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.

Reply.

1. Surely your further clearing is no other then a further clouding, as the very reading of this prophecy, and that which our Saviour hath said, Joh. 10. ver. 14 and 16. is of it selfe sufficient to discover. For Ezek. speaks of uniting the Jews together under one King in their owne land, and our Saviour speaks of uniting the Jews and Gentiles into one Church, after a certaine number of elect Gentiles should be cald. Other sheepe, saith he, I have which are not of this fold, (that is, other elect servants which are not of this Nation) them also I must bring, and there shall be one fold and one Shepherd. Where it is to be noted by the words [them also I must bring] that he speaks onely of such elect Gentiles as were to be cald before the Jews and Gentiles should make one sheepfold, and not after they were one sheepfold. For when they are all brought, then it is, that there shall be one sheepfold, and not while they are bringing. No, the words of our Saviour Mat. 21. at the 43. ver. will not admit of such a meaning, for The Kingdom of God, saith he, shall be taken from you, and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruit thereof. Whereby it is evident, that the [Other sheepe] he speaks of in the 10 chap. of St. Iohn, should be brought to the faith, when the Nation of the Iewes should be deprived of the meanes of salvation: and consequently when it could not possibly be one Church. And therefore in saying that the Iewes and Gentiles are at this time one sheepfold, you con∣tradict our Saviour, and affirme that the Iewes are now saved with∣out the ordinary meanes of salvation: For this they have not, but shall have it when the time comes, in which the Jews and Gentiles

shall be one sheepfold. And then also the Jews shall be one King∣dom agane in their owne land, and Christ shall reigne over both Jews and Gentiles together. And thus our Saviour's words doe nei∣ther expound Ezek. prophecy, nor shew that the Jews and Gentiles are now one sheepfold. But rather point out the time when Ezek. prophecy shal be fulfilled, to wit, when the Jews and Gentiles shal be one fold under one Shepheard. So much have you mist your aime in alledging these propheticall words of Christ.

2. The words, David, King and Shepheard, will no more prove that the temporal prophecies (or temporal part of the prophecies) in which they are used, are to be spiritually and figuratively under∣stood, then Gods words to David, Thou shalt feed my people Israel 2 Sam. 5. ver. 2. will prove, that David's Kingdom was not a tem∣poral Kingdom; nor he a temporal King. Or then David's owne words of his people, But these sheep what have they done? will prove that the whole Kingdom of the Jews were all faithfull persons.

3. Being conscious, that all which you have said before, to make men take these prophecies in a mysticall sense will nought availe you, if the word [land] in the prophecies should be properly under∣stood, of the land of Canaan; you now endeavour to perswade them to take this figuratively also, and your first reason to induce them to it, is (like to that by which Jereboam dissuaded the Israelites from going up to Jerusalem,) because [it may be more easily understood, you say, in the spiritual then an earthly sense] But what is that spiritual sense which may so easily be understood, and yet was so hard to be described, that you could not tell us what it was. But sure I am, that God hath told us by the Prophet what land he minds to joyne the Tribes together in; even in their owne land, ver. 21. in the land upon the mountaines of Israel, ver. 22. in the land that he gave unto Jacob his servant, ver 25. which circumstances doe infallibly manifest, that it can be meant of no otherland or place but Judea. And therefore the second reason you bring to shew, that it is best to take the word [land] spiritually, is both false and impious. For [that land, you say, was not given to Jacob.] No? did not God say to Jacob in a dreame; The land whereon thou liest to thee will I give it, and to thy seed &c. Gen. 28.13. and hath he not said here in this pro∣phecy, the land that I gave unto Jacob my servant? no marvel th••n that you can so lightly reject all the plaine texts of Scripture that

speake for us; when as you dare thus affront God himselfe, and tell him to his face, that he did not doe that which he saith he did doe. Neither will the words [for ever] in the text any whit excuse you, seeing the Lord saith plainly, that he gave [That land to Jacob,] of which he saith, that they and their children, and their childrens children should dwell in it for ever. And yet the very next words [wherein your Fathers have dwelt] doe put it out of doubt, that it is meant of Judea, and consequently, the dwelling of their childrens children in it for ever, is to be understood of their dwelling in it successively: and the word [for ever] is to be taken finitely, for a long time; to wit, as long as men shall succeed each other on the Earth (as it is in many other places of Scripture) and not infinitely, for time without end. And whereas you say, that St. Paul in the 2 Cor. 6.16. expounds the 27. verse of this Prophe∣cie, of the Corinthians [as a part of the People the Prophet here speaks of] it is not so, for as the words which St. Paul makes use of, are rather taken out of the 26. of Leviticus, at the 13. ver. where they are more fully delivered. then out of this Prophecie: so they are not alledg'd by the Apostle to make the Corinthians thinke, that they were part of the people spoken of in those places, where any of the words, that the Apostle quotes, are us'd, (which is evidently false) but to shew that the Faithfull (whether Jewes or Gentiles) had all the same spiritual fellowship with God, & therefore should have the like care not to defile their bodies, which are the Tem∣ples of God, with the unfruitfull works of darknesse, of which he gives a particular instance to the Corinthians, touching the consorting with unbelievers and Infidels, in their Feasts and rites celebrated in honour of their Idols, and that these words were onely thus applyed in the Epistle to the Cor. the very next verse in Ezek. doth declare, wherein the Israelites are oppos'd to all other Nations; so farre were other Nations from being included in the Prophecie as a part of them. And therefore this proofe is too weak also to support your conclusion [that the Jewes and Gentiles, who were strangely divided, are now one Church by Faith in Christ] ye•• doubtlesse they were never divided with greater hatred one against the other, then they have been since the preaching of the Gos∣pel, and our Saviour hath told us, that the meanes of salvation was to be taken from the Jewes, that a part of the Gentiles, (even

the Gentiles that have been a long time the Church of God) might be saved by it; before it should be given to them againe, and St. Paul in the 1 Thess. 2. ver. 16. saith also, that wrath is come upon them to the uttermost. And can yet all the spirituall and temporall Prophecies which concerne them, be at the same time (the time of their unbeliefe, and of Gods wrath against them) fulfilled in them? these are grosse contradictions, and 'tis not the conversi∣on of a few Jewes in many ages, or of all that have hitherto been cal'd by the Gospel, that will solve the doubt, for the Prophets speake of a Nationall conversion and deliverance. And besides you your selfe doe tell us [that through many ages Ephraimites are not knowne in any part of the Earth] and how then can they help make one Church with the Gentiles (as you say) if there are now no such people on the earth? can there be a union betwixt some∣thing and nothing? But this flam was brought in as a reason wherefore the people of Israel and Ephraim should be expounded typi∣cally for the Gentiles. And if there were no Jewes left; yet why should these Prophecies be the rather expounded of the Gentiles for that? were it not better to say, that they were conditionall Pro∣phecies, and should have been rulfill'd if the Jewes had been obedi∣ent to Gods word, then without any necessitie to make them types of the Gentiles salvation? And yet we doe not grant, that there are no Ephraimites now, although none are cal'd so; for none of the Jewes are now cal'd after the names of their particular Tribes, at least by the Gentiles; and why should that Tribe rather then the rest? or why should this prove that Tribe to be consum'd, ra∣ther then the rest? doubtlesse it's sufficient to prove them remain∣ing, if the twelve Tribes are remaining: and they were remaining in the Apostles dayes, as St. James, c. 1. v. 1. & St. Paul, Act. 26. v. 7. doe witnesse, and St. Joh. Rev. 7. reckons them up as remaining neere the time of Anti-christs confusion, & as then cal'd to the Faith, as some Interpreters understand that vision, where though Ephraim be not mentioned, yet Joseph is, which is all one, and Mr. Mede saith that he is cal'd by this name as unworthy to be called by his own name, in that catalogue of Converts, because he had been a ring-leader to Idolatrie: and perhaps also now the Tribes should againe be∣come one Kingdome, his name was conceal'd, for that he had formerly been the occasion of the dividing of the Tribes into two

Kingdomes, and how could you tell us here, that through many ages Ephraimites are not knowne in any part of the earth, when as you say but a little before, page 18. that all malice betwixt the Tribes, and betwixt them and the Gentiles should be at an end under Christ? For if this bealreadie fulfill'd (as you teach) what should consume the Ephraimites after all malice betwixt them and all others was departed? and if it be not yet fulfill'd (as indeed it is not) you must either recall what you before affirme should be done under Christ, or else confesse, that the Ephraimites must needs remaine to the accomplishment of it. Now as for the Prophecie of H••sea, it is to be understood of the Jewes, as well as this of Ezek. and the word Jezreel, which signifies the seed of God, will help you nothing. For shall we think that God will make his power known after a wonderfull manner in the redeeming of an unbelieving Na∣tion? nay, but because the Jewes shall then be even the whole Church on earth: because I say, they shall be believers when al∣most all others are fallen into unbeliefe; therefore great shall be the day of Jezreel, of the deliverance of this seed of God.