4.14 I velatioroftheApocalypfe. Ç A,P,i2,, This var went far andwide , filch as never was the like any elfe- where : It reached fromTerfta in e.4/ia , to the Gades that be two 1les, that part Europe from Africa; and from the Garamantes,a peo- ple in Lybia, toFrance. Now how noyfom and cruel! a war was this , that brought under fubjeEtion, Arabia, Syria, Mefopotamia, Perfia, Egypt , the Iles of the Sea, Africk, Spain° , and all this in a few yeers ? Certainly the Chriftian world was moft pitifully diftreffed tymeans ofit.Nay the Devi/l did not fparehis own brood,fo he might withall fweep away that lardingfeed out of the world with a common calamity.This. war was intimated before,partly by the L,ocufts , as wee have expounded therr,Chap.9. to the i z.verf. partly by the Angels of Ettphratcs,that is,thc Thrkj, whohave ever fince to this day endeavoured to finilli that deftrn Lion of the Chriftians, which the Saracens began,,as we hay;e (hewed, Chapter 9. from the t 3,verfe. And it muff not Teem ft range, that fo cruell a name as ofPear is now given to this matters whichnot long before was faidto be done by a fwarm ofvermin-like, L,cuf>ts. There is one manner of fhew in a matter,whcn it is once finifhed4 fueh as is defcribed in this place ; and another when it is in hand in doing, and ready tobe done ; of what nature that is which is here fpoken of. Now whenwee fee out of the perfecution in the Eaft, the inundation of the Barbarians in the weft,and the Saracens war common to both,with what mifchiefs the Dragon plagued the world after he had loft heaven, and how juft caufe there was todenounce a Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth, as we heard in the 12. verfe. And indeed this whole Chapter may be in ftead of a Commen- tary, to teach us how the Prince,thatruleth in the ayr, s afpirit Peor king in the Children of di[obedience,Ephef.2.2. And thus we have the: Hiftory of the Dragon fo far as he affaulteth the Church with open force,which he doth inhis own perfon.The other parts of fraud and: craft , he playeth by his Vicar the Beak. of which kind of enemy we ball hear in the next Chapter. The whole Prophecie is of a thoufand two hundred yeers,, more or leffe , from John the Apoftles time , till the yeer 1300. where the Centuries alto do end , which were fet forthunder this lati Trumpet, the Type whereof wee faid that this Repetion was.. 13. And Iflood on the Seafand.Thefe words are a pafl'age to fpeak of theBeaf,Aretas,conoplutcnfis, &all the Greek Copies read evenasour Copies do, And /flood, the vulgar reads, andheflood ; but corruptly. For.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=