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A27634
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The universal Christian doctrine of the Day of Judgment applied to the doctrine of the thousand years kingdom of Christ (herein guided by Mr. Baxter's Reply) to vindicate it from all objections ... / by Thomas Beverley ...
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Beverley, Thomas.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing B2186; ESTC R5659
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45,032
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44
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False Glory Riches and Pleasure They have here Abused They shall Receive double and that in Bodies of Disgrace The General Doctrine of the Day of Judgment concerning the Wicked cannot but Acknowledge this to be according to Scripture For It is most certain such shall be their Appearance signifyed by their being Goats on the Left Hand Matt. 25. 33. in the Grand Assembly of the Great Day â—ven in Bodies of visible Shame and Horror None will deny this in and for that Day and for so long how long soever that Day lasts For what is no Incompossibility for any Time of that Day is possible for all that Day or Time And at the End of that Day or Time They are Cast into the Lake where as to the Pain of Sense as well as to the Pain of â—oss I Agree with all Theology or Sacred Doctrine All that I Add is in the Words of Prophecy These Visibly Dead in â—aw or Condemn'd by their very Appearance Lived not until the 1000 Years were Finish'd Revel 20. 5 that is not at all in the Great Senses of Life For it is Immediately said The Second Death shall have no Power over the Partakers of the First Resurrection Implying All the Dead not Partakers Fall under the Second Death But seeing They were not yet Cast into the Lake though for the 1000 Y. They lye unactive They at the end of Them had that Kind of Revival to Joyn in that short Attempt ef Compassing the Beloved City whether by way of Temptation to Defection as on Adam in his Paradise or of such violence as Sathan us'd upon Job or both but neither with possibility of Success to the Glory of the Redeemer They Joyn'd as Devils of an Inferiour order with Sathan Prince of Devils under his Superior Influence of Wickedness call'd Allusively Deception But in the very Attempt Sathan first and his Angels of the Higher Diabolic order and then the Dead are Cast with Death and Hell into the Lake to the Devil and his Angels Matt. 25. 41. whereby thereis an utter Suppression of all possible Action against the Divine Kingdom for ever but no Cessation of that Action or Receptiveness necessary to the Suffering All that is to be understood by the Vengeance of Eternal Fire as Scripture declares which I never so much as call'd into Question much less once denied Now because it is so ordered by God that here would be the last Attempt it is call'd a Gathering to Battel as it were to try their utmost at this last decisive Point according to no unusual Symbol in this Prophecy 7. This State shall be to the Saints above and below a Preparation to an Eternal Vnion to God and to the Father by Jesus Christ in such an inseparable State of Oneness as leaves no possible Thought of such Falling away as of the Angels from their First Estate or of Adam from Paradise as I always have and do Declare And this is the Glorioas Consummation of the Kingdom of Christ and not a dishonourable Spewing out of Christ's Mouth as shall be presently more fully Declared This Preparation is conveyed to us in such Expressions as are most Evidently made Essential to the State of the New Jerusalem and so as shall be seen to the Thousand Years They are also most proper to such a Preparation viz. The Lord God and the Lamb are the Temple of that City They gives it Light The Throne of God and of the Lamb art in it They See His Face His Servants serve him his Name is in their Foreheads They eat of the Tree of Life and drink of the Fountain of the Water of Life as the Highest Initiation Pledge and Assurance of the Simpâ—e Absolute Eternal Life to which Fountain the Lamb leads them Rev. 20. 6. c. 21. 6. 22. 24. c. 22. 1 2 3 4 5. c. 7. 17. Now if it shall be proved the New Heaven and the New Earth of this State shall Fly away and yet that the State it self cannot End but Issues into that Absolute Eternal Life wherein God is All in All then it will be made plain this State however High above Expression compar'd with that now yet if compar'd to that Eternal State of God All in All it is â—ut Initiation and Preparation though of the Highest Degree of Spirits in Bodies for an Union to God in this Eternal State And our Lord Concurs in his Mediatory Prayer John 17. 21. 23. That there shall be a State of his Saints so Visibly Glorious as to strike the Wicked call'd the World with Conviction That such a State as it is Initially so while They behold it cannot but Issue in Everlasting Union with God by Christ and in the Love and Glory Jesus Christ as the Eternal Word Mission'd by the Father into our Nature had with the Father before the World Began And therefore in regard of Personal Vnion of the Man Christ Jesus with the Eternal Word he is said to have it even before the Existence of the Humane Nature of which Mission there shall also be Fullest Cenviction And what State can be so proper for this as the Glorious Kingdom of Christ wherein the Wicked thus behold with Horrour and Torment what shall be for ever while they cast into the Lake shall be for ever shut out of it I come now to the Second Thing proposed viz. To superadd some Arguments to those already given in my Answer Argum. 1. The Stream of Prophecy in all its Expressions runs so vehemently towards such a State that however hard shifts are made to Evaporate them into Allegory yet Prophecy it self will not be satisfied without such a New Heaven and New Earth wherein shall be Universal Holiness and Knowledge of God in Visible Glory in Universal Peace sufficiency of All Things Freedom from Evil no more Curse in Life and no Death and all in a State of Duration Nor will Atheists and Anti-Scripturists cxacting the Fulfilling of Prophecy be Convicted till those Expressions are so Fulfilled before their Eyes as indeed they shall be For it becomes not the Oracles of Supream Truth to as I may say Excuse the unfulfilledness of Themselves in their Highest Expressions by the use of Allegory or Metaphor or Rhetorick All shall therefore have a Just Complement And seeing many Refer to some Earth and to some State of Time In some State of Time and in somè Earth They must therefoâ—e be Fulfilled and that is in that State of the Thuusand Yoars Kingdom of Christ 2. I Argue from the Prayer of Christ styl'd the Lord's Prayer which I esteem particularly prepar'd for the State of the Kingdom as in a New Heaven and a New Earth Although all Things of the present State are also I own Admirably Comprehended and Fitted to present Use of Prayer Now the Third Petiteon of that Prayer Teacheth us to pray Thy Will be done not only upon Earth as in Heaven but As in Heaven and on Earth as it is Emphatical in the
Mystery which we must not hope perfectly to Understand till we see the Blessed Accomplishment of it I could not but Transcribe a Paragraph worthy of Letters of Gold Not because suitable to my Sense of small Account but because so Agreeable with Sense of Scripture if I can be sure I see or know any Thing And yet how little taken notice of To conclude the Argument The Thousand Years are made by God the Emblem and Hierogliphick of the Perfection of Time and do litterally express that very Time God hath Ordain'd to be the Fulness of Time and the Perfection of it And so I come to the Third Thing propos'd to consider any other Hipothesis or Model of Things in Bar of this propos'd And I find these Two 1. That All this Kingdom of Christ with its New Heaven and Earth are suppos'd rather to Fit the Kingdom of Eternity Against this I Argue 1. The New Heaven and the New Earth the Scripture speaks of Revel 21. v. 1. are certainly the very same that Fly away from the pure Crystal Throne of Eternity and from his Face that Sate upon it Ready to Deliver up the Kingdom to God All in All. This is certain because the New Heaven and New Earth are Concurrent with the New Jerusalem as is most Clear by the Conjunct Vision John had of Them Revel 21. 12. I saw a New Heaven And v. 1. And I John saw the holy City When he Saw the New Heaven c. and the New Jerusalem The first Heaven and the first Earth were passed away So then the Heaven and Earth that were with the New Jerusalem were not the first Heaven and Earth but the Heaven and Earth that were at the same time with the Holy City And they fled away as is most Evident by the close Connexion and Order between the Compassing the Holy and Beloved City which cannot be suppos'd to be any other then the New Jerusalem call'd by the Name of the Holy City as c. 20. 9. so c. 21. 2. and the Beloved City because the Bride For after that Assault that was after the 1000 Y. Satan was cast into the Lake that had the Power of Death And then immediately the White Throne was seen and Heaven and Earth fled away which must be the Heaven and Earth Cotemporary with the New Jerusalem and so with the 1000 Years and seeing as was said just now They must be new Heaven and New Earth Therefore the New Heaven and New Earth continue not to Eternity For I cannot see where there can be any Doubt in the Connexion or Order the Divine Prophecy hath so taken care Sathans casting into the Lake must needs be after the 1000 Years therefore after the New Heaven and Earth the Heaven and Earth that Fled must be Those that were at the Judging and casting the Dead into the Lake Can we suppose then that this White Throne the Judging the Dead and casting the Dead into the Lake was before the 1000 Years and so the Heaven and Earth flying also and then indeed They must be the First Heaven and First Earth and not the New Ones But All that cannot be because whatever was not Written in the Book of Life was then cast into the Lake And it is certain Sathan was not Written in the Book of Lâ—fe therefore he Could not be out of the Lake at the Time of Death and the Dead being cast into the Lake But he was not cast into the Lake till the 1000 Years were past So that this whole Transaction upon Death and the Flying of Heaven and Earth were all after the 1000 Years and therefore the New Heaven and New Earth which Run along with the 1000 Years were the Heavens and Earth that Fled away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was the Thing to be shown and is shown For if such a Connexion as this will not prove nothing can be prov'd by Consequence from Scripture 2. Those Three Expressions of the Apostle The Kingdom shall be deliver'd up by the Son The Son shall be subject God shall be All in All so strongly sway with me that no distinction of Acquisition and Fruition can weigh against them but that such a State as of the New Heaven and New Earth and a Kingdom of Christ proportionate to it cannot be the State of the Kingdom of Eternity Especially when I Joyn to it those Words of our Lords Mediatory Prayer John 17. That They may be one in us and that They may see my Glory and that Glory was the Glory Christ had with the Father before the Foundation of the World So that the Glory of the Humane Nature of Christ and of the Elect Angels and Saints being first confess'd All the State of Glory is Brought to the nearest that can be to that State of Glory before the World began and so not of New Heaven and a New Earth and what is Agreeable to the Creation 3. A Delivery up of the Glory of the Judiciary Kingdom or of that proper to the Day of Judgment to the Father and the Son 's being subject that is laying down that Lustre of Appearance proper to that Administration cannot be denied And that and no other which is always Attributed to the Son of Man and to the Man Christ Jesus and the delivering up that Kingdom and no other is what I plead for and no otherwise then so far as is necessary for the making Good of what the Apostle hath said That the Kingdom is to be deliver'd up that the Son is to be subject and God to be All in All From which as having some Higher Deeper and more Substantial Sense then the distinction of Acquisition and Fruition can Comprehend I cannot depart 4 The Superlative unexpressible Excellency of the Divine Glory from Eternity hath so Great a Command upon my Understanding together with that Expression of the Apostles of God's being All in All that altho the Humane Nature of Christ as united to the Divine though the Humane Nature of Christ and his Saints the Union of Saints to God by Christ be Free and wholly Grace and were not indeed from Eternity yet Joyning the so often mention'd Assertion of the Apostle Paul with our Lords of the Glory before the World began Assures me that the State of Angels and Saints is Brought to the highest Nearness Created Nature is capable of to that Glory before the Foundation of the World even as the Humane Nature of Christ is so Advanc'd and that that Objectition viz. that the Humane Nature of Christ had not an Existence in that Glory before the World Argues to me the more strongly that All this is so For it speaks that Humane Nature it self therefore drawn more out of all Created Glory into the Glory of the Eternal Word and that the Divine Nature of the Eternal Word is our Object and not the Humane Nature of Christ all the objective Glory of Christ in his Humane Nature and of Angels and Saints being seen in Speculo Divinitatis in that Infinite Mirrour of the Divine Nature And herein I Relye on the very Words of Scripture that cannot be over-rul'd And seeing God hath been pleas'd to make the Humane Nature of Christ and the Union of