Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	altar_n	angel_n	golden_a	2,087	5	10.8116	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61453	A plain and easie calculation of the name, mark, and number of the name of the beast ... humbly presented to the studious observers of Scripture-prophecies, God's works, and the times / by Nathaniel Stephens ... ; whereunto is prefixed, a commendatory epistle, written by Mr. Edm. Calamy.	Stephens, Nathaniel, 1606?-1678.; Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666.	1656 (1656)	Wing S5450; ESTC R17480	246,007	328

c. Here is wisdome let him that hath understanding count the Number of the Beast c. The discovery then must be by understanding But here we are not to conceive such a kinde of wisdome as lyeth meerly in Mathematical subtilties For how can it be imagined that the holy Spirit and that under the highest penalties should give such serious warning to the Church to beware of receiving the Mark of the Beast the Name and the Number of the Name and these things be onely discoverable to them that have skill in the Mathematicks You will say What wisdome is here intended I answer such a skill and dexterity onely by which men are able to render the mystical and figurative expressions of the Prophecy in their true natural sense and construction The like expression is used Rev. 17. 9. Here is the minde that hath wisdome the seven Heads are seven Mountains where the woman sitteth By wisedome he doth here mean a sagacity and skill to expound the Parables and mystical expressions of the Prophecy in their bare sense and signification And so in the present case when he speaketh of the Name and Universal Headship of the Beast and the Number of the Name it is not to be doubted but that he pointeth to some method of Account famously known in the days of Iohn And whereas he doth not openly and plainly but under dark terms express the matter to wit that it is the Number of a Man and the Number 666 By this he doth imply that some kinde of wisdome is to be used in the true calculation and discovery of the Number You will say If there be 666 years to the setting up of the Name or Universal Headship of the Bishop of Rome why is not this expressed in plain and significant terms By the like manner of reasoning you may argue Why doth the Spirit through the whole body of the Prophecy carry on the description of the state of the Church in a figurative mystical and typical way of expression He might if he had so pleased have said in so many syllables that the seven Heads of the Beast are so many Mountains of the City of Rome and so many Heads of Roman Government But he doth rather use a dark circumlocution of a woman sitting upon a Beast with seven Heads He doth use such an hidden way of expressing these things in Emblems and Figures that pious men might bestow the more diligence in searching the Stories of the Church Paraeus in his Commentary upon the R●…velatun Chap. 17. v. 7. speaketh to the same purpose Piis vero interpretatione aenigmatic à aurem ve●…icare voluit spiritus ut subinde in suorum temporum eventus atque Historias invigilar●…nt And if we come to example we shall finde That the ●…even Trumpets are delivered in a very dark and mystical manner For after that the Angel had offered much incense with the Prayers of all Saints upon the Golden Altar before the Throne then the seven Angels began to sound When the first Angel sounded there followed Hail and Fire mingled with Blood Chap. 8. ver 7. When the second Angel sounded a Mountain burning with fire was cast into the Sea ver 8. And when the third Angel sounded a great Star fell from Heaven into the Rivers and Fountains and the Name of the Star is Wormwood ver 10 11. Here it is plain That by these Emblems and Figures so many Judgements of God in a succession are said to fall upon the world for their persecuting of the Saints For after the Prayers of all Saints were offered up on the Golden Altar upon the Throne then the seventh Angel began to sound As in the like case when Eliah fled to Horeb he made intercession against Israel saying I have been very jealous for the Lord God of Hosts for the children of Israel have forsaken thy Covenant thrown down thine Altars and killed thy Prophets and I am left alone and they seek my life to take it away In answer to this Prayer the Lord bade him go out and stand upon the Mount 1 Kings 19. 11 12 13. And as he stood first the Lord passed by and a great and a strong Wind rent the Mountaine and after the Wind there was an Earthquake and after the Earthquake a Fire Here if we would inquire after the signification of these three Emblems for we cannot otherwise think but that something is specially intended in Visions of this nature the Lords own interpretation will shew the meaning of this in the words that follow He that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Ie●…u s●…ay and he that escapeth the sword of Ie●…u shall El●…shah s●…ay Here then are three Judgements in a succession the Wind the Earthquake and the Fire And for the still small voice that is expressed in these words I have reserved to my self seven thousand men that have not bowed the knee to Baal ver 18. Now if you go to the seven Trumpets it is clear That they are so many Judgements of God that come one after another upon the world for their Idolatry and for their killing of the Saints But who shall assure us what is certainly meant by each Trumpet What is meant by the Hail mingled with fire by the Mountain burning with fire Who shall assure us what is meant by these Types seeing the Spirit doth not set down his meaning as he doth in the Vision represented to Elias We should in this case have recourse to the Body of the Stories of the Church For I am perswaded That the Lord doth on set purpose deliver these things more Aenigmatically and Figuratively that we should attentively consider the way of his dealing in judging the World and in delivering his Church O how far then do they go out of the true way who are Enemies against all secular Learning in the profitable and sober use thereof God doth of set purpose carry on the whole Prophecy so darkly because we should turn every way for the discovery of the truth And this is the reason wherefore he doth speak so mystically concerning the Name of the Beast the Number of a Man and the Number 666. Further also we are to consider That seeing the Kingdom of the Beast was to be set up by deceiving of the Nations it was not needful to speak every Circumstance plainly to the understanding of men How should the Beast have deceived the world if his deceits and pious frauds if the time of his Kingdome and every particular should have been fully discovered There is then a peculiar sort of people to whom the Lord hath given a special desire to look into the things contained in this Book of the Revelation and they have in some measure an ability though others are dark to understand the meaning of the Spirit in his deep and mystical expressions In the several Epistles to the seven Churches in Asia this is added in the close of all He that hath an ear let him hear what

by the Persians and Daniel mourned for it full three weeks together the Angel to comfort him telleth him plainly Dan. 10. 20. I will return to fight with the Prince of Persia and then the King of Graecia shall come in The meaning of which words is this That the power of the Empire of the Persians should be overthrown by the Graecians and then he cometh to particulars to speak of the expedition of Xerxes into Greece how that the Fourth King of the Persians should raise up great multitudes of People against the Graecians These are the words of the text for speaking of Darius the Mede he saith In the first year of Darius the Mede I stood up to strengthen him chap. 11. vers 1. And then he addeth I will shew thee the truth behold there shall stand up three Kings in Persia to wit Cyrus Cambyses Darius And the Fourth meaning Xerxes shall be richer than they all and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the Realm of Graecia vers 2 3. If we will go to the true Reason wherefore the Graecians were so couragious at the Straits of Thermopylae and wherefore they did prevail against the Persians the true cause doth lie in these words I will fight against the Prince of Persia and then the Kingdom of Graecia shall come in It was the secret and invisible hand of the Lord that was the cause of the declining of the Power of the Persians in the East and the rising of the Graecian in the West It is true That the He-goat passed from West to East upon the face of the whole Earth and yet it is as true That the Ram of Persia did push to the three several Coasts Westward Northward and Southward chap. 8. vers 4. By these words it is plain If the Victories of the Graecians did pass from West to East then è converso it is as true That the Victories of the Persians did pass from East to West Let us hear the words of the Prophet Isaiah to put all out of question for speaking of Cyrus thus he saith I have called a ravenous Bird out of the East the man of my Counsel from a far Country chap. 46. 11. From hence it is plain When God will Conquerors shall come out of the East And in Allusion to this Story those Kings that shall deliver the Mystical Israel out of the Captivity of Western Babylon are called the Kings of the East in a Figure Rev. 16. 12. It is not in the Climate in the Hemisphere in the temper of the Heavens in the better exercise of Military Discipline in the experience of old Souldiers in the success of fortunate Generals or any other inferiour cause but in the immediate Dispensation of God Therefore to adde the words of the Psalmist as an Epiphonema Lift not up your Horn on high speak not with a stiff neck for promotion cometh not from the East not from the West but God is judge he putteth down one and setteth up another Psal. 75. 5 6 7. I have staid the longer upon this digression because I set that States-men Souldiers and others of deepest wisdom look to these subtilties Hereupon they trust in an Arm of Flesh oppose the Gospel perfecute the Saints bear themselves more high over those that are made subject to them Make no Conscience of Honesty Truth or Religion when they have the Law in their own hands They should as well look to the invisible and spiritual causes of the Changes of Empire to the Providence of God to the Revelations in the Word to the Angels fighting against the Kingdoms of this world to the power of the Saints Prayers that are offered upon the golden Altar There is nothing more divine nothing more spiritual and nothing more apt to carry up the Soul into an high contemplation of the manifold wisdom power truth and Fidelity of God then to behold in the Prophecie of Daniel and in the Book of the Revelation as in a Map the several Empires of the world where the Church should be seated their times their changes and their causes of the change and this many hundred years before these Empires come to be set up They that read the VVord together with the Stories of the times may see the Fidelity of God and may by this come to know him by the Name Iehovah But so much by the way touching the sudden growth of the Graecian Empire from VVest to East Now we come to the Romans and in the times of their Dominion they must also have the strength of Iron to subdue the whole Earth and break it in pieces And though great Nations and mighty Princes should rise against him as Pyrrhus Hannibal Perseus Iugurtha Sertorius Methridates Tigranes c. yet in their times the Romans must be too hard for them all and break them all in pieces And therefore when Dionysius Halicarnassaeus Cicero and others boast of the Roman Greatness it may be said to them as somtimes it was to Cyrus I have girded thee with strength though thou knowest not me Isa. 45. 1 2. This was the true though the invisible cause why the Romans grew so Great and their Dominion reached to the ends of the Earth But now it is high time to return from whence we have made a digression to shew when the Roman began as the Fourth Metal-Kingdom Some think it was when that Nation was the most prevailing Nation upon the Earth But this cannot be For in the times of Antiochus the Great but more specially in the times of Antiochus Epiphanes they were the more prevailing People yet they did not begin in those times as the Fourth Metal-Kingdom in Daniel's Image You will say then VVhere shall we set the beginning of the Fourth Kingdom I Answer In this case we must distinguish between the Latitude of the Roman Dominion more absolutely considered and the Latitude of the Dominion in and about the Borders of the Church If you speak of the Latitude of Dominion in a more absolute consideration then the Roman began as the more prevailing Dominion when it became more mighty than any other Empire of the world But if you speak in a more strict sense it began then to be the Fourth Metal-Kingdom in Daniel's Image when it did begin to take in the greatest Amplitude and largeness of Rule in and about the Confines of the Church And this is to our purpose Object 3. Others perhaps may Alledge That we cannot begin the Roman as the Fourth Metal-Kingdom when the Iewish Church came under the Dominion of that People For say they it is foretoll in the Prophecie of Jacob The Scepter shall not depart from Iudah nor a Law-giver from between his feet until Shiloh come Gen. 49. 10. Sol. I Answer We must so expound the meaning of one that it may not dash against the main sense of another Scripture Now it is the manifest scope of other Scriptures to shew That the Four