And therefore there shall be no notable distance of time betwixt the resurrection and the generall judgement and consequently these words of Paul doe clcarely prove that the reigne of Christ as God-man doth not beginne after his next comming nor can without contradiction unto the Apostle any notable space of time be betwixt his next comming and the last subduing of all things The 25 verse proveth the same for when it is said For he must reigne till he hath put all his enemies under his feete thereby is teached more clearely in the originall language that now he reigneth and continues reigning and consequently he is not to begin his reigne even as it is said Heb. 2.8 Thou hast put all things under his feete and when they who are in Christ shall be made alive death the last enemy shall be destroyed and then is the end of administration Reply 1. The reason which you alledge against the distance of time betwixt the resurrection of the godly and ungodly to wit that the last clause of the 22 verse So in Christ shall all be made alive is not properly and univocally meant of the ungodly whose rising shall be to the accomplishment of their second death this reason is a meere mistake or rather a groundlesse untruth For as in Dan. 12.2 the words Sleepe and Awake are indifferently applyed to the death and resurrection of the just and unjust as in this chap. ver 20. the word Sleepe is indifferently applyed to all that are dead and ver 12 13.15 16.21.29 The dead are opposed to the living in generall to all that live a naturall life on earth and so are meant of all that are departed out of this life both elect and not elect In like manner the word Shall be made alive ver 22 is opposed onely to the first and naturall death of the body to the corruptible state of it in the grave and not to the spirituall death of the soul or to the second and supernaturall death of the body and consequently doth equally comprehend the resurrection of the good and bad as the 21 verse doth further confirme For since by man came death to all both good and bad by man came also the resurrection of the dead of all both good and bad So that the Apostle discoursing here of a proper and bodily resurrection speakes onely of such a death as is common to all which is a bodily death and such a resurrection as is common to all which is a bodily resurrection And having proved the resurrection and shewed also in what order it shall be fulfilled towards the end of the chapter he tells the Saints with what bodies they themselves shall arise to wit with incorruptible with glorified with spirituall bodies And as for the text in 1 Thes 4 16 17. it doth shew onely that the Saints which are living at our Saviours comming shall not be caught up to meete Christ before those that are dead For when the Saints who are dead shall be raised out of their graves then the Saints that remaine alive shall together with them be caught up into the cloudes to meete the Lord. So that this order as you call it is an order betwixt the Saints remaining alive at our Saviours comming and the Saints deceased before his comming and not an order touching the distinct rising of all those that are dead which is that which Saint Paul affirmes in the 1 Cor. 15.23 c. And whereas you would make it a matter incredible that our Saviour and the Saints shall come downe againe from the aire to abide so long space on earth onely because it is said That they shall meete the Lord in the aire and so shall ever be with the Lord. You doe shew your selfe to be either very forgetfull of what you have read in Gods word or that you tooke but little notice of it when you did read it For doth not Zâ—ch 14.5 tell us That the Lord shall come and all the Saints with him Seeing then the Saints shall meete the Lord in the aire as Saint Paul saith and seeing also when they are met the Lord shall come and all the Saints with him as the Prophet saith whither shall they come but from the aire to the earth Surely whatsoever you or any other through your perswasion may imagine of it Job makes no doubt of it For chap. 19. ver 25 26 27. he saith I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skinne wormes destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my selfe and mine eyes shall behold and not another though my reines be consumed within me And Jeremiah seconds him chap. 23. ver 5. in expresse termes touching our Saviours abode on earth Yea seeing our Saviour at his comming with his heavenly host shall take the Beast and false Prophet alive in battell and make a feast of their Armies for the fowles of heaven as it is revealed in the 19 chap. of the Revel and tread them in the winepresse of his wrath that the bloud shall come even unto the horse-bridles by the space of a 1000 and 600 furlongs as it is foretold Revel 14.19 20. Shall be descend to the earth to doe this thinke ye or shall he not And why also may not the Saints when they have met the Lord as well be ever with him though he first descend with them to reigne on earth as if he should goe immediately backe with them into heaven Nescis haud dubio nescis 2. You might well have spared this passage unlesse you could have shewed that I had markt any thing against the truth But doth the Apostle prove them onely to be in an errour who hold that none besides the Martyrs shall rise reign with Christ at his coming Surely he markes a word against those too who hold that all the dead shall rise at Christ comming for every man saith he in his owne order Christ the first-fruites afterwards they that are Christs at his comming Loe here the order of the Saints that dye before Christs appearing is to be the next that shall rise after Christ himselfe And when then is the order of the rest of the dead but when the time of Christs 1000 yeares reigne on earth is finished when the last enemy is destroyed which is death which shall not be utterly destroyed till the last resurrection till all men be raised from the dead For seeing the Apostle without any relation to the severall estates of the just and unjust after their resurrection speakes here onely of the rising of their bodies which equally and univocally belongs to them all why should we thinke that he would not as well have mentioned the resurrection of the unjust too at Christs comming as he doth the resurrection of the just if they were to rise at the same time with these if the words But every man in his
owne order doe not intimate any order doe not intimate a priority of time betwixt the godly and ungodly as well as they doe betwixt Christ and them 3. If you were as able to justifie your accusations as you are forward to accuse there were no contending with you but it is so common with you to awe the Reader with great words when you have least to say to the purpose that he is by this time well acquainted with your craft and therefore your bare affirming that here is a contradiction will be taken for no evidence Although then the word commeth be not expressed in the originall yet to make the sense compleate this word or a word equivalent to this as your owne translation doth witnesse is here to be understood For then or at that time say you is the end I pray at what time at the time of our Saviours descending surely the Apostle answers not so but when he shall have delivered up the Kingdome to God even the Father When he shall have put downe all rule and all authority and power c. So that the Then here is referred by Saint Paul to these Whens which follow it and not to the words foregoing as you wrest it And besides whereas the Apostle shews us when the end shall be by these convertiâ—le expressions When he shall have delivered up the Kingdome to God When he shall have put downe all rule and all authority and power you skippe from this and falsely and fallacioufly inferre That the time when he shall deliver up the Kingdome is when they who are Christs shall rise at his comming so that according to your explication of the text the words Then commeth the end are superfluouâ— and the text should runne thus Christ the first-fruites afterwards they that are Christ's at his comming when he shall have delivered up the Kingdome c. And thus it appeares how much this place of the Apostle doth puzzle you And yet you tell us also That the 15 ver doth teach us that Christ reigneth now because it is said there for be must reigne c. But this is no truer then the rest that you have said For the Apostle referres these words to the time after his comming and not to the time that now is so that the full meaning of his words is this Afterwards they that are Christs at his comming Then commeth the end when after his comming he shall have delivered up the Kingdome to God When after his comming he shall have put downe all rule and all authority and power When after his comming the rest of the dead are risen For he must reigne after his comming till he hath put all his enemies under his feete And the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death at the last resurrection of the dead And whereas you adde that text Heb. 2.8 Thou hast put all things under his feete to prove also that Christ doth now reigne You doevery unadvisedly contradict your owne Tenet and the Apostles words For if all things are now actually put under him then he doth not now reigne seeing the Apostle saith That he must reigne untill he hath put all his enemies under his feate and no longer And therefore it is evident that those words Heb. 2.8 are spoke in relation to Gods fore-appointment of it and not to the actuall performance of it to Gods committing of that power to the Sonne by which he is now able to subdue all things unto himselfe as it is Phil. 3.21 and not to the Sonnes putting of this power in execution which shall not be till his comming againe as both the order and sense of Saint Pauls words here doe shew and the volces in heaven at the sounding of the seventh Trumpet Rev. 11.15 And the thanksgiving of the Elders ver 17. doe confirme And so the beginning and not the end of the administration of Christs Kingdome is to be when they who are dead in Christ shall be made alive And though these Saints shall dye no more yet death the last enemy shall not be then utterly destroyed for as much as none but these Saints shall then rise and that the Jewes which are then to be delivered and the Gentiles which shall be called at and through their deliverance and those who are borne in the time of our Saviours reigne shall be subject unto death as well as we though not to the like persecution by men or temptation from Satan who is then to be bound up for the space of a 1000 yeares Israel's Redemption Thus farre Saint Paul whose words doe clearely prove that the reigne of Christ as man of which alone we treate doth neither beginne before his comming nor extend it selfe beyond the death of Death the last resurrection And therefore cannot without a palpable contradiction be taken for the time when he shall give up his Kingdome to the Father nor for the time that now is betwixt which and his Kingdome too our Saviour in my conceit hath put an irreconcileable distinction calling this the time not of a Kingdome but of temptation that is a time of persecution for righteousnesse sake a time wherein his Disciples must be delivered up to be afflicted killed and hated of all Nations for his Name that thus fulfilling the rest of the afflictions of Christ for his bodies sake which is the Church they may at last wholly and together for shall not their bodies as well reigne with Christ as their soules but these we know are and shall be yet captives to the grave or are the Saints that shall be found alive at Christs comming exempted from his Kingdome for if he should reigne till then and then give up his Kingdome to his Father they are exempted but if as our Apostle she ws his reigne beginne not till his comming then as the living shall at that time n 1 Thes 4.15 16 17. together with the dead in Christ be caught up to meete him so the Saints shall then anâ—â—ill then they cannot wholly and altogether reigne with him I say together and at once be made partakers of their Masters Kingdome which as it appeares is not to be in heaven and therefore must needes be held on earth where all things which our Saviour promised his Disciples may well be accomplished in a literall sense Mr. Petrie's Answer What God by his word and experience bath conjoyned let no man call irreconcileable for be saith Psal 110.2 Reigne thou in the midst of thy enemies and Rom. 8.37 In all these things that is in the midst of our sufferings we are more then conquerours so that when the enemies doe rage and persecute even then doth Christ reigne and the godly are Kings or if there be any title more transcendent Reply Certainely experience doth joyne nothing together but declares onely to us what God hath conjoyned and doubtlesse what God hath conjoyned Christ would not separate and yet Luke 22.28 he saith Yee are they which have followed
if the bodies shall be like unto his glorious body they shall not live an earthly life nor dye againe He quoteth 1 Thes 3.13 and chap. 4.14 c. but the first hath nothing of a second resurrection and chap. 4.14 saith We shall be ever with the Lord to wit in another manner then now now by grace and then in glory If we shall ever be with the Lord then we shall not dye againe and rise againe unlesse the Lord dye too which I thinke they will not say Lastly he cites Ezek. 37.12.13 which words certainely are allegoricall and shew the returne of the Jewes from their captivity notwithstanding the extâ—eamity of their misery and after these words be takes occâ—sion to speake of the spirituall Kingdome of the Church as is said before but neither first nor last speaket the Propher of a first and second resurâ—ection at or about the last day And so in all these testimonies nothing is to this purpose of the concurring of the Iewish Monarchy with the first resurrection Reply The first resurrection of bodies importeth a second you say True but of other bodies not of the same bodies And I dare say that the conceite touching the dying againâ— of them that rise to rise the second time is your proper fancy Sure I am it is very slanderously imputed to Mr. Archer who holds indeed that the raised Saints shall be made governonrs over our Saviours Kingdom in his absence but not that they shall again be subject unto death And when I say here that these Sainte shall have a shore in Christs Kingdome and be his assistants in it And elsewhere pag. 121. that the time of these Saints abode with Christ shall never have an end yea when you your selfe confesse that the testimonies on the margine doe prove the contrary doe I hold their dying againe thinke you or doe I not Certainely as we know not to what end the Saints should rise if they were to dye againe so we know that the bodies of the dead though they be sowne in corruption shall be raised in incorruption even the bodies of the greatest sinners who could not other wise live in eternall torments and therefore it is manifest that you have here laid aâ—errour of your owne devising to another mans charge partly that you might not seeme to take so much paines and confuce nothing and partly to disgrace the truth we hold touching the order of the resurrection For as it is true that the dead shall rise but once so it is true also that they shall not rise all at once And this the propheâ—ies of Saint John Rev. 20.4 c. and Saint Paul in 1 Cor. 15.22 23 24. doe so plainely reveale that we may well wonder why so many learned Interpreters should rather strive to extinguish these greater lights then by the brightnesse of them to discover the true meaning not onely of such texts as concerne the resurrection but of those also that concerne the prerogatives and priviledges which they who have part in the first resurrection are to enjoy on earth And now let us see how you deale with the texts on the margine of which the first that you alledge though not the first that is quoted is in Luke 20.35 36. But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtaine that world and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage neither doe they dye any more for they are equallanto the Angels and are the children of God being the children of the resurrection This is the text and your inferences these If they can dye no more and he equall unto the Angels then they shall not rise at a sâ—eond resuâ—rection And who saith that they shall neither shall they live anâ—earthly life say you And so say we if by an earthly life you meane a siâ—full life or a mortall life but if you meane only that they shall not live on earth we deny your sequelli For our Saviour lived on earth before his death and yet he lived not anearthly that is a sinfull life And he lived many dayes on earth after his resurrection in which he she wed himselfe openly to his Disciples who did eat and drinke with him after he rose from the dead Acts 10.42 And yet his glory was not diminished by it nor he made lower then the Angels or the more liable unto mortality for it Neither shall the raised Saints be lesse equall unto the Angels in their immunity from copulation in their holinesse of conversation or in the immortality of their bodies while they abide on earth then when they are carried into the presence of God himselfe And seeing our Saviour saith here But they that shall be accounted worthy to ob tame 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that age or that time of the world and the resurrection from the dead doth he not plainely point out unto us a time in which none of the dead shall be raised but such as shall be accounted worthy of some peculiar happinesse which is kept in store for them against that time Certainly if we compare these words of our Saviour with the 14 and 15 verses of the 14. ch of Luke we cannot think otherwise For what is the resurrection which none but they that are accounted worthy shall obtaine but the resurrection of the just spoken of chap. 14. ver 14 which you passe over in silence and what did our Saviour meane when he said not onely thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection but at the resurrection of the just Did he not meane that he should receive a recompence at that time when all the just then dead and none but the just should be raised And what is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here That age or that time of the world but the time of the Kingdome of God spoken of chap. 14. ver 15 And what is this Kingdome of God of which it is said that he is blessed which shall eate bread in it but the Kingdome which God shall set up under Christ as man when he brings him againe into the world For whereas it is recorded chap. 14. that when one that sat at meate with our Saviour heard him tell the Pharisee who bad him to eate bread at his house that if he made a feast he should not call his rich kindred friends and neighbours but the maimed the blinde and them that could not recompence him and that he should be recompenced at the resurrection of the just whereas I say it is written that when one heard these things he said unto our Saviour Blessed is he that shall eate bread in the Kingdome of God What correspondence could there be betwixt these words and our Saviours touching the recompencing of the charitable at the resurrection of the just unlesse the Kingdome of God here spoken of should contemporate with the resurrection of the just unlesse the just I say should rise to receive their recompence when this Kingdome of God shall
etternall torments by the death of the Messias is meant of Gods delivering of them out of temporal calamities and afflictions as the foregoing verses doe plainely shew And lastly your argument touching old Simeon that he craved no longer life to raigne with Christ on earth doth make as much against his beliefe of Christs spirituall as his personall raigne and against his beliefe of Christs suffering as against either of these and surely though he prayed to depart because it was revealed unto him that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord Christ yet the testimony he gave of Christ that he should be the glory of his people Israel which doth as well intimate the generall conversion of the Jewes and Christs raigning amongst them as his being a light to lighten the Gentiles doth imply the conversion of the Gentiles this testimony I say doth shew that Simeon did hope to live againe to raigne with Christ although he did then desire to depart having seen him And to this hope of the Saints as well as to the hope of the glory which shall follow their reigne St. Paul alludes when he saith that others of the faithfull Jewes were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtaine a better resurrection Preface Fourthly And neverthelesse many Iewes sought righteousnesse by the workes of the Law and not by faith Rom. 9.32 and they look'd upon the promises with a bedily eye onely as if the Messias were to erect an earthly Monarchy at Ierusalem And looking thorow these spectacles they could not think that Jesus Christ is the Messias and so they stumbled at his worldly basenesse and being miscaried in their braines they could not see his spiritual power and benefits After their miserable example others acknowledging Jesus Christ to be the promised Messias and not considering the difference of the promises have not attained feely unto the truth of them and so have erred in mistaking his natures and benefits Thus Ebion thought him to be a man and not God as if all the promises could have been performed by a man endowed with singular grace Cerinthus likewise held that Christ is onely a man and because he saw him not sitting on the throne of David he held that Christ is not risen from the dead as yet but shall rise and reigne in Jerusalem a thousand yeares and all his Subjects shal be satisfied with all manner of pleasures in meate drinke marriage festival dayes and offer oblations and sacrifices Euseb lib. 3. chap. 25. Answer That the Jewes were in an error which sought righteousnesse by the workes of the Law we willingly acknowledge but that they did erre in taking the promises touching Christs Kingdom and their owne deliverance in a proper sense wee cannot think For wee know that the multitude would have made Christ a King Joh. 6. verse 15. and that Nathaniel that righteous Jsraelite said unto our Saviour Rabbi thou art the sonne of God thou art the of King Israel Job 1 verse 49. and it were too in jurious to our Saviours innocency who came into the world to beare witnesse unto the truth Job 18. verse 37. to imagine that he would not upon these occasions have shewed them that they were mistaken in his Kingdom if he waâ— never to be such a King as the Jewes thought he should be and would then have made him had he not avoided it by hiding himselfe from them And indeed by the parable Luke 19. touching the Noble-mans going into a farre countrey to receive for himself a Kingdom and returne which he put forth of purpose because the Jewes did looke for the immediate appearing of his Kingdom by that parable I say he did as good as tell them that they did rightly conceive of the nature of his Kingdom but not of the time when it should appeare that they truely thought he should raigne visibly over them on earth though they were deceived in expecting the accomplishment of it then at his first coming For what was the Kingdom of God which the Jewes thought shuld immediately appeare was it the glory that shall follow the Judgment of the dead doubtlesse they thought not that the Judgment of the dead should immediately ensue Or was it the meanes of salvation that they lookt for doubtlesse then they knew that they had long injoyed this even as their peculiar The Kingdom of God then which they so earnestly and so soone expected must needs be the Kingdom which God had foretold that Christ should govern personally on earth when he should be set by him on the Throne of his Father David For indeed Christ can bring with him no other Kingdom for himself that is no other Kingdom to govern as man but this from that farre countrey whither he is gone to receive for himself a Kingdom and to returne And therefore t was not their looking through these spectacles as you phrase the proper exposition of the prophecies that made them to deny that Jesus was the Christ but rather stumbling at his meane condition onely they did to him what Gods hand and Counsell had determined before to be done And as the Jewes were no example of misbeliefe in looking for their deliverance from captivity and for our Saviours personall raigne amongst them so doubtlesse the proper acception of the prophecies concerning our Saviours raigne did no more occasion Ebion and Cerinthus to mistake his natures and deny his divinity then the proper acceptions of the prophecies concerning his incarnation suffering did and therefore seeing it is not possible that the true understanding of one part of the Scripture should thrust us into the misapprehension of another part thereof we may well thinke that it was the want of a due consideration of those texts which doe demonstrate the divine nature of Christ and not the truth they held touching his raigne that drew them into this error For it is either through the want of a carefull searching into the Scriptures or by reason of some sinister and by-respects onely that all errors have both their rise and continuance in the Church of God Preface Fiftly Vpon this oceasion the Apostle John wrote the Gospel again and more largely then any other of the Euangelists speakes of Christs Godhead his wonderfull workes his Kingdom resurrection and his coming againe especially that the Sonne of man is now glorified chap. 13.31 that he hath overcome the world chap. 16.33 that his Kingdom is not of this world and if his Kingdom were of this world his servants would fight that he should not be delivered unto the Jewes but now is his Kingdom not from hence chap. 18.36 And of the condition of his Subjects he saith Remember the word that I said unto you the servant is not greater then the Lord if they have persecuted me they will also persecute you chap. 15.20 verily I say unto you yee shall weepe and lament and the world shall rejoyce and you shal be sorrowfull but your sorrow
Sion more then all the dwellings of Jacob c how then could you say that these can very hardly be understood of the materiall Jerusalem on earth Certainely as they speake of no other Jerusalem so they are to be understood of no other place or thing but that And being prophecies they are not to be understood of it as it was then in the time of Davids reigne but as it should be in the time of Christ's raigne The Second rule As the Priests were types of Christ in respect of his Priestly-office so were the Kings of his Kingly office and therefore as the Kings were anointed so Christ is called David Ezek. 34.23 which is exponed Ioh. 10.11 and typified by Solomon Psal 45. And he is said to sit on the Throne of David not of Nebuchadnezzar or any other because their kingdoms were cursed kingdomes and were not established on righteousnesse and knowledge of the true God as David's Throne was and for this cause when he is said to sit on the Throne of David it is not to be understood that he had or shall have the same earthly Throne of David but that which was typified so Mat. 2. he is called a Nazarite not that he did use their rites and customes for be dranke wine and they did not but because he was typified by the Nazarite Samson for he slew more by his death then by his life and was severed from all sin and pollution Answer The anointing of Kings Priests and Prophets was a type of Christ's anointing and not of his being called David Which name was given him by God because he was to be borne of the seed of David to whom he was promised And it is because he is the Sonne of David and not of Nebuchadnezzar or any other heathen Prince that he is to fit on David's Throne And that by his sitting on David's Throne is meant his government of that people which David governed it is evident for what need was there that God should binde him selfe with an oath to David Acts 2 verse 30. that he would set Christ upon Davids Throne if he meant onely that he would set him upon his owne Throne Or why may wee not say also that where it is foretold that Christ should be the Sonne of David it is meant onely that he should be the Sonne of God as well as say that where it is foretold that he should sit on Davids Throne it is meant onely that he should sit on God's Throne And it is as strange a mistake as any of the rest to quote the 2. chap. of Mat. to prove that Christ was called a Nazarite because he was typified by the Nazarite Samson for the text saith plainly that it was because he dwelt with his Father Joseph in the city of Nazareth And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophets He shal be called a Nazarite verse 23. And lastly that Christ saved many both in his life and death the Gospel doth aboundantly declare but that he slew many is a tradition I dare say never till now heard of amongst Christians And of such rules as this you might have set downe as many as there are severall types in the Scripture The third rule It is usuall in the Scriptures to name the type and understand the thing signified by the type And therefore as it is said Heb. 6.2 Christ is the Minister of the Sanctuary and of the true Tabernacle that is of that which truly was signified by the Tabernacle so he may be said the true David and his Throne the true Throne of David and his Kingdom the true Jerusalem and the true Sion Answer We acknowledge that in the Scriptures the signe is sometimes taken for the thing signified and the thing signified some times for the signe But yet we know too that such figurative expressions are easily discerned from those which are plainly and properly delivered And therefore we cannot acknowledge that the Throne of David and Jerusalem or Sion are figuratively to be understood of the Throne of God and of Heaven or of the Church seeing the Spirit of God doth no where intimate unto us such a sense of them but alwaies the contrary The fourth rule As Christ is said to be the Lambe of God shine from the beginning of the world Rev. 13.8 not only in the decree of God but by vertue and efficacy seeing by vertue of his blood at that time to be shed were Adam and Abel reconciled unto God and delivered from the power of Satan So Christ's Kingdom began then for in Christ Adam Abel and we are one body and members of the same Kingdom howbeit in extent and largenesse it did most flourish and appeare since the Incarnation in which respect it is said to begin at or after his incarnation Answer It is true that the Gospel of Christ which he calls the Kingdom of God Mat. 21. verse 43. began in Adam to whom it was first preacht and by whom it was first embraced but it is not true that it did flourish more at Christ's incarnation then it did when all the Tribes were in the land together and undivided as in the times of Samuel David and Solomon Nor that it did begin againe when after Christ's ascension it was spread amongst the Gentiles for that was onely a translating of it from the Jewes to the Gentiles as our Saviour witnesseth Mat. 21. verse 43. The Kingdom of God shal be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruites thereof And therefore this is your bare affirmation not onely besides but against the expresse word of God The fifth rule The promise made to Abraham Gen. 13.16 I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth and chap. 15.5 looke towards Heaven and tell the number of the starres if thou be able to number them and so shall thy seed be These promises I say are not to be understood of the children of Abraham according to the flesh but as they are exponed Rom. 4.15 not of that onely which is of the Law but of them who are of the faith of Abraham which is the Father of us all as it is written I have made thee a Father of many Nations And Gal. 3.28 There is neither Jew nor Greeke neither bond nor free neither male nor female for ye are all one in Christ Jesus and if ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed and heires according to the promise And therfore the promises made unto the children of Abraham Isaac and Jacob are not to be restricted unto the Jewes according to the flesh as the Jewes and Millenaries expone all these promiser but of the faithfull And hither belongeth that distinction of the Jewes Rom. 2.28 He is not a Jew who is one outwardly neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh but he is a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the
and so quite different from the other And as spirituall pleasures appertaine to the Saints on earth as well as to the Saints in heaven so doe eating and drinking agree as well with glorified as unglorified bodies as well with the state of immortality as with the state of mortality For our Saviour did eate on earth at his Disciples table after his resurrection and he saith that the glorified Saints shall eate and drinke with him at his table after their resurrection And further he saith that after the last Judgement there is in the new Jerusalem the fruit of the tree of life to be eate of and the water of the river of life to be dranke of his words are To him that overcometh will I give to eate of the tree of life in the midst of the Paradise of God Rev. 2.7 and againe Rev. 22.14 15. Blessed are they that doe his Commandements that they may have right to the tree of life And whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely And indeed seeing God creates nothing in vaine it were vaine to thinke that the tree of life should beare twelve manner of fruites monthly unlesse they were to be fed on or that the river of the water of life should runne through the midst of the streete in the holy Jerusalem if it were not as well to be dranke of by the Saints in glory as to nourish the tree of life on the sides of it And therefore unlesse you can bring better proofes to shew that I am misinformed or doe misinforme then these texts of the Psalmist or any you have cited hitherto you yourselfe will be found an over-hasty misinformer against the truth Israel's Redemption And as it is evident from his owne words that the Throne of his Kingdome is not now in heaven so it is plaine from Saint Pauls in 1 Cor. 15.12 that it shall not be thereafter the judgement of the dead his words are these As in Adam all dye even so in Christ shall all be made alive But every man in his owne order Christ the first fruites afterwards * They that are Christs at his comming If there were not to be some distance of time betwixt the resurrection of these and other men it had been as easie for the Apostle to have said they that are dead or all that are in the grave And if there shall be a precedencie of time then no doubt but it shall be such a precedency as may bring some advantage and honour unto the Saints and therefore not onely of a few houres or dayes but of a more notable continuance and length of time of many yeares For if Christ should descend for no other purpose but to call all men to judgement then as there would be need of none so there could not well be any priority of time to distinguish their resurrection because in that act both good and bad must be assembled before him at the same time and the wicked doubtlesse should then be raised as soone to see his comming as the just to meete and accompany him therein they that are Christs at his comming and therefore not the m Zech. 14.5 1 Thes 3.13 chap. 4. ver 14 15 16. 2 Thes 1.10 Col. 3.4 Martyres onely Then commeth the end what presently after his comming no but when be hath delivered up the Kingdome to God even the Father and when shall that be when he shall have put downe all rule and all authority and power For he must reigne till He that is the Father hath put all his enemies under his feete which will be fully accomplished when the last enemy shall be destroyed which is death and when all things shall be thus subdued unto him then shall follow that inutterable glory that height of happinesse where the Sonne also himselfe shall be subject unto him that did before put all things under him that God may be all in all Mr. Petries Answer 1. Whether the Apostle might have said so or so Can any man gather necessarily out of these words so great a distance of time betwixt the resurrection of the godly and of the ungodly Here the Apostle nameth the godly and not the ungodly not importing any notable distance of time but because he had said ver 22. In Christ all shall be made alive which words cannot be properly and univecally meaned of the ungodly whose rising shall be for the accomplishment of the second deaths therefore here ver 23. he justly omits the mention of the ungodly and speakes of the godly as also he doth 1 Thes 4.16 17. where we find expressely an order among the godly saying The dead in Christ shall rise first and then we who are alive and remaine shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meere the Lord in the aire The Apostle in both texts speakes of the same comming of Christ as this Author acknowledgeth and applyeth the words to the same purpose pag. 50. As none will say that there shall be any notable priority in time betwixt the one and the other sort meeting Christ so and farre lesse doe these words speaking onely of them that are in Christ import two resurrections different the one from the other the space of a 1000 yeares Yea and the Apostle saying That we shall be caught up and meete the Lord in the aire and so shall be ever with him How can any imagine that we shall come downe againe from the aire to abide so long a space upon the earth and therefore be speakes there of the generall resurrection when they who are in Christ shall be ever with him not in a temporall but everlasting glory And seeing the Apostle speakes both here and there of the same resurrection certainely he speakes not here of a resurrection before the time of the generall judgement 2. pag. 49. After these words of Paul at his comming Mr. Maton inserteth and not the Martyrs onely Why inserteth he these words doth any who denyeth this earthly Monarchy say that the Martyrs and no more shall come with Christ no but some Millenaries say so And here he would marke a word against them Be it so 3. He wresteth the words thus Then commeth the end what presently after his comming no but when he hath delivered up the Kingdome to God even the Father and when shall that be when he shall have put downe all rule and authority and power c. Here instead of explication is a very contradiction of the text by inserting a negative and conveighing it closely with a query The particle Then hath relation to the words preceding and the word Comes is not in the originall as yee may see by the divers characters in the translation and it may as well be rendred Then or at that time is the end when he shall have delivered up c. So that the very time when he shall deliver the Kingdome is when they who are Christs shall arise at his comming
heaven to the earth againe or whether John signifieth by them the godly on earth If these words make any thing for this purpose these Elders were in heaven but all the interpreters even the Authour of Commentat Apâ—calypt pag. 8. expone them to be the godly on earth The words Rom. 4.13 are The promise that he should be the heire of the world was not to Abraham and to his seed through the law but through the righteousnesse of faith Certainely albeit the Land of Canaan was promised to Abraham and his seed yet he never having possession of that land and his seed or the faithfull are more properly called the heires of eternall life Tit. 3.7 And heires of that Kingdome which he hath promised unto them that love him Iam. 2.5 And heires of God and joynt-heires with Christ Rom. 8.17 Which Kingdome was typified by Canaan and of this promise without doubt speakes Paul there The words of Luke 19.17.19 are a part of a parable and we know that every part of a parable is not argumentative These texts then serve nothing for this Monarchy On the margine is cited also a testimony of Windelin but we regard not the testimony of parties in their own cause and far lesse doe we regard the consequences of that testimony wherewith the next page is filled and with that question of the essential or accident all change of the Elements seeing for one we may bring five thousand testimonies in this urpose Reply The question is you say whether Saint John saw these Elders in heaven And that he did the text it selfe doth witnesse For that these Elders were the same with the Elders in chap. 4. the continuation of the vision doth infallibly evince And that Saint Iohn saw those Elders in heaven the 1 ver of the 4 chap. doth clearly prove where it is said After this I looked and behold a doore was opened in heaven and the first voyce which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with mee which said Come up hither and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter Now what heaven was it in which Saint John saw a doore opened but the starry heaven the same heaven which Saint Stephen saw opened Acts 7.56 And what heaven was it from whence he heard a voice talking with him but the third heaven in the third heaven it was then whither Saint Pauâ— as once caught up that Saint John heard and saw such wonderfull visions and revelations as soone as he was in the spirit that is as soone as hee was carried up by the spirit whither he was before called by the voice And consequently he saw these Elders in heaven and this also the 6 and 7 verses of the 5 chap. doe confirme which shew that these Elders were there where our Saviour represented by the Lambe that had been slaine was when the booke of Revelation was given unto him And as Saint John saw these Elders in heaven so Pareus makes report also of two sorts of interpreters who by these Elders doe understand Saints in heaven One which takes them for foure and twenty and no more for twelve Patriarches and twelve Apostles Another which takes them for all the Saints then in heaven to which interpretation he himselfe enclines And Piscator understands by them all the faithfull under both Testaments under the Law and under the Gospell and so makes these 24 Elders to represent not onely the Saints then departed but all others also which should depart before Christs appearing And now seeing the text shews that Saint John saw these Elders in heaven and interpreters say that they represented the Saints departed how can their words we shall reigne on earth be understood any otherwise then of their reigning after their resurrection Yea let them be taken for the Saints on earth and yet their words cannot be otherwise understood For if they did represent the Saints militant on earth they did then reigne spiritually when they spake these words And therefore seeing notwithstanding their spirituall reigne they said not we doe but we shall reigne on earth it is evident that their words cannot be meant of a reigne which they should enjoy on earth while they were in their bodies before their death which by your owne confession can be no other but a spirituall reigne but of a reigne which they should enjoy on earth when they are againe reunited to their bodies after their death And whereas the words in ' Rom. 4.13 For the promise that he should be heire of the world c. are by you thus interpreted That he should be heire of eternall life Tit. 8.7 When you can prove that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the visible world doth signifie eternall life we shall approve of this exposition In the meane while we shall understand it of the joynt government of the world by Abrahâ—m and the rest of the raised Saints in the time of Christs reigne on earth At which time also they may well be said to be heires of eternall life and coheires with Christ seeing they shall rule the world with him and can dye no more The other words Luke 19.17.19 are a part of a parable and every part of a parable is not argumentative you say true that part which crosseth some truth plainely delivered in the scripture but that which agreeth with the plaine scriptures as this doth with the prophecies touching our Saviours and the Saints reigning on earth is argumentative Eâ—se why is it said that our Saviour taught them in parables if parables do containe no certaine truth And what is the scope of this patable but to shew that Christ was not to reigne over the Jews then at his first comming when the Jewes should refuse to have him reigne over them saying We have no King but Caesar but at his comming againe from heaven with power and great glory at which time he would make those that had in their life time improved his spirituall stocke governours under him And lastly your slâ—ighting of Wendelinus testimony as a party and of this marginall note as too meane for your meditation is a fine sleight to excuse your not answering of them To which doubtles you had nothing to say for else we may well thinke that you would have been nibling at this marginall note too as well as you are at others and that among so many thousand opposite testimonies you would have pickt out an answer to this single testimony of Wendelinus Israel's Redemption And this will appeare to a diligent eye even out of the controversed place in Rev. 20. for besides that the opposition betwixt the first and last resurrection doth impose the same sense on both besides this I say the vision represented not unto St. John perfect men at the first that is men that should be beheaded for the witnesse of Jesus but soules onely and that as of men already beheaded which most manifestly shewes that the resurrection after mentioned did follow their death