ISRAEL'S REDEMPTION, OR THE PROPHETICALL HISTORY OF OVR SAVIOURS KING­DOME ON EARTH.

THat Christ is alreadyMatt. 1.20, 21. Luk. 2.11. Joh. 1.29, 30, &c. come; that as a Prophet hee hathMatt. 4.17. Luk. 4.15, &c. cald us to repentance, and as a priest hath been aJoh. 2.2. Heb. 2.17. Rom. 3.25. pro­pitiation for our sinnes (and not for ours onely, but also for the sinnes of the whole world) ha­ving byHeb. 9.28. ch. 10.14. Mark. 8.31. Luk. 24.46. Joh. 10.15. Rev. 5.9. once offering himselfe, perfected for ever them that are sanctified, is the faith of Christians, & the infidelity of the Jews; but that he shall come [Page 2]as a King to reigne on earth, and restore againe the Monarchie of Israel, is the faith of the Jewes, and the infidelity of Christians. And I thinke it a matter equally difficult to perswade either part to the mutuall imbracement of each others beleefe; and yet (with submission to impartiall judgements be it spoken) I find not in the Scriptures more voyces for the one, than for the other, and there­fore do verily beleeve, that neither Tenet apart, but both together do make up the full andRom. 8.23. ch. 11.12.15. Eph. 1.14. ch. 4. v. 30. Rev. 10.7. com­pleat mystery of our Redemption: Which by Gods gracious assistance, I shall to his owne glo­ry, and our Christian comfort, clearely prove, in the examination of the words now read unto you, For they asked of him, saying, Lord, wil thou at this time restore againe the Kingdome of Is­rael?

The words you see are a querie, and such pro­positions imply three things:

• 1 A person, or persons proposing it.
• 2 A matter or subject proposed.
• 3 A person or persons to whom it is proposed.

The persons here are the Disciples asking the que­stion, and our Saviour answering them, as the con­text declares; the matter enquired of, is the restau­ration of the captivated Soveraignty of the Jewes, as the text it selfe doth informe us: these are the parts; yet because it would be impertinent in this businesse, to speake any thing of the persons, but onely as their joynt authority may helpe some­what to justifie the truth of this proposall; I shall (omitting this division) onely glance at them in the ensuing confirmation of the subject:God shall set up a King­dome ever all the earth. which comprehends in it, these two assertions,

1 That the Kingdome of the Jewes shall againe be restored unto them.

1 That the restored Jewes shall be the royall Nation of that renued world.2 That our Saviour at his comming shall re­store it. And first of the first, that the Kingdome of the Jewes shall againe be restored unto them: For they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore againe the Kingdome to Israel?

So evidently do these words expresse an earthly kingdome (I meane onely a Kingdome to be held on earth) that no expositor which I have met with doth deny it, and therefore seeing they could not but imbrace the sense, mee thinkes they should not so rashly have rejected the consequence: and that for these reasons.

First, because the authors of this demand were not babes, either in yeares or understanding, but the Apostles themselves: Men who had followedMat. [...] ▪ 19. our Saviour from the very time that he mani­fested himselfe to the world, by preaching and mi­racles, and suffered not so much as aMat. 13.36. parable to escape their knowledge:Mat. [...].17. men to whom Act. 1.3. hee had shewed himself [...]alive after his passion, by many infal [...]i­ble p [...]oofes, being [...]e [...] of them forty dayes, and speaking to them of the things pertaining unto the Kingdome of God. And yet that these men. should now at their last conference with him be mistaken in a matter of such importance as this is, which concernes the purpose of God touching the whole Nation of the Jewes, is (as I beleeve, and as I thinke you will all say) a thing altogether unlikely, and so it is too that all the Apostles should be of the same mind, unlesse it had beene a truth formerly taught them, and not (as it is imagined) an errour then newly vented by them.

A second reason which makes mee distast the censure here cast on our Apostles, is because our Saviours answer is alleadged, as a sufficient ground for it; whereas it will appeare even to a weake [Page 4]judgement, by that his answer the Apostles opini­on is as much established, as their curiositie is re­prehended: for they askt, whether hee would at that time restore againe the Kingdome to Israel, to which hee answered, It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father hath put in his owne power: as if hee should have said, it is enough for you to know that such a thing shall be done, and by whom, but as for the time when it shall be done, this the Father hath put in his owne power, and therefore ought not to be enquired of by you, nor to be revealed by me: This is the whole mea­ning of the reply, and now give you your verdict, whether you find the Apostles hereby condemned, for holding of an untruth; or rather for an over curious affectation, to acquaint themselves with the very day, in which they should behold the glo­rious accomplishment of so great a blessing.

Another reason which makes for our Apostles, is the answer our Saviour gave the sons of Zebedee, Mat. 20.21, 22. when they besought him, that one might sit on his right hand, and the other on his left in his Kingdome, or as Saint Marke paraphraseth it,Chap. 10.37. in his glory; Ye know not, said he, what ye aske: this reproofe you will grant, goes neerer to the quicke, than that before used to the Apostles; and yet if you marke what followes, you shall find that the matter of their petition is allowed of, and only the motives there­of condemned, to wit, their ambition in seeking the highest roome, and their unadvisednesse in sup­posing, that Christ could then give that to any. which none could have but they for whom it was, Mat. 20.23. from all eternity, prepared of his Father. And there­fore seeing this is all, that these two were rebuked for by such a sharpe reply, how can we mistrust that more than this should be included in a milder an­swer?

Thus farre wee have argued Topically, and by way of probabilitie, but that which seemes to mee clearly to quit our Apostles from error, though not from oblivion: from errour, I say, in the subject, though not in the circumstance; in the thing de­manded, though not in the season of its perfor­mance; is because I find my text to be a lesson read to them by our Saviour before his passion. For speaking of the destruction of the Jews, They shal fal, said he, by the edge of the sword, & shall be led away cap­tive into all Nations, and Hierusalem shall be trodden downe of the Gentiles, untill the time of the Gentiles be fulfild. Luk. 21. the 24. vers. and at the 28. vers. (ha­ving before shewne what signes should immediate­ly foregoe his appearing) he left them this cordi­all: When these things begin to come to passe, then looke up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh. Behold here, beloved, the casting away of Gods people for a time, which wee see at this day verified: and their receiving againe for ever, which shall as certainly come to passe, plainly foretold, the redemption, I say, not onely of their soules, from the bondage of sinne, to the favour of God, by the profession of the Gospel, but consequently of their bodies too, from their general captivitie to the repossessing of their country, by a miraculous deliverance: for if no more should be meant by the word [Redemption] but the meere conversion of the Jewes in those places where now they live; it cannot be conceived, why this action should be accompanied with such wonderfull tokens, and perplexity of all other Nations, as is here men­tioned: unlesse wee shall admit no space of time betwixt this conversion, and that instant in which our Saviour shall give sentence on the dead; which I suppose few or none will yeeld to, and if you [Page 6]seriously consider the evidence of the Prophets, I am confident you will confesse, that a most righte­ous and flourishing estate of the Jewes in their owne land, must of necessity distinguish the time of their calling, and the worlds dissolution at the last judgement.

And with what testimonies can we better begin, than with such as are of neerest affinity with our Saviours Prophecie. They shall smite (saith Micah in his 5. ch. and 1. vers) the Judges of Israel with arod upon the cheeke. And at the third verse, Therefore will hee give them up untill the time that sh [...]e whi h tra­velleth hath brought forth: then the Cap. c­jusd. v 7.8. Isay 1. v. 9. cap. 10.22. Mat. 24.22. Rom. 11. v. 5.28. remnant of his brethren shall returne unto the children of Israel. What I pray is meant here, by smiting the Judge of Israel, but theTo this interpretati­on of the Pro­phesie (sui­ting so well with our Sa­viours suffe­rings) the very next vers which fore­shewes the place where Christ the Ruler of Is­rael should be born, doth to my think­ing directly lead us. crucifying of Christ? (whom, when they had blindfolded him, they stroke on the face, and as­ked him saying, Prophesie, who is it that smote thee, Luk. 22. at the 64 vers.) and what by, untill the time that shee which travelleth hath brought forth, but the whole time of the surrogated Gentiles vacation? (for blindnesse is in part happened to Israel, untill the Whether by [fulnesse] wee understand the whole number of those Gentiles which were successively to be called before the Nationall conversion of the Iewes, or else the full, universall, and contemporating conversion of all unbeleeving Gen­tiles whatsoever, at, and through that extraordinary restauration of the Iewes (whose Tribes are wholly comprehended by this word, in the 12. vers. of the same chapter;) whether I say, the first or last of these interpretations doth passe for currant with us (and one of them must needs passe) yet it comes all to one rec­koning, it doth nothing prejudice the cause, for which our Apostles saying is here alleaged, (which is to shew that the giving up of the Iewes must last untill the time which is appointed for the calling of the substituted Gentiles, be fully en­ded:) for if blindnesse be happened to Israel, untill the comming in of the sulnes of the Gentiles, in the last sense (that is, of all of them indifferently) shall come to passe, then must it of necessity continue, untill the comming in of the fulnesse of the Gentiles, in the first sense (that is, of the substituted part of them) be quite and cleane finished, seeing the totall conversion cannot take place before the partiall gives way to it. fulnesse of the Gentiles be come in, Rom. 11.25.) from [Page 7]whence it necessarily followes, that this Prophe­sie, and our Saviours must be understood of one and the same time; for the dispersion foretold by Christ, was to happen after his passion, and so was this, as their smiting the Judge of Isael declares; which is alleaged as the maine cause of it. Againe, the captivitie which our Saviour spake of, is to last, untill the Though by the word [times] the dominion and power of the Gentiles over the Iewes, and their possession of the holy Land, be in this place especially aymed at: yet because the time of the Iewes subjection to, and captivitie amongst the Gentiles in generall, is to be of equall lati­tude and extent with the time of the substituted Gentiles calling; this thing also is necessarily (though not immediately and primarily) hereby implyed. times (or calling) of the Gentiles he fulfilled: and so is this, for when shee which travelleth hath brought forth, then saith the text, the remnant of his brethren shall re­turne unto the children of Israel: which is a plaine interpretati­on of that which our Saviour doth somewhat covertly ex­presse by the word [Redemption,] and this the next verse doth con­firme, which tells us, that at the time of this re­turne, He (that is, the Judge of Israel before spo­ken of, that hee, I say,) shall stand and feed (or rule) in the strength of the Lord, in the Majesty of the Name of the Lord his God, and they (that is, the Jewes) shall abide, for now (that is, at this comming of our Sa­viour) hee shall bee (not as when hee tooke our na­ture upon him, of no Isay 53. v. 2 3. forme, nor comelinesse, a man despised, and rejected of men, a man of sorrowes, and acquainted with griefes, but he shall be)Zech. 9.10. Psal. 72.8. great un­to the ends of the earth: that is, over all the world; untill hee and his shall at the last judgement, ex­change the earthly Hierusalem (theJer. 3. v. 17. ca. 14. v. 21. Throne of his Kingdome) which is to beJer. 31.38. built againe by men, for that imperiall Hierusalem, not 2 Cor. 5.1. made with hands, eternall in the heavens.

Another Prophesie much like unto this, is that of Amos in his 9. chap. at the 8. vers. Behold the eyes [Page 8]of the Lord God are upon the sinfull Kingdome, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth, saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord, for loe I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all Nations, like as corne is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least graine fall upon the earth. And at the 11. vers. In that day will I raise up the Ta­bernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the brea­ches thereof, and I will raise up his ruines as in the dayes of old, that they may possesse the remnant of E­dom, and of all the Heathen that are called by my Name, saith the Lord that doth this. I will bring a­gaine the captivitie of my people Israel, and they shall build the wast cities, and inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards, and drinke the wine thereof, they shall also make gardens, and eate the fruit of them: and I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord God. Now although this Prophesie tooke effect on the tenne Tribes at their trans­plantation, began by1 Chro. 5. v. 6. 2 King. 15. v. 29. Cap. 16.9. Tiglath-Pileser King of Assyria, and ended by Shalmaneser his successour: who also brought up strange Nations, and placed them in their stead,2 King. 17. v. 5, 6, 24. cap. 18. v. 9, &c. which people were from Sa­maria, the ancient metropolis of that Province, calledJoh. 4.9. Samaritanes: yet who is able to main­taine, that it was fulfilled on the other two (for not the house of Joseph, nor the house of Judah on­ly, but the house of Jacob wholly, is here spoken of: and why else is the Tabernacle of David af­terwards exprest, as a prime agent in the restau­ration, if it were not before included, as a succe­ding patient in the dispersion of Israel?) who then I say, is able to maintaine, that this Prophecie was fulfilled on Judah and Benjamin, untill their overthrow by the Roman Emperour Vespasian, ever [Page 9]since which time they also remaine forsaken, scat­tered, and despised captives? yea, who dares af­firme it, when God hath said, that at their re­turne from this universall captivity,The usuall answer of a condititio­nall promise, will take no hold on this or the like places of the Scripture: for as God hath here past his word that hee will no more pull them up out of their land: so in the 32. chap. of Jer. at the 39. & 40. vers. the 50. chap. at the 20 vers. In the 36. of Ezek. at the 27. vers. in the 37. at the 23. in the 39. at the 7. vers. and in the 3. of Zeph. at the 13. vers. (All which Prophesies do in the time of their fulfilling, concurre with this) he hath likewise promised, to give them one way and one heart, that they may feare him for ever. Never to turne away from them to do them good, but to put his feare into their hearts, that they shall not depart from him. That the ini­quity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sinnes of Judah, and they shall not be found. That hee will put his spirit within them, and cause them to walke in his statutes, and to keepe his judge­ments and doe them. That they shall defile themselves no more with their Idols, nor with their detestable things, not with any of their transgressi­ons. That he will make his holy name knowne in the midst of his people Israel, and will not let them pollute his holy Name any more. And that the remnant of Israel shall not doe iniquity, nor speake lies: neither shall a deceitfull tongue be found in their mouth. And therefore God having thus equally engaged himselfe, as well to keepe the Iewes from sinne, as to free them from bondage, it is as impossible that the accomplishment of this Prophesie should be frustrated, and the fruition of these blessings forfeited for want of obedience; as that God should either forget, or not regard, or be unable to fulfill his word, and consequently, the appointed time for the finishing of such Prophesies is yet to be expected. hee will so plant them in their Land, that they shall no * more be pul­led up out of it? which yet should not be true, if it it had beene spoken of any deliverance before our Saviours comming to suffer.

The next Prophesie shall be that of Joel, who mentions the very signes which our Saviour said should be the immediate fore-runners of the Jewes Redemption. And it shall come to passe afterwards (saith hee, in his 2. chap. at the 28. vers.) that I will powre out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sonnes and your daughters shall prophecie, your old men shall dreame dreames, and your young men shall see visi­ons: and also upon the servants, and upon the hand­maids in those dayes will I powre out my spirit, and I will shew wonders in the heavens, and in the earth blood, [Page 10]and fire, and pillars of smoake: the Isa. 24.23. Mat. 24.29. Rev. 6 12. Sun shall be tur­ned into darknesse, and the Moone into blood before the Great, not onely in re­gard of the strangenesse, and dread­fulnesse of events of things then to come to passe, but great also in regard of the long conti­nuance, and tract of time, which God in his reve­lations here­after to be fulfilled, doth by the word [Day] (as well without this epithet, as with i [...]) fre­quen [...]ly im­port. great and terrible Eze. 39. vers. 8. Malac. 4.5. Jude ver. 6. Rev. 16.14. day of the Lord come. And it shall come to passe that whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion, and in Hie­rusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call. And at the 3. chap. at the 1. vers. Behold in those dayes, and in that time, when I shall bring againe the captivitie of Judah and Hierusalem, I will also gather all Nations, and will bring them downe into the valley of Jehosa­phat (which in the 14. vers. is called, the valley of decision) and will plead with them there, for my peo­ple, and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scatte­red among the Nations, and parted my land. And at 15. vers. againe, The Sunne, and the Moone shall be darkned, and the Starres shall withdraw their shining, the Lord also shall roare out of Zion, and utter his voyce from Hierusalem, and the Isa. 2.19, &c. Eze. 38.19, 20. Hag. 2.22. Mat. 24.29. Rev. 16.18. c. 6.13.14. heavens, and the earth shall shake, but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

I am not ignorant, that the darkning of the Sun and Moone, is sometimes taken allegorically, and by way of allusion but that therefore it should be so understood here, it doth not follow, for where it is figuratively applyed, it signifies the judgement it selfe, which is to befall those people of whom it is spoken: but where it is literally used, it is put onely for a signe of an eminent de­struction, which shall suddenly follow it, as the great and terrible day of the Lord shall do at the accomplishment of this Prophesie.

Neither have I forgotten, that the first of these Prophesies was made use of by Saint Peter, to stop the mouthes of such as jeered the Apostles, when by the descent of the holy Ghost upon them, they [Page 11]began to speake with other tongues: Act. 2.4. but that this Pro­phesie was then fulfilled, I deny: for when some mocking said, These men are full of new wine; Cap. cjusd. vers. 13. &c. Saint Peter replyed, Ye men of Judea, and all ye that dwell at Hierusalem, be this knowne unto you, and hearken unto my words, for these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third houre of the day: but this is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel: And it shall come to passe in the last dayes (saith God) I will powre out my Spirit upon all flesh: as if he had said, My brethren, these are not the effects of wine, but of the Spirit of God, which is now powred out on the first fruits of the Jewes, as a pledge & assurance of that boun­tifull effusion of it, which (as Joel hath said) shall one day happen to the wholeIsay 32. vers. 15. Ezek. 39. vers. 29. Zech. 12 vers. 10. Nation. And that this is all S. Peter meant, it may thus appeare: first, because the chief and most remarkeable effect of the Spirit in the Apostles, at this time, was the gift of tongues, of which the Prophet makes no mention: and secondly, because as the Prophet revealed, so hee repeats this powring out of the Spirit, as a contemporary event with the wonders which shall be shewne, in the heavens, and in the earth, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. Which day can no way be referr'd to the first comming of Christ, when he came to Luk. 9. vers. 56. Chap. 19. vers. 10. Joh. 12.47. save sinners, and not to destroy them: when hee would not take upon him, to be Luk. 12.14. Joh. 6.15. Judge, and Ruler over them: for then it must have beene an antecedent of his birth, of the time he lived; and not a subsequent of his death and departure, which hath no analogie with a day. Is remaines then that it is an expression of his se­cond coming, which is called a great and terrible day, in regard of the generall destruction which shall be brought on all Nations, that oppose them­selves against the Jewes at that time: For in mount [Page 12]Zion, and in Hierusalem (as you have heard) shall be deliverance, and in the Remnant whom the Lord shall call [...] ▪ And to put it out of doubt, that Gods brin­ging downe of the heathen into the valley of Je­hospaphat, is meant onely of his gathering them together to a battell, and consequently of a judge­ment on the living, and not on the dead: to put this out of doubt, I say, the Prophet makes it to be a concomitant of the JewesRev. 16. v. 12, 13, 14. return from their captivitie; and in the 9, 10, 11, and 12. vers. pro­vokes the Gentiles to prepare warre, to assemble their mighty men, and to breake their plough­shares into swords, and their pruning-hookes into speares: a preparation, which as it would be fruit­lesse, so doubtlesse they shall neither have time, power, or will to make, when they are summoned to receive the dreadfull sentence of, Goe yee cursed. And for my owne part, I am perswaded, that this great army here spoken of, is the very same that shall be gathered together to the battell of that great day of God Almighty, by the three uncleane spirits like frogs, which Saint John saw come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false Prophet, Rev. the 16. at the 13. vers. Of thisPsal. 2.1, 2, 3. Ps. 46.6, 8. Ps. 68.30. Isa. 2.12, 13, &c. Ch. 24.21, 22. ch. 26.20, 21. ch. 34.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, &c. ch. 49. v. 26. chap. 66. v. 14, 15, 16. Micah 4.12, 13. destruction also speakes Zephaniah, in his 3. chap. at the 8. vers. Therefore wait upon mee, saith the Lord, untill the day that I rise up to the prey, for my determination is to gather the Nations, that I may as­semble the Kingdomes, to powre upon them mine indig­nation, even all my fierce anger, for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousie: for then will I turne to the people (meaning the Jewes) a pure lan­guage, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord to serve him with one consent. And at the 19. vers. Behold at that time I will undoe all that afflict thee, and [Page 13]I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was dri­ven out, and I will get them praise and fame in every land, where they have beene put to shame. At that time I will bring you againe, even in the time that I gather you: for I will make you a name and a prayse among all people of the earth, when I turne backe your captivity be­fore your eyes, saith the Lord. And yet more fully Zechariah in his 12. chap. at the 3. vers. In that day will I make Hierusalem a burdensome stone for all peo­ple: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered toge­ther against it. In that day will I smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madnesse, and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindnesse. In that day will I make the Governours of Judah like a hearth Obad. 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21: of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheafe: and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand, and on the left: and Hierusalem shall be inhabited againe in her owne place, even in Hierusalem. The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David, and the glory of the inhabi­tants of Hierusalem, do not magnifie themselves against Judah. In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabi­tants of Hierusalem, and he that is feeble among them at that day, shall be as David: and the house of David shall be as God, as the Angel of the Lord before them. And in the 14. chap. at the 12. vers. This shall be the plague wherewith the Lord shall smite the people that have fought against Jerusalem: their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feete, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongues shall con­sume away in their mouth: and it shall come to passe in that day, that a great tumult from the Lord shall be a­mong them, and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his Eze. 38.21. Hag. 2.23. neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the [Page 14]hand of his neighbour; and Judah also shall fight at Hierusalem, and the Mich. 4.13. wealth of all the Heathen round about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver, and apparell in great abundance, and so shal be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camell, and of the asse, and of the beasts that shall be in these tents, as this plague. And in the 38. and 39. chap. of Ezek. the same ar­my is foretold, under the names of Gog and Ma­gog.

Now how can wee forsake the literall interpre­tation of these prophecies, if wee do but consider, that the Jewes are here distinguished from all other Nations, of which wee Gentiles, who are now converted, were then a part; and are by this name in the writings of the Evangelists and Apostles still distinguished from them, if wee consider what grosse absurdities would follow from the Tropi­call construction of these or the like propheticall revelations, wherein the event of things is so plainly and distinctly attributed to the Jewes: who I am sure, did never since the Prophets dayes, returne from any captivitie, with such an high hand, and with such a wonderfull victory over their enemies, as is here prophecied. And as for the Church that now is, let the lamentable experi­ence of all ages witnesse, whether she hath not beene more often crowned with martyrdome, than vi­ctory: whether the blood-thirstie Mahometan hath not gotten much ground upon her: yea, whe­ther he who claimes the priviledge to be her head, hath not, and doth not, most of all waste and de­voure her, according as it is written of him in the 13. of the Rev. at the 11. vers. and therefore these prophesies can have no relation to the times of the Gentiles: nor so much to the time of the Macca­bees, as Cornelius à Lapide endeavours to make [Page 15]these of Zachariah to have, for neither were their enemies smitten with such plagues, nor brought into such subjection, as is here foretold; neither was the house of David then so highly exalted, as is here promised: and Iudas and his brethren, who then bare the chiefest sway, were not of the Tribe of Iudah, but of Levi: neither was the wealth of all the heathen round about then gathered together: neither did the Lord Zech. 14.5. descend, and all the Saints with him, unlesse wee will say (as our Commenta­tor doth) that this was fulfilled, when the five comely men upon horses appeared unto the ene­mies from heaven, as 'tis in the 2. of the Maccab. the 10. chap. at the 29. and 30. vers. which appa­rition doth as well expound these words, as hee doth that other Prophesie of Zephaniah, by which he would have us to understand Gods calling the Gentiles to repentance by the preaching of the Gospell, when as the text saith plainly, that Gods determination is to gather the Nations, and to assemble the Kingdomes, that he may powre upon them his indig­nation, even all his fierce anger: and if this be not to cry peace, peace, when there is no peace: if this be not to call evill good, and good evill: to put darknesse for light, and light for darkenesse: bit­ter for sweete, and sweete for bitter, I know not what is.

But enough of the perplexity, which shall hap­pen to other Nations when the Jewes return. Now againe of their returne, and of the prosperity which shall then happen to themselves. And it shall come to passe in that day, (saith Isaiah, ch. 11. v. 11.) that the Lord shall set his hand againe the second time, to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Paphros, and from Cush and from E [...]am, and from Shinar, and from [Page 16]Hamath, and from the Islands of the Sea: and hee shall set up an Ensigne for the Nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and Isa. 49.12.25. ch. 30.18, 19. ch. 62.10, 11, 12. Eze. 20.32, 33, 34, &c. gather together the dispersed of Judah, from the foure corners of the earth: the envie also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envie Judah, and Judah shall not vexe Ephraim: and the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian Sea, and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streames, and shall make men goe over dry-shod, and there shall be an high way for the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria, Mica. 7. 15, &c. like as it was to Israel, in the day that he came up out of the Land of Egipt. You see here that the Prophet speakes plainely of a miraculous recovery of Gods people: of the recovery, I say, of Judah, not from Babylon, but from the foureJer. 16. v. 14, 15. ch. 23.7, 8. corners of the earth; and that together with Ephraim, with the ten Tribes from Assyria, which asJoh. 7.35. yet never came back, and therefore this is not yet fulfilled. Such another Prophesie is that of Ezek. in his 37. chap. at the 19. vers. Thus saith the Lord God, I will take the sticke of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the Tribes of Israel his fel­lowes, and will put them with him, even with the sticke of Judah, and make them one sticke, and they shall be one in my hand. And at the 21. vers. Behold I will take the children of Israel from among the Heathen whi­ther they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and will bring them into their owne Land: and I will make them one Nation in the Land upon the Mountaines of Israel, and one King shall be King to them all; and they shall be no more two Nations, neither shall they be di­vided into two Kingdomes any more at all, neither shall they defile themselves any more with their Idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their [Page 17]transgressions: but I wil save them out of all their dwelling places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God. And in Hosea 1.10. Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the Sea, which cannot be measured nor numbred, and it shall come to passe, that in the place where it was said unto them Jer. 24, 6, 7. ch. 32.37, 38. Zech. 13.9. Yee are not my people, there it shall be said, Ye are the Sons of the living God. Then shall the Children of Judah, and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the Land, for great shal be the Day of Jezreel. In both which prophesies the Lord hath promised, that the Jewes shall againe live under one King onely (as they had done before the division of the Tribes) and that in their owne land too, which hath not beene yet performed, and therefore the time of these Prophesies is yet to come: for though this of Hosea be understood by some Expositors, of the vocation of the Gentiles, that is, of the Christian Church in these our dayes; yet doubtlesse they are much mistaken in this exposition, for seeing this and the former Pro­phesie, concerne one and the same thing, to wit, the uniting of all the Tribes under one King, there­fore they must needs receive their accomplishment at one and the same time; and so this must be re­ferred to the Jewes, as well as the other: and be­sides, how can that belong to the Gentiles which was prophesied onely of the Jewes, as is declared by the Prophets wife of whoredomes, and chil­dren of wheredomes, which he tooke of purpose to upbraid the idol-worship, and spirituall whore­domes of the Israelites? vers. 2. and therefore when she conceived, and bare him the second sonne, Call his name, said God, Loammi: For yee are not my people, and I will not be your God. The Israelites then [Page 18]it were, to whom this Prophet was sent, and of whom it was said, Yee are not my people; and the place where they were told so, was their owne land, and therefore in that place it shall againe be said unto them: Yee are the sonnes of the living God, vers. 10. And this Piscator grants to be the mea­ning of it here in the Prophet; but withall hee holds, that it is applyed in the 9. of the Rom. to the conversion of the Gentiles, because the Israe­lites being thus rejected of God, were become like unto the Gentiles, who untill the preaching of the Gospell were not his people: but notwithstanding this reason, mee thinkes it is very unlikely, that the Apostle should borrow a Prophecie from the Jewes, to prove Gods mercy towards the Gentiles, which is in sundry places of the Scripture, so pro­perly and distinctly foreshewne, as you may see by the authorities which are urged to this purpose in thev. 19, 20. 10. andv. 9, 10, 11, 12. 15. chap. of the same Epistle, and therefore I should rather take it to be brought in by Saint Paul, as a testimony establishing the freenesse of Gods election, which is the doctrine he there maintaines, and doth in these words (as he did before in the example of Jacob and Esau) give an instance of it, touching the Israelites, whom God had for a long time rejected, and would yet again receive: & that because (as the pot­ter hath power over the clay to make of the same lump, one vessell to honour, and another to disho­nour, so) he hath mercy on whom hee will, and whom he will hee hardneth. And this the 14. vers. seemes to confirm, where it is said, Esaiah also crieth concerning Israel: for what makes the copulative [also] here, if the Apostle understood not the former prophe­sie of Israel, as well as this? and yet in what sense soever you please to take it here, I hope it is alrea­dy [Page 19]sufficiently declared, that it concernes the Israelites only in the Prophet, which is as much as the subject of my discourse requires.

There is yet in the 3. of Hosea, at the 4. vers. one more materiall argument for the Jewes deliverance.Hier. Zanch: in cap. 3. Hos. p. 12. & 23. ed. Genevae, 1619. Pareus in c, idem. p. 481. col. 1. ed. in fol. 1628. Rivetus in c. id. p. 23, 24. ed. 1625. Alsted. Chr. c. 32. p. 294. c. 35. p. 330. Lyra. part. 4. p. 379, C. part. 2. p. 198. C. & p. 249. F. Part. 3. p. 212. F. & p. 213. C. part. 4. p. 151. B, C. & p. 116. A. Dr. Mayers Lect. on James, cap. 1. p. 4. The children of Israel, saith hee, shall abide many daies without a king, and without a Prince, and with­out a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an Ephod, and without Teraphim; afterwards shall the children of Israel returne, and seeke the Lord their God, and Isay 9. v. 6, 7. David their King, and shall feare the Lord and his goodnesse in the latter dayes. Which prophe­sie cannot possibly be as yet fulfilled, for if it be meant onely of the ten Tribes, amongst whom Ho­sea prophesied, it is confest, that they did never yet returne: and if of the other two, it must be meant of their captivitie since our Saviours com­ming, for till then, the Scepter could not depart from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from betweene his feet: as Ja­cob foretold, Gen. the 49. at the 10. vers. and there­fore till then they could not be without a Prince, or Governours of that Tribe, although they were long before tributary to other Nations, and this also is intimated by those words [the latter dayes] which are no where put for the time before the incarnation of Christ. And this it seemes made Cornelius a Lapide referre the event of this prophe­sie to the end of the world, that is, as the Roma­nists imagine, to the comming of Antichrist: who, as their tale goes of him, shall manifest himselfe about that time, and shall reigneFran. Johan. de Combis in compendio totius The­olog. lib. 7. cap. 13. three yeares and an halfe, and shall put to deathId. l 7. c. 7. Enoch and Elias, who shall be sent to preach repentance unto the Jewes, and to withstand the impostures of Antichrist; whom (because hee is, as they say, to be borne in Babylon, of the Tribe of Dan) most of [Page 20]the Jews shall receive for their Messias: but as soone as he shall be slain on the mount ofId. l. 7. c. 14. Olives in his tent by the power of the Lord, (that is, as the glosse on the Apocalyps hath it, either by Christ himselfe visibly appearing unto him, or by the ministry of the Arch-angel Michael) presently the Jews that fol­lowed him, shallCornel. à Lap. in c. 3. Hof. p. 93. col. 2. partly through the remēbrance of the miracles, & Sermons of the two witnesses, & partly through the endeavors of other preachers, be converted, & then, All Israel shall be saved: & for this conversion they they allowThe reason why they pro­pose this number, ra­ther than any other, is because in the 12. chap. of Dan. at the 12. vers. it is said, Blessed is he that wai­teth, and commeth to the 1335. dayes: which summe is made up by adding, 45. dayes (the dayes, as they call them, of repentance to such as have worshipped Antichrist) unto the 1290. dayes, mentioned in the former verse: and held by them, (and that in their prime, immediate, and naturall signification) to be the full time of Antichrists most abominable worship, and tyrannicall usurpation. M. Foxes Acts and Monum. printed 1596. p. 443. in the story of Walter Brute. five and forty dayes, at the end of which dayes, theFran. Joh: de com. l. 7. cap. 14. Ministers of Anti­christ (who before boasted, that although their Prince was dead, yet they still enjoyed their power, peace, and security) shall suddenly (and that in the midst of their jollitie even while they are eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage) be destroyed: and so the Church shall be at rest unto the end of the world. This is the Papists An­tichrist, and this is their opinion of the Jewes con­version, a dreame as full of folly as falshood: as if it were probable, that the Jewes after such a long time of blindnesse, and so neere the time of their con­version, should fall into a greater errour than ever they did since the crucifying of Christ, or that they should take one of the Tribe ofJoh. 7.42. Rev. 19. v. 20, 21. Dan for their Messias, and beleeve him too, rather than Elias whom they yet expect from heaven: or that they could be adherents to Antichrist, and yet be alive all after his destruction, when as the Scripture saith, that the beast, and false Prophet shall be ta­ken [Page 21]and cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brim­stone, and that the remnant shall be slaine. Rev. 16. v. 14. ch. 19. v. 18, 19. And be­sides, Antichrists assistants shall be The Kings of the earth, and of the whole world: and such, I thinke, the Papists doe not account the Jewes to be. Againe, as if it were probable, that Antichrist should come in the name of Christ, saying that he is Christ, and so be a false [...] vocantur, non qui se pro Christo & vero Messia falso vendi­tant, tales e­nim in Scri­ptura pro­prie [...], Mat. 24. vers. 24. Mar 13. v. 22. appellan­tur, sed qui doctr. Chri­sti, cujus se secta [...]res pro fitentur, quo­quo mede ad­versan. (unde Christum in carnem venisse: seu, Jesum esse Christum negare, dicuntur, ut [...] collatione vers. 3 cap. 4. 1 Ep. ver. 7. Ep. 2. & ver. 22. cap. 2. Ep. 1. Johan. cum ver. 4. Ep. Iudae ver. 1. cap. 2. Ep. 2 Pet. & ver. 5. & 8. cap. 3.2. Ep. Pauli ad Tim. luculenter apparet:) unde (etiam) magnus & eximius ille Anti­christus, qui toti fere doctrinae Christianae corpori adversatur, & sub nomine Christi quam maxime Christum oppugnat, ejusque proprium honorem & offici­um ad se transfert, in Scriptura vecatur, [...], 2 Thes. 2. ver. 3. [...], ver. eod. [...], ver. 4. [...], ver. 8. [...], Rev. 16. v. 13. & consequenter ipse ille, [...] est, vid. Disput. 13. Festi Hommii. p. 45.46. Christ; & not a false1 Tim. 4.1, 2, 3. 2 Pet. 2. v. 1, 2, 3. 2 Thes. 2. v. 3, 4, 7, 8. Rev. 13. v. 11.12, 13, 14, &c. chap. 17. v. 1.2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, &c. Christian, such as the Apostles foretold he should be: and so also, be one person onely, who must reigne but three yeares and an halfe; and not rather a continuedInterim tamen tenendum, numero singulati notari aliquod regnum, in quo [...]ubinde unus quispiam praesideat; cui viam straverunt Antichristi illi, sen haere­ [...]ici, qui jam tum tempor ibus Apostolorum, extiterunt: id quod tum Johannes [...]ignificat hoc loco, quum ait, Multos Antichristos jam tunc exortos; & Paulas 2 Thes. 2. v. 7. ubi dicit Mysterium illud iniquitatis jam tum, [...], in aliquibus operari, seseque exerere, vid. Observat. 16. Ioh. Piscat. in cap. 2. Ep. [...]. Icannis. head­ship and supremacy over a settled apostasie: for (to let passe judicious DoctorIn the fourth book of his Apol. & Sect. 4. & 5. Hackwels confutation of this fancie; it being altogether impossible, that the2 Thes. [...]. v. 7. mystery of iniquity which began to spring up even in Saint Pauls time (and by consequence was to ripen by degrees) should be the sudden and irresistible worke of one man, or age, so many hun­dred yeeres after (although indeed it be very like­ly, [Page 22]that the last inheritour of the Antichristian chaire, may be the most wilyRev. 16. v. 13, 14. and bewitching deceiver of all) to let this passe) under whom, I pray, have the servants of God suffered per­secution from the time of the Heathen Roman Emperours untill now, if not under the great ApocalypticallRev. 17 v. 6. chap. 18. v. 24. Antichrist? by whose devilish power and policy, those which should afterwards be slaine, were successively to be fulfilled. And if martyrdome hath all this while, and doth still go forward under him; then certainly this2 Thes. 2. v. 4. 1 Tim. 4. v. 1.2.3. Church­champion, this Wolfe in2 Tim. 3. v. 5. Rev. 13. v. 11 Sheeps clothing, hath beene long agoe reveal'd: and consequently, the Prognostication of a new and upstart Monarch, of no more then a bare three yeers and an half conti­nuance, will serve onely for a popish Meridian.

But we are yet to shew the Jewes peaceable and prosperous estate after their returne,I appeale here to the consciences of all men, that shall read these, or the like prophecies in the word of God; whether they can thinke it possible, that the time appointed by God for the dispensation of such extraordinary blessings, should be the very same, in which the world, and especially the Christian part of it, was to groane under the continued plagues written in the Revelation: which yet we must needs grant to be so, if we rest on those interpretations, by which all such prophecies, are only, or chiefely applied to the anticipated conversion of us substituted Gentiles. Read then what Jeremiah hath written in his 23. chap. at the 3. vers. ‘I will gather the remnant of my flocke out of all Countries, whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds, and they shall be fruitfull and encrease: and I will set up Shepheards over them, which shall feed them, and they shallIsa. 33. v. 20.21, 22, 24. Zeph. 3. v 14, 15. feare no more, nor be dismaid, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord: and in his 31. chap. at the 10.27. and 31. vers. Heare the word of the Lord, O yee Nations, and declare it in the Iles a farre off, and say, He that scattereth Israel, will gather him, and keepe him, as a Shep­heard [Page 23]doth his flocke: for the Lord hath redee­med Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger then he: therefore they shall come, and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodnesse of the Lord, for Wheate, and for wine, and for oyle, and for the young of the flocke, and of the herd, and their soules shall be as a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow any more at all: Then shall the Virgin rejoyce in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turne their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them re­joyce from their sorrow: and I will satiate the soules of the Priests with fatnesse, and my people shall be satisfied with goodnesse, saith the Lord. Behold the dayes come saith the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel, and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast: and it shall come to passe, that like as I have watched over them, to plucke up, and to breake downe, and to throw downe, and to destroy, and afflict: so will I watch over them to build and to plant, saith the Lord. Behold the dayes come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah, not according to the cove­nant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I tooke them by the hand, to bring them out of the Land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those dayes, saith the Lord, I will put my Law into their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people: and they shall teach no more every [Page 24]man his neighbour, & every man his brother, say­ing, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. And in his 32. c. at the 17. v. Be­hold I will gather them out of all Countries, whi­ther I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath, and I will bring them a­gain unto this place: & I will cause them to dwell safely. And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may feare me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, and I will not turne away from them to doe them good, but I will put my feare into their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. Yea, I will rejoyce over them to doe them good, and I will plant them in this Land assuredly, with my whole heart, and with my whole soule. For thus saith the Lord, Like as I have brought all this great evill upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised. And in his 33. chap. at the 6. vers. Behold I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveale unto them the abundance of peace and truth. And I will cause the captivity of Judah, and the captivity of Israel to returne, and will build them as at the first, and I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me, and I wil pardon all their iniquity wherby they have sinned, and where­by they have transgressed against me. And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an ho­nour before all the Nations of the earth, which shall heare all the good that I doe unto them: and they shall feare and tremble, for all the good­nesse, [Page 25]and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it. And in his 46. chap. at the 27. vers. and his 50. chap. at the 19. vers. ButChap. 30. v. 10, 11 feare not thou, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismaid O Isra­el; for behold I will save thee from afarre off, and thy seed from the Land of their captivity, and Jacob shall turne, and be in rest, and at ease, and none shall make him afraid: Feare thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the Lord, for I am with thee, for I will make a full end of all the Nations whither I have driven thee, but I will not make aDeut. 32 v. 26, 27, 36, 43. Psal. 89. v. 31, 32, 33.34. Psal. 94. v. 14, 15. full end of thee, but correct thee in measure, yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished. I will bring Israel againe to his habitation, and he shall feed on Carmel, and Bashan, and his soule shall be satisfied upon Mount Ephraim, and Gilead. In those dayes, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sinnes of Judah, and they shall not be found; for I will pardon them whom I reserve. Read also what Ezek. hath written in his 28. chap. at the 25. vers. Thus saith the Lord, when I have gathered the house of Israel, from the people among whom they be scattered, and shall be sanctified in them, in the sight of the Heathen, then shall they dwell in their Land, that I have given unto my servant Jacob, and they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant Vineyards: yea they shall dwell with confidence, when I have execu­ted judgements upon all those that despise them round about them, and they shall know that I am the Lord their God. And in his 34. chap. at the 12. vers. As a Shepheard seeketh out his flock, in the day that he is among his sheepe that are scat­tered: so will I seeke out my sheepe, and will de­liver [Page 26]them out of all places, where they have been scattered in the cloudy and darke day: and I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the Countries, and will bring them to their owne Land, and feed them upon the Mountaines of Israel by the rivers, and in all in­habited places of the Countrey: I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the Mountaines of Israel: I will feed my flocke, and I will cause them to lie downe, saith the Lord God. I will seeke that which was lost, and bring againe that which was driven away, and will binde up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sicke, but I will destroy the fat and the strong, I will feede them with judgement. And at the 25. vers. I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evill beasts to cease out of the Land: and they shall dwell safely in the Wildernesse, and sleepe in the woods, and I will make them, and the places round about my hill, a blessing: and I will cause the showre to come downe in his season: there shall be showres of blessing, and the tree of the field shall yeeld her fruit, and the earth shall yeeld her encrease, and they shall be safe in their Land, and shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and deli­vered them out of the hands of those that served themselves of them. And they shall no more be a prey to the Heathen, neither shall the beasts of the Land devoure them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid. And I will raise up for them a plant of renowne, and they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the Land, [Page 27]neither beare the shame of the Heathen any more. And in his 36. chap. at the 8. vers. O Mountaines of Israel, yee shall shoot forth your branches, and yeeld your fruit to my people of Israel, for they are at hand to come: for behold I am for you, and I will turne unto you, and yee shall be tilled and sowen: and I will multiply men upon you,Isa. 45. vers. 25. Ezek. 37. v. 11.12, &c. c. 36. v. 25. Ier. 12. v. 14.15. Rom. 11. v. 32. [...] all the house of Israel, even all of it, and the Cities shall be inhabited, and the wasts shall be builded: and I will multiply upon you man and beast, and they shall increase and bring fruit, and I will set­tle you after your old estates: and I will doe bet­ter for you, then at your beginnings, and ye shall know that I am the Lord: yea, I will cause men to walke upon you, even my people Israel, and they shall possesse thee, & thou shalt be their inhe­ritance, & thou shalt no more henceforth bereave them of men. Thus saith the Lord God, because they say unto you, Thou Land devourest up men, and hast bereaved thy Nations, therefore thou shalt devoure men no more, neither bereave thy Nations any more, saith the Lord God; neither will I cause men to heare in thee the shame of the Heathen any more, neither shalt thou beare the reproach of the people any more, neither shalt thou cause the Nations to fall any more, saith the Lord God. And at the 24. vers. I will take you from among the Heathen, and gather you out of all Countries, and will bring you in­to your owne Land, then will I sprinkle cleane water upon you, and yee shall be cleane from all your filthinesse, and from all your idols will I clense you: and I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walke in my statutes, and yee shall keepe my judgements, and doe them: and yee shall dwell in the Land that I gave to your fa­thers, [Page 28]and yee shall be my people, and I will bee your God. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for corne, and will increase it, and lay no more famine upon you: and I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that yee shall receive no more reproach of famine among the Heathen. Then shall yee remember your owne evill wayes, and your doings that were not good, and shall loath your selves in your owne sight, for your iniquities, and for your abominations. Thus saith the Lord God, in the day that I shall have clean­sed you from all your iniquities; I will also cause you to dwell in the Cities, and the wasts shall be builded, and the desolate Land shall bee tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by; and they shall say, This Land that was desolate, is become like the garden of Eden, and the waste, and desolate, and ruined Cities are become fenced and inhabited. Then the Heathen that are left round about you, shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate, I the Lord have spoken it, and I will doe it. And in his 39. chap. at the 25. vers. Thus saith the Lord God, Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercie upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy Name: after that they shall have borne their shame, and all their trespasses, whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their Land, and none made them afraid. When I have brought them againe from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies Lands, and am sanctified in them, in the sight of many Nations; then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, which caused them to be led into [Page 29]captivity among the Heathen: but I have gathe­red them unto their owne Land, and have left none of them any more there: Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have powred out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.’ And in the 10. chap. of Ze­chariah at the 6. ver. It is said, ‘I will strengthen the House of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them againe to place them, for I have mercy upon them: And they shall be as though I had not cast them off, for I am the Lord their God, and will heare them. And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoyce as through Wine; Yea, their children shall see it, and shall be glad; their heart shall rejoyce in the Lord. I will hisse for them, and gather them, for I have redeemed them: And they shall increase as they have increased; and I will sow them among the people, and they shall remember me in farre Countryes, and they shall live with their children, and turne againe. I will bring them againe also out of the Land of Aegypt, and gather them out of Assyria, and I will bring them into the Land of Gilead and Le­banon, and place shall not be found for them.’

Which Prophecies, as they doe containe many evident and unanswerable arguments for a future restauration of Israel, I meane a restauration yet to come; so they have such correspondence with that of Isaiah in his 59. chap. at the 20. ver. And with that of Amos in his 9. chap. at the 11. ver. (both which Prophecies are alledged by the Apo­stlesAct. 15. v. 16. Saint James, andRom. 11. v. 27.26. Saint Paul, for the conversion of the Jewes, after the fulnesse of the Gentiles is come in, that is, after all those of the Gentiles, which are appointed to be called before [Page 30]Christs comming againe, be converted. Or ra­ther perhaps, when the fulnesse of the Gentiles shall come in; that is, when the time shall come, in which (not a part, as now, but) all the Gen­tiles that are left, shall through the wonderfull de­liverance of the Jewes, together with them serve the Lord) that seeing these are not yet fulfild, nei­ther can any of the other: betwixt which and that ofThe words, in 15. of the Acts at the 14. ver. up­on which the Prophecy of Amos is inferred, are taken by Doctor Mayer, to be meant of the Song of old Simeon, and not of the former speech of Simon Pete [...]. But it matters not much, which of the two is here spoken of: for seeing the Prophet doth plainely shew a future restoring of the Jewes, and yet the intent of the Apostle was onely to prove, that God had then called the Gentiles: it cannot otherwise be, but that the words [After this] in the Prophecy, being applyed to the foresaid visiting of the Gentiles by the Preaching of the Gospell, must needes conclude; that the extraordinary restauration of the Jewes, foreshewne by the Prophet, was to follow the calling of the Gentiles then begun by the Apostles: And consequently, that the Jewes endevour to (1 Thess. 2 v. 14, 15.) hinder the growth of the Go­spell, was a sure proofe of the conversion of the Gentiles, and their owne rejection. Who unto the death of Christ, were the peculiar people of God, and not wholly cast off, untill by their wilfull unbeliefe, they forced the Apostles to (Act. 13. v. 44, 45, 46.) turne from them to other Nations, to whom God had not formerly revealed himselfe, and therefore could not at that time be said, [to Returne] unto the Gentiles, whom he had but then received: no, nor to the Jewes, whom he had then (and not till then) quite forsaken. So that if we consider the [Returning] of God here men­tioned in the Prophecy, to be appliable onely to the Jewes, to whom a­lone God had so long before made himselfe knowne; and yet that the Jewes were shortly after the calling of the Gentiles quite forsaken, we must needs grant, that their great happinesse here foretold hath not beene yet enjoyd, but shall be, when the fulnesse of the succedaneous Gentiles is come in. And wherefore did the Apostle change the Prophets, In that day will I raise up, into, After this I will returne and build? Wherfore, I say, did he, or rather the Holy Ghost in him, make choyce of this Paraphrase in place of the Text? if not of purpose to make that which hath been said, the more planely appeare. To wit, that the day of the Jews deliverance, is to a­wait the accomplishment of the surrogated Gentiles vocation. For though this consolatory Prophecy, according to the order of the things re­vealed to the Prophet, hath relation onely to a foregoing judgement de­nounced against the Jewes, yet it is not therefore mis-inferred here by the Apostle, as a subsequent too of the anticipated conversion of the Gentiles, and that because the very same time, which was foreappointed by God, for the execution of that punishment upon the forsaken Jewes, was also foreappointed by him, to be the time for the promulgation of his mercy, towards the substituted Gentiles; as these next words, That the residue of men might seeke after the Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called, doe most clearely intimate. For what is meant by the [Residue of men] but the remainder of those Nations, which are not to be converted, till the foresaid redemption of the Jewes? (their Redemption, I say, as well out of all Countries into which they are scattered, and from all Nati­ons amongst whom (as was foretold) they have beene sifted (so many hun­dred yeares) as from all their sinnes, which moved God to use such seve­rity towards them.) And what by the [Gentiles on whom Gods name is called] but the remuant of those Nations, which are now already (or shall, if any more shall) while Davids Tabernacle layes waste, become the people of God in the hardned Jewes stead? So that this Prophecy doth as well prove a profession of the Gospell, by a great part of the Gentiles, be­fore the Jewes deliverance, and in the time of their blindnesse, as by all that are left of them afterwards; for that by a people on whom Gods name is called, or which is called by Gods Name, is to be understood, a people beloved of God, and called out from other Nations to serve him, as the Jewes were heretofore, and as the Christians are now, I thinke none will deny; or that by the Residue of men, and all the Gentiles upon whom Gods name is called, all other Nations besides the Jewes are meant. And was there then ever as yet such an unanimous consent in the true worship of God, betwixt the Jewes and all other Nations as is here foretold? surely never betwixt them and any one Nation. No, nor long betwixt them­selves; and (the more the pitty) no lesse oddes hath a long time beene, and still is amongst Christians, both in their opinion and practise of Reli­gious duties. Vide Commentationum Apocalyp. partem primam de sigillis, pag. 55, 56, Amos, there is not any materiall diffe­rence; and no other betwixt them and that of I­saiah, then there is betwixt a Comment and the Text, betwixt a briefe intimation and large expli­cation of one and the same thing.

And yet there want not some, who by the words, [All Israel] in the 11. of the Romans, un­derstand onely the Church of the Gentiles, to which some of the Jewes should be united: but if the obvious and simple meaning of the 28, 29.30, [Page 32]31. and 32.Nihil po­tuit apertius de futura populi Israe­litici salute proferri. Jo­sephus Acosta in locum. Who also repeating the Pro­phecy in the third of Hosea, at the 4. ver. saith thus of it. Hoc quo (que) quam­vis nulla ex­positorum lu­ce illustrare­tur, per seip­sum clarissi­mum testi­monium est. And then goes on with that in the 4. chap. of Deut. at the 30. ver. Nec minus dilucide a Mose praedictum. Postquam te invenerint omnia quae praedicta sunt (praedixerat vero peccata illius populi, & terrae promissae amis­sionem, & dispersionem in omnes gentes) novissimo, inquit, tempore rever­teris ad Dominum Deum tuum, & audies vocem ejus, quia Deus misericors, Dominus Deus tuus, non dimittet te, neque omnino delebit, neque omnino ob­liviscetur pacti, in quo juravit Patribus tuis. De teinp. noviss. lib. 3. c. 11. p. 547. verses following, will not suffice to discover the weaknesse (that I say not, wilful­nesse) of this interpretation: yet surely to any man that is not without reason, theƲid. D. Parei explicationem dubii 18. in cap. 11. ad Rom. p. 271 Pet. Mart. loc. com. class. 2. cap. 4. pag. 206, 207. & class. 2. cap. 16. p. 410., reasons which Wendelinus (in the 19. chap. and 2. Section of his naturall Contemplations, at the 391. pag.) brings to the contrary, will give abundant satis­faction. For, first, the Apostle doth apparently distinguish the Jewes from the Gentiles, by the word [Israel,] when he saith, that blindnesse is in part happened to Israel, untill the fulnesse of the Gentiles be come in. And therefore I much doubt, whether he would in the very next line, by the same word indifferently comprehend both Jewes and Gen­tiles, especially seeing the Israel that is to be saved must needes have relation to the Israel, that was before said to be in blindnesse. And then too, what is become of the mystery here spoken of, if the words, And so all Israel shall be saved, should not signifie such a conversion of the Jewes, as must fol­low the vocation of the Gentiles? for that some particular Jewes were at that time to be gathered to the Church, they knew before, seeing many such were then amongst them, some of which did first conveigh the Gospell to them. And therfore in my judgement, those Divines deale most sincere­ly with the Text, who acknowledging the lite­rall sense thereof, doe send us to that of Isaiah, in his 66. chap. at the 8. ver. as to a plaine proofe of [Page 33]this opinion; who, saith he, hath heard such a thing? who hath seene such things? shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day, Zech. 3. v. 9. or shall a Nation be borne at once? for as soone as Zion travailed, she brought forth her chil­dren. Where the wonderfull and unheard of con­version of a whole Nation at once, (such as never happened to any Nation of the Gentiles) toge­ther with the expresse mention of Zion, and the evidence of the following verses should, me thinks, be motive enough, to make any impartiall Rea­der understand this Prophecy of the Jewes; which yet implyes not so much a returne of the whole Nation to their Country, as to their God; and therefore could not be fulfilled by the returne of a part of them from Babylon, at which time too, the Kingdome of God (that is, the true worship of God, the meanes by which that Kingdome is ob­tained) was amongst them onely: but hath since (according to our Saviours Prophecy in the 21. chap. of Matth. at the 43. ver.) beene taken from them; and shall againe according to this, be sud­denly and extraordinarily restored into them: as Joel also before intimated, by the plentifull di­stribution of Gods Spirit in the last dayes.2. That the surviving and subject­ed Gentiles shall gladly embrace the know­ledge and sea [...]e of God with the Jewes.

You have hitherto heard of the deliverance and happinesse of the Jewes only: I shall now acquaint you with their partakers, which shall be such as are left of the Nations, that are then to be destroy­ed, as you may see in the fore-quoted chap. of Isai. at the 15. and 19. verses. Behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his Charets like a whirlewind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire, for by Ezek. 39. v. 4, 5, 6 &c. Mal. 4. v. 1. Psal. 50 v. 3 2 Thess. 1.1.7, 8. &c. fire, and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh, and the slaine of the Lord shall be many. And I will set a signe among them, and I will send those that escape of them, unto the Nations, to Tar­shish, [Page 34]Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tuball, and Javan, to the Isles afarre off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seene my glory, and they shall de­clare my glory among the Gentiles. And they shall bring all your Brethren for an offering Isa. 18. v. 7. unto the Lord, out of all Nations, upon Horses, and in Charets, and in Litters, and upon Mules, and upon swift beastes to my holy mountaine Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a cleane vessell in­to the House of the Lord. And I will also take of them for Priests, and for Levites, saith the Lord. For as the new Heavens, and the new Earth, which I will make, (to wit, at the judgement of the dead, when this Heaven and Earth shall passe away, as it is in the 20. of the Rev. at the 11. ver. and in the 21. at the 1. ver. as these) shall remaine before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remaine (to wit, after the foresaid returne from their captivi­ty) ‘And it shall come to passe, that from one New Moone to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come toPsal. 68 u. 29.31. Psal. 100. v. 1.2 4. worship be­fore me, saith the Lord, and they shall goe forth and looke upon the carkeises of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worme shall not dye, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.’ And in his 60. chap. at the 9. ver. and the 61. at the 4. ver. ‘They shallI [...]a. 53. v. 12. build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repaire the waste Cities, the desolations of many generations. And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sonnes of the alient shall be your Plough-men, and your Vine-dressers. But ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord: Men shall call you the Ministers of your God: ye shall eate the riches of the Gentiles, and in [Page 35]their glory shall you boast your selves. For your shame you shall have double: and for confusion they shall rejoyce in their portion: therefore in their Land they shall possesse the double: ever­lasting joy shall be unto them, Surely the Isles shall waite for me, and the Ships of Tarshish first, to bring my Sonnes from farre, their silver, and their gold with them, unto the name of the Lord thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorifyed thee. And the Sonnes of Stran­gers shall build up thy wals, and their Kings shall minister unto thee: For in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee. Therefore thy gates shall be open conti­nually, they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their Kings may be brought. For theIer. 12. v. 14, 15, 16 17. Nation and Kingdome, that will not serve thee, shall perish, yea, those Nations shall be utterly wasted. The sonnes also of them that afflicted thee, shall come bending unto thee, and all they that despised thee, shall bow them­selves downe at the soles of thy feete, and they shall call thee the City of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel. Whereas thou hast beene forsaken and hated, so that no man went tho­row thee, I will make thee an eternall excellen­cy, a joy of many generations. Thou shalt also sucke the milke of the Gentiles, and shalt sucke the breasts of Kings, and thou shalt know, that I the Lord am thy Saviour and Redeemer, the Mighty one of Jacob.’ And in the 49. chap. at the 22. ver. and the 25. at the 6. ver. Thus saith the Lord God, ‘Behold, I will lift up my hand to the Gen­tiles, and set up my Standerd to the people, and they shall bring thy Sonnes in their armes, and [Page 36]thy daughters shall be carryed upon their shoul­ders. And Kings shall be thy nursing Fathers, and their Queenes thy noursing Mothers: they shall bow downe to thee, with their faces to­wards the earth, and licke up the dust of thy feet, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord: for they shall not be ashamed that waite for me. And in this Mountaine shall the Lord of Hostes make unto all people, a feast of fat things, a feast of Wines on the Lees; of fat things full of mar­row, of Wines on the Lees well refined. And he will destroy in this mountaine, the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vaile that is spread over all Nations. He will swallow up death in victory, and the Lord will wipe away teares from off all faces, and the rebuke of his people, shall he take away from off all the earth, for the Lord hath spoken it.’ And in his 14. chap. at the 1. ver. The Lord will have mercy upon ‘Jacob, and willDan 7. v. 18.22.27 yet chuse Israel, and set them in their owne Land, and theIsa. 55. v 5. Zech. 2. v. 9.11. strangers shall be joyned with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob, and the people shal take them, and bring them to their place; and the House of Israel shall possesse them in the Land of the Lord, for servants and for hand-maides: and they shall take themEzek. 39 v. 10. captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressours.’ And in chap. 2. ver. 2. ‘It shal come to passe in the last dayes, that the mountaine of the Lords house shall be e­stablished in the top of the mountaines, & shal be exalted above the hils: and al Nations shal flow un­to it. And many people shal go and say, come ye, and let us go up to the mountaine of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he willIsa. 49. v. 6. cha. 60. v. 3. 1 Tim. 2. v. 4. teach us of his wayes, and we will walk in his paths, for out of [Page 37]Zion shall goe forth the Law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And hee shall judge among the Nations, and shall rebuke many people▪ and they shall breake their swords into plow shares, and their speares into pruning hookes: Nation shall notPsal. 46 v. 9. lift up sword against Nation, nei­ther shall they learne warre any more.’ The same Prophecy also you may finde it the 4. chap. of Mic [...]l [...], at the 1. ver. And not much unlike this, is that in the 8. chap. of Zech. at the 20. ver. And that in the 14. chap. at the 16. ver. Thus saith the Lord of Hostes, ‘it shall come to passe, th [...] there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many Cities: and the inhabitants [...]done City shall goe to another, saying, Let us got speedily to pray before the Lord of Hostes: I will go [...] [...]l [...]o. Yea, many people, and strong Nations shall come to seeke the Lord of Hostes in Jerusalem; and to pray before the Lord. Thus faith the Lord of Hostes, in those dayes it shall come to passe, that ten men shall taketh old, out of all languages of the Nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will goe with you, for we have heard, that God is with you. And in shall come to passe, that every one that is lest, of all the Nations which came against Jerusalem, shall even go [...] up from year [...] to yeare, to worship the King, the Lord of Hostes; and to keepe [...]nd fo [...]st of Tabernacles. And it shall be, that who so will not come up of all the Families of the earth unto Jerusalem, to worship the King, the Lord of Hostes▪ even upon them shall be no raine.’

I know the most of these Prophecies are chiefly interpreted of the joyning together of the Jewes & Gentiles in one Church, and rightly: but to say, that this is now fulfilled, in the time of the sub­stituted [Page 38]Gentiles Vocation, is to overthrow what was before affirmed, and to take great paines to beguile our selves and others of the Truth: It is, I say, to put out our owne eyes, and bid others follow us. For Saint Paul in the 11. of the Rom. tells us plainely, that the Jewes are broken off from their Olive: Ver. 19, 20. v. 17. v. 15. v. 7. v. 32. ver. 11. And that we are graffed in for them: That they are cast away: that they are hardned. That God hath concluded them all in unbeleefe: And that through their fall, salvation is come unto us, to provoke them to Deu. 32 v. 21. jealousie. And therefore it cannot possibly be maintained, that the Jewes and Gentiles are as yetIoh. 10. v. 16. one sheepefold. And as for those which were converted at the first Preaching of the Go­spell, and at other times since, they are but the first fruites, and roote (as I may say) of the branches, and lumpe, which shall follow after them by a generall conversion. And therefore the calling of these, can no more be accounted a con­version of the Jewes, then the calling of those Gentiles, which were gathered to the Church be­fore Christs Nativity, can be taken for the con­version of the Gentiles. Who were (as time hath shewne us) but the [ [...]] the fore-runners and pledge as it were of al those Nations, which were a long time after converted, by the Ministery of the Apostles, & their successors. And besides, how the bringing of the Jews out of all Nations, Ʋpon Hor­ses, & in Litters, and in Charets, & upon Mules, & upon mens shoulders; can beare any other but a literal sense▪ Or how The vaile that is spread over all Nation [...], can now be said to be destroyed, when as so many of them run a whoring after their owne inventions, I cannot conceive. Yea, Even unto this day, saith Saint Paul of the Jews in his time, when Moses is read, the vaile is upon their heart. Neverthelesse, when it shall turne [Page 39]unto the Lord, the vaile shall be taken away, 2 Cor. 3.15, and 16. ver. But we see not yet Israel returned (yea we see it fallen into more grosse ignorance and su­perstition) and therefore the vaile is not yet ta­ken away, and consequently is not yet Destroyed from all Nations. Againe, I know no reason, why we should give more credit to the Metaphoricall interpretation of these Prophecies, then to the Figurative exposition, which some presume to put upon those words in the 12. of Zechariah at the 10. ver. Although Saint John in his 19. Chap. at the 37. ver. hath alledged them as the onelyIoh. 12. v. 39. cause that our Saviours side was pierced: of which fact doubtlesse there had beene no necessity, if the Prophecy were not to be understood in a literall sense. And to say with others, that it was thus fulfilled in the Disciples, who beheld our Saviours sufferings, is not onely to rob the Prophecy of its right end, but also to make the Disciples guil­ty of their Masters death: For, the Text saith ex­pressely, They shall looke upon me whom they have Psal. 22 v. 16. &c. pierced. Where also it followes, And they shall Mat. 24. v. 30. mourne for him, as one that mourneth for his onely Son, and shall be in bitternesse for him, as one that is in bit­ternesse for his first borne. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Ha­dadrimmon, in the valley of Meggidon. But who can at the same time earnestly bewaile that mans death, whose punishment they themselves doe not onely procure, but scoffe at? As all that mur­dered Christ, did at his. And what comparison is there, betwixt the griefe of a few fearefull and scattered Disciples for a day or two, and the so­lemne mourning of all Judah and Jerusalem, and that to every family apart, and their wives apart? As therefore this Prophecy doth concerne the [Page 40]Jewes onely, and chiefely the Tribes that cruci­fied their Saviour, so doubtlesse it shall then re­ceive its accomplishment, when God at their ge­nerall conversion,Zech. 12. v. 10. Shall powre upon them the Spi­rit of grace and supplications, that so they may at once obtaine the forgivenesse of their sinnes, and thus lament their forefathers malicious and cruell contrivance, and their owne hereditary and wil­full approbation of the death of Christ; who shall then descend unto them, to restore their King­dome, and to raigne over all the earth, as it is in the 14. Chap. of the same Prophet, at the 5. and 9. verses.

3. That the whole cre­ation shall be restored to its origi­nall perfe­ction.And thus much of the felicity of that remnant of the Nations, which shall out-live the rest at the Jewes returne. Now a word or two of the altera­tion of the sensitive and senselesse creatures at that time. The Wolfe, saith Isaiah, in his 11. Chap. at the 6. ver. shall dwell with the Lambe, and the Leo­pard shall lie downe with the Kid: And the Calfe, and the yong Lion, and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. And the Cow and the Beare shall feed, their yong ones shall lye downe together; and the Lyon shall eate straw Gen. 1. v. 30. cha. 6. v. 20, 21. like the Oxe. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the Asse, and the weaned Childe shall put his hand on the Cockatrice den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountaine: for the earth shall be Hab. 2. v. 14. full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the Sea. And in the 65. Chap. at the 25. ver. The Wolfe and the Lambe shall feed to­gether, and the Lion shall eate straw like the Bullocke: And dust Gen. 3. v. 1 [...]. shall be the Serpents meate. They shall not hurt, nor destroy in all my holy Mountaine, saith the Lord. Where we may observe, against such as understand by these expressions, the effects of Prea­ching, on the hearts of cruell-minded men; that [Page 41]they are a part of those Prophecies, which con­cerne the Jewes deliverance, and therefore can have no relation to the calling of the Gentiles. And besides, is there no hurt nor destruction in all the Christian world, that we should thus flatter our selves with such vaine fancies? or rather, when was there none? or where is the Nation, shall I say, or the City, yea, the Village, amongst us, where cruelty is not practised, where such mis­chiefes are not to be found, as can scarcely be pa­ralleled, in the common wealths of the most bar­barous Heathen? And as for those words; For the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, which seeme to have beene the occasion of the former in­terpretation, in my conceit, they imply but this, that therefore God will restore to these creatures their primitive obedience, and cause them to be no more offensive to his people; because he hath determined to make himselfe at that time so well knowne over all the earth, that his people shall no more offend him: And so the feare of God, shall at once be put againe into the hearts of men, and the feare of men into the hearts of the creatures. For the enmity of the creatures, is but the issue of mans sinne, and therefore when God shall pardon the House of Jacob, and cleanse them from all their iniquities (as hath beene said) the sinnes of men, which are the cause, and the curse of the Crea­tures, which is the effect, shall depart together. As then there can be no sufficient reason alledged for the allegoricall interpretation of these pro­phecies, so, if we beleeve Gods revelations touch­ing the Jewes returne, there can be no reason ur­ged to the contrary, that will force us to forsake the literall sense of them. By which sense I am sure, that passage of Saint Paul, in the 8. Chap. of the [Page 42] Rom. at the 21. ver. is so well explained, that the great strife about the signification of the word [Creature] there, may be soone decided, and by which too, the opinion of those, who from that place, would make the sensitive Creatures Co-partners with us, of that glory which followes the last resurrection, fals to the ground: for is not the exchange of a ravenous disposition for a quiet and peaceable, and the freedome from the abuse of sinne, A delivery of the creature from the bondage of corruption? and theDan. 7. v. 21, 22. glorious liberty of the Sonnes of God, what is it, but the flourishing estate of the Jewes (before spoken of) under Christ their Head? who accompanyed with all the Saints departed, and then living, shall come and receive dominion Dan. 7. v. 14.27. ch. 2 v. 44. Rev. 15. v. 4 ch. 20. v. 4.6, and glory, and a King­dome, that all People, Nations, and Languages, may serve him; as you shall heare anon. Another Pro­phecy touching the renewed estate of the Crea­tures, is to be seene in the 30. Chap. of Esay at the 23. ver. Then shall he give the raine of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withall: And bread of the increase of the Earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in lange pastures. The Oxen likewise, and the young Asses that eare the ground, shall eate cleane Provender, which hath beene winnowed with the shovell, and with the Fanne, and there shall be upon every high hill, rivers and streames of waters, in the day of the slaughter, when the towers fall. More­over, the light of the Moone shall be as the light of the Sunne, and the Light of the Sunne shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven dayes, in the day that the Lord Mal. 3. v. 17, 18. bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound. But the great increase of the light of the Sunne and Moone here spoken of, is in the 60. Chap. at the 19. ver. plainely gainesaid, the [Page 43]words are these. The Sunne shall be no more thy light by day, neither for brightnesse shall the Moone give light unto thee, but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Where, if it had been said, That the Sunne should no more burne them by day, nor the Moone by night, as it is in the 121. Psal. Or smite them, as it is in the 49. of Esay at the 10. ver. I could have sent you for an answer to the 4. chap. of the same Prophet, at the 5. ver. The Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoake by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night, for upon all the glory shall be a defence. And there shall be a Tabernacle for a shadow in the day from the beat, and for a place of re­fuge, and for a covert from storme and from raine. But seeing it is said, The Sunne shal be no more thy light by day, These places will be better reconciled, if we acknowledge, that in the 60. Chap. there is a mixt rehearsall of those blessings, which are pro­per onely to the Heavenly Jerusalem; (which as it is Rev. 21. ver. 23. and chap. 22. ver. 5. hath no need of the Sun, neither of the Moone to shine in it) with those which the, Jewes shall receive at the restauration of their earthly Jerusalem; for such a mixture of things, which shall in their execution be many generations apart, is very usuall with the Prophets. And it is the more likely to be so here (not onely because the words immediately fol­lowing in both Prophecies, 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 happinesse which the Jewes shall then be made Heires of, shall never againe be interrupted by any misery. For the ransomed of the Lord shall returne, and come to Zion with songs and e­verlasting joy upon their heads, they shall obtaine joy and [Page 44]gladnesse, and sorrow, and sighing shall flee away, Esay the 35. at the 10. ver. And lest we should conceit, that the judgement of the dead (plainely descri­bed in the 20. Chap. of the Rev.) shall either su­spend,Ver. 11, 12. &c. ver. 2. or disturbe this joy, Saint Paul in the 1. to the Cor. and the 6. Chap. hath told us, that The Saints shall judge▪ These first words may not unfitly be referred al­so to the time of the Saints reign on earth; for it is their privi­ledge at their en­trance into their King­dome, and throughout the whole space of their reign, To judge the World, that is, all Nati­ons of the Gentiles with the judgement of government and reformation: 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 [...]a [...] 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. the world, that is, the wicked men that have beene their oppressors;ver. 3. and judge the An­gels, that is, the evil spirits, that have been their tem­pters: And therefore shall not be thrust downe to the bar amongst them, but advanced to the bench against them. An addition doubtlesse to their hap­pinesse, and no abatement of it.

And this is as much as I need say, though not a­bove halfe that the Prophets say, concerning the Kingdome in the Text. I will therefore shut up all with that solemne Protestation of God, in the 31. of Jer. at the 35. ver. Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the Sun for a light by day, and the Ordinances of the Moone, and of the Starres, for a light by night, which divideth the sea, when the waves thereof roare, the Lord of Hoasts is his Name; If those Ordinances Ier. 33. v. 20.25. depart from before me, saith the Lord, then shall the seed of Israel also cease from being a Nation before mee for ever. Thus saith the Lord, If Heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord. And with that humble complaint of Israel, whom God in the 7. of Micah, at the 8. ver. makes to prophecy thus [Page 45]of her selfe. Rejoyce not against me, O mine enemy, when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darknesse, the Lord will be a light unto me. I will beare the indigna­tion of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, untill be plead my cause, and execute judgement for me. He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousnesse. And so I passe from the thing to be restored, which is the Kingdome of Israel: to the Person by whom it is to be restored, which is Christ the Lord, at his next appearing. For they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore againe the Kingdome to Israel?

That our Mediatour hath undergone the offices of a Priest and Prophet, the Gospel is our witnesse:That Christ shall reigne on earth, proved. 1. By con­sequence. Isa. 14. v. 1, 2, 3. but considering that the Jewes are yet to receive a Kingdome; a Kingdome in which they shall bold them captives, whose captives they are; and in which peace and righteousnesse shall flourish on the earth: considering this I say, we may justly doubt, whether our Saviour hath as yet executed the office of a King: and so much the rather, be­cause he tooke our nature on him, as well to per­forme his kingly office therein amongst us, as ei­ther his priestly or propheticall; the glory of this being indeed the reward of that contempt and tor­ment which he suffered in the others: and though it cannot be denied, that he hath already Col. 2. v. 15. spoyled principalities and powers (that is, the evill spirits) and hath made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in his crosse: nor that he is Eph. 4. v. 8. ascended up on high, and hath led captivity captive, and given gifts unto men: nor that he is become the Col. 2. v. 10. Head of all principality and power (that is, of the Saints and holy Angels) and is set Heb. 1. v. 3. ch. 8. v. 1 ch. 10. v. 12. ch. 12. v. 2. downe at the right hand of the Throne of God: so that he is Phil. 3. v. 21. able even to subdue all things unto himselfe: Yet that he doth not [Page 46]now reigne in that Kingdome which he shall go­verne as man, and consequently, in that of which the Prophets speake, his owne words in the third of the Revel. at the 21. vers. doe clearely prove. To him that overcommeth, saith he, will I grant to sit with me in my Throne; even as I also overcame, and am set downe with my Father in His Throne: from whence it followes, that the Throne which here he cals his owne, and which he hath notHeb. 2. v 8. ch. 10. v. 12.13. yet receiv'd, must needs belong unto him as man; be­cause the place where he now sits, is the Fathers Throne; a Throne in which he hath no proper interest, but as God. Againe, it followes, that see­ing he is now in his Fathers Throne, therefore neither is this the time, nor that the place, in which his Throne is to be erected: not the place, for in one Kingdome there can be but one Throne: and not the time, for then he should sit in his own Throne, which now he doth not doe: and the reason of it (as is intimated in the first words) is because the time in which all that shall overcome, are to be call'd, is not yet at an end, and this also the answer which was made to the soules under the Altar (who cried for vengeance against their persecutors) doth fully confirme; for it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, untill their fellow servants also, and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled: Rev. the 6. and the 11. vers. and when this is done,Rev. 11 v. 15, 17. then shall Christ sit in his owne Throne, and they that overcome shall sit with him; for he that overcommeth, and keepeth my words unto the end, to him (saith he) will I give power over Nations (and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a Potter shall they be broken to shivers) even as I re­ceived of my Father, Rev. 2. at the 26. vers. The like [Page 47]encouragement he gave also to his Disciples before his passion. Yee are they (said he) which have conti­nued with me in my temptations, therefore I appoint un­to you a Kingdome, as my Father hath appointed unto me, that ye may Mat. 26. v. 29. Mar. 14. v. 25. Luke 14. v. 15. ch, 22. v. 16.18. c. 24. v. 42.43. Act. 10. v. 41. eate and drinke at my table in my Dan. 2. v. 44. ch. 7. v. 14.27. Kingdome, and sit on Dan. 7. v. 22. Rev. 20. v. 4. seates judging the Twelve Tribes of Israel, Luke the 22. at the 28. vers. I know these words are taken by interpreters, for a meta­phoricall expression of those joyes which we shall receive inIn Heaven where the holy Ierusalem is, that (Rev. 21. v. 10) great City, di­stinguished from the City described to (Ezek. 40. v. 2. &c. ch. 45. v. 1.2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.) Ezekiel, (which I take to be the modell and platforme of the City that is to be built at the Iewes Redemption) by these and many more differences. First, because the (Heb. 11. v. 10.) builder and maker of the one is God, but the other (Ier. 31. v. 38. Ezek. ch. 40. &c.) men shall build. Se­condly, the materials of Ierusalem which is above, are all (Rev. 21. v. 18.19, 20, 21.) gold and precious stones. But the (Ezek. 41. v. 16.17, 21. &c.) ma­terials of that other Ierusalem shall not be such. Thirdly, in this City, there is (Rev. 21. v. 22.) no Temple, for the Lord God Almighty, and the Lambe are the Temple of it. But that City shall have (Ezek. 40.41. &c.) a Temple. Fourthly, the river of (Rev. 22. v. 1.) water of life proceedeth out of the Throne of God, and of the Lambe. But in that City, (Ezek. 47. v. 1. &c.) waters (not the river of life, though endued with healthfull & (Ezek. 47. v. 9.12.) nourishing qualities, because of the place whence they are to proceed) shall issue from under the threshold of the Temple: for the forefront of the house shall stand towards the East, and the waters shall come downe from under the right side of the house, at the South side of the Altar. Fifthly, in this City, the tree of life (Rev. 22. v. 2.) onely growes on either side of the river, and beares twelve manner of fruits monthly. But by the river, that shall issue out of the Sanctuary of that City, shall grow (Ezek. 47. v. 12.) all trees for meat. Sixthty, in this City there is (Rev. 22. v. 5 ch. 21. v. 23.25.) no night, they need no candle, nor light of the Sunne. for the Lord God giveth them light, and the Lambe is the light thereof. But in that City, there shall be (Esa. 30. v. 26. ch. 60. v. 11.) night, and the light of the Sunne shall then be sevenfold. Seventhly, this City shall (Rev. 21. v. 1.2.) descend to the new earth, with which there shall be no sea created. But the waters which shall come from that City, shall goe into the (Ezek. 47. v. 8.) sea, and being brought forth into the sea the waters shall be healed, &c. and therefore that City is to be built, before the annihilation of the first earth, with which there is a sea. Heaven; but it is a currant axiom in our Schooles (non esse à literâ, seu propriâ Scripturae sig­nificatione [Page 48]recedendum, nisi evidens aliqua necessitas cogat, & Scripturae veritas in ipsâ literâ periclitari vi­detur) that wee must not forsake the literall and proper sense of the Scripture, unlesse an evident necessity doth require it, or the truth thereof would be endangered by it: and I am sure, here is no such cause for which we should leave the naturall inter­pretation of the place: yea, we are by many other passages in the Scriptures rather compel'd to sticke to it; for besides that there is little analogy and resemblance betwixt a perpetuallRev. 22. v. 3. praising and worshipping of God, and the businesse of a poli­ticke government here spoken of; besides this I say, we are already inform'd, that though our Sa­viour be now in Heaven, yet he sits not there in his owne Throne, and consequently, is not yet in the Kingdome which the Father hath appointed him. And as it is evident from his owne words, that the Throne of his Kingdome is not now in Heaven, so it is plaine from Saint Pauls, in the first to the Cor. the 15. chap. at the 22. vers. that it shall not bee there after the judgement of the dead, his words are these. As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive: But every man in his owne order. Christ the first-fruits, afterwards They that are Christs, if there were not to be some distance of time betwixt the resur­rection of these and other men, it had beene as easie for the Apostle to have said, They that are dead, or, All that are in the grave. And if there shall be a precedency of time, then no doubt but it shall be such a precedency, as may bring some advantage and honour to the Saints: and therefore not onely of a few houres, or dayes, but of a more notable continuance of ma­ny yeeres. For if Christ should descend for no other purpose, but to call all men to judgement, then as there would be need of none, so there could not well be any priority of time to distinguish their resurrection; because in that Act, both good and bad must be assembled before him at the same time, and the wicked doubtlesse should then be raised as soone, to see his comming, as the just, to meere and accompany him therein. they that are [Page 49]Christs at his comming (and therfore not theZech. 14. v. 5. 1 Thes. 3. v. 13. ch. 4. v. 14.15.16. 2 Thes. 1. v. 10. Mar­tyrs onely.) Then commeth the end (what presently after his comming? no, but) when he hath delivered up the Kingdome to God, even the Father (and when shall that be?) when he shall have put downe all rule, and all authority, and power. For he must reigne till He (that is, the Father) hath put all his enemies under his feete: which will be fully accomplished, when the last enemy shall be destroyed, which is death, and when all things shall be thus subdu'd unto him, then (shall follow that inutterable glory, that height of happinesse, where) the Sonne also himselfe shall be subject unto him, that did before put all things under him, that God may be all in all: thus farre Saint Paul, whose words doe clearly prove that the reigne of Christ as man (of which alone we treat) doth neither beginne before his comming, nor ex­tend it selfe beyond the death of death, the last re­surrection; and therefore cannot without a pal­pable contradiction, be taken for the time, when he shall give up his Kingdome to his Father; nor for the time that now is, betwixt which and his Kingdome too, our Saviour, in my conceit, hath put an irreconciliable distinction; calling this, the time, not of a Kingdome, but of temptation, that is, a time of persecution for righteousnesse sake; a time, wherein his Disciples must be delive­red up to be afflicted, kill'd, and hated of all Nati­ons for his name; that thus fulfilling the rest of the afflictions of Christ, for his bodies sake, which is the Church, they may at last wholly, and toge­ther (for shall not their bodies as well reigne with Christ as their soules? but these, we know, are, and shall be yet captives to the grave: or, are the Saints that shall be found alive at Christs com­ming exempted from his comming? for if hee [Page 50]should reigne till then, and then give up his King­dome to his Father, they are exempted; but if as our Apostle shewes, his reigne begin not till his comming, then as the living shall at that time1 Thes. 4. v. 15, 16, 17. together with the dead in Christ, be caught up to meet him, so the Saints shall then, and till then they cannot, wholly, and altogether reigne with him) I say together, and at once be made partakers of their Masters Kingdome: which as it appeares, is not to be in Heaven, and therefore must needs be held on earth, where all things which our Saviour promised his Disciples, may well be accomplished in a literall sense. Of this Kingdome also speaks S. Peter in the 3. of the Acts, at the 19. v. Repent yee therefore and be converted, that your sinnes may be blotted out, when the times of refresh­ing shall come from the presence of the Lord, & he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preacht unto you, Luke 19. v. 11, 12, &c. whom the Heavens must receive, untill the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy Rev. 10 v. 7. Prophets since the world beganne: where if by the times of refreshing, and the times of restitution of all things, nought else can be meant, but the Jewes inhabiting againe of their owne land, and the bringing of all other Nations into subjection to them; then it is evi­dent, that Christs comming at this time, shall be to accomplish this thing to Israel; and conse­quently to receive his appointed Kingdome: but that those words can have no other meaning, a small acquaintance with the Prophets will informe you: who as they speake of nothing more, so they have nothing which can be applied to our Saviours second comming, as a comfortable effect so gene­rally foreshewne, but this. And here we may call to mind too, our Saviours words to James and [Page 51] John, when they requested that one might sit on his right hand, and the other on his left, in his Kingdome: To sit on my right hand, and on my left, said he, is not mine to give, but it shal be given to them, for whom it is prepared of my Father. Which saying, as it doth shew, that our Saviour had before acquain­ted the Apostles of his Kingdome, so it intimates, that his Kingdome is to be held on earth, where onely this may be fulfilled; for in Heaven it can­not be done, unlesse we will grant, that other men shall be as highly exalted there, as our Savi­our is, to wit, to the right hand of God: which is a prerogative peculiar to the Sonne alone, a pre­heminence I say, which the chiefest of the Angels never enjoyed. For, to which of the Angels said hee at any time, Sit on my right hand, untill I make thine enemies thy footstoole? Heb. 1. at the 13. vers. And the same Apostles words in the second to Timothy and the 4. chap. may not be forgotten. I charge thee, saith he, before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quicke and the dead, at his appearing and his Kingdome. For why should Christs appea­ring and his Kingdome be joyned together; yea, why should his Kingdome be added, as the end of his appearing, unlesse both were to contemporate? unlesse his Kingdome were to beginne at his ap­pearing, and not before it? And to my seeming, that propheticall Image in the second of Dan. at the 31. vers. which represented both the orderly succession, and divers condition of all the then following Kingdomes 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 [Page 52]Christ to succeed them, as appeares 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 pieces and consume all those Kingdomes. Ver. 34, 35, 44.45. 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 the 35. vers. doth fully declare? and as the falling of the stone upon the feete of the Image, upon the last and divided Kingdoms of the iron Empire doth probably im­ply. For if the Kingdome of God there spoken of, were to be understood of a Kingdome, which should so be set up in the dayes of these Kings, that their reigne should notwithstanding continue to­gether with it (as not onely these, but all former Kingdomes also have done with the Militant Church, with the Kingdome of grace; which therefore cannot be the Kingdome there fore­shewne) then doubtlesse it should have beene repre­sented by some part of the Image it selfe (as the contemporating Kingdomes 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 increase. For it was cut out without hands: and when it had smote the Image, became a great Mountaine, Ver. 34.45. Ver. 35. and filled the whole earth, (which the Church as yet never did:) whose fall and growth too, as they import a more powerfull, speedy, and generall conquest 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, [Page 53]and totall abolition of the manner of poli­cy, and government which these Kingdomes have used; of which it is said, that they became like the chaffe of the summer threshing-floores, and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them, vers. 35. And with this sense of the interpretation of the vision, very well agreeth that in the second Psal. at the 8. vers. Aske of me, and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt breake them with a rod Rev. 2. v. 27. ch. 19. v. 15. of iron, thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potters vessell. And that in Psal. 110. at the 2. vers. 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 tho­row Kings in the day of his wrath. Hee shall judge among the Heathen, he shall fill the places with dead bodies: he shall wound the heads over many countries. He shall drinke of the brooke in the way, therefore shall he lift up the head. Yea, and that too, in the 149. Psal. at the second vers. Let Israel rejoyce in him that made him; let the children of Zion be joyfull in their 1 Sam. 1 v. 9.10. Psal. 47. Psal. 98. 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 punishments upon the people: to binde their Kings with chaines, and their No­bles with fetters of iron, to execute upon them the judgement written: This honour have all his Saints. And that nought else is meant by the world to come, in the second of the Heb. at the 5. vers. but the Kingdome of our Saviour, it is evident by the authority there alleadged out of the 8. Psal. which prophecy is therefore made use of by the Apostle, as a plaine proofe that Christs manhood is exal­ted above the chiefest of the Angels; because it shewes, that it is to Christ as man, and not to any [Page 54]of the Angels, that God hath put in subjection the world to come. And if there be yet a world, which is to be put in subjection to Christ as man, then it must needs be a distinct world, from1 Cor. 15 v. 24 28 Rev. 21. v. 3 that in which as man he shall give up the Kingdome to his Father: for that which is to be given up, is al­ready past. And it is no where said, that the new Jerusalem, the City of eternall glory, shall be sub­jected to Christ as a creature; but that Christ as a creature shall (after the judgement of the dead) be there subject to the Father.

2. By ex­presse pro­phesie.And thus it hath beene proved by consequence that our Saviour shall heareafter reigne on earth. You shall now heare it directly and expressely af­firmed. Behold, saith the Angell to the Virgin Ma­ry, thou shalt conceive in thy wombe, and bring forth a Sonne, and shalt call his name Jesus: he shall be great, and shall be called the Sonne of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto him, Matth. 2 v. 6. Acts 2. v. 30 31. the Throne of his Father David, Luke the first, at the 31. v. Behold (saithCh. 33. v. 15.16. Ieremiah in his 23. c. at the 5. v.) the dayes come saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David, a righteous Branch, and a King shall reigne and prosper, and shall execute judgement and justice Whatsoe­ver losse the disobedience of the first Adam brought on himselfe, and his posterity, that no doubt, the second Adam hath recovered with advantage for himselfe and his chosen. But the first Adam lost not onely his right to Heaven, but the happy estate too, which an innocent life would for a long time, have con­tinued to him and his on earth. And therefore that intercourse and famili­arity with God, that rule, and command over men, and all other creatures, which Adam (before the advancement of mankind to its highest happines) should have here enjoyed, if he had not fell; that, and farre more then that, shall Christ with his chosen inherit at his next appearing. And now see­ing even reason it selfe doth thus strongly conclude for our Saviours future soveraignty, what unreasonablenesse were it in us, any longer to misdoubt the literall accomplishment of these and all other sacred revelations, which so fully describe, and so clearely confirme it. in the Is. 8. v. 8. Iob 19. v. 25. Heb. 1. v. 2. earth. In his dayes Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell [Page 55]safely, and this is his Name whereby he shall bee called. The Lord our righteousnesse. Behold (saith Zech. in his 6. chap. at the 12. vers.) the man whose name is the Branch, and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the Temple of the Lord, and hee shall beare the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his Throne, and he shall be a Priest upon his Throne, and the counsell of peace shall be betweene them both. And in the 34. chap. of Ezek. at the 22. vers. I will save my flocke, and they shall no more be a prey: and I will judge be­tweene cattell and cattell, and I will set up one Shep­heard over them: and he shall feed them, even my ser­vant David, he shall feed them, and he shall be their Shepheard. And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a Prince among them, I the Lord have spoken it: and in his 37. chap. at the 24. vers. David my servant shall be King over them, and they shall have one Shepheard, and they shall also walke in my judgements, and observe my statutes, and doe them: and they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your Fathers have dwelt, and they shall dwell therein, even they and their chil­dren, and their childrens children for ever, and my ser­vant David shall be their Prince for ever. And in the 9. chap. of Isaiah at the 6. vers. Ʋnto us a child is borne, unto us a Sonne is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderfull, Counseller, the Mighty God, the Everlast­ing Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his go­vernment and peace there shall be no end. Vpon the Thron of David, and upon his Kingdome, to order it, and to establish it with judgement and with justice, from hence­forth even for ever: the zeale of the Lord of Hosts will performe this. And in the 52. chap. at the 13. vers. Behold, my servant shall deale prudently, he shall be Ps 1 [...]8. v. 22.23, 24 &c. exalted and extolled, and be very high. As many [Page 56]wereLuke 2. v. 34.35. astonied at thee (his visage, to wit, at the time of his suffering, was so marred more then any man, and his forme more then the sonnes of men) so, to wit, at his next appearing, shall he sprinkle many Nations, the Kings shall shut their mouthes at him: for that which had not beene told them, shall they see, and that which they had not heard shall they consider. And in the 4. chap. of Micah, at the 6. vers. In that day saith the Lord, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted, and I will make her that halted, a remnant; and her that was cast Rom. 11. v. 12.15.32 off, a strong Nation: and the Lord shall reigne over them in Mount Zion from hence­forth even for ever. And in the 72. Psal. at the 6. vers. He shall come downe like raine upon the mowen grasse: as showers that water the earth. In his dayes shall the righteous flourish: and abundance of peace so long as the Moone endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river, to the ends of the earth. They that dwell in the Wildernesse shall bow before him: and his enemies shall licke the dust. The Kings of Tar­shish, and of the Iles shall bring presents: the Kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all Kings shall fall Isa. 45. v. 22.23. Phil. 2. v. 10 downe before him: Ps. 22. v. 27, 28. Rev. 14. v. 6 7. ch. 15. v. 4 all Nations shall praise him. And in the 102. Psal. at the 13. vers. Thone shalt arise and have mercie upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time is come: for thy servants take pleasure in her stones; and favour the dust there­of. So the Heathen shall feare the name of the Lord: and all the Kings of the earth thy glory. When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appeare in his glory.

Now that these prophecies doe concerne the reigne of Christ alone, I thinke no man doubts; and that they are already fulfilled, it cannot bee proved. For neither did Christ at his first com­ming sit on Davids Throne, nor any other of Da­vids [Page 67]linage, or of that Tribe (or of the other Tribes) for the Scepter was then departed from Judah, and a Law-giver from betweene his feete. Neither were Judah and Israel then in the land together: neither was the Temple then destroyed, but after­wards: and therefore the things here spoken of, are all to be accomplished at his second comming: and that not in Heaven, but on earth. On earth I say, and inIs. 33. v. 20. ch. 50. v. 1, 2, 3, 9, 10. Jerusalem, Ps. 122. v. 5. Davids Throne was. For his feete shall stand in that day (to wit, when he comes to receive his appointed Kingdome) on the Mount of Olives, which is before Ierusalem on the East (from which Mount also he ascended) and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst therof toward the East, & toward the West, & there shalbe a very great valley, and halfe the Mountaine shall remove toward the North, and halfe of it toward the South. And ye shal flee to the valley of the Mountains: for the valley of the Moun­taines shall reach unto Azal; yea, ye shall flee like as ye fled from before the earthquake, in the dayes of Uzziah, K. of Judah. And the Lord my God shall Iude v. 14, 15. Rev. 19. v. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. come, & all the Ss. with thee: and it shal come to passe in that day, that the light shall not be cleare nor dark, but it shall be one day, which shall be knowne to the Lord, not day nor night: but it shall come to passe, that at evening time it shall be light. And it shall be in that day, that Ps. 46. v. 4. Ezek. 47. v. 1. &c. Ioel 3. v. 8. living waters shall goe out from Jerusalem: halfe of them toward the for­mer sea, and halfe of them toward the hinder sea: in Summer and in Winter shall it be: and the Lord shall be King over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his Name one. All the Land shall be turned as a plaine from Geba to Rimmon, South of Jerusa­lem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place: from Benjamins gate unto the place of the first gate, un­to the corner gate, and from the Tower of Hananiel un­to the Kings Wine-presses: and men shall dwell in it, and [Page 58]there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited, Zech. the 14. at the 4. vers.

You see here that our Saviour comes not onely to conquer death, (which is the last enemy that he shall destroy, and therefore not wholly to be de­stroyed till the last resurrection) but also to take the Kingdomes of this world unto himselfe: to put downe (as Saint Paul hath said) all the rule, and all the authority, and power of other Nati­ons; that there may be one Shepheard and one Sheepfold; that theDan. 7. v. 27. Kingdome, and Dominion, and greatnesse of the Kingdome under the whole Heaven, may be possest by the people of the Saints of the most High. That is, (as the former prophesies doe expound it) by the people ofPs. 148. v. 14. Israel. And this, as I thinke, is the time of which he spake these words, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Iohn 1. v. 15. Hereafter shall yee see Hea­ven open, and the Angels of God ascending and descen­ding upon the Heb. 1. v. 6. Sonne of man. For that this may be fulfilled, it is requisite, that he be on earth, whither these messengers may descend unto him, and from whence againe they may ascend. Which argues too, his continuance here, for a greater space of time, then the judgement of the dead re­quires. And although it be said, that Christ shall reigne over the house of Jacob for ever; and, that of his Kingdome there shall be no end: Yet it is not meant, that he shall alwayes reigne as man: or that the earthly Jerusalem, the place of his Throne as man, shall alwayes stand. But this on­ly is meant, that the Kingdome of the Saints, which Christ as he is man, shall governe aIsa. 65. v. 22. long time on earth, shall after the judgement of the dead (at which time this Heaven and earth shall passe a­way) be delivered up to God even the Father, in the new Jerusalem, where it shall ever remaine, and [Page 59]where God shall be all in all: yet so, that Christ too as man shall still retaine the dignity and pre­heminence of a King, a Priest and Prophet, though he shall have no need to make use of either office. And thus a late and learnedMaster Downe on the 17. ch. of Saint Ioh. p. 157. of his Treati­ses pub. 1633. Divine of ours, doth reconcile the former words of Saint Luke in his first chap. at the 33. vers. with that of Saint Paul, in the first to the Cor. the 15. chap. at the 24. and 28. vers. We are to know, saith he, that the Kingdome of Christ containeth in it, two things. The Me­diatory function of his Kingly office: And his Kingly Glory. That hee shall lay aside, for then (to wit, after the judgement of the dead) there will be no farther necessity nor use thereof. But this he shall hold for ever, as being by the acts of his Mediation justly acquired, and according to cove­nant bestowed upon him by his Father. And fur­thermore it may be observed, that the words, For Ps. 72. v. 17. Ps 89. v. 28 29, 36, 37. Ps. 145. v. 13. Isa. 32. v. 14, 15. Ch. 60. v. 15 Ezek. 37. v. 25. ever, Evermore, & Everlasting, are in the Scriptures often joyned with, and put for, these and the like sayings: Thorow all, or many generations: thorow al ages, or as long as the Sun and Moone endure. And therefore can conclud no more but this; that Christs reign as man, shall continue, as long as there shall be men to succeed each other on the earth: or as long as this Heaven and earth shall last: that is, untill the time which God hath foreordained for the judgement of the dead. When the Heavens that are now shall Rev. 20. v. 11. ch. 21. v. 1. passe away with a noyse, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the workes that are therein shall be burnt up, the 2. of Saint Peter, the 3. chap. at the 10. vers.

And to this purpose, when the Prophet Daniel had said, his Dominion is an everlasting Dominion, which shall not passe away; he addes presently by way of exposition, and his Kingdome that, [Page 60]which shall not be destroyed. And in another place more plainely; The Kingdome shall not be left to o­ther people. Cha. 2. v. 44 So that when the Prophets say, that Christ shall reigne for ever, and that his Kingdome shall stand for ever, or be an everlasting Kingdome, it is all one, as if they had told us onely, That nei­ther Christ, nor his Kingdome shall have any suc­cessours; that no Son of Man shall succeed him in his Throne; that no humane Kingdome shall be set up in the place of his Kingdome, as his shall be in the place of the foure Monarchies; but that in spight of all opposition both of men and devils, his dominion shall endure, untill the upshot and period of all temporall and humane government; that is, untill the last resurrection, when with a Venite benedicti, he shall give up the number of the Electfull and whole (as we say) unto God him­selfe.

That the restauration of Ierusalem and the first resurrection shall con­curre.You see againe, that when our Saviour comes to reigne over all the earth, he comes not alone, but brings all the Saints with him. Which words as they doe establish the literall sense of theLuk. 14. v. 14. ch. 20. v. 35, 36. Ioh. 6. v. 39 40.44, 45. Philip. 3. v. 11. 1 Thes 3. v. 13. ch. 4. v. 14. &c. Ezek. 37. v. 12, 13. first Resurrection, mentioned in the 20. Chap. of the Rev. So they make the Kingdome of Israel, and the thousand yeares reigne of the Saints there spo­ken of, to sunchronize and meete together, for why shall the Saints come with him, but because they have a share in this Kingdome, and are to be his assistants in it, as he told his Disciples; and as the Elders in the 5. Chap. of the Rev. at the 10. ver. said in the hearing of Saint John. Thou hast made us unto our God Kings, and Priests, and we Sanctorum super terram regia dignitas & aucto­ritas in hoc mundi statu unlla est; Sed exilium & perpetuae calamitates ac persecutiones, quas a tyrannis mundi [...]ujus regilus patiuntur. De al [...]ero igi­tur mundi statu hoc accipiendum. Qued si vero super terram regnalunt Sancti, u­tique ea non abo lebitur, vel annihi labitur: in id enim quod non est, creaturae do­minium non est. Eodem videtur Christus respexisse. Mat. 5. v. 5. Est & hoc observandum, quod Sancti aiunt, regnabimus, non, regnamus. Quo digitum in­tendunt ad alterum seculum. Nam ne Sancti quidem in coelo constituit, jam reg­nant super terram: quia cum patientia adhuc expectant liberanonem fratrum, quam accelerare non possunt. Apoc. 6. v. 10, 11. They are the words of Mar. Frid. Wendelinus (page 429.430. of the 21 ch. of the 2. Sect. of his naturall contemplations) urged in desence of an accidentall change of the world, a­gainst the essentiall abolition of it. Both which Tenets are, as I thinke, ve­ry true, if referred to their proper seasons. If (shunning both the impro­vident consounding, and pernicious wresting of Scripture) we as [...]me a marveilous renovation of this heaven and earth, at the beginning of our Saviours Kingdome, and a creation of n [...]w, at the end thereof, that is, at the last Judgement: when as it is in the 20. of the Rev. and the 11. ver. This Heaven and Earth shall flye away, and no place be found for them. And if they shall have place no more, then surely they can have being no longer, for place is an inseparable affection of their being. And consequently this Scripture proves an absolute annibilation of the first world. Which I suppose no man will deny, if he doth observe when this passing away of the first Heaven and Earth is to be accomplisht, to wit, above a thousand yeares after the renewing of them. For they are to be renewed at our Sa­viours entrance into his Kingdome, but they are not to passe away, till the giving up thereof to God the Father at the last Judgement, and so it stands [...]me, that these words imply no lesse then a perishing. Which yet may further be establisht by three other undeny able testimonies. One of the same A postle, in the next Chap. at the 1. ver. And I saw, saith he, a new Heaven, and a new Earth; for the first Heaven and the first Earth were passed away, and there was no more Sea. Which last clause expressely affirming an utter abolition of the Sea, doth plainely informe us, that by the flying and passing away of the first Earth (which with the Sea makes but one globe) is meant a substantiall perishing of it. Another of Moses, in the 8. chap. of Gen. at the 22. ver. While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and Summer and Winter, and day and night shall not cease. And therefore, when seed time and harvest, and Summer and Winter, and day and night shall cease, as it is most certaine they shall at the last judgement; the earth it selfe must of necessity then cease also. A third of Iob in his 26. Chap. at the 10. ver. He hath compassed the waters with bounds, untill the day (Deut. 11. v. 21.) and night come to an end. Which words being com­pared with the precedent testimony, wherein day and night are shewne to be of equall duration with seed time and harvest; and with that of the 22. of the Rev. where it is said (of the new Jerusalem and the Inhabitants thereof) There shall he no night there, and they need no candle, neither light of the Sunne; must needs be taken for a plaine and positive proose. That the day and night shall come to an end, and consequently, that the Stars, and so the sublunary creatures too, whose generation and continuance doe more or lesse depend upon celestiall influences (being all made onely for the use of man, while he is to have his residence and abode on this earth) shall (at mankindes removall from hence) together with this earth, with which they were created, be brought againe to nothing. shall Rom. 4. v. 13. Luk 19. v. 17.19. reigne on earth. And this will appeare to a diligent [Page 61] [Page 62]eye, even out of the controversed place in the 20. Chap. of the Rev. for besides, that the opposition betwixt the first and the last Resurrection, doth impose the same sense on both; besides this, I say, the vision represented not unto Saint John, perfect men (at the first) that is, men that should be be­headed for the witnesse of Jesus; but soules onely, and that as of men already beheaded: which most manifestly shewes, that the Resurrection after men­tioned, did follow their death, and not goe be­fore it. And therefore, may not be taken spiritu­ally, for their regeneration, for the renewing of their mindes, which is to precede their persecuti­on (and may more probably be referred to the sealing of the Servants of God in their foreheads, spoken of in the 7. Chap.) but materially and properly, for the quickning of their bodies, when once the number of the persecuted is fulfilled: whose consummation and glorious exaltation, this vision did represent. It is said also, that they Lived and Reigned with Christ a thousand yeares. But how can it be, that they should reigne immedi­ately after their resurrection; or begin their reigne all at once; or continue it but a thousand yeares, (which things these words imply) if by their Re­surrection, should be understood their Regeneration: and by their reigne, their being in Heaven, or if by the Word [they lived] should be meant onely, they were converted; how can they reigne so long as a [Page 63]thousand yeares, seeing the place of their Reigne must be on earth? for if they should be any where else, how can they be encompast againe with war, when the thousand yeares are expired, as the 9. ver. declares they shall? and lastly, the reigne of Christ doth not begin, till Antichrist is destroyed, so that a metaphoricall interpretation of the first re­surrection, would make good this Conclusion, that most of the Saints shall rise many hundred yeares before their Reigne; there being no lesse di­stance of time betwixt the houre of their calling, and Antichrists confusion. The assumption is grounded on the 15. ver. of the 11. Chap. of the Rev. Which shewes, that till the time of the se­venth trumpet (with the beginning whereof the last Viall doth concurre) The Kingdomes of The Kingdomes of this world? It is not said, the Kingdome of Heaven, to wit, of the third heaven (the incorruptible ha­bita [...]ion of Saints and Angels) or of another world, I say of another in substance. But the Kingdomes of this world, that is, this world which is now, and shall till then be divided into many Kingdomes, shall wholly be­come Christs; and be made by him, one Heavenly Kingdome: a King­dome in which men shall live after an Heavenly estate and condition: a Kingdome in which Gods will shall be done on earth, as it is in heaven, for seeing that cannot possibly become any mans possession, which doth utterly cease to be, what other construction can be given of these words, but this: that the government of all the Kingdomes of the world, is hereafter to be taken into Christs owne hands as he is man? and indeed, how else should they become his, after such a manner as they are not now his, if not by a subjection to his manhood? for as he is God, they were alwayes his; and all will grant that this Scripture doth plainely foreshew a deposing of all the Kings of the earth at the accomplishment thereof. A deposing of them I say, in such a way, that their Kingdomes may become the King­domes of our Lord, and of his Christ. Which cannot be by abolishing and dissolving the earth, on which they must reigne: but may and shall be by subduing and conquering them, and the Kingdomes over which they must reigne. this world doe not become the Kingdomes of our Lord, and of his Christ. And this also is intimated by the [Page 64]binding up ofRev. 20 v. 1, 2, 3. Satan a thousand yeares (with which the reigne of the Saints contemporates) which vision as it is the next to that of the battle, wherein the beast and false Prophet are taken; so doubtlesse it shall not till then receive its accom­plishment: for seeing Antichrist is but the devils instrument, we cannot imagine, that his power shall outlast the devils liberty, especially if we con­sider, that while Satan is in hold, there shall be a generall peace over all the World, as theIsa. 2. v. 4. Mich. 4. v. 3 Pro­phets say expressely, and as is here implyed, in that as soone as he is loosed againe,Rev. 20. v. 7.8. presently he shall gather all the rest of the world to fight against the Saints, but their malicious attempt shall finde no better successe, then that of the beast, the false Prophet, and the Kings of the earth (their pre­decessours) had done at the beginning of the thou­sand yeares.Ver. 9. For fire shall come downe from God our of heaven and devoure them.

Now against this which hath beene said touch­ing our Saviours Kingdome,The chiefe doubts re­solved. his owne words in the 18. of Saint John, at the 35. ver. may be object­ed. For there he saith plainely; My Kingdome is not of this World. And in the 25. of Matth. at the 31. ver. he saith, When the Sonne of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy Angels with him, then shall he sit upon the Throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all Nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a Shepherd divideth the sheepe from the Goates. With which agreeth that of Saint Pe­ter, in his 2. Ep. 3. Chap. and 7. ver. But the Hea­vens and earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire, against the day of Judge­ment, and perdition of ungodly men. And many other places there are of the like nature. But to the first, I answer, that those words of our Saviour do [Page 65]onely distinguish the time and condition of his Kingdome, from the time and condition of the Kingdomes of this world, at the setting up of whose Kingdome there shall be such anNeo enim dubium quin maxima rerum naturalium & humanarum mutatio regni hujus auspicia sit ante­cessura: Antichristus enim cum to ta sua Synagoga abolebitur, extingue tur homi­num pars maxima, gentilibus non nisi paucis relictis; [qui in posteris suis, non extra, sed intra regnum hoc mille annis supererunt, ut prophetiae supra memoratae, cum aliis in Scriptura passim occurrentibus, abunde testantur; sub decursum vero mille annorum mirum in modum aucti, & a Satana e carcere suo soluto ite­rum seducti, Sanctorum castra oppugnabunt, sed incassum.] Nec dubium est, quin rerum quoque naturalium, quae regni hujus incolis mi­nistrabunt, longe alia sit futura facies, quam impraesentiarum est: siquidem bea­tissimum & tranquillissimum erit regni istius seculum, omnis [...], quae in natura modo decurrit, expers. Mar. Frid. Wend. Contemp. phys. Sect. 2. cap. 17. p. 375, 376. alterati­on over the whole frame ofPsa. 46 Isa. 2. v. 12.19.21. chap. 11. v. 6. &c. chap. 30. v. 25, 26. chap. 41. v. 18, 19. chap. 55. v. 13. Ezek. 38. v. 19, 20. Matth. 24. v. 29, 30. Mark. 13. v. 24, 25. Luk, 21. v. 25, 26. Rev. 6. v. 12, 13, &c. chap. 16. v. 18, 19. &c. nature, and such a change of government on the Earth, that this time shall then as well be accounted the time of an other world, as the time before the Flood, is now taken for the old world by us; and was long agoe so stiled by Saint Peter, in his 2. Ep. 2. Chap. at the 5. ver. and 3. Chap. at the 6. ver. And therefore notwithstanding this proofe, the place of his Kingdome shall be the earth that now is, though this be not the time, nor any humane policy the patterne of his reigne. And to all such places, that mention onely the dissolution of the elements and the last judgement; I answer, that these are but a part of those things, which shall be done by Christ at his next appearing; and that as other Scriptures shew onely, that he must reigne on earth, and what shall be done at the beginning of his reigne, so these shew onely what shall be left undone, till the close of his Kingdome, when he shall deliver it up to God, even the Father. And in my conceit, Saint Peter in the very next verse [Page 66]doth intimate as much; for having before used the word [Day,] he warnes them not to be igno­rant of this one thing, that One day is with the Lord as a thousand yeares, and a thousand yeares as one Day. As if he had told them, that the Day he spake of, was indeed a thousand yeares: The Holy Ghost alwayes using it in this sense, when it is emphatically applyed to our Saviours com­ming, or the Jewes Redemption; (which as is al­ready proved, shall happen at the same time.) And though God, as he is eternall, cannot be measured by time: And, as he is immutable, feeles no alteration in time: a thousand (yea ten thou­sand times ten thousand) yeares, and one day (houre, or minute of a day) being in this respect all one to him: yet this shift cannot voyd the ex­position already given, seeing the apparent depen­dance of these words on the former, doth cleare­ly prove, that Saint Peter intended not to shew what a thousand yeares, and one day were to God in regard of his nature, (which it is like they knew before) but onely what is usually meant by one day in the Word of God. And indeed, to what purpose had this sudden and serious advertisement beene inferred, if the Apostle did not hereby dis­cover unto them (besides the largest definite and limited acception of the word) such a speciall re­lation of a thousand yeares to one day, as could not belong to any other number? when as touch­ing Gods immensity and immutability, one day might as well have beene compared with ten thou­sand times ten thousand, and thousands of thou­sands, (as I said) as with one thousand yeares. Th [...] [...] being so, I see not, but that Gods fore­appointment of a thousand yeares continuance to the world, forSicu [...]e septenis an­nis, septimus quisque, An­ [...]us; [...]emiss [...] ­ [...]is es [...]ita [...]e sep [...]e [...] milli bus a [...]o [...]um mund [...], sep­timus mi [...]e­nari [...] [...] e­nari [...] [...] [...]ission [...] e [...]it R. Keti [...]. vi [...]. Com. A [...]o [...]a. part 2 p. 28 [...]. each severall day of its first weeke [Page 67](the weeke of its creation) might in all likeli­hood, be the ground of this propheticall sense of the word, wherein it was afterwards delivered, by the infallible penmen of holy Writ. To this also may be added that in the 24. of Saint Mat. at the 31. ver. which shewes that when the Sonne of man descends, He shall send his Angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his Elect from the foure winds, from one end of the Heaven to the other: At which time, Two shall he in the field, the one shall be taken and the other left: Two Women shall be grinding at the Mill, the one shall be taken and the other left. And as Saint Luke records, Two men shall be in one hed, ch. 17. v. 34 the one shall be taken and the other left. But if our Saviour at his comming shall pre­sently give sentence on all that are not written in the booke of life: if he shall make no stay on earth, before he undertake this businesse; then why shall the elect onely be gathered together, and the rest left behinde, seeing that great Assise is to be held chiefely for the condemnation of ungodly men? Who doubtlesse are not to be left, that the evill Angels may fetch them, for they shall be partakers with them of that judgement, and therefore will be as unwilling to appeare before that barre, as they. Neither is it likely, that they shall be left, because the good Angels cannot at once assemble them to the place of Judgement, and the Elect to meete the Lord in the Aire, if these things were to be done at the same particular time. And therefore, as I suppose, they shall be left, either to perish in that generall destruction, which shall come upon all Nations that fight against the Jewes, whom our Saviour shall then redeeme: Or to bee eye-witnesses of Gods wonders in all Countryes at that time. (For that by Christs [Page 68]judging thePs. 2. v. 8. &c. Ps. 110. v. 2. &c. Ps. 149. v. 6. &c. Isa. 30. v. 25. ch. 66. v. 15.16. Ver. 8.9. quick and the dead, mentioned in the 2. to Tim. and the 4. chap. cannot be meant the last and compleat, but rather a former and in­choate judgement of ungodly men, it appeares out of the 20. of the Rev. where it is shewne, that the Saints enemies shall be all slaine before the last re­surrection. And we cannot say, that these which are to be left, shall be a part of that army there spoken of, because that Gog and Magog is to be destoyed at the end of our Saviours reigne, that is, immediate­ly before the last resurrection: whereas these shall be alive, at the time of that generall distresse, which shall light on the world, at his entrance into that appointed Kingdome, as the gathering together of the elect, who are to reigne with him, doth de­clare.) And this conjecture, Isa. in his 27. chap. at the 12. vers. doth sufficiently confirme. For the great sound of the Trumpet before spoken of in Saint Matth. as a warning for the gathering toge­ther of the elect, is there said to be a warning also of the Jewes returne: the words are these. It shall come to passe in that day, that the Lord shall beat off from the channell of the river unto the streame of Egypt, and yee shall be gathered one by one, O yee children of Israel; and it shall come to passe in that day, that the Isa. 18. v. 3. Zech. 9. v. 14. great Trumpet shall be blowne, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the out-casts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy Mount at Jerusalem.

And thus being thorowly satisfied by this cloud of witnesses, the double jury of Prophets and A­postles, with which I finde the doctrine of my Text to be encompast; I here give over the pur­suit of these meditations, and commend to as ma­ny as wish well to themselves and to Zion, these instructions following.

First, to praise God for his abundant mercie; who through the fall of the Jewes, hath brought sal­vation unto us Gentiles: that together with them, we might partake of the roote and fatnesse of their Olive tree.

Secondly, to beware of unbeliefe: which was the cause that the Jewes were broken off from their Olive. And if God spared not the naturall bran­ches, much lesse will he spare us, if by faith we con­tinue not in his goodnesse.

Thirdly, not to contemne or revile the Jewes, a fault too common in the Christian world; and that partly because we are unmindfull as well of the Olive from whence we were taken, as of that into which we are graffed: whose root bears us, & not we the root. And partly, because we misapply the infallible promises of God, by which he hath so freely, and so feelingly, so often and so openly declared, that he will againe graffe them in. For if we were cut out of the Olive tree, which is wild by nature, and were graffed contrary to nature, into a good Olive tree, how much more shall they which be the naturall branches, be graffed into their owne Olive tree? Rom. the 11. at the 24. vers.

And lastly, earnestly to beseech God, that hee would speedily put into execution, the means which he hath appointed for their conversion: that he would even in these our dayes bring this mystery to light, by powring on his people, the spirit of grace and supplications, whereby they may beleeve and repent.Zech. 12. v. 10. For their happinesse will both increase and consummate ours; so also the Apostle,If the fall of them, &c. Observe here, what Jewes are said to occasion the riches of the Gentiles. Not those that beleeved when the Apostle wrote this, although many of them were the first instruments of the Gentiles conversion: and much lesse they that have beleeved since that time: for these, as they come farre sho t of the others both in number and qualifications; so they may be said ra­ther to have taken of us, then given unto us: to have inherited the riches of the Gospel with us, but not increased them. Not the first beleevers there­fore, nor such which hitherto have so slowly, and thinly followed them; but the stiffe-necked and stubborne Jewes, who slew Christ, who martyr'd and persecuted his Disciples, They are here said to be the reconciling of the wo [...]d and the riches of the Gentiles: and that because their fall and casting away mov'd God so soone to visit us with the tydings of Salvation. And [...]fulnesse, the receiving of them it must be, that shall perfect us, the re­ [...]ng of them I say, which were then cast away: but how? not in [...]ir owne persons (for it is impossible that the same men should fall, and not fall; should be cast away, and not cast away) but in their posterity; and that not in part, and by fits, but wholly, and at once: for the Apostle speakes not of particular men, and families, but of all the Tribes, of the whole Nation. And indeed what but a generall conversion of the Jewes, can bring such felicity to the Gentiles, as shall not onely parallell, but ex­ceed the blessings which we have already received by their unbeliefe? [Page 70] If the fall of them be the riches of the world; and the di­minishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fulnesse? And againe, If the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world; what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? Rom. 11. vers. the 12. and 15.

Now to our Lord Jesus Christ, who is both the light of the Gentiles, and the glory of his peo­ple Israel; who is the faithfull witnesse, and the first begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the Kings of the earth: Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sinnes in his owne bloud; and made us Kings and Priests unto God, and his Fa­ther, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever, Amen, Amen.

Psal. 14. v. 7. Psal. 53. v. 6.

O that the salvation of Israel were come out of Sion! when the Lord bringeth back the cap­tivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoyce, and Israel shall be glad.

Psal. 106. v. 4, 5.

Remember me O Lord, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people: O visit me with thy salvation.

That I may see the Ier. 32 v. 42. ch. 33. v. 9. good of thy chosen, that I may rejoyce in the gladnesse of thy Nation: that I may glory with thine inheritance.

Micah 7. v. 14. &c.

Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwelleth solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the dayes of old.

According to the dayes of thy comming out of the Land of Egypt, will I shew unto him marvel­lous things.

The Nations shall see and be confounded at their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth: their eares shall be deafe.

They shall licke the dust like a Serpent, they shall move out of their Isa. 2. v. 19.20. Re [...]. [...]. v. 19 holes like wormes of the earth, they shall be afraid of the Lord our God, and shall feare because of thee.

Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth ini­quity, and passeth by the transgression of the [Page 72] Isa. 65. v. 9.15. Zeph. 3. v. 12 13. Rom. 11. v. 5 28. Remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.

He will turne againe, he will have compassion upon us: he will subdue our iniquities, and thou wilt cast all their sinnes into the depths of the Sea.

Thou wilt performe the truth to Isa. 65. v. 8. Rom. 11. v. 16.28. Jacob, and the mercy to Isa. 65. v. 8. Rom. 11. v. 16.28. Abraham, which thou hast sworne to our (m) Fathers from the dayes of old.

Isaiah 12.

In that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee, though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me.

Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength, and my song, he also is become my salvation.

Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the Wels of salvation.

And in that day shall yee say, Praise the Lord, call upon his Name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his Name is exalted.

Sing unto the Lord, for he hath done excellent things: this is knowne in all the earth.

Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the HOLYIsa. 55. v. 5. ch. 60. v. 9.14. Luke 4. v. 34. Acts 2. v. 27 ch. 3. v. 14. ONE of Israel in the midst of thee.

Isaiah 63. v. 15. &c.

Looke downe from Heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holinesse, and of thy glory, where is thy zeale and thy strength, the soun­ding of thy bowels, and of thy mercy towards me? are they restrained?

Doubtlesse thou art our Father, though Abra­ham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknow­ledgeth us not: thou O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer, thy Name is from everlasting.

O Lord, why hast thou made us to erre from thy wayes? and hardned our heart from thy feare? returne for thy servants sake, the Tribes of thine inheritance.

The people of thy holines have possessed it but a little while, our Adversaries have trodden down thy Sanctuary.

O that thou wouldest rent the Heavens, Ch. 64. v. 1. &c. that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow downe at thy presence. (As when the mel­ting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boyle) to make thy Name knowne to thine Adversaries, that the Nations may tremble at thy presence.

When thou diddest terrible things which wee looked not for, thou camest downe, the moun­taines flowed downe at thy presence. For since the beginning of the world, 1 Cor. 2 v. 9. men have not heard, nor perceived by the eare, neither hath the eye seene O God, besides thee; what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.

Nunc fera, mucro, fames; nuncRev. 6.8 mórsque fideli­bus instat:

GOG AND MAGOG, OR THE BATTLE OF THE GREAT DAY OF GOD ALMIGHTIE.

THat we may the better know what enemies are meant by Gog and Magog in the 20. chap. of the Rev. it will not be amisse, first,Vers. 8. to examine who are meant by Gog and Magog in the 38, and 39. chap. of Ezekiel. And this can no way be so well found out, as by comparing Ezekiels prophesie with other Prophesies. For (albeit this of Eze­kiel be in forme and manner of expression, some­what different from others, and in matter much more copious than others: that being delivered here plainly, fully, and together, which is in some but obscurely glanc't at, and in others revealed [Page 94]but in part, or at most by parcels (as we say) that is, some part in one place, and some in another; yet) that Ezekiel goes not alone in the subject of this Revelation, it is evident by the Querie made by God himselfe in the very same Prophesie. Thus saith the Lord God, Art thou hee of whom I have spo­ken in Hab. 2.3 old time by my servants the Prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those dayes many yeares, that I would bring thee against them? chapter the 38. at the 17. verse. Not onely one Ezekiel then, but other Prophets also besides him, have foretold the same thing which Ezekiel here speakes of. Yet passing by all the rest, I will onely joyne the Pro­phecie of Joel in his 3. chap. with this of Ezekiel, and so compare them both with that which is written in the 16. and 19. chap. of the Rev. And if it shall appeare thatEccles. 4.12. Ezekiel, Joel, and John, do all foreshew one and the same battell, then surely it will be no hard matter to say to what time, and so to what army Ezekiels Gog and Ma­gog hath reference. Now the reasons which move mee to beleeve the concurrence of the foresaid Prophesies in their argument and contents, and so in the time of their accomplishment, are these:

First, because they all speake of a more generall confederacy and combination of the Kings of the world, then hath hitherto beene knowne in any age: by meanes whereof there shall bee such a mighty army, as was never yet gathered together in any place, since there began to be warre on the earth, Ezek. Chap. 38. Vers. 4, 5, 6.9.15. Joel Ch. 3. Vers. 2.9.11.14. Revel. Chap. 16. Vers. 14. Chap. 19. Vers. 19.

Secondly, because they all say, that the retur­ning of the Jewes into their owne Land, shall be the occasion of this warre-like assembly. Ezekiel [Page 95]Chap. 38. Vers. 8.16. Joel Chap. 3. Vers. 1.2. Rev. 16.12.

Thirdly, because they all declare that the destru­ction of this great army, shall be in the land of Judea. Ezek. Chap. 39. Vers. 4, 5, 11, 12, 15, 17. Joel chap. 3. v. 2, 12. Rev. chap. 16. vers. 16.

Fourthly, because they all discover the same ex­traordinary effects, which are to happen at the very instant of the armies overthrow, Ezek. 38.19, 20, 22. Joel 3.15, 16. Rev. 16.18, 19, 20, 21.

Fifthly, because they all foreshew, that as soone as this judgment is past over, there shal [...]nsue a most peaceable, prosperous, and pious estate to the Jewes in their owne land, Ezek. chap. 39. vers. 21, 22, 29. chap. 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48. Joel chap. 3. vers. 17, 18, 20, 21. Rev. 20.2, 3, 4, 6.

And sixthly, seeing these Prophets go thus farre hand in hand, it will not be altogether imperti­nent to mind you in the last place of two things more;

One is, that the metaphor of the sickle and the winepresse, is us'd in the description of no other overthrow but of this, Isa. chap. 63. v. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Joel ch. 3. ver. 13. Rev. 14. ver. 10, 19, 20. ch. 19. v. 15.

The other is, that (though the bodies both of the Jewes and Gentiles; yea of the good and bad, have beene often left as meat for the fowles of hea­ven, yet) the fowles are no way summond to eate the flesh of men, by way of proclamation (which is a generall one too, and so argues the visitation to be the greater) but onely at the execution of this judgement, Ezek. chap. 39. vers. 17, 18, 19, 20. Rev. chap. 19. vers. 17, 18.

Now all that will be stucke at in this parallell, is the obscurity on S. Johns part, the explication whereof (that the foresaid reasons might be all briefly and roundly delivered without any inter­ruption) [Page 96]I have reserv'd for this place. And here the first Querie will have us shew