providence hath cast us under is the overturning dispensation the time of War and beating of Plough-shares into Swords which Christ and the Scriptures speak of that day in which Christ will appear in his stone the stone of Israel against the powers of the world to the end he may be invested in his possessions which is the Kingdom and Dominions and their greatness under the whole Heavens and therefore we conclude that it is an unlawful thing and therefore men ought not to contribute to the upholding and maintaining of those powers which shall be broken by this dispensation left happily they be found fighters against God p. 6. The will of man having been corrupted ever since the fall of man the Lawes that proceed from that will must need be so p. 11. We say the oppressor which makes us to groan is Babylon in her several parts and powers in England Rulers Lawyers Priests and Soldiers for the present Government in England must of necessity be confessed to be either a part of the ten Horns of the ravenous fourth Beast or else that wicked little Horn Dan. 7. Because they are the last evil powers that shall be over the Nations of Europe and therefore we may safely conclude this to be an Assyrian else we must conclude him to be a part of that Kingdom set up by the God of Heaven but that cannot be because he rules by the Lawes of his Predecessors and shall Christ be beholding to Antichrist for Lawes No certainly he is of the fourth and therefore we need not run far to look this oppressor having already found him to be the present Government with its dependents and appurtenances being a piece of that monstrous Beast whom the Dragon i. e. the Devil Revel 20. 2. Assignes Power and Seat and great authority unto who branches himself into so many Monarchical Governments in the Nations of Europe and which men would perswade us to submit to as being lawful and of God but they execute the Laws of Antichrist and rule for him in Tyranny oppression and persecution by politick Laws which they make and for which the Priests and Lawyers plead and mercinary Soldiers and Officers execute p. 12. The persons oppressed we take it are the most spiritual enlightned Saints in these Nations whose spirits and affections are stirred up to follow Christ in the work of the Generation the good interest now contended for whom we call the Generation of publick spirited Saints The administration of Christs visible Kingdom and rule over the Nations is endeavoured to be suppressed in this juncture of time And not only the thing it self is opposed as dangerous and endeavoured by Matchiavil's principle argument and power as heretical as monstrous but the Doctrine and Gospel of that Kingdom and Office of Christ which shall be preached for a witness to all Nations is slighted and rejected by self-interested men and contemned by most p. 13. They have made a Law that those that shall speak against the powers must be Traytors which in effect is to make those Traytors that speak for this Kingdom The conversion of the Gentiles and poor ignorant sinners to the Faith of Christs visible Kingdom is opposed And p. 14 The establishment of Justice and righteousness in the world and therfore with us arise for the lot of our inheritance prepare therefore your victuals your purse and your scrip but especially your sword though you sell your coat for it p. 23. The Parliament as being built upon the old foundation was a part of the beast p. 24. It is clear that the dispensation of the Stone shall begin to smite the power of the Beast or Civil power and that quarrel is begun and taken up and continued chiefly against that power p. 25. Found to be from Hell and not from Heaven p. 27. The glass of the beasts powers being almost run out in these Nations what remains but that the Saints take into their own possession the Kingdom and power which is their birth-right as freemen of the Common-wealth of Israel and Heirs of the whole world with Christ Gal. 3. 29. which the Beast and his powers hath unjustly detained from them some hundreds of years p. 28. That the work of this Stone is a smiting work or a work wherein the Saints imployed shall visibly appear in a military posture for Christ which we call the great combat between Christ and the Kings and Rulers of the world For the Saints shall fall upon or smite that great Image the Feet and Toes thereof and the whole Roman Monarchy as now divided or all those powers whose derivation is from Rome others not excepted nor freed shall be thereby smitten we mean the Kingdoms of the Romish Iron-legs or the Roman Kingdom divided into the Eastern and western Monarchies wherein the whole Dominion Power and Monarchy of the Ottoman Family or that of the Turks is comprehended and the Beasts ten horns or Antichrists civil powers equivalent to the ten toes and also the little Horn together with all powers whatsoever that shall be found opposers of the Lords Kingdom whether they be of the golden Babylonish silver Persian brasen Grecian or Iron Roman Dan. 2. and ch 7. Revel 13. ch 17. So that we comprehend the whole Kingdom of Antichrist in the Civil Ecclesiastical parts thereof made up of Persons and things p. 29. The fifth Kingdom which is Christs with its holy just and righteous Lawes and Officers must arise with destruction to and stand up in place of the 4th Kingdom and the Lawes and Officers thereof p. 30. Because it is the purchase of the blood and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. p. 15. Now then we say that called the Ordinance of God proves the Ordinance of the Devil and though the powers of the great Image might be taken for the Ordinance of God so long as they kept their pure civil and unmixed state so saith Paul the powers that be i. e. the civil powers of old Rome tho a bloody persecutor and devourer of the creation and good heritage are ordained of God yet when the power of Rome adulterated from its pure civil state and becomes a mixt Antichristian state the Beast and a Whore then it is said of that Beastly Antichristian power that the Dragon or Satan gave him his power and Seat and great authority and what then is this save the Ordinance of Hell God hath revealed this by his Spirit from his word unto a little remnant who see the rottenness and hellish foundation of all the Civil powers of the Beast And how great an argument is this also to us that the rise and work of the Stone is near Which is principally against the Civil power p. 52. It is certain that it is a duty in Saints to hate Gods Enemies yea and more particularly to hate the Civil or Beast-like power because it is that which upholds the great Whore and is a fighter against Christs Kingly office even with a perfect
in ordine ad spiritualia as they spake they might dispose of their Kingdoms as the Vicars of Christ and visible Monarchs of the Universal Church Which things these Fifth-Monarchy-Men count Antichristian and therefore their teaching and doing the like upon pretence of setting up of Christs Kingdom on earth is by parity of reason there being not better proof for the one than for the other damnable and Antichristian § 13. The smiting work of Quinto-Monarchians is grounded on falsities or uncertainties concerning the agents means and time of smiting mentioned Dan 2. 34. 44 45. HItherto I have prosecuted those arguments against the Quinto-Monarchians doctrine and practise which shew it to be damnable and Antichristian in respect of the act it self of smiting civil powers I shall add further more arguments against them shewing the falsity and uncertainty of those grounds and principles on which their determinations concerning separation from smiting of civil powers rest The first whereof is that afore the Fifth-Monarchy be set up and in order thereto afore Christs coming all civil powers that are now extant as part of the fourth Monarchy are to be disannulled Which hath no foundation but in their own fancy or hatred of the civil powers as withstanding their design For it is said Revel 17. 16 17. That the Kings which formerly supported Babylon shall hate the Whore and shall make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will and to agree and give their Kingdom unto the Beast until the words of God be fulfilled and Revel 18. 9. It is said That the Kings of the earth who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her shall be wail her and lament for her when they shall see the smoke of her burning which shewes that Kings even those that have joyned with Babylon shall remain after her fall yea and some Kings shall be the instruments of her destruction And the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 24. tells us Then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God even the Father when he shall have put down all Rule and all Authority and Power Which words plainly intimate that afore the end when Christ shall deliver up the Kingdom to God even the Father all Rule and Authority and Power shall not be put down Which may be also gathered from Revel 11. 15. where it is said And the seventh Angel sounded and there were great voices in Heaven saying the Kingdoms of the world are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever and ever which is said v. 18. To be the time of the dead that they should be judged and therefore till that time there shall be the Kingdoms of this world and consequently civil powers A second is That civil powers are to be dissolved by men Whereas this is still asserted in Scripture as Gods prerogative that the most High ruleth in the Kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will Dan. 4. 25. 32. 34 35. and 5. 21. And even in the business of the fourth Monarchy the stone that is said to smite the image upon his feet is said to be cut out of the mountain without hands Dan. 2. 34. 45. which is more likely to be meant of Christ who was cut without hands out of the mountain that is without natural generation as other men whether by the Mountain be meant Eternity or Heaven or the Roman Empire or the Universe of human kind as I conceive then of any other man or men And if it be meant of the Kingdom as v. 44. doth expound it that it shall break in pieces and consume all these Kingdoms it must be meant in respect of Christ the King whose dominion is set up by the God of Heaven and not by men and therefore take it any way agreeable to the Text the stones breaking in pieces and consuming all the Kingdoms must not be expounded of Subjects now calling themselves Saints destroying civil powers to which they are subject A third is That men shall dissolve civil powers by fighting with swords which is very false For the stone that smote the Image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth which if it be understood of Christs spiritual Kingdom it smote the Image by preaching the Gospel by which the power of the Idols who ruled in those Kingdoms was cast down and by it the stone became a great mountain and filled the whole earth if it be meant of smiting hereafter it is to be as 2 Thes. 2. 8. it is said that wicked one the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming or if it be meant of the Saints as Mr. Thomas Parker conceives they are thus cut out by professed separation and victorious exemption without hands that is by the only power and finger of Almighty God as it is interpretted Dan. 2. v. 44 45. Thus saith he in his Exposition of that Vision they began to be cut out anno 1160 in the Waldenses and continue so unto this day And the extraordinary hand of God was seen therein as the strange arising growth prevailing of them doth manifestly declare But their absolute cutting out an exemption from the power of Antichrist is that which is to be expected at the term of the slaughter of the two Prophets when their rising by the power alone of God Almighty without the help of man is thus described Revel 11. 11. And after three daies and an half the spirit of life from God entered into them and they stood upon their feet and great fear fell upon them that saw them they ascended up to Heaven in a Cloud and their enemies beheld them And the same hour was there a great Earth-quake and the tenth part of the City fell and in the Earth-quake were slain of men or names of men as in the Greek expounded by Mr. Mede men of name seven thousand presently after which it followes The Kingdoms of the world are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and his Christ. Now be the Earth-quake as Mr. Mede thinks a great commotion of the Nations and alteration of Politique Affairs or some thing else it is caused by Gods power either without man or only by the witnesses and their testimony and if the falling and slaughter thereby be in whole or in part the smiting of the Stone Dan. 2. 34. 44 45. as it is probable it is not by fighting sure not by such as overthrowes civil powers for they shall be altered and be instrumental to destroy Babylon Revel 17. 16 17. And therefore this which is the hinge on which the smiting work of Quinto-Monarchians turns being very uncertain or rather very false all their inferences thereupon must of necessity be groundless and unwarrantable A fourth is that the smiting work ascribed to the Stone shall be
insufficient Rule to guide us to God about the Oaths of the King's Supremacy and Allegiance to him and upon that occasion somewhat an ample Treatise about Swearing asserting That under the Gospel there is yet a lawfull use of swearing being now debarred of other Ministerial imployment I have conceived it a necessary work to shew the weakness of those suppositions upon which the Quinto-monarchians have been drawn to such an hideous practice as that accursed action forementioned was § 2. The words of Quinto-monarchians expressing their Opinions about seeking Christ's Kingdom in this Age are recited THere was a Book printed made in the year 1656. as is noted pag. 18. bearing this Title The Banner of Truth displayed or a Testimony for Christ and against Antichrist being the substance of several Consultations holden and kept by a certain number of Christians who are waiting for the visible appearance of Christs Kingdom in and over the World and residing in and about the City of London In the first page of the Epistle Dedicatory are these words And truly it evidently appeareth that Rome and the Nations of Europe commonly called the Protestant but are the Antichristian Countries which are the streets of the Great City and Rome-Babylon are the Akeldama or Field of bloud And some pages after mentioning powers since the rise of the Beast with ten horns and ten crowns and their success it is said Now for that we apprehend that the present Generation in which we live is that time in which this great work of Reformation rending and tearing the very foundations of the Beasts Civil power up by the roots the fall of the tenth part of Rome's Dominions a great slaughter amongst the great men and implacable Enemies of Christ and the final result the Kingdoms of the world becoming Christ's possession will begin and that time in which the first dispensation of our Lord's Kingdom shall take place and that it shall not pass before these things be fulfilled Therefore we are against these Governments as now constituted and growing upon the old root of wickednesse and bitternesse that time out of mind have brought forth and produced nothing but bloud-Monsters and to Rule by those Laws that Bastards Tyrants and Conquerors have made for their Lusts sake in opposition to the Law and the Testimony Isay 8. 20. We cannot contend for any Government whatsoever that is of Mans erecting building and planting where any thing of this old Foundation may remain and be left and which good men moral men civil men may exercise upon a meerly civil accompt for all men as they are men have lost their rights and priviledges in respect of Government in the first Adam but Saints have regained them in the second Adam or Lord from Heaven and by force and vertue of mens Laws though but the best of those Laws those called fundamental so they are where no more righteous is found for the Lord will pluck up and destroy root and branch and the Lord will not have a stone of Babels confused building for a corner nor a stone for a foundation We cannot therefore but as in duty by our Allegiance to this King bound proclaim That Jesus Christ is the only lawful and true begotten Heir and lawful King and Potentate of these three Nations and of all the Nations of the Earth and as he is the seed of Abraham shall possesse the Earth yea and the very Gates of his Enemies and that the sole Legislative power of the Nations is and doth of right appertain and belong to him and shall be exercised by him Dan. 7. 27. Jer. 10. 7. Isa. 9. 6 7. Gal. 3. 16. c. Hence then it necessarily follows That those beast-like powers now in being in the world and those if any which shall succeed upon that bottom that Rebel-like will not assign their said power Crowns and Scepters to this great Monarch are and shall be deemed and adjudged Traytors and proceeded against accordingly by vertue of this Kings Laws And truly we are soberly and humbly bold in the Lord Jehovah's strength to assert That the Saints of the most High be they who or where they will and faithfull remnant are a people distinct from the world and formal Professors and are but Pilgrims and strangers in this state of affairs men of another Kingdom and World and are by themselves a Common-wealth and Free-State and therefore 't is to be desired from good and sound grounds that they would exercise that Royal Authority which God has given unto them and invested them with as they are Saints by calling And upon this accompt we humbly conceive that 't is lawful for them to use all honest and just means to defend themselves and offend their enemies and to contend against those that do or shall oppose them in their work and business which is according to the pattern shewed unto them in the Mount and Law of Christ ordained and declared throughout the Scriptures It is observable that we are even already arrived the overturning daies we mean those times in which God will begin to smite the Governments and powers of the great Image which is a little after expressed thus the total annihilation and subversion of all the powers of this World of what quality soever ruling either in Antichrists earth or civil State or in his Heaven or Christ-state by the first dispensation of Christs visible Kingdom which we have spoken of or that of the stone Hence it is that we bear a constant and publick testimony against powers as the subject of Gods displeasure and that which must be plucked up We expect the Gentile Saints shall begin this great work In the Book it self having p. 1. said They were resolved to proceed in their way of Consultation for the clearing up these matters of their faith and principles of their hope they thus write That there is oppression in the earth in all Nations as also in England at this present time is undeniable for no man can say that there is no oppression unless we will also affirm that there is no Dragon in power no Antichrist Beast Babylon Whore nor false Prophet which how absurd a thing it is let all judge But the Man of Sin is still in the Seat of Authority the Governments of these Nations are Antichristian therefore oppression is not ceased Neither will there be any lasting Cessation of cruelty untill the fifth Kingdom be set up when the whole Earth shall be at rest and the fourth Kingdom which divides it self into two Iron legs ten toes and a little horn be wholy destroyed in all the Laws Constitutions Governments and Reliques thereof for the Spirit and life that is in that Beast or Kingdom is the Spirit of the old Dragon who is the Devil and Satan that old Serpent whose seed do continually war against the Woman which is Christs Mystical body there being great enmity between them two p. 4. That dispensation which Jehovah by his
Power and Authority given by Satan was to speak great things and Blasphemies and to make War with the Saints And again of the two Horned Beast v. 12. It is said that he exerciseth all the Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the first Beast before him and causeth the earth and them that dwel therein to worship the first Beast whose deadly wound was healed which cannot be understood of legal Power such as we are required to be subject to but such wicked and unrighteous Power as is used in requiring adoration of Idols and urging it either by meer force without any Law or by devellish Acts to entice men thereto Which was in the Roman Heathen Emperors from Satan who is said to cast the Christians into Prison Revel 2. 10. by stirring up the Pagan Emperors and their subordinate Rulers to do it and yet their Civil Power as is confessed was the Ordinance of God 6. It is supposed that then when the Powers of the great Image or old Rome became a mixt Antichristian estate and not before they became the Ordinance of Hell to which there is no Subjection due But they do not tell us when this was nor can tell And is it not then blind fury that hurries men to such frantick determinations as to date the relaxation of so plain a precept as that Rom. 13. 1. is from such a time as they know not when it begins and to infer thence a warrant for some supposing themselves Saints upon no better evidence than their conceit of Gods Revelation of this by his Spirit from his word to attempt the smiting of all the Powers of the great Image Civil and Ecclesiastical whose derivation is from Rome others not excepted nor freed the Kingdoms of the Romish Iron Legs or the Roman Kingdom divided into the Eastern and Western Monarchies wherein the whole Dominion Power and Monarchy of the Ottoman Family or that of the Turkes is comprehended and the Beasts ten Horns or Antichrists Civil Powers equivalent to the ten Toes and also the little Horn together with all powers whatsoever that shall be found opposers of the Lords Kingdom whether they be of the golden Babylonish Silver Persian Brasen Grecian or Iron Roman Dan. 2. and ch 7. Revel 13. Comprehending the whole Kingdom of Antichrist in the Civil and Ecclesiastical parts thereof made up of persons and things though they grant that some of these were the Ordinance of God to whom every soul was to be subject and those only to cease to be to whom the Dragon gives his Power Revel 13. 2. which who they are and when this Power was given by the Dragon they are not able to give any assurance of 7. It is supposed that the Civil Powers now even in this Nation are a mixt Antichristian state and that their Power is from the Dragon since this mixture though not before But with what colour can they make those powers Antichristian who do maintain the faith of Christ To have their Power from Rome who have denied obedience to the Bishop of Rome To be a mixt Antichristian state who cause their subjects to abjure the Popes Supremacy To have their power from the Dragon who do by their Lawes the Execution of them pull down the worship of Idols and punish with death Diabolical Arts Quarrels perhaps are against the Kings Supremacy over Ecclesiastical persons and in Ecclesiastical causes as if it made a mixt Antichristian state so as that what is denied to the Pope is given to the King But this objection was so fully answered by Dr. John Rainold in his conference with Hart the Jesuite in the Tower ch 10. that Hart himself was satisfied that it was not so Perhaps some others imagin that in the making of Bishops there is an adulterating of the pure Civil power and an Antichristian mixture of Civil and Ecclesiastical power but this also is but a mistake that which is meerly Ecclesiastical therein being left to Ecclesiastiques to do Yet were it granted there were some mixture of Civil and Ecclesiastical power that this should make the Civil powers Antichristian is without all reason affirmed Were the Fathers of the Family or the first-born sons both Rulers Oeconomical and Priests to offer sacrifice Melchizedec a King and a Priest David a King and a Prophet therefore Antichristian will they count all preachers who are masters and parents and husbands by reason of this conjunction of these different functions in their persons therefore Antichrian Are not or have not there been many of them who perhaps have been of the fraternity of the Quinto-Monarchians themselves who have had commands in the Army and yet have been Preachers yea taken upon them to be Elders in the Churches and to have had ordination by laying on of hands who yet have not been judged by reason of this mixture Antichristian Are not then these men very partial who condemn that in one which they do not in another conniving at if not approving that in such as favour their party which they do count inveigh against as a most heinous crime deserving extermination in them that side not with them Much more abominable is it that they should impute that power by which peace is kept justice is done humane society is preserved to the Dragon and not see it to be from the Devil that they stir up hatred in the world and practise murthering of innocent men yea of those who are by God made Rulers over them whom they should obey assist and defend 8. It is supposed that the mixture of Civil powers by them imagined makes them who otherwise had been the Ordinance of God to be the Ordinance of Hell and their power from the Dragon though promoting Idolatry and persecuting Christianity by the Roman Ethnick Emperors did not make void their being the Ordinance of God nor the duty of Christians Subjection to them As if the shedding of the blood of the Saints and setting up Idols were not more from Satan and more inconsistent with Civil powers than an usurpation of an Ecclesiastick office or Uzziahs presumption to burn incense God would not have David build him a Temple because he had shed blood not because he was as it is likely Author of fetching the Ark to him in a Cart he and all Israel attended the carrying of it playing before the Lord on all manner of instruments Sure this Doctrine smells rank of Pharisaism to break the Commandments of God for mens traditions to disanul the duty of Subjects to their Civil Parents because of some supposed inordinate mixture Yea is not this the very venom of Antichristian Papal listing up of themselves above all that is called God not only to excommunicate and depose Emperors for simony as the Popes termed it because they gave Bishops investiture into their Bishopricks or for Heresy or favouring hereticks in not destroying them but also to proclaim War against them and attempt to kill them by reason of mixture or
like manner though preachers called to that Office may in a fit way shew Princes their sins and declare their danger Yet in no sort are they to vilify their Authority or contemn their persons Nor may men pretend the imitation of the holy Prophets boldness unless they can shew their commission and are endowed with their Spirit and power Nor may men who are but private persons take upon them to do as Christ did when he drove the buyers and sellers out of the Temple Which will be more fully proved by a fifth argument taken from some resolutions or determinations of our Lord Christ which condemn such attempts practises as the Quinto-Monarchians Doctrine animates to upon pretence of zeal for Christ and his Kingdom Luke 9. 54 55 56. When Christ was to go to Jerusalem he sent messengers before his face and they went and entered into a Village of the Samaritans to make ready for him And they did not receive him because his face was asthough he would go to Jerusalem and when his Desciples James and John saw this they said Lord wilt thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them even as Elias did But he turned and rebuked them and said ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of For the son of man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them In which resolution our Saviour condemns the motion of James and John to have fire come down from Heaven to destroy the Samaritans for their not entertaining of Christ in imitation of Elias out of zeal for Christ because it was not out of the same Spirit that Elijah had nor agreeable to the end of Christs coming and his Gospel which were not to destroy mens lives but save them Now then the Doctine of Quinto-Monarchians which urgeth their smiting work which tends to the destroying of mens lives and not the saving of them out of a zeal as they conceive for Christ and his Kingdom though there be no other then a private or rather an haughty factious Spirit in them is contrary to Christs resolution and therefore indeed damnable and Antichristian Nor hath it indeed in Christ or his Apostles Doctrine or example any warrant but is an imitation of that pernicious use of the later Jewes which was taken up in a perverse imitation of Phinehas his act Numb 25. of Elias 1 Kings 18. 40. 2 Kings 1. 10. and some others out of zeal for their Law without Authority to destroy those things and persons which they judged contrary thereto as in the stoning of Stephen Act. 7. St. Paul Acts 14. 19. c. In which they were carried furiously and violently without any legal judicial proceeding hearing and sentence by Authorized Judges which caused so many seditions and such outrages as at last provoked the Romans to make a most horrid destruction of that people and ruin of that state To which the Quinto-Monarchians opinon and practise hath been too like and if not stayed would bring the like effect on Church and State with us The other determination is that of our Saviour in the case of Peters drawing his sword to rescue Christ in the garden from the Soldiers which came to take him and striking a servant of the High Priests and smiting off his ear which our Saviour disallowed bidding him to put up his sword again into his place for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword Matth. 26. 52. where our Lord who had bid them buy swords Luke 22. 36. a little before yet forbids the drawing of it and smiting off the ear of a servant of the High Priest though it were out of zeal for him it being against an Officer by a person without Authority declaring the evil consequence which would follow on such usage of it Now the Quinto-Monarchians smiting civil powers out of pretended zeal for Christs Kingdom without any authority in a furious heart of spirit is much more apparently contrary to Christs resolution in Peters case and therefore is censured justly to be damnable and Antichristian § 9. Quinto-Monarchians Doctrine of smiting civil powers urgeth to resisting of evil and self-revenging forbidden by Christ and his Apostles and to most horrid Murthers and great confusions A Sixth argument against the Doctrine of smiting civil powers in order to the setting up of the Fifth-Monarchy is taken from those texts of scripture which forbid resisting of evil and avenging our selves Our Lord Christ. Matth. 5. 38 39. reciting out of the Law of Moses words interpreted as allowing retaliation of wrongs with the like as those who threaten to others that they will give them as good as they bring he on the contrary tels his Disciples But I say unto you resist not evil But whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also Which is not to be understood simply and absolutely as if that turning the cheek were to be done alwayes in the act it self But in a comparative sense rather than make a brawl or fight take further injury signified by the proverbial phrase of turning the check now if Christians be forbidden to fight when they are injured to recompense evil for evil then much more are they forbidden being private persons to whom the sword is not commited of their own accord to begin a War even with superiors and to proclaim it in order to procuring of good as the Quinto-Monarchians Doctrine moves Saints to Likewise St. Paul Rom. 12. 17. Recompense to no man evil for evil v. 19. Dearly beloved avenge not your selves but rather give place unto wrath for it written vengeance is mine I will repay it saith the Lord v. 21. Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good 1 Peter 3. 9. Not rendering evil for evil or railing for railing But contrariwise blessing knowing that ye are thereunto called that ye should inherit a blessing When David had cut off Sauls skirt his heart smote him and he said unto his men the Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my Master the Lords annointed to stretch forth mine hand against him seeing he is the anointed of the Lord 1 Sam. 24. 5 6. The Lord judge between me and thee and the Lord avenge me of thee but mine hand shall not be upon thee As saith the Proverb of the Ancients Wickedness proceeedeth from the wicked but mine hand shall not be upon thee v. 12. 13. And David said to Abigail blessed be the Lord God of Israel which sent thee this day to meet me and blessed be thy advice and blessed be thou which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood and from avenging my self with mine own hand 1 Sam. 25. 32 33. Which shew that herein both in the old and new Testament holy persons agree that a King is not to be smitten though in hostility without cause by any of his Subjects though he were anointed to be King after him that revenge of
the time of the Saints of the most high taking the Kingdom and possessing the Kingdom for ever even for ever and ever Dan. 7. 18. it is expressed v. 13. to be when one like the Son of man came with the Clouds of Heaven and came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him which in the New Testament is applied to Christs second coming Matth. 24. 30. and 26. 64. Mark 13. 26. and 14. 62. Luke 21. 27. Revel 1. 7. Acts 1. 11. 1 Thes. 4. 17. which Mr. Mede in his fourth letter to Mr. Hayn proves to be at Christs second coming by the brightness of which shall be the consumption of the man of sin 2 Thes. 2. 8. and at his appearing shall be his Kingdom 2 Tim. 4. 1. and then shall the Saints of the most high which overcome sit with him in his Throne even as he also overcame and is set down with his Father in his Throne Revel 3. 21. To them he will give power over the Nations to Rule them with a Rod of Iron so that as a potters vessel they shall be broken to shivers even as he received of his Father Revel 2. 26. 27. then the Kingdoms of the world shall be the Lords and his Christs and he shall reign for ever and ever the Lord God Almighty takes to him his great power and reigns and the Nations were angry and his wrath was come and the time of the dead that they should be judged and that he should give the reward unto his servants the Prophets and to the Saints and to them that fear his name small and great and should destroy them which destroy the earth Revel 11. 15. 17 18. And Revel 20. 4. the Thrones are said to be set as Dan. 7. 9. And they sate upon them and judgment was given to them as Dan. 7. 26. then the Dominion or Kingdom given To the Saints who are troubled rest shall be given by God with the Apostles when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels 2 Th. 1. 7. The Saints shall judge the world 1 Cor. 6. 2. And Jesus said unto them verily I say unto you that ye which have followed me in the regeneration when the Son of man shall fit in the Throne of his glory ye shall also fit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel Matth. 19. 28. Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations And I appoint unto you a Kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me that ye may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdom and fit on Thrones judging the Tribes of Israel Luke 22. 28 29 30. And for the means of obtaining this Kingdom as it is said the Stone was cut out of the mountain without hands that is human help so it is said in the daies of these Kings shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed Dan. 2. 44 45. which therefore our Lord called the Kingdom of Heaven and gives the reason because his Kingdom was not of this world nor from hence John 18. 36. but from Heaven And where it is said that the Saints of the most high shall take the Kingdom and possess the Kingdom for ever even for ever and ever Dan. 7. 18. it is added v. 21 22. I beheld and the same horn made war with the Saints and prevailed against them until the ancient of daies came and judgment was given to the Saints of the most high and the time came that the Saints possessed the Kingdom v. 26 27. But the judgment shall fit and they shall take away his dominion to consume and to destroy it unto the end And the Kingdom and Dominion and the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven shall be given to the people of the Saints of the most High whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and all Dominions shall serve and obey him The Saints take it not by their getting it but by gift not by conquest but donation Suteably in the new Testament Luk. 12. 32. Fear not little Flock for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom Matth. 25. 24. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world Out of which passages we may well infer 1. that it is great temerity in the Quinto-Monarchians to be so peremptory as they are in setting down the time of the Saints taking the Kingdom especially if we consider that when our Lord Christ was asked immediately afore his ascension into Heaven Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel He said unto them it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power Acts 1. 6 7. wherein he gives us to understand that the times and seasons of restoring the Kingdom to Israel are put by the Father in his own peculiar power and therefore were not to be then known to the Apostles nor to us till by the events shewing the foregoing signs and the special instinct of Gods Spirit was shewed the just period of the mystical numbers in which they are to be fulfilled 2. We may infer that it is very great folly pride and arrogant presumption for a number of Gentile Saints in an Island or Continent to think to smite the fourth Monarchy by Arms which is to be destroyed by the Spirit of the Lords mouth and the brightness of his coming and to take to themselves a Kingdom which God only can give and to set up Christs Kingdom which God makes his prerogative Ps. 2. 6. Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion Ps. 110. 1 2. The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool The Lord shall send the Rod of thy strengh out of Zion Rule thou in the mids of thine enemies and to think to do this by armes a feeble means which is to be done not by might nor by power but by his spirit The monstrous arrogance of this attempt is made the more hainous 1. because when it hath been begun heretofore by any they have found God against them the Lord by his providence dissipating their counsels and frustrating their attempts so as that in fine they have only brought ruin to themselves and occasioned hatred of the wayes of God and a hard hand in civil powers on the innocent Which argument although it do not Universally hold that what succeeds not well in the event pleaseth not God yet is good against these men who have no other ground or warrant to their attempts but the opinion they have of Gods putting it into their heart and assurance of his help this being their own speech Banner displayed p. 89. So that we make our conclusion with Manoahs Wife of old if the Lord were pleased to kill us or suffer our enemies to kill us he would
they say 't is to be desired from good and sound grounds that they would exercise that royal authority which God has given unto them and invested them with as they are Saints by calling which is to defend themselves and offend their enemies and to contend against those that do or shall oppose them in their work and businesse which is to smite powers and to take the Kingdoms of the world into their own possession the glass of the Beasts power being almost run out in these Nations p. 27. the call which the stone shall have to act in its smiting work is for the greatest part thereof now pertinent and fitly applicable to a faithful remnant now extant in England and fulfilled in and upon them and also seeing that the signs laid down in the word of God for the time of the end are in a great measure now fulfilled and accomplished in England's remnant therefore we conclude and assert that 't is lawful and warrantable and is a duty incumbent for captivated Sion and oppressed Saints to stand up in Gods name and fear and deliver themselves and that glorious Gospel of the Kingdom now by them declared to the world from persecution oppression and that long captivity and bondage which she hath remained in and to break the yoke of the Oppressor which is now upon her neck according to the word and Commandment of the Lord Zech. 2. 7. Isa. 52. 2. we are perswaded that the work of the stone is the present work of this generation and our present work and do accordingly exhort the Saints to arise to fall upon the enemy p. 62. Now these positions conceits and exhortations are impious and vain For 1. it is proved before that their separation from their brethren deserting their Superiors to whom they owe subjection their reviling and speaking evil of powers their taking up arms against them are not honest and just means 2. It is not proved that the smiting work Dan. 2. 34 35. is that work which they exhort to 3. Nor is it proved to be the work of Saints as Saints 4. Nor is there any thing they produce that shews it to be the work of this generation 5. Nor any thing that shews that it is pertinent and fitly applicable to a faithful remnant now extant in England 6. Nor can any thing be deduced from the signs laid down in the word of God which they only say are in a great measure fulfilled and accomplished in England 's remnant for the time of the end to warrant their acting sith no signs are sufficient for acting against plain precepts without a clear Commission by extraordinary revelation or miraculous power much lesse when they are not wholly fulfilled and that accomplishment they are encouraged by is taken either from conjectural calculations of mystical numbers or from the heat of some perhaps real Saints excited by the oratory and confidence of their magnified Teachers and Leaders opposed by other sober and considerate persons as godly though not so hot-spirited as themselves which heat hath cooled much and many have been withdrawn from them as themselves complain and experience shews which also hath proved that they have much deluded themselves and others who have rested upon their calculation of mystical numbers 7. Nor is there any thing deprehended in those whom they call the faithful remnant in England why they should be called to this work rather than others of former time or in other Countries For though they magnify them that are of their party as pretious Saints publick-spirited self-deniers illuminated disparaging others as formal professors leavers of their first love and the like yet experience hath proved them to be but as other men or rather many of them to have been worse than others far from Saints and a faithful remnant and by their uncharitablenesse rashnesse cruelty contempt of and disobedience to their Governors to have been more like Divels than Saints 8. The falling off of many who perhaps inclined to them and favoured their design apprehending it to have been at first out of good meaning and to a good end but since finding it to have been out of a factious spirit and tending to blood and rapin likely to beget when the rabble of loose persons agents for Rome and men of desperate fortunes should with a shew of sanctity and zeal for Christ join with them an horrible wasting and depraedation of mens estates which these men as holy as they would be taken to be its likely aimed at when they used those words p. 66. In such a practise they shall be no losers Christ will give them an hundred fold even the spoil of their great and rich enemies who are his opposers and in the end an eternal Crown together with an universal enmity and dreadful anarchy have deserted them is a good evidence of the madnesse and impiety of their assertion and exhortation 9. It is evident that they have been deluded in their conceits and their wild positions and attempts by the want of power and authority which are necessary for that work which they imagined the faithful remnant in England called to For as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 4. 20. the Kingdom of God is not in word but in power and therefore there being no such power of calling down fire from Heaven of smiting the earth with plagues or any other extraordinary power such as is foretold of the two witnesses Rev. 11. or in the Prophets Judges or Apostles sent by God we cannot take their attempts or call to be any other than heady rash not from Gods spirit but fond opinion of the power of their prayers because of their vehemency as Hackets was in Q. Elizabeths daies and Satans delusion of them 10. It is a very great delusion they are transported with which makes them imagin they shall by their arms subdue all the enemies of Christ make them the footstool of Christ and take the Kingdom which is made the work of God when he sends the rod of his strength in the day of his power in the day of his wrath Psal. 110. 1 2 3 5 6. which to attempt by themselves is a most monstrous giant-like enterprise 11. Nor is it a small vanity and folly in them to presume to antedate the Saints exaltation afore Christs appearing which is to be accomplished at his coming and in his Kingdom 12. It shews the want of sobriety in these men that they abuse holy scriptures and scripture expressions altogether impertinent to their purpose for so evil purposes as they alledge them As for instance in applying those words Zech. 2. 7. Isa. 52. 2. which are spoken of the people of the Jews and their delivery from the captivity of Babylon in Chaldaea or some other dispersion proper to them to the people of England which were never under such captivity making their subjection to civil Rulers Babylon which is Gods Ordinance and exhorting them to deliver themselves by arms in the imitation
of absolution merit Martyrdom and Heaven Answ I should not think it worth while to make any answer to this reason which proves that which is granted that the worshipping the Beast and his image the receiving the mark of the beast in his forehead or in his hand or the name of the beast or number of his name or the mark of his name makes men obnoxious to Gods wrath and proves not at all that which is to be proved that to have relation affection subjection to civil power or any of its appertainers is to worship the Beast and his Image to receive the mark of the Beast in the forehead or hand to receive the mark of his name his name or the number of his name but that I find this is made commonly the pretence of separations of every party and their oppositions thereupon Thus not only the Protestants separate from the Papists counting subjection to the Pope receiving the mark of the beast but also among Protestants dissenters term the practice they dislike and are averse from the mark of the beast whence especially the common sort who have most heat and least light as they are prejudiced so they inveigh against their opposites as the beast and the owning them as the re-receiving his mark So Brownists count any acknowledgment of Bishops receiving ordination from them using the Cross Surplice kneeling and such ceremonies as they injoin going to Common-prayer paying tythes being of a national or parish Church with many more things which they except against in Prelatical yea and Presbyterian and congregational government the worshiping the beast and receiving his mark which being got once into the heads of the common sort who usually talk much against that which they understand little inflames them with hatred against those they judge to be the beast and that which they think is his mark so as that without measure they inveigh against them delighting in satyrical scotts and jests put upon them in tales that disparage them are averse from any conference with them or hearing of them speak and altogether irreconcileable to them This fashion which heretofore was only used against Ecclesiasticks the Fifth-monarchy-men it seems have here taken up against the civil powers as useful for their demagogical design to affright the people and to hold them to their party But to shew the vanity of it it is to be observed that they apply the threatnings Rev. 14. 6 7 8 9 10. to the worshipping of the second beast described Revel 13. 11. and to the times near unto Christs coming now that beast by all the descriptions of it appears not to have gotten his power by the sword as civil powers have but by deceit as by pretended miracles v. 13. 14. whence he is termed the false Prophet Rev. 16. 13 14. which stirred up the Kings of the earth to make war against the Rider on the white horse Rev. 19. 19 20. the Whore with whom the Kings of the earth committed sornication Revel 17. 1 2. which being plainly expressed to be Rome or at Rome v. 18. cannot be applyed with any shew or colour to the civil powers of England or other Countries besides Rome especially the Protestants they being no Prophets nor using any arts or devices to draw men to the worship of the first beast or Dragon or to set up any forreign power but seeking to uphold their own civil power and requiring the subjects to renounce the Popes supremacy and power to depose them and therefore it is a most impudent false accusation to make the Protestant civil powers to be either the beast or the Kings that commit fornication with the Whore or the having relation affection subjection to them and their appertainers the worshiping the beast or his image or the receiving his mark name or number of his name But they say 6. We might also further add because the Civil power is that which enforces and compels the consciences and spirits of men to the Antichristian forms and worship of Babylon accordingly the great Harlot or Mystery of iniquity i. e. Antichristian worship and Church state rides upon the Beast Rev. 17. 3. that is she has the preheminence and makes the Beast use his sword for her advantage upon pain of excommunication curses and such like baubles Answ. The Beast which carrieth the Woman Rev. 17. 3 7. is said to have seven heads and ten horns and so is not the Beast with two horns like a Lamb Rev. 13. 11. but the first Beast Rev. 13. 1. of which they say That the Image Mark Name and Number of the Beast are of a later date than the first Beast and his ten horns and so consequently men in former generations might have worshiped the Beast and yet not his Image nor receive his mark c. But if the Beast might be then worshiped then might the Beast be worshiped when the Dragon gave him his Seat and Power and great Authority Rev. 13. 2. at which time they term the power of Rome the Ordinance of Hell p. 51. And if then the Civil power of Rome might be owned as the Ordinance of God Rom. 13. 1. when they compelled men to worship their Idols in like manner the Civil powers now should be owned as Gods Ordinance though they should compell men to the Antichristian forms and worship of Babylon which though idolatrous are not worse than the Pagan worship to which the persecuting Emperors did compell the Christians But however this Reason may give some colour for separating from those Kings and States which use the Roman Inquisition and force their Subjects to go to the Masse and to worship the consecrated wafer Cake which they call The Hoste and the Body of Christ and to acknowledge the Pope as the Head of the Universal Church the Roman Church as the Mother of all Churches which may be truly termed the Antichristian forms and worship of Babylon the mystery of iniquity the Antichristian worship and Church-state yet this doth not at all reach the Protestant Kings and Civil powers who do not enforce and compell men to these Antichristian forms and worship of Babylon nor support the great Harlot nor let her have the preheminence nor use their sword for her advantage nor regard her Excommunication Curses and such like baubles but use their power and sword against her deride her Excommunications Curses Indulgences and Threats and urge their Subjects to disclaim her jurisdiction and worship If any say that the Civil powers in England do compel men to be under Diocesan Bishops and Priests who have their succession and ordination from Rome and to be present at the Common Prayer which is nothing but the Masse translated out of Latine into English and to be members of a National Church which is Antichristian I answer that neither do the Bishops derive their succession from Rome nor is their consecration as the Roman with any oath to the Pope though Mr. Francis Mason have pleaded against