A34679:103
An exposition upon the thirteenth chapter of the Revelation by that reverend and eminent…
An exposition upon the thirteenth chapter of the Revelation by that reverend and eminent servant of the Lord, Mr. John Cotton ... ; taken from his mouth in short-writing, and some part of it corrected by himself soon after the preaching thereof ; and all of it since viewed over by a friend to him ... wherein some mistakes were amended, but nothing of the sense altered.
London: printed for Tim. Smart, 1656
Title page typeset from the transcription.
AN EXPOSITION Upon the thirteenth Chapter of the REVELATION. › Part
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Last of all lying miracles, 2 Thes. 2. 9. Whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, & lying wonders. Thus you see the means how the Dragon gave him his power, and Authority, and such Authority that he exalts himself above all that is called God.
Last of all lying miracles, 2 Thes. 2. 9. Whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signes, & lying wonders. Thus you see the means how the Dragon gave him his power, and Authority, and such Authority that he exalts himself above all that is called God.
The use is thus much; First it serves to show the vanity of all that admiration of the Roman Catholic visible Church, and devotion to that Church, which hath so long for many Ages deluded the world, and with which Jesuits and Seminaries do to this day delude devout, but carnal souls; Here is great power given to them, and great authority; but whence hath the Church all this? They pretend they have it all from Christ, but they have it from the Dragon of the bottomless pit; He gave him his power and seat and great authority: It never came from Christ, he never gave this power to any Church nor State in the world, it is from the Dragon. And whereas they plead it is the keys of the kingdom of Heaven, Mat. 16. 19. It is verily (as the Text calls it, Rev. 9. 1.) The key of the Bottomless pit; There fell a star from Heaven to the Earth, and to him was given the key of the Bottomless pit: It is he that hath power to let out smoke out of the bottomless pit; Not to let out men from thence, as some have pretended, or from Limbus, which is the suburbs of Hell; But to let out smoke, damnable doctrine, and false Government; He hath power to open it, but no power to shut it; power to sting mens consciences, but no power to heal them. And therefore when Bellarmine makes the Roman Catholic visible Church to be the true Church, he makes this the first note of a true Catholic Church; whereas our Divines make Preaching of the word, and administration of the Sacraments, and holy Discipline, he refutes them, and sets down three other, universal, Catholic, visible Church, to be the true Church; And the truth is, it is the very Beast, to which the Devil gave this great Authority and power: Wherefore let not men be bewitched with them, but let us know they are all but efficacies of delusions what ever have been in this kind