Selected quad for the lemma: woman_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
woman_n	eat_v	fruit_n	serpent_n	1,943	5	9.6634	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66360	Ho Antichristos the great antichrist revealed, before this time never discovered, and proved to be neither pope, nor Turk, nor any single person, nor the succession of any one monarch or tyrant in any policies, but a collected pack, or multitude of hypocritical, heretical, blasphemous, and most scandalous wicked men that have fulfilled all the prophesies of the Scriptures ... and especially have united ... together by a solemn league and covenant to slay the two witnesses of God, Moses and Aaron ... that is, the supreme magistrate of the Commonwealth, and the chief pastors and governours of the Church of Christ, and the Christian world is requested to judge whether the Assembly of Presbyterians consulting at Westminster, together with the independents, Anabaptists, and lay-preachers be not the false prophet ... and whether the prevalent faction of the long Parliament ... that killed the two witnesses of Jesus Christ, 1. Charles the First ... 2. William Laud ... be not the grosse and visible body of the same antichrist / by Gr. Williams.	Williams, Gryffith, 1589?-1672.	1660 (1660)	Wing W2662; ESTC R25201	504,825	313

Ceremonies of our Church which they spared not most loudly and lewdly to bark against and to call it the Laodicean luke-warm Church and the Governours and upholders of all the good orders uniformity and discipline of this Church of Christ they blushed not to style Popish Bishops and proud Prelates and the Book of Common Prayer as if it had been the Turkish Alcoran They perswaded the people to believe it was the English Masse-Book and all the Ceremonies thereof the ragges of Rome and so belched out their poyson against out Church And to what incurable mischief this disease was like to grow that wise and reverend Arch-Bishop Bancraft did foresee and with all his might endeavoured to prevent by discovering and publishing the same unto the world so did worthy Doctor Whitgift before him and so did Doctor Dove Doctor Covell Doctor Gardiner Doctor Leon. Hutton and Mr. Thomas Hutton and many other godly and learned men labour to unvaile this beast his face to shew his hornes and the weaknesse of his reasons unto the weak and seduced people But as the harlot said unto Socrates ego tibi Socrates multum praesto I do much excell thee O Socrates because I can sooner allure the youths of Athens and intice far more of them to my house of leudnesse then thou canst with all thy rhetorick and eloquence perswade to thy School of Philosophy so these locusts and their Proselites prevailed more with those that were such as Socrates answered the harlot her customers were proclives ad malum inclinable to be misled and easily drawen to evill as we are all by nature then all the wise Governours and grave Doctors of the Church could do to hindet them so that in a short space notwithstanding the execution of Martin Mar-prelate Penry and some others in Queen Elizabeths dayes which did a little stop their gallopping course and the careful industry of King James to suppresse them yet multiplicati sunt super numerum they increased exceedingly like the frogges and rats of Egypt that do super-faetare beget young ones before they be rid of their old brood and then being so multiplyed they that formerly pulled in their horns like a snaile did begin in King Charles his time to set up their hornes on high and to speak with a stiffe neck and now to set their instruments the disconteuted Nobility and Gentry and their own seduced disciples on work to bring their long-wished purposes to an end for as the soule worketh no corporeall act but by the organs of his body so these men being spiritual men could not themselves prevaile to attain unto their ends against the power of the King but having so plentifully sowen their seed among their Proselytes and so well instructed the body that was their instrument they can with their help produce the acts that they intended and which they do suggest into the heads of the other beast which is their body And therefore as in every sinful act the soul which is actus primus corporis organici causa actuum secundorum Arist de anima l. 2. c. 1. Text. 4. Is more liable to judgement and deserves more punishment then the body so as I said before this spiritual beast is far the worst of the twain and the worst of all other beasts that ever were so bad that I am no wayes able to shew unto you the badnesse and to display the wickednesse of this second beast yet as the Arian hereticks gave forth of themselves Aug. epist 48. ad Vincent that they onely were the true Catholick Church of God and those that were the members of the true Church indeed they called Athanasians Ambrosians Joannites and as Nestorius being a pestilent heretick covered himself notwithstanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the cloak or vaile of the Catholick faith saith Theodoret so I know these men think themselves to be the onely true servants and the most faithful Ministers of Jesus Christ but indeed as David did worse then Joab in the murther of Vriah and as the teacher of a man to sin is worse then he that commits the sin as the Serpent that inticed the woman to eat of the forbidden fruit was worse then the woman so this second beast that seduced and taught the first beast to do all or most of the evills and wickednesse that he did is far worse then the first beast that was but his instrument to effect all those vile acts and mischiefs whereof this second beast was the prime Authour instructor instigator and no marvell for as corruptio-optimi est pessima The second beast farre worse then the first beast and so I deem the Prerbyterians the worst of all the men in Ingland and the Authours of all the mischiefs done in this kingdom Jerem. 24.23 Tertul. l. de prescript advers haeres c. 42. and as Jeremy his figges were either exceeding good or extream bad so are the Preachers and teachers of men either the best of men and so worthy of double honour if with the true Prophets they go the right way to work or else the worst of all men and so worthy of many stripes if with this second beast and false Prophet they go about to corrupt the truth to seduce the people and as Tertullian saith of the hereticks of his time cum hoc sit negotium illis non ethnicos convertendi sed nostros evertendi to labour more to overthrow us then to build others in the faith of Christ And as the Arian Prelates and Preachers were more cruell and greater persecutors of the Orthodox then either the heathen tyrants or the Ariankings that were but their instruments and were indeed lesse bloody and more consciencious then their teachers so are these Presbyterians and Independents and Lay-Preachers more proud and more cruel and of lesse conscience and lesse honesty as being the prime Authours fomenters and devisers of all villanies miseries and mischiefes that have been acted in these dominions ever since they were hatched then were the members of that long Parliament as the sequele of their description and their actions here specified will make it plaine and the Author of the Last Will and Testament of Sir John Presbyter in his Epitaph that concludes too uncharitably doth briefly paint them forth saying Here lies Jacke Presbyter void of all pitty Sir John Presbyter his Epitaph That ruin'd the Country and fooled the City He turn'd Preaching to prating and telling of lies Caus'd Jarres and Dissentions in all Families He invented new Oathes Rebellions to raise Deceiving the Commons whil'st on them he preyse He made a new Creed despised the old King State and Religion by him bought and sold He foure yeares consulted and yet could not tell The Parliament the way Christ went into hell Resolved therein he never could be Therefore in great hast he goes thither to see And I would to God they had the Grace to see the mischiefes that they have done and to repent

conceive more agreeable to the meaning of the Holy Ghost then her Son and the Dragons eating of it would be a speedy devouring of her Child whether it were Male or Female so the Dragon was watching this woman and is still watching to devoure every Child of the Church Male or Female And in the fifth verse the Angel saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 V. 5. The diversity of opinions who this Child should be and the woman brought forth a man Child who was to rule the Nations with a rod of Iron and the Child was caught up to God and to his Throne where we are past the plaine and are come into the Wilderness wherein the way is not so easie to be found out when we do find so many pathes and such a great diversity of opinions among the learned who is meant by this Man child and what is to be conceived of his birth and of his taking up to the Throne of God Rupertus de victoria verbi dei l. 9. c. 28. l. 12. c. 2. Math. 2.16 c 4.1 for some Interpreters by the Birth of this Man child do understand the Birth of Jesus Christ in the Jewish Synagogue of the Blessed Virgin whom the red Dragon the Devill by Herod his grand instrument sought immediately to destroy as soone as ever he was borne as St. Mathew sheweth and also tempted him as soon as ever he was Baptized as the same Evangelist declareth But against this E. H. doth rightly oppose E. H. de Apostasia pag. 44. that the Revelation is not of known things that are past but as the Angel saith of things that must shortly come to pass and the incarnation or Birth of Christ of the Virgin Mary was not to come the same being already past well nigh an 100. years before and therefore though we deny not but the Dragon sought to destroy Christ as Rupertus saith as soon as ever he was brought forth out of his Mothers Womb yet we say that cannot be the meaning of this place which is to be understood of another Child that is to be borne of another Woman E. H. Lococitato By this Child understandeth the great Constantine and therefore E. H. and some other Authors do understand this woman to be the Primitive Church of the Christians groaning to be delivered from under the bloody Tyranny of the Red Dragon that is from the cruel dealing and sad condition that she sustained under the Pagan and persecuting Emperours and the Lord delivering her from those Tyrants by raising up Constantine who as they say is the Man-child that the Church then brought forth a good Christian to rule the Nations with a Rod of Iron that is to subdue Licinius and Maxentius and the Nations that adheared to them with his Victorious Sword and he was caught up to God when he was converted from an Infidell to become a Christian and he was placed in Gods Throne when he attained to the Imperiall Majesty The which exposition The former exposition rejected though it seem very probable and plausible yet cannot I yield unto it to be the meaning of the Holy Ghost in this place because this woman doth not crie to be delivered from her enemies that were without her but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having in her belly that is a Child within her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she cryed by reason of her child birth pain which the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that cometh from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to bring forth a Child from whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth properly signifie dolor parturientis the very pangs and pain of bringing forth the Child into the world and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that comes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 torqueo to be grieved or vexed and wrested with pain doth make it manifest that she cryed not to be delivered from her enemies but to be delivered of her child that she had in her womb and would faign have him to be brought forth into the world That Constantine is not the Man-child here meant Neither can I see any reason to perswade me to yield that this man-child should signifie Constantine the great Reason 1 1. Because this woman which signifieth the Church was not as then before Constantines time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 circumcinctasole cloathed or girded and compassed about with the great light of the Sun that is fully inlightened and instructed with the Doctrine of Christ and the many points of particular truths of Christian Religion nor can we finde her to be thus inlightned untill the time of Theodosius alter the death of Valens and Gratian which was about the year of Christ 382 when those great lights The woman not cloathed with the Sun till 382. that God then raised in his Church to expell the foggy mysts of errors and clouds of heresies that were formerly raised by the Hereticks and still pestered the Church St. Hierome St. Ambrose St. Augustin St. Basil Bishop of Caesaria that for his great learning and wisdom was rightly termed Basilius Magnus great St. Basill Gregory Nazianzen that for his excellent skill and knowledge in Divinity was styled Theologus the Divine as the writer of these Revelations is called John the Divine Epiphanius Cyrillus Bishop of Hierusalem When the Bishops were like Stars and when like the Sun and many more most worthy men of great learning and piety made the truth of the Gospel of Christ that was left unto us by the Evangelists and Apostles to shine in the Church as the Sun in the Firmament that formerly while those hereticks that Irenaeus Tertullian Epiphanius and St. Augustine record troubled the Church and darkned the truth of the Gospel the said truth shined but as the light of the Starres and therefore during those times of the grand Hereticks the very Angels of the seven chiefest Churches of Asia that is the Bishops and prime Pastors of those Churches Revelat. 1.20 were called seven Starres for the seven Starrs are the Angels of the seven Churches saith the Holy Ghost and the twelve Apostles are compared unto twelve Starres as I shewed to you before and the Church could not be inlightned with the light of the Sun when her chief teachers were but Starres and shined to her but as Starres though the light which these Starres sent forth was the light which they received from the Sun that is the Sun of righteousness as the Prophet calleth him but in the year 382. and about that time Reignolds Devitis Imperat. fol. 115. was the flourishing time of the learned when the Doctrine of Christ did shine as the Sun saith Reignolds Reason 2 2. Because that although the Church like the woman that is with Child is pained before the time of birth yet is she most of all tormented when the child is nearest to be born so the Church had her pangs in those that she brought forth in the