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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
head_n	beast_n	dragon_n	horn_n	3,264	5	10.5839	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A04286	An apologie for the oath of allegiance first set foorth without a name, and now acknowledged by the authour, the Right High and Mightie Prince, Iames, by the grace of God, King of Great Britaine, France and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c. ; together with a premonition of His Maiesties, to all most mightie monarches, kings, free princes and states of Christendome.	James I, King of England, 1566-1625.; Paul V, Pope, 1552-1621.; Bellarmino, Roberto Francesco Romolo, Saint, 1542-1621.	1609 (1609)	STC 14401.5; ESTC S1249	109,056	264

cannot otherwise ouer-reach her he speweth forth waters like floods to cary her away which signifieth many Nations that were let loose to persecute and vex the Church And in the xiij Chapter out of that Sea of Nations that persecuted her ariseth that great Citie Queene of all the Nations and head of that persecution figured by a Beast with seuen heads and ten hornes like a Leopard as well for the colour because it was full of spots that is defiled with corruptions as also vsing a bastard forme of gouernement in shew spirituall but in deed temporall ouer the Kings of the earth like the Leopard that is a bastard beast betwixt a Lion and a Parde hauing ●eete like a Beare to signifie his great strength and the mouth of a Lion to shew his rauenous and cruell disposition This Beast who had his power from the Dragon and had gotten a deadly wound in one of his heads or formes of gouernment by the Gothes and Vandals and yet was healed againe opened his mouth to blasphemies and made warre against the Saints nay all the world must worship him which worship Ethnicke Rome neuer craued of any being contented to call their neighbour Kings Amici socij populi Romani And whether worship or adoration euen with that same title hee vsed to Popes at their creation our Cardinall can best tell you But then commeth another beast vp out of the earth hauing indeed a more firme setled originall for she doth visibly and outwardly succeed to the true Church and therefore she hath two hornes like the Lambe in outward shew representing the spouse of CHRIST and pretending CHRIST to bee her defence But shee speaketh like the Dragon teaching damnable and deuilish doctrine And this Apostatike I should say Apostolike Church after that she hath made her great power manifest to the world by doing all that the first Beast could doe In conspectu eius that is by shewing the greatnesse of her power to be nothing inferiour to the greatnesse of the former Ethnicke Empire shee then is mooued with so great a desire to aduance this Beast now become Antichrist as shee causeth the earth and all that dwell therein to worship this former Beast or Roman Monarch transferring so as it were her owne power in his person Yea euen Emperours and Kings shall be faine to kisse his feet And for this purpose shall she worke great Miracles wherin she greatly prides her selfe deceiuing men with lying wonders and efficacie of lyes as S. Paul saith And amongst the rest of her wonders she must bring Fire out of heauen Fulmen excommunicationis which can dethrone Princes So that all that will not worship the image of the Beast that is his vnlimited Supremacie must be killed and burnt as Heretikes Yea so peremptory will this Beast or false Prophet be so called in the xvj Chapter of this booke for the aduancement of the other Beast or Antichrist as all sorts and rankes of people must receiue the marke or name of that Beast in their right hand or in their forehead without the which it should bee lawfull to none to buy or sell By the Marke in the forehead signifying their outward profession and acknowledgement of their subiection vnto her And by the Marke in their right hand signifying their actuall implicite obedidience vnto her who they thinke cannot erre though shee should commaund them to rebell against their naturall Princes like that Coeca obediencia wherunto all the Iesuits are sworne and like those Romish priests in this Countrey that haue renounced and forsworne againe that Oath of Alleagiance grounded vpon their naturall oath which thought at their taking it they confessed they did it out of conscience and as obliged thereunto by their naturall duetie yet now must they forsweare it againe for obedience to the Popes command to whose will their conscience and reason must be blindly captiuated And who euer denied this absolute power might neither buy nor sell for no man was bound to keepe any faith or obserue any ciuill contracts with Heretikes yea to aequiuocate and commit periurie towards them is a lawfull thing in a Catholike Now as to the Mystery anent the Number of his name whether it shal be vnderstood by the number composed of the Letters in that Greeke word ΛΑΤΕΙΝΟΣ which word well sutes with the Romish Church Romish Faith and Latine Seruice Or whether in respect that in the Text it is called the number of the man ye will take it for the number or date of the yeere of GOD wherein that first Man liued that first tooke the title of the Antichrist vpon him I leaue it to the Readers choise By that first Man I meane Bonifacius tertius who first called himselfe Vniuersall Bishop which S. Gregorie that liued till within three yeeres of his time foretold would be the style of the Antichrist or his Praecursor for though he died threescore yeeres before the 666. of CHRIST yet was that Title but fully setled vpon his Successors sixtie yeeres after his time Or if yee list to count it from Pompey his spoiling of the Temple to this same Mans time it will goe very neere to make iust vp the said number 666. Now the raigne of the Antichrist being thus prophetically described in the xiij Chapter his fall is prophecied in the xiiij First by the ioyfull and triumphall New song of the Saints in heauen And next by the proclamation of three Angels whereof the first hauing an euerlasting Gospel in his hand to preach to all Nations the true armour indeed wherewith the Witnesses fought against the Antichrist This first Angel I say proclaimed Feare and glory to GOD since the houre of his Iudgement was come And the second proclaimed the fall of Babylon which is the destruction of the Antichrist And the third prohibited vnder great paines euen the paine of eternall damnation that none should worship the Beast or receiue his Marke But though that in the rest of this Chapter the latter day be againe prophecied as a thing that shall come shortly after the reuealing of the man of Sinne yet in the xv Chap. he telleth of seuen plagues vnder the name of Vials that shall first fall vpon the Antichrist and his kingdome which being particularly set downe in the xvj Chapter hereckoneth amongst the rest In the fifth Vial the plague of darkenesse yea such darkenesse as the kingdome of Antichrist shall bee obscured whereby at the powring foorth of the sixt Vial the way of the Kings of the East shal be prepared the man of Sinne being begun to be reuealed and so all impediments remooued that might let the inuasion of that Monarchie euen as that great riuer Euphrates that runneth by the literall Babylon guarded it from the Kings of the East the Medes and Persians the time of the Babylonian Monarchie til by the

drying thereof or vnexspected passage made through it by Cyrus Babylon was wonne and Baltasar destroyed and his Monarchie ouerthrowne euen while hee was sitting in that literall Babylon corporally drunken and quaffing in the vessels ordained for GODS Seruice and so sitting as it were in the Temple of GOD and abusing the holy Mysteries thereof For remedy whereof at the powring forth of the sixt Vial three vnclean Spirits like frogs shall then come foorth out of the mouth of the Dragon that Beast and of the false Prophet which I take to be as much to say as that how soone as the kingdome of Antichrist shalb● so obscured with such a grosse and a palpable ignorance as learning shall be almost lost out of the world and that few of the very Priests themselues shall bee able to read Latine much lesse to vnderstand it and so a plaine way made for the Destruction of Babylon Then shall a new sect of Spirits arise for the defence of that falling Throne called three in number by reason of their three-folde direction beeing raised and inspired by the Dragon Sathan authorized and maintained by the Beast the Antichrist and instructed by the false Prophet the Apostatike Church that hath the hornes like the Lambe but speaketh like the Dragon These Spirits indeed thus sent forth by this three-folde authoritie for the defence of their Triple crowned Monarch are well likened to Frogs for they are Amphibions and can liue in either Element earth or water for though they be Church-men by profession yet can they vse the trade of politike Statesmen going to the Kings of the earth to gather them to the battell of that great day of GOD Almightie What Massacres haue by their perswasions beene wrought through many parts of Christendome and how euill Kings haue sped that haue beene counselled by them all the vnpartiall Histories of our time doe beare record And whatsoeuer King or State will not receiue them and follow their aduise rooted out must that King or State be euen with Gunpowder ere it faile And these Frogs had reason indeed to labor to become learned thereby to dissipate that grosse mist of ignorance wherewith the reigne of Antichrist was plagued before their comming foorth Then doeth this Chapter conclude with the last plague that is poured out of the seuenth Viall vpon the Antichrist which is the day of Iudgement for then Babylon saith he came in remembrance before God But in the xvij Chapter is the former Vision interpreted and expounded and there is the Antichrist represented by a Woman sitting vpon that many-headed Beast because as CHRIST his true Spouse and Church is represented by a Woman in the xij Chap. so here is the Head of his adulterous Spouse or false Church represented also by a woman but hauing a cup ful of abominations in her hand as her selfe is called a whoore for her spirituall adultery hauing seduced the Kings of the earth to bee partakers of her Spirituall fornication And yet wonderfull gorgious and glorious was shee in outward shew but drunken with the blood of the Saints by a violent persecution of them And that she may the better be knowen he writeth her name vpon her forehead agreeable to her qualities A Mystery that great Babylon that mother of whoredomes and abominations of the earth A Mystery is a name that belongeth vnto her two maner of wayes One as she taketh it to her selfe another as she deserueth it indeed To her selfe she taketh it in calling herselfe the visible Head of the Mystical bodie of CHRIST in professing her selfe to bee the dispenser of the Mysteries of GOD and by her onely must they bee expounded This great God in earth and Head of the faith being a Mystes by his profession that is a Priest And if the obseruation of one be true that hee had of olde the word Mystery written on his Myter then is this prophecie very plainely accomplished Now that indeede shee deserues that name the rest of her Title doeth beare witnesse that sheweth her to be the Mother of all the whoredomes and abominations of the earth and so is she vnder the pretext of holinesse a Mystery indeed of all iniquitie and abominations vnder the marke of pretended feeding of Soules deuouring Kingdomes and making Christendome swimme in blood Now after that this scarlet or bloody Beast and her Rider are described by their shape garments name and qualities the Angel doth next interpret this vision vnto Iohn expounding vnto him what is signified both by the Beast and her Rider telling him the seuen heads of the Beast are seuen Hils meaning by the situation of that Citie or seat of Empire and that they are also seuen Kings or formes of gouernement in the said Citie whereof I haue told my conceit already As for the tenne Hornes which hee sheweth to be tenne Kings that shall at one houre receiue their power and Kingdome with the Beast I take that number of ten to be Numerus certus pro incerto euen as the number of seuen heads and ten hornes vpon the Dragon the Deuill cannot but bee an vncertaine number And that he also imitates in those ten hornes the ten hornes of the seuen headed Beast in the seuenth of Daniel and therefore I take these ten Kings to signifie all the Christian Kings and free Princes and States in generall euen you whome to I consecrate these my Labors and that of vs all he prophecieth that although our first becomming absolute and free Princes should bee in one houre with the Beast for great Christian kingdomes and Monarches did but rise and receiue their libertie by the ruines of the Ethnicke Romane Empire and at the destruction thereof and at the very time of the beginning of the planting of the Antichrist there and that wee should for a long time continue to worship the Beast hauing one Catholike or common consenting minde in obeying her yelding our power and authoritie vnto her and kissing her feet drinking with her in her cup of Idolatrie and fighting with the Lambe in the persecution of his Saints at her command that gouerneth so many Nations and people yet notwithstanding of all this wee shall in the time appointed by GOD hauing thus fought with the Lambe but being ouercome by him that is conuerted by his word wee shall then I say hate the Whore and make her desolate and make her naked by discouering her hypocrisie and false pretence of zeale and shall eate her flesh and burne her with fire And thus shal the way of the Kings of the East be prepared as yee heard in the xvj Chapter And then doth hee subioyne the reason of this strange change in vs for saith hee GOD hath put it in their hearts to fulfill his will and with one consent to giue their Kingdomes to the Beast till the words of GOD be fulfilled according to that sentence of

God and the Preaching thereof should bee meant by the Spirit of the Lords mouth which should peece and peece consume and diminish the power of that man of Sinne till the brightnesse of the Lordes second comming should vtterly abolish him And by his expressing the meanes of his working he doeth likewise in my opinion explane his meaning very much For he saith It shall be by a strong delusion by lying wonders c. Well what Church it is that vanteth them of their innumerable miracles and yet most of them contrary to their owne doctrine Bellarmine can best tell you with his hungry Mare that turned her taile to her prouender and kneeled to the Sacrament And yet I am sure he wil be ashamed to say that the holy Sacrament is ordeined to be worshipped by Oues Boues caetera pecora campi Thus haue I prooued out of S. Paul now that the time of the Antichrists comming and the generall Defection was not to bee till long after the time that he wrote in That his Seat was to be in the Temple and Church of God and That his Action which can best poynt at his Person should be to exalt himselfe aboue all that were called Gods S. Iohn indeed doth more amply though mystically describe this Antichrist which vnder the figure of a monstrous Beast with seuen heads and ten hornes he sets forth in the xiij chap. and then interpreteth in the xvij where he cals her a Whore sitting vpon many waters and riding vpon the saide monstrous Beast concluding that Chapter with calling that Woman that great city which reigneth ouer the Kings of the earth And both in that Chapter and in the beginning of the next hee calles that great City Babylon So as to continue herein my formerly proposed Methode of the Time Seat and Person of Antichrist this place doth clearely and vndeniably declare that Rome is or shal be the Seat of that Antichrist For first no Papist now denieth that by Babylon here Rome is directly meant and that this Woman is the Antichrist doeth clearely appeare by the time of his working described by 42. moneths in the xiij Chap. which doeth iustly agree with that three yeeres and a halfes time which all the Papistes giue to the Reigne of Antichrist Besides that the Beast it selfe with seuen heads and ten hornes hauing one of her heads wounded and healed againe is described iust alike in the xiij and xvij chap. being in the former prooued to be the Antichrist by the time of her reigne and in the latter Rome by the name of Babylon by the confession of all the Papists so as one point is now cleare that Rome is the Seat of the Antichrist Neither will that place in the xj Chap. serue to shift off this poynt and proue the Antichrists Seate to bee in Ierusalem where it is saide That the Corpses of the Witnesses shall lie in the great Citie spiritually Sodome and Egypt where our Lord also was crucified For the word spiritually is applied both to Sodome Egypt and Ierusalem in that place And when he hath named Sodome and Egypt hee doeth not subioyne Ierusalem with a single vbi but with an vbi as if hee would say and this Antichrists abomination shall bee so great as his Seate shall be as full of Spirituall whoredomes and Idolatries as Sodome and Egypt was nay and so bloodie in the persecution of the Saints as our Lord shall bee crucified againe in his members And who hath so meanely read the Scriptures if he haue euer read them at all that knoweth it not to bee a common phrase in them to call CHRIST persecuted and slaine when his Saints are so vsed So did CHRIST say speaking of the latter day and in the same style did hee speake to S. Paul at his conuersion And that Babylon or Rome since Bellarmine is contented it bee so called is that great Citie where our Lord was crucified the last verse of the xviij Chap. doeth also clearely proue it For there it is said That in that Citie was found the blood of the Prophets of the Saints and of all that were slaine vpon the earth and I hope CHRIST was one of them that were slaine vpon the earth And besides that it may well bee saide that hee was slaine in that great Citie Babylon since by the Romane authoritie he was put to death vnder a Romane Iudge and for a Romane quarrell for he could not bee a friend to Caesar that was not his enemie This poynt now being cleared of the Antichrists Seate as I haue already sayd wee are next to find out the Time when the Antichrist shall raigne if it bee not already come In the xiij Chap. S. Iohn saith that this Beast with the seuen heads and tenne hornes had one of his heads wounded and healed againe and interpreting that in the xvij hee saith that these seuen heads are also seuen Kings whereof fiue are fallen one is and an other is not yet come and when he commeth hee shall continue a short space And the beast that was and is not is the eight and yet one of the seuen By which Beast hee meaneth the Antichrist who was not then come I meane in the Apostles dayes but was to come after So as betweene the time of the Apostles and the ende of the world must the Time of the Antichrists comming be and with this the Papists doe also agree Whereby it appeareth that Babylon which is Rome shall bee the Seate of the Antichrist but not that Ethnicke Rome which was in the Apostles dayes for Iohn himselfe professeth that he is to write of nothing but that which is to come after his time Nor yet that turning Christian Rome while she was in the conuerting which immediatly followed the Apostles time glorious by the Martyrdome of so many godly Bishops But that Antichristian Rome when as the Antichrist shall set downe his seat there after that by the working of that Mysterie of iniquitie Christian Rome shall become to bee corrupted and so that deadly wound which the Gothes and Vandales gaue Rome shall be cured in that Head or King the Antichrist who thereafter shall arise reigne for a long space But here it may be obiected that the Antichrist cannot reigne a long space since S. Iohn saith in two or three sundry places that the Antichrist shall worke but the space of three yeeres and a halfe Surely who will but a little acquaint himselfe with the phrases and Style of S. Iohn in his Apocalyps shall finde that he doeth ordinarily set downe numerum certum pro incerto So doeth he in his twelue thousand of euery tribe that will be safe so doeth hee in his Army of two hundred thousand that were sent to kill the third part of the men and so doeth hee in diuers other places And therefore who will but remember that in

points that I haue already handled The Antichrist is foure times in my opinion described by Iohn in the Apocalyps in foure sundrie visions and a short Compendium of him repeated againe in the xx Chapter He is first described by a pale Horse in the vision of the Seales in the sixt Chapter For after that CHRIST had triumphed vpon a white Horse in the first Seale by the propagation of the Gospel and that the red Horse in the second Seale is as busie in persecution as CHRIST is in ouercomming by the constancie of his Martyrs and that famine and other plagues signified by the blacke Horse in the third Seale haue succeeded to these former persecutions Then commeth foorth the Antichrist vpon a pale Horse in the fourth Seale hauing Death for his rider and Hell for his conuoy which rider fitted well his colour of palenesse and he had power giuen him ouer the fourth part of the earth which is Europe to kill with the sword and vse great persecution as Ethnick Rome did figured by the red Horse and to kill vvith spirituall hunger or famine of the true word of GOD as the blacke Horse did by corporall famine and with death whereby spirituall death is meant For the Antichrist signified by this pale Horse shall afflict the Church both by persecution and temporall death as also by alluring the Nations to idolatry and so to spirituall death and by the beasts of the earth shall hee procure their spirituall death for hee shall send out the Locusts ouer whom he is King mentioned in the ninth Chapter of this booke and the three Frogges mentioned in the xvj of the same for intising of all Kings and Nations to drinke of the cup of her abominations That that decription now of Antichrist endeth there it is more then plaine for at the opening of the first Seale the soules and blood of the murthered Saints cry for vengeance and hasting of iudgement which in the sixt Seale is graunted vnto them by CHRISTS comming at the latter day signified by heauens departing away like a scrol when it is rolled with a number of other sentences to the same purpose But because this might seeme a short and obscure description of the Antichrist hee describeth him much more largely specifikely especially in the vision of the Trumpets in the ninth Chapter For there hee saith at the blowing of the fift Trumpet Heresies being first spread abroad in three of the four former blasts to wit in the first third and fourth blast for I take temporall perecution to be onely signified by the second blast hee then saw a starre fall from Heauen to whom was giuen the key of the bottomlesse pit which being opened by him with the smoke thereof came foorth a number of Locusts whom he largely describeth both by their craft and their strength and then telleth the name of this their King who brought them out of the bottomlesse pit which is Destroyer By this Starre fallen from heauen being signified as I take it some Person of great dignitie in the Church whose duetie being to giue light to the world as CHRIST saith doeth contrary thereunto fall away like Lucifer and set vp a Kingdome by the sending foorth of that noisome packe of craftie cruell vermine described by Locusts and so is the Seat of the Antichrist begun to bee erected whose doctrine is at length declared in the second vvoe after the blast of the sixt Trumpet where it is saide That the remnant of men which were not killed by the plagues repented not of the works of their hands that they should not worship Deuils and idols of golde and of siluer and of brasse and of stone and of wood which neither can see heare nor goe As for worshipping of Deuils looke your great Iesuited Doctor Vasques and as for all the rest it is the maine doctrine of the Romane Church And then it is subioyned in this text that they repented not of their murther their sorcerie their fornications nor their theft By their murther their persecution is meant and bloody massacres For their Sorcery consider of their Agnus Dei that will sloken fire of the hallowed shirts and diuers sorts of Reliques and also of Prayers that will preserue men from the violence of shot of fire of sword of thunder and such like dangers And iudge if this be not very like to Sorcerie and incantation of charmes By their Fornication is meant both their spirituall fornication of Idolatry and also their corporall fornication which doth the more abound amongst them as well by reason of the restraint of their Churchmen from marriage as also because of the many Orders of idle Monastike liues amongst them as well for men as women And continuall experience prooueth that idlenesse is euer the greatest spurre to lecherie And they are guiltie of Theft in stealing from GOD the titles and greatnes of power due to him and bestowing it vpon their head the Antichrist As also by heaping vp their treasure with their iuggling wares and merchandise of the soules of men by Iubiles Pardons Reliques and such like strong delusions That he endeth this description of Antichrist in the same ninth Chapter may likewise well appeare by the Oath that that Mightie Angell sweareth in the sixt verse of the tenth Chapter And after the blast of the sixt Trumpet that time shall be no more and that when the seuenth Angell shall blow his Trumpet the mysterie of GOD shal be finished as he had declared it to his seruants the Prophets Onely in the eleuenth Chapter he describeth the means whereby the Antichrist was ouercome whose raigne he had before described in the ix Chapter and telleth vs that the two witnesses after that they haue beene persecuted by the Antichrist shall in the end procure his destruction And in case any should thinke that the Antichrist is onely spoken of in the xj Chapter and that the Beast spoken of in the xiij and xvij Chapters doth onely signifie Ethnicke Rome there needeth no other refutation of that conceit then to remember them that the Antichrist is neuer named in all that xi Chapter but where hee is called in the seuenth verse thereof the Beast that commeth foorth of the bottomles pit which by the description of the place he commeth out of prooueth it to be the same Beast which hath the same originall in the xvij Chapter and in the very same words so as it is euer but the same Antichrist repeated and diuersly described in diuers visions Now in the xij and xiij Chapters and so foorth till the xvij he maketh a more large and ample propheticall description of the state of the Church and raigne of the Antichrist For in the xij Chap. he figureth the Church by a Woman flying from the Dragon the Deuill to the wildernesse And when the Dragon seeth he