The meaning of the Title Page.  
a. Dan shall be a Serpent by the way, an Adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward I have waited for thy Salvation o Lord, Gen. 49. 17,18 which prophecy hath two parts; the first is a threatening of the misery whereinto the Church of God was to fall. The other contains a promise of deliverance out of the same. The misery threatened, fell out not only in the time of Samson, Iudg. 13.1. but especially in that of Jeroboam the son of Nebar, When he did set up the two golden calves, the one in Bethel near the lower end of Jordan, not far from Gilgal where the said Jordan was dried up, the other in this Dan at the head of the said Jordan, whereby the said Serpent by the way, both he, and ten of the Tribes of Israel together with him were miserably seduced, and the heels of the 
* So the woman did sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, Rev. 17. 3. called before, vers. 1. waters, expounded after vers. 19 and 18.  horse whereupon he did sit, being thereby bitten as with an Adder in the path, it came to pass that both the rider with his people, did not only revolt from the house of David, but did also fall backward from the Lord their God, &c. 2 King. 17.7.21. Wherefore the Lord did reject them, and did afflict them sorely, delivering them into the hands of spoilers, until he had cast them, and removed them out of his sight, as an unclean people, and polluted by the said idolatry of Jeroboam, whose mother's name was Zaruah (signifying no less than full of leprosy) wherewith being infected, he also infected the said Tribes, making them to sin against God. The city whereof he was, was called Zereda signifying perplexity, the which he brought upon that people, by the means of the said great and continued apostasy, wherefore they were also carried away into captivity by Shalmanezer, 2 King. 17.5, &c. from which they are not yet returned to this day. In all which things the said Jeroboam, with this apostolical Church, hath been a true type, ringleader and first head, of the great apostasy, of that great Antichrist mentioned, 
* Revel. ●. 15. 16. 17. & 13. ● 12. 14. 16 & 17. ●  2 Thes 2.3. who hath also been the cause, by the like means, of the great tribulation and sore affliction mentioned, Matth. 24. 21. and Revel. 7.14.  
The second part of the foresaid prophecy contained in the 18. vers. concerns the deliverance out of that perplexity or tribulation, promised to both these Churches; which is to be accomplished by Christ, Rom. 11. 15. 16. 21. 22. 25. 26. &c. whose Salvation both of them have now waited for very long; and whose types herein, have been both Joshua in the drying up of this Jordan, Iosh. 3. 7. 14. 16. and also Samson, when he did avenge himself of the Lords of the Philistines, of Dagon their God and of his house, for his two eyes, Iudg. 16. 23, 24, &c. (Parallel to Revel. 11. 7. 8. 10. 11. 13. and 18. 7. 8) of whom it was said, that he should but begin the deliverance of Israel, Iudg. 13. 5. The said promise was therefore renewed by Christ, in the institution of the Lord's Supper, after which, they Sung, saith Matth. 26. 30. the Psalms, vid. among other the 114. in the 3. vers. both the read Sea, and the Jordan are remembered to that very end: both of them therefore true types of this Euphrates, at the banks whereof Israel hath waited long with their harps, for the coming down of the Angel not only to trouble the water (as Ioh. 5.4.) by that earthquake mentioned. Revel. 1● .13. but also to dry it up altogether, as it is said, Revel. 16.12.  
b. This Serpent stands very fitly between these two heads or springs of this national Hierarchy, with his head and tail towards the first of them: not only to show unto us, that the Serpent (who first beguiled Eve, 2. Cor. 11. 3. and who therefore is cursed, and goes winding (as a river, upon his belly, Gen. 3. 14.) 
* And thus did the Serpent cast out of his mo●th the like ●●●nde of water as a flood after the woman, Revel 12.15. These Kings were 31 in all. Iosh. 12.24.  is the first author of the Hierarchy: but also to show him by whom the chief heads thereof have been likewise seduced, and among them, especially the first and last of them, the one who laid the foundation thereof in blood, I mean Austin that cruel and maledictin Monk (so termed in the Preface of the Parallel of the liturgy, with the mass book) and the other (I mean the last of that brood, the late cruel persecutor of the Saints and Servants of God) who hath ended it in the same.  
c. In this place met together 24 Kings, to fight against Israel, Iosh. 11.5. answering to Revel. 16. 14. 16. and so have the Vice-Roys been gathered, first in that Armageddon of the more Northern city in the Bourg of the Eden of the Lord, as now they are in the no less Armageddon of the more Southern, the heavenly Assembly of the Parliament, and to the same end: but see the issue, Iosh. 10. 8. 10, &c. and 11. 1. 6. &c. and believe.  
d. Christ with his Disciples being upon this Sea in a small ship, there arose a great tempest, in so much that the ship was covered with the waves, but he was asleep, Matthew 8. 24. The more Southern Sea especially, hath been very troublesome for a great while to Christ and his true Disciples, but he is now awaked, Revel. 16. 12. and 18. 8. 21. and is come in the fourth watch of the night unto his Disciples, walking on this Sea, as Matth. 14. 25 etc and Rev. 10. 2. 5. &c. And as at the word of Christ Peter who had toiled all night, and had taken nothing, did let down again his net and enclosed a great multitude of fishes, &c. Luk. 5. 5. 6. &c. So Revel, 10.8.- 11. and 12. 19 and 15. 8. compared with vers. 5.  
e. Where the Jordan was deeper and broader, yea when it did overflow all his banks, then was it dried up, Iosh. 3. 15. 16. Revel. 18. 7. 8.  
f. This Lake is a right type, first of that lake of fire and burning with brimstone, whereinto the Dragon, the beast and the false prophet must be cast, Rev. 19 20. & 20. 10. secondly of the torment itself, thereby to be endured, Rev. 14. 10 and last of all, of the sentence of excommunication, (called by Christ Gehenna, Matt. 5. 22. And termed by the Apostle To be delivered unto Satan, ●Tim. 1. 20. for the destruction of the flesh 1. Cor. 5. 5.) the which in the name and with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, must be denounced against the said false prophet. Amen.   

A COMPLAINT OF THE FALSE prophet's MARINERS upon the drying up of their hierarchical Euphrates. As it was preached publicly in the Island of Garnezey before a sett order of Ministers, (expounding in their successive turns the revelation of St John by John De la March, one of them  
Jer 51. 35. 36. The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon shall the inhabitants of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Caldea shall Jerusalem say. Therefore thus saith the Lord behold I will plead thy cause & take vengeance for thee & I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.  
Ezech. 27. 29. 32. All that handle the oar; the mariners & all the pilots of the Sea shall come down from their ships they shall stand upon the land;- And in their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for thee and lament over thee saying what city ●●s ever like Tyrus like the destroyed in the midst of the Sea  
London Printed by Thomas pain And are to be Sold by Humphrey Blunden At the Castle in Cornhill 1641.  
Io: Dro●●h●●t sculp   

TO THE honourable THE KNIGHTS, CITIZENS, AND burgesses, OF THE COMMONS house OF PARLIAMENT.  
MOst Noble, and Right worthy Senate; Moses telleth us, that when God had commanded him to make the Tabernacle and all the instruments thereof; according to the pattern which he had showed him in the Mount, he bade him withal, to speak unto the children of Israel, to bring for the building thereof, gold, silver, brass, silk, purple, scarlet, fine linen, goat's hair, rams skins, &c. Of all whichthings, every one whose hearts moved them willingly, brought presently a free offering to the Lord: All which materials were delivered by Moses, to the workmen called by God, and by him appointed to do the work. Who were Betsalcel, Aholiab, and all other wise-hearted men, in whom God had put wisdom, to make all that he had commanded him. This Tabernacle; and likewise the Temple by Solomon were but types of the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of Heaven from God. About the building whereof, you, Worthies of the Lord, being now employed, by the like calling and appointment, And having to the very same end, printed of late and published, an order for all peoples, nations, and tongues living under the Dominions of our sovereign; by which you gave them to understand, that you earnestly desired, and expected that all ingenious persons in every country of the kingdom should be very active to improve the present opportunity, by giving a true information of the state and condition of all the Parishes in their several Counties, concerning preaching Ministers, &c. In obedience to which I made all speed possible to bring a small freewill offering, which as I suppose may somewhat conduce and serve for the furtherance and effecting of the said building. It is a parcel of Gold, which though it be but in ore, yet is already judged, by the touch of it, to the true stone of trial, the Scripture; to be purer than that anciently so much renowned, of Ophir; or that overmuch now prised, of that new discovered world. It was found of late, digging (under hard taskmasters and detainers of hire) with a company of hard labouring yoke-fellows: who for the space of these five and twenty years past, have night and day digged, at that goldenpit of the Revelation of Saint John, to discover the most rich and glorious mysteries hidden therein. A vein whereof, having but lately opened, it gave presently great hope and assurance of most rich treasures, lying yet further and deeper, which may now with some more labour be attained unto, (if the work be continued, and necessary tools, with convenient furniture be supplied and furnished for the same) for the furthering of the said spiritual building, the perfect model whereof is therein most excellently set out and described. I thought therefore that I was in most humble duty bound, this day being a day of good tidings, to hold no longer my peace in concealing of the same, but that I was to acquaint first of all your honours, as being they to whom it concerns now most, in presenting herewith a proof thereof: the which though it be wrapped up in a very course, yea borrowed cloth, yet contemn it not therefore, no more than Christ did the two mites of the poor widow, it proceeding also from a sincere heart. Your acceptance thereof will set many more at work about the same pit, which will furnish work enough for all and the best, with a abundance of most rich spiritualltrea sure, necessary for the perfecting of the foresaid building. It will very much encourage my forementioned {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to follow hard the said work, when they shall see me returning to them furnished with an authentical approbation and authorising of their said labour in the said work of the Lord, being with all furnished, by your most equitable justice, and parliamentary authority with a lawful power and necessary implements to work with them in my former station in the said task, without any more fear or danger of interruption by any Sanballats or Tobiah'ss. The which favour of yours shall oblige for ever  
Your Honours and Worships most humble daily Orator I. D. L. M.   

TO THE faithful witness OF CHRIST Mr. Henry Burton.  
Worthy Sir,  
THE first draught of this Treatise, was conveyed unto you (attired in a borrowed garment) presently after, the matter therein contained had been preached in our monthly Propositions, and public meetings duly observed amongst us, according to the order prescribed in our Discipline, not unknown unto you. The reason was because of the great interest you had therein; not only in regard of the spiritual brotherhood, and former acquaintance; but especially in respect of the subject thereof. You being one of the eminent witnesses of Christ, that had suffered for the testimony of his truth, according to the prophecy mentioned, Revel. 11 7. &c. yet then lying unburied, in one of the public places of the great city, Castle Cornet in Garnezey, (where some few years before two other brethren (and the author also, for a whole week of months had been unjustly imp●…oned, and unlawfully detained, for the same testimony. (And though you were then overcome by the beast of the bottomless pit, who had made war against you, and by her killed with that most uncivil and unnatural death, I mean that close-confined Prison: yet that faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creatures of God, had bounded and determined it, having faithfully promised by the said Prophet in the same chapter to raise you again, at the ending of the limited time of three days and a half: whereof you were then, by the means of this Treatise informed and assured, some five or six months before it came to pass. The application thereof unto you, being made as plain, (as if it had been already effected,) by that perspective, the Table of the Parallel of the 42. journeys and months (of both the Jewish and Christian Churches) of their wildernesses; set in view in the beginning of this book: And for the use of all such as are desirous to follow the footsteps, and understand with the book of the Revelation, likewise the true period of time in which the notable Accidents of the Christian Church travelling through her said wilderness, came to pass. And thus to observe her progress all along the same. That is first her entry therein, or the means and degrees by which she came at length to fall into that vast and dry wilderness of idolatry, a right shadow of Death; and so gross, that all the former Pagans, could not parallel it. Then secondly how long she hath continued under that blackness of darkness and ignorance, thicker and obscurer then that of Egypt. And lastly the very time when God in his mercy began to bring, and lead her out of the same, taking vengeance by degrees, of all her persecutors. The said Treatise indeed at its first flight did but intend your particular comfort, and encouragement in your most undaunted faith, Jonas-like during your said death. Whereof when you were risen, and ascended up in a cloud, to the heavenly Armagedon or Parliament calling you; it would needs take itself to its wings, being somewhat better feathered then at first, and follow you over-sea, there to observe more of its contents. Trusting by the former true events, to see a further accomplishment of many more, wherein it hath in nothing hitherto been deceived, having observed among many other wonderful mercies of God, first the second tribe of the Christian Israel, passing over, & treading under foot that proudly overflowed euphratical Jordan. Secondly the Covenant of Circumcifi onrenewed in Gilgal, (where I am sure that the twelve stones are set up for a monument to posterity of the drying up of the said Jordan) about the revolution of the 1641 year (being the first of the last tenth, of the last month of the long tribulation, and the first also of the raising of the Church, (agreeing with the particular time of your forementioned raising, which was as is noted in the treatise, the first day of the last month of your death;) And the beginning of the conquest of the premices of the ten kingdoms of the great city) or tenth part of them, which was to be the first consecrated to God, & to be brought under the yoke of the Lamb Jesus Christ. It observed immediately after this the celebrating of the Christian Passeover, the next Sabbath day following. Thirdly, the compassing about of the city Jericho by the three several shouting Companies (having with them the ark of the Lord) with the downfall of her walls and the sacking thereof. It admired especially observing, that by the command of Joshua, Rahab the Harlot was to be put out of the camp, there to be (by the special charge thereof committed to you) prepared, according to the law, and thereby fitted, for to be shortly married to the lamb, her promised husband: as soon as she should be stripped of her whorish Babylonish garment, as soon as the nails of the Courts of her scratching persecution should be cut off; and finally as soon as all the Ceremonies borrowed hairs of her alluring and enticing whoredoms should be shaved off. The most part of which perceiving to be now effected, it could be contained no longer, but would needs scape out of my hands to fly abroad. God grant it a favourable entertainment, that it may return again with a safe conduct to its owner, to carry the good tidings of Reformation, most necessary and wanting in the state both civil and ecclesiastical of the country of his abode. The prosecuting and obtaining whereof I desire, that it may be by you, to your powered, further, whereby you shall oblige me to continue for ever  
Yours in the Lord I. D. L. M.   

TO THE REAER.  
CHristian Reader, little did I dream, that these private meditations, intended only for a particular Congregation, should be made thus public to the view of the world: Sed homo proponit Deus disponit, man purposeth, but God disposeth. Importunity wrung them from me, and present opportunity, caused me to yield thereunto. And the rather, because I saw now in good part effected, and very much advanced, by the wonderful mercy of almighty God, that (concerning the fall of the English euphratical Jordan or national Hierarchy, of Prelates) which I did conceive then to be very near approaching: Being induced thereunto, by the observation of the time appointed, and by God limited, for the Christian Churches pilgrimage, through her most vast wilderness; following her all along it, as it were step by step, from one month to another, with the help and light of that true Type and right guide the old Church of Israel, having the Lord going before them by day in the pillar of a cloud to lead them the way, and by night in the pillar of fire to give them light, that they might go both by day and by night, under the conduct of Moses and Aaron. The want of which typical guide, hath been the cause, in my opinion, that many (though very worthy men, and well deserving of the Church of God, for their excellent labours in the exposition of the book of the Revelation) have many times wandered along the said desert, in seeking the footsteps of the said Christian Church which they have often missed. It being indeed as difficult to be found without the help of the foresaid typical guide, as I suppose, as any of those ways mentioned by Solomon, Prov. 30. 18. 19 but very easy having the said light going before. Therefore have I already laboured for a good while, and do purpose to continue still (if I be not prevented by God, or by the labour of some other in that kind) to parallel the travel of both the foresaid Churches, & their most notable accidents, & to send it abroad. A taste whereof I proffer unto thee in the mean while, the which, if being relished by thee, it finds any good entertainment at thy hands, though it be presented unto thee, in a very ill polished, because borrowed, language, it will the more encourage me, to go on with cheerfulness and alacrity, in my intended purpose, by the assistance of the All, sufficient God and thy Christian prayers in my behalf, to him, who is no respector of persons, and who doth reveal his secrets, to all them that fear him,  
Amen.  
Thine in the Lord Jesus I. D. L. M.   

A COMPLAINT OF THE FALSE prophet's MARINERS, upon the drying up of their hierarchical Euphrates.  
As it was Preached in public in the month of February 1639, upon these words of the Revelat. 18. 17.  
And every Shipmaster, and all the Company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by Sea, stood a far off.  
THE rod of wickedness shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous, lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity (saith the Lord) psalm 125. 3. That of the Roman 
* Psal, 125. 3.  beast hath for a very long while, afflicted the Christian Church; yet her lasting hath been restrained, to two and forty months of years: as it is said by the angel to John, when he forbade him to mete the Court which was without the Temple, because saith he, It was 
Revel. 11. 〈◊〉.  given unto the Gentiles, who should tread the holy city under foot, two and forty months. So likewise in the 13. of the Revel. v. 5. where it is said, that power 
Idem. 1. 3. 5.  was given unto the beast, to do two and forty months: answering to the two and forty journeys of the ancient Israelites, travelling to their so long before promised land of Canaan, recited by Moses, Numb. 
Numb. 33. 1. 3, &c.  33. 1. 2, &c. and amounting to the one thousand two hundred and threescore 
a That is years, a day for a year, according to that threatening mentioned, Numb. 14. 34. alluding to the type thereof, mentioned Exod. 19 4. Deut. 32. 10.  prophetical days, of the wandering of the said Christian Church in the wilderness of its Popish Ceremonies, Superstitions, and Idolatries, where she had a place prepared of God,* Revel. 12. 6. and where she was to be nourished 
b i. e. One year, two years and half an year of days, amounting to the forementioned time of 1260 days of years.  for a time and times, and half a time, v. 14. tending to the Canaan of her true reformation; during all that space of time.  
Into the which wilderness the said wom was constrained to flee to avoid the Dragon, being carried thither upon the two wings of the Spread Eagle of the Roman Empire, in that time it was divided by the Emperor Theodosius the great, between his two sons Arcadius and Honorius, viz. 
c Cent. Magd. Cent. 4. p. 861. l. 44. Helvicus chronology. Alsted. Chron. p. 76.  about the year of our Lord three hundred and ninety: In the which wilderness she advanced, (passing along, and through that Sea of blood, 
* Revel. 12. 15.  cast out of the mouth of the Serpent like a flood after the said woman. I mean the Arian Goths and Vandals) until she came to the very bottom as it were of the wilderness of Idolatry, set up at the first, and established, as another golden calf, to be worshipped  
A Table of the Parallel of the 42 〈…〉 Desert to the land of 〈…〉 the rising of the Beast  
R. Menachem on Exo. 25.31. noteth thus from ancient Rabbins, 42 particulars in the Candlestick, viz. 11 knops. 22 bowls, and 9 flowers; which number he would have observed as mystical, saith Ainsworth on the said place. For this one in Exodus, we have seven in the Revel. 1. 12. in the midst of which Christ walketh, chap. 2.1.  

h This may be very easily gathered by that which is said, Revel. 17. 1. & 21. 9  Wherein the Angel that had poured out the said sixt vial mentioned in the said 16 chapter of the Revel. standing now, as it were upon the said Euphrates, to observe the behaviour and proceeding of the said Euphratian men, and filthy fr●ggss; turns as it were himself towards the people of God, encamped at the shore of it, and having already informed him in the beginning of this chapter, of the near approaching fall of the great Babylon itself, and commanded them therewith, to come out of her wilderness, in passing over the said Euphrates (now to that very end dried up) that they might the more easily enter into it, to make a full conquest thereof, in rewarding her even as she had rewarded them. The said angel I say doth now further declare unto them, what should also be the substance of the message of the said Emissaries, and moreover what should be the issue or effect thereof. Namely, that they would go up (like those ancient filthy frogs of Egypt in the time of Pharaoh) 
i This is the right practice of the Hirarchicall men both in Pulpits, printed books, public and private conferences, and the best arguments they can allege to oppose the excellent Church government of the reformed Churches beyond Seas.  to the said Kings beyond Euphrates yea enter into their houses, and into their bedchambers, and ascend as it were upon their beds, and be present at their tables; to provoke them by their importunate croakings, filthy lies, and diabolical detractions, opening their foul mouths against those new come reformers; to persuade and entice the said Kings to oppose them, and with the uttermost of their power to hinder their intended reformation, accusing them thus, viz. that they under pretext of Religion sought nothing else, but the utter overthrow of all Kingly power and authority; yea and of all decent order and policy both in Church and commonwealth; to bring therein a great confusion, and disorder in all things, and that their whole aim was nothing else but in lieu of their most stately and glorious Hirarchicall government to establish their consistorian Pope-like tyranny, whereunto they would subject, yea the Kings themselves in domineering over them, if they should permit them once to get over, or put down the said Hierarcichall Euphrates: And therefore they would advise the Kings to look to it betimes, not permitting such new upstart reformers, to trample under their feet, and quite overthrow so ancient and excellent an hierarchical power as theirs was, ancient as the Apostles themselves, being grounded upon the Scriptures, and founded upon the words of our Saviour himself; speaking to the first and chief of the Apostles St. Peter, and saying unto him, Matth. 16. 18. Tues Petrus, Thou art Peter, &c. and besides all this, that it hath been established in the very time of the Primitive Church, by the laws of the Emperors from Constantine the great and so forwards. Yea that since the reformation of Religion in those latter times, it hath been also renewed from time to time, and confirmed by parliamental laws, by the Kings themselves, who also thereby become true Monarchs, according to that true saying, No Bishop, no King. 
k Thus do the proud & wicked men of the world persuade themselves, that it is in their power to hind oer the proceedings of God's judgements, and to stay his hand when he hath begun to execute justice upon them, this was the cause of the builders of Babel, Gen. 11. 4. &c. and of Pharaob, Exod. 5. 2. and 〈◊〉 5. 9 and likewise of th●se who think that the Kings of the earth shall be able to hinder the drying up of this mystical Euphrates or to make it run as before, now it is dayed up. But all such must know that there is●… neither understanding nor council to withstand the Lord as saith Solomon, Prov. 31. 30.  Therefore ought you, would they say again, in great wisdom to stop them in their course, and most unlawful & rebellious-like proceedings, going against them with all your puissance, that they may advance no further, but rather constrain them to return back again to their own desert, from which they come, there to be for ever confined, that so our glorious Euphrates may run still in keeping its own course, and exercising its domineering power as before, or else you are in danger, (if so be you do permit once that the most clear & glorious springs thereof be dried up & extinguished) to have your own crowns taken from off your heads, by such new come Paritans.  
This is in effect the message of those three Euphratian frogs here recited by the angel, from the ninth verse of this chapter to the twentieth thereof, thus introducing the viceroys themselves, with the merchants and mariners, speaking in such manner to the foresaid Kings of the Earth: concerning which, the said angel doth now exhort the said passengers, to whom he hath thus spoken, that they should no way fear them, nor all the croakings, and false imputations of such filthy frogs and diabolical spirits; because thereby they should not be able to do them any wrong, or to hinder them any whit from passing ●…r; and therefore that they should go on with courage and boldness through the said Euphrates, now to that end dried up before them, by that war like leader the heavenly Joshua, who being with you, and going before you, will not fail nor forsake you: therefore go on I say with full assurance of a most glorious and unheardof victory, for though they should by such means as it is very certain they will gain the said Kings, to combine themselves, and join hand in hand against you; yet all their power (would yet say further, the said angel) shall not prevail, nor hinder the 
l For with him is wisdom and strength, he hath counsel and understanding, it is he that breaks down, and it cannot be built, that shutteth a man up, and he cannot be loosed, he that sendeth the waters to destroy the earth, and he again that withholdeth the waters and they dry up, saith Job 12. 13. &c.  Lord from the accomplishment of his faithful promises, concerning the final overthrow, & utter ruin of all the enemies of his Church. Let then all those Vice-Roys themselves, the merchants also how rich soever they be, and all the seafaring men do or say what they can or are able to do, yet all shall be in vain, the work shall nevertheless be perfected and accomplished; for God, who by his Almighty power, and most wise providence orders all things, hath so disposed of this, that for all their forementioned surmises, most unlawful practices, and howsoever powerful oppositions, the foresaid Kings shall but be 
* Revel. 16. 16.  gathered together into the place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon, that there he may deliver them into your hands, as said once the Lord unto Joshua, as we read, cap 10. 8.  
But to come to the words of the text itself, in the which as you see is set down, the third and last complaint, or message uttered by the third and last kind of the forementioned frogs, right Amphibies 
* Iosh. 10. 8.  indeed or seafaring men: ●…e Vice-Roys having before done their errand, and the Merchants likewise theirs, recited in the verses before expounded by the precedent brethren; now according to our order, must I speak of this last, mentioned in this seventeenth verse, and the two following. In which are contained thee chief points; the first whereof concerns the messengers themselves: The second shows the cause of their complaint or message, and in the third we have the message itself. The first is contained in the 17 verse, and the other two in the two next verses. As for the messengers, of whom I shall only speak at this present, they are here described, first by their function, in the former part of the verse: secondly, by their action or behaviour in the last words of it; their function is noted unto us, both by the quality thereof, and by the quantity of the persons excercising it. The quality is expressed by divers both titles and orders, whereof some are superiors, others inferiors. The superiors in order are the shipmasters and their Assessors, the inferiors are the Mariners & their assistants. Concerning their quantity, they be not some few choice men of ●ach of these ranks & orders of officers, but all of all sorts, & every one of them; the business being of such importance, that it concerns them all: all of them also ●earing the common danger, that was like to entrap, & overwhelm them all: as it doth also clearly appear by their action and behaviour, expressed in the last words of this verse, where it is said, that they stood afar off.  
But before we come to speak of these several officers, we must first of all show, what is meant by this Sea whereon, and by the Ships wherein, these messengers did before exercise their offices and trade. As for the ●ea, we must not imagine it to be the main Ocean, which doth as it were, girt the whole Earth by its middle, though thereupon those great 
m Such as were those of the great Armado of Spain, called Invincible sent in 1588. to conquer England in the time of Queen Elizabeth. Or of that other last, which was overthrown by the Hollenders near Dover in 1639.  Spanish galleons, and other tall Ships of the Christian Kings and Princes of Europe, do navigate and commonly trade to the East and West Indies; from whence they fetch those rich commodities, to which the Holy Ghost hath only made allusion in the former verses of this chapter, viz. 12. and 13. Neither is it the Mediterranean sea, though thereon, the Pope of Rome doth keep many good ships and galleys well furnished with men and munition; for the keeping of the Coasts, and Sea towns of Saint Peter's patrimony, as they speak. Nor the Tiber neither, watering in its course, that ancient and glorious city of Rome, nor any other River whatsoever, though they be all of them called, by the title of Seas in the Scripture, how navigable soever it be. This being no natural, but a mystical sea, so called by allusion made to some of those natural seas. All which are nothing else in Scripture language, but great Assemblies of waters, gathered together in one place, and called from the beginning, by God the Creator, by the name of Seas. Which Seas are different according to the difference of those waters, whereof they are, as it were, compounded or made up: who are therefore either celestial, or terrestrial: the celestial being above the firmament, and the terrestrial under it, by the appointment of God as we read 
* Gen. 1. 7.  Gen. 1. 7. Where it is said by Moses, that God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament, from the waters which were above the firmament. But the terrestrial are those, that are gathered together, under the said firmament, as it is there expressed: which are properly called 
* Verse 10.  Seas. Now these natural Seas, do likewise differ both in quantity, the one being greater than the other, as the Ocean is greater than the Rivers, and the Rivers, are greater the one than the other, yea greater than the Lakes, & pools of waters, though they also be called by the title of Sea in Scripture phrase, as that great vessel made by Solomon, for the service of the Temple, was likewise called by the same title of 
* 1 Cron. 4. 2.  Sea. They differ also in Quality, some of them being salt, the other brackish, and the other fresh, these last being as it were distilled and purified in their passage through the veins of the earth.  
Moreover such waters thus gathered together to make up these diverse Seas, are very powerful and unresistible, no earthly power being able to stay either the ebbing or flowing of the Sea, or the most violent course or stream of any of the least Rivers; much less to abate their overflowings. Now all these properties and different qualities of these natural Seas, and waters do very fitly conduce to the mystical Seas here intimated, which likewise are nothing else, then great confluences or Assemblies of mystical waters, that is, of p●opleses, or rather heads of Peoples; and that according to the exposition of the angel himself, Revel. 17. 15. who speaking to Saint John tells him there, that the 
Revel. 17. 15.  waters which he had seen, whereon the Whore did sit, were peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues, which are gathered together into one place, making up one entire body. And thus was it expounded by the Spirit of God in the prophecy of isaiah Chap. 8. verse. 7. above 700 years before Saint John did write this Revelation, where speaking of the King of Ashur and of all his g●lory, he says, behold the Lord bringeth up upon them, that is upon the Israelites, the waters of the river, viz. of Euphrates mighty and great, even the King of Ashur with all his glory. Which mystical Seas being also as the natural, of great force & puissance, do accordingly in Scripture language note great power and authority, as it is evident Psal. 46. 4. where the Holy Ghost speaking of the power and great rage, of the Earthly Kings and kingdoms, says that Though the waters of the sea, rage & be troubled, yea though hemountaines should be shaken with the swelling thereof, yet &c. then expounding the same, verse 6. following, he says that When the nations raged, & the kingdoms were moved, God thundered, &c. again Pal. 93. verse 3. 4. where the Prophet speaking of the mighty power of God in preserving his Church against all the assaults of the world, says to this purpose, The floods have lifted up O Lord the floods have lifted up their voice: the floods lift up their waves. The waves of the sea are marvellous through the noise of many waters, yet the Lord on high is more mighty. And Psal. 124. verse 2. and 4. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us— then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul, saith the Church of God there, this is also manifest by the place now alleged of isaiah 8. 7. Now such powerful assemblies or seas of people are different, according to the different quality of the waters or peoples whereof they are as it were compounded or constituted, the one being civil, the other ecclesiastical. again the power of the civil assemblies is either monarchical, or aristocratical or democratical, such as were those that are mentioned by the Prophet, Jer. cap. 51. verse 42. where speaking of the powerful armies of King Cyrus that were to come 
Ier. 51. 42.  against Babylon, thus he saith The sea is come upon Babylon she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof. And Dan. 7. who speaking of the four Empires that should be raised in the world, to sway the Empire thereof, he saith verse 3. 
* Dan. 7. 3.  That four great beasts came up from the Sea, one divers from another.  
The ecclesiastical power is that hierarchical, with is often mentioned in this book of the Revelation, and so in this place, as it shall more clearly appear by and by, to which power, applying now the former diff●renceses of the natural seas and waters before spoken of, we say that they are accordingly, either celestial or Earthly. The Calestiall are those 
* Revel. 4. 6. and  glassy-pure-crystall-like waters of life, or Assemblies of true Christian professors of the holy and pure Religion of Christ, refreshed and filled with the pure waters of the heavenly doctrine, 
* 22. 1.  proceeding out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb Christ Jesus: Whom alone they take for their head, acknowledging that he hath been anointed by God King 
* Psal. 2. 6.  upon Zion his holy mountain. And that 
* Luke 1. 32.  the Lord God hath given him the throne of his father David, upon 
* Esay 22. 22. and 9 6.  whose shoulders also hath been laid the key of the house of David; that is the Government thereof, to reign over it, for ever: 
* Cor. 15. 25.  for he must reign, till he hath put all his enemies under his feet. This celestial hierarchical power then over the Church, is in Christ alone; who, while he remained in the flesh, did immediately by himself administer it in this his kingdom of Grace: And now being gone to continue the same in that of Glory he hath appointed (according to that 
* Luke 22. 29. and Mat. 16. 19 compared with 18. v. 18.  power given unto him by his father, both in Heaven and in Earth,) the administration of the keys thereof to his Church, the people whereof and its holy congregations, do make up and constitute those glossy seas, or assemblies of the true reformed Churches, as being filled with the foresaid pure living waters, proceeding from the said Throne. The which Church, doth likewise administer this power by her 
* 1 Thes. 5. 12. Heb. 13. 17.  Ministers and Governors, who are to exercise it, not as domineering Prelates over Christ his heritage; but as his 
1 Pet. 5. 3.  Ministers in 
* 1 Cor. 4. 1. and 5. 4. Mat. 28. 18, 19, 20.  Christ his name, and by his power, as acknowledging no other sovereign in matters ecclesiastical, but him alone, who is the true 
* Psal. 110. 4. Heb. 7. 21.  Melchisedech of his said Church.  
The Earthly hierarchical powerful sea, is that which is represented unto us, in this book of the Revelation by those terrestrial seas, filled with earthly doctrines, human traditions and ordinances; to which the Holy Ghost maketh allusion, Revel. 16. The which are either 
n Thus the Pope doth attribute unto himself an universal hierarchical power over all the Churches and Bishops of the Christian worl●, which presumptuous title was at length granted unto him by Phocas the Parricide or cruel murderer of Maurice the Emperor in the ve●●e of our Lord 606, who thereby became the Pope's midwife, Eodem ●nno Concilium Roman●m celebrat●● in quo idem Bonifacius pro mulgat privilegium Pho●● (●●jus parrici●i●● approbaverat) de primatu Ecclesie Romanae, quem Patriar●hae Constantinopolitanis hacten●ss impugnaverant For the punishment whereof, God brought from the Southern part of the world, some 15. or 16 years after, Mahomet with his false Alcoran, together with his troops of Locusts or sa●●asinss, who did extremely vex the wo●ld causing the first woe, Re●●●. 〈◊〉. 5. 1●.  universal answering to the main Ocean, 
o Thus are the national Dioceses or Seas of Archbishops and Bishops called by the name of the chief Cities of those Provinces, over which they do domineer and exercise their powerful usurped authority, as the diocese of Ca●…ry, that of York, &c.  or national correspondent either to these particular seas, which take their diverse denominations from the divers kingdoms they beat upon, as the Baltic or Swedish sea, the German sea, the British sea, &c. which are thus denominated, because such parts of the main Ocean beat upon the coasts or sh●reses of those kingdoms of Sweathland, Germany, England, &c. Or rather to those national rivers as I may call ●hem, called also Seas in Scripture, as it was showed before, which do water or run along or through whole kingdoms or Provinces, often distinguishing and separating the one from the other. The universal Hierarchical earthly sea, is that which is mentioned in the third ver. of the said 16. chap. upon which the second angel poured out his Uiall, which thereby became not only as the blood of a dead man, but also it caused every living thing to die therein: which was at last effected, and fully accomplished, by those Vaiversall human-earthly-hierarchical assemblies of peoples or heads of peoples, as is before noted, who making and acknowledging the Pope for their supreme head: (under whose sovereign power and absolute authority they were gathered together) did settle and establish the same (together with all that false Antichristian doctrine and human traditions by them, not only approved, but also preferred to the Scripture itself) attributing and allowing then unto him, that full power to do, which though long before he had begun to assume unto himself and to exercise the same: even since the time of the pouring out of the second vial under Boniface the eight; who first instituted the 
o The jubiles were first instituted by Boniface the eight, in the year of the Lord 1300. calling himself most blasphemously the Portion of Heaven, as having the keys of it in his power, of whom it is very well said, that Intravit ut ●ulpes regnavit ut Leo, mortuus est ut canis. For the punishment whereof, God brought the Turks over the Hellespont, in Europe under Ottoman their first Emperor in the year of Christ. 1320. In this very time and in this Pope that Prophecy of Revel. 13. 11. was truly accomplished, these two swords being the two horns there spoken of, signifying the power, both of the Priesthood & of the Kingdom, therefore doth he also wear them in his mitre as true signs or marks hereof. Then indeed did this Beast come out of the earth; for as the kingdom of Christ is from Heaven, and bringeth men thither; so the Pope's kingdom is of the earth, and leadeth to perdition; because it is begun and established by ambition, covetousness, beastliness, theft, treason, and tyranny.  Jubiles. Anno Dom. 1300. appearing the first day of the said jubilee in his Popish ornaments, and the next in an imperial attire or harness with anaked sword carried before him, crying with a loud voice* Ecce duo gladij hic, 
Luke 22. 38.  behold, here are two swords: yet was it now brought to its full perfection, namely, first in that 
p This council was held in the year of Christ 1414. under Pope Martin the 〈◊〉 whose Pantofle the Emperor Sigismond kissed very devoutly kneeling.  council of Constance, where three Popes (occupying at once the papal Sea, viz. Gregory the twelfth, Benedict the thirteenth, and John the three and twentieth) were deposed, and Martin the fift established: which schism had continued more than any other before, viz. 50. years: in it was enacted that damnable decree, Haereticis non esse servandam fidem, that it was lawful to break the oath made to heretics, by virtue whereof John Husse was there burned: and then totally in that of Trent, 
q It was begun in the year 1545. & was as the very sink of all heresies and false doctrines.  begun under Pope Paul the third, and ended eighteen years after, in the time of Pius the fourth, and by him confirmed the next year following, whereby all that Popish Sea of false human▪ earthly doctrine, was altogether corrupted, which caused, as the spiritual death of all those in that sea that might have yet some remnant of living water in them, so that second woe proceeding from the great slaughters of Christians executed by the Turks 
* Revel. 9 17, 18.  Who killed, by the fire, and smoke, and Brimstone, coming out of the mouths of the horses whereon they sat, the third part of men.  
The national hierarchical powerful sea, proceeding from that forenamed universal, as the Rivers do come from the Ocean Eccles. 17. is represented unto us, in this book of the Revel. either by 
Eccle. 1. 7.  those rivers and fountains of waters, upon which the third angel poured out his vial, mentioned Rev. 
Revel. 16. 4.  16. 4. which also there by became blood: Or by that other, upon which the sixt angel poured out his, noted 
and  Revel. 16 12. called there, by the title of Euphrates, which is the name of its Type, viz. that literal Euphrates 
verse 12.  of that old Babylon of the East, mentioned Jer. 51. 63. and intimated Esay 44. 27. foretelling the drying up of it, by the means of Cyrus' King of 
Ier. 51. 6●. 〈◊〉 44. 27.  Persia, some one hundred and twenty years before the accomplishment thereof; which national mystical seas or rivers, are distinguished one from the other, both in respect of the different titles given unto them; as also in respect of their different plagues, of the different effects thereof: the titles are different, the first being called only by the general title of rivers and fountains, upon which the third angel poured out his Uiall; but the other (which is, as it were, separated and somewhat distant from them, by the interlacing of two other vials, viz. the fourth and the fift) is called by the particular name of Euphrates. As for their plagues they are different, not only in that the said rivers and fountains are plagued by the third vial of the third angel, 
r For the third vial was p●●●ed presently after the forem●ntioned counsels of 〈◊〉 and T●…, about which time A●… the T●… wast●d ●any kingdoms in Eu●…, and ●p●lt ●●ch Christian blood. The like did Mahomet the seccond, and Bajazeth his successors, s●●●●●ls Turkish Hist. from the year of Christ 1420. to 1600 &c.  a long while before the sixt angel did power out the plague of his vial upon the said Euphrates; but because there is also a great difference between the parties upon whom the said third Angel did pour his said vial, and those upon whom the sixt did 
The sixt vial was poured upon Euphrates about the year 1632 & so forwards, the effect whereof) viz, the drying up of it) appeared first in Scotland, anno 1639 when the sentence of Excommunication was deceived against the hierarchy and the ministers thereof.  pour his, as we shall show by and by. Finally they differ greatly in the effect of their said plague; because the waters of the said rivers and fountains, became blood by means of the third vial poured out upon them: but by this the waters of Euphrates are dried up: wherein allusion is made to that literal Euphrates of old Babylon forementioned. Now than we say that the former of these Rivers and fountains do represent unto us the powerful, national, hierarchical assemblies of Archbishops and Diocesan Bishops, altogether Popish and corrupted, both in doctrine and discipline; challenging and holding their said power and authority from the Pope, under whom they exercise it, over their several national Dioceses; holding themselves accountable for the administration of the said powerful hierarchical Jurisdiction, to none other then to the said Pope; whom they do acknowledge for their supreme head; as drawing from him the whole influence of their said Antichristian Jurisdiction. But concerning this Euphrates, though we know, (as it hath been also avouched of late, and published both in the Pulpit, and in print, by some of the chiefest creatures of that national sea) that both of them have one and the same original source, (as flowing both from that forementioned universal Popish sea) and therefore doth as the former signify a like human-earthly-national-hierarchical-usurped-power, over some national Churches and people; yet it seems to be somewhat different from the former rivers, if not in effect, yet in appearance or outward show and profession: because the waters (especially of the doctrine where with the people living in that sea, are as it were filled and nourished) are not all, nor altogether 
t He that was last the head of this national Hierarchy, had manifestly corrupted all both doctrine and worship, had he not been betimes prevented by the Parliament, as it appears both by his conference with the Jesuite, also by the late Canons, and by his most tyrannical actions and cruel proceedings against the Saints and faithful servants of God.  corrupted, as were those of the former Seas, both universal and national. They are not pure neither, as are the waters of that Sea mentioned, Revel. 4. 6. which was of glass like unto crystal, nor like that pure river described Revel. 22. 1. which was a water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God, and of the lamb. But it is a water of a mixed kind, between pure and altogether corrupted, as there is a kind of mixed natural waters, as was noted before, which are neither altogether fresh nor altogether salt, but brackish, even so the waters of this mystical sea are, I say, of a mixed kind of water; as that s●a described Revel. 15. 2. which was as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire, and not simply nor solely a sea of glass, but only as it were, that is ᵛ seeming only to be so, neither pure nor clear, but very obscure and intricate, not only because it was mingled with human doctrine & philosophy, drawn out of the 
u Even as the woman described Revel. 17. 3. seems to differ much from that B●ast mentioned Revel. 13▪ 1▪ etc but yet she sits upon the same beast with seven heads and ten bornes; but without either ●it or bridle in her mouth to guide it: signifying that this woman is rather guided by the beast, having the like natural properties of such a bru●t beast, led with sensual●…e, as speaks the Apostle Saint Peter 1. 2. 12. and altogether as malicious, cruel, and abominable, if not more, because endued with more reason and knowledge, altogether perverted and abused. And though the said woman be also more gloriously arrayed, as you see verse 4. of the said 17 Chapter, than the beast, yet she is covered all over with names of blasphemy, worse than the spots of the said Panthere. And though she hold in her hand a cup which seems to be of gold, yet it is but of some base metal, only guilt over, and thereby but disguised, and howsoever, it is but full of abominable doctrines, and of the filthiness of her fornication, whereby (as the false Prophet Balaam) she seduces and deceives both the Kings of the Earth, and also the servants of God to commi● fornication with her. Thus it is with this national hierarchical Euphrates which is the right Sea where upon this whore sits, as it will appear by that which followeth. u Therefore called the depth of Satan, Revel. 2. 24. In which pit it was confined of old by the ancient fathers with Pelagius the first author thereof in the council of Carthage, kept anno 422. who was an English man borne, once one of the chief monks of that famous monastery of Bangor in Chester, as it appears by that verse of Prosper, Pestifero vomuit coluber sermone Brita●●us, speaking of the said Pelagius, compating him in respect of his false doctrine to a Serpent, a right brood of the old Serpent, one of those that is represented by one of the rods of the charmers of Pharaoh which were turned into serpents, but devoured by that of Aaron, mentioned Exod. 7. 11, 12.  bottomless pit, Revel 17. 8. but with the fire of hot persecution also, which is the Sea, whereof the Spirit of God speaketh in this text: I mean the Sea of Euphrates, upon which these seafaring men did exercise their trading, (for and in the behalf of these forenamed Merchants) before it was dried up, as now it is. Which is also the very cause why these sea-frogs are thus troubled, and so much disquieted, as it appears by their forementioned message and complaint. At the shore whereof the Kings of the East mentioned Revel. 16. 12. that is the true reformed Christian Israel or Church of God, had now stood for a good while, waiting for a fit and prosperous passage over it; being there at length arrived, after a most tedious and troublesome journey, through that barren and unfruitful desert of idolatry and superstitious worship; having also by the wonderful mercy of God, and gracious favour towards them, gotten the victory of the beast, and of his image; and of his mark, and of the number of his name, fitting and tuning in the mean while the harps of God, that when they should have passed over that broad, deep, overswolne, and fiery Euphrates they might more freely, and joyfully 
* Revel. 15. 3.  sing the song of Moses the servant of God, & the song of the lamb. For then should they have indeed greater occasion, than they yet had to say, as you see Revel. 15. 3 great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, thou King of Saints: as it is effected by them being passed over the s●id Euphrates: wherefore they having sung the Hallelujah there mentioned, they allege for a reason these words following in the second ver. of the 19 chap. of the said Revelation, for 
* 19  true say they, & righteous are thy ●udgementss, for thou hast judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hast avenged the blood of thy servants at her hand. As it was impossible for them to do before, (no more than the Levites of old could, when those that had led them captive to Babylon required of them to sing upon their harps 
Psal. 137. 3.  one of the songs of Zion) being hindered there from by the said hierarchical sea; stopping their course till then by her hot burning fiery waters of persecution, & most intolerable tyrannical pride: by which she doth yet what she can by the means of her said Emissaries to keep them from passing over it: but all in vain, being now dried up, & a very wide gate, yea a most large & spacious way being opened & prepared, for the said Church & children of God, to go now without danger over it, and to enter without any great resistance in her Babylonish Church, to beat down their 
x This aught to be done by the Christian israel as soon as they shall have rooted, out of the Church of God, all the hierarchical power and authority of Archbishops and Diocesan Bishops.  new erected Altars, to overthrow all their Idols & Crucifixes, and utterly to abolish and cashier out all false self will worship & superstitious ceremonies, & in stead thereof to settle & establish the true kingdom of Christ, to be governed by his most holy laws and heavenly ordinances: as Moses commanded often the Israelites to do, when they should once be entered into the land of Canaan after they had passed over the Jordan.  
And because this Jordan, (with the drying of it, and passage over it, by the said children of Israel, under the leading of Joshua, yea all their voyage along the forementioned wilderness of Canaan) is a true prototype of this mystical Euphrates, so often mentioned before, as it appears by that which the Apostle in his 1 Cor. 10. 6. and 11. (speaking of the things that came to the Israelites in the wilderness) says of them that the were types, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as it expressed in the original, and that they are written, saith he, to admonish us, &c. Therefore that we may the better understand the mystery of this drying up and passage over the said Euphrates, it is very requisite that we say first, some what of the last Journeys of that Ancient people of Israel along their said wilderness. All of them together are in number 42. as is before noted, which may be divided in three general parts. The first whereof do comprehend those that were made by them from Rameses in Egypt, till they came to Mount Sinai, where they pitched 
* Exod. 19 1.  in the third month when they were gone forth out of the Land of Egypt, where they had remained almost a whole year; as it is manifest by that which is said by Moses, Num. 10. 11. In which mount God gave them his law, with his ordinances and holy statutes, concerning his worship; and thereby did covenant with them, that if they would observe and keep them, he would be their God, and they should be his people. Yet nevertheless they presently broke it, falling to idolatry in worshipping of the 
* Exod. 32. 1, 2, &c.  golden calf made by Aaron the High Priest; the which first part comprehends eleven Mansions or journeys.  
The second part is from that Mount of Sinai, to that other of Hor, where Aaron died; in which they did but wander up and down the said desert, advancing never a whit towards the said promised land of Canaan, but recoiling rather from it, in which wandering they continued for the space of almost 38. years, and made, during all the said space of time, twice eleven Mansions, which were thus doubled, because of those two great capital sins, committed by them against the Lord: the first whereof was the foresaid Idolatry, and the second their general rebellion and revolt, which happened at that place called therefore 
* Numb. 33. 19 see also Numb. 14. 1 &c.  Rimmon Perets, mentioned Numb. 33. 19 The third & last part is from the time of their departure from that mountain of Hor, after their 
* Numb. 20. 29.  thirty days' mourning for the death of Aaron, a type also of the mourning mentioned in this chap. begun (when 
y Compare these places of the Revelat. which are parallels, viz. Revel. 2. 22. 23. with Revel. 9 18. 20. with chap. 11. verse 13. and chap. 16. verse 3, 4, 6. and chap. 18. verse 9 11. and 17. all which well considered will give a great light for the right understanding of these mysteries.  Jezabel was first cast into a bed) by the Kings of the earth, which had committed fornication with her, cast also with her into great affliction, by the means of the second plague inflicted upon her, by the pouring out of the second vial, as we will show presently: continued by the Merchants of the earth, at the pouring out of the third vial; and now termined by these Mariners; both of them the right children of the whore Jezabel, 
z That phrase noteth a double death, viz. both corporal and spiritual, the like is noted, Gen. 2. 17.  
* Revel. 2. 23.  killed togetherwith her, with death. That lastperiod I say, beginning at their departure from that Mount Hor, continued till their first entry into the said land of Canaan: when they encamped in Gilgal, 
* Iosh. 4. 19  in the East side of Jericho; entering therefore into the said land at the East part thereof, as our passengers over this mystical Euphrates, are called mystically the Kings of the East, as it will appear by & by. This last period contains nine journeys, 
a Answering to the 42. months of the Christian Churches pilgrimage through the forenamed desert of Romish Idolatries and superstitions.  in all forty two. At the last of which journeys, viz. at the latter end of the thirty ninth, and about the beginning of the fortieth, the said people pitched at Habarim, standing there as it were in heaps, or companies of people's desirous and ready to pass over the said Jordan, being now so near unto it. 
b Thus was the Church of God in England, and else where in great hope of a total and final deliverance, out of the said desart-like popish Religion, when King Edward the sixt came to the crown, but soon after frustrate thereof by his untimely death, and therefore forced to stand at that glassy Sea, or mystical Euphrates, mingled with fire &c. mentioned Revel. 15. 2. a place parallel to this, being the right type of that.  But the time of their said passage being not fully accomplished, they were therefore fain to stay yet a whilelonger in the wilderness, which is before Moab towards the sunrising, as it is said Numb. 21. 11. from whence being removed, they advanced to Beer, that is (saith Moses, Numb. 21. 16.) the well whereof the Lord spoke unto Moses, gather the people together, and I will give them water. Then Israel sangthis song, spring up O well, sing ye unto to it. 
c A type of the Parliament in King Edward the sixt, and in Queen Elizabeth's time.  The Princes digged the well, the Nobles of the people, digged it, by the direction of the Law giver, with their staves. 
d The message sent by Moses to the Kings of the Amorites before the passage of the Jordan mentioned Numb. 21. 21. &c. falls in the time, or hath for its Antitype the time of the two Mary's Queens, the one of England, and the other of Scotland, who would not permit the true Reformed Religion to be established in their kingdoms, but rather opposed and persecuted it as much as they could, being the horne● of the beastlike hierarchy.  At which time they fought against Sihon King of the Amorites, 
* Numb. 21. 24. and 33.  and smote him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from Arnon unto Jabok, &c.— Then they turned and went up by the way of Bashan, and fought against Og the King of Bashan, and smote him likewise, and his sons and all his people. This Og was a mighty giant, 
* Iosh. 11. 12. &c.  Deut. 3. 11. 
e The Vice-Roys of this Christian B●shan (but especially the last of them, William Laud the remnant of the giant Popes, was a mighty giant though of a little bodily stature) having for their ordinary bea●stead, a very spacious Lambeth, which hath proved very often a hot burning furnace of iron to many of God's faithful servants, when the High-Commission Court was kept there,  W●● only remained of th●●emnant of the giants, whose bedstead was a bestead of iron, of nine cubits long & forre broad, after the cubit of a man. He saith also, tha●●is land was a goodly soil, the pastures whereof nourished strong and fat cattle, being watered by the foresaid Jordan, which doth run through that ancient land of Israel dividing Galilee from Judea, having two spring heads, viz. Dan and Jor, whence it took its name of Jordan; 
f See Rob. f. Herrey, Common places, first Table.  signifying the river of Judgement, or a caldron of Judgement, &c. It is to be noted further, that in its course along that country, it maketh two lakes or Seas, whereof the one is greater than the other: the least is called waters of Merom. By which all the Kings of Canaan, to the number of four and twenty, assembled by 
* Numb. 34. 11.  appointment to fight against Israel, with all their host, in multitude as the sand that is upon the sea shore, with horses and chartes very many, &c. The other which is a great deal bigger, is called in the old Testament the 
* Luke 5. 1.  Sea of Chinnereth, and in the new, the 
* Mat. 4. 18.  Lake of Genezareth, or the* Sea of Galilee, from which having run a long way of some forty miles, it falleth in the dead sea of Sodom, of which it is, as it were, swallowed up. Which Sea hath no visible intercourse with the Ocean; and is surnamed dead, because no living thing can endure its bituminous savour: from abundance of which matter, it is also called Lacus Asphaltites, a right type of Hell (once filled with the dead bodies of the Jews flying before the Romans, in that lamentable, and last destruction of Jerusalem, presuming (upon a false ground) that it would dry itself, and give them passage as it had done in former ages to their forefathers:) To which allusion is often made in this book of the Revelation, as namely in the punishment of the chief enemies of the Christian Church.  
Moses having thus conquered these two forenamed kingdoms of the Amorites, it is said Deut. 3. 12. 13. that he gave the Cities thereof unto the Rubenites, and to the Gadites. And the land of Gilead and all Bashan, being the kingdom of Og, he gave unto the half tribe of Mnassah, &c. But it was upon this condition, that they themselves should not stay therein yet, but pass over the Jordan armed before their brethren the children of Israel, all of them that were meet for the war: until the Lord had given rest unto their brethren, as well as unto them, &c. and then, as said Moses unto them, they should, after that, return every man unto the possession which God had given them, and not before. Then the people of Israel, went forward advancing to their last Mansions or Journeys, viz. to the 41 and 42. and pitched all along the said river Jordan, from 
* Numb. 33. 49.  Beth-jesimoth, signifying the house of Desolation, to Abel. shittim, signifying sorrow of thorns. As it happened indeed unto them, both for their corporal & spiritual whoredom, the one, that is the corporal, committed with the daughters of Moab, 
* Numb. 31. 16.  and the spiritual whoredom (through the counsel of Balaam) committed in trespassing against the Lord for worshipping of Peor, wherefore the plague came among the congregation of the Lord. And there died in that plague, four and twenty thousand: For which cause the Lord commanded Moses to 
* Numb. 25. 9 and Deut. 32. 50.  revenge the children of Israel of the Midianites, after which* he was gathered unto his people; for neither he nor Aaron his brother (because they were Ministers of the Law, who made nothing perfect, Heb. 7. 19) could not introduce the people of God into the land of Canaan; but Joshua (a true type of the Kingly office of Christ and Eleazar another type also, in that the Priesthood was renewed in his Person, but manifestly changed in Christ, which was not 
* Heb. 7. Verse 16.  made Priest after the Law of the carnal commandment, but after the power of the endless life, after the order of Melchisedec.) By whose ministry the said Jordan was dried up, that all the Israelites might go dry clean over it, as it came to pass, 
* Iosh. 3. 13. ●5. and  as soon as the Priests that bare the ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the world had taken it upon their shoulders, and had dipped their feet in the brim of the water, (which was in the time of harvest at which time Jordan did commonly overflow all his banks,) for even then 
* Verse 16. and  the waters which came down from above, stood and rose up upon an heap, but the waters that came down towards the sea of the wilderness, which is the salt sea, or lake of Sodom, failed, and were cut off; and the people passed over, right against Jericho: And the said Priests stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan. But note now that in passing over the said Jordan, 
* Verse 17.  the sons of Reuben, and the sons of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasses went over before the children of Israel armed, as Moses had spoken unto 
and 4. 12.  them. It is also added concerning the time of their said passage, verse 19 that it was 
* Verse 19 20.  the tenth day of the first month, & that then they encamped in Gilgall in the East border of Jericho, where Joshua did pitch the twelve stones which they had taken out of Jordan, that they might befor● a memorial unta their children for ever. There also the Lord did say unto Joshua, 
* Iosh. 5. 2. and verse 4. &c.  that he should make some sharp knives, to circumcise again the children of Israel the second time: because all the people that were come out of Egypt that were males, even all the men of war, were dead in the wilderness by the way, because they had not obeyed the voice of the Lord; wherefore the Lord had sworn unto them, that he would not show them the Land which the Lord had sworn unto their fathers, that he would give them. And when they had done circumcising all the people, they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole. After 
* And verse 9 10. 11.  the Lord said unto Joshua, this day have I taken away the shame of Egypt from you. There also they kept the Passeover on the fourteenth day of the month at even, in the plains of Jericho: And they did eat of the old corn of the land, on the morrow after the Passeover. And the Manna ceased, on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land, neither had the children of Israel Manna any more, but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.  
Having said thus much, of these last journeys of the Israelites, and of some of the chief accidents which befell them about their passage over Jordan, fit for the better understanding of the matter now in hand, concerning the drying up, of our said mystical Euphrates, and deliverance of the Christian Israel out or their forementioned desert; we must now apply the same to our said purpose, thereby to give also▪ (according to our former promise in the Epistle to the Reader) some taste of the parallel there mentioned; very necessary, not only for the clearing of many mysteries that are yet very obscure in the book of the Revelation; but also that we may with greater admiration observe the ways and wise proceedings of the Lord, in this reformation of his Church, now by him taken in hand, and in some good measure by him already effected: as the same was represented unto us in the old type of the old Testament, and foretold both by him, and by many of his Apostles in the new: which will be also a most sure guide to direct us, thereby to follow him, and to give him the glory due unto him for all. And to this end we must know that about the latter end of the forementioned third and last great period of time (whrein that Journey of the 42. Months of our said Christian Israel, through their said wilderness was divided (which we showed to begin in the time of John Wickleff, in the year 1380. of Christ, when the said people began to issue out of it:) the said Christian Church I say having sustained many strong oppositions, and most cruel persecutions, during the space of some two hundred years, that she was a passing through that hideous desert full of most cruel 
* Numb. 21. 6.  fiery serpents (I mean the 
g Henry the third was the first which caused Christians to be burned in England at the instigation of Arundel then Archbishop of Cant. about the year 1397.  fires of persecution which had been since that time kindled by the Pope in all the kingdoms of his dominion) the same were at last somewhat moderated, especially in England, when Henry the eighth had banished the 
h The time when the Pope was banished out of England was in the year of Christ 1534 one year after the birth of Queen Eliz. Paul the third being then Pope of Rome, a most profane scoffer of Christ; He cursed the same King Henry, and gave his kingdom to whomsoever could get it.  Pope from thence: who though he continued the said persecution, yet was it not so hot as before. But after his reign they were altogether extinguished in Edward the sixt his time: & though they were kindled again by Marie, who succeeded the said Edward, yet the great heat thereof was within few years after so quenched in Queen Elizabeth's time, and by her means, that the Church was then in great hope that it should have been altogether delivered, & that they might then without any great difficulty have come to the end of their so much desired journey, for in the very beginning of her reign she (following the example of her said brother Edward, who as another Moses had begun the said reformation) with her Princes, pears, and heads of Peoples assembled in Parliament, abolishing all false Antichristian Idolatrous doctrine 
* Numb. 21. 18.  digged with their staves of authority with the lawgiver, a well of clear doctrine as it is noted before, whereby she did refresh as (with clear cool water of life) her thirsty people, giving also by this means a fit opportunity to prepare & tune the harps of God; that they might be ready to sing the song of Moses the servant of God, & the song of the Lamb when they should have been passed over. And thereby did she in a very little space of time, conquer unto Christ the whole kingdom of England, a most glorious conquest indeed, yea much greater than that of William surnamed the Conqueror. At which change all Christendom stood amazed saith the history, that it could so easily be effect. 
Darty.  ed without sedition, though it was not suddenly made, but by little and little by degrees: for the Roman Religion saith he, continued in the same state it was first, a full month and more, after the death of Queen Mary. The seven and twentieth of December, it was tolerated to have the Epistles and Gospels, than the ten commandments, the symbol, the litany, and the Lord's Prayer, in the vulgar tongue: The two and twentieth of March, the Parliament being assembled; the Order of Edward the sixt was reestablished, and by the Act of the same, the whole use of the Lord's Supper was granted under both kinds. The four and twentieth of June, in the year following, by the authority of that which concerned the uniformity of public Prayers, and administration of the Sacraments, the Sacrifice of the mass was abolished, and the liturgy in the English tongue, more and more established. In the month of July; the Oath of Allegiance was proposed to the Bishops and other persons: and in August Images were thrown out of the Temples and Churches, and broken, and burned. The like being done also by her means and assistance, the very same year in Stotland. Now as God had given the two forenamed kingdoms of Sihon and Og to Israel, as the first fruits of their inheritance, in like manner doth he give these two to his Christian Israel; and both of them were to be encouraged thereby against the residue of their enemies beyond the river; so that, that which Moses said then, to the one may truly be said to both; 
* Deut. 3. ●4.  That they had seenewhat the Lord their God had done unto these two kingdoms, and the like should the Lord do, unto all the kingdoms whether they should pass, & that therefore they should not fear them, because ●ehovah their God would fight for them, & do unto them ●●●e had done to those two & their land: for which also both of them were to be thankful unto God, and to sing his praises as it is said in the hundred thirty six psalm 
* Psal. 136. 19, 20, 21, 22.  confess ye to Jehovah for he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever: Sihon King of the Amorites, for his mercy endureth for ever: And Og the King of Basan, for his mercy endureth for ever: and gave their land for an heritage; even an heritage unto Israel his servant, for his mercy endureth for ever.  
Thus did that most triumphant like Queen conquer those two kingdoms in a spiritual manner, putting the last hand to the stripping of the Pope's Authority in the said Kingdoms, 
h Aaron's ornaments of honour and glory were many, viz. 12. in number, whereof he was not stripped all at once but piece by piece, and one after another, leasurly, being loath to die (before he entered into the land of promise) as well as Moses, and both as unwilling, to be thus separated the one from the other: The Pope was much more loath to be stripped of any part of his power and glory, to be cast out of his earthly Canaan, and therefore hath he so much struggled with those th●… have at any time attempted to strip him of any part thereof.  which was begun even from the time of the forementioned Wickleff, when he did teach against the supremacy of the Pope, & temporalty of the clergy, Monks & pardons; affirming likewise that the Church of Rome was the Synagogue of Hell, and his clergy heretics: whose doctrine was even then, much favoured by King Edward the third, and many of his Nobles, who withstood with great courage the exactions of Pope Clement the sixth. Neither could it be extinguished ever since that time, in the said kingdom, though it was most miserable persecuted, in the most part of the professors thereof, by the Bishops there, even till Henry the eight, who banishing the Pope, as is already said, out of the land, stripped him by this means, of his Hierarchichall▪ power there; In which work his said son Edward the sixt continued during his time; but Queen Mary seeking to reinvest him again in the same, she was cut short by God, who then raised that heroical Virago forenamed Queen Elizabeth, in whose time and by whose means under God, the said hierarchical authority of the Pope himself, died as it were, or fell there down to the ground. But yet herein these worthy Princes did but in some manner even as Moses, when he stripped Aaron the High Priest, of his pontificial ornaments, which presently after he 
* Numb. 20. 28. i If the Parliament now assembled should but clip the superfluity of B. B. wings that they might not soar so high as they have done▪ hitherto, they should then go no further in the reformation, than the said Princes did which God for bid who looketh for much more at their hands, and the Christian Israel of God also in this glorious time of reformation  did put upon Eleazar his son: ⁱ And so did they when after the stripping of the said Pope, they did invest the Bishops, his true right progeny (and that by the authority of their Parliaments) of the said hierarchical power) which hath continued hitherto; and since become the right national Euphrates forementioned, or glassy Sea mingled with fire. And though in the said time of Queen Elizabeth the said renewed, or rather changed, and as it were, new shifted hierarchy, did assume but a little power, being but as in its infancy, and daring not to show the horns of the Beast, whereupon this hierarchical Harlot was most gloriously mounted, yet gathering strength by little and little, as the rivers do commonly, (which though near their source or spring, their streams be but small and weak,) yet in the continuance of their course by the gathering together of many rivulets or small streams, they become at length broad, deep, and strong, yea able to bear the greatest trading ships, even as the Thames itself, or rather that literal Euphates; as we see it described by the Holy Ghost in the prophecy of Isa●as chap. 8. 7. in that threatening of the people of Judah, saying unto them, that because they had refused the waters of Shiloah which ran softly, &c. therefore the Lord would bring up upon them, the waters of the river, mighty and great; meaning indeed, the King of Ashur, as it is expounded in the very next words; but alluding to the said Euphrates, which did water the land of Assyria, so hath this mystical done, to which also the same Spirit of God alludeth, speaking of it in this book of the Rev. as it was showed before: so that, that which the Lord said then, to the said people of Judah, may very fitly be applied to the people of this land: That because they had refused, both in the time of King Edward the sixt, and also of Queen Elizabeth, 
* Revel. 22. 1▪  that pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God, and of the lamb: I mean the the true liturgy or worship of God, together with the true discipline of Christ or Church government (both proffered unto them, then, both by Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr) grounded and drawn out of the doctrine of Christ, & of his holy Apostles, as we find it expressly instituted by him, saying first, concerning the said liturgy; 
* Mat. 15. 8. 〈◊〉.  that it is in vain to worship him, teaching for doctrine, men's precepts: And that all such do only draw near unto him with their mouth, and honour him with their lips, but their heart is far off from him. Yea, in so doing they do* but worship that which they do not know, as he said to the woman of Samaria, John 4. 22, 23, 24. for then was that time come of which he speaketh there, when the true worshippers were to worship the father in spirit and truth, for then the father did require such to worship him. For God being a Spirit, they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and truth. And concerning the said Discipline, observe only these few places, viz. Mat. 5. 22. and 18. verse 15, 16, 17, 18. and chap. 20. verse 25, 26, 27, and 28. where is set down the true pattern thereof, (I do but name them, because I intend not to speak of this now.) renewed as it were, by him, after his Resurrection, as S. Luke tells us, Acts 1. 3. where he shows that Christ was seen of his Disciples, and heard too, as saith Saint John in his first Epistle chap. 1. verse 1. speaking of those things which did concern the true Government of his kingdom of Grace, and that by the space of forty days, as he had been with 
* Exod. 24. 18 and 25. 9 and 40.  Moses in the mountain under the Law, when he gave him the pattern of the Tabernacle, & of all the instruments thereof; which were then to be employed in his holy worship then instituted by him; wherein as Moses showed himself very faithful in all the house of God, as the Apostle doth testify Heb. 3. 5. the same may we say of the Apostles, concerning the government of this house of Christ. But as the said Jews, I say, did then refuse such waters, so the said people refusing both the said pure and simple worship of God and true Church Discipline, and preferring to it, that vain, frothy, pompous-humane-will worship or liturgy of Rome, some what refined I confess, but yet the very same in substance, therefore did the Lord bring upon them that proud prelatical, hierarchical Church government, by the means of it. The which hath at length 
* Isa. 8. 7. k As Doctor Leiton and M. Prtn, M. Burton, and D. Bastwick, two couples of the worthy witnesses of Christ.  broken into England, especially, and hath so overflowed and passed through it, that it is come, not only to the neck, but even to the very top of the cheeks and ears of some of the best servants of God, some of them having had their ears cut with the Knife made as it were of the glass of that 
* ●evel 15. 2.  glassy sea and burnt with the fire thereof; yea it had so spread out its wings, that it had covered the breadth of the land: becoming thereby impassible, and like the raging sea, that cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt, as saith the Prophet Isa. 57 20. as it proved (especially, when the said Christian Israel of God, was ready to pass over it.) As the waters of the forementioned Jordan, did then overflow and fill all his banks (as soon as the feet of the Priests, that bare the ark, were dipped in the brink of the waters thereof, thereby to prepare the may for the said children of Israel to pass over it, after the drying thereof,) even so did, then especially, that hierarchical powerful tyrannical sea (flowing 
* Iosh. 3 15.  from that forementioned 
l It is very considerable that as the river Jordan (the prototype of this national Euphrates, as is noted before) hath two springs or chief sources, the one called Jor, and the other Dan: even so this mystical Euphrates, hathtwo chief heads, viz. two Archbishops, see the emblem in the frontispiece of this treatise,  head thereof) raise to such a height of pride, and inhuman cruelty, that it did overflow and run over all power and authority both divine and human; and became thereby so intolerable, that no human creature was able, to withstand, restrain, or resist it: So that in a short time, it had easily (as another deluge) overflowed and destroyed the whole land, and by its most deadly waters, of Popish and Arminians false doctrines and superstitious ceremonies, killed every soul living, yet in that tyrannical scalding sea; according to the prophecy of Christ, therein truly accomplished, recited Mat. 24. 22. saying that except those days (meaning the days of the great tribulation, mentioned & described by him, in the next preceding words; which can be no other than the thousand two thundered and sixty days of this christian Churches pilgrimage through her said desert, so called Revel. 7. 17.) except saith he, they should be shortened, there shall no flesh be saved: but for the elects sake those days shall be shortened: As it is now manifestly come to pass, by the wonderful mercy of God; who being a God 
* Psal. 65. 2.  that heareth prayers (as the Prophet saith) hath at last 
* Psal. 102. 17 18, &c.  looked down from the highest of his sanct●any, and hath from Heaven beheld the earth; to hear the groanings of the prisoners, and to lose those that were appointed to death, and hath regarded the prayer of the destitute, & not despised their request: as it is said in that prophetical psalm, that was then written, for the generation to come, and for the people which was to be created a new. For he is no idle spectator of the wrongs done unjustly to his servants; but rather, such a one, as doth usually 
* 1 Pet. 5. 5.  resist the proud Haman's of the world, scattering them in the imagination of their hearts, and putting down the mighty from their seats. As the most blessed Virgin Mary doth sing, Luke 1. 52. 53. and as we see it already begun by the almighty power of God, who hath taken in hand that proud hierarchical whore even in the very time when in her overswelling pride 
* Revel. 18. 7, 8.  she most glorified herself, saying in her heart, I sit a Queen and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow: as she is brought boasting of herself, Revel. 18. 7. 8. Whereupon the Angel denouncing her last sentence of condemnation, saith of her, in the next words. Therefore must her plagues come in one day, death and mourning, and famine, and she shall be utterly burnt with the fire of Excommunication, for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her; Who therefore doth now stir up those that, at first, had given their 
* Ibid. 17. 16,  power and authority to the beast, to hate also this whore, to make her desolate and naked, and to eat her flesh, and to burn her with the said fire. Having to that very end, especially, gathered them together to fight this great battle, of the great day of God Almighty, now happily begun, in the place called in the Hebrew tongue, Armagedon, Revel. 16. 14. 16. I mean the Parliament or Heavenly Assembly so called, Revel. 11. 12. and 19 1. at this time Assembled by the most wise afore ordained-decree of God, mentioned in that fore-alleadged place of Revel. 16. and by his most gracious mercy, towards his poor afflicted Church and children, (who had for a very long while groaned under an heavier burden, of ceremonions superstitions and Idolatries, then was that of the Egyptian servitude) thus to fight the battles of the Lord, against the said national whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornications, to avenge by that means, the blood of his servants at her hands, Revel. 19 2. (making thus the tenth part of the great City: to fall in this conflict, together with seven thousand men of name, Revel. 11. 13. (That the forementioned way of the Kings of the East may be prepared to go against great Babylon itself, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of God's wrath. Revel. 16. 19)  
Therefore go on in the name of God, ye worthies of the Lord, in doing, with boldness and courage, this wonderful work of his, now by him committed unto you; and hear him speaking to you, by me his mean and unworthy servant, as he spoke of old to that great leader of Israel Joshua, saying, Now therefore arise, and go over 
Iosh. 1. 2, 3. 4, &c.  this said Euphrares, you and all the people, unto the said Canaan of true reformation, which he doth give unto them even to his Christian Israel: Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that hath he given unto you, from one end of the Roman Christian Empire even unto the other; that is all the ten kingdoms of the Beast, from the rising of the sun to its going down, shall be your coast. There shall not any man be able to stand before you, all the days of your life: for as he was with Queen Elizabeth, and before her with Edward the sixt that had worthily begun the said reformation, so will he be with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you. Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shall you divide for an inheritance, the land which he swore unto their fathers to give them. Only be ye strong, and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the words which John his servant commanded you in his Name i● the book of his Revelation, turn not from it, to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper whethersoever you go. The said book should not depart out of your mouths, but you should meditate there in day and night, that you may observe to do, to that hierarchical national whore, and to all the popish Canaanites, not forgetting the proud Arminian Anakins, according to all that is written therein. 
* Revel. 18. 6.  Rewarding them all, even as they rewarded you, and giving double unto them according to their works: in the cup which they have filled, fill to them double: for than 
* Iosh. 1. 8. 9  you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success. Hath not he commanded you? Be strong and of a good courage, be not afraid, neither be ye dismayed: for the Lord your God is with you whether soever ye go, going 
* Revel. 14. 11.  before you, sitting upon a white horse, whom you must flollow as his heavenly armies sitting also upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and 
and 14.  clean. And to that very end I am sure have you now (even as your most worthy brethren the Scottish men have done before you) entered into a new Covenant with the Lord, and caused all the people of the land to do the like. 
m The covenant made by both the nations of England and Scotland, &c. is typified by that action of Joshua circumcising the people of Israel in Gilgal presently after their passage over Jordan by the express commandment of God.  A most worthy Act of yours, wherein we are fully persuaded, that you have been altogether guided by the spirit of God, and wisdom from above, as having thereby performed that which was typified both of you and of all the kingdoms of the world, (that are to enter after you into the true Canaan, wherein you are now entering, that is, that are ready to embrace after you: and by your means also, as we will show by and by, the true reformation of Religion you have now in hand) in that action forementioned of Joshua, that valiant leader of the ancient Israel, according to the commandment of God given unto him to that end 
n Josh. 5. 2 &c. to verse 12. parallel to Revel. 19 4.  Josh 5. 2, &c. the first institution and ground whereof may be seen Gen. 17. from the first verse to the ninth of the said chapter, in which covenant and promise thereunto annexed were comprehended as well the Gentiles as the Jews; and the which God will now fully accomplish as well to the one as to the other: (according to the ancient prophecies both of Dan. 7. 26. & 27. parallel, to those of the Revel. chap. 10. 7. and 11. 15. 17. 18. to the very time of the accomplishing whereof we are now come.) By the means of which covenant (wherein you are thus entered with the Lord) may be applied to you both, and to all them that shall e●ter in it, what the Lord said then of the said people of Israel in the said 5. chap. verse 9 viz. 
* Iosh. 5. 9  That in the day it was performed, the Lord did take away the shame of the spiritual Egypt from you. Now therefore, O ye worthies of the Lord, be ye also fully assured, for your greater encouragement, in the prosecuring of the glorious work which the Lord and his anointed our gracious sovereign the King hath entrusted you with all, that the seventh & last angel doth now begin to blow the seventh and last Trumpet, at the blowing whereof, you know that the mystery of God is to be accomplished as he had declared to his servants the Prophets, in former times; as it is said Revel. 10. 7. 
* Revel. 11. 18  even the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and the time when God should give reward unto his servants the Prophets, and to the Saints, and to them that fear his name, to small and great, and wherein he is to destroy them which destroyed the earth; pouring upon them the seventh and last vial of God's wrath, which bringeth upon them the third and last woe: yea, the very time wherein the words of God are to be fulfilled, mentioned Revel. 17. 17. for the executing of the judgement of God upon the whore spoken of in the next preceding verse. To which end also, as that captain of the Lord's host 
o Iosh. 5. 13. 14 15, parallel to Revel 19 5 He will no less manifest his good will more and more to ou● great leader under him, concerning the reformation now in hand.  appeared to Joshua, presently after the foresaid Covenant taken, as he was by Je●●●ho, that he might put in his heart to fulfil therein his will, even so will he put in your hearts to fulfil his. In which apparition you know he commanded him to lose h●s shoe off his foot, because the place whereon he stood was holy. Which was a ceremony used of old by that people, not only in civil affairs, but also in ecclesiastical. In civil, both concerning the resigning over of one's right in matter of inheritance to another, according to the law, Deut. 25. 9 whereof we have an example in Ruth's kinsman, Ruth 4. 7. Also in time of affliction and grief, as it is to be seen in David (2 Sam. 15. 30.) fleeing from Jerusalem, when his son Absalon had conspired against him; the same is also commanded to the Prophet Isa. to be performed by him as a sign to the Israelites, Isa. 20. 2. 3. The same ceremony was also used by the Priests when they entered into the 
* Exod. 30▪ 19 20. See Ainsworth's Annot. in locum.  Holy place to do the service there: which Ceremonies, though now abolished, yet the morality thereof may be of use, and doth concern us also, as it was a sign first of shame, secondly of sorrow, and thirdly not only of purity, according to Eccle. 5. 1. where we are advised to look to our feet, but also of willingness and diligence in the service of the Lord, according to Psal. 110. 3. where the people of God is said to be a willing people: and Jer. 48. 10. where he is cursed that doth the work of the Lord negligently. Of all which Joshua was now admonished by the Lord even as if he had said unto him:  
My intent, O Joshua (whom I have called to be the leader of my people) by this that I do command thee now to do, is, that thereby thou mayest be informed both thou, and this great people that I have committed to thy charge,) that you ought to consider seriously, the Covenant wherein you are now entered with me: whereby, as on my part I have obliged myself to accompany you in the conquest of this land of Canaan (thereby to perform & accomplish all the promises concerning it, which I have made of old, both to your fathers, & to yourselves) so on the otherside, you also have obliged yourselves thereby upon your souls and consciences, that with shame and confusion of face, with unfeigned sorrow and true penitent hearts you shall renounce all your former idolatries, manifold murmurs, rebellions and abominations (whereby you have so often provoked me to anger even as your fathers had done before; wherefore I was constrained to ma●e their carcases to fall in the wilderness, as I had sworn unto them in my wrath) and besides that you will also obey and do all my commandments and ordinances with all your hearts, and with all your souls, in a good conscience and faith unfeigned: that you may possess this land for ever, and live therein, you and your children after you. To the like effect do we read in the 19 chap. of the Revel. that after that the four and twenty Elders, and the four Beasts mentioned in the fourth verse of the said chapter (representing the Christian Churches, and the heads of them now assembled or met together in the presence of God in Parliament, passed over the mystical Euphrates) had fallen down, and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying Amen, Hallelujah, that then a voice came out of the throne saying, praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great, by the action of which Elders, &c. is noted the entering of the said people in the said Covenant; the said action being parallel to that, as the words of the third verse, and the action there mentioned, are also the true parallel, of that first action performed by Joshua immediately before this, and presently after the passage over Jordan, as soon as they were arrived in Gilgal, 
* Io●●. 5. 9  where Joshua did pitch the twelve stones taken in Jordan, for a memorial to future ages of the drying up of the said waters of Jordan, and of their passage over it, dry foot; the erecting of which stones in the type, doth signify in the Antitype the enacting, and registering of the sentence of the utter overthrow and abolishment of the 
p It should therefore have preceded the Covenant because it was the cause of our separation and divorce from the Lord, therefore that Ionas was first to be cast into the sea of Sodom, spare it not therefore, or else you must be sure that the Sea will not cease her raging.  hierarchical prelatical power of Archbishops and Bishops first in all our King's Dominions, and afterwards in the whole Canaan or land of the kingdom of the Beast: it signifies also the sentence of Excommunication, by which it (viz. the Beast) must be confined for ever to the bottomless pit whence it issued, Revel. 17. 8. or cast into the 
q The lake of Sodom a type first of the Excommunicatition of the Church, called by Christ Gehenna of fire Mat. 5. 22. by Saint Paul to be delivered unto Satan, 1 Cor. 5. 5. by Saint John Revel. 19 10. and 20. 10. a lake of fire and brimstone; secondly, of hell itself.  lake of fire and brimstone, mentioned Revel. 19 20. and 20. 10. typified by the lake of Sodom, wherein the said Jordan was, as it were cast, when it was dried up; being also therein a prototype of that sea mentioned Revel. 18. 21. where it is said, that a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, with such violence shall the great city Babylon be cast, and shall be found no more alluding to that other type mentioned 
* I●●. 51. 63. 64. read and consider well the contents thereof.  Jer. 51. 63. 64. Even so the words uttered by that 
* Revel. 19 5. parallel to Josh. 5. 13, 14, 15.  voice coming out of the throne and saying praise our God, &c. is the right parallel of the said apparition to Joshua above mentioned; importing the very same commandment which ought to be made to all the people of God both small and great, as well those that are his domestical servants, as all the rest of them that fear him, concerning the due consideration of the importance of the said Covenant that this Christian Israel hath now made with God, as it appears, first by the place, whence the said voice came, which is the throne; whereby allusion is made to the place where, and to the manner how, the Lord was wont to 
* Numb. 27. 18. 21. See Iudg. 20. 27. 28. 1 Sam. 23. 9, 10, &c. and chap. 28. 6. Ainsworth in Exod. 28. 30.  answer (from the Oracle) the Kings asking counsel at the Lord, by the Priests bearing the Ephod, whose lips doth preserve knowledge, and at whose mouth the law is sought, Mal. 2. 7. And thus the true and faithful Ministers of the Gospel having first consulted the true Oracles of God only, that is, his sacred word ought to inform in the name of the Lord, the King and his Nobles that they must praise and sanctify that God alone (according to his most holy will & sacred ordinances, commanded in his said word) with whom they are now entered in Covenant, and not only they, but also by their command, all the servants of the Lord employed in the service of the Lord, in all the Churches of his majesty's Dominions, and likewise all his faithful subjects that do fear the Lord, both small and great: And that they must therefore abhor and detest all their former contrary Religion, doctrine, and worship; but chiefly all kind of Popery, either in general or particular heads, even as they are refuted and condemned, by the said word of God in all the true reformed Churches; but in special that they must detest and reject all the usurped authority of all hierarchical Archbishops and Diocesean Bishops upon the Scriptures of God, upon the Church, upon the civil Magistrate also, and consciences of men, and all their tyrannous Canons and human ordinances made upon indifferent things, against their Christian liberty, as namely all their rites, ceremonies and false doctrines added by them to the administration of the Sacraments, as the Crossing in baptism, the kneeling in the receiving of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, the standing of the Lord's Table Altarwise, with tapers, or Crucifixes over it, and bowing to it, or at the naming of Jesus, and the observing of other (by them falsely called) holy-days, besides that holy sanctified day of the Lord, the which to the utmost of their power they have laboured to expu●ge out of the catalogue of the ten commandments of the law. And that hereafter they will adhere to the Lord, serving and worshipping him alone, in all holiness and pureness of living, in submitting themselves for that end, to an holy Church government or discipline, taught & contained in the said word of God alone, & void of all human inventions and additions not grounded upon the same.  
Now that this is the true intent of the Spirit of God in the words of this fift verse, it will yet further appear, very clearly, if you will consider (besides the two former mentioned verses of the said 19 chapter) both the first and second verses thereof also, in the first of which Saint John tells us how he heard a great voice of a great multitude in Heaven, saying, Hallelujah, &c. giving us to understand thereby, the great 
r The joy of Joshua and of the people of Israel passing over Jordan dry, testified by Psal. 66. 6. parallel to Revela●. 19 1. expressing the joy of the Christan Israel for the assembling of the Parliament: Preaching at the very beginning of it, liberty to the captives, and to them that were bound by the Prelates, the opening of the prison, Isa. 61. x.  joy that the many congregations of the true Christian Churches, especially, of these three kingdoms, should both conceive in their hearts, and also express outwardly both in words and actions, of holy thanksgiving unto the Lord and acknowledging of that salvation, & glory, and honour, & power that was to be given unto him, because he had put in the heart of his anointed to do & fulfil his most holy will, in calling together that most heavenly Assembly of Parliament, to exec●ue and administer the true and righteous judgements of God, 
s The passage over Jordan mentioned Josh. 3. 9, 10, 11. and 16. parallel to the proceding in judgement or Arainnement of the hierarchy in Parliament, expressed Revel. 19 2.  proceeding juridi●-ally to the condemnation of the great hierarchical whore which had corrupted the earth with her fornications; thereby also to avenge the blood of his servants shed by her hand, as of them that were already dead, by the means of her most inhuman & barbarous like cruelties used against them, so of those that were yet detained prisoners, in great distress, in her most vile and base prisons, and especially those faithful witnesses of his truth; who had been confined in those remote Islands beyond seas, viz. of Garnezey Jarzey and Silly, against whom she had made war, had overcome them and killed them by a civil or rather a most uncivil death, whereby they were, in a manner cast out of the land of the living, Esa. 53. 8. having their eyes shut as it were, being barred and deprived of the sight and company 
* Ezech. 24. 16.  of the delight of their said eyes; I mean their most dear wives and children, and after them, of the greatest comfort of the world, their 
* Psal. 88 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.  godly friends and acquaintance, having likewise their hands & feet bound with bands having neither the liberty to visit their friends, or to be visited of them, nor to write unto them (being forbidden to have either paper, pen or ink.) And thus did their corpse lie unburied in such public places of the great city, for the space of 
t I have observed this concerning M. Burton who was confined in the Castle Cornet in the Isle of Garnzey, in whom especially I find this type verified to the full, for since the 14 of June, 1637. in which day he, together with his two other fellow Martyrs, and right {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} were condemned, &c. to his arrival in the said Island which was the 15. day of December in the same year, are just six whole months, during which time he was, as it were in a very dark night of affliction, hid as the spies sent by Joshua to Jericho under stalks of flax upon the roof of a house: and from that time decained close prisoner three whole years, viz. from the said 15. day of De●ember 1637. to the 15. day of November 1640. being the Lord's day, and the first of the last month of the said third year, in which day he heard the great voice of the Heavenly Parliament saying unto him, come up hither.  three days and a half only, (though their said enemies had confined them there till death) at the latter end whereof, the spirit of life coming from God, entered into them, and so revived them; so that they could then stand upon their feet, being loosed of their said bands, having heard that great voice coming from the 
u These are the true members of the true Church called always heaven in this Revelation opposed to the hierarchical, national earthly Church of the Prelates.  heavenly Parliament then assembled in London; the voice whereof was so loud, that it was heard of them, from those remotest places of the King's Dominions, saying unto them, Come up hither, and they obeying the same, did presently ascend up to the said Heavenly Assembly, gathered in the foresaid City of London, wherinto they entered in a most glorious cloud of witnesses, rejoicing for their said deliverance, as it is said in the first verse of this said 19 chap. which was on the contrary a most bitter and spiteful sight to their enemies that might see them thus honoured of God and men. The event of all which most glorious works (thus begun and prosecuted, according to the foreappointad decree of God, thus also revealed unto us by Saint John in these two chapters of the 
* Revel. 11. 12. 13. and chap. 19: 1, 2, 3. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}.  Revel. viz. the 11. forecited, and the nineteenth, compared together) doth give I am sure such a clear light to all the business, now in hand, ex ungue leonem, that nobody will no more doubt of it. But yet consider the next following action, set down in the sixt and eight verses of the said 19 chap. namely, that presently after the precedent voice which did proceed from the throne, John heard another like a voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of strong thunderings, saying Hallelujah: for the Lord that God, that Almighty one hath reigned, &c. In which words I say, is summarily and mystically contained the history, related more fully in the 
x Iosh. 6. from verse the 1. to the 22. is contained an history parallel to the predication in Revel. 19 ver. 6, 7, 8.  sixt chapter of Josh. concerning the falling down of the walls of Jericho (which was the first city taken in the land of Canaan, being beyond Jordan, by the blowing of the Seven trumpets of rams horns, borne by seven Priests before the ark, which was carried by them round about it once in a day for the space of six days: but the seventh day, they were to compass the said city seven times, and at the seventh time when they should hear the said priests making a long blast with the said rams horns, they were bidden to shout with a great shout, because then the wall of the city should fall down flat, and the people should ascend up every man straight before him. 
y This conquest of Jericho, as well as that of the rest of the land of Canaan, was corporal (though this first was performed in a spiritual ext●●ordinary manner) there●… their 〈…〉 corporal 〈…〉.  In their march about this city, the whole congregation was divided in three several squadrons or troops, keeping this order, first the armed men were to march in the forefront of the army going before the Priests that blew the trumpets; who in the second place marched before the ark, which was carried by the Levites upon their shoulders, going in the midst of all the Armies: Then in the last place the rearward came after the ark of the Lord, the Priests going on and blowing with the trumpets. All which company thus ranged in battle array, and compassing the said city once a day for six days, and seven times the seventh day, It came to pass at the seventh time when the Priests made a long blast with the rams horns, that the people shouted with a great shout, and then the wall fell down flat. 
z this is a spiritual conquest, whereby these Christian kingdoms are to be conquered to Christ, in slipping from off their necks, or casting off the cruel and intolerable yoke of Antitichrists usurped tyrannical power, to take in lieu thereof the most easy yoke of Christ, embracing the sincere profession of his truly reformed Religion, and submitting to his holy Church Government & discipline: therefore the order kept by these three troops in their march & uttering of their Hallelu▪ jah after their said conqu●st is different from that of the type; because the spirit of God hath as it seems reference to the spiritual warfare of the Parliaments: where the honourable house of Commons representing the whole body of the kingdom, doth as it were march in the forefront of the whole army; Then the peers of the land, Princes of the Tribes of their fathers, and heads under God and the King of the thousands of Israel, do● follow after: then the Priests or Ministers come in the rearward of the said army, with the rams horns of the powerful, though most despised preaching of the word of God and servant prayer of a long blast; bearing upon their shoulders the ●●borious ministry thereof, whereby especially, the wall of this Jericho, (I mean according to Prov. 18. 11. these rich Vice-Roys, Merchants, and Mariners superfluous and ill acquired wealth, wages of unrighteousness so called, 2 Pet. 2. 15. which was as their strong city, and as an highwall in their own conceit,) must be tumbled down: These come in the last place, because their proper place is occupied by those who should be thrust out of it.  And thus the three several companies noted by S. John, having shouted with a great shout their Hallelujah, the walls of the spiritual Jericho falling down flat, had great reason to say that then the Lord God omnipotent, did begin to enter into his reign, and that therefore they should be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him, because then was come the marriage of the lamb, for as in the sacking of Jericho, 
* Josh. 6. 22, &c.  Joshua had care of Rahab the harlot, and therefore commanded the 
a By these understand all the true witnesses of Christ, and among them especially they, that have suffered for the truth, who are to inform and show by the word of God how the church ought to be reformed and purged of all false Popish and Arminian doctrine and Idolatries of all the Popish garments, and superfluous ornaments of that pompous will-worship and liturgy, and of all the rags and superstitious days of feasts or fasts, all which ought to be abolished. See the Law, Deut. 21. 12. verse 13. and the law for the cleansing of the leprosy, Levit. 14. 8. Numb. 5. 2. 3. and for the practice thereof, see Numb. ●2. 14. 15. and Ezech. 16. 52. 54. for the performance of this in the Antitype weigh. Revel. 19 7. 8. and 11. 13. the latter end.  two spies that had spied out the country, they should go into her house, to bring her out thence, and all that she had, with all her kindred, to put them without the camp of Israel, there to be purified according to the law, even so Christ he is willing to save his Church, (which had played the Harlot, with the great whore with whom she had polluted herself, having drunk very deep of her abominations out of her own cup;) and to bring her now within the covenant, the time granted unto her to make herself ready being passed: wherein the spies forementioned were employed, not only to strip her (for her greater shame) of all her polluted garments, and in stead of them to put on her mourning weeds, but also to shave her head (to humble her the more) and to pare her nails, that afterwards she●might by arrayed in fine linen clean and white, against the day of her marriage with the King him himself of the Christian Israel.  
And thus much shall suffice for the present for a taste of the parallel, very necessary as I judge not only for the better understanding of the place of the Revel. the exposition whereof we have now undertaken, but also for the greater encouragement of the said honourable assembly now thus gathered together by the Lord to judge the said whore in fighting the Lord's battles against her. To whom I will yet say further in the name of the Lord, that they should not faint though, they find by experience this first city of Jericho, to be not only a great one, & walled up to heaven, but also shut up very straightly: for seeing you have such a captain as that victorious warrior, the great Jehoshua going as it is already said, before you; and his Priests with sounding trumpets to cry alarum against them, there with all to beat down their tallest & strongest walls flat to the ground, you must be assured that though themselves were as tall and strong, as were of old those giantlike Anakins, yet you shall vanquish them and ransack their city. But with all, permit me I pray, for the discharge of mine own conscience to advise you, yet in all humility, of one thing more, to which the said parallel doth yet further lead me, not to be omitted, but which ought rather to be as I suppose duly considered. In respect of which I am a continual Orator to God for you and his holy people, that he may avert it from you, I will express it unto you better in the words of Joshua himself, speaking to all the people, in the time of the compassing of the said city of Jericho, saying to them as I do now to you; 
* Iosh. 6. 18, 19  In any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it, for all the silver and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, that are already consecrated unto the Lord, must come into the treasury of the Lord. Take heed therefore I say, of the sin of Achan: who when he saw among the 
Idem cap. 7. 21 wherefore all Israel was troubled: 36. of them were Killed, and the rest fled before the men of Ai. vers. 4. 5.  spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, he coveted them, and took them, and hid them in the earth, in the midst of his Tent, a●d the silver under it. But let none of this heavenly army, already 
* Revel. 19 14  clothed in fine linen, white and clean, defile their said garments, in coveting as did the said Prince (any of the spiritual revenues or goods whatsoever belonging to the Church,) neither permit that any should yet continue to appropriate them to their earthly revenues or demeanes, or to bring any of them into their houses. Remember what Moses the servant of the Lord said of old to that ancient Israel, Deut. 7. 25. 26. Covet not saith he, the silver or gold that is upon their images, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therewith: for it is an abomination to the Lord thy God: bring not therefore an abomination into thy house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but utterly abhor it, and count it most abominable, for it is accursed. hear what he saith further to the same people in another place. 
* Isa. 30. 22.  There shall cleave nothing, of the interdicted thing to thine hand, that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his wrath, and show thee mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers. O let all such, consider rather and ponder it well in their hearts, what is become of many of the houses & demeanes of a great number of the late Impropriators, & of their Impropiations, and take it to heart, considering that many of those who devoured that which was holy, have found it a most dangerous snare as saith Solomon, Prov. 20. 25. and have consulted shame to their houses, as saith Habackkuck 2. 10. and sinned against their soul. Foelix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum, it is a happy thing to learn wisdom by the affliction or chastisement of another; let not also the least part thereof be brought into the King's treasury. I say no more, because 
* Deut. 13. 17.  I know that my Lord the King, with his Princes, is as an angel of God to discern good and bad; who as 
* 2 Sam. 14. 17.  another Jehoshaphat, desirous to bring his people back again to the Lord their God, hath called and assembled 
2 Cron. 19 4. 7, 8, 9, & 10.  you in this Jerusalem, for the judgement of the Lord, with this charge; To do in the fear of the Lord, faithfully and with a perfect heart, so that what cause soever shall come to you of your brethren that dwell in your Cities, between blood and blood, between Law and commandment, statutes and judgements, that ye should even warn them, that they trespass not against the Lord, thereby to bring his wrath upon you, and upon your brethren: therefore as he said again to the very same a little before, so hath likewise I am sure our said Prince spoken unto you, saying; Take heed what ye do, for ye judge not for man, but for the Lord, who is with you in the judgement, wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon you, take heed, and do it, for there is no iniquity with the Lord, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts. In a word, 
* Mat. 22. 21. in restoring Church lands, impropriations, Church tithes, &c. to whom they belong.  Render unto Cesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's, for dealing thus courageously the Lord shall be with the good.  
Having now at last in the precedent discourse, found out, (as I am fully persuaded) by the fau●●able assistance of the spirit of God, together with that faithful and unfailing guide of his own appointment, the foresaid type of the journeys of the children of Israel travelling from Egypt to Canaan, and at length discovered the particular country, through which runneth, that powerful mystical Euphrates, which hath thus since the forementioned time of the first Reformation of Religion, (till the drying up of it, now fulfilled, by the pouring out of the said sixt vial) hindered the perfecting of the said Reformation. Having also showed, what are the mystical seas which it makes in its course, or powerful dominion, established in the said kingdom, thus divided into two great Metropolitan Seas or Dioceses: As also, the very time of the drying up of it; and spoken of some of the most admirable and wonderful works of the Lord, that are already performed, by his most powerful overruling hand, since the drying thereof, and that are yet in hand, and which he will not now leave unperfect, nor desist any more from the full accomplishment of them: because the time now begun & foretold by that Angel which Saint John saw standing upon the sea, and upon the earth, or earthly sea; whereof 
* Revel. 10. 〈◊〉 5. 6.  lifting up his hand to heaven, he swore then, by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, there should be time no longer. 
* Verse 7.  But that in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he should begin to sound, as he hath now, as was showed before that than the mystery of God should be finished as he had before declared to his servants the Prophets. All these things I say having been thus premised, it is now manifest, and very easy to be understood that the Ships that were traffiking upon the forementioned Seas are nothing else, than the hierarchical Courts of such Metropolitan Archbishops and of their other brethren the under Diocesan Bishops: the divers Officers whereof, are thus represented unto us in this text by the Holy Ghost, by such names and titles as are ordinarily given to seafaring men, which are diverse; having also divers titles whereby they are called, as was before noted in the Analysis of the text.  
The first whereof are called by the ti●le of shipmasters, which in the original are expressed by the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, signifying properly a Governor: which governors and shipmasters seem to be two distinct officers or offices, bearing two distinct charges in Ships, both specified also by Saint Luke Acts 27. 11. Where he saith, that the Centurion believed rather the governor and the Master of the Ship, then &c. The first of which Officers is here mentioned, being the very same title or word by which the Apostle S. Paul doth call those Church Officers of the Primitive Churches, which now, among those that are truly called, by the title of the Reformed Churches beyond Seas, are named Elders, & here Lay-Elders by some, or ruling Elders by others; which are those 
* Rom. 12. 8.  helps in Government, or rather helping governors, whom elsewhere the Apostle calls precedents or Wise Rulers: as in the first to the Thes. chap. 5. verse 12. also when he saith, We beseech you brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are Rulers or precedents over you, in all which places he useth the very same word that is here employed by the Prophet speaking of these Ship-officers. Which Rulers, precedents, or governors are of two sorts, the one of them being Pastors and teachers, who labour especially in the word and doctrine: the other are those that are only Ruling Elders, or Helping Elders, because they are or should at least be Helps, to assist the Ministers in the administration of the Church discipline, or in the government of the said Church, who are so distinctly specifi●d, or precisely distinguished by the Apostle in his first to Tim. chap. 5. verse 17. when he saith, let the Elders that rule well, be counted worthy of double honour; especially they, who labour in the word and doctrine: Which were also very well known in Origens time, who lived about the year of Christ, 226. who did thus distinguish them, when writing against Celsus he saith, 
* Origen. lib. 3. contra Celsum.  Non nulli praepositi sunt qui in vitam & mores eorum qui admittuntur inquirant, &c. There are some ordained, to inquire into the life and manners of such, as are admitted into the Church, that they may banish such from the public Assembly, that perpetrate scandalous acts: so likewise in S. Ambrose his time, as it app●ares by that famous text of his, 
* Ambros. in 〈◊〉. 〈◊〉 Tim. 5. he lived about the year of the Lord. 37. 4.  unde & Synagoga & postea Ecclesia seniores habuit, quorum sine consil●o nihil agebatur in Ecclesia, &c. There were Elders in the Church under the new Testament, as well as und●r the Law in the Synagogues, (as it app●ares clearly by these few places of the Old and New Test●ment, viz 1 Kings 6. 32. 2 Chron. 19 8. 11. Jer. 26. 10. 11. Ezec. 7 26. which were in steed and ●●d represent the whole Congregation as may be seen Exod 12. 3. 21. and 19 3. 7. see also in the New, Mat. 27. 2. Mark 15. 1. Acts 4. 5. 6. &c.) without whose advice and counsel nothing was done in the Church &c. saith that father. Which officers I mean both 
* By which places it is m●…st, th●● b● the m●…ss of 〈◊〉 Eld●●s, who were not ●nely aged men but teachers and govern●●ss of the pe●ple, things were orderly communicated with the multitude.  Pastors and Elders are also called guid●s o● O●ersee●s by the Apistle, Heb. 13. 17. where he ch●r●es the Hebrews to Obey them that had the oversight of them; or that were their Guides or Rulers. Of which the Assemblies of Consistories, Colloques, and Synods, both parishional, provincial and national of the said Reformed Churches beyond seas, are composed; who have also the managing and disposition of all Church affairs.  
Concerning which Assemblies (it will not be amiss to say this by the way,) that they have always for precedent or Moderator a Pastor or Minister, the rest of the said Assemblies, both Ministers and Elders, being his Assessors to vote and judge with him of 
* 2 Cor. 19 8.  what cause soever concerning the Lord, or any controversies which comes to them of their brethren that dwell in their particular cities and congregations: The said Moderator being as it were the mouth or Speaker in the said Assemblies, both for the examining of the business treated or discussed among them, the taking of the voices or opinions of the said assessors and Judges, and pronouncing of their opinion or sentence, concerning the said matters thus agitated among them, and that according to the plurality of voices. Which Moderator or Speaker is always chosen in the first session of the said national Synod (lawfully convened from two to two, or from three to three years) by the said plurality of voices both of the said Ministers and Elders there assembled, to be the precedent thereof, during the same. But in the Colloques or provincial Synods composed likewise of all the Ministers of the said Province, and of one Elder at least of every particular Congregation of the same, the Ministers in their successive turns from the eldest of them to the youngest are the Moderators, continuing in the said office from one Colloque to another; that is for the space of three months, to see with the Scribe, (who also is most commonly chosen from among the Ministers to keep the Registers of the said Assemblies) the execution of the said matters therein voted: Or (as it is observed amongst us from one Proposition to another) that is for the space of one month only, at the begi●ning whereof the said Ministers use to meet, to hear one another, treating in the public Congregation, in their successive turns, such a portion of Scripture, as is appointed by them all, thereby to fit themselves for the function of the holy ministry (by the mutual brotherly private admonitions given by each of them to him that in his said order hath made the said exercise in public audience of the Church) and also that they may in effect by that means see the proficiency of each other in the same. As for the parishional Consistory, which is the 
6 In Mat. 5. 22 fore-alleaged, Christ doth lay down the f●●st platform o● the church-government o● discipline which he would have to b● used in his kingdom of grace under the N. T. according to that of the old Synagogue to the end of the world: which he afterwards doth more fully establish, M●t. 18. 15. 16, Etc which two places are parall●llss expounding one another: for the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} shows what is to be understood by that other, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, viz not the whole congregation promiscuously, but such Elders, chosen out of it, whereof the smaller syned●●●mss of every Synagogue or particular Congregations among the ancient Jews, were composed, of whom we have spoken before, out of Exod. 2. 3. 21. and 19 3. 7. Again the word Eccl●sia doth l●kewise show that by the word Synedrtum we are to understand, not only civil Magistrates, call●d also by the title of Elders very often in the Old Testament, but likewise such ecclesiastical Officers as we now do speak of, being the same 〈◊〉, who as the former are to be chosen from among the godliest, wiser and dis●…st of the said Congregation.  Senate of every particular Congregation composed of the Ministers of the same, (if they are more than one) and of some competent number of Lay-Elders, and Deacons, according to the greatness or smallness of the same Congregations: therein I say the said Minister or Ministers Successively, are moderators from one Sabbath day to another. In which day, especially they do meet most commonly all of them together, both Minister, Elders, and Deacons, in the Church, after the Sermon in the afternoon, there to consult concerning the scandals or offences committed by any members of the said Congregation, either in public or more privately: and that either to reconcile parties that are at variance, to warn them that are unruly, or to proceed in brotherly charity by the censures of the Church against such as are rebellious, and that will not be admonished: in a word, to set all things in order that may be amiss to the glory of God, and better edification of the Church. The Deacons are there present also whose peculiar Office concerns the poor of the Parish, consisting in the gathering of alms for them, when some extraordinary occasion requires it so, or in receiving also at the issue out of the Church for to supply the want of their poor brethren: finally, in distributing the said alms, faithfully, by the order and advice of the said Ministers and Elders, for the relief of the more needy members of that congregatione specially, whereof they themselves are members; of whom they are obliged, to have an especial care every one of them according to his particular distinction, or quarter assigned unto him, in visiting of them, especially in the time of their affliction, and suffering none of them to go a begging. Of all which alms both received and distributed, the said Deacons are obliged to keep, and to render also a faithful account every Communion day, to the said Ministers and Elders, and in the presence of the chief householders of the said Congregation, who may assist at the giving of the said accounts, that they may see how their alms are distributed, and may know the better the estate of the said poor, thereby to be the more excited to bountifulness. Now all these Offices do acknowledge (I mean in spiritual matters only, which do concern the administration of the keys of the Kingdom of Christ,) for otherwise they are subject in all things unto the higher powers, which are ordained of God;) None but Christ alone (who is the King of his said Church) for their hierarchical and supreme head: Yet nevertheless in such a manner as that they confess also that the said Churches Assemblies are subordinate one to another, according to that Canon, 1 Pet. 5. 5. be subject all of you one to another, &c. so that in difficult affairs, or incase of grievance (if it 
* Rom. 12. 9  falls out in any matter of Judgement or censure, either for doctrine or manners) both officers & members of the same Congregations, preferring one another in honour, Rom. 12. 10. do accordingly appeal from the less Assembly to a greater; as from the consistory to the Colloque, or provincial Synod, and from this to the national, where the more difficult matters of doctrine and manners are concluded and determined by the 
c According to the practice of the Apostles Acts 15. 3. 2. 4. 6. &c. there imitating the ancient practice of the Jews appealing from the less synedriuns foreno●ed to the great Synedrium at ●●rusalem as it ●…s manifest out 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 19 8. 〈◊〉 and 11.  word of God. The said Judges, or Church governors, having no other rule to govern the said Churches, committed to their charge, or to judge of any of the said cases, but the Scriptures only, whereupon are grounded all the Canons or Articles of their church discipline, which is the particular rule, whereby they are also to decide and determine of all the said ecclesiastical business, and affairs. And though all the Ministers among them, be of equal authority and power, and likewise all Elders and Deacons, none of them pretending to have a greater authority than the other, or to be above one another: that is one Minister above another; one Elder above another; or one Deacon above his fellow officer: no more than any one Church or Congregation doth not, nor aught to assume to itself any power or authori●y over another, as the greater above the less, or those of any great town over them of the Villages, being as they believe, very well grounded therein, upon the word of Christ himself Mat. 20. 25, 26. and 27. Mar. 10. 42, 43. 44. and Luke 22. 25, 26. Yet there is no confusion fo● all that, among the ●aid Churches Orders or Officers, (as it is ordinarily objected by the Adversaries of the said Church government) but a more convenient and very decent order is observed among them: The Ministers being above the Elders in dignity of Office, place and honour, and the Elders above the Deacons: And the more ancient Ministers having also the precedency of the younger, which is likewise observed among the Elders and Deacons, according to the Rule of the Ap●s●le, speaking to all such divers Church officers, Rom. 10. 12. and saying unto them, that they should precede one anothor in honour: 
* 〈◊〉 Pet. 5. 5.  1 Pet. The young submitting themselves unto the Elders; yea all of them, being subject in a decent order one to another, and always clothed with humility: because God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble, as saith Apostle Saint Peter in the fore-alleged place, after the prohibition given there to all dominiering Prelates, that they should not be Lords over {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, God's heritage.  
All which Church Officers having since for many ages past, been altogether cashiered out of the Church, and deprived of all that Church government by the Roman hierarchical earthly power, forementioned, of the Pope, together with the said Consistories and Colloques: in stead whereof they have errected the foresaid hierarchical Courts & Officers, the most part of them being but lawyers, or laikes (to use their own term) no more than they esteem our Church Elders to be: To all which they have given as new Offices of their own moulding and human invention, so likewise new names and titles of their own fabrication also, none of them being 
* Mat. 15. 13.  of the father's planting as saith Christ. And such are those of the first forementioned rank, and order as their Suffragan Bishops, Chancellors, Archdeacons, Deans, Commissaries or Highcommissioners, which sit as Judges in the said Courts, and to whom, that hierarchical power of the Pope, Archbishops, &c. hath committed the Administration of the keys, not of Christ's spiritual kingdom, (as Christ himself gave to Peter, & to the rest of the Apostles representing then the whole Church) but of their earthly hierarchical kingdoms; having appointed them to be the sole Judges in ecclesiastical causes and matters. Then the next that follow, which are of the second rank, as namely their Secretaries, Dataries, or Registers, Advocates, and Procurors occupying Ships. Then follow in the last place, the third and last sort of them, viz. their promoters, Apparitors, Solicitorus; to which may also be very well added all that table of Questmen, Sidemen, Inquisitors, Church▪ wardens, pursuivants, &c. all which are right Aucupes Aulae, or flies of the Inquisition, nay all I am sure both great and small, birds of a feather and hatched all of one dam, I mean that whore of Babylon: All which do trade on the Sea, or, word for word, as it is in the original {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} labour the Sea. Whereby the Holy Ghost al●udeth manifestly to the work of Hu●bandry, and to those that are occupied in that calling to labour the ground, breaking the clods of it, and cutting it with the plow: A goodly metaphor indeed, very well befitting, and clearly manifesting the right manner of the trading of these Officers upon this seas: which is also used elsewhere to the same purpose, viz, Psal. 129. 2, 3. where the Church of God is represented complaining of her e●emieses and saying, Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: and yet they have not prevailed against me. The plowers plo●ed upon my b●●●e, they made long their furrows, by which metaphorical speech the cruel afflictions of the Church thus laboured or ploughed up, as it we●e, by her Enemies are mea●t. Which dealing doth very fi●ly agree to all the P●●aticall offices of those hierarchical Courts; who plow thus the seas or peoples, over which they are established, when once they do fill into their lurches, or are brought under their ●yr ●●icall power: even as the ploughman doth the ground, but not as he, thereby to fit it and prepare it the better, to receive the good seed, that it may bring forth the more fruit to the owner; but rather as the hirelings use todoe, hiring the ground, and wearing it with tilling, till they have sucked all the fat thereof, and filled their own purses, to the great prejudice and manifest damage of the owner.  
And thus much for the meaning of the words of this present text. In the exposition whereof, I have been constrained to insist thus long, because it hath been heretofore otherwise expounded and taken in another sense, by the former interpreters, than I have done now, being led thereunto, first by the exposition that the angel himself doth give to the waters or sea, whereupon both the whore herself sitteth (as it hath been showed out of 
* See also Esa. 8, 7. and 18. 2.  Revel. 17. 15.) and these her Officers do trade: as also by the consideration of the type of this Church mentioned before, the which I have followed from journey to journey, or from one month to another, especially in the last of the third great Period or part of her voayge through the wilderness, comparing the estate, time and events of this christian Church, to those of that ancient of Israel, whereupon I say I I have grounded this my exposition; the which nevertheless I do willingly, and with all humility submit (as I did when I first preached it in public) to the wise and charitable censure of the rest of the most faithful and painful labourers, my fellow-brethren in the ministry, rowing hard with us in the true ship of Christ (being in the midst of those Seas tossed with mighty waves in great jeopardy,) that they may bring his true Disciples to the shore of heaven, in drawing them out of those troublesome and dangerous hierarchical seas: whom I desire not to cast it away as a new Doctrine, though it might seem so at the first sight, but to ponder it well before, though they find it clothed in a very course and homely language and yet borrowed; in which having dared to walk thus far in public, I will yet adventure a little further, observing out of this text thus expounded some few points of Doctrine, the which I mean to handle as briefly as I can to apply them to some use of Admonition and exhortation. And first in general considering that all this hierarchical forementioned earthly power represented by the said euphratical Jordan, and all the Officers which do exercise or administer the same power, do proceed all of them (though some more immediately & manifestly then the other) from that universal papal Sea, the common Mother of all the other 
* Revel. 17. 5.  Harlots, and abominations of the earth: and that all the said Officers are thus represented unto us in this text, under those foresaid titles of Seafaring men or Sailors in ships, whose offices and unlawful practices do all issue of the same Source, this I say may yield this point, viz. that  
The Beast of Rome together with the false Prophet, 
Doct.  have changed Christ's fishing Ship, or true Church, into a very Pirate Ship, or den of thieves; who in stead of gaining souls to Christ do lose them, and in lieu of bringing them to Heaven, cause their passengers to make shipwreck, both of soul and body in hell, as it appears not only by the words of our Saviour, speaking to the Scribes and Pharisees of his time, the right predecessors of these, both of them having been the murders and persecutors of Christ and his saints, and saying unto them Mat. 23. 15. Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites, for ye compass sea and land to make one Proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell. And again speaking of them to his Disciples, he saith Mat. 15. 14. Let them alone, they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch: this truth is likewise manifest by that which is said in particular of their followers Revel. 1●. 8. That all the names of the dwellers upon earth who should worship the Beast, were not wr●tten in the book of the lamb, sl●●ne from the foundation of the world. But especially it is ●l●●re by that which is written in the next chapter, viz. 14. verse 9 10. where Saint John saith that the third angel following the two former, of whose message he had spoken in the precedent verses, said that if any man should worship the Beast and his Image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same should drink of the wine of the wrath of God▪ which is poured out without mixture, into the cup of his indignation and he should be tormented with fire and brimstone, in the presence of the holy Angels, and in the presence of the lamb, etc And as for their profaning thus the said true ship of Christ, namely his Church and Disciples; see likewise what Christ did reproach to the foresaid Scribes and Pharisees, Mark 11. 17. Which may as well be applied to these, as it is related by the Evangelist who said, that Christ teaching, said unto them, is it not written? 
* Mark. 11. 17.  My house shall be called of all Nations the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. And so in John 2. 13. &c. where it is said, that the Jews Passeover being at hand, Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the Temple, those that sold oxten and sheep, and doves, & the changers of money sitting, true types, of all these, both Merchants and sailors in their trading ships. And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the Temple, and the sheep & the oxen, & poured out the changers money, & overturned the Tables; and said unto them that sold doves. Take these things hence, make not my father's house, a house of merchandise. As I wish, and am in very good hope that he is now making such another whip, in and by the means of this ho●orable house of Parliament, called also (as it is reported) by some, though in derision, it may be, or rather by fear, a whipping Parliament) to scourge out of the ship or Church of Christ, with the same spirit of zeal as he did, all such Pirat-officers, none excepted, whether of the first, second, or third, forementioned rank or order; together with all the simoniacal Patrons) hucksters, abettors and sellors of Church-benefices, ecclesiastical censures and excommunication, yea sellers of bodies and 
* Revel. 11. 13.  souls of men too, as it is said in the 13. verse of this chapter, who 
* Pet. 5. 2.  for filthy lucre sake, trade for souls: who together with their chief owners must not only be whipped out, but also should be cast over board, into the deep pit of Perdition, but especially the false leaders & their Head.  
First because he is a right 
* Revel. 9 11.  Apollyon both Actively 
Reason 1.  and Passively; Actively in that like a most cruel & foaming boar of the wood he made great havoc of the most laborious and diligent husbandmen, to whom Christ had let out his vine, which he and his said Officers have also most miserably wasted; a very 
c he hath been by these means the chief cause of all the corporal plagues wherewith God hath so often visited this land, as may be seen proved at large in Sione plea. And h●reby it appears also that the plague of the second V●all is both corporal and spiritual, the spiritual noted in these words, it became as the blood of a dead man, the spiritual in the following  destroyer, who (by the bitter poison of his false Arminian doctrine, Idolatries, false ceremonies and superstitious service & human-like liturgy, common-perjuries, which (by the means of that most unnatural and cruelly torturing Oath ex Officio) he hath caused: As also by the most ungodly profanation of the Saboth's of the Lord,) hath killed both corporally and spiritually many of those fishes which might have been before, moving at least, if not truly living in that sea; His Courts also of Arches, High-Commission, &c. having been but, as so many 
* Revel. 16. 3. 4, 5, 6.  seas of blood, like to the blood of a dead man. And all the Officers thereof having been but as so many horseleeches or bloodsuckers, who have made themselves drunk with blood: Yea his sea having been a Sea mingled with fire also, Revel. 15. 2. and therefore like hot scalding waters, as they have been found by woeful experience by whomsoever hath dared to touch them or come too near them, or to meddle any way with them, either speaking, preaching, or writing against their great goddess Diana, or hierarchical whore, or descrying by any means whatsoever, their most sacrilegious craft or traffic. He is no less the great Apollyon Passively as Judas, whose 
d As by the forementioned witnesses of Christ, and many other besides.  very successor he is, whom Christ calls The son of Perdition John 17. 12. and likewise the Apostle Saint Paul 2 Thes. 2. 3. as being a man devoted and destined to perdition, both of body, Revel. 18. 2. and of soul, cap. 19 20. and meetest it should, whose original, as it hath been showed, is from the bottomless pit, his proper Element: as it appears manifestly by that which is said, Revel. 17. 8. of this Beast by the angel to S. John: The Beast saith he that thou hast seen, was and is not, & shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and shall go into perdition.  
Secondly, he is also the man of sin, so called 
2 Reason.  in the fore-alleged place of 2 Thes. 2. alluding (as it is very like) to that so frequent name or tide, used in the Old Testament of 
e In Hebrew Belijragual, signifying without profit ●r without yoke, I lawless rebellious and wicked, which name is given unto Satan or Antichrist, opposed unto Christ in 2 Cor. 6. 15 befitting very wall this great viceroy.  Asher bel●all, given some times to the sons 
* Sam. 2. 12. See also Iudg. 19 22.  Eli, whose very brethren and successors both the Beast and the false Prophets are, with all their train of Merchants and mariners. It is also applied to those two false witnesses, brought (by that Jezabel, wicked Achab's wife) against poor* Naboth; to deprive him both of his life and vineyard, (as this wicked Jezabel (so called likewise as being the right Antitype of that Revel 2. 20.) hath often done by the means of her false and corrupted judges or shipmasters of hers) the history whereof you may read 1 Kings 21. 7. 8. &c. which title is rendered in the said place of the 2 Thes. 2. 3. 8. forealleged with an emphatical demonstrative Article taken there {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, pointing out this as if he were the chief captain or ring leader amongst the sons of Belial; a primate no less than Superlative amongst them, though of very little Laud. Which perhaps may have given occasion to some, to deem him no less than a great devil incarnate. Saint Hierom speaking of the father, thus explicates it, Homo in quo fons omnium peccatorum, est. A man who is the very source of all evils, both spiritual and corporal as it is showed and proved at large in zions Plea. Aquinas thus Omnium hominum pessimus, ut Christus omnium optimus: the worst of all men, contrary to Christ, who is the best of all. Ours thus, a man whose very composition is of sinfulness, notoriously, peerelesly vicious; not only in his own person, but as another 
* King. 12. 30. &c.  Jeroboam, having made the people of God, from Dan to Beersheba, to sin. A right Balaam, so like, that ovum ovo non similius, one egg being not more like another, than he is; like that very type of his, that false Prophet; wherefore that very name is given to him Rev. 2. 14. of whom it is said, that he taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto Idols, and to commit fornication, as we showed but now. Wherefore as the wrath of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and a great plague was 
Numb. 25. 3. and 31. 16.  sent among the congregation of the Lord; so is it come to pass also in this Laodicean lukewarm late times, wherein so many have been killed both corporally & spiritually, that to no other time, than this present, can be most justly applied (as was noted before;) that saying of Christ Mat. 24. 22. that except Christ in his most wonderful and unspeakable mercy had not now, (as he hath to the great praise of his most holy Name,) shortened these days both of spiritual temptations and provocations, yea and (more than in Balaam's time) of most violent injunctions and constraints to ea●e things sacrificed unto Idols, no soul was like to be saved; so also of most horrible and ●bominable treasons and conspiracies tending to the utter confusion, and in all likelihood final and total overthrow both of Church and commonwealth in these three kingdoms especially: so that there was no flesh like to be spared, especially of the best professors, who were thereby like to parallel the desolation of that so great and flourishing Empire of Germany; of that so long reformed kingdom of Bohemia, and of those so famous and purely reformed Churches of that so late flourishing principality of the Palatine, if not to excel them. If it had not been the Lord, who hath been on our side, when such monstrous and giant like Vice-Roys and traitors were risen up against us: 
* Psal. 124. 1. 2. &c.  for than they had swallowed us up quick: their wrath being so vehemently kindled against us, than their waters had overwhelmed us, the stream whereof had gone over our souls. Then those proud Herarchicall waters had gone over our souls. But blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us a prey to their teeth. Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the Snare of such foulers, the snare is broken, and we are escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made Heaven and Earth.  
Thirdly and lastly, herein also may he be compared to that feigned Charon of the Pagan Poets, who was the boatman of Hell, to carry over the black Styx, in his most wide and capable ferry boat, the souls of men: to whom may be applied (in respect of what hath hath been already said of him, according to his former practices) that vain, yea most blasphemous boasting power that is read in the Decretals, which the Popes do attribute unto themselves, viz. That if they carried with them, millions of souls to be tormented with the great devil in Hell, no man was to reprove them: so imperious was he, and so absolute in all his Tyrannies both corporal and 
f This is to be read in the Popes own Decretals.  pirituall, that no power either temporal or spiritual, was able to resist or restrain him, only, from his intended devilish plots and designs: but so would go on, come what might come of it: yea let Church, State, King and all, sink or swim, 'twas all one to him; so he might have brought to pass his own ends, which were indeed no better than Haman's, as it is now manifest to all the world: In whose shameful end may all impenitent traitors with their devilish projects and conspiracies fall and finish: that the King, State, and Church may for ever flourish and prosper: for if the wicked be once taken taken away from before the King, his throne cannot but be established in righteousness, saith Solomon, Prov. 25. 5.  
I will end this first point of Doctrine in a word or two of admonition to all such as hitherto have worshipped the Beast, and his image, and have received his mark in their forehead, or in their hand, and to all that with them have drunk of the wine of the wrath of this whore's fornications: to all Recusant-Papists I mean, and Hierarchists whatsoever they be: beseeching them to consider seriously with themselves the lamentable forementioned condition, and woeful estate of all them that have heretofore, or do yet daily thus hazard their poor souls, into such ships; either to trade among such pirates, or if they be but passengers with them, to take such blood-drunken guides for Pilots, and such beast like mariners for rowers, who in stead of bringing them them to Heaven and Heavenly rest, as they profess and boast, do carry them down into the Sea of the Euphratian Jordan; with a most violent and swift currant, to percipitate them in the end, together with themselves, in 
* Prov. 25. 5.  that lake of fire and brimstone, there to be tormented day and night, forever and ever. hear this and tremble, for it is now high time, if ever, to 
* Revel. 20. 10  flee from the wrath which is at hand, up therefore, 
* Mat. 3. 3. 7.  get ye out of this Sodom. do I say unto you, as once Lot spoke unto his sons in law, for the Lord will presently destroy it. 
* Gen. 19 14.  Come out of Babylon say I again unto you as the Angel in the Revelation, 
* Revel. 18. 4.  to the people of God, that ye be no more partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues: Get ye out of such ships, & forsake such wilful blinded guides, else you shall assuredly 
* Mat. 15. 14.  fall both into the ditch, as saith our Saviour. Stop no more your ears; 
* Psal. 58. 6.  like the deaf adder, which will not harken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely. And if he doth yet grant you to day to hear his voice, 
* Heb. 3. 7. 8. &c.  harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of the last temptation in the wilderness, whereour fathers have tempted him, proved him, and seen his works, for the space not of forty years only as the ancient Jews, but now of full a thousand two hundred fifty and upwards, lest he swear again in his wrath that ye shall not enter into his rest. 
* Numb. 16. 26.  Depart therefore I pray you, from the tents of such wicked men, lest ye be consumed in all their sins, and be swallowed up with them, and go down alive into the pit of destruction: nay, hie ye, lest with the foolish Virgins you tarry 
* Math, 25. 11  till the door of repentance be shut up against you, and it be too late for you to cry Lord Lord open to us. And thus much shall suffice for this first point.  
In the second place, from this consideration, that these Mariners or Court-officers of such Merchants, do make such a rich trade or gain upon this Sea and of the people of God, in these hierarchical ships or Courts, observe this other point of doctrine, viz. that 
2. Doct.   
The Ministers of the Beast & false Prophet, even as their head all of them I say, make a trade both of souls, & of all other things spiritual; pilling & spoyling all those that sail with them, both of their temporal & spiritual goods, behaving themselves therein, even as the false Prophets did of old, of whom the Lord doth so often complain by his Prophets, as we may read Esay 56. 1●, &c. where speaking of them he saith, The watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark: sleeping lying down, loving to slumber, yea they are greedy dogs, which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, everyone for his gain. And Jer. 6. 13. 
* Ier. 6. 13.  From the least of them saith he, even unto the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness: and from the Prophet even unto the Priest, every one dealeth falsely. And Ezech. 34. 2. 3. Son of man, saith the Lord there concerning all such false Prophets, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophecy & say unto them: Thus saith the Lord unto the shepherds of Israel, that do feed themselves, should not the shepherds feed the flocks? ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed; but ye feed not the flock, &c. And such were the false Apostles in the very time of the Apostles of whom S. Paul speaketh to Timothy, 
* Tim 6. 5.  who made a gain of godliness, & who did 
* Tit. 1▪ 11. Mat. 23. 14. Mar 12. 40. Luke 20. 47.  subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake, as he saith in his Epistle to Titus. And in his second to Timothy he did foretell that* in the last days perilous times should come, because men 
2 Tim. 3. 1. etc  should be lovers of their own selves, covetous, &c. whom Saint Peter in that prophetical Epi●●le of his compares to Balaam, saying that 
* 2 Pet, 2. 15.  they should forsake the right way and go astray, follow●ng the way of Balaam the son of Bozor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness: likewise Saint Jude in that other prophetical Epistle of his, where he denounces a woe unto them saying that 
* Jude 11.  they should go in the way of Cain, and should run greed●ly after the error of Balaam for reward, and should perish in the gainsaying of Core.  
The causes whereof are, first their impiety, testified in that they have (as the Pharises) in the time of 
Reason 1.  Christ 
* Mat. 23. 4.  bound heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and laid them on men's shoulders, but they themselves would not move them with one of their fingers: as he speaks of them, Mat. 23. 4. Secondly▪ ●heir intolerable pride, manifested in that 
* 2 Thes. 2. 4.  they have opposed and exalted themselves above all that is called 
Reason 2.  God, or that is worshipped: so that as God they have sitten in the Temple of God, behaving themselves as if they were God's, as says the Apostle of the man of sin, 
3. Reason.  2 Thes. 2. 4. And lastly, their insatiable covetousness before proved. 
use.   
The use of which point may serve briefly to convince all such, that do either tyrannize over the Lord's heritage, as if they were Lords over it, though it be 
* 1 Pet▪ 5. 3.  forbidden them by him whose successors they affirm themselves to be: Or who not only for lucre sake, but by pride, or by any other unlawful means, do intrude themselves in the ministerial function. None of which are true Ministers of Christ, but rather of Antichrist, because they 
* John 10. 1.  do not enter by the door into the sheep fold, but climb up, some other way, who therefore are right thieves and robbers, according to Christ's own verdict.  
Moreover observe (from this that God hath left his Church standing thus long at the shore of that hierarchical Euphrates, after so long and hard a voyage thorough that huge wilderness of idolatry fore spoken of) this other point of doctrine.  
That God hath often delivered his Church into the hands of most cruel Tyrants and Pirates both 
Exod. 1. 10. Etc Iudg. 3. 8. 12. and 31. Item. 4. 2. &c. and 6. 2. &c. and 10. 7. &c. and 13. 1. 2 King. 10. 32 &c. and 15. 19 and 17. 3, &c. and 24. 1. &c. Luke 2. 1, &c. Mat. 2. 12, etc▪ Luke 13. 1. Revel. 6. 10. Acts 2. 22. 23. and 4. 5. 6. and 20. 27. Revel. 11. 7. & 12. 17. and 13. 7. and 17. 14.  civil and ecclesiastical: as he did of old, when 
3. Doct.  he brought her under that most cruel servitude of the Egyptian Pharaohs, and likewise of the Amorites. Canaanites, Moabites, Midianites, Ammonites, Philistines, Assyrians, Syrians, Romans, Herod's, pilate's, and Pagan Emperors, and false Prophets: as the Sacred Histories both of the Old and New Testament do fully testify: and thus hath he dealt with it, by the means of the High-Priests, Scribes and Pharises in the time of Christ, and in that also of his Apostles, and since by the Popes, and all that table of Metropolitan Prelates, Archbishops and Diocesan Bishops, even since the time of Constantine the great: and by all their forespecified Officers and Mariners, all of them Anticristian Pirates, as it is recorded in the books of the Martyrs, and in many other human stories. By all whose means, the said poor Church hath been always 
* 2 Cor. 4. 8. 9  sorely oppressed, yet not distressed, perplexed, yet not altogether without help: persecuted, but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.  
And that for these reasons, as first to exercise it: 
* Deut. 8. 23.  
Reas. 1.  to humble it also and to prove it, to know what is her heart, and whether the members thereof will keep his commandments: therefore hath he humbled her and suffered her to hunger; as it is said of the people 
2 Reason.  of Israel during the time of their abode in the wilderness: yea to correct it & to purge it more & more of her sins. As also for the greater confusion of her 
3 Reason.  enemies, who thereby fill up their measure, and hasten their own ruin and utter destruction.  
Which must serve, as for the instruction and 
use.  comfort of the one, so also for the terror and conviction of the other; of whom God will at length take vengeance, as he doth now begin to do of these Vice-Roys, Merchants and mariners, in these most happy days wherein we live; of which we may very well say, what Christ said once, of the time of his first coming in the flesh, speaking to his Disciples, and saying, 
* Mat. 13. 16. 17.  Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear, and verily I say unto you, that many Prophets, and righteous men, have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them: & to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. And therefore oughtwe also even now to begin to praise the Lord saying, 
* Revel. 19 1. 2  Alleujah: salvation, and honour, and power unto the Lord our God: for true and righteous are his judgements, for he doth now judge the great whore, which did corrupt the earth, with her fornications, and doth avenge the blood of his servants at her hand: as it is commanded unto us, Revel. 19 1. 2. and therein follow the example of the ancient people of Israel, who as soon as they were passed over the Jordan, & were but newly entered into the borders of Canaan, as it is witnessed of them by the Prophet, Psal. 66. where the people of God is brought in praising him for his wonderful works, and saying, 
* Psal. 66. 〈◊〉. 2. &c.  Make a joyful noise unto God all ye lands, sing forth the honour of his name: make his praise glorious. Say unto God how terrible art thou in thy works? through the greatness of thy power, shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee. All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee, they shallsing to thy name, Selah. Come and see the works of God. May we likewise say with them; he is terrible in his doings, towards the children of men. He turned the Sea into dry land, they went through the flood, as we do now, and there they did rejoice in him, as we ought also to do. This may be gathered also out of Josh. 5. 10. where it is said that after the Israelites were passed over the Jordan, and after they had renewed the covenant of the Lord by the Circumcision (as all the Christian Israel of God must likewise do) 
* Iosh. 5. 10.  they kept also presently after the Passeover, in the celebration whereof they were wont to sing the Psal. 113. and 114, &c. 
Cor. 10. 6. and 11.  and so must we, for all those things happened unto them for types; and they are written for our admonition, saith the Apostle, upon whom the ends of the world are come.  
Before I end this text I must yet say a word or two concerning the behaviour of these Court-officers or Mariners, in this so manifest a danger: who are therefore said in the last words of this 17 verse to stand a far off: and that no doubt, for the very same cause, for which it was also said in the former verses of this chapter, that both the Kings of the earth and the Merchants stood likewise afar off, as we read verse 10. and 15. viz. for fear of her torment, these being no less timorous than they, yea they are rather more, being right Amphibies and very like frogs which are most timorous Creatures, the least noise making them quickly to dive and hide themselves in their puddle waters. But where will, or can these hide now themselves: their euphratical Jordan being now dried up? sure they can but skip up and down, yet for a very little while, (and that yet as the fish doth in the frying pan, from which it falls in the fire) to croak and do their message as it was showed before, for they must all be caught and killed (Unless they repent, to give glory to the God of Heaven, as some shall assuredly do as it appears Revel. 11. 13.) Besides by the drying up of their said Euphrates the terror of the Lord is fallen upon them, as it fell upon that profane Balshazzar when he saw 
* Deut. 5. 5, 6.  the fingers of a man's hand writing over against the candlestick, &c. For then as it is said there, the King's countenance was changed, & his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another; but especially when 
* Ier. 51. 31. 〈◊〉  one Post did run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another to tell the King of Babylon that his Euphrates was dried up, and that Cyrus God's anointed had taken his City at one end, and that the men of war were afraid, as it had been feretold by the prophet Jeremy. Even so these hearing and seeing now their said Euphrates to be thus dried up, and having thereby their conscience throughly awaked, accusing them of their barbarous cruelties, filthy whoredoms, profane drunkenness and unsatiable covetousness, this is I say the cause why they do now for fear, thus stand a far off.  
Besides their standing a far off, may in like manner note unto us, the true quality of these Amphibies, and filthy frogs; who having but mouth and belly only, (as resembling those false teachers mentioned by Saint Paul 
* Phil. 3. 19  whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, and who mind but earthly things. Or like the Cretians whom the said Apostle affirms, upon the testimony of one of their own Prophets, to have been 
* Tit. 1. 12.  always liars, evil beasts, and slow bellies) who therefore can do nothing but croak only, to incite and provoke, yea the Kings themselves, with their Armies, to fight and shed the blood of their own best and faithfullest subjects: while they in the mean time do feed and pamper their unsatiable bellies; never solicitous nor willing through fear of a bad success to enter the lists of a fair combat) concerning the divine righ● of their so stately and pompous an Hierarch●call government) there to have the matter tried by the word of God, the infallible judg●…●f all controversies and doubts, whether in ma●●● of Doct●●●e or Church disciplin●; judging it ●o bee● s●●●r course for them 〈◊〉 play th●…Gibeonites●ar●s (their right ●●●ess) wi●… our Joshua 
* Iosh. 9 4, &c.  and the Princes of the Congrega●ion which Gib●oni●●s having seen and heard what had ●eene do●● unto Jericho and to all, as we read Josh. 9 4. &c. They did work, then wiltly (Eu●● as 〈◊〉 Hierarchikes do, and went and made as if they ●ad been embassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottells, old and rent, and bound up, even like the arguments and allegations of these, pleading for their prelatical Supremacy, nothing but Antiquity, and the most Ancient and grey haired, constitutions & Canons of fathers, counsels, and Synods, yea Statutes and laws of former wise learned and grave Lawyers and Counsellors, allowed, and approved by the Authority of the most godly and puissant Emperors, Kings and Princes of Christendom even since the time of Constantine the great, that most Religious Prince brought thereby to avow and establish it by that (so much weather beaten, and overtyred) Canon of that famous and first Orthodox council of Nice, attributing the priority of the Patriarchship 
Held Anno. 327.  (therein first enacted) to the Bishop of Rome, (as his successors at least would have made the world believe,) by perverting the true sense, yea and falsifying the very Canon itself, as it was at last found out and detected in that of Carthage, held 
Held Anno 419. where Sezim●. falsifying the Nicene council was 〈◊〉 hstood by Augustine thereupon it was at last decrece by the fathers, Ne cuiquam vel Episco●o vel sacerdori ex Africâ aut aliis provincijs metropolitanos habentibus, ad Papam Romanum appelare liceat: sed sit, inquiunt, prima cognitio causarum Ecliasticarum penes Episcopos & Metropolitanum, secunda penes concilium provinciale, ultima penes Vniversale. Item, ne ullum jus dein●eps Romano Papae super Africanas Eclesias concernatur. Alsted. 29. Chron. concil. pag. 206.  almost one hundred years after.) Herein behaving themselves altogether like the foresaid Gibeonites, who came to Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal, with such old shoes and clouted upon their feet, and old garments upon them, all the bread of their provision being also dry and mouldy, pretending thereby to be come from a far country, as these would seem to be, though they come but from Rome, being issued out of the Roman hierarchical, Idolatrous Sea, to which they laboured also tooth and nail to have reduced these kingdoms: different therein indeed, and therefore far worse than the Gibeonites; and greater beguilers without comparison: of whom you ought therefore (O ye most worthy Princes of the Congr●ga●ion) to take heed, lest you treat of any peace with them, or make any league with them, to let them live any more in that hierarchical sea of theirs: else they will beguile, yea rather betray Joshua himself his Religion and state, to the gr●atest enemy thereof: be ye therefore advised and take 
* Iosh. 9 14.  counsel at the mouth of the Lord, in a business of so great importance, and greater (I dare say with permission) than any that can be treated of, and whereon dependeth the whole welfare of state King and Religion, or utter ruin and downfall thereof, unless it be narrowly and speedily looked into and wisely prevented with the assistance and favour of that Almighty God who hath hitherto so wonderfully continued and countenanced you in all these so weighty affairs already by you performed, to the joy of all true English hearts and terror of all our Enemies both at home and abroad; As you may very manifestly perceive it already by the said behaviour of all these Euphratian frogs, and shall more and more, a measure que leur dit Euphrates sassechera. This being the sense of these words as we take it, and judge by the premises that it cannot be taken otherwise, it may yield this point of Doctrine unto us, viz. that.  
The vindicating judgement of God, doth most 
4 Doct.  often terrify his most fierce and haughty enemies, overtaking them most commonly at unawares, and when they think themselves to be cock sure, and very far from it, as Saint Paul doth testify saying of such that 
* Thes. 5. 3.  When they shall say, peace and safety: then sudden destruction cometh upon, them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. This may be proved by many examples both in the Old and New Testament, as of Pharaoh, when he was drowned with his army in the read sea: for when God 
* Exod. 14. 25.  took off their chariot wheels, they were so astonished thereat, that they said, let us flee from the face of Israel: for the Lord fighteth for them, against the Egyptians. Thus was Nabuchadnezzar surprised, for 
* Dan. 4. 30. &c.  as he was walking in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon, saying is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom, &c. While the word was in his mouth there fell a voice from heaven, (at the which no doubt he was no less amazed, than was afterwards Belshazzar his son at the hand writing forementioned) saying, O King Nebuchad-nezzar, to thee it is spoken; the kingdom is departed from thee. Thus it fell out also to proud Haman, who as soon as he heard the Queen Ester accusing him to be 
* Eze. 7. 9 10. &c.  the great adversary and wicked enemy, who had sold her and her people, (the Israel of God being then in captivity, (as these had done, likewise the true Christian Israel of the three kingdoms, then in captivity & distress also, not only) to be held for bondmen & bondwomen, but to be destroyed, to be slain, & to perish, (as woeful experience had too soon proved it for us, if God had not in his (but too little considered) wonderful mercy towards this land, prevented it, in his good time by the means of the forementioned Hollanders.) Then I say, at such a relation was the said Haman sore afraid, seeing in the King's face, that there was evil determined against him by the King. We read also in this book of the reu●lation that when Christ the lamb came to take vengeance of the persecuting Pagan Emperors, that then, The Kings of the earth, and the 
Revel. 6. 15. 16, &c.  great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks; fall on us and hide us from the face, of him that sitteth on the Throne, and from the wrath of the lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand. And the like must of necessity fal● out to this whore, her Merchants and mariners, whose euphratical Jordan shall then be dried up when she should say in her heart, (sit a Queen, and am no 
Revel. 18. 7. 8.  widow, and shall see no sorrow: for therefore saith the Angel shall her plagues come in one day, for her greater terror and astonishment, death and mourning and famine, and she shall be utterly burnt with the fire of excommunication: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.  
The reason whereof may be first, because they applaud, flatter, and bless themselves in their 
Reas. 1.  hearts saying, 
* Deut. 29. 19 20.  that they shall have always peace, though they walk in the stubborness of their hearts to add drunkenness to thirst, as it is said Deut. 29. 19 and therefore as it is further added in the said place, The Lord will not spare them, but then the anger of the Lord, and his jealousy shall smoke against them and all the curses that are written in this book, shall lie upon them, &c.  
Secondly, because the Lord takes them usually 
2 Reason.  when they are soothing themselves in their naughtiness, and saying in their h●ar●ss as those profane ones in Zephan: that the Lord would do them neither good nor evil: whom the Lord threatens there saying that 
* Zeph. 1. 1●. 13. 14, &c.  it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search saith he, Jerusalem with candles and punish the men that are thus settled on their lees, and therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation: then he addeth in the next verse, that the great day of the Lord was near, it is near saith he, and hasteth greatly, which is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, &c.  
Thirdly, because most commonly, the Judgements 
3 Reason.  that God layeth upon them are very grievous, and terrible, and then 
* Deut. 28. 65. 66.  the Lord gives them trembling hearts, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind, so that their lives hang in doubt before them, and they are in fear day and night, having no assurance of their life, according to that threatening mentioned in the Law. And our Saviour testifies the same, speaking of the great judgements, that should fall upon the world of the wicked in these latter times, saying that 
* Luke 21. 25.  then there should be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; yea saying that men's hearts should fail them for fear, looking after those things which are coming on the earth.  
Fourthly, God retaliates unto them, paying 
4 Reason.  them in their own coin, as they have pressed down, and thereby endeavoured to terrify most of the best servants and children of God, with their most heavy and tyrannical burdens, so doth the Lord pursue them with heavy and terrifying plagues, for it is a righteous things with God, saith he Apostle to 
* 2 Thes. 1. 6.  recompense tribulation to them that trouble you.  
Fiftly, God in his justice will have his hand to be seen against those that make war against him, and 
5 Reason.  against his people: he will appear in his anger against such, and that must needs be terrible unto them, for thus saith the Lord himself by his Prophet, 
* Isa. 33. 10. 11, &c.  Now will I rise s●●th he: now will I be exalted, now will I lift up myself, ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth st●ble, &c. Therefore saith he afterwards, The sinners in Zion are afraid, fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites: who therefore among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burnings.  
Finally, another cause of their terror is the guiltiness of their own consciences: they had imposed 
6 Reason.  (during their idolatry, intolerable pride and and cruelty) upon the people of God, heavy yokes, which while the world went well with them, they scarce ever felt, but in the time of distress, they are made sensible thereof: as Joseph's brethren who being fallen in great distress in Egypt, could then 
Gen: 42. 21.  remember, but never before, their most barbarous and inhuman cruelty, used against their own brother, for than they could say one to another, we are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear: therefore is this distress come upon us.  
This doctrine doth furnish matter of exhortation to all sorts of men, but especially to them whom the Lord hath constituted in authority over their brethren in Church & Common wealth, who are to be admonished by it to fear sin which brings after it, such sudden thunderclaps, and most fearful judgements, though in the committing thereof it seems very pleasant and delightful: which makes men to commit it even with greediness, it being but a sport 
Prov. 10. 23.  to fools to do mischief saith Solomon. Nay such men especially could not sometimes sleep except they 
and  had done mischief, and their sleep were taken away, 
4. 16.  unless they had caused some to fall. But they must also know on the other side that there is a terrible woe denounced by God himself, against all those that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds: 
Mica. 2. 1. 2.  to practise it as soon as it is day light, because it is in the power of their hand: that do covet fields, and take them by violence, and houses and take them away: So 
and  they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage, as these trading Vice Roys, Merchants & Mariners have done. To all whom the Lord speaketh by the same Prophet in the following chap. 
chap. 3 〈◊〉. &c.  saying, hear I pray you O heads of Jacob, and ye Princes of the house of Israel, for such have they reputed themselves to be, and such would they still be taken for: Is it not for you to know judgement? who hate the good, & love the evil who plucked off their skin from off them and their flesh of my people, and flay their skin off them, and break their bones and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the cauldron. I herefore shall they cry unto the Lord in the day of trouble, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time. Be wise now therefore 
* Per. 2. 10. 11.  O ye Kings, receive chastisement ye governors of the earth, serve now the Lordwith fear and trembling, kiss the son lest he be angry and ye perish in the way, when his anger shall burn suddenly; 
* Act. 5. 9  Take heed that ye be not found even to fight against God, as said once that wise councillor Gamaliell, speaking to them of the High counsel at Jerusalem the great enemies of Christ and of his Apostles: oppose no more his ordinances, neither persecute his faithful servants and children. Hinder not by your authority or favour the course of the preaching of the word, nor the establishment and administration of an holy discipline or Church government grounded upon the Word, and practised by the Apostles: Pervert not the right ways of God in withstanding the true servants of God, labouring after a true and holy reformation: 
and chap. 13. 10.  for know ye for certain, that this counsel and this work is not of men but of God, which therefore you shall never be able to hinder or overthrow, 
* Isa. 14. 24. 25. 26, &c.  The Lord of hosts hath sworn it, saying; surely as I have thought so shall it come to pass; and as I have proposed, so shall it stand, which is as true in the Antitype as in the type itself, as it shall be made manifest yet a little more presently: therefore may we safely apply this threatening to it: for as he then said that he would break the Assyrian in his land, so may we say of these Western Babylonians: and that he will tread their Euphrates under the feet of his servants, and then shall their yoke depart from off them, and their burden depart from off their shoulders. This is the purpose, that is now purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is now stretched out upon all the nations, for the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand being stretched out, who shall turn it back? Now for the conclusion of this treatise, I will add, to that which hath been already said, yet somewhat more for the conclusion of it, concerning the total and final ruin of these enemies of the Church, which God had decreed and appointed, even as soon as the dragon and his Angels had consulted and resolved 
Revel. 12. 19  (after they had been overcome and cast into the earth by Constantine the great and his successors to Theodosius surnamed also the great, and termed by the title of Michael and His Angels) to make after the woman flying from them into the wilderness, to make war with the remnant of her seed; for even then the same God, who knoweth the very thoughts and purposes of the wicked, had provided against them four mighty Angels, having ready the four Cardinal winds of the earth, to blow and scatter them all as dust, and all their counsels and devices 
* sal. 83. 3. and 13.  as stubble before the wind, and to drown them as Pharaoh in the Sea; who were ready to do it all at once; but that he (who is slow to anger, and who had yet some employment for them, to afflict his Church and chastise it, to humble it and prove it during her said long voyage along that vast wilderness, thereby also to fill up their measure) would not permit it. Because he had also purposed in his mercy to free and exempt from those fierce judgements, which by their blowing they were to bring upon the world of the wicked, that forementioned remnant of the woman's seed, which were to be marked to that end from time to time, during their said voyage: the first whereof (being one of the last effects of the opening of the sixt seal) was performed, Revel. 6. 12. &c. (as that of Egypt, the true type thereof,) immediately before the last plague, or utter overthrow of the pagan Idolatries and idols, by the foresaid Theodosius. though afterwards recited, viz. chap. 7. Besides God had likewise appointed many other instruments of his justice, to punish, with them, by degrees, and at several times, his said enemies, whose forerunners and ushers as it were these foresaid winds should be; as the seven Angels with seven trumpets to denounce and proclaim the said judgements, and seven more with seven Vials to pour out the same one after another, and thereby to bring upon that wicked world the three great woes mentioned R●… 8 13. And all and every one of these to be disposed in order; and executed in their due time, by the most wise and all ruling providence of God: both to aggravate the said judgements upon them; as also to manifest thereby to the whole world the equity of his justice; and that by such means also, he might make his name to be the better known throughout all the earth, as he said in the like 
Exod. 9 16.  case of Pharaoh.  
The first movers then or instrumental causes of all of them were these four winds which were to blow from the four quarters of the world upon that of the Roman Empire, viz. North, South, East, West, to bring it to its last and utter destruction, which were to come up, as it were upon the theatre with their foresaid attendants in this order; and first, the first of them, with the four first trumpeters. After the second, and with him the fift trumpeter, making as it were, the first Angel of the Vials to pour out the first plague, which caused the first woe. The third wind was to follow this at the heels to stir up, first the sixth Trumpeter, who by the sound of his Trumpet, did provoke five of the Angels of the Vials, to pour out each of them the several plagues contained in them, one after another; which caused the second woe; which was no sooner past, then behold the third and last woe cometh quickly; caused by the plague of the seventh and last vial stirred up by the seventh and last Trumpeter, moved by the fourth and last wind. Of all which four I will say in as few words as I may possible, (because I shall more at large speak of each of them in the forepromised parallel, if God be pleased to grant me life and means to perform the same,) first whence they were to blow, what should be the judgements which they were to bring along with them: and lastly the time both of their beginning, continuance, and ending.  
For the first, it was as it is already said, the Northern wind; the which blowing with a very strong and most boisterous gale, brought from that quarter of the world, those barbarous people, which as so many great 
* Revel. 12. 15  great floods of water cast out of the serpent's mouth, after the woman, did presently overspread and almost overflow the whole Roman world; the said serpent thinking thereby to drown the whole seed of the said woman, after 
Exod. 14. 9 Revel. 8. 5. 7. 8. 11, &c.  which they sailed as fast as sails and tacklings could hold, as Pharaoh did with his swift-winged▪ chariots after the children of Israel, the true type of this first expedition against our Christian Israel, made by that 
a hear Ammian Marcel. speaking of these stormy blustering winds lib. 26. cap. 31. Horrendi tremores per omnem orbis ambitum. grassati sunt subit●, quales nec fabulae, nec veridicae nobis antiquitates exponunt, &c. Item Hieron. in vita Hilar. Hoc tempore velut per universum orbem Romanum canentibus b●●●●nis excitae gentes saevi●●imae, limites sibi proximos per saltabant, Gallias, Rhetiasque, simul Alemanni populabantur; Sarm●tae, Pannonias, & Quadi Picti, Saxones & Scoti, & Attocotti Britannos, aerumnis vexavere continuis: Thra●ias diripiebant piratorij globi Gothorum, &c. Am●ian. ibid. c. 10.  terrible and fatal storm of the said Northern Nations Goths, Sarmatians, Almains, Huns, Vandals, Quades, &c. all which broke upon the said Roman world or Empire almost without intermission, harrying, burning, wasting and destroying many Provinces of it; and therein made that grea● slaughter of men of all sorts, represented unto us, Revel. 8. 7. by the burning up of the third part of the trees and of all green grass; whereby also the said third part of that Empire became as a sea of blood through which the Church of God was then to pass, as the Israelites had done through the red sea, the true type of this after which passage, the waters of the Christian doctrine, like those of Mara once, were so embitered now by the false Arrian heretical doctrine, drunk, embraced, and maintained by these Northern peoples, & so eagerly pressed upon the Christians, especially in Africa, by Genseric the Vandale and his successors that it became as bitter as wormwood. 
b Hieron. Epist 3. Ante annum 400. viginti & eo amplius anni sunt quod inter Constantinopolin & Alps Julias quotidie Romanus sanguis effunditur. Scythiam, Thraciam, Macedoniam, Acia, Dardaniam, Thessalonicam, Achaiam, Epiros, Almatian, cunctasque Pamonias: Gothus, Sarmata, Qvadus, Alanus, Huna, Vandali; Marcomanui vastant, rapiunt, Romans orbis ruit. Quid putas nunc anim habere Corinthios, Athenienses, Lacedaemonios', Arcadas, cunctamque Graeciam, q●ibus imperant Barbari.  By all which bloody wars and persecution and by the blustering violence of these so stormy blasts of wind and weather, the said Western part especially of the Empire, was brought to such a miserable confused hurly-burly, that at length, the glory and majesty thereof was very much abated, and finally divided into ten kingdoms, which presently after became the horns of the seventh hea● of the Roman Beast, which had together with 〈◊〉 received her power at the same hour. The b●●●nning of all which storms and miseries fell out at the ending of the 
* Revel. 8, 1.  half hour silence given to the Church to free herself from the Pagan Idolatry, about the 405. year of our Lord, about which time 
* Alsted. Chronol. 14. Regnorus veterum, p. 91.  Radagisus King of the Goths entered into the said Empire with an army of 200000. men; after whom succeeded Alaric who came against Rome itself, took it and sacked it about the year 410 of our Lord, some say 15 About the same time Genseric the Vandale with a great army of divers of the forenamed Northern Nations overranne France, Spain, and entered in Africa about the 428. year where he seated himself. Then also the Saxons entered great Britain. Attila that scourge of the world followed these at the heels with an army of some 500000. men of divers Nations, about the year 450. wasting all the Countries through which they passed, till at length he was vanquished by Aetius, Valentianus, captain in the Catalian mountains. About 460. 
c Paulus diac. His. Misc. prout ex codice Palatino edidit Janus Graterus. Quatuordecim interim dies securam & libera direptione omnibus opibus suis & miraculis Roma vacuata est. In quibus erant Eclesiastica {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} tota ex auro & lapidibus pretiosis ornata, & Vasa Hebraica quae Titus Vaspasiani filius post captivitatem Hiero solymit anum Romamdetulerat; multaque millia captivorum.— Cum Regina Eudoxia quae Gencericum ad hoc facinus invitaverat, duabusque e●us filiabus, Carthaginem abducta sunt.  Genseric (being called by Eudoxia late wife of Valentinian the Emperor, then married to Maximus, who had killed her said husband) came against Rome, and entering therein without great opposition, sacked and spoiled it for the space of 14 days. After whom followed Richimer the Goeth, than Odoacer of Rugia, (by whom & presently after by Theodoric the Goeth, sent against the said Odoacer by the Emperor Zenon) the sun, the moon, and the stars of that third part of the world (I mean Augustulus with all the luster and glory of the Western Empire) were smitten and darkened by these forementioned Northern Nations, some of which did settle themselves therein for a while, viz. the Goths and Lombards in Italy: the Vandals in Africa: the Franks and Burgundians in the Gauls: the Swedes, Alans, Goths and Vandals in Spain: and the Saxons, Angles and Danes in great Britain; even till the time of Justinian the Emperor of the East, who by the valour of his two renowned captains Narsetes & Belisarius did subue many of these barbarous Nations, viz. that of the Vandals in Africa after it had continued under the reign of six Kings, about an hundred years, that is 428. to 530. And afterwards that of the Goths in Italy which was begun as it was noted before by Odacte about the year 476. and finished it in 553. or thereabouts.  
The first wind having thus made an end of his blowing, and being thus becalmed; it fell out (some while after, that Phocas the murderer forementioned of Maritus the Emperor, having succeeded him in the Empire) that his murder being approved by Pope Boniface the third, (whom therefore he created universal Bishops) this proud title being also approved by the council held at Rome under the said Pope, about the year 606 of our Lord. Wherefore a little while after, the second of the four forementioned winds, was loosed, the which began to blow, from a direct contrary plague of the world: that is from the Southern parts thereof, bringing along with it the 
d The true Type of this war against the Church of Christ in this time, is that of Amaleck (Esau's son of whose posterity these Saracens are, though they pretend to be descended of Sara) who was the first of the Nations, who warring against Israel procured thereby their own utter destruction, foretold Numb. 24. 20. decreed Deut. 25. 19 and effected in part 1 Sam. 15. 2. 3. &c. and after in Mordecais time, Est. 7. but spiritually accomplished by Christ. But for Israel's sin came this chastisement upon them; as the Jews themselves acknowledged, saying; after they had passed through the Sea, they murmured for water: then came against them the wicked Amaleck, who hated them for the first birthright and blessing, which our Father Jacob had taken from Esau; and he came and fought against Israel, because they had violated the word of the Law, &c. Thargum on Song. 2. 1●. They fought but treacherously, Deut 25. 18. as the Scorpions with their tails, Revel. 9 10. laying weight for them in the way, 1 Sam. 15. 2.  Saracens, stirred up by the sound of the first trumpet, when that 
* Rev 9 1, &c.  star 
e It is ordinary with the Spirit of God speaking in this book of any statutes or kingdoms of this world to make allusion to the frame of this universe, attributing to them an Heaven and with it a sun, Moooe, and stars; likewise an Earth, Sea, and rivers &c. as you may observe Revel. 6. 12. &c. there speaking of the fall of the Roman Pagan Emperor: Also chap. 8. verse 7, 8, &c. Speaking of the downfall of the Roman Christian Emperor. And chap. 16. speaking of the plagues inflicted upon the papal Emperor; according to which Allusion Mahomet is here called a star.  Mahomet about the year of the Lord 622. fell from Heaven unto the earth, to whom was given the keys of the bottomless pit (when the said Saracens made him their general about the year 630. at the opening whereof, came out of it those saracenical Locusts, mentioned, Revel. 9 1, &c. who with their said general that other arch-heretic, with his smoke; false Doctrine of the Alcoran, darkened the sun and the air, and with the (almost innumerable) multitude of their Armies, did cover and pester both the whole Asian Empire, and that of Africa: yea rushng and flying further they advanced very far in Europe, invading Thracia, Sicily, Sardinia, and afterwards came as far as Spain, about the year 714. and there settled themselves under the name of moors, possessing the said mountain kingdom for the space of 800 years, from thence they rushed also very far in France, in which kingdom they first entered about the year of our Lord 726. and therein advanced as fare as Tours upon the River Loire, having for their King Abidiram, with an Army of 375000 men; from whence they were chased by Charles Martel Duke of Brabant, that great captain, and by his successor Pepin made afterwards King of France, and altogether rooted by Charles the Great, the said Pippin's son, created after that Emperor of Germany, in the year 800 of the Lord.  
Concerning which saracenical Locusts we say, that during the time they did thus torment the Christian world, the first of the seven forementioned Plagues, (which caused or brought upon the Inhabitants of the earth, the first of the forenamed woes) was poured out of the first vial by the first Angel: as it appears very clearly by the analogy, or great correspondency, that is to be seen, in comparing the effects of the said fift Trumpet, mentioned Revel. 9 with those of the said first vial described Revel. 16. 2. and comparing likewise, the said effects of both the said fift Trumpet and of the said first Plague, with the charge which was before given to the foresaid winds in general, in the forealleged seventh Chapter of this Revelat. where the said Winds were restrained from hurting, (for some time only) either the earth, or the sea, or any tree, as they would no doubt have done else. But that restraint being now taken away; and the first of the said winds, having already greatly endamaged, 
Revel. 8. 7, 8, 9, &c.  both the earth and the sea, yea the sun and the stars, as we have already showed. This second being now loosed, he is also thereby permitted to hurt the earth or earthly men of the kingdom of the Roman beast: And only forbidden to hurt, either the grass of the said earth, or any green thing, or any tree bearing any good fruit, because they were marked, and thereby exempted. And thus the first Angel of the seven Vials doth likewise pour out his vial upon the earth only.  
Secondly, the said Locusts were permitted to hurt only the men which had not the seal of God in their foreheads, chap. 9 vers. 4. even so the plague of the first vial, must no more be poured out upon those that were sealed, but only upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and which worshipped his image, Revel. 16. 2.  
Thirdly, the plague of the Locusts was not mortal, they being commanded not to kill them, Rev. 9 5. but only to torment them with torment like unto the 
f The ama●ekiteses are likewise compared to bees, Deut. 1 44. compared with Num. 14 45.  torment of a Scorpion, when he striketh a man. Neither was the plague of the first vial mortal, but such a one as thereby a very noisome and grievous sore fell upon those men, Revel. 16. 2. So that the one as well as the other, caused the first woe, proceeding from the plague of the said first vial, brought by the sounding of the said first Trumpet, stirred up also and moved by the blowing of the foresaid second wind, all which joined as it were together, made the men of those times so miserable, that though they sought death in those days, yet could they not find it, because it did flee from them, as did the said Locusts themselves (which caused these great torments) the which being driven from one place or kingdom, did as it were skip presently unto another, continuing therein for the space of about five months of years, and exercising their said tormenting power, upon those Christian men by name which had not the seal of God in their foreheads, but the mark of the beast only. And thus did they continue for many hundred years in Asta, Africa, and Europe. But 
g In the war against Amalek, mentioned Exod. 17. 8. &c. Israel sometimes prevailed, sometimes Amalck, who though discom●ited for that present by Joshua, vet his utter destruction is remitted till after the conquest of Cana in by the said Joshua, denounced by God, vers. 14. and therefore registered: prophesied by Basaam, Num. 24. 20 That of the Saracens and Turks must also follow that of the Pope & of all his Canaanites, who must be conquered before the Turk can be.  though their said power was much abated in Europe by the foresaid Charles the Great, (who condemned the adoration of Idols and opposed it, both by his writings, as also in that council by him assembled at Frankford in the year 794. wherein the second of Nice (where the said adoration of images and intercession of Saints was approved) held in the year 787, was condemned) to whom God gave many great victories over the said Sarracens; yet because, for all his opposition, the said Idolatry did still continue, (being also approved in the council of Constantinople, held under Michael the third about the year 866.) therefore could they not be driven quite away: But now and then did they much vex the said Christian world, with their tails or remnants, making many incursions therein for the space of an hundred and fifty years more, about which time 
* Knoll. general Hist. of the Turk, 〈◊〉. 4 5. Alsted. Chron. 25. p. 168. & 170.  Tangrolipix the Turk (upon the death of Mahomet the Persian Sultan) was made King of Persia, whereby those Saracens were deprived of that Caliphat: and soon after the said Tangrolipix got also from them that of Babylon. The Sultan Saracen of Egypt was likewise deprived of his Caliphat 150. after by 
* Knoll. ibid. p. 57  Saracon another Turk, viz. in the year 1166. He also invaded many of the Emperor of constantinoples' Provinces. After whose death his Successors continued the said wars, and subdued all Media, with a great part of Armenia, Capadocia, Pontus, and By thinia, and so a great part of the lesser Asia. But let us now leave them thus continuing their said wars one against another, and the Greek Princes at variance amongst themselves; thereby giving great advantage to the said Turks, still more and more to invade one part or other of the said Empire; yea the holy Land itself, becoming thereby the very bane and grave of many Christian 
h O that they had been wise, and that they had understood, that God was not among them, because they had turned away from the Lord by their Idolatries, and that therefore they should fall by the sword of those vile Mabumetan Saracens & Turk; as Moses said then unto the Israclites in the like case, Num. 14. 20. &c. Speaking of those Amalekites, who caused that Kadesh to become a right Horma, or Anathema to both of them.  Emperors, Kings, Princes and most valorous captains and soldiers, whose carcases have fallen by millions in those remote wildernesses (by reason of their idolatrous and superstitious vows and pilgrimages to the said, by them then, and by such means most profaned City and Sepulchre) answering very fitly to the threatening denounced by GOD to that ancient Israel, Numb. 14. 28, 29. as the right type thereof. By all which means the said Turkish Nations and peoples were also the more provoked against the said Christians, to hate and persecute them in their own Territories, and to be there a scourge unto them, for the punishment of all their said Idolatries. These fell out not long after, upon the blowing of the third of the four forementioned winds, loosed by the Angel ordained by God to restrain it till the time by him appointed was accomplished; which coming from the East quarter of the world, brought along with it about the year of the Lord 
* Alsted. Chro. 25. p. 172, 173. Knoll. Turk. Hist. p. 143. Mores Tab. p. 185.  1300, that other sect of Mahometans called Turks, who not contented to have taken from the Constantinopolitan Emperors, during the time of their forementioned troublesome estate and decaying Empire, the most and best part of their Provinces in Asia, passed over the strait of Hellespontus into Europe, about the year 1320, wherein they conquered presently after the whole Countries of Thracia, Mysia, and Macedonia, & afterwards the whole Empire itself, which was utterly overthrown by the taking of that famous city of Constantinople by Mahomet the Great, first Emperor of the Turks; and the seventh King from Ottoman the first, founder of that Empire; who was not of the Selzuccian family (as were all the other Turks Sultans, the Successors of Tangrolipix) but of the Oguzian Tribe, a family famous also amongst the said Turks. The taking of which (once most glorious, but then most miserable city) fell out in the year 
* More Tab. 205. saith it was in the year 1452. but Alsted. and Knolls whom I have followed ascribe it tothe ensuing year: see Alst. pag. 173. & Knol. pag. 349.  1453, the 29. day of May, Constantine Palaeologus being then Emperor, who then ended there miserably his days, together with the said Greek Empire. From thence they advanced further in Europe, wherein they conquered many kingdoms and Provinces, invading, infesting, and ravaging many peoples in the said part of the World both by Sea and by Land, (and all this for the punishment of their abominable idolatries and superstitions) in so great a quantity and innumerable number, that the Holy Ghost (in that ninth Chapter of the Revelat. (where this most inhuman barbarous and bloody war is described from the 13. verse thereof to the end of it, with the true cause mentioned in the 20 verse of the same) might very well say, that thereby the third part of men were killed.  
But for all that the rest of the men who had the mark of the beast, though they did escape those plagues, yet did they not repent of the works of their hands, but rather continued to worship their most devilish Idols, persecuting most cruelly all those who refused to worship them, thereby shedding the blood of the Saints and of the Prophets, because they refused to submit themselves any more, to that proud Antichristian tyranny of the Pope, casting off his most intolerable yoke, together with all his false doctrines and ordinances; which than they began to see how they were altogether become as the blood of a dead man, so that it was impossible for any living soul to live in such a deadly and abominable Sea, or to drink without danger of most apparent spiritual death, any of the waters or human doctrines and superstitious Ceremonies issuing from the said Popish hierarchical Sea; and therefore had rather suffer the most exquisite torments, and most cruel corporal death (yea of the hot burning fire (Than the most common) that could be inflicted upon them, by their bloody barbarous persecutors; then to return back again towards that most deadly mystical Sea, from the which they did rather fly as of old the 
* Deut. 2. 2.  Israelites from that of Ezion-Gaber, as soon as they had heard the voice of the Lord, saying unto them, You have compassed this mountainous country of the Edomites, long enough; therefore turn ye Northward, viz. towards the Land of Canaan again, standing Northward from Ezion-Gaber. Even so did the Christian Israel as soon as they had heard that 
* Revel. 14. 6, 7  Angel flying in the midst of Heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every Nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, fear God, and give glory to him, because the hour of his judgement is come, &c. Hastening towards the Northern Countries of the Popish Roman world, in very good hope to enter then in the promised Canaan of true reformation as it was noted before, but being frustrated of their said conceived hope by the forementioned 
i All these people's behaving themselves against Israel as false and unmerciful brethren, are a true type of all the false Christian Papists, especially in their most cruel fiery persecutions.  Edomites, they were constrained to make a very long circuit, to approach it, and to enter thereinto by the East side of it. In which way as they were stung with the fiery Serpents in the desert of the foresaid Edom in the beginning of their issuing out of their desert, and by them very unkindly used; so at the end of it they did find both Midianites and Moabites, with false Prophets, who would by their wiles have hindered their entry into their said Canaan, but chiefly that fiery euphratical Jordan forementioned, stopping altogether their entrance thereinto.  
All which most unkind, unmerciful hard dealings, and most cruel usage of the said poor and sore afflicted Church of God, besides the forementioned Idolatries of their detainers and persecutors, were the cause of the losing of the foresaid Easterly wind, by which the sixt Angel was moved to sound with such a long blast or alarm, to excite the five Angels to pour out the forementioned plagues contained in each of their Vials upon the most notable parts of that Antichristian Roman Empire, but especially upon its forementioned Euphrates, both universal and national; the inflicting of which brought upon them the second terrible woe, because thereby 
k The effect of the second and third vials, beginning about the thirty-two month of the voyage, &c.  God first gave them blood to drink, to avenge the blood of his Saints, which they had (as it is already said) shed in great abundance. 
l The effect of the fourth yiall, beginning about the latter end of the thirty-fourth month, and so forward.  Secondly, He did also by the means of them scorch them with fire. Wherefore they did blaspheme the name of God, because they had burned with fire his Saints and most faithful servants, and had tortured them, thereby to compel them to blaspheme. 
m The effect of the fift vial beginning in the 41 month. about the latter end thereof, all which continue as long as the second woe caused by them.  Yea the said plagues were so grievous & painful, that for very pain they were constrained to gnaw their own proper tongues, because they had cut the tongues of his servants, thereby to hinder them to make open profession of their most holy faith, to confess his name, and sing his most holy praises in the midst of the flames, as else they would have done. And as the said persecution instituted by Antichrist, began from the time of Wickliff, and hath continued to these late years, even so have the foresaid plagues continued since to this very present time.  
But the last of the foresaid five Vials being poured 
Alsted. Chro. 28. p. 200.  upon a particular national Euphrates, as was showed before, hath produced also a more particular effect than the former, though being poured out upon a particular member of the same mystical body, the whole cannot choose but by sympathy, to have some feeling of it; as is manifest by the stirring of the three forementioned Frogs, & by the complaints of all the Viceroys, Merchants & Mariners, not only of the said national Sea, but also of the universal. The cause whereof proceedeth from this, viz. that by the drying of the said national Euphrates, the tenth part of the kingdom of the Roman Beast or Empire doth fall altogether, or doth quite separate itself from it, to be no longer a member thereof; this part comprehending the kingdoms of England, Scotland, & Ireland, with all the isles adjacent, and thereunto belonging. In which part of the said Roman Empire, the said hierarchical power must now then be utterly abolished, according to the foreappointed decree registered in that forealleged place of Revel. 11. 13. and likewise 16. 12. it being the fift and last effect of the said sixt Trumpet: the accomplishment whereof is the cause of the 
* Rev. 19 1. 2  great voice of that great multitude in heaven, which was heard by John, saying, Hallelujah, Salvation & glory & honour & power, be to the Lord our God, because his judgements are true & righteous, because he hath judged the great whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornications, &c.  
By which means also a very wide gate is opened, and the way prepared for the people inhabiting the said 3 forementioned kingdoms, which the said Euphrates had but a little while before almost over flowed & quite drowned, h●d not the Lord in mercy & in a most wonderful manner prevented it; by the pouring out of the said sixt vial upon it: in the very time of its most swelling, and all overwhelming power: by which means, its intolerable pride is not only abated, but the Euphrates itself is quite dried up; so that you (as the Premices of the conquered and perfectly converted kingdoms of the foresaid Roman Western Empire) may now freely enter before the other nations in the Canaan of the true reformation; the which having first settled and established among you, (having quite rooted the said Hierarchy, & registered to eternal memory the utter abolishing thereof) you may then presently enter in Covenant with the Lord, and oblige yourselves by vow, first to continue for ever after, faithful unto him, so that you will in a holy zeal, defile the very coverings of the images of silver and of gold, and take away all the high places; and cast away, as a menstruous cloth, all relics and remnants of superstition & idolatries from among you, & say unto them; Get ye hence, that God 
* Isa. 30. 22  may see among you no unclean thing, that may cause him to turn away from you, but that rather he may delight to dwell with you, and 
* Deut. 23 14 Levit. 26.  to 
● Rev. 2. 1.  walk in the midst of your then bright shining golden Candlestick. even to deliver you, and to give up all your enemies before you. And after that, imitating herein the Rubenites Gadites, and half tribe of Manasseh, you may go armed before the Lord to war, and go all of you armed over the euphratical Jordan, before the Lord, until he hath driven out all your enemies, the Popish hierarchical Canaanites from before him, and subdued the whole Land before the Lord, as said Moses to the said Rubenites, &c. in the forealleged place of Num. 32. 21. And though you come from the more Westerly parts of the Western Roman Empire, yet are you in a mystical sense (both in respect of the type, those ancient Israelites, entering into Canaan, at the East side of it; and also in respect of your profession) the right Kings of the East, coming from the sun rising, where the day spring, the true shining 
Luk. 1. 78.  light of the Gospel, from on high, hath visited you; thus to go before his face, to prepare his ways. And as the Israelites brought along with them the 
* Heb. 9 4.  ark of the Testament over laid round about with gold, wherein was the Golden pot that had Manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the Tables of the Covenant; so do you bring along with you, to them, the 
* Rev. 14. 6  everlasting Gospel 
* Mat. 4. 23  of the kingdom, with the powerful preaching thereof, the true food of the soul, together with an holy Church-government; at the bright shining light whereof, all false Antichristian doctrines, of idolatries, superstitious Ceremonies, will-worship, and all other human inventions shall fall as 
* 1 Sam. 5. 3. 4.  Dagon before the ark, yea, 
* Luk. 10. 18.  Satan himself shall fall from heaven. It will further cast down before you 
* 2 Cor. 10 5.  all imaginations, and every high thing, that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Which is the conquest here especially intended, and the weapons wherewith it must be performed.  
This is that mystery whereof the Angel that stood upon the sea and upon the earth spoke, which God had declared before to his servants the Prophets (which is now to be accomplished,) namely, among the rest to Daniel in the 
* Dan. 7. 25, 26. is cleared being compared with John Revel. 11. 7. &c.  seventh of his prophecy, v. 25. speaking of the time of the finishing of the kingdom & tyranny of the little horn, which should then undermine (viz. by her wiles as another Balaam) the Saints of the most High, which S. John Rev. 11. 7. ●pplyes to the time of the two witnesses finishing their testimony, saying that the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit should then especially, make war against them, and should overcome them, and kill them; which last words Daniel expresses thus, saying of the said Witnesses, that they should be given into h●s hand, viz. of that little horn or powerful national hierarchical Sea, but with all limiting the time of that victory, when he adds in the next words, until a time, and times, and the dividing of time: in these few words comprehending what S John more fully and clearly expresses in the 8, 9, and 10. v. of the foresaid Chap. wherein he shows both their condition, during their said death, and also distinctly, what we are to understand by that indetermined time of Daniel, viz. three days & an half, which we have already showed to be meant of the three years & an half of the Witnesses 
n Typified as is noted before.  mystical death or imprisonment. At the ending of which time, Daniel saith, that the judgement should sit, and th●y, viz that sit in the said judgement, should take away his Dominion, to consume it & destroy it unto the end; which is thus expressed by S John, first in the foresaid Chap. v. 11, 12, & 13. saying, that after those three days and an half formentioned, the Spirit of life &c. and afterwards v. 13. And the same hour was there an earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, &c. Item Chap. 16. 12. in these words, And the sixt angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up. And then finally in the thanksgiving of that great multitude assembled in Armageddon, sitting in the foresaid judgement, Rev. 16. 16. saying, 
* Rev. 19 1. 2.  Allelujah, Salvation, and glory and honour and power be unto the Lord our God: for true and righteous are his judgements; for he hath judged the great whore— and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. All which places are parallel. By the means of which judgement, the way of the Kings of the East shall be prepared. And if it be now asked to what end, the answer is; That the said Kings may go armed before their brethren, beyond the Seas to conquer to Christ, The kingdom, saith 
* Dan. 7. 27 parallel also to Revel. 19 11, 12, &c.  Daniel in the said ●ap. v. 27. and dominion, & the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, which shall be given to the people of the Saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominion shall serve & obey him: because as was noted before the said kingdoms are the 
* Rev. 14. 4  premices of other, and as the first fruits of them unto God, and to the lamb. Thereby accomplishing the vow & promise made (concerning their said brethren) in the forementioned covenant, which must not be forgotten. And therefore Right Worthies of the Lord, permit me to reiterate the said promise in the words of that Worthy Leader of Israel, reiterating it to the said three Tribes, and saying unto them, 
* Iosh 1. 13, &c.  Remember the word which Moses the servant of the Lord, commanded you saying; The Lord your God hath given you rest, and hath given you this Land: your wives, your children, and your cattle shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side Jordan; but you shall go over before your brethren armed, all the mighty men of valour, and shall help them: until the Lord hath given your brethren rest, as he hath given you, and they also have possessed the Land which the ●ord your God giveth them: than ye shall return unto the Land of your possession, and enjoy it. The which they accordingly performed, as the same Joshua testifies, speaking unto them after the conquest of the said Land of Canaan, and and the division thereof among the other Tribes, saying, 
* Iosh. 22. 2 3, &c.  Ye have kept all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, & have obeyed my voice in all that I commanded you. Ye have not left your brethren these many days unto this day, but have kept the charge of the commandment of the Lord your God. And now the Lord your God hath given rest unto your brethren, as he promised them, therefore now return ye, and get ye unto your tents, and unto the land of your possession. And when he sent them away, than he blessed them, & spoke unto them, saying; return with much riches unto your tents, and with very much cattle, with silver, and with gold & with brass, and with iron, and with very much raiment: divide the spoil of your enemies with your brethren.  
To the which prophecies, together with this so manifest a type, may yet be added, that excellent promise made to this end to all these victorious Kings of the East, in this book of the Revelation, which may serve not only to confirm this truth, but also to encourage the people of the said kingdom, to go on cheerfully to the performance of the said great work, now by them so happily begun: to which purpose therefore let them consider first, that promise is made to the Angel and Church of 
o The same Church being the type of the Church, representing summarily and in general her condition since the time of her issuing out of the wilderness, as is noted before.  Thyatira (after the fall of Jezabel, and after the death of her children mentioned Rev. 2. 22, 23. a place parallel to the forealleged, Rev 11 v. 13. & 16. 12. & 19 15, 16.) namely, that to those that should thus overcome, and conquer the foresaid kingdoms and people in the forespo●en manner, and should keep God's works unto the end, he would give them power over nations, & they should rule them with a rod of iron: as the vessels of a potter, should they be broken to shivers: and that he would give them the morning star. consider likewise to this purpose that which is said presently after the blowing of the seventh Trumpet, Rev. 11. 15. by those great voices in heaven, which said, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever. Wherefore they sing that Hallelujah (at the falling down of the forementioned walls of Jericho▪ mentioned Rev. 19 6. because then the Lord God was entered into his kingdom. Now then seeing that these things ought thus to be done by the foresaid Kings, Princes, Nobles & people, suffer not the horns of your powerful authority to be used any more against the author thereof, or against his most distressed Church and Spouse, either in these kingdoms or in any other, as they have been too too much heretofore, by that cruel Beast, and most proud whore Jezabel: but rather, in a more sincere zeal to God's glory, then that of Jehu, as she is entered into the house of God by the window, so let her be cast out of it, that she may be trodden under 
2 King. 9 33  the feet, not only of the horses and most base people, as she is already, but of yourselves: for it is prophesied, that you ought thus to hate her, and make her desolate and naked yea that you ought to eat her flesh, & burn her with the fire of Excommunication, that thereby you may at length fulfil the words of God, Revel. 17. 16, 17.  
And to conclude with a word of exhortation and encouragement also to my fellow-brethren of the ministry, that 
* Num. 25 7, 8, & 31. 6. 8.  Phinees-like, having already showed a great zeal in the cause of the Lord against Zimri and Cosbi, they may also like him go with the thousands of Israel, with the instruments of the Sanctuary, and the Trumpets of alarm in their hands, to execute the vengeance of the Lord against Midian, sparing none of their Princes, not Balaam himself, nor any of the women neither, because they have caused the children of Israel through 
Num. 31. 16. 17.  the counsel of Balaam to commit a great trespass against the Lord, in the case of Peor, wherefore came the plague among the Congregation of the Lord. And therefore like 
* 1 King. 18. 40.  Elija, take all the Prophets of Baal, so that not a man of them do escape, though they were seven thousand in number, for all of them must be slain, with the spiritual sword of Excommunication, 
* Rev. 19 15  going out of the mouth of Jesus Christ. But above all be careful to commend the rooting out to the very stumps, yea stumps & all of that hierarchical Antichristian-like Church-government, with all the Officers thereof, to those that are now fighting the battles of the Lord; & in lieu thereof, labour to have the holy Church Discipline of Christ, stablished, countenanced, and authentically authorised among us; seeing that no man usurp under what colour or title, how favourable and specious soever it be, any dominion over the Lord's inheritance: that God's wrath may no more be provoked against us, who is as you know a consuming fire, now more than ever zealous of his glory, and who to manifest the same hath taken in hand his vindicating power, to take vengeance of 
* Luk. 19 27.  all his enemies, who would not that he should rule over them, and who have been likewise the mortal enemies of his true Witnesses, and most faithful servants, whom he hath also armed, now especially, with such powerful authority, that If any one doth yet presume to hurt them, or oppose them in this most blessed and most holy work of Reformation, 
* Rev. 11. 5.  fire shall proceed out of their mouth to devour all their enemies; for if any man will burt them, he must in this manner be killed. And they have also to this end a two edged sword in their hands, to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and corrections among the people, yea to bind their Kings in chains, and their Nobles with fetters of iron, that they 
Psal. 149. 6. 7. &c.  may execute upon them the judgement that is written: this honour shall be to all his Saints. Praise ye the Lord.  
FINIS.