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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	scripture_n	tradition_n	unwritten_a	5,821	5	12.7929	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78030	The sounding of the two last trumpets, the sixt and seventh or Meditations by way of paraphrase upon the 9th. 10th. and 11th. Chapters of the Revelation, as containing a prophecie of these last times. / Digested by Henry Burton during his banishment, and close imprisonment in the isle of Guernsey.	Burton, Henry, 1578-1648.	1641 (1641)	Wing B6172; Thomason E174_1; ESTC R6165	58,961	100

with the same spirit namely such as prophesie against the Beast and his Throne and all those that by their constant profession of the Truth and refusing communion with the Beast doe become thereby the witnesses of Christ For the Beast wars with the Saints Chap. 13.7 But what be those weapons and what those forces wherewith this Beast warreth against Christs witnesses and Gods Saints Surely hee useth all manner of weapons whereby to execute his beastly cruelty And these may be reduced to two kindes The Spirituall Sword and the Temporall Sword His Spirituall Sword is the brute Thunderbolt of his execrable Excommunication direfull Curses and dreadfull Courts as his Court of Inquisition and of High Commission and other his Prelaticall and Hierarchicall Courts which are so many Dens wherin this hideous Beast once inclosing the Saints doth prey upon them he and his Cubs But if this his Sword prove not strong enough as meeting with some mettle too tough for it to ●●●rce then he can command with a wet finger the helpe of the Temporall Sword which is like Tamberlains black and bloudy Banner which being displayed by the Beasts power and inspired with his fiery-mettled spirit breathes nothing but either fire and faggot or Pillory with shedding of bloud perpetuall close imprisonment banishment and all other evils of this life more bitter and cruell by many degrees than death it selfe And this is his kinde of warre But how comes he to do these things by the help of the Temporall Power when commonly all his proceedings are without either law or colour of justice except according to the Beasts owne lawlesse Law For this hee wants not his devices for hee will so contrive the matter and lay his snares as either the innocent being brought into the Temporall Court where also he himself wil sit a Judge and where his spirit is wondrously predominant shall be forced to assent to the condemnation of his own cause before the hearing or else if hee refuse so to doe he shall be censured as guiltie of all those hainous crimes laid to his charge though never so false and maliciously devised yea hee can so handle the businesse as the censure shall be agreed upon and concluded before ever his day of hearing come and when it is come his Legall Defence shal never be heard This needs no application And this is the Beasts manner of warring right nor should it be properly the Beasts warre were it not altogether bestiall void of all Law or conscience or honesty or humanitie And ever his mayn forces and battery are bent against the two witnesses namely such as doe constantly testifie and maintain the Prerogative of Christs Kingly Government over his Church against the Beasts proud and tyrannicall usurpations and the truth of the Gospel and Word of Christ against all Antichrists lyes and the authoritie and sufficiencie of the Holy Scripture against the Beasts unwritten Traditions and Ecclesiasticall Canons the authoritie whereof hee preferreth above and opposeth against the Law of God As for all wicked prophane and impious persons his Holines hath no quarrell against them for either they are such as belong to the Beasts Den or at least though they be not of it yet they are not much against it Thus he warreth Secondly as the Beast warreth against the witnesses so hee shall overcome them How shall hee overcome them Their faith and testimony hee shall not overcome so as to force them to recant or desert their cause or betray their conscience For Chap. 12.11 those on Christs side overcame the Dragon by the bloud of the Lamb and by the word of their Testimonie and they loved not their lives unto the death Nor shal the Beast be able to overcome them by force of arguments and reasoning for he is a Beast yea the Beast of all Beasts his Arguments are fire and faggot Pillory and bloud-shed as before down-right club-law or a push with his ten q Revel 17.12 hornes or a by-back-blow with his paw So as thus hee comes to get the conquest over their bodies indeed he can shut them close up hee can pillory them hee can mangle and torture them and a thousand ways subdue r Matth. 10.28 their bodies but can doe no more Luke 12.4 Not only so but in the third place hee shall kill them Famous is the Beast for his infinite bloudy victories over Christs Witnesses in this kinde by putting them to death But now there is a twofold kind of death which he puts them to The first is by a violent separation of their soule from their bodie as in the flames of Martyrdome This hath bin the Beasts practice of old But this subtile Dragon finding by experience that his kingdome rather suffered damage this way then wonne any ground and that it proved rather an advantage to his Adversaries and brought much hatred to his barbarous cruelty in so putting them to death hee hath found out another kinde of death and that though not in show yet indeed farre more cruell than the other and that is by a violent and perpetuall separation of a living man from all the delights comforts and contentments in the World from his wife and children from his meanes and livelihood friends and acquaintance from the Communion of Saints yea from all societie of men and in a word from all the means of comfort in this life Spirituall or Temporall So as a man in this case may be said to be killed or deprived of life when he is deprived of all those things without which life cannot well be called a life but a death rather or such a life as that in hell where not one drop of comfort is allowed to those tormented souls And as dead men neither see nor heare nor speake nor write nor have any commerce with the living So these may neither see their living friends nor heare from them by letters nor speake nor write unto them nor have any commerce with them Thus far dead they be And in this sense we have seen some eminent Witnesses of Christ yet living in their close Prisons in remote Lands thus to bee killed in these our dayes Which being so may it not bee one evident signe that we are now in the sixt Trumpet wherein wee have seene so many things to be come to passe and fulfilled so particularly set forth in this Prophecie It followeth Verse 8. Verse 8. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great Citie which spiritually is called Sodome and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and Nations shall see their dead bodies three dayes and a halfe and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoyce over them and make merry and shall send gifts one to another because these two Prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth Now these dead bodies as we said before may

in our time that we neede not doubt but that this is the time of the Sixt Trumpet under which wee now live How are the godly and painfull Ministers of God in England misused their mouths stopped their wives children and families dispossessed and cast out of their habitations all holy and true professors among the People vexed wearied and even worried by the Pursivants and courts of Prelates so as they are forced many of them to forsake their houses and sweete native country to go seeke for refuge among wild beasts and wilde Salvages and wilde deserts b Heb. 11.37 38. wandring up and down as the Apostle speakes in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth of whome the world is not worthy c. Thus is not the holy City trodden under foote of these Gentiles yea worse then the old Gentiles the Babylonian Beast and his broode having lost all humanity and all the properties of reasonable men like c Dan. 4. Nabuchadnezzar when he grazed among the beasts of the field when nothing will satisfie them but the utter desolation and extirpation of the Saints of God and of all holinesse What neede then have Gods people to cry and pray with David d Psal 83.1 2 3 4. Keepe not thou silence o God hold not thy peace and be not still O God For loe thine enemies make a tumult and they that hate thee have lift up the head They have taken crafty counsell against thy people and consulted against thy hidden ones They have said come let us cut them off from being a Nation that the name of Israell may bee no more in remembrance For they have consulted together with one consent they are confederate against Thee But do thou unto them as unto the Madianites as to Sisera c. as it followeth to the end of the Psalme Let them be confounded and troubled for ever let them be put to shame and perish that men may know that thou whose name alone it Jehovah art the most high over al the earth But e Psal 94.3 4 5 6 7. how long shall these wicked thus triumph How long shall they utter and speak hard things and all the workers of iniquitie boast themselves How long shall they breake in pieces thy people O Lord and affl●ct thine heritage How long shall they slay the Widow and the stranger and murther the fatherlesse How long shall these Atheists say The Lord shal not see neither shal the God of Jacob regard it How long shall these Gentiles thus tread under foot the holy Citie of our God It is said here Two and forty moneths Surely as the words doe sound no very long time Two and forty moneths make up three yeers and a halfe and not much more then those thousand two hundred and threescore days in the next Verse Now whether these forty two moneths be taken literally and strictly or whether they signifie some longer or shorter time is uncertain to us this we may certainly build upon that the time of Antichrists afflicting of Gods Church under this Trumpet shall not be long But this number of forty and two moneths being so precisely laid downe as containing three yeeres and a halfe we may be the bolder to take it literally for this space of time Nor is it unusuall in Scripture so to number according to the strict letter thereof as of Israels affliction in Egypt from Abrahams calling just foure hundred and thirtie yeeres and the Jews Captivitie in Babylon just seventy yeeres And in Daniel f Dan. 7.25 A time times and halfe or part of a time is taken for three yeers and part of the fourth wherein that proud King Antiochus who was a type of Antichrist should and did afflict the people of God A time or times being interpreted by Daniel himselfe to bee so many g Dan. 4.16 11.13 yeers The like phrase whereunto wee have Revel 12.14 that the Church should be persecuted of the Dragon a time times and halfe a time Which is to bee interpreted according to those times in Daniel three yeers and a halfe And hereupon it is that the Jesuits as Bellarmine and others stand so stiffe that Antichrists Reigne shall continue but three yeeres and a halfe by which they think to excuse the Pope from being Antichrist But it will not serve their turn For we easily grant that three yeers and a halfe being the summe of fortie and two moneths is that space of time wherein the Beast out of the bottomlesse pit that Antichrist shall afflict Gods Church under this sixt Trumpet And so likewise this space of time doth answer that time times and part of time wherein Antiochus the type of Antichrist afflicted the ancient people of God which was a good part of three yeeres and a halfe as Tremelius well sheweth in his notes upon Daniel And if we consider the practices of Antiochus in that time and compare them with Antichrists practices in this sixt Trumpet we shall find a marvellous correspondence between them Now of Antiochus Daniel saith h Dan 7.25 He shall speak great words against the most High and shal weare out the Saints of the most High and think to change times and Laws and they shall be given into his hand untill a time and times and the dividing of time Whereupon Tremellius notes that this Antiochus was most blasphemous against God and a most cruell Tyrant over Gods people in so much as he took upon him and did arrogate unto himselfe divine authoritie in abolishing the Sabbaths and other Laws of God and did institute and impose new Laws and Ceremonies according to his owne humour and pleasure Now what doth Antichrist and his Limbes the Prelates in these our days Doe they not most proudly i See the Prelate of Canterbury his last Book throughout toge●her wi●h all his practices arrogate to themselves divine authoritie and impiously blaspheme God and Christ in saying Christ thought it fittest to appoint them as his Viceroys in governing his Church Doe they not hereupon beare themselves as so many gods sitting in Christs throne imposing their owne devices Ceremonies Canons upon the consciences of Gods people Doe they not vilifie the holy Scripture as an insufficient and imperfect Rule of Faith and preferre the Tradition of their prelaticall Church before it Doe they not abrogate the moralitie of the fourth Commandement as not binding us Christians to keep the Lords day for our Sabbath day Do they not dispense with the profanation of it by most licentious and lascivious Sports and Pastimes to all youth and others thereby also dispensing with the fifth Commandement when Masters may not restrain their own Servants nor Parents their Children from their laudable Sports as they call them that day Doe they not forbid Ministers to preach twice on that day Doe they not altogether forbid sound preaching of the doctrines of Grace And do they not i Dan. 7.25 weare out

as no true Churches of Christ And because his single word which is his best and only argument may the better passe without controule hee goes about tooth and naile to cry downe the sufficiencie of the Scriptures as being an imperfect rule of it selfe to measure the Church by And this his Booke he hath beene so bold as to dedicate to the King and makes it the faith of his Church of England as professing one Faith and Religion with Rome Is it not high time then for some John or other faithful Ministers of Christ to rise and take the measuring Reed in his hand Gods Word and therewith exactly measure the Temple of God Christs Church that it may be distinguished and differenced from all false pretended Churches and in especiall from the Antichristian Hierarchie the prelaticall Catholike Church as the d In his last reprinted Conference Epist Dedic p. 16. and elsewhere in his Book Prelate cals his Church in which Catholike his Church of England and of Rome are both one and the same Church No doubt of that They be the Prelats owne words So as when the Prelate was so Zealous to bring Scotland to a conformitie with England and when the Scots read in his Book Englands conformitie with Rome as to be one Church and to professe one Faith and Religion with Rome might not this trow you startle and move the Scots to expell and repell to thrust out and keepe out at the Speares point this Conformity And so might not the Prelates false Hierarchicall Catholike Church excluding all Protestant Reformed Churches from being any true Churches of Christ justly incense the Zealous hearts of Scotland seeing Christ thus to be dishonoured and thrust out of his Throne and Antichrists Prelates to be so mounted aloft to cast out such usurping Lords that so none but Christ according to his Word and the Lords Anointed according to his just Laws might rule over them Thus we see how necessary this measuring of the Temple is under this sixt Trumpet and what a cleere note it is of the time wherein this sixt Trumpet is sounded So as we may boldly say upon such cleere evidence that now is the time of the sixt Trumpet when there is such need of measuring the Temple with the Reed thereby to know and vindicate and separate Christs true Church from all counterfeit and Antichristian Churches that at this time doe so boast themselves for the only true Catholike Church of Christ As in Chrysostome the uncertaine Authour upon Matthew Chap. 24. hath observed Let them which are in Iudea flee to the Mountains that is saith hee let all true Christians flie to the Scriptures for in the time of Antichrist it will bee impossible to know the true Church from the false but only by the Scriptures So hee But the said Prelate of Canterburie rejects the Scripture from being a sufficient and perfect measuring Reed of the Temple and good reason because on the one side the Prelate makes the Hierarchie to be of the very essence of the Catholike Church and on the other side the Scripture no where approveth of Prelacie or of Diocesan Lord Bishops it knows none such yea and both e Matth. 20. 1 Pet. 5. 3 Iohn 9.10 Christ forbade it to his Apostles and they afterwards never practised it themselves but expresly condemned it in all as in the Reply to the Prelates Relation the Author hath cleerly proved Come wee now to the measuring of the Altar As the Temple and Tabernacle under the Law had their just measures and Dimensions prescribed of God so also the Leviticall Altar Now under the Law there was but one Altar one for burnt offerings and one for incense both these as one were types and figures of Christ the true and only Altar under the Gospell For as the Altar under the Law did Sanctifie every guift and offering upon it as Exod. 29.37 and Mat. 23.19 so Christ is to us that only Altar on which wee offering our selves and our Spiritual Sacrifices both are Sanctified and accepted of God This is that Altar Heb. 13.10 of which the Apostle saith We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eate which serve the Tabernacle That this Altar is Christ and only Christ is cleer because He being come who is the true Altar the typicall altar must altogether cease Otherwise those who still served the Tabernacle might have had right to eate of our Altar could the Type and the Truth have consisted together And the Apostle expresly applyes this Altar which wee Christians have to Christ as Verse 11 12 13 15. where he showes the proper use of this Altar in sanctifying our offerings concluding and saying By him therefore let us offer the Sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name By him that is by Christ our Altar in his Name we must offer up all our Sacrifices that so they may be Sanctified and accepted of God This is so cleere that no sober Divine that understands any thing at all can deny So as the measuring of the Altar here is as the measuring of the Temple whereof wee have spoken before the vindicating of Christ to be the true and only Altar of true Christians And this is a dutie enjoyned all faithfull Ministers and especially under this Sixt Trumpet in these our very times wherein we have seen such furious Romish Zeale in hoysing up of Altars every where and boldly maintaining both in f Doct. Pock in his Altare l. Christianum Rather Dam●scenum Books and Sermons the necessary use of such their devised Altars of wood and stone as without which God cannot be served nor their Sacrifices sanctified wheras these their Altars with al their Altar-service worship of mās devising are not only derogatory from Christ the only true Altar but also a flat deniall of Christ and a very Masse of all Heathenish impietie and atheisticall infidelitie and Antichristian apostacie For that multitude of wooden and stone altars which our Prelates do erect in all their Churches are taken rather from the Heathen as King g 2 Kings 16. Ahaz and his Priest framed their Altar according to the pattern of that at Damascus or from Rome which took them from the Heathen or from the Iews but if they say they take them from the Jewes as they doe many other of their Rites then they very much forget themselves and that in two mayne points first because the Church of the Iewes had but h 2 Chro. 32.12 one altar for Incense and Sacrifice and that was at Ierusalem they might not set up Altars in any other place so as in their seventy yeeres captivitie in Babylon they had no altar there and at this day the Temple and Altar at Ierusalem being demolished they have no Altar as no Sacrifice or Incense So as no Jerusalem and no Temple there no Altar now of wood or stone or any other matter or