Christs personall reigne on earth, one thousand yeares with his saints the manner, beginning, and continuation of his reigne clearly proved by many plain texts of Scripture, and the chiefe objections against it fully answered, explaining the 20 Revelations and all other Scripture-prophecies that treat of it : containing a full reply to Mr. Alexander Petrie ... who wrote against ... Israels redemption / by Robert Maton.

Answer.

The Prophecies which we have alledged for the Jewes delive∣rance, and our Saviours reigne on earth, are all plaine prophecies: and therefore your distinguishing of the prophecies into plaine and typicall prophecies, is very unseasonably (that I say not craftily) applyed against us. However in the first place, the Reader may ob∣serve, that we have as much reason to beleeve, that the Prophecies which speak plainly of the Jewes, cannot be understood of any others; as we have to beleeve, that the Prophecies which speake plainly of Christ cannot be understood of another: and conse∣quently that you doe very erroneously interpret these Prophecies, when you understand by them, the conversion of the Gentiles. And secondly, he may observe, that having cited 2 Sam. v. 12. When thy dayes be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy Fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowles, and I will

establish his kingdome. You say [This was true in the person of Solo∣mon, and of Christ too properly.] Which is as much as we say, to wit, that God shall establish unto Christ a civill and proper King∣dome, as he did unto Solomon. And indeed it is beyond the force of these words in the 16. verse. Thy house and thy Kingdome shall be esta∣blished for ever before thee, thy throne shall be established for ever. To prove, that Christs reigne and Solomons, that the type and thing ty∣pified are not both to be understood properly and in the same man∣ner: seeing the word [for ever] is not here to be taken in an unli∣mited sense, for an infinite time, but in a limited sense, for a long time, (as we shew in our reply by many instances out of scripture) and so doth intimate unto us onely, that Christs Kingdome, as it is to be the longest that ever was on earth, so it is to be the last too, it is not to be left to other people, as Daniel saith, chap. 2. ver. 44. but is by Christ himselfe to be delivered up to God, even the Father, at the last resurrection. And that not onely Solomons reigne, but his building of an house to the Lord too, is to be properly ful∣filled in Christ, the Prophet Zechariah, chapter 6. ver. 13. doth plainely reveale. Behold, saith he, the man whose name is the ••••ach, and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the Temple of the Lord, even he shall build the Temple of the Lord, and he shall beare the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his Throne, and the counsell of peace shall be between them both: In which words, [the Temple of the Lord] doth signifie the Temple at Jerusalem, as the ver∣ses following doe shew; and there is no other signification of this phrase in all the old Testament, as we have observed in our reply to your answer, where you expound our Saviours building of the Temple of the Lord, of the raising of his body from the grave: and yet here you make it to foreshew the immoveable perseverance of those that were after his incarnation, to be called to the profession of his name by a lively faith. So unstedfast are you, and unresol∣ved in what sense to take his building of an house unto the Lord. And therefore although such typicall prophesies as are compound oracles, were to have a double accomplishment, yet it is questiona∣ble, whether they were to have a different meaning. And sure we are, that this which you have alledged for an instance doth carry but one and the same sense in the type and antitype; And conse∣quently, it is not miserable ignorance in us to expound the prophe∣sies

of Christs Kingdome, or the Jewes deliverance in a proper sense onely: but rather manifest insolence in you to say so, and to af∣firme withall, [that the Evangelists and Apostles expound them in a spirituall and figurative sense,] when you can bring no plaine text to demonstrate what you say.