Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	bondage_n	fear_n	life_n	4,336	5	4.4939	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45910	An enquiry into the vision of the slaying and rising of the vvitnesses and falling of the tenth part of the city: with a post-script concerning the controversie about the duty of allegiance, occasion'd by our late revolution.		1692 (1692)	Wing I219A; ESTC R221618	33,382	51

the powers of darkness and they exercise no power but by Him as our Saviour tells Pilate Thou couldst have no power against me except it was given thee from above For though they yield no voluntary obedience by observing his Laws yet they are under his Government and Restraint in the exercise of that power wherewith they pursue their wicked Inclinations Whereby he makes them Instruments of fulfilling his will when they rebel against Him And the Heavenly station of power which the devil possest in the Heathen Empire of Rome described Rev. 12. by a great red Dragon in Heaven having seven Heads and ten Horns and seven Crowns on his Heads c. does shew his dominion to be by Authority and not by Usurpation as also does the reviving of his Kingdom in the Ten-horned-beast cap. 13. To whom he gave his Power and Seat and great Authority And though the dominion of the despotick Rulers under him is by this Author but his usurpt Empire yet by the Scripture it 's the Authority of God as appears by what is said of Cyrus Esa 45. and by Nebuchadnezzar being told by Daniel That God had given him a Kingdom Power Strength and Glory cap. 2.37 and by his being called God's Servant into whose hands he gave the Nations c. Jer. 27.6 So that though this Author will allow such Rulers to reign but by God's permission yet they are authorized thereunto by his concurrence to their advancement as will after more fully appear But it seems to this Author a Reflexion on the divine Justice and Goodness to make such destructive Rulers God's Authority but it will not appear so if we look on them as Ministers of his wrath whom he hath ordained for Judgment and established for Correction And therefore it 's strange that this Author should allow a destructive power to be of God's appointment for punishment and that therefore though it 's not irresistible upon the account of divine Authority yet it 's to be born with till God accomplish his pleasure on those he scourges with it p. 29. and yet that he should not allow such power to be God's Authority tho' so appointed by Him for the exercising that power given by him to that end on those who by following their own waies become meet to reap such fruit of their doings For whenas the Wickedness of the old World was so great as to make God repent that he made Man ●n the Earth and therefore to destroy that World and instead of Reformation the new World became immersed deeper in corruption God desisting from further striving by his Spirit with sinful Flesh as he had done with the old World Gen. 6.3 though He would not destroy it again as before by reason of the ●…ppy end he designed to put to the wicked and miserable state of it by his coming Who should make Reconciliation for Iniquity ●nd bring in everlasting Righteousness yet till then as the World ●as become more lyable to death which is the Wages of Sin ●…an the old World so it was subjected to him Who hath the ●…r of death committed to him thro' fear of which he makes men 〈◊〉 their life time subject to bondage under such destructive powers 〈◊〉 govern onely by serpentine wisdom or worldly policy for sa●…fying their Ambition and other boundless Lusts Hence the ●…ur Beasts signifying the four great Monarchies Dan. 7. do arise ●…t of the Sea as also does the Ten-horned-beast Rev. 13. in ●…p 17.8 cap. 11.7 he ascends out of the Bottomless-pit 〈◊〉 also do the Locusts signifying the Saracen Empire come thence ●…p 9. Which Sea and Bottomless-pit denote the Spirit of domination in worldly Rulers acted by the Spirit of the world under the Prince thereof and the Abyss of insatiable Lusts they are sunk into whereby they overflow and overwhelm the world in Thraldom under the bondage of Corruption being upheld in such domination by those Floods of ungodly Men who are the power of Hell or of that Spirit which worketh in the Children of Disobedience and thereby become the Waters that make great and the deep that sets on high those Rulers in their despotick dominion Hence he under whom they thus rule is called Leviathan the piercing crooked Serpent and the Dragon that is in the Sea Esa 27.1 and the destroying his dominion is signified by There shall be no more Sea Rev. 21.1 Since therefore Man by Apostacy became subject to Apostate Angels those Principalities and Powers and Rulers of the darkness of this World c. who gave rise to the unnatural despotick dominion whereby to establish the Kingdom of darkness in the World it 's evident that worldly Rulers under those powers can have no Authority or Right to rule but what is founded on their Power that is their Right is their Power which they gain over lapsed Mankind which by falling from God's Rule over them or deserting their Obedience to Him become so deserted of him and given over to the Ministers of his wrath whose Power is not usurpt by God's permission which as shewed before does clash with his providence as Governour of the World but is given to them by Him for fulfilling his Righteous Will on those who by revolting from Him become meet to be subjected to such Rulers For how wicked soever are the inclinations of such Rulers yet they continue so under the rule of God's power when faln from his moral rule over them as not to be able to commit any evil without his concurrence by giving way or letting them loose thereunto whereby he is the Author of the deed done though not of the evil committed in the doing it As when wild Beasts let loose by their Keepers commit destruction though it be wholly their deed yet the Keeper by reason of his letting them loose is an Author thereof But God does further concur in the Advancing of worldly Rulers to dominion by aiding them with His Power and withdrawing if from them outed by them Whence he is said to gird and loose the Loyns of Princes when he does invest them with Power and devest them thereof Thus did He gird Cyrus though he had not known him and having invested him thus with Power by reason of which he is called Gods Anointed to subdue Nations c. He loosed the Loins of Kings before him Esa 45.5.1 And when he devested Nebuchadnezzar of his Power it 's said to him from Heaven Thy Kingdom is departed from thee and when he re-invested him with it Nebuchadnezzar saies not onely My reason returned to me but also For the glory of my Kingdom my Honour and Brightness returned to me and my Counsellors and Lords sought unto me and I was established in my Kingdom and excellent Majesty was added to me Dan. 4. And of God's investing Princes thus with Power and again devesting them thereof speaks Job cap. 12. ver 18 19. c. And whereas rightful legal Princes are agreed to be the Power of God

needs strike the evil World with some ●…ead of that Divine Power so wonderfully manifested in its ●…dgments But the Contemplation thereof was such reviving ●…d animating of the Witnesses which might be with a due ●…passion of the evils inslicted by those Judgments and an ●…ancing of their Repute and Interest as to complete the set●…g them on their feet from their slain condition Which begat in their Adversaries such fear of them fulfill●…g what is said of the Witnesses raised again on their feet That ●…t fear fell on them that saw them as brought the Penal Laws 〈◊〉 them to suppress and hath since begotten many politick Arts 〈◊〉 keep them under and hinder their ascending in a Cloud to 〈◊〉 Heaven of Power whether the great Voice ver 12. does 〈◊〉 them Notwithstanding which they have continued still e●…ging in the World and will do so till that Voice be ful●…ed And as our late Revolution hath gained them that Li●…ty which is like to be so holding as to prove an open Door ●…em which no man can shut so it seems designed also for the ●…illing that Voice and thereby accomplishing the Fall of the ●…th Part of the City though the same be hitherto much ob●…cted by continuance still of the former Enmity against them and Jealousies of them notwithstanding the great detriment the Publick receives thereby Though this Vision thus concerns our Nation as it chiefly respects one of the ten Kingdoms the Empire was divided into as before noted yet it hath also a concurrent fulfilling in other Countries where the afore mentioned design against the Reformed Religion on the Restauration c. hath been pursued to the utmost whereby as the slaying of the Witnesles hath been fulfilled with them so there hath and will be a fulfilling of their Resurrection by the aforesaid Judgment that now sits at the end of time and times c. To take away the dominion of the Beast and to consume it unto the end This Account of the slaying and rising of the Witnesses as respecting one of the ten Kingdoms c. is further confirmed from the Persecution here which succeeded the Restauration it s better agreeing with the slaying of the Witnesses than those Persecutions which then and since have faln out elsewhere coming short of their barbarous Inhumanity though so severe and heavy as to prove ruinous to many and so better answering to the slaying the Witnesses which is different from the former Antichristian Persecutions both as being peculiar to the Witnesses the Worshippers in the Inner-Court or Temple and Altar whereas the former extends also to the Outer-Court trodden down and as being not so much designed to destroy as to silence and subdue importing a political and a spiritual Death viz. as to their exercising their Function of Prophesying from whence they are raised by the Spirit of LIFE entring into them c. Also the Persecution here is more likely than any elsewhere to be the slaying the Witnesses because the Sufferers under it were such as espoused the Cause they were engaged in upon their own Judgment and Choice and much contrary to their worldly Interest both in respect of their excluding themselves thereby from Preferments and also exposing themselves to manifold evils from Punishment of Laws and Enmity of their prevailing Adversaries Whereas the Persecution in France and elsewhere being against a Religion so long established by Law that the Professors of it received it by Education it was therefore like a National Religion which involves all Professors true or false and so had multitudes in its Communion not so much from Principles of Conscience as the Influence of Education whereby the Truth was not so rooted in their hearts as to enable them to abide those Tryals that came upon them But this Account of the slaying and rising of the Witnesses tho' enforced with so strong Reasons will not be easily digested by those who so highly esteem the Reformation as to make the breaking then with Rome to be a dismembring us from the Ten-horned-beast or a separating this Kingdom from continuing one of the Horns thereof Which cannot be if the slaying the Witnesses was fulfilled according to my Account thereof For they being slain by the Beast that ascends out of the Bottomless-pit that is the Ten-horned-beast which cap. 13. is said to arise out of the Sea and cap. 17. to ascend out of the Bottomless-pit this Kingdom must continue a Member of that Beast or one of the Horns thereof at the time of the slaying them Which that it did so seems so clear from other Reasons also as to make it hardly conceivable to be otherwaies For the Reformation made no Alteration in the Civil Government and therefore could not make any as to this Kingdoms continuing a Part or Member of the Ten-horned-beast which is a representation of the Politick or Civil State of the Empire Nor did it make any in the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction so called the same Hierarchy continuing here with rejection of the foreign Jurisdiction usurpt by the Pope And though the Reformation made in Religion was much Praise-worthy as a good beginning yet it fell much short of obeying that Voice Come out of her my People c. Rev. 18. And yet instead of making further progress it proved retrograde and backsliding became so prevalent as to beget dismal apprehensions of our relapsing to what we had reformed from and thereby involved us in the calamities of the Civil War Yet so far were we from being warned thereby that the Restauration proved a reviving of the same designs which before had produced such sad effects and which now became more eagerly driven on both out of enmity to that Party which were God's Scourge for the former pursuing the same and also to prevent the like sufferings from them again by a total suppressing them It appears therefore that the Antichristian Spirit of the World hath been the prevailing or predominant Spirit in the Nation since the Reformation and how can it then not continue us of the same Antichristian-body the Ten-horned-beast as formerly whatever Variance we have had since with Rome And being refin'd in Profession by the Reformation whilst the same Antichristian Spirit and worldly Power continues to bear sway does rather make us more complete Members of that Beast than make us cease from continuing Members thereof the Mystery of Iniquity consisting in warring against Christ under a Christian Profession or having Horns like a Lamb yet speaking as a Dragon And such Reformation in such enlightened times is indeed serviceable for the prolonging of worldly Power in opposition to the coming of Christs Kingdom whilst Satan being transformed into an Angel of Light and his Ministers into Ministers of Righteousness become thereby enabled the longer to vye with the true Children of Light Also the 1260 days of the Witnesses Prophesying and the Womans abode in the Wilderness ending as before shewed but in the year 1660 and by some not so