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.

And it is the more likely to be so here (not onely because the words immediately following in both Prophecies, [ 42] are in sense all one; for they shew the same reason wherefore the Sun and Moone should no more give light unto them, but also) because the happi∣nesse which the Jewes shall then be made heires of, shall never a∣gaine be interrupted by any misery. For the ransomed of the Lord shall returne, and come to Sion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads, They shall obtaine joy and gladnesse and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Esay the 35. at the 10. ver. And lest one should conceit that the Judgement of the dead (plainely describ'd in the 20. chap. of the Rev. at the 11, 12, &c.) shall either suspend or disturb this joy, Saint Paul in the 1. Epist. to the Cor. the 6. chap. the 2. and 3. ver. hath told us, that the Saints shall judge the world * 1.1, that is, the wicked men that have been their oppressours; and judge the An∣gels,

that is, the evill spirits, that have been their tempters; and therefore shall not be thrust downe to the barre amongst them, but advanced to the bench against them; an addition doubtlesse to their former happinesse, and no abatement of it.

M^r Petrie's Answer.

Some word of Isaiah 35.10. must be taken in another then the pro∣per signification: for if the word Sion be not taken for the Christian Church, but for that hill within Jerusalem, and the word Returne be meaned of bodily returning of the Jewes, the words everlasting joy, (be∣ing taken for worldly joy) contradicts the tenet of the thousand yeares Monarchy, which shall end with an insurrection of the Gentiles against the Jewes: but if the redeemed of the Lord be exponed for the faithfull, whom Christ our Lord hath redeemed with his bloud, and their returning and comming to Sion, be their repenting and joyning to the society of the Saints, then the everlasting joy is cleare by the words of our Saviour, John 16.22. Ye now have sorrow, but I will see you againe, and your heart shall rejoyce, and your joy shall no man take from you. And as the Judgement is unquestionable, so it is justly doubted, whe∣ther the Apostle meaneth the Jewes, 1 Cor. 2.3. seeing our Saviour saith, Matth. 19.28. Ye who have followed me in the regenerati∣on, when the Sonne of man shall sit on the Throne of his glory, shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Isra∣el; where the twelve Tribes are not Judges but judged. But certainly he meaneth not of their judging in the temporall Monarchy, seeing the An∣gels shall not be judged before the universall Judgement: And the Apo∣stle saith, how much more things appertaining unto this life? whereby it appeares, that in the first part of the verse he understands a Judge∣ment not in this life. And in both respects these words of the Apostle are a diminution doubtlesse, unto that imagined Monarchy.

Reply.

Without doubt if the Reader will take all to be true that you say, he shall never finde you in an errour: But if you have no bet∣ter reason to prove, that the words [Sion and Returne] must be taken in another then a proper signification: but because you con∣ceit,

that the words [everlasting joy] cannot consist with the insur∣rection of the Nations at the expiration of the thousand yeares; you doe but deceive your selfe with this reason. For though the thousand yeares peacefull reigne shall be terminated, by the Gentiles insurrection at the loosing againe of Satan: yet the joy of the Jewes (here reveal'd) is not limited by it. For we read indeed of the sur∣rounding of the Saints by the Nations, Rev. 20. ver. 9. but we read not there of any feare in them, or hurt done unto them: yea wee read onely of the finall overthrow of their enemies. And whereas the better to countenance your Argument, you call the [everla∣sting joy] here, a worldly joy; I pray what reason moves you to imagine that the joy promised by God to the converted Jewes (whom he calls his elect, and whom others, he saith, shall call the holy people, and the seed which the Lord hath blessed) should rather be a worldly joy then such a joy, as our Saviour promised his Disci∣ples, John 16. ver. 22. Is it because the Jewes are to be Inhabitants on the earth, after they receive this everlasting joy? and were not the Disciples Inhabitants of a more sinfull world, then these Jewes shall be, when they were made partakers of the joy which no man could take from them? This reason then cannot prove your Epi∣thite to belong rather to the joy of the Jewes, then to the joy of the Apostles; and yet unlesse this be the reason of your calling it a worldly joy, I cannot conceive why you should thinke, that af∣ter the Jewes are so plentifully inspir'd with the Spirit of God, as the Prophets doe foreshew they shall be, their joy should not be as spirituall and inseparable as the Apostles was. And although it be unquestionable from the passage of St. Paul, in the 1 Cor. chap. 6. ver. 3. that the Judgement of all evill as well Angels as men, is at the last resurrection to be passed on them by the joynt-approbati∣on of the whole number of the elect: yet seeing it is not unlikely, that by [the world] ver. 2. the Apostle meanes rather the Nations of the Gentiles in the time of Christs reigne on earth, then the number of the reprobate at the generall Judgement of the dead; it may justly be doubted, whether by the word [Saints] in that place also, the Nation of the Jewes be not comprehended with the faithfull which our Saviour shall bring with him, as well as in the 20. chap. of the Rev. where it is foreshewed, that the Nations of the foure quarters of the earth shall be gathered together against

the Saints at the end of the thousand yeares. And the words of our Saviour to his Disciples, Matth. 19. ver. 28. Ye who have followed mee in the regeneration, when the Sonne of man shall sit on the Throne of his glory, shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel, doe help to confirme, and not to confute the Government of the Gentiles by the Jewes. For as the Apostles shall be made the supreme Governours of their owne Nation under our Saviour: so doubtlesse shall other glorified Saints both of the Jewes and Gentiles be chiefe Governours under our Saviour over other Na∣tions, according as it is satd, Rev. 5. ver. 10. and chap. 20. ver. 4. and as the parable, Luke the 19. of the Noble-mans distributing of ten Cities to one servant, and five to another doth imply: for who is that Noble-man, which is gone into a farre Countrey to receive for himselfe a Kingdome, and to returne, but our Savi∣our? whom the Heavens must receive untill the times of restitution of all thing, &c. Act. 3. ver. 21. who also spake that Parable, be∣cause he was nigh unto Jerusalem, and because the Jewes errone∣ously thought that the Kingdome of God should immediately ap∣peare, should be set up then at his first comming. And as the glori∣fied Saints shall be chiefe Judges under Christ, so wee may well thinke, that many of the unglorified Saints of the Jewish Nation shall be imployed by them in the administration of their Govern∣ment, seeing Isaiah chap. 14. ver. 2. saith plainly, that they shall take them captives whose captives they were, and shall rule over their op∣pressours. And suppose that none of the unglorified Jewes should be imployed in this government, yet when our Saviour himselfe shall be King over all the earth, and all the Saints that come with him, Princes under him: when the Nation of the Jewes shall be his naturall Subjects, and all other Nations tributaries and ser∣vants unto them: when they shall be comprehended by the name of Saints, with those undefiled ones that Christ shall bring with him: when all this shall be, what Nation shall the Gentiles be said to be governed by, but by that which they live in subjection unto, and of whom their King came, and amongst whom he shall reigne? And thus much touching your first pretence, that the Gentiles shall not be judged by the Jewes; because the Jewes are to be judged by the Apostles. Which is all one as if you should say, that a Nation that lives under any government it selfe, cannot governe

other Nations that are in subjection unto it. Your next pretence is [that our Saviours words are not meant of the Apostles judging in a temporall Monarchy, seeing the Angels shall not be judged before the uni∣versall Judgement.] But where doe you finde, that our Saviours promise to the Apostles, is not to be fulfill'd, before the judging of the Angels? And what shall we understand by [the twelve Tribes of Israel] according to your opinion? shall wee take them for the rest of the glorified Saints? no no, they cannot, for they shall be all Judges at the universall Judgement as well as the Apo∣stles. Shall we take them then for the reprobate of the Jewish Nation? Surely wee finde no such signification of these words in all the Scripture, neither doe wee find it taught by any, that the reprobate of one Nation, shall be judged by some of the Saints onely, and the reprobate of another Nation, by others of the Saints: but that all the Saints shall joyntly judge all the repro∣bate both Angels and men, onely by assenting to the Judgement that our Saviour himselfe shall give against them: and this may be gathered from the Apostle, who saith not thus, Know yee not that the Apostles, or Prophets: but, know yee not that we shall judge the Angels? he speakes of all, and not of some Saints only: seeing then the twelve Tribes of Israel, as you apply this saying to the universall Judgement, can neither be taken for the rest of the glorified Saints, nor for the reprobate Jewes, it must needs follow, that you are out in your application, and consequently, the twelve Tribes of Israel, must be taken for the Nation of the Jewes, over which the Apostles shall sit as Judges in the time of our Saviours reigne on earth. And how else should this promise of our Saviour implie a priviledge to the Apostles above the rest of the glorified Saints, for their following him in the time of his temptation, if it did not constitute them alone to be supreme Judges under him o∣ver that Nation which shall be nearest and dearest unto him in his Kingdome? for seeing all other Saints shall joyne with them in judging of the reprobate Angels, much more shall they in judging the reprobate Jewes, which cannot be so much honour unto the Disciples, as the judging of the reprobate Angels: and so the great priviledge which our Saviour promised the Disciples shall ac∣cording to your opinion, be farre inferiour to that which St. Paul affirmes to be common to all the Saints. And whereas you say,

[that the Apostle saith, how much more things appertaining unto this life? whereby it appeares, that in the first part of the verse, he under∣stands a judgement not in this life.] Wee grant your conclusion, for we know that the Angels were not to be judged by the faithfull Corinthians and the rest of the Saints, before their departure out of this life, or before the redemption of their bodies at our Sa∣viours appearing, but that they shall be judged by them after their reigning with Christ, after their judging of the world a thou∣sand yeares. And so the glory of the Kingdome of Israel is not yet diminished, by any of your feeble fancies, and indigested imagi∣nations.

Notes

• * 1.1

  These first words may not unfitly be referr'd also to the time of the Saints reigne on earth: for it is their priviledge at their en∣trance into their Kingdome, and throughout the whole space of their reigne, to judge the world, that is, all Nations of the Gentiles with the Judgement of Government and Reformati∣on: with the exercise of a Civill and temporall power over them: as in the Prophecies of the Gentiles subjection unto them, it may plainely be seene. And it is their priviledge at the last resurrection, to judge the world, and the Devill, that is, all evill as well Angels, as men, by a joynt approbation of their finall and perfect condemnation, of the full accomplishment I say, of their eternall reprobation.