Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	bind_v	heaven_n	loose_v	4,825	5	10.6036	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66683	The breaking of the day of God wherein, four things are manifested : I. That the two witnesses are not in ki[ll]ing, but in rising from death, II. The three dayes and half, or 42. months of the saints captivity under the beast, very near expired, III. Christ hath begun to reign in his saints, and to tread their corrupt flesh under his feet, IIII. Christs dominion over the nations of the world, near the approach / by Gerrard VVinstanley.	Winstanley, Gerrard, b. 1609.	1649 (1649)	Wing W3042; ESTC R40126	79,141	154

power till that time be accomplished for it is their time of prophesying in sackcloth it is not Gods time of raining down wrath as yet because God by his word hath limitted himself to such a time And truly here our God points out such a spring as may refresh his people in all their suflerings To consider the sufferings of the Saints and the enemies cruelty is not acted according to the will of the enemy but enemies and Saints and troubles are all in Gods hand and enemies shall dye the Saints shall be comforted and all teares wiped from their eyes when Gods appointed time is accomplished and not till then surely this gives much strength of peace and patience to poor children of God in their sufferings But secondly They have power to shut Heaven or to stay Gods hand from raining down judgement upon the Beast all the dayes of their prophesies as sometimes God rained down a deluge of water to drown the rebellious World and sometimes he rained a deluge Of fire as a plague to destroy those wicked people in Sodome and Gomorah And this power is in the hand of the Anointed Iesus Christ for he hath the power of hell and death And the reason is this Iesus Christ hath bought out this power by his bloud out of the hands of offended justice For now as God shewes no mercy out of Christ so he executes no act of wrath or justice but by the hand of Christ for the Father hath committed all judgment to the Son and Christ is all and in all Christ hath the Key of life and death he can either bind or loose destroy or save Therefore it is said That the Witnesses have power to shut Heaven or the hand of offended justice that it rain not down plagues And they have power to open Heaven and to smite the earth with plagues as oft as they will Or secondly If by Heaven we understand the Church which I rather adhere to then I conceive the meaning is this The Witnesses have power from God to prophesie in sackcloth one thousand two hundred and sixty dayes and there shall not be showers of divine discoveries whereby the Beast shall be utterly consumed all that time onely she shall be plagued now and then by those divine discoveries like drops of raine so often as the spirit of truth the Anointing which rules in the witnesses pleaseth And by these few discoveries of divine truths from God to and in the Church the carnall inventions of the Beast shall be discovered to be evil and made void thereby and the Beast or subtile flesh shall be put to her shifts to invent new deceits every age against Christ which doth plague this carnall earth mightily But the witnesses have power to shut Heaven that it rain not That you may see into the mystery hereof By Rain I understand two things by which the Beast is destoyed quite First When discoveries of God and manifestations of the brightness of the Anointed Iesus Christ appears in every Member of the Church like a showre of raine that sweepes away the refuge of lies or fleshly inventions before them as Isaih saith The Earth or Saints shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the Waters cover the Sea for now the darknes of men cannot stand before the light of God nor the wisdom of the corrupt flesh cannot stand before the wisdom of God and this is that sword that is in the mouth of Christ whereby he destroyes his enemies and this shall be made good when the Church shall not need to be taught by any man but shall be all taught by God and by that same Anointing shall know all things But Heaven or the Church is shut up from these plentifull discoveries till the time of the end that the Witnesses sackcloth-prophesying is accomplished but when that time is finished then this rain shall appear whereby the Beast with all her fleshly deceits shall be destroyed Secondly By Raine I understand the number of Saints that shall increase and spread like the multitude of drops in a showre of raine or like sands upon the Sea shoar so that their number shall over-top the number of Babylons Citizens And so the Church being full of the righteousnes of God and discoveries of Christ shall sweep away the City Babylon with all her beastly practices and fleshly inventions And hereby the Beast shall be destroyed For whereas all the dayes of the Witnesses sack-cloth-prophesying and death The earth that is the flesh of men and conversation of men was full of drinesse and unfruitfulnesse before God in every thought word Work by reason of the Beast or wisdom of the flesh that ruled in them and promoted Self Now by this Rain the earth or flesh of man is filled with fruits of righteousness and truth I mean by the plentifull discoveries of truth or brightness of Christ and by the plentiful1 increase of the Saints the destruction of the Beast or the Serpents head in flesh is broken and consumed And that there shall be such increase of Saints in the latter dayes the Prophesie of Hosea makes it manifest for when God cast off literal Israel He promised the large increase of spiritual Israel which are beleeving Iewes and Gentiles that shall be like the sands of the Sea shoar in the day of Christ But the Witnesses have a power to shut the Church or Heaven from raining in this kind till their Prophesie be ended as God appointed And then I believe there shall appear plentifull manifestations of Gods love in the Church to the increase of their number and to the increase of their spiritual enjoyment of God And likewise there shall appear hereby even plentifull manifestation of justice and wrath upon the beast and wisdom of the flesh to its utter overthrow And these manifestations of love justice shal appear like a showr● of raine sweeping away the refuge of lye before it And yet further in that sixt verse They have power over waters to turn them into bloud By waters first of all I conceive are mean● the inventions actings and appearances of the power and wisdom of the flesh arising against the testimony of the two Witnesses to prove their testimony false For the Devil and corrupt flesh would faine prove God a lyer and would not have the seed of the Woman break the Serpents head And hence doth arise such a dea● adoe among men to find out a way to worship God and give direction to others and to enforce people to observe those directions o● else to stand lyable to humane punishments as though they must help Christ to save sinners But when the Angel powres out his Viall into the Sea fountains and waters of Babylon that is upon the very spirit of subtile enmity it self and upon all the carnall wisdom and appearances that have flowed there-from and caused them to become like the

own invention in stead thereof and would not suffer the practicall directions of Jesus Christ to have a Being on earth but turnes the Scriptures that testifie of Christ up-side down advancing the Mysterie of Iniquity that is the Serpent in the flesh in stead of the mystery of godlinesse God manifest in the flesh and hath drawn a dark veil over the free grace of Gods absolute workings as the witnesses testifie God to be all in all and carries sinners back again to a ceremoniall Jewish and legall way of worship to seek salvation not by faith onely but as it were by the workes of the law As for instance in 8. particulars 1. Jesus Christ said Wee should bee all taught of God and that he would send the Spirit of truth to lead us into all truth But the Beast saith we must be taught by men and calls the teachings of God without mens teachings a delusion 2. Jesus Christ sends forth his servants to preach the Kingdome of God that is to speak of what they have heard and seen of the indwelling and in-working of God in themselves and in the man Jesus Christ But the Beast will suffer none to preach though they be taught of God unlesse they come out of her Schools of learning first and so speak what they have seen and heard from Commentaries Books and ancient Authors 3. Jesus Christ commands his servants to love their enemies and pray for such as doe despitefully use them But the Beast though she pretend love to God by outward profession will not onely oppresse and kill despiteful enemies but such as are peaceable men under the name of factious and men of errors if they cannot conform to her principles and practices 4. Iesus Christ calls his Church out of the world makes them to beleeve in God by his own almighty power but the Beast will have a whole Parish a whole kingdome and so the whole world to be his Church in her time or else she wil suffer him to have no church at all 5. Iesus Christ speakes honourably of the Saints and calls them his sheep his little flocke his peculiar ones But the Beast speakes bitterly of them evill intreats them prisons whips oppresses and murders them and thinks she doth God good service in so doing 6. Jesus Christ commends the Communion of Saints such as worship the Father sincerely in spirit truth The Beast commends the communion of bare professors for Saints whose worship lies in forms and customes onely 7. Jesus Christ declares that his Sabbath or day of rest to a Saint is his indwelling in the soul and the souls indwelling in him which is continuall and not an observation of one seventh day in the week after the Jewish type But the Beast being unacquainted with the substance observes one day in seven after the manner of the typicall worship and condemnes the soules continuall resting in Christ and Christ in it for an error 8. And so for Bapti●me breaking of Bread and Saints communion Ministers maintenance as Jesus Christ left direction the Beast by her usurped authority and fleshly inferences quite altered and practices clean contrary things of her own invention and hath deceived the whole earth that all the world wonders after the Beast and judges her wayes more wise more holy more orderly and more decent then the Directory of Jesus Christ And thus we see the Beast hath killed one of Gods Witnesses Jesus Christ both in his humane Body and in his testimony and Christ hath lain like a dead body under the power of the Beast three dayes and upwards of the halfe And then for the Saints in whom the same Anointing dwels who are Gods second Witnes for they hold the testimony of Jesus to acknowledg the Lord their God and him onely will serve First the Beast hath killed the bodies of their flesh by martyrdom in several ages of the world by-past in her three dayes that are by-past And so all along since the Beast hath slain them in their actings and testimony and would not suffer them to receive Christ and his testimony And whereas the Anointing teaches them to worship the Lord their God only acknowledge him all in all in binding and loosing the Conscience The Beast hath usurped this power which she got by craft from the Kings of the earth to appoint directories Ordinances and Ecclesiastical Governments to inforce every one upon pain of prisons and death not to deny these but to own them to submit to them as Gods Directories Ordinances and Government to the binding and loosing of Conscience when the plain truth is they are but the thresholds of the Beast laid equal with Gods thresholds and the Posts of the Beasts house set equal with the Posts of Gods house and brought in on purpose to pollute Gods Sanctuary for which God will consume the Beast and all that worship both him and his Image CHAP. VI The Witnesses were slain long agoe have lien dead in the street of the great City three dayes and almost the half and are now upon their rising NOw consider that this slaying of the two Witnesses is past long agoe and they are lying in the street of the great City like dead bodies three dayes and an half but I believe they have lien dead well nigh their full time if not compleat for I believe they are upon their rising But are the Witnesses then slain for certain I answer by the experience that we have of the fulfilling of Johns Vision and Prophesie it appears clear to me that they are slain And that the troubles of the world at this very day is but the Cloud in which the Witnesses doth ascend up to God after that the spirit of life from God was entered into them This is partly seen by some already but for the time and season when God will make this manifest to the view of the world I am silent God hath the times and seasons in his own power yet I have perswasions in me from experimentall grounds of Gods own working that ere long within few years God will make this visible to the world but they shall be filled with great feare and be offended at it A mans own sight and perswasion will not satisfie others therefore I shall add a few things more that lies in my spirit to confirm this grounded upon Johns Vision for the fulfilling of a Prophesie shews the meaning of a Prophesie In Revel. 8. 13. There are three woes denounced to the Inhabitants of the earth the first woe is past already and I have nothing to speak of it but only this That when the bottomlesse pit or corrupt flesh was opened made manifest and had a liberty to act it self it brought forth woe and sorrow to the Inhabitants of the earth that is to such as lived below God meerly in the use of creatures of this world such as lived seemingly

not suffered to act in their full strength or appear out of that cursed fountain of darknesses till God pleased to let them loose therefore they were evill because bound up or imprisoned in such an evill stinking River Secondly These four Angels were evil in respect of their nature for I believe they are four spiritual powers of wickednes As first wicked craft and subtilty in the strength of it 2. Hypocrisie in the strength of it 3. Envy in the strength of it And 4. A murdering cruelty in the strength of it Now these four Angels or powers of darknes were bound up within the very body of the Serpent and not suffered to act in that violent universal strength as they do till this sixth Angel sounded And now being let loose they stir up every one in the four quarters of the earth and vex and torment you day and night for men in whom these powers rule they have no rest And men are stirred up in Armies to kill and slay But whom do they slay Not the witnesses though they think so in their heart as it is spoke of Gog and Magog but those men only who have not the Seal of God in their forehead or as it is said before the Inhabitants of the Earth And truly the strong subtil craft unparalleld hypocrisie extream envy and inbred cruelty that is expressed in the four quarters of the land of the world too against the Saints that are branded Sectaries Schismaticks Anabaptists Round-heads doth appear plain to me to be those three powerfull Angels of darknes which are let loose in the spirits of men even in that spirit of darknes that hath overspread the Earth man-kind like the over-flowing River Euphrates therefore they are evil Angels Thirdly consider how doe these Angels slay the third part of men Why truly I believe it is not their killing of their bodies only though it may be in these great troubles many are and doubtles shall be killed in that sense but it points out a worser death then that of the body for they kill the very minds and consciences of men And it is thus These four Angels shall be so powerfull in mens spirits and spread so universally over the earth of man-kind That many that are convinced of a false worship and unjust wayes that are practised generally shall out of slavish fear of men and out of shame to own God his wayes at this time are so contemptible and so generally reproached slandered and hated tha● a third part of men shall turn Hypocrites and practice wayes contrary to their knowledg and will say do subscribe and fight laugh scosse reproach and kill the Saints yea do any thing so they may have the flattering word of their carnall Neighbours and not be called Round-heads Anabaptists or Independants these names whereby the Saints are branded are so odious And truly these men are slain for the fearfull and unbelieving shall have their part in the lake which is the second death And every Parish through this Kingdom and the World too at this very day are full of these dead men and women But these four Angels are spiritual powers of darknes which do not appear in apparitions and visions but being let loose in mens spirits they rule and work there And the multitudes of men whom they violently stir up are called Armies of horse-men as you may read which declares their strength and their swiftnes to do hurt pointed out by the strength and swiftnes of horses Now these Armies of horse-men or multitudes of men put upon violent and unreasonable actions by these four evil Angels are the appearing cause that doth hurt and kill weak spirited men and women by over-awing them And out of the mouthes of those Armies thus set on fire there proceeded fire smoak and brimstone by which the third part of men were killed By smoak is betokened false Doctrines threatnings reproaches scoffes oppressions and bitter provocations Brimstone betokens persecution whips plunderings prisons And fire betokens fire and faggot hanging murdering or putting them to death in any kind that do not submit to the wayes of these four Angels And this is further cleared by the 19. vers. The power of this Army whereby they do hurt is in their mouths and in their tails That is they call their own inventions and lies the Doctrines of God and against them that do not submit thereunto First they give out bitter reviling language and threatning speeches to plunder imprison and kill And thereby over-aw men and make them afraid and ashamed to own God and so kill them And if this doth not do then their power is in their tails when by the Authority of the Civil Magistrate whom these four Angels have deceived they over-awe men by punishments whips prisons plunderings and death for this followes the other as the tail follows the head And therefore mind That when threatnings reproaches and bitter language goes before prisons and death followes if they can but deceive the Magistracy which is Gods Ordinance and get an Authority by craft from him so to do And thus the four Angels by their Armies deceive and kill weak men and make them out of slavish fear and bashfull shame to disown God and to say or do any thing to preserve themselves from danger And the rest of the men that were not killed by these plagues repented not That is though these Armies of men in whom these four Angels rule with violence were not themselves over-awed by this slavish fear and bashful shame because they are audacious bold and desperately confident in wicked wayes And though they do see poor weak men over-awed by them and made to do any thing not out of sincerity of heart to God but out of hypocrisie and fear to their usurped power of wickednesse They have neither piety in them to see men so enslaved but rather glorie in it neither do they repent of their own works and false Idolatrous worship which is self-invention neither indeed can they for the four evil Angels being let loose rule in them So that these that repent not of the works of their hands are the master-upholders of the Beast against God such as repent not of their pretended plat-forms and customes of pretended divine worship which have no warrant from God Such as repent not of their covetousnes after silver and gold by rich Tythes nor of their murther in reviling imprisoning and killing the Saints nor of their fornication in loving themselves riches creatures honours more then God But though they do not repent yet they shall not reign alwayes like Lords over Gods Inheritance For God hath and doth proclaim by the voice of the sixth good Angel that time to the Beast shall be no more his dayes are near done And secondly after that the spirit of life from God hath raised up the two Witnesses there were seven thousand slain