The Good Hope Through Grace, Objection 1
Object. I know it may be ſaid, Becauſe the Time was not come, There was not that Spirit of Life from God foretold by Prophecy coming upon them; and therefore they could not Act according to it: And this alone was Argument enough, Ninety Seven was not the Time of Accompliſhing to Scatter, nor of Beginning to Finiſh the Wonders.
Anſw. It is moſt True; the Spirit of Life from God, not coming down, and Entering the Witneſſes, did ſhew, It was not the Time: But it is yet True, the unſuitable Frame of Spirit in Proteſtants did Provoke God to Breach of Promiſe; the culpable Cauſe of Mercies deny'd or delay'd, is the want of that Holy Agreeable Frame, although the Gift of ſuch Grace is from God; For in God alone is our Help; yet ſtill our Deſtruction is of our ſelves. It is alway His Spirit, that makes that other Spirit in us, that was in Caleb and Joſhua: The want of ſuch a Spirit, as is Agreeable to what God hath promiſed to do, provokes Him moſt Juſtly to Breach of Promiſe, as to the Time held out to our Eye; although he alone Gives that Spirit and Will at the very Time, when the Promiſe muſt and ſhall certainly be Fulfilled. Want of Holineſs, is a full Reaſon of Want of Deliverance; although at the Time when Deliverance ſhall be, H…lineſs ſhall be alſo: The peculiar Frame agreeing with the Kingdom of Chriſt is the Frame, we find Obab. 17.in the Church of Philadelphia, not in our Sardis.Rev. 3.
2. Let us now Conſider the Delay, or Tranſlation of the great Effects expected at 97, from 97 to 1700, as the word Breach of Promiſe ſignifies Abruption, or Breaking off the Series, and Contexture, God had pleaſed to have Begun, and ſeem'd to be Going on in; as therefore it cannot but be acknowledged, There was not in 97, the glorious Appearance of the expected Effects; So on the other ſide, it cannot be deny'd, There were ſuch Beginnings, that if God had pleaſed to go on in, there had certainly been, before this Time, a very great Change and Revolution in the World▪ But no ſooner were thoſe Offertures made, but God ſhew'd his Abruption, or Breaking off from any Thing he had Begun; Two great Inſtances of which, we had in that Year.
Firſt, The Treaty of Peace at Reſwick, was a very Remarkable Diſpoſe of God, bringing the Antichriſtian Princes to a Neceſſity of making Peace, while Proteſtant Princes and States had a Ballance upon them and the Peace. This looked very Hopefully, that the Intereſts of Proteſtancy, and the Reformation, wherein the Glory of God, of the Goſpel of Jeſus Chriſt, and the Safety of His People, and their Peace and Quiet, was ſo undeniably Compriz'd, ſhould have found great Advantages; and by an Embarraſſement on all further Perſecution on Proteſtancy, there might have been an Accompliſhment of Scattering. This was a gracious Honorary Diſpoſe on 97; and at the very Autumnal Equinox, as the very Time, that was to bear the Signal of the Witneſſes Riſing. Herein God was pleaſed to ſet Judgment before thoſe Proteſtant Sovereigns, and to ſhew them what they were to do; eſpecially, conſidering what Juſt Pleas they had to Inſiſt upon, as particularly and eminently that Edict of Nantz, in behalf of the French Reformed, where the Perſecution hath ſince been Purſued with ſo great Barbarity.
But to ſhew God's Abruption, as in the very Time, and in the very Act of the Treaty concluded, and ſo his Infraction in the very Year of Ninety Seven, and of the Peace concluded. And to Remonſtrate both, as before all the Nations about, as he hath ſometimes put a Word into the Mouth of his very Enemies, eſpecially when they are of Eminency; as Balaam, an exalted Prophet; Caiaphas, the High-Prieſt: So it is much to be Reflected upon, what the King of France, that Prince of Perſecution, writ to the Arch-Biſhop of Paris in the beginning of the Month called January, in Popiſh Style 98, but in True Prophetic and even Proteſtant Style 97: Requiring the Thankſgiving of Te Deum after the Popiſh Manner for the Peace, thus He Began; The Time, which Heaven hath Ordained (How expreſs for 97.) for the Reconciliation of the Nations; Sure the Proteſtants of each Nation made up the Nations. This looked Fair for the Accompliſhing to Scatter; For the Proteſtants making up the Nations, and the Time for the Reconciliation of the Nations being come, their Scattering or Perſecution was to Ceaſe, or to be Accompliſhed, How elſe Reconciled!
But as if at the ſame Time God made an Abruption upon what was ſo promiſingly Begun in 97, and put a Reproof into that Prince's Mouth, upon the Proteſtant Princes, and in them upon the Nations, and even the Churches; walking ſo much beneath the True Spirit of the Reformation, and ſo provoking God to withdraw His mighty Spirit and Preſence from the Princes: That King thus expreſſes himſelf.
That which I Glory in moſt of all, is, the Worſhip of the true Religion, as Authorized by a ſolemn Treaty under Sovereigns of a Different Faith; the Author of ſo many Graces, ſhews Himſelf too manifeſtly not to be Acknowledged; and the Viſible Characters of his Almighty Hand, which they Bear, ſeem to be the Seal, he hath Affixed to them to Juſtify my Intentions; Buſied from this Time forward in Cauſing him to be truly Worſhipped in all my Dominions.
In all which, I have not the leaſt Regard to the Aſſumings of that Haughty Monarch, in which there is much of the Spirit, and Style of the King of Aſſyria's Letter by Rabſhakeh; when he ask'd, Am I come up without Jehovah? All I conſider is, What of Agreement there can be Found, between His Words, and the Words of Prophecy, As when he ſaith, The Time for the Reconciliation of the Nations is Come; a Word of great Extent in Scripture-Senſe, and Introducting a great Change indeed among the Nations, and very Conſonant to Scripture Predictions; For I have all Reaſons of Aſſurance to Conclude, It was ſo in the Firſt Inſtitution of God, and the Treaty of Peace was a Fit Method in Human View to it: When the Treaty therefore was Concluded, and a Peace, ſo call'd, made without Reconciliation of the Nations, in that great Intereſt of the People of God, the Freedom and Peace of the Reformation in France, Piedmont, Savoy, the Palatinate, and other Parts; and He Himſelf the Principal Perſecutor, under the miſerable Bigotry of Thinking, He Does God Good Service, in Perſecuting, as the Tenor of his Letter Imports; wherein he Appears Drunk with the Wine of Babyloniſh Fornication.
Secondly, Another Inſtance of Divine Abruption, and ſo of Inſraction, in the ſame Year, was that Monumental Victory over the Mahometan Army and the Ottoman Sultan in Perſon with it. Now ſeeing, That Tyranny more immediately preſſes the Grecian Profeſſors of Chriſtianity, and Hath laid them under ſo great Slavery, and Darkneſs; This Eaſtern Part of the Chriſtian Church Falling into a like Superſtitious Ignorance, Any True Servants of God among them, were carried as with the other of the Two Wings into a Wilderneſs-State, and fell into Re. 12. 14.great Darkneſs from the Light and Purity of the Goſpel, and ſo into Slavery under Mahometan Impoſture and Tyranny, and thus have continued to this Day; And in how Lethargic, or rather a State of Death; All thoſe, whom we call the Greek Churches, or Grecian Chriſtians do at this Time lie, None that know them can be Ignorant, There being only Remainders and the Ruins of thoſe Ancient Churches, even as of their Cities.
The Propheſies and Promiſes of Scripture Reach, yet unto them; and at that very Year 97. Accordingly therefore about the ſame Autumnal Equinox of it; It pleaſed Infinite Wiſdom, and Goodneſs to Arm with a Mighty Power and Spirit the Imperial Army, and the Leaders of it; and to give them a very Monumental Victory, even a Victory, like as in the Day of Mid…a…, or upon any other of the Ancient Enemies of the People of Iſrael, to their Greateſt Conſternation, and the Breaking all their Meaſures and Deſigns; Hereto Add, what God was pleas'd not far from the ſame Time to do by the Czar of Moſcovy, a Prince of the very Grecian Profeſſion of Chriſtianity; Theſe Victoriouſneſſes had undoubtedly been carryed to the very Gates of Conſtantinople, Had there been but that Spirit of Life from God upon them! But all lying in that Dead State; The Emperor in the very God of Popiſh Antichriſtianiſm and the Bond of that Evil; The Ruſſian Prince in all the Superſtition and Blindneſs of that Profeſſion; There was then Firſt Gods Infraction as to the Year 97: The Great and Complemental Effects ſhone not to expectation that Year as Light Day: And therefore there was an Abruption, a Breaking off that Series and Contexture God had began; So all is laid ſtill in a Peace between the Port and the Empire; and a Truce betwixt the Ottoman and Moſcovian Princes; Which how God will Diſpoſe of, we are yet to obſerve in the following Courſe of Providence. Diſpoſes of God with Relation to the Ottoman Signiory are the more to be obſerved on theſe Great Prophetic Conſiderations.
1. It pleaſed the Divine Spirit to place the very opening of the Kingdom of Chriſt and Finiſhing of Wonders on that Mahometane Potentacy coming to its End, and none to help it. Dan. 11. Laſt with C. 12. 1. &c.
2. That the Grecian Churches, as we Style them, Are the ſad Remains of thoſe Seven Apoclyptic Churhches, made the Types and Emblems of all Chriſtian Churches till the Glory of the New Jeruſalem; And therefore from the Time of that given; However under ſuch a Rejection Now, Yet, are Beloved for the Fathers ſakes, I mean Thoſe Primitive Churches.
3. The Hour, the Day, the Month, the Year allowed to the Turkiſh Empire to ſtand Arm'd and in Procinctu Reaches Rev. 9.Juſt to 97: as hath been by other Apocalyptic Interpreters, as by my ſelf Leſs than the Leaſt, made out.
4. From the paſſing away of the Second or Turkiſh Woe, That great, and Bleſſed Sound Commences. The C. 11.Kingdoms of this World are Become the Kingdoms of the Lord, and of his Chriſt; But as Mahometiſm came firſt, as a Rev. 11.Judgment on the Latine, as it is to be Diſtinctly call'd, or Weſtern Antichriſtianiſm; So it is to be Preferr'd in the Expectation of Judgment Firſt upon it ſelf; That ſo Tyrannous a Pſeudo-Proph…tiſm that came upon it, may not be Removed before the Provocati…n of the Sin Oh how much Reaſon have we then to cry to Heaven for that Spirit of Life upon us all; I hope, I much more Deſ…re it upon my ſelf, then the Honour of being a True Prophet concerning it, If one could be Separated from the other.
Although I am afraid to defer any thing to Phantaſtry, I cannot yet but Juſt Mention; That, That ſo unaccountable, even Phrenetic Superſtition of the Turkiſh Proceſſion, was order'd on the Firſt New Moon in the Month called Decemb. 97. and fell out on its Third Day.
That Proceſſion was a Publick Declaration, Their Affairs were come to Extremity; Their Deprecation of the Diſpleaſure of Heaven ſo Vehemently, ſpoke an Apprehenſion of the Tottering, and Ruine of their Port and Empire. Thus Providence Diſcover'd, what was in the Womb of Prophecy, if there had not been an Abruption; And that Abruption ſhew'd it ſelf, in that, So great a Victory was not made an Advance to further Victoriouſneſs, and even Ruine of that Empire.
And indeed I cannot but make a Paralell of it, with Eſay. 16. 21.Moabs wearying himſelf on his High Place, and then coming to his Sanctuary to pray. And the word of the Lord ſince, and from that Time is, That within Three Years as exactly Numbred, as the Days of an Hireling, and the Glory of the Ottoman Power ſhall be Contemned; And all that great Multitude and the Remnant ſhall be very Small and feeble. Now theſe Three Years are to be Accounted to End in the Month December in the Year 1700.