N01147:153
A dissertation, wherein the strange doctrine lately published in a sermon, the tendency of…
A dissertation, wherein the strange doctrine lately published in a sermon, the tendency of which, is, to encourage unsanctified persons (while such) to approach the holy table of the Lord, is examined and confuted. With an appendix, showing what Scripture ground there is to hope, that within a very few years there will be a glorious reformation of the church throughout the world. / By I. Mather, D.D. ; [Six lines of Scripture texts]A dissertation, wherein the strange doctrine lately published in a sermon, the tendency of which, is, to encourage unsanctified persons (while such) to approach the holy table of the Lord, is examined and confuted. With an appendix, shewing what Scripture ground there is to hope, that within a very few years there will be a glorious reformation of the church throughout the world. / By I. Mather, D.D. ; [Six lines of Scripture texts]
Boston: printed by B. Green for Benj. Eliot, 1708
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.
3. The experience of all Ages confirms this to be so. Psal. 119. 160. Thy Word is True from the Beginning, ever since the World began, in all Ages of it, God hath made Good His Word, & truly performed what He hath promised. Particular Saints have always found it so. There were peculiar Promises made to David that God would give him the Kingdom, and after that, God promised that a Son of his should succeed him in the Throne, & particularly that Solomon was the Son, that should be his successor, now Solomon doth with great affection take notice how God had performed His Word, 1 King. 8. 24. Thou hast kept with my Father, (saith he.) that thou promisedst him, and what thou hast spoken with thy mouth, thou hast fulfilled with thy hand, as at this Day. Thou didst tell my Father David that I should succeed in the Throne, and Build this Temple, and so it is this Day. So the Promises God hath made Concerning His Church, we have seen them fulfilled in all Preceding Ages, God hath verified His Word, as when He did Promise to Abraham, that his Posterity should be brought' out of Egypt after a long time of affliction there; this Promise that God made to Abraham, Four Hundred & Thirty Years before, it was, at last fulfilled, and God kept His Word to a day. And therefore 'tis an observable Scripture which you have to this purpose in, Exod. 12. 40, 41. It is said, It came to pass at the end of the Four Hundred and Thirty Years, in the self same day it came to pass. You see, that God kept His Promise made to Abraham, to a day, in bringing His Posterity out of the land of Egypt. So the great Promise which all the Fathers lived upon, concerning the coming of Christ, and his Dying to save His People, it was Declared unto Daniel, that within Seventy Prophetical Weeks, that is Four Hundred and Ninety ⟨p. 118⟩Years, this should be accomplished, and we know that it was so. The Promises made concerning the Calling of the Gentiles, and the enlargement of the Church, the pouring out of the Spirit in the Days of the Messiah, we know how these Things are fulfilled, and therefore what Glorious Things are yet remaining to be done in the World, God will certainly do them in the Time thereof. That's the first Proposition.