Beast in the Revelation that hath many Beasts in the Belly of it And indeed this Mystery of Iniquity so called 2 Thess 2. 7. 11. hath many Mysterious Plots in it and is the Plot of Plots As the Turkish Empire Quantum quantum est as Luther Phraseth it however Vast yet is it but a poor Crust which God the Master of the Family casteth to his Dog whom he looseth off and binds up at his pleasure as before So the whole Popedome is but a sorry Commission which the same God gives unto a Company or Legion of Vnclean Devils to Enter into an Herd of Hogs or Swinish Men As the Elephant or Behemoth is the chief of the ways of God Job 40. 15 19. the Master-piece among all the Beasts so this mystical Behemoth the Pope is the chief of the ways of the Devil the very Master-piece of all Satans Works and Wiles Now though he hath the Strength Cunning and the long-Life of the literal Elephant yet he cannot carry it against Christ in his Antichristianism for He that made him can make his Sword to approach unto him Job 40. 19. though no Man dare Undertake him or can Match him yet the Great God who made him as the Devil hath marr'd him both dare and can As God hath given an Horn to the Rhinocero's and Poyson to the Dragon both which are the Elephants mortal Enemies that some Beasts may have the better of him who Masters them all by his monstrous mighty Limbs and strong Trunck able to over turn Trees though God hath not given him either Horns on his Head or Claws on his Feet to do Mischief withal So though this Behemoth or Apocalyptick Beast hath Seven Heads to Plot with and Ten Horns to Push with given him yea and Clawy-Scratching Hoofs also yet Christ hath his Christian Hammer-men to Cut off and to cast down those Antichristian-Horns Zech. 1.20 21. and seeing those Hammering Carpenters are Men yea and Spirited with the Wisdom and Power of God they must be more Wise than all the Seven Heads and more Strong than all the Ten Horns of him who is but a Beast that bears them The Blow of an Hammer hath more force than the Push of an Horn. ☞ And were but Gods Israel Pushed neerer to the God of Israel by those Horns no Doubt but God would Command his Carpenters to Cut off and cast away those Horns that do now Hit and Hurt his People as he hath done in all Ages ever since the Beast got his Horns which appeareth by the Sequel God knows how to Deliver his 2 Pet. 2. 9. not wanting either Ways or Means to Help them at a Dead lift at any time and therein will go a way by himself sometime as when he sets the Enemy together by the Ears among themselves while that the Church with all escaped Psal 141. 10. Thus God made Nebuchadnezzar who was himself the Churches Enemy to fall foul upon all her other many and Mighty Adversaries and so God by him as by his Mall or Hammer broke the Rest of those Horrible Horns in pieces at that time Accordingly in this Day God makes Use of the Great Turk as before to Mall the Pope in so many Battels of his Holy War so now to be as a Bridle to hold him and all his Popelings in from any Universal Proceeding against the Protestants who are by a marvellous Providence the more secure from the Turk inasmuch as Popish Countreys lay betwixt him and them or their Countreys as Denmark Sweedland c. Coasting so much towards the North lay out of his way and at present no part of his aim by an over-ruling Hand of God Rome is his Grand Eye-sore though she think her self out of the Reach of Gods Rod so Repenteth not Revel 9. 20 21. the Turk may Repent if the Turkish-Prophecy That as soon as their Sultan hath taken the Red-Apple or the Red-Letter City Rome they shall then become Christians may be believed However the Word seems not to Seal them up under Impenitency as here the Romanists are being neither such Notorious Hypocrites nor such Bloody Persecutors 1. not such Hypocrites for they are open Enemies as the Papists are Close and Covert as Gog and Magog signifies We Read not in Scripture of the Conversion of any Hypocrite and no Wonder inasmuch as after Sin Conversion is left as a Means to Cure all other Sins but no means can Cure and recover him who Converteth Conversion it self into Sin as the Romish Hypocrites do 2. nor such Persecutors The Turkish History tells indeed of their Savageness yet 't is in the way of War and not upon the Account of Religion they have no Bloody Inquisition to Compel Men into Conformity but they say Whether Men serve Christ or Mahomet so they lead good Lives they may be Saved Hence it is our Martyrologist that Writes of all the Churches Persecutions names the Persian the Julian the Arrian c. but not a Word of the Turk or Mahometan Persecution so that this Romish Beast above all Name Dan. 7. 7. as above all Natures even of the most Savage of Beasts hath out-done all in Blood yet lyes she in Impenitency not laying to Heart that her Neighbours House the Eastern Church was Fired by the Turks though less Guilty ☞ Oh Rome thou Western Church look to thy self that art more Guilty Christ may soon say Loose the Four Angels and Kill the 3d. part of Men or he may put it into the Hart of the first that rose of the Ten Horns to make Roast-meat of thee ☞ Now the Pope was not Born a Beast but was at first a good Bishop and above Thirty of them Successively Shone as Stars and suffer'd Martyrdom for Christ until Constantine came to give a Calm and Halcyon Days to the Church which indeed through Satans Temptation drawing out Mens Corruption proved Poyson to her * 'T is a Thousand pitties such fair Weather should bring forth any such foul Fruits Then began the Roman-Star to Dwindle and Degenerate into a Meteor or Blazing-Comet and gradually lifting himself like proud Lucifer up above his Brethren his Fellow-Ministers he gradually falls from Heaven he began to fall under the 3d. Trumpet Rev. 8. 10. as some sense it but under the 5th 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was faln effectually This Star was falling by Degrees from Constantine in the 3d. Century until Phocas in the 6th Sylvester was the first that did Degenerate in the 3d. Century burdening the Church with Jewish and Heathenish Ceremonies but 't was Phocas that set up Boniface in the Chair of Pestilence in the 6th then was the Star faln from Primitive Integrity into the Deepest Gulph of all Impiety Revel 9. 1. and this Star was well called Wormwood Ch. 8. 11. because he himself was in the Gall of Bitterness and became as bitter as Wormwood to the Church far more bitter than Arrius the Star of that Trumpet fore-mentioned who was but Antichrists forerunner
never have an ending until the World endeth Yea it may be call'd an Eternal Enmity a parte post though not a parte ante for as the Angels and the Souls of Men had a beginning but shall never have an end So this Cursed Enmity which had its beginning at the Fall will continue beyond this World even in the World to come As long as evil Angels and damned Souls continue in Hell which shall be for ever so long will this Enmity continue in them against the Glorious Angels and Glorify'd Saints Thus 't is a Bottomless boundless and endless Enmity The 2d Cause is Causa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or The Outward Cause why the Wicked Plot c. is the Malignant Adversary of Mankind the Devil so called Quasi Do Evil. 1st He is their Father and they are his Children and the Lusts of their Father they will and must do Joh. 8. 44. 2dly He is their Lord and they are his Vassals and they will and must run his Errands Yea 3dly He is their God 2 Cor. 4. 4. and they are his Creatures And as God at the Creation of the World did but Speak the Word and it was done So if the Devil in the Conversation of the wicked do but speak the word hold up his singer his will is done He leads them Captive at his will 2 Tim. 2. 26. He leads them like a Dog in a string whether he pleases yet hangs them up at last like Dogs upon everlasting Gibbits in Hell where they hang and howl as Dogs yet never dye to which if Tertullian's Character Sessorem habent Diabolum be added Then 4ly He is the Rider and they are his Asses which he Rides upon whipping and spurring them as Balaam did his Ass as if Riding Post to meet their own Destruction And as saith the Proverb They must needs go yea gallop whom the Devil drives especially such as with the Man in the Gospel have a whole legion of Devils in them such wicked ones with the Gadaren's Hoggs do Run Violently down most steep places and most desperate praecipices until at last They be choaked in the deep Pit of Hell Matth. 8. 32. Now as long as there be the same Original Corruption in wicked Men while this present evil World lasts to be drawn forth and the same Devil who whosoever become Converts can never become one to draw forth that depraved Disposition so long there will be a wicked Plotting and practising against the Church of God in the World Solomon saith There is no new thing under the Sun the thing that hath been it is that which shall be Eccles 1. 9 10. And the Apostle telleth us As it was then he that was Born after the Flesh persecuted him that was Born after the Spirit as Ishmael did Isaac even so it is now Gal. 4. 29. Paul saith It is so now in my days And we may say It is even so now in our days It was so then it is so now and it will be so for ever so long as there be any wicked in the World and the old Man-slayer to set them on who is that Evil Spirit which worketh as the Artificer doth in his Shop in the Children of Disobedience Ephe. 2. 3. We Read of the Dragons War but as a sad Cordolium with the Woman the Church and her Seed Rev. 12. And if this War were in Heaven v. 7. how much more on Earth v. 17. This War is manag'd and maintain'd with great Wrath v. 12. having the Assistance of an Inveterate Implacable and Everlasting Enmity in all incarnate Devils his Auxiliaries all acted and agitated by the Devil who lends them his Seven Heads to Plot with and his Ten Horns to push with against the Church And we Read of the Lambs War with this Dragon as a sweet and Soveraign Cordial even our Blessed Michael and his Angels in the behalf of the Woman and her Seed Rev. 12. 7 8. And though the Beast to whom the Dragon gave his power Rev. 13. 2. make War with the Saints and overcome them during his Lease of 1260 y. allotted him Rev. 13. 7. yet the Lamb shall overcome the Dragon and all his Auxiliaries Rev. 17. 14. and 19. 19 20. and 20. 10. And in the mean time though the Beast seem to overcome the Saints so it seemed but so it was not Rev. 13. 7. For the Saints overcome the Beast by the Blood of the Lamb when they seem to be most overcome by him to the shedding of their own Blood Rev. 12. 11. This Lamb Laughs all the Plots of the Beast to nothing and all as Vain Things whereof no good Reason can be given nor any good Issue can be expected Christ sits in Heaven seeth and Smileth is no more concern'd save only to ask the Many and the Mighty that Club their Craft and Cruelty against Christ if they be all Mad to Attempt that which shall assuredly come to nothing Psal 2. 1 2 3 4. The little Stone dashes all in pieces Dan. 2. 34. So that it may be said of the Church as it was said of the old Romans She hath lost now and then a Battel but never a War And as 't is said of Gad A Troop may overcome Gad but Gad overcomes at last Gen. 49. 19. So the Church Concutitur non Excutitur may sometimes be Shaken but never Shiver'd into Nothing She always gets and gains by her Losses and though she may be trampled under Foot all the Night of her Asfliction yet is she sure to have Dominion in the Morning Psal 49. 14. And that Morning ushers in the Dismal Dooms-Day of all her Enemies Niteris Incassum Christi Submergere Navem Fluctuat at nunquam Mergitur illa Ratis Dipt may the Churches Ship be but not Drown'd Christ will not fail her Enemies to Confound No Weapon that is formed against her shall prosper Isa 54. 17. Nor ever did prosper That Precious Promise hath blunted the Point and turned the Edge of many Thousand Weapons that have been formed against her The Gates of Hell though in a Combination of all its power and pollicy shall not prevail against it Matth. 16. 18. All the Plots both of the Wicked One and of all Wicked Men from Adam to our Day have been Velut Unda Supervenit Undae as the waves of the Sea succeeding one another yet all have dashed themselves to pieces upon this Rock of Ages whereon the Lord hath founded Sion Isai 14. 32. and 26. 1 4. and 54. 10. The Church is Invincible and can never be Demolished either by Angry Men or Enraged Devils Magna est Veritas Valebit Truth is great and will prevail AN Historical Narrative OF THE Devils Plotts AGAINST THE CHURCH All Defeated by GOD. The First Plot against the Church c. CHAP. I. THis I shall Demonstrate by an Induction of Particular Instances as the Lord shall help me both out of Sacred and Civil History to make manifest the marvellous Conduct which
the Pillar of Providence hath secured the Church withal in all her passages through the World as the Pillar of Glory did the Church in the Wilderness The 1st Instance of the wicked Plotting against the Church and the Lords laughing it to Nothing is that first Plot of the Grand Plotter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that wicked One 1 Joh. 5. 18. the Devil against our first Parents As of Jacob's Ladder which consisted of so many rounds or steps as would reach from Earth to Heaven 't is said The Lord was upon the top of it Gen. 28. 12 13. So of this Scale of Conspiracies against the Church which contains so many Distinct Designs as do Reach from Adam to our present time it may as truly be affirmed That the Devil must be at the top of it We Read of a Book of the Wars of the Lord a Book not extant but if not lost latent Numb 21. 14. However this is extant in the Book of God that here began the War of the Devil or Dragon against the Church No sooner was Lucifer faln from Heaven Isa 14. 12. and of a Glorious Angel was become a damned Devil Jude v. 6. 2 Pet. 2. 4. partly for his pride against God in aspiring to be like the most High and partly for his Envy at Man when he first beheld the Honour and Happiness wherein Man was Created and first heard the charge which God gave the Angels to keep Man in all his ways Psal 91. 11. This Command proud Lucifer disdaining that a superior should wait like a servant upon an inferior Creature Psal 8. 5. He kept not his first Estate but left his first Habitation Jude v. 6. Thus he sinned from the beginning 1 Joh. 3. 8. and abode not in the Truth Joh. 8. 44. And now being come down by his Sin or rather cast down for his sin from Heaven and having great Wrath Rev. 12. 12. for being hurl'd out of Heaven into Hell he had no comfort left him save onely this miserable and mischievous one to make Man as miserable as himself and to bring him into the same Condemnation 1 Tim. 3. 6. For this purpose he lays a dangerous and Diabolical Plot consisting of many parts As 1st He assumes a fit Engine that Creature which was more subtile than all the Beasts of the Field Gen. 3. 1. The sharper a Weapon is it makes a deeper wound and gives a more deadly blow the sharpest and subtilest Wits are of all others the most mischievous Instruments in the Devils hands against Gods truth This grand evil Angel made use of this Serpent which as some say was very specious and delightful to the Eye by his comely mixture of lovely Colours to deceive the first Woman as the good Angel made use of the Ass to rebuke the mad Prophet 2 Pet. 2. 16. Numb 22. 28. 2dly The 2d part of his proposed and pursued Plot is in Assaulting not the Man but the Woman the weaker Vessel which is soonest and easiest overcome where the Hedg is lowest there the Beast leaps over with the least difficulty A besieging Enemy raises his Batteries against the weakest part of a besieged City the weaker Sex is most likely to truckle to his temptations hence he Essays to break the Mans head with his own Rib and to make use of this Rib as of the Round of a Ladder whereon to climb up so high as to Reach a blow to her Head and Husband 3dly He sets upon the Woman when alone 'T is supposed As Adam and Eve walk'd together in Paradise Eve stood still gazing with her fancy upon some Delectable Object which Adam passed by with less looking on he got so far before her as to leave her behind whereby she was overtaken by the Tempter the absence of her Head with its counsel and comfort gives Satan a fair opportunity which he improves to the utmost Solomon saith Where Two are there is Help Eccle. 4. 10. 4thly While Eve is alone the Tempter falls a disputing with her in asking her a Concise and an Abrupt Question Yea hath God said c. That he might Enervate the Authority of the Divine Menace or Commination Hereupon the weaker Vessel Eve gives but a weak Answer for she might in her state of Innocency have that Ignorance which the Schools call a pure Negation not a depraved Disposition which is found in Children c. She might not know whether Serpents could naturally speak or whether there was now any Devil existing not hearing of the fall of Angels she did know her protection of Angels as before so might mistake the Devil in the Serpent for a good Angel and therefore disputes with him and was deceived by him as she confesses Gen. 3. 13. So dangerous it is to dispute with the Devil who is better believ'd away than argu'd away They do but shoot with Satan in his own Bow that think by parlying with this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or subtile Sophister to put him off by this means he draws Eve out of her Trenches of the Divine Praecept and wrings the Sword of the Spirit the Word of God out of her hand then doth he what he will with her yea wins the Day when he had disarm'd her 5thly No sooner had the Woman put in her weak Answer in this Disputation to the Devils Question mincing the matter of the Divine Menace in her Least ye Dye instead of Gods Word Ye shall surely Dye Whereby she made that Danger doubtful only which God had made Certain peremptory and without a peradventure Hereupon this subtile Serpent watching for her halting and when to have her upon the hip doth as confidently deny that sentence of Death v. 4. as God had seriously and severely Threatned it before Gen. 2. 7. Hereby her belief of Gods Word is batter'd down and not opposing the certainty of Gods Threatning which she but seem'd to doubt of in the Disputation against Satans Insinuation in his plain and positive Denyal of it she yieldeth If the Word of God had abode in her she had overcome the Devil 1 Joh. 2. 14. 6thly The Tempter tempts her with an Apple from the Forbidden-Fruit-Tree telling her as some say that there was no death in the Apple according to the Divine Threatning from a proof of his own Experience For saith the subtile Serpent I do climb the Tree and eat of the Fruit thereof and yet am not Dead for so doing This was probably done while Eve looked on and therefore she said at least in her mind That she saw it was good for Food v. 6. Hereupon she concluded that Death was not in the Fruit of the forbidden-Tree and hereupon inclines to take and Eat 7thly The Devil to promote his Plot the more accuses God of Envy to Eve which is truly call'd Morbus Satanicus the Devils own Disease as if God had forbid them the Fruit of this Tree of Knowledge onely out of Envy least their Eating thereof should make them Equal
in causing those Sealed Servants to Triumph before the Throne with their Palms in their Hands over all their Persecutors v. 9 10. unto which Songs of Praise the Angels say Amen v. 11 12. See more of Gods Care and Kindness in the close of Ch. 29th The Twenty-Ninth Plot against the Church by Mahometism Defeated by God CHAP. XXIX THE Devils Twenty-Ninth Plot against the Church was Mahometanism in the Eastern part as Antichristanism was his Thirtieth in the Western Those Two Sister-Sins and Born from Hell beneath quite contrary to Christianism which is Born from Heaven above Ioh. 3. 3 5. were indeed Two Twins and Contemporaries having their Birth and Beginning much what at the same time in the 6th Century for Mahomet that grand Arch-Impostor and Boniface that proud purchaser of Supremacy by Symony of the Parracide Phocas the Emperour brake forth almost both together being both of them appointed by God to be a Scourge the former to the Eastern-Church and the latter to the Western Now because Arrianism had prevailed in the Eastern part and the Cessation thereof brought Pride Luxury Superstition and Idolatry into that Church insomuch that then John of Constantinople claimed the Title of Vniversal Bishop which Gregory of Rome Boniface's Immediate Predecessor earnestly withstood Then it was that the Spouses Beloved had withdrawn himself as ashamed to own her who was ashamed to own him in the Naked Simplicity of the Gospel and not to be Cloathed with the goodly Coat of Humane Ceremonies Cant. 5. 3. 6. and then it was that Christ thus Offended looseth the four Angels to wit the Mahometan Tetrarchy the four Sultans of Asia Aleppo Antioch and Damascus or those four fierce and potent people the Arabians the Saracens the Tartars and the Turks called all Angels as they are Messengers of Gods Wrath and Instruments of Christs Justice who hath power to bind and loose them at his pleasure even from the four Horns of the Altar or from any of the four Quarters of the World Revel 9. 13 14 15. those were all at an Hours Warning at any time for an Hour and a Day whensoever Christ would Command those fierce and fell Creatures out of their Caves wherein he had hitherto shut them close up like Tygers or Band-Dogs out they go to their Spoil and Rapine and do Drive Christianity out of the East and Destroy the 3d. part of Men to wit of such as were not Sealed Rev. 7. 3. with his Vast Armies and great Guns such as were those Two monstrous Spet-fires call'd the Earth-quake and Grand-Diabolo or Great-Devil such were planted against Rhodes and Constantinople c. This is the 2d Woe of the 6th Trumpet following the 1st Woe of Arrianism yet Differing from the 3d. Woe of Antichristianisme which wages War against the Sealed Ones against the Saints is the Beasts War Rev. 13. 7. This Woe is the great Land-Leviathan as the Whale is at Sea that Devours all before it Considerable 1 in its Author Mahomet whom some Historians call the Sworn fore-runner of Antichrist Sure I am he is his Fellow-runner running in parallel Lines the one ruining all the East and South and the other all the West and North and 't is as sure that this Dirty Dog or Hell-Hound lick'd up the very Excrements of Arrius which carry'd out his Soul in the Jakes from Sergius the Monk who because he was an Arrian had been Banish'd from Constantinople into Arabia where he taught Mahomet to Deride Christs Deity and to make a Laughing-stock of the Mystery of the Trinity and where also they Club'd both their Wits with the Devil in Composing the Alcoran which signifies in the Arabick The Glory that Shameful Cento and Non-sensical Poisonful Gallimafry out of Christian Jewish and Heathenish Writers that something might be in it to Tempt the Gust of all those Three especially it being wholly accomodated to gratifie all Carnal Affections And this Mock-Messiah that he might make many Proselytes crys himself up as a greater Prophet than either Moses or the Messias and the better to Impose this Belief upon the Credulous People he plays Three Legerdemain Tricks the 1. was when his Debauchery had brought him into an Epilopsy His Fits of the Falling-Sickness he said were his Divine Raptures wherein he Convers'd with the Angel Gabriel the 2 was his Training up a Dove to pick Wheat out of his Eare This he Blasphemously profess'd to be the Holy-Ghost which Dictated his Alcoran to him and the 3. was his breeding up a tame Bull to that Familiarity with him that no sooner heard he his Masters Voice but he would Run to him and lay his Head upon his Masters Lap after a most familiar manner At a sett time upon a Fryday He promiseth a Miracle from Heaven to a great Assembly His Bull hath the Alcoran fasten'd between his Horns and set in a convenient by-place when the Scene was Ripe Mahomet lifts up his Voice his Bull Immediately runs makes his Way through the Throng lays both his Head and the Book upon his Masters Lap whereby 't was cry'd up as comming from Heaven 2ly The Extent of it is considerable both as to Place and Time 1. as to Place Mahometanism is extensive having spread its self over the Sea-Coasts of Africa almost all saving some small places but much more in Asia Running down the Golden-Candlesticks and removing them as Christ had threatned Rev. 2. 5. Yea and in Europe also from some part of Hungary to Constantinople in Greece c. In all those places thrusting out Christianity and changing the Cross into the Half-Moon 2. as to Time 't is Extensive This Plot of the Devil hath lasted longer to the Churches Disquiet than ever any of his other Designs aforesaid for this hath lasted above a 1000 Y. not only to the Grievous Vexation of the Church but also to the great Dishonour of Christian-Princes who had they spent the 10th part of that Blood and Treasure which they have shamefully and sinfully spent upon one another in their private Animosities might have by their Vnanimity and United Armies given a Stop long ago to the Growing Grandeur of this severe Scourge of Christendom 'T is True some Expeditions were made herein but all were soon Blasted and no better could be Hoped upon a Twofold Accompt 1 from the Original 2. from the Instrument of the Holy War 1. The chief Original was the Pope's Successively though not Successfully Hopeful Promoters all to wit such as 1st Pope Adrian who was Choak'd with a Fly at last perhaps it was Beelzebub the King of Flyes that flew into his Mouth and could not be got out with Medicines gave both his Commission and his Benediction to Frederick the 1st Emperor for Undertaking this Holy War so called yet could be so Incensed against him onely because the Emperour being not as he said for himself Us'd to that Kind of Drudgery Held not the Popes Stirrop Hostler-like upon the Right side besides many other