Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	worship_n	worship_v	yield_v	76	3	7.0761	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66360	Ho Antichristos the great antichrist revealed, before this time never discovered, and proved to be neither pope, nor Turk, nor any single person, nor the succession of any one monarch or tyrant in any policies, but a collected pack, or multitude of hypocritical, heretical, blasphemous, and most scandalous wicked men that have fulfilled all the prophesies of the Scriptures ... and especially have united ... together by a solemn league and covenant to slay the two witnesses of God, Moses and Aaron ... that is, the supreme magistrate of the Commonwealth, and the chief pastors and governours of the Church of Christ, and the Christian world is requested to judge whether the Assembly of Presbyterians consulting at Westminster, together with the independents, Anabaptists, and lay-preachers be not the false prophet ... and whether the prevalent faction of the long Parliament ... that killed the two witnesses of Jesus Christ, 1. Charles the First ... 2. William Laud ... be not the grosse and visible body of the same antichrist / by Gr. Williams.	Williams, Gryffith, 1589?-1672.	1660 (1660)	Wing W2662; ESTC R25201	504,825	313

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Augusta as Caesar himself was called Augustus nam Augustos Graeci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vocant for the Graecians call Augustus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Maresius but the Apostle understandeth as I said the ecclesiastical Governors of Gods Church whom we reverence and worship for their callings sake even as the same Apostle injoyneth the same Thessalonians to hold them worthy of double honor for their works sake that is for the administration of the sacred Mysteries the preaching of the Gospel and the deliverie of the blessed Sacraments with the powring forth of their pr●yers to God for a blessing unto the people and other the like religious acts and office they do in the service of God and above whom notwithstanding their sacred function and all the holy offices they do to God in the behalf of the people the Antichrist will exalt himself and throw those reverend Bishops whom all other good Christians honour unto the ground And therefore That the Pope cannot be here understood to exalt himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supra numen as this cannot be applyed to the Popes exalting of himself above the Emperors and the Kings of the earth because he had shewed this before how the man of sin would exalt himself above them and it had been but a frivolous repetition and tautalogie which S. Paul never used so suddainly to express the same thing twice and the later expression that should be plainer to be obscurer than the former contrary to all rules of Rhetorick so can it neither be any wayes applyed to the Popes exalting of himself above the rest of the Bishops and ecclesiastical Governors of the Church because he is one of those persons and a special one too whom the people worship and reverence for his calling and Religion sake and therefore it were a Solicisme and a very improper speech to say it was such a transcendent sin for a man that is worshiped for his Religions sake to exalt himself above him that is worshipped for his Religion sake which seems to be none other than to say he will exalt himself above himself or above those that are no wayes his superiors but his equalls at the most and at the best as many other men do besides the Antichrist But the meaning of the Apostle is that this man of sin being but a subject will notwithstanding lift up himself above his King that is in the place of God over him and being but a secular lay-person he will for all that exalt himself above his spiritual Pastors whom he ought to worship and to honour as all good Christians do for their offices and calling and Religion sake this is the true meaning of the Apostles words And whether the long Parliament and their adherents have not been Adversaries Let the Reader judg whether this he not fulfilled in the long Paliament opposed and exalted themselves above the most reverend of all the Clergy whom the people honoured and reverenced for their Calling and Religion sake and not only above the dispensers of the holy things and sacred Orders and the chiefest of all that have or ought to have any Government in the Church but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above all the formes of Religion and religious worship in the Church of Christ let the indifferent and judicious Reader judg of it 3. 3. That the Antichrist will be an Usurper and an intruder into the office of the Church Governors as well as of the civil Magistrate The Apostle still goeth on to explain his former meaning and to shew further the impieties of the Antichrist and saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that he sits in the temple of God as God which words immediately following 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that thing or that person whom we worship for religion sake doth likewise confirm the former exposition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie the Bishops and the dispensers of the holy things of the sacred Orders and of all the rest of the divine Mysteries because he exalteth himself above them to this end and for this very purpose that he as God may sit in the temple of God that is that he may be as well a Pope in the Church as a King in the Common-wealth the supream Governor and disposer of all things as well the Religious Worship of God as the civil Government of the people for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here which as Pasor truly saith cometh from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habito to dwell must not be raken for the Jews Temple at Hierusalem as the Greek Scholiast testifieth which is the error of some Papists What 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifieth and of Grotius also because Caligula intended to set up his Statue in that Temple under the name of Jupiter optimus maximus which notwithstanding was not done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but it must be understood of the Church of God where God dwelleth and in the same sence as our Saviour useth the same word in John 2.19 John 2.19 where he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 destroy this temple that is where the Godhead dwelleth and I will rear it up in three dayes for so the Church of Christ where God dwelleth is every where in the new Testament called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Temple of God as Ephes 2.21 Apoc. 11.19 1 Cor. 3.16 2 Cor. 6.16 and so Theophilact saith he shall sit non in templo specialiter quod est Hierosolymis sed in Ecclesiis simpliciter in omni divino templo not in the temple specially understood which is at Hierusalem but in the Churches simply and in every divine temple and S. Hierome saith in templo dei sedebit vel Hierosolimis Hieron q. 11. ad Algas ut quidam putant vel in Ecclesiis ut verius arbitramur he shall sit in the temple of God either at Hierusalem as some think or else in the Churches as we more truly suppose And this clearly sheweth that the seat of the Antichrist can be neither at Rome nor at Constantinople as I have shewed to you before unless you will yield That neither Rome nor Constantinople but the true Church is the seat of the Antichrist either Rome or Constantinople to be the truest and purest Church that Christ hath on earth because the Antichrist will arise and settle himself in that Church saith the Apostle which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the dwelling place of God and not where he hath dwelt that so he may do the most dishonour unto God and the most mischief unto his servants and God dwelleth in the purest Church no man can deny it and therefore the Antichrist must arise and inthrone himself in the purest Church as I have fully proved before and there in that Church saith the Apostle he sheweth himself as God or as Erasmus doth best translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 demonstro ostentans

in their Ecclesiastical Histories have left it recorded to all Posterities what direful Torments the poor harmless Christians have endured in the first ten grievous Persecutions under Nero Domitian Dioclesian Decius and others Heathen Tyrants that were so cruel and so tyrannical to the Saints and Servants of God that most good men and religious minds cannot read their Sufferings without weeping nor remember them without pity For Claud. in Ruff. lib. 1. Quis prodere tanta relatu Funera quis caedes posset deflere nefandas It is not credible for Infidels that know not the Gospel to believe so many slaughters and such exquisite Tortures as the Christians endured when as alii flammis exusti alii ferro perempti alii patibulo cruciati or that they can be looked upon by any humanity with dry eyes And yet Isidorus tells us August de civ Dei l. 20. c. 8. Cyrillus catech 15. Hypolit Orat. de fine seculi The time of the greatest persecution and so doth S. Aug. S. Cyril and Hyppolitus the holy Martyr in his Oration de consummatione mundi that in the time of the Antichrist which would be towards the end of the world and not long before the Coming of Christ to Judgment the Synagogue of Satan and the worldly Senate or Citizens of this world should more furiously rage and more cruelly persecute the true Church of Christ and the most Faithful Servants of God than ever was done in the Primitive Times And besides the accession of above 5000 years experience unto Satans natural and inbred sagacity and sharpness of knowledge and understanding to find out new waies and subtiller devices to afflict Gods Servants they render this Reason for their Assertion because that The reason of the foresaid assertion as the Scripture testifieth Satan was to be bound and fettered as a dog in a chain for 1000 years that is after the end and determination of the first 10 great Persecutions and the Persecutions of the Goths and Vandals and the other Arian Kings that were no less Persecutors and Tormentors of the Orthodox Fathers and the Professors of the Faith of one Substance which is the right Catholick Faith than the Heathen Tyrants were of the Faithful Christians In all which time of 1000 years Satans 1000. years binding how understood that is either the full and determinate number of 1000 years as some Expositors would have it or else a very long season and much about the time of 1000 years though not precisely such a term as others would have it the Malice of Satan was so locked up and chained and his Power so abridged that he could not destroy as many nor persecute the Saints so much as he desired and would have effected si potuisset quantum vellet had he been suffered to do what he would But when his 1000 years Imprisonment should be expired and he loosned out of his Chains and more Liberty granted to him then his inveterate spite and his revengeful Malice for his former Imprisonment would devise the Means and find out the waies to vex and persecute the Servants of God and the Witnesses of Jesus Christ more than ever he had done before in any of the former Persecutions And truly I think Francisc Junius Tilenus ad Bellarm. l. 3. c. 7. de Rom. Pontif. Bal●us de Antich cap. 6. that although Satan was not fully loosned and set at liberty till now of late yet whosoever readeth Thuanus Tilenus and Chamier and the Book of the Martyrs of our English Church written by Mr. Fox and other Authors that have written the History of these two last Centuries and doth rightly consider the Sufferings and Massacres of those Christians that they within the Compass of those years have undergone in France Germany Spain Italy and other places round about and that only for their Religion and not for any worldly Dominion which was the Sufferings of the People in former ages Dr Abbots in his brief description of the world pag. 141. in the time of the first 4 Monarchies and is still the condition both of the Jews and Christians within the Territories of the Turk that tolerateth any Sect and permitteth all Religions and all Nations to live peaceably and quiet throughout his whole Dominion so they yield themselves subject to his Rule and pay to him their allotted Contribution and meddle not with the Mahometan Laws and Superstition he must ingeniously confess the Truth of this Assertion and the unquestionable Certainty of this Prophetical Prediction of Isidorus and the other Fathers aforenamed videlicet that the sorest Troubles and the greatest Persecution of all that Satan raised or shall stirre up against the Christians as they are Christians hath been is and will be that which he hath and still doth prosecute and will persevere to do it by the Ministers and Ministry of his prime General and his dearly beloved Son of Perdition the great Antichrist And if according to the Counsel of Moses and Job Deut. 4.32 c. 32. v. 7. Job 8.8 Sr Walter Rawleigh in his Preface to the History of the world and M. Fox in his book of Martyrs we ask the daies of old and enquire of our Fathers that were before us what they suffered and how they were handled heretofore either in France Italy Spain or Germany or else nearer home where the Truth may be sooner found and better known of us in Ingland and that under K. Hen. 8. and Q. Mary the two greatest Persecutors of Gods Servants for their Religion that our Chronicles do mention and compare their sufferings in the just and even Ballance of an impartial judgment with that Oppression Persecution Injustice and cruelty and that joyned with such subtilty and a pretence of Piety as cannot by my dull Pen be expressed which for the space of 14 or 15 years hath been acted and continued here in this Island of Great Brittain against Loyal Subjects none can deny and Faithful Christians as we hope God will bear witness and that only for their Loyalty unto their King and their Piety towards God in the constant retaining of the true Faith wherein they were baptized and Christened and a good Conscience wherein they lived we shall find the Cruelties of those two forenamed Princes to be favourable and great mercies and all the Favours and Mercies of our new and now pretended Saints towards the true Ministers of Christ and the Faithful Servants of God to be the greatest Cruelties that ever were recorded in any History and I think such Injustice and so great as was never heard of in any Nation For 1. When King Hen. the 8. became sacrilegious 1. The Persecution of the Clergy and wrongs done in K. Hen. the eighth's time I have no other term for his Doings to rob the Church and to take away the Lands and Possessions of the Abbies and the Priories he did the same with the leave and consent of many if

and multiply by the means of Constantine And 2. The Reformation of this Church better then any other Church by the means of those holy Martyrs and godly Bishops that did the same he was fully resolved to be revenged upon this Church of Great Brittain Therefore as not long after Constantines times he stirred up the Picts the Scots the Danes and the Saxons to punish plague and tyrannize over the poor Brittains as it appeareth by the lamentable address that they made unto the Romans for their aid and help against their enemies for the first good service they had done to the honor of God How the devil revengeth the good service that this Iland did to Christ so immediately after that those godly Reformers of this Church had rooted out those evil weeds of Errors and Superstition that the Devil had planted therein he stirred up Penry Martin Marprelate Cartwright Broughton and divers others that in Q. Maryes dayes fled beyond seas to save their lives and there suckt that transmarine poyson that infected both their own and many other mens soules to make invectives against our Church far worse and more bitter than all the Actions that Cicero did against Verres or his Philippicks against M. Antonius to revenge the second good service that this Iland had done to Christ And these that were reasonable good Schollars but fiery mad and furious men did through their violent proceedings get so many Proselites and Disciples after them that as S. Bernard saith of the former Hereticks in a very short space numeri eorum multiplicati sunt super numerum they increased like the rats of Egypt that do super-faetare beget young ones before they be delivered of their old brood And this grand host of his Instruments the Devil perswaded and egged them forward to prosecure their enterprise and never to give over and desist untill they should effect these 3 things The three especial things that the devil perswaded his instruments to effect 1. Unking the Kingdome and make it like the Israelites after the time of the Judges that every man might do what seemed right in his own eyes 2. Unbishop the flock of Christ that the foxes wolves and other savage beasts the Hereticks and Scismaticks might destroy them at their pleasure and so 3. To unchurch this formerly pure and famous Church of great Brittain and to cause it totally to apostatize from the true faith of Gods elect to be divorced from Christ and to be no wayes answerable to the usual and right definition of a true visible Church to which the infidels and unbelievers being converted might be incorporated And then after that they had more than desperately opposed their King and risen up against the pious Defender of the true faith he perswaded them that if he would not consent to defile that faith to abolish the right form of Gods worship to corrupt the Christian Religion and to destroy the witnesses of Christ the governors and upholders of Gods truth in this so well reformed Church with fire and sword to war against him and never leave untill they should bring him to a bitter death and a glorious martyrdome and after that they had like Jannes and Jambres withstood their Governors and cashiered their Bishops and supprest the Articles and Liturgy of the Church he perswaded them to fill the same Church with damnable Heresies not privily as the Apostle saith the former Hereticks would do but most openly How Satan perswaded his instruments to fill the Church with all impiety and villany in the sight of the sun and at last as our Saviour saith out of Daniel to bring the abomination of desolation that is such abominable blasphemies heresies errors and absurd opinions among the people and such wicked deeds of perjury oppression pride lasciviousness and the like corruptions of Gods true service that do more highly provoke the wrath of God than all the sinnes of ignorance negligence or infirmity and cause him to bring utter ruine and desolation upon any Kingdome to stand in the holy place that is in the Churches Chappels and all other consecrated and holy places that were dedicated for the true service of God and for the people of God that did formerly truly and holily serve the Lord in those places And this the Devil did to this end videlicet That so the Kingdome being without a King the flock of Christ without Pastors and the Church of Christ without her Discipline and true Doctrine he might raise that cruel beast which S. John saw rising out of the sea from these narrow seas and bring up the great Antichrist out of this pure Church of great Brittain to root out the true service of God to be the plague of his servants and the death of his saints and to be fully revenged on this Iland for the twofold displeasure it had done to him before Now whether Satan hath by his Instruments done all this or not I leave it to the wise and judicial impartial Reader to determine it only I finde that Mr. Alexander Rose in his animadversions against Mr Hobbs his Leviathan p 18 Alexander Ross saith the Instruments of Satan brought such abominable blasphemies heresies errors and absurd opinions among the people more in these few years than were all the time hitherto since christianity was imbraced which is a shreud suspicion if not an infallible proof that the great Antichrist is come amongst us CHAP. III. That the Antichrist is no single Person but a Collected Multitude of men Who those men might be Of the Grand Apostasie whereof the Apostle speaketh that made way and opened the Door wide for the Antichrist to enter in That it is neither the Apostacy of the Prime Hereticks nor of the East Churches nor of the Roman Church but of some purely Reformed Particular Church supposed to be and demanded if it be not the Church of Great Brittain BUT here it is a great Question among the Learned Whether the Antichrist be one sing le Person or else a multitude of men either succeeding one another or coll●cted together whether this Great Antichrist be one single and singular Person or a certain Polity Kingdom or Multitude of men Hyperius saith Est multitudo aliqua diversi sibi invicem succedentes qui unum quodammodo Antichristi vastum corpus efficiunt It is a multitude of men succeeding one another which after a sort do all make up the vast Body of the Antichrist and so saith Tilenus and all those that would have the Pope to be the Antichrist Brightman saith the Antichrist must be understood to be a wicked Kingdom Rule or Dominion which he affirmeth to be not the Kingdom of Ingland which in his time indeed could not be but the Papacy the Roman Hierarchy and the Rule and Dominion of the Pope Tilenus exeg de Antichristo p. 9. Achor is 66. in Italy France Spain or wheresoever his Jurisdiction reacheth and Mr. Mede Mr. Potter and

world and therefore to encourage all the Christians to be constant in their Profession unto their death it was requisite to use all the Eulogies and praises that might well and rightly be given especially in the funeral Orations of the Martyrs unto those holy men that had so manfully fought the good fight of faith and so christianly died for the defence of the Gospel of Christ when as the contrary would have been a great disheartening of the weak Christians but these Eulogies a spur to inflame them to all readiness to undergo the like Martyrdome rather than to start aside from their Christian profession Neither do I see how those Eulogies and praises that these Fathers gave unto the Martyrs are any wayes contrary to the truth of our faith or the Word of God because we know that as the Prophet saith Psalm 116.15 right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints and no doubt but he hath some love and care of their dead bodies to preserve them from that spirit of malice and contempt that the Devil and his wicked assassinates bear against them and therefore as he preserved all that were in the ship for S. Paul's sake Act. 27.24 so he may be pleased to preserve others his servants with the preservation he extendeth and would have shewed to the bodies of his Saints and especially of his holy Martyrs the which he would have no wayes to be abused as the Prophet sheweth and doth exceedingly complain of them that give the dead bodies of Gods servants to be meat unto the fowles of the air Psal 79.2 and the flesh of his Saints to the beasts of the field as now I have seen it in many places how the hogs are rooting in their graves and the dogs gnawing the bones of Gods servants That the aforesaid Errors make not this Apostasie And I say that although the Roman Church hath failed in the Premises and erred in the points aforenamed yet all that doth not make this grand apostasie which the Apostle here speaketh of Reason 1 1. Because here in the Roman Church we finde no rebellion against their Governors but qui ducunt eam seducunt eam the leaders of that Church deceive the Church and so her apostasie is not so odious but the more excusable and the less abominable in the sight of God Reason 2 2. Because these Errors and Superstitions aforenamed and the like have only defaced but not nullified bespotted and polluted but not destroyed that Church which is now like unto a false woman that hath played the whore but is not divorced nor run away from her husband That the Church of Rome holdeth all the foundation and preservation of the Christian Religion for so long as they profess to believe as the three authentick Creeds that is the Apostles Creed the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed teach us and use the Lords Prayer and publish the ten Commandements and receive the two Gospel Sacraments that is Baptisme and the Lords Supper and retain the wholesome form and reverent manner of Divine worship and service of God with the rightly authorized and lawfully called Pastors and Governors and a dutifull submission to the established Discipline of the Church which things are both the foundation and preservation of the Christian Religion and which they say are all observed and performed in the Roman Church I believe no good Christian can deny her to be a true Church though not a pure Church of God because that while the foundation remaineth sure and undigged up all superstructures of wood hay stubble doth not evert and overthrow the whole edifice but is rather a going beyond Eccl. 7.16 17. than a going back from the faith of Christ like the being too righteous and not too wicked as Solomon speaketh that is the being too precise and making more sinnes than ever the Law of God made and not too prophane and so exceeding in the works of supererrogation and observing many other commandments of men besides the commandments of God Mr Mede P. 612. just as the precise Pharisees required the people to do in the time of Christ and Mr. Mede resolves Mr. Hartlib that the Roman Church hath not erred in the fundamental Articles of the Faith but in the assumentis which they added unto the foundation so likewise D. Crakenthorp B. Hall and most of our best Divines are of the same minde And therefore questionless the Church of Rome cannot be guilty of this grand rebellion and Apostasie here spoken of And 4. 4. Nor the falling away of the Protestants from the Church of Rome As the African and Afiatick Churches of the East under the Greek Patriarchs and the Europaean Churches of the West under the Pope of Rome are not liable to this grand Apostasie so neither can the Church of Rome nor any other Master of that Church say and say truly that the falling away of Luther Calvin Beza and the rest of the Protestants and protestant Churches from the Roman errors and superstitions and from their obedience to that Church can be this falling away and apostasie here spoken of because we with them and they with us do hold and profess the same 3 authentick Creeds that do contain the sum and substance of our Christian Faith and are agreeing in all or at least in most of the essential and fundamental points of the Christian Religion and the differences betwixt us in the most points that are of moment are not so capital but that for the most part a charitable construction and a right distinction might well and fairly reconcile most of them especially as they are held by the best Interpreters of the Scripture in that Church and by the most temperate and soberest Divines of our Church because as the Apostle saith charity is kinde and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 charity is not rash that is in her judgment no more than in her actions 1 Cor. 13. but beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things and endureth all things and the want of this divine grace of Charity maketh those faults that are indeed but mole-hils to appear like mountains and this want of charity is too too common a fault both among the popish and the Protestant writers which doth make the breach wider and the differences to seem far greater and far worse than indeed they are which made me often to pray that God would send more love betwixt us and suffer not the devil to send so much misprision and distaste betwixt us as there is Question And now the foresaid Churches being freed from being liable to this apostasie the question is What Church can be said to be found guilty of it What Church is guilty of this Apostacy and instead of answering it it is now demanded If this now present Church of great Britain be not liable to this charge of a grand Rebellion and apostasie such as the Apostle speaketh

that feareth not his King cannot be truly said to fear God Prov. 24.21 So the Parliament said We will have no more Kings but we will be as our Neighbour Nation is a Free State and a Commonwealth But for all this their saying That they will have no King it is demanded If these men proved not apt Schollars of those dissembling Jews and imitate those their good Masters to a hair for as those Jews said We will have no King that is no Kingdom Gods appointment or no lawful King that hath a just right and title unto his Kingdom yet if you look but two Chapters before you shall find how God complaineth they had set up Kings Hos 8.4 but not by him and this was first in their intention before they rejected their lawfull King that God had set over them but last in the execution because the Old King must be first ejected before any new Kings can be established So have nor the Parliament when they beheaded their Old King of Gods appointment and their lawful King without question made themselves new kings over Gods people I do not say Usurping Kings that had no right nor tyrannical Kings that did no right unto the people but as the Prophet saith of the Jews so it is questioned if the Parliament have not set up Princes yea such Princes as were but Bankrupts Shooe-makers and Taylers Drapers and Tinkers Carters and Coblers and the like Scum of men of no learning Job 30.1 of no breeding of no bloud and of no worth but such as Job describeth whom the ancient Gentry and Nobility of this Land would have disdained to have set with the dogs of their flocks and made these or such as these to be Rulers in all Lands the Justices of the peace that as the Prophet saith the Jewish Rulers would sell the poor for a pair of shooes so would these younger brethren that are to make their Fortunes for a Print of Butter or a groars-worth of eggs sell Justice and betray the right of their poor Neighbours Such Rulers and such Princes as no people in any Country would have endured the like to Lord it over them but those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Silly souls and poor spirited men whose hearts and courages the Lord hath taken from them and given up their best nobility and Gentry to be quite befooled besotted and bafled by such Baffoons when he intendeth to plague that Nation and utterly to lay all their glory and honour in the dust even as the Poet elegantly sheweth Hoc placet O superi Lucan Pharsal l. 1. cum vobis vertere cuncta Propositum nostris erroribus addere crimen Thus it pleaseth God when for their sins he intends to plague and to end the glory of any people to blind them so that they commit error upon error adding thirst unto drunkenness basenese unto their beastliness and Pharaoh-like harden their hearts in their follies that they cannot do what is honourable and what they ought untill they be destroyed and made Subjects to those that were their Servants But God tels the Jews that those new Kings of their own election were no Kings of his setting up nor any Princes of his making but of their own establishment Hos 8.4 Usurping Kings no Kings of Gods making and so meer Usurpers through the pride of their hearts and the violence of their hands such as Athalia was among that people and some others of our former Kings That I could name of this Land and therefore the Author of the Treatise of Usurpation saith That the people of any Nation do owe unto such Usurpers such Kings of their own setting up neither reverence nor obedience nor can any Officer with a safe conscience act under them Though I say not this which is true to deny that obedience to any Usurpers or to the unworthiest of our Rulers which may stand with Gods Word and may be yielded unto them without sin because I w●●ld have no weak people stirred up to make an insurrection against their powerful Governours but when God that casteth down one and raiseth up another takes away the right of our former Princes and Rulers and suffereth others how mean or how base soever they be to step into their places and to sit upon the thrones of Majesty and the seats of Justice howsoever this be come to pass Deo permittente my advice is to all private men to rest themselves contented for the present and as the Apostle saith to study to be quiet and for peace and quietness sake to think it far better to obey than to rebel and to leave all things to Gods disposing Dan. 2.21 Rom. 8.28 2. The Antichrist will exalt himself above the Bishops qui disponit omnia suaviter and will set all things right in his good time and as S. Paul saith Worketh all things together for the best to them that love him 2. The Apostle tells us That as the Antichrist will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and exalter of himself above every one that is called God and that is principally as I shewed to you above his King because that in the first place the King is chiefly termed God so he will likewise be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lifter up of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is supra numen as Tremellius reads it or adversus numen as Beza renders it above all that is worshipped saith our last and the Geneva Translation and the meaning is in few words that the Antichrist will exalt himself above the Bishops and the Ecclesiastical Governours of the Church as well as above the King wich is the civil Governour of the Commonwealth for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word which the Apostle useth coming from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is read in prophane Authors as Pasor saith and signifieth colere that is religiously to worship or the thing that we worship for Religion sake from whence a Proselite or a religious man is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pious and religious person and all sacred and holy things that are dedicated and consecrated for Divine Service are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Religious things or things that appertain to Religion which made Beza and Tremellius to translate it Numen which appertaineth to God doth sufficiently make it plain and manifest that the Apostle meaneth here not the Emperour nor any other King or civil Magistrate which had formerly exprest under the name of God as some Interpreters without reason would have it because that it is said Act. 27.1 that S. Paul was delivered to Julius that was a Centurion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Augustus Band saith our Translation whereas it should have been translated of the Band of Augusta That by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostle meaneth the spiritual Governors of the Church or Augusta's band which was the wife of Casar and was stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉