A chronological discourse touching, 1 The Church. 2 Christ. 3 Anti-Christ. 4 Gog & Magog. &c. The substaunce whereof, was collected about some 10. or 11. yeares since (as may be gathered by an epistle prefixed before a tractate, called, The visible Christian) but now digested into better order; and first published, by the author himselfe, H. Cl.

CHAP. xviij.

Touching the loosing of Satan, and Gog and Magog.

AS Saint Iohn seeth Satan, first Apprehended, se∣condly Chayned, thirdly cast into Prison, and fourthly shut vp from power of seducing vni∣uersally, & that for a thousand yeares: all which no doubt befall, through the Mediation of Christ, the Churches Head: so, he foreseeth that Satan vpon the expirement of the thousand yeares, is loosed for a litle season. Which season (how litle soeuer) he taketh vp, in vsing all meanes of seduction; for heere is the same word Planáô vsed as before: of which word commeth Plané••a, which we tearme a Planet; and in S. Iude haue turned it,

a Wandring Starre. Whereby may be collected, the instabilitie of such spirites as Satan seduceth; soone ca∣ryed about hither and thither, as Cain was, the auncient Arch-runnagate.

The vniuersall seduction that forewent the 1000. yeares Iubile, was close and mysticall, growing vp with the Body of the Church, and somuch the more dange∣rous. But after the expirement of the sayd 1000. yeares, Satan hauing but a litle time, cannot hope by that kinde of cousenage quickly to ouertake the Church. That li∣tle time therefore he vseth in another kind of seduce∣ment; and that is, by bearing certaine (without the Church) in hand, that they may easily conquer the Christians, and subdue the whole earth vnto them. The Cheifetaines of that aduerse power, are stiled Gog & Ma∣gog; whose armie (for number) is as the sand of the Sea.

Some haue sayd, that Gog and Magog signifie in English, Couered and Vncouered: as if the Couered one should be Antichrist (of Rome) that couers himselfe with Christianitie: and the other, an Vncouered or plaine open-foe, as the Turke. Gog indeed signifieth a Couering (such as were the flat battlements on the tops of the Israelites houses) but not Couered: and Magog must either be but the very same (howsoeuer M be prefixed) or at most, can but stand for Man-gog; that is, one that is Of Gog, and not opposite to Gog.

Passing by the wordes signification, we find Gog and Magog in Ezekiel. 38. to intend Vncircumcised Aduer∣saries, dwelling North from Iudea (it may be sproung of Magog, Iaphets second Sonne) of whom (it is held of many) the Scithians and Tartars had their originall. Gyg is famous in Historie, for giuing name to Mountaines, to a Lake neare Sa••dj, to men, and particularly to a bro∣ther of Briareus, who was called Gyges, a Gyantlike per∣son,

at enmity with God.

The Rabbines of the Iewes do hold, that the Warres of Gog and Magog, shall goe before the setled Kingdome of Messiah: or, as§ Ram bam (that is, according to the 4. radicall letters, R. M. B. M. Rabbj Moses Ben Maymony) sayth, in the beginning of Messiahs dayes, shalbe the Battailes of Gog and Magog. The poore wretches speake a truth, but vnderstand it not; inasmuch as they beleeue not that Christes comming is twofold: the first in Hu∣mility, the second only in Glory. With the heathenish Gog-magogs, our Sauiour warred by the ministery of his Apo∣postles, whose weapons were spirituall: but the Gog-magog spoke of in the Reuelation, must arise after the vnloosing of Satan. And indeed, vpon the downefall of that enemie and his infinite Army (which can not be done, but by the power of Christ) Messiah is to settle a Kingdome of Glory.

1. From Christes birth to Ierushalems finall ruine (the world then being aged 4000. yeares) were 73. yeares.

2. From Ierushalems downe-fall, through the times of Antichrist, to the fall of his Babel, be 1260. yeares.

3. From the Periode, to Satans being let loose, be 1000. yeares. The whole summe from our Lords birth, till Satans loosing, be 2333. yeares: Then, the Christi∣ans be to expect open Hostilitie. But God knowes how to deliuer his, in that day of tentation, that shall come vpon all the earth. A thousand yeares shall the Desolation be, sayth the Talmud.

¶Meane time it would be remembred, that the R••b∣bi••es ordinarily hold, that God reneweth not the world, Nisi septem millibus annorum transactis, till 7000. yeares haue passed from the Creation. And we may thinke, that as for the Electes sakes, he did shorten the dayes of the Romaines siege layd to Ierushalem; so, he will cut

short the dayes of Gog-magog, besieging the Tentes and Citie of Christians.

Notes

• Wicliffe writ a Booke, De solutione Sa∣thanae.
• Lactantius in Epit. diuin. Iustit. cap. 11. may very well be admitted, & read profita∣bly here. If the tearme Chili∣ast was giuen but for that, I cannot but thinke, that some male∣dicted that they vnder∣stood not.
• the Root of them both, is, Gog, which is Tectum.
• Paul. Ricius, in Cabal. art. Tom. 1. de Talmud.
• §

  H. Br. in Co∣heleth. p. 35.
• Allegatur a Rau Katina, vt est in Paulo R••cio.
• Math. 24. 22.