sprang up in the Apostles times and of whom and the like 1 John 2.18 It is confessed that the Pope is an Antichrist but not the great transcendent Antichrist S. John saith And now there are many Antichrists each one of them an Antichrist and such indeed are all Antichrists more or less according as their opposition is more or less unto Christ his Church and his Gospel and no doubt but the Pope and Papacy oppugneth Christ corrupteth his truth and oppresseth his Church in very many things and therefore he cannot be denied to be an Antichrist and one of them that are great Antichrists But though these things do sufficiently prove the Pope and Papacy to be an Antichrist and a very great Antichrist too yet they come too short to prove him to be the great eminent egregious transcendent and especially designed Antichrist which the Scripture saith should come before the end of the world and I never saw yet any Arguments alledged by the best of the aforesaid Authors B. Montague in his apello Caesarem pag. 143. that was sufficient to evince him to be the same nor indeed as Bishop Montague saith That I could not sufficiently answer at least-wise to mine own satisfaction to hinder my belief therein And though the Synod of Gappe and Mr. Powel and some other rigid Puritans of Ingland transported with the height of their zeal to a prejudicate opinion against the Pope do put it amongst the Articles of their Faith to believe him and his Hierarchie to be that great transcendent Antichrist yet I am sure that The Church of Ingland hath not determin'd the Pope to be the great Antichrist neither learned Zanchius nor Grynaeus nor Faius nor any of the most learned and more moderate Divines of Ingland do think him to be the same neither is it the Doctrine of our Church when as no Synod of ours hath resolved it nor any one of all our Convocations assented to it as learned and reverend B. Montague well observeth And although S. Peter calleth Rome as it was then in his time Ethnick idolatrous and full of confusion Babylon yet quia de cet Scripturam proprie accipere How the Scriptures ought to be expounded ubi non cogit fides ad tropos descedere because it ought to be an infalible Rule which all Divines should immutably observe That the holy Scripture is to be taken and expounded properly where the Analogy of Faith doth not compel us to recede unto Tropes and figures as here it doth when S. Peter wrote this Epistle but not so when Rome became all Christian and was rather Hierusalem then Babylon And because I see Bellarmines Arguments to prove the Pope not to be that great and long expected Antichrist unsufficiently answered The main Reasons why we cannot believe the Pope to be the great Antichrist and the answers unsatisfactory to many men notwithstanding all the endeavours of Bishop Downham and others of our best learned men to do the same and especially because that although many of the marks signes and actions of the great Antichrist may be rightly applicable and properly belonging to the Pope yet seing none can be truly said to be that very Antichrist but he that shall have all the marks tokens and characters of that Antichrist and shall by his actions fulfill all the Prophesies and Predictions that are foretold us in the Scripture the great Antichrist should do and all the markes and actions foretold us of that great Antichrist are no wayes applicable to the Pope nor fulfilled by the Pope as in the prosecution and sequel of this Discourse I shall make it as clear as the light to any impartial man that is not peevishly transported and obstinately wedded to his own groundless opinion and for many other reasons that in the explication of those Scriptures that speak of him I shall hereafter set down unto you all the men in the world shall never make me believe that the Pope E. H. de Antic pag. 81. 2. That many other learned men do believe the Turk to be the great Antichrist or succession of Popes or popish state and Polity is that great enormous Antichrist that should come into the world or that the city of Rome is or must be the proper seat and throne of that Antichrist and so E.H. in his Treatise de Antichristi Pag. 81. saith these very same words that I do 2. As the foresaid Authors concluded the Pope and Papacy to be that great Antichrist so many other learned men and great Divines finding the invalidity of the former mens Arguments and the insufficiency of their reasons to confirm their Opinion and to justifie their allegation to prove the Pope to be Antichrist have thought the Turk to be the same that should come into the world to destroy the flock of Christ and they do judg Constantinople to be that Babylon which is prophesied and spoken of in the Revelation to be the seat and throne of that bloody beast ever since Mahomet the 2. took the City of Constantinople and turned the great and famous Church of San-sophia in anno 1455. to be for the service of the false Prophet Mahomet Mahomet who he was that was the son of Abdalla a Merchant in Mecca of Arabia and was born post-humus in anno 571. as the Lord Verulam collecteth And that learned Bishop Montague setteth down 10 special reasons that might prove his Successor and upholder of his Blasphemies the great Turk and his wicked tyrannical state and Polity directing all his Lawes and Practices ex diametro to oppose the state and Kingdome of Christ and to oppress his servants to constitute and to be that great Antichrist rather and far more likely than the Pope as to abbreviate the same unto you Reason 1 B. Montague his 10 Reasons to prove the Turk Antichrist 1. In his Apostacy whether you understand it from the Doctrine and Gospel of Christ or from the Rom. Empire for both himself and all his Sectaries have relapsed from Christ and Apostatized from the Profession of his name and have received the mark and stamp of the Beast and he is much more interessed in the Rom. Empire than the Pope is or then any of the Popes that ever was Reason 2 2. For his deceiving signes and wonders from the first Mahomet to the present Turk the stories are most manifest how he and all his took that course to deceive the people and to make himself to be believed and to be esteemed a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some great one like Simon Magus the which thing secundum literam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was never personally verified in any Pope of Rome to this day as it was in that false prophet who is amongst all his followers accounted the great power of God and their Saviour to these very times Reason 3 3. For the number of the beast whether you take it from the time of his rising
ipsetemplum Dei S. Aug. de civ Dei l. 20. c. 19. quod est Ecclesia sicut dicimus sedet in amicum id est velut amicus vel si quid aliud isto locutionis genere dici solet which think it may be spoken in Latine as it is in the Greek he sitteth not in the temple of God but for the temple of God as if he were the temple of God which is the Church of God as we say he sitteth for our friend that is as our friend Whereby you may see St. Aug. understandeth that the Great Antichrist would pretend to be the only great friend of the true Church and so in the true Church and not out of it and consequently not to be the Turk in any wise that pretendeth not to serve Christ nor the Pope if we deny the Church of Rome to be the true Church of Christ and therefore we may conclude with Bellarmine Bp Downam de Antichrist lib 10. cap. 3. 4. that the Pope cannot be said to be the Great Antichrist nor Rome the proper Seat of the Antichrist as Downam Thomson and others would have it to be because as I said before the Antichrist must arise in the midst of the truest and purest Church of Christ which we utterly deny Rome to be For the Apostle saith 2 Theff 2. the man of Sin and the child of Perdition which all Interpreters do expound to be the Antichrist shall sit in the temple of God which as the greatest of the School-Doctors Aquinas saith Aquin. in loc and so Tilenus Exegesis 74. pag. 21. must not be understood of the Jewish Temple at Hierusalem that hath been destroyed and shall never be re-edified as some of the best Jewish Rabbines do believe but as S. Chrysostom and the Greek Scholiast pag. 333. and Gorhan and many others do understand it of the true Church of God The Antichrist riseth and reigneth where God dwelleth where the Gospel of Christ by his Faithful Bishops and Painful Ministers is truly preached the Sacraments duly administred and the Flock of Christ rightly Governed and instructed to serve God as they ought to do there the Antichrist will seat himself and there Satan will assist him to overthrow the Bishops to persecure the true Ministers to neglect and nullifie the holy Sacraments to corrupt the Truth of the Gospel and to ruine that Church which Christ thus buildeth For it is observed that the Apostle useth in this place the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Observ which is derived from the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifies to dwell or to inhabit God dwelleth in the best Saints and where they dwell because that is the House or place where God resideth that is among his Saints and in his Saints as God himself doth testifie unto his People that will truly serve him And therefore Constantinople where the Turk resideth and hath made the Chancel of San Sophia where the High Altar and the Patriarchal Throne stood to be a Turkish Moschy whither the Grand Signior goeth to the Blasphemous Ceremonies of their False Prophet and the City of Rome where the Pope sitteth and hath apostatized from the true Faith in many Points and corrupted the Gospel of Christ at leastwise with many Superstitions cannot be said to be that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where God resideth and the Antichrist sitteth as god to destroy it but it must be that Church wherein God in the most Special manner dwelleth and delighteth in it and that is in the Purest Church that can be found on earth in respect of all the outward things that do constitute the same for you must know that the Church is to be considered two manner of waies 1. Respectu divinae illius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so God only knoweth his Church The Church considered two waies and who are the Members thereof as the Apostle sheweth 2. In respect of that Discipline Rule and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is apparent to our eyes and consisteth chiefly in these four special things Four things do constitute a true outward visible Church 1. In the Prayers of the Saints 2. The Preaching of the Gospel 3. The Administration of the Sacraments And 4. Obedience to the Discipline of the Lawful Governours And that Church which in these respects is the truest and purest is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Temple and House of God where he dwelleth and which the Devil by his dear Servant the Antichrist laboureth by all means to overthrow Object But you will say Constantinople was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the true Church and dwelling place of God and so was Rome when her Faith was published throughout the whole world Rom. 1. and so both continued until the Antichrist suppressed the Truth and seated himself therein To this usual Objection I answer Solut. 1. That it is agreed of all sides and by all Interpreters old and new Papists and Protestants that the Great Antichrist should come towards the end of the world 1. That the Antichrist should come towards the end of the world 1 Tim. 4.1 and in the last Period of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 last times as the Scriptures testifie the same most evidently for though the Mystery of him and his iniquity began by those Hereticks that sprang up in the Apostles time yet was not he to be revealed in his strength and fulness until the last and latter end of times and therefore not any waies like to come and to appear so many Hundred years agone as they prescribe which make either the Turk or the Pope to be the Antichrist 2. 2. That God suffereth not the enemies of his Church to tyrannize long I say that God being so good and so gracious a God especially to his Church and true Servants will not alwaies be chiding neither will he shut up his loving kindness in displeasure but as the Poet saith Nocte pluit tota redeunt spectacula mane Which in the Prophets words I may express that although heaviness may endure for a night yet joy cometh in the morning and he may be sure of it because God himself tells his Church that for a moment in mine anger have I forsaken thee but with everlasting compassion will I have pity upon thee and so accordingly he suffered not Antiochus that was the most lively type of the Antichrist that is in all the Scripture to rage against the Church of the Jews for all their wickedness any longer than Three years and a half neither did he suffer the Captivity of his People in Babylon for their great sins recorded 2 Chron. 36.14 15 16. to last any longer than 70 years nor the Children of Israel to be opprest by Pharaoh for the wrong they had done to their Brother Joseph any more after the Death of Joseph than about 200 years as Helvicus collecteth which is the longest time that I find God seems to sleep and
of Expositors to make good their own conceits Esdras 14.41 to run unto tropes and figures when we may literally without tropes expound the same more agreeable unto the truth and without violence unto the Text therefore I conceive that the two Testaments cannot with any probability be understood by these two witnesses that are said to be killed by the beast and especially because they cannot be said to be the two Olive Trees or the anointed ones nor the two Candlesticks that hold up the light when as they are the light that these Candlesticks do hold nor to be confined to such a time as 1200 and 60 dayes when these two Testaments maugre all the malice of the Antichrist shall continue to the last day And therefore I do rather expound these two witnesses to be the preservers and the interpreters or preachers of these two Testaments that being living creatures Who are these two Witnesies that is 1. The King 2. The Bishop may be killed by this Beast and these are rightly termed the two Olive Trees or the two Sonnes of Oyl that is the anointed of God and the two Candlesticks that stand before the God of the Earth that is to hold up the light of the two Testaments to inlighten the Church of God with the truth of his holy word in despight of the Devill which is termed the God of the Earth And these preservers and Interpreters of these two Testaments are as E. H. truly observeth 1 Pet. 2.13 the civill Magistrates and the Ecclesiasticall Governours of Gods Church that is Moses and Aaron or the King as the supreme Magistrate and the Bishop as the chief Pastor that hath the oversight of the rest of the subordinate Ministers as St. Paul sheweth 1 Tim. 3. c. 4.1 for the King is custos utriusque tabulae the defender of the faith and obliged to take care as well of the Church and service of God as of the Commonwealth All good Kings took speciall care to have God truly served so Moses testifieth and so David Solomon Jehosophat Ezechias Josias and all the godly and good Kings of Israel and Judah had and so Constantine Theodosius and our own pious Princes Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles and all other good Christian Kings shewed that they took speciall care to see the truth purely preached and the service of God duly and rightly executed and therefore may most truly and literally without any trope or figure be said to be one of these two witnesses of Jesus Christ and the Bishop is to take upon him curam animarum the speciall care and charge of souls and the charge of them that are under him Act. 20.18 and undertook the charge of souls to see that they do carefully feed the flock of Christ whereof the Holy ghost hath made them overseers and therefore also the Bishops and the Ministers of Gods word may be rightly said and none can deny it to be the other witnesses of Jesus Christ and so Christ saith unto his Apostles and in them to all the Bishops that were to succeed the Apostles that they were his Witnesses Act. 1.8 and they should testifie and bear witness of him in Hierusalem and unto the uttermost parts of the Earth which they themselves could not do but in and by those Bishops that succeeded them in all the ordinary duties of the Apostles and therefore no forehead were it of Brasse can deny these to be the witnesses of Christ without blushing when Christ himself doth affirm it And so you see plainly Zechary 4.14 that these two which are indeed the Sonnes of the Olive Tree the two onely Offices and Callings that are the annointed of God and the two Candlesticks that hold up the light of the two Testaments the King by the strength of his Sword and the Bishops by the faithfull preaching of Gods word are the two witnesses of Jesus Christ and therefore well may the King and the inferiour Magistrates under him and the Bishop with his subordinate Clergy like Moses and Aaron the supreme Magistrate and the High Priest be rightly termed the two Witnesses of Jesus Christ in every Kingdom and Commonwealth Then after that the Angell had intimated unto the Apostle c. 11. v. 4. who are to be understood by these two Witnesses by terming them the two Olive Trees that is the two annoynted Officers of Gods Church and the two Candlesticks that do beare and uphold the true light of the Gospel unto the people he proceeds to shew the Power and Abilities c. 11. v. 5. 6. the gifts and Endowments that God would bestow upon them both for to inable them to build up the Temple that was measured that is to edifie and to enlarge the Christian Church and also to protect themselves against their Enemies and to punish those that should be refractory and to shew for how long a time they should freely and fairely enjoy this power and liberty to build this Church for saith the Angel these two Witnesses shall have power to poewr out fire out of their mouth Numbers 16. 2 Reg. 1. Jerem. 5.14 Their power was the same as Christ gave to his Apostles and God to Moses to destroy their Enemies that go about to hurt them and they shall have power to shut the Heavens that it raine not in the dayes of their Prophesie and they shall have power over waters to turn them to blood and to smite the earth with all Plagues as often as they will And these powers and Abilities are the very same that Christ had formerly given unto his Apostles and their successors the Bishops and Governors of his Church and the very same powers and abilities that God long before had given and granted unto Moses and to all his successors that supply his place and office the Kings and cheif Magistrates that are as he was to rule over and to govern Gods people for our Saviour tells St. Peter that he will give to him the Keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven that is of the Church which is the way that brings us to the Kingdome of Heaven and whatsoever he shall bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever he shall leose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven and this power he gave not only to St. Peter but also to all the rest of the Apostles and their Successors for ever as you may see in Math. 18. v. 18. and John the 20. v. 23. Math. 16.19 so Mr. Mede part 2. pag 11. And so according to this power granted unto the Apostles and Bishops that are the Governours of the Church and have the Keyes thereof the sentence of Excommunication or the shutting out of the Church and the delivery of the lewd and wicked refractory person unto Satan as the Apostle speaketh 1 Cor. 5.5 The sentence of excommunication is the fire and the key is the fire that proceedeth out of the mouth of
this Ecclesia sticall Witnesse and the Key that shutteth the Gate and the Windows of Heaven that the rain of grace and the comforts and consolations of Gods word cannot fall on such a person so long as he continueth in that excommunicate condition And as God hath given unto Moses power by his Rod to turn the Rivers and all the waters of Egypt into blood and to bring all the other Plagues that were brought upon Pharaoh and upon all the Land of Egypt The extent of the power of the witnesses for their obstinate refusall to let Israel go to serve the Lord So he hath given unto his Kings a power and a Sword that is signified by Moses his Rod to punish and to draw blood even the hearts blood of such wicked offendors as will be like Pharaoh rebellious and obstinate against the Commandements of God And herein you may observe the extent of their power which he granted unto them that is to smite the Earth but not the Heaven with all Plagues and that is to punish the earthly and worldly minded men that are wicked and do follow after the vanities impieties and iniquities of this sinful life but not the godly men whose conversation is in Heaven and which are obedient to the Lawes of God and man with fines mulcts imprisonments banishments and death it self for if they smite the Heaven that is the righteous and the innocent with any of these Plagues that power is not given them from God but from the Dragon that is the Devill gives it them Revel 13 2. as the Apostle sheweth And so you see the powers and the abilities that God hath given to these his two witnesses the King and the Bishop the Civill and the Ecclesiasticall Governours of his People the one exercising his power in the Church with the word of his mouth and the other in the Commonwealth with the Sword in his hand And for the time The time that the two Witnesses shall continue to prophesie c. 11. v. 3. Fran. Jun. in loc Ezek. 4.6 Dan. 9.24 Numb 14. v. 34. Mat. 3.2 Luc. 3.3 that these two Witnesses shall quietly and peaceably execute their Offices and Prophesie that is discharge their Duties to govern the Commonwealth and to build up the Church of Christ the Angell saith it shall be 1200 and 60 dayes cloathed in Sackcloath and that is as Junius here and divers others do rightly take a day for a year 1200 and 60 yeares as they do collect out of Ezekiel and Daniel and other places of Scripture where under the number of so many dayes as are expressed so many years are to be understood And so we find that with the favour and under the protection of Christian Emperors and Godly Kings the Orthodox Bishops and true Pastors and Preachers of the Gospel of Christ did freely without fear publish the Doctrine of faith and repentance which was the Doctrine of John Baptist and the Doctrine that Christ continued to preach and commanded his Apostles in like manner to preach the same unto the people and which I take to be signified by their Cloathing in Sackcloth in their so conforming themselves unto their Doctrine as John Baptist did Mat. 3.4 cloathing himself in a Garment of Camells hair and a girdle of Leather about his loines and not mourning for the pollution of the true Church which during the time of their Prophesie was not polluted as Mr. Mede and others do suppose but Mr. Mede part 2. p. 7 8. as I conceive much amiss that we should think the true Church was or that God would suffer his true Church to be so long polluted for the full space of 1200 and 60. years before the persecution of the Antichrist should begin or that his persecution should last so long And that is if you begin to account not as Junius would have it Junius in annotat in loc immediately after the passion of Christ because this power of free publishing the Doctrine of repentance was not yet given them while they were prohibited and persecuted from place to place for preaching the Gospel of Christ but it was given them after the end and determination of the ten former persecutions of the Church by the Heathen Tyrants and after the other storms and afflictions that were raised against them by the meanes and procurement of the Arian Hereticks and were as violently prosecuted by Constantius and other Arian Kings of the Gothes and Vandalls as the persecution of the Heathen Emperours as the life of Athanasius and the story of the Church doth sufficiently testifie when the Church was setled and established in peace and quietness and the governing Bishops freely permitted and royally protected by the Christian Kings and Emperours to preach the faith of Christ and to exhort their people to repentance from dead works yea and to injoyn the transgressors to repent in Sackcloth and to abhorre themselves and their former courses in dust and ashes And this was not The time when the two witnesses received their full power to prophesie about the year 382. till after the death of Valens which was about the year of Christ 382. When Theodosius had vanquished the Huns and the Gothes and the rest of those boysterous Northern enemies of the Empire that exceedingly troubled and brought infinite crosses and molestations not much inferiour if not some wayes worse then the Heathen persecutions upon the Church as you may easily find in those excellent Books of St. August de civitate Dei and others the Ecclesiasticall Writers of those times And from this suppression of those fierce and cruel enemies both of the Orthodox Church and the Roman Empire which was as I said about the year 382. to the beginning of the long Parliament we shall find about the summe of 1200. and 60 years When the time of their prophesying in Sackcloth was ended throughout all which time the true Orthodox Bishops the one of the two witnesses of Gods truth in all the Christian Kingdoms as Spain France Germany Ingland Scotland Ireland and the rest had full power and free liberty to preach the Doctrine of faith and to injoyn penance unto their people and they were not onely protected from the wrongs violence and malice of all their opposers About the year 1642. but they were also assisted to reduce all transgressors to repentance as above all other times in these Kingdoms that are best known unto us the happy Reign of Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles can sufficiently justifie this truth unto you and the Christian Kings and Princes that were the other witness of Gods truth and the nursing Fathers of the Church were through the faithfull preaching of Gods word and the strict and godly Discipline of the Church most loyally obeyed and religiously observed as they ought to be in all the Christian Kingdoms and so both the witnesses by their mutuall helping and assisting one another were throughly strengthned
Godliness 2 Tim. 3.5 and thereby 2 Tim. 3.5 saith the Apostle they shall turn the Grace of God into wantonness that is turne the true Service of God into vain jangling and a foolish senceless prating and so probably prove themselves to be just like Jannes and Jambres that resisted Moses who was their chief Governour and King in Jeshuron and like Corah Dathan and Abiram that as the Prophet saith angred Moses in their Tents and Aaron the Saint of the Lord Psal 106.16 and so despised rebelled and would have destroyed both the Civil Magistrate and the Ecclesiastical Governours of Gods Church which Offices themselves desired and aimed at and would have obtained if God by his fearful Judgment had not prevented them And according to these Prophesies and Predictions That all the aforesaid things came to pass according as they were foreshewed and the like 1. Of Deceivers and Corrupters of Gods Truth 2. Of a Faithful Reformation of all in-crept Errours and Abuses And 3. Of a Faithless Apostasie and Rebellion against the Reformers of the same and the Defenders of Gods Service by a company of Hypocritical Zealots we find by the successes saith one and I think very right that all these things happened just as they were fore-shewed by the Apostle as in other places so likewise in this our Church of Ingland For after that the Pope and the Church of Rome had fallen away from some Points of the true Faith Arise Evans in his voice from Heaven p. 18 19. and had privily as I shewed before brought in divers Errours Abuses and Superstitions which defiled the Purity and blemished the Beauty of our Church as of many other particular Churches besides Martyn Luther steps up and falls out with the Pope for and about the Sale of his Indulgences by his Factor Tercelius whom the Pope then employed for that business and then he bitterly inveigheth against his Holiness for this and the other Corruptions of the German Church that were no less as they said than centum gravamina a hundred grievances Fasciculus rerum extendarum King Hen. the 8. writes against Luther which were presented to Pope Adrian the 6th with an earnest desire of a speedy redress as you may find it in fasciculo rerum expetendarum Hereupon King Henry the 8. it may be in Requital of the Popes favour that granted him a dispensation to marry his Brothers Wife writes a Book against Luther and therein blames him very much for apostatizing and starting aside from his Mother the Church of Rome and contrary to his Faith and Oath and all good manners so eagerly to oppose and so bitterly to rail against his holy Father the Pope and so to the uttermost of his Learning that was both an understanding wise and Learned King he defends the Faith together with the Corruptions of the Roman Church or rather maintaines the Errours and Superstitions of that Church together with so much of the true Faith as the Pope and the Church of Rome did then profess King Hen. 8. his double recompence for his book against Luther 1. Recompence and for this Royal Engagement of the King against Luther the King receives a double Recompense 1. The one from Luther his great Antagonist 2. The other from the Pope his dear Client For 1. Luther in the heat of his Fury and the heighth of his German spirit railes as much against the King and calls him as I read it in his own Book and not out of any other Transcriber asinissimus Rex an unseemly term as I conceive for a poor Monk to give to so great a King and as I said none of the meanest Clerks as he had formerly done against the Pope which bitter Invectives against a Father in the Church and the Patriarch of all the Western Churches Tilenus exeges pag. 29. Aphor. 104. p. 20. as the Primitive Counsels term him qui in ordine primus fuit inter Patriarchas primum ordine in Apostolorum collegio eum esse non inviti concedimus saith Tilenus and such uncivil behaviour towards Kings Luther blamed for his too much bitternesse and unseemly terms Matth. 11.29 that are the Lords Anointed be they what they will when I read not upon the credit of others but in his own Tractates as I thought very well of many things that he wrote so I should have thought much better of all the rest but that I conceived so much bitterness mingled with such a measure of Gall and Vinegar as dropped from his Pen not against the sins but against the Persons of men could not be distilled from the spirit of God which is a Spirit of Meekness and Lowliness as our Saviour testifieth But 2. 2. Recompence The Pope for this Scholastick Defence of the Faith of the Roman Church by the King which the Pope himself should have done by his Pen and desired the King to have assisted him by his Sword gives to him and to his Successors the Kings of Ingland the just good and honourable Title of Defender of the Faith that is the True and Christian Faith or the Faith of Gods Elect which was pretended to be then in Rome and is now defended by the King And though King Henry obtained this Eulogy this Title and this Authority upon a wrong ground because he defended a wrong Faith yet as Jacob got the blessing upon an untrue suggestion that he was his father Isaac's eldest son even his first-born Esau but being once gotten he still retained it So did the King Genes 27.19 when he fell out with the Pope and fell from the Pope about his divorce from Queen Katherine which the Pope upon good grounds would not admit still retain that Title How the Faith was defended in Ingland and especially the truth and substance of that Title and maintained the same as a King with his sword which he had gained as a Priest with his pen and so did his son and his Successor after him Edward the 6th continue a royal defender of the true faith and when Queen Mary would have remitted the Title and permitted the faith to be undefended and the truth to be corrupted in this Kingdome the witnesses of Christ his Gospel the holy Martyrs of our Church Cranmer Latymer Ridley 3 reverend Bishops and the rest of those holy Champions stood up and defended the same unto death with the sheding of their blood and the loss of their dearest lives And after Queen Maries time Q. Elizabeth like another Deborah with the advice and assistance of all the godly Bishops and the best of all the Divines in her Kingdom concluded and set forth the Articles of our Church and that perfect form of Godliness the Liturgy and book of common prayer and service of God which they composed with a free liberty from her majesty at home and without any fear either of Pope or any other forraign Authority abroad And this faith
world and therefore to encourage all the Christians to be constant in their Profession unto their death it was requisite to use all the Eulogies and praises that might well and rightly be given especially in the funeral Orations of the Martyrs unto those holy men that had so manfully fought the good fight of faith and so christianly died for the defence of the Gospel of Christ when as the contrary would have been a great disheartening of the weak Christians but these Eulogies a spur to inflame them to all readiness to undergo the like Martyrdome rather than to start aside from their Christian profession Neither do I see how those Eulogies and praises that these Fathers gave unto the Martyrs are any wayes contrary to the truth of our faith or the Word of God because we know that as the Prophet saith Psalm 116.15 right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints and no doubt but he hath some love and care of their dead bodies to preserve them from that spirit of malice and contempt that the Devil and his wicked assassinates bear against them and therefore as he preserved all that were in the ship for S. Paul's sake Act. 27.24 so he may be pleased to preserve others his servants with the preservation he extendeth and would have shewed to the bodies of his Saints and especially of his holy Martyrs the which he would have no wayes to be abused as the Prophet sheweth and doth exceedingly complain of them that give the dead bodies of Gods servants to be meat unto the fowles of the air Psal 79.2 and the flesh of his Saints to the beasts of the field as now I have seen it in many places how the hogs are rooting in their graves and the dogs gnawing the bones of Gods servants That the aforesaid Errors make not this Apostasie And I say that although the Roman Church hath failed in the Premises and erred in the points aforenamed yet all that doth not make this grand apostasie which the Apostle here speaketh of Reason 1 1. Because here in the Roman Church we finde no rebellion against their Governors but qui ducunt eam seducunt eam the leaders of that Church deceive the Church and so her apostasie is not so odious but the more excusable and the less abominable in the sight of God Reason 2 2. Because these Errors and Superstitions aforenamed and the like have only defaced but not nullified bespotted and polluted but not destroyed that Church which is now like unto a false woman that hath played the whore but is not divorced nor run away from her husband That the Church of Rome holdeth all the foundation and preservation of the Christian Religion for so long as they profess to believe as the three authentick Creeds that is the Apostles Creed the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed teach us and use the Lords Prayer and publish the ten Commandements and receive the two Gospel Sacraments that is Baptisme and the Lords Supper and retain the wholesome form and reverent manner of Divine worship and service of God with the rightly authorized and lawfully called Pastors and Governors and a dutifull submission to the established Discipline of the Church which things are both the foundation and preservation of the Christian Religion and which they say are all observed and performed in the Roman Church I believe no good Christian can deny her to be a true Church though not a pure Church of God because that while the foundation remaineth sure and undigged up all superstructures of wood hay stubble doth not evert and overthrow the whole edifice but is rather a going beyond Eccl. 7.16 17. than a going back from the faith of Christ like the being too righteous and not too wicked as Solomon speaketh that is the being too precise and making more sinnes than ever the Law of God made and not too prophane and so exceeding in the works of supererrogation and observing many other commandments of men besides the commandments of God Mr Mede P. 612. just as the precise Pharisees required the people to do in the time of Christ and Mr. Mede resolves Mr. Hartlib that the Roman Church hath not erred in the fundamental Articles of the Faith but in the assumentis which they added unto the foundation so likewise D. Crakenthorp B. Hall and most of our best Divines are of the same minde And therefore questionless the Church of Rome cannot be guilty of this grand rebellion and Apostasie here spoken of And 4. 4. Nor the falling away of the Protestants from the Church of Rome As the African and Afiatick Churches of the East under the Greek Patriarchs and the Europaean Churches of the West under the Pope of Rome are not liable to this grand Apostasie so neither can the Church of Rome nor any other Master of that Church say and say truly that the falling away of Luther Calvin Beza and the rest of the Protestants and protestant Churches from the Roman errors and superstitions and from their obedience to that Church can be this falling away and apostasie here spoken of because we with them and they with us do hold and profess the same 3 authentick Creeds that do contain the sum and substance of our Christian Faith and are agreeing in all or at least in most of the essential and fundamental points of the Christian Religion and the differences betwixt us in the most points that are of moment are not so capital but that for the most part a charitable construction and a right distinction might well and fairly reconcile most of them especially as they are held by the best Interpreters of the Scripture in that Church and by the most temperate and soberest Divines of our Church because as the Apostle saith charity is kinde and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 charity is not rash that is in her judgment no more than in her actions 1 Cor. 13. but beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things and endureth all things and the want of this divine grace of Charity maketh those faults that are indeed but mole-hils to appear like mountains and this want of charity is too too common a fault both among the popish and the Protestant writers which doth make the breach wider and the differences to seem far greater and far worse than indeed they are which made me often to pray that God would send more love betwixt us and suffer not the devil to send so much misprision and distaste betwixt us as there is Question And now the foresaid Churches being freed from being liable to this apostasie the question is What Church can be said to be found guilty of it What Church is guilty of this Apostacy and instead of answering it it is now demanded If this now present Church of great Britain be not liable to this charge of a grand Rebellion and apostasie such as the Apostle speaketh
of Jesus Christ as St. Bernard saith Yet such is the Pride of these men that some of them do say a just mans work is of value worthy of Heaven and that absque ullo respectu meriti Christi without any respect to the merits of Christ as I read it alleadged Suarez was not ashamed to write Nay more they teach that men are able not only for to merit but also to supererrogate that is to merit for themselves and for others likewise when they do more service unto God than God commandeth them to do and do more good works than God requireth at their hands Mat. 25.9 I remember the five wise Virgins would not impart with one jot of their Oyle unto their Fellowes lest they should want the same themselves but these men think they have enough both for themselves and others And therefore because they would have nothing lost they have invented that gainful Doctrine of Indulgences and pardons whereby they transfer the surplusage and remainder of the merits of those Saints which have supererrogated and have done more good works than will serve their own turn or that God requireth at their hands unto those The Doctrine of Merits and Supererrogation very beneficial to the Church of Rome that want them and can pay them for them the which point of their Doctrine I dare say is no Gospel but a very profitable Kitchin-Divinity And so you see how they derogate all from Christ and ascribe all this unto themselves And as Constantine saith of Acetius do erigere sibi scalas set up Ladders of their own framing to climb alone to Heaven without the help of their Saviour or but with a very little of his help And what is this but as the Poet saith turgescere fastu to swell with pride and to become insolent against the Lord against the Holy One of Israel as the Prophet speaketh of Babylon For our Saviour saith if any man will be his Disciple he must forsake all and deny himself and follow him but these men will neither deny their own errors nor forsake their own Pride to rely on their Saviour Christ 3. As the Chaldean Babylon was full of Idolatry the Land of Graven Images The Idola 〈◊〉 the Roman Church Jer 50. thâ—â— was mad upon their Idols as the Prophet peaketh so is the City and Church of Rome Of whom we may justly say with Baptista Mant. Fama est AEgyptum coluisse animalia quaedam Et pro numinibus mult as habuisse ferarum Ista superstitio minor est quam nostra ferarum Hic aras habet omne genus contraria certe Natuae res atque Deo And this Idolatry of the Roman Church we affirm to be committed two waies In two Respects 1. Respect two waies and and in two special respects 1. In giving the true honour and worship of God to faise Gods 2. In worshipping the true God with false worship _____ For 1. They give the Divine Worship 1. Giving the true Worship of God to false gods which they themselves confess to be only due to the true God unto the Creatures _____ As 1. To the consecrated Bread of the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper here on earth _____ And 2. To the Saints and Angels that are in Heaven 1. When the Priest hath consecrated the Bread he lifts it up above his head 1. To the consecrated bread and saith three times that one of the most comfortable Sentences in all the whole Book of God and ever proper and peculiar to Christ alone O the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world have mercy upon us and then immediatly all the people fall down and prostrate themselves unto that Wafer Cake as unto the everliving God And what greater and more palpable Idolatry can there be than to worship Bread in stead of God Indeed the Heathens adored Ceres that they say first invented the sowing of Corn for a Goddess but they counted her the lowest of all their Goddesses and her Daughter Proserpina they feigned to be married to Pluto the King of Hell the fittest place for such Goddesses But these men adore not the makers and authors of bread but the bread it self and count that bread to be the true and living God and therefore seeing their Idolatry is the greater let them take heed lest their judgment shall be the severer and that they shall not with Proserpina be either Kings or Queenes or have any Dignity in Hell but with the rest of the wicked Idolaters shall be slaves of Hell if they repent not for evermore But these men to salve this sore and to quit themselves from this high charge of Idolatry do say they worship not any bread either hallowed or unhallowed but the Body of Christ which is the blessed God for ever and ever For after the Priest hath consecrated the bread and said this is my Body it is no more bread but it is changed and transubstan iated into the very true and natural body of Christ according to the words of Christ himself this is my Body So as the water was no more water Mat. 26. â—6 John 2.9 after Christ had changed the same into wine the bread is no more bread after the Priest transubstantiates the same into the Body of Christ and therefore they commit no Idolatry nor offence by this their adoration of the Host Why the Body of Christ is to be worshipped which is now become the true Body of Christ because the Body of Christ though not as it is a Creature and the Son of Mary yet as it is hypostatically united to the Son of God and is a nature of that Person which is the true God by nature is to be worshipped and adored I answer that if they could well prove the former point that the consecrated bread is transubstantiated into the body of Christ we would willingly as we do readily yield unto the latter as I shewed unto you how the body of Christ is to be worshipped But for the truth of their Transubstantiation of the Sacramental bread into the body of Christ it resteth to be discussed We read in St. John that the Word was made flesh John 1.14 Gal. 4.4 and so flesh was united unto the Word And St. Paul saith the Son of God was made of a woman and so the seed of the Woman was made the Son of God but we never read it in all the Scripture ture The first Inventers of transubstantâ—ation that the Son of God was made of bread nor that bread was made the Son of God For it was those Antichristian Popes Leo Nicholas Innocentius and Honorius that were the first Fathers which begat this new Doctrine of Transubstantiation and the Council of Lateran not much above 400 years ago was the first Council that confirmed and gave life unto the same But how far this new devised Doctrine of theirs The falshood of the Doctrine of
transubstantiation shewed three waies is from the old received Faith of the Church and from the Divine Truth of God I shall briefly shew unto you 1. From the Holy Scriptures 2. From the Ancient Fathers 3. From pure and sound reason And a threefold cord is not easily broken For 1. Christ told his Disciples 1. From the Scriptures John 14.3 v. 28. Mark 16.19 Acts 7.56 Acts 9.4 Acts 3.21 before his passion that he must leave the world and go to his Father as he was man And St. Mark saith that after his resurrection he was taken up into Heaven and sitteth on the right had of God And so Saint Stephen saw him in heaven standing on the right hand of God and Saint Paul heard him from Heaven saying Saul Saul why persecutest thou me And St. Peter saith that the Heavens must receive or contain or hold him until the times of restitution of all things that is until the last day the day of Judgment How then can he be corporally present here on earth and be still residing in Heaven But to make the Point more clear John 6.53 our Saviour saith except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his Blood ye have no life in you that is none can attain unto eternal life but only those that do eat the flesh of the Son of man and do drink his bloud but all the Patriarchs Fathers and Prophets of the Old Testament and all those Christians that are baptized and die before they receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper The Fathers of the old Testament could not eat the natural flesh of Christ could not nor cannot eat the very natural flesh of the Son of man For as yet in the time of the Fathers of the Old Testament he had not assumed his Body and therefore either all those Fathers can have no life or else our Saviour meaneth it of a spiritual eating of his flesh by the mouth of Faith and not of any carnal eating of him by the mouth of our Bodies But to deny eternal life to these Fathers is most absurd and injurious unto them therefore our Saviours meaning must needs be granted to be of a spiritual eating of his flesh and no thanks to grant it For the Apostle proves it saying that they did ali eat the same spiritual meat 1 Cor. 10.3 4. and they did all drink the same spiritual drink that is as we do now for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ whose flesh they did thus spiritually eat that so they might have eternal life And St. Aug. in Johan tract 26. Aug. expounds it in the same manner saying visibilem cibum hoc est Manna spiritualiter intellexerunt spiritualiter esurierunt spiritualiter gustaverunt they understood that visible meat that is the Manna spiritually they hungred after it spiritually and they did eat the same spiritually And of all Christian Children and others that are baptized and die before they receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper the same Father saith nulli est aliquatenus ambigendum tunc unumquemque fidelium corporis sanguinis Domini participem fieri quando in baptismate efficitur membrum Christi Aug de Symbol fidei ad catech to 9. no man ought any way to doubt but that every one is then made partaker of the body and blood of our Lord when by Baptism he is made a member of Christ Therefore the words of Christ are not to be understood of any oral eating of his flesh or drinking of his blood 2. 2. From the Fathers The whole stream of the first Fathers of the Christian Church are against this new-found Doctrine of Transubstantiation of the bread into the flesh of Christ and of the wine into his blood and for the spiritual eating of the flesh of Christ and the spiritual drinking of his blood For Origen saith si secundum literam sequaris id quod dictum est Origen in Levit hem 7. nisi manducaveritis carnem filii hominis non habebitis vitam in vobis litera illa occidit if you follow the letter of that which is said except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man ye have no life in you that letter killeth for it is the Spirit that giveth life the flesh profiteth nothing Theoder Dialog 7. And Theodoret saith Christus naturam panis non mutat Christ changeth not the nature of the bread So Tertullian contra Marcionem l. 4. August contra Adamant Manich. to 6. c. 12. in epist 221. Cyprian de coena Domini Hesichius in Levit. l. 3. c. 2 Amb. de Sacrament l. 1. c. 5. Chrys in Johan Tract 25 26. And all the rest that write of this Point are of the samâ— minde and do expound it in the same manner And so many of the Popish Writers themselves do either ingenuously confess or else tacitely yield unto this very truth for Pope Gelasius saith non desinit esse substantia vel natura panis vini the substance or nature of the bread and wine doth not cease to be and Roffensis yieldeth that the very presence of Christs body in the Masie Fisher Bishop of Roches cont Capt. Babylon Tonst de Euch. l. 1. Pag 65. Ar. Mont. in Luc. 22. cannot be proved by any place of Scripture and therefore sure we need not believe it for any truth and Tonstall confesseth it was no heresie to deny the Doctrire of Transubstantiation before the Council of Lateran And Arias Montanus upon the words of our Saviour this is my body saith it is no more but my body is sacramentally contained in this Sacrament and this we do all affirm and accursed be he that denieth it for we say with Clemens Alexandrinus that duplex est sanguis Domini alter carnalis quo redempti sumus alter spiritualis quo scilicet unctisumus and so the fiesh or body of Christ is understood to be 1. Carnally or corporally in heaven 2. Mystically and spiritually in the Sacrament and in the first sence none did or can eat him but in the second sence all the godly men have and do and will eat him and drink him nam hoc est bibere Jesu sanguinem incorruptionis domini participem esse for this is to eat the flesr of Christ and to drink the blood of Jesus to be partakets of the incorruption of our Lord as S. Clemens saith and as S. August August in Johan saith credere in Christum est manducarc panem vivum to believe in Christ is to eat the bread of life which is the flesh of Christ 3. Reason it self disproveth 3. From reason 1. Reason John 3.9 and is fully against this their doctrine of Transubstantiation For 1. If the bread upon the pronouncing of those words this is my body be turned into the flesh of Christ then the Apostles did eat his body and yet saw it whole and intire before their
Why the Lord raiseth these Idol-shepherds Verse 3. the crie of the good shepherds and faithfull Pastors of Gods Church for their contempt their rejection and suppression for as the Apostle saith that because men receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved therefore God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie that they all might be damned who believe not the truth 2 Thess 2.10 11. Luke 13.34 but have pleasure in unrighteousness so because the people rejected the true shepherds and as our Saviour saith killed the Prophets and stoned them that were sent unto them for Zachary was stoned with stones by the command of King Joas in the Court of the House of the Lord Micheas was thrown down by king Joram to break his neck because he had rebuked him for the sinnes of his Father Amos was very often persecuted by Amasias and his son struck him with a club on the temple of his head Dorotheus de vitis Prophetarum and so killed him Isaias was sawed asunder in two parts under King Manasses Jeremy was stoned by the people at Taphnis in the land of Egypt Ezekiel judged the two Tribes of Dan and Gad in Babylon and because he reproved them for their wickedness one of them slew him Urias the son of Simei was killed by Joachim Jeremy 26.23 and his carkasse thrown where the common sort of people were buried and so the rest of Gods faithfull Prophets were rejected persecuted and suppressed Therefore the just God as a just reward of this unjust dealing with the true shepherds raiseth up the foolish and the idol-shepherds and as he faith by the Prophet Michah if a man walk with the winde and lie falsely he shall be the Prophet of this people Ver. 13. The 2. Reason that moved the Lord to raise up these idol-Shepherds is said to be the roaring of the young Lions Micah 2. Verse 11. which I take to be the harsh and thundering threatnings of the new-sprung domineering Lords against the old faithfull shepherds to cause the people to reject them and to adhere unto their young Teachers because it is said v. 5. Verse 5. that their possessors slay them and hold themselves not guilty but think they do very well herein and they that thus sell the people say blessed be the Lord for I am rich that is in Gods favour and their own shepherds that is their new young shepherds pitty them not but think that they are in a far better condition then ever they were before Therefore the Lord saith I will not feed you and I will no more pitty you Ver. 6. that is Verse 6. you that are thus seduced by your Possessors the young roaring Lions and your new Teachers that are the Chaplains of those Lions but that that dieth let it die and that that is to be cut off let it be cut off and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another Verse 9. Vers 9. And yet such is the great love of God and his pitty towards his elect that he Vers 4 biddeth his good old shepherds and his true Prophets to feed the flock of the slaughter Ver. 4. Vers 7 and that is the poor of the flock as the Prophet explains it Ver. 7. or those that are despised and as it were appointed for the Slaughter by the young roaring Lions The two staves of the true and old Preachers Vers 7. and the foolish new shepherds And therefore the true Prophets and good old shepherds do take unto them 2 staves the one they call beauty and the other they call hands and they feed the flock that is the poor of the flock that are willing to be fed by them So you see the raiser of this foolish and idol-shepherd and the reason why he raiseth him 2. Time when the foolish idol shephere is raised then 2. For the time when God raiseth him you may observe that it is after the breaking of the Prophets 2 staves beauty and bands and 1. The staff of Beauty signifieth the true Doctrine of the Church and the faithfull exposition and teaching of the law of God and 2. The staff of bands is the good discipline and the right Government of the people that bindeth them together in the unity of Faith and perfect charity among themselves and hindereth them to straggle and to fall out into divers Sects and factions Verse 10 And if you do observe it you shall finde that when the staff of beauty was cut in sunder that is when the true exposition of the Law of Moses and the true Prophets was corrupted by the false glosses of their new Teachers When Christ was bought and sold Verse 12. This was fulfilled by the long Parliament Verse 14. that were the Scribes Pharisees and Sadduces then presently their King their Priest their Prophet and their good shepherd Jesus Christ was bought and sold by them for they weighed for his price 30 pieces of silver a goodly price that he was prized at of them for I heard of some that when the staffe of beauty was broken and the truth of Gods word corrupted by false teachers sold a far Meaner Man for a far greater price And was not our King bought and sold and murdered when our staff of beauty was broken to pieces and were not our Bishops suppressed when our staff of Bands was chopt asunder by the beast and the false Prophet Iet my Reader judge But when their King and their Good Shepherd is thus bought and sold then presently the other staff When the foolish shepherd riseth Verse 15. What is the Instrument of the foolish Shepherd Verse 16. even Bands that is the Discipline and Government of the Church is cut asunder and when both these staves are broken then the foolish shepherd with his instrument is to guide and to feed the flock for so the Lord now saith unto the Prophet take unto thee yet the instrument of a foolish shepherd And what is the Instrument of a foolish shepherd I cannot guess it to be any other than his Pipe wherein he takes great delight to be alwaies piping and prating unto his flock thinking that his piping is a sufficient discharge of his whole duty and so wholly neglecteth the Office of a good shepherd which is set down v. 16. And therefore as the children that sit in the Market place and call one to another Luke 7.32 The practice of the foolish and new Shepherds saying we have piped unto you and ye have not danced so we may say that these foolish shepherds do pipe all day unto the people and yet the people dance not after them because they lead not the dance they do nothing but pipe or as our Saviour tels us they say and do not and therefore their piping is no better than vain jangling So you see the time when God raiseth this foolish and Idol Shepherd when the staffe of
far greater then the troubles of many of them that were within the Walls of Hierusalem And therefore their being in Pella could not fignifie the earths opening of her mouth to swallow up the flood of their afflictions which no doubt but they endured in full measure Reason 4 4. In that Pella being but a little Village it is not likely that it could containe so many of the Jews or that so many should go out of Hierusalem unto it as should move the Holy Ghost to express them here under the notion of this Woman that was persecuted by the Dragon when as these were not the men against whom Titus waged his War being so few and so contemptible and no wayes opposing him Reason 5 5. In that this persecution of the Woman and her flight into the Wilderness is after the Warre in Heaven and after the Dragon was throwen into the earth as the Text makes it plain v. 13. 14. but these Jewes being in Pella was long before this warre and therefore they cannot be meant by this woman Reason 6 6. In that according to the old rule non est distinguendum ubi non distinguit lex we may not chop and change times places and persons where Scriptures change them not to fit our own purposes and to make good our own best liked Interpretations which is but as the Poet saith to stagger Nunc huc nunc illuc exemplo nubis aquosae Much like a waterish Cloud which sometimes hither is driven with the wind How men should fairly proceed in their interpretations without wresting of any Text. and sometimes thither or as another saith Praxitiles like to make beguiled mindes to bow down to the painted strumpet either of these high conceits of the great Scholars or of the brain-sick fancies of the weaker wits but we ought fairly to proceed according to the most genuine sence of the place that we enterpret and such as crosseth no other truth nor carrieth any absurdity or impossibility with it And who seeth not prima facie at the first sight and reading of this 12th Chapter how the Holy Ghost proceedeth therein to set forth the dangers troubles and persecutions of this woman that signifieth the Christian Church from the time that she became cloathed with the Sun and the beginning of her pain in travell unto the end of her persecutions as how she should flie into the Wilderness how long she should be nourished and fed in that place what Warres she should undergo in that time and after the ending of that Warre and the stepping out of her place how she should be therefore punished and persecuted and for what time she should be distressed in that persecution and how she should be helped and relieved out of the hands and power of her enemies which are all successively in a continued Series and a just order set down by the spirit of God of the same woman that was the Christian Church in this 12th Chapter of the Revelation And as not all this by Junius his concession so indeed not any part of this can be referred to the believing Jewes in Pella as understood by this woman v. 14. but to the Christian Church converted and collected both out of the Jewes and Gentiles especially considered after the time of Theodosins as I have shewed to you before And this last persecution of this woman can be no otherwise understood Why this last persecution of the woman is to be referred to these our times as I conceive then of the sufferings of the reformed Protestant Churches and servants of Christ in these our times wherein we live because they fall out just at the end of 1200 and 60 years wherein the two witnesses after that the woman was cloathed with the Sun should prophesie and the woman should be fed by the witnesses before they should be slain and before the beginning of this her great persecution and flood of all miseries that the Dragon by the service of the Antichrist should raise against her and throw after her And I say that although Arethas Rupertus and Barradius do with Junius understand this woman to signifie the Jewish Synagogue and Alcazar takes it for the primitive Church of the Christians to whom I do assent she may be taken for that Church at that time when the Dragon began to watch her that he might devoure her Child yet St. Ambrose Ticonius and Primasius do with me understand this woman here flying to avoid the Dragons flood to signifie the true Christian Church in her last persecution sub finem mundi a little before the end of the world when Satan should be let loose after his 1000 years imprisonment and should then powre forth a flood and deluge of all crosses troubles and miseries upon the true Church and the faithfull servants of Jesus Christ the which I think he hath now within these late years done to the uttermost Reason 7 7. And lastly in that these times of the womans being fed and nourished in the Wilderness for 1200 and 60 years wherein the Hereticall war betwixt the Angels of Michael and the Angels of the Dragon was made and was not ended here in our Church until King Charles his dayes in whose time both the Brownists and Puritans were suppressed and the Jesuite Fisher the great Golias of the Papists That the times here spoken of cannot cohere with the Jewes in Pella in these parts was quite vanquished and confuted by Bishop Laud and these times that are here expressed by time times and half a time which are the time of the Churches persecution after the 1200 and 60 years and the end of the hereticall warre cannot be referred to the believing Jewes in Pella but rather for the persecution of our Protestant Churches and the preservation of them from being ruined by the earths opening of her mouth to swallow up the flood of afflictions that the Dragon casteth after them because the Holy Ghost saith that after three dayes and a half which is the very same time though expressed in other termes with time times and half a time the spirit of life from God shall enter into the witnesses that is ministris verbi as Junius confesseth the Bishops and Preachers of Gods word or as E. H. more rightly thinketh the Magistrates and Ministers which formerly had been slain and they shall stand again upon their feet that is in their successors by a Monarchicall and Episcopall Government to shew that God will not suffer his Church and Servants to be alwayes nor long trodden underfoot and to want her lawfull Pastors and Governours but should have the witnesses of Christ within a short space restored unto her And we are confident that such a thing as this never happened to the believing Jewes in Pella nor to any other believing Church in the World that we know of that both the witnesses of God That we cannot remember where it happened that the chief Magi. strate and the
that this beast should like the Giants of the former age that the Poets mention 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make war against Gost that is against the Honour Service and Servants of God and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pravus dux the Captain or Generall of the Beast and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the victor or Conqueror in the Wars of the beast do containe the same number of 666. and do meete at the same end and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and some other names have been observed by the diligent search into this Mystery to contain the number 666. and all these and the like to these may be very well said to cohere with that Parliament that hath acted whatsoever any of those names hath signified But though all these are very neere the marke yet they do not fully come home to the point because as Rupertus well observeth nomen quod Johannes hic insinuat non erit nomen antichristo ab adversariis impositum the name of the beast that St. John understandeth here shall not be any name that his adversaries shall give unto the Antichrist as are most of the aforesaid names but the name that the beast assumeth to himselfe and glorieth in it and requireth it to be ascribed unto him and used by all his subjects and adherents that is the name that is here meant by the Evangelist and therefore it is nomarvell that the name of the beast could not be known to any of the foresaid Authors before the beast assumed it to himselfe God giving notice of this name mystically under this number onely to be discerned that it might not be known and expressed untill the beast should be discovered which should be manifested unto the Saints when they see him called by that name that should containe the number of 666. For if God had plainly told us his name the beast would never have assumed it because all men should then have known who had been the Antichrist And therefore now let us examine what name the Parliament assumed to it selfe and whether that name containeth the just number of 666. The parailele and I told you before that the name and title which that Parliament challenged to be given unto it selfe is custodes nostrarum libertatum or as it was to be used in all writs and in all judiciall Cours The Keepers of the Liberties of Ingland The proper name affumed by the Parliament by the Authoritie of our Parliament This was the name and this was the Title and the Inscription which by a secret instinct of Gods Providence unaware unto themselves that Parliament took and appropriated as all men know unto themselves and this name both in Latin and in English doth make the full and just number of 666. for omitting the m. which is the number of perfection and eternity Haymo in Apoc l. 7. as Haymo and others do very rightly observe and which is usually omitted in our computes as I shewed to you before you shall finde the Arithmeticall letters of custodes nostrarum libertatum to be c. u. d. u. l. 1. u. which makes up just 666. Object But you will say it was custodes libertatis and you ad nostrarum so you make their name to fill up the number otherwise then they took it or that it was indeed Sol. I answer with the old rule that cannot be denied quod necessario subintelligitur Compare Mat. 4. 10. v. with Deut. 6.13 c. 10.12 â—0 c. 13.4 the word onely is not in any of them In the whole Triall of Mr. Live p. 2. 3. non deest as the word onely which our Saviour addeth to the texts of Moses when he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and him onely shalt thou serve which is not found in any Text of Moses sheweth that it must necessarily be understood in those Texts of Moses so I add nothing but what of necessity must be added and understood or we shall never understand what they meane because they meant not that they were the keepers patrones and defenders of any one particular liberty but of all the liberties of the Parliament and people And so their Atturney Generall every where termes them the Keepers of the Liberties of Ingland as you may see it in his Charge of High Treason against Mr. Love and it must not be thought they meant the Liberties of the French Italians Spaniards or of any other Nation but of us the Free-born Subjects and Natives of this Kingdom of Ingland But because they like not the Latin name though Latin be one of the three authentick Languages Lâ—desima de sacra Scriptura quavis passim lingua non legenda that we finde in Scripture as Ledesima sheweth but say it is not their speech but the Language of the beast whom they abhor Let us examine their name and title in their own native Language and that is The Keepers of the Liberties of Ingland by the Authoritie of our Parliment this is the name that they took and appropriated to themselves by an Act of Parliament and omitting in as I said before the numericall letters of this name are l. 1.1.1 l. d. u. 1.1 u. l. 1. which make up just 666. Object If you say that I add the word our to Parliament which they do not but by the Authority of Parliament Sol. I Answer as before that the word our must of necessity be understood because they mean not the Parliament of Paris nor any other Parliament as I take it but our Parliament of Ingland and therefore if you will understand their name right the word our must without question be added unto it And that very Long Parliament summoned by the Writ of the late King Charles the first is called Parliamentum nostrum ad tractandum nobiscum super arduis negotiis regni nostri our Parliament to Treat of the hard Affaires of our Kingdom therefore the word our ought and must be supplyed here unto the word Parliament as the word onely is added by our Saviour Christ to the words of Moses And Object Mar. 4.10 If again you Object that Ingland is more commonly written with an e then with i as rather England then Ingland Sol. I Answer that a common error or an erroneus custom doth not nullifie the truth of any thing nor doth it tie all men neither should it tie any man either to follow it or to justifie it but a single truth ought to be imbraced and followed before the most generall custome of mistaken truth when as we know that an error once received is often times so generally followed that it can very hardly be reclaimed and I say that the orthography and right writing of this word should be Ingland and not England and I refer this matter and the orthography of this word to be decided and adjudged by any judicicus and unpartiall Grammarians that are to write all wordes either according to the derivation of
that place The fixth upon the river Euphrates which is to be understood not literally no more then the other places aforenamed but in the similitude for which the Holy Ghost applyeth it and that is as the great river Euphrates was like a wall of brass to the City of Babylon to preserve it from all invasion so will the Army of the beast the wealth and great riches of the Antichrist that he hath heaped together and the wit and subtlety of the false Prophet be as an impregnable fortress to protect them in all their impiety tyranny and oppression but as Cyrus divided the mighty river Gyndes that fed Euphrates into 360. brookes Hgrodotus l. 1. Clio. and then turned aside Euphrates out of her own channel into that huge poole which was formerly made by Queen Nitocris and so took away the strength and considence of the City and having thus made way for his souldiers he entered and took that great and famous City of Babylon through the Channell of this mighty river so will Christ by the ministrie of the first Angel divide all the strength and take away all the confidence of the remnant of the beast and will dry up or wast all the wealth of his adherents and befoole the wit and devices of the false Prophet and so remove all the impediments that were like the river Euphrates the hinderers of his servants to overthrew the kingome of the Antichrist and to take away his Rule and Dominion and to suppresse his tyranny over Gods servants And when all this will not avail to cause this shaked beast and disjointed routed armie of the Antichrist to return from his unjust wayes and most wicked courses but that three unclean spirits like frogs shall come out of the mouth of the Dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false Prophet which are the spirits of devills working â—â—â—â—cles and going forth to the Kings of the earth and of the whole world 〈…〉 them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty that is a great many lying and deceitful spirits What is meant by the warre and battle that the beast maketh with God and false prophets because the number of three as of seven hath verie often none other importance then a great many shall be still sent forth to everie place to oppose the true service of God to lay his honour in the dust and to suppresse and trample his servants under feet which is all the war that the beast and all his hornes and all other beasts in the world can make against God Almighty then saith Christ Behold I come as a thief that is suddenly and unexpected and he will send the seventh Angell with the last viall of Gods wrath and the seventh Angel will pour out his Vial into the River and a great voice shall come out of the Temple of heaven Revel 5.14 2 Pet. 3.10 Esay 14.4 and from the Throne saying it is done that is the Preachers of Christ shall by the light of the truth tell the people that will not repent the time is at hand that Christ shall come to judgement and that the heavens shall depart as a scroule and the Elements shall melt with servent heat and there shall be an end of all things Then the Son of a man Jesus Christ ere it be long though how long or how soon no mortall man can tell shall come in the glorie of his Father with his Angels to take the heast that shall be then alive and the false Prophet and all his adherents and all those that past away before to make a finall and a total end of them and to throw them into the Lake of sire and brimstone and to render unto everie man according to his deeds to them that by patient conthâ—uance in well doing seeke for glorie and honour and immortalitie eternall life but unto them that are contentions rebellious murderers oppressors idolaters lyars and all such transgressors of Gods Lawes that obey not the truth but take pleasure in unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish and eternall destruction to everie man that doth evill And this is the end of the Antichrist Amen Jamque opus est exegi Et plena jam Margine libri Scriptus in tergo nec dum finitus Orestes But I look that some Alter ater Ecebolius Some bold blind and ignorant Presbyterian Zoilus like an Orlando furioso will run at me as Don Quixot ran against the Wind-mill and like an angry Wasp sting both me and my book animamque in vulnere ponet yet as gold is gold though the Chimick say it is copper and copper is but copper though the deceitful Mountebank say it is gold so the truth of my writings will be found true when their lies and raylings like another Rabsheka will appear of what stuffe they are unto the world si tantus amor if they have such love and longing desire of a rayling digladiation as one of them did against my Book The Grand Rebellion Mr. John Goodwin they may chance to find their mate that may fitter undertake them then it is for a man of my place and calling as leni fluit agmine tibris so will I gently and charitably pray that God would give them more grace to have lesse malice Trini vni deo sit omnis laus honor et gloria in secula seculorum Amen Amen Jehovae Liberatori FINIS
they could find to put these offices and the government of the Churches into their hands and they thought it well in such a kingdom as this of Ingland if they found 26. men that with the help and advice of their brethren their Deans and Prebends were sufficient to govern the Churches so wisely and so orderly as they ought to do it and do you think it is as easie to finde 6000. men that are fit to do it that you may place a Bishop in every Parish I think you will faile and your selves at last will see your own folly and smart for your mistaking when every Parish Priest will be as imperious over you as Hildebrand was over Henry the fourth But 2. Touching the working of strange miracles we say it was a great miracle 2. To work strange miracles 1 Reg. 17.23 Acts 9.4 John 11.44 that Elias did to raise the dead child of the widow of Sarepta and a great miracle that Saint Peter did to raise Dorcas an old widow that was dead to life again and it was a greater miracle that Christ did to raise up Lazarus out of his grave when he had been dead four dayes And yet besides their many meaner miracles that these Presbyters say they do they pretend if you will believe them to do things that are far more miraculous and greater wonders then any of these or them either that Moses or Elias or any other of all the Prophets or Apostles ever did for we are sure that neither of all those either did or could raise a soule dead in trespasses and sins to the life of grace but this being as it were a new creation it must be left alone to God for ever whose proper work it is to create a new heart and to renew a right spirit within us yet this beast and the disciples of this false Prophet do boast and brag unto the people of the multitude of Saints that they have begotten to God when as indeed they have of late seduced them to be as false and as rebellious as themselves What wonderful thing the Presbyters do Psalm 51.10 The discourse of a Presbyterian with the Authour Esay 53. â—â— And so one of them asked me where were the Seales of our Apostleship the signes and evidences of our Bishops and Prelatical mens ministery how many soules had they converted unto God and where were those converts whereby they might approve themselves unto the people to be the true Ministers of God as they could do by the confession of their Proselytes and I answered that I feared their converts were but perverted and that I conceived it was not in mans power to convert soules when as the Prophet cryeth who hath believed our report and again all day long have I stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and a gainsaying people and if it had been in mans poower to work faith in the hearts of the hearers then questionlesse Rom 10 1. c. 9.3 We have not the power to convert souls this great Prophet would have done it in the children of Israel and Saint Paul would have converted the Jewes his own brethren according to the flesh whom he did so dearly love as himself doth testify to have believed in Christ but we know that although the false Prophets may easily pervert men to disloyalty and wickednesse because the devill is alwayes ready to help them and natural men are prone to evill yet we cannot convert men to the true faith and to goodnesse Acts 15.19 unlesse the Spirit of God cooperateth with us to open the hearts of our hearers as he opened the heart of Lydia when the Apostle preached unto her because as Saint Hierom saith inanis est sermo docentis nisi intus sit qui docet the Preacher may say with the Prophet in vacuum laboravi I have laboured in vain if God by his spirit doth not preach unto the heart And therefore their wonderful brags of converting soules are but lying wonders not to be regarded by any man that regards the truth Psal 15.12 and these hornes are not the hornes of the Lamb but ungodly horns and the horns of the ungodly which as the Prophet saith shall be broken by the Lord all to pieces That the two horns may signifie the two Testaments Torres in sua Philosophia morali pag. 849. Texeda pag. 6. of his miracles unmasked Or else these two horns as Cornelius à lapide saith to whom I subscribe may signify the two testaments which are robora ornamenta Christi the strength and ornament of Christ and the language of the lambe which bring men to believe in Christ rather then then all the miracles of Christ for as Torres out of Lactantius saith non idcirco à nobis creditur Christus quia mirabilia fecit sed quia vidimus facta esse omnia quae nobis annuciata sunt vaticinio prophetarum Christ is not therefore believed by us because he wrought miracles which Vespasian did and the idolatets of China do and the false Prophets by our Saviours testimony may do but because we have seen all things accomplished which were foretold us of him by the Prophets The paralell This is infallibly fulfilled in the Paesbyterians And the beast layeth claim to these hornes and so of all the Preachers and Prophets Papists or Protestants it is well known that none pretend more love and more right to these hornes then the Presbyterians and the Independant and Lay-Preachers do for they reject all other learning and all authorities of Counsells Fathers Poets Orators Histories and all other Books and will allow of nothing but the pure book of the holy Scripture they will have none other horns but these which they say are the hornes of our Lamb and no Christian will denie them to be so nor gainsay the strength and authority of these hornes And yet as A lapide rightly observeth as I told you before of it A good obserservation of Cornel à lapide in loc this beast is said to have not the two hornes of the Lamb but two hornes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like to the horns of the Lamb and every Sophister can tell you that nullum simile est idem that which only is like a thing is not the thing and therefore though they cry out with the false Prophets of the Jewes os Domini loquutum est the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it for they preach nothing but Gospel and the pure Scriptures of the two Testaments and it is we and not they if you believe them that run to the puddles of humane authorities yet in very deed it is no such matter for the holy Ghost that best understandeth both the language of the Lamb and of this beast tells us plainly in the very next words that although their horns be like the horns of the Lamb yet in truth Why this second beast is said to speak like the Dragon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beast speaketh like the Dragon that is though their words are pretended to be the words of Christ yet that which they aim at to effect are the plots of the Dragon and I beseech you mark it the first beast had a mouth like a Lion but this second beast spake like the dragon and why so because the first spake Magnalia great and glorious things what would they not do The paralel if they might have what they desired so you may remember what fair promises the Parliament made unto the King and the second spake mendacia lies and falshood which is the first language of the old Serpent the devill who is a lyar from the beginning and the father of lyes saith our Saviour Job 8. John 8. and so is the false Prophet and as the Dragon cloathed his lyes with sair speeches and large promises saying you shall be like Gods knowing good and evill so the Apostle tells us Rom. 16.18 2 Pet. 3.26 Mat. 4.6 these false teachers that make divisions in the Church and Rebellions in the Common-Wealth and dissentions among neighbours do with good words and faire speeches deceive the hearts of the simple and what are those good words but the very words of the Holy Scriptures then which no words can be better yet St. Peter tells us the Scriptures may be wrested abused and misapplyed as the Devill did to Christ and so do the false Prophets Trenens l. 1. c. 1. for seeing they come in sheeps clothing it behoves them to bring nothing but good words even the most blessed words of the Holy Scriptures in their mouthes but as Ireneus speaketh adaptare â—upientes ea quae bene dicta sunt iis quae male adinuenta sunt ab ipfis they are alwayes striving to fit those things which are well spoken in the Scriptures to what they have misinvented so did the Valentinians to establish their thirty couples of Gods and Goddesses so did the Arians to deny the Divinity of Christ so do the Papists to justifie their Purgatory and so this Beast the Presbyterians and their Disciples do to uphold all the wicked Tenents that they have invented to oppose their King to expell their Bishops and to extirpate our Lyturgy and service of the Church out of the Church and to spread many other points of their desperate Doctrine which is if any thing be the Language of the Dragon though they speak it in the good words of the Holy Scriptures and fair speeches which is a counterfeit shew of much purity and holiness that so with this shadow of piety they might the sooner make the people believe they are the onely Saints Stap in his counter blast and their words the very truth and language of the Lamb. And I think the adherents of the Long Parliament and this false Prophet scattered as many lies in their Bookes and Pamphlets as Stapleton collecteth out of Bishop Horne if we had but such another Stapleton to pick them out and if you can name any Pope that published more lies then this false Prophet I shall subscribe to the opinion of the Prosbyterians that he is the beast which speaks like the Dragon But Sir John Presbyter confesseth that although they pretend nothing but Scripture yet the Blasphemies Treasons Heresies Incongruities Tantalogies and Absurdities of his brethren and children the Presbyterians in the large measure of their Prayers and Sermons observed by the people hath been a great cause of his untimely death p. 5. 3. It is said v. 12. that this two horned beast exerciseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Power of the first beast or rather all the Authority which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth more properly fignifie and he causeth the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast Bezius de regno Ital. l. 4. c. 5 1. c. 6. which cannot be applyed to the Pope and his Cardinalls that say the Temperall Sword is and ought to be subject to the Spirituall as Bozius Hostiensis Bellarmine and the rest of that Church do avouch and I shewed you before how this false Prophet the Presbyterians Independants and Lay-Preachers did all that they acted by the Authority aud under the Power of the Parliament Hostien in can quod supor his c. Bellarm. de rom pontif l. 5. c. 5. The parallele Of the power of the second beast plainly fulfilled in the Presbyterians and therefore they Preached and perswaded all men especially the Inhabitants of the earth as the holy Gh. saith all such as were as earthly and as worldly minded as themselves to adhere and to assist the Parliament against the King and his Party which is just as is the worshipping of the first beast that is the temporall state and which is and hath been alwayes the property and practice of all false Prophets to shelter themselves as the Arians did under Constantius and to further their Projects under the wings of their Powerfull Protectors whom they do therefore magnifie perswade all others to worship them that they might thereby effect their own wicked deeds and be secured from the Power of the Church Then 4. Of the miracles of the false prophet 4. It is said v. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he doth great wonders where I take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not for a disjunctive or causative as Mr. Mede takes it but as it is commonly used for a copulative to that which went before as that this second beast used the Power and Authority of the first beast and being protected and furthered by the Power and strength of the first beast they did thereby great wonders and so St. Paul saith 2 Thes 2.9 the Antichrist should come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with signes and lying wonders and our Saviour saith Bellar. Antichr prodigia potius praestigia daemonum mera mira quam vera miracula statuit de notis eccles c. 14. the false Christs and Prophets that are the followers and promoters of the Antichrist should arise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and should shew great signes and wonders whereby you may see that both the beast and his instruments the Antichrist the false Prophet and the whole troope of his disciples shall pretend to shew signes and wonders to deceive the people and the signes that they shew are just like the signe that Judas gave unto his followers a kisse which is a pretence of love and great kindnesse but it was both destructive to Christ and deceitfull to the followers of Christ so the beast and the false Prophet do kisse those their Proselites with good words and faire promises whom they intend to allure to foule acts and to betray them to evill enemies and so the people are thereby deceived and the Church of Chrift destroyed But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a wonder which the false Prophets are said by Christ to do Aquinas in 2 Thes 2. Prodigia quasi