and to punish those that would observe them as the adherents of that Parliament did if I knew him I should verily believe him to be the great Antichrist But as the Prophet David complaineth of the Jews that they kept not the Covenant of God and would not walk in his law but soon forgate what he had done and the wonderfull works that he had shewed for them Psal 78.12 so we may justly complain of all those the spawn and offspring of the Presbyterian assembly and adherents of that long Parliament that not only forget the due observation of these holy times but also forbid and inhibit and in many places reprove correct and punish their Christian brethren for their religious observation of these good dayes and the performance of these holy duties which they owe to God for his great blessings Yet I hope that with all their subtlety and authority that vote them down they shall never be able to suppress them no more than Antiochus was to abolish the Jewish feasts because the holy Ghost saith the little horn that was the type of the Antichrist when he came to be great Daniel 7.25 and to the height of his power did but think to change the times and was not able to change them because the godly Jews observed all their festival times and holy dayes notwithstanding all the inhibition of Antiochus to the contrary and all the tortures that they endured for observing them So I hope all good Christians and true Saints will observe these their feasts and holy dayes and upon no termes either of fear flattery or gain omit on these times to do their service and holy duties unto God nor shew themselves less thankfull to God for the true substance than the Jews were for the types and shadowes of that substance But I remember Sanders Sanders in demonst Ansel in Apoc. c. 7. ex Irenaeo l. 5. Hypolit in orat de fine seculi Gen. 49.17 Jerem. 8.16 Bellar. de Rom. Pontif. l. 3. c. 12. Anselmus and some others out of Irenaeus and Hippolitus do think that the Antichrist shall be a Jew of the Tribe of Dan because old Jacob saith Dan shall be a serpent by the way an adder in the path that biteth the horse heels so that his rider shall fall backward and the Prophet Jeremy saith the snorting of his horses was heard from Dan and especially because that the Angel in the Revelat. c. 7. where 12 thousand are sealed out of every Tribe of Jacob leaves out the Tribe of Dan for that the Antichrist as these men suppose should arise from that Tribe and Bellarmine saith it is very probable the Antichrist shall be a Jew And whether these men that refuse and forbid the observance of the festival times and dayes of Christ be Danites or no I cannot tell but I am sure they are like Jewes not only in the Jewish precise and ceremonious observation of the Sabbath that was to be sanctified for the remembrance of our creation and the prophanation of these holy Christian feasts that we keep for the remembrance of our redemption but also in many other things that do obliterate and blot out the memorial of the greatest benefits that Christ hath done for us and the chiefest points of our Christian Religion Therefore if the promoting of Judaism the suppressing of the adiutaments and helps to understand and to preserve the main heads of Christianity be a note and property of the Antichrist let our Assembly of Presbyterians and the members of that long Parliament with their adherents that think to change these times take heed they be not found to be the Antich Object But these men will object against the observation of these Feasts and especially of Christmas that they know not on what day of the month he was born and therefore why should they observe the 25th day of December for the day of his Nativity Or if it be true that he was born on that day yet they have no Precept in all the Scripture that they should cease from their vocation and keep that for an holy day Respons To the first part of this Objection I shall but briefly answer by demanding of thee To the first part of the Objection Why dost thou with all other Churches in Christendom observe the year of our Lords Incarnation when the Angel saluted Mary and the Word begâ—n his Incarnation in the womb of the blessed Virgin to begin on the 25th day of March if thou doubtest that he was not born on the 25th of December Dost thou think she went either more or less time with her Child than the usual and natural time of other women And therefore if thou wilt change the day of his birth change the day of his Incarnation in the wombe of his mother and let the year of our Lord in all our deeds and writings be altered and begin on another day which thou knowest to be a surer time of his Incarnation than the 25th day of March for why should all our evidences be false and erronious Or if thou my good Presbyterian dost not think the 25th of December to be the day of his Nativity why dost thou not inform us for certain on what day of the month he was born that we may not neglect the duty because we are not sure of the day But you think it a sufficient excuse wholly to neglect the duty because you doubt of the day And yet it might be a sufficient reason to satisfie any reasonable man besides that John Baptist who was born on the 24th of June that then was the longest day in the year and just six months before the birth of Christ as the Angel informed Mary tells us plainly that according to the daies of their birth Christ must encrease and he must decrease that the whole Church of God have unanimously observed this day constantly for the day of Christ his birth and why shouldst thou think that Christ would all this while suffer his Church to be deceived herein or that thou shouldst be wiser than the whole Church hath been for so many Ages together Solut. To the second part of the Objection To the second part of thine Objection that thou hast no Precept in Scripture to observe this day I confess it and how many things dost thou not only in natural businesse and ordinary affairs but also in and about the Service of God that thou hast no Precept for them in all the Scriptures For where hast thou any Precept to keep the first day of the week for the Sabbath To receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper once every month To preach twice every Lords day To build a Church in such and such a place To make the Sermon so long as thou dost The People to meet in Church twice a day and no more And the Service to be on such hours and no other And the like For though God accepteth of no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
wholly submit my self to thy blessed will and praise thee for the same while I live And for mine endeavours to explain those mysteries which thou hast revealed unto thy servant John I do most humbly and most earnestly entreat thee to inspire me with thy blessed Spirit and enlighten me with thy grace that I may truly understand them rightly explain them unto thy people and if thou seest it for thy glory and the benefit of thy Church I pray thee help and assist me strengthen and enable me to finish the same and to publish them unto the world or if thou seest it not for thy glory and the benefit of thy Church I beseech thee let them be like the unntmely fruit of a woman that perisheth before it seeth the Sun because I desire nothing hereby neither praise nor profit but onely to discharge my duty to the uttermost of mine ability for the setting forth of thy praise and glory and the benefit of thy Church and people by reducing those that are in errour unto the true faith and the right service of thee O God and confirming those that are in the right to continue constant therein unto the end And to this end I beseech thee to restore our King and Governour and all the exiled persons that are with him unto their places and dignities again that they may be the instruments whereby thy service may be rectified thy people truly instructed and thy name religiously glorified by the acknowledgement of thy justice in our punishment for our transgressions thy great mercy and goodnesse in relieving and helping us in our necessities and thine infinite power wisdome and goodnesse in suppressing our enemies and delivering us out of their hands that we might serve thee without fear in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our life Hear us O Lord our God and grant these our requests unto us and whatsoever else thou knowest to be requisite and necessary for us for Jesus Christ his sake and dispose of me to do all things according to thy most holy and blessed will so shall I praise and glorifie thee for ever and ever Amen TO THE KINGS Most Excellent MAJESTY May it please your Majesty MY present mean condition bids me to lay my hand upon my mouth to stop my speech to so high a Majesty but my place and calling chargeth me to tell you what you have best reason to know how the long Parliament have put your most religious and renowned Father of ever blessed memory to death the first and chiefest of the two witnesses of Jesus Christ which as the Angel saith the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomlesse pit should kill And now according to his promise God hath raised this first witnesse in your Majesty to stretch forth your royall hand to the other witness and as Christ said unto S. Peter Tu conversus confirma fratres so your Majesty being risen it is our undoubted hope you will put life into the other slain witnesse of Jesus Christ and like another good Josias purge the Church from all false Priests and restore the Episcopal government to its pristine lustre for the building of Gods Church And the good will of him that dwelt in the bush and walked with your Majesty in all your travels will dwell with you and blesse you and preserve you from all dangers for he tells us plainly that he will honour them that honour him and they that honour not him shall be lightly regarded And therefore I could wish that all the Monarchs of the world would consider Davids entrance into his kingdom and Jeroboams entrance into his kingdom how like one another almost they were in all things for 1. 1 Sam. 16. David is said to be the son of Jesse none as I conceive of the prime Princes of Israel 1 Reg 11.26 and Jeroboam is said to be the son of Nebat and to be a mighty man of valour and of an eminent place in King Solomons Court 2. 1 Sam. 16.13 The Prophet Samuel told David that he should be King 2 Reg. 11.31 and the Prophet Ahijah told Jeroboam that God would make him King 3. 1 Chron. 17.23 The Lord told David that he would build him an house and settle the throne on his seed 2 Reg. 11.38 and the Lord told Jeroboam that if he would walk in his wayes he would build him a sure house and would be with him and would give Israel unto him 4. 1 Sam. 13.14 The kingdom was transferred unto David for the disobedience of Saul 1 Reg. 11.12 and the kingdome was conferred upon Jeroboam for the sin of Solomon 5. 2 Sam. 4.7 David took away the kingdom from Ishbosheth the son of Saul and Jeroboam took away his kingdom from Rehoboam the son of Solomon 2 Reg. 12.20 6. David was elected and chosen to be their King by all the tribes of Israel in Hebron 2 Sam. 5.1 1 Chron. 11.1 and Jeroboam was elected and chosen to be their King by all the ten tribes of Israel and the Prophet forbad Rehoboam and all Juda to war against Jeroboam for their revolt 1 Reg 21.20 v. â—4 because this thing was from the Lord. 7. 2 Sam. 17.8 David was a mighty man of war and so was Jeroboam a mighty man of valour 1 Reg. 11.28 But you may observe this difference betwixt David and Jeroboam that David had many wives and concubines which we do not read that Jeroboam had and David committed more personal and particular sins as his adultry and the murdering of Urias and the numbring of Israel and his rash judgement against honest Mephibosheth then we find in all the 22. years reign of Jeroboam And yet David hath this Elogie and commendation to be a man according to Gods own heart and God hath setled and established his kingdom and his throne to him and his seed for ever but Jeroboam is said to have made Israel to sin and the Prophet told his wife that the Lord would bring evill upon the house of Jeroboam and would take away the remnant of his house as a man taketh away the dung till it be all gone 1 Reg. 14.10 And what is the reason of all this that David who seemed to be more vitious and tainted with more sins then Jeroboam was should notwithstanding be so perpetually blessed and the other so severely and so suddenly punished It may be answered that although David had as well as other men many humane frailties wherein it cannot be said he was according to Gods own heart yet his principal care was and his heart was wholly set to see the true God rightly honoured and his service to be duly and truly performed as you may find how zealous he was to bring the Ark of God and to set it in his place in the midst of his Tabernacle that he had pitched for it and to offer burnt-offerings and peace-offerings before the Lord and how
with their adherents to repentance and to forsake the courses that heretofore they have most wickedly walked in 2. To disswade all others from adhering to them or approving of their unjust proceedings 3. To perswade the godly seruants of Jesus Christ that have suffered so much and such indignities at the hands of the beast and his assassinates to continue constant in their former resolutions and not to be dejected for any adversity or to approve and affect the prosperity of the beast and to imbrace the doctrine of the false Prophet 4. That as our predecessors recorded the truth of those things that happened in their times to us which otherwise we should never have known so likewise we should deliver the truth of what we have seen done in our time to our posterity that the sad condition of the Church and especially of the witnesses of Jesus Christ in these dayes of the Antichrist might be made known to after-ages that as Johns disciples said to Christ so the disciples of Christ might demand in like manner of the Antichrist Art thou he that should come or shall we look for another and I suppose none can give a better answer then what our Saviour gave to the Jewes in the like case The works that I do testifie of me so the works that these men of our time have dones shall testify unto all posterities what they are for as Demodocus said of the Milesians that they were no fooles but they did the same things that fooles do so if these men of our time say they are not the Antichrist yet I believe the world seeth they did and still do the very same things that the holy men of God prophesied the great Antichrist should do And this is all that I do and no more in this whole book 1. To shew you out of the holy Scripture of the old and new Testament what the great Antichrist should do when he should come into the world 2. To set down what is seen done by the men of our time the prevalent faction of the long Parliament and their adherents together with the Presbyterians Independants and Lay-preachers to continue their names and their memories to the generatons that are to come which is all that shall be left of them when they have left their pomp behind them and shall carry nothing with them but the deeds that they have done And as Queen Hester said so say I if for this I perish I perish yet the truth is great and will prevail and continue true when the greatest tyrants shall be reduced to dust and ashes And in the Interim I do professe that I neither fear the sharpest sword of the bloodiest tyrant nor the most virulent tongues or malicious pens of the most railing Rabsheca quia nec melior si laudaverint nec deterior si vituperaverint because the praise of men makes me not one jot better nor the aspersions and dispraise of enemies one title worse then I am and my conscience tells me that I have so lived Ut nec pudet vivere nec piget mori as that I am neither ashamed to live nor afraid to die And if any man shall blame me for any acrimonie or bitternesse that he findeth in this book I call God to record that it proceeded not as I said before out of any excessive sense that I ever conceived of any particular injury that was done unto my self when as I found my friends favourable enough to me and granting me more then I expected from them nor out of any hatred or malice to any one of all the Presbyterians Independants or Lay-preachers or to any other of all the long Parliament men when as very many of them were my best Patrons and my singular good friends that offered me great preferments which I would have accepted if my conscience had not utterly disliked of their wayes but whatsoever gall or vinegar hath distilled from my pen it proceeded only out of the vehemencie of the zeal which I bear to the true service of God and the love that I had to the piety and goodnesse of our good King and especially the extream hatred that I conceived against the injustice impieties and evil doings of the men anatomized in this book for my faith is that although heretofore many particular tyrant heretick and wicked man might be noted out of Histories that perhaps might be worse and more detestable then any one of these men here meant yet that such a pack such a society and such a multitude of wicked hereticks tyrants and malefactors that combined and were like sworne brethren to effect such un-heard-of mischiefs injustice and impieties as they have done the sun in above 5000. years revolution never saw the like except that wicked councill which condemned the Son of God to death And therefore seeing we are fallen into such times wherein Nec vitia nostra nec eorum remedia ferre possumus I may justly say quis iniqui Tam patiens orbis tam ferreus ut teneat se c Who can hold his tongue at the sight of such doings And old Chaucer saith The words must be of kinne unto the deeds And the wisest Writers do loath to trimme up vices in Vertue 's raiment and we that are rude know not how to call a spade otherwise then a spade Rudes sunt populi Macedonum Scapham vocant Scapham as King Philip of Macedon answered a Traytor whom he had pardoned and complained that the people called him a Traitor And though I earnestly desired to be moderate in my expressions yet the height of that wickednesse which I found acted could not otherwise with all my rhetorick be set forth in any fairer terms unto my Readers Ο ' ΑννιχÏιστος The GREAT ANTICHRIST REVEALED Before this time not Discovered CHAP. I. To what end Christ foretels the Afflictions and Persecutions of his Church that her greatest Persecution should be in the time of the great Antichrist and of the strange Persecution and extream Cruelty Oppression and Injustice that have been lately acted against Gods servants in these parts and in our daies by the Ministers of the Antichrist OUR blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ out of his great and infinite love to his Church forertels her of the many troubles afflictions and persecutions that his best servants and her chiefest members should finde and must undergo here in this world To what end Christ foretels the persecutions of his Church amongst the sons of men to this end that she might earnestly pray to God he would be pleased either to avert them from her or to strengthen her with patience most constantly to endure them and still to keep her garments clean and her conscience undefiled in the midst of this froward and crooked generation Euseb Eccles Histor. l. 4. c. 5. l. 5. c. 1. And after this prediction of our Saviour Christ St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles and Eusebius Socrates and others
speaketh evidently that in the later times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 4.1 some shall depart from the faith and so in Acts 21.21 it is said they heard of thee quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that thou teachest a defection or discession from Moses that is from the lawes and Ordinances of Moses and so Theodoret calleth this apostasie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a secession and departure from God which is the last step and period of our rebellion against the King or civil Magistrate And this falling away from God and from Gods service must be of such men as formerly have made shew to be the true subjects unto their Governors and the Professors of the Gospel of Christ and the obedient children of his Church because apostasie or rebellion is a falling away off and from that which we either were or seemed to be before as subjects that pretend obedience and not strangers of another kingdome are said to rebell against their Governors This Apostafie is of such as have professed the Gospel which strangers never acknowledged to be their Governors but as Julian was termed the Apostata because that during all the time of his Predecessor Constantius he professed himself a Christian and afterwards when he himself came to be the Emperor he renounced the faith of Christ fell into the Heathenish idolatry and persecuted all the best Christians and therefore this Apostasie cannot be ascribed to Caius Caligula as some think because that he being bred up in Idolatry cannot be said to depart from the worship of the true God which he never professed nor can it indeed be ascribed to any manner of men The Turks and Papists cannot be guilty of this Apostasie but to such as have receded and departed from that faith and service of God which they professed or seemed to profess before and therefore also the Turks that are bred in the Mahometan Religion and the Papists that are misled up in idolatry and superstition cannot be guilty of this apostasie nor be said to apostatize and to depart from the true faith and service of God because they never had it nor profest it for how can he be said to depart from the truth that never knew nor understood the truth or how can any man be said to depart and recede from London that never was in London therefore it is most certain that this apostasie is a discession and departure from that true faith and service of God Object which men professed or seemed to profess before E. H. de apostas pag. 36. cornel â—lapide in loc And whereas E. H. and some others say that this Apostacy whereof the Arostle speaketh here 2 Thes 2.3 must be understood of an universal and a general Apostasie universalis defectis as Cornelius à lapide termes it an universel falling away that is of all the particular national Churches in the world both the Western and the Eastern Churches because the Apostle speaks indefinitely and limiteth not the apostasie to this or that particular Church Solut. I answer with the leave of so great and so learned a Clerk as Cornel. à lapide is that as here the Apostle intendeth not to speak of the Antichrists in general when as then Eusebius l. 3. c. 7. l. 4. c. 14. Apoc. c. 2. Clemens Alexand Stromat lib. 3. in his time there were many Antichrists as St. John sheweth such as were the Ebionites Cerinthians Marcionites Nicholaitans and the like but he speaketh of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a particular Antichrist that should be an Antichrist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a more eminent egregious Antichrist than all other precedent or subsequent Antichrists whatsoever were or should be so he meaneth here by this Apostacy not every petty apostacy or single Heresie or any small and little stubbornness of some particular Churches that should fall away and rebel against their Governours and Teachers and so make a defection from some Points of the true Faith or corrupt the Profession and Faith of Christ by their evil Manners and wicked Conversations as in St. Pauls time the Church of Corinth did by denying the Resurrection prophaning the Lords Supper and suffering the incestuous Corinthian to communicate amongst them which was no small apostasie And in St. Johns time the Churches of Asia did not much less than the Church of Corinth fall away from the Truth but the Apostle would have us to understand that the Day of the Lord shall not come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 until there shall come that falling or the falling away first that is such and so great so eminent and so full a falling away and so foul a rebellion against their Governours and from the Faith of Christ and the true Service of God as the like rebellion and falling away from the Truth and specially from the right worshipping of God was never known before in any Church Greek or Latine Eastern or Western Church nor ever shall the like be seen after it until the day of Christ his coming And this the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Apostle â—peaketh of some particular eminent rebellion and apostasie of some particular well reformed Church and not of a general apostasie of the Catholick Church against which the gates of Hell shall never prevail Mat. 16.18 set before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth sufficiently shew unto us that as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth deâ—gn and particularize some great transcendent Antichrist so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth shew a particular and a most egregious foul and enormous Apostasie and so the meaning of the Apostle in few words seems to be this that before the day of the Lord that is the great day of Judgment there shall arise a grand rebellion against the Governours of the people and against the Pastors and Discipline of the Church and a huge apostasie defection and falling away from the true Faith of Christ and especially from the form of wholsom Doctrine and the right worship and usually accustomed and received Service of God And then when you see such an unnatural rebellion as the like was scarce ever known if ever and such a corruption of the true Doctrine of Christ and opposition to the chief Governours of the Church as the like was never seen in any age nor found in any other Church nor read in any History the whole Church of Christ and all the Servants of God then in being may know for certain that an exceeding great Antichrist greater than any of all the other former Antichrists that were seen before will arise in that Church which formerly was the best and purest Reformed Church of all other Reformed Churches though now it doth recede and thus apostatize from the Faith of Christ and her own former purity And after the Coming and appearance of that Great Antichrist and the Tragical Acts that he shall do within a while and some short space best known to God how long
or how soon Christ will come to Judgment to make a final end of the Antichrist and to deliver his Servants out of all their troubles And this Author wrote a Book entituled The Grand Rebellion that they shall suffer by the Means and procurement of the Antichrist And so first the grand Rebellion will shew it self and the great Apostasie will appear then the great Antichrist will come and settle himself in the Church of Christ and he shall be revealed and made known not to all men no more than Christ was when he came into the world but to as many as the Spirit of God shall enlighten and open the eyes of their understanding to take notice of him that they may avoid him and not be seduced by him E. H. de Antichristo c. 6. pag. 101. to follow his pernicious waies as E. H. hath most truly declared And then as the Apostle saith the Day of the Lord will come and we may certainly expect it and believe it will not be long before he cometh Question Now it is demanded where in what Kingdom and in what Reformed Church or in what other Church this Grand Rebellion and huge apostacy hath happened and appeared And it is answered Respons That the apostacy here spoken of cannot be 1. The apostafie of the prime grand Hereticks 1. That this apostacy here spoken of cannot be meant of the apostasie of the prime grand Hereticks For though the Nicolaitans the Ebionites and the Cerinthians in the time of St. John and afterwards the Montanists Valentinians Arians Nestorians Eutychians and the succeeding Hereticks Manichaeans Pelagians Donatists and all the other Brood of the prime Hereticks fell into many most fearful errours and so rebelled against their Governours and drew many Disciples after them to make a defection from the true Faith and have by their apostasie and subtilty corrupted whole Churches and Congregations of Christ yet that their backsliding and apostasie cannot be said to be this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the grand Rebellion and the special great falling away from the Faith which the Apostle here speaketh of because their apostasie was not so general and so extensive from the most and the chiefest points of Faith as this is but each Heretick and each Sect of those Hereticks started aside from some particular point of the true Catholick and Christian Faith as Arius denied the Divinity of Christ Nestorius made Christ to subsist of two Persons and Eutiches on the other side to confute him confounded the true Properties of both Natures Manichaeus would have God to be the Author of evil or that there be two Gods the one good and the author of all goodness and the other evil and the author of all the evil that is Pelagius taught the too large extent of mans Free-will All the prime grand Hereticks far better than our present Presbyterians and others with the Stoicks ascribed all events to a fatal necessary and so the rest of those Heresiarchs defiled themselves and their Churches with some particular errour or with some very few at the most and yet still they retained the rest and the most points of the true Faith and especially the setled Form of Gods Service and defired alwaies to be in the Commnion and to keep the unity of the Catholick Church and they ever observed the right Government and Discipline of the Church none of all the Hereticks until Aerius nor after he was therefore condemned for an Heretick as Epiphan sheweth any other Heretick till this last Century produced a Brood of Aerius Proselites were ever found to deny the Episcopal Government of the same and they all generally retained the established Creeds and Articles of wholsom Doctrine Lyturgies Catechismes and the right manner of the Worship of God with that reverence and devotion as he ought to be worshipped though they started aside and apostatized from some particular points of the Foundation of the Catholick Faith And 2. 2. Nor the apostasie of the Eastern Churches The like may be said of all the Asiatick and Affrican Churches that succeeded them and were many of them corrupted by those grand Hereticks that they professed the Creeds observed the Lyturgies and reverenced their Governours as the Apostle enjoyneth and receded only like their Leaders from some few Points of the true Faith and therefore the grand apostacy here spoken of cannot be fastned nor applied to any of them And 3. As the Eastern Churches are free from this apostacy so the Church of Rome 3. Nor the apostasie of the Church of Rome and all the rest of her subordinate Western Churches though they have corrupted the Doctrine of Christ with many Errours Ceremonie and Superstitions yet because they retain the main Heads the true Scriptures the Catholick Creeds and the gross sum of the Christian Religion though mingled with many erroneous accessions and is therefore rightly compared to a field of goodly Wheat but very full of Tares and Darnels cannot be said to be guilty of this grand Rebellion and apostasie Reason 1 1. Because all their Errours and Superstititions are not so foul as those of the foresaid Hereticks and the additions which they agglutinate unto the Truth as a bad super-structure upon a good Foundation cannot be liable to this transcendent apostasie when as all the errours of the Church of Rome are rather Superstitions and additions of more Articles than ever the Apostles left or the Primitive Church professed to the true Faith and Catholick Creeds than a defection or discession and departure from the Faith and therefore that Church cannot be guilty of this apostasie and departure from the Faith but rather of creating a new Faith and new Articles of Faith which God never requireth us to believe Reason 1 2. Because the now Church of Rome of France Spain and other Churches under the Popish Jurisdiction did never profess all the Articles of our faith in the true and right sence as they ought to be believed and interpreted but they were born nursed and nusled in the errors and Superstitions that they are in continually and how can they be said to recede and depart from the faith and from the truth that never knew them nor profest them and therefore seeing they never were in the true faith they can no wayes be said to be guilty of this apostasie from the faith Object But you will say as E. H. doth and many others with him that when after Constantines time E. H. in the Preface of his book de Autic the Church began to be wealthy and as the envious said venenum intravit in Ecclesiam poison that is the poison of riches honors and authority especially after Phâ—cas his time that gave unto the Pope the title of universal Bishop entred into the Church and among the Clergy then the Monks brought tapers into the Church and they induced the trisagium that is sancte Deus sancte fortis sancte immortalis which as
to betorn in pieces by them unless he means those locusts that assisted and adhered to the long Parliament but Mr Hall to make good his charge sets down the names of their Preachers in margine as Paul Hobson a Taylor and Rice a Tinker and Lambe a Soap-boyler and Symmes a Shoemaker and Oates a Weaver and Web a Souldier and Heath a Coller-maker and Field the bodies-maker and Green a Felt-maker and Potter the Smith and Spencer a Coach-man and Durance the Wash-ball-maker and Debner the Cooper that can neither write nor read besides many women-preachers and he quoteth Edwards Edwards in his gangraena part 2. pag. 81. another Presbyterian in his Gangraena part 2. page 81 and 88. and in the 1 page of his Book he nameth Lawrence Williams a Naylor publick Preacher Tho. Hinde a Plowright publick Preacher Tho. Palmer a Baker Preacher Sergeant Oakes a Weaver Preacher and Humfrey Rogers lately a Bakers boy publick Preacher and how many more such Preachers might he have found if he had further searched into Ingland and Ireland so many as I think would fill a Volume of no small size And if these brave Preachers be not the false-Prophet and the Preachers of the Antichrist I know not who shall be the Prophets of Christ so my good Presbyterian ex tuo ere out of thine own mouth and from your own books I believe it is apparent that these men sprung from the proceedings of the long Parliament and the Adherents of it and ch 19.20 are the false Prophet spoken of in the Revelat. 16.13 and the second Beast that the Apostle saw arising out of the earth and is as the soul and the very life of the Antichrist and of which Prophet the same Tho. Hall saith All their Preachers women boyes or men From Master Calamy to Mistress Venne Are perfect Popes in their own Parish grown For to out-goe the story of Pope Joan Their women preach too and are like to be The whores of Babylon as much as she And all the preaching of these men and these women Preachers is but a tyrotarichon and hotch-potch of all errors Heresies and Blaspemies as Alexander Ross in his Animadversions upon Mr Hobbs his Leviathan and Edwards in his Hell broke loose and his Gangraena do partly shew unto you what stuffe they bring and what manner of men they are how blinde and how ignorant and yet how impudent they be for who so bold as blinde bayard A Story shewing how an impudent preaching Trooper affronted and disturbed a reverend and learned Bishop in his Sermon And here I must crave leave to tell you a story and some doings belonging to this business quorum pars magna fui and an eye-witness of the same my self Not long ago a grave and a reverend Bishop that had been a Doctor of Divinity admitted in Cambridg Oxford and Dublin of above 40 years standing and well known for his learning and abilities in many Kingdomes travelling from Ireland towards London came on the Saturday night to a Gentlemans house of good quality and his special good friend which then told the Bishop how they had for their Parson and Preacher a man that as they were informed had been a Trooper in the Parliaments Army and he only preached unto them and received their Tythes but did neither baptize their children not bury their dead nor deliver the Sacrament of the Lords Supper nor let them have any other service of God but to preach or expound some Chapter and thus they had been for 7 or 8 years without any of these things but what they procured by some of their neighbour Ministers and he desired the Bishop that he would bestow a Sermon upon the Parishioners on the morrow which was the Lords day the Bishop answered that he loved not that any man should intrude himself into another mans charge but if they would send unto their Preacher and he gave way to it he would willingly preach the next day which the Gentleman did that night and the Preacher was contented the Bishop should have the place but when the Bishop had done his Prayer and read his Text in Nehem. 8.2 and 3. and divided the same and had past over the 1 part that the Preacher was Ezra the priest and thereupon shewed That none should prefume to intrude themselves to do the publick Offices of Gods service in the Church of God but they that were lawfully called as was Aaron and then had entred upon the 2. part the place were Ezra preached which was in the street before the water-gate and thereupon shewed that either in the time of plague or war or persecution or sailing at sea or demolition of Gods Temple as now the Temple of Solomon was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and was not as yet fully re-edifyed or the like just occasion the Preacher might pray and preach as Christ and his Apostles did in any place but when neither of these nor any other exigent like unto these did require it he said the Church that was appointed and consecrated as Solomon did the Temple for Gods publick service was the fittest and the enjoyned place for the Preacher to preach and pray and the people to come to hear and to do the service of God and as he was amplifying this point the more at large because on that very day the Preacher had moved the Parishioners according to a brief from the Lord Protector to a liberal contribution towards the repairing of a famous neighbour Church that was ruined by the warrs the Preacher steps out of his seat among the people and opening his book said The Bishop preached lies and false Doctrine unto them which he would prove to be so and read a place of Scripture that was nothing at all against the Bishops Doctrine and after he had for a good space stood in confuting the Bishop and the Bishop silent all that while and had made an end of his confutation the Bishop demanded if he would now give him leave quietly to go on and to make an end of his Sermon the Parson and his Disciples answered he had preached false Doctrine and lies enough already and therefore he must come down and proceed no further which the Bishop presently did and the Parson got up into the pulpit but thereupon the Gentlemen and the Parishioners on the one side and the Parsons Proselites and Disciples on the other side rose up in a tumult and very bitterly out-bearding and chiding one another so that the Bishop was mightily afraid they would have gone together by the ears and have done some great mischief and had much adoe for a very great while to perswade them and to entreat them for Gods sake on all sides to be quiet And this tumult ended the Gentlemen and the better sort of the Parishioners that were much offended and grieved for this affront that was done unto the Bishop resolved to prefer a Bill of inditement against the Parson and his
ordinarily and alwayes when he came to the Temple Matth. 21.14 and opportunity offered him so to do and St. Matthew saith that the blind and the lame came to him in the Temple and he healed them and so must we come to him into his Temple if we desire to be healed of our infirmities and so the Apostles and Disciples of Christ after his ascention into Heaven met and worshipped God in the Temple Act. 2.46 c. 5.25 and when the Christians began to be multiplied they presently erected Churches and consecrated them for Gods service as you may see in 1 Cor. 11.22 and from the 14th Chapter of the said Epistle where the Apostle bids the women to be silent in the Church which must not be understood of any other House or Congregation but the Congregation that meeteth for Gods service in Gods House And because that place was set apart from all prophane uses for to pray to God and to preach unto the people and to do all other exercises of Religion as administring the Sacraments catechizing the youths collecting the alms for the poor and the like services of the Lord and was hallowed and sanctified by the prayers of the Bishop onely for that end and that God hath promised his more speciall presence for our help and assistance in a most speciall manner in that House more then in any other place 2 Chron. 6. as you may see by Solomons prayer therefore the true Saints and servants of God did ever honour and reverence this very place of Gods Worship more then any Chamber of presence of the greatest Monarch in the World and none but prophane Atheists wicked Hereticks and the members and adherents of this Beast that are worse then the worst of worldlings have ever abused prophaned or blasphemed these materiall Churches whereof the Prophet saith holiness becometh thy house for ever for Though originally In what sence all things are alike holy and in respect of their own nature all places are alike holy and so are all persons all dayes and all meates and so all other things that are ejusdem speciei of the same kind they are all alike holy and there is no difference nor any more Sanctity or Holiness in the one then in the other being all alike Holily created by God Yet if we consider Gods designation of any of these things and the Sanctification In what sense some things are more holy then others For the further clearing of this point I desire the Reader to look into Mr. Mede's learned Discourse de sanctitate relativa and his answer to Dr. Twisse pag 660 and in Levit. 19.30 of the same by the appointment of God for such and such uses in the service of God then you shall find a great deale of difference betwixt the one and the other and a great deale of a relative accidentall Holiness in and belonging to the one more then to the other otherwise what difference will you make betwixt the common bread that we eat of the finest Wheat Flower and the most Holy and Blessed bread of the Holy Eucharist or the Lords Supper but the Sanctifying of it by Prayers for this use to be the Body and Blood of Christ this makes the difference so that now after the consecration of it with the words of Christ hoc est Corpus meum we cannot without prophaneness and a mighty offence give the same to Doggs or unbelieving Jewes or any other that we know to be altogether unworthy of it as we can give the other bread that is made of the same lump to either of these without any offence or what difference is there betwixt one day and another but because the Lord designed the 7th day to be set apart for his Service and hallowed it for that end therefore it is more Holy then all the other six dayes and so are the dayes and feasts that are appointed by the Church to honour God in them as the Commemoration of Christs Nativity Circumcision Resurrection Ascention and other dayes of Thanksgiving for some speciall blessings and extraordinary favours that as on those dayes we have received from God which none will prophane but the neglectors of Gods honour and the prophaners of his Service So what difference or what Holiness is there naturally betwixt one man and another but when the Lord chooseth one before another to be his Servant to be sent as his Embassador to Preach his Word and to administer his Sacraments and causeth him to be consecrated or hallowed by Prayers and impositions of hands for that purpose there is a great deale of difference betwixt them and much additionall Holiness in the one more then in the other in so much that our Saviour saith of these men he that receiveth you receiveth me Luc. 10.16 Zech. 2.8 and he that despiseth you despiseth me and the Lord saith of them he that toucheth you toucheth the Apple of mine eye and you see this difference in the Embassadors and other Officers of Kings Princes and Potentates whom we honour and reverence more then others because they are deputed and Authorized to be the Judges Sherifs or other Officers of the Kingdome where they are designed so to be and so likewise what difference or what Holiness is there in one place more then in another in the Church ground more then in the Barne floore surely not any at all originaliter in respect of themselves but when such a piece of ground is designed and dedicated for Gods Service and consecrated by Prayers for that purpose and God promiseth his presence to be more especially there for our comfort then in any other ordinary place then certainly there is a great deale of difference and a great deale of Holiness in that place and Consecrated ground more then in any other common ground whatsoever Therefore Jacob said of the place where God shewed his presence to him Gen. 28.17 this is Gods house and the gate of Heaven and the Lord said unto Moses Exod. 3.5 pull off thy shoes from thy feet for the place where thou standest is Holy ground and why was that ground more Holy then any other ground not in respect of any innate Holiness but because the Lord revealed himself there to Moses more then in any other place and I pray you look what the Spirit of God injoyneth us to do when we come into Gods House Eccles 5.2 for if we make no difference of these things but that every man that will may intrude himself to do the Service which God requireth to be done by another and he may do that Service any where in any one place as well as in another in a Common Barne as well as in a Holy Church then surely we need not observe any time when any one day is as good and as Holy as another the Munday as well as the Lords day and so confounding persons times and places we shall confound all Religion and
Downam and many others that follow them doe imagine because not any one of all the Popes can be justly proved to be the Antichrist but many arguments may be produced which I have touched in this treatise to prove that neither of these can be this beast here spoken of and much less can I assent to the fancies of these men that dream of the reduction of the long lost tribes to their ancient possessions and least of all of the opinion of Mr. Mede and some others far less learned and indeed far absurder then he that speake of a 1000 years reigning of the Saints with Christ here in an earthly Paradise after the destruction of the Antichrist and the conversion of the Jews which unprobable paradoxes are most gravely and truely demonstrated so to be by the reverend Author of the Revelation unrevealed but I say as I shewed to you before that this beast the Antichrist must be taken for a collected multitude and an ungodly pack or knot of the worst and most wicked men that cold live which doe covenant and unite themselves like the Jewish Sanhedrim to slay the two witnesses of Iesus Christ and so to accomplish and to fulfill all the rest of the predictions that are set down in Scriptures concerning the Antichrist And for the continuance of that unchristians Antichristian companie I conceive it must be considered in a two fold notion 1. Of their prevalencie and domineering successful time The continuance of the beast to be considered 2 speciall wayes 1. The prevalent time of the beast 2. Of their industry and endeavours stil to rule and domineer 1. For the prevalent time of the beast I am cleer of the Papists and Fathers mind that say the Antichrist shall domineer in his full strength and power to the terror of the true saints but three years and a halfe or some short space expressed by that time of three years and a halfe or three years and halfe three years that make four years and a halfe or much about that length of time though not precisely such a time to a day for as when the scripture saith that Adam when he was an hundred and thirty years old Gen. 53. 5. Casman Cosâ—â—piae cap. 5. pag. 269. begat Seth and died when he was nine hundred and thirtie year old shall we think it necessary to beleeve that he begat Seth on that verie day wherein he did precisely fulfill the hundred and thirtie years or that he died on the last day of the nine hundred and thirtie years complete So it is not requisite that by these three years and a halfe we should understand that exact quantity of time without more or less but a short space much about those years and no such length of time as Balaeus Brightman Downam The prevalent time of the beast much about three years and a halfe and the rest of their followers doe attribute unto the Antichrist because the holy Ghost saith the ten hornes of the beast that is his chief generals and captaines shall receive power with the beast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one bour c. 17.12 that is as the same spirit expoundeth it of the predecessor of this beast in the same 17. c. v. 10. a short space saying that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he must continue a short space and that space of the beast his continuance is more cleerly and precisely explained c. 13.5 to be 42 months which must be taken as Bellarmine and the Fathers before him tooke them for three years and a halfe and as many other Protestant writers doe now gramatically expound them for that time or some small quantity of time much about that space more or less as I said before for otherwise if you take everie day of thee 42 months for a year to make them to synchronize with the 1200 and 60 dayes that the witnesses should prophesie in sack cloth as Mr. Mede doth and as Iunius doth and before them the Magdeburgenses did and as the scriptures doe set a day for a year in many places as in the words of Ezechiel I have set thee a day for a year and the words of Christ Mr. Mede in Clavi apoc Jun. in loc Magdcbur cent 1. l. 2 c. 4. Ezech. 14. Luke 13.33 I must walk to day and to morrow and the day following that is three yeers as it is generally expounded by most interpreters and the 40 dayes wherein the explorators and searchers of the Land of Canaan were searching the same signified that for their false report they should bear their punishment 40 years and Ionas his 40 dayes respite for Ninive before it should be destroied was extended as the Lord meant thereby to 40 years and the 70 weeks of Daâ—â—el are by all interpreters taken for so many years as there be dayes in those weeks if I say you take it so here then these 42 months cannot agree with one hour nor with a short space wherein this beasi and his hornes shall prevail when as thus taking a day for a year the 42 months doe amount to 1260. years which is no short space nor can any wayes signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one hour which is the time of the beast Neither can I altogether assent to Bullinger and Chytrans that say Bulling and Chytrans in a poc c. 13. this certain number of months is absolutely put for an uncertain time though we find a certain number often time put down for an uncertain number yet this is never used as Divines observe but when some full and perfect number is put down as 10 100 1000 and the like as where Iacob said unto Laban thou hast changed my wages ten times that is severall times Genes 37.7 Eccles 6.3 Dan. 5.1 and when Solomon saith if a man beget a bundred children that is verie many children and where Daniel saith Belshazzar made a feast to a thousand of his Lords that is a great many Lords and so many Interpreters do take the binding of Satan for a 1000 years to signifie a long time euen from the determination and ending of the ten primitive persecutions to the comming of this beast or as some thinke from Christ his time to the time of the Antichrist and so they take the 1000 years raigning of the Saints with Christ to signifie all that indefinite time of Satans binding and so likewise our Saviour saying to St. Peter that he must forgive his brother not till seven times Math. 18.22 but seventy times seven times signifieth that he must forgive him as often as he doth offend him but though Aug. de civitate Dei l. 20. in these and the like places a certain number is put for an uncertain Yet is it never so used and taken where several numbers of few and many are assigned and coupled together as time times and halfe a time and here 42 months and three dayes and a halfe as both Bellar. and St. Angust doe observe
which was thought so invincible that no humane power could dissolve them yet as you have seen the breath of their own generall without one blow given without one drop of blood spilt did blow away that indissoluble conceived Parliament whose members now are metamorphosed from cruell Tygers to most timorous Hares that flye away from the noyse of the hunters And thus as the Psalmist saith like as the smoak perisheth so did the Lord drive away that cruell companie and herein the Lord our God did a work to his poor servants worthy of everlasting thanks and praise for remembring us when we were in troubles delivering us out of our distresses and therefore I may well say with the Psalmist O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness shew the wonders that he doth for the children of men specially for this favour to dissipate scatter so many hundred tyrants that would have intailed the masterie both of Church kingdoms upon them selves and their successors for ever to perpetuate the slaverie of these nations far worse then the Athenians under the thirtie tyrants Justin l. 5. versus finem 2. The final and totall destruction of the Antichrist when to be 2. Though we acknowledge a three-fold advent or coming of Christ The 1. In humilitie when the word was made flesh The 2. In power when by his Spirit he doth powerfully regenerate his elect and protecteth them from all their enemies and destroyeth their ungodly adversaries and his despisers at his pleasure And The 3. In glorie and Majestie when he commeth to judge both the quick and the dead But for The 4. Comming that the Chiliasts or Millenaries dream of to overthrow the Antichrist in his owne person and after that to convert the Jews and then to reign a 1000 years with his Saints here on earth it is such a fiction as is not worthie to be thought on and brings so many erronious consequents with it as are not fit to be imbraced by any Christian and though some learned Divines do hold and understand the destruction of the Antichrist to be by the second comming of Christ that is his powerful comming by his spirit which shall utterly destroy this beast and leave not one Limb of him to remain and that not by the faithfull preaching of the Gospel which the Antichrist shall put down and instead thereof raise flattering and false Prophets and Parasites to countenance him in his impieties but by some powerfull strength that Christ by his Spirit shal work in the hearts of his servants beyond our capacities to conceive how as Moses saith One man should chase a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight that shall rise against the Antichrist to overthrow him yet wee finde two words in this expression of the Apostle which assure me that his utter destruction cannot be referred to any other coming of Christ That the utter ruine and totall destruction of the beast is not to be till the day of the last judgment then to his third and glorious comming to the last judgement For 1. The Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom the Lord will destroy and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth to abolish to make to cease to be and inanem reddere and to render him void the word being compounded of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ocior to be at rest and is a word seldome found in classick Authors Two words proving the same but often in the writings of S. Paul as Rom. 7.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but now soluti sumus we are loosened or as the Syriac hath it aboliti sumus wee are abolished from the law and in Gal. 5.4 he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exclusi estis separati à Christo you are made void and separate from Christ whosoever are justified by the law saith Beza and in 1. Cor. 15.26 he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the last enemie qui abolebitur saith Tremellius or qui aboletur saith Beza which shall be abolished and quite taken away that it be no more is death so here the Apostle by this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meaneth that the Lord at his appearance wil exclude separate abolish and quite take from himselfe and from his chosen saints and servants this wicked Antichrist and all his ungodly adherents that they be no more And this seperation of the goats from the sheep and of the tares and darnel from the Wheat is not made untill Christ shall set the Goats on his left hand and shall say unto them Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire because the tares shall not be weeded and rooted up nor the wicked be made to cease to be but shall remain as the Canaanites among the Israelites and as the hereticks Why the limbs of Antichrist shall be still suffered to remain among the faithful that being once sprung were never quite rooted out of the Church but their proselytes remained more or less in one place or other continually to be as thorns in the sides of Gods children to exercise their patience and to make them more watchfull over themselves and their own wayes while they walk and wander among such briars so shall the members of the Antichrist remaine amongst us and the final and total destruction and abolition of the beast and the quite taking away of all his Limbs head and feet root and branch that is the utter ruine of the Antichrist and all his followers and adherents cannot be understood to come to passe untill Christ shall come at the last day to make an end of them and to evacuate and bring to nothing both them and their devices plots and successes and to render vengeance unto them according to their just deferts 2. The other words that shew the Antichrist shall not be quite abolished 2. The other word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and destroyed till the coming of Christ to judgement are that the Lord shall destroy him that is quite take him away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the brightness of his coming saith our translation revelatione adventus sui by the revelation of his Coming saith Tremellius or illustri adventu suo saith Beza by his illustrious or glorious coming and this coming of Christ thus exprest can be no otherwise understood than of the last coming to judgement for though each and every of the three comings of Christ be illustrious and glorious in some respects yet the proper titles and the usuall Epithets of each coming are that his first coming The coming of Christ to judgment is properly called his glorious coming Math. 16. is called his humble coming or his coming in humilitie his second coming is stiled his gracious coming or his coming by his spirit to offer his grace unto us all and his third comming is termed his glorious coming when he cometh in the glorie of