heretofore heard Then as he discovers their Religion to be generally corrupt as the bloud of a dead man so hee pours out the next Vials upon the Rivers and Fountains of water those that carry this Religion up and down the Countries and Nations the Lord exasperates Civil States so far against them that they force them to drink bloud their own bloud as they made Martyrs to drink bloud so the Lord gave them to drink bloud for they are worthy as you heard it opened this day seven-night He first begins with the common Catholicks then with Priests and Jesuits Well doth he here stay when the Lord sees what little fruit groweth hereby Verily no for here is no Reformation of the common sort they still continue in their Ignorance and Superstition and Idolatry And what are the Priests and Jesuits any thing reformed It is nothing so nor do the lights of that State either the lights of the Imperiall world of the Provinces or their generall and grand holy Father the Pope as they call him none seek Reformation what then Then let the Imperiall state and Pope that claims Lord Paramountship over all let him look it the next Vial fals upon his head and the Lord doth this by degrees first upon his supreme lustre and glory as he rules by day And the next fals upon his Throne and that is a great blow to him and still the Lord goes on pouring to pour out and striking to strike till at length he crusheth the man of sin and all his abettors For their religion is corrupt and all that drink of it perish and the cōmon people Priests Jesuits shall smart and then the Pope Emperor whoever are their great lights let thē be lights in Church or Common-wealth for I will exclude neither they both partake in the sin and shall partake in the punishment of it The four Angels they may be severall persons but they have one common work they pour Vials upon the lights of both States and truly so the Lord did in Christian Rome this is Antichristian but when Rome was once Pagan and then became Christian in Constantines time and under the Christian Emperors Constantine and the rest opened the doors of the Church so wide that all the garden of God was become a wildernesse by an inundation of carnall people Christians in name but Pagans in heart that were let in and then that which was once a garden inclosed was now made a wildernesse when they took down the Pale and let in all dogs and swine that will come in the wrath of God breaks out against them then the Trumpet sounds a shrill sound and what was that In the 8 of Revel 7. The first Angel sounding there followed hail and fire mingled with bloud and they were cast upon the earth c. and that is upon the lowest sort of Christians there was given grievous hail cold hail-storm they received not the truth in love and being cold in Christianity they were hot in Emulation and Contention And then the second Trumpet sounding there was as it were a great Mountain burning cast into the Sea and there was a third part of the Sea became bloud there was high preferment cast into the Officers of the Church and a great part of the Administrations grew corrupt Then the third Angel sounded and there fals a Star from Heaven called Wormwood Wormwood of Heresie and corrupts the Priests many were infected with the Heresie of Arrius and Nestorius and Eutyches Afterwards all Scriptures came to be darkned with Allegoricall and Hereticall and corrupt Interpretations that Christ is scarse discerned in all their writings and the light of Scripture is darkened and the light of humane Learning that there is little light left And then the next Angel he sounds and smoke comes out of the bottomlesse pit and there comes Locusts upon the earth and they have a King set over them which is the Angel of the bottomlesse pit which is the Pope over the Friars and Monks So thus the Lord begins to deal with men first he fals upon them in one degree upon the earth first and then upon Religion in them and then upon Ministers the publishers of that Religion and after grows higher and higher till in the end there comes the Antichristian state the seventh head and he surmounts all Christian Emperors leads them all captive and hath the Key of the bottomlesse pit to destroy their souls whose name is Abaddon in Hebrew but in the Greeke Apollyon and then comes the Turk in the sixth Trumpet and he destroys and swallows up all So the Lords manner is first he breaks forth against the common people then against the Ministers then at last he riseth to the great Lords of the world the Rulers of the State they smoke for it at last What should be the Reason of the Point The Reason is Reas 1 First because ordinarily the first beginning of corruption is with the people and they being first corrupted then indeed it is meet that they should first be plagued for look as the Church grew to be corrupted in the Christian Emperors time so the Church came to be plagued in Antichristians time the earth was first corrupt in the Christian Emperors time and the first that is plagued is the earth then the sea then the rivers so by degrees The Lord goes the same way in plaguing as they did in degenerating the same way in executing judgement as they in sinning Reas 2 And secondly when the cōmon people are corrupted for their sin sake it pleaseth God either to send them corrupt Rulers like themselves or else to lead their good leaders into temptation to corrupt themselves and their people You read Prov. 28.2 For the wickednesse of a land many are the princes thereof many and wicked Rulers too They never lived long nor well after once the house of Israel had cryed out What portion have we in David or what inheritance in the son of Iesse The Lord never gave them good King in Israel after not in Israel I say Judah indeed had sundry times good Kings but for Israel the 10 Tribes that rejected the yoke and the house of David in regard of the hard payments that Solomons son put upon them and therefore in their prophanenesse cryed out What portion have we in David c. Then immediatly after that the Lord never gave them any good King 1 King 12.16 So there grows Religion to be corrupted in the people and then for their wickednesse God gives them wicked Princes I gave them a King in mine anger and took him away in my wrath O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self Hos 13.9 10. Israel corrupts it self provokes God and he gives them a King in his anger and takes him away in his wrath And it is written as a heavie curse of God in Lev. 26.17 If you still trespasse against me I will set Princes over you that shall hate you Mischievous
of it These Angels had councell and encouragement given them as you have heard to goe about this worke and were furnished with the wrath of God for this ende but were not effectually stirred up to fall upon the execution thereof till they heare a great Voice of Christ out of the Temple that is in publike Ordinances then they goe to poure out their Vials You shall find this a very ordinary Practise in some things sutable hereunto in Scripture Isaack gave Iacob a Commandement and Instruction to goe to Padan-Aram Gen. 28 6. And thereupon Iacob went on his way Vers 7. But the first night that he lodged out of dores when the Lord appeared to him in the House of God Verse 15. and telleth him That hee will bee with him and keepe him in all places whithersoever hee goeth and will bring him backe againe into this Land Then Iacob Chap. 29 1 lifteth up his heeles and goeth on his wayes Like a Giant refreshed with Wine to runne his Course And the like was the Practise of the same Jacob when they told him that Ioseph was yet alive Gen. 45.27.28 his spirit revived and he said He would goe down to see him but first he goeth to Beersheba and there offereth Sacrifices and consulteth with the Lord Gen. 46.1.2.3 4. and the Lord encourageth him to goâ— downe bideth him not feare He will be with him and there make a great Nation of him and bring him back againe and so he did to be buried thus are his hands fully strengthned in his way The like also was the case of the men of Samaria Ioh. 4. When the woman had told them that Jesus was the Christ because he had told her all that ever shee did they beleeved because of her saying Vers 39. But when they came unto him and talked with him then they said unto her Vers 42. Now we believe not because of thy saying for we have heâ—rd him our selves and know that this is inâ—eâ—d the Christ the Saviour of the World Thus the voice of Christ carrieth his people an end in the waies of their callings with effectuall power unto sudden and speedy execution The Reason is taken first from the greater power of the voice Reason 1 of Christ speakâ—ng by his Spirit then when hee speaketh by the gifts of his Servants and therefore Paul putteth a great difference in this case Acts 19.21 The Text telleth us That he purposed in his Spirit to goe up to Hierusalem afterwards going on his way he meeteth with certaine Disciples Act. 21.4 and they by reason of the Prophesie of Agabus concerning Paul vers 11. fell upon him and wept and besought him not to goe up to Hierusalem What meane you saith he to weepe and to breake mine heart for J am ready not to be bound onely but to dye at Hierusalem for the name of the Lord Iesus Behold here the Spirit of God had revealed clearely himselfe in the heart of Paul to strengthen him to goe up to Heirusalem these Disciples upon the Prophecie of Agabus that he should be bound at Hierusalem said to Paul through the Spirit that he should not goe up By what spirit By the gifts of the Spirit the spirit of love and their care of the Churches but Paul waves them all for hee had the minde of Christ by the voice of the Spirit himselfe this was indeede in times of extraordinary Revelation but it sheweth you neverthelesse the difference betweene the voyce of the Spirit and of the gifts of the Spirit he giveth the greater power to the Spirit then to the gifts of the Spirit being such kind of Gifts wherein humane frailty might be mingled The second Reason is taken from the greater power of Gods Reas 2 voyce in Publike then in private Administration If one of these Elders speake unto them it may be but a private incouragement Such as the advice of Nathan was unto David to build the Temple 1 Chro. 17.2 But had he come as afterwards he did in way of Publike Administration Hee could not have beene so mistaken as then he was For therein doth the Lord more specially reveale the presence and the power of his Spirit and grace Matth. 18.18.19 20. Therefore it is That when there commeth a great voice out of the Temple it carrieth along the Seven Angels to a speedy dispatch of this great worke of pouring out the Vials of the wrath of God upon the earth Vse 1 The first Vse may teach us all that have any private inducements or incouragements to any calling or worke of God by any Church-Officer or Church-Member not to sleight the same for these Angels did not sleight the motion when one of the Church Officers gave unto them the seven golden Viols but they tooke the Vials And when they see their time when there commeth a publike Voice out of the Temple then doe they all follow on effectually with their worke in their seasons Sleight not therefore private encouragements to good callings but looke for further provocation and strengthning in them from the publike Ministry even from the voyce of Christ in the publike Ordinances of his Church Private Revelations without the Word are out of date but certaine it is that God doth speake by his Spirit in private Meditation and Prayers and conferences with Bretheren and in all these comforteth his people with the manifestation of his fatherly goodnesse yet speaketh nothing but in his word and according to it Now these be good hints and good encouragements which God giveth his people in them and by no meanes to be sleighted when God sheweth his presence in them God forbid that any of the sonnes or daughters of God should put them away Yet this let me say though such be faire incouragements what private duty soever they come in whether to beleeve on this or that gracious promise of God or to stir us up unto any other Spirituall work the servants of God are hereby led to attend the more upon the publike Administrations of the Church for the further clearing of the mind and will of God There will the Lord more clearely reveale himselfe by his Spirit in every Ordinance of his Worship there doth he delight to poure out all his fresh Springs Psal 87. Last For there the Lord commanded the blessing even life for evermore Psal 133.3 Eternall life doth he give in the Publike fellowship of his Saints there doth hee confirme their callings to them looke unto the Lord therefore for his blessing in this way and so shall you be faithfull followers of these holy Angels of God who being privately incouraged waite for a publike voice to carry them an end in their Administrations wherein the Lord by the mighty power of his Spirit doth confirme al his Promises threatnings and Commandements and more throughly stirreth up the hearts of all his people to take hold of al that is spoken unto them therefore if ever you perceive any voyce or spirit to take off
If the Prophet shall repent and say I am no Prophet nor the sonne of a Prophet but an Husbandman and my father taught me to keep beasts or sheep and therefore he will not weare a rough garment to deceive And if any man aske him What are those wounds in thine hands he shall answer Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends Zach. 13.4 5 6. That shews in such a case they saved his life but they inflict some punishment on him to carry away with him And this is spoken not of the dayes of the Old Testament but it is written to be done when there is a fountain opened to the house of David and to the Inhabitants of Ierusalem for sinne and for uncleannesse in the 1. ver And in the 7. ver when the Lord calls for a sword against his Shepheard and against the man that is his fellow the Lord Jesus Christ and his companions his disciples He will smite the shepheard and the sheep shall be scattered and those are the dayes of the New Testament in those times it is when the Prophets shall be thus cut off that rise up to seduce the people of God And a third Reason is taken from the due desert of soul-murther Reas 3 There is none of all these Priests or Jesuites or Heretiques that sin in the like kind corrupting the precious truth of God in the very foundations of it but they worry and devour the soules of Gods people I meane those that should not die though Gods elect cannot be seduced yet those whom we ought to looke at that should not be thus murthered and brought to death by such means In the 7. Mat. 15. Beware of false Prophets which come unto you in sheeps cloathing but inwardly they are ravening wolves Is it not an acceptable service to the whole Countrey to cut off the ravenous wolves what is the wolfe to the sheep is he not the very death of them all that he lights on or fall in his jawes so is it with the sheep of Christ that fall into the jawes of these Romish ravenous wolves It is said of those false teachers 2 Timoth. 2.18 They destroyed the faith of some who concerning the truth have erred And in the 2 Pet. 2. 1 2 3. he tels us There shall be false teachers amongst them that shall bring in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and shall bring upon themselves swift destruction c. They shall make merchandise of you as the Church of Rome and her fountaines and rivers doe they make merchandise of the soules of men Rev. 18.13 Now to make merchandise of an Israelite as in the 21. Exod. 16. it is a capitall crime He that stealeth a man and selleth him or if he be found in his hand he shall surely be put to death Now these sell men and engage them to perpetuall bondage under their tyrannie both in doctrine and worship and government This murther of soules is juftly a capitall crime as Moses said before If they thrust thee from thy God and will not let thee walke with him let not thine eye spare such kinde of corrupters and desperate deluders Reas 4 The fourth reason is taken from that which the Iustitia Britanniae stands most upon and becomes States-men to doe and that is the conspiracie and treason against the State And that unavoidably by suffering such locust to run up and downe the Countrey to poison the hearts of men by their corrupt wayes and meanes for these Ministers they doe unavoidably not accidentally but they unavoidably draw men from their Allegeance due to their Native Prince to a forraine State For if a Prince should professe Protestant Religion which is the true Religion and thereupon be excommunicate by the Bishop of Rome what then then by the Lawes of their State he is deposed from his throne And they doe notably abuse the old type of Leprosie for this Vzziah being once smitten with leprosie then the High Priest removes him from the Temple of the Lord and he may not be suffered any more to governe for if once the Lord finite a man with leprosie in his judgement and indeed let heresie be one kinde of leprosie if the Priest pronounce him so then he is cut off from the government of the Countrey then his people are not subject to him and so subjects are freed from their fidelity to their naturall Prince which is a notable abuse of that place For God doth not intend that the authority of any Minister or Priest in the Old or New Testament should so farre prevaile that what they did in the Old Testament to Vzziah should take off Princes from their Goverment in the New For even in the old Testament they still retained the Crown though their power of execution was delegated to another and that not by the High-Priests appointment but by himselfe But as things were with them so though not in the same kinde but in a typicall way it befalls Princes in the New Testament If a man were found a Leper in the Old Testament hee was sequestred from the administration of his Kingdome and from his owne house Leviticus 13.46 he must not live in the Campe or in the Towne or Village but alone and in a separate place by himselfe as those that are sick of the Pestilence in our Native Countrey they are not suffered to live in the towne but in Pest-houses unlesse there be a generall infection But this thing must not be applyed in the letter to the state of the Church in the New Testament for Leprosie was not onely a type of scandalous infectious sins but it was also a bodily noysome infectious disease and made a man unfit for civill commerce Moreover as Leprosie was also a type of scandalous and infectious sinnes so the sequestring of Vzziah from the Temple doth type forth not that Christian Kings should be separate from their thrones For he that gives to a man a Kingdome or any earthly estate doth not debarre that man from his house if he be a private man nor from his government if he be a publique person But what is the Kingdome that is typed out It is the Kingdome of the glory of CHRIST JESUS If therefore hee be shut out from the holy Temple of Israel he is shut out from the Kingdome of Heaven indeed that is true for what is done by the Churches of God on earth is bound in Heaven But yet Christ Jesus never thought it meete to separate any by any Church power from communion with his wife and children those whom nature bound him to nor from his servants and subjects whom civill engagements bound unto him but only from interest in the spirituall communion of the seals of immortality and yet but for a season for the healing of his soule not for the destroying of his person or state but otherwise to exclude them from their own houses or Kingdomes or from any civill right
it was never Gods counsell nor meaning in the New Testament But now the contrary being the doctrine of the Church of Rome and on that ground justified When Princes are excommunicated they doe depose them and being deposed discharge subjects from their allegeance and then judge you what treason redownds to Christian Princes and what conspiracie and rebellion groweth in the state of a Kingdome when some take part with the King deposed and others with him that is substituted by the Pope and so there is Treason both against Prince and State and Kingdome And therefore it is an ancient justice of God that hath so ordered it that those that shall draw Gods people from the Allegeance of their Prince shall be judged Traitors and suffer paine of death Reas 5 And for a fift reason mentioned in the Text it is taken from the law of retaliation that look how men have dealt with others they should be so dealt withall themselves Now these Priests and Jesuites and their Abettors in the time of Queene Mary and Henry the eighth and all the Kings since the Statute against Lollards in England as also against the Hugonites in France if a man were suspected of hereticall pravity and pronounced guilty thereof by the Church he was to be delivered to the secular power onely he might have leave to consider of it But if he fell againe there was no hope of mercie but he must looke for bloud as if he were no better then a child of death And yet they were men that never troubled the State but quietly suffered for their Religion and Conscience So that these Jesuites and Priests delivering up so many innocent Lambs of Christ Ministers of the Gospel and holy Saints to the Secular power to be burnt at the stake in Smithfield and elsewhere and the Abettors of these Priests and Jesuites being very zealous to cut off such Lollards from the land of the living it is just and right with God They have given thy Saints and Prophets bloud to drinke and therefore looke as they have measured to others it is measured to them by the ancient Law of God that is the same and will be for ever Rev. 13.10 He that killeth with the sword must be killed by the sword So you see this point is plaine That upon the discovery of the deadly corruption of the Religion in the Romish Sea it was the righteous judgement of God and such as argued him to be unchangeable and ever the same that the Priests ands Jesuites which carryed the waters of that Sea that Religion up and downe the Nation should be condemned to a bloody death you see the truth of the point and the reasons of it For the use of the point it may first serve to justifie the holy Vse 1 and righteous equity of all those laws above mentioned whether in England or Holland for putting Popish Priests and Jesuites to death and there was a like law also made in France upon the murther of Henry the fourth that all Jesuites should be put away out of the Countrey and their studies demolished c. but they made it in policie But the Text speakes of England and Holland it was a just and righteous law that these rivers and fountains of waters should become blood you see there is blasphemy in their worship against the Lord Jesus Christ they doe seduce the people of God and turne them from the Lord and thrust them from him by their justification by workes by their callings on Saints and Angels and trusting in other Mediators besides the Lord Jesus in the intercession of Saints and Angels It hath beene a just hand of God that they that worry like ravenous wolves the soules of Gods people should themselves be worried that they that have made firebrands of Christians should drinke blood themselves they that over-whelmed Christians in confusion and tumult it is just with God that they should be over-whelmed they that have beene so busie in putting to death innocents that they should also be put to death you see this is just with God it is well becomming to the unchangeable righteousnesse of God thus it was in the old Testament and why should it be changed in the new You will say it was but a typicall matter then and you Ob. must looke for a spirituall death in the New Testament Why I pray you Brethren consider 1. Answ The Papists are not of that mind but they execute it in the letter they have put to death the Prophets and servants of God in the letter hunted them up and downe the Inquisition is incomparably more bloudy then any other other Butchery They doe not nor may not plead any such thing they beleeve it is true in the letter And let me say further the holy Ghost makes it as true in the letter this Text is in the New Testament not in the Old Thou hast given them bloud to drinke for they are worthy and he speaks of the very bloud of the hearts of men And it is parallel with Gods justice of old it was just then and it is just now Zachary intends the dayes of the New Testament though written in the Old that when a fountaine is opened to the house of David and inhabitants of Ierusalem for sinne and for uncleannesse then the father and mother of a false Prophet shall accuse him to the Magistrate and shall say unto him He shall not live Was it an abomination then to speak lyes in the Name of the Lord and no lesse then blasphemie and shall it be more favourably interpreted now A man may now speak a lye and bring in a false Christ a false Mediator and false meanes of satisfaction and false merits now he may without perill of his life in the Old Testament he might not Why but was it not sufficient to have a spirituall judgement Even they had spirituall judgements then but God saw it meet to inflict some temporall judgement as well as spirituall and is now his judgement changed Besides are not Moses Morall Lawes of perpetuall equity and therefore to be observed in all Ages Is blasphemy more tolerable in the New Testament or thrusting men away from God is it not as odious now as then Is not murther of soules as damnable now as then Is not conspiracie and sedition as damnable and capital now as then Is not the law of retaliation as just in the New Testament as in the old and therefore a man would wonder that such frivolous interpretations should come into the hearts of men to hinder the free passage of the justice of God on such notorious offenders Ob. But you will say Conscience should not be forced and men should not be put to death for their conscience Answ Why doe you thinke Heretiques were not as conscionable in the Old Testament as now If any man had a conscience to turn men from God he would have men of as much conscience to cut them off if they make
Princes odious Princes that shall be odious to God and malignant to the people If you still provoke me and for all this turn not to me I will set such over you them that shall be odious to me and odious to you that shall make you more and more to corrupt your wayes And if God at any time give them good Princes he will leade them into temptation for their sin In 2 Sam. 24.1 you read there the wratâ— of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he provoked David against them to say Go number Israel and Iudah The wrath of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he provoked David c. To what end That so a plague might come upon Israel So that minde you how the sins of the time rise from the contagion of the hearts and lives of the people That look as a man catcheth cold on his feet it fils the head with distempers Catch but cold in the lowest part about the ancles or feet or suppose the stomack be somewhat annoyed through ill dyet or ill digestion what then It strikes up to the head presently you cannot annoy the feet ancles or middle parts but the head will feel both So if either Ministers be corrupt or common people the head the Rulers will straightway bee corrupt it will not bee otherwise If the Prophets prophesie lyes and the Priests bear rule by their means and the people love to have it so what will be the end Do you think there will come any Princes that will reform them Do you think the Lord will take any course to reform such great evils as these be As evill first begins with the common people so they are first plagued For a third Reason As evill first begins with the people and they are first plagued and as for them it is derived to the Priests and Princes and they are by that meanes corrupted either are not good or led into some temptation Reas 3 So thirdly the Lord is deeply provoked against the lights and guides of the Church whether Civill or Ecclesiasticall Church-mâ—n or Common-wealths men the Lord is provoked against both for suffering their people to bedable themselves with some corruption in Religion and religious conversation In the 34. Ezek 7 to 10. Heare this O yee Shepheards of Israel and he speakes as best Interpreters expound it both to Ecclesiasticall and Civill Shepheards to the Priests in the Church and the Princes in the Common-wealth he speakes expresly to both Heare O yee Shepheards because you have suffered my people to wander and my flock to be a prey therefore I am against you and he professeth he will rend his people from them and rend the very cause of their heart and execute judgement upon them and he will judge betweene the Rams and the Hee Goats and tender Kids and will deliver them and set them one Shepheard over them that shall be more faithfull to him and his people even his servant David he meanes Christ and they that are of David's spirit that shall in his name rule his people So that mind you the wrath of God is carried an end in this course he begins with the people first because they are first corrupt and then with Rulers for had not they been soon corrupted it had not been possible that the Church should so quickly have become a wildernesse So here he begins with the common sort and then with Ministers and then with the great Lights that rule by day that rules the affaires of the Church and Common-wealth For the use of this point briefly Vse 1 It may serve then to be a watchword and warning to the common sort of Christians First look you to it men and brethren and beloved in Christ Jesus look you to it tenderly and seriously that neither doctrine nor worship of God nor Church Government be corrupt to your best discerning but preserved by diligent examination of all things according to the patterne shewed in the Word as it hath been hitherto held forth to you Looke to it that the Sea you wash and bathe your soules in be not defiled let it be so clear that the vertue of the bloud of Christ may be discerned in it otherwise beleeve it though you may think it least concernes you Let Church-officer look to it and let Civill Magistrates see to it it is their calling to look to Worship and Government in their time and place though that be true they must look to it and God will require it else at their hand yet if you look not to it the wrath of God will be powred out upon you If men unprepared shall most giddily rush into the Church what will the issue be The Lord will powre a cold haile-storme upon you never such coldnesse fell upon men as there wil be when they rush into Churches before they be warmed with the bloud of Christ Jesus Revel 8.7 that was the first Trumpet of Gods vengeance there heavy grievous hailestones great hailestones and which is wonderfull you will think it marvellous but it is true as they were cold in Religion so they were zealous for contention and Coveteousnesse and Ambition and personal respects that if they got an opinion by the end they contended for it as pro aris focis for fire on the hearth as if there were no warmth but in that though the opinion were never so unsavoury when men thrust into the Church and take it very ill if they be examined What will the issue be Nothing but cold shill dead-heartednesse falls upon them and then a wild fire of rage and crotchetly opinions and then grow so zealous therein as if religion lay in some quintessence notions of theirs therefore first look for and beware of corruption in the common people Then secondly let the Lords Ministers I speak to my selfe Vse 2 as much as any other in a speciall manner look to these things that we diligently looke to religion and the purity of doctrine and worship and of every ordinance of God with circumspection and faithfulnesse and diligence and sedulity and watchfulnesse that nothing of the holy things of God may be corrupted that are committed to us for we shall next feele the smart of it For as religion will be corrupt in the people first and so far as that you shall have no power nor life of godlinesse in it and the bloud of Christ will be as the bloud of a dead man So then the Ministers of the Gospell must looke to it for the next thing will bee some heavy judgment or other God will bring upon them if they be not vigilant to see that all things bee done according to the true platforme left to us in the word you know the Prophet Malachy complaines of it in Malac. 1.11 12 13. that men began to waxe weary of sacrifices and snuffed at the cost of it and brought the blinde and lame and any thing for Sacrifice and the Table of the Lord was
it comes to passe that the good man of the house is asleep and the thief breaks thorow and steals when all is bisht then he comes like a thief in the night 1 Thes 5.2 Your selv as know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night So like a thief hee comes suddenly and secretly Thirdly he comes as a thief to take away and bereave a man of such goods as he carnally keeps not to steal from him but to recover his own Though not as a lawlesse thief stealeth yet as a just recoverer of his fathers goods out of the hands of those that have not been faithfull in improving of them John 10.10 The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly And so he may come also to kill but not unjustly as a thief but verily as a just Judge upon those that do not watch and keep their garments He may take their garments and leave them naked that men may see their shame and justly too because they have not watched but have suffred themselves to be defiled Thus then Christ will come at that time yee shall have many men serious of Reformation when the Lord shall dry up the River Euphrates that makes glad the city of Babel when the ten Kings shall come to make the Whore desolate the Lord will then come and try all those Kings and their souldiers who ever they are he will try them in the Frogs he will try them secretly and slily for they will not cease to be inchanting as secretly as they can into the hearts of Kings and all godly spirits to turne things backe againe into the former course of corruption into those idolatries and thefts which made glad the City of Rome and which did uphold the Turke And in the Kings of the earth and of the world he will come upon them as a thief violently and terribly to shake the hearts of all the Kings of Christendom as it s called to withdraw them from the Reformation of Religion which they shall be zealously addicted to suddenly to drive them to their former superstition of their fore-fathers So in one sort of these he will come as a thief secretly and slily In the other sort of these he will come as a thief violently and terribly Reas 1 If ye shall ask the Reason of the Point the Reason is shortly this First it is taken from the instrument in which Christ doth come for Christ is many times resembled by the instruments which he useth if he useth instruments of a still voice then he comes not with a rending but with a still voice so ye read in 1 Kings 19.12 So here he comes in these unclean spirits for the Lord acts them he comes in Potent Princes for he is said to come in the likenesse of these he comes in them both and he is said to come as a thief in the likenesse of these Frogs because they come in his likenesse Ye shall have many false Prophets come in my name saith Christ Mat. 24.24 Take heed of them for they shall deceive many they shall come secretly and slily and play legerdemain and by that means deceive many and they shall come outragiously first against the Lord and his people and the Lord comes forth in their rage that look as it is said by some Interpreters of Paul 1 Cor. 15.32 He fought with beasts at Ephesus after the manner of men they interpret it thus not that ever he was put to any such triall that any probable Stories mention in Ephesus or any where else but he fought with beasts at Ephesus after the manner of men because the men of Ephesus fought with him after the manner of beasts So Christ is said to come in these men because they come in the name of Christ and plead for the Catholick Church of Christ and the Vicar of Christ Behold I come as a thief they are all but theeves though they pretend to come in the name of Christ that may be one part of the meaning But yet notwithstanding this that followeth do I most of all cleave unto not excluding that This may be another taken from the authority of Christ and power of Christ in leading a people into temptation what ever the instruments be I say it is the Lord Jesus that leads his people into all kindes of temptation whatsoever the instruments be If any Prophet be deluded it is Christ the Lord hath deluded that Prophet Or if any Tyrants be set up it is the Lord that sets them up Or what ever unclean spirits come against his Church it is the Lord that stirred them up it is the Lord that stirred them up unto this battell against his Church it is the Lord that stirred them up what ever the instruments be be they Frogs or unclean spirits that gathers to the battels of Pray And therefore we are taught to pray in that which is commonly called the Lords Prayer Mat. 6.13 Lead us not into temptation We pray to the Lord that he would not lead us into temptation As who should say to the Lord it belongs to bring one creature against another the devil against Eve and Eve against the devil the Lord it is that brings the evil whoever be the instruments it is the Lord that brings his challenge into the field he brings Goliah into the valley of Elah And therefore when it is said 1 Chron. 21.1 that Satan rose up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel In 2 Samuel 24.1 it is said The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them to say Go number Israel and Judah The Lord was angry with the people and then he let Satan loose to tempt David to number the people It was the Lords doings though it was Satans act And so when Micaiah in his Vision saw the Lord sitting on his Throne and all the hoste of Heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left And the Lord said Who shall perswade Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead And one said on this manner and another said on that manner At length saith the Text there came forth a spirit and stood before the Lord and said I will perswade him And the Lord said unto him Wherewith And he said I will go forth and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his Prophets And he said Thou shalt perswade him and prevail also saith the Lord Go forth and do so 1 Kings 22.19 20 21 22. So that minde you whoever goes forth the Lord sends him the Dragon the Beast and the false Prophet may give one Commission but the Lord gives him permission yea and I may say Commission too For in effecting the thing the Lord doth it that as David saith of Shimei The Lord hath bid him curse me that