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
be no more then an Exposition of the former which we have once already shew'd to be false and were it not to expound Notum per ignotius to make the Comment more obscure then the Text to say that by the building of the Tabernacle of David James meant the visiting of the Gentiles before spoken of Thus then whatsoever talke you make of the present conversion and union of the Jewes with the Church of the Gentiles yet when you come to apply the Scriptures you debarre them of all interest in those Prophecies or that part of a Prophecy which concernes them alone so much doe you favour their conversion or esteeme their company But as you hold the words in the 14. vers to have reference to Simeons Prophecy so you must remember that Simeon saith of Christ that he should be a light to lighten the Gentles before he saith of him that he should be the glory of his people Israel and what doth this imply but that a substituted part of the Gentiles were to become the Church of Christ before the Nation of the Jewes should receive the Gospel for being indued with the spirit of Prophecy he could not speake at randome and therefore the very order of these words is observeable with which Saint James his changing of the first words of the Prophecy In that day into After this doth very well agree which might else as well if not better have beene alledg'd according to the Prophets expression had this Prophecy beene no more but a larger explanation and further confirmation of the Gentiles calling And if you looke into the latter part of Amos Prophecy recorded by St. James you may see that at the building againe of Davids Tabernacle there is not onely mention of the residue of men that should then seeke after God but of the Gentiles too upon whom God's Name is call'd before that for why else should they be thus distinguished from other Gentiles that are then to seeke the Lord as well as they And what will follow from hence upon your expounding the building of the Tabernacle of David of the first calling of the Gentiles certainely this will follow that the first calling of the Gentiles was not the first calling of the Gentiles seeing the people upon whom God's name all is call'd is alwayes meant of a people that doth worship the true God And consequently from the words after this I will return wil build again the Tabernacle of David inferr'd upon the foresaid visiting of the Gentiles in the 14. ver and from the words that the residueof men might seeke after the Lord and all the Gentiles upon whom my Name is call'd referr'd to the time when it is againe to be built it must needs follow that here is an expresse mention as well of the Nationall conversion of the Jewes after the visiting of the Gentiles as of the calling of a substituted part of the Gentiles before such a conversion of the Jewes for as the Tabernacle of David cannot possibly signifie the Nations of the Gentiles so the building againe of it cannot be meant of God's receiving those Nations for his people which were never before his people And thus this Prophecy of Amos shewes not the calling of the Jewes onely nor the calling of the Gentiles onely but the order of both for which purpose it was alledged by the Apostle to wit to shew that a substituted part of the Gentiles should be called before the generall conversion of the Jewes and that all Gentiles whatsoever that were then left both of the call'd and uncall'd should make one Church with the Jewes when the Tabernacle of David was againe built that is upon the conversion deliverance and setling of the Jewes in their own land according as the foresaid Prophecies doe declare And whereas you seeme to deny that this Prophecy was taken out of Amos onely because the Apostle speakes not onely of Amos but saith generally to this agree the words of the Prophets you shew great weakenesse in it for besides that it is an usuall manner of speaking to put the plurall number for the singular and the singular for the plurall he might very well say to this agree the words of the Prophets because other Prophets also foretell the same thing although he brought an instance onely out of one of them for I am sure that this prophecy is wholly in Amos with a little difference from this translation according to the originall but none according to the Septuagint as Doctor Mayer affirmeth And why doe you say before Lames alledgeth the prophecy of Amos if you did not thinke it to be the prophecy of Amos and if you knew that but a part of it was his why did you not shew what words were spoken by him and what words by some other Prophets But you could not for to this agree the words of the Prophets is indeede as if he had said to this agree the words of Amos in the booke of the Prophets For the minor or lesser Prophets were all in one volume called the booke of the Prophets and therefore when a testimony is brought out of any of them it is most commonly alledged as from the whole booke and not from that prophecy where they are written in the booke And thus you may read As it is written in the booke of the Prophets Acts 7.42 instead of as it is written by Amos in the booke of the Prophets And Acts 13.40 which is spoken of in the Prophets that is by Habbakkuk in the booke of the Prophets And in all this I hope I have fully answered this great doubt the mentioning whereof doth either shew your little infight in Divinity if you were not able to satisfie your selfe therein or your great delight to wrangle if you knew the answer to it 3. You deny that the Apostle Paul alledgeth the prophecy of Isaiah to shew the generall conversion of the Jewes after the conversion of the substituted Gentiles for he saith not you say and then all Israel shall be saved but and so all Israel shall be saved But though he saith not and then yet Paraeus tels you that this and more then this is understood for he saith there is an Ellipsis of the antecedent a defect or leaving out of something that should have been spoken before So that the full rehearsing of the Apostles minde herein had been thus For I would not brethren that you should be ignorant of this mystery that blindenesse is in part happened to Israel Vntill the fulnesse of the Gentiles shall come in and then when the fulnesse of the Gentiles shall come in the blindnesse shall cease and so all Israel shall be saved And doubtlesse this is the true meaning of what the Apostle hath more briefely uttered And yet we doe not grant that the Apostle shewes no order and difference in time because he saith not and then but and so For the distance of time betwixt Israel's casting off and
first promises the same meaning that he hath in these last then shew us how wee shall know when God doth make a temporall promise and when not if the former promises be not to be understood of outward and temporall blessings as well as the last of inward and spirituall blessings for sure it is not the manner of the Holy Ghost to obscure what is plainely delivered but to explaine what is obscurely reveal'd But in the 18. and 22. verses of the 33. chap. of Jer. the perpetuity of sacrifices and Levites you say is promised as plainly as the Throne of David whereupon you demand shall in the last dayes the meat offerings and burnt offerings and the house of Levi be restor'd c This is indeed your palmarium argumentum your maine â—ort your principall Argunent by which doubtlesse you suppose that you have stopt our mouthes for ever and given the Millenarian Tenet a mortall blow an irrecoverable wound But what thinke you If Adam had not fell and so sinne had not entred into the world should there not have been eating and drinking buying and selling Judgement and Justice marrying and giving in marriage you will not deny it and might there not also have been offerings and sacrifices made unto God as of incense in token of Gods hearing and being delighted with their prayers and of the best of their fruits and of their cattell in token of mens praising of and thanksgiving unto God for the increase of them doubtlesse there might And what hinders then that in the Kingdome of the second Adam there should not be such sacrifices offered also For as it is not the use but the abuse of the foresaid actions that makes a Kingdome to be accounted more or lesse carnall and voluptuous so neither is it the offering of a materiall sacrifice when requir'd and as requir'd but the superstitious invention of man that makes the worship of God a carnall and sinfull worship and the carelesse and cold performance of a prescribed worship that makes men carnall and sinfull worshippers But you will say are not then sacrifices crifices abolished by the death of Christ hath not the substance swallowed up the shadowes true they are ceast in regard of that end to which they were formerly us'd they can no longer shew that Christ shall come to suffer againe and therefore the place where alone they could be offer'd and the people by whom alone they could be offer'd are both forsaken the Temple is destroy'd and the people scatter'd but seeing the Prophets have frequently declar'd that at our Saviours appearing the City and Temple shall be rebuilt and the people and Priesthood restor'd why should wee not thinke that as sacrifices of prayse and thanksgiving may againe be required so other sacrifices may also but how surely not as in time past to shew what Christ should doe for sinners but to witnesse to the generations then to come what he hath done for sinners or perhaps to be a testimony of the publick acknowledgement of and repentance for sinne For whereas it is said Heb. 10. at the 18 vers Now where remission of sinnes is there is no more offering for sinne it is to be understood in relation to Christs satisfaction for sinne who by one offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified and shall appeare againe the second time unto them that looke for him without sinne unto salvation that is without sinne any more to be imputed unto him whereby he should be constrained to lay downe his life againe for sinners so that it is as if the Apostle had said where remission of sinne is already procured through the death of the Mediator there is no more offering for sinne by way of satisfaction or as representing any satisfaction againe to be made but yet there may be offering for sinne by way of signification and manifestation of an atonement formerly made or at least of publike confession of and repentance for sinne And why then should the restoring of this thing amongst the rest give distaste to any and upon a groundlesse mistake of being restored at types of a Mediator to suffer for sinne which were to offer them according to the Law become an occasion of rejecting so many other things yet to be fulfilled as namely the calling and restoring of the Jewes the rebuilding of their City and Temple the making of their Land more fruitfull then ever the descending of Christ to deliver them from their enemies and to reigne over them and the comming in of all Nations to worship God with them all which are so plainely and so often foretold that for my owne part could I give my selfe much lesse another no satisfaction in this particular about sacrifices onely I should yet thinke it should be done because God hath said it though I knew not to what end and purpose rather then thinke that the things before mentioned should not be properly fulfilled which as they are frequently foretold and that as well distinctly and by themselves as together with this so also they are so clearely foretold that it is not possible any thing should be more plainely spoken And thus I have given my Judgement in this matter which I submit to the whole Church of God hoping not to be censured for that which the importunity of an adversary hath put me to who presuming that the Prophecies touching the restoring of sacrifices are altogether uncapable of a proper Interpretation doth because they are conjoyned and mixed with the others after the same straine as he saith hereupon take occasion to wrest all other Prophecies to a mysticall meaning The marginall note page 30. The words in the 15. chapter of the Acts at the 14. ver upon which the prophecy of Amos is inferred are taken by Dr Mayer to be meant of the song of old Simeon and not of the former speech of Simon Peter Mr Petrie's Answer Is there not a difference twixt Simeon and Simon James nameth Simeon and not Simon wherefore not without reason it may be thought that he meant old Simeon especially seeing Luke is the writer of both bookes and if the words of Simeon doe hereunto agree more then the words of Peter who should doubt that James spake of him wherefore consider the words of old Simeon Luke 2.30 It is said of him not onely that he was a just man and devout waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Ghost was upon him but likewise It was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord Christ and he came by the Spirit into the Temple All which particulars serve very much to purchase credit unto his testimony who saith Mine eyes have seene thy salvation which thou hast prepared before the face of all people a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel Wee may see that he declares there the fulfilling at that time of the prophecy of Isa
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