be so called in respect of a civill death as dead to the whole World in a civill respect having no communion nor commerce with the World And the bodies are here named not the persons because persecuting Tyrants as we touched before have no power over the soule but only over the body this they may torment imprison ſ Matth. 10.28 kill but that 's all they can doe Well what of those dead bodies take them in any sense They shall lie in the street of the great Citie which spiritually is called Sodome and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified What great City is this Surely it can be no other but the Citie of the Beast together with the Suburbs And the Suburbs are all those Cities or States which are either subject to or confederate with the Head-Citie which is Rome We can not have a fitter exposition hereof then that which the Prelate of Canterbury gives us in his reprinted Conference with the Jesuite Fisher For there he saith That the Church of Rome and the Church of England as also all other Prelaticall or Hierarchicall Churches are all one and the same Church no doubt of that as he saith and as is noted before This is his Catholike Church And so this is that great City which stands in opposition to the Holy Citie and treads it under feet as Verse 2. For as Christs Church is called a Holy Citie though it be dispersed over the World So Antichrists Synagogue is here called a Great Citie as comprehending in it all those Cities and States which make up one body of the Beast This great City is spiritually called Sodome and Egypt Sodome for the wickednesse voluptuousnesse prophanenesse pride and other sins of Sodome raigning therein and where they make open warre against all holinesse and all good Laws of GOD and Man And secondly it is called Egypt for its tyranny in oppressing and afflicting of Gods people with their intolerable burthens And for this they have their Task-masters to wit the Prelates and their multitude of officers who force Gods people through their whole Egyptian Provinces to fill up their tale and task of bricks in the strict observation of all their Rites and Ceremonies Constitutions and Canons the Spirituall burthens of their spirituall Egypt and for default thereof in the lest degree or kind the Taskmasters beat and abuse them if they t Exod. 5.15 complaine 't is to no purpose they can have no remedy Thus not without cause is this Citie called not only Great but spiritually Sodome and Egypt So as in what Country soever in the World this Beast sets his paw that is where ever hee hath his Taskmasters the Prelates and their Officers as where almost are they not there is the Kingdome of the Beast there be the Suburbs of this Great Citie And whatever Countrey or State doth incorporate it self into an union or confederation with this Papall Hierarchie becomes thereby ipso facto a member of this great Citie which is spiritually called Sodome and Egypt And this being so tell me ô England art thou not become a member of this great body of this Great Citie of this spirituall Sodome of this spirituall Egypt For wherein dost thou differ from Rome it selfe Doth not thy great Arch-prelate who is as thine Oracle professe in thy name and in Print with an unblushing forehead that England is of the u Conference Reprinted Epist Ded. pag. 16. And pag. 376. 338. c. same Church same faith same Religion with Rome And doth he not shrowd this his Book under the name of the highest Authoritie in England as commanded by the King to be published And hast thou not set forth Edicts dispensing with the open profanation of the Sabbath by heathenish Sports and others prohibiting Ministers to preach in the after-noons on Lords Days as preferring thy prophane Sports before the holy and divine Ordinance of Preaching and so consecrating at least the one halfe of the Lords Day to Bacchus or Belial Art thou not then a part of that great Citie which is spiritually called Sodome Again dost thou not permit if not command thy Prelates the Roman Pharoahs Taskmasters to vex afflict and grievously oppresse the people of God with the intolerable burthens of their and thine endlesse Ceremonies And not x These things were then in force when this Treatise was written content with the old thou addest new burthens as the Egyptians did in denying straw and those most abominable as thy Superstitious yea Idolatrous Heathenish Altars with all their Idolatrous Altar-Service wherein thou art utterly falne from being a member of the Holy Citie which thou treadest under thy feet and even professest thy selfe to be of that Great Citie which for its inthralling and oppressing of Gods people is spiritually called Egypt O England England Repent hereof cast out thy cursed and cruell Taskmasters like as thy Neighbour Scotland hath done so suffer thy people Gods people to serve their God as he hath commanded and to enjoy their Christian Libertie which Christ hath deerly purchased for them and no longer to be under the Antichristian Babylonian yoake and the Egyptian Taskmasters Thus we have seen as it were in a Map the large Territories and bound lesse bounds of this great City here mentioned spiritually called Sodome and Egypt in the street whereof lie the dead bodies of Christs two witnesses and where as here is added our Lord was crucified Which is to be understood not simply and personally of our Lords crucifying but mystically For our Lord in Person was crucified at Jerusalem and yet not within the Citie but without the Gate And yet Christ in his Person was crucified by the first Roman Beast the Emperour whose Successour both in his Seat and in the Image of his Power and State and in all his bloudy persecutions of the Saints the Papall Beast now is as also of the Scribes and Pharisees and High Priests who put Christ to death and so hee with them is guilty of his bloud as Matth. 23.35 36. Verse 31. But he is crucified mystically in his mysticall members even in the open Streets of this Great Citie Witnesse all those persecutions and Martyrdomes which the Beast in all Ages and Countries hath caused wherein the Lord himselfe hath been crucified to wit in his Saints and Witnesses And what thinke you of those Witnesses of whose crucifying on the Pillory in the open street or rather spacious Palace-yard in the Citie of Westminster we have been all eye-witnesses and spectators Was our Lord there then in them on those Pillories crucified or not If he were and that upon such an eminent Theatre and in the view of that Court where they were so censured the High Priests themselves with others of high note beholding and pleasing themselves with such a Tragedie of the Beasts cunning contriving and cruell execution was not this trow you a part of that Great Citie where our Lord hath been
court without the Temple here by a Metonymie taking the continent for the thing contained may signifie the company of those in generall that professe to be Christians but yet are indeed and in truth no true members of the true Church they are not of and in the Temple but they are out of the Temple And therefore that which is translated in our English Leave out is in the Originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cast out as also the p Eâ—jce forat Latine and the * jette hors French rightly render it This is as the Lord saith to Ieremie q Ier. 15.19 If thou take forth the precious from the vile thou shalt be as my mouth So here Iohn having measured the true people of God such as worship him according to his Word is bid here to cast out the refuse such as do not worship God in purity and verity such as worship not in his Temple and at his Altar to wit in Christs only Name who though they beare the common name of Christians yet they are not within the Temple but without in the common-outer court which here is cast out and not to be reckoned to bee of the Temple And this court Iohn must not measure it sufficeth that having measured the true worshippers by describing their true properties out of Gods Word it followeth consequently that all those which are fals worshippers are those of the court without the Temple so to be cast out as r Gen. 21.10 Gal. 4.30 the bond woman and her sonne were cast out of Abrahams house and not to be measured nor nuÌ„bred with Gods people And it is added here For it is given unto the Gentiles that is they of this court are to be reckoned among the Gentiles and to bee accounted as Heathen and Infidels For the purpose what are all Papists and all other altar-worshippers and bringers in and setters up and Conformists to strange Service invented by men but Heathen and Infidels For as we said before the very setting up of an Altar and Altar-Service is a flat deniall of Christ the only true Altar and so is meere Heathenisme and Infidelitie Or else by the Gentiles here is understood the antichristian Kingdome or the spirituall Babylon under which the formall Protestants and cold professours of this age under the sixt Trumpet shall be brought in bondage as back-sliding Israel of old was given into the hands of the King of Babylon For these back-sliders and Formalists are those of the outer court that is cast out and the Spirituall Babylon is properly so called for her Heathenish and Babylonish manners as Psal 59.5.8 David calls Saul and his bloudy persecutors Heathen and Esay 1.10 the Prophet calls the degenerate Princes and people of Israel Princes of Sodome and people of Gomorrha as being in manners like unto them especially her manifold Idolatries wherein she resembleth old Babylon as shee is set out Chap. 17. And how truly is this verified of our cold or rather luke-warme Laodiceans in England at this day Is not all England in generall and for the greatest part brought under the Babylonish yoke in her universall conformitie to Popery in setting up of Altars and Altar-service after the manner of Rome Are not all the Ministers and People therein I say for the most part made the Prelates vassals who have of late more then formerly set up the Image of the Beast and his Throne almost in all the Churches and over all the Congregations of England What Minister almost is there at this day dare stand against the Antichristian Tyranny now so highly exalted over all mens consciences Are they not then brought under the Babylonish Captivitie Are they not given to the Gentiles into the power of the Spirituall Babylon a farre worse and more intolerable bondage then that of the ancient people of God either in Egypt or Babylon For that was a bondage of the body but this of the Soule and Conscience And thus this very phrase It is given to the Gentiles alludes to the like speeches in the Prophets concerning revolted and degenerate Jerusalem whereof it is said very frequently in Å¿ Ier. 32.24 25 28. Jeremy that the Citie is given into the hands of the Caldaeans or Babylonians So here the Court without the Temple is cast out and given to the Gentiles that is as is said before to the Kingdome and power of the Babylonian Beast which succeeds old Babylon in all her Idolatries and bestiall crueltie in captiving of Gods people And it is added here And the holie Citie shall they tread under foot two and forty months This holy City here alludes to the old City Hierusalem as the Gentiles here allude to old Babylon which did tread under feete that holy City 70. yeeres But what is meant here by this holy City This holy City is the true church of God called the t Psal 46.4 city of God and the u 1 Kin. 11.32 elect City and the x Rev. 20.9 beloved city and againe Revell 22.19 the holy city and the y Heb. 12.22 City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem This holy City this Church of God shal the Gentiles to wit the Spirituall Babylon called the Beast out of the bottomlesse pit Verse 7. tread under foote that is shall exceedingly oppresse and afflict making havock of the Saints of God the citizens of this holy city making no more account of them then of dirt and mire in the Streets yea they shall defile and destroy the holy assemblies of the Saints by corrupting the pure worship and service of God and crying downe all holinesse both of life and conversation and Sanctification of the Sabbath or Lords day in the publike assemblies and private families forbidding preaching of the doctrine of Grace and restraining Sermons on the Lords day in the Afternoone and persecuting all Godly powerfull and painfull Ministers and giving publike dispensation to youth and others for following of profane sports on the Lords holy-day to wit his own day many such like outrages they do Thus they trample upon the holy city as labouring to destroy and bring into contempt as it were by setting their foule foot upon all holinesse Like those wicked and false Shepherds in Ezechiel z Ezech. 34.18 19. that devoure the good pasture and tread the residue under their feet that drinke of the deepe waters and foule the residue with their feete so as the flock of God must eate and drink that which their filthy feete have trodden upon and fouled a Note here good Reader that the Author writ this before this time of Reformation happily in part begun and hopefully expected unto a perfection Now when was ever the holy City the true Church of God in all these respects more trodden upon with the feete of false shepherds when was all holinesse ever more hated despised railed upon reviled persecuted oppressed trampled upon then now
in our time that we neede not doubt but that this is the time of the Sixt Trumpet under which wee now live How are the godly and painfull Ministers of God in England misused their mouths stopped their wives children and families dispossessed and cast out of their habitations all holy and true professors among the People vexed wearied and even worried by the Pursivants and courts of Prelates so as they are forced many of them to forsake their houses and sweete native country to go seeke for refuge among wild beasts and wilde Salvages and wilde deserts b Heb. 11.37 38. wandring up and down as the Apostle speakes in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth of whome the world is not worthy c. Thus is not the holy City trodden under foote of these Gentiles yea worse then the old Gentiles the Babylonian Beast and his broode having lost all humanity and all the properties of reasonable men like c Dan. 4. Nabuchadnezzar when he grazed among the beasts of the field when nothing will satisfie them but the utter desolation and extirpation of the Saints of God and of all holinesse What neede then have Gods people to cry and pray with David d Psal 83.1 2 3 4. Keepe not thou silence o God hold not thy peace and be not still O God For loe thine enemies make a tumult and they that hate thee have lift up the head They have taken crafty counsell against thy people and consulted against thy hidden ones They have said come let us cut them off from being a Nation that the name of Israell may bee no more in remembrance For they have consulted together with one consent they are confederate against Thee But do thou unto them as unto the Madianites as to Sisera c. as it followeth to the end of the Psalme Let them be confounded and troubled for ever let them be put to shame and perish that men may know that thou whose name alone it Jehovah art the most high over al the earth But e Psal 94.3 4 5 6 7. how long shall these wicked thus triumph How long shall they utter and speak hard things and all the workers of iniquitie boast themselves How long shall they breake in pieces thy people O Lord and afflâ—ct thine heritage How long shall they slay the Widow and the stranger and murther the fatherlesse How long shall these Atheists say The Lord shal not see neither shal the God of Jacob regard it How long shall these Gentiles thus tread under foot the holy Citie of our God It is said here Two and forty moneths Surely as the words doe sound no very long time Two and forty moneths make up three yeers and a halfe and not much more then those thousand two hundred and threescore days in the next Verse Now whether these forty two moneths be taken literally and strictly or whether they signifie some longer or shorter time is uncertain to us this we may certainly build upon that the time of Antichrists afflicting of Gods Church under this Trumpet shall not be long But this number of forty and two moneths being so precisely laid downe as containing three yeeres and a halfe we may be the bolder to take it literally for this space of time Nor is it unusuall in Scripture so to number according to the strict letter thereof as of Israels affliction in Egypt from Abrahams calling just foure hundred and thirtie yeeres and the Jews Captivitie in Babylon just seventy yeeres And in Daniel f Dan. 7.25 A time times and halfe or part of a time is taken for three yeers and part of the fourth wherein that proud King Antiochus who was a type of Antichrist should and did afflict the people of God A time or times being interpreted by Daniel himselfe to bee so many g Dan. 4.16 11.13 yeers The like phrase whereunto wee have Revel 12.14 that the Church should be persecuted of the Dragon a time times and halfe a time Which is to bee interpreted according to those times in Daniel three yeers and a halfe And hereupon it is that the Jesuits as Bellarmine and others stand so stiffe that Antichrists Reigne shall continue but three yeeres and a halfe by which they think to excuse the Pope from being Antichrist But it will not serve their turn For we easily grant that three yeers and a halfe being the summe of fortie and two moneths is that space of time wherein the Beast out of the bottomlesse pit that Antichrist shall afflict Gods Church under this sixt Trumpet And so likewise this space of time doth answer that time times and part of time wherein Antiochus the type of Antichrist afflicted the ancient people of God which was a good part of three yeeres and a halfe as Tremelius well sheweth in his notes upon Daniel And if we consider the practices of Antiochus in that time and compare them with Antichrists practices in this sixt Trumpet we shall find a marvellous correspondence between them Now of Antiochus Daniel saith h Dan 7.25 He shall speak great words against the most High and shal weare out the Saints of the most High and think to change times and Laws and they shall be given into his hand untill a time and times and the dividing of time Whereupon Tremellius notes that this Antiochus was most blasphemous against God and a most cruell Tyrant over Gods people in so much as he took upon him and did arrogate unto himselfe divine authoritie in abolishing the Sabbaths and other Laws of God and did institute and impose new Laws and Ceremonies according to his owne humour and pleasure Now what doth Antichrist and his Limbes the Prelates in these our days Doe they not most proudly i See the Prelate of Canterbury his last Book throughout togeâ—her wiâ—h all his practices arrogate to themselves divine authoritie and impiously blaspheme God and Christ in saying Christ thought it fittest to appoint them as his Viceroys in governing his Church Doe they not hereupon beare themselves as so many gods sitting in Christs throne imposing their owne devices Ceremonies Canons upon the consciences of Gods people Doe they not vilifie the holy Scripture as an insufficient and imperfect Rule of Faith and preferre the Tradition of their prelaticall Church before it Doe they not abrogate the moralitie of the fourth Commandement as not binding us Christians to keep the Lords day for our Sabbath day Do they not dispense with the profanation of it by most licentious and lascivious Sports and Pastimes to all youth and others thereby also dispensing with the fifth Commandement when Masters may not restrain their own Servants nor Parents their Children from their laudable Sports as they call them that day Doe they not forbid Ministers to preach twice on that day Doe they not altogether forbid sound preaching of the doctrines of Grace And do they not i Dan. 7.25 weare out
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
are observable 1 The time when it begins 2 The parties or warriers and 3 the issue of the battaile First for the time it is when the two witnesses have finished their testimony Then and not before Till then the Beast hath no power to set upon them Thus it was with the Captain of our salvation John 7.8 My time saith he is not yet come And Verse 30. when his enemies sought to take him no man laid hands on him because his houre was not yet come But when his houre was come that hee must lay down his life as John 13.1 and 17.1 and when hereupon his enemies came to take him Christ saith unto them k Luke 22.53 This is your houre and power of darknesse Till now they had no power till his houre was come And when upon the Crosse hee came to say It is finished then and not before hee gave up the ghost Thus he finished his Testimony before his death It is said of David that l Acts 13 36. after hee had served his owne Generation by the will of GOD hee fell asleep And Paul saith of himself m 2 Tim. 4.6 7 I am now ready to bee offered and the time of my departure is at hand And the reason is added in the next Verse I have fought a good fight J have finished my course Thus when these two witnesses have finished their testimony the Beast sets upon them and kils them And here let me give you a most remarkable instance wherein God is the more glorified Which at that very time when it was done was observed by some neighbour Ministers in London Only this I deprecate that none doe imputâ— unto me any vain humour of glorying as if I made my selfe one of those witnesses here spoken of such an honour I assume not to my selfe Only I say I crave leave to relate a truth It is this I having been n See a notable parallel hereof in Ezech. Chap 3.24 25 26. shut up in my owne house by the Prelates Pursuivants daily and hourely watching for mee at my gates the space of almost two moneths in which time notwithstanding their continuall rapping and ringing at my gates I was a compiling my Book of two Sermons which I had preached in my Church the fifth of November then last past fitting it for the Press that so it might be a testimony to all the World of that truth which I had therein delivered and for which I was then questioned and troubled by the Prelates the which testimony as also my Apologie for my Appeale being now finished and fully printed and some Books for the King and Councell bound up and brought unto me the same day at night and not before came from the Lord of London then Lord Treasurer a Serjant at Arms with a number of Pursuivants and Officers with swords and staves in the evening and with great violence assaulted my doors and brake them open though very strong and so came and seized on my body sitting with my family in my gowne and making no resistance at all This I thought here not unfit to be noted as not altogether impertinent to this Prophecie to which this example may seem to have some correspondence And so much of the time when this warre begins even when these two witnesses have finished their testimony and not before The Beast for all his roaring yet hath not the power to set his paw upon Christs witnesses untill they have finished their testimony And is it not lawfull for me to adde one truth more that God may be glorified and the hearts of his people raised up and filled with rejoycing in him This it is Not all the Beasts hundred eyes not all his quick-sented bloud-hounds the Pursuivants for all their vigilant and eagre hunting could find out or discover where this testimony to wit For God and the King was printed though they left never a Printing house about London unsearched over and over day by day the Lord in his providence preserving not only my person but my testimony also that it should not be prevented but come forth into the open light It followeth When they had finished their testimony The Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomlesse pit begins to make warre against them as I have told you before Here then wee are to consider the second circumstance of this warre the two adverse parties the one the Beast c. the other the two witnesses the Beast is the Assailant and the two Wittnesses are the Defendants For the Beast hee is here described from the place whence he comes the bottomlesse pit and secondly by the manner of his issuing thence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee ascendeth out of the bottomlesse pit His rise is groundlesse bottomlesse out of the bottomlesse deep and his motion is Ascendant yea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ascending being a participle of the present tense still aspiring with o Esay 4. Lucifer to place his throne above the stars yea above God himselfe Hee is ever ascending but still out of the bottomlesse pit as if hee could never get out of it This bottomlesse pit is hell the Den where this Beast is bred and whence he is nourished And who this Beast is yee may easily know by his Picture lively pourtrayed Chap. 13. and 17. compared together He hath his seven heads and ten horns Monstrum horrendum ingens the like Beast again is not in all the World And the Dragon the Devil gives him power Chap. 13.2 and Verse 5. Power is given him to make warre with the Saints and to overcome them The very same Beast here which maketh warre with Christs witnesses and overcomes them This is that Beast of Rome plainly described Chap. 17. And as this seven-headed and ten-horned Beast hath his ascent rise and originall out of the bottomlesse pit so also his brood and off-spring as those Locusts Chap. 9.3 who are this Beasts Warriers Thus wee see who this Beast is from whence whither he ascendeth Now let us see what he doth 1 he makes warre against the two witnesses 2 He overcomes them 3 he killeth them First hee makes warre against them Alas poore witnesses for such a great and monstrous Beast with his numerous brood to make warre against them Such a power to make warre against two â—ut by this time Christs witnesses may be increased and multiplied to a greater number and that by the example of the two here spoken of whose more eminent and mighty testimonies cannot so goe alone but they will draw many others after them to testifie the same truth Though it pleased the Holy Ghost to point out but two witnesses only and in such wise to set them forth as thereby we might come to know the full intent and meaning of this Prophecie as hath been shewed Now the Beast having mustered his forces together makes warre against the two witnesses not only against Them but against all other whom hee finds endued
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
astonishment and terrour of all their enemies who shall behold them But now a little more particularly to cleere the words we shewed before how the Lord's witnesses may be slain two wayes either corporally in separating their souls from their bodies or mystically and in a similitude or parable in a separation of their life from the world that is from all coÌ„merce coÌ„munion with the world so as their life is made no better but rather worse then death Now for them that are slain after the first manner we are not to expect that God wil according to the Letter rayse them up from the dead as here after three days and a halfe And for them that are slain after the second manner here specified though God should not deliver and restore them from that their civill death though he be able to do it and will doe it if he have so determined unto their libertie and communion with humane societie as formerly Yet this we are sure of as Gods Word here must needs be true that of the very dust and ashes of his dead witnesses under this Trumpet in what manner so ever dead hee will raise up again to life and that in the time of this Trumpet either those very witnesses in their own persons or else in the Spirit of these hee will raise up other witnesses and such as if they were those very witnesses formerly slain Thus wee read of Elias c Mal. 4.5 6. Behold saith the Lord I will send you Elias the Prophet before the comming of the great and dreadfull day of the Lord and he shall turn the heart of the Fathers to the children c. Now this Elias was meant of John the Baptist that morning Star that ushered in the d Mal. 4.2 Sun of Righteousnesse that was to prepare the way before him e Luke 1.17 He saith the Angell to Zachariah shall goe before him in the Spirit and power of Elias to turn the heart of the Fathers to the Children c. Whence it is plaine and cleere that John the Baptist was that Elias there prophecied of and he is called Elias because hee came in the spirit and power of Elias And therefore Christ faith to his Disciples when they objected that Elias must first come f Math. 17.11 I tell you saith he that Elias is come already c. whereupon they understood that hee spake unto them of John the Baptist And Matth. 11.14 Speaking of John Baptist he saith This is Elias which was to come Thus wee see how the Prophet Elias being dead and buried many hundred yeers before yet was as it were raised up from the dead to be Christs harbinger But how Not in his person but in his spirit and power So as John Baptist comming in the spirit and power of Elias is called Elias and in him the Prophecie is fulfilled that Elias should come and now in Iohn he was already come Now according to this sense wee may safely interpret this Prophecie also in this place After three dayes and a halfe the spirit of life from God shall enter into them to wit into the two slain witnesses and they shall stand upon their feet c that is after a short but set time with God the spirit of life from God shall rayse up his former witnesses that were slain though not in their owne persons yet in other witnesses that shall succeed them who shall be indued with the same spirit and power which they had beene indued with all And this is that spirit of life from God which entring into his servants raiseth them up to be lively witnesses of his truth full of vigour strength courage zeale constancie g Revel 12.11 not loving their lives unto the death but as it is said of Paul and Barnabas such as had h Acts 15.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abandoned or given up for lost their lives for the Name of Christ So that as the same spirit of life from God entring into Iohn the Baptist made him to be called that Elias who had been indued with the same spirit and was foretold to come againe which was fulfilled in the Baptist So here the same spirit of life from God nor is it said to bee their own spirit which the slain witnesses had now entring into other witnesses succeeding them they by the same reason may be called those very witnesses as being now by the Almighty power of GOD raised from the dead as Iohn the Baptist was called that Elias because hee came in the spirit and power of Elias And in this respect seeing the raising and restoring of these two witnesses is perhaps not personall but spiritual it is not necessary that we tie or restrain the succeeding witnesses strictly to the number of two only For as it was said of old Sanguis Martyrum semen Ecclesiae The bloud of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church and as one seed or grain sowne and dying brings forth much fruit as i Iohn 12.24 Christ saith so as one corne brings forth the increase of a hundred and some of a thousand as in some Countries as of Virginia So these two witnesses may in the multiplication of their spirit and power and of that spirit of life from God bring forth an abundant harvest even great plenty of more witnesses that shâ—ll stand up for that Truth for the which these two were slaine What shall wee say of those many witnesses whom the Lord lately raised up in Scotland standing up upon their feet to mayntain their Christian Liberty against Antichristian bondage and to vindicate Christs Scepter and Government over his Church there out of the tyrannicall hands of that proud usurping Beast out of the bottomlesse pit who by his Egyptian Taskmasters the Prelates so oppressed Gods people as they were made weary of their lives And when were these witnesses raised up Surely not much after three dayes and a halfe that the two witnesses were slaine those I meane who suffered worse then death for bearing witnesse against the Tyranny of the Romish Beast and his cruell Taskmasters And what other spirit but that spirit of life from God could raise up so many witnesses so unanimously and with such a wonderfull wisdome discretion judgement zeal and courage to stand up in defence of Christs Kingdome against Antichrists Tyranny Yea and what other spirit and power but that of God could move the heart of his anointed Vicegerent to assent to his peoples just and religious plea to have Christ alone to raigne over his peoples soules and consciences which is his peculiar and incommunicable Prerogative Nor could the King either have advanced higher his own Royall honour or more surely have established his owne Throne in the uniting and fastening of his Subjects hearts and affections in all love and loyalty unto him then by giving Christ his due honour who hath said k 1 Sam. 2.30 Those that honour me I will honour and they
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
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