dominions 2. The Hierarchie or Episcopal government of Gods Church which is as requisite for the Church as the Monarchie is for the Common-wealth for the Church of Christ is said to be Gods vineyard and the vineyard must be well fenced or if the hedge be broken down all the wild beasts of the Forest will destroy the vine so must the Church be well fenced and guarded by wise discreet and careful Governours which are as the fence and hedges that by their spiritual Courts and censures do keep out all Sectaries and hereticks and all errrours and heresies and false doctrine from the Vineyard of God which is the Church of Christ And if these hedges and fences of Gods Church the Bishops and Governours thereof be broken down their Court supprest and themselves nullified and annihilated as that long Parliament did it is as impossible to keep out Sects Hereticks and false Prophets from the Church as it is to keep the civil state and common-wealth in peace and to have justice and equity duly preserved among all men without the civil Magistrates and their Courts of justice for as these protect the innocent and punish the Malesactors with the powerful sword of justice so must the Bishops and Governours of the Church which are best able to judge of divine questions defend the truth and as Christ whipped the buyers and sellers out of the Temple so must they by their censures whip all those Sectaries and Heteticks that will not other wise by fair means be driven out of Gods Church because as Saint Bernard saith qui nolunt duci debent trahi And it is not unknown to any that hath taken notice of the transac ions of these times how that long lasting and intended to be an endlesse everlasting Parliament hath killed our most heroical religious and renowned King the most constant Martyr and the first and chiefest of the two witnesses of Jesus Christ and also Doctor William Laud Arch-Bishop of Cantcrbury and suppressed all the Bishops that were the other witnesse of Christ But our good God hath promised that he would resuscitate and revive the slain and slaughtered Witnesses and restore them to the Church and their charge again Revel 11.11 12. And now you see how the wise and great God whose wayes are in the seas his paths in the great waters and his foot-steps are not known hath by unlikely unprobable and almost in mans judgement impossible wayes through the many many transmutations of things and alterations of governments brought his own purposes to this passe to make you the instruments to effect his will to perform his promise and to be that Cloud in which and by which the two slain Witnesses shall ascend to heaven chapt 11. verse 12. and hath given you power and authority and inabled you to do the same And now most honourable and most renowned Patriots you have most justly most religiously and most gloriously to your everlasting praise revived the first and chief Witnesse of Jesus Christ and restored the government of these nations to be Monarchicall that doth most resemble God himselfe which is the sole Monarch of all the world and is the government that the most nations of all the world hath ever used and especially this kingdome since the first peopling of it and you have put the Crown upon His head to whom your wisdomes knew It justly belonged which was the onely way to bring Peace and to make these kingdomes happy It resteth that the other Witnesse of Christ be revived and the Government of the Church be restored as it hath been ever fince the Apostles time to be Episcopal and so to raise the Bishops and other Ministers their dependants that as yet lye unburied in the streets of the great City to their pristine dignity to their offices their authority and their former estates for their inabling to discharge their duties in the government of God's Church they having suffered wrongs and indignities enough already And I hope your wisdomes will direct you to let the Ark of God be carried upon the Levite's shoulders as the Lord commandeth and suffer the worship and service of God to be used as it was in the reign of Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles and confirmed by all the Acts of Parliaments and royall edicts in their times and not to suffer the depravers of Gods honour and disturbers of the Peace of the Church out of any singularity or sinister end either to suppresse the same or any wayes to alter it or any part of it unlesse your wisdomes do appoint a full and lawful Synod congregated after the usuall manner of this Church to confider what is fit if any thing be found fitting to be added diminished or altered therein for this care of Gods service to uphold the same in its integrity and purity is the onely thing that will bring a blessing and continue the happinesse of this or any other nation and they are to do the same to whom God hath committed the government of his Church and the teaching of his people And because of the multiplicity of Sects and diversity of opinions that have sprung in this our Church since the killing of the witnesses and that the faith of Christ is to be perswaded by the word of God and not forced by the sword of man I humbly beseech you to grant such toleration as your wisdomes shall think fitting to such weak and tender consciences as cannot on the sudden comply with us in our service to God untill that by a friendly conference painfull preaching and writing of learned books we captivate their understanding and bring them so to the truth and true faith of Christ and service of God and not by rigid wayes and too severe censures and punishments to compell them either to be hypocrites in our Church or Apostates to run out of our Church For I would not have the people of God to be driven hurried and harrased like as we drive wild beasts but to be led gently and eafily like sheep Leni spiritu non dura manu by an inward sweet influence and not by any outward violence And here I humbly beseech your Honours to give me leave to tell you what I am not suffered to be silent videlicet that to take away the Lands and possessions of men that never rebelled nor offered any violence nor the least wrong to any of our Protestant people in Ireland but relieved them and hindred others as much as they could to abuse them and yet to dispossesse and to cast them out of their inheritances because they were Papists and profest themselves Roman Catholicks as the long Parliament and their subordinate instruments in Ireland have done to the utter ruine of many ancient families both of Brittish and English extract is not onely as I conceive most unjust but also contrary to all Christianity and farre enough from humanity it selfe When the Apostle bids us to honour all men that is because
miseries to our sorrowes taxes upon taxes oppressions upon oppressions and troubles upon troubles more and more shall be powred out and heaped together to fill up the measure of the second woe that shall be inflicted for the killing of Gods two witnesses But if this stroke that makes them speechless be the last blow that killeth them and that our late ever blessed King and Bishops be the very witnesses that are here meant in this Chapter as I conceive they are then do I expect their rising and do hope their restauration will be about June 1660. that is just about 3 years and a half after this last blow was given and is the very time prescribed for their rising by the holy Ghost for you must observe that although the actuall and litterall killing of the King and the Arch Bishop was done long before yet this mysticall metaphoricall and civilly finall slaughtering of the Ecclesiasticall witness the rest of the Bishops was not till about Novemb. 1656. when this last blow was given them and therefore seeing the spirit of God doth not say that the two witnesses shall be killed by the beast at the same time but that after they are both killed and lain both dead 3 dayes and a half though the one of them hath lain dead somewhat longer the spirit of God shall raise them up What time should we expect the restoring of the King and the Bishops it cannot be expected that the time of their rising taken to be as most Interpreters take it for the set time of 3 years and a half or thereabout can be to either of them untill about June 1660. and it may be to the other a while after and not both raised together as they were not killed together but that as the one was the longer before he was killed so he should be the longer before he should be raised and to expect the help of him that shall be first raised to raise him also which we hope will soon be effected that we may render the prayses and thanks that follow in this Chapter unto our God CAP. II. Who is here meant by the Woman Cloathed with the Sun Cap. 12. Of the Revelation treateth who is meant by the Dragon and by the Man child when the Church began to be freed from her bloody persecution how long she was freed from it what is meant by the War of Michael and the Dragon the last bloody War and persecution of the Dragon how long it lasteth how the Church is relieved in this bloody persecution and Junius his interpretation of this Woman rejected 2ly AS the Holy Ghost setteth down the slaughtering of the two Witnesses 1. Of the Vision of the Woman and what it signifieth the Magistracy and Ministry the Civil and the Ecclesiasticall Governours of Gods Church by the Beast that ascendeth from the Bottomless pit that is the Antichrist and the reviving of them againe in their Successors and restoring them to their former state and condition to execute their Offices as before by the Spirit of God that hath done all this for them in the 12th Chapter of this book so here in this 12th Chapter he setteth down the State and condition of the Church it self how she shall be persecuted and afflicted both at first and at last in her beginning and throughout her continuance especially in the time and by the meanes of this beast that is the great Antichrist for as the Apostle saith V. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there appeared a great Wonder in Heaven that is in the aire which in this place is signified by Heaven as where the birds of the Aire are called the Fowles of Heaven and what may that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great wonder be Psal 104.12 Jer. 7.33 Ezech. 31.6 It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Woman Cloathed with the Sun and what meaneth that surely this Woman signifieth the Spouse of Christ that is the Church of God and this Church is Cloathed that is inlightened not with the new lights of Phantastick upstarts that are but old errours and heresies heretofore buried and now revived by our Novices Deut. 32.17 even as Moses saith unto the Idolatrous Israelites that their new Gods were nothing else but old Devills but this Church and Spouse of Christ was Cloathed with the old and unspotted light of the Sun which is the Fountaine of our light wherewith she was girded and compassed about as with a bright shining garment for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that cometh of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 circundo cingo to gird about signifieth and this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sun wherewith she was inlighted and cloathed is none other then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Son of God Malachie 4.2 John 1.9 Jesus Christ who as the Prophet saith is the Sun of Righteousness and the garment that the Apostle biddeth every Christian man to put on and so she was Cloathed and enlightened with the true light What is meant by the Moon that lighteneth every man that commeth into the World And this woman thus Cloathed had the Moon under her feet that is the true Church of Christ trampled all sub-lunar and mutable things as is the Moon under her feet as deeming them no better then dust and dross and things of no value as the Apostle speaketh or as Mr. Mede saith by the Moon we may understand the Mosaicall Ceremonies as the Jewish feasts of new Moones Mr. Mede Pag. 33. of the Passover of Pentecost and of Tabernacles that were all ordered and observed according to the motion of the Moone all which the Christian Church Colloss 2.14 as they were shadowes of things to come as the Apostle sheweth trampled under her feet and cast them all away when Christ the true substance of them came in place or else the Moon which God made to rule the night may signifie the power of darkness Gen. 1.16 What is meant by the Crown of 12 Starrs as the Worshipping of Idols and all the gentile superstitions there following after their Oracles and the like works of darkness which the Church of Christ quite Cashiered and abandoned And this Woman had upon her head a Crown of twelve stars that is as St. Ambrose saith the glorious and Heavenly Doctrine of the twelve Apostles that is briefly comprised and knit together like an unvaluable Crowne in the twelve Articles of our Christian Faith which these twelve Apostles have composed and delivered to this Woman for the instruction of her Children and which therefore should be deerer unto them then the fairest Crowne of the purest Gold v. 2. though now our Presbyterians have cast them quite away And she being with Child cryed travelling in Birth and pained to be delivered even as other women that are with Child use to do for the Church as Rabbi Kimchi saith is compared to a Mother Rabbi Kimchi Hos 2.2.3 in respect of Vniversality and
That we may conceive better hope of the Whores then of the Beast and false Prophet that followeth after the Lusts of the flesh and the Vanities of the World and the Ecclesiasticall Whore which is bewitched with the love of errors Ceremonies and superstitions and which most of our Protestant Writers take the Church of Rome to be and to be here signified by the Whore may yet by true Repentance and a full Reformation of all errors and abuses recover and retaine the love and savour of Christ to continue the loving Husband of his penitent Spouse and to find him ready to receive them when he finds them ready to return unto him for though the one of these Whores is said to have committed Fornication with the Kings of the Earth and to have made the Inhabiters of the earth drunk with the Wine of her Fornication c. 17.2 c. 17.2 and the other Whore is said to be drunk with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus c. 17.6 Yet c. 17.6 when the beast and the false Prophet which are the most violent and virulent Enemies of Gods Church c. 19 20. were both taken and cast alive into the Lake of fire burning with Brimstone there is no mention that the Whores were cast in with them But the judgment of the Whores is formerly described and their punishments are very amply set down and expressed c 17 c. 18. where the Hornes of the beast are said to hate the Whore c. 17. c. 18. c. 17.16 and to make her desolate and naked and should eate her flesh and burn her with fire c. 17.16 And these punnishments of the Ecclesiasticall Whore to have her substance and het state eaten up and her self burnt with the fire of all Crosses and afflictions by the hornes of the beast and so likewise those punnishments of the Civil Whore that are so fully set down in the 18th Chapter and must be referred to the great Babylon of this World that I have formerly spoken of and not to Rome c. 18 24. Things in c. 18. to be referred to the Babylon of this world and not to Rome nor to the Church of Rome because there are many things in this 18th Chapter and especially that in her was found the blood of the Prophets and of Saints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of all that were slain upon the earth v. 24. which cannot possibly with any face be referred to the Church or City of Rome might be the meanes to bring these Whores to Repentance and so to gaine the Love of God and to escape the Lake of Fire and Brimstone where the vile beast and the false Prophet shall be cast For you must observe The Beast and the false Prophet and Whores not to be confounded c. 17.3 that although some Writers have confounded the Whores and the beast and make them all but as one Enemy exprest by both these names yet they be indeed two Enemies or rather three Enemies of the Church of Christ and Enemies one to another for the Ecclesiasticall Whore rides the beast that is curbes and bridles the Beast as a rider curbes his Horse and so doth the Pope and his Cardinalls and all the Church of Rome curse and execrate the Antichrist and the ten Hornes of the beast do hate the Whore c. 17.16 and make her desolate and naked and burn her with fire and so it may be demanded if the long Parliament and their Polyarchy The Paralele have not sufficiently shewed their hatred to the Pope and all Papists and have made all that they could reach naked enough and have eaten their substance and burnt them with the fire of Afflictions and Persecutions and have pretended to do the like to all Carnall and worldly professors Esay 9.31 And yet as Ephraem did eate Manasses and Manasses did eate Ephraim and both of them did eat Juda Esay 9.31 so do not the Whores and the Beast the Church of Rome and the Synagogue of Satan do all of them what possibly they can to root out the true Protestants the only pure Church of Christ from off the earth though as I said it may be hoped that the judgment of the Whores and their afflictions may at last through the goodness of God reduce them to repent and reclaime them from their Fornications Hosea 2.7 and cause them to returne as the Prophet saith of the like Harlot unto their former Husband But the Beast which is the Antichrist that ascendeth from the bottomless pit and is wholly fallen away from Christ totally Apostatized from the maine Heads of THE Christian Faith and absolutely divorced from being any Spouse or Church of Christ The Beast and the false Prophet commit far viler sins then the Whores as you may see not a few of the Members of the Beast and his adherents that driveth off their Baptisme and permit not their Children to be Baptized and to be incorporated into the Church to be made lively members of Christ which is to renounce the marke of Christ and to blot out the Seal of the Lamb as I shewed before and is therefore termed the man of Sin and the Child of perdition as committing the more masculine wickedness killing hanging and beheading and the like far more odious and more abominable bloody sins then are the infirmities of a woman and the false Prophet that seduceth and deceiveth the poor simple people of God and both furthereth the beast and instructeth him as Libanius the sophister instructed Julian and Sergius the Monk did teach Mahomet how to proceed in most Villaines Enormities and Cruelties that are inflicted and imposed upon the Church Numbers 16.29 they are said to be taken alive and as Moses saith of Corah and his complices not to die the common death of all other men but to be cast alive into the Lake of fire burning with Brimstone For that the Devill having now ended his 1000 years imprisonment which began in Phocas his time Phocas died Anno 612. or rather in Heraclius his successors reigne about the yeare of Christ 620. or 630. when the persecutions of the Heathen Emperors and of Alaricus Attalus Totilas Gensericus and others of the Arian Kings of the Goths and Vandals were all quite finished and Boniface the third Bishop of Rome Super alios caput extulit omnes Balaeus l. 3. invita bonifacij Is extolled and worshiped above all other Bishops and the Church began to goe hand in hand with the Civil state and ended about 1620 or 1630. Some 45. or 35. years agoe when the Beast began to bite the King and to incroach upon the rights of Majesty and the false Prophet to smite Michajah on the Cheeks and to out-beard the Bishops and to trample them under feet he doth by these his two instruments the Beast and the false Prophet most wickedly suppress Gods Service and persecute Gods Servants
and new as well Protestants as Papists do believe the testimonie of Irenaeus and assent to his opinion that lived long before Epiphanius and therefore could better inform us of the time of his banishment then Epiphanius could that he wrote this Revelation in the later end of Domitiani reign and Doctor Hammonds reason to confirm his supposition doth no wayes infringe the allegation of Irenaeus which is the banishment of all the Jews out of Rome by Clandius Caesar for though Claudius banished them out of Rome yet we do not find that he confined any of them to this or that place but rather gave them libertie to go to dwell where they pleased so they departed out of Rome as it appeareth by Aquila and Priscilla that were driven out of Rome Act. 18.2 but were permitted to go to inhabit where they would and therefore these and the rest of the Visions of this book that were after the revealing of them to be fullfilled cannot be understood to be referred to any times or persons before Domitians time And though the holy Ghost saith these Revelations were of things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Revel 1.1 v. 3. which must shortly or suddenly come to passe and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the time i. e. of their fullfilling is at hand yet doth not this any way prove but that many of them might continue unfulfilled to these our times and many remain to be accomplished after our time in the ages that are yet to come because all the time from the first coming of Christ on earth to the second coming of Christ to the last judgement which is the last Age of the World is termed by this our Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the last hower John 2.18 Pet. 4.7 and by St. Peter it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the last time And he saith further 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the end of all things is at band and St. Paul saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet a very little little while Heb. 10.37 he that is to come will come and will not tarry And Christ speaking of his coming to the last judgement as appeareth plainly by the manner of his coming with his reward with him to render unto every man according as his work shall be useth the very same word as is here alleaged for the speedy fullfilling of these Prophesies Revel ult v 12. saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 behold I come suddenly and therefore whensoever any of these Visions is or shall be fulfilled it is shortly and suddenly absque mora without delay even as the holy Ghostsaith And he that would see this error of Grotius more fully discovered and confuted Mares p. 169. let him look into Maresius in his dissertati◠de antichrist◠where he shall find the truth of what I say more largely and most excellently confirmed And so Hyppolitus Carocotta saith Epiphan heresi Alogor c. 33. that the authority of Epiphanius who in the herefie of the Alogors affirmeth St. John to be in Patmos and to have written this Revelation in the time of Claudius is of no validity And he further saith that solenne est Epiphanio caespitare in Historia Epiphanius faileth often in the History and he sheweth how Petavius the Jesuite noteth in the Margin Epiphanium mendose Claudium posuisse pro Domitiano and then produceth St. Hierom. de script Eccles and Eusebius in Chron. and Baronius that putteth this his banishment in the ninth year of Domitian Baron an Christi 92. Sect. 1. Three others understand by this beast the preachers of the Antichrist Bellar. l. 3. c. 15. de rom pontifice Junius annot c. 13.11 in c. 17.12 which was 35. years after the death of Claudius But to return to this beast other learned men as St. Greg. Aretas Rupertus and as Bellarm saith Richardus Anselmus and Haymo by this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beast that rose out of the earth do understand the Preachers and Proclaimers of the greatnesse and the worthinesse of the Antichrist And so Junius likewise in his Annotations saith it signifieth the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchie quam pseudo prophetissam vocat and further addeth that à Johanne pseudo prophetae appellatione donatur the Evangelist St. John calleth this very beast the false prophet as you may see in cap. 16.13 and cap. 19.20 therefore this beast must signifie some Preachers that pretend to reach the wayes and will of God unto the people And truly I am in part of Junius his opinion and I do subscribe to the judgement of the aforesaid Fathers that by this beast we are to understand some Ecclesiastical Persons that undertake the preaching of Gods word either lawfully called or illegally intruding themselves into the Sacred Function of the Ministery and both sorts most wickedly corrupting the truth and seducing the flock of Christ and so Irenaeus one of the most Antient Interpreters of this book of the Apocalyps hath observed and it will so appear to any one that will compare cap. 13. v. 13.14.15.16 where you may see how this beast is subservient to the other beast with the 19. chap. v. 20. where the other ten horned beast was taken and with him the false Prophet that wrought miracles before him and with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast Mr Mede p. 65. So this beast is none other then the false prophet And so Mr. Mr Mede p. 65. Mede taketh this beast to signifie some Ecclesiastical Persons and so do I. But with their favour I take them not as Junius takes them for the Roman Clergy nor as Mr. Mede meaneth for the Pope and his Cardinals which is the same that Junius meant This second beast exerciseth all the power of the first beast c. 13.12 but the Pope exerciseth his own power but I say that this beast cannot signifie these men because the practice of this beast doth no waies agree with those Prelates nor those Prelates of the Roman Church do any whit cohere with the particulars of those things that are here mentioned to be acted by this beast for the Pope and the Cardinals of Rome as all men know and our men tax them for it do exercise their own power and use their own authority and not the power of the other beast which Junius and his followers make to be the Rom. civil state or imperial dignity and those Prelates say as you may obviously see it in Bellarm. Becanus and the rest of that Church that as the Moon borroweth her light from the Sun so should the Civil state take and receive all her directions and form of Government from the Church and the Governors of the Church of which they pretend to be the chief Object And if you say as our men do that would have the Pope and his Cardinalls to be this second Beast that they exercised the Power of the first Beast when the Empire was weakned and
' Ο ΑÎΤΙΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ 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 Policie BUT A collected pack or multitude of Hypocritical Heretical Blasphemous and most scandalous wicked men that have fulfilled all the Prophesies of the Scriptures which have forespoken of the coming of the great Antichrist and especially have united and combined themselves together by a solemn League and Covenant to slay the two witnesses of God Moses and Aaron as Christ interpreteth them They have Moses and the Prophets Luke 16.29 that is The supreme Magistrate of the Common-wealth 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 the mystical soul of that great Antichrist And Whether the prevalent Faction of the long Parliament termed of late the Rump Parl. and their Adherents that killed the two witnesses of Jesus Christ 1. Charles the first King of Great Britain and in him civilly all his Magistrates 2. William Laud Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and civilly all the suppressed Bishops and silenced Preachers of these 3 kingdoms be not the grosse and visible body of the same Antichrist By Gr. Williams L. Bishop of Ossory Impii homines qui dum volunt esse mali nolunt esse veritatem qua condemnantur mali August Me me adsum qui feci in me convertite ferrum Virg. Jehovae Liberatori London Printed at the charge of the Authour 1660. A strong faith fenced with a golden helmet Need not fear the beast his hatchet But his wicked deeds will ring And shew the prayses of the King Whom the cruell beast hath kill'd And all the Prophesies fulfill'd Of our blessed Saviour Christ Touching the accursed Antichrist The Authours Protestation I Call God to be my witnesse and heaven and earth to testifie against me if I aym at any thing or desire any thing by the publishing of these books but the glory of God the true service of Jesus Christ and the good the peace and the happinesse of the Church of Christ and the people of these Kingdomes without envie to any mans good or hatred to any mans person or the ambition and desire of any place profit or preferment for that I thank God I have learned in any state to be contented Et contemnere contemni The Authours Prayers which Morning and Evening he useth to say to Almighty God and to his Saviour Jesus Christ The Authours first addresse to Almighty God Our Father which art in Heaven c. O Eternal Almighty Lord God our good God sweet Saviour Jesus Christ Holy and blessed Spirit glorious Trinity three persons and one God have mercy upon us most miserable sinners have mercy upon us most miserable sinners O Lord God pardon and forgive us all our sins those great and many sins that we have most hainously committed against thy divine Majesty Lord enter not into judgement with us thy servants for no flesh is righteous in thy sight and deal not not with us according to the multitude of our transgressions but according to the multitude of thy mercies and compassion do away our offences and give us thy grace that ever hereafter we may serve thee in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our life make us truly thankfull unto thee for all those mercies and favours and loving kindnesses that thou hast continually so graciously and so mercifully bestowed upon us for thou hast created us after thine own image thou hast redeemed us with the precious blood of thy dear Son Jesus Christ and thou hast called us and sanctified us in some measure with the graces of thy most blessed Spirit thou hast delivered us out of all our troubles from all dangers and from the hands of all that hate us from the snare whereunto we were fallen and from those dangerous Sea-voyages wherein we had utterly perished if thou hadst not most mercifully preserved us thou hast given us meanes and maintenance whereby we were inabled to serve thee and thou hast restored the same to us again when we had utterly lost it thou hast given us faith to believe in thy Son Jesus Christ hope to attain to eternal life love and charity both towards thee and our neighbours for thy sake repentance for our former sins and a resolution ever hereafter to lead a holy and a godly life thou hast blest us in all our wayes prospered all our journeys delivered us from all evill helped us in all our necessities preserved us in health and restored thy servants to life when they were at the point of death for all which and for all other thy mercies and loving kindnesses both spiritual and temporal we heartily praise thy glorious name and magnify thee with all our souls we honour thee we blesse thee we praise thee we thank thee and we will magnify thee for the same for ever and ever And we do most humbly beseech thee of thy goodnesse O Lord to continue still thy loving kindnesse towards us and to preserve us still from all evill and mischief from all sin from the crafts and assaults of the devil from thy wrath and from everlasting damnaation save and defend us from shame reproach and discredit in this world from violent and sudden death and from the malice and hatred of all our enemies O let them never prevail against us let them never have the upper hand over us and let them not say There there so would we have it neither let them say We have devoured them but be thou with us be our helper and defender be our shield and our buckler be our strong Tower whereunto we may alwayes resort and we will not fear what man can do unto us We pray thee also good God give me wisdom and understanding O Lord I beseech thee give me wisdom and understanding memory boldnesse and utterance help and assist me at all times and in all places to preach thy holy word for the glory of thy name and the benefit of thy people And as thou hast helped and assisted me the last time and all other times heretofore for which I do heartily praise and thank thy glorious name so I do most humbly beseech thee to help and assist me the next time and at all other times hereafter that I may set forth thy praise and glory blesse O Lord the holy Catholick Church blesse and preserve thy servant Charles that is our lawful King and all the servants of Jesus Christ that are with him comfort them now after the time thou hast chastised them and for the years wherein they have suffered adversity give them patience to endure whatsoever thou layest upon them and in thy good time deliver them out of all their troubles and restore them to their
never do And therefore questionless these men must yeild that the Antichrist signifieth not any one single person in the series and succession of Popes but the Prince or prime leader with his followers and so it must signifie a multitude together Who are to be understood by the Antichrist and not any one singly and alone And so it comes to what I say that the beast and the Anitchrist doth betoken a collected multitude of wicked men army or Senate whereof one may be the ringleader and this multitude knit and combined together is and will be the worst pack and the most wicked totius coetus diaboli of all the servants and souldiers of the devil and they are like the choicest Legion or regiment of Caesars veteran souldiers unto the dragon his life-guard and a confederacy of the prophanest hypocrites and corruptest wicked men that ever assembled and continued to consult and act together since their elder brother the Synedrion and council of the Jews condemned Christ himself John 5.43 such another pack or company of men as killed Christ I take the Antichrist to be for they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one and the first great adversarie of Christ and this confederate pack is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other which Bellarmin speaketh of And the restrictive Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to each one of his names as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like doth not so infallibly evince that he must be one single person which as I shewed you could not effect and do all that the Antichrist doth as E. H. thinketh Epiphan quo supra haerâ—s 9. and the cardinal endeavoureth to prove as it doth most certainly contract the signification as Epiphanius saith huic coetui huic senatui vel huic Ecclesiae malignentium to this singular pack this very Senate this peculiar and particular company and association of wicked men that do consist of many single persons whereof as in all other confederation one may be the prime and principal leader in all exploits Eudaem p. 151. For it is observable that as Eudaemon truly admitteth the article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth give a double limitation the one to designe the nature only the other to limit the universal nature to this or that particular of that nature yet so as it may agree to any other of the same kinde and thus the Greek article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 designeth and compriseth not only the head but also every particular member of the beast and so they do indeed tie the signification ad unam rem certam to some one certain thing as I say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth here this one pack knot company and society of men and every particular member head and tail of that association and none other And it is more agreable to all reason that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Antichrist That united malice and a confederate power do alwaies the greatest mischief should rather designe this very society and collected pick and multitude of men than this or that single man because we all know by experience daily seen that united malice and confederate poweâ— do alwayes the strangest villanies and we finde it in the devil himself that although he be the Prince of darkness and hath alone a very great and powerfull malice yet even he without fellowes raging about cannot do nigh so much mischief as he doth in conjunction with more associates and therefore when he hath any great and notable villany to effect as to subvert kingdomes to ruine Churches to suppress Gods true service and to destroy the prime and chiefest servants of Christ â—e associates himself with many hands and heads and saith unto them venite come my dear friends and leâ—us joyn our wits and powers together to do such and such acts as will well produce so much pleasure and profit both unto me and you and I shall reward you very liberally besides And we finde it also that in such an association of wicked instruments and the combination both of infernal and terrestrial malice where the devil is the devicerr and councellor and men the actors and the more men do unite themselves to produce the mischief God permitteth a great deal of mischiefs and villanies more abundantly to be done both to the Church and state both to private and publick persons than he usually doth to any single malice as he suffereth more slaughters to be done by a multitude of blood-thirsty men than he doth by any single though never so bloody a tyrant and more roberies by a company of robbers than by any one of the greatest thieves And therefore we do confidently avouch that the great Antichrist is a great company of men collected together and combined together in association by a solemn League and Covenant to do such and such feats and facts as shall prove the greatest prejudice mischiefs and villanies to Christ and his servants that ever were done since the crucifying of the Son of God That the great Antichrist is like a great oak that hath many boughs and branches And so the great Antichrist is like a great and a might oak-tree consisting of many many boughes and branches of whom we may justly say as the Poet doth of the like case uno avulso non deficit alter Tartareus ramus when one branch of that tree or one member of that corporation decayeth another presently as bad or worse springeth up and succeeds in the place thereof and so you see who is meant by and to be understood by the great Antichrist Question But then the Question is who should be this association and collected multitude of such wicked men so trascendently wicked above all others And I finde many men answering this Question Who should be that collected company as our Saviour answered the Jews when they questioned him and asked of him by what authority he did those things by demanding of them Whether the baptism of John was from heaven or of men so do they answer this question by demanding the question whether it may not be conceived that the Assembly of Presbyterians consulting at Westminster together with the Independant and lay-Preachers are not as it were the soul that moveth guideth and directeth to all actions and the prevalent faction of that long Parliament that beheaded their King and suppressed their Bishops be not as it were the body and organical instrument that produced and effected all the acts of that great Antichrist the man of sin and the childe of perdition that was to come into the world For you must observe that as a man consisteth of body and soul so the man of sin the great Antichrist must be confest to consisteth of body and soul and as sometimes the mysticall body of Christ that is the church is termed Christ as in Act. 9.4 and
Opinions and vomited forth the Blasphemies of the old hereticks and chiefly of the Anthropomorphites Sabellians Nestorians Sadduceans Alexander Ross in the Epistle to the Reader before his animadversions Arabeans Taceans or Euchratites Manichaeans Mahometans and others the like wicked Hereticks All which Errors Heresies and Blasphemies the said Rosse hath observed and quoted the very Chapters where they were to be found and seen in the said Leviathan and hath in his animadversions most religiously and learnedly like a good Servant of Christ confuted the same to whom I refer my Reader to be more fully satisfied in every point And so the Reverend Bishop Hall hath somwhat shewed the Errors Heresies Blasphemies Bishop Hall in his revelation unrevealed Absurdities and Confusions that sprang amongst us and these Sectaries have brought into this Church of Christ And so likewise no doubt but many other Divines have observed and confuted the Blasphemie of these Beasts that have so divided the seamless Coat of Christ and brought such a confusion into his Church And letting pass the multiplicity of errors dissentions and absurd conclusions that have now lately crept into these Dominions about the Government of the Commâ—â—-wealth when some would have it a Monarchy others no Monarchy some desire it to be Aristocratical others Democratical and others Anarchical no Government at all If all the foresaid errors and all other sorts of heresies and blasphemies be not the undeniable marks and notes and the Causers of the greatest confusion and division that can be among Christians in the Faith and Doctrine that they do profess and if every Parish-Priest in order or without order becoming absolute like a Pope in every Congregation without any subordination to superiour Governours as the Independant Anabaptists and Lay Preachers would have it doth not breed the greatest confusion that can be in the Discipline and Government of the Church I leave it to any wise man to determine it and to judge whether the Popes Traditions or the Turkes Alcoran or the Jews fabulous Targum can bring more Sects and divisions and cause greater confusion among the people than these Sectaries and Hereticks have scattered and produced in our Church Objection But here it may be some Presbyterian will object against me for making the Region of division and confusion to be that great City of Babylon that is spoken of in the Revelation and is the place and City where the Antichrist shall enthrone himself and say to me as S. Bernard doth in the like case to Abaylardus that answered him quod omnes Patres sic ego autem non sic that although all the Fathers thought so as S. Bernard said yet he thought not so therefore that I must with Acetâ—erigere mihi scalam set up a Ladder for my self alone to ascend and climb up to the high top of this great Mystery the understanding of what place is meant by this Babylon Author Romae ruinae finalis Anno 1666 when as most of the Expositors of this Point and Place both old and new Papists and Protestants as you may see them produced in heaps by the author of Romae ruina finalis Anno Domini 1666. which is dedicated inclitissimo D. O. Protectori do by Babylon there spoken of literally understand the City of Rome and no other place but Rome and I expound it not so grammatically as they do for any special place or City but altogether mystically for the great City of this world and especially for that part of the world where most errors heresies divisions and confusions are spread and do infest both the Church and Common-wealth And why should I think to be believed before all the rest Or what revelation have I had to understand it better than they did Respon To this I answer 1. That the Particulars of the Person time place and other adjuncts of the great Antichrist are tendered unto us every where in the Scriptures as Prophesies and as Mysteries sealed up obscure and not manifested nor to be understood many times by the Prophets themselves until they be fulfilled and are made known by evident and plain event which as I said before is the best exposition upon all Prophesies And therefore as Bishop Morton saith in excuse of the Fathers concerning their erring in this very case of the Antichrist the ignorance or mistaking of those things Bishop Montagu in his apello Caes c. 5. p. 146. which cannot possibly be understood before the time of their accomplishment in the last daies can no waies be held prejudicial to the wisdom and judgment of the Fathers of former times nor the receding from them can be said to be a fault or presumption in us when we see things otherwise fulfilled than they thought Tilenus exeges de Antichristo 73. p. 21. because as Tilenus saith very well aliud est latentem Antichristum non posse agnoscere aliud revelatum nolle adspicere it is one thing not to know the Antichrist while he lieth hid before he cometh into the world or to know the place or time of his coming before he cometh for so neither the Fathers of old nor the Protestants of latter years though never so learned could rightly and infallibly discern either who he was or at what time and in what place he should arise untill they saw him and it is another thing to refuse to know him or to take notice both of him and of the place where he is when he plainly appeareth and is made manifest to as many as are willing to take notice of him Dr. Hackwill in his Preface to his Book of Gods Providence 2. I say with Dr. Hakewel that sometimes an error and mistaking of a point hath been conceived and delivered by some man of note and worth both for learning and judgment and then the same error hath by the succeeding Schollers been generally imâ—taced and received for a truth sine judicio as Mr. Calvin saith in the like case anâ— without further search or discussion into the nature and ground of the matter and in such a case we ought to accept and follow a late and newly delivered truth and recede from the old and ancient error though never so generally imbraced by the former Authors rather than to continue in a generally received error because truth whensoever and by whomsoever discovered is to be received and preferred before error how anciently or how generally soever it hath been delivered §. 3. The Antichrist will accomplish and fulfill all the Prophesies and do all the things that are foretold us should be done by the Antichrist and that being but an insipid speech to say mallem cum Socrate errare quam cum aliis verè sentire 3. The Antichrist having seen the rebellion and apostacy of the Church and now growing strong by the division and confusion that is both in the Church and State wherein he inthroneth himself as in the seat of his Majesty
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Will-Worship but will have the substance of his Service to be as himself prescribeth Yet wilt thou have God to set thee down every particular circumstance and punctilio in and about his Service Hath he not left Teachers and Governours over his Church and given them both a power to do and a Command that all things should be done in Order and as they should be done in the Church of God And if Christ hath left this power with his Apostles and their Successors the Governours of his Church to set all things in Order touching his Service in respect of the times places and manner and they have ordered it from the beginning that this 25th day of December should be kept holy for the remembrance of the blessed birth of Christ and the whole Church have ever since observed the same Why shouldst thou deny this power unto them and disobey their Order Or who but the Antichrist would speak against the same And he that would have thee as well to reject Christ himself as to neglect the day of his Nativity Thus you see how illustrious Antiochus for so Epiphanes signifieth though he was indeed as the Holy Ghost testifieth Dan. 11.25 a vile person doth antecede the Saint-like Antichrist in all vile actions and I could proceed further in the parallel and especially in the time of their continuance and their judgement which do immediately follow ver 26. but that I had rather pass before my Book doth swell too big from the types and the shadows that the Prophets shew us unto the plainer testimonies of the New Testament and the Apostles of Christ that do so signally demonstrate and so punctually paint out the Antichrist that the true Saints and Servants of Christ which desire to know him and would not be over-awed with terrors nor over-joyed with flatteries and great promises nor yet blinded with worldly love might well and easily understand who he is when they see him to have come into the World that so they might flee from him and not be seduced by him for though that these things which Daniel speaks of the little horn which was Antiochus may in some sence be applied by way of Analogy as the type to the doings and proceedings of the Antichrist Yet I think rather that all Daniels Prophesies and their relations should more properly and in their first aspect be confined to the Jewish Church and their extent to the death of Christ the destruction of that Temple and the dissolution of the polity of that people than reach any further to express the state and the accidents that should befall unto the Gospel Church that were designed for the Apostles to express and especially because that as we say of Similitudes so it may be said of Types and Symbolical Divinity they do not universally in all points hold parallel nec sunt argumentativa as the Schools do speak and as I said before neither are they for sound proofs therefore I will proceed to the plainer and fuller description of the Antichrist by the testimonies of the New Testament CHAP. V. Of the special particular sin that is the proper sin and peculiar only to the Antichrist and to none else and the sin that is most destructive to Mankind and most hateful unto God and what is meant by the Antichrist his exalting himself above all that is called God and that is worshipped and of his sitting in the Temple of God as God 2. HAving waded through the Enigmata's of the Prophets we are come to the transparent evidences of the New Testament that do foretell us of the coming of the Antichrist who as he should fulfill the Prophesie of Zecharie by following the steps and doings of that foolish and Idol-shepherd and likewise the Prophesie of Daniel by his imitation of the wicked acts of Antiochus so he shall accomplish all the Prophesies of the New Testament that do concern him and shall do all the impieties and the tragical acts that the Pen-men of that Testament do foretell us that he should do And all the evident and unquestionable Predictions that we find set down concerning him are set down only in three several places and by three special Instruments of the Holy Ghost that is St. Paul the Apostle St. John the Evangelist and he that goeth under the Title of John the Divine Joh. 10.43 which was indeed St. John the Apostle for that place of St. John alledged by Bellarmine doth not mean the Antichrist but any other false Christs such as Judas Galilaeus or Theudas or Barchochebas or the like that should come as a Christ in his own name as I shewed to you before and the Predictions of Christ in the 24th of S. Matthew are not properly to be referred to the Antichrist but to those false Christs that should come to deceive the Jews and those false Prophets and Pseudo-Apostles the Preachers of the Antichrist that should come towards the end of the World to seduce and to deceive the people and therefore I shall only pass over the places of these three describers of him and the first place that properly concerneth the coming of the Antichrist is in 2 Thes 2.3 where S. Paul describing him as he was the best Scholar and more learned in the Arts and Languages than any of all the Apostles so he doth more signally and evidently shew him than any other he sets him forth as a City upon an hill that all men may see it and makes him so visible and so intelligible by that palpable mark and proper note and badge that be fasteneth on him 1. What S. Paul foretels us of the Antichrist that he might easily be known when men do behold that mark and observe that note and badge which the Apostle layeth upon him for he saith he will be an egregious sinner that is a sinner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an extraordinary sinner and transcendent above all other sinners and therefore the Apostle termeth him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that man of sin as if he were all made of sin That is peccator ille sceleratissimus that most wicked sinner and more wicked than any other 1. That he should be an egregious finner saith Tirinus totaliter peccatis deditus that is wholly given over to sin as having his heart and his hands eminently sinful as our Learned Zanchius saith for as Christ is melior omnibus sanctis better and holier than all the Saints so the Antichrist will be pejor omnibus malis worse than any of all the wicked men saith Aquinas insigniter scelestus notably wicked saith Maresius worse than Ahab that sold himself to work wickedness And Cornelius â Lapide faith the tricks and fallacies of the Antichrist to get Proselites and followers after him The sixfold art of the Anchrist to effect his wickednesses are sixfold 1. A feigned and dissembled Sanctity to be well thought of by all men 2. Smoothness of Language and fair
find them here in the 13th Chapter and in the 17th Chapter wherein most of the things that are shewed in this 13th Chapter are more clearly explained by the Angel unto our Evangelist St. John to be distributed into three ranks or three principall Instruments or generalls of three great Regiments or rather Armies of the Devill The three principall enemies and persecutors of Gods Church 1. The beast that rose out of the Sea and is the same that is said to have risen out of the bottomless pit c. 11.7 and is as the body of the Antichrist 2. The beast that rose out of the earth and was subservient to the infernall beast that rose out of the Sea and is the false Prophet and as it were the soul of the Antichrist 3. The Whores that sat upon the scarlet coloured beast and that sate upon many waters 1. The Antichrist The first of these as being the body which is most perspicuous is most generally termed the Antichrist that was prophesied and expected that he should come into the Church of Christ before Christ should come to judge the world 2. The salse Prophet The second of these as being the soul that animates and gives life unto the body is termed the false Prophet that instructeth instigateth and so furthereth and spurreth forward the Antichrist in all his proceedings 3. The Whores c. 17.1 c. 17.3 The third of these that is the Whores which are two the one sitting upon many waters c. 17.1 the other sitting upon a scarlet coloured beast c. 17.3 are apostate Churches and back-sliding Protessors that have falsified their faith and departed from their first love to Christ to follow after the world and then as Hagar dispised Sarah and set her at naught that was the true wife of Abraham so these strumpets and false Churches persecute the faithfull spouse of Christ as all Whores use to do to the true and honest wives And although all these the beast the false Prophet and the Whores be the instruments of the Dragon to vex and persecute the Servants of God and true Church of Christ and do all unanimously fight under the same banner in the grand Army of Satan the prime adversary of Christ yet because these three before cited are three different and distinct Agents and different Instruments of the Devill to effect different evills and mischiefs and are severally to play their severall parts in their severall stations The different evills that the three enemies of the Church do effect 1. What the Antichrist doth 2. What the false Prophet doth 3 What the Whores do in the Tragedy of Gods true Church therefore they are accordingly described by severall names and have their severall actions and doings severally set down and so likewise their severall judgements and punishments for 1. The beast that ariseth out of the Sea and is commonly termed the Antichrist that slayeth the two witnesses of Christ and intrudes himself into their offices and then destroyeth the people of God that will not submit themselves to him and to his Ordinances 2. The false Prophet by preaching his new Doctrines deceiveth them that dwell on the Earth that is the worldly minded men and instructeth the Antichrist what to do and so instigateth and assisteth and justifieth him in all his wicked and unjust proceedings 3. The Whores which are two Non me latet Tertnll l. contra Judaeos in contra marcionem hieron ep 17. ad marcellam quaest 11. ad Algasiam per meretricem intelligere romam sed aethnicam idola colentem christianos persequentem and do comprehend 1. All schismaticall and hereticall Churches that are corrupted with errors and superstitions 2. All hypocriticall Professors carnall livers and worldly minded men Where of each one is termed Ecclesia fornicaria the whore because all these have broken their word and falsified their faith which they had made to Christ and vowed to observe in their Baptisme and became drunk with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus and have made drunk the Kings of the Earth that is all earthly and worldly minded Kings and all the Inhabiters of the Earth that have not their conversation in Heaven with the wine of their fornications when they had intoxicated and bewitched them with their fair and false glosses that corrupted the Text and with their lewd examples to follow after the sweet pleasures of the flesh and the vanities of the world And as the behaviours the actions The judgments and punnishments of these three Enemies not alike Vunde Fornicatio dicitur and the sins and wickedness of these three enemies and Persecutors of Christ his Church are different and thus severally expressed by the Spirit of God so their judgments and punishments are divers and their state and condition is not alike nor in like manner to be considered for as the woman that is Married to an Husband and then commits fornication that is secretly in fornicibus in some vaults as they used in Rome and other great Cityes coupleth her self and is joyned to another man is said to play the Whore And yet while she is undivorced and not cast away nor departed from her Husband she is still his Wife and upon her Repentance and submission A Married Woman undivorsed though she playeth the Whore is still the Wise of her Husband there may be a Reconciliation and a Remission of all her former faults and she may become a very good Woman so that Church which is betrothed to Christ by Faith and by the Incorporation of her Members into him in their Baptisme and then afterwards corrupteth the true Faith and breaketh the Promise that she hath made to Christ either by following after the Lusts of the flesh and the Vanities of this World as the Hypocrits Carnall livers and formall Professors do or else by joyning her self as the Israelites did with Baal-peor with humane inventions idle Ceremonies and fruitless superstitions or imbraceth the Errors and Heresies of learned Hereticks may rightly be said to commit secret Fornication and to play the part and tricks of a spiritual Whore And yet whilst either of these Whores professeth her self to be the Spouse of Christ and is not departed from Christ that is not wholly Apostatized from the faith of Christ but still holdeth the maine heads the Fundamentall points and the Preservatives of the Christian Religion which are the Witnesses of Christ undestroyed we cannot deny that Church to be the Spouse and a true Church though not a pure Church of Christ as a sickly diseased man is a perfest man though not a sound man nor can we say but that upon their Repentance and amendment there may be a pardon of all faults and a reception of these Delinquents into favour by him that is so gracious and so mercifull and abundant in goodness and truth And so it may be hoped that both the Civill Whore
the great Antichrist Bestia haec non Idolo atria non magia non Trajanus ut piscator videtur suspicari non Domitianus ut Grotius sed imperium Rom. significat inquit Maresius pag. 173. Irenaeus l. 5. c. 28. Nazian in Jam. 5. Cornelius a Lapide in apoc 13. That this beast signifieth the Antichrist for which the Aeolians use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fera which signifieth not every kind of wild beast but a fierce cruel and savage beast doth here betoken the great Antichrist that the Dragon stirred up to kill the witnesses of Christ and to persecute the true Church of God for though Haymo Albertus and Pineda do by this beast understand Lucifer the Prince of Devills and Beda Primasius and Richardus do expound it to signifie Corpus diaboli the body of the Devill that is caetum multitudinem impiorum all the whole multitude of wicked Reprobates that as all the elect and godly men are termed the Church and body of Christ so are they termed the Synagogue of Satan and the body of the Devill who is the head of this monstrous body and so indeed it signifieth this whole multitude of Reprobates in some places as in c. 19. 19. 20. when all them shall be taken and cast into the Lake of fire and brimstone and Antoninus Euthymius and Salmeron do by this beast understand Mahomet the first founder of the Turkish Empire and the first inventor of that wicked Alcoran yet Irenaeus Tertullian Victorinus Hypolitus Prudentius Prosper Ribera Thomas Rupertus and long before them Greg. Nazianzen that saith Quid est antichristus vir opibus amplis Apostata ille pessimus bellua venenum vomens And many more even of the most ancient do by this beast understand the great Antichrist that the Apostle speaketh of 2 Thes 2.3 and that St. John saith should come into the world that is to do the feats which we have seen lately done and Cornelius a Lapide whom not onely all the Divines in Europe but also all good Christians are obliged to honour for the great pains that he took for the good of Gods Church saith this is the common received opinion of Divines to understand the Antichrist by this beast and our learned Bishop of Worcester Dr. Prideaux saith that antichristus typice demonstratur a Daniele topice a paulo sed plenissime a Johanne Apoc. 13.1 and I should shew my self too bold Dr. Hammond in apoc 13. ante eum Comentator m. c. 13. in v. 1. p. 32. without apparant extraordinary good reasons to depart from the judgement of such a Cloud of Interpreters as I could cite as well of the modern as of the ancient Doctors that do with such unanimous consent expound this beast to signifie the Antichrist and nto the Heathen I doll Worship of the Romans as some Learned Divines conceive it nor the Ethnick Empire of Rome as Alcazar takes it For though the Commentator supposed to be Grotius a man more then ordinarily learned doth understand by this 7. headed and 10. horned beast the Idolatry of the Romans or Ethnick Rome as Alcazar thought and by the horns of this beast he conceives those Kings that were subject to the Roman Empire ought to be understood Yet Caracotta in his strigil against this Commentator doth most fully convince this conceit of these men because Daniel Dan. 8.20 and v. 2. whom this our Evangelist seemes to imitate even in the very Phrases of him by the beasts that he nominates understandeth not any vices or errors but the domineering Kings that reigned and ruled over the people as the Ram which thou sawest having two horns are the Kings of Media and Persia and the rough Goat is the King of Grecia and the great horne that is between his eyes is the first King so the four Beasts which he saw c. Dan. 8.20 v. 21. 7. are said to be four Domineering Kings as the first of the Assyrians the second of the Medes and Persians the third of the Grecians and the fourth of the domineering Senate and people of Rome under their Counsells and their Emperors And therefore the spirit of God This Beast signifieth a domineering Senate following the same stile and the same expression here to our Evangelist as he had formerly done unto the Prophet by this Beast that rose out of the Sea doth meane some domineering Senate that like unto the fourth Beast in Daniel that is the Senate and people of Rome should reigne and rage over Gods people And so it is to be observed that the Antichrist expressed by the Apostle under the name and title of the man of the Sin and here by the Evangelist under this Beast That the Beast here spoken of signifieth a pack and society of most wicked Hypocriticall men doth not betoken any one particular man either Mahomet or the Pope or any other Tyrant or imposter how great or how wicked soever he be but as I shewed before a pack or knot and a confederate company of the most nefarious and most ungodly Hypocriticall reprobates that either were before or should ever come after their time And though Beda Primasius and Richardus do by this beast understand the whole multitude of the ungodly yet we do more especially and particularly take it in this place and attribute it to the worser part and a confederated united pack of that whole multitude of wicked and ungodly men and do conceive that as Solomons Song for the excellency thereof is termed Canticum canticorum the Song of Songs And why called the Beast and the Antichrist So this transcendent wicked pack of extraordinary sinners that is like the Catelinarian Conjuration or rather far worse then that when as that sought only to subvert the Common-wealth and this to ruine both the Church of Christ and secular state for the extreme impiety thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is called the Beast and the Antichrist And so August de civitate dei l. 20. c. 9. c. 14. c. 20. St. Augustine long since understandeth this Beast to signifie not any one impious wicked man but a society or company of wicked Christians and the confederate communion of naughty men that Hypocritically under the name of Christ and upon pretence to propagate the Gospel of Christ do fight against Christ Et faciunt unitatem contra unitatem and do binde themselves together in juncto Esay 28.15 Who are to be understood by this Beast by a most solemne oath and Covenant such as the Prophet speaketh of to fight against the City of God to overthrow the true Saints and Servants of Jesus Christ to slay the Witnesses of God and to prophane his House and to prohibite his accustomed Service these men are the Beast that is bellua multorum capitum the beast of many heads such as the Heathen Philosophers and Orators termed and deemed the vulgar people especially when they do madly and maliciously run on in their Wickedness
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 Platâ—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 Heterâ—geniall and Laâ—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 foldâ— 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