Part 66

"And the cities of the nations fell," Rev. 16:19; the cities of the nations, the antichristian churches, otherwise called the daughters of the mother of harlots. This is a second stroke that God will give this man of sin, and a third cometh quickly.

Wherefore it follows, upon the downfall of those cities of the nations, that great Babylon came into remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. Now then, strike at great Babylon. Great Babylon! What is that? Why, I take it to be the mother, the metropolitan, the great harlot herself. For though sometimes by great Babylon we may understand the church of antichrist in general, yet by it is meant more properly the mother of the daughters, of whose overthrow we have spoken before.

We are now, then, come to the threshold of the door of the house of the old one--to the door of the mother of harlots and abomination of the earth. This then that but now is said to come into remembrance with God, is that which gave being to the cities destroyed before, to wit, the ministers, the queen, the mother-church as she calls herself.

And this is the wisdom of God concerning her, that she should not be the first that should die, but that she should live to see the destruction of her daughters, and pine away under the fright and sense of that, even until judgment also shall overtake herself.

Thus Pharaoh and his chief ones did live to see the greatest part of Egypt destroyed, before judgment overtook them; but at last it came to their doors also. Zedekiah lived to see his children slain before his face, before judgment overtook him to his own personal destruction.

Babylon also, when God sent the cup of his fury unto her, yet was to live to see the nations drink before her.

From all which I conclude that the mother, the metropolitan, the lady of kingdoms, shall live to see her daughters executed before her face; after which, she shall come into consideration herself, for she must assuredly drink of the cup.

This destruction must be last for this reason also, because she most deserves the bottom of the cup. The bottom is the dregs, the most bitter part, and that where the most heat and fiercest wrath of God do lie. And great Babylon came into remembrance before God: "To give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath."

Now then is the time of iniquity, when it will be come to the full; and now also is the time of God's anger, when it will be come to the full. Now therefore must the murders and thefts and blasphemies and fornications belonging to this mother of harlots, be recompensed to the full, to wit, with the dregs of this cup. Yet since the hailstones come by weight and the wrath comes by measure--for so a talent and a cup imports, Rev. 16:17-21--it follows that the almighty God, even in the midst of the heat of all this anger, will keep to the rules of justice and judgment while he is dealing with this enemy: he has not passions to carry him beyond rules of judgment, nor weakness to cause him to fall short of doing justice; therefore he has his judgments for her by weight, and his indignation by measure. But yet this weight and measure are not suited to her constitution, not with an intent to purge or refine her; but it is disposed according to the measure and nature of her iniquity, and comes to sweep her as with the besom of destruction, until she is swept off from the face of all the earth.

Now since she is dying, let us ring her passing-bell; for when she is dead, we that live to see it intend to ring out.

PRESENT STATE OF ANTICHRIST.

Now I saw in my dream, that at the end of this valley lay blood, bones, ashes, and mangled bodies of men, even of pilgrims that had gone this way formerly; and while I was musing what should be the reason, I spied a little before me a cave, where two giants, Pope and Pagan, dwelt in old time; by whose power and tyranny the men whose bones, blood, and ashes lay there, were cruelly put to death. But by this place Christian went without much danger, whereat I somewhat wondered; but I have learnt since, that Pagan has been dead many a day; and, as for the other, though he be still alive, he is, by reason of age, and also of the many shrewd brushes that he met with in his younger days, grown so crazy and stiff in his joints, that he now can do little more than sit in his cave's mouth, grinning at pilgrims as they go by, and biting his nails because he cannot come at them.

SLAYING OF THE WITNESSES.

Thus, as to sense and reason, all shall be hush, all shall be quiet and still, Rev. 11:7-15: the followers of the Lamb shall be down; the followers of the beast shall be up, shall cry, Peace and safety, and be as secure as a hard heart, false peace, and a deceitful devil can make. them. But behold, while they thus sing in the window, death is striding over the threshold! While they are crying peace and safety, sudden destruction cometh. By that they have well settled themselves at their table with Adonijah, 1 Kings, 1, they shall hear it proclaimed with sound of trumpet, The witnesses are risen again.

Now the Christians' pipes will go again, and surely the earth will be rent with the sound of their shouts and acclamations, while they cry with joyful sound, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever."

REASONS FOR ANTICHRIST'S DESTRUCTION.

Antichrist must be destroyed, for that he has usurped the name and attributes of God upon himself. He hath said, I am God. For that antichrist has thus taken the place of God, prescribed and imposed a worship as a God, got the world to worship and wonder after him as after a God; therefore he shall die the death of the uncircumcised, both in the soul, spirit, body, or flesh of antichrist. Therefore will God enlighten and gather and set the kings and nations against him, that both he and his may be buried, and have their dolesome withdrawing-rooms from the world in the sides of the pit's mouth.

Antichrist must be destroyed, because he hath set himself against the Son of God; against the Father, and against the Son. He had a spite against the Son betimes, even then when he came forth but in little things, when he attempted to deny that He was come in the flesh. But seeing he could make no earnings of that, he has changed his methods, and seeks to run him out and down by other means and ways. "Because, therefore, he hath set himself against the Son of God, the King, therefore he must die."

That he hath also set himself against the Son of God, is evident; for he has his name from thence: he is therefore called Anti-Christ.

That he hath set himself against Him, is yet further evident; for that he has endeavored to take from him his headship once, and his offices for and in the church, which is his body; and has called himself the head of the universal church of God.

Antichrist must he destroyed, because of his exceeding covetousness. Religion, such as it is, is the thing pretended to; but the great things of this world are the things really intended by him in all his seeming self-denials and devotions. And for this covetousness also it is that this destruction is to fall upon him. Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, (to his church,) that he may set his nest on high: for he could not do the one before he had obtained the other. For then indeed they began to be high, when they had so inveigled Constantine that he bestowed upon them much riches and honor; and then it was cried, by an angel, and the cry was heard in the city of Constantinople, Woe! woe! woe! this day is venom poured into the church of God.

Nor has any generation, since the world began, been so insatiably greedy of gain, as these POOR people have been. They have got kingdoms, they have got crowns, they have got--what have they not got? They have got every thing but grace and pardon. Did I say before that religion was their pretence? Doth not the whole course of their way declare it to their face? Every one of them, from the least even to the greatest, is given to covetousness; from the prophet even to the priest, every one dealeth falsely. Money, money, [Footnote: Similar is the testimony of an eminent historian. "In every misapplication which the popes now (thirteenth century) made of their power, money was the object. Every new operation which they performed, was one of extortion; and every new act of oppression was on their part, a financial speculation." Planck. V. 574.

Says Luther, in his address to the German nobility, speaking of the pope, "He is a shepherd: yes, so far as you have money, and no farther." The above passage from Bunyan is altogether in the manner of Luther when describing the rapacity and avarice of Rome. hath removed them. And these seeds has antichrist sown where the kingdom of Christ should stand.] as the pedlar cries, "broken or whole," is the sinews of their religion; and it is for that they set kingdoms, crowns, principalities, places, preferments, sacraments, pardons, prayers, indulgences, liberty, yea, and souls and bodies of men, women, and children, to sale; yea, it is for this that they have invented so many places, offices, names, titles, orders, vows, etc.: it is to get money, to rob countries, that they may make their nests on high. And indeed they have done it, to the amazement of all the world. They are clambered up above kings and princes and emperors; they wear the triple crown; they have made kings bow at their feet, and emperors stand barefoot at their gates; they have kicked the crowns of princes from their heads, and set them on again with their toes. Thus their covetousness hath set them on high, even above the suns, moons, and stars of this world: but to what end? that they may be cast down to hell.

Antichrist must be destroyed, because he stands in the way of the setting up of the kingdom of Christ in the world. Many princes were in Edom before there was a king in Israel; and Christ has suffered antichrist to set up before him; and he stands in Christ's way, and has so overspread the world in all places with that which is directly contrary to him, that he cannot set up his kingdom until that which is antichrist's is tumbled down to the ground. Even as a man whose ground is full of thorns and briars and weeds, cannot sow in expectation of a crop, until he hath removed them. And these seeds has antichrist sown where the kingdom of Christ should stand.

When God came from Egypt with his people to set up his kingdom in Canaan, he cast out the heathen before them, in order thereunto: "Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt; thou hast cast out the heathen and planted it." Wherefore antichrist must be removed and destroyed for this; for antichrist is in flat opposition to Christ, as Tibni was to Omri; wherefore antichrist must die.

The reason is, because Christ's kingdom shall be peaceable, without molestation, and glorious without the fumes and fogs of antichristian darkness. Because also, as the world has seen the manner of the reign of antichrist, and how tyrannical and outrageous a kingdom his is; so they shall see the reign of Christ by his word and Spirit in his people, how peaceable, how fruitful in blessedness and prosperity his kingdom is. And hence it is, that God purposes to bury antichrist before he sets glory in the land of the living; as also you read in the book of Revelation, for there you find the kingdom of antichrist was destroyed before the new Jerusalem was set up. When men intend to build a new house, if in the place where the old one stood, they first pull down the old one and raze the foundation, and then they begin their new. Now God, as I said, will have his primitive church-state set up in this world, even where antichrist has set up; wherefore, in order to this, antichrist must be pulled down, stick and stone; and then they that live to see it, will behold the new Jerusalem come down from heaven, as a bride adorned for her husband.

TIME OF ANTICHRIST'S DESTRUCTION.

The time of her fall is not certainly known by the saints, nor at all believed by her; wherefore her plagues must come unlooked for by her. And as to the saints, their guesses as to the time of her ruin must needs be conjectural and uncertain. For her part, she shall say, and that when she stands where she must suddenly fall, "I shall be a lady for ever."