then keep his Paradise Saints Qu. 12. Or if the New Earth fall away did not the holy City consist most of Hypocrites and is that the Glory of it We are now in surer keeping than Adam and the faln Angels were None shall take us out of Christ's hands Qu. 13. Doth not this leave us to fear that those in the New Heaven also may fall away as the Angels did Qu. 14. For will there not after the Seventy five years preparation be as good people found on Earth as those that died before Why then think you that those alive shall be set so far below the rest as to have but an earthly generating life when the rest are in Heaven And Christ saith The last shall be first and the first last Qu. 15. Why say you that the Laodicean Apostasie is no greater a wonder than Adams and the Angels Is the New World in no better a state Then the New Jerusalem may become Devils Qu. 16. You say Christ being to put an end to a Church-state on Earth may suffer so just an occasion for spewing out of his mouth But do you honour or dishonour the Glorious Kingdom to feign it to have such an end That lasting but one day a Thousand years it should end in being spewed out for ever Qu. 17. What Word of God have you for your Opinion that there shall never more be an Earth or a Church on Earth And that God who is delighted in his wondrous works will have none of these Worlds from eternity to eternity but only for seven days seven Thousand years Qu. 18. Peter tells us of the burning of the Earth but not of the ending of it How come you to know so much more than he ever intimated or seemed to know Qu. 19. To say that Heaven and Earth have so unhappy an end doth it not tempt men to Manicheising to think that an ill God made this world Qu. 20. Did not something within you reluctate when you cited 2 Pet. 3. for the Thousand years duration of the Kingdom As if you argued Peter tells the unbelievers Delay of Christ's coming should not make you think that he will not come For a Thousand years delay is with God but as a year Ergo his Kingdom will be but a Thousand years Is this to expound Prophecy Qu. 21. Is it more faulty in a Plato Zeno or other Pagans to conjecture at Transmigrations of Souls revolutions of Worlds or with Aristotle to think the World was an eternal Effect of an eternal Cause Or for a Christian to say Thus saith the Lord and pawn God's Word for his erroneous conjectures Your Arguments are too long and loose for any Mood and Figure or Reason Arg. I. King of Kings is a Title fit for a great Kingdom c. What then Ergo it proveth a Middle Kingdom between that of Recovering Grace and Resurrection Glory I deny the consequence no Kingdom is fitter for those Titles than that of Grace and final Glory This is not proving It 's false that Christ hath not yet been an Universal Monarch Pag. 15. Your 2d Argument as the rest is but a repeating of your own formally confuted Opinions without any reply to the Confutation as if you had nothing to do but assert again what you think 1 Cor. 15. 24. Is your proof Then cometh the end And is the Thousand years the end and not the Glorious Kingdom of fruition Judgment will end by Triumph the Kingdom of Acquisition But the eternal Kingdom will be the last 2. Your denial of a Distinct Glory of Christ's Humanity before and after the Thousand years is certainly untrue If the Divine and Humane Nature be distinct the Glory of each must needs be distinct tho' not divided VVhy obtrude you gross things unproved 3. Your intimation that God doth then begin to be All in All and Christ to be Subject in some special sense hath no proof from the Text nor if proved is it any thing for your purpose 1. The Text speaks of no such beginning But that though Christ hath done his Conquering work yet still God shall be All in All things as he was 2. Yet we grant that it speaks of Christ's ending his Kingdom of Conquest and Acquisition and the Deity now Governing Man as restored not needing any more recovery I oft tell you as the King's Son made General to reduce Rebels giveth up his Generalship when he hath reduced them but hath after the promised honour and reward but as a Subject still not a Captain Pag. 16. You say that our Exposition chargeth on the Apostle Impropriety of speech but you do but say so and we deny it Is it not proper speech to say that a General giveth up his Office and yet remaineth an honoured rewarded Subject Ruler Indeed had it been as you feign it said to become subject it would have seemed to signifie that he then began to be subject But that 's your addition yet you before confest that he was subject before 2. I told you Distinguishing is not Separating And I told you wherein the difference consisteth which you confute not 3. To your 2d Reason I find no such Scripture as you talk of that mentioneth any middle Kingdom but a Triumphant Judgment perfecting the Kingdom of Grace and beginning that of Endless Glory The admirable agreement which you mention seemeth to me to be but an agreement of your conceit Your 3d Argument from Luk. 22. 29 30. saith nothing of a third Kingdom All that is there said seemeth to me fulfilled without a third Pag. 17. Is not that you plead for of the Humane Nature as united to the Eternal Word How can it else be any Kingdom of Christ But both that of Grace and Glory are such but not without the Relation of Mediatorship By Constituted I suppose you mean not essential to the nature or person without respect to the Office as the product of God's VVill And such is the Everlasting Kingdom It is the Reign of the Man Jesus united to the Godhead as Mediator of Acquisition first and then of Fruition and this over creatures I fear it is dangerously untrue therefore that you say That the Kingdom of the Humane Nature is united to the Eternal Word and communicating with it is an Essential and not a Constitutive Kingdom Essential to what Is the Humane Nature and a World of Creatures essential to God It is essential to it self that is it is what it is But can you prove that the Humane Nature was or shall ever be united to the Deity without its Relation of Mediator It is Christ's will that those given him be with him and see his Glory And that sight is of the Mediator of Fruition and did he limit that sight to a Thousand years To your 2d 1. You have not proved that the Apostles yet sit not on Thrones of Judgment They are equal with Angels 2. If yet they do not may it not be at Judgment
Language And can you not stay on the mentioning of it What else should all your Book have been but your clearing of this one Text You promise to prove abundantly that it cannot possibly be understood of any time past But I see no hope of your performance I once more intreat the Reader to read John Fox his Oath of what God from Heaven revealed to him to the contrary Martyrol Vol. I. p. 111. and in his Lat. Expos of the Revelations even that John Fox who was no Papist and thought Prophetical when he told Mrs. Honiwood despairing in Melancholy how she should recover and live to be old when in unbelief she threw a Glass to the Wall or Ground and took it up whole and fulfilled his Prophesie But you have fitted the rest of your Exposition of the Revelations to your Exposition of the 1000 years and then you think that fitness proveth all your Point But if I shew that all these Texts were performed on Pagan Rome it is not your finding Papal Rome to be like it that will justifie your sense It were an impertinent work to shew here that the Revelation hath a far different sense from what you give it Pag. 27. Your 2d Point therefore is of another Controversie which this in hand depends not on unless you confess that you have no other proof of the Thousand years Kingdom but Rev. 20. and that it was not fulfilled heretofore I am past doubt that Pagan Rome was Babylon mentioned in Rev. But whether Papal Rome be another Babylon I leave to enquiry But if all your Cause lie on that one Text I think it hath no good foundation Many Expositors think those Thousand years long ago past as well as John Fox Grotius and Hammond I am sure they are before the War of Gog and Magog and you must say more yet before you can make me believe that this is another World by all the wicked dead and raised I have by me an Answer to all your Arguments on this Subject and more not here to be repeated Tho' your confidence by the advantage of prejudice may seem to many to justifie all your heavy charges on the true Opinion that the Thousand years there mentioned are past Pag. 38. I find all assertive and the repetition of what you have formerly said without true Argument or Answer Arg. 1. Is it not the Eternal Word in our Nature Mediator that is the Son of Man and Christ our Lord What a distinction is here Arg. 2. Isa 66 speaks of the Carkasses of the Syrians The Saints shall to Eternity be united to Christ in our Nature Arg. 3. I am sorry that a third time you so abuse Peter's Thousand years against the plain Text. Pag. 39. Arg. 4. The New Heaven and Earth is chap. 21. mentioned as after Gog and Magog's destruction and the time of Judgment And you make it 1000 years before If it was before it rather seemeth to mean the New State of the Church as prefiguring the heavenly Glory Assert 2. Arg. 1. The kingdom of Christ shall never cease as Glorious in Fruition but only as Victorious in Acquisition Arg. 2. 1. The Text speaketh of the Old Earth and Heaven flying away and you feign it to speak of the New 2. New and Old and all things are in the Divine Immensity How then doth that make the difference 3. That no other shall succeed is but your word if you had proved that it is the New that flie away Arg. 3. Is but repetition I believe you not that there shall be no use of a Material Heaven and Earth Nor that the Humane Nature of Christ shall not be the Object that Saints shall look upon and yet shall be the Medium of Conveyance Doth not Christ say It is his will that we shall be with him to see his Glory Shall it not be an Object if a Medium Let us not feign our selves higher than God hath promised If we be not the bighest creatures why should we think that we have not need of higher Is all our promised Comfort in Communion with the Angels Saints and Christ's Humanity objectively confined to a Thousand years Pag. 41. Obs 1. How prove you that God's everlasting Communication to Humane Nature is not as free as the rest seeing he freely created and continueth Humane Nature 2. Is not all Time in Eternity And doth all Time end before all temporary creatures end You may as well call one an Oeconomy as the other Pag. 42. Is there no Glory to Eternity but what is from Eternity Then either Christ's Humane Nature and all his Saints were from Eternity or else they will not be to Eternity Arg. 4. That there shall be no use of the New Heaven or Earth for Saints of the first Resurrection above seemeth contrary to the whole scope of Scriptures Christ's Humane Nature and ours had no Glory with the Father before any World began For that which existed not had no Glory Pag. 43. Propos 3. The spiritual heavenly Bodies will be apparent for ever shall they not know and be known even as face to face Prop. 4. You answer not what is said to prove that there is no Thousand years between the Changing and the taking up Your Reasons are formerly answered Pag. 44. Prop. 5. Lot was carried out of Sodom but you hold that the Living shall be in the fire and not caught out That they shall be in it unburnt you do not prove Peter doth not speak of keeping them in the fire unburnt Pag. 45. If the Saints changed are to be numbred with the Children of the Resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage And you say They both make but one New Jerusalem Prop. 7. Tell us your proof of three or four sorts of our Bodies That the Earthly Body shall be turned into a Paradise Body and that into a Spiritual Body if not that also into a supercelestial Prop. 8. I have proved that the taking up is at the sound of the Trumpet which is the time of the Resurrection Pag. 46. If all be One Resurrection then those in Paradise are Children of the Resurrection and marry not Point 4. Of the Jews Restauration you are pleased to leave almost all unanswered that I brought against you and so discharge me from any Reply Though you say that your words answer all material Objections being themselves what I did before invalidate In the conclusion to all my former Questions I desire your Answer to these few more added Q. 1. Seeing pag. 5. Tou dare not think of any World before that Gen. 1. nor after the Kingdom given up c. what mean you by the Eternal Kingdom when there are no Eternal Subjects Q. 2. If it be all the wicked that died before the Trumpet that are Raised and after assault the New Jerusalem have they not mostly been bound many Thousand years already in that they assault us no more unless you take them to be the Devils that
in the time of 1000 years Is the time the species of the Kingdom And is a Thousand years better than everlasting 5. Is it in the subduing of all Enemies Mean you in fieri or in facto esse If the first Is he not subduing them now Doth he not subdue them in every sanctisied Soul and did he not subdue the Grand Pagan Roman Empire c. If you mean in facto esse as consummate then what needs a Thousand years to do it when the Resurrection is the finishing of it 6. Is the delivering up to the Father the specifying form then it is not in being till it is past being How can it be delivered up before it is in being And then the previous Kingdom of Acquisition and Conquest is the same for that is delivered to the Father 7. Is it the Son 's being subject in that very sense Little know I what you mean by that very sense But I know that the Son as Man was and will be subject In the former and the everlasting Kingdom And so here is not one syllable of the specifick difference but a harangue of words As to the Taking of God's Name in vain I beseech you to fear it To father a falshood on God is dangerous Suspension is safer where you say that to diminish is equally dangerous Therefore I do it not I do not say that God tells us that there is no such Millenary Kingdom but only that I can find no proof of any such and therefore tell you what hindereth me from your confident Opinion To pag. 10. It 's very true that you say that there is needful a comprehensive knowledge of the whole frame of Prophecy and Chronology to a clear Judgment of many hard points But not to the suspension of Judgment nor to the confutation of every Errour And I believe that you have studied Chronology and Daniel and Ezekiel more than I have done But should I enter into a dispute with your pretended Scripture Chronology and object against you all that I find in Usher Helvicus Petavius Beroaldus Jos Scaliger Carion Bucholzer Functius Gutberleth Micrelius Mr. Talents c. how endless would be the dispute And yet must your Chronology and all its consequents be taken for granted Truths 3. You truly say that our Infancy that needs to be fed with Milk maketh us less capable of these Mysteries The Lord pity and teach us But I must say that the Ministers and People that have most need of Milk but least feel their need are most inclined to your Opinion in this point excepting a few Learned men Mr. Mead and Dr. Twisse and Dr. Moore c. whom he overcame Ad pag. 11. 1. Call it a distinct Kingdom or a distinct part of the administration as you please we grant that the glorious appearance of Christ to Judgment is distinct from his invisible Reign in Heaven As the Assizes is a distinct exercise of Judicature and as Triumph is distinct from Conquest As it is the Triumphant end of Christ's Conquests and the beginning of his Rewarding Kingdom of Glory it is oft spoken of in Scripture But of what more I expect your proof But here you pretend a description of this Kingdom but no other than before sine differentid specificd 1. It is a Supreme Oeconomy and was not that before and after Supreme 2. It was towards the Family in Heaven and Earth So was that before and after 3. It was in the fulness of all times Sure then it was after your Thousand years 4. It was by the Great Son of Man and Lamb. So it was before and will be after 5. The Humanity shall have a Glory singular to it self as it had a Humiliation True but not divided from the Godhead and so it had before and will have to eternity as you confess Is this Elucidation or an informing way of an Instructor But you say The Rain-bow is a symbol of it This is obscure Information I like not your name of it's Glory distinct and distant from the Sun The Glory of Christ's Humanity is distinct but not distant from the Deity and it is as near before and after and as glorious as you can justly imagine it to be in the Thousand years Pag. 12. A Kingdom confined to a Thousand years you affirm indeed but without a word of proof 2. You add seventy five years and some time after the Thousand I would you had deigned to tell us what you mean by its Succession and what by its Investiture whether the Succession be before or after the Conflagration and any part of the Kingdom Or if only a preparation what that Church-state of preparation is Pag. 13. Gog and Magog you say Are Satan and all the wicked that had been Raised to lie at the footstool of Christ from the very beginning of the Thousand years being loosed Take to make a bold attempt on the holy City to draw it to defection Is this Christ's Gospel or yours Qu. 1. Are these dead raised men invisible bodies or only as Devils invisible spirits or in bodies invisible Qu. 2. Rev. 20. saith that Satan deceiveth the Nations to gather them against the holy City But if they were Devils themselves that do it as other Devils in malice what need they a Satan to deceive them Qu. 3. Rev. 20. saith They were the Nations that were in the Earth Were all the dead wicked raised dwellers on Earth in the Thousand years Qu. 4. If they had bodies where will there be room on Earth for all the wicked since Cain till the end to dwell there all at once Qu. 5. And would there be room for them all so near the holy City Qu. 6. When the Text saith Satan deceived them to gather them to Battle why turn you Battle to drawing the City to defection Q. 7. Where were all these Dead Raised men when the Earth was on fire If in another World how come they after to be dwellers in the New Paradise Earth If they were on Earth were they raised before or in or after the burning And how scap't their new bodies The Paradise Saints have bodies of flesh passible and such as must have food Sure all the raised wicked have not bodies less sensible patible or that need less food Qu. 8. Is not the New City and Earth after a Thousand years experience worse than weak Christians are now If by known Devils and condemned wicked ones of all Ages raised they will be drawn from Christ after a Thousand years Miracles Q. 9. What becometh of the bodies of all the wicked that are found alive at the Conflagration Do they scape out of the fire also as the Saints do And doth the New Earth at once hold all the Saints that were alive and all the wicked alive and all the wicked dead from Cain's time Qu. 10. And is that the New Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness that hath so many wicked Qu. 11. If Grace cannot now be lost will not Christ