False Glory Riches and Pleasure They have here Abused They shall Receive double and that in Bodies of Disgrace The General Doctrine of the Day of Judgment concerning the Wicked cannot but Acknowledge this to be according to Scripture For It is most certain such shall be their Appearance signifyed by their being Goats on the Left Hand Matt. 25. 33. in the Grand Assembly of the Great Day â—ven in Bodies of visible Shame and Horror None will deny this in and for that Day and for so long how long soever that Day lasts For what is no Incompossibility for any Time of that Day is possible for all that Day or Time And at the End of that Day or Time They are Cast into the Lake where as to the Pain of Sense as well as to the Pain of â—oss I Agree with all Theology or Sacred Doctrine All that I Add is in the Words of Prophecy These Visibly Dead in â—aw or Condemn'd by their very Appearance Lived not until the 1000 Years were Finish'd Revel 20. 5 that is not at all in the Great Senses of Life For it is Immediately said The Second Death shall have no Power over the Partakers of the First Resurrection Implying All the Dead not Partakers Fall under the Second Death But seeing They were not yet Cast into the Lake though for the 1000 Y. They lye unactive They at the end of Them had that Kind of Revival to Joyn in that short Attempt ef Compassing the Beloved City whether by way of Temptation to Defection as on Adam in his Paradise or of such violence as Sathan us'd upon Job or both but neither with possibility of Success to the Glory of the Redeemer They Joyn'd as Devils of an Inferiour order with Sathan Prince of Devils under his Superior Influence of Wickedness call'd Allusively Deception But in the very Attempt Sathan first and his Angels of the Higher Diabolic order and then the Dead are Cast with Death and Hell into the Lake to the Devil and his Angels Matt. 25. 41. whereby thereis an utter Suppression of all possible Action against the Divine Kingdom for ever but no Cessation of that Action or Receptiveness necessary to the Suffering All that is to be understood by the Vengeance of Eternal Fire as Scripture declares which I never so much as call'd into Question much less once denied Now because it is so ordered by God that here would be the last Attempt it is call'd a Gathering to Battel as it were to try their utmost at this last decisive Point according to no unusual Symbol in this Prophecy 7. This State shall be to the Saints above and below a Preparation to an Eternal Vnion to God and to the Father by Jesus Christ in such an inseparable State of Oneness as leaves no possible Thought of such Falling away as of the Angels from their First Estate or of Adam from Paradise as I always have and do Declare And this is the Glorioas Consummation of the Kingdom of Christ and not a dishonourable Spewing out of Christ's Mouth as shall be presently more fully Declared This Preparation is conveyed to us in such Expressions as are most Evidently made Essential to the State of the New Jerusalem and so as shall be seen to the Thousand Years They are also most proper to such a Preparation viz. The Lord God and the Lamb are the Temple of that City They gives it Light The Throne of God and of the Lamb art in it They See His Face His Servants serve him his Name is in their Foreheads They eat of the Tree of Life and drink of the Fountain of the Water of Life as the Highest Initiation Pledge and Assurance of the Simpâ—e Absolute Eternal Life to which Fountain the Lamb leads them Rev. 20. 6. c. 21. 6. 22. 24. c. 22. 1 2 3 4 5. c. 7. 17. Now if it shall be proved the New Heaven and the New Earth of this State shall Fly away and yet that the State it self cannot End but Issues into that Absolute Eternal Life wherein God is All in All then it will be made plain this State however High above Expression compar'd with that now yet if compar'd to that Eternal State of God All in All it is â—ut Initiation and Preparation though of the Highest Degree of Spirits in Bodies for an Union to God in this Eternal State And our Lord Concurs in his Mediatory Prayer John 17. 21. 23. That there shall be a State of his Saints so Visibly Glorious as to strike the Wicked call'd the World with Conviction That such a State as it is Initially so while They behold it cannot but Issue in Everlasting Union with God by Christ and in the Love and Glory Jesus Christ as the Eternal Word Mission'd by the Father into our Nature had with the Father before the World Began And therefore in regard of Personal Vnion of the Man Christ Jesus with the Eternal Word he is said to have it even before the Existence of the Humane Nature of which Mission there shall also be Fullest Cenviction And what State can be so proper for this as the Glorious Kingdom of Christ wherein the Wicked thus behold with Horrour and Torment what shall be for ever while they cast into the Lake shall be for ever shut out of it I come now to the Second Thing proposed viz. To superadd some Arguments to those already given in my Answer Argum. 1. The Stream of Prophecy in all its Expressions runs so vehemently towards such a State that however hard shifts are made to Evaporate them into Allegory yet Prophecy it self will not be satisfied without such a New Heaven and New Earth wherein shall be Universal Holiness and Knowledge of God in Visible Glory in Universal Peace sufficiency of All Things Freedom from Evil no more Curse in Life and no Death and all in a State of Duration Nor will Atheists and Anti-Scripturists cxacting the Fulfilling of Prophecy be Convicted till those Expressions are so Fulfilled before their Eyes as indeed they shall be For it becomes not the Oracles of Supream Truth to as I may say Excuse the unfulfilledness of Themselves in their Highest Expressions by the use of Allegory or Metaphor or Rhetorick All shall therefore have a Just Complement And seeing many Refer to some Earth and to some State of Time In some State of Time and in somè Earth They must therefoâ—e be Fulfilled and that is in that State of the Thuusand Yoars Kingdom of Christ 2. I Argue from the Prayer of Christ styl'd the Lord's Prayer which I esteem particularly prepar'd for the State of the Kingdom as in a New Heaven and a New Earth Although all Things of the present State are also I own Admirably Comprehended and Fitted to present Use of Prayer Now the Third Petiteon of that Prayer Teacheth us to pray Thy Will be done not only upon Earth as in Heaven but As in Heaven and on Earth as it is Emphatical in the
Mystery which we must not hope perfectly to Understand till we see the Blessed Accomplishment of it I could not but Transcribe a Paragraph worthy of Letters of Gold Not because suitable to my Sense of small Account but because so Agreeable with Sense of Scripture if I can be sure I see or know any Thing And yet how little taken notice of To conclude the Argument The Thousand Years are made by God the Emblem and Hierogliphick of the Perfection of Time and do litterally express that very Time God hath Ordain'd to be the Fulness of Time and the Perfection of it And so I come to the Third Thing propos'd to consider any other Hipothesis or Model of Things in Bar of this propos'd And I find these Two 1. That All this Kingdom of Christ with its New Heaven and Earth are suppos'd rather to Fit the Kingdom of Eternity Against this I Argue 1. The New Heaven and the New Earth the Scripture speaks of Revel 21. v. 1. are certainly the very same that Fly away from the pure Crystal Throne of Eternity and from his Face that Sate upon it Ready to Deliver up the Kingdom to God All in All. This is certain because the New Heaven and New Earth are Concurrent with the New Jerusalem as is most Clear by the Conjunct Vision John had of Them Revel 21. 12. I saw a New Heaven And v. 1. And I John saw the holy City When he Saw the New Heaven c. and the New Jerusalem The first Heaven and the first Earth were passed away So then the Heaven and Earth that were with the New Jerusalem were not the first Heaven and Earth but the Heaven and Earth that were at the same time with the Holy City And they fled away as is most Evident by the close Connexion and Order between the Compassing the Holy and Beloved City which cannot be suppos'd to be any other then the New Jerusalem call'd by the Name of the Holy City as c. 20. 9. so c. 21. 2. and the Beloved City because the Bride For after that Assault that was after the 1000 Y. Satan was cast into the Lake that had the Power of Death And then immediately the White Throne was seen and Heaven and Earth fled away which must be the Heaven and Earth Cotemporary with the New Jerusalem and so with the 1000 Years and seeing as was said just now They must be new Heaven and New Earth Therefore the New Heaven and New Earth continue not to Eternity For I cannot see where there can be any Doubt in the Connexion or Order the Divine Prophecy hath so taken care Sathans casting into the Lake must needs be after the 1000 Years therefore after the New Heaven and Earth the Heaven and Earth that Fled must be Those that were at the Judging and casting the Dead into the Lake Can we suppose then that this White Throne the Judging the Dead and casting the Dead into the Lake was before the 1000 Years and so the Heaven and Earth flying also and then indeed They must be the First Heaven and First Earth and not the New Ones But All that cannot be because whatever was not Written in the Book of Life was then cast into the Lake And it is certain Sathan was not Written in the Book of Lâ—fe therefore he Could not be out of the Lake at the Time of Death and the Dead being cast into the Lake But he was not cast into the Lake till the 1000 Years were past So that this whole Transaction upon Death and the Flying of Heaven and Earth were all after the 1000 Years and therefore the New Heaven and New Earth which Run along with the 1000 Years were the Heavens and Earth that Fled away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was the Thing to be shown and is shown For if such a Connexion as this will not prove nothing can be prov'd by Consequence from Scripture 2. Those Three Expressions of the Apostle The Kingdom shall be deliver'd up by the Son The Son shall be subject God shall be All in All so strongly sway with me that no distinction of Acquisition and Fruition can weigh against them but that such a State as of the New Heaven and New Earth and a Kingdom of Christ proportionate to it cannot be the State of the Kingdom of Eternity Especially when I Joyn to it those Words of our Lords Mediatory Prayer John 17. That They may be one in us and that They may see my Glory and that Glory was the Glory Christ had with the Father before the Foundation of the World So that the Glory of the Humane Nature of Christ and of the Elect Angels and Saints being first confess'd All the State of Glory is Brought to the nearest that can be to that State of Glory before the World began and so not of New Heaven and a New Earth and what is Agreeable to the Creation 3. A Delivery up of the Glory of the Judiciary Kingdom or of that proper to the Day of Judgment to the Father and the Son 's being subject that is laying down that Lustre of Appearance proper to that Administration cannot be denied And that and no other which is always Attributed to the Son of Man and to the Man Christ Jesus and the delivering up that Kingdom and no other is what I plead for and no otherwise then so far as is necessary for the making Good of what the Apostle hath said That the Kingdom is to be deliver'd up that the Son is to be subject and God to be All in All From which as having some Higher Deeper and more Substantial Sense then the distinction of Acquisition and Fruition can Comprehend I cannot depart 4 The Superlative unexpressible Excellency of the Divine Glory from Eternity hath so Great a Command upon my Understanding together with that Expression of the Apostles of God's being All in All that altho the Humane Nature of Christ as united to the Divine though the Humane Nature of Christ and his Saints the Union of Saints to God by Christ be Free and wholly Grace and were not indeed from Eternity yet Joyning the so often mention'd Assertion of the Apostle Paul with our Lords of the Glory before the World began Assures me that the State of Angels and Saints is Brought to the highest Nearness Created Nature is capable of to that Glory before the Foundation of the World even as the Humane Nature of Christ is so Advanc'd and that that Objectition viz. that the Humane Nature of Christ had not an Existence in that Glory before the World Argues to me the more strongly that All this is so For it speaks that Humane Nature it self therefore drawn more out of all Created Glory into the Glory of the Eternal Word and that the Divine Nature of the Eternal Word is our Object and not the Humane Nature of Christ all the objective Glory of Christ in his Humane Nature and of Angels and Saints being seen in Speculo Divinitatis in that Infinite Mirrour of the Divine Nature And
herein I Relye on the very Words of Scripture that cannot be over-rul'd And seeing God hath been pleas'd to make the Humane Nature of Christ and the Union of his Saints to himself Unchangeable as himself So far am I from supposing a Fall from that State the Exaltation of them to Closest Approximation to that Glory to Eternity that was from Eternity is the Cessation of Oeconomy and the perfect Eternal State wherein the Saints are Equal to Angels and need them not for their Enjoyment but as All meet in God On the contrary though Devils and Lost Spirits have all the Sense and Action Agreeable to their Lost State Yet it is not such kind of Hostile Action as now They are Exercis'd in but are in as perfect a State of Suffering as and above All we can conceive and so for ever and in the most Unchangeable Misery And whereas a Political Conception of the Eternal King his Laws and Subjects seems to Require Another State or order then this I Assert Yet as from Eternity Supreme Dominion was Essential to God even as Mercy Goodness Truth before any Subjects capable to Exercise them upon So to Eternity without any such Administration as according to Political Laws we Apprehend and have known here But who can sail in this Infinite Ocean now without the having All Thought and Understanding Lost in that Infinity But this is certain God is a King Eternal as well as Immortal Invisible and the Only Wise God To Him therefore be Glory be for ever And in All this I most humbly Acknowledge Jesus Christ God and Man the Mediator even the Mediator of this union to Eternity But the very Nature of a Mediator is not that he should be Our utmost Objective Rest but that as All Scripture speaks He should Bring us to God even God All in All by several Degrees the Highest of which is his own Kingdom and at last to the most Immediate union in and by Himself which is the Kingdom of Eternity And thus I have endeavour'd to make plain that the Kingdom of Christ as in the Judgment Given to Him as the Son of Man enstated in a World to come of New Heavens and a New Earth does not Last for ever but is as in our Law a Lease for a Year to put into Possession that the Eternal Inheritance may vest in us I come in the Last place to Clear my Hypothesis in these Great Points from the Supposition that there may be other Worlds besides the World present that is now near 6000 Years old and that World to come of the Kingdom of Christ whereof I Speak and then the whole deliver'd up to God All in All either as Angels and Saints in Glorious Bodies in union to Him or as Lost â—pirits and Spirits in Bodies so Subdued quite below under his Kingdom in the Lake as to be Eternally separated from him Now I Briefly Argue against any other Worlds Reason 1. Because the Scripture in All it says Stints our Thoughts and Imaginations in this variety of Worlds Rising and Repullulating as it were out of the First World that we Read of the Creation of Gen. 1. An Extent of Thought beyond this Brings us under a Vertigo a Giddiness of Apprehension that we know not where we are and Inclines to Scepticism a doubt of All Things and if we do not stop to Atheistick Suâ—pitions Running out of the Assurance of the Truth of All Religion and of Christianity Reas 2. Because Scripture Represents the Angels and Saints of both the Saved and of the Lost as so many and those in such a variety Angels never sinning but Elect and Confirm'd in Original Holiness Angels Falling and never Recover'd Mâ—n Created in Original Purity Falling and a number very vast in it self Recover'd some dying but vindicated from Death by the Resurrection Others in the Kingdom of Christ that though they might fall and die viz. the living remaining are yet secur'd by the Mediator and the Lost of Mankind Fallen from their First Estate and not Recover'd notwithstanding the Grace of the Mediator Scripture Every-where also Magnifies the Riches and Fullness the Variety of the Creation as declaring to the utmost the Glory of God that He thinks fit to Reveal in such away especially as it shall be in Christ's World to Come Now the Infinite Riches of the Divine Being shewing it self in so Great an Explication of its own so Variegated Wisdom Ephes 3. 9. c. to Principalities and Powers in Heavenly Places in and by the Church when it is carried through all Oeconomies especially that in the Fullness of Times wherein Angels Themselves shall be Recapitulated Ephes 1. 10. into the Eternal Kingdom is All Scripture Reveals and it carries our Thoughts not a Moment beyond but winds up all herein foâ— that Search beyond it looks like the vain Puff and Swolness of a fleshly Mind as not being wise to Sobriety but above what is written And yet I know the Infinite Being and Wisdom and Power of God before some Holy and Good and so Zealous of the Glory of God may cause them to say Who knows what God will do Reas 3. Because it is not only unconceivable but directly against the Analogy of Scripture and Faith That there should be any Glory of Creatures Intellectual or Animal or according to the Mechanism and Frame of Heaven and Earth but what is All in Jesus Christ the eternal Word in our Nature Now how is it Conceivable either in Scripture or Reason He should be Related to Another or any more Worlds as to this wherein he was made Man the Son of Abraham the Son of David Can there be any more Sons of Abraham or of David Can the Eternal Word Assume any more or other Created Nature into Himself He must then see a World or Worlds wherein He hath no Interest as in that Personality wherein we Believe Him according to Scripture This would be a Diminution to his Glory Therefore this is to me a most Conclusive Argument against any Worlds before or after this Reas 4. I add the Manifestations of the Grace of God in Christ even the Riches of Glory on the Vessels of Mercy prepared to Glory and Honour and of his Wrath and Power on the Vessels of Wrath and unto Dishonour are to the Heighth as the Apostle shews Rom. 9 22. Any more then would speak the Imperfection of what hath been is and is to be which no way agrees with Scripture manifesting all to the utmost From whence I conclude such a Supposal of more Worlds cannot Rationally Barr the Hipothesis of such a Kingdom as God All in All. And thus I have endeavoured so to state that Kingdom of the 1000 Y. wherein not only his Enemies are in Fieri or about as they speak to be subdued but it shall be brought to that Consummation and Perfection which the Apostle speaks of and
about to Acquiesce and Settle in a State by Themselves on Earth which Christ by no means Allows nor Endures Here enters the Laodicean State of which because I have never at any Largeness published my Thoughts I would be more large when I have given these Pre-Cautions 1. That neither on my Judgment concerning Laodicea nor concerning Gog and Magog as the Captivated Dead or Condemn'd of the Thousand Years do I suspend the Weight of my principal Doctrine of the Thousand Years Kingdom of Christ but therein offer the best Light I am able to give in so dark Points in Agreement with my principal Doctrine and the Symmetry of Prophecy and Commend my Self therein to the Candor of the Wise and Sober without any occasion of Offence or Exasperation 2. That the strangeness of the Abatement of Fervours in the Living Saints or the Laodicean Church will be easily taken off by considering The Assurance of the best â—reated State depends upon the Degrees of Divine Confirmation which does not perfect it self into the very Nature of Vnchangeableness but in the Kingdom of the New Jerusalem Above and in the Kingdom of Glory Yet from hence no such Thing as a Falling from Grace in the Saints much less in the Kingdom of Christ though Below can be Fairly Collected For there is an unchangeable Love manifesting it self in the midst of Weâ—kness till thâ— Saints are brought to the State of Incorruption and Immortality which is not but in the Kingdom of Christ Above where the Saints of the First Resurrection are and the Living Remaining are as I always Asserted Cauâ—ht up without the loss of any One and so Deliver'd up together into the Absolute Eternal Life of God All in All which States are by the Decree of God in their own Natâ—re so Fram'd by Infinite Wisdom and Power in Conjunction with Infinite Love and Grace in Christ as Unchangeable as God himself For the Manifestation therefore of the Weakness of any State but of that Absolute Incorruption in the Kingdom of Christ Above and of Eternity for the Manifestation of the Power and Grace of Christ's bringing his Saints Below safe to these States through the possibility of Danger at the end of the Thousand Years for the Greater â—onquest over Satan Sin and Death And lastly for the shewing the Necessity of putting an End to all Church-State on Earth without such a Glory of the New Jerusalem coming down upon it which Infinite Wisdom for the Glory of God All in All had Determin'd to be only a Thousand Years On all these Accounts there is a Permission of the Appearance of the Danger but it was no sooner given Leave to Appear but there was immediately a Catching up of the Prey as it were out of the Mouth of the Lion and with Violence pulling out of the Fire every One of the Saints below and without the Loss of One. In all which I desire to be Clearly Justly and Candidly Understood 3. There is less Wonder that the Wicked Captiv'd and bound under Condemnation and the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ for the Thousand Years shining just in their Faces should break out into that Outrage of Gog and Magog For thus as Dead all that Time not in the Sense of Suffering and Torment but of any Spirit for Action against the Kingdom of Christ They lay bound and Fetter'd It is no wonder then that upon the withdrawing of the Glories of that Kingdom Satan and that Gog and Magog break out into that Attempt upon these Accounts 1. All the Conviction and Punishment the Divels have been under these Thousand Years and of the Damned throughout Eternity does not according to the Judgment of all Divines upon Scripture at all abate their Wickedness and Rage against God but in what-ever they find their Chain loose and allowing Liberty They take it This then will be the Case of Satan Gog and Magog at the end of the Thousand Years They find the Chains of the Kingdom of Christ loose about Them so They Stir They Move thus 2. There is no doubt Satan is the Name of the Highest Dominion Power and Influence of Wickedness in Scripture He therefore being particularly loosed at the end of the Thousand Years mightily Agitates and Enflames to the Highest the Highly dispos'd Spirits of the Gog and Magog full of Rage and Hatred of the Kingdom of Christ the Loss and Torture of which They will have Endur'd a Thousand Years besides the undoubted Foresight of the Lake for ever And not able so strongly Chain'd to have mov'd against it upon a Loosening of Satan and a Power of Action as it were of some Liveliness by the Thousand Years Glory Retiring They are under Satan's Energy call'd Deception because of its Folly and Falsenses how Powerful soever That they Gather and Compass the Holy City 3. The Wisdom Justice Glory and Power of God and Christ in a Supream manner permitting Order also and over-rule this Effort 1. That there might be a full Display of the Wickedness and Irreconcilable Spirits of Satan and this lost Gog and Magog of the Condemned and of their Fittedness for the Wrath of Christ's Coming Down not as a Second Conflagration of the New Heaven and Earth which by a milder Exffection Fly away when Christ Delivers up the Kingdom but on Satan and his Hosts only Fire comes down as it were Hell from Heaven upon Them shutting them up for ever in the Lake where there shall be an utter Impossibility of Satan being Loosed of Gog and Magog Feeling any such Life or Action or Gathering in Battel for ever 2. When therefore all the Numbers Strength utmost Efforts of Rage and Spirit in Satan and all his Legions and Hosts are thus at the Heighth there is then this Supream Manifestation of the Glory and Powâ—r of God against these Armies whose Number is as the Sand on the Sea That the Grace Love and Mercy of God 〈…〉 â—hrist in the Râ—sâ—â—e oâ— th◠〈…〉 Castle Camp or Strong Citadel of his Saints in the New Earth the New Jerusalem below the Beloved City might be seen at last in this Illustrious and Glorious Deliverance and Rescue It is therefore call'd a Battel even as the Second Part of that Great Battel of the Day of God Almighty at Armageddon And now the Victory is Compleat and Irrecoverable by the Catargesis or Casting into the Lake thâ—t after a Full and Absolute Judgment immediately followed And of this Battel even as of that of Armageddon All the Great Battels Deliverances and Victories as of Moses over Amalek Joshua and David Psal 18. Asa Hezekiah Constantine Theododosius his Last against Eugenius and Argobastes were Types 4. By way of Recollection and for further Preparation concerning the Church of Laodicea let us consider the Six-fold Repetition of the Thousand Years Rev. 20. and how they are Assign'd which will add Certainty and Lustre to both the Thousand Years and the Hipothesis or Frame of Doctrine built upon them 1. They