signified which the Lord is about to doe in the time of this Sixt Trumpet For the finding out whereof we are to compare these words with that prophecie which we finde written in the fourth Chapter of Zechariah where Ver. 1. the prophet is by the angell awaked as out of sleep Which noteth a stirring up of the Prophet to great attention to what was now in a vision shewed unto him as being a matter of great moment and diligently to bee marked In the vision the prophet Saw a golden Candelstick with Seven Lamps and on each side thereof two Olive trees This vision came in the time when the Temple at Hierusalem was a reparing by Zerubbabell and it was by the word of the Lord to signify unto him as V. 6. Saying This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel saying Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of hosts This was to comfort and incourage Zerubbabel in the work as also Verse 9. which the enemies of Gods people did so much deride and mock at as a worke which could never be finished as we read Nehem. 4.2 3. Where Sanballat spake to his brethren and the army of Samaria having great indignation and mocking the Jews said What do these feeble Iews Wil they fortifie themselves Wil they sacrifise Wil they make an end in a day Wil they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burnt And Tobiah the Ammonite said Even that which they build if a Fox go up he shal evē break down their stone wal Now against all this the Lord incourageth Zerubbabel and his people by this Vision of the Candlesticks and two Olive-trees shewed to the Prophet whereof the Lord himselfe is the Authour and not man Therefore he saith Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of hosts That like as the Spirit of the Lord shewed this Vision to his Prophet wherein is shadowed out the indeficient and never fayling Kingdome of Jesus Christ who is the fountain of grace and the good u Ro. 11.17 24 Olive-tree which runneth and floweth forth with Oile continually to supply his x Revel 1. golden Candlesticks his Ministers and Prophets by the light of whose Prophecie as the Temple was founded and finished by the Prophecie of haggai and Zechariah the Prophets of the Lord at that time so the Church of Christ in all ages shall be built up repaired and in fine fully finished But in speciall this worke this great worke of repayring the Temple and restoring true Religion unto its primitive purity is to be accomplished under this sixt Trumpet wherein the Lord hath his two witnesses answerable to those two Prophets Haggai and Zechariah by whose Prophecie the ancient Temple the figure of the Church under the Gospel was repaired by the power of whose prophecie through the Grace and Spirit of Christ his true Church and Religion shall bee repaired maugre all the malice of Sanballat and Tobiah with their Samaritan Army to withstand the building and notwithstanding all the scorne and mockerie power and policie of Antichrist and his nimble Foxes that thinke by their treading upon the wall to overthrow it This work I say is to be performed and is now already begun to be acted under this Sixt Trumpet And therefore hath the Spirit of Christ in this place compared his two witnesses and their prophecie unto two golden Candlesticks and two Olive-trees that stand before y Zech. 4.14 the Lord of the whole Earth as it is said in Zechariah as it were pointing us with the finger to that whole vision of the Prophet setting forth the perfect reparation of that Temple to the end wee might be out of all doubt that the Lord under this Trumpet is about the like great work of reparation and restauration of his Church and Religion which shall prosper and be accomplished not by might nor by power of men but by the Spirit of the Lord in the mouth of his two witnesses and by the word of their prophecie crying as in Zechariah z Zech. 4 7. Grace grace unto it And for our further confirmation in the truth hereof have wee not a cleere and evident demonstration of it in that admirable worke of Reformation of the Kirke of Scotland at this day whereof we are all eye-witnesses And was this done by might and power of man No. They indeed as a Neh. 4 17 18 those Jewish builders and repayrers as aforesaid began to build working with the one hand with the other holding a weapon or having their sword at their side to defend themselves against the Antichristian yoke of the Herarchie as against Sanballets and Tobiahs and chiefly to vindicate the honour crown throne Scepter and Kingdome of Jesus Christ over his people from Antichrists proud and impious usurpations which all Christian Princes and people are bound to doe as also they had their Prophets with publike fasting prayer such as the Jews also used at the repairing of the Tēple whereby they so prospered and God gave them such favour in the eies of their Sovereign that they altogether laid aside their weapons and so not by might nor by power but by the Grace of God that great work notwithstanding all their adversaries plotting and labouring against it was in some good measure accomplished to the everlasting honour and prayse of our Lord Jesus Christ the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and to the renowne of that King the Lords Anointed whose heart was moved to become the Lords great Instrument in permitting and assenting unto so glorious a worke whereby as Christs Kingdome and Temple is now in a faire way restored and established in that Nation and freed from Antichrists yoake So the Kings throne also is established in that Kingdome and shal be unto the comming of Jesus Christ by whom alone b Prov. 8.15 Kings do reigne and Princes decree justice And as the Lord hath thus begun his great glorious work of repayring his Temple and restoring Religion so evidently represented before our eyes as in a most cleere Vision in this sixt Trumpet as hath beene shewed by comparing this Prophecie with that in Zechariah aforesaid so certainly the Lord will finish his own worke in other Kingdoms also where both Princes and people are deluded and brought into at least Spirituall bondage under the Antichristian yoake which though it be curiously painted and guilded over and as it were faced and lined with Pharisaicall broad Phylacteries woven with goodly words As The Church most Reverend Fathers holy Hierarchie Christs Vice roys and the like pompous and pretended titles yet these be but golden chains and silken cords purple coloured wherein to lead captive even Kingdoms and States to make up the traine of Antichrists triumph And here for a close of this excellent Prophecy in this fourth Verse give mee leave to relate a true story My selfe having certaine yeers agone
published in print and that also by Authority an Answer entitled The Bayting of the Popes Bull to a Bull of Pope Vrban the eighth which passed up and down in England inciting his Roman Catholikes to stand for the Catholike Cause and having set in the Frontispiece of the Book a Picture representing King Charles with a sword in his hand the point whereof was directed so as it put off the Popes triple Crowne in the other picture over against it representing the Pope with Verses interpreting the same and having a young daughter then of three or foure yeeres old at most to whom I my wife holding the child in her armes shewed this picture interpreting the same unto her the childe presently thereupon replyed O Father Our King shall cut off the Popes head Jt must be so Jt must be so And this so redoubled she spake with such an extraordinary vigor and vivacitie or quicknesse of spirit and utterance as both my selfe and wife were struck with great admiration Now if a man should have said then when this was uttered that such a speech proceeding so strangely from a child was sure some Prophecie inspired into her by Gods Spirit of what should after come to passe would have found but a few to give credit thereunto but rather would have beene laughed to scorn Although I presently thereupon said to my wife surely this in time may prove to be a true Prophecie God is able to bring it to passe though never so unlikely But now that wee see the Hierarchie utterly raced and rooted out of the Kingdom of Scotland and that by King Charles his Royall assent ratifying the same in Parliament tell mee what think yee Was not here a cutting off of the Popes head by the King as touching his Kingdome of Scotland For is not the Popes headship upheld in chiefe in the Prelates and Hierarchie Might not then the childes speech be a Prophecie being thus far verified in so great and unexpected a work as this And if so why may it not reach to be a like verified in cutting off the Popes head also in England as it is now in Scotland Is any thing hard to the c Pro. 21.1 Lord who hath the Kings heart in his hand as the rivers of waters turning it whithersoever hee will But for this we must patiently wait and incessantly pray that the Lord will bring to passe his owne counsell and finish his worke thus begun and that Antichrists Throne and Kingdome being throwne downe and destroyed Christ alone may reigne in the hearts and consciences of his people and the Kings Crowne may ever flourish and shine forth in the beauty of abundance of peace and prosperitie till time shall be no more Nay whither the child prophesied or no here we have a most sure word of Prophecie which tels us what Christ is now a working namely the great Reformation of his Church and Restauration of Religion which as he hath so gloriously begun to doe in Scotland so I trust hee will shew the like mercie to England though a sinfull Nation in rooting out those wicked limbes of the Beast by whom Religion and the whole Land is so of late more than ever before since Queene Elizabeths dayes defiled Yea wee may be as sure hereof as wee are sure this is Gods Word that the Lord will and that very speedily so finish this worke now begun within the compasse of this sixt Trumpet as not all the power and policie of Antichrist and his Confederates shall be able either to prevent it or ever to overthrow it For Christs Word here must needs bee fulfilled which saith These are the two Olive-trees and the two Candlesticks which stand before the GOD of the earth As if hee had said Even as the vision of the golden Candlestick and of the two Olive-trees on each side thereof standing before the Lord of the whole earth was shewed unto the Prophet Zechariah to be a word of the Lord to incourage Zerubbabel the Prince and the people of God in repayring and finishing of the Temple in Jerusalem then in hand which the enemies of Judah resisted and withstood with all their might and malice but were not able to frustrate the worke So I have here purposely named my two witnesses the two Olive-trees and the two Candlesticks standing before the God of the earth that it may be the like vision as it were to my people living under the sixt Trumpet to encourage them not only to begin but to proceed to the finishing and perfecting of the worke of Reformation of Religion and restauration of my spirituall Temple the Church and though the adversaries be potent and labour tooth and naile to hinder the worke and my people are weake yet know that it is d Zechar 4.7 not by might or by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of hosts For e Esay 46 10. my Counsell shall stand and I will do all my pleasure And as for thine enemies O my people feare them not but say unto them f Esay 8.10 Take counsell together and it shall come to naught Speake the word and it shall not stand for God is with us And I say to thee O my people Behold g Esay 54.16 17. I have created the Smith that bloweth the coals in the fire and that bringeth forth an Instrument for his worke and I have created the waster to destroy No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper and every tongue that shal rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousnesse is of me saith the Lord. And thus much of this Verse Now follows Verse 5.6 Verse 5.6 And if any man shal hurt them fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies and if any man wil hurt them he must in this manner be killed These have power to shut heaven that it rain not in the dayes of their prophecie and have power over waters to turn them into bloud and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they wil. In these two Verses is set forth the efficacie of that power which Christ giveth to his two witnesses in their prophecying And this power is such as that of Elias and that of Moses was For first here is an allusion to the power and spirit of Elias in the fifth Verse wherein this speech is redoubled thus If any man shal hurt them fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies and if any man wil hurt them he must in this manner be killed How is that h 2 King 1. Elias we know when the first Captain with his 50 men were sent to fetch him by force to King Ahaziah saying unto him Thou man of God the King hath said come downe answered If I be a man of God then let fire come downe from heaven and consume thee and thy fifty And there came down fire
say when the Kingdome of the Beast that Whore which yet desperatly triumpheth in the confidence of her stately Babylon x Chap. 18.7 sitting in her throne and saying in her heart I sit a Queen and am no widow and shall see no sorrow shall bee destroyed y Verse 8. whose plagues shal come in one day death and mourning and famine when she shal be utterly burnt with fire for strong is the Lord who judgeth her and so when all the Kingdomes aforesaid shall resume their power and strength from the Beast Esop and Horace and leave him naked as the Birds did the Crow when each bird tooke his owne feather wherewith the Crow had pranked himselfe exalting himself above his fellows and when they shall submit their Scepters unto Jesus Christ by receiving his government over them as aforesaid then their Kingdomes become the Kingdomes of our Lord and of his Christ and he shal reigne for ever and ever But we finde Chap. 18.9 how the Kings of the earth who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with the Whore of Babylon seeing her ruine shall bewaile her and lament for her c. and yet Chap. 17. that the ten hornes the ten Kings that gave their power and Kingdomes to the Beast shal hate the Whore and make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire These two places seeme to contradict one another But being rightly understood there is no contradiction For first most sure it is that the ten Kings aforesaid shal hate the Whore and be the instruments of her desolation God will surely bring his word to passe But yet some of those Kings may at first bee brought to it against their wils or with an ill will having beene formerly so much enamoured on the gay painted Whore and made drunke with the wine of her fornication We see those two milch-kine of the Philistins by a strange instinct carried Gods Arke to his place yet lowed all the way after their Calves 1 Sam. 6. So the Lord will have his work done upon the whore though some of the chiefe instruments may have still a yearning of affection after the Whore for old acquaintance sake Yet though some for their own persons may doe this for a time and because the Whore fals with her goodly Babylon notwithstanding because the Kings alone shall not make Babylon desolate but their Kingdomes to wit their people taken altogether therefore the particular pitie of some for a time shall not hinder the generall hatred of the Whore and so the Kingdomes of this World mainly and universally shal become the Kingdomes of our Lord and of his Christ And this making desolate of the Whore by the Kings and their people shall be with such violence of passion and zeale which God shall kindle in their hearts and brests as when it is done they shal stand amazed to behold the smoke of her burning and spend some human compassion and pitie upon those terrible and suddaine desolations Even as Titus that noble Roman Generall when through the obdurate obstinacie of the Jews in their extreame misery his souldiers were so enraged that not only the Citie Jerusalem but the most beautifull Temple it selfe were set on fire hee beholding it wept over it to see such a goodly and glorious building so miserably destroyed the like compassion may even those Kings have in weeping over Babylon when they shall behold the ruines thereof wherein themselves notwithstanding with their people were the chief Actors Thus the same Kings whom the Lord shall employ in the making desolate of Babylon may bee moved with humane compassion when they behold even those ruines which themselves by divine instigation have made And as the same Titus though hee cryed to his Souldiers to save that glorious Monument the Temple and not to burn it and seeing it notwithstanding all on a flame cryed out the more vehemently to quench it but could not prevail to rescue it So the Kings of the earth when they shall see the smoke of Babylons burning and shall thereupon be moved to lament her saying Alas Alas that great Citiy Babylon that mighty Citie yet such is the Lords fury kindled against her that they shall not be able with all their power though they would never so fain to rescue her out of the flames For the Lord will have it so and therefore as he hath put in their minds to fulfil his wil in giving their strength and Kingdome to the Beast until the words of God be fulfilled So when the words of God shal be fulfilled he wil also put in their minds to fulfil his wil in the utter destruction of Babylon And from this time Christ shal reigne for evermore over his people when the usurping Beast with all his power shall be put downe and so when all Kings Princes and States shal submit their Scepters to Christs authority as before is shewed Then shall be great joy and thanksgiving in the Church as Verse 16.17 and in the end of this last Trumpet which how long it shall sound and the sounding thereof last he only knows Acts 1.7 Matth. 24 36. who hath reserved it in his owne brest shall come the generall judgement of quick and dead wherein God shall powre wrath upon his wrathfull enemies and shall reward all his faithful servants as Verse 18. Now there be sundry other things very mysticall and darke which seeme to come under the time of this last Trumpet as besides the remainder of this Chapter Verse 19. which gives some light of the generall conversion of the Jewes the whole twentieth Chapter of this Booke but because they be very obscure and will require longer time and stronger Prayers for assisting and illuminating grace in the opening of them therefore I will here put an end for the present till it shall please God to give a further opportunitie In the mean time a Chap. 11.17 We give thee thanks O Lord God Almighty which art and wast and art to come because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned Even so AMEN
that Herodotus which invironing Babylon made it invincible untill Cyrus King of Persia did by his million of men cause the waters thereof neere about Babylon so to be drayned into many deepe and vast sluces or by-channels as the maine river for a time becomming fordable his men waded through it and so Babylon was surprised And to this alludeth that which is written * Chap. 16.12 in the sixt Viall of the drying up of that great river that the way of the Kings of the East might be prepared Now the Kingdome of the beast or his throne against which the woes of the seven trumpets are sounded and the last plagues of the seven vialls powred out is that Great Babylon the mother of whordoms and abominations and the great captiver of Gods people as she is at large and cleerely set forth Chap. 17. and. 18. And the Great river Euphrates is that main strength and power of men whereby Babylon is defended against invasion This main strength of this Babylon is at this day the King of Spain or the house of Austria including the Emperour in Germanie and the rest of that house yea all those of that faction and confederacie as the Hierarchie or Prelacie where ever it is together with the wicked of the World that are made drunk with the Whores golden cup. It follows then that those foure Angells bound in the river Euphrates whom Christ commands to be loosed are those christian Kings Princes and States which for a time either standing Neuters or being for Babylon Christ raiseth and rouseth up to take up armes for the diminishing and draining of this great River Euphrates by their numerous Armies and potent preparations v. 16. 17. c. Nor is it uncouth to call Kings and Princes Angels for they are often called m Psal 82 16. Elohim Gods as also the holy angells are And Kings and Princes being n Rom. 13.4 Gods Ministers and being especially sent by him upon any great businesse as here they may therefore properly be called Angells which signifies such as are sent This is cleere enough As Chap. 1.20 The Ministers of the seven Churches are called Angels And Chap. 12.17 Michael and his Angels do fight with the Dragon and his Angels And Chap. 17. Those Kings which once warred for the Beast against Christ even they shall one day hate the whore and shall make her desolate and naked And the reason is there given Verse 17. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree and give their Kingdome unto the Beast untill the words of God shall be fulfilled And then he will call and send them as his Angels or Messengers to execute his will against the Whore Even so here the loosing of the foure Angels which were bound in the great River Euphrates is the raising up of certain Kings and Princes which shall remove out of the way the maine strength whereby Babylon is guarded And although this her strength be very great and as hard to remove out of the way as to remove the Great River Euphrates out of her vast Chanell yet these foure Angels thus loosed shall so diminish Babylons strong Fortresses as a way shall be made for her surprisall and utter desolation This then being so cleere and plain it points us as by the finger to these very times wherein God hath stirred up sundry Kings and Princes with their mighty armies to make war upon the Emperour the King of Spaine and the house of Austria the maine pillars of the Popedome As the King of Sweden whose continued armie still keepes the field against all the Emperours power also the King of France and the Princes of Germany with the States Generall and I may say Generous of the Low Countries These may wel be those four Angels here loosed which now make war against the strength of Babylon These were readie at an houre c. to obey Christs Command and wil vers 15. for to slay the third part of men Look but upon the desolations of Germany look also upon the late admirable victory which the Lord of Hosts of Sea Land gave to the States General against the K. of Spains great Navy in the narrow Seas wherein a third part at least of the men perished And the war is still continued on all sides against Babylons Euphrates to abate the pride of her swelling streams wherwith Babylon is guarded Again the o Verse 16. number of the Armies of these foure Angels is said to be 200000 thousand such an armie for number as never was in the World Cyrus as is before noted had 1000 thousand to invade Babylon which was the greatest army that History makes mention of But loe here an armie of 200 times so many even 200000 thousand to make war against spirituall Babylon her temporal power Now by this number so great numbred by God himselfe in this place is especially meant such an armie as shall be invincible against Babylon such an armie I say as never was in the world For Gods numbring is his valuing or as he esteems accounts a thing As when he was about to destroy that potent proud King of Babylon Belshazzar then Emperour of the World with his Princes and powers about him he said unto him p Dan. 5.26 God hath numbred thy Kingdome which is expounded by the next words Thou art weighed in the ballance and art found wanting So as on the contrary here where God numbers such an host as here to be two hundred thousand thousand the meaning is that these foure Angells with their armie shall bee so potent and formidable and so victorious against Babylon and all her forces as if they consisted of such a wonderfull number For otherwise God stands not upon numbers it is q 1 Sam. 14.6 all one with him to save by many or by few And his few shall be as many thousand thousands when hee will get the victory by them The King of Swedens army which hee first brought into Germany that got the victory over the Emperours mighty forces at Lipsich was far short in number of the Emperors thousands In the next place is described the manner of the horsemen and of the horses vers 17. to set forth their power and terrour Then the manner of their fight out of their mouthes issued fire smoke and brimstone wherewith the third part of men were killed Here we see the manner of weapons and fight of these very times of ours as by powder and shot signified by fire smoke and brimstone comming out of their mouthes as out of the mouth of the Cannon those murthering weapons With these are slaine the third part of men This desolate Germany can witnesse now turned almost into a Wildernesse And in that the horses are said to hurt with their mouthes and with their tayls thereby is meant that there is no securitie from being hurt of them every way both before
now they insult over him at their pleasure So these people of Antichrist doe with the dead bodies of the two Witnesses Sir Phil. Sydneys Arcadia as the cowardly Shepherd did in Arcadia with the dead body of the Lion he came and trampled upon him and beat him with his sheephook and spake big words unto him and when hee had done boasted he had overcome the Lion So these here do with these witnesses in the seventh Verse the Beast overcomes them and here his brood triumphs over them who living were a terrour to the beast and all his crew Secondly they make merry The Father in the Gospel when he had received his lost Son is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make merry the same word is used here upon the slaying of these witnesses as a fat Calfe to feast withall And such a kind of mirth is here implyed as is used at feasting As in Amos Chap. 2.8 They drinke the wine of the condemned in the house of their God to wit of those whom themselves have unjustly condemned So these Perhaps they have their Minstrels too as Fidlers and Pipers dance about the May-pole that on the Sabbath day in despight of these Witnesses who while they lived spake and wrote against these inhabitants of the spirituall Sodome But let their mirth be what it will in the third place they send gifts one to another They doe not send gifts to the poore of whom they can receive none again but one to another by way of retaliation or congratulation this is their charitie as if they would now celebrate the funerall of these dead witnesses would they but suffer their dead bodies to be buried But what 's the matter they are so jocund and frolick Even this because these two Prophets had tormented them that dwell on the earth It seemes they were such tormenters of these Earth-dwellers as the Prophet z Kings 22.8 Michaiah was of Ahab who therefore hated him and could not indure him because saith he be never prophecieth good to me but evil So these two Prophets they tormented all those of the Beasts Kingdome by prophecying of judgements and punishments that should fall upon them from God for all their idolatries superstitions humane inventions in the Service they pretend to God for all their abominable infidelitie in their Altars and Altar-worship for their open and avowed prophanation of the Sabbath for their stopping of the mouthes of Gods painfull Ministers for oppressing and silencing the Doctrines of the Gospel and of the Grace of God for overturning all true Religion for persecuting of all true godlinesse in Ministers and people for their favouring of drunkards adulterers swearers Sabbath-breakers and all manner of prophanesse in their Courts with other the like things as tedious to rehearse as to them to heare Thus these Prophets tormented them Now I pray you what torments shall such finde in Hell for their living in all kinde of sin when they find Gods Word it self to be a tormentor of them in reproving their sins and moving them to repentance Is it a marvaile then that all the woes in this Book fall upon these dwellers on the earth They doe so dwell on the earth that they are glued unto it so as they will not upon any termes no not to get Heaven and so escape Hell part with the love of it and with the lusts of it And therefore they hold none their greater enemies then Gods Prophets that tell them their own And of other prophane Worldlings none hate Gods Prophets more than the Beast and his Hierarchie For their Kingdome being altogether earthly and sensuall I might adde also the Apostles third word which he applyes to the wisdome that is from beneath from the bottomlesse pit and that is a Iam. 3.15 Devillish they cannot endure Christs Kingdome which is altogether Spirituall nor the Heralds thereof who proclame war against the Beast and his Armies for his notorious hypocrisie who under the titles of Holinesse and Spirituall and the like advance their earthly Kingdome both above and against Christs Kingdome It followeth Verse 11. And after three dayes and a halfe the spirit of life from God entred into them and they stood upon their feet and great feare fell upon them which saw them Wee shewed before what is meant by the three days and a halfe namely the time in which the Beast and his people doe expose these witnesses to derision denying them even that common humanity which the very Heathen freely afford to all as buriall of the dead And although the time of their suffering may bee much longer then three days and a halfe yea three yeeres and a halfe yet it is reckoned here but three dayes and a halfe both because the Beasts crueltie is so great that he takes no more compassion or consideration of the time of their suffering though long and tedious then as if it were but three dayes and a half and secondly because such is the patience and alacritie of these Witnesses in suffering for the Name of Christ and for the love of the Truth that the time though long and the afflictions they indure though very grievous yet it seemes to them but b 2 Cor. 4 17. light and momentany and as it were but of three dayes and a halfes continuance in comparison and Thirdly it is expressed here by three dayes and a halfe because the Lord himselfe will shorten the time and hasten the deliverance in due time in due time I say because it is a certaine time determined and prefixed of God as three dayes and a halfe and because but as three dayes and a halfe therefore it is a very short time as will appeare more fully when the deliverance commeth But lastly by three dayes and a halfe wee may understand three yeeres and a half as in Daniel 7.25 by a time times and part or halfe a time three yeeres and part of another As Revel 12.14 And why should I here conceale that speech which I used to some Ministers at Coventry in my passage to Lancaster Castle who being sad at my departure I said unto them Come be not sad for three yeers and a half hence wee shall meet again and be merry And truly absit invidia verbo reckoning from the fourteenth of June 1637 whereon we were censured in the Star-Chamber to perpetuall imprisonment it was just three yeeres and a halfe when wee returned from exile even in the last moneth of the three yeers and a halfe my selfe being sent for the very first day of that moneth Well when this time appointed of God is expired what then Then after three dayes and a half the spirit of life from God shall enter into them and they shall stand upon their feet and great feare shall fall upon the beholders All this sheweth unto us thus much that God shall miraculously restore and deliver his witnesses even as the restoring of the dead to life again to the
that despise mee shall be lightly esteemed Now blessed bee our God for evermore for this his great and glorious worke and hee ever blesse his King that as hee hath made him a mighty instrument thereof so hee would strengthen him to the finishing of that work which yet remaynes to be done in the purgation and reformation of his other Kingdomes that so hee may prove the most glorious Prince that ever raigned in the Christian World And it is said here And great feare fell upon them which saw them That is when they on the Beasts side saw those witnesses whom the Beast had cruelly slaine and whose dead bodies they had barbarously used not suffering them to have common buriall but insulted and triumphed over them now to be as it were revived and raised from the dead againe when they behold such a wonderfull increase to come of their bloud so cruelly shed such a spirit of life from God so to possesse many other witnesses as those slain seem 1 1 Here let the Reader still remember that this Treatise was written before his returne from banishment and so towards London on that Saturday the solemnitie whereof was so conspicuous and glorious as it doth without any other application even naturally apply it self as if it were the most proper fulfilling of this Prophecie if either wee consider the manner of that return or the effect it wrought in the adversaries thereof which caused in them extreame indignation and rage even unto gnawing of their tongues and gnashing of their teeth And yet feare so possessed them that all â—heir power and policie could not help now to live againe in them they are struck with terrour they are surprized with feare For whereas they fondly imagined that the slaying or cruell handling of two or three prime witnesses making them sure as dead men would so have queld all the rest that not one durst ever after peepe contrary to their expectation they see a generation of witnesses to rise up after them and so to affright their enemies as if they saw an apparition of the Ghosts of the former witnesses returned from the dead And if a man did now but feele the pulse of those Prelates in England who have seene their brethren Prelates late of Scotland to bâ— cast out of Church and Countrey and utterly cashiered without all hope of restitution should he not trow you find the spirit of trepidation leaping and panting as it were for life as if their owne turne should be next But it followeth Verse 12. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them Come up hither And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud and their enemies beheld them They that is the two witnesses thus raised and restored to life as before heard a great voice from heaven Here Christ either by an extraordinary voice inwardly calling or by the ordinary voice of his word outwardly cals his servants to take Sanctuary as in heaven Now heaven here may bee taken for the Church of God hereupon earth So it 〈◊〉 often taken in this Booke As in this Chapter Verse 19. So Chap. 12.1 the woman there in heaven is the Church Militant here on earth as appeareth plainly in the whole Chapter as Verse 3. 7. 8. Chap. 13.6 and in other places Now the Church of God here on earth is compared unto and called Heaven as in many other respects so specially in this because it is holy and pure being purged both for Doctrine and Discipline from all damnable Heresies and errours in faith and from the vain Inventions and Traditions of men in the worship of God m Revel 14.4 following the Lambe whithersoever he goeth that is in all things obeying Christ and observing his Ordinances and subjecting their souls and consciences to none other King but only Christ They from this Heaven heare a great voice this is Christs voice in his word calling his witnesses from having any more to doe with the Beast and his brood having sealed this their testimony with their bloud which the Beast hath sucked and drunk up So as hee now being found to be incorrigible and incurable so as hee grows worse and worse is to be utterly abandoned As the Lord saith in Jeremy n Ier. 51.6.45 Flee out of the midst of Babylon and deliver every man his soule be not cut off in her iniquitie for this is the time of the Lords vengeance he will render unto her a recompence And the reason of Gods peoples thus abandoning of Babylon is rendred Verse 9. Verse 9. We would have healed Babylon but shee is not healed forsake her and let us goe every one into his owne Countrey for her judgement reacheth up to heaven and is lifted up even to the skies And the like warning God gives to his people Revel 18.4 concerning the spirituall Babylon where Iohn saith I heard another voice from heaven saying Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues for her sins have reached unto heaven and God hath remembred her iniquities So here the witnesses heare a great voice from heaven saying Come up hither as much to say as Have no more to doe with Babylon nor with the Beast and his members who will heare no reason but have now filled up the measure of their cruelty not only to you but to all my witnesses that went before you so as now there is no more hope of them o 2 Kings 17. See also 2 Chron 36.16 no remedie for them being like those incorrigible and obstinate revolted Tribes of Israel or like the Jews that persecuted my Apostles and p Acts 13.46 drove them away to the Gentiles therefore come out from among them admonish them no more but come up hither keepe you close to my Church which I have altogether purged and purified from the dregs of Babylon and there only hold your communion Come up hither And as it followeth they ascended up to heaven in a cloud and their enemies beheld them Wee read that Elias was carried up to heaven in a fiery Chariot And Christ ascended up to Heaven in a cloud Here these witnesses ascend up to heaven in a cloud But to Heaven as before is shewed namely from their enemies to take Sanctuary as in the Church of God here on earth it being compared to a high and holy Mountain to which we must ascend So as this ascending in a cloud and that in the enemies view sets forth the admirable providence of God who will miraculously make his Church a sure and safe Sanctuary as Heaven to his persecuted ones under this Trumpet from the power and fury of their enemies who may behold them afarre off but are not able any more to touch them for they are now out of their reach as being in Heaven For in this Trumpet God is preparing a way to the seventh and last Trumpet wherein hee will
take full vengeance upon Babylon And therefore before the storme come God hath a hiding place to secure his As hee saith in Esay q Esay 4.5 6. The Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Sion and upon her assemblies a Cloud and Smoake by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night for upon all the glory shall be a defence And there shall be a Tabernacle for a shadow in the day time from the heat and for a place of refuge and for a covert from storme and from rain r Exod. 12. Thus the Lord did when he was about to destroy the first-born of Egypt he shut up his people in their houses sprinkling them with the bloud of the Paschall Lambe Exod. 13. 14. that the Avenger should not touch them And when the Egyptian host pursued them as farre as the Red Sea the Lord separated them by the pillar of a Cloud by day and of fire by night untill hee had overwhelmed the Hoast in the Sea And when he was about to destroy Sodome he first separates Lot from among them So before hee destroy Babylon hee Å¿ Revel 18.4 c. cals his people out of her and then quickly after in the same Chapter follows her ruine and desolation So here the Lord calling his witnesses away and they ascending up to their Sanctuary in a cloud in the fight of their enemies it is a sure and certain signe and immediate forerunner of the destruction of this Babylon that great Citie which is spiritually called Sodome and Egypt And it is very remarkable that before the destruction of all these three Sodome Egypt and Babylon the Lord doth immediatly before separate his people and provide a Sanctuary for them Yea not long before the utter and finall u Iosephus Of the wars of the Iews destruction of Ierusalem which was once Gods true Church but now was become the Synagogue of Murtherers and Persecutors of Christ and his Saints there was a voice heard in the Temple as from Heaven Migremus hinc Let us depart hence whereby Gods small remnant yet there being warned presently fled to Pella a Coast-Citie in Iudea and not long after followed the sacking and burning of the Citie and Temple with the inhabitants therein Thus by these many famous examples we may cleerly see what God is now about in this Trumpet to doe when he cals away his Servants out of Babylon and Egypt and Sodome and the Synagogue of Antichrist and puts them in a safe Sanctuary even because he will speedily bring destruction upon those his enemies It followeth Verse 13. Verse 13. And the same houre was there a great Earthquake and the tenth part of the Citie fell and in the Earthquake were slaine of men seven thousand and the remnant were affrighted and gave glory to the God of Heaven See here no sooner have the witnesses taken Sanctuary but by and by even the same houre there is a great Earthquake Now though there have been in the World and still fall out sundry great Earthquakes in diverse Countries as in Asia and other places yet in this place under this Trumpet this great Earthquake here is not to be taken literally no more then heaven in the former Verse for the place of the highest heaven But the great Earthquake here is to be understood of the great and terrible shaking of the Kingdomes of the earth under the sound of this Trumpet as namely by great Commotions Wars and the like especially in Christendome throughout the Kingdome of the Beast And when was Christendome ever more embroyled in wars then at this day But here it is said that the tenth part of the Citie fell This is joyned to the former as an effect of this great Earthquake First what is meant by the Citie here Surely that great City mentioned V. 8. Which we have before described even the Kingdom of the Beast And still all the plagues and woes which both the Trumpets sound forth and the seven Vialls powre out fall upon the Beast and his Kingdome So as there is no questiâ—n but this Citie here is that great Citie Antichrists large Kingdome And what is meant by the tenth part of the Citie For resolution hereof wee read that the u Chap. 17.7 Beast with seven heads hath ten hornes And these x Verse 12. ten hornes are said to be ten Kings These ten Kings are said to be the ten hornes because they are the strength of the Beast And the ten Kings have their ten Kingdomes which make up the Beasts Kingdome or his great Citie Now what Kingdoms are those which are said to be of this great body of this great Citie Surely those which doe admit and maintaine the Papall power The Papall power is maintained by Civill States or Kingdomes two ways Either when they directly and professedly subject their Thrones and Crowns to the Pope as to the Head of the Church by vertue of which title he arrogates to himselfe a Supreame power over Kings and Princes which is to y 2 Thess 2.4 exalt himselfe above all that is called God to depose and dispose at his pleasure or when they doe it only implicitly or by some privy compact or league or otherwise by admitting in their Kingdomes the Popes Hierarchie for the Hierarchie is meerly Papall where ever it be erected which Hierarchie consisting in the Prelates as it is in it selfe a proper and principall member and prop of his Kingdome So it is a mighty and maine instrument of bringing into Subjection to the Pope those Kingdomes and people wherein and over whom they are exalted in their Episcopall Thrones as they call them And although in a Civill Kingdome or State where the Gospel is professed the Popes Supremacy disâ—lamed and the jurisdiction of Prelates by Law limited as being of humane institution meerly and not by divine authoritie Prelats when they are pinched and held close to it may perhaps pull in their hornes and arrogate no more unto themselves then the Laws of the Land or pleasure of the Prince do allow unto them yet when their inbred pride and ambition an inseparable accident or rather essentiall qualitie of a Prelate findes opportunitie meeting with a debonaire and benigne Prince into whose gentle brest they can easily insinuate themselves and by their dexteritie in the art of flattery and nimblenesse of tongue and wit perswade and work upon his sweet nature so as to draw it to conceive a reverend opinion of their counterfeit sanctitie which they set out in a goodly garbe of their superstitious guises in their wil-worship and by this means to a credulitie in believing all to be Gospel which they say as for the purpose that they are the true Church that they have a power to ordain Ceremonies in the Church that Christ ordained them to be his x Reprinted Conference p. 200. 210. 211 Vice-roys that they are the only Judges in controversies of faith
that Princes must leave all government of the Church to them as the sole Fathers thereof and such like Prelaticall Principles which are not to be found in rerum natura as they beg when once they have obtained credit to these things how doe they then bestir themselves especially where a pragmaticall pate and the Metropolitan Chaire meet together Then what Laws of the Kingdom shal bind them Who shall dare to controule them If Parliaments whose Laws they break as straws offer to meddle with them presently they must be dissolved and with their good will there shall never be Parliament more And in fine they grow to that heighth of insolencie that their meere lust must be a Law as all their practices proclame Reprinted Conference p. 338. 376. c. Nor doe their practices only overthrow all true religion but they come to make open profession that the religion and faith of Prelaticall Protestant Churches and by name of that of England is one and the same with that of Rome and the Church of England one and the same with that of Rome with many such like bold assertions all which tend to make a reconciliation and a re-union with Rome to whom al Prelaticall Churches in the World and they allow no other Churches for true but only the Prelaticall doe make up one intire Catholike Church Now all these being summed up together what doe they amount unto but this that all Prelaticall Churches hold with Rome as members of the same Catholike body and the Pope being the Head of this body at least a Pag. 183. 184. ordine primus which the Prelate saith is necessary Ergo all Prelaticall Churches are members of that Church whereof the Pope is the Head or at least ordine primus and consequently all Civill Kingdomes and States where the Prelacie or Hierarchie hath got any footing and much more where it hath gotten head must bee a member thereof Now this being so as so it is the way is now made plaine to come to know what is meant by the fall of the tenth part of the Citie What is it but the fall of one of the ten Kingdomes from the Pope which are the ten horns of his Hierarchie in the time of this sixt Trumpet But where shall we find such a Kingdome as was one of the ten horns of the Beast and now broken off and falne from that great head Where What say you to the Church of Scotland Had not the Prelates there throwne down to the ground Christs throne and consequently with it the Kings Throne his Vicegerent and in stead thereof mounted aloft the Throne and Kingdome of the Beast with their Tyrannicall and lawlesse Government But now we see the Beasts Throne in that Kingdome dismounted For now the Prelats with their Hierarchie are there cashiered And thus the tenth part of the Citie is falne But what was the occasion of this great fall Surely Pride will have a fall The Prelats intolerable insolencie and unsufferable Tyrannie did cause it Which makes mee remember a notable saying or I may call it rather a prophecie of a b Mr. Throgmorton godly Minister late of London As said he nothing cures the biting of the Scorpion but the oile of the Scorpion So nothing will cure Popery but Popery And this was here verified What cured the Popery which the Prelacie had brought and set up in Scotland but their extream haste and mad zeale to finish the building up of Rome in one day To this purpose I remember an other usuall saying of another Minister also late of London who when any spake of a bad or mad Prelate hee would still say The worse the better and the better the worse His meaning was that the worse the Bishops grew and the more insolent and tyrannicall the more they did hasten the fall of their proud Hierarchie As Christ said to the Pharisees Fill yee up the measure of your Fathers As the people of God could not come to their promised inheritance till the d Gen. 15 16. sins of the Amonites were growne to their full And the e Revel 14.18 19. Angell thrust not his sickle into the earth to gather the Vine thereof to cast it into the great Winepresse of the wrath of God till the clusters were ripe And now in Scotland the clusters of the f Deut. 32. Vine of Sodome were growne ripe and so they are cut down And thus the tenth part of the Citie is falne thus the Beast hath lost one of his ten horns And to conclude this The immediate instrumentall cause of this fall was the Earthquake And an Earthquake wee know is the immediate worke of God alone So as this sheweth unto us that it was Gods owne hand and work principally that did overthrow this tenth part of the Citie and Kingdome of the Beast For it was a building too deep-founded in the earth for mans either power to overturn it or policie to undermine it And therefore let all the glory be given to God alone It followeth And in the Earthquake were slain of men seven thousand We shewed before that an Earthquake may be taken tropically for some civil Commotion in a State as of late in the state of Scotland when all stood up as one intire body to vindicate their liberty from the Beasts Tyranny which the Prelates did exercise upon the people so as the issue hereof proved to be the fall of the tenth part of the Citie or Kingdome of the Beast in Scotlands falling quite off from the Papall Hierarchie Now these words And in the Earthquake were slaine of men seven thousand have reference to the same Earthquake h Objection But no men were slaine in that Scotland Earthquake and here seven thousand men are said to be slaine 'T is true But as the Earthquake is taken tropically so also the slaying here as we spake before of a slaying of the two witnesses in a civill respect or in a figure So here by slaying we understand a ceasing of a thing to be that which it was before As a man is said to be i Rom. 6.2 dead to sin because hee no longer lives the life of sin Now for the seven thousand here slain in the Earthquake seven we know is a perfect number and often comprehends a whole society or all of such a Profession or qualitie in the same place or Countrey As the k Chap. 1. 2. seven Churches the seven Stars the seven Candlesticks comprehending all the Churches and Ministers in Asia the lesse So l 1 King 19.18 seven thousand men were reserved of God in Israel even all those who did not bow to Baal And so here seven thousand may comprehend all those who in the said Earthquake in Scotland were slaine that is were cast out of their places and so ceased to bee that which they were before and those were the Prelates with all their Officers and train even the whole Hierarchie And the