21. 8. Q. How is This to be Applied to the Casting the Devil Hell and Death with all their Dead into the Lake just before Christ Delivers up the Kingdom A. Hence it Appears That the Action of the Devil in Deceiving is only Chain'd up but not utterly Abolish'd in the thousand Years Kingdom of Christ For He is Loosed out of Prison for a Little Space after the Thousand Years and He Deceives the Nations again But Fire comes down suddenly from Heaven on those Nations in the very Attempt and then an utter end is put to Sathans whole Action For He is Cast into the Lake and so notwithstanding the Victory over Death in the First Resurrection of Dead Saints and the Living Remaining Saints not Dying but being Chang'd Yet till They are all Actually Chang'd so that Mortality or Possibility of Dying Puts on Immortality and Corruption puts Incorruption and so Mortality is swallowed up of Life in the Living Remaining Saints Caught up even as in the Dead in Christ Rising first who cannot Dye any more being in perfect Immortality Luc. 20. 36. Death and Hell with all their own Subjects the Dead are not Cast into the Lake so as to be utterly Abolish'd from any possible place in the Kingdom of God Then They are and when this Last Enemy Death is thus subdued Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then so Long after his First Beginning to Reign Delivers up the Kingdom having Done all to be Done as the Second Adam and God is All in All But still and for ever even Eternally That Lake Burns with Fire and Brimstone For the Kingdom of Life shines in the Face of it with Everlasting Torment while it is not yet able to Return one of its Sulphur Steams in Revenge 1 Cor. 15. 24 55 56. Revel 20. 10. to the end 2 Thess 1. 9. Q. Have we any Accounts of Time kept in Scripture from the First Creation to the Times of Restitution or of the Kingdom of Christ A. There hath been for the sake of it kept a Constant Account of Time from one Point to the other Q. What Reason have you to think so A. Because as the First Coming of Christ in the Flesh is said to be in the Fulness of Time viz. of that Time Because it was in be in the Fulness of Time viz. of that Time Because it was in the Just Time according to Daniels seventy Weeks and according to the Agreement of all Christians So this Time of the Heading of All Things under Christ in his Kingdom is call'd the Fulness not of Time as of one Time but of Times as of all Times Issuing according to Just Account into it And further it is call'd the Oeconomy or the wise Order of All Times in Relation to it by the Supream and wise Pater-Familias or Governour of the World who as the Great Potentate King of Kings and Lord of Lords Giving the whole Family of Angels and Men a Show of and for his Glory would have it at this Fulness of Times for a Thousand Years and These are call'd Gods or Christs Proper Times and the Times of Refreshment and the Times of Restitution as in the Just Place of that Time All which speaks that there was a Strict Calculation of Time for it and to it Gal. 4. 4. Ephes 1. 10. Acts 3. 21. 1 Tim. 6. 15. Q. Where is This Account of Time to be Found A. It is to be found all along Holy Scripture in this manner In the First Roll of Patriarchs from the Creation to Shem the Head of the New World after the Flood 1658 years Genesis 5. c. 11. 10. From Shem to Abraham Receiving the Promises by the Second Roll of Patriarchs 425 Y. Gen. 11. to c. 12. From thence to the Going out of Egypt immediately before the Tabernacle of Testimony set up 430 Y. Exod. 12. 40. c. 40. From thence to Solomon's Temple Begun in his Fourth Year and so to his Death 516 Y. 1 Kings c. 6. 1. c. 11. 42. From thence to Ezekiel's Divine Temple and City drawn by his Bearing the Sin of Israel divided from Judah so many Days for Years according to the Reign of Israel's Kings to their Captivity and then by the Kings of Judah to 14 years after the City Jerusalem smitten and the Temple Burnt 390 Y. Ezek. c. 4. 4. 5. c. 40. 1. c. From thence to the End of Judah's Captivity drawn by the Forty days for Years of Ezekiel Bearing the Sin of Judah as from that vision of the City and Temple to Cyrus his First year 40 Y. Ezek. c. 4. 4. 5. c 40. 1. Ezra 1. 1. From thence by the Sanctuary that then lay Trodden under Foot to the Sanctuary of the Vniversal Church Cleans'd drawn in the 2300 Evens Morns according to the Prophetical Cypher before nam'd and establish'd for after Times of a Day for a Year 2300 Y. Dan. 8. 13. 14. Q. Can we know whereabout we are in nearness to the Kingdom of Christ by so long a Line of Time A. If we would be diligent in Searching and Comparing Scripture we might find this Line divided into 75 Years before Daniel's 70 Weeks began for the Word going forth to Restore and Build Jerusalem Into 490 by those 70 Weeks for the Death and Resurrection of Messiah and the first Apostolical Preaching to the Jews Into 1260 of the Roman Papal Apostasie Into 30 and 45. after that Apostasie making first the 1260 1290 then the 1290 1335. The first 75 in preparation to the Litteral Jerusalem and Temple Restor'd after Litteral Babylon falling and the last 75 preparing to the New Jerusalem after Mystical Babylon falling exactly Answer One after Another and by all these Summs laid together we certainly know There must be 400 between the Weeks ended and that Apostasie began From whence It Follows we must be in the 2218 Even Morn just 7 Years before the Fall of Mystical Babylon Dan. 9. 24. c. 12. 11. 12. Q. Is there any other way of knowing the Time A. There is even plainly Running into ordinary Observation For there are Time Times Half a Time plainly given to the Beast the last Part of the Roman Fourth Monarchy in Daniel c. 7. 25. and Sworn to Him for Scattering the Holy People c. 12. 7. and the Church is Accordingly said to be in the Wilderness for those Times in the Revelation Rev. 12. 14. Now at the Reformation There was such a Retrenchment of the Papal Power as could not be till the Morning of the Half Time with the Truth of Prophecy Then there might even as Christ might Rise at the Morning of the Third day though according to Prophecy He was to be Three days and Three nights in the Heart of the Earth The Reformation therefore Beginning at 1517 by Luther as all Agree and the Half Time being an 180 Years as being the Half of 360 a Time It must needs be There can be but 7 Years to the End of the 1260 and so to the
Wheat with his own Hand and gathers by his Angels the clusters of the Wicked to cast Them into the Wine-press of the Wrath of God which He coming in his Kingdom Treads and Slays or Condemns with the word of his Mouth All the wicked Small and Great Chains and Seals up Sathan into the Bottomless-pit the making all his Enemies his Footstool while at the same Time there are the Nations of Them that are saved viz. of the Living Remaining And this Kingdom lasts till the Living Remaining are caught up to sit with Christ on his Throne as he sate Down on His Fathers Throne and the Devil the Dead Death and Hell are Cast into the Lake of the Second Death which is the Subduing the Last Enemy Death at which Heaven and Earth flie away from that white Throne of Pure and Liquid Eternity and the Kingdom Delivered up to God All in All Esay 26. 19. Mat. 13. 30. Rev. 11. 15. c. c. 14. 13. to the End c. 19. c. 20. all along All which are Admirable Correspondencies with all the Former Scriptures and their High Importance already given And Thus the Kingdom of Christ is from the First Resurrection the First because at the Beginning of the Kingdom of Christ and the Second Death the Second because at the End of the Kingdom of Christ For the First Resurrection hath properly no Second but is All One Resurrection from the First Rising of the Dead in Christ to the Living Remaining Saints caught into the Partakership of it And the Second Death hath no First but is All one Death from the Having no Part in the First Resurrection in the Holy City and no Right to the Tree of Life to the Casting into the Lake of the Second Death So the First Resurrection and Second Death are only Oppos'd As First and Second Q. Is there Any other Scripture Representation of this State of the Kingdom of Christ that may Evidence it to be such a peculiar Dispensation that hath never yet been and that shall be yet before the Giving up the Kingdom to God All in All A. There is that Great One The Time of the Restitution of All Things viz. Of the whole Creation Deliver'd from the Bondage of Corruption into the Glorious Liberty of the Children of God Rom. 8. 21. which is at the same Time with the Re-Livening which we Translate Acts 3. 19. Times of Refreshing the Dead in Christ or as the Apostle John Rev. 20. 4. calls it the Souls Living And This must be what never hath yet been For it must be when Jesus before Preached and whom the Heavens must Receive till He be Sent Come which we All Acknowledge hath not been yet and yet must be before the Kingdom Deliver'd up For then the Restitution shall be Deliver'd up also There is also the New Jerusalem which according to the Compare of Ezekiel in the Israelitish Description of Things proper to the Old Testament and Johns proper to the New Testament Assure There must be such a State of Things as never hath yet been And in Regard of a Higher State where the Throne of God and the Lamb are and Those who Immediately as being in their presence Eat of the Tree of Life and drink of the Water of Life and in Regard of the Nations Saved and Healed must be a State above and below and so before the Kingdom Deliver'd up to God and the Father when he is All in All. Q. This being a very Great Point and so Differently Expounding those Fundamental Points of the Resurrection and of the Day of Judgment as in the Kingdom of Christ There need besides the given Proofs of Scripture which are generally Explained so as to Reach no further then the Common Exposition of these Doctrines Great Accounts of Scripture Reason drawn from the most Intimate Sence of it to Establish such an Exposition A. There are Exceeding High Accounts from Scripture-Reason of the Manifold Wisdom Holiness and Justice of God in this Grand Oeconomy or Dispensation Q. Give Account of the First and Fundamental and most Immediate Reason of such a Dispensation A. That there might be a State of Visible Appearance of the Glory of Christ and of his Saints and of the Contempt Dishonour and Retributions of Justice on Wicked Men For that These Things should Appear be set in open View in a Full and Clear Light is every where made Known in Stripture First as a Recompence to the Deep Humiliation of Jesus Christ Himself and to his Saints who have been all along but especially since the Delay of his Kingdom at his Resurrection in a Low Scorn'd and Persecuted State Tortur'd by Cruelties and Forc'd out of the World by Violent Deaths who have therefore from the Truth of God been Arm'd and Encourag'd in their Obedience and against these Sufferings by the Assurance of a Visible Appearance in Glory and Reign with Christ and of the Visible Shame and Confusion of their Enemies and of all Wicked and Unholy Men who have so obstainately preferr'd the Present before a Future State Esay 65. 13 14 and to the End Mic. 7. 17. and Dan. 12. 1 2. Phil. 2. 9 10 11. Heb. 11. 35. with many more Scriptures Q. But can there be no Appearance of this Glory and of that Contempt but in such a state of the Kingdom of Christ A. No Not in this World because however some Appearances may be of these Things on each side in some Instances Yet in General All is so in Confusion and Disorder here and this is the very Cross-Handed State of Evil to the Servants of God and of the Prosperity of Wicked Men that no Man Knows Love or Hatred by All that is before him Not in the State of Spirits in Heaven above or in Prison below For All Scripture Reason makes it most Evident There can be no Appearance without a Resurrection Not in the State of Eternity For then God All in All as the Highest Glory Swallows up the Less when God is All in All The Son is subject There must be therefore a Distance of the Rain-bow the Emblem of Christs Kingdom from the Sun that its Beauties may be seen so the Glory of Christ in his Humane Nature and of his Saints in visible Glory must be seen at a Distance from God All in All Not in the Day of Judgment or the Resurrection as a short Transitory Space For that could be no Kingdom nor any Appearance worthy so Great a Cause that had only a moment But it must be a settled Oeconomy or State of Duration the Fullness of Times as it own proper Times and not short Time on-only When the Great Potentate gives a Show it shall be of a thousand years Duration Eccles 9. 1. 1 Cor. 15. 28. Ephes 1. 10. 1 Tim. 6. 15. Rev. 20. 6. Q. How may This be also Set in Agreement with the State of the Wicked A. Very exactly For here They very generally appear in Prosperity And the State of
other Light God and the Lamb are the Temple of it that cannot be defiled The City hath the Tree of Life Bearing Twelve several kinds of Fruit viz. an universality and perfection of Life and a River of Life Clear as Chrystal Proceeding from the Throne Heb. 12. 25. Rev. c. 20. c. 21. c. 22. Q. But how does so Great a State and the so High Expressions of it work as to the Delivery up of the Kingdom to God All in All and to Christ as the Bond of union A. These Two ways First That the State of Delivery up of the Kingdom to God All in All cannot be better expounded to us then in those so divine words of our Lord in his Mediatory Prayer John 17. 21. That They All may be one as Thou Father art in me And I in Thee That They also may be one in us that the World may Believe that Thou hast sent me And the Glory which Thou gavest me Have I given Them that They may be one as we are one I in Them and Thou in me That they may be made perfect in one and that the World may Believe that Thou hast sent me and hast loved Them as Thou hast loved me Father I will that Those which Thou hast given me may be with me where I am and may Behold my Glory which Thou hast given me For Thou loved'st me before the Foundation of the World Oh! Righteous Father The World hath not known Thee But I have known Thee And These have known that Thou hast sent me And I have declared to them Thy Name and will declare it that the Love wherewith Thou hast loved me may be in Them and I in Them Q What Arises from these words to our present purpose A. First That so High Expressions can fit no State but of God All in All even as He was before the Foundation of the World All in All and to which State Our Lord's words so much Refer when All the Saints are thus one with God in Christ then is He thus All in All as before the World began Secondly That as this State Requires the Highest Purification of which the Purification of the Virgins for the Royal Bed of Ahasuerus is but a dark Emblem so no Expressions of such a preparatory Purification but as before Represented in the New Jerusalem and Kingdom of Christ can be parallel to such a Purification But They Reach it and Admirably Reach it The present State of Sanctification is much too Low for it The Purity of the Bride the Lambs Wife and of the Saints in this Kingdom Rises to it Thirdly All this Preparation and this Eternal Vnion is in the Eternal word who was with the Father and One with him and whom the Father loved before the Foundation of the World And He thus prepares his Saints not only in this State though here also but in his Kingdom most Highly Compleatly Perfectly and therefore especially John 17. 24. 26. Q. Give me the second way how so Great a State and so High Expressions of it work to the Delivery up of the Kingdom to God All in All A. In that although this Kingdom of Christ be so Holy so Heavenly so Pure so much of God in it and so Happy and Blessed in Christ and in his Saints yet because It is the Kingdom of the Man Christ Jesus and of his Saints in a visible Created Glory and not the Highest Vnion to God All in All Christ Gives this Last Declaration of the Name that is of the Nature and Glory of God He freely Delivers up this his Kingdom and the Son as in humane Nature suffers most willingly that Glory of Himself and of his Saints to be Swallow'd up by God All in All and unites them with Himself to the Father as He is the Eternal word and so They are with Him for ever Beholding the Glory He had with the Father before the World was which is the Highest Instance of self-denial of all Created Glory and Giving up All to God All in All that could be given John 17. 5. Q. What Signs are there of such a Preparation in the Kingdom of Christ for God All in All A. In Token of this this State is call'd a Sabbatism a Paradise There is a Tree of Life and a River of Life All which Point to the Higher Perfection of Vnion with God All in All then was even in that Kingdom of Christ Even as Priesthood and a Temple-State do For though God and the Lamb be the Temple Yet God being our Temple is not so High as our Vnion to God All in All. Q. How does the State of the wicked Agree with this so High State of the Kingdom of Christ in preparation to their being cast into the Lake when God is All in All A. Their being in a Visible State and beholding the Glory of Christ and of his Saints in a Visible State gives them that Conviction that the Father sent Christ that He Loved the Saints as He Loved Christ that They are Forc'd to Know and to Believe it For this They could not see here but would be Highly perswaded of the Contrary And when the Saints are Delivered up to God All in All and They in the Lake It is not then to be seen by Them In this Kingdom then It must be seen And yet in this very State they being Irreconcileable to the Divine Kingdom They are even with the Comfort of the Saints Beholding their Abhorr'd State and way Cast into the Lake that They might be no more Annoyance to the Divine Kingdom but at an utter Separation from it Remembred no more cut off for ever from the Hand of God in a Land of Silence Forgetfulness and Vtter Darkness Ezek. 14. 22. Rev. 20. last Q. But how are the Saints below Fitted then for this State of being Deliver'd up to God All in All A. They having their part in all the Priviledges of the Saints above and being Caught up to Christ before the Delivery up of the Kingdom are thereby fitted to be Deliver'd up with All Saints and to be united to God All in All. Q. But seeing the Saints of Christ have been also All Sinners and many of Them very Great Sinners and some not brought home to Christ till Death Whereas many of the Lost have been of Fair and Innocent Lives how can such a difference in this Visible State of the Resurrection consist with the Glory of Justice then to be manifested A. The Infinite Richness of Grace having made in All the Saints the Great difference of Vnion to Christ in the Glory of whose Righteousness They Appear and thereby in the Participation of the Divine Nature Their Sins are so Blotted out through the Blood of the Lamb in this State of Re-enlivening as though They are sought for They cannot be found And even the Works of the Few Moments of Holy Action as of Converts how near Death soever Follow Them and are so enlarg'd by the
Obedience of Christ the Linnen white and clean which is the Righteousness of the Saints that It Invests Them All which makes the difference betwixt the Saints and the Reprobate Inconceivable For the Talents that the Reprobate might have here by General Grace to Adorn Them are Taken from them and All their Sins find them out and are as the Garment that covers them and the Girdle wherewith They are Girded continually Allowing yet the differences of Punishment betwixt the more and less Malicious Sinners Jerem. 50. 20. Luke 23. 40. c. Mat. 25. 28. Q. But the Kingdom of Christ seems a State of Purgation for that last State of Delivering up the Kingdom to God All in All Why may not therefore some that have not Repented here Find place in that State for Repentance especially when some are Converts so near Death and so many dye Infants and are Sav'd who had no space of serving God in this World A. In the deep and wise dispose of God besides that Standard of Glorifying God here on Earth the Spirits unreconciled to God in Christ and unsanctified in the very moment wherein They leave the Body become Devilish James 3. 15. and so can be no more chang'd after then Devils and the Bodies being laid down without any Seeds of the Divine Life not the Temples of the Holy Spirit are Taken up in the very same State and can never be chang'd because the Spirit to Inhabit them cannot And so thus as the Spirits of Holy Men are Pledges of Happiness to the whole Man so the Spirits of Vnholy Men in Prison are Hostages for the whole man to Justice under Wrath and hereby there is in each order of Spirits having in themselves a sense of their Future Condition a Preparation for the Kingdom of Christ in Glory or in Dishonour For thus there is no discontinuance in the Sense and Knowledge Each have in the Reasons of the Future State as there would be if the Spirits of Men stâ—pt in the dust as their Bodies do till the Resurrection and that Visible Appearance in the Judgment and Kingdom of Christ But They are Spirits in Prison or with Christ 1 Pet. 3. 19. Philip. 1. 23. Q. But there seems to be some Greater Refinement of Saints in the Kingdom of Christ for Vnion to God All in All A. The Spirits of Saints having been with Christ from their Leaving the Body and in the very beginning of the Kingdom of Christ the whole * Just Men not Spirits made perfect Man being made perfect Heb. 12. 23. They are for 1000 years Confirm'd in that most perfect State and with Angels They Behold in this Great Oeconomy the utmost God is pleas'd to have seen in a Created State in order to Vnion with God All in All and so are Deliver'd up with the Kingdom the Just Contrary to which is in every particular to Wicked Men for their being Cast into the Lake Q. Hath not the Eternal Word in Humane Nature a Kingdom throughout Eternity A. The Eternal Word in Humane Nature hath a Kingdom throughout Eternity but not as the Son of Man but as the Eternal Word The Glory in which then Christ is seen by his Saints being the Glory he had with the Father before the World Began of the same Nature wherein He is now at the Right Hand of God till He appears and the Vnion in that Eternal State is by God to God by the Word to the Father so the Son as Man is Subject and God All in All John 17. 5 24. Q. Is God excluded in the Kingdom of the Son A. No He is Excepted saith the Apostle who put All Things under Christ The Throne of God even as of the Lamb is in the New Jerusalem It is Gods Kingdom He Appoints sitting at the Right and Left Hand of Christ But the Divinity pleases so to Oeconomize its own Glory that the Son may be seen to Reign in Glory 1 Cor. 15. 27. Revel 22. 3. Mat. 20 23. Phil. 2. 11. Q. But it seems by the High Expression of God who is purest Spirit being All in All and by the Lake of the Second Death and even the New Heaven and New Earth after the 1000 Years Flying away Revel 20. 11. there is no Bodily or Material Nature Continued no not of the Son 's Glorious Body who is then Subject nor of his Saints A. Scripture having Declar'd no such Thing No such Thing can be suppos d but that Christ and his Saints shall be in Bodies But it is certain There shall be Highest Spirituality in Conformity to the Divine Nature that He may be All in All and in Vnion to Christ most Spiritual Bodies Even as in the Lake All the Damned become Spiritual Wickednesses to the Highest Degree All which Confirms the Nature and State of the Resurrection to stand in Visibility and Appearance for the thousand Years Phil. 3. 21. Ephes 6. 12. Q. What kind of State must that be of the Beast and of the False Prophet who are Cast Living into the Lake even before the Devil the Dead Death and Hell are Cast into it Rev. 19. 20. c. 20. 10. c. A. The finding out the meaning of that State is the more necessary because it will much clear that Last Issue or Casting of the Devil Death and Hell into the Lake 1. The Casting into the Lake therefore signifies Finall and most utter Cessation of Action so that the Casting the Beast and the False Prophet into the Lake Imports to us that the Antichristian State of which the Beast and the False Prophet were the Supream Constituents or Parts being the Counterfeit and Undermine of the True Kingdom of Christ shall as the Apostle speaks 2 Thes 2.8 be utterly Consum'd and Abolish'd by it 2. In that it is a Lake Burning with Fire and Brimstone It speaks severest Punishment and Torment by the True Kingdom of Christ shining upon the Beast and False Prophet and as it were in their very Faces 3. In that the Beast and the False Prophet are Cast Alive into the Lake It Declares that the Full Abolition of the Antichristian Kingdom shall be in the very Beginning of the Kingdom of Christ and that the Punishment of the Antichristian Kingdom as the Counterfeit and Undermine of the Kingdom of Christ shall be the most Conspicuous and Illustrious of all the Punishing Part of Christs Kingdom So that All other Enemies of Christs Kingdom shall be only as Dead Men Slain with the Sword of Christs Mouth in Comparison But the Severity upon the Anti-christian Kingdom shall be like Burning Alive as it were in Just Recompence of their Vivi-Comburia or Burning Those Servants of Christ They call'd Hereticks Alive upon the Beast his False Prophet and all their Worshippers and their Babilon And the Smoke of their Torment Ascendeth for ever and ever and Wicked Men have their part first but are not cast till the very End into the Lake Rev. 19. 3. 21. c.