of Mediatorial Glory and Fruition that is the Errour that corrupteth all your confident discourses The Office of our Redeemer is to Recover sinful man to God and restore him to purity from sin and all the curse or punishment for sin yea and to advance him to a more perfect and confirmed state And Christs Reward for this is the everlasting Joy that was set before him in the fruition of the Divine Complacency and in the perfect and glorious Headship to his perfected glorified Church for ever Let us consider 1. Which of these is Given up to the Father And 2. What Giving up to the Father is And 3. When it is done § 19. 1. The first all grant is to be Given up The Kingdom of Recovery but not the Kingdom of Fruition That of Grace not that of Glory As a Prince commissioned to be General for the reduction of Revolted Rebels brings them down by degrees and having slain some and reduced the rest he giveth up his Commission and is General no more for his work is done But he hath after the promised Reward and Honour and may under the King rule them as recovered Or as a Physician that hath an Hospital or infected City to cure giveth up that work when it is perfectly finished So Christ giveth up the Kingdom of Redemption when he hath done that work 2. But this Giving up is no deposing of Christ nor is he less but more gloriously King than before Nor is God the Father any more King than before It 's no diminution to Christs Royalty nor any addition to the Fathers I shall prove this before I go further § 20. 1. By comparing this Text with Joh. 5. 22. The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgment to the Son And yet the Father Governeth no less than he did before and is not deposed by giving up all Government to the Son Only the quality of the Subject and the terms of his Government are altered Creation is in Scripture eminently ascribed to the Father and Redemption to the Son The Father as Creator Governed Man in his Integrity to preserve and perfect him Man being faln into sin and misery the Son as Redeemer Governeth Man as a Physician his Patients in order to his cure The Father now judgeth no Man as sinless according to the Law of Innocency but hath committed the Government of all to the Son as his Administrator and Physician in order to their cure This is but altering the way of Government And it is the Subjects of the Kingdom that are called The Kingdom who are now restored and delivered up to the Father without blemish spot or wrinkle that he may henceforth Govern them as a perfectly healed People according to the Law of Perfection The Father now judgeth no less by the Son than before in another way § 21. 2. I prove the continuance of the Kingdom of the Son in the way of Fruition and Glory by the Promise hereof made to him by the Father The Covenant of Mediation hath Obligations laid on the Son and Promises of a glorious Kingdom as merited by his performance of his part And doth his performance dispossess him of his promised Reward when it was the condition of his Title to it It 's tedious to cite all Texts that prove it § 22. 3. The Promises are made to Christ that his Kingdom shall be an everlasting Kingdom and have no end And therefore ceaseth not by the delivery mentioned And though the Hebrew word commonly translated for ever oft signifie but a long time or many Generations yet in the Texts intimated there is no reason for such a limitation If God say that of his Kingdom there shall be no end let the deniers prove their denial § 23. 4. Christ hath promised to make them that overcome Pillars in his Temple and they shall go out no more which he could not perform if he go out himself or lose his Kingly Power And he saith That the Children of God and the Resurrection are equal to the Angels and die no more And sure he can make their state no more durable than his own And it is called Life Eternal which we shall possess And shall Christ have less than we § 24. 5. Christs Humane Nature will be perpetuated and therefore so will his glorious Kingdom No Text speaketh of his ceasing to be Man but many contrary And who should then presume to assert it I know Smeckfeldius held that Christ ceased to be Man as soon as he entred Heaven But the Church called it a Heresie As on Earth he was to be Man like us in flesh so in Heaven where flesh and blood cannot enter yet he will make our vile bodies like to his glorious body § 25. 6. The state of Reward is an Advancement and not a Diminution as to us so to Christ Phil. 2. 9 10. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow of things in Heaven and things on Earth and things under the Earth and that every Tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father § 26. 7. Christ hath promised us that we shall be with him where he is and prayed that we may there behold his glory which is plainly to say that when he hath been the Mediator of Redemption he will be the Mediator of Fruition that is that we shall see Gods Glory as shining to us in the glorified Humanity of Christ For as we shall have Bodies in Heaven as well as Souls so our Bodies will have a suitable Medium of Communion with God § 27. 8. If Christs Humane Nature should cease its Glory ours by the same reason would do so too But that is contrary to the hopes of Faith § 28. 9. Angels Glory and Being is perpetuated And therefore Christs Humane Kingdom and Glory who is above them will not cease § 29. 10. There is Executive Government by Christ to be exercised after the supposed Thousand years Therefore he shall Reign after to perform it The Redeemed Believers must be Rewarded to Eternity and he must save to the utmost all that come to God by him He must continue and perpetuate their Reward and Happiness For they must live as his Members because he liveth And I doubt not but if you are for ending Christs Kingdom after a Thousand years you will be for the ending of ours And he hath his Enemies to punish longer than a Thousand years Luk. 19. 27. And I believe that you are for ending their punishment then if you would end Christs Kingdom then Rev. 6. 16. It is the Wrath of the Lamb that is to be executed on the Enemies of the Lamb It was against him and his Grace that they sinned and it is he that cometh in flaming fire to execute Judgment on all that know not God and obey not the Gospel And doth punishment end with
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
The Glorious Kingdom of Christ Described and clearly Vindicated Against the bold Asserters of a Future Calling and Reign of the Jews and 1000 years before the Conflagration And the Asserters of the 1000 years Kingdom after the Conflagration Opening the Promise of the New Heaven and Earth and the Everlastingness of Christ's Kingdom against their debasing it who confine it to 1000 years which with the Lord is but as One day Answering Mr. Tho. Beverley who imposed this Task by his oft and earnest Challenges of all the Doctors and Pastors and his Censure of Dissenters as Semi-Sadduces of the Apostasie in his Twelve Principles and Catechisms c. By RICHARD BAXTER whose Comfort is only the Hope of that Kingdom 2 Peter 3. 13. We according to his Promise look for New Heavens and a New Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness After the Conflagration LONDON Printed by T. Snowden for Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns the lower end of Cheapside 1691. To Mr. Increase Mather the Learned and Pious Rector of the New-England Colledge now in London Worthy Sir WHen it befalleth me to differ from men more judicious it is not because I have a greater esteem of my Intellect than of theirs but because that which to me seemeth Evidence constraineth me And when I publish that seeming Evidence it is not in expectation that any receive it save those that by impartial deliberate thoughts discerning it are convinced by it I therefore craved your censure of these Papers because I found that you had long and laboriously studied the Controversie and were confident of much of that which I write against I have read no man that hath handled it with so much Learning and Moderation as you have done And therefore I knew no man fitter if I err to detect my Errours And as your Candour is rather for my publishing than suppressing these Papers so truly I am so far from disliking a true Confutation of this or any Errour that I shall publish that I therefore direct these lines to you to intreat you to write whether I be alive or dead your Reasons against any momentous or dangerous Errour which you shall here find That as we thus friendly consent to such a Collision or rather Communication as may kindle some further sparks of light the Readers may be helpt by comparing all the better to find out the truth Seeing the chief Writers for the Millennium are Conformists and men of greatest Learning and Piety among them as Jos Mede Dr. More Dr. Twisse then conformable Dr. Cressoner Mr. Beverley Mr. J. M. c. I hope they will not take it for scandalous in you and me herein to differ You have partly relieved me against some Accusations of Singularity when you tell your Readers in the Preface to your English Mystery that so many think the Thousand years past already viz. That Aretius Bilney Wickleffe Walter Brute Benno Cardin c. thought that the time began at the Birth of Christ That Viegas Pererius Augustine Primasius Beda Andreas thought it began at the Passion of Christ That Junius Pareus Dent Broughton Bibliander Usher thought it began at the Destruction of the Jewish State And that even Brightman Majer Forbes Willet Gerhard Guild Cartwright as well as Alcaser Castiglius begin it at Constantines Inthronization which is as the same with John Fox Acts and Mon. Vol. 1. p. 111. Grotius Hamond and many others that begin it at the Fall of Maxentius or Licinius or at Constantines Edict for Christians from whence to the Ottoman Empire say they was just a Thousand years And that the Conversion of the Jews will not be till the present state of this World be near its end you hold with Beda Estius Acosta Stella Zanchy Perkins Vossius Finnus And page 20. you believe that the 1290 years in Dan. are past long ago as you say Arnold de Villa nova The Author of the Problem Mr. Stevens Mede Alsted Lud. Capellus Dr. Twisse to whom I may add many more Though you are plain that the Thousand years are not before the Conflagration and that Antichrist shall not be finally destroyed till then though Rome shall and that a Thousand years will be but a part a morning of the last great day in which the Just only shall rise and that the evening will be the time of the rising of the unjust to destruction and the space that is till Christ give up the Kingdom c. Yet because oft-times you joyn the Jews earthly Monarchy so obscurely with the Resurrection without mentioning the intervening Conflagration I intreat you in your next to make your self therein more intelligible And give some proof that the wicked shall not be raised nor judged till after the Thousand years neither those dead before nor those found alive at the Conflagration seeing many words of Christ and Paul seem plainly to assert a common Judgment of Sheep and Goats just and unjust at the same time of Christs coming As to my Opinion that Pagan Rome was Babylon I have so much to say for it as must not here be repeated If that cast away my reputation with any or many let it go He is unworthy of reputation that cannot give it up for Truth The Revelation hath much plain and easie to them that read it without prejudice who I doubt are few I only fix on so much and leave the rest to wiser men without dishonouring of their Judgments so be it they give not up our Cause to the Papists by laying it upon things doubtful or untrue while we have sure and plain proof enough against them Your unworthy Fellow-servant RICH. BAXTER London Decemb. 19. 1690. THE CONTENTS Chap. I. THE Kingdom of Christ as described in the Scripture Chap. II. An Answer to Mr. Tho. Beverleys Twelve Principles and much of his Catechism of the Millennium necessitated by his many provocations and challenge to all the Doctors and Pastors of the Church and his censure of Dissenters as Semi-Sadduces of the Apostasie His first Principle examined Of delivering up the Kingdom to the Father Christs Kingdom began before the disputed Thousand years proved His Enemies much subdued before What is meant by Giving up the Kingdom The longer continuance of Christs Kingdom proved Of Christs being subject to the Father And God All in All. Whether it be true that Christ was eternally a Man having an eternal Kingdom as Man but not as the Son of Man after the Millennium Whether out Union with God and Christ Joh. 17. be that Then God shall be All in All as before the World began Whether we were in God before the World began and how The tendency of this Doctrine Of Mr. T. B's ambiguous Language His 2d 3d 4th 5th and 6th Principles The 7th Principle That those found on Earth shall be presently caught up at the Lords Coming and not stay a Thousand years after proved fully And the limitation of a Thousand years confuted The 8th Principle The Thousand
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
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
Nature be a Soul to the Incarnate Body or Christ took both Soul and Body of Man besides the first Mental Nature Apollinarius was for the Godhead being instead of a Soul Now you come and tell us that The Eternal Word in Humane Nature hath a Kingdom throughout Eternity but not as the Son of Man but as the Eternal Word The Glory in which Christ is seen with his Saints being the Glory which he had with the Father before the World began Of the same Nature wherein he is now at the right Hand of God till he appears And the Union in that Eternal State is by God to God by the Word to the Father so the Son as Man is subject and God All in All. Catech. p. 21. It seems by the high expressions of God who is purest Spirit being All in All and by the Lake of the Second Death and even the New Heaven and New Earth after the Thousand years flying away there is no bodily or material nature continued no not of the Sons glorious body who is then subject nor of the Saints Ans Scripture having declared no such thing no such thing can be supposed but that Christ and his Saints shall be in bodies So high expressions can fit no state but of God All in All even as he was before the foundation of the World All in All and to which state our Lords words so much refer Joh. 17. When all the Saints are thus One with God in Christ then he is thus All in All as before the World began Though this Kingdom of Christ be so holy so heavenly so pure so much of God in it yet because it is the Kingdom of the Man Christ Jesus and of his Saints in a Visible Created Glory and not the highest Union to God All in All Christ gives this last declaration of the Name that is of the Nature and Glory of God He freely delivereth up this his Kingdom and the Son as in Humane Nature suffers most willingly that Glory of himself and of his Saints to be swallowed up by God All in All and unites them with himself to the Father as he is the Eternal Word and so they are with him for ever beholding the Glory which he had with the Father before the World was which is the highest instance of Self-denial of all Created Glory and giving up all to God All in All that could be given Joh. 17. 5. § 36. Here you do but confound mens minds with many things at the best unproved 1. That Christ was an Eternal Man of which your Transubstantiation-Book hath more 2. That his Eternal Manhood is so distinct from his being the Son of Man that he hath a twofold Manhood one from Eternity and one at his Incarnation 3. That Christs Kingdom as the Son of Man that is in his Manhood which he had by Incarnation endureth but a Thousand years 4. That the Manhood of his Saints which they had by Generation also ceaseth after the Thousand years 5. Yet Christ and they shall have material Bodies after even in Christs eternal Body 6. That this giving up of the Kingdom after a Thousand years is the greatest Self-denial in the World as if it were a loss or diminution of the Glory of Christ and Saints 7. That when all the Saints are thus One in Christ with God then God is All in All as before the foundation of the World 8. That this is the Unity meant in Joh. 17. 24. 9. That this is glorifying Christ with the Glory he had before the World began Joh. 17. 5. And not that God would glorifie him as the Son of Man by advancing his Humane Nature to its participation in the Glory which the Divine Nature had from Eternity 10. Yet you tell me by word of mouth that you believe the Individuation of the Saints in this united state The Metaphor of swallowing up in God you may make true or false as you shall expound it which till then signifieth nothing § 37. Short-sighted men may reverence this the more by how much the less they understand it But they that will make sense of it must see that it is to lead us to Heathen Philosophy as a higher Light than Christ and Scripture and to introduce the Pythagorean Opinion of the Transmigration of Souls and the Platonists and Stoicks Revolution and Averrhois his Universal Soul and to make God or Christ Divisible and with Origen to make the future Rewards and Punishments temporary § 38. 1. If Christ as a Man or Life or Spirit was Eternal it was as God or as a Creature As God he was not Man nor Body If you say that he was the second Hypostasis as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Holy Ghost the third as Matter as Dr. More and J. Turner then either you mean Vniversal or Particular Life and Matter If Universal you make the World to be God and make him Divisible If Particular you make God a part of the World And so you do if you make him but the Soul of the World § 39. 2. If the Saints were in God before the World began accordingly all things were eternally in God and that will bring in Aristotles Eternity of the World which indeed meer Reason might take for probable § 40. Either you mean that we were in God only as in Potentia Creatoris and that is not to be in him but only to say that he was able to make us For existere est esse extra Causas Efficientes Or else that we did actually exist which those hold that are for Souls Prae existence or worse And we did exist in God either as being God himself or Creatures or Effects of God If we were God from Eternity we are God still If as Effects or Creatures then either as Parts of one common Soul and body of the World or of the Humane Species or as so many Individuals If it be said that we were but Parts of one Soul or Body it will infer that we are so still and that these parts are as the Rivers and Springs from the Sea in continual Revolution Or if we are fixed Individuals God kept us not idle from Eternity or prae-existent None can think that God from all Eternity or since kept all the Souls that are to be embodied to the end of the World in a sleepy state till Bodies were generated for them If you say that they lived in God as pure Spirits without Bodies what then did the Prime Matter which some of you call the third Hypostasis in the Trinity We see that God put Souls into Bodies in this World And can you prove that he never did so before from all Eternity And when you have said that Christ and Saints shall be swallowed up in God and have no more Kingdom as Sons of men but be in God as before the World began do you mean that they shall continue so to all Eternity and never revolve into Bodies more When God hath
are like the Angels And you say on Earth they shall be getting Children abundantly a Thousand years if you take that for no note of imperfection it seems Christ did Principle V. Answered § 1. What could you have said more strongly against your self Death is subdued or swallowed up in Victory when the Redeemed die no more None of them die after Christs first day of Judgment at his appearing Are they dying all the Thousand years I cannot imagine what reasonable answer you can give to this Text and Argument If you say that there are Devils and wicked Men to be put to death all the Thousand years can you prove that they were the Redeemed that Christ came to deliver from death or yet that some of them are damned in the beginning and some not till the end of the Thousand years Or if their death shall endure no longer than the Thousand years If you say that the Saints on Earth have Natures Mortal though they shall not die I answer you have written that they are in the Kingdom of Glory and equal in Love and Grace and perfect as those above And if death be not subdued when Men are secured from it by Christ and the possession of promised Immortality it s a doubt whether it be overcome at all For none are above a posse mori but God because the Being of all Creatures dependeth meerly on his will The suspension of his support would end all Created Being In which sense it is that Arnobius cont Gentes asserteth the Souls Mortality If Christ must be the Conqueror of Death when will he Conquer if not when Men die no more Is it after he hath given up his Power and Kingdom Principle VI. Answered § 1. This is but your further owning your own full Confutation Principle VII Answered § 1. This poor shift is answered above Do you not say Those alive are in the same Glorious Kingdom and that none are perfect till all are perfect And have those in the Air any more assurance that they shall not die than Gods Love and Will and Promise and their Union in Christ 2. But why is not at least the Heavenly or Airy Kingdom given up at first 3. Was not death Conquered to the Person of Christ after his Resurrection though he was at his Ascension to be taken up And is not death Conquered to those on Earth that have the foresaid security to ascend and never to die This shifting is meer violence to the Text. 4. But I will prove that the Apostle tells us that the Catching up will be presently And your words of Christ first and then those that sleep in him have no more strength than this Inference If Paul telling us of the difference in Order of time between Christs Resurrection and the End of the World be signified by that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after then we may suppose that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth no sudden change of the living at the Coming of Christ Ans I deny the Consequence The matter of fact tells us of a sixteen hundred years distance in one and the Text proveth a suddenness in the other The distance between Christs Rising and his Coming to Judgment are so notoriously revealed that Paul need not say It will not be the same moment But here if you believe not your self instead of Gods Word the contrary is so plain as confuteth all your devised frame § 2. I. Supposing that I need not confute to you the two false readings reproved by Jerom Augustine c. 1 Cor. 15. 51. saith We shall all be changed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what could be spoken plainer At the Change joyned with the Resurrection it will be in a moment in the twinkling of an Eye and which is unanswerable at the last Trumpet That the said Trumpets sound is at Christs Coming is evident Matth. 24. 30 31. They shall see the Son of Man Coming in the Clouds of Heaven with Power and great Glory And he shall send his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet and they shall gather together his Elect from the four winds from one end of Heaven to the other And 1 Thes 4. 16. The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the Trump of God c. If you will feign two Trumps one at the beginning and the other at the end of the Thousand years you will do it by so gross an addition and contradiction of Gods Word as that I hope few will believe you Nor yet if you feign that the Trumpet will not sound till the end of the Thousand years For the Trumpet soundeth at the same time that Christ Cometh with his Angels and that the dead are raised and the Elect gathered At this sound will be the change in a moment § 3. II. The Text saith expresly that we shall be caught up together with them And that none may feign it to speak but of a simultas of Company and not of Time the words are placed so as to confute it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we shall with them be caught up Not a Thousand years after them § 4. III. The Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rapiemur suddenly caught up as by force seemeth purposely put to signifie the simultaneous speed § 5. IV. The end of this Rapture is not at a Thousand years end to go dwell in the Air or with the Lord but to meet the Lord in the Air which is supposed to be at his Coming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The whole context 1 Thes 4. and 1 Cor. 15. implyeth this meeting him to be at his Coming § 6. V. It is said to be to meet him in the Air. But no Bible but yours doth say that Christ shall dwell a Thousand years in the Air. And you your self say that at the end of the Thousand years he shall give up his Airy Humane Kingdom And when he hath removed his dwelling the Inhabitants of the Earthly Paradise will come too late § 7. VI. It is said that when we meet him we shall for ever be with the Lord That is The same Lord that we meet which is Christ God and Man and in the State and Kingdom where we meet him and not only come to him at a Thousand years end when he hath changed his Humanity Kingdom and Place § 8. VII Ver. 15. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are left as reserved to the Coming of the Lord plainly imply that we are kept for that time to meet him at his Coming and not only a Thousand years after § 9. VIII 1 Cor. 15. 52. Again expresly joineth the sound of the Trumpet the Resurrection and our Change together For the Trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed that is when the Trumpet soundeth and the dead are raised § 10. IX Matth 24. Christ tells us that He will gather his Elect from the four Winds
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