N00445:78
Things to be looked for. Discourses on the glorious characters, with conjectures on the…Things to be look'd for. Discourses on the glorious characters, with conjectures on the…
Things to be looked for. Discourses on the glorious characters, with conjectures on the speedy approaches of that state, which is reserved for the church of God in the latter days. : Together with an inculcation of several duties, which the undoubted characters and approaches of that state, invite us unto: delivered unto the artillery company of the Massachusetts colony: New England; at their election of officers, for the year 1691. / By Cotton Mather. ; [Two lines from Luke]Things to be look'd for. Discourses on the glorious characters, with conjectures on the speedy approaches of that state, which is reserved for the church of God in the latter dayes. : Together with an inculcation of several duties, which the undoubted characters and approaches of that state, invite us unto: delivered unto the artillery company of the Massachusets colony: New England; at their election of officers, for the year 1691. / By Cotton Mather. ; [Two lines from Luke]
printed by Samuel Green for Nicholas Buttolph, 1691
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
1. Why do Godly and Able men give themselves, no more to the Study of those Truths which concern the Peaceable Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ? Since the Accounts that we have about, The State of Peace to come, are things whereof our Lord hath said, in Rev. 22. 6 These sayings are faithful and Tr•e: they must needs be worthy our Study, as being some of the Rays darted from Him, who is, T••e God of Truth. and since these are the matters, whereof the Apostle Peter tells us, in a Per. 3. 16. There are in them, some things Hard to be underst••d; the more of Mystery there is in any such Truths of God, the more Exquisite and Accurate should be our Study thereupon. The Truths which concern the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, are not so •••intelligible, as that we must throw them aside, as he of old the Obscure and Crabbed Lines of the Poet P•rsi•s or cry out with Despair, I cannot Read, for the Book is S•al•d! No, the Representation which our Lord ha's given us of those Truth, is called a Revelation of them; and the Students thereof have therefore a Blessing Pronounced upon them. David once ••or'd the Grace of God unto him, which gave him cause for that Exclamation, Lord, That […] shouldest speak to me, of things to come! For us then to sleight the Advice that we have had from Heaven about the Things to come; for us to think that, Some Scripture is not profitable; for ⟨p. 46⟩unto •aht z• bred unto the sure Word of Prophets; my Brethren, tis a Distemper which we cannot be Excused in. I confess, Apocalyp•lical Studies, are fittest for those Raised Souls, whose Heartstrings are made of a Little Fiery Clay, than other mens; and it is to Then especially, that it take leave to say, There is a World of Sweetness in Diligent and Regular Studies upon the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus. When Jeremiah had been deeply engaged therein, he dds, My sleep was sweet unto me! And John found the Book which had these things in it,