then keep his Paradise Saints Qu. 12. Or if the New Earth fall away did not the holy City consist most of Hypocrites and is that the Glory of it We are now in surer keeping than Adam and the faln Angels were None shall take us out of Christ's hands Qu. 13. Doth not this leave us to fear that those in the New Heaven also may fall away as the Angels did Qu. 14. For will there not after the Seventy five years preparation be as good people found on Earth as those that died before Why then think you that those alive shall be set so far below the rest as to have but an earthly generating life when the rest are in Heaven And Christ saith The last shall be first and the first last Qu. 15. Why say you that the Laodicean Apostasie is no greater a wonder than Adams and the Angels Is the New World in no better a state Then the New Jerusalem may become Devils Qu. 16. You say Christ being to put an end to a Church-state on Earth may suffer so just an occasion for spewing out of his mouth But do you honour or dishonour the Glorious Kingdom to feign it to have such an end That lasting but one day a Thousand years it should end in being spewed out for ever Qu. 17. What Word of God have you for your Opinion that there shall never more be an Earth or a Church on Earth And that God who is delighted in his wondrous works will have none of these Worlds from eternity to eternity but only for seven days seven Thousand years Qu. 18. Peter tells us of the burning of the Earth but not of the ending of it How come you to know so much more than he ever intimated or seemed to know Qu. 19. To say that Heaven and Earth have so unhappy an end doth it not tempt men to Manicheising to think that an ill God made this world Qu. 20. Did not something within you reluctate when you cited 2 Pet. 3. for the Thousand years duration of the Kingdom As if you argued Peter tells the unbelievers Delay of Christ's coming should not make you think that he will not come For a Thousand years delay is with God but as a year Ergo his Kingdom will be but a Thousand years Is this to expound Prophecy Qu. 21. Is it more faulty in a Plato Zeno or other Pagans to conjecture at Transmigrations of Souls revolutions of Worlds or with Aristotle to think the World was an eternal Effect of an eternal Cause Or for a Christian to say Thus saith the Lord and pawn God's Word for his erroneous conjectures Your Arguments are too long and loose for any Mood and Figure or Reason Arg. I. King of Kings is a Title fit for a great Kingdom c. What then Ergo it proveth a Middle Kingdom between that of Recovering Grace and Resurrection Glory I deny the consequence no Kingdom is fitter for those Titles than that of Grace and final Glory This is not proving It 's false that Christ hath not yet been an Universal Monarch Pag. 15. Your 2d Argument as the rest is but a repeating of your own formally confuted Opinions without any reply to the Confutation as if you had nothing to do but assert again what you think 1 Cor. 15. 24. Is your proof Then cometh the end And is the Thousand years the end and not the Glorious Kingdom of fruition Judgment will end by Triumph the Kingdom of Acquisition But the eternal Kingdom will be the last 2. Your denial of a Distinct Glory of Christ's Humanity before and after the Thousand years is certainly untrue If the Divine and Humane Nature be distinct the Glory of each must needs be distinct tho' not divided VVhy obtrude you gross things unproved 3. Your intimation that God doth then begin to be All in All and Christ to be Subject in some special sense hath no proof from the Text nor if proved is it any thing for your purpose 1. The Text speaks of no such beginning But that though Christ hath done his Conquering work yet still God shall be All in All things as he was 2. Yet we grant that it speaks of Christ's ending his Kingdom of Conquest and Acquisition and the Deity now Governing Man as restored not needing any more recovery I oft tell you as the King's Son made General to reduce Rebels giveth up his Generalship when he hath reduced them but hath after the promised honour and reward but as a Subject still not a Captain Pag. 16. You say that our Exposition chargeth on the Apostle Impropriety of speech but you do but say so and we deny it Is it not proper speech to say that a General giveth up his Office and yet remaineth an honoured rewarded Subject Ruler Indeed had it been as you feign it said to become subject it would have seemed to signifie that he then began to be subject But that 's your addition yet you before confest that he was subject before 2. I told you Distinguishing is not Separating And I told you wherein the difference consisteth which you confute not 3. To your 2d Reason I find no such Scripture as you talk of that mentioneth any middle Kingdom but a Triumphant Judgment perfecting the Kingdom of Grace and beginning that of Endless Glory The admirable agreement which you mention seemeth to me to be but an agreement of your conceit Your 3d Argument from Luk. 22. 29 30. saith nothing of a third Kingdom All that is there said seemeth to me fulfilled without a third Pag. 17. Is not that you plead for of the Humane Nature as united to the Eternal Word How can it else be any Kingdom of Christ But both that of Grace and Glory are such but not without the Relation of Mediatorship By Constituted I suppose you mean not essential to the nature or person without respect to the Office as the product of God's VVill And such is the Everlasting Kingdom It is the Reign of the Man Jesus united to the Godhead as Mediator of Acquisition first and then of Fruition and this over creatures I fear it is dangerously untrue therefore that you say That the Kingdom of the Humane Nature is united to the Eternal Word and communicating with it is an Essential and not a Constitutive Kingdom Essential to what Is the Humane Nature and a World of Creatures essential to God It is essential to it self that is it is what it is But can you prove that the Humane Nature was or shall ever be united to the Deity without its Relation of Mediator It is Christ's will that those given him be with him and see his Glory And that sight is of the Mediator of Fruition and did he limit that sight to a Thousand years To your 2d 1. You have not proved that the Apostles yet sit not on Thrones of Judgment They are equal with Angels 2. If yet they do not may it not be at Judgment
and in the Kingdom of Glory 3. The Title of His Kingdom and eating and drinking are as fully answered without the middle Kingdom as with it unless you can prove that those Apostles with Christ shall dwell and eat and drink a Thousand years on Earth in their spiritual bodies or have a middle sort of bodies for that middle Kingdom and had they not better before and must they lay those by for worse Arg. 4. You know we deny not that Christ's Throne is distinguished from his Fathers You cite the Text Rev. 3. 21. He overcame and is set down and expounded it He knew he should sit but was not yet set down not indeed in the Throne of Triumph and of Glory till he overcame You say It cannot be a Throne he hath yet what when it is said He is set down on it But Saints must sit with him you say And may not he sit down before them Must he stay till every Saint be with him You say again It cannot be the Throne of Eternity because the Son is subject and hath not a distinct Throne c. Ans If you mean by the Throne of Eternity a Kingdom from Eternity There could be no such thing unless there were Eternal Subjects If you mean only To Eternity the Son will have a distinct but not a separate Throne tho' not distinct Subjects For he shall subordinately have all power in Heaven and Earth P. 18. Arg. 5. Mat. 20. 20. You say This is not the Kingdom of the Eternal Word Ans Then it can be no Kingdom of Christ You say There is no sitting on the right hand or left Ans Nor no Subjects from Eternity unless the VVorld be eternal But to Eternity there is You say He that sits on the left hand must sit next the Father Ans This is your way of arguing by Allegories You are not an Anthropomorphite You know that by God's right hand is but to be next him in Power subordinate And may not others be next to Christ Arg. 6. You say is from innumerable Scriptures Mat. 19. 27. is before spoken to who doubteth but the Throne of his Glory was future Mat. 25. 31. confuteth you You say It 's not to be till all be gathered before hiâ— to Judgment Ans Therefore not a Thousand years before those alive be gathered before him to Judgment Christ speaketh of coming to Judge all not some to everlasting life or punishment but nothing of a Thousand years Pag. 19. 2 Tim. 4. 1. VVe doubt not of his Judgment or Kingdom But what word is here for a middle Kingdom Luke 19. 11. Christ went to receive a Kingdom and did he receive none till his return at the Resurrection what can be plainer against you He ascended to be presently possest of a greater Possession of Power All Power in Heaven and Earth was given him before his Return You say This is not the State of the Kingdom where God shall be All in All. Ans These are but your own words often answered and confuted From Mat. 16. 26 27. One would think that it should be a good Argument that Christ shall have one Kingdom that was first obscured by flesh's weakness after come in visible Power to Judgment and pass into Glory because some then alive should see the pledge and appearance of it But you hence gather that because men shall see the appearance of his heavenly Glorious Reign therefore he shall have none of that Reign in the Kingdom of Grace or Endless Glory but in a third and middle Kingdom such Collections expound your self more than the Text. As soon as Christ ascended to Heaven he was possest of the Kingdom of Power seen in the Mount and not only at the Millennium P. 20. Arg. 6. You fetch your most conclusive Argument from the one single note by which the Spirit of God hath fixed the beginning of this Kingdom that is The subduing of Enemies where your fantasie maketh two degrees 1. The making of Christ's Enemies his footstool And 2. Putting them Low under his feet As if his footstool were not low and under his feet Can you prove that Scripture meaneth this as two States and that at 1000 years distance Yes you say the second is to bring them to the state of no motion or action And yet are they haters of God and have they a self-tormenting Conscience and when loosed are Gog and Magog and assault the holy City and yet have no motion or action I suppose that in your next you will say you meant well and not that they were made dead blocks or annihilated but you should speak as you think or say that you think as you speak It will comfort the wicked to hope that they shall have only the punishment of Loss as dead insensible carkasses You have many passages of this sound Pag. 21. You grosly pervert Psal 110. 1. God saith not Sit thou without Reigning at my right hand till I all at once or at the last make thine Enemies thy footstool He saith not Sit without Reigning and Reign only at thy last coming But sit next me in Ruling dignity while I am making thine Enemies thy footstool which at last shall be perfected What word saith as you I intend thee a Great and distinct Kingdom of one days length the date of its beginning shall not be at thy Ascension c Did not God make the Pagan Empire his footstool and subdue Sin and Satan till the day of Judgment It is enough that all will be then finished and the Kingdom of Glory begun He sits and doth not Reign is your fiction against full Scripture Heb. 2. 5. We see them not put under him can mean but We see not that subjection perfected But we do see them put under him in a great degree The Lord reigneth Let the people rejoice The Kingdoms of the World are made the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ before the day of Judgment If we see not all things put under him do we see nothing so put When Judgment puts all things under him what need a Thousand years do it The pag. 22d is but the repetition of what is oft answered P. 23. It 's a great disparagement to your Cause to lay your chief stress on this Text As if it were not fulfilled by Christ many 100 or 1000 years treading down Sin Satan and Empire of Enemies and triumphing over them at his Glorious appearing and Reigning for ever for that Conquest in Glory unless he be a Thousand years more between in Coquering them As to 2 Pet. 3. 7. I askt you before whether you feel no reluctancy in so gross an abuse of that Text that speaketh of 1000 delay being before Christ's coming as if it spake of 1000 years after Pardon the Question The Cause requireth it P. 34. You have but one Text in all the Bible that speaks of 1000 years to give you the least shew of Countenance and that in Prophetick
Thousand years that we had before so shall Christ for he will make our Vile Bodies like to his Glorious Body But many Promises assure us of such a continuance Else we shall be no Men but Nothing or some thing of another species And Christ calleth us Brethren and Coheirs IV. If Christ will be the Head of the Glorified Church after the Thousand years then certainly there will be a Unity of Humane Nature and an everlasting Communion both as with a Cause Efficient Objective and Final And it cannot be true which you say and the Infidels will take hold of that Christ as Man in our Nature will not be an Object even of Fruition For we shall still be Individual Members of a Political Body And shall we have a Head and King and not Know him and not Love him and not Praise or Honour him Shall the Saints praises of the Lamb that Redeemed them cease then for ever Shall we all then cease to be Kings and Priests and to sit with him on his Throne and to sing the song of the Lamb and to see him as he is and face to face and to behold his Glory given him as Man Is he in all this no Object And how oft doth Scripture make him the Final Object under the finis ultimatè ultimus as he is to be glorified Shall an Intelligent Head and Members live together and neither know nor love nor rejoice in each other V. Shall the whole Heavenly City Society and Chore be dissolved for ever If so do not the Mahometans hope for a better felicity than such who think Mahomet will for longer time than a Thousand years give them their desires and that his Kingdom shall not end by being spewed out finally in everlasting disgrace But if the Body and City continue so will the Head and King And will Christ's Incarnate Humanity spiritualized be for ever useless Will he live for nothing Heaven and Angels will not be useless God shall shine in them and we shall see that light Shall it be our joy to sit with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and to enter into the Joy of our Lord and this all cease and the Deity only be an Object after a Thousand years O short everlastingness VI. Open your Eyes and see your Contradiction that think Christ's Kingdom as the Son of Man shall for ever cease and yet that Christ shall be subject to the Father Shall he be subject as God or as Man Not as God for God is not subject to himself If as the Son of Man then that Manhood continueth in being And doubtless in a Glorious Objective and Effective Being VII But speaking to men inclined to believe that Christ shall be no Christ after the Thousand years I will deal with them according to their Principles and argue from Natural Order and from Oeconomical or Instituted Do you not believe that God hath Creatures of divers ranks some above others in excellency and causality No wonder that he that believeth not any Creatures continuance believeth not Christ's Or he that believeth not that one is above others in operation believeth not the continuance of Christ's Power Do you think that God worketh by any second Causes though he be himself never the further from the Effect nor less in the Causality Doth he not enlighten warm and quicken earthly Creatures by the Sun and govern Men by Angels and Subjects by Princes and Beasts by Men Certainly if the World cease not this Natural Order of Creatures and Causes will not cease None but mad-men I think will doubt that Angels and Devils have Rule and Inferiority And if so after the Thousand years some prime Creature must be a Superior Cause of operation to the rest and that according to the Nature of each and therefore to Man that is Intellectual Volitive Affectionate and Active And what Creature is this Why may you not grant it to Christ as well as to any other Will you say with Aristotle It is the first or highest Orb That Orb then must be a Spirit And what Spirit before Christ the First and Last If his Humanity cease shall Angels cease too Or shall they be advanced so far above Christ as a Creature as to Reign under God for ever when Christ is deposed or extinct Obj. He is not deposed but his Created Nature will be swallowed up in the Deity Ans Intelligible sense is swallowed up in such insignificant Metaphors Is the Humane Nature turned into the Divine and a Creature made the Godhead it self If not what can you mean but Extinction or Annihilation Obj. But there was no use for a Mediator before the Fall and and there will be none after Ans There was no use for his Recovering Government and there will be none in perfect Glory But there will be use for Christ's and his Body's glorious Fruition and felicitating work as the state of Reward There was no use for us before we had our Being and yet we may have everlasting life Obj. But the Kingdom it self and not only the Modus Regendi will be given up and Christ Subject and God all in all And you say the Kingdom continueth and make two Kingdoms when Scripture maketh but one Answ Is the Question de Nomine or de Re If de Nomine only take your liberty to call it One or Two or Three If de Re are not these real differences 1. Between the Genus or Species Superior and the Species Inferior or Specialissima For in each sense is the word the Kingdom of God Christ's Heaven oft taken in Scripture 2. Between the Governing of men as an Army a School a Hospital the Governing them as meer Subjects healed taught subdued 1. The state of the Subjects is not the same 2. The Relation of the Ruler is not the same a Captain a Physician and a Viceroy 3. The finis Relationis is not the same 4. All the persons are not the same for Conquest destroyeth some Rebels 5. The Laws are not the same 6. The Execution is not the same What is it then that you would have Is it that Christ as a Creature shall cease Or that he shall have no power under the Deity Who shall have it then Doth not Scripture set him above Angels Are they not his Ministers What Creature shall be over Christ To say There shall be no Kingdom is to say There shall be no God To say There shall be no Government under God as second Causes is to say There shall be no World Obj. But why call you it two Kingdoms Ans Because Scripture and all Divines do so The Kingdom is taken from the Jews and given to another Nation The Kingdoms of the World are become the Kingdoms of Christ And many such Texts speak not of the Kingdom of endless glory Obj. But after the Resurrection and Thousand years there will be no Legislation no Judgment no Execution therefore no Kingdom of Christ Ans You may as well say No Kingdom of
God for you infer that or nothing But a Law is nothing but the notification of the Rulers will to the Subject And will not God make it our Duty to love and praise him His face yea and the face of Christ will be a Law or notification of our duty Cannot God govern us by a perfect Law of Nature and Intuition Shall we see God and not know his Will Yea have Angels now so much work to do rejoyce over men and Saints shall judge the World and shall we for ever have no work of Obedience Love Joy or Praise And there will be Executive Judgment of Rewards and Punishments for ever The Rebels will not be annihilated Their Worm dieth not And it is Christ the Lamb that is said to destroy them and to bless the just And this as Believers in Christ or Unbelievers 2 Thes 1. 6 9 10 11. It is the sad case of the Church that even studious Ministers must have new Books written to answer every doubt that ariseth to them and cannot answer them themselves I conclude that 1. These men teach the Mahometans to vilifie Christ's Kingdom and consequently the King himself as if when the sinful Kingdom lasteth about six thousand years Christ's Glorious Sabbatical Kingdom shall last but one and then for ever be spewed out with loathing as neither hot nor cold but naked and miserable 2. That they tempt men to Paganism and to take either the Stoicks Revolutions or Aristotle's Eternity of the World as an Eternal Body and Effect of an Eternal Cause to be better than the Gospel And did I expound Delivering up the Kingdom as grosly as they I would rather fall into Peter Sterry's way that Christ hath three Natures The Divine uniting it self to the first and noblest Creature and that prime Created Nature assuming the Humanity and so ex Ordine Naturae as superangelical and ex Ordine Liberae Institutionis retaining the Humanity glorified by way of Reward Ruling the World as the highest subordinate created Cause I confess this would seem to accommodate us in expounding Heb. 1. Col. 2. c. and to reconcile the Arrians to the Orthodox if not to reconcile us to Aristotle and them that think it unlikely that God who now delighteth in his Creatures should have none from and to eternity but Himself if Christ had a middle created superangelical Nature from But we must not make Doctrines to accommodate us in our difficulties especially such as the Church never commonly received Though I will not undertake to confute it But if I should grant this Doctrine that the Divine Eternal Word produced creatures in different Order and produced the highest creature so as to Unite it self to it eminently as that by which he would make or at least operate on the Inferiour and that this prime Creature at least was God's Eternal Effect and that this is either the Natura Mentalis in Genere comprehending that of Angels and Men or some higher Nature above both and that the Word in this Nature united was it that appeared to Abraham Moses c. and after to Redeem Man assumed the Soul and Body of Man as a third Nature by such an Hypostatical Union as I have described cap. 3. in End of Controversies I say should I grant them all this I would never grant them against plain Scripture that Christ's third Nature here received dieth or ceaseth after the Thousand years or that he continueth it Glorified to no use active or objective and that he will not still be the Mediator of Fruition Nor shall I believe that we Men no nor Angels shall have no Existent Nature to Eternity but what we had from Eternity in duration Or if their last Argument would hold that eternal and everlasting and for ever and without End in the Promise did mean but a long time as it doth oft in the Old Testament I should leave this long time as known only to God and all that should follow and not confine it and all Christ's Humane Reign in Glory to a Thousand years upon so unconcluding an Evidence as one only obscure Text Rev. 20. which may clearly be proved to have no such sense The Lord inlighten us FINIS