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A85551 Truths victory against heresie; all sorts comprehended under these ten mentioned: 1. Papists, 2. Familists, 3. Arrians, 4. Arminians, 5. Anabaptists, 6. Separatists, 7. Antinomists, 8. Monarchists. 9. Millenarists, 10. Independents. As also a description of the truth, the Church of Christ, her present suffering estate for a short time yet to come; and the glory that followeth at the generall resurrection. / By I.G. a faithfull lover and obeyer of the truth. Imprimatur, John Downame. Graunt, John, of Bucklersbury. 1645 (1645) Wing G1597; Thomason E277_7; ESTC R200005 70,586 79

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subordinate is the salvation of the Saints the chosen ones of God from the beginning of the world And this is the faith that justifieth that comforteth that overcommeth that excelleth whose dignity and excellencie every where shineth throughout the Scriptures the ignorance of which this very age yea I say it again this very age of ours deserves all these present judgements and more also then lie upon us at this time we having had from God afforded us so great meanes to come to the knowledge of it which sort of faith whosoever hath shall never perish but men may partake of both the other sorts to their condemnation Other acceptations the terme Faith hath in the Scriptures also having reference sometimes to God himselfe and therein importing the stedfastnesse and unchangeable truth of his decree and promise And in other places it is to be understood of the doctrine of the Gospel and so also of their faithfull discharge of their office that are gifted to declare and preach the glad tidings of peace and salvation Of which office it is hard for an Antinomian holding such principles as he doth to come to understand wherefore repent in time lest at last you turn all Familists which you cannot avoid if you continue in your principles Her We have had the experience of this new found conceited light that such as have been dazled with it have been staggred in the truth and some have been so blinded therewithall that they have fallen from the faith But what say you to us We have the doctrine of the Gospel pure and cleare we hold faith and repentance to be the first works to life and salvation and that the Church of God are a company of holy beleevers and that now the time is come that the Church shall bee delivered from all her sufferings according to the testimony of the Prophets and Apostles the purity of Christs Ordinances shall be established Christ shall bee set up upon his Throne and his Church shall have the rule and preheminence in the world in greater power dignity and externall authority then all the Monarchs that ever have been in the world before And in this outward glory shall shee continue till her Lord come to translate her Truth You speak like those that maintaine that the Church of Christ shall now so flourish and prosper as that it shall extend its bounds and borders all Christendome over and most part of the world besides into a Monarchy and as formerly the temporall power in Christianity hath had the rule and greatnesse so now the Ecclesiasticall power shall take place and the Scepter of Christ in the censure of the Church shall be advanced and bear rule above all other government And that now already it is begun that God makes the kingdomes of this world our Lords and his Christs and that now it is come to passe that the godly shall rule over the wicked for now they are given to be captives to Gods people whose captives Gods people were before this time Wherefore I answer Great are the privileges and prerogatives that the Scriptures speak of Gods Church and people in the world to come after the resurrection is plain and evident in holy Writ but to apply those prophesies and promises to the Church in this present evill world it is not well considered of you for the Lord by his servants speaks of his Church in a double consideration as oppressed afflected and suffering here in this life and as delivered perfected and saved in the life to come then to rule but here to suffer then to bee advanced into Christs Throne but now and here to submit to the Crosse now his house is a house of mourning but then it shall be a palace of glory Jerusalem the Citie of the great King shall be set up the praise of the whole earth And in regard of his Churches present suffering her Lord himselfe thus speaketh to her Feare not little flocke and comforts her with the grace and favour of God for the time to come in these words For it is your Fathers pleasure to give you a Kingdom And it is a truth concluded of by all if we follow Christ in the estate of regeneration we shall be made partakers of his glorification if wee suffer with him we shall reigne with him the one condition is here the other hereafter the one in this world the other in the world to come This is the testimony of our Lord and all his servants Matth. 19. 28. 2 Tim. 2. 12. And that short time or while of suffering Saint Peter speaks of is this present life and the time of making such sufferers perfect is the life to come 1 Pet. 5. 10. agreeing with his brother Paul who according to the wisdome of God given to him had cast up his accounts in these words I reckon saith he that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us Even then saith S. John when Christ which is our life shall appear then shall we appear with him then shall we be like him in his dignity as in this life we are like him in his ignominy 1 John 3. 2. And friend looke into the Scriptures and you shall find the Church the blessed assembly described now to suffer to mourn to bee hated to weep to be persecuted for righteousnesse sake and the contrary estate to be none of Gods Church or inheritance Woe be to yee that laugh and rejoyce that are full and enjoy greatnesse and prosperity those that are rich here have received their consolation those that are full in this life shall hunger in the life to come those that are merry laugh and want not here shall weep and waile when the day of redemption comes then shall be fulfilled to him that suffers not here these words Thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and to him that suffered here these words He his evill things therefore thou that sufferedst not art tormented but thou that didst suffer thou art comforted Matth. 5. Luke 6. and Luke 16. When Gods suffering people shall bee rewarded then such as have enjoyed their prosperity here shall be condemned I beseech you as you love the truth decline this doctrine of yours for by it you doe revive againe that old tenent of Popery For what ever you affirme in your confession they have maintained it with fire and sword execration and excommunication for they would prove that their Church by Christs appointment was to have supreme authority power and jurisdiction over all they place themselves above the starres of God And as in power so in title he must be called and stiled the Lord God the Pope And so he challenged worship also that Kings and Emperours must kisse his stinking feet and toes in token of their slavish subjection in honouring him with the power of heaven and earth to kill make alive to pardon and retain sins falsly
of God contained in his word Rev. 20. 4. and in this spirituall sense they lived and reigned with Christ the whole time meant by the thousand yeares And lest the inconsiderate Reader should mistake this spiritual resurrection for a corporall as the Millenarians doe the holy Ghost gives marks and bounds to his Disciples as evident distinctions between the one and the other in these words Marvell not at this John 5. 28. for the houre is coming hee doth not say as before and now is in which all that are in the graves shall heare his voyce which all contains every one good and bad at the general resurrection and therefore your doctrine is contrary to the truth the Scriptures hold out to us for the Thrones and they that sate upon them which you expound to be Christ and his Saints the holy Ghost discovers the quite contrary even to bee the power and authority of Antichrist himselfe who had a Charter granted him of God and under his own hand for the whole time limited to desolate and consume the Saints who for their sinnes sake the Lord doth often give them up to the pleasure and rage of such heathenish murtherers and persecuters for a season to enter into the Sanctuary and spoyle the heritage of the Lord Jerem. 9. 16. Lam. 1. 10. And if you had but lookt upon the Text with cleane eyes washed ●ith the water of repentance and had learnd the song of sorrow of the mourner you would not have been so blear-eyed as to have taken the abomination forespoken of by Daniel the Prophet to be the Kingdome of Christ that all Gods servants witnesse to and give testimony of And that if it may be possible for you to apprehend the meaning of this Scripture wash your eyes with teares and wipe them with the love of the truth and look upon the Text once again and compare the 20 chapter verse 2. with the 12. chapter verse 3. and you shall see the same Dragon in the one place in the Ethnick Heathenish power of the Roman Emperour with all fiercenesse and unbridled cruelty to havock destroy and kill the Saints and children of God exercised in a tenfold persecution to obliterate wipe out of the earth the name of Christ the woman his Spouse and her first and primitive fruit which was born to reign with Christ for ever which power and authority the Devill instigated and stirred up with all their malice and hatred as with a flood caused as it were by the breach of the Sea so that the wife of the Lord had no way to escape drowning and devouring but to flie into the wildernesse there to preserve her selfe and so many of her children as she had preserved from death where she was assigned to stay an houre a month a day and a yeare Rev. 9. 15. The same Dragon in the 20. Chapter you find to be bound and yet in all and every day of his religation to kill and destroy the Saints just as he did before onely differing in the manner for now it is with a restraint secretly and cunningly by guile and craft pretending Christianity and taking on him the name of a Christian and never the lesse Devill then hee was before onely a pretence makes the difference for ever since the great battell that he fought and lost the field for Michael and his Angels prevailed then against the Drágon and his Angels so that ever since all along Popery the Devill hath turned Christian and herein by a bounded and restrained way effected his enmity to the full as he did before in the Heathens in an open professed opposition to Christ and Christianity And it is to bee observed that when the Devill turned to be a Christian then hee put on Jupiters coat upon Christs back and made the modell and platforme of Christian Religion just after the fashion of the Idoll Gods of the Heathen and like a Juggler and deceiver playes the same game divers and several wayes sometimes amongst men sometimes amongst the Angels of light sometimes on horseback sometimes on foot he rides on a red horse with a great sword among the Heathens in the Imperiall persecution and took outward peace from the primitive Christians as well as from the earth it selfe In the time of Papacie among carnall Christians he rides on a pale horse where the Devillish Dragon his rider is called death it selfe and hell followed with him Rev. 6. 4. 8. So then let him have liberty freèdome or bind and restraine him in all conditions he effecteth his work of envie hatred and malice against the Church of God Now there is one thing more in the Text and when I have spoke a word or two of the meaning thereof I hope then you will see this Scripture proves not your error And thus it followes After that he must be loosed a little season And in the seventh verse And when the thousand years are expired Satan shall be loosed out of his prison which words sound as if the Devill should become the great red Dragon again after the reigne of Antichrist and fall to act his first part the second time to deny the Lord Jesus whom all this while he hath confessed and to set himselfe to doe the utmost he can to oppose the very name of Christ and Christians and in this sense doth the holy Ghost clearly expound these words in other Scriptures as our Lord himselfe Matth. 24. doth clearly describe and discover the whole time of Antichrists abomination and persecution as Daniel did prophesie of it which is the whole and every part and season of the bound and restrained condition of the Dragon before mentioned And immediatly saith our Lord after the tribulation of those dayes shall the Sunne be darkned the Moon shall not give her light and the Starres shall fall from heaven and the powers of heaven shall be shaken vers. 29 In all which termes our Lord speakes figuratively and that another power after the end of Antichrists tyranny shall arise and fulfill these sayings of his which things were prophesied of before by the Prophet Ezekiel chap. 38. 2. 39. 1. and afterwards so understood by the Apostle John Rev. 20. 8 9 10. which Gog and Magog Saint John understands to bee the Kings of the East and the whole world Rev. 16. 12 13 14. where in a vision he saw the Devill come out of the mouth of the Dragon that is he left the Ethnick Imperiall power and also the power of the Beast and beastly Clergy he will deceive by that false Prophet no longer but as he left all his old instruments so he goes on to make use of a new one these spirits of Devils goe forth unto the Kings of the earth that is they goe unto them that are of the greatest power at this time even the Kings of the whole world to gather them to the battell of the great day of God Almighty which Kings of the East and of the
proving this his abomination and whorish power from Gods divine Oracles in these words To execute vengeance upon the heathen and punishment upon the people to bind their Kings with chains and their Nobles with fetters of iron This honour have all the Saints Psa. 149 8 9. avouching this Scripture to be fulfilled in the holy Church of Rome and that they were the Saints which by this prophesie were foretold of to depose and disthrone Kings and to cloak colour their covetousnesse which set all their trickes awork as Bulls and Pardons at all rates and prices whereby their coffers were filled with gold and silver from all countries and people And this hee affirmed was prophesied for his filthy holinesse maintenance and ungodly revenue in these words The Kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall bring presents the Kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts yea all Kings shall fall down before him all nations shall serve him Psal. 72. 10. And notwithstanding their grosse abusing the Scriptures and false claims to Titles as Holy Father and holy Mother the Church time hath now proved him to be Antichrist the Man of sinne and capitall enemy to the truth of God And indeed this conceit that the Church of God should enjoy temporall peace and outward glory and authority hath been alwayes the opinion of carnall Christians and the Jewes to this day cannot see otherwise then when their still lookt-for Messiah should come that then they shall bee gathered to be a great people againe and made a worldly Monarchy to rule over all Nations as now all Nations rule over them But their groundlesse hope will prove but as the Spiders web and so it will be with all others of their mind for see how the Scripture resolves the question that the Saints the Church of God shall still suffer to the worlds end the question is made with a loud voyce saying How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell upon the earth And the answer from heaven saith that they should rest yet a little season untill their fellow servants also and their brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled Rev. 6. 10. And the clad and washed with the righteousnesse of Christ and the blood of the Lamb are those that goe through great tribulations Rev. 7. 13 14. Finally of this doctrine we have a double witnesse two brethren and Apostles whose praise is in all the Churches Acts 14. 22. who both as one man conclude this truth as a Decree for ever That such as continue in the faith must through many tribulations enter into the Kingdome of God which Kingdome is that which all the Prophets and Apostles in all times have spoken of which in its due place I shall briefly unfold Heresie I pray you give us leave to speak Have we not clear Scripture for the glorious reigne of Christ upon the earth and that all the Martyrs and holy Prophets shall rise from the dead and reigne with Christ a thousand yeares in all prosperity peace riches plenty wealth and glory with such supreme power and Majesty as never any Monarch in this world had before nor ever shall have after for when the thousand yeares are expired then comes the generall resurrection Rev. 20. Truth Your confession shewes you to be a Millenarian which error as it hath been ancient so of late as of many other errors there is a reviving of this amongst the rest And as you say the summe of it is that now or they know not when Christ shall descend personally from heaven and then cause all the bodies of the Saints that have suffered martyrdome from the beginning of the world to be raised and Christ and his Saints to live in this cursed earth and corruptible world in the enioyment of riches wealth power and authority majesty and Emporality as no heathen nor Christian Monarchy ever had in this world before and you ground your mistake on Rev. 20. 1 2 3 4 5 6. Now I answer that the whole position is directly against the Scripture you alledge rightly understood for the Apostle Peter affirmeth it plainly that the heavens must containe and receive Christ personally untill the time of the restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets since the world began Acts 2. 21. Here are such witnesses as cannot be excepted against even all his holy Prophets and then and not sooner shall the Lord Jesus come which before was preached unto you verse 20. And the place you instance Rev. 20. proves no more the Millenary fancie as you describe it then it proves a new world in the Moon or that men may plow the floods of the Sea to sow and plant on them And because the true understanding of that Scripture will overthrow this error at once wee will shew you that the resurrection there spoken of is the spirituall and first resurrection which our Saviour Christ clearly layes down both in nature and order John 5. 25. And because it is a mystery therefore his expression is more then ordinary Verily verily twice affirming it I say unto you the houre is comming and now is when the dead shall heare the voyce of the Sonne of God and they that heare it shall live This is the spirituall resurrection from sin through the grace of regeneration and these are they only that live and reigne with Christ having sought and gained the Kingdome of heaven and the righteousnesse thereof Matth. 6. 33. And those only that are risen with Christ through regeneration are born of God and those that are born of God through faith are victors and overcome all opposition even the whole world and the Prince and King thereof 1 John 5. 4. and in this sense they reigne with Christ in their estate of temptation and regeneration who in their teares and sorrow are happy in the enjoyment of their Comforter who anointeth them with the unction of truth and teacheth and instructeth them so sufficiently that all the powers and thrones of Antichrist the subtilties crafts and deceits of him and all his learned Clerks who have endevoured and used all means possible to couzen and cheat the people of God for almost the space of this thousand two hundred and fourty yeares here expressed by the Millenary number onely because it shall not exceed more thousands then one in which cloudy and dark day the holy Ghost hath so led and guided the sonnes of truth that all the Jugglers at Rome and Babylon could not make them to mistake the mark of the Beast for the mark of the Lamb nor to worship the Beast and his image in stead of the Lord and his Christ yea rather then they would defile themselves with the adultery of the Whore they would die a thousand deaths for so saith the Text they lost their lives and their heads for the witnesse of Jesus for the pure worship