Brightman - BS2823 B85 1644

CAP.6. f kevel4tiws ofthe Apocalypfe.. 223 though it is noHeight conjeeture, that theydid much harme in the Eafl.erne and Southerne Countries. In fame fatter ages when Fa- mine and Peftilence did altowaxgreat and grievous,men wereafraid ofdogs, left that feeing they had been ufed to feed upon carIZafes of deadmen raft out, they ihould afterwards fall upon living men to make meat ofthem whereupon they betake themfelves to the kil- ling ofdogges, Eufeb. lib. 9. 8. Neither could it be, but that when meat failed the wilde beafts in the fields, and men grew leffe able to defend thetfelves, many weredevoured by the wilde beafts. But if we referre this to cruellmen orfavage tyrants,there was never any in memoryof man fogreat flockes of Wildebeafts, that did in every place rend and teare men in pieces. For when Gallienur was Em- perour, who alone did enjoy all the Empieafter that Valerian was taken captive, there arofe fomany Tyrants, that tooke to themfelves thename of the Emperour, as had never been in fo long a fucceflion ofEmperours from Cefars time,who wasDiRatorto that very day. There are thirty reported by Trebellius to have beeneat one time, whereof' fame in oneplaceof the world, fame in another did invade the Empire, amongwhom alto certaine womenmade a mockery of the Romanauthority. How great a Butcheryofmen mull there needs be, when fomany wild beaftsdidat once firive about the Empire. Thus then we-have threeSealer, eachof them notableby their owne Scourges, thetwo former by finguler ones, thefe that was laft byall kindof punifhments, with which the world was plagued, becaufe it hadfowickedly defpifed and=Idled the truth. For when as more mildechaftifements could doe no good withobdurateminds, all the armies almoll of Death are let in aray againft them, even as the Event bath alíoproved molt fully. And yet thefe evils are not fo . proper to this Age alone, that they ihould agree to no other, but they are the ufnall punifhments of fuch as de. ife Piety, Levit. 26. Ezech. 6. i.t. &c. And fo afterwards wemay tee that after Galienur his reigne,the Plague and Famine didconfinneall things while Ma- ximìnus reigned in the Eafl, Eufeb. lib. 9 8. But the Prophecieof thefe evils is fo folemnely fet downe in thisplace, both becaufe the times immediately going from john, were to be remarkable by thefe punifbments, whichmen did pull upon their owne heads by defpi, fing the Goffell, as alto becaufe they ihould be faithfull hoftages, . pledges, and Sealesofthe events to come, which ihould be expeeted manyAges after. AndWbsn helmet opened thefift Seale,IfaWfoulsunder the41tar. G g 3 There,

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