Of the ende of this world, the seconde commyng of Christ a comfortable and necessary discourse, for these miserable and daungerous dayes.

¶To the vniuersall Church through∣out the world, the most holy and chast daughter of Sion, and entirely beloued Spouse of Iesus Christ the Sonne of God, King of all Kings, Health, and comfort in the holy spi∣rit, and the speed••e comming of her Bridegroome. &c.

I Am not ignorāt (sweete Sion daughter of the celestiall Ie∣rusalem, and entierly beloued spouse of Christ) in howe great miseries thou hast been plunged now a long time for the lacke of thy kinde and louing husbād.* 1.1 Which, not∣withstanding thou art black & browne by reason of the extrem•• heat of the Sunne, & light of God the father, to which (as yet) thou canst not approche, yet onely, wythal his hart embraceth the, as his friend for fairnes peereles,* 1.2 and as his wife, for beautie, surpassing. For thy blacknes, by his holy spirit, he hath turned into beauti∣fulnes, & thy vnseemely spots of sinne, by his precious blood are no whit seen, & by his holy spirit he hath wō∣derfully adorned thee wythin, and endued thee wyth the holy Ghost, & the seale of beleefe, so that now thou canst not doubt but that he is both faithfull,* 1.3 and fa∣uours thee with all his hart. And yet it greatly greeues thee that thy glory which thou wishest for, thy com∣fort, which thou hopest for, and thy King and bride∣grome for whom thou so lokest, and longest for, is so long from thee: And no maruel, for it is the property of a faythfull louer, not quietly to beare the absence, but ardently to desire the presence, the pleasaunt speeche, and louing, embracings of her beloued.

And yet most of all it greeues thee to see the shame∣lesse boldnes of that abhominable strumpet the whore of Babilon, which blusheth not to call her selfe the onely spouse of thy Christ: and to call thee an harlot: to boast of her externall beautie, and to cast in thy teeth thy outward deformitie: to bragge of her antiquitie, fame and glorious estate, and to tell thee of thy noueltie, pouertie, and miserie. Hence it commeth, that thou art no where in quiet from such taunts and chidings, nor thy mēbers any where safe frō her bloo∣dye persecution. Hence it is, that before the world, which is the Sonne of this naughtie houswife, thou art contemned, hated, and afflicted: and she as the Queene of heauen is adored, loued, and aduaun∣ced: with her haue all nations committed fornication, and the Kings of the earth haue become frantike with Idolatrous wyne of her poysoned doctrine. And hence commeth thy deepe sighes, thy mournfull counte∣naunce, and the intolerable vexation of minde which thou art in. Hence it is that thou canst not be mery. But comfort thy selfe, faint not (thou beloued of Christ) for thy husband for thy sake hath made her naughtines to be knowen,* 1.4 and she which was so loued is now hated, and was glorious for her externall fair∣nes, is nowe become odious to many, for her spiritual filthines. Haue pacience therefore but a little whyle, and thou shalt see her, to be of none accompt: for thy louer in whom thou delightest, shall bring her to such shame, as she shall not be able to showe her head out of hell, when thou shalt be in glorye with thy beloued. Nowe will I make thee priuie, with whom this naugh∣tiepacke (which now is many wayes knowen to all the world) hath had to do a long whyle since, first shee lefte to fauour the, and began to fancie the wicked doctrine of the Gentiles: her baude, & thy sworne enemy. Iohn

a very friende of your hu••••andes, and most familiar with him, Iohn in his Reuelation dyd foretell, that im∣mediatly (after he had seene an Angell flying thorowe the midst of heauen, crying with a loude voyce, Woe, Woe, Woe, to the inhabitants of the earthe, from the other voyces of those three Angels, which were yet to sounde, the fift Angell dyd first sounde, and he sawe a starre falling vppon the earth, which was the fall of the Popes holynes, from celestiall, to earthly thinges, and hauing the keyes, not of heauen, nor of Peter, (as he dooth vainely boast) but of the bottomlesse pit, the pit of hell, Which when he had opened there came out great aboundance of Locustes into the earth, and had for their King one whose name was in Hebrue Abad∣don, in Greeke Apollyon. To this wicked king did that whoore of Babylon plight her fayth, ioyne her selfe, and altered the name of the Empire, so that at length the flourishing estate of the old Empire vanished, and he became the chiefe among al Christian kings. But what happened afterward? These Locustes, to wit, that infi∣nite and horrible crewe of idle prelates, Priestes, and Friers, with their abhominable king, the Pope of Rome, whom Paule dooth call 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the sonne of perdition, ascended from hell, and brought with them not the pure doctrine of Gods worde, but the poysoned lessons of diuels, and so by the filthie smoke of false opinions, obscured the Sonne of righteousnes, and infected the wholesome ayre of Christes Gospell. But now would you haue them better described? For∣sooth they are for theyr intolerable pride, and threat∣nings, lyke vnto horses, prepared to the battaile, wo∣mens heare they haue, because they are in dealinges light, in behauior wanton: Lions teeth, for their cruel∣tie, shieldes as it were of iron, to note their obstinacie▪ In wordes they seemed courteous, and therefore they

had the faces of men, but in deede they prooued villa∣nous, and therefore they had in their tailes the sting of Scorpions. These made a noyse as it were of manye winges, which noted the fame of the Popes holinesse. And these had power to hurt, and yet not all thinges, but onely men, and yet not all men, but those which had not the marke of God in their foreheads. And yet they could not plague at their pleasure, but in certaine monthes: and those not in Winter, but in Somer. So thou seest O daughter of Siō pure, & vnspotted Virgin, to whom this vile st••umpet Rome, which according to Sybils prophesie is become Rume (that is violence or crueltie) hath coupled herselfe,* 1.5 with whom she hath played the harlot, and is become drunken wyth the bloud of Martyrs, sitting vpō that seuen headed beast horrible in sight, and in deede most cruell.

Now marke I beseech thee, and call into mynde the woordes of thy beloued, which gaue his Apostles to vnderstand, that before his comming (meaning before he celebrates his marriage in the kingdome of his almighty father) the sounde of the Gospell as it were by a Trumpet,* 1.6 should be heard throughout all the world, that so, both the number of thy friendes might be greatly multiplyed &, this child of perdition by the final end of al thing••, and his famous comming vtterly abolished. Which things to thy comfort thou mayst perceaue to be com to passe already euen a∣bout the sixt houre or midle of of the sixt day, or six thousand yeare of the worldes creation. Thou seest how the voyce of the Gospell hath sounded in al quar∣ters of the world, thou seest how that son of perditiō with the whore of Babylon sitting vpō a purpled and bloodye beast, is by the breath of Gods woorde con∣founded: thou seest also (which is most to thy glory, and their perpetuall prayse) how the Kings of the

earth (which were sometime the tenne hornes and vp∣holders of that beast, by whom shee receyued both such aucthoritie that shee myght persecute, and such titles, that shee was honored as a Goddesse, and re∣uerenced as the Queene of heauen) thou seest I say, whom they did honour as a Queene, how they doo hate for a Queane: and whom they did reuerence like a Goddesse, how they renounce as the greatest ene∣mye to godlines: and whom they did by an ignorant zeale enrich with all things that myght cause her to be in the eyes of all mē glorious, how they worthily im∣pouerish, & endeuour by all meanes to make her odi∣ous. So that the number is great which know, & con∣fesse thee to be the true and faythfull spouse of Christ. Which, God graunt as they in mouthes confesse to fauour thee, so in manners they may expresse Chri∣stianitie, and as they speake well, so at no tyme they may be seduced either by the vayne pleasures of this world, or by suttle snares of the diuel frō louing thee. Wherefore tryumph now thou daughter of Sion, reioyce daughter of Hierusalem, thou daughter of peace reioyce.* 1.7 For behold thy husband, the King will come, thy sauiour wil come to thee, and that cer∣taynly, and shortly he will come: but not poorely, and like a seruant as before, but lik a Soueraygne, like a King of all Kings in maiestie triumphing, in much glory accompanied with Archangels, and all the hoast of heauen in the Cloudes he will come, that so he may be reuenged vppon his enemies, and headlong cast that harlotte, and that King of Locustes, the sonne of perdition, the image of the beast, and false Prophet, into that burning fornace of vnquenchea∣ble fire▪ but his chiefest comming shalbe to drawe thee vnto him, and to bring thee into his bed cham∣ber, where all sorrow and sighing be layd a part, thou

shalt enioy the pleasant speech, and sweete embrace∣mentes or thy louing husband, and sh••lt be b••wtified with all cel••••tiall bene••••tes which haue been apoynted for thee since the beginning of the world. Which be∣ing so, I thought nothing would be more grateful vn∣to thee, nor better recreate thee in these thy troubles, than to learne some certayne tokens, and heare infal∣lible tydings of thy husbandes returne. The consi∣deration whereof, hath caused me for your comfort by wryting to place before your eyes such vndoubted signes of his cōming, although I will not take vpon me to tel the very houre, day, and yeare, which is kno∣wen to God alone) that easely you will beleue and perswade your selfe that it will not be long before he come: this day will he visit thee before the Sunne be set, of which the most part is consumed, noone is past it is now one of the clocke, and therfore his com∣ming must needes be nigh. These and such like things you shall perceyue to be handled in this booke. Where I haue erred, amend the fault, and forgeue the maker: (for to your iudgement I submit me) which is the onely thing I desire, after I haue obtayned your ernest prayers to your beloued, in my behalfe, that I may accompany you in the fayth, and spiritual blessings, with which in Christ through the meere grace of God the father you are especially adorned: and that with you I may haue the same communion of all celestiall benefites, and be partaker of the king∣dome of Christ, and God the father. Fare you well, and God graunt you now and euermore the quietnes of mind, and perpetuall delight, with euerlasting comfort in Christ by the holy Ghost. Amen. From Emden.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Canti. Cant.
• * 1.2

  Psalm. 51.
• * 1.3

  Ro••. 8.
• * 1.4

  Apoc. 17,
• * 1.5

  Lact. lib. 7. cap. 25.
• * 1.6

  Matth. 24.
• * 1.7

  Lactan. 9.