being spread over the World Christian Princes pour in their treasures into the Holy Land and contribute their assistances towards the rebuilding Jerusalem and the rest of the waste and desolate Cities The Nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of the New Jerusalem and the Kings of the Earth do bring their Glory and Honour into it Rev 21. 24. Upon the return from Babylon the building of the Temple and City met with great opposition and obstructions from the envy and malice of the adversaries of Judah But now there will be no Rehums or Sanballats to obstruct their proceedings the work will be vigorously carried on by the united forces and joint endeavours of Jews and Gentiles This assistance of the Gentiles Isaiah speaks of Chap. 60. 10 11. The Sons of strangers shall build up thy Walls and their Kings shall minister unto thee for in my wrath I smote thee but in my favour have I had mercy on thee Therefore thy Gates shall be open continually they shall not be shut day nor night that Men may bring unto thee the forces or wealth of the Gentiles And again Chap. 61. 4 5 6. They shall build the old wastes they shall raise up the former desolations and they shall repair the waste Cities the desolations of many generations And strangers shall stand and feed your Flocks and the Sons of the Alien shall be your Plowmen and your Vine-dressers But ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord Men shall call you the Ministers of our God ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles and in their Glory shall you boast your selves But their greatest Glory will be the profession and establishment of true Christian Religion among them with the knowledge whereof God will wonderfully inlighten their minds for a Pattern to all the Gentile Nations professing Christianity who shall now conform to the Standard of the Jewish Church And this I take to be the meaning of the Nations walking in the light of the New Jerusalem and to be the full accomplishment of these words in Isaiah the Gentiles shall come to thy light and Kings to the brightness of thy rising Chap. 60. 3. CHAP. V. Of Gog and Magog 's attempt against the Camp of the Saints THE Jews being replanted in the promised land shall enjoy an uninterrupted course of prosperity for several ages But when the Thousand years of Satans confinement are expired he shall be loosed out of his Prison And shall go out to deceive the Nations which are in the four Quarters of the Earth Gog and Magog to gather them together to battel the number of whom is as the Sand of the Sea Rev 20. 7 8. At whose instigation They went up saith St. John on the breadth of the Earth and compassed the Camp of the Saints about and the beloved City But this attempt ended in the total overthrow and destruction of that numerous Army For fire came down from God out of Heaven and devoured them vers 9. A terrible Expedition this and no less astonishing than the issue And that which encreases the Wonder is the common opinion concerning the Amplitude of Christs Kingdom which long ere this may be presumed to be arrived at its full extent For if all the Nations under Heaven have of a long time received and professed the faith of Christ as this opinion supposes 't is very strange that such a prodigious number of Christians from the four Quarters of the Earth should all on a sudden conspire to invade Judea and to destroy the Jews professing the same Religion and whom their late reestablishment proclaims to be in a more peculiar manner the favourites of Heaven The present limits of the Church no doubt will be greatly enlarged by the accession of many Nations now sitting in darkness and the shadow of Death And this enlargement whatever encrease it may receive in the mean time of which there is little prospect may reasonably be expected at the time of the Jews Conversion from which no less then from their Infidelity the Gentile world will receive great advantages If the fall of them be the riches of the World and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles how much more their fulness Rom. 11. 12. That is upon the coming in of the body of the Jewish Nation to the Church of Christ the Gospel will be farther propagated among the Gentiles which is all that can be concluded from that Text. 'T is true there are several places of Scripture which seem to extend the Kingdom of Christ over all Nations of the Earth and to foretell the reception of the Gospel by all People in all places of the World Thus it is foretold of Christ that there should be given him Dominion and Glory and a Kingdom that all People Nations and Languages should serve him and that all Dominions should serve and obey him Dan. 7. 14 27. And thus of the stone cut out without Hands by which all agree is meant the Kingdom of Christ it is said that it became a great mountain and filled the whole Earth Dan. 2. 34 35. But these and the like Prophecies signifie no more than the vast extent and largeness of the Christian Church in opposition to the straitness of the Church of the Jews which was confined within the narrow limits of a small Countrey That these notes of Universality All Whole are to be interpreted in a limited and restrained sense is evident from other Prophecies in this Book of Daniel concerning the extent of the Grecian and Roman Empires For thus it is foretold of the third Kingdom that it should bear Rule over all the Earth Chap. 2. 39. And of the fourth Kingdom that it should devour the whole Earth Dan. 7. 23. And yet neither the Greeks nor Romans could pretend to an universal Conquest of the whole World There were several Nations never visited by the Roman Eagle and where the Name of Alexander was never heard of although 't is said he was so vain as to weep for want of more Worlds to conquer And thus a great part of the World will never be actually subject to Christ nor under the government of his laws For as the Greeks and Romans bearing Rule over and devouring all the Earth signifies no more than the greatness of their Conquests and the largeness of their Dominions So by the obedience of all Nations to Christ and his Kingdoms filling the whole Earth can be meant no more than the worship and acknowledgment of Christ by the greater part of the World And it is observable that Isaiah Prophesying of the establishment of the Mountain of the Lords House on the top of the Mountains and the exaltation of it above the Hills and the Confluence of all Nations unto it Chap. 2. 2. In the next verse the universal is changed into a particular proposition And many People shall go and say Come ye and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord to
wise ends God is pleased to indulge him Now he is permitted to go to and fro in the Earth and to walk up and down in it Job 1. 7. to practise his Infernal devices and arts of deceit But then he shall be confined to the aery Regions his proper Territories or his walk on the Earth shall be limited to a narrower compass viz the nations not converted to the Faith of Christ 'T is said ver 7. 8. that the Devil being loosed out of Prison goes to deceive the nations in the four quarters of the Earth and to gather them together to Battel which seems to imply that the Heathen nations during the term of his confinement shall not be exposed to his deceitful practices Which if true promises to the Pagan World a great freedom from the miseries and calamities of war But whatever liberty the Devil may have in other parts he shall be wholly excluded the Nations walking in the light of the new Jerusalem To which exclusion will be consequent a great encrease of of Peace Truth and Piety in the kingdom of Christ 1. As for wars and publick quarrels Satan without question hath a principal Hand in them The great battel at Armageddon is undertaken at the instigation of unclean Spirits which go forth unto the Kings of the Earth to gather them to the battel of the great day of God Almighty Rev. 16. 14. And no sooner is the Devil let loose but we find him at his old Employment gathering the Nations to battel against the Saints ch 20. 7 8. Hence without contradicting St. James come Wars and Fightings Quarrels and Dissensions For even the lusts and passions of Men to which the Apostle intitles them are excited and enraged by the Devil the professed enemy to Peace and Unity Peace as is observed by a learned Man is the peculiar character of Man as he is distinguished from Brutes And the great design of the Gospel is to promote this disposition and to inspire the World with a Spirit of universal love and Charity When therefore the Devil shall be under close restraint and Men left to the Bent of their own inclinations and the Conduct of Religion there will doubtless be greater Friendship Concord in the World both among particular Persons and public Societies And such a peaceable State the Prophets foretell as the peculiar happiness of the Kingdom of Christ For thus it was prophesied by Isaiah that under his government Men shall beat their Swords into plow-shares and their Spears into Pruning-hooks that Nation shall not lift up Sword against Nation neither shall they learn War any more Isa 2. 4. And we meet with the same Prophecy in Micah with this addition They shall sit every Man under his Vine and under his Fig-tree and none shall make them afraid Chap. 4. 3 4. Hitherto hath been a perfect Reverse of all this Men have beat their Plowshares in Swords and their pruning Hooks into Spears The Art of War was never more studied And very frequent interruptions have been given to Mens security by rumors of Wars and hostile Invasions which hath furnished the Jews with a very plausible Objection against the truth of our Blessed Saviours pretences But these glorious Prophecies concern the Reign of Christ under the Millennial state and shall then have their accomplishment When Satan that grand Incendiary whose business and delight it is to disturb the peace of mankind shall be Chained up then the Peace of God that Divine grace of peaceableness to which we are called by the preaching of the Gospel shall more universally bear Rule in the Hearts of Men and tune the World to a blessed Harmony This peace in the state will be attended with peace in the Church which shall enjoy a happy Calm free on the one hand from the violences of Persecution and on the other from the disturbances of false Teachers The Names of Persecutors are distinguished in story by peculiar Marks and Characters of Infamy But the grand Persecutor the Devil is not so commonly taken notice of 'T is certain from Scripture that he is concerned as Principal in all the Persecutions that have been raised against the Church of Christ Thus the Christians of the Church of Smyrna who suffered Imprisonment in the cause of Religion are said to be cast into Prison by the Devil Rev. 2. 20. And ch 12. 4. We find the red Dragon waiting the delivery of the Starry-crowned Woman with an intention to devour her Child that is the Devil instigating the Heathen Emperors to extinguish and destroy the Apostolic Church and to suppress Christianity at its First appearance And when the Woman fled into the Wilderness the Dragon pursues her and by the assistance of the Beast with seven Heads and Ten Horns to whom he committed his Power and authority makes War with the remnant of her seed that refused to receive the Mark of the Beast viz the sincere professors of the Gospel The inhuman Cruelties exercised by these Persecutors whether Heathen or Christian or rather Antichristian shew whose Agents they were and by what Spirit they were acted 'T was the red Dragon that inspired them with such Bloody and barbarous minds and prompted them to those outrages and violences so contrary to that kindness and compassion which is one of the prime and essential inclinations of Mankind And therefore when this cruel Fiend who thus depraves the mild Tempers of Men and inflames their minds to such cruelty and fierceness shall be confined to the bottomless pit and human nature left to the conduct of its own inclinations cultivatad and improved with the mild and merciful principles of Christian Religion the Church shall no longer be assaulted with storms of Persecution but be Blessed with a most profound tranquility And What thus with great reason is infer'd from the premises may with greater certainty be deduced from the predictions of the Prophets For this state of Freedom from Sufferings Isaiah Prophesies of ch 25. 8. He will swallow up Death in Victory and the Lord God will wipe away Tears from off all Faces With which agrees St. Johns description of the state of the new Jerusalem Rev. 21. 4. God shall wipe away all Tears from their Eyes and there shall be no more Death neither Sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away Which does not Signifie that Men shall be immortal and no longer obnoxious to Sicknesses and bodily Pains but only that the Church shall enjoy a happy security from the calamities and sufferings of former times Secondly The Peace of the Church is not a little disturbed by the intemperate Zeal of false Teachers By whom these Seducers that divide the Church into Sects and Parties are sent out and employed we learn from our Saviours explication of the Parable of the Tares Matt 13. 37 38 39. He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man The field is the World the good
the Elders rejoyce for the approaching solemnity of the Lambs Marriage Rev 19. 7. Let us be glad and rejoyce for the Marriage of the Lamb is come and his Wife hath made her self ready Now the fall of Babylon and destruction of the seven-headed Beast or Roman Empire is the very point of time prefixt for the Conversion and Restauration of the Jewish Nation That their blindness and infidelity shall then be removed we learn from St. Paul Rom. 11. 25. I would not that ye should be ignorant of this Mystery that blindness in part is happen'd to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in And so all Israel shall be saved This coming in of the fulness of the Gentiles is of the same Import and Significancy with the fulfilling the times of the Gentiles which puts an end to the Miseries and dispersions of the Jews Luk. 21. 24. And they shall fall by the Edge of the Sword and shall be lead away captive into all Nations and Jerusalem shall be troden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled The times of the Gentiles are the times of the four Monarchies wherein the Gentiles have dominion And when the time of the fourth and last monarchy is expired and accomplished the Jews will every where embrace the Christian Religion and be restored to their ancient Countrey from which they have so long been banished Now if the Restitution of the Jewish Nation and the Marriage of the Lamb are co-incident and happen at the same time what can we imagine the New Jerusalem the Bride the Lambs Wife to be but the Jews once Gods peculiar people to whom after so long a divorce he will be graciously reconciled and receive them again into favour The greatness of the happiness they will enjoy in their native Land is here represented by a most splendid and magnificent City whose foundations are garnished with all manner of precious stones vers 19. Which had no need of the Sun or Moon to shine upon it being inlightned by the Glory of God ver 23. By a Chrystal River of Water of life proceeding from the Throne of God and of the Lamb. Chap. 22. 1. And lastly by the Tree of life bearing twelve manner of Fruits yielding her Fruit every Month vers 2. All which is nothing but a Rhetorical description of the flourishing state of the Jews after their return from Captivity Which kind of descriptions were familiar to the Jews and very frequently occurr in Prophetic writings see Isa 54. 11 12. 60. 19. Tob. 13. 16 17. 11. By the descending of the New Jerusalem from God out of Heaven I understand the Restitution of the Jews by the immediate Power of God That Jesus is the Christ is demonstratively evident from their own Books the Writings of the old Testament And yet in defiance of the most solid reasoning and discourse they have obstinately persisted in their unbelief near seventeen hundred years So that their Infidelity seems incurable by any human Methods of Conviction But that which to Men is impossible is possible to God who by the Power of his grace can reduce the most perverse and incorrigible Sinners How wonderfully and Suddenly was St. Paul converted who of a bitter and virulent Persecutor of Christians became a most active and zealous Preacher of the Gospel Whether the Conversion of the Jews shall be wrought after the same manner viz by a vision and voice from Heaven I cannot tell But whatever may be the external and visible means the Spirit of God will be the Principal Agent in this business Who by the internal Illumination of their minds with the light of Heavenly truth will Scatter the clouds and mists of prejudice and convince them of their Error and wickedness in rejecting the Holy Jesus This their repentance Isaiah speaks of Chap. 59. 20. Which is much clearer from St. Paul's application of this Prophecy Rom 11. 26 27. There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my Covenant with them when I shall take away their Sins With this agrees that of Zechary In that day I will pour upon the house of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of Grace and Supplication and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall Mourn for him as one mourneth for his only Son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first born Chap. 12. 10. And the same Divine Power that worketh this inward change in the Jews will incline the Hearts of the several Princes in whose Countries they are dispersed to give them liberty of returning to the land of Canaan and to furnish them with all things needful Surely the Isles shall wait for me and the ships of Tarshish first to bring thy Sons from far their Silver and their Gold with them Isa 60. 9. Some are of Opinion that their Captivity shall be perpetual But besides that the above-mentioned text Luke 21. 24. Which speaks of the dispersion of the Jews and the desolation of Jerusalem Until the times of the Gentiles be fulfill'd implies the contrary There are several Prophecies that foretell their return Particularly that of Amos Chap. 9. 14 15. And I will bring again the Captivity of my People Israel and they shall build the waste Cities and inhabit them and they shall plant vineyards and drink the Wine thereof they shall also make gardens and eat the Fruit of them And I will plant them upon their own land and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them saith the Lord. The perpetuity of the Settlement here spoken of shews that it is to come and cannot belong to their reestablishment after the return from Babylon which was not of much above five hundred years continuance But no where is the present Captivity and future return of the Jews so clearly Prophesied of as in the Book of Tobit Chap. 14. 4 5. Our Brethren shall lie scattered in the Earth from that good land and Jerusalem shall be desolate and the House of God in it shall be burned and shall be desolate for a time And again God will have mercy on them and bring them again into the land where they shall build a Temple but not like to the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till the sensons of the age be fulfilled which signifies the continuance of the second Temple till the dissolution of the Jewish Polity And again they shall go into a long and great Captivity viz. the present which words are wanting in the Greek and English Versions but are in the Hebrew Copy set out by Paulus Fagius and afterward they shall return from all places of their Captivity and build up Jerusalem gloriously and the House of God shall be built in it for ever with a glorious building as the Prophets have spoken thereof III. The same of the Jews return