Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	call_v	church_n	holy_a	7,200	5	5.2401	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

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

most agreeable to the design of the Spirit of God who speaks of the Beast as of one that was to reign a long time and comparatively much longer than either the Christian Rev. 17.10 11 or the Heathen Emperours before him in whose place the Beast was to succeed as the eighth in Number but indeed the seventh Head and was thence forward to continue until the Lord Christ himself came to take away his Authority from him 3. That since the breaking of the Roman Empire and the Rise of several Kingdomes or Principalities out of it which by all writers is placed between the fourth and the fifth Century though many differ concerning the particular Time of each there have already lapsed above 1200. years all which time we must in conformity to this Scripture be forced to acknowledge that the Beast who was to begin his Reign with those ten Kings hath been visibly and powerfully reigning and to speak more plainly this the Spirit of God hath affirmed he was to do and therefore hath done in Rome it self and thither wee are directed by the Angle to seek him that wee may know who it is whose Communion wee are with so much care commanded to avoid From what hath been said it is very evident nor indeed can any thing possibly bee more clear to all unprejudiced men that as Rome was that City which was represented under the form of a Whorish Woman so the Pope or Bishop of Rome is the Beast who bears her It is he who for many hundred of years hath fixed his Seat and his Supremacy there It is hee who challengeth Authority over all Kings and Earthly Magistrates the greatest of whom have been forced to wait as Lackeyes to make up his Train It is He who hath all these Names of Blasphemy of being Head of the Church Infallible Pardoning Sin Dan. 7.25 and the like which the Spirit of God had before prophesied of and witnesseth against It is He who hath attempted to change Times and daily doth change Laws dispensing for his own gain with whatever is Sacred and Holy It is He who Blasphemes those that dwell in Heaven Canonizing whom hee pleaseth for Saints and then commanding them to be worshiped as Gods shewing himself hereby not only to bee a God Apolog. but as Tertullians expression is Deus Deificus A God that can make Gods So much is hee advanced above the condition of a Mortal Man And lastly It is He who hath the False-Prophet to Act and Preach for him even an infinite number of Monks Fryars Jesuits and the like False-Teachers who being his sworn Subjects by their Lies and Lying Wonders do all strive to bring the World into the same Vassallage not much caring what becomes of other Points so that Men will but be Ignorant enough and quietly hold the Fundamental Article of their Creed that the Pope is Head of the Church but if any suspecting him to be the Beast they are bid to beware of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mic 3.5 do once boggle at this then these False-prophets prepare or as the Hebrew word signifies Hallow War against them i. e Wage an Holy War the meaning of which Phrase our Protestant Churches in France Savoy Germany and other places are too sensibly acquainted with to need an explication If this bee so for the proof of which I have not followed any pre-conceived Notions of mine own but the unerring guidance of Scripture-light then it doth necessarily follow that in the Church of Rome I mean for those who knowingly live and dye in Communion with Her acknowledging the Pope for their Head there is not any possibility of Salvation and to affirm there is is boldly to contradict the express denuntiation of the Spirit of God and therein to bee mercilesly Cruel unto the Souls of those deluded men under pretence of being Charitable 2 Th. 2.10 See 2 Cor. 2.15 4.3 Acts 2.47 1 Cor. 1.18 Jude v. 4 The Apostle Paul saies that the Deceivableness of Unrighteousness works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in them that perish or in the lost who being alwaies opposed to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the saved it abundantly shews that all who continue their adherence unto the damnable Errours of that Church and Head are wholly forsaken by God and designed to Destruction What may bee said concerning former Times when the Truth was not so clear nor the Apostacy in all its parts so visible I will not determine It is possible Acts 17.30 31 that as heretofore so then God might wink at those times of Ignorance but I am sure hee now calls upon all to repent or else wee must expect to perish in our Obstinacy It is therefore very observable Vers 7 See Psal 96.5 and 115.4 c. Isa 41. 1 Thes 1.9 that in the 14th of Revelation first there comes an Angel to Preach the Everlasting Gospel the sum of which is no other than what the Prophets and Apostles did Preach of Old That men should turn from Idols to serve the living and true God and worship him who made Heaven and Earth and the fountains of Waters Upon the preaching of which Gospel immediately there follows another Angel proclaiming that dreadful Judgement before mentioned against such as worship the Beast and receive his Mark or his Image From whence I gather that what-ever may be the dealings of God towards those in Spain and Italy or other places where the Preaching of the Everlasting Gospel is utterly supprest and those poor souls who possibly may long for light are forcibly detained in darkness yet in such places where the Truths of God are taught and freedome given unto all that will come and hear them there to continue in that sin of Popery which God hath already declared he will not pardon must needs be utterly inconsistent with any hopes of Happiness Although I need not say any more for the proof of this than what hath already been spoken concerning the Judgement threatned against all such as obey that Man of sin and Childe of Perdition the Pope or the Beast against whom the Lord hath an irreconcileable controversie yet in compassion to the souls of those miserably deceived Papists amongst us I shall add these few things farther That 1. If all who either add to or take away from Rev. 22.18 19. the words of Scripture are to expect all the Plagues threatned and to bee excluded from the happiness promised in it 2. If they who Worship God after the Doctrines and Commandments of men do onely Worship him in vain Mat. 15.9 13 14. and instead of gaining a reward for their Service are to be plucked up as Plants not of the Fathers planting 3. If they who blindly and with an implicite Faith do follow after blinde Guides will certainly at last fall with them into the ditch even the bottomless-Pit of destruction 4. Rev. 21.8 Psal 97.7 If Idolaters are to have their portion in the