34 eAn ExPOSITION ~(as Come take it) but mutual Blood-fhed, as that phrafe i'!'ports: All which ~ was for their contempt of the Gofpel. For, I. if they take Peace from the Saints, it is a fuitable Plague that God {hould take Peace from the Earth. 2. If they will not embrace the Gofpel of Peace,it is fuitable that God fhould take away their Peace. And, 3· if they will kill the Saints, is it not a proportioned Judgment, that God fi1ould turn their Swords into their own Bowels ? And this Power is faid to be [given him J; it proceeded from a Commiffion from God; and fo was a Sword given him. God puts the Sword into an Ene– mie's Hand, and gives it its Commiffion. As Magi([rates do bear God's Sword, fo Souldiers; who therefore, in the Prophets, are often called God's Sword. Now, how after the preaching of the Gofpel in the Apome's Time, fuch Wars fell upon the Empire in the Well:~ is moll: evident i~ Story ; nor are there grea– ter Civil Wars menuoned, than m the Roman Stones. John wrote hJS Revela– tion jull: before Trojan's Time, in the Reign of Domilian, about the Year of Chrill: 94, and dieq in 104, ten Years after. Now in Trajan'sTime (in whofe fixth Year ]ohn died) thefe Wars began. And fo th~n, when the Apo([!es were all dead, and had preached the Gofpel to the World, the Jews rife, and with Armies raged through all the Parts of the Empire ; and fo devafl:ated and de– populated Lybia of her Inhabitants, that Hadrian was afterwards forced to fend thither new Colonies. About Cyrene they dell:royed 22000; in Egypt alfo, and in C;r111, 24000 ; and in Mefopotamia likewife a great number : And Hadrian afterwards fucceeding in the Empire, dell:royed s8ooo of them. Then after Tr.yan's Time, the Partbians revolt, and the Empire was lelfened, having in his Time had the largefl: extent: And in Antonima his Time, Anno 140, all the Northern Nations came down upon the Eafl:, and upon all lUyricHm: yet they, as a Land-flood,were dried up; (o that the Empire flood entire: And that thefe Wars might be the more eminently taken notice of, as following upon the Ape– file's Deaths; as they had none before, fo for 44 Years after this, there was an Univerfal Peace, and Wars ceafed through the Empire. The third Horfe is Famine; his Colour (anfwerably) Black,_, for Famine makes Men's Countenances fuch. So, Lament. 4· 6, 7. Her Na'Ulrites that were purer than Snow, and more rHddy than Rubies, tbeir Vifage if blac~r than a Coal; and this, by reafon of Famine, as appears by verf 9· His Rider hath Scales in his hand, to !hew, that he fells Corn by Weight, not by Meafure; as Levit. 26. 26. When I bave bro~n the Staffof your Bread,Women fboU deliver yOH yo11r Bread by weight. And a !mall quantity of Corn, even fo much as ferves a Man in Bread for a Day, (for fo the Cb<rnix was) was fold for a Penny,which amounts to 7d. ob. yet with Commiffion not tohurt the Oil and the Wine, Now becaufe Hifl:orians are filent concerning any notable Famine, and Univerfal, that fell out in the next Age after thefe Wars in the Roman Empire, therefore Mr. Mede car– ries it to the jufl:nefs of thofe Emperors, ( fignified by the 73allances) which in Sever111 and others was eminent; efpecially in Laws againfr Theeve•, and in publick Provifion for Corn. But this was Heterogeneal to the reil:, which· .are all fl:eps to the ruining or plaguing of the Heatheni!h Empire. And for the Holy Ghofl: to take notice of a Moral Venue, and to infert it thus among the midll: of his Judgments, I cannot be induced to believe it. But this Scarcity be– ing not of Oil and Wine, but of Corn only, might well be llipt over by Hifro– rians. When yet the Chrill:ians of that Age, as Tertullian and others, do men– tion a Famine of Corn as a Judgment on the Empire for their contempt of Chrill:, and their perfecuting of the Saints. I have fearched diligently for fuch foot-fieps in them of that Age, 200 Years after Chrifl: and upwards, as might confirm the truth of this. ~nd, firll:, I find, that in Commod111 his Time, Anno I 90, there was a Com– mouoa made for Bread, within the City of Rome, by the poorer Sort. Thus C.ys
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