christendom that was divine power peculiar to the Lord Jesus It was divine power to challenge toihimselfe imposition of Kings and deposition of Kings without consent of the people To provoke the people to do it whether they liked their Prince or no this is transcendant above all created power Besides it was divine worship they gave in giving him power over their Consciences challenging to himself and they also yeelding freely a power to bind Conscience with the Laws he gave them to loose their consciences either from the Laws of God in matter of Oaths to loose them from guilt of sinne to loose their consciences from Contracts from Confederacies this is divine power They all worship him whose names are not written in the booke of the Lamb and some of them too for a season but they continue not God opens their eyes to repent of it and to rise from under it It was divine power to chalenge infalibility of Judgment to judg of Scripture out of the Oracle of his owne braines These were all divine worship they gave to the Catholick Church and to the head of it the Bishop of Rome So that marvayl not as the Text saith there was given Exasia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not a lame power but an unlimited power over all people in Church and Common-wealth and over conscience There is nothing wherein the Catholick Church had not power throughout all Christendome Now further the Text tells you All this power was given He did not wholly arrogate this power to him though he did so too but it was given him though he took it and took all advantages to get it No man can receive any thing except it be given him from above But he had it given him Given him by whom by God by the Devill and given him by Christian Kings Churches and Common-wealths and Families First it was given by God in his just judgment God gave them up to delusions to believe lyes 2 Thes 2. 11. And he gave two reasons why God gave them up to those delusions 1. To avenge their want of entertainment of the truth in love Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved vers 10. 12. Because they would not receive Christ nor the simplicity of his government and worship in Church-state therefore God gave them up to Satan and to the man of sinne and to the Catholicke visible Roman Church 2. That they all might be damned that have pleasure in unrighteousnesse in the same verse The Lord gave them up therefore to damnable distempers damnable usurpations and Ordnances the Lord gave them up for these two Reasons and they are one subordinate to another Secondly this power was given by Satan also For it is said The coming of Antichrist shall be after the working of Satan with all powers and signes and lying wonders and with all deceiveablenesse of unrighteousnesse 2 Thes 2. 9 10. By the efficacy of delusion which was by the jugling of those great men in those times for efficacy of delusion is by miracles so by deceivablenesse of unrighteousnesse which is three-fold The sophistry of Schoolmen the policy of the Canonists that made their Laws out of the Popes decrees still advancing the Popish Church and the head thereof partly by the devotion of Monks and Fryars And if you aske why Satan did this there is a double reason of that First to revenge the injury which the Church did him by bringing forth a Man-child a Christian Emperour to depose him from his glory wherein he was worshipped as the great God of the world Now when hee sees hee is cast off from the honour he had and there was no more place left for him in heaven it comes to passe that he pours forth a flood of barbarous nations and damnable Heresies after the woman and makes war with the remnant of her seed Rev. 12. 13. 15. 2. A second Reason that stirred up Satan was out of the ancient enmity against Christ and the seed of Christ Gen. 3. 15. I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed which is Christ and all the seed of Christ which are both publique and private Christians he hath an inveterate enmity against them all and therefore he gives the Church of Rome all the power that Pagan Rome had The third sort of givers of this large power to this Beast and the head of it the Pope was The voluntary devotion of Christian Princes and States They did voluntarily resign themselves up and their Kingdoms and States and Churches and Common-wealth and Consciences and all to the obedience of the Sea of Rome Rev. 17. 17. They with one accord gave their Kingdomes to the Beast God put it into their hearts to do it that is true but they were left of God and acted by Satan and so were they brought about to give this power unto the Beast Some were brought unto this by the Popes
a kinde of sacred Authority in the consciences of men because he had this absolute power in Churches a great power for 1260. years together whether you reckon from Constantines time or Theodosius his time he had a marvellous power in Kingdomes Nations and Common-wealths But notwithstanding he had this power in those times yet Christ kept the interest in his own chosen as in Rev. 14. 1. where he had 144000. that were spotlesse virgins Answ â— The Lord Jesus will at length challenge all his own purchase them into his own hand when at the calling of the Jews all the Kingdomes of the world shall be given to the Saints of the most high Dan. 7. 26 27. The Lord will take them all into his own hand and power and jurisdiction but he must first throw down this enemy that hath usurped over his purchased possession But in the mean time this Beast swallows up all for so many Ages together For the use of the point First it may be to refute the Papists that give this as a true note of the Church namely amplitude of dominion as the Catholick Church had They give this for an infallible note of the Church now that note you see is here evidently ascribed to the people that worship the great Beast of whom the Lord saith here ver 8. their names are not written in the booke of the Lamb. So that this is a note not of an Apostolicall Church but it may be a note of an Apostaticall Church that is fallen away from the Apostles Doctrine It is a true description of that State of the Church You see here Power was given over to the Beast over all Kindreds Tongues and Nations And therefore amplitude of dominion is not an inseperable character of the Spouse of Christ for it may be given to those that are not the Church of Christ even to those that are but a Beast in the sight of God not his Spouse I may rather say the contrary that amplitude of Dominion was never a note of a Church of Christ since the world began For in the old Testament the State of the Church was Nationall and they had power over one Nation and sometimes conquered others as in David and Solomons time they conquered the Philistims Ammonites and Moabites and Edomites but it was never over all the whole world and that dominion which they had they did not challenge it by Church power but left them still to their own Religion for the Common-wealth propagated their power by arms having first occasion of warre given them by their arrogance to them In the dayes of the new Testament the Church that Christ instituted reacheth no further then to their own members and their own members reach no further then to one Congregation that all might hear and all might be edefied 1 Cor. 14. 23. So that if Church power extends no further then the bounds of one Congregation then that Church that swelleth and strecheth forth her power all the world over Kindreds and Tongues and Nations what an out-ragious swelling Beast is that that reacheth such vast dominion beyond the proportion that the Lord gave to his Church If you should see a body swell to such a vast bignesse that his armes shall reach from one end of the world to another would it not be counted a monster So in this case the Lord hath limited the power of the Church within it selfe it is a great power that they have but not so great as to binde conscience unless it be Ministerially and so they have power to binde Kings in chains and Nobles in lincks of Iron but to have power judiciary power over the Scriptures and over the conscience over and above the application of the word it is such as the Lord never gave to any Church but it is arrogated and usurped by the man of Sinne. Secondly it may serve to teach you the prouenesse of your natures to that which is evill above that which is savingly and spiritually good This power over all Kindreds and Tongues and Nations the Lord hath purchased by his death Rev. â— 9. He dyed and rose againe that he might be Lord both of quick and dead Rom. 14. 9. And upon his resurrection all power was given him in Heaven and Earth Mat. 28. 18. He prayed for this power and the Lord promised to give him it Psal â— 8. Aske of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy Possession This hath the Lord bought with his pretious bloud and paid for by the power of his eternall Spirit and yet never did the Lord Jesus enjoy this power to this day which the man of Sinne hath enjoyed for so many years together He will enjoy it at lenght when he shall call in the Jews and with them the fulnesse of the Gentiles and reigne in Soveraigne Authority both in Church and Common-wealth according to all the Councell of his word and will But yet it was never known to this day that so many Nations did submit their thrones to the Dominion and Government of Christ and to the Truth of Christ and to worship him with the servants of God notwithstanding the purchase which Christ hath made of this Soveraignty and notwithstanding the efficacy of his prayer for obtaining this power that hee might have dominion over all As soon as Constantine brought the world to become Christian the woman she fled into the Wildernesse The true worshippers of Christ were soon troden under the hatches a mountaine of corruption in Church Government overwhelmed them amain that you cannot set the time when so many Nations served him and were as ready to take up arms in his quarrell as they have done for the man of Sinne. You will say did they not for the recovery of the holy Land many Churches conspire and lay their heads together and engaged themselves for this Warre why when they they undertook that Warre was it Christ that commanded any such thing that Churches should engage themselves and their Estates and Lives and Souls and all for the recovery very of the holy City was it not meerly undertaken by the Bishop of Rome and by the motion of the Catholick Church in a Generall Councell The Roman Catholick Church met in a Generall Councell and they agreed to set about this expedition They promised pardon of Sinne to the people and in hope of that and such like things they went about it It was service to the Beast not to Christ God never acknowledgeth it as any service to Christs Kingdome It was for the advancement of the head of the catholick Church but as any grew more wise they grew more afraid of them So that it is a wonder to see never did the the Christian world give that Authority to Christ as they have done unto the Pope and his Institutions which are not Ordinances of Christ Yea let me say another word which is above
man would choose to live no better life nor keep a better house then his Father or Grandfather but wish their souls might be but as safe as theirs when men are once redeemed by the bloud of Christ and that is sprinkled upon their consciences then the bloud of Christ is warmer then the bloud of Ancestors though the Religion of our Fathers should be strong in the hearts of devout Catholicks as in Bilney or Latimer then alasse for our poor Fathers what is become of them they pity them and see plainly that unlesse the Lord led them a further way then the Religion of those that taught them they are gone everlastingly and then they wonder that God should ever choose such a dunghill thee and me that they see a broad difference between the Religion of their Ancestors and that which they see now but that is the efficacy of the bloud of Christ there is that efficacy in it that it washeth away all relations to Fathers to antiquity and universality he is crucified to them all God forbid saith the Apostle that I should glory save in the crosse of our Lord Jesus Christ whereby the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world Gal. 6. 14. So that though all the world runne after the Beast they will not the world looks at them as base unworthy creatures and so they look at the world And there is a third fundamentall Reason and that is taken from the power and presence of the Spirit of Gods grace in the hearts of his people We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1. 5. That is by the spirit of God and by the power of that spirit he keeps our faith and by faith keeps us in the way of his ordinances and in the way of sanctification to salvation Little children yee are of God and you have overcome these Antichrists why for greater is he that is in you then he that is in the world 1 John 4. 4. The power of God is in you they are of the world and the world is carryed away with them you are of God and you hear them not for greater is he thaâ— is in you then he that is in the world These are three fundamentall Reasons which are indeed the demonstrative cause of the impossibility of them to be finally carried to the worship of the Beast the election of God will not suffer it the unchangeblenesse thereof the faithfulnesse of Christ the efficacy of the blood of Christ and the power of the spirit and that which flowes from it is the experience of Gods love and the vertue of their faith in Christ Their faith is unchangeble not possible to be rooted out in Luke 22. 31 32. I have prayed for thee that thy faith faile not It may be shaken but it shall not finally fail I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Jer. 32. 40. and that is the proper act of faith Be not high minded but fear his mercy is sufficient for us trust steadfastly on the grace of Christ and though Peter seemed not to trust on the grace of Christ yet in his worst state he knew that all the courses of Satan were vanity and he durst not but in his heart believe that Christ was the Messiah so all the elect of God know the Beast is a Beast and the Catholick Roman Church is a Beast and the head of that Beast is a beastly head and they know that their Doctrine is sensuall and carnall and that they all shall go into perdition and withall their experience doth evidently convince them that were it not in a pang of temptation in which they are not able to abide by it yet by a renewall of the blood of the Lord Jesus sprinkled on their souls they are brought a fresh to see the work of Gods grace stirred up in them but otherwise their constant course is as in Rev. 14. you hear them coming as on a stage representing the Lambe in their carriage and conversation and follow the Lambe wheresoever he goes but for the Beast a stranger they will not follow but both their faith and experience yeild them a third cause and that is the spirit of God carying them an end My sheep hear my voyce and they follow me but they know not the voyce of strangers they see a difference between good and evill and therefore if they hear a man speak and doth not speak of salvation by him but of the world or of himselfe they will not follow him John 10. 45. Thus you see the Reason why none of them worship the Beast But on the other side all the rest of the world doe meaning where Antichrists power comes speaking of those times when there was great power given to him to speak great things and no man might say Sir why do you so in that time when he had power to be active forty two months when he had power to make Warre with the Saints and to overcome them and when all Nations worshipped him and did not shake off that Religion but in former times before reformation of Religion this was an universal practice they all Nations Kindreds and Tongues gave their power to the Beast and the reason of that was from Gods just judgement for their not receiving the truth in love therefore he gave them over to strong delusions to believe lyes Secondly from the efficacy of Satan in the power of deceitfull sophistry and doing wonders And thirdly by the plausiblenesse trumpery and bravery of that Religion so suitable to carnal reason that they were carried away thereto and it could not be but they should be carried away by the man of Sinne. The use first may then be thus much If all that dwell on Earth whose names are not written in the book of life do worship the Beast and none are excluded but those whose names are written in the Lambs booke of life then this will unavoidably follow that a Papist by his Religion cannot go beyond a Reprobate what he may and renounce his Religion is another matter as Bilney and Latimer sometimes did they were written in the Lambes booke of life but by his Religion take them that do believe as the Catholick Roman Church believes and believe no more but practice that which that Religion directs them to and goe no further and they continue and live and die in that then I must pronounce it from the Text they cannot go beyond a Reprobate the reason is evident from the Text for if none of them whose names are written in the Lambs booke of life doe worship the Beast and onely they do worship the Beast whose names are not written in the Lambs booke of life then if they be not written in the Lambs booke of life the Text is very strong clear in Rev. 20. 15. Whosoever was not found written in the Lambs Book of life was cast into the lake
of fire and brimstone But those that worship the Beast are not written in the Lambs booke of life that is in the Text Here are two propositions very evident All that are written in the Lambs booke of life doe not worship the Beast But those that worship the Beast are not written in the Lambs baok of life Then the conclusion is They shall be cost into the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone That if it appear that this Beast is the Roman Catholick Church and the head of this Beast is the Pope The conclusion will be most evident that no man living and dying a Papist can go beyond a Reprobate I dare not say but some that are ignorant whom devotion hath carryed to that Religion it is possible some of them when they come to death may see the vanity of that Religion of worshipping Saints and of confining their Faith to them but that is not by their Religion but if they dye in that Religion and if their faith and worship be thrust upon them from the Roman Catholick Church and they worship Saints and Angels and believe in their owne merits for their justification I do pronounce to you that a Papist living and dying a Papist cannot go beyond a Reprobate I meane such an one was not written in the Lambs booke of life And they that are not are cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone that is the issue And therefore what a fearfull thing is it in such that do all they can to reconcile Nations to the Church of Rome and are mad upon Romish religion what desperate service do they undertake to bring men to such a religion as destroys many millions of soules It is true Those that are written in the Lambs booke of life God looseth none of his sheep but it is evident they are bloody Butchers of many Christians not chosen yet devout Christians many an one under pang of Conscience with sence of many sinfull passions and lusts are not able to get out but by a Priests absolution and if they be covered with a Fryars coule they hope they shall do well enough Such a conscience as can be opened and healed by such wooden keys as these if they know no more such cannot be saved I will not enlarge it but it were necessary to be pressed and urged in some places look not at it as a matter of curiosity and circumstance what Religion a man dyes in and think as some States-men doe that if it were not for hot-spur'd Jesuites on the one side and hot-spur'd Puritans as they call them on the other side Protestants and Papists might be easily reconciled These are the whisperings of flesh and blood but that which is written in the word doth bear expresse testimonie against such a conclusion For if Jesuites were removed and Puritans too yet if there were any left that thought they could worship the Church of Rome as they require that you must believe as they believe your faith is built upon the Church and upon the dispensation of the keyes of that Church such a faith and obedience as fals short of Christ Jesus that all salvation is to be expected from him if both Jesuites and those they call Puritans were removed if there were none but that take up their faith and obedience in that worship they hold forth I say there is not any one of them that so live and so dye knowing what they believe that can be saved Indeed you read in Rev. 3. many know not the depth of Satan and it is another matter what God may dispence to them in private but men that know what they do and believe according to the doctrine of that Church and worship according to the direction of it I say men living and so dying there is not one of them whose names are written in the Lambs book of life and therefore shall be cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone This may teach us a true ground of any mans preservation from the pollutions of the world bewitching pollutions sometimes a Catholick Strumpet carries all the world after her as in those times Sometimes the world swallows up the Church and every man thinkes him happy if hee may be clad with thick clay others are taken up with provisions for their belly and sensuall Epicurean lusts there be a world of such people Now what doth preserve the people of God that they are not carryed away either with the Catholick religion or with worldly ambition they are not taken with these but see the vanity of them what are any of us better then those that have been bewitched by these but what puts the difference The originall difference is God hath written them in the Lambs book of life and what hee hath written he hath written as Pilate sayd Hee hath written such to life and his decree is irrecoverable My counsell shall stand and I will do all my pleasure Isa 46. 9 10. Therefore there is the Originall from thence it flows the Lord Jesus Christ concurring with the Fathers counsell he hath given us redemption from the blood of Ancestors and redeemed us from the present evill world and will seek up every stragling Lamb and presents us spotlesse to his heavenly Father and then the spirit of God by which he works all in the hearts of his people that receives us for Christ and the spirit for Christ comes and takes possession of us and so thereby girds up our loyns to a dependance on him and his grace that we are preserved and saved from those fearfull temptations that overcome others and all the world are over-whelmed withall It may teach us the marvellous freedome of the love of God and therefore to admire the wonderfull love of God the cause of all this our preservation from such prevailing evills as swallow up the whole world how doth it appear why I pray you consider when the Lord wrote down thy name or mine or any mans name who stood by at his elbow if I may so speak to put him in mind of my name or thine he thought of us if our names be there and he set us downe and he delivered us to Christ Jesus by name what ever thy name is he took notice of thy name such a man in such a place he will live in this or that Countrey he is one take notice of him lay down a price for him in fulnesse of time send a spirit into this heart if he live in a Popish Countrey save him from Popery If in a worldly Countrey save him from the world where ever he lives save him from himself and bring him to my heavenly Kingdom but what was there in us that could commend us to God or what could there in us but what he appointed but what he should put into us he could not fore-see any thing but that hee must work it therefore it must certainly be his undeserved love that must
but we were by nature children of wrath as well as others How came we to be restored and reconciled to the Father from whom we fell as much as we could by the bloud of the Lamb that hath reconciled us to God Secondly by his death he hath paid a price of purchase for union and possession of union with the Sonne So doth the holy Apostle teach us Ephes 2. 13. to 16. You that were sometimes farre off are made nigh by the blood of Christ For he is our peace who hath made both one Jewes and Gentiles both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us So that he hath made Jewes and Gentiles one houshold of God and hath built us upon Jesus Christ the cheif corner stone This is the second purchase which the Lord hath given his blood for the price of We had never been united to Christ nor by Christ been brought to the Father but by the bloud of his crosse his blood hath flain all enmity between God and us Thirdly by the same price he hath also purchased us the holy Spirit These are the three persons in Trinity a possession of Christ to be our head of the Father to be our God and King and our Father as his Father therefore he tels his Disciples in John 20. 17. saith he Touch me not for I go to my Father and your Father to my God and your God As soon as he had by death overcome death now I go to my Father and your Father He hath purchased the possession of Gods fatherly love he hath also purchased union with himselfe and therefore he prayed that his passion might be available to this end that all that should beleive through the Apostles preaching should be one with them John 17 21 23. That they all might be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one So that this is the purchase which the Lord by his blood hath purchased reconciliation with the Father and union with the Sonne and also the inhabitation of the holy Ghost as 1 Cor. 3. 16 17. Know yee not that yee are the Temple of God and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you And as he tels us in Ephes 2. 18. Through him we have an accesse by one spirit unto the Father So that this is a purchase of unspeakable blessings which the Lord hath given his blood for It was not meet the blood of the Sonne of God should be spilt in vain it were abhomination to God therefore he gives it to avoyd the greatest evill that can befall us to cleanse us from sinne and Satan and to redeem us from the curse of God and to free us also from death and hell and the world and all the enemies of our souls He gave his blood for all this not to redeem us from crosses but from the curse in crosses and that is the part which drives us from God Matth. 25. 41. Depart from me yee cursed So farre as any affliction might separate us from God he hath redeemed us from it Now from thence as Christ hath given his blood for reconciliation with the Father and for union with the Sonne and for communion with the holy Ghost so he hath given his blood for the purchase of some blessings that flow from these For by communion with the spirit we have 1. First communion with Christ in his death mortifying sinne and communion with him in his resurrection raising us up to righteousnesse Whence the Apostle professeth that he desires to rejoyce in nothing but the crosse of Christ whereby the world is crucified to him and he unto the world Gal. 6. 14. And in Rom. 6. 6. Our old man is crucified with him that the body of death might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sinne So there is the power of the spirit of Christ applying his death killing and crucifying sinne and the world in us crushing the head of the Serpent and consequently all the power of the Beast of the Catholick Church of Rome and the head of that Beast which is the Pope He did therefore shed his blood that he might destroy all the power of the enemy That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without feare all the dayes of our life Luke 1. 74. This is the mighty power of the spirit applying the warme blood of Christ to our foules 2. The second fruit that flows from union with the blessed Trinity is ratification of the Covenant of Grace And Christ layd downe his bloud for that end to ratifie all the promises that a reconciled God hath made and that is God in a Covenant of Grace That he will write his law in our hearts that he will forgive our sinnes and remember our iniquities no more that we shall know him Jer. 31. 33 34. Christ gave his blood to ratifie this Covenant Heb. 9. 15 16 17. And as the Testament of a Testator stands not in force till the death of him that made it so the death of Christ ratifies this Covenant and as all the Covenants were confirmed by bloud so hath Christs blood done in a speciall manner And when he speaks of ratifying the Covenant he doth not onely speak of ratifying of it in word but cheifly in the hearts of Gods people and no price could have done that but the blood of the Sonne of God by which he hath ratified all the promises of God to the consciences of Gods people That when the heart and conscience of a sinner is overwhelmed with inward agony and fear of the wrath of God and the curse of the Law the fear of death and Hell now what shall satisfie a christian in this but the death of Christ and what shall ratifie it His death hath purchased reconciliation with the Father union with the Son and communion with the holy Ghost now he hath shed his spirit in our hearts whereby we cry Abba Father Gal. 3. 14. This spirit of God works faith in the hearts of Gods people whereby all these promises are confirmed they are all certainly made good because such is the value and virtue of the death of this innocent lamb of God they are now free from the terrour of death It was not possible the bloud of Buls and Goats should take away sinne therefore still they had new sacrifices for the conscience had lost the copy by which it pleaded reconciliation by the spirit of God now he applying the death of Christ to the soul doth fully pacifie the conscience and ratifie the Covenant to the soul that now all the promises of Grace belong to this or that servant of Christ and I pray mark it because it is as weighty as any point of Religion And of all the
of their works And this is the very doctrine of a Covenant of works And this is all the doctrine of the Arminians onely they do acknowledge justification by faith and differ in point of Faith and the merit of works A third Reason may be this The worship of creatures is a going a whoring from God and so of destruction unto such as go a whoring from the Lord in that way All worship of creatures with divine worship is called going a whoring from God Hos 4. 12. They have gone a whoring from under their God so in Psal 73. 27. Thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee And the Church of Rome is known to go a whoring after the worship of Saints and Angels and Iâ—ages and thiâ— great Beast mentioned in the Text and the Pope the head of it They place their salvation in beleiving as the Catholick Church beleives They place their salvation in reconcilement to the Catholick Church and are more solicitous of it then of reconcilement unto God by Christ Col. 2. 18 19. You read of some there that do not hold the head but lay hold upon Angels and that is Idolatry now that is spoken of the Church of Rome For a fourth reason of the point Without unfeigned repentance and lively faith there is no hope of salvation Luke 13 5. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish And without faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11. 6. Now the repentance which the Roman Catholick Church holds forth what is it but such as Judas did performe They require contrition Judas he was deeply wounded and broken Mat. 27. 3. And they require confession He came unto them before whom he had done evill and said I have sinned in betraying innocent blood And they require satisfaction He came and brought the mony and threw it into the Temple and would by no means meddle with it Here is the repentance of the Church of Rome and all for ought I know that they require I finde no rule of repentance in this Catholick Catechise but I finde it in Judas which will end in despaire which is the common end of an hypocritical repentance as Stephen Gardner came unto it and so they will do or else dye in Nabals stoninesse And for their faith The faith of the Elect is described to be a confidence and evidence Heb. 11. 1. So expound Heb. 3. 14. If we hold fast the confidence the word is all one with subsistance it is such a confidence as doth give a being and subsistance unto the thing beleived it doth as truly make them to be as if they were actually extent But what say they to this They look at is as presumption and an abomination yea it will cost a man his life to hold forth such a Faith And for evidence they do professe it to be incompatible to a christian and their Faith is some conjecture but no certainty Now gather up these things If the Roman Catholicks have no better Faith no better repentance then their Religion holds forth if they receive Christ no otherwise and worship God no better and have no more interest in God then their Religion leads them to let all the world look to it for there is none of all the elect of God can live and dye so But why is this a point of so serious and deep consideration and attention that is taken First from the weight of the point as most concerning our salvation Secondly it is a point that generally men are deaf to hear and slâ—w to understand and beleive And therefore he doth cry out and make a solemn proclamation If any man have an eare to hear let him hear Why are they so unable and unwilling to understand They look at it as a monstrous blasphemy to speake thus of the Roman visible Catholick Church Then the Reason why men are so slow of heart to beleive it and none beleive but them which are taught of God is taken First from the spirituallnesse of the things themselves They are spirituall matters and cannot be discerned but by spiritual understanding 1 Cor. 2. 14. A naturall man doth not discern the spiritual mysteries of iniquity nor the spirituall mysteries of discerning Grace nor can they because they are spiritually discerned The second Reason why none but faithful intelligent christians do understand it 〈◊〉 taken From Gods gift of Grace unto them to understand it To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdome of Heaven Mat. 13. 11. But being not given unto the world the world doth not understand it For the use of the point First it may serve to refute the damnable principle of the Roman Catholick Religion which is this That for every Nation and Kingdome to be reconciled to the Church of Rome i. is of necessity to salvation Whoever he be that hath ears to heare let him hear saith the holy Ghost that to be reconciled to the Catholick Church and subject to that Church and the head thereof it is of necessity the way to damnation if a soul so live and so dye For this purpose the Text is as plain as possible Rev. 20. 15. Whoever is not found written in the book of life is cast into the lake of fire This Roman Catholick Church hath not his name written in that book of life and therefore of necessity they must be cast into the lake of fire Let all Noble men and Gentlemen hear this that they may not listen unto the whisperings and croakings of the Locusts of the bottomlesse pit Much God hath borne with men in their ignorance but if ever men have belonged unto God they have known the way of a better faith and repentance then ever Popish Religion have taught them and the holy Ghost hath helped them in their private prayers and reading or in conference with others to understand the same Obj. 1. You will say unto me but this is a very uncharitable censure Answ Whether doe you thinke it more charity to forewarn men of a desperate danger or to be indulgent to men and to tell them they may be saved in both Religions when the word of God is playn against it What charity count you that to gull men in a charitable but a foolish conceit of their own good estate It is cruell charity and most uncharitable when the Holy Ghost doth professâ— Their names are not written in the Lambs booke of life whosoever worship the Beast Obj. 2. But you will say Are not all the Catholicks in the world perswaded of it that the devotion to the Catholique Roman Church is a way of salvation Catholiques are confident of it and you Protestants dare not deny it And then I pray you whether is it not safer to be devoted to that Church wherein all confesse there is a possibility of salvation then unto that Church in which one say there is salvation the other not Answ We answer So farre
the government of the Pope and that is no other but the Roman Catholick visible Church to which all the description you have heard opened doth naturally belong Now that being the first beast what is this second beast This is apparantly distinct from it and it is not so proper to say that the first beast was the Pope as he had soveraign authority in Temporalls and that he is the second Beast as he hath supream power in Spiritualls for he had his Temporall power lâ—st and therefore that would not agree to the Pâ—pâ—ll State he first had supream power in Spirituals before he had supream power in Temporals Now the beast here being not the Roman Catholick Church what is it then It is the head of that Church and what is that It is no other but the Pope of Rome The heads of the Roman Catholique visible Church from one succession to another they are this second beâ—st and that will appeare in a double note which will both cleare that and the rest of the Text. First then take this note That the Bishop or Pope of Rome is in the sight of God and of his Saints no better then a wilde beast for his Originall arising out of the earth for his resemblance like to a Lamb in his borns like to a Dragon in his speech like to the whole Roman Catholick Church in his power This is the former part of the description by his Adjunct by his Similitude and by his Originall However he seems to Catholicks a holy Father and a god on earth yet in the sight of God and of his Saints he is no better theâ— a wilde Beast whose off-spring is from the earth who though he have horns like a Lamb yet speaks like a Dragon and thus John guided by the holy Ghost saw him Let me shortly open these points 1. He is here described to be a wilde beast The word so signifies that is to say not so tame a beast as those in Isa 11 6. to 9. that a child may lead them Wolves or Leopards or Lyons that can sleep with Kids and Calves and little children and they may play on the hole of the Aspe and put their hand on the Cockatrice den He is not so tame that hee can be tamed by the word of Truth or by the censures of the Church no nor by the power of Princes he is above them all and beyond them all a wild beast he is therefore For his Originall He ariseth out of the earth That implyeth he hath it not from Heaven but from below not from Christ but from Satan You are from beneath saith Christ I am from above John 8. 23. Hee springs from the earth especially from earthly and carnall policy that for keeping of good agreement in the Churches they must be folded up into certain Metropolitans or Patriarchs and to keep unity you must have one over them all and that was the Bishop of Rome for all unity they say springs from â—nits if you have more then one Governour you will have no peace Now this being a carnall principle some carnall reason being the ground for the preservation of the Church of Rome for that the Emperours thought if the Bishop of Rome were advanced it would be a means to strengthen them against the barbarous Nations that come against them this carnall reason brought him to be exalted And though his Originall was earthly for the cause yet he ascended above the earth to Ecclesiasticall power And 2. He arose out of the Earth because he rose up insensibly by degrees he makes no great noyse As any thing that comes out of the earth it makes no great noyse in its growing but at length comes to a vast height So it was with the Bishop of Rome this is his descent out of the Earth For his resemblance He hath horns like a Lamb. Horns expresse his power Like a Lamb that is like the Lamb of God Church-power he claims directly no other at least for a long time The power of binding and loosing were his two horns to bind all and loose all and that lay in the closet of his own breast when to put it forth this is but the power of the Lamb. But he spake like a Dragon You have two or three severall speeches of the Dragon In Rev. 12. 9. The old Serpent is called the Dragon What did hee speak 1. Venomous words to our first Parents You shall not dye at all Gen. 3. 4. And so the Pope he draws the hearts of men from conscience of the word 2. The speech of the Dragon it is imperious and arrogant All the kingdomes of the earth will I give thee if thou wilt fall downe and worship me Luk. 4. 6 7. And that is the speech of the Pope in Jer. 1. 10. I have set theâ— this day over the Nations and over the kingdomes to roote out and to pull downe and to destroy and to throw downe and to build and to plant And the Pope sends a Crown with this inscription to Frederick the Emperour Christ gave this power to Peter and Peter gave it to the Pope this is Imperiall State And 3. The Dragon hath a devouring and ravenous mouth whereby he speaks â—avenous words Whoever will not worship the Image that I have set up shall be cast into a hot fiery furnace and who is that God that is able to deliver you Dan. 3. 15. And you have heard what worship the Pope claymes and what he threatens if it be neglected Thus you see in Gods account and in the sight of John the Pope is a wild Beast and the holy Ghost as he inspâ—red John he directs him what to say The holy Apostle he stood upon the sand of the Sea and few two beasts one arisiâ—g out of the Sea of corruption in doctrine c. And another out of the earth out of earthly pretences He sees no holinesse in this Beast nothing but beastly cruelty and beastly blasphemy nothing but argues a wilde beast that will not be tamed neither by the Church of God nor by the word of God nor by Princes and States He sees him rising out of â—â—ire pretences pretending nothing but Lamb-like power but â—ee speakes like a Dragon venomous and devouâ—ing words Damnable heresies as being spewed out of the Dragons mouth such a volume of false worship and doctrine and government as destroys the faith of the Church and subverts the foundation of the Church This is the very state of the Pope as John beheld it as he was wrap't up in a vision by the Spirit and he judged of it as hee saw it Now because I cannot so well make use of this before I have spoken of the rest because they are co-incident take this for a second Note and so make use of both together The note is long but it is but the collection of the sum of these verses the words of the Text will bring the Doctrine easily to remembrance This then
they receive that who receive any orders from the Pope and are reconciled to the Roman Catholick visible Church This Beast causeth all to receive a marke that is they shall sweare fidelity and loyalty to the Roman Catholick visible Church this they make indelible wherever they come they are Priests for ever after the order of Melchesidech Or on their foreheads they have a marke answerable to their name their name what is that but Roman Catholicks or else there is no fellowship with them and all must at length have that name and go under the number of that name Roman Catholicks there is the number of that name but I leave that to the next time as being too large to enter into at present In the mean time you see these things thus opened touching the nature and character of this second Beast Now to make some use of all First it may be an evident conviction and demonstration and designation of this Beast who it is Is hath been much disputed but all the parts of this description doth directly fall upon the Bishop of Rome that if John had lived in these dayes he would have seene all this with his eyes which he saw in a vision No man can tell where to bestow all this description for 1260. years but upon the Bishop of Rome that is of such a wilde nature that no Church no law of God no society of men no Kings nor Princes can rule and all the world that knows this Beast knows this to be true of the Pope whose Original all Christians know springs from the Earth to keep men in unity and to preserve the Empire from inundations of Barbarians to keep Christian Princes closer together and in better order all carnall policy out of which he springs yet incensibly and slowly that he is not discerned for many years together And he hath horns like a Lamb that he pretends nothing but Saint Peter as they call it the Keys of the kingdom of Heaven But he speaks like a Dragon as if he had the Keys of the bottomlesse pit he thunders such sentences gives dispensations both against the lawes of Paul and Moses to dissolve oaths and covenants and relations they shall marry whom they will their own sisters he will venom with such noysome doctrine as the breath of them will stinke he will speak so terrible that time was when Princes were to tremble he hath spoken as a Dragon The Devil himselfe as he ruled the Roman Pagan Empire hath not spoken greater words then he Those that spake Whoever will not worship an Image set up shall be cast in a fiery furnace it is not a greater word then he speaks Secondly this doth justly reprove all the Popish admiring and adoring of the man of Sinne They look at him as their holy Father and Bishop of Christ and Vicar of God as one that hath an infallible judgment that cannot erre that he is above all power of censure If he should draw missions of soules to hell no man must say Sir why do you so they have this opinion of him No matter what they conceive he must be judged by the King of Kings and by the God of Gods and by the Saints of that God that judgeth according to the word and they look at this Father as a Monster as a wilde beast whom no Scripture no Church can keepe in awe but he is Lord paramount above them all they look at him as the Dragon of the bottomlesse pit as he that destroys the Christian world and however he may pretend as if he had nothing but Lamb-like power yet hee speakes like a Dragon thus John saw him Thirdly Observe from hence a reason of a note that troubles many Interpreters That if this beast have such power why doth he not cause the earth to worship himself why doth he not provide for his own honour but for the first beast The reason is plain the first Beast being the Roman Catholick Church and the head of that Beast all the honour that redounds to the beast falls upon the head of the beast and it is upon himselfe He exerciseth all that power that the first beast hath and therefore no marvell if he labour to draw all men what he can to worship not himselfe but the Roman Catholick Church to be reconciled to it and receive decrees from it and submit in conscience thereunto and receive no worship nor doctrine but from them nor government but established by them no Lawes to be enjoyned and transacted but by them for he knows that this honour will redound to him He knows all this power doth rest in his own breast and it is he that acts the Roman Catholick Church and he can do with a Councell and without a Councell what the Church can do and he failes not to do it from time to time Wonder not therefore that he puts off the honour to the first beast the old Roman Church there he layes all his devotion but in conclusion it is all for himselfe Fourthly you may see the corrupt Originall and dangerous State of corrupt religion and of such kind of Churches as are drawn out by the modell of the Roman Catholick visible Church any image of that beast I do not trouble you with what others think to be the image of the Beast I should but weary my selfe in so doing but if the first beast be the Roman Catholick Church as it must needs be then the image must be according to it though not of equall authority yet of the like frame whereas the Lord hath instituted no other but particular Congregations to bring in a whole Nation that may containe a thousand Congregations into one Church what an image is this of the Roman visible Catholick Church It is not Catholick indeed it is short of that but so large as it carries a Nation it exceeds Diocesan and Diocesan exceeds particular Congregations Now see the danger of this you see the first rise was from the power of this beast He causeth all the earth to make an Image of this Beast He did not bring them to make one in number but one in England and one in Scotland and one in France and one in Germany and in every Countrey according to their divisions and Princely Potentates that all that dwell in the limits of that Jurisdiction they have one Cathedral Church to which all other Parochiall Churches do belong this hee causeth them to do and when he hath done it giveth it the very like breath of the Roman Order though not in so vast a measure yet in a faire modell that they are like the image of this holy Father and so by this meanes it comes to passe by his Laws and Canons which he perswades all to receive and which is a wonder since they have cut him off from being head of the Church yet still they reteyn the life of Papacy in the State of such Chancellors and Parators and such
Churches National Churches and Provinciall Churches 6. He causeth all men to worship that Image that if any will not worship that Image Churches of that mold they shall be delivered to the secular power and so they shall be killed Lastly He will not suffer any Commerce nor civil Commerce much lesse Ecclesiasticall communion but to them that have the mark of the beast or the name of the beast or the number of his name vers 16 17. They must swear or perform some loyalty to the Church of Rome The mark of the beast the carriage of the beast in the Originall All that have received Religious Orders have received the mark of the beast all their religious Orders leave an indelible Character upon them so that all that are entred into religious Orders are sworn Catholiques The name of the beast what is it Though they be not of the religious Order yet they professe themselves to be Roman Catholiques and professe subjection to the head of that Church and so to his doctrine and worship though it be be to Saints and Angels and to his government as that which binds the conscience the name of the Beast is a Roman Catholicke submitting himselfe both to the Church and to the head of that Church and that for conscience sake But for the number of his name it was reserved to this dayes exercise Wheras the holy Ghost having said that he would permit no man to buy or sell but such as had received the marke or his name or the number of his name he doth in this last Verse declare what this number of his name is which at least they must have or else they cannot have commerce Now this number he first doth amplifie or illustrate and then expresse it He doth illustrate or amplifie it First by the adjunct of wisdome needful for the understanding of it Here is wisdome Secondly the duty of men that have understanding to count it And thirdly He doth amplifie it by the subject or by the efficient of it It is the number of a man This is his illustration It requires wisedome to count it It is the duty though of them that have understanding to search it out And when they do count it they finde it the number of a man In the Second place he doth expresly designe or discipher out the number and that is in the last word his number is six hundred threescore and six The place is very obscure as any in the word and therefore the holy Ghost tels us here is wisdome to finde it out but withal here is a command that every one that hath received the least measure or talent of wisdom should endeavour it and he doth incourage men to find it out But were it not that the Lord hath said If any man want wisdome let him aske it of God and it shall be given him James 1. 5. And were it not that God hath given Christ to be our wisedome to declare to us the whole councel of his Father 1 Cor. 1. 30. And were it not that the providence of God in the invitation of sundry brethren hath put me upon the handling of this book and now it fals in order to be opened for my own part I think I should never have chosen this Text to have spoken to whilst I had lived But now since we are come to it in our interpretation of this book and the wisdome of God is perfected in the weaknesse of his servants I shall therefore endeavour by the helpe of God and by the light of his wisdome to expresse such meditations as God hath suggested to men and leave them to your further consideration and spiritual discerning and judgement The note then is shortly thus much To finde out the number of the Beast requires heavenly wisdome and yet such as have received any wisdome ought to count that number and upon the acount shall find it to be the number of a man in sum six hundred threescore and six This is the sum I wrap up all in one Doctrine that handling the Doctrine in the parcels all the parts of the verse may be opened therewith First I say to finde out this number is wisdome it requires heavenly wisdome Here is wisdome And God accounts not the wisdome of this world wisdome but foolishnesse he speaks therefore of that which in Scripture language is wisdome not Mathematical nor Airthmetical wisdome for what great wisdome would it require to count this number it ariseth out of six and is multiplyed by ten this is such wisdome as any mean Arithmetition might count six times ten is 60. and ten times 60. is 600. and six times one is six the wisdome therefore lies not there But to see how this count disciphers the Beast and by that means to give more perfect intelligence of the Beast and of his nature then by his marke and name alone could be gathered that requires heavenly wisdome but wisdome therefore it doth require It requires a mans best understanding to enquire what the holy Ghost hath said of this number and though it require much wisdome yet the counting of this number is both possible and necessary if it were not possible the holy Ghost would not say Let him that hath understanding count the number of the Beast Hee is wont to say Let him that hath an eare hear what the spirit saith but here he saith Let him tha◠hath understanding count the number of the Beast And it is also necessary for him not of necessity to salvation without which a man cannot be saved but necessitate precepti necessary in regard of Gods command Now because there are none of Gods commandements that are vaine things but weighty therefore they are either very necessary to salvation or very expedient so that a man shall be much weakened in his spiritual progresse especially in Popish times or in such times where men live in the Image of Popish Churches National or Diocesan if he be ignorant thereof he shall finde it to be much expedient to count the number of the Beast And further I adde it will be found to be but the number of a man What is the meaning of that I will not trouble you with variety of interpretations briefly the number of a man I suppose it is here opposed to that which ye read of in Rev. 21. 17. where he tels us The new Jerusalem was measured an hundred and fourty and four cubits according to the measure of a man that is of the Angel here he doth not say so the number of a man that is of the Angel but it is the number of a meere man a carnal man and therefote in sum this number wil proove but an humane invention it is therefore called the number of a man And finally he saith this number is six hundred threescore and six Six hundred sixty six is not in the Original in so many words onely three greek letters are put for these three numbers 〈◊〉
Ghost pitch upon sixe and the multiplication of sixe by ten Why you that are conversant in the Latine Bible look Junius his notes and he tells you whereas all the Catholique Church was formerly governed by five books of Decretalls Boniface he did compile a sixth book of Decretalls and called it Sextus you that have the book of Canons may finde it which being said the Pope a perfect number and therefore being added to the former books of Decretalls it maketh up a certain plat-form of direction for all matters of practice and manners in the discipline of the Church and so it is a perfect number of all things to be done in the Church both for doctrine worship and government so the Popes Canons are summed up in his Sextus there is the reason why he makes sixe the foundation all their Administrations are founded and measured out from their Canonâ—Lawes which are all wrapped up in six volumes and the sixth is the most compleat of them all Now if you will aske why this sixe comes to be multiplyed by ten If ye observe it all the government and maintenance of the Roman State is by tenths by tithes all the people must give the tenth to the Priest and the Priest to the Bishop for the mayntenance of the Catholicke Church and so the whole Government comes to be multiplyed maintained and established Thus you see what the number is and the reason why the Holy Ghost calls it so and how he doth oppose it to the contrary number of that which is delivered by the blessed Apostles and followed by the holy Saints of God from one generation to another Put then all these together and all will amount to this That whereas the number of Christ upon which both his followers are built and his Church and all the Dimentions and Administrations of it Their foundation their gates their length heighth and breadth all of them are founded in the Apostolicall doctrine For Christ prayed for his twelve Apostles and all that should believe in his name through their word John 17. 20. It is the comprehension of all Saints to the end of the world whereas they are built upon Apostolicall simplicity both for their State and Church-administrations they are all built upon twelve and multiplyed and enlarged by 12. On the contrary all the Roman Catholickes they are built upon the Popish Lawes and Decrees all which require subjection to the Popish Church and submission to that Church and to the Pope as the head of that Church receiving doctrine and worship and discipline from that Church and that was founded in sixe on the sixe books of their Decrees and it is multiplyed according to the same books to mayntayn all the Clergy from the Pope to the lowest Parish priest And it is wisdome to find this out and it requires heavenly wisdome to see the dangerous state of this and yet they that have wisdome may finde this out and when they search it out They will finde it but the number of a man not of the Angel or of the Apostles or of any messenger of God I remember the speech of one of the Saints of God That it is a most unworthy thing that the Church of Christ should be governed by the Lawes of Antichrist and such were all their sixe books and it is most unworthy that both the Church it selfe and all the Images of it that they are all governed by these sixe bookes and it is most unworthy that Antichrist should govern all the Administrations of the Church that if a man be cited it shall be by a Latine writ and if he appeare he shall be proceeded against according to Canon Lawes and if he be censured it shall be a Canon Law and in Latine and so shall his Absolution be and what pertayns to their whole government it is but founded in these sixe books of Decretals and count them and you shall find them but the number of a man nothing but meerly the wit and policy of men either to keep unity as they say but tyranny in government or to enrich men with fees or maintayne the honour of some Cathedrall person it is all but meer humane invention Now for a man to see not only the Roman Catholicke visible Church to be a Beast but that the Pope the head of it is a beast and the image of that Church is a beast Diocesan Provinciall Nationall and Metropolitan Churches are but images of this great beast and to see all the numbers and rights they thrust upon the Church by Canons they are but the number of the beast the number of a man humane inventions what is appointed by the Church whether Crosse or Surplice or kneeling at the Sacrament they are but the multiplication of Canons Canon multiplyed on Canon but it is still but the power of the Canon this is great wisdome to find it out And it behooves those that have wisdome to consider it and they that consider it shall find it but a meer humane device one as well as another and they will consider which way the State goes and which way the State leanes Though some poor hearts think they are bound to obey the Lawes of the Kingdom and some good souls many times will be tampering with them too much but he that shall observe it shall find it but the number of a man when he doth find it He shall find thus much that if he do believe as God is wont to teach to his people they shall not have the liberty of Commerce in buying and selling nor leave in spirituall or temporall occurrances and dealings with them For the use of it First let it be some word of encouragement and comfort unto all the servants of God that have got the victory over this number though with their losse not to look at their losses as an unexpected thing or new matter but prophecyed of above 1500. years agone John wroâ—e of it in his time what you lost in your liberties in the Church wherein you lived it is no more then what the Lord foretold you that you should not have liberty to buy and sell if you did beare witnesse against the beast and his mark and name and number of his name then there is no abiding for you in any Church in Christendome which is either Catholicke or framed after the image of it as Nationall Diocesan or Cathedral or Provincial it is not possible you should get the victâ—over these things and have liberty of commerce It is not enough that we have cast off the Pope and what is an image of Popery which we sometimes have submitted unto and have born against it and it is not enough to abhor the name of a Papist so far as we have been corrupted It is well that ye have born witnesse against the Hierarchy and the papall government but may we not hearken to the Canon of the Church maintained by a whole National Councel and may we not
yield to the orders of these Canons and beare witnesse to the number of the Name Suppose the Cross or Surplice or kneeling at the the Sacrament many Christians have strong reasonings about this that they may keep their liberty of Commerce their buying and selling and will not God have mercy and not sacrifice Though such Godly christians in their weaknesse have such reasonings yet beleive it we are to blesse God that hath given us to see that there is no correspondency to be kept with Rome If you have the number of his name this is not that which the holy Ghost speaks of as damnable heresie you may live and dye in that judgment and be saved therefore he doth not pronounce fire and brimstone to such they think in conscience they may yeild to this and that as being the command of Caesar or of the Church the Lord spare you as the Apostle saith But if a man will adore the Roman Catholick Church or the Pope the head of it and submit in conscience to be guided by their Laws he renounces his salvation in such a case that a man shall pin his faith upon the Churches sleeve and his hope and Government and course of life on the Churches sleeve this is the way to everlasting damnation And therefore in those Churches that are even Images of Antichrist it pleaseth God to keep his servants so far that they dare not take all their Laws for doctrine without question nor all the ways of their Government as the Government of Christ that God opens all the hearts of his faithful servants to see But yet for the number of his name It is say they but a few trifling things they are made a matter of six as Crosse and Surplice and kneeling at the Sacrament and bowing to Altars and the name of Jesus and ye will have six in the end and what will be multiplyed on that six the Lord knows But for you here look at it as a special mercy that you see the vanity of receiving the number of his name and that you have this deliverance from it that though you have lost your buying and selling that if you were there you might hardly be seen in the Market and in many of those Churches you will hardly be allowed yet you have lost no more then ought to be forsaken There are that have sometimes put X for the crosse and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a long letter in wrinkles for the Surplice and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the proportion of a man bowing but I would not limit the counsell of the holy Ghost so strictly But take all that is numbred by their Canon Law and it will come all to one reckoning they are but the number of the beast whether the Pope dictate them or they receive them and though they cut of his head for saith yet for discipline and order and circumstances they still retaine him and these are the number of the Beast therefore blesse the Lord that hath shewed you these to be evils and saved you from such prevailing evils Secondly for your present condition learn thus much It will not be safe for ye to receive the Image of any other Church then that which Christ hath established and this is grounded upon 12. upon the Apostles doctrine and multiplyed by 12. increased with the increasings of God blessed be his name therefore it being so hold fast this forme and be not removed from it If you fall to adore National or Diocessan or Provincial or Cathedral Church-government then you will fall to number by 6. and multiply 6. by 10. in the end it will come to passe all this shall be maintained by tenths such setled endowments and preserments and then it may be you shall have liberty of buying and selling of traffique and trading the Beast of Rome will allow you some liberty that way yet believe it it is a special part of your wisdome to know this and the danger of it If a man in his ignorance shall yeild to these things God will pardon it but if a man know these things and willingly give way to them the Lord will require it at his hands Consider therefore this number and avoyd it though it cost you all your liberties the Lord will say this onely is a wise people that renounce not onely the Beast but the Images of him and his marke and the name Catholick and Roman Catholick and conformity to all the number of his name If ye establish your hearts in these spiritual resolutions here is wisdome and thereof how should it provoke the hearts of Gods people to be setled in conscience about such points as these though it may be your countrey-men will count you fools in runing such desperate ventures that you would hazard your fortunes and at length bring a noble to nine pence you shall bring your six hundreds to sixties and your sixties to sixe No matter what they think of it so long as ye shall keep the Apostolical number and multiply by their rule the holy Ghost saith Here is wisdome and he that hath understanding let him so esteem that here is wisdome and it was wisdome to come hither and he that came for this end never made a better bargaine in his life then to come over for this because he would have no more to do with the Beast and his Image and his name and the number of his name I say thou hast made a wise bargaine if thou wilt take the word of the holy Ghost for thy security he saith here is wisdome Thirdly it may teach us that are come hither to see that the Lord acknowledgeth our wisdome in the abrenuntiation which we have made from these inventions of the sonnes of men The Lord did foretel us what should be our case we should not have liberty to buy nor sell neither be seen in Church nor Market and he counts it wisdome to remoove on these termes but if we shall have flittering mindes to go back againe the Lord will write upon it here is a foole this their way is their folly Psal 49 13. When men in their hearts wax weary of the Churches of Christ and of the discipline of Christ and look at them as fulsome and empty things for want of feeling the life of Christ and wisdome of Christ run on foolishly and preposterously and truly take a course to overthrow their communion they have with Christ and make shipwrack as much as in them lies of all that which they have undergone of all our sufferings and tryals Saith the Apostle to the elect Lady and her children in 2 John 8. Look to your selves that ye loose not those things which ye have wrought but that ye receive a full reward That as you have made a wise bargain and a safe bin at so much charge and have been freed from the image of Antichrist and the remnant of his image and the remnant of his number we have cause
to blesse God for it And though we may think of mending our selves here or there yet you will finde it a difficult thing to finde 12. multiplyed by 12. in any place under Heaven that is either your foundation shall not be Apostolical institution or your administration apostolick doctrine That christians should be the foundation of Churches as the Apostles require Saints by calling and to build on such and to administer such according to the word of God Yea though the Lord should be pleased to give our Countrey-men free passage of a Parliament as now we have speech of it and though they be a wise Nation yet such is the very frame of the State and of the Sonnes of men that if the Lord give free passage of a Parliament you will find it a very difficult thing to have the State ruled by Apostolical judgment to reject all devices of men to shut out the greatest part of a kingdom from the Lords Table you would finde rebellions multiplyed exceedingly if they were of the spirit that they were of in Edward the sixths time And when you are gone out of the Countrey not that I would flatter the Countrey the Lord knows we our selves here have need to grow more spiritual daily but yet in respect of the Churches of God and administration of things here though we faile and go aside we have the rule to shew us the way back againe I say when you are gone go whether you will you will have much ado to finde materials and more ado to finde forme and administration as that it may be in cold blood you will fit and mourn by the waters of Babilon and hang your Harpes upon the willowes and say how shall we sing the Lords song the song of Zion in a strange Laâ—d Therefore let it provoke us to hold fast what we have received and not to be taken off with faire pretences to turne aside to one hand or the other if we be in a state of wisdome let us keep in it and beleive it whatever takes you to a contrary course to things as they stand if the holy Ghost say this is wisedome then I am sure the contrary of it must needs be folly Fourthly it may teach us in the fear of God to have an eye to our brethren in our native Country to consider those defects that those which reformed religion before us did leave in the recovery of the Country out of the jaws of Antichrist you see what the Lord requires of us that we should have nothing to do with the number of the Beast Though they cut off the head of the Beast from being of any soveraign power to them yet they took too much liberty for forme of worship and for the number of the Popes name and of Government by Canon Laws yea the whole Church discipline by the Popish Canon Law onely with this destinction that whereas the Pope enjoyed it before now the King he claims headship over the Church aswel as the civil State and he deriveth the Church-power to the chief Bishops and they worke upon it more and more and though it be true both Henery the eighth and much more Edward the sixth and Queen Elizabeth all these did set so many Councellors so many Divines and so many common and civil Lawyers to cull out of the Popes Decretals such Canons as were most fit for Government and most of such as cut off Popish supremacy yet they could never agree of it and so they admit them as the Popes Canons only yet so that whereas reference of Ecclesiastical matters was to the Pope now it is to the King as supream head and Governour but the Popes Canons are the government of the Church Now what was the reason There was an unsafe principle in their hearts that they thought it lawfull to take the Laws of the Roman Church and that any King might have power to make Laws to govern the Church as well as the Pope had It is true he hath power to make Lawes as well as the Pope had and better but the truth is neither the Pope nor King hath power to make Laws to rule the Church but it must be by the Laws of Christ Whatsoever is not of the number of 12. is superadded and will never prosper but this principle making them willing to admit such things though they were the chiefest of the Kingdome that were appointed for that worke yet they could never agree But had they received a little more light and wisdome to cut off the number of the Beast aswel as his head it would have prevailed for the liberty of Gods Ordinances and purity of Doctrine I say this being wanting to them let it not be wanting to us but through the mercy of God the servants of God have taken no small paines to clear up such things what the Laws are in the Church of Christ by which Magistrates and others are to be guided how far civil Government may reach and how farre it may not go still reserving this fundamental principle to hold them close to the direction of the holy Ghost by the 12. Apostles and this being the pious care of our Magistrates and of the Churches this wisdome will by the blessing of God be established that that which other Nations have not attained to this day may by the blessing of God be reached by us and yet though the Elders are to enquire and to commend to them such rules as may establish it it pleaseth God not to give as yet passage to our purposes appoint one day a storme of raine hinders appoint the second day fortnight then a storme of snow prevents that it is tough work to establish things of this nature it is difficult as if the Lord would have them established in a spirituall way as Moses the Law by 40. dayes fasting he had the spirit of God and larger measure by much then we yet the Lord requires serious humiliation of him And therefore since I heard that there hath been a seasonable motion to commend such a thing to the State that the whole country do in special maner seek God at such a time against the consultation of the general Court and this weighty point falling in for ripening of mens thoughts for the Laws of the Country and limitation of jurisdictions both of Church and Common-wealth the Lord saith he will be sought unto by the house of Israel Therefore I think the motion is seasonable and was glad to hear of it and thought to commend it to our honoured Governours that sit at Stern and all other Churches but we that are present have no power but in our own Church nor that but with the consent of the Church that if it be thought convenient this day seven-night might be set apart to seek the face of God that we may take time both to ripen our consultations and to prevaile with the Lord to prosper our consultations and administrations that this matter
which so much concerns posterity may be established for my own part while we live I am not greatly solicitous thereabout yet for future we know not what Governors may arise and what may be put upon our posterity needful therefore that things were put in a right frame that whatever men say yet the Lord may say here is wisdome and here is neither marke nor name nor number of name but all carried according to the laws of the 12. Apostles and this will require some humiliation and if Moses stood in need of 40. days we much more of one day And for our native countrey we do not know what conflicts there may be there about the number of the name of the Beast we are come from them in bodily presence and therefore cannot helpe them by a word of advice but this we may do put up supplications to heaven and we may intreat the God of wisdome and the Prince of peace that he would put in amongst them that they may see the whole fabrick root and branch of the man of sin that so there may be a perfect combination of the two great Nations that the Parliament may be for the better not for the worse but purity of ordinances if it be the blessed will of God may be established however we shall finde a blessing and some of our brethren shall fare the better and if things wax clearer and zeal warmer they will begin to suspect the number as well as the name and as the head of the beast otherwise the three innocent ceremonies as they call them they are grown to six and being multiplyed by ten they may grow to 60. yea to 600. for ought I know Let us help them what we can by Prayer FINIS A TABLE of the principall Heads contained in this Book A THe amplitude of the Popes power page 113 Amplitude of dominion not an inseperable character of the Church 121 Angels created the first day of the weeke 188 Antichrist described 243 It is Antichristian to assume Gods titles 52 Transcendant authority dangerous to be admitted 72 Albingenses and Waldenses slaine to the number of 1000000. 100 B. Backsliders punished page 43 The first Beast what it is page 7. Described p. 2. Not the Pagan Empire p. 4. Not the Christian Empire pag 5. Whence it did arise p. 9 The Beast and the head of the beast is one and the same 44 The Beasts head when wounded and cured p. 35. his great words p. 62. the Beasts time how long p. 80. Why counted by monethes p. 86. When it did begin p. 86 The Beasts power p. 98. From whence p. 115. Why Saints worship not the Beast 139 The second Beast described 223 Bishoply power to be prayed against 38 Blasphemy what 67 Blessed are the sufferers for Christ page 219 Bodie of death what 185 Booke of Providence and booke of Conscience and the booke of life what 132 The Popes Buls are but baubles 90 C. IT is a Character of the second Beast to be without controul p. 236 Christs Government over all Nations 12â— Christ both the subject and the author of life 130 Why Christ answered not Pilate 157 Christ the Lamb slaine p. 154. Christ slaine from the beginning of the world how 189 Christ the stone cut out of the mountaine without hands p. 196. the head of the Church 37 Christians may make a defensive warre 108 The Church Catholick is not visible 13 The power of the Church 13 The Roman Catholicke visible Church a beast p. 14. They receive their power from the Devill 22 Nationall and Diocesan Churches an Image of the beast 16 Christs Church is such as meet in one Congregation 15 No Communion to be held with Antichristian Churches 239 Scripture Computations most exact 95 D. THe Popes Decretals the number of the Beast page 253 Dwellers on the earth who 230 Defensive war of Prorestants p. 104. Defensive warr lawfull 108 Denmark one of the ten horns 81 Devill cast out of heaven when and where 88. 92 E. EAre to heare what it meanes 206 Election a booke of life p 135. in what sence it is sayd to be sure p. 150. How we are said to make it sure 150. 153 England one of the ten horns p. 10. 81. F. FAith the victory whereby we overcome the world page 108 The Faith of Romanists is the saith of the Devill 210 No Falling from grace 149 France one of the tenne horns 81 Fryars are Incendiaries 101 Fundamentall power is in the people 72 G. GRace and workes opposite page 210 God most exact in his computations 94 Christs Government over the world p. 122. It is hard to be set up in England 12 Governours are subject to law p. 109. they may be resisted and when 109 Gregory sent for England 51 H. HEadship of the Church is Christs priviledge page 39 Hints of Providence should be taken 45 To keep Holy-dayes is blasphemy 67 Tenne Horns of the Beast 81 I. IMmunity and impunity from all censures is the Beasts claime page 230 Image of the Beast what p. 223. that all Officers Governments and worship not instituted by Christ are but Images 238 Diocesan Cathedrall and Nationall Churches are Images of the Beast 239 It is impossible for Saints to fall finally 148 The Judgment upon persecutors 217 Justification is from free grace 163 K. THe Kingly power of Christ page 122 L. CHrist the Lamb slaine p. 154. 168. Why called a Lam p. 155. Why slaine p. 170. What the book of the Lamb p. 135 Lex 〈◊〉 unto persecuting Tyrants 98 Boundlesse Liberty dangerous 71 The Lyon of Babels language 12 The Love of God most free 146 M. MAgistrates power should be limited page 73 Magistrates subject to the Churches censures 126 The fifth Monarchy 120. 122 The 42. Moneths the same with 1260. dayes 83 Why the Beasts time is numbred by Moneths 86 When these Moneths began 93 Opening of the Mouth what it meanes 64 Morall vertue is but a silken or golden chaine 197 N. NAvaâ—â— one of the tenne Horns page 81 No Name whereby to be saved but Christ 201 Number of the Beasts name 247 O. VVHat Obedience Subjects owe to Princes page 111 Opening the mouth what it meanes 64 Opportunity to wound the Beast ought not to be neglected 45 P. PArishes a part of the beasts Image page 20 A Papist by his Religion cannot go beyond a reprobate 143 The People can give no power but what the word of God allows 72 Peace with Idolaters dangerous 105 Persecutors rewarded in their kind 98 Gods judgement on Persecutors 217 Pontifex Maximus the Popes style 88 Pope the head of the Beast that was wounded p. 34. When wounded p. 35. When cured 35 Pope is the seventh head p. 47. Hee rules the world p. 52. Hee assumes divine power 53 Pope is the head of the second Beast p. 215. Why compared to a wild beast p. 226 what power he challengeth 229 Popes have been Conjurers 232 Popery a worm-eaten Religion p.