Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	incense_n	prayer_n	smoke_n	1,391	5	11.4786	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50002	O basanos tes aletheias, or, The touch-stone of truth wherein verity by scripture and antiquity is plainly confirmed, and errour confuted / delivered in certain sermons, preached in English by James Le Franc ...	Le Franc, James.	1663 (1663)	Wing L942; ESTC R11511	73,260	166

the angel that came and stood at the altar is our blessed Saviour as the best of interpreters teach us God manifested in the flesh an object which angels and men are not us'd to behold Christ the angel of the great council and the messenger of the covenant as the Prophet Malachy tels us Mal. 3.1 Christ our high-Priest who offered a sacrifice not of beasts but of himself upon the altar of the Cross and therefore at his coming into the world to assume our humane nature to satisfie the divine justice for mens sins he caused a great admiration unto angels and at his manifestation procured in heaven the militant Church a profound silence But that you may have a greater satisfaction I beseech you look upon the 3. verse of our Chapter and you will easily see the cause of this silence to be Christ our Redeemer for it is said in that verse that another angel Christ our Priest and Mediatour came having assumed our humane nature and stood at the altar to shew us that he was offered in sacrifice for our sins where you must observe that Christ is our Priest according to both his natures our altar according to his divine nature for as the altar sanctified the oblation Mat. 23.19 so Christ as God sanctified himself in his humane nature according to which humane nature Christ properly is our sacrifice as you may see in the first Chapter of the Epistle to the Colossians 22. ver and in 1 Pet. 4.1 although the principal vertue of his sacrifice did depend on his divine nature Moreover it is said that the angel had a golden censer to teach us that Christ gave God the Father a perfect and eternal satisfaction that we might be delivered from the eternal slavery of the prince of darkness which our sins had made us subject to and further it saith that much incense was given him to shew us that the peculiar office of Christ is to present God the Father the prayers of the righteous and make them acceptable unto him through his intercession which alone without the intercession of the departed Saints is sufficient for all those that he redeemed by his precious bloud as you may see in the 4. verse where it is said that the smoak of the incense which came with the prayers of the Saints ascended up before God out of the angels hand all which things could not but cause silence in heaven the militant Church and ravish with admiration all the intelligent creatures in the opening of so great a mystery which the angels desire to look into 1 Pet. 1.12 Moreover seeing that the angel Christ took the censer and filled it with fire of the altar as we reade in the 5. verse and cast it into the earth to prepare by that sacred sire the Ministers of the holy Gospel to preach one Jesus Christ and him crucified as he did after his ascension into the glorious palace of his Father as we reade Act. 2.3 the Church could not but keep silence and further hearing voices thundrings lightnings and earthquakes at the opening of the great and sublime mystery of our redemption for the confirmation of it she could not but admire with a profound silence such prodigious effects as many for certain do in this world at the hearing of this great mystery and I hope many in this company cannot but wonder at it and say being ravished in admiration with S. John at the opening of so great a mystery there was silence in heaven but I am afraid of abusing of your patience seeing that this silence should continue but half an hour there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour which leads me to the second part of my Text. The second part As the intelligent creatures are limited and finite so is their contemplation which doth not permit them to consider several things at once for their understandings present them the objects one after another according to the capacity of their natures and indeed God alone is he who can at once comprehend all things because he alone compasseth about all the creatures of the Universe and which is most admirable in the knowledge which God hath of all things is that to know them he doth not look upon them but upon himself for in his wisdom he sees the eternal models of all things and in his will the efficient cause of all the events so that by the knowledge that God hath of himself he knoweth all things but it is not so with the intelligent creatures for they must alternatively and by degrees consider several natures whether they look upon them Intuitivè intuitively as angels or discursivè discursively as men or consider them with admiration as both angels and men as you may see in our Text there was silence in heaven for the space of half an hour because the sacred attendants of the militant Church could not at once in a moment perceive all those wonders which we have told you were seen in heaven during the celestial silence of which S. John speaks saying there was silence in heaven for the space of half an hour But this duration of time half an hour hath some difficulty in its explication for some learned men will have it to be the duration of the external peace of the Church of God under Constantine the Great which seemed to have lasted but about the space of half an hour for soon after that peace heresies and schisms did spring up in the Church as it did appear by the Arians against whom the great Council of Nice was held being called by Constantine the Emperour Lyranus will have the space of half an hour to be the duration of the persecution of Julian the Apostate who imposed silence unto the Church and commanded her not to instruct her children nor give them any consolation grounded upon the merit of our blessed Saviour which continued but a little while about the space of half an hour for soon after he died in the wars which he did undertake against the Persians where this monstrous Apostate vomited out a damnable blasphemy against our blessed Lord whom he used to call Galilean for he dying took some of his bloud cast it up in the air and said Vicisti Galilaee vicisti thou hast overcome Galilean thou hast overcome at last but Leaving those interpretations with many others give me leave to tell you that by the space of half an hour is understood all the time of the actings which S. John saw in heaven the militant Church at the opening of the seventh seal from the 2. ver of our Chapter to the 7. for the things which are represented unto that verse did seem to Saint John to have continued but a little while about the space of half an hour so short a time that S. John was nothing weary in the contemplation of them and indeed if you observe our Chapter you will easily perceive a perfect silence kept in the