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.

Israel's Redemption.

F or—they asked of him, saying, [ 3] Lord wilt thou at this time restore againe the Kingdom to Israel?

M^r. Petrie's Answer.

Any who is not distempered in his braines may see the ground of this Monarchy very unsure, to wit a meere Querie, Acts 1.6. The disciples asked him, Lord wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom of Is∣rael? a querie neither affirmeth nor denieth: and neverthelesse how great a Kingdom is built on it? If they can finde a surer ground, why will they not choose it for their text? better they have not, and therefore they must be doing with this.

Reply.

No good Christian will be either asham'd, or affraid to suffer for the truth's sake. And therefore we had much rather be de∣fam'd, revil'd, and (if God hath so appointed it) worse handled by you, or any others, then (reclamante conscientiâ) against our owne knowledge yeeld to be deluded by you; this answer being in very deed conpounded of nought but falsehood and deceit. For first, the ground of this Monarchy is not unfure although a Querie, it being grounded, not on what the Apostles knew not and would have knowne, to wit, the time when the Kingdom should be re∣stor'd; but on what they knew, and doubted not of, to wit, that the Kingdom should be restor'd. Which had they not knowne (or at least not thought) they could not have asked, when it should be restor'd. And had they but thought it, they would (for their better assurance) first have ask [whether,] before they would have aske, when it should be restored. Neither can we grant this to be [a meere querie] untill you have defin'd what a meere querie is, for you seeme to me by this proposition, A Querie neither affir∣meth, nor denieth, to take all queries to be alike; if you doe not, you say it onely fallaciously to make the unlearned reader thinke so, that by this meanes he might the more readily beleeve all you say against us; and if you doe, you are very much mistaken, as all your rhetoricians will shew you, who reckon up many sorts of Queries, among which there is one so opposite to your words,

that it more certainly and vehemently affirmes, or denies, then a bare affirmation or negation can doe; and such a one is that in S^t. Mat. chap. 7. verse 16. Doe men gather grapes of thornes, or figs of thistles? which is a farre more forcible deniall, then St. Lukes, Of thornes men doe not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes, chap. 6. verse 44. so on the contrary, Is there no balme in Gilead, is there no Physitian there? Jer. 8 verse 22. doth more mo∣vingly affirme, then the bare affirmation doth. And of this sort of interrogatory asseverations and negations the Scriptures have very many: especially God's answer to Job, and the prophecy of Micah. And therefore untill you can bring better proofe to shew this ground unsure, we need not seeke for another text to build so great a Monarchy on, although we bring many other to strengh∣then, beautify, and finish the building.

Notes

• Queries (as Rhetoricians do distinguish them) are ei∣ther simple, or figurative and effected. Sim∣ple Queries, are such as are proposed for instructi∣on and know ledge-sake, and are either meerly simple, when there is no more in them but what is doubted of; as what is truth? Iohn 18 verse 38. or not meerly simple, when there is no more in them, then what is doubte! of; as, where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eate the passcover? Mat. 26. verse 17. in which querie the doubt is not touching the subject it selfe whether the passe∣over should be prepar'd: but touching a circumstance belonging to the subject, touching the place where it should be prepar'd: and such a querie is this of the Apostles, the subject, the restoring of the Kingdom, is not doubted of, nor the person that should restore it, but the cir∣cumstance of time onely, when it shold be restored. And these queries, though they do not ex∣presly & formally affirme or deny, yet they do implicitly & vertually affirme or deny.