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.

Surely Mr. Mede (loc. cit.) doth make it good against Jerome, that the primitive Christians also spake not of sacrifices. And yet seeing that text, Mal. 1. verse. 11. which speakes expressely of the

Gentiles, can be no patterne to expound those which speake parti∣cularly of the Jewes, and of the house of Levi: and that you alledge such pregnant prophecies for the restoring of sacrifices, why should we not beleeve this also? what absurdity will arise from such a be∣liefe? certainely we know as well as you, that they are now unlaw∣full, but it will not follow from hence, that they shall never be law∣full againe: unlesse it can be be proved, that God cannot againe command, what he did sometimes forbid; or that he cannot in∣joyne the use of a thing at severall times, for severall ends: or that God hath in his word forbid the use of these things at any time hereafter, to wit, as well after the comming of Christ, as before it: neither of which I presume can easily be maintained. And as for that prophecy, Ezek. 16. verse 53. &c. which is your other maine pillar to support the figurative sense of all the prophecies in con∣troversie: and to beare down our proper and naturall constructi∣on of them: it hath indeed not the substance but the sound of an argument onely, and makes much against you, but nought a∣gainst us. For first, it shews them to be in an error who affirme, that the captivity of Samaria, of the ten Tribes is already return'd. And secondly, it is more forcible to disprove the Jewes returne from Babylon (against which also it may be alledged) then to dis∣prove their future returne from all countreys. For the 60. and 61. verse. Neverthelesse, I will remember my Covenant with thee in the daies of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting Covenant. Then thou shalt remember thy wayes, and be ashamed, when thou shalt re∣ceive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger, and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy Covenant. These words doe shew that this captivity of Jerusalem should returne againe, and at her re∣turne receive her sisters Sodom and Samaria; and therefore the words, verse 53. when I shall bring againe their captivity, the captivi∣ty of Sodom and her daughters, &c. doe shew onely, that this prophecie doth speake of the captivity and desolation of Jerusalem and her adjacent cities & villages by the Romans; from which they should no more be restor'd, til Samaria and her adjacent cities & villages should be restored, and inhabited by the Israelites, by the ten Tri∣bes, whose future returne is witnessed by so many evident prophe∣cies: and untill the place where Sodom and her cities stood, should againe become a fruitfull land and full of inhabitants, as the 55.

verse doth intimate. So that this prophecy is equivalent with that of Isa. 32. verse 13. &c. Ʋpon the land of my People shall come up thornes and briers, yea upon all the houses of joy in the joyous City: because the palaces shalbe forsaken, the multitude of the city shalbe left, the forts and ••owers shalbe for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flockes. Ʋn∣til the Spirit be powred upon us from on high and the wildernesse be a fruitfull field, and the fruitfull field be counted for a forest. And the meaning of the word [for ever] here doth give an answer also to the text Amos. 5. verse 2. The virgin of Israel is fallen, she shall no more rise. For doubtlesse the negative adverbe [no more] doth imply in that place the like quantity of time, as the affirmative adverbe [for ever] doth in this, that is, a long, but not an infinite time, as the insuing limitation of it, Ʋntil the Spirit be powred upon us from on high, doth infallibly declare. And thus it is evident that both the prophecy of Ezek. chap. 16. verse 53. &c. and the prophecy of Amos chap. 5. verse 2. doe shew onely (what our Saviours prophecy doth, Luke 21. verse 24.) that Jerusalem should lie desolate a long time, but not alwaies; that is, until the conversion of the Jewes by an extraordinary effusion of God's Spirit upon them, and no longer; as Joel also foreshews. chap. 2. verse 28. &c. and consequently, that which you deeme an invincible fort, is fallen of it selfe; and by its fall doth declare, that Jerome's expounding of the houses menti∣oned Isa. 65. verse 21. of vertues, is a very vicious exposition. For as the Pharisees made the commandement of God of none effect, by their tra∣dition, Mat. 15. verse 6. so doe you make the word of God to be nothing, by such faithlesse interpretations; I say, faithlesse, because they teach men to destroy the very object of faith (the plaine hi∣story of God's word) by turning it into a meere poeticall fiction•• and consequently it is the ready way, to make men have lesse faith then the Devils have: to bring them to that passe, that they shalbe willingly ignorant, that, by the word of God the Heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water, and in the water, wherby the world that then was, being over-flowed with water, perished: and that by the same word they are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the Day of judgment, and perdition of ungodly men: as S^t. Pet. saith, 2 Epist. chap. 3. verse 6, 6, 7. it is the ready way, I say, to make men wil∣lingly ignorant of all this; and then what can follow, but that they scoffe at the expectation of Christs comming, saying, where is

the promise of his comming? for since the Fathers fell asleepe, all thing•• continue as they were, from the beginning of the creation, verse 4. Wher∣as you say then, [that because wee cannot conceive of Heaven in such a manner as it is, God doth insinuate it into our affections, by similitudes of things, pleasant unto us.] Certainly it is easie to understand, when God speaks of a thing by way of comparison, and when he speak•• of it as it is. And though the joyes which God hath prepared for the Saints are unutterable; yet the place, the eternal habitation, which he hath prepared for them, is not inapprehensible. For doubtlesse it is that new * 1.1 Jerusalem described Revel. chap. 21. and 22. which must descend to the new earth, after the last judgment, the judgment of the dead at the last resurrection. For seeing the glo∣rified bodies of the Saints shall still be flesh and bones (as our Sa∣viour saith Luke 24.39.) though neither sinfull nor corruptible, what place should such material creatures inhabite but a material place? and if they shall inhabite a material place, what more glo∣rious City can we fancy to our selves, then the foresaid City is? whose foundations, walls and gates are all precious stones, whose street is pure gold like cleere glasse, whose gates are kept by Angels, and in which the Throne of God and of the Lambe is, whence the river of water of life prooceeds, on the sides whereof the tree of life growes. And what should move us to take this tree (and consequently any of the other materials) in an allegorical sense here, rather then Gen. 2. verse 9, and chap 3. verse 22. Or how can we think that God would so exactly and fully reveale the materials, platforme, and contents of this City, if there were no such thing? what? shall we say, that God is not where he saith he is? or that these things are not such as he saith they are? doubtlesse to doe either were an abominable presumption. And consequently the proper exposition of such plaine prophecies, is the onely intended sense of the Holy Ghost; and you doe as ridiculously, as dangerously affirme, that our Sa∣viour's words Mat. 7. verse 24. and S^t. Pauls 2 Cor. 5. verse 1. are meant of vertues. For according to this exposition, our Saviour should have said, I will liken him to a wise man, that builds his vertues on a rocke; whereas indeed he compares the lively and active faith of an obedient hearer to a house built on a strong foundation, and not to vertues. And S^t. Paul should have said, we have vertues of God, vertues not made with hands, eternall in the Heavens; Wheras he

speakes of the immortal and glorified bodies which the Saints shall receive of God at their resurrection, and not of vertues. Yea you might have said as well, that the tenth commandement, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors house; is thus to be understood, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors vertues. And that where we reade of our Saviour, Luk. 14. verse 1. That he went into the house of one of the chiefe Pha∣risees, it is to be understood, that he went into the vertues of one of the chiefe Pharisees. And if this be not to make the word of God a ball of waxe, a thing capable of any shape and impression, what is?

Notes

• * 1.1

  That this ci∣ty cannot be taken mysti∣cally for the Church now on earth, it is evident; see∣ing that new earth, (the ceation wher∣of, the de∣scending of this citie un∣to it (as to the place af∣ter alledged) is immediatly to ensue, if not to con∣temporate with, is not yet in being. as S. Peter in his 2. Epist. 3 ch. and 13. 8. doth plain∣ly declare.