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.

For if the Kingdome of God there spoken of, [ 59] were to be un∣derstood of a Kingdome, which should so be set up, in the dayes of these Kings; that their reigne should notwithstanding conti∣nue together with it, (as not onely these, but all former King∣domes also have done with the Church militant, with the King∣dome of grace: which therefore cannot be the Kingdome there foreshewne,) then doubtlesse it should have been represented by some part of the image it selfe, (as the contemporating King∣domes of the divided Empire are, by the mixture of iron and clay,) and not by a thing so different from it, and adverse unto it; by a stone I say, so wonderfull for its beginning, operation,

and encrease. For it was cut out without hands: and when it had smote the image, became a great mountaine, and filled the whole earth. (Which the Churches as yet never did,) whose fall and growth too, as they import a more powerfull, speedy and generall con∣quest over these Kingdomes, by this Kingdome, then either the gold received from the silver, the silver from the brasse, or the brasse from the iron: so they imply the utter extirpation and totall abolition of that manner of policy, and government which these Kingdomes have us••d; of which it is said, That they became like the chaffe of the Summer threshing-flores, and the winde carried them away, that no place was found for them, ver. 35. And with this sense of the interpretation of the vision, very well a greeth that in the second Psalme, ver. 8. A••ke of me, and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod r 1.1 of iron, thou shalt dash them in peeces like a potters vessel. And that in Psal. 110.2. The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through Kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the placer with dead bodies: he shall wound the heads over ma∣ny Countries. He shall drinke of the brooke in the way, therefore shall he lift up the head. Yea, and that too, in Psal. 149.2. Let Israel re∣joyce in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyfull in their King. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand: to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and pu∣nishments upon the people: To binde their * 1.2 Kings in chaines, and their Nobles in fetters of iron, to ex••eute upon them the judgement written: This bonour have all his Saints.

Mr. Petrie's Answer.

1. Then teach God h••w he should eveale his will. 2. It is revea∣led in expcesse words, ver. 44.3. There was reason to expresse it by a different thing, because the foure were of one quality, and this was of another quality: My Kingdome, (saith he) is not of this world, John 18.36. It is more wonderfull, more powerfull, and more gene∣rall then any of them, and all the Kings who will not serve this King shall perish, he shall breake them with a rod of iron, Psal. 2.8. he shall strike them through in his wrath, Psal. 110 5. and binde them with chaines, and their Nobles with fetters of iron, Psal. 149.8.

Reply.

1. We leave this presumption to your selfe, who have so bold∣ly told God, what is most for his glory, pag. 15, 16. and what is most to the praise of his mercy and bountifulnesse, pag. 68.

2. It is revealed in expresse words, ver. 44. That God shall set up a Kingdome in the dayes of these Kings. But not that these Kings and the Kingdomes which God shall set up, are to continue together. Yea the Kingdome of God could not breake in peeces these King∣domes, could not succeed them by conquest, unlesse they should be in the possession of their severall Kings, when the Kingdome of God is thus to be set up. And seeing these Kingdomes are to be broken in peeces, are to be consumed, by the Kingdome which God shall set up; how can you once imagine, that their conver∣sion, and not their confusion: that their instruction, and not de∣struction: that their mending, and not their ending, (I meane onely in respect of their former distinct titles and governments,) should hereby be meant? Certainely you cannot finde in all the scripture, nor in any humane writer, such a signification of these words. And as for the Christian beleefe, it doth not alter the form of civill government in any Nation. But be it Democraticall, Ari∣stocraticall, or Monarchicall, it agrees alike with all of them. Yea it consisted in the primitive times with the profession of Pa∣gans: and doth now consist in the E••sterne Churches in the re∣ligion of the Mahometans, so farre is it (in its purity and integri∣ty.) from teaching us to disturbe the peace of any Kingdome: to seeke, I say, the suppression and removeall of the government or religion thereof, by outward violence, by the helpe of the sword. And therefore it cannot be said of the preaching of the Christian faith, that it breakes in peeces, and consumes the King∣d••mes in which it is profest.

3. There was reason, you say, to expresse the Kingdome of God, ver. 44. by a thing different from the image, because the foure Kingdomes were of one quality, and this of another. But doubtlesse, (as the four were no more of one quality, then gold, silver, brasse, and iron, are all of one quality, so) though they were all of different qua∣lities from this, yet this could not be the reason wherefore the Kingdome of God, ver. 44. was represented by no part of the image, but by a thing different from it: For if notwithstanding

their different qualities, they had been to continue together, (as you say) they might notwithstanding this difference of quali∣ties have been represented together also: (as well as the contem∣porating Kingdomes of the divided Empire are, by the mixture of iron and clay,) but the reason was, because the setting up of this Kingdome should be the beginning of a new world; of a world in which all the Kingdomes on earth should make but one Kingdome under Christ, when once the time comprehended by the image, should be at an end, as it is said, ver. 35. Then was the iron, the clay, the brasse, the silver, and the gold, broken in peeces to∣gether, and became like the chaffe of the Summers threshing-flores, and the winde carried them away, that no place was found for them; And the stone that smote the image, became a great mountaine, and filled the whole earth. And againe ver. 44. But it shall breake in peeces, and consume all these Kingdomes, and it (not it with any other, but it alone) shall stand for ever. And that text, John 18.36. My King∣dome is not of this world, doth helpe also to confirme this: for it either points out unto us the time of our Saviours reigne, or the authority by which he is to reigne. And so is as if he had ei∣ther said thus, My Kingdome is not (to be now, in the time) of this world: in the time before my next appearing: but hereafter in the time of that world to come, spoken of Psal. 8. that is, at the time of my appearing againe: when all creatures shall be actu∣ally put in subjection unto me. Or thus, My Kingdome (that is, the authority by which I must reigne,) is not (from hence, is not to be given unto me,) of the world, (that is, of men,) but I am to have it from God; I am to fetch it from him, and to come a∣gaine, as it is in the parable, Luke 19.11. &c. and in this sense the expression agrees very well with that Querie, Matth. 21.25. The baptisme of John whence was it, from heaven, or of men? And besides all this, the Kingdome of grace, of which you understand the Kingdome which the God of heaven should set up, ver. 44. was set up at the first promise of Christ, as you confesse pag. 9. and so was in the world even from the beginning: whereas that Kingdome ver. 44. was then to come, when this vision was re∣vealed to Nebuchadnezzar. And if you say, that the Kingdome, ver. 44. did represent the Kingdome of grace, as it was to be set up amongst the Gentiles, at the preaching of the Gospell to them

after our Saviours ascension: Surely it was set up thus also be∣fore the division of the Romane Empire, and therefore it cannot in this sense be the Kingdome meant in ver. 44. which was to be set up after the division of the Empire: and when some of the Kingdomes into which it was divided should be Christian, or rather Protestant Kingdomes, as these words ver. 43. doe inti∣mate. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the dayes of these Kings (to wit, of these amongst whom some that are Chri∣stian or Protestant Princes, shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, shall joyne themselves in marriage with unbeleeving or mis∣beleeving Princes,) shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdome which shall never be destroyed. And at the setting up of this King∣dome it is, that the contents of Psal. 2.8. and of Psal. 110.2. &c. and of Psal. 149.2. &c. (which agree so well with the brea∣king of the image in peeces,) shall be accomplished. And if their very expression doth not sufficiently declare, that they are pro∣perly to be understood; yet certainely all the prophecies which foreshew the Gentiles subjection to the Jewes doe render it un∣questionable.

Notes

• r 1.1

  Rev. 2.27. ch. 19.15.
• * 1.2

  1 Sam. 1.9.10, Psal. 47. Psal. 99.