A51839:160
XVIII sermons on the second chapter of the 2d Epistle to the Thessalonians containing…
XVIII sermons on the second chapter of the 2d Epistle to the Thessalonians containing the description, rise, growth, and fall of Antichrist : with divers cautions and arguments to establish Christians against the apostasy of the Church of Rome : very necessary for these times / by that late reverend and learned divine, Thomas Manton ...XVIII sermons on the second chapter of the 2d Epistle to the Thessalonians containing the description, rise, growth, and fall of Antichrist : with divers cautions and arguments to establish Christians against the apostacy of the Church of Rome : very necessary for these times / by that late reverend and learned divine, Thomas Manton ...
London: printed by J.D. for J. Robinson, 1679
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
3. Because some think if we should grant such an Apostasy, it would interrupt the whole course of visible Christianity, and so deprive the World of a Ministry and Ordinances, till Christ send some new Nuncio's from Heaven, or by miracle at least authorize a new Ministry, that may be owned by the World, and received by his people. A vain conceit! for though this Apostasy is foretold, that it should come to pass, yet it is also foretold, that Christ will be with the Apostles, and their Successors, to the end of the World, Math. 28.20. and prayed for all them that should believe in him through their word, Joh. 17.20. and though the Church was corrupted by degrees, yet all this while it ceased not to be a Church, nor the Officers thereof to be Christs Ministers: when the Ten Tribes fell away, yet God till their dissolution continued the Spirit of Prophecy amongst them; and in the Christian Church a Ministry, though many had their calling from such who consented to the encroachments of Antichrist. God had not so wholly cast off his people, but that there was a Ministry and Ordinances; their Ministry was a true Ministry, and the Baptism a true Baptism, to be owned in foro externo: for these things remain whilst any thing of Christianity remaineth. In a body mangled with wounds, ⟨p. 66⟩or all over grown with sores, there is a life remaining; and so some Functions and Offices of Life. God called Idolatrous Israel his people, and was not angry with them for circumcising their Children, but for offering them to Moloch, Ezek. 16.20, 21. But of this in the next Verse, where Antichrist is said to sit in the Church of God.
3. Because some think if we should grant such an Apostasy, it would interrupt the whole course of visible Christianity, and so deprive the World of a Ministry and Ordinances, till Christ send some new Nuncio's from Heaven, or by miracle at least authorize a new Ministry, that may be owned by the World, and received by his people. A vain conceit! for though this Apostasy is foretold, that it should come to pass, yet it is also foretold, that Christ will be with the Apostles, and their Successors, to the end of the World,