any

religion, laws, and liberties, had undoubtedly been made a prey to their mercileffe rage, and fury, the Lord hath not onely brought to light, without forefight, or watchfulneffe of yours, but made thofe that were the contrivers, to be the discoverers, their own evidence, and confeßion being the thread which lets you into the depths, and labyrinths of those counfels, which they had digged deep to hide, if poffible, even from the eyes of God himself, and thereby giving you a great opportunity (the Lord in mercy teach you to improve it) to advance the glory of his Name, (for the prefent, putting a new fong of praife into your mouthes) A prop for your faith to ftay upon, for time to come, (the Lord hath delivered, and will deliver). A further advantage, to break the power of the malicious, and ungodly men ; and a warning to you, to beware of neuters, and fecret falfe friends, who though they take sweet counfell together with you, and speak you fair, beleeve them not, for there are feven abominations in their hearts. And by all this ye are (I fuppofe) fully satisfied that thefe works of our Lord God Almighty are as marvellous for their manner, as before you have heard they were for their time, kinde, and inftruments, working light out of darkneffe, caufing even the experience of the Church, in thefe later ages,clearly to interpret Judg. 14.14. Sampfons riddle, Out of the eater came forth meat,

Prov.26.25.

and

out of the strong came forth fweetneffe, and making all the bloudy and cruell entendments of the Antichriftian enemie, in the effect no more hurtfull and dangerous to the Church, then his was to Phereus Iafon, when herunat him with his fword, and in ftead of killing him, opened an incurable impofthume, and faved his life. Secondly,

!

Secondly, as they are great and wonderfull, fo as evident is it,that they are juft, and true: the [ juftice] of them is celebrated, chap. 16. 5. Thou art righteous, O Lord, because thou haft judged thus: and chap. 18.6. we finde the Angel calling upon the Church, Reward her as she hath rewarded you, double unto her double, according unto her work, in the cup which he hath filled, fill to her double: how much he hath glorified her felf, and lived deliciously, so much torment, and forrow give ber. O in what exact ballances hath Chrift proportioned, and weighed out, gall and wormwood, reproach and shame, bloud and ruin to these enemies, making them to drink of the fame cup which they had before reached to his fervants! They had grie•vously afflicted the bodies of the Saints of Christ, and now behold upon them, noyfome and grievous fores: Revel.16.2. They had drunk the bloud of the Saints and Prophets, and now behold rivers and fountains of bloud given Vcr.s.. them to drink. They had their Edicts, to kill heretikes and Lollards, (as they called them) and now in England, and among the Netherlands, it's made capitall for the Iefuits and other Incendiaries, and Factors for the Whore, to be found amongst them. They had burnt the worshippers of Chrift, and now behold, themselves fcorched with fire and great heat. They had Ver.9... before deprived the Saints of the light of the Scriptures, and now behold, the Beafts Kingdom overfpread with darkneffe,fo that they gnaw their tongues for pain. Thus you fee the King of Saints, rendring according to that rule of juftice; Eye for eye, breach Levit.24.200) for breach, tooth for tooth full measure, shaken together and running over, Ecclefiafticall hiftorie is full of inftances, which speak home to our purpofe in this particular,

D 3.

Ver.107

Luke 6.38

particular of Emperours, Kings, Nobles, Popes, Bishops, Priefts, men, women, of all ranks and degrees, upon whom these righteous judgements of God have been Vol.3.954.&c made manifeft; you have a whole Catalogue of

Vol.2.185.

187.

them digefted to your hands, in Mr. Foxes book of Acts and Monuments. I fhall let paffe this particu lar, onely with this one obfervation; That whereas this great enemy, this Abaddon, this Apollyon, is made up of all the hatefull qualities of all thofe Kingdoms, which heretofore have oppreffed the Church of God, and is therefore called, Egypt, Sodom, BaChap. 11.8,9. bylon; fo the wrath of thefe vialls poured out upon him,is the mixture and quinteffence of those plagues

Revel.17.5.

10. 21.

and judgements, whereby all thofe Kingdoms formerly were deftroyed: for here you have noy fome Chap. 16.2.3. and grievous fores, waters turned into bloud, palpable darkneffe, thunder and lightning, and great haileftones, the plagues of Egypt; here you have the drying up of the river Euphrates, the means of the deftruction of Babylon; fire and brimstone, the judgement of So·Chip. 16.12. dom. Even fo Lord God Almighty, true and righteous Chap.19.20. are all thy judgements.

And they are as clearly celebrated for their truth: Revel.16.7. Even fo Lord God Almighty, [True ] are all thy judgements, was the voyce of the Angel out of the Altar, at the pouring out the viall upon the Rivers and Fountains of waters, turning them into bloud: and after they were all poured out, John heard the voyce of much people in heaven, faying, Hallelujah, falvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God, for [True] and righteous are his judgements, for he hath judged the great whore; which to understand, you muft know, that thefe vialls were put up long ago by

Chip. 19.1,2.

Chrift,

Revel.1.1.

Chrift, and laid up in ftore with him, and fealed up among his treafures, and written in a book, and not onely fo, but the Counterpart of this book was fent, and fignified by his Angel, unto his fervant Iohn, and Deur32.34. the epoche, or time of their beginning, and the whole feries of their accomplishment, for time, and place, matter, manner, and measure, exactly reprefented to him, whereof many things are already come to our knowledge, being fulfilled just ad amußim apocalyp feos, according to the ftandard of the Revelation; and although fome things concerning the interpretation of thefe plagues, and curfes, remain yet dark unto us, being not fully accomplished, yet when all these vialls fhall once be poured out, the whole Church fhall be able to fay of them, as Iofbuah did, in another cafe, of the bleffings: You know that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God pake concerning you, all are come to palle, and not one thing hath failed, Sonor one drop of all thefe vialls hathi fallen to the ground in vain, not a plague failed, but all have accomplished the things for which they were fent; write them down, Thefe are the true Revel.19.9. Jayings of God.

If you would know fome reason, why Chrift delights to proceed after this manner,in the deftruction of this enemy, I answer,

I.

First, because this enemy is the mafter-piece of all Reafon the Devils workmanship, the Dragons darling, to whom he hath delivered over his power and his State, Revel.13.2. his throne and dignity, whatever Beelzebub, prince of the Devils, and the whole Conclave of hell could in-. vent, all hath been infufed into this grand Adverfary; there was never yet State framed in the world

by

Sands weft. relig. fect. 13.

Exod.18.11.

by the wit and art of man, more wifely contrived, and plotted, more powerfull, and forcible, to fubdue the whole world unto it felf, by claiming a Ius divinum, laying a foundation for firm obedience in mens confciences, and having in it fufficient to nourish all mens affections, and to fit every mans humour, that each fancie may be fatisfied, and each appetite finde whatto feed on; yea what ever may prevail with any man, is there to be found; wealth for the covetous honour for the ambitious, learning for the ftudious, great employment for metald fpirits, multitudes of ceremonies for the fuperftitious, gorgeoufneffe of fhows for the vulgar and fimple,miracles for the credulous, prayers for the devout, works of piety for the charitable,voluptuoufneffe for the diffolute, pardons for the faulty, difpenfing with all rules for men of lawleffe conditions, with what ever else. might allure the Nations to drink of the Whores intoxicating cup. Neither hath the Devils cunning,and power more appeared in the first contriving of it, then after, in the upholding of it, in all ages stirring up men of excellent and rare perfections, conftantly and diligently to put in execution all his counfels, and devices, to hold in those who are already caught in their fnares, to allure others, and to-weaken and undermine all oppofers, how great and potent foever; It is therefore well becomming the wifedom and power of this King of Saints, to grapple with this. Beast, after this manner,that in the things whereof he is most proud, Hemight shew himself to be above him.

Secondly, this enemy hath been the foreft and heavieft Adverfary that ever the Church of Christ had in the world: Nebuchadnezzar of old, and the

reft