Days increasing and prevailed upon the Earth one hundred and fifty Days before they began to abate but were not dried up till twelve Months were compleated c. Again whereas you say That Work of Christ's Personal Coming shall be done at the Sounding of a Trumpet c. What then the Question may be how long the Trumpet shall sound Surely you will not upon second Thoughts say no longer than the Twinkling of an Eye for that 's no Sounding at all But again Where find you that any thing save the Coming of Christ and the Resurrection Change and Ascension of Saints shall be at the Sound of a Trumpet and yet surely you will conclude there 's something more to be done when Christ comes Again You say the Work that Christ shall do at his Personal Coming will be done in the Twinkling of an Eye But pray what Work else besides the Change of Saints I find no other nor any body else for me The Text that speaks of this for there is no other that I can find viz. of something done then in the Twinkling of any Eye is 1 Cor. 15.51 52. which speaks so plain of the Change of Saints only to be in the Twinkling of an Eye that unless the Reader 's Eyes twinkle and that greatly too when he beholds the Text he cannot lightly be mistaken You also tell us The Execution upon the Enemies will be sudden and speedy like Lightning at the Personal Coming of Christ But how you came to know this I much question Mat. 24.27 Luke 17.24 since I find no Text in holy Writ reveals it True it is the Coming of our Lord is compared to Lightning but then it ought to be observed 't is not in respect of the Swiftness of it but in respect of the Visibleness of it But again admit it had what 's this to the Question which is concerning the Destruction of the Enemies Again You further add As a Snare c. I grant it But what 's this to the Question for Ensnaring and Destroying are two things Do you not know many Creatures are taken or ensnared suddenly but not destroyed so quickly Thus you may see how you deceive your self and others in such an ambiguous Manner Arg. 5 Neither can Christ's Personal Appearing be at this time because then it must be supposed that Christ being in the Camp of the Saints and beloved City shall suffer Himself and all the glorious Angels and glorified Saints to be besieged and straitned by the Gog. Magog Army Therefore must this be done by his virtual Presence Power and Spirit though spoken as if he did it in Person and these great Conquests effected c. Answer O God! What is it that Men will not stretch at to maintain their own Fancies In your Book you give us an Instance of Maton which you commend viz. Whatsoever Text of Scripture is expounded any other ways than God meant by it it is according to its Interpretation the Word of Man and not of God and consequently in adhering to such Interpretations we believe not what God saith but what Man doth make him say How much you have fulfilled this Man's Sentence in Expounding this Scripture contrary to what God meant by it let all judg and let your Tongue or Pen condemn you for pray read the Text and see whether there be any such thing in it or at all like unto it The Text is Rev. 20.7 8 9 10. And when the thousand Years are expired Satan 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 And they went up on the Breadth of the Earth and compassed the Camp of the Saints about and the beloved City and Fire came down from God out of Heaven and devoured them And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone where the Beast and the false Prophet are and shall be tormented Day and Night for ever and ever Now I will appeal to any judicious and unbiassed Man whether here be any Suffering and Straitning in this Man's Sense to Christ or his Angels and Saints You may as well say Christ now suffers in Heaven and yet this must pass for an Argument Thus I have done with the five first Arguments which you have laid down to prove That Christ comes not in Person at the beginning of the thousand Years Reign and therefore there must be as you conclude a thousand Years reigning before his Personal Coming Let the Arguments and Answers be compared and then judg In the next place I shall consider your eleven Arguments of the second sort upon the latter part of the 4th Verse of the 20th Chapter of the Revelation i. e. these words And I saw the Souls of them that were beheaded for the Witness of Jesus and for the Word of God and which had not worshipped the Beast neither his Image neither had received his Mark upon their Foreheads or in their Hands and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand Years Upon which words say you all this Opinion or Discourse of yours is grounded See your large Sheet When you have told us the great Difference of Writers and Commentators hereon some judging it to be a Corporal Resurrection others a Spiritual viz. A renewing and reviving of the Soul the Effects of Christ's Spirit upon the Hearts of Bevers c. p. 47. Then you tell us That it is humbly conceived the Mind of the Spirit is here a Mystical Resurrection or Civil Life that they are said to live as most consonant to Truth as you say sound Reason and the Scope of the Place they lived And as you more largely speak p. 61 62. This Life is a reigning State both of the one and the other and the contrary viz. Death a dethroned scattered imprisoned and captivated State The Dead that lived not Where you shew us by the direct Antithesis That this Life and Death of the one and the other is the same viz. That the Saints now are dead the other now alive the Saints shall then live and the Wicked then be dead viz. in the thousand Years After the thousand Years the Wicked shall live again and the Saints then die again according to the former Distinction For say you They must take their turns as the one goes up viz. to the Throne the other goes down They viz. the Wicked are not to live again till the thousand Years be finished implying say you That when the Dragon is loosed there will then be a Military Power and Jurisdiction at least that they viz. the Wicked may live too Again in opposition unto Christ and the Saints in their encompassing the Camp of the Saints and beloved City which their viz. of the Wicked said raised State makes good You tell us further That Living and Dying
is variously taken sometimes literally for the natural Spirit or eternal Life and Death sometimes figuratively for a civil or mystical Life and Death For the latter you give us several Scriptures which I have seriously considered and find that many of them speak not of any Life or Death at all several more speak of the natural Death and the Resurrection therefrom But now admitting this that there is such a thing as a civil Life spoke of in these or some of them the Question then is Whether this be intended in your Text Rev. 20.4 which is now the Matter we are upon And for a leading Card you present us p. 51. with the Assemblies Annotations upon this place which we shall not much regard seeing their Interpretations especially upon this Book of the Revelation are so like some others viz. It 's this or that or the other and sometimes fix upon nothing and also as inconsistent and contradictory to themselves as they are to the Truth as any one may see that reads them After which rate any Man may interpret Scripture all day long â—â—e the Asâ—â—mblies Anâ—t on Rev. â—0 4 5 6. And in this very place you may see they tell us also That this first Resurrection is a Rising from the Death of Sin to the Life of Grace And no marvel that poor deluded Sect of Quakers have got this by the end viz. to call the rising out of the Death of Sin to the Life of Grace the first Resurrection and Pythagoras's Transmigration of the Soul the second Resurrection since our grave Annotators have thus led the Van as the Papists did in this thing before them â—ee Rhemish â—est Annot. â— Rev. 20. 〈◊〉 Therefore as we are not to mind them in the one we shall as little regard them in the other and so pass on to your Position p. 51. which is as followeth Position And that the Corporal Resurrection of the Saints cannot be understood in this place further appears Arg. 1 Because the Text in the Letter of it speaks not of their Bodies but Souls and of the Souls only of them that were beheaded as Rev. 6.9 Now it is no-where said that Souls in a proper Sense revive and are raised because they never die being immortal and so not capable of a Resurrection necessitating therefore another Sense Answer Although you tell us that your Position further appears viz. by your Arguments than it did by the Assemblies Annotations yet I must tell you 't is yet alike and no better demonstrated and I cannot but wonder that so skilful a Man in Figures should no better discern the Text nor what makes for or against himself For if this Argument hit your Antagonist will it not as quickly return against your self It will seem to do your Assembly of Annotators some Service for their Spiritual Resurrection viz. the Renewing of the Souls or their Notion of the Soul 's Living and Reigning with him in Heaven but it makes against your self unless you intend by your Civil Life that the Saints shall reign a thousand Years without their Bodies and then it would follow the Wicked reign now without their Bodies also This might suffice for an Answer but that I may not leave any in the dark and therefore pray remember that by a Figure called Metonymy viz. one thing is put for another that hath some relation to it so we find the Soul is put for the Body in several places of Scripture as Psal 16.10 Acts 2.27 and so also by a Figure called Synechdoche Gen. 46.2 Acts 2.4 Chap. 7. 1. viz. a part put for the whole is frequently found in this very case in Scripture and the one of these must needs be here intended and very probable the latter The Apostle chooses to express their Souls now because he had seen their Souls in the separated State Chap. 6. 9 10 11. crying out and wishing for such a time as this and therefore here to shew the Alteration saith thus I saw the Souls c. which is as much as if he had said I saw those Souls that before were without their Bodies under the Altar with their fellow Slain Servants and in that State said to be dead united to their Bodies and live again and reign with Christ And that this must needs be the Sense and no other consider First They were really dead expressed by this word Beheaded and now said to live again for so it is by the Antithesis The rest lived not again Secondly This is expressed after the same manner as our Lord expresses his living again Chap. 1.18 I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore which is a Living again Thirdly What is more usual in Scripture than this both in respect of natural and eternal Death to speak after this manner So many Souls were slain or died the Soul that sinneth shall die and so of Life Fourthly It 's obvious to all from these words See Chap. 6. 11. Chap. 11. 〈◊〉 Chap. 12. 11. Chap. 13. 15. The rest of the dead that the lump or general is That many are dead both Saints and Wicked among which you have an Account before in this Book that many Saints are killed immediately before and of the great Slaughter of the Wicked at several times and divers ways as in this Book at large may be seen and at last that wonderful Slaughter Chap. 19. to which this is joined as appears by this word And in the first Verse of this 20th Chapter And now of this dead Lump whereof many of the Saints are said to be beheaded immediately before some are said to live again But the rest of the Dead viz. the Wicked whereof many were as aforesaid but immediatly slain lived not again till the thousand Years were expired Thus it 's evident that both Saints and Wicked were all dead before viz. a natural or corporal Death the one are raised the other not but lie in their Graves till after the thousand Years Fifthly Consider the Antithesis which you have already granted viz. that Life and Death are the same in both Parties Mark that And if the Wicked shall never live the Civil Life as you have defined it after the thousand Years then it must be meant a Corporal Life But the Wicked shall not live such a Mystical or Civil Life viz. Reigning Ergo It must needs be a Corporal Life here intended The Consequence of the Major is clear the Minor is proved thus If the Wicked shall live again such a Life viz. Civil as before defined after the thousand Years Then the Holy Scripture doth some where or other testify of it But the Holy Scripture doth no where testify of any such thing Ergo They shall not All that you bring to prove it is but Rev. 20.8 9. which proves no such thing for there 's no Reigning mentioned nay so far from Reigning that it 's only attempted to overcome whereby they might
reign but far off from being accomplished They do not so much as hurt or straiten any as you boldly though without ground affirmed but are quickly destroyed And it 's well known such Attempts may be made in a Nation as late Experience hath shewn and yet the Attempters never come to reign which is the Life you speak of viz. Reigning As for the other Branch in this Argument of yours viz. And of Souls only that were beheaded it is your next or second Argument and therefore I shall not at present take notice of it Arg. 2 Because if we are to understand a bodily Resurrection of the Saints Martyrs only being here mentioned and beheaded Martyrs too taking in no other Saints and only such too that suffered under Antichrist then will Christ have but a small Kingdom And then only such Martyrs partaking of the first Resurrection are to share of Happiness and Freedom from the second Death excluding all but such both from Happiness and Exemption from such a Curse contrary to the Analogy of Faith and the whole Current of Scripture For what by such Doctrine will become of all the Saints from Abel to this time that were not Martyrs under Antichrist Answer What a wonderful Stir is here made of just nothing as if this was altogether contrary to the Analogy of Faith and the whole Current of Scripture when in truth 't is not at all For first Pray consider Will not this like your former Argument make as much against your self May we not ask the Question What will become of all the rest of the Saints that shall not be beheaded and yet shall be found alive when the Kingdom is set up Must they have no share with the rest Certainly this is contrary to the Analogy of Faith and the whole Current of Scripture c. Sir Could you be ignorant of the Fallacy of this Argument when you made it Did you not know that by a Synechdoche a Part might be put for the Whole in this Case also viz. Beheading for all Afflictions Is it not common in Scripture so to do Is it not said Matth. 10.38 Luke 14.27 Whosoever doth not take up and bear his Cross cannot be my Disciple and is not worthy of me Now tell me do all Christ's Disciples take up a Cross 'T is evident the Cross is here put for all Afflictions Again Is not the Reproach of Christ put for all Afflictions Heb. 11.26 And is it not said of all the Faithful Rom. 8.3 that they are killed all the day long accounted as Sheep for the Slaughter But what need I spend time thus but for the sake of others for pray read your 58th 59th and 60th Pages and see whether you have not said the same in effect in your answering an Objection which is as follows Object But why must the Church be included under these Terms or Characters Of Souls beheaded that would not worship the Beast Answer Your Answer is Because it may more emphatically and significantly hold forth the State they are raised from and raised to c. Thus you grant the whole Church then is included under these Terms and also the Reason of it Then you further tell us The divers Afflictions they suffered were represented by the various Characters the Church is set forth in this Book as may be seen at large in those Pages Therefore look into your own Glass and behold the Folly of this Argument If the Apostle judged that Man to be happy that condemns not himself in that thing which he alloweth â—â—m 14.22 what think you of that Man that condemns others in that thing which he alloweth himself But before I pass this Argument I will open another Glass whereby you and all others may more clearly see the Vanity of this Argument Whereas you question since Martyrs only being here mentioned and beheaded Martyrs too and only such too that suffered under Antichrist taking in no other Saints what will become of all the Saints from Abel to this time that were not Martyrs under Antichrist concluding hereupon that Christ will have but a small Kingdom viz. none but Martyrs and such Martyrs too and worse still and that all the rest are hereby excluded from Happiness and Exemption from such a Curse viz. the second Death Affirming more expresly in your 8th Argument upon this Doctrine of the Corporal Resurrection in this Text that Martyrs only shall be happy and all the rest viz. Saints shall be raised to the second Death Now to remove this Absurdity which you have thus drawn upon this Doctrine you so much oppose viz. of the Corporal Resurrection in this Text I will shew you that there shall be more than these Martyrs share in this Happiness i.e. of reigning with Christ this thousand Years First Negatively Let it be well observed the Text doth not say That all Persons which have not a Part in this first Resurrection shall be hurt of the second Death neither doth any Text in the whole Book of God affirm such a thing All that this Text saith is this That the rest of the Dead lived not again until the thousand Years were fulfilled and that those are blessed which have a part in the first Resurrection Nor can there be any good Reason shewed for such an Inference though you boldly affirm there may as I shall more fully shew anon when I come to answer what you say in your ninth Argument But Secondly Affirmatively Take a full view of the Text once more and I doubt not but you may see unless your Eyes be closed that there 's more than only Martyrs viz. such Martyrs c. shall have a part in the first Resurrection and reign with Christ this thousand Years and that you may the better see it I will read the Text for you Rev. 20.4 6. And I John saw Thrones and they sat upon them and Judgment was given unto them And I saw the Souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus c. And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand Years Blessed and Holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection c. Now taking it for granted that you have fully viewed and well observed this Text I ask these few Questions Quest First Did John at this time see any more save Martyrs rise from the dead sitting upon Thrones judging and reigning with Christ You answer upon this Doctrine Answer St. John saw no more but Martyrs risen from the dead sitting upon Thrones judging and reigning with Christ Quest 2 Who then are those which St. John tells us first He saw sitting upon Thrones and to whom Judgment was given I presume upon serious Thoughts you will not say these were the Martyrs for the Martyrs are distinguished from them by these words And I saw The common Phrase used for Distinction in this Book Quest 3 Who then Was it the Father and the Son If you say it was as I think you will not then