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 to my seeming, [ 57] that propheticall image in the 2 of Dan. ver. 13. which represented both the orderly succession, and di∣verse condition of all the then following Kingdoms of this world, unto the Kingdome of Christ, (shadowed there unto us, by the stone that was cut out without hands,) doth give good light to this of Saint Paul. For in what manner those Kingdomes have succeeded each other: in the like manner is the Kingdome of Christ to succeede them, as appears by the same phrase of speech, which is attributed as well to the setting up of this Kingdome, as to any of them, to wit, That it shall breake in peeces and consume

all those Kingdomes. * 1.1 And therefore seeing these words are meant of a conquest, and succession by force of Armes in all the former Kingdomes; how can they be otherwise understood, in this of Christ, which is to succeed them all, (as they have succeeded each other) both in time and place, as ver. 35. doth fully declare?

Mr. Petrie's Answer.

1. In the seeming of many millions, that image doth not signifie a temporall Monarchy of the Jewes, which is the point in hand: and the seeming of so many, contrary to the seeming of one, might satisfie for all that long discourse following: neverthelesse I adde, albeit these foure Kingdomes did succeed one another, yet the Kingdome of Christ did not succeed, or was the last of them, or after them in time: for it is written, ver. 41. In the dayes of these Kings, [not after them,] shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdome, which shall never be destroyed, and it shall breake in peeces the iron, the brasse, the clay, silver and gold. It shall breake the silver and the gold: then it shall be before the brasse and the iron. And of what King can that be understood but of Christ, who saith Isai. 10.12. I will punish the stout heart of the King of Assyria, and chap. 37.29. Because of thy rage against me—I will put my hooke in thy nose, &c. 2. Whereas it is alledged, that the 35. ver. doth fully declare that succession in time and place: certainely the 35. ver. is not contrary to the 44. ver. which shewes plainely that this Kingdome shall be in the dayes of these Kings, and breake them in peeces: and therefore these words, shall breake them in peeces, sig∣nifie a conquest by power, but neither by succession in time, nor by force of armes.

Reply.

1. You were here a little too hasty in your answer, for surely I doe not say, That this image doth signifie a temporall Monarchy of the Jewes: but I say, That our Saviour (prefigured by the stone, that brake the image in peeces, and became a great mountaine filling the whole earth,) shall set up in the place of the foure Mo∣narchies, (represented by the gold, the silver, the brasse, and the iron,) and of the Kingdomes (represented by the mixture of iron and clay,) into which the last, and iron Monarchy was to be di∣vided; a Kingdome over all the world; (wich is the point in hand.) And whereas to prove that the Kingdome of Christ here foretold, was not to succeed these Kingdomes, you alledge ver. 44.

in which it is said. In the dayes of these Kings shall the God of hea∣ven set up a Kingdome, which shall never be destroyed: and the King∣dome shall not be left to other people but i•• shall breake in peeces, and consume all thes•• Kingdomes, (the iron, the b••asse, the clay, the silver, and the gold,) and it shall stand for ever. Certainely you could not have urged a plainer text to prove the contrary. For first seeing the Prophet saith, that the Kingdome here spoken of, is to be set up in the dayes of these Kings, that is, after the iron Romane Empire should be divided, (as the preceding verses declare,) the setting of it up, cannot possibly be meant of a Kingdome to be set up at our Saviours first comming; and consequently not of the prea∣ching of the Gospell by the Apostles. For this was done while the Empire was entire, and in its height: it being in the reigne of Augustus Caesar that Christ was borne, and o•• Tiberius that he was crucified. And therefore the Kingdome that was to be set up after this Empire should be divided into severall Kingdoms; and yet not presently after, but in the dayes of these Kingdomes; that is, after they should be of some remarkeable continuance, must needs be understood of our Saviours visible reigne on earth, to whose Kingdome, these Kingdomes shall give place, as the former Kingdomes did successively to each other. And secondly, seeing the Prophet saith, That the Kingdome shall not be left to other people: It necessarily followes, that when the God of heaven shall set up this Kingdome, some one people shall have the sway over all other people, from whom the dominion shall not be ta∣ken away, as it was from the successively prevailing Nations of the foure severall Empires. And what people should this be, (in whose hands the rule shall continue so firme and stedfast,) but the Jewes, the people of whom Christ (the person, prefigured by the stone cut out without hands, that should smite the image) was to be borne? And to whom (at the expiration of the time allotted to the four Kingdomes, revealed in another vision, chap. 7.) The Kingdome, and dominion, and the greatnesse of the Kingdome under the whole heaven, shall be given, ver. 27? And thirdly, see∣ing the Prophet saith, That this Kingdome shall breake in peeces, and consume all other Kingdome, to wi••, the iron, the brasse, the clay, the sil∣ver, and the gold it is manifest, that it is by it self alone to succeed, and follow after all these: for how shall all these be broken in

peeces by it, if this be not to succeed them in the place where it breakes them in peeces? And how shall all these be so consumed by it, that no place shall be found for them; if either of them shall continue with it? And sourthly, seeing it is unquestionable that the Kingdomes which the image represented, and which this Kingdome should breake in peeces, were all temporall and visi∣ble Kingdomes: It must needes be granted, that this Kingdome by which these temporall Kingdomes were to be destroyed, and succeeded in their place, (for the stone having smote the image filled the whole earth,) must it selfe be a visible, and (for the place and manner of government) a temporall Kingdome also. Because no temporall and politicall Kingdom can be overthrown, and succeeded in its place, but by another of the like nature over∣mastering it. You goe on and say, [It shall breake in peeces the sil∣ver and gold, then it shall be before the brasse and iron: And of what King, say you, can that be understood, but of Christ, who saith, Isai. 10.12. I will punish the stout heart of the King of Assyria; and chap. 37. ver. 29. Because of thy rage against me, I will put my hooke in thy nose, &c.] Here are a few words, but full of very grosse and contradictory untruths. For first, having immediately before recited out of the Prophet, It shall breake in peeces the iron, the brasse, the clay, the silver, and the gold; You presently affirme, [It shall breake the silver and the gold, then it shall be before the brasse and the iron.] And shall we beleeve you when you speake against the Prophet, or when you speake with the Prophet? When you say of your selfe, It shall breake in peeces, and succeed but two of the four Empires; or when you say, as the Prophet doth, that it shall succeed and breake in peeces the whole image, all four Em∣pires, and the Kingdomes of the last divided Empire? Second∣ly, in saying that the stone (the type of our Saviours manhood) was to be before the brasse and the iron, you make Christ to be borne before the Grecian Empire was in being; whereas it is e∣vident by the history of the Gospell, that he was borne in the dayes of the Romane Empire, to which the Jewes were then tri∣butaries. Thirdly, by the instances which you bring out of Isai. 10.12. and chap. 37. ver. 29. &c. to confirme your argument. You first make the stone to be Christ in his God-head, (to whom you attribute this threatning.) and not in his manhood, of which

alone it is to be understood (For the stone cut out without hands, is Christ borne of a Virgin: and the mountaine out of which he was cut, is the Jewish Nation, the Inhabitants of Mount Sion, the place which God had chosen to put his Name there.) And se∣condly, you hereby make the accomplishment of the vision, (which shewed things then to come) to be before the revelation of it. For the threatning against Senacherib was sulfilled before Judah's captivity: and this vision was in the time of their cap∣tivity under Nebuchadnezzar, who was the head of gold in the image. And thirdly, you make the destruction of the Assyrian Empire to be by an extraordinary meanes, by an Angel sent from God; whereas it was by an ordinary meanes, by the army of Cy∣rus Prince of the Medes and Persians: And what could you have said more contrary to the dreame, and the interpretation there of, then all this?

2. You have nothing to say against the evidence of ver. 35 which shewes that the Kingdome of Christ was to succeed the four Empires in time and place, as they had succeeded each other, (to wit, by force of armes,) but this, [that ver. 35. is not contrary to ver. 44. And doubtlesse it is not, nor ver. 44. to such a setting up of our Saviours Kingdome, as we hold. For whereas you say, That this Kingdome shall be set up in the dayes of these Kings, and not after them.] It is as if you had told us, That a King can∣not overcome, and succeed other Kings in their Kingdomes, while they reigne, but after their reigne. When as indeed they cannot lose their Kingdomes, but while they have them: but in the dayes of their reigne, and not after them. And so you have not yet shewed us any reason, why this phrase, [It shall breake in pee∣ces and consume these Kingdomes,] should not as well be taken properly, when it is attributed to the setting up of our Saviours Kingdome, as when it is attributed to the setting up of the other Kingdomes. And therefore we have still good reason to beleeve, that the forcible and destroying fall of the stone upon the i∣mage, doth betoken no lesse then a conquest and succession by force of armes.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Ver. 34, 35 44, 45.