with the same spirit namely such as prophesie against the Beast and his Throne and all those that by their constant profession of the Truth and refusing communion with the Beast doe become thereby the witnesses of Christ For the Beast wars with the Saints Chap. 13.7 But what be those weapons and what those forces wherewith this Beast warreth against Christs witnesses and Gods Saints Surely hee useth all manner of weapons whereby to execute his beastly cruelty And these may be reduced to two kindes The Spirituall Sword and the Temporall Sword His Spirituall Sword is the brute Thunderbolt of his execrable Excommunication direfull Curses and dreadfull Courts as his Court of Inquisition and of High Commission and other his Prelaticall and Hierarchicall Courts which are so many Dens wherin this hideous Beast once inclosing the Saints doth prey upon them he and his Cubs But if this his Sword prove not strong enough as meeting with some mettle too tough for it to â—â—â—rce then he can command with a wet finger the helpe of the Temporall Sword which is like Tamberlains black and bloudy Banner which being displayed by the Beasts power and inspired with his fiery-mettled spirit breathes nothing but either fire and faggot or Pillory with shedding of bloud perpetuall close imprisonment banishment and all other evils of this life more bitter and cruell by many degrees than death it selfe And this is his kinde of warre But how comes he to do these things by the help of the Temporall Power when commonly all his proceedings are without either law or colour of justice except according to the Beasts owne lawlesse Law For this hee wants not his devices for hee will so contrive the matter and lay his snares as either the innocent being brought into the Temporall Court where also he himself wil sit a Judge and where his spirit is wondrously predominant shall be forced to assent to the condemnation of his own cause before the hearing or else if hee refuse so to doe he shall be censured as guiltie of all those hainous crimes laid to his charge though never so false and maliciously devised yea hee can so handle the businesse as the censure shall be agreed upon and concluded before ever his day of hearing come and when it is come his Legall Defence shal never be heard This needs no application And this is the Beasts manner of warring right nor should it be properly the Beasts warre were it not altogether bestiall void of all Law or conscience or honesty or humanitie And ever his mayn forces and battery are bent against the two witnesses namely such as doe constantly testifie and maintain the Prerogative of Christs Kingly Government over his Church against the Beasts proud and tyrannicall usurpations and the truth of the Gospel and Word of Christ against all Antichrists lyes and the authoritie and sufficiencie of the Holy Scripture against the Beasts unwritten Traditions and Ecclesiasticall Canons the authoritie whereof hee preferreth above and opposeth against the Law of God As for all wicked prophane and impious persons his Holines hath no quarrell against them for either they are such as belong to the Beasts Den or at least though they be not of it yet they are not much against it Thus he warreth Secondly as the Beast warreth against the witnesses so hee shall overcome them How shall hee overcome them Their faith and testimony hee shall not overcome so as to force them to recant or desert their cause or betray their conscience For Chap. 12.11 those on Christs side overcame the Dragon by the bloud of the Lamb and by the word of their Testimonie and they loved not their lives unto the death Nor shal the Beast be able to overcome them by force of arguments and reasoning for he is a Beast yea the Beast of all Beasts his Arguments are fire and faggot Pillory and bloud-shed as before down-right club-law or a push with his ten q Revel 17.12 hornes or a by-back-blow with his paw So as thus hee comes to get the conquest over their bodies indeed he can shut them close up hee can pillory them hee can mangle and torture them and a thousand ways subdue r Matth. 10.28 their bodies but can doe no more Luke 12.4 Not only so but in the third place hee shall kill them Famous is the Beast for his infinite bloudy victories over Christs Witnesses in this kinde by putting them to death But now there is a twofold kind of death which he puts them to The first is by a violent separation of their soule from their bodie as in the flames of Martyrdome This hath bin the Beasts practice of old But this subtile Dragon finding by experience that his kingdome rather suffered damage this way then wonne any ground and that it proved rather an advantage to his Adversaries and brought much hatred to his barbarous cruelty in so putting them to death hee hath found out another kinde of death and that though not in show yet indeed farre more cruell than the other and that is by a violent and perpetuall separation of a living man from all the delights comforts and contentments in the World from his wife and children from his meanes and livelihood friends and acquaintance from the Communion of Saints yea from all societie of men and in a word from all the means of comfort in this life Spirituall or Temporall So as a man in this case may be said to be killed or deprived of life when he is deprived of all those things without which life cannot well be called a life but a death rather or such a life as that in hell where not one drop of comfort is allowed to those tormented souls And as dead men neither see nor heare nor speake nor write nor have any commerce with the living So these may neither see their living friends nor heare from them by letters nor speake nor write unto them nor have any commerce with them Thus far dead they be And in this sense we have seen some eminent Witnesses of Christ yet living in their close Prisons in remote Lands thus to bee killed in these our dayes Which being so may it not bee one evident signe that we are now in the sixt Trumpet wherein wee have seene so many things to be come to passe and fulfilled so particularly set forth in this Prophecie It followeth Verse 8. Verse 8. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great Citie which spiritually is called Sodome and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and Nations shall see their dead bodies three dayes and a halfe and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoyce over them and make merry and shall send gifts one to another because these two Prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth Now these dead bodies as we said before may
and behind And in that their tayls are said to have heads like Serpents it doth argue that this army against Babylon is not only potent but prudent and politicke in managing of the warre And where it is said Verse 20. That the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands that they should not worship Devils and Idols of gold and silver and brasse and stone and of wood which neither can sea nor heare nor walke Neither repented they of their murthers nor of their sorceries nor of their fornication nor of their thefts hence we note these particulars First that all this warre all these plagues as is touched before are against spirituall Babylon against the Kingdome of the Beast and the head and body of Popery Secondly for confirmation hereof this Spirituall Babylon notwithstanding all her smooth evasions and shifts to put it off as the r Prov. 30.20 whore in the Proverbs wipes her lips and saith I have done no wickednesse is found to be a notorious and egregious Idolatresse in as much as all her Images of gold silver brasse stone wood are here in plain termes called Idols as which can neither see nor heare nor walke Yet Papists doe give that worship and honour unto them as if they did both see and heare and walke yea as if they had a very Deity in them And this is that Spirituall fornication of that great Whore Chap. 17.3 with whom the Kings of the earth have committed fornication and the inhabitants of the earth have beene made drunke with the nine of her fornication as being no lesse mad upon her Images and Idols and other service devised by men then Drunkards are upon new Wine Therefore is this Babylon the Great called the Mother of whordoms and abominations of the earth Ver. 5. But yet for al this you must not cal her so She wil be called no other but the Holy Catholike Church the chast Spouse of Christ Thirdly I note here that all her idolatrous Service in her Image-worship is the worship of Devils cōsequently all Papists are the Devils vassals and servants A hard doome you will say but it is as true as Gods Word here is true Fourthly Notwithstanding all this and that God plagues the Beast and his brood and wars against Babylon with his terrible armies and doth and will prevaile against her yet she is altogether incorrigible incurable though they see the third part of them slain yet the rest will not repent of their Idolatry and other Babylonian sins as murthering of Gods Saints and Martyrs using Witchcraft and Sorcery authorizing of publike Stews and that for money and robbing and cheating the simple people of their money by their Mountebanke Masses Dispensations and Pardons and a thousand such like trumpery being those sins that are proper to Babylon to this Kingdome of the Beast Fiftly I note here that God rayseth armies against Babylon cuts her short and powres many and grievous plagues upon her thereby to bring her to repentance or otherwise to leave her unexcusable And so much of the ninth Chapter Now follows the tenth Chapter wherein are some things observable that fall under this Sixt Trumpet And so what wee find written in this and the next Chapter till we come to the Seventh belongs all to this Trumpet This tenth Chapter is very mysticall For here are voices of seven thunders uttered but sealed up and unwritten Yet because the very sound of thunder leaves some impression behind it and though mans understanding cannot interpret it yet the Conscience being strucke with terrour will pick some meaning out of it therefore taking the Scripture still for our guide we will assay to speak something of this Chap. by the way In the first Verse an Angel is sent out with great Majesty This requires attention to what followeth He hath a Little Book in his hand Verse 2. Verse 2 3 4. Of which more is spoken from the eighth Verse to the end of the Chapter The next thing of marke is the seven Thunders uttering their voices but sealed up and this followeth immediatly upon the Angels setting his right foot upon the Sea and his left foot on the Earth crying with a loud voice as when a Lion roareth This is very mysticall But this Angell by his description should bee Christ the same that is described Chapter 1.13 14 15 16. His standing with one foot on the Sea and another on the Land seemes to allude to ſ Exod. 14.15.16 Moses standing on the Sea side and stretching his Rod over the Sea and crying with a strong voice of Prayer to God Or it alludeth to the t Iosh 3.14 15 16. dipping of the Priests feet in the brim of Iordan so soon as the one foot touched the water the Streame recoyled and gave way Both these were Types of Christ and of his Church And this which is here written falling under this Sixt Trumpet is a prophecie of the destruction of Babylon and of the deliverance of Gods people Upon this cry follows the voice of the seven thunders but sealed up The voice of Thunder is the u Psal 29. voice of God So the Heathen called their God x Iupiter Altitonans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. Iupiter the thundring God But this voice uttered is sealed up But these thunders will speak plain enough in the next Trumpet as also under the seventh Viall when they shall take their effect in blasting and consuming the Kingdome of the Beast For the voice of the Thunders is a Prophecie to be fulfilled in the Next Trumpet As also Verse 5 6 7. the Angell speaketh what shall be under the voice of the Seventh Angell And there is a secret meaning in the voice of the thunder which is expressed not in words but in the effects As the Lord saith y Psal 81.7 Thou calledst in trouble and I delivered thee I answered thee in the secret of thunder This is spoken of Israels deliverance from Egypt where they cried to the Lord and he plagued the Egyptians by his thunder and of their passage thorow the Sea when Moses cried to the Lord and he answered his cry in giving passage for his people and in the secret of his thunder in destroying the Egyptians Even as David saith also in another Psalme where elegantly describing that miraculous deliverance through the Sea The waters saw thee O God the waters saw thee they were afraid the depths also were troubled the clouds powred out water the Skies sent out a sound thine arrows also went abroad he addeth The voice of thy thunder was in the Heaven the Lightnings lightned the World the earth trembled and shooke This is that thunder in the secret whereof the Lord heard the cry of his people in delivering them and in discomfiting and destroying their enemies And thus here the voice of these seven thunders is sealed up and reserved to be
interpreted by the voice of the seventh Angell when these thunders shall have their effect upon the Beast in his destruction For thus also that which followeth as before is touched of the Angels Swearing that time should be no more is to be fulfilled under the Seventh Trumpet when also the Mystery of God shall be finished when all Prophecies shall be accomplished and in the end of the World all time shall be swallowed up of Eternity as before Which by the way noteth unto us that the Seventh Trumpet shall continue sounding and the seventh Viall powring forth untill the end of time Shall time then have an end certainly Here then a question may bee moved what shall become of the Sun and Moone and Starrs whose motion is measured out by time and which distinguisheth the y Gen. 1.14 times and seasons days months and yeeres of this inferiour world For answere whereunto in brief because the question is full of curiositie whether those glorious creatures shall cease to be or their motion shall cease as whereof there seemes to be no more use I find not clearly revealed but this I find There shall be a new z 2 Pet. 3.10 12. heaven and a new earth when the heavens being on fire shall bee dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heate and the earth also and the workes that are therein shall be burnt up But how this shall be or in what particular State or forme it is not revealed Only this resolution is the best which Peter gives * Verse 17. Seeing saith he all these things shal be dissolved what manner of persons ought yee to be in all holy conversation and godlinesse looking for and hastning unto the comming of the day of God c. a Verse 13. Neverthelesse saith he we according to his promise looke for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse It followeth Verse 8 c. Here John is commanded to take the little Book which was open in the Angels hand who takes it and eats it up which becomes sweet in his mouth but bitter in his belly and thereupon he is bid to prophecie before many people and Nations and Tongues and Kings And this is the summe of the foure last Verses of this Chapter It is cleer that this little Book signifieth or containeth those prophecies which John and in him Christs Ministers under this Trumpet called his witnesses in the eleventh Chapter were to publish to the World For upon the receiving of the Book hee is bid to prophecie This place alludes to that in Ezechiel Chap. 2.9 10. and Chap. 3.1 2 3. where the Prophet beholds an hand sent unto him and a rowle of a book therein which was spread before him within and without and there was written therein Lamentations and mourning and wo and hee was bid to eate this rowle and to go and speake unto the house of Israel which hee eating found it in his mouth sweet as honey A just parallell to this little booke here all circumstances compared together So as this little booke containeth for the matter of it those judgements of God which Iohn was to denounce in his prophesying to fall upon the Beast and his Kingdome The sweetnesse of it in his mouth argues the b Esay 39.8 goodnesse of Gods Word even when it denounceth judgements for sinne whereupon if men bee brought to repent it is sweet as honey in the mouth but if they heare and doe not repent it goes downe into the belly and the effects thereof prove bitternesse in the end The Apostle saith that Gods Word is the c 2 Cor. 2.15 sweet savour of God in them that are saved and in them that perish Againe this sweetnesse in the mouth of John and bitternesse in his belly shewes that Gods message should be sweete to his Mininisters in receiving it and delivering it with their mouth although in the issue it prove bitter unto them as being the cause and occasion of much trouble and persecution which they suffer of the World such as befell the Prophets and Apostles and Ministers of Christ in all succeding ages and as we shall see more particularly in the next Chapter to which we now come Chap. 11.1 c. And there was given me a reed like unto a rod and the Angel stood Saying Rise and measure the Temple of God and the Altar and them that worship therein But the Court which is without the Temple leave out and measure it not for it is given unto the Gentiles and the holy Citie shall they tread underfoot fortie and two moneths And I will give power unto my two witnesses and they shall prophesie a thowsand two hundred and threescore days clothed in Sackcloth c. Still we are to rememb r as before is noted that wee are yet within the compasse of the sixt Trumpet So as what is here laid downe untill we come to the Seventh Trumpet Verse 15. must bee interpreted as appertaining to the sixt Trumpet Within this Sixt Trumpet then all this is done John here represents as I said those faithfull Ministers or witnesses of Christ here mentioned who living under this sixt Trumpet must rise and take the reed and measure the Temple and the Altar but must not measure the Court without the Temple but leave it out First they mâ—st rise that is begin to bestir themselves in their Ministery And wherein must they exercise themselves In measuring the Temple and the Altar with the reed in the Angells hand This alludes to that measuring Reede which Ezechiell saw in a vision wherewith he measured the Temple c. as Chapter 40. and 41. c. Now by the Temple here is meant the true Church of Christ as is cleer by many places as 1 Cor. 3.16.17 2. Cor. 6.16 Eph. 2.21 And in many places of this booke of the Revelation Temple is taken for the Church of Christ as Chap. 15.5.6 and in the 19 verse of this Chapter and elsewhere And by the reede in the Angells hand to measure withall is meant the straight rule of Gods word by which alone the true Church of Christ being measured is thereby known and distinguished from all false and pretended Churches And that John Christs Minister is bid to rise and thus to measure Gods Temple his Church doth plainly argue that in the time of this Trumpet the Ministers of Antichrist shall arise and make a loud claim to the title of the Temple as pertaining properly to them and to none other Among many other take one famous instance What a notorious booke is published of late by the Prelate of Canterbury wherein he sweats and labours to prove that the only true Catholike Church of Christ over the world is made up of the many Prelaticall Churches as the proper members of the body so as he makes the Church of England and of Rome to be all one Church and finally shuts out all reformed Protestant Churches that have no Prelates
as no true Churches of Christ And because his single word which is his best and only argument may the better passe without controule hee goes about tooth and naile to cry downe the sufficiencie of the Scriptures as being an imperfect rule of it selfe to measure the Church by And this his Booke he hath beene so bold as to dedicate to the King and makes it the faith of his Church of England as professing one Faith and Religion with Rome Is it not high time then for some John or other faithful Ministers of Christ to rise and take the measuring Reed in his hand Gods Word and therewith exactly measure the Temple of God Christs Church that it may be distinguished and differenced from all false pretended Churches and in especiall from the Antichristian Hierarchie the prelaticall Catholike Church as the d In his last reprinted Conference Epist Dedic p. 16. and elsewhere in his Book Prelate cals his Church in which Catholike his Church of England and of Rome are both one and the same Church No doubt of that They be the Prelats owne words So as when the Prelate was so Zealous to bring Scotland to a conformitie with England and when the Scots read in his Book Englands conformitie with Rome as to be one Church and to professe one Faith and Religion with Rome might not this trow you startle and move the Scots to expell and repell to thrust out and keepe out at the Speares point this Conformity And so might not the Prelates false Hierarchicall Catholike Church excluding all Protestant Reformed Churches from being any true Churches of Christ justly incense the Zealous hearts of Scotland seeing Christ thus to be dishonoured and thrust out of his Throne and Antichrists Prelates to be so mounted aloft to cast out such usurping Lords that so none but Christ according to his Word and the Lords Anointed according to his just Laws might rule over them Thus we see how necessary this measuring of the Temple is under this sixt Trumpet and what a cleere note it is of the time wherein this sixt Trumpet is sounded So as we may boldly say upon such cleere evidence that now is the time of the sixt Trumpet when there is such need of measuring the Temple with the Reed thereby to know and vindicate and separate Christs true Church from all counterfeit and Antichristian Churches that at this time doe so boast themselves for the only true Catholike Church of Christ As in Chrysostome the uncertaine Authour upon Matthew Chap. 24. hath observed Let them which are in Iudea flee to the Mountains that is saith hee let all true Christians flie to the Scriptures for in the time of Antichrist it will bee impossible to know the true Church from the false but only by the Scriptures So hee But the said Prelate of Canterburie rejects the Scripture from being a sufficient and perfect measuring Reed of the Temple and good reason because on the one side the Prelate makes the Hierarchie to be of the very essence of the Catholike Church and on the other side the Scripture no where approveth of Prelacie or of Diocesan Lord Bishops it knows none such yea and both e Matth. 20. 1 Pet. 5. 3 Iohn 9.10 Christ forbade it to his Apostles and they afterwards never practised it themselves but expresly condemned it in all as in the Reply to the Prelates Relation the Author hath cleerly proved Come wee now to the measuring of the Altar As the Temple and Tabernacle under the Law had their just measures and Dimensions prescribed of God so also the Leviticall Altar Now under the Law there was but one Altar one for burnt offerings and one for incense both these as one were types and figures of Christ the true and only Altar under the Gospell For as the Altar under the Law did Sanctifie every guift and offering upon it as Exod. 29.37 and Mat. 23.19 so Christ is to us that only Altar on which wee offering our selves and our Spiritual Sacrifices both are Sanctified and accepted of God This is that Altar Heb. 13.10 of which the Apostle saith We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eate which serve the Tabernacle That this Altar is Christ and only Christ is cleer because He being come who is the true Altar the typicall altar must altogether cease Otherwise those who still served the Tabernacle might have had right to eate of our Altar could the Type and the Truth have consisted together And the Apostle expresly applyes this Altar which wee Christians have to Christ as Verse 11 12 13 15. where he showes the proper use of this Altar in sanctifying our offerings concluding and saying By him therefore let us offer the Sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name By him that is by Christ our Altar in his Name we must offer up all our Sacrifices that so they may be Sanctified and accepted of God This is so cleere that no sober Divine that understands any thing at all can deny So as the measuring of the Altar here is as the measuring of the Temple whereof wee have spoken before the vindicating of Christ to be the true and only Altar of true Christians And this is a dutie enjoyned all faithfull Ministers and especially under this Sixt Trumpet in these our very times wherein we have seen such furious Romish Zeale in hoysing up of Altars every where and boldly maintaining both in f Doct. Pock in his Altare l. Christianum Rather Damâ—scenum Books and Sermons the necessary use of such their devised Altars of wood and stone as without which God cannot be served nor their Sacrifices sanctified wheras these their Altars with al their Altar-service worship of maÌ„s devising are not only derogatory from Christ the only true Altar but also a flat deniall of Christ and a very Masse of all Heathenish impietie and atheisticall infidelitie and Antichristian apostacie For that multitude of wooden and stone altars which our Prelates do erect in all their Churches are taken rather from the Heathen as King g 2 Kings 16. Ahaz and his Priest framed their Altar according to the pattern of that at Damascus or from Rome which took them from the Heathen or from the Iews but if they say they take them from the Jewes as they doe many other of their Rites then they very much forget themselves and that in two mayne points first because the Church of the Iewes had but h 2 Chro. 32.12 one altar for Incense and Sacrifice and that was at Ierusalem they might not set up Altars in any other place so as in their seventy yeeres captivitie in Babylon they had no altar there and at this day the Temple and Altar at Ierusalem being demolished they have no Altar as no Sacrifice or Incense So as no Jerusalem and no Temple there no Altar now of wood or stone or any other matter or
signified which the Lord is about to doe in the time of this Sixt Trumpet For the finding out whereof we are to compare these words with that prophecie which we finde written in the fourth Chapter of Zechariah where Ver. 1. the prophet is by the angell awaked as out of sleep Which noteth a stirring up of the Prophet to great attention to what was now in a vision shewed unto him as being a matter of great moment and diligently to bee marked In the vision the prophet Saw a golden Candelstick with Seven Lamps and on each side thereof two Olive trees This vision came in the time when the Temple at Hierusalem was a reparing by Zerubbabell and it was by the word of the Lord to signify unto him as V. 6. Saying This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel saying Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of hosts This was to comfort and incourage Zerubbabel in the work as also Verse 9. which the enemies of Gods people did so much deride and mock at as a worke which could never be finished as we read Nehem. 4.2 3. Where Sanballat spake to his brethren and the army of Samaria having great indignation and mocking the Jews said What do these feeble Iews Wil they fortifie themselves Wil they sacrifise Wil they make an end in a day Wil they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burnt And Tobiah the Ammonite said Even that which they build if a Fox go up he shal evē break down their stone wal Now against all this the Lord incourageth Zerubbabel and his people by this Vision of the Candlesticks and two Olive-trees shewed to the Prophet whereof the Lord himselfe is the Authour and not man Therefore he saith Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of hosts That like as the Spirit of the Lord shewed this Vision to his Prophet wherein is shadowed out the indeficient and never fayling Kingdome of Jesus Christ who is the fountain of grace and the good u Ro. 11.17 24 Olive-tree which runneth and floweth forth with Oile continually to supply his x Revel 1. golden Candlesticks his Ministers and Prophets by the light of whose Prophecie as the Temple was founded and finished by the Prophecie of haggai and Zechariah the Prophets of the Lord at that time so the Church of Christ in all ages shall be built up repaired and in fine fully finished But in speciall this worke this great worke of repayring the Temple and restoring true Religion unto its primitive purity is to be accomplished under this sixt Trumpet wherein the Lord hath his two witnesses answerable to those two Prophets Haggai and Zechariah by whose Prophecie the ancient Temple the figure of the Church under the Gospel was repaired by the power of whose prophecie through the Grace and Spirit of Christ his true Church and Religion shall bee repaired maugre all the malice of Sanballat and Tobiah with their Samaritan Army to withstand the building and notwithstanding all the scorne and mockerie power and policie of Antichrist and his nimble Foxes that thinke by their treading upon the wall to overthrow it This work I say is to be performed and is now already begun to be acted under this Sixt Trumpet And therefore hath the Spirit of Christ in this place compared his two witnesses and their prophecie unto two golden Candlesticks and two Olive-trees that stand before y Zech. 4.14 the Lord of the whole Earth as it is said in Zechariah as it were pointing us with the finger to that whole vision of the Prophet setting forth the perfect reparation of that Temple to the end wee might be out of all doubt that the Lord under this Trumpet is about the like great work of reparation and restauration of his Church and Religion which shall prosper and be accomplished not by might nor by power of men but by the Spirit of the Lord in the mouth of his two witnesses and by the word of their prophecie crying as in Zechariah z Zech. 4 7. Grace grace unto it And for our further confirmation in the truth hereof have wee not a cleere and evident demonstration of it in that admirable worke of Reformation of the Kirke of Scotland at this day whereof we are all eye-witnesses And was this done by might and power of man No. They indeed as a Neh. 4 17 18 those Jewish builders and repayrers as aforesaid began to build working with the one hand with the other holding a weapon or having their sword at their side to defend themselves against the Antichristian yoke of the Herarchie as against Sanballets and Tobiahs and chiefly to vindicate the honour crown throne Scepter and Kingdome of Jesus Christ over his people from Antichrists proud and impious usurpations which all Christian Princes and people are bound to doe as also they had their Prophets with publike fasting prayer such as the Jews also used at the repairing of the Tēple whereby they so prospered and God gave them such favour in the eies of their Sovereign that they altogether laid aside their weapons and so not by might nor by power but by the Grace of God that great work notwithstanding all their adversaries plotting and labouring against it was in some good measure accomplished to the everlasting honour and prayse of our Lord Jesus Christ the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and to the renowne of that King the Lords Anointed whose heart was moved to become the Lords great Instrument in permitting and assenting unto so glorious a worke whereby as Christs Kingdome and Temple is now in a faire way restored and established in that Nation and freed from Antichrists yoake So the Kings throne also is established in that Kingdome and shal be unto the comming of Jesus Christ by whom alone b Prov. 8.15 Kings do reigne and Princes decree justice And as the Lord hath thus begun his great glorious work of repayring his Temple and restoring Religion so evidently represented before our eyes as in a most cleere Vision in this sixt Trumpet as hath beene shewed by comparing this Prophecie with that in Zechariah aforesaid so certainly the Lord will finish his own worke in other Kingdoms also where both Princes and people are deluded and brought into at least Spirituall bondage under the Antichristian yoake which though it be curiously painted and guilded over and as it were faced and lined with Pharisaicall broad Phylacteries woven with goodly words As The Church most Reverend Fathers holy Hierarchie Christs Vice roys and the like pompous and pretended titles yet these be but golden chains and silken cords purple coloured wherein to lead captive even Kingdoms and States to make up the traine of Antichrists triumph And here for a close of this excellent Prophecy in this fourth Verse give mee leave to relate a true story My selfe having certaine yeers agone
from heaven and consumed him and his fifty And the like befell the second Captain and his fifty Thus fire came out of Elias his mouth and it consumed or devoured his enemies And this was done twice Accordingly here it is twice repeated If any man hurt them c. Now by fire comming out of their mouth is not meant literally that fire proceedeth out of their mouth but that as Elias by his word brought fire down from Heaven wherin his Word took effect so the judgments which these two witnesses shall denounce against their injurious adversaries the implacable furious enemies of Gods Church that will not be brought by the word of their prophecie to repentance shall as certainly come to passe and fall upon them to their destruction as that fire did fall from Heaven upon those men according to Elias his word I say if they repent not For the third Captaine with his fiftie we see humbled himselfe and intreated Elias so as Elias went with him to the King but being come what judgement hee denounced against that wicked idolatrous King fell upon him also that hee died of his sicknesse And in this respect Gods Word in the mouth of his Prophets is compared to a fire so as he that resists this word is as the foolish fly that flappeth against the flaming of the Candle and so is consumed in the flame And the like manner of speech the Scripture useth elswhere As Revel 2.16 Repent or else I will come unto thee quickly and will fight against thee with the sword of my mouth And Chap. 19.21 And the remnant were slaine with the sword of him that sate upon the horse which sword proceeded out of his mouth Which is all one with that speech 2 Thess 2.8 And then shall that wicked one be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth So wee see what is here meant by the fire whith proceedeth out of the mouth of these two witnesses And this word If any man hurt them in the originall it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is If any man will doe them injury or offer them violence against all law and equitie fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies that is the word of their prophecie shall bring as certaine destruction upon their injurious enemies as Elias his word brought fire from Heaven upon those that were sent to take him And therefore the word is here doubled as before is noted for the certainty of it as was i Gen. 41. Pharaohs dream Againe it is said here These have power to shut heaven that it raine not in the dayes of their prophecie This also alludes to Elias whose word of prophecie did shut up the heavens that it rained not for the space of three yeers and a halfe in the time of Ahabs Reigne So as here again is set forth the power of these two witnesses prophecie in bringing judgements upon the Land where Gods Word is not received and entertained in that love and respect as it ought to bee but that the witnesses even for no other cause but the words sake which they prophesie are injuriously and violently handled against all Law and justice yea and all humanity in all best iall crueltie And therefore no marvail if in the time of their prophecie being thus evill intreated manifold judgments in sundry kindes doe fall upon a Land as the Sword Famine Pestilence or the like Yea and if God send extraordinary foule weather in an extreame abundance of a long continued raine and that against harvest as we have seen lately this very last Summer in England so as the harvest suffered much damage thereby it were good that they should enquire and consider what is the cause that hath so of late provoked God to send forth from Heaven so many tokens of his wrath and indignation threatning even desolation to the whole Land if they repent not Are there no witnesses abroad at this time Or hath not England defiled it self with the violent and lawlesse cruelty of shedding the innocent bloud of some at least of Christs witnesses If it be so as England can neither wash her hands from the guilt nor stop the eares of Heaven from the hideous cry of that innocent bloud no marvail I say if England be many wayes plagued For these witnesses have power to shut Heaven that it raine not in the dayes of their prophecie as Elias did Not only so But they have also power over waters to turne them to bloud and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they wil. These words have an allusion to Moses as we said before Who in Egypt had power given him of God with his Rod to turn their waters into bloud and so smite the Land with manifold plagues And here seemes to be more couched then so in this parallell of these two witnesses power to that of Moses and Aaron For the words here imply thus much that as those many Plagues which Moses brought upon Egypt by his Rod word of prophecy were so many forerunners of the utter desolation of hard-hearted Pharaoh his obstinate Egyptians who would not suffer Gods people to go sacrifice to the Lord their God So those many tokens of Gods wrath which have bin powred upon England of late days for their sore afflicting oppressing of Gods people by the Prelats and their officers those Egyptian Taskmasters not suffering them to enjoy that freedom liberty of conscience which Christ hath by his precious bloud purchased for them but holding their noses to the Grind-stone as wee say and enslaving them to the Egyptian tasks in the observation of those many Popish Ceremonies so tyrannically imposed and pressed upon them as also for that most impious crying downe of the Sanctification of the Sabbath and stopping Ministers mouthes for preaching the sincere Word of God throwing them out of their Ministery and many such like worse then Egyptian out-rages and such as were never done in any Christian State since the Apostles times to this present those tokens I say doe plainly shew that without speedy repentance and a thorow reformation of these intolerable iniquities God will certainly bring the Taskmasters to desolation and in the same sea of destruction to the Egyptians will make a way for his peoples libertie from that Egyptian bondage wherein they have been so long so miserably captived Nor let it seeme strange that I match Englands Taskmasters with those of Egypt for by and by wee shall find a spirituall Egypt wherof that in England will hardly acquit it selfe from being apart or party at least if all circumstances be but well weighed And so we passe to the Verses following Verse 7. Verse 7. And when they shall have finished their testimonie the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomlesse pit shall make war against them and shall overcome them and kill them c. Here begins a battaile wherein three circumstances