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A39885
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God's goodness to this Israel in all ages being the substance of some sermons on Psalm LXXIII, I/ by J.F., minister of the gospel.
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J. F. (James Forbs), 1629?-1712.
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Wing F1443; ESTC R32028
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sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these lost Days spoke unto us by his Son whom he hath appointed heir of all things 3. The dispensation they were under was full of Dread Horrour and Terror Gal. 4. end Heb. 12. When the Law was given forth from Sinai the Mount was all in a Fire to point at the hot burning Wrath they might look for in case they were found transgressors â—ur's from Mount Sion is full of Meekness Gentleness Mercy and Love St. John If ye love me keep my Commandments 4. The promises of our Covenant are better than theirs if they did observe the Statutes and Ordinances of God they might warrantably expect to be blest in their Basket and Store and such other temporal things according to Deut. 28. But now though we cannot by vertue of a promise expect blessings of this kind upon our observation of Divine Precepts but rather the contrary Matth. 10. Whoever will be my Disciple must deny himself take up his Cross and follow me And Acts 4. Through manifold Temptations or Tribulations we must all enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And 1 Tim. 2.12 All that will live Godly in Christ Jesus must suffer Persection yet we may expect Spiritual Blessings and that in a greater measure than they 1. We are promised greater plenty of Spiritual Knowledge than they That of Isa 11.9 relates to gospel-Times The Earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord as the Waters cover the Sea And 35.5 Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf be unstopped And 32.3 4. And 42.16 I will bring the blind by a way they know not I will lead them in paths they have not known I will make darkness light before them and crooked things strait These things will I do unto them and not forsake them 2 Cor. 3.15 16 18. And 4.3 The Preaching of the Gospel is not Darkned with Types Figures and Ceremonies as in the Days of old 2. Spiritual Fruitfulness is promised to us Matth 21.41 The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you Jews and given to a Nation bringing forth the Fruits thereof Isa 35.7 8. In the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the desert and the parched ground shall become a pool and the thirsty land Springs of water in the habitation of dragons where each lay shall be reeds and rushes 3. Spiritual peace joy and comfort is promised to our Days Isa 32.17 The Work of Righteousness shall be peace and the effect of Righteousness quietness and assurance for ever Rom. 5. Begin Being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord by whom also we have access by Faith into this Grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the Glory of God and not only so but we Glory in Tribulation also knowing that Tribulation worketh Patience and Patience Experience and Experience Hope and Hope maketh not ashamed because the Love of God is shed abroad into our Hearts by the holy Ghost 1 Pet. 1. In whom believing ye rejoyce with a joy unspeakable and full of Glory 4. We have the promise of the Spirit more than they Joel 2.28 I will pour out my Spirit upon all Flesh Acts 2.17 Isa 44.3 O how good is the Lord to us in this respect if we are not wanting to our selves through unbelief the dispensation under which we are promises the pourings forth of the Spirit to us O! who are we that we should be thus dealt by Let 's make some use of what has been said as to this head and so I go on 1. Let Men and Angels be summoned in to admire and adore let our Souls and all that 's within us Extoll and Magnifie the rich Grace and Goodness of this God that has cast off his Ancient People and has taken us gentile sinners who were Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and Strangers to the Covenant and made us heirs of the promises Rom. 11.17 O the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God how unsearchable are his Judgments and his Ways past finding out O what are we poor wild Olives that we should be grafted in amongst the Natural Branches and partake of the fatness of the Olives O blessed are your Eyes and Ears which see and hear such things as were denyed many of the Fathers See Rom. 11. Ephes 3.8 9 10. Acts 28. end O how good is this God that has invested every particular Church of gentile Believers with greater privileges than their National Church had and private Christians are in some respects privileged beyond their Church Officers Rev. 1.4 He hath made us Kings and Priests to God to offer up Spiritual Sacrifices of Praise and Thanksgiving to him through Christ 2. Study to walk worthy of this goodness of the Lord unto all well-pleasing Col. 1. Let every Soul say O what shall I render to the Lord. 1. Take heed thou dost not live in any the least Sin beware of Ignorance if any thing prove the Condemnation of the World it will be this That light is come and they de light in darkness more than in light John 3.19 We may now say 2 Cor. 4.3 If our Gospel be hid it 's hid to them that Perish beware of unbelief John 3.18 He that believeth not on him is condemned already because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God O beware of ingratitude and turning Grace into Wantonness Jude 4. There are certain Men who were before of old ordained to Condemnation ungodly Men turning the Grace of God into Lasciviousness Say rather Rom. 6.1 Shall I Sin because I am under Grace God forbid 2. Think it not enough to abstain from Sin and to have true Grace but that your Graces may in some measure be answerable to the Covenant you are under has God been pleased to make great promises and wilt not thou labour for such a Faith as may apply these promises according to their full Latitude and extent Has God now manifested the Riches of his Grace in reconciling the World to himself through his Son declaring also that whosoever will believe on him shall be saved And why art thou still in a doubting and questioning Condition 3. Lay out your selves in glorifying this good God especially in these two 1. In a Gospel-Frame of Spirit Col. 3.12 Put on therefore as the Elect of God dearly and beloved bowels of Mercies kindness Humbleness of Mind Meekness long-Suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another If any Man have a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave you so also do ye and above all these things put on Charity which is the Bond of perfection and let the Peace of God Rule in your Hearts to the which also ye were called in one Body and be ye thankful 2. In a Gospel-Conversation Phil. 1.27 Rom. 13.12 13 14. The
great Inhumanity of Adversaries they would not suffer their Dead Bodies to be put in Graves for three Days and a half vers 9. For some short time they do pour forth all manner of opprobrious contempt upon them The literal sense is not altogether to be rejected the Papists would not suffer Zwinglius's Body to be Buried So they served the Admiral of France with many others in the Parisian Massacre and in Queen Mary's Days Bucer's Bones were raised and burnt 2. They that dwell upon the Earth shall rejoyce over them and make merry because they are rid of their Tormenters vers 10. This must be at such a time when the Popish party are insufferably proud insulting over the slain Servants of God that had tormented them with a plain Testimony against all their Abominations Mali cum injuriam facere non sinuntur injuriam se accipere existimant From this Narrative of the slaying of the Witnesses learn these few Instructions 1. Providence sometimes so orders it that God's Servants shall well near have finished their Work before their Enemies can hurt them that so their Testimony for Christ may Live when they are dead and gone 2. Reformation has been always attended with great Persecution 3. A begun-work of Reformation may have such a sentence of Death pass upon it for a season that to all probability it shall never have a revival 4. Christ's Witnesses must expect nothing but Barbarity from Men of Popish Principles and Spirits 5. It 's no new thing to see wicked Men triumphantly insult over God's persecuted People The 1. thing in the Narrative of the Resurrection of the Witnesses is the time thereof after three Days and a half vers 11. Some short time some apply this to John Husse and Jerom who were condemned by the Council of Constance that began Anno 1414 December the 8th and ended 1418. May 22. Three Years and a half 2. The means by which this was brought about the Spirit of Life from God entred into them they were stirred up by a Spirit of Zeal from God to be lively and active in carrying on the work again 3. Their posture they stood upon their feet vers 11. Either the former slain Witnesses I mean Civilly an Spiritually slain or others of the same Principles and Spirit did openly appear in and for it again 4. The effect great fear fell upon all that saw them 5. The heard a voice from Heaven saying Come up hither and accordingly they did ascend up to Heaven in a Cloud and their Enemies beheld them vers 12. The work of Reformation and Separation became now more glorious than ever before 6. About the same time there was a great Earthquake and a tenth part of the City fell vers 13. i. e. When ever the Resurrection of the Witnesses is the Lord shall wonderfully go forth in some remarkable Providences and Tremendous Judgments against the Roman Empire to the great weakening thereof Some apply it to the Bohemian War after the sufferings of Husse and Jerom where Sigismundus had great successes against the Antichristian Army From all this learn these few instructions 1. Commonly the sufferings of Reformers are short 2. God's Spirit is the great Engine for carrying on God's Work 3. Boldness in witness-bearing is from God's Spirit standing on their Feet an open and a vowed Profession is from the Spirit of Life from God 4. Commonly wicked Men begin to be afraid when they perceive that Persecution does but make God's People more bold and God's Work to prosper the more 5. Reformation and Separation from Antichristian Pollutions has a great brightness of illustrious Divine Glory upon it Quest Is this Prophecy of the Slaying and Resurrection of the Witness yet fulfilled And whereabouts are we of this Age under the Sixth or Seventh Trumpet Are the one thousand two hundred and threescore Days and forty two Month at an end or not For Answ Let me premise a few things before I come to the thing it self 1. This cannot be resolved unless we are at some certainty where to fix the beginning of the one thousand two hundred and threescore Days or the Churches wilderness-State and of the forty two Months or Antichrist's first Rise whether from Constantine immediately after the third Century or from Boniface's time Anno 606. I shall endeavour by and by to prove that both did commence from the time that did immediately follow after the first 300 Years 2. It is more than probable that the one thousand two hundred and threescore Days and forty two Months are not to be understood literally for just so many Natural Days and Astronomical Months because matter of fact proves that Antichrist's Reign and the Churches wilderness-State has been already of a longer continuance but figuratively and Mystically for Days of Years and Months of Years according to Ezek. 4.6 Being an usual thing for Prophets thus to express themselves These things premised I answer in the affirmative That this prophecy has had its accomplishment already and the one thousand two hundred and threescore Days and forty two Months are expired and that for these reasons 1. If these Days and Months did commence from the time immediately after the first three hundred Years not from six hundred six then this Prophecy is fulfilled and the time past but this is so as may appear 1. from Rev. 12.5 6. As soon as the Woman brought forth a Man Child which was caught up to God she fled into the Wilderness i. e. Immediately after the Church was delivered from Heathenish Persecutions her wilderness-Estate the same with the one thousand two hundred and threescore Days in this 11th Chap. does begin This is also hinted again to us from Rev. 12.13 14. The Church is nourished in the Wilderness for a time times and half a time i. e. Three Years and a half the same with one thousand two hundred and threescore Days and forty two Months 2. from 2 Thess 2.7 8. The mystery of iniquity doth already work only he who now letteth will let untill he be taken out of the way and then shall that wicked one be revealed i. e. As soon as ever the Heathen persecuting Emperors were removed and not till then should it appear what design the Devil had to advance the Mystery of Iniquity 3. Though it 's true the Church did not suffer from the great Antichrist till six hundred and six yet all that went before him after Constantine were petty Antichrists only at first it was but young Days with Antichrist in six hundred and six he was of riper Years the Churches suffering were all that while of the same kind Majus minus non variant speciem all that went before did but make way for him and his predecessors Persecutions are all of them charged upon him because he did practically approve of them And this is the first thing that proves the foresaid Days and Months to be expired and this Prophecy to be already fulfilled 2. The inconsequences