is a Kingdom Daniel 7.27 And the Kingdom and Dominion and the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven shall be given to the people of the Saints of the most High This promise comes in upon the dissolution of the fourth and last Monarchy both East and West The little Horn that riseth after the Ten being the Turk and therefore did not the very express terms and circumstances in the Text decide it the Time the Place the order of Succession would carry it to be a vissible and powerful Kingdom to be exercised here on Earth The very notion of a Kingdom imports a collection a panoplia of all delights but when it is said the Kingdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven it imports an Vniversal Monarchy or the Monarchy of the Universe whereof the four precedent Monarchies were but improperly so called by a Synecdoche and this Universal Monarchy to be most absolute most full most perfect for all felicity and abundance otherwise it could not invite and unite all the Earth as it shall do for the Kings shall bring their glory into it it shall be set in the top of the Mountains many Nations shall say come let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord and they shall find themselves at rest here and therefore is the reign of the Lord Jesus celebrated with such joy by the Spirit of Prophesy Psal 96. The heavens and the earth and the Sea and the Fields and the Trees of the Wood are called upon to rejoyce and sing and so in the next Psal 97. The Lord reigneth let the earth rejoyce let the multitude of the Isles be glad thereof so that as there shall be Righteousness Peace and Joy Heavenly and Divine within which is the whole substratum of your model of Christs Kingdom so over above and besides this shall righteousness likewise dwell in this new earth and shall fill all the administrations of this new World and the Kingdoms thereof and Peace as the work of this righteousness and Joy as the fruit of all these are the Mystical flowers and fruits that shall adorn this new state of things when the Winter of the Militant and suffering state is over and gone 4. This Kingdom contains in it and under it All the Kingdoms of this World Rev. 11.15 Possibly not all at first but only the Kingdoms of the fourth Monarchy both East and West but in the process of it it shall reap and gather in all the rest for the Nation and Kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish Esa 60.12 Yea those Nations shall be utterly wasted the whole Chapter is of it and in the last Chapter of that Prophesy we are made acquainted with one means how this shall be brought about vers 19. where the Lord saith I will set a * And what difference between a Signo Digito monstrari dicier hic est Sign among them and I will send those that escape of them unto the Nations to Tarshish Pul and Lud that draw the Bow to Tubal and Javan and to the Isles afar off that have not heard my Fame neither have seen my Glory and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles He had said before vers 15. Behold the Lord will come with fire and with his Chariots like a whirlwind to render his anger with fury and his rebuke with flames of fire for by fire and by his Sword will the Lord plead with all flesh and the slain of the Lord shall be many Then they that escape of these judgments shall be sent to the Nations who shall be armed and instructed not only with the Gospel of tydings of Christs first appearance but with the tydings of his second appearance and shall declare unto them what Christ hath done to the fourth Monarchy utterly consuming it and making it as the chaff of the Summer threshing floor to be carried away with the wind for ever for there will the judgment begin and this Embassy will prevail with many and those that stand out must expect the like severity and to be broken in pieces with the Rod of Iron as a Potters Vessel is broken to Shivers This is no mystical business no more then the destruction of Jerusalem was of old by Titus and Vespatian nor then the destruction of Heathenism was under the Sixth Seal Now if Christs Kingdom shall do all this and yet not concern it self with the world I much marvel 5. But this will be yet more clear if we consider in the next place that this time of Christ's coming is called the times of refreshing and Restitution of all things and if all things shall be restored then as the Apostle argues on the like universal Term. There is nothing excepted there is a dissolution is first to pass and that is upon an all too seeing all these things shall be dissolved saith the Apostle Peter but the work of Christ rests not there for nevertheless we according to his promise look for a new Heaven and a new Earth the restitution shall be as larg a restitution of all things where by the way we may learn that the new Heavens and Earth are the same Heaven and Earth new cast as I may say to which the word dissolution doth point as Plate that is melted down and cast in a new Mould and takes a new form and therefore it is called a restitution to its Pristine beauty integrity and innocency though I conceive the pattern to which it shall be restored is the pattern in a higher mount than Paradice even that mount where corruption never entred nor can enter for it is said as is the Earthly such are they that are Earthly and as is the Heavenly such are they also that are Heavenly and as we have born the Image of the Earthly we shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly 1 Cor. 15.48.49 Which is a glory far superior to the glory of the terrestrial Adam and that state of things which was Mutable and corruptible at the best and therefore if this renovation were but the restoring all things to that state it could not properly be said That it were new for Solomon saith nothing is new that hath been of time before Now when and how this great change shall be the Apostle tells us ver 53. when this corruptible shall put on incorruption and this mortal shall put on immortality 6. That which yet farther strengthens this is The Redemption of our Body which the Apostle saith the most spiritual Believers even notwithstanding their being possest of the first fruits of the Spirit yet even they groaning within themselves do wait for Rom. 8.23 and this the Apostle calls the Adoption Adoption is of Strangers whereby the Apostle intimates that till the body be redeemed we are as Strangers or in a Strange form and appearance not like the Sons of God as John saith 1 Joh. 3.1.2 Therefore we see Christ at
it hath nothing in it of any Worldly Concernment I must to that according to your own expression put a Siste gradum I should have hoped that you did not intend that this Kingdom is not conversant about worldly concernments to Govern Order and Regulate them but for two or three passages I meet with in the same and next Page where you say That this Kingdom was never ordained or appointed Digito monstrari dicier hic est to be looked at with a carnal Eye and pointed at and that neither the VVorld it self nor any of its concerns can have any abode or being in this Kingdom and that it hath no relation to the things of the VVorld that are momentary and Fading Which passages I know not how far they may be stretched to the denying the visibility of this Kingdom and all conversancy of it about visible and worldly things though in never so holy a way and upon never so noble and divine an account But let us first weigh and consider your proof Jeh 18.36 My Kingdom is not of this World This is that Text you ground upon for the exclusion of all worldly Concernments out of this Kingdom let us therefore first open the import of this saying and there are four respects in which we shall agree that Christs Kingdom is not of this VVorld 1. It rises not out of this World it is not of a Worldly Extraction or Original This is clear in Daniel Dan. 2.44 It is set up by the God of Heaven not by any agreement of Men Rev. 21.10 as the Procatartick cause It Descends from God out of Heaven 2. It is not maintained by the Power or force of the men of this World this our Saviour expresly reflects on My Kingdom is not of this World Joh. 18.36 for then would my Servants Fight VVorldly weapons and fighting neither founds nor conserves this Empire Not by might nor by Power Zech. 4.6 but by my Spirit Saith the Lord not by Bow nor by Sword nor by Battel nor by Horses nor by Horse-men will I save them Hos 1.7 Though God may use all these yet the work is not done by these Principally 3. For its Nature and Spirit it is not of this VVorld The Spirit the glory of it is as its Root and Extraction Divine and Heavenly Therefore called the Heavenly Jerusalem having also a Divine Image and appearance having the Glory of God Rev. 21. which is that you mean when you say it hath no affinity with the men of this World 4. It doth not stand or consist in Worldly Priviledges or advantages such as are amplitude of dominion afluence and abundance of all things outward So far you go to which I will add a fifth that it consists not in the exercise of a Worldly Religion which is that I take that Scripture you quote principally to intend the Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink The first Tabernacle the Apostle saith stood only in Meats and Drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances imposed till the times of Reformation the Kingdom of Christ is so far from standing in these that it stands not in the forbearing of them neither in circumcision nor uncircumcision but in the true liberty and glory of the Spirit in righteousness peace and joy in the holy Ghost that Trinity of all divine excellency as you call it distributing it accordingly to the three glorious Persons in the divine Essence which I quarrel not at all believing it to be as you say innocently designed as to the main only reserving my self not to be concluded by every passage in the managing of it thus far we agree in excluding this world But all this excludes not this Kingdom from a conversancy about the things of this VVorld For 1. Though it be not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of this World yet it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this world though it grow not it arises not out of this World yet the stone that grows to a Mountain grows in this World and the new Jerusalem comes down from God out of Heaven into this World And as Christ to perform his Priestly office by sacrifice came into this World so when God brings again his first begotten to administer his Kingly Office it is into this world that he brings him Therefore his Kingdom being not of this world doth not deny it to be set up shewed and mannaged in this world 2. Though Christs Kingdom be not of this world yet The Kingdoms of this world are to be the Kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ and this with an express Notation of the time at the sounding of the 7th Trumpet Rev. 11. 3. Though this Kingdom is no terrene earthly Kingdom yet there is an Earth in this Kingdom as well as a Heaven a New Heaven and Earth and they that shall reign in this Kingdom as all the redeemed ones shall do are said to reign Revel 5.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the Earth Therefore also this Kingdom hath the name of a world the world to come by which we have been taught to understand Heaven but that place Heb. 2.5 compared with c. 1.6 will over-rule such a sense that it must needs be of this world made new which is yet said to be to come in respect not of the matter but the form of it and may help us to understand many other Texts as particularly that where the sin against the Holy Ghost is said to have no forgiveness neither in this world where a great deal of grace is manifested through Christs Death nor in the world to come when more abundantly it shall be manifested at Christs second coming 4. Though the Kingdom of Christ doth not stand nor consist in outward priviledges and advantages yet it consists with them and they shall be added unto it and shall serve and minister in it First I say it consists with them This you will not deny else we must not look for the Kingdom of God while we are here in the body in the use of these things and then how shall the Kingdom of God be of all times as your fifth Position affirms but I mean not only the present low Estate of this Kingdom but the most glorious state of it in the earth consists with eating and drinking and building and planting and propagation and the affluence and abundance of all things And for this I shall give you but two proofs out of the old Testament the one is of Enoch a Type of the life that the Saints shall live in this Kingdom of whom it is said Gen. 5.22 That he walked with God after he begat Methuselah 300 years and begat Sons and Daughters The second is of the 70 Elders of Israel that went up with Moses into the Mount Exod. 24.9 They saw the God of Israel and did eat and drink Mount Sinai and that appearance you know was a Figurative and shadowy Glory of Mount Sion for the Majesty of
it and for the familiarity into which Christ will entertain all his as there he entertain'd the Nobles of Israel though not for the terrour of it Secondly as outwardly priviledges and advantages may consist with so they all shall be added and annexed to this Kingdom and shall serve and Minister in it This is so express that it is asserted by our Saviour in totidem verbis in two of the Evangelists Mat. 6.33 Luk. 12.31 Seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you And in how full a stream the Prophets of the old Testament are found to concur and joyn I need not acquaint you Sir nor such as you are diligent perusers of the Scriptures And if those places in the Evangelists do only promise and secure to us things that we need as to some by the words foregoing v. 32. They may seem to be restrained yet the Prophets speak of a freer dispensation in the end the places are too many and frequent to need quoting And if any shall say those things are to be understood spiritually I say spirituality is the intern form and Essence of this Kingdom but that which is added to this must be something else otherwise why is it said to be added And if the Scripture hath no where restrained the sense and meaning of these expressions to a meer spiritual nature and import by what authority may we presume to be so Magisterial as to impose such a sense and interpretation upon them against not the sence and interpretation only of others and perhaps men as spiritual as our selves but against the express voice of the Scriptures as to instance in some places Psal 67. where this glorious state of Christs Kingdom on Earth is Prophetically celebrated when his way shall be known upon Earth not in Heaven only and his saving health among all Nations not the Jews only as then or in Christendom as now when all the people shall praise him then it is said the earth shall yield her increase and all the ends of the earth shall fear him Now will it not be a violent suppression and muzling the Scripture to understand this of the Earth yielding her Increase meerly spiritually and mystically so Esa 65.16 He that blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth Shall we take this Earth of Spiritual things or rather is it not to declare to us the spiritual use and enjoyment that we shall have of Earthly blessings in that day which denies not nor takes away the Vse of them but rectifies it according to a third Scripture Esa 62.8.9 The Lord hath Sworn by his right hand and by the Arm of his Strength Surely I will no more give thy Corn to be meat for thine Enemies and the Sons of the strangers shall not drink thy Wine for which thou hast laboured but they that have gathered it shall eat it and praise the Lord and they that have brought it together shall drink it in the Courts of my Holyness as Israel was required to bring their special offerings as in liew of the whole and to eat and drink and rejoyce before the Lord under the Law So Zach. 9. last How great is his goodness and how great is his Beauty Corn shall make the young Men chearful and new Wine the Maids and Mal. 3.10 Bring ye all the Tithes into the Store-house that there may be meat in my house and prove me now herewith saith the Lord of Hosts if I will not open you the windows of Heaven and pour out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it And I will rebuke the Devourer for your sake and he shall not destroy the Fruits of your ground neither shall your Vine cast her Fruit in the Field c. and if you say these are antiquated promises to the Jews I answer they hold to the worlds end and the last times of Christs Kingdom as they shall excell those past times in spiritual glory so they shall not come short of them in those outward promises We live upon the terms of the New Covenant as delivered by the Prophets to the Jews and that very New Covenant Jer. 31. is yet to give down its milk more freely then ever it hath done and see what is said of Israel when they return and it shall be made good to the whole Israel of God Gentiles as well as Jews They shall Sing in the heights of Sion and flow together to the goodness of the Lord for Wheat and for Wine and for Oyle and for the young of the flock and of the herd Jer. 31.12 Now how great confidence is required in that man that shall restrain these Scriptures to a spiritual meaning only I must confess it must be much greater then is with me Besides many others that might be alleadged from Esa 65. as promises of long life of planting Vineyards and building houses and long enjoying the works of their hands yea Esa 30.23.24 not only to Israel is promised their bread shall be fat and plenteous but that in that day Their Cattel shall feed in large Pastures the Oxen likewise and the young Asses that ear the ground shall eat clean Provender winnowed with the shovel and with the fan and the enmity of the Bruit creatures shall cease I dare not for a world say these things are meerly mystical and allegorical Sir I heartily close with you that the spirit of the Kingdom stands not in any nor in all these put together but in righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost but that all outward blessings are as the body the image the cloathing of this beautiful inward form and life is what I verily hope and believe If the particulars as already alleaged appear not of that force give me so much patience while I recollect them and give you a brief Synopsis of them together adding some other particulars to them whereby it may appear that so far is the Kingdom of Christ from not having in it any thing at all of worldly concernment that the whole Creation the World All the Kingdoms of the world will be found to be the concern of it till all be brought at last to lye in the Armes Bosom and Embraces of it as the whole World hath lain in the wicked one as it is govern'd influenced and mannaged by him Therefore is this Kingdom of Christ deservedly called 1. A New Creation not only Mystically and Radically or Seminally as in the present state of Faith and Suffering but manifestly and explicitely as grown up or risen into its own body and proper appearance Rev. 21.1.5 where we have the entireness of this Creation expresly recognized by the two constitutive parts of it a new Heaven and a new Earth can any thing be fuller And these words are true and faithful 2. This new Creation is a World and is so called Heb. 2.5 The world to come 3. This world
have taken it for the last and general Judgment whereof it was a lively figure and representation Revel 6. from 12. to the end 5. The next coming of Christ is his coming upon the man of sin after he had by the space of a thousand years fixed his throne and Usurpation over all Christendome for the generallity of it called the Holy City Setting himself in the Temple of God whom the Lord by the Spirit of his mouth in his witnesses and reformers consumes and brings to a skeleton in order to destroy him with the brightness of his coming Now as all the appearances of Christ to the Fathers and the Prophets were gradual and preparatory workings to his first Personal appearance wherein and wherewith also he ministred the light and notice of his second appearance so all these several comings of Christ since his ascention are so many gradual steps and preparations to his second and glorious Personal appearance and coming And as none of those appearances of his to the Fathers and the Prophets were his first personal appearance such as was promised and intended by God and expected by those that believed the promises so neither do any of these comings since Christs ascention discharge the promise of God or the expectation of believers but that they groundedly expect not only a farther and fuller Revelation of Christ but a Personal appearance and descending of the Son of man from Heaven bodily after the same manner as he appeared the first time and as he ascended though in a far greater glory which second appearance of his in person will finish our Salvation as his first did perfect our reconciliation The necessity of this second and personal appearance for these ends will appear more clearly after we have removed one objection which may lie in the minds of many it is this Christ is a spirit a quickning spirit the Lord that spirit His Body is spiritual a spiritual body can act at a distance why therefore may not all that is to be performed for the Church be done by Christ without changing his place why must we needs understand his descending from Heaven to be Local visible and bodily Why may not a vertual presence serve the turn and especially when the phrase of Scripture favours such a sence for it is said he cometh in a cloud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 21.27 and he shall descend from Heaven in a shout in the voice of the Archangel in the Trump of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if the shout the voice of the Archangel the Trump of God were the vehicle and the vertue or power of Christ put forth therein were all the appearance he makes and all the voice he puts forth and not his Organical voice It was the voice of Angels that shook the earth at the giving of the Law though it be call'd his voice he putting forth his power therewith and with that voice and with that effect is this shaking of Heaven and Earth parallel'd Heb. 12. To which may be added that Christ is God as well as Man and hath all power in Heaven and Earth and his very humane Nature is carried up to the right hand of power and in association with his Divine Nature is thereby qualified to act as a spirit yea as God and the Centurion could say when he sought Christ for his servant and Christ told him he would come and heal him speak but the word and thy servant shall be healed as much as to say no need of Local motion or corporal application to all which I answer 1. Of the power of Christ who is the true God and eternal life there is no dispute He can do whatsoever he pleases by a word by a Beck by a motion of his will nor do we limit circumscribe or give Laws to a spiritual body which in the spirit is and can act as the spirit so that the question is not of what is simply possible to Christ but the question is what is the will the counsel the determination and appointment of the Father 2. The same argument will lie against the necessity of Christ's first Personal appearance for Christ was the Lamb slain from the Foundations of the world in the eye of God and his Sacrifice did operate as an atonement with and on the behalf of all the faithful from the begining and they beheld this Sacrifice and reaped the comfort of it in all their Sacrifices under the Law yet all this made not the personal appearance of the Lamb of God in flesh needless for all those figures had their vertue from this and all the Faith of the Saints look unto this in those shadows Now if notwithstanding all this it was necessary that Christ should come in the flesh and fulfil those shadows that pointed to him which had else all been in vain The cause is the same here in respect of his second appearance for all the judgments that have been hitherto shewed and executed on Jews or Heathens for resisting Christ or on the Antichristian world for mocking of Christ have not yet succeeded so as to make Christ's Victory perfect to put all Enemies under his feet nor all the Salvation outward or inward that he hath wrought for his followers have not given them rest from all their labour and sorrow Isa 14.3 and hard Bondage wherein they have been made to serve both inward and outward they have not yet received the hope Gal. 5.5 or Harvest of the righteousness of Faith but wait for it they have not yet received the quiet and full possession and fruition of their inheritance Eph. 1.14 neither of Heaven nor Earth but only the earnest of it The whole payment awaits this second glorious Personal appearance of the Lord Jesus from Heaven Not but that the things are great which have been done by the spirit and were Faith improved what a glorious improvement farther might be made of our present state and interest but as that first ministration of the Law though glorious in its end and tendency Yet as that end drew near did Sink and became less powerful in the Letter and even declined as a shadow and came to nothing so this ministration of the Gospel from Christ's first appearance may be expected to be with the generallity of professors of Christianity as Christ's second appearance comes on insomuch that the very Faith of it will be even vanished out of the Earth Luk. 18.8 And little but the form of goodliness without the power to be found among many if not the most of professors yea the sincere the true seed will be sensible of great sailours great decayes of spirit Isa 32 1◠to relieve which is that promise of the spirit to be poured from on high on the wilderness the latter raine and of sending Elias Joel 2.23 Mal. 4.5 to turn the heart of the Fathers to the Children and
the Children to the Fathers 3. If all these places of Scripture might be solved and answered with a vertual and effectual presence and appearance of Christ yet the Faith and desires of the spouse cannot be satisfied without the Personal presence and enjoyment of her glorious Head and Bride-groom who is more to her then all whom having not seen she loves in whom though she see him not yet believing she rejoyces with joy unspeakable and full of glory and what hath she an eye for but to see him and why did he take our Nature and Form but to be so contemplated and enjoyed by his people especially when we take in this that in every line in every feature of that all-glorious face and person we shall see Divinity sparkling forth and if we could entertain our selves here with his good things without his person yet he cannot so satisfie himself to withhold himself in the most full and perfect way of enjoyment from us He that left the Fathers bosome to die for us will he refuse to drink the fruit of the vine the wine of joy with us in the Kingdom of his Father If there were no other reason that I confess sticks with me and is of it self alone sufficient that our Saviour saith Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory will Christ then send them from his presence to the earth and not accompany them thither if the Scriptures had said nothing of it or will he come down with them and not continue with them there while they continue there How can we ever be with the Lord as from the change it is said we shall if Christ keep in Heaven and we be upon the Earth How did it animate Stephen when the stones were about his Eares Act. 7 5◠with what sweetness did it fill his spirit when the Heavens opened upon him and he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God How will it animate how will it raise and influence the whole Body mystical to see Christ with his Heaven and all his glory to come down and dwell in the midst of them which is no more then the spirit affirms shall be for behold the Tabernacle of God which is the person of the Lord Jesus and that not without his humanity for that properly is the Tabernacle of God is with men for so it is said of his incarnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He Tabernacled in the midst of us as the Tabernacle of old was pitcht in the midst of the Tribes in their encamping in the wilderness But besides this there are many other reasons as well as Scriptures to induce to believe this Article of Christ's personal glorious appearance and residence with his people in that glorious state of his Kingdom as being that point to which the eye of our Faith and expectation is constantly directed both as the necessary produceing and conserving cause of all that felicity It is the center into which all the lines from the whole circumference do strike and wherein they meet It is the Crown and perfection of all the antecedent and inchoate Salvations without which they would be but Embrio's and abortives To Philalethes Himself SIR I Have now done with your argument my greatest task behind is to address a few lines to your selfe a task so great that I can truly say by the difficulty I laboured under in the prospect of it I was hindered from putting Pen to Paper longer then the Angel was withstood by the Prince of Persia Dan. 10.13 The difficulty arose from a twofold ground first the common and general nature of opposition and controversie which as is observed of War is a sluttish thing and requires more than ordinary skill and circumspection that we wound not our friends instead of releiving them against their mistakes 2. From the peculiar nature of your cause and your singular way of mannaging it your cause carrying spirituality in its banners and your way of mannaging it with reference to my self being with all christian candor and friendly respect and that not only in your Epistle Dedicatory but through all the parts of your discourse How I have comported with the spirituality of your design I must leave to your self and the impartial Reader to judge I can truly say I heartily desired and endeavoured to be found in a full compliance with it being sorry for nothing more then to find so fair so lovely an Image of your mind engaged in so unhappy an opposition and dismembred from it self And sure no other then the Enemy hath done this for as the Woman is not without the Man nor the Man without the Woman in the Lord so neither is Letter without Spirit nor Spirit without Letter the outward form without the inward nor the inward without the outward in the Lord no more than the Soul is without the Body or the Body without the Soul in living man The outward form in Christs Kingdom being as the Woman the Letter the Body which is the image and glory of the Man i. e. of the inward form and spirit It is so in the Lord. There is indeed a state wherein they are not found together and thence arises your disgust because in Anti-christs kingdom you find the letter without the Spirit and not only form without power but the outward form exalting it self and behaving it self uncomely against the inward spirit and life denying it laying it by setting up it self in the room of it and this not only among the Papists but those that call themselves Reformed yea what form what judgment what perswasion can wash their hands of this guilt more or less how few even among our purest Churches but have defiled their garments this way But Sir let us remember It is not so in the Lord nor will it be so in his day and Kingdom While things are thus carried it is Antichrists day not Christs day It will then be otherwise This makes us look and long for his appearing I confess if we must have but the one the Spirit or inward glory were by infinite degrees to be preferred before the outward form and glory by all that have tasted that the Lord is gracious for he is a living Stone that puts life into all that are joyned to him There is no life and peace but in the Spirit Rom. 8.6 To such a one To be carnally minded is death If we seek an outward kingdom an outward glory that shall not be all Spirit It is as the stretching out our hands to a strange God Psal 44.20 and forgetting the name of the Lord our God and will not God search this out But on the other hand consider what the Spirit himself saith not only as before The Man is not without the Woman in the Lord 1 Cor. 6.13 but the body is for the Lord and the Lordfor the body the Spirit and the inward glory
receive the same Answer 1 Cor. 2.9 10. Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of Man the things that God hath prepared for them that Love him The Original Text to which the Apostle refers is Esa 64.4 where the words runs thus For since the beginning of the World men have not heard nor perceived by the Ear neither hath the eye seen O God besides thee what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him VVhere by the context both before and after in the same Chapter and in the next these things that no eye but God hath seen issue expresly into a New Heaven and a new Earth long life Building Planting a long injoying of the works of their Hands their seed and offspring to be blessed and the enmity of all the Creatures to cease All these though things not seen as yet yet are in their own nature visible enough if men have Eyes answering though much exceeding those terrible things which God did when he brought up Israel out of Egypt and came down upon Mount Sinai in a visible glory which the Church mindes the Lord of in the 3. vers of that 64th Chap. Invocateing the Lord to do the like things again yea threatning a greater kindness that the expects from him if he do but consult his own provisions and stores for that is the meaning of the 4th vers as if she had said Thou hast greater things to shew then ever any Eyes besides thy self O God hath seen and yet the Eye that saw Paradice and that state of innocency and that saw Solomons Temple and the prosperity of that time had seen very great glories but the glory of the new Creation of the second Adam of the true Solomon is to be unspeakably greater every way and in every respect both inward and outward else the Precedent and the pattern was very improperly alledged for that was outward as well as inward and here Sir I thank you again for this Text also which being unmuzled and speaking freely is fully for a visible Kingdom which when you consider I hope you will come over to us and be for it too Not will the next verse you take in relieve you at all where the Apostle saith But God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God whereupon you note they are therefore deep profound and mysterious because invisible and could not be so deep c. Were they not the invisible things of God The things whereof we treat even that new State of things which Christ will bring with him at his next coming are deep things and such as without the Revelation of the Spirit we could never have known or had ground to expect and it is called The finishing of the mystery of God but to say there is no mystery but invisible is to deny God manifest in the Flesh to be the mystery of Godliness which I believe you did not consider when you wrote your description of Faith as the evidence of things not seen which you next fall down unto Take it with the former explication viz. That the things not seen are not necessarily all of them things in their own nature simply invisible but with reference to the present time not seen as yet and it hurts me not at all And so we must understand them for whatsoever is the Subject matter of a promise is the Object of our Faith Hope and Expectation which as hath been sufficiently proved and instanced are not only invisible things but also things visible and which shall be seen in their Season But whereas presently hereupon you make the Works of God invisible incomprehensible c. As he himself is How then Sr. can God be made known by them even to natural men as he is said to be Rom. 1. There is I grant a three fold Sence in which the works of God are as you express it Infinite Eternal every way invisible and incomprehensible in all the compleat dimensions of them even as he himself is viz. They are so 1. In the Principle in which they are wrought 2. In the Wisdom and Power by which they are conducted and managed 3. In the end to which they are ordained in which sence Solomon is to be understood That whatsoever God doth it shall be for ever nothing can be put to it nor any thing taken from it as much as to say there is neither Redundancy nor Deficiency in it But if the Children those highest and best pieces of the works of his hands be pertakers of flesh and blood a caduke faint and weak appearance in the present state and yet the Work of God is perfect and abides forever will it be ever the less perfect or rather will it not appear in its perfection when this vile covering upon the Face the Majesty the glory of God in his works shall be done away This Kingdom of Christ which we expect is that alone which can rend this Vail and uncover the Face of the Glory of God in all his workes and it is the proper work of this Kingdom so to do Esa 25.6 7 8. And to exalt the Lord alone in that day then he that blesseth himself in the Earth shall bless himself in the God of truth and he that Sweareth in the Earth shall Swear by the God of truth Esa 65.16 where we may learn that the Earth and God the Earth and Truth and so Visible and Invisible are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inconsistent the Earth the lowest part of his ways and works his Footstool yet truth yea the God of Truth found there the Earth not such a vain shadowy empty thing in that day as it hath been hitherto but the God of truth filling the Earth and all the things of the Earth When you see this will not your Heart rejoyce I am perswaded it will as little as you now know the meaning of that outward visible Kingdom of Christ for this is the new Heaven and new Earth that we speak of a state so new that it shall perfectly blot out the remembrance and leave no footsteps of the former Vanity as the Prophet Esay acquaints us in the 17th vers of that 65th Chapter which state of things yet is and must be acknowledged though not simply Invisible yet as far remote from the common sence and understanding of men as you can desire and to have a great depth and mysteriousness in it a Path which the Vultures eye never saw the Tabernacle of God with men grace and nature God and Man the Creator and the Creature Heaven and Earth things visible and invisible like bretheren dwelling together in unity mutually infolding encompassing one another mutually giving and given forth one of another This is that which the Prophet celebrates with that high Elogium in that fore quoted place Eza 64.4 That no Eye besides thee O God hath seen Till I see this I
and the Holy Ghost entirely within themselves in the unity of the God-head where God and his Kingdom God and all his works are one This is the Original Kingdom the head of all here both God and his Kingdom are properly invisible to any created Eye 1 Kings 8.12 or understanding dwelling in thick darkness as Solomon saith possessing all entirely to and within himself in an incommunicable glory this is properly the Kingdom of the Father The Kingdom of Christ is the Mediatory Kingdom wherein Christ as God-man is set up from everlasting in Heaven in a heavenly state and glory to make forth to created understanding the invisible glories of God and of his Kingdom as a living Image and representation thereof Of this state of Christs Person and Kingdom before the world Solomon speaks by the Spirit in a most high and divine strain Prov. 8. from v. 12. to v. 32. and our Saviour himself recognizeth it in those expressions of the Son of Man in Heaven and in that Prayer Joh. 17. Joh. 3.13 Glorâ— thou me with the glory I had with thee before the world was And the Apostle Paul Phil. 2. saith He was in the form of God Both these Kingdoms which are one though distinguished are eternal from eternity and to eternity suffering no dammage or diminution by time or any the chances changes or injuries of time In both which known to God and known to Christ Act. 15.18 are all their works from the foundations of the world In the Kingdom of God there Christ as a Mystery and all things else created and increated lay in the Bosom of the Father In the Kingdom of Christ in this Heavenly state The world and all the times of it lay in the Mediatory bosom before they were brought forth into actual existence in themselves So the Apostle saith We were chosen in him before the foundations of the world Eph. 1.4 and he is before all things Col. 1.17 and in him all things consist and stand in a most harmonious frame and he is the head of the body the Church 1 Cor. 11.3 Rev. 5.5.20.16 who is the beginning and the head of every man the head of this world In this state is Christ properly the rooâ— of David and of all things which lay eternally as a Mystery hid in him and there lay his own humanity which in time he was to take up of the Virgin as He and all his Mediatory Kingdom and glory was a mystery hid in God Eph. 3.9 But now in the second place there is a state of this glorious Mediator and of his Kingdom revealed on earth which is properly the Subject of our debate that the will of God may be done on Earth by the Son of Man on earth and in the state of his Kingdom on earth as it is done in Heaven in and by the Son of man in Heaven and in the heavenly state of his Kingdom there which is the second Petition that follows in that Doctrine of Prayer which our Saviour instructs us in immediately following upon the first Thy Kingdom come Now this Kingdom of Christ may also be considered in a twofold state viz. In a state of exercise and suffering and this state lasts from the fall of man who being set in honour continued not and runs down through all the times of this degenerate world till Christs second and glorious appearance 1 Rev. 9. and is called by John in his Revelation the Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Christ The other state of Christs Kingdom is the Victory and Triumph Esa 25.8 when he even his Father who hitherto worketh with the Son Joh. 5.17 and the Son worketh also shall have put all Enemies under his Feet 1 Cor. 15.24 27. and shall put down all Rule Authority and Power as it is inimical or contrary to him and this state of the Kingdom is called Peace Esa 9.7 and rest ch 11.10 his rest shall be glorious and this properly is that Kingdom whereof we enquire Now Sir having premised this distinction of the Kingdom of God and his Christ let us apply it This state of Christs Kingdom in peace in rest and victory in the visible manifestation of it to every created understanding and eye you can by no means say was from everlasting nor hath been all the times of this world but hath its proper times to be exhibited and those in the end of this old corrupt degenerated world by its appearing it will make all things anew and will be the restitution of all things That which may be a vail before our eyes in discerning this Truth is the glorious things that are spoken of this present state of the City of God and the Kingdom of Christ in the present state of it in Faith in which it is truly a Kingdom though a suffering Kingdom and gets the better of all its opposers though not without blows and blood and it gives rest and peace to all the subjects of it mystical inward and spiritual rest and peace Heb. 4.3 1 Pet. 1.8 Isa 26.3 Philip. 4.7 Psal 110.2 in the midst of enemies and troubles for we which have believed do enter into rest and rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory and our minds are kept in perfect peace even with a peace which passeth all understanding and so Christ rules in the midst of his Enemies and God hath given us the Victory 1 Cor. 15.57 through our Lord Jesus Christ yea we are come to Mount Sion Heb. 12.22 the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem Eph 2.6 1 Joh. 5.4 Joh. 12.31.16.17 and are set down with Christ in heavenly places having overcome the world by Faith and the Prince of this World is judged and cast out and we inherit all things But we must remember all this glory is in death and suffering and under the Cross both inwardly and outwardly and all the life and glory that we feel and experience is but to carry us up under the Cross and dying of the Lord Jesus as the Apostle at large discourses 2 Cor. 4 from the 7. verse to the 15. and in that refreshing Ordinance of the Supper we shew forth the Lords Deaâ—h till he come which death being the gate of life all Believers in their successive generations are passing through and will or must be so till the Lord come This is the gate to the City Rev. 22.14 call'd there Gates because through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God and as Christs suffering was his great Obedience called obedience unto Death and is that which is meant by that phrase Lo I come to do thy will O God So this is the doing of Gods will and commandments by Believers the presenting their Bodies a living Sacrifice thereby proving by experience the good and acceptable and perfect will of God This is the way to the City which the fool that is drunken with the Spirit of
whom God shall bring with his Son at his next appearing and then there were Peter James and John as representing the whole number of Disciples or Surviveing Saints and there was between both these departed and Christ and between Christ and his Disciples familiar converse and discourse in and during that Scene of Glory Now such as the earnest is such must the full payment be in the same Coyn it were a grand Soletism to state a glorious Kingdome of Christ with out Christ appearing in glory in that Kingdom and therefore David in the prophetical view he takes of this day Psal 68.17 Sees the Lord among them as in Sinai in the holy place and the Prophet Micah when he sees by the same spirit the full reduction of Israel sees their King passing before them and Lord on the head of them Mich. 2. last But Secondly how can it be otherwise but that the Lord must appear from Heaven in this glorious state of his Kingdom because of the great the Stupendiously great and ineffable works that are then to be done the ministry and effecting whereof is committed to Christ and to this his glorious appearing so that here is a complex argument the things to be done are singular rare extraordinary effects and they are such as will yeild to no power but that of the Lord Jesus in person as the raising of the dead and the judgment of the quick and dead and the changing of the surviving Saints there is no man in his wits will say these are the works of every time nor of any times but Christ's being reserved to those times for the glory of Christ and of his appearance as it was his voice that shook the earth at the giving of the Law so it is his voice that must now shake Heaven and Earth both Heb. 12. last It is his Voice must raise the dead Joh. 5.28 Not only the Mystical dead in Sins and Trespasses by his mistical or Spiritual voice put forth in the Ministry of the Gospel of which he may be understood to speak ver 25. in manifest difference from his way of speaking here but the dead properly and therefore whereas of the other he had said ver 25. The hour is coming and now is He saith not so of this hour ver 28. that it now is but that it is coming which is meant of his personal voice even as by his personal voice he raised Lazarus This is indeed marvelous in comparison wherewith the other though very marvelous yet hath no marvel in it and therefore out Saviour says marvel not at this yet Christ having said it who shall dare to question it So likewise Christ in person is to be Judge of all men Christ appearing as man in that forementioned 17th of Acts. though this man is God also So also the times of refreshing depend or derive themselves from the presence of the Lord they issue and now from that Bosom Act. 3.19 and that we might not put it off with a spiritual presence the next words shew it is personal and he shall send Jesus Christ which before was preached unto you not Christ shall send the comforter but the Father shall send Jesus again whom the Heavens must receive untill the times of the restitution of all things what violence must be offered to these and 20 other Scriptures if we allow not these times of refreshing and this restitution of all things to be not of all times but special times and to come in with the revelation of Christ's glorious person from Heaven therefore he is called in Malachy the Sun of righteousness who with his chearing warming enlivening rayes and influence shall both enlighten and quicken his own dead body first through them all things in their just order I confess they that state the utmost glory of Christs Kingdom to lie in the reformation of the old state of things to a better degree only are not obliged by that their judgment to expect Christ's personal appearance in the work his spiritual appearance or the power of his spirit in the way of Faith having already succeeded in that work and done much and being able to do more but it is not a higher or better degree of what now is that will answer the heart and design of this Love nor the grounded hopes and expectations of the Saints but a new state of things an old thing is but an old thing still be it repaired never so firmly and so is an old state the new state hath a new root and springs up in a new Image But these are but Terms let us attend the thing the Root of this new state is the person of the Lord Jesus called the Lord from Heaven the Lord that spirit that quickening spirit and such as he is such must the state be that is brought forth by him as is the Heavenly such must they then appear to be when he shall appear for he shall then appear in glory in the glory of the Father in the glory of a quickening spirit he is a quickening spirit now and we are now the Sons of God but it doth not yet appear but is hid in God his appearing is when he shall appear in us in changing us we mistake Christ's appearance if we look on it only us an objective appearance as a glorious object that shall affect our natural sences though he is and will then be a most glorious object but if we be not furnished with Spiritual sences to take in his glory we shall be confounded by it as all his enemies on whom he shall let it forth will be but if Christ should do no more but set himself in the eye of his people as a glorious object this were not to appear as a quickening spirit to appear as a quicknening spirit is to appear in a work of transformaâ—ion throughout to the transforming of Soul and body therefore it is said when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is that is we shall see him as a quickening spirit by the power whereof our very Bodies shall be changed and made like unto his glorious body and this he shall do in an instant in the twinkling of an eye for that is the working of a spirit much more of this quickning spirit therefore ir is said his reward is with him and his work before him a quickening spirit carries his own effect in his own efficiency certainty presently at once and in an an instant It works not long and leisurely gradually and successively that is the difference between the present state and that how long are we getting Victory over corruption but no soone shall Christ appear as a quickening spirit but sin shall be so utterly annihilated as if it had never been neither root nor Branch of it left to them that look for him shall he appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex secundo the second time without sin unto salvation But this is