concerning Christ having his Palace of Glory not on this New Earth but in the New Heaven concerning the Wicked Dead Rais'd In which Points I perceive my Self to differ from Him but as I Hope on Great Scripture Grounds Now to Conclude All This Kingdom is the Great Practical Doctrine which when It shall be Vniversally Preach'd by the Everlasting Gospel shall Bring in all the World Jews and Gentiles to Christ And besides the Blessed Effusions of the Spirit that shall go along with it How must it needs in Reason prevail For what would the Great Value and purchase of but a 100 Years in the Vigors and All Affluences of Life be and in such a Heaven and Earth as are now and if Men were so enclin d in all wise and vertuous Converses Of what Inestimable Value then to every serious Considerer even now the offer of so much a Higher and Longer 1000 Y. of Life as is propos'd on so Great Scripture Grounds How may it satisfie that Appetite Implanted by Creation into our Natures which is that very Olam or World set by God in the Heart of Man Ecclâ—s 3 11. the Desire to see the Glory of God in his Visibly Glorious Creation for a perfect Duration of Time But how much stronger will the Impression be upon an Enlightned Convinced Awaken'd World under that Everlasting Gospel Preach'd when that shall be Fully declar'd and â—â—liev'd that Few will now Believe though it be never so plainly Told Them In the mean Time seeing we All profess to Believe Fully the Apostle Peter s Doctrine of Looking for New Heavens and a New Earth according to his Promise wherein Righteousness shall dwell Let us Resolve what Manner of Persons we ought to be in all that Holiness and Godliness of Conversation and let us Grow in Grace and the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ beyond the Beginnings of his Doctrine Going on to Perfection and so unravel the Apostasie where it Began in not so doing and above all Let us Give All Dilligence that we may be Found of him in Peace without Sâ—ot and Blameless and by Him be so Presented before the Presence of his Glory And let us consider the Day is near Approaching Concerning the Truth of which I make Appeal to Him to show by his Arm made bare in unquestionable Evidence of Fact and Event every Thing in its proper Time And I am now waiting at this Time when the Kings are preparing to Go out to War for a Dawn of thâ— Morning Star on the Suffering Witnesses of the yet Afflicted Thyatyra the French and Vaudois and that the Rod of Iron should begin to Break tâ—at Potters Vessel whom patience hath yet spar d from being a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for what ends will be seen who with a more then Herodian Insolence and Cruelty hath nâ—â— only let Rest on Him as Herod but even Hunted for such Attributions as to a God and not to a Man and so Inhumanely Vex'd so many of the Church of Christ to please a Sacrilegiously Flattering Jesuitic Order Now to the only wise God be Glory for ever Amen A REPRESENTATION OF THE Thousand Years Kingdom OF CHRIST Endeavouring to Reconcile it to the General Confessions of the Faith of Christians and particularly to the Judgment of the Eminent Servants and Ministers of Jesus Christ with a Vindication from Further Objections I Can Sincerely Appeal to the Searcher of Hearts I am in all the Substantial and Essential Points of Christianity of the Judgment of all the Wisest Soundest and most Universally Approved Ministers of the Gospel and Christians in the Faith at once Deliver'd to the Saints and have no By nor Secret Opinions in Reserve either concerning the Person of the Great Media or God and Man or concerning his Kinâ—dom as if it had not been from the Beginning or were not to be for ever in such Explications of it as the Churches of Christ most Agree in according to Scripture I make the same Appeal concâ—rning my Belief of the Eternal Happiness of the â—aints with and by Christ in the Distinctness of Humane nature Spirits in Bodies of Glory united by Him to the Father and yet each one in his own proper Personality and so made Truly Equalâ— to the Holy and Elect Angels and of the punishment of the wicked in their Spirits and Bodies together with the Devil and his Angels even throughout a Strict and proper Eternity a Parte Post as They speak or for ever Except therefore my Doctrine and Affirmation of the Kingdom of the Thousand Years can be shown in a perfect Amity and Conciliation with this Gospel and Form of Sound Words I Acknowledge It ought to be Rejected I therefore Attempt in very Brief to shew it to be in such a State of Agreement and to vindicate it from Exceptions to it I observe therefore one Great Complex of Articles of Faith wherein All Christians are as much as in any Point of Christianity at One and They may be thus Given 1. That there shall be a Day or Time before the State and Kingdom of Eternity wherein Jesus Christ shall Come from the Right Hand of the Father to Judge the World and this as Man Acts 17. 31. 2. That Jesus Christ shall Come in the Glory and Power of the Father to this Judgment and that It shall be a most Illustrious Appearance of his Kingdom that was not before nor shall be after For He comes in his Kingdom and the King shall say c. Matth. 25. and He Sits on the Throne of his Glory v. 3â— v. 34. 3. That at the same Time There shall be a Glorious Resurrection and Appearance of his Saints with Him as Sharers in the Glories and Triumphs of that Day 4. That the Saints that shall at that Time be living and Remâ—ining upon Earth shall not Dye but at the very same Time be Chang'd so as that They also may have their part in the same Glory and Resurrection 5. That there shall be a Resurrection of the Vnjust and of Those that have done Evil to the Condemnation to the Dishonour and Contempt and to the Punishment that shall at that Day be Executed upon Them 6. That the Heavens and Earth that now are are Reserv'd for Fire at that Day and that Christ as the Apostle Paul speaks 2 Thess 1. 7 8. shall be Reveal d in Flames of Fire taking Vengeance and that as the Apostle Peter says The Day of the Lord Cometh as a Theif in the Night in which the Heavens shall pass away with a Great Noise and the Elements melt with Fervent Heat and the Earth and the Works that are therein shall be Burnt up 2 Pet. 3. 10. and again v. 12. Looking for and Hasting unto the Day of God wherein the Heavens being on Fire shall be dissolv'd and the Elements shall melt with Fervent Heat Now seeing the very Revelation of Christ is in Flames of Fire as Lightning and that our Lord compares his Coming
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
THE UNIVERSAL Christian Doctrine OF THE Day of Iudgment Applied to the Doctrine of the Thousand Years Kingdom of Christ Herein Guided by Mr. BAXTER's Reply To Vindicate It from all Objections Shewing as is the One so is the Other VIZ. His Judging the Quick and the Dead and His Appearing and His Kingdom Which seeing it must have some Duration the Scripture 1000 Years is on Great Proof Preferr'd By THOMAS BEVERLEY An humble Minister of that Kingdom II. PET. III. 7 8. The Day of Judgment and of the Perdition of ungodly men But Beloved be not ignorant of this One Thing That one Day is with the Lord as a Tbousand Years c. LONDON Printed in the Year 1691. The Preface TO THE READER BEcause Many will Deign to Read a Preface that will not a Book I shall take Freedom to give a Prospect of the Whole in a Preface And first I am very Sensible my Lot of Discourse is fallen on such Ground that each Point must be Disputed for not Adorn'd nor Simply Taught but Argued and Won as it were by Inches And which much Increases the Difficulty The Land of Promise as the Map of it lies in Scripture is not in any Entire Table but in several smaller Lines variously Planted which must be Transplanted and laid Together And Who is Sufficient for such a Thing as a Teacher And as for Hearers They are not only Vnteachable or Dull of Hearing but are Prejudic'd and Cry out against this Heritage of the Lord as a Speckled Bird Some call such a Discourse Whimsie Vnintelligible Non-sense Foolishness To other Graver Christians and even Teachers It is a Scandal an Offence full of Causes of Objection And even to many more Favourable unintelligible Mystery Plain Things say they are more Profitable But none of these Things move Me that I should not Take heed to Fulfil this Ministery I have Received of the Lord. I intend this Small Tract not so much as a Rejoynder to Mr. Baxter's Reply upon my Answer For who am I that I should maintain a Controversie with so Honoured Able and Faithful a Minister of Jesus Christ I only with Thankfulness take Advice from Him what Points to Clear what to Guard what Advantage to take for Defence And had I not found some Arugments which I have not propos'd or not fully urg'd before and so fit a Medium or Instrument of Conveyance of this Doctrine as the Parallel between it and the Vniversally receiv'd Article of Faith Christ's coming to Judge the Quick and the Dead at his Kingdom which must needs be a middle Kingdom I had been silent Nor shall I think of opening my Mouth any further in this Point till I find something Objected which what I have now said if Duly Consider'd will not Answer which I am much in hope cannot be For to be Conscious to have said what can be spoken by One even as an Oath ought to conclude One and on Ones own part to be an End of All Strife Of small Questions and Exceptions I know there is no End And I must confess with Thanksgiving to God and with Subordinate Thankfulness to Mr. Baxter On His so often Naming a Middle Kingdom by way of Objection it was as it were by a Divine Prompting said to me This Notion of a Middle Kingdom which the Day of Judgment must needs be and which I have long since understood the same with the Kingdom is the Key of this Great Mystery and so I have Found it and am so Fully satisfied in it Even above all I have written before that I am at perfect Peace and will Contend no more I can look on any further Objection but as the Talk of Loosers For I am sure such an Appearance of the Kingdom of Christ as the Day of Judgment is or such a Return with the Kingdom Receiv'd as Luke 19. 15. or a Coming not into as is to Loss Translated Chap. 23. 43. but according to all Scripture Language in his Kingdom must needs be in the Middle between the Kingdom of Christ hitherto and to Eternity And it must have a Space of duration defined for It is not Eternal All Acknowledge I therefore preferr only the Scriptures naming a 1000 Years with such Apparences of that Time and according to the so Known Axiom of the Jews the People of God before the New Testament The Day of Judgment shall be a 1000 Years It is evident also from the Article Founded on 2 Tim. 4 1. Christ Judges the Quick or Living even as the Dead at his Appearing and Kingdom There must be Saints Rais'd and Saints The Living The Remaining of which I Treat according to Scripture Guidance as by 1 Thess 4. 17. The New Heaven and the New Earth must needs be at the same Time New by such a Lustre of Christ's Appearance the Sun of Rigâ—teousness Even as the Heavens and Earth are as it were New to us every Summer by the Suns Return And it is no more then Goâ— intended in his First Creation such a Glory of it And I cannot but Give Esay 45. 18. in somewhat a differing Translation but such as I suppose the Original will well Bear to this purpose upon naming the Salvation of Israel as an Everlasting Salvation World without end It follows Thus saith the Lord that Created the Heavens that Formed the Earth He hath Established it He Created it not saith the Translation in vain say I out of the Hebrew for a Tohu such an Inanity of Glory as It is now He Formed it to be Inhabited saith the Translation say I according to the Hebrew for the Sabbath even this Great Sabbatism wherein Jehovah shall be one his Name one none else no Idols Name any more for ever And then shall He Appear that Infinite Foreknower declaring the End from the Beginning that He may be known to be God And by All These Things I hope Mr. Baxter will be satisfied concerning the Specificness of this Kingdom Beginning with a Judgment and ending with a Judgment and its entire middle Space an Appearance according to that Judgment viz. of the Saints in the Glory of the Restitution of All Things by the Second Adam the Redeemer the Restorer of all the Ruins of the First Adam and an Appearance of the Wicked in Shame and Contempt and both these for the 1000 Y. Receiving what they have done in Body before the Tribunal of Christ Now All will Acknowledge as this Kingdom hath not been yet So it shall not be for ever but be deliver'd up Here therefore is a perfect Specification except Specification be an unknown School-Term I Know in some Things I differ from that Sweet as well as most Judicious and Pious Writer Mr. Increase Mather as Appears by his Accurate discourse De Signo Filii Hominis or of the Sign of the Son of Man I should be most Glad by Friendliest Conference or entercourse of Letters to conciliate as concerning a Scripture-Line of Time to this State
to the Flood on the Old World and the Fire and Brimstone on Sodom the very same day that Noah enter'd into the Ark and Lot went out of Sodom Luke 17. 27 28. The Conflagration must be a Conflagration before the Judgment or Instantaneous with the Beginning of that Day and so I suppose is the Judgment of all Divines 7. The Wicked Alive shall be speedily by this Fire brought into the same Condition with the Dead Wicked Raised to share in the Common Perdition For the Heavens and Earth that now are are Kept in Treasure for the Day of Judgment and the Perdition of Vngodly Men. 2 Pet. 3. v. 11. 8. Seeing the Apostle Expresly teaches v. 13. That we Look for New Heavens and New Earth wherein Righteousness shall dwell It is most according to Scripture that the New Heavens and New Earth should come as a Vessel out of the Refiner's Fire and Righteousness dwell therein So that the New Heaven and the New Earth immediately Come out of this Fire All this I look upon as so Agreeable to Scripture and the most undoubted Sense of it that whoever keeps Inviolate this Form of Sound Words cannot fall into any Great Error I then making a Solemn Profession that I am Fully perswaded of all these Things even to a Plerophory of Assurance and supposing All Sober Christians herein to Joyn with me I pass forward with Greater Assurance 9. The particular Precise State of the Kingdom of Christ as in this Judiciary State shall be deliver'd up at some Time to God and to the Father and so the Kingdom and State of Eternity succeed I do also suppose is the Universal Faith of Sober Christians Although the New Heavens and New Earth may be suppos'd to continue for ever as They are by Mr. Baxter and as I Remember by that so excellent Interpreter Calvin on the aforenam'd Text and very probably by many other Great Theologers and Scripture-Interpreters Now from all these Principles lay'd together several Points are Allowed upon the Consideration of the General Doctrine of the Day of Judgment that are ready to be charg'd as Unreasonablenesses or Antiscripturisms on the Doctrine of tho Thousand Years Kingdom which compar'd with what is taught universally of Christ coming to Judgment will be as a Load taken off from it 1. Seeing the Day of Judgment is a middle State of the Kingdom of Christ between the present State and the State of Eternity It is hence undeniable There is a middle Kingdom or middle State of the Kingdom of Christ. 2. When a Dispensation or Oeconomy for the Divine Glory as for Judgment Requires it It is no dishonour to Christ to come from the Right Hand of God where He is Exalted above All Heavens into the Lower State of the World much less Degradation from present Glory for Saints to Come with Him 3. Nor does Christ suffer any diminution of Glory when He Goes back to Heaven the Business of such Oeconomy as of Judgment being dispatch'd 4. There is sufficient Security in the midst of the Conflagration for the Bodies of Saints whether Risen or Chang'd though we cannot define how 5. Nor shall the Bodies of the wicked however punish'd be consum'd in these Flames 6. There is no Absurdity on Scripture Account to suppose a manifold Change of Body according to the Variation of States 7. There will be Found Room for the Bodies of all both Risen and Changed Saints as also of all the wicked according to the General Doctrine of the Day of Judgment 8. A New Heaven and a New Earth and by Consequence a Restitution of All Things are in the very Letter to be Expected according to Scripture Now whatever may according to Scripture and without any Contradiction to the Great Principles Notions and Sense of it be suppos'd for a Lesser or so much as Any Time may be suppos'd for a longer Time even for so long as Scripture gives us any Reason to extend it unto seeing There is no Scripture Inconsistency in the Fundamental Possibility And now there being such a Foundation lay'd in that which is Agreed among all Christians if there shall be Any Inducement from Scripture to do it we may Build upon this Foundation 1. That seeing Christ shall Appear from Heaven with his Saints in a Kingdom of Triumph and Glory over his Enemies and that there is no Signification of the Time of duration Contradictory to that of a 1000 Years and at least one Great Signification It is a 1000 Years Why may we not Conclude the Kingdom is a Kingdom of a 1000 Years 2. Seeing there shall be a New Heaven and a New Earth that shall come forth as a Vessel for the Finer out of the Conflagration and that there is Great Reason to think That They shall be both inhabited Why may not the Saints of the Resurrection Equal to the Angels Inhabit the New Heavens and the Saints Chanâ—'d who are so peculiarly called twice the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Living the Remaining as a most peculiar Generation of Saints that Christ so Holds in his Hand as that They can no more Fall as may be Surmized then the Saints Above who are as Angels confirm'd Inhabit the New Earth as Adam should have done a 1000 Years Especially seeing It is supposeable It shall be Inhabited and we Know not Any who shall Inhabit it God knoweth only who shall Inhabit it Except these Living Remaining Saints 3. Seeing it is Agreed The Administration of the Kingdom as at the Day of Judgment shall not Last to Eternity and that Christ and All his Saints Ascend up to God and that Kingdom of Judgment Ends Why may not this be the Sense of those so Weighty Words of the Apostle concerning the Son's delivering up the Kingdom of his being Subject and of God being All in All or what else is so likely as this of the Son 's Resigning up that Illustrious Appearing visible Glory that He shall be invested with during that Judicatory Kingdom seeing it is a Kingdom of Triumph and Victory that is so Deliver'd up And why should it not be the Kingdom of a 1000 Years Seeing the naming a Kingdom though of a 1000 Years yet because It is but of a 1000 Years Implys It shall end And as the Apostle makes plain in that it is a Reign till All his Enemies are put under his Feet It is a Kingdom of Victory and Triumph Beginning and Ending in putting down Enemies as Judgment must needs do and then Given up to God And thus there is an easie Slide from the Acknowledged and most General Doctrine of the Day of Judgment into what the Scripture says of a Kingdom or Reign of Christ for a 1000 Years For it is expresly said There were Thrones as of a Kingdom and Judgment was Given to Them that sat upon the Thrones the very word proper to thâ—t Day and â—hey that Sate upon the Thrones must needs be Christ and his Saints For They Lived and Reigned
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
Original where also it varies the Number from Heavens In the Preface Heavens viz. Our Father which art in the Heavens Plurally to As in Heaven in the Single Number and on Earth with a Singular Favour to a Parallel New Heaven and New Earth And it leads us to pray for the Doing the Will of God in such a Parallel Heaven and Earth that as in Paralellism the Will of God may be done as in the One so in the Other Besides according to Common Interpretation of this Petition A Prayer according to the will of Ood so exactly as our Lord weighed it out and that hath been so long prayed by all his Servants in Faith cannot but be Heard The Spirit helping their Infirmities when they know not what in this Prayer to pray for as they ought with unutterable Groans and God knows the Mind of his Spirit though they do not so clearly understand this Prayer So then It must be Heard But it cannot be Heard if there be not such a State on Earth in which the Will of God may be done as in Heaven For the Earth and the Earth as in parallel to Heaven so particularly named is the Place or Basis on which the Saints that do it shall Rest So that the doing the Will of God in any other State or Place will not be a Fulfilling this Petition Nor will the doing it in Sincerity according to the Measure of the Saints now on Earth answer the Petition For our Lord in this Prayer which is in such Number Weight and Measure would not have layd a Paralled wherein there is no Equality nor Proportion as Things are now viz. Between doing the Will of God on Earth and in Heaven For every part of this Prayer shall ere he hath perfected his Intercession upon it be Fulfilled in the Highest Sense of each part This we know is not yet in any particularly in this Petition therefore a State shall be on purpose for it This also must needs Lock in with the foregoing Petitions when ever there is a Doing the Will of God so on Earth his Name must be Sanctified as in Heaven and upon Earth else his Will cannot be so Done because Sanctifying his Name is so Eminently his Will that his Will cannot be Done as in Heaven and on Earth except his Name be Sanstissed as in Heaven and on Earth Thus is it also with his Kingdom coming That must needs Come as in Heaven and upon Earth when-ever his Will is so Done And it cannot Come till it is so Done and his Name so Sanctified For what is his Kingdom but the Supream Honour of our Kings Name and Obedience to his Will so Universally as in Heaven And whither should this Kingdom Come but out of Heaven where-now it is into a Lower Heaven and Earth where indeed it is in regard of Supream Power always But it must Come in a Sense it hath not yet Come And if these Three Petitions were Heard As in Heaven and upon Earth The Earth must either be a New Earth in preparation for such a Fulfilling or the Fulfilling would immediately Turn it into a New Earth For such a Change on the Spirits and Actions of Men and such a Blessing from Heaven as would immediately follow would make it indeed a New Earth If therefore our Esteem of this Prayer were not too much spent in an Ignorant Formality and Superstition on Bare Words it would soon give us an Unanswerable Argument of such a Kingdom on Earth and a Kingdom must haâ—e a Duration and what Duration but a Kingdtm of that Thousand Years Prophecy having once named gives a Preference to I say nothing of the Petition taking in Heoven viz the Lower Heaven which Scripture make the Habitation of fallen Spirits that They being Remov'd these Three Petitions may be Fulfilled there also Nor of the following Petitions most Adjustable hereunto which I have in a Full Discourse on this Prayer made Ready if God please to give Opportunity for Publication as also to shew the True Laws of our Duty in using of this Prayer wherein Men are so prone to Run into the very Battology Heathenism or Vanity of Repetition as an Antidote againk which it was given by Christ and this came in by the Gentilism that Antichrist hath brought into the Outer Court Taking away that Daily Sacrifice the Remains of which are yet among Protestants Argum. 3. With Great Assurance and without any Reluctancy of of Thoughts I further Argue That the Apostle Peter in an especial manner Commission'd for it by the Divine Spirit hath given the first Light to the Knowledge of the Day of Judgment as a Kingdom of a Thousand Years Epist 2. Chap. 3. 8. The whole Chapter is indeed a Great Prophecy of that Kingdom and the State of it and it carries many severe Remarks on the Antichristian Apostacy as those Scoffers who setting up that Kingdom in Counterfeit Burlesque and Abuse the True Kingdom and have and still Jeer it out of the Faith of Christians The Apostle in Spirit foreseeing this Recalls the Sincere Disciples of Christ to the Words of the Prophets first who are so Abundant concerning this Kingdom but speak very darkly of the Day of Judgment or not at all but through that Kingdom and then to the Commandment or as the Learned Observe it to signifie the Doctrine of Us the Apostles of the Lord and Saviour Now these Words are undoubtedly a Preface to what follows after in the Chapter and therefore to the Doctrine of the Day of Judgment of the Thoufand Years of the New Heavens and New Earth and the holy Inferences from it with a very Dreadful Thunder and â—ightning upon the Apostacy intermixt and all in close Connexion He promises upon these Scoffers that They sâ—all be in the very Last of Time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That their Lusts of the present World the Grandieur and Sensualities of it will oblige them to say Where is the promise of his Coming There is no Kingdom of Christ but what we have set up Events of many Ages Demonstrate there is no other These are yet neither Atheists nor Anti Scripturists but such Mockers as Esay speaks of Chapter 28. 22 c. Who will not believe a Consumption on the present Earth to rise in a greater Harvest They allow the Great Change of the World by the Flood the Change by New Heavens and New Earth which the Apostle Verse 13. Inetrprets as one Principal Branch of the Promise They Laugh at and the Gangrene Eats beyond professed Anti-Christianism as if that First Resurrection were past already in that 1000 Y. Staâ—â— of the Church since Constantine and no other to be expected but the â—inal Judgment and Eternity To this the Apostle Answers by laying down this Great Thâ—â—â—s which saith the Apostle Lies hid from Them Resolving Obstinately against all Light All Things shall continue as they were that is They will be Ignorant of any other World The Thesis or
Position is As the First World Destroyed by the Flood of Water that Lay as the forenamed Excellent Theory hath set out within its own Bowels And yet that Destruction was not till 1656 Years after its Creation so long the Word of God Secured it and there was yet a World after it So the Heaven and Earth that now are shall be destroyed by Fire Hid as it were in its Entrails for about such a space of Time from the Apostle's writing Till that Appointe◠Time the same Word of God Interposes and Secures it But saith the Apost that you may Rightly Judge of the Position I would by no means hove you Ignorant of this one Thing this Principal Thing in this Point that I am about to Lead you to Of the New Heavens and the New Earth That as the First Heavens and Earth and the Host of Them Finish'd and God's Resting in them was on the Sabbath and Seventh Day So the Day of Judgment the Great Sabbatism of Resting and Rejoycing in his Works to God to Christ and his Saints shall be a Day but It is with God in his Determination and Counsel concerning it a Day of a 1000 Years and to so Great Day He hath made each 1000 Years of the Worlds Continuance a Day and They are Six as at the Worlds First Creation For in the Evening of the Sixth Millenary That Day shall Begin Think not therefore the Lord is Slack for He hath with Great Wisdom Ballanc'd and Weigh'd out for the First Seventh Day Sabbath a Sahbath of a 1000 Years For the Day of Judgment that will be for Perdition to the Wicked shall be a Day of a 1000 Years Rest to the People of God and to so Great a Day of a 1000 Years He hath with infinite Patience to Bring All his own Elect into it weigh'd out also for each Day Leading to the First Sabbath Six Millenaries or 1000 of Years which he Accounts as Days to Gathe◠in all his Elect as the Apostle Paul Heb. 4. Shews the Long suffering of the Lord to the several Ages of his People to be Salvation to Them till that very Sabbatism comes that Remains to the People of God This is the Great Sense that lies under the very profitable and Exscellent Discourse of the Apostle taken in Common Sense But that There is this Great Sense I Argue not only from the Symbols of the New Heaven and New Earth coming out of the Floo◠and from the New Heaven and the New Earth having Six days and then a Sabbath of a 1000 Years Symboliz'd by the Sabbath and the Six Days of Creation before it to which the whole Scope of the Apostle's Discourse makes it plain that He Refers But I Especialy Argue from These Two Things 1. From the Apostle's Great Preface shewing a Mystical Doctrine as such Prefaces do Rom. 11. 15. 1 Cor. 15. 51. Now that the longest and shortest Time with God the High and Holy one that Inhabits Eternity the Absolute Eternal Being are All Alike is an undoubted Principle of Natural Rational Religion which All are supposed to Know and therefore that Great Truth needs no such Preface as not to be Ignorant of that One Thing there being many other so Great Principles of that Order of Natural Religion that ought not to Lye hid from Any 2. Because this would not all Answer the Apostle's Scope either with Relation unto the Scoff of them that say Where is the Promise of his coming not Satisfie and Comfort the Sincere Christian concerning the delay of that Coming For what Comfort is it to the Sincere Christian to whom Each Minute of delay of the Coming of Christ especially under suffering is as an Age that to an Eternal Being a Day is as a 1000 Y. and a 1000 Years as One Day and how would the Scoffer Triumph in this Each Day with God is a 1000 Years how many 1000 of Years may be then to the Coming of Christ when every Day with God is a 1000 Years So many Days then so many 1000 Years And if He Counts a 1000 Years but as One Day how long may He delay e're the coming of Christ be The Comfort proper to this Case must be such as is proper to the Creatures of Time What is proper to the Alone Paramount Eternal Being Flys too High and Alought over this Case however an Admirable a Truth it is in it self and God most Adorable in it Nor is there therefore Any Cause to vilifie this Kingdom of Christ Because It is but a 1000 Years and that a 1000 Years is with God but as a Day Because even according to the Letter of this Scripture each Day of the 1000 Years is with God as a 1000 Years as well as the 1000 Years but as One Day when therefore we may by this Apostolic Canon if we had Respect to the Letter Count every Day of the 1000 Years Kingdom as a 1000 Years it self how Great then would it be But I have sole Respect to the Mystic meaning That God the Lord of Time knows how much and no more is proper to his Ends hath Resolv'd A Sabbatism of a 1000 Years Beginning with and Ending with a Grand Judgment and its middle Space a Judgment or Government according to and with Relation to those Two Grand Judgments and so most Fitly call'd Judgment or Day of Judgment shall be a perfection of Time and the Fullness of All Times and the duration of the Kingdom of his Son as Son of Man And that Six Days each Day as a Milennium or 1000 Y. of his Patience and Long suffering for the Vessels of Wrath Fitting Themselves to Destruction at that Day and for the Gathering his Elect from the several Ages of the World as well as from the Four Winds shall go before it And it self from its Beginning to its End shall bear this Character Fullness of Times without Nice distinction of one part from Another and so Eternity ensues and this State which shews the Fitness of the Symbols shall have New Heavens and a New Earth according to Creation according to the Great Promise Esay 65. c 66. which also shews the opposite State of the Carcases under a never dying Worm and an Vnquenchable Fire to mean much higher then the Carcasses of the Assirians whatever Type that slaughter might be Lastly That this Prophecy of the Apostle Peter hath also Great Reference to the Antichristian State I observe by Indications however They may seem small yet are most Significant 1. The Vnlearnedness Barbarity and Ignorance most Natural to Antichrist however since the Reformation Necessity hath made his Party more Learned taken notice of in the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 16. 2. Their Apostacy as Wandring and falling Stars as the Papacy it lelf is also Symboliz d by a Star falling from Heaven to the Earth Revel 9. v. 1 is Signified by a Dis-firmamented State in the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wander'd from their Firmament and