An exposition upon the thirteenth chapter of the Revelation by that reverend and eminent…

Take him without the virtue of Christ since the world began, there never rose a good thought in all mens hearts; if there did, it was by the virtue of this Lamb of God that was slain from the foundation of the world. The heart of man, (Jeremiah complained long before Christs time) is deceitful above measure, and desperately wicked, who can know it, Jer. 17. 9▪ Who can know the bottomless depth of it. This is the very state of all the world since the world began; the whole frame and state of the world is enmity against God, Rom. 8▪ 7. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, and that in such a deep measure, you may see by the medicine that the Lord prepares for it; it shows the depth of the depravation of the world from the beginning, it hath been corrupt and incurable, unless it were by the virtue of the death of Christ, by the son of God made man, taking upon him mans nature; and the greatness and infiniteness of the virtue of this remedy doth evidently argue the bottomless depth of the corruption of the world since the world began: No man would bespeak a Smiths great hammer to break an egg-shell, a man would think it a marvellous vanity if he should. Truly the Lord hath prepared the strongest iron hammer to break the Serpents head; and which is wonderful, this iron hammer, the Lord Jesus, that breaks all before it; The stone cut out of the mountain, that breaks the iron mountain of Rome, Dan. 2. 34. It is the same it was: it makes men many times wonder how they came to be well conceited of the old Religion, when Antichrist reigned; then were golden days ⟨p. 197⟩(as they say) then there was nothing, but every man regarded other mens good as their own; precious golden seasons in the old world, then an easy matter would have persuaded them all: but to what end was Christ slain from the beginning of the world, if it were not full of wickedness? if it were not so tough that this hammer of hammers must come to break it in pieces? If men were so tractable, children to Parents, servants to Masters, and yoke-fellows so abundantly in sweetness and amiableness, what needed Christ to be crushed in pieces? Say not, saith Solomon,