My purpose was to have shewed the danger, if we do not further God's purpose in discovering this wicked antichrist : a state wherein the devil, the dragon, is effectual, and this book wondrously sets down the danger. It is another manner of danger now to relapse, and to apostatize, after the appearing of the glorious gospel of Christ, than it was a hundred years ago under darkness ; and we know it to be so. Of all the judgments in this world it is the greatest for God to give up a man to decay in his love to the truth, to affect* this cursed religion, that the sentence of God hath passed upon, and it must be fulfilled, ' That they shall hate the whore, and burn her with fire, that she shall be left desolate and naked.'
But you may object. Alas ! how is that likely to be, when we see no\T "" That is, ' love,' ' choose.' — G.
532 THE beast's dominion
what strength the beast bath gotten, and how be ruffleth in the world at this time ; how be triumpheth and trampletb the poor church under his feet?
"Well, it is but a living before death. Undoubtedly Babylon is fallen, it is ' fallen,' saith John in his time, Eev. xiv. 8 ; that is, it is as sure to fall as if it bad fallen already. The word of God bath said so. The power of man cannot binder it. He bath put it into the beads and hearts of the kings to betray their kingdoms ; be shall also put it into their hearts and beads to hate and burn the whore with fire at the last. It must be so. The angel said it was done, as if it were done already. It is as sure as if it were done. Therefore let us never take scandal at the flourishing state of the enemies of the church abroad ; let us never dislike our religion for that. Babylon is fallen. The time will come when it shall be done. Heaven hath concluded it, and earth cannot binder it ; no, nor hell neither : God hath said it, and shall not he do it ? It is the word of him that is Lord of his word ; because he is Lord of hosts, and Lord of the creatures. It is the word of him that is Lord of lords, that is Lord of heaven and earth, Lord of all things. He bath said that Babylon is fallen ; and therefore it must be so, he being Governor and Lord of all things, and of his word too, that can make all things prove ser- viceable to bis purpose. Let us comfort ourselves, therefore, as if it were present, and not take offence at the state of the beast, and the whore's llom'ishing, but present him to yourselves as he is set out in the text. See him growing, see him rising, see him decaying, and at last see him cast into the bottomless pit, to burn in the lake of fire for ever. It is, you see, the word of God from heaven, that he is fallen, and cast into the earth as a millstone, and shall never rise again. He shall never quicken* again. Heathen Rome was quickened by papal Rome : the pope quickened the former beast ; but there shall never be beast after this Rome, and there- fore he is said in this chapter, * to go into destruction ;' that is, he, and his state, and all without repentance, shall so go into destruction, that there shall never be other beast.
And that that shall help this destruction forward, shall be the course that themselves take. God as he bath decreed their destruction, so be bath appointed that their own plots, which they have devised for their own maintenance, shall turn to their confusion. Do you not think that the ruin of the pope will be by the Jesuits, who are grown, by their pressing them- selves, and by their pragmatical meddling into princes' affairs, by their drawing and assuming all business to themselves, and by their striving and bringing all to their profession, to such hatred of the world, that even these means, which they themselves take, will be the means of the overthrow and downfall of popery ? As the counsel of Ahithopbel was the means to infa- tuate him, so their own courses will cause their own overthrow.
In the powder treason, they thought they bad been made for ever, but God turned their wickedness upon their own beads. And now in these later times we may see that God takes bis cause into his own bands ; and you know who spake it by observation, Haman's wife, ' If thou begin to fall, thou shalt not prevail, but sbalt surely fall before him,' Esther vi. 13. So if God take the matter into bis own hands, as be hath done already, let them fear. For they shall surely fall and not prevail, until he bath wrought bis work in Sion ; until be bath thoroughly purged bis church, they shall prevail. There is a little time allotted tbem, but it is nothing. Let us see by the eye of faith what this book saith of tbem, that they shall be * That is, ' live,' = ' be made alive.' — O.