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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	begin_v	great_a	time_n	1,599	5	3.2122	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44326	A discourse concerning the witnesses, relating to the time, place, and manner of their being slain by William Hooke, late preacher of the Gospel.	Hooke, William, 1600 or 1601-1678.	1681 (1681)	Wing H2622; ESTC R32034	49,990	52

their life from the dead will not presently become the death of the Beast only after a while when he perceiveth that the Cause of Christ is in a rising way he will be sorely affrighted as here vers 12. But great troubles will follow this Resurrection after a short time for the tenth part of the City i. e. of the Beasts Dominion will not fall easily as the walls of Jericho did without striking of a stroak there will be somewhat to do in the execution of the Vengeance of Gods Witnesses which will shake the power of the Beast so far that he shall lose the tithe of his Dominion There will be nothing but woful stirs and shakings till it be come to Armageddon For when the Beast perceives himself falling who hath stood and that strongly these many hundreds of years he will rage like the Angel of the bottomless Pit Quoniam ad septimum clangorem principatus Christi maximè eminet ad ho● tempus praecipuus furor totius Pontifici●e nationis reservatus est Joh. Bright in locum so that Hell it self will be moved and break loose to help him You know what is said here after the sounding of the Seventh Trumpet The Nations were angry c. Christs Kingdom will begin to shine forth at the sounding of the seventh Trumpet and therefore the special rage of the Pontifician Nation is reserved unto that time And if it be thus under the Seventh Trumpet which allarums the Beast more especially how will it be under the sixth Trumpet which is the saddest of all the Trumpets to the Church and People of God And what a fearfull Farewell will it have For it will not cease sounding presently after the rising of the Witnesses seeing there is an ascending time to follow and a great Earthquake at the heels thereof which will make sad work and after that The third Woe cometh quickly These things then will not be done upon a sudden nor without further tryals to the Church of God For the Worships and Superstitions of Antichrist are woven almost into every thing throughout Christendom the unravelling whereof will shake that part of the World where these things are so twisted and interwoven and so have been these hundreds of years And therefore we must take heed that we do not judge of the rising of the Witnesses by the times that succeed it but by that Resurrection Spirit which after a while will appear in the Witnesses of Christ I shall conclude with a Consectary flowing from what hath been spoken of the gradual rising and it will serve also in way of answer to the question in hand and it is this viz. That seeing there is such a gradual motion the first beginnings of the Resurrection will not in probability be so perceivable How imperceptible were the first motions of Antichrist 2 Thes 2. The Mystery of Iniquity saith Paul doth work already and yet how few discerned him in the dayes of Constantine which was some hundreds of years after the Apostle thus wrote and when also that which did let his more publick appearing and acting was quite taken out of the way I suppose they have been very few who at the opening of the Seals and at the beginning of the sounding of every Trumpet hitherto could say Now such a Seal is opened and heark how such or such a Trumpet doth now begin to sound Beginnings are many times very small and obscure as it is with Rivers which arise from little Fountains and yet at last grow to be very deep Perhaps also there may be in some an aptness to expect the accomplishment of such or such a passage in the Revelati●ns in such a way as they have fore-fancyed and then when the fulfilling of them is very different from their pre-conceptions they may be ready to question it In our eager pursuits after accomplishments it may happen sometimes that we may leave them behind us and yet think that they are before us A little waiting therefore will set our Judgments right as to the question in hand and give you a surer Answer than I shall undertake to do One thing more you have heard how the Death and Resurrection of the Witnesses do in many things answer to the Death and Resurrection of Christ though in some things again they differ But if their Resurrections correspond in any thing I am prone to think it is in their first beginnings Let us consider this a little and finish the present discourse 1. When Christ arose it was dark and for ought I know to the contrary it might be near Midnight Joh. 20.1 When Mary Magdalene came to the Sepulchre it was yet dark and Christ was then risen I know not how long before And when she saw Christ afterwards at the Sepulchre she neither knew him nor that he was risen but mistook him thinking he had been the Gardiner And when she knew him she went and told them that had been with him and found them mourning and weeping who therefore little imagined that Christ was risen Mark 16.10 11. And when these heard what she said they believed it not and when the two Disciples told them the same they did not believe them Mark 16.13 for as yet they knew not the Scripture that he must rise again from the dead And when he appeared afterward to the Eleven as they sate at meat Joh. 20.9 he upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart Mark 16.14 because they believed not them that had been with him after he was risen And so too he upbraided the two Disciples that went with him to Emmaus And when he appeared to the Ten Thomas who was then absent from them would not believe that Christ was risen yea Luk. 24.37 and at his first appearing to them they thought they had seen a Spirit which is more when the Disciples went into Galilee into a Mountain where Christ appeared which I conceive to be the time spoken of by the Apostle Matth. 28.17 1 Cor. 15.6 it is said They worshipped him but some doubted By all this you see how difficultly the Resurrection of Christ was believed Even thus it may be when He riseth in his Witnesses whose resurrection doth in many things as well as his death allude to that of Christ's The Witnesses then like Christ may be up and few know it or believe it that as it is said of the report of them who brought the first tidings of Christs resurrection to his Disciples Their words s●emed to them as idle ●ales Luk. 24.11 and they believed them not Even so it may happen at the resurrection of the Witnesses who do not only ascend but perhaps also rise in a cloud as many times the Sun doth insomuch that some lye a bed till seven or eight of the Clock in the Spring in a cloudy Morning and think not that the Sun is risen Now then lay all the precedent passages together and pray for

of Cyrus King of Persia Ezr. 4th 5th 6th Chapters unto the days of Darius the King thereof They had still very many Adversaries For Military Occasions withdrew Cyrus who left the Government to his Son Cambyses who proved an Enemy to the Jews and to the building of the Temple He did not second his Farthers Proclamation of Liberty but rather hid it in the House of the Rolls insomuch that it was at last quite forgotten as you may see Ezr. 5.13 with 17. and chap. 6.1 2. Note therefore what is said Dan. 10.1 In the third year of Cyrus King of Persia a thing was revealed unto Daniel and the thing was true but the time appointed was long In those days I Daniel was mourning three full weeks I ate no pleasant bread neither came Flesh or Wine into my mouth c. It seems he understood of the oppositions which were made by Cambyses and his Emissaries against the work of God at Jerusalem even in the third year of King Cyrus who gave the Jews their liberty in his first year Ezr. 4. And upon this occasion Daniel humbleth himself greatly and waiteth to know the mind of God and what he purposed to do with his people And our Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him and shewed him a great Vision which astonished him very much and made him to fall down upon his face and he was cast into a deep sleep his face being towards the ground And now behold an Hand touched him which set him upon his knees and upon the palms of his hands afterward Christ said unto him Stand upright for unt● thee am I sent and when he had spoken this word Daniel stood trembling Christ could have set him upright upon his feet at once but I have sometimes thought whether our Lord Jesus did not hereby shew unto Daniel the gradual manner of the Je●s Re●urrection out of B●bylon for 1. They did lye in B●bylon as it were in a deep sleep on their faces as Isalah prophesying of their coming out of Captivity saith Awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust Isa 26.19 2. They arise but in a gradual manner viz. upon their knees as it were and the palms of their hands 3. They stand upright but trembling and therefore as if the Lord Jesus should bid Daniel not to be so much dejected the people of God for whom he was thus solicitous should stand upright in good time This I have thought is the intendment of Christ in this Vision and of what befell the Prophet under it s●eing it is likely that Jesus Christ would instruct him by the Vision and the Effects of it concerning that business which lay most upon his Heart Now to come to our purpose Even thus the Witnesses are dead asleep in the dust 2. The Spirit of Life from God entreth into them and they rise first on their knees and palms of their Hands and there they stick a while a● l●●● they stand upright but trembling and then they begin to gather strength by little and little till at last their en●mies begin to stand trembling and are afraid to look upon him as we shall bear ver 12. Thus the Resurrection here will be gradual and which is more not be the business of a few days though in my Text it is comprehended in a very few words You know what vast Histories are contained in the second and seventh Chapters of Daniel and in other also of his Visions which are but short and brief in the Reading And thus it is with very many Histories in the Scriptures which are expressed with very great brevity That which the Apostle speaketh of Antichrist 2 Thess 2. and of what did then hinder his visible appearance and what he speaks of his Wickedness Revelation Consumption Destruction containeth many Centuries of years above a thousand and is the sum of most that is contained in the Book of the Revelations from the sixth Chapter to the End In which Book how are large Stories contained in a very small compass The large History of the ten Persecutions lyeth in a narrow Room in the sixth Chapter the Tyranny and power of the Turk and how he hath been a Scourge to the Antichristian World lyeth within the one half of the ninth Chapter c. For it is in this Book as in a small Map of the vast World wherein very great Countreys are described in as narrow a compass as the breadth of your hand And in the S●ale of miles which you see in the bottom of the Map the miles seem to be very short but he that travelleth them ●hall find them very long And therefore I conceive we are much mistaken when we think that the entring of the Spirit of life into the Witnesses and their standing upon their feet and their ascending in a Cloud are matters that fall out suddenly and that follow close one upon the heels of another The slaying and rising of the Witnesses is a great part of that Story which is contained under the sixth Trumpet which soundeth several hundreds of years and yet you see not many things expressed during the time of its sounding Lastly That the rising of the Witnesses will be gradual is apparent by the gradual fall of the Beast for they cannot rise faster than he falls like as in two Well-buckets one cannot ascend faster than the other doth descend Autichrist you know hath been long ascending to his height and his Vertical point is at the time of the slaying of the Witnesses after which he will rise no higher but begin to descend yet so as that it will not be presently discerned no more than the declining of the Sun is forthwith observable after his height in Summer there is a Solstice or a stay or stand as it were of the Sun for a time after the longest day before the declension thereof is visible For even thus it is with the Kingdom of the Beast after the rising of the Witnesses And when that Kingdom of his doth decline visibly it will not fall suddenly but God will first begin with a tenth part thereof vers 13. as a pledge of the ruine of the whole City under the seventh Trumpet which will sound presently upon the back of the fall of the said tenth part But the descending of the Beast to his Center i. e. till he be cast into the Lake that burneth with fire and Brimstone will take up many years during which time the Church will still be ascending And therefore we must not think that when the Witnesses begin to arise they will presently no nor in a few years neither rise up to their heighth for they must ascend as Antichrist descendeth and that is gradually And by this we may collect that it is a mistake in such as think that when the Witnesses begin to arise we shall have Halcyon dayes in which the Saints shall begin to ride as it were in Triumph and see sorrow no more For surely