Whereas if a first and particular Resurrection be supposed a good account may be given of the forementioned texts For then the Saints that come with Christ will be those holy Persons who for their constancy in Suffering Death for the sake of God were Honoured with the peculiar favour of a more early admission into the Kingdom of Heaven Thus this opinion of the Millennial Reign of the Martyrs is not without some fair appearance of probability and is very agreeable to the Gospel Oeconomy If a figurative Interpretation were to be admitted the Living of the Beheaded and their reigning with Christ a Thousand years would signifie the Rising of the Church from a dead estate and its enjoyment of peace and tranquility to which sence most that I meet with incline But this notion of a Metaphorical Resurrection is encumbred with several difficulties which I cannot overcome For First every one that hath part in this first Resurrection is pronounced Blessed and holy and secure from the Power of the second Death that is the miseries of the other World But shall every member of the Church in the Millennial State be eternally blessed Secondly The state of the Church before the Millennium shall be very quiet and peaceable in reference to oppression and persecution For the Beasts Power of making war with the Saints is contemporary with the mournful Prophecy of the two Witnesses which ends with the sixth Trumpet And the last act of hostility committed by the Beast will be the slaughter of the witnesses who revive and are exalted on high before the seventh Angel sounded Rev. 11. 11 12. And from that time to the final destruction of the Beast under the seventh Vial the Saints will live secure from the violence of Persecution To understand therefore the first Resurrection of the rising of the Church from an oppressed and persecuted state is not agreeable to the condition of the times immediately preceding These and some other reasons prevail with me to reject this opinion and to interpret this vision according to the proper meaning of the words CHAP. III. Of the New Heaven and the New Earth AND I saw a New Heaven and a New Earth for the first Heaven and the first Earth were passed away and there was no more Sea Rev. 21. 1. The Vision of a New World immediatly following that of the general Judgment seems to signifie the Production of a new and more glorious Earth after the Destruction of the old by Fire for the Seat and Habitation of the Blessed But this is a Mystery past my understanding All that is signified by it is a more flourishing and prosperous State of things In the Prophetick Style great Changes are expressed by a New Heaven and a New Earth which in the Language of the Hebrews signifies a new World and was used by them according to the present Notion of it among us to denote a new Face and Condition of Things This new Creation God foretold by the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 65. 17. Behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth and the former shall not be remembred nor come into mind What follows in that Chapter does unfold the meaning of this Creation Be you glad and rejoyce in that which I create for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoycing and her People a joy vers 18. And I will rejoyce in Jerusalem and joy in my People and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her nor the voice of crying vers 19. They shall build Houses and inhabit them and they shall plant Vineyards and eat the fruit of them vers 21. The Wolf and the Lamb shall feed together and the Lion shall eat Straw like the Bullock and Dust shall be the Serpents Meat They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my Holy Mountain saith the Lord vers 25. This Mountain is the Church or Kingdom of Christ Isa 22. And the joyful secure and peaceable condition of it is that New Heaven and Earth which God promises to create This new World this happy State of the Church hath not yet been seen Nevertheless we according to this promise look for New Heavens and a New Earth wherein dwelleth righteousness 2 Peter 3. 13. In the fore-going Verses St. Peter speaks of the melting of the Elements of the burning of the Earth and the Dissolution of all things And then it follows nevertheless we according to his Promise look for New Heavens and a New Earth Whence some have concluded that this New World must succeed the Conflagration which is a great mistake For St. Peter's New Heaven and Earth is no other than that promised Isaiah 65. 17. And the New World in Isaiah doth clearly belong to the Kingdom of Christ which must conclude with the Resurrection and last Judgment 1 Corinth 15. 25 26 28. He must Reign till he hath put all Enemies under his Feet The last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death And when all things shall be subdued unto him then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him that God may be all in all If therefore the New Heaven and New Earth must be before the Conclusion and Surrender of Christ's Kingdom then must it of necessity be before the Conflagration of the World which will not begin 'till the Judgment is concluded And though there are no certain Characters in the Revelation by which the precise time of this Vision may be found out yet from that place in Isaiah it may be concluded to belong to the Kingdom of Christ and particularly to the last Scene of it under the Millennium when the State of Things will be vastly different from what they are or have hitherto been as has been fully proved in the first Chapter And so great will be the prosperity of the Millennial State that there will be no longer need of Ships for War or Foreign Commerce and Traffick which the present condition of things requires which I take to be the meaning of what is added by St. John and there was no more Sea CHAP. IV. Of the new Jerusalem And I John saw the holy City the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of Heaven prepared as a Bride adorned for her Husband And I heard a great voice out of Heaven saying behold the Tabernacle of God is with Men and He will dwell with them and they shall be His People and God himself shall be with them and be their God Rev 21. 2 3 Concerning the New Jerusalem here are three things to be inquired What is meant 1 By the New Jerusalem 2 By its coming down from Heaven 3. By the walking of the Nations in the light of it ver 21. These I take to be the most material Points the resolution whereof will give us a clear understanding of this Mystery 1. By the New Jerusalem or the Lambs Wife ver 9 10. Is meant the People of the Jews converted to the Faith of Christ Upon the ruin of Babylon
of Fire with all whose names are not found Written in the Book of Life and the flying away of the Earth and the Heaven from the face of him that sits on the Throne these are somwhat obscure expressions and not so easily understood 1. St. Paul tells us that the last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death 1 Cor 15. 26. Which destruction is here expressed by casting Death and Hell or Hades the place of separate Souls into the lake of Fire And signifies that there shall be no more seperation of Soul and Body but that Men arise to an immortal and endless Life But whether this immortality and endless duration be common to all Men or peculiar only to the Blessed is made matter of dispute That good Men shall live for ever in a State of unspeakable happiness is a privilege beyond the merit of the most perfect virtue But eternal Life is a gift very becoming the infinite Goodness of God to bestow And no Man ever Quarrel'd with God on this Score for promising to reward the imperfect Services of Men with Eternal Happiness But by some it is thought very Hard and no way consistent with the laws of justice to punish the sins of a short life with an eternity of Torment that Men who sin but a few years must live for ever in insupportable Misery there being no proportion between Time and Eternity This indeed is a very great difficulty and hath inforced some Men to put a period to the miseries of the Damned as not knowing how to reconcile the Divine Justice to the Eternity of Hell Torments Whatever is necessary for the preservation of Government and securing obedience to laws must be allowed to be just and lawful Which justifies the severity of God in denouncing everlasting misery against impenitent sinners because nothing less would be a sufficient restraint upon most Men from breaking the laws of God For if the generality of Men despise these Terrors of the Lord what regard would they have for menaces less severe But that God should execute these threats according to the strictest sense of them there is no necessity For tho Promises oblige to a performance yet Threats do not induce any obligation nor does justice require the Execution of them And therefore God if he pleases may deal with Sinners more mercifully than he hath threatned But whether he will shew them favour and abate any thing of the utmost he has denounced I cannot tell This is most certain that no Man shall suffer beyond the just desert of his actions But who dare say that God cannot in justice inflict Eternal punishment For any Man upon such a presumption to harden himself against the clear and express threats of endless Misery is the height of madness For if at last the Torments of a future state are Eternal how sad and deplorable will his Condition be And if they prove finite and end in his final destruction yet what an amazing and insupportable thought is this for a Man to suffer the pains of Hell so long as the Divine justice can inflict them and at last with all sense of farther sufferings to lose his Being for ever This indeed is the mildest fate the Sinner can expect but a much more severe may be his doom II. This punishment of wicked Men is exprest by being cast into the lake of Fire Which some interpret according to the literal sense of Torment by real fire Others understand this to be a Metaphorical description of the unknown miseries of the Damned The truth seems divided between these two opinions For first it is clear from St. Peter that the Heavens and the Earth which are now are reserved unto fire against the day of judgment 2 Ep. 3. 7. And whatever operation this fire may have upon the Apostate Spirits it will doubtless affect the bodies of wicked Men with most painful impressions But secondly This seems only the Prologue to a more tragical state which they must enter upon when this Conflagration is ended and of which a lake of fire and Brimstone is only a representation The miseries of Hell are described in Scripture by the most sensible and painful things And because the most dreadful Idea of pain the mind can form is the suffering by a raging and devouring fire therefore this Metaphor of fire is most frequently used And as for the lake of Fire and Brimstone so often mentioned in the Revelation it relates to the lake Asphaltites or the Dead Sea the lasting Monument of those showrs of Fire and Brimstone wherewith the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were consumed These and the like descriptions are lively Images and Representations of Hell Torments and signifie them to be intolerable great but they do not express the true nature of them This indeed is in a great measure unknown to us and the most affrighted imagination cannot reach the truth and terror of them For who can tell or conceive what evils and Miseries the wrath of God and his vengeance on the ungodly comprehends III. By the Earth and the Heaven flying away from the face of him that sits on the Throne I understand the destruction of their present frame I see no reason from this or any other place of Scripture to conclude the utter Abolition or Annihilation of the World The matter and Substance of the Earth and the rest of the Mosaic Creation will doubtless continue the same but they will receive a new form or rather be rudis indigestaque moles an indigested heap without form or order This Dissolution of things St. Peter speaks of and tells us that this wonderful Metamorphosis shall be effected by Fire 2 Pet. 3. Some are apt to fancy that this Conflagration of the World is in order to its refining and that the Heavens and Earth being purged by Fire God will erect a new World out of the old Materials for the seat and habitation of the Blessed But this is a mere Imagination and is directly contrary to Scripture which teaches us that the Kingdom which the Righteous must inherit was prepared for them from the foundation of the World Matt. 25. 24. And as for the New Heavens and the New Earth which St. John and St. Peter speak of I have shewed that they do not signifie the Creation of a New World after the day of Judgment but a New state of things in the old Others think this Conflagaation to be perpetual and to be designed for the punishment of the wicked who shall live and suffer in this Fire to Eternnl Ages This seems to have some foundation in Scripture which speaks of the condemnation of the wicked to everlasting Fire But this fire to which wicked Men will be condemned is the same with that prepared for the Devil and his Angels which cannot be a Real One. For the evil Angels are spiritual Substances and have no sense of Material Impressinns If then the punishment of the Devil and wicked Men be of
dead shall be raised is no where expresly declared This only we learn from St. Paul that the Good and the Wicked shall not arise at the same Instant but that the Righteous will have the Precedency 1 Cor. 15. 23. Every Man in his own order Christ the first Fruits afterward they that are Christs at his Coming Agreeable to this is that of the same Apostle 1 Thes 4. 13. The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout and with the voice of the Arch-angel and with the Trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first Now a Resurrection of the Martyrs prior to the general Resurrection is very consistent with these assertions of the Apostle which do not deny the Resurrection of some particular Persons before the Coming of Christ to judgment but only declare that Such of the Righteous whom Christ at his coming shall find in the state of the dead shall have the Precedency of the wicked and be first restored to life St. Matthew tells us that at our Saviours Resurrection the graves were opened and many Bodies of Saints which slept arose and went into the holy City and appeared unto many ch 27. 52 53. And why may not the Privilege of a more early Resurrection be indulged the Martyrs in recompence of their Sufferings The invincible Courage and Resolution of the Primitive Christians proceeded in a great measure from the hope and expectation of it And perhaps the Revelation of such a distinguishing Favour was designed on purpose for the encouragement and support of their Constancy under those Persecutions wherewith God thought fit to exercise the Faith and Patience of the first Christians That the Martyrs after their Resurrection shall Reign on Earth is an opinion which hath no countenance from Scripture All St. John here saith is that the Beheaded lived again and reigned with Christ a Thousand Years which does not at all favour this Conceit but rather supposes the contrary The Dominion Christ was invested with at his Ascension he is to possess to the end of the World There is no new Kingdom to be erected for him upon Earth nor will he descend from Heaven where he now reigns until the time appointed by God for the judgment of the World Then he will arise from his Imperial Seat at his Fathers right Hand and come down into these lower Regions in order to the holding his general Assizes And this is the Concluding act and will put an end to his glorious Reign Now if the Martyrs shall be admitted to a participation of Christs Kingdom where should they reign but in Heaven where Christs Throne is where he reigns in Person and from whence he administers all the affairs of the World There is nothing of Paradox in this Supposition to them who believe the Principles and Doctrines of Christianity which teach that the bodies of good Men being raised out of the dust and fashioned like unto Christs glorious Body shall be translated from this Earth to the Mansions prepared for them in the Heavens And So far is this Hypothesis of the Millennial Reign from contradicting any text of Scripture that it seems to have a good foundation in it 1 One principal act of Regality is the power of judging Now St. Paul tells us that the Saints shall judg the World 1 Cor. 6. 2. Which to be understood of the last and final judgment the following verse does clearly evince Know ye not that we shall judge Angels That is such of them as for their Rebellion against God were condemn'd to Hell and are reserved in Chains unto the Judgment of the great day Jude ver 6. Which is the only judgment to which they are destined The judgment therefore of the World by the Saints is no other than that at the last day But who are the Saints to whom this autority and power is committed Not the Righteous in general for they as well as the wicked must appear before the judgment seat is Christ to give an account If their actions But perhaps when their Trial is finished and the Sentence of Absolution pronounced they shall be translated into the Air and being placed on Thrones around the Tribunal of Christ shall bear a part as Assessors in the ensuing judgment of Devils and wicked men But our Saviours description of the Process of the last judgment intimates the contrary For the sheep and the goats receive their different Sentences whilest they are standing the one at the Right the other on the left Hand of the Judge Matt 25. 34. Then shall the King say unto them on his right Hand Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the Foundation of the World But to them on the left Depart ye Cursed into everlasting Fire ver 41. Whence it appears that the Assumption of the Righteous into the Clouds of Heaven 1 Thes 4. 17. must Succeed the trial of the wicked and consequently they cannot be concerned in judging them The Saints therefore by whom the World of the ungodly shall be judged and in all probability the Martyrs who reigning with Christ in his Kingdom will joyn with him in the exercise of his judiciary autority and give their suffrages to the Sentence which he will pass upon the wicked This Solemnity 't is true is transacted after the Thousand years allotted for the Martyrs Reign are expired which seems to exclude them from bearing any part in this Regal act of judging the World But there is no necessity of concluding their reign with this term which may very well be extended to the end of Christs Mediatorial Kingdom But because the intermediate space from this period to the final judgment is but short Rev 20. 3. therefore the duration of their Reign is expressed by the complete number of a Thousand years the odd years that follow not being brought into the account 2. Besides the glorious Angels we read of Myriads of Saints that accompany Christ in his triumphant progress from Heaven Jude ver 14. 1 Thes 3. 13. To understand this of Angels is without reason to depart from the letter of Scripture against the generally received rule of Interpretation But to apply it to the Souls of just Men is much more absurd For these are disposed in Paradise or Abrahams Bosom till the Resurrection Then being reunited to their Bodies they appear before the judgment Seat of Christ and being finally absolved attend the judge in his return to Heaven And are now first of all admitted into the immediate presence of God where there is fulness of joy and perfection of happiness To send good Men directly to Heaven when they die and to fetch them from thence at the last day to be judged that after judgment they may return to their former happy seats with the greater Solemnity is such an odd preposterous method of proceeding as no considering Man will easily admit much less believe agreeable to the infinite wisdom of Almighty God
being spread over the World Christian Princes pour in their treasures into the Holy Land and contribute their assistances towards the rebuilding Jerusalem and the rest of the waste and desolate Cities The Nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of the New Jerusalem and the Kings of the Earth do bring their Glory and Honour into it Rev 21. 24. Upon the return from Babylon the building of the Temple and City met with great opposition and obstructions from the envy and malice of the adversaries of Judah But now there will be no Rehums or Sanballats to obstruct their proceedings the work will be vigorously carried on by the united forces and joint endeavours of Jews and Gentiles This assistance of the Gentiles Isaiah speaks of Chap. 60. 10 11. The Sons of strangers shall build up thy Walls and their Kings shall minister unto thee for in my wrath I smote thee but in my favour have I had mercy on thee Therefore thy Gates shall be open continually they shall not be shut day nor night that Men may bring unto thee the forces or wealth of the Gentiles And again Chap. 61. 4 5 6. They shall build the old wastes they shall raise up the former desolations and they shall repair the waste Cities the desolations of many generations And strangers shall stand and feed your Flocks and the Sons of the Alien shall be your Plowmen and your Vine-dressers But ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord Men shall call you the Ministers of our God ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles and in their Glory shall you boast your selves But their greatest Glory will be the profession and establishment of true Christian Religion among them with the knowledge whereof God will wonderfully inlighten their minds for a Pattern to all the Gentile Nations professing Christianity who shall now conform to the Standard of the Jewish Church And this I take to be the meaning of the Nations walking in the light of the New Jerusalem and to be the full accomplishment of these words in Isaiah the Gentiles shall come to thy light and Kings to the brightness of thy rising Chap. 60. 3. CHAP. V. Of Gog and Magog 's attempt against the Camp of the Saints THE Jews being replanted in the promised land shall enjoy an uninterrupted course of prosperity for several ages But when the Thousand years of Satans confinement are expired he shall be loosed out of his Prison And shall go out to deceive the Nations which are in the four Quarters of the Earth Gog and Magog to gather them together to battel the number of whom is as the Sand of the Sea Rev 20. 7 8. At whose instigation They went up saith St. John on the breadth of the Earth and compassed the Camp of the Saints about and the beloved City But this attempt ended in the total overthrow and destruction of that numerous Army For fire came down from God out of Heaven and devoured them vers 9. A terrible Expedition this and no less astonishing than the issue And that which encreases the Wonder is the common opinion concerning the Amplitude of Christs Kingdom which long ere this may be presumed to be arrived at its full extent For if all the Nations under Heaven have of a long time received and professed the faith of Christ as this opinion supposes 't is very strange that such a prodigious number of Christians from the four Quarters of the Earth should all on a sudden conspire to invade Judea and to destroy the Jews professing the same Religion and whom their late reestablishment proclaims to be in a more peculiar manner the favourites of Heaven The present limits of the Church no doubt will be greatly enlarged by the accession of many Nations now sitting in darkness and the shadow of Death And this enlargement whatever encrease it may receive in the mean time of which there is little prospect may reasonably be expected at the time of the Jews Conversion from which no less then from their Infidelity the Gentile world will receive great advantages If the fall of them be the riches of the World and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles how much more their fulness Rom. 11. 12. That is upon the coming in of the body of the Jewish Nation to the Church of Christ the Gospel will be farther propagated among the Gentiles which is all that can be concluded from that Text. 'T is true there are several places of Scripture which seem to extend the Kingdom of Christ over all Nations of the Earth and to foretell the reception of the Gospel by all People in all places of the World Thus it is foretold of Christ that there should be given him Dominion and Glory and a Kingdom that all People Nations and Languages should serve him and that all Dominions should serve and obey him Dan. 7. 14 27. And thus of the stone cut out without Hands by which all agree is meant the Kingdom of Christ it is said that it became a great mountain and filled the whole Earth Dan. 2. 34 35. But these and the like Prophecies signifie no more than the vast extent and largeness of the Christian Church in opposition to the straitness of the Church of the Jews which was confined within the narrow limits of a small Countrey That these notes of Universality All Whole are to be interpreted in a limited and restrained sense is evident from other Prophecies in this Book of Daniel concerning the extent of the Grecian and Roman Empires For thus it is foretold of the third Kingdom that it should bear Rule over all the Earth Chap. 2. 39. And of the fourth Kingdom that it should devour the whole Earth Dan. 7. 23. And yet neither the Greeks nor Romans could pretend to an universal Conquest of the whole World There were several Nations never visited by the Roman Eagle and where the Name of Alexander was never heard of although 't is said he was so vain as to weep for want of more Worlds to conquer And thus a great part of the World will never be actually subject to Christ nor under the government of his laws For as the Greeks and Romans bearing Rule over and devouring all the Earth signifies no more than the greatness of their Conquests and the largeness of their Dominions So by the obedience of all Nations to Christ and his Kingdoms filling the whole Earth can be meant no more than the worship and acknowledgment of Christ by the greater part of the World And it is observable that Isaiah Prophesying of the establishment of the Mountain of the Lords House on the top of the Mountains and the exaltation of it above the Hills and the Confluence of all Nations unto it Chap. 2. 2. In the next verse the universal is changed into a particular proposition And many People shall go and say Come ye and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord to