of the same kingdome howbeit in extent and largenesse it did most floorish and appear since the incarnation in which respect it is sayd to begin at or after his incarnation 5 The promise made to Abraham Gen 13.16 I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth and c. 15.5 look towards heaven and tell the starres if thou be able to number them and so shall thy seed be These promises I say ar not to be understood of the children of Abraham according to the flesh bot as they ar exponed Rom. 4.15 not of that only which is of the lawe bot of them who ar of the faith of Abraham which is the father of us all as it is written I have made thee a father of many nationes and Gal. 3.28 ther is nether Iewe nor Griek nether bonde nor free nether male nor female for yee ar all one in Christ lesus and if ye be Christs then ar yee Abraham's seed and heires according to the promise And therfor the promises made unto the children of Abraham Isaak and Iacob ar not to be restricted unto the Iewes according to the flesh as the Iewes and Millenaries expone all these promises bot of the faithfull And hither belongeth that distinction of the Iewes Rom. 2.28 he is not a Iewe who is one outwardly neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh bot he is a Iewe who is one in wardly and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit And of such inwardly Iews must the promises be understood at least in part that mak mention of Iudah And therfor it is a great mistaking of the prophecies if we shall still make an opposition twixt Iewes and gentiles believing gentiles ar true Iewes as we see they ar called in the New Testament and unbelieving Iewes ar gentiles and so ar called Isa 1.4 and elswher 6 All the prophecies cannot be understood of the church on earth only For of both togeder or partly of the one and partly of the other and partly of both and so prudence must be hade in the application of the promises Yea and ther is a gradual performance of them and the accomplishment of them is in serveral pointes of time so much as shall give content to Gods children yet alwayes leading to a further and further performance As for exemple God shewed mercie to these Israelites when they wer in captivitie he brought them home again they wer a poor and afflicted people and wer much bettered by their bondage ther wes a degrie of performance Ther was another degrie in Christs tyme when he joyned the gentiles to them and both made one church Bot when it is sayd The remnant shall doe none iniquitie and a deceitfull toung shall not be found in their mouth Zeph. 3.13 These promises shall have their tyme when the people shal be more thorowly purged and certainly the full accomplishment shal be at the day of judgement and so long as we ar in this lyf we ar under an imperfecte and unperformed estate 7 Here that general rule is also to be remembred When the wordes of Scripture being properly taken teach any thing contrarie to the analogie of faith or honestie of maners or any thing frivolous that belongeth nothing to godlynesse or dissonant from the scope of the text or contrarie unto other clear textes of the same purpose these wordes must be exponed figuratively and a figurative sense is the literal or primarily intended sense of these wordes And contrarily unto this rule the Iewes and others expone the descriptiones prophecies of the glorie and power of Christ and his church after an earthly maner and so straying from the true meaning they transforme his spiritual kingdome into an earthly and temporarie which as it is ungodly so it is repugnant unto Scripture testifying plainly that his church is all glorious within and not of this world and therfor these comparisones that ar taken from earthly kingdomes must be understood figuratively and in a spiritual sense at least it must be diligently observed what portion of everie passage is to be understood properly and what figuratively seing many tymes that which is spoken figuratively is exponed by the wordes preceding or following and all figurative speaches have some tokens of the use unto which they ar directed or another text may be found wher the same mater is more clearly handled These general rules being premitted it shal be the easier to expone all the promises of Christs king some and especially that text Amo. 9.15 They shall no more be pulled out of their land which I have given them sayth the Lord thy God For these wordes may be cleared by the wordes of Iere. 4.1 If thow will put away thy abominationes out of my sicht then thow shall not remove Wher we have the same promise bot expressed with a condition and it is usual in the Scriptures that earthly promises ar expressed somtyme with a condition and somtymes without it bot alwayes ar understood conditionally 2 by the acceptiones of the word land which as it is not alwayes exponed of the earth so somtymes it is put for the grave as Iob 10.21 the land of darknesse and shadow of death and for the heaven Ps 27.13 I had fainted unles I had believed to see the Lord in the land of the living And especially that land wes a type of the kingdome of Christ as is sayd in the first rule and of the true inheritance of the saintes and true gift of God Deut. 4.1.38 And so whither the word land be taken properly or typically the promise is manifestly true both before and after the coming of Christ to suffer for they wer brought againe into their land and they who wer brought wer not pulled out of their land and they ar planted in their true land whence they shall no more be pulled out and heerby the large note on the margine of page 9 is frustrated Pag. 9. The nixt propheeie shal be that of Ioel 2.28.31 and 2.14.15 Ans The Apostle Peter not only makes use of these wordes bot expones them and shewes the accomplishment of them in some degrie as it is sayd in the sixte rule before for Act. 2.16 he sayth This is that which wes spoken by the prophet Ioel And it shall come to passe in the last dayes c. And v. 22. Yee men of Israel hear these wordes Iesus of Nazareth a man approved of God among yow by miracles wonders and signes which God did by him in the midst of yow as yee yourselves knowe Inst 1. I am not ignorant that the darkning of the Sun and Moone is sometimes taken allegoricalley and by way of allusion bot that therfor it should be so understood heer it does not follow for what it is figuratively applied it signifieth the judgement it self bot wher it is literally used it is put only for a signe of an eminent destruction which shall suddenly follow it as the great
and terrible day of he Lord shall doe at the accomplishment of this prophecie Ans Wher the darknesse of the Sun and so iâ— may be understood of the Moone is used properly it is not put only for a signe of an eminent and imminent destruction as it is manifest Luk. 23 45. which wes a testimonie from heaven of Christs innocencie for conviction of the murtherers and c. 21.25 the signes in the Sun and Moone and in the Starres and the distresse of nationes upon the earth with perplexitie and the roaring of the Sea and waves ar all to be understood properly as signes before the great and terrible daye of the Lord. So what is promised in the 28 and 29 verses of the second ch of Ioel wes truely albeit not altogeder fulfilled in the dayes of Peter even howbeit the wordes of the 30 and 31 verses be properly understood and not wholly fulfilled till the time immediatly preceding the last coming of Christ Inst 2 The chief and most remarkable effect of the Spirit in the Apostles at this tyme wes the gift of tounges of which the prophet makes no mention Ans 1 If this exception wer true it wold prove that the Apostle citeth the wordes inpertinently and the Iewes micht have challenged him of babling and so these authoures fight against the Apostle and the Spirit of God who hes registred this argumentation of the Apostle as good and valide 2 the chieff and most remarkable work of the Spirit at that tyme wes a sound from heaven as of a michty rushing wind which filled all the house and there appeared unto them cloven tounges lyk as of fire and it sate upon each of them and they wer all silled with the holy Ghost and this wes noised abroad Wherby it is evident that the Apostle speakes especially not only of the effect which is their speaking in strange languages bot of the cause the powring doun of the Spirit of which Ioel speakes expressely and therfor Peter citeth the wordes pertinently Inst 3 as the prophet reveled so Peter repeates this powring out of the Spirit as a contemporarie event with the wonders which shal be shewne in the heavens and in the earth before the great and terrible day of the Lord come which day can no way be referred to the first coming of Christ when he came to save sinners and not to destroy them for then it must been an antecedent of his birth and not a subsequent of his death Ans 1 Ioel sayth not that the powring of the Spirit shall not be till the great and terrible day of the Lord come bot he shewes so many thinges preceding the coming of our Saviour nether may we think that all these thinges shal be fulfilled in the same juncture of tyme if all be accomplished even in several tymes the prophecie abides true 2 That day or tyme wes terrible for it is written Act. 2.6 the multitude came togeder and wer confounded or troubled in mynd because that everie man heard them in his oun language and they wer all amazed and mervelled and v. 22 a man approved among yow by miracles wonders and signes Wherby it is manifest that even to the sicht of these Iewes that tyme of Christs coming wes terrible albeit his second coming shal be more terrible in regard of the general destruction which shal be on all nationes not for opposing themselves against the Jewes as they imagine bot for their not acknowledging God and not obeying the Gospell of our Lord Iesus 2 Thess 1.8 Inst 4 And to put it out of dout that Gods bringing doun the heathen into the valley of Iehosaphat is meant only of this gathering them togeder to a battle and consequently of a judgement on the living and not on the dead to put this out of dout I say the prophet makes it to be a concomitant of the Iewes returne from their captivitie Ans That these wordes ar not meaned of the temporall Monarchie after Christs coming it may be learned by the parallel text in that same page wher it is sayd And for my own part I am persuaded that this great armie here spoken of is the verie same that shal be gathered together to the battle of the great day of God Almichtie by the thrie uncleane spirites lyk frogges which St Iohn sawe come out of the mouth of the Dragon and out of the mouth of the false prophet Rev. 16.13 If he be persuaded that this is the same battle he micht lykwise be persuaded that the text of Ioel 3. is not after the coming of Christ nor immediatly at his coming for that battle is in the tyme of the sixt vial after which followes another vial and tyme of trouble mentlioned in the rest of that ch of the Revel And here by the way we observe that the renouned Authour of Clavis Apocaliptica is mistaken in his seventh Synchronisme wherin he sayth that the powring furth of the seven viales is contemporarie with the end of the Beast and Babylon for albeit it be sayd c. 15.2 that they who had gotten the victorie over the Beast sang the song of Moses it followes not that the Beast wes then destroyed nether albeit the first and fift and last viales be powred on the Beast followeth it that they wer not powred till the last tyme of the destruction of the Beast Seing the Saintes in heaven and on earth too may rejoyce for their particulare victorie over the Beast as yet reigning and the viales may be powred on the Beast at several times even some of them on the Beast in the hight of her pride to the end that men may have warninges of the judgementes of God on the Beast in her greatest pompe And the rather may we judge so that we find such aggriement in the principal termes of the seven Trumpets and seven viales the second Trumpet with the second vial the thrid Trumpet with the thrid vial the fourth Trumpet with the fourth vial the sixt Trumpet with the sixt vial and the seventh Trumpet with the seventh vial Now seing the first Trumpet is of the same tyme with the beginning of the Beast as he sayth Synchron 1 par 2. the first vial must be of that same tyme also and all the other Synchronismes and expositiones of textes that ar grounded on that seventh Synchronisme of the first part ar wrong Which I mark because these late Millenaries have been moved by the appearance of these Synchronismes to embrace this opinions 2 We may be persuaded that the gathering of the nationes Joel 3.2 is not to be understood of a batle after the coming or at the coming of Christ if we consider the wordes of the first verse For behold in these dayes and in that tyme c. He kniteth this ch with the preceding and shewes the contentes of both to be at the same time which is not any particulare yeer or age bot comprehendes the whole deliverance of Israel or people of
which he spak these Wordes Verily I say unto yow Heerafter shall yow see the heavens open and the angels ascending and descending upon the Sone of man Ans That these wordes shal be fulfilled or have been fulfilled it is most certane and it is al 's certane that they shall never be fulfilled in the proper acceptation of the words seing the bodie of Christ is not so tale as that it shal reach from heaven to earth for this cause some as Cyrill on this place have exponed unto for upon in this sense as if the heavens wer open the angels shall come doun and ascend unto my service so doeth Chrysostome apply these wordes to the angels ministring unto Christ in tyme of his passion and resurrection Others think it to be an exposition of that vision of Iacob Gen. 28 wherby wes signifyed that Christ is the Mediatour making way twixt heaven and earth Col. 1.20 and these expositiones for the mater doe aggrie with other Scriptures Inst That this may be fulfilled it is requisite that he be on earth whither these messingers may descend unto him and from whence again they may ascend Which argues too his continowance heer for a greater space of tyme than the judgement of the dead requires Ans A poor proof for as it is requisite that he be on earth whither that these messingers may descend unto him so I may say it is requisite that he be in heaven whence they may descend on him and whither they may ascend to him and so taking the wordes in that sense they may be fulfilled albeit he never wer on earth even as they may be fulfilled when he is on earth and not in heaven but according to the first exposition he wes on earth when they wer fulfilled farlesse is his continowance on earth necessarie for these wordes Pag. ead Although it be sayd that Christ shall reigne over the house of Iacob for ever and that of his kingdome shal be no end yet it is not meaned that he shall alwayes reigne as man or that the earthly Ierusalem the place of his throne as man shall alwayes stand Ans They will change the signification of the wordes when they please and so far as it makes for their purpose and no more but when they shall prove by Scripture that the earthly Ierusalem shal be the place of Christs throne we may aggrie on the exposition of the words for ever and shal be no end and till that be shewen I omitte further enquirie of them but as yet we have seen nether necessarie consequence nor evident expression for it Followes another point that the restauration of Ierusalem and resurrection shall concurre Pag. 6. Yow see that when our Saviour comes to reigne over all the earth he comes not alone bot bringes all the saintes with him Ans Wee see nether that he shall come to reigne after that maner over all the earth nether that he shall bring all his saintes with him and for this last point he alledges no text of Scripture but will have it to be taken on his bare word which we refuse to doe Wee read that when he shall come to judge he shall bring all the holy angels with him Mat. 25.31 and all nationes shal be gathered before him and that he shall send his angels to gather the elect from the four windes but that they shal come with him into an earthly monarchie we find no wher And nevertheles as if it wer unquestionable he addeth Which wordes as they doe establiso the lideral sense of the first resurrection mentionet Rev. 20 so they make the kingdome of Israel and the 1000 yeers reigne of the saintes to Synchronize and meet together for why shall the samtes come with him but because they have a share in this kingdome and ar to be his assistentes in it as he told his Disciples Ans The first resurrection of bodies importeth a second resurrection and so eiher these who ryse shall die again and rise again at the second resurrection or they who shall rise at the first shall not die at all and others shall rise again at the second resurrection This Authour makes it no wher manifest which of these two he holdeth and Mr. Archer holdeth the first opinion but neither of them hes any warrant from Scripture and the testimonies that ar cited here on the margine shew that ther shall not be such a resurrection of the richteous for it is sayd Luk. 20.35 they who shal be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead nether marrie nor ar given in marriage nether can they die any more for they ar equal unto the Angels being the children of the resurrection If they can die no more and be equal unto the Angels then they shall not rise at a second resurrection nether shall bey live an earthly lyf which in the best degrie is inferiour unto the lyf of the Angels Ioh. 6,39 This is the Fathers will that of all that he hes given mee I should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day and v. 44. No man can come unto mee excep the Father who hes sent mee draw him and I will raise him at the last day If the last day be the day of the generall judgement as certainly it is even supponing the temporal Monarchie for 1000 yeers and the elect shal not be raised til the last day as these wordes imply then ther shall not be a first second resurrection unles the second resurrection be after the last day and consequently ther not being a resurrection of the children of God till the last day the first resurrection mentioned Rev. 20 can not be understood of the bodies but rather a rising from sin wherof mention is made Eph. 5.14 and Col. 3.1 He cites also Phil. 3.11 If by any meanes I micht attain unto the resurrection of the dead These wordes name the dead generally and make nothing for a first and second resurrection bot v. 20 it is sayd Our conversation or freedome is in heaven whence also we look for the Saviour who shall change our vile bodie that it may be lyke unto his glorious bodie If the freedome POLITTVMA of the godly be in heaven then they expect not a Monarchie on earth and if the bodies shal be lyke unto his glorious bodie they shall not live an earthly lyf nor die again He quoteth 1 Thess 3.13 and c. 4.14 c. but the first hes nothing of a second resurrection and c. 4.14 sayth Wee shal be ever with the Lord towit in another maner than nou nou by grace and then in glorie If we shal be ever with the Lord then we shall not die again and rise again unlesse the Lord die too which I think they will not say Lastly he cites Ezek. 37,12,13 which wordes certanly ar allegoricall and shew the returne of the Jewes from their captivitie not withstanding the extremitie of their miserie and
the Apostle hes another purpose there for v. 4 he telleth of scoffers jeering at the promise of Christs coming because all thinges continow as they wer and so all thinges seem to have subsisting in themselves he refutes this imaginatione and shewes that the world both wes made and continoweth by the word of God who is able to destroy as somtyme he did and hes appointed a day of judgement and perdition of ungodly men Here he putteth the day of judgement and perdition of ungodly men fot that the scoffers say Wher is the promise of his coming so that at his coming he will judge and punish the ungodly which is contrarie to the opinion of the Millenaries Then v. 8 he answereth to that opinion of delay saying One day is with the Lord as 1000 yeers He sayth not One day is 1000 yeers as the Millenaries make the commentarie shorter than the text but is as a 1000 yeers and therfor here is no exposition but comparison as if he had sayd albeit a 1000 yeers seem a long tyme to us and so the world seemeth to have continowed 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 coming towit in longsuffering toward men awaiting the repentance of the last of them Wherby yow see another meaning and another purpose even contrarie to that conceit of the Millenaries The Apostle micht have named many milliones of yeers as one day in respect of Gods eternitie but according to the usual custome of speach he nameth a round great number for any number And nevertheles in the end of that page it is sayd This being so I see not but that Gods foreappointment of 1000 yeers to the world for each several day of its first week micht in all lyklyhood be the ground of this prophetical sense of the word wherin it wes afterwards delivered by the infallible penmen of the holy write Ans The certantie of all the appointmentes of God we acknowledge and the infallibilitie of his penmen but wher is it reveled that God hes appointed 1000 yeers continowance to the world for each several day of the first week On the margine he citeth R. Ketina and Comment Apoca. par 2. p. 287 wher ar some testimonies of the Rabbines to this purpose Let Iewes follow Iewish fables to us Christianes hes God spoken in the last dayes by his Sone Heb. 1.2 whom he hes bidden us here certanly with a limitation to hear none others Inst It is sayd Mat. 24.31 he shall send his Angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together his elect at which tyme two shal be in the field the one shal be taken and the other left and Luk c. 17.34 recordeth two men shal be in one bed But if our Saviour at his coming presently shall give sentence on all that ar not written in the book of life if he shall make no stay on earth before he undertake this businesse then why shall the elect only be gathered together and the rest left behind seing that great Assise is to be held chiefly for condemnation of the ungodly men Ans Here is nothing to prove the monarchie of the Iewes 2. the two Euangelistes speak there of the gathering the elect and taking them up al 's also 1 Cor. 15.23 yet they speak not exclusively as if the ungodly shall not be judged nor raised but they speak of separation and therby of taking up the elect into the aire and heavens wheras the wicked shall not be taken up but left on the earth and be condemned and sent to hell Mat. 13.40.41 and it followeth v. 43. then shall the richteous shine furth c. The particle then shewes that the wicked shal be cast into the furnace of fyre as soone if not sooner as the richteous shall shine in the kingdome of their Father 3. If the richteous shal be taken up and the ungodly left on the earth that is the one taken away from the earth and the wicked left on the earth then the godly shall not have earthly dominion 4. if Christ at his coming shall hold that great assise chiefly for condemnation of the wicked how then shall the godly be quickned and the wicked be left in their graves after them for the space of 1000 yeers These thinges can not aggrie Now such suppositiones being layd it is no wonder that many doutes arise therupon as whither the good angels be able to gather the reprobates or whither they shal be fetched by the wicked angels and they shal be left either to perish in the general destruction that shall come upon the enemies of the Iewes or ey-witnesses of Gods wonders What can either good or evill angels doe without the Lords authoritie and what can they not doe when he willeth but certainly the wicked shal both be witnesses of Gods wonders and lykwyse perish in that general destruction that cause of their condemnation is touched before Pag. 67. For that by Christs judging the quick and the dead mentioned 2 Timoth. 4.1 can not be meant the last and compleat bot rather a former and inchoate judgement it appeares out of Revel 20. wher it is shewen that the saintes enemies shal be all slain before the last resurrection And we can not say that these who ar to be left shal be a part of that armie there spoken of because that Gog and Magog is to be destroyed at the end of our Saviours reigne that is immediatly before the last resurrection wheras these shal be alive at the time of that general distresse which shall light on the world at his entrance into that kingdome as the gathering of the elect who ar to reigne with him doeth declare Ans Here as before ar strange imaginationes 1. that text 2 Timoth. 4.1 can not be meant of the last bot a former judgement Who ever sayd before that Christ shall yet appear twyce to judge the quick and the dead For suppone that only the godly shal be raised at Christs coming yet they will not say that he will judge them seing they say that they shall not stand at the barre 2. The judging of the quick and the dead shal be before the tyme of the last resurrection as that forme of arguing importes wherby it followes that Christ shall judge the quick and the dead in a former and inchoate judgement Who shall remain then to be judged in the complete judgement at the last resurrection 3. I will say no more of that fancie concerning these that shal be left and the destruction at the entrance of that kingdom but mark that Gog and Magog is to be destroyed at the end of our Saviours reigne that is immediatly before the last resurrection or which is one after the reigne of the Jewes But that armie of Gog and Magog is the same with the armie mentioned Revel 16.14 as Napeir proveth Prop. 32. and Mr.