of the Gentiles how much more their fullnesse Ans There is nothing here for the point in hand we grant willingly that the Nation of the Jewes shall be converted to the fayth of Christ and that the fullnesse of the Gentiles is to come in with them to the Christian Church also that the quickning of that dead and rotten member shall be a matter of exceeding joy to the whole Church But That the converted Jewes shall returne to Canaan to build Jerusalem That Christ shall come from the heaven to reigne among them for a thousand yeares there is no such thing intimated in the scriptures in hand Master Burrous fifth place is Acts 3.20 21. He shall send Iesus Christ whom the heavens must receive unto the times of the restitution of all things Ans That these words are to be understood of Christs comming to the last Judgement and not of his comming to any Temporall Kingdome on earth we did before prove His sixth place is 2 Pet. 3.10.13 But the day of the Lord will come as a Theife in the night in the which the heavens shall passe away with a great noyse and the Elements shall melt with fervent heate the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up neverthelesse we according to his promise looke for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse Ans First it would be remembred that our Brethren do adde among many other things this also unto the Tenet of the old Chiliasts That before their golden age the earth and all things therein must be destroyed That the earth wherein they are to reigne that the Beasts Foules Fishes Trees and all other creatures they are to make use of in their thousand yeares are to be of new created all the old creatures in their whole kindes being burnt to ashes and destroyed We say secondly That this place is miserably misinterpreted for all that the Apostle is saying is in answer to the scoffers cavill verse 4. requiring in scorne the performance of the promise of Christs comming not unto this thousand yeares raigne but to the day of Judgement and perdition of ungodly men as the Apostle speaks expressely vers 7. Now all the Chiliasts confesse that this Judgement and that perdition is not till after the thousand yeares so the burning of necessity according to their owne grounds cannot precede but must follow them Thirdly the time whereof the Apostle speakes is called the day of the Lord the usuall discription of Christs comming to Judgement also the day that comes on the world as a theefe in the night which phrase oftentimes in scripture is attributed unto Christs comming unto Judgement but is not true of his comming to the Millenary reigne for the calculation of that time is so well knowne that it is preached and printed to be at such a yeare if not such a mounth or day Also this dissolving of the heavens and Elements with fire is a concomitant of Christ his comming to the last Judgement as is expressely intimated 2 Thes 1.8.9 As for the words whereupon alone they ground their argument the new Earth wherein dwells righteousnesse As if these words could not be true after the last Judgement no righteous man then dwelling upon the earth If they had looked upon the originall they would have seene the weakenesse of their collection for the words runne thus We in whom righteousnesse dwells looke for new Heavens and a new Earth The habitation of righteousnesse referring neither to the heavens not to the earth but to the godly and righteous persons who did waite for the performance of the promise of new heavens and a new earth as our late annotations doe observe And though you would reade them according to our English Translation yet that inhabitation needes not referre to the earth but to the heavens onely as Junius well observes For it is not in qua terra but in quibus coelis and our Brethren if they beleeve Mr. Archer must referre the Pronoune not to both the Substantives but onely to the one for he teaches That during the thousand yeares no righteous soule inhabites the heaven and thereafter that no righteous soule does inhabit either the earth or the heavens wherein now the soules of the godly are all these being turned into hell the habitation of unrighteous men and divells Mr. Burrows seventh place Isa 65.21 And they shall build houses and inhabit them and they shall plant Vinyeards and eate the fruit of them and ver 17. Behold I create new heavens and a new earth c. Hence concluding not onely a new heaven and a new earth for the Millenary reigne but a planting of Vinyeards a building of houses which cannot be after the day of Judgement Ans First Master Burrowes referres this place to the former passage of Peter if therefore Peters new heavens and new earth must be understood of the life to come Isaiahs new heavens and new earth must be understood of the same Secondly It s very new and harsh divinity to say that after the heavens have passed away with a noyse and the earth with all the workes thereof are burnt up that men shall plant Vineyards and build houses upon the new earth Therefore Master Burrows notwithstanding his argument and reference of Isaiah to Peter seemes in that same place to retract and acknowledge that the new heavens and the new earth must be expounded by a Metaphor and import no more then the doing of so glorious things by God for the Church in the latter days as shall manifest his glorious and creating power as if he did make new heavens and a new earth This is farre from the burning of the heavens and earth that now are It is no more then what the Apostle Peter brings from the Prophet Joel Acts. 2.19 And I will shew wonders in heaven above and signes in the earth beneath bloud and fiâ—â— and vapour of smoake the Sunne shall be turned into darknesse and the Moone into bloud All which Peter makes to be performed upon the day of the Pentecost It is no more then that of Haggay 2.6 Yet once it is a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and all the dry land which the Apostle Heb. 12.26 27. makes to be performed at the first comming of Christ Thirdly That the matter of this 65. chap. of Isai v. 16. is to be referred to Christs first comming and the Apostles first prâ—â—ching unto the Gentiles is cleare by comparing the first verse of this chap. I am found of them that sought me not with the 20 verse of the tenth to the Romanes But Isaiah was very bold and sayth I was found c. Fourthly to expound the Prophets in this fashion were to stumble the Jewes and to give them too great an excuse for their long misbeliefe and too pregnant arguments for to delay their fayth while the Messias come to performe
whether natural moral or spiritual which are done in faith But herein Master Smith is wiser then his fellows telling us That all Songs in the Church out of a Book whether in Verse or Prose are Idolatry MMMM yet he admits of singing such Psalms as the Spirit dictates to any person immediately without Book NNNN It seems the Brownists at Amsterdam have recanted their error in this point for all of them sing now in strange tunes the Psalms in meeter of Ainsworths exceeding harsh Paraphrase Preaching of the Word to them is no Pastoral act but is common not onely to all the Officers but to every gifted Brother of the Flock OOOO The word Sacrament to them is traditional corrupt and not to be used PPPP The Baptism of the English Church they make to be vain and nul the seal of no grace but onely of wrath and condemnation QQQQ yet they will not have it repeated They teach that the Lords Supper should be celebrated every Lords day RRRR So preparation-Sermons before and Sermons for Thanksgiving after the Lords Table to them are needlesse They will have all to sit at the Lords Table with their Hats on uncovering of the head in the act of receiving to them is Idolatry SSSS In this the present practice at Amsterdam contradicts their Doctrine for however they sit covered in time of all the reading and discourse yet when it comes to the participation of the elements every man during the time of his eating and drinking sits uncovered They count it lawful to joyn with the Lords Table Love-feasts TTTT They reject all Catechisms being set and so unlawful forms of instruction VVVV After a member is once received amongst them they enquire no more for his knowledge having once gotten satisfaction at his admission to Membership of his sufficient knowledge The Apostles Creed they detest as an old Patchery of evil stuff XXXX Christs descent into hell they count a blasphemous Article YYYY They reject all publike reading of the Word which is not backed with present Exposition ZZZZ They do not any way scruple the Office of Readers and Expounders for they give full liberty of publike and ordinary Preaching to any gifted man of the Flock though he have no Office When the exercise of Reading Expounding Singing of Psalms Praying and Preaching by the Pastor is ended they will have one two three or four to prophesie in order AAAAA and all to have a free liberty of continuing so long as they think meet After all this is done they have yet another exercise wherein by way of conference questioning and dispuâ—ation every one of the Congregation may propound publikely and presse their Scruples Doubts and Objections against any thing which that day they have heard BBBBB And as if all these Exercises were not enough to tire out a spirit of Iron the most of them being repeated again in the afternoon for a conclusion of all they bring in the laborious and long work of their Discipline for which the whole Flock must stay till they have heard debated and discerned every cause that concerns either the Officers or any of the people whether in Doctrine or Manners CCCCC Concerning the Magistrate Master Brown teacheth that he hath no right to meddle at all with any matter of Religion but to permit the liberty and free choice of Religion to the conscience of every one of his Subjects DDDDD The most of Browns followers do leave in this their Master making it a great part of the Christian Magistrates Office to suppresse within their own Bounds Idolatry and False doctrine EEEEE To compel all their Subjects if they will not be perswaded to hear the Word preached albeit no way to enter themselves members of any Church or to hinder any to enter in any Church they will or to erect new Churches of their own framing FFFFF Further if the Magistrate be a member of any Church they will have him were he the King himself to be so far subject to their Church-Censures that a little small Congregation shall have power upon his obstinacy in any sin or errour to excommunicate him and that without all delay without any respect to his Crown more then if he were the poorest servant of the whole Flock GGGGG and which is worst of all the Prince his Excommunication by the hands of so small weak a company must be without all possible relief for he hath no liberty of appeal to any upon earth HHHHH an oecumenike Councel may not assay to loose the knot of that Censure which the hand of the Congregation hath tied But their great Tenent about the Magistracie is this That no Prince nor State on the earth hath any Legislative power That neither King nor Parliament can make any Law in any thing that concerns either Church or State That God alone is the Law-giver That the greatest Magistrate hath no other power but to execute the Laws of God set down in Scripture IIIII That the Judicial Law of Moses bindes at this day all the Nations of the world as well as ever it did the Jews KKKKK They tell us that whatever God in Scripture hath left free it may not be bound by any humane Law whether Civil or Ecclesiastike and what God hath bound by any Law in Scripture they will not have it loosed by the hand of any man They lay it upon the Magistrate to punish by death without any dispensation every Adulterer every Blasphemer every Sabbath-breaker and above all every Idolater LLLLL. And here is the great danger that by Idolaters they will have understood not onely Pagans and Papists but the far greatest part of all Protestants all absolutely who are not of their way for the using of a set Prayer were it the Lords own Prayer to them is clear Idolatry MMMMM 1. For all this they will not permit any Magistrate to hang any thâ—ef at all MMMMM 2. Against the learning of the Times they make large Invectives the Universities and all the Colledges in them they will have razed to the ground they professe them to be worse then the Monasteries that justly were abolished NNNNN whatever Arts and Sciences are taught in the Christian Schools they count them idle and vain Grammar Rhetorick Logick Philosophy are all unlawful Arts OOOOO The Heathen Writers which are used in any Faculty such as Aristotle Plato Cicero and the like they would have them all burnt as the Authors of unlawful Arts. They reject all School-Degrees such as Batchelors Masters of Art Doctors of any faculty PPPPP They wil have no Students of Divinity QQQQQ They tell us that youths mis-spend their time and exceedingly abuse themselves by studying of those things which usually are recommended unto them as preparations for the Ministery whether Common places Commentaries upon Scripture or Protestant writers of Controversies all such Books they will have laid aside RRRRR yea it is their
the heavens must receive till the time of the restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all the holy Prophets since the world began This place proveth clearely the aboade of Christs body in the heaven till the time of the restitution of all things So much our Brethren grant but they deny our assumption that the time of the restitution of all things is the last day this therefore we prove not by the Testimony of all the reformed who unanimously bring this place as a maine ground against the Papists and Lutherans in the questions of Transubstantiation and Ubiquity but by three reasons from the Text it selfe First that time here is understood when all things that are spoken of by all the Prophets are performed But all things spoken of by all the Prophets are not performed till the last day Master Burrowes alleadgeance that all the Prophets are frequent and large upon the Raigne of the 1000 yeares but rare and sparing upon the doctrine of the last Judgement and life eternall might well have beene spared for the one halfe of it and left to the Socino-Remonstrants but suppose it were all true yet if any of the Prophets have spoken any thing at all of the last Judgement as the Apostle Jude puts it out of question even of Enoch it is cleare that the time of the performing of all things which any of the Prophets have spoken cannot possibly exist before the last Judgement as we may see Rom. 8. ver 21. compared ver 18.23 where the restitution of the creatures to their desired liberty comes not before the redemption of our bodyes and the glory to be revealed upon the whole Church at the last day Secondly the time here spoken of is when the Jewes to whom Peter did speake were to be refreshed by the Lords presence but this shall not be before the Generall resurrection for the Chiliasts doe maintaine that all the Jewes shall not rise neither that any of them to whom the Apostle did then speake shall be partakers of the first resurrection unlesse some of them who were Martyres for the honour and Glory of this first resurrection the most of them make it so rare and singular a priviledge that Daniel himselfe does not obtaine it but by a speciall promise Thirdly The time when God doth solemly before Men and Angels declare the absolution and blotting out of the sinnes of all his people is not before the last day But this is the time whereof the Apostle Peter speakes in the present place as appeares by the 19 verse That your sinnes may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Take but one other place for Christs aboade in the heaven till the last day John 14.2.3 I goe to prepare a place for you I will come againe and receive you to my selfe that where I am there you may be Behold Christ goes to the heaven and comes backe againe but once for this very end to take his Disciples with him not to abide with them upon the earth but to place them in the Mansions of his Fathers House in the Heavens which he went to prepare for them wherein all the time of his absence he himselfe was to remaine A Second argument we take from Christs sitting at the right hand of God This errour how innocent soever it seeme to some yet it perverts the true sence of sundry articles of our Creed and forceth its followers to coyne new and false senses to a great many Scriptures whereupon these articles were builded This was the reason why neither Piscator nor Alstedius nor Mead when they laide too fast hold upon some of the branches of Chiliasme yet the bulke and roote of that Tree Christs comming downe to the earth in his humane nature a thousand yeares before the last day they durst never touch but our Brethren have more venturous Spirits they see much further then their Masters they scruple nothing to make all these things popular and Catecheticke doctrine The reason I spoke of is this Christ sits at the right hand of God till the last day Ergo he comes not to reigne on earth a thousand yeares before the last day The consequence is builded upon this Proposition Christs sitting at the right hand of the Father is not in earth but in heaven which many Scriptures prove Ephes 1.20 He set him at his own right hand in heavenly places Heb. 1.3 He sat downe at the right hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 8.1 He is set on the right hand of the Throne of the Maiesty in the heavens The antecedent I prove thus He sits at the right hand of God till all his enemies be made his footstoole So speakes the Psalmist Psal 110.1 But all his enemies are not made his footstoole till the last day for till then Satan Sinne Death and all wicked men are not fully destroyed Our third argument we take from the resurrection of the dead All the Godly at Christs comming from heaven doe rise immediately to a Heavenly Glory Ergo none of them doe arise to a Temporall glory of a thousand yeares upon earth The antecedent see in Heb. 9.28 Vnto them that looke for him shall he appeare the second time without sin unto salvation Christ hath but two times of comming to the earth first in weakenes to die upon the Crosse The second time in glory to give eternall Salvation without distinction to all beleevers who looke for his comming Also 1 Thes 4.14 Them which sleepe in Jesus will he bring with him The Lord himselfe shall discend from heaven with a shout and the dead in Christ shall rise first then we which are alive shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meete the Lord in the ayre and so shall we be ever with the Lord. The ground of comfort which the Apostle propounds to the Thessalonians for all their dead as well Martyrs as others was their resurrection not before the Lords comming with the voice of the Archangell but at that time when all the dead in Christ without exception do arise and non of them abide on the earth but all are caught up in the ayre to meete the Lord and all remaine with him eternally thereafter without any separation See also 1 Cor. 15.22 In Christ shall all be made alive but every man in his owne order Christ the first fruits afterward they that are Christs at his comming then commeth the end when he shall have delivered up the Kingdome to God The Apostle here speakes of the Resurrection of all and particularly of the Martyrs such as with the Apostle dyed daily and every houre were in jepoardy and fought with Beasts although he professes to distinguish the diversity of order that might be in this great worke of the Resurrection yet he affirmes that these who are Christs do not arise till his comming and his comming he makes not to be
these promises upon earth till their Ierusalem were againe builded and they put in possession of the holy land to build their houses and plant their Uineyeards therein till they saw themselves put in possession of their present carnall legall hopes Yea T. G. his literall exposition of this and the like places goes beyond the most of the Iewish apprehensions For that any of the Talmudists do dreame that at the comming of the Messias the Lyon shall eate straw that the Leoparde and the Lambe the Serpent and the sucking childe shall be brought to such a sympathy of natures as not to have the least disposition to doe harme the one to the other That the life of men shall be so much at that time prolonged as one of an hundred yeares must be taken but for an Infant and a childe that the most fabulous of the Rabbins have gone thus farre in a litterall beleefe I doe not know His eight place is Heb. 2.5 8. For unto the Angells he hath not put in subjection the world to come but now we see not yet all things put under him whence he inferres that Christ in the world to come is to reigne and to have all things put under his feet which is not now performed the Apostle saying expressely that now all things are not put under him neither is this true in the life to come for then the Kingdome of Christ is rendred up to the Father Ans The world to come is not that imaginary world of the 1000 yeares whereof the Scripture speaks no thing but the dayes of the Gospell of which the Apostle is there speaking and shewing that the Gospell was administred not by Angells as the Law had beene upon Mount Sinai but by the Sonne of God himselfe This new world under the Gospell did differ more from the old world under the Law then the earth in the dayes of Noah and the Patriarchs after the floud from the earth in the dayes of Noah before the floud This new world of the Gospell began with Christs first comming in the flesh it was demonstrated in his Resurrection When all power in heaven and in earth was given to him Math. 28.18 When all the Angells of God did worshippe him Heb. 1 6. When he was set farre above all Principalities and Powers Ephes 1.21 The accomplishment of this world is not till the Last day when Death Hell and Satan which yet are not made Christs footstoole shall fully be conquered These things cannot be verified of the thousand yeares For according to Mr. Burrowes grounds before they begin many things are annihilated and so not made subject The heavens and elements are melted with fervent heate The earth and the workes thereof are burnt up with fire Also during these thousand yeares Christs chiefe enemies are not fully subdued death still hath dominion over men the devill is onely bound but yet alive and not cast into the lake His ninth place is Ier. 3.16.17 They shall say no more the Arke of the Covenant of the Lord neither shall it come to minde neither shall they remember it at that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord and all the Nations shall be gathered unto it neither shall they walke any more after the imagination of their evill heart Hence he inferres A state of the Church in the Last dayes so glorious that all things by-past shall be forgot That Judah and Israel shall returne from their captivity to Jerusalem That all Nations shall joyne with them That they shall no more walke after their old sinnes That Jerusalem which before times was at best but the footstoole of God shall then become a throne of glory Answer There is no word here of Christs abode upon earth for a thousand yeares Secondly the old things that are to be forgotten are expressed to be the Ceremonies of the Law but no Ordinance of the Gospell The Prophet names the Arke and the Temple which by Christs first comming were removed Thirdly The walking of Iudah and Israel together and the Nations joyning with them Imports no more but the calling of Iewes and Gentiles by the Gospell to the Christian Church the heavenly Ierusalem The same which the Prophet Esay hath in his second Chap. vers 5. The establishing in the Last dayes of the House of God on the top of the mountaines the flowing of all Nations thereto for out of Sion shall goe forth a Law and the Word of the Lord from Ierusalem These Last dayes were the dayes of the Apostles when they from Sion and Ierusalem did blow the Trumpet of the Gospell to all the Nations These were the times whereof Ieremy in the 15 verse of the Chapter in hand doth speake I will give you Pastors according to my heart which shall feede you with knowledge and understanding The Pastors there promised were Christ and his Apostles better Pastors then these God never sent neither ever shall send to his Church Fourthly Walking after Gods owne heart doth not import a freedome from all sinne but onely a state of grace wherein according to the new Covenant God gives his people a newheart and writes his Lawes upon the same Fifthly That whereupon the greatest weight of the argument is laid seemes to be a very groundlesse conceit That Ierusalem when it is a throne of glory must be the old Ierusalem builded againe as if Ierusalem under the Law and Ierusalem in the dayes of the Gospell the Church in the new Testament the mother of us all were but the footestoole of God This is a doctrine expresly against Scripture for in divers places Ierusalem Sion and the Arke even in the old Testament are called not onely the footstoole but the throne of God Ier. 14.21 Doe not abhorre us for thy names sake doe not disgrace the throne of thy glory Also Chap. 17.12 A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our Sanctuary The Lord did as it were sit upon the Mercy Seate as upon a chaire of State under the Canopy of the wings of the Cherubins within the Sanctuary the chamber of his most Majestuous presence Ierusalem under the new Testament is called not onely the throne of God but his footstoole Esay 40.13 To beautifie the place of my Sanctuary and I will make the place of my feete glorious This place our Brethren expound of the Sanctuary during the time of the thousand yeares However it is cleare it must be expounded of the Church in the same times whereof Ieremiah speakes in his third Chapter whence the Argument in hand is brought The tenth place is Dan. 2 44. And in the dayes of these Kings shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdome which shall never be destroyed and it shall stand for ever Whence is inferred an everlasting Kingdome of Christ a joy of Ierusalem unchangeable to any sorrow Answer Christs Everlasting Kingdome is meerely spirituall and heavenly That dominion which