Exposition of John as if he wrote to five of the Asian Churches as in one World and to Laodicea the seventh in another when this is burnt up and Christ come § 24. XXIII When you have almost equalled the New Earth with Heaven you debase it by making it a Laodicean Church which for Lukewarmness God threatneth to spew out and to take away their Candlestick Is this the Paradise World of Righteousness § 25. XXIV You make two New Jerusalem's when Scripture speaketh but of one after Christs Coming One you take to be in the Air and the other on Earth Though one Society may be in both one Vrbs or material City cannot such as is described Rev. 21. and 22. § 26. XXV You feign two Conflagrations One to Burn the World and another after to Burn Gog and Magog and their Followers over the Earth § 27. XXVI You groundlesly dishonour the Kingdom of Christ by confining it to a Thousand years which God hath promised shall have no End § 28. XXVII You dishonour Christ and his Kingdom by bringing him from his Fathers Right Hand in Heaven and placing him and his Saints a Thousand years in the Air where you say wicked Spirits now dwell and where Dr. H. More saith Good and Bad dwell in an Aerial Vehicle till they are advanced to an Etherial Yea where you say Devils and Damned Men now dwell with Christ And where Christ must exercise the greatest self-denial in leaving that lower Station § 29. XXVIII You make Christs Kingdom to be a humbling loss to the Saints above while you take them down into the Air for a Thousand years from the Heavenly state where you say they were in God where Christ is at his Right Hand as they shall be at last or else you will make that Everlasting Union their loss § 30. XXIX Either you also bring down the Angels from their Glory to dwell in the Air or else you separate them from Christ and the Saints in the Air with him § 31. XXX When God hath already continued the old sinful World under the Curse almost six Thousand years you by Fiction confine the New purified World wherein dwelleth Righteousness to a Thousand years and call this the Sabbatism As if our Rest must be so much shorter than Sin and Labour When yet there will be no Sin to provoke God to destroy the New World Principle VIII Answered § 1. How frivolous is your arguing from the name of a Monarchy God is ever the absolute Monarch But if you mean a Humane Visible Monarchy and suppose he must so visibly Rule the Earth you do but beg the question A Monarch of all the World none ever was and therefore four such never were But if by a Monarchy you meant the greatest Visible Empire on Earth so the Fifth Monarchy was set up by Constantinople which differs far more from the Pagan Roman Monarchy than that did from the Grecian or Assyrian And it was Christs Visible Monarchy Reigning by his Vice-Roys the Kingdoms being now said to be his Kingdoms This was the true Visible Fifth Monarchy And the Turks are the Sixth Monarchy the renewed Reign of the captivated Dragon let loose after a Thousand years § 2. But your fiction that the Scripture assigns a Thousand years to Christs Reign after the Resurrection is worse than frivolous a meer forgery I answered it before If Peter quiet mens over-hasty expectation of Christs coming by telling them that a Thousand years time is as nothing to the Eternal Infinite God shall a man pretend skill in Prophecy and tell us that he meaneth that Christs Reign after the Resurrection is measured and meant by this Thousand years and is as nothing to the Eternal God And I have proved to you that the Thousand years in the Revelation speaketh of no such thing but of what is done before the Resurrection For 1. Those Thousand years are most likely to signifie an undetermined time and mean no more than a Long time as Mr. Durham and Cluverus most incline to think and many others But 2. Granting the contrary it plainly speaketh of a time presently following the feasting of the Fowls of Heaven with the flesh of Kings and Captains and the Fall of the Pagan Babylon And not only Grotius but John Fox and many others tell us that it is the just time between the Fall of Pagan Rome and the beginning of the Ottoman Empire which was about 1300 years 3. And this Thousand years is before the suppression of wickedness in the World while Gog and Magog are in the four quarters of the Earth in number as the Sand of the Sea that shall go upon the breadth of the Earth and compass the Camp of the Saints the beloved City And before the fire that cometh down to devour them And most certainly all this is not in the New Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness So that this Thousand years seemeth to signifie but 1. That Apostles and Martyrs go to Heaven 2. And leave their Names and Doctrine honourable on Earth 3. And that the surviving Confessors shall rise from their persecuted state to triumph with Christ in their deliverance and superiority on Earth 4. And that this sudden Exaltation is a fit representation of the Glory that they shall have perpetually in Heaven Let any sober man judge whether this one only mention of a Thousand years in a hard Prophecy Rev. 20. under the expository circumstances now named will warrant a man to Preach a new Gospel and Kingdom of Christ to the World without any proof from all the plain words of Christ himself and his Apostles and directly against them He that well considereth Prophetical Language will think that Articles of Faith should be founded on plainer words When we read in Ezekiel that Egypt shall have no Inhabitant for forty years that Tyrus shall be no more inhabited that Babylon and the Land of Babylon shall be no more inhabited and abundance the like we shall the better understand the Apocalypse whose very words are much taken out of the Prophets 5. The Devil and the false Prophet are cast into the Lake of fire after the destruction of Gog and Magog and after the Thousand years But sure they are cast into the Lake at the Resurrection For if they stay uncondemned a Thousand years after that I know not what Christs coming to Judgment signifieth Sure it is not the date of their Execution for they are to be tormented for ever and ever And must they be unsentenced a Thousand years 6. And the Resurrection is described as coming after all this The Earth and Sea giving up their dead and the dead judged out of the Books c. 7. And Ch. 21. The New Heaven and New Earth cometh after this Thousand years and the destruction of the Enemies and the New Jerusalem coming down from God And there are yet Kings of the Earth that are to bring their Glory into it And there are Nations to be healed
that Faith might not be precarious and built upon his bare affirmation he openly claimed first the Kingdom of Judea as of the Line of David and caused the people to applaud him with Hosanna's But being to Redeem us as a Sacrifice by his Blood and to Conquer Death and confirm his Gospel by Dying and Rising again he oft foretold all this to his Disciples and the rejecting of him by the Jews and their Nations Cities and Temples ruin for it and his purpose to cease the Mosaical Politie and to make his Church more Great and Catholick by the Calling of the Gentiles especially the Roman Empire X. At his Resurrection he took more solemn possession of his Kingly Government And first Commissioned the Twelve Apostles whom he had before made Preachers to the Jews to continue their Ministry to them in a number related to the Twelve Tribes till Persecution should expel them and then to do their best to make all Nations as such his Disciples Baptizing them as the Entrance into his Kingdom into the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and there teaching them to observe all his Commands delivered to those Apostles and promising to be with them to the End of the World XI By this and more it appeareth that a great triumphant Kingdom on Earth and National Churches which are nothing but Christian Kingdoms was at first in Christs Intention though the Embrio and Infancy anteceding it was to be first in Execution For he commanded the Discipling of Nations and would have gathered Jerusalem and not cut them off nor taken the Kingdom of God from them but for their unbelief And the number of Twelve was by Matthias to be made up to shew their relation to the Jews National Church State till Persecution drove them to the Gentiles and then Paul and Barnabas were added The Apostles have Successors in all the parts of their Office which is to be continued to the End but not in the parts that were extraordinary peculiar and temporary XII Christ by the Holy Ghost which he promised to send to be his powerful Agent propagated a holy Generation and by his Messengers Preaching his Resurrection and Kingdom especially and the Miracles which they wrought he confirmed his Gospel And Converted quickly many Myriads of the Jews and after far greater numbers of the Gentiles Thus preparing materials or subjects for his more visible Kingdom of Power on Earth Himself reigning over all in Heaven XIII That his Subjects might know the Nature and Terms of his Covenant and Government which was to bring them to a Heavenly Kingdom he not only required their Covenant-Consent to forsake the Flesh and this World and the Devil for that Eternal Life which he had promised them but he was pleased to put them on the actual exercise of this agreement and to try their sincerity by putting them often upon Sufferings and Martyrdom And therein he exercised his Heavenly Power in strengthening them and making them more than Conquerors while they went as Sheep to the slaughter to the honour of their Lord and Faith and the confusion of their Persecutors XIV Yet did he so over-power the Spirits of the Pagan Persecutors that of Forty Emperors there were at most but ten that persecuted them so that in this Captivity and Wilderness state by their liberty their numbers so increased that they became a considerable party in their Dominions and Armies XV. Of all these Persecutors the Cruellest were Nero Domitian Maximinus and Decius but far above all the last who were seven together Dioclesian Max. Herculius Max. Galerius Max. Daya Severus Licinius Maxentius and Constantius not wholly innocent The cruelty of their Tormentors and the great numbers Tormented and Martyred is frightful even to read By all which Christ shewed his Heavenly Power in the terrible punishment of all their Persecutors First in the dreadful destruction of the cursed part of the Jews who were by Vespasian and Titus so destroyed that 110000 of them were killed and about 700000 Captivated And their State City and Temple overthrown and saith Origen and Chrysostom it is certain that they shall never that is the Infidels return to that Land And afterwards by Trajan and Adrian in revenge of the Murders of Barcocheba an Antichrist near as many more were killed which must needs leave the Infidels few in so small a Land when London is supposed not to have near one Million of Inhabitants And as to the great Pagan Empire the greatest that ever the World had Christ rode on the White Horse against them Conquering and executed on them all the Plagues gradually numbered in the Apocalypse the Seals the Trumpets the Vials till he had utterly overcome them and all their Confederates He dealt so severely with them that of Forty Emperors there were scarce ten or seven that died without Murder a natural death But they were still in Bloody Wars with other Nations and with one another so that The Beast that was and Is not and yet Is became a fit description of their State As notably suited to Domitian at first and to Dioclesian Herculius and their Fellows at last so all along to the ordinary Succession To day there was an Emperor the next day he was kill'd and there was None And yet another presently succeeded him and so there is one again The Soldiers selling the Empire to him that would give most for it or was likest to advance them How dreadful a destruction did Christ by one Constantine bring on the seven Heads and ten Horns at last in a very little time So that Heaven and Earth triumphed with Joyful Praise that Babylon was fallen and the Kingdoms of the World were become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ and he had taken to himself his great Power and had reigned and was setting up the New Jerusalem as a Fifth Monarchy the Embrio of the Coelestial Jerusalem in its visible Reigning Power I am none of those that will secure Papal Rome from an answerable Name and Guilt and Fate But he that will convince me that Pagan Rome was not the Babylon there meant or that it is not fallen must first convince me that he is of more credible Authority than the Apocalypse XVI O how great a change was it for poor Christians throughout all the Empire to be brought from Scorn and Torments and the Martyrdom of many Thousands after 294 years Captivity to be suddenly made Freemen to celebrate Christs Worship in the most Solemn Assemblies and to be made Lords of their Persecuting Captivating Idolatrous Enemies lately so great that no Nations could stand before them Who did the Godly desire should be in Power rather their Bishops that came newly out of the Furnace of Tryal O what a change O what a joyful day And shall the success of the Devil that
quickly sowed the Tares of Covetousness Pride and Contention among the Clergy and Laity tempt us to undervalue Gods great mercy to his Church which Angels and Saints gave him so much praise for Emperours also had their odious Crimes even Constantine killed his Eldest Son Crispus and after his Step-mother for accusing him and banished Athanasius Shall we therefore be unthankful for a Christian Empire which was Christs own Visible Kingdom Theodosius killed the Thessalonians Arcadius banished holy Chrysostom-Theodosius the second a Saint was called an Eutychian and so of others David committed Murder and Adultery Solomon was a Monster of Lust and Voluptuousness and at last of Revolt to favour Idols yet were they the peculiar Kings of Gods peculiar People and few better followed them All this sheweth that Christ all this while Reigned and left it not wholly to the Resurrection to make his Enemies his footstool XVII It is not unlikely that this delivered exalted state of the Church though after corrupted by Temptation to Pride was the New Jerusalem in the Embrio of which Constantinople was the Capital Seat as the Porch or Infancy of the heavenly City of God and that one as the Infant Heir and the other as the Possessor of the Inheritance is described in Rev. 20. 21. 22. But of this more fully elsewhere XVIII The Dragon being bound up a Thousand years from the Churches deliverance from Constantines Edict to the Ottoman Empire the Church after grew corrupted And Papal Rome imitated Pagan Rome though under more plausible names and pretences and exceeded them in Cruelty And Mahomet the Eastern Antichrist compassed and conquered Constantinople the holy City and Christs revenge on Gog and Magog the Turk and Tartarian with the rest of the Infidel World are yet to come and therefore dark XIX At the end of this World which shall be burnt with fire God will make a New Heaven and Earth in which shall dwell righteousness without sin And all things shall be restored and the Creature delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God How God will people this New Earth he hath not told us whether by Creation as by Adam or by Transmigration Nor yet how long it shall continue unless for ever as part of the endless Kingdom Scripture giveth us no confinement of it to a Thousand years but the contrary XX. Christs Glorious Appearance and Judgment will be both the triumphant concluding parts of the Kingdom of Redemption and Grace which he will deliver up when his Recovering work is done And the beginning of the Kingdom of Glory In which as his Reward he will for ever in Humane Nature be glorified as the Mediator of Fruition as he was of Acquisition and that in the Heavens His coming in the Air is not there to Reign a Thousand years but presently to Judge the World as in Matth. 25. he describeth it And to confine his Kingdom in Humane Nature and ours with him to a Thousand years and confine it to the Air and the survivers on Earth is a fiction full of contradictions dishonourable to Christ and his Kingdom uncomfortable to his Church XXI There is but one Thousand years mentioned in Scripture from whence they can fetch the least shew for their limitation and that is only in Rev. 20. But it is most evident that the Thousand years there mentioned was to be before the Conflagration and New Earth and the Resurrection For it was to be before Satan was loosed and before Gog and Magog and their numberless Armies assaulted the Holy City and before the fire from God came on them And the Paradise restored State of the New Earth in which dwelleth Righteousness is not consistent with so much wickedness of the Inhabitants and Satans Power over the Nations Nor with a Laodicean Lukewarmness and danger of being spued out They therefore that well expect a Thousand years Reign before the Resurrection have no pretence to expect another Millennium after XXII To expect a Thousand years and that after the Fall of Papal Rome before the Resurrection is a supposition that this World will endure a far longer time than Christians have hitherto believed And that the great Sabbatism is to be before the New Earth And what a Sabbatism that will be the description of Gog and Magog and of their Laodicea may tell you Far unlike a Paradise state when all things shall be restored and the groaning Creation be delivered from the bondage of Corruption into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God XXIII They that assign this Thousand years on this side the Conflagration and Resurrection for the setting up a Fifth Monarchy of the Converted Jews at Jerusalem are the grossest feigners of all the rest Well did Jerom say That the Millenaries fetch their Errour from the Jews and would set up Judaism by it He that dwelt so long at Bethlehem knew the Jews Opinions For to pass by what else is after to be said Their very Fiction is a contradiction Were our Jews converted they would in less than a Hundred years be no longer a Jewish Nation For their state of peculiarity with the Mosaical Policy is abolished by Christ and must never be restored And they must and would marry with Gentile Christians and fall into the Catholick Church as Rivers into the Sea and lose the name of Jews So did their converted Predecessors XXIV And seeing it is not like that our now Infidel Jews are one to a hundred of the Posterity of the first believing Jews that have been propagated these sixteen hundred years why should a glorious Monarchy be set up of this self-cursed Remnant excluding all the first-fruits both the sealed Rev. 7. and all since But if the Posterity of all those old holy Jews were now sought for to be sent to Jerusalem not one man of them would be found and known of which more after XXV It is a marvel that the great disagreement of the Millenaries among themselves yet hindereth not their seeming Concord while they can but cry up the Thousand years Reign though most of them know not what the words mean Some of them say The Thousand years are on Earth and some say They are only of the Souls of the Martyrs and Confessors in Heaven Some say They are both in Heaven or in the Air and on Earth at once Some say That they shall be a Jewish Monarchy at Jerusalem and some That it shall be of the Godly all over the World Some say Christ will Reign there visibly in his Humane Nature Others That he will only sometime appear as he did after his Resurrection And some That he will Rule there only by Reforming Christian Princes Some hold but one Thousand years and some two one being after the other Some hold two New Jerusalems and some but one Some say That the Day of Judgment is the Thousand years and yet that Scripture hath not told us how
shewed us that he hath delighted in embodied Souls these five thousand six hundred ninety years will you feign that he never did so before nor ever will do so again § 41. I conclude 1. That there is no rational issue of your Doctrine to be expected but a Pythagorean or Platonick Revolution or Transmigration of Souls from one Universal Soul into many particulars as the Sea floweth into Springs and they into Rivers and they into the Sea again and so round Or as one Sun illuminating the Air lighteth many Candles by a burning-glass or by flames being individuated only by the oily matter but not divided from the common Element of Fire 2. And that all this is but to confound men partly with falshoods and partly with uncertainties when the plain Doctrine of Christ is a more quieting way God hath kept us so dark about the Beginning or Prae-existence and the manner of his producing Souls yea and of the manner of their operation in their separated state that to be confident beyond his Scripture-Revelation is but to be ignorant of our Ignorance and to venture to take Gods name in vain But we know that God breathed into Man that breath of Life and so made him a Living Soul and said Increase and multiply and that the Spirit goeth to God that gave it and we shall be with Christ in Paradise and that he will receive our departing Spirits and that it 's best to be with him § 42. And now I see not what you can make of Gods being All-in-All more that at this day he is and more than that he shall Govern Man again as sinless and fully restored without any further Redemption or Recovering Government but that you pervert the Text to countenance your pretended abbreviation of Christs Reign to a Thousand years All things are now in him and of him and to him Nothing can be added to All. But I am not able to discern why you speak so much in Equivocals and Generals that cannot possibly afford the Reader a determined sense If you are unwilling to be understood your Opinions are not of the Light If you understand not your own words how should others understand them No man can tell whether you infer from Gods being All in All the Deification of All things or their Annihilation or the dissolving of all Bodies compound and the Deifying only of the spiritual part You say Catech. p. 14. It is the ultimate end and last result of All things And Creatures below being capable of this Vnion as All which have no understanding are annihilated And Creatures of understanding Angels and Men can be no other than miserable in the loss of this Vnion But are Christ the Son of Man and his Saints miserable till the end of the Thousand years So p. 15. In order to the Vnion of All Created Beings of Vnderstanding to God all in all What Devils and all Damned Men The Eternal Word far above Angels became lower than Angels by becoming Man and so comprehended the whole Created Intellectual nature that he might be the Head of the whole in their Vnion to God And that in Him they might All be reconciled to God with the whole inferiour Creation Which having served the Glory of the Creator by Jesus Christ they fly back into their former State of NOTHING in themselves but indeed are returned into the Divine Immensity and Angels and Men be Vnited to God for ever Eph. 1. 10. Col. 1. 20. Here we have Anihilation and Nothingness in themselves and yet indeed are returned into the Divine Immensity And so that which is Nothing in it self hath a Being in God! What can this mean but that the Creatures were once all God himself till he gave them a Self-being which he taketh away and then they are God again not only their Individuation but their Creature-Being ceasing All things are still in God and his Immensity But if they have no Being in themselves there will be Nothing but God But will they so continue And will God from Eternity to Eternity have no Created Being save for Seven Thousand years or days And indeed is the whole understanding and inferiour Nature Devils and Men thus reconciled And is God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when there is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing but Himself in Unity Is he In that which is not I have been so long on your first Proposition as being your Foundation There is a Kingdom of Recovering Grace of Christ Incarnate and Glorified delivered up when he hath done that work which the Kingdom of Glory succeedeth where God as All in All shall be Glorified in the perfection of Christ God-Man and his Glorified Saints This is agreed and granted you Principle II. Answered § 1. No Text of Scripture saith that the Kingdom of Grace or Redemption begins at Christs Coming to Judgment But that then it Endeth in the Triumph of the Redeemer and his Entering upon his Kingdom of Fruition in the full Glorified Church 2 Tim. 4. 1. saith no more His Appearing there is for Judgment which presupposeth Mans final keeping or breaking of Christs precedent Ruling Laws It is his Triumphant ending of the Kingdom which he had and the Entrance of that of Glory Principle III. Answered § 1. No doubt but Christ will reign with and in his Saints § 2. But that the full number shall be made up then is your own word At his Coming you hold the number will not be full For you say Catech. pag. 4. They shall propagate a holy Seed in such abundance as to recompence with a much more to the Glory of the second Adam Rom. 5. for the few that are saved within the World of the first Adam And all these were not in Being at Christs Coming Nor can you prove that the New Earth and all Generation shall end with a Thousand years Principle IV. Answered § 1. Your supposition that they are not presently caught up yea till the end of a Thousand years is your Forgery 2. The Equality of Christs Love and Grace to All his Saints is also your own Doctrine not Christs For tho ex parte Dei who operateth per essentiam there is no inequality or difference yet in the Effects and the Relative extrinsick Denominations of God from those Effects there is great difference All have not equal Grace nor equally improve their Talents nor are Rulers of ten Cities nor as the Apostles sit on Twelve Thrones judging the Twelve Tribes of Israel Though you say Catech. p. 3. None of the Saints can be perfected the one without the other If that be true either those on Earth that you liken to Adam in Paradise are as perfect as those in the New Heaven or those in Heaven as imperfect as those on Earth And no wonder when you place them but in the Air where evil Spirits dwell now Catech. p. 12. But Christ saith the Children of the Resurrection neither Marry nor are given in Marriage but
about the place of Worship by Customs kept up some Animosity against Jerusalem yet the Woman John 4. could say When the Messiah cometh he will tell us all things And is not this the Christ And what place so generally received the Gospel when Philip preached to them It was not for nothing that the Christians were so long called Galileans But this and more shall next be proved Chap. VI. What Conversion the Twelve Tribes have already had § 2. 1. AS is aforesaid The Saviour himself and his Apostles chose his abode on Earth among them and calleth them the lost Sheep of the house of Israel and the Children whose Bread must not be given to Dogs They were the Circumcision to whom he was a Minister He ordinarily Preached in their Synagogues and there wrought most of his Miracles It was they that cryed him as King with Hosanna's It was they that followed him to the Cross and it was in Galilee where on a Mountain he appointed them to meet him after his Resurrection § 2. 2. He appointed not two but Twelve Apostles and 70 Disciples as suited to the Twelve Tribes and their Sanedrim to shew what Form of Government he assigned them and for whom and he sent his Apostles to the Twelve Tribes of Israel § 3. 3. The chief success of their Preaching was on the Samaritans and others of the Ten Tribes and such of them as came up to the Feasts § 4. 4. There were three thousand at once converted of the Jews after made five thousand and soon after many Myriads of Jews believed at least many thousands § 5. 5. These became the Mother-Church and the Law went out of Zion and so all Nations were blest in Abrahams Seed and Christ became a Light to the Gentiles and the Glory of his People Israel The scattered Jews of the Twelve Tribes through much of the Empire were the Stamina or Rudiments of the Gentile Churches The Apostles first Preached in their Synagogues and the converted Gentiles were added to their Converts § 6. 6. The Epistle to the Hebrâ—â—â— was written to all the Hebrew Christians and not to Two Tribes only and implieth the great success of the Gospel on them § 7. 7. Peter directeth his Epistle to all the Strangers scattered through Pontus Asia Galatia Phrygia c. and magnifieth their Grace § 8. 8. James directeth his Epistle to the Twelve Tribes that are scatter'd abroad And it is evident that he writeth to them as Christians § 9. 9. The seventh Chapter of the Revelations expresly nameth the Twelve Tribes of which One Hundred and Forty four Thousand were Sealed Twelve Thousand of each Tribe meaning a great number that were to be preserved from the Destruction that was to be executed on their Enemies The boldness of those Expositors who give us their own Revelation instead of Christs is palpable who tell us that by these One Hundred and Forty four Thousand is meant all the Reformed that are saved from the destruction to be executed on the Papists What words can we desire God to use more plain that Men may not pervert 1. God speaketh of Jews and they say he meaneth Gentiles 2. God nameth the Tribes and they exclude them 3. They are called The First Fruits of the Church And they say It meaneth the last 4. The numberless Gentile Christians that with them partaked of the preservation are by way of distinction mentioned in the next words Yet these Commentators say That the Gentiles are meant by the Twelve Tribes 5. The Prophesie is put in the beginning before the Trumpets or Vials even before all the Judgments that were to come on Infidel Jews and Romans yet do they bring it down towards the end of the World or after the Fall of Pagan Rome § 10. 10. It was some considerable time before the Jewish Christians could be satisfied to let go their Priviledge of Peculiarity and Mosaick Policy and to Embody on equal Terms with the Gentiles in the Catholick Church and to Marry with Gentile Christians And all that time Dr. Hammond and Grotius and others say They had in the great Cities one Church of Jews and one of Gentiles which also difference of Language would require and so had two Bishops in a City And Peter for the Circumcision and Paul for the Uncircumcision were the Roots of the Jewish and Gentile Miracle-working Ministry which I suppose were the Two Witnesses mentioned in the Revelation For whoever they were they may be known by the Promise Mark 16. 17 18. In my Name shall they cast out Devils they shall speak with new Tongues they shall take up Serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them they shall lay Hands on the sick and they shall recover Our Reformers pretended not to Miracles § 11. 11. At the Wars of Vespasian and Titus against the Jews One Million and One Hundred Thousand were kill'd and Seven Hundred Thousand carried into Captivity and the Christians fore-warned by Christ got out of the City and escaped And in Trajan's days a Madness seized on the Infidel Jews and they rose up and Murdered many score Thousands of the Roman Subjects And after Barchocheba proclaimed himself the Messiah Murdered so many more as amounted to an Hundred Thousands VVhereupon Trajan and Adrian in Revenge kill'd between One and Two Millions of these Rebel Jews still sparing the Christians After all this the Infidel Jews could have but a small number left All London hath not near a Million By which it appeareth that the main Body of the Jews preserved were the Christians to whom the Cursed part were few § 12. 12. The Converted Jews fell into the Catholick Church and Married with Gentile Christians and so ere long lost the name of Jews and became unknown So that the scattered Relicks now called Jews are but the Off-spring of the Self-cursed Rabble that were scattered after the aforesaid slaughter of them § 13. 13. In Constantine's Reign the Jews had as much Liberty and Invitation to be Christians as any others And Judea was not only made a National-Provincial Church but was more honoured for Christs sake than any Nation no greater save the Imperial Seat There were more Churches Built and more Monasteries and more Bishops than elsewhere in so small a compass No Jew was forbidden there to live No Countrey so honoured The Devout People from Rome and many Countreys went thither some on Pilgrimage and some to dwell Thence they fetcht what Relicks they could get in remembrance of Christ There at Bethlehem Jerom lived while he wrote and studied much of his Works § 14. 14. Since then in all Ages some of the Infidel Relicks have been converted Whether the History of the dispute between Gregentius and Herbanus and the miraculous Conversion of them by Christs Appearance be true or no which few judicious Men believe in all Ages many Jews have been Baptized and some proved excellent Divines § 15. 15. When all the Ten Kingdoms