N00091:249
The mystery of Israel's salvation, explained and applied: or, A discourse concerning the general…The mystery of Israel's salvation, explained and applyed: or, A discourse concerning the general…
The mystery of Israel's salvation, explained and applied: or, A discourse concerning the general conversion of the Israelitish nation. Wherein is showed, 1. That the Twelve Tribes shall be saved. 2. When this is to be expected. 3. Why this must be. 4. What kind of salvation the Tribes of Israel shall partake of (viz.) a glorious, wonderful, spiritual, temporal salvation. : Being the substance of several sermons preached / by Increase Mather, M.A. teacher of a church in Boston in New England. ; [Ten lines of Scripture texts]The mystery of Israel's salvation, explained and applyed: or, A discourse concerning the general conversion of the Israelitish nation. Wherein is shewed, 1. That the Twelve Tribes shall be saved. 2. When this is to be expected. 3. Why this must be. 4. What kind of salvetion the Tribes of Israel shall partake of (viz.) a glorious, wonderful, spiritual, temporal salvation. : Being the substance of several sermons preached / by Increase Mather, M.A. teacher of a church in Boston in New England. ; [Ten lines of Scripture texts]
London: printed for John Allen, 1669
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.
Answ. 1. That may be in this world which is not of the world, so John 17.14. they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. And yet both Christ and they were then in the world. 2. The kingdom of Christ may be said not to be of this world, because it is not of a carnal earthly, but of an high and heavenly nature. It is an heavenly kingdom, 2 Tim. 4.18. The very kind and nature of it is so. This bringeth to mind a (u)remarkable story which Eusebius relateth to have fallen out in the days of the Emperor Domitian, it is this. There were (saith he) some malicious Jews, who out of envy at the truth informed the Emperor, that such and such persons were, as concerning the flesh, near akin unto Christ; whereupon the Emperor sent for those persons, intending to have killed them; but when he heard them say, that the kingdom of Christ was not of a terrene, but only of a celestial nature, he dismissed them without doing them any hurt. And hence it is, that the kingdom of Christ is not carried on by earthly and carnal, but by spiritual weapons, 2 Cor. 10.4. our weapons are not carnal. The kingdoms of this world how are they got? and how are they ⟨p. 133⟩kept? Is it not by fire, and blood, and sword? but so it is not with the kingdom of Christ, he subdueth the world, by the power of his word and spirit, that's the bow whereby he conquereth the Nations before him, Rev. 6.2. And this interpretation suiteth exactly with the scope of our Saviour in the place alleged, therefore he saith, his servants do not fight; It is therefore a woeful mistake in those men, who say, that the Saints, as such, must take up arms and destroy the ungodly of the world before them, and when they have done so, they will invite Christ to come from heaven and reign over them. Nay verily, but the weapons of Saints as such are not swords and spears, but (†)prayers and tears. 3. I answer, That though the kingdom of Christ be not of this world, yet it is of the world to come. Christ doth not say my kingdom s not of any world, only it's not of this world. And indeed that glorious kingdom promised unto Christ and his Saints upon the earth, is not to be expected in this world, but in the world to come, i. e. at the day of judgment. Sometimes indeed the world to come is taken more comprehensively, for Dies Messiae, the whole time of the Messiah;