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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	day_n	lord_n	neighbour_n	3,034	5	10.2969	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89056	A further discovery of the mystery of the last times; as an addition to a little book, called Some discoveries of the mystery of the last times, bordering upon the coming of the Lord Jesus. Set forth for the good of all men; but especially of those who in these dissenting times (wherein Ephraim envieth Juda, and Juda vexeth Ephraim) know not where to settle themselves, or to what society of Christians to joyn themselves: wherein is (as simply and plainly, as the author was able to open those mysterious scriptures quoted in this following treatise) shewed the cause of all our divisions and contentions about matters pertaining to form and order in the church of Jesus Christ; and wherein is moderately proved from those scriptures these particulars. 1. The flourishing and building condition of the church of Jesus Christ in the time of the gospel. ... 7. Lastly, that the Lord Jesus will by himself destroy all those enemies, and deliver his people, when the restoration of all things shall be.	Mercer, Richard, fl. 1649-1651.; Mercer, Richard, fl. 1649-1651. Some discoveries of the mystery of the last times, bordering upon the coming of the Lord Jesus].	1651 (1651)	Wing M1732; Thomason E637_16; ESTC R206616	80,538	60

speak concerning this matter for in Chap. 34. 12. speaking of this condition of the people of God he compares the time therof to a cloudy and dark day wherin the people of the Lord were scattered so likewise in his 37. Chapter and 11. verse the Prophet brings the people of God complaining saying behold our bones are dry and our hope is lost we are cut off for our parts They acknowledged that they had lain so long in captivity and scattered among the nations that they began to doubt of the promises of God for their restoring And then in the 12. verse he saith in answer to their complaint Behold I will open your graves and cause you to come out of your graves which shews that they were in a dead condition and also it shews plainely that all this time they were out of order as touching the worship or else as touching any Gospel order Thus far Ezekiel Daniell in Chapter 7. 25. speaking of that little horn which I take to be Antichrist that he should think to change times and Lawes and they should be given into his hands that is as I conceive he should have power to change the times and lawes which are the ordinances of the Gospel and to sit in the temple of God shewing himself as if he were God and to deaden all the outward worship of God by changing the ordinances of God the like to this effect the same prophet speaking of the prevailing power of Antichrist over the Church of Jesus Christ in the last times in chap. 11. 45. saith He shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain And thus much for the prophet Daniel to confirm this thing Now for the prophet Hosea in Chap 2. 3. of his prophesie where in the person of God he expostulating with his people threatens to strip her naked and set her as in the day in which she was born and make her like a wilderness and set her like a dry land and slay her with thirst and then in the 14. verse compared with Ezekiel 20. 35. and Rev. 12. 14. the judgment is fulfilled upon her for her sins Where pray mark in the Judgment which is threatned upon this people if they did not repent the Lord tels them by his prophet that he would make her like a wilderness and dry land and it is added and set her as in the day when she was born now how was it with the people of God in the day before they were born I mean that new birth being born by their calling out of the world being applied to Israell after the flesh or Israel after the spirit As for Israel after the flesh the prophet Ezekiel sets forth their condition in Chapter 16. 3 where he saith thy birth and thy nativity was of the land of Canaan thy father was an Amorite and thy mother an Hittite shewing that there was little difference between the gentiles and them untill they were separated asunder by his love towards them and by that outward order as Circumcision and Sacrifices and the worship of the law So likewise in respect of Israel after the spirit there was no difference between the beleevers and unbeleevers untill the Lord called them out by the preaching of the Gospel as is cleer by all the Epistles of the Apostles unto the severall Churches And thus much for Hosea touching this thing The like hath the prophet Amos speaking of this sleepy or dead condition in respect of outward order in his 8. chapter and 9 10 11 12 verses where in the former part of the chapter having set before the people their sins and wickednesses and their oppressions of the poor he saith in the 9. verse And it shall come to passe in that day speaking of the bloudy day saith the Lord God that I will cause the Sun to go down at noone and I will darken the Earth in the cleer day and I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentations and then in the 11 verse it is said Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will send a famine in the Land not a famine of bread or a thirst of water but of hearing the word of the Lord and they shall wander from sea to sea and from the North even unto the East they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it Lo here friends what can be more plainly spoken then this prophet speaks of that cloudy day and dark wherein as the prophet Micah in chapter 3. 6. and the Sun shall go down over the prophets and the day shall be dark over them Implying thus much that in the last ages of the world during the death of the witnesses and the time and times and half time there shall be no appearances of God by gifts and ordinances but all things in respect of the outward administrations shall be dead and in a barren condition about the woman that is the Church in this dead and sleepy condition of the Lords people To the like matter the same prophet saith in chapter 9. 9. where he saith For loe I will command and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations as corn is sifted in a sieve which sheweth their dispersion and captivity among the nations without any order in respect of Kingdome and Priesthood or injoying God in his ordinances in the purity of them And so much for the prophet Amos. Now for the Prophet Micah pray hear what he saith concerning this condition of the Lords people in cha 2. 10. where speaking in the person of God saith Arise and depart for this is not your rest Why what is the matter he saith because it is polluted it shall destroy you with a sore destruction shewing that their polluting of the ordinances of God was the cause of their destruction and captivity for he saith in the 12. verse I will surely assemble O Jacob all of thee I will surely gather the remnant of Israel The like is said to the same effect in chap. 3. 12. speaking of the cruelty of the Princes and falsness of the Prophets he saith Therefore shall Sion for your sake be plowed as a field and Jerusalem shall become heaps and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forrest thereby shewing the desolations which should lie upon all the face of the outward administrations So likewise the same Prophet in his 7. chapter and first verse speaking in the person of the Church in her complaint saith Woe is me for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits as the grape-gleaning of the vintage there is no cluster to eat my soul desired the first ripe fruit thereby shewing that in the last times the people of God should be like the summer gatherings and that there should be no cluster that is no assembly or Church congregated together in any Gospel order but that they

A further Discovery of the Mystery of the last times As an Addition to a little Book called Some Discoveries of the Mystery of the last Times bordering upon the Coming of the Lord Jesus Set forth for the good of all men but especially of those who in these dissenting times wherein Ephraim envieth Juda and Juda vexeth Ephraim know not where to settle themselves or to what society of Christians to joyn themselves wherein is as simply and plainly as the Author was able to open those mysterious Scriptures quoted in this following Treatise shewed the cause of all our divisions and contentions about matters pettaining to Form and Order in the Church of Jesus Christ and wherein is moderately proved from those Scriptures these particulars 1. The flourishing and building condition of the Church of Jesus Christ in the time of the Gospel 2. The slumbring or declining condition of the state of the said Church 3. The sleepy or dead condition in respect of outward order of the said Church with an Answer to all the objections the Author hath met with touching this subject 4. That there is to be a most glorious Restoring of the said Church by the Lord Jesus himself 5. That this Restoring will be most sudden and unexpected 6. Is shewed the severall forms of Governments which have been enemies unto the people of the Lord Jesus in these severall dispensations viz. the Dragon the Beast which did rise out of the sea the Beast that did rise out of the earth with the time of prevailing of each Government 7. Lastly That the Lord Jesus will by himself destroy all those enemies and deliver his people when the Restoration of all things shall be Hos. 2 2. 3. Plead with your mother plead for she is not my wife neither am I her husband let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight and her adulteries from between her breasts Lest I strip her naked and set her as in the day that she was born and make her as a wildernes and set her as a dry land and slay her with thirst Rev. 2. 5. Remember from whence thou art fallen and repent and do thy first work or else I will come quickly unto thee and will remove thy Candle stick out of his place except thou repent Ezek. 16. 3. And say Thus saith the Lord unto Jerusalem thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan thy father was an Amorite and thy mother an Hittite Eph. 2. 12. That at that time ye were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenant of promise having no hope and without God in the world Hos. 2. 14. Therefore behold I will allure her and bring her into the wildernesse and speak comfortably unto her Rev. 12. 14. And to the woman were given two wings of a great Eagle that she might flee into the wilderness unto her place where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the face of the Serpent Rev. 16. 15. Behold I come as a thief blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame London Printed for W. Roybould at the Unicorn in Paul's Church-yard 1651. The Epistle to the Reader Christian Reader THou shalt know that some twenty months since there came out under my name a little Book intituled Some Discoveries of the Mysteries of the last Times which coming into the hands of the men for whom principally it was intended they in stead of giving moderate Reasons against it that so the Truth might be found in these disputing times wherein every man almost shews his judgment in one sort or other and was the thing I aimed at in publishing of it began some of them at the least to vilifie both me and the work that I had set forth that it was a weak and simple thing and not worth the reading and for my person as I was credibly informed it was said That they thought I did it against my Conscience a sin if in me indeed against the holy Ghost so uncharitable were they towards me Again there was another sont of men which seemed to approve of the Work But say they You have laid down your judgment so darkly and obscurely that we are not able to reach your meaning Which things considered there came into my thoughts two main ends for which man was created the one was to glorifie God his Maker the other to be serviceable to all men in his generation Upon the account of which two ends but especially of the later I began to consider that I was a debter both to the wise and unwise Therefore to the wise I thus say that if there be any thing in this following Treatise that is worth taking notice of as it is much there should be nothing that they would esteem it not according to the worth of the Author or the manner of the delivery of it which are both mean and of no esteem but according to the truth of the thing Especially insomuch as Moses being indued with an extraordinary spirit did not despise the counsell of Jethro which was a stranger to the Common wealth of Israel and forasmuch as it pleased God to reveal to shepherds those things which were hid from the great Rabbins and learned men of that time as may be seen in the Gospel And to the unwise I say If there be any more unwise then my self that it pities me to see how we contend for the body untill we well nigh lose the spirit how earnest we are for shadows which must in their due time passe away untill we endanger to lose the substance how we quarrel for form and discipline yea unto bloud in destroying one another as hath been seen in this nation and ought to be lamented untill we almost forget that great and new Commandment which is the law of Love and all under pretence of Reforming the Church of Jesus Christ which upon due consideration made me stand amazed to see such offences committed amongst Christians in profession and as seemed zealous on both parts until entring into a most serious search into the prophesies of the last times not without the outward means of prayer and humility and sincere desire to find out the cause and knowing that the Lord had promised to reveal his secrets to the humble upon which I found and I trust by some breathings of the Spirit of God that these things were foretold and that Ephraim should envy Juda and Juda vex Ephraim and that by negative consequence they should hurt and destroy in the mountain of Gods holiness and that until there come a Rod out of the Stem of Jesse and a branch grow out of his root at which time the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea and then the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid

to lightning now what form hath lightning but only glory now what glory do we see in any one of these professions above others only as one man exceeds another in gifts of nature education or learning so they excell one the other but not as I am able to comprehend in any other outward glory Besides mark in the first times there was abundance of outward glory the Spirit sat upon the Apostles like to fire and they were filled with the holy Ghost and did work miracles but this second appearing of the Lord Jesus will have much more glory as was seen by Peter James and John in the 17. chapter of Matthew but among these professions I doe see no glory to be compared with these first times And therefore I doe conceive this is not the appearance of Jesus Christ And thus much to these texts Thirdly I shall come now to prove that the posture the people of the Lord must wait in in this sleepy condition is watching and prayer without the benefit of ordinances in their purity untill the Lord appear from the Lords threatning to overturn his own dispensations which is cleer from Ezekiel the 21. 27. where it is said I will overturn overturn overturn and it shall be no more untill he come whose right it is and I will give it him now what can be more cleerly spoken then here it is that the Lord will for the sins of his people destroy all his outward dispensations and it is with a threefold overturn which I expound thus first the Lord will overturn his first Temple built by Solomon secondly the Lord will overturn his second Temple built by Zorobabell and thirdly the Lord will overturn that outward worship which was first set up in Gospel order and all this for the sins of his people and all this experience teacheth if there were no other proof for it in Scripture and saith the text it shall be no more untill he come whose right it is and I will give it him from whence I conclude that the Lord will overturn his own worships for the sins of his people then much more these worships which are set up by men without any Scripture Rule which I can as yet see produced for their practice And it shall be no more from whence I inferr that there is a time wherein there will be no outward worships and dispensations of God in their purity but his people must ly in bondage and captivity and to wait by watching and prayer untill he come whose right it is and then the Lord will give it him and this is fulfilled unto the Jewes without contradiction for they are dispersed among the nations and touching the believing gentiles I hope I have sufficiently proved it already in my answers unto all the objections I have yet met withall and shall goe on further to cleer it But it may be objected that this is not meant the Lords overturning his owne dispensations but such as are set up by men without any warrant from his word To which I answer and desire all men to consider the text it self where it is said And thou profane wicked prince of Israel whose day is come when iniquity shall have an end thus saith the Lord God remove the diadem and take off the crowne this shall not be the same where I appeal to any mans conscience if any thing can be here meant but the taking away both of kingdome and priest-hood Beside the very experience of the doing of it will evince this to be a truth Secondly the Lord having by Zorobabel builded a second temple which for the sins of his people is destroyed and his people captivated And for the third which is that mysticall temple I mean those outward dispensations wherein the people of Jesus Christ did walk in Gospel order in the first times hath not antichrist defiled them and set up that abomination which hath made all the outward worship desolate and so the glory is departed from it as experience teacheth also so that now it remains the third overturn being past that it shall be no more untill he come whose right it is and then the Lord will give it him in the mean time let his people be but diligent in those two duties of watching and prayer and then I suppose wee need not so much press for outward discipline as to make it so essentiall as that the people of the Lord cannot be delivered out of Babylon without it Fourthly I shall now come to prove the posture the people of the Lord are to wait in is watching and prayer without the benefit of ordinances in their purity from the Lords being weary as it were speaking after the manner of men with reverence be it spoken of setting up any more shepherds over them in any outward order or dispensation which I shall prove from Zechariah the 11. 9. where it is said I will not feed you that that dieth let it die and that that is to be cut off let it be cut off and let the rest cat every one the flesh of another Where note in the 4. verse the Lord Jesus takes upon him to feed the flock whose possessors slay them and hold themselves not guilty now saith he in the sixth verse I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land as much as if he should say I will no more take care over you by shepherds but loe I will deliver the men every one into his neighbors hand and into the hands of his king and they shall smire the land and out of their hand I will not deliver them and this I suppose is spoken touching the destruction of the Jews and their worship Now marke what he saith in the 7. verse And I will feed the flock of slaughter even you O poore of the flock And I tooke unto me two staves the one I called Beauty and the other I called Bands by Beauty and Bands I understand the ordinances of the Gospel which were Beautiful and binding then saith he in the 8. verse Three shepherds also I cut off in one mouth and my soule loathed them and their soul also abhorred me as much as if he should say those shepherds which I set up in Gospel order did in time forget their charge and neglect their duty and I cut them off now he comes to say in the 9. verse Then said I I will not feed you that that dieth let it die and that that is to be cut off let it be cut off and let the rest cat every one the flesh of his neighbour the residue of the chapter shews the breaking of the two staves and a prophesie of raising up a shepherd in the land which should not visit the flock which I take to be that man of sin spoken of in the 2 Thessalonians 2. 4. where pray note for the sins of the people of God he leaves them void of shepherds that shall take care of them and suffers a