those very souls was promised after the number of these Martyrs should be compleated what they cry for and is here fulfilled should be done v. 11. And it was said unto them that they should rest for a little season till their fellow-servants also and their brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled The expression here is very curious and such as is worthy diligently to be minded for the Holy Ghost hath here linked together souls and men to shew that by those souls he meant men as also the faithful of the second period with the first to shew that both shall live and reign with Christ now in this third period 4. By the name of Martyrs also by a Synecdoche are here understood all the faithful dead in Christ who here and often elsewhere especially in the Prophets are decribed as it were killed for Christ Whence also they are wont to be called Christs dead body Esay 26.19 Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise So Paul writes of all the faithful Rom 8.36 For thy sake we are killed all the day long we are counted as sheep for the slaughter And of all the faithful it is spoken Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead which die in or for the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yea more those whom Paul had called dead in Christ 1 Thes 4.16 And the dead in Christ shall rise first A little before viz. verse 14. He had called them dead for Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per vel propter Christum who sleep through or for Jesus Hence he is not only said to come with ten thousands of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all Jude 14. with ten thousand times ten thousand Dan. 7.10 But also with ALL his Saints Zac. 14.5 And the Lord my God shall come and all the Saints with thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Omnes Sancti tecum Christe vel tecum pro cum eo Hebraeo more So that as I said by the name of Martyrs or slain all the faithful dead in Christ are here understood All the Saints come with him 5. Certainly all the faithful are in very deed killed for Christ and therefore Martyrs if not in the thing done or in the effect yet at least in affection and firm purpose of minde Therefore Christ saith Luke 14.26 If any man come to me non odit animam suam and doth not hate his own life i. e in comparison of me and if ever I and it come in competition be willing to lay it down for me he cannot be my disciple To conclude then by Souls reigning with Christ are meant all the faithful dead in Christ Concerning whom the Apostle Paul thus speaks 2 Tim. 2.11 12. If we be dead with him we shall also live with him if we suffer we shall also reign with him unto which words John seems to have respect here when he saith They lived and reigned with Christ But so that brings me and I come next to the handling of the third thing proposed Qu 3 What is this life and reign of the Saints with Christ a thousand years Answ The Text saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And ver 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years And they shall reign with him a thousand years This life of the souls of them that were beheaded seems to be no other then the life of the body which they did lay down in the death of the body and which now in the Resurrection they receive again no more to die the death of the body Certainly this life cannot be meant of life spiritual in opposition to death spiritual or death in sin because it is the life of those that were beheaded to whom it is not granted after death to rise from sin Besides lived here is all one with the Resurrection here spoken of v. 6. They lived that is they rose again to life Which that it is meant of a corporal and not of a spiritual Resurrection there are in the Text Arguments for the one and against the other And first these Arguments in the Text offer themselves for it viz. 1. Because John speaks of the souls of them that were beheaded that is of those that were slain or dead in body And he saith they lived that is they lived again but the dead in body live not again but by a Resurrection from the death of the body The Argument may be thus framed The Resurrection of the dead in body is the Resurrection of the body Mat. 22.31 Mark 12.26 Acts 23.6 Acts 24.21 1 Cor. 15.12 But the first Resurrection is the Resurrection of the dead in bodys for it is the Resurrection of those that were beheaded Ergo it is of the body 2. The Text speaks of such a Resurrection wherein men live a thousand years after they be raised which cannot agree to any other life or resurrection but the life and resurrection of the body Ergo this resurrection is a bodily resurrection 3. Such a resurrection is meant as hapneth to the rest of the dead after the thousand years are ended who lived not again tiâ—l the thousand years were finished ver 5. which shall be of the body Ergo this resurrection is of the body also 4. The men that were beheaded must so live during the thousand years as the rest of the dead lived not all that whiâ—e But the rest of the dead lived all that while in soul separated from the body Therefore the men that were beheaded must live all that while in soul joyned to the body 5. The men that were beheaded must so live at the first resurrection as the rest of the dead shall at the second resurrection but the rest of the dead shall live in body and soul too at the second resurrection therefore the men that were beheaded shall live in body and soul too at the first resurrection But they cannot be said to live in their bodies unlesse they be raised from their graves therefore the first resurrection is of the body from the grave But thus we see that the Teâ—t it self affords us Arguments to prove that this resurrection is a corporal or bodily resurrection It will also secondly afford and yield arguments to prove that it is not a spiritual resurrection as 1. John was not called upon from Heaven to behold that which he and every Christian new before or to have Tautologies told him For if by resurrection should be meant regeneration as som would have it he knew and so did every Christian before that such were blessed And according to that interpretation the words sound no more but this Blessed and holy is he that hath part in holinesse which were but aharsh Tautologie 2. This spiritual resurrection did begin in Adom after his fall and hath continued ever since and shall to the worlds end But the first resurrection here spoken of did not begin in
divided hate and devour hurt and destroy one another I leave it saith that Reverend mystery Searcher Mr. Mede to the judgment of learned men and men well able to judge in such like mysteries in Divinity whether this be not the best and easiest way to deal with the Jewes not to wrest those plain Prophesies touching things appertaining to this last and glorious coming of Christ to his first coming for while we do so the Jewes laugh and scorn at us and are hardened in their infidelity The Apostle Peter takes this course to convert the Jews Acts 3.19 Repent saith he and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the Presence of the Lord And he shall send Jesus Christ which was preached unto you whom the Heavens must receive until the times of the restitution of all things of which God hath spoken by the mouth of all the holy Prophets since the world begun 4. Because unlesse this opinion of Christs Millenary Kingdom and reign with his Saints a thousand years be granted and received nothing of certainty can be brought concerning the true and genuine sense of the 20th chapter of the Revelation and that in the 7. of Daniel and many other of the Texts before named wherein a mans Conscience can safely rest Which amongst some others Pareus himself confesseth who saith the more he studied it the lesse he found out whereby to untie the knot which had so tortured all Interpreters only this he saith he found that it is more easie to tell what this thousand years are not then what they are And a little after he saith I do not therefore here promise you that after all others I shall so untie this knot of a thousand years as to satisfie all men in this Millenary Reign of the Martyrs and Saints with Christ The Reason is given by a learned Writer because he left the letter of the Text and did turn the whole discourse to an Allegorical sense without any sufficient reason or necessity at all It hath doubtlesse been the unhappy fate of many by their learning in their Expositions to make plain Scriptures dark and difficult texts far more difficult then before 5. Because it seems altogether unreasonable to go about to inâ—erpret that whole place in the 20. chapter of the Revelation figuratively because of one or two figurative expressions in it which yet have an eaâ—te explication without any figure In a plain â—â—â—â—ence we may somtimes meet with one trope or other but it doth not therefore necessarily follow that all and every word in the sentence must be so taken nor is that reasonable Propter unius verbi translationem nen totus locus figuratè accipiendur est saith Austin Neither indeed is this Prophesie of a thousand years propoled under representations and pictures as many others are in the Apocalyps but it is declared in as clear and elegant word as you can posibly imagine be it by the Holy Ghost never so really meant 6. Because this Interpretation of a thousand years after the Armageddon battel and the dâ—struction of Antichrist in Christs second coming doth best agree with all those Scriptures which speak or this subject which consider a long tract of time in it as well as in his first-coming as was shewed before Now we are not to think that because the Lord Jesus Christ shall come as a Thief or like the L'ghtning that therefore he shall presently like a thief or like the lightning vanish or disappear Nor because his second coming is joyned with the final Resurrection and last Judgment properly and strictly so called therefore they shall be done presently together and all at once but every thing shall be fulfilled in its own order and time In a processe of time sensibly and by degrees will the Lord proceed in the restitution of all things after the same manner as his proceeding was in the Creation of all things though he could have created all things in one and the same moment God will never huddle his works on helps 7. Because to interpret the first Resurrection of a piritual resurrection from sin is altogether new and unheard of and unknown to all Orthodox Antiquity and that almost till Austins time And was first of all found out by Tyconius the Donatist of whom Austin borrowed it whom afterward Primasius followed Gregory and others Yea they that deny this Interpretation deny that which was of old denied by the Hereticks against the Orthodox as it doth plainly appear from Justin Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew which Dialogue is set down at large by Mr. Mede at the latter end of his Commentary upon the Revelation whither I refer the Reader But to clear the thing beyond doubt Consider that though the death in sin may be called a death yet it is not nor any wherein Scripture called the death either first or second if that death in sin be the death then it is the first death and the Life of Grace the first Resurrection and then all that have a part in this should be freed from the second death which second death by this reckoning must be the death of the body but that we see is false for the godly die the death of the body as well as the wicked Therefore let us give way to the plain truth which is in a word thus The first death is the death of the body or a bodily death the second death is the death of the soul or the soules everlasting punishment in Hell And the first Resurrection or the first order in the Resurrection for I speak not here of Christ and those that arose then is the Resurrection of the body or a bodily Resurrection of the Saints and they that have part in this are none but such as are holy and by this their being within the Compass of the first order in the Resurrection or being raised in the first Resurrection they are beyond all fear of condemnation in hell which is the second death Therefore the Text says Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second death hath no power which Resurrection as we see cannot be meant of the life of grace but must be meant of that corporal Resurrection which is opposed to a bodily death or the death of the body and not to the death in sin 8. Because although Christs Oeconomical or Mediatory Kingdom is but one in regard of its essential forme yet it is indeed twofold in respect of its accidental forme For Christs Kingdom which is humble low and cometh not with observation and is much accompanied with the Crosse and persecuted according to his first coming which was humble and low to his very passion is one thing And his glorious Kingdom is another which comes with observation as lightning shining upon the earth and in great peace and security according to the nature and condition of his
Adom but is to begin after the Armageddon battel which will be the last and fatal blow whereby the Beast and false Prophet shall be for ever cashiered out of the world and last a thousand years and no longer Ergo this resurrection is not regeneration 3. He that hath part in the first resurrection shall live and reign with Christ a thousand years but no regenerate man did ever live so long in a state of regeneration Ergo regeneration cannot be meant by this resurrection 4 No man is regenerate after death but the men that were beheaded did live and reign with Christ a thousand years after they were beheaded Ergo this life and reign cannot be meant of regeneration 5 The men that were beheaded c. are not any of them excluded from reigning with Christ a thousand years but if the first resurrection be meant of regeneration then begin the account when you will and many shall be excluded To instance suppose we begin at the death of Steven Acts. 7. who was the first that was slain for the witnesse of Jesus and the Word of God The thousand years were then ended about six hundred years ago and all that were beheaded since are excluded from reigning with Christ a thousand years Or suppose we begin with Constantine as many desire the thousand years were then ended about three hundred years ago and so they that were beheaded before the days of Constantine are excluded from the thousand years and they that have been beheaded since in the last three hundred years are excluded also Ergo. 6. He that hath a part in the first resurrection hath a share in the thousand years whether he were beheaded or no as appears ver 6. before mentioned but they that were regenerate before the death of Christ had a part in the first resurrection if we understand it of regeneration and yet they had no part in the thousand years because they were dead before And they that have been regenerated since the thousand years are supposed to be ended had also a part in the first resurrection i e in regeneration yet they had no share in the thousand years because they are supposed to be ended before they were regenerate Ergo 7 If the first resurrection be meant of a Spiritual resurrection then when it is said that the rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were ended That must be meant of a spiritual resurrection too for the words they lived not again ver 5 are opposed to the words they lived ver 4. and so consequently to the first resurrection as is proved before But this latter clause is not meant of a Spiritual resurrection for then the rest of the dead should be regenerate when the thousand years are ended and then none should be for ever damned which most exactly contradicts the Text Rev. 20.15 Whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of fire Ergo no spiritual but a corporal resurrection is meant If by the word Donec until we understand nunquam never as some would have it this is contrary to the Scripture too For when it is said ver 3. Satan shall deceive the Nations no more until the thousand years be fulfilled the meaning is he should them not deceive while the thousand years continued but should have liberty to deceive them afterwards So when it is said the rest of the dâ—ad lived not again until the thousand years wâ—re finished the meaning must of necessiâ—y be they lived not again whise the thousand years continued but are to live again when the thousand years are ended but then they are not to live again by a Spiritual resurrection therefore that is not the meaning of the words but the meaning is they shall live again in a bodily resurrection But if this latter clause be meant of a bodily resurrection then the former clause where it is said the souls of them that were beheaded lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years is meant of a bodily resurrection quod erat demonstrandum But thus I have done with that first misunderstanding of this Text to understand it of regeneration which I confess I le not for these and other reasons how it can be Neither yet can it be meant of a life of of Glory in Heaven as some others would have it For John was not called to Heaven to see things to be done there but to see things there to be done on Earth Rev. 4 1. A door was opened in Heaven and he called to come up for what end to see things that must be hereafter Where in Heaven No! but on Earth see Rev 6.1 2 3. And all done on Earth Those things that were represented to John in Heaven shall be done on Earâ—h As the Vision of the Woman and the great red Dragon represented to him in Heaven but fulfilled on the Earth There is not one instance can be given of any thing in the Revelation that is to be fulfilled in Heaven except the Text do express it so to be which it doth not here for the Apocalyps is a Revelation of things to be fulfilled on Earth Besides it cannot be meant of a life in Heaven because many of those who were killed have lived this life before these thousand years and the life in Heaven is not a life to end when these thousand years are ended Nor can that life be called a living again or a resurrection for that life and happiness of the Saints is not the restoring of a life lost but the enâ—oyment and possession of a New life It is therefore a Corporal life which at length the life from the dead after the final destruction to the Beast and false Prophet in the day of Christs second coming which will be the time of the resurrection first of the first and secondly of of the second The reign of these souls that is of the dead now living as soon as ever they are united to their bodys will be a raign upon Earth as plainly appears Rev 5.1 â— And hast made us Kings and Pâ—iests unto God and we shall reign on the EARTH Either then this shall be on the Earth or else the four and twenty Elders were mistaken in their doxologie Now what is there said in terminis is here in this 20 chapter said to be fuâ—filled ver 4. and 6. They lived and reign-with Christ a thousand years and they shall reign with him a thousand years which cannot be meant as I said of Heaven after the day of Judgement for that is longer then a thousand years nor of the Kingdom of Heaven before the day of Judgement for that also is more then a thousand years but of a Kingdom they shall have on Earth as the words plainly shew in the fore cited Text Rev. 5 1â— Besides that this Kingdom and the Saints reign shall be on Earth may be gathered from two things in the Text which offer themselves to leave this
for one natural day or hour properly so called as 't is commonly thought In Luke 17.22 the Lord â—esus himself speaking of the day of his second â—oming Ye shall saith he desire to see one of the days of the Son of man Which Beza rightly interprets of one of the days of his second coming for in vain should they desire to see one of the days that were past who did certainly expect them to come which they thought also to be at hand but they were deceived in that and should not see them that is so soon as they expected them In Acts 3.20 21 24. Peter speaks of times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord the times of the restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets c. He doth not point at one day in Christs second coming but many certainly so long as all things shall continue after they be restored so long the day of Judgement shall last but all things shall be restored at the day of Judgement and continue in their being after they are restored longer then a day of twelve or twenty four hours long Surely for a man to say that Christ shall come from Heaven at the day of Judgement when all things in the world shall be destroyed and have an end Acts 3.21 Rom 8 21. is to fight against the Scripture which saith all things at his coming shall be restored and therefore not dissolved at that time Or to say all things shall be restored at Christ second coming and be dissolved again by and by is like the fancie of those Heathens who said God made other worlds before this but he did undo them as soon as he had made them because they were not to his minde and thus say they he spent his time until he made this world that now is which pleased him very well Such a fancy they must needs have of God who think all things shall be restored at Christs second coming and dissolved again by and by Without doubt as when God made the world at first he did not make it to destroy it presently but to continue for som length of time for man to live in it to his glory and his praise so when God shall restore the world at the great day of Judgement he will not presently dissolve it but have it to continue some length of time that Christ and the Saints may reign in it to his glory Again John in the Revelation speaking of the seventh Trumpet which is the last Trumpet and the Trumpet I mean of the judicial Trumpets of consummation and so the Trumpet of Christs second coming he attributes many days to it In the days of the seventh Trumpet the mystery of God shall be finished as he spake by his Servants the â—rophets Rev. 10.7 Isaiah calls the second coming of Christ the year of recompences Isaiah 34. ver 8. It is such a day that in the same breath it swells into a year For it is the day saith he of the Lords vengeance and the year of recompences for the controversie of Zion Yea this day in Isaiah 59.21 swells at the least into three generations and least that should be two little into a for ever For saith he my words shall not depart out of thy mouth nor our of the mouth of thy feed or seeds seed from henceforth even for ever And it is apparent this is spoken of Christs second coming both from the text * By which we may judge how to apply all those glorious texis which seem yet to be unfulfilled and context and Paul Rom. 11.26 so applyes the same The same Prophet tells us yet of a longer time Isaiah 65.17 for saith he the days of my people ver 22. shall be as the days of a tree and mine Elect shall lâ—ng enjoy the works of their hands Pliny tells us that the life of an Oak is nine hundred years more or less which comes very near Johns thousand years The words in the Hebrew are the wood of life but the Septuagint renders it the tree of life with which also agrees the Chaldee paraphraft In which words saith Justin Martyr we may understand the thousand years to be secretly pointed at It was the conceit of the same Justine Martyr and not altogether to be slighted that the life of the tree of life or of man in the state of Paradice was to consist of a thousand years that is to say that so long man had he not sined should have lived in this world and afterwards have been translated into a more happy both place and condition But Adam having sinned by eating the forbidden fruit therefore neither himself nor any of his posterity though some of them very long lived should attain to that number of years but should die before they had any of them lived out so great a day But when all things shall be restored that long liv'd day shall be restored to the sons of the first resurrection and they shall live one thousand years So the Prophet Zachariah speaking of the day of Christs second coming chap 14.9 saith the Lord shall be King over all the Earth and in that day there shall be one Lord and his name one And adds ver 16. they shall go up from year to year to worship the King the Lord of Hosts and to keep the feast of Tabernacles which is an allusion to those old Jewish rites and betokens onely their serving God of which see Rev. 7.14 15. Where those Palm bearing triumphers are said to serve God day and night in his Temple Lastly Christ tells us of a certain world to come in which sins may be forgiven Matth. 12.32 not to the sons of the resurrection who are without all sin but to those who are of the Nations that are saved and walk in the light of the New Jerusalem Rev. 21.24 who yet sinning and repenting of their sins obtain remission in Christs blood And now good Reader hark a little to the peculiar priviledges of that day and time yet for brevitys sake take them almost in so many words ¶ I In the time of this thousand years there will be an end for ever of the Beast and false Prophet O! happy riddance to the world for what good did they ever do nay what evil did they not Farewell thou Whore of Babylon Rev. 18.3 who didst inebriate the Nations and their Kings with the wine of the wrath of thy fornications Thy judgements are come in a day Rev. 18.8 death and mourning and famine for strong is the Lord God that Judgeth thee Rejoyce Rev. 18.20 over her thou heaven Church and ye holy Apostles and Prophets for God hath avenged you at her hand That wicked horn Dan. 7.21 is broken off who warred against and wore out the Saints the multitude of thy offences now at last hath broken the multitude of thy forces and thou canst not call back the day that is past