Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	wonderful_a	work_n	world_n	86	3	3.7584	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A71105	Generation-work, or, A brief and seasonable word offered to the view and consideration of the saints and people of God in this generation, relating to the work of the present age, or generation we live in wherein is shewed, I. What generation-work is, and how it differs from other works, II. That saints in the several generations they have lived in, have had the proper and peculiar works of their generations, III. That it is a thing of very great concernment for a saint to attend to and be industrious in, the work of his generation, IV. Wherein doth the work of the present generation lye, V. How each one in particular may find out that part or parcel of it, that is properly his work in his generation, VI. How generation-work may be so carried on, as that God may be served in the generation / by John Tillinghast ...	Tillinghast, John, 1604-1655.	1655 (1655)	Wing T1175; Wing T1177; Wing T1178; ESTC R17254	317,518	510

mighty Thundrings saying Hallelujah It teacheth us thus much That Christ will raise up some such faithful Instrument to bee his Lieutenant General to lead on this his 144000 whose name shall be as a great Thunder in the world dreadful and terrible to the Antichristian party And whereas it is the voyce of but one Thunder it intimates that at this first Rendezvouz there shall appear but some one noted Head for Christ but a while after when the work is gotten a little forwarder we hear of many Thundrings Rev. 19.6 i.e. many great One Heads Rulers who either wanted opportunity or courage at first shall now come in and joyn with this party 2 They shall begin their march with praises The Lamb being now upon Mount Sion his remnant gathered about him an eminent Head by Christ raised up and set over them the first work they do is to sing praises I heard the voyce of Harpers harping with their Harps The Holy Ghost in these words alludes to the way of praising God in time of Old when Gods people in their praises made use of Instruments of Musick and particularly and as that which was in most common use of the Harp Psal 33.2 Psal 43.4 Psal 71.22 And methinks the first setting forth of the 144000. seems to be much like Jehoshaphats march against the children of Ammon Moab and Mount Seir 2 Chron. 20. An infinite multitude of people and Nations like the sand of the Sea come up together against Jehoshaphat and Judah The noise and rumor of their coming doth 〈…〉 ●istress the people but seeking God the Lord setting it home upon the heart of Jehoshaphat and his people that the morrow should be the day of his power he would do the work for them they should not need so much as to fight only stand and behold the salvation of the Lord fear and faint-heartedness now flyes away they do not consult whether are we strong or whether are we weak how is it possible we should deal with this multitude But being assured of the Victory and that the day should be theirs they begin a March with pr●●●es singing and rejoycing before ever a stroke is struck as if they had carried the Field already So will it be with this remnant at this day the raging Dragon in his wrath and fury comes on gaping upon them It is a miracle in reason if ever they scape his mouth but against this to bear up their spirits they have the glorious presence of the Lamb in the midst of them this doth so wondrously animate them that in the mouth of danger they fear none but march o● in the very face of the Dragon harping with their Harps i. e. praising and rejoycing as knowing assuredly the Lamb will manifest his power they shall tread the Dragon under their feet Thus much as touching our second particular from the whole note That notwithstanding the Witnesses themselves are undoubtedly after their rise to be esteemed a part of this 144000 yet shall the beginning of this glorious company be not with them but there where that remnant of the Womans seed shall be found th● the Dragon wars against I shall here in the close of this Section adde a word or two as touching Daniels Stone the looking upon this Rendezvouz presenting that to mine eye The first rise of this Stone we are doubtless to place with the beginn●●● of the third Vial. My Reasons are 1 Because it being the Stone alone that breaks the Great Image by smiting him on the Feer and Toes we are there to place the rise of it where the Civil power of Antichrist in any of the ten Horns represented by the ten Toes is irrecoverably broken to peeces But the doing of this is begun with the third Vial therefore with the beginning of that are we to place the beginning of the Stone 2 Because Daniels Stone that smites Chap. 2. and his Ancient of dayes that sits Chap. 7. being one and the same we are to reckon the rise of the Stone from the first day that the Ancient of dayes began to sit and to cast down any of the Thrones of the fourth Beast But this work was begun with the beginning of the third Vial therefore there are we to begin the Stone Now let us look upon the work done of late yeers under either of these notions either as it is a breaking of the great Image or as it is casting down the Thrones of the fourth Beast for both are substantially the same and instrumentally wrought by the Stone and hath it not been done by a despised handful which worldly powers would not have raised up at first could they have holpen it nor continued when raised could they have had their will but as the raising so the continuing hath been from God more immediately than by the endeavour of hands i.e. humane means But now observe as God never doth any wonderful work but in the beginning of it he puts some death upon it so the most remarkable work that ever yet was in the world viz. the Stone smiting the great Image is no sooner on foot but presently even within that very Vial that the Stone begins to smite comes the saddest blow the blackest cloud over the work of God that ever one of them the world saw namely the death of the Witnesses this stops the work a while the Stone lyes still by lying still it seems to moulder In this extremity God ariseth ●●kes the Scone into his hands again forms it more strongly by casting out the loose earthly matter and firmly uniting and cementing the rest adding withal more matter to it that so upon its next smiting it may break in peeces whatsoever stands in its way This is done in this glorious Rendezvouz of which we have spoken SECT V. OUr third Particular comes now into consideration namely to consider of the Characters of this 144000. As for the several Characters we have vers 3.4 I have given my thoughts of them already in the Epistle Dedicatory to my late Discourse upon the Vials But what I then wrote being but as the first day-break of light into this Prophecie and hoping through grace that I do now begin to see those things a little more clearly distinctly and fully than at that time I did I shall notwithstanding go over the whole again The first Character of them viz. That they stand with the Lamb upon Mount Sion relating more to their condition than their qualification I shall be silent as touching it and the rather because I have opened it already Sect. 1. That omitted we have besides it eight Characters in the Text. I CHARACTER They have their Fathers Name written in their fore-heads vers 1. i.e. they shall bee such who shall know one another by no mark but only the Image of the Father the Fathers Name written in their-fore-heads And I take it that this is spoken of the 144000 followers of the Lamb in opposition to the Beasts followers

Vial is poured forth To this I do the more readily assent 1 Because the former Expositions cannot stand for the reasons aforenamed 2 Because the ordinary use of the words give this to be the meaning For Rivers and Waters in Scripture-phrase signifie People and Nations Ezek. 32.2 Son of man take up a lamentation for Pharaoh King of Egypt and say unto him Thou art like a young Lion of the Nations thou camest forth with thy Rivers and troubledst the waters with thy feet and fouledst their Rivers Isa 8.7 Now therefore behold the Lord bringeth upon them the waters of the River strong and many even the King of Assyria Rev. 17.15 The waters which thou sawest where the Whore sitteth are peoples and multitudes and Nations and Tongues The Fountain in common language is as much as the Head of a River whence it ariseth and by which it is nourished 3 Because the reason of the Vial vers 6. For they have shed the blood of thy Saints doth as but now was shewed more fitly agree to those who have hitherto been the Actors in shedding the blood of Saints than to any other 4 Because this Interpretation doth make a glorious concurrence and harmony betwixt the order of Gods workings hitherto since the Vials began to be poured out and the order of the Vials For the first remarkable thing wherein the hand of God appeared against the Beast was in the detection of and destroying his damnable doctrine and abominable Idolatries Next pouring contempt upon and pulling down the Antichristian Hierarchy And the very next thing remarkable since that hath been the shaking of some Nations and removing from their seats their Kings and great ones who were secret friends unto and supporters of this Throne of iniquity accordingly the first came under the first Vial the next the second And why may not the third being a thing remarkable and distinct from the other come under this third Vial we are now speaking of 2 The EFFECT The Rivers and Fountains of Waters become blood And they became blood That is Wars do arise in those Nations subject to this third Vial to the involving the people in blood yea causing the blood of chief Heads and great ones to be poured forth How within these few yeers past our Rivers in England and the places subjected to it have run blood yea the Fountain head hath sprouted blood is sufficiently known to all men Now the reason why I interpret blood here according to the Letter is because a necessity so to do lyes upon me and that from the very words for such blood as hath been shed by the Rivers and Fountains of waters such blood by way of retaliation is given them to drink vers 6. but blood hath been shed by them in a litteral sense therefore God in their own kind repays them again and they become blood 3 An ADJUNCT Which I so call rather than an Effect because properly it is not an Effect and that is A Justification of God in these terrible executions of his wrath upon them 1 By the Angel of the Waters Vers 5 6. And I heard the Angel of the waters say Thou art righteous O Lord which art and wast and shalt be because thou host judged thus For they have shed the blood of Saints and Prophets and thou hast given them blood to drink for they are worthy The Angel of the Waters is that Angel who shall be used to pour out the Vial of Gods wrath upon the Rivers and Fountains of waters called Angel of the waters because he hath a power over the Waters to pour out Gods wrath upon them Which Angel shall at this day acknowledge that notwithstanding the things themselves done by this Vial are strange and to be wondred at things unthought of unheard of yet being done that the hand of God in them is marvellously just and to bee magnified of all his people being the just recompence of the injuries offered to and the blood of Saints How in the midst of those great and wonderful changes and revolutions that of late yeers have been in England the hearts of all those who have gone along with God in these his glorious dispensations and mighty works of wonder have been notwithstanding the continual offence of others and of the greater part carried out to justifie God and say Thou art righteous O Lord c. cannot by them be forgotten 2 By another out of the Altar Vers 7. And I heard another out of the Altar say Even so O Lord God Almighty true and righteous are thy judgements The Altar was the place upon which Sacrifices being slain were laid to be consumed It signifies a suffering condition and so is used Rev. 6.9 10 11. I saw under the Altar the souls of them which were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held And they cryed with a loud voyce saying How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth Only with this difference the sufferings there spoken of were unto death and martyrdome and therefore they are said to be under the Altar but here though their sufferings are great yet not to death and therefore they cry out of the Altar though they are upon the Altar yet not so but that they can still give testimony to Gods work in the world The second Testimony therefore coming out of the Altar or from the Altar denotes the persons bearing this testimony to be such as lye under great sufferings who out of the Altar i.e. in the midst of all their persecutions do yet give testimony that the strange astonishing and unwonted Effects of this Vial are no other but the true and righteous judgements of God inflicted upon those upon whom this Vial is poured out How sutable hereunto is that Testimony not long since sent over by some exiled Bohemians from Lissa in Poland to us in England written by one of the banished in a little Book intituled Clavis Apocalyptica who in pages 1●3 104. speaking of the great Revolutions in the Isle of great britain and particularly mentioning that of the Fountain Head becoming blood he though yet as one amazed at the thing saith thus We must by vertue of that clear Text say with the Angel Lord thou are righteous because thou hast judged thus Two things from what I have said are worthy observation First That this Vial hath a do●ble attestation going along with it which is not found in any other Vial of the Righteousness Justice and Equity of the things effected by it Why so I take the reason to be this because the things done under this vial shall be so strange and amazing so besides the ordinary path and course of Providence and without former President as that the legality and justice of them shall be called in question by most and therefore we have a double Testimony that out of the mouth of two Witnesses or

sate upon them and judgement was given unto them Isa 31.1 A King shall rule in righteousness and Princes shall rule in judgement and we may read Luke 19.15 16 17 18 19. that at the time when Christ receives his Kingdome the faithful servant who hath improved his ten Talents well is then made ruler over ten Cities hee that well improved five over five Cities expounding that 1 Cor. 6.2 Do yee not know that the Saints shall judge the world 2 The sentence passed at the last day shall concern eternal life or death Mat. 25.46 the result of the General Judgement is the wicked go into everlasting punishment the righteous into life eternal but now the judgement in the time of the one thousand years shal be a judging of the world that is those wicked ones that shall bee suffered to live in this day as to outward punishments and servility in way of requital of what Christs people in all Ages have suffered from the world which is expressed Psal 140.6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouths and a two-edged sword in their hands vers 7. To execute vengeance upon the heathen and punishments upon the people vers 8. To bind their Kings with chains and their Nobles with fetters of Iron vers 9. To execute upon them the judgement written This honour have all his Saints Halelujah So Isa 61.5 6. And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks and the sons of the Alien shall be your Plow-men and your Vine-dressers expressions which note a servility But ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord men shall call you the Ministers of our God Chap. 14.2 They shall take them captive whose captives they were and they shall rule over their oppressors All which places as is most clear to him that views the context and compares them with other Scriptures have respect to the glory of the last times as the day where in they are to have their accomplishment and a type of this I conceive the Gibeonites might be who as a remnant of those Canaanites destined to destruction were yet spared by Joshna who in entring Canaan was a notable type of Christ taking possession of his Kingdome to be hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of God and this is as I also conceive one reason of it why Daniel Chap. 7. after the destruction of the fourth Beast i. e. the Roman Monarchy as under Antichrist and casting him into the burning flame vers 11. yet addeth vers 12. that the rest of the Beasts i.e. those powers of the world whose dependance was not upon Antichrist had their Dominion taken away but their lives were prolonged for a season and time Why so namely That Saints to whom now the Kingdome was to be given vers 27. might rule over them And here as I judge are to be brought in those Scriptures which speak of the Saints Ruling and Reigning Rev. 5.10 And hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests and we shall reign on the earth Chap. 20.6 they shall be Priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years agreeing exactly to that of Isa Chap. 61.5 6. which was named but now strangers shall stand and feed your flocks but ye shall be named Priests of the Lord 2 Tim. 2.12 If we suffer with him we shall also reign with him which cannot bee meant of a Spiritual Reigning on earth because in that fense Timothy and other Saints Reigned then but this is a promise of a thing for future nor can it be a Reigning with Christ in Heaven because where is no Rule nor Authority there can be no Reigning but the Apostle tells us plainly speaking of heavenly glory 1 Cor. 15.24 that there all Rule and Authority and Power shall be put down it must be therefore at some other time which is this I am speaking of And what dangerous consequences will follow hereupon in case we say that as Christ himself after his resurrection continued some time on earth doing his fathers work before he entred into his rest so the Saints that herein also they might be like him shall after their resurrection continue here on earth doing the work of their Redeemer and that some time before they enter into their rest doth not as yet appear to me Object In case it be said How can these things be seeing upon Christs second coming the world that now is shall perish by fire as did the old by water that yet after this a seed of wicked men should remain for Saints to rule over Ans True the Scriptures which speak of this coming mention a coming with fire Isa 66.15 The Lord shall come with fire to render his rebuke with flames of fire Mal. 4.1 The day cometh that shall burn as an Oven 2 Thes 1.8 In flaming fire rendring vengeance and Rev. 19.20 immediately upon the battel of Armageddon before the thousand years begin we read of a Lake of fire into which the Beast and false Prophet are cast which fire that it shall be material fire Peter implys plainly 2 Epist 3. in saying that as the old world was drowned with water viz. material water so is this reserved to fire against the day of Christs coming Yet that this fire which whether it shall be general in all places at once or onely in that place where Christ shall appear and his enemies be gathered together whither the dross of the world shall be gathered as into one Lake is a question too nice to dispute shall not destroy the being of the World is clear First Because it is a fire for another end viz. refining not destroying Mal. 3.2 Who may abide the day of his coming for he shall he as are finers fire Secondly The New Heavens and New Earth that Isay and John speak of wherein shall dwel Righteousness and in which the Saints shall regin with Christ Peter makes mention of as a thing to be after this fire which as I have said he therefore brings in with a nevertheless 2 Pet. 3.13 Now what if we should say that as when the old world was destroyed by water not onely righteous Noah and godly Shem and Japhet but also cursed Cham yea the kinds of all the creatures were spared from that deluge to replenish the new world so at this day not onely the Saints in the world shall be preserved but even some of the wicked yea of all the creatures to serve the glorious ends and designs of God and that in the new Heavens and Earth which seems not without all ground because the Apostle Paul tels us plainly Rom. 8.20 21 22. That the creatures earnest expectation waits for that day in which the Sons of God shall be manifest when the creature Devils and wicked men on whom the curse shall still remain excepted shall be delivered from that bondage of corruption that now it groans under and that not by a total dissolution or annihilation of it but

this day seem to have lost that noble spirit that was in their Ancestors who for Christs sake loved not their lives unto death yet surely this consideration That they are the Children and Off-spring of those famous blessed Witnesses who with undaunted resolution appeared for Christ when our Fore-fathers yea and the whole world wondered after the Beast should not a little draw out the Bowels of our compassion towards them Notwithstanding what I have said of Germany as the place yet let me add this in the conclusion that I conceive withall that the condition of the people of God in other places will not be so prosperous but a cloud will be upon them their comforts and expectations a great part if not the greatest of this time for though the thickness and blackness of this cloud is to hang over Germany yet may it not be thought but that so great a cloud will cast a shadow further and thereby afflict at the same time though not in the same measure the people of God elsewhere And indeed it is very reasonable to think it should be so for if when but a member suffers in the natural body all the members suffer with it then surely when not a member onely but a principal part of the mystical Body lies under so fore a pressure as the body of Christ never before lay under cannot we think the other members should at that time have such cause of rejoycing as those who feel no smart at all How could there then be a sympathy in the mystical body Nay it is not onely reasonable but a thing of great concernment and special use it should be so to the end the other members by feeling smart and anguish from a few onely of the scattered drops lighting upon them might hereby be made the more sensible of the condition of their fellow brethren who lie under the furious rage of the tempest and also might from hence be stirred up to cry aloud to the Father of Mercies for their poor Brethren who now being thunder-struck have for the present neither sense nor life in a manner and so cannot cry for themselves SECT IX TWo things we have in an especiall manner noted by the Holy Ghost both which concern the Witnesses and are to have their fulfilling within the three days and a half of their lying dead First They of the People Kindreds Nations and Tongues see their dead bodies three days and a half and will not suffer their dead bodies to be put into graves vers 9. The putting of the dead bodies of the Witnesses into graves notes a corporal death it being Scripture phrase to put the grave for bodily death 1 Cor. 15.55 1 King 14.13 2 King 22.20 This would the Beast do but he is hindred Here a Controversie ariseth Who those People Kindreds Nations and Tongues should be Some will have them to be the Popish party some a reformed people if the one the act is an act of dis-favor if the other of favor Both these opinions you may see with the reasons of either laid down by Mr. Woodcock in his Treatise of the Two Witnesses who himself is for the first that they are the Popish party To bring here the Arguments on both hands to the Touchstone would be more tedious than profitable in regard the thing it self is not a matter of so great moment but that without any prejudice to all my other Principles there may be an allowance of different conjectures and therefore to make a great contention for a little gain I shall not do it for it will not quit time and cost I shall therefore onely offer to consideration my own thoughts hereof viz. That neither the Popish party nor a reformed people properly so called or so esteemed by Christ are here meant but indeed a third party a party that cannot properly be said to worship the Beast because him they disown Nor a party that may properly be called a reformed people because Reformation is a thing they have little regard unto But if you would see them in their proper Character They shall be persons of a worldly interest or to speak plainly pure Statists who walking by the rules of State-policy shall neither professedly own the Cause of Antichrist nor Christ beyond these principles And therefore very emphatically hath the Scripture as seems to me set them forth by people and Kindreds and Nations and Tongues which as it is a middle name neither so odious as the name of the worshippers of the Beast nor so honorable as that of the Witnesses so doth it excellently agree to such persons whose main design is a meer worldly interest for of such the great thing in their eye is the good of Common-wealths the regulating and ordering the affairs of People and Nations and Kindreds and Tongues and though they may own and favor the cause of Christ yet will they not appear for it a step farther than will stand with National interests the good of People and Nations and Kindreds and Tongues Now such there shall bee in the world in the time the Witnesses lie dead who shall take notice of the Witnesses slaughter and have a cast of their eye that way and by their power so far awe the Beast as that he shall not satisfie his lusts upon the Witnesses Secondly Besides these we have another sort of people spoken of who formerly being such as were tormented by the Witnesses in the time of their prophecy shall now upon their death be jovial make merry send gifts one to another as hoping they are now delivered from that danger they feared they should sustain by these Witnesses These are called the dwellers on the Earth ver 10. And they that dwell on 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 The phrase needs no other interpretation than what we have Chap. 13.8 And all that dwel upon the Earth shall worship him i.e. the Beast Ver. 14. And deceiveth them that dwel on the Earth clearly shewing that the dwellers on the Earth are the Popish party such as worship the Beast and are deceived by him These as well as the other see the Witnesses lie dead The difference is the other see them with an eie of care and some kind of pitty these with an eie of scorn and triumph Hence it is said that at the Witnesses rise great fear fell on them that saw them vers 11. which words relate to these latter sort of beholders who therefore vers 12. are called enemies these at the Witnesses rise shall fear Why Because having been tormented by them before they shall now expect the same again The demeanor and carriage of this latter sort of beholders set forth by their rejoycing making merry sending gifts one to another c. hath sometimes made me conceive that there should be within these three days and a half a great calm