Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A76490
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A discourse upon the powers of the world to come, or, The miraculous powers of the Gospel, and kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and their certain return at the kingdom of Christ in its succession / by T. Beverley.
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Beverley, Thomas.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing B2138; ESTC R205346
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146,914
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191
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a Spiritual Eye and wherein the Power of God appear'd That He held up a pure and sincere state of Christianity in the midst of all the Roman Apostasy altho it was so dark and Dangerous a Time or Place as the Spirit of God calls it by the Apostle Peter 2 Pet 1. 19. And as he assures it must needs be because the Witnesses were in Sackcloth and War made upon them and they were kill d and the Woman or the Witnesses Collectively taken were in the Wilderness Rev. 11. c. 12. or as Daniel speaks the Power of the Holy People was scattered Dan. 12. 7. God was pleas'd to keep it up not only since the Reformation but throughout the whole Time or space of the Time and Times from 437 to 1517. the 1080 as well as the 180 of the 1260 Days when by the Reformation there was a Party-Rising of the Witnesses and Party-Retrenchment of the The Fresh Memorial of Christs Kingdom Papal Power and Apostasy at the Half Time according to the two Oaths of Christ Dan. 12. and Rev. 10. Allowing it as I have made out in a Discourse wholly to that purpose 2. For this is that which is spoken of Rev. 1â— 3. And I will give Power to my two Witnesses and they shall Prophecy in Sackcloâ—h a Thousand two Hundoed and Threescore days cloath'd in Sacâ—cloth I will give them Power but yet that Power shall be hid they shall be Cover'd or Cloath'd with Sackcloth So a place shall be prepared for the Woman the Church where she shall be nourished but it shall be in a Desert State not known or acknowledged it shall be in the Wilderness But saith God I will give Power to my Witnesses Now Power is one of the Words expressive of Miracles They are call'd Power and by that we have had the Great Truth of the Gospel Continued so as to be Restor'd to us in the Reformation by their Constancy of Declaring and Maintaining Professing and Teaching the Truths after Godliness the Doctrine of Salvation by Christ And this in Regard of the Darkness of that Time is call'd Prophecy and Power to Prophecy in regard of Miraculous Virtue in so doing For there hath been a Connexion a linking between Witness and Witness between one Age of Witnesses and another Age and with the Reformation it self which we are All so willing to acknowledg It hath been from the Power God gave to his Two Witnesses in the midst of all the Barrenness and Darkness of the Papal Apostasy These are the Two Olive-Trees the Two Green Olive-Trees Emptying their Oyl into the Two Golden Candlesticks that stand before the God of the Whole Earth not by might nor by Power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts These were the worthy Witnesses of Christ throughout that Dark Time when no man could any sooner look out with any of the purest Truths of the Gospel that stem'd that Apostasy but presently Heretick Heretick was cryed out upon him or â—ince the Reformation among those who hold of the part of the Synagogue of Sathan some Finer parts of that Apostasy venerated as purer Antiquity Schismatick Schismatick was as vehemently Fasten'd on any one if he broach'd any thing as they call it against the Hierarchic Church They have been Anathematised Excommunicated Prosecuted with Corporal or Pecuniary Punishments even to the most cruel Deaths and Imprisonments Fire hath been call'd down from Heaven and fetch'd up from Hell against them yet notwithstanding a Miraculous Power hath been given to them to Prophecy for the 1260 Days I know Many cannot understand how these Witnesses could be said to Prophecy while they lay Dead Three Days and an Half But I have endeavour'd in a peculiar Discourse to Assoyle that also in the Vision of the Witnesses and to shew that as it is said of Abel the first Martyr Being Dead he yet speaketh so of these his Successors although Kill'd they yet Prophecy And it is much more plain on their side For their Death however Violent-Natural also yet is chiefly Mystic They were Kill'd as Witnesses Hateful and Cursed Hereticks being the Sambenito the Disguise whereinto they were presently put but still they Prophetied tho they were slain And in this Sense also they continued Prophecying because as any were Naturally Killed others still rose up in their Room and which is great Miracle They were Dead yet they could never be Buried The People Nations Tongues and Languages would not suffer them to be Buried because their Doctrine however Condemned before hand was still kept above-ground as we speak in several parts of this Universal Roman Empire under the Pope and his Ten Kings the Princes of Europe notwithstanding all their Fury against it their Joy in hopes they had suppressed their Prophecy and their sending Gifts one to another for it yet it hath and shall continue to the Kingdom of Christ in regard of which to Come till it comes Their Doctrine is call'd Prophecy also And All this may be most justly Styled Miracle because it is not in the Train and Connexion of Things according to the general Order and Government of the World For so when Men Dye even all the Living World is in hast They be Buried what way soever it be But these Witnesses were not suffered to be Buried Their Doctrine their Slain Testimony must Remain Above to Annoy and Nusance the Papal and half Reform'd World And with these Gospel Witnesses Those Gospel Miracles before Named were Deposited all this Time the Turning and Changing Men from Sin and Sathan to God which must needs be Miracle For in the Train and Order of Things a wicked Man will go on in his Wickedness and Lewdness and not be purged from it till he Dye All the Justifying Sanctifying Grace of the Gospel the Dying and Sleeping in and by Jesus tho by Violent Deaths under the Rage of Persecutors was all in the Tenure in the Conveyancings of these VVitnesses Churches are Candlesticks Fed from these Sons of Oyl Ministerily Originally from Christ and his Spirit Consider then Spiritual Inward Miracles Miracles apprehended by Faith and Scripture-Reason never ceas'd For if they had the Everlasting Kingdom given to Christ must have Ceased And this is an Infallible Argument there shall be a Return of Miracles in an outward and Glorious Appearance because inward Miracles to which the outward as an externe Transparent Air are Due have never ceased The outward shall whenever the Reasons of State as I may say in that Kingdom shall Require it appear greater than ever yet and this I propose to Universal Consideration but more especially of the Wise Judg you what I say 2. In the Second Place I will propose the Judiciary Miraculous Power The Spirit of God affirms the Witnesses to have had and this consists of several Particulars 1. Fire proceeds out of their Mouths and Devoureth their Enemies And if any one will Hurt them in this manner must he be Killed Rev. 11. This was
c. If any Doctrines then be not according to whâ—â— God hath before spoken in his word and to those main points of the Love and Fear of God and the Rewards he hath proâ—â—â—â—ed and Punishments he hath Threatened Although such a Contrary Doctrin be Confirm'd with such Appearances of a sign or wonder as cannot be Dâ—stinguished by very Judicious observers from a Real Miracle This will not Justify the person that turns aside from the Commands or Doctrines that are indeed from God which ought to be weighed by all the Just Rules and Characters of Trying truth According to this Grand caution thus Given by God The Jews might have been excused in Refusing to withdraw from the Mosaic Law or to receive Christ as the Messiah and Son of God notwithstanding all the Miracles wrought by our Lord and by his Apostles if the Doctrine and Action and high Acknowledgment of God of All holiness if the Excellencies alwaies most Bright and shining from our Lord c. If the Diviness of all his Preachâ—ng His clearest dicovery of eternal Life and everlasting Punishment upon all unholyness had not vindicated and demonstrated it self to be of God Christ therefore says as before observed John 15. 22. If I had not come and spoken to them they had no sin but now they have no Cloake for their sin and so John 14. 10. Christ saith The words I speak unto you I speak not of my self but the Father that dwelleth in me He doth the works Certainly our Lord Implyes His very Doctrine was all Miracle All works the works of his Father as well as the very Miracles or Works strictly so called Thus Christ Argues from the Direct â—endency of all his whole Ministry and design so manifestly tending to the Ruine of Sathans Kingdom that he could not be suspected of Acting by way of Collusion with Sathan except Sathan could be supposed to be Divided against Himself and to Destroy his own Kingdom Else the Pretence had been plausible if all the Doctrine of Christ had not been Infinitely Holy and Infinitely pure Destructive to Satan and his Kingdom Matt. 12. Mark 3. anâ— Luke 11. The Apostle Petet Comparing the Miraculous vision of our Lords Transfiguration Prefers the Word of Prophecy as more sure 2. Pet. 1. 19. And the Apostle Paul makes the powerful Preaching of the Truths of the Gospel more Convincing of the mighty presence of God in Church Assemblies then Miracles or miraculous Gifts of Tongues were 1 Cor. 14. 26. For hereby saith he the Secrets of mens Hearts will be Discovered and they will Fall down and worship God and say He is among his Servants of a Truth From all this It is most manifest The Confirmation of the Truths oâ— the Gospel is not the Adequate end of Miracles or a Reason of them Commensurate to them Because they do not sufficiently serve that end nor answer that Reason If therefore They had been supremely to that end or Reason of them There is no doubt They should to the very utmost and last point of effect have produced that Confirmation For such mighty works of God Cannot be once supposed to be in vain as they must be if they do not Attain their End or are-not Principal in Attaining it As it hath been made out They are not CHAP. V. Wherein the Grand Scope of the Discourse is Endeavoured to be truly Fixed viz. That the Chief and Adequate End and Reason of Miracâ—â—s is That they are Portions and Pledges Peices and Parcels and Portions of the Kingdom of Christ or of the World to Come and to Bring it in at Last I Come now to that Part of this Discourse wherein as in a Center All the lines of it meet that is to shew that the Principal and most Adequate Reason of Miracles is that They Bear a strict close and Inseparable Relation to that world to come whereof saith the Apostle we speak And because This world is to come and they have not yet Introduced it Therefore they can be no more then Parts or Peices and Portions and not the entire sum Pawns and Pledges and not the very Kingdom not that very world it self And in the attaining of this It will be found That whatever account can be given of Miracles as if this moving mens Hearts Home to God were an end or Reason of them or as if the Confirmation of the Doctrine of the Gospel were an end by it self worthy of them even That account will be Found to Lye in their Relation Those very effects have to that world to come as will be seen in the Particulars I shall now present in order Argum. 1. If there be such a World to Come as the Scripture hath abundantly declared there is then every thing wherein the Present State of the World is lifted up above it self or the present Course of setled Nature which being by Immediate Power and not in the ordinary manner of Vpholding and merciful Governing the World we therefore call Miracle is in its very own Nature a Pledg and Assurance of such a Restituâ—ion or New Creation or Wâ—rld to Come as we speak of and is a part or portion of it For it is a Specimen and a little part of what we shall see in full and whole And on the other side if there by any thing done in Judgment in such Extraordâ—nary and Miraculous manner breaking the Frame of the Present State either in any more Essential Settlement or in the general Course of Gods Government of the World it is an Assurance to us that he â—ill Dissolve the present World to make room for a new World and to bring in Vniversal Judgment upon the Vngodly on whiâ—h account all Extraordinary Judgments are delivered in the Language of the general Judgment as is most observable in all the Phrase wherein such Judgments are expressed in the Prophetical Parts of the Old and New Testament which are not a high Rhâ—torical or Poetical Language or manner of Expression but have real Reference to what shall be Fulfill'd in the very Letter at last Now in the presenting Particulars and Arguing upon them If the things spoken seem to be new or singular I would only Desire the Noble Temper of the Bereans to search the Scripture whether these things be so or not 1. I would begin more orderly and in the Foundation Jesus Christ is the Second Adam Lord of the World to Come and unâ—â—r Him the present World is put in regard of supreme Adâ—â—nistration of the very Things that are not put under him in the â—ense They shall be put under him I know we will All allow This great Mediator the Redeemer of the World Jesus Christ The Messiah the Prince of the Kingâ— of the Earth the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords He into whose Hand the Father hath committed all Judgment to Execute it even because he is the Son of Man that His coming into the World was supreme Miracle This none of