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.

Mr. Petrie's Answer.

The assumption, [he would say, assertion; but it is marked before the Author is no Logician,] is grounded on Rev. 11.15. the words are, The Kingdomes of this world, are become the Kingdomes of our Lord, and of his Christ. Here it is not said, Our Lord and his Christ shall not reigne till this time; but this is all that the w••rds import, Now is no Kingdome but our Lords and bis Christs; And if it be ob∣jected, It is no where said so of Christs reigne till this time of the se∣venth trumpet: and therefore it cannot be true, that our Lord and his Christ doe reigne till then. I answer, ye have heard before, that in the midst of these Kingdomes doth Christ re••gne, even among them, and over them, But all their Kingdomes shall be utterly destroyed, and his Kingdome shall be for ever and ever, saith John, and there∣fore not for a thousand yeares onely. Now if we lay together what is said of the Iewes reigne here, and this answer, we shall likewise see the vani∣ty

of that observation on the margine upon these cited words: which is, It is not said, the Kingdome of heaven, to wit, of the third heaven, or of another world, I say, of another in substance, but the Kingdomes of this world, that is, which is now and shall till then be divided into many Kingdomes, shall wholly become Christs, and be made by him one heavenly Kingdome, &c. For if we remember what is said, that here Iohn speakes of the Kingdome of our Lord and of his Christ: he speaks not of the Kingdome of the Iewes on earth: seeing he makes a distin∣ction of two persons, our Lord, and his Christ, that is, the Father, and the Sonne, and that Kingdome is for ever and ever.

Reply.

As little Logicke as the Authour hath left, he can tell that [Assertion] is not a logicall, but thetoricall terme. And he doth remember also, that in the schooles where he was bred, they were wont to call the [minor proposition,] the [Assumption,] as he hath done here; and can make it evident by this syllogisme. If the reigne of Christ as man, doth not beginne till Antichrist is destroyed, then the spirituall interpretation of the first resurre∣ction doth make most of the Saints to rise many hundred yeares before their reigne. But the reigne of Christ as man doth not be∣ginne till Antichrist is destroyed. Therefore &c. Now what will you call this minor proposition? will you call it an Assertion, or an Assumption? if an Assertion, you call it as no Logician calls it: if an Assumption, then why may not I call it so too, without any offence to the learned in Logicke? Your answer followes, in which you say, [It is not said here, our Lord and his Christ shall not reigne till this time. But this is all the words import, now is no Kingdome but our Lords and his Christs.] And surely this comment is a great deale more obscure then the text. For if you meane onely, that at the accomplishment of this prophecy, there shall be no Kingdome over which the Lord and his Christ shall not reigne; this is no more then what you affirme to be done by our Lord and his Christ already: for you say, [That at this pre∣sent time Christ reigneth, in the midst of these Kingdomes, even among them, and over them;] But you must needes acknowledge a diffe∣rence betwixt his reigning over them now, and his reigning over them then; or else you make this prophecy to be no prophecy, to foreshew nothing at all. And wherein can this difference con∣sist,

but in his reigning over these Kingdomes hereafter in his hu∣mane nature, which he doth now over rule only by ••is divine pro∣vidence? for if by your foresaid words you should mean, that at the accomplishment of this prophecy, there shall be no Kingdom but a spirituall Kingdome, (which is all the Kingdomes you will al∣low Christ,) this is not onely contrary to the light of the text, but of reason it selfe. For there can be no spirituall Kingdome on earth, unlesse there be withall a temporall, a civill Kingdome, in which it may be setup. And the text speakes not of spirituall Kingdomes, but of temporall; for it saith, The Kingdomes of this world, that is, the temporall and civill Kingdomes, which the Kings of this world doe reigne over, These Kingdomes, it saith, (be they the Kingdomes of Christian, or of heathen Princes,) shall become the Kingdomes of our Lord, and of his Christ, that is, shall by the Lord be put under the government of his Christ, as he is man. And therefore the Kingdomes themselves shall not be then utterly destroyed, as you say, but be made one Kingdome under Christ, as we say. And indeede if we doe but call to minde the time when this prophecy is to be fulfilled, which is at the soun∣ding of the last trumpet, when Christ himselfe shall descend from heaven; we cannot imagine, that the Kingdomes of this world should then become the Kingdomes of Christ, any otherwise then by a subjection unto his manhood: then by submitting them∣selves to the rules of that Ecclesiasticall and civill policy, which he their King s••••ll then command to be observed by them. And now if the reader consider this, and remembers also what cleare prophecies there are for the restoring of the Kingdome of the Jewes, he will plainely perceive, that the time when the King∣domes of this world shall become the Kingdome of Christ, is to be the very same, in which he shall restore againe the Kingdome of Israel. And your precious subtilty touching [a distinction of two persons, our Lord and his Christ, that is, the Father and his Sonne,] doth make nothing against this synchronisme. For they are said to be the Kingdomes of the Lord; partly, because he shall then make it more manifest, then ever he did, that they are his to dispose of; and partly, because no other Lawes but the Lords shall be observed in them. And of his Christ, because no man but he shall be supreame Head and Governour over them. And sure∣ly

the Kingdomes [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] of this world, cannot be the Kingdomes of the Father and the Sonne for ever, if you take this word in an unlimited sense, seeing neither this world in which they are, not the civill societies of men of which they doe consist, shall be of an infinite duration. And I thinke too, that you will not say, that by the Kingdomes of this world, that Kingdome of eternall glory is meant, in which the Sonne also himselfe, shall after the judgement of the dead, be subject unto the Father: unto him that before put all things under him.