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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	bind_v	earth_n	loose_v	5,255	5	10.5190	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66360	Ho Antichristos the great antichrist revealed, before this time never discovered, and proved to be neither pope, nor Turk, nor any single person, nor the succession of any one monarch or tyrant in any policies, but a collected pack, or multitude of hypocritical, heretical, blasphemous, and most scandalous wicked men that have fulfilled all the prophesies of the Scriptures ... and especially have united ... together by a solemn league and covenant to slay the two witnesses of God, Moses and Aaron ... that is, the supreme magistrate of the Commonwealth, and the chief pastors and governours of the Church of Christ, and the Christian world is requested to judge whether the Assembly of Presbyterians consulting at Westminster, together with the independents, Anabaptists, and lay-preachers be not the false prophet ... and whether the prevalent faction of the long Parliament ... that killed the two witnesses of Jesus Christ, 1. Charles the First ... 2. William Laud ... be not the grosse and visible body of the same antichrist / by Gr. Williams.	Williams, Gryffith, 1589?-1672.	1660 (1660)	Wing W2662; ESTC R25201	504,825	313

of Expositors to make good their own conceits Esdras 14.41 to run unto tropes and figures when we may literally without tropes expound the same more agreeable unto the truth and without violence unto the Text therefore I conceive that the two Testaments cannot with any probability be understood by these two witnesses that are said to be killed by the beast and especially because they cannot be said to be the two Olive Trees or the anointed ones nor the two Candlesticks that hold up the light when as they are the light that these Candlesticks do hold nor to be confined to such a time as 1200 and 60 dayes when these two Testaments maugre all the malice of the Antichrist shall continue to the last day And therefore I do rather expound these two witnesses to be the preservers and the interpreters or preachers of these two Testaments that being living creatures Who are these two Witnesies that is 1. The King 2. The Bishop may be killed by this Beast and these are rightly termed the two Olive Trees or the two Sonnes of Oyl that is the anointed of God and the two Candlesticks that stand before the God of the Earth that is to hold up the light of the two Testaments to inlighten the Church of God with the truth of his holy word in despight of the Devill which is termed the God of the Earth And these preservers and Interpreters of these two Testaments are as E. H. truly observeth 1 Pet. 2.13 the civill Magistrates and the Ecclesiasticall Governours of Gods Church that is Moses and Aaron or the King as the supreme Magistrate and the Bishop as the chief Pastor that hath the oversight of the rest of the subordinate Ministers as St. Paul sheweth 1 Tim. 3. c. 4.1 for the King is custos utriusque tabulae the defender of the faith and obliged to take care as well of the Church and service of God as of the Commonwealth All good Kings took speciall care to have God truly served so Moses testifieth and so David Solomon Jehosophat Ezechias Josias and all the godly and good Kings of Israel and Judah had and so Constantine Theodosius and our own pious Princes Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles and all other good Christian Kings shewed that they took speciall care to see the truth purely preached and the service of God duly and rightly executed and therefore may most truly and literally without any trope or figure be said to be one of these two witnesses of Jesus Christ and the Bishop is to take upon him curam animarum the speciall care and charge of souls and the charge of them that are under him Act. 20.18 and undertook the charge of souls to see that they do carefully feed the flock of Christ whereof the Holy ghost hath made them overseers and therefore also the Bishops and the Ministers of Gods word may be rightly said and none can deny it to be the other witnesses of Jesus Christ and so Christ saith unto his Apostles and in them to all the Bishops that were to succeed the Apostles that they were his Witnesses Act. 1.8 and they should testifie and bear witness of him in Hierusalem and unto the uttermost parts of the Earth which they themselves could not do but in and by those Bishops that succeeded them in all the ordinary duties of the Apostles and therefore no forehead were it of Brasse can deny these to be the witnesses of Christ without blushing when Christ himself doth affirm it And so you see plainly Zechary 4.14 that these two which are indeed the Sonnes of the Olive Tree the two onely Offices and Callings that are the annointed of God and the two Candlesticks that hold up the light of the two Testaments the King by the strength of his Sword and the Bishops by the faithfull preaching of Gods word are the two witnesses of Jesus Christ and therefore well may the King and the inferiour Magistrates under him and the Bishop with his subordinate Clergy like Moses and Aaron the supreme Magistrate and the High Priest be rightly termed the two Witnesses of Jesus Christ in every Kingdom and Commonwealth Then after that the Angell had intimated unto the Apostle c. 11. v. 4. who are to be understood by these two Witnesses by terming them the two Olive Trees that is the two annoynted Officers of Gods Church and the two Candlesticks that do beare and uphold the true light of the Gospel unto the people he proceeds to shew the Power and Abilities c. 11. v. 5. 6. the gifts and Endowments that God would bestow upon them both for to inable them to build up the Temple that was measured that is to edifie and to enlarge the Christian Church and also to protect themselves against their Enemies and to punish those that should be refractory and to shew for how long a time they should freely and fairely enjoy this power and liberty to build this Church for saith the Angel these two Witnesses shall have power to poewr out fire out of their mouth Numbers 16. 2 Reg. 1. Jerem. 5.14 Their power was the same as Christ gave to his Apostles and God to Moses to destroy their Enemies that go about to hurt them and they shall have power to shut the Heavens that it raine not in the dayes of their Prophesie and they shall have power over waters to turn them to blood and to smite the earth with all Plagues as often as they will And these powers and Abilities are the very same that Christ had formerly given unto his Apostles and their successors the Bishops and Governors of his Church and the very same powers and abilities that God long before had given and granted unto Moses and to all his successors that supply his place and office the Kings and cheif Magistrates that are as he was to rule over and to govern Gods people for our Saviour tells St. Peter that he will give to him the Keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven that is of the Church which is the way that brings us to the Kingdome of Heaven and whatsoever he shall bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever he shall leose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven and this power he gave not only to St. Peter but also to all the rest of the Apostles and their Successors for ever as you may see in Math. 18. v. 18. and John the 20. v. 23. Math. 16.19 so Mr. Mede part 2. pag 11. And so according to this power granted unto the Apostles and Bishops that are the Governours of the Church and have the Keyes thereof the sentence of Excommunication or the shutting out of the Church and the delivery of the lewd and wicked refractory person unto Satan as the Apostle speaketh 1 Cor. 5.5 The sentence of excommunication is the fire and the key is the fire that proceedeth out of the mouth of

for which they are to receive this deadly doome in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone But in the aforesaid time of a 1000 yeares all from 630 to a 1630. Satan was tyed that he cold not rayse any bloody persecution against the Church though it cannot be denied but that the Church at this time did now and then persecute some of her own Children as the Waldenses and our Murtyres in Queen Maryes dayes and some others in other places which as the Church saith was but debita correctio propter indebitam contumaciam when as in the Arke of Moses That the Church hath often wrongfully persecuted her own Children there must be kept as well Aarons Rod for to Chastise the froward as the Heavenly Manna to refresh the wearied though in very deed the Church shewed her self herein many times not to be infallible when she reproved the Righteous and winked at the Wicked and oftentimes condemned the Righteous with the Wicked and sometimes more severely then the Wicked so that of many a Son of the Church we might justly say with the Poet The Church of Rome severely taxed for her cruelty Crudelis mater magis an puer improbus ille Improbus ilie puer crudelis tu quoque mater The Church was more to be blamed for her cruelty then her Children for their insolency And therefore for these and for other the like sins of the Church When the Lord suffered the Beast and the false Prophet to arise and to persecute the Church Revel 20.4 Of the 1000 years the Church should rest in quiet that were now come like the sins of the Amorites to the height and deserving just punishments for these unjust dealings And so for other the like Delinquencies of the professors of the Gospel the Lord was provoked hereby to let Satan loose to whip his Children for these misprisions and stepping out of the Wildernesse out of their place to follow after the World and their worldly profit and then the Dragon being let loose he begins afresh to persecute the Church with Fire and Sword and sends this Beast with his Emissaries and Assassins to slay the two Witnesses of Christ to destroy the true Members of the Church and to ruine all that he can beside and then St. John seeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Beast rising out of the Sea the which Beast I am now to describe unto you But before I proceed to the description of this Beast I do think it most requisite that I should say somewhat more for the clearing of the time when the 1000. That Satans 1000 years binding and the Saints 1000 years Reigning are the same Papias that received this Doct. of the Chiliasts was a man of small judgment as Eusebius Witnesseth l. 3. c. 35. When the 1000 years began and when ended if you take them for a determinar or set time and not as Fulke Deodat and others take them for a long but an indesinite time which I think is the smest exposition years wherein those souls that were beheaded for the Witness of Jesus should live and Reign with Christ and Satan should be bound that he might not persecute the Church with any bloody persecution for the faith of Christ which are both to be done in the same 1000 years should both begin and end And first That the 1000 years wherein Satan should be bound from persecuting the Church and the 1000. years wherein the Saints should live and reign with Christ are the very same 1000 years and not as the Chiliasts or Millenaries dream that Christ shall come either in his own person as some of them grossly think or else by his Spirit as others of them the more moderate men do say and reigne with them yet on earth a 1000 years it is so fully and learnedly shewed by that worthy and learned Divine Dr. Hammond that doth so in most of all his Writings that he worthily deserves to be loved and honoured of all the Church that for me to say any more were but arenas in littus fundere to write Iliads after Homer to no purpose when better cannot be said and more need not be said then what that worthy Scholar hath set down on the 20th chap. of the Revelat page 997. and so likewise what the reverend Author of the Revelation unrevealed hath therein set down to shew the fond conceits of these Chiliasts which are very excellently discovered per totum But for the time when those 1000 yeares both for the one and the other i. e. Satans binding and the Saints reigning should begin and be determined I shall humbly crave leave to dissent both from him and from all others that do subscribe to his opinion for whereas he conceiveth the same to begin either in 455. when by the Wars of Alaricus in 410. and of Attalas in 451. and of Gensericus in 455. Heathenisme and Idol Worship was fully destroyed in Rome and Christianity became Victorious over it And to end when Mahomet the second took Constantinople in 1455. or as some say in 1453. or else as he rather thinks they began in 311. or thereabouts when Constantine receiving the Christian faith concluded the persecutions of the Church and by an imperiall decree proclaimed Liberty and immunities to Christianity and ended about 1311 when the Ottoman Family began to flourish and to over-run Greece and to bring Mahometisme into Asia though Mariana inclines rather to the other opinion that his Imprisonment began after Rome was taken by the Goths and after Momillus that was termed Augustulus the last Emperor of the West was driven away by Odoacer the King of the Heruli which was about 477. and so must end in 1477. I answer The former opinion answered and rejected that although Constantine for this time freed the Church from all Heathenish persecutions and then immediately the two Olive Trees and the two Candlesticks to whom were given indeed before on the day of Pentecost such gifts as inabled them to instruct and to inlighten the Church with a very good and competent measure of true light were now furnished with a larger measure and with such abilities as were sufficient to inlighten her with the light of the Gospel and to feed her in the Wilderness that is to governe her in a far better manner then ever they did or cold do before and though after this in the time of Theodosius about 382 they were fully inabled to inlighten her with the great and glorious light of the Sun yet was not Satan bound all this while nor a good while after this for when he saw how by the Ministery of these two Olive Trees the two Witnesses of Christ that were now so well furnished with abilities to build the Temple that the Angel commanded to be measured the Church began to bring forth Christ most plentifully in her Children and was like to do the same more and more he sought to devoure this Child That the Church

was grievously afflicted and persecuted long after Constantines time that is Christ which was brought forth by the Church in her Members and he used all his slights and devices to that purpose And through his Instruments persecuted and destroyed many a Christian man and therefore the Soules beheaded for Jesus did not as yet live in their successors and reigne with Christ nor was Satan bound from persecuting the Church when as he beheaded and killed them still and stirred up not only Constantius the Son of Constantine to be a great persecutor of the Orthodox Christians and Julian the Apostata his Cosen German and immediate successor to be greater then he but also the Arian Kings both of the Huns Goths and Vandalls that invaded Italy sacked Rome entred into Africa besieged Hippo and brought such infinite troubles and miseries upon the Church that Rupertus and Haymo considering the Cruelties of Gensericus against the true Christians Bishops and Priests and all that would not renounce the true faith and become Arians by putting many of them to death Victor l. de Vandalica persecutione and banishing others as Victor sheweth did find in him the number of the Beast 666 and therefore thought he might be the Antichrist and Attila stiled himself * Mundzuccus orbis terror and flagellum Dei the terror of the world and the scourge of God and about the same troublesome times the donatists swarmed in Africa and as St. Augustine sheweth brought an infinite deal of vexations upon the Church as did other Tyrants and Hereticks in other places which were wel-nigh as bloody and as cruel if not altogether as bad persecutions of the Church as formerly the Heathen Tyrants brought upon it Apoc. 11.3 Beza in loc And therefore the words of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and I will give not Illud nor Illam as Beza saith but power unto my two Witnesses as our last English Translation hath it and they shall Prophesy 1200 and 60. dayes are to be understood to begin then or immediately after to be fulfilled when Phocas granted that power and preheminence unto Boniface the third Bishop of Rome Revel 20.4 Satan was bound and the Saints began to reigne with Christ after Phocas in Heraclius his time about 620. or 630. that the Sword of Satan had neither edge strength nor ability to suppress the word of God nor to abate one jot of the power of the Witnesses but that the Church her Governours were freed from all fear of Tyrants and judgments were given unto the Saints that is they which formerly were haled to be judged and condemned at the Barrs of their Enemies have now quiet possession of judicatures and censures to punnish and condemne the refractory which Ecclesiasticall discipline cold never be free from persecution nor be executed so freely and so justly as it ought to be so long as the Church was awed and her Governours suppressed and terrified either by the Heathen or the Arian Tyrants or by any other temporall Potentate or civill power of the Infidels that could master them for though as I said before Christ immediately after his ascension 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gave gifts to his witnesses Ephes 4.8 to inable them to prophesie and in and after Constantines time they had free leave to prophesie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a far better manner and condition then before and a more plentifull measure of Gods spirit and assistance to beget Children more plentifully unto Christ and afterwards in Anno 395. Christian Religion tryumphed over the Gods of the Heathen when Theodosius first overcame Eugenius and Argobastus the two Standard-bearers of the Dragon and took away the College of the Idoll Pontifices and as Zosimus saith defaced the Temples of the Idolls which Constantine had onely shut and Julian had opened again yet in all this while he gave them not that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 power so to prophesie and so to rule the Church as that they could not be resisted or hindered by any Heathen Potentate King or Emperour nor did he give the same power unto them untill Phocas his time Speed in vita Henrici 2. which then they had and held it alwayes after in their hands 1000 years at the least and indeed used it in a far higher measure against Christian Kings then God gave them leave to do as it appeareth not onely in the lives of the succeeding Emperours but also in our own Chronicles as specially by the passages betwixt Hen. 2. and Bishop Becket and the like And therefore the Saints 1000 years reigning and ruling with Christ and Satans 1000 years binding that he could not hinder the Church to rule did then begin either about the end of Phocas or rather in Heraclius Reign about the year of Christ six hundred twenty or six hundred thirty for Heraclius reigned 30 years Satans 1000 years binding ended in King Charles his Reign about Anno 1630. and died 641. and must end just in King Charles his time when the Devills Chain was broken all to pieces and Satan let loose like a roaring Lion to devour both King and Priest the two faithfull witnesses of Jesus Christ and abundance more of Gods true Servants throughout all Christendom And that for their Religion the profession of the true faith and the right service of God which was done no where else at no time before nor by any other instrument of Satan since the determination of the Heathen Tyrants and the Arian persecutions for though the Turks invaded Greece and took Constantinople and brought thither the Mahometan Religion as a just punishment and the first woe upon those Hereticall Churches yet it is most certain that this their invasion was libidine dominandi as Alexander entred into Persia and the Romans warred upon their Neighbours to gain their Territories through their ambition and greedy desire of bearing rule * Which doth so infinitely bewitch the mindes of men as Camerarius sheweth l. 5. c. 8. per totum for to inlarge their Dominion not so much for the suppressing of the Christian Religion or the inlargement of their own idolatrous superstition when we finde the Turks do now as the Romans did of old permit all Religions both Jewes and Christians Orthodox and Heterodox to live and to live peaceably amongst them and to exercise each one their own Religion without any disturbance so they pay their alotted taxations and submit themselves unto their Lawes in a civill Government which cannot properly be said to be a persecution of the Christians qua Christians and because they do profess the Christian Religion but rather a worldly desire of Dominion That the Turks invasion was not for the suppression of the Christian Religion but for the desire of dominion and so we read that Almanzor the great Mahometan Emperour which being interpreted signifieth the defender of the Law of God meaning the Alcoran that Hozman the Husband of

given to this eighth which are not attributed to any of the other seven and therefore makes it plaine that none of all the Emperors or Kings can be understood by this eight for first It is said that this eight is the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit and this is said of none of the other seven Secondly It is said that they that dwell on the earth shall wonder when they behold the beast which is not said at the beholding of any of the others For so the Originall is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kings or Emperors Thirdly It is said of this eight that he is of the seven and not one of the seven as our English Translation hath it and this is not said of any of the other seven Fourthly It is said of this eight that he shall goe into perdition which in like manner is not said of any of the other seven and Fifthly As I noted before when the Holy Ghost speaketh of this 8th he saith and the beast that was and is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Bible renders even he and none other is the eighth mark it well Therefore I conclude that this eighth can be none of the foresaid Emperours nor any of all the Kings or Emperours of the world of whom none of these things is said that are said of this eighth who is no where said to be a King or to weare a Crown or to have any speciall Ensign either of King or Emperour and I conceive Who were the five Kings that were fallen 1. Caligula that by the 5 Kings which were then fallen we may understand the 5 greatest persecutors that lived and reigned after Christ his ascention and before this Prophesie was revealed unto our Evangelist and I take them to be 1. Caius Caligula that most vitious and bloody Tyrant who wished that all the Citizens of Rome had but one neck that he might chop it off at one blow and whom Grotius makes the man of sin and others do assent unto him 2 Claudius Tiberius 2. Claudius that banished both the Jewes and the Christians out of Rome 3. Domitius 3. Nero Nero that Monster of men that crucifie St. Peter and beheaded St. Paul within a year one of another and when he had burned a great part of the City of Rome that he might see how Troy burnt when it was taken by the Grecians to put off the blame from himself he layed the fault upon the Christians and persecuted them for the same 4. 4. Vespasian Vespasian that besieged Hierusalem and first began the Warre against the Jewes that brought abundance of miseries upon the Christians 5. 5. Titus Titus that utterly destroyed both their Temple and their City and therein many Christians as well as Jewes The Holy Ghost omitting the other three Emperours Galba 7. months Otho 4. M. Vitellius 8. M. Galba Otho and Vitellius as men that although they had been never so wicked yet in so short a space as they raigned when as all three raigned but one year and 7 moneths they could do no such great mischief unto his Church as deserved to inrole them in the Catalogue of the most noted persecutors And by that one 6. Then in being Domitian which is said then to be I do with Junius understand Flavius Domitian who caused this our Apostle to be throwen into a Tunne of boyling Oyl at Rome and afterwards seeing how the goodness of God preserved him therein 7. Julian the Apostata so that he took no more harm then the three Children did in the fiery Furnace or Daniel in the Lions Den he spared his life but banished him into the Isle of Patmos where this Revelation was shewed unto him and by the 7th I do absolutely conclude him to be Julian the Apostata Reason 1 1. Because that although Dioclesian was the cruellest the bloodiest of all the former persecutors yet the Holy Ghost saith the other that is not yet come which was the 7th when he cometh must continue but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a short space and we find that Dioclesian reigned 19 years before his persecution began and in all 25 years whereas Julian continued but 3 years at the most and therefore Dioclesian that continued so long cannot be meant Reason 2 2. Because that although the Christians under Deoclesian Decius Trajan and the other persecutors endured more cruel tortures and were far more in number * Scribit Damasus in vita Marcellini ut Supra 17 millia Christianorum intra unum mensem a Diaclesiano inter fecta tormented by these Tyrants then they were to be at any time either before or after yet quia sanguis martyrum semen Ecclesiae because the blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church and causeth it to bring forth fruits more abundantly when as the cruelty of the Tyrants made the Christians the more constant in their profession and so could not do so much prejudice to the Christian Faith and Religion as Julian did for though Julian was not so bloody and so cruel as Dioclesian that forbad Charity to be shewed to the Christians that were in prison and even to those Vide Eusebium lib. 8. c. 2.3 et deinceps that they were bound to pitty by the Law of nature their Kindred nor did put the Saints to such ceuel deaths and tortures as the other his preceding persecutors were wont to do yet was he more devillish and far liker to overthrow Gods Church and to root out Christianity from off the earth then all the former Heathen persecuters were for as I said the more cruel they were against the Christians The two things that increased the Christian Religion 1. The constancy of the Martyrs 2. The Charity of the Christians the more did Christianity increase insomuch that as Sozomen saith Christiana religio propter constantiam martyrum Christianorum erga omnes cujusvis religionis beneficentiam longe lateque propagata est the Christian Religion by reason of the constancy of the Martyrs and the Charity of the Christians towards all men of what Religion soever they were spread it self far and neer when as the beholding of a poor Christian Woman so constantly and so manfully suffering Martyrdome for the faith of Christ moved a King and all his Family to become Christians which very point might be the Reason that all the other bloody Tyrants that were so succeed Domitian were pretermitted and not mentioned here by the Holy Ghost as upon the maine bringing no great detriment to the whole Church that gaineth thus much and more one way as she looseth another way But when the Tiger Julian that dealt like a Fox in all his wayes and perceived the issues of the former cruelties well enough and therefore with-held his hands from blood Socrates lib. 3. c. 10. and used his wit to root out the Christian