Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A63155
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The Trial and condemnation of the two false witnesses unto the late Midnight-cry published by Mr. Mason, the author of that great present assembly in Buckinghamshire who are met together under a deluding expectation of Christ's coming to judgment on Whitsunday approaching : shewing of what dangerous consequence this may prove to the present government ...
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1694
(1694)
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Wing T2156; ESTC R37897
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23,791
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34
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THE TRIAL and CONDEMNATION OF THE Two False Witnesses Unto the late MIDNIGHT-CRY Published by M R MASON The Author of that present Great Assembly in Buckinghamshire who are met together under a Deluding Expectation of Christ's Coming to Iudgment on Whitsunday approaching SHEWING Of what dangerous Consequence this may prove to the present Government if they should persist in the same Enthusiasm till next Whitsuntide come Twelvemonth c. under pretence of a literal Mistake c. Licens'd May 14th 1694. LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin â—6â—â— The Tryal and Condemnation of the TWO WITNESSES UNTO THE Late Midnight-Cry WE have credible Information from several Hands that this Mr. Mason a Minister of the Church of England in Water-strafford in Buckinghamshire is a Person of a Pious Life and Conversation who above Three Years ago writ his Midnight-Cry which being a serious and practical Sermon tending to stir up our exceeding vicious and debauched Age to a startling Consideration of the near Approach of Christ to Judgment the great Argument used both by our Saviour and the Primitive Church in those early Days of the Gospel unto constant Watchfulness c. was a grateful Subject unto all the godly amongst us and though there appeared to several at least nothing extraordinary in that Discourse more than to quicken up all sorts to an earnest Expectation of and Preparation unto Christ's speedy Approach to Judgment Mr Mason's Modesty not prefixing any limited Time c. yet it became of such Universal Acceptation with the more pious sort who under this late Great Revolution throughout the Christian World and more especially in these Kingdoms have been waiting for some extraordinary Things immediately Antecedent thereunto that the Book soon spread and not altogether so much from the Title thereof which was singular and startling as from the Curiosity of many who expected to find some prefixed Time or such singular Prognosticks thereof 〈◊〉 might be Equivalent thereunto But being frustrated herein the â—oud Rumor thereof was buried for a Time But soon after the great Enemy of Souls began to lead the Apostate â—ge which like the Rebellious Unbelieving Jews of old was greeâ—ily looking after a Sign into his dark Labyrinth of Error and Conâ—usion and converting himself into an Angel of Light raised up Two â—old-fac'd Men who called themselves The Two Prophets unto the Midnight Cry Ward and Evans who with much admir'd Arroganâ—y and Presumption laboured hard to ingraff a fixed Perswasion into â—â—s That They were immediately called by God to bear witness to the Truth of the Revelations And that They were the Two Witnesses in Apoc. 11. who were to be slain c. Also That God had passed â—n Irrevocable Decree against England for most immediate Destruction more Infallible than that Sacred Oath which he sware against the Jews That they should not enter into his Rest. Making this dangerous Impulse of their deluded Fancy equal with the great Articles of our Faith that are Essential unto Salvation and of the same Divine Signature as is that Testimony or Witness of the Holy Ghost in true Believers The chief Subject of the ensuing Discourse being to detect this Spirit of Delusion and to bring it to a fair Tryal by the Touchstone of scripture-Scripture-Truth and to condemn these Arrogant Presumptuous Impostors by the Harmony of the Word of God throughout the Old and New Testament This hath been written Two Years since and was presented to his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury and to some other of the Reverend Bishops and Clergy c. and had then come forth into the Publick if They had thought That had been the fittest Season and in whose Wisdom the Author did confide Since that Time the Infinite Goodness of Divine Providence hath wonderfully preserved these Nations from that Immediate Destruction now Three Years which these Two false Witnesses did then so presumptuously pretend to foretel as if by Divine Revelation was then instantly and inevitably to befal us and which they affirmed with such amazing Confidence as if They had been in the Secret Council of the Almighty These Two who thought themselves little inferior to the Two Anointed Ones that stood before the Lord of the whole Earth being thus shamefully confounded and put to silence by the Event of things which is the surest Interpreter of Visions and Revelations the satanical Spirit of Delusion takes an other occasion to vent it self and now laying aside Ward and Evans transforms it self in a more subtile manner than before viz. through a Dream or Delivery Vision in the Brain of Mr. Mason the Author of that Midnight Cry Herein imitating those Sacred Dreams and Visions of the Patriarchs and Prophets Now by what Fantasms resembling these Sacred and Oracular Visions even some good Men have been Acted in our late days is too long here to particularize it might be wished there had not been so many Instances thereof That Impulse of Mr. Sedgwick called Doomsday Sedgwick is yet too fresh in Memory to be wholly forgotten and is revived on this unhappy occasion now before us It had been greatly to have been desir'd that this Mr. Mason had read a most Elaborate Manuscript now fitting for the Press wherein all the Numbers of Daniel and the Revelations are made to Accord in one and the same Years for the Accomplishment of All these great Changes that are expected coming on the Christian World and particularly the Time for Christs Second Coming and also for The End of the World which Mr. Mason hath so well observed are Two distinct Times in his Midnight-Cry And whereon the whole is Illustrated by the Joynt Consent of all the Prophets in the Old and New Testament and all other parts of Sacred History as also by the great Works and Wonders of God from the Creation to this present Time in their Historical Chronological Mystical and Typical Significations in several Thousand famous Instances A Work of that great Rarity and Acurateness that it hath been perused by some of the most Learned Divines and Persons of Honour and Quality in Foreign Parts as well as by several eminent Divines both of the Church of England and others with extream satisfaction and particular Recommendation unto the World which ample Testimonies c. will be prefixed which when it comes forth in publick may soon remove that darâ— Veil that now is so much spread on all our Faces to say nâ— more In the mean time if the Reader please to afford a deliberate Examination of the many remarkable things presented to his serious consideration in the following Treatise he may soon perceive on what Sandâ— Foundation these Two false Witnesses build their Predictions c. and consequently may the better judge Whether these self-conceited and audaciously confident Men are like to be the Supporters of the Divine Oracles of God or the Harbingers of that Great Midnightâ—Cry which is immediately to precede the Second coming of our Saviour whatever Impressions Mr. Masons
extraordinary Desolating Judgments unless we Repent by deep Humiliation and Amendment is that wherein all sober Persons are unanimously agreed and God Almighty grant us all a true Repentance We have also no reason to presume we shall escape better than other People and Nations whom God hath destroyed for less provocations than are found among us unless we throughly amend our ways But yet How long God is resolved to lengthen out his Patience and Long-suffering to a very provoking People concerning whom God hath positively and expresly declared the Limited Periods of his Mercy in his Holy Word and especially when we read in Scriptures how prevalent the Cries and Prayers of one or other of his peculiar Favourites have been in turning away his Wrath from a City or Nation is a Secret amongst his Arcana Imperii into which no Person no not the Holy Prophets and Apostles to whom God did so immediately Reveal himself ought to prieâ—â— Nor will any truly humble and conscientious Person dare presume to affirm and least of all to Determine as our Two Prophets undertake to do with such Confidence and Infallibility as if they had sate in Council with the Almighty and that the Secret of VVisdom and Vnderstanding had been locked up within their Breast And yet if they were Divinely assured that God had revealed a prefixed Period for his Judgment nay though he had confirmed it with a Sacred Oath and that it seemed never so Positive or Irrevocable yet the whole Tenor of Scripture as by and by we shall observe in several great Instances in all its Prophetick parts agrees herein viz. That God reserves a Secret or tacit Condition and either Implicitly or Explicitly resolving notwithstanding to shew Mercy and not to destroy in case of Repentance let their Doom be never so great and the Period never so plainly express'd and this also even when Destruction is Threatned immediately to attend even as at the Door Is any Angel much less any Man Infallibly assur'd but that God may have said of England as he did of Old unto sinful Judah and Jerusalem for whom the Prophet wrestled although they were at that time a greater provocation than all others Jer. 14. 7 8 9. O Lord though our Iniquity testifie against us do thou it for thy Names sake although our Back-bitings are many and we have sinned against thee O the hope of Israel and the Saviour in the time of trouble VVhy shouldst thou be as a Stranger in the Land As a Man that cannot save Yet thou O Lord art in the midst of us and we are called by thy Name leave us not The Prophet better understood Gods Will and had a nearer access to his Heart and was more acquainted with his Secret than T. VV. and V. E. our two late Prophets can pretend to be A Blessed Prophet whereof we have in that famous Text Isa 48. 1 2 c. Hear ye this O House of Jacob which art called by the Name of Israel who swear by the Name of the Lord and mention the God of Israel but not in Truth and Righteousness For they call themselves of the Holy City and Stay themselves on the God of Israel I knew that thou art obstinate and thy Neck an Iron Sinew and thy Brow Brass c. yet thou heardest not yea thou knowest not yea from that time that thy Ear was not opened for I know thou wouldest deal very treacherously and wast called a Transgressor from the VVomb Yet for my Names sake will I defer my anger and for my Praise will I refrain that I cut thee not off for my own even for my own sake will I do it for how should my Name be polluted and I will not give my Glory to another Which is an excellent Coment on that Famous Text in Deut. 32. 26. Where we may see by what wonderful Argument God is pleased to persuade himself from a total Rejection of this his Sinful and Rebellious People who had been a continual provocation to him from the day they came out of Egypt all along in the VVilderness for Forty Years I said I would scatter them into Corners I would make their remembrance to cease from among Men v. 27. Were it not that I feared the wrath of the Enemy lest their Adversaries should behave themselves strangely and lest they should say Our Hand is high and the Lord hath not done All This. v. 28. Though they are a Nation void of Council neither is there any understanding in them And Moses in his Intercession useth the same Argument with God Exod. 32. 12. compared with Numb 14. 13 14 15. Who can tell but God may have spoken thus to England also But T. W. hath published to the World as a Person of extraordinary Call by God and by and by we may discover he takes himself and his Brother V. E. to be those Two Witnesses in the Revelations c. 11. sent to denounce unto us That there is a dreadful Judgment immediately coming on the Land and that the honour of God and of his Justice and of his Goodness to them and their Posterity obligeth him some would do well to perswade him thus plainly to express himself if he knows his own meaning to begin and make an end of them at once pag. 8 And in the same Page he pretends to tell us what kind of Judgment this will be which he would perswade us he is most infallibly certain as of any one Article in his Creed will immediately overtake us his Mercy engageth him to send forth his Army and destroy them And he often repeats it that we may not mistake him in such a matter of importance viz. That this Belief of his That God's Decree is irrevocably gone out to destroy us immediately without any limited Conditions of our Repentance is the Great Point or Article of his Faith as pag. 11. though my Faith in a Judgment immediately coming upon us be the principal thing I am enlightned in c. And pag. 11. I am in the Faith of it still And again in the sane Page If I should grant this a Delusion O how would it break my Faith all in Pieces And therefore there is a necessity laid upon me to maintain that it is from God because I should overthrow my Religion if I did not I wish he knew what his Religion is if he can tell us Again in his Postscript And therefore I dare not so much as admit of an If As much as if he had said God hath determined that all our Repentance shall not prevent his Infallible Decree that is gone out And in pag. 12. he proceeds I cannot tell how any can make out that this Faith is a Delusion but he must reflect upon That Speaking in the Words before of David ' s Testimony of the Spirit touching his own Salvation thus equalling his Impression or Impulse with the Sacred Seal or Witness of the Spirit And if we track him a little further