Epistle was in possession of it and the Aposile did then hope for the house not made with hands eternall in the heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 And therefore that world is not a distinct world but even the same in which as Mediatour he shall give up the Kingdome to the Father Reply That the Apostle speakes of a world to come as well in respect of Christ as of himselfe it is evident first from Psal 8.4 c. which shewes that the world which the Apostle calls the world to come is the world in which those workes of God are that he made for man to have dominion over is the world I say in which the beasts of the field the fowles of the aire and the fishes of the sea doe inhabit And secondly it is cleare from the originall word by which it is exprest which is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the superiour world the third heaven as you take it but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inferiour world the terrestriall globe the dwelling place of men and all other mortall creatures as we read Matth. 24.14 and Acts 17.6.31 And therefore the Kingdome of heaven in your sense that is Christs possession of heaven and his reigning over the Saints departed cannot possibly be meant by it but the Kingdome of heaven in our sense that is the heavenly Kingdome which Christ shall here visibly reigne over in time to come In the day the great day in which God hath appointed to judge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the world in righteousnesse by him as it is Acts 17.31 that is to execute judgement and justice on the earth as the Prophet Jeremiah expresseth it chap. 23. ver 5. So that the Apostles words are as if he had said For not unto the Angels hath be appointed this inferiour world of which we spake before chap. 1. ver 6. to be subject in time to come but unto Christ as one in a certaine place testified saying What is man that thou art mindfull of him or the sonne of man that thou visitest him Thou madest him a little lower then the Angels thou crownedst him with glory and honour and didst set him over the workes of thy hands c. And thus it is manifest that your referring of the words whereof we speake to ver 3. is but a private fancie crossing the Apostles explication of the world to come by the prophecy of David Psal 8.4 c. And imposing such a signification on the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as is not to be found in all the Scripture And therefore we still conclude that the world which the Apostle speakes of is to be a distinct world in time from this we now live in and both in time and place from that in which our Saviour shall give up his Kingdome to the Father And as for those who by the world to come doe understand the time of the Gospell betwixt Christs first and second comming they doe hereby make the Apostle either to call the time in which he himselfe lived the world to come or to distinguish the time betwixt Christs first and second comming into two worlds at the least Whereas the scripture doth divide the whole time appointed to the heavens and earth that now are but into three worlds or parts of time the first whereof containes the time from the creation to the floud and is the old world of which Saint Peter speakes 2 Epist chap. 2. ver 5. the world long since past The second containes the time from the floud to our Saviours next appearing and is the world that now is The third containes the whole day of judgement the 1000 yeares and little season mentioned Rev. 20. which is to beginne at our Saviours next appearing and to end with the world it selfe at the last resurrection and this is the world to come of which the Apostle here speakes Israel's Redemption or that which is to be given up is already past Mr. Petrie's Answer That which shall be given up is not past as yet neither shall it be given up altogether but in some manner as the Millenaries acknowledge at the end of their 1000 yeares Reply That which shall be given up is not past as yet you say true and that which shall be ginne is not come as yet But surely it is false to say that we acknowledge Christs Kingdome shall not be given up altogether that we acknowledge I say that Christ as man as the Sonne of David shall not then cease to reigne when the generations of men over which he must reigne shall cease And this earth on which he must reigne shall passe away In a word when at the last resurrection he shall take the elect with him into eternall glory and delight and turne the reprobate from him into endlesse horrour and contempt For we know that the Apostle in 1 Cor. 15.24.28 teacheth otherwise saying Then commeth the end when he shall have delivered up the Kingdome to God even the Father c. And when all things shall be subdued unto him then shall the Sonne also himselfe be subject unto him that put all things under him that God may be allin all Israel's Redemption And it is no where said that the new Jerusalem the City of eternall glory shall be subjected to Christ as a creature but that Christ as a creature shall after the judgement of the dead be there subject to the Father Mr. Petrie's Answer He as God-man saith Matth. 28. To me is given all power in heaven and on earth And thus all the consequences for proving the earthly Monarchy of the Jewes are naught Reply That the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the power our Saviour speakes of Matth. 28.18 was given to him as man and not as God for so he had it from all eternity interpreters agree And what though all power in heaven and on earth was then given to Christ as man What doth this make against my words which affirme that Christ as man shall after the judgement of the dead after all things are subdued unto him surrender againe this power as having no further use of it and in the new Jerusalem not reigne as man but be himselfe subject to the Father Or what doth it make against Christs 1000 yeares reigne on earth that he had then all power in heaven and on earth given unto him unlesse it will follow from hence that if he had been to reigne visibly on earth he might and would have done it at that time But certainely this will not follow for though our Saviour had then all power given him yet he was toexercise it to doe all that was to be done by it in that order and manner which God had appointed it to be done and no otherwise And therefore as we acknowledge that God had from all eternity the same power of creation which in the beginning of this world he first of all put into act and exercise so we acknowledge likewise that Christ hath now that power
words in 1 Thes 2. are not to be understood of a spirituall wrath doe indeed rather confirme then confute this exposition Seeing it is plaine that the Apostle in ver 28. speakes of such Jewes onely who for the Gentiles sakes that were to be received into their roome were become the enemies of the Gospell of Christ and consequently not of such on whom God had mercy or would have mercy any otherwise then in making of them instruments for the fulfilling of his promise made unto the Fathers touching that elect remnant of their posterity whom he purposed to call by a generall conversion Tenthly you say Object 10 That the estate of the Church is described such that the godly shall be mixed with the ungodly even till Christ come and gather the tares from the wheat to be burned Matth. 13.39 And surely we say not Sol. 10 that Christ shall reigne on earth before he comes to doe this but when he comes to doe this And therefore also his Kingdome for so he calls it ver 41. shall not be a Kingdome of such carnall delight as you to vilifie the truth ascribe unto it It being the onely scope of this parable and anonother in the same chapter to set forth the righteousnesse thereof Your last words are All these and such like passages the Millenaries willingly passe over But let the reader judge whether you have not more cause to be ashamed of such arguments then we have to be afraid to answer them Israel's Redemption And in my conceit Saint Peter in the very next verse doth intimate as much for having before used the word Day he warnes them not to be ignorant of this one thing That one day is with the Lord as a thousand yeares and a thousand yeares as one day As if he had told them that the day he spake of was indeed a thousand yeares the Holy Ghost alwayes using it in this sense when it is emphatically applied to our Saviours comming or the Jewes redemption Which as it is already proved shall happen at the same time And though God as he is eternall cannot be measured by time and as he is immutable feeles no alteration in time a thousand yea ten thousand times ten thousand yeares and one day houre or minute of a day being in this respect all one to him yet this shift cannot void the exposition already given seeing the apparent dependance of these words on the former doth clearely prove that Saint Peter intended not to shew what a thousand yeares and one day were to God in regard of his nature which it is like they knew before but only what is usually meant by one day in the word of God And indeed to what purpose had this sudden and serious advertisement been inferred if the Apostle did not hereby discover unto them besides the largest definite and limited acception of the word such a speciall relation of a thousand yeares to one day as cannot belong to any other number when as touching Gods immensity and immutability one day might as well have been compared with ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands as I said as with one thousand yeares Mr. Petrie's Answer Whatsoever be your conceit you may see that the Apostle hath another purpose there for ver 4. he telleth of seâ—ffers jeering at the promise of Christs comming because all things continue as they were and so all things seeme to have subsisting in themselves he refutes this imagination and shewes that the world both was made and continueth by the word of God who is able to destroy as sâ—netimes he did and bath appointed a day of judgement and perdition of ungodly men Here be putteth the day of judgement and perdition of ungodly men for that the scoffers say where is the promise of his comming so that at his comming he will judge and punish the ungodly which is contrary to the opinion of the Millenaries Then ver 8. he answereth to that opinion of delay saying One day is with the Lord as a thousand yeares He saith not one day is a thousand yeares as the Millenaries make the commentary shorter then the text but is as a thousand yeares and therefore here is no exposition but comparison as if he had said albeit a thousand yeares seeme a long time to us and so the world seemeth to have continued long yet it is not so with the Lord to whom all time is short or none And then he shewes the end why God delayeth that comming to wit in long-suffering toward men awaiting the repentance of the last of them Whereby you see another meaning and another purpose even contrary to that conceit of the Millenaries The Apostle might have named many millions of yeares as one day in respect of Gods eternity but according to the usuall custome of speech be nameth a round great number for any number Reply You had no other shift to avoid the answering of my former answer but to call it a shift And here you have dealt no better with me then you have often done before to wit left out what was most unpleasing to your selfe and instructive to the reader and made a flourish against the rest and yet all this will not serve your turne for first it is a manifest slander to say That Christs judging and punishing of the ungodly is contrary to the opinion of the Millenaries For doe not we say that the destruction of the Army in Armageddon is to be at our Saviours descending as it is plainely revealed Rev. 19. and alluded unto chap. 14. ver 19 20. and that there shall be then also a destruction of all obstinate and rebellious sinners as it is foretold in 2 Thes 1.7 8 9 10. and Rev. 16 20 21. and intimated in the parable of the tares and the net câ—st into the sea Matth. 13. and doe we not say likewise that when the new insurrection of the Nations shall be at the end of the 1000 yeares peacefull reigne fire shall come downe from God out of heaven and devoure them Rev. 20 And doe we not hold that all this shall be before the last act of the great day of the Lambes wrath in which the sentence of damnation shall be pronounced against all unbeleeving sinners at the last resurrection All this then being undeniable there can be no truth in your foresaid words And as in ver 5 6 the Apostle shewes the faithfull why the wicked should make a scoffe at the promise of Christs comming and in ver 9. gives them the reason of Gods putting off of his comming so long so in ver 8. hee makes no answer to the opinion of delay but puts them in minde of the meaning of the day of judgement spoken of in ver 7 which two verses doe seeme to be brought in by way of Parenthesis For though a 1000 yeares which seeme a long time to us be but a short time with the Lord as you say yet doubtlesse that which
ungodly that shall oppose him at the entrance and end of his reigne and aneternall judgement upon them and all other ungodly sinners at the last resurrection of the dead All which judgements the Prophets doe foreshew to be in the last day and not the last of these onely And therefore our Saviours comming shall not be at the last of these but at the first And whereas you alledge Psal 110. to shew that Christ shall not come till the last judgement it is false that this Psalme doth teach us any such thing for it shewes onely that Christ shall not come till that day in which God hath appointed to make his enemies his footstoole of which day the last judgement is but the last act And it is false also that Christs sitting at the right hand of God is his reigning For the Apostle Saint Paul saith That he sits not there reigning over his enemies but expecting the time in which they shall be made his footstoole Heb. 10.13 that is in which God shall bring him to reigne over them And that which followes in the Psalme doth shew what is to follow Christs comming from the right hand of God and not what is to goe before it as is shewed before Fifthly you say Object 5 That Christs Kingdome is an heavenly Kingdome 2. Tim. 2.17 and the reward of the godly is in heaven Matth. 5.10 11. as our Saviour spake of it and never of an earthly Kingdome unlesse by way of aversation Who made me a Judge saith be Luke 12.14 and the godly have prayed and wished to be with him in the heavens and never prayed to reigne in his earthly Kingdome 2 Cor. 5.1.6 Phil. 1.3 And we say that the Kingdome of Christ is to be heavenly in condition Sol. 5 and no way earthly but in place And that the reward of the godly departed before Christs comming is to be both in heaven and on earth Although the text Matth. 5.10 is meant onely of Christs Kingdome on earth called the Kingdom of heaven partly because of the heavenly constitution thereof but especially because the God of heaven shall mightily manifest his power in the setting of it up and because Christ and the Saints now in heaven shall come from heaven to geverne it And we confesse that Christ at his first comming refused to be made a King and to undertake the actions belonging to his Kingly office because that was not the time in which he was to sit on the Throne of David but when he should come againe into the world as hath been plentifully proved And as Saint Peter Acts 2.30 31. doth plainely prove from the prophecy of David Psal 16. That Christs sitting on Davids Throne was not to foregoe but to follow his resurrection And what though the godly living in this world have prayed and desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ in heaven did they not therefore expect and wish to come with him againe from heaven certainely it is notoriously false to affirme that the godly never prayed to reigne in Christs Kingdome on earth For what is it that Christ raught them to aske in these petitions Thy Kingdome come Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven and what was it that the sonnes of Zâ—bedee and the penitent theife sought for or what was it that the Elders sang praise to the Lambe for Rev. 5.9 10 was it not because by his death he had purchased for them a Kingdome then to come on earth Sixthly you say That God hath raised up Christ from the dead Object 6 and set him at his right hand in the heavens farre above all principality and power and every name that is named not onely in this world but also in that which is to come and hath put all things under his feete and gave him to be the head over all things Eph. 1.20 21 22. Whence it is manifest that seeing our Saviour governeth his Church and all Spirits are subject to him which authority is given unto him and so as God-man his Kingdome is not to beginne as yet But certainely it is not manifest from hence Sol. 6 that Christ doth now governe his Church any otherwise then he did before his incarnation that is outwardly and openly by mortall agents and inwardly and secretly by his Spirit and divine power Neither is it manifest from hence that all things are actually put under his feet or that all things are now thus subject to his manbood For who can better expound the Apostles meaning then the Apostle himselfe who in Heb. 2.9 saith We see Jesus who was made a little lower then the Angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and bonour that is raised from the dead and set at the right band of God in the heavenly places farre above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not onely in this world but also in that which is to come as it is exprest in Ephe. 1.20 21. But now we see not yet all things put under him saith the Apostle too Heb. 2.8 which words are quite contrary to these And hath put all things under him c. Ephes 1.22 What shall we say then that the Apostle speakes contradictions God forbid For they are put under him in a propheticall sense by a certaine appointment of it which is the meaning of the Apostle in the Ephesians where he speakes as the Prophet doth of what God intends to doe as if it were already done And they are not put under him in a proper and grammaticall sense by an actuall performance and visible mâ—nifestation of it which is the meaning of the Apostle in the Hebrews nor doubtlesse shall they be thus put under him untill that world to come of which the Apostle speakes Heb. 2.5 c. shall be put under him And then also he shall be visible Head over all things to the Church For then he shall sit and rule upon his Throne on the Throne of David on which God hath sworne with an oath to set him Acts 2.30 And shall be a Priest upon his Throne as Zechariah hath foretold chap. 6. ver 13. Seventhly Object 7 you say That when Christ shall descend from beaven with a shout and voice of the Arch-Angel with the trumpet of God the dead in Christ shallrise first and they who are alive and remaine shall be caught up together with them in the cloudes to meet the Lord in the aire and so shall be ever with the Lord 1 Thes 4. Here he is speaking of the same resurrection whereof be speakes 1 Cor. 15. as appeares by ver 52. and here he shewes the rising of the dead and change of the living to be together and that they both together shall meet the Lord and be ever with him And what then Sol. 7 will you conclude from hence that therefore these Saints shall not live with Christ on earth no you cannot for though they shall meet
the world * These first words may not unfitly be referr'd also to the time of the Saints reigne on earth for it is their priviledge at their entrance into their Kingdome and throughout the whole space of their reigne to judge the world that is all Nations of the Gentiles with the Judgement of Government and Reformation with the exercise of a Civill and temporall power over them as in the Prophecies of the Gentiles subjection unto them it may plainely be seene And it is their priviledge at the last resurrection to judge the world and the Devill that is all evill as well Angels as men by a joynt approbation of their finall and perfect condemnation of the full accomplishment I say of their eternall reprobation that is the wicked men that have been their oppressours and judge the Angels that is the evill spirits that have been their tempters and therefore shall not be thrust downe to the barre amongst them but advanced to the bench against them an addition doubtlesse to their former happinesse and no abatement of it Mr Petrie's Answer Some word of Isaiah 35.10 must be taken in another then the proper signification for if the word Sion be not taken for the Christian Church but for that hill within Jerusalem and the word Returne be meaned of bodily returning of the Jewes the words everlasting joy being taken for worldly joy contradicts the tenet of the thousand yeares Monarchy which shall end with an insurrection of the Gentiles against the Jewes but if the redeemed of the Lord be exponed for the faithfull whom Christ our Lord hath redeemed with his bloud and their returning and comming to Sion be their repenting and joyning to the society of the Saints then the everlasting joy is cleare by the words of our Saviour John 16.22 Ye now have sorrow but I will see you againe and your heart shall rejoyce and your joy shall no man take from you And as the Judgement is unquestionable so it is justly doubted whether the Apostle meaneth the Jewes 1 Cor. 2.3 seeing our Saviour saith Matth. 19.28 Ye who have followed me in the regeneration when the Sonne of man shall sit on the Throne of his glory shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel where the twelve Tribes are not Judges but judged But certainly he meaneth not of their judging in the temporall Monarchy seeing the Angels shall not be judged before the universall Judgement And the Apostle saith how much more things appertaining unto this life whereby it appeares that in the first part of the verse he understands a Judgement not in this life And in both respects these words of the Apostle are a diminution doubtlesse unto that imagined Monarchy Reply Without doubt if the Reader will take all to be true that you say he shall never finde you in an errour But if you have no better reason to prove that the words Sion and Returne must be taken in another then a proper signification but because you conceit that the words everlasting joy cannot consist with the insurrection of the Nations at the expiration of the thousand yeares you doe but deceive your selfe with this reason For though the thousand yeares peacefull reigne shall be terminated by the Gentiles insurrection at the loosing againe of Satan yet the joy of the Jewes here reveal'd is not limited by it For we read indeed of the surrounding of the Saints by the Nations Rev. 20. ver 9. but we read not there of any feare in them or hurt done unto them yea wee read onely of the finall overthrow of their enemies And whereas the better to countenance your Argument you call the everlasting joy here a worldly joy I pray what reason moves you to imagine that the joy promised by God to the converted Jewes whom he calls his elect and whom others he saith shall call the holy people and the seed which the Lord hath blessed should rather be a worldly joy then such a joy as our Saviour promised his Disciples John 16. ver 22. Is it because the Jewes are to be Inhabitants on the earth after they receive this everlasting joy and were not the Disciples Inhabitants of a more sinfull world then these Jewes shall be when they were made partakers of the joy which no man could take from them This reason then cannot prove your Epithite to belong rather to the joy of the Jewes then to the joy of the Apostles and yet unlesse this be the reason of your calling it a worldly joy I cannot conceive why you should thinke that after the Jewes are so plentifully inspir'd with the Spirit of God as the Prophets doe foreshew they shall be their joy should not be as spirituall and inseparable as the Apostles was And although it be unquestionable from the passage of St. Paul in the 1 Cor. chap. 6. ver 3. that the Judgement of all evill as well Angels as men is at the last resurrection to be passed on them by the joynt-approbation of the whole number of the elect yet seeing it is not unlikely that by the world ver 2. the Apostle meanes rather the Nations of the Gentiles in the time of Christs reigne on earth then the number of the reprobate at the generall Judgement of the dead it may justly be doubted whether by the word Saints in that place also the Nation of the Jewes be not comprehended with the faithfull which our Saviour shall bring with him as well as in the 20. chap. of the Rev. where it is foreshewed that the Nations of the foure quarters of the earth shall be gathered together against the Saints at the end of the thousand yeares And the words of our Saviour to his Disciples Matth. 19. ver 28. Ye who have followed mee in the regeneration when the Sonne of man shall sit on the Throne of his glory shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel doe help to confirme and not to confute the Government of the Gentiles by the Jewes For as the Apostles shall be made the supreme Governours of their owne Nation under our Saviour so doubtlesse shall other glorified Saints both of the Jewes and Gentiles be chiefe Governours under our Saviour over other Nations according as it is satd Rev. 5. ver 10. and chap. 20. ver 4. and as the parable Luke the 19. of the Noble-mans distributing of ten Cities to one servant and five to another doth imply for who is that Noble-man which is gone into a farre Countrey to receive for himselfe a Kingdome and to returne but our Saviour whom the Heavens must receive untill the times of restitution of all thing c. Act. 3. ver 21. who also spake that Parable because he was nigh unto Jerusalem and because the Jewes erroneously thought that the Kingdome of God should immediately appeare should be set up then at his first comming And as the glorified Saints shall be chiefe Judges under Christ so wee may well thinke
which are now by the same word are kept in store reserved unto fore against the day of judgement and perdition of ungodly men And many other places there are of the like nature But to the first I answer that those words of our Saviour doe onely distinguish the time and condition of his Kingdome from the time and condition of the Kingdomes of this world at the setting up of whose Kingdome there shall be such an * Nec enim dubium quin maxima rerum naturalium humanarum mutatio regni hujus auspicia sit antecessura Antichristus enim cum totâ fuâ Synagogâ abolâ—bitur extinguetur hominum pars maxima gentilibus non nisi paucis relictis qui in posteris suis non extra sed intra regnum hoc mille annis supererunt ut prophetiae suprà memoratae cum aliis in Scripturâ passim occurrentibus abunde testantur sub decursum verò mille annorum mirum in modum aucti a Satana e carcere suo saluto iterum seducti Sanctorum castra oppugnabunt sed incassum Nec dubium est quin rerum quoque naturalium quae regni huius incolis ministrabunt longè alia sit futura facies quam impraesentiarum est siquiâ—â—m beatissimum tran quillissimum erit regni istius seculum omnis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae in naturâ modò decurrit expers Mar. Frid. Wend. Contemp. Phys Sect. 2. cap. â—7 pag. 7â— 376. alteration over the whole frame of x Psal 46. Isai 2.12.19.21 ch 11.6 c. ch 30.25 26. ch 41.18 19. ch 55.13 Ezek. 38.19 20. Matth. 24.29.30 Mar. 13.24 25. Luke 21.25 26. Rev. 6.12 13. c. ch 16.18.19 c. nature and such a change of government on the earth that this time shall then as well be accounted the time of another world as the time before the floud is now taken for the oâ—â— world by us and was long agoe so stiled by Saint Peter in his 2 Epist chap. 2. ver 5. And therefore notwithstanding this proofe the place oâ— his Kingdome shall be the earth that now is though this be not the time nor any humane policy the patterne of his reigne Mr. Petrie's Answer Our Saviour distinguishes not betwixt the time of his and other Kingdomes for he saith in the same verse My Kingdome is not from hence that is My Kingdome is at hand as he said unto his Disciples Marth 16.28 Verely I say unto you there be some standing here who shall not tast of death till they have seene the Sonne of man come in his Kingdome that is reigning powerfully by the preaching of the Gospell and Matth. 24.14 This Gospell of the Kingdome shall be preached in all the world for a witnesse unto all Nations and then shall the end come There is his Kingdome before the end of this world and now is the time of his reigne albeit no humane policy be the patterne thereof 2. If he had said to that purpose as the Millenaries say that in time of his Kingdome being sonigh the Kingdome of the Romanes should be no Kingdome they might had more pretext of law for condemning him wherefore be distinguisheth the condition of the Kingdomes and not the time of them so that Caesar might been Emperour and Christ a mighty King both at once Non eripit mortalia quiregna dat coelestia Reply 1. That our Saviours Kingdome is to be a distinct Kingdome both in time and condition from the Kingdomes of this world is a truth apparantly delivered in the scriptures And for ought you have said to the contrary we may still thinke that these words of Christ doe in timate as much For though you first deny that these words doe distinguish betwixt the time of his Kingdome and other Kingdomes yet you presently give this sense to them your selfe when you say My Kingdome is not from hence that is My Kingdome is at hand And therefore it was not then in the world and if not then sure I am it hath not been yet and so it is distinct in time too from other Kingdomes as well as in condition I say it hath not been yet for what Kingdome of Christ hath been set up in the world since he spake these words which was not in the world when he spake these words Certainely his spirituall Kingdome was as much in the world at that time though not spread so much over the world as it hath been since That Kingdome therefore which you say was not then but was at hand is not yet come as the testimonies which you have alledged to prove that it was then at hand doe testifie a. gainst you also For that text Matth. 16.28 doth speake of a Kingdome to beginne at Christs appearing and not before it of a Kingdome I say when the Sonne of man shall come as it is in the same verse and when the Sonne of man shall come in the glory of the Father with his Angels as it is in the preceding verse And therefore doubtlesse these words of our Saviour Verely I say unto you there be some standing here which shall not tast of death till they see the Sonne of man comming in his Kingdome doe reveale a strange and extraordinary preservation of some then present till Christs next appearing For what doth the comming of the Sonne of man signifie but Christs descending from heaven and why did he subjoyne these words to his speech touching his comming in the glory of the Father with his Angels but because they are meant of the same comming And besides the Gospell had been before preacht by the Baptist by Christ himselfe and by the Disciples and not some but all the Disciples lived to see it preacht among the Gentiles also and therefore the seeing of this could not be the meaning of our Saviours words Thus then this first text doth shew that the Kingdome of our Saviour is not yet come And the other text Matth. 24.14 doth shew onely That the Gospell of the Kingdome that is which makes report of the Kingdome or by which men are made partakers of the Kingdome of Christ should be preached in all the world before the end should come that is the end and destruction of Jerusalem as the subsequent verses doe declare and not the end of the world as you affirme For would Christ thinke you have advised them to flye out of Judea into the mountaines from his presence at the end of the world Or how should it be worse for women with child and for them that give sucke at his comming then for others And now as for your exposition of these words My Kingdome is not from hence that is My Kingdome is at hand I pray what interpreters doe you follow in it or what colour have you for it What! are from hence and at hand all one or is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an adverbe of time or of place Doubtlesse these words My Kingdome is not from hence are to be
to call a revealed truth an humane fancie that it may be drawne into scorne and contempt under this notion And surely seeing it is a great unbeliefe to despise the revealed truth of God therefore we have great need to beware of such unbeliefe as it is said in the use Israel's Redemption Thirdly not to contemne or revile the Jewes a fault too common in the Christian world and that partly because we are unmindfull as well of the Olive from whence we were taken as of that into which we are graffed whose root beares us and not we the root and partly because we misapply the infallible promises of God by which he hath so freely and so feelingly so often and so openly declared that he will again graffe them in For if we were cut out of the Olive tree which is wild by nature and were graffed contrary to nature into a good Olive tree bow much more shall they which be naturall branches be graffed into their owne Olive tree Rom. 11.24 Mr. Petrie's Answer Whether serveth more for to move us to love the Jewes to know that the Jewes and Gentiles are one in Christ whensoever they shall be converted or to thinke that the Jewes shall not be converted till Christ come againe and then they shall be Lords over the Gentiles a 1000 yeares The former doctrine presently throweth downe the partition wall and this opinion still holdeth it up at least for a 1000 yeares Reply This Query as it doth in it selfe containe an apparent untruth so it is grounded on a misreport of our Tenet For first it makes us to thinke that there shall be no Jewes converted untill the whole Nation be converted whereas we hold the partiall and as I may so call it typicall conversion of them the conversion of them I say in their first fruites with you and the generall and contemporating conversion of them the conversion of them in the whole lump against you Onely we say that the partiall and successive conversion their conversion in some particular persons and families hath since the Apostles dayes been very thinne and rare Secondly you make us to thinke that the Jewes shall not be converted till Christ comes when as we hold that they shall be converted before his comming and be wholly freed from the opposition of the Gentiles at and by his comming at the judgement which shall light on the world when he descends to dustroy the Army in Armageddon And thirdly you make us to thinke that there shall be no spirituall union betwixt the Jewes and Gentiles in the time of the thousand yeares reigne whereas there is not to be a full and perfect union betwixt them in their acknowledgement and worship of the true God till then and in that time As our Saviours prophecy John 10.16 and Zech. 14.16 c. and Isai 2.2 3 4. and many other doe witnesse And though the Gentiles shall then be tributaries to the Jewes yet they shall be much more happy in this subjection wherein they shall have Christ for their King and the glorified Saints for their chiefe governours under him then ever they were in their former liberty which for the most part they so much abused to the provocation of Gods everlasting wrath against them Even as now you account that Jew which is become the Lords free-man which savingly embraceth the truth of the Gospell much more happy in his captivity under and subjection to the Gentiles then if he were Lord of the whole earth and withall a stranger from the covenants of promise having no hope and being without God in the world These are your misreports and as for your Query it selfe it is false to imagine that the knowledge of the conversion of a few Jewes can move us to a greater love towards them then the knowledge of the conversion of the whole Nation can And what love soever you may grant to be due to them in your dispute of it we may well thinke that you make shew of little towards them in your actions as these words pag. 65. Let Jewes follow Jewish fables c. doe manifest In which there neither appeares any symptome of your desire of their conversion nor of your love towards them or us Israel's Redemption And lastly earnestly to beseech God that he would speedily put into execution the meanes which he hath appointed for their conversion that he would even in these our dayes bring this mystery to light by powring on his people the spirit of grace and supplications whereby they may beleeve and repent For their happinesse will both increase and consummate ours Zech. 12.10 so also the Apostle * If the fall of them c. Observe here what Iewes are said to occasion the riches of the Gentiles Not those that beleeved when the Apostle wrote this although many of them were the first instruments of the Gentiles conversion and much lesse they that have beleeved since that time for these as they come farre short of the others both in number and qualifications so they may be said rather to have taken of us then given unto us to have inherited the riches of the Gospel with us but not increased them Not the first beleevers thereof nor such which hitherto have so slowly and thinly followed them but the stiffe-necked and stubborne Iewes who slew Christ who martyred and persecuted his Disciples They are here said to be the reconciling of the world and the riches of the Gentiles And that because their fall and casting away moved God so soone to visit us with the tidings of salvation And their fulnesse the receiving of them it must be that shall perfect us The receiving of them I say which were then cast away but how not in their owne persons for it is impossible that the same men should fall and not fall should be cast away and not be cast away but in their posterity and that not in part and by fits but wholly and at once For the Apostle speakes not of particular men and families but of all the Tribes of the whole Nation And indeed what but a generall conversion of the Iewes can bring such felicity to the Gentiles as shall not onely parallel but exceed the blessings which we have already received by their unbeliefe If the fall of them be the riches of the world and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles how much more their fulnesse and againe If the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead Rom. 11.12.15 Now to our Lord Jesus Christ who is both the light of the Gentiles and the glory of his people Israel who is the faithfull witnesse and the first begotten of the dead and the Prince of the Kings of the earth Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sinnes in his owne bloud and made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to him be glory and
held by God that they should not know the Prophet though they heard and followed him so it hath been your utmost endeavour all along to corrupt and dazle the readers judgement that he might not know the truth of the Prophecie that is set before his eyes and publisht in his eares Now the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who commanded the light to shine out of darkenesse shine in our hearts that as of sincerity as of God we may give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ That Isay without handling of the word of God deceitfully we may by manifestation of the truth commend our selves to every mans conscience in the sight of God that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever Amen Glorificetur Deus praedicetur veritas exerceatur pietas restituatur integritas Let God be glorified truth taught piety practised righteousnesse restored Redeat Pax regnet Rex regat Lex Let peace returne the King reigne the Law rule To my Booke excus'd THy wounds are heal'd and now thou must along To tell thy torturers they did thee wrong That thou wast no deceiver although They Did straine their wits to hide thy truth away Lest passing John 11.48 unexcus'd the simplest might Have taken too much heed of the upright Report thou mak'st and claspt thee with such love As no Acts 5.34 c. Gamaliel should e're remove Tell this to them and after greet thy friends Who prize the truth more then their private ends Courteous Reader THere was of late in this Kingdome one Mr. Mede a grave and learned Divine of the University of Cambridge who in his Treatises on the Revelation which he publisht to the world some yeares before his death doth plainely professe that he held not onely the Jewes generall conversion but their returne to their countrey too and the thousand yeares reigne of Christ and the Saints on earth Of which reigne as he hath a particular Tract so in the fourth synchronisme of the second part of his Clavis Apocalyptica he shewes by infallible arguments that it is to succeed the utter destruction of the Beast and false Prophet and to contemporate with the 1000 yeares binding up of Satan That it is I say to be in the time betwixt the destruction of the two Armies revealed in Rev. 19.20 which he there clearely proves to be two distinct Armies Against this Authour while he lived no man moved his pen although there was both time and opportunity to have done it but fince his decease which is an usuall course with the enemies of the truth as there have been many who have voted against him without answering any of his workes so there have been some who have undertaken to examine here and there a piece of his labours amongst whom Mr. Petrie is one who in pag. 14.60.61 of his answer to Israels Redemption doth assay the confutation of two of Mr. Medes synchronismes The first is the seventh synchronisme of the first part of Clavis Apocalyptica which he thus encounters Mr. Petrie And here by the way we observe that the renowned Authour of Clavis Apocalyptica is mistaken in his seventh synchronisme wherein he saith that the powring forth of the seven vials is contemporary with the end of the Beast and Babylon Answer He saith indeed that they contemporate with the ending that is with the declining estate with the totall destruction of the Beast and Babylon which the vials shall by their severall plagues gradually bring to passe but not that they doe all contemporate with the very end with the last moment of the Beast and Babylon which is proper onely to the powring out of the last viall For then shall great Babylon come in remembrance before God to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fiercenesse of his wrath as it is revealed Rev. 16.19 And then shall the Army in Armageddon be destroyed and the Beast and false Prophet taken in battell and cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone as it is declared Rev. 19.20 Mr. Petrie For albeit it be said chap. 15.2 That they who bad gotten the victory over the Beast sang the song of Moses it followes not that the Beast was then destroyed Answer Surely it followes as well that the Beast shall be destroyed when the song of Moses is sung by the conquerours of the Beast as it doth that Pharaoh and his Host were destroyed when it was sung by Moses and the Israelites For seeing it is againe to be sung upon the like occasion and not before the destruction of the Beast must as necessarily precede the second singing of it as the destruction of the Egyptians did the first And this the fourth verse doth confirme which shewes that by reason of Gods judgments which shall be made manifest unto the world at the singing of this song All Nations together shall come and worship before the Lord as the Prophets have said and as Saint Paul doth intimate by the comming in of the fulnesse of the Gentiles Rom. 11.25 which thing cannot come to passe while Satan the deceiver of the Nations is at liberty and the Beast and false prophet his instruments are subsisting Mr. Petrie Neither albeit the first and fift and last vials be powred on the Beast followeth it that they were not powred till the last time of the destruction of the Beast seeing the Saints in heaven and on earth too may rejoyce for their particular victory over the Beast as yet reigning and the vials may be powred on the Beast at severall times even some of them on the Beast in the height of her pride to the end that men may have warnings of the judgements of God on the Beast in her greatest pompe Answer This also followes as the 1 verse of the 15 chapter doth witnesse where the seven vials are called the seven last plagues and why are they called so but because they were not to be powred out till the last time the time of the destruction of the Beast Impossible then it is that these last plagues these plagues which were to befall the Beast in her last time onely should befall her in the height of her pride in her greatest pompe that is long before her last time For this is all one as if you had said that the Beast then began to be destroyed when she was most insensible of her destruction when she had least cause to feare it And therefore though the Saints in heaven and on earth too may rejoyce for their particular victory over the Beast as yet reigning yet doubtlesse they shall not sing Moses song of thanksgiving for the utter overthrow of the Beast before the Beast be utterly overthrowne And though the vials were to be powred out at severall times yet as in their orderly powrings out they were suddenly to succeed each other so likewise they