of Mediatorial Glory and Fruition that is the Errour that corrupteth all your confident discourses The Office of our Redeemer is to Recover sinful man to God and restore him to purity from sin and all the curse or punishment for sin yea and to advance him to a more perfect and confirmed state And Christs Reward for this is the everlasting Joy that was set before him in the fruition of the Divine Complacency and in the perfect and glorious Headship to his perfected glorified Church for ever Let us consider 1. Which of these is Given up to the Father And 2. What Giving up to the Father is And 3. When it is done § 19. 1. The first all grant is to be Given up The Kingdom of Recovery but not the Kingdom of Fruition That of Grace not that of Glory As a Prince commissioned to be General for the reduction of Revolted Rebels brings them down by degrees and having slain some and reduced the rest he giveth up his Commission and is General no more for his work is done But he hath after the promised Reward and Honour and may under the King rule them as recovered Or as a Physician that hath an Hospital or infected City to cure giveth up that work when it is perfectly finished So Christ giveth up the Kingdom of Redemption when he hath done that work 2. But this Giving up is no deposing of Christ nor is he less but more gloriously King than before Nor is God the Father any more King than before It 's no diminution to Christs Royalty nor any addition to the Fathers I shall prove this before I go further § 20. 1. By comparing this Text with Joh. 5. 22. The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgment to the Son And yet the Father Governeth no less than he did before and is not deposed by giving up all Government to the Son Only the quality of the Subject and the terms of his Government are altered Creation is in Scripture eminently ascribed to the Father and Redemption to the Son The Father as Creator Governed Man in his Integrity to preserve and perfect him Man being faln into sin and misery the Son as Redeemer Governeth Man as a Physician his Patients in order to his cure The Father now judgeth no Man as sinless according to the Law of Innocency but hath committed the Government of all to the Son as his Administrator and Physician in order to their cure This is but altering the way of Government And it is the Subjects of the Kingdom that are called The Kingdom who are now restored and delivered up to the Father without blemish spot or wrinkle that he may henceforth Govern them as a perfectly healed People according to the Law of Perfection The Father now judgeth no less by the Son than before in another way § 21. 2. I prove the continuance of the Kingdom of the Son in the way of Fruition and Glory by the Promise hereof made to him by the Father The Covenant of Mediation hath Obligations laid on the Son and Promises of a glorious Kingdom as merited by his performance of his part And doth his performance dispossess him of his promised Reward when it was the condition of his Title to it It 's tedious to cite all Texts that prove it § 22. 3. The Promises are made to Christ that his Kingdom shall be an everlasting Kingdom and have no end And therefore ceaseth not by the delivery mentioned And though the Hebrew word commonly translated for ever oft signifie but a long time or many Generations yet in the Texts intimated there is no reason for such a limitation If God say that of his Kingdom there shall be no end let the deniers prove their denial § 23. 4. Christ hath promised to make them that overcome Pillars in his Temple and they shall go out no more which he could not perform if he go out himself or lose his Kingly Power And he saith That the Children of God and the Resurrection are equal to the Angels and die no more And sure he can make their state no more durable than his own And it is called Life Eternal which we shall possess And shall Christ have less than we § 24. 5. Christs Humane Nature will be perpetuated and therefore so will his glorious Kingdom No Text speaketh of his ceasing to be Man but many contrary And who should then presume to assert it I know Smeckfeldius held that Christ ceased to be Man as soon as he entred Heaven But the Church called it a Heresie As on Earth he was to be Man like us in flesh so in Heaven where flesh and blood cannot enter yet he will make our vile bodies like to his glorious body § 25. 6. The state of Reward is an Advancement and not a Diminution as to us so to Christ Phil. 2. 9 10. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow of things in Heaven and things on Earth and things under the Earth and that every Tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father § 26. 7. Christ hath promised us that we shall be with him where he is and prayed that we may there behold his glory which is plainly to say that when he hath been the Mediator of Redemption he will be the Mediator of Fruition that is that we shall see Gods Glory as shining to us in the glorified Humanity of Christ For as we shall have Bodies in Heaven as well as Souls so our Bodies will have a suitable Medium of Communion with God § 27. 8. If Christs Humane Nature should cease its Glory ours by the same reason would do so too But that is contrary to the hopes of Faith § 28. 9. Angels Glory and Being is perpetuated And therefore Christs Humane Kingdom and Glory who is above them will not cease § 29. 10. There is Executive Government by Christ to be exercised after the supposed Thousand years Therefore he shall Reign after to perform it The Redeemed Believers must be Rewarded to Eternity and he must save to the utmost all that come to God by him He must continue and perpetuate their Reward and Happiness For they must live as his Members because he liveth And I doubt not but if you are for ending Christs Kingdom after a Thousand years you will be for the ending of ours And he hath his Enemies to punish longer than a Thousand years Luk. 19. 27. And I believe that you are for ending their punishment then if you would end Christs Kingdom then Rev. 6. 16. It is the Wrath of the Lamb that is to be executed on the Enemies of the Lamb It was against him and his Grace that they sinned and it is he that cometh in flaming fire to execute Judgment on all that know not God and obey not the Gospel And doth punishment end with
with the Leaves of the Tree of Life which made Mr. Potter and many others conclude that it is the glory of the Church on Earth that the 21 and 22 Chapters describe Though it is most probable that it is but as a representation of the heavenly Glory But the Thousand years is plainly ended before the Resurrection 8. The plain meaning that Though the Old Serpent will still be a Tempting Deceiver both without the Church and within yet as a Dragon or Babylonish Conqueror and Captivater he shall be bound up for a Thousand years after the Churches delivery from the Pagan Captivity And so he was And yet the Text tells us that all that while the Earth had Nations of Enemies that at last were by that Dragon drawn to assault the Church again Here is not a word of a Thousand years New Earth in which dwelleth Righteousness and that after the Conflagration and Resurrection The New Earth is mentioned with no such limitation That 's all the device of presuming imagination Principle IX Answered § 1. The Recovering Victorious Gracious Kingdom is ended in the glorions triumph of his Appearing and Judgment and his glorious Kingdom of Fruition then beginneth That all his Kingdom then beginneth is a falshood largely confuted by Christs own mouth And as false is it that the Kingdom of Recovery or Grace is not given up till a Thousand years after the Resurrection That this is before the Kingdom of Eternity is false in any proper sense If you mean a Kingdom from Eternity without beginning you should prove that ever there was such Your bare naming it so is no proof If there were no men from Eternity then there was no Kingdom of men If you mean that which shall endure to Eternity so will Christs glorious Kingdom as Man over Men. For many and many Scriptures tell us it hath no end and is everlasting And he that accuseth others of Semi-Sadduceism of the Apostasie should consider whether denying the Kingdom of Christ and his Saints in glorified Humanity as soon as a Thousand years as one day are ended be not liker Sadduceism and Apostasie than our believing the everlastingness of it § 2. When your own presumption hath defined it to be a Thousand years you may as boldly assign its time and place But I have proved that the Scripture confuteth your time and that a moment and the twinkling of an eye and the last Trump sounding is not a Thousand years And therefore no such space as the whole Kingdoms duration between the Resurrection and the living caught up § 3. Paul saith Phil. 3. 19 20. that the Saviour that we look for from Heaven shall change our vile Bodies and make them like to his Glorious Body He speaketh not as you of four Bodies and three Changes 1. A Natural sinful Body turned into a Paradise Body 2. And that called Vile turned into a Glorious Body 3. And that ceasing left to a Divine Eternal Body 3. I have oft told you that the Paradise Body or Mortality is none of the Curse or Enemy to be subdued Principle X. Answered § 1. We have better thoughts of the New Heaven and Earth than you have we expect both to be of longer continuance than a Thousand years § 2. That it is the Saints remaining that dwell on the New Earth a Thousand years before they are caught up is your word and not Gods that I can find God can replenish that New Earth as he did this or how else he please Principle XI Answered § 1. Whatever they are Called you confess that the wicked Rise And that they are not cast into the Lake of Fire till the last of the Thousand years is only your word If they have a Thousand years Life of further tryal why may they not repent and scape Principle XII Answered § 1. The Fifth Monarchy is Christs whole Kingdom 1. As he preparatorily Governed by the Word Miracles and Spirit 2. As he visibly Set up and Ruled by the Christian Emperours and Kings 3. As he at last entereth on the Kingdom of Glory and Fruition Your Fiction of another is but your own word And now I have done what in the Enterance and Conclusion you provokingly Challenge all Persons believing the Scriptures to do and shew that while you say you Boast in the Word of God and not in your self it is by giving us your own word not only for Gods Word but against it The Lord heal and forgive our weakness and the ignorance of our ignorance It greatly hindereth the Edification of your Readers that you so much use terms General and Equivocal that unexplained signifie nothing And so every Book needeth another to Expound it and that may as much need another Some think this is because you would not be understood your Doctrine being not able to bear the Light Others think it is because you understand not your self and therefore cannot speak intelligibly confused Notions having but confused Expressions The instances are more than I will recite As e. g. You place Christs Kingdom so often in his and his Saints Appearance as no Reader can discern but you mean such Appearance to Mans visive Faculty in these Fleshly Bodies as if now in Heaven Christ and Angels and the Spirits of the Just did not Appear to one another because they appear not to us As if the Intuition of Spirits and Spiritual Bodies were not a more eminent discerning than our Eye-sight Sure there is a more noble sight than that of Mortals So no Man can tell by your phrase of swallowing up in God and that Christ was from Eternity and shall be to Eternity the Word and Man imbodied whether you mean that he was an Individual Man distinct from any others or the Universal Soul of the World imbodied in Matter And by your talk of our being One in God as we were before the World began none can tell whether you mean that we were Existent or only in Potentia Creatoris And if Existent whether we were God or parts of God or individual Souls made from Eternity for future Bodies and kept till those Bodies were made And whether kept in Revolution from Body to Body Or how And whether we shall have a future Revolution So your Doctrine of the Hell of the Devils and the Damned can tell no Man whether you think that after the Thousand years they shall not be as dead under meer privation since you say Catech. p. 5. and 22. It is a state of deprivation of Glory and casting into the Lake of Fire signifieth final and utter cessation of all action And that they shall not appear but be unseen c. And if they have no Action they have no sinful Action no Self-accusation no Intellection no Malice nor Revenge nor Hatred of God and Goodness So your Doctrine of the Kingdom of Christ I cannot believe you so notorious an Infidel as to deny Christs Kingdom in Heaven and Earth till the Resurrection And yet
he begins to reign His Kingdom and the Resurrection of his Saints begin together § 10. I confess this Doctrine well agreeth with Doctor More 's Life of Tryal in the Air and Mr. Mede's Conclusion that our Salvation is not ascertained to us till the Resurrection Indeed it maketh all our Preaching and Religion in this life of little moment in comparison of that which is after both Death and Resurrection For if Christ Reign not till then he maketh no Laws till then He bindeth us to no obedience to him till then He punisheth no sin till then He setteth up no Magistrates till then to be Governing Officers in his Kingdom He executeth no Discipline in the Churches as King O how have Independents and Presbyterians been deceived then who have lamented the neglect or suppression of Christs Kingly Government in the Church It is then under his Thousand years Government that men must obey to secure their Salvation § 11. But the contrary is fully evident by the Effects 1. What new Laws he will make in the Air you must prove But we can prove that he made Laws for Government on Earth 2. Else the World hath had no King or Government of God 3. Nor no authorized Prince or Pastor 4. All Saints can say that he giveth Rewards on Earth to Believers 5. And he is the Protector of his Church 6. He here is known by the Judgments which he executeth and maketh his Enemies his footstool though their final Fall be at the last Did he not in that Kingly glory described by John execute all those Plagues on Pagan Rome and its Beast which are gradually described in the Seals the Trumpets and the Vials till it fell If you say that all this is meant of Papal Rome sure I am it was done first on Pagan Rome And you that tell us how shortly Turk and Pope shall fall sure take it to be before the Resurrection And doth not Christ then make his Enemies his footstool by his Kingly Power 12. What it is for Christ to subdue his Enemies must be known by his Office and Undertaking which is to overcome Satan and to save his People from their sins And did he not conquer Satan as a Tempter and triumph even on the Cross And doth he not conquer the Dominion of sin in all his Members Is he not mortifying them in us day by day And is not this treading down his Enemies And is he not taking off the Curse the fruit of sin These are Christs Enemies because they are ours even the diseases which he came to cure § 13. Is it not unreconcileable self-contradiction for you to extol the Doctrine of Dr. Crisp who saith That we are so fully saved by Christ even before Conversion that we have no sin it being none of ours but his nor can any sin hurt us much less other mens nor any penalty befal us nor any place left for any duty to do us the least good and yet that Christ our Saviour subdueth not his Enemies before the Resurrection Yea your self assert that we are Righteous by Gods Essential Righteousness and that as our only Justification and Holiness And yet doth not Christ tread down his Enemies Hath he trod down in you no Pride no Lust no Errour no Injustice Doth he not tread down greater Enemies than Turkish Swords or Papal Inquisitions in every Soul that he converteth When we fight not against flesh and blood but against Principalities and Powers and spiritual wickedness in high places And when we are but killed and counted as Sheep to the slaughter in all this we are more than Conquerours and need not fear them that kill the body § 14. Rev. 5. 12 13. The numberless Host of Heaven cry Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing and is not that a Kingdom and is it not till the Resurrection And every creature which is in Heaven and on the Earth and under the Earth and such as are in the Sea and all that are in them heard I saying Blessing and honour and glory and power be to him that sitteth on the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever This is before the Resurrection § 15. Rev. 12. 7. If Michael be not Christ he is Christs Servant And there was War in Heaven and Michael and his Angels fought against the Dragon and the Dragon fought and his Angels and prevailed not neither was there place found any more in Heaven And the great Dragon was cast out that old Serpent called the Devil and Satan who deceiveth the whole World He was cast out into the Earth and his Angels were cast out with him And I heard a voice saying in Heaven Now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God and the Power of his Christ for the accuser of our Brethren is cast down who accused them before our God day and night And they overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb and by the Word of their Testimony and they loved not their lives unto the Death Therefore rejoice ye Heavens and ye that dwell in them Woe to the Inhabitants of the Earth and of the Sea For the Devil is come down to you having great wrath because he knoweth that he hath but a short time He may make his own Faith that will affirm that this describeth no Kingdom of Christ or no Conquest of his Enemies or that all this is after the Resurrection or yet to come and none of it yet fulfilled § 16. Rev. 14. 7 8. Fear God and give Glory to him for the hour of his Judgment is come Babylon is faln is faln This is a Judgment and a treading down Enemies before the final Judgment And so is the Reaping and the Wine-press mentioned ver 13. to the end § 17. Were all the seven Vials poured out after the Resurrection c. 16. Or were there no treading down of the Enemies of King Jesus Ch. 17. 12 14. The Beast and his ten Kings make war with the Lamb and the Lamb shall overcome them for he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings and they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful This is a Conquest before the Resurrection Ch. 18. Is yet more full herein about all the Fall and Plagues of Babylon Over whom Heaven and Earth are called to rejoyce And it was certainly before the Resurrection that the Kingdoms of the World are said to become the Kingdoms of Christ And the three last Chapters describing the Glory of the delivered Church on Earth as representing the heavenly Glory is yet the fullest proof of all § 18. By all this it is evident that you call that Christs Kingdom as begun which is but his Kingdom in triumph and maturity as if a man were no man till he is at full Age. But it is your not distinguishing the Kingdom of Mediatorial Redemption recovery and acquisition from the Kingdom
that had been Tributary or Subject to the Pagan Empire so quickly followed the success of Constantine and the Christian Arms and turned against the Pagan Idolatry it is utterly incredible that multitudes of the Infidel Jews did not the same No one Nation turned all at once And no one National Church under Heaven were all that I say not the most sincerely holy Christians The visible Church still consisted mostly of temporizing Men that came in to Christianity for worldly Interest over-awed by Christian Power Till it came to this the Christians were a persecuted party and no National Church And the unbelieving Jews were not like to be so free from the Love of the Flesh and VVorld as not to do as others did Christ Riding victoriously on the VVhite Horse and Conquering his Enemies brought the Nations to Submission after he had by the Word and Martyrdom purified to himself a holy Generation As all the Revelation fully telleth us Therefore if Judea was not made a National Church no other Nation was made such Zonaras saith that many hired by Money turned Christians Two Hundred Thousand turned Christians for fear in their Troubles at Toledo in Spain whither they were long before sent And Forty Fryars were sent to instruct them After that Ferrerius converted many Read but the Chronological Tables of my worthy Friend Mr. Fr. Tallents and you shall find how they were hated hunted and destroyed in Spain France and almost all Christians Nations except Rome and how many turned seeming Christians for fear Chap VII Whether there be any Jerusalem Monarchy of Jews or any further Conversion of them more than of other Men promised by God § 1. I know of no such Promise in Gods Word but I find it in many Books of Men and I hear of it in the Prayers and Sermons of many Men so good and of so good repute that divers of my Friends disswade me from so much as giving my Reasons against it lest I lose my Reputation with such Men and lest I occasion a Division by contradicting them And is it come to that Must our Concord be held on such humane loose and unsound terms Is this savouring the things of God or of Men If it be proved an Errour taking Gods Name in vain polluting Sacred Worship and adding to the Word of God must we by silence promote a Concord in it I only humbly propose the Reasons of my dissent to the tryal of wiser Men. § 2. 1. It belongeth to the Affirmers to produce their proofs But I can find no Text cited by them that to a sober search hath any such proof 1. As to the many Texts of the Prophets of the uniting of Judah and Israel under David their King and the Jews repossessing their own Land and the Subjection of their Enemies and the Neighbour Nations to them and the great Slaughters of Gog and Magog in their Land c. 1. Let the Grandeur of Prophetical stile he allowed for and this compared with the Prophecies against Babylon Tyre Sion Moab Edom c. 2. Read the whole Text and you will find most express passages that cannot be applyed to any such time and use as this in question but plainly speak of their return from Captivity and their following state It would too much swell my Book to try and vindicate all the particular Texts Mr. James Calvert having already done it in his Naphthali yet unanswered 3. Confound not the Immediate Sense of the Prophesie with the remote and set not one against the other the several parts and degrees that make up the whole Many Prophesies in the Psalms are spoken immediately of David but as he was a Type of Christ in whom they were though remotely yet chiefly fulfilled The Prophesies of the honour of the Jews and their Restoration had divers degrees of fulfilling 1. They were primarily fulfilled in the return from Captivity and the Power that followed under Zorubbabel and the Maccabees 2. They were further fulfilled by the Coming of the Messiah of the Seed of Abraham and David in whom all the Nations of the Earth are blessed 3. They were further fulfilled at Christs Resurrection Ascension and Effusion of the Holy Ghost and the many Thousands of them Converted And their spreading the Gospel over the Gentile World 4. It was yet more fulfilled when Dominion was given to Christians and the fulness of the Gentiles brought in all Israel and settled a National Church in Judea and put all their Enemies in subjection to the Catholick Church of Jewish and Gentile Christians reconciled in one Body the partition Wall being broken down 5. It will be yet more fulfilled in the New Heaven and Earth under the Gospel there is neither Circumcision not Uncircumcision but Christ is All and in All How much more in the New World He that would promise to redeem Christians from Turkish Captivity and restore them to their own Land and prosper and honour them there if they will obey him must not be thought to confound the several benefits and degrees of this Promise He that will lead you into an upper Chamber includeth every step of the Stairs that you ascend and the promise of helping you up the first step includeth not the last but tendeth to it and if you obey will lead you further 4. Read the Book of the Maccabees and other History that you may not be ignorant of what is already done For instance How the great Ruine of Gog and Magog so Hyperbolically set out was fulfilled on the Syrian and Graecian Armies of which see the Assembly Mens Annotations § 3. II. Their next seeming proof is from Rom. 11. of which I have proved how much is fulfilled already besides which I find no more there promised than to all the Church in the New World 1. God cast not away the fore-known Elect v. 1 2 to 11. 2. Through their Fall and Infidelity persecuting the Christians from among them the Gospel came to the Gentiles v. 12. 3. It was but some of the Branches that were broken off v. 17. 4. As the casting away of them was the converting and reconciling of the Pagan World so their receiving was as a Resurrection of life from the dead v. 15. 5. The Converted Gentiles were but grafted in among them and partakers with them and not without them of the fatness of the Olive v. 17. 6. Not the Root but the some Branches that were broken off was that we might be grafted in v. 19. It was chiefly the Priests and Rulers and the self-cursed Rabble that followed them and yet some Priests and Pharisees were converted 7. If they continue not in Gods Goodness the Gentiles also shall be broken off v. 22. So much of conditionality is in the Promise And yet there is more Scripture to expect that the Gentiles shall not be broken off than that there shall be any more National Conversion of the Jews 8. The promise of restoring the broken Branches is If they continue