We are not certain whether there was any former World Though to conjecturing Reason it seems improbable that God who delighteth in his Works and will continue a VVorld to Eternity should from all Eternity have nothing but Himself till Six days ago Six Thousand years But this will infer Aristotle's Eternity of the Universe except mutations of alterable compositions that the VVorld is an Eternal Effect of an Eternal Cause and Gassendus his Indefiniteness he meaneth Infiniteness of the VVorld and the old Opinion that God and the VVorld are but One as Soul and Body By which they resolve the Grand difficulties that God is not Pars Entitatis which were to be Imperfect and so no God the Entity of the World and God being more than of either alone if the VVorld have any real Entity 2. It is uncertain how God will people this New Earth Some think as he did this Earth by Adam and Eve Some think by a Creation of many at once Some think by a Transplantation from some other Orb Some think as Dr. H. More that except a few rare Saints or Martyrs all go hence but into an Aerial Vehicle and may thence without loss be made Inhabitants of the New Earth And some think that those that are found alive shall live in the Fire and after and some that they shall be caught up from the Fire and Judg'd and sent hither again 3. It is uncertain whether there shall be any Generation on the New Earth Mr. Beverley saith They shall multiply so as to compensate with a much more for the Jewness of the saved under the first Adam and each shall live the Thousand years But Christ saith that the Children of the Resurrection neither Marry nor are given in Marriage but are like the Angels and die no more The doubt is then whether he call only those in Heaven and not those on the New Earth the Children of the Resurrection 4. It is uncertain whether there shall be any stated visible presence of Christ here or that only he shall appear as in Heaven as the Sun doth by its Light or only sometimes be seen as he was after his Resurrection And so of the Angels 5. Itâ—s uncertain whether the New Earth shall have any End or Change or shall be Everlasting It 's certain that the Thousand years Rev. 20. are before it in this Life but of its Duration God hath said nothing to us 6. It 's uncertain how much of the Old Heaven shall be Burnt Though it's likely it will be only so much as was Cursed for Sin 7. It 's uncertain whether there will be any removal to a higher VVorld and each Person live his Thousand years and then as Henoch and Elias be translated and so on to following Generations or each Person continue here for ever 8. It 's uncertain whether Devils shall be permitted here to be Tempters or all Temptations be cast out § 26. It will be no disparagement to Christ to Rule the Restored Earth as well as Heaven Nor to Saints or Angels to be Governours under him VVere the Sun Intellectual it would be no grief to it to be a Benefactor by its Influence to Earth For it is no dishonour to God Himself to Communicate all to the Creature that it hath There may be here such Subjects as God promised Apostles and Saints that they shall Judge If by Faith in Christ God dwell in us by Love and we in Him and we have in us that Kingdom of Grace we shall have our Part in the future Kingdom though we understand not many difficulties about it For Christ is the Author of Eternal Salvation to all them that obey him Decemb. 10. 1690. A Catalogue of Books Printed for and Sold by Tho. Parkburst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chapel CAtholick Theology Folio The Saints Everlasting Rest or a Treatise of the Blessed State of the Saints in their Enjoyment of God in Glory 4to The English Nonconformity as under King Charles II. and King James II. Truly Stated and Argued 4to The Life of Faith in every State 4to Alderman 〈◊〉 Funeral Sermon 4to A Key for Catholicks to open the Juglings of the Jesuits The first part of answering all their common Sophisms The second against the Soveraignty and necessity of General Councils 4to Naked Popery Answering Mr. Hutchinson 4to Which is the True Church A full Answer to his Reply proving that the General Councils and the Popes Primacy were but in one Empire 4to The History of Bishops and their Councils abridged and of the Popes 4to A full Treatise of Episcopacy shewing what Episcopacy we own and what is in the English Diocesan frame for which we dare not swear never to endeavour any alteration of it in our places 4to A Search for the English Schismatick comparing the Canoneers and Nonconformists 4to An Answer to Mr. Dodwell and Dr. Sherlock consisting an Vniversal-Humane Church Soveraignty Aristocratical and Monarchical as Church-Tyranny and Popery and defending Dr. Iz. Barrows excellent Treatise 4to Catholick Communion defended against both Extremes Moral Prognostications what shall befal the Church till their Concord c. Full and easie satisfaction which is the True Religion Transubstantiation shamed 8vo All 〈◊〉 by Mr. R. Baxter A Hundred Select Sermons on several Texts of Fifty on the Old Testament and Fifty on the New Folio The True Prophecies and Prognostications of Michael Nostrodamus Physician to Henry the Second Francis the Second and Charles the Ninth Kings of France and one of the Best Astronomers that ever were Folio Sixty one Sermons Preached mostly on publick occasions whereof five formerly Printed by Adam Littleton D. D. Rector of Chelsea in Middlesex Folio A Discourse of the Saving Grace of God by the late Reverend and Learned David Clarkson Minister of the Gospel 8vo The Vision of the Wheels seen by the Prophet Ezekiel Opened and Applied Partly at the Merchants Lecture in Broadstreet and partly at Stepney on January 31. 1689 being the Day of Solemn Thanksgiving to God for the great Deliverance of this Kingdom from Popery and Slavery by his then Highness the most Illustrious Prince of Orange Whom God raised up to be the glorious Instrument thereof By Matth. Mead Pastor of a Church of Christ at Stepney 8vo FINIS Gen. 1. 26 27. 9. 6. 1 Cor. 11. 7. Col. 3. 10. Gen. 3. 13 14 15 16. Eccles 7. 29. Hos 13. 9. Exod. 34. 7. Psal 86. 5. Mat. 28. 19. Deut. 29. 29. Joh. 3. 5 6 7. This is written with relation to the Writings of Mr. Sterry Dr. More Mr. â— Turner Mr. Beverley c. which I would not be too peremptory in my opposing Rom. 11. 33. Joâ— 5. 9. 40 41. 42. 〈…〉 of the World Exod. 34. 6 7 8. Gen. 3. 15. Prov. 1. 3. 8. Rom. 2. 4 7. Heb. 11. 26. Gen. 9. Gen. 22. 15. 26. 5 24. Rom. 4. 3 9. Gal. 3. 8 24. Heb. 11. 8 17. Jam. 2. 23. Moses the Prophets and Christ Mat. 5. attest all this Mat. 3. 15. 5. 17. Gal. 4. 4 5. Heb. 4. 15. 9. 14. 1 Pet. 1. 19. Phil. 2. 7 8 9 10. Mat. 28. 19. John 17. 3 4. John 5. 22 23 26 27. Luke 19. 34. Jo. 18. 37. Rev. 17. 14. Jo. 1. 49. Col. 1. 13. Mat. 12. 28. 21. 43. Mar. 1. 15. Luke 7. 28. 9. 27. 10. 9. 11. 20. 13. 18 19 c. 17. 20 21. 21. 31. 22. 16 18. Rom. 14. 17 18. Rev. 12. 10. Mat. 10. 7. Mat. 28. 19. Mark 16. 16 17. Mat. 23. 37. Rom. 11. 20 23 24 25 26. Rev. 11. 15. Rev. 11. 17. 19. 6. Acts 1. 25. Mar. 28. 20. John 14. 16 26. 15. 26. 16. 17. Acts 2. 37 38. 21. 20. Rev. 7. Luke 14. Rom. 8. 29. Rom. 8. 17. 1 Thes 2. 5. 2 Thes 1. 6. 11. 2 Tim. 2. 12. 3. 12. Rev. 2. 10. The Roman History is the full proof of this The Revelation and the Roman History compared prove this and expound each other Read Eusibius Eccl. Hist L. 8. Rev. 14 15 16 17 18 19. And the Prophets that proclaim it a great deliverance to the Israelites to have their Mountains again Inhabited and their Cities Built Mr. Potter and many Protestant expositors 〈◊〉 Rev. 20. 21 22. to speak of the Church on Earth Rev. 20. 5 6 7 9. 2 Pet. 3. 7 8 9 10 11. Rom. 8. 19 20 21. Fully proved after Mat. 25. Rev. 14. â—
years further confuted The 9th Principle more of the Giving up the Kingdom The 10th 11th and 12th Principles Of the Fifth Monarchy c. More of Mr. B's Ambiguities Chap. III. Of those Millenaries that place the Thousand years Reign before the Conflagration Chap. IV. That the Ten Tribes will never be found and called if they never were so heretofore Chap. V. The Ten Tribes were not lost nor extinct proved Chap. VI. What Conversion the Twelve Tribes have already had Chap. VII Whether there be any Jerusalem Monarchy of Jews or any further Conversion of them more than of other men promised by God The pretended proofs examined Chap. VIII Reasons for the Negative humbly offered to Tryal And some Objections answered Chap. IX Of the New Earth what is certain and what uncertain Chap. I. The Kingdom of Christ as described by the S. Scriptures BEing by Mr. T. Beverleys importunate requests and challenges and his heavy Accusation of Dissenters from him as Semi-Sadduces of the Apostasie urged to give an account of the Reasons of my dissent from Him and others of the Millenary Judgment it is meet that I first tell him what I take for the true Scripture Doctrine of the Kingdom of Christ which I am to defend Premising my desire to the Reader that he will first read as presupposed Truth the Judicious Treatise of my dear Brother Mr. John Corbet of The Kingdom of God with Men And Cluverus his Arguments against the Millennium I. GOD made Man in his own Image Natural Moral and of Supereminence in Wisdom Righteousness and true Holiness to know love and obey his Creator Therefore they err that say Adam had no Spiritual Holiness and did no Act of Holiness and Obedience before his Fall For else he had lived in great and constant sin For it could be no better for him not to esteem God to be the chief Good and amiable Object or not to Love him whom he knew to be the best or not to serve and obey him whom he knew to be his Creator In this state God was to Govern him as a righteous Subject by the Law which obliged him to Personal Perfect Perpetual Obedience revealed partly by the Creation and partly by express prohibitions and commands II. Upon Mans Fall and Forfeiture GOD first pronouncing part of the penalty which he would inflict declared his Decree so far to forgive the rest of the penalty as to reprieve and yet continue his faln Creature and to give them a Redeemer that should overcome the Serpent that had overcome Man and to make him the Captain of Salvation and to put faln Man and all things and power into his hand for the accomplishing of this Recovering work for the glorifying of his Love and Mercy thereby The eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Second Person in the Trinity being designed to this great undertaking III. Whether this Eternal Word did first unite it self to the Prime Being of the Creation And whether that Prime Being was the Universal Soul of the World or there were any such Universal Soul save God that is more than a Soul or it be not universal but yet of the highest Created Species and had any causality in the creation or production of the rest of the World and whether it and the World as Aristotle thought was except revolutions and alterations an eternal Effect of an eternal first Cause and many such cases about the Original of Souls are questions that God having not clearly decided by Natural or Scripture Light I cannot peremptorily decide but am lost in difficulties when I attempt it IV. Till the Incarnation of Christ the World was Governed by God as the God of Mercy and Redemption by a Regiment of Grace which may be called the Kingdom of Christ as Christ was the undertaker of future Redemption And the World being all under a pardoning Law of Grace that alloweth Repentance on hope of Mercy God dealt with none upon the meer terms of the Law of Perfection or Innocence which ceased cessante capacitate subditorum Be innocent and live or sin and die is not the Law that any are judged by V. God that first made this Law of Grace to Faln Mankind in Adam and Eve renewed it to all in Noah VI. Abraham pleasing God above others by Faith and full Obedience God chose him to be the Father of a Peculiar People promising him that his Seed should be multiplied into an eminent Policy and that the Saviour Incarnate should be of his Seed in whom all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed Not ending the Law of Grace to the rest of the World but priviledging Abrahams Seed with the state of peculiarity VI. By Moses God brought Abrahams Seed into the promised Political State and gave them a Law to be a Rule to their Political Governours when to punish and in what sort and degree And God being their Absolute Soveraign and their Government a Theocracy he reserved to himself the Power of Legislation in all the necessary parts and the choice of their Chief Rulers under him And what the Magistrate failed to punish according to his Law he would punish himself This Law was but the Rule of their Obedience supposing them Believers of the Promise to Abraham justified by Faith But the carnal Jews were so taken up with the outward Ceremonies and Works that they lost the understanding of that Justifying Promise and the very use of all the Types and Ceremonies and thought to be Justified by the bare Works or doing of what the Law required of them as their duty And because God had not done so by any other Nation they were proud of their Law and yet only outwardly obeyed it VIII In the fulness of Time the Messiah came Incarnate after 4000 years And then that which before was only in Decree became a Law of Mediation or Redemption or a Covenant between the Father and the Son in Flesh Christ being obliged in Habit Act and Suffering to do all imposed for the Recovery of Man and for this was to be King and Lord of all and having finished his undertaken work to reign for ever as God-Man with the Glorified recovered Society as his reward in Heaven for ever And all power to this End was given to him and all Judgment or Government committed to him to be exercised on lapsed Man for Recovery the Father judging no man as meer Creator of Innocent Man till this work is done IX When Christ Incarnate came the King came from Heaven and therefore John Preached that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand and Christ first preached that it was come and was among them that is The King promised from Heaven to Rule the World for their Salvation And when he had first wrought Miracles enough to prove it
your Thousand years The very nature of the glory of the Glorified Body of Christ is to live as Branches in him the Vine Our Life is hid with Christ in God And if his Kingdom be given up all our life and security is also given up The same cause must continue that began the Reward of Believers in whom Christ will be admired more than a Thousand years and the punishment of Unbelievers The Kingdom of Glory therefore continueth when the Restoring Kingdom hath done its work § 30. 11. The Devil hath reigned by Gods penal permission over this sinful World as to the far greatest part about 6000 years within 314 And shall Christ reign but one thousand Prove it before you affirm it § 31. 12. How frivolous is your reason from Gods being All in All What do you think those words do mean It 's neither any Addition to God nor any Exclusion of Christ But Gods Governing Mankind as fully recovered according to the Law of his perfect Nature and without any more Medicinal recovering Grace and his filling them with the Grace and Joy of his inhabiting Complacence 1. It cannot mean that God in Essence is nearer the Creature than before For in him we Live and Move and Be. He is All in All now as the God of Nature 2. It cannot mean that God will be more the Cause of Grace or Glory for Christs ceasing to be a Cause For God is no less a Cause when he useth second Causes than if he used none 3. It can no more be an Exclusion of Christ from being a Cause of our heavenly Communion with God than an Exclusion of all second Causes from their Office And if all second Causes be excluded and there be no Cause but God there will be no Being but God and this is but to reduce the World into God or Nothing which you must not feign unproved § 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being plural cannot mean that God will End all things and so be Nothing in any thing but Himself All things in All signifieth the Existence of those All things And shall not Christ and his Kingdom then Exist Not in its Paradise or Heavenly State § 33. Can it possibly mean any more than Of Him and Through Him and To Him are All Things And so they are now Rom. 11. 36. Or that he is Above All and through All and in us All And so he is now Eph. 4. 6. And that he worketh All in All And so he doth still 1 Cor. 12. 6. And that he filleth All in All And so he doth still Eph. 1. 23. Even Christ is said to Be All in All Col. 3. 11. And shall he cease to be so He is appointed Heir of All things he upholdeth All things by the Word of his Power For whom are All things and by whom are All things Heb. 1. 1 3. 2. 10. And why must he be deposed By him are all things 1 Cor. 8. 6. God gathereth All things in One in Christ Eph. 1. 10. Who filleth All things Eph. 4. 10. till we come to the Unity of the Faith and of the Knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect Man to the measure of the Stature of the fulness of Christ ver 13. We are growing toward this before the Resurrection And if then we attain it must it endure but a Thousand years The perfection of the Church of Christ is not like that of Fleshly Bodies that when they are at the top of Age go downwards again Nor Apples and Pears that when they are mellow soon rot § 34. Obj. But Christ must then be subject to the Father Ans And was he not always subject to him in his Humanity He tells us oft that he doth not his own will but the will of him that sent him The Father worketh and he worketh He were not the true Christ if as Man he were not subject to God But Paul saith not that Then he begins to be subject to the Father But that he shall still be so When his War is over and he hath done his work as General or Conquering Redeemer he shall be still as Man a Subject to God and Glorified as the Reward of his Redemption and be the Glorified Head and King of his Glorified redeemed Kingdom § 35. I suppose you will say that Christ and his Saints shall not die nor be deposed but have such a Glory in which God shall be All in All. Ans Very good who denyeth that God is or will be All in All But the doubt is whether Christ shall be ever the less Christ or King Or the Church ever the less his Kingdom at the End of a Thousand years I forget not your distinction of Christ as Man and as the Son of Man You confess that Christ shall be Man for ever but not as the Son of Man That is as Dr. More and you and John Turner say He is an Eternal Man or Life and hath say you and Dr. M. an Eternal Body Flesh and Blood from whence you plead for Transubstantiation Ans You could scarce speak to a Man that hath been more tempted to follow you in such intimations as embolden Reason to be too presumptuous and I confess that the insinuated Opinions of Peter Sterry Dr. More and J. Turner and you do strongly flatter emboldened Reason But I take it but for a Temptation while Scripture is against it as well as the judgment of the Universal Church When Paul tells us that Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God I must in Charity suppose that by Flesh and Blood Eternal Dr. More and others mean not properly but Catachristically the Natura Mentalis or the Intellectual Nature which they suppose to be the same in Christ Angels and Men. It is not improbable that the highest of Creatures is in order of Nature a prior effect of the Divine production before the lower Whether this shall be called an Emanation or a Creation you are not agreed Nor whether this prime Created Nature be Vniversal Life and Vniversal Matter and so be the Soul and Body of the World considered as before modal Mutations or whether it be only some nobler sort of Spirit and Matter that is made before the more ignoble and perhaps maketh the rest But it is concluded that Christ is the Life or Spirit and second Person in the Trinity and the Holy Ghost the Matter and so the third Person And that Christ the Soul and the Holy Ghost the Matter are one which some call A Creature and some call God and some both Peter Sterry's is the plainest way that the Divine Nature first produceth and uniteth it self to the Universal Intellectual Nature which is Christ the first Creature including the Holy Ghost And that this first Intellectual Nature uniteth it self at the Incarnation to the Humane Nature And so that Christ hath three Natures 1. Divine 2. Superangelical Created 3. Humane But still it is unresolved whether the prime Created
not in unbelief v. 23. 9. Yet here is a Prophecy that the Jews shall be eminently replanted v. 24. and not for ever left in general unbelief 10. It was but blindness in part that happened to those some till the fulness of the Gentiles came in Which must either mean till the Empire of the Roman World fell into the Christians hands Or else till all the Gentiles were converted that ever shall be This last cannot be the meaning for then it would not be till the end of the World therefore it must be the former which is long fulfilled v. 25. 11. So all Israel were saved that is 1. All the Israel of God the believing Children of Abraham for all are not Israel that are of Israel gathered into one Catholick Body 2. And so many of Natural Israel as to make not only one of the two Witnesses and Olive Trees but also a formed National honoured Church-Society 12. When to drive away the Gospel to the Gentiles some were left in unbelief The Elect part were they that were beloved for their Father Abrahams sake much more for Christs sake v. 28. 13. As it was from them that the Gentiles had the Gospel so it was from the Gentiles mercy that the restored Body of the Jews obtained mercy being by the Christian Emperors and Princes restored and honoured v. 29 30. 14. God left the Rulers and many others in unbelief that he might recover not each single person but a Political Body and Power to the Nation as he did v. 32. As Alexander Severus gave the Infidel Jews power to chuse them a Governour of their own under him the Christian Emperors did for the Christian Jews much more 15. Thus is Gods Goodness and Severity glorified And what word in that Chapter proper to the Jews is not fulfilled § 4. As to the Texts that mention the Restitution of all things the Creatures groaning to be delivered from the bondage of corruption drinking the fruit of the Vine new and such like what word is in all this that respecteth the Jews more than the Gentiles or that may not be performed in the New World unlimited to Jews or to a Thousand years § 5. The same I say of the Lords Prayer Let thy Kingdom come c. which long made me hope for better days on this same Earth But this saith nothing more of the Jews than of the Heathens And who can here find any limitation of this Kingdom to a Thousand years All the Word that tells us what to pray for doth not tell us what in this World we shall obtain I doubt not but we may pray for Jews and all men but that proveth not all shall be converted and saved We may have hope of many Individual Jews when we have no promise of a National further Restitution of the many more than of any others Chap. VIII Reasons for the Negative humbly offered to Tryal § 1. I. THat which is done already according to Promise we must not take for undone or expect to be done again But the Calling of the Jews is done already according to Promise Ergo c. I hinted this oft before I will not shun repetition where the cause requireth it 1. It is granted that the Catholick Church is called The New Jerusalem so far as it is short of the other World But the Catholick Church and therein the Jewish Nation was more gloriously set up by the Christian Empire than the Millenaries can reasonably expect or plead for 1. What are a few Rabble Jews such as are among us to the great rich victorious Roman Empire the greatest that ever was on Earth which turned Christian in the Regent part and shortly in the commonest Profession What an Empire would the Jews of England Spain Portugal Turky c. make 2. Constantinople was then called not only New-Rome but New-Sion And how greatly did it excel Jerusalem in spaciousness riches power and glory 3. How small and barren a spot was Judea like our Wales in comparison of the Roman Christian Empire in Europe Asia and Africa Like the Isle of Man to England 4. How great a Protection had the Jews under Constantine and following Emperours above what they had even after their Restoration from Captivity from Zorobabel and the Maccabees to the end of their Policy 5. What could they now desire for their return more than they then had What greater liberty or encouragement or help An excess of Honour was put on their Countrey and on all that would come into the Christian Church 6. What better Plantation of Religion can be expected in Judea than was when the Emperours built them Temples and devout people travelled thither and dwelt there and bought them Bibles and built them Religious Houses and set over them Pastors and Bishops and A. Bishops and a Patriarch one of the five in the Empire And their National Church honourably united to the Catholick What outward honour can they expect more All Protestants note it as the wicked Superstition of the Popes that they were so set on the honouring of Jerusalem and Judea called The Holy Land that they forced Emperours and Kings of France and England c. at vast charges to go fight for it to the loss of 100000 men § 2. Obj. But Judea was not all planted with Jews but with a mixt people Ans 1. And must all that now possess it be robbed of their Habitations and Estates to make room for our Jews 2. There were no Jews restrained from going thither that desired it And would you have them forced or sent thither with a Pass 3. Those that would not go thither had better encouragement where they dwelt § 3. Obj. But it was not the main Body of the Nation that was converted and restored Ans 1. I have given great probability that it was the far greatest part so many of the Rebels had been before destroyed 2. There was no Heathen Nation where the greater number presently turned Christians till Power and Interest prevailed with them Even till the days of Alaricus and Theodorick thousands were Heathens in Christian Rome And holy Chrysostom in his days in the glory of Constantinople reckoned but of a hundred thousand Christians besides Separatists and Hereticks the rest being Heathens and Jews shall we therefore say that such were no National Churches that is Christian Kingdoms § 4. Obj. But while their Governours were set over them by others and not chosen by themselves they could not be called Jewish National Churches Ans 1. Their Pastors were chosen by themselves whatever the Souldiers and Magistrates were The Inhabitant Christians Jews and Gentiles chose them 2. Their submission and consent might make them Churches of Jews 3. But I confess they were not nor ever must be Churches of Jews separate from the Gentiles or otherwise than as parts of the Catholick United Church It seems you take not the Jews for converted till they become separated from the Catholick Church and claim their
Independents had spoken much for it Matthew Newcomen that holy Man so opened the wickedness of turning loose a Cursed Generation to tempt a Nation to Infidelity that is already too much inclined thereto as turned the Scales and put an end to that deliberation §14 IX Either the feigned Conversion of these Jews will be before the burning of the World or after But neither before nor after Therefore not at all 1. If it be Before either it will be the Thousand years Reign or some part of the Thousand years Reign or beffore it all If it be the Thousand years Reign then 1. The World must last yet a Thousand year after the Jews Conversion Which few believe 2. And then there will be no Thousand years Reign after the Conflagration which our chief Millenaries will not endure For there is but One Thousand years Reign looked for by them 3. And then the New Jerusalem state shall have the numberless Enemies of the Armies of Gog and Magog And shall fall to a Laodicean Lukewarmness What! After so many Millions of Miracles 2. But if they say it will be After the burning of the World that is before disproved For the Thousand years are past before that Conflagration Gog and Magog and the numberless Enemies will not survive the Burning nor live in the New Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness 3. And if they say that it will be but some part of the Thousand years or a short time before the Conflagration 1. The Thousand years will not be divided part before the Burning and part in the next World 2. And so short a Reign of the Jews as shall end before the Thousand years and Burning will not answer the glorious preparation of so many Millions of Miracles nor the Doctrine of their so speedy Apostasie after as to prepare for the Incendium §15 X. The Miracles must be so many and great that must go to the feigned Conversion and Exaltation of these Jews that it will be a great and heinous crime to impose them on God by presumptuous Fiction if the Truth of them be not proved 1. As to the number of Converts 2. Their present unfitness 3. Their scattered distance 4. Their Servitude in all Nations 5. The feigned way of their Conversion 6. The state of their feigned Exaltation All these must be so full of Miracles that will a thousand-fold exceed all the Miracles that ever Christ did on Earth or his Apostles after him And God keepeth so constant a tenor in his Established Order of working by means and subordinate Causes as that we must have good proof before we say that he will do all this Tell us not what God can do when our Question is what he will do God can enlighten the World without the Sun or make all the frame of Heaven and Earth to change their course God can convert Turk and Pope and all the Heathens in the World and all the bloody Princes and Souldiers to morrow But do not therefore say that He will do it When the Devil tempted Christ to shew his power by a Miracle he saith It is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God God hath appointed a quite contrary way for mens Conversion Rom. 10. How shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a Preacher and how shall they Preach unless they be sent Christ ascended on high to give gifts and offices to men for this end Apostles Prophets Teachers to gather and edifie his Church Christ tells us of no way but the Lord of the Harvest to send forth Labourers and the Messengers to go into the high-ways and hedges and compel them to come in And the Sowers to go forth to sow that Word which is the regenerating Seed Though Christ would speak to Paul from Heaven it was to send him to Ananias And though an Angel appear to Cornelius it is to send him to Peter to be taught Though Miracles affright the Jailor Act. 16. it is to ask Paul and Silas what he must do to be saved And by what warrant shall we say that Christ will for millions quite change this his appointed way § 16. 1. As to the number it must be ten thousands of Miracles that a number so great should be thus changed all at once or near it throughout the World And yet that a number so small in comparison of all others should become a Monarchy and Gog and Magog be so friendly to them as to permit and help them as Cyrus did the Jews in their removal and afterward be subject to them § 17. 2. They are now a more sottish Generation full of Malice against Christ and Cruelty to Christians where they dare shew it sordidly worldly and covetous They live among Christians and all our endeavours converse and examples scarce converteth in this Kingdom three in an Age. Bear with me you that talk so zealously for the Jews Conversion and Kingdom while I ask you How many in London have you converted in your lives Yea How many have you laboured with by Instruction and Argument to convert them while you have prayed for their Conversion and censoriously disputed against us that doubted of your Opinion § 18. 3. They are scattered over the most of the Earth being every where a hated and despised people And shall Preachers be sent to them in all Lands at once Shall Preachers so quickly be made when no Countrey have enough for their needful work at home And shall they quickly learn and speak all the Languages of the Countreys where the Jews are For Hebrew alone will not do the work And shall all Jews on Earth get together to Jerusalem Will they be Rich enough to bear the charge of their Transplantation Or enough cured of the love of Riches to leave their Trades and Wealth behind them § 19. Obj. We hold not that they shall all be converted or dignified but enough to possess Jerusalem and Reign there Say some The Tartarians may do it Ans It seems then it is but the Popes old Zeal to recover the Holy Land But what 's this to the Conversion of the Jews Were they converted when Godfrey and others recovered it The Tartarians taking Jerusalem will not prove the Conversion of one Jew that now is taken for a Tartarian § 20 4. They are in such servitude in all Nations and so contemned a People among them as must prove it a Miracle for them to remove so far to power § 21. 5. The feigned means of their Conversion is millions of Miracles 1. The New Opinion is that Christ shall do it by appearing in the Air as he did to Saul O take heed what you impose on Christ That appearance of Christ was seen but by a very few in one place And the words heard by none but Saul himself Shall Christ in the Air be seen at once in Persia Greece Rome Portugal and all Nations where there be Jews And yet these good