The Vengeance of the Temple: DISCOVERED IN A SERMON Preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Major and Court of Aldermen of the City of London, in Paul's Church, May 17. 1648.  
Being the day of Public Thanksgiving for a Victory obtained by the Forces under the Command of Colonel Horton, at St. Faggons, near Cardiff in Wales.  
By William Strong Pastor of Dunstan's in the West, and a Member of the Assembly of Divines.  
LONDON, Printed for john Benson, and are to be sold at his shop in Dunstan's Churchyard, 1648.   

To the Right Honourable the Lord Major and Court of Aldermen, of the famous City of London.  
Right Honourable, and Right Worshipful:  
A Word spoken in season, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  is a word upon the wheels Solomon tells us. Prov. 25.11. both grateful and successful, which is the blessing that I beg of God upon these poor and mean endeavours, which in obedience to your command I humbly present unto you.  
It was the fittest subject that in this juncture of time I could fix my thoughts upon, when men's hearts are too generally turned to hate God's people, and to deal deceitfully with his servants; thereby (I fear) to prepare instruments in judgement for that last act of the tragedy upon the Saints in the Reformed Churches, the kill of the witnesses, which I conceive, as the bitterest affliction, and the sharpest persecution is yet to come.  
God hath put great opportunity into your bands, and it may be hath raised you to honour for such a time as this: do you countenance, and act for the Lords holy ones, and it shall be accepted as a service by him who is King of Saints: do you become as a correcting Cherube unto this Ark of God among you: for next to the honourable title of Defender of the Faith, is that of Protector of the faithful: for God and his people are engaged in the same cause and quarrel and all opposition shall end in the destruction of the opposers, and they shall perish by their hands whom they oppose, even by the vengeance of the Temple.  
But no man will ever be faithful to the Saints, but he that is himself a Saint, in whom the spirit of God dwells as a man, and acts as a Magistrate; all other men though they may give good words for a time, yet they will meet with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, an opportunity of temptation, and they will fall off, 
Pelago se non ita commissurus esset, quin quando liberet, pedem refer posset.  engaging themselves in the cause of the Saints no further, then may stand with their present purposes, and designs: As the King of Navarre told. Bez. he would launch no further into the Protestant cause, than he might see which way to put into a safe harbour.  
There is nothing that concerns Magistrates more than to gain the hearts, and keep the prayers of these beloved ones, and they must be faithful to God that shall expect it; for God and his Saints are in a League offensive and defensive, 
Simulatque faedus cum Romanis percusseris; noli expectare alium de me calumniatorem, sed statim veluti hosti populi Romani cavendum puta. Polyb. hist. l. 3.  and the Saints are ready to say to men as Hannibal did to King Antiochus, while he continued an enemy to the Romans, so long he should be sure of him as a friend; but if once he made a League with them, he should immediately look upon him as his enemy; so do the Saints say, while faithful to God; they are firm to you; but if you be false to God, it will not be long ere you will be cast out of the hearts of his people also.  
And that you may cleave close to the people of God, there is a great deal of courage required in these dangerous and doubtful times; in which mercies are accounted injuries, and to give thanks for them is set upon men as a brand of cruelty and infamy, when so many forsake their first Principles, and labour to build again that which hitherto they have destroyed. At this time I say, men have need of courage, or else they will fear and faint, and fly when danger presents itself.  
Truly duty is better than safety, and suffering is better than sinning or shifting; crooked ways will never bring a man to right ends; there is too much of the Serpent in them; a lying tongue is but for a moment, 
Perde te, 〈◊〉 pereas. Salu.  and he that will save his life shall lose it.  
Satan hath an especial design upon men of eminency and authority in such times as these, that he may carry them in Triumph, and act by them to the corrupting of many. As the Romans having an evil eye upon Ptolemy King of Egypt for his wealth, which they resolved to seize upon, but knew not how to pick an occasion, he being in League with them; therefore they appointed Cato a man in high esteem for justice and uprightness, as Publicus Praedo, ut summa turpitudo facti authoritate tanti viri aliquantulum tegeretur, by the name of the man to colour over the baseness of the act; so Satan's great design of late hath been upon the Stars in our Horizon, and we may with fear remember how many are fallen.  
Engage ye therefore with and for the Saints, and let the present dangers raise your resolutions: a great mind doth rise by difficulties, and true courage is heightened by oppositions. Let the birelings fly, let meteours fall, and those that have cleaved to the Church of God by flattery be detected; yet is the righteous an everlasting foundation. Let the blessing of joseph be on your heads whom God hath separated from your brethren: let your bow abide in strength, and the arms of your hands be made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob, which shall be the constant and daily prayer of  
Your Servant in the Gospel, William Strong.   

A Sermon Preached in Paul's Church London, before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, and Aldermen, the 17. of May 1648.  
Being the day of public thanksgiving for a Victory obtained by the Forces under the Command of Col. Horton, at St. Faggons near Cardiff in Wales.  JUDGE'S Chap. 5. vers. 
So let all thine enemies perish, o Lord.  

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 etc. Resp. ad Orthod q. 71. & in dial. cum Tryph. p. 307. Necesse est ut in fine sexti millesimi anni malicia omnis aboleatur è terra, & regnet per mille annos justitia, fitque tranquilitas & requies à laboribus quos mundus jamdiu perpessus est. de divin. imperio l. 7. c. 14. Aug. de civet. Dei, l. 20. c. 7. Rev. 10.2.3.4. Pedem ponere est possessonem sibi & dominium vindicare. Par. Dan. 7. c. 27.  THE condition of the Church in this world, is twofold, Militant and Triumphant. The warfare of the Church, according to the Divinity of the Ancients, is to last till towards the end of the first 6000. years of the World, as Justine Martyr, and after him Lactantius, and others have observed. And then shall be another condition of the Church, which shall be even in this life, & compared with the former, may well be styled Triumphant and glorious. When Christ, that great and mighty Angel shall come down from Heaven clothed with a Cloud, and a Rainbow upon his head, and shall set his right foot upon the Sea, and his left foot upon the Earth, and thereby take to himself the dominion of both, Revel. 10.5.6. which is called taking to himself his great power and reigning, Revel. 11.17. when he shall give the kingdom and dominion under the whole heaven, which was before in the enemy's hand unto the Saints of the most High, and they shall possess it for ever and ever. When their enemies shall bow down before them, and lick the dust under their feet.  
In this militant condition hath the Church of God been ever since the fall, and how long it shall so continue, no man can certainly determine. But it is the concurrent judgement of our Divines, that it draws near an end. While this estate of the Church lasts, their condition will be like that, described by the Prophet, A day wherein the light shall neither be clear nor dark, Zach. 14.6. full of uncertainties, and subject to continual changes and vicissitudes, not so light that they shall say there is an end of our fears, nor so dark that they shall say there is an end of our hopes. Sometimes they may be under the power of the Enemy, as prisoners in a pit wherein there is no water; and by and by God will raise up a deliverer for them that shall proclaim their liberty, and be as a covering Cherub to the Ark of God, for their defence. A resemblance of this condition of the Church, we have in the Jewish State, which therefore is made the prototype of all the Gentile Churches throughout the whole Book of the Revelation, the Prophecy of the last times.  
An emblem whereof you have in the former Chapters. First, the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and he gave them into the hand of Cushan Rishathaim the king of Mesopotamia, and he ruled over them eight years. Then the Lord raised up a deliverer to them, Oihoniel the son of Kenaz Calebs' younger brother, and the Land had rest forty years. Then the chilrens of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord and he strengthened against them Eglon the king of Moab: and they served him eighteen years, and then the Lord raised up a deliverer for them, Ehud the son of Gera, and the Land had rest fowrescore years. Afterwards they were oppressed by the Philistines, and the Lord delivered them by Shamgar the son of Anath. And they did evil again in the sight of the Lord, and he sold them into the hand of jabin king of Canaan, the most potent of all these enemies; for he had nine hundred Chariots of iron, and twenty years he mightily oppressed Israel. And then the Lord raised for their deliverance Deborah the wife of Lapidoth, and Barach the son of Abinoham, and gave the enemy into their hands. Thus God never leaves his people in affliction, but provides Saviour's aswell as Persecutors, not only horns, but Carpenters also to beat them to pieces, Zach. 1.21. A song of thanksgiving for this last victory and deliverance, is the contents of this Chapter. In which, by way of context, we may observe these six particulars, all which will help us in the duty of the present day.  
1 First, the heart that shallbe thankful for a mercy must be gracious: the song must be sung by a Deborah and a Barak, they must have golden vials, hearts refined and not drossy, that shall have the harps of God in their hands, Revel. 5.8. And they that shall sing the Lords song, must be redeemed from the Earth, being the first fruits to God and to the Lamb, in whose mouth is found no guile, Revel. 14.4.5. An earthy spirit may put a man upon a prayer, his own necessity will therein carry him on, to howl upon his bed for his corn, and wine, and oil, but it is a heart only redeemed from the earth, that will enable a man to return praise; so that if there be ten cleansed, we may say with our Saviour, Where are the nine?  
2. Secondly, whosoever shallbe thankful for a mercy must prise it and rejoice in it. Gaudentis est gratias agere. 
Levit. 3.1.  Peace offerings are called in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Retributions, and they that think they have received little, will make little conscience of returning. There is an evil generation among the sons of men, that undervalue mercies and despise them, saying, Would God we had died in Egypt: Canaan is a L●nd that eats up his inhabitants. These men are so far from accepting the punishment in an affliction, that they accept not the mercy in their redemption. Mercies will distinguish men aswell as Judgements. Some are delivered to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt, Dan. 12.2. O poor murmuring souls, to whom mercies are a burden!  
3. Thirdly, a thankful heart must stir up itself unto praise. Awake Deborah, awake, awake utter a song, arise Barak and let captivity captive, 
Eph. 5.19.  thou son of Abinoam. Thanksgiving is melody in the heart of the Lord: and before you can make melody, your Instrument must be in tune. Awake my glory, awake lute and harp, I myself will awake right early. Ye profane and unthankful spirits (ingratus est qui injuriam voc at finem voluptatis) that repine at blessings, 
Sen. ad Polyb. ●. 20.  and look upon your mercies as your injuries, incredulous men, that are scarce willing to believe the things you see, that endeavour to bring up an evil report upon all the goodness of God, procul hinc, here is no place for you in the work of this day. The garment of praise is comely, only for the upright: ye wayward spirits that slight the gift, because yourselves did not choose the messenger; and because you like not the hand that brings it. And ye seemingly compassionate, that say, shall we give thanks for the kill of men, and that of our own Nation, in a Civil War. In this case the Heathen man did forbear his Triumph, and therefore such Thansgiving, seem not only unchristian, but inhuman. To such I answer: The War, in which at first, ye of this City, were eminently engaged, and by you the Kingdom, was either just or unjust: if it were unjust, then hid your Trophies, and be ashamed of your victories; for he that gives thanks to God because he prospers in a sin, makes God a patron thereof. But if it were just, you ought to rejoice in the success, being the public execution of divine justice, and to glorify God in those things wherein he hath glorified himself. 'tis fare from us to rejoice in the blood of men, much less of our brethren; but yet if Christ will set up his Throne upon the carcases of the slain, herein we may and will rejoice.  
4. Fourthly, he that will be thankful, must enlarge his thoughts by the remembrance of former mercies, and all the circumstances of mercies present. So doth Deborah, vers. 4.5. Lord when thou goest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped waters, the mountains melted from before the Lord, even that Sinai from before the Lord God of Israel. You must praise God from the fountain of Israel, and sing both the song of Moses and of the Lamb.  
And you must enlarge your thoughts in all the circumstances of the present mercies; so doth Deborah, by the violence of the enemy, the kings came and sought then fought the kings of Canaan in Tanach, by the waters of Megiddo, they took no gain of money. By their confident expectations and their hopes. Why is his chariot so long a coming, why tarry the wheels of his chariot? have they not sped? have they not divided the prey to every man a damsel or two? to Sisera a prey of divers colours, a prey of divers colours of needle work of divers colours of needle work of both sides, meet for the necks of them that take the spoil. By the falsehood and desertion of their friends. Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds to hear the bleat of the flock? for the divisions of Reuben were great thoughts of heart. Gilead abode beyond jordan, and why did Dan remain in ships? Ashur continued on the sea shore and abode in his breaches. Curse ye Meroz, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof, because they came not out to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty. By the immediate hand of God in the deliverance: his arm was made bare. They fought from heaven, the stars in their courses fought against Sisera, the River Kishon swept them away, that ancient River, the River Kishon.  
5. Fifthly, a heart truly thankful gives the instruments their due honour: those that God hath honoured in the work, do you honour also, and God in them. Out of Ephraim was there a root of them against Amalek, after Benjamin among the people, Zebulon and Nephthali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death, in the high places of the field Blessed above women shall jahel the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the Tent. It is the property of a beast to crop the Tree that shelters it, and of an unskilful soldier to dismantle that Town that must defend him. Israel was never in a worse condition, then when all their business was to murmur under their present sufferings, and to quarrel with the Instruments of their deliverances.  
6. Sixthly, mercies received with praises, must be followed with prayers. As prayer should engage the heart to praise, so praises should encourage the heart to prayer; and those praises are heartless and faithless, that do not end in prayers; for when God is giving, is our fittest season to be ask. So here praise for a deliverance from one enemy, draws out the hearts in prayer against all God's enemies; So let all thine enemies perish o Lord.  
Thus we are come home to the Text. The particuculars thereof are three.  
1. The persons prayed against, Gods enemies, with their note of universality, All thine enemies.  
2. Secondly, the end of these men, Let them perish, with that particle which, directs us to the manner, with an eminent utter and final overthrow, So let them perish.  
3. Thirdly, the means, which is by the power, the praises and the prayers of the Saints. Hence the points are also three  
1. First, All the Church's enemies, are God's enemies.  
2. Secondly. That perishing is their portion.  
3. Thirdly, That they shall perish under the power, by the prayers and praises of the Saints.  
All the Church's enemies God's enemies. Doctrine.  
It is a question the Schoolmen usually put, Num Deus possit odio haberi? Whether it be possible for the creature to be an enemy to God, who is goodness itself, seeing evil only is the object of hatred, which is not to be found in him? It is answered, That as God is bonum universale, he cannot be hated by the creature; but inparticulari, being a good, that is contrary to us, so men do hate the Lord. For Men and Angels in their fall, as some Schoolmen observe, lost three things in respect of God; Delectationem pulchritudinis, adorationem Majestatis, imitationem bonitatis, They neither delight in his beauty, nor adore his glory, nor imitate his goodness. Thus all men by nature are God's enemies. But the enemies here spoken of, are Israel's enemies, enemies to God in his Church, as Psal. 78.1. Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered. Isay 57.23. I know they going forth and coming in, and thy rage against me. Yea even all their neglects and omissions towards the Church, refer to God, and he will judge them accordingly at the last day. I was hungry, and ye gave me no meat, inasmuch as ye did it not to the least of these, ye did it not to me. Therefore God's enemies here spoken of are his Church's enemies.  
In the opening of this point there are three things to be explained.  
First, the Church of God in all ages and places hath met with enemies.  
Secondly, that these enemies are not only theirs, but Gods.  
Thirdly, some short discoveries who these enemies are.  
First, the Church of God hath from the beginning met with enemies. For the nature of Christ's kingdom in this world, is to rule in the midst of his enemies; in the world to come, he shall rule over them. The Apostle saith. There is a schema, a fashion of the world that passeth away: 
1 Cor. 7.31.  it continues not always in one fashion; but yet cast it into what shape you will, and the Church of God hath always found enemies in it, and usually they have been the greatest persons, and the most prevailing party.  
These enemies are of two sorts; from without, or from within. While the Church was wand'ring among the Heathen, as sheep among wolves, what else could be expected? When Israel went down into Egypt, they met with a Leviathan, who by cruelty and subtlety sought to destroy them: 
Ps. 74.14.  and when they came into the Land of Canaan, they were as a speckled bird, all the bordering Nations hated them. 
Jer. 12.9.  There arose four great Monarchies, or principal kingdoms in the world, called Beasts, Dan. 7.1.2. chief for their cruelty to the Saints. Under the Chaldean Monarchy, Israel is as a scattered sheep; the Lions have driven him away: the former Kings of Assyria, Tiglath Pileser and Salmanaser have devoured him: and Nabuchadnezzar King of Babylon hath broken his bones, Jer. 50.17. In the Persian Monarchy, there was an Haman and a Cambyses, who with a Samaritan faction of their neighbours, that were neither Heathens by profession, nor Jews by Religion, these raised a great mountain against them, 
Zach. 4.7.  even the power of the whole Empire. In the Grecian Monarchy, there arose Antiochus, that little horn, a King of a fierce countenance, who did destroy wonderful, and prospered and practised against the holy people, waxed great even to the host of heaven, and cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground and stamped on them, Dan. 8.9.10.  
And in the fourth Monarchy as Pagan, there was a great red Dragon, that made war against Michael and his Angels. Thus the Church of God hath always met with enemies round about. But yet she might expect friends within, that those borne in her bosom and brought up upon her knee, that they should be true and faithful to her. But here is the misery, that she hath always found the worst enemies to proceed out of her own bowels. Toads, they say are most poisonous in the wine-cellar, and the tares most destructive that grow among the wheat.  
If an open enemy besiege Jerusalem, 
Zach. 12.2. Judah erit in obsidione contra Jerusalem. Jerom. & Montan.  some of judah will join with them in the siege. When Jerusalem is taken by the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty Nation, yet they feared more than they do the enemy, the Renegado Jew's that fell off to the Chaldeans. And in their return out of the captivity, their greatest enemies were the Samaritans, 
Jer. 38.19.  that professed to worship the same God with them, and would join with them in building a Temple to him, that by their compliance they might hinder the work. 
Joseph. antiq. l. 11. c. 8.  And when the Temple was built, Manasses the brother of Jaddaeus the high Priest, having married a strange wi●e. sc. the daughter of S●nballet, and being therefore by his own brother put out of the Priesthood, he with his father in law did by a Petition to Alexander, obtain leave to build a Temple upon mount Gerazim, in hope thereby to destroy the worship of God at Jerusalem, and to draw away the hearts of the people from it. And the Church of God is never in so much danger, as when a S●nballet and a Manasse meet in the conspiracy.  
And wh●n they were settled in their own land, 
Act. 4.11.  Christ is rejected of the bvilders; 
Esay. 8.14.  he is a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel. And for the Saints, 
Math. 23.34.35.  I send to you Prophets and wise men and Scribes, and not one of these can perish out of Jerusalem: they that did profess with them the same God, and to join in the same worship, sought to destroy them.  
Let us now come from the jewish to the Christian Church, and we shall see the enmity remain, as soon as the Roman Empire embraced Christianity, Satan immediately casts 〈◊〉 a flood after the woman, the flood of Arian heresy, and the Arian Christian persecutes the Orthodox, as much or more than the Pagans had done before. But this flood was soon dried up, the earth helping the woman against the Arian persecution. Now co●●es in a third state of the Empire, which is Antichristian there doth arise a beast out of the earth, 
Rev. 13.11.  that hath two horns like a Lamb. Surely now nothing is to be expected bu● meekness and innocency; but this Lamb speaks like the Dragon and the design of this beast is to wear out the Saints of the most High, 
Dan. 7.25.  and to make war upon them, and that with greater cruelty than the Heathens and Arians had done before. For Rome trade's in the souls of men: but many Nations have made defection from Antichrist, have come out of Babylon. 
Rev. 18.13.  There are ten kingdoms that the Lamb will overcome, by their conversion, and they shall hate the whore and make her desolate. Surely the Saints find no enemies there: there is in the Reformed Churches a sea of glass mingled with fire both of contention, 
Rev. 15.2.  and persecution among themselves. And they that slay the witnesses dwell in the same street where their dead bodies he, Rev. 11.7.8. So that cast the world into what frame and fashion you will, while the term of the Churches militant condition lasts, there will be always found a prevailing party, whose design is to wear out the Saints of the most High.  
2. Secondly, They that are the Church's enemies are Gods enemies, whether they be within or without the Church. This will appear upon these four grounds.  
1. First, they are Gods enemies, because God and his people are in Covenant; there is a league offensive and defensive between them. You have a full expression of such a league, in the words of jehosephat, I am as thou art, my servants as thy servants, my horses as thy horses; that is, they shallbe as truly thine to use, as if the necessity were mine own. So Gen. 12.3. the Lord Covenants with Abraham, I will bless them that bless thee and I will curse them that curse thee; I will be an enemy to thine enemies, and an adversary to thy adversaries, Exod. 23.2. And therefore they that oppose them are said to fight against God. And if the people of God be worsted at any time, they can call to him as their Confederate. Arise Lord fight against them that fight against one, take hold of the shield and buckler, and stand up for my help; draw out the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute me, etc. 35. Psa. 2.3.  
2. Secondly, because their cause is God's cause, therefore their enemies must needs be God's enemies. They entitle God to it, Psal. 74.22. Arise Lord, maintain thine own cause. And God by his Propht owns it, the battle is not yours but Gods, 2. Cron. 20.12. It is for God's sake that all opposition lights upon them; for thy sake are we killed all the day long; the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me, and they choose it rather than God should be dishonoured: Malo in nos murmur hominum quam in Deum: 
Bern. de confid.  bonumest mihi si Deus d●gnetur me uti pro clypeo.  
3. Thirdly, because all God's enemies be their enemies, and all opposition that is made against God in the ways of his Truth or Worship, they take as done to themselves; Do not I hate them that hate thee? yea I hate them with a perfect hatred as if they were mine enemies. As God's friends be their friends, so all God's enemies are their enemies. And if they answer to their part of the Covenant, surely God will not fail in his.  
4. Fourthly, they are a people very dear to God, and this makes the Lord to look upon every thing that concerns them, as being interessed in it. They are dear to him, 
Zach. 2.5.  as the apple of his own eye. The sons of his bosom, and the Father takes himself concerned in all the wrong offered to his children. And as grace, though it be in itself but an accident, is dearer to God, than the souls of all men without it: so his people, though they be but few, and as an accident to the world, yet are they dearer unto God, than all the Kings and Kingdoms of the Earth besides; they being the first fruits to God and to the Lamb; 
Esay. 43.3.4. Ps. 105.14.  and therefore he gives Kingdoms for their Ransom, and reproves Kings for their sakes.  
3. Thirdly, Who are these enemies? We are the Church of God, even this whole Nation, therefore none of these are to be found amongst us.  
These enemies are of several sorts.  
1. First, all profane men that are enemies to holiness, they are the Church's enemies, whose God is their belly, who glory in their shame, who are enemies to the Cross of Christ. These are spots in our feasts, a blemish and a dishonour to all our Churches. We labour at present under a double evil of damnable doctrines: on the one side, and devilish practices on the other: and both these think to justify themselves, by objecting one against another. The Heretic declaimes much against Profaneness, and thinks that he hath well acquitted himself; and the profane man on the other side cries out heresy, heresy; but these are both enemies unto Christ, and to the Church of Christ. Profaneness hath gotten so much ground, there being no Magistrate (as it is said of Laish) or master of restraint to put them to shame, that they declare their sins as Sodom●; 
Judg. 18.7.  and it is with us as Salvian in his days found it. 
De Gubern. Deid 3.  Genus quodammodo sanctitatis est minús esse vitiosum. He is a holy man that is not extremely wicked, and he little less than a Saint who is not a very Devil.  
2. Secondly, Heretics in Opinion, and Idolaters in Worship. They be the enemies to the Witnesses, Revel. 11.5. men that speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, perverse things, 
Act 20.30.  turning all upside down, 
Eph 4.14.  denying principles, overthrowing foundations: affirming horribilia de Deo, 
2 Pet. 2.3. 2 Pet. 3.16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Ep●st. Polycarp. ad Philip.  terribilia de fide: men that use a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a great deal of artifice and skill to deceive: there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, new coined words, and canting language to corrupt the minds of the Saints, who set the Scripture upon the Rack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and make it speak that which the Holy Ghost never intended, wresting it to their own destruction, and the subversion of others. Such the people of God should look upon as enemies, and avoid their communion, 2. john 10. If there come any to you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, nor bid him God speed, for he that biddeth him God speed, is partaker of his evil deeds. If a man be once taken with an itch of novelty, as to desire to hear what every man saith, he is near to be seduced, and it is a great judgement of God to be given over to believe a lie. Vincentius Lirinensis hath this observation of the ancient Saints, 
Advers. haereses. cap. 9  it may serve for our direction: Quo quis foret religiosior eo promptius novellis adinventionibus contrairet.  
3. Thirdly, all those that rejoice in the low condition of the Church of God, and deride them when they are down, these the Church calls enemies. Mica. 7.8. yet such there are in the Church, sons of the bondwoman that willbe scoffing, who with Haman can sit down to drink, when the people of God are in perplexity; men that rage and rail, and only expect a day when with a despiteful heart they may revenge themselves, Ezek. 25.8. This was Moabs' enmity they said, Behold the house of judah is like unto all the Heathen: for all their boasting of their God, they are laid waste as other Nations, there is no difference. Therefore thus saith the Lord, I will open the side of Moab, take away her strong frontier Cities, an enemy shall enter into her bowels, and she shall be no more remembered among the Nations.  
4. Fourthly, all men that reserve themselves, and affect a detestable neutrality in these active times, that lie at a close guard till they see which is like to be the stronger side, and come not forth to the help of the Lord against the mighty. Meroz is as truly an enemy, as jabin the king of Canaan: for in this case Christ saith, He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathers not with me scatters. These consult not their present duty, but their future safety, how they may so demean themselves that they may ingratiate with this or that party that doth prevail. Therefore sail by a side wind and live upon futura contingentia all their days. To such a one I say, thou art an enemy to the Church of God, and God is an enemy to thee.  
5. Fifthly, they that cleave to the Church of God by flattery, and proffer to build with them that they may destroy them: whose hearts are truly set against that work of Reformation they profess to further, for in their persons they hate to be reform. Who court the Saints of God, and salute them, but it is to betray them with a kiss, and with joab to stab them in a compliment, Ezek. 29.6.7. The Lord saith of Egypt, Thou hast been a staff of Reed to the house of Israel: they had encouraged the jews to rebel against the King of Babylon, and had promised to assist them; they were in promissione baculus, but in solutione arundineus, 
A Lap. in loc.  and so became an occasion of all the misery that befell Israel in this design. When Israel came out of Egypt, there was a mixed multitude, who did cleave to them by flattery, and murmured and deserted them when trials came. It may be said of many a man as Ruoeus of the Carbuncle, translucit in modum ardentis prunae, 
Lib de Gemmis.  if you hear their words and look upon them at a distance, you would think them to be as hot as a fiery coal, but come near to them and observe their actions, and you shall find them to be key cold.  
6. Sixthly, all Apostates that fall from their former principles, that now plead for that which not many years, it may be not many days since, they were violent against. The greatest enemy that ever God had, was an apostate Angel. The greatest enemy that ever Christ had, an apostate Church and the greatest enemies to the Saints are Renegado professors. Take heed of an Alexander, a Demas, a Julian. There was a time not long since, when you all said, we will admit no heresy in doctrine, no supper stition in worship, no tyranny in government, no man shall have dominion over our Laws, or domination over our consciences; but many have met with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an opportunity of temptation, are fallen away, and are become actors and advocates for those things and persons which before they were resolute against, and all their former deliverances are but a Resurrection to shame, Dan. 12.2. The jews in their first deliverance are to meet with such trouble as they had not since they became a Nation, which is to last five and forty years: in which time, many that had a share in the first deliverance, shall be discovered to be unsound, and false hearted, and their former deliverance shall be to their eternal shame and dishonour before the Saints. Surely, there are trying times coming, when no house will stand, but that which is built upon the Rock. It's the righteous only that is an everlasting Foundation.  
There are three observations which I desire to add to the explication, before I come to the reasons and grounds of this enmity.  
First, Obs. 1 when men's hearts are once in judgement turned to hate the Saints, the main pleasure of their lives comes in by their opposition to them, and they take very much delight in it. As Satan not having yet his full torment, the main pleasure that he takes is in opposition against God, and to see his plots to take in a way of revenge; so it is with the enemies who are acted in a high degree by the spirit of Satan in their opposition against the Saints.  
A man's meat and drink in the Scripture, 
Fruitionem denotat & delectationem. Glass. Rhetor. sacr. p. 373.  is that by which the pleasure and the comfort of his life cometh in; It is my meat to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work, Jo. 4.34. And to note that the main pleasure of the enemies lies in their opposition, it is said to be their meat and drink. It is their meat, Psal. 14.4. They eat up my people as they would eat bread, they are the food that their malice feeds upon; 
Mos est in urbibus Palestinae, & usque hod ie peromnem Judaeam vetus consuetudo servatur, ut in vicculis oppidis & castellis rotundi ponantur lapides gravissimi ponderis, ad quos juvenes exercere se soleant, & eos pro varietate virium sublevare; alii ad genua, alii ad umbilicum, alii ad humeros & capur nonnulli super verticem erectis junctisque manibus, pondus extollunt.  and this is their drink also, Rev. 17.6. I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the Saints, and with the blood of the Martyrs of jesus. Though it prove a cup of poison and of trembling in the end, yet they drink if down as sweet wine, Zach. 12.2. This is their recreation also, and that wherein they show forth their strength and activity; which Hierome conceives to be intended by the Holy Ghost, in that expression of a burdensome stone, Zach. 12.3. alluding therein to the custom of the jews, and of all those Eastern Countries, where in every town and village were great round stones, which the young men for recreation, and to show forth their strength, did use to lift pro virium varietate, some to their knees, some to the loins, some to the head, etc. And thus as matter of recreation, are the enemies lifting at the Church, every man according to his ability, and as any one dare do more than other this way, he accounts himself the more valiant and gallant man; which made Saul in this zeal this way (which he after saw to be madness) to go beyond his fellows.  
The last enemies of the Church shall surely be the worst. Obser. 2 The fourth beast was divers from all the other beasts that went before, and exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of brass, Dan. 7.19. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Sept.  But upon the last head of the fourth beast there arise ten horns (for the Roman Empire is broken into ten Kingdoms) and after them, o behind them, there doth arise a little horn, that speaks great words against the most High, and whose design is to we are out the Saints, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dicitur de calceamentis inveteratis, Josh. 6.13, & de pannis affritis. Jer. 38.11.  Dan. 7.24.25. The Original word doth sign●fi● to wear out a thing with long and continued use, or as a Garment is worn out by degrees, with long and constant wearing, so under this little Horn, which must be Antichrist, because he riseth with the ten horns upon the last head of the fourth beast; and in whose judgement the beast is slain, and his body destroyed, given to the burning flame, ver. 11.) the witnesses prophesy in sackcloth and ashes 1260 days; in a persecuted, mournful and afflicted condition; that by a long and continual oppression, they may be worn out even as a garment.  
Thirdly, the last acts of these enemies shall be filled with the greatest cruelty, and with a rage that shall reach to heaven: Antichrist shall make it his business during all the time of his reign to wear out the Saints, but at last they shall be killed, 
Rev. 11.7.8.  and that in the most inhuman manner, their dead bodies shall be cast out into the street, and they shall rejoice in their death, and deny them a burial: in the last attempts they shall express more cruelty and bitterness, 
Rev. 16.16.  then in many hundred years before. And after the resurrection of the witnesses, and Rome's downfall, they shall attempt with greater violence, when the Kings of the earth and of the whole world, shall be gathered together to the battle Armageddon. 
Rev. 20.8.9.  And lastly, when Gog and M●gog shall gather the Nations together to battle from the four quarters of the earth, in number as the sands of the sea and they shall go upon the breadth of the earth and compass the camp of the Saints round about, and the beloved City. Satan shall have great indignation, seeing his time is short: For in the last days shall be the most glorious Reformation, the greatest refinements shall pass upon the world by him, who sits as a refiner, answerable to the degrees of reformation, 
Mal. 3.3.  such shall the degrees of opposition be, when there shall be the perfectest reformation, there shall then be the highest opposition and the bitterest persecution. 
2 Tim. 3.5.  In the last days the opposition to Godliness in the power of it, shallbe by them that have a form, and the persecution of Religion shall in a great measure be under a profession thereof, men sinning against greater light and higher works, whose hearts the Devil hath touched, 
1 Jo. 5.18.  and left a special impression of devilishness upon, and who are thereby qualified for a higher way of sinning. In the last days shall the great and glorious deliverances of the Churches be, when all the persecuting Monarchies shall be destroyed, 
Esay. 2. 2●.  and the mountain of the Lords house be exalted on the top of the mountains, that all Nations may flow to it, 
Zach. 14, 4. Ut Jerosolyma non fit in umbrosa valle quemadmodum prius: sed pateat long & latè ejus prospectus; ita ut gentes omnes eam scypiciant, Calv. Rev. 11, 7, 8, 9 Ezech. 37, 11.12.  when the Mount of Olives shall cleave asunder in the midst, towards the East and towards the West: That is, whatsoever doth now overshadow and hid the Church's glory, and hinder her prospect shall be removed. And God doth not use to afford his people great and eminent deliverances, till they are deeply humbled and brought low: the slaying of the witnesses, doth precede their resurrection, and they must be dry bones first, and then the Lord saith, I will open your graves. Upon these grounds I do conclude, that the last at empts of the enemies shall be the fiercest, and that the bitterest afflictions and the sharpest persecutions of the Church of God, are reserved for these l●st times.  
And that this enmity may not seem strange to you, the grounds of it, and all the persecution that flows from it, are principally these two.  
1. First, Reas. 1 from the contrariety and antipathy that is in their natures, there being an enmity in judgement, put between the seed of the woman, and the feed of the Serpent. It is part of the Devil's curse, Gen. 3.15. and it is the curse of all those that are of their father the Devil. This enmity being founded in nature, must needs be aniversall and indefatigable. Universal for hatred carries a man against all the kind; 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Arist.  as grace carries a man's love sincerely to all the Saints, so this enmity founded in nature and in judgement, carries with it a contrariety unto all the Saints. And though some ungodly men may pretend fair, and may with their mouths show much love, and this enmity may be hid, yet are they only wolves in sheep's clothing; and whensoever occasion and opportunity is offered will appear so to be; for that Rule will hold to the end of the world, 
Tertul. Apol.  Tot hosts quot extranei, they that be strangers to godliness, are all of them enemies to it. And indefatig able it must needs be. A man would sometime think that Satan and wicked men, having their plots so often defeated and brought to nought, and all the mischief of them turned upon their heads, should at last sit down discouraged and give over, but they cannot do it, because it is founded in nature and judgement: and when the five shall cease to burn, and the stone to move towards its centre, then shall their attempts and acts of hostility cease, and never till then.  
2. Secondly, this enmity is exceedingly acted in them by the spirit of the Devil, whose name is in regard of his opposition to the Saints, 
Rev. 9.11.  called Abaddon and Apollyon, the Destroyer. All sins indeed are from the Devil, 
Ephes. 2.2.  and all sinners are acted by the Devil, he rules in all the children of disobedience: but yet some sins are from him per modum servitutis, as a man serves Satan in them; but some sins are from him, per modum imaginis, as a man resembles Satan in them; and such is this of enmity against the Saints, and in these sins in which a man in an especial manner becomes the seed of the Serpent, Satan doth more directly and immediately act men than he doth in other sins: and therefore Rev. 3.10. he is said to cast the Saints into prison, it being done by his special instigation and command. And therefore it's noted as a special misery that shall befall the Devil after all the persecuting Monarchies shall be destroyed, that Dragon the old Serpent the Devil and Satan, 
Rev. 20.2.3.  shall be bound for a thousand years, and shut up in the bottomless pit, that he may not deceive the Nations, sc. to draw out the rage of their spirits in a way of persecution as he did in times past, no more. And there is no sacrifice that the Devil is so well pleased with, as he is the God of this world, as when there is offered to him the blood of the Saints; and therefore men that are more immediately ruled by him, this he doth put them upon, as that with which he is chief delighted. It's said of Julian the Apostate, that he had two great designs; one, the subduing of the Persians, and the other, the rooting out of the Christians: 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Nazian. Orat. 2. Cont. Julian.  and when he went in that Persian expedition in which he perished, he vowed if he had success in that enterprise, he would at his return sacrifice to his Idols, sc. to the Devil in them, the blood of all the Christians that were in the whole Empire; which had been a sacrifice with which Satan would have been well pleased.  
And as Satan loves to stir up the rage and enmity of wicked men to destroy the saints, so he doth very much delight to make them instruments in their own destruction, and that temporal as well as eternal; and he knows there is no speedier way to destroy a person or people, then for men to rall upon the rear of the Lords host. This is the ready way to take away their own defence, and put themselves out of the protection of God; 
Esay. 49, 8.  for it is for the Saints sake, and by their Covenant, that the world is continued, and the earth established: it would soon sink under your feet else, they bear up the pillars of it; they are the rock upon which your City and safety is built: and had the Lord once disposed of his sons and daughters in their great marriage with the Lamb, he would quickly dissolve this frame of heaven and earth, and break up the house keeping of the world; and Satan doth set men in a way of persecution to this end that they may thereby take away their own defence.  
And the Devil knows there is no speedier way to set God in vengeance against a person or a Nation then this is, because the heart of the Lord is exceeding tender towards his holy ones, he that toucheth them toucheth the apple of his eye, 
Zach 2, 8.  which no man shall do impune or unrevenged.  
I now come to the second branch in the Text, which is the portion of these enemies, they shall perish.  
All the Church's enemies shall assuredly perish in their own opposition: perishing is their portion.  
For explication I shall lay down these positions. Posit. 1 First, The destruction of the Church's enemies shall be effected by their opposition against the Church, Mich. 4.11.12.13. There are many Nations gathered together against Zion, and their purposes are that she may be defiled and destroyed; but God's purposes are not so, they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they his counsel: for his intention is, that they should perish in their opposition: associate themselves that they may be broken in pieces, 
Esay. 8, 9  that they may be gathered together as sheaves in a floor; that they may be threshed by the daughter of Zion, and where they seek the Church's destruction, they may there be sure to find their own: and in the same floor where they did intent to thresh the Church, there they themselves shall be threshed. It's therefore drinking a cup of poison. 
Zach. 12, 2, 3. Venemum mortiferum, appellatio forte a tremendo: Nam quaedam venena frigida sunt.  So Mercer doth conceive the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signify, and to be no other way a cup of trembling, but from the effect of this poison, there being some poisons cold in so high a degree, that they will cast a man into a trembling till he die; and he that drinks poison hath a hand in his own destruction. It's lifting at a burdensome stone, and men burden themselves with it, and are broken to pieces by their own attempts. 
Math. 21, 44.  It's falling upon a stone, and dashing at it, as a ship against a rock, and thereby sinking itself. 
Act. 9, 5.  It's kicking against the pricks; the iron would hurt no man of itself, neither would the Saints, but men rush against it and are wounded thereby. 
Lucun.  Nec vulnus adactis debetur gladiis percussum est pectore ferrum. As the Lord saith of himself, 
Jer. 25, 6, 7.  Provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands, and I will do you no hurt: so he saith of his Church also, if they be kindly entreated, they are to the Nations where they live as due from the Lord, 
Mich. 5, 2.  and as showers upon the grass: but if men exalt themselves against them, and seek to cast down the host of heaven, they become like a hearth of fire among the wood, 
Zach. 12, 6.  and like a torch of fire in a sheaf, and they devour the people round about, on the right hand and on the left, so that the cause of their destruction by them is their opposition against them.  
Secondly, Posit. 2 it will be an universal destruction of all those that persicute and persevere in their opposition against the Saints, whether they be enemies without or within the Church: and the great overthrows that have been in the world upon the enemies, have been brought about by their opposition against the holy ones. We may observe it:  
1. In all the enemies from without, Gen. 14. There is a famous example in one particular Saint: four kings were confederate for enlarging their dominions, and they conquered and subdued all the neighbouring Nations, took the spoil and carried it away safely, that I may say as the Prophet doth of the conquest of the King of Babylon, 
Esay. 10.14.  They gathered the riches of the Nations as one gathereth eggs, there was none that moved the wing or opened the mouth or peeped. They came at last to Sodom, a people that for their wickedness, were even humani generis opprobrium, whom God had appointed unto the greatest judgement that we read of, raining upon them brimstone and fire (gehennam è coelo) from the Lord out of heaven: this City they took, plundered, carried away many prisoners, and departed. But among these was righteous Lot Abraham's brother's son, and in taking him they drank poison, and they must vomit him up again, to their own destruction: for God stirred up the spirit of Abraham to pursue them, and he gave them as the dust to his sword, 
Esay. 41.2.  and as driven stubble to his bow. When Israel sojourned in the Land of Egypt, 
Psal. 105.25. Psal. 74.14. Dan. 7.2. Jer. 50.28. Vindicta Dei actiuè sumitur pro vindicta Deus quam exer cebit, vindicta Templi passi, uè ponitur pro vindicta qua Deus ulciscitur contumeliam Templo suo illatam, Calv.  while they dealt well with them they prospered for their sakes; but when the Lord in judgement turned their heart to hate his people and deal subtly with his servants, he broke the head of Leviathan in the waters, in the pursuit of Israel, and they perish in their own opposition. Afterward there were to arise four beasts, or great Monarchies successively in the world, and they all perish in their opposition against the Church of God: the Chaldean perisheth, but it is by the vengeance of the Temple: the inhabitants of Zion shall say, the daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor, its time to thresh her, for Nabuchadnezzar the King of Baabylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a Dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, be hath cast me out: the violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, and my blood upon the Inhabitants of Chaldea.  
The Persian Monarchy ended also by the same means; for the Lord of hosts by reason of their cruelty against the Saints, 
Zach. 1.14.15.  is jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy, and is sore displeased with these heathen, because when he was but a little displeased they helped forward the affliction. God did intent to correct them, and the enemy's intention was to destroy them; and for this their cruelty, wrath arose against them, even hot displeasure: and hence the angel from the Lord went forth to fight against the King of Persia in the Church's quarrel, 
Dan. 10.20.  and he stirs up the spirit of the King of Grecia, and gives him a success in his enterprise, because the Angel went out before him. Thus also the Grecian Empire came to an end: for in the latter times thereof when the transgressors were come to the full, and they had filled up the measure of their impiety, there came forth a little horn which waxed exceeding great, 
Dan. 8.9.11.23.24.25.  even to the host of heaven, and cast down some of the host, and of the stars to the ground and stamped upon them: That is, as it is expounded afterwards, there stood up Antiochus Epiphanes, a King of a fierce countenance, understanding dark sentences, and he did destroy the mighty and the holy people, the mai●e of his rage did break forth against the Saints, yea he did stand up against the Prince of Princes, and perished in his own opposition, for he was taken away without hand.  
The Roman Empire also as Pagan, must come to destruction this same way by their opposition against the Saints, 
Rev. 12 7.8.  for as a great Red Dragon they made war with the Saints, fought against Michael and his Angels, and prevailed not, but in their very persecution they were destroyed; for it proved the ruin of all their Idolworship, and all the Princes that did endeavour to uphold it.  
The Turkish Empire, now the terror of the world, 
Rev. 16.12.  must be destroyed also in this very way: Euphrates must be dried up that the way of the Kings of the East may be prepared, Dan. 11.40. At the time of the end sc. toward the end of the Roman Empire, the King of the south, the Saracen, and the King of the north, the Turk, shall come against the Roman as a whirlwind, and shall overflow, and he shall wax great, and shall subdue all the neighbouring nations, and they shall be all at his steps, sc. at his devotion and at his command: And towards the end of his Empire he shall set himself against the Saints, and he shall plant the Tabernacle of his Palace between the seas, in the glorious holy mountain; and then he shall come to an end irrecoverably none shall help him.  
And in the end of the world, though in respect of the former persecutions Satan shall be bound up, that he shall not stir up men to rage and cruelty against the Saints, as he had done during all the time of the four Monarchies, 
Rev. 20.7,  yet when the thousand years of the Church's Peace and glory are expired, Satan shallbe loosed again, and having but once liberty granted, he will betake himself unto the same course that he had used in former times, to stir up the wicked of the world in a way of persecution of the Saints, 
Rev. 20.9.  and Gog and Magog shallbe gathered together to battle, and they encompass the Camp of the Saints and the beloved City, and in this their opposition they perish, now fire shall come down from God out of Heaven and deveure them; thus all the Church's enemies without, do perish in their own opposition.  
It's true also of all enemies within, some there are that fight against Christ under his own banner, and persecute the Saints under the name of Saints, 
Cant. 5.7.  sometimes the watch men that go about the City smite the Church and wound her, and the keepers of the wall take away her Veil; yet even these enemies, their opposition will prove their destruction, as we may observe both in the Jewish and in the Gentile Churches.  
In the Church of the Jews Numb. 16. there were a company of men risen up against Moses and Aaron 250 Princes famous in the Congregation, men of renown, but they did it against their own lives (as they are called sinners against their own souls) for the Lord created a new Creation, the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up: and when the Lord came in judgement to destroy that Church and Sat; this is the sin that hath especial influence into their destruction, Mat. 23.34.35. Behold I send unto you Prophets, and wisemen, and Scribes, and some of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some of them shall ye scourge in your Synagogues, and persecute them from City to City; that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth; therefore they that are enemies to the Saints among themselves shall not escape.  
In the Gentile Churches also all that ever had their hearts turned against the Saints, it proved the forerunner of their destruction. The Church of God had been in hard travail 300. years, and at last brought forth a man child, 
Rev. 12.5.  and he was taken up to the throne of God, that is, they obtained of God a Christian Emperor: this wrought a great change in the Empire, and they became in show many of them Christians; but then arose among them a generation of persecutors the flood poured out after the Woman, which had swallowed them up, had not the earth succoured the Woman, and God given her the wings of a great Eagle to fly into the wilderness: now the Lord will not suffer the persecutor even by them that live in the Church to go unrevenged; therefore he doth in judgement divide the Empire; the eastern parts he gives to the Saracens and Turks, and the western part to the Goths and Vandals, those barbarous Nations broke in upon them as a flood and did overflow all. The Western part of the Empire being broken by the Goths, there arise in it ten Kings, 
Rev. 17.12.  and they contribute all their power to set up Antichrist, 
Rev. 17.13.17.  they give their Kingdoms to the Beast to this end, and this Beast persecutes the Saints more than all the former persecutors had done, and in their persecution they perish; 
Rev. 18.8.21.  for her plagues shall come in one day, death and mourning and famine, and she shall be cast into the Sea as a Millstone, and shall be found no more at all: and the cause of all this shallbe that God may recompense upon them the controversies of Zion, that he may avenge the blood of his servants at her hands because in her was found the blood of the Prophets, 
Rev. 18.20, 24. and 19.2.  and of the Saints, 
Rev. 18.16.  and of all that have been slain upon the earth. And in the reformed Churches, in the ten Kingdoms, whom God will reserve for the ruin of Antichrist, and will use them in this great work; yet there shall arise a persecution among themselves also, and in them shall the Witnesses be slain (for their enemies shall dwell in the same street where their deads' bodies shall lie unburied) this persecution shall end in their destruction; 
Rev. 11.7.8.  for when the witnesses shall rise from the dead, and ascend to Heaven in a cloud their enemies beholding them, the same hour there shall be a great Earthquake, and not only the tenth part of the City shall fall, but in this Earthquake shall be slain seven thousand of these men; 
Rev. 11.12.13.  there shall a very great destruction come upon the enemies to the Saints in the Reformed Churches, 
Reliqui pontificiae prius religionis agnoscentes in Istorum Ecclesiasticorum excidio & calamitate justam Dei ultionem, tribuebant gloriam Deo caeli, id est, ad verum creatorem conversi sunt, Brightm. Esay. 34.5.6.7.8. Ad contendendum pro Ziona & ejus causam vindicandam, Forer. Annus quo rependet Deus talionem Idumaeis, qui jugiter ●ixati sunt & belli gerarunt cum Iudaeis, a L●p. Et quod de Idumais dictum est, ad universos Ecclesiae hostes extendi certum est, Calv. Ad excidium Sodomae & Gomorthae alludit, in quo perpetuam ●●ae Dei imaginem habemus.  they partaking with Rome in the sin, shall be made partakers of her plagues; and the remnant shall be affrighted and converted by this destruction upon others, and sh●ll give glory to the God of heaven. Thus it will be an universal ruin, no enemies either within or without the Church, if they persist in their opposition, ever did or ever shall escape.  
3. Thirdly, that the enemies shall be sure to meet with in their opposition to the people of God shall be an utter destruction, and exceeding fearful; they shall not perish in an ordinary way, nor by the common death of other sorts of sinners, but there is a high degree of vengeance prepared for them. There is a fearful wrath coming upon Idumea, The sword is bathed in heaven, it shall come down upon Idumea, the people of my curse to judgement, the sword of the Lord is filled with blood, and made fat with fatness, for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea; the Unicorns shall come down with them and the bullocks with the bulls, and their land shall be drunken with blood, and their dust made fat with feigns. What is the ground of all this fierce wrath? its only God doth visit upon them their cruelty to the Saints, It is the day of the Lords vengeance, and the year for the recompenses of the controversy of Zion: Therefore the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch, it shall not be quenched night nor day, the smoke thereof shall go up for ever from generation to generation, it shall be waste, none shall pass through it for ever and ever, Zach. 12.3. The Church is compared to a burdensome stone, which yet would be a burden to none and would hurt no man, if they did not burden themselves with it; but if they will, their judgement is, cutting they shall be cut in pieces. The expression in the Hebrew notes two things; certainty and extremity: certainty, Gen. 2.17. Dying thou shalt die: that is, thou shalt surely die. Extremity and perfection, Gen. 22 17. In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand upon the sea shore; that is, I will eminently bless thee, etc. It notes excellency and certainty, so here to be cut in pieces notes great destruction: and yet to raise the judgement, the Lord doth heighten the expression, cutting they shall be cut in pieces: that is, they shall certainly perish, and that not in an ordinary way, but by an eminent and utter destruction, Jer. 51.11. Make bright the arrows, gather the shields; the Lord hath raised up the spirit of the Kings of the Medes, for his device is against Babylon to destroy it, because it is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of his Temple. And therefore is Rome's ruin utter and final; she shallbe utterly consumed with fire, and the light of a candle shall be seen no more in her at all, and the voice of the bridegroom and the bride shall be heard no more in her at all, because in her will be found the blood of all the Saints that have been slain upon the earth, and this blood God doth visit and avenge upon her.  
4. Fourthly, It shall be such a destruction as all the power of the earth shall not be able to prevent or resist, Zac. 12.3. All that burden themselves with the Church, shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered against it. The world glory in their multitudes and their confederacies, as if they should be able by their own strength to deliver themselves; but the greatest mountain shall become a plain before the Church, not by power nor by might, but by the spirit of the Lord, they shall come to an end, and none shall help them: when Assyriah is in her greatest glory, 
Dan. 11.45.  a mountain; then must the worm Jacob arise and thresh it, and God will raise up seven shepherds, 
Mich 5.5.6.  and eight principal men, and they shall distress Nimrod in the entrances thereof: a small party shall prevail against all the strength of the enemy. When the Grecian Monarchy is in its strength, the Lord will then bend Judah for him, and fill the bow with Ephraim, and raise up the sons of Zion against the sons of Greece, 
Zach. 9.13.  and make them as the sword of a mighty man, and as his goodly horse for the battle, and they shall be broken even without hand, Dan. 8.25. When the Turkish Empire shall be at its height, then shall the River Euphrates be dried up, 
Rev. 16.12.  before the Saints; to make way for the Kings of the East. And in that last and the greatest opposition of Gog and Magog, where their number shall be as the sand upon the sea shore, yet than their multitude and their strength shall not preserve them, they shall perish not by the sword of a mighty man, nor the sword of a mean man shall devour them, 
Rev. 29.8.9.  but a fire shall come down from God out of heaven. There is surely not escaping for those that persevere in the opposition and persecution of the Saints.  
I come now to the last Doctrine, so let them perish: 
Apostrophe ad Deum interposit●, nos excitat ut singulari affectu Deum tantorum facinorum authorem susprciamus, Pet. Martyr.  that is, as these have done in their opposition, by the prayers, by the power, and by the praises of thy people. Some express it as a prayer, so let them perish, by the same means, and in the same manner, that do rise up against the Saints. As Ps. 83.9.10. Do unto them as unto Sisera, as to jabin at the brook of Kison who perished at Endor, they became as the dung of the earth: with such a destruction, let all thine enemies perish. Others looking upon Deborah as one that spoke by a prophetical spirit, 
Non tam notandi modo, quam predicendi; tempore futuro haec Hebraicè enunciantur. Qui sic optant & agunt, atque Deo bellum ita inferre parant, si● et●am per●bun●, Montan. Doct. Dan 8.24. Esay. 41.14.15.16. Zach. 4 6. Esay. 59, 19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat flumen angustum & rapidum sc. magna celeritate & magno impetu, & ad Dominum resertur non ad hostem, ab Arnoldo Bo●tio. Animadv. sacr. cap. 2. Zach. 9.13.14. and 10.3.  conceive it to be a prophecy and prediction of the overthrow of all the Church's enemies: and they render it, so shall all thine enemies perish, in the same manner, and by the same means that these have done.  
The Church's enemies shall perish in their opposition, by the power, prayers and praises of the Saints. The branches of the point are three.  
1. By their power. A weak people they usually are if ye look upon them in themselves; but yet mighty through God, and terrible as an Army with banners: In the lowest condition of the Church, and when the enemy prevails over them, they ●r● the mighty and the holy people. When Jacob is but a worm, than he shall rise and thresh the mountains: for God will ray●e up their spirits, fight their battles, gird their loins, and strengthen their hands, not by power nor by might, but by his spirit; and when the enemy shall break in as a flood, the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him, by raising the spirits of his people, by assisting them mightily, and making them victorious against all opposition: for the Lord himself doth fight against all the enemies, and his people are but the weapons that he doth use in the expedition; judah is his bow, and Ehraim his arrow, and his goodly horse for the battle. And when the Lord will use an ungodly people as weapons in his hand, they shall mightily prevail. If he will use Babylon as his battle axe, 
Jer 51.20.  he will with him break in pieces the Nations, and destroy the Kingdoms: how much more when he will make Judah his battle axe, and his weapons of war, 
Joannes Fox in Comment. suis.  whom he doth much more delight to use and honour? some do conceive that in reference to this victory here by the waters of Megiddo, that last great battle hath its name, which shall be between Christ and Antichrist, called therefore the battle Armageddon, 
Brightm.  Rev. 16.16. which some tender mons deliciarum, the mountain of delights unto God and his people: and others render it mons excidii, 
Par.  the mountain of slaughter and destruction to the Church's enemies. The Church's enemies have commonly fallen by their hand in the end, Esa. 31.8.9. The Assyrian shall fall by the sword, not of a mighty man, and the sword not of a mean man shall devour him. Whence then shall his destruction come? Not so much from any instrument, but from the hand of God made bare therein: 
Ignem hanc accendi & foveri dicit in medio populi sui, ut significet impios non impune Ecclesiam persequi, etc. Calv. in loc.  and the Lords fire is in Zion and his furnace in jerusalem; it is out of Zion that the fire comes that consumes the enemies, and it is into this fiery furnace they are cast when they are destroyed, Ezech. 24.14. I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel, and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger and according to my fury, saith the Lord God. They that are with the Lamb, called and chosen and faithful, 
Rev. 17, 14, & 18, 6.  they shall burn Rome with fire, and reward her according as she hath rewarded them, and shall double to her double according to her works, in the cup that she filled to them, they shall fill unto her double.  
2. By their prayers. 
Rom. 4, 13.  The Lord Jesus having made the Saints together with himself Heirs of the world, he hath also given them a great hand in the Government of the world, as they shall have in the Judgement of it at the last and great day: 
1 Cor. 6, 1, 2.  therefore their prayers are Decrees as well as the prayers of the Angels, and are called by the same name, job. 22.28. Dan. 4.17. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  And the great executions and transactions of things in the world do pass through their hands; 
Psal. 49, 8, 9  they bind Kings in chains, and Nobles with fetters of iron, this honour have all his Saints. It's observable that in all the great turn of the world, the prayers of the Saints have had the great hand. 
Exod. 14, 15, 16, 17. Exod. 17, 11, 12. Psal. 76, 2.  Egypt is destroyed in the red sea, but it is by the prayer of Moses. Amaleck is routed by prayer. Thereby armies discomfited, victories won, in Salem God breaks the arrows of the bow, the shield, the sword, and the battle. And they that scape the fiercest pursuers among men, prayer will overtake them: he that escapes the sword of Hazael and jehu shall Elisha slay: 
1 King, 19, 17. Gladionon corporali sed spirituali, A Lap. Ad horribilem famem sub Joram refertur; quia Deo impe travit Elisaeus cum ab idololatria Israelitae nollent discedere, Pet. Martyr. in loc. Rev. 4, 5. Rev. 6, 10.  and yet we know he was not a man of war, one that did handle the sword, only the word did go out of his mouth and took effect upon them. And all the great turn in the Christian world since Christ's time have been no other than the fruit of the prayers of the Saints. The Seals in the book of the Revelation, set forth the judgement of God upon Pagan Rome; and they are all in answer to prayers, for out of the throne sc. the presence of the Lord in the midst of his people, proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices. And in answer to the cry of the souls under the Altar, who cried with a loud voice, How long Lord holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth.  
The Trumpets set forth the judgements executed upon Rome Christian; and these also proceed from the prayers of the Saints, for the fire cast upon the earth in those plagues was taken off the Altar, 
Rev. 8, 5.  and there were voices and thunderings and lightnings and an earthquake etc. The Trumpets sounded but it was in answer to prayer, after there had been silence in heaven for the space of half an hour, sc. during the time of the incense offering.  
The Vials set forth the judgements of God upon Rome Antichristian; and the great voice that commanded these Angels to pour out their Vials upon the earth came out of the Temple: that is, 
Rev. 16, 1. De Templo venit quando precibus sanctorum aliquid impetratur, quibus mandandi partes hic tribuntur ut sciamus quantam vim habent fideles precationes, Brightm. Rev. 11, 5, 6.  from the prayers of the Saints; and whosoever shall observe the great changes in the world that all these set forth, willbe forced to acknowledge what a mighty power there is in the prayers of the Saints. And that it may appear it was not only so in ancient times, he saith the witnesses even in these latter days shall have a power to shut heaven that it shall not rain, to turn waters into blood, and to smite the earth with plagues as often as they will. And that this is the misery of all the Church's enemies, If any man will hurt them, fire shall proceed out of their mouths, and devour them, and who ever he be, he must in this manner be killed.  
3. By their praises: for out of the mouths of babes the Lord hath ordained them, 
Psal. 8, 2.  that he should still the enemy and the avenger: when jehosophat, and all the people promised God in the beauty of holiness, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, 
2 Chron. 20, 22, 23.  and Mount Sei●…, which were come against judah, and they smote one another. When Paul and Silas sung in the prison, the earth did quake; and so it commonly doth at the praises of the Saints. The enemies of the Church do fall before their praises as well as their prayers.  
Let us now come to the Application of these three points for a conclusion.  
They serve for Admonition, for consolation and direction.  
First, Use. 1 for Admonition unto all the enemies of the Church: cease your rage against them, your plots, your hopes; refrain from them, let them alone, they are but passengers and Pilgrims, they are going unto Canaan; if the world be your country, let them quietly and peaceably pass through it, without opposition, or persecution, or else ye will be found fighters against God, and ye will but meet with your own destruction in the end.  
To enforce this Admonition, let these considerations be duly weighed.  
First, for God to give a man up to a spirit of enmity, and opposition to his people, is the greatest spiritual judgement that can befall a man in this life: it is the Devils curse to be the envious man, the accuser and the persecutor of the brethren: and the more a man's heart is turned against the Saints the more fully doth this curse take place upon him. It was the great spiritual judgement upon Egypt, and a most dangerous forerunner of their utter destruction, Psal. 105.25. It is commonly demanded by Interpreters on that place, how God is said to turn the hearts of men to hate his people? and it is commonly answered, as in the case of hardening Pharoahs' heart: men turn their own hearts against God's people sinfully, and God turns them judicially, diserved, by forsaking them, leaving them to the power of Satan, and the rage of their own spirits, & media disponendo, so ordering and disposing objects and occasions, as to draw out their rage, and malice against his people. The greatest spiritual judgement is a hard heart, and of this hardness there are several degrees; but of them all two are the highest, to sit down in the chair of the scorner, and in the throne of the persecutor. This did fill up the measure of Pharoahs' hardness, Exod. 10 28. Take heed to thyself, see my face no more; for in the day thou seest my face thou shalt die: how would it make a man's heart tremble, to consider how far, at this time, this judgement is poured out upon this Nation?  
Secondly, whatsoever any man doth in opposition to the Saints, he is a vessel of dishonour in all those works: it is the same service in which the Devils are employed, and God hates them when he doth employ them: The Assyrian the rod of mine anger, 
Esay. 10, 5, 12 24.  and the staff of mine indignation: I send him against an hypocritical Nation, against the people of my wrath; and I give him a charge to take the spoil, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets: and this charge of God he doth execute to the utmost; but was the Lord well pleased therewith? he saith when he had performed his whole work upon Zion, the indignation should cease, and his anger in his destruction: and it's a hard service to be employed in that which brings forth neither acceptance nor reward, but indignation and destruction in the end.  
Thirdly, your very opposition will prove your destruction; the pit that you dig for the Saints ye shall surely fall into, it is a work that ever ended in the ruin of the Actors, Esay. 59.5. It's said of wicked men, that they hatch cockatrice eggs, and they wove a spider's web, the web never becomes a garment, and the eggs cursed breaks into a Viper: it sets forth two properties, and fruits of all the labours of the workers of iniquity; they are unprofitable, they attain not their end in them, and they are destructive, they bring forth a Viper that stings him to death that hatched it, and the wrath of God will never be pacified, being once provoked, till it end in their utter overthrow, Zach. 6.8. when the Angels as instruments of vengeance went into the north Country sc. into Persia and Chaldea; and they have quieted my spirit, saith the Lord; that is they pacified my wrath by executing vengeance upon the persecutors, the people of my wrath: let me reason with you a little, was there no other way of sinning that could bring vengeance enough upon you, and sink you deep enough into perdition but ye must touch the apple of the Lords eye. May not I say with Moses, Was not the iniquity of Peor enough, from which ye are not cleansed unto this day? Was not your drunkenness, swearing, uncleanness, hatred of godliness, superstition, enough, but that you must break forth into persecution also?  
4. Fourthly, your destruction is nearest when ye are highest, when your confederacy is strongest, and your hopes raised to the greatest perfection: when the enemy is as smoke out of a chimney and doth threaten even to darken the Sun, then shall they be scattered, Hose 12.3. When they associate themselves, and have the greatest combination of parties and counsels, than they shall be broken in pieces. 
Esay. 8, 9, 10.  When they are folded together as thorns, and drunken with confidence as the drunkards, then shall they be consumed as stubble fully dry. The Lord doth many times lay the Church low in a design, that the enemy may put forth their power and show forth their malice to the utmost against it; therefore he is said to make jerusalem a cup of poison: no man attempts to drink wine while it is in the pipe or in the vessel: the Church of God is always poison to the enemies, but not always put into a cup and made ready and fit for their mouths: but when the Church of God is brought into a low condition, it's then prepared to invite the enemy as it were to attempt some thing upon it; partly from the pleasantness of such a draught, and partly from the ease of it, it's as easy as to drink, and they can make no resistance. The Church is sometimes a great stone, 
Zach. 12, 2, 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  even as a mountain, and it fills the earth; and then the enemies dare not attempt to burden themselves therewith, but sometimes it is a stone of a lesser size, and then they are ready to think they may carry it away with case; whereas though it be not always so great, yet it is as heavy, and they find it so, for it breaks them to pieces. Whensoever the Church of God is brought low it is in design, that their enemies may be ensnared and taken.  
5. Fiftly, by these means ye shall bring upon yourselves the guilt of all the blood of the Saints that hath been shed in former ages. To read of the cruelty of Pharaoh, Nabuchadnezzar, Antiochus, the jews in crucifying the Lord of Life, and of the ten bloody Persecutors, and the rage of Antichrist surpassing all these; and to have all this blood lie upon one generation, who would not tremble at it? But yet all the blood of former times will come upon the persecutors of this last age of the world. Matth. 23.34.35. That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel, unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias. It is much questioned how this is to be understood, that the blood shed in one age should in the guilt of it come upon another, and how the blood of all former ages should come upon this last?  
To understand it rightly, these two things are to be considered.  
1. First, that it is to be understood only in respect of temporal punishments and not of eternal; for as no man ever went to heaven by the righteousness of another mere man, so no man shall ever go to hell for the wickedness of another. Hear the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, but the soul that sins shall die. Yet in things temporal, as children may have many blessings, as a reward of their father's graces and obedience (as God brought Israel into Canaan, 
2. Cron. 20.7.  although they were a very disobedient and stiffnecked people, because it was the Land which he had promised to Abraham his friend: and he delivered them in the days of Hezekiah for his servant David's sake) so they may be under many temporal judgements, 
Esay. 37.35.  as a punishment of their father's disobedience: the Lord herein using his sovereignty and prerogative to punish a man either in his person or his posterity, 
Gen. 9, 25. 2 King 5, 27.  as he did Cham in Canaan his son, and Gehesie both in his person and in his seed also.  
2. Secondly, God looks upon a generation or succession of men as a body, and in the punishment of their sins he doth show both justice and providence. As there is a measure of iniquity in particular men to be filled up before eternal wrath shall take hold of them, 
Jer. 51, 13. Dan. 8, 23. Zach. 5.6. Joel. 3, 13. Rev. 14, 15.  so is there a measure appointed also to a State, or a generation of men, which must be filled up before Temporal wrath shall come upon them. We see the Temporal judgement upon the Amorites is deferred, because their iniquity was not yet full, and the time to fill it up was 400 years, Gen. 15.16. The Lord's Decree is gone forth to blot out the remembrance, of Amalecke from under heaven, Exod. 17.14. and yet this people do not come up into remembrance before the Lord to their utter destruction till the days of Saul, 1 Sam. 15.2. and then the Lord sits upon their posterity their father's sins, because they laid wait for Israel in the way when they came out of Egypt. So Christ saith to the Pharises; ye are the children of them that killed the Prophets, fill ye up the measure of your fathers, Matth. 23.31.32. So that when children walk on in their father's ways, and fill up their measure, though in respect of eternal wrath inflicted upon their persons, they were in hell many years ago, and received a just recompense of reward, yet the temporal punishment may be reserved for after ages, and visited upon the posterity when transgression is come to the full. Thus all the cruelty executed upon the Saints from the blood of Abel was visited upon the Jews in the destruction of Jerusalem, and all the blood shed upon the earth shall be visited upon Babylon the great the mother of harlots, when she shall come up into remembrance before God, with all those that have receyved her mark, or borne her image, or acted with her in a way of blood.  
6. Sixthly, there are no sort of sinners in whose destruction the Lord doth so much delight; it is unto him a sacrifice of a sweet savour, Esa. 34.6. Jer. 46.10. Z●ph. 1.7.8. And as Satan the nearer his kingdom is to end, the greater is his rage, great wrath because his time is short, so the nearer Christ comes to the perfect possession of his Kingdom (for when the enemies are subdued, all the Kingdoms of the earth shall be the Lords and his Christ's) the more will he put on zeal as a garment, and the more he will hasten the enemy's overthrow: he will do more in a short time at last, than he hath in many ages in times past. If it be but a slanderer, 
Quid tandem Deus Opt. Max. in te decernet? Sagittas suas desuper; nec non carbones seu primas Juniperorum in Gehenna. Mi●s. in loc.  or one that persecutes with a despiteful heart and a false tongue, he shall not lose his labour: therefore the question is put, Psal. 121.3.4. What shall be given unto thee, or what shallbe done unto thee thou falls tongue? Thy reward from the Lord shallbe, mighty and sharp arrows with coals of juniper, which as they burn hottest and continue the longest, so they do in the burning yield a sweet savour.  
The second use is for consolation to all the Saints, Use 2 and the Lord takes great care that they should be comforted, that their spirit might not sink and fail in the evil day: Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, 
Esay. 40.1.  saith your God: and when the Lord Christ drew near his suffering, when a man would have expected all his thoughts should have been taken up about himself, yet now he takes care to bear up the spirits of his people that they might not be overwhelmed with overmuch sorrow, Io. 14.1. Let not your hearts be troubled etc. Truly we had need of great supports, because the enemies are many and enraged, men's spirits are in judgement turned to hate the Saints, and it is to be feared, if a man rightly discerns the signs of the times, that the kill of the witnesses draws near, which will surely be the bitterest and bloodiest persecution that ever befell the Christian Churches.  
My purpose is not to give you those ordinary supports which are common to all afflictions, as that they come from a father's hand, from a heart full of love, that they shallbe in measure, and make a man partaker of the holiness of God in the end, for this is all the fruit to take away the sin etc. though these are great grounds to stay a man's faith upon. But I would rather pitch upon those that might be more proper and peculiar to the enemies and sufferings of the last times, the cup that God hath reserved for you.  
1. These shallbe the last great sufferings of the saints, and they shallbe but short; for as all the former beasts are destroyed, so there now remains only the seventh head of the fourth beast, which is as the eight and must go into perdition, Rev. 17.11. and then all the eminent persecutions of the Church shall cease, and there shall be no more a pricking briar, and a grieving thorn in the Lords holy Mountain: the Lord shall then wipe away all tears from your eyes, there shall be no more sorrow, nor crying, the witnesses shall die but once, and it shallbe the sharpest but yet the shortest of the Church's sufferings. To all you that have been with the Lamb called and chosen and faithful, I say as the Martyr did, Hold out faith and patience, your work is almost at an end. It was a great comfort to Hierome of Prague, that he could say to his persecutors at his death, Centum revolutis annis Deo respondebitis & mihi: after an hundred years God would call them to an account in avenging his blood; but you may summon your persecutors before God to answer in a far less time.  
2. Secondly, these last sufferings shall be an inlet to the most glorious deliverances that ever the Church of God had: for the kill of the witnesses shall make way for their resurrection, 
Rev. 11.12.15.  when they shall ascend to heaven in a cloud, their enemies beholding them. And then shall the Kingdoms of the earth become the Kingdoms of the Lord, and the dominion under the whole heaven shall be given to the Saints of the most High, 
Dan 7.27.  and they shall possess it for ever and ever.  
3. Thirdly, all your sinfulness and unworthiness, shall not hinder your redemption: though the people of God fall, yet they shall rise, and though they may sit in darkness, the Lord will be light about them. Indeed the great discouragements to the Saints are their sins, and their unanswerable walking unto means and mercies, but yet the Lord cannot alter the word gone out of his lips, nor suffer his faithfulness to fail, Esay 10.27. The burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and the yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed, because of the anointing. 
Glass. Rhetor sacr. Calv. in loc.  Some take the anointing for Christ the anointed of the Lord, and others for the Kingdom of Christ, which by an unction the Lord had established, whether Christ or the Kingdom of Christ be understood, yet there is an anointing that will break every yoke. Their sins may procure their affliction, but they shall never hinder their redemption.  
4. Fourthly, The enemies shall never be able to set up Popery in this kingdom again, and to establish any of those things that relate to it; that the Lord hath removed in these late years, they shall never be able to root out the Saints out of the Reformed Churches, but they shall grow by their opposition. Christ will surely keep the ground that he hath won in a way of Reformation; and what the former vials have destroyed shall never be made up again, for he will not lose the fruit of his conquest in any one of them. His shake of heaven and earth are to this end, that he may remove the things that are shaken as of things that are made, that those things that cannot be shaken may remain Heb. 12.27. There is nothing that is made by man in the things concerning God, but he will have a shaking time for it, and his end in shaking it is, that he may remove it, and he doth not so remove it, that the enemies should again establish it. And therefore what ever of Popery the Lord hath shaken and removed, I do conclude, that all the power of the enemy shall never set up again. I do not doubt but there will be many and desperate attempts for it, but they shall never be able to prevail, as when the Heathenish way of worship was destroyed, there were many endeavoured to set it up again.  
Fiftly, God will in an especial manner own you in all your sufferings, as he calls you forth for him, so will he assuredly appear for you; and therefore he saith when men reject them and cast them out, 
Rev. 11.3.  they are my two witnesses, and they shall have the same power with him that any of the ancient Saints have had in times past, they shall turn water into blood with Moses and Aaron, they shall shut Heaven that it shall not rain, with Elijah, they shall be two Olive trees standing before the God of the earth: with Joshua and Zorobabel, if any man hurt them fire shall come out of their mouths and devour them, and they shall smite the earth with plagues as often as they will; so that the greater persecution they shall meet with all from men the nearer access they shall have to God and the greater acceptance with him, and as the affliction shall abound, so shall also the consolation, and to be owned eminently by God, and to be looked upon as those of whom the world is not worthy, when they are disowned by men and accounted not worthy to live in the world, is a great means to bear up men's spirits in the greatest sufferings.  
Sixtly, It shall end in their final and utter destruction; for there shall follow an earthquake, 
Rev. 11.13.  in which the tenth part of the City shall fall: Christ shall be clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, 
Rev. 19.13.15.  and he shall tread the wine press and fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God, and all those ancient Prophecies, as well for the enemy's destruction as for the Saints redemption shallbe fulfiled; for time or delay shallbe no more, 
Rev. 10.6.7.  the mystery of God shallbe finished, as he hath declared to his servants the Prophets; and then shall that ancient prediction of Lactantius be fulfiled, 
De divino praemio lib. 7. c. 15.  Romanum nomen quo nunc regitur ab orbis (horret animus dicere, said cam quia futurum est,) tolletur de terra. All that power of Rome which hath for many hundred years, as the fourth Beast tyrannised over the Churches, all this shall be destroyed in the little horn, 
Dan. 7.11.26.  and the Beast given to the burning flame, to be consumed and destroyed unto the end.  
But especially by julian, who did in despite to Christ and Christianity use all means to bring in Pagan Idolatry again, and to build the Temple at Jerusalem, and to set up again the Jewish worship; and to this end set a great multitude of poor deluded Jews about this work; but when they had gotten materials together, and thought to set about the building: that night the Lord sent a whirlwind, and scattered all the materials; but they were not thus discouraged from the work, but they sought out the ancient foundation of the Temple to build upon it, and having found it, the Lord sent an earthquake, which cast up all the former foundation; and then that Prophecy was full filled, there was not a stone left upon a stone not thrown down; 
Ecce globus igneus e fundamentis Templi erumpeus laborantibus occur ten, operarios multos ambussit, incendio illo per totum diem durante. Ea miracula quosdam judaeos ita permoverunt ut Christum Deum agnoscerent. Religio vero indurati cum indignatione opus caeptum dereliquerunt. Osiander Epitome. hist. Ecclesiast. Cent. 4 l. 3. c. 34.  but such was their blindness and desperate madness, that they would not desist from the enterprise; therefore the Lord sent a fire out of the foundations of the Temple, which consumed many of the workmen, their materials and instruments for the building, and then at last they began with shame and indignation to give it over. The like endeavours we may expect for Rome Antichristian, and with greater violence, but they shall be always so crossed that they shall at last perish in their own opposition: what ground the Lord hath won upon Rome he will maintain, for he will by degrees destroy her.  
Neither shall they ever prevail to root out godliness, or a godly party out of this Kingdom, but they shall increase by persecution raised against them: for as the ten Kingdoms did at first give their power to the Beast to set him up, so he will turn their hearts to hate the whore, and they shall pluck her down, for the Lamb shall overcome the ten kingdoms, not in a way of destruction but in a way of conversion, and he will win ground upon them daily, and will have a prevailing party in them, who shall be the more stirred up against her for her last cruelty, and they shall hate her, eat her flesh and burn her with fire.  
The last use is for direction to those that fear the Lord; Use 3 and that in three particulars, and I will conclude.  
First, let this present mercy raise your hopes, and revive your now drooping and sinking spirits: truly had you no pledge given, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suff●●tum corejus Montan.  yet there is ground enough of encouragement in the Lord, Ps. 112.7.8. Trusting in the Lord his heart is established: the word signifies underpropped, which of itself would fall and sink. But much more when God gives in mercy for an earnest, 
Rom. 5.4.  experience should bring forth hope. This shows that God hath not yet sold us into the hands of our enemies, that he will yet go forth with our armies: let this be added to the former manifold experiments that you have had, and let it be as the head of Leviathan, 
Psal. 74. 1●.  food for your faith to feed upon in the wilderness, which as yet ye are to pass through before ye enter into rest.  
2. Secondly, though your power be small and your party few and weak, that by power you have little hope to prevable, yet by the means you have, prayers and praises, and by them God hath ordained that ye shall still the enemy and the avenger: 
Psal. 8.2. Rev. 11.5.  the fire with which they must be killed, must proceed out of your mouths. Fly to the old refuge of fasting and prayer in a communion of Saints, formerly practised when persecuted, but now wholly neglected, when it may with liberty be enjoyed: truly in these your strength lies; and prayer never comes too late. In the time of Eliah when it reigned not upon the earth in three years and fix months, one would have thought now the roots of all herbs and trees were withered in the ground, and prayer now could do little good; but Eliah prays, and God sends rain, and the earth yield; her fruit as in times past. Prayer in the most desperate state of things comes not too late, because God can never come too late.  
3. Thirdly, that you may unite your prayers, labour to unite your hearts, and if you desire that God should show himself against your enemies, 
Prima iratum tela sunt maledicta & quicquid non possumus imbccilli optamus irati. Salu. de gub. l. 3. Dr. Reynold's self-denial.  be not ye enemies one to another, let all jealousies, evil surmisings, all bitterness, slanders, and reproaches be laid aside as becomes persons professing Godliness, speak not evil one of another the judge stands before the door. It is well observed by a learned Divine of our own, that the former division of Conformists and non-Conformists in this Kingdom was cherished, and fomented by an Episcopal interest, that they might spend themselves one against another, 
Ez●ch. 37.19. Rev. 22.1. Homines docti & Ecclesiarum Ministri pace ingrati ac busi sunt ac multas contentiones & rix●s simplici doctrinae immiscuerunt acmutuo intercedi gladiantes simplicem populum ab unitate Ecclesiae in varias sectas adduxere. Castigavit igitur Deus Ecclesiam suam propter contentiones, ●ixas & scismata non tantum Ariana persecutione said & nova ethnica. etc. Bulling. de persecutionibus Eccles. Christian.  and the other might have objects for their favours and their frowns to work upon in them both. Some such principle evidently works in our present divisions, that both parties spending their strength, and being so zealously busied one against another. A third party being neglected (if I may not say courted) by both, may secretly, and insensibly grow up, and come in to decide the controversy, which I assure myself they at this day confidently expect; there is a glorious union promised to be between the people of God in the latter days, the long breach between the ten and two Tribes among the Jews shallbe made up, and the two sticks became one in the Prophet's hand, and the fi●e that is in the Sea of glass in the reformed Churches shall be put out, and shall again become clear as Crystal; but it will be some great affliction that must make up this union, being melted they will solder, but not else. It is observed that after the reformation in Constantine's time there arose great divisions, and contentions amongst themselves, especially in the Ministry, and therefore God gave them up in julian's time, into the hand of the Heathen; so Rome Pagan had for three years and half a reviving: so shall Rome Antichristian have three years and half, and the growned of it I fear will be our own divisions also. This Parents use to do if children cannot agree among themselves; they whip them both. And every man knows that no man gains by the differences between brethren, but he that is an enemy to both.  
I think every one that is wise hearted, doth more fear our own divisions then all the enemies combinations; for what is said of England, may be as truly said of those that fear God in it. It is a mighty creature that can never die unless it kill itself. My humble request is that of Nazian. to Theodosius, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  that you would use all your Authority and interest to put an end to the differences between these that are godly, and act upon conscientious principles.  
Our differences are not so great, 
Nos quantum in nobis est, propter haereticos cum collegis & coepiscopis nostris non contendimus; cum quibus divinam concordiam & dominicam pacem tenemus: Servatur a nobis patienter & firmiter collegii honour, vinculum fidei & concordia Sacerdotii, Cyprian. ad Jubaian. Epist. 73. Zach. 12.3.  that we stand at such a distance, that to hold an opinion a man should hazard his destruction. In Cyprians time they could keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, with those that did not only think, but teach that which was contrary to what was received, in things of lesser concernment: and surely we might in our differences at least so far agree as to act together, if pride and party were laid aside, and we acted by the same spirit of humility and brotherly love, that the ancient Saints and Churches were.  
And if this design of union might take place, though the enemy threaten and the clouds gather and grow black every day more and more; yet I should assure myself that all that burden themselves with the Saints, should be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth should be gathered together against them.  
FINIS.