not be long delayd Walke you therefore in holinesse with sincerity and cheerefulnesse as it becomes the heires of so great salvation and give all diligence to make your calling and election sure for so an entrance shal be ministred unto you aboundantly not into an earthly Monarchy but the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Answer Beloved in the Lord you are told here by Mr. Petry that this historical Narration of the original of the Millenarian Tenet and his refutation of my booke are for your good And had it been so indeed I had not now answered the one or repli'd unto the other yea I had rather laid my hand upon my mouth or empoly'd it about the publique retractation of mine own opinion But I find not in either ought of that sincere and upright dealing as is pretended in these words That which I finde is this that Mr. Petrie is too much of the minde of the Lawyers in the Gospel of whom our Saviour said Luk. 11. verse 52. that they had taken away the key of knowledge that they entred not in themselves and them that were entring in they hindred And that as the Pharisees best project to discountenance our Saviours miracles was to say that he did cast out Devils through Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils and their most prevalent motive to disgrace his doctrine was to say that he was a glutton and a wine-bibber a friend of publicans and sinners So Mr. Petrie's chiefest sleight to disparage the truth we hold is to say that it hath no other Father nor abettours but heretiques that it is preacht by such as have in their Congregation grosse Anabaptists and are friends to whatsoever Novellers And that it teacheth the voluptuous carnall living of the raised Saints and their dying againe after they are raised And doubtlesse beloved if you should be as ready to receive these tares into your hearts as Mr. Petrie is to sow them there your eares would be stuffed with prejudice and your hearts choakt up with indignation against us but as we wish better things unto you so we hope better things of you even such things as accompany salvation We hope I say that you are as wise as the Bereans of whom the Apostle saith that they were noble in that they received the word with all readinesse of mind and searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so And if you examine our words by this rule by which the Bereans examined St. Paul's and were so highly commended by him for it we doubt not but you will with one consent affirme That in the point in Question we and not our adversaries doe say as God saith And that we make not the meate that perisheth but everlasting life the reward of the glorified Saints although we truly affirme that these Saints may and shall eate drinke after their resurrection As it is said Mat. 26. verse 29. and Luk. 22. verse 16.18 And that you will affirme too that we truly hold that the Kingdom of God is not yet come although our Saviour Luk. 17. verse 20. answered the Pharisees who demanded when the Kingdom of God should come that the Kingdom of God was within or amongst them For that which our Saviour there cal'd the Kingdom of God is not meant of the Kingdom it selfe of which the Pharisees inquired but of the outward meanes by which that Kingdom is obtain'd As it is Mat. 21. verse 43. and thus also Rom. 14. verse 17. righteousnesse and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost are cald the Kingdom of God because these things doe intitle men to that Kingdom and manifest unto others that they doe belong unto it neither of which the observing or not observing of difference in meats and drinks can doe And in the 1 Cor. 4. verse 20. it is said The Kingdom of God is not in word but in power that is our interest in the Kingdom of God is neither obtained nor attested by our discoursing preaching and professing of the truth onely but by our carefull and conscionable performance of those things which wee are commanded And therefore beloved that you may not mistake the meanes and evidences of God's Kingdom for the Kingdom it selfe but may by the injoyment and effectual use of these be assured in your selves and make knowne unto others that you are heires of that that you have an inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God we beseech the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that the word of Christ may dwell in you richly in all wisdom and that our Lord Jesus Christ himselfe and God even our Father which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace may comfort your hearts and stablish you in every good word and worke AN answer to M. Petries Rules for interpreting of the Scripture inserted pag. 8. 9. 10. 11. after his answer to the prophecy of Amos ch 9. ver 11. c. which partly because they were devised of purpose to enthrall the readers judgement that hee might not perceive the true meaning of the scriptures as the preface was to perswade him that the scripture is not the ground of the Millenarian Tenet and partly because I would not disjoyne my replies by such a large digression I thought fit beloved to present unto thee in this place His introduction to them is this Mr Petrie And here for understanding this and such cher prophecies I add these undoubted rules Answer Undoubted rules must be grounded on undoubted authority but these for the most have none either from Heaven or of men The first rule The land of Canaan was a type of the Kingdom of Christ and so was Jerusalem and Sion because these were types of this Kingdom so glorious things were spoken of them Psal 46.4.5 and 48.1 2. and 87.1 2 3.5 which texts are more safely understood of Christ's Kingdom then of that earthly Jerusalem and Sion yea very hardly can they be understood of them Answer You have brought no text to shew that the land of Canaan was a type of Christs Kingdom but we bring many to shew that it shall be the proper inheritance of Christ the Saints in the time of his Kingdom And the glorious things which are spoken of Jerusalem or Sion in the 46.48 and 87. Psalmes and in many other places of the scripture are spoken of it because it was to be the City of the great King as is foretold Psal 48. v. 2. that is of Christ in the time of his personall raigne over the whole earth and therefore these words which texts are more safely understood of Christ's Kingdom then of that earthly Ierusalem and Sion yea very hardly can they be understood of them are as falsely as faintly spoken by you for is it not said in the foresaid verse Beautifull for situation the joy of the whole earth is mount Sion and Psal 87. v. 2. The Lord loveth the gates of
be againe restored as is implyed in our Saviour's prophecy Luk. 1. ver 24. and exprest Jer. 31. ver 38. and Isa chap. 60. and 62. and in many other places This is your first parallell for which you had no ground in the text The rest are these Christ is called the salvation of the Lord and Simeon saith My eyes have seene thy salvation The Messiah is called a light unto the Gentiles and Simeon saith a light to lighten the Gentiles Christ is called the glory of Sion and Jerusalem and Simeon saith the glory of thy people Iseael And will it follow from this that Isaiah's prophecies were at that time fulfilled surely no more then it will that they were fulfilled when Isaiah spake the same words but this will follow that these texts of Isaiah and Simeon's prophecy are one in their contents and that thefore Simeon's words doe no more shew that Isaiah's prophecies were fulfilled at Christ's first comming then Isaiah's doe that Simeon's prophecy was then fulfilled Which doe Indeed shew that Christ is to be the glory of his people Israel at his next appealing and not before For seeing to be the glory of his people implies a greater happines to belong to the Iews of whom the Redeemer came then to the Gentiles to whom he is said to be a light is it likely that this should be fulfilled when now and then a Jew should seeke God amongst the Gentiles or rather when the Gentiles in generall should seeke God amidst the whole Nation of the Jewes or rather I say when as Isaiah speakes the Tribes of Iacob shall be raysed up and the preserved of Israel restored when they shall come from the North and from the West and from the land of Sinim When the waste and desolate places and the land of their destruction shall be even now too narrow by reason of the inhabitants and they that swallowed them up shall be far away When the Lord shall feed them that oppresse them with their owne flesh and they shall be drunken with their owne blood as with sweet wine and all flesh shall know that the Lord is their Saviour and their Redeemer the mighty one of Jacob. When the glory of the Lord is risen upon Sion and the Gentiles shall come to their light and Kings to the brightnes of her rising When the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto her and the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto her When the multitude of Camels shall cover her the Dromedaries of Midian and Ephah and all they from Sheba shall come and shall bring gold and incense and shew forth the praise of the Lord. When all the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto her and the Rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto her when they shall come up with acxceptance on God's altar and God shall glorify the house of his glory When the glory of Lebanon shall come unto her the firre tree the pine tree and the boxe tree together to beautify the place of God's Sanctuary and when God shall make the place of his feet glorious When the Natiâ—n and Kingdom that will not serve Sion shall perish yea shall be utterly wasted When violence shall no more be heard in her land wasting nor distruction within her borders but she shall call her walls salvation and her gates praise When the Gentiles shall see her righteousnes and all Kings her glory when she shall be called Heph-Zibah ' and her land Beulah In a word when the Jewes shall be cal'd The holy people The redeemed of the Lord and Sion shall be called Sought out a City not forsaken When the time comes wherein all this and much more which is revealed in the chapters of Isaiah cited by you shall come to passâ—â— them and not til then shall our Saviour declare himselfe to be the glory of his people Israel as Simeon hath foretold And so by the testimony of these prophecies that part of Simeon's prophecy which concernes the glory of the Jewes is to be referred wholly to our Saviour's second comming when as well the residue of men the Gentiles that are yet uncal'd as the Gentiles on whom God's Name is already cal'd shall all goe up to worship the Lord at Ierusalem shall all seeke salvation amongst the Iewes and not the Iewes amongst the Gentiles And therefore when the Iewes and Gentiles shall be so united as these and many other prophecies doe foreshew there is to be no disagreement at all betwixt the Iewes or betwixt them and any other nation in the practise of religious duties Which thing too this marginall note doth so clearely prove out of the prophecy of Amos alledged by Sâ— Iames that you could make no better reply to it then to call it a long tailed note and a frivolous discourse And whereas you say that there was an unanimous consent in the true worship of God betwixt the Jewes and other Nations when they did conveen in the generall Synode Act. 15. Surely there was not one whole City and much lesse was there any one Nation of the Gentiles at that time converted And if a few Turks should become Christians you might as well infer from this that there were an unanimous consent in the worship of God betwixt Christians and the Turkish Nations as you can conclude from that meeting or from all that were then converted that the Jewes and any much lesse all other Nations were united in the true worship of God And indeed the uniting of the Jewes and Gentiles into one Church so often and so plainly foretold by the Prophers and confirmed by our Saviour Ioh. 10. ver 16. is not of some Jewes and Gentiles onely as it was in the first dayes of the Gospel nor of some Nations of the Gentiles and a few Jewes as it hath been since the conversion of the substituted Nations of the Gentiles nor of all the Jewes and some Gentiles as it was under the Law nor of all the Jewes and a part of the Gentile Nations but of all the Tribes of the Jewes and all the Nations of the Gentiles The marginall Note But it matters not much which of the two is here spoken of for seeing the Prophet doth plainly shew a future restoring of the Jewes and yet the intent of the Apostle was onely to prove that God had then cal'd the Gentiles it cannot otherwise be but that the words after this in the prophecy being applyed to the foresaid visiting of the Gentiles by the preaching of the Gospel must needs conclude that the extraordinary restauration of the Jewes foreshewne by the Prophet was to follow the calling of the Gentiles then begun by the Apostles Mr. Petrie's Answer The Prophet Amos in that chap. before ver 11. speakes not of the ealling of the Gentiles and the Apostle cites the same words of ver 11. for the calling of the Gentiles neither hath the Prophet these words after this but in these dayes and howbeit the Apostle cite
expresly foretold in these two verses and shall he come to be King over all the earth and yet not restore the Kingdome of the Iewes what City then shall be the royall Citie of this great King if not Jerusalem whose extraordinarie restauration is promised in the verses immediately following and to which all the Nations shall goe up to worship as the latter part of the chapter doth foreshew And what people shall be the choycest subjects of this great King if not the Saints that shall come with him and the Iewes his brethren according to the flesh whom he shall then deliver from their enemies as the judgement reveal'd in the 12 13 14 and 15. verses doth declare Certainly you must needs grant that the Prophet hath here foretold the restoring of the Iewes though he useth not these very words which I say not unlesse you will denie that the 9. verse is meant of our Saviours reigning on earth as man and how can you doe this when as the Prophet saith plainely that our Saviour shall be King over all the earth after his descending to the earth and not while he is in Heaven Thus then the great impudence of my innocent assertion is nothing but the gracelesse imprudence of your cholerick accusation and this one Prophecie which first shewes our Saviours comming with all the Saints and then his reigning over all the earth doth infallibly prove all your answers to the other part of the Treatise to be as the answers to this but meere shifts and evasions Israel's Redemption CHAP. IIII. Of the restoring of the whole Creation to its originall perfection ANd thus much of the felicity of that remnant of the Nations which shall outlive the rest at the Jewes returne Now a word or two of the alteration of the sensitive and senselesse creatures at that time The wolfe saith Isaiah in his 11. chap. at the 6. ver shall dwell with the Lambe and the Leopard shall lie downe with the Kid and the calse and the young Lyon and the fatling together and a little child shall leadt hem And the Cow and the Beare shall feed their young ones shall lie downe together and the Lyon shall eate o Gen. 1.30 ch 6. 20 21. straw like the Ox◠And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the aspe and the weaned child shall put his hand on the Cockatrice den They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountaine for the earth shall be p Hab. 2.14 full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea And in the 65. chap. at the 25. ver The wolfe and the Lambe shall feed together and the lyon shall eate straw like the bullocke and q Gen. 3.14 dust shall be the serpents meate they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountaine saith the Lord. Where wee may observe against such as understand by these expressions the effects of preaching on the hearts of cruel minded men that they are a part of those prophecies which concerne the Jewes deliverance and therefore can have no relation to the calling of the Gentiles Mr Petrie's Answer As wee have nothing as yet of the felicity of the Nations at that imagined time so these insuing prophecies make nothing to that purpose for i◠Isa 11.10 immediately after the forecited words it is said In that day there shall be a roote of Iesse which shall stand up for an ensigne of the people to it shall the Gentiles seeke c. Marke 1. he saith In that day so he conjoyneth the preceding and following things into the same time 〈◊〉 He speakes expressely of the calling of the Gentiles as it is also cited Rom. 15.12.3 In the words preceding ver 1. he speakes of the first comming of Christ A rod shall come forth out of the stemme of Iesse and a branch shall grow out of his rootes 4. In the words following that testimony he speakes of the calling of the Jewes and Gentiles together as was exponed before And therefore this prophecy concerneth not the Jewish Monarchy and these words may be better exponed allegorically then properly Reply As it is very untrue that you have had nothing from us of the felicity of the Nations in the day of the Jewes deliverance for wee have brought you many unaccomplished prophecies out of Gods word to confirme it so it is very true that the reader hath had nothing from you of this felicity seeing you have wholly conceal'd from him those prophecies in which it is reveal'd And these ensuing prophecies doe speake of the restauration of the creatures both sensible and insensible at that time for which purpose they were alledged and not to shew the felicity of the Nations which yet may well be gathered from the large mercy which God keepes in store even for the dumbe and insensible creatures in that Day in that day I say so frequently foretold by God and not falsely imagined by us But to prove that these prophecies doe not concerne the restoring of the sensible creatures to their primitive innocency at the redemption of the Iewes you bring foure raw and trifling reasons For reciting the 10. verse In that day there shall be a roote of Iesse which shall stand for an ensigne of the people to him shall the Gentiles seeke You bid us Marke first that be saith in that day so be conjoynes the preceding and following things to the same time And wee say that the restoring of these creatures to their originall perfection the comming in of the fulnesse of the Gentiles and the redemption of the Iewes are all to be performed in that day Secondly you say that he speakes expressely of the calling of the Gentiles as it is cited Ront 15.12 And wee say that as some Nations of the Gentiles were for long agoe cal'd to the knowledge and obedience of the Gospel so at our Saviour's next appearing all other Nations of the Gentiles shall be cal'd unto it Thirdly you say that in the 1. ver he speakes of the first comming of Christ A rod shall come forth out of the stemme of Iesse and a branch shall grow out of his rootes And this wee say too and yet wee say with all that as the foure verses immediately following may as well if not rather be understood of his actions at his second comming then at his first so all that follows in the 6 7 8 9 10. 12 13. ver c. is to be fulfilled onely at his second comming which the first part of the 10. ver speakes of And you may not thinke it strange that both the first and second comming of our Saviour are revealed in the same chap. whenas wee finde them elswhere revealed within the compasse of two or three verses as Isa 9.6 7. and chap. 52.13 14 15. and in other prophecies Yea you doe seeme to me to acknowledge it in that you forsake the 10. verse out of which you gather your two former observations
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
one in Christ with the beleeving Iew was he not so before Christs incarnation as well as since was he not Abrahams seed before as well as since was he not heire according to the promise before as well as since What hinders then but that the Iewes may notwithstanding this spirituall union and fellowship with the beleeving Gentiles be as heretofore so at their generall conversion againe advanced above all other Nations by many not onely outward favours and priviledges but by a greater measure of inward gifts and abilities also Israel's Redemption Neither was the Temple then destroyed but afterwards and therefore the things here spoken of are all to be accomplished at his second comming and that not in heaven but on earth On earth I say and in e Isai 33.20 chap. 50. ver 1 2 3.9 10. Jerusalem where f Psal 122 5. Davids Throne was For his feete shall stand in that day towit when he comes or if God himselfe be here by an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 figuratively described when he brings him to receive his appointed Kingdome on the Mount of Olives which is before Ierusalem on the East from which Mount our Saviour ascended and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the East and toward the West and there shall be a very great valley and halfe the mountaine shall remove toward the North and halfe of it toward the South And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountaines for the valley of the mountaines shall reach unto Azal yea ye shall flee like as ye fled from before the Earthquake in the dayes of Uzziah King of Judah And the Lord my God shall come and all the g Iu dc ver 14 15. Rev. 19.11 12 13 14 15 16. Saints with theâ— And it shall come to passe in that day that the light shall not be cleare nor darke but it shall be one day which shall be knowne to the Lord not day nor night but it shall come to passe that at evening time it shall be light And it shall be in that day that h Psal 46.4 Eze. 47.1 c. Incl 3.8 living waters shall goe out from Jerusalem halfe of them toward the former sea and halfe of them toward the hinder sea In Summer and in Winter shall it be and the Lord shall be King over all the earth In that day shall there be one Lord and his Name one All the Land shall be turned as a plaine from Gebâ— to Rimmon South of Ierusalem and it shall be lifted up and inhabited in her place from Benjamins gate unto the place of the first gate unto the corner gate and from the Tower of Hananiel unto the Kings wine-presses And men shall dwell in it and there shall be no more utter destruction but Ierusalem shall be safely inhabited Zech. 14.4 c. Mr. Petrie's Answer Christ said Destroy this Temple and in three dayes I will raise it up againe Tâ—en said the Iewes Forty and sixe yeares was this Temple in building and wilt thou reare it up againe in three dayes but he spake of the Temple of his body saith the Evangelist Iohn 2.19 So the true Temple is Christs body which the Iewes destroyed and be raised it up againe and in this sense the Disciples did beleeve the Scriptures after the resurrection of Christ ver 22. And therefore the things spoken in these Scriptures are accomplished at his first comming not onely in heaven but on earth according to the different portions thereof In heaven and on earth I say and in true Ierusalem and on the true Throne of David for his feete stood in that day to wit when he went to receive the fuller accomplishment of his Kingdome on the Mount of Olives which is by Ierusalem on the East from which also he ascended and the Mount of Oliver hath been eloven in the midst thereof toward the East and toward the Wâ—st when not onely the members of the Church but all the world was shaken at the powerfull preaching of the Gospell even more gloriously then at the giving of the Law Heb. 12.26 So that nothing could hinder the course thereof And the Iewes have fled to that valley of the mountaines when they did imbrace the Gospell which is low in worldly mens esteeme and of high esteeme before God Aâ—d the valley of the mountaines hath reached unto Azal For the preaching of the Gospell hath been an excellent stone marke shewing the righ way as it is exponed 1 Sam. 20.19 on the mâ—rgine of the late translation to the Kingdome of heaven Yea they have fled like as they did flee from before the earth quake in the dayes of Vzziâ—h King of Iâ—dah to wit they have been astonishâ—d at the wonderfulnesse of Gods workes And the Lord hath come And so forth as it followes in Zach. 14. where he showes the perpetuall light of the glorious Gospell ver 6 7. and the continuall flowing of the wholesome waters in the Kingdome of Christ ver 9 8. and the removing of all impediments for the security of the elects conversion and salvation You see here that our Saviour câ—me not onely to conquer death which is the last enemy that he shall destroy and therefore not to be dâ—stroyed till the last resurrection but also to take the Kingdomes of the world unto himselfe and hath made them all acknowledge his authority and hath put downe all contrary power and authority for all Nations have praised Christ and given laud unto him Rom. 14.9 10.11 That there is one shepheard and one sheepfold that the Dominions Kingdomes and greatnesse of the Kingdomes under the whole Heaven have been possessed by the People and Saints of the most High that is as the Gospell hath expaned it by the faithfull Israel Rom. 14.12 bowbeit all hath not been possessed at the same period of time Reply Was everscripture more apparently wrested more impertinently alledged Behold saith Zechariah theman whose name is the Branch 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 c. chap. 6. ver 12. This is the prâ—pâ—ecy and your interpretation this Christ said Destroy this Temple and in three dayes I will raise it up againe c. John 2.19 An intergreâ—ation doubtlesse as wide from the sense of the Prophet as the Iewes apprehension was from the meaning of our Saviours words For shew us where the Temple of the Lord is in all the old Testament which was then all the scripture taken in any other sense then for the house of Gods worship at Ierusalem Or the building of the Temple of the Lord in any other sense then for the building of that Temple Yea looke but into the 14 and 15 verses immediately following and it is unquestionable that the same words are there taken for the Temple of the Lord in Ierusalem And besides seeing the Prophets shew so plainely that our
which you have alledged for an instance doth carry but one and the same sense in the type and antitype And consequently it is not miserable ignorance in us to expound the prophesies of Christs Kingdome or the Jewes deliverance in a proper sense onely but rather manifest insolence in you to say so and to affirme withall that the Evangelists and Apostles expound them in a spirituall and figurative sense when you can bring no plaine text to demonstrate what you say Preface Secondly So the promises of deliverance from Babell had their owne accomplishment in the dayes of Ezra and Nehemiah but that was not all the meaning of these prophecies which were in another manner and more fully performed by Christ for this cause it is said Col. 1.12 Giving thankes unto the Father who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light who hath delivered us from the power of darkenesse and hath translated us into the Kingdome of his deare Sonne in whom we have redemption through his bloud And Revel 5.9 Thou hast redeemed us unto God by thy bloud out of every kindred and people and nation There is our Redeemer more glorious then Ezra or any other there is our inheritance and Kingdome better then Jerusalem and there is a redemption from all nations Now when these prophecies are fuâ—â—led once in respect of the type and againe in a more transcendent manner by Christ if we deny what God hath done we are false and ungrate and if we expect them to be fulfilled yet againe in the type it were a worse returning then that of the Galatians chap. 4.9 that was unto the types of his Priestly and this unto the types of his Kingly office and Christ is become of none effect unto such Answer As we doe not doubt but that the prophecies of the Jewes deliverance from Babylon had their accomplishment in the dayes of Ezra and Nehemiah So we cannot grant that the prophecies which we have alledged for the Jewes future deliverance from their captivity doe at all concerne their deliverance from Babylon Nor that those which concerne their Babylonish deliverance were types of the Gentiles conversion And you have neither quoted any one of the prophecies which speake of their deliverance from Babylon nor shewed out of the Evangelists or Apostles any one text where the application of these prophecies to the conversion of the Gentiles is intimated And therefore though it be true that the Father hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light and delivered us from the power of darknesse and translated us into the Kingdome of his deare Sonne in whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgivenesse of sins and that Christ hath redeemed us unto God by his blood out of every kindred and people nation yet it is not true that this was prefigured by the Jewes deliverance from Babylon but by the sacrifices and legall Ceremonies which did foreshew both the death and the efficacie of Christs death in whom alone we have redemption from the power of sinne and the grave Neither is it true that the Kingdome of Christ of which we are now onely made meet to be partakers is yet in being or that it shall be till Christs appearing with the Saints in light as we shew in our Reply and therefore you must make better proofe of these Premises to wit that such prophecies as are properly fulfill'd in the type may be figuratively fulfill'd in the antitype and that the Prophecies which we have quoted for the Jewes future deliverance doe foreshew their deliverance from Babylon And that those which foreshew that deliverance were typicall Prophecies You must make better proofe I say of all this before you can conclude That we deny what God hath done or that we expect that is to come which is already past Yea it is very absurd to thinke that the Prophecies which concerne the Jewes deliverance from Babylon were typicall prophecies First because they are plaine Prophecies which you confesse cannot be understood of any other but of them of whom they speak And secondly because the type would not be of equal latitude with the thing typified the redemption of the Jewes with the redemption of themselves and all other Nations And besides it is manifest that the Prophecies which we have alledg'd out of Zechary touching the Jewes future deliverance and which agree so well with the rest in other Prophets were reveal'd after the accomplishment of the Jewes returne from Babylon and therefore cannot possibly be understood of that but of a deliverance not yet accomplished and consequently too cannot be typicall prophecies because they have not been fulfill'd in the type Preface Thirdly the elect Jewes did not rest upon the Mosaicall Types but all the Prophets gave witnesse unto Christ that through his Name whosoever beleeves in him shall receive remission of sinnes Act. 10.43 they beleeved that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ they should be saved even as we Act. 15.11 in this faith they died Heb. 11.13 I say this Faith because as Faith is one in respect of the object Eph. 4.5 So the Apostle declares our Faith by the example of the ancients Neither did they rest on the promises as on earthly but they desired a better Countrey that is an heavenly Heb. 11.16 and when they were tortured they would not accept deliverance from their torments that they might obtaine a better resurrection v. 35. was that an earthly hope no they believed the redemption of their soules by the Messias Psal 34.22 that he was to be wounded for their transgressions and bruised for their iniquities and the chastisement of their peace was to be upon Him and that they were to be healed by his stripes Esa 53.5 and Simeon waiting for the consolation of Israel when he saw him blessed God and said Lord now let thy servant depart in peace for my eyes have seen thy salvation Luk. 2.29 He craves not longer life to reign with Christ on Earth but was content to depart having seen the salvation of God the light of the Gentiles and glory of Israel Answer The elect Jewes you say did not rest upon the Mosaicall types neither doubtlesse did all the non elect Jewes rest upon them but having the knowledge of the true meanes of their salvation did many of them seemingly though not savingly embrace it And what though the elect Jewes did believe the remission of their sins and the redemption of their soules by Christ and that he was to be wounded for their transgressions and bruised for their iniquities c. and dyed in this Faith and could not be forc't to forsake it by any torments Did they therefore believe no more then this Did they therefore not believe that Christ should reigne with them as well as suffer for them nor that they should reign with him as well as suffer with him what shall we think that
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
shal be turned into joy these things have I spoken unto you that in me yee might have peace in the world you shall have tribulation but be of good cheere chap. 16.20.33 And of his coming againe he saith In my Fathers house are many mansions if I goe and prepare a place for you I will come againe and receive you unto my self that where I am there yee may be also chap. 14.2 Now you have sorrow but I will see you againe and your heart shall rejoyce and your joy no man taketh from you chap. 16 22. All which words were written flatly against the errours of Cerinthus and teach us that Christ's Kingdom is not an earthly Kingdom nor delayed for one or two 1000. yeeres but now is his kingdom now he hath overcome the world his subjects are not to live-on earth without persecution and sorrow and when he comes againe he will receive them with him into his Fathers mansions and their sorrow shall be turned into joy that shall never be taken from them Answer That you have made a false report of the occasion of Saint Iohns writing of his Gospell and consequently of the end and scope of the texts here alledged the words of our English Divines who are the Authors of the Annotations upon all the bookes of the old and new Testaments printed 1645. do plainely declare For in their argument of the Gospel according to Saint Iohn they say That in Domitians time he was banished into the Isle Pathmos where he wrote the Revelation after which under Nerva he was recal'd to Ephesus being aged about 97. yeares which was the 100. yeare of our Lord where he wrote his Gospel some say at the intreaty of the Christians of Asia for the refutation of Ebion Cerinthus and others who blasphemously denied the Deity of Christ This is their testimony of the ground of St. John's writing his Gospel wherein they tell us not as you doe that it was because of Cerinthus and others opinion of Christs 1000 yeeres reigne in Jerusalem But that it was as history reports because of his and others denying the Deity of Christ Your quotations follow whereof the first That the Son of man is now glorified was spoken by our Saviour when Judas was gone to betray him and doth signifie the glory which was then sudenly to follow both in his death and after his death as Piscator notes and will his comming againe or his reigning after his comming unglorify him thinke you certainely no but will manifest unto the whole world the glory which he hath received For he shall come in the glory of the Father as he saith Mat. 16. verse 27. And shall sit on the Throne of his glory when he is come as he saith Mat. 19. verse 28. which Throne the comparing of this text with the 28 and 29 verses of the 22. chap. of St. Luke doth shew to be meant of the Throne of his Kingdom The next words that he hath overcome the world he spake to comfort his Disciples against the tribulation which they should have in the world and they doe signifie that as in himselfe he had and could overcome the temptations of the world so hee would in them too by strengthning them to endure to the end for his sake what he had voluntarily resolved to endure for their sakes And how is this his overcomming of the world by patience in the time of his temptation any let or hinderance to his overcomming of it by power to his reigning over it at his next appearing The third text That his Kingdom is not of this world c. was his answer to Pilate when he askt him whether he was the King of the Jewes And it doth shew onely that he was not to receive his authority to reigne of men but of God as I observe in my reply This is your first file of proofes the second doth consist of such texts as shew that the faithfull most suffer persecution in this world as Christ did and doubtlesse they must till Christs comming againe at which time they shal be delivered from all their oppressions and pressures and become Rulers of the world themselves And so these texts doe make directly against the reigne of the Saints now while the tribulations of this world endure but nothing against the reigne of the Saints when the tribulations of it shall cease Your last file of proofes is brought to shew that when Christ comes the Saints shal be with him where he is and that their joy shal be immoveable And what repugnancy is there betwixt these things and our Saviours reigning on earth certainly they shal be ever with him on earth when he comes againe on this earth while he reignes and on the new earth of which St. Peter speakes 2. Epist 3. verse 13. after his reigne for to that earth the new Jerusalem in which the Saints shall live after the last Judgment shall descend as it is revealed Rev. 21 verse 2. and when Chirst himselfe shal be their companion and sin and death have no more power over them how should their being on earth deprive them of their joy but yet the text chap. 16. verse 22. is by Piscator referred to the joy that the Disciples received both through the sight of Christ after his resurrection and through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost * Iohn 20.22 which he then breathed on them and not to the joy which they shall receive at their owne resurrection when Christ comes againe And thus it appeares that you might as truly have said that all the new Testament was written against Christs personal reigne on earth as that the Gospel of St. John was Preface Sixtly After Cerinthus we read next of Papias of whom Euseb lib. eit Chap. 39. writes thus he reportes strange parables of our Saviour mixed with fabulous doctrine where he dreameth that the Kingdom of Christ shall corporally here on earth last the space of a 1000 yeares after the resurrection of the dead which error as I suppose grew hereof in that he receiv'd not rightly the true mystical meaning of the Apostles neither deeply weighed the things delivered of them by familiar examples for he was a man of small judgment as by his bookes plainly appeares yet hereby he gave unto divers Ecclesiastical persons occasion of error who respected his antiquity namely unto Irenaeus and others if there be any found like minded Then lib. 7. Chap. 22. 23. he writes of Nepos Coracion and others in Egypt infected with this error about the yeare 250. whom Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria did convince in a Synode by demonstrations and doctrine of the holy Scripture did reclaime them from their error Thus he speak's ever of these opinions as of errors contrary unto the holy Scriptures After Lactantius who lived about the yeare 320. this error was universally abhorred so that Hierom on Esa l. 18. and Augustin ad Quod vult de haeresi 8. write of it as a
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
in it then is fitting they should know And this reason is alledg'd for the same purpose For whereas our Saviour gave a sharper answer here to the sonnes of Zebedee then he did to the Apostles and yet granted withall that the thing they spake for should be given to some it is altogether unlikely that where he used a milder reproofe he did therby deny that the thing which was askt should at any time be done especially seeing in both answers it was for the motives of their asking onely and not for the matter that they were reprehended And therefore you having not answered ought to the force of this reason but onely caught at that which was not intended I might well passe by all that you have thus impertinently spoken but yet I will say somewhat to it though not much First then I grant that these sonnes of Zebedee spake of Christ's glorious Kingdom and that the Apostles understood the same Kivgdom but I conclude not from hence as you doe that this Kingdom shall not be on earth which expositours say as well these as the Apostles did meane and that because Christ shall come in glory and reigne in glory as you may see Mat 16. verse 27 28. 2 Thess 1. verse 7 8 9 10. Heb. 1. verse 6. Jude 14 15. ver Rev. 11. verse 15. chap. 15. verse 4. Psal 72. Psal 102. verse 13. c. Isa 2. verse 2 3 4. Zech. 14. verse 4 5. c. But I thus conclude from hence against your answer to my former reason that seeing the Apostles meant the same Kingdom that these two did therefore they meant a Kingdom which should be and not a Kingdom which should not be 2. But if Christ in his answer had spoken of an earthly Kingdom how say you was it not in his power to choose his princes in that Kingdom And how doth it appeare that he spake rather of an earthly Kingdom then of one in Heaven if we say he had this power for why he should have this power on earth rather then in Heaven you cannot conceive And seeing you would have the reader take this for a currant argument from you to shew that Christ in his answer to these Zebedites did not speake of an earthly Kingdom to wit because he seemed to deny that he had power to choose his princes therein will you your selfe take it for a currant argument from us to shew that Christ did speake of an earthly Kingdom if he had power to choose his princes therein if you will not then you would have the reader to esteem better of your argument then you your selfe doe And if you will you must needs grant that you have herein argued against your selfe For whereas our Saviour said it is not mine to give he meant not that he had nothing to doe in the giving of it But this he meant that it was not his to give indifferently to any that should aske it as the words which you have omitted in this reason doe shew for he could give it to none but those to whom the Father had eternally appointed it to be given and to them he could and should give it For the Father giveth it by the sonne in the temporal accomplishment of it and the Sonne giveth it from the Father according to the eternall appointment of it as the text it selfe in the original clearly shews For it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not mine to give but to them for whom it is prepared of my Father Israel's Redemption Thus farre wee have argued topically by way of probability But that which seemes to me clearly to quit our Apostles from error though not from oblivion from error I say in the subject though not in cercumstance in the thing demanaded though not in the season of it's performance is because I finde my text to be a lesson read to them by our Saviour before his passion For speaking of the destruction of the Jewes They shall fall said he by the edge of the sword and shall be led away captive into all Nations and Hierusalem shall be trodden downe of the Gentiles untill the times of the Gentiles be fullfild Luke 21. at the 24. verse and at the 28. 1 Isa 32.15 Act. 3.21 verse having before shewne what signes should immediately foregoe his appearing he left them this Cordiall when these things begin to come to passe then looke up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh Behold here Beloved the casting away of God's people for a time which wee see at this day verified and their receiving againe for-ever which shall as certainly come to passe plainly foretold The Redemption I say not onely of their soules from the bondage of sinne to the favor of God by the profession of the Gospel but consequently of their bodies too from their generall captivity to the repossessing of their countrey by a miraculous deliverance For if no more should be meant by the word Redemption but the meere conversion of the Jews in those places where now they live it cannot be conceived why this action should be accompanied with such wonderfull tokens and perplexity of all other nations as is here mentioned unlesse we shall admit no space of time betwixt this conversion and that instant in which our Saviour shall give sentence on the dead which I suppose few or none will yeeld to And if you seriously consider the evidence of the prophets I am confident you will confesse That a most righteous and flourishing estate of the Jewes in their owne land must of necessity distinguish the time of their calling and the worlds dissolution at the last judgement Mr. Petrie's Answer Who being right in his wit will learne of one word Redemption that the Jewes shall have an earthly Kingdom over all nations Our Saviour is not speaking there of an earthly Kingdom nor of the conversion of the Jewes but as he speaks and expones himselfe verse 31. Know ye that the Kingdom of God is nigh at hand and this is a matter of greater encouragement then any earthly Kingdom can be unto spirituall minded persons and therefore when they wrestle against the understanding of the Jewes conversion in these words they fight against their owne fancies Now if they cannot finde clearer texts in the new Testament for this earthly Monarchy every understang Christian will reject the misapplying of the prophets seeing every ground of faith is revealed more clearly in the new Testament then in the Old Neverthelesse let us heare the particular proofes Reply Who that enjoyes the benefit of understanding will not find how grosly you abuse the Author and dissemble with the Reader when purposely overpassing the main ground here alledged for the earthly kingdom of the Jews you make as though there were no other light for it but in this one word Redemption which hath in it self none but a borrowed light to wit as it hath reference to the words in the 21. verse
that is fallen and close up the breaches thereof and I will raise up his ruines as in the dayes of old that they may possesse the remnant of Edom and of all the heathen that are called by my Name saith the Lord that doth this I will bring againe the captivity of my people Israel and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them and they shall plant vineyards and drinke the wine thereof they shall also make gardens and eate the fruit of them and I will plant them upon their land and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them saith the Lord God Now although this prophecy tooke no effect on the ten Tribes at their transplantation began by p 1 Chro. 5.6 2 King 15.29 ch 16. 9. Tiglah Pileser King of Assyria and ended by q 2. King 17.5.6.24 ch 18.58 Shalmaneser his successour who also brought up strange Nations and placed them in their stead which people were from Samaria the ancient metropolis of that Province called r Ioh. 4.9 Samaritans yet who is able to maintaine that it was fulfilled on the other two for not the house of Joseph nor the house of Judah onely but the house of Jacob wholly is here spoken of And why else is the Tabernacle of David afterwards exprest as a prime agent in the restauration if it were not before included as a succeeding patient in the dispersion of Israel who then I say is able to maintaine that this prophecy was fulfill'd on Judah and Benjamin untill their overthrow by the Roman Emperour Vespasian ever since which time they also remaine forsaken scattered and despised captives yea who dares affirme it when God hath said that at their returne from this universal captivity he will so plant them in their land that they shall no * The usual answer of a conditionall promise will take no hold on this or the like places of Scripture For as God hath here past his word that he will no more pull them up out of their land so in the 32. chap. of Ier. at the 39 ver and 50. chap. at the 20. ver in the 36. of Ezâ—k at the 27. ver in the 37. chap. at the 23. ver in the 39. chap. at the 7. ver and in the 3. chap. of Zeph. at the 13. ver all which prophecies doe iâ— the times of their sulfilling concurre with this he hath likewise promised To give them one way and one heart that they may feare him for ever Never to turne away from them to doe them good but to put his feare into their hearts that they shall not depart from him That the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none and the finnes of Iudah and they shall not be found That he will put his spirit within them and cause then to walke in his statutes and to keepe his judgements and doe them That they shall defile themselves no more with their idoles nor with their detestable things nor with any 〈◊〉 their transgressions That he will make his holy Name known in the midst of his people Israel and will not let them pollute his holy Name any more And that the remnant of Israâ—â— shall not doe iniquity nor speakelies neither shall a deceitfull tongue be found in their mouth And therefore God having thus equally ingaged himselfe as well to keepe the Iewes from sin as to free them from bondage it is as impossible that the accomplishmeâ—â— of this propheey should be frustrated and the fruition of these blessings forfeited for waâ—â— of obedience as that God should either forget or not regard or be unable to fulfill his word and consequently the appointed time for the finishing of such prophecies is yet 〈◊〉 be expected more be pulled up out of it which yet should not be true if it had been spoken of any deliverance before our Saviours comming to suffer Mr. Petrie's Answer It is a like ground for such a Kingdom 1. How can it be denied that the house of Judah was destroyd when their Kings and people wen caried out of the land 2. How can the Tabernacle of David be calleâ— a prime agent in the restauration it is said I will raise up the Tabernacle of David and not the Tabernacle of David shall raise up it is 〈◊〉 patient and not an agent And none denieth that it is included in the dispersion of Israel and therefore that part of the prophecy was fulfilled even before the overthrow by the Roman Emperour and so before the overthrow was restored againe and afterwards also were they scattered But that promise of restauration is not of the house of Judah but 〈◊〉 the people of Israel verse 14. and who these be wee have a sufficient interpreter Act. 15.16 where the Apostle Iames expones these word of the enlarging Christ's Kingdom by the calling of the Gentiles which was begun at that time by the preaching of the Apostle and Râ—â— Stephanus in his notes on this text of Amos saith Almost all the Hebrews doe consent That this is meant of the time of Messias and especially of the calling of the Gentiles and by bodily houses and benefits the Prophet understands spirituall and these who are begotten unto this lively hope are kept most safely through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 so that the gates of Hell shall not prevaile against them Mat. 16.18 Whereas it is asked who dares affirme it Zacharias hath not spared to affirme it Luke 1.68 saying Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people and hath raised up an horne of salvation in the house of David his servant as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets c. Dare any Millenarian contradict this testimony Reply 1 This prophecy of Amos speakes of a deliverance of the Jews out of a captivity after which they should no more be pulled up out of their land And therefore cannot be meant of the returne of Judah and Benjamin from Babylon since which they have fallen into a greater captivity then that was but of their returne from the captivity they are now in This you saw to be the necessary consequence of the proper sense of the prophecy and therefore you wrest that part of it which concernes the deliverance of the Jewes to another meaning But first you cavill and aske how it can be denied that the house of Judah was destroied when their Kings and people were carried out of their land Surely that they were in a sad condition it cannot be denied but that they were destroyed it may for how else could they have return'd yet this thing too Haman sought to bring to passe on the Jewes in his time and you know how well he and his adherents sped in the device But what of all this who denies that they were carried captives into Babylon I say onely that this prophecy was not fulfill'd in Judah's captivity there but in
their captivity under the Romans and that because the deliverance after which they are no more to be carried captives must needs be yet to come 2. But you have found a great mistake in me For I have said that the Tabernacle of David shall be a prime agent in the restauration whereas God saith I will raise up the Tabernacle of David and so it is to be a patient you say and not an agent A very learned exception for is there not an instrumentall agent as well as a principall agent and amongst instrumentall agents doe not some excell others as amongst David's worthies some were superior perior to the rest although then God shall shew his power in raising the Tubernacle of David as the first and chiefe cause what hinders but that this also may use its owne endeavor to raise it selfe as a secondary and lesse principall cause surely if God shall so raise it that it shall doe nothing for it selfe it may rather be said to be a spectator of its deliverance then either an agent or a patient You say further that none denieth it is included in the dispersion of Israel But yet you say withall that the Jews dispersion and restauration here spoken of were both fulfill'd before their overthrow by the Romans which the close of this prophecy shewing that after their restauration here foretold they should no more be disperst doth deny And these words also in the 11. ver I will build it as in the daies of old doe shew the contrary For if you take the daies of old for the time immediately foregoing their Babylonish captivity then I say that so short a time cannot be taken for the dayes of old seeing it was but seventy yeares from that time and consequently it must imply a restauration after a captivity of a longer date And if you take it for the daies of David and Solomon then I say that it was not so restor'd after that captivity for in the daies of these Kings all the Tribes were but one Kingdom and they were not tributaries to other Kings but others to their Kings and consequently it is as yet thus to be restor'd But that you may be sure to avoide all that can be brought out of this prophecy for the future restauration of the Jewes you will not have the 11. verse to be meant of the restauration of Judah but of the Israelites in the 14 verse and these Jsraelites must not be taken for the Jewes how plaine soever the text be for it but for the Gentiles for so you say St. Iames expounds them Acts 15. verse 16. Surely the Apostle repeates the 11. and 12. ver of this chapter somewhat differently from the Prophets expression but yet speakes not of Israel there at all Neither doth he expound the building of David's Tabernack of the calling of the Gentiles as you pretend But shewes onely in the verse following that when it shall be built againe the residue of the Gentiles that are yet uncald shall then be cald and together with the Gentiles upon whom Gods Name is already cald seeke after the Lord. And therefore you have not learned of St James to take the Tabernacle of David for the beleeving Gentiles Nor can I beleeve that the Hebrew Doctours doe so intepret it albeit they may grant that the calling of the Gentiles in the time of the Messias as they expect him yet to come is spoken of in the 12. ver And doubtlesse whosoever shall looke into the 14. ver of this prophecy he will say that the actions here rehearst may very well agree with men newly come out of captivity but not that they doe any way intimate the calling of men to the Christian faith For what relation hath the building of waste cities to inhabit them the planting of vineyards to drinke the wine thereof and the making of gardens to eate the fruit of them to this doubtlesse none at all For suppose that one should tel you of a Jew that had lately built him a faire house of an other that had planted an Orchard of choice fruit would you thinke thereby that they were become Christians nay would you not laugh at him if he should have no other meaning And yet without any ground for it but your owne fancy as hath been shewed you conclude that by bodily houses and benefits the Prophet understands spirituall To which you adjoyne Scripture to prove that the elect cannot fall away which is not questioned And thus good reader thou hast seene the first part of one and the same prophecy historically and properly understood and the latter part allegorically and figuratively expounded and that for no other reason but because the deliverance of the Jewes out of their captivity here foretold hath not been as yet properly and literally fulfill'd as their carrying into captivity hath been And Mr. Petrie will not take Gods word for it that it shall be thus fulfild And therefore whereas I have askt Who dares affirme that the captivity of Judah here foretold is meant of any other but their captivity by the Romans seeing God hath said here that after their returne from this captivity they shall no more be pulled up out of their land he tells thee that Zacharias hath not spared to affirme it Luk. 1 verse 68. c. But is it not the same God that spake by the mouth of both these Prophets a God that is not as man that he should lie or forget himselfe And having then foretold in Amos such a deliverance after which the Jewes should no more be given up into captivity doth he thinkst thou by Zachary affirme that this was fulfill'd before their captivity by the Romans yet thus Mr Petrie dares to make God contradict himselfe and that because Zachary saith Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people and hath raised up an horne of salvation for us in the house of his servant David as he spake by the mouth of all his holy Prophets c. and what is meant by all this but that the Redeemer was then to be borne as the Prophets had said and that therefore their redemption should as surely be fulfill'd as if it had been done already For it is usual with the prophets when they would shew the certaine accomplishment of a thing to speake as if it were then effected But why hath Mr. Petrie left out for us in these words of Zachary was it not because they shew that this prophecy doth belong to the Jewes not to the Gentiles and this he likes not to heare of himselfe neither would he have thee to take notice of it And besides if Zachary should speake of a spirituall deliverance onely as this Author affirms how doth he shew that this prophecy of Amos was then fulfild which as is before proved and as any one may indeed of himselfe perceive doth foretel onely an immoveable deliverance of the Jewes from their bodily
understood 3. The 25. ver may be more easily understood in the spiritual then earthly sense to wit the land that I have given unto Jacob and they shall dwel therein for ever and my servant shall be their Prince for ever for that land was not given unto Jacob neither doe the Millenaries say that the Jews shall dwel for ever in Jerusalem but for a 1000 yeares and then Christ's Kingdom shall cease But expone that one word land typically for the thing typified thereby and all the other words goe currently even to the end of the chap. as we see the Apostle expones the 27. ver of the Corinthians as a part of these people 2. Cor. 6.16 Now seeing certainly Christ is the King and Shepherd and the people are the Jewes and Gentiles who were strangely divided but now are one Church by faith in Christ therefore the people of Israel and Ephraim who after the division were alwaies idolatrous may well be exponed typically for the Gentiles and so the union is easily understood which otherwise very hardly or scarcely can be conceived seeing now through many ages Ephraimites are not knowne in any part of the earth As for that text of Hosea it is exponed of the Gentiles Rom. 9.25.26 and therefore the Prophet changeth the word Israel into Jezreel that is the seed of God signifying that the time wherein the Lord shall gather his seed or the faithfull in all Nations from the bondage of the Devil shall be very great and wonderful to all the world Reply 1. Surely your further clearing is no other then a further clouding as the very reading of this prophecy and that which our Saviour hath said Joh. 10. ver 14 and 16. is of it selfe sufficient to discover For Ezek. speaks of uniting the Jews together under one King in their owne land and our Saviour speaks of uniting the Jews and Gentiles into one Church after a certaine number of elect Gentiles should be cald Other sheepe saith he I have which are not of this fold that is other elect servants which are not of this Nation them also I must bring and there shall be one fold and one Shepherd Where it is to be noted by the words them also I must bring that he speaks onely of such elect Gentiles as were to be cald before the Jews and Gentiles should make one sheepfold and not after they were one sheepfold For when they are all brought then it is that there shall be one sheepfold and not while they are bringing No the words of our Saviour Mat. 21. at the 43. ver will not admit of such a meaning for The Kingdom of God saith he shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruit thereof Whereby it is evident that the Other sheepe he speaks of in the 10 chap. of St. Iohn should be brought to the faith when the Nation of the Iewes should be deprived of the meanes of salvation and consequently when it could not possibly be one Church And therefore in saying that the Iewes and Gentiles are at this time one sheepfold you contradict our Saviour and affirme that the Iewes are now saved without the ordinary meanes of salvation For this they have not but shall have it when the time comes in which the Jews and Gentiles shall be one sheepfold And then also the Jews shall be one Kingdom agane in their owne land and Christ shall reigne over both Jews and Gentiles together And thus our Saviour's words doe neither expound Ezek. prophecy nor shew that the Jews and Gentiles are now one sheepfold But rather point out the time when Ezek. prophecy shal be fulfilled to wit when the Jews and Gentiles shal be one fold under one Shepheard So much have you mist your aime in alledging these propheticall words of Christ 2. The words David King and Shepheard will no more prove that the temporal prophecies or temporal part of the prophecies in which they are used are to be spiritually and figuratively understood then Gods words to David Thou shalt feed my people Israel 2 Sam. 5. ver 2. will prove that David's Kingdom was not a temporal Kingdom nor he a temporal King Or then David's owne words of his people But these sheep what have they done will prove that the whole Kingdom of the Jews were all faithfull persons 3. Being conscious that all which you have said before to make men take these prophecies in a mysticall sense will nought availe you if the word land in the prophecies should be properly understood of the land of Canaan you now endeavour to perswade them to take this figuratively also and your first reason to induce them to it is like to that by which Jereboam dissuaded the Israelites from going up to Jerusalem because it may be more easily understood you say in the spiritual then an earthly sense But what is that spiritual sense which may so easily be understood and yet was so hard to be described that you could not tell us what it was But sure I am that God hath told us by the Prophet what land he minds to joyne the Tribes together in even in their owne land ver 21. in the land upon the mountaines of Israel ver 22. in the land that he gave unto Jacob his servant ver 25. which circumstances doe infallibly manifest that it can be meant of no otherland or place but Judea And therefore the second reason you bring to shew that it is best to take the word land spiritually is both false and impious For that land you say was not given to Jacob. No did not God say to Jacob in a dreame The land whereon thou liest to thee will I give it and to thy seed c. Gen. 28.13 and hath he not said here in this prophecy the land that I gave unto Jacob my servant no marvel thâ—n that you can so lightly reject all the plaine texts of Scripture that speake for us when as you dare thus affront God himselfe and tell him to his face that he did not doe that which he saith he did doe Neither will the words for ever in the text any whit excuse you seeing the Lord saith plainly that he gave That land to Jacob of which he saith that they and their children and their childrens children should dwell in it for ever And yet the very next words wherein your Fathers have dwelt doe put it out of doubt that it is meant of Judea and consequently the dwelling of their childrens children in it for ever is to be understood of their dwelling in it successively and the word for ever is to be taken finitely for a long time to wit as long as men shall succeed each other on the Earth as it is in many other places of Scripture and not infinitely for time without end And whereas you say that St. Paul in the 2 Cor. 6.16 expounds the 27. verse of this Prophecie of the Corinthians as a part of the People
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
that many of the unglorified Saints of the Jewish Nation shall be imployed by them in the administration of their Government seeing Isaiah chap. 14. ver 2. saith plainly that they shall take them captives whose captives they were and shall rule over their oppressours And suppose that none of the unglorified Jewes should be imployed in this government yet when our Saviour himselfe shall be King over all the earth and all the Saints that come with him Princes under him when the Nation of the Jewes shall be his naturall Subjects and all other Nations tributaries and servants unto them when they shall be comprehended by the name of Saints with those undefiled ones that Christ shall bring with him when all this shall be what Nation shall the Gentiles be said to be governed by but by that which they live in subjection unto and of whom their King came and amongst whom he shall reigne And thus much touching your first pretence that the Gentiles shall not be judged by the Jewes because the Jewes are to be judged by the Apostles Which is all one as if you should say that a Nation that lives under any government it selfe cannot governe other Nations that are in subjection unto it Your next pretence is that our Saviours words are not meant of the Apostles judging in a temporall Monarchy seeing the Angels shall not be judged before the universall Judgement But where doe you finde that our Saviours promise to the Apostles is not to be fulfill'd before the judging of the Angels And what shall we understand by the twelve Tribes of Israel according to your opinion shall wee take them for the rest of the glorified Saints no no they cannot for they shall be all Judges at the universall Judgement as well as the Apostles Shall we take them then for the reprobate of the Jewish Nation Surely wee finde no such signification of these words in all the Scripture neither doe wee find it taught by any that the reprobate of one Nation shall be judged by some of the Saints onely and the reprobate of another Nation by others of the Saints but that all the Saints shall joyntly judge all the reprobate both Angels and men onely by assenting to the Judgement that our Saviour himselfe shall give against them and this may be gathered from the Apostle who saith not thus Know yee not that the Apostles or Prophets but know yee not that we shall judge the Angels he speakes of all and not of some Saints only seeing then the twelve Tribes of Israel as you apply this saying to the universall Judgement can neither be taken for the rest of the glorified Saints nor for the reprobate Jewes it must needs follow that you are out in your application and consequently the twelve Tribes of Israel must be taken for the Nation of the Jewes over which the Apostles shall sit as Judges in the time of our Saviours reigne on earth And how else should this promise of our Saviour implie a priviledge to the Apostles above the rest of the glorified Saints for their following him in the time of his temptation if it did not constitute them alone to be supreme Judges under him over that Nation which shall be nearest and dearest unto him in his Kingdome for seeing all other Saints shall joyne with them in judging of the reprobate Angels much more shall they in judging the reprobate Jewes which cannot be so much honour unto the Disciples as the judging of the reprobate Angels and so the great priviledge which our Saviour promised the Disciples shall according to your opinion be farre inferiour to that which St. Paul affirmes to be common to all the Saints And whereas you say that the Apostle saith how much more things appertaining unto this life whereby it appeares that in the first part of the verse he understands a judgement not in this life Wee grant your conclusion for we know that the Angels were not to be judged by the faithfull Corinthians and the rest of the Saints before their departure out of this life or before the redemption of their bodies at our Saviours appearing but that they shall be judged by them after their reigning with Christ after their judging of the world a thousand yeares And so the glory of the Kingdome of Israel is not yet diminished by any of your feeble fancies and indigested imaginations Israel's Redemption And this is as much as I need say though not above halfe that the Prophets say concerning the Kingdome in the text I will therefore shut up all with that solemne protestation of God in the 31. chap. of Jer. at the 35. ver Thus saith the Lord which giveth the Sunne for a light by day and the ordinances of the Moone and of the Starres for a light by night which divideth the Sea when the waves thereof roare the Lord of Hosts is his name If those Ordinances u Jer. 33. ver 20.25 depart from before me saith the Lord then shall the seed of Israel also cease from being a Nation before mee for ever Thus saith the Lord If heaven above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done saith the Lord. And with that humble complaint of Israel whom God in the 7. of Micah at the 8. ver makeâ— to prophecie thus of her selfe Rejoyce not against me O mine â—â—â—my when I fall I shall rise when I sit in darknesse the Lord will be a light unto mee I will beare the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him untill he plead my cause and execute Judgement for me He will bring me forth to the light and I shall behold 〈◊〉 righteousnesse Mr Petrie's Answer We acknowledge both in their owne sense and truth but nothing 〈◊〉 in them nor collected out of them for proofe of this purpose Reply If you will acknowledge them both in their owne sense you must acknowledge them to be for our purpose for you must acknowledge that the Nation of the Jewes which now fits in darknesse which now beares the indignation of the Lord because she hath sinned against him shall againe be brought forth to the light by him as Micah saith here And the foresaid protestation of God by Jer. chap. 31. touching the preserving of the Jewish Nation will force you to acknowledge your errour page 20. where you say that now through many ages Ephraimites are not knowne in any part of the earth Israel's Redemption And so I passe from the thing to be restor'd which is the Kingdome of Israel to the Person by whom it is to be restor'd which is Christ the Lord at his next appearing For they asked of him saying Lord wilt thou at this time restore againe the Kingdome to Israel Mr. Petrie's Answer If the temporall Kingdome of the Jewes could be demonstrated out of the Scriptures the question a nent the King might
more easily be resolved and neverthelesse these few millenaries cannot agree concerning the person of their King for Mr. Maton thinkes that Christ shall continue visible King of this Kingdome and Mr. Archer thinkes that Christ shall restore the Kingdome unto the Jewes and returne into the Heavens till the thousand yeares be expired and in the meane time the Jewes shall be Kings Till these two questions be decided we might supersede and neverthelesse let us heare what they can say for a temporary Kingdome of Christ whether over Jewes and Gentiles Reply The temporary Kingdome of the Jewes hath been already demonstrated by such evident Scriptures and unanswerable Arguments from them as you durst not to examine and it is now praised be God for his good leave and assistance delivered also from that darknesse which your deluding allegories and farre fetcht interpretations doe draw over it and thereby set free from that disgrace and contempt which you strive so much to bring it into amongst the Gentiles And our next taske is to discover the like fraudulent dealing in your Answers to those texts and reasons by which wee have prov'd that our Saviour who shall restore this Kingdome shall also reigne over it on earth And first that the Reader may not take distaste at us before he heare us you tell him here that these few Millenuries agree not concerning the person of their King for Mr. Maton thinks that Christ shall continue visible King of this Kingdome and Mr. Archer thinkes that Christ shall restore the Kingdome unto the Jewes and returne unto the Heavens Herein indeed wee agree not and as I heartily wish that all Christians did so rightly understand the word of God that there might be no difference at all amongst them so seeing offences must needs come and that there must be heresies and divisions amongst us that they which are approved may be made manifest 1 Cor. 11. ver 18 19. I had rather differ from any man in opinion then for any by respect to depart from one jot or title of the truth which is either plainely reveal'd in the Scripture or may be gathered from it by infallible consequence And sure I am that as wee find often mention of our Saviours comming againe so Job tells us chap. 19. ver 25. that his Redeemer shall stand at the latter day upon the earth to wit at the day of his next appearing and the Saints resurrection as these words immediately following doe declare And though after my skinne wormes destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God c. And St. Luke ch 1. v. 3.1 records that the Lord shall give unto him the Throne of his Father David and Jer. chap. 23. ver 5. that he shall reigne and prosper and shall execute Judgement and Justice in the earth and so say Isaiah and Zechary yea and we conceive it to be for this reason especially that Judea is cal'd the Land of Immanuel Isaiah 8. ver 8. and we reade not of his departure from the earth againe untill the earth it selfe shall passe away at the last resurrection Yea unlesse our Saviour should as well reigne over the Jewes as restore their Kingdome to them wee cannot conceive why he should descend before the universall Judgement seeing he can as well restore the Kingdome of the Jewes in Heaven where he is as if he should descend unto the earth to doe it But yet your collection from this difference to wit that till these two Questions be decided you may superside is a very dangerous Doctrine For though superside be a very fine word yet as you use is it hath a very foule consequence for you would have the Reader conceive that there is no truth in the subject wee treat of because there is some difference betwixt us in the stating of it whereaâ— indeed all truth is made the more firme and manifest by difference else what shall wee say of our Religion there being scarce any one head or Article in Divinity about which there hath not been or is not now some difference or other amongst Christians if then wee must superside from if wee must let passe if wee must have nothing to doe with those things in which there is not a full agreement amongst us we must omit the use of the Lords Supper because Papists differ from Lutherans and Calvinists from both about the presence of Christ in the Sacrament Wee must not beleeve our election or Justification because Divines doe differ about the materiall and formall canses of the one and the moving and meriting causes of the other and because there is a difference betwixt you and us about the manner and place of our Saviours Kingdome we must not believe that he hath any Kingdome yea we must quite cast off the worship of God because we cannot agree about the forme of it some being for a set forme and others against it some againe for premeditated and others for extemporary prayers And thus to make one truth odious you stick not to make a shipwrack of the faith even at once to destroy our whole Christian practise and beliefe so contrary is your advice to that of the Apostle in the 1 Thess chap. 5. ver 21. Prove all things hold fast that which is good Now for conclusion of this first part I will adde Mr. Brightmans words touching the 7. and 8. ver of the 66. chap. of Isaiah and the 3. ver of the 110. Psal Many such places of Scripture saith he might be brought to this purpose he meaneth to shew the generall conversion of the Jewes and perhaps it would be profitable to bring them at least for this end that our Writers might have occasion thereby given them to consider more diligently of these places from the right interpretation whereof I feare mee that we wander when as we make them to speake of things that be past whereas they doe fore-tell of things yet to come In his Revel of the Apoc. chap. 19. on the 8 and 9. verses pag. 791. and his words on the 11. ver of the 6. chap. of the Cant. Time saith he will teach many things to be in the Prophets which we commonly interpret â—â— though they were past whose event is yet to come and especially as it seemeth to mee in the calling of the Jewes which verily little considered of ours hath darkned I will not say perverted the proper and naturall meaning of the Prophets in many places 1 COR. 4. v. 8. c. NOw yee are full now ye are rich ye have reigned as Kings without us and I would to God yee did reigne that we also might reigne with you For I thinke that God hath set forth us the Apostles last is it were men appointed to death for we are made a spectacle unto the world and to Angels and to men We are fooles for Christs sake but yee are wise in Christ we are weake but yee are strong ye are honourable but wee are despised
Even unto this present houre we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no certaine dwelling place And labour working with our owne hands being reviled wee blesse being persecuted we suffer it Being defamed we intreate we are made as the filth of the world and are the off-scouring of all things unto this day I write not these things to shame you but as my beloved sonnes I warne you 2 TIM 2. v. 12. If we suffer we shall also reigne with him REV. 5. v. 10. And hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests and we shall reigne on earth DANIEL 12. V. 6 7. How long shall it be to the end of these wonders And Theard c. Therefore so is the end of the wonders when all these things shall be fulfilled that is to say when the resurrection shall be the glory of the Saints shall shine the glory of the teachers shall be chiefest and all other things brought to perfection whereby Christs Kingdome shall have the preheminence over all which things if any man judge to be meant of the internall Kingdome already obtained he destroyeth the Prophecy which is specially conversant in foretelling things which shall be accomplished being proper to certaine places and times and not alike common to all whereof what observation or prediction or admiration can there be as is of these things which in the former verse are called wonders Mr. Thomas Brightman in his Exposition of the last and most difficult part of Dan. Prâ—phecie pag. 954. on the 7. ver of the 12. chap. ISRAELS REDEMPTION REDEEMED The SECOND PART Israels Redemption CHAP. I. That Christ shall reigne personally on Earth prov'd necessary consequence THat our Mediatour hath undergone the Offices of a Priest and Prophet the Gospel is our witnesse but considering that the Jewes are yet to receive a Kingdome a Kingdome in which they shall hold them captives Isai 14. ver 1 2 3. whose captives they are and in which peace and rightcousnesse shall flourish on the earth considering this I say we may justly doubt whether our Saviour hath as yet executed the office of a King and so much the rather because he tooke our nâ—ture upon him as well to performe his Kingly office therein amongst us as either his Priestly or Propheticall the glory of this being indeed the reward of that contempt and torment which he suffered in the others and though it cannot be denyed That be hath already a Col. 2. v. 15. spoyled Principalities and powers that is the evill spirits and hath made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in his Crosse nor that he is b Ephes 4.8 aseended up on high and hath led captivity captive and given gifts unto men Nor that he is become the c Col. 2.10 Head of all Principality and power that is of the Saints and holy Angels and is d Heb. 1. v. 3. chap. 8. v. 1. chap. 10. v. 12. chap. 12. v. 2. set downe at the right hand of the Throne of God so that he is e Phil. 3. v. 21. able even to subdue all things unto himselfe Yet that he doth not now reigne in that Kingdome which he shall govern as man and consequently in that of which the Prophets speake his owne words in the third of the Revelation at the one and twentieth verse doe clearely prove To him that overcometh saith he will I grant to sit with mee in my Throne even as I also overcame and am set downe with my Father in his Throne f Heb. 2. v. 8. chap. 10. v. 2 13. From whence it followes that the Throne which here he calls his owne and which he hath not yet received must needs belong unto him as man because the place where he now sits is the Fathers Throne a Throne in which he hath no proper interest but as God Againe it followes that seeing he is now in his Fathers Throne therefore neither is this the time nor that the place in which his Throne is to be erected Not the place for in one Kingdome there can be but one Throne and not the time for then he should fit in his owne Throne which now he doth not doe Mr. Petrie's Answer He grants that Christ is now a King and that he hath executed the Kingly office But he denâ—eth that he hath reighed in an earthly Kingdome as man in all which we agree but we disagree in two particulars First That the Prophets have spokâ—n of such a King dome this remaineth as yet to be proved Secondly That he fits on a Throne in heaven as man If these words at man be understood according to the Logicall acceptation it may be granted for what agreeth unto any man as man belongeth unto all men and indeed it belongeth not unto all men to sit on the Throne of Majesty And neverthelesse Christ sits at the right hand of the Father as God-Man or Mediatour and in this sense we deny this assertion as it seemes this Author takes it Reply What a miscellany of untruth and contradiction is here we need not then enquire what spirit had the guidance of your pen. It is evident enough that it was he who once undertooke to be alying spirit in the mouth of Ahabs Prophets For that Christ is a King it is unquestionable Where is he that is borne King of the Jewes said the wise men Matth. 2. ver 2. And Saint Matthew and Saint Luke have given us his regall genealogy have registred his princely parentage At his birth then he was a King authoritative as Divines speake The Authority of a King did then of right belong unto him but he was not then nor hath been since a King executive by putting his royall Authority in execution Neither have I said it but the contrary for my words are but considering this we may justly doubt whether he hath as yet executed the office of a King yea that our Saviour as man as the Sonne of David hath not yet executed the office of a King is the very hinge of the difference we are now entring upon for you hold that our Saviours reigning as the Sonne of David is to be fulfilled while he is in heaven where and when he was not to reftore the Kingdome to Israâ—â— and we hold that his reigning as man as the Sonne of David is to be fulfilled on earth at his next appearing when and where he is to restore the Kingdome to Israel In this then is our disagreement and not our agreement as you report And seeing you affirme that he hath executed his Kingly office for you say though falsely in all which we agree How can you conceive that he doth now reigne when as that which is already done cannot possibly be as yet in doing or to doing It seemes by this therefore that you neither rightly understand what we nor what your owne side doe hold of our Saviours Kingdome and yet as I take it you are
the Nations under whom the Jewes shall remaine captives immediately before their deliverance But because you could not shew the accomplishment of this Prophecy touching the Jewes you tell us that Interpreters doe shew the accomplishment of the Prophecy touching the Assyrian at the end of this chapter and that that Prophecy speakes not of them whose captives the Jewes now are No Doe none of the Jewes then continue captives in Assyria surely the reports and writings of Travellers and Traffickers in those parts doe testifie the contrary And what though the Emperiall power hath been translated from one Nation to another since the Jewes were carried captives by the Assyrian yet may we truely affirme that the Jewes remaining in that Countrey are now captives to the Assyrian because by the Assyrian in the Prophecy is meant the Inhabitant of Assyria whither the Jewes were first carried captives of whom the Lord hath said I will breake the Assyrian in my Land and upon my mountaines tread him under foot then shall his yoake depart from off them that is from off the Jewes and his burden from off their shoulders And have Interpreters shewed the accomplishment of this according to the Prophets meaning Me thinkes then you should not have hid it from us for the story is worth the hearing which can shew when the Jewes were in their owne Land wholly set free from the bondage which the Assyrian first brought them into and the Assyrian himselfe made subject to them And what though no Jewes were now captives in Assyria what were this to the aforesaid Prophecy touching the Jewes redemption which speakes indefinitely of their deliverance from their oppressours and of their taking them captives whose captives they were and not particularly of the Assyrian or of any other Nation It followes neither know we whose captives they are seeing they live as free Subjects wheresoever they are But doe you know that God calls them captives and their dwelling in strange Countreys a captivity this then would have made you account them captives too if you had had but a graine of that divine reverence towards Gods word of which you would make others beleeve that you have no small measure And what was it that made the Jewes captives at first was it not the losse of their Countrey and their living under the dominion of another people and doth not this still continue upon them wherein then are they now lesse captives then they were heretofore what priviledges have they now which they enjoyed not under Nehuchadnezzar Cyrus Darius Artaxerxes Ahasuerus and others It seemes then that you take them not for captives unlesse they should be put under great slavery under an Egyptian bondage This indeed were to make their captivity more grievous and burdensome unto them but captives they are without this and God onely knows how soone also the civill power under which they live may be turned against them The 2. Particular He tooke our nature on him as well to performe his Kingly office therein amongst us as his Priestly or Propheticall the glory of this being c. Mr. Petrie's answer It is manifest that he reigneth in us seeing the faithfull can say with the Apostle Gal. 2.20 The life which I now live I live by faith in the Sonne of God and Christ lives in mee but that the glory of an earthly Kingdome is the reward of his contempt and torment we cannot thinke seeing such a glory is not answerable to his sufferings who being equall with God made himselfe of no reputation and humbled himselfe even to the death of the Crosse Wherefore his reward is not deferred so long but now God hath exalted him highly and given him a came which is above every name Phil. 2. And he for the joy that was set before him endured the Crosse and is set downe at the right hand of the Throne of God Heb. 12.2 which is a greater honour then of an earthly threne Reply It is manifest that the faithfull before Christs incarnation could say also as well as we The life which we now live we live by faith in the Sonne of God and Christ lives in us For they were haptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea and did eate the same spirituall meate and drinke the same spirituall drinke which we doe for they dranke of the spirituall rocke that followed them and that rocke was Christ 1 Cor. chap. 10. ver 2 3 4. So that if you will call the adoption sanctification regeneration and justification of the Saints a reigning which the Apostle calls a living Christ doth no otherwise reigne over them now then he did from the beginning of the world to wit by his holy Spirit But the reigne in question is his reigning visibly in his humane nature on earth In which sense it is and for which end it was that he was borne a King an heire apparant to the Throne of David For unlesse he had been to reigne as man on earth and as the Sonne of David over Israel there had been no more necessity of his being borne of that Tribe and Family of the Jewes which had sole interest and title to the Crowne of Israel to qualifie him for the execution of his Kingly office in your spirituall sense for the distributing of his Spirit unto and the guiding of the Church therewith then there was of his being born of the Tribe of Levi to fit him for the execution of his Priestly office in laying down his life for our sins and making intercession for us now unto the Father And as Herods destroying of the Infants of purpose to destroy our Saviour that he might thereby translate the Kingdome of Israel from the House of David and fasten it to himselfe and his Posterity had been a plot as sottish as it was savage if he had not understood that the Scepter did belong onely to our Saviour So doubtlesse if he had not therein truely conceived what King Christ should be the Evangeâ—ists would as well have recorded that Herods misapprehension of our Saviours Kingdome was the occasion of his bloudy fact as he hath related his malicious attempt to defeate our Saviour of his right And although we doe not say that this Kingdome of our Saviour on earth is all the reward of that contempt and torment which he hath endured for us yet we say that it is all the reward which he is to have here on earth And we say also that this reward is very agreeable though not equall to his sufferings that I say God hath very righteously appointed that our Saviour should by the Posterity of the same persons be there worshipped and obeyed where by their Predecessours he had been so scornefully despightfully handled and that at the end of this reigne he should there judge those persons also who had formerly adjudged him to death And the scriptures which you have brought doe not gainesay this for that Heb. 12.2 doth shew onely what
g Rev. 11.15.17 then shall Christ sit in his own Throne and they that overcome shall sit with him For he that overe meth and keepeth my words unto the end to him saith he will I give power over Nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessels of a Potter shall they be broken to shivers even as I rrceived of my Father Rev. 2.26 Mr. Petrie's Answer 1. The force of this reason is Christ shall not be a King till all his Subjects be called and overcome but his Subjects are not all yet called which forme is alike with this Ferdinand shall not be Emperour till all his Subjects be boâ—ne and he victorious whereas some of his Subjects are comming daily into the world and it may be more of them are daily departing This is a rediculous reason and so is the other 2. Neither doth the prayer of the Saints make mention of his earthly Kingdome but of subduing or rivenging their enemies which shall be without an earthly Monarchy to wit by punishing them in hell 3 That text Rev. 11.15 speakes not of a proper Kingdome of Christ and farre lesse of an earthly Kingdome but of the Kingdome of our Lord and his Christ if it had been said of our Lord and Christ or of our Lord Christ it might be thought to be the proper Kingdome of Christ which he as man governes or shall governe but when it is said of our Lord and of his Christ we see a distinction of persons and unity of power And therefore it is cleare that the text Rev. 2.26 it impertinently cited for proofe of that thing which is not and is imagined to be on earth whereas that power is in beaven Reply 1. Doubtlesse you take this for a very witty comparison but the truth is it is a very ignorant one For the force of this reason is not as you make it say that Christ shall not be a King till all his Subjects be called and overcome But it is this That Christ shall not receive his Kingdome till all those Subjects those glorified Saints which shall come with him in his Kingdome are called and have overcome So that the forme is like this Ferdinand shall not be Emperour till all those Subjects those Nobles that shall waite on him at his coronation be borne and able to attend him And Ferdinand being a mortall King is to be accompanied by mortall attendants but our Saviour being an immortall King is to be accompanied with immortall attendants with all those beleevers which have already or shall hereafter overcome the temptations and afflictions of this world before his appearing and his Kingdome which Saints being but a part though the choisest part of our Saviours Subjects are indeed ridiculously compared by you to all Ferdinands Subjects borne and unborne 2. Though the prayer of the Saints Rev. 6.10 doth not mention our Saviours Kingdome on earth yet seeing the revenge they call for is deferred till the number of those that shall be slaine for the word of God be fulfilled we know that it is not to be executed till our Saviours comming And in what manner it is then to be done by hâ—m the 14. chap. of the Rev. from the 14. ver to the end doth declare And the 19. chap. also at 17. ver c. Where the fowles of heaven are summon'd to the Supper of the great God to eate the flesh of Kings and the flesh of Captaines and the flâ—sh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of them that sit on them and the flesh of all both bond and free both small and great And surely this judgement on the Saints enemies is to be a temporall judgement on earth at our Saviours comming with the Saints to receive his Kingdome as the 11. and 14. verses of this Prophecy doe shew and not an eternall judgement on their bodies and soules in hell which is not to seize on them till the giving up of Christs Kingdome at the Judgment of the dead till above a 1000 yeares after this overthrow in which the fowles are to feast on their carkasses as in the 20 chap. of the Rev. at the 11 verse c. it is revealed 3. That text Rev. 11.15 speakes not you say of a proper Kingdome of Christ but of the Kingdome of our Lord and his Christ And by this reckoning our Saviour hath no proper Kingdome at all and consequently is not properly a King for what Kingdome belongs to Christ which may not as well be called the Kingdom of our Lord as the Kingdom of his Christ But certainly the Kingdom which this text saith shall become the Kingdomes of Christ are the Kingdomes of this world and therefore Kingdomes on earth and proper Kingdomes both which you deny And they are to become Christs Kingdomes at the sounding of the seventh Trumpet and not before that is at the time of his appearing againe and therefore they are to be his to governe as he is man and so by your owne confession to be properly his Although then we grant that these words the Kingdomes of our Lord and of his Christ doe intimate a distinction of persons and unity of power which is more then Pareus grants who enclines to a distinction of natures and unity of persons yet it will not follow from hence that the Kingdomes of this world which our Saviour at his comming shall receive into his owne possession as he is man shall not be his proper Kingdomes For they are said to become the Kingdomes of our Lord not because they are not now his buâ— fist because at the accomplished donation and actuâ—ll subjection of them unto Christ God shall more marvelloufly declâ—re his supreame power over them then ever he did And secondly because they shall then â—e his after a more speciall manner then they are now his because I say he shall the be worshipped and obeyed in them all according to the righteous rule of his owne Lawes And yet they are said to become the Kingdomes of Christ onely in regâ—â—d of the administration of the immâ—diate government of them For Christ alone shall then be visible King over them as now others are and therefore shall be as properly a King on earth as any of them who now beare rule in these Kingdomes And this the next words of the text doe confirme which say not and they but and he that is Christ alone shall reigne for ever and ever And therefore that text Rev. 2.26 is verâ— pertinently cited for proofe of that thing which shall be on earth and is not now in heaven For our Saviour though then in heaven did not say that he had given the Saints in heaven or Saints on earth power over the Nations on earth but that he would give them power over them And surely we cannot thinke that the Martyrs Rev. 6.10 would call on God to hasten the time for the avenging of their blâ—ud on them that dwell on the earth if
they could now do it themselves if they could now rule the Nations with a rod of iron break them to shivers as a Potters vessell Yea why have the Saints on earth been so long time persecuted afflicted tormented and still are if the Saints in heaven have power to deliver them and tread down their enemies And why are there still so many large heathen Kingdâ—mes not yet subdued to the faith or government of the faithfull if the Saints in heaven can rule them as they please Certainely if you can make this good that our Saviour hath already given to the Saints in heaven that power over the Nations which he here speakes of to wit a conquering and commanding power a power to rule them wiâ—h arod of iron you will helpe the Papists to a better ground for their supplication unto Saints then was ever yet thought of by themselves For doubtlesse if the Saints in heaven have now command over this inferiour world they must needes be acquainted with all passages of importance in it as Kings and their Agents are with the affaires of State in the Kingdomes over which they rule and so may well be sought to if not for spirituall yet for outward and temporall advice succour and defence Israel's Redemption The like encouragement he gave also to his Disciples before his passion Ye are they said he which have continued with me in my temptations therefore I appoint unto you a Kingdome as my Father hath appointed unto me that ye may h Matth. 26.29 Mark 14.25 Luk. 14.15 cha 22 16.18 cha 24.42.43 Acts 10.41 eate and drinke at my table in my i Dan. 2.44 cha 7.14.27 Kingdome and sit on k Dan. 7.22 Revel 20.4 Matth. 19.29 seates judging the twelve Tribes of Israel Luke 22.28 Mr. Petries Answer It might be more for his purpose to have concealed this text which makes the 12 Tribes of Israel the persons iudged all the texts quoted on the margin speake of the Kingdome of God except that of Luke 24.42.43 where is mention of no Kingdome but of eating and drinking after Christs resurrection and if that be the Kingdome whereof our Saviour speakes ch 22.29 that Kingdome is come already Reply It might have been more for my purpose you say to have concealed this text Anâ— whâ— because you have nothing to sav to it that it makes â—he twelve tribes of Israel the persons iudged What doe you thinke then that in ouâ— Saviours Kingdome in the restored Kingdome of Israel there shall be no government or that it is a tâ—ken of the unrighteousnesse of a Kingdome to have governours in it Certainely unrightâ—â—uâ— Judges are a â—eady meanes to make a Kingdome unrighteous to make charity waxe cold and envy and comention grow hot But upright Judges are as effectuall a meanes to preserve rightâ—ousnesse in a Kingdome to cherish and streng then love and unitâ— and to chase away aâ—lâ—â—tâ—ed and dissention and how righteous then shall that Kingdome be where our Saviour himselse shall be King and the Diâ—ciples and other Saints gove nours under him And surely seeing the twelve Tribes of Isrrel cannot be taken for the reprobate nor for the Saints already departed and to depart or to overcome before our Saviours appâ—aring for those must be Judges as well as the Disciples as our Saviour himselfe doth testifie Rev. 3.21 To him that over cometh will I grant to sat with me in my Throne that is to have power over Nations as it is Râ—v 2.26 27. and to reigne on earth as it is Rev. 5.10 Seeing Isa the twelve Tribes of Israel can be taken for neither of these they must needes be taken for the Kingdome of Israel which is againe to be restored on earth where onely the glorified Saints can sit as Judges over others For in the new Jerusalem they are all to be partakers of the same glory though not of the same measure of glory they are all to have equall interest in the tree of life and river of life and therefore there shall neither be need of judging nor any temporall possessions and affaires to be judged of For the heavens and the earth that now are and all the creatures on the earth being to last no longer then the first death shall last shall be then all dissolved And those new ones mentioned Rev. 21.1 that new heaven I say from which and that new earth to which the new Jerusalem shall descend created in their place You tell us next that all the texts quoted on the margine speake of the Kingdome of God except that of Luke 24 42 43. where is mention of no Kingdome but of eating and drinking after Christs resurrection c. But doe not the other texts speake also of something to be done in the Kingdome of God as well as of the Kingdome of God Surely our Saviour saith Matth. 26.29 I say unto you that I will not drinke henceforth of the fruite of the Vine untill that day when I shall drinke it new with you in my Fathers Kingdome as it is Marke 14.25 in the Kingdome of God and Luke 22.15 he saith I have earnestly desired to eate this Passeover with you before I suffer for I say unto you Henceforth I will not eate of it any more untill it be fulfill'd in the Kingdome of God And he tooke the cup and gave thankes and said Take this and divide it among you for I say unto you I will not drinke of the fruite of the Vine untill the Kingdome of God be come Loe here is mention of eating and drinking too and that of our Saviours eating the Passeover and drinking wine againe with his Disciples but not untill the Kingdome of God be come And therefore unlesse you will deny that the Kingdome of God shall come you cannot deny that our Saviour and his Disciples shall again eate and drinke together nor consequently that the Kingdome of God is meant of our Saviours Kingdom on earth Of that Kingdome of which he said to his Disciples Luke 22.28 Yee are they which have continued with me in my temptations therefore I appoint unto you a Kingdome as my Father hath appointed unto me that ye may eate and drinke at my table in my Kingdome c. For where is a Lambe for the Passeover where growes the Vine but on earth and when could the Disciples eate the Passeover and drinke wine againe with our Saviour at his table but after the resurrection of their bodies And that text Luke 24.42.43 was quoted onely to shew that glorified bodies can eate and consequently that the denyall of this can be of no force against the proper sense of our Saviours words whose single affirmation of his eating and drinking with his Disciples after his next appearing ought to be of more account with us and to gaine more beliefe from us then all other mens negation of it And this selfe same Kingdome of our Saviour on earth is sometimes called the Kingdome of the
approved Authors bred in approved schooles who have all confessed the same truth that I speake for and stucke to that proper interpretation of these scriptures which I follow For not to speake of the primitive Christians or of many of the Fathers after them there have been many approved men for learning in these latter-times that have been witnesses of this truth amongst whom are Brightman Alstedius Wendelinus and Mede whom you your selfe pag. 14. commend for a renowned Author although you shake off his choifest proofes as easily as Sampfon shooke off the Philistins cords and breake through his strongest arguments as forcibly as Sampson did through the gates of Azzah which he carried away in a triumphing manner such wonders doe you worke by your canonicall or rather carelesse arguing And yet for all this you must give me leave to make so bold with you againe as to tell you That as the plainenesse of this text in hand and of the fore-cited scriptures doth compell us to acknowledge the proper sense of them so I trust both the love of the truth the feare of God and a desire to keepe a good conscience will ever constraine us to sticke to it For it is manifest by your taunting termes that you could finde neither scripture contradicting nor necessity forbidding the proper sense of our Saviours words for the confirmation whereof this rule is here alledged Israel's Redemption For besides that there is little analogy and resemblance betwixt a perpetuall l Rev. 22.3 praising and worshipping of God and the businesse of a politicke government here spoken of besides this I say we are already informed that though our Saviour be now in heaven yet he sits not there in his owne Throne and consequently is not yet in the Kingdome which the Father hath appointed him Mr. Petrie's Answer What impudence is here Doth not David say Psal 16 11. In thy presence is the fulnesse of joy at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore and Psal 17.15 I shall be satisfied when I wake with thy likenesse and Psal 36.8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fulnesse of thy house and thou shalt make them drinke of the river of thy pleasures These and many more are spoken of the joyes in heaven by resemblance with earthly Kingdomes and we have already shewed that he hath been misinformed or misinformeth of another Throne and another Kingdoms Reply Here you startle the Reader with a very foule exclamation but an evill tongue as it doth not become you so it will nothing benefit you Yea it deepely staines your innocency before God very much impaires your reputation amongst men especially upright men and sets up your wounded conscience as an irreconcileable Judge against you Looke into the Epistle of Saint James chap. 3. ver 6. and you may see both the abominable off spring and originall of it So is the tongue saith he amongst the members that it defileth the whole body and setteth on fire the course of nature and it is set on fire of hell That therefore it may not burne hereafter in those flames from whence it is now too much inflamed thinke seriously on this passage and from henceforth give better language to others though your enemies then you have doâ—e to me for telling you the truth Now as for your answer I confesse these texts to be Davids words and that there are some metaphoricall phrases in them But I deny that they have any resemblance with the civill affaires of an earthly Kingdome or that there is any comparison to be made betwixt them and our Saviours saying Luke 22.28 so that the impudence you speake of may well recoile on your selfe For the text Psal 16.11 shews onely that the fulnesse of all joy and delight is in the enjoyment of the sight of God and to be at the right hand of God doth betoken the highest place of honour and glory in heaven which is proper to our Saviour who is said to sit at the right hand of God in allusion to a custome amongst men who are wont to set those whom they will mâ—st honour whom they most delight in at their right hands And that Text Psa 17.8 shews that David after the resurrection when he shall have a glorified body as Christ now hath shall be perfectly happy shall be as he would be For these words to awake after thy likenesse are all one with those of Saint Paul in 1 Cor. 15.42 43 44. To rise in incorruption in glory in power to rise with a spirituall body For if we have been planted together in the likenesse of Christs death we shall be also in the likenesse of his resurrection saith the same Apostle Rom. 6.5 and because we are laid into our graves as one that lies downe in his bed to sleepe and shall be raised out of them as one that riseth out of his bed from sleepe therefore it is that the Prophet useth awake in stead of arise And the text Psal 36.8 is referred by Musculus to Gods bountifull provision in this life for all men indifferently and by Calvine better as well to the outward and temporall as to the spirituall and eternall benefits of God towards the faithfull his words are Some restraine it to spirituall graces but unto mee it seemeth a more likelyhood that under it are comprehended all Gods benefits that pertaine as well to the use of this present life as to the eternall heavenly blessednesse And so refers it as well to joyes on earth as to joyes inheaven And happily seeing the Prophet makes mention here of the house of God it is best understood of the great comfort which men shall receive through Gods loving kindness towards them in the time of our Saviours Kingdome on earth when Jerusalem and the Temple of the Lord shall again be rebuilt and all Nations shall flow unto it as it is Isai 2.2 or as it is Zech. 14.16 shall goe up from yeare to yeare to worâ—â—ippe the King the Lord of Hosts and to keepe the feast of Tabernacles When I say in the mountaine of the Lords house in the restored Jerusalem the Lord of Hosts shall make unto all people a feast of fat things a feast of wines on the lees of fat things full of marrow of wines on the lees well refined And shall destroy the face of the covering cast over all people and the vaile that is spread over all Nations Isai 25.6 c. And besides every understanding man knowes that to drinke of the river of thy pleasures is a metaphoricall expression seeing pleasures are not the nourishment of the body and so properly and corporally dranke of but belonging to the soule to which they are as comfortable as sweete and wholesome waters to a thirsty body But to drinke wine to eate the Passeover to eate and drinke at our Saviours table to eate bread in the Kingdome of God to sit on seates and judge the twelve Tribes of Israel are all proper expressions
mee in my temptations therefore I appoint unto you a Kingdome as my Father hath appointed unto me that yee may eate and drinke at my table in my Kingdome and sit on seates judging the 12 tribes of Israel Which words as they doe plainely distinguish the time of Christs temptations from the time of his Kingdome so they doe shew too that the Apostles Kingdome was then onely appointed unto them by our Saviour and not then enjoyed by them And you cannot deny it unlesse you will say that the Disciples did then sit on seates judging the twelve Tribes of Israel or that Christ himselfe did then reigne for it is his owne Kingdome which he here appoints unto them Neither will the texts which you have cited prove that the time of our Saviours and the Saints persecution and affliction doth contemporate with the time of their reigne For that Psal 110.2 Reigne thou in the midst of thy enemies doth shew onely that he shall reigne amongst those who shall declare themselves enemies to him and his both before and when he comes to reigne and not that his enemies shall have any power to molest much lesse to raise persecution against him and his when he doth reigne for the 1 verse doth manifest that these enemies are to be made his footstoole at his very entrance into his Kingdome at his comming from the right hand of God at which time it is that he is to reigne amidst them and not before And that text Rom. 8.37 doth shew onely that through Gods speciall love towards us we are enabled to conquer all tribulation distresse perill or whatsoever else that can be brought on us for our faith in Christ and consequently that we doe now contend for a Kingdome but not that we doe now reigne for who will say that when two strive for the mastery either of them is conquerour till one be vanquisht or that when two Princes contend for a Kingdome either doth reigne over the other till one be quite subdued unto the other and such certainely is our condition in this life and no other For now yee are full now yee are rich yee have reigned as Kings without us and I would to God yee did reigne that we also might reigne with you saith Saint Paul 1 Cor. 4.8 where he goes on For I thinke that God hath set forth us the Apostles last as it were men appointed to death for we are made a spectacle unto the world and to the Angels and to men c. What! would the Apostle have thus denyed that he did reigne onely because many tribulations did attend him if the reigne of the Saints and their sufferings were consistent Doubtlesse he would not and therefore though they depart out of this life as conquerours over all temptations through the grace of God that is in them yet they live not here as Kings but as combatants neither doe they finish their conquest till the appointed time of their life be finished And when should they be Kings but when they receive their crownes which is not while they fight nor presently after they have overcome but when they receive their bodies againe to weare them but at the day of Christs next appearing which shall be a Coronation day to all them that love that day as the same Apostle's words doe witnesse 2 Tim. 4.7.8 I have fought saith he a good sight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth is laid up for me a crowne of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me onely but to all them that love his appearing And in the 2 chap. of the same Epistle also ver 11.12 he thus plainely distinguisheth the time of the Saints reigning from the time of their suffering It is a faithfull saying for if we be dead with him we shall also live with him If we suffer we shall also reigne with him Here Mr. Petrie further excepts against two particulars in the parenthesis of my foresaid words The 1 Particular And 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 Mr. Petrie's Answer When Christ shall come the last enemy shall be destroy'd and the bodies and not the Soules which dye not shall be made alive and both shall be with him for ever Reply You should here have told us whether the bodies of the Saints shall not reigne with Christ as well as their soules in stead whereof you tell us that their soules dye not and that when Christ cames their bodies shall be made alive and both bodies and soules shall be with him for ever I dare say this answer was never learned in any approved schoole and I beleeve indeed that this Querie did put you to a stand For if you should have denyed that the bodies of the Saints must reigne as well as their soules you could thew no reason for it And if you should have granted it you had herein denyed your owne Tenet to wit that the Saints do now reigne because while they are in this life they suffer in their bodies all manner of distresse they are hungry thirsty naked scourged buffered banished tormented and when their soules depart out of this life their bodies are left behind to moulder into dust So that neither while they are in the body nor when they are out of the body are their bodies in a condition agreeable to a regall estate to the quiet free honourable powerfull and delightsome estate of Kings of such as rule over others Yea it is in regard of their bodily afflictions onely that they are here of all men most miserable and the spirituall conquest of their souls is indeed the principall occasion of mens tyrannizing over their bodies and of their conquering and destroying the life thereof The 2 Particular 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 Mr. Petrie's Answer He is a King till then and governeth all who are and shall be and when he shall come they who shall be found alive shall be caught up to meete him And because the clearing of this point may serve for clearing the whole matter I adde by way of explanation As the sinne of Adam was committed against God the Father his revolting or apostasie was a diminution of the Fathers Kingdome so the bringing of the faithfull into his obedience is the rendring of that Kingdome It is true the offence was against the Sonne and Holy Spirit but the worke of the creation being the worke of the Father in a speciall manner as it is intimated in the Creede the sinne was directly against the first Person When obedience was not given the Father might have executed his justice on the â—ffenders as be did on the Angels Now as when a
part of an earthly Kingdome rebelleth against the King directly and indirectly against his Sonne as a friend and heir of his Fathers Crowne the Sonne may undertake to regaine the rebels unto his Father and the Father may be well pleased to commit unto his Sonne that part of the Kingdome for that effect with full power which the Sonne accepts and reigneth and prevailes powerfully so that albeit the arch-traitour gain-stand in malice to the honour of the King and his Sonne yet many of the rebels are reconciled with the King who by this meanes regaineth his Kingdome So the Sonne of God hath undertaken for so many as it pleased him and beseecheth men to be reconciled with the King of heaven and earth shewing that he hath appeased the Fathers wrath and bath power to receive into and exclude from the Kingdome of heaven which power he hath received of the Father and he shewes that there is a time determined for receiving men into grace againe So that if that time shall expire there is no more grace to be shewed unto any Satan envieth the glory of God and mans reconciliation and therefore opposeth by deceiving some and vexing others who hearken unto the word of reconciliation neverthelesse Christ prevaileth by his preaching so that a great many repent and crave mercy and others not when the determined time comes these who have been received into mercy are presented unto God the Father and as if they had not rebelled he accepts them into his Kingdome when the Sonne saith Here am I and these whom I have brought into acknowledgement of their offences I have satisfied justice for them Thou O Father hast thine owne Subjects and let them have the Kingdome prepared for them The Father will not say thy reward is not in heaven but on earth therefore let them goe againe to the earth and inherit glory there for a 1000 years but receives them into the inheritance reserved for them in the heavens Reply This answer is as much besides the question as the other for the argument is That if Christ doth now reigne and shall reigne onely till his comming then those Saints which shall be found alive at his comming shall be exempted from his Kingdome shall not reigne with him as the Saints departed did reigne with him To which you say no more but this That they shall be caught up to meete him And besides seeing our Saviour is not to give up his Kingdome to his Father till after his next appearing and that the time of his reign is to be but a 1000 yeares it must needs follow according to your opinion that not onely all the Saints before his incarnation but that the Apostles themselves too and all the rest of the Saints that have been converted within the first six hundred yeares and upwards since his incarnation must be excluded from his Kingdome And yet doubtlesse both the Saints before Christs first comming and the Saints under the first ages of the Gospell have all reigned spiritually as well as the Saints since that time They have been conquerours I say over sin and over sufferings for obedience unto Christ in as eminent manner as any Saints since have been if not more eminently as in the 11 chap. to the Heb. the Acts of the Apostles and the Ecclesiasticall histories doe testifie And therefore that reigne of the Saints revealed in the 20 chap. of the Apoc. as a reigne to come and to be but of a 1000 yeares continuance must needs be meant of some other reigne and consequently of a proper and politick reigne on earth at the redemption of their bodies But lest the reader should take notice that you have nothing to say to these arguments you annexe unto your indirect answer a long discourse whereof that of the Apostle Rom. 5.19 As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous is the whole summe And in this discourse whâ—ch you call a clearing of the whole matter There are these notable passages For first you tell us that Adams revolting was a dimiâ—ution of the Fathers Kingdome whereas indeed it made way for the salvation of those whom God had predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ of which number not one was diminished by Adams apostasie for as many as God had purposed to save before mans fall somany and no more will he make heires with Christ will he make partakers of the Kingdome prepared for them from the beginning of the world Secondly you tell us That the bringing of the faithfull into the obedience of the Father is the rendring of the Kingdome unto him And so you make Christs reigne and the rendring of his Kingdome to the Father to be all one and to contemporate whereas the giving up of his Kingdome must needes succeede the time of his reigne for to cease from governing a Kingdome must needes presuppose a preceding government of it Yea and you your selfe say afterwards That when the determined time comes these who have beene received into mercy are presented unto God the Father when the Sonne saith Here I am and these whom I have brought into the acknowledgment of their offences I have satisfied justice for them Thou O Father hast thine owne Subjects and let them have the Kingdome prepared for them Wherein you plainely acknowledge that the rendring up of the Kingdome to the Father is to be when the number of the elect is fulfilled when these who have before been received into mercy are all presented unto God the Father with spotlesse and incorruptible bodies and soules Which is a flat contradicting of your former words to wit That the receiving of the faithfull into mercy that the bringing of them into the Fathers obedience at their conversion is the rendring of Christs Kingdome Thirdly you tell us That Adams revolting was a sinne directly against the Father Whereas the workes of power being chiefly attributed unto the Father the workes of wisedome unto the Sonne and of love unto the Holy Ghost The sinnes of infirmity and weakenesse are most direct against the first Person the sinnes of ignorance and unadvisednesse most direct against the second Person and the sinnes of wilfulnesse and malice most direct against the third Person And did Adam fall out of weakenesse when as all Divines agree he had ability to stand or out of ignorance when he knew that he did what he was forbid to doe or rather out of wilfulnesse when notwithstanding his power to have withstood temptation and his knowledge of the unlawfulnesse of the act he yet yeelded to doe what he should not have done Fourthly whereas the rebellion of mankinde against God is generall you compare it onely with the rebellion of a part of an earthly Kings Subjects Fifthly from this defective comparison you make Christ to reigne but over a part of his Fathers Kingdome whereas he is to deliver up a whole Kingdom to the Father and
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
by force of armes Reply 1. You were here a little too hasty in your answer for surely I doe not say That this image doth signifie a temporall Monarchy of the Jewes but I say That our Saviour prefigured by the stone that brake the image in peeces and became a great mountaine filling the whole earth shall set up in the place of the foure Monarchies represented by the gold the silver the brasse and the iron and of the Kingdomes represented by the mixture of iron and clay into which the last and iron Monarchy was to be divided a Kingdome over all the world wich is the point in hand And whereas to prove that the Kingdome of Christ here foretold was not to succeed these Kingdomes you alledge ver 44. in which it is said In the dayes of these Kings shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdome which shall never be destroyed and the Kingdome shall not be left to other people but iâ— shall breake in peeces and consume all thesâ— Kingdomes the iron the bâ—asse the clay the silver and the gold and it shall stand for ever Certainely you could not have urged a plainer text to prove the contrary For first seeing the Prophet saith that the Kingdome here spoken of is to be set up in the dayes of these Kings that is after the iron Romane Empire should be divided as the preceding verses declare the setting of it up cannot possibly be meant of a Kingdome to be set up at our Saviours first comming and consequently not of the preaching of the Gospell by the Apostles For this was done while the Empire was entire and in its height it being in the reigne of Augustus Caesar that Christ was borne and oâ— Tiberius that he was crucified And therefore the Kingdome that was to be set up after this Empire should be divided into severall Kingdoms and yet not presently after but in the dayes of these Kingdomes that is after they should be of some remarkeable continuance must needs be understood of our Saviours visible reigne on earth to whose Kingdome these Kingdomes shall give place as the former Kingdomes did successively to each other And secondly seeing the Prophet saith That the Kingdome shall not be left to other people It necessarily followes that when the God of heaven shall set up this Kingdome some one people shall have the sway over all other people from whom the dominion shall not be taken away as it was from the successively prevailing Nations of the foure severall Empires And what people should this be in whose hands the rule shall continue so firme and stedfast but the Jewes the people of whom Christ the person prefigured by the stone cut out without hands that should smite the image was to be borne And to whom at the expiration of the time allotted to the four Kingdomes revealed in another vision chap. 7. The Kingdome and dominion and the greatnesse of the Kingdome under the whole heaven shall be given ver 27 And thirdly seeing the Prophet saith That this Kingdome shall breake in peeces and consume all other Kingdome to wiâ— the iron the brasse the clay the silver and the gold it is manifest that it is by it self alone to succeed and follow after all these for how shall all these be broken in peeces by it if this be not to succeed them in the place where it breakes them in peeces And how shall all these be so consumed by it that no place shall be found for them if either of them shall continue with it And sourthly seeing it is unquestionable that the Kingdomes which the image represented and which this Kingdome should breake in peeces were all temporall and visible Kingdomes It must needes be granted that this Kingdome by which these temporall Kingdomes were to be destroyed and succeeded in their place for the stone having smote the image filled the whole earth must it selfe be a visible and for the place and manner of government a temporall Kingdome also Because no temporall and politicall Kingdom can be overthrown and succeeded in its place but by another of the like nature over-mastering it You goe on and say It shall breake in peeces the silver and gold then it shall be before the brasse and iron And of what King say you 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. ver 29. Because of thy rage against me I will put my hooke in thy nose c. Here are a few words but full of very grosse and contradictory untruths For first having immediately before recited out of the Prophet It shall breake in peeces the iron the brasse the clay the silver and the gold You presently affirme It shall breake the silver and the gold then it shall be before the brasse and the iron And shall we beleeve you when you speake against the Prophet or when you speake with the Prophet When you say of your selfe It shall breake in peeces and succeed but two of the four Empires or when you say as the Prophet doth that it shall succeed and breake in peeces the whole image all four Empires and the Kingdomes of the last divided Empire Secondly in saying that the stone the type of our Saviours manhood was to be before the brasse and the iron you make Christ to be borne before the Grecian Empire was in being whereas it is evident by the history of the Gospell that he was borne in the dayes of the Romane Empire to which the Jewes were then tributaries Thirdly by the instances which you bring out of Isai 10.12 and chap. 37. ver 29. c. to confirme your argument You first make the stone to be Christ in his God-head to whom you attribute this threatning and not in his manhood of which alone it is to be understood For the stone cut out without hands is Christ borne of a Virgin and the mountaine out of which he was cut is the Jewish Nation the Inhabitants of Mount Sion the place which God had chosen to put his Name there And secondly you hereby make the accomplishment of the vision which shewed things then to come to be before the revelation of it For the threatning against Senacherib was sulfilled before Judah's captivity and this vision was in the time of their captivity under Nebuchadnezzar who was the head of gold in the image And thirdly you make the destruction of the Assyrian Empire to be by an extraordinary meanes by an Angel sent from God whereas it was by an ordinary meanes by the army of Cyrus Prince of the Medes and Persians And what could you have said more contrary to the dreame and the interpretation there of then all this 2. You have nothing to say against the evidence of ver 35 which shewes that the Kingdome of Christ was to succeed the four Empires in time and place as they had succeeded each other to wit by force of
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
of that observation on the margine upon these cited words which is It is not said the Kingdome of heaven to wit of the third heaven or of another world I say of another in substance but the Kingdomes of this world that is which is now and shall till then be divided into many Kingdomes shall wholly become Christs and be made by him one heavenly Kingdome c. For if we remember what is said that here Iohn speakes of the Kingdome of our Lord and of his Christ he speaks not of the Kingdome of the Iewes on earth seeing he makes a distinction of two persons our Lord and his Christ that is the Father and the Sonne and that Kingdome is for ever and ever Reply As little Logicke as the Authour hath left he can tell that Assertion is not a logicall but thetoricall terme And he doth remember also that in the schooles where he was bred they were wont to call the minor proposition the Assumption as he hath done here and can make it evident by this syllogisme If the reigne of Christ as man doth not beginne till Antichrist is destroyed then the spirituall interpretation of the first resurrection doth make most of the Saints to rise many hundred yeares before their reigne But the reigne of Christ as man doth not beginne till Antichrist is destroyed Therefore c. Now what will you call this minor proposition will you call it an Assertion or an Assumption if an Assertion you call it as no Logician calls it if an Assumption then why may not I call it so too without any offence to the learned in Logicke Your answer followes in which you say It is not said here our Lord and his Christ shall not reigne till this time But this is all the words import now is no Kingdome but our Lords and his Christs And surely this comment is a great deale more obscure then the text For if you meane onely that at the accomplishment of this prophecy there shall be no Kingdome over which the Lord and his Christ shall not reigne this is no more then what you affirme to be done by our Lord and his Christ already for you say That at this present time Christ reigneth in the midst of these Kingdomes even among them and over them But you must needes acknowledge a difference betwixt his reigning over them now and his reigning over them then or else you make this prophecy to be no prophecy to foreshew nothing at all And wherein can this difference consist but in his reigning over these Kingdomes hereafter in his humane nature which he doth now over rule only by â—is divine providence for if by your foresaid words you should mean that at the accomplishment of this prophecy there shall be no Kingdom but a spirituall Kingdome which is all the Kingdomes you will allow Christ this is not onely contrary to the light of the text but of reason it selfe For there can be no spirituall Kingdome on earth unlesse there be withall a temporall a civill Kingdome in which it may be setup And the text speakes not of spirituall Kingdomes but of temporall for it saith The Kingdomes of this world that is the temporall and civill Kingdomes which the Kings of this world doe reigne over These Kingdomes it saith be they the Kingdomes of Christian or of heathen Princes shall become the Kingdomes of our Lord and of his Christ that is shall by the Lord be put under the government of his Christ as he is man And therefore the Kingdomes themselves shall not be then utterly destroyed as you say but be made one Kingdome under Christ as we say And indeede if we doe but call to minde the time when this prophecy is to be fulfilled which is at the sounding of the last trumpet when Christ himselfe shall descend from heaven we cannot imagine that the Kingdomes of this world should then become the Kingdomes of Christ any otherwise then by a subjection unto his manhood then by submitting themselves to the rules of that Ecclesiasticall and civill policy which he their King sâ—â—ll then command to be observed by them And now if the reader consider this and remembers also what cleare prophecies there are for the restoring of the Kingdome of the Jewes he will plainely perceive that the time when the Kingdomes of this world shall become the Kingdome of Christ is to be the very same in which he shall restore againe the Kingdome of Israel And your precious subtilty touching a distinction of two persons our Lord and his Christ that is the Father and his Sonne doth make nothing against this synchronisme For they are said to be the Kingdomes of the Lord partly because he shall then make it more manifest then ever he did that they are his to dispose of and partly because no other Lawes but the Lords shall be observed in them And of his Christ because no man but he shall be supreame Head and Governour over them And surely the Kingdomes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of this world cannot be the Kingdomes of the Father and the Sonne for ever if you take this word in an unlimited sense seeing neither this world in which they are not the civill societies of men of which they doe consist shall be of an infinite duration And I thinke too that you will not say that by the Kingdomes of this world that Kingdome of eternall glory is meant in which the Sonne also himselfe shall after the judgement of the dead be subject unto the Father unto him that before put all things under him Israel's Redemption And this also is intimated by the binding up of t Rev. 20.1 2 3. c. Satan a thousand yeares with which the reign of the Saints contemporates Mr. Petrie's Answer He said before This chapter is controverted to wit by the Millenaries on the one part and all Christians on the other and now he saith This his concâ—it is intimated in the binding up of Satan which is as if he had said It is all undoubted what he saith and all is false that all Christians say whereas Christians have given better warrants of their exposition then Millenaries are able to doe Reply I say not that the whole chapter is controverted for doubtlesse no Christian will deny that the latter part thereof doth speake of the judgement of the dead at the last resurrection But I speake of a controverted place in this 20 chapter which is that touching the first resurrection And yet suppose the whole chapter had been controverted I might neverthelesse say that this or that truth is not onely intimated but plainely exprest in it as the first bodily resurrection is plainely exprest in ver 4 5. notwithstanding the disagreement of expositours about it And as the deliverance of the Jewes the restoring of their Kingdome and our Saviours personall reigne on eath are all so plainely exprest in the propheticall scriptures as that nothing can be more plainely spoken although
which are now by the same word are kept in store reserved unto fore against the day of judgement and perdition of ungodly men And many other places there are of the like nature But to the first I answer that those words of our Saviour doe onely distinguish the time and condition of his Kingdome from the time and condition of the Kingdomes of this world at the setting up of whose Kingdome there shall be such an * Nec enim dubium quin maxima rerum naturalium humanarum mutatio regni hujus auspicia sit antecessura Antichristus enim cum totâ fuâ Synagogâ abolâ—bitur extinguetur hominum pars maxima gentilibus non nisi paucis relictis qui in posteris suis non extra sed intra regnum hoc mille annis supererunt ut prophetiae suprà memoratae cum aliis in Scripturâ passim occurrentibus abunde testantur sub decursum verò mille annorum mirum in modum aucti a Satana e carcere suo saluto iterum seducti Sanctorum castra oppugnabunt sed incassum Nec dubium est quin rerum quoque naturalium quae regni huius incolis ministrabunt longè alia sit futura facies quam impraesentiarum est siquiâ—â—m beatissimum tran quillissimum erit regni istius seculum omnis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae in naturâ modò decurrit expers Mar. Frid. Wend. Contemp. Phys Sect. 2. cap. â—7 pag. 7â— 376. alteration over the whole frame of x Psal 46. Isai 2.12.19.21 ch 11.6 c. ch 30.25 26. ch 41.18 19. ch 55.13 Ezek. 38.19 20. Matth. 24.29.30 Mar. 13.24 25. Luke 21.25 26. Rev. 6.12 13. c. ch 16.18.19 c. nature and such a change of government on the earth that this time shall then as well be accounted the time of another world as the time before the floud is now taken for the oâ—â— world by us and was long agoe so stiled by Saint Peter in his 2 Epist chap. 2. ver 5. And therefore notwithstanding this proofe the place oâ— his Kingdome shall be the earth that now is though this be not the time nor any humane policy the patterne of his reigne Mr. Petrie's Answer Our Saviour distinguishes not betwixt the time of his and other Kingdomes for he saith in the same verse My Kingdome is not from hence that is My Kingdome is at hand as he said unto his Disciples Marth 16.28 Verely I say unto you there be some standing here who shall not tast of death till they have seene the Sonne of man come in his Kingdome that is reigning powerfully by the preaching of the Gospell and Matth. 24.14 This Gospell of the Kingdome shall be preached in all the world for a witnesse unto all Nations and then shall the end come There is his Kingdome before the end of this world and now is the time of his reigne albeit no humane policy be the patterne thereof 2. If he had said to that purpose as the Millenaries say that in time of his Kingdome being sonigh the Kingdome of the Romanes should be no Kingdome they might had more pretext of law for condemning him wherefore be distinguisheth the condition of the Kingdomes and not the time of them so that Caesar might been Emperour and Christ a mighty King both at once Non eripit mortalia quiregna dat coelestia Reply 1. That our Saviours Kingdome is to be a distinct Kingdome both in time and condition from the Kingdomes of this world is a truth apparantly delivered in the scriptures And for ought you have said to the contrary we may still thinke that these words of Christ doe in timate as much For though you first deny that these words doe distinguish betwixt the time of his Kingdome and other Kingdomes yet you presently give this sense to them your selfe when you say My Kingdome is not from hence that is My Kingdome is at hand And therefore it was not then in the world and if not then sure I am it hath not been yet and so it is distinct in time too from other Kingdomes as well as in condition I say it hath not been yet for what Kingdome of Christ hath been set up in the world since he spake these words which was not in the world when he spake these words Certainely his spirituall Kingdome was as much in the world at that time though not spread so much over the world as it hath been since That Kingdome therefore which you say was not then but was at hand is not yet come as the testimonies which you have alledged to prove that it was then at hand doe testifie a. gainst you also For that text Matth. 16.28 doth speake of a Kingdome to beginne at Christs appearing and not before it of a Kingdome I say when the Sonne of man shall come as it is in the same verse and when the Sonne of man shall come in the glory of the Father with his Angels as it is in the preceding verse And therefore doubtlesse these words of our Saviour Verely I say unto you there be some standing here which shall not tast of death till they see the Sonne of man comming in his Kingdome doe reveale a strange and extraordinary preservation of some then present till Christs next appearing For what doth the comming of the Sonne of man signifie but Christs descending from heaven and why did he subjoyne these words to his speech touching his comming in the glory of the Father with his Angels but because they are meant of the same comming And besides the Gospell had been before preacht by the Baptist by Christ himselfe and by the Disciples and not some but all the Disciples lived to see it preacht among the Gentiles also and therefore the seeing of this could not be the meaning of our Saviours words Thus then this first text doth shew that the Kingdome of our Saviour is not yet come And the other text Matth. 24.14 doth shew onely That the Gospell of the Kingdome that is which makes report of the Kingdome or by which men are made partakers of the Kingdome of Christ should be preached in all the world before the end should come that is the end and destruction of Jerusalem as the subsequent verses doe declare and not the end of the world as you affirme For would Christ thinke you have advised them to flye out of Judea into the mountaines from his presence at the end of the world Or how should it be worse for women with child and for them that give sucke at his comming then for others And now as for your exposition of these words My Kingdome is not from hence that is My Kingdome is at hand I pray what interpreters doe you follow in it or what colour have you for it What! are from hence and at hand all one or is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an adverbe of time or of place Doubtlesse these words My Kingdome is not from hence are to be
understood as if Christ had said My Kingdome is not from beneath but from above I am not to be made a King by the power of mortall men but by the power of the immortall God onely So that in his former words My Kingdome is not of this world the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of doth not indeed intimate any difference in time or condition betwixt our Saviours Kingdome and other Kingdomes but in the cause and authour of them which sense it carries in our Saviours word Marth 21.25 The baptismeâ—o John whence was it from heaven or of men and in the saying of Sâ—int John 1 Epist chap. 2. ver 16 For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but of the world And thus My Kingdom is not of this world is no more but my Kingdome is not of men if my Kingdome were of men then would my Servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews but now is not my Kingdom from hence from the men of this world 2 You tell us next That if Christ had said that in the time of his Kingdome the Kingdome of the Romanes should be no Kingdome they might have had more pretext for condemning him But surely Christ had no need to answer to that which was not askt neither did the Romanes but the Jewes desire his death And yet as before he spake openly to the world so now he spake plainely to Pilates demand too for when Pilate said unto him Art thou a King then he answered Thou sayest that I am c. Which forme of answering was taken for an affirming of that which was askt And therefore where Saint Matthew writes Jesus said unto him Thou hast said chap. 26. ver 64. Saint Marke hath And Jesus said I am chap. 14. ver 62. And doubtlesse Pilate by this answer tooke him for such a King to whom the Throne of Israel did belong and yet he made it not a pretext to condemne him but sought to deliver him And it is false also to imagine that the Kingdomes of this world shall not be taken out of the hands of their severall Governours of their mortall Kings when they shall become the Kingdomes of Christ himselfe when they shall be governed by him and the glorified Saints that shall come with him Israel's Redemption And to all such places that mention only the dissolution of the elements and the last judgement I answer that these are but a part of those things which shall be done by Christ at his next appearing and that as other scriptures shew oneâ— that he must reigne on earth and what shall be done at the beginning of his reigne so these shew onely what shall be left undonâ— till the close of his Kingdome when he shall deliver it up to God even the Father Mr. Petrie's Answer This shift will not serve their turne for the scriptures teach us That at Christs comming shall be the end and he shall deliver up his Kingdom 1 Cor. 15.23 24. c. I forbear to write any more of Mr. Petrie's objections here because I shall repeat them all in my reply Reply You alledged even now such scripture against our Saviours reigning after his comming as doth infallibly prove it to be then and not before to wit that text Matth. 16.28 which shewes that the Sonne of mans comming in his Kingdome is when he comes in the glory of the Father with his Angels as by comparing it with the former verse it is evident And yet here you call it a shift to say that some of the prophecies which concerne the Day of our Saviours appearing are to be accomplished at the time of his comming and some in the time of his abode on earth some at the close of his Kingdom And to countenance your censure you heape up these objections following against us First you say That the Scriptures teach us Object 1 that at Christs comming shall be the end and he shall deliver up his Kingdom 1 Cor. 15.23 24. But that Text shewes onely Sol. 1 that the Saints shall rise at Christs comming and not that the end shall be then For it saith That the end shall be when after his comming he hath reigned till God hath put all his enemies under his feete which will be fully accomplisht when death the last enemy is fully destroyed at the last resurrection as we have shewed before Secondly you say Object 2 That Christ shall come in a time when men looke not for him and all shall rise again both godly ungodly and then is the shutting of heaven as the parable of the ten Virgins teacheth Matth. 25. But there is no mention of the rising of the godly and ungodly together but of the gathering of all Nations before Christ Sol. 2 and the separating of them into two companies whereof one company the elect shall be received into life eternall and the other company the reprobate shall be sent away into everlasting punishment which separation we say shall be made at the close of our Saviours reigne at the last refurrection when he is to give up his Kingdome to the Father For we read Matth. 24.30 31. of the gathering of none but the elect at his comming to take possession of his Kingdome And as for the day and houre of his comming we know that it is unknowne to any but it will not follow from hence that he shall not reigne after his comming And the parable of the ten Virgins doth shew onely That those which at our Saviours comming are thought to be faithfull Christians and are indeed but hypocrites shall not be partakers of his Kingdome Hypocrites being of all others most odious to our Lord and his Christ Thirdly you say That where Christ is Object 3 the faithfull then shall be with him John 14.3 And so say we for they shall be with him in his reigne on earth Sol. 3 Fourthly you say Object 4 That the heavens must containe him till the time of the restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his Prophets since the world began But the Prophets have foretold the last judgement and that he shall convince all the ungodly Jude ver 14 15. Therefore he shall not returne till that time And that is most plaine Psal 110.1 Sit at my right hand till I make thy enemies thy footestoole That sitting at Gods right hand is his reigning and it is not said His enemies shall be subdued and then he shall reigne but he shall reigne till then so that be reigneth conquering and he conquereth reigning Surely we doe not say that Christ shall reigne on earth before he returne to the earth againe Sol. 4 but when he doth returne we say that then he shall exercise a civill judgement over all in the time of his reigne and that he shall execute an extraordinary temporall judgement on all the
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