cannot say that I see that full and glorious estate of the Kingdom of Christ that the Prophets are so full of and when you and I shall see this give me leave by way of Anticipation to take up your own words under your 2. position Can your understanding reach anything or your will close with any thing or your heart and affection go out after any thing beyond this yea give me leave yet farther with the same indignation and vehemency to abhorr the thought that you should rest short of this union of the visible and invisible things of God as you do to harbour such a thought of me that I should give Credit to what is Incredible or enterprize what is imposible I have done now with the words of the Scriptures which you summon in to witness in your cause and you see how they have done it that they have not had a word not a Syllable for you but against you I come now to your own words which I may very properly call so and your inferences You say you know not the meaning of that outward visible Kingdom of Christ no Footsteps of it in the volume of that great Book which conserves the Records of Heaven nor any credit or countenance given it there That you cannot own that distinction about an inward and an outward Kingdom to be a Divine birth or off-spring but rather look on it as Spurious Illigitimate devised and imaginary and that which can never hold weight in the ballance of truth and consequently that which the Israel of God must needs be a meer stranger to c. If words will do the business I am sure to have the worst of it But Sir had not these words better have been spared till the Battel had been done and you had seen what might have been said for this outward and visible Kingdom of Christ if you have yet seen nothing for it though you have been a diligent peruser of the Scriptures and though this truth lies fair there to be seen yet may not your Eyes be held as the Disciples were that walked with Christ to Emaus yet knew him not Doth not our Saviour say I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that hast hid these things from the Wise and Prudent and hast revealed them unto Babes and when you shall come to be one of these Babes you may see this truth which I hope and pray for We read when God appeared unto Saul in the Cariere of his Persecution and sent Ananias to restore his Sight There fell from his Eyes as it had been Scales such Scales are the Prejudices you have conceived against this future outwardly and visibly glorious state of Christs Kingdom on Earth which makes you charge the Doctrine of it with a tendency To stir up Strife and Contention and Blood and War and Confusion in the World Be sure like the Lawyers to put in Words enough into your Declaration nourishing Rents and Schismes and Factions and Divisions among the People whilst every particular Sect or Party that can but get a little smattering knowledg of Christ and of his Kingdom will be ready to say they above all the rest are the holy People stand farther off I am holyer then thou the Saints that must rule the Earth which must by no meanes be so long as the Earth rules them as it too frequently falls out among a company of conceited high flown pretenders c. I abridg what I can really Sir one would think you were very Orthodox and had not suffered by the Tryers in that day of their Pride nor ever been ranked among the Sectaries that you have no softer words for your own Party I doubt all this will not wash you white with the times Nor doth it make your opposites ever a whit the blacker We read in the Evangelists that when our Saviour suffered there were two Theeves Crucified with him the one on his Right Hand and the other on his Left and the one of them railed on him saying if thou be Christ save thy self and us but the other rebuked him saying Dost not thou fear God seeing thou art in the same Condemnation no doubt but this good Thief justified our Saviour in his Conscience else he would never have applyed himself to him as he did Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom but he speaks of Christs Condemnation as the Judgment of mans days Hence we may observe two things 1. That for men in the same Condemnation to fall foul on their Fellow sufferers is no Praise to them 2. Christ cannot be in worse circumstances at any time then he was at that time when he was nailed to the Cross yet then this good Thief gives him the honour of a Kingdom It is not the Cross nor the company that makes Christ ever the less a King or his Kingdom the less conspicuous to them that have the same Eye Salve that this good Thief had This Sir comes up to you you find a company of Conceited high flown Pretenders such there are no doubt many but it is the Councel of a Friend be well advised whom you judg so that say they above all the rest are the holy People stand farther off I am holyer then thou c. These take up the Kingdom of Christ into their mouths is the cause the worse for them At this rate what truth of the Gospel but may be rendred odious and disgustful if we will charge the miscarriage of the Professors of it upon their Testimony Was the Gospel the worse because some Preach'd Christ out of Envy Had David a bad cause because men in Debt and Discontented were among his Followers Neither Christ nor his Kingdom teaches men to be conceited or high flowen but the contrary Much less doth this Doctrine tend to stir up strife and contention and Blood and War or nourish Rents Schismes Factions and Divisions among the People as you charge it but we have only your ipse dixit for it These ill berries may grow upon those that have Christs Kingdom in their mouths but not in those that have it in their Hearts But to wipe off this dirt we shall have more occasion in another place of your discourse I shall close what I have to say to this charge with this word Christs Kingdom is given him by the Father but he comes to it by and through his own and his Followers Sufferings but when he shall COME IN HIS KINGDOM then let his enemies look to it for then the time is come that they must suffer Luk. 19.17 There is no avoiding of it Your second Position is That the Kingdom of God and of his Christ is no Terrene earthly Kingdom neither hath it any thing at all in it of any worldly concernment but is wholly and altogether Spiritual and Heavenly No Terrene Earthly Kingdom but altogether Spiritual and Heavenly The Position begins and ends well and is readily assented to but whereas you say
whom God shall bring with his Son at his next appearing and then there were Peter James and John as representing the whole number of Disciples or Surviveing Saints and there was between both these departed and Christ and between Christ and his Disciples familiar converse and discourse in and during that Scene of Glory Now such as the earnest is such must the full payment be in the same Coyn it were a grand Soletism to state a glorious Kingdome of Christ with out Christ appearing in glory in that Kingdom and therefore David in the prophetical view he takes of this day Psal 68.17 Sees the Lord among them as in Sinai in the holy place and the Prophet Micah when he sees by the same spirit the full reduction of Israel sees their King passing before them and Lord on the head of them Mich. 2. last But Secondly how can it be otherwise but that the Lord must appear from Heaven in this glorious state of his Kingdom because of the great the Stupendiously great and ineffable works that are then to be done the ministry and effecting whereof is committed to Christ and to this his glorious appearing so that here is a complex argument the things to be done are singular rare extraordinary effects and they are such as will yeild to no power but that of the Lord Jesus in person as the raising of the dead and the judgment of the quick and dead and the changing of the surviving Saints there is no man in his wits will say these are the works of every time nor of any times but Christ's being reserved to those times for the glory of Christ and of his appearance as it was his voice that shook the earth at the giving of the Law so it is his voice that must now shake Heaven and Earth both Heb. 12. last It is his Voice must raise the dead Joh. 5.28 Not only the Mystical dead in Sins and Trespasses by his mistical or Spiritual voice put forth in the Ministry of the Gospel of which he may be understood to speak ver 25. in manifest difference from his way of speaking here but the dead properly and therefore whereas of the other he had said ver 25. The hour is coming and now is He saith not so of this hour ver 28. that it now is but that it is coming which is meant of his personal voice even as by his personal voice he raised Lazarus This is indeed marvelous in comparison wherewith the other though very marvelous yet hath no marvel in it and therefore out Saviour says marvel not at this yet Christ having said it who shall dare to question it So likewise Christ in person is to be Judge of all men Christ appearing as man in that forementioned 17th of Acts. though this man is God also So also the times of refreshing depend or derive themselves from the presence of the Lord they issue and now from that Bosom Act. 3.19 and that we might not put it off with a spiritual presence the next words shew it is personal and he shall send Jesus Christ which before was preached unto you not Christ shall send the comforter but the Father shall send Jesus again whom the Heavens must receive untill the times of the restitution of all things what violence must be offered to these and 20 other Scriptures if we allow not these times of refreshing and this restitution of all things to be not of all times but special times and to come in with the revelation of Christ's glorious person from Heaven therefore he is called in Malachy the Sun of righteousness who with his chearing warming enlivening rayes and influence shall both enlighten and quicken his own dead body first through them all things in their just order I confess they that state the utmost glory of Christs Kingdom to lie in the reformation of the old state of things to a better degree only are not obliged by that their judgment to expect Christ's personal appearance in the work his spiritual appearance or the power of his spirit in the way of Faith having already succeeded in that work and done much and being able to do more but it is not a higher or better degree of what now is that will answer the heart and design of this Love nor the grounded hopes and expectations of the Saints but a new state of things an old thing is but an old thing still be it repaired never so firmly and so is an old state the new state hath a new root and springs up in a new Image But these are but Terms let us attend the thing the Root of this new state is the person of the Lord Jesus called the Lord from Heaven the Lord that spirit that quickening spirit and such as he is such must the state be that is brought forth by him as is the Heavenly such must they then appear to be when he shall appear for he shall then appear in glory in the glory of the Father in the glory of a quickening spirit he is a quickening spirit now and we are now the Sons of God but it doth not yet appear but is hid in God his appearing is when he shall appear in us in changing us we mistake Christ's appearance if we look on it only us an objective appearance as a glorious object that shall affect our natural sences though he is and will then be a most glorious object but if we be not furnished with Spiritual sences to take in his glory we shall be confounded by it as all his enemies on whom he shall let it forth will be but if Christ should do no more but set himself in the eye of his people as a glorious object this were not to appear as a quickening spirit to appear as a quicknening spirit is to appear in a work of transformaâ—ion throughout to the transforming of Soul and body therefore it is said when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is that is we shall see him as a quickening spirit by the power whereof our very Bodies shall be changed and made like unto his glorious body and this he shall do in an instant in the twinkling of an eye for that is the working of a spirit much more of this quickning spirit therefore ir is said his reward is with him and his work before him a quickening spirit carries his own effect in his own efficiency certainty presently at once and in an an instant It works not long and leisurely gradually and successively that is the difference between the present state and that how long are we getting Victory over corruption but no soone shall Christ appear as a quickening spirit but sin shall be so utterly annihilated as if it had never been neither root nor Branch of it left to them that look for him shall he appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex secundo the second time without sin unto salvation But this is
not forth the full glory of his spiritual body to the surviveing Saints that are to carry on the encrease of the new world as he doth to the raised Saints And again though in the increase of Christs government new Nations and people shall come in successively till there be none left that have not submitted yet this no way impeaches or is inconsistent with this Article of Christs personal appearance to lay the Foundation stone of this glorious state of his Kingdom for these reasons First If there be one glory of the Sun another of the Moon another of the Stars one star differing from another Star in glory in that state as the Apostle saith there shall then doth not Christ let forth equal glory upon all and if it differ in degree then may it likewise differ in order of time one before another there is such an order in the resurrection every one saith the Apostle in his own order Christ the first fruits afterwards they that are Christs at his coming then cometh the end where there are three differing and long distant times for the resurrection so in this Kingdom or this glorious state of the Kingdom There are some to whom the first dominion shall come Mich. 4.8 And that is to the Tower of the flock to the daughter of Jerusalem at least in respect of those Barbarous Nations for I cannot think the believing Gentiles that have carried up the Buklers against Antichrist shall be postponed in that day but those Heathen Nations that pass under the Name of Sodom and Samaria as Egypt and Assiria c. which shall be given to Jerusalem as daughters though not by her covenant as the Prophet Ezekiel saith ch 16.61 And the Prophet Esay intimates there will be nations that have not heard of the fame of Christ nor seen his glory Esa 66. to whom those that escape of the terrible judgments to be executed in the beginning of this Kingdom shall go to the Nations a far off to Tarshish Pul and Lud that draw the bow to Tubal and Javan and the Isles a far off for it is probable the judgment will begin and so the first seat of Christ's Kingdom in that part of the earth that hath been the seat of the fourth Monarchy If this be thought to clash with what I have before asserted that Christ being a quickening Spirit and acting as such act 's not gradually but in an instant The answer is ready that where he appears and puts forth himself he carries his effect immediately irresistably but it doth not engage his appearance to be universally and at once imparted to the whole Earth though in process of time it shall spread over all which suits with that in the 9th of Esa of the encrease of his Government and of peace there shall be no end But if we should wave this Article of Christs personal appearance and not concern it in the beginning of this Kingdom or at least not his abiding residence which yet I do not forego yet our argument depends not on it for whether Christ personally appear or no till the very last hour of judgment yet it is universally agreed by all that make Christ Kingdom on earth an Article of their Faith that the glorious state of Christs Kingdom is not of any of every time but hath its own times to be revealed and that is in the last days as the Prophets unanimously declare and if we will believe the Prophets and Apostles we must be all of that mind The places are so many and so obvious that I shall not spend time to name them In the days of these Kings saith Daniel shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom In the last days saith Esay shall the Mountain of the Lords house be set up in the Top of the Mountains Can any thing be more plain is the new Jerusalem come down from God out of Heaven is the new Heaven and the new Earth come is the Earth full of the knowledg of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea Is the Lord King over all the Earth is the Lord one and his Name one throughout the world How then can you say this Kingdom of Christ or rather this state of Christ Kingdom of which we enquire is of all times one as well one as much as another and is to receive no accession of glory in the end of this old corrupt world more then it hath had already when the Prophet Esay from the mouth of God saith that Christ himself shall shine forth in a seven fold greater glory then he hath yet appeared in to men or to Saints and the Church shall take a degree proportionable for the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun shall be seven-fold as the light of seven days in the day when the Lord shall bind up the breach of his people and heal the stroke of their wound Esa 30.26 But to remove as much as in me is any stumbling block that may yet hinder your closing with me I shall open my selfe yet farther touching the personal appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ distinguishing it from those many powerful comings that are mentioned of him in the Scripture which though attended with glorious and powerful effects yet are not this Personal coming whereof we enquire There are many powerful and spiritual comings of Christ but there are but two Personal comings This I prove from that Text Heb. 9. last As it is appointed to all men once to dye and after that the judgment so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and to them that look for him shall he appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex secundo THE SECOND TIME without sin unto salvation there are but his first and his second appearance Personal there are many comings mentioned without this specification ex secundo This therefore being here added distinguishes it from those and shews it to be of the same kind and in the same rank with his first coming in respect of Personality though in a far differing way in respect of glory His second personal appearance is also expresly distinguished from his other comings Acts 1.11 By two of the Angels who in the form of men stood by the Apostles as they were looking after him at the ascention in white apparrel who said unto them ye men of Galilee why stand ye Gazing up into Heaven This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven the same Jesus and in the same manner that is visibly and bodily not spiritually only Now these characteristical notes of distinction in these places do distinguish his coming there spoken of from his coming mentioned in other places without them Though I grant in other places his Personal coming is many times mentioned without these and only in such Terms and Phrases
and the Holy Ghost entirely within themselves in the unity of the God-head where God and his Kingdom God and all his works are one This is the Original Kingdom the head of all here both God and his Kingdom are properly invisible to any created Eye 1 Kings 8.12 or understanding dwelling in thick darkness as Solomon saith possessing all entirely to and within himself in an incommunicable glory this is properly the Kingdom of the Father The Kingdom of Christ is the Mediatory Kingdom wherein Christ as God-man is set up from everlasting in Heaven in a heavenly state and glory to make forth to created understanding the invisible glories of God and of his Kingdom as a living Image and representation thereof Of this state of Christs Person and Kingdom before the world Solomon speaks by the Spirit in a most high and divine strain Prov. 8. from v. 12. to v. 32. and our Saviour himself recognizeth it in those expressions of the Son of Man in Heaven and in that Prayer Joh. 17. Joh. 3.13 Glorâ— thou me with the glory I had with thee before the world was And the Apostle Paul Phil. 2. saith He was in the form of God Both these Kingdoms which are one though distinguished are eternal from eternity and to eternity suffering no dammage or diminution by time or any the chances changes or injuries of time In both which known to God and known to Christ Act. 15.18 are all their works from the foundations of the world In the Kingdom of God there Christ as a Mystery and all things else created and increated lay in the Bosom of the Father In the Kingdom of Christ in this Heavenly state The world and all the times of it lay in the Mediatory bosom before they were brought forth into actual existence in themselves So the Apostle saith We were chosen in him before the foundations of the world Eph. 1.4 and he is before all things Col. 1.17 and in him all things consist and stand in a most harmonious frame and he is the head of the body the Church 1 Cor. 11.3 Rev. 5.5.20.16 who is the beginning and the head of every man the head of this world In this state is Christ properly the rooâ— of David and of all things which lay eternally as a Mystery hid in him and there lay his own humanity which in time he was to take up of the Virgin as He and all his Mediatory Kingdom and glory was a mystery hid in God Eph. 3.9 But now in the second place there is a state of this glorious Mediator and of his Kingdom revealed on earth which is properly the Subject of our debate that the will of God may be done on Earth by the Son of Man on earth and in the state of his Kingdom on earth as it is done in Heaven in and by the Son of man in Heaven and in the heavenly state of his Kingdom there which is the second Petition that follows in that Doctrine of Prayer which our Saviour instructs us in immediately following upon the first Thy Kingdom come Now this Kingdom of Christ may also be considered in a twofold state viz. In a state of exercise and suffering and this state lasts from the fall of man who being set in honour continued not and runs down through all the times of this degenerate world till Christs second and glorious appearance 1 Rev. 9. and is called by John in his Revelation the Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Christ The other state of Christs Kingdom is the Victory and Triumph Esa 25.8 when he even his Father who hitherto worketh with the Son Joh. 5.17 and the Son worketh also shall have put all Enemies under his Feet 1 Cor. 15.24 27. and shall put down all Rule Authority and Power as it is inimical or contrary to him and this state of the Kingdom is called Peace Esa 9.7 and rest ch 11.10 his rest shall be glorious and this properly is that Kingdom whereof we enquire Now Sir having premised this distinction of the Kingdom of God and his Christ let us apply it This state of Christs Kingdom in peace in rest and victory in the visible manifestation of it to every created understanding and eye you can by no means say was from everlasting nor hath been all the times of this world but hath its proper times to be exhibited and those in the end of this old corrupt degenerated world by its appearing it will make all things anew and will be the restitution of all things That which may be a vail before our eyes in discerning this Truth is the glorious things that are spoken of this present state of the City of God and the Kingdom of Christ in the present state of it in Faith in which it is truly a Kingdom though a suffering Kingdom and gets the better of all its opposers though not without blows and blood and it gives rest and peace to all the subjects of it mystical inward and spiritual rest and peace Heb. 4.3 1 Pet. 1.8 Isa 26.3 Philip. 4.7 Psal 110.2 in the midst of enemies and troubles for we which have believed do enter into rest and rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory and our minds are kept in perfect peace even with a peace which passeth all understanding and so Christ rules in the midst of his Enemies and God hath given us the Victory 1 Cor. 15.57 through our Lord Jesus Christ yea we are come to Mount Sion Heb. 12.22 the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem Eph 2.6 1 Joh. 5.4 Joh. 12.31.16.17 and are set down with Christ in heavenly places having overcome the world by Faith and the Prince of this World is judged and cast out and we inherit all things But we must remember all this glory is in death and suffering and under the Cross both inwardly and outwardly and all the life and glory that we feel and experience is but to carry us up under the Cross and dying of the Lord Jesus as the Apostle at large discourses 2 Cor. 4 from the 7. verse to the 15. and in that refreshing Ordinance of the Supper we shew forth the Lords Deaâ—h till he come which death being the gate of life all Believers in their successive generations are passing through and will or must be so till the Lord come This is the gate to the City Rev. 22.14 call'd there Gates because through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God and as Christs suffering was his great Obedience called obedience unto Death and is that which is meant by that phrase Lo I come to do thy will O God So this is the doing of Gods will and commandments by Believers the presenting their Bodies a living Sacrifice thereby proving by experience the good and acceptable and perfect will of God This is the way to the City which the fool that is drunken with the Spirit of