wherby they are quickened and that spirituall life which they effect in others God working togither with them In which respect the like servants of God full of the Spirit and most nimble to dispatch all sortes of businesses committed to them for to doe are named Beasts in Ezech. chap. 1. But if they be Ministers how may I count them among the giftes The faithfull Ministers are of the chiefe giftes of God as he saith of the Levites Beholde I have taken your brethren from among the children of Jsraell they are given you for a gift for the Lord to administer the service of the Tabernacle of the congregation Numb 18.16 c. And Paul Let noe man saith he reioyce in men for all things are yours and Paul and Apollos and Cephas 1 Cor. 3.21 Most clearly to the Ephesians when he ascended up on high he lead captivity captive and gave giftes unto men some Apostles some Evangelists some Prophets some Pastors and Teachers chap. 4.8.11 These thinges being thus established let us nowe see the propertyes themselves As touching the place they are betweene the throne and which did compasse the throne both in the middes of the throne and round about the throne Not in the very middes in respect of the place where one sate like to a Iasper stone ver 3. nor because they did hold up the throne as the Bulles Salomons brasen sea under which they were put in that manner that their backe partes lay hidden within their fore partes stood out abroade 1 King 7.25 For when the foure Beasts did fall downe howe should not the throne fall togither with them For it is read after that the foure Beasts did fall downe before the Lambe chap. 5.8 But in the middes hath the same force as to be betweene or in some parte as Abraham is called a Prince of God in the middes of the children of Cheth Gen. 23.6 that is among and so every where in other places Wherfore Theod. Beza hath translated it playnly betweene the throne and which did compasse the throne Wherby is signifyed that the Beasts in respect of their office doe come nigher to Gods maiesty then the Elders in some parte to touch that seate which shyneth with Gods glory an evident argument of the administration given to them There is the number of foure according to the state of the Christian ministery augmented For as the Christian congregatioÌ„ is twice so greate as the Legall that coÌ„sisting of foure and twenty Elders this of the twelve Patriarches so there is a double respect of the Ministers of foure Beasts unto the foure and twenty Elders unto the one onely tribe of Levi in regard of the twelve Princes of Israell In respect of the Elders which sit round about the hyghest throne they are foure beames of the two diameters dividing themselves into straight angles by the which the circumference is conioyned every way and equally with the middes of the throne So disposed toward all quarters by the foure chiefe corners that as the river of Paradise divided into foure heades they might be able most coÌ„modiously to water the whole Church These qualityes are yet more remote them of the bodyes winges are more neerly conioyned The first of these are Eyes of which the Beasts are full before and behinde The fulnes noteth the notable quicknes of perceaving a thing and the rich understanding of divine things wherewith they are endued by the gift of the Spirit Such kinde of Ministers Christ requireth as be the light of the world Mat. 5.14 and that they goe before the blinde in the right way least they fall into the pit Mat. 15.14 Which may be able to teach 1 Tim. 3.2 That they be able both to exhorte by wholsome doâ—trine and also to convince them that speake against it yea to stop their mouth Tit. 1.9.11 For the Priests lyppes ought to preserve knowledge and the Lawe is to be sought at his mouth for he is the Angell of the Lord of hostes Malac. 2.7 Therefore they that wante eyes eyther altogither or for the most part what felowship have they with these Beasts What communion have the moules with Argus Let them therefore looke to it who doe set for officers before the Christian people such as have but one eye and such as are blinde what answere they can make to him who requireth such plenty of eyes in Pastors Those that have refused knowledg ar they not refused of the Lord that they should not execute the Priest office to him Hos 4.6 But the eyes both before and behinde is a kind of knowledge wherby they knowe both thinges past and also see things present and resting onely upon the divine oracles doe wisely perceive things before hande The Ministers being altogither like unto a house-holder which bringeth out of his treasure things both newe and olde Mat. 13.52 Such kinde of knowledge both the auncient scriptures Moses the Psalmes the Prophets and also the writings of the Evangelists and Apostles doe minister Out of these fountaynes may aboundantly be drawne that the man of God may be furnished with eyes both behinde and before God in Christ doe account all eyed Pastors who according to the taleÌ„t receyved doe instruct faithfully the people committed unto them howsoever much humane ignorance be in the best 7 And the first Beast was like a Lyon Such is the common property of all the Beasts the proper forme of every one is of a Lyon first the second of a Calfe the third of a Man the fourth of an Eagle Which foure diverse formes almost all the Interpreters doe refferre to the foure Evangelistes And so as according to Aretas the Lyon is Iohn the Eagle Marke according to others the Eagle Iohn Marke the Leon. Augustine will have the Lyon to be Mathewe Marke a man so uncerten are they But wee may not thinke that the Spirit was so ignorant an artificer that there should be neede of his name to be inscribed to whom every picture doth belonge or that otherwise the Lyon the Aygle and the man could not be discerned one from another That of the first verse doth ende the controversy about this point Which must saith he be done hereafter Which wordes doe forbidde to looke backe and to minde that which is past but rather commaundeth to expect some future thinge They seeme therefore to perteine to those giftes wherewith every one of the faithfull Ministers are to be adorned in some parte besides those giftes of knowledge For the eyes ought to be coÌ„mon to all every one ought to be learned the other giftes may be diverse as God hath giveÌ„ to every one privatly for the use necessity of the Church Although noe man can be voide altogither of the other vertues who is indeede partaker of one From whence Ezechiell attributeth these foure faces to every one of the Beasts chap. 1.6 And in deede there ought to beare sway in each one the courage of the Lyon the patience
on both sides at the right corners Although the Rainebowe seemeth not so much to be divided or touched as to be included with this compassing of the Elders which neverthelesse it should cut in the middle as it were if it were extended unto a full compasse Vnlesse peradventure the highest throne be set in the same playne place in which were the thrones of the Elders for then the Rainebowe shall not be in a contrary seate or situation but shall be compassed onely with a longer circuite as the circumferences nigher the centre are wont to be contained in those that are further of This common seate is attributed to them from the manner of the saints who are called his compassers as vowe and performe to Jehovah your God yee that stand round about him Psal 76.12 And as Christ promiseth that he will be in the middest of them that shal be gathered togither in his name Mat. 18.20 So in olde time the Tabernacle was set in the middes of the Jewes camping Numb 2. And this is for the confort of the Godly whom all God receiveth without respect of persons being alike nigh to all that call upon him least peradventure any should complaine that he is dealt with all uniustly as who being set in a latter place hath noe accesse unto God but by messengers and mediatours The proper place is every on s Throne For they sit upon Thrones Wherby is signifyed that all are of a Kingly dignity of which an other marke is added in the ende of the verse namely the Crownes This honour the saints enioy by Christ who hath made us Kings and Priests to God and his father chap. 1.6 Neither doth he adorne with this benefite some fewe excellent faithfull on s a part but receaveth all the elect into the fellowship of the same honour Every one knoweth howe this certen number of foure and twenty thrones and so many Elders tormenteth the Interpreters Some referre it to the twelve Patriarches or the twelve Prophetes so many Apostles But the thing as it seemeth is farre from the trueth For he speaketh of future congregations not of those that were past as before ver 1. Then of such whose office is performed on earth not in heavē properly so called as afterward wee shall see ch 14.3 15.7 That I may not say that they swerve wholy from the scope of this vision Others apply it other way but it were to longe to recken much more to confute all opinions It shal be sufficient to propound that which seemeth most likely to mee to put it to the iudgemēt of the godly The Spirit alludeth to that distribution of the holy offices servants of the King ordayned by David from God into 24 orders 1 Chr. ch 24. c. For first the chiefe Priests were distributed into 24 orders After the same māner the chiefe Levites that served the Priests in the same ch ver 31. So the holy Musiciās ch 25. the Doore keepers ch 26. Of those that served the King 24 thousandes in their severall distributiōs ch 27. Therfore seeing the whole congregation of the children of Israell whether wee respect the tribe of Levi or the rest of the people accoūted after a sorte for the Kings lot whose affayres they did administer was distinguished into 24 orders not without cause those Elders which are both Priests Kings are in steade of all the faithfull serving Christ are rekoned in so many orders by the same number And togither also is shewed by this number of 24 how much larger is the Church of the Gētiles thē was that of the Iewes This was cōtayned in 12 Patriarches as the chiefe heads that greater by halfe that is many degrees which a certē measure signifyeth indefinitly exceeding so in multitude of cityzens as also in clearnes of the things knowne Whence the neerer they came to the times of Christ so much were all things in former time the clearer greater How cleare made David the service of the Tabernacle the offices being described their place assigned to every one But the Temple of Salomon surpassed all the former glory all things were made with larger dimēsions accordind to the increase of the light of the Sunne approching neerer whē Christ at lēgth was exhibited the Sunne attained to his height by whose brightnes all the former light vanished away So thē is the number as touching the age all are Elders not because of their feeble strength wasted through old age but for their gravity worthy of reverence their mature iudgements by which they embrace the truth then also because they have a certen present possession of their dignity such as agreeth to perfect men of a cōfirmed strengthened age Infants although they be worthy honour through the right of inheritance because of future hope yet they want the present fruition of things And in the whole time in deede of the Lawe the heire was an infant and differed nothing from a servant brought into bondage under the elements of the world as under tutours governours but whē the full time came we ar no lōger under a schoole maister but ēioy the liberty of mē so as all the faithfull now ar called Elders most sigificātly Gal. 3.25 4.1.2 c. White raimēt is the marke of the Priest hood Ex. 28.40 which office the beleevers in Christ doe execute giving up their bodyes a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God that their reasonable service of God Rom. 12.1 The golden crownes of the head manifest the solēne maiesty of a kingdome For Kinges doe not alwayes beare their crownes but in solēne assemblyes where they will shew plainely their glory according to the presēt occasiō But there remaineth still to these the solēne honour of royall maiesty whose crownes ar never put off except whē they give honour to the supreme King whē their bare heades ar more honourable then they thēselves crowned with a Diademe The Complutent edition and the Kings Bible doe not reade and they had nor Aretas yf they are to be added the usuall defect of the article is to be supplyed in this sorte who also had 5 And out of the Throne proceeded Hitherto the body The giftes that doe accompany it are first of Protection for out of the throne come lightnings and thunders and voices because for the Churches sake God in fearfull manners doth punish the wicked who are plagued for the contempt tyranny and iniuryes which they have don to his singularly beloved spouse and at lenght they doe feele the delaying of the vengeance recompensed aboundantly with the sharpenes thereof The punishement of the persecutours are witnesses whose rage and fury God hath alwayes punished in this sort by his speciall providence Otherwise howe could the truth have bin spred and extended even unto these times in so deadly hatred of the world But he that setteth on the throne doe not permitte any to oppresse his saincts without punishement
touching the place they would wrangle about the time But by this so exact description he taketh away all halting frō them Therfore as touching the Whore her so expresse nothing out by Babylon seven hills seven Kings flourishing power and at length destruction the rest of the world being safe finally by the name of the city used in stead of an interpretation doo most strongly prove that the universall City of the Divill is not meant but some special city and namely Rome and so much the more because this whore is the Throne of the Beast And we know that the Throne of the Divill was attributed to a certain City to weet Pergamus before in the second chapter and thirteenth verse Therfore worthily Bellarmine that opinion being rejected sayth It is better in his iudgement that Rome be understood by the whore as Tertullian expoundeth in his booke against the Iewes and in his third booke against Marcion And Hierome in his 17. Epistle to Marcella and Quaest 11. to Algasia Bellarmine touching the Romane Pope in his third booke and in the thirteenth chapter Here then wee have our adversary confessing What therfore letteth that they should not agree with us about the Antichrist They have invented a double crafty shift for themselves one of the place an other of the time of the place that albeit Rome be the Whore yet is it not the seate of Antichrist but Hierusalem Of the time that Rome was the VVhore when the Heathen Emperours ruled but now shee is not since she became Christian and therfore that shee is not the seate of Antichrist seeing he shall not come but a little before the last iudgement But the Papists are holden with their owne snares for granting Rome to be the whore they must also needs grant the rest First of all that not Hierusalem but shee is the seate of Antichrist For is not this Beast the very Antichrist This also Bellarmine yeeldeth and though he had not yeelded it the truth wil force him to cōfesse it as we shal see But he affirmeth that Antichrist shal hate Rome from v. 16. after wel acknowledging that the Beast is Antichrist but how truly he spoke of hatred wee shal examine at that place From his cōfessiō we have that both the whore is Rome the Beast Antichrist Frō which it is of necessity that Antichrist shal have his denne at Rome seeing he is the very Beast on which the whore is caried Doth not the Spirit shew a very great coniunction nigh familiarity of both of the whore in setting upō of the Beast in bearing Ther is none but he wil say that a man is neerly joyned to the horse on whō he sitteth Certēly if Antichrist was to raigne at Hierusalē Rome being set so farr frō her saddle should walke on foot humble base who had so little aide frō the Emperours after they removed to Byzantiū wher they were not farr Secodly as touching the time how absurd is this distinction that the whore should be Heathenish Rome the first 300 yeeres after Christ but that Antich the Beast should not come ūtil about 3. yeeres an halfe before the last day Shal shee sit on the Beast not yet borne yea not conceived a very long time after For shal the Beast whē he cometh beare the whore being dead so many ages before For the whore shal cease to be 1300. yeeres how much more we know not before Antich shal come These ar dreames wholly mōsters of bearing sitting upō The Spirit hath takē frō you al such subterfuge coupling these 2. things by so ūseparable a band wherby he forbiddeth both to seeke Antichr els wher then at Rome also to think her to be this whore at any other time then when Antichrist should have his seate there Needs ar these two things to be ioyned togither both in place time But when shall this time beginne for this yet hath some doubt Surely when wee shall see the whore to have ben caried on this Beast by his helpe and authority placed in dignity and lifted up on high VVhich though I holde my peace Leo will confesse to have ben done in the 1. sermon of the Nativity of the Apostles when the preheminence came to the Popes and Rome began to excell through the opinion of her religion Rome sayth he being made the head of the world by the sacred Chaire of S. Peter hath more ample authority through divine religion then earthly dominion For although being inlarged by many victories thou hast extended the fraunches of thyne Empire by lād and by sea yet notwithstanding it is lesse that which warrelike labour hath put under thee then that which Christian peace hath subdued Likewise Prosper in his booke de ingratis Rome is of Peter the Seat which in honour Pastoral Is made of the world head what by the right Martial Shee doth not possesse yet shee by religion hold free Therfore this one common type ministreth a necessary argument both of the seat and Kingdome of Antichrist which alone might be sufficient to take away all controversie were it not that men loved themselves more then the truth and would not cesse to barke against it till that their mouthes be altogither stopped VVherfore the Spirit stayeth not here but goeth on yet to clearer things that for whom the morning light is not sufficient they may have the Noone Sunne an helper if peradventure they wil then see The sitting being in such wise declared peculiarly afterward he descendeth to both and first to the Beast which is described by the colour names of blasphemy heads and hornes The colour is of skarlet made readde by the little worme Coccus VVherfore this Beast is honourable shining with the same colour with Kings and no lesse wicked and bloody For this same colour is attibuted to most grievous sines Yf your sinns were as skarlet sayth Isaiah chap. 1.18 Not onely because it is a deep colour which cannot be washed of but cheifly for the cruelty of shedding blood which wickednes among the rest seemeth most horrible VVo seeth not that this Beast is at Rome where the Pope sitteth whose feete Kings doe kisse and who doth most cruelly murder Christians not acknowledging his divine power both in the city and also through all the Dominion But that colour hath not pleased chiefly the Romish Court at all adventures which hath come to passe by the providence of God that the Fathers might set before the world a visible shew of this skarlet coloured Beast Touching which thing see a most fine Epigrame of Theod. Beza Secondly this Beast is full of names of Blasphemy How fruitful an increase of a naughty thing Long agoe the heads did beare the names of blasphemy chap. 13.1 now the whole body is full of the same And first of all the Primacy was chiefely a blasphemy and therfore it was well carried on the head but the time added dayly others the heape whereof
the future tence but in the present because admiration belongeth not to a future but to a present dignity From which let us observe what wondring is a token of reprobation to weet of a Beast reviving after the hurt received which is the second Beast in chap. 15.11 Even until that time he was not so desperately impious but that he might easily deceive the Saincts but at length he came to that naughtinesse that he must be banished from the Kingdome of God who will acknowledg him to be such an one by admyring as he professeth himselfe to be But wheras the Angel in these words prosecuteth not his variable condition beyond the third time therby he sheweth that he shal be openly knowne to the world before his last ende shall come 9 Here is the mind Thus farre the Beast hath bin shewed us according to his whole now he entreth into the interpretation of some chiefe parts wherunto he prepareth himselfe a way by this Preface Which yet is uncertaine whither it is to be referred to that which went before or to this which followeth it seemeth being set in the midst to have respect to both alike for to cause attention The speach seemeth defective and to be supplyed after the manner of that in chap. 13.18 Here is wisdome let him that hath wit count c. So here is wit let him that hath wisdome understand as in the Epistles to the seven Churches let him that hath eares heare or it may be a perfit sentence of it selfe here is the minde that hath wisdome as though he should say consider the foresaid chaunges likewise consider the interpretation the understanding of which things is true wisdome indeede wherby a man may avoide eternall destruction But these are the wordes not onely of exhortation but also of Prophecie which declare that in the most open light in which the Beast shal be set every one shall not acknowledge him but they onely who are endued with wisedome and have their eyes inlightened of God The Beast is like in this thing to the whore whose name written in her forehead was a mysterie which should be hidden from very many no lesse then some obscure and inexplicable riddle For Prophecies fulfilled become not manifest to all men as we wil after shew that Bellarmine trisleth but unto some certaine men to whom it is given to understand the rest remaining in their former blindnes Which short admonition confuteth a threefold errour of the Papists one touching the common name Antichrist the other of the doctrine the third of the publique persecution of which wee will speake more at large in the refutation at the ende of the Chapter ¶ The seaven heads are seaven hilles upon which the woman sitteth as touching the partes first he teacheth what are Heads both permanent in this verse and transitory in verses 10.11 wherby it may be knowne what is this whore in regard both of the place and of the time Those heads are seaven moūtaines upon which the woman sitteth that is seven hilles of the city of Rome Palatinus Quirinalis Aventinus Caelius Viminalis Aesquilinus Janicularis by which this City is renowmed through the whole world and thereupon called of the Grecians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seaven hilled by Varro And this circumlocution seemed fitter for the eloquent kind of speaking of the Poets then the specifying of a proper name Virgil in the second of his Georgiques toward the end hath these wordes to weet Rome is become the most beautifull of things which hath enclosed her seaven towers with one wall Likewise Ovid in his first book de Trist Eleg. 4. speaketh thus of it But Rome is the Seate of the Empire and of the Gods which from seaven Mountaines vieweth the whole world And againe in the third book ver 7. And while Rome the victorious shall beholde the subdued whole world from her seven Mountaines I shall be called Martia And God would have the thing testifyed not onely by the verses of Poets but also by a publike festivitie For the Romanes kept the Fest called Septimontium because of the seventh mountaine ioyned to the city and Rome become therupon Septicollis as Plutarch relateth in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These things are so manifest that the Papists themselves ar now cōstrained will they nill they to confesse them We have shewed that Bellarmine preferreth this sense before the rest in his 3. book ch 13. of the Pope of Rome Ribera the Iesuite yeeldeth also the same cōfirming it with many words on the 14. chap. of the Revel num 30. frō whēce no cōtroversie could now remaine of this thing if onely men were in their right wits but wee hav touched before their madnes who doo separate the things which ar ioyned togither by an ūdivided bād They grāt that the whor is Rome yet by no means doe they abide her to be the seate of Antichrist as though they could be sundred of which the one sitteth upō the other carryed but if this cōjoyning be too weake behold a straighter yea a most straight such as of the head with the body so as they which shal remov the Beast to any other place thē to Rome must make him to be without his heads Frō hēce therfore I thus cōclude demōstratively The city where remaine fixed the heads of the Beast or of Antichrist is the seat of Antichrist Rome is the city wher remaine fixed the heads of Antichrist Therfore Rome is the seate of Antichrist By no meanes can yee giv mee the slippe ô ye Papists This argument must needs be as firme sure as ar the very mountaines of your Rome Yet what you ar able to obiect against it we wil discusse by by in confuting your devised Antichrist 10 And they are also seven Kings Such ar the permanent heads the transitorie which ar seven Kings doo follow Ther is a double application of this one type teaching that ther is an inseparable ioyning togither of the mountains and Kings From whence is ministred an other necessary proof of the seate of Antichrist thus The seate of seven Kings is the seate of Antichrist Rome the citie of 7. mountaines is the seate of 7. Kings for the heads are both mountaines Kings Therfore Rone is the seate of Antichrist But who ar these 7 Kings not so many singular persons as Victorinus would have it but soveraignties regimēts For if every several head should note out singular mē 5. of which wer fallē in Iohns time to wit Galba Otho Vitellius Vespasianus Titus Titus Domitianus the 6. ruled then Nerva the 7 was to be expected whom remaining alive but for a little space should succeede straighway Traianus the 8. togither also the 7. If I say the heads ar to be so counted it must needs follow that this Beast should have ceased in his last head Traiane that the world should not now feare that he should doo any mischiefe Vnles perhaps we think whē all his
the men of Iericho seeking their bodies upon the earth what say I your labour yea a greater losse hangeth over your head namely be not you found in the number of them that folowing the Beast have not their names written in the book of life Ap. 17.8 Chapt. 7. Against the fourth Demonstration from the publik persecution AN other conioint signe you make to be the publik persecution which you say shal be most grievous notorious so that al ceremonies sacrifices of publik religion shal cease none of which things we yet see According therfore to the threefold marke of this persecution you make a threefold proof first that it shal be most grievous 2. most notorious 3. that it shal cause a ceasing of religion And you prove it shal be most greevous frō Ma. 24.21 ther shal be thē great tribulatiō such as was not frō the beginning of the world neither shal be frō Ap. 20.3 wher we read that thē Satā shal be loosed who until that time had been bound And you cōfirm it by testimonies of Aug. in the 20. b. de civit Dei ch 8. 9. of Hippolitus martyr of Cyril unto which you add at last that the persecutiō by the Pope is not the most greevous therfore he is not Antichrist I answer to al first as touching the greevousnes of the persecutiō frō the words of Mat. I say that you care not what you bring for confirmation Those words perteyn to the calamity of the Iewes which they felt in the desolation of their city by Titus within a few yeres after Christ Luke expresseth this people by name saying for ther shal be great distresse in this land wrath on this people Luke 21.23 So Mat. then let them that ar in Judea flee to the moūtayns ch 24.16 And what ells meaneth that prayer against flight on the Sabath but properly to note out this nation So farr verily is it that Antichrists persecution is from these words proved to be most greevous as the contrary may plainly be concluded for they evidently doo confirm that no tribulation shal be to be compared wit that of the Jewes therefore not that which Antichrist shal procure I know that Chrysostome referrs it typically unto Antichrist but not truly nor advisedlie for when Christ opēly saith none shal be like it he cutteth off al typical interpretation not obscurely forbidding the words to be further drawn for to signify any thing to come For the type must needs be inferiour to the truth of it a greater distresse must folow afterwards contrary to that Christ saith if so be the words should be expounded by a type Mathew therfore makes nothing for the vehemency of this persecutiō the Apocalyps dooth even as much Satan in deed shal rage when he is loosed but the outragiousnes which is mentioned in that place is nothing to that which he shewed before he was bound For Satan is the same that the Dragon Apoc. 12 9. and before his imprisonment he lived in heaven drawing with his tayl the third part of the starrs of heaven which he cast unto the earth until by Michael he was overcome and thrown down from thence That is to say the Hethē Emperours not only lived but also ruled in the midds of the Church which they vexed in most cruel māner til Christ put them out of the Empire as upon that place I have shewed From that time the Divil that is the open enemie was bound for a thousand yeres which being fulfilled his bounds should be loosed he should be styrrd up agayn but not with that abilitie to hurt as before for here he should have no place in heavē that is in the Church but should abide only in the utmost borders territories therof compassing the tents of the Saincts the beloved city as Ap 20.9 wherupō he should not so much raise persecution as warr neither should the saincts dye lik sheep but resist lik soljers How much therfore an inward noisom enemie is mor greevous than an outward so much greater is the afflictiō of the former times thā that when Satā is loosed in the last age Morover Antich reigneth a 1000 yeres whiles Satā lyeth in prisō Ap. 20.9 Wherupō if whē he is loosed this felow doo trobel al ther should be great trāquility whē he is boūd so the greatest part at least of his reign should be void of those turbulēt storms neirher should Antich hav an helper of his persecutiō in the other part of his reign seing he should abid within the Church Satā without as is manifest by the things forespokē also that now he was appointed for the scourge of Antic himself not for their hāgmā torturer whom he should use for the tormenting of others For the Divil being now loosed the four Angels at Euphrates are loosed whō God sendeth to punish the Angel of the bottomlesse pit with his infernall crew which came out of the pit Apoc. 9.20.21 all which things we hav made playn in their places Therfore wher Augustine saith that Antichr shal most rage when the Divil is loosed as though he were now first loosed and should be his helper unto crueltie he iudgeth not rightly of this loosing for he was loosed before in heaven Apoc. 12.3 c. which could not be a prison and pit unto him seing he took it heavilie to be cast from thence unlesse perhaps he went out of prison against his wil Apoc. 12.10 Neither is Hippolitus to be hearkened unto concerning this persecution when he teacheth that Antichrist is no man but the verie Divil that should take false flesh of a false virgin And no better account is to be made of Cyrill if he though that the Divil should personally range abroad making Antichrist to be a true man but one that should be a Divil also because as he thinks he should be made man by incarnation What sincere thing could they utter about this matter whose minds were possessed by such manner errours Wherfore this grievousnes of persecution which you speak of hath no confirmation at al from the Scriptures A very greevous persecution in deed ther should be but of an other sort then you mētion even such as should consist not so much in killing of bodies as in murthering of soules For Antichrist is Balaam who though it better to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel that they migh eate of things sacrificed to Idols and committ fornication then to folow thē with the sword Apoc. 2.14 He is that Beast wheron Iezebel the whore sitteth with the wine of whose fornication the inhabitants of the earth are drunken Apoc. 2.20 17.2 He is the Angel of the bottomlesse pit who opening the pit the Sun and aier is darkned with the smoke Apoc. 9.2 Finally he is that man of syn whose coming is with the efficacie of Satā with al power and signes and lying wonders and with al deceit