An humble attempt to promote explicit agreement and visible union of God's people in…

2. In the Reformation, that was in the Days of Luther, Calvin and others their Contemporaries, the thr•a• ned Destruction of Antichrist, that dreadful Enemy that had long oppressed and worn out the Saints, was begun; nor was it a small Beginning, but Antichrist hath fallen, at least, half-way to the Ground, from that Height of Power and Grandeur, that he was in before. Then began the Vials of God's Wrath to be poured out on the Throne of the Beast, to the great Shaking of it's Foundations, and Diminution of it's Extent; so that the Pope lost near half of his former Dominions: And as to Degree of Authority and Influence over what is left, he is not now possessed of what he had before. God now at length, in answer to the long-continued Cries of his People, awaked as one out of Sleep, and began to deliver his Church from her exceeding low State, that she had continued in for many Ages, under the great Oppression of this grand Enemy, and to restore her from her Exile and Bondage in the spiritual Babylon and Egypt. And 'tis not agreeable to the Analogy of God's Dispensations, that after this, God should desert his People, and •ide himself from them, even more than before, and •ave 'em more than ever in the Hands of their Enemy, and all this Advantage of the Church against Antichrist ⟨p. 106⟩should be entirely given up and lost, and the Power and Tyranny of Antichrist be more confirmed, and the Church brought more under, and more entirely subdued than ever before, and further from all Help and Means to recover. This is not God's Way of dealing with his People, or with their Enemies: His Work of Salvation is perfect: When he has begun such a Work he will carry it on: When he once causes the Day of Deliverance to dawn to his People, after such a long Night of dismal Darkness, he will not extinguish the Light, and cause them to return again to Midnight-Darkness: When he has begun to enkindle the blessed Fire, he will not quench the smoking Flax, 'till he hath brought forth Judgment unto Victory. When once the Church, after her long Labour and sore Travail, has brought forth her Man-Child, and wrought some Deliverance, her Enemies shall never be able to destroy this Child, tho' an Infant; but it shall ascend up to Heaven, and be set on high out of their Reach.