that Faith might not be precarious and built upon his bare affirmation he openly claimed first the Kingdom of Judea as of the Line of David and caused the people to applaud him with Hosanna's But being to Redeem us as a Sacrifice by his Blood and to Conquer Death and confirm his Gospel by Dying and Rising again he oft foretold all this to his Disciples and the rejecting of him by the Jews and their Nations Cities and Temples ruin for it and his purpose to cease the Mosaical Politie and to make his Church more Great and Catholick by the Calling of the Gentiles especially the Roman Empire X. At his Resurrection he took more solemn possession of his Kingly Government And first Commissioned the Twelve Apostles whom he had before made Preachers to the Jews to continue their Ministry to them in a number related to the Twelve Tribes till Persecution should expel them and then to do their best to make all Nations as such his Disciples Baptizing them as the Entrance into his Kingdom into the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and there teaching them to observe all his Commands delivered to those Apostles and promising to be with them to the End of the World XI By this and more it appeareth that a great triumphant Kingdom on Earth and National Churches which are nothing but Christian Kingdoms was at first in Christs Intention though the Embrio and Infancy anteceding it was to be first in Execution For he commanded the Discipling of Nations and would have gathered Jerusalem and not cut them off nor taken the Kingdom of God from them but for their unbelief And the number of Twelve was by Matthias to be made up to shew their relation to the Jews National Church State till Persecution drove them to the Gentiles and then Paul and Barnabas were added The Apostles have Successors in all the parts of their Office which is to be continued to the End but not in the parts that were extraordinary peculiar and temporary XII Christ by the Holy Ghost which he promised to send to be his powerful Agent propagated a holy Generation and by his Messengers Preaching his Resurrection and Kingdom especially and the Miracles which they wrought he confirmed his Gospel And Converted quickly many Myriads of the Jews and after far greater numbers of the Gentiles Thus preparing materials or subjects for his more visible Kingdom of Power on Earth Himself reigning over all in Heaven XIII That his Subjects might know the Nature and Terms of his Covenant and Government which was to bring them to a Heavenly Kingdom he not only required their Covenant-Consent to forsake the Flesh and this World and the Devil for that Eternal Life which he had promised them but he was pleased to put them on the actual exercise of this agreement and to try their sincerity by putting them often upon Sufferings and Martyrdom And therein he exercised his Heavenly Power in strengthening them and making them more than Conquerors while they went as Sheep to the slaughter to the honour of their Lord and Faith and the confusion of their Persecutors XIV Yet did he so over-power the Spirits of the Pagan Persecutors that of Forty Emperors there were at most but ten that persecuted them so that in this Captivity and Wilderness state by their liberty their numbers so increased that they became a considerable party in their Dominions and Armies XV. Of all these Persecutors the Cruellest were Nero Domitian Maximinus and Decius but far above all the last who were seven together Dioclesian Max. Herculius Max. Galerius Max. Daya Severus Licinius Maxentius and Constantius not wholly innocent The cruelty of their Tormentors and the great numbers Tormented and Martyred is frightful even to read By all which Christ shewed his Heavenly Power in the terrible punishment of all their Persecutors First in the dreadful destruction of the cursed part of the Jews who were by Vespasian and Titus so destroyed that 110000 of them were killed and about 700000 Captivated And their State City and Temple overthrown and saith Origen and Chrysostom it is certain that they shall never that is the Infidels return to that Land And afterwards by Trajan and Adrian in revenge of the Murders of Barcocheba an Antichrist near as many more were killed which must needs leave the Infidels few in so small a Land when London is supposed not to have near one Million of Inhabitants And as to the great Pagan Empire the greatest that ever the World had Christ rode on the White Horse against them Conquering and executed on them all the Plagues gradually numbered in the Apocalypse the Seals the Trumpets the Vials till he had utterly overcome them and all their Confederates He dealt so severely with them that of Forty Emperors there were scarce ten or seven that died without Murder a natural death But they were still in Bloody Wars with other Nations and with one another so that The Beast that was and Is not and yet Is became a fit description of their State As notably suited to Domitian at first and to Dioclesian Herculius and their Fellows at last so all along to the ordinary Succession To day there was an Emperor the next day he was kill'd and there was None And yet another presently succeeded him and so there is one again The Soldiers selling the Empire to him that would give most for it or was likest to advance them How dreadful a destruction did Christ by one Constantine bring on the seven Heads and ten Horns at last in a very little time So that Heaven and Earth triumphed with Joyful Praise that Babylon was fallen and the Kingdoms of the World were become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ and he had taken to himself his great Power and had reigned and was setting up the New Jerusalem as a Fifth Monarchy the Embrio of the Coelestial Jerusalem in its visible Reigning Power I am none of those that will secure Papal Rome from an answerable Name and Guilt and Fate But he that will convince me that Pagan Rome was not the Babylon there meant or that it is not fallen must first convince me that he is of more credible Authority than the Apocalypse XVI O how great a change was it for poor Christians throughout all the Empire to be brought from Scorn and Torments and the Martyrdom of many Thousands after 294 years Captivity to be suddenly made Freemen to celebrate Christs Worship in the most Solemn Assemblies and to be made Lords of their Persecuting Captivating Idolatrous Enemies lately so great that no Nations could stand before them Who did the Godly desire should be in Power rather their Bishops that came newly out of the Furnace of Tryal O what a change O what a joyful day And shall the success of the Devil that
about the place of Worship by Customs kept up some Animosity against Jerusalem yet the Woman John 4. could say When the Messiah cometh he will tell us all things And is not this the Christ And what place so generally received the Gospel when Philip preached to them It was not for nothing that the Christians were so long called Galileans But this and more shall next be proved Chap. VI. What Conversion the Twelve Tribes have already had § 2. 1. AS is aforesaid The Saviour himself and his Apostles chose his abode on Earth among them and calleth them the lost Sheep of the house of Israel and the Children whose Bread must not be given to Dogs They were the Circumcision to whom he was a Minister He ordinarily Preached in their Synagogues and there wrought most of his Miracles It was they that cryed him as King with Hosanna's It was they that followed him to the Cross and it was in Galilee where on a Mountain he appointed them to meet him after his Resurrection § 2. 2. He appointed not two but Twelve Apostles and 70 Disciples as suited to the Twelve Tribes and their Sanedrim to shew what Form of Government he assigned them and for whom and he sent his Apostles to the Twelve Tribes of Israel § 3. 3. The chief success of their Preaching was on the Samaritans and others of the Ten Tribes and such of them as came up to the Feasts § 4. 4. There were three thousand at once converted of the Jews after made five thousand and soon after many Myriads of Jews believed at least many thousands § 5. 5. These became the Mother-Church and the Law went out of Zion and so all Nations were blest in Abrahams Seed and Christ became a Light to the Gentiles and the Glory of his People Israel The scattered Jews of the Twelve Tribes through much of the Empire were the Stamina or Rudiments of the Gentile Churches The Apostles first Preached in their Synagogues and the converted Gentiles were added to their Converts § 6. 6. The Epistle to the Hebrâ—â—â— was written to all the Hebrew Christians and not to Two Tribes only and implieth the great success of the Gospel on them § 7. 7. Peter directeth his Epistle to all the Strangers scattered through Pontus Asia Galatia Phrygia c. and magnifieth their Grace § 8. 8. James directeth his Epistle to the Twelve Tribes that are scatter'd abroad And it is evident that he writeth to them as Christians § 9. 9. The seventh Chapter of the Revelations expresly nameth the Twelve Tribes of which One Hundred and Forty four Thousand were Sealed Twelve Thousand of each Tribe meaning a great number that were to be preserved from the Destruction that was to be executed on their Enemies The boldness of those Expositors who give us their own Revelation instead of Christs is palpable who tell us that by these One Hundred and Forty four Thousand is meant all the Reformed that are saved from the destruction to be executed on the Papists What words can we desire God to use more plain that Men may not pervert 1. God speaketh of Jews and they say he meaneth Gentiles 2. God nameth the Tribes and they exclude them 3. They are called The First Fruits of the Church And they say It meaneth the last 4. The numberless Gentile Christians that with them partaked of the preservation are by way of distinction mentioned in the next words Yet these Commentators say That the Gentiles are meant by the Twelve Tribes 5. The Prophesie is put in the beginning before the Trumpets or Vials even before all the Judgments that were to come on Infidel Jews and Romans yet do they bring it down towards the end of the World or after the Fall of Pagan Rome § 10. 10. It was some considerable time before the Jewish Christians could be satisfied to let go their Priviledge of Peculiarity and Mosaick Policy and to Embody on equal Terms with the Gentiles in the Catholick Church and to Marry with Gentile Christians And all that time Dr. Hammond and Grotius and others say They had in the great Cities one Church of Jews and one of Gentiles which also difference of Language would require and so had two Bishops in a City And Peter for the Circumcision and Paul for the Uncircumcision were the Roots of the Jewish and Gentile Miracle-working Ministry which I suppose were the Two Witnesses mentioned in the Revelation For whoever they were they may be known by the Promise Mark 16. 17 18. In my Name shall they cast out Devils they shall speak with new Tongues they shall take up Serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them they shall lay Hands on the sick and they shall recover Our Reformers pretended not to Miracles § 11. 11. At the Wars of Vespasian and Titus against the Jews One Million and One Hundred Thousand were kill'd and Seven Hundred Thousand carried into Captivity and the Christians fore-warned by Christ got out of the City and escaped And in Trajan's days a Madness seized on the Infidel Jews and they rose up and Murdered many score Thousands of the Roman Subjects And after Barchocheba proclaimed himself the Messiah Murdered so many more as amounted to an Hundred Thousands VVhereupon Trajan and Adrian in Revenge kill'd between One and Two Millions of these Rebel Jews still sparing the Christians After all this the Infidel Jews could have but a small number left All London hath not near a Million By which it appeareth that the main Body of the Jews preserved were the Christians to whom the Cursed part were few § 12. 12. The Converted Jews fell into the Catholick Church and Married with Gentile Christians and so ere long lost the name of Jews and became unknown So that the scattered Relicks now called Jews are but the Off-spring of the Self-cursed Rabble that were scattered after the aforesaid slaughter of them § 13. 13. In Constantine's Reign the Jews had as much Liberty and Invitation to be Christians as any others And Judea was not only made a National-Provincial Church but was more honoured for Christs sake than any Nation no greater save the Imperial Seat There were more Churches Built and more Monasteries and more Bishops than elsewhere in so small a compass No Jew was forbidden there to live No Countrey so honoured The Devout People from Rome and many Countreys went thither some on Pilgrimage and some to dwell Thence they fetcht what Relicks they could get in remembrance of Christ There at Bethlehem Jerom lived while he wrote and studied much of his Works § 14. 14. Since then in all Ages some of the Infidel Relicks have been converted Whether the History of the dispute between Gregentius and Herbanus and the miraculous Conversion of them by Christs Appearance be true or no which few judicious Men believe in all Ages many Jews have been Baptized and some proved excellent Divines § 15. 15. When all the Ten Kingdoms
that had been Tributary or Subject to the Pagan Empire so quickly followed the success of Constantine and the Christian Arms and turned against the Pagan Idolatry it is utterly incredible that multitudes of the Infidel Jews did not the same No one Nation turned all at once And no one National Church under Heaven were all that I say not the most sincerely holy Christians The visible Church still consisted mostly of temporizing Men that came in to Christianity for worldly Interest over-awed by Christian Power Till it came to this the Christians were a persecuted party and no National Church And the unbelieving Jews were not like to be so free from the Love of the Flesh and VVorld as not to do as others did Christ Riding victoriously on the VVhite Horse and Conquering his Enemies brought the Nations to Submission after he had by the Word and Martyrdom purified to himself a holy Generation As all the Revelation fully telleth us Therefore if Judea was not made a National Church no other Nation was made such Zonaras saith that many hired by Money turned Christians Two Hundred Thousand turned Christians for fear in their Troubles at Toledo in Spain whither they were long before sent And Forty Fryars were sent to instruct them After that Ferrerius converted many Read but the Chronological Tables of my worthy Friend Mr. Fr. Tallents and you shall find how they were hated hunted and destroyed in Spain France and almost all Christians Nations except Rome and how many turned seeming Christians for fear Chap VII Whether there be any Jerusalem Monarchy of Jews or any further Conversion of them more than of other Men promised by God § 1. I know of no such Promise in Gods Word but I find it in many Books of Men and I hear of it in the Prayers and Sermons of many Men so good and of so good repute that divers of my Friends disswade me from so much as giving my Reasons against it lest I lose my Reputation with such Men and lest I occasion a Division by contradicting them And is it come to that Must our Concord be held on such humane loose and unsound terms Is this savouring the things of God or of Men If it be proved an Errour taking Gods Name in vain polluting Sacred Worship and adding to the Word of God must we by silence promote a Concord in it I only humbly propose the Reasons of my dissent to the tryal of wiser Men. § 2. 1. It belongeth to the Affirmers to produce their proofs But I can find no Text cited by them that to a sober search hath any such proof 1. As to the many Texts of the Prophets of the uniting of Judah and Israel under David their King and the Jews repossessing their own Land and the Subjection of their Enemies and the Neighbour Nations to them and the great Slaughters of Gog and Magog in their Land c. 1. Let the Grandeur of Prophetical stile he allowed for and this compared with the Prophecies against Babylon Tyre Sion Moab Edom c. 2. Read the whole Text and you will find most express passages that cannot be applyed to any such time and use as this in question but plainly speak of their return from Captivity and their following state It would too much swell my Book to try and vindicate all the particular Texts Mr. James Calvert having already done it in his Naphthali yet unanswered 3. Confound not the Immediate Sense of the Prophesie with the remote and set not one against the other the several parts and degrees that make up the whole Many Prophesies in the Psalms are spoken immediately of David but as he was a Type of Christ in whom they were though remotely yet chiefly fulfilled The Prophesies of the honour of the Jews and their Restoration had divers degrees of fulfilling 1. They were primarily fulfilled in the return from Captivity and the Power that followed under Zorubbabel and the Maccabees 2. They were further fulfilled by the Coming of the Messiah of the Seed of Abraham and David in whom all the Nations of the Earth are blessed 3. They were further fulfilled at Christs Resurrection Ascension and Effusion of the Holy Ghost and the many Thousands of them Converted And their spreading the Gospel over the Gentile World 4. It was yet more fulfilled when Dominion was given to Christians and the fulness of the Gentiles brought in all Israel and settled a National Church in Judea and put all their Enemies in subjection to the Catholick Church of Jewish and Gentile Christians reconciled in one Body the partition Wall being broken down 5. It will be yet more fulfilled in the New Heaven and Earth under the Gospel there is neither Circumcision not Uncircumcision but Christ is All and in All How much more in the New World He that would promise to redeem Christians from Turkish Captivity and restore them to their own Land and prosper and honour them there if they will obey him must not be thought to confound the several benefits and degrees of this Promise He that will lead you into an upper Chamber includeth every step of the Stairs that you ascend and the promise of helping you up the first step includeth not the last but tendeth to it and if you obey will lead you further 4. Read the Book of the Maccabees and other History that you may not be ignorant of what is already done For instance How the great Ruine of Gog and Magog so Hyperbolically set out was fulfilled on the Syrian and Graecian Armies of which see the Assembly Mens Annotations § 3. II. Their next seeming proof is from Rom. 11. of which I have proved how much is fulfilled already besides which I find no more there promised than to all the Church in the New World 1. God cast not away the fore-known Elect v. 1 2 to 11. 2. Through their Fall and Infidelity persecuting the Christians from among them the Gospel came to the Gentiles v. 12. 3. It was but some of the Branches that were broken off v. 17. 4. As the casting away of them was the converting and reconciling of the Pagan World so their receiving was as a Resurrection of life from the dead v. 15. 5. The Converted Gentiles were but grafted in among them and partakers with them and not without them of the fatness of the Olive v. 17. 6. Not the Root but the some Branches that were broken off was that we might be grafted in v. 19. It was chiefly the Priests and Rulers and the self-cursed Rabble that followed them and yet some Priests and Pharisees were converted 7. If they continue not in Gods Goodness the Gentiles also shall be broken off v. 22. So much of conditionality is in the Promise And yet there is more Scripture to expect that the Gentiles shall not be broken off than that there shall be any more National Conversion of the Jews 8. The promise of restoring the broken Branches is If they continue
not in unbelief v. 23. 9. Yet here is a Prophecy that the Jews shall be eminently replanted v. 24. and not for ever left in general unbelief 10. It was but blindness in part that happened to those some till the fulness of the Gentiles came in Which must either mean till the Empire of the Roman World fell into the Christians hands Or else till all the Gentiles were converted that ever shall be This last cannot be the meaning for then it would not be till the end of the World therefore it must be the former which is long fulfilled v. 25. 11. So all Israel were saved that is 1. All the Israel of God the believing Children of Abraham for all are not Israel that are of Israel gathered into one Catholick Body 2. And so many of Natural Israel as to make not only one of the two Witnesses and Olive Trees but also a formed National honoured Church-Society 12. When to drive away the Gospel to the Gentiles some were left in unbelief The Elect part were they that were beloved for their Father Abrahams sake much more for Christs sake v. 28. 13. As it was from them that the Gentiles had the Gospel so it was from the Gentiles mercy that the restored Body of the Jews obtained mercy being by the Christian Emperors and Princes restored and honoured v. 29 30. 14. God left the Rulers and many others in unbelief that he might recover not each single person but a Political Body and Power to the Nation as he did v. 32. As Alexander Severus gave the Infidel Jews power to chuse them a Governour of their own under him the Christian Emperors did for the Christian Jews much more 15. Thus is Gods Goodness and Severity glorified And what word in that Chapter proper to the Jews is not fulfilled § 4. As to the Texts that mention the Restitution of all things the Creatures groaning to be delivered from the bondage of corruption drinking the fruit of the Vine new and such like what word is in all this that respecteth the Jews more than the Gentiles or that may not be performed in the New World unlimited to Jews or to a Thousand years § 5. The same I say of the Lords Prayer Let thy Kingdom come c. which long made me hope for better days on this same Earth But this saith nothing more of the Jews than of the Heathens And who can here find any limitation of this Kingdom to a Thousand years All the Word that tells us what to pray for doth not tell us what in this World we shall obtain I doubt not but we may pray for Jews and all men but that proveth not all shall be converted and saved We may have hope of many Individual Jews when we have no promise of a National further Restitution of the many more than of any others Chap. VIII Reasons for the Negative humbly offered to Tryal § 1. I. THat which is done already according to Promise we must not take for undone or expect to be done again But the Calling of the Jews is done already according to Promise Ergo c. I hinted this oft before I will not shun repetition where the cause requireth it 1. It is granted that the Catholick Church is called The New Jerusalem so far as it is short of the other World But the Catholick Church and therein the Jewish Nation was more gloriously set up by the Christian Empire than the Millenaries can reasonably expect or plead for 1. What are a few Rabble Jews such as are among us to the great rich victorious Roman Empire the greatest that ever was on Earth which turned Christian in the Regent part and shortly in the commonest Profession What an Empire would the Jews of England Spain Portugal Turky c. make 2. Constantinople was then called not only New-Rome but New-Sion And how greatly did it excel Jerusalem in spaciousness riches power and glory 3. How small and barren a spot was Judea like our Wales in comparison of the Roman Christian Empire in Europe Asia and Africa Like the Isle of Man to England 4. How great a Protection had the Jews under Constantine and following Emperours above what they had even after their Restoration from Captivity from Zorobabel and the Maccabees to the end of their Policy 5. What could they now desire for their return more than they then had What greater liberty or encouragement or help An excess of Honour was put on their Countrey and on all that would come into the Christian Church 6. What better Plantation of Religion can be expected in Judea than was when the Emperours built them Temples and devout people travelled thither and dwelt there and bought them Bibles and built them Religious Houses and set over them Pastors and Bishops and A. Bishops and a Patriarch one of the five in the Empire And their National Church honourably united to the Catholick What outward honour can they expect more All Protestants note it as the wicked Superstition of the Popes that they were so set on the honouring of Jerusalem and Judea called The Holy Land that they forced Emperours and Kings of France and England c. at vast charges to go fight for it to the loss of 100000 men § 2. Obj. But Judea was not all planted with Jews but with a mixt people Ans 1. And must all that now possess it be robbed of their Habitations and Estates to make room for our Jews 2. There were no Jews restrained from going thither that desired it And would you have them forced or sent thither with a Pass 3. Those that would not go thither had better encouragement where they dwelt § 3. Obj. But it was not the main Body of the Nation that was converted and restored Ans 1. I have given great probability that it was the far greatest part so many of the Rebels had been before destroyed 2. There was no Heathen Nation where the greater number presently turned Christians till Power and Interest prevailed with them Even till the days of Alaricus and Theodorick thousands were Heathens in Christian Rome And holy Chrysostom in his days in the glory of Constantinople reckoned but of a hundred thousand Christians besides Separatists and Hereticks the rest being Heathens and Jews shall we therefore say that such were no National Churches that is Christian Kingdoms § 4. Obj. But while their Governours were set over them by others and not chosen by themselves they could not be called Jewish National Churches Ans 1. Their Pastors were chosen by themselves whatever the Souldiers and Magistrates were The Inhabitant Christians Jews and Gentiles chose them 2. Their submission and consent might make them Churches of Jews 3. But I confess they were not nor ever must be Churches of Jews separate from the Gentiles or otherwise than as parts of the Catholick United Church It seems you take not the Jews for converted till they become separated from the Catholick Church and claim their