Selected quad for the lemma: head_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
head_n	beast_n	king_n	time_n	2,559	5	4.6213	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57199	Babylons ruining-earthquake and the restavration of Zion delivered in a sermon before the honourable House of Commons at Margarets Westminster, at their publique fast, August 28, 1644 / by William Reyner ...	Reyner, William, d. 1666.	1644 (1644)	Wing R1324; ESTC R18099	51,389	67

hearken what the unjust Judge saith how much more shall the Lord avenge his owne elect upon their desperate enemies and that speedily his people giving him no rest but crying day and night unto him Luk 18.5 6 7 8. Surely the Lord will at last procure rest to himselfe from his peoples complaints and unto his people from their enemies tyrannies in their enemies destruction The great Earth-quake whereby the Kingdomes of the grand Antichrist with his whore of Babylon and all their supporters Signe 4 shall be utterly subverted in all Nations draw's neere if it be not already entered I may well put an If to it it is so probable It may possibly be with us as it was with the people of the Jew's when our Saviour Christ came in the flesh or with the Churches of the Gentiles when Antichrist came our Saviour was both come and gone before the Jew's generally would know him for the Messiah and Antichrist was growne to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to his full age and stature before the world tooke any notice of him till the Waldenses and Albigenses neere 500. yeares agoe began a little to discerne him I much suspect the last 26. yeares ever since the troubles began in Bohemia Anno 1618. I much more suspect the last seven or eight yeares ever since the stirres began in Scotland but most of all these last foure yeeres ever since that by the endeavours of this noble Parliament in England the Prophets are begun to be raised as it were from the dead the enemies to be mightily opposed their triumph over the Prophets here ended their power also beginning to be broken and ruined Besides since that time the storme like a mighty whirlewinde hath passed over into and assayled many other Nations and the fire doth continue still there and proceeds further and further burning most fiercely and ragingly That this grand earth-quake is at hand or else begun appeares because the Beast Antichrist who is to fall by it is so well stricken in yeeres and so neere his end The whole terme of his life and reigne without the wombe for the mystery of iniquity was framing this Embrio even from the Apostles times 2 Thes 2.7 is two and fourty months Reve. 13.5 or one thousand two hundred and sixty dayes that is one thousand two hundred and sixty yeares putting a day for a yeare as we finde it in other instances Numb 14.34 Ezek. 4.6 Dan. 9.24 Now these yeares grow toward their full period and expiration for it is well neer so much time since they began This will be made appeare by these two indices First it is almost so long time since the Papall state became the seventh head of the Roman Monarchy and when it began to be that head then it began to be the Beast Rev. 17.11 That we may understand this we are to looke upon the text Reve. 17.9 10 11. Here is the ●inde that hath wisdome the seven heads are seven mountaines on which the woman sits and there are seven Kings five are fallen and one is the other is not yet come and when he commeth he must continue a short space and the beast that was and is not even he is the eighth and is of the seventh and goeth into perdition The seven heads of the Roman Monarchy signifie two things first seven hils upon which the woman sits that is upon which the City was built for the City is called a woman ver 18. and seven Kings The seven hils were famously celebrated by heathen writers long before the Apostle writ his Revelation Their names were these the Palatine the Capitoline the Aventine the Esquiline the Quirinall the Viminall and the Janicular hils The heads did also signifie seven Kings that is seven severall supreme formes of Government that have beene in Rome which makes Daniel when he describes the foure Monarchies comparing them to foure Beasts say that this was divers from all the rest Dan. 7.8 The seven severall regiments are these first Kings secondly Tribunes thirdly Decemvirs fourthly Dictators fiftly Consuls sixtly Emperours all these are enumerated by Tacitus in the beginning of his History seventhly Popes Of these five were fallen when the Apostle received the Revelation that is Kings Tribunes Decemvirs Dictators Consuls One is that is the Emperour a Souldier chosen for the most part by the Armies And the other is not yet come He doth not say the seventh but the other pointing no doubt at the Christian Emperour who did not differ from the heathen Emperour as a distinct forme of Government for they were both Souldiers and chosen by the Souldiers but in the quality of his person the one hating persecuting the other loving and protecting christian Religion And when he comes he must continue a short space For the Empire after it came into the hands of the Christians stood but a short time in its strength a matter of seventy or eighty yeares from about the middle of the reigne of Constantine the great for till then he was exercised with mighty warres against the heathen Emperours unto the end of the reigne of Theodosius the great from about An. 316. or 320. untill 395. It followes in the next verse the beast that was and is not even he is the eighth and is of the seven The beast that was viz the Papall state was in respect of the bulke of the Empire whereof he is a horne And is not that is hath not any present existence in the Apostles time as the seventh head for the time of that is not yet come Even he is the eighth and is of the seventh that is he is the eighth if you make the Christian Emperour one but is indeed the seventh for there be but seven heads and he is but the seventh distinct forme of Government as was observed before Now here lyes the argument It is well towards the end of the 1260. yeeres since the Pope became the head of the Roman Kingdome ergo the earth-quake that must ruine him and his Kingdome draweth neer To make this appeare we are to know there were as some have observed diuers degrees of the fall of that vast body of the Roman Empire One after the death of Julian the Apostate about 365. for then the barbarous Nations invaded and made huge havocke in the Provinces of the Empire A second was about An. 410. when Rome it selfe was sack'd by Alaricus the Goth and the Empire dismembred A third about An. 455. when ten Kings were risen up instead of the Empire Let me take the boldnesse to interpose one notable one sometimes suggested out of a learned manuscript about An. 395. at the death of Theodosius the great The barbarous Nations had made many attempts before but were from time to time especially by his valour repelled but upon his death they brake in like a huge inundation bare downe the Empire before them shivered it into an hundred pieces so as it never recovered any more This

great earth quake was at least sixty yeares in doing its worke for so great a body as the Empire could not by created humane meanes be ruined in a short time And it is very remarkable both because it made so great a change in the Kingdomes of Europe and Affrick planting them almost universally with new Nations and names and in specially because that storme brought our fore fathers into this land setling here a new Nation and language It is thirdly also observable because in it the sixth head of the Roman Monarchy the Emperour went off and the seventh the Pope came on onely the question is about which of these times and degrees of the Empire destruction Haply not so high as Julians death for the Empire stood in good strength after that for thirty yeeres at least Nor so low as 455. when it was quite broken and not long after lost its very name but somewhere between viz. either about 410. when Rome it selfe the head of the Empire was taken or rather about An. ●96 when the Empire first began to be ruined that is plus minus about 400. yeers after Christ Even as the seventy years of the Jewes captivity are not to be computed from the 11. of Zedekiah when the City and Temple were taken and burnt and the State dissolved for from that time there be not sixty years in all till their returne under Cyrus but they must be reckoned from the captivity of Jehojakim ten or eleven years before even so very probably it is here Now if the Beasts reigne began about 400. after Christ then is there above 1240. gone of his 1260. yeeres so that the ruining earth-quake must needs approach And a man may wonder that so much worke should be done in so short a time as seemes to be remaining to it throughout Europe yea throughout the world but that the Text tels us it is the greatest earth quake that ever was Object The sixth head of the Empire continued long after the death of Theodosius the great Not in strength Answ 1 but was still more and more broken unto its dissolution It is not absurd to imagine that the sixth head and the seventh might be in some degrees together For first it is but a comparison not like the naturall head of which there can be but one at once more makes a monster and truly this Beast is a monster Besides the Imperiall and Papall head did not so thwart and crosse one another at first as afterwards they did so that it might be with them as Logicians say of contrary qualities they may consist together in the same subject gradibus remissis non intensis they might both of them have their power and yet not intrench upon each other Popes at first medled in a manner onely with matters of the Church as being desirous to settle their ecclesiasticall authority and the Emperours on the other side almost wholly busied themselves about the civill State to governe and defend the Empire And yet further which may lessen the absurdity before that you should have in the Roman goverment sometimes as it were two heads at once as Consuls who were for their yeere and a Dictator chosen it may be for three months or six mouths upon some extraordinary exigences and necessities of the State who was for the time supreme and namely in matters of warre as the Consuls were supreme for other civill affaires The earth-quake whereby Antichrists Kingdome is to be ruined approaches or is already entered as may apreare by this second Indice or evidence Because it is almost 1260. years since the ten Kings began and the Beast began with them as may appeare Rev. 17.12 The ten hornes which thou sawest are ten Kings which have received no Kingdome as yet but received power as Kings one houre with the Beast The ten Kings are the many Kingdomes that sprang up out of the ruines of the Empire as the Kingdome of England the Kingdome of France the Kingdome of Spaine c. These are called hornes aptly because Antichrist did with them as the Beast doth with his horne so the Dragon i. e. the heathen Empire had done before with them whilst they were his hornes Rev. 12.3 that is propugne himselfe and oppugne his adversaries For this hath been Antichrists course all along to push downe and gore even to death for the most part all those that opposed his idolatries and haeresies in all Nations by these hornes that is by the Kings and peoples of those Nations who have given their power and strength to the Beast Rev. 17.13 and who doe generally continue it to the Beast with one mind and consent making warre for him against the Lamb almost all and that most desperately unto this day Which have received no Kingdome as yet For when the Apostle wrote there were no su●h Kings in rerum natura or existent in the world as the King of England the King of France c. These Kingdomes then were hornes of the Dragon i. e. Provinces of the Empire and therefore in the description of the Dragon Rev. 12.3 the Crownes are not said to be upon the hornes that is upon the Kingdomes who had then no Kings of their owne but upon the heads that is upon the imperiall head at Rome as for instance this Land Brittaine was in the Apostles time a Province or Kingdome but it had no King of its owne and so no Crowne that was upon the head of the Emperour at Rome and he had supreme power over this Islrnd but whenas these Kingdames became the hornes of the Beast they came also to have peculiar Kings of their owne England had and hath its King France its King c. And therefore in the description of the Beast the Crownes are not said to be upon the heads but upon the hornes upon his hornes ten crownes Revel 13.1 But received power as Kings one houre with the Beast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Kings and the Beast began their reigne together Now the Kings and Kingdomes began to arise about An. 400. after Christ when the Empire began to be destroyed haply some of them a little before for they had begun to breake the Empire foure or five yeeres before and therefore might then begin to be called Kings for God lookes at and so are we to looke at realities The Histories indeed doe not speake much of them under the name and notion of Kings untill after 400. or 410. but the Histories are very confused and no wonder for those were times of most strange confusion The Beast is said to begin with them at one and the same houre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as the word may be interpreted the first houre the word in the Greeke text that signifies one as all that have any smattering in that language know signifies also first and so it may be interpreted that the Beast began to rise the very first houre the Kings began to rise rather then the