CliA. Z. atout.theyce& 155.o: yo45 loft. The Spoufe cliimethher beloved to be hers in the wòrds of Melantlhon tóPrince Frederick Let us go on corf}antly,howfoever' the world rage. Such was the mutual! imbracing of Chrift and the Church at that time Verfe 3. Thouart beautiful!O my love, as 2imah, comely as IerásL falem, terrible asan Army With Banners. The explanationof this verfe is divided into three times. The Be- ginning, Middle,and End. In the beginning the was faire as Tirzah, which Solomon without doubt forefaw, fhould fie the chiefe City of the Ifraelites after the ten Tribes fell from the other twó. It was a pleafant City, whence it tooke the name, (r Reg. 14. 1 7.) but (al- well by the effimationof men as in truth) it was but a 1ortrcfre of Robbers and rebels.And no other was the Church efleemed to be of her enemies (whenher beloved went downe into his garden, and fome time after) but a rebellious City , difobedient to Princes and Governors, and to carry a certaine Phew of Tirzah. And thus the Church remained like unto Tirzah from the yeere 1529 (when the Ar. entinenfes joyned with the Helvetians,)till the death of Charles the 5. in the yeere, 1558. And then the began to be comely as Ierufalene,when the unpleafant name of Tirzah grew out of ufe, which hapned in the beginning of Q.ieene Elizabeths Raign in england, in the yeere x558. And in theyeere following in Scot-' land, Geneva, the Helvetian and German Churches, in Demtiarke, Nor"Way,and SWeveland,andother places ofthe reformed Religion. Not that they were altogether free from hoftile invafion, great trou- bles fhortly anfing in France and the Low-countries : yet partly by her own increafe,partly heradverfaries tyred and eeafingfome- what fromoutward force, fhe was fo much exalted; that her very enemies could not but admire her beauty and ccmelinef e, whole beginnings they defpifed. The laft age of the altered. Chtirch, is terrible as an ArmyWith Banners. She (hall bellow all her time in warlike preparations, and un- dertakings: For the hellifh furies will not fufter her enemies to raft,' neither will the endure her felfe toburent and torne by the Wolves, butreuift the injury with an armed hand. Whereby (he (hall become ' fcarefull to her enemies, as the hathdone thefe many yeeres inEn!-° land, France, and the Loo - Countries. But this is nothing to that ter- rout- which (hall fhortly follow, when Antichrift himfelf and his Enlign-bearer ( the Kingof Spaine) and all that carry his marke (hall be fo doftroyed bÿ the Spoule,thatno mentionofthem (hall re- maine. K k k k k k k 2 'Yuri
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