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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25221	The beloved city, or, The saints reign on earth a thovsand yeares asserted and illustrated from LXV places of Holy Scripture, besides the judgement of holy learned men both at home and abroad, and also reason it selfe : likewise XXXV objections against this truth are here answered / written in Latine by Ioan Henr. Alstedius ... ; faithfully Englished, with some occasionall notes and the judgement herein ... of some of our owne famous divines.; Diatribe de mille annis apocalyptis. English	Alsted, Johann Heinrich, 1588-1638.; Burton, William, 1575-1645.	1643 (1643)	Wing A2924; ESTC R19975	88,201	114

the false Prophet who is the great Antichrist being thrust down a little before the beginning of the thousand yeers do endure their punishment There they shall be tormented day and night without intermission for ever and ever that is For all ages so that for the time to come they shall never scape forth again 11. I saw also a great cloud like a great white Throne and Christ the Son of GOD the Judge of the living and dead sitting thereon with great Majesty and prepared to give Judgement From before his face the Earth and the Heaven fled away and there was no place found for them For this earth and this heaven shall passe away at the coming of Christ and all things shall be made new 12. I saw also all the dead small and great standing before God and ready to hear the sentence of the Judge What happens then The books of mens Consciences are opened the counsells of all mortell men and the secrets of their hearts being brought to light Now lest the elect children of God should be disheartned every one by the particular survey of his own book or conscience behold another book is opened for them I mean the Book of Life in which according to the fatherly acceptance of God in Christ their names are written from everlasting These books being thus opened the d●ad are judged out of those things which are written in the books according to their works and that after such manner that the works of the Saints are judged out of the book of life which contains the books of their Consciences washed and cleansed with the Blood of Christ But the works of the ungodly are numbred and surveyed and so judged out of the books of their own consciences not cleansed from sins nor purged with the Blood of Christ 13. Hereupon then the Sea gave up its dead which had been concealed in the bosome thereof Death also and the Grave that is The fire ayr and the earth and indeed all the Elements d●livered up their dead which having received formerly they had partly consumed partly yet preserved They were therefore all judged and every one in particular none at all excepted and they were judged justly for the judgement was according to every ones works of which their consciences bare them record 14. And this being performed ungodly men Death and Hell that is Men deserving both were cast into that lake of fire that there for ever they might swallow up waters running with fire and there suffer the second death that is by dying the second death never to die 15. For whose name soever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into that lake of fire both by the just Judgement of God and by the heynousnesse of his own deservings V. The Questions arising in this Chapter THe chief Questions of this Chapter are these 1. Whether these thousand yeers severall times here mentioned are alwayes to be understood literally 2. Whether they be already finished 3. What year ought to be put for the beginning of them 4. What is to be understood by the first Resurrection 5. Who are to be understood by Gog and Magog 6. Whether the Martyrs with Christ shall reign here on Earth All which Questions I will bring into this one Whether there shall be any happinesse of the Church here upon earth before the last day and of what kinde it shall be This question I will handle somewhat more largely both by way of confutation and confirmation I will in the first place therefore by certain Classes or ranks of Arguments confirm the truth to be maintained herein After that I will confute the Objections of the adversary part I. The Confirmation of the Truth THere shall be three Classes or ranks of Arguments for the maintaining of this Truth which we comprehend in the following Thesis or Position The happy estate of the Church in this life shall consist of the Resurrection of the Martyrs and their kingdom here on earth of the freedome of the Church from the persecution of the enemies of the Gospel by an utter overthrow of them of a lasting peace which shall arise from thence of the encrease of the Church or the multitude of the believers by the conversion of the Iews and Nations not yet converted of the Reformation of Doctrine or a greater enlightment and life among all estates of men of the Majesty also and great glory of the Church and lastly of the sincere joy thereof Now this happinesse shall begin in that very year wherein it shall come to passe That the kingdom of that great Antichrist shall be destroyed and it shall last for a thousand years The truth hereof we will make good 1. Out of the Context and Coherence of this Chapter 2. Out of other sayings of the Scripture 3. Lastly by Arguments taken from reason and the consent and agreement of some holy and learned men The first Classis of Arguments From the Context of the Chapter we draw these Arguments THe first Argument is taken from the connexion of this Vision with the former which is described chap. 19. verse 19 20 21. For Iohn saith in the first verse of this Chapter And I saw that is Afterwards to wit After I had seen the Beast and the false Prophet cast into the Lake of fire Now lest any one should think that this casting of them in shall be in the end of the world Iohn doth presently adde and the rest were slain with the sword of him that sate on the horse and all the fowls were filled with their flesh From which words it is manifest That it is spoken here concerning the destruction of Antichrist and his followers which shall not happen in the last and Universall Judgement but shall be a particular Judgement by it self which is thus demonstrated The coming of Christ to the last Judgement shall at length happen after the Warre of Gog and Magog which is a distinct War from that which is described chap. 19. ver. 19. For the Warre of Gog shall be against the Saints having now enjoyed a long-lasting Peace But the Warre of Antichrist shall be against the Saints being now brought almost to nothing by some great persecution Again in this 20●h Chap. vers. 10. it is said That the Devill should be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone after the Warre of Gog where the Beast and the false prophet * WAS which words have a plain respect to those chap. 19. ver. 20. These both the Beast and the false prophet were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with Brimstone The second Argument is from the Connexion of this Vision with the following which is set down in the 21 Chapter For saith Iohn in the first verse thereof After that I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth that is The thousand yeers being finished the Warre of Gog and Magog being ended and the execution of the last Judgement of which in the

it appears that those thousand years began in the year of Christ 73. Answ. Satan indeed in the year of Christ 1073 was let loose as he is alwayes to be conceived let loose when he troubles the Church But that letting him loose which shall be after the thousand years shall be farre of another sort For then Satan shall be loosed that he may stirre up the Nations to the Warre of Gog and Magog and indeed he shall be so let loose that he shall not long go on to destroy But now from the year of Christ 1073 to this present some whole Ages have passed XIX Object This Opinion little differeth from the errour of the Chiliasts or Millenaries which long ago hath been exploded for this reason Because after the downfall of Antichrist they feigned out of this very 20 Chap. a corporeall Resurrection of the Martyrs and Confessors and their reign with Christ for a thousand years Answ. The opinion of the Chiliasts ought not to have been exploded for this reason because it maintained a double Resurrection one in particular another Universall for truely in Christs time when he hung upon the Crosse there happened a particular Resurrection of the Saints The Resurrection of the Martyrs hath also a foundation upon this Text whereon also our judgement for their Kingdom of a thousand years is grounded 2. The Chiliasts erred in this respect in that they maintained an eternall life here on earth and in the City Hierusalem That this life should consist in the enjoyment and use of all bodily pleasures which should last only for a thousadd years And of their opinion they made this the foundation because that in the 20 chap. of Rev. there was mention made of a thousand years Let us hear * Augustine concerning them The Cerinthians devise also to themselves a thousand years after the Resurrection which shall be in an earthly kingdom of Christ according to the * carnall pleasures of the belly and their lust from whence also they are called Chiliasts So the Chiliasts But our opinion maintains not a thousand years of carnall pleasures but of Spirituall joyes Has omnes ubi mille rotam volvere per annos L●thaeum ad fluvium Deus evocat agmine magno Scilicet immemores sup●r● ut convexa revisant Rursus insipiant in corpora velle reverti But they urge The opinion of the Chiliasts in following times also hath been revived again in a new trim or dresse and this exposition of yours differs not a whit from it which they prove thus Alfonsus Conradus of Mantua whom severall times you have before alleadged writes thus upon the 20 of the Revel. But how are these thousand years to be interpreted shall they be said to be already past or yet to be expected Here you will not easily clear your self seeing the expositions of this place are wondrously divers and yet I make a question of it Whether any either of the ancient or latter expositors have ever touched the genuine and true meaning of the place In the first place indeed were the Chiliasts who Iudaizing and entertaining carnall conceits concerning divine matters did carnally also interpreted this place and say thus When six Millenaries or 1000 years shall be accomplished from the Creation of the world then Antichrist with all his forces that is the wicked and whosoever have obeyed his commands against Christ shall be destroyed Again say they For the whole 7th Millenary Christ with his elect shall reign here on earth in all tranquility and peace and without any affliction at all Satan in the mean while being bound in the bottomlesse pit that he might not any way disturb their peace Now the thousand years of peace and tranquility being accomplished Satan shall be let loose again before Christs coming to Iudgement and shall stirre up Gog and Magog against the Godly untill by the coming of Christ the Militia or strength of Satan shall be repressed and Satan shut up for ever into the bottomlesse pit But this Doctrine because it hath many absurdities is to be avoided by all Christians So Alfonsus in the place cited Hence it appears then That the exposition hitherto brought and maintained is nothing else but the opinion of the Chiliasts in another dressing or at least the errour of new Chiliasts Answ. 1. In this opinion that is to be approved of which hath foundation in the Scripture as these three things in it have 1. That Antichrist shall be destroyed before these thousand years 2. That the Church shall be for these thousand yeers free from persecutions 3. That after these thousand years the Warre of Gog and Magog shall begin 2. In the same opinion we dislike and disprove That it allows carnall security That it affirms that no ungodly men shall be remaining for those thousand years That it maintains that Christ shall reign visibly here on earth lastly That it doth precisely joyn this Millenary with the end of the sixth Millenary of the world which conceit is taken from the Traditions of the House or Family of Elias 3. He is not rashly to be accused of * Turcisme or Iudaisme who affirms any truth which a Turk or a Iew doth likewise maintain as for example That there is but one God * So in like manner he is not straightway a Chiliast who defends the truth of any thing which the Chiliasts also do rightly maintain out of Scripture For this they do not hold and teach as Chiliasts XX Object The Kingdom which Revel. 20.4 is granted to the Martyrs consists herein That their souls shall reign in Heaven with Christ For although the holy Martyrs and Confessors who poured out their lives and lost their fortunes under Tyrants and Antichrist for Christ's sake were judged by the world as miserable and wretched men yet the Spirit of God declares otherwise of them That they shall live and reign in happinesse with Christ in Heaven Answ. 1 This Resurrection is granted to the souls of the Martyrs Synochdochically or totally because their souls shall so farre rise or be restored that they shall again be united to their bodies For the dead bodies shall not rise again without their souls but every body again united to it's own soul And to the souls the rest of the dead are opposed of whom it is said That they lived not again till the thousand years were finished Therefore whereas it is said of the souls of the Martyrs That they should live it is to be understood of their Resurrection in their bodies resumed or taken to them again 2. This is proper to the other elect Saints as well as to the Martyrs That their souls should reigne with Christ in Heaben But in this place some prerogative is bestowed on the Martyrs which consists in this That in the beginning of the thousand years they shall rise again and reign with Christ 3. It is said This particular Kingdom shall continue for a thousand

his aust●rity of life his suffering for the Truth and his preparing a way to reformation but how the Baptist restored all things he tells them not neither can those words as I conceive bee prop●rly u●derstood of him nor yet those of the Prophet Malachy that Elias the Prophet fo● the turning of the hearts of men each to other and all to God shal be sent before the comming of the great and dreadfull day of the Lord where by the day of the first comming of our Lord in the flesh cannot well be mea●t in as much as that was rath●r good and gracious then great and dreadfull It should seeme then that either Elias himself or some other great Heroical spui● matchable to him ●s yet to bee sent for the accomplishing of this gr●at businesse in the restoring of all things I am sure Alstedius a famous professour a●Herborne is of that opinion c. ut supra Thus Doctor Hakewill providentīae divinae ex●urius {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Doctor Twisse in his Preface to Mr. Medes Book intituled The Apostasie of the latter times THe beginning of my acquaintance with Master Mede was occasioned by a rumour spread of his opinion concerning the glorious kingdome of Christ here on earth which many hundred yeares agoe was cried downe as the errour of the Millenaries and i● seemed wondrous strange to us that such an opinion should after so many hundred yeares bee revived and that in so strange a manner as now we finde both amongst us and amongst out-landish Divines Neverthelesse my selfe being firmely set upon studies of another nature I had no great edge so much as to hearken to it much lesse to take it into consideration But a friend in the country sometimes urged mee to write to an acquaintance in London and to enquire of Master Mede whether he were of the same opinion with Piscator and Alstedius concerning the first resurrection and the glorious kingdome of Christ And hereupon shortly after word was sent me that hee did agree with Piscator in this that some shall rise a thousand yeares before others but he differed from him in this that Piscator thought this reigne o●Christ should bee in heaven but I said Master Mede agree rather with Alstedius and conceive that the thousand yeares reigne of Christ shall bee on earth yet herein he differed from Alstedius that whereas Alstedius was of opinion that the thousand yeares reigne of Christ should be after the day of judgement Master Medes opinion was that it should be in et durante die judicij in and during the day of judgement which day of judgement should continue a thousand yeares beginning with the ruine of Antichrist and ending with the destr●ction of Gog and Magog When I heard this my spirit was stirred up in mee to lay aside for a while my ordinarie studies and to take this into consideration and I prayed Master Mede to give me leave to propose my reasons against this opinion of his And the truth is the improbability of it seemed very pregnant unto naturall reason and divers arguments that way offered themselvs which seemed to be of very diff●cult if at all possible solution and over and above it seemed very contradictious to divers plaine passages of holy Scripture Mr. Mede very readily entertained the motion and prescribed me a time after which he should bee at leisure for me and in a letter after this in his familiar manner asked me saying when come your Quaerios I accepted his courteous answer and sent up unto him first and last twelve arguments against that opinion of his and at the first I sent him with an answer devised by my selfe to nine of them for so I had promised him namely that I would bethinke my wits of what possibly might bee said in the solution of them according to the straight●esse of my invention leaving it to him to approve or correct or adde as he thought good And whereas I could devise nothing at all in answer to my tenth argument he sent me a large answer thereunto in three sides of a sheet of paper whereby I well perceived that my best arguments had been known to him and examined before I devised them After this I came acquainted with ma●y discourses upon the same argument one printed at Hanow in Germani de die novissimo of the last day a few onely were printed two copies and no more were brought into England Master Med bought them both and sent me one of them to copy it out which we did After this no lesse then seven manu-scripts were sent me from one Divine treating of this and other mysteries Now here I cannot but confesse my corruption for I received them by way of a bribe and indeed I was to doe him a favour and I dealt plainely with him and told him I would not sell my favours Gratis I would be well payed for them And therefore whereas I heard hee had strange n●●ions upon the Revelation and touching the mysteries of the first resurrection and Christs Kingdome I looked to bee fee'd with the communication of them with promise to returne them safely after I had suck't the hony out of them though he had never a whit the lesse for that such is the nature of spirituall commodities The good man sent me word that such bribs should never make me rich but I returned answer that they could make me the more rich then the enjoying of all the treasures of Ae●hopia and the hill Amara to boote And here I found rich mines inde●d even a●l the mysteries belonging to Christs glorious Kingdome set downe a part by wayd question and a solemne resolution thereon with proofes adjoyned out of the holy Scripture Since t●at I have met with divers choice pieces of the same argument some prosecuting a few parts thereof onely and others more So farre Doctor Twisse S●mi Pelagianorum bujus seculi acenimus inpugn●tor Master Mede of Cambridge Commena tionum Apocalypticarum Part. II. pag. 276. et seqq IDadeo proximi post Apostolo● c. This opinion was so approved by the Christians in the age next to the Apostles that Iusti●e Martyr doth witnesse that not onely himselfe but the Christian of that time in all respects Orthodox did with a joynt and unanimous consent beleive it Which opinion notwithstanding of the fi●st Christians afterward deformed with some additions or as I conceive amisse understood posterity did after an age or two reject Yet so farre did the heate of this contention encrease which deservedly you may wonder at and grieve for before it could be composed that they who could ●ot otherwise get free from the power of the adverse opinion established by the Revelati●n would rather call in question the authority of that divine Prophecy confirmed by all the schollers of the Apostles and their next successours and openly and boldly slight it then yeeld to this opinion till at length happening upon some other likely

Egyptian bondage Exod. 12. and 14. by the deliverance of Hierusalem from the siege of Sennacheri● 2 Kin. 19. by the deliverance from the hostile invasion of the Ethiopians under King Asa. 2 Chro. 14. by deliverance from the invasion of the Moabites and Ammonites under King Iehosaphat 2 Chron. 20. And lastly by deliverance from the oppression of Antiochus Epiphanes 1 Mac. 1. and following chapters Adde unto these divers examples of the Church of the N. T. which when it's condition hath been granted as desperate and quite lost hath had deliverance by the * unexpected handy-work of God See the Ecclesiasticall History at large From hence we may very well gather that the Church at this time oppressed on every hand and left destitute of all humane assistance shall by the power of God be asserted and vindicated when Antichrist in the full course and carrére of his happynesse shall little think of any such matter IV. The downfall of Antichrist and the binding of Satan for a thousand years do without any intermission meet together It is very probable therefore That the beginning of these thousand years is at hand For Antichrist at that very time wherein he shall make the greatest boast of his victories shall suddenly fall Revel. 18.7 8. V. The severall Phaenomena or Apparitions in the Heavens namely new Starres and Cometes also Earthquakes and the like taken notice of in these latter times do without doubt portend and manifestly foretell some notable and extraordinary change VI The Period or limited time for the Kingdom of Antichrist to continue is almost expired and at an end as appears by the Revelation and History VII Daniel Chap. 12. declares an end of his prophesie when he expressely sets down that 2625. years shall be finished after the end of his Lxx. Weeks that is from the year of Christ 69. which years if they be added to the other the sum of 2694. years is made up In which current of time all things shall happen out which are foretold except the last Judgement and what follows thereon Wherefore if from 2694. years 1000 be subducted we shall come by the year of Christ 1694. In this year then or sooner our THOUSAND years shall take their beginning The consent of Godly and learned Men IN the forefront we place the fourth book of Esdras For there many passages occurre concerning the conversion of the Jews and the deliverance of the Church of the N. T. from Antichrist Especially That is a notable place Chap. 13.39 40. And whereas thou sawest that he gathered another peaceable multitude unto him Those are tenne Tribes which were * carried away prisoners out of their own Land in the time of Hoshea the King What the same Author writes concerning the Eagle and Lion is severally expounded by severall interpreters Out of the Sibylls also some things are brought about the downfall of Antichrist and the happy estate which the world shall enjoy after that shall come to passe Very much mention is made of that Rome shall become a street or high way All the Fathers were of this opinion that Elias should come and restore all things Some as you may see in Alfonsus Conradus in his Commentary on the Revelation between the coming of Christ in the flesh and his coming in Majesty do maintain a certain middle coming which they call his coming in the power and effiency of his Spirit to destroy the great Antichrist to reform his Church This coming they say shall be in the end of the sixth Millenary or 1000 years of which coming they make Enoch and Elias the forerunners They say that Antichrist shall be destroyed by their preaching and his Kingdom abolished After whose downfall peace shall be granted to the Church and Satan shall be bound so that he shall not be able to disturbe the tranquillity thereof Now this peace and happy progresse of the Church they say shall last for the whole seventh Millenary till the last time of her troubles by the persecution of the Nations Gog and Magog because Satan who they say shall then be set at liberty shall stirre them up against the Godly From hence it appears That our opinion concerning these 1000 years is not new and unheard of Alfonsus Conradus of Mantua in his Commentary on the Revelation published at Basil. An. 1574. writeth as followeth IN his Preface This one thing perchance will offend the ears of some because I seem to promise a more plentifull peace to the Church then that likenesse of the Crosse will allow of to which in this world it must be made conformable to Christ it's head But let them bethink themselves I entreat them that this is not so contrary to the Scripture that it should be objected against me or laid to my charge as fit to be reckoned in the number of those which are termed either impious or absurd Especially when as I cannot perceive by what means that happinesse which Iohn writes the Church shall enjoy Satan being bound can be made good except we acknowledge some rest of the Church her enemies being overthrown Which I think indeed ever happened as often as the enemies of God's people have been removed out of the way Now because the enemy which Iohn tells us shall be taken away is more dangerous then all that ever yet infested God's people it ought not to seem strange to any one if he being once overcome the Church enjoy a more plentifull peace then usually Vpon the 20. Chap. of the Revel. Vers. 1. God being about to bestow a more plentifull peace upon his Church then hitherto he had granted to it it sufficeth him not to have removed out of the way the Beast and those Kings of the Earth with a horrible slaughter who favouring the Beast had wholly disturbed his Churche's peace except also he restrain Satan the beginner of all these mischiefs So that he may not any more raise those usuall contentions and strife among men Wherefore the Angel comes down from Heaven who repressing the fury of Satan shuts him up in the bottomelesse pit and there forces him to remain so long as he pleases not to have the peace of the Church to be taken away And a little after Now he binds him and shuts him up into the bottomelesse pit for a thousand years that is for that whole time wherein God hath determined that the peace of his Church shall not be disturbed by Satan See more there to this purpose Lucas Osiander upon Daniel 12. I think the end of these years will fall in with that time in which the Popedome of Rome shall bodily be overturned although in some mens mindes it shall hiddenly remain even untill the last day Matthew Cotterius in his continued and demonstrative Exposition of the Revelation upon the 20 Chap. Satan began to be tyed in bonds when the restored Truth of the Scriptures began to take place on earth the witnesses being