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.

The fifth rule.

The promise made to Abraham Gen. [ 5] 13.16. I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: and chap. 15.5. looke towards Heaven, and tell the number of the starres, if thou be able to number them, and so shall thy seed be. These promises (I say) are not to be understood of the children of Abraham, according to the flesh, but as they are expo∣ned Rom. 4.15. not of that onely which is of the Law, but of them who are of the faith of Abraham, which is the Father of us all, as it is written, I have made thee a Father of many Nations. And Gal. 3.28. There is neither Jew nor Greeke, neither bond nor free, nei∣ther male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus: and if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heires according to the promise. And therfore the promises made unto the children of Abra∣ham, Isaac and Jacob, are not to be restricted unto the Jewes according to the flesh (as the Jewes and Millenaries expone all these promiser) but of the faithfull. And hither belongeth that distinction of the Jewes, Rom. 2.28. He is not a Jew, who is one outwardly, neither is that cir∣cumcision, which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew, who is

one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit. And of such inwardly Jewes must the promises be understood (at least in part) that make mention of Judah. And therfore it is a great mistaking of the prophesies, if wee shall stil make an opposition twixt Jewes and Gentiles: beleeving Gentiles are true Jewes (as wee see they are called in the new Testament) and unbeleeving Jewes are Gentiles, and so are called Isa. 1.4. and elsewhere.

Answer.

That the faithfull in general are Abraham's seed we deny note neither doe we affirme, that any can be partakers of the promise made unto Abraham, but the faithfull; nor that there is now any difference betwixt the beleeving Jew and Greeke. But yet we cannot grant that therfore there shalbe no difference betwixt the Nation of the Jewes, and all other Nations, after Christ's next appearing. Nor that the prophesies which concerne the Jewes righteous and flourishing estate at that time, are to be understood of the Church of the Gentiles now. Nor that by Isaac's and Jacob's children, any besides the Jewes are meant. And we doe not herein make the un∣beleeving Jewes heires of the promises, but the beleeving onely: seeing as all the beleeving Jewes and Gentiles that are departed, or shall depart before Christ's comming, shall be brought with him, to inherite the promise made unto Abraham, so all the Tribes shall be converted against that time: and be then acknowledged by all that see them, to be the seed which the Lord hath blessed, as it is Isa. 61. verse 9. And consequently the distinction of the Jewes, Rom. 10. verse 28 (which shewes the estate of the Jewes in S^t. Paul's time) is nothing to the pupose. Neither is it indeed rightly applyed by you to the beleeving Gentiles. For it doth no more prove a belee∣ving Gentile, to be a Jew; then that which you alledg, Isa. 1. verse 4. doth prove an unbeleeving Jew to be a Gentile; which is onely an exclamation against the Jewes for their great wickednesse. The meaning then, of the text Rom. 2 verse 28. is onely this, that that Jew was not a Jew beloved of God, which was one outwardly onely, by the circumcision, which is in the flesh: but that Jew was a Jew beloved of God, which was one inwardly, by the circumci∣sion of the heart, in the spirit. Wherfore Piscator observes in this verse, an elegant [ontanaclasis] or using of the same word in a seem∣ing contradictory sense, as if the Apostle had said, thou art a Jew,

and not a Jew; thou art a Jew before men, but not before God, as he expresseth himselfe in the close of the next verse.