Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	aaron_n	authority_n	moses_n	128	3	7.6579	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

boasting and bragging or prae se ferens as Beza translates it pretending that he is God or as Tremellius saith ostentet seipsum ac si Deus esset he will carry himself as if he were a God that is in Gods stead the true King to rule the people and the right Bishop to govern the Church of Christ or That the Antichrist will wholly direct the Clergy and dispose of all things in the Church and about the service of God as some do read it he would be esteemed and taken tanquam sit Deus for such a supream Monarch and chief Governor over Gods Church as God said unto Moses he should be to Aaron his God to direct him in all the service of the Tabernacle and the whole worship of God so will the Antichrist be such a God to order direct and dispose of all the worship of God and how all the Clergie in order and without order should behave and carry themselves in the whole service of the Church which I take to be the true meaning of the Apostle in this place For this shewing himself or bragging that he is God is not to be understood that he would have himself believed to be the true and everliving God and worshiped with divine worship as the Historians tell us Alexander Antigonus Augustus Caligula Domician and divers others of the Caesars and Emperors were transported to that height of pride and ambition as believing themselves to be more than men to require the people their subjects to take them for Jupiter Apollo or some other of those anciently esteemed Gods and to ascribe the honor and worship that was usually given to those Gods unto themselves as Altars Sacrifices and the like whereof Virgil speaking of Augustus saith Virgilius eglog 1. Illius aram Saepe tener nostris ab ovilibus imbuet agnus And Horace also saith Horatius epist. l. 2. Jurandásque tuum per nomen ponimus aras But the meaning of the Apostle is that this man of sin the Antichrist will bragge and boast unto the people that he is all for God and for the honor and service of God and therefore sits in the temple of God to set out the right directory of serving God that so God through him and by his only means and endeavors might be rightly served and worshipped according to his directory as the Mahometans worship Mahomet according to his Alcoran and we formerly worshipped God according to the form prescribed unto us by our Governors in the book of Common-prayer and so he sheweth that he is God that is most godly and so a God by the participation of the godliness and holiness of God which exposition doth most fitly agree with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what he sheweth himself to be which is the rediest way to deceive the people And whether the long Parliament hath not usurped this ecclesiastical power and jurisdiction over all the holy things Let the Reader judge whether this be not fulfilled in the long Parliament and to set forth the sole Directory of Gods service tanquam sit Deus as if they alone had Aarons Office to order all the other Priests and Levites or had the spirit of S. Paul infallibly to direct the Church of Christ as well as Moses his Authority and the power of a King to rule the people Let the Parishes and people of God that have none other form of Gods service but what the Parliament Preachers and the observers of their Directory do use be the Judges both of what service and of what Doctrine is brought unto them I make small account though I will not pass it unsaluted of that Observation which some men have made that the Parliament House where the members of the long Parliament sate Arise Evans in his Voice from heaven was a Chappel consecrated by King Edward the 3. to be the Temple of God as appeareth by many Records because many other Parliaments have sate in that Chappel and yet not any of them all have usurped this power to be the supream disposers and directors of all the holy service of God the Commanders of all the Bishops and Priests of the most high God how to do his service and what service should be done unto him and to make themselves the sole Possessors the right owners to dispose sell or give all the Revenues lands states Tythes and offerings of the Church as it is said the Antichrist would do and which he may no better nor so well do as Scyrus and Procrustes the two vilest robbers that we read of could take thy purse and all thy mony by the High-way side And here also I cannot omit to observe Note the word fit in the temple that the Apostle saith that the man of sin shall not stand but sit in the Temple of God where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifieth to fit as where it is said that Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 4.6 and 20.12 sate by the well and so the two Angells were seen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sitting in white raiments is to be distinguished from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which betokeneth and signifieth collocare to place or to set a thing in some place as it is where the Apostle saith if you have judgments of things pertaining to this life 1 Cor. 6.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 set such or place them to judg who are least esteemed in the Church and so where it is said that the Disciples brought the Asse and the Colt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as it is in some Copies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they set him Matth 21.7 or placed him thereon And therefore it is rightly concluded by Maresius that this sitting in the Temple of God is ill applyed by Grotius to Caius Caligula his causing of his Statue to be placed in the Temple at Hierusalem but it may most properly signifie the sitting of the Parliament Let the Reader judge of this or the like society of men in that place where they intend to acquiesce and rest themselves whether the place be physical or Metaphysical And whether the Parliament resolved not only to stand in that their dignity and Authority for a while or intended to sit and acquiesce and continue themselves and their Successors for ever in the Parliament-House and in the Temple of God to govern the Church of God as God themselves know best I will not judge of their Intention CHAP. VI. That the Antichrist is a great Professor of Religion and a seeming Saint That he belyeth his Profession and is indeed the greatest Hypocrite in the world What the great Lye of the Antichrist is What 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth What it is to deny Jesus to be the Christ And how the Father and the Son may be denied two manner of waies 2. THough I might go on

the Civill State decayed and the Power of the Emperors was so usurped and transferred unto the Pope because this Power which they now unjustly exercise was the just Power of the Emperor and of other Kings whom the Pope and his Cardinalls subjected Volater l 22. Authropolog in Alexand. 3. Hoveden Math. Paris in Reg. Joh. ursburgens in Fred. 1. as the Histories do relate unto themselves Sol. I answer that the Holy Ghost meaneth not that this second Beast took away and usurped the Power and Authority of the first Beast but did all Acts and exercised all his jurisdiction and his function by vertue of the power and under the protection and the countenance that he received by and from the authority of the first beast as the Sheriff exerciseth the power of the King for the service of the King for so the words do plainly intimate that this two horned Beast exercised the Power of the former beast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the presence of him or before him that is for the service and to the use and behoofe of the former Beast because that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In conspectu Jehovae saith Tremelius 1 Sam. 2.18 is here equivalent to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the dative case as when it is said that Samuell was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ministring in the presence of the Lord or before the Lord it signifieth as it is also expressed Cap. 3. 1. that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ministring to the Lord so this second Beast exercised all the Power of the first Beast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the use service and setting forward the practises and designes of the first Beast and this appeareth very cleare from the words immediately following in that this second Beast causeth the Earth and them that dwell therein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cap. 13.12 that they should worship the first Beast that is not to ascribe any Divine Honor but to submit themselves to obey and to serve and assist the first Beast And we know the Pope and his Cardinalls and so all the Roman Clergy That the Bishop of Rome and his Clergy cannot be meant by the second Beast cause all the Rulers of the Earth and all the Iuhabitants thereof to worship Honour and serve themselves as those that are most worthy of Honour for the care that they take to save the soules of the people rather and before the other Beast that is the Civill Magistrate which careth onely for our Temporall estates and the things of this present life and therefore deserves not so much worship as the other that by the Testimony of the Apostle are worthyer of double Honour because they labour to bring us to eternall life in which respect we find how the Popes exacted Plat●na in vita ejus French Epit. p. 93. and required the greatest Kings and Emperors to serve and to worship them as Gregory the third did to Leo Iconomachus Gregory the seventh to Henry the fourth Pope Zachary the first to Childerick King of France Allexander the third to Frederick Barbarossa Celestine the third to Henry the sixth Speed in the life of King John Hoveden Annal p. 2. sub Rich. 1. Innocent to King John Adrian the fourth that made the Emperor to hold his stirrop and the like that you may find in the Annalls and the lives of the Kings and the Emperors and therefore questionless the Pope Cardinalls and Clergy of Rome cannot be understood by this second Beast But all that is here specified and spoken of the second Beast The Parallel That the Assembly of Presbyterians and the Independant and Lay Preachers of the Parliament are the second Beast and the false Prophet doth in every particular point agree and most aptly cohere with the Parliaments Heter●geniall and La●dicean Assembly of Divines that sat at Westminster together with their dispersed Disciples wheresoever inhabiting within these Kingdomes and with the swarme of Independant and Lay-Preachers that sprang up since the beginning of that Parliament for these Presbyterian Divines that contrary to their Oathes contrary to the Commands of their King and contrary to their Faith given in the presence of God and in Gods House when they were admitted to Holy Orders and the rest of the Independant and Lay-Preachers have as the Text saith exercised all the Power of the Parliament they sat in Westminster under the wings of the Parliament and with the rest of their Associates wheresoever dispersed trusting to the Power and Protection of the Parliament they Preached Consulted and Determined all things by the Power and Authority and for the service and advancement and behoofe of the Parliament for the overthrowing of the King See also what the Author of the last Will and Testament of Sir John Presbyter saith Edwards in his Gangraena p. 26. the rooting out of the Bishops and the utter defacing of Gods Church And I think all the people of this Land knoweth this to be so true that I need not use any argument to confirm it and so the Independant Sectaries do avouch that the Presbyterian Government is the false Prophet and the Beast here spoken of and the third part of the great Citty Revel 16.19 and on the other side the proud Presbyterians do as confidently aver that the Independants and Lay-Preachers are this Beast and so Clodius accusat moechum Catelina Caethegum and I out of their own mouthes will take it pro confesso and conclude them both to be partes constitutivas the chiefest constituting parts that make up the second Beast That the false Prophet is three fold● and the false Prophet And this false Prophet is like the three-headed Cerberus consisting of three speciall branches or three sort of Preachers 1. The Presbyterians And to begin with the last 2. The Independants And to begin with the last 3. The Lay Preachers And to begin with the last 1. The Lay Preachers may rightly be said to be one of the heads of Cerberus and the false Prophet in two speciall respects 1. In respect of his eutrance into his Office 2. In respect of his ignorance to discharge the duties of his Office For 1. 1. The Lay Preacher a false Prophet in two respects 1. His unjust entrance Malach. 2.7 that the Priest is the Messenger of the Lord of Hosts and the Apostle tells us that no man taketh this Honour unto himselfe that is to be a Messenger and an Embassador sent from God but he that is called of God as was Aaron and how was Aaron called First by the inward inspiration of Gods Spirit Secondly least he should be mistaken in the inspiration of the Spirit because there are many spirits by the appointment and Ordination of Moses that had his Authority from God to approve of his Vocation and to confirm him in his Priestly Office thus was Aaron called and yet more then this Heb. 5.4 the Apostle saith that Christ himself who is the

without adding the prevalent faction as sometimes for brevity sake I may omit I desire my Reader to remember that I mean only those and that party of whom it is demanded Whether they have not all and every one of the notes and marks of the great Antichrift and have done all the things and fulfilled all the Prophesies that should be fulfilled and done by the Antichrist And because the event of things are the best commentaries upon Prophesies The Events of things are the best Comments upon Prophesies if so it be apparent that all the things sayings and doings that are prophesied and foretold should be done by the great Antichrist are all manifestly seen to be done and fulfilled in them and by them aforenamed and by their confederates and adherents I know not how to give satisfaction to them that demand this question or how to deny them to be the Antichrist and to acquit them from that suspicion But I will leave the answer of these demands and resolution of those Questions to be de ermined by those unpartial Judges that are quicker sighted than I am and I will proceed not to foretel any thing but to explain unto you what the Prophets have foretold us should come to pass and should be done in the time and by the members of the great Antichrist and for the application of those Prophesies as fulfilled in these dayes and by these men I leave it to the better observers of the transactions of our time whether they can rightly do so or not And first That Apostasie or rebellion is the door through which the Antichrist entereth into the Church I finde the Apostle telling us that the door and breach or gap whereby the Antichrist shall have way to enter into the Church and sheepfold of Christ to destroy his flock will be apostasie or rebellion for when the Thessalonians had heard that such a great egregious Antichrist should come and thereupon did presently expect him and then thought the day of Christ his coming to judgment should instantly follow because they had heard that his coming should be towards the end of the world and but a little before the day of Christ his coming the holy Apostle to rectifie their misapprehension of what they had heard and to explain the truth and time of both their comings saith the day of Christ shall not come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quin venerit defectio prius until there be first a failing or falling away 2 Thess 2.3 as Beza translates it or nisi venerit prius rebellio unless there comes a rebellion first as the Syriac hath it and as very many of the best Interpreters say the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth because every rebellion is a falling away from what we should be And this rebellion is conceived by some Authors to be that which the people made in Rome against Nero and by others it is thought to be that which the Jews made against Florus or that which the grand rebell Barchochebas made against Rufus in the time of the Emperour Adrian who did therefore sufficiently chastice the Jews for their apostasie and revolt and others of no small esteem do understand it of the ruine of the Roman Empire and the Provinces revolt from the Roman Empire under the Turk and other apostate Governors of the Provinces as Niger Albinus and the rest that proved false against their Emperors but Mr. Calvin which is ever held the best textuary B. Hall in his Revelation unrevealed Ensebius l. 4. c. 6. even since the Apostles time as B. Hall saith wonders that so many learned men as understood these words of the Apostasie or rebellion of those revolters from the Roman Empire should so far mistake the Apostles meaning nisi quod cum errasset unus turmatim alii sine judicio sequuti sunt eum unles sit be that when one hath erred others without judgement or any further search for the truth have followed him which is an usual fault and a great fault amongst many writers where they see one run they are often ready like sheep without reason to follow after him And yet I wonder not so much herein as Mr. Calvin doth because the Apostle might well mean The rebellion against the Magistrate doth ever precede a recession from the faith and Gods service both the apostasie and rebellion from the temporal Monarchy of Rome as the type or Prodromos and also from the spiritual Kingdome of Christ which is the Church as Estius Anselmus and very many more of our best Protestant writers do interpret it because commonly they that rebel against the one will never stick at the other but when they kick against the Magistrate they will presently spurn against the Priest and God requireth obedience to be observed towards the civil Magistrate as well as to the spiritual Minister neither shall you ever finde that any departed from his true and obliged obedience to his lawfull Governor but he presently apostatized and made a recession from the true service of God as when Jeroboan● rebelled and made a recession from his obedience to his King he presently made a defection from the true God and a discession from his worship to serve his golden calves and when the Satrapasses and Tetrarchs of the Provinces rebelled against the Roman Emperors they presently fell away from the Church and instead of Christ took Mahomet for their Prophet and the Jews tell us plainly we have no King or will have no King because we feared not the Lord to shew unto us Hosea 10.3 that a discession from Gods service doth ever accompany the rebellion from the civill Government and the rebellion against our Governors is the fore-runner of our discession from the true service of God and the faith of Christ because that our Governors which have the charge to see that the true faith and right service of God be preserved do while they are obeyed hinder this Apostasie and falling away from Gods service but when they are resisted and the bond of our obedience to them broken there is no stop of this apostasie but that every one may be of what faith and do what service he pleaseth and as he pleaseth unto God And therefore I take this apostasie and rebellion that the Apostle speaketh of here What apostasie or rebellion is here meant by the Apostle to be chiefly meant for a civil rebellion against the supreme Magistrate as he is custos utriusque tabulae the defender of the faith and preserver of Gods publique service and a spiritual opposition or withstanding of our spiritual Governors and the discipline of Christ his Church and so a falling from the true Doctrine and the faith of Christ which is the end of that progression and last step of this apostafie that begins in our disobedience and rebellion against Moses and Aaron and ends with our discession from God and Gods service for thus S. Paul saith the Spirit

which was thought so invincible that no humane power could dissolve them yet as you have seen the breath of their own generall without one blow given without one drop of blood spilt did blow away that indissoluble conceived Parliament whose members now are metamorphosed from cruell Tygers to most timorous Hares that flye away from the noyse of the hunters And thus as the Psalmist saith like as the smoak perisheth so did the Lord drive away that cruell companie and herein the Lord our God did a work to his poor servants worthy of everlasting thanks and praise for remembring us when we were in troubles delivering us out of our distresses and therefore I may well say with the Psalmist O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness shew the wonders that he doth for the children of men specially for this favour to dissipate scatter so many hundred tyrants that would have intailed the masterie both of Church kingdoms upon them selves and their successors for ever to perpetuate the slaverie of these nations far worse then the Athenians under the thirtie tyrants Justin l. 5. versus finem 2. The final and totall destruction of the Antichrist when to be 2. Though we acknowledge a three-fold advent or coming of Christ The 1. In humilitie when the word was made flesh The 2. In power when by his Spirit he doth powerfully regenerate his elect and protecteth them from all their enemies and destroyeth their ungodly adversaries and his despisers at his pleasure And The 3. In glorie and Majestie when he commeth to judge both the quick and the dead But for The 4. Comming that the Chiliasts or Millenaries dream of to overthrow the Antichrist in his owne person and after that to convert the Jews and then to reign a 1000 years with his Saints here on earth it is such a fiction as is not worthie to be thought on and brings so many erronious consequents with it as are not fit to be imbraced by any Christian and though some learned Divines do hold and understand the destruction of the Antichrist to be by the second comming of Christ that is his powerful comming by his spirit which shall utterly destroy this beast and leave not one Limb of him to remain and that not by the faithfull preaching of the Gospel which the Antichrist shall put down and instead thereof raise flattering and false Prophets and Parasites to countenance him in his impieties but by some powerfull strength that Christ by his Spirit shal work in the hearts of his servants beyond our capacities to conceive how as Moses saith One man should chase a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight that shall rise against the Antichrist to overthrow him yet wee finde two words in this expression of the Apostle which assure me that his utter destruction cannot be referred to any other coming of Christ That the utter ruine and totall destruction of the beast is not to be till the day of the last judgment then to his third and glorious comming to the last judgement For 1. The Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom the Lord will destroy and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth to abolish to make to cease to be and inanem reddere and to render him void the word being compounded of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ocior to be at rest and is a word seldome found in classick Authors Two words proving the same but often in the writings of S. Paul as Rom. 7.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but now soluti sumus we are loosened or as the Syriac hath it aboliti sumus wee are abolished from the law and in Gal. 5.4 he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exclusi estis separati à Christo you are made void and separate from Christ whosoever are justified by the law saith Beza and in 1. Cor. 15.26 he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the last enemie qui abolebitur saith Tremellius or qui aboletur saith Beza which shall be abolished and quite taken away that it be no more is death so here the Apostle by this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meaneth that the Lord at his appearance wil exclude separate abolish and quite take from himselfe and from his chosen saints and servants this wicked Antichrist and all his ungodly adherents that they be no more And this seperation of the goats from the sheep and of the tares and darnel from the Wheat is not made untill Christ shall set the Goats on his left hand and shall say unto them Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire because the tares shall not be weeded and rooted up nor the wicked be made to cease to be but shall remain as the Canaanites among the Israelites and as the hereticks Why the limbs of Antichrist shall be still suffered to remain among the faithful that being once sprung were never quite rooted out of the Church but their proselytes remained more or less in one place or other continually to be as thorns in the sides of Gods children to exercise their patience and to make them more watchfull over themselves and their own wayes while they walk and wander among such briars so shall the members of the Antichrist remaine amongst us and the final and total destruction and abolition of the beast and the quite taking away of all his Limbs head and feet root and branch that is the utter ruine of the Antichrist and all his followers and adherents cannot be understood to come to passe untill Christ shall come at the last day to make an end of them and to evacuate and bring to nothing both them and their devices plots and successes and to render vengeance unto them according to their just deferts 2. The other words that shew the Antichrist shall not be quite abolished 2. The other word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and destroyed till the coming of Christ to judgement are that the Lord shall destroy him that is quite take him away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the brightness of his coming saith our translation revelatione adventus sui by the revelation of his Coming saith Tremellius or illustri adventu suo saith Beza by his illustrious or glorious coming and this coming of Christ thus exprest can be no otherwise understood than of the last coming to judgement for though each and every of the three comings of Christ be illustrious and glorious in some respects yet the proper titles and the usuall Epithets of each coming are that his first coming The coming of Christ to judgment is properly called his glorious coming Math. 16. is called his humble coming or his coming in humilitie his second coming is stiled his gracious coming or his coming by his spirit to offer his grace unto us all and his third comming is termed his glorious coming when he cometh in the glorie of

speaketh evidently that in the later times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 4.1 some shall depart from the faith and so in Acts 21.21 it is said they heard of thee quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that thou teachest a defection or discession from Moses that is from the lawes and Ordinances of Moses and so Theodoret calleth this apostasie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a secession and departure from God which is the last step and period of our rebellion against the King or civil Magistrate And this falling away from God and from Gods service must be of such men as formerly have made shew to be the true subjects unto their Governors and the Professors of the Gospel of Christ and the obedient children of his Church because apostasie or rebellion is a falling away off and from that which we either were or seemed to be before as subjects that pretend obedience and not strangers of another kingdome are said to rebell against their Governors This Apostafie is of such as have professed the Gospel which strangers never acknowledged to be their Governors but as Julian was termed the Apostata because that during all the time of his Predecessor Constantius he professed himself a Christian and afterwards when he himself came to be the Emperor he renounced the faith of Christ fell into the Heathenish idolatry and persecuted all the best Christians and therefore this Apostasie cannot be ascribed to Caius Caligula as some think because that he being bred up in Idolatry cannot be said to depart from the worship of the true God which he never professed nor can it indeed be ascribed to any manner of men The Turks and Papists cannot be guilty of this Apostasie but to such as have receded and departed from that faith and service of God which they professed or seemed to profess before and therefore also the Turks that are bred in the Mahometan Religion and the Papists that are misled up in idolatry and superstition cannot be guilty of this apostasie nor be said to apostatize and to depart from the true faith and service of God because they never had it nor profest it for how can he be said to depart from the truth that never knew nor understood the truth or how can any man be said to depart and recede from London that never was in London therefore it is most certain that this apostasie is a discession and departure from that true faith and service of God Object which men professed or seemed to profess before E. H. de apostas pag. 36. cornel ●lapide in loc And whereas E. H. and some others say that this Apostacy whereof the Arostle speaketh here 2 Thes 2.3 must be understood of an universal and a general Apostasie universalis defectis as Cornelius à lapide termes it an universel falling away that is of all the particular national Churches in the world both the Western and the Eastern Churches because the Apostle speaks indefinitely and limiteth not the apostasie to this or that particular Church Solut. I answer with the leave of so great and so learned a Clerk as Cornel. à lapide is that as here the Apostle intendeth not to speak of the Antichrists in general when as then Eusebius l. 3. c. 7. l. 4. c. 14. Apoc. c. 2. Clemens Alexand Stromat lib. 3. in his time there were many Antichrists as St. John sheweth such as were the Ebionites Cerinthians Marcionites Nicholaitans and the like but he speaketh of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a particular Antichrist that should be an Antichrist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a more eminent egregious Antichrist than all other precedent or subsequent Antichrists whatsoever were or should be so he meaneth here by this Apostacy not every petty apostacy or single Heresie or any small and little stubbornness of some particular Churches that should fall away and rebel against their Governours and Teachers and so make a defection from some Points of the true Faith or corrupt the Profession and Faith of Christ by their evil Manners and wicked Conversations as in St. Pauls time the Church of Corinth did by denying the Resurrection prophaning the Lords Supper and suffering the incestuous Corinthian to communicate amongst them which was no small apostasie And in St. Johns time the Churches of Asia did not much less than the Church of Corinth fall away from the Truth but the Apostle would have us to understand that the Day of the Lord shall not come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 until there shall come that falling or the falling away first that is such and so great so eminent and so full a falling away and so foul a rebellion against their Governours and from the Faith of Christ and the true Service of God as the like rebellion and falling away from the Truth and specially from the right worshipping of God was never known before in any Church Greek or Latine Eastern or Western Church nor ever shall the like be seen after it until the day of Christ his coming And this the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Apostle ●peaketh of some particular eminent rebellion and apostasie of some particular well reformed Church and not of a general apostasie of the Catholick Church against which the gates of Hell shall never prevail Mat. 16.18 set before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth sufficiently shew unto us that as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth de●gn and particularize some great transcendent Antichrist so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth shew a particular and a most egregious foul and enormous Apostasie and so the meaning of the Apostle in few words seems to be this that before the day of the Lord that is the great day of Judgment there shall arise a grand rebellion against the Governours of the people and against the Pastors and Discipline of the Church and a huge apostasie defection and falling away from the true Faith of Christ and especially from the form of wholsom Doctrine and the right worship and usually accustomed and received Service of God And then when you see such an unnatural rebellion as the like was scarce ever known if ever and such a corruption of the true Doctrine of Christ and opposition to the chief Governours of the Church as the like was never seen in any age nor found in any other Church nor read in any History the whole Church of Christ and all the Servants of God then in being may know for certain that an exceeding great Antichrist greater than any of all the other former Antichrists that were seen before will arise in that Church which formerly was the best and purest Reformed Church of all other Reformed Churches though now it doth recede and thus apostatize from the Faith of Christ and her own former purity And after the Coming and appearance of that Great Antichrist and the Tragical Acts that he shall do within a while and some short space best known to God how long