restauration of the captivated Soveraignty of the Jewes as the text it selfe doth informe us These are the parts yet because it would be impertinent in this businesse to speake any thing of the persons but onely as their joynt authority may help somewhat to justifie the truth of this proposall I shall omitting this division onely glance at them in the ensuing confirmation of the subject Which comprehends in it these two assertions First That the Kingdom of the Jewes shall againe be restored unto them Secondly That our Saviour at his comming shall restore it Mr. Petrie's Answer The Querie comprehends neither of the two because as I said it affirms nothing And the asked matter comprehends them not Not the first because it is of the Kingdom of Israel and not of the Jewes and as all are not Israelites who are of Israel Rom. 9.6 so neither are they all Israelites or the children of God who are of Israel according to the flesh but the children of the promise are counted for the seed therefore the Kingdom of Israel mentioned there may he another then the Kingdom of the Jewes Neither is the other assertion comprehended in the question because it askes not of his second or third comming but of now wilt thou now restore the Kingdom Reply The Querie comprehended both because both are intimated in the Querie and doe necessarily follow from the Querie And you have not shewed us any Querie that affirms nothing nor in what sense this Querie doth affirme nothing In the asked matter there is the Kingdom to be restored and from hence proceeds the first assertion And the person that should restore it and from hence proceeds the second assertion But the first is not here comprehended you say because the Querie is of the Kingdom of Israel and not of the Jewes as if the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of the Jewes were not to be understood of the same people No say you For all are not Israelites who are of Israel Rom. 9.6 a worthy reason for it is as if you should say by the Kingdom of Israel cannot be meant the Kingdom of the Jewes because all that are Israelites by birth are not elect Israelites Israelites according to the flesh and according to faith also For this onely is the meaning of the text cited by you Rom. 9.6 and so proves not that the Kingdom in the text belongs to any other people language or nation but the Jewes of whom alone interpreters doe understand it And therefore you should have spoken out and told us plainly what the other Kingdom you speake of was For we know of no more but two besides this in Question betwixt us And these are commonly cal'd the Kingdom of grace by which is meant the Saints or Church on earth before Christs appearing And the Kingdom of glory by which is meant the Saints or Church in Heaven And that neither of these Kingdoms is meant in the text I prove thus Not the Kingdom of grace for at that time the Jewes themselves alone were this Kingdom and that could not be restored unto them which as yet they had not lost and not the Kingdom of glory for that likewise could not be restor'd which as yet they had not And none can imagine that the Apostles Querie is thus to be paraphrased Lord wilt thou at this time take all the faithfull up with thee into Heaven And therefore seeing it could not be meant of either of these Kingdoms it must be meant of the Kingdom of the Jewes on earth or of none Which is our first assertion And the other is comprehended here too For although the Querie askes not of his second comming but of now yet seeing Christ was to restore it and did it not while he was on earth it necessarily follows that he shall doe it at his descending againe to the earth Which is our second assertion and thus both are found in the text And besides if you take the word â— as all are not Israel who are of Israel in the Apostles meaning i. e. all not are not faithfull Israelites that are descended of Israel then it is an apparent tautology to add so neither are they all Israelites or the children of God that are of Israel according to the flesh and if you doe not take the Apostles words in this sense then it is notoriously false to say that all are not Israelites to wit by nation who are of Israel by birth And is it not a pretty inference All Israelites are not Israelites therefore the Kingdom of Israel there may be another then the Kingdom of the Jewes Surely you might as well have said therefore the Pope shall be St. Peters successour For this conclusion hath as much dependence on the anteceden as the other Israel's Redemption CHAP. I. Of the restoring of Jerusalem and the Jewes returne ANd first of the first That the Kingdom of the Jewes shall again be restor'd unto them For they asked of him saying Lord wilt thou at this time restore againe the Kingdom to Israel So evidently doe these words expresse an earthly Kingdom I meane onely a Kingdom to be held on earth that no expositor which I have met with doth deny it and therefore seeing they could not but imbrace the sense me thinks they should not so rashly have rejected the consequence And that for these reasons Mr. Petrie's Answer 1. Me thinkes you speake non-sense Many expositours expone these words otherwise seeke and you shall finde Secondly why may wee not thinke that the Apostles meaned as Simeon did Luk. 2.30 31 32. or as the repenting thief did Luke 23.42 or as Christ did verse 43. certainly these did not meane of an earthly Monarchy neither is there any word in this text shewing that they meaned otherwise Thirdly albeit no expositour would deny that the Apostles did understand an earthly Kingdom yet it followse not They thought so therefore it shall be so No more then it follows The Apostles did not for a time beleeve the calling of the Gentiles Act. 11.3 therefore the Gentiles are not called But the consequence hath reasons he saith whereof the first two are topicall and by way of probabilitie pag. 5. When the Authour saith The reasons are probable and I may say childish will any Christian change his faith for them certaine faith should have sure grounds lest the wind of tentation blow it away and therefore I might leave these probabilities as not worthy of reading or answer neverthelesse consider them Reply 1. Me thinks you might as wel have shewed the non-sense as said it was non-sense But many expositours you say expone these words otherwise This shews not that I have spoken non-sense in saying that I have met with no such But I doubt it shews that you speake an untruth which is worse then non-sense For you might as easisy have nam'd some of them as have said it and bid me looke them out And had there been any I
be poured on them from on high and in which their so plentifully and so plainely foretold deliverance shall be fully accomplished at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ And therefore beloved Reader seeing thou knowest these things before beware that thou be not still led away with the errour of an unwarrantable and indeed pernicious interpretation by reason whereof the way of truth is evill spoken of but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to whom be glory both now and for ever Amen Farewell Thine in the service of the Lord ROBERT MATON AN ANSWER TO Mr. PETRIE'S Preface Preface FIrst Some Prophecies speake plainly of Christ and cannot be understood of another Esa 9.6 Unto us a child is borne unto us a sonne is given his name shall be called Wonderfull c. Some are typicall or delivered with covers of things signifying Christ his offices and benefits And of these some are spoken of the type or thing signifying and can be understood onely of the thing signified and some are true both of the type and of Christ either in the same or in a different manner that is some are true of both in a proper sense some are true of both in a tropicall or figurative sense and some are true of the one properly and of the other figuratively All these sorts are manifest in sundry Prophecies here I touch one for all 2. Sam. 7.12 When thy dayes be fulfilled and thou shalt sleep with thy Fathers saith the Lord unto David I will set up thy seed after thee which shall proceed out of thy bowells and I will establish his Kingdome This was true in the person of Solomon and of Christ too properly v. 13. He shall build an house for my name This was true of Solomon in the proper acceptation of the word house and figuratively of Christ who said Matth. 16.18 Upon this rock will I build my Church It followes I will establish the throne of his Kingdome for ever This was not true of Solomon in respect of his person for he died neither of his posteritie from whom Jacob had foretold that the Scepter should depart at the coming of Shiloh Gen. 49.10 but of Christ it is true for his Throne is established for ever and ever Heb. 1.8 v. 14. I will be his Father and he shall be my son This is true of Solomon in respect of adoption and of Christ in respect of eternall generation Fiftly it is said there If he commit iniquity I will chasten him with the rod of man but my mercy shall not depart from him as I tooke it from Saul This is true of Solomon and not of Christ who was free of sinne unlesse we understand his members or their sinnes imputed unto him v. 16. Thy house and thy Kingdome shall be established for ever before thee thy Throne shall be established for ever This cannot be understood of David or Solomons house or Kingdome as experience proves now for the space of 1600. years and more but of Christs house and Kingdome which shall never faile By this one passage it is manifest First how miserable ignorance it is to expone all the Prophecies after one and the same manner or in a proper sense onely Secondly that the Evangelists and Apostles exponing these Prophecies in a spirituall and figurative sense doe not wrest them even albeit these have been fulfilled some way before but according to the intendment of the Spirit they bring them unto Christ who is the end of the Law and scope of the Prophets Answer The Prophecies which we have alledged for the Jewes deliverance and our Saviours reigne on earth are all plaine prophecies and therefore your distinguishing of the prophecies into plaine and typicall prophecies is very unseasonably that I say not craftily applyed against us However in the first place the Reader may observe that we have as much reason to beleeve that the Prophecies which speak plainly of the Jewes cannot be understood of any others as we have to beleeve that the Prophecies which speake plainly of Christ cannot be understood of another and consequently that you doe very erroneously interpret these Prophecies when you understand by them the conversion of the Gentiles And secondly he may observe that having cited 2 Sam. v. 12. When thy dayes be fulfilled and thou shalt sleep with thy Fathers I will set up thy seed after thee which shall proceed out of thy bowles and I will establish his kingdome You say This was true in the person of Solomon and of Christ too properly Which is as much as we say to wit that God shall establish unto Christ a civill and proper Kingdome as he did unto Solomon And indeed it is beyond the force of these words in the 16. verse Thy house and thy Kingdome shall be established for ever before thee thy throne shall be established for ever To prove that Christs reigne and Solomons that the type and thing typified are not both to be understood properly and in the same manner seeing the word for ever is not here to be taken in an unlimited sense for an infinite time but in a limited sense for a long time as we shew in our reply by many instances out of scripture and so doth intimate unto us onely that Christs Kingdome as it is to be the longest that ever was on earth so it is to be the last too it is not to be left to other people as Daniel saith chap. 2. ver 44. but is by Christ himselfe to be delivered up to God even the Father at the last resurrection And that not onely Solomons reigne but his building of an house to the Lord too is to be properly fulfilled in Christ the Prophet Zechariah chapter 6. ver 13. doth plainely reveale Behold saith he the man whose name is the â—â—ach and he shall grow up out of his place and he shall build the Temple of the Lord even he shall build the Temple of the Lord and he shall beare the glory and shall sit and rule upon his Throne and the counsell of peace shall be between them both In which words the Temple of the Lord doth signifie the Temple at Jerusalem as the verses following doe shew and there is no other signification of this phrase in all the old Testament as we have observed in our reply to your answer where you expound our Saviours building of the Temple of the Lord of the raising of his body from the grave and yet here you make it to foreshew the immoveable perseverance of those that were after his incarnation to be called to the profession of his name by a lively faith So unstedfast are you and unresolved in what sense to take his building of an house unto the Lord. And therefore although such typicall prophesies as are compound oracles were to have a double accomplishment yet it is questionable whether they were to have a different meaning And sure we are that this
etternall torments by the death of the Messias is meant of Gods delivering of them out of temporal calamities and afflictions as the foregoing verses doe plainely shew And lastly your argument touching old Simeon that he craved no longer life to raigne with Christ on earth doth make as much against his beliefe of Christs spirituall as his personall raigne and against his beliefe of Christs suffering as against either of these and surely though he prayed to depart because it was revealed unto him that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord Christ yet the testimony he gave of Christ that he should be the glory of his people Israel which doth as well intimate the generall conversion of the Jewes and Christs raigning amongst them as his being a light to lighten the Gentiles doth imply the conversion of the Gentiles this testimony I say doth shew that Simeon did hope to live againe to raigne with Christ although he did then desire to depart having seen him And to this hope of the Saints as well as to the hope of the glory which shall follow their reigne St. Paul alludes when he saith that others of the faithfull Jewes were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtaine a better resurrection Preface Fourthly And neverthelesse many Iewes sought righteousnesse by the workes of the Law and not by faith Rom. 9.32 and they look'd upon the promises with a bedily eye onely as if the Messias were to erect an earthly Monarchy at Ierusalem And looking thorow these spectacles they could not think that Jesus Christ is the Messias and so they stumbled at his worldly basenesse and being miscaried in their braines they could not see his spiritual power and benefits After their miserable example others acknowledging Jesus Christ to be the promised Messias and not considering the difference of the promises have not attained feely unto the truth of them and so have erred in mistaking his natures and benefits Thus Ebion thought him to be a man and not God as if all the promises could have been performed by a man endowed with singular grace Cerinthus likewise held that Christ is onely a man and because he saw him not sitting on the throne of David he held that Christ is not risen from the dead as yet but shall rise and reigne in Jerusalem a thousand yeares and all his Subjects shal be satisfied with all manner of pleasures in meate drinke marriage festival dayes and offer oblations and sacrifices Euseb lib. 3. chap. 25. Answer That the Jewes were in an error which sought righteousnesse by the workes of the Law we willingly acknowledge but that they did erre in taking the promises touching Christs Kingdom and their owne deliverance in a proper sense wee cannot think For wee know that the multitude would have made Christ a King Joh. 6. verse 15. and that Nathaniel that righteous Jsraelite said unto our Saviour Rabbi thou art the sonne of God thou art the of King Israel Job 1 verse 49. and it were too in jurious to our Saviours innocency who came into the world to beare witnesse unto the truth Job 18. verse 37. to imagine that he would not upon these occasions have shewed them that they were mistaken in his Kingdom if he waâ— never to be such a King as the Jewes thought he should be and would then have made him had he not avoided it by hiding himselfe from them And indeed by the parable Luke 19. touching the Noble-mans going into a farre countrey to receive for himself a Kingdom and returne which he put forth of purpose because the Jewes did looke for the immediate appearing of his Kingdom by that parable I say he did as good as tell them that they did rightly conceive of the nature of his Kingdom but not of the time when it should appeare that they truely thought he should raigne visibly over them on earth though they were deceived in expecting the accomplishment of it then at his first coming For what was the Kingdom of God which the Jewes thought shuld immediately appeare was it the glory that shall follow the Judgment of the dead doubtlesse they thought not that the Judgment of the dead should immediately ensue Or was it the meanes of salvation that they lookt for doubtlesse then they knew that they had long injoyed this even as their peculiar The Kingdom of God then which they so earnestly and so soone expected must needs be the Kingdom which God had foretold that Christ should govern personally on earth when he should be set by him on the Throne of his Father David For indeed Christ can bring with him no other Kingdom for himself that is no other Kingdom to govern as man but this from that farre countrey whither he is gone to receive for himself a Kingdom and to returne And therefore t was not their looking through these spectacles as you phrase the proper exposition of the prophecies that made them to deny that Jesus was the Christ but rather stumbling at his meane condition onely they did to him what Gods hand and Counsell had determined before to be done And as the Jewes were no example of misbeliefe in looking for their deliverance from captivity and for our Saviours personall raigne amongst them so doubtlesse the proper acception of the prophecies concerning our Saviours raigne did no more occasion Ebion and Cerinthus to mistake his natures and deny his divinity then the proper acceptions of the prophecies concerning his incarnation suffering did and therefore seeing it is not possible that the true understanding of one part of the Scripture should thrust us into the misapprehension of another part thereof we may well thinke that it was the want of a due consideration of those texts which doe demonstrate the divine nature of Christ and not the truth they held touching his raigne that drew them into this error For it is either through the want of a carefull searching into the Scriptures or by reason of some sinister and by-respects onely that all errors have both their rise and continuance in the Church of God Preface Fiftly Vpon this oceasion the Apostle John wrote the Gospel again and more largely then any other of the Euangelists speakes of Christs Godhead his wonderfull workes his Kingdom resurrection and his coming againe especially that the Sonne of man is now glorified chap. 13.31 that he hath overcome the world chap. 16.33 that his Kingdom is not of this world and if his Kingdom were of this world his servants would fight that he should not be delivered unto the Jewes but now is his Kingdom not from hence chap. 18.36 And of the condition of his Subjects he saith Remember the word that I said unto you the servant is not greater then the Lord if they have persecuted me they will also persecute you chap. 15.20 verily I say unto you yee shall weepe and lament and the world shall rejoyce and you shal be sorrowfull but your sorrow
these words And contrarily unto this rule the Jewes and others expone the descriptions and prophesies of the glory and power of Christ and his Church after an earthly manner and so straying from the true meaning they transforme his spiritual Kingdom into an earthly and temporary 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 therfore these comparisons that are taken from earthly Kingdomes must be understood figuratively and in a spiritual sense at least it must be diligently observed what portion of every passage is to be understood properly and what figuratively seeing many times that which is spoken figuratively is exponed by the words preceding or following and all figurative speeches have some tokens of the use unto which they are directed or another text may be found where the fame matter is more clearely handled These general rules being premitted it shall be easier to expone all the promises of Christ's Kingdom and especially that text Amos 9.15 They shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them faith the Lord thy God For these words may be cleared by the words Jer. 4.1 If thou wilt put away thy abominations out of my fight then thou shalt not remove Where we have the same promise but expressed with a condition and it is usual in the Scriptures that earthly promises are expressed sometimes with a condition and sometimes without it but alwaies are understood conditionally 2. By the acceptions of the word land which as it is not alwaies exponed of the earth so sometimes it is put for the grave as Iob 10. verse 21. The land of darknesse and shadow of death And for Heaven Psa 27.13 I had fainted unlesse I had beleeved to see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living And especially that land was a type of the Kingdom of Christ as it is said in the first rule and of the true inheritance of the Saints and true gift of God Deut. 4.1.38 And so whether the word land be taken properly or typically the promise is manifestly true both before and after the comming of Christ to suffer for they were brought againe into their land and they who were brought were not pulled out of their land and they are planted in their true land whence they shall no more be pulled out and hereby the large note on the margine of Page 9. is frustrate◠Answer Let this rule then which is a compound of several rules laid downe by others for the right interpreting of the Scriptures decide the matter in controversie betwixt us And doe not say but shew that the proper expositiō of the prophesies which cōcerne our Saviouts and the Saints visible reigne on earth the conversion deliverance and establishment of the Jewes in their owne land the destruction of their opposers and subjection of all other Nations unto them in a word which reveale unto us the chiefest events and alterations that shall come to passe over the whole world til the world it selfe shall passe away doth teach things contrary to the analogy of faith to honesty of manners to other cleare texts things frivolous and not belonging to godlinesse For surely if our proper exposition of these predictions doth teach ought of all this we may well be accounted for publishers of a new Gospel but if it doth teach nought of this you your selfe are worthy to be accounted but a partial preacher of the Gospel a preacher but of a part of the Counsell of God tel us therfore what article of faith or plaine text of Scripture or moral duty is destroy'd or oppugned by the beliefe of our Saviours coming with the Saints to reigne on earth or of the Jewes conversion and returne or of the calling of all Nations to the faith of Christ and the knowledge of God And tel us too whether the knowledge of these things be a frivolous and unnecessary knowledge or a knowledge not belonging unto godlinesse Certainly we cannot conceive how the personal reigne of Christ on earth should any way abridge 〈◊〉 weaken his spiritual power or abbreviate his Kingdom or that his Church should be lesse glorious when he comes into the world unto it then it hath been since he departed out of the world or can be as long as he is absent from it And we know that by our proper exposition of these prophecies we doe make a just distribution of the word of God that we give unto the Jew whatsoever belongs unto the Jew and to the Gentile whatsoever belongs unto the Gentile whereas you by your proper interpretation of the prophecies which concerne the Gentiles and your figurative exposition of the prophecies which concerne the Jewes doe keepe your owne things to your selfe and make the mercies prepared for others to be common mercies yea to be as much or more yours then theirs And as you hereby impose a figurative sense upon the spiritual part of the promises made unto the Jewes so you impose a double figurative sense upon the temporal part of the promises made unto them For first you interpret those outward and earthly promises as you call them of spiritual blessinges too and being so interpreted you understand them of the Gentiles as wel or rather then of the Jewes And thus you make figurative speeches where you finde none and may indeed as easily make a figurative speech of any speech as thus interpret these prophecies But it is not the figurative and metaphorical expression of a prophecy that doth make the prophecy to carry a figurative sense for both temporal and spiritual promises may be figuratively and metaphorically exprest but yet they are not to be figuratively understood that is prophecies of temporal things however exprest are not to be understood of spiritual blessings neither are prophecies of spiritual or temporal things whether figuratively or properly exprest to be understood of any besides those of whom they are plainly prophecied In a word prophecies however exprest are to be understood of what they speake where they speake of temporal things they are to be understood onely of temporal things and where they speake of spiritual things they are to be understood onely of spiritual things And of whom they speake where they speak plainly of Christ they are to be understood of Christ onely and where they sptake plainly of the Jewes they are to be understood of the Jewes onely and where they speake plainly of the Gentiles they are to be understood of the Gentiles onely and where they speake generally and indifferently of both they are to be understood of both And in like manner where they speake plainly of Canaan and Jerusalem or Sion they are to be understood of them onely Thus much for your rules which whosoever shall embrace he will doubtlesse be no better friend to the truth we hold then you your selfe are that which follows is your explication
texts not of the Jews onely but of the Christian Church and it may be easily understood that these have written according to their consciences and therefore if these be Judges this authour hath lost the cause Reply 1. Had not these prophecies been to the same purpose you might well have thought that I had had as little regard what sense I wrested the Scriptures to as you your selfe have And seeing they are all to the same purpose you had the lesse reason to quarrell at the number of them But it was a great eye-soare unto you to see such and so many witnesses together all maintaining the truth we hold and you oppose And because you could not reply unto them by any credible interpretation in your allegorical way you slide from them with no more nor weightier words then these but number prevaileth not in this case Surely it is a poore case that you who have laboured all this while to perswade the reader that we can bring no plaine proofes for what we say should now be affraid to let him heare what God hath said for us and what you could answer for your selfe But you saw very well that these prophecies were too cleare to be obscured with the vaile of a figurative sense and too eminent to be put on the roll of conditionall prophecies because many of them doe as well containe spiritual blessings as temporal blessings and there can be no doubt of their doing God's will to whom that Spirit and those graces are promised by which alone men are inabled to doe it And for a taste of what I have said take the prophecy of Jeremiah chap. 32. at the 37. ver Behold I will gather them out of all countries whither I have driven them in mine anger and in my sury and in great wrath and I will bring them againe unto this place and I will cause them to dwell safely Here is an outward and temporal promise And they shall be my people and I will be their God and I will give them one heart and one way that they may feare me for ever for the good of them and their children after them And I will make an everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turne away from them to doe them good but I will put my feare into their hearts that they shall not depart from me Here is an inward and spiritual promise after which it follows yea I will rejoyce over them to doe them good and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soule For thus saith the Lord like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised c. And the like prophecy is in the 33. chap. of Jer. at the 6. ver c. and in the 36. chap. of Ezek. at the 24. ver c. and in the 39. chap. at the 25. ver c. And in the 36. chap. at the 8. ver this prophecy is made to the Mountaines of Israel O yee mountaines of Israel ye shall shoot forth your branches and yeeld your fruit to my people of Israel for they are at hand to come for behold I am for you and I will turne unto you and ye shall be tilled and sowen and I will multiply men upon you all the house of Israel even all of it and the Cities shall be inhabited and the wastes shall be builded and I will multiply upon you man and beast and they shall increase and bring fruit and I will setle you after your old estates and I will doe better for you then at your beginning and ye shall know that I am the Lord. Yea I will cause men to walke upon you even my people Israel and they shall possesse thee and thou shalt be their inheritance and thou shalt no more benceforth bereave them of men c. Now as none of the former prophecies will beare the title of conditional prophecies so neither will this for the land it selfe could neither doe any thing for which God should make such a promise unto it nor for which he should refuse to fulfill unto it what he hath promised And I am perswaded that he who will deny that these prophecies are to be understood of the prosperity and happinesse of the Jews onely that will deny I say that they are properly and historically to be taken or that they are as yet to be fulfilled will not sticke to say any thing 2. If they affirme that these prophecies were partly though not onely accomplisht in the time of the plagues that I say their accomplishment did continue as well then as at other times they affirme that which is altogether inconsistent with the uninterrupted prosperity of these prophecies which shew that none of the people of whom they are spoken shall be left in captivity among the Heathen or be a prey any more to the Heathen but that they shall dwell safely in their owne land without feare and without sorrow And that they shall have such increase of cattle corne and other fruits of the earth that there shall come no more famine upon them And who seeth not by this that these prophecies cannot possibly belong to the troublesome and distressed state and condition of the Christian Church or to any other people but the Jews who alone live dispersed in captivity But you deny that the plagues spoken of in the Rev. were to be continued plagues you should then have shewed what intervalls of joy the Church hath had from the time that the Dragon began to persecute the woman which brought forth the man child And went to make warre with the remnant of her seed Rev. 12.13.17 For doubtlesse persecution hath bin a constant attendant on the servants of God ever fince the first preaching of the Gospel T is true indeed that the Gospel at the first made a great conquest on the Gentiles but how was it done surely not by the contentious hearts bloody hands of the Apostles and their successours but by a constant lifting up of their hearts and hands in prayer and by an undanted offering up of their lives in persecution And it is hard to say when all Christian Churches together have had rest from open persecution But grant that there had bin no such persecution at all in any Christian Kingdome unto this time yet doubtlesse that maxime of St. Paul in the 2 Tim. at the 12. ver Yea and all they that will live godly in Christ Iesus shall suffer persecution had stood firme and passed still for an undoubted truth For the servants of God might neverthelesse have bin mockt reviled hated and opprest albeit they had not bin haled to prisons tortures and death it self and yet let that Hell on earth the devillish Inquisition witnesse whether this also might not have bin effected in a more cruell barbarous manner in a secret then in an open persecution You
not at the first ver but this verse was quoted in the margent of your Bible in the 2 Cor. chap. 6. at the 18. ver and that was enough to make you say that the whole chap. of Jeremiah is meant of the Gentiles and yet the words in Jer. 31. at the 1. verse are not the same with those in the 2 Cor. chap. 6. verse 18. and what if they were what though that which is common to the faithfull in generall as that God should be their Father and their God and they his people Sonnes and daughters and the like be applied as well to the Gentiles as to the Jews it will not follow from hence that where God saith he will be a God to the Jews and they shall be his people he meanes in that place the Gentiles and not the Jews or the Jews and Gentiles both And much lesse will it follow that any thing which is prophecied as proper to the Jews in particular or as opposed to other Nations should yet be understood of other Nations For doubtlesse if such prophecies belong not to the Iews onely no promises can be so properly distinctly and plainly made to any Nation which can assure that Nation that they belong to it and to no other You say next that the prophecy Ier. 31. at the 31. verse is exponed in Heb. 8. ver 8. c. There indeed it is wholly repeated but expounded it is not unlesse the same prophecy doth expound it selfe which is to make it both the text and the comment such poore shifts are you put to whilst you had rather say any thing to winne the unstable or to hide the truth from the unlearned then acknowledge it for a truth And to whom did the Apostle alledge this prophecy but to the Jews of whom it was spoken by the Prophet and why did he alledge it to them but to shew that Christ Jesus was the Mediator of the new Covenant which God had promised to make with them and that the ordinances of the old Covenant were by his death become voyd and unprofitable that hereby he might at once establish the faith of the beleeving Jews and if it had been possible have moved the whole Nation at that time to embrace the Covenant of the Gospel of which this prophecy doth plainly witnesse they shall be one day partakers even the whole house of Israel and Judah together And as this prophecy cannot expound it selfe and is indeed so plaine that it needs no exposition so it doth no more expound the other prophecies which you say are the same with it as it is repeated by the Apostle then it doth as it is delivered by the Prophet And they being all to be accomplisht to the Jews at the same time at the restoring of their Kingdom this prophecy is as much expounded by the others as the others are by this if not more For whereas this containes spirituall benefits onely those Jer. 32. at the 37. ver c. chap. 33. at the 6. ver c. and chap. 50. at the 19. ver c. doe containe spirituall and temporal benefits both for they foreshew the Jews withall their returne unto and prosperity in their owne country and so declare both where and when the new Covenant shall be made with them It follows and that of Ezek. 34. at the 12 c. is exponed by our Saviour Iohn 10. ver 11.16 These words of our Saviour you have before alledged as an exposition of the prophecy Ezek. chap. 37. at the 19. ver c. because our Saviour prophecieth of uniting two sorts of people the Jews and Gentiles into one Church after the calling of the substituted Gentiles and the Prophet of uniting the Kingdoms of Judah and Israel which were one people into one Kingdom againe in their owne land And you will have our Saviour's words to expound this prophecy too because our Saviour and the Prophet doe use the same Metaphor to wit the word sheepe to expresse men by But the sheepe the Prophet speakes of are the scattered Jews and none else and the sheepe our Saviour spake of were the Jewes impli'd in the words of this fold and the substituted Gentiles exprest in the words other sheepe and all Nations together intimated in the words one fold for after the calling of the other sheepe the substituted Gentiles there shall be one fold and one shepheard that is one Church and Kingdome over all the world under one King to wit Christ Jesus and therefore when you can prove this prophecie in Ezekiel to be meant of Jewes and Christians and all other Nations you may have some colour to say that our Saviour's words Joh. the 10. doe expound it And that of chap. 39. is correspondent you say with the prophecies of Jeel c. And therefore it is not yet accomplished for I have shewed before that the prophecies cited out of Iâ—el are not to be fulfilled til the great and terrible Day of our Saviours comming to wit that in the 2 chap. at the neere approach of that Day And that in the 3. chap. partly immediately before and partly at the very time of Christ's descending and this prophecy of Ezek. doth so plainly declare the returne of the whole Nation of the Iewes to their owne land none excepted that you could neither prove it to be already fulfilled nor deny that it shall be fulfilled because God who hath promised so to powre out his Spirit upon them that he may no more hide his face from them hath therein promised both their conversion from sin and continuance in obedience And that of Zech. 10. at the 6. v. c. is one you say with Jer. 23. at the 6.8 v. you should have said at the 3. 4. v. But doth it prove that they are therefore fulfill'd already because they have one meaning because they were to be fulfill'd to the same people at the same time then you may say too that the Prophecies which concerne our Saviour's comming or the day of Judgement are already accomplished because they foreshew the same thing And thus it appeares by the three Prophecies which you have barely referr'd to three passages in the New-Testament whereof the first is mistaken the second the selfe-same Prophecie that is referred and the third neither spoken of in the Text to which it is referr'd nor of any affinity with it in the contents thereof by this I say it appeares that being unable to give a considerable answer to any of these Prophecies you had no other way to hold up your credit amongst your friends but by a subtle pretending that the greatest part of these Prophecies are exponed to their hands in the writings of the Apostles but whatsoever the rest may doe I presume the learned of your opinion will be ashamed of the few and meane instances which you have brought to make good your assertion for doubtlesse by such references with which you have answered these Prophecies you may shun
children of Israel bring an offering in a cleane vessell into the house of the Lord. And I will also take of them for Priests and for Levites saith the Lord. For as the new Heavens and the new earth which I will make to wit at the judgement of the dead when this Heaven and Earth shall passe away as it is in the 20. chap. of the Rev. at the 11. ver and in the 21 chap. at the 1. ver as these shall remaine before mee saith the Lord so shall your seed and your name remaine to wit after their foresaid returne from captivitie And it shall come to passe that from one new Moone to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to z Psal 68. ver 29.31 Psal 100. v. 1 â— 4. worship before me saith the Lord and they shall goe forth and looke upon the carkasses of the men that have transgressed against me for their worme shall not dye neither shall their fire be quenched and they shall be an abhorring to all flesh Read also in the 61. chap. the a Isa 53. v. 12. 4 5 6 7. verses and in the 60. chap. the 9 10 11 b Jer. 12. ver 14 15 16 17. 12 13 14 15 16. verses and in the 49. chap. the 22 23. ver and in the 25. chap. the 6 7 8. verses and in the 14. chap. the c Dan 7. ver 18.22.27 1. d Isa 55. v. 5. Zech. 2. v. 9. 11. 2. e Ezek. 39. ver 10. 2. ver and in the 2. chap. the f Isa 49. v. 6. chap. 60. v. 3. 1 Tim. 2. v. 4. 2 3 g Psal 46. v. 9. Hosca 2. v. 18. 4. verses The same Prophecie also you may finde in the 4. chapter of Micah at the 1 2. verses and not much unlike unto this is that in the 8. ch of Zechariah at the 20 22 23. verses and that in the 14. chap. at the 16 17. ver c. Mr. Petrie's Answer It is now manifest that these forenamed Prophecies are not of the earthly prosperity of the Jewes onely and we know certainly that the Gentiles are partakers with the Jewes so that the proofe of this point iâ— needlesse and neverthelesse he filleth up some pages with Prophecies to this purpose Reply Now we are come to the Prophecies that decide the difference for the very ground of the controversie is Whether the Jewes and Gentiles are already joyn'd into one Church which you affirme and we denie and yet both agree that these Prophecies doe foreshew their uniting And what then doe they say of it certainly they say not that the Jewes and Gentiles were united into one Church whilist the Church was amongst the Jewes onely and some Gentiles were cal'd into it as it was before Christs comming neither doe they say that they are united into one Church whilst the Church is to be amongst the Gentiles onely and some Jewes cal'dinto it as it hath been since Christs comming but this they say that at their uniting the whole Nation of the Jewes and all Nations of the Gentiles that are left shall worship God after the same manner at Ierusalem This they shew of themselves and compaâ—'d with the Prophecies which concerne our Saviours reigne on earth they infallibly declare too that at their uniting all Nations in the world shall make but one Church and Kingdome under the government of our Lord Jesus Christ which is enough to shew that in the ensuing discourse you doe but vainly kick against the pricks and manifest an obstinate apostasie from the truth But left the unlearned Reader should mistake mole-hils for mountaines and shadowes for substances wee must proceed to examine your Answers And first you tell us It is now manifest that these forenamed Prophecies are not of the earthly prosperity of the Jewes onely What is it manifest that these forenamed Prophecies speake not onely of the prosperity of the Jewes because the prosperitie of those dayes belongs not to the Jewes onely because I say these Prophecies here doe shew that the Gentiles shall be partakers with them in the peace piety and plentie of that time who sees not this non sequitur the independencie of this inference These last Prophecies shew that the prosperous estate of the Gentiles shall be dependent on their voluntary submission to and union with the Jewes therefore those forenamed Prophecies touching the Jewes returne unto and prosperitie in their owne Land are not of the prosperitie of the Jewes onely such bald untruths and sophisticall Arguments doe stop many a breach in this worke of yours and help very much to gaine the simple and to hold up the confidence of the prejudicate Christian You goe on and say we know certainly that the Gentiles are partakers with the Jewes Partakers of what of the happinesse which the accomplishment of the Prophecies here alledg'd was to bring forth unto them You must first prove that these Prophecies are fulfill'd before you can affirme that they are partakers of the contemporating happinesse reveal'd in them and unlesse you meane that they are partakers with them of the happinesse foreshewed in these Prophecies you doe but equivocate in saying that the Gentiles are partakers with the Jewes And yet you conclude so that the proofe of this point is needlesse and neverthelesse he filleth up some pages with Prophecies to this purpose Doubtlesse this is spoken of purpose to baffle the Reader from a serious consideration of the union which these Prophecies speake of which is so obvious that every ordinary apprehension may of it selfe perceive that it is not yet accomplished and this you knew very well and therefore have not so much as quoted the Chapters or bookes where these Prophecies are reveal'd Was not this after all your braving to plead guilty For if this point was needlesse you might so much the rather have afforded the Reader a sight of or at least a direction unto the Prophecies so needlessely alledged seeing you could not have wisht for a greater advantage against me But when you passe over the former Prophecies untoucht and keep these wholly out of sight who will not conclude from hence that you could not possibly disprove the proper and historicall accomplishment of them and consequently that the time of their accomplishment is not yet come Israel's Redemption I know that most of these Prophecies are chiefly interpreted of the joyning together of the Jewes and Gentiles in one Church and rightly Mr. Petrie's Answer If they be chiefly and rightly interpreted so why should we not acquiesce shall we goe about to inerpret them unrightly that were to put out our eyes and deceive our selves and others Reply As I say that Interpreters doe rightly affirme that these Prophecies doe concerne the joyning together of the Jewes and Gentiles into one Church so I say also that they doe wrongfully apply the accomplishment of these Prophecies to the time of the substituted Gentiles calling And therefore by
say of what they had done and not the beholding of their pierced Saviour which the Prophet mentions as the onely occasion of their sorrow by whose mourning this Prophecie is to be fulfill'd And our Saviour himselfe also hath foretold Matth. 24. at the 30. ver that this mourning is to be fulfill'd at his next appearing his words are Then shall appeare the signe of the Sonne of man in Heaven and then shall all the Tribes of the earth mourne and they shall see the Sonne of man comming in the n Act. 1. v. 11. clouds of Heaven with power and great glory Whom then shall wee believe our Saviour and the Prophet or you For what though the Iewes which shall mourne for him so long after his suffering did not in their owne persons either pierce or see him pierced yet as Levi is said to pay tithes in the loynes of his Father Abraham so these are said to have done what their Fathers did and Mr. Brightman in his exposition of the 7. ver of the first chap. of the Rev. understands that too of the accomplishment of these words of Zech. which he expounds almost in the same termes as I have done pag. 16. 17. of his Rev. of the Apocalyps Israel's Redemption And what comparison is there betwixt the griefe of a few fearfull and scattered Disciples for a day or two and the solemne mourning of all Iudah and Jerusalem and that to every Famils apart and their wives apart As therefore this Prophecie doth concerne the Jewes onely and chiefly the Tribes that crucified their Saviour 〈◊〉 doubtlesse it shall then receive its accomplishment when God at their generall conversion Zech. 12. v. 10. shall poure upon them the Spirit of grace and supplications that so they may at once obtaine the forgivenesse of their sinnes and thus lament their forefathers malicious and cruell contrivance and their owne hereditary and wilfull approbation of the death of Christ who shall then descend unto them to restore their Kingdome and to reigne over all the earth as it is in the 14. chap. of the same Prophet at the 5. and 9. ver c. Mr. Petrie's Answer It is said ver 11. There shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem and ver 12. and the Land shall mourne every Family apart c. whereby is intimated a distinction of the mourning in respect of place and as they did mourne at Jerusalem publikely so we may easily conceive that these who had resorted at these publick Feasts unto Jerusalem did likewise mourne apart after their returning and were not contented with one dayes mourning all facts that are credible are not written And therefore this Prophecie doth concerne the Jewes but not onely seeing even the Gentiles may be said to have pierced his sides by their sinnes meritoriously and to looke on him by faith and mourne for their guiltinesse c. and chiefly the persons that crucified their Saviour So doubtlesse it is great impudence to affirme that the same Prophet chap. 14. 5. and 9. ver saith Christ shall descend unto the Jewes to restore their Kingdome for there is not one word of restoring nor of the Jewes Kingdome in these two verses Reply As in the preceding answer you have applied the accomplishment of Zech. words ch 12. ver 10. to the Jewes converted by St. Peters first Sermon so in this you endeavour to parallel their mourning with the great and solemne mourning so largely exprest in the following verses of the same Prophecie For it is said ver the 11. There shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem c. and ver 12. The Land shall mourne everie Familie apart c. whereby is intimated say you a distinction of the mourning in respect of place and as they did mourne at Jerusalem publickly so wee may easily conceive that these who had resorted at these publick Feasts unto Jerusalem did likewise mourne apart after their returning all facts that are very credible are not written And therefore on the contrary 〈◊〉 have written here what is not credible For is it credible that the mourning of 3000. is any way comparable to the solemne and universall mourning of all Judah and Jerusalem for Josiah 2 Chron. 35. ver 24 25. to which the mourning in this Prophecie is compated Or is it credible that any of these Jewes who resorted unto Jerusalem out of so many Countries as are rehearst Acts 2. ver 9 10 11. were of the Families of David and Nathan when as the Tribe of Judab wat not then carryed into captivitie by the Râ—mans And if they mourned after their returne into their severall Countries into Mesopotamia Cappadocia Pontus and Asia c. this was out of the Land whereas the mourning the Prophet foreshewes is to be fulfill'd onely in Ierusalem and in the land of Iudea and it is to be observed by men and their wives apart and what circumstance is there in the 2. chap. of the Acts from which you can gather that any of the 3000. you speake of were women yea it is to be observ'd by all the Families of the Jewes that remaine that is that are living at the accomplishment of this Prophecie and therefore the repentance of these 3000. could not possibly be the mourning here spoken of by the Prophet You say next that this Prophecie doth concerne the Jewes and chiefly the persons that crucified their Saviour but not onely seeing even the Gentiles c. And did you not tell us even now that you give no other interpretation of the Prophecies then is chiefly intended How then can you say here that this Prophecie is chiefly meant of the Jewes in a proper sense and yet meant also of the Gentiles in a figurative sense is not this to give another sense besides that which is chiefly intended and doe you thinke that both these senses are intended if so how shall we know certainly which is chiefly intended Surely to affirme that the Holy Ghost doth intend a double sense in these Prophecies is no small errour seeing it makes God to have as it were a heart and a heart to be I say as a double dealer who speakes one thing and meanes another and shall we conceit thus of God God forbid Yea let God be true and every man a lyar as truth then is but one so doubtlesse there can be but one true sense of any place in the Scripture but one sense intended by God and thefore to make the Scripture Janus-like to looke two wayes is from man and not from God and it is the readiest way that I know to foment division amongst men But there is yet the heaviest charge behinde for it is great impudence you say to affirme that Zech. chap. 14. ver 5. and 9. saith Christ shall descend unto the Jewes to restore their Kindome for there is not one word of restoring or of the Jewes Kingdome in these two verses And yet his descending and reigning over all the earth is
owne order doe not intimate any order doe not intimate a priority of time betwixt the godly and ungodly as well as they doe betwixt Christ and them 3. If you were as able to justifie your accusations as you are forward to accuse there were no contending with you but it is so common with you to awe the Reader with great words when you have least to say to the purpose that he is by this time well acquainted with your craft and therefore your bare affirming that here is a contradiction will be taken for no evidence Although then the word commeth be not expressed in the originall yet to make the sense compleate this word or a word equivalent to this as your owne translation doth witnesse is here to be understood For then or at that time say you is the end I pray at what time at the time of our Saviours descending surely the Apostle answers not so but when he shall have delivered up the Kingdome to God even the Father When he shall have put downe all rule and all authority and power c. So that the Then here is referred by Saint Paul to these Whens which follow it and not to the words foregoing as you wrest it And besides whereas the Apostle shews us when the end shall be by these convertiâ—le expressions When he shall have delivered up the Kingdome to God When he shall have put downe all rule and all authority and power you skippe from this and falsely and fallacioufly inferre That the time when he shall deliver up the Kingdome is when they who are Christs shall rise at his comming so that according to your explication of the text the words Then commeth the end are superfluouâ— and the text should runne thus Christ the first-fruites afterwards they that are Christ's at his comming when he shall have delivered up the Kingdome c. And thus it appeares how much this place of the Apostle doth puzzle you And yet you tell us also That the 15 ver doth teach us that Christ reigneth now because it is said there for be must reigne c. But this is no truer then the rest that you have said For the Apostle referres these words to the time after his comming and not to the time that now is so that the full meaning of his words is this Afterwards they that are Christs at his comming Then commeth the end when after his comming he shall have delivered up the Kingdome to God When after his comming he shall have put downe all rule and all authority and power When after his comming the rest of the dead are risen For he must reigne after his comming till he hath put all his enemies under his feete And the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death at the last resurrection of the dead And whereas you adde that text Heb. 2.8 Thou hast put all things under his feete to prove also that Christ doth now reigne You doevery unadvisedly contradict your owne Tenet and the Apostles words For if all things are now actually put under him then he doth not now reigne seeing the Apostle saith That he must reigne untill he hath put all his enemies under his feate and no longer And therefore it is evident that those words Heb. 2.8 are spoke in relation to Gods fore-appointment of it and not to the actuall performance of it to Gods committing of that power to the Sonne by which he is now able to subdue all things unto himselfe as it is Phil. 3.21 and not to the Sonnes putting of this power in execution which shall not be till his comming againe as both the order and sense of Saint Pauls words here doe shew and the volces in heaven at the sounding of the seventh Trumpet Rev. 11.15 And the thanksgiving of the Elders ver 17. doe confirme And so the beginning and not the end of the administration of Christs Kingdome is to be when they who are dead in Christ shall be made alive And though these Saints shall dye no more yet death the last enemy shall not be then utterly destroyed for as much as none but these Saints shall then rise and that the Jewes which are then to be delivered and the Gentiles which shall be called at and through their deliverance and those who are borne in the time of our Saviours reigne shall be subject unto death as well as we though not to the like persecution by men or temptation from Satan who is then to be bound up for the space of a 1000 yeares Israel's Redemption Thus farre Saint Paul whose words doe clearely prove that the reigne of Christ as man of which alone we treate doth neither beginne before his comming nor extend it selfe beyond the death of Death the last resurrection And therefore cannot without a palpable contradiction be taken for the time when he shall give up his Kingdome to the Father nor for the time that now is betwixt which and his Kingdome too our Saviour in my conceit hath put an irreconcileable distinction calling this the time not of a Kingdome but of temptation that is a time of persecution for righteousnesse sake a time wherein his Disciples must be delivered up to be afflicted killed and hated of all Nations for his Name that thus fulfilling the rest of the afflictions of Christ for his bodies sake which is the Church they may at last wholly and together for shall not their bodies as well reigne with Christ as their soules but these we know are and shall be yet captives to the grave or are the Saints that shall be found alive at Christs comming exempted from his Kingdome for if he should reigne till then and then give up his Kingdome to his Father they are exempted but if as our Apostle she ws his reigne beginne not till his comming then as the living shall at that time n 1 Thes 4.15 16 17. together with the dead in Christ be caught up to meete him so the Saints shall then anâ—â—ill then they cannot wholly and altogether reigne with him I say together and at once be made partakers of their Masters Kingdome which as it appeares is not to be in heaven and therefore must needes be held on earth where all things which our Saviour promised his Disciples may well be accomplished in a literall sense Mr. Petrie's Answer What God by his word and experience bath conjoyned let no man call irreconcileable for be saith Psal 110.2 Reigne thou in the midst of thy enemies and Rom. 8.37 In all these things that is in the midst of our sufferings we are more then conquerours so that when the enemies doe rage and persecute even then doth Christ reigne and the godly are Kings or if there be any title more transcendent Reply Certainely experience doth joyne nothing together but declares onely to us what God hath conjoyned and doubtlesse what God hath conjoyned Christ would not separate and yet Luke 22.28 he saith Yee are they which have followed
not a part of a Kingdome onely and doubtlesse he must reign over al that he delivers up Yea although you here make Christ to reign only over a part of his Fathers Kingdome and say also That the arch-traytour gain-stands in malice to the honour of the King and his Sonne that Satan still opposeth by deceiving some and vexing others yet you say pag. 7. That Christ is great over all the world seeing all the Gentiles doe prayse him and all people laud him And pag. 52. That be hath made all Kingdomes of the world acknowledge his authority and hath put downe all contrary power and authority c. And pag. 58. That now is no Kingdome but our Lords and his Christs And pag. 40. That his enemies are made subject to him even his greatest enemies So contrary are you to the truth and to your selfe Sixthly and lastly you tell us That at the delivering up of our Saviours Kingdome the Father will not say Thy reward is not in he even therefore let them goe againe into the earth and inherit glory for a 1000 yeares And doubtlesse he will not For when our Saviour shall give up his Kingdome to the Father his owne Kingdome on earth shall be fulfilled And we say that his Kingdome is to beginne at his appearing when none but the Saints then departed shall rise and not at the last judgement when all others shall rise as you to delude the reader doe purposely misunderstand us And so your pretended explication of the whole matter is indeede no other but an intended implication of a plaine truth Israel's Redemption Of this Kingdome also speakes Saint Peter in Acts 3.19 Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sinnes may be blotted out when the o 1 Pet. 1.13 times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord and be shall send Jesus Christ which was before preacht unto you p Luke 19 11 12. c. whom the heavens must receive untill the times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy q Rev. 10.7 prophets since the world began where if by the times of refreshing and times of restitution of all things nothing else can be meant but the Jewes inhabiting againe of their owne land and the bringing of all other Nations into subjection to them with which a blessed and wonderfull change of the creatures shall concurre then it is evident that when Christ comes at this time he shall accomplish this thing to Israel and consequently receive his appointed Kingdome but that these words can have no other meaning a small acquaintance with the Prophets will informe you who as they speake of nothing more so they have nothing which can be applyed to our Saviours second comming as a comfortable effect so generally foreshewne but this Mr. Petrie's Answer 1. I am sure no man can imagine that these words in themselves import that our Saviour shall reigne among the Jewes as an earthly Monarch which is the point pag. 45. And therefore this if by the time c. is as if one would say If I be a King I am a King 2. That the Prophets have another meaning may be seen by all interpreters and partly by that is said here 3. It is wonder if any Jew will say that the Prophets speake of nothing more for if his meaning be They speake not more of any other thing it is quâ—stionable seeing there is much spoken of Gods precepts But if he doe meane as it seemes that they speake not of any other thing that can be applyed unto our Saviours comming I will cite one Prophet for all Dâ—n 2.1 2. Where is mention of the great Prince of great trouble even to the time of deliverance and then awaking of some not for a space of time but to everlasting life and of others at the same time unto shame and everlasting contempt And is not this a more comfortable effect foreshewne generally unto every one that shall be written in the booke Now the cause why the Prophets write so much of Jerusalem and that Kingdom to be restored was That the godly hearing of the destruction of that Kingdome did greatly feare that that Common-wealth should never be restored wherein Christ our Saviour was to be borne and performe the worke of redemption we may justly thinke that their feare was not so much the want of bodily liberty as the not comming of our Saviour and therfore the Prophets insist much upon that point for the comfort of the godly that howsoever that Kingdome shall be ruined yet it shall be restored and all Nations shall by the preaching of Jewes come into the obedience of Christ and so receive lawes from the Jewes as being captives unto them whose captives they might be for a time But to imagine that the faithfull did expect and the Prophets did speake of no other thing but this earthly Monarchy is too grosse and directly contradicting the Apostles bearing another testimony of them Heb. 11.16 They desire a better countrey that is heaven And 1 Pet. 1.9 10. Receiving the end of your faith even the salvation of your soules Of which salvation the Prophets have enquired and searched diligently who prophecied of the grace the should came unto you c. Reply 1. If these words in themselves import not that our Saviour shall reigne among the Jewes as a Monarch on earth yet compared with the prophecies to which they doe direct us for an explanation of the times of refreshing and times of restitution of all things they doe certainely import as much And this forme If by the times of refreshing and times of restitution c. the Jewes restoring to and prosperity in their land must needes be meant then it is evident that when he comes at these times he shall accomplish this unto Israel is not to prove idem per idem the same thing by the same thing as you untruely affirme But this forme If by the times of refreshing c. the Jewes restoring to and prosperity in their land be meant then by the times of refreshing c. the Iewes restoring to and prosperity in their land is meant And your silence touching the meaning of the times of refreshing and the times of restitution of all things doth manifest that you did thus traduce the forme of this argument onely because you could not gainsay the evidence fit 2. You say pag. 23. T at a linterpreters except a few Millenaries have expounded the prophecies touching the Jewes future prosperity in their owne land of the Jewes onely And you say here That all without exception have said that the Prophets have another meaning But surely we have shewed that such interpreters cannot prove what they say Yea seeing it is evident by Saint Peters words here That our Saviour shall not come againe till the times of refreshing c. and that it is as evident by the writings of the Prophets to which the
2 Tim. 4. may not be forgotten I charge thee saith he before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quicke and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdome For why should Christs appearing and his Kingdome be joyned together yea why should his Kingdome be added as the end of his appearing unlesse both were to contemporate unlesse his Kingdome were to begin at his appearing not before it Mr. Petrie's Answer The mentioning these two together and in that order doth no more import such a beginning then the end of glory is the beginning of vertue because the Apostle saith in the same order he hath called us unto glory and vertue 2 Pet. 1.3 howbeit glory be named before vertue glory is after vertue Reply Although the end doth alwayes precede the means to the end in the intention and in this text of Saint Peter in the expression also yet as we say not that Christs appearing is the like medium to his Kingdome as vertue is to honour so we deny that the order of Saint Pauls words in 2 Tim. 4.1 is like to this of Saint Peters and that our Saviours appearing is the end for which he is to reigne For that our Saviour is to reigne that he may appeare there is no scripture to testifie but that he is to appeare that he may reigne not onely this text of Saint Paul but many prophecies doe witnesse as that of Zech. 14.4 c. which shews that he shall reigne on earth after his comming with the Saints And that Rev. 11.15 which shews that at the time of his descending the Kingdoms of this world are to become his and that Rev. 19 which shewes in what manner the Kingdomes of this world are to become his to wit by destroying the Kings and mighty men on the earth in battell and giving their flesh to the fowles of heaven And that Rev. 20.2 3. which shewes that after these Kings are thus destroyed and their Kingdomes obtained Christ shall shut up Satan in the bottomlesse pit the space of a 1000 yeares And lastly that propheticall parable Luke 19 11. c. which was purposely spoken against the false opinion of the Iewes who even generally thought that Christs Kingdome should immediately appeare For it declares plainely that the Nobleman went into a farre countrey not to reigne but to receive a Kingdome and to returne and that when he was returned and had received his Kingdome he gave to one servant authority over ten cities and to another over five c. And 〈◊〉 those that would not that he should reigne over them and is not this all one as if he had said that he was not to reigne then whilest he was among them as they expected nor in the time of his absence from them in heaven but when he should returne to them againe from heaven And besides that our Saviours Kingd me is to beginne at his appearing and not before and so according to the order of the Apostles words it is evident in that it is said Who shall judge the quicke and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdome Where by the judging of the quicke and the dead which necessarily followes his appearing is shewed to be his imployment in his Kingdome The judging I say of his enemies that would not that he should reigne over them by a temporall but terrible destruction at the beginning of his Kingdome as the foresaid parable and the prophecies of Zech. 14. and Iohn 19. and others doe declare And the judging of his Subjects by a civill judgement in the time of his reigne as the same parable likewise and the Thrones of judgement promised to his Disciples and to them that overcome and all the Prophecies of his and the Saints reigne on earth doe manifest And the judging againe of his rebellious subjects by a temporall but totall destruction when his 1000 yeares peacefull reigne is expired as the Prophecy Rev. 20.7 8 9. doth shew And lastly his judging of all both good and bad at the delivering up of his Kingdome to God even the Father at the last resurrection of the dead when he shall pronounce the definitive sentence of a perfect and compleate salvation to the one part to the elect and of a perfect and compleat condemnation to the other part to the reprobate According as it is largely exprest Matth. 25.32 c. and as it is implyed Rev. 20.15 in these words And whosoever was not found written in the booke of life was cast into the lake of fire Israel's Redemption And to my seeming that propheticall image in the 2 of Dan. ver 13. which represented both the orderly succession and diverse condition of all the then following Kingdoms of this world unto the Kingdome of Christ shadowed there unto us by the stone that was cut out without hands doth give good light to this of Saint Paul For in what manner those Kingdomes have succeeded each other in the like manner is the Kingdome of Christ to succeede them as appears by the same phrase of speech which is attributed as well to the setting up of this Kingdome as to any of them to wit That it shall breake in peeces and consume all those Kingdomes Ver. 34 35 44 45. And therefore seeing these words are meant of a conquest and succession by force of Armes in all the former Kingdomes how can they be otherwise understood in this of Christ which is to succeed them all as they have succeeded each other both in time and place as ver 35. doth fully declare Mr. Petrie's Answer 1. In the seeming of many millions that image doth not signifie a temporall Monarchy of the Jewes which is the point in hand and the seeming of so many contrary to the seeming of one might satisfie for all that long discourse following neverthelesse I adde albeit these foure Kingdomes did succeed one another yet the Kingdome of Christ did not succeed or was the last of them or after them in time for it is written ver 41. In the dayes of these Kings not after them shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdome which shall never be destroyed and it shall breake in peeces the iron the brasse the clay silver and gold It shall breake the silver and the gold then it shall be before the brasse and the iron And of what King can that be understood but of Christ who saith Isai 10.12 I will punish the stout heart of the King of Assyria and chap. 37.29 Because of thy rage against me I will put my hooke in thy nose c. 2. Whereas it is alledged that the 35. ver doth fully declare that succession in time and place certainely the 35. ver is not contrary to the 44. ver which shewes plainely that this Kingdome shall be in the dayes of these Kings and breake them in peeces and therefore these words shall breake them in peeces signifie a conquest by power but neither by succession in time nor
armes but this that ver 35. is not contrary to ver 44. And doubtlesse it is not nor ver 44. to such a setting up of our Saviours Kingdome as we hold For whereas you say That this Kingdome shall be set up in the dayes of these Kings and not after them It is as if you had told us That a King cannot overcome and succeed other Kings in their Kingdomes while they reigne but after their reigne When as indeed they cannot lose their Kingdomes but while they have them but in the dayes of their reigne and not after them And so you have not yet shewed us any reason why this phrase It shall breake in peeces and consume these Kingdomes should not as well be taken properly when it is attributed to the setting up of our Saviours Kingdome as when it is attributed to the setting up of the other Kingdomes And therefore we have still good reason to beleeve that the forcible and destroying fall of the stone upon the image doth betoken no lesse then a conquest and succession by force of armes Israel's Redemption And as the falling of the stone upon the feete of the image upon the last and divided Kingdomes of the iron Empire doth probably imply Mr. Petrie's Answer The dreame implyeth nothing contrary to the exposition and therefore leave probabilities that are contrary to certainties Reply Doubt lesse the dreame implyeth nothing contrary to the exposition but both dreame and exposition doe point out our Saours personall reigne on earth For the confirmation and manifestation of which truth we bring not probabilities onely but certainties too yea such certainties as all your wit and wilinesse are not able to answer or obscure and therefore me thinks you have no cause to be offended with such variety of testimonies And had I said also that this which I called onely a probability had been more then a probability I had not overlasht For seeing God by this image foreshewed Nebuchadnezzar what Kingdoms should succeed his unto the second comming of Christ all which time the Jewes should remaine captives and tributaries And that the falling of the stone on the feete of the image did intimate both the second appearing of Christ for the first was when he was borne of a Virgine when he was cut out without hands and the expiration of the time allotted to the Kingdomes represented by the image It necessarily followes that when the stone should fall on the image when the Kingdome of God should be set up as it is expounded the Kingdoms prefigured by the image should be no longer should all be subdued and that the mountaine filling the whole earth the visible and Monarchicall Kingdome of Christ on earth should succeed alone Israel's Redemption For if the Kingdome of God there spoken of were to be understood of a Kingdome which should so be set up in the dayes of these Kings that their reigne should notwithstanding continue together with it as not onely these but all former Kingdomes also have done with the Church militant with the Kingdome of grace which therefore cannot be the Kingdome there foreshewne then doubtlesse it should have been represented by some part of the image it selfe as the contemporating Kingdomes of the divided Empire are by the mixture of iron and clay and not by a thing so different from it and adverse unto it by a stone I say so wonderfull for its beginning operation and encrease For it was cut out without hands and when it had smote the image became a great mountaine and filled the whole earth Which the Churches as yet never did whose fall and growth too as they import a more powerfull speedy and generall conquest over these Kingdomes by this Kingdome then either the gold received from the silver the silver from the brasse or the brasse from the iron so they imply the utter extirpation and totall abolition of that manner of policy and government which these Kingdomes have usâ—d of which it is said That they became like the chaffe of the Summer threshing-flores and the winde carried them away that no place was found for them ver 35. And with this sense of the interpretation of the vision very well a greeth that in the second Psalme ver 8. Aâ—ke of me and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession Thou shalt break them with a rod r Rev. 2.27 ch 19.15 of iron thou shalt dash them in peeces like a potters vessel And that in Psal 110.2 The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion rule thou in the midst of thine enemies The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through Kings in the day of his wrath He shall judge among the heathen he shall fill the placer with dead bodies he shall wound the heads over many Countries He shall drinke of the brooke in the way therefore shall he lift up the head Yea and that too in Psal 149.2 Let Israel rejoyce in him that made him let the children of Zion be joyfull in their King Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand to execute vengeance upon the heathen and punishments upon the people To binde their 1 Sam. 1.9.10 Psal 47. Psal 99. Kings in chaines and their Nobles in fetters of iron to exâ—eute upon them the judgement written This bonour have all his Saints Mr. Petrie's Answer 1. Then teach God hâ—w he should eveale his will 2. It is revealed in expcesse words ver 44.3 There was reason to expresse it by a different thing because the foure were of one quality and this was of another quality My Kingdome saith he is not of this world John 18.36 It is more wonderfull more powerfull and more generall then any of them and all the Kings who will not serve this King shall perish he shall breake them with a rod of iron Psal 2.8 he shall strike them through in his wrath Psal 110 5. and binde them with chaines and their Nobles with fetters of iron Psal 149.8 Reply 1. We leave this presumption to your selfe who have so boldly told God what is most for his glory pag. 15 16. and what is most to the praise of his mercy and bountifulnesse pag. 68. 2. It is revealed in expresse words ver 44. That God shall set up a Kingdome in the dayes of these Kings But not that these Kings and the Kingdomes which God shall set up are to continue together Yea the Kingdome of God could not breake in peeces these Kingdomes could not succeed them by conquest unlesse they should be in the possession of their severall Kings when the Kingdome of God is thus to be set up And seeing these Kingdomes are to be broken in peeces are to be consumed by the Kingdome which God shall set up how can you once imagine that their conversion and not their confusion that their instruction and not destruction that
their mending and not their ending I meane onely in respect of their former distinct titles and governments should hereby be meant Certainely you cannot finde in all the scripture nor in any humane writer such a signification of these words And as for the Christian beleefe it doth not alter the form of civill government in any Nation But be it Democraticall Aristocraticall or Monarchicall it agrees alike with all of them Yea it consisted in the primitive times with the profession of Pagans and doth now consist in the Eâ—sterne Churches in the religion of the Mahometans so farre is it in its purity and integrity from teaching us to disturbe the peace of any Kingdome to seeke I say the suppression and removeall of the government or religion thereof by outward violence by the helpe of the sword And therefore it cannot be said of the preaching of the Christian faith that it breakes in peeces and consumes the Kingdâ—mes in which it is profest 3. There was reason you say to expresse the Kingdome of God ver 44. by a thing different from the image because the foure Kingdomes were of one quality and this of another But doubtlesse as the four were no more of one quality then gold silver brasse and iron are all of one quality so though they were all of different qualities from this yet this could not be the reason wherefore the Kingdome of God ver 44. was represented by no part of the image but by a thing different from it For if notwithstanding their different qualities they had been to continue together as you say they might notwithstanding this difference of qualities have been represented together also as well as the contemporating Kingdomes of the divided Empire are by the mixture of iron and clay but the reason was because the setting up of this Kingdome should be the beginning of a new world of a world in which all the Kingdomes on earth should make but one Kingdome under Christ when once the time comprehended by the image should be at an end as it is said ver 35. Then was the iron the clay the brasse the silver and the gold broken in peeces together and became like the chaffe of the Summers threshing-flores and the winde carried them away that no place was found for them And the stone that smote the image became a great mountaine and filled the whole earth And againe ver 44. But it shall breake in peeces and consume all these Kingdomes and it not it with any other but it alone shall stand for ever And that text John 18.36 My Kingdome is not of this world doth helpe also to confirme this for it either points out unto us the time of our Saviours reigne or the authority by which he is to reigne And so is as if he had either said thus My Kingdome is not to be now in the time of this world in the time before my next appearing but hereafter in the time of that world to come spoken of Psal 8. that is at the time of my appearing againe when all creatures shall be actually put in subjection unto me Or thus My Kingdome that is the authority by which I must reigne is not from hence is not to be given unto me of the world that is of men but I am to have it from God I am to fetch it from him and to come againe as it is in the parable Luke 19.11 c. and in this sense the expression agrees very well with that Querie Matth. 21.25 The baptisme of John whence was it from heaven or of men And besides all this the Kingdome of grace of which you understand the Kingdome which the God of heaven should set up ver 44. was set up at the first promise of Christ as you confesse pag. 9. and so was in the world even from the beginning whereas that Kingdome ver 44. was then to come when this vision was revealed to Nebuchadnezzar And if you say that the Kingdome ver 44. did represent the Kingdome of grace as it was to be set up amongst the Gentiles at the preaching of the Gospell to them after our Saviours ascension Surely it was set up thus also before the division of the Romane Empire and therefore it cannot in this sense be the Kingdome meant in ver 44. which was to be set up after the division of the Empire and when some of the Kingdomes into which it was divided should be Christian or rather Protestant Kingdomes as these words ver 43. doe intimate And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men but they shall not cleave one to another even as iron is not mixed with clay And in the dayes of these Kings to wit of these amongst whom some that are Christian or Protestant Princes shall mingle themselves with the seed of men shall joyne themselves in marriage with unbeleeving or misbeleeving Princes shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdome which shall never be destroyed And at the setting up of this Kingdome it is that the contents of Psal 2.8 and of Psal 110.2 c. and of Psal 149.2 c. which agree so well with the breaking of the image in peeces shall be accomplished And if their very expression doth not sufficiently declare that they are properly to be understood yet certainely all the prophecies which foreshew the Gentiles subjection to the Jewes doe render it unquestionable Israel's Redemption And that nought else is meant by the world to come in Heb 2.5 but this Kingdome of our Saviour it is evident by the authority there alledged out of Psal 8. which prophecy is therefore made use of by the Apostle as a plaine proofe that Christs manhood is exalted above the chiefest of the Angels because it shewes that it is to Christ as man and not to any of the Angels that God hath put in subjection the world to come Mr. Petrie's Answer None denyeth it Reply If none denieth that the Kingdome of our Saviour is to be in the time of the world to come why doe you so much condemne us for beleeving this truth and why also doe you affirme flat against this truth that it is now in this present world Israel's Redemption And if there be yet a world which is to be put in subjection to Christ as man then it must needes be a distinct world from that in t 1 Cor. 15.24.28 Rev. 21.3 which as man he shall give up the Kingdome to his Father Mr. Petrie's Answer The Kingdome or the World whereof the Apostle speakes there was then to come not in respect of Christ but of the Apostle for he meaneth the Kingdome of heaven as appeares by these words whereof we speake which have relation to the words preceding ver 3. If we neglect so great salvation where he opponeth the Evangelicall promises unto the typicall promises these was an earthly Canaan and this is heaven Christ at the time of writing this
our Saviours appearing neither hath nor can have any truth in it And lastly as for the contents of your parenthesis certainely we doe not imagine that the raised Saints the Saints which the Lord shall bring with him whom alone Rev. 20.4 doth concerne shall not live throughout the whole space of a 1000 yeares reigne for we know that they can dye no more after their resurrection But we beleeve that the converted Jewes and all the Gentiles that are left to wit after the extraordinary destruction which for their generall opposing the Jewes shall light on them at our Saviours appearing we beleeve I say that these and their posterity shall live in the like mortall condition as we doe now though they shall live much longer then we doe now Israel's Redemption And lastly The reigne of Christ doth not beginne till Antichrist is destroyed so that a metaphoricall interpretation of the first resurrection would make good this conclusion That most of the Saints shall rise many hundred yeares before their reigne there being no lesse distance of time betwixt the houre of their calling and Antichrists confusion Mr. Petrie's Answer I have before made it cleare that Christs Kingdome is already begun for he reigneth in the midst of his enemies not onely by his power over-ruling disappointing and turning all their plots upon their owne pates but also in comforting the hearts of the godly so that they are a terrour to the whole earth even to their enemies who are many times more afraide at the prayers of the godly then at the cannons of other enemies and subdue the spirits of the world and binde Kings in chaines stronger then iron And therefore that assertion falleth The reigne of Christ beginneth not till Antichrist be destroyed and that absurdity following that assertion is falsely imputed to that interpretation Reply You have before alledged Psal 110. to shew that Christ doth now reigne in the midst of his enemies and we have shewed that that prophecy is not to be fulfilled untill he comes from the right hand of his Father and therefore you have onely said and not proved that Christs Kingdome is already begun And That he doth now by his divine power over-rule and dispose of the actions of men and by his Spirit comfort the hearts of the godly is nothing to the question in hand For thus he governed the whole world and his Church in the world as much before his incarnation as he hath done since But the prophecies which foreshew our Saviours Kingdome on earth doe clearely manifest that he is to reigne over the world in the same manner as temporall Kings doe over their Subjects to wit visibly and civilly that in the time of his Kingdome I say the acts of his government are to be the immediate acts of his manhood onely although they proceede originally from his Godhead And surely this Kingdome is not yet begun nor shall beginne till Antichrist be destroyed and consequently the foresaid absurdity touching the great distance betwixt the rising and reigning of the Saints doth inevitably follow upon the spirituall interpretation of the first resurrection And whereas you say That the enemies of the godly are many times more afraide of their prayers then at the cannons of other enemies you herein contradict experience it selfe for what doe the Mahometans or any Pagan Nations regard the prayers of Christians whose very faith they account foolishnesse or what doe persecuting Christians themselves regard the prayers of the persecuted whom they thinke to be worthily punished by them doubtlesse they are no more afraide of them then Saint Paul was when through a mistaken zeale he was so exceedingly madde against them that he punished them in every Synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme persecuted them to strange cities And therefore though the prayers of the righteous may prevaile very much with God for their owne and their enemies good or for the disappointing of their enemies devices and attempts yet certainely their enemies can neither see nor regard this unlesse God open their eyes as he did Saint Pauls to behold the perversnesse of their own wayes and the innocency and uprightnesse of them whom they so much despise Israel's Redemption The assumption is grounded on Rev. 11.15 which shewes that till the time of the seventh Trumpet with the beginning whereof the last viall doth concurre The Kingdomes of * The Kingdomes of this world It is not said The Kingdome of heaven to wit of the third heaven the incorruptible habitation of Saints and Angels or of another world I say of another in substance But the Kingdomes of this world that is this world which is now shall till then be divided into many Kingdomes shall wholly become Christs and be made by him one heavenly Kingdome a Kingdome in which men shall live after an heavenly estate and condition a Kingdome in which Gods Will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven For seeing that cannot possibly become any mans possession which doth utterly cease to be what other construction can be given of these words but this that the government of all the Kingdomes of the world is hereafter to be taken into Christs owne hands as he is man And indeede how else should they then become his after such a manner as they are not now his if not by a subiection to his manbood for as he is God they were alwayes his and all will grant that this Scripture doth plaincly foreshew a deposing of all the Kings of the earth at the accomplishment thereof A deposing of them I say in such a way that their Kingdomes may become the Kingdomes of our Lord and of his Christ which cannot be by abolishing and dissolving the earth on which they must reigne but may and shall be by subduing and conquering them and the Kingdomes over which they must reigne this world doe not become the Kingdomes of our Lord and of his Christ Mr. Petrie's Answer The assumption he would say assertion but it is marked before the Author is no Logician is grounded on Rev. 11.15 the words are The Kingdomes of this world are become the Kingdomes of our Lord and of his Christ Here it is not said Our Lord and his Christ shall not reigne till this time but this is all that the wâ—rds import Now is no Kingdome but our Lords and bis Christs And if it be objected It is no where said so of Christs reigne till this time of the seventh trumpet and therefore it cannot be true that our Lord and his Christ doe reigne till then I answer ye have heard before that in the midst of these Kingdomes doth Christ reâ—gne even among them and over them But all their Kingdomes shall be utterly destroyed and his Kingdome shall be for ever and ever saith John and therefore not for a thousand yeares onely Now if we lay together what is said of the Iewes reigne here and this answer we shall likewise see the vanity
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