N01147:166
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.
Consi 2. This happy Blessed Day is near at hand. When the man of Sin shall be once removed, then the Church of God shall see good Days, & that will be ere long. He hath but Twelve Hundred and Sixty Years allowed him to Reign in, and that Time is almost Expired, I doubt not, but that it may be demonstrated from Scripture & History, that more than 1200. of those Years are past. We see the beginnings of what the Scripture hath spoken with respect to the Destruction of Antichrist. 2. Thes. 2. 8. It is said, That the Lord will consume him with the Breath of His mouth, & Destroy him, with the Brightness of his Coming. So that there is a Consumption to come upon Antichrist by the Breath of the Lords Mouth, as a forerunner & certain Symptom of his utter destruction by the Brightness of the Lords Coming. The Man of Sin has been in a consumption almost these 200 Years Bellarmins complains that ever since Protestants have Preached that the Pope is Antichrist, his dominions have been lessened. Thus has he been consuming a long time. We may therefore hope that his final Ruin draws on apace. We are now come to the extremity of Times, and therefore Motions, and Revolutions in the World will be exceeding quick; when things come near to the place where they must centre, they move very swiftly. All the great Revolutions in the World shall centre at last in the Kingdom of Christ. That and that only is the Kingdom that cannot be shaken. The Lord will overturn, overturn, overturn until he comes, whose right it is to have the Crown on His Head, & the Sceptre in His ⟨p. 127⟩Hand, and to Him will He give it. Revolutions will therefore be very quick & amazing to the Nations. By that time the Work of one Revolution is well over, another comes on the back of it. The Lord will make greater Changes in the World, in one Age now, than in many heretofore. The Scripture speaketh of Christs Davidical Kingdom, God hath Promised, that He shall Sit on the Throne of David, Ezek. 37. 24, 25. There is Reason to believe, that this Generation shall not wholly pass away, before that Promise be fulfilled in a more Glorious manner than ever yet. I will mention one Reason to you, which is of weight with me, whatever it may be with others. It makes me to rejoice in Hope that the Glorious Times we look for are not far of. It is this: