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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	assume_v	humane_a	union_n	3,291	5	9.5119	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77240	The marks of the apocalyptical beast, plainly decyphered and the danger of having communion with him clearly discovered. The testimony of a reverend and learned divine concerning the following treatise. As to the treatise, Mr. - and I have perused it carefully; and not to speak to please, but as the thing is, it is very clear, strong, and useful, and very fit to open the eyes of those Papists whom God hath a favour to: I wish the nation enjoyed it, being it is so solid, short, and fitted for good.	Bagshaw, Edward, 1629-1671.	1667 (1667)	Wing B418A; ESTC R203034	15,160	19

Explication As First Vers 3 4 Upon the Beast there is discovered to sit an Imperious and Whorish Woman attired in a very sumptuous and pompous manner bedecked with Gold and precious Stones and Pearls Compare Hos 2.13 Jer. 4.30 See also Prov. 7 10 16 17 2 Thes 2.3 4 1 Tim 4.1 2 Cor. 11.2 3 Cant. 8.6 Isa 47.5 Rev. 18.7 Nah. 3.4 with Rev. 14.8 and 18.23 just as the Church of Israel is described by the Prophets when she was fallen from the Service of God unto the worship of Idols in resemblance of whom this Woman may well be called The Church Apostatical as having now arrived unto the height of Apostacy which before was prophesied of For as the true Church the Virgin Spouse of Christ is said to lean upon her Beloved having dependance upon and taking complacency in him alone so this False and Adulterous Church sits upon the Beast by whom she is supported and upheld in whom shee glories as her Head and by whose means she extends her soveraignty so far that like Babylon of old she sits as Queen and with Niniveth that once Imperial City she intoxicates the Nations and bewitcheth them unto a Communion with her in her Abominable and Idolatrous Practises Whence it appears that whatever she may vaunt her self to be as the Mother Church the Mistress of Faith and the like yet when the Mystery of her Iniquity comes to be revealed and the Curtain drawn she must then be called Rev. 17.5 as the Spirit of God doth call her in her true stile The Mother of Harlots i. e. of all false and Adulterous Churches and of the Adominations of the earth i. e. of all Impious and Idolatrous Practises And that wee might not wonder who this Woman should be as men ignorant or surprized are wont to do for even the holy Evangelist Revel 17 6. who saw her but in a vision could not but greatly wonder at her the Angel plainly tells us that this woman was nothing else but the City placed upon seven Hills verse 9. verse 10 11 c. see Tacitus p. 1 2. Verse 18. which had already passed thorough five several forms of Governments being then under the sixth viz. that of Heathen Emperours and to leave no scruple or doubt remaining which at that time when he saw this Vision and wrote this Prophesie had the supreme Dominion over the Kings of the Earth Which City if any one can be so far mistaken as to deny to be Rome he must finde out some other City unto whom those Properties will more exactly agree which is altogether impossible Secondly Sedes Romana Though by this discovery of the Whore we might satisfactorily enough be led unto a knowledge of the Beast upon whom she fits yet that we might be more certainly and infallibly guided Rev. 17.3 Mark 1. the Spirit of God is pleased to lay down some clearer Marks to make him evident and notorious to us First The Beast is said to be of a skarlet-colour and full of the Names of Blasphemy Of his Blasphemy see Isa 14.13 14. Dan. 3.15 4.30 Of his Blasphemy see Dan. 8. 9-12 and 11.36 37 He was called Do minus Deusque noster Martial Verse 6. Job 22. 25-17 with 21.14 15. Exod. 5.2 2 Kings 19 10 16. not being it seems contented with one Name as Nebuchadnezzar Antiochus Epiphanes Domitian and other Tyrants and Oppressours his Predecessours were but this Beast as he succeeded into their roome so he was to inherit their Nature and to out-do them in the worst of their Actions loading himself with many sacrilegious Names of Blasphemy that so he might the more easily be discovered What these Names are is not particularly expressed but they may easily be guessed at by the character which is given of him in the 13th Chapter That he opens his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his Name and his Tabernacle and those that dwell in Heaven The several parts of which description deserve to be particularly insisted on 1. To utter Blasphemy against God or to Blaspheme the Name of God may be done two waies Either 1. In direct and open denying the very Being of God as the men before the Flood Pharaoh and Senacherib did Saying Who is the Lord that we should obey his voice Or 2. When frail men by reason of some outward success given them do intrude themselves into the Place and Authority of God by assuming some of his Divine and Incommunicable Attributes Thus the Prince of Tyre Blasphemed God when he said I am a God I sit in the seat of God Ezek. 28.2 3 4.6 of whom likewise it is spoken in a way of sacred Irony Behold thou art wiser than Daniel i. e. than any of the Prophets or divinely inspired men there is no secret they can hide from thee This arrogant Prince it seems not only challenging the Power of God unto himself but likewise his Wisdome too even pretending to a kinde of Omniscience and Infallibility for hee adds with thy Wisdome and with thy understanding thou hast gotten thee Riches In conformity to which Description the Apostle Paul gives us this full and perfect Definition of Anti-Christ or of the Beast wee are enquiring after He is one who opposeth viz. 2 Thes 2.4 Psal 82. Christ and his Saints and farre exalts himself above all that is called God or Worshipped whereby is meant not only above Magistrates who are called Gods but likwise above every thing else which is thought by men to be most capable of Divine Honour so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God i. e. in the Church which was of old truly so and still pretends to be so declaring himself that he is God Declaring that is Demonstrating and manifesting this Mark 2.7 by his pretending to a God-like Power as to be able to pardon sins which none can do but God alone To absolve from Laws To Dispense with Oathes To be Infallible and the like which Titles and Power whoever dares assume to himself He is The Anti-Christ a Blasphemer and consequently that Beast whose Marks we are seeking for of which the first is that he was to be full of such Names of Blasphemy 2. The Tabernacle of God which this Beast is said to Blaspheme may either signifie the Church of God Eph. 2.22 1 Tim. 3.5 15. which oftentimes is called the House of God over which the Beast doth sinfully assume a power or which I rather take to be the meaning The humane Nature of Christ for thus the divine Writer to the Hebrews doth elegantly call it because it was the true Tabernacle Heb. 8.2 and 9.11 which God pitched and not man Which Tabernacle is Blasphemed when the Merit of those Sufferings which God himself underwent in the Humane Nature is lessened and the blood of Christ not accounted sufficient to cleanse from sin without something added by men to eek out its value For since our

Saviour expresly affirmeth that he gave his flesh Joh. 6.51 i. e. his humane Nature for the life of the World and nothing can be more undeniable than that excellent Argument of a Divine Writer Heb. 9.13 14. If the blood of Bulls and of Goats doth sanctifie to the purifying of the Flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who by the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot unto God purifie our Conscience from dead works The shedding of that blood which was the price paid for the satisfaction of sin being abundantly sufficient to merit forgiveness for millions of worlds because the Mortal Nature which suffered by its Union with the Divine was of Infinite and Incomparable Value If then the Beast shall dare to extenuate and lessen it by pretending that some part of the Ransome is yet unpaid and that he hath power by his Indulgences to add something to it this must needs bee a Blasphemy of the highest kinde because it is in effect to say that the Son of God did not finish the work for the full performing of which Heb. 10.5 10 14 a Body was prepared him 3. Those that dwell in Heaven are the Angels and the departed Saints who are then Blasphemed when any thing is ascribed or done to them which were they now on Earth they would not dare to own Thus when the men of Lystra who had the excuse of an amazing Miracle to justifie them did prepare to offer Sacrifice unto Paul and Barnabas we read that those blessed Apostles did rent their cloathes Act. 14.14 2 Kings 18 37. Mat. 26.65 which was usual in the cases of Blasphemy and shews what Opinion they conceived of that Action So when our Evangelist perhaps onely in a pious gratitude for such great discoveries would have fallen down at the Angels feet to Worship him The Angel in a kinde of sacred horror forbad him Revel 19.10 saying See thou dost it not for I am thy fellow-Servant Worship God And a greater than hee even the Son of God himself yet appearing in the forme of an Angel would not have Sacrifice offered to him Jud. 13.16 but saith hee to Manoah If thou wilt offer a Burnt-Offering thou must offer it to the Lord If therefore Sacrifice and Adoration was not at all pleasing to those blessed Spirits upon Earth 1 Pet. 2.5 Heb. 13.15 we cannot think but Prayer and Praise which are a Christians Sacrifice and other acts of Divine Worship must needs be accounted by them as Blasphemous now they are in Heaven For they have not altered their minds nor are they now lesse zealous of Gods Honour than when they did on Earth express their utmost abhorrence of what-ever did but seem to intrench upon it So that to summe up all the parts of this first Mark together for a sinful man to assume the prerogative and incommunicable properties of God to lessen the Invaluable Merits and Satisfaction of our Lord Christ and to injoyn undue honour unto Saints and Angels such as were they now on earth they would detest these all are Blasphemies of the grossest nature which who-ever belcheth forth he is the Beast we are commanded to beware of Secondly Another Marke and that no little one Mark 2 by which the Beast may be known is the numberless number of his followers even the whole Earth saith the Text Rev. 13.3 with 17.8 or All that dwell upon the Earth whereby is not meant every individual person throughout the world but as is afterwards explained Every Tribe and Tongue and Nation That is All the Professors of Christianity throughout the world except the Elect Mat. 24.24 Rev. 17.8 Rev. 13.7 Rev. 12.17 or They whose Names are written in the Book of Life These are called the Saints or the seed of the Woman i. e. the Sons and Daughters of the true Church Whom the Dragon persecuted Who keep not the Traditions of men but the Commandements of God and in direct opposition to the Usurpations of Anti-Christ do hold the Testimony of Jesus Who in comparison of that vast Rout or rather Heard which Worship the Beast are stiled a little Flock left as it were Luke 12.32 to humane view altogether Naked and Defenceless in the midst of many fierce and ravening Wolves Rev. 11.7 by whom they are no sooner discovered but they are hunted taken and slain Which General delusion and raging madness of the Bestal crew together with the distressed condition of the Lambs company must needs even in the eye of common Reason make those swelling Titles of Universality Visibility Pomp and Extent of dominion very unsafe and most unfit to plead as signs of the true Church since during the whole time of the Beasts Reign they are applicable onely unto his Followers If any ask how it was possible for the world professing themselves as they did to be Christians to become so stupid Rev. 5.6 and senseless as instead of the Lamb Christ Jesus to shew a Tyrannical and outragious Beast his greatest Enemy in answer to this we must consider that from the first moment wherein the Beast was invested in his Soveraignty there was universally conceived a slavish dread of his Power which made the over-awed and captivated world to cry out who is like unto the Beast Rev. 13.4 who is able to warre with him For if those of Samaria were exceedingly afraid of Jehu 2 Kings 10.4 and thought they reasoned well when they said Behold two Kings stood not before him how then shall wee stand How much less able then were any to resist the Beasts encroachments who had ten Horns i. e. Ten Kings his Vassals Revel 17.12 13. that owned him for their Head and tamely gave up their Authority to be disposed of and ordered by him But besides this Argument from Force and Fear which alone had been sufficient to enslave the world there were two other causes which did concur to make the spiritual Thraldome plausible and universally taking 1. There was a willingness in the world to bee deceived as the Israelites being many years accustomed to the taste of Mannah though it was bread of Heaven Ps 105 40 Psa 78.24 25 and food for Angels began to loath it so did the World grow weary of the plainness of Truth which made God in his just judgement give them up to be acted by a Spirit of Errour 2 Thes 2.10 12 Joh. 7.18 1 Cor. 13.6 So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 52.3 because they loved not the Truth saith the Apostle but had pleasure in unrighteousness or in falsehood as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 often signifies Men having then their Ears open to receive and their mindes ready to believe a Lye and offering themselves as a willing Prey to every one that would but take pains to cozen them 2. To this propensity and readiness which was in the world for the embracing of any kinde of Errour there was