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CHAP. IX. The chief employment of the Millennium, DEVOTION and CONTEMPLATION.
WE have now done with the substance of our Discourse; which is comprehended in these Three Propositions:
- I. After the Conflagration of this World, there will be New Heavens and a New Earth: and That Earth will be inhabited.
- II. That there is an happy Millennial state; Or a future Kingdom of Christ and his Saints, prophesied of and promis'd in the Old and New Testament: and receiv'd by the Primitive Church, as a Christian and Catholick Doctrine.
- III. That this blessed Millennial state, according as it is describ'd in Scripture, cannot take place in the present Earth, nor under the present constitution of Nature and Providence: But is to be cele∣brated in the New Heavens and New Earth, after the Confla∣gration.
These Three Propositions support this Work; and if any of them be broken, I confess my design is broken, and this Treatise is of no effect. But what remains to be spoken to in these last Chapters, is more circumstantial or modal; and an error or mistake in such things, does not wound any vital part of the Argument. You must now therefore lay aside your severity, and rigorous censures; we are very happy, if, in this Life, we can attain to the substance of truth: and make rational conjectures concerning modes and circumstances; where every one hath right to offer his sence, with modesty and submission. Revelations made to us from Heaven in this present state, are often incompleat, and do not tell us all: as if it was on purpose to set our thoughts a-work to supply the rest; which we may lawfully do, provided it be according to the analogy of Scripture and Reason.
To proceed therefore; We suppose, as you see, the new Heavens and the new Earth to be the seat of the Millennium: and that new Creation to be Paradisiacal. Its Inhabitants also to be Righteous Per∣sons, the Saints of the most High. And seeing the ordinary employ∣ments of our present Life, will then be needless and superseded, as Military affairs, Sea-affairs, most Trades and Manufactures, Law, Physick, and the laborious part of Agriculture: it may be wonder'd, how this Happy People will bestow their time: What entertain∣ment they will find in a state of so much ease, and so little action. To this one might answer in short, by another question, How would they have entertain'd themselves in Paradise, if Man had continued in Innocency? This is a revolution of the same state, and there∣fore