Nature be a Soul to the Incarnate Body or Christ took both Soul and Body of Man besides the first Mental Nature Apollinarius was for the Godhead being instead of a Soul Now you come and tell us that The Eternal Word in Humane Nature hath a Kingdom throughout Eternity but not as the Son of Man but as the Eternal Word The Glory in which Christ is seen with his Saints being the Glory which he had with the Father before the World began Of the same Nature wherein he is now at the right Hand of God till he appears And the Union in that Eternal State is by God to God by the Word to the Father so the Son as Man is subject and God All in All. Catech. p. 21. It seems by the high expressions of God who is purest Spirit being All in All and by the Lake of the Second Death and even the New Heaven and New Earth after the Thousand years flying away there is no bodily or material nature continued no not of the Sons glorious body who is then subject nor of the Saints Ans Scripture having declared no such thing no such thing can be supposed but that Christ and his Saints shall be in bodies So high expressions can fit no state but of God All in All even as he was before the foundation of the World All in All and to which state our Lords words so much refer Joh. 17. When all the Saints are thus One with God in Christ then he is thus All in All as before the World began Though this Kingdom of Christ be so holy so heavenly so pure so much of God in it yet because it is the Kingdom of the Man Christ Jesus and of his Saints in a Visible Created Glory and not the highest Union to God All in All Christ gives this last declaration of the Name that is of the Nature and Glory of God He freely delivereth up this his Kingdom and the Son as in Humane Nature suffers most willingly that Glory of himself and of his Saints to be swallowed up by God All in All and unites them with himself to the Father as he is the Eternal Word and so they are with him for ever beholding the Glory which he had with the Father before the World was which is the highest instance of Self-denial of all Created Glory and giving up all to God All in All that could be given Joh. 17. 5. § 36. Here you do but confound mens minds with many things at the best unproved 1. That Christ was an Eternal Man of which your Transubstantiation-Book hath more 2. That his Eternal Manhood is so distinct from his being the Son of Man that he hath a twofold Manhood one from Eternity and one at his Incarnation 3. That Christs Kingdom as the Son of Man that is in his Manhood which he had by Incarnation endureth but a Thousand years 4. That the Manhood of his Saints which they had by Generation also ceaseth after the Thousand years 5. Yet Christ and they shall have material Bodies after even in Christs eternal Body 6. That this giving up of the Kingdom after a Thousand years is the greatest Self-denial in the World as if it were a loss or diminution of the Glory of Christ and Saints 7. That when all the Saints are thus One in Christ with God then God is All in All as before the foundation of the World 8. That this is the Unity meant in Joh. 17. 24. 9. That this is glorifying Christ with the Glory he had before the World began Joh. 17. 5. And not that God would glorifie him as the Son of Man by advancing his Humane Nature to its participation in the Glory which the Divine Nature had from Eternity 10. Yet you tell me by word of mouth that you believe the Individuation of the Saints in this united state The Metaphor of swallowing up in God you may make true or false as you shall expound it which till then signifieth nothing § 37. Short-sighted men may reverence this the more by how much the less they understand it But they that will make sense of it must see that it is to lead us to Heathen Philosophy as a higher Light than Christ and Scripture and to introduce the Pythagorean Opinion of the Transmigration of Souls and the Platonists and Stoicks Revolution and Averrhois his Universal Soul and to make God or Christ Divisible and with Origen to make the future Rewards and Punishments temporary § 38. 1. If Christ as a Man or Life or Spirit was Eternal it was as God or as a Creature As God he was not Man nor Body If you say that he was the second Hypostasis as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Holy Ghost the third as Matter as Dr. More and J. Turner then either you mean Vniversal or Particular Life and Matter If Universal you make the World to be God and make him Divisible If Particular you make God a part of the World And so you do if you make him but the Soul of the World § 39. 2. If the Saints were in God before the World began accordingly all things were eternally in God and that will bring in Aristotles Eternity of the World which indeed meer Reason might take for probable § 40. Either you mean that we were in God only as in Potentia Creatoris and that is not to be in him but only to say that he was able to make us For existere est esse extra Causas Efficientes Or else that we did actually exist which those hold that are for Souls Prae existence or worse And we did exist in God either as being God himself or Creatures or Effects of God If we were God from Eternity we are God still If as Effects or Creatures then either as Parts of one common Soul and body of the World or of the Humane Species or as so many Individuals If it be said that we were but Parts of one Soul or Body it will infer that we are so still and that these parts are as the Rivers and Springs from the Sea in continual Revolution Or if we are fixed Individuals God kept us not idle from Eternity or prae-existent None can think that God from all Eternity or since kept all the Souls that are to be embodied to the end of the World in a sleepy state till Bodies were generated for them If you say that they lived in God as pure Spirits without Bodies what then did the Prime Matter which some of you call the third Hypostasis in the Trinity We see that God put Souls into Bodies in this World And can you prove that he never did so before from all Eternity And when you have said that Christ and Saints shall be swallowed up in God and have no more Kingdom as Sons of men but be in God as before the World began do you mean that they shall continue so to all Eternity and never revolve into Bodies more When God hath
of Mediatorial Glory and Fruition that is the Errour that corrupteth all your confident discourses The Office of our Redeemer is to Recover sinful man to God and restore him to purity from sin and all the curse or punishment for sin yea and to advance him to a more perfect and confirmed state And Christs Reward for this is the everlasting Joy that was set before him in the fruition of the Divine Complacency and in the perfect and glorious Headship to his perfected glorified Church for ever Let us consider 1. Which of these is Given up to the Father And 2. What Giving up to the Father is And 3. When it is done § 19. 1. The first all grant is to be Given up The Kingdom of Recovery but not the Kingdom of Fruition That of Grace not that of Glory As a Prince commissioned to be General for the reduction of Revolted Rebels brings them down by degrees and having slain some and reduced the rest he giveth up his Commission and is General no more for his work is done But he hath after the promised Reward and Honour and may under the King rule them as recovered Or as a Physician that hath an Hospital or infected City to cure giveth up that work when it is perfectly finished So Christ giveth up the Kingdom of Redemption when he hath done that work 2. But this Giving up is no deposing of Christ nor is he less but more gloriously King than before Nor is God the Father any more King than before It 's no diminution to Christs Royalty nor any addition to the Fathers I shall prove this before I go further § 20. 1. By comparing this Text with Joh. 5. 22. The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgment to the Son And yet the Father Governeth no less than he did before and is not deposed by giving up all Government to the Son Only the quality of the Subject and the terms of his Government are altered Creation is in Scripture eminently ascribed to the Father and Redemption to the Son The Father as Creator Governed Man in his Integrity to preserve and perfect him Man being faln into sin and misery the Son as Redeemer Governeth Man as a Physician his Patients in order to his cure The Father now judgeth no Man as sinless according to the Law of Innocency but hath committed the Government of all to the Son as his Administrator and Physician in order to their cure This is but altering the way of Government And it is the Subjects of the Kingdom that are called The Kingdom who are now restored and delivered up to the Father without blemish spot or wrinkle that he may henceforth Govern them as a perfectly healed People according to the Law of Perfection The Father now judgeth no less by the Son than before in another way § 21. 2. I prove the continuance of the Kingdom of the Son in the way of Fruition and Glory by the Promise hereof made to him by the Father The Covenant of Mediation hath Obligations laid on the Son and Promises of a glorious Kingdom as merited by his performance of his part And doth his performance dispossess him of his promised Reward when it was the condition of his Title to it It 's tedious to cite all Texts that prove it § 22. 3. The Promises are made to Christ that his Kingdom shall be an everlasting Kingdom and have no end And therefore ceaseth not by the delivery mentioned And though the Hebrew word commonly translated for ever oft signifie but a long time or many Generations yet in the Texts intimated there is no reason for such a limitation If God say that of his Kingdom there shall be no end let the deniers prove their denial § 23. 4. Christ hath promised to make them that overcome Pillars in his Temple and they shall go out no more which he could not perform if he go out himself or lose his Kingly Power And he saith That the Children of God and the Resurrection are equal to the Angels and die no more And sure he can make their state no more durable than his own And it is called Life Eternal which we shall possess And shall Christ have less than we § 24. 5. Christs Humane Nature will be perpetuated and therefore so will his glorious Kingdom No Text speaketh of his ceasing to be Man but many contrary And who should then presume to assert it I know Smeckfeldius held that Christ ceased to be Man as soon as he entred Heaven But the Church called it a Heresie As on Earth he was to be Man like us in flesh so in Heaven where flesh and blood cannot enter yet he will make our vile bodies like to his glorious body § 25. 6. The state of Reward is an Advancement and not a Diminution as to us so to Christ Phil. 2. 9 10. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow of things in Heaven and things on Earth and things under the Earth and that every Tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father § 26. 7. Christ hath promised us that we shall be with him where he is and prayed that we may there behold his glory which is plainly to say that when he hath been the Mediator of Redemption he will be the Mediator of Fruition that is that we shall see Gods Glory as shining to us in the glorified Humanity of Christ For as we shall have Bodies in Heaven as well as Souls so our Bodies will have a suitable Medium of Communion with God § 27. 8. If Christs Humane Nature should cease its Glory ours by the same reason would do so too But that is contrary to the hopes of Faith § 28. 9. Angels Glory and Being is perpetuated And therefore Christs Humane Kingdom and Glory who is above them will not cease § 29. 10. There is Executive Government by Christ to be exercised after the supposed Thousand years Therefore he shall Reign after to perform it The Redeemed Believers must be Rewarded to Eternity and he must save to the utmost all that come to God by him He must continue and perpetuate their Reward and Happiness For they must live as his Members because he liveth And I doubt not but if you are for ending Christs Kingdom after a Thousand years you will be for the ending of ours And he hath his Enemies to punish longer than a Thousand years Luk. 19. 27. And I believe that you are for ending their punishment then if you would end Christs Kingdom then Rev. 6. 16. It is the Wrath of the Lamb that is to be executed on the Enemies of the Lamb It was against him and his Grace that they sinned and it is he that cometh in flaming fire to execute Judgment on all that know not God and obey not the Gospel And doth punishment end with
quickly sowed the Tares of Covetousness Pride and Contention among the Clergy and Laity tempt us to undervalue Gods great mercy to his Church which Angels and Saints gave him so much praise for Emperours also had their odious Crimes even Constantine killed his Eldest Son Crispus and after his Step-mother for accusing him and banished Athanasius Shall we therefore be unthankful for a Christian Empire which was Christs own Visible Kingdom Theodosius killed the Thessalonians Arcadius banished holy Chrysostom-Theodosius the second a Saint was called an Eutychian and so of others David committed Murder and Adultery Solomon was a Monster of Lust and Voluptuousness and at last of Revolt to favour Idols yet were they the peculiar Kings of Gods peculiar People and few better followed them All this sheweth that Christ all this while Reigned and left it not wholly to the Resurrection to make his Enemies his footstool XVII It is not unlikely that this delivered exalted state of the Church though after corrupted by Temptation to Pride was the New Jerusalem in the Embrio of which Constantinople was the Capital Seat as the Porch or Infancy of the heavenly City of God and that one as the Infant Heir and the other as the Possessor of the Inheritance is described in Rev. 20. 21. 22. But of this more fully elsewhere XVIII The Dragon being bound up a Thousand years from the Churches deliverance from Constantines Edict to the Ottoman Empire the Church after grew corrupted And Papal Rome imitated Pagan Rome though under more plausible names and pretences and exceeded them in Cruelty And Mahomet the Eastern Antichrist compassed and conquered Constantinople the holy City and Christs revenge on Gog and Magog the Turk and Tartarian with the rest of the Infidel World are yet to come and therefore dark XIX At the end of this World which shall be burnt with fire God will make a New Heaven and Earth in which shall dwell righteousness without sin And all things shall be restored and the Creature delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God How God will people this New Earth he hath not told us whether by Creation as by Adam or by Transmigration Nor yet how long it shall continue unless for ever as part of the endless Kingdom Scripture giveth us no confinement of it to a Thousand years but the contrary XX. Christs Glorious Appearance and Judgment will be both the triumphant concluding parts of the Kingdom of Redemption and Grace which he will deliver up when his Recovering work is done And the beginning of the Kingdom of Glory In which as his Reward he will for ever in Humane Nature be glorified as the Mediator of Fruition as he was of Acquisition and that in the Heavens His coming in the Air is not there to Reign a Thousand years but presently to Judge the World as in Matth. 25. he describeth it And to confine his Kingdom in Humane Nature and ours with him to a Thousand years and confine it to the Air and the survivers on Earth is a fiction full of contradictions dishonourable to Christ and his Kingdom uncomfortable to his Church XXI There is but one Thousand years mentioned in Scripture from whence they can fetch the least shew for their limitation and that is only in Rev. 20. But it is most evident that the Thousand years there mentioned was to be before the Conflagration and New Earth and the Resurrection For it was to be before Satan was loosed and before Gog and Magog and their numberless Armies assaulted the Holy City and before the fire from God came on them And the Paradise restored State of the New Earth in which dwelleth Righteousness is not consistent with so much wickedness of the Inhabitants and Satans Power over the Nations Nor with a Laodicean Lukewarmness and danger of being spued out They therefore that well expect a Thousand years Reign before the Resurrection have no pretence to expect another Millennium after XXII To expect a Thousand years and that after the Fall of Papal Rome before the Resurrection is a supposition that this World will endure a far longer time than Christians have hitherto believed And that the great Sabbatism is to be before the New Earth And what a Sabbatism that will be the description of Gog and Magog and of their Laodicea may tell you Far unlike a Paradise state when all things shall be restored and the groaning Creation be delivered from the bondage of Corruption into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God XXIII They that assign this Thousand years on this side the Conflagration and Resurrection for the setting up a Fifth Monarchy of the Converted Jews at Jerusalem are the grossest feigners of all the rest Well did Jerom say That the Millenaries fetch their Errour from the Jews and would set up Judaism by it He that dwelt so long at Bethlehem knew the Jews Opinions For to pass by what else is after to be said Their very Fiction is a contradiction Were our Jews converted they would in less than a Hundred years be no longer a Jewish Nation For their state of peculiarity with the Mosaical Policy is abolished by Christ and must never be restored And they must and would marry with Gentile Christians and fall into the Catholick Church as Rivers into the Sea and lose the name of Jews So did their converted Predecessors XXIV And seeing it is not like that our now Infidel Jews are one to a hundred of the Posterity of the first believing Jews that have been propagated these sixteen hundred years why should a glorious Monarchy be set up of this self-cursed Remnant excluding all the first-fruits both the sealed Rev. 7. and all since But if the Posterity of all those old holy Jews were now sought for to be sent to Jerusalem not one man of them would be found and known of which more after XXV It is a marvel that the great disagreement of the Millenaries among themselves yet hindereth not their seeming Concord while they can but cry up the Thousand years Reign though most of them know not what the words mean Some of them say The Thousand years are on Earth and some say They are only of the Souls of the Martyrs and Confessors in Heaven Some say They are both in Heaven or in the Air and on Earth at once Some say That they shall be a Jewish Monarchy at Jerusalem and some That it shall be of the Godly all over the World Some say Christ will Reign there visibly in his Humane Nature Others That he will only sometime appear as he did after his Resurrection And some That he will Rule there only by Reforming Christian Princes Some hold but one Thousand years and some two one being after the other Some hold two New Jerusalems and some but one Some say That the Day of Judgment is the Thousand years and yet that Scripture hath not told us how
your Thousand years The very nature of the glory of the Glorified Body of Christ is to live as Branches in him the Vine Our Life is hid with Christ in God And if his Kingdom be given up all our life and security is also given up The same cause must continue that began the Reward of Believers in whom Christ will be admired more than a Thousand years and the punishment of Unbelievers The Kingdom of Glory therefore continueth when the Restoring Kingdom hath done its work § 30. 11. The Devil hath reigned by Gods penal permission over this sinful World as to the far greatest part about 6000 years within 314 And shall Christ reign but one thousand Prove it before you affirm it § 31. 12. How frivolous is your reason from Gods being All in All What do you think those words do mean It 's neither any Addition to God nor any Exclusion of Christ But Gods Governing Mankind as fully recovered according to the Law of his perfect Nature and without any more Medicinal recovering Grace and his filling them with the Grace and Joy of his inhabiting Complacence 1. It cannot mean that God in Essence is nearer the Creature than before For in him we Live and Move and Be. He is All in All now as the God of Nature 2. It cannot mean that God will be more the Cause of Grace or Glory for Christs ceasing to be a Cause For God is no less a Cause when he useth second Causes than if he used none 3. It can no more be an Exclusion of Christ from being a Cause of our heavenly Communion with God than an Exclusion of all second Causes from their Office And if all second Causes be excluded and there be no Cause but God there will be no Being but God and this is but to reduce the World into God or Nothing which you must not feign unproved § 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being plural cannot mean that God will End all things and so be Nothing in any thing but Himself All things in All signifieth the Existence of those All things And shall not Christ and his Kingdom then Exist Not in its Paradise or Heavenly State § 33. Can it possibly mean any more than Of Him and Through Him and To Him are All Things And so they are now Rom. 11. 36. Or that he is Above All and through All and in us All And so he is now Eph. 4. 6. And that he worketh All in All And so he doth still 1 Cor. 12. 6. And that he filleth All in All And so he doth still Eph. 1. 23. Even Christ is said to Be All in All Col. 3. 11. And shall he cease to be so He is appointed Heir of All things he upholdeth All things by the Word of his Power For whom are All things and by whom are All things Heb. 1. 1 3. 2. 10. And why must he be deposed By him are all things 1 Cor. 8. 6. God gathereth All things in One in Christ Eph. 1. 10. Who filleth All things Eph. 4. 10. till we come to the Unity of the Faith and of the Knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect Man to the measure of the Stature of the fulness of Christ ver 13. We are growing toward this before the Resurrection And if then we attain it must it endure but a Thousand years The perfection of the Church of Christ is not like that of Fleshly Bodies that when they are at the top of Age go downwards again Nor Apples and Pears that when they are mellow soon rot § 34. Obj. But Christ must then be subject to the Father Ans And was he not always subject to him in his Humanity He tells us oft that he doth not his own will but the will of him that sent him The Father worketh and he worketh He were not the true Christ if as Man he were not subject to God But Paul saith not that Then he begins to be subject to the Father But that he shall still be so When his War is over and he hath done his work as General or Conquering Redeemer he shall be still as Man a Subject to God and Glorified as the Reward of his Redemption and be the Glorified Head and King of his Glorified redeemed Kingdom § 35. I suppose you will say that Christ and his Saints shall not die nor be deposed but have such a Glory in which God shall be All in All. Ans Very good who denyeth that God is or will be All in All But the doubt is whether Christ shall be ever the less Christ or King Or the Church ever the less his Kingdom at the End of a Thousand years I forget not your distinction of Christ as Man and as the Son of Man You confess that Christ shall be Man for ever but not as the Son of Man That is as Dr. More and you and John Turner say He is an Eternal Man or Life and hath say you and Dr. M. an Eternal Body Flesh and Blood from whence you plead for Transubstantiation Ans You could scarce speak to a Man that hath been more tempted to follow you in such intimations as embolden Reason to be too presumptuous and I confess that the insinuated Opinions of Peter Sterry Dr. More and J. Turner and you do strongly flatter emboldened Reason But I take it but for a Temptation while Scripture is against it as well as the judgment of the Universal Church When Paul tells us that Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God I must in Charity suppose that by Flesh and Blood Eternal Dr. More and others mean not properly but Catachristically the Natura Mentalis or the Intellectual Nature which they suppose to be the same in Christ Angels and Men. It is not improbable that the highest of Creatures is in order of Nature a prior effect of the Divine production before the lower Whether this shall be called an Emanation or a Creation you are not agreed Nor whether this prime Created Nature be Vniversal Life and Vniversal Matter and so be the Soul and Body of the World considered as before modal Mutations or whether it be only some nobler sort of Spirit and Matter that is made before the more ignoble and perhaps maketh the rest But it is concluded that Christ is the Life or Spirit and second Person in the Trinity and the Holy Ghost the Matter and so the third Person And that Christ the Soul and the Holy Ghost the Matter are one which some call A Creature and some call God and some both Peter Sterry's is the plainest way that the Divine Nature first produceth and uniteth it self to the Universal Intellectual Nature which is Christ the first Creature including the Holy Ghost And that this first Intellectual Nature uniteth it self at the Incarnation to the Humane Nature And so that Christ hath three Natures 1. Divine 2. Superangelical Created 3. Humane But still it is unresolved whether the prime Created
shewed us that he hath delighted in embodied Souls these five thousand six hundred ninety years will you feign that he never did so before nor ever will do so again § 41. I conclude 1. That there is no rational issue of your Doctrine to be expected but a Pythagorean or Platonick Revolution or Transmigration of Souls from one Universal Soul into many particulars as the Sea floweth into Springs and they into Rivers and they into the Sea again and so round Or as one Sun illuminating the Air lighteth many Candles by a burning-glass or by flames being individuated only by the oily matter but not divided from the common Element of Fire 2. And that all this is but to confound men partly with falshoods and partly with uncertainties when the plain Doctrine of Christ is a more quieting way God hath kept us so dark about the Beginning or Prae-existence and the manner of his producing Souls yea and of the manner of their operation in their separated state that to be confident beyond his Scripture-Revelation is but to be ignorant of our Ignorance and to venture to take Gods name in vain But we know that God breathed into Man that breath of Life and so made him a Living Soul and said Increase and multiply and that the Spirit goeth to God that gave it and we shall be with Christ in Paradise and that he will receive our departing Spirits and that it 's best to be with him § 42. And now I see not what you can make of Gods being All-in-All more that at this day he is and more than that he shall Govern Man again as sinless and fully restored without any further Redemption or Recovering Government but that you pervert the Text to countenance your pretended abbreviation of Christs Reign to a Thousand years All things are now in him and of him and to him Nothing can be added to All. But I am not able to discern why you speak so much in Equivocals and Generals that cannot possibly afford the Reader a determined sense If you are unwilling to be understood your Opinions are not of the Light If you understand not your own words how should others understand them No man can tell whether you infer from Gods being All in All the Deification of All things or their Annihilation or the dissolving of all Bodies compound and the Deifying only of the spiritual part You say Catech. p. 14. It is the ultimate end and last result of All things And Creatures below being capable of this Vnion as All which have no understanding are annihilated And Creatures of understanding Angels and Men can be no other than miserable in the loss of this Vnion But are Christ the Son of Man and his Saints miserable till the end of the Thousand years So p. 15. In order to the Vnion of All Created Beings of Vnderstanding to God all in all What Devils and all Damned Men The Eternal Word far above Angels became lower than Angels by becoming Man and so comprehended the whole Created Intellectual nature that he might be the Head of the whole in their Vnion to God And that in Him they might All be reconciled to God with the whole inferiour Creation Which having served the Glory of the Creator by Jesus Christ they fly back into their former State of NOTHING in themselves but indeed are returned into the Divine Immensity and Angels and Men be Vnited to God for ever Eph. 1. 10. Col. 1. 20. Here we have Anihilation and Nothingness in themselves and yet indeed are returned into the Divine Immensity And so that which is Nothing in it self hath a Being in God! What can this mean but that the Creatures were once all God himself till he gave them a Self-being which he taketh away and then they are God again not only their Individuation but their Creature-Being ceasing All things are still in God and his Immensity But if they have no Being in themselves there will be Nothing but God But will they so continue And will God from Eternity to Eternity have no Created Being save for Seven Thousand years or days And indeed is the whole understanding and inferiour Nature Devils and Men thus reconciled And is God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when there is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing but Himself in Unity Is he In that which is not I have been so long on your first Proposition as being your Foundation There is a Kingdom of Recovering Grace of Christ Incarnate and Glorified delivered up when he hath done that work which the Kingdom of Glory succeedeth where God as All in All shall be Glorified in the perfection of Christ God-Man and his Glorified Saints This is agreed and granted you Principle II. Answered § 1. No Text of Scripture saith that the Kingdom of Grace or Redemption begins at Christs Coming to Judgment But that then it Endeth in the Triumph of the Redeemer and his Entering upon his Kingdom of Fruition in the full Glorified Church 2 Tim. 4. 1. saith no more His Appearing there is for Judgment which presupposeth Mans final keeping or breaking of Christs precedent Ruling Laws It is his Triumphant ending of the Kingdom which he had and the Entrance of that of Glory Principle III. Answered § 1. No doubt but Christ will reign with and in his Saints § 2. But that the full number shall be made up then is your own word At his Coming you hold the number will not be full For you say Catech. pag. 4. They shall propagate a holy Seed in such abundance as to recompence with a much more to the Glory of the second Adam Rom. 5. for the few that are saved within the World of the first Adam And all these were not in Being at Christs Coming Nor can you prove that the New Earth and all Generation shall end with a Thousand years Principle IV. Answered § 1. Your supposition that they are not presently caught up yea till the end of a Thousand years is your Forgery 2. The Equality of Christs Love and Grace to All his Saints is also your own Doctrine not Christs For tho ex parte Dei who operateth per essentiam there is no inequality or difference yet in the Effects and the Relative extrinsick Denominations of God from those Effects there is great difference All have not equal Grace nor equally improve their Talents nor are Rulers of ten Cities nor as the Apostles sit on Twelve Thrones judging the Twelve Tribes of Israel Though you say Catech. p. 3. None of the Saints can be perfected the one without the other If that be true either those on Earth that you liken to Adam in Paradise are as perfect as those in the New Heaven or those in Heaven as imperfect as those on Earth And no wonder when you place them but in the Air where evil Spirits dwell now Catech. p. 12. But Christ saith the Children of the Resurrection neither Marry nor are given in Marriage but
your words expresly say that his Kingdom then beginneth and that this Apostle mentioneth none till then And in your Late Great Revolution Epist in the end you say His Monarchy shall then 1697 begin its Succession though the Glorious Investiture shall not be till Seventy five years after Can any but a Prophet that is inspired to Expound you tell what you mean by abundance such passages What is the difference between the Beginning of the Succession and the Glorious Investiture What is the Succession Doth it begin the Thousand years or not Doth the Succession begin Seventy five years before the Investiture Is not the Investiture Christs Glorious Appearance Your Writings make it plain that you are a good Man of deep thoughts faln into a fond esteem of your new unripe Conceptions and rapt up thereby into a diseased Conceitedness and how you will be able to bear it when providence and experience have confuted you in 1697 I know not But I am the more bold to foretel your failing by my perswasion that your Exposition of the Revelation which you take for granted is a meer mistake from the Beginning almost to the End And wonder not that no body writeth to confute you For Men love not to trouble themselves with Convincing every single Man of his Errours And the Reasons why I do attempt it is because by the Seduction of some of my Friends and the general Inclination of the Antinomian Anabaptist and Separating Party to this conceit of the Thousand years Kingdom and by the Midnight Cry published by Mr. R. M. and preached by Mr. J. M. Men of very great Piety whom I highly value as any Conformists I know I understand that your Opinion that formerly was tolerable as confined to a few conceited good Men is now becoming a great Article of their Faith and Religion Especially since I see that in all your professed extraordinary Humility you brand all that dissent from you as Semi-Sadducees of the Apostacy and earnestly Challenge and provoke all Pastors and Doctors to answer you and maintain though you Conform that Gods Word knoweth not a Clergy Chap. III. Of the other Sect of the Millenaries that place the Thousand years Reign before the Conflagration § 1. THis was the Elder Sect But Dr. More and Mr. Beverley and Dr. Cressoner and other late Writers being more searching did perceive that this way would not hold nor by it could they countenance their Doctrine from Rev. 20. the only Text that mentioneth a Thousand years Reign misunderstood § 2. They agree that 1. There will be a Thousand years Reign on Earth 2. That the Jews shall be called and make a glorious part of this Kingdom 3. That the Ten Tribes now lost shall be found and be part of the Kingdom 4. That Turk and Pope shall fall before this 5. That at last Gog and Magog shall gather in War against this New Jerusalem 6. That fire from Heaven shall consume these Enemies § 3. But they agree not 1. Of the state of the Church with Christ above all this time 2. Nor whether there be one or two New Jerusalems one above and one below 3. Nor whether Christ shall Reign on Earth visibly in his Humane Nature or only by a holy Magistracy and Ministry 4. Nor whether all or most of the Jews shall go dwell at the Old Jerusalem or Judea or stay in the several Countries where they live 5. Nor how far the Princes and Nations among whom they live shall be converted with them 6. Nor by what means the Jews shall be converted 7. Nor how long it will be in doing 8. Nor how the Princes under whom they live will dismiss or use them 9. Nor how they shall after all become a Laodicea and fuel fit for the Conflagration 10. Nor whether that fire that burneth the Earth and Heaven and that which burneth Gog and Magog make one or two Conflagrations 11. Nor how far Christs Kingdom ceaseth at the end of the Thousand years § 4. As to both Sects I know no more that I have further to do for their full confutation but I. To give a better Paraphrase of the Revelation than their feigned suppositions contain And that I have done in a Book not yet Printed II. To prove that the Ten Tribes were but part of them carried away by Salmanasser and that they were in Cyrus Dominions and had leave as well as the Two Tribes to return if they were willing And that Galilee and other parts of Israel as much owned Christ as the Two Tribes at least And the Twelve Tribes made up the Converts that were the Rudiments of the Christian Churches And that it was to the Twelve that James Peter and Paul to the Hebrews wrote And it was the Twelve that the 144000 Rev. 7. were sealed out of so expresly distinguished from the innumerable Gentile Christians as may confute the Expositors that make them to signifie the Gentile Ministry III. To prove that at the Fall of the Pagan Empire the Fulness of the Gentiles came in as meant Rom. 11. and all Israel saved That near three Millions of the Jews that were cursed Infidels being killed and ruined by Titus Trajan and Adrian out of a Countrey not so big as half England and the Christians escaping the Christian part remained the main Body of the Nation And marrying with Gentile Christians and forsaking Moses Law lost the name of Jews which remained only with the Off-spring of the scattered Infidels That Constantine made Judea one of the most famous National-Provincial Churches in the World for Honours Temples Monasteries and Bishops no Jews being forbidden there to dwell And that God hath promised no further Conversion of the cursed remnant of the Infidel Jews than of any other Infidel Nations And therefore all Christians should not in ignorance of all this corrupt their Prayers and Sermons and Religion with fathering on God such Promises of the Jews Conversion as he never made lest they be found guilty of adding to his Word and taking his Name in vain and scandalous depraving the Christian Faith Nor should they by ignorance unthankfully deny the performance of Gods Promises of the Fall of the Pagan Empire and Babylon and so much of the Fifth Monarchy and New Jerusalem and Conversion of the Jews as certain History puts us past doubt is already past The performance of this to avoid prolixity I shall but briefly give you as followeth Chap. IV. That the Ten Tribes of Israel will never be found and called if they never were so heretofore § 1. THose that are for a Jewish Monarchy or their general Conversion commonly hold that the Ten Tribes carried away by Salmanasser are lost and never yet restored Whether this be true we shall see anon But if it were true it would follow that they never will be found and called and consequently that they will be no part of the Converted Jews § 2. The proof is evident Because the Accident supposeth
men are against the Lutheran Vbiquitarians And shall Christ Preach to them in the Air and his voice be heard throughout the World a thousand times further than the Thunder And how will they know that it is Christ when on Earth they would not know him but imputed his Miracles to Beelzebub And will the bare sight of Christ make millions of ignorant sots presently understand all the Essentials of Religion yea and become eminently wise and holy when we can scarce teach an ignorant one now to understand the Catechism or Creed in many years I doubt many Millenaries have some such Servants and Children in their own houses 2. Some say that Elias shall come and Convert them A Jewish Dream And how will they know that he is Elias As they knew John Baptist to be Elias If you say as Peter did on the Mount I say that was by Inspiration or by Christs telling him that it was Elias Shall they have either of these And where shall Elias preach to them Is he also ubiquitary If he preach in Spain shall they hear him in Portugal Or if in Holland or Rome shall they hear him in England If he preach at Stepney shall they bear him at Westminster at Tarmouth at Norwich and all over the Land and over all the World at once Or must he stay long enough to go over all the Earth If one Man can do so much why have many thousands done so little on the Jews to this day 3. If you say God will raise up and send forth Ministers enough that will be yet a greater Miracle To give so many Skill VVill and Zeal To cause them to speak with all the Languages of the Nations When the Jesuits at Japan Congo and China after many years Learning their Tongues do but set the Nations in a Laughter to hear their mispronunciation as Maffeius Varenlus and others tell us And who will furnish so many Thousand new inspired Preachers with Money to carry them through all the VVorld And procure them free passage through Enemies Lands 4. But the last answer I expect is that nothing is difficult where God will work and Grace shall make one sight of Christ to Convert them all I answer If you lay all on the Miraculous Inspirations of God that can do it without seeing Christ and without preaching As God made the World with a Word He can so make every Infant a Doctor that they not stay as Christ to encrease in Stature and Wisdom But if you feign him to purpose or promise this take heed lest he will not hold you guiltless for taking his Name in vain This Creating Inspiration of sudden Wisdom Faith and Holiness into so many Thousands over the World at once will be a greater Miracle yea Millions of Miracles than ever Christ did And is quite contrary to the Word of God § 22. 6. The feigned Exaltation of them by a Jerusalem Monarchy is also a devised Miracle That these scattered people by such means should get to Jerusalem and become a Grand Monarchy and that in a place so uncapable and that never was such no not in David's days § 23. XI Another reason against this Jewish Monarchy at Jerusalem is that instead of an Exaltation it would be a Banishment to the Jews Judea being like our Wales or not so big as half England and a Countrey though flowing with Milk and Honey in comparison of the Arabian Wilderness yet very full of Mountains Rocks and Deserts and oft infested with Famines So that could they bear their charges thither I believe that the Jews in Portugal Constantinople Rome and Thessalonica alone would take it for as sad a Banishment to be sent to Judea as all England would do to be sent to Jamaica yea or Barbadoes If you say that God can feed them by Manna or by Angels or Ravens or make all the Neighbours Countreys Egypt Mesopotamia c. feed them take heed of imposing upon God § 24. XII God in Scripture hath given us another description of the Two New Jerusalems the Infantile and the Perfect that on Earth and that on Heaven more Glorious and Desireable than the Jewish feigned one Therefore we should not obscure the Glory of them by such a Fiction As Satan fighteth against the Spirit by a false Spirit and against the Church by a false Church and against the Ministry by a false Ministry and against Unity by false Unity so doth he against the Kingdom of Christ and the New Jerusalem by a Counterfeit 1. As the Assyrian Persian Grecian and Roman Monarchies were the four mentioned in Daniel so there have been since a fifth and a sixth By a Monarchy now is meant only the Greatest on Earth known to the Church The fifth was the Christian Empire whose Chief Seat was Constantinople called New Rome and New Sion I am not ignorant what is said against this by Heddeggerus and many others That is not to be disputed in this narrow Room The sixth Monarchy visibly is the Turks with the Tartarian Unity Gog and Magog The seventh the Sabbatical and Perfect Monarchy is that of Christ in the New Heaven and New Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness after the Burning of this World By debasing Fiction confined to a Thousand years and Christs own Kingdom also so confined whereas this wicked World hath already lasted Six Thousand years within Three Hundred and Ten. This vilifying of Christs Glorious Kingdom is by blind Zeal now made the exalting of it by many deceived and deceiving Men. Chap. IX Of the New Earth § 25. COncerning the New Earth we must content our selves with what God hath revealed and not search into the unrevealed things 1. It is revealed that it will be the Restitution of all things that in it shall dwell Righteousness that the whole Creation groaneth to be delivered from the Bondage of Corruption into the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God that it will be a Paradise State that Christ shall Reign over it that no Glorified Saints shall lose any of their part in Heaven by it that there will be no death nor misery Therefore there will be no Gog and Magog and numberless Armies of the wicked For there entereth nothing that is defiled It will be a State of Communion with Heaven Angels and Men will have familiar Converse Christ shall be joyfully known among them as their Saviour and King Neither Christ nor the Saints will lay by the Humane Nature or Body but their Bodies will be so far refined as shall be suitable to the condition of the New refined World This much is certain But these things following are uncertain 1. How much of the Old Earth God will use in the constitution of the New Whether only the Surface of the Earth shall be Burnt and the Things and Works thereon or also the Interiour parts dissolved into a Chaos As it is uncertain to us whether the Chaos at the present Earths Creation was the Relicks of a former World