and 5.31.32 and 18.37 1 Tim. 6.13 And can there be any vaine thing in that which comes from so faithfull a witnes Or appertaines it to his credit to hide from us any thing which is no where else to be drawne forth than out of the chest of the brest of the Romane Prelate especially when no where or in one worde hath he allowed any such store house whence we must fetch it But these are the dotages of witnesses if possible it may be so vaine and unfaithfull as this heavenly and most true witnes is faithfull ¶ That first begotten from the dead These things concerne his Priesthood wherby thorough death he hath overcome death and hath made a full satisfaction for our sinnes for this is to be the first begotten from the dead that he first by conquering death arose againe whom death woulde nevâ—r have let go if it had but never so litle power to have kept him with him For which cause the Apostle saith he is risen againe for our justification Rom. 4 25. He seemes briefly and distributively to be called the first begotten from the dead for that which fully should be thus the first begotten of them which arise againe from the dead By which two things are signified first that he is the Prince and head of them that arise againe from the dead as the Apostle declares to the Coll. 1.18 And that he is also the beginning and the first begotten from the dead that amongest all he may have the preheminence therefore he is also called the first fruites of them which slept 1 Cor. 15.20 Secondly that at last by his power he will also raise up others from their graves Even as he himselfe saith and I will raise him up in the last day Ioh. 6.39.40 Which two things apperteine onely to the elect For neither is he the head of the wicked neither will he at the last daye raise them up in glorie to wit as the elect but onely by the force of that curse in what daie thou shalt eate thereof thou shalt surely die Gen. 2.17 will restore to them their bodies in which they shall endure everlasting torments Wherby it commeth to passe that this repairing seing that it is onely unto death scarsely in the scriptures in ioyeth the name of the resurrection And therefore the spirit seemeth not to speake collectively the first begotten of the dead but distributively the first begotten from the dead that is of those that arise from the dead as before hath bene spoken there being a plaine difference of the elect dead the reprobate ¶ And Prince of the Kings of the earth The Kingly office of Christ to which whatsoever is in heaven and earth is in subiection according to that all power in heaven and earth is given to me Mat. 28.18 But it was sufficient in this place onely to have mentioned his superioritie over Kinges above all which now by infinite degrees he is superiour who when he was in the earth seemed the basest of servants Neither do these things appertaine to his dignitie onely but also to his excellent power over all Kings which by bridling he now so restraineth that they can not move themselves but as farre as he please howsoever in former time he yeelded himself to their lustes ¶ Which hath loved us So hath bene his office the present benefite which the saints enioie is set forth with a thankesgiving The want of the relative maketh the sentence harsh which full should be thus to him which hath loved us c. which relative is expressed in the next verse to him be glory c But seing that in so long a circunstance of wordes a repetition thereof should be necessarie in the end he omitted it in the beginning least twise he should repeate the same that which once onely was to be spoken he leaveth often unspoken But Francis of Ribera exclaimes that this place is corrupted and that the latine copies without all doubt which now are are farre better corrected then the greeke copies But by the Iesuites leave neither is the place corrupted and if it were granted yet he should unwisely conclude this excellency of latine copies There is in this place a wonderfull coÌ„sent of all greeke copies Aretas thus readeth and expoundeth and he saw how all did fitly agree together The order saith he of this sentence after this maner returnes from the last to the first To him be glory and power which hath loved us wâ—shed us through his blood But this is harde saith the Iesuite Therefore let Iohn have no audieÌ„ce in his Athenian eares as incoÌ„grue which hath no thing more common than after the maner of his countrey both to want and to abonde with relatives In the 1. ver he had and he had signified for which also he had signified In the 5. And from Iesus Christ that faithfull witnes for And from Iesus Christ which is that faithfull witnes in the next verse and hath made us Kings for and which hath made us Kings and so afterward very often But be it that the place is corrupted shall for one blemish the price be taken away from a most beautifull maide and be bestowed on another whose bodie is wholly deformed But saith he our Jnterpretour as alwaies he is wont hath followed true and corrected copies also there without doubt where he tâ—rneth and he stood for and J stoode chap. 12.17 and no man could say the song for and no man coulde learne the song chap. 14.3 and the King of ages for the King of saints chap. 15.3 and in the same place clothed with a pure stone for with pure linnen ver 6. which art and which was holy for which art and which was and which will be chap. 16.5 in the same place J heard another saying for I heard an other saying from the altar ver 7. at one houre after the beast for at one houre with the beast chap. 17.12 vessels of precious stone for of precious woode chap. 18.12 Let these suffice for a tast of many other Saw the Iesuite these things was he not ashamed to confirme that the old Interpretour hath alwaies followed corrected copies But these are faultes of the Printers It may be some are But what have we to do with the Printers thereof as though the strife were not coÌ„cerning the greeke and latine copies which now are extant but of the first edition of the latine translation which no where at this daie is to be seen Next these are faultes both ancient and also now confirmed by the authorâ—ty of the Councell of Trent which hath set downe and decreed that of many latine editions this old and common translation which through so long experience of ages hath bin approved in the Church it selfe be accounted authenticke nor be refused under any pretence whatsoever it were an easie thing to shift of the authority of the Counsell if by putting over the fault to the Printers of the bookes
it were lawfull to departe froÌ„ the common edition Thou seest then that those faultes must be made good by thee and the fidelitie of the old Interpretour very ignorantly I will not say impudently boasted of though in deede so it was needfull for thee by reason of that dutifulnes wherby thou art bounde to Rome 6 And hath made that is and which hath made by a want of the relative as but now we have said All those things tende hereunto that they may teach that Christ hath not these good things for himselfe alone wherwith we have heard by the wordes last handled he is endued but doth poure them on the elect wherby they may be blessed thorough the participation of them ¶ Kings and Priests to God Some reade A Kingdome and Priests as also the common translation hath It makes not much for the meaning yet it is more likely that there is a conioining of persons betweene themselves than of things and persons The elect are Kings by participating of Christs Kingdome through which we have overcome the law death and sinne and doe daiely triumphe over the world treading under foote the same by faith 1 Ioh. 5.4.5 By him also we are Priests who being dead in him we have God mercifull to us and a waie opened to call boldly on him But he addeth wariely that we are made Kings and Priests to God that we maie not thinke that this honour is given to us eyther to trouble civill matters or to confound Churches politie ¶ To him be glory This is all that we can render for his exceeding benefits namely to wish that by his righteous praises he be celebrated amoÌ„gst all men And this thankesgiving seemes to be undertaken for Gods present gift thorough the knowledge of Christ poured forth on the GeÌ„tiles Beholde he commeth with the cloudes A benefite to come to be expected at his glorious coming To come with the cloudes is to manifest himselfe with a storme and tempest and wonderfull terrour of vehement and great lightening to be avenged on the wicked and to deliver his After which maner Daniell also speaketh of his coming J saw in the visions of the night that behold one like to the sonne of man came with the cloudes of heaven chap. 7.13 For so the notable iudgements of God ar wont to be described by which he poureth forth his fervent wrath on his enemies that we maie thinke that all creatures doe fight for God also he will use the heaveÌ„ the earth to helpe his people and furthermore that the reprobate shall have no meanes to escape After the like maner the Psalmist being delivered out of the handes of his enemies praiseth God for his power shewed from heaven in delivering of him Ps 18.13.14.15 In Mathew it is saide he will come on the cloudes chap. 24.30 but it may be in the same sence which is in Ps 18.11 and he sate on the Cherubins and did flie c. But the Angels affirme that he will come as they had seene him going into heaven Act. 1.11 And no feare was there onely the cloude tooke him awaie out of their sight but without any stricking of terrour But the similitude seemeth to be referred to the truth of the humane nature in which he shall returne to be seen of all men after which sorte he went into heaven not for the pompe and maiestie of his coming or the Angels speake in regard of the Godly to whom his coming shall be most ioyfull for which the reprobate shall in vaine desire that the mountaines should cover them All be it it shall be manifest by those things that follow that here these wordes are not spoken of his last coming but onely allude unto it because of the similitude ¶ And they shall waile over him Here the wailing is of repentance not of desperation as is plaine out of Zachary from whence these wordes are fetched and they shall looke saith he to him whom they have perc d and they shall lament over him as a lamentation for their onely begotten chap. 12.10 But seeing that when men shall stand before the throne of the universall iudgement their repentance shall be to late by no meanes these things seeme that they can be uÌ„derstood of the last iudgemeÌ„t neither of that his coming with the cloudes which but now he spake of but rather of that his excelleÌ„t glory which shall be manifest in the world in the calling of the Iewes Those are they which once perced him but at length they shall beholde him all the Tribes of the earth that is the whole nation of the Iewes shall with aboundaÌ„ce of teares bewaile the wickednes of their ancestours for delivering Christ to death And in deede the Revelation staies her narration upoÌ„ their conversion as hereafter God willing it shall be manifest And because then the glory of Christ shall be very great in the earth a most lively patterne of that which shall shine in the last daye a preparation unto this is brought for the beautifying of it Neither alone in this place but as it seemeth also in many other ¶ All Tribes These things are proper to the Iewes to whom once tribe by tribe the promised land was divided The thing could not in more exquisite wordes be declared Sometime the tribes are taken metaphorically but in no wise here seeing that Zachary mentioneth by name the Iewish tribes The land saith he shall lament every family apart the family of the house of David â—part the family of the house of Levy apart all the rest of the families every familie apart The lamenters here are those which were percers and the tribes are of those that lamented therefore of them which perced him to wit of the Iewes to whom properly this sinne belongs Therefore these wordes of the Apostle are thus as if he should saie Beholde he comes with the cloudes all men of all sortes shall see him also those which perced him to wit the Iewes whose predecessours crucified Christ and perced his side with aspeare these being scatered every where thorough all nations shall at length be convertâ—d to the true faith for earnest grief shall morne both for the detestable iniquity of their forefathers and also for their so long hardening yea Amen And so finally this is the summe of all that the benefite of Christ partly present is here celebrated in the calling of the Gentiles for that which he before spake of Kings and Priestes is referred to the seaven Churches of Asia that is to all the Gentiles embracing Christ at that present for which cause there is attributed to him the praise of glory power partly to come in the calling of the Iewes which we have declared to us both by their repentance and also by the desire and wishe of all the Godly ¶ Yea Amen The fervent desire of the Godly desiring this coming is expressed in greeke and hebrew for this shall be the wishe of all nations The
are not rehearsed expressely in the vision of the first Chapter They doe greatly helpe to declare the administration of this Church Touching the city Philadelphia it selfe we finde no other thing but that in the age following there abod in that place a famous congregation of the faithfull over which Demas had the charge as is gathered from the Epistles of Jgnatius In the Antitype a divine power specially shineth forth sanctifying the Church by kindling the desyre of godlines and in making it in Christ Iesus fit and cheerfull to every good worke Let my wordes be without envy the true doctrine soundeth no where purer the worship lesse corrupted more flourisheth the faithfull diligence of the Pastours is performed more willing obedience of the people nor greater reverence of all religion among all degrees But this holines seemeth chiefly to respect manners In which thing is not to be passed over that famous testimony of Iohn Bodin speking of them of Geneva Of whom that thing saith he is prayse worthy if any thing any where in the earth and which maketh a comon wealth to flourish if not in riches and greatnes of Empire yet certenly in vertues and godlines namely that censure of the Popes then which nothing greater and more divine could be devised to bridle mens lusts and to represse those vices which by no meanes could be amended by any humane lawes and iudgements How be it that this restraint is directed after the rules of Christ first privatly and friendly after some what more sharply then if thou obey not there followeth an heavie grave and effectuall prohibition from the holy things after the interdiction is the punishement of the Magistrate And so it cometh to passe that those things which are punished no where by the lawes are there restrained without any force and sturre or great adoe Therefore noe whoredomes no drunknesses noe daunâ—ings noe beggars noe idle persons are found in that city Those are his wordes in Meth. of History chap. 6. Worthyly is the sanctifyer of the Church to be praysed who hath wrought that they should will and effect these things according to his free good will There is the same care and fruit also of the rest according to the measure which Christ vouchsafeth to every congregatioÌ„ of them Neither is his trueth lesse excellent both in as much as he is a Propheâ— in teaching and also a Surety in promising Wee shall see this double trueth in the following Church to be distinguished by their proper wordes both which the Greeke worde true seemeth to containe when it is put absolutely and by it selfe And as touching trueth of doctrine wher is it more pure and more sincere in the whole earth The whole Papacy hath here his throate cut The Anabaptists Antitrinitaries Arians and such like monsters raysed up againe from hell partly in Germany partly in Transylvania have founde no where a fiercer enemy What also hath it not assayed that shee might pull away from the Germane Churches their errours Neither doth shee keepe onely the doctrine of salvation uncorrupt but also shee both delivereth and teacheth in writings and exerciseth in practise a syncere maÌ„ner of administring wherby salvation is bestowed Certenly the whole will of God is communicated with his saints so as Christ taketh to himselfe not undeservedly this prayse of true in governing this Church He doth also performe plenteously that which he promised that he would keepe safe and sound those that seeke him with an upright heart What have not endevoured the Franch man the Spuniard the SavoyaÌ„ the Pope to roote out them of Geneva a small people and environed on every side with enemyes and shut up from all ayde of friends Neverthelesse it flourisheth yet still thankes be to God and shall flourish hereafter while all her adversaryes burst with envy as long as shee shall continue in this holy order The French Church hath ben preserved hitherto no other wise then the three children in the fornace Who would have beleeved that the Lowe Countryes had ben able to resist and withstande the raging Philip the cruell Duke d'Alve and so many bloudy Tyrants But true is he who hath promised this honour to his saints that they should binde the Kings with chaines and their nobles with fetters of iron Psalme 149.8.9 And that I may not speake of every each one they can be safe onely by thy protection o most high God who art constant in all thy promises whom both enemyes almost infinite doe persecute with deadly hatred and also to whom many of their freindes through envy wish not very well ¶ Who hath the key of David The third property perteineth also to the same administration Christ openeth and shutteth to whom he hath thought it good the entrance into the kingdome of Heaven by his regall power Which faculty in deede he bestoweth upon all his which doe declare and preach the worde purely and syncerely but which is principally to be seen in that part of governement wherby obstinate sinners which will not yeilde to admonitions are delivered to Sathan by the Ecclesiasticall censure and are cast out of the Church which is the Kingdome of Heaven according to that Whatsoever yee shall binde on earth shal be bound in heauen and whatsoever yee shall loose in earth shal be loosed in heaven For where two or three are gathered togither in my name there am J in the middes of them Mat. 18.18.20 By these therefore is shewed that the power of opening and shutting of binding and loosing is very effectuall in these congregations and more over also the whole administration of the censures And what godly man doth not thanke God from his heart and extolleth not with worthy ptayses the holy paines of this Church which restored discipline fallen into decay and brought it backe to the rule of trueth and use of the primitive Church But it is to be observed that this key was sayd before to be the key of Death and Hell in the first Chapter and 18. verse by one part denoting the whole force of them Therefore that key is to be feared which locketh up the gate upon the wicked being thrust into Hell howsoever they despise the same with security And yet notwithstanding no lesse pleasant to them that feare God because it unlocketh to them the dores by which they may enter unto life But why is it called of David seeing it is of Aaron rather whose office was to keepe away the leprous and uncleane from the holy things and to shut up the Temple against them Certenly the Priest onely could pronounce men uncleane he was not wont by an ordinary proper power to use force to compell the disobedient Christ both King and Priest is very mighty in both facultyes and powers and ioineth togither both in this Church who not onely rayseth up Pastours that they should denounce men uncleane but also together adioyneth the civile Magistrate that he should give his ready and diligent labour
unskilfull multitude or of the base people and that he might either be present or absent at his pleasure but let him beholde here Kinges attending to the voice of the Beasts nor that once or twice and at certen tymes but whensoever the Beasts give glory that is as often as they doe execute their publike office The praysing of God of these and their adoration of God are ioyned allwayes togither so that neither may any thinke that he is free and discharged from his duty neither to have performed it enough at some fewe times 11 Thou art worthy o Lord The praysing which the Elders use in wordes is noe other thing then a subscribing to the crying out and shouting of the Beasts these celebrate the holines Dominion omnipotency and trueth of God The Elders nowe doe singe togither thou art worthy indeede o Lord to receave glory and honour which wee and all thy creatures worthily doe give to thee as though unto the sung of prayses of the Ministers the people should give their consent saying Amen But howe may God receive power They meane the prayse of all vertue and power Power can not be given to God otherwise but onely by acknowledging and praysing Which then shineth forth most cleerly when he sheweth his strength extraordinarily both in delivering his owne and also in destroying his enemyes ¶ For thou hast created all things The people ought not onely to consent to the thankes given by the Ministers in the meane time themselves being voyde of all knowledge of their owne as it commeth to passe in the Papacy where after the prayers not understood is sung Amen by the unskilfull common people or some as they will supplying their place but their consent ought to come from a true faith and that not confused and implicite but of which a true sense and feeling is setled in every on s harte peculiarly For the God of reason requireth a reasonable worshippe not unknowne rash and voyd of counsell Whereupon not without cause is added from what fountayne the declaration of the consent of the Elders to wit froÌ„ their owne acknowledging of the exceeding power of God both in creating all thinges and also in preserving the same and noe lesse from the sense of his most free good will by which alone being moved he made all thinges in the beginning and governeth and preserveth the same at this day according to that saying Who worketh all thinges after the counsell of his will Ephe. chap. 1. ver 11. For which cause there is repeated in the ende of the verse they have ben created that wee may understande that the will of God not onely hath rule in governing things at this time but also that it gave the first originall to the same And so is the patterne of the Christian Church so much the more famous then that of the Lawe by how much heaven in which Iohn sawe this figure is more excellent then the Mountaine where Moses sawe the Tabernacle There is the same ende and purpose of both of this that it might be a patterne of the worshippe to the Legall people which should holde even to the time of reformatioÌ„ of that that it might be a type unto Christians according to what square they should frame all their assemblyes both generally and specially Graunt O most high God that wee may be founde as faithfull in bringing backe all thinges unto the Heavenly patterne as Moses was unto that earthly Chap. 5. AFTER I sawe in the right hande of him that sate upon the Throne a booke written within and on the backe side sealed with seaven seales 2 And J saw a stronge Angell preaching with a lowde voice who is worthy to open the booke and loose the seales thereof 3 And noe man was able neither in heaven nor in earth nor under the earth to open the booke nor to looke theron 4 Therfore I wept much because none was founde worthy to open and reade the booke neither to looke thereon 5 Then one of the Elders sayd unto mee weepe not beholde that Lion of the tribe of Juda that roote of David hath obtained to open the booke and to loose the seaven seales thereof 6 Then J behelde and loe betweene the Throne and those Beasts and betweene those Elders a Lambe standing as though he had ben killed having seaven hornes seaven eyes which are those seaven spirits of God sent forth into all the world 7 He came and tooke the booke out of the right hande of him that sate upon the Throne 8 And when he had taken the booke those foure Beasts and those foure and twenty Elders fell downe before the Lambe having every one harpes and golden vials full of odours which are the prayers of the saints 9 And they sung a newe song saying thou art worthy to take the booke and to open the seales thereof because thou wast killed and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kinred and tongue and people and nation 10 And hast made us to our God Kings and Priests and wee shall reigne on the earth 11 Then J behelde and I heard rounde about the Throne and of the Beasts and Elders the voice of many Angels and the number of them was a thousande hundred thousands and ten hundred thousandes 12 Saying with a lowde voice worthy is that Lambe that was killed to receive power and riches and wisdome and strength and honour and glory and blessing 13 And every creature which is in heaven and which is on the earth in the sea and all thinges that are in them I heard saying unto him that sitteth on the Throne and to the Lambe be prayse and honour and glory and power for ever more 14 And those foure beasts sayed Amen And those foure and twenty Elders fell downe on their faces and worshipped him that liveth for ever more The Analysis I have spoken summarily of the common type the speciall Prophecy coÌ„prehendeth both the excellent dignity of this Revelation in this chapter and also the evâ—nts themselves in the rest of the booke That thinge is declared first in respect of the Creature secondly of the Lambe In respect of the Creature it is altogither unsearcheable as appeareth partly from the signing of seaven seales ver 1 partly from the testimony of all creatures which after the inquiry proclamed and the thing was caused to be cryed by the voyce of the Angell as it were of a common cryer ver 2. then also after tryall made at last ver 3. all doe acknowledge their owne unablenes Of which lastly there is a sorowfull consequente the weeping of John which this imbecility and despaire to enioye so excellent a good thing did wring out from him ver 4. In respect of the Lambe onely it is able to be searched out as first an Elder sheweth who conforteth Iohn ver 5. Secondly the LaÌ„be comming at the same instant and taking the booke ver 6.7 from whence at length aryseth the
usâ—d should be free and absolved from the accusation although fouÌ„d to be such a one but the accusâ—r should be made subiect to punishement as it appeareth by the Decree of the same Antonin in Iustin and Euseb booke 4.13 Nowe surely the trueth triumphed wearing a crowne and the Emperours did lye downe bâ—ing stroken by the bowe who seemed to be farre beyond the lot of private men Yea in the most remote countryer one Apologie being throwne the enemyes were so restrayned that they could attemp nothing against the trueth The same Iustine also by his most learned writinges stopped the mouthes of the Iewes and Grecians so as the victory of the trueth was famous Euseb booke 4.18 Therefore this time next after Iohn excellent for Apologies ioyfull fruict of the persecution staied is the voice of the Lyon the first Beast and that onely pleasant solemnity which the trueth did keepe being sit on the white horse with the bowe and crowne 3 And when he had opened the second Seale So is the first Seale The second as touching the LaÌ„be that openeth it there is nothing newe But the Beast is an other namely an Oxe whose place was the seconde in chap. 4 7. And wee knowe that this beast is borne to labour not to be compared with the LioÌ„ in the glory of overcoming yet farre more noble in the praise of enduring sorrowe Neither is the voice here so terrible and roaring as was that of the thundering Lion but vulgar and common wheÌ„ce he saith that he heard the second beast saying which yet should have his force to stirre up men to hearken to the event 4 And another horse came forth that was reade The second type is a read horse the sitter upon him to whom was given a great sword Of the horse wee spake at the second verse That fiery colour signifyeth warre contentions slaughters blood as in Isaiah Who is this that cometh from Edome with stieped garments from Bozrah Wherfore art thou red in thy garments and thyne apparell as of him that treadeth in the wine presse chap. 63.1 The sitter on him is furnished with power because he should order the matter not at his owne pleasure but by an others commandement Power is given partly by word partly by signe By word leave being graunted to take peace from the earth For so the verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to take is taken for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to take away as wee have observed before in chap. 3.11 But the Earth in opposed to Heaven And seeing Heaven in this booke doth note out the true and holy Church as after it shal be manifest the earth contrarywise signifyeth the ungodly world from which peace is taken and not from the Church Which is yet more playne from the declaration of the power which proceedeth so farre that it should set meÌ„ togither by the eares to kill one an other as these wordes shewe that one should kill another but the Church avengeth not her selfe by slaughter of the enemyes much lesse by a certen furie in murdering her owne friendes But this butchery one of an other groweth from the strifes and battells amonge the Gentiles wherby one should runne headlong to an others destruction Wherefore it is not here spoken of the persecution of the Church but of the tempest of warres wherewith the whole world should be shaken Which is declared to be very great by the signe and Instrument of the power that is a great sword given to the sitter on the horse Which thinge came to passe after that Antoninus Pius was dead For his sonne Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Verus by name a Philosopher by deede a greate enemy of the trueth being blinded with the Heathens superstition moved a mercilesse persecution against Christians Which that the second Beast might restraine he uttered a voice For Iustin sent a second Apologie to the Emperour Euseb booke 4.16 of the Eccl. Hist Melito Bishop of Sardi Apolinarius Bishop of Hierapolis doe the same pleading earnestly the cause of the Christians in bookes written to the same Emperour Euseb Hist booke 4.26 But the Emperour more learned then his Father lesse godly receaved the defense with deafe eares From hence the voice of this Beast became the voice of an Oxe as which prevailed not as before the voice of the Lion did prevayle But the Beast neverthelesse after his lowing did beare a grievous yoke of the former calamity Iustin himselfe before in strength a Lion nowe in patience an Oxe killed for Christ his sake obtayned the name of Martyr Euseb Hist booke 4. 16. The residue did mourne under the crosse without any rest given them Notwithstanding howsoever the voice prevailed not to appease the cruelty yet it was instead of an alarme to warne the faithfull howe great evill was like to come shortly upon the world for their cruell hardeâ—ing against the trueth Peace shal be taken away straiteway from men seeing it should be most iust that they which would refuse eternall peace should not also enioy this earthly and they which so greedily thirsted after innocent blood should be satiated at length with their owne blood Therefore by and by all thinges are on fire wâ—â— warres The Parthians nowe first of alâ— afâ—â— Trâ—ianâ— fall away fâ—â—â— he Romanes Thither the brother of the Emperour goeth be in adâ—â—â— as a â—â—â—forte to the Empire and at length a very great disconfiture 〈…〉 he returneth home with triumphe to whom this felicity was bu◠〈…〉 being suddenly dead of an Apoplexiâ— whâ—le he sate with his brotâ—er in the chariot Eutrop. Brev. booke 8. Shortly after arose the warre of the people of Bohemia so great as ther hath not bin the like in any time as the sâ—â—e Eurropius saith worthily to be compared with the warres of Caâ—thâ—gâ— which togither with the Bohemians the Qâ—â—dâ—â— Vandâ—â—s the Sarâ—â—â—es and Suâ—ves and all Barbary from the Câ—â—â—â—e of Paâ—â—onia even to the middes of the Gaulles Hoâ—â—e misâ—table was then the face of things the same author dâ—scribeth excellently after thiâ— manner For saith he there was not rest any where from warre and through all the East Illyrâ—â—um Italy France battayles were hotely applyed these were earthquakes not without the destruction of cityes inundations of rivers often pestilence kindes of locusts hurtfull to the fieldes so as nothing at all almost wherby moâ—â—â—ll men are wont to be wasted with very great sorowes can be spoken or thought which raged not when Antoninus was Emperour Those are his wordes It was a great and cruell sword which was moyst drunken with so much blood If any doe thinke that warre was noe strange thing to the Romanes neither to be like to be true that a thing so comon and â—â—uall should here be signifyed let him compare the Empire of this Antoninus with theirs which went before he shall see that the warre had â—â—â—â—ed by the Providence of God for a loÌ„ge space to the end that this iudgâ—â—ent of God when it
sinne they must needes finde more stubborne and spitefull The condition of that time could not be shewed more briefly and manifestly I therefore tooke the little booke Althoug Iohn heareth howe great trouble this meate will bring him yet obeyeth he willingly the Angell and eateth up the booke as he was commanded There was a better love in him to Gods word then any regard of lothsomnesse or wringing in the belly frō bitternesse Such excellent fortitude was in those learned men of that age before spoken of it could not be but that they knewe certenly howe great trouble they should procure to themselves by avouching the trueth yet neverthelesse they laboured valiantly setting more by the sweetnesse which they received from the ioy of the Spirit thē by all the bitternes of perill By whose example all Ministers of the word must goe on boldly neither is the office to be forsaken because of the troubles It is noe newe thing for that to be found bitter by experience which being tasted a little at the tongues ende seemeth sweete Therefore let every true Prophet have this lesson well meditated least peradventure lighting upon unexpected evils he be overcome at length through infirmity 11 Thou must Prophecy againe Nowe in fewe wordes he sheweth to what ende the former signe was used that it may be understood that Prophecie was to be restored againe to the Church in those times The preparation whereunto was the receaving and eating up of the booke to wit a burning desire of learning which gave hope of a more perfit light to appeare daylie But their opinion is foolish who will from these wordes have John to be expected about the ende of the world with Enoch Elias These things belōg not to the last time but to the sixt trumpet which wee will declare manifestly hereafter to be past And Iohn is set forth onely as a type not described by any office which in his owne person he should beare in the last times CHAP. 11. AND a reed was given mee like unto a rode and the Angell stood by saying rise and mete the Temple of God and the altar and them that worship therein 2 But the court which is without the Temple shut out mete it not for it is given to the Gentiles they shall treade under foote the holy city two and fourtie moneths 3 But I will give to those my two witnesses and they shall prophecy a thousande two hundreth and threescore dayes clothed in sackecloth 4 These are two olive trees and two candlestickes standing before the God of the earth 5 And if any man will hurt them fire proceedeth out of their mouthes which shall devoure their enemyes For if any man will doe them wronge so must they be killed 6 These have power to shut heaven that it raine not in the dayes of their prophecying and have power over waters to turne them into blood and to smite the earth with all maner plagues as often as they will 7 Moreover when they finished their testimony the Beast that commeth out of the bottomelesse pit shall make warre against them and shall overcome them and kill them 8 And their corpses shall lie in the streetes of the great citie which is called spiritually Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified 9 And men of Tribes of peoples and of tongues and nations shall see their corpses three daies and an halfe and shall not suffer their carkases to be put in graves 10 And the inhabitans of the earth shall reioice over them and be glad and shall send giftes one to an other because these two Prophets vexed the inhabitans of the earth 11 But after three dayes and an halfe the Spirit of life comming from God shall enter into them and they shall stande up upon their feete and great feare shall fall upon them that shall see them 12 After they shall heare a great voice from heaven saying unto them come up hither and they shall ascende up to heaven in a cloude and their enemies sawe them 13 And the same houre was made a great earth quake and the tenth parth of the city fell and in the earthquake were slaine seven thousande men the remnant were feared and gave glory to the God of heaven 14 The second woe is past and behold the third woe commeth quickly 15 And the seventh Angell blewe the trumpet and there were great voices in heaven saying the Kingdomes of this worlde are the Lords and his Christs and he shall reigne for evermore 16 Then those foure and twenty Elders which sate before God on their thrones fell upon their faces and worshipped God 17 Saying wee give thee thankes Lord God almighty which art and which wa st and which art to come for thou hast received thy great might and hast obtained thy Kingdome 18 And the Gentiles were angry and thy wrath is come and the time of the dead that they should be iudged and that thou shouldest give a reward unto thy servants the Prophets and to the Saincts and to them that feare thy name small and great shouldest destroy them that destroy the earth 19 Then the temple of God was opened in heaven and the Arke of his covenant was seene in his temple and there were lightnings and voices and thundrings and eaarthquake and much haile Analysis SVCH is the preparation unto the newe Prophecy as was observed in the eight verse of the former chapter the Prophecy it selfe followeth in the first fifteene verses of this chapter which belongeth either to the whole bodie of the Church or some chiefe mēbers of it As touching that The Church is either true or false the true should lie hid this whole periode of fourtie moneths small very secret narrowe which is shewed by the temple measured ver 1. the false in the meane time very ample and spatious ver 2. The chiefe members are two Prophets whose divers condition is shewed according to a threefold difference of time the first by a thousand two hundreth threescore dayes all which space being black they should goe in monrning apparell ver 3. Who yet in the meane while should be like Olive trees Candlestickes ver 4. neither should be hurt of any without punishement ver 5. and endued with great power ver 6. The second time is of three dayes and an halfe in which being slaine ver 7. they should lie unburied in the streetes of Sodome and Egypt ver 8.9 and should make their enemies merrie with their death ver 10. The third time is not determined after the three dayes and an halfe in which they should rise againe lifted up by the Spirit first upon their feete which should strike a feare into their enemies ver 11. Afterward into heaven at which the tenth part of the citie should fall many should be slaine the rest should be made afraid ver 13. Last of all a transition is used declaring the ende of the sixt trumpet and the beginning of the
wounding of the whole Popish nation was reserved to this time Which after they heard of our England and Queene overthrowing the Romish impiety burst out altogither devising for us by what meanes soever they could a finall destruction And many wordes are not needfull in this matter Known to the whole world are the Popes curses against us our people being stirred up often to rebellion the bloody Iesuites sent privily daily hired traitours privie murtherers sorcerers the Popes armies set out in Ireland the Spanish navie then which there was never any stronger and better appointed Neither yet with weapons and armour more for fight then with scourges and haltars and things of that sort for torment the desirous inquiry of Philip the Father lately wakened almost from very death concerning our England as though he were to goe by by into that place where the teller of our evill should be noe lesse pleasant to others then to himselfe Rages certenly meete for wicked mindes For these are onely the beginnings of furie although famous notable then chiefly the Papists shall storme when Christ shall enter upon his full Kingdome as after more at large The Pope and Turke shall purpose the last desolation of the whole Church for which cause they shall gather very great armies But the rage of men shall turne the greater glory of God as the Psalmist singeth For by how much the danger shal be greater by so much his honour shall shine the more in delivering his As touching the second Gods punishement begun which these wordes signify and his wrath is come that conteineth the summe of the Vials which therefore are called the last plagues as shall be said in his place The full reward and first of all goods as great as can be on the earth is found in these wordes and the time of the dead that they should be iudged Which things perteine to the Iewes yet strangers from Christ and therefore without salvation and dead in deede but at length they shall be iudged and shall come to the trueth Which Interpretation I have taken out of Daniell Ezechiel and some places of this Prophecy following of which how great is the weight it shall appeare after more clearly The recompensing of the evill in the last wordes and shouldest destroy them that destroy the earth To wit The Pope and Turke and all their servants yet mighty robbers of the whole earth And so is the short summe of the things to be declared afterward more plenteously 19 Then the Temple was opened Therefore it was shut before when it was measured in the beginning of this chapter and because the elect were sealed But now it should be opened noe more to be used to the receaving of a fewe faithfull but that is should extende to an huge multitude of Saincts Neither onely should the Temple be opened but also the most holy place in which was set the Arke of the covenant Into this once it was lawfull for the High Priest onely to enter and that but once in a yeere Now it should be gone into of all Saincts in likewise all the mysteries of salvation being as plaine cleere and manifest to every one as before time they were to the learned and skilfull men all whose study was bestowed in them And who but a very envious anthankefull man acknowledgeth not a most rich encrease of trueth which is come to passe in these last times since the yeere 1558. in which the seventh Trumpet sounded The doctrine was made lightsome in many points more clearly known delivered more distinctly then hath happened in many ages past Neither doe I speake this to boast but to praise Gods bounteousnes and to shewe forth the trueth of the Prophecy Surely God hath begun to consume in his mountaine the forme of that veile which covereth all people and that covering which is spread upon all nations Isay 25.7 He began I say because it shal be taken away more fully when it shal be taken from the Iewes also ¶ And there were lightnings The third part of the signe which declareth what should follow after the opening of the Temple great evils should fall upon the world from the Church increased and abounding with so great riches of divine knowledge The world waxeth leane throug her prosperity and by howe much the Sunne shineth more brightly upon it so much the more are the sicke eyes of it grieved Therefore it desireth that this were abolished and endevoureth as much as it can but prevaileth nothing by endevouring unlesse to call forth lightnings upon it selfe and those evils which are rehearsed But this is onely a briefe foreshadowing of the things the patterne shal be mote lively set forth afterward CHAP. 12. AND there appeared a great wonder in heaven a woman clothed with the Sunne under whose feete was the Moone and upon her head a crowne of twelve starres 2 And being great with childe shee cryed traveiling in birth was pained that shee might bring forth 3 And there appeared an other wonder in heaven for beholde there stood a great red Dragon having seaven heads and ten hornes and upon his heads seaven crownes 4 Whose taile drewe the third part of the starres of heaven which he cast to the earth And that Dragon stood before the woman being ready to bring forth that when shee had brought foorth he might devoure her childe 5 And shee brought foorth a man childe which should rule all nations with a rod of iron and her childe was taken up unto God and his throne 6 But the woman fled into the wildernes where shee should have a place prepared of God that they should feede her a thousand two hundreth and three score dayes 7 And there was a hattell in heaven Michaell and his Angels fought with the Dragon and the Dragon fought and his Angels 8 But they prevailed not neither was their place found any more in heaven 9 And that great Dragon that olde serpent which is called the Devill and Satan was cast out which deceaveth all the world he was cast I say into the earth his Angels were cast out with him 10 And I heard a loude voice saying in heaven nowe is salvation and strength and the kingdome of our God and the power of his Christ because the accuser of our brethren is cast downe which accused them before our God day and night 11 But they overcame him by the blood of the lambe and by the word of their testimony and they made no accounte of spending their life even unto death 12 Therefore reioice ye heavens and ye that dwell in them woe to the inhabitans of the earth and of the sea for the Devill is come downe unto you full of great wrath as who knoweth that he hath but a little opportunity 13 When therefore the Dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth he persecuted the woman which had brought forth the man childe 14 But to the woman were given two winges of a
citizens And that I may not rehearse these many blasphemies Could not Antichrist in his chiefe pride having a desperate mouth raile against the humble and despised Church when hee being now without Spirit and almost halfe dead stayeth himselfe from no reproches against the same shee being by the grace of God restored and florishing Thirdly hee blasphemeth them that dwell in Heaven These are Citizens meÌ„bers of the true Church on earth His opened mouth barked at the Tabernacle against the whole congregation of the faithfull But the blasphemy is intended chiefly at those which dwell in Heaven against particular holy men His foule mouth revileth them with all manner of reproches Are not all that set themselves against the Romish impietie defamed as if they were Schismatiques Heretiques Rebells most wicked men unworthy to enjoy the light in common with other Read that one Bulla of Leo the x. agaâ—n t Luther and thou shalt have a most oboundant proofe of these blasphemies But all Papisticall bookes are full of them yea their tongues doe scarce talke of any other thinge 7 And it was given him to make warre with c. This is that warre which was made in the 11. chap. ver 7.8 To wit the Tridentine Councill and that lamâ—ntable battell of the Pope and Emperour against the ProtestaÌ„ts in Germany This is also that victory wherby he triumphed over the two Prophets that were slaine For the Beast warreth his whole fourty two moneths as before in the 5. ver but at the ende of that time this warre should be the most memorable of all whereof he maketh here mention Therefore this Beast is the Angell of the bottomelesse pit in chap. 9. ver 11. and 11.7 There remaineth yet another warre but in that the Beast shall not overcome but be overcomed ¶ And power was given unto him over every Tribe and tongue nation The third part of his power as wee have distinguished in the Analysis which consisteth in the largenesse of his dominion This should spread it selfe farre and neere as before time the Empire of the Dragon For there is the same Throne of both the same Kingdome also and Empire see before in verse 3. upon those wordes the whole world 8 Therefore all that dwell on the earth shall worship him whose names c. A setting forth of the large jurisdiction from a description of the subiects Of which sorte are all whom God hath not accounted in the nuÌ„ber of those that shal be saved Which words have prevented that doubt whereby one peradventure might thinke that it were past remedy as concerning the salvation of all seeing all almost did seeme to be servaÌ„ts of the Beast Feare not saith the Spirit none of the elect shall perish I have all these written with mee by name onely they shall be permitted to worship the Beast who are not written in this Catalogue But thou wilt say it is as hurtfull a thing to worship the Heathen Emperours But hat is not the matter how daungerous it is to worship either him or those but onely the Beast is described by the multitude of the reprobate whom he hath for his worshippers as though he should say this Beast is he whom all the reprobate of the earth shall worship that is to whom they shall give Divine honours To which propositioÌ„ if thou shalt adde But the Pope of Rome is he whoÌ„ all the reprobate of the earth have worshipped giving unto him divine honours it will followe that he is this Beast Some Heathen Emperours arrogated to themselves a Godhead but eveÌ„ the Heathen men derided this madnes so farre off were they from approoving thereof by worshipping Suetonius reporteth how great a mocking stock the Dodecatheos that is the secret supper of Augustus was in which twelve ghests sat downe in the habite of Gods and Goddesses but Augustus himselfe in the apparell of Apollo The hoasen the golden beard and lightening the ensigne of the Gods which he bare were despised But assoone as the Pope had taken to himselfe the name of God his worshippers by and by consented unto it Wee heard in the thirteenth verse of the Adoration which the Ambassadours and Bishops performed in their generall Councills With whom the Canonists accord as in a certaine Glosse printed at Lions in the yeere a thousande five hundreth fiftie five in Extravag Ioann 22. VVhâ—n it was counted an Hereticall thing to beleeve that our Lord God the Pope had not ben able to ordaine as he hath ordained In Sixtus of Election and the foundâ—tions of Elect. In the Glosse The Pope is not a man Clement in the Proheme in the Glosse Neither art thou God nor man thou art as it were neither bâ—tween both Finally when they preach that the Pope is all and above all that his power exteÌ„deth it selfe to thinges in Heaven in Earth and Hell That he can commande the Angels that he hath such power in Purgatorie and â—lso in Hell that he can deliver by his Indulgences as great a number as he will of soules which are tormeâ—ted in those places and set them by and by in Heaven and in the seates of the blessed VVhen I say they attribute these and many such blasphemous thinges unto him who seeth not whom the reprobate of the earth doe worship and adore with divine honours Not that all who some time have adored the Beast are reprobates for it may be that they did repent and were converted to God but because all the reprobate doe worshipe him Neither let any prate foolishly that there are many countries in the world in which even the name of the Romane Pope hath not ben heard I doe not otherwise take the whole world and all the reprobate then the Holy Spirit himselfe if the Papists have any thing wherby they may cut the throate of this Vniversality let them strike at it Seeing therefore that these thingâ—s are so now let the Pope cry out that it is altogither of necessity to salvation to be subiect to the Romane Pope The Spirit contrariwise saith that to be undâ—r the Romane Bishop is to be ioined wholly with the losse of salvation if any doe so diâ— without repentance VVhether of these two must thou beleeve He will haâ—e it that he cannot erre but how foolish is it to bring the tryall of the same thing thither where if thou shalt erre in beleeving there shal be given thee noâ— leave to correct the errour This Beast is worshipped of all the reprobate whom as long as thou conspireâ—t with in worship who will secluâ—e thee from the condition of the reprobate He therefore breaketh not â—nitie who departeth from the Romish Synagogue but he procured unâ—voidable destruction to himselfe whosoever is ioyned to her and repented not O yee most wretched recoÌ„cilers who seeke to bring back againe the people to Rome Is it not enough for your sâ—lves to perish uâ—lesse you increase your condemnation by drawing others with you into the same
him before that he recovered health from his wounde which he had He was of great authority before he received the wounde as wee have shewed but of farre greater after the hurt was amended VVhich order the Spirit observed before in the 3. and 4. ver adding after his head was cut and healed both admiratioÌ„ and also adoration And that adoration is this same which is now gotten by the labour of this But why seeing the second is no other then then first revived urgeth he not worship in his owne name but onely in the name of that This is a singular cunning of the most crafty hypocrites to wit a fained name of antiquity wherby he might get estimation to himselfe in the world For in this onely he should wholly labour that the first might be worshipped as though he chalenged no new thing to himselfe but that onely which his Ancetours had left unto him by succession From hence the Epistles of most auncient Popes were corrupted most impudently coÌ„terfait put in the place of true and true wholly chaunged with strange additions and detractions for their owne profit From the same shop came the feigned donation of Constantine Likewise the Decrees which in their title have a shew of greater antiquity then trueth and sixe hundred of that sorte Neither is any other thing at this day so greatly laboured for as that the auncient honour may be given to the Pope that is that the first Beast may be worshipped it would be an unpleasant ambition openly to endevour to get honour to himselfe though the Pope is not ashamed of this wherefore he obiecteth the first Beast under whose name he may serve himselfe more secretly 13 And he doeth great wonders Now is shewed by what way he deceiveth men and obtaineth that worship for which he fighteth as for heaven earth to wit by working Miracles in the which Antichrist should be wonderfull whose comming is by the effectuall working of Satan with all power and signes and lying wonders as Paul hath forwarned 2 Thes 2.9 Which thing if Ireneus had observed in his 5. booke chap. 28. he would not have called this Beast so much the Armour bearer of Antichrist as Antichrist himselfe No miracles of the former are rehearsed but onely power great authority of which there may be a distinct force from signes It is manifest to all men how this Beast is commended for a notable fine worker of miracles by and by after he waxed whole of his wound Beholde one or two for it were an infinite thing to recite every one The Christians have ben protected wonderfully from the Devill in the Temple Pantheon after that Boniface the 4. had consecrated it to all Saincts Theodorus the next healed with a kisse one diseased with the leprosy No man in the whole army of Eudo to whom but even a very small piâ—ce of the blessed Spongie had come from the POPE Gregory 2. was either killed or wounded in the battell against the Saracenes The body of Formosus brought from the river Tiber into the Church of S. Peter is saluted and worshipped with great reverence of the Images of the Saincts in the entrance of the teÌ„ple A white dove like snow whose necke was shining as Gold sate upon the right shoulder of Gregory the 6. whiles he celebrated Masse WheÌ„ the same was to be buried in the Palace of Peter the doores of the Temple taried not the comming of the doore keeper but of their owne accord leaped backe at the bringing of his dead body A certen lame woman by drinking the water wherewith Vrbain 2. had washed his handes after the Masse was healed Infinite are the things of this sorte in which the Romane Pope glorieth both olde and newe For both are of like force to coÌ„firme his authority Which Zacharias knewe well who translated into the Greeke tongue the foure bookes of Gregory the Great concerning the miracles of the Fathers that the miraculous power of the Popes might be come knowen as well to the Grecians as to the Latines But wilt thou say the miracles of other men are not fewe That is true in deede but who ar all the slaves of the same Pope of whom whatsoever wonders are done they are referred to the defending preserving and increasing of his dignity as to the centre From whence all these done of his servants are worthily said to be his for whose honour alone they make ¶ So that he maketh fire to come downe from heaven His power to doe miracles being shewed summarily now he descendeth to some certen kindes which the Papists will have to be three the first whereby Antichrist shall seeme to rise from the dead the second wherby he shall make fire to descende from heaven the third is the power of speaking given to the Image which things seeing they are not founde in the Pope of Rome as Bellarmine will have it in his third booke of the Romane Pope chap. 15. it followeth saith he that he is not Antichrist His rising from the dead is gathered from his head deadly wounded and healed againe ver 3 of this chapter and from that which is said after in the 17. chap. ver 18. he was and is not and ascendeth out of the bottomelesse pit Which rising againe wee have shewed to be found most plainely in the Pope of Rome when he was eased and delivered from those miseries wherwith by the invasion of the Barbarians he lay overwhelmed and buried in mens opinion For that it cannot agree to the death of one man fained for some fewe dayes it shal be manifest from the person of Antichrist which the seventeenth chapter after will proove evidently to be a long succession of many not any certen and singular man Especially also seeing that this wound was very sorrowfull not inflicted on himselfe willingly and in jest but made by his enemies where could be no place for counterfaiting Which faining of death was brought in by a false coniecture of men and besides the trueth of the matter and the very wordes of the scripture Therfore the Rom. Pope is famous for the first miracle which if they please they may call a resurrection to which it is not unlike Now what manner of one is he in regard of the second CerteÌ„ly those miracles seeme to be very great which are done from heaven or in the very heavens wheÌ„ as men have very little power over these bodies as when a fire of the Lord falling from Heaven consumed the burnt offring of Eliah 1 King 18.38 Likewise also when the Captaine over fifty men with his whole bande was destroyed by fire from Heaven at the prayers of the same Eliah 2 King 1. Therefore Antichrist that he might not seeme inferiour to the famous Prophets would set foorth himselfe by this sort of miracles Gladly doe the Iesuites heare this from whence they judge for a surety that the Pope is not Antichrist of whom say they not such miracle is read But
the same Adonikam afterward in Nehemiah are numbred sixe hundred three score seaven in the 7. chap. ver 10. The rest of the names 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Aretas in the later writers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like partly are not the names of any man or at the least not of a people partly nothing was to be feared from them to whose knowledge soever they should come Romiâ—th or Romagnus Romane come nighest of all but the fourth property reiecteth this also which could not be of force inough to recover the favour of the Beast The Grecians willingly acknowledged themselves to be Romanes and of a long time boasted of this name Constantinople was commonly called New Rome yet in the meane time they were greatly hated of the Beast untill at length they did shew their consent with the Latines and yeelded the Primacie to the Latine Pope Therefore all accounts being cast I thinke that Lateinos is the name which the Spirit here biddeth us to number Which is a name whose letters after the account of the Grecians doe accomplish this number and unto which all the other properties doe agree and so much the more because from the Apostles times it hath ben extended to us and the event hath so confirmed it that it is now more cleare then the light at noonetyde which was darke before For so Ireneus in his 5. book chap 29. against heresies But saith he the name Lateinos conteineth the number sixe hundred threescore and sixe and it is very like to be true because the most substantiall Kingdome hath this name for they are Latines who now doe raigne But wee will not boast of this Such are his wordes As though this were not the opinion of him alone but he had received it froÌ„ another but from what other man is it likely then from Polycarp whose scholar he was and he Iohns scholar Such therefore are these Beasts whose lively image wee see in the Romane Pope who according to the plaine interpretation of the wordes the events of the times and agreablenes of all things so fitly without any violence casteth himselfe into every part of this first paterne and that even to the least appearances and likenesses that I thinke the very Papists themselves cannot doubt any more who is Antichrist And thus farre coÌ„cerning the Dragon and the Beast according to the consideration of knowledg encreased which should come under the blowing of the seventh trumpet for Hitherto doe the thirteene Centuries extend ending in the yeere 1300. to wit in the number of the name of the Beast that is a little after that the matter was brought to a point with the Grecians who submitted themselves to the Latine Pope with which number of his name the Spirit also coÌ„cludeth this Prophecy of the Beast shewing a very great consent of the issue in every part CHAP. 14. THEN I beheld and loe a Lambe stood on mount Sion and with him an hundreth fourty and foure thousande having his fathers name written on their fore heads 2 And I heard a voice from heaven as the sounde of many waters and as the sounde of a great thunder and J heard the voice of Harpers harping with their harpes 3 And who did sing as it were a new song before the throne and before those foure Beasts and those Elders and no man could learne that song but those hundreth fourty and foure thousande to wit those which were bought from the earth 4 These are they which are not defiled with women for they are virgines these follow the Lambe whither soever he goeth these are bought from men being the first fruites to God and to the Lambe 5 And in whose mouth was founde no guile for they are without spot before the Throne of God 6 Then I saw an other Angell flying in the middes of heaven having an everlasting Ghospell to preach to them that dwell on the earth and to every nation tribe and tongue and people 7 Saying with a loude voice feare God and give glory to him for the houre of his iudgement is come and worship him which made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountaines of waters 8 And there followed an other Angell saying it is fallen it is fallen Babylon that great Citie because shee gave the wine of the wrath of her fornication to drinke to all nations 9 And the third Angel followed them saying with a loude voice if anie man shallworship the Beast and his image and receave his marke in his forehead or in his hande 10 The same shall drinke also of the winne of the wrath of God of the pure wine I say which is powred into the cuppe of his wrath and he shal be tormented in fire brymstone before the holy Angels and before the Lambe 11 And the smoke of their torment shall ascende evermore neither shall they hav anie rest day and night which worship the Beast and his image and whosoever receiveth the printe of his name 12 Here is the patience of the Saincts here are they that keepe the commandemeÌ„ts of God and the faith of Iesus 13 Then I heard a voice from heaven saying unto mee write blessed are the dead which dye for the Lords sake from henceforth even so saith the Spirit for they rest from their labours and their workes follow them 14 And I looked and beholde a white cloud and upon the cloude one sitting like unto the Sonne of man having on his head a golden crowne and in his hande a sharpe sickle 15 And an other Angell came out of the Temple crying with a loude voice to him that sate on the cloude thrust in thy sickle and reape for thy time is come to reape for the harvest of the earth is ripe 16 Then he that sate on the cloud did thrust his sickle on the earth and the earth was reaped 17 Then an other Angell came out of the Temple which is in heaven having also a sharpe sickle 18 And an other Angel came out from the Altar having power over the fire and cryed with a loude voice to him that had the sharpe sickle saying thrust in thy sharpe sickle and gather the clusters of the vineyard of the earth for her grapes are ripe 19 Then the Angel did thrust in his sharpe sickle on the earth and cut downe the grapes of the vineyard of the earth and cast them into that greate wine presse of the wrath of God 20 And the wine presse was troden without the citie and blood came out of the wine presse unto the horses bridles by the space of a thousand sixe hundred furlongs Analysis VVEE have spoken of the thinges done by the enemies it followeth in this chapter concerning the vertue of the citezens declaring what was the condition of the true Church since the time that the battell was ended in heaven the Dragon cast foorth into the earth chap. 12.9 and the Beast began to come out of the Sea chap. 13.1 Which
may say if they come forth out of the Temple it may seem the Church is yet in secret by which argument we have serched out the time of the former Prophesie chap. 14.15 They in the former chapter came out of the Temple being shutt these out of it being opened The Church alwayes dwelleth in the TeÌ„ple for what other fitt hospitage can she have But this Temple is not alwayes after one manner Some while it is shutt in the time of mourning solitarines which was the condition thereof when those reapers grape-gatherers came out of it Some while it is open manifest when the day shineth more cheerful and pleasant and in this estate it was when after the victory over the Beast the seven Angels came out of the same 6 Clothetd with pure and bright linnen These Angels have a more ioyful attyre then had the two witnesses which were clad with sackcloth chap. 11.3 for this time carieth an other hiew Yet these garments are common to all the elect though they be fitter for some times then for othersome For they are the garments of Aarons sonnes Exod. 28.42 And all the elect are made Preists Al the faithfull now doo dwel in the Temple wherinto of olde none might come but the Levites By this attyre therfore is signifyed the cleannes of the Angels through the imputation of Christs righteousnes alone And least any should despise this imputation as a base thing and not fit for any to stand in Gods sight arayed with it as the blasphemous Papists at this day persuade their people therfore he sayth these garments are both pure bright wherein the maiesty of God neyther sees any spott nor any thing that may hinder the highest perfection of glory ¶ And girded about the brests with golden girdles These garments are to be tyed about every one in particular by faith as with a golden girdle the girding is about the brests because this apprehension and application is nothing at all unlesse it have place in the hart So Christ himselfe was girded before chap. 1.13 not for that he needed so to be but onely for to teach us and to represent the Church of that time which was in that part very comely 7 And one of the 4. Beasts It doth not appear which of them by name it was especially seing one of the Beasts may be eyther of order or of distribution of order as when it signifieth the first at chap. 6.1 J heard one of the four Beasts that is the first to weet the Lion Of distribution when in usual manner of speech it may perteyn alike to any of the fowr But it skilleth not which of theÌ„ it be That agreeth unto all which beloÌ„gs to every one al whose vertues being ioyned togither doo give us a pattern what manner of man every faithful minister ought to be as is observed on chap. 4.7 Here the intendement is that we may know how these seven Angels doo draw out of the precepts and institutions of some holy Minister of the Ghospel that which they after doo turn and apply unto the bane of the enemies of the Church Not that this some Minister is to be understood of any singular man but of many that agree in one faith and doctrine as Philip Melanchton Martin Bucer Peter Martyr Henry Bullinger Iohn Calvin and the other servants of God which flourished about that time Out of whose godly and learned writings so many have drawen very excelleÌ„t and golden understanding of holy things that they have been made fitt therby to combat with Antichrist and to finish the remaynders of that warr which the others had so happily begun ¶ Gave to the seven Angels seven golden vials 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a vial sayth Atheneus is so caled by changing of a letter as it were Piálee that is conteyning in it to piem hâ—lis ynough to drink for it is bigger then a cup. book Dipnosophist 11 Yea he makes it a wide and ample vessel like a cauldron which importeth very great wrath to be appointed for the last times These vessels perhaps are used here in such respect as God of old opening the fâ—oud-gates of heaven destroyed al the earth with the floud or as when he consumed Sodom and Gomorrhe with a shore of brimston from heaven For then he seemes to powr out on the heads of men destruction as out of vials Most fitt weapons for the power of God which needeth no forces for to overthrow the enemies but can take them al away even with a small aspersioÌ„ And now behold how fit instruments are attributed to every sort of events In the first place were Seals because the first events were confirmations and pledges of those that were to come Then came Trumpets signifying evils â—ssayling men with great noyse and denouncing also some heavier thing to be expected yf they did not repent Now last are made ready the vials large vessels to conteyn Gods judgment and mâ—st fit to accomplish the perdition of reprobates Neither is ther any noyse in the powring out as was in the sounding of the trompets For Gods judgements to come doo make afrayd for they ar threatned that they may be avoided but when they are present they fal on men privily are not perceived What are these vials then and of what sort First they are the holy minds of the seven Angels intelligent capable of the will of God out of which this baleful liquour is powred upoÌ„ the reprobates Secondly the Beast giveth them by instructing and informing the same minds with holy institutioÌ„s Thirdly they are ful of the wrath of God not wherwith God is angry against them but by which he executeth iudgment upon the wicked Finally they are golden that thou the judgments be most severe yet are they most just pure and precious But mark how dreadfull is this wrath which is of God that liveth for evermore which words are added that we may know the wrath shal be eternal For the wrath is such as is his power whose wrath is kindled 8 And the Temple was filled with smoke Hitherto hath been the preparation of the Angels that which foloweth upon it in respect of this renewed Church is a manifest signe of Gods presence such as was of olde in the Tabernacle Exod. 40.34.35 But thou wilt say the time of the Gospel requireth some more evident token In deed so God deal more opeÌ„ly with us by many degrees then he did under the law but whatsoever caÌ„ be bestowed on us whiles we are on earth though illustrated with the light of the Gospel is but smoke and obscurity in respect of that revelatioÌ„ which at last we shal have in heaven But here he teacheth that Gods preseÌ„ce is clear in the Church though the enemies count it but as smoke and can see no more into it then mâ—n when duskish smoke dooth take away their sight And who but the blind perceiveth not God present in our Churches
Heaven but also the throne it selfe the description wherof was in chap. 4.2 The Temple is the dwelling place of the Saincts as we have seen before this Throne is the seat of the highest Maiestie which being placed in midds of the company of the faithfull shineth with the incomprehensible brightes of the most holy Trinity Wherfore this voice commeth immediatly from God in respect of the Ministery of the Church Wherby is signifyed that God under this vial wil in extraordinary manner and almost beyond exspectation provide for his shewing forth his power from heaven for the destruction of al the enemies which were gathered as even now we heard unto the place Armagedon which interpretation we shal see more fully cōfirmed by that which foloweth where a larger explication of this vial is hādled The voice uttered is It is doon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most fitt for the finishing of things as we know it was used in the creating of them Gen. 1. it hath this meaning as if he should say Al things now have bin which I decreed to be doon neyther remayneth any more of my promises the complemēt wherof should be exspected on earth For this same Is doon hath referēce unto that in chap. 10.7 In the dayes of the voice of the seventh Angel when he shal sound the trompet the Mysterie of God shal be finished Now shal ther be an end of al prophesies when both al the enemies are utterly extinguished there is one sheepfold made throughout the earth of al the elect Iewes and Gentiles under the one Pastor Iesus Christ It is certain that this kingdome of Christ thus begunn shal be eternal never to be interrupted agayn and shall at last be translated from earth into heaven But of the time wherin this translation shall fall out which is to be performed at his second coming I find no mention in this book This prophesie proceeds no further then to the last destruction of al the enemies and ful restitution of the Iewish nation the estate of which people so restored and of the whole Church of al nations he telleth shal be most happy but setteth down no moment of time when they shal leav the earth and goe to their heavenly heritage These things shal be made manifest by the interpretation folowing some tast wherof was here to be given least any perhaps too much attending unto the whole order of things should slip into that errour of setting down the certain time of the last day which thing I see some godly and learned men to busy themselves about as if by this vial some very neer moment therof mought be assigned Which thing upon more diligent examination we find to be wholly layd up in exspectation of hope and not at al put in any comhrehension of sense Now the agreement of the seventh vial with the seventh trompet is that in this Christs Kingdome is begunn the enemies being in part abolished as chap. 11.15 wherupon a voice there sayd the Kingdome of the world is become Christs but in the other Christs Kingdome is consumate al enemies being quite taken away wherfore the voice of this is It is doon 18 And there were noyses and lightnings c. Of the second event ther are three branches first by what things the execution of the judgement was doon in this vers secondly upon what in verse 19.20 Thirdly what effects in respect of the reprobates verse 21. Lightnings thonders voices shall come from heaven the earth shal be moved shaken wherby is taught that both heaven earth shal cōspire for vengeance on the impious both which shal powr out whatsoever direful-punishment it hath upō the wicked crew And this not after the usual manner of former times but with such horrible terrour as never was since the world was made For nowe ther shal be a visible semblance of the infernal punishment which it shall feel at length in the last judgement Moreover these kinds of punishmēts doo declare that the enemies shal be destroyed rather by the extraordinary power of God than by any work and endevour of men which after appeareth more clearly in chap. 19.20 and 20.9 19 And the great City was rent into three parts The second branch of the second event upon what this iudgement shal be exercised which partly are places partly men The places be cities nations The cities are three in this verse the great city the cities of the Gentiles Babylon But what is this great City We have heard before that a city signifieth not onely some towne cōpassed with walls which many cityzens dwell in conioyned togither by the bonds of the same lawes and right but also the whole dition empire of any city as the tenth part of Rome fell when Germany withdrew it self from the yoke of the servitude therof chap. 11.13 Is it then the Romane Empire onely In deed so this was caled before the great city chap. 11.8 but forasmuch as in this place the ful destruction of al the wicked is handled for the vial is powred into the aier as we sayd it compriseth whatsoever Dominion and Empire the foes and enemies of the Church have in any place It comprehendeth therfore the Turkish tyranny also which togither with the Romish constituteth this great city as is more evident by the destruction of this city For it is rent into 3. parts proportionable to the three Princes by whom it is ruled namely the Dragon the Beast the False Prophet before in ver 13. Wherfore by this three fold declaration ther falleth togither al the Turkish and Mahumetish tyranny that is the Dragons al the power of the Beast that is of the Caesarean Bishop all the authority of the False Prophet that is of Pope Balaam for this man of syn after the ruine of his throne remayneth even unto this last overthrow The first vial was but a preparative for the warr this seventh is of the last destruction ¶ And the cities of the Gentils fell VVe heard of the universal Empire of the impious But not this onely shall fal in common but also in particular al the confederate cities and provinces both Turkish Mahumetish Popish For Gentils be al they that are aliants from the truth whither they be farther of from the same as the Barbarous nations or neerer as the Papists who by a false title are counted Christians For we have seen before how to the Gentiles was given the Court which was ioyned to the Temple as also to them was given the holy city which were the places of that rowt which boasted to be Christians by a vayne tytle without substance ¶ And that great Babylon The third place which shal utterly perish is that great Babylon But did not that perish before under the fift vial when Rome the Beasts throne did fall verse 10 For so we saw it caled before Fallen Fallen is Babylon the great city chap. 14.8 In deed Rome did perish before but it
of the Gentils was neither the first people of God neither were the rites observed by them the first ordinances delivered froÌ„ heaven As though the words should give this sense at last albeit this people of the Iewes al the time of their reiection thirsted after their old ceremonies and worship and boasted openly that they should have at length free leave to use their auncient custome which we know they vaunt of even in these dayes yet in this restoring they shall conforme themselves wholly to the will of God in such sorte that willingly renouncing their old ordinances which then they shall acknowledge to have received an ende in Christ they shal make manifest to all men that the first heaven and earth which they looked for in vaine were passed away for ever This last seemeth to be of no small force to shewe that the reason of the order of the first heaven and earth should not be between the GeÌ„tils and Iewes but onely among the Legal and Christian Iewes The care that I have hath made mee to search out all corners to my power now let the iudgement be in the power of the Christian reader which of these is the beast ¶ And there shal be no more sea The sea is degenerat and corrupt doctrine which shall have no place among this new people whose glassie sea shal be like Chrystal most pure most cleare void of al saltnesse and muddy grossenesse as is that in chapter 4.6 Which also is said in respect of the Iewes themselves and those errours which in these daies they deffend so obstinately there is not a comparison of the Gentils with the Iewes handled in this place The Gentile sea that I may so say and thath grosser was consumed already when the Popish nation was destroyed the purer sea of the reformed Church is of glasse chap. 15.2 and shall not be abolished The Iewes even hitherto have their own sea most grosse most foul with many forged tales touching the Messias the legal worship the righteousnes of the law and many other points of salvatioÌ„ al which shal now be so dryed up that not a drop of the former sea shal remaine 2 And I John sawe the holy City In such weise then was seen the new heaven and earth now the holy city is exhibited which is so called for excelleÌ„cy sake The Church also of the Gentils is that new and heavenly Hierusalem as in the Apostle but ye are come to mount Sion and to the City of the living God the heavenly Hierusalem and to the company of innumerable Angels Heb. 12. and Gal. 4 But our Hierusalem being deformed with many errours and contentions shal cause that this most pure shal appeare altogither new Aretas the Compl. the Kings Bible doo omitt the name Iohn reed thus and I saw the holy City the new Hierusalem ¶ Coming down from God Theâ—fore this Hierusalem shall have her seate on earth the heavenly shal never come down but shal remaine fixed in heaven where Christ sitteth in glory at the right hand of the Father I goe saith he to prepare a place for you and when J shall have gone and prepared a place for you I will come againe and take you unto my selfe that where I shal be there you may be also Iohn 14.3 And againe Father J will that those which thou hast given mee be with mee where I am Iohn 17.24 Wee shal be caught up in the cloudes to meete the Lord in the atre and so shal be with the Lord 1 Thess 4.17 And to what ende should HierusaleÌ„ come downe from heaven which by and by after the general resurrection al the elect shal be in the heavens Peradventure wilt thou say it might come down that Iohn might see it If it had come downe for this cause Iohn should rather have been caught up into heaven to behold it then that shee should be let downe to the earth He was commanded before to come up into heaveÌ„ where through the dore opened he saw the forme of the militant Church chap. 4. how much more now should he have gone up that he might behold the same triumphing Therfore these words doe manifestly distinguish the new Hierusalem pilgrim from the inlandish Albeit that be called also heavenly because in very truth it is such both by birth and also by the right of the inheritance as Paul saith For that Hierusalem which is from above Gal. 4.26 It cometh downe therfore from God because his singular power and mercy shall appear in building up this new city The increase of the whole building shal be so swift and the glory and dignity so great that all with one consent shall acknowledge the hand of God and shall declare him to be the onely artificer ¶ Trimmed as a bride To be presented to her husband not yet hitherto given by a marriage accomplished After the last resurrection the marriage shal be accomplished it shal not be a preparing for time to come This bride was adorned with pure fine linnen and the Iustifications of the Saincts chap. 19.7.8 But observe that the city seen ere while is now called the bride and more plainly after ver 9. Come saith the Angel I will shew thee the bride the Lambes wife Therfore this city is the whole multitude of the faithfull the most sweet and straight communion of all which among themselves the Spirit declareth very well by such a forme of city The members of the body are used sometime to the same end but the similitude of a city setreth before our eyes a certaine more lively image There is a greater variety of things in a city and a further difference of duties which yet are ioyned togither and conteined with the same law and respect one chiefe good of all This therfore notably representeth how the faithfull most differing in function office and course of life doo grow unto one Holy body 3 And I heard a great voice from heaven saying c. He commeth to that part of the glory which is declared by the things heard The Tabernacle properly belonged to the Iewes and old worship from whence here it signifyeth the whole divine worship of that people to which before the tabernacle was peculiar Togither also it sheweth that the manifestatioÌ„ of Gods glory shal not yet be perfit such as the Saincts shal enioy after the last iudgment But howsoever it shal be farre more aboundant then never before yet men shall see God as through a glasse and riddle not face to face they shall know in part onely not as they are known 1 Cor. 13.12 A tabernacle is fit for the Church being in pilgrimage not for that which hath gotten a firme seate in her owne countrey ¶ And he shall dwell with them and they shal be his people Then God himselfe shal take upon him the protection of the Saincts according to the forme of the covenant Gen. 17.1 then the Saincts shall submit themselves willingly to be governed of
which time this reward perteineth frō whence it is cleare that these 7 Epistles respected not onely the present condition of the 7 cityes but by the way of types to contayne a lōge following age evē as we have interpreted But so farre as pertineth to newe Ierusalem wee will shew in this place that it is not that city which the saints shall enioy in heaven after this life but a Church to be expected on earth the most pure and most noble of all that ever have bin hitherto The rewards in a peculiar manner doe serve the times and if this felicity shal be after the resurrection it shal be comon to all the saints not proper to this Philadelphia This therefore signifyeth both that the Philadelphians shall cōtinue untill that restauratiō in which new Ierusalem shall come downe from heaven shal be conversant among men also shal be ioyned with the same in a league fellowship shal be indued with that heavenly city enioy the same Law privilege happines At which time all shall acknowledge thy reformation not to be a thing devised of man as contentious men affirme when they shall see the same ordinances to flourish in newe Ierusalem The third name is the newe name of sonne What can be new unto him namely that which is not yet acknowledged of the world Hitherto he hath suffered the tyrants to beare rule to treade under foote the name of Christ as though he were a King onely in title who should have right to reigne but should want pover But at length he shall rise up shall take a clubbe into his hande he shall destroy all his enemyes he shall give the triumphe to his spouse shal be celebrated King of Kings by all men through the whole cōpasse of the earth Vnto the society of which glory he shall take his servants he shall deliver them from the calamityes wherewith they are now oppressed he shall give them power over their enemyes shall bestow on them the whole glory of his Kingdome as much as mortall mē cā receive And there is some difference betweene a newe name put absolutely as in chap. 2.17 a newe name of sonne For that perteineth unto the certenty of adoption by Christ which faith was very weake in the Pergamen state this belongeth to the society of the Kingdome which shal be communicated with his in the last times 13 Let him that hath an eare heare Hear therefore Philadelphia and reioyce thou art lowe and nothing esteemed but God will exalte thee Onely goe foreward constantly augment your care diligence slake and asswage it nothing Neither regarde the skoffes of the wicked who shall bring upō thēselves sorow to thee a crowne Shortly there shal be an end of thy warfare In the meane time wee will pray for thy peace Doe thou againe ioyne thy prayers with ours that Christ would bestow the same things upon the rest of thy brethren which he hath so greatly approved in thee Fare well The grace of our Lord Iesus Chist be with thee Amen Analysis SO is the Epistle to the Philadelphians the last remayneth to the Laodiceans whose inscription is to the Angell like to the former The description of him by whom it is sent is fetched from a double property first of Trueth partly in the promises in that he is Amen partly in the Doctrine in that he is the falthfull true Witnesse secondly of power wherby he is the beginning of the creature of God ver 14. The Narration first reproveth sheweth the greatnes of the sinne both secretly omitting the making mention of any good thing as in the former Churches and as also openly both by comparison of coldnes as a lesser evill ver 15. and also by the punishement to be inflicted the vomitting out of his mouth ver 16. After he teacheth the way to heale them both by opening the cause of the disease which is a false perswasion of their owne worthynes and ignorance of their misery ver 17. and also in prescribing a remedy to be sought from Christ alone ver 18. And not this alone but also by persuading the use of it as well by the chastising of sonnes if they shall neglect it ver 19. as also by his readinesse to apply ver 20. and by the reward ver 21. The last ende is the Epilogue to heare what the Spirit saith tu tho Churches ver 22. Scholions 14 And to the Angell of the Laodiceans Laodicea situated at the river Lycum was once a great city and famous abounding both in cityzens riches and also in all other things as we shewed in the first chap. ver 11. It was built by Antiochus the sonne of Stratonice and for his wife Laodice her sake called this city Laodicea as it were the Princesse and ruler of the people to whom shee should administer iustice and make lawes From whence wee call her Glorious great both by name and also in their owe opinion which boasteth that shee is riche and wanteth nothing ver 17. It is from Philadelphia more toward the East then the South being distant from it according to Ptolomy not above tenth scruples Shee is the third city since there was mention made of Jezabell the reproche of whom Sardis tooke away from the Churches Shee hath this proper to her that shee hath none to whom shee can be opposed as in the former Churches Vnto Ephesus was opposed Thyatira to Smyrna Sardis to Pergamus Philadelphia Laodicea the seaven hath noe fellow The Antitype is the third reformed Church which before I note or shew the uniust suspicion and offence of some men is to be put away by intreaty No disease or corruption of minde hath moved me to seeke out an odious application No mans either riches or honours God is witnesse grieveth mee I am content with my little Neither have I counted any thing to be more foolish then to please on s selfe by displeasing others But howe dishonest and filthy a thing is it to sit as doth the fly upon the soares of the brethren My soule hath allwayes abhorred such dealings But when I considered that these seaven cityes were set forth for a type of all Churches among the Gentiles and then also perceived the course it selfe of the time and the mervaylous concurring of all things I durst not unfaithfully hide the truth with silenee least I should make my selfe guilty of others blood Farre be it that I should distaine willfuly that Church which through the mercy of God hath brought mee forth nourished and susteined mee which I desire in my daylie prayers and labour to be most blessed But seeing the soare cannot be cured unlesse it be touched neither truly touched without griefe I thought I must not refuse to cast my selfe against what troubles soever rather then to betray the salvation of her of which every one of us ought to have greater regard and care then of his owne Verily he that
and wee must either thinke forthwith of the remedy or some great and lamentable calamity is to be expected shortly And it is to be observed that he doth rebuke and chasten that is convince and punish These two thinges are to be ioyned togither Punishement is unprofitable where wordes are silent stripes are fierce From whence chastisement is well called discipline wherein the offender feeleth paine and learneth togither But what shall then be the fruict of so longe and spitefull contention when the convinced and chastised sonne shal be compelled will he nil he to singe a contrary songe Were it not better to give now eare to learne then to expect that sorowfull chaunging of our iudgement Although Christ in deede hath convinced already seeing nowe by the space of many yeeres many notable men doe labour in this thing that the brethren may understand the trueth What remaineth now but that at length he fetch out his roddes and chastise those whom he hath rebuked so longe time without fruict ¶ Be hotte therfore Straine therefore thy zeale to the utmost The translation persisteth in the former metaphore but the Spirit speaketh now properly teaching that the former heate was nothing else then zeale Forsake saith he thy lukewarmnes purge out all the Romish leaven that thou mayest hange no longer in the middes betweene the reformed and the Anti-Christian Church cast away for his sake honours riches who for thy sake was most despised most poore Let faithfull Pastours be appointed for the severall congregations let them that have charge rule be compelled unto deligence let the chaungers corrupters of the doctrine be repressed let the censures be restored to the Pastors over their flocke And dispute not with Christ how profitably the Politie used of the enemy may be ioined with the Gospell He that reproveth in his people the manners of the East would not have his to be shorne after the similitude of the Gentiles will not easily suffer this society with Antichrist which our carnall wisdome mindeth This is the force of this zeale which unlesse wee shall receive forthwith wee shall undergoe some sharpe chastisement ¶ Andrepent Repente of the iniuries which thou hast done to the brethren in casting some into prison in turning others out of their goodes in depriving many of the power to preach the word in reproching traducing all with the odious name of Anabaptists Thou knowest that they have no fellowship with them in any of their errours They that reproove thy superstitions teach most purely holily cōcerning the Magistrate whō they honour no lesse faithfully reverently then any other whatsoever Yf I should say that he were esteemed more holily religiously of them then of all other I should not ly For they that cleave to God with most firme mindes are such as observe most his decrees in all true obedience yeelde up themselves to him whō they acknowledg to be ordained of God among men in his feare That was a notable calumnie wherby both thou hast deceived the Prince also hast procured hatred to thy brethrē But thou sawest that this weapō was most ready at hād to thē hurtfull above al other Repēt wash a way thy former offēces with teares forget thy riches which the more thou lovest the more payne shalt thou feele It is forsaken with much adoe where it cleaveth so neare the heart But Christ is determined unlesse thou repent betime to spue thee out of his mouth 20 Beholde J stand at the doore A second reason persuading to use the remedy takē from the readines of Chr. to dwell with thē that shall receave him which belōgeth to every one of the mēbres that former respected properly the Ang. but why doth he say that he stādeth at the doore knocketh Why openeth he not the doore goeth straite in especially seeing he hath the key of David wherewith he openeth no mā shuteth above in ver 7. These things are spoken most elegātly most significātly in respect of the Laodiceā Church ours in which Christ stādeth at the doores an entry in some sorte stopped up against him The Philad Chur. in which once flourished Gods ordināce in whose Antitype it is force at this day all the reliques of Antichrist being thrust forth hath the doore unlocked opened especially because of the true use of excōmunication restored wherby the gates of heaven are both shut opened also the doores of every on s conscience are opened that Chr. may passe in without any tarrying For where good heede is taken to every on s manners according to the present occasion men are admonished reproved cut of received againe the other things are performed faithfully diligently with the regard had of every on s salvation all doores barres of the harte are cast downe removed in very truth the gates then lift up their heades that the King of Glory may enter in But when as England is lukewarme because of the contagion of the Romish government as once Laodicea for some such like mixture hath not any administration of the censures graunted unto lawfull Pastors as Christ hath appointed as often as the word is preached Christ standeth knocking as it were at the doores shut to whom no other way is open into mens hart thē by the worde whose power wee read to have bin great once whē in one sermon three thousand were converted Act. 2.41 Neither is it at this day of it selfe lesse mighty yet there is a diverse raison of a Church to be gathered one gatthered God sheweth himselfe extraordinarily bountifull in inviting his people which after he hath gathered togither he will have them to grow by the way appointed As touching the fruit of the Gospell therefore the people receaveth no lesse losse of so excellent an ordināce thē the Angell doth acknowledge himselfe maimed lame being spoiled of his lawfull power This key is wanting to our Church therefore it is noe mervayle if Christ be hindred that he cannot enter in readily seeing the doores are shutte But are wee thē destitute of every good thing in no wise but wee enioy still a double good thing wholsome to the elect the first of which is the going in of Chr. unto those that doe open to him The 2 is their most sweete setting downe with Christ That is the most sweete solace of receiving Christ which the Saints perceive as often as at the word preached they feele their harts to be opened by faith by the worke of the Spirit For then he entreth in suppeth with us in imperting himselfe most beningly and sweetly even as he bad Zacheus desiring to see him clyming up on a wilde figge tree to come downe to make ready for him entertainment at his house Luke 19.5 And he suppeth not going awaye scotfree who doth give them that thus embrace him that they be made the sonnes of God
Tertullian I say sent a most learned Apologie written against the Gentiles to the Nobles of Rome by which at least secretly as writeth Franciscus Zephyrus they might have knowledge of the common cause of Christians seeing that openly they might not Neither did he thinke that onely the Princes of the Romane Empire were to be called upon of him generally but also by name Scapula the President of Cartage if peradventure he might tame by these meanes his cruell minde He sheweth him the true cause of the publike calamityes to wit that the wicked world by persecuting the trueth did bring upon themselves those sterilities that after sowing time the harvests were lost that deluges arysing from showers of raine and fearfull tempests marred all thinges For so he speaketh Yet wee must needes be grieved because noe city shall carry away scotfree the shedding of our blood and also as under Hilarianus the President when concerning the floores of our burials thy cried togither they shall not be treshing floores they were not their floores For they have not done their harvests Which wordes shew plainly that there was great barrennes in those times when as there were noe harvests and therefore as it seemeth those floores were given to the Christians wherin they might bury their dead when through the great barrennes they were to noe use for to lay up corne And why should wee not acknowledge here the blacke horse seeing the Sunne in the assembly at Vtica had almost quite lost his light and that not by an extraordinary eclipse but being placed in his high and exaltation as witnesseth the same Tertullian to Scapula Neither did this want of sustenance torment onely the wicked Gentiles but also did troble the Christians for God will have wordly goods to be common to the prophane and afflictions to his owne children that all of like fellowship might proove both his lenity and severity Tertul. in his Apol. So then the event doth agree with the Prophecy punishing the world with an other scourge even famine which could not be raysed from their drowsines with that great sword and destruction of warres The Iesuite will have the blacke horse to be understood of Heretiques although according to his wonted errour he hath noe regard of the time For he referreth these thinges to the fortieth yeere of the Lord when Mathewe wrote the Ghospell wherein he passeth over the boundes set of the Angell I will shewe thee the thinges which must be done hereafter chap. 4.1 Many Heretiques indeede arose in the time of that respit which the Church enioyed under Commodus as Montanus and others of that sorte but seeing the former Horse that which followeth doe note bodily calamityes inflicted upon the world for iniuryes and violence offerred to the trueth it were unmeete to transferre this which is placed between them into an other kinde especially seeing there is a manifest consent of the History Neither must wee thinke that a famine belonging to the common people is a lighter matter then that it should be meete that men should be forewarned of it For it was the purpose of the Spirit to appointe these first calamities as pledges of the following Prophecy from whence they are called Seales as it were confirmations of the other thinges which are to be delivered that the trueth of these predictions being perceived which should follow in the next times the faithfull might be noe lesse without doubt touching those thinges which are to be expected in the last ages Therefore these Seales are as the three kiddes three loaves of bread a bottell of wine Likewise a Viole a Tymbrell a Pype and a Harpe with which men meeting Saule made a more undoubted persuasion in him touching the promised Kingdome 7 And when he had opened the fourth seale I heard the voice of the fourth Beast The fourth Beast is an Eagle flowing on high and little esteeming the thinges that are on earth chap. 4.7 He standeth in equall degree with the last former Beasts and doe not attaine that power of the first whose roaring sounded out like thunder Yet neverthelesse by his Eagles cry he instructeth the faithfull touching the evill to come whom he biddeth come and see howe great destruction should come upon the world by and by 8 And beholde a pale horse The fourth type is a pale Horse the Sitter on whō is described by his Name Follower and the busines committed to him The colour of the Horse is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifyeth being greene a thing so greene as grasse Some time it is taken for the deformity of herbes waxing dry which have lost their colour from whence it is taken for palenes which is the colour of a thing withered as pale feare because feare maketh men pale and Constance the Father of Constantin the great was called Chlorus for his palenes as saith Zonaras in Diocletian That sickly colour doth very well become the Horse on whose backe sitteth Death himselfe where he that sate is used for to him that sate Which kinde of speaking is according to the Hebrewes as was observed chap. 2.26 Although least any should thinke it to be against the rule of Grammar and through his owne ignorance impute barbarisme to the holy writer wee have also examples in other tongues of most eloquent authours Livius speaketh thus The learned saith he in religions and common lawe when duo ordinarij Consules two ordinary Cōsuls of that yeere one perished by the sword the other by sicknes denyed that the substituted CONSVLL could have an assembly of people to chuse officers Where duo ordinarij Consules is put for duorum ordinariorum Consulum that is of two ordinary cōsuls So Salust Therefore in the beginning Kings for that was the first name of Governement on the earth being diverse part exercised their wit part their body Many thinges of this sort are noted of learned men of whom also it is observed that this manner of speaking is very usuall with the Grecians First to the rider the name Death is given From the proportion whereof names also be given to the former so as he that sitteth on the white horse may be called trueth on the red horse warre on the blacke horse famine Which I doe mentione because I see that some little to the purpose doe faine here the Devill and I knowe not what others to be the Sitters Nowe the Sitter is named Death for excellency sake both because the plague of this seale should bring more swifte destruction and also because it should annoy with moe kindes of killing The third scourge of God is wonte to be the Pestilence as in Ezechiel That they shall fall by the sword by famine and pestilence chap. 6.11 The which notwithstanding is not here made the captayne of the ranke but onely mustered into the place of an ordinary souldiour as wee shall see by and by The cōpanion or rather waiting made of Death is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in latine
is commonly translated Hell but it would be more fitly translated Grave which also the greeke word signifyeth so it ought to be understood in this place especially seeing many holy men should die togither with the rest whom it were a wicked thinke to iudge to be swallowed up of the Hell of the damned For as touching that the Jesuite doth thinke that Hell doth follow to devoure Traiane whom he will have to be this Sitter wee shall see in the applying howe fond a thing it is that I may not say how carelesly he mixed and confouÌ„deth all thinges who bringeth againe to Traiane the Prophecy which was passed beyond Severus Secondly power is given to the Sitter and togither also is limitted with his boundes and there was given them where some bookes doe read the order being changed and power was given to him over the fourth parth of the earth and the common Latine translation for the fourth part of the earth readeth over foure parts of the earth by these meanes the whole world being made subiect to their dominion against the consent of all the Greeke copies But nowe it is a detestable thing to thinke after the Tridentine Decree that the commoÌ„ traÌ„slatioÌ„ was not corrected according to the best Greeke copies Although a good sense in deede may be drawne from the wordes that the foure partes of the earth may note the largenes of the countryes in which the destruction should go on with rage even as the fourth part of the earth the multitude of men which should perish by this death The Power is defined with a foure folde kinde of destroying with Death sitting on the horse which he useth as his Ministers Warres Batells leade the first army whose weapon is a Sword Want of foode guideth the second hoste the third the Pestilence for by death he meaneth it to whom is attributed the name of the gender because it taketh men away with a most quicke destruction and setteth before our eyes a most lively image of death and theÌ„ also it is wont to be alwayes the follower of Famine And in many mother tongues it is called Mortality The last scourge is of Beasts a scourge much used in former times as I will sende upon you the Beasts of the field Levit. 26.22 So Aâ—so when I shall send my foure sore iudgements upon Ierusalem even the sword and famine and noysome Beasts and Pestilence Ezech. 14.21 An exeÌ„ple whereof wee have when the Lord sent Lions among the newe dwellers who succeeded the ten tribes carried away 2 King 17.25 or it may be that Beasts be taken metaphorically for men mighty on earth and made like Beasts a frequent name in the scriptures of Tyrants and wicked Princes as of Pharaoh Thou art like a yong Lion among the nations Ezech. 32.2 And famous in Daniell is the nothing of foure Kinges by so many Beastes that is a Lion a Beare a Leopard and the fourth terrible Beast to wit a Centaure compact of many chap. 7.4.5 These are then the bandes of Death which nowe ioyned togither he would spread abroade into the world when the gates and wayes were opened which before were severall plagues And that it is also so come to passe the coherence of things doe teache it After Severus the state of the Church was quiet untill at length the Empire came to Decius Maximinus troubled somewhat but he being killed a while after his madnes and life was short But Decius neither feared with the calamity of warres nor any whit moved with the scarsity of victualls both which he might easily perceive the slaughters of the innocents to have brought into the world commanded that rigour should be shewed toward the Christians with all kinde of torments Then the fourth Beast spake for Cyprian being indeede an Eagle a contemner of the world and of the thinges that are very much esteemed of other men who at his first conversion bestowed all his goods upon the poore who earnestly reproved the covetousnes of other men in heaping up patrimonies sharply rebuked the pride of them that preferred themselves before others reprehended swelling insolency and immodest boasting of confession by all meanes openly avouched that these scourges were provoked by such sinnes This Eagle I say flying so much the more higher by howe much the more he did abase himselfe in writing against Demetrianus Ethnicus shewed playnly that this was the chiefe cause of all evills wherewith the world was tormented that the GeÌ„tiles did persecute so barbarously the harmelesse worshippers of Christ whom the world after their manner through envy charged for to be the cause of the commoÌ„ calamityes but that holy man did put away those calumnies and declared manifestly the true fountaine of all the evils Neither was his voice false God forthwith approving it by sending into the world divers and sundry sortes of horrible destruction Decius himselfe was swallowed up in a golfe-mire of a marsh not bequeathing himselfe to death for his country after the example of the olde Decius but going downe as it were quicke into Hell for a iust terrour of all mercilesse Tyrants Gallus Volusianus by and by after felt the wrath of God who are famous for noâ— remembrance of their notable acts but onely for the destruction of mankinde For first when these reigned the sword slewe an infinite sorte of men For the Scythians when Decius was gone when first the yoke of tribute was layed upon the Româ—nes which howe much blood it cost any man may easily coniecture altering forthwith their act did make invasions did drive away spoiles did violently enter in often times by a very great army by land and by sea did wast Dardania Thracia Thessalia Macedonia and the country Hellas part did molest Asia with the spoiling rasing and destroying of many cityes on every side By whose example also other enemyes did aryse the Parthians did take and hold by force Armenia and did passe through into the parte of Syria which mischiefes when Gallus Volusianus make ready to withstand they are both killed of the souldiours Aemilianus a three-moneth Emperour was chosen of the same into their place and of them killed Valerianus cometh alive into the enemyes power and is made a footstoole to Sapores for to get upon his horse The sword then played his part greatly leaving scarse any part of the world free from slaughters The famine gave occasion both to Demetrianus of calumniating the Christians and to Cyprian of defending them Doest thou sayth he speaking to Demetrianus marvayle and complaine in this your obstinacy and contempt if the earth be foule with the standing of dust if the barren clotte bringeth scarse fainte yellowish and wanne herbes and grasse if seldome raine descende from above if the beating haile maketh the wine feeble if a subverting whirlewinde doe breake in pieces the olive trees if drought doe stoppe up the fountaine c From which it is cleare howe grievous the coÌ„dition of those
other not long after of apprehending the Pastors of the Churches and compelling them to sacrifice to Jdoles Here many courageously persevering were not overcome with torments but an infinite sorte of others being astonied a good while before through feare were weakened at the first assault Euseb booke 8.2 by the which he sheweth the sudden fall of many 14 And the heaven departed away The heaven every where in this booke signifyeth the universall purer Church and it properly to be at length her dwelling place in the meane tyme in such sorte by her represented that it hath not any more lively image on earth These thinges therefore prove that the calamity rested not in the Governours alone but that the whole face of the Church was covered with so blacke darkenes that it could be seene almost no where Let the same Euseb be read in the 3 booke ch 3. where he bewayleth the miserable wasting of it with lamentings borrowed from the lamentatioÌ„s of Ieremy chap. 2.1.2 Likewise from Psal 89.39 c. Yet notwithstanding this desolation should be but as the foulding of a booke A booke is not destroyed when it is rolled up but remaineth as great as it was before it becometh indeede lesse evident and apparant in the sight being reduced and brought into a farre straighter roome So likewise the Church should loose nothing of her syncerity howsoever her glory might seeme to be quite abolished But the similitude of a folded booke is taken from the auncient custome wherin bookes were not bound into leaves but were rolled up as little wheeles whence they were called volumes as Aretas hath nored The Hebr saith he did vse rowles that which is books with us in the same sense it is sayd in the Epistle to the Hebrewes chap. 1.12 and as vesture shall thou folde them up that is thou shalt deface all their glory as of a vesture folded up whose gorgeousnesse and beautie cannot be seene The Hebrewes have for it Tachâ—liphem thou shalt change them Psal 102.27 the which is translated by the Greekes significantly thou shalt folde up seeing the Psalmist speaketh of such a changing as is altogither contrary to the nature of the heavens For the heaven is Râ—qâ—â—hh stretched out spread abroad as a curtaine or as a mortall plate divided but rolled up it ceaseth to be Raqiahh so the Church is made to be spred through all nations aâ—d to impâ—rt to them as the heaven to the earth light warmnes and life it selfe but nowe for a time it should be rolled up neither should any glory of it be seen abroad Where theÌ„ was the visible maiesty of Rome in the meane time when the heaveÌ„ departed away as a booke folded up But they have goodly provided for them selves touching such dangers who have cost of all these thinges unto the last day but howe amisse and wrongfully shal be shewed by and by at ver 16. ¶ And all mountaines and Ilands There is nothing so firme which this tempest should not remoove nothing so farre of whither it should not goe and be spred The word mountaine noteth that and the word Iland this It is a great storme which doth either scatter the little hilles of the earth or which doth rage but in the bordering and lowe places but that which doth either cast and drive away the Mountaines themselves neither stayeth in the continent but also flyeth over the sea into the Ilandes must needes bring extreame destruction Eusebius beginning this boysterous storme at Nicomedia pursued it by the very footesteppes through all Syria Aegypt Cappadocia Cilara and Phrygia booke 8. but being as it were wearie with travayling and loathing so sorrowfull a narration he came not to our Europe although Thracia Italy Spayne France being nigh to them and our Iland Britanny somewhat further of ministred noe lesse plenty of Martyrs although the moderation of Constans caused all things to be more milde in these countries The eight booke of the Ecclesiasticall history of Euseb expoundeth these three verses largely 15 And the Kinges of the earth and the Peeres c. Thus farre is the Epitasis now followeth the Catastrophe ioyned togither with the former troubles For in the middes of the rage and heate of this calamity Christ would shewe forth his divine power from heaven and as it were raysed from his sleâ—pe would appease suddenly the tempest by his word alone as he did in time past being awaked by his disciples First at the sight of him Kinges and the Peeres of the earth should flee away and should hide themselves in most secret dennes For what other thinge drove Diocletian Maximin Hercule that having the soveraigne power of thinges and a most fervent desire to roote out Christians when also they had continued theyr fury unto the second yeere resigned the Empire suddenly and returned to a private life A thing saith Eusebius never heard of to have come to passe at any time booke 8.13 Neither without cause doth Ignatius cry out o wonderfull thing and unknowne till this age that of their owne accord neither old age pressing them neither the weightines of things both brought themselves into order Euseb layeth the cause upon their phrenesy Nicephorus also upon their rage arysing doubt lesse from thence because they sawe that they laboured sore in vayne to destroy the Christians But they touched not the true cause from hence they should have learned this which is it and noe other The Lambe at length shewing himselfe to be the avenger of his Church inwardly and secretly did stinge their mindes with the conscience of their wickednes and feare of vengeance wherby he drove these meÌ„ even against their wills unto this unheard modesty The thing is manifest from Maximianus who after that stinge of conscience waxed somewhat weake it repented him of his fact and left no meanes unattented for to recover the scepter which he had laid downe An other of the Emperours who succeeded those that gave over their place called Gallerius Maximianus exercising tyranny against Christians the same Lambe vanquished by an horrible disease and drove him to recantation an exemple whereof see in Euseb booke 18.17 Maximinus also being made Emperour in the East by Galerius at length against his will acknowledged Christ to be the King and gave free leave to his worshippers to live after his precepts and ordinances Euseb booke 9.9.10 Maxentius that Romane Tyrant striken with feare by the same Lambe fayned himsâ—lfe to be a Christian for a time Sabinus and the other rulers of the Provinces following the authority of the Cesars Augusts desired to winne the Christians favour also by a fayned gentlenes and to hide themselves from the wrath of the Lambe So great a feare of the Lambe came upon all degrees of meÌ„ that every one thought himselfe well provided who could get any corner wherein he might lye hidde in safety 16 And they sayd to the Mountaines It is an argument of exceeding desperation when they esteemed all
evill but light in comparison of his wrath from which they would redeeme themselves with any most grievous dammage whatsoever Diocletian being sent for by the letters of Constantine the great drunke poison for feare Maximianus ended his life with an haltar Gallerius perished of a most fowle disease Maximinus prevented the death that was nigh to him from Licinius by a voluntary death Maxentius tooke for him selfe a denne in the very bottome of the great river Tybris So in divers maners the Tyrants desyred to be hid from the sight of the Lambe Many men from the lykenes of speaking doe thinke that these thinges are to be referred unto the last day But noe man can deny that these same kindes of speaking are applyed of the Prophetes unto other and also unto the last calamityes And they shall come sayth Isaiah into the holes of the rockes and into the caves of the earth for the feare of the Lord chap. 2.19 Likewise Hoseah And they shall sâ—y to the Mountaines cover us and to the hilles fall upon us When yet neverthelesse he speaketh there onely of the carying away into Babylon chap. 10.8 Therefore the likenes of speaking hath small force to effect that which they would have Moreover neither can the consideration of the time suffer that interpretation by any meanes For seeing the time of the Trumpets and Violâ— is of longe continuance as wee shall shewe in the thinges that follow the sixt seale must needs be a great way from the last day especially seeing the first Trumpet shall not beginne to blowe before the seaventh seale be opened This one thing may be sufficient to convince that strange interpretation 17 For that day cometh In which the Lambe would doe that for the soules which they desired ver 11. would take deserved vengeance on the enemyes would breake the yoke of the Tyrants would take away the power of assayling with publike persecutions would set his people at liberty neither would suffer them to he vexed any more for a longe time as after chap. 20.2 of any enemy of this kinde Therefore the Church now could not be withstood by any forces that shee should not get out of trouble and obtaine the soveraignty of things even as the experience of the same times hath shewed plenteously Nowe therefore wee see the wonderfull Prophecy of the sixe Seales in which have ben disclosed the thinges of chiefe moment from the time of the Revelation given unto the raigne begun by Constantine surely in so expresse types and image of the thinges to be done that although peradventure some will accuse the interpretation of novelty yet every syncere and equall iudge will mervayle rather that the same hath not ben observed of others afore time theÌ„ refuse this as strange Yf any desyre to understand more fully touching the sixe Seales let him reade the seaven last bookes of the Ecclesiasticall History of Eusebius which may well serve him in steade of an ample and sufficint Commentary CHAP. 7. AFTER that J sawe foure Angels standing on the foure corners of the earth holding the foure windes of the earth that the winde should not blowe on the Earth neither on the Sea neither on any tree 2 And I saw an other Angell coming up from the East having the seale of the living God who cryed with a lowde voice to the foure Angels to whom power was given to hurt the earth and the sea saying 3 Hurt ye not the earth neither the sea neither the trees till wee have sealed the servaunts of our God in their foreheads 4 And J heard the number of them which were sealed there were sealed an hundreth an foure and forty thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israell 5 Of the tribe of Iuda were sealed twelve thousande of the tribe of Ruben were sealed twelve thousand of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand 6 Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousande of the tribe of Nepthali weâ— sealed twelve thousand of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand 7 Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand of the tribe of Jssachar were sealed twelve thousand of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand 8 Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousande of the tribe of Beniamin were sealed twelve thousand 9 After these thinges I beheld and loe a great multitude which noe man could number of all nations and kinreds and people and tongues stood before the Throne and before the LAMBE clothed with longe white robes having Palmes in their handes 10 And they cryed with a lowde voice saying Salvation commeth of our GOD that sitteth upon the Throne and from the Lambe 11 And all the ANGELS stood round about the THRONE and about the ELDERS and the foure Beasts and they fell before the Throne on their faces and worshipped God 12 Saying Amen praise and glory and wisdome and thankes and power and might bee unto our God for ever more Amen 13 Then spake to mee one of those ELDERS saying unto mee who are thâ—se and whence came they which are arayed with longe white robes 14 And I sayd unto him LORD thou knowâ—st And he sayd unto mee These are they which come out of great affliction and have washed their longe robes and have made them white in the blood of the Lambe 15 Therefore are they before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple and he that sitteth on the throne will protect them as in a bowre 26 They shall hunger noe more neither thirst any more neither shall the Sunne light on them neither any heate 27 For the Lambe which is in the middes of the throne shall feede them and lead them unto the lively fountaines of waters and God shall wipe away all teares froÌ„ their eyes Analysis HITHER To that which is proper to the sixt Seale that which is common followeth that is to say a certen generall pourtraiture of the whole future Church even unto her last ende Which is distinguished into two times The first is in which the true worshippers are defined with a certen number who are called the sealed by a peculiar name the occasion of whose sealing are the foure Angels prepared to shewe rigour against all men standing for this purpose on the foure corners of the earth that they might restraine all provision of food for salvation ver 1. Afterward the Minister of sealing who exempteth the elect out of the multitude of the destroyed coÌ„ming from the East with full power and noe lesse valiantly executing the office committed to him forbidding with a lowde voice that they should not proceed in their intente untill he have sealed certen that were to be taken out ver 2.3 But howe great the number of the sealed is it is shewed generally ver 4. Specially of what Tribes and how many of every one ver 5.6.7.8 And this time belongeth chifly to the
place ¶ Holding the foure windes of the earth Wee have seene the Angels their standings their endevour is to take away the winde from the earth the foure saith Iohn windes of the earth which yet is one by nature but divers according to the countryes from whence it bloweth But this winde is not properly to be understood seeing such a calamity hath never befallen albeit many ages now are past since this Prophecy was accomplished For if it were proper howe should not the stopping up hurt as well the sealed as the reprobate who dwelt togither and one with an other I therefore understand the winde to be the force and faculty of the Holy Ghost whom Christ coÌ„pareth to the winde Iohn 3.8 the winde saith he bloweth whither it listed so is every one that is borne of the Spirit For as of olde that disordered Chaos and seed of this our world could not otherwise consist then as it was quickened of the Spirit who moved himselfe upon the waters Gen. 1.2 So neither doth this earth nor sea nor trees come to the feeling of any vitall strength unlesse that sanctifying winde doth lye upon them from whose breathing they doe as it were drawe their life It is not indeede in the power of any creature to restraine the force of the heaveÌ„ly Spirit yet the trueth being stopped which he used as his chariot not without cause the passages may be sayd to be stopped wherby he should blowe to our good ¶ That the winde should not blow upon the earth nor upon the sea c. Nowe the thinges are reckoned up from which they would had restrayned the winde to wit from the Earth the Sea the Trees The Earth before were the Heathen Nations as chap. 6.4.15 Afterward it seemeth to signify alway not men wholy repugnant to the name of Christ but the common sorte mixt company of the corrupt Church which hath succeeded in the place of the Gentiles as chap. 8.13 12.9.12.13.16 13.11 c. The Sea signifyeth the doctrine sometime true and then it is placed before the Throne within the coÌ„pas of the Elders where it is of glasse like to Chrystall most cleare most pure as chap. 4.6 More often it is brought to shew false doctrine in which sense it resteth and is quiet as in his channell in the bosome and embracing of this earth which it doth fasten togither with his humidity though grosse and brinish through secret passages least being by nature easy to be reduced in powder and not cleaving togither it should be dissolved through her atidity For unlesse there were some bande of consent amonge the counterfeit citizens even the wicked assemblyes could not stande The trees wee understaÌ„de to be meÌ„ froÌ„ ch 9.4 wher coÌ„maÌ„demeÌ„t is giveÌ„ to the Locusts that they should not hurt any tree but onely the meÌ„ that hav not the seale of God in their foreheads Now the exception is alway of the same kinde of which that is froÌ„ wheÌ„ce the exception is made therefore when as men are excepted it must needes be that the trees also are men not indeed of the basest sorte condition but who shewe theÌ„selves above others with their high dignityes and lift up their heades among the rest being more famous in the Christian Assemblyes But if the Angels would have hurt onely this earth sea and trees why was there not free leave graunted them Because in that vile heape many of the elect lay hidden who were to be provided for for their sakes the Angell from the East would have the confused multitude to be spared neither any hurt to be done to any untill order was taken for them for whom it was necessary The wicked gaine the deferring of punishment for those fewe good whom they have dwelling among theÌ„ ¶ And I sawe an other Angell which was come up from the East in greeke which did ascend some copyes doe reade coming up the Hebrewes figuratively doe take these wordes to ascende and descende for to departe to goe forth to goe to returne as he went up from Ierusalem that is he returned and left of to assault it 2. King 12.18 But it is well ioyned with the rysing of the Sunne because the Sunne seemeth to ascende from the East untill he be come to the middes of heaven The first occasion of sealing being declared there is now described by what Minister it was done Whom both the respect of the time and all circunstances doe proove to have ben Constantine the Great He succeeded in the Empire after that the Lambe had thrust out Diocletian and the other Jdolatrous Tyrants But he came up from the rising of the Sunne having come from the Easterne countryes to receive the Empyre For being a yong man he served in warre under Diocletian in Syria But after his vertu had procured him envy so as often through secret trecheries he was in perill of his life he was compelled to get himselfe out of the East as speedily as he could and to goe to his Father So Eusebius writeth he was provoked to flight for his safety in the life of Constantin orat 1. Zonaras saith that he was given of his father for an hostage to Galerius of whom when he sawe that he was hated through envy and that in the battell at Sarmatia he was cast forth of set purpose to danger and againe for the same intente commaunded to fight with a Lion both which battells he executed with good successe by flight at length he escaped away to his Father togither also by these meanes avoided the danger and obtayned his Fathers Empire the seate whereof afterward he placed at Bizantium Therefore whether wee respect his first returne from the East or minde the decrees which after the Empire was established touching the worshipping of the true God by Christ did fly often from thence into that part of the world that was under Rome the History agreeth very well with the Prophecy but that former seemeth to come nigher to the meaning of the Holy Ghost because of those thinges that follow ¶ Having the Seale of the living God Both himselfe instructed in the true knowledge of God and endued with very great authority to spread abroad the same unto others whom while by his owne exemple and zeale he provoked to embrace the trueth he is sayd to marke them with the seale of the living God and to take them for Gods chiefe treasure He cryed with a lowde voice promoting the trueth by Edicts published removing farre of to his power all that which might hinder the amplifying of it He did represse for a time according as it was appointed of God those foure Furies of Hâ—ll which were prepared to hurt whereof wee have heard at the first verse He restreined the Ambition of other men by his owne maiesty Howe great labour did he take to pull up by the rootes all contentions who esteemed nothing more excellent then to seate peace among the Bishops
marriage after in chap. 19.7 Nowe therefore when the prisons where broken those mischiefes should fly out which evē hitherto made a stirre in the inner partes the foure first of which are described in this chapter farre lighter indeede then the three last and therefore wee shall see that albeit in a certen order of blowing the Trumpets they doe assayle yet they all doe togither come upon men with force distinguished onely by shorte spaces of time to beginne ¶ Prepared themselves to blowe the trumpets This sounde of trumpets seemeth not to be a voice manifesting to Iohn alone that is to the elect in the Church the trouble that should come such as was that of the Beasts in the first seales but the divine administration giving by the holy Angels so notable beginnings to the facts that by the same as it were by a noyse of trumpets all sortes of men should be awaked for to consider the beginning of things Many things doe creepe upon us by little and little and secretly so as their beginning is unknowne and are growne olde before they be perceived but here the beginning should be marked and perceived playnely of any one so that the procedeing of them could not come suddenly upon any man but such a one as would be willfully negligent Although the sound of a trumpet doth cause rather astonishment and feare then teach the hearer knowledge And so in deede it cometh to passe that the further wee proceede the more obscure are the iudgements of the events In the Seales the Beast doth call Iohn for to come and see In the Trumpets there is never a worde onely a sounde is given In the Viols there is scarse any noise but so farre as the liquor powred out of a cuppe doth yeelde Certenly as longe as faith and godlines was sounde as in those first times small iudgements did awaken the Church but in these last when iniquity is growne in use wee passe over even the greatest workes of God with eyes shutte up and deafe eares Which carelesnes of ours God both discloseth and reprooveth by this increasing darkenes of the signes For lesse light is not given from any lacke of perspecuity in God but onely for a reprehending of our future secutity 7 Therefore the first Angell blew the trumpet All things nowe being finished which hitherto caused a delay at length the Angels sounde the trumpets at the first sound a double effect followeth The first is a shower of haile and fire The second the burning of trees and grasse the haile comming frō heaven and with a great noise signifyeth the very great trouble which from the housholde servāts of the Church at least by outward professiō should fall suddenly upon their owne heades But the fire mingled with blood the fervency of the same trouble and increase even to the shedding of blood But wee must remember that these mischiefes are set on fire with the burning coales of the altar Which thing is here manifest For the matter was not deferred for any lōg while but in the middes of the Nicene Fathers the first Angell blewe the trumpet for the holy men had scarse approved the trueth by a common consent after they had considered the matter diligētly but the haile began to fall downe violently and to make a wonderfull great noise Certaine Bishops verily citizens of the Earth making a pretended shew that they were offended with some wordes of the Confession but in very deede inflamed with the coales of the altar laboured to hinder the consent and to be against it so farre as in their power did lye These were five Eusebius Nicomedieosis Theognis Nicenus Maris Chalcedonensis Theonas Marmariensis Secundus Ptolemaitensis who malitiously alleadging against the word Consubstantiall would neither agree with the rest touching the faith nor subscribe to the condemnation of Arius This was a manifest beginning of the haile which a while after fell in greater abōdance For after that Eusebius and Theognis faigning an alteration of their opinion had recovered their former dignity they went about this one thing to try by all meanes howe that through the sides of Athanasius they might pearce the trueth And these cunning devisers looked so well to the matter that noe times have bin more troubleous through most impudent false accusations malitious surmises lies and uniust vexations That Athanasius had killed Arsenius had ravished his hostesse had takē away craftily the provision of corne at Constantinople had ministred mony to one that attempted an alteration what time affordeth exemples of like impudency The good Arian Bishops removed from his seate Eustathius Bishop of Antioch because he was one of them that helde the trueth a whore being brought forth who obiected unto him dishonest conversation with her Neither were these thinges done secretly and privately but that wee may acknowledge the huge noise of the haile in assemblyes full of men by continuall runnings up and downe frō Thracia Alexandria into Syria by wicked accusations by appealings to the Emperours in abrogations of ungodly sentences and approving of the same againe so as the whole East had businesse enough by these meanes did ringe on every syde with the noise of this shower But the broile stayed not here CONSTANTINE the sonne of Constanntie mingled haile with blood banished many put many to death Howe cruell a thing was it that he compelled by torments to consent to the wicked opinion that reverend old man Holsius of Corduba to whom his Father gave so great honour But the outrageousnes of VALENS is almost uncredible wherby the Church was spoiled on every side the faithfull were cast headlong into the river Orontes cruelty was exercised by every kinde of death Surely that shippe in which under a colour of sending foure skore excellent men into banishement he cōmanded them to be burnt in the maine sea was more unnaturall then that weake shippe of Nero in which he devised a death for his mother And the Bishops who of late passed all mortall men in impudency strove afterward with tyrants who should be most cruell What slaughters did MACEDONIVS make through all the East Georgius and Lucius at Alexandria It would aske a longe time to set downe all doubtlesse the former miserable times came againe the name onely of the enemy being chāged for those of the time passed wer Heathē but these wer false Christians Verily the wonderfull and mervailous falling of haile in about those times shewed manifestly what was the state of thinges And haile filling the hand rushed downe violently every severall hailestone being as great as the hand could conteme as Socrates in the foure chapter of his booke doth say And it seemeth that Gregorius Nazianzenus at that time made that oration whose inscription is this when the Father held his peace because of the calamity of the haile ¶ And they were cast into the Earth and the third part of the Earth c. So readeth Aretas the Common Latine
the Africane Vandals And so much the more because by their meanes it was brought to passe that the Sunne in those countryes did go downe alway to this very day for after that horrible darkenesse which the Vandals brought in God by his fearefull iudgement gave up those nations to the Mahumeticall madnes whose hellish darknes at this time sufferreth noe confortable Sunne beame to shine upon them Howe is it to be lamented that that part of the world which afore time was beset with most famous lights Tertullian Cyprian Augustine and others almost infinite is nowe altogither become blacke and doth not shine with one little sparkle But so is thy will most holy Father who hast compassed about us Europeans left alone and most wickedly abusing thy holy name with very sorrowfull spectacles of thy wrath both toward the East South So therefore are the foure first trumpets Contention Ambition Heresy Warre those foure Angels which Constantine the Great for a time restrained But the first and third trumpet belongeth to the East the second to the West the fourth to Africa The Prophecy of this chapter conteineth about two hundred thirty yeeres to wit from the beginning of the reigne of Constantine unto the yeere of Christ five hundred thirty and three at which time Belisarius carried away captive Gilimer and destroyed the name of the Vandals in Afrique Evag. booke 4.16 Yee may fetch a larger declaration from Eseb upon the life of Constantine from Socrates Theodoret Sozomene Evagrius Procopius of the warre of the Vandals and Victor of Vtica touching the persecution of the same men whose Commentaries God would have to be extant for the light and credit of this Prophecy 13 And I sawe and heard one Angell Nowe he cometh to the three last trumpets much more troublous then the former as appeareth from the comon preparation in this verse For as though the usuall sounding of the trumpet were not of sufficient force to cause feare a common Proheme to these three full of terrour is prefixed every severall afterward is declared by their transitions As touching the wordes some reade for an Angell an Eagle as Aretas the Complutent Edition and the common translation brought hereunto as it seemeth because the fourth Beast was like a flying Eagle chap. 4.7 But the word one being adioyned maketh against it For it was wont to be the limiting of a thing uncertaine and indefinite But the Eagle the fourth Beast was onely one wherefore it had ben superfluous to say I heard one Eagle Therefore one Angell agreeth better which word is generall and by right may be limited with some addition as Andreas readeth and some other Greeke Copies Furthermore he is called an Angell which flyeth through the middes of heaven after in chap. 14.6 But this one Angell is some one man alone picked and chosen out from the rest to some peculiar office 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not the middes of heaven as the Astronomers call it who call midday in this wise but the middes betweene Earth and heavē to wit the middes of height not of lenght as the Angell appeared to David 1 Chron. 21.16 But seeing heaven is the holy Church and the earth the false and counterfaite which carrieth the name shewe onely of the true this Angell being seen betwixt both seemeth not to have attained the purity of that and yet to have flowne somewhat aloft beyond the dregs and filth of this He cryeth with a lowde voice that he may be heard of all men that there shall come farre greater calamityes frō the three trumpets that are to come then yet have gone before But that these shall come upon the inhabitans of the earth who doe counterfait holines whereas in very deede they are withered branches and rotten members The time and congruency of the matter doe make me to thinke that this Angell is Gregory the Great Bishop of Rome he was one as it were taken out of the rable of many Bishops whose labour God would use to profit his Church But although he sate unwares in the chaire of wickednes yet God knoweth to plucke his out of the iawes of Hell And significantly doubtles is he called one as though it were a miracle for any one of any goodnes to be founde among that degenerating route This Gregory did fly in the middes of heaven pressed downe with many superstitions and errours that he could not be enrolled a citizen of the heavenly city Whose neverthelesse singular good will care diligence right iudgement in many thinges lifted him up on high farre above the rest of the common sort and that company of superstitious ones He cryed with a lowde voice denouncing to the world a great calamity by ANTICHRIST who should come straight way The King saith he of pride is at hande and wich is unlawfull to be spoken an army of Priests is prepared booke 4. Epist 24. Againe the King of pride is at the doores in the same booke Epist 38. In the same place againe where is that Antichrist which chalengeth the name of universall Bishop and for whom is prepared an army of Priests to attende upon him He is at hand sayth he and at the doores yea he was farre neerer then he thought in whose chaire he sate even himselfe but by his account he could not be farre of Neither is it lawfull to diminish the Popes credit who could not be deceaved especially avouching the same thing so often and in earnest Seeing therefore that this Gregory next after the fourth trumpet that is the Vandalike persecution so expressely cryeth out aloude that Antichrist is at hande then whom noe greater plague and calamity could befall the earth and that a fewe yeeres before that the Monster borne longe agoe broke forth into the open light it must needes be that he was this Angell who is shewed almost so playnly by this type as if he had ben named CHAP. 9. THEN the fift Angell blewe the trumpet and I sawe a starre fall from heaven into the earth and to that starre was given the key of the bottomelesse pit 2 He opened therefore the bottomelesse pit and there arose a smoke out of the pit as the smoke of a great fornace and the Sunne was darkened and the ayre by the smoke of the pit 3 And there came out of the smoke Locusts upon the earth and unto them was given power as the scorpions of the earth have power 4 But to them it was sayd that they should not hurt the hay of the earth neither any greene thing neither any tree but onely those men which had not the Seale of God in their foreheads 5 And to them was commanded that they should not kill them but that they should be tormented five moneths and that their torment should be as the torment of a Scorpion when he hath stung a man 6 Therefore in those dayes shall men seeke death and shall not finde it and shall desire to dye and death shall
their owne power to cōsist in the observatiō of such thinges there was no superstitiō frō which they could stay thēselves Surely a man is scarce more begottē of a mā thē these Locusts frō that smoke Whatsoever pleasant thing was any where in any coūtries flying thither in troupes placing themselves there they devoured it wholy neither was their living more dainty then secure as though all the rest of mankinde had bin created for to be the cookes of these banketers Howe great troupes there have bin in time past any man may coniecture from hence that a certaine Generall of the Minorites which one secte filled fourty Provinces promised to the Pope towards his expedition against the Turkes out of the Seraphicall family of the Franciscanes thirty thousande wariours who could performe valiantly warlike offices without hindring at all the service of holy things Sabel Ennead 9. booke 6. Howe huge a multitude must there have bin of all the religious men considering that one family of them ministred so copious an army To which is to be added Polydore Virgill affirming that there was never any ordinance of humaine godlinesse that grewe more in a short time for this alone family of the Franciscanes filled the whole earth so as the common people astonied did suspect that godlines was not so much regarded of many as idlenes and slouthfulnes of Invent. booke 7. chap. 4. Behold the Locusts even by the iudgement of the common people There were Mōkes indeede of olde time but such as lived by their labour neither were they at all of any Ecclesiasticall degree but this newe generation sowing nothing of their owne devoured other mens harveses and that it might be evident whose ofspring they are The Monkes are inrolled by Boniface the 4. among the tribes of Priests and power is given to them to preach the word and minister the Sacraments Boniface the fift added the power of binding and loosing Nowe therefore they are made the creatures of the Pope of whom alone they receave their dignity and authority which before they could obtaine no further then the opinion of their godlines would procure unto them And not without cause it is noted of learned men although minding nothing as it seemeth this Prophecy that in this age three great miracles came to passe the Monasteries of Monkes were builded Kinges themselves became shaven Monkes dayly fornication was amonge the holy canonized state Beleus Centurie the first on Vitalianus Surely the Monkery of this time had some peculiar thing which did cause astonishement unto men although they had litle regard to this Prophecy ¶ And power was given them as the Scorpions of the earth have power Nowe followeth hereafter a description of the Locusts and first from the power given them which they obtaine like to that of the scorpions of the earth This creature is of the infects it hath five armes toothed with forked clawes the cruell plague of the poison of serpents as sayth Plin. They are of an angry dispositiō whence the proverbe thou provokest the eight-footed scorpion and Scorpio among the Greekes is to exasperate to stirre up to make very angry after the manner of a Scorpion And as it becometh their outragious madnesse they carry alwayes a drawne and ready weapon to inflict a deadly wounde The rest of the insects have their stinges hidden within the scorpion alone is armed with a longe stinge hanging out which is not idle but alwayes striking giving himselfe noe reste at any time that he may not be wanting at any occasion his going is with a winding steppe by which he striketh the more unwarres Such doubtlesse is this smoky breed in the power of hurting which at the first were Locusts in multitude and sloughtfulnes The thing is cleare in the Saracenes a furious nation prompt and ready alwayes to kill which by stealth privily is wonte to assaile men and to come on with rage in those places in which it was least of all feared Also our Religious Locusts in the west which seemed to breath forth no other thing then charity gentlenesse courtesie were as quickly mooved as the Scorpions If a man did offende but one even the least of that shaven heard he stirred up the whole troupe neither did he carry it away scotfree although placed in the higest estate of nobility Don Pluto dares not ta assay though he be Prince of Hell So much as dares th' unruly Monke crafty beldame fell In which two verses Pope Pius who before his Popedome was Aeneas Silvius was not afraide to pronounce that the rage of the Devill is milder then the monkish They carried their weapon standing out and knowne to all men the terrible lightening of excommunication but they gave a blow for the most part fetching a compasse secretly and they pretended alwayes fained causes of their forie Although if they pleased not to drawe this weapon at the least way they tormented with feare of Purgatory and Hell whither they thrust downe all their enemies Nowe therfore was the time when men dwelt among scorpions as in time past Ezech. 2.6 4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grasse of the earth These thinges shew over whom power is given them First all Hay is excepted simply secōdly also in part the greene and trees onely men unsealed ar left to their lust As touching the hay fOr so may the Greeke worde with the olde Interpreter be well translated specially seeing that the word green followeth next after it is the dry grasse cut of from the earth which seeing it is the company of the wicked as wee have often shewed the grasse cut of from thence shal be men separated of God from the society of other wicked by certaine playne and knowne markes The Locusts should not hurt these not because there lacked will and endevour but because they should loose all their labour in attempting their destruction whom God would defende by his mighty arme against their violence As wee reade that it came to passe in the East when Constantine Pogonatus was Emperour about the yeere 674. For then the Saracenes with great armies by lande and sea invaded Thracia they assaulted Constantinople the very seate of the Kinge but after that by the space of seven yeeres togither they could effect nothing by violent assaults at last many shippes being burnt by a fire newly found out of one Callimcus and the rest of the navie being partly drowned through a storme partly dashed against the rockes they were discouraged and weakened so that having lost all hope they desyred peace for thirty yeeres which they redeemed by a yeerly tribute of a thousand poundes of Golde and 40 men prisoners But doe you aske the cause why the Saracens fought here so unprosperously There was a certen Hay time in those countryes when Constantine abandoned the impiety of Heraclius and Constans his Father rooted out utterly Monothelisme the sixt Councill of Constantinople being
they should be vexed To wit the men that were without the marke There is a defect of the relative they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifieth to be tryed here it is used for to be afflicted tormented or any way to be vexed as every where in the holy Scriptures elsewhere Montanus and Plantines edition reade that they should vexe which they seeme rather to take that the sentence might be lesse harsh but Aretas and the Common translatiō have it in the passive as also Theod. Beza Neither is it in vaine that there is made so sudden a passing frō the verbe active to the passive but to shewe that this sorrowfull time is not to be measured by the furie of them that tyrannize but by the calamity of the sufferers which thing bringeth great light to understand the continuance of the torment of which in the next wordes which follow ¶ Five monthes Primasius readeth sixe monethes but the Greeke copies with one consent and the Common translation have five This place is indeede very darke and such as hath alwayes much troubled the Interprepreters For howe may so small a space agree to the Kingdomes either of the Sarracenes or of the Papists Let every day be counted for so many yeeres that five monethes should be at least as much as an hundred and fifty yeeres after the manner of the Scriptures in other places as in Ezechiel fourty dayes every day for a yeere I give thee and according to the continuall custome of this booke as hereafter wee will shewe God willing yet neverthelesse what is this so small and short a distance of time to these so longe continuing tyrannies Wherfore Bullinger and some others of our countrymen doe thinke that this number is assigned as it were of the hotter monethes in which especially the Locusts are wonte to be in chiefe strēgth for all the graunted space of tyrannizing how great soever it shall be The which opinion seemeth to mee like to be true unlesse that the very great care of the accounte which is used in other places required here also some certen and limited thing The Iesuites being like unto the Cuttell doe purposely as I thinke powre out here their darkenes to the ende that all thinges being confounded and disordered they may lurke the more safely they will have so many common monethes to be signified as though that woe had ben in vaine which the Angell flying through the middes of Heaven had sung before the three last trumpets Did he not foreshewe by the same that the plagues to come should be more grievous then those which were past What greater thing shall this trumpet have then the former if the Locusts in whō lieth the whole force of it neither are endued with power to kill and also that the power which they have is of so short time It was a great destruction which the former trumpets brought in and full of terrour neither passing over in a moment yea not in a fewe yeeres as wee have shewed but if this calamity be so shortened neither shall it compare with the former evils in grievousnes of torment and also in respect of the shortnesse of the paine it would be found much easier But I will not stād long in refuting the toies of the Iesuites It is most iust that they who will coyne figures at their pleasure where they are not should not see the same where they are in very deede having as it were their eyes blinded The thing peradventure may be somewhat more apparant if wee observe certaine positions the first of which is this whole Kingdomes and their Kinges are not spoken of here but onelie the Locusts and their exceeding great power which wee see to rise up by certen degrees First they come forth out of the smoke the smoke out of the pit opened the pit is not opened before the key be given neither is the key given assoone as the starre fell but some long time after From which it is necessary that the Angell be farre more auncient then the infernall generation For who requireth the issue of ones body to be equall to the parent Wherefore that is not to be cast upon the Kingdome it selfe and Kings which is proper to the Locusts Whose age is not to be regarded from hence but onely the sommer time vigour of this overflowing cōpany of vile persons The sommer time I say because neither the first originall of the Locusts nor the last ende seemeth to be limited in this space For they must needes have a beginning to growe before they have a power to hurte But after their power should be diminished they should hurt noe small time through the stinke of their rotten carkeises The seconde the time is not to be counted from the bringers of the paine but from the sufferers Whereunto have refference that verbe passive that they should be vexed of which we spake even nowe For it importeth much from whether of them wee make the accounte if the reckening be from the Locustes themselves they should have power to vexe in noe place of the world but for the space of these five monethes onely but if respect be had to the sufferers the same distance of time shal be given to certaine countries and shal be esteemed according to the diversity of places howsoever the continuing of the Locusts in some place it may be shal be longer Frō which followeth a third position that the five monethes are not once onely to be numbred but so many to be understood figuratively as there are countries which were to undergoe the same calamity for so greate a space of yeeres Which foundations being laid we shall see noe small consent of the History The first troupe of Locustes was of the Saracenes who beginning about the yeere 630. to fly about Mahomet being their captaine in the first five monethes that is the first hundred fifty yeeres afflicted most miserably the whole Arabia Syria Mesopotamia Armenia Persia they tooke likewise Egypt spoiled Afrique and at length entred into Spaine True wilt thou say but they have helde all these places except peradventure Persia Armenia and some parte of Arabia not onely for an hundred and fifty but more or lesse foure hundred yeeres I deny not but in the meane time it is to be considered howe long they were trou belsome to men of the Christian name in those places It is certaine that there were congregations of Christians in great number when first the Saracenes invaded and that they were not utterly rooted out by and by but after a long continuing misery at lēgth they were wholy destroyed by death by slaughter by falling away to that impiety waxing strong which became every day more confirmed by an accesse of newe strength By which things it came to passe that the countries which before time perteined to the worshippers of Christ in the space of those five monethes became all to the infidels either noe Christians at all or
vilely apparelled were yet notwithstanding armed with a power not to be despised The same is the condition of the rest of the Prophets 6 These have power to shutte heaven He cometh to another very great power and wonderfull wherein they are equall to the olde even the chiefe Prophets Renowmed is Eliah at whose praiers God did shut the heaven so that for three yeeres and sixe moneths the earth was not watered with any showre of raine 1 King 18.1 Luke 4.25 But wee have not reade any such thing done of these Prophets It is true it may be if wee take the wordes properly but if wee transferre them to spirituall things after the manner of other thinges which have ben spoken before how great a proportion shall wee finde That drouth was for three yeeres and sixe moneths at the prayer of Eliah so the time of this power granted to these Prophets should be for so many great yeeres and moneths For two and fourty moneths or a thousand two hundred and three score dayes doe fulfill this distance of yeeres and moneths but great ones as I have said and hath ben already proved sufficiently before not those common ones such as were those of Eliah every one containing three hundred three score common yeeres and the halfe one hundred and foure score yeeres How great drouth and lack of spirituall dewe was there all this time through want of which godlinesse withered in every place But they that bring every thing to the letter and will have the three yeeres and an halfe to be meant of common yeeres doe they dreame also of such a staying of rayne which they must needes doe Surely they get for Antichrist a Kingdome ill favoured hungerstarven every way wretched and unhappy altogither contrary to that excesse wherewith the Spirit saith that he should abounde Neither shall Antichrist have any leasure to carrie about armour to subdue the nations but rather shall leave droves of beasts and cattell to the water as wee read that Ahab did long since But it is no marvell that they fall into many such absurd things who had rather followe their owne conceived opinions then the trueth it selfe ¶ And they have power over waters As Moses who turned the waters of Egypt into blood and as these Prophets have done in very deede when the third part of the Sea became blood chap. 8.8 For all this power was shewed forth in those plagues of which wee heard in chap. 8.9 It is iust with God that all that will not beleeve the trueth should beleeve lies 2 Thes 2.11 Which indeede is noe other thinge then to have their pure and cleare waters turned into blood The next wordes which follow and 10 smite the earth with all maner of plagues as often as they will in a short summe comprehende the other plagues which are not mentioned in this place to wit of the Sunne smitten of Locusts sent and the foure Angels loosed From which power is manifest that which wee have taught in the beginning that this whole Prophecy of the temple measured of the court cast out and of the two Prophets doth apperteine to the same time of the sixe former trūpets which doe recite one after an other the plagues in that order wherein they came to passe But this Prophecy rehearseth the causes to wit the puritie of the Scriptures violated and Gods worship in the assemblies of the faithfull defiled These thinges call forth scourges upon the world and come not either by chance or by fortune These have power to afflict the earth with any kinde of plague whatsoever as often as they will Because God ruleth and governeth the world according to his will revealed in the scriptures and all things for the benefite of the Church In the beginning he delivered the earth unto Adam uncorrupted and now againe he will have all thinges to doe service to his children which are restored in their integrity through Christ 7 But when they have finished their testimony The second limited time as wee have distinguished them in the Analysis taketh his beginning after that of profecying went out to wit in the yeere one thousand five hundreth fourtie sixt Howe farre the thousand two hundred and three score dayes doe extende every ech one being taken for one yeere as wee have said at the second verse and if wee count from the yeere of the Lord three hundred and fourth in which CONSTANTINE tooke unto him the rule of the Empire as Cassiodorus saith prooving that the yeeres of CONSTANTINE should be reckened from thence and as Onuphrius having made a most exact account seemeth to have collected For a thousand two hundred threescore yeeres eighteene being taken out how many the counting of yeeres which the Angell followeth laketh of the Iulian as before at the second verse doe make a thousand two hundred two and fourty Iulian yeeres which from the beginning of the reigne of Constantine doe ende in the sayd yeere 1546. ¶ That Beast which cometh out of the bottomlesse pit So expresse a noting by Articles sheweth that this Beast knowne and declared long since which can be no other then the Angell of the bottomlesse pit of whom wee heard in the ninth Chapter and eleventh verse to wit the Bishop of Rome For wee reade of noe other comming out from the bottomelesse pit when he sent the Locusts out of the pit being opened but that hee rose up long before wee shall understand from the things which follow Therefore he shall not be a Beast onely of three yeeres and an halfe continuance He hath gained 5 moneths mor at the least wherin he should reigne with the Locusts From hence there is an other argument also to confirme this Prophecy to belong to the former trumpets because the Beast with whom the Prophets have to doe in the last course of their time perteineth to the fift trumpet Furthermore also that of the thirteenth chapter belongeth to the same period of the trumpets For this and that is the same beast and both againe is the same Angell of the bottomlesse pit of the nine chapter ¶ Shall make warre against them Shall the Beast now first of all call unto weapons He shall assay to doe violence the whole thousand two hundred threescore dayes chap. 13.5 But this battell which he shall make when that time is finished deserveth before others the name of warre both for the very kinde of preparation and hostile cruelty and also for the notorious slaughter done to the Prophets And the thing it selfe proveth that at this very time there was very little warre For as touching the Scriptures the Councill at Trent began in the yeere 1546 the 7 day of February to wit after those thousand two hundreth and three score dayes were ended in their third session the eight daye of Aprill pierced and murdered them most pittifully For here the Hebrewe and Greeke fountaines were refused and the Latine corrupt translation established for Authentique Here unwritten traditions were
wherin a Dragon was painted thrust thorough with a dart and layd under his and his peoples feete see Euseb upon the life of Constantine in the third oration leafe 137. a. 9 And that Dragon was cast into the earth That is beiond the boundes of the true and holy Church not onely among the prophane nations but also all other people altogither without true godlines howsoever peradveÌ„ture they pretended a shewe of it and are marked with the names of Christians That which is here called the heaven and the earth was in the former chapter called the Temple and the Court. In that the Church lay hid in this the Gentiles ruled a people who because of their vicinitie did take to themselves the name of the Church Therefore the Devill being cast unto the earth he is thrust out togither with his Angels into this court having receaved power to vexe the whore who lately exercised all his strength against the true spouse 10 And J heard a great voice The Song of triumphe of the Saincts celebrating God for his great benefit which first of all is declared by those things wherein the benefit it selfe consisted in this verse afterward it is set forth by his causes ver 11. by his effects ver 12. The benefit it selfe in respect of men is safety the tyrants being destroied who did labour to satisfy their hatred with the destruction of the Christians in respect of God it is the glory of his might of the Kingdome and power of Christ For then his power doth appeare when he utterly destroyeth abolisheth his enemies Also his visible Kingdome is seen after a sort when he placeth godly Princes in the governement of the common wealth from hence likewise the power of Christ was much declared which before seemed weake being so troden under soote by the enemyes neither punishing them according to their deserts But Christ now by taking unto him the Kingdome declared sufficiently that the former want of punishement and sufferance came not from imbecillity but onely from patience In respect of the Devill this benefit was a iust reward of his ungodlines who coÌ„tinually accuseth the godly before God But we must observe that the servants are noted with the same names wher with the Pâ—â—â—câ— himselfe is named because there is an equall good will to hurt in both although hiâ— power be greater But this accusation are those taunts reproches railings with which the spitefull enemies overwhelmed the Saincts continually obiecting unto them the suppers of Oedipus incests adultery mutuall lusts murders conspiracies against Princes pestilences famine burnings and whatsoever publike calamity there was of which and the like things the auncient History is full Surely the children learned of their father the Devill that auncient false accuser so as it is not to be wondered at if wicked men doe excell in the same arts 11 But they overcame Who The Angels of Michaell for now the streÌ„gth of the souldiers is commended the praise of the Emperour being celebrated in the former verse But as touching the causes of the victory the principall is the blood of the Lambe the instrumentall is the synceritie of the faith and a very great constancy even unto death The blood of the Lambe is the fountaine of all the benefits which the elect enioy either in this life or in the life to come For his sake alone God both delivereth his people from all the miseries of this life and at length will make them ioyfull with eternall felicity The integrity of faith is shewed in the next wordes by the word of his testimony that is by the truth of the Ghospell which they professed freely boldly Before it was alwaies called the testimony of God or of Iesus as in ch 1.2.9 ver c. here it is called the testimony of themselves which kinde of speaking neverthelesse commeth to the same ende For it doth not respect the subiect of which but in which In the last place is their constancy because they esteemed more of the truth and faith in Iesus then of their owne life It seemeth to be a comparative speach as if he should say they loved not their soules even unto death more then God But this last member of the comparison is wanting uÌ„lesse perhaps they loved not be put for they despised But even so the force of the comparison remaineth to with they despised in comparison of the truth This is a notable constaÌ„cy of the Saincts that by no tormeÌ„ts they could be remooved froÌ„ faith in Christ For which cause at leÌ„gth God gave uÌ„to them the reward of victory But observe how this soÌ„g of tâ—iumphe addeth those things which were wanting to declare the coÌ„dition of the first Church we have seen by the description of the woman that shee was famous for souÌ„dnes of faith purity of actions sincerity of the teachers also we have understood that she was destitute of a pâ—tron for because that in great sorow and griefe shee brought forth a sonne Adde to al these from this triumphant song that the enemies of the truth heaped all reproches upon the Saincts they used a great violence to their power yet the faithfull could not be remooved eveÌ„ with the losse of their life froÌ„ their holy profession wherby it came to passe that those times were made famous by almost an infinite number of most couragious Martyrs 12 Therefore reioice yee heaven c. The fruict of this benefit is the ioy of the Saincts the sorrow of the wicked For why should not they triuÌ„phe having attained safety seeing the glory of God so notably amplified But many calamities doe remaine true but these shall not touch the Saincts whome God hiddeth in his tabernacle And therefore he seemeth to say yee which dwell in them because this is heaven that the temple or tabernacle wherein the Church lyeth hid from whence at length it shall goe into the holy mountaine to an everlasting habitatioÌ„ before in chap. 11.7 c. 2 Cor. 5.1.2 c ¶ Woe to the inhabitans c. The effect in respect of the wicked is a very great sorrow for these are the inhabitans of the earth and the sea And from heÌ„ce may be confirmed this metaphoricall signification of these wordes For if the earth be properly taken the Devill should be in like sorte trobelsome to all the Saincts who dwell togither with the wicked and unseparated Moreover who are the inhabitans of the sea besides men The Devill doth not spit out his poison upon the whales Neither doe good and bad men dwell togither lesse in Ilands then in the continent land Thus therefore we doe distinguish that the inhabitans of the earth are every wicked multitude either of Heathen or Christians who have onely a counterfait shew of religion But the inhabitans of the sea are the Church men as they call them who profer to their false Christians grosse foule saltish and bitter doctrine which doeth rather bring to the
is more or lesse of a thousande two hundred yeeres from Iohn the Apostle unto the yeere 1300. Where also the Centuries doe ende being set forth under this last trumpet of which wee said that this repetition is a type ¶ And he stood on the Sea sande A passing over to the Beast Aretas the Complutent edition and all the Greeke copies doe so reade as our translation and I stood the common translation hath and he stood but falsly For he attributeth it to the Devill who even now went his way to make warre with the rest of the Saincts and for madnes was not able to stand still in any place Neither is there any other intent of standing on the sande then that the rising up of the Beast might be seen which concerneth nothing the Dragon Therefore the wordes are to be referred unto Iohn in which there is a transition unto the enemy set in the place of him that is dead to the contemplating of whose originall Iohn saith that he was set in a most convenient place In which he declareth that it doth appertaine to them onely to beholde the Beast rising up who after they have escaped the Sea of false doctrine are set at least on the shore or banke of the truth howsoever it may be that the mooving of the waves and the ebbing of the Sea casteth upon them also many brinish errours because of nighnesse as after they that doe get victory of the BEAST are said to stand at the GLASSIE SEA as wee may see in the fifteenth Chapter and second verse For that these things doe pertaine and are to be refferred to the event may be gathered from the like place in the seventeenth Chapter and at the third verse where IOHN is carried into the Wildernesse for to beholde the damnation of the WHORE For what need were there to change the place unlesse the remooving had a Mystery Here therefore some godly men are to be viewed to whom being set as it were on the shore of the Trueth the originall of the SEA BEAST should be certenly knowne and that also at that time in which the Devill went for to make warre against the seed of the woman For neither is this place attributed rashly to this transition Which wee see to have ben performed in them of Maidenburg who having attained at length to settle the soles of their feete on the dry grouÌ„d after they had swomme out of the Papisticall Sea manifested to the whole world in their Centuries such a beginning growing and ripenes of this Beast as is here described of Iohn Which doubtlesse many learned men also before painted out in lively colours but all their labour was bestowed about one or two parts none made a perfit image before the seventh trumpet which procured us these Centuries To this ende tendeth the transition how correspondent the event is the application of every severall thing will make plaine CHAPTER 13. THEN I saw a Beast rising out of the Sea which had seven heads and tenne hornes and upon his hornes ten crownes set and upon his heads was set a name of blasphemy 2 And the Beast which I saw was like a Leopard and his feete as the feete of a Beare and his mouth as the mouth of a Lion and the Dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority 3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wonded to death but his deadly wound was healed and all the earth wondred and followed the Beast 4 And they worshipped the Dragon which gave power to the Beast and they worshipped the Beast sâ—ying Who is like unto the Beast who shall be able to warre with him 5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great thinges and blasphemies and power was given unto him to doe two and fourtie moneths 6 Therefore he opened his mouth unto blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name and his Tabernacle and them that dewell in heaven 7 And it was given to him to make warre with the Saincts to overcome them and power was given unto him over everie kinred and tongue and nation 8 Therefore all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the booke of life of that Lambe which waâ— slaine from the beginning of the world 9 If any man have an eare let him heare 10 If any leade into captivity he shall goe into captivity if any kill with a sword he must be killed by a sword here is the patience and faith of the Saincts 11 Afterward I beheld an other Beast comming up out of the earth having two hornes like the Lambe but he spake like the Dragon 12 And he exerciseth all the power of the former Beast before him and he causeth the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the Beast whose deadly wounde was healed 13 And he doeth great wonders so that he maketh fire to come downe from heaven on the earth in the sight of men 14 And he deceaveth them that dwell on the earth for the signes which were permitted to him to doe in the sight of the Beast saying to them that dwell on the Earth that they should make the image of the Beast which was wonded by the worde but did live againe 15 And it was permitted to him to give a Spirit to the Image of the Beast so that the image of the Beast should speake and should cause that as many as would not worship the image of the Beast should be killed 16 And he maketh all both small and great rich and poore free and bound to receive a marke in their right hand or in their foreheads 17 And that no man might buy or sell save he that had the marke or the name of the Beast or the number of his name 18 Here is wisdome Let him that hath understanding count the number of the Beast For it is the number of a man and his number is sixe hundreth threescore and sixe Analysis THVS farre hath ben the battell with the Dragon the combate with the Beast followeth which is double the first and the second The description of the first is from the beginning of the chapter to the 11. verse And first from the causes that he arose out of the Sea then also from his integrall parts his hornes heads and their decking ver 1. his whole forme feet and mouth ver 2. Furthermore from his authority wherby he doth excell which is threefolde at the first received from the Dragon a while after diminished afterward recovered againe his wonde being healed which is more amplifyed then that first as declare both the honour which the worshippers give to him ver 4. the power both to blaspheme and also to make warre ver 5.6.7 Last of all the largenesse of his Empire ver 7.8 All which things ar concluded with a pleasant shutting up of the matter for a greater heede taking and consolation ver 9.10 Such is the first Beast The second
declareth his stocke by his rising out of the earth and also by his likenes to the Lambe and Dragon ver 11. The power also of this is great as appeareth in subduing men to worship the first Beast ver 12. and that partly in deceaving by great wonders ver 13. and lying ver 14. partly in compelling both by punishment of death to worship the living Image ver 15. and also by the losse of their goods to receive the marke that should be printed upon them which is declared both to whom it belongeth either men or members ver 16. how manifold to wit the marke the name of the Beast the number of his name ver 17. Which number is set foorth both by an exhortation to count it and by a noting partly to whom it is proper to wit of a man partly how many it is to wit sixe hundreth three score and sixe Scholions ¶ Then I saw a Beast That the whole next treatise may be more cleare two thinges briefly are to be considered before wee come to the unfolding of every severall thing The first is the kinde of this Beast the other of the time wherein he ariseth As touching that first this Beast is not the civile Romane Empire either Heathenish or Christian corrupt with heresy For if wee regard the Heathen Emperours they reigned when Iohn wrote but this Beast was not yet come whose first beginning he sawe in a type For nothing whose originall he had represented unto him was past but to come according to that saying J will shewe thee the things which must be done hereafter chap. 4.1 But the Angel afterward affirmeth playnely that he was not yet come saying five are fallen one is and an other is not yet come chap. 17.10 It is manifest that he that was not yet come is this Beast ver 12. Are ten Kings who have not yet received the Kingdome but shall receive power as Kings at one houre with the Beast Furthermore this Beast received his throne and power from the Dragon ver 2. who nowe before time had persecuted the woman that is the Christian Church But the Heathen Emperours received their throne and power from none especially which was before this time a chiefe enemy to the Christian name seeing the Emperours themselves are more auncient then the birth of Christ himselfe Finally the Beast is of the same time that the flight is and solitarines of the woman But the Heathen Emperours under the name of the Dragon were togither with him in heaven as wee have shewed in chap 12.3 But there is nothing in the worke of nature which hath his being before after himselfe and is both the originall to it selfe and the image thereof which must needs be if wee referre this the seconde Beast to Antichrist alone It is true indeede that nothing is before and after himselfe and both the originall to himselfe and image thereof in the same in respect of the same thing and at the same time yet in one the same man infancy goeth before olde age and the latter age may be compared to the likenes of the former Therefore wee conclude that by no meanes this Beast is the Romane Heathenish Empire much lesse the Christian Which in the Throne did not succeed the Dragon but alwayes had his palace either in Constātinople or in France or in Germanie Neither did the whole earth follow with admiration the Empire restored as in ver 3. nor received his mark as in ver 16. but after the renewing it was limited with small boundes first of France Jtaly and some part of Germany secondly in short time after of Germany alone having no jurisdiction over Spaine Britannie Hūgarie Sclavonie and the other countries which yet belonged to the Romane Empire under another name Neither to acknowledge the Christian Emperour to be such as he chalengeth to himselfe that is to say the highest Magistrate in the countries subiect unto him is an argument of one appointed to destruction as in the 8. verse For Paul professed himselfe to be a Romane and appealed to Cesar Act. 25.10 Yea Christ acknowledged the Heathen Emperour and commaunded that he should be obeyed by giving to Cesar the things which are Cesars Mat. 22.21 Seeing therefore it agreeth not at all to the Emperour it must needs be that Antichrist is signifyed whose one and the same person is described under a double figure of two Beasts as may be manifest from the 17. chap. where there is taught a declaration of this Chapter and no mention made of the second but of the first onely But why so I pray VVas it not needfull that wee should be instructed touching the second whom all men thinke to be either the very Antichrist or at least his Minister no better then himselfe Not at all but because he that knoweth one knoweth both neither doth the second make an other person but doth pour ray the same image somewhat more playnely setting the colours upon the lineaments And why should not the Beast be double when one Antichrist is a double head the seventh and eight of which that answereth to this first Beast this to the second The reason why a double type is used is the notable variety which could not be represented fitly inough by one This Beast hath a double rising from the Sea and from the Earth He hath also a double power Civill and Spirituall In respect of the Civill he is the first in regard of the spirituall the second VVhich double tyranny is most plaine in the one Pope of Rome so as wee can not doubt but that he is both the Beasts It is knowne how Boniface the eight in his first Iubile vanted himselfe openly in the Temple of Peter and Paul one day coming forth girded with a sword and cloathed with an Emperours corselet in the second day with a Prelats apparell and with a key crying with a loude voice Behold here are two swordes that is Behold here is a double Beast VVhich double power Mantuan doth expresse by an elegant carme in these wordes He is mighty and very strong with the two swordes girded Magnificent Keisers and Kings have his feete worshipped Let then this be the first thing that the Pope of Rome is this double Beast be cause of a double beginning and power neither is the same so much celebrated by the wordes and meanes of those of our side as by the Popes themselves as it doth more clearly appeare from the exposition following A second thing is demanded touching the time of his beginning which I thinke is to be set in the very giving over of Diocletian and Maximin Hercule when these two seemed of their owne accord to give over the Empire about the yeere three hundreth and sixt as before hath ben declared But because none peradventure fetcheth Antichrist from that head spring and because Bellarmine affirmeth that all our men doe place the comming of Antichrist after the sixe hundreth yeere and after
had graunted of his owne accord Italy to the Gothes which he had no hope to be able to retaine VVhat could he expect from the VVest every country wanting helpe so farre off were they from being able to succour others Therefore O Pope thy wouÌ„d was deadly whereof no remedie appeared from any place ¶ But this deadly wound was healed The third condition of the Beast coÌ„sisting in his dignity recovered by the healing of the head VVhich began at the yeere 555 when Iustinian being Emperour the Gothes were destroyed in Italy bâ— the valiantnesse of 〈◊〉 Nâ—râ—â—â—â—â— The Emperour played the Physitian maniâ—estly for first he tooke away the noxious humours by â—â—pressing yea rather utterly abolishing the Barbarians afterward he powred in wine oyle That Decree of Iustinians new constitution 131 wâ—s a most pleasant ointemeÌ„t Wee ordaine that according to the Decrees of the holy Counâ—â—lls the most holy Bâ—shop of auncient Rome shall be the chiefe of all Priests Hâ—â— much was the wound amended hereby But Phocas the Parricide afte◠〈◊〉 yeeres more or lesse that is in the yeere sixe hundreth and sixe finiâ—hâ—â— the cure bound up the wound healed it up into a skarre Hee did gâ—aunt unto Bonifâ—ce the third that the Romane Bishop should be counted Vniversâ—ll not onely that he should goe before the rest in order honour as Iustâ—nian decreed limitting the Primacy with the bounds of holy Concills bâ—t who should have the whole world for his Diocesse the Bishop of CoÌ„stantinople strove afterward in vaine from whom the Primacy was given by the sentence of the Emperour Now he perceived that the wound was healed and that therefore it was superfluous to pleade any more for this matter And certenly not very long after the Pope Leo second shewed that he had recovered health when about the yeere 680. by the warres of the Emperour he compelled Felix the Bishop of Ravenna to acknowledge the Bishop of Rome for his Lord and that the Bishop of Ravenna should not rise up any more it is ordained by the authority of the Pope That afterward the election of the Clergie of Raâ—enna should not be of force unlesse the consent of the Romane Pope were added to it Sabellic Ennead 8. book 7. Thus was the wounded head cured which being healed did more hurt the Christian world then before he received the wounde ¶ And all the world wondred followed the Beast Now he declareth how great the recovered dignity should be first by the honour which the worshippers of the Beast should give to him this honour is in admiring in this verse also in worshipping both the Dragon the Beast in the following And he speaketh significaÌ„tly after the Hebrewes manner to wonder after the Beast which is as much as in wondring to follow the Beast that is to give up theÌ„selves wholly to be ruled by his Empire as the Israelites going a whoring after their Idols forsooke the true God coÌ„secrated theÌ„selves to the worship of them They who so admired the Beast are the earth that is men savouring the earth altogither straÌ„gers froÌ„ the heaveÌ„ly city But how many is the nuÌ„ber of them All without exception For he saith the whole earth Therefore it should come to passe that the Beast after the head was healed should rule with farre larger boundes then before Prosper said that Rome was more ample at the first receiving of this dignity by the tower of religion then by the throne of power Which seemeth to be understood rather of the consent of the trueth then of the dominion of the Citie of Rome although then it was doubtlesse large The trueth was propagated further then the Romane Empire But Britanny had not yet acknowledged the authoritie of Rome in the matter of religion till under the Pontificate of Gregory the fift that is after some hope that the wound should be cured Augustine the Romish Munke forced our countriemen to take upon them the yoke neither did France Friseland Denmarke Germanie Sclavonia depend much of Rome before Bonifacius or Venefride an Inglishman about the yeere 720. brought these countries or the chiefe parts thereof unto the obedience of the Pope of Rome Now therefore was the time when the whole earth should admire the Beast when besides these and other Princes of Europe countries also most remote Ireland Scotland Norway Gothia Sueveland Luten and other nations of Sarmatia honoured the same as some God Let therefore the Pope glory in his universality by how much he hath the greater multitude by so much a surer argument is he that Beast But as touching the admiration it was indeede great some ages before and that of the most famous lights of the Church who carryed away with the too much honour of the Beast and not regarding sufficiently to what mischiefe at length the matter would growe did exalte too proudly the preheminence of the Apostolike Chaire Yet did they not wonder after the Beast so as they thought they must embrace all whatsoever he should ordaine but they had one rule of godlinesse and duty to it the sacred trueth Neither were the commendations of those times any thing to that admiration which followed the healing of the wounde Heare Bernard Thou saith he speaking to the Pope art the great Priest the chiefe Pope thou art the Prince of Bishops thou art the heire or the Apostles thou art in Primacy Abel in governing Noe in Patriarchat Abraham in order Melchisedec in dignity Aaron in authority Moses in iudgement Samuel Peter in power Christ in an-annointing c. in the 2. booke of Considerat Verily o Bernard thou hast played the foole through admiratioÌ„ Yet neverthelesse I dare not put thee among those who wonder after the Beast considering that I heare thee else where reprooving boldly and sharply the wickednesse of the Popes Cardinals Bishops and other Clergie men The times deceaved thee but there was in thee I thinke somewhat borne of God which at leÌ„gth did overcome the world But of what sorte was the wouÌ„dring of other men who were more blinded lesse fearing God Heare what the Ambass of the Emp. of Sicilia being prostrated on the grouÌ„d cry which takest away the sinnes of the world hav mercy on us which takest away the sinnes of the world give us peace P. Ae. b. 7. VVhat also Simo Begnius Bishop of Modrusium speaking to the Pope Leon in the Councill of Lateran sess 6. Beholde here cometh the Lion of the tribe of Iuda the roote of David thee o most blessed Leo wee have expected for Saviour Adde unto these Cornelius the Bishop of Biponte who shewed his astonishmeÌ„t in the CouÌ„cill of TreÌ„t in these words The Pope being the light is come into the world and men have loved darknes more then the light for every one that doth evill hateth the light and commeth not to the light O Blasphemous Fooles is it not enough for you to adorne the Man of Sinne with the praises of the Saincts
destruction But let no godly man be offended if hee see the reprobate to returne to their Beast the Spirit hath foreshewed that this loade stone shall draw unto it this refuse that hereafter they may not marvaile Why all of ungâ—dly and dissolute life are more prone to the Pope thâ—n to the trueth ¶ Of that Lambe which was slâ—ine from the beginning of the world VVithout cause Aretas will have a transposition of the wordes to be here so that this should be the sense Whose names are not written from the beginning of the world in the booke of life of the Lambe which was slaine He will have the names to be written from the beginning of the world but not the Lambe to have ben killed from thence But the things are not well devided which the Spirit ioyneth togither For if the Lambe be from the beginning of the world it must needes be also that he was slaine from the beginning of the world But CHRIST is not a Lambe but for sacrifice neither can he be a sacrifice otherwise then by death As therefore by the eternall Decree of God he was the Lambe appointed for to save the Elect so by the same Decree he was slaine from before the foundations of the world VVose force was noe lesse available to deliver the Elect before his death was accomplished in the flesh then after he had endured and sufferred the same in the crosse and in the grave 9 Let him that hath an eare heare An acclamation the sense whereof is That this Beast is to be knowne with all diligence howsoever there shall be many who will not hearken and will deny a thing so perverse are they more cleare then the Sunne at noonetide But all yee elect give eare and with as great diligence as you can flie from this plague Which by these markes is so proposed before your eyes as that you may see her not as by the nayles but by the whole frame of her body 10 Yf any leade into captivity These things pertaine to the consolation of the godly who were to fight with this monster the first confirmation is taken from a certeÌ„ punishment which shall come in his time that is to say although they shall see the Beast mighty for a longe time and carying many by companies into bondage yet they should be of good courage For at length they should see him also ledde into captivity He shall perish with the sword although now he kill with the sword whom he will The confort is like to that in Esay Woe to thee that spoilest who thy selfe is not spoiled and to thee traiterous man against whom they dealt not traiterously when thou shalt cease to be a spoiler thou shalt be spoiled c. chap. 33.1 ¶ Here is the patience and faith of the Saincts A second consolation All those thinges serve for the Saincts for the exercise of their faith and constancy And surely a great courage is required in so great daungers but by how much the dangers shal be greater so much the more shall the praise of the godly be brighter therefore let no man quake for feare of the danger but let him minde that this Beast is the occasion for him to get glory by 11 Afterward I saw an other Beast Thus farre of the first Beast the second followeth an other indeede in beginning and originall but in nature and disposition altogither the same Whereupon the seventeenth chapter maketh mention of one onely under one comprehending both as was observed at the fift verse of this chap. For which cause also the Spirit doth not make a particular description of every member but rehearseth those thinges onely which are proper to the new rising other things as farre as it seemeth being common to this with the former First he ascendeth out of the earth both augmented by the authority of earthly men and those of the laity as they call them whom chiefly the earth signifyeth and also exceeding in honours those very men by whom he was advanced For that which commeth up from the earth is lifted up above the earth having it put under his feete by whose weight he was lately oppressed So the former Beast rose out of the Sea having sea men put under him out of whose company he came and plunged up This ascending fell out upon the times of Gregory second about the yeere 726 when the Pope trusting in the aide of the Longobardes smote with the lighâ—ning of excommunication Leo Isaurus the Emperour and withdrewe Rome it selfe and Italy and all Hesperia from hiâ— obedience For now indeede the Beast began upon the earth who not onely exercised a powre over the Ecclesiasticall route but also bridled the lay men by his authority their chiefe head the Emperour who although before time he had given a great power to the Pope over the Clergie yet he pressed downe the same even till now by his maiesty as it were by a certen weight more heavie theÌ„ the Hill Aetna that he should not lift up his crests above the Emperour But now the earthly dignity yeeldeth to the Beast to be troden under foote of him at length who grew up so farre onely by the favour of the Emperours Therefore Zacharias the next that it might be manifest to all men that the Popes were now loosed from the prison of eartly dignity deposed Childericke the King of France and commaunded Pipine the Father of Charles the Great to be created King in his stead But yet it was more cleare in Leo the third who translated the Empire froÌ„ the Grecians to the Germanes and annointed Charles the Great for Emperour VVhat a more great proofe can there be of the supreme power on earth then to take away the Empire from whom he will and to bestowe the same againe upon whom he shall thinke good The Popes following persisted in the same steppes esteeming the Emperours as it were balles in reiecting the same from their office and appointing other in their roome at their pleasure VVhereby Bellarmine being moved wrote indeede truly and agreable to this Prophecy All the Emperours who have ben since Charles the Great are bound to the Pope for their Empire in his 5. booke of the Pope of Rome chap. 8. For ever since that time the Beast rose up from the earth being higher then all earthly power to which are added earthly dominioÌ„s and possessions of landes ioyned with this originall which the Pope before time either wanted altogither or at least enioyed but small fewe as great as were sufficient to maintaine a Bishop not which should make any shew of a Kingdome For in former ages Italy was tributary to the Emperours which at length the Gothes possessing made it to pay tribute to them when they were slaine under Iustinian it returned againe to the Empire administred by Captaines The Romane Pope had yet noe Provinces untill this earthly rising up had given him landes sufficiently For is it likely that the Pope by
whose persuasion other men fell from the Emperour and were made richer became not more enriched by the spoiles of the same VVould not he provide himselfe and Sainct Peter of some little gobbet But it is a sufficient argument what he got thereby that a while after that the Longobardes converting their forces against the Romanes sought to take away from them those cities of which they had spoiled the Emperour Which being taken away Zachary the Pope recovered them againe by faire flattering wordes with great increase if wee must beleeve the Papists For he obtained of Luitprandus by gift for blessed Peter and the Popes besides a fewe cities taken away the inheritance of the Sâ—bins and the Citie Narnia and Ancona and Humana and the great valley of the towne Sutrium Moreover all those thinges which Luitprandus had taken to himsâ—â—fâ— from Amilia and the people of Râ—venna within the space of two yeeres Blond Decad. 1. booke 10. But without controversie the munificence of Pipine and Châ—rles the Great and Ludovike farre surpassed For Romanie was now called a Princedome that even by the very name it might acknowledg her Lord. Therefore the Beast began now to glory in the Kingdomes of the world which boasted before of the title of dignity and honour rather thâ—n in any possessions of cities and townes ¶ Having two hornes like the Lambe These two hornes are Pipine and his SoÌ„ne Charlâ—s the Great by whose weapons as it were by hornes the newe Beast chased farre away all enemies Pipine aided the Pope Stephan 2. flying into Fraunce against Aristulphus the King of the Longobardes whom he passing twice over the Alpes with an army compelled first to yeeld the things taken from the Pope Secondly to deliver to the chaire of Peter Ravenna the Princedoome and whatsoever almost he had taken in Italy see Volat booke 3. Charles the Great for Pope Adrians sake repressed Desiderius King of the Longobardes yea tooke away wholly the Kingdome froÌ„ that nation that they might not afterward cause any trouble to Rome Moreover againe when Aragisus a Captaine of Beneventum put Adrian in some feare he fled into Italy brought him by constraint to his duties and set Adrian free from all feare Leo the third also being expelled by the Romanes hasting into Italy the third time those seditious being punished severely hee restored him unto his Chaire The Popes of Rome never had so great deffence since their ten first hornes in any as in these two Therefore these two notable hornes made famous the originall of this second Beast Which are said to be like the Lambes because the Popes whoÌ„ they aided did seeme helplesse afflicted innocent like Lambes How lamentable Epistles doe Stephanus the second Constantinus Stephanus the third and Adrian Popes sende to Pipine and Charles the Great How full are all things of complaints of lamentations of teares and of most vehement callings upon them for succour See before your eyes what cruelty those letters doe attribute to the enemies but what innocency to the Bishops Surely thou wilt call those wolves these Lambes and that he hath an hart of iron who would not deliver them being in daunger from their most cruell â—awes if he be able Yet neverthelesse in this miserable estate the Beast reteined his former minde and loftily and terribly as the Dragon I let passe Gregory the second striking with lightening and terrifying Leo Isaurus VVhose voice I pray was it when Zacharias tooke away the Kingdome from the lawfull King and bestowed it upon Pipine his servaunt VVhat manner of voice was that of Leo the third which proclaimed openly and consecrated Charles Emperour of the VVest VVas it not that of the olde Dragon who according to that very great power whereby he prevailed made and deposed Kinges whom he would Desiderius the Longobard felt the force of this voice who being allured by the Lambelike shewe of the Popes he entered quickly into their possessions for to recover whatsoever things they had wrested away by fraude from his Ancetours But this voice brought to passe that while he strove for some one citie or towne he lost his whole Kingdome and that not from himselfe but also the whole name of the Longobardes These are wonderfull great actes of the Earthly Beast taking away and bestowing Kingdomes at his pleasure And that which is more not so much by armed force as by his voice by which he exercised the power of the Dragon although he bare yet the shewe of a tender Lambe who was not able of himselfe to drive away the wolfe from his owne necke ¶ And he exerciseth all the power of the former Beast Such is the rising and forme of the Beast His power is equall with the former a great proofe whereof is given in this verse As touching the equall power whatsoever that first could doe this second doth exercise all the same in his sight But whence had he this so great power but from the Dragon who gave it to the first above in the second verse Wherefore both are the same both for amplenesse of power and also for the same authour himselfe from whom they received it But as touching that some will have this second to be as it were the Chalbard man and esquire for the body of the former is it to be thought that any is to be compared with Antichrist either for power or will to doe wickednesse Surely he shall have noe felowe but he shall surmounte all men in naughtines and wickednes by many degrees Therefore this Beast is not any servant of Antichrist but he himsâ—lfe endued with no lesse power to doe mischievous deeds But thou wilt say they seeme to be distinguished one of them working in the sight of the other But this kinde of speaking sheweth not a diversity of person but onely that the first remained alive after that the wounde was healed Albeit they are worthily set as two devided because of the notable variety which the same person should obtaine in his growing In which respect he is called both the seventh also the eight King chap. 17. Not because there are eight Kings for there be onely seven heads but because the seventh hath so great diversity that for good cause he may seeme a newe one and the eight And if the second Beast be diverse why would he procure honour rather to the former then to himselfe who hath equall power and like notable lewdenes It is necessary therfore that the honour of the second coÌ„sisteth in the honour of the first which he thrusteth upon the inhabitans of the earth with so great endeavour not so much through a desire to increase an others as his owne glory ¶ And he causeth the earth and the inhabitâ—ns c. The effect of his power tendeth to that ende that he may compell all false Christians to worship the first Beast which the Spirit describeth diligently by his deadly wounde healed declaring that this adoration agreed not to
Hildebrand granteth otherwise who in his Epistle to the Germanes said that Henry the fourth being smitten with his excommunication was blasted with lightening And not at all adventures the Spirit doubtlesse ruling his tongue as before time of Caiphas wherby the world might understand how the Beast should make fire to descende from heaven But there is no neede that wee should seeke a metaphoricall sense when the History ministreth most plaine demonstrations Of which sort was that thing that Pope Zacharias in the moneth of Iune journeying twards Ravenna in the day time was covered with a cloude against the heate of the Sunne in the night time armies of fire went before him in cloudes Centur. 8. from Polych booke 5. 25. In the same place is rehearsed that a Songe of Felix Archbishop of Ravenna placed by the Pope Constantine in the most sacred confession of blessed Peter the Apostl after a fewe dayes was souÌ„d blacke and burnt with fire see it in the booke of Pontifical they would make men beleeve that it was blasted from heaven But that is more cleere that a certaine Biâ—hop shaking up with many taunts Hildebrand for his privie grudge against Henry was destroyed with lightening and dying cryed Alas I miserable wretch bâ—und with a chaine of fire am drawne to Hell goe yee shâ—we the Emperour that he may repent and make amendes by duties for his hâ—inous offense committed agâ—iâ—st â—od against S. Peter and against his Vicar unlesse he had leiffer follow after mee going before to everlasting punishments The same day also the Bishop of Spira bearing some evill will to Hildebrant gave up the Ghost CeÌ„t. 11. from Avent booke 5. of Chronicles Did not the Ambassadours of Armenia see upon the head of Pope Eugenius while he celebrated the Masse at Viterbium a beame of the Sunne shining with most cleare brightnes and in it two doves ascending and descending Centur. 12. In the City Barra when Innocentius was saying the Masse and Lotharius the Emperour being present there appeared a golden crowne wheron sate a white Dove under the crowne hanged a smoaking Câ—nsâ—r and beside it two burning firebrands In the same place from the Chron of Saxe What can be more cleare then these thinges Wherefore now I thinke that the Iesuites will not deny how that nothing doth here hinder but that the Pope of Rome may well be the Antichrist Concerning the third miracle wee shall see in his place in the 15. verse afterward 14 And he seduceth the inhabitans of the earth Therefore these wonders ar not true but false and lying such as are Antichrists according to that of Paul with all power and signes and lying wonders 2 Thess 2.9 Although they are not called lying therefore because they are meere delusions in which there is nothing beside a bare shewe onely but partly because they differ very much from true howsoever they shal be wonderfull as which exceede not the powers of Nature done by the power of the Devill by a way unknowne to us whereupon they affect the beholders with great admiration partly for that they pertaine to the establishing of errour and lying For whatsoever belongeth to the commendation of any thing what soever which is contrary to the sacred trueth of the Scriptures it is that lying signe howsoever it is permitted of God to be very marveilous both for to try the elect and also to delude the wicked whom God by his just judgement giveth over that they should beleeve lyes which would not receive the love of the trueth as in the second Epistle to the Thess secoÌ„d chap 10.11 To which rule that cannot deceave if wee examine those apparitioÌ„s which are said to have bene done at Spandavia Birthinum other places in Germany in the yeere 1549. those glorious Angels shal be Devils traÌ„sformed into Angels of light as 2 Cor. 11.14 Let it therefore be true which the Papists boast of their miracles and admit that it were done in very deede which is put in writing by their men Yet neverthelesse while all those things doe carry away men from the trueth to errours and superstitions they are wicked they are lying wholly of the same kinde of which is this fire that the Beast bringeth from heaven ¶ Saying to the inhâ—bitans of the earth that they should make the image of the Beast These wordes as they are in the Greeke may be referred to the Beast himselfe as thou he should say speaking to the inhabitants of the earth that he had made an image of the Beast c as though he would render a wonderfull reason of his workes declaring that he had done all thinges for this intent that the former image of the Beast might be revived Or they may be referred to the people as all Interpreters doe translate saying to the inhabitants of the earth that they should make c. as though it were written saying that they should make c. Which is the ende of all these miracles that the first Beast might be placed in honour with men and it is in the power of the people to make this Image For unlesse they give honour there should be no glory for this Beast But to make an Image to the Beast is with the Greekes spoken in the third case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is this difference that a man maketh an image of some body as a Painter or Carver of Images who fashioneth an Image for gaine or for his minde sake but he maketh an Image to some body who maketh it for the sake or honour of some body But this Image is not any coloured picture or image made of any matter For all must be slaine that will not worship this in the next verse but an Image made cannot come unto all men unlesse either it be carried through all countries or if it shall have a fixed place all leave their dwelling places for to goe thither into a straÌ„ge country Furthermore this Image shall effect by his owne strength that whosoever shall refuse this worship he may be killed as in the next verse But this power is greater then can agree either to a picture or Image howsoever wee have read that some have spoken at some time by the cunning of the Devill Neither are the Images of living men wonte to be thrust upon the people to be worshipped Images indeede may be set up for living men but onely for civill honour not religious worship Therefore this Image is not any picture of the body but a lively and expresse figure of honour Kingdome power which the second Beast should carry of the former For this is that which the second striveth for that in his person the first may be revived VVhich his wicked ambition is declared most significantly in this kind of speaking For first when he desireth earnestly an image to be put to the first Beast by the same he sheweth that he doth require no newe thing but onely
defiled with women VVell hath Aretas observed that these thinges are not spoken against marriage For what defiling can be there where the bed is undefiled Heb 13.14 VVas this company unmaried and onely of Priests Nay mariage in time past was not forbiÌ„dden even unto the Levites neither is this number made of the Tribe of Levi alone chap. 7.4 c. Certenly neither were the Christian Elders without wives untill Hildebrand who to the ende that his Clergie might not be defiled with chast mariages opened a way to Sodomitry But peradventure there was none in this multitude defiled either by the spottes of unlawfull company or by the infirmity of the flesh Shall wee thinke that repentance is waxen so fraile since Christ came which before he tooke upon him flesh had such power to cleanse Wherefore it cannot be that women should be taken properly in this place but to be defiled with women is as much as to worship Idols whereunto wee knowe that to commit fornication is referred every where in the scriptures as they goe a whoring after their Gods Exod. 34.14 And in Ezechiell thou hast played the whore with the SoÌ„nes of Aegypte that is thou hast worshipped the Gods of the Aegyptians and so in many other places According to which rule not to be defiled with women is the same as not to worship the Gods of women Who then are these women the Locusts the people of the Angell of the bottomelesse pit the army of the Româ—ne Pope which had haire as the haire of women chap 9.8 These bought from the earth consented not to the same Idolatry with the Locusts women neither worshipped their King adoring either the Beast or his Image or in receiving his marke in their forehead or hand or if peradventure for a time they were carryed away with the common errour yet at length they renounced the same by repentance which doth so wipe away all sinnes as if they had never ben defiled with them ¶ They followeth the Lambe whither soever he shall goe Obeying their Captaine Christ in all thinges and hearkening to his commandements onely Montanus inserteth for thus for whither soever he shall goe c. ¶ These are bought from men By the merit of Christs blood saved from the generall contagion and chosen out of the multitude of those that perished least any should attribute salvation to them from that integritie which was mentioned even now That purity was not sufficient to salvation so farre as it is inherent in themselves but the price payed by Christ ¶ The first fruites to God In respect of the exceeding great multitude which at length should embrace the trueth darkenesse being put away chap. 20.5.6 c. 5 For they are without blasme God seeth noe uncleannesse in them upon whom he putteth the most pure robe of his Sonne in him doth he behold the elect in the imputatioÌ„ of whose righteousnes consisteth this most pure integritie of theirs not in the perfection of their owne vertue Aretas omitted before the throne of God and putteth in the place of it that which is taken from the former wordes these are they that follow the lambe 6 Afterward I saw an other Angel Hitherto the generall constitution of the whole Church in as much as it pitched the tentes with the Lambe now followeth the battell begun by a few citizens and first by those who doe set upon the Beast by the word For about the ende of a thousande yeeres after the first flight of the woman into the wildernes as shal be clearly manifest from the twentieth chapter the Lambe sent foorth some light harnessed souldiers who riding about the campe of Antichtist should provoke him to battell and should endure his first assault These three ar Angels the first of which were those famous men who rose about the yeere 1300 Ockanus Marsilius Patavinus Iohannes de Ganduno Arnoldâ—s de Villa Nova Dante 's Petrarcha and especially Iohn Wicklefe an Englishman whose doctrine was more fruitfull then of the rest did sinke in more deeply and tooke such rootes that it could never be rooted out since that time one Angel onely is here rehearsed the type of whom I doe apply to many learned men because in such signes of future things the agreement rather of the thinges is regarded then the unity of the persons he flyeth through the middes of heaven because the trueth now at length after a long time being revived drew with it yet much filth of the earth by which burden being pressed downe it could not straightway fly up into heaven that is it could not attaine at the first to the celestiall purity but shaking the winges it abode in the middes betweene both see chap 8.13 Hence it was that that holy man although he knewe assuredly the trueth in many thinges by whose swift winges he flying up aloft left the common sort of men farre beneath on the earth yet he was blinde in some thinges and much deceived so as he sate in the lowest seates of the Saincts hitherto Therefore the first beginnings of the Church rising againe seteth this Angel in the same place where Gregory the Great was set about the time almost of her greatest ruine as wee have shewed at the 8. chap. ver 13. Having an everlasting Ghospell That is the doctrine of salvation by faith in Christ onely as God hath ordained by his eternall decree It is called eternall as though purposely the Spirit would meete with the offeÌ„se of those times that the trueth restored should in every place be condemned of novelty but he declareth that it is eternall whatsoever men prate which should now shine upon the world by their labour togither also he signifyeth by the same that the eternall trueth had ben banished froÌ„ the earth before thrust out by humane inventioÌ„s Let men therefore see how much they are deceived who doe traduce as newe sprunge up that which was before all ages but doe often vaunt that their owne dreames which the Kingdome of darkenes brought forth but yesterday are as it were of very great aÌ„tiquity This Angel hath the Ghospell to the ende that he should preach it to the inhabitans of the earth that is to the earthly citizens and before this light was brought of that whorish Church To whom now power should be given to open their eyes and to harken to the Heavenly trueth ¶ Saying with a loude voice Now he commeth unto the sermon of the Angel so much the more to be observed because it is the first of the voices which the seaven thunders uttered in chap. 10.4 for it belongeth to the same time Those Tunders followed the Turkish tyranny to which they are added in the tenth chapter or rather began with it and are contained within the compasse of the second woe as appeareth from the eleventh chap. ver 14. This combate of the Angels began at the same time as wee shall make more plaine at the 20. chap. ver 4.5 But in this very
to swimm in this Sodomitish lake as many doo which make no conscience to asseÌ„t unto any religion This then is the estate of this filthy sea which wel becometh the ulcerous flock to be fed with the rotten bloud therof as it were with rivers 4 And the third Angel powred out his vial upon the rivers Th' effect of the third vial belongeth to the fountayns rivers The event turneth the same into bloud Fountayns and rivers are as the breasts wherewith the sea is nourrished and which borow their nourishment from it againe And the sea being the Doctrine the Fountayns are the Masters which have charge of the doctrine and these no mean fellowes and footstools so to speak but principal Doctours on whose mouth the rest of the troup doo depend These now by al mens iudgment are the Iesuites from whose distributioÌ„ the rest of the multitude gathereth like babes taking the meat into their mouthes which they chewed for them Dominicus of old appeared unto Pope Innocent in his sleep to hold up with his shoulders the Lateran Church that was in danger of ruine but at this day the Iesuites be the chiefest propps of the Popes throne which neverthelesse they shall not hold up long who long synce have begun to faulter and fayl as overcharged with the weight For under this third vial the rivers shal be turned into bloud that is those Masters of Popish doctrine the Iesuites shal be put to death that the Church of Rome which in time past was wont to kill with the sword may at length be killed her selfe as the Spirit hath foretold chap 13.10 Which power this vial began to exercise about the year 1581. when in our realm of England by the common decree of the States in Parliament it was enacted that whosoever should goe about any manner of way to draw the mindes of the subiects from obedience towards their lawful and natural Prince unto the Bishop of Rome or unto the Romish religion for the same end they should be put to death as guilty of high treason What is this may some say to the Iesuites Very much when they al mind nothing els indevour nothing els being traytors to their country killers of Princes seducers of subiects the plagues and bane of al Kingdomes and common weals Therfore the powred out vial wanted not effect but in the same yere Everard Ducket Edmund Campion Ralfe Sherwin Alexander Brian Iesuites and nourissons of the Seminaries being convincted of the breach of the law were worthily punished And after them folowed Iohn Paynes Thomas Ford Iohn Sherret Robert Iohnson many other of that leven Thus by Gods grace the wickednes of wretched men was somewhat restreyned that though it were not quite taken away for who can require of the Leopard to change his skin yet did it not so freely range abroad but was forced to lurk in darknes to disguise it selfe to counterfeit dissemble al things that so both the venim might be dispersed more secretly and the mischeevous heads therof be provided for 5 And I heard the Angel of the waters We have seen the first event the second is a twofold testimony wherby the fact is approved of which the first is by the Angel of the waters who is not one of these rivers fountayns as the Angel of the bottomlesse pit before chap. 9.11 but one that is over the rivers and fountayns to execute this iudgement of God In which respect the rest may be called the Angel of the earth the Angel of the sea the Angel of the sun c. to whom power is given over these things For in that he saith in the next verse thou hast given them blood to drink he playnely exeÌ„pteth him from the number of them This Angel therfore is some civil Magistrate which had power or rather which was author and Counsellor for turning these waters into bloud namely for killing and putting to death the Iesuites Whom if I should note by name to have been that noble maÌ„ of blessed memory S. William Cicil late high Tresurer of England the words folowing wil shew I doe it not without ground ¶ Iust art thou o Lord This testimony adorneth God with the prayses of his Iustice Truth and annexeth a reason from the present thing in putting the murtherers to a deserved death And a like celebration of Gods iustice was verily made by him whom even now I named S. William Cicil For he in the yere 1584. to stop the mouth of gaynsaying raylers rendred a reason in a book set forth of putting the Iesuites to death among us VVhich book is intituled the Iustice of Britany wherby is clearly manifested that some lewd fellowes in England were for shamefull treasoÌ„s put to death He published the book almost in all languages that all might hear the Angel celebrating Gods iustice and others that would procure the safety of their realmes and peoples might be stirred up by this most worthy president to doo the like The book hath the very same argument that these two verses have neither can the summ of it be comprised in any words more fitt ¶ Which art aâ—d which wast and which shalt be Thus dooth Theod. Beza set it down out of an ancient hand-written copie Aretas the vulgar Latine and Montanus in sted of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shalt be doo read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy The former celebrated God for coÌ„stancie in his promises that he is alwayes like himselfe avenging wicked deeds in like sort now as he punished theÌ„ in ages past This latter togither with coÌ„staÌ„cie ioyneth holines as if he should say which for thy constancy and holines canst let this wickednes goe no longer unpunished but where a title is used from the distribution of time the two first articles are not wont to be put without the third therefore the first reading seemeth to be the more true ¶ Because thou hast judged thâ—se things That thou hast shewed such a iudgment that is hast inflicted such a punishment on the rivers fountayns According to the Hebrew metonymie for with them to iudge signifieth to punish and avenge as the nation whom they shal serve I iudge that is I will punish Gen. 15.14 So Deut. 32.36 1 Sam. 25.39 6 For they shed the bloud of the Saincts These words shew reason of the former celebration But where have the Iesuites shed bloud As though this were hard to know Are not these the spyals for the holy fathers of the Inquisition as they that for the most part cary Christians to their boucherie from whence no not the guiltlesse as they say is let goe but eyther it costeth him his life or at least al his goods But besides this al the world now knoweth that these men are the plotters of al treasons against Princes and the troublers of publike tranquilitie which absteyn not their hands no not from sacred Princes for whom they devise death sundry wayes as we with great
spoken in respect of the Iewes chap. 15.8 But that is to be understood of their universal caling and here onely the beginning of it is taught as we shal declare after more at large And by these things we may see how the sixt vial answereth to the sixt Trompet The trompet sent from Euphrates four furies into the world the vial shal minister great joy from the same place which shal yeild new huige troupes of Christians by whose vertue those furies shal be sent back to hell But as Romes Idolatry caled for those cruel Turks so after that Rome is utterly abolished straightway this coÌ„fort shal appear 13 And I saw out of the mouth of the Dragon The second event is first a preparation unto warr wherof there are three Princes Authors as many Administers three unclean Spirits like froggs in this verse whose work is described in the verse folowing The Princes are the Dragon the Beast the false Prophet The Dragon always throughout this whole book is the open enemy which were the Roman Emperours so long as they continued hethens in these last times the Turks doo cary this person The Beast is the more covert and crafty enemie Antichrist sitting in the Temple of God as in the 13 chap. The False Prophet is now first named and often henceforth after the fift vial But ther must needs have been some description of him some where before for Iohn speaketh as of a person wel known And this verily we shal find in that subtil and crafty second Beast of whom we heard in chap. 13.11 c. who wrought signes and wondrous lyes Both of them perteyned to the constituting of the same Antichrist but with this condition that the first signifyed the temporal and civil tyranny the second the spiritual fraud and malice as is sayd before This second Beast is now plainly caled the False Prophet by reason of the more manifest revelation which shal be under this sixt vial For though he reteyne yet with him many attendants yet the better part of men and they of his former worshippers shal know him for a crafty lying hypocrite and detest him as a lothsome creature For now the event wil teach after Rome is destroyed how glorious lyes those were about Peters Chaire the Holines of the Church of Rome the invincible stedfadnes and perpetual constancy of it against the practises of al. Wherfore the Beast and False Prophet is one Antichrist but having a double power al which he wil now use both civil spiritual to deceive the unskilful and draw them agayn to be of his side He wil open his treasury he wil spare no charges he wil levie huge bands of souldjers and other things that perteyn to force Neither wil he be lesse diligent to catch the simple by al spiritual fraud counterfeisance fallacies and other like legierdumain of lyes and errours wherby he may abuse their payn and help unto this last battel which he now prepareth So the Turk the Caesarean Bishop and Pope-Balaam are these three mouthes which at last wil belk out the Froggs in their time ¶ Three unclean spirits like Froggs The Ministers of these mischeevous heads To weet out of the Dragons mouth Turks Bashshnes Agnes Bâ—goes and the other officers of his army Out of the mouth of the Caesarean Bishop his Captayns also of warr Out of the mouth of the Pope false Prophet he hath the Iesuites in special and the other toades of his wicked Hierarchie They come forth out of the mouth because by their maysters coÌ„mandement they take this work in hand as is manifest by the vow of mission wherby the Iesuites are bound to the Pope But why are they called Spirits Is it because they ar like the breath which comes out of the mouth and have very neer alliance to them of whom they are breathed both refreshing and animating them and agayn borowing of them heat stink Verily these three Emissaries ar joynd in neer alliance with these their masters they draw from them heat and life and life they give unto them againe Or is it perhaps because they shew themselves no lesse diligent mighty in executing their busines then the Spirits bee Surely the world hath now experience of the singular vigilancy and almost incredible industrie of these three Emissaries and it is not likely that they wil be more sluggish in the last combate They are like to Froggs because they reioyce in their most filthy and unclean pollutions from which they draw beginning and life They refuse to be clothed with Christs righteousnes boasting themselves to be clean ynough before God in their own myre And when before the Sea was made like dead mans blood what other thing caÌ„ take pleasure in such a fowle Camarine-puddle than Froggs Toads and other like fennish and execrable filth But besides their uncleannes they have also an importunate croaking for no means doo these stirrers up of troubles and fighting furies leave unaptented for to set al the world togither by the ears But why is ther no difference between the Ministers of the Pope and of the Turk Because albeit nothing is more common with them than the name of Christ wherupon they wil be caled Iesuits neverthelesse whiles they hope for life and salvation by their owne merits they differ nothing from heathens which despise Christ altogither 14 For they are Spirits of Devils He describeth yet more largely the nature of those Spirits by their Lords their monstrous works and their Ambassage unto all the Kings of the earth Their Lords are the Divils because the Princes whom they serv be the vassals and Feoffies of the Divil himselfe chap. 12.9 and 13.2 Signes they work by the force and power of the Divil for of them is he a marvelous artizen and with such faculty did he furnish the second Beast 2 Thes 2.9 Rev. 13.13 They goe forth to gather the Kings of the earth unto battel for after that Euphrates shal be dryep up and the way prepared for the Eastern Iewes the Turk fearing himselfe wil prepare warr against them with as great furniture as he can as is more largely declared in Daniel chap. 11.44 Nor wil the Romish Beast togither with the false Prophet in the West be lesse studious to abolish utterly all them that favour pure religion He wil prudently take his oportunity when the Turk shal be imployed in the Eastern warr Wherby it shal come to passe that in one the same time the safety of the whole Church shall be in very great danger This is that warr whose alarme these Froggs doo sound unto the Kings of the earth 15 Behold I come as a theef These words doo trouble the learned man Th. Beza as if they had crept in hither amisse from some other place But feing these times shal be very calamitous as in respect of the Iewes Daniel foretold chap. 12.1 neyther is it likely that our Christian nations shal be in better case let not
interrogation hath a certaine blaming of negligence and unskilfulnes as though he should say unlesse men had shamefully despised the observatioÌ„ of former times now they should not have had need to wonder at the Whore because they saw her flourishing in this whatsoever felicity But the merciful father who pardoneth all sinnes to his children for Christs sake forgiveth also this carelesnes And therfore he sendeth his Angsl to make the whol thing most plaine For this is that which followeth I wil shew thee the mistery c. yet warning not darkely that also the interpretation it selfe shall not be cleare to all men but shal remaine yet hidden to all that are hardened as before at verse 3. 5. 8 The Beast which thou hast seen The first interpretation is of the Beast according to the whole in this verse as we have distinguished in the Analysis wherin is declared his divers condition according to 4. alterations of times such as at length he should be known to be most playnely under this vial The first time wherin he was the second wherin he is not the third wherin he ascendeth out of the bottomlesse pit the fourth wherin he shal goe into destruction As touching the first it is not to be understood of any time which went before the age of Iohn or this Prophecie given to him For the Angel avoucheth plainely that this Beast was not yet come ver 10. that is that he was not yet when Iohn received this Prophecy but should receive power at the same houre with the ten Kings who in Iohns time had not yet received a Kingdome ver 11. Therfore this Beast is not properly the Devil as some of the auncient Fathers expound it and the Iesuite Ribera snatcheth it greedily Of him it could not be said that he was not yet come or that he had not yet received power whose Kingdome then both flourished very greatly and did flourish before Christ came in the flesh Afterward we shall see that the original of this Beast is to be set at that time wherein the Dragon was thrust out of heaven and gave him his Throne And so there are two and fourty moneths of his cheife power which same is the space of the woman lying hid in the wildernesse and of the two Prophets cloathed in sackcloth These chapters 13.5 and 12.6 and 11.2 will challenge the same beginning to all these Which wee have shewed to have falleÌ„ about the times of the beginning of the raigne of CoÌ„stantine the Great some ages after that Iohn was dead After which beginning the first part noteth that there was a time when the Beast flourished for a season to weet at the end of the publike persecutions by open enemies whom the prowesse of Constantine put to flight The second that after that prosperous tranquility a new tempest arose which afflicted the Beast so vehemently that for iust cause men should say that he was in time past but that now he is not as whom they should thinke to have perished utterly in those troubles as it came to passe after that refreshing under some fewe Emperours in which time the authority of the Bishop of Rome increased marveilously when the invasion of the Barbarous people spoyled miserably all Italy cruelly destroyed Rome it selfe the Throne of the Beast and did cut off almost to the very roote the authority of the Pope growing too rankely Should not men then have cryed out by right that the Pope was but is not whose not onely authority but also seate they might thinke to have ben altogither past recovery This second time was caled the wounded head in chap. 13.3 which did bring with it the knowledge of the former of which there could be no knowledg until this alteration had befalleÌ„ But the Beast lay not alway in this destruction he rose out of it againe as the third member declareth he came out of the bottomlesse pit which came to passe when he lifted up his head againe after that Barbarian storme of adversity was mitigated This time comprehendeth both the curing of the wouÌ„d by Iustinian and Phocas and also his rising out of the earth or out of the bottomlesse pit by Gregory the second of both which in chap. 13.3.11 11.7 and 9.2.11 This Gregory exercised that power which his Ancestours had obtayned of the Emperours yea a farre greater not onely as an Vniversall Bishop but as the highest Dictatour taking away and giving the Empire to whom he thought good It is sufficient in this place to observe the first beginning of things Who first bestowed the name of an Emperour upon men in the West part wee have shewed in an other place Therfore the Beast ascended then when the Popes had gotten this terrene power to themselves as in chap. 13.11 hath ben sayd which earth he called here the bottomlesse pit as elswhere in the Psalmist and makest me to ascend from the depthes of the earth Psal 71.20 And so is the third time The fourth is shall goe into destruction which declareth that this dignity revived shall not remaine for ever but be diminished by little and little and leasurly consumed while it be at length utterly abolished as wee have heard before in the second chapter of Jezabell lying sicke in her bedde the paramour of this Beast and languishing of an incurable consumption Even as at this daie thankes be to God wee see in Rome and in the Pope but the buriall funeralls are yet to come about what time the Revelation will shew us afâ—er These are the foure notable changins wherby the Beast might become known to men being not blind willingly from which wee have a most strong argument to prove both the time when Rome is the whore of the person of Antichrist For that City is the whore in which reigneth Antichrist to weet the very Beast which was which is not which ascendeth out of the bottomlesse pit and goeth into destruction But Rome is the City in which froÌ„ Constantine the Great the Pope hath reigned which was which is not which asceÌ„deth out of the bottomlesse pit and goeth into destruction Therefore Rome since Constantine is the whore and the Pope of Rome since the very same time is the Beast and Antichrist in whom wee see all these alterations at this time so farre as doubtlesse may be done the same being not wholly takeÌ„ away From whence it is not to be doubted but that he is that adversary that man of sinne that great Antichrist whom all ought to flee and to feare greatly and to wish dâ—struction to him and procure it to his power If any thinketh the Beast caÌ„not be knowne before his last destruction which surely is to know too late let him observe that the Angell doth stop in the ende of the verse in the third member seeing saith he the Beast which was and is not and yet is Whereby he declareth that a sure knowledge may be had at this third chaunging ¶ And
the men of Iericho seeking their bodies upon the earth what say I your labour yea a greater losse hangeth over your head namely be not you found in the number of them that folowing the Beast have not their names written in the book of life Ap. 17.8 Chapt. 7. Against the fourth Demonstration from the publik persecution AN other conioint signe you make to be the publik persecution which you say shal be most grievous notorious so that al ceremonies sacrifices of publik religion shal cease none of which things we yet see According therfore to the threefold marke of this persecution you make a threefold proof first that it shal be most grievous 2. most notorious 3. that it shal cause a ceasing of religion And you prove it shal be most greevous frō Ma. 24.21 ther shal be thē great tribulatiō such as was not frō the beginning of the world neither shal be frō Ap. 20.3 wher we read that thē Satā shal be loosed who until that time had been bound And you cōfirm it by testimonies of Aug. in the 20. b. de civit Dei ch 8. 9. of Hippolitus martyr of Cyril unto which you add at last that the persecutiō by the Pope is not the most greevous therfore he is not Antichrist I answer to al first as touching the greevousnes of the persecutiō frō the words of Mat. I say that you care not what you bring for confirmation Those words perteyn to the calamity of the Iewes which they felt in the desolation of their city by Titus within a few yeres after Christ Luke expresseth this people by name saying for ther shal be great distresse in this land wrath on this people Luke 21.23 So Mat. then let them that ar in Judea flee to the moūtayns ch 24.16 And what ells meaneth that prayer against flight on the Sabath but properly to note out this nation So farr verily is it that Antichrists persecution is from these words proved to be most greevous as the contrary may plainly be concluded for they evidently doo confirm that no tribulation shal be to be compared wit that of the Jewes therefore not that which Antichrist shal procure I know that Chrysostome referrs it typically unto Antichrist but not truly nor advisedlie for when Christ opēly saith none shal be like it he cutteth off al typical interpretation not obscurely forbidding the words to be further drawn for to signify any thing to come For the type must needs be inferiour to the truth of it a greater distresse must folow afterwards contrary to that Christ saith if so be the words should be expounded by a type Mathew therfore makes nothing for the vehemency of this persecutiō the Apocalyps dooth even as much Satan in deed shal rage when he is loosed but the outragiousnes which is mentioned in that place is nothing to that which he shewed before he was bound For Satan is the same that the Dragon Apoc. 12 9. and before his imprisonment he lived in heaven drawing with his tayl the third part of the starrs of heaven which he cast unto the earth until by Michael he was overcome and thrown down from thence That is to say the Hethē Emperours not only lived but also ruled in the midds of the Church which they vexed in most cruel māner til Christ put them out of the Empire as upon that place I have shewed From that time the Divil that is the open enemie was bound for a thousand yeres which being fulfilled his bounds should be loosed he should be styrrd up agayn but not with that abilitie to hurt as before for here he should have no place in heavē that is in the Church but should abide only in the utmost borders territories therof compassing the tents of the Saincts the beloved city as Ap 20.9 wherupō he should not so much raise persecution as warr neither should the saincts dye lik sheep but resist lik soljers How much therfore an inward noisom enemie is mor greevous than an outward so much greater is the afflictiō of the former times thā that when Satā is loosed in the last age Morover Antich reigneth a 1000 yeres whiles Satā lyeth in prisō Ap. 20.9 Wherupō if whē he is loosed this felow doo trobel al ther should be great trāquility whē he is boūd so the greatest part at least of his reign should be void of those turbulēt storms neirher should Antich hav an helper of his persecutiō in the other part of his reign seing he should abid within the Church Satā without as is manifest by the things forespokē also that now he was appointed for the scourge of Antic himself not for their hāgmā torturer whom he should use for the tormenting of others For the Divil being now loosed the four Angels at Euphrates are loosed whō God sendeth to punish the Angel of the bottomlesse pit with his infernall crew which came out of the pit Apoc. 9.20.21 all which things we hav made playn in their places Therfore wher Augustine saith that Antichr shal most rage when the Divil is loosed as though he were now first loosed and should be his helper unto crueltie he iudgeth not rightly of this loosing for he was loosed before in heaven Apoc. 12.3 c. which could not be a prison and pit unto him seing he took it heavilie to be cast from thence unlesse perhaps he went out of prison against his wil Apoc. 12.10 Neither is Hippolitus to be hearkened unto concerning this persecution when he teacheth that Antichrist is no man but the verie Divil that should take false flesh of a false virgin And no better account is to be made of Cyrill if he though that the Divil should personally range abroad making Antichrist to be a true man but one that should be a Divil also because as he thinks he should be made man by incarnation What sincere thing could they utter about this matter whose minds were possessed by such manner errours Wherfore this grievousnes of persecution which you speak of hath no confirmation at al from the Scriptures A very greevous persecution in deed ther should be but of an other sort then you mētion even such as should consist not so much in killing of bodies as in murthering of soules For Antichrist is Balaam who though it better to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel that they migh eate of things sacrificed to Idols and committ fornication then to folow thē with the sword Apoc. 2.14 He is that Beast wheron Iezebel the whore sitteth with the wine of whose fornication the inhabitants of the earth are drunken Apoc. 2.20 17.2 He is the Angel of the bottomlesse pit who opening the pit the Sun and aier is darkned with the smoke Apoc. 9.2 Finally he is that man of syn whose coming is with the efficacie of Satā with al power and signes and lying wonders and with al deceit
of the earth Apoc. 17.18 These and the like doo truly prove him a Monarch But this say you dooth no way agree to the Bishop of Rome for he was never King of the whole world But were the Romans I pray you ever Kings of the whole world I think you wil not deny it as these words usually are wont to be understood or if you like to stand curiously herupon Daniel teacheth that the fourth Kingdom to weet the Roman shal consume the whole earth shal crush it and break it in peeces chap. 7.23 Remember therfore what a litle before you alleged out of Prosper Rome by Principality of the Preisthood was made more ample with the towr of religion than with the throne of power And what Leo saith Serm. 1. de Natal Apostol Rome that art made the head of the world by the holy Seat of S. Peter thou rulest more largely by divine religion than by earthly domination And what els meaneth the triple crown but the principalitie over al the three parts of the world The Popes crown hath more tops than the Emperours Egle hath heads It may be that shortly it wil be quadruple by the accession of the Indians that nothing may escape the Popes almightines though something for a time hath been hidd from his all skilfulnes Wherfore the streights of his dominion neither stand you in anie stead to acquitt the Pope of this wickednes neither is this remembrance grateful unto him who dooth so contemn honours and Empire as he had liefer with large limits of ruling to be counted Antichrist than to be defended by an argument of his Kingdome lost or diminished The fourth branch is the battel of Gog and Magog Apoc. 20. And when the 1000 yeres are ended c. Jn this battel you say he shal with an armie innumerable persecute Christians through the whole world I answer we have observed already from these words the wonderful expedition of Antichrist into the whole world properly so caled before in the 7. chapter of his persecution And there we allowed for this expedition three yeres and a halfe but here now it seemeth that this whole space shal not be speÌ„t in the iourney but then it shal be taken in hand after the three Kings and the seven Kings be subdued There also we marveled if he should goe such a iourney himselfe alone not hindred with anie troup of wayting men but here furder comes the impediment of an armie and the same neverthelesse an universal persecution Surely whatsoever you said before against Hippolitus you seem plainly to think that Antichrist is no man but the Divil him selfe But to let these monsters passe let us come to the battel which I marvel you saw not that it should be by the Dragon not by the Beast Between which two ther is in deed a great societie of wickednes but no less difference of persons and of things than is between an open foe and a secret enemie Add hereunto that the Beast and false Prophet are both destroyed before this warre is taken in hand or at least before it is finished if that move you not that both of them are mentioned to be slain in the end of the former chapter yet consider that the Divil that is the DragoÌ„ was cast into the lake of fire wher the other have their place before that the Divil comes thether Apoc. 20.10 Although therfore Antichrist be a Martial felow and a great warrier yet shal he wage no warrs after he is dead But it is one of his miracles to rise againe Be it so when he counterfeyts a death as you feign of him but when he is slayn by that hand of God and deeply drowned in the lake of fyre he shal not find it so easi to rise again and when he lay under a coverlet Separate you therfore those things which touch not Antichrist and deal not so as if you would prove one not to be a man either because he hath not four feet or because he wanteth wings you shal see the rest so to agree togither among themselves in al points as nothing more Surely the things which you hav disputed of this Kingdome and warr are farr from every part eyther of the Kingdome or of the warr of Antichrist but such stuff as this are al the things that your men are either wont or able to bring for to defend the Pope and to free him from this most greevous crime Therfore you toyl in vayn the thing is manifest it can not be hidd by anie subtilties Why goe ye about to cast a myst before the Sun Why frame yee arguments against the Spirit of God Purge rather with flames those writings of yours wherwith yow have laboured his defense and flee out of his denn as speedily as you can Here ends the Refutation of Antichrist Against Bellarmine Chap. 18. AFTER these things I saw an Angel come down from Heaven having great Power so as the earth was bright with his glorie 2 And he cryed out mightilie with a lowd voice saying It is fallen it is fallen Babylon that great and is become the habitation of Divils and the hold of all fowl Spirit and a cage of every uncleane and hateful bird 3 For al nations have drunken of the wine of the wrath of her fornication the Kings of the earth have committed fornication with her and the marchants of the earth are waxed rich of the aboundance of her pleasures 4 And J heard an other voice from heaven saying goe out of her my people least yee be partakers of her sinnes and receive of her plagues 5 For her heaped sinnes are come up to heaven and God hath remembred her iniquities 6 Reward her even as she hath rewarded you and give her double according to her works and in the cup that she hath filled you fill her double 7 Jn as much as she lifted up her selfe and lived in pleasure so much give yee to her torment and sorow for she saith in her heart J sit being a Queen and am no widow and shal see no mourning 8 Therfore shal her plagues come at one day death and sorow and famine she shal be burnt with fire for that God which condamneth her is a strong Lord. 9 And the Kings of the earth shall bewaile her and lament for her which have committed fornication and lived in pleasure with her when they shall see the smoke of her burning 10 And shal stand a farr off for feare of her torment sâ—ying alas alas thâ—t great citie Babylon that mighty citie for in one houre is thy iudgment come 11 And the Marchants of the earth shal weepe and waile over her for no mâ—n byeth their ware anie more 12 The ware of golde and silver and pretious stones and pearles and of fine linnen and of purple and of silke and of skarlet and of al manner of thynewood and of al vessels of yvorie and of al vessels of most pretious wood and of brasse
death 15 And who soever was not sound written in the booke of life was cast into the lake of fire The Analysis VVEE have spoken of the destruction of the Beast the destructiō of the Dragon followeth whose history seing it is the conclusion of the whole warrfare of the Church under the crosse first he repeateth briefly the things before spoken secondly by a new Prophecy he declareth the last ruine of him The repetition is framed according to three times the first in which the Divell was taken in the first verse The secōd how long he was bound in the second verse the third when and how lōg he should be loosed in the end of the third verse And all these thinges briefly which after are repeated more largely by mentioning therewithall the state of the Church of what sorte it was in the meane time through every of those periods In the first wherin the Dragon was taken the saints were beheaded at the beginning of the fourth verse In the second wherin the Divill or Dragon was bound there was an unlike conditiō of men for the saincts raigned a thousand yeeres which was the time of the prisōment of the Divill both in respect of the soules slaine in the former period and also in respect of them that were on earth who strove with the Beast neither did submit under his yoke by any meanes in the same verse The other lived not againe all that time but being deceived by the frauds and impostures of the Beast lay as it were dead and buried in their errors in the fift verse The third period which is of the Divill being loosed relateth both the condition of the elect and also the furie of the Dragon raging againe Those thousande yeeres being expired the elect lived not a few as in the second period but they rose againe in a farre greater multitude the errours of the Beast being left and themselves converted unto true godlines Which resurrection is called the first and blessed because of the Priestly and Kingly dignity long continuing of the raigne with Christ in the sixt verse The furie of the Dragon after a thousand yeeres prisonment shal be revived in the seventh verse He shall muster souldiers known by name Gog and Magog infinite in multitude in the eight ver He shall spoile all farr and neare and shal besiege the tents of the saincts in the beginning of the ninth verse and so farr proceedeth the repetition of the former ages That which dooth follow from thence is to come his attempt against the beloved City and utter overthrow both of the army in the ende of the ninth verse and also of himselfe in the tenth verse And thus farre is the destruction of the enemies afterward the happines of the Saints is handled wherby the Church shall shine having escaped all these calamities Which felicity is declared two wayes both by the gathering togither of the saincts in the rest of this chapter and condition of them being gathered in those that followe The gathering hath a preparation and execution The preparation is of the Iudge fitting upō a great throne in the eleventh verse The execution is partly summarily toward them that are to be iudged where the forme of iudgement is out of certē bookes according to the workes verse twelve and the māner of standind before the iudgement seate the resurrection in the thirteenth verse partly by name upon death and hell and those that were not founde in the booke of life in the fourteenth and fifteenth verse Scholions 1 After J saw an Angel come down How great paines the interpreters have taken in this chapter we may see it by their commentaries Especially the Papists torment themselves very much to whom this is a labyrinth out of which they cannot rid themselves no more then of all the other things in this booke in which they wander hither and thither and erre neither can finde any comming out any where as it must needs be where the truth is not for a guide The former exposition the rehearsall of a great part of which is here made will make I hope all things easy ready to us First then in repeating things past to the end that the thinges spoken of before here and there touching the Dragon being now proposed to be seen all at once may the better be understood he speaketh of his apprehension which briefly sheweth by consequent that he was loosed before in that time made those sturres which he is wonte when he hath the raines loose From which it may be gathered easily what was the cōdition of the primitive Church as long as this disturber might confoūde all things at his pleasure But at length his furie was bridled his power weakened by the Angel a description of whom is here made Who this Angel is we have learned from the former things to weet that it is Constantine the Great who being borne the manchilde of the Church making warre for his mothers sake against the Tyrants the Heathen Emperours the Dragon it selfe He is said to come downe from heaven bringing unexpected aide in chap. 12.6.7 c. So the Angel being to fight against the whore and to assaile her unwares was said to come down frō heaven in the eighteenth chapter and first verse He hath the keye of the bottomlesse pit power to open the same and shut up the Dragon but not to cast forth the hellish smoke in which respect onely the key was givē to the Angel of the bottomlesse pit chap. 9.1 There is therfore a great difference between these two keyes The great chaine are the foundations of the Christian liberty layd by him by which he held the Dragon bound as with chaines by a long succession of time that he could not move himselfe to make any trouble For now the way was stopped up against those Heathen to the chiefe soveraignty or if they attained to it by fraud as Iulian yet they were so bound tyed with this chaine that they could not exercise their former cruelty 2 Who took the Dragon Overcame him by open warr chap. 6.15 12.7 For whē those tyrāts were overcome the strēgth of the Dragō was takē away neither could he entreprise any such thing as he exercised before The Heathen Emperours are noted by the names of the very Divell as also in chap. 12.9 the articles being also added for the preheminence of the wickednesse because they may by right be esteemed by his name of whose poyson malitiousnes and wickednes they have bin the ministers Worthily doth a man beare his name whose manners and disposition he taketh upon him This apprehension signifyeth that whole first period frō the time of Iohn and before even unto Constantine the last part of it being put for the whole For saying that now the Dragō was takē he would have it to be understood that before he ran to and fro devising as much evill as he could as we learned in the
Church yet is in warre liveth in tents fighteth with many adversaries But after this warre is finished shee shal keep a most ioyful triumph and shal reioyce with perpetuall mirth So as they swerved not much from the truth who commended the holy pleasures of this raign unlesse in this that some supposed that these thinges should be after the last resurrection wherin they greatly failed when they added any earthly thing to the eternal happines of the saints which cannot be expressed or declared by any earthly thing which here we doo enioy But let us observe how greatly they are deceived who almost doo determine a certaine yeere and day of the last iudgement The truth shal yet raigne among the Gentils for seven hundred yeeres how long afterward amōg the Iewes no calculation doth declare as farre as I can find out but this is in the power of God alone altogither uncerten and unknown to every creature as Christ expresly teacheth Mar. 13.32 7 But when the thousand yeeres are expired Such then was the condition of the godly in the beginning and during the third period Now he relateth partly what troubles Satan wrought being loosed and partly what troubles he will yet cause First he sheweth his loosing in this verse for he rageth and is quiet at the commandemēt of God which loosing was done after those thousand yeeres were accomplished Not those wherof he spak last in the end of the former verse but those of which he made mention in the 2.3.4.5 verses of the beginning and end of which we spake at the second and third verses ¶ Satan shal be loosed out of his prison The open enemy shal then again invade the Church as it came to passe in the rising of the Turks as we shewed at the third verse 8 And shal goe out to deceive the nations His first labour being loosed shal be in preparing an army in this verse the endevour wherof is afterward propounded to be threefold in the verse folowing The huge army shal be gathered from many and sundry countreys as is shewed by the sower corners of the earth South North East West In which foure quarters seing the whole compasse of the earth is contained least any should think that this Empire doth extend even as farr amply he comprehendeth those foure corners within the limits bōds of two nations Gog and Magog as though he should say thinke yee not that the whole earth shall minister souldiers to make this wicked army so much of the South other parts of the earth as ther are Provinces in the possession of Gog and Magog shal helpe to the preparing of these hosts Therfore this power of enemies shal consist chiefly of these two sortes of people But what natiōs they are can not be unknown the Captaine being known To the finding out of whom the time doth lead as by the hand For he riseth up after the thousand yeeres of the Divels imprisonment which time we hav prooved both often and in many words to come out at the yeere 130. And what other Divell open enemy of the Church came ther into the world than that terrible Turke who farr passed all the former in all cruelty who notably executeth the fiercenes of the Divell who knoweth that but a litle time remaineth for him of this loosing Wherfore the Divell seemeth to rage even visibly in the person of the Turke whom he hath ordained for his Vice-Captaine Therfore Gog and Magog are the nations that ar subject to the Empire of the Turk or at least those that minister armes unto him for to performe his wicked entreprises But yet so as that Gog be the chiefe nations and proper to the dominion of the Turk as we learne from Ezechiel who draweth his Prophecy chiefly against Gog chap. 38. and 39. But Magog are perhaps the nations of an other jurisdiction yet alwaies at hand to helpe the Turke For Ezechiel inveigheth more lightly against him as it were against a confederate rather thē the chiefe authour As touching Gog a Reubenite is rehearsed by this name 1 Chron. 5.4 But who besides the name hath not likenesse to this as is cleare frō these places of Ezechiel and the Revelation in which onely he now spoken off being excepted mention is found of him The most learned Tremelius Iunius doo think that this name came of Gyge who killed Candaules the Lydian and raigned in his stead from whence the lesser Asia was called Gog even as afterward Croesus enlarging the boundes of his Kingdome unto Syria a certaine towne nigh Libanus was called Gygarta for that which is Gog karta that is the City of Gog for in the time that Ezechiel prophecied eyther Halyartes or Croesus both the nephewes of Gyge raigned in Asia minor Neither is it a new thing that the countre is should be signified by their chiefe Princes especially in the scriptures which declare that every nation toke their names from hence at the first Yet this perhaps hath place rather in the first Princes then in their successours albeit that these also gave names to the countreies But it was sufficient for the Prophet to note the nation by the name of her first stock which at that time bare rule in the same place howsoever perhaps that countrey was not so called every where These things doo make this sense very probable Yet notwithstanding seing Ezechiel with whom this place being wholly taken from thence doth wel agree maketh this Gog the chiefe Prince of Meshech and Tubal in chap. 38.3 that is of the Capadocians and Iberians of Asia as Iosephus teacheth lib. 1. chap. 6. of the Antiq. Neither was any of the posterity of Gyge no not Croesus who raigned last and farthest ever Prince of these countreies whose dominion was limited by the River Halys as Herodote relateth in Clio ther is perhaps an other reason of this name Which seemeth to be such that Gog is not an usuall name of any nation but a name made of Magog that both it may note the great union of both peoples and also that Gog doth spring frō Magog For Magog is the chiefe name of one of the sonnes of Iaphet who are reckoned to be Gomer and Magog and Maday and Javan c. Gen. 10.2 And Gog is made therof by taking away the first syllable that wee may know him to be a brāch of the same stocke But the countreys which Ezechiel attributeth unto him were not subiect at that time to any such Prince but at length they were to be under the power of some such at which time that Prophecy should be performed from which that Gog going out with violence as from the lifts should make his first assault for the subduing of the other countreyes As though he should say behold I come against thee o people having thyne ofspring from Magog but who abidest in the countreyes of Meshech and Tubal By which he noteth out most fitly the Turks in their first originall