Independents had spoken much for it Matthew Newcomen that holy Man so opened the wickedness of turning loose a Cursed Generation to tempt a Nation to Infidelity that is already too much inclined thereto as turned the Scales and put an end to that deliberation §14 IX Either the feigned Conversion of these Jews will be before the burning of the World or after But neither before nor after Therefore not at all 1. If it be Before either it will be the Thousand years Reign or some part of the Thousand years Reign or beffore it all If it be the Thousand years Reign then 1. The World must last yet a Thousand year after the Jews Conversion Which few believe 2. And then there will be no Thousand years Reign after the Conflagration which our chief Millenaries will not endure For there is but One Thousand years Reign looked for by them 3. And then the New Jerusalem state shall have the numberless Enemies of the Armies of Gog and Magog And shall fall to a Laodicean Lukewarmness What! After so many Millions of Miracles 2. But if they say it will be After the burning of the World that is before disproved For the Thousand years are past before that Conflagration Gog and Magog and the numberless Enemies will not survive the Burning nor live in the New Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness 3. And if they say that it will be but some part of the Thousand years or a short time before the Conflagration 1. The Thousand years will not be divided part before the Burning and part in the next World 2. And so short a Reign of the Jews as shall end before the Thousand years and Burning will not answer the glorious preparation of so many Millions of Miracles nor the Doctrine of their so speedy Apostasie after as to prepare for the Incendium §15 X. The Miracles must be so many and great that must go to the feigned Conversion and Exaltation of these Jews that it will be a great and heinous crime to impose them on God by presumptuous Fiction if the Truth of them be not proved 1. As to the number of Converts 2. Their present unfitness 3. Their scattered distance 4. Their Servitude in all Nations 5. The feigned way of their Conversion 6. The state of their feigned Exaltation All these must be so full of Miracles that will a thousand-fold exceed all the Miracles that ever Christ did on Earth or his Apostles after him And God keepeth so constant a tenor in his Established Order of working by means and subordinate Causes as that we must have good proof before we say that he will do all this Tell us not what God can do when our Question is what he will do God can enlighten the World without the Sun or make all the frame of Heaven and Earth to change their course God can convert Turk and Pope and all the Heathens in the World and all the bloody Princes and Souldiers to morrow But do not therefore say that He will do it When the Devil tempted Christ to shew his power by a Miracle he saith It is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God God hath appointed a quite contrary way for mens Conversion Rom. 10. How shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a Preacher and how shall they Preach unless they be sent Christ ascended on high to give gifts and offices to men for this end Apostles Prophets Teachers to gather and edifie his Church Christ tells us of no way but the Lord of the Harvest to send forth Labourers and the Messengers to go into the high-ways and hedges and compel them to come in And the Sowers to go forth to sow that Word which is the regenerating Seed Though Christ would speak to Paul from Heaven it was to send him to Ananias And though an Angel appear to Cornelius it is to send him to Peter to be taught Though Miracles affright the Jailor Act. 16. it is to ask Paul and Silas what he must do to be saved And by what warrant shall we say that Christ will for millions quite change this his appointed way § 16. 1. As to the number it must be ten thousands of Miracles that a number so great should be thus changed all at once or near it throughout the World And yet that a number so small in comparison of all others should become a Monarchy and Gog and Magog be so friendly to them as to permit and help them as Cyrus did the Jews in their removal and afterward be subject to them § 17. 2. They are now a more sottish Generation full of Malice against Christ and Cruelty to Christians where they dare shew it sordidly worldly and covetous They live among Christians and all our endeavours converse and examples scarce converteth in this Kingdom three in an Age. Bear with me you that talk so zealously for the Jews Conversion and Kingdom while I ask you How many in London have you converted in your lives Yea How many have you laboured with by Instruction and Argument to convert them while you have prayed for their Conversion and censoriously disputed against us that doubted of your Opinion § 18. 3. They are scattered over the most of the Earth being every where a hated and despised people And shall Preachers be sent to them in all Lands at once Shall Preachers so quickly be made when no Countrey have enough for their needful work at home And shall they quickly learn and speak all the Languages of the Countreys where the Jews are For Hebrew alone will not do the work And shall all Jews on Earth get together to Jerusalem Will they be Rich enough to bear the charge of their Transplantation Or enough cured of the love of Riches to leave their Trades and Wealth behind them § 19. Obj. We hold not that they shall all be converted or dignified but enough to possess Jerusalem and Reign there Say some The Tartarians may do it Ans It seems then it is but the Popes old Zeal to recover the Holy Land But what 's this to the Conversion of the Jews Were they converted when Godfrey and others recovered it The Tartarians taking Jerusalem will not prove the Conversion of one Jew that now is taken for a Tartarian § 20 4. They are in such servitude in all Nations and so contemned a People among them as must prove it a Miracle for them to remove so far to power § 21. 5. The feigned means of their Conversion is millions of Miracles 1. The New Opinion is that Christ shall do it by appearing in the Air as he did to Saul O take heed what you impose on Christ That appearance of Christ was seen but by a very few in one place And the words heard by none but Saul himself Shall Christ in the Air be seen at once in Persia Greece Rome Portugal and all Nations where there be Jews And yet these good
that Faith might not be precarious and built upon his bare affirmation he openly claimed first the Kingdom of Judea as of the Line of David and caused the people to applaud him with Hosanna's But being to Redeem us as a Sacrifice by his Blood and to Conquer Death and confirm his Gospel by Dying and Rising again he oft foretold all this to his Disciples and the rejecting of him by the Jews and their Nations Cities and Temples ruin for it and his purpose to cease the Mosaical Politie and to make his Church more Great and Catholick by the Calling of the Gentiles especially the Roman Empire X. At his Resurrection he took more solemn possession of his Kingly Government And first Commissioned the Twelve Apostles whom he had before made Preachers to the Jews to continue their Ministry to them in a number related to the Twelve Tribes till Persecution should expel them and then to do their best to make all Nations as such his Disciples Baptizing them as the Entrance into his Kingdom into the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and there teaching them to observe all his Commands delivered to those Apostles and promising to be with them to the End of the World XI By this and more it appeareth that a great triumphant Kingdom on Earth and National Churches which are nothing but Christian Kingdoms was at first in Christs Intention though the Embrio and Infancy anteceding it was to be first in Execution For he commanded the Discipling of Nations and would have gathered Jerusalem and not cut them off nor taken the Kingdom of God from them but for their unbelief And the number of Twelve was by Matthias to be made up to shew their relation to the Jews National Church State till Persecution drove them to the Gentiles and then Paul and Barnabas were added The Apostles have Successors in all the parts of their Office which is to be continued to the End but not in the parts that were extraordinary peculiar and temporary XII Christ by the Holy Ghost which he promised to send to be his powerful Agent propagated a holy Generation and by his Messengers Preaching his Resurrection and Kingdom especially and the Miracles which they wrought he confirmed his Gospel And Converted quickly many Myriads of the Jews and after far greater numbers of the Gentiles Thus preparing materials or subjects for his more visible Kingdom of Power on Earth Himself reigning over all in Heaven XIII That his Subjects might know the Nature and Terms of his Covenant and Government which was to bring them to a Heavenly Kingdom he not only required their Covenant-Consent to forsake the Flesh and this World and the Devil for that Eternal Life which he had promised them but he was pleased to put them on the actual exercise of this agreement and to try their sincerity by putting them often upon Sufferings and Martyrdom And therein he exercised his Heavenly Power in strengthening them and making them more than Conquerors while they went as Sheep to the slaughter to the honour of their Lord and Faith and the confusion of their Persecutors XIV Yet did he so over-power the Spirits of the Pagan Persecutors that of Forty Emperors there were at most but ten that persecuted them so that in this Captivity and Wilderness state by their liberty their numbers so increased that they became a considerable party in their Dominions and Armies XV. Of all these Persecutors the Cruellest were Nero Domitian Maximinus and Decius but far above all the last who were seven together Dioclesian Max. Herculius Max. Galerius Max. Daya Severus Licinius Maxentius and Constantius not wholly innocent The cruelty of their Tormentors and the great numbers Tormented and Martyred is frightful even to read By all which Christ shewed his Heavenly Power in the terrible punishment of all their Persecutors First in the dreadful destruction of the cursed part of the Jews who were by Vespasian and Titus so destroyed that 110000 of them were killed and about 700000 Captivated And their State City and Temple overthrown and saith Origen and Chrysostom it is certain that they shall never that is the Infidels return to that Land And afterwards by Trajan and Adrian in revenge of the Murders of Barcocheba an Antichrist near as many more were killed which must needs leave the Infidels few in so small a Land when London is supposed not to have near one Million of Inhabitants And as to the great Pagan Empire the greatest that ever the World had Christ rode on the White Horse against them Conquering and executed on them all the Plagues gradually numbered in the Apocalypse the Seals the Trumpets the Vials till he had utterly overcome them and all their Confederates He dealt so severely with them that of Forty Emperors there were scarce ten or seven that died without Murder a natural death But they were still in Bloody Wars with other Nations and with one another so that The Beast that was and Is not and yet Is became a fit description of their State As notably suited to Domitian at first and to Dioclesian Herculius and their Fellows at last so all along to the ordinary Succession To day there was an Emperor the next day he was kill'd and there was None And yet another presently succeeded him and so there is one again The Soldiers selling the Empire to him that would give most for it or was likest to advance them How dreadful a destruction did Christ by one Constantine bring on the seven Heads and ten Horns at last in a very little time So that Heaven and Earth triumphed with Joyful Praise that Babylon was fallen and the Kingdoms of the World were become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ and he had taken to himself his great Power and had reigned and was setting up the New Jerusalem as a Fifth Monarchy the Embrio of the Coelestial Jerusalem in its visible Reigning Power I am none of those that will secure Papal Rome from an answerable Name and Guilt and Fate But he that will convince me that Pagan Rome was not the Babylon there meant or that it is not fallen must first convince me that he is of more credible Authority than the Apocalypse XVI O how great a change was it for poor Christians throughout all the Empire to be brought from Scorn and Torments and the Martyrdom of many Thousands after 294 years Captivity to be suddenly made Freemen to celebrate Christs Worship in the most Solemn Assemblies and to be made Lords of their Persecuting Captivating Idolatrous Enemies lately so great that no Nations could stand before them Who did the Godly desire should be in Power rather their Bishops that came newly out of the Furnace of Tryal O what a change O what a joyful day And shall the success of the Devil that
confessed to me that if you err the misunderstanding of The Delivering up the Kingdom to the Father that God may be All in All is your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will first prove that you grosly err in this your foundation § 4. 2. You say oft that Christs Kingdom begins at the Millennium as if he had none before And you distinguish not the several Gradations of his Kingdom as from the Conception and Embryo to its maturity As it began in the Promise to Adam and renewed to Noah and proceeded to the Covenant of Peculiarity made to Abraham and his Seed settled in a Common-wealth by Moses renewed to David And as it came from Heaven in the Person of the Incarnate Messiah shewing his Kingly Power by his Miracles and Doctrines and in his Transfiguration and acknowledged by Hosanna's and owned to the death before the Roman Judge Nor his entrance on the more open exercise of it by his Resurrection Ascension and sending down his Paraclete the Holy Spirit and by it in his commissioned Apostles and Witnesses convincing and converting the World You take little notice of his going forth conquering on the White Horse as King of Kings and Lord of Lords and calling all the Fowls of the Air to eat the flesh of Kings and Captains and his utter subversion of Pagan Babylon taking to himself his great Power and Reigning when Heaven and Earth triumphed with joy that the Kingdoms of the World were made the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ and Christ set up Christian Princes as his Officers representing him to Rule as in his name as his Ministers do in Preaching in his name If you say that these things were not done your unthankful slander of Providence and the Revelation is confuted by the whole stream of the Roman and Church History What more will be done hereafter is a further question The fulness of the Gentiles then came in And is all this no Kingdom and Reign of Christ § 5. Compare Christs words of his Kingdom and yours Matth. 12. 28. The Kingdom of God is come unto you Matth. 21. 43. The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a Nation that will bring forth the fruit thereof Luk. 11. 20. No doubt the Kingdom of God is come upon you Luk. 9. 27. There are some here that shall not taste of death till they see the Kingdom of God come in power Luk. 17. 21. The Kingdom of God is among you or within you Matth. 13. Likeneth the Kingdom of Heaven to a Sower to a grain of Mustard-seed to a Treasure hid to rich Pearls sought to a little Leaven to a Fishers Net to a field of Corn and Tares Luk. 19. 12 15. When Christ ascended he then received for himself a Kingdom before he came to Judgment Joh. 5. 22. The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgment to the Son Matth. 28. 19. All power in Heaven and Earth is given me Joh. 17. 2 3. All things are delivered to him Luk. 23. 42. He that prayed Christ to remember him when he came in his Kingdom was told that he should be in Paradise with him that day § 6. Abraham Isaac and Jacob are now in the Kingdom of God and others shall sit down there with them God is not the God of the dead but of the living Lazarus was in Abraham's bosom Moses and Elias appeared with Christ on the Mount of Glory And Enoch was translated Christ is not in Heaven alone without any company but Angels And if Moses and Elias be there more are there to make the superiour part of his Kingdom He hath there a nobler Reign now than is exercised in this dark distracted World that is drowned in wickedness and torn by mutual Enmity and Malice It would not else have been better for Paul to be dissolved and to be with Christ Those that follow him shall be where he is Joh. 12. 26. We live because he liveth as branches in him the Vine § 7. Either this World is Governed now by God or not If not he is not a God to it or Kings are more to it than God If yea it is by Christ that he governeth it Are there any Divine Laws or not If there be they are Christs Laws and the Execution is Christs Execution of them And sure the exercise of Legislation Judgment Protection Rewards and Punishments are the exercise of Kingly Government You deny Christ if you deny him to be King Will you not obey him as King till the Trumpet sound and he come to the final Judgment § 8. But where is the present Kingdom of Christ more gloriously described than in the Prophecies which you call your self the Humble Reader of and especially in the Apocalypse if it be not you only that understand it It would swell this writing to name all the Texts that expresly assert it Isa 9. 6 7. To us a Child is born to us a Son is given and the Government shall be upon his Shoulder and his Name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of Peace of the increase of his Government and Peace there shall be no End upon the Throne of David and upon his Kingdom to order it and to stablish it with Judgment and with Justice from henceforth even for ever Is this only at the Millennium He is a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and remission of sin God hath made him Lord and Christ Acts 2. 16. To be Lord is to be King To deny this is to say that we owe him no obedience and is Apostacy indeed How could he make us Kings and Priests to God if he were not King himself even a Priest after the order of Melchizedeck and a Prophet raised up like Moses that was King in Jeshurun But enough of this to real Christians § 9. But what is all this to you Do you deny it 1. If you do not it is not Christs Kingdom but the Consummation of his Kingdom and his Glorious appearing in it that is to begin at Judgment after the Conflagration 2. But it is your words and not your thoughts that are published in Print and if you have written contrary to your Heart recant it and pity them that you deceived In your Catechism of the Millennium you say pag 5. Q. When doth Christs Kingdom begin Ans It begins at the Coming and Appearance of Christ and at the Resurrection of his Saints at his Coming and Appearance And page 6. The Apostle without any other mention of his Kingdom saith He must reign till he hath put all his Enemies under his feet Now when did this reign begin but at his Coming Or where did the Apostle give any intimation of his reigning but at his Coming And when he comes and descends and no longer sits at the Right Hand of God then God first maketh his Enemies his Footstool Not when he sits but when he comes And then
with the Leaves of the Tree of Life which made Mr. Potter and many others conclude that it is the glory of the Church on Earth that the 21 and 22 Chapters describe Though it is most probable that it is but as a representation of the heavenly Glory But the Thousand years is plainly ended before the Resurrection 8. The plain meaning that Though the Old Serpent will still be a Tempting Deceiver both without the Church and within yet as a Dragon or Babylonish Conqueror and Captivater he shall be bound up for a Thousand years after the Churches delivery from the Pagan Captivity And so he was And yet the Text tells us that all that while the Earth had Nations of Enemies that at last were by that Dragon drawn to assault the Church again Here is not a word of a Thousand years New Earth in which dwelleth Righteousness and that after the Conflagration and Resurrection The New Earth is mentioned with no such limitation That 's all the device of presuming imagination Principle IX Answered § 1. The Recovering Victorious Gracious Kingdom is ended in the glorions triumph of his Appearing and Judgment and his glorious Kingdom of Fruition then beginneth That all his Kingdom then beginneth is a falshood largely confuted by Christs own mouth And as false is it that the Kingdom of Recovery or Grace is not given up till a Thousand years after the Resurrection That this is before the Kingdom of Eternity is false in any proper sense If you mean a Kingdom from Eternity without beginning you should prove that ever there was such Your bare naming it so is no proof If there were no men from Eternity then there was no Kingdom of men If you mean that which shall endure to Eternity so will Christs glorious Kingdom as Man over Men. For many and many Scriptures tell us it hath no end and is everlasting And he that accuseth others of Semi-Sadduceism of the Apostasie should consider whether denying the Kingdom of Christ and his Saints in glorified Humanity as soon as a Thousand years as one day are ended be not liker Sadduceism and Apostasie than our believing the everlastingness of it § 2. When your own presumption hath defined it to be a Thousand years you may as boldly assign its time and place But I have proved that the Scripture confuteth your time and that a moment and the twinkling of an eye and the last Trump sounding is not a Thousand years And therefore no such space as the whole Kingdoms duration between the Resurrection and the living caught up § 3. Paul saith Phil. 3. 19 20. that the Saviour that we look for from Heaven shall change our vile Bodies and make them like to his Glorious Body He speaketh not as you of four Bodies and three Changes 1. A Natural sinful Body turned into a Paradise Body 2. And that called Vile turned into a Glorious Body 3. And that ceasing left to a Divine Eternal Body 3. I have oft told you that the Paradise Body or Mortality is none of the Curse or Enemy to be subdued Principle X. Answered § 1. We have better thoughts of the New Heaven and Earth than you have we expect both to be of longer continuance than a Thousand years § 2. That it is the Saints remaining that dwell on the New Earth a Thousand years before they are caught up is your word and not Gods that I can find God can replenish that New Earth as he did this or how else he please Principle XI Answered § 1. Whatever they are Called you confess that the wicked Rise And that they are not cast into the Lake of Fire till the last of the Thousand years is only your word If they have a Thousand years Life of further tryal why may they not repent and scape Principle XII Answered § 1. The Fifth Monarchy is Christs whole Kingdom 1. As he preparatorily Governed by the Word Miracles and Spirit 2. As he visibly Set up and Ruled by the Christian Emperours and Kings 3. As he at last entereth on the Kingdom of Glory and Fruition Your Fiction of another is but your own word And now I have done what in the Enterance and Conclusion you provokingly Challenge all Persons believing the Scriptures to do and shew that while you say you Boast in the Word of God and not in your self it is by giving us your own word not only for Gods Word but against it The Lord heal and forgive our weakness and the ignorance of our ignorance It greatly hindereth the Edification of your Readers that you so much use terms General and Equivocal that unexplained signifie nothing And so every Book needeth another to Expound it and that may as much need another Some think this is because you would not be understood your Doctrine being not able to bear the Light Others think it is because you understand not your self and therefore cannot speak intelligibly confused Notions having but confused Expressions The instances are more than I will recite As e. g. You place Christs Kingdom so often in his and his Saints Appearance as no Reader can discern but you mean such Appearance to Mans visive Faculty in these Fleshly Bodies as if now in Heaven Christ and Angels and the Spirits of the Just did not Appear to one another because they appear not to us As if the Intuition of Spirits and Spiritual Bodies were not a more eminent discerning than our Eye-sight Sure there is a more noble sight than that of Mortals So no Man can tell by your phrase of swallowing up in God and that Christ was from Eternity and shall be to Eternity the Word and Man imbodied whether you mean that he was an Individual Man distinct from any others or the Universal Soul of the World imbodied in Matter And by your talk of our being One in God as we were before the World began none can tell whether you mean that we were Existent or only in Potentia Creatoris And if Existent whether we were God or parts of God or individual Souls made from Eternity for future Bodies and kept till those Bodies were made And whether kept in Revolution from Body to Body Or how And whether we shall have a future Revolution So your Doctrine of the Hell of the Devils and the Damned can tell no Man whether you think that after the Thousand years they shall not be as dead under meer privation since you say Catech. p. 5. and 22. It is a state of deprivation of Glory and casting into the Lake of Fire signifieth final and utter cessation of all action And that they shall not appear but be unseen c. And if they have no Action they have no sinful Action no Self-accusation no Intellection no Malice nor Revenge nor Hatred of God and Goodness So your Doctrine of the Kingdom of Christ I cannot believe you so notorious an Infidel as to deny Christs Kingdom in Heaven and Earth till the Resurrection And yet
about the place of Worship by Customs kept up some Animosity against Jerusalem yet the Woman John 4. could say When the Messiah cometh he will tell us all things And is not this the Christ And what place so generally received the Gospel when Philip preached to them It was not for nothing that the Christians were so long called Galileans But this and more shall next be proved Chap. VI. What Conversion the Twelve Tribes have already had § 2. 1. AS is aforesaid The Saviour himself and his Apostles chose his abode on Earth among them and calleth them the lost Sheep of the house of Israel and the Children whose Bread must not be given to Dogs They were the Circumcision to whom he was a Minister He ordinarily Preached in their Synagogues and there wrought most of his Miracles It was they that cryed him as King with Hosanna's It was they that followed him to the Cross and it was in Galilee where on a Mountain he appointed them to meet him after his Resurrection § 2. 2. He appointed not two but Twelve Apostles and 70 Disciples as suited to the Twelve Tribes and their Sanedrim to shew what Form of Government he assigned them and for whom and he sent his Apostles to the Twelve Tribes of Israel § 3. 3. The chief success of their Preaching was on the Samaritans and others of the Ten Tribes and such of them as came up to the Feasts § 4. 4. There were three thousand at once converted of the Jews after made five thousand and soon after many Myriads of Jews believed at least many thousands § 5. 5. These became the Mother-Church and the Law went out of Zion and so all Nations were blest in Abrahams Seed and Christ became a Light to the Gentiles and the Glory of his People Israel The scattered Jews of the Twelve Tribes through much of the Empire were the Stamina or Rudiments of the Gentile Churches The Apostles first Preached in their Synagogues and the converted Gentiles were added to their Converts § 6. 6. The Epistle to the Hebrâ—â—â— was written to all the Hebrew Christians and not to Two Tribes only and implieth the great success of the Gospel on them § 7. 7. Peter directeth his Epistle to all the Strangers scattered through Pontus Asia Galatia Phrygia c. and magnifieth their Grace § 8. 8. James directeth his Epistle to the Twelve Tribes that are scatter'd abroad And it is evident that he writeth to them as Christians § 9. 9. The seventh Chapter of the Revelations expresly nameth the Twelve Tribes of which One Hundred and Forty four Thousand were Sealed Twelve Thousand of each Tribe meaning a great number that were to be preserved from the Destruction that was to be executed on their Enemies The boldness of those Expositors who give us their own Revelation instead of Christs is palpable who tell us that by these One Hundred and Forty four Thousand is meant all the Reformed that are saved from the destruction to be executed on the Papists What words can we desire God to use more plain that Men may not pervert 1. God speaketh of Jews and they say he meaneth Gentiles 2. God nameth the Tribes and they exclude them 3. They are called The First Fruits of the Church And they say It meaneth the last 4. The numberless Gentile Christians that with them partaked of the preservation are by way of distinction mentioned in the next words Yet these Commentators say That the Gentiles are meant by the Twelve Tribes 5. The Prophesie is put in the beginning before the Trumpets or Vials even before all the Judgments that were to come on Infidel Jews and Romans yet do they bring it down towards the end of the World or after the Fall of Pagan Rome § 10. 10. It was some considerable time before the Jewish Christians could be satisfied to let go their Priviledge of Peculiarity and Mosaick Policy and to Embody on equal Terms with the Gentiles in the Catholick Church and to Marry with Gentile Christians And all that time Dr. Hammond and Grotius and others say They had in the great Cities one Church of Jews and one of Gentiles which also difference of Language would require and so had two Bishops in a City And Peter for the Circumcision and Paul for the Uncircumcision were the Roots of the Jewish and Gentile Miracle-working Ministry which I suppose were the Two Witnesses mentioned in the Revelation For whoever they were they may be known by the Promise Mark 16. 17 18. In my Name shall they cast out Devils they shall speak with new Tongues they shall take up Serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them they shall lay Hands on the sick and they shall recover Our Reformers pretended not to Miracles § 11. 11. At the Wars of Vespasian and Titus against the Jews One Million and One Hundred Thousand were kill'd and Seven Hundred Thousand carried into Captivity and the Christians fore-warned by Christ got out of the City and escaped And in Trajan's days a Madness seized on the Infidel Jews and they rose up and Murdered many score Thousands of the Roman Subjects And after Barchocheba proclaimed himself the Messiah Murdered so many more as amounted to an Hundred Thousands VVhereupon Trajan and Adrian in Revenge kill'd between One and Two Millions of these Rebel Jews still sparing the Christians After all this the Infidel Jews could have but a small number left All London hath not near a Million By which it appeareth that the main Body of the Jews preserved were the Christians to whom the Cursed part were few § 12. 12. The Converted Jews fell into the Catholick Church and Married with Gentile Christians and so ere long lost the name of Jews and became unknown So that the scattered Relicks now called Jews are but the Off-spring of the Self-cursed Rabble that were scattered after the aforesaid slaughter of them § 13. 13. In Constantine's Reign the Jews had as much Liberty and Invitation to be Christians as any others And Judea was not only made a National-Provincial Church but was more honoured for Christs sake than any Nation no greater save the Imperial Seat There were more Churches Built and more Monasteries and more Bishops than elsewhere in so small a compass No Jew was forbidden there to live No Countrey so honoured The Devout People from Rome and many Countreys went thither some on Pilgrimage and some to dwell Thence they fetcht what Relicks they could get in remembrance of Christ There at Bethlehem Jerom lived while he wrote and studied much of his Works § 14. 14. Since then in all Ages some of the Infidel Relicks have been converted Whether the History of the dispute between Gregentius and Herbanus and the miraculous Conversion of them by Christs Appearance be true or no which few judicious Men believe in all Ages many Jews have been Baptized and some proved excellent Divines § 15. 15. When all the Ten Kingdoms
that had been Tributary or Subject to the Pagan Empire so quickly followed the success of Constantine and the Christian Arms and turned against the Pagan Idolatry it is utterly incredible that multitudes of the Infidel Jews did not the same No one Nation turned all at once And no one National Church under Heaven were all that I say not the most sincerely holy Christians The visible Church still consisted mostly of temporizing Men that came in to Christianity for worldly Interest over-awed by Christian Power Till it came to this the Christians were a persecuted party and no National Church And the unbelieving Jews were not like to be so free from the Love of the Flesh and VVorld as not to do as others did Christ Riding victoriously on the VVhite Horse and Conquering his Enemies brought the Nations to Submission after he had by the Word and Martyrdom purified to himself a holy Generation As all the Revelation fully telleth us Therefore if Judea was not made a National Church no other Nation was made such Zonaras saith that many hired by Money turned Christians Two Hundred Thousand turned Christians for fear in their Troubles at Toledo in Spain whither they were long before sent And Forty Fryars were sent to instruct them After that Ferrerius converted many Read but the Chronological Tables of my worthy Friend Mr. Fr. Tallents and you shall find how they were hated hunted and destroyed in Spain France and almost all Christians Nations except Rome and how many turned seeming Christians for fear Chap VII Whether there be any Jerusalem Monarchy of Jews or any further Conversion of them more than of other Men promised by God § 1. I know of no such Promise in Gods Word but I find it in many Books of Men and I hear of it in the Prayers and Sermons of many Men so good and of so good repute that divers of my Friends disswade me from so much as giving my Reasons against it lest I lose my Reputation with such Men and lest I occasion a Division by contradicting them And is it come to that Must our Concord be held on such humane loose and unsound terms Is this savouring the things of God or of Men If it be proved an Errour taking Gods Name in vain polluting Sacred Worship and adding to the Word of God must we by silence promote a Concord in it I only humbly propose the Reasons of my dissent to the tryal of wiser Men. § 2. 1. It belongeth to the Affirmers to produce their proofs But I can find no Text cited by them that to a sober search hath any such proof 1. As to the many Texts of the Prophets of the uniting of Judah and Israel under David their King and the Jews repossessing their own Land and the Subjection of their Enemies and the Neighbour Nations to them and the great Slaughters of Gog and Magog in their Land c. 1. Let the Grandeur of Prophetical stile he allowed for and this compared with the Prophecies against Babylon Tyre Sion Moab Edom c. 2. Read the whole Text and you will find most express passages that cannot be applyed to any such time and use as this in question but plainly speak of their return from Captivity and their following state It would too much swell my Book to try and vindicate all the particular Texts Mr. James Calvert having already done it in his Naphthali yet unanswered 3. Confound not the Immediate Sense of the Prophesie with the remote and set not one against the other the several parts and degrees that make up the whole Many Prophesies in the Psalms are spoken immediately of David but as he was a Type of Christ in whom they were though remotely yet chiefly fulfilled The Prophesies of the honour of the Jews and their Restoration had divers degrees of fulfilling 1. They were primarily fulfilled in the return from Captivity and the Power that followed under Zorubbabel and the Maccabees 2. They were further fulfilled by the Coming of the Messiah of the Seed of Abraham and David in whom all the Nations of the Earth are blessed 3. They were further fulfilled at Christs Resurrection Ascension and Effusion of the Holy Ghost and the many Thousands of them Converted And their spreading the Gospel over the Gentile World 4. It was yet more fulfilled when Dominion was given to Christians and the fulness of the Gentiles brought in all Israel and settled a National Church in Judea and put all their Enemies in subjection to the Catholick Church of Jewish and Gentile Christians reconciled in one Body the partition Wall being broken down 5. It will be yet more fulfilled in the New Heaven and Earth under the Gospel there is neither Circumcision not Uncircumcision but Christ is All and in All How much more in the New World He that would promise to redeem Christians from Turkish Captivity and restore them to their own Land and prosper and honour them there if they will obey him must not be thought to confound the several benefits and degrees of this Promise He that will lead you into an upper Chamber includeth every step of the Stairs that you ascend and the promise of helping you up the first step includeth not the last but tendeth to it and if you obey will lead you further 4. Read the Book of the Maccabees and other History that you may not be ignorant of what is already done For instance How the great Ruine of Gog and Magog so Hyperbolically set out was fulfilled on the Syrian and Graecian Armies of which see the Assembly Mens Annotations § 3. II. Their next seeming proof is from Rom. 11. of which I have proved how much is fulfilled already besides which I find no more there promised than to all the Church in the New World 1. God cast not away the fore-known Elect v. 1 2 to 11. 2. Through their Fall and Infidelity persecuting the Christians from among them the Gospel came to the Gentiles v. 12. 3. It was but some of the Branches that were broken off v. 17. 4. As the casting away of them was the converting and reconciling of the Pagan World so their receiving was as a Resurrection of life from the dead v. 15. 5. The Converted Gentiles were but grafted in among them and partakers with them and not without them of the fatness of the Olive v. 17. 6. Not the Root but the some Branches that were broken off was that we might be grafted in v. 19. It was chiefly the Priests and Rulers and the self-cursed Rabble that followed them and yet some Priests and Pharisees were converted 7. If they continue not in Gods Goodness the Gentiles also shall be broken off v. 22. So much of conditionality is in the Promise And yet there is more Scripture to expect that the Gentiles shall not be broken off than that there shall be any more National Conversion of the Jews 8. The promise of restoring the broken Branches is If they continue