children of the Resurrection shall be equal to the Angels Luke 20.36 and the bodie raised shall be not a natural but a spiritual bodie 1 Cor. 15.44 and therefore shall not need natural but spiritual refection and delight Sixthly Whereas the Church of God is either militant or triumphant either subject to temptations and exercised with crosses on earth or else crowned with victory and glory in heaven By this opinion the Church for so many years shall be neither or betwixt both out of heaven but reigning on earth without sin without ordinances And whereas the Church of God upon earth is a mixt societie of good and bad and is to continue such till the last the tares must grow with the wheat till the harvest which is the end of the world by this opinion the wheat shall grow alone without the tares the just reign without the unjust long before final consummation And Lastly According to the Millenarians new Creed the joy of the Saints in Gods presence and the pleasures at his right hand shall not be for evermore or perpetually continued but be broken asunder intermitted not with absolute misery but with happiness so far inferiour to that of heaven in degree and in kinde that it may well be interpreted and taken for a degree of unhappiness When Peter saw but a figure or glimpse of the celestial light he forgat all things would never by his good will have come down from the mount And can we think that the glorified Saints who are perfectly blessed with the sight of Gods face shall be rewarded with leaving heaven and coming down to enjoy the tastless pleasures of an earthly Paradise Had you observed your own rule you gave us before page 11. Contrary to things plain and fundamentall no difficult saying is to be enterpreted because it would be against the Analogie of Faith you would never have suffered your self to be carryed away with such a dream as this is A very learned Commentatour who telleth us he hestowed above thirtie years studie upon the book of the Revelation after all this saith he found it an easier matter to say what the thousand years are not than to say what they are or what is meant by them and yet there lyes your greatest strength of Chiliasm Saint Pauls Epistles are hard to be understood you could once alledge it to weaken the testimonie taken thence Is not S. Johns Revelation especially the twentieth Chapter much more hard In your first chapter you could spy a mote of Judaism where there was none but behold a beam here which you would not see while you interpret spiritual promises by a temporal kingdome which is the main and blinding errour of the Jews to this day Now I come to consider the Texts of Scripture upon which you ground this opinion 1 Cor. 15. 23. Every man shall rise in his own order and is that onely the just are they every man they that are Christs at his coming he says not then all men at his coming as men commonly say Elsewhere it is said All men good and bad shall rise at his coiming I named before joh 5.28 I name now Maith 25.31 When the Son of man cometh he shall separate one from another as the shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats must they not both be raised before they be separated 2 Thess 1. It is righteous to recompence rest to you who are troubled when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven taking vengeance of them that know not God 2 Tim. 4.1 Jesus Christ shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing if the quick and dead then the unjust and if they be judged they must be raised first And secondly whereas it is said Every man shall rise in his own order Unusquisque Every one extendeth no further than to Christ and his bodie mystical first Christ the Head and then those that beleeve in him not denoting any orderin beleevers as if one should rise before another much less doth it extend to unbeleevers or shew how they shall rise which is proved further because ver 22. To be made alive as I take it is never understood but of resurrection to life to which standeth in opposition resurrection to condemnation Why says Christ he that doth good shall be rewarded Luke 14.14 at the resurrection of the just if the just and unjust shall both rise together why speaks he of that as a distinct period He doth not speak of it as a distinct period of time but as of a distinct state Many things may differ very much which yet may come to pass together The prisoners that are innocent or that have obtained a pardon may call the Assizes the time of enlargement and delivery and yet upon the very judgement-day when they are acquitted and sent home other malefactours may be sent back to prison and execution 1 Cor. 15. 24. Then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the kingdome to God the Father Now plain it is that he shall not deliver up the kingdome then when the just shall rise for they shall reign with him wherefore also it is said He shall judge the quick and the dead at his coming and in his kingdome 2 Tim. 4.1 that implyes that he shall not deliver up the kingdome at his coming but when he hath reigned with his Saints that here suffered with him If Death be put down at his coming where is his reign till that be put down You loose your self and all that follow you in your confusions while you choose rather to lead the ignorant than to tread in the steps of the learned that have gone before you There is a twofold kingdome of our Saviour Jesus Christ The first Natural Absolute and Essential to him as he is God equal with the Father with whom he reigneth from everlasting to everlasting of this kingdome shall be no end and as he never received it of any so shall he never surrender it The other is a Ministerial or Oeconomical Kingdome belonging to him as he is Mediatour having all power given him in heaven and earth for the good and salvation of his Church whereof he is the Head This kingdome consisteth in dispensing his gifts diversly for the edification of his people by his Spirit Word Ministerie and Ordinance and in subduing Sin Satan Death and all enemies of what kinde soever This kingdome he hath received of his Father and shall at last deliver it up As if a king should give authority and commission to his eldest son to go and reduce to due obedience a rebellious countrey lying at some distance which work being done the son returneth renders up his Commission delivers to his Father the possssion of a peaceable kingdome yet ceaseth not to be his Fathers son as he was before The text you bring out of 2 Tim. 4.1 and that of Rom. 8.17 and 2 Tim. 2.11 12. do speak of the first kinde of kingdome But that of
of They shall not plant and another eat they shall not plant a tree and then never live to taste of the fruit but they shall last as long as the tree so it follows in that verse They shall long enjoy the work of their hands as elsewhere the just is compared to a tree for growth and continuance so here he is compared to this tree here spoken of Now your Authour after the Septuagint readeth thus As the days of the tree of life so shall the days of my people be The days of the tree of life he understood to be a thousand years which Adam should have lived had he not transgressed the law given But eating of the other tree the tree of knowledge he could never attain to that age nor any of his posteritie But that he took to be the age that men should live to after the first Resurrection Thirdly In those words of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you are to know that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is restrictive he doth not say that all Christians held it but they that were in all things orthodox did hold it because he held it himself and therefore held that to be a part of orthodoxy But some who were orthodox but not in all things did not hold it for you may read a little before that he confisseth Multos verò qui purae piaeque sunt Christianorum sententiae hoc non agnoscere Many pious and right good Christians did not acknowledge so much not regarding what some thought who were called Christians but were impious Atheists and blasphemous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every way or in all things And that learned writer who would without so much as pretending any copie insert a negative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth make Justin speak to this effect some blasphemous Atheists are orthodox Christians but not in all things Not those that are in all things impious but those that are in some things orthodox must stand in opposition to that limitation in all things orthodox Tertullian held this opinion too but it was when he was not a man of the Church but had fallen to Montanism and this was a piece of his Montanism too as he saith in his third book against Marcion cap. 24. Novae prophetiae sermo testatur it was witnessed by the new prophesie but this we might not know because you were in hast Lactantius also was of this minde but his chief proofs were partly from the Sibyls with Virgils Eclogue and partly from the prophesies of the old Testament which he understood litâ—rally and marvelously whereas we be taught by the Apostle Peter Act. 2.16 and by the Apostle James Act. 15.15 to apply those prophesies to the time of the new Testament or Christs first not his second coming Now because you give this regard to ancient writers and the ages foregoing I will produce one argument of this kinde against your Millenarian belief and then conclude this chapter and it is this That opinion which was generally condemned by the Church of Christ and was afterwards upheld by none for above the space of a thousand years is no Catholick doctrine nor sound belief But this opinion that Christ Jesus should raise his Saints and reign with them upon earth for the space of a thousand years being condemned was not held by any for above the space of a thousand years Therefore it is no Catholick doctrine The Major I hope needeth no proof with you at this time but because it may seem not safe or good discretion to adventure much upon a Negative I desire leave to mollifie and interpret the Minor with this request that I may have libertie to think so untill you be able to produce some instance to the contrarie And the space I mean is that betwixt S. Hierom who opposed it and the Anabaptists who revived it And if there be any policie in the Papists coyning the lives of some of our Reformers to discredit their doctrine I am sure it is no credit to any opinion to claim parentage or resuscitation from the Anabaptists CHAP. XI How God had power enough to help man TO the Question What God had done for man when part of your Answer was That God had power enough to help him I noted that though your Answer was true yet it seemed to argue thus He can do it therefore he hath done it which I said is not safe And I suspected a dark insinuation of this that God had done all he could do to help man being fallen Hereupon in this Chapter although you are angrie with me for collecting any such thing so much as by way of intimation from your words And although secondly you charge the adverse partie with thinking so yet in the third place you own and acknowledge it to be true what I said might be darkly gathered from your Answer and you think it must pose me and all men else to tell What he could have done more as if you cared not what you say so you may revile and contradict It must be left to the Reader to compare the first of these with the third and to judge whether there be wrong offered to you or to your companion who would not beleeve but that God releeved the whole world when he had means and opportunity you needed not to except against me for saying That in things of this world we walk by sight and to say that it seems I walk so rather then by faith The Apostle Paul did walk by Faith and gives this the reason why he did so because he was absent from the Lord and saw him not but in things of this life he did walk by fight Be pleased therefore to know that in that saying of the Apostles 2 Cor. 5.7 We walk by faith not by sight the word Faith is taken in a proper and strict meaning as it stands opposed to sight and it is called the evidence of things not seen In things of this present world we walk by sight not by faith not by faith strictly taken yet by faith largely taken we may walk in this life and yet walk by sight too like as Thomas both saw and beleeved Augnst Enchirid. 8. Melius hanc appellamus Fidem quà m divina eloquia docuerunt éarum scilicet rerum quae non videntur It is best to call that by the name of Faith which is of things not seen as holy Scripture useth to speak You prove that your Adversaries hold God cannot help the most part of men because D r. K. said He can have no new immanent Act of will So then that onely which he hath willed be can do and our partie may answer He had not power enough for he cannot will anew concerning them and he had so willed already as to tie his hands You seem to speak both ignorantly and unreverently of Gods Attributes It is no wonder you should be jealous of our liberty who are afraid lest Gods Decrees should deprive him of his own
abuses of Popery were to be reformed not onely the wel-minded laid to their hands but persons also worldly godless and enemies to Religion joyned with the rest in the destructive part but intended to promote Atheisme when they set themselves against Superstition Hereticks also whose opinions lay on that side were zealous in their manner but their zeal was more like Wild-fire which they threw in to have marred all if it might have been For after that Antiquity came to be a badge ot Popery then 1 whatsoever was found to have been practised by the Papists in Church-orders was for that reason rejected Not a stone must be taken from Babylon for a foundation or a corner If the least matter of all were yielded it was as a pepper-corn in acknowledgement of the Antichristian Government And 2 even the most sacred Articles of our Christian Faith have been denyed as having come from Rome and thither were to be returned So the name of Antichrist the Beast and the Dragon served the turne for many heresies for all profaneness A Discourse came forth entituled The storming of Antichrist a right proper and well chosen word of which they know the meaning who had experience of the Wars and laying siege to Towns and strong places and assaulting them storms of winde tempests of hail and of Lightning do spare nothing that is in their way having no regard shewing no mercy making no difference for being meer naturall Agents they always act according to their utmost power and might So describes the Poet his hardy Souldiers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not likening them to Wolves and Lions which have been known to relent and their mouths have been as it were stopped but they fought as it were a flame fell on like a tempest noting saith the great Scholiast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they were irrationally impetuous violent without sense or reason without mean or measure And much like these stormers were some of those that went among our Reformers both first and last You seem to extend Beast-worship very far even to those matters in question betwixt us But you give no instance nor shall I insist upon any I know you can if you will distinguish betwixt Poperie and the Christian Religion and if you do not consider apart what belongs to one and what belongs to the other what to Errour and what to Truth you may soon do that which tendeth to the weakening and undermining of the whole building Divers of the Papists have twitted us with the Jews laying to our charge Judaisme for refusing some Apocryphal books and for condemning Image worship as the Jews do now and for saying that a man cannot forgive sins as they also said and for insisting upon the Law of Moses and the precedents of the old Testament to prove that unto Christian Kings belongeth the supremacy in ordering matters of Religion in a Nation he that argueth thus say they is more like a Jew than a Christian The Anabaptists had learned this Lesson too for when they were bent upon such a confusion as should take away the difference betwixt Clergie and Laitie they were wont upon occasion to revile the Priests and Levites as blinde and ignorant 〈◊〉 demanding of John the Baptist by what authority he did what he did as if observation of order in the Church and pretence of Authoritie in Gods worship and service were points of Judaical blindness and infidelity Against all these and such like let us remember that the Jews were once the onely true Church of God and our Christianity came to us from them and through their hands we are all but proselytes to their Church So that as they had once all the Substantials of the true Religion both for belief and practice we cannot suppose but that they do retain many of them still In like manner the Christian Religion came to us through the Church of Rome not from the Church of Rome and our profession is but to remove the additions and superstructures of the Papists by which the right belief and worship have been corrupted and to throw out the earth with which the Philistims had filled the well and stopped the springs Antichrists are many there is false worship on both hands Anarchie is beastly doing as well as Tyrannie and Confusion as much as Usurpation I cannot but think some prejudice a-against my person I know not wherefore being so meer a stranger to him hath clouded his reason By this Clause he that will may judge of all your book as of the sack by a handfull for it is like the rest full of confidence but void of reason as if your Doctrine were so blameless that nothing could be spoken against it Perhaps against your person some may harbour prejudice but against what you teach and write no man unless his reason be overclouded can justly except You should have been well assured first that there was any such prejudice born against you before you took such thought and put your self to a loss in seeking what might be the cause of it For my part I am as much to seek what should be any the very least ground of such a vain surmise Some little while after the comming forth of this your Piece a friend of mine and of yours too who doth nor much give his mind to read Controversies nor was at that time much inclined out of his good nature to pitie my condition did ask me thus Who bade you begin And because this question is very consonant to your sense I will now give you the Answer to it And first if my charge which is that I began be in reference to those multitudes of right-believing Christians who have a long time been offended at your Doctrine My Defence is this that if any other whosoever had before endeavoured to hinder the spreading of your errours then as I could not have begun so I would not have followed There arose indeed some contest between the Reverend Doctor and your self about Vniversity-learning but for other Heterodoxies of yours no man so far as I know gave notice or publick warning I began therefore because none other would though very many much better might But I suppose the meaning of the question was not why I rather than another but why I would begin with you when as you gave me no provocation But I pray consider well they are the Schismaticks who though they abide give just occasion unto others for to depart He that denies the debt begins the sute and he that invades my right sends for the process Will you not give others leave to defend their own against you and and to continue in the things that they have learned and contend for the Faith once delivered to them which you with your Innovations and inventions have corrupted you began when you taught and promoted so many opinions contrary to what we have received when you wrought upon the people to draw them after you when at