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england_n	body_n	breath_n	great_a	16	3	2.1033	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52810	A distinct discourse and discovery of the person and period of Antichrist wherein a diligent enquiry is made concerning the time of his rise, reign, and ruine, the answer whereunto is not peremptorily imposed, but modestly proposed / published for publick good by Christopher Ness ...	Ness, Christopher, 1621-1705.	1679 (1679)	Wing N453; ESTC R3549	114,929	254

A DISTINCT DISCOURSE AND DISCOVERY OF The PERSON and PERIOD OF ANTICHRIST WHEREIN A Diligent Enquiry is made concerning the time of his Rise Reign and Ruine The Answer whereunto is not peremptorily Imposed but modestly Proposed In magnis Voluisse sat est Difficilium facilis est Venia Published for publick good by Christopher Ness Minister of the Gospel in Fleet-street LONDON Printed for the Author and to be sold by him 1679. TO THE Right Honourable ANTHONY Earl of Shaftsbury Lord President of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council Right Honourable THe Etymologist Defines nobilis quasi prae Aliis Virtute notabilis and the Heathen Sage saith Nobilitas sola est atque Vnica Virtus The Antiquity of a Noble Race is but the matter of true Nobility 't is Vertue that is the Form which quickens it and gives life to it If Nobility which is but the Moss of time do not grow upon the back of Vertue it wants its true Supporter and soon dwindles into nothing Quoe nos non fecimus ipsi Vix ea nostra Voco 'T was once a tart Sarcasm Meum Genus a me Incipit tuum Verò in te Desinit Antiquity of Pedegree is only a Nobility by Parchment That Nobility is most truly Divine where God is the top of the Kindred and Religion the Root of it Tantus quisque est Quantus est apud Deum My Lord this happy Conjunction of Honour and Vertue in your Lordship I speak without Vanity doth plainly declare you an Honourable Patriot yea and in this sad conjuncture of Affairs you have shone forth through the good hand of God upon you as a Star of the first Magnitude in our British Horizon now when Hell and Rome have been Clubbing their most sublimated Wits to destroy King and Kingdom Employing their deceitfull Dalilah's to cut off the Locks of our Land and their crafty Vlysses's to steal away our Palladium to wit our Religion which is both our Ornament and our Muniment from us Then did the Lord raise up your Lordship as the Atlas of England to support a sinking Nation it would be prodigious ingratitude not to acknowledge it Undoubtedly my Lord God hath given you I speak it not with the stinking breath of a sordid Sycophant a great Soul in a little Body for some eminent Generation-Work and all your former Sufferings and present Diseases serve but as a dark Soil in a well drawn Picture to set off your splendour and excellency God hath given you a profound Judgment and a most charming not an effeminate Eloquence which is hitherto an effectual Instrument in the Lords hand to conjure down those Incarnate Devils that Beelzebub and his Eldest Son the Pope have raised up amongst us Your Lordship hath not been like the Nobles of the Tekoites that would not put their neck to the Lords work as if it had been below their Greatness Neh. 3.5 but rather like the Nobles of Israel who digged Wells with their Staves of Honour for the common good Numb 21.18 You have done Worthily in Epphrata and is famous in Bethlehem God hath wip'd off the Scandalum Magnatum Psal 37.6 Go on noble Sir as another Joseph Daniel or Nehemiah to save much People alive from the hands of Popish Cut-Throats Nulla infoelicitas frangit quem nulla Foelicitas Corrumpit let your Goodness so Sanctifie your Greatness that you may improve this upper-Ground whereon you stand and hold not your Peace for our inlargement in this day Esth 4.14 The work of your day is to pull down this cursed Antichrist here treated on and to set up our blessed Christ in his Throne wherein that you may be daily more signally and more singularly usefull is the Cordial Prayer of Your Honours much Devoted Servant Christopher Ness Candid and Christian READER THe whole sum of our Blessed Bible is that God made the World and in it Men that of them he might Constitute a Church wherein he might be purely Worship'd according to the Doctrine of the Law and of the Gospel to the end of the World This Church of God is always under some special Promise and Prophecy The Comming of Christ in the Flesh was the grand Promise and Prophecy to the Old Test Church and the Comming of Christ in the Spirit in sending the Comforter in extraordinary Gifts was the grand Promise and Prophecy to the New Those were Promises and Prophecies of the former days all which have had their full Accomplishment There be also Promises and Prophecies of the latter days to wit of Christs Comming in Glory to confound Antichrist and all his proud helpers Those are yet to be accomplished as the Church of God was ever very inquisitive after the time of the 1st and 2d Comming of Christ Matth. 2.4,7 Luk. 2.25.26 and Act. 1.4 always waiting for the Consolation of Israel Even so should we do now for Christs 3d. Comming that he may not come like a Thief in the Night upon us Revel 16.15 and 1 Thess 5.2 The Promises are the Magna Charta or Grand Charter of the Church purchased by Christ Propounded Ratified and Accomplished in him 2 Cor. 1.20 The Promises are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exceeding great and precious 2 Pet. 1.4 They are first exceeding Great as they are above our Fears Wants Prayers Hopes Tasts and Imaginations 2ly Exceeding pretious as proceeding from a pretious God purchased by a pretious Christ and both applied to and sealed on our hearts by his pretious Spirit they are more pretious than the most pretious Stones in the World though some Pearl be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of an infinite price and value all the comforts in Heaven and on Earth are wrapp'd up in the Swathing bands of the Promises all our present comfort and future hope are hid in them they are as good Money as any in our Purse as good bonds as any in our Desk and as good Jewels as any in our Cabinet more especially the Promises of the latter day which are called better Promises Hebr. 8.6 yea the best Promises both in the Word and in the World our Lord like the Bridegroom of the Feast Joh. 2.10 keeps his best Wine till the last Now t is a thousand pitties we should be so ignorant of them or unacquainted with them knowing so little what they are and where they lay we are not such Strangers to our Money Bonds Jewels c. If an Herod diligently enquire Matth. 2.7 how much more ought every true lover of Christ As an help in this Enquiry God gave the Spirit of Prophecy a Daniel to the Old Test Church and a John to the New Divine Prophecies are blessed Comments upon Divine Promises that the Promises are all sealed breeds Comfort but that none of them are Dated as well as Sealed this breeds uncertainty especially considering how apt we are to Antedate Promises and to Post Date Threatnings but that Prophecies are Sealed breeds sorrow this made John weep Revel 5.4 whereas the opening

those very Kings which held Communion with the Beast and after hate and burn Antichrist Rev. 17.16 shall yet lament to see the smoak of that burning which they themselves kindled Rev. 18.9 which may intimate to us that Cross-Interests engag'd them in that burning of Babylon more then any true Repentance of their Popish Religion 189. Not much unlike the Proceedings of Israel against Benjamin which when they had destroyed they were sorry they had gone so far Such cross-Interests fell out lately 'twixt the Pope and the King of France about some affronts to the French Ambassador Chigi in Rome whereupon the French King sends an Army of twenty thousand Men over the Alpes against the Pope and reduced the Pope from his Luciferian Highness to the Order of the Humbled Brethren 190. This Commotion betwixt them two made many good Men that wait for the consolation of Israel in the Accomplishment of that word the Kings shall hate and burn the Whore to be yet fulfilled to hope that God was putting it into the heart of the King of France to execute his Vengeance upon Babylon However it was clearly discover'd to be the declining Age of Antichrist for the Pope durst not use those bruta fulmina of his Predecessors against the King but must satisfie him in all things that he demanded even to the erecting of a Trophy c. 191. It is most probable that all those Kings shall not hate the Whore c. But some of the Ten shall take part with Antichrist after the fall of Rome till they be destroyed at Armageddon Rev. 19.18 Rev. 16.14 18.9 The flesh of those Kings were there eaten and others of them shall deal with this Harlot as Men do with a Strumpet when they see what harm they have got by her as Ezek. 16.36,37,38,39 192. The great God who hath the hearts of Kings in his own hands and turns them as he pleases Prov. 21.1 will certainly raise up the Spirits of some of those Kings to repent of their Friendship with Antichrist and to rage against him as professed Enemies and to lay waste his dwelling and to destroy him for ever Whereas the King of France in that late Contest with him powr'd out only some drops of the Vials upon him Some of those at last if not he shall pour upon him the whole showre and this at the end of his Lease at the expiration of his Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do 42 Months Rev. 13.5 193. T is a ruled Case what hath been may be now we have seen already in past Providences how God hath cal'd of several Princes from all amity with Antichrist especiall in the Northern Parts of Europe since the Reformation of Luther To say nothing of the Duke of Saxony and Landgrave of Hassia c. which came forth with Luther and other Reformers to help the Lord against the mighty Beast We find that several of the 1● Kings that formerly gave up their Kingdoms to Antichrist are now faln off from him since the Reformation 194. God hath cut off several Kingdoms in the North from the Jurisdiction of Antichrist as England Scotland Denmark and Swedeland which were 4 of the 10 Horns and some of the Kings of those Kingdoms have personally appeared against Antichrist some with their Pen as King James and some with their Sword as Gustavus Adolphus 195. To say nothing of Germany that in a great part broke of from Antichrists See under those wonderfull Reformations wrought there both in the Higher and Lower Germany Nor of France from whence came the Angel Waldus that laid the first Foundation of Antichrists ruine as before and which hath in a great part separated from Rome for the View of France tells us the Hugonots had about 2150 Churches of the Reformed Religion this was above 60 years ago in all likelihood they are much increased now 196. Thus though their Kings have not themselves declared open Hostility and hatred against Antichrist and so to weaken his Power by their personall Atchivements yet their Kingdoms hath contributed much to the pulling down of this man of sin So that if we reckon France and Germany though but in part battering at Babylon together with those four before mentioned England Scotland Denmark Swedeland which together with their Supream Magistrates have for a long time oppos'd Antichrist we must needs say that the Viall's already poured out have dry'd up a great part of the Sea or Jurisdiction of the Pope 197. If Kings and Kingdoms have been thus bold with his Holiness under the former Vials and while so much of his Lease was yet to run how lively and vigorous may we expect them to be in the power of God under the latter Vials and when his Term of Continuance is about expiring The wheel of Providence will be quicker and sharper in its Motions and Revolutions at the end of his Time 198. Thus have we seen in the first place the three personal Engines in Gods hand against this Beast 1. Powerfull Preachers 2. Profound Writers and 3. Potent and pious Princes Now 2ly come we to the things that the wise Jehovah hath and doth use as Instruments for Demolishing this mystical Jericho and they are principally four to wit 1. Spiritual practicing 2. Unanimous Praying 3. Publick Printing and 4. Powerfull Preaching of all which very briefly in the following Paragraphs 199. First an holy practice of Piety a close walking with God and a living in the power of Godliness doth prove an excellent Means for the extirpation of Popery the reason is because Popery is nothing else but a meer Form denying the Power 'T is a loose Religion and its Worship is a carnall compound of Flesh-pleasing things it hath Musick to gratifie the Ear Perfumes to please the Nostrils and gawdy Pictures to bewitch the Eye in these and many other particulars 't is every way accommodated to an earthly Mind 200. Popery is a drawing nigh to God with the body when the heart is far from him 't is a being circumstantial in Substantials and substantial only in Circumstantials the Opus operatum of a Ceremony will expell Devils and work Wonders the Cheapness of their Pardons must needs render them notoriously licentious How did Lewis of France multiply his execrable Oaths when he thought the Kissing of his Crucifix was a sufficient Expiation from them all 201. Now 't is a Physical Rule Contraris curantur contrariis one Contrary is best cured by another so is this loose Antichristian Religion by an holy Evangelical Conversation Such a Conversation as this doth not only put to silence the ignorance of foolish men from dispraising but also opens the Speech of knowing Men for comnending the way of Reformation not only among Pagans 1 Pet. 2 1●.15 but also among Papa-gans beholding men in the Flesh do live according to God in the Spirit 1 Pet. 4.6 202. This Engine I would commend to all those of the Reformation that they may adorn their