posse in the last dayes c. Conceits are taken up by divers in our times upon this place as if visions and prophetick gifts and I know not what should bee powred upon men toward the end of the world misconstruing the phrase of the last dayes to meane the later end of the world whereas it meaneth the last dayes of the Jewes world or state and misconceiving the terme the great and terrible day of the Lord to meane the day of judgement whereas it meaneth nothing else but the day of Jerusalems destruction Were I then to Chronicle these 1000. yeares in the Text I should begin them from this date but I shall not bee punctuall to determine that at this time Begin them whether you will either there when the Gentiles onely began to bee the Church or begin them when first the Gospel came among the Gentiles either by Peter to Cornelius or by Paul to the westerne parts of the world for the publishing of the Gospel to the heathen was the binding the devill that hee should no more deceive the nations begin at whether date you will it is easie to cast where the 1000. yeares end according to your choice of their beginning Fiftly from either beginning the end of them will fall in the very pitch of the Kingdome of Antichrist as I may so call it when now the world began to be in deepest darkenes again to become heathenish anew and then is Satan in justice loosed againe and deceiveth the nations a fresh by Antichrist and for a season the world becomes no better then the old heathens for Ignorance and Idolatry Sixtly in this thousand yeares space persecution haunted the Church in a most miserable extremity partly by the Heathen Emperours partly by Antichrist when hee appeared and many thousands were put to death for the witnesse of Jesus and for the word of God and which neither worshipped the beast of the Empire nor his Image Antichrist when hee was risen up and these though they were miserably tortured and slaughtered in regard of the body yet their soules reigned with Christ and were in happinesse And the Evangelist in the fourth Verse speaketh but in the tenor that Daniel doth in his twelfth Chapter and second Verse where treating of the miserable afflictions to bee caused by Antiochus hee comforteth those that should fall under them with assurance of the resurrection and eternall felicitie So the Apocalyptique here being to discourse of the persecution that should befall by Rome first heathenish and then Papall hee solaceth and incourageth all chose that should suffer it with this assurance that though their bodies should be destroyed yet their soules should reigne with Christ and as for the others that worshipped the Beast and his Image they never obtained the first resurrection of recovering out of their heathenish and blind estate into the imbracing of the light but they continued dead in ignorance and error till even after these thousand yeares and then the world slipped into the darknesse and delusions of Antichrist as into heathenisme again And so I have given you the sense of this place and as I conceive the very sense of the holy Ghost If I have been a little overlong in it it is but according as the difficulty of the thing it selfe requires and I hope you will pardon mee Before I come to take up the words I cannot but observe this to you from what hath been spoken last namely that Errour and deceivednesse in the things of God is a verier devill and more dangerous then open persecution For the Text accounts the Devill bound when hee is tied up from deceiving though hee bee at liberty for persecuting I do but name this here I shall have occasion to make use of it hereafter And now in the Text you may observe two things first a description of Christ and a description of the Devill and secondly a mastery of Christ over the Devill The description of Christ in the first Verse a description of the Devill in the second and the mastery of Christ over the Devill in the conjunction of both I might observe many things out of the words in either verse but I shall onely take up that which both the Verses conjoyned doe mainely and clearely hold out unto us and that is That bee the Devill never so devillish Christ hath power to over-power him It is worth your observation that the Text seemeth to bee at strife with it selfe whether to set out the Devill in his devilishnesse or Christs power over him in the higher expressions for as on the one hand it hath set out the Devill in five of his attributes if I may so call them as that hee is a Dragon a Serpent an old Serpent the Devill Satan so in as many termes on the other hand hath it set out Christs power and victory over him namely that he layes hold on him binds him casts him into the bottomlesse pit shuts him up seales him up for a thousand yeares as if it purposely intended to proclaime this to us which I cannot but repeate againe That bee the Devill never so devilish Christ hath power to overpower him The truth of this doctrine was the very first thing that was held out in the world after sinne came into it and as soone as the Devill had shewed his devilishnesse in the overthrow of Adam the Lord proclaimes the power of Christ to conquer the devill and that before ever any censure or sentence bee passed upon Adam Gen. 3. 15. And this truth shall bee one of the last things that shall bee held out in the world when the devill shall receive the reward of all his devilishnesse when hee his Angels and his instruments shall receive this sentence from him Goe yet cursed c. And as for the space betwixt these two periods or from the beginning of the world to the end of it the Scripture is so full of testimonies and the world so full of experiences of Christs power and mastery over the Devill that it is needlesse to prove it the Devill himselfe dare not deny it Matth. 8. 29. I shall confine my discourse upon this subject unto these particulars Namely to shew you how the power of Christ meets with the Devill to master him first in the utmost evilnesse of his nature as hee is a Serpent Secondly in the utmost vigour of his power as hee is a Dragon the greatest of Serpents thirdly in the utmost practise of his subtiltie for hee is an old Serpent and fourthly in the utmost exercise of his malice for he is a Devill and lastly in the utmost violence of his cruelty for hee is Satan the utmost of any of these the utmost of all these either in himselfe or in his instruments or members all the Devills in hell all the wicked on earth Christ is too big for them hee can hee doth master quell and conquer them at his pleasure The first thing to bee
such an opinion as this could bee so swallowed downe and entertained as I saw it was I say such an opinion as this That when Antichrist is destroyed the Jewes shall bee called their calling shall bee home to the land of Canaan for let mee take up all the shreds of this opinion that I find scattered in the writings of the abetters of it that Christ shall have a glorious reigne here upon earth that himselfe shall personally and visibly dwell here among his Saints that this glorious time shall last a thousand yeares that Satan all this while shall bee bound so that there shall not bee the least disturbance or trouble in the Church but all prosperity and Sunshine That these thousand yeares are that that is called the day of judgement that this day of judgement of a thousand yeares long shall begin with a bodily resurrection of the martyrs onely and shall conclude with the resurrection of all the dead and the beginning of these thousand yeares is conceived by some to bee but about one and twenty yeares off Thus the exposition of this place according to that opinion I shall not trouble nor tire your patience with the examination of the truth of these particulars I shall onely lay before you six groundlesse and mistaken principles as I conceive from whence I apprehend this exposition and opinion to have risen and referre them to your owne censure and judgement three from this Chapter that is before us and three from other places in the Scripture First the maintainers of this opinion seeme not to have taken proper and serious notice of one phrase in this Chapter which the holy Ghost hath twice mentioned that it might bee be sure to bee taken notice of and that is that Satan is bound for a thousand yeares that hee should not deceive the nations for so it is expressed in plaine tearmes in the third verse upon his binding so is it hinted and intimated in the eighth verse upon his loosing now this opinion of the Millenaries speakes much of Satans binding so that there shall be no persecution nor offensivenesse in the glorious Church they dreame of but all peace and happinesse and tranquillitie and glory whereas this prophesie speakes of no such matter It speakes not a word of Satans binding that hee should not persecute the Church but it speakes of Satans binding that hee should not deceive the nations And how vast a difference there is betwixt persecuting and deceiving and betwixt the Church and the nations may bee referred to any one to judge And the missing to observe pressely this phrase and this difference is to misse of the very key that letteth in to the understanding of this prophecy Secondly as this doubled phrase is little observed so another doubled one is much observed but as much misinterpreted and that is of the first resurrection of which there is mention in the fifth and the sixth verses For though they will not deny the Apocalyptick to speake in borrowed phrases and figurative speeches all along his booke hither yet here they will have him to speake nakedly and literally without any such borrowing and to meane the very bodily rising of the martyrs from the dead whereas in all this Chapter there is not one word of their bodies arising but of their soules living nor one word of their living on earth but of their raigning with Christ Thirdly they conceive that the very method and place of this Chapter in which it lies doth inferre their glosse and interpretation for that mention being made of the ruine of Antichrist in the next Chapters before and of Christs Kingdome for these 1000. yeares so immediatly after in this they thinke it must not bee denyed that these 1000. yeares must not bee begun till Antichrist bee ruined whereas the method of the Evangelist if it bee pressely followed will appeare of a cleane differing scope For as Moses in the booke of Exodus hath three times described the fabrick and fashion of the Jewish Tabernacle in the patterne in the making and in the setting up and hath made a fourth summary of all the materialls that went to the making of it though they were named in the other Even so hath the Evangelish done by the description of the Christian Church in this booke From the beginning of the fourth Chapter to the end of the eleventh hee hath described its state and persecution but the persecutor not named From the beginning of the twelfth Chapter to the end of the nineteenth hee hath described its state and persecution and pointed the persecutor out in this Chapter hee summes up in briefe what hee had spoken in the two other parts at large and in the two Chapters following hee sets his Tabernacle up in her perfection and describes the Church in her holinesse and communion and participation of Christ It is not proper for this time and place to insist upon the proofe and confirmation of this to bee the Evangeliffs meaning and method which might clearly bee done I referre it to your owne thoughts and consideration And as the parties that wee are dealing withall doe thus mistake and misconstrue upon this Chapter so doe they also upon other places of the Scripture For fourthly they hold that Rome is the fourth beast or monarchy or kingdome in Daniel and because that Daniel hath told in his second and seventh Chapters that after the destruction of the fourth beast or kingdome Christs glorious kingdome shall bee set up they therefore imagine that this kingdome of Christ is yet to come and yet shall not come till Antichrist shall bee destroyed which they hold to bee a part of the fourth monarchy whereas to let passe divers other reasons which might sufficiently prove the contrary Daniel himselfe in his seventh Chapter at the eleventh and twelfth Verses does show most plainely that it is impossible that the fourth beast should meane the Romans for hee there telleth expressely that even when the fourth beast was slaine and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame the rest of the beasts had indeed their dominion taken away but yet their lives were prolonged Now what signe of life shall bee to bee found of the other three Monarchies when Antichrist shall bee destroyed it is utterly unimaginable to apprehend Fiftly and which is much agreeable to the former they conceive that Daniel prophecieth of Antichrist of whom hee speaketh not one word nor treateth of any particular times or stories of the Gospel but onely holdeth out that gerall prophecy which all the Prophets did with one consent of the calling of the Gentiles and of Christs glorious kingdome among them in the Gospell For it is a groundworke necessary to bee laid by him that will make any thing of the booke of Daniel and of the Revelation That where Daniel endeth John beginneth and goeth no further back and where John beginneth Daniel endeth and goeth no further forward For Daniel sheweth the state
never turne again from God to delight in sinne then certainly on the contrary to behold the devil in his colours and complexion would so fill the will with the abhorring and detestation of him that it would not readily turne againe to the devill to forsake God And therefore if I were to make a threefold wish as Austen once did I cannot tell what to wish for to more profit and advantage then to know God as hee is the devill as hee is and our selves what wee are But to pursue what wee are about As you have seene the evilnesse of the Devils nature especially in these two particulars in the incorrigible frowardnesse of his will and the irrecoverable cursednesse of his condition So now looke how the power of Christ meets with him and over powers him for all this his crooked and cursed disposition And this is considerable also in two particulars First in that though the will of the devill bee thus desperately and precipitately bent upon evill yet Christ doth so overpower him as that hee produceth good out of the devils actions to his owne people Can any good thing come out of Nazareth much more can any good thing from the devill can any bring a cleane thing out of an uncleane not one but one Hee that brought light out of darknesse at the beginning fire out of water at the sacrifice of Elias sight out of blind eyes stopt up with clay the same can bring good out of evill good to his people even out of the wickednesse of the devill by that mighty working whereby hee is able to subdue all things even the devill to himselfe I might bee copious in shewing what good the Lord produceth out of the devils temptations practised by himselfe what good out of the devils persecutions practised by his instruments even honey for Samson out of the very carcasse of the devouring Lion and meat for Elias out of the mouth of the carion Raven I might shew you how Adam had a better condition Job a better estate Joshua the high Priest better cloaths gotten out even of the assaults of the devill I might shew you what carefulnesse is wrought in the people of God what clearing of themselves yea what indignation yea what feare yea what vehement desire yea what zeale yea what holy revenge as the Apostle speakes in another case and all this even from the very devils temptations I might shew you how the Church hath beene increased the Gospel propagated God glorified Atheists converted and the enemies confounded even by the devils persecution But I need not to goe farre for examples and experiences in this kind looke at home in these times and distractions where the devill is so busie and as we may sadly see him raging and let loose in these dolefull warres so may wee as visibly see Christ doing good to this poore kingdome out of this his evill For First how many rotten hearts and how many rotten members hath the devill or God rather out of the devils activitie discovered in this nation in these troubles which like a moth and corruption were devouring a poore kingdome and shee knew not who hurt her What Junctoes of hell have beene found out what plots discovered what Cabinets of letters detected what actions described what hearts anatomized Popery Prerogative Protestations Plotters Prelates all come to light and found desperate and devilish and all this done by the great businesse of the devill God overpowering him and making him to prove a tel-tale of his own counsels and as it were a false brother to his owne hell and fraternity Secondly how have these troubles beaten men and the kingdome out of their fooleries and superstitions their trumperies and ceremonies customes and traditions which how hard it would have been to have got off from them if they had not beene thus brayed in this morter the great tenaciousnesse of them with divers even in this morter is evidence sufficient This drosse would never have beene got away if it had not passed such a furnace and our Israel would never have shaken hands with Egyptian Idolatry if it had not beene beaten out of it by Egyptian affliction So that let me take up the manner of speech of our Saviour with some inversion Oh England England Satan hath desired to winnow thee as wheate and hee hath winnowed away a world of his owne chaffe Thirdly how many prophane and ungodly wretches hath this warre cut off Papists Atheists Epicures Devills incarnate that would not onely have layen in the way as so much rubbish to hinder the worke of the Temple but that would have proved Sanballats Tobiahs Geshems and such Samaritans utterly to oppose it with all their might It is a sad thing to see so many of Israel perish in the matter of Baal Peor yet there is this comfort in it that the entring into the land of promise will bee the speedier when these untowardly and ungratious ones are taken a way Fourthly how many prayers and petitions at the throne of grace hath hee pressed out in these extremities the foole making a whip for his owne back for so prayer is stiled flagellum Diabolo and helping forward his owne destruction And thus all things even the very evilnesse of the Devill himselfe worke for the good of Gods people and hee that would have run Phereus thorough cures his impostume and kils him not and all through the overpowering power of Christ who is able to subdue all things unto himselfe and doth dispose all things for the good of his Secondly Christs mighty power meets with this evilnesse of the Devils nature and overpowers it when hee delivers men out of the very same evilnesse of nature and works it out of them by the work of grace and renewing and brings them to become new creatures Wee have heard a sad story of the dolefull nature and constitution of the Devill wee may say each one to himselfe as Nathan once to David by thy naturall condition thou art the same As one Blackmore may see his complexion in another Blackmores face so may wee our owne nature in the devils he is our father by nature we as like him as we may looke and the two Sosiaes in the Comedie were not liker one to another then we to him in our originall temper God at the first made us like himself but our degeneration hath made us so like to Satan that all the evilnesse perversnesse cursednesse that wee heare or read of of the Devill is all our own and who shall deliver us from this body of death I thanke God through Jesus Christ our Lord Hee hath a power that can pull and redeeme us out of this estate and surely this power is not small And therefore the Apostle speaking of this worke wrought upon a poore soule hee cals it the exceeding greatnesse of his power to them that beleeve Ephes. 1. 19. 1. This is the next worke of wonder and power to the worke of
as wee desire our cries and prayers might meet this day in the eares of the Lord what sad complaynings lamentings grievings and cryings out would come almost from all parts and places in your owne quarters I will not take upon mee to particularize in any onely might I have but the quarter of that time and patience at your barre that I have here and but some preparation for it as I had for this exercise to do the message of mine owne Country as I now do the message of the Lord I doubt I could tell you so sad a story as would make your eares to tingle It is well observed by Divines that though God for mans redemption could have conquered the devill by power yet did hee rather choose to doe it by justice Hee that spake the word and brought light out of darknesse and the world out of nothing could by the same powerfull word have commanded mankind out of the jawes of the devill and it had beene effected but his wisedome rather chose that his owne Sonne should take flesh performe the Law and suffer death and so that the devill should bee conquered by very justice and not onely his power quelled but his mouth stopt This is the way for you to conquer and no way like it A little execution of justice is of more victoriousnesse then a great deale of military preparation the stoning of one Achab doth more good toward the taking of Ai then three thousand trained men could doe By this way must you either quell and conquer this devill of injuriousnesse and oppression or hee will spoyle your cause hee will overthrow your armies And you cannot get so much ground abroad as this will lose you ground at home if it bee not prevented I doe most humbly recommend it to your most serious thoughts and conclude this matter in the phrase of the Prophet Do judgment and justice judge the cause of the poore and needy of the wronged and oppressed and then may you eate and drinke and prosper and it will bee well with you and with your cause as Jer. 22. 15. But secondly there is yet a second devill that undoes us and worse if worse may bee a white devill that changeth himselfe into an angel of light and so destroyeth the more by how much hee is suspected the lesse and that is erroneousnesse in opinion too common too violent among us at this day I told you erewhile that error and deceivednesse in the things of God is a verier devill and more dangerous then open persecution and here I cannot but take it up againe And I may give you some arguments to prove it as 1. I may use the stile of our Saviour Feare not that devill that can kill the body but when hee hath done that can doe no more but feare that devill that can cast both soule and body into hell persecution can onely destroy the body but error destroyes both body and soule 2. I beleeve that persecution never destroyed a Church since the world stood I am sure errours have done divers Nay I question whether corruption in manners can nullifie the being of a Church I am sure corruption in doctrine hath done The seven Churches of Asia though some of them were exceedingly corrupt in point of conversation and so corrupt that they had left and lost their first love yet are they all golden candlesticks because for the generall they retained the puritie of doctrine The open persecution of our enemies hath not nor cannot doe that destruction and mischiefe to us that errours doe and have done among us and my heart doth never sinke so much in feare of our cause as when I consider the growth of these in the midst of us for these threaten ruine to the very being of the Church and of Religion How sad and dolefull a thing is it to consider and for Gods sake take it seriously to heart that so glorious a Church as this was but a while agoe should now bee so overgrowne with these cursed weeds as it is and is more and more every day as is no reformed Church under heaven That God should be so blasphemed his truth so polluted the morall Law so despised repentance and begging pardon for sinne so pleaded against the immortality of the soule written against dutie cried downe and I know not what so cryed up as is in the erroneous opinions that are among us what a misery is this in the midst of our other miseries A Canker a Gangrene hath seised upon the land and devours unsensibly but it devours desperately and devillishly and Aut tu illum aut ille te either bind this devill or this devill will have all in his power and kingdome of darknesse before wee are aware How hee gets ground and growes and devours and destroyes who is there that sees not and for Siont sake who can hold his peace Soules lie ableeding by this as well as bodies by the enemy the Church is undone by this as the land by them this spoyles our truth as they doe our peace and when these are gone whither shall we goe I shall not take upon mee to bee your director or instructor for the manner or meanes of stopping of this mischiefe that it grow no further and for the suppressing of that growth which it hath already made it is above my skill your wisedome will best contrive that but I shall humbly crave leave to bee your remembrancer of some thing that may tend unto it 1. There is great talke of and pleading for libertie of conscience for men to doe in matters of Religion as Israel did in the book of Judges whatsoever seemeth good in their owne eyes and how that proved there there are sad stories that relate I shall not goe about to determine the question whether the conscience may bee bound or not though for mine owne satisfaction I am resolved it may and do hold it a truer point in divinitie that errans conscientia liganda then ligat but certainly the devill in the conscience may be nay he must be bound or else you act not according to that vigour that Christ hath put into your hands nor according to that exactnesse that Christ requireth at your hands It is true indeed which is so much talked of that Christ alone must reigne in the conscience but it is as true also that hee doth so by the power that he hath put into the hands of the magistrate as well as by his word and spirit 2. I hope you will find some time among your serious imployments to thinke of a review and survey of the translation of the Bible certainly that might bee a worke which might very well befit a reformation and which would very much redound to your honour It was the course of Nehemiah when hee was reforming that hee caused not the Law onely to bee read and the sense given but also caused the people to understand the reading Neb. 8. 8. And certainly it would not bee the least advantage that you might doe to the three nations if not the greatest if they by your care and meanes might come to understand the proper and genuine reading of the Scripture by an exact vigorous and lively translation I hope I say it againe you will find some time to set a foot so needfull a worke and now you are about the purging of the Temple you will looke into the Oracle if there bee any thing a misse there and remove it 3. I shall not beg of you to cherish learning for that hath no enemie but ignorant ones nor shall I beg that you would cherish a learned ministery for that may challenge cherishing but I beseech you take care that none intrude upon the ministry or to preach the word that have not a calling to it and some competent abilitie for it This is a maine well-head from whence flow all the errors that are among us when mechanicks unlettered and ignorant men will take upon them to bee preachers and to instruct others when they need teaching themselves and this if it bee not stopped wil overflow all with a puddle of errours and heresie you have made good orders for the stopping and preventing of this but execution is all 4. I beseech you hasten the setling of the Church These weeds grow while government groweth not I rejoyce to see what you have done in platforming Classes and Presbyteries and I verily and cordially beleeve it is according to the patterne in the mount The Lord speed and prosper you in working up the furniture for this fabrick Especially hee bee your director in the two great things that are now under your agitation Church-power and suspension from the Sacrament I am most unable to hold out to you any thing that may direct you in matters of such weight And if my judgement were any thing yet should I bee sparing to shew it because I must confesse that about these matters I differ in judgement from the generality of Divines and I hold it not any happines to be singular in opinion nor doe I hold these to bee times to broach differences I shall ever follow you with my desires and prayers and write the successe of the good hand of our God upon you FINIS Mr. Mede in loc. Vid. Marlorat in loc. Brightman Exod 25. c. and 36. c. and 40. Exod. 35. Dan. 10. 11. Iohn 21. 20. Doct. Doct. Aquin. part 1. quaest. 49. Art 3. Iude vers. 12. Luk 10. 30. Aquin. part 1. qu. 64. art 2. 2 Cor. 7. 11. 1 King 1. 11. 18.