Sad and Serious Political Considerations, Part 8
VIII.
The cōmon Objection of Divines against the V. Monarchy and the universall kingdom of the Gospel here upon Earth, drawn from the badnesse of the Times, Answered.Against these former Assertions it is thus objected: That these are but the Dreams of idle-headedmen, considering the sad Method of the World in the continuall increase of sin and wickednesse, and degeneration of all sublunary things daily more and more to worse; and because our Saviour said, at his second coming he should scarce finde faith upon Earth. But to this I answer; No time is God's time for the propogation of the Gospel, and enlargement of his Church, but in the Deluge of sin and inundation of impiety: then is his Power most manifest, when man is weakest; his Decrees most effectible, when we think him the furthest off; and his Providence nearest execution, then, when the world is most irregular, and incapable of a Reformation. When the Abominations and Paganismes of the old World had destroyed all true worship of God, and an 120 years of repentance did no good, then was God's time to separate the Wheat from the Chaffe, and by saving of Noahs family to preserve a seed for the implantation of a new. So in the n…w World, when Idolatry had overspread all, the Judgement and Mercy of God most appeared in Abrahams Vocation, by selecting his Church from the rest of mankinde, and continuing it above 2000 years in the House of Heber, the true Heir to Grace and Salvation. Thus was it in the destruction of Sodome and Gomorrha, in the Babylonish Captivity, in the Reformation by Luther, when all the world were become Apostates, God's Providence shone out brightest, and was most conspicuous in propagating Religion, maugre all the opposition the devil and the world could invent or de…ise: So shall it be in this prefixed time: though the world must degenerate more and more in civility and humanity; Christianity be eclipsed in a higher measure, and the true Worshippers of God decrease above what ever yet hath been done: though Protestantisme in many Coasts and Kingdom… shall be totally swallowed up of Popery and Mahumetanisme; more lamentable Warres and fearfull Massacres rage through England, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and all European Monarchies, then we have yet beheld; and though some of these Kingdoms wholly revolt to Popery, others be lukewarm and at a stand, until An. 1686; yet all these shall but make way for the finall Eradication of the enemies of the Church, and the glorious and wonderfull Birth, and erection of the FIFTH MONARCHIE UNIVERSALL, which by these pangs and sorrows of Christendome shall be brought forth about the time of the totall conversion of the Jews. For the season is now come, when Judgement must begin (not at the Temple of Antichrist) but at the House of God; and what bloud soever is shed upon the soyl of the Church, shall be no other then fruitfull showers and warm seasons, to make the Field of Christ more pregnant in production of that glorious Harvest of Saints, which shall cover the Earth. For as it shall be in the end of the World, this old, decrepit, and corrupt world must be purged and refined with the fire of the Lord, before there can be placed in stead thereof a new Heaven and a new Earth: So in the finall Conclusion of the troubles of the Church, warres, Apostasies, alterations and changes in Kingdoms and States, the foreign of Gog and Magog, and all the enemies of Christ, the amputation of unprofitable Trees, and eradication of noxious Weeds out of the Garden of the Church, shall facilitate and prepare the way for the ingresse of the Monarchy of the Gospel into the eyes of the world. Far wide therefore is the Surmise of those Christians, how this doctrine of the universall Regiment of the Church upon earth is a vain-glorious and fantastick dream, considering the hopes of it now are small, and like to be lesser, because charity and devotion daily decreaseth: Nay rather this is the most evident sign that it speedily approacheth, because the malice of the devil with the corruption of mankinde, hourly augmenteth and strives to stifle and prevent it. If God be known to be God by bringing light out of darknesse, and manifesting his power in weaknesse; then certainly shall these warres and schismes among Christians, the barbarous invasions …nd conquests of Turks and Tartars, the encreasing Idolatry of the Western and Eastern Indians, be an Axe in the hand of God, to lop off all superfluous branches from his Vine, to make it overspread with nourishing fruit, the Globe of the whole Earth.