Selected quad for the lemma: city_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A27622
|
A review of what God hath been pleased to do this year, according to prophecy and particularly near the 23d of the month we stile August : in the general peace, and the Muscovian and imperial victories over the Turks : with a most humble apology and defence concerning the falling short of events, of what was expected according to the interpretation of that sure word of prophecy / by T. Beverley.
|
Beverley, Thomas.
|
1698
(1698)
|
Wing B2171; ESTC R37111
|
26,001
|
29
|
Depths of Satan the Arcana Imperii or Counsels of Antichristianism as the settlement of the Reformation here and by all Imaginable Artifices of Policy and Power And it seem'd the very Crisis for it in that last Reign That the most High decided against it with so High a Hand was very Glorious That God hath given so Great Advantages in Appearance for the Return of King James by such a War so Tedious so Burdensome in such an absence of the King And that the whole should be thus resolv'd into so very an August Acknowledgment by the Grand opposer of Him and that the Interest of the same King James should be as it were hush'd into such a silence and neglect as now appears and by his very so Great Allie is a very Exalted Hand of Jehovah for the Justification of the Reformation in these Nations And that it should be reserv'd for this Year 97. Is an Honourable Character fixed upon this Year as I hope Immediately preceeding the entrance of the Kingdom of Christ Rem 6. That the War hath been Carryed on by such a Ballance of Equality that except we consider that Great Intention of Providence to consine within his own Figure Allowed by Prophecy the French King in which It Confederated so many Princes and States however differing among Themselves and the securing Protestancy to these Nations Except I say we consider this All hath been Labouring in the very Fire and wearying the Nations for very Vanity And yet God hath as by an Immediate Hand of his own Determined All into Peace This is I have Great Trust Because the next Thing he will do shall be to Fill the Earth with the Knowledge of his Glory as the Waters cover the Sea Rem 7. I should Rejoyce to find this Peace Propagating an Universal Reformation of the open prophanesses and wickednesses of the Nations Which the Societyes for Reformation in this City give some Hopeful Appearances of and it is much to be desired The Power of the Magistrate would with it's own Authority and Influence Encourage such Honourable undertakings And if it be not so as I doubt not It will a Greater Magistracy will Take the matter into its own Hand But the very Motions however unformed or Abortive they would or might prove of Themselves are some Preliminary Motions to that Great Reformation the Kingdom of Christ will bring in when to the People shall be turned a Pure Language And Men shall Fear the Lord from the Rising of the Sun to the going down of the same Rem 8. It is Greatly to be Lamented if the suffering Witnesses of Christ in any parts Comprehended within this Peace have found no place of consideration in it and Relaxation by it But if they have not I am the more Assured It is reserv'd for the Immediate Hand of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords overcoming the Ten Kings and moving them as by an Impulse from himself with the Hatred of the Whore and He will shew his Servants as a Light Arising in the darkness of their sufferings yet continuing the Morning Star in the first Dawns of his Kingdom Till it shall come to the Bright Morning Star of his own Glorious Appearance in that Kingdom at the Highest Elevation of it Rem 9. It is in the next Place of a most Hopeful Reflection to me That this Peace Falls as a Blow upon the League between the French King and the Turkish Sultan so as to dissolve it For as I have heretofore argued so I shall now more Fully and yet very Breifly Represent it The true Account of the Visional order of Breaking the Image Dan. 2. Is That the Stone smote the Image on its Feet of Iron and Clay First and so the whole was broken This is most Precisely and Definitively set down v. 34. The Stone Cut out which is not in Hands smote the Image upon his Feet which were of Iron and Clay and Brake Them to Peices And again v. 35. Then was the Iron and the Clay First and All the Image Broken so that it became as the Chaff of the Summer-Threshing Floor This therefore from compare of one part of this Prophetick Vision with another and with the New Testament Prophecy of the Revelation must be the Order The First part of the Image smitten is the Iron Feet of the Ten Kings Rev. 17. overcome by the Lamb and the Called Faithful Chosen Witnesses with Him Then these Ten Kings who had with one Consent given their Kingdom and Power to the Beast serve the Lamb by hating the Whore and burning her Flesh with Fire This shaking as an Earthquake the Great City and its Decemprincipality or Tenfold Principality Arising from the Ten Kings so giving their Power to the Beast that Carryed Her Falls Thus the Clay is Broken by the First Approach of the Kingdom of Christ weilding the Iron or the Ten Kings to his service But then All is Threshed and Broken as into Chaff by the stone Becoming a Mountain fuling the whole Earth So there remains no Power but Christ's and his Saints with him to whom the Dominion under the whole Heaven is given But now v. 45. The Stone cut out of the Mountains without hands brake in peices first the Iron then nor the Clay but the Brass The True Order of the Final Stroke was set down before which could not be changed what therefore is given v. 45. must be some previous and preparatory stroke that Falls upon the Iron and the Brass in a Conjunction and the Greatness that Each had by that Conjunction comes to nothing And by that change of the Order this Previous Stroke is shaded under the Full and Final Breaking of the whole and silently intimated by it By the Iron I understand the French Power in this Great Spread of it self against so many of the Ten Kingdoms confederated as it hath been of late years and its Aspirings to be the whole Iron it self that is to Vniversal Monarchy And this I look upon to be noted by the Iron in this place of Daniel By the Brass I Apprehend the Grecian Power as now in the Hand of the Turk whose Port is the Grecian Constantinople Now then this is a private Prophâ—tical Watch-word of the very Time when the whole Image shall be Broken It shall be when that Unnatural Conjunction between Him who would be the whole Iron of the Feet and who will be called the most Christian King and the now Belly of Brass the Turkish Power the Professed Enemy of Christians shall be Broken by the Stone cut out of the Mountains in his Supreme Providence and come to nothing Now this Conjunction we see thus brought to nothing by this Peace the French King not able to bear up his Former retensions by the Loss of Turkish Aids nor the Turk against the Emperor by the Loss of French Assistances And in this very 97. why then should we not look for the whole Image to be soon after
in Times of old on his Enemies Terror upon them Castingthem Headlong into the River Does I hope Intimate a near approaching Final Destruction And that All this is come to pass in this Year 1697. According to the Line of Time and in those Remarkable Months we Call August and September and in the very prophetic Hour of August I have so Remarked upon and so upon the Time of the Scripture Jubilee In All which I cannot but hope God hath been pleased to take off much of the Scandal of my mistake And this is the Consummating Reason of my Hope I have now dispatched the Second Head of this Apology and come to the Third Or what It is I expect when Time shall be no more but for the Finishing of the mystery of God Which I shall but just represent in the several uses the Spirit of God makes of the Word Mystery in the New Testament And shew That the Mystery of God in every of those Things shall be Finished in the Kingdom of Christ Beginning and Going on to open it self into its Fullest Glory 1. The Gospel the Comprehensive Mystery the Mystery of Faith of Godlyness The Mystery of God of the Father of Christ With All its Divine and Glorious Truths The Mysterys of the Kingdom of Heaven shall be Finished by the Full Revelation of it in the Everlasting Gospel Preached to every Nation under Heaven And particularly in that Branch Christ Received up into or rather for Glory Viz. The Glorious manifestation of Himself upon which the Apostacy hath so long layn as an Eclipse and Delay 2. The Mystery of the Union betwixt Christ and Believers in the Spiritual Marriage shall be Finished in the Bride the Lamb's Wife making her self Ready and the Marriage-Supper of the Lamb. 3. The Mystery of the Gentiles Universally brought in and illustriously united as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or One Body with the Israel of God And further The Eclipse taken off that is yet upon the Gentile Churches and their return to a Full orb'd Light according to the Promises made to the Churches in the Glorious Kingdom of Christ 4. The Mystery of Reconciliation Reception Salvation and Fulness of All Israel when that Full Glory of the Gentiles is Then shall be a Great Appearance of the Fulfilling All the Great promises and Prophecys we find in both the Old and New Testament to that People when the Gentiles Times are Fulfilled as was Noted a Summary Assurance of which is the very Name of that City The New Jerusalem 5. The Mystery of the Seven Churches as Seven Golden Candlesticks in the midst of which The Son of Man walks and the Seven Stars of the Evangelick Ministry seen in his Right Hand in all the Glory of each The Seven Churches as Types of the Churches of the New Testament successively with their Angels And comprehending under them Those Grecian Churches of Asia All brought into the Glory and Purity of the Philadelphian Church and the New Jerusalem the City of our God coming down into it shall then be fully Finished 6. The Mystery of the Antichristian Church City and the whole Hierarchy of it with All its Abominations shall be laid open understood of All and come to an utter end by the mighty Spirit of Christs Mouth by the Brightness of his Appearance and by the Judgments He will execute according to Rev. 17. and C. 18. On the Womans Forehead was written Mystery The Mystery of the Woman and the Beast that Carryed Her and the Judgment of the Great Whore were made known to John by the Angel and it shall be a Mystery Finished that is Laid open and brought to an utter End 7. The Mystery of the Divine will in Recapitulating and Recollecting All Things in Heaven and Earth in Christ even in Him as the Head in the fullness of Times of All Times that is in the Glorious Thousand Years-Kingdom of Christ Eph. 1. 10. 8. The Mystery of the Living Saints changed who shall Inherit the New Earth during the 1000 Years and walk in the Light of the New Heavens or Jerusalem above in the sight of Christ and of his Saints of the First Resurrection and in Bodys every way Proportioned to that Blessed State and Healed with the Leaves of the Tree of Life This the Apostle shews as a Great Mystery 1 Cor. 15. Now other then these eight Great uses of the word Mystery or what is most clearly referring to Them I do not find in Scripture and seeing the Spirit of Prophecy hath so comprehensively used the word Mystery concerning its Finishing and that each of these things is Styled Mystery in the Gospel and shall have so certain a Consummation and Complement in the Kingdom of Christ We may very well Expound the one by the other and be sure of their coming into their Finishing when Time of a former sort that is of the Time Times and Half Time shall be no more And because there are such direct assurances of the Finishing of each of these in the Prophecy of the Revelation How clear is it And now I come to the Fourth and Last Head To give the duest and justest Apology concerning no more Appearance of the Finishing of the mystery of God in All these Great mentions of it already in this Year 1697 And to adjust between the Humblest Acknowledgment of my own mis-understanding in what Hath fallen so much below and yet with equal Acknowledgment of what hath been already reflected upon to have passed as an Earnest and Pledge And wherein yet I have sure Grounds as I most Humbly conceive and believe in the sure word of Prophecy concerning 97. And hereof I will give Account in this short but yet full Declaration of my self and of my Sense herein The Year 1697. I must still look upon as I have all along Remonstrated to be the very Year in which the Time Times and Half Time of the Antichristian Apostacy and of the 1260 Years of the Witnesses in Sackcloth and of the Church in the Wilderness are to Expire and End But now whether in the Beginning of the Year 97. as I first Hoped or towards the Middle of the Year on the Twenty Third of the Month we call August Answering to the Twenty Third of the same Month 476. on which the Roman Western Empire ceased in Augustulus as I had Entertained Hopes when I found no such Appearances in the Beginning of the Year or that in and with the very Ending of the present 1697. the aforenamed Terms Expire Solomon says The Desire of a Man is his Kindness I desire with all Sense of Unworthyness to speak it The earnest desire of my Soul in Love to the Kingdom of Christ and the Hope of it deferred making my Heart even sick excited my Zeal to prefer the Times that I had any Reason to pitch upon that were nearest And this as I now find produced the mistake which I desire with All Self-Humiliation to confess before God