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
A93210	A short discourse (recommended to all our English divines) concerning the death of the witnesses in general, and the two witnesses in particular; : plainly shewing ...		1699 (1699)	Wing S3584C; ESTC R184159	9,247	11

these Two Witnesses were the Answer is Hi sunt Duae Illae Oleae meaning Zerubbabel and Joshua Now none can make any Thing of these Two but a King and a High Priest And though the Temple was measured and THOSE viz. the People who worshipped therein Yet I find the Text points no more but once to the Multitude and indeed 't was needless because they had no Power They are under Care and Protection but cannot represent that they have not And those Persons therefore are much mistaken who suppose a few common Individuals slain in any Country may answer the Death of the Two Witnesses They make no Distinction betwixt the Body and Head 'T is certain the common Mass as living they have no Power so their Death can represent the finishing of none I mean their Death singly and apart yet in Conjunction with their Head the TWO I own their Death adds to the Efficacy and Solemnity and that they ought to fall at the General Harvest by the Angel's Sickle Yet to compleat such a solemn Period and to make it Full and Authentick nothing less than the Solemn Death of a King and an High Priest will do the Business For these being the Heads or chief Proprietors of Power are the most fit and proper Persons to undergo the Passive Solemnity of its Abrogation NOW such a Thing has happened amongst us viz. a King and an High Priest have been slain after an unparalell'd and uncommon Manner or rather after a most proper Manner they were slain in the Face of the Sun with the highest Solemnity that all the World might take notice that the Grand Period of the Old Dispensation was finished And not only in this Point but in all other Circumstances as to Time and Place Process and Arraignment their Death exactly agrees with the Text and Counterpart IN THE WESTERN PART OF THE WORLD THESE-TWO WITNESSES REPRESENTATIVES OF THE TRVE CHVRCH OR WHOLE PROTEST ANT BODY IN THEIR OWN COVNTRY BY THEIR OWN FRIENDS AT THEIR OWN CHIEF CITY WERE OVERCOME BY A WAR and SLAIN God is True and all the World are Lyars He hath told us In the End it shall speak and not Lye Now here the Vision speaks and who can contradict it This Truth deserves to be writ in Capitals of Gold since it asserts the Veracity of God which foolish and vain Man has so long called in Question I own there are several Persuasions but no Matter by what Names we are called There are only Two Churches a True and False One and I find the Holy Spirit takes notice of no more Yet 't is observable the First is exprest by Four differing Denominations viz. Tribus Populi Linguae Gentes and the Latter but by One viz. Jucolae Terrae Now possibly amongst other Meanings the Difference in Opinion may be one that causeth this Distinction But leaving this Enquiry to the more Curious let the Four be who and what they will 't is certain these Two slain Witnesses were the Head of them all and appointed by Heaven to finish their Old State and Administration The Church is in Two differing States First under the Minor or Guardian State then under the Adult State And these Two slain Witnesses finish the Minor or Guardian State being the Two Last chief Proprietors of Power therein And this gives great Light to those Congratulations of the Church on Christ's Arrival to his Manhood in the Church and by Consequence on his Accession to the Throne We Thank Thee say they Lord God Almighty who art and wast and art to come Because thou hast taken to THY SELF 't was in the Hands of Guardians before Thy Great Power c. This implies a lesser Power in the former State The Millennium is nothing but the Manhood of Christ in his Church and when He comes to his Manhood He is invested of course with his Great Power But I would not be mistaken I prefer the Master before the Servants and am far from making a Comparison betwixt the Death of the Two Witnesses and that of Christ's as to the Merit of it yet I must be forced to acknowledge and the Holy Scripture will bear me out that Their Death is the true Counterpart of His and ought to be attended with much the like Circumstances viz. a Resurrection not Literal Ascension and New Dispensation As to the Two First the Text plainly mentions them and the Last to me is as plain For when John had eaten up the Book of the Old Dispensation he was told That he must PROPHESIE AGAIN before People and Nations and Tongues and many Kings The Words Finishing Prophecy and Prophesying again illustrate one the other nor can we think they will prophesie again what they have finished but turn over a New Leaf and begin a New Chapter And now Notwithstanding any former Opinion which I shall not be ashamed to disown at present the Truth shines so full in my Face that I cannot otherwise think and do hope so will others That the Death of the afore-mentioned Persons was the True Death of the Two Last Witnesses which were to die to finish the Old Dispensation Those who have Objections let them publish them All Christians must own That such a Thing if not done some Time or other in some Place or other must be done and since it must be done let them produce better Reasons if they can that This is not the Fact or that it is yet to be done and I shall willingly acquiesce therein But I am satisfied they cannot It therefore being taken for granted that the Two Witnesses are slain and Old Dispensation finished the next necessary Inference will be that we are on the Premises of the Millennium and that the Downfall of Rome is just at the Door For This black Tragedy as it withdraws the Old Scenes so it presents the World with New ones and opens a wide Door for Light and Truth But to conclude I shall endeavour to bring the Thing yet closer and make it yet a little more plain by Summing up the Whole CONCLVSION There are a True and a False Church or Two Syncronizing Powers enter the Stage of the World these Two Powers are represented by an inward and outward Court the Latter persecutes the Former all the Time they are on the Stage the Former are called Witnesses having this Name from the Nature of their Office which is of a Twofold Nature for they have a Charge to give in Testationem Protestationem to Publish and give their Evidence to Divine Truths and Matters of Fact and to make Protestation against all Iniquity and Idolatry and especially against the Persecution of their Adversaries The Date of their Adversaries Power and theirs is equal but during the greatest part of their appointed Time being persecuted and trodden under Foot little Strength or Power though virtually in them appears but near the Expiration thereof it exerts it self not only in order to pull down and oppose their Adversaries

Great Voice is heard out of the Temple of Heaven from the Throne saying GEGONE it is done or Finished But what Their Testimony or the Old Dispensation There are Two Great Voices in Scripture particularly to be taken Notice of The First is Consummatum est made by Christ Viva Voce on the Cross The Other is this Gegone from the Throne Rex patitur As the First was utter'd at the Death of the Head and finished the Jewish Dispensation so the Latter of course must be made at the Death of the Body or the Witnesses and finish the Christian Dispensation I mean the First Dispensation For we are to come from Strength to Strength until we come to God in Sion As to the Calculation of Numbers and Figures 't is a Barren Study and may misguide us but Reason and Substance never can Yet in relation to this the Year of the Witnesses Death being fixed as hereafter will easily fix all the Rest V. Fifthly By Whom they are Slain They are not slain by a Foreign Enemy or Nation they are not slain I speak of this last Special and Particular Death by the Pagan or Papal Power as some have unadvisedly affirmed For though these may rejoice at their Death and in other Cases be Criminal enough yet to give them their due they have no hand in this Last Tragedy It needs no Proof that the Pagan and Papal Powers are represented by the Beasts that rise out of the Sea and Earth but 't is plain that neither of these Beasts are concerned For the Text is express to the Contrary That the Beast which rises out of the Bottomless Pit viz. Wickedness in general or Satan shall make WAR with Them OVERCOME Them and SLAY Them Now since these Three Beasts have Three distinct Characters sure none will confound them and make them all one and the same Not to mince any further the Matter the Truth is We their Friends and Country-men have slain them The Reason is Christ was slain by his Own Countrymen and Friends He had his Wounds from the Hands of his Friends and from those of his Own House Thus with Zeal whilst the Jews wait for and Expect their SAVIOVR and the Christians their Two Witnesses The First when He came slew the First and the Latter when They came slew the Latter The Homines ex Tribubus Populis Linguis Gentibus are their Friends Coguati in Religione Men of the same Reformed Religion and of the same Nation But the Jucolae Terrae are their Enemies and Foreigners who rejoice at their Death being of a Differing Persuasion and whom these Witnesses tormented In short the First are Protestants the Latter Papists and had not their Friends slain them there had been no due Conformity betwixt the Circumstances of the Death of the Head and the Body VI. Sixthly The True Reasons Why they are Overcome and Why in Particular by a War are as follows But First I must acquaint the World of a particular Thing they have taken little Notice of which yet gives extraordinary Light to this great Mystery and that is this That This War is and must of Necessity be an Intestine War For How can it be otherwise Since their Friends and Countrymen Men of the same Religion and Nation must slay them This has been sufficiently proved above and cannot be denied I hope therefore they will not say that is a Foreign War made in the same Nation by Citizen and Countrymen amongst themselves and it can be no other for the Juculae Terrae who are Foreigners are only Spectators not Actors in the Affair But there is another Great Reason little inferior to this which fully clenches the Matter and makes it impossible it should be other than a Civil War and that is this The Witnesses in Conformity to the Head are to rise again after they are slain Now had it been a Foreign Enemy or Men of another Religion that had slain them they had never risen again but Church and State had both fallen into the bottomless Pit and been utterly destroyed These Things are very plain But to return to the Reasons Why c. considering War therefore neither as Civil or Foreign but indefinitely and abstractedly I say not only a a War but Victory thereby are Circumstances little less necessary than their Death it self For since the Old Constitution both of Church and State were wholly to be dissolved nothing less than a War could do This and done it ought to be otherwise the Old Dispensation could have no true and proper Period some Alteration or a Weakening of it would not answer nothing but Death could serve the Turn that is a Total Dissolution A Seizure by Conspiracy would not serve nor could a few Tumultuous Hands pull down the Building nothing but a general Assault on all sides could effectually do it and this did it indeed and levell'd all with the Ground But to come closer The Constable and Watch with Clubs and Staves may seize and overpower a single Person unarmed But to pluck a King and High Priest from their Throne who are invested with Power and Force nothing less than a Greater Force could do this that is a War And as to a full Victory or Conquest it was no less necessary in respect of a due Process and Arraignment Stabbing or Assassination might indeed procure Death but then This sort of Death would have wanted the due and necessary Solemnity but Christ was not Stabbed or Assassinated I speak now in Relation to the Two Witnesses but publickly Arraigned and Condemned and the Copy ought to agree with the Original So a compleat Victory over them was necessary that the due Solemnity of Process and Arraignment might take Place In short the Progression of the Climax is exceeding Regular the War and Victory being highly necessary to procure that Death the most necessary of them all VII Seventhly Who they are They are the True Church of Christ under the Denomination of Witnesses and when I say the Old Witnesses the New Witnesses or the Witnesses I refer to the Bulk or Body of the Building and when I say the Two Witnesses I refer to the Two chief Corner Stones the whole Body is of a Witnessing Nature and every single Stone is a Witness But the Two chief corner Stones by way of Excellency are called the Two Witnesses These represent the whole Body as a King and an High Priest the whole Nation and as They represent the Power of the Whole so at the appointed Time They are chose out to finish the Power of the Whole The Comparison of a Building is made by the Holy Spirit And after 't is said The Gentiles shall tread under Foot the Holy City 'T is presently added as Beza renders it Dabo Illam that is Sanctam Vrbem Duobus Illis Testibus meis that is I will give the Care or Charge of my True Church to those my Two Witnesses and as if it had been asked who