quickly sowed the Tares of Covetousness Pride and Contention among the Clergy and Laity tempt us to undervalue Gods great mercy to his Church which Angels and Saints gave him so much praise for Emperours also had their odious Crimes even Constantine killed his Eldest Son Crispus and after his Step-mother for accusing him and banished Athanasius Shall we therefore be unthankful for a Christian Empire which was Christs own Visible Kingdom Theodosius killed the Thessalonians Arcadius banished holy Chrysostom-Theodosius the second a Saint was called an Eutychian and so of others David committed Murder and Adultery Solomon was a Monster of Lust and Voluptuousness and at last of Revolt to favour Idols yet were they the peculiar Kings of Gods peculiar People and few better followed them All this sheweth that Christ all this while Reigned and left it not wholly to the Resurrection to make his Enemies his footstool XVII It is not unlikely that this delivered exalted state of the Church though after corrupted by Temptation to Pride was the New Jerusalem in the Embrio of which Constantinople was the Capital Seat as the Porch or Infancy of the heavenly City of God and that one as the Infant Heir and the other as the Possessor of the Inheritance is described in Rev. 20. 21. 22. But of this more fully elsewhere XVIII The Dragon being bound up a Thousand years from the Churches deliverance from Constantines Edict to the Ottoman Empire the Church after grew corrupted And Papal Rome imitated Pagan Rome though under more plausible names and pretences and exceeded them in Cruelty And Mahomet the Eastern Antichrist compassed and conquered Constantinople the holy City and Christs revenge on Gog and Magog the Turk and Tartarian with the rest of the Infidel World are yet to come and therefore dark XIX At the end of this World which shall be burnt with fire God will make a New Heaven and Earth in which shall dwell righteousness without sin And all things shall be restored and the Creature delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God How God will people this New Earth he hath not told us whether by Creation as by Adam or by Transmigration Nor yet how long it shall continue unless for ever as part of the endless Kingdom Scripture giveth us no confinement of it to a Thousand years but the contrary XX. Christs Glorious Appearance and Judgment will be both the triumphant concluding parts of the Kingdom of Redemption and Grace which he will deliver up when his Recovering work is done And the beginning of the Kingdom of Glory In which as his Reward he will for ever in Humane Nature be glorified as the Mediator of Fruition as he was of Acquisition and that in the Heavens His coming in the Air is not there to Reign a Thousand years but presently to Judge the World as in Matth. 25. he describeth it And to confine his Kingdom in Humane Nature and ours with him to a Thousand years and confine it to the Air and the survivers on Earth is a fiction full of contradictions dishonourable to Christ and his Kingdom uncomfortable to his Church XXI There is but one Thousand years mentioned in Scripture from whence they can fetch the least shew for their limitation and that is only in Rev. 20. But it is most evident that the Thousand years there mentioned was to be before the Conflagration and New Earth and the Resurrection For it was to be before Satan was loosed and before Gog and Magog and their numberless Armies assaulted the Holy City and before the fire from God came on them And the Paradise restored State of the New Earth in which dwelleth Righteousness is not consistent with so much wickedness of the Inhabitants and Satans Power over the Nations Nor with a Laodicean Lukewarmness and danger of being spued out They therefore that well expect a Thousand years Reign before the Resurrection have no pretence to expect another Millennium after XXII To expect a Thousand years and that after the Fall of Papal Rome before the Resurrection is a supposition that this World will endure a far longer time than Christians have hitherto believed And that the great Sabbatism is to be before the New Earth And what a Sabbatism that will be the description of Gog and Magog and of their Laodicea may tell you Far unlike a Paradise state when all things shall be restored and the groaning Creation be delivered from the bondage of Corruption into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God XXIII They that assign this Thousand years on this side the Conflagration and Resurrection for the setting up a Fifth Monarchy of the Converted Jews at Jerusalem are the grossest feigners of all the rest Well did Jerom say That the Millenaries fetch their Errour from the Jews and would set up Judaism by it He that dwelt so long at Bethlehem knew the Jews Opinions For to pass by what else is after to be said Their very Fiction is a contradiction Were our Jews converted they would in less than a Hundred years be no longer a Jewish Nation For their state of peculiarity with the Mosaical Policy is abolished by Christ and must never be restored And they must and would marry with Gentile Christians and fall into the Catholick Church as Rivers into the Sea and lose the name of Jews So did their converted Predecessors XXIV And seeing it is not like that our now Infidel Jews are one to a hundred of the Posterity of the first believing Jews that have been propagated these sixteen hundred years why should a glorious Monarchy be set up of this self-cursed Remnant excluding all the first-fruits both the sealed Rev. 7. and all since But if the Posterity of all those old holy Jews were now sought for to be sent to Jerusalem not one man of them would be found and known of which more after XXV It is a marvel that the great disagreement of the Millenaries among themselves yet hindereth not their seeming Concord while they can but cry up the Thousand years Reign though most of them know not what the words mean Some of them say The Thousand years are on Earth and some say They are only of the Souls of the Martyrs and Confessors in Heaven Some say They are both in Heaven or in the Air and on Earth at once Some say That they shall be a Jewish Monarchy at Jerusalem and some That it shall be of the Godly all over the World Some say Christ will Reign there visibly in his Humane Nature Others That he will only sometime appear as he did after his Resurrection And some That he will Rule there only by Reforming Christian Princes Some hold but one Thousand years and some two one being after the other Some hold two New Jerusalems and some but one Some say That the Day of Judgment is the Thousand years and yet that Scripture hath not told us how
he begins to reign His Kingdom and the Resurrection of his Saints begin together § 10. I confess this Doctrine well agreeth with Doctor More 's Life of Tryal in the Air and Mr. Mede's Conclusion that our Salvation is not ascertained to us till the Resurrection Indeed it maketh all our Preaching and Religion in this life of little moment in comparison of that which is after both Death and Resurrection For if Christ Reign not till then he maketh no Laws till then He bindeth us to no obedience to him till then He punisheth no sin till then He setteth up no Magistrates till then to be Governing Officers in his Kingdom He executeth no Discipline in the Churches as King O how have Independents and Presbyterians been deceived then who have lamented the neglect or suppression of Christs Kingly Government in the Church It is then under his Thousand years Government that men must obey to secure their Salvation § 11. But the contrary is fully evident by the Effects 1. What new Laws he will make in the Air you must prove But we can prove that he made Laws for Government on Earth 2. Else the World hath had no King or Government of God 3. Nor no authorized Prince or Pastor 4. All Saints can say that he giveth Rewards on Earth to Believers 5. And he is the Protector of his Church 6. He here is known by the Judgments which he executeth and maketh his Enemies his footstool though their final Fall be at the last Did he not in that Kingly glory described by John execute all those Plagues on Pagan Rome and its Beast which are gradually described in the Seals the Trumpets and the Vials till it fell If you say that all this is meant of Papal Rome sure I am it was done first on Pagan Rome And you that tell us how shortly Turk and Pope shall fall sure take it to be before the Resurrection And doth not Christ then make his Enemies his footstool by his Kingly Power 12. What it is for Christ to subdue his Enemies must be known by his Office and Undertaking which is to overcome Satan and to save his People from their sins And did he not conquer Satan as a Tempter and triumph even on the Cross And doth he not conquer the Dominion of sin in all his Members Is he not mortifying them in us day by day And is not this treading down his Enemies And is he not taking off the Curse the fruit of sin These are Christs Enemies because they are ours even the diseases which he came to cure § 13. Is it not unreconcileable self-contradiction for you to extol the Doctrine of Dr. Crisp who saith That we are so fully saved by Christ even before Conversion that we have no sin it being none of ours but his nor can any sin hurt us much less other mens nor any penalty befal us nor any place left for any duty to do us the least good and yet that Christ our Saviour subdueth not his Enemies before the Resurrection Yea your self assert that we are Righteous by Gods Essential Righteousness and that as our only Justification and Holiness And yet doth not Christ tread down his Enemies Hath he trod down in you no Pride no Lust no Errour no Injustice Doth he not tread down greater Enemies than Turkish Swords or Papal Inquisitions in every Soul that he converteth When we fight not against flesh and blood but against Principalities and Powers and spiritual wickedness in high places And when we are but killed and counted as Sheep to the slaughter in all this we are more than Conquerours and need not fear them that kill the body § 14. Rev. 5. 12 13. The numberless Host of Heaven cry Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing and is not that a Kingdom and is it not till the Resurrection And every creature which is in Heaven and on the Earth and under the Earth and such as are in the Sea and all that are in them heard I saying Blessing and honour and glory and power be to him that sitteth on the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever This is before the Resurrection § 15. Rev. 12. 7. If Michael be not Christ he is Christs Servant And there was War in Heaven and Michael and his Angels fought against the Dragon and the Dragon fought and his Angels and prevailed not neither was there place found any more in Heaven And the great Dragon was cast out that old Serpent called the Devil and Satan who deceiveth the whole World He was cast out into the Earth and his Angels were cast out with him And I heard a voice saying in Heaven Now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God and the Power of his Christ for the accuser of our Brethren is cast down who accused them before our God day and night And they overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb and by the Word of their Testimony and they loved not their lives unto the Death Therefore rejoice ye Heavens and ye that dwell in them Woe to the Inhabitants of the Earth and of the Sea For the Devil is come down to you having great wrath because he knoweth that he hath but a short time He may make his own Faith that will affirm that this describeth no Kingdom of Christ or no Conquest of his Enemies or that all this is after the Resurrection or yet to come and none of it yet fulfilled § 16. Rev. 14. 7 8. Fear God and give Glory to him for the hour of his Judgment is come Babylon is faln is faln This is a Judgment and a treading down Enemies before the final Judgment And so is the Reaping and the Wine-press mentioned ver 13. to the end § 17. Were all the seven Vials poured out after the Resurrection c. 16. Or were there no treading down of the Enemies of King Jesus Ch. 17. 12 14. The Beast and his ten Kings make war with the Lamb and the Lamb shall overcome them for he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings and they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful This is a Conquest before the Resurrection Ch. 18. Is yet more full herein about all the Fall and Plagues of Babylon Over whom Heaven and Earth are called to rejoyce And it was certainly before the Resurrection that the Kingdoms of the World are said to become the Kingdoms of Christ And the three last Chapters describing the Glory of the delivered Church on Earth as representing the heavenly Glory is yet the fullest proof of all § 18. By all this it is evident that you call that Christs Kingdom as begun which is but his Kingdom in triumph and maturity as if a man were no man till he is at full Age. But it is your not distinguishing the Kingdom of Mediatorial Redemption recovery and acquisition from the Kingdom
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
Exposition of John as if he wrote to five of the Asian Churches as in one World and to Laodicea the seventh in another when this is burnt up and Christ come § 24. XXIII When you have almost equalled the New Earth with Heaven you debase it by making it a Laodicean Church which for Lukewarmness God threatneth to spew out and to take away their Candlestick Is this the Paradise World of Righteousness § 25. XXIV You make two New Jerusalem's when Scripture speaketh but of one after Christs Coming One you take to be in the Air and the other on Earth Though one Society may be in both one Vrbs or material City cannot such as is described Rev. 21. and 22. § 26. XXV You feign two Conflagrations One to Burn the World and another after to Burn Gog and Magog and their Followers over the Earth § 27. XXVI You groundlesly dishonour the Kingdom of Christ by confining it to a Thousand years which God hath promised shall have no End § 28. XXVII You dishonour Christ and his Kingdom by bringing him from his Fathers Right Hand in Heaven and placing him and his Saints a Thousand years in the Air where you say wicked Spirits now dwell and where Dr. H. More saith Good and Bad dwell in an Aerial Vehicle till they are advanced to an Etherial Yea where you say Devils and Damned Men now dwell with Christ And where Christ must exercise the greatest self-denial in leaving that lower Station § 29. XXVIII You make Christs Kingdom to be a humbling loss to the Saints above while you take them down into the Air for a Thousand years from the Heavenly state where you say they were in God where Christ is at his Right Hand as they shall be at last or else you will make that Everlasting Union their loss § 30. XXIX Either you also bring down the Angels from their Glory to dwell in the Air or else you separate them from Christ and the Saints in the Air with him § 31. XXX When God hath already continued the old sinful World under the Curse almost six Thousand years you by Fiction confine the New purified World wherein dwelleth Righteousness to a Thousand years and call this the Sabbatism As if our Rest must be so much shorter than Sin and Labour When yet there will be no Sin to provoke God to destroy the New World Principle VIII Answered § 1. How frivolous is your arguing from the name of a Monarchy God is ever the absolute Monarch But if you mean a Humane Visible Monarchy and suppose he must so visibly Rule the Earth you do but beg the question A Monarch of all the World none ever was and therefore four such never were But if by a Monarchy you meant the greatest Visible Empire on Earth so the Fifth Monarchy was set up by Constantinople which differs far more from the Pagan Roman Monarchy than that did from the Grecian or Assyrian And it was Christs Visible Monarchy Reigning by his Vice-Roys the Kingdoms being now said to be his Kingdoms This was the true Visible Fifth Monarchy And the Turks are the Sixth Monarchy the renewed Reign of the captivated Dragon let loose after a Thousand years § 2. But your fiction that the Scripture assigns a Thousand years to Christs Reign after the Resurrection is worse than frivolous a meer forgery I answered it before If Peter quiet mens over-hasty expectation of Christs coming by telling them that a Thousand years time is as nothing to the Eternal Infinite God shall a man pretend skill in Prophecy and tell us that he meaneth that Christs Reign after the Resurrection is measured and meant by this Thousand years and is as nothing to the Eternal God And I have proved to you that the Thousand years in the Revelation speaketh of no such thing but of what is done before the Resurrection For 1. Those Thousand years are most likely to signifie an undetermined time and mean no more than a Long time as Mr. Durham and Cluverus most incline to think and many others But 2. Granting the contrary it plainly speaketh of a time presently following the feasting of the Fowls of Heaven with the flesh of Kings and Captains and the Fall of the Pagan Babylon And not only Grotius but John Fox and many others tell us that it is the just time between the Fall of Pagan Rome and the beginning of the Ottoman Empire which was about 1300 years 3. And this Thousand years is before the suppression of wickedness in the World while Gog and Magog are in the four quarters of the Earth in number as the Sand of the Sea that shall go upon the breadth of the Earth and compass the Camp of the Saints the beloved City And before the fire that cometh down to devour them And most certainly all this is not in the New Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness So that this Thousand years seemeth to signifie but 1. That Apostles and Martyrs go to Heaven 2. And leave their Names and Doctrine honourable on Earth 3. And that the surviving Confessors shall rise from their persecuted state to triumph with Christ in their deliverance and superiority on Earth 4. And that this sudden Exaltation is a fit representation of the Glory that they shall have perpetually in Heaven Let any sober man judge whether this one only mention of a Thousand years in a hard Prophecy Rev. 20. under the expository circumstances now named will warrant a man to Preach a new Gospel and Kingdom of Christ to the World without any proof from all the plain words of Christ himself and his Apostles and directly against them He that well considereth Prophetical Language will think that Articles of Faith should be founded on plainer words When we read in Ezekiel that Egypt shall have no Inhabitant for forty years that Tyrus shall be no more inhabited that Babylon and the Land of Babylon shall be no more inhabited and abundance the like we shall the better understand the Apocalypse whose very words are much taken out of the Prophets 5. The Devil and the false Prophet are cast into the Lake of fire after the destruction of Gog and Magog and after the Thousand years But sure they are cast into the Lake at the Resurrection For if they stay uncondemned a Thousand years after that I know not what Christs coming to Judgment signifieth Sure it is not the date of their Execution for they are to be tormented for ever and ever And must they be unsentenced a Thousand years 6. And the Resurrection is described as coming after all this The Earth and Sea giving up their dead and the dead judged out of the Books c. 7. And Ch. 21. The New Heaven and New Earth cometh after this Thousand years and the destruction of the Enemies and the New Jerusalem coming down from God And there are yet Kings of the Earth that are to bring their Glory into it And there are Nations to be healed
years further confuted The 9th Principle more of the Giving up the Kingdom The 10th 11th and 12th Principles Of the Fifth Monarchy c. More of Mr. B's Ambiguities Chap. III. Of those Millenaries that place the Thousand years Reign before the Conflagration Chap. IV. That the Ten Tribes will never be found and called if they never were so heretofore Chap. V. The Ten Tribes were not lost nor extinct proved Chap. VI. What Conversion the Twelve Tribes have already had Chap. VII Whether there be any Jerusalem Monarchy of Jews or any further Conversion of them more than of other men promised by God The pretended proofs examined Chap. VIII Reasons for the Negative humbly offered to Tryal And some Objections answered Chap. IX Of the New Earth what is certain and what uncertain Chap. I. The Kingdom of Christ as described by the S. Scriptures BEing by Mr. T. Beverleys importunate requests and challenges and his heavy Accusation of Dissenters from him as Semi-Sadduces of the Apostasie urged to give an account of the Reasons of my dissent from Him and others of the Millenary Judgment it is meet that I first tell him what I take for the true Scripture Doctrine of the Kingdom of Christ which I am to defend Premising my desire to the Reader that he will first read as presupposed Truth the Judicious Treatise of my dear Brother Mr. John Corbet of The Kingdom of God with Men And Cluverus his Arguments against the Millennium I. GOD made Man in his own Image Natural Moral and of Supereminence in Wisdom Righteousness and true Holiness to know love and obey his Creator Therefore they err that say Adam had no Spiritual Holiness and did no Act of Holiness and Obedience before his Fall For else he had lived in great and constant sin For it could be no better for him not to esteem God to be the chief Good and amiable Object or not to Love him whom he knew to be the best or not to serve and obey him whom he knew to be his Creator In this state God was to Govern him as a righteous Subject by the Law which obliged him to Personal Perfect Perpetual Obedience revealed partly by the Creation and partly by express prohibitions and commands II. Upon Mans Fall and Forfeiture GOD first pronouncing part of the penalty which he would inflict declared his Decree so far to forgive the rest of the penalty as to reprieve and yet continue his faln Creature and to give them a Redeemer that should overcome the Serpent that had overcome Man and to make him the Captain of Salvation and to put faln Man and all things and power into his hand for the accomplishing of this Recovering work for the glorifying of his Love and Mercy thereby The eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Second Person in the Trinity being designed to this great undertaking III. Whether this Eternal Word did first unite it self to the Prime Being of the Creation And whether that Prime Being was the Universal Soul of the World or there were any such Universal Soul save God that is more than a Soul or it be not universal but yet of the highest Created Species and had any causality in the creation or production of the rest of the World and whether it and the World as Aristotle thought was except revolutions and alterations an eternal Effect of an eternal first Cause and many such cases about the Original of Souls are questions that God having not clearly decided by Natural or Scripture Light I cannot peremptorily decide but am lost in difficulties when I attempt it IV. Till the Incarnation of Christ the World was Governed by God as the God of Mercy and Redemption by a Regiment of Grace which may be called the Kingdom of Christ as Christ was the undertaker of future Redemption And the World being all under a pardoning Law of Grace that alloweth Repentance on hope of Mercy God dealt with none upon the meer terms of the Law of Perfection or Innocence which ceased cessante capacitate subditorum Be innocent and live or sin and die is not the Law that any are judged by V. God that first made this Law of Grace to Faln Mankind in Adam and Eve renewed it to all in Noah VI. Abraham pleasing God above others by Faith and full Obedience God chose him to be the Father of a Peculiar People promising him that his Seed should be multiplied into an eminent Policy and that the Saviour Incarnate should be of his Seed in whom all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed Not ending the Law of Grace to the rest of the World but priviledging Abrahams Seed with the state of peculiarity VI. By Moses God brought Abrahams Seed into the promised Political State and gave them a Law to be a Rule to their Political Governours when to punish and in what sort and degree And God being their Absolute Soveraign and their Government a Theocracy he reserved to himself the Power of Legislation in all the necessary parts and the choice of their Chief Rulers under him And what the Magistrate failed to punish according to his Law he would punish himself This Law was but the Rule of their Obedience supposing them Believers of the Promise to Abraham justified by Faith But the carnal Jews were so taken up with the outward Ceremonies and Works that they lost the understanding of that Justifying Promise and the very use of all the Types and Ceremonies and thought to be Justified by the bare Works or doing of what the Law required of them as their duty And because God had not done so by any other Nation they were proud of their Law and yet only outwardly obeyed it VIII In the fulness of Time the Messiah came Incarnate after 4000 years And then that which before was only in Decree became a Law of Mediation or Redemption or a Covenant between the Father and the Son in Flesh Christ being obliged in Habit Act and Suffering to do all imposed for the Recovery of Man and for this was to be King and Lord of all and having finished his undertaken work to reign for ever as God-Man with the Glorified recovered Society as his reward in Heaven for ever And all power to this End was given to him and all Judgment or Government committed to him to be exercised on lapsed Man for Recovery the Father judging no man as meer Creator of Innocent Man till this work is done IX When Christ Incarnate came the King came from Heaven and therefore John Preached that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand and Christ first preached that it was come and was among them that is The King promised from Heaven to Rule the World for their Salvation And when he had first wrought Miracles enough to prove it
long Christ will be Judging us And some That it is only the Beginning and the End of the Thousand years that the Judgment will take up and the rest will be in other Government Some think that Execution on Men and Devils will be but that Thousand years which some decry Some think that the first Resurrection is from an Aereal Vehicle or Body into an Ethereal and others that it is from earthly dust to a heavenly body by transmutation of Elements And others that it is to be a Paradise body like Adams before he sinned Other differences seem almost reconciled to some by the bare name of a Thousand years Reign XXVI It is a far more glorious Christian Monarchy which Christ by Constantine set up than most of the Millenaries give any probability of 1. It was a Deliverance from the cruellest Persecution 2. And from the Dragons most potent Empire 3. A Deliverance of all Christians as well as of Jews 4. Without confinement to the narrow Land of Israel 5. A setting up of a National-Provincial Church in Judea 6. With the great Charges of promoting it by New Churches Monasteries Bibles Bishops What could he do more The knowledge of what hath been done long ago would have prevented many mens expectation of the same XXVII If it prove that their Millennial Doctrine and the Calling of the Jews prove a meer mistake it will not be so small as should suspend our detection of it Because it is an adding to Gods Word and fathering on him many untruths and so a taking of his name in vain and a corrupting of his Worship while we preach write and pray for that which we ought not further than we must pray for the Conversion of all sorts of men and a turning of mens Zeal to promote untruths and corrupt mens minds XXVIII We find it so easie to possess men with a fervent Zeal for the Millenary Opinion and so hard to make them zealous in holy Love to God and Man and in a heavenly conversation as may make us suspicious that both sorts of Zeal have not the same original I am not willing to name some tremendous Instances of men nearly known to me hereabout XXIX Our worthy Brother that hath more Learnedly opened that Cause than any else that ever I read by moderation hath brought the difference into so narrow a compass in his Diatriba de signo filii hominis that except 1. The Calling of the Jews 2. And the Extending of the Day of Judgment to a Thousand years and that the general Resurrection and Judgment of the wicked shall begin after the Thousand years are expired there remaineth to great and weighty disagreement of such with the Judgment of the Churches XXX Seeing we ascribe to Christs Kingdom so much more than they that we oppose why should they be thought to extol his Kingdom more than we 1. Is not Eternity longer than a Thousand years 2. And Heaven a more glorious state than the Air 3. And a New Earth inhabited only by the righteous better than one that is Laodicean or that hath such Enemies of Saints as Gog and Magog 4. And this New Earth either everlasting or of undetermined time better than one but of a Thousand years duration which is but with the Lord as One day and about a sixth part as durable as this corrupted World that is under sin and curse Is this Doctrine or the other more honourable to Christ and more comfortable to Believers and more evident in the Word of God Chap. II. An unwilling Answer to Mr. Tho. Beverleys Twelve Principles and his Catechism of the Millennium necessitated by his many provocations of many Ministers and me by name and his Challenge of all the Doctors and Pastors of the Church and his Censure of the Denyers of that Millenary Reign as SEMISADDUCES OF THE APOSTASIE § 1. Reverend and truly beloved Brother I Take it for no wonder that great and many disagreements in matters of Religion are among us while in Professions of less Mystery Law Policy Physicks Medicine c. there are so many that so many men so many minds hath so long been a Proverb And in such tolerable cases as much endanger not Church and Souls few men are more for mutual forbearance and charitable construction than I am Therefore the Millennial Opinion I have never been a censorious opposer of while men kept up Peace and Charity with it But the case lately is altered and is made a matter of necessary Zeal as part of the Creed and the Lords Prayer if not essential to the Gospel and Christianity And very many of the Antinomian and Separating Opinion that least understand it lay much of their Religion on it And the just honour of many Conformists of the most peaceable Principles otherwise promoteth it such as Mr. Jos Mede Dr. H. More Dr. Cressoner your self Mr. M. Author of the Midnight Cry Mr. R. M. the Publisher most pious men both and many others And we must not now be suffered to be silent but must answer your provocations or be grosly guilty of the evil that will follow your success § 2. The Millenary Opinion was indeed early received by some followers of Papias But the universal opposition of the Christian Church that hath exploded it ever since tells us that it was a singular Opinion And is he a humble man that now calleth the Christian Church for sixteen hundred years and all those Learned and Holy Divines of England and other Reformed Churches that differ from your conceit by the name of SEMI-SADDVCES OF THE APOSTASIE Bear with my freedom Is it humility that so loudly challengeth all the Pastors and Doctors of the Churches to answer you Have you answered all them or so much as one Cluverus alone or James Calvert whom you promised me to answer Was it humility that cast a Glove for an Answer to two or three trifling Fallacies about the Pagan Babylon when I had given you an Answer to them long before and you modestly sent it back without a Confutation I have had long by me as a Learner some humble Queries to you and no Bookseller will Print them because they say men look on you as diseased with prophesying Self conceit and will not read a Confutation Your Leader Dr. More saith That the Papists not answering my Books against them is because they despise them as unworthy of an answer May not your case be much the same Men have greater matters to mind than to trouble themselves with you and me or answering our Challenges § 3. But I come to your Chain of Principles And 1. It 's a half and fallacious description of Christs Kingdom to say it is his As the Son of Man There be millions of Sons of Men that have no such Kingdom It is his Kingdom as God-man the Redeemer and Recovering Mediator This Kingdom is to him as the Eternal Word and the Son of Man in one person of a Redeemer And because you
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
a Subject That which is not hath no Accident There are no such Ten Tribes unknown and uncalled existent in the World None will say that any such are known And that 's enough to prove them unknown and if unknown not in being For 1. If the Infidel part of the Two Tribes be as many as such think how much more numerous must all the Posterity of the Ten Tribes be 2. And Navigations Travelling and Merchandize and Embassies have acquainted Men with so much of the Earth as tells us that they are not known in any known part of the World And were they Existent they could not be unknown Benjamin's Itinerary that feigneth a discovery of them proveth it self fabulous and is so accounted commonly by sober learned Men. And dreaming that they are in America is no proof § 3. Learned Mr. Sam. Lee well describeth many of the places to which they were transplanted and very learnedly stretcheth his Wit to conjecture that they are in Tartary But 1. There is not any probability given us by him that ever they were thither removed at least any notable number 2. And though Tartary be large and not all fully known to us yet so much is discovered by Historians and Travellers as may acquaint us that there is extant no Society of known and professed Jews they being all Heathens and Mahometans save an inconsiderable sprinkling of Christians And Scythia hath been so anciently peopled that even to the Potent Roman Empire they were the most Invincible Enemies And the Wars of Tamerlane made them known to much of the World And if they were there and Marrying with Scythians have lost the Name of Jews they are unrecoverably Extinct And so cannot be called as Jews being now no Jews It is become a Natural Impossiblity Chap. V. That the Ten Tribes were not lost or Extinct § 1. 1. THis is so clear by abundance of Prophesies in Isaiah Jeremiah and Ezekiel Hosea that it would be tedious to recite them viz. That Judah and Israel were to be again made one Kingdom as two Sticks made one Stick and David their King to reign over them If this was not fulfilled the Prophesie would fail which must not be imagined For as is aforesaid if it be not fulfilled they being now extinct and not existent it never can be fulfilled § 2. 2. There is no probability as Mr. Mather hath well noted in his Diatriba that all or most of the common people were transplanted but only the Rulers and Rich and Military and Leading Men. For 1. Considering how many Millions that small Land maintained it is improbable that so great a multitude could be so far Ruled by an Army or that they should soon find vacant Habitations and Victuals for them 2. And it is more unlikely that Salmanasser should find so many of his Subjects to send into their places and that all those should be willing of a removal into so small a Land 3. And it is known that no such thing hath been done by Conquerours in any other Land Nebuchadnezzar took from Jerusalem none but the Princes Nobles Priests Rich Men Souldiers and Men fit for his Militia and Smiths and Carpenters c. But he left the common people to Manure the Land Otherwise they would lose all their Tribute and the Fruit of the Ground In all the Conquests made by the Persians the Greeks the Romans the Egyptians the Saracens the Turks the Tartarians by Tamerlane there hath no such thing been done as the transplanting of the most of the common Inhabitants Indeed the beggarly Goths and Vandals Ostrogaths and Hemli c. came with their Wives and Children sometimes resolving to possess or die But what was a hundred thousand of such to all Italy when they possest it or to all Spain or all France or Africk in comparison of the Inhabitants whom they subdued and mastered In England how few were the Romans yea or the Saxons or the Danes or the Normans in comparison of the Britains that were brought in subjection unto them It was but the Great men and Rich and Military and some fearful people that fled from their Armies that fled into Wales As Mr. Tho. Jones in his Hearts Soveraignty hath truly proved the main Body of this Nation called English is of the Brittish Bllod it's like many hundred to one though the Language followed the ruling part § 3. 3. It is evident that All the Twelve Tribes were in the Dominion of Cyrus when he sent the Jews to repair the Temple and City The Two Tribes at Babylon where he made Darius King and the Ten in his Hereditary Dominions and his Conquests as Mr. Calvet in his Naphthali hath shewed and as will appear by the Topography of the places named in Scripture to which they were carried Learnedly opened by Mr. Lee abating his conceit of Tartary And it is evident that Cyrus meant not to confine the grant of his free return to the Two Tribes But those that were not willing to return he did not compel And most had possession by that time of wider and fatter Habitations Ezra 1. Cyrus made no question of their liberty to dwell in Judea But it was Gods House at Jerusalem that God charged him to Build for which end he saith ver 3. Who is among you of all his people his God be with him and let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah and Build the House of the Lord God of Israel he is the God which is at Jerusalem And whosoever remaineth in any place where he Sojourneth let the Men of his place lift him up with Silver and with Gold and with Goods and with Beasts c. Were the Ten Tribes none of the people of the God of Israel I must not swell this Book too big Let the Reader that is willing to understand peruse Ezra Nehemiah Esther and Daniel with Haggai and Zechariah and consider the Grants of Darius and Artaxerxes and the vast number of Jews still remaining abroad in the persecution of Haman and he will find that it was not for want of Liberty to return that so many stayed behind but because the avoided returning as a Suffering And multitudes that had a Zeal for Jerusalem settled in Egypt at Alexandria that thence they might three times a year come to the Temple without too much loss and cost § 4. 4. In Christs time the Habitations of the Ten Tribes was of the same Religion with those at Jerusalem And went thither to the Feasts and submitted to their Priests and Ceremonies Christ lived from his Childhood still in Galilee At Nazareth and Capernaum where Peter Andrew James and John lived That is close by the Ford of Jordan by which is the passage to Egypt There he had far more Followers than about Jerusalem Thence went his supposed Father and Brethren ordinarily to the Feasts at Jerusalem Zechary and Elizabeth many Levites Scribes and Pharisees dwell in the Countrey of the Ten Tribes Though Samaria
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
not in unbelief v. 23. 9. Yet here is a Prophecy that the Jews shall be eminently replanted v. 24. and not for ever left in general unbelief 10. It was but blindness in part that happened to those some till the fulness of the Gentiles came in Which must either mean till the Empire of the Roman World fell into the Christians hands Or else till all the Gentiles were converted that ever shall be This last cannot be the meaning for then it would not be till the end of the World therefore it must be the former which is long fulfilled v. 25. 11. So all Israel were saved that is 1. All the Israel of God the believing Children of Abraham for all are not Israel that are of Israel gathered into one Catholick Body 2. And so many of Natural Israel as to make not only one of the two Witnesses and Olive Trees but also a formed National honoured Church-Society 12. When to drive away the Gospel to the Gentiles some were left in unbelief The Elect part were they that were beloved for their Father Abrahams sake much more for Christs sake v. 28. 13. As it was from them that the Gentiles had the Gospel so it was from the Gentiles mercy that the restored Body of the Jews obtained mercy being by the Christian Emperors and Princes restored and honoured v. 29 30. 14. God left the Rulers and many others in unbelief that he might recover not each single person but a Political Body and Power to the Nation as he did v. 32. As Alexander Severus gave the Infidel Jews power to chuse them a Governour of their own under him the Christian Emperors did for the Christian Jews much more 15. Thus is Gods Goodness and Severity glorified And what word in that Chapter proper to the Jews is not fulfilled § 4. As to the Texts that mention the Restitution of all things the Creatures groaning to be delivered from the bondage of corruption drinking the fruit of the Vine new and such like what word is in all this that respecteth the Jews more than the Gentiles or that may not be performed in the New World unlimited to Jews or to a Thousand years § 5. The same I say of the Lords Prayer Let thy Kingdom come c. which long made me hope for better days on this same Earth But this saith nothing more of the Jews than of the Heathens And who can here find any limitation of this Kingdom to a Thousand years All the Word that tells us what to pray for doth not tell us what in this World we shall obtain I doubt not but we may pray for Jews and all men but that proveth not all shall be converted and saved We may have hope of many Individual Jews when we have no promise of a National further Restitution of the many more than of any others Chap. VIII Reasons for the Negative humbly offered to Tryal § 1. I. THat which is done already according to Promise we must not take for undone or expect to be done again But the Calling of the Jews is done already according to Promise Ergo c. I hinted this oft before I will not shun repetition where the cause requireth it 1. It is granted that the Catholick Church is called The New Jerusalem so far as it is short of the other World But the Catholick Church and therein the Jewish Nation was more gloriously set up by the Christian Empire than the Millenaries can reasonably expect or plead for 1. What are a few Rabble Jews such as are among us to the great rich victorious Roman Empire the greatest that ever was on Earth which turned Christian in the Regent part and shortly in the commonest Profession What an Empire would the Jews of England Spain Portugal Turky c. make 2. Constantinople was then called not only New-Rome but New-Sion And how greatly did it excel Jerusalem in spaciousness riches power and glory 3. How small and barren a spot was Judea like our Wales in comparison of the Roman Christian Empire in Europe Asia and Africa Like the Isle of Man to England 4. How great a Protection had the Jews under Constantine and following Emperours above what they had even after their Restoration from Captivity from Zorobabel and the Maccabees to the end of their Policy 5. What could they now desire for their return more than they then had What greater liberty or encouragement or help An excess of Honour was put on their Countrey and on all that would come into the Christian Church 6. What better Plantation of Religion can be expected in Judea than was when the Emperours built them Temples and devout people travelled thither and dwelt there and bought them Bibles and built them Religious Houses and set over them Pastors and Bishops and A. Bishops and a Patriarch one of the five in the Empire And their National Church honourably united to the Catholick What outward honour can they expect more All Protestants note it as the wicked Superstition of the Popes that they were so set on the honouring of Jerusalem and Judea called The Holy Land that they forced Emperours and Kings of France and England c. at vast charges to go fight for it to the loss of 100000 men § 2. Obj. But Judea was not all planted with Jews but with a mixt people Ans 1. And must all that now possess it be robbed of their Habitations and Estates to make room for our Jews 2. There were no Jews restrained from going thither that desired it And would you have them forced or sent thither with a Pass 3. Those that would not go thither had better encouragement where they dwelt § 3. Obj. But it was not the main Body of the Nation that was converted and restored Ans 1. I have given great probability that it was the far greatest part so many of the Rebels had been before destroyed 2. There was no Heathen Nation where the greater number presently turned Christians till Power and Interest prevailed with them Even till the days of Alaricus and Theodorick thousands were Heathens in Christian Rome And holy Chrysostom in his days in the glory of Constantinople reckoned but of a hundred thousand Christians besides Separatists and Hereticks the rest being Heathens and Jews shall we therefore say that such were no National Churches that is Christian Kingdoms § 4. Obj. But while their Governours were set over them by others and not chosen by themselves they could not be called Jewish National Churches Ans 1. Their Pastors were chosen by themselves whatever the Souldiers and Magistrates were The Inhabitant Christians Jews and Gentiles chose them 2. Their submission and consent might make them Churches of Jews 3. But I confess they were not nor ever must be Churches of Jews separate from the Gentiles or otherwise than as parts of the Catholick United Church It seems you take not the Jews for converted till they become separated from the Catholick Church and claim their
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
men are against the Lutheran Vbiquitarians And shall Christ Preach to them in the Air and his voice be heard throughout the World a thousand times further than the Thunder And how will they know that it is Christ when on Earth they would not know him but imputed his Miracles to Beelzebub And will the bare sight of Christ make millions of ignorant sots presently understand all the Essentials of Religion yea and become eminently wise and holy when we can scarce teach an ignorant one now to understand the Catechism or Creed in many years I doubt many Millenaries have some such Servants and Children in their own houses 2. Some say that Elias shall come and Convert them A Jewish Dream And how will they know that he is Elias As they knew John Baptist to be Elias If you say as Peter did on the Mount I say that was by Inspiration or by Christs telling him that it was Elias Shall they have either of these And where shall Elias preach to them Is he also ubiquitary If he preach in Spain shall they hear him in Portugal Or if in Holland or Rome shall they hear him in England If he preach at Stepney shall they bear him at Westminster at Tarmouth at Norwich and all over the Land and over all the World at once Or must he stay long enough to go over all the Earth If one Man can do so much why have many thousands done so little on the Jews to this day 3. If you say God will raise up and send forth Ministers enough that will be yet a greater Miracle To give so many Skill VVill and Zeal To cause them to speak with all the Languages of the Nations When the Jesuits at Japan Congo and China after many years Learning their Tongues do but set the Nations in a Laughter to hear their mispronunciation as Maffeius Varenlus and others tell us And who will furnish so many Thousand new inspired Preachers with Money to carry them through all the VVorld And procure them free passage through Enemies Lands 4. But the last answer I expect is that nothing is difficult where God will work and Grace shall make one sight of Christ to Convert them all I answer If you lay all on the Miraculous Inspirations of God that can do it without seeing Christ and without preaching As God made the World with a Word He can so make every Infant a Doctor that they not stay as Christ to encrease in Stature and Wisdom But if you feign him to purpose or promise this take heed lest he will not hold you guiltless for taking his Name in vain This Creating Inspiration of sudden Wisdom Faith and Holiness into so many Thousands over the World at once will be a greater Miracle yea Millions of Miracles than ever Christ did And is quite contrary to the Word of God § 22. 6. The feigned Exaltation of them by a Jerusalem Monarchy is also a devised Miracle That these scattered people by such means should get to Jerusalem and become a Grand Monarchy and that in a place so uncapable and that never was such no not in David's days § 23. XI Another reason against this Jewish Monarchy at Jerusalem is that instead of an Exaltation it would be a Banishment to the Jews Judea being like our Wales or not so big as half England and a Countrey though flowing with Milk and Honey in comparison of the Arabian Wilderness yet very full of Mountains Rocks and Deserts and oft infested with Famines So that could they bear their charges thither I believe that the Jews in Portugal Constantinople Rome and Thessalonica alone would take it for as sad a Banishment to be sent to Judea as all England would do to be sent to Jamaica yea or Barbadoes If you say that God can feed them by Manna or by Angels or Ravens or make all the Neighbours Countreys Egypt Mesopotamia c. feed them take heed of imposing upon God § 24. XII God in Scripture hath given us another description of the Two New Jerusalems the Infantile and the Perfect that on Earth and that on Heaven more Glorious and Desireable than the Jewish feigned one Therefore we should not obscure the Glory of them by such a Fiction As Satan fighteth against the Spirit by a false Spirit and against the Church by a false Church and against the Ministry by a false Ministry and against Unity by false Unity so doth he against the Kingdom of Christ and the New Jerusalem by a Counterfeit 1. As the Assyrian Persian Grecian and Roman Monarchies were the four mentioned in Daniel so there have been since a fifth and a sixth By a Monarchy now is meant only the Greatest on Earth known to the Church The fifth was the Christian Empire whose Chief Seat was Constantinople called New Rome and New Sion I am not ignorant what is said against this by Heddeggerus and many others That is not to be disputed in this narrow Room The sixth Monarchy visibly is the Turks with the Tartarian Unity Gog and Magog The seventh the Sabbatical and Perfect Monarchy is that of Christ in the New Heaven and New Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness after the Burning of this World By debasing Fiction confined to a Thousand years and Christs own Kingdom also so confined whereas this wicked World hath already lasted Six Thousand years within Three Hundred and Ten. This vilifying of Christs Glorious Kingdom is by blind Zeal now made the exalting of it by many deceived and deceiving Men. Chap. IX Of the New Earth § 25. COncerning the New Earth we must content our selves with what God hath revealed and not search into the unrevealed things 1. It is revealed that it will be the Restitution of all things that in it shall dwell Righteousness that the whole Creation groaneth to be delivered from the Bondage of Corruption into the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God that it will be a Paradise State that Christ shall Reign over it that no Glorified Saints shall lose any of their part in Heaven by it that there will be no death nor misery Therefore there will be no Gog and Magog and numberless Armies of the wicked For there entereth nothing that is defiled It will be a State of Communion with Heaven Angels and Men will have familiar Converse Christ shall be joyfully known among them as their Saviour and King Neither Christ nor the Saints will lay by the Humane Nature or Body but their Bodies will be so far refined as shall be suitable to the condition of the New refined World This much is certain But these things following are uncertain 1. How much of the Old Earth God will use in the constitution of the New Whether only the Surface of the Earth shall be Burnt and the Things and Works thereon or also the Interiour parts dissolved into a Chaos As it is uncertain to us whether the Chaos at the present Earths Creation was the Relicks of a former World