r 
 
 UC-NRLF 
 
 B 3 37^ M32 
 
W*Q@i 
 
THE 
 
 RESURRECTION 
 
 REVEALED. 
 
the 
 
 RESURRECTION REVEALED, 
 
 OR THE 
 
 DAWNING OF THE DAY-STAR ; 
 
 •• Xon prudentcr damnant, vel indocti, quod nesciunt ; vel docti, quod 
 novum putant ; vel aliqui, quodcunque redarguere nequeunt." 
 
 BY NATHANIELHOMES, D.D. 
 
 FIRST 
 
 BUT NOW REVISED, CONDENSED, AND INCORPORATED WITH 
 A SUPPLEMENTARY WORK BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 LONDON : SIMPKIN AND MARSHALL. 
 
 M DCCC XXXIII. 
 
/f-k 
 
 3 7 
 
 y<f-*~4* 
 
 TURVEY, PRINTER, 
 RETFORD, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. 
 
Ill 
 
 
 /-Joseph Caryll. 
 IMPRIMATUR, J 
 
 t Peter Sterry. 
 
 In pursuance of an Order, bearing date the sixth instant, for my pe- 
 rusal of a Treatise by Dr. N. Homes, and to report my opinion con- 
 cerning the same, I certify as follows ; 
 
 That all the saints shall reign with Christ a thousand years on earth, 
 both in a visible and spiritual glorious manner, before the time of the 
 ultimate and general resurrection, is a position, which (though not a 
 few have hesitated about and opposed it) has gained ground in the 
 hearts and judgements of very many, both grave and godly men, who 
 have left us divers essays and discourses upon this subject. And 
 (having perused the learned and laborious work of this author) I con- 
 ceive, that the Church of God hath not hitherto seen this point so 
 clearly stated, so largely discussed, and so strongly confirmed — not only 
 by the testimony of ancient and modern writers of all sorts, but by the 
 holy Scriptures throughout — as it is presented in this Book. Wherein 
 also divers other considerable points are collaterally handled, all tending 
 to set forth the catastrophe and result of the troubles and hopes of such 
 as fear God, as the preface to their eternal bliss. And whereas some 
 have been, and still are, apt to abuse this doctrine, by making it an oc- 
 casion to the flesh, and of heating themselves in the expectation of a 
 carnal liberty and worldly glory ; I find that this author hath cautiously 
 forelaid and prevented all such abuses, by shewing the exceeding spi- 
 rituality and holiness of this state : to which, as none but the truly 
 holy can attain ; so, having attained it, they shall walk in the height 
 of holiness. And therefore I judge this book very useful for the saints, 
 and worthy of public view. 
 
 JOSEPH CARYLL. 
 October 13, 1653. 
 
IV 
 
In obedience to an order dated October the sixth, I have (as my pre- 
 sent weakness ivill give me leave) perused that ivhich hath been brought 
 unto me, written by Dr. Homes in several Books, concerning the King- 
 dom of Christ on Earth ; and do return this as my sense of it K 
 
 The subject (which is the reign of our Saviour with his saints on 
 earth) is of a transcendant glory in itself, of universal importance to 
 all persons and states, and very seasonable for the present times. Like 
 a piece of rich coin, which hath been long buried in the earth and lately 
 dug up again, it begins to grow bright with handling, and to pass cur- 
 rent with great numbers of saints and learned men of great authority. 
 As the same star at different seasons is the evening-star, setting imme- 
 diately after the sun, and then the morning -star , shining immediately 
 before it ; so was this truth the evening- star to the first coming of 
 Christ, setting together with the glory of that day in a night of anti- 
 christianism ; and now it appears again in our times, as a morning-star 
 to that blessed day of the second effusion of the Spirit, and the second 
 appearance of our Saviour in the glory of the Father. 
 
 The manner of handling this subject appears to be with pious and 
 modest learning, judgment, industry, and variety ; — a variety of 
 divine matter, excellent reading, choice Scriptures and expositions of 
 Scripture ; — out of all which ariseth much present light, many hints 
 for more, with quickening occasions for further searches and discove- 
 ries : so that this Book is, at once, a well grown orchard and a nur- 
 serv of truths. 
 
 The opinions, which the Doctor holds forth in this book, cannot ex- 
 pect to have the concurrence of all gracious and judicious spirits, or 
 a clearness in all particulars ; the subject being a prophetic truth, ap- 
 proaching indeed, but still at some distance : yet they all move upon 
 a hinge of three principal points, which seem to lie fair and uj3perinost 
 in the letter of divers Scriptures, and have been stamped with the 
 authority of men eminent in holiness and learning. These three points 
 are such as cut off all pretence to sensuality and contention from the 
 reign of Christ ; — such as instruct the saints to a peaceable, patient 
 and joyful waiting for Him ; "that when He appears, they may appear 
 with him in glory ;" — such as, being rightly understood, confirm the 
 letter and heighten the spirituality of Scripture, giving a distinct and 
 joint accomplishment to letter and Spirit, each in the other ; the letter 
 having its fulness in the Spirit, and the fulness of the Spirit taking in 
 
VI 
 
 the letter. These three principal points of testimony and entrance 
 to Christ's kingdom arc, First, the indubitable evidence of our 
 Lord's appearance in his own person, for the several purposes of con- 
 viction to the world, conversion of the Jews, glorification to the 
 Mints, ;md renovation to the creature : whether his appearance shall 
 be miraculous ; (the Lord condescending to veil for a season his glori- 
 fied body under a meaner form, that it may be fitted to our natural 
 -i li e;) or whether his appearance shall be my sterious ; (the Lord in 
 the instant of it transfiguring the dead and living saints into a con- 
 formity to his glorified body, that in the twinkling of an eye they 
 may Bee their King and he may see them in beauty ;) or whether 
 both these, according to Matt, xxiv, 30 ; 1 Cor. xv, 51 ; and Phil, iii, 
 90, 21. Secondly, that the state of the saints' kingdom shall be the 
 resurrection from the dead and the change of the living saints, equiva- 
 lent to the resurrection of the bodies of those that sleep in the dust. 
 Thus each particular saint and the whole church, being predestinated 
 to be conformed to the likeness of his image, shall answer to the state 
 of Christ between his resurrection and ascension ; and which seems to 
 have been his paradisi acal sta te ; — his soul entering into paradise at his 
 death, and his body at his resurrection being re- assumed into the same 
 state with the soul. The last head is, that there shall be a new earth to 
 be the seat of this new kingdom. For if the earth, being made new 
 with the newness of the Spirit, be also spiritualized, then will it befit for 
 glorified inhabitants. The streets of the new Jerusalem are said to be 
 as gold and glass, which describe its spirituality ; — as gold, for its 
 solid simple substance, and for its shining glory: and as pure glass, for 
 its transparency, clearness, and thorough lightsomeness. 
 
 PETER STERRY. 
 
 October 19, 1G53. 
 
Vll 
 
 THE EDITORS PREFACE. 
 
 In presenting again this Treatise of Dr. Nathaniel Homes to the 
 Public, the Editor considers himself called upon to state the alterations 
 which he has taken the liberty of making. 
 
 The first part of the Work was anciently published without any 
 view to the second. It consists of a mass of proofs from the Scriptures 
 and Fathers, together with argumentation, in behalf of those doctrines 
 usually denominated millennarian — including the personal appearing of 
 the Lord Jesus, the destruction of Antichrist, the resurrection of the 
 saints, and their rule upon a renewed earth, &c. There is evidence 
 in this work, from the author's own admissions, that it contains some 
 things, which he would not and needed not to have published, especially 
 in the way of replying to objections : but this is still more apparent 
 from his avowal in his supplementary work ; which consists of " Ten 
 Exercitations" or essays, containing nearly as much matter as the 
 former Treatise. These are intended to supply additional proof ; to can- 
 cel some things which he considered unnecessary or injudicious ; to treat 
 on collateral topics ; and to reply to such further objections as had pre- 
 sented themselves, since the publication of the first part. In this 
 second Work, besides the accession of much valuable matter, there is 
 also a great repetition of that previously adduced ; and the first object 
 therefore of the Editor has been to incorporate the two treatises, and 
 to endeavour to effect that more lucid arrangement of the whole, and 
 those retrenchments, which the author, were he now alive to perform 
 the work himself, would doubtless aim at. 
 
Vlll 
 
 Besides this, it is well known, that most writers of the age in which 
 Dr. Homes lived, indulged in a prolixity of style, which often renders 
 their works tedious, and in some instances obscure. Our author is 
 perhaps as little chargeable with this fault as any writer of his time ; 
 but there are nevertheless numerous instances, in which his style may 
 be condensed without the smallest detriment, but rather to the advan- 
 tage of his argument ; and which will enable the Editor, as he trusts, to 
 reduce the two original volumes, forming together a bulk of nearly 
 one thousand folio pages, into two moderate octavo volumes. 
 
 There are some sections of the second treatise, as also one or two 
 in the first, which, as they are either irrelevant to the matter in hand, 
 or break the thread of the argument, will be thrown into an appendix. 
 
 The Editor has likewise taken the liberty of modernising the phra- 
 seology by equivalent modes of expression, whenever he has deemed 
 it conducive to greater perspicuity : but he can nevertheless con- 
 scientiously present it as a work, which in its opinions, arguments, 
 and general style is faithfully conformed to the original. 
 
THE 
 
 RESURRECTION REVEALED 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The most sacred Scriptures do frequently affirm, that all the 
 Saints shall reign with Christ a long time — namely a thousand 
 years — at the Restitution of all things and their new creation, 
 before the time of ultimate and general resurrection. 
 
 By saints I mean all the elect, called and to be called ; whose 
 characters (that we may know them in relation to our position) 
 are in the Revelation drawn to the life : — " And I saw thrones, 
 " and they sat upon them, and judgement was given to them ; and 
 " I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of 
 " Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped 
 " the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon 
 " their foreheads, or in their hands : and they lived, and reigned 
 " with Christ a thousand years." xx. 4. In which words, I mind 
 at this time chiefly the three characteristics of them that shall 
 reign with Christ : viz. first, beheading ; signifying, by a synech- 
 doche, all persecution, either more particularly " for the witness 
 of Jesus," or more generally " for the word of God." Secondly, 
 " not worshiping the beast, nor his image ;" i.e. they reverence 
 not, either apparent gross idolatry, nor specious and refined 
 idolatry, in a divine worship, under the notion of prudentials. 
 Thirdly, " they receive not the mark of the beast in their hands, 
 or foreheads ;" that is, they yield not subjection to Antichrist, 
 secretly or openly, neither profess him or contest for him, or 
 for any thing against the truth. 
 
10 
 
 These three characters are here given to comprehend all 
 saints : for haply some have in a measure subjected outwardly 
 to Antichrist, but did not worship ; some perhaps have not 
 subjected, but had not the opportunity or magnanimity to 
 suffer ; and others may have subjected or worshiped, and after- 
 wards repented and suffered. In other places of the Revela- 
 tion, instead of this negative — " have not the mark of the 
 beast ;" they are said "to have the mark of the Lamb's Father 
 in their forehead." Rev. xiv, 1, &c. They profess the truth 
 of God, with faith in Christ Jesus ; they are truly " saints, and 
 fear the name of God ;" which is the description given in Rev. 
 xi, 15 — 18 of those that shall reign with Christ. 
 
 All such saints shall reign with Christ, (the kingdoms of the 
 earth then being actually and absolutely become his kingdoms,) 
 and visibly possess the power and dominion over the earth, for 
 a thousand years, literally and properly taken ; and Christ shall 
 most gloriously appear, at least at the beginning and ending of 
 that thousand years : though we cannot yet so demonstratively 
 and infallibly hold forth, that he shall continue all that time 
 personally present upon the earth. The devil, in the mean- 
 while, shall all that time be wholly and absolutely restrained (in 
 effects, acts, and person,) from the precincts of the Church. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 The Imprimatur hi 
 
 The Editor's Preface vii 
 
 Introduction 9 
 
 Chapter I. Ancient Testimonies to a future glorious state 
 
 of the Church on earth 1° 
 
 Hebrew Antiquities 10 
 
 Greek Antiquities 24 
 
 Latin Antiquities .... 29 
 
 Objections refuted 36 
 
 Chapter II. Old Testament Evidence 45 
 
 Chapter III. New Testament Evidence 227 
 
 Chapter IV. The personal appearing of Christ at the be- 
 ginning of the glorious state on earth 247 
 
 Chapter V. The glorious state itself 274 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. I. The Conflagration of the World 301 
 
 — II. Gog and Magog 308 
 
 — III. The Two Witnesses 316 
 
 — IV. Emendations on Sundry Texts 333 
 
INDEX OF TEXTS 
 
 DISCUSSED IN THE COURSE OF THE WORK. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Genesis i, 2G— 28 60 
 
 ii, 4,5 333 
 
 iv,2IS 333 
 
 Exodus i, 21 334 
 
 Numbers xxiv, 16 — 25 — 69 
 
 Deur. xxx, 1—10 73 
 
 xxxii, 15 — 44 76 
 
 2 Chron. xvi, 1 334 
 
 xxii, 1,2 334 
 
 Psalm ii 77 
 
 ii, 7 335 
 
 viii 60, 77 
 
 xii, 5 335 
 
 -xxii, 27, 29 80 
 
 xcv, 7 — 1 1 88 
 
 xcvii, 7 81 
 
 ex 82 
 
 Isaiah ii, 1—21 93 
 
 viii, 22 335 
 
 ix, 1 335 
 
 ix,6. 7 95 
 
 x to xii 98 
 
 xiv, 1 — 7 105 
 
 xxiv, 23 108 
 
 xxv, xxvi 110 
 
 xxxiii, 20, 21 114 
 
 xxxiv, 1— 18 114 
 
 xliii, xliv 116 
 
 xlv 120 
 
 xlix 122 
 
 liv 124 
 
 lix, 19—21 126 
 
 lxiii, 1—6 128 
 
 lxv, 17—25 129 
 
 lxvi 129 
 
 Jerem. xvi, 14, 15 131 
 
 i xxiii, 3 — 9 131 
 
 xxv, 5 r 6 268 
 
 xxx 133 
 
 mi 133 
 
 xxxii, 37—44 134 
 
 1,17—20 134 
 
 Ezek. xxviii, 24—26 137 
 
 xxxiv, 11—31 138 
 
 xxxvi, 9—37 138 
 
 xxxvii 138 
 
 Daniel ii, 31—45 140 
 
 vii 146, 267 
 
 xi, xii 156 
 
 Hoseai, 10, 11 169 
 
 PACE. 
 
 Hosea iii, 4,5 172 
 
 Joelii, 28—32 177 
 
 iii 181 
 
 Amosix, 11—15 189 
 
 Obadiah, 17—21 . . . . : 189, 193 
 
 Micahiv 197,269 
 
 Zeph. iii, 8—20 200, 270 
 
 Zech. ii, 4—12 205, 269 
 
 vi, 12—15 208 
 
 viii, 20— 23 209 
 
 x, 3— 12 1 210 
 
 xii 214,247 
 
 xlv. 3—21 216 
 
 Malachi iv 219 
 
 Matthew xxiii, 38, 39 263 
 
 xxiv, 13, 14 227 
 
 xxiv, 30 251 
 
 xxvi, 29 257 
 
 xxvii, 9, 10 336 
 
 Mark xi, 13 337 
 
 Luke i, 31, 32 229 
 
 xix, 11— 28 265 
 
 xxi, 24 231 
 
 xxii, 28—30 232 
 
 John xviii, 28 339 
 
 Actsi, 6,7 234 
 
 iii, 19— 21 260 
 
 xv, 13— 17 189 
 
 Romans xi, 25 — 27 234 
 
 1 Cor. xvi, 22—28 236 
 
 2 Cor. iii, 15—18 237 
 
 Gal. ii, 20 339 
 
 Philip, ii, 9—11 242 
 
 2 Thess. ii, 1—9 253 
 
 1 Tim. iii, 16 340 
 
 iv, 1— 3 340 
 
 2 Tim. ii, 6 343 
 
 iv, 1 260 
 
 Hebrews ii, 5 60 
 
 2 Peter iii, 10—14 301 
 
 iii, 18 343 
 
 Rev. i, 7 249 
 
 ii, 25—28 243 
 
 iii, 21 245 
 
 xi 316 
 
 xiii, 8 343 
 
 xviii 245 
 
 xix 245 
 
 xx, 1— 6 48 
 
 xx, 7— 15 308 
 
>* O" THR 
 
 r uNivr ty; 
 
 CHAPTERL 
 
 ANCIENT TESTIMONIES. 
 Hebrew Antiquities. 
 
 To remove in the first place the prejudice of noveltv, we shall 
 produce approved Antiquity, both before and after Christ, with 
 a multitude of later worthies, congratulating with this truth. 
 Which testimony we intend not for proof of the doctrine ; but 
 to remove impediments from men's minds, and so to reconcile 
 them to a patient attention and tractable docility. 
 
 1. Of Hebrew antiquities, which, for seniority's sake, we set in 
 the front, we have divers. The first is the Targum or Chaldee 
 Paraphrase ; a which took its beginning from the captivity of 
 the Jews in Babylon : where their native tongue grew so out of 
 use, that the generality of them better understood the Chaldee 
 than the Hebrew. The Targum hath many pertinent things ; 
 especially if we compare several copies of it. For there is a 
 Manuscript Targum, which upon Esther, chap, i, reckoning 
 up the several monarchies from the beginning of the world unto 
 the end thereof, makes the computation thus : " The first rao- 
 " narchy was of God ; second, under Nimrod ; third, under 
 " Pharaoh ; fourth, under Solomon ; fifth, under Nebuchad- 
 " nezzar ; sixth, under the Medes and Persians ; seventh, under 
 " Alexander the Great; eighth, under Julius Caesar; the ninth 
 " the kingdom of the Messiah, or Christ." Where observe, 
 how the Jews place the kingdom of Christ next in order after 
 the Roman monarchy, and to be on earth, as the former were. 
 
 2. The Babylonia?! targum, or ordinary Chaldee paraphrase, 
 saith upon, Gen. xlix, 10, 11, " that Christ shall come, whose 
 
 a It is presumed, that the practice of giving the Chaldee paraphrase, at the 
 reading of the Law, began in Ezra's time ; (see Nehemiah viii, 7 — 9.) but there 
 is no authentic written paraphrase or targum before the time of Onkelos and Jo- 
 nathan, who lived about thirty years before the time of our Saviour. The Jeru- 
 salem Targum is indeed supposed to be a fragment of some much more ancient 
 paraphrase. These Targums are published in Buxtorf's Hebrew Bible ; Batih 
 1610.— Ed. 
 
12 
 
 " is the kingdom, and him shall the peoples obey." Observe 
 the plural peoples, i.e. the nations indefinitely. This the 
 Jerusalem targum expresseth more literally and universally: 
 " The King Christ shall come, whose is the kingdom, and all 
 •• tings (mark the universality and the persons) shall be subject 
 " unto him ; so that those kings and princes, that will not be 
 " subject unto him, he shall kill : making the universe red with 
 " the blood of their slain, and the hills white with the fat of 
 " their mighty men, &c." But these things were not fulfilled 
 at Christ's advent in the flesh : it was above three hundred 
 years after before one king or nation was subject to him ; (viz. 
 in the time of Constantine the Great ;) and except some sprink- 
 lings of converts here and there, called churches, the nations and 
 kings of the earth either took no cognizance of his interest or 
 persecuted it, even as ten parts of the world do to this day. 
 Neither hath Christ yet taken that material and sensible venge- 
 ance on them, by killing the disobedient, in order to bring the 
 rest into a visible subjection to him. 
 
 3. Paraphrast Jonathan, in his Chaldee paraphrase of Hosea 
 xiv, 8, hath these words, " They [speaking of the Jews] shall be 
 " gathered together from out of the midst of their captivity ; they 
 " shall dwell under the shadow of their Christ ; and the dead 
 " shall live ; and good shall grow in the earth ; and there shall 
 " be a memorial of their goodness fructifying and never failing; 
 " as the remembrance of the sound of the trumpets over the 
 " old wine, which was wont to be offered in the sanctuary." 
 To this let me add a passage out of the Capitula of Rabbi Eliezer 
 the Great, who lived just after the second temple was built : 
 " As I live, saith Jehovah, I will raise you up [speaking of the 
 " Jews] in the time to come in the resurrection of the dead ; and 
 " I will gather you with all Israel. " Cap. xxxiv. Both these 
 places harmonise ; in that, to this day, the generality of the Jews 
 have not owned any Messiah to be come in the flesh, but refused 
 him, according as it was foretold in Isaiah, liii, 3. And the 
 remnant of believing Jews have never since seen that particular 
 resurrecti n of the dead, or that gathering together out of the 
 midst of their captivity, or that general good in the earth. And 
 therefor according to the Scriptures these things are yet to 
 come, before the last and general resurrection. 
 
> .5 
 
 Of Hebrew antiquities since the incarnation of Christ, (viz, 
 their two Talmads b &c.) we shall also give some particulars. 
 
 4. In Gemarah Sanhedrin we read : " R. Ketina hath said : 
 41 In the last of the thousands of years of the world's continuance 
 " the world shall be destroyed ; of which period it is said, ' The 
 *' Lord onlv shall be exalted in that day.' Is. ii, 11, 17- And 
 " tradition agrees with R. Ketina ; for even as every seventh 
 " year is a year of release, so of the seven thousand years of the 
 " world, the seventh thousand years shall be the thousand of 
 " release; as it is said, * And the Lord alone shall be exalted in 
 *' day/ Likewise Psalm xcii is said to be, ' A Psalm or Song for 
 " the Sabbath day ; that is—the day that is all rest. " And also 
 *' Ps. xc : ' A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday.' ' 
 
 From this it must be plain to acute observers, that the ancient 
 rabbinical Jews did clearly understand the exaltation of the Lord, 
 twice repeated in Isaiah ii, as meant of the great day of the reign 
 of Christ ; which some rabbins call the day of Judgment ; others, 
 the day of Messiah ; others, the day of Renovation of the world. 
 
 5. In Midrasch Tehillim, upon Psalm xc, 15, we thus read: 
 " ' Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hart afflicted 
 " us,' — that is, by the Babylonian, the Grecians, and the Ro- 
 " mans ; and the gladness in the days of the Messiah. And how 
 " many are the days of Messiah ? R. Jehosuas said, that they are 
 " two thousand years ; even as it is said, ' According to the days 
 " wherein thou hast humbled us :' that is, according to two days ; 
 " and one day of our blessed God is a thousand years, according 
 <' to that Scripture : ' Because a thousand years in thy sight are 
 " but as yesterday/ The Rabbins also have said, that according 
 " to the time to come, the day of the Messiah shall be one. 
 " For God, which is holy and blessed, in the future [age] shall 
 " make one day to himself ; of which we read in Zech. xiv : * And 
 " ' there shall be one day, which shall be known to the Lord, 
 
 b The Talmud is a collection of Jewish traditions, and consists of two parts. 
 The first, which is the text, comprehends the traditions themselves, and is called 
 Mischna, i.e. Second Law; the second contains the commentaries of the 
 Rabbins on the text, and is called Gemarah, i.e. Completion. There are two 
 Talmuds, the Babylonish and the Jerusalem ; the Mischna being the same in both, 
 but differing in the commentaries. The former is most esteemed by the Jews, 
 and is the work always intended by them, when they speak generally of the Tal- 
 mud. The Mischna, according to I . eir unanimous testimony, was composed 
 about the close of the second century, by Rabbi Juhuda Hakkadosh ; the com- 
 mentaries were added long after by Rabbi Jochanan Eliezar. — Ed.« 
 
' 14 
 
 •' • not day, nor night, and it shall be at the evening-time light.' 
 " This day is the age to come, and the quickening of the dead." 
 G. In their book called Beracholh, we find this. " Benzuma 
 " saith, It shall come to pass, that Israel shall not remember 
 " their departure out of the land of Egypt, in the world to come, 
 " and in the days of the Messiah. And how doth this appear ? 
 " By that which is written, ' Behold the day cometh, that they 
 " ' shall say no more, the Lord liveth which brought the children 
 " ' of Israel up out of the land of Egypt, &c.' Which wise men 
 "interpret not, as if the name of Egypt should be blotted 
 " out : but that the wonders, which shall be effected in the 
 " days of the kingdom of Messiah shall principally be remem- 
 " bered, and their departure out of Egypt less." 
 
 7. R. Saadias on Dan. vii, 18 (" the saints of the most High 
 shall take the kingdom,") says thus : " Because the children of 
 " Israel have rebelled against the Lord, their kingdom shall be 
 " taken from them, and shall be given to the four monarchies, 
 " which shall possess the kingdom in this world, and shall lead 
 " Israel captive, and subdue them to themselves, even till the 
 " world to come when Messiah shall reign." 
 
 8. I add further proofs of the opinions of the Rabbins out of 
 
 the learned Treatise of R. Menasse Ben Israel " l)e Resurreclione 
 
 Moriuorum :" the truth or falsehood of which opinions I stay 
 
 not to dispute ; but this I infer from them, that they must 
 
 needs have expected a happy estate of good men on earth at 
 
 their resurrection. In lib. ii, c. 10, he notices, in order to refute, 
 
 the objection, how the world shall be able to contain all that 
 
 shall be raised, and particularly the land of Palestine all the 
 
 Jews. " The Rabbins answer (he says) that there are now 
 
 " manv tracts of the world which are either unknown, or if 
 
 " known, through too much heat or cold not inhabited. Which 
 
 " things shall not be so at the resurrection; for then all parts 
 
 " of the earth shall be known and be habitable. And Isaiah 
 
 " excellently explains the capacity of Palestine, or the holy land 
 
 " promised to the Israelites as the place of their entertainment : 
 
 " ' Sing O, barren, &c. enlarge the place of thy tent, and let 
 
 " ' them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations ; spare 
 
 " ' not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes. For 
 
 " ' thou shalt break forth on the right hand, and on thy left; 
 
15 
 
 " ' and thy seed shall inherit the gentiles, and shall make the 
 " ' desolate cities to be inhabited.' By the place of the tent is 
 " meant Jerusalem ; and by the curtains of her tabernacle, the 
 " cities of the holy land. Moreover, saith the prophet, those 
 " curtains shall extend themselves very far ; in which he agrees 
 " with the words of Zechariah; * that Jerusalem shall be extended 
 " ' unto the gates of Damascus, and Hamar with Tyre and Sidon 
 " ' shall enter into the borders of the holy land ;' (ix, 1, ) even 
 "' as the Chaldee paraphrase doth expound : which also may be 
 " confirmed out of Jeremiah, xxxi, 38. ' Behold the days come, 
 " ' saith the Lord, that the city shall be built to the Lord, from 
 " * the tower of Hannaneel, unto the gate of the corner. And 
 " ' the line shall go forth over against it, upon the hill Gareb, 
 " ' &c. ' " Lib. iii, c. 1, touching the meaning of the Scripture 
 phrase, 'world to come,' he says : " Some understand the world 
 " of separated souls ; others that world that shall follow a cer- 
 " tain term of time, after the time of the resurrection ; others, 
 " that world that begins at the very hour of the resurrection. 
 *' Which third opinion is to me the most probable. Of this 
 " opinion was R. Moses Gorundensis in a contest against 
 " R. Moses Egyptius, who held the first of the three opinions 
 " aforesaid. And Gerundensis' opinion in sum was this : 
 " that the world to come is that, which immediately follows 
 " * the resurrection of the dead ; into which all that live piously, 
 " • probously, and honestly, being raised, shall be brought, in soul 
 " ' and body conjoined, to enjoy indefinitely, and without end, 
 " ' the reward of their labors.' " 
 
 The sum of the second chapter of this book is, 'that the resurrec- 
 tion of the dead, shall be conjoined unto the days of the Messiah,' 
 R. Menasse first learnedly proves this out of the books of Moses 
 and the prophets ; and, secondly, lets in a stream of learned ancient 
 Rabbins consenting thereunto." Itis apparent,saith he,outof Mo- 
 " ses by that song of his, (Deut. xxx, 35—40,) ' To me belongeth 
 " ' vengeance, &c. their foot shall slide in due time. For the 
 " ' Lord shall judge his people., and repent himself for his ser- 
 " ' vants, when he seeth that their power is gone, &c. See now 
 " ' that I, even I am he, and there is no God with me ; I kill, 
 " ' and I make alive.' See here the day of the coming of the 
 " Messiah, and the day of the resurrection are conjoined. As 
 
10 
 
 r the prophets, it is manifest out of the second chapter of 
 Isaiah ; ' It shall come to pass in the last days, that the moun- 
 tain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the 
 " ' mountains, &c. for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and 
 "' the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and He shall judge 
 " ' among the nations, &c.' (v. 2—5.) After the prophet had 
 spoken of the time of the Messiah, presently he proceeds to 
 " those tilings that are to follow, viz. to the day of judgment, 
 " and the resurrection of the dead. ' For, (saith he), the day of 
 " ' the Lord shall be on every one that is proud and lofty, &c. 
 " ' upon all the cedars of Lebanon, and upon all the oaks of 
 " ' Bashan, and upon all the ships of Tarshish, &c.' No doubt 
 "but by the day of the Lord, the prophet signifies the day of 
 " judgment ; which otherwise is called the day of resurrection 
 " of the dead ; for then the dead are judged : and it is called also 
 " the day of the Lord, because a day of admiration. Nothing 
 " then that is ordinary shall be done, but all above nature, &c." 
 " Thus far we have shown by Scripture (saith he) that the 
 •' resurrection of the dead shall be conjunctive to the coming of 
 " the Messiah ; next it remains to be proved, that the ancients 
 " were of the same opinion. It is to be noted what reason they 
 " give, why the patriarchs so much desired to be buried in the 
 " holy land ; which was no other than this, 'That they that are 
 " there buried shall first rise.' c From whence is inferred, that 
 " the resurrection of the dead, and the coming of the Messiah are 
 " annexed in time. The same is found also elsewhere. ' This 
 " ' world doth not differ from the days of the Messiah, but in 
 " ' the subjecting of kings. ' d In Zoar is manifestly and clearly 
 " expressed, 'The blessed God shall first build the temple, and 
 " ' order and dispose the palace, and build the city, and then 
 " ' the dead shall be raised out of the dust.' e The cabalists 
 " found their opinion on Ps. cxlvii. 2, 3 : 'The Lord buildeth 
 " ' up Jerusalem, he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel, he 
 " ' healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds ." 
 In the third chapter the Rabbin solves this question ; Whether 
 within the aforesaid times shall be the end of the world ; or 
 after the resurrection of the dead ? "This question (saith 
 
 e Beresit. Rab. Par. 66, 74. d Jerus, de Kilaym. e p ar> y y, Elar. 
 
17 
 
 " lie) may easily be resolved, by that we have said in the former 
 " chapter. For when the sacred Scripture treats concerning the 
 " days of the Messiah it always calls that time, the end of days 
 " So Gen. xlix, 1. Numb, xxiv, 14. Isa. ii, 2. Jer. xxx, 24. 
 " and xxxi, 1. Exek. xxxviii, 16. Dan. x, 14. Hosea iii, 5. 
 '* Micah iv, 1. I am not ignorant that those who dissent from 
 " us make a double coming of the Messiah, and so expound 
 " those places far otherwise. I have no wish at this time 
 " to dispute with any concerning the thing; but simply and 
 " candidly to hold forth the opinion which the Hebrews profess. 
 " From what therefore hath been said, two things do necessarily 
 " follow : one, that the redemption of Israel shall be extended 
 " unto the end of the world ; the other, that that same end shall 
 " come before the resurrection of the dead. And because that 
 " end shall take its beginning in the days of Messiah, therefore 
 " there is a necessity, that a new world shall begin from the 
 " resurrection of the dead ; and therefore it is called the world 
 " to come, ' Go thy way unto the end, and rest, and awake 
 " 'in thy lot, in the end of days/ Dan, xii, 13. The same 
 " is to be collected out of the saying of the ancients. It is 
 " pronounced in the school of Elijah, (not the Tishbite, but some 
 " Rabbin,) that the world shall continue six thousand years. ' In 
 " ' two thousand is the void or empty time ; (that is the time until 
 " ' Abraham, being void of Moses' law ;) in two thousand is the 
 " ' time of the law : in two thousand are the days of the Mes- 
 " ' siah. So that, as it is read elsewhere, it is not said that the 
 " ' Messiah shall come in the end of four thousand years, or in 
 " * the beginning of five thousand years, but only that the days of 
 " ' Messiah shall be two thousand years ; that is, that within 
 " ' that space the Messiah shall come, whether the beginning, 
 " ' middle, or end.' " f Which last words are important for us 
 Christians : for within that space Christ is come. 
 
 In the fourth chapter are declared the opinions of the ancient 
 Rabbins, concerning the term and end of the world, "As for 
 " my opinion (saith R, Menasse) I think, that after six thousand 
 " years, the world shall be destroyed upon one certain day, or in 
 " one hour ; that the orbs of heaven shall make a stand, as un- 
 
 t Gem. Abodae, Zarse cap. 1 & 6. Sebet Juedah. 
 
18 
 
 ■ moveable ; that there shall be no more generation or corrup- 
 " tion ; and all things by the resurrection shall be renovated, 
 " and return to a better condition. And this out of doubt is 
 " the opinion of the most learned Aben Ezra, who commenting 
 " on Isaiah, chapter lxv, j 7, * Behold I create new heavens, and 
 " a new earth,' &c. saith, * Rather we are to say that the hea- 
 •' ' vens are expansed, and that God will renew the air to be 
 " ' singular good, ecc. and then also shall there be added to the 
 " ' earth fresh vigor, whereby it shall be made new.' Accord- 
 " ing to which verdict of Aben Ezra (saith Menasse) there is a 
 " total, and universal reforming, onre w framing of the world. 
 " And although the text hath it ' new heavens,' yet there is no 
 " necessity, nor doth the sense require, that we should under- 
 " stand new heavens to be meant of other heavens, diverse from 
 " these now in being ; but only that there shall be a certain re - 
 " formation of them into better. For though the ancients have 
 " said, that after six thousand years the world shall be destroyed 
 " in one ; the meaning is not, that after six thousand years 
 " there shall be nothing : for if the space after the six thou- 
 " sand years should be nothing, how can it be measured bv 
 " one ? Again, the word destroy does not signify a total 
 " annihilation ; but only a ruin, or lapsing of things. To which 
 " purpose the ancients say that Noah saw the new world ; yet 
 " at that time the world was not altogether destroyed, but re- 
 " newed, according to Psalm cii, 26. The sum is, that the 
 " world shall not be destroyed for a thousand years ; but in one 
 " day, or punctum of an hour, the earth shall suiter a mighty 
 " change ; and upon that change immediately shall follow the 
 " resurrection of the dead, and a new world : even as it is in 
 " Zoar, — ' From the hour of the resurrection of the dead, the 
 " world shall remain stable.' " 
 
 In the fifth chapter is held forth by the Rabbins, what kind of 
 ruin there shall be of the world before the great restoration of it 
 yet to come. " And concerning the Jews' war with Gog and 
 " Magog, all the Rabbins (saith Manasse) agree in this, that 
 " the Israelites after their return into their own country at the 
 " time of their redemption, are not to enjoy a full and per- 
 " feet tranquility and peace, until the last war with Gog and 
 " Magog shall be finished. For it shall come to pass (saith he) 
 
19 
 
 " that after the Israelites shall return into Palestine, that nation 
 " of Gog and Magog » shall come to invade and possess that 
 " country, and that with an huge multitude of men, and infinite 
 " forces of soldiers ; and having again expulsed thence the 
 " Israelites, they shall endeavour to subjugate them under 
 " their power. All which may be confirmed by divers 
 " places of Scripture ; — as Ezekiel chap, xxxvii, xxxviii. 
 " Joel iii, 1, 2. Dan. xii, 1, &c. And this war being ended 
 " there shall then be a great change of all things : (see Ezekiel 
 " xxxviii, 19 — 23,) for then, in my opinion, shall be the end of 
 " the world." i 
 
 " But if any rightly weigh what the ancients have said, 
 " especially that in Midras a-Nehelam, he shall find that these 
 " things are to be understood of the new world, which begins 
 " with the resurrection from the dead. The sum of the 
 
 " matter is this : That unto the advent of the Messiah, is knit 
 " on, as immediately subsequent, the resurrection from the dead. 
 " Now it is worth the weighing, what space there may be of the 
 " former to the beginning of the latter. In the Sanhedrim 
 " chap, xi, divers opinions are propounded. R. Eliezer maketh 
 " the space to be four hundred years. R. Elhazar Ben Hazariah 
 
 i Who this Gog and Magog are is not stated by the Jewish Rabbins. Mr. 
 Mede saith that the Turk is Gog and Magog ; (Diat. pars iv, p. 546';) which Dr. 
 Twiss highly approves : but the Jewish Rabbins deliver their minds uncertainly. 
 " I know ^saith R. Menasse) that others, by the war of Gog and Magog, do 
 " understand the antichristian age that shall be at the end of the world." 
 Hence Augustine saith " Gog is the Devil, and Magog the army of Antichrist." 
 (De Civ. Dei, lib. xx, c. 1,) Ambrose thinks Gog to be the Goths, who invaded, 
 and everted many of the Roman provinces. (De demonst. Evang. lib. ii, cap. 3.) 
 u Eusebius (saith he) did think Gog to be the Roman Emperor, and Magog his 
 " kingdom and empire." Pliny asserteth " That there is a city of Cava Syria, 
 " called by the Syrians Magog ; but which he calls Bombice and Hierapolis. 
 " The Hebrews (saith he) know indeed that Magog is of the posterity of Japhet ; 
 M but which is that nation at this day, they do not know." Lib. v, c. 23. 
 
 J Indeed there shall be then an end of this world ; because it is the beginning 
 of the days of Messiah : but then is not the ultimate end of the world, as argued 
 by R. Menasse, from Ezekiel xxxviii, 10 — 23. For sword, pestilence, blood, 6,-c. 
 by which the Lord pleads, are not consistent with the ultimate end of the world. 
 And in the next chapter, the Prophet, describing the destruction of Gog, saith, 
 that he shall not be totally destroyed, but only in part. (v. 2.) And further, Eze- 
 kiel, (in chapter xl. to the end of the book,) describes a glorious state of the Jews 
 on earth after the destruction of Gog and Magog ; which shews that the Prophet's 
 former description of their destruction cannot be at the ultimate end of the 
 world. The restoring of the temple of the Jews, described in that fortieth chap- 
 ter, &c., is a type of New Jerusalem : as Mr. Mede asserts, and Dr. Twiss ap- 
 proves. (Diat. pars iv, p. 546.) 
 
 D 
 
• maketh it to 1 rs. R. Elhazai forty year-, 
 I hese all differ, and yet were not altogether rash in their 
 
 For R. Eliezer computed, according to the time of 
 
 •• t' dan captivity, four hundred years. R. Elhazar Ben 
 
 Has ri .. iccording to the Babylonian captivity, seventy years. 
 
 And R. Elhazar forty years, according to the time of the perigri- 
 
 " nation of the Jews in the wilderness. And each of them, to 
 
 •• confirm his own opinion, brings forward Psalm xcv, 15, ' Make 
 
 3 glad, according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, 
 
 and the years wherein we have seen evil.' In book hi, c. 2. 
 
 ; Menasse, having noticed that some refer these things to 
 
 •' the time of the Messiah, says : in Midras a-Nehelam we find 
 
 •• it written. ' That the congregating or gathering together of the 
 
 captive [Jews] shall anticipate or precede the resurrection of 
 
 • • the dead the space of forty years.' And if this last opinion 
 '• be received and delivered by the ancients, it may be soundly 
 " admitted, because it implies no contradiction, nor doth it 
 
 intain any difficulty. k If it so seem good to any, he may 
 
 refer the glorious things aforesaid in some sort unto the times 
 
 " of the Messiah, because both periods are connexed, the one on 
 
 •• to the end of the other ; and again, because the end of the 
 
 " resurrection is, that the raised may enjoy the happiness of 
 
 •' that ase. Those admirable verses of the kingly prophet David 
 
 " do not a little serve our purpose : ' All wait (or hope) upon 
 
 thee. Thou givest them their meat in due season, &c. Thou 
 
 hidest thy face, they are troubled : thou takest awav their 
 
 breath they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest 
 
 " ' forth thy spirit, they are created, and thou renewest the face 
 
 " ' of the earth.' iPsalm civ, 27 — 30.) Here the prophet 
 
 saith, that, after death, the soid the second time returns to the 
 
 " body, and then the earth is renovated." 
 
 In the seventh and four following chapters the following ques- 
 tions are put and resolved : 1st, whether then shall be the day of 
 judgment? To which the Rabbins answer out of many Scrip- 
 ture^ and allegations of antiquity ; " That after the world shall 
 " be made new, and the dead raised, then shall be a day of judg- 
 
 k Thus R. Menasse out of the Rabbins ; but compare Dan. xii, 1, 2, touching 
 the trouble- at the time when Michael shall stand up to deliver his people, with 
 tcts - hinsr the resurrection of the dead. 
 
" ment. In part God judged afore the living, in the way of 
 
 • Gog and Magog, excepting a third part of them ; and after - 
 " wards he shall come to judge the dead.'' 2d, Whether then 
 shall be the restauration of the place and parts of worship, and 
 a settlement of the fruition of the holy land ? To which is 
 answered, "Yea." 3d, Whether there shall be the use of food, 
 and proliflcation ? To which Gerundensis answer? That then 
 shall be no other than a spiritual li: hough some Rabbins 
 are of another mind. 4th. Whether they that are raised shall 
 die any more ? To which the general answer of the Rabbin- is 
 negative. 
 
 9. Thus far vou have heard the opinion of the Jews concerning 
 the dorious state on earth yet to come ; next hear the learned 
 Mr. Mede eive vou the sum of them. '• Though the ancient 
 
 • Jew? [whilst thev were vet the church of God) had no distinct 
 •' knowledge of such an order in the resurrection as first and 
 ' second, but only of the resurrection in general, to be in die 
 ' judieii marj: yet they looked for a resurrection wherein those 
 
 • that rcse again should reign some time upon earth, as appeareth 
 ' bv Wisdom iii, 1 — 8 ; where it is expressly said, ' That the 
 ' ' souls of the righteous which are departed shall in the time of 
 ' * their visitation shine, and that they shall judge the nations, 
 ' * and have dominion over the people, and their Lord shall 
 ' ' reien for ever."" This opinion is also here and there dis- 
 ' persed in the Chaldee paraphrase, and in the Talmud, as of 
 ' ancient tradition ; and in the opinion of the Jews at this 
 •' dav : who, as thev look not for the kingdom of the Messiah 
 ' until the dav of the great judgment ; so they expect, that their 
 ' forefathers at least such as were just and hoh\ shall arise 
 
 • at the beginning of the same, and reign in the land of Israel 
 ' with their offspring under the Messiah I can hardly believe 
 
 • that all tins smoke of tradition could arise, but from some lire 
 ' of truth ancientlv made known to them. Besides, why should 
 ' the Holv Ghost in this point speak so like them ; unless he 
 ' would induce us, mutatis mm :o agree with them ? In 
 ' fine, the second and universal resurrection with the state of 
 ' the Saints after it, now so clearly revealed in Christianity", 
 
 • seems to have been less known to the ancient church of the 
 Jew-, than the first and the -tate to accompany that." 
 
22 
 
 10. Let us close this discourse, of the suffrage of the Jews 
 touching the glorious state on earth yet to come, with the pro- 
 phecy of Tobit or Tobias about to die concerning the two-fold 
 captivity of the Jews and the last state of things, according to 
 the most exact Hebrew copy. > " And it came to pass when 
 " Tobias was old, that he called his son Tobias, together with 
 " his six sons which were borne to him, and said unto him : My 
 " son, thou knowest that I am now spent with old age ; take 
 '* heed therefore after my death, that thou stay no longer at 
 " Nineveh ; for certain it is, and clear to thee, that it shall 
 " come to pass that the prophecy of the prophet Jonah shall be 
 " confirmed. Wherefore take thy sons, and all that thou hast, 
 *' and go into the land of the Medes ; for there shall be peace 
 " unto the appointed time. 
 
 ■' But the rest of our brethren of Israel who are in Jerusalem, 
 " all of them shall go into exile, and Jerusalem shall be for 
 " heaps, and the mountain of the house for high places of a 
 " forest, and shall remain desolate for a little time. And then 
 " shall the children of Israel go up and rebuild it, and also the 
 " temple, but not according to the former structure ; and they 
 *' shall remain there many days, until a certain series of ages be 
 " fulfilled. Then shall they again go forth into a captivity, by 
 "far the greatest they were ever in. m But the blessed Holy God 
 " shall remember them, and shall gather them from the four 
 " quarters of the world. Then shall Jerusalem, the holy city, 
 " be restored with a beautiful and excellent structure, as also 
 " the temple shall be built with a famous structure, which shall 
 
 l Not that of Munster, tempered and patched up out of the Greek and Latin 
 translations ; but that most ancient Const antinopolit an copy set forth by Paulus 
 Fagius ; which was originally in Chaldee, and was translated most faithfully by 
 some Jew, that was singularly learned in the Hebrew dialect. 
 
 m Those words " Then again they shall go into captivity by far the greatest 
 they were ever in," are left out of the Greek copy, either by mischance or of 
 purpose, because it savoured of our opinion ; which the times then, when it was 
 expunged, (probably in Jerome's time,) could not bear. And therefore Jerome 
 even for that cause left out, not only that clause, but also two whole paragraphs 
 in that place, to the utter routing of the coherence of the sense ; even as he 
 translated the whole exceeding perfunctorily, by his own confession. For in his 
 prologue to that his translation, he saith " Because the Chaldee tongue is near in 
 11 kin to the Hebrew, finding a ready man of speech in both languages, I snatched 
 " the labour of one day ; and what he expressed to me in Hebrew, that by a 
 " notary T expounded in Latin. 
 
23 
 
 " not be destroyed nor demolished for ever, as the prophets 
 " have said. Then shall the gentiles be converted to worship 
 " the Lord, and shall cast away the graven images of their gods, 
 " and shall give laud and praise to his great Name. The horn 
 " also of his people shall be exalted before all nations, and all 
 " the seed of Israel shall celebrate and glorify his great Name. 
 " Then shall his servants, that serve him in truth, be glad ; all 
 " that do righteousness and godliness shall rejoice, and triumph 
 " before him." 
 
 If all that I have produced, touching the Jews suffrage for the 
 glorious state of things on earth yet to come, be not sufficient 
 for some, (though perhaps I have quoted too much for others,) 
 let such read the Chaldee paraphrase on the Bible, if but in the 
 Latin translation ; the Rabbins (at least as quoted in Mercer) 
 on the minor prophets ; Petrus Galatinus, Buxtorf s Jewish 
 Synagogues, and the fourth book of Esdras : of which last, Mr. 
 Mede's opinion is worth the hearing ; which I note, lest any 
 should think the Book of Esdras written after Christ. 
 " Whereas you say, (saith he, in answ T er to Mr. Haines,) that the 
 " Jews since Christ brought in this opinion of the Roman being 
 " the fourth kingdom ; that so they might the better maintain 
 " their expectation of the Messiah yet to come, because that 
 " kingdom was yet in being ; I say it was affirmed (whosoever 
 " first affirmed it) without any ground, authority, or probability. 
 " The contrary is easy to be proved ; viz. that the Jews were of 
 " this opinion before our Saviour's time : as appears in Jonathan 
 " Ben Uziel the Chaldee paraphrast, and by the fourth book of 
 " Esdras ; which, whatsoever the authority thereof may be, is 
 " sufficient to prove this ; being written by a Jew (for it is, saith 
 " Picus, the first of their seventy books of Cabala) and before 
 '* our Saviour's coming, as appears by many passages of Messiah 
 " expected, and yet to appear within four hundred years after 
 " that supposed time of Esdras." 
 
 We shall, for a close of this section, exhort the Reader to ob- 
 serve attentively, that this reigning of the Messiah or Christ, so 
 often mentioned by the aforesaid Rabbins, cannot be in the 
 highest heavens after the ultimate day of judgment ; for then he 
 lays down all, and delivers up the kingdom to God the Father. 
 (1 Cor. xv, 24, 28.) Nor have these rabbinical predictions 
 
24 
 
 been ever fulfilled on earth, as experience can witness. And 
 therefore necessarily they must be, in effect, of the same judge- 
 ment as is contained in our position, or thesis ; which con- 
 sequently cannot be adjudged novel or singular. 
 
 Of Greek Antiquities. 
 
 1 1 . Our Greek companions in this our position are divers. The 
 first is Justin Martyr, who flourished about the year 141 after 
 the birth of Christ, so near the time of John the Evangelist, 
 who lived till the hundredth year after Christ ; many of the 
 disciples of the Apostles, as Polycarp and others, being then 
 alive. In that 141st year, this Justin presented his Apology for 
 the Christian Religion to Antoninus the Emperor. To allow 
 him a sufficiency of judgement and time to be a famous philo- 
 sopher (at that period much famed) and to write that apology, 
 we had need to allow him to be fifty years old, (as he himself 
 testifies,) and so to suppose him living at least nine years before 
 John was dead. This man, for his great learning renowned with 
 the honourable title of philosopher, witnessed to be godly by his 
 pious apology in those bloody, persecuting times, and sealed to 
 be so in his death by the after-title and fame of Martyr ; — 
 I say this man, this great Justyn Martyr, professed himself, as did 
 many other worthies in his time, to be of the same mind with 
 our position. I quote his very words from the Paris edition of 
 his works. " I, and all that are every way orthodox Christians, 
 " do know both the future resurrection of the body, and the 
 " thousand years in Jerusalem, that shall be re-edified, adorned, 
 " and enlarged, as the prophets Ezekiel, Isaiah, and others 
 " declare. For Isaiah saith of this thousand years (Isaiah lxv, 
 '17.) ' Behold, I create new heavens, and a new earth, and 
 ' the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind ; 
 ' but be ye glad and rejoice in those which I create : for be- 
 ' hold I create Jerusalem to triumph and my people to rejoice, 
 ' &c.' ' Quoting " For the days of my people shall be as the 
 days of the tree of life ;" {v. 22 ;) he giveth this sense : " In 
 ' these words we understand, that the one thousand years are 
 
28 
 
 pointed at. For whereas it was said to Adam, ' In that day 
 thou eatest of the tree, in that same day thou also shalt die ;' 
 we know that he did not accomplish a thousand years. We 
 know also that saying, ' That a day with the Lord is a thou- 
 sand years.' Moreover a certain man among its, whose 
 name is John, being one of the twelve apostles of Christ, 
 in that Revelation n which was shewed to him prophe- 
 sied, that those that believe in our Christ shall accom- 
 plish a thousand years at Jerusalem, and after that the gene- 
 ral, and in a word, the everlasting resurrection and last judg- 
 ment of all jointly together. Whereof also our Lord spake, 
 when he said, ' that therein they shall neither marry, nor be 
 ' given in marriage, but shall be equal with the angels, being 
 ' made the sons of the resurrection of God.' For the gifts of 
 prophecy are extant with us even till this time." (P. 307, 308.) 
 And as he speaks thus home to our thesis positively ; so is he 
 equally decided against them that are contrary minded, negatively 
 denying them to be true Christians. Treating of the afore- 
 named things he says to Trypho : "I confessed to thee before, 
 " (and many others are of the same opinion with me,) that that 
 '• thing shall come to pass. And on the contrary I have signified 
 " unto thee, that many who are not of the pure and pious judg- 
 " ment of real christians do not acknowledge this : for I mani- 
 " fested to thee afore, that there are some, called christians, 
 " (but who indeed are atheists and ungodly heretics,) who alto- 
 " gether teach blasphemous, atheistical, and foolish things." 
 (P. 306.) In page 312 he says : " Jesus commanded us to 
 " love our enemies ; which is by Isaiah published in many 
 " words ; in which is the mystery of our renovation, ° the renova- 
 " tion of all who expect Christ to appear in Jerusalem, and who 
 " endeavour to please him by their works." And again in page 
 340 he writes : " This Jesus is he, of whom we know heaven 
 " and earth were made, and by whom the Father will make new 
 " the heaven and the earth. This is he, that shall shine in 
 " Jerusalem as an eternal light." 
 
 n The phrase " among ?/*" would lead directly to the conclusion that the Apostle 
 was living in his time ; and the whole is an important testimony to the antitpjity 
 of the Revelation of St. John. 
 
 Ha\iv rng yivtvEiog fjfiwv, which Mede renders Resurrection. 
 
26 
 
 2. The next of the Greek ancients is Irenseus, who flourished 
 about the year 178 after Christ. He was the chief minister of 
 the church at Lyons ; and had his name Irenaus for his godly 
 peace -making in the church. He wrote five books, which 
 are now extant, against the heresies of his time; in which 
 he more than once says, that St. John the Apostle lived to j 
 the times of the Emperor Trajan ; that Polycarp had been the 
 hearer of the said John the Apostle ; and that he, Irenseus, then 
 a young man, had seen ancient Polycarp. P In the second book 
 he testifies, " That to his time the gifts of casting out devils 
 and miraculous healing of diseases continued :" which shews, 
 that he lived near the Apostles' times ; and which indeed he 
 himself more clearly intimates in his fifth book, saying, " That 
 John saw his vision of the Revelation almost in his time." 
 Tertullian calls him the most curious trier or searcher out of all 
 doctrines. Of this Irenseus, thus great in learning and godliness, 
 Erasmus affirms, in his argument or summary of the fifth book 
 of Irenseus against heresies, that Jerome asserts him to be of 
 the same mind with the Chiliasts that are for the thousand 
 years. And whoever shall read that fifth book of Irenseus with 
 a piercing eye shall find, that Jerome hath given a right judg- 
 ment concerning him : for Irenseus, chiefly disputing therein for 
 the resurrection of the bodies of the saints, urges those prophets 
 for that resurrection, who speak mainly of their first resurrection 
 at the full call of the Jews. And particularly he urges Ezekiel 
 xxxvii, 1 — 15 ; which place is evidently for our position, as we 
 shall see hereafter. Also he urges Isaiah lxv, 22 : " For as 
 " the days of the tree (he puts in of life) shall be the days of 
 " them ;" which (he says) is, as if written with sunbeams, plainly 
 a part of the prophecy of the restauration of Israel, and the 
 
 P In an Epistle to Florinus Irenseus says : — " When I was very young I saw 
 11 you in the Lower Asia with Polycarp. I can remember circumstances of that 
 11 time better than those which have happened more recently ; for the things 
 " which we learn in childhood grow up with the soul and unite themselves to it, 
 " insomuch that I can tell the place in which the blessed Polycarp sat and taught, 
 " and his going out and coming in, the manner of his life, the form of his per- 
 11 son, and the discourses he made to the people ; and how he related his con- 
 " versation with John, and others who had seen the Lord ; and how he related 
 u . their sayings, and the things which he heard of them concerning the Lord ; 
 " both concerning his miracles and his doctrine, as he had received them from 
 " the eye witnesses of THE Word of Life : all which Polycarp related agreeable 
 " to the Scriptures," &c. — Ed. 
 
z/ 
 
 New Jerusalem, alleged by Peter, 2 Ep. iii chap, and alluded 
 to by John, Rev. xxi, 1, he says " In as many days as this world 
 " was made, in so many thousand years it is perfected. For if 
 " the day of the Lord be as it were a thousand years, and in six 
 " days those things that are made were finished, it is manifest, 
 " that the perfecting of those things is the six thousandth year. 
 " When Antichrist, reigning three years and six months, shall 
 " have wasted all things in the world, &c. — then shall the Lord 
 " come from heaven in the clouds, with the glory of his Father, 
 " casting Antichrist and them that obey him into the lake of 
 " fire ; but bringing to the just the times of the kingdom, (that 
 " is the rest or sabbath, the seventh day sanctified,) and fulfilling 
 " to Abraham the promise of his inheritance." c i Speaking of 
 the saints he says, " that after their first life here they shall in- 
 " habit Paradise, where Adam was placed at his first creation :" 
 but elsewhere, speaking of the saints possessing the kingdom 
 of heaven, he allegeth, Matt, v, 5, "Blessed are the meek for \ 
 they shall inherit the earth;" which is taken out of Psalm 
 xxxvii, 10, 11. 
 
 3. The next famous father whom I shall adduce, as holding 
 the millennary opinion, is Origen, who flourished about the year 
 230 ; of whom to the point in hand we have that contra Celsum, 
 lib. iii, beginning ovk apvxfieda to Kadapawv &c. " We do not 
 " deny the purging fire of the destruction of wickedness, and 
 " the renovation of all things." And in his thirteenth Homily 
 on Jeremiah (of which we have only Jerome's translation) he 
 says, " If any man shall preserve the washing of the Holy Spirit, 
 " &c. he partakes of his part in the first resurrection ; but if any 
 " man be saved in the second resurrection only, it is the sinner 
 " that needeth the baptism of fire." r 
 
 4. The next whom we shall number of the millenarian pious 
 fathers is Methodius, Bishop first of the city Olympus or Patara 
 
 q Which ' Times of the kingdom' and ' Inheritance of Abraham' must needs 
 signify a state on earth : ' the promise' also is every where of Canaan. Gen. 
 xv, 18 ; xvii, 8 ; &c. 
 
 r It may he neeessary to observe, that Origen is not brought forward by our 
 Author as directly advocating these millennary opinions ; for he appears in 
 other places, and indeed in the next paragraph, to be aware of the contrary. They 
 are adduced to shew what admissions were inadvertently made by him, at variance 
 with his own vicious svstem of interpretation. Ed. 
 
 D 2 
 
28 
 
 in Lycia, and afterwards of Tyre; mentioned by Socrates, Suida, 
 and others with honor. He suffered martyrdom under Decius and 
 Valerianus, or near the end of the tenth persecution, (as Petavius 
 affirms,) which was about the year 312 ; and he is therefore fitly 
 put after Origen. This Methodius is cited by Proclus in Epipha- 
 nius, to have had these passages in his book concerning the resur- 
 rection, which he wrote against Origen : " Wherefore of necessity 
 " there must be earth and also heaven, after the conflagration 
 " and concussion of all things. And why indeed this is neces- 
 " sary, I must bring a reason larger than what hath been said 
 " already. For neither shall the universe be resolved into an 
 " idle matter, or into such an estate as it had before the fabric 
 " thereof; neither into an absolute destruction and corruption. 
 " But if all things do not perish, perhaps the adversaries will 
 « as k — How then doth the Lord say, ' Heaven and earth shall 
 "perish;' and the prophet, 'The heavens shall perish as a 
 " smoke, and the earth shall wax old as a garment ?' We 
 " answer, It is the manner of the Scriptures, to call this change I 
 " of the world into a better and more glorious restitution, a 
 "perishing, and destruction ; because the figure or fashion of all j 
 " things perisheth, by their change into a more illustrious estate. 
 " There is no contrariety or absurdity in the divine Scrip - 
 " tures. For it is said, ' The fashion of this world passeth 1 
 " away ;' not that the world itself passeth away. And indeed 
 " the Scriptures have this form of speech ; that they call that a 
 " destruction, which is but a change into a better and more 
 " beautiful form than it had before : as if one should call the 
 " change of the figure of childhood into perfect manhood a 
 "perishing, because youthful age is altered into procerity and 
 " beauty. ' For when I was a child, I spake as a child, I un- 
 " ' derstood as a child, I thought as a child ; but when I became 
 "■ ' a man, I put away childish things.' For it is to be expected, 
 " that, at that conflagration, the creation shall suffer a vehement 
 *' commotion, as if it were about to die, whereby it shall be reno- 
 " vated, and not perish ; to the end that we, then also renovated, 
 " may dwell in the renovated world free from sorrow. Thus it is 
 " said in the civth Psalm : ' Thou wilt send forth thy spirit, and 
 " ' they shall be created, and thou wilt renew the face of the 
 " ' earth, &c.' For, seeing that after this world there shall be 
 
29 
 
 " an earth, of necessity there must be inhabitants, who shall die 
 " no more, but be as angels, irreversibly in an incorruptible state, 
 " doing all most excellent things. " s 
 
 5. The last of the Greek antiquities that we shall allege, n 
 out of Epiphanius, who flourished about the year after Christ 
 365 ; whose words, after mention of Athanasius and Paulim 
 (who was Bishop of Antioch about 332,) are to this effect. 
 " Moreover others have affirmed that the old man t should say, 
 " that in the first resurrection we shall accomplish a certain 
 " millennary of years, enjoying the same things as now we do, 
 " namelv, keeping the law, &c." By which it appears, that, if not 
 Athanasius or Paulinus aforementioned, some there were in the 
 time of, or before Epiphanius, who held the substance of ourthesi<. 
 Yea, it seems to me, that Epiphanius himself speaks favourably 
 of them that held this opinion, by his words presently following, 
 viz. : " And that indeed this millennian period or term of time 
 " is written of in the Apocalypse of John, and that the book is 
 " received of very many, even of them that are godly, is mani- 
 " fest ;" with more to the same effect. Lib. iii, 2. 
 
 Of Latin Antiquities. 
 
 III. The first in seniority of Latin ancients, who are learned 
 and godlv, is Tertullian ; who apologized for the christians about 
 the year after Christ, 180. In his third book against Marcion, 
 c. xxiv, his words are to this effect : " For we also confess, that a 
 " kingdom is promised us on earth, (but before that in 
 " heaven, and in another state, viz. after the resurrection,) for 
 '' 1000 years, in the city of divine workmanship, 'Jerusalem 
 " brought down from heaven/ This the Apostle also points 
 " out to be ' our mother above ;' and pronouncing our TroAtreu/za, 
 " or conversation, to be in heaven, doth indeed assign the same 
 " to some heavenly city. And this Ezekiel knew, and the Apostle 
 " John saw. This, we say, was provided of God, for the re- 
 
 s See the works of Methodius by Cornbesis. Paris edit. 1644. 
 
 t These are the words of Paulinus, not of Epiphanius ; and the old man of whom 
 he speaks is one Vitalius, whom be highly commends for his piety, orthodoxy, 
 and learning. Ed. 
 
30 
 
 " ceiving of the saints at the resurrection, and the refreshing of 
 " them with all spiritual good things, in recompense of those 
 " things which in the world we either despised or lost. For it^ 
 " is both just and well beseeming the Lord, that there also his 
 " servants should triumph, where they have been afflicted for his 
 " name. This is the manner of the heavenly kingdom." 
 
 Also in his fifth book he says ; (on the words ' Thou art a priest 
 for ever ;') " But Hezekiah, though he once was, yet he was then 
 " neither a priest, nor for ever, &c. But unto Christ will agree 
 " the order of Melchisedec ; because indeed Christ, God's pro- 
 " per and legitimate high-priest of the priesthood of the un- 
 " circumcision, — then specially constituted in the nations, of 
 " whom he had more claim to be received, — will vouchsafe at 
 " last to accept and bless the circumcision and posterity of 
 " Abraham, when at length they shall know him." (Cap. ix.) u 
 
 2. The next Father whom we shall instance is Cyprian ; who 
 
 flourished in the year 222 ; and whose writings are had in great 
 
 esteem among all the godly. For a taste of his opinion see his 
 
 book Be Exhortatione Martyrii ; in the Preface whereof he 
 
 speaks thus : " Thou hast desired, most dear Fortunatus, be- 
 
 " cause the weight of persecutions and pressures lies upon you ; 
 
 " and because in the end and perfecting of the world, the dan- 
 
 " gerous time of Antichrist hath begun to draw near ; that I 
 
 " should compose some encouragements out of the divine Scrip- 
 
 " tures, to prepare and corroborate the minds of the brethren ; 
 
 " whereby the soldiers of Christ might be animated unto the 
 
 " celestial and spiritual combat. — Six thousand years are now 
 
 " almost completed, &c." And then, in his xith chapter of 
 
 that book, he hath these words, " What are those seven breth- 
 
 " ren, in the Maccabees, alike in birth and virtue, fulfilling the 
 
 " septenary number of perfect consummation in a mystery ? 
 
 " These seven brethren, cleaving together in martyrdom, are as the 
 
 " first seven days in the divine disposal, containing seven thou- 
 
 " sand years, &c, that a lawful perfection may be fulfilled." v 
 
 u They that would see more of Tertullian may consult his treatises, ' De 
 Resurrectione,' cap. xxv, ' Adversus Hermoneyenem,'' cap. xi, and ' De Anima, 1 
 cap. xxxv. 
 
 v On which words Mede hath this note : " He that expected that the coming 
 " of Antichrist should be at the end of the 6000 years, which he supposed then 
 
31 
 
 3. Lactantius, who lived in the time of Constantinc the great, 
 about 310 years after Christ, very largely discourseth the point 
 in his seventh Book of Divine Institutions.™ From this Book 
 we shall give several passages. " In our fourth book we have 
 " spoken of the first coming of the Lord : now let us relate his 
 " second, which the Jews also acknowledge and expect ; because 
 " it is of necessity that he should return to comfort them, whom 
 " before he had come to call together/' Chap. i. 
 
 " It is ordained by the disposal of the highest God, that this 
 " unjust age, a certain space of -time being run, shall have an 
 " end ; when, all wickedness being extinct, and the souls of the 
 " godly called back to a blessed life, there shall nourish a quiet, 
 " tranquil, peaceable, and golden age, God himself then 
 " reigning." Chap. vii. 
 
 " Let philosophers know, who number thousands of ages since 
 " the beginning of the world, that the sixth thousand year is not 
 " yet concluded or ended. But that number being fulfilled, of 
 " necessity there must be an end, and the state of human things 
 " must be transformed into that which is better." Chap. xiv. 
 This he largely and learnedly proves from God's making the world 
 in six days, and resting the seventh ; alleging the Prophet's 
 expression, that a thousand years are but as one day, &c. 
 
 " to be near at hand, yet thought the world should last 7000 years ; — viz. 1000 
 " years after the destruction of Antichrist. This, to him that understands it, is plain 
 '• Chiliasm. Compare Augustin cap. 7, lib. 20, De civit. Dei, from those words, 
 " '. Qui propter hsec hujus libri verba primam resurrectionem, &c.' Compare 
 " also what Cyprian hath in the end of that book out of the Gospel, Markx, 
 " 29, 30, andApoc. xx, and you will find him, as he professeth liimself to be, 
 " Tertulliani Discipulum." 
 
 w I notice here an objection made against Lactantius by Jerome, as if, in 
 regard to this subject, his opinion had been for carnal and corporal pleasures, 
 &c. This is no real objection against that which we here quoted him for — viz. 
 to shew that he held millennary opinions ; since a few mistakes superadded to a 
 truth do no more evert its substance, than warts and wens do the personal sub- 
 stance of a man. Nevertheless, the objection may be refuted : for the worst 
 words which Lactantius hath, that may seem to look that way, are in lib. vii, c. 
 24. " Tunc qui erunt in corporibus vivi, &c." i. e. " Then they which shall be 
 " alive in their bodies [at Christ's coming] shall not die, but shall generate for i 
 " the space of those thousand years an infinite multitude, and their offspring shall 
 " be holy and dear to God. But those that shall be raised from the dead shall be 
 " over them that are alive in the manner of judges." This is all Lactantius 
 saith ; in which he clears himself : for the sense is, that the raised shall live an 
 angelical life, and those left in the body an Adamitish life : and to prove that he 
 had no gross and carnal views, he says a little after, " This millennium kingdom 
 " is an empire of a thousand years, wherein righteousness shall reign throughout 
 " the world." Thus Lactantius ; and not as Jerome reports. 
 
 E 
 
32 
 
 " And/' saith Lactantius, in the fifteenth chapter of the said 
 seventh book : " As it is in the Scriptures, how and for what ne- 
 " cessity Israel went down into Egypt, and there exceedingly 
 " multiplied ; but that, when oppressed with an intolerable 
 " yoke of bondage, God smote Egypt, led his people through the 
 " Red Sea, and there drowned the Egyptians endeavouring to 
 " pursue the flying Israelites : so this famous exploit was a fi- 
 " gure of a greater thing to be, which God shall bring to pass 
 " in the last consummation of times ; for He will deliver his peo- 
 " pie from the grievous servitude of the world. But though God 
 " then smote only Egypt, because his people was but one na- 
 " tion ; yet now, because God's people are over all the world, 
 " God will smite all nations, even the whole world, and deliver 
 " his righteous people that worship him. And as then there were 
 " certain previous signs, by which the future ruin of the Egyp- 
 " tians was foreshewn ; so at the last shall be prodigious won- 
 " dears, by all the elements of the world, whereby may be un- 
 " derstood, that ruin to all nations is at hand. For then shall 
 " righteousness become so rare, and impiety so multiply, that 
 " if there be any good men then extant, they shall be a prey to 
 " the wicked, &c. Then shall ruin over-run the world. The 
 " cause of which devastation and confusion shall be, because the 
 " Roman authority, by which now the world is over-ruled (my 
 " soul fears to speak it, but I will speak it, because it shall come 
 " to pass !) shall be taken away from the earth, and the empire 
 " shall return into Asia, and the East shall have again the do- 
 " minion, and the West shall be made servile," &c. " Moreover 
 " the Sybils do speak it openly, that Rome shall be destroyed, 
 " because she hated the name of God, and opposed righteousness. 
 " And Hydaspis a most ancient king of the Medes, even before 
 " the Trojan race was set up, prophesied the same." Chap. xv. 
 
 " Hew that shall be, lest any one should think it incredible, I 
 " will declare. First the regality and chief power shall be mul- 
 " tiplied into many, and cut and minced into crumbs. Then 
 " perpetual civil discords shall be sown, and never shall there be 
 " any quiet, &c. Ten kings shall then stand up together, who shall 
 " not suffer the world to be ruled, but to be ruined, &c. Then 
 " upon a sudden, shall rise up against them a most potent enemy 
 " from the utmost bounds of the North, who, having overthrown 
 
33 
 
 " three of that number, shall be taken into society of the rest, 
 " and by them shall be made chief of them all. This man shall 
 " domineer and vex, mingle divine and human things, subvert 
 " laws, establish his own, and shall waste, destroy, and kill. 
 " The name and seat of the empire being changed, there shall 
 " follow the confusion and vexation of all mankind, &c." " The 
 " circle of the whole earth being oppressed, at which time hu- 
 " man strength shall be unable to destroy the tyranny of im- 
 " mense power, God, moved by the manifold dangers of his 
 " people, and with their miserable lamentations, shall forthwith 
 " send the Deliverer. Then shall the midst of heaven be opened 
 " in a quiet but black night, so that the light of God, descending, 
 " shall appear over all the world as lightning. The Sybils have 
 " it thus : ' When he shall come, the darkness in a black mid- 
 " ' night shall become as fire, &c.' For which night there 
 " is a double reason ; viz. that he was born in the night, and 
 " suffered death in the night ; and so, after these, in the night 
 " he shall receive the kingdom of the earth. This is the Deli- 
 " verer, the Judge, the Revenger, and King, and God, whom 
 " we call Christ ; and who will give this sign before his descent : 
 " The sword will suddenly proceed from heaven, in order that 
 " the righteous may understand, that the Captain of the armies 
 " of the saints is about to appear ; and then he shall descend, 
 " his angels accompanying him, &c." 
 
 After this follows a description of the overthrow of Antichrist, 
 and the vast slaughter which shall be ; which description con- 
 tinues throughout the chapter. 
 
 " And after these things (saith Lactantius in the next chapter) 
 " the places of the dead shall be opened, and the dead shall rise 
 " again, and the great judgment shall be performed by God- 
 " Christ concerning them, of which judgment and kingdom the 
 " Erythraean Sybil thus speaks : ' When the day shall receive its 
 " ' fatal end, and the judgment of the immortal God shall come 
 " ' to mortals, then shall come upon men the great judgment 
 " ' and the beginning, &c/ Nevertheless all universally shall not 
 " be then judged of God ; but those only which are versed in the re- 
 " ligion of God." Chap, xix and xx. 
 
 ' The Poets by poetical licence corrupted that which they had 
 " received ; for in that they sang,— that men, having finished a 
 
34 
 
 " thousand years among the dead, should be restored to life 
 " again,* — their understanding deceived them. For the dead shall 
 " indeed rise as:ain, not a thousand years after their death, but 
 " that, being restored to life again, they may reign a thousand 
 " years with God." Chap. xxii. By God Lactantius means 
 Christ ; as he openly explained himself a little before. 
 
 " Of which resurrection the Philosophers also endeavoured to 
 " say something, as corruptly as the Poets. For Pythagoras 
 " disputed, that the souls of the deceased did pass into new 
 " bodies, and foolishly said, that he himself was Euphorbus. 
 " Chrysippus spake better in his books which he wrote con- 
 " cerning Providence ; wherein, speaking of the renovation of 
 " the world, he brings in this, ' Seeing things are so, it appears 
 " ' that it is not impossible that we also should, when we have 
 " 'finished this present life, after certain wheelings about of 
 " ' times, be restored again into this very state in which we now 
 " 'are/ And the Sybil saith thus : ' It is hard indeed to be- 
 " ' lieve, yet, when the judgment of the world and of mortals 
 " ' shall come, he shall send the wicked into darkness, &c. but 
 " ' those that embrace godliness shall again live upon the earth, 
 " ' God giving them both spirit, honour, and life/ " Chap, xxiii. 
 
 I will add the rest. " Now therefore (saith Lactantius) the Son 
 " of the most high and greatest God shall come to judgeboth quick 
 " and dead, according to that of the Sibyl : ' Then shall there be 
 " ' confusion of all mortals of the whole earth ; and the Omni- 
 " ' potent himself shall come upon his tribunal, to judge the 
 " • souls of quick and dead, and all the world/ But when he 
 
 x Has omnes, uhi mille rotam volvere per annos, 
 Lethmon ad fluvium Deus evocat agmine magna ; 
 Scilicet immemores, supera ut convexa revisant, 
 Rursus et incipiant in corpora velle reverti. 
 
 Virg. vEneidos, Lib. vi. 
 
 " But when a thousand rolling years are past, 
 (So long their punishments and penance last,) 
 Whole droves of minds are hy the driving god, 
 Compelled to drink the deep Lethaean flood, 
 In large forgetful draughts to steep the cares 
 Of their past labors and their irksome years, 
 That, unrememberiug their former pain, 
 The soul may suffer mortal flesh again." 
 
 Dry den's Translation. 
 
 Ed, 
 
^B^ 
 
 35 
 
 shall do that, and shall restore the just that have be&kMvoin 
 the beginning unto life, he shall converse among men a 
 sand years, and shall rule them with a most righteous govern- 
 ment. Which elsewhere the Sibyl proclaims, ' Hear me, O 
 ye men, the eternal King doth reign, &c.' Then (continues Lac- 
 tantius) they that shall be alive in their bodies shall not die, 
 but by the space of those thousand years shall generate an 
 infinite multitude, and their offspring shall be holy and dear 
 to God. And they that shall be raised from the dead, shall 
 be over the living as judges. And the gentiles shall not be 
 utterly extinguished, but some shall be left for the victory of 
 God, that they may be triumphed over by the just, and 
 reduced to perpetual servitude. About the same time the 
 prince of devils, the forger of all evil, shall be bound with 
 chains, and shall be in custody all the thousand years of the 
 celestial empire, under which righteousness shall reign over 
 the world. After whose coming the just shall be gathered 
 together from all parts of the earth, and, the judgment having 
 sat, the holy city shall be placed in the midst of the earth, in 
 which the builder thereof, God, shall abide, together with his 
 ruling just ones. Which city the Sibyl thus points out, ' And 
 ' the city which God made, the same he made brighter than 
 ' the sun, moon, or stars/ Then shall be removed that dark- 
 ness by which the heavens was obscured, and the moon shall 
 be as bright as the sun, and the sun sevenfold brighter than it 
 is. The earth shall abound with fruitfulness spontaneously. 
 The world shall be glad and the whole nature of things shall 
 joy, being delivered from the curse. Beasts and birds shall 
 not prey on one another, but shall be at peace, the lion and 
 calf lying down together, &c. Finally come those times which 
 the poets, under the title of the golden age, say have already 
 come ; mistaking the prophets, who often speak of things as 
 done, (from the certainty of them,) which nevertheless are 
 future. So also the Sybils in divers places affirm, - that men 
 ' shall live a most quiet and plentiful life, and shall reign to- 
 ' gether with God ; and the kings of the nations shall come 
 ' from the utmost bounds of the earth with their gifts, and 
 ' shall adore and honour the great King, &c/ " Chap. xxiv. 
 
36 
 
 Objection* refuted, fyc* 
 
 IV. Sundry objections are wont to be advanced, not in direct 
 opposition to the testimonies here adduced, but conflicting with 
 them. Which objections do indeed resolve themselves into one ; 
 viz. that the first author of the millennary opinion was Cerinthus, 
 a heretic, who held carnal and abominable notions respecting 
 it ; which things Eusebius reports on the testimony of one 
 Gaius, and which Augustine and Jerome, writers of much later 
 date than those I have adduced, do also allege. I shall first 
 give the sum of the matter from Eusebius. 
 
 " About the same time (viz. of the sect of the Ebionites,) we 
 " learn that there was one Cerinthus, author of another heresy. 
 "Gains, whose words we have before alleged, in the controversy 
 " carried about in his name, writeth thus of him. ' Cerinthus 
 " ' also, by revelations written as of a great apostle, brought 
 " ' unto us certain monstrous things, feigning them to have been 
 " ' revealed unto him by angels ; — viz, that the kingdom of Christ 
 " ' after the resurrection should become earthlv: and that in Jeru- 
 " ' salem our flesh should again serve concupiscence and the lust 
 " ' of the flesh. And being wholly set to seduce, as an enemy to 
 " ' the Word of God, he said there should be a term of a mil- 
 " ' lennary feast allotted for marriage.' Dionvsius, Bishop of 
 " Alexandria, in his second book, after mention made of the 
 " Revelation of St. John, received by tradition of old, reported 
 " thus of this man Cerinthus. ' Cerinthus, who founded the 
 " ' Cerinthian heresy, gave his figment a name for the further 
 " ' credit thereof. His kind of doctrine was this : he dreamed 
 " ' that the kingdom of Christ should become earthly, and set 
 " ' upon those things which he lusted after, now, whilst covered 
 " ' with his flesh, and compassed in his skin ; — that is, the satis- 
 
 ' fying of the belly, (and r«v vnoya-epa, eorum qua sub ventre 
 " ' sunt,) with meat and drink, and with marriage. And that he 
 " ' might the more colourably bring his devilish devices to pass, 
 "' he dedicated thereunto holy-days, oblations, and slaughter 
 
 * Thai the Treatise itself may not be too long suspended, the testimony of 
 Writers, who were in the time of Dr. Homes of comparatively modern date, are 
 •i istponed for the Appendix. Ed. 
 
37 
 
 " 'for sacrifices. ' 9o far Dionysius. Rut Irciueus, in his first 
 " book against heresies, laveth down certain more detestable 
 " opinions of his. And in his third book he reporteth a history, 
 " worthy the memory, as received by tradition of Polycarp, 
 " saying. ' That John the apostle on a certain time entered into 
 " ' a bath, to bathe himself; and understanding that Cermthus 
 " ■ was therein bathing himself, John started aside and departed 
 " ' forth : not abiding: to tarry with him under the same roof, 
 " ' signifying the same to his company, and saying, let us speed - 
 " ' ilv 2:0 hence, lest the bath come to fall, wherein Cerinthus 
 " ■ the enemy of truth, bathe th himself.' " 
 
 1. Now in reply to these things I shall first shew that Euse- 
 bius was an Aran, and therefore unworthy of credit in this mat- 
 ter ; for how can he allow to Christ a glorious kingdom, who de- 
 nies his Deity. 
 
 I cannot give a better or more certain account, than that 
 which the renowned Magdeburgenses give in the following collec- 
 tion ;J who, haying prefixed this title in capitals, " Euskbius 
 Cesariensis," that all may be put out of doubt which Eusebius 
 they mean : and having: enumerated all the books of the said 
 Eusebius, (which also demonstrate that they mean Eusebius His- 
 toricus Pamphilus, Bishop of Csesarea, now in question,) go on 
 in these words : " Nunc de doctrina Eusebii, ice." I will give it 
 you in English, and let the captious consult the original, whether 
 I do not translate right. " Being now about to speak some few 
 " things concerning: the doctrine of Eusebius, in the first place 
 " we eive this monition, that Jerome every where holds him 
 " forth, suspected of the error of Arianism. For in his apology 
 " against Ruffmus, he saith, ' that he was indeed a most learned 
 " ' man, but not a Catholic ; z who throughout six of his books 
 " ■ (which he means is uncertain, unless perchance those con- 
 " ' cernino- Gospel preparation) did nothing else but declare, that 
 " ' Origen was of the same faith with him, i. e. of the Aran 
 " ' falsehood.' Again, in the same Apology ; * I have (saith Je- 
 " * rome) praised Eusebius for his Ecclesiastical History, &c. ; am 
 " ' I therefore an Arian, because Eusebius that compiled those 
 
 f Magdeburg. Histor. Eccle?. cent. 4, cap. x, sect. 3. 
 z In those times tliey took the word catholic in the same sense as >re do ortkode r. 
 
38 
 
 " • hooks is an Arian?' Of which thing also concerning him, 
 " Athanasiua doth not give us an obscure report, in the Decrees 
 " of the Nicene Council ; viz. that Eusebius was an Arian, be- 
 " fore he subscribed to the form of faith dictated in that Coun- 
 " cil ; but that he afterwards repented. Moreover, the Epistle 
 " of Eusebius to Paulinus, extant in Theodoret, a is full of Arian 
 " dotage. But as concerning some parts of Christian Religion, 
 " he (the said Eusebius Caesariensis) speaks indifferently." And 
 having given some instances, they go on in these words ; " Of 
 " the error of Eusebius we have spoken before ; to wit, that he 
 " was a professed Arian before the Council of Nice, &c. Tra- 
 " pezentius b did judge that there are some things in Eusebius's 
 " Books of Evangelical Preparation, that are not different from 
 " Arian pravity." Thus far Centurise Magdeburgenses in the 
 place before quoted : out of whom we might allege much more, 
 but for brevity. Learned Scultetus also judged, that the said 
 Eusebius never cordially believed the co-equality of Christ with 
 the Father. Likewise the great chronologer, Helvicus, says of 
 him ; " Eusebius Historicus, Arianus, Athanasio infensus : 
 " post consilium tamen redit ad saniorem mentem." The same 
 judgment concerning him doth Symson give in his Chronology. 
 Upon so good proof, we may safely infer, that the opinion of 
 Eusebius Caesariensis, against the kingdom of Christ for the 
 thousand years, is not to be valued ; seeing he denied the Deity 
 of Christ, and the authority of the Book of the Revelation. 
 
 2. Next, in regard to Cerinthus being a Millennarian, and his 
 voluptuous opinions thereon, let the Reader first take notice, 
 that if Cerinthus did say, that the kingdom of Christ after the 
 resurrection should become earthly, yet ive say not so ; though 
 we affirm, that the church shall be resident on earth for a thou- 
 sand years after the first resurrection. For the true church of 
 believers hath been on earth from the creation to this day, and 
 yet, as believers, not earthly, but the spiritual body of Christ, 
 
 a Lib. 2, cap. vi. Yea, Arius himself wrote to Eusebius Nicomediensis, that 
 he (the said Eusebius Caesariensis) was of the same opinion with him, as 
 Thcodoret in ihe same place doth demonstrate. 
 
 b This George Trapczuntius, a most skilful man in both languages, was he 
 that translated Eusebius Canadensis' fourteen books of Evangelical Preparation, 
 out of Greek into Lai in. 
 
39 
 
 The holy angels and Christ Jesus have conversed on earth, and 
 yet they were not thereby earthly. And if Cerinthns said, that 
 in Jerusalem our flesh again should serve the concupiscence and 
 lust of the flesh, &c. ; yet our souls abhor any thought thereof. 
 But now I shall prove, that Cerinthus was not a Millennarian ; at 
 least that he was not so called, (or accused, if you will,) by the 
 most approved authors of antiquity, who speak of him and his 
 heresies : so that we have more cause to suspect Eusebius, 
 Gaius, snd Dionysius, to be guilty of great credulity, than to 
 charge these opinions on Cerinthus. Take in the first place 
 Mr. Mede's answer, " An noa hinc merito, fyc." set forth long 
 after I was a good way entered on this work. " May not one 
 " justly suspect that same Gaius to have been one of the num- 
 " ber of the heretical Alogi, c who denied, saith Epiphanius, 
 " kbyov Dei, the word of God ; and therefore they ascribed to 
 " Cerinthus, as well the Gospel of John, as the Apocalypse ? 
 " The time doth altogether agree to that: for Theodoras the 
 ' champion of the Alogian standard, was cast out of the church 
 ' by Pope Victor ; and Gaius flourished in the time of Zephirus, 
 " who next succeeded Victorius. Nevertheless, the words of 
 " Gaius may be taken in this sense ; — as if he had said, Cerinthus 
 " had feignedly fathered upon the great Apostle, I know not 
 " what Apocalypses ; (beside that one and only Apocalypse ;) out 
 " of which feigned Apocalypses that forging fellow endeavoured 
 " to prove, that, after the resurrection, the kingdom of Christ 
 " should be earthly, wherein men should serve the lusts of the 
 " flesh, and the enticements of carnal pleasure. But whatever 
 " was the mind of Gaius, it is very likely he was deceived con- 
 " cerning Cerinthus. For if this had been the heresy of Ce- 
 " rinthus, how could it be, that Justin, Irenaeus, Melito, 
 " Tertullian, and Hippolytus should be ignorant of it ? 
 " Irenseus and Tertullian have professedly numbered up the 
 " heresies of Cerinthus ; and yet of this heresy there is deep 
 "silence! How therefore came it to be known to Gaius? 
 " Nevertheless it seems that the words of Gaius, an obscure 
 
 c Alogi are, according to the signification of the word, men without the Word, 
 or without reason ; and therefore hy the ancients they are oft called brutes, and 
 charged with denying the word of God ; both the axiomatical, in the letter, and 
 the substantial, viz. Christ, in the flesh. 
 
 F 
 
40 
 
 " fellow, gave occasion to Dionysius, Eusebius, and many others, 
 " in the heat of contention with the Millennarians, to doubt of 
 " the authority of the Apocalypse." What I have to add is 
 briefly this ; that of the authors quoted by Mr. Mede I have 
 made diligent search into two ; (viz. Ireneeus and Tertullian, 
 happening to have them in my study,) and one other, Epipha- 
 nius, who is not named by him. These do all particularly , 
 enumerate the errors of Cerinthus, but not one word is there in 
 any of them concerning his being a Millennarian. I refer the 
 Reader to the places where he may see the whole : viz. Ireneeus, 
 Lib. i, cap. 25, Lib. iii, cap. 3. Tertullian, Be prescrip. adv. 
 Hcereticos, cap. 48. Epiphanius, Lib. i, cont. Hares, Tom. 2, 
 Haeres, 28. Let him that is not obstinately blind lay all 
 together, and then judge, how it can be any way probable, that 
 Cerinthus held the millennary opinion, when so many faithful 
 writers, who came after him, should not have one word about 
 it, expressly or indirect. 
 
 3. Now because Jerome and Augustin are thought to be 
 against us, let us notice what admissions they make. The words 
 of Jerome are as follow : " After the captivity, which was first un- 
 * ' der Vespasian and Titus, and afterwards under Adrian, the ruin 
 " of Jerusalem are to continue unto the end of the world ; albeit 
 " the Jews fancy to themselves that they are to have Jerusalem 
 " again, golden and gemmed, with sacrifices and offerings, and 
 " marriages of saints ; and the kingdom of their Lord and 
 " Saviour on earth. Which things, though we follow not, yet 
 " we cannot condemn ; because many ecclesiastical men and 
 " martyrs have said the same things. Let every one abound in 
 " his own sense, and let all be reserved unto the judgment of 
 " the Lord." Thus you hear Jerome ingenuously confessing, 
 that he cannot condemn the fathers for being of the millennary 
 opinion ; even whilst he brings them in speaking more grossly, 
 than in truth they themselves did speak. For, touching sacrifices 
 and offerings, they said not as he reports, but the contrary ; as 
 appears by the words of Justin Martyr, with w T hom held most 
 of the orthodox of that age. " At whose second coming, (saith 
 " he, speaking of Christ,) think not that Isaiah, or others of the 
 " prophets, do speak of bloody sacrifices, or other offerings to 
 " be offered upon an altar ; but of true and spiritual praises and 
 " thanksgivings." {Dialog, cum Tryphon.) 
 
41 
 
 The words of Augustin (having quoted the first three verses of 
 Rev. xx,) are these : " They who have supposed from these 
 " words, that there shall be a first corporal resurrection ; have 
 w been moved among other things, chiefly by the number of the 
 " thousand years ; as if there ought to be among the saints a 
 " sabbatism, as it were, in a holy vacation, after their six thousand 
 " years of trouble. Which opinion, however, would be tolerable, 
 " if it should be believed, that spiritual delights should redound 
 " to the saints in that sabbath, by the presence of the Lord ; for 
 " we also sometime have been of that opinion." d Mark well, 
 before we go any further, how much he hath granted and 
 assented to, as sometime his own opinion. Surely, therefore, 
 if he were now alive, he would altogether close with it ; seeing 
 that no godly man ever states it otherwise, than as a sinless con- 
 dition, crowned with perfection. Now let us go on with 
 Augustin, " But since they say, that those that then rise again, 
 " shall give themselves to most immoderate carnal banquetings, 
 ** by no means can these things be believed but of those that 
 " are carnal." Thus he rejects only the carnality, supposed by 
 him to be annexed to the opinion. But upon what ground doth 
 he suppose that ? Surely upon mere hearsay, as he but now 
 confessed, " they say " so. Who said so ? Eusebius Ceesariensis ; 
 according as Ludovicus Vives gives the account, whence Augus- 
 tin had it j for indeed there is no other original of this twang 
 and dream in any author, but the said Eusebius. And whence 
 did Eusebius derive it ? He saith, by tradition, in a controversy 
 carried about in the name of Gaius. e So, here is hearsay upon 
 hearsay. O miserable proof, and feeble foundation, in a point 
 of such weight against the Revelation, and many other scriptures 
 in the Old and New Testament ! As to Eusebius, who denied 
 the divinity of Christ, and the authority of the Revelation, he is 
 
 d Be. civ. Dei, Lib. xx, c. 7. This quotation, though substantially the same 
 with the translation of Augustin's works by Ludovicus Vives, differs nevertheless 
 so considerably in some particulars as to render doubtful, if they can both have 
 referred to the same copy. The principal variation, and which greatly affects 
 the extent of Augustin's admission, is in the word ' sometime,' which is rendered by 
 L. V. ' once.'' " We were once of the same opinion," implies a subsecpient change ; 
 whereas " We have been sometime of that opinion," looks more like his continuing 
 to hold that view. The Paris edition of Augustin's Works has the passage 
 thus — " Nam etiam nos hoc opinati fuimus aliquando." Ed. 
 
 e Lib. iii, c. 26, 27, juxt. Grsec, 
 F 2 
 
42 
 
 not a proper witness. Nor is Gaius to be credited ; who (if 
 ever there were such a fellow) was probably a most dangerous 
 heretic, denying the word of God. 
 
 I shall conclude this evidence by a quotation from the Acts of 
 the Council of Nice, called by Constantine the Great, so late as 
 the year 325. This council, besides their definition of faith and 
 canons ecclesiastical, did set forth certain AiarvTrao-eis or Forms 
 of Ecclesiastical Doctrines ; according to which all teachers in 
 the church were to frame their discourse and direct their opinion. 
 And if these forms were not then first composed, they were at 
 least so moderated, that both parties might accept them, being 
 (as you may see) delivered in the language of Scripture. Some 
 of these forms are recorded by Gelasius Cyzicenus ; f among 
 which is this, for the doctrine of the state of the resurrection, 
 beginning " Mucporepog 6 Kovpoc;," &c. " The world was made 
 " more minute, or viler, because of foreknowledge. For 
 " God saw that man would sin : therefore we expect new hea- 
 " vens and a new earth, according to the Holy Scriptures, when 
 " shall shine forth the appearance and kingdom of the great 
 " God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. And then as Daniel saith 
 " chap, vii, 18,) the saints of the Most High shall take the king- 
 " dom and there shall be a pure earth, holy, a land of the 
 " living, not of the dead, which David foreseeing, by the eye of 
 " faith, cries out, Psalm xxvii, 13, I believe to see the goodness 
 " of the Lord in the land of the living ; a land of the meek and 
 " humble : for Christ saith, (Matt, v, 5,) blessed are the meek, 
 " for they shall possess the earth. And the Prophet saith, 
 " (Is. xxvi, 6,) the feet of the meek and humble shall tread upon 
 " it." On this passage Mr. Mede says : " This you see was the 
 " opinion of the whole orthodox christian church, in the age im- 
 " mediately following the death of Saint John, (when yet Poly- 
 " carp, and many disciples of the apostles were living,) as Justin 
 " Martyr expressly affirms : a testimony absolute without all 
 " comparison to persuade such as rely upon authority and 
 " antiquity. And therefore it is to be admired (saith Mr. 
 " Mede) that an opinion, once so generally received in the 
 " church, should ever have become cried down and buried. But 
 
 f Tn his Historia Aetorran CoacUii Nicoeni. 
 
18 
 
 " those times which extinguished this, brought in also other 
 " alterations ; and perhaps something in lieu of that, and relating 
 " to it, (which perhaps few observe, that have knowledge enough 
 " of the rest,) namely prayers for the dead, which were then con- 
 " ceived after this manner ; ' that they may have their part in 
 " the first resurrection.' " 
 
 To this let me add my wonder, that no longer since than the 
 reign of King Edward VI, this doctrine called millennary should, 
 in substance, be put into the general catechism by the great 
 martyr reformers, to be used throughout the nation ; (at least by all 
 Latin scholars ;) and yet that it should now be so decried by this 
 present generation, which does nevertheless so esteem that time of 
 reformation under Edward VI. The catechism, as to our point, 
 runs thus : " Q. How is that petition, thy kingdom come, to be 
 " understood ? A. We ask that his kingdom may come, because 
 " as yet we see not all things subject to Christ : we see not yet 
 " the stone cut out of the mountain without human help, which 
 " breaketh into pieces, and reduceth into nothing the image 
 " described by Daniel ; or how that the only rock, which is 
 " Christ, doth possess and obtain the empire of the whole world, 
 " given him of the Father. As yet Antichrist is not slain ; 
 " whence it is that we desire and pray, that at length it may 
 " come to pass, and be fulfilled ; and that Christ alone may 
 " reign with his saints, according to the divine promises ; and 
 " that he may live and have dominion in the world according 
 " to the decrees of the holy Gospel, and not according to the 
 " traditions, and laws of men, and the wills of the tyrants of the 
 " world. God grant (saith the reply of the questionist) that his 
 " kingdom may come most speedily." 
 
 In the same catechism the following also occurs : " Q. The end 
 " of the world the sacred Scripture calls the consummation and 
 " perfection of the mystery of Christ, and the renovation of all 
 " things : so the Apostle Peter speaks Epl. 2, chap. iii. ' We 
 " ' expect new heavens, and a new earth according to God's pro- 
 " ' mise, wherein dwelleth righteousness.' And it seems agreeable 
 " to reason, that the corruption, mutability, and sin, to which 
 " the whole world is subject, should at last cease. Now by 
 " what means, or ways of circumstances, those things shall be 
 " brought to pass, I desire to know of thee ? Ans. I will 
 
44 
 
 " declare as well as I can ; the same Apostle attesting : the 
 " heavens, in the manner of a stormy tempest, shall pass away ; 
 " and the elements estimating, shall be dissolved ; and the earth, 
 " and the works therein shall be burnt. As if the Apostle 
 " should say, the world (like as we see in gold) shall be wholly 
 " purged with fire, and shall be brought to its utmost perfection ; 
 " which the little world man imitating, shall likewise be freed 
 " from corruption, and mutation. And so for man's sake, (for 
 " whose use the great world was at first created,) being at length 
 " renovated, or made new, it shall put on a face that shall be 
 " far more pleasant and beautiful." All this is understood of a 
 state and time on earth before the ultimate judgment. For the 
 next question following is concerning that. " Q. Deinde autem 
 " quid superest ? — But after that what remains ? A. Ultimum 
 " et generale judicium, &c, — The ultimate and general judg- 
 " ment, &c." 
 
15 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OLD TESTAMENT EVIDENCE 
 
 TO A FUTURE GLORIOUS STATE OF THE CHURCH ON EARTH.* 
 
 Introductory. 
 
 There are two duties incumbent on a sufficiently gifted mi- 
 nister, according to Christ's dispensation in these times of im- 
 perfection : viz. preaching, according to that description in 2 Tim. 
 iii, 16; and prophesying, agreeably to 1 Cor. xiv, 29, &c. by 
 which latter I mean the explaining of prophecies, either by com- 
 paring New with Old Testament prophecies, or fulfilled with 
 unfulfilled. Answerably with these things are two duties in- 
 cumbent on the hearers. The first is edification in the faith, in 
 this world ; which is the intent of preaching. The second is 
 expectation of hope of the blissful fruit of the world to come, at 
 the next appearing of Christ and perfection of his kingdom ; and 
 this is the genuine event of proper prophesying. Thus both 
 duties lie upon both parties by a reciprocal relation ; — both must 
 he held forth by the faithful minister, and both must be attended 
 to and received by faithful people. 
 
 * The advantage of prophetical discussion may be judged from this circum- 
 stance ; that, when Dr. Homes wrote, many of the principal writers whom he had 
 to refute contended, that the thousand years were past ; having commenced from 
 the ascension of Christ, the destruction of Jerusalem, or the conversion of Con- 
 stantine. His argument therefore is mainly directed to prove, that there is to be 
 a future glorious state of the church on earth ; a point which is not now disputed 
 by any writer of note : and so far therefore the subject has evidently made way. 
 But the Reader must not suppose that this Treatise is therefore now superseded : 
 he will on the contrary find the great questions now controverted (viz. whether 
 the saints who sleep in Jesus are to have a part in that glorious state, and whether 
 the Lord Jesus shall personally appear) ably discussed in every section of the 
 work ; and great light thrown upon the state and condition itself. Ed. 
 
 
46 
 
 Having premised this, the drift, scope and sinews of all which 
 I have to say in the present and two following chapters falls into 
 the following syllogism : 
 
 Maj. Those things which are prophesied in the Word of 
 God, and are not yet come to pass, must be fulfilled : 
 
 Min. The great sensible and visible happiness of the 
 church on earth before the ultimate day of judgment, is pro- 
 phesied in the Word of God : 
 
 Con. Therefore it must be fulfilled, that such a state be 
 extant upon earth before the ultimate day of judgment. 
 The major is granted by all who believe the Word of God : 
 the minor I shall endeavour to prove by texts and arguments 
 drawn from Scripture, both from the Old and New Testaments 
 in order ; noting what harmony they make as an anthem, or 
 prelude, before that glorious scene begins. The Old Testament 
 laid down the ground of our hope : the New Testament, written 
 so long after Christ's coming in the flesh, carries on our ex- 
 pectation. 
 
 And there is great reason to take the Old Testament ; because 
 the New Testament, in speaking of this visible glorious kingdom 
 of Christ to be on earth, refers us to the Old : as Peter, e. g. when 
 he says, " We, according to his promise, look for new heavens 
 and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness," s refers to 
 Isaiah lxv. And here by the way mention is made of heavens 
 in the plural. The one empyrean heaven is unchangeable ; and 
 it is impertinent to tell us, that there shall dwell righteousness, 
 where, we well know, was never any the least unrighteousness. 
 We expect, and must expect by all circumstances upon that 
 place, such a fulfilling of that promise as shall create or make 
 new heavens on earth, wherein dwells righteousness here below, 
 where formerly hath been unrighteousness. 
 
 In like manner the same Peter, speaking of Christ's kingdom, 
 refers us to the Old Testament : " We have a more sure word 
 " of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a 
 " light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the 
 " day-star arise in your hearts ;" h which is taken out of 
 Numbers xxiv, 17 : " There shall come a star out of Jacob" — 
 
 g 2 Ep. iii, lo. h Ibid, i, 19. 
 
47 
 
 " out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion/' &c. 
 Of this star, which is Christ, I shall treat hereafter ; only pre- 
 mising here, that it were strange to suppose, that Christ should 
 call the Jews, and come to the last judgment, at the same in- 
 stant : so that the black cloud of the day of doom should cover 
 the world, and the day-star should arise on Israel, scattered 
 among all nations, at the same moment. 
 
 In Acts i also we are referred to the prophets, from the time 
 when the world began to know and hope for the visible kingdom of 
 Christ on earth, of which we speak. One of these prophets is 
 Enoch, to whom Jude also refers, J and quotes his words to sup- 
 ply the loss of his book. " Enoch the seventh from Adam pro- 
 " phesied saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of 
 " his saints, to execute judgment, and to convince all that are un- 
 " godly of all their ungodly deeds, and of all their hard speeches." 
 Perhaps there is a meaning in the circumstance, that he is num- 
 bered a seventh from Adam ; he may be a type, that Christ should 
 come in the-seventh millennary, or thousand, of the whole age of 
 the world. _No\v Jude allegeth Enoch, that the Lord shall come, 
 after Christ's ascension : he doth not say that he shall go away to 
 heaven, but that he shall come from heaven : and how ? — as a 
 judge, to convince and punish all that have persisted to utter hard 
 speeches against Christ, viz. against Christ himself, or against 
 him in his saints. And this must be before the ultimate day of 
 judgment ; or what privilege is it to the saints, and how is Christ's 
 power vindicated before he lays down his power ? 
 
 So that you may perceive, that this matter in hand is an 
 ancient tenet, no new thing, as many, ignorant of the prophets, 
 make it. But we in obedience to Christ, do search into the 
 prophets, and as we are enlightened, and led, as overcome with 
 the truth, so we follow. 
 
 There is another reason, leading us into the inquiry of the 
 prophets, viz. — that thereby we may search out the grounds upon 
 which the Jews build their expectation of the coming of the 
 Messiah, and in what manner they expect his coming ; that so 
 we may join issue with them in knowledge, hope, and prayer, 
 or otherwise. We all, both Jews and Gentiles, that have been 
 
 > Chap, iii, 20, 21. J vv. 11, 15. 
 
48 
 
 candid inquirers into the Scriptures, have from the beginning 
 looked for his further coming. " By faith they saw the promises 
 afar off, and saluted it ;" (so the Greek ;) and " by faith they 
 saw him that was invisible," &c. k When he came in the flesh, 
 the generality of the Jews saw him corporally, but not spiritually ; 
 viz. as a man, not as the Messiah : but the generality of the 
 believing Gentiles saw him spiritually, not corporally. The Jews 
 therefore still expect his coming, that they may see him both 
 corporally and spiritually ; and it will be no grief for the Gentiles, 
 that have seen him spiritually, to see him also corporally. 
 
 But this is not all : there is a further reason why we should 
 look into the prophets of the Old Testament ; viz. because many 
 of the types and visions, &c. used in the Book of Revelation, 
 are thence derived. I will at present give but one instance, (but 
 a most apt one to our business in hand,) out of Revelation 
 xx, 4. " And I saw thrones, and they that sat upon them, and 
 " judgment was given to them, &c. and they lived and reigned 
 " with Christ, &c." which clearly is taken out of Dan. vii, 9, &c. 
 " I beheld till the thrones were set (so it should be translated) and 
 " the ancient of days did sit, and I saw, and behold one like the 
 " Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the 
 " ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And 
 " there was given him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, &c. 
 " And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the king- 
 " dom under the whole heaven was given to the saints of the 
 " Most High, &c." 
 
 THE BOOK OF REVELATION, 
 
 Chapter xx. 
 
 I. So considerable do I deem this twentieth chapter of the 
 Revelation, that, before we take the choice places of the whole 
 Scriptures in order, I shall pitch the foot of my compass and 
 draw a right and clear circle upon it ; it being the manner and 
 method of the Holy Spirit to declare things gradually, as the 
 
 * Heb. xi. 
 
40 
 
 church is ready to hear, or its state requires, and the time of ful- 
 filment draws near ; and thus he speaks most and plainest at 
 last. These advantages falling to the share of this chapter, 
 which touches the design, result, and catastrophe of all that God 
 hath spoken before in the Old and New Testaments to the point 
 in hand ; it becomes no less than a golden key to unlock the 
 Bible, especially the Old Testament. 
 
 1. At the first verse it is said, "And I saw an ansel come 
 down," &c. which word ' and' imports, that John saw something 
 immediately before, in order to this : vyhat that was our lately in- 
 vented distinction of chapters and verses puts in chap.xix, 19 — 21, 
 " I saw (saith John) the beast, and the kings of the earth, and 
 " their armies, gathered together to make war against him that 
 " sat on the horse and against his army [namely, against Christ 
 " and his saints, vv. 11 — 14]. And the beast was taken, and 
 " with him the false prophet [that is the Antichrist, either under 
 " the notion of human imperially, or of ecclesiastical prophecy 
 " or teaching] were cast alive into the lake, &c. And the 
 " remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the 
 " horse." " And [or then, after this] I saw an angel come down 
 " from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great 
 " chain in his hand, and he laid hold on the dragon, that old 
 " serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thou- 
 " sand years," &c. This can mean no other thing, but the con- 
 quest of Christ and his saints over the beast, and the false pro- 
 phet, and their armies on earth ; notwithstanding all the power 
 and policy of their seducing generalissimo, the devil. Here then 
 is Christ and his army, and Antichrist and his army, conflicting ; 
 and they conflict with the sword, and Antichrist's army is slain 
 with the sword, and so slain with it, that the fowls were rilled 
 with their flesh. 
 
 Now it is strange if these things are to be done only spiritu- 
 ally, or in the world to come ! There proceeded indeed the sword 
 ' out of his mouth ;' (that is, Christ bid his saints to slay them, as 
 the context explains;) but they were materially or corporally slain, 
 as the time, weapon, and their burial in the bowels of birds im- 
 ply ; vea the ruin of the armies is put in opposition to the ruin 
 of their chieftains, whose destruction was, to be cast ' alive into 
 the lake.' Nor can this destruction be at the ultimate dav of 
 
50 
 
 judgment, since that day is not till after the destruction of Gog 
 and Magog, which is (vv. 8 — 12) clearly distinguished from the 
 destruction of Antichrist by two notable circumstances. The 
 Jirst is, that Gog and Magog war against the saints, whilst they 
 are in their enjoyment of their glorious peace, after the said 
 saints had reigned a thousand years ; (vv. 7,8;) whereas the war 
 of Antichrist, in the nineteenth chapter, is when the saints are 
 in great trouble, owing to their blood having been poured out un- 
 avenged till then. The second circumstance is, that after the thou- 
 sand years, Satan is again let loose, and having seduced Gog and 
 Magog, is himself cast into the lake of fire, where were the beast 
 and the false prophet, which had been cast in there formerly ; * 
 evidently pointing at the destruction of Antichrist, as finished 
 long before. 
 
 2. The next passage is, " And I saw thrones, and they that 
 " sat upon them, and judgment was given to them, and I saw 
 " the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, 
 " and for the Word of God, which had not worshiped the 
 " beast, nor his image, neither had received his mark upon 
 " their foreheads, or in their hands." The meaning of all this you 
 have in the next chapter : for at the first verse it is said, " And I 
 " saw new heavens, and a new earth ;" (little reason by the way 
 to mention earth, if it had been to describe a state in heaven 
 above ;) the place being taken out of Isaiah lxv, 17, where God 
 promises unto the Jews, (as Peter writes, m ) to build new heavens, 
 and a new earth, but withal mentions, that they shall enjoy 
 houses and vineyards. 
 
 In the second verse of chap, xxi, it is said, that John saw New 
 Jerusalem. That on earth is old ; but nothing is old in the 
 highest heavens : so that nothing there can be said to be new ; 
 and therefore this cannot be meant of that heavejj. " It comes 
 down from heaven," therefore it cannot express a state in that 
 supernal heaven ; even as it follows, "jwepwe^asabride;" which 
 plainly evinces, that it is not meant of ultimate glory, where the 
 church is not prejmred, (for that is done in this world,) hut per- 
 fected. So at the third verse it is said, " I heard a great voice out 
 " of heaven, [to import, that it was of things not in the supreme 
 
 1 Compare chapters xi.v, 20, and xx. 10, m 2 Pet. iii, 1 
 
51 
 
 " heaven,] saying, Behold the tabernacle of God. is with men, 
 " and he will dwell with them ;" which, if meant of the supernal 
 heaven, w T ould have been expressed in a contrary phrase, viz. — 
 " The tabernacle of men is with God ;" for there is no need of a 
 promise to assure us, that in the highest heavens God will dwell 
 with us. Agreeable to this the fourth verse promises, that all 
 ] tears shall be wiped away ; of which promise again, as in rela- 
 tion to the supreme heaven, there was not the least need. Once 
 more as to the word new, — all things (in v. 5,) are to be made 
 new ; but every thing in that heaven is so good that it need not 
 be made new, or better. Nor is there need of that, which is pro- 
 mised in the sixth verse, — " to give unto him that is athirst of 
 the fountain of the water of life :" it is enough for God to pro- 
 mise that heaven ; and we know that, if we be once there, we 
 shall not thirst. All these demonstrate, that this chapter relates 
 to a state on earth, and not of one in supreme glory. 
 
 In like manner the residue of the twenty -first chapter shews, 
 that the meaning is not of supernal, eternal glory, according 
 to former common opinion; for at verses 9, 10, an angel shews 
 John the bride, the lamb's wife, viz. the great city, holy Jeru- 
 salem, descending — out of heaven — -from God : which cannot 
 possibly be meant of a state in the highest heaven ; for that 
 would be a cross phrase, to express the state of the church 
 ascended, by its descending put of heaven from God. The souls of 
 the elect must descend, to be united to their bodies on earth, 
 there to inherit all things. And in regard to that description of 
 New Jerusalem by measures, &c. {v. 1 1 — 22,) can it mean the 
 spanning of heaven, or the measures of the place of ultimate 
 glory ? The parts and particulars are all too short, and to no 
 purpose. Doubtless this geometrical and architectural descrip- 
 tion is taken out of Ezekiel, (chap, xxxix, to the end of the book,) 
 in all which the prophet imports, that Gog, the enemy of Israel, 
 shall be destroyed, and they themselves gathered from their 
 captivity ; and he measures out to them their New Testament 
 estate. And therefore when John hath this given to him, as an 
 exposition of Ezekiel, it would be but a dark dream to apply it 
 to supernal glory. 
 
 For if it be meant of that glory, why are only the names of 
 the twelve Apostles to be inserted in the twelve foundations, and 
 
W 52 
 
 not the names also oFthe twelve Patriarchs ? What need was 
 there to tell us that the place spoken of here hath in it the glory 
 of God, and a light like a jasper, clear as crystal ? or to remind 
 us that the cubits weTe according to the measure of a man ? or 
 to warn us that John* saw there no temple ? I ask any in- 
 genuous man, whether he can (keeping his reason with him) 
 apply these things to ultimate happiness in the highest heaven ? 
 Do kings and princes go and come, and bring their honor and 
 glory to heaven ? Or do they bring the glory and honor of 
 nations unto it ? Quarrel not piece -meal with this or that 
 fragment, but take the whole entirely, and then tell me, 
 whether this twenty-first chapter can mean any thing, but a ; 
 glorious state on earth before the ultimate judgment, at which 
 time there is rather a destruction, than an extraction, or building ? 
 and therefore this chapter clearly contains the admirable state of 
 the church of Jews and Gentiles for the space of that thousand 
 years in the twentieth chapter ; the exposition whereof is the 
 work now in hand, and to which we return. 
 
 3. The third passage in this twentieth chapter of Revelation 
 is, that the saints lived and reigned with Christ a thousand 
 years, or the thousand years. First it is said they lived. Can 
 it be meant only, that they lived as immortal souls, in happiness 
 in the other world ? That cannot be ; for St. John needed not 
 to teach the saints and seven churches to whom he wrote, that 
 which heathens even knew, and taught in their philosophy, viz. 
 that the souls of men were immortal, when their bodies were 
 dead ; and that the souls of good men suffering, for well doing, 
 were happy in the other world. Homer's and the philosophers' 
 doctrine of Hades and the Elysian Fields reach fully as high as 
 this. Further, it is well known, that above thirteen hundred 
 years have passed since the last of the ten persecutions wherein 
 the martyrs were so slaughtered ; and shall we pitch the com- 
 pass of our account so, as to pick up a select number of saints, 
 whose souls have been just one thousand years of the time in 
 heaven, and no more ? 
 
 Truly (to speak my very conscience) from clear light to me, 
 by this their living can be intended no other thing but their 
 living again : even as in chap, i, 18, ' alive' is, most evidently, 
 put for ■ alive again.' The words are Christ's of himself, after his 
 
53 
 
 resurrection ; "I am he that am alive (so the Greek) or Living, 
 and was dead, and behold I am alive." If he had been dead, 
 and now was alive, he was properly alive again. In the same 
 sense the dead saints are here said to live, to signify that they 
 lived again ; just as the antithesis in tfre next verse gives it with 
 full evidence ; — " But the rest of the dead [that is the wicked] 
 lived not again, until the thousand years were finished." Who 
 can infer less from this than that those saints in the fourth verse 
 lived again those thousand years, in which the dead wicked lived 
 not again ; and the saints had been killed, (as also in chap, xi,) 
 not only metaphorically, but for the most part physically, down 
 to the total ruin of Antichrist ; and now the risen saints reign 
 with Christ both here and in chap. xi. And that the saints 
 actually lived again during the thousand years is further manifest, 
 in that it is plain from verse 12, that the wicked did live again 
 at the end of the thousand years ; and as the word until in verse 
 5 imports, — which is explained of Satan, by verses 3 and 7, to 
 mean, that, as he was to be loosed after the thousand years, so 
 they must be raised. 
 
 All that is objected to the contrary (as far as I can see or 
 hear) is this pretended scruple ; that the antithesis " But the 
 rest of the dead lived not again" carries not so much in it as we 
 have estimated ; because living again is applied to a contrary 
 thing, and to contrary persons. Thus the sense should be, 
 ' The rest of the wicked ones, dead in sin, lived not again, all 
 ' that thousand years ; that is, they attained not to the state of 
 ' regeneration or conversion by the Word and Spirit, which is 
 ' called in the fifth verse, " the first resurrection ;" but con- 
 ' tinued in an unregenerate state. To the dead saints it is 
 ' differently applied ; for they lived in soul in glory in the highest 
 ' heavens with Christ a thousand years : that is — from their death 
 ' for evermore.' Now, in regard to an antithesis being applied 
 to contrary things and persons, it speaks as much for our view 
 as for theirs : and if they still insist, that contraries must mean 
 things different in kind; (as spiritual death in sin, and eternal life 
 in glory ;) we reply, that this is indeed said by them, but not 
 proved. That is the question now in dispute, and it is not to be 
 won from us but by argument. Nor am I satisfied that the 
 first resurrection is any where in Scripture put to signify merely 
 
54 
 
 the sole act or condition of our first regeneration. I well re- 
 member those texts, Col. hi, 1, and Ephes. ii, 5, and many 
 similar places ; but these mention only quickening, and 
 rising, and raising : there is mention of surrection, but not of 
 RE-surrection, much less of a first resurrection. Nor do I forget 
 Rom. xi, 15, " that the receiving of the Jews shall be life from 
 the dead ;" but this is spoken peculiarly of the Jews, and of 
 their restitution to the church-glory on earth, in their converted 
 state, as divers pious and learned persons conceive : nor does 
 the Apostle here use the word ' resurrection,' much less 'first 
 resurrection.' I am also at a great loss how regeneration can 
 handsomely be clothed with the relation of a resurrection or 
 living again, according to scripture phrase, For there indeed 
 an unregenerate man is called a dead man, and sin ' death', and 
 a state of unconversion a ' lying dead in trespasses and sins' ; 
 and thus with a due and just opposition, the Apostle calls con- 
 version and regeneration, a quickening, a rising, a raising, a life : 
 not a quickening again, a rising or raising again. For an un- 
 regenerate man was not alive before, in relation to any spirituals ; 
 (which are the things the Apostle speaks of ;) and the word again, 
 according to Scripture and reason, usually imports a returning to 
 the same kind of thing as was before. The Scripture saith of 
 man in general, when wrought upon by the Word and Spirit, that 
 he is re-generated, (let the learned heed the Greek,) because it 
 alludes to his first estate of glorious generation in innocent 
 Adam, in the book of Genesis, as the Greeks call it ; but it doth 
 not say of any particular unregenerate man, that his conversion 
 is his raising or rising again, or his resurrection ; because a man 
 unregenerated, whilst so, was never alive spiritually till re- 
 generated, — he was never raised before from his fall, till raised 
 by conversion. Innocent Adam had no infused grace, but only 
 created perfection of nature. And consider further, that as this 
 is spoken to the saints, (as well as the rest of the book, Rev. i, 
 14,) so it is spoken of the saints, in their several characters, as 
 clearly set forth in the ' Introduction' to our first chapter. 
 Therefore those, to whom this first resurrection is applied, were 
 regenerated already. For this is the clear connexion of the 
 words, " And they lived, and reigned with Christ a thousand 
 years ;" then comes in, as a parenthesis, " But the rest of the' 
 
55 
 
 dead lived not again, until the thousand years were finished ;" 
 then follows, " This is the first resurrection, blessed and holy is 
 he that hath part in the first resurrection." Now what co- 
 herence does it make to say, ' The rest of the dead lived not 
 again, (i. e. were not regenerated, say these objectors,) until the 
 thousand years were finished ;' unless we dream that the rest of 
 the dead were regenerated at the end of the thousand years, 
 when comes apostasy instead, and the general judgment? 
 Therefore this phrase first resurrection can no way relate to re- 
 generation by the word and Spirit ; and to me therefore this text 
 gives a distinct sound, viz. that as the rest of the dead lived not 
 again till the last resurrection, at the end of the thousand years ; 
 so the saints did live again at the first resurrection, at the begin- 
 ning of the thousand years. 
 
 More may be dug out of this place, worthy of consideration. 
 For it is said, " The rest of the dead lived not again ;" as in re- 
 lation to the dead saints in glory, as the objectors grant. Well, 
 if the saints were now corporally dead, immediately before these 
 thousand years, then the rest of the dead (the wicked) were 
 also dead corporally. It is also granted by most, that at the 
 end of the thousand years, they lived again corporally : why- 
 then do any doubt in the least to understand that the saints, said 
 to be alive during the thousand years, are alive corporally. The 
 saints are alive in body during the thousand years, as really as 
 the rest are dead in body before and during the thousand 
 years, and alive in body after the thousand years are ended. 
 The very word ' rest ' imports a remnant of the same lump, — a 
 kind of the same general. The lump or general is, that many 
 are dead, both saints and wicked, before the thousand years be- 
 gin ; but when the thousand years are begun, all the one kind, 
 viz. the saints, are raised to life, and reign with Christ ; but 
 the remnant or other kind, the wicked, live not again. 
 
 It is likewise added, as an improvement of the condition of 
 the saints, that Satan is bound during the thousand years, that 
 he should not deceive nor stir up the nations against the saints, 
 till the thousand years be expired. If the true meaning, however, 
 of the saints living a thousand years were the glorious condition 
 of their souls in the highest heaven, what need was there_to 
 chain up Satan from deceiving the nations, and just to that 
 
 — G 
 
56 
 
 thousand years ; for the saints, if in heaven, would be far above 
 the reach of tumultuating nations and tempting devils. But in 
 as much as it is added, that after the thousand years are expired 
 Satan shall be loosed, and shall deceive the nations, and gather 
 them together from all quarters, and they shall encompass the 
 camp of the saints, and the beloved city, it necessarily follows, 
 that those saints, that are here said to live the thousand years, 
 did live that while on earth. 
 
 It is likewise further to be considered, that the Jews are to 
 have a great share in this millennary life. For the Book of 
 Revelation is full of representations, prophecies, and promises 
 quoted out of the Old Testament, which are there made to them ; 
 and the mention, that Euphrates is to be dried up, relates 
 to the Jewish Antichrist, who is to fall, and the Jews are to 
 be restored ; and therefore (though John wrote in the Gentile 
 Greek language) the song of the Church for her restoration and 
 the destruction of her enemies, is set forth in Hebrew four or five 
 times in six verses together — ' alleluja,' and ' amen.' n Now 
 as the restoration of the Jews is mainly regarded in all the Scrip- 
 tures that concern the glory of the universal church on earth ; 
 so it is spoken of as a further and greater thing than the con- 
 version of their particular persons. The dry bones must live, 
 and become a mighty host or armed multitude ; and the two 
 dry sticks of Judah and Israel shall grow into one, as ingrafted 
 scions into a stock, and become one nation gathered from all 
 quarters of the world into one body ; ° and many of them that 
 sleep in the dust shall awake, &c. P And Daniel himself at the 
 end of 1335 years, after the ceasing of the daily sacrifice, (which 
 falls into the time of calling and gathering the Jews,) shall stand 
 in his lot. <1 Concerning which and similar expressions Paul 
 saith, " What shall be the receiving of them (a more com- 
 prehensive word than converting) but life from the dead?" r He 
 saith not 'life from death,' as meaning only spiritual life; but gives 
 a fuller phrase according to the Greek, (;wr; ek vsKpiov,) importing 
 a resurrection too, of the deceased believers. After this he adds 
 at verse 26, " That there shall come out of Zion the deliverer, 
 and shall turn away iniquity from Jacob ; v the Apostle still 
 
 " Rev. xix, 1 — 6. ° Ezekiel xxxvii. P Dan. xii, 2. <i Ibid. v. 13. 
 
 r Rom. xi, 15. 
 
57 
 
 looking upon it as a thing future, though Christ had already been 
 come and gone ;) and he speaks it in relation to the saving of all 
 Israel ; intimating, that the bringing in of the Jews at the "res- 
 titution of all things" would be a very great and glorious busi- 
 ness. And therefore the share which the Jews have in this mil- 
 lennarian enjoyment, will not endure that this Scripture, (Rev. 
 xx,) should be got rid of by a metaphorical gloss. 
 
 But we must now proceed to another part of the text in ques- 
 tion ; viz. that the saints are said, Rev. xx, 4, not only to live 
 that thousand of years, but to reign also, and to reign with Christ. 
 This is stated in some measure to distinguish the saints of the 
 thousand years from the men who remain in the flesh ; who, 
 though they live this thousand years, do not reign, being many 
 of them inwardly slaves to sin and Satan, and outwardly vassals 
 to the Church through fear ; and so (alas !) they linger out and 
 refrain themselves till Satan is again let loose ; and then, seduced 
 by him, they muster themselves together, hoping for mastery, 
 which the sudden coming of the general judgment doth utterly 
 anticipate and frustrate. 
 
 The reign of the saints is such, as is altogether to be dis- 
 tinguished from their best condition before the thousand years. 
 Before they reigned partially only, over their corruptions and 
 Satan's temptations, but never over men ; but now totally and 
 finally over sin, men, and devils. They shall now reign in 
 soul and body, and on earth most gloriously : for the judgment 
 shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and 
 to destroy unto the end ; and the kingdom, and dominion, and 
 the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be 
 given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose king- 
 dom is everlasting, &c. s Mark the order, time, and place of 
 fulfilling these things. In Revelation also, one hundred forty 
 and four thousand are seen on Mount Zion with the Lamb, who 
 are redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God 
 and to the Lamb : these give glory to God, for that the hour of 
 his judgment is come — Babylon is fallen. * These in the third 
 verse are further said to sing a new song, (the same as in Rev. v, 
 9, 10,) the burden of which is, " Thou hast made us unto our God 
 
 s Dan. vii, 26. t Rev. xiv. 
 
 
58 
 
 kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth." I only allege 
 these Scriptures now, to give a hint of the eminent reigning of 
 the saints in the thousand years in scripture language, rather than 
 in my own words. I shall hereafter, Christ assisting, more amply 
 discuss these texts ; meanwhile the Reader cannot but see, that 
 they hold forth a glorious reign of the saints in soul and body, 
 over the whole earth, upon the fall of the fourth mo- 
 narchy, and its two limbs of seven and three horns, — Pope 
 and Turk, Rome and Babylon. 
 
 It is objected by the learned Dr. Prideaux, that the dignity of 
 reigning is not attributed to the saints and martyrs themselves, 
 but only to their souls ; and therefore that it is far from the scope 
 of the prophecy to extend the, first resurrection to any other than a 
 resurrection from the deadly opinions of Antichrist. To say 
 nothing of the difficulty of limiting the thousand years in this 
 case, (which the Doctor admits to be a thousand,) seeing that men 
 have in all ages risen up from antichristian opinions, and not for a 
 thousand years only : I rather argue from the Greek text, that 
 the souls must in this instance be a synechdoche for the persons, 
 and that the resurrection must signify the union of body and 
 soul. For first, in that passage " which had not worshiped the 
 \ beast/' the word which (oltweq) is in the masculine gender ; whereas 
 souls, which is the antecedent to it, is feminine. So also the rest 
 of the dead (ol Xonrot twv veKpuv) is in the masculine, in antithetical 
 , opposition to those that were beheaded, twv ireTrsXe^Lfffxeyojv. 
 
 In regard to the thousand years I shall only in conclusion ob- 
 serve ; that it is so punctually and positively set down to be ' a 
 thousand years,' that I know not how, without perverting the 
 Scripture, to made it otherwise. To witness the Holy Spirit six 
 times over in six verses name a thousand years precisely, 
 touching the same business, — never varying the phrase so as to 
 weaken it, but four times strengthening it with emphasis in the 
 Greek, viz. ' the or that same thousand years/ — to witness this I 
 say, and yet meanwhile imagine another number without good 
 ground, appears to me presumptuous. I know no instance in 
 the Bible of such a phrase being put for any other number, that 
 may encourage me to such a bold imagination. That of Peter, 
 2 Epistle, hi, 8, is nothing against us. It is true, a thousand 
 years in God's account, in regard to his knowledge of all things 
 
59 
 
 as present, and his eternal entity before and beyond all things, 
 are but as one day ; but still, a thousand years are a thousand 
 years in themselves, however they be as nothing in comparison 
 with God. But man cannot make a long time and a short time 
 all one : a thousand years to him are not as one natural day, 
 neither to the saints here reigning ; or their privilege will amount 
 to a very small matter. Nor can any considerate man make these 
 thousand years to signify more than a thousand years, viz. 
 eternity, as some would have it. There is an eminent punctum, 
 or point, both for the beginning and the ending of these 
 thousand years, which forbid such a conclusion. They begin 
 with the fall of Antichrist, the destruction of his army, and the 
 wonderful binding of Satan ; and they end with the loosing of 
 Satan, and the war with Gog-Magog. Is it possible that any 
 should refer this to the eternity of supreme glory ? Besides, 
 the parts to which this number is applied, are so cemented to- 
 gether, as to cause and effect, distinction and opposition, &c. 
 that they mightily strengthen and prove the just account of a 
 thousand years. Satan is bound a thousand years, that he should 
 not deceive the nations, till that same thousand years should be 
 fulfilled. Then the saints live and reign with Christ that 
 same thousand years ; (so the Greek ;) but the rest of the dead 
 live not again, until those thousand years are finished ; i. e. whilst 
 the holy ones are made priests of God, and of Christ, and reign 
 with Christ a thousand years. And it is worth our noting by 
 the way, that instead of adding here kings to priests, (as in Rev. 
 v, 10,) it is supplied with this, that they reign with Christ ; so 
 that when it is said in Rev. v, 10, that the saints are made 
 priests and kings to God, their kingly office is meant in relation 
 to that which there follows, viz. their reigning upon earth. Nor 
 is it the least consideration, that the thousand years, in 
 order that we may not stretch or shrink this number, are 
 bounded in by two most notable things, namely two resurrec- 
 tions. The living of the saints, whilst the rest of the dead lived 
 not is the first resurrection ; and this relates to a second, at the 
 end of the thousand years, when Satan having been loosed a 
 little space, the dead, small and great, stand before God. 
 
60 
 
 GENESIS. 
 
 Chap, i, 26 — 28 compared with Psalm yiii, and Hebrews ii, 5, 
 
 II. " And God said, let us make man in our image, after ourt 
 " likeness, and let them have dominion, &c."— " And God bless- 
 " ed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, 
 " and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over 
 " the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and over 
 " every living thing that moveth on the earth." Gen. i, 26 — 28. 
 
 As Saint John in Rev. xxii describes the glorious state of the 
 Church on earth before the last judgment ; (for what need in 
 supreme glory of a river of water, of streets, or of a tree of life ?) 
 so David falls into a divine meditation of the estate of Adam in 
 innocency, and composes a prophetical psalm of praise on the 
 subject, as the Apostle Paul expounds it in Heb. ii. For that 
 dominion over all things, given to Adam at the first, both David 
 and Paul knew should bexex^^emLan d.m ad e goodJ jy the Son ; 
 of Man, Christ For surely to have dominion over the beasts, 
 fishes, and fowls, (as David also has it w. 7, 8,) cannot be re- 
 ferred to the state of the saints in the highest heavens ; nor was 
 it performed on earth in David's time : for he was ever and 
 anon in danger of beasts, or bestial men ; just as the saints in 
 general (the members of the Son of Man) have been frequently 
 in danger since David. This subduing of the creatures, in such a 
 way as that " the enemy and avenger " among men must be 1 
 stilled, (v. 2,) and the saints mouths be filled with praise, (which 
 the whole form of the psalm sets forth,) must be fulfilled visibly 
 on earth. 
 
 The Apostle introduces the psalm thus : " Unto the Angels 
 God hath not subjected the world to come, of which we speak :" 
 which phrase, " World to come," is in the Greek spoken with 
 great emphasis, with the article repeated, (rrjv oiK»^ievt]v rrjy 
 HEWwav,) equal in English to, ' That same world, even that to 
 come.' And yet it means a state on earth : for the word 
 oikoumence, rendered 'world,' in strict propriety signifies in- 
 
Gl 
 
 habited world, as men inhabit their dwelling-houses ; (the word 
 oikos, house, being of the kindred of the word world;) and, in 
 common use, oikoumenee is put to signify the world on earth, at 
 least fifteen times in the New Testament. u Sometimes in those 
 places the word earth is for plainer expression adjoined, and even 
 used thus to signify the Roman monarchy only ; v and never is it 
 used to signify the supremest heaven. So that put all the 
 Apostle's phrase together, and the inhabited world to come can 
 signify no other, than that the monarchy on earth (in the 
 Apostle's time under the Romans) should, before the last judg- 
 ment, become the monarchy of Christ and of the saints 
 under him. 
 
 The second part of the phrase, (viz. " of which we speak,") doth 
 more fully demonstrate this : for where did the Apostle speak before 
 of that world to come, as he here intimates, but in the sixth 
 verse of the previous chapter ; which being read according to 
 the Greek runs thus ; " But when again he bringeth in (or shall 
 bring in) the first begotten Son into the world, he saith also, Let 
 all the angels of God worship him." In Greek — orav h 7ra\tv ziaa- 
 yayt] rov 7rp(ororoKoy eiff tt\v otyH\iEvr]v , Xeyei /cat irpoGKvvr)<TaTU)<7av avrio 
 7ravT£(T ayyeXoi Qea. As our translators have rendered this passage 
 {'And again when,' instead of, ' But when again) it seems merely 
 a new proof of Christ's superiority above angels ; but the words 
 are an antithesis and auxesis to the fifth verse, thus — ' He saith 
 not to any angel thou art my Son,' &c. ; but (to lessen the 
 dignity of angels and exalt Christ over them) he saith, ' Let all 
 the angels of God worship him.' So that the first ' and' (de) 
 must be turned into * but ' ; — the word ' again ' is not meant as 
 another proof; but to signify the time- whp-n the w o r sh ip- s hall 
 be given ; — and as for the second ' and,' between the words saith 
 and let, it offends against common sense, against the propriety 
 of our English idiom, against the context of the Greek, and 
 against the Hebrew text from whence it is quoted. Is it not 
 against common sense and English idiom to say, in a recital of 
 another's words, — ' He saith, or he said and so and so ? In the 
 
 u Matt, xxiv, 14 ; Luke ii, 1 ; iv, 5 ; xxi, 26 ; Actsxi, 28 ; xvii, 6 ; xvii, 31 ; 
 xix, 27 ; xxiv, 5 ; Rom. x, 18 ; Heb. i, 6 ; ii, 5 ; Rev. iii, 10 ; xii, 9 ; xvi, 14. 
 
 v Luke ii, 1 ; Acts xi, 28. 
 
62 
 
 narrative of the Old or New Testament it is a common thing to 
 bring in a party with ' And he said;' but in a quotation it is not 
 tolerable. And it is against the context of the Greek, which is 
 as we have given it ; whereas our translators, with a vain 
 tautology, join to ' saith ' two ands : for it runs thus, ' And again 
 he saith, and.' Lastly, the latter and appears as if taken from the 
 Hebrew ; whereas there is no such thing, for the whole place in 
 Psalm xcvii, 7, is to a word thus, — " Confounded be all they 
 that worship graven images, that boast themselves of idols : 
 worship him all ye Gods." Thus the word ' world ' in Heb. ii, 
 5, must not only signify the world on earth ; (or the Apostle's 
 reference to Heb. i, 6, is overthrown ;) but we must also infer 
 that in this Heb. ii, 5, mention is made of the same ' world to 
 come' on earth. And if my reading of Heb. i, 6, is the true 
 one, then also this question arises, when did God ever bring his 
 first begotten Son into the world again ? When the ninety- 
 seventh Psalm was penned, Christ had not in the flesh been 
 brought into the world at all ; and when the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews was written, Christ had been brought into the world 
 but once. But Psalm xcvii, 7 ' , will come under review again 
 presently, therefore we return now to Heb. ii. w 
 
 I repeat then, that for man to be over all visibly on earth, as 
 Adam was, (which is David's application in Psalm viii, of Gen. 
 i, 26, &c. and Paul's explication in this second of Hebrews, of 
 Psalm viii,) has never been performed since Adam's fall. The 
 saints in general were never thus " crowned with glory and 
 honor ;" nor were their " enemies and avengers ever thus stilled." 
 Psalm viii, 5 & 2. It cannot be said to have had more than a 
 typical fulfilment in Adam ; for then was no enemy and avenger 
 stilled — then was not the whole universe actually subjected to| 
 him ; but his dominion was in the territory of Paradise : much 
 less was the habitable world to come subjected to him. There- 1 
 fore the great question is, Whether this hath been fulfilled to' 
 Christ ? The Apostle, in this second of Hebrews, seems to me 
 to say, it hath not. For that which is to be put under Christ's 
 feet is " the inhabited world to come," viz. to come after Paul 
 
 w Some weeks after I had penned these things upon Heb. ii, 5, compared with 
 Heb. i, 6, &c. I met with Mr. Mede's Opuscula (newly published) concumng with 
 me in the grammar and sense of those places which I have altered. To his 
 work I refer the Reader for more. 
 
63 
 
 wrote that. And the Apostle doth strongly (as Pareus observes) 
 urge, out of Psalm viii, the universal particle all, (bs) " Thou 
 " hast put all things in subjection under his feet ; for (saith he) 
 " in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing 
 " that is not put under him : but now we see not yet all things 
 " put under him." He appeals to sense ; — " But now, (though 
 " Christ is ascended,) we see not yet all things put under him." 
 What was fulfilled, he fully expresses ; viz. (to keep to the exact 
 order of the words) " Him, that was made a little while a 
 " little lower * than the angels, we see, even Jesus, in regard of 
 " his suffering of death, to be crowned with glory and honor, 
 " that he by the free grace of God might taste of death for every 
 " man." All which may be thus paraphrased : ' The world to 
 * come is not to be put in subjection to angels, but unto Christ, 
 ' according to the eighth Psalm. Butthis is not yet fulfilled ; all 
 
 ■ things are not yet put under him ; only we see him, for the 
 ' suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor ; which is 
 ' not a subjection of the inhabitable world to come unto him, 
 
 ■ much less of all things therein. The angels are in heaven as 
 f well as he ; and thus, in place, they as well as he are above the 
 ' things below : but Christ must have the inhabited world, and 
 ' all things, so subject to and under him, as they shall not 
 
 ■ be to angels.' So that, if we heed the context, the Apostle 
 tells us, that in one sense Christ is exalted above all, — viz. in his 
 possession of the highest heaven, through suffering ; but that 
 this is in another place, than the inhabited world to come ; and 
 upon another account, than the precise formal dominion over it, 
 — it was to taste death for every man/ It was in prosecution of a 
 design; viz, " to bring many sons to glory :" not a perfecting of 
 a thing finished ; viz. the attainment of his absolute dominion 
 on earth, over Turks, Jews, Papists, Heathens, &c. But 
 this must come to pass : Christ and his members must have 
 absolute dominion over the world below, in that estate of it 
 which is yet future. 
 
 2. The Promises of God to Abraham and his posterity, Gen. xii, 
 1 — 3; xv, 4, 6; xvii, 1 — 7; xviii, 18; xxii, 18; xxvi, 4 
 
 * So fipaxv ti and i]\ar novae, in v. 7, and jjXarrwfcevor, must be distin- 
 guished. See the margin. 
 
 H 
 
64 
 
 xlviii, 19 & 26 ; with the Apostle's explication and application of 
 those promises, Rom, iv, 3—25; Gal. iii, 6—17 ; and Hebrews 
 xi, 8—17. 
 
 The Reader is requested to read carefully the above places, 
 and first to note generally, of the treasure of promises contained 
 in them, that, howsoever narrow they may appear to short- 
 sighted men, whose eye is intent only upon Jews, Canaan, and 
 men under the Law ; yet the divine Apostles, the absolute inter- 
 preters of the Old Testament, do, in the places of the New Tes- 
 tament annexed, extend their meaning unto all nations of the J 
 world, in all countries of the earth, and under the Gospel ; and 
 in such a way that, in their judgment, they were not completely 
 fulfilled when they wrote. The extension of them is particu- 
 larly evident if we compare Genesis xii, 1 — 3, with Galatians 
 iii, 8, and Hebrews xi, 8, &c. ; Genesis xv, 4, with Romans 
 iv, 3 — 22 ; Genesis xvii, 1, 2, &c. with Romans iv, 11, &c. 
 
 And with great justice doth the Apostle thus explain and ap- 
 ply the places above quoted to an evangelical state under the 
 New Testament ; for those Old Testjjnen^ScriptuiTJsJiave in 
 them m any evangelical strains, a ll harmonio usly agree ing to . 
 that glorious stat ^ which w^ e^pe^ For, first, there is spirit- T 
 ual, yet visible, salvation, delivered in the express form of 
 a covenant of grace ; viz. " that God will establish his 
 " covenant with Abraham, and with his seed after him in 
 " their generations, for an everlasting covenant, — to be a 
 " God unto him and to his seed after him :" promises often re- 
 peated, and illustrated and amplified with the plain expres- 
 sion of faith, and of God's accounting faith to the believer for 
 righteousness, and of blessing through the one seed of 
 Abraham. y Secondly, there is a happy and blessed possession 
 upon the face of the whole earth ; to the ruin of them that 
 should rise up against them, whom he would curse. 2 Thirdly, 
 we have a numerous multiplication of the seed of Abraham both 
 of Jews and Gentiles, who through that salvation should attain 
 to that possession ; — a multiplication of them ' as the sands of 
 the sea,' ' the stars of heaven/ ' a multitude of nations/ &c* 
 
 >' Gen. xv, (', ; xvii, 7, 8 ; xxii, 18 ; xxvi, 4; Gal. iii, 16. z Ibid xii, 3 ; xviii, 18. 
 
 * The phrase " Multitude of Nations" is literally "fulness of nations;" 
 Dipn - sf?0 whence the Apostle borrows his phrase — " The fulness of the Gen- 
 
65 
 
 The Lord adds, in the said Old Testament quotations, a scaling 
 (if I mistake not) of these three particulars. Of salvation he 
 gave them ' the seal of circumcision,'" which was a sign and seal 
 of the covenant of grace, viz. of the righteousness of faith : b 
 and as the covenant was " an everlasting covenant," God 
 would continue a seal of the covenant for ever ; (at least till the 
 restitution of all things;) substituting only the green wax of \ 
 water, fox^th&^is d wax of b loody, circumcision. Secondly, in { 
 regard to that happy possession upon the face of the whole earth, 
 he gave them the seven kingdoms, being the whole country of 
 Canaan, for an everlasting possession, as a seal and pledge : for 
 from the time they entered Canaan they were never universally 
 and absolutely expelled out of it ; and they shall continue there 
 to dwell, till they be gloriously restored to the full possession of 
 it. Thirdly, of their numerous blessed multiplication, God 
 gives a seal by changing Abram's name to Abraham. He 
 should not only be Ab-rom, that is high-father ; but Ab-rom- 
 hamon, high-father of a multitude : even as he likewise changed 
 the name of Sarai, which is ' my mistress, ' to Sarah, ' the mis- 
 tress.' Conformably with this change, the promises to Abraham 
 are extended in their utmost breadth to his posterity, viz. to Isaac, 
 
 tiles." (Rom. xi, 25.) In regard to the multiplication of Abraham's posterity, 
 the following will afford some idea. Abraham by Agar had Ishmael, of whom 
 there came in all " twelve princes according to their nations." Of Abraham by 
 Sarah, first, came Esau, also called Edom, from whom came the Edomites, or 
 Idumeans, inhabitants of mount Seir. The fourteen Dukes that sprang from 
 Esau by his several wives are particularly named by Moses. (Gen. xxxvi, 15 — 
 20.) Likewise, from Abraham by Sarah came Jacob, of whom came the twelve 
 Patriarchs, and of them, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Of Abraham by Ke- 
 turah came Zimram, who gave name to the Zamrians, a people of Arabia Felix; — 
 secondly Jokshan, of whom was named Camasa, in Syria Palmyrina ; — thirdly, 
 Medan, of whom was named the town Madiana in Arabia Felix, and the country 
 of Madiansea, on the South of Arabia ; — fourthly, Midian, of whom came the 
 Midianites, of Arabia Petrsea : but because also some of them dwelt in the 
 countries adjoining to the Ishmaelites, therefore they are sometimes called Ish- 
 maelites, though of so different an original. (Compare Gen. xxxvii, 25, with 
 v. 28 : and Judges viii, 24, with v. 26.) Fifthly, there came of Keturah IslihaJc, 
 who was the founder of Laodicea Scabiosa, in Syria ; — sixthly, Shuak, of whom 
 came the Saccai, inhabiting the east part of Syria, by Batanea ; — seventhly, 
 Sheba, whose posterity dwelt in Arabia Deserta ; — eighthly, Dedan, of whom 
 came the Dedaneans, who (as Jerome supposes) inhabited ^Ethiopia ; — ninthly, 
 Epha, whose country is named in Isaiah lx, 6, and is situate beyond Arabia, 
 called Saba ; — tenthly, Epher, of whom, saith Josephus, Africa had its name. 
 (See Junius on 1 Chron. v, 19 ; Jerome in loco ; Ptolom. Geograph.) These are 
 named in Gen. xxv, 1 — 6, with others whose countries are not known ; only 
 they are said to dwell eastward in the east country ; that is Arabia, or Syria. 
 
 k Romans iv, 11. 
 
66 
 
 Jacob, Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, (Gen. xxvi, 4 ; xlviii, 
 19 ; xlix, 26, quoted before ;) and all these promises speak of 
 a universal and happy dominion. 
 
 Consonant to this Old Testament platform, the excellent 
 master-builders in the New Testament rear the superstructure. 
 Salvation is often expressed by them under the notion of ' the 
 righteousness of faith,' and 'imputing faith for righteousness/ and 
 being ' blessed through faith.' Secondly, in regard to possession, 
 the Apostle argues, that the patriarchs leaving Mesopotamia, their 
 own native country, and never returning, when in their power 
 so to do ; and after that sojourning in Canaan, as strangers and 
 pilgrims in tents and tabernacles, though it was promised to 
 them for an inheritance, — and doing all this by faith, not seeing 
 the promise fulfilled by sense, — did evince, that they sought a 
 country, a heavenly one, a city that hath foundations prepared 
 and built by God. c All which cannot be more safely expounded 
 than by Rev. xxi, which shews us the new heaven and new 
 earth, in " the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from 
 heaven," where God himself will be with them, and be their 
 God." Thirdly, for multiplication ; — as the generality of the 
 world, Jews and Gentiles, have according to the flesh come out 
 of the loins of Abraham ; so the Apostle's exposition of the 
 promises holds forth, that the generality of the world shall be 
 the children of Abraham by faith, and blessed in that seed of 
 him, viz. Christ ; — " that they that are of the faith of Abra- 
 ham, are the children of Abraham ;" — " that God would justify 
 the heathen through faith, according to the gospel he preached 
 to Abraham ;" — that the sense of that promise, " In thee shall 
 all the nations of the earth be blessed," is, " that they that be 
 of faith shall be blessed with faithful Abraham ;" — " that the 
 blessing of Abraham shall come upon the Gentiles ;' — " that 
 " the promise to Abraham, that he should be the heir of the 
 " world, was not to Abraham and his seed, through the law, but 
 " through the righteousness of faith, that it might be by grace, 
 " to the end the promise might be sure, to all the seed : not to 
 " that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the 
 " faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all." d 
 
 c Heb. xi, 8—17. d R m. iv, 11—22 ; Gal, iii, 7—16. 
 
67 ^r>. ^ 
 
 For the sealing of these three things, Christ is c 
 mystery (or sacrament, as some translate) of godliness ; e because" 
 in his flesh is the glorious representation of God, and the effec- 
 tual communication of the excellencies of God to us. f Christ, 
 as testified unto from heaven, is " the sealed one ;" s i. e. the 
 " only name under heaven whereby we must be saved." Some 
 of his names are in this sense a seal ; as ' Immanuel, ' or ' God 
 with us' - (so interpreted by Matthew and applied by the 
 Apostles ; h ) and ' Jesus, ' ' for he shall save his people from their 
 sins. ' Secondly, by relation and union Christ is the seal or 
 assurance of the possession ; we being set in heavenly places 
 with him, as joint heirs : l and also by his ascension, for the dis- 
 ciples were assured, " that he should so come as they had seen 
 " him go into heaven ; whom the heavens must receive, until 
 " the times of restitution of all things." J Again, as He, being 
 the anti -typic al Abraham, is the everlasting Father of all to be 
 
 saved ; k so is he a seal and pledge, that there shall be a multi- 
 
 — — 
 
 plication of them that shall be saved by him. First, by his 
 paternity, " He shall see his seed," — " He shall see the travail 
 of his soul," — " He shall justify many ;" l — " He that sanctifieth, 
 and they that are sanctified are all one ;" — " Behold, I and the 
 children which God hath given me." " For it became him for 
 whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing 
 many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation 
 perfect through suffering." m And to shew that this seal, (viz. 
 Christ's taking our nature,) is not limited to the Jews only, the 
 Apostle calls him the second Adam, and extends it as wide as 
 the ruin that came by Adam : — " If through the offence of one, 
 " many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift of 
 " grace by one man Jesus Christ, hath abounded to many." 
 " As by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to con- 
 " demnation, even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift 
 " came upon all men unto justification of life." n Further, by 
 his suffering he is also a seal of the multiplication of believers. 
 " We see Jesus, made a little lower than angels by the suffering of 
 
 e 1 Tim. iii, 16. f John i, 16 ; xvii, 2 ; Heb. i, 2. g Matt, iii, 17; xvii, 5 ; 
 John vi, 27. h Matt, i, 23 ; Rom. viii, 31. * Rom. viii, 17 ; Ephes. ii, 6. 
 J Compare Acts i, 11, with iii, 21. k Is. ix, 6. 1 Is. liii, 10, 11. m Heb. ii, 
 10—13. n 1 Cor. xv, 45 ; Rom. v, 15, 18. 
 
 
\>r 
 
 m 
 
 " death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace 
 " of God should taste death for every man)" — " And I, if I be 
 lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." ° 
 
 The Holy Spirit, baptism, and the Lord's supper, are likewise 
 seals of these three things. The Spirit is indeed, in a general 
 sense, a seal of all the promises, and therefore called ' the Spirit 
 of promise ;' but in particular the Spirit is a seal of salvation, 
 and of the inheritance, or possession : " After ye heard 
 " the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation ; in whom also 
 " after ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of pro - 
 " mise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemp- 
 " tion of the purchased possession." P That it is a seal of the 
 multiplication of believers may be gathered from Joel ii, 28, for 
 this Spirit of promise " shall be poured out upon all flesh." 
 That baptism is a seal of salvation we all know : it is also a seal 
 of the possession, which that innumerable company of Jews and 
 Gentiles, passing through the Red Sea set forth ; wherein God 
 sealed to them, among other things, that his power should be 
 omnipotent ; and his mercy, in bringing them to the land of pro- 
 mise, endure for ever. <J Lastly, the Lord's supper doth not 
 only in the elements typify our spiritual nourishment and 
 cherishing by Christ ; but, in the posture of sitting signifies our 
 reigning and jud ging with "Him the whol e earths for ruling 
 and judging is oft expressed in Scripture by sitting ; r — even as in 
 Luke; eating and drinking at a table with Christ, is put as a 
 sign of a kingdom ; and sitting on seats or thrones, a sign of 
 judicature, (xxii, 29, 30.) 
 
 The sum of this section is, that there shall come so many out 
 of the loins of Abraham, both of Jews and Gentiles, to whom 
 God will be their God, and bless them over the face of the 
 whole earth, that the generality of the world shall become 
 believers, and be the governors of the entire unive rse : all 
 which, so sure as God cannot lie, must be fulfilled. But these 
 things have never yet been accomplished : the ten tribes remain 
 scattered among the heathen, not having received, if ever they 
 heard of, the Gospel of Christ ; and the two tribes do not to 
 
 o Heb. ii, 9 ; John xii, 32. P Ephes. i, 13, 14. q Compare Exod. xii, 37, 
 38 ; xiv ; Ps. cxxxvi, 4 — 15 ; and 1 Cor. x, 1 &c. r Matt, xix, 28 ; Rev. iv, 
 4 ; xx, 4. 
 
69 
 
 this day acknowledge the New Testament : the Turks, Arabians, 
 Tartars, Persians, Indians, &c. have no acquaintance with 
 Christ and salvation : we see not vet all nations, numerous as 
 the sands of the sea, blessed in Christ, the seed of Abraham. 
 Some inhabitants of a few spots of ground are called Christians ; 
 but the most empires, and the mightiest, know not Christ. We 
 see not yet Ephraim's posterity " come in as the fulness of the 
 Gentiles ;" s which phrase the Apostle interprets of the conver- 
 sion of the world of Jews and Gentiles to faith in Christ. t 
 Nor have the Hebrews, since the Apostle wrote the Epistle so 
 named, attained any country, or city, that is heavenlv, or built 
 by God ; for they are not converted to this clay. And they 
 must be in a better spiritual condition on earth (according to 
 the tenor of the Scriptures) before they can be received into 
 heaven : of which more hereafter. 
 
 Nor can these things be fulfilled at the last general judgment, 
 being every way inconsistent with that time : for that is no 
 period of conversion, or dominjon of men ; but of confusion^of 
 the wicked, and the sub jection _of_all the__good,— _yea of Christ 
 himself, as Christ, to God, who then is to be all in all. 
 
 NUMBERS. 
 
 The Prophecy of Balaam, Chap, xxiv, 16 — 25. 
 
 The man that spake this was Balaam ; but it is set down by 
 Moses as a most sure prophecy : which shews us what a full 
 manifestation he had from God in this matter. It is not un- 
 usual with God, for extraordinary ends, to reveal particular pro- 
 phecies to unregenerate men, at certain junctures of time. Thus 
 it was to Caiaphas, u so also to the Sibyls, v and thus to Balaam. 
 
 s Gen. xlviii, 19, before quoted. t Rom. xi, 25. u John xi, 49 — 51. 
 
 v As the Sibyls have been several times referred to, it may be acceptable to some 
 Readers to be informed, that they were women, supposed in pagan antiquity to 
 be endowed with a prophetic spirit, and held in very great repute. In the reign 
 of Tarquinius Superbus, about 530 years before Christ, one of these women ap- 
 peared before the monarch with nine volumes, which she offered for sale. He, 
 not knowing her to be a Sibyl, refused them ; when she burned three of the 
 nine, and demanded the same price for the remaining six. Being again refused, 
 
70 
 
 I say not that God gave them the Spirit of prophecy ; but that 
 he dictated to them some particular prophecies. In this instance 
 of Balaam, it is said "the Lord met him, and gave him a charge 
 what he should say ;" and so he was enforced by the divine power 
 to bless instead of curse. 
 
 It will be a suitable preface to what we are to infer from this 
 prophecy, if we give the exposition of the verses above quoted 
 in the words of the Hebrews, and of the Greek Septuagint : for 
 to the Hebrews that proverb well applies — Ubi bene, nemo melius. 
 
 " I shall see him, but not now or nigh;" that is, as Rabbi. 
 Jarchi expounds it — " I shall see him, who is the praise and ; 
 greatness of Jacob, not now, but after a time." And as the, 
 Chaldee paraphrase expounds it, " It is not near, when a king j 
 " shall arise out of the house of Jacob, and Christ shall be anointed j 
 " of the house of Israel, and shall rule over all the sons of men." 
 
 17 v. 1. " There shall arise (avarekeL Septg.) a star out of - 
 Jacob." This by Peter is applied to Christ—" Until the day 
 star arise ;" w and by Christ to himself in the Revelation — " I am 
 the bright and morning star." x 
 
 17 v. " And a sceptre shall rise out of Israel," — " that is, 
 " (saith the Chaldee Paraphrase) a king shall arise ; the Messiah 
 " shall be anointed, that shall rule all the sons of men." So that 
 
 she burnt three more, and again demanded the price of the whole nine for the 
 remaining three. As this extraordinary behaviour astonished Tarquin, he con- 
 sulted the augurs, who blamed him for not buying the nine ; upon which the 
 monarch gave the required price for the remaining three, and the woman disap- 
 peared, and was never afterwards heard of. These books, which were afterwards 
 called the Sibylline verses, were committed to the custody of fifteen priests chos- 
 en for the purpose, and were carefully preserved, greatly reverenced by the Ro- 
 mans, and consulted on very solemn occasions ; but when the Capitol was burnt, 
 in the time of Sylla, they were consumed in the conflagration. So great was 
 this loss considered, that commissioners were sent into different parts of Greece 
 to collect all the writings of the Sibyls that could be found ; but it is greatly 
 questioned, whether the eight books now extant, (and which are the books quoted 
 by Lactantius, pages 31 to 35 of this volume,) are the same : for, owing to the 
 circumstantial manner in which they speak of Christ, they are supposed to have 
 been fabricated in the second century, by the indiscreet zeal of christians, for 
 the purpose of convincing the heathen. Waiving however the question of their 
 authenticity ; and admitting even, for argument's sake, that they are not the 
 original books, but a spurious composition of the date assigned to them ; they 
 nevertheless possess a particular interest in regard to the subjects discussed in 
 this volume. For as, in that case, they were doubtless intended to represent 
 the prophetical views entertained by christians ; (or they would not have been 
 so freely quoted by the orthodox Fathers ;) they afford us a good insight into the 
 millennary opinions which prevailed in the second century. Ed. 
 
 w 2 Pet. i, 1!). x Rev. xxii, 16. 
 
71 
 
 Christ must have his sceptre, as well as David and other kings ; 
 and as he- must have his gracious sceptre of righteousness over 
 his people, so also his constraining and destroying rod, or sceptre 
 of iron, over his enemies, y 
 
 17, v. " And he shall smite the corners (or through the cor- 
 ners) of Moab, and shall destroy all the children of Seth." The 
 Septuagint is, " He shall break to pieces the Dukes of Moab ;" 
 and the Chaldee is, " He shall kill the Princes of Moab, and 
 shall unwall the children of Seth." This the Targum excellently 
 expounds, ' that Christ shall have dominion over all the children 
 of men/ For Seth being the son of Adam, given to him in the 
 room of Abel ; and Cain's posterity being drowned in the flood, 
 leaving only Seth's posterity in Noah ; all the world may now 
 be truly called the children of Seth. And this dominion of 
 Christ over all kings and nations is foretold in Psalm lxxii, 1 1 , 
 " All kings shall fall down before him, and all nations shall serve 
 him." So in Philippians, where we have it in the future tense, 
 long after Christ's ascension : "At the name of Jesus every 
 knee shall bow, (ttclv yovv Ka\^n) of things in heaven and 
 things in earth, &c." z To this exposition Jarchi subscribes ; 
 and Rabbi Maimony notably explains the whole prophecy, first 
 of David, as the type, then of Christ; thus : " ' I shall see him, 
 " but not now ; that is, David: ' I shall behold him, but not 
 " nigh;' this is the king, Christ. — ' There shall proceed a star 
 " out of Jacob ; this is David: ' and a sceptre shall rise out of 
 " Israel ;' this is the king, Christ. — ' And shall smite through the 
 " corners of Moab ;' this is David, as it is written (2 Sam. ii, 8.) 
 " ' And he smote Moab, &c. :' ' And he shall unwall all the sons 
 " of Seth ;' this is the king, Christ, of whom it is written, (Ps. 
 "lxxii, 8,) ' he shall have dominion from sea to sea.' 'And 
 " Edom shall be a possession,' i.e. to David; as it is said, (2 Sam. 
 " viii, 14,) 'and all they of Edom became David's servants:' 
 " 'And Seir shall be a possession ;' this is unto the king, Christ, 
 " as it is said, (Obad. 21,) 'and Saviour's shall come up on 
 " Mount Sion, to judge the mount of Esau, and the kingdom 
 " shall be the Lord's.'" 
 
 y Ps. xlv, 7 ; Heb. i, 8 ; Ps. ii, 9 ; Rev. xii, 5. « Phil, ii, 10. 
 
 H2 
 
72 
 
 18, v. " Edom shall be a possession, &c." These Edomites 
 (the posterity of Esau) became a possession to David ; a and 
 hereafter, as it is written, they are to be a possession to Christ : 
 ' Who is this that cometh up from Edom, with dyed garments 
 from Bozrah ? &c." b — intimating a corporal destruction of the 
 Edomites by Christ. Seir is also Esau, for there Esau dwelt ; c 
 therefore the Septuagint renders Sew by Esau. 
 
 18 v. " Israel shall do valiantly ;" against Esau and the rest 
 of the enemies of the church. Thus Israel, according to his 
 name, ' shall prevail as a prince,' with God and man ; d as it is 
 written : " Through God we shall do valiantly, for He shall 
 tread down our enemies." e 
 
 19 v. " Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, 
 and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city :" that is, of 
 all cities, as the Chaldee expounds it, viz. ' the cities of the 
 peoples/ 
 
 w. 20 — 22. These verses need no explanation. 
 
 v. 23. " Alas, who shall live when God doth this :" the 
 Chaldee Paraphrase explains it, "woe to the sinners that shall 
 live when God doth this." — The Targum Jonathan adds to it ; 
 ' when the Word of the Lord shall be revealed to give a good 
 reward unto the just, and take vengeance on the wicked." To 
 which let me add the Geneva notes : " Oh, who shall not perish, 
 when the enemy, Antichrist, shall set himself up as God !" 
 
 v. 24. " And ships shall come from the coast of Chittim. 
 '• and shall afflict Ashur, and shall afflict Eber, and he shall 
 " also perish for ever." The Chaldee expounds Chittim to 
 signify the RQmans. The old Latin explains it by Italy, which 
 is all one in effect ; only the Roman monarchy was larger than 
 the imperial seat of it in the kingdom of Italy. Chittim, or 
 Kittim, was one of the sons of Javan, the son of Japhet, the 
 son of Noah. f His posterity inhabited Greece and Italy, 
 Cyprus and Cilicia; (as Josephus affirms;) all which places 
 also by turns were sometimes of the Greek empire, sometimes of I 
 the Roman empire. For these reasons, Chittim, alias Kittirm, 
 is sometimes taken for the Greeks, sometimes for the Romans; 8 
 both which in turn afflicted Ashur, and Eber, — that is the 
 
 : 
 
 a 1 Chron. xviii, 13. b Isaiah Mil. 1. c Gen. xxxvi. d Gen. xxxii, 38. 
 « Ps. lx, 12. f Gen. x, 4. 
 
73 
 
 Hebrews, or people of Israel. But the catastrophe is, ' that 
 Chittim shall perish for ever. ' 
 
 Now these promises, in their full latitude and extent, were 
 never yet fulfilled. This same star Christ hath not yet shined 
 upon the hearts of the generality of the sons of Jacob. He 
 hath not yet, as Christ, ruled as a king over all the sons of men. 
 He hath not yet unwalled all the children of Seth :" i. e. he 
 hath not brought them off from their own confidences to submit 
 to him ; or (as the Chaldee expounds before) he hath not had 
 dominion over all the children of men. The whole world are 
 not yet so much as professors of Christ ; nor hath Christ taken 
 vengeance on them to this day : Chittim is not yet perished for 
 ever ; but, partly under the Turk, and partly under the Pope, 
 doth yet mischievously and mightily oppose Christ. 
 
 Nor can a wise man dream, that these things shall be fulfilled 
 at, or after the ultimate day of judgment ; for then Christ's 
 dominion doth utterly cease. And this text further saith, 
 ' ' when God doth this, who shall live ?" plainly signifving, that 
 when Christ doth thus as a king, and rules over all the sons of 
 men, there shall be a great corporal destruction of his enemies ; 
 whereas the ultimate day of judgment is not the killing, but the 
 making alive corporally all the wicked. 
 
 DEUTERONOMY, 
 Chapter ocxx, 1 — 10. 
 
 This Scripture, to those who read with a cursory eye, may 
 seem little to our purpose; but being weighed, it is very pon- 
 derous, and will soon turn the scales. The sum of ' obeying 
 God's voice, and keeping his commandments,' so often here in- 
 culcated, is their keeping the covenant they made with God ; 
 viz. that as God should be their God, so they should be his peo- 
 ple. And it is upon Gospel terms even, that Moses treats with 
 them in this place ; as is evident from verses 11 — 14; (viz. 
 that the commandment was not far off, &c. but nigh, even in 
 their mouth, aud in their heart ;) for the Apostle Panl, ex- 
 
74 
 
 pounding this very place, and applying it to the Jews, calls it — 
 " the word of faith." S And when the Jews shall obey ; (viz. 
 believe the Gospel,) being brought unto repentance, (which is 
 hinted at in the words f call to mind/ and * returning/ often so 
 expounded, 11 ) then the Lord shall deliver them from all their 
 captivities, when and wheresoever they be. For Moses aims 
 not at this or that particular captivity : the words of the pro- 
 mise are far more comprehensive, viz. " If any of thine (he 
 " says) be driven out unto the utmost parts of heaven, from thence 
 " will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he 
 " fetch thee. And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the 
 " land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shall possess it ; and 
 " he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers ; and 
 " (v. 6,) the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the 
 " heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine 
 " heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. And {v. 
 " 7,) the Lord thy God will put all these curses upon thine 
 " enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee. 
 " And (v. 8,) thou shalt return and obey the voice of the Lord, 
 " and do all his commandments, which I command thee this 
 " day. And (v. 9,) the Lord thy God will make thee plenteous 
 " in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in 
 " the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good : • 
 " for the Lord will again rejoice over thee for good, as he re- ; 
 " joiced over thy fathers." 
 
 Now let the ingenuous reader say, whether these promises 
 were ever thus fulfilled ! Considering the time when Moses 
 delivered tljem, they must relate to the whole twelve tribes ; 
 but we know not that ever the ten tribes returned from their 
 captivity : and we are sure by experience, that thousands of the 
 two tribes are even now in captivity under the Turkish and 
 Roman empires ; and thousands of them dispersed among the 
 Indians, and also in Europe. So that the Jews themselves (not 
 only the unconverted, but some that are converted to Christianity,) 
 confess these things never yet to have been fulfilled ; as I my- 
 self have been an ear witness from M. Melos, a Jew of Portugal, 
 converted to the faith. And much less to the Jews so delivered, 
 
 g Rom. x, 8. h 1 Kings, viii, 46, 47 ; Is. xlvi, 8 ; Lam. iii, 21 ; Luke, 15, 17. 
 
75 
 
 as to have their hearts circumcised, or to be blessed with all 
 temporal blessings, or to have all the curses put upon their 
 enemies. 
 
 Indeed this very Scripture is by Nehemiah made the ground 
 of pleading with God for the return of his people ; though the 
 two tribes were already returned, and he among them. But he 
 appears to have been clear, that the sense of this promise ex- 
 tended to the return of the whole twelve tribes, who should 
 have a better settlement in their own land, than this embryo in 
 the present state of two tribes did represent : and according to 
 this apprehension his faith is strong, and his prayer fervent. 
 And if the Jews should not be delivered from any one of the 
 captivities that were to follow, then the promise of Moses, and 
 the faith and prayer of Nehemiah would all come to nothing. 
 Yea, if God only deliver some of them from their captivities, 
 and not all of them, Nehemiah's prayer will not be answered, 
 nor his desires satisfied, though wrought in him by the ex- 
 traordinary working of the Spirit of God. (Neh. i, 8 — 11.) 
 
 Indeed the two tribes brought back were as an earnest, or 
 first fruits, of the return of the remaining tribes ; and as an as- 
 surance of Christ's coming out of Judah ; and they were ac- 
 cordingly continued till that event came to pass. But this is 
 very short of gathering the twelve tribes from among all nations, 
 and from the ut most end of heaven ! The two tribes were only 
 brought from Babylon to Jerusalem, which were not distant 
 more than six hundred miles ; but what is this in comparison 
 of the ends of heaven, which are counted from the north pole to 
 the south ? 
 
 Therefore we conclude, that neither the promise of Moses, 
 nor the hope and prayer of Nehemiah, are the one half fulfilled. 
 But they shall be : the saints' prayers and hopes are not lost, 
 though sometimes long sown before they spring up. The 
 Apostle's prayer for the conversion of the gentile kings and 
 nations was not answered till the time of Constantine the Great 
 — 4hree hundred years after. And the prayers of the saints 
 under the altar shall be answered ; though it is now above 1500 
 years, and they are not fulfilled. 
 
70 
 
 Chapter xxxii, 15 — 44. 
 
 Verses 15 — 18 contain the sins of the Jews : " But Jesh- 
 urun (Jerusalem) waxed fat and kicked, &c." Verses 19 — 34 
 describe the wrath and revenge that God would exercise upon \ 
 them for those sins : " When the Lord saw it, he abhorred, &c." 
 Verses 35 — 44 represent God as comforting the Jews, and 
 proving a terror to their enemies : "Tome belongeth vengeance 
 " and recompense ; their (i. e. their enemies') foot shall slide in 
 " due time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things 
 " that shall come upon them make haste : for the Lord shall 
 " judge (or shall plead the cause of*) his people, and repent him- 
 " self for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, 
 " and there is none shut up or left. And he shall say, Where 
 " are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted ? &c. Let 
 " them rise up and help you, and be your protection. See now 
 " that I, even I am He, and there is no God with me ; I kill, 
 " and I make alive ; I wound, and I heal ; neither is there any 
 " that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to 
 " heaven, and say, I live for ever. If I wet my glittering sword, 
 " and mine hand take hold on judgement, I will render venge- 
 " ance to mine enemies, and I will reward them that hate me. 
 " I will make mine arrows drunk with blood (and my sword 
 " shall devour flesh) and that with the blood of the slain, and 
 " of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the 
 " enemy. Rejoice, O ye Gentiles, (see Rom. xv, 1U,) with his 
 " people ; for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will 
 " render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful to 
 " his land, and to his people." 
 
 Now the sins of the Jews we have known, and the judge- 
 ments of God upon them ; " their power is gone/' and they are 
 "scattered into corners:" but we never saw or heard these 
 promises fulfilled. For, first, we never knew by Scripture, 
 history, or experience, that the nations of the Gentiles rejoiced 
 with the Jews, as sharers in the same general salvation, accord- 
 ing to Romans xv, 10. For this was certainly not effected in 
 
 * So Piscator : " Causam populi sui aget." 
 
77 
 
 the Apostle's time : the two great streams ran cross-way in 
 this matter. And whilst Christ was on earth, neither he nor his 
 disciples preached in the way of the Gentiles, but kept close to 
 the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 1 And when the Gentiles 
 received the Gospel, the Jews had refused itJ Indeed the Jews 
 were under spirtual blindness, (as the Apostle tells us,) and were 
 to continue so, till the fulness of the Gentiles were come in. k 
 So that instead of a reciprocal rejoicing in one another's spiritual 
 salvation, they, with great indignation, conceive us to be in 
 error ; and we, with equal sorrow, conceive them to be in 
 error. And as for temporal salvation, both Jews and Gentile 
 christians were, after the Apostle's time, under the heathen 
 Roman slavery ; and from thence forward were the christians 
 bloodily persecuted for three hundred years in the ten persecu- 
 tions, and afterwards under the Pope : and the Jews to this day 
 are dispersed as a despised people. 
 
 These things being premised, it follows of necessary conse- 
 quence, that the general and bloody vengeance on all the enemies 
 of the Jews has never been performed ; and therefore we need 
 not waste time in attempting to prove it. 
 
 PSALMS. 
 
 There are three principal heads of our position, most patheti 
 cally and emphatically prophesied and promised in the Psalms : 
 First, the universal power of Christ, both conversiv e and 
 coercive ; and, correlatively, the subjection of the whole world 
 to Christ, either by consent or constraint ; — Secondly, the just 
 time of fu lfilling thjs ; — THIRDLY, th P snhhatism, nn earthy which 
 the saints are then to enjoy. The first and second I shall pro- 
 ceed to prove. 
 
 Psalms ii and viii. 
 
 The second Psalm is spoken to Jews and Gentiles, (verses 1, 2, 
 and 8,) and is carried by the apostles past their own times to 
 after generations. For the Jewish government, being then 
 mixed with the Roman power, both of them, jointly concurring, 
 did put Christ to death and persecute the apostles ; upon which 
 
 I Matt, x, 5. J Acts xiii, 45, 46. k Rom. xi, 25, 
 
78 
 
 the apostles convert the second Psalm, with a part of the eighth, 
 into a prayer, and turn the bent of it both upon Jews and 
 Gentiles. " They lifted up their voice to God with one accord, 
 " and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven and 
 " earth, and the sea, and all that in them is ; (as in Ps. viii,) 
 " who, by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did 
 " the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things ? The 
 " kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered to- 
 " gether, against the Lord and against his Christ, (as in Ps. ii.) 
 " For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast 
 " anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles 
 " and people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do, &c." 
 " And now grant that signs and wonders may be done by the 
 name of thy holy child Jesus/' 1 The sum of their desire is, that 
 God, according to his promise in these Psalms, (we have opened 
 the eighth before,) would set up the power and glory of Christ 
 over Jews and Gentiles, notwithstanding all their fierce oppo- 
 sition at present : and for a testimony that God did allow their 
 application of those Psalms as right, and did accept of their 
 prayer grounded thereon, he fills them with the Spirit, and shakes 
 the place where they prayed. m 
 
 Now neither is this second Psalm yet fulfilled, nor the Apostle's 
 prayer upon it fully answered. It is true, that about forty years 
 after Christ's death, that great destruction upon the Jews, pro 
 phesied by Christ, came to pass ; n and within a fewer years Herod 
 came to a miserable end, as did also Pilate ; and after him suc- 
 cessively two and thirty Roman emperors. And about three 
 hundred years after the incarnation of Christ, Constantine 
 the Great, being converted unto Christianity, overthrew ir 
 battle his anti-christian colleagues that opposed it. But pro- 
 phecies and prayers, like streams, run on in a current, stil 
 growing greater and greater in accomplishment, till they resl| 
 in the main ocean — the fulfilling of the whole design of God 
 according to the entire platform contained in all the promises 
 This Psalm therefore according to that rule was not fully ac- 
 complished, when the apostles turned it into a prayer. The 
 majority of the Gentiles, and the obstinate Jewish people an.' 
 
 ' Acts iv, 21—30. m Ibid. V. 31. n Matt. xxiv. ° See Acts xii, and Fox' 
 
 Martyrology. 
 
79 
 
 still of the same temper against Christ. And God hath not 
 hitherto so " spoken to them in his wrath, and vexed them in his 
 " sore displeasure, as to make them know that he hath set his 
 " king upon his holy hill of Sion ; nor hath he given unto Christ 
 " the heathen for his inheritance, and the utmost parts of the 
 " earth for his possession, to break them that are incorrigible 
 " with a rod of iron, and to dash t hem in p ieces like a potter' s 
 " vessel, until kings and judges of the earth become wise, serve 
 " the Lord in fear, &c." 
 
 Mark accurately, that there must yet come a time, when 
 Christ's anger must be " kindled, but as a little," and yet then 
 must " all be blessed that put their trust in him." [v. 12.) This 
 ' little,' whether it be as to time or degree, (for tfiEE may mean 
 either, or both,) must be in distinction from and comparison 
 with that greater time and degree of Christ's anger at the 
 ultimate judgement ; yet at this little time, all them that trust 
 in Christ are to be happy. Now if you apply this period of 
 anger on Jews and Gentiles to the time past, since the apostles 
 quoted this Psalm, it is near 1620 years ; which you cannot call 
 a little time : neither have believers in Christ been at any time 
 since then universally blessed. These wicked ones must perish 
 and the trusters in Christ be blessed at some time of eminent 
 manifestation of Christ, as " King of Sion ;" which must be 
 before he lays down his mediatorship and power at the end 
 of all. 
 
 And observe, that those words in the seventh verse, " this 
 day have I begotten thee," are always applied to such evident 
 manifestations j^.Ghri^^-tls^Jat^^eing still greater than the 
 former. As first, in this second Psalm, to the declaring the de- 
 cree, and proclaiming him to be King ; Secondly, to his re- 
 surrection;? Thirdly, in relation to his future appearing to 
 set up that visible kingdom on earth of which we speak, q 
 For not to repeat what I have said in page 61, &c. on those 
 words of the Apostle, — " Unto which of the angels said He 
 at any time, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten 
 thee ? &c." " and when again he shall bring his first begotten 
 Son into the inhabited world, he saith, Let all the angels worship 
 him ;" — I only add, be mindful of the Apostle's ' shall,' used after 
 
 P Acts xiii, 33. <l Heb. i, 5, 6. 
 
80 
 
 Christ had come in the flesh ; and that after the general judge- 
 ment Christ, as Christ, shall lay down all his dominion over 
 angels and men : for this ' shall ' must therefore relate to some 
 middle time between. 
 
 Psalm xxii, 27, 29. 
 
 This Psalm is concerning the whole of Christ's passion : as is 
 plain, — First, by the title, "A Psalm concerning Aijeleth Shahar," 
 that is, the hind of the morning ; for Christ having been shut in the 
 gr ave, rose and escaped away in the mornin g : and secondly, by 
 the application of several passages by the Evangelist. 1 " But 
 though in the first scene it sets forth Christ's humiliation ; yet in 
 the second, (beginning v. 22, "I will declare thy name unto my 
 brethren,") it sets forth his exaltation. This the Apostle 
 applies to Christ's manifestation in the sameness of nature 
 with the sons of men, that in that nature he might taste death 
 for every man, and at last declare that salvation to all the world. s 
 And next we have the effect of his declaring God's name to the 
 world ; viz. effectual, general conversion : " All the ends of the 
 " world shall remember, and turn unto the Lord, and all the 
 " kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee : for the king- 
 " dom is the Lord's, and he is the governor among the nations. 
 " All they that be fat upon the earth shall eat and worship ; all 
 " they that go down to the dust shall bow before him." We 
 have the same general conversion and worship declared in 
 Psalm lxxxvi, 9. " All nations whom thou hast made, shall 
 come and worship before thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name." 
 And also in that shortest, but largely comprehensive Psalm, 
 cxvii ; " O praise the Lord all ye nations; praise him all ye { 
 people ;" which Paul evidently extends to the coming in of the 
 fulness of Jews and Gentiles, rejoicing together as one Church. 1 
 Therefore, according to Paul, David had a most comprehensive 
 view when he spake these things; and therefore it must be fulfilled, 
 according to its true latitude and elevation, without the mincing 
 distinctions of men. For a seal of assurance whereof the close of 
 this 11 7th Psalm hath three weighty clauses : first, that the 
 merciful kindness of Jehovah to the sons of men is great; secondly, 
 
 r Matt, xxvii, 3f , 46. ft Heb. ii, 9— lfi. * Rom. xi, 10. 11. 
 
that the truth of the same Jehovah is for ever ; thirdly, that 
 by faith and hope in that mercy and truth, we should praise 
 Jehovah with Hallelujah. 
 
 Psalm xcvii, 7. 
 
 3. " Worship him all ye gods." The importance of this place 
 arises from the quotation of it by the Apostle in Heb. i, 6 : 
 " But when he bringeth again the first begotten into the world 
 he saith also, Let all the angels of God worship him." This 
 translation we have defended at page 61. 
 
 Now whether we read it gods with the Hebrew, or angels with 
 the Greek, both terms equally include all kings, potentates, 
 judges, or magistrates on earth, together witk. the principalities 
 and powers in heavenly places. That the word 'angels' in- 
 cludes human principalities, is evident from the use of it in 
 Malachi iv, 1, and in Revelation ii, 1 ; &c. Besides wMch the 
 saints who shall hereafter judge the world, u will be made 
 (to-ayyeAoi) " equal to the angels. " v That the word 'gods' has 
 the same meaning is also evident from our Lord's application of 
 Psalm lxxxii, 6 : "Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are 
 gods ? If he called them gods to whom the word of the Lord 
 came;" &c. w 
 
 Granting then, that the Apostle's design in using this passage 
 ("Worship him all ye gods,") might be limited to the proof, that 
 Christ is above the angels ; yet the connexion he gives it with his 
 second coming into the world shews us, how we are to interpret 
 the first verse of this Psalm : " The Lord reigneth ; let the earth 
 rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad:" or, as it may be 
 strictly rendered — " The Lord reigning the earth shall rejoice, 
 and the many isles shall be glad." That 'the Lord' here means 
 Christ, is clear from the very next quotation applied to him in 
 Heb. i, 8, 9. " To the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is 
 for ever and ever," &c. And Christ had reigned, in his ordi- 
 nary providence and power, from the creation to the Psalmist's 
 time ; as appeared in his preserving his people in the flood, in 
 the fire on Sodom, &c. ; in his miracles in Egypt, the wilder- 
 ness, and the Red Sea; and in his victories over the several 
 
 u 1 Cor. vi, 2. v Luke xx, 36. * John x, 34, 
 
82 
 
 nations in Canaan, &c. But Christ has never yet so reigned as is 
 described in this Psalm • viz. That all the earth and the multitude 
 of isles* shall rejoice and be glad thereof. All the world of Jews 
 and Gentiles must rejoice at the manifestation of his kingdom ; 
 as it follows in the sixth verse: "The heavens declare his 
 righteousness, and all the people see his glory :" but ' all people' 
 never yet saw his righteousness and glory. 'All the gods' never 
 yet worshiped him as Christ ; but, on the contrary, have gene- 
 rally despised, if not opposed Christ. And it will be too late 
 and an unseasonable time for them to do it at the ultimate 
 judgement, when no adoration or worship is then received from 
 Christ's enemies ; but sentence is given by him against them. ' 
 The time therefore when this shall be fulfilled is, according to 
 the Apostle, " When God shall bring his first-begotten Son again 
 into the inhabited world." When he brought him into the 
 world the first time by incarnation, all the potentates and angels 
 of men, the Scribes and Pharisees, Herod and Pontius Pilate, 
 the Roman emperors and Senate of Rome, did not worship 
 but refused him ; they persecuted him and his members 
 most bloodily for near three hundred years ; after which the 
 Arians, and next to them the Papacy, took their turns to maintain 
 that stream of blood running down to our times. But when he 
 shall bring his first-begotten Son again into the world in his visible ' 
 royal exaltation, then they all shall worship him, excepting those 
 that are ruined for their refractoriness. They shall then worship 
 him as the angels of heaven do ; and the angels themselves shall 
 then more eminently worship him, since they shall be more 
 apparently his ministers and servants to dispense his mercy 
 and justice in that great work, the setting up New Jerusalem, 
 and the great restitution of all things. 
 
 Psalm ex. 
 
 This Psalm is so eminent, that it is quoted no less than seven 
 times in the New Testament ; and is expounded of Christ's 
 
 * By Isles, according to a frequent Hebraism, is meant all the nations of the Gen- 
 tiles ; as in Is. xli, 15. The reason of the phrase is, that the Jews, dwelling in the ' 
 continent of Asia, counted all the world islanders that were divided from them 
 by the Mediterranean Sea : whence also that phrase, ' Isles of the sea,' Esther x, 1 ; 
 Is. xxiv, 15 ; and Ezek. xxvi, 18. Yea, to make all yet plainer it is twice said, 
 'The isles of Chittim ;' by which is often understood the whole Roman monarchy ; 
 as in Dan. xi, 30 : and gee also Jer. ii, 20 ; and Ezek. xxvii, 6. 
 
*3 
 
 Session at the right hand of God till all the world be made 
 subject to him.* 
 
 Verse 1. " JEHOVAH x said to my Lord, sit thou at my 
 right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool," &c. By 
 ' my Lord,' ( S 2"TS) is meant Christ, who according to his human - 
 ity is David's Son, but according to his deity is David's Lord; even 
 as CLvist himself expounds it : y and accordingly the Chaldee 
 has it, "The Lord said to hi- Word ;" agreeably with John i, 1. 
 And because Christ is David's Lord, therefore the Psalmist 
 himself infers, that he must rule over David's posterity ; though 
 now, with many other-, they be enemies. For how can we say 
 converts are ' enemies ?' or if by conversion they are become his 
 Wends, how can it be said they are his 'footstool?' They are 
 then one with Christ, which is incompatible with their being his 
 footstool. Therefore the plain meaning is, that Christ must so 
 rule over all, that his very enemies must corporeally and visibly be 
 subject unto his power : all which, observe, is made future even 
 after his ascension, and his first sitting at the right hand of God. 
 This is confirmed by Hebrews ii, 8 : " Thou hast put all things 
 under his feet ; but nov? we see not yet all things put 
 under him: " which words immediately follow the declaration, 
 that Christ is ascended, being crowned with glory and honor. 
 This text (" Sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies 
 thy footstool;", is indeed exactly parallel with that in Acts iii, 
 21 : "Whom the heavens must receive until the times of the 
 restitution (not destitution] of all things/ 4 
 
 The apostle Peter gives us further light in his quotation of 
 this Psalm, in Act- ii, 32 — 36. "This Jesus hath God raised 
 " up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore, being by the 
 " right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father 
 •' the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which 
 " ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the 
 " heavens ; but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit 
 " thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool : 
 " therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God 
 " hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord 
 
 * The Svriac calls it : "A Psalm concerning Christ and his victor? over 
 
 the devil." 
 
 x So the Hebrevr. J Matt, mi, 43, 44. 
 K 
 
M 
 
 " and Christ ;" (Kvpuov kgli Xpurrov avrov.) For from hence we 
 boldly conclude the sense of the Apostle to be, that by Christ's 
 ascension not only the Spirit was to be poured out, 2 but the 
 house of Israel must know assuredly that he was there initiated, 
 installed, and entitled to be Lord and Christ ; which the house 
 of Israel assuredly do not know even to this time. 
 
 The apostle Paul carries on this point yet further, in 
 1 Cor. xv, 24 — 29. "Then cometh the end, when he shall 
 " have delivered up the kingdom to God even the Father ; 
 " when he shall have put down all rule, and all authority, and 
 " power. For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under 
 " his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death ; 
 " for he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith 
 " All things are put under him, it is manifest, that He is ex- 
 " cepted which did put all things under him. And when all 
 " things shall be subdued unto him, then also shall the Son him- 
 " self be subject unto him that put all things under him." The 
 words, " He hath put all things under his feet," are in the past 
 time, in reference to the dominion given to his type, Adam ; 
 but afterward the future ("when all things shall be subdued") 
 refers to Christ himself. And what is the purport of the 
 Apostle's comment here ? Why First, He lays it down for a 
 sure position, that the end of all is not till Christ hath delivered 
 up the kingdom to God the Father. Secondly, He gives us a 
 sign when he will so give up the kingdom ; viz. when he 
 hath put down all authority, rule, and power. Thirdly, He 
 proves this from Psalm ex ; for, saith he, " He must reign till 
 he hath put all enemies under his feet :" whidbi is all one with 
 making his enemies his footstool. Fourthly, he intimates, that 
 all things were not subdued unto Christ ; for when he wrote he 
 spoke of them as of things to come, viz. — " When all things shall 
 be subdued unto him .-" whereas, if they had come to pass, then 
 also would the end be come. And before that be done, death 
 must be destroyed, which is one of the enemies to be put under 
 Christ's feet: which destruction is not merely moral or spirit- 
 ual, but physical ; so that there shall be no more death to the 
 godly, a Fifthly, he says, That death is the last enemy that shall 
 
 35 John vii, 39. a Rev. xxi, 4. 
 
85 
 
 be destroyed ; which is fulfilled to the godly at the beginning of 
 the thousand years ; and when the thousand years are finished, 
 death shall be removed from the wicked dead, to the end that 
 they, with their companions, who a little before made head 
 against Christ in his saints, may receive their final judgement. 
 And death being here mentioned as an enemy to Christ's king- 
 dom, must of necessity mean the abolishing of corporal death 
 from the saints, at the beginning of the thousand years ; since 
 the death temporal or eternal of the wicked is a friend to 
 Christ's kingdom. And death being also placed as the last of 
 the enemies of Christ and his Church, clearly intimates, that 
 many others of his enemies must be previously destroyed. And 
 this is confirmed by verses 51 and 52 : " Behold I shew you a 
 " mystery ; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in 
 " a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump : for 
 " the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incor- 
 " ruptible, and we shall be changed." For Saint John tells us, 
 that the last trumpet is the seventh ; so that six will have sounded 
 before this : and he further saith, that the last end of all is 
 not till the last trumpet. But there is a great interval and 
 space within the time of the last trumpet, in which many 
 things are to be done : for at the first blast of it the enemy so 
 falls, that the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of 
 the Lord, and of his Christ, in spite of all enemies and their 
 anger ; the dead saints are raised, and a reward given to them : b 
 but the whole space of this trumpet is the thousand years' reign 
 of the saints, down to the last end of all, which shall not be till 
 the last end of the last trumpet. 
 
 I must yet consider one more place in which this Psalm is 
 quoted. " Every priest standeth daily ministering, and offering 
 " oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins ; 
 " but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for 
 " ever,* sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth 
 " expecting till his enemies be made his footstool, &c." d It is 
 
 t> Rev. xi, 15—18. c Rev. xx, 1—12, &c. d Heb. x, 11—13. 
 
 * Dr. Homes omits the words 'for ever :' (ac to cti]veKtg .-) I have placed 
 them, but pointed according to what I conceive with Bowyer to be the true 
 sense. For the antithesis evidently is, that instead of offering the same sacrifices 
 (plur.) oftentimes (iroWaKig) be offered one sacrifice/or a continuance. Ed. 
 
86 
 
 here evident, that the Apostle applies this to explain the emi- 
 nency of Christ's priesthood above the Levitical, in that the 
 Levitical priests offered daily, Christ but once ; they oftentimes 
 the same sacrifice, he a perpetual one ; they took not away sins, 
 he did ; they stood as servants, he sat down as Lord, according to 
 Psalm ex. 
 
 This shews, that Christ did effectually attain to reign spiritu- 
 ally, in overcoming sin and Satan ; which was witnessed by his 
 making perfect atonement for the sins of all that are sanctified ; 
 and by his overcoming death and Satan in his resurrection, 
 ascension, and assession at the right hand of God ; whereby he 
 got above all his enemies. And yet for all this the Apostle 
 wrote, that Christ's enemies were not made his footstool ; but 
 (saith he) there he sits from thenceforth expecting till they be made 
 his footstool : (which we on earth also expect :) all which plainly 
 signifies, that Christ must have another government, another 
 manner or degree of subduing his enemies, than this. But it is 
 now time to look at the other verses of this Psalm. 
 
 v. 2. " The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of 
 Zion : rule thou in the midst of thine enemies." Mr. Ainsworth, 
 and our new Annptationists* parallel this with Psalra ii ; assert- 
 ing, that as the Jewish expositors- generally acknowledge that 
 Psalm to be concerning the Messiah, there is equal reason to 
 acknowledge this. Now as in Psalm ii, it is said, Christ shall 
 rule his enemies with a rod of iron, and break the incorrigible as 
 a potter's vessel ; even so in this Psalm it is said, he shall rule 
 with the rod of his strength. This cannot be restrained to a 
 mere spiritual efficacy : for he is to rule in the midst of his 
 enemies ; and how can Christ rule enemies spiritually ? 
 
 v. 3. " Thy people shall be willing for voluntaries) in the day 
 of thy power," (or army, as Ainsworth asserts.) Now Peter 
 assures us, that the great day of Christ is a thousand years ; e 
 and we must grant that this day of power must signify a dis- 
 tinct, determinate time, when Christ's power shall most eminently 
 appear. Whether therefore we take this in a spiritual sense of 
 acting grace after conversion ; or in an ecclesiastical sense, as 
 
 * The New Annotatioaists, to whom our Author frequently appeals, are the 
 Assembly of Divines, who in 16*51 published the Bible with annotations, in two 
 volumes folio. Eo. 
 
 e 2 Pet. iii, 8. 
 
87 
 
 that Christ's people shall be assembled to his Church, whose 
 increase shall be abundant as the drops of the dew, falling from 
 the womb of the morning ; or in a corporal sense, that men 
 shall be willing to pull down Christ's antichristian enemies in 
 the day of his army, raised up to that end ; — and whether we 
 apply it specially to the Jews, first chosen to be his people and 
 Church ; or generally to all sorts of nations ; — when, I ask, since 
 the incarnation, was there a ' day of power,' in which the gene- 
 rality of either sort, in any one of the said senses, were a willing 
 people ? On the contrary, ten for one in all ages are obstinate 
 against Christ, and more especially the Jews. And therefore this 
 must yet be fulfilled before the ultimate day of judgement, which 
 doth not mend but end the incurable enemies of Christ. 
 
 v. 4. " The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a 
 priest for ever after the order of Melchiscdec.'' The Apostle 
 first infers the exceeding eminency of Christ's priesthood 
 above that of Aaron ; f secondly, that Christ must be a kingly 
 priest, and that at Salem. Now, seeing Christ, by the oath of 
 God, was made king of Salem, (a contraction of Jerusalem,) we 
 must expect that infallibly to be fulfilled already. He hath 
 indeed at Salem visibly acted the priest ; but he hath never yet 
 visibly acted his royalty there ; which it is clear he will do by 
 the next verse ; — 
 
 v. 5. "The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings 
 in the day of his wrath." So that when Christ acts the king 
 there, then the kings of the earth that submit not to him must 
 be stricken through by the wrath of God. 
 
 v. 6. " He shall judge among the Heathen, and fill the places 
 with dead bodies : he shall wound the head (C7S1 not heads) 
 over many countries." The words are plain for bringing Jews 
 and Gentiles to submit to Christ, or they must ' be slain on 
 heaps :' in fulfilling which, the Lord shall wound that same 
 ' head over many countries,' that is, Antichrist. And then, 
 
 v. 7. " Christ shall lift up Ms head :" i. e. his own power shall 
 be as visibly exalted above his capital enemy, as his enemy's 
 power was exalted against him. 
 
 Thus we have proved from these Psalms two of the heads, 
 
 f Heb, vii. 
 

 88 
 
 touching Christ's kingdom yet to come, viz. the universality of 
 Christ's power, and the time when to be fulfilled. Next follows 
 the third head — the Sabbatism which the saints shall then enjoy. 
 
 Psalm xcv, 7 — 11. 
 
 " To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart, as 
 " in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the 
 " wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and 
 " saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with this 
 " generation and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, 
 " and they have not known my ways : unto whom I swear in 
 " my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest." 
 
 This Psalm was penned by a Jew, and is first urged upon 
 the Hebrews by Paul (also a Jew) by way of exhortation to 
 hear Christ's voice, and not fail of entering into the rest of 
 God, as their forefathers did in the wilderness ; and, secondly, 
 by way of assurance, that some of the Jews (though they in the 
 wilderness did not) shall enter into Christ's rest.s This the 
 Apostle collects by a strong consequence thus : (see the Greek:) 
 " For God saith, ' If they shall enter into my rest.' Seeing 
 " therefore it remaineth that some must enter into it, and they 
 " first evangelized entered not in through unbelief, He limiteth 
 " again a certain day — ' To-day' — saying in David, after so long 
 " a time : as it is said, ' To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden 
 " not your hearts :' " so that long after the Israelites were 
 entered into Canaan under the conduct of Joshua, the Psalmist 
 saith, ' To-day, &c.' " For if Joshua, (the same as Jesus) had 
 " given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of 
 :< another day. There remaineth therefore a sabbatism to the 
 " people of God." Observe, the Apostle avoids the word Jews 
 or Israelites, and uses a more general one, including both Jews 
 and Gentiles that shall believe, — ' the people of God.' Ob- 
 serve further, that he calls the rest a Sabbatism ; that is, a rest 
 answering to the Sabbath that God appointed to man in the 
 state of innocency. For by the Apostle's argument God so 
 ordered it from the beginning, that one rest should aptly typify 
 
 s Heb. iii, 7, to end ; and iv, 1 — 12. 
 
- 
 
 mother, in a descending line of order : the first Sabbath typi- 
 ied the rest in Canaan ; and that in Canaan all other rests yet to 
 lome, whether spiritual, millennial, or ultimate glory. 
 
 But the precise question is, \Yhat rest does the Apostle here 
 principally intend ? The Jews had long enjoyed the Sabbath 
 md Canaan rests ; therefore these cannot be in the mind of the 
 Apostle. And as to the spiritual rest by grace in the state of re- 
 generation, &c, the Hebrews to whom Paul now writes knew 
 ;his so well, that the Apostle needed not to use any arguments 
 ;o prove it to them : " Beloved we are persuaded better things of 
 you, and such as accompany salvation." n Therefore at first 
 sight one would be apt to think, that the Apostle must chiefly 
 intend the eternal rest in ultimate glory : but pardon me if I 
 cannot bring my spirit to believe this, for the following reasons. 
 
 First, the Apostle needed not to labour (as in this place he 
 does by several arguments) to prove to the Jews, that there is a 
 state of ultimate glory and eternal rest therein • for this was in a 
 good measure known even to the Heathen in their doctrine of 
 
 a 
 
 Hades.* Secondly, who will dare to say, that all the souls of 
 them whose bodies fell in the wilderness went to the hell of the 
 damned, and were all shut out from that eternal rest ? For 
 the Apostle saith precisely their carcases (not their souls) fell in 
 the wilderness : » just as the Scripture notes it as a mark of 
 God's favor) that though Nadab and Abihu were punished 
 with death by fire, yet neither their bodies nor clothes were 
 consumed ; J and though the good old prophet was slain by the 
 lion for his sin, vet was he not devoured or torn by the lion? k 
 Thirdly, the affliction of these Jews when Paul wrote to them 
 was, that they were for the most part scattered; (as Peter and 
 James shew more fully ; ! ) and thereby prevented from the quiet 
 enjoyment in their spirits, either in expectation or reality, of 
 any sort of rest. For an outward rest is the fair opportunity 
 to enjoy all sorts of rests. And therefore the Apostle strives 
 with so many arguments to prove to them, that now, even after 
 
 h Heb. vi, 9. > ra kuXci, Heb. iii, 17. J Lev. x, 5. k i Kings xiii, 18. 
 
 1 2 Pet. i, 1 ; James i, 1. 
 
 * Homer brings in tbe friends of the widows whose husbands were slain in the 
 Trojan war, comforting them with this, that their deceased husbands' souls were 
 gone etc ids, i. e. to the invisible world of eternal bliss. And see Plato, &c. 
 
90 
 
 many and long dispersions, there yet remained to them, accord- 
 ing to all the prophets, an external rest ; and, as most suitable 
 to his purpose, he takes up the comparison of the rest of God 
 after the creation, and their rest on the Sabbath, and the rest that 
 many of their progenitors had had in Canaan, as fit pledges of 
 it. For as Peter spake to them not only of their spiritual rest, 
 (which he allows them already to possess, when he acknow- 
 ledges their ' precious faith ;') but also of the external rest they 
 should have for a thousand years in a new earth, — bidding them 
 stick to the prophets, till Christ the day-star now ascended 
 should arise upon them : even so Paul does here mainly speak 
 of their outward condition, in which their spiritual was in- 
 volved. And this is the more probable, because the disciples 
 themselves, having seen Christ's incarnation, passion, resur- 
 rection, and transcendent miracles, did still inquire and look for 
 a visible state of rest : " Lord wilt thou at this time restore the 
 kingdom unto Israel P" m 
 
 Upon these considerations there is a strong impression on my 
 mind, that, though a relative intimation of internal and eternal 
 rest needs not to be excluded, the Apostle's main design is 
 to hold forth the eminent external rest which the Jews shall yet 
 enjoy on earth, being gathered into one Church with the Gen- 
 tiles, and enjoying spiritual peace : for which end he calls it not 
 glory, nor a state in the highest heavens ; but a Sabbatism, and 
 in the ' inhabitable world; n and this he saith doth ' yet remain/ 
 and ' to the people of God.' For a Sabbatism signifies a rest 
 upon a seventh ; (most likely in the seventh and last age of the 
 world ;) and its remaining signifies, that it is yet to be fulfilled. 
 And further to explain this Sabbatism, the Apostle reminds 
 them, that they had enjoyed a Sabbatism every seventh day ; 
 which was principally a rest on account of its immediateness to 
 their bodies ; though with it they had also a spiritual rest : out of 
 which weekly seventh was formed their petty jubilee of the 
 seventh year's rest, and their great jubilee of the seven times 
 seven years ; viz. beginning at the end of the forty-ninth year. 
 He reminds them also of their rest in Canaan, which was a 
 further kind of Sabbatism ; for they divided the land of Canaan 
 
 m Acts i, 6. n See on Heb. ii, 5, before treated. 
 
91 
 
 the fiftieth jubilee from the creation, which was a jubilee of 
 bilees ; and when they returned out of Babylon, where they 
 id been seventy years, it was about the seventieth jubilee from 
 e creation. The Apostle therefore saith in effect thus: 
 You must have a Sabbatism which must meetly correspond 
 ith the former seventh day rests, and to that in Canaan and 
 e sevenths therein enjoyed ; and thus to be a corporal rest, 
 id on earth, as the others were. You have had the seventh 
 iy rest ever since the creation ; and you have had your 
 venths of rest in Canaan ; and yet there is another Sab- 
 ttism, or septenary rest, still remaining." Now what other 
 ibbatism, septenary, or seventh of rest can we find out, but 
 e seventh thousand of years before the ultimate general judge- 
 ent ? This we have shewn, in our fir t chapter, to be the 
 union of the Rabbins. 
 
 Observe further, in regard to the various septenaries and jubi- 
 in periods enjoyed in Canaan ; that in Hezekiah's time, being 
 time of great prosperity in Canaan, the prophet Micah says : 
 Arise ye, and depart, for this is not your rest, because it is 
 Muted," &c.P Which intimates, that Micah, as well as Paul, 
 oks at the rest that shall be unpolluted ; as also in Rev. xxi, 27, 
 There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth." 
 ad so St. Paul — " He that is entered into his rest, he also hath 
 ased from his own works. "Q In words it is in the past time ; 
 it in the intent and meaning it is future : as if he should say, 
 When any man hath entered, or shall have entered, into his rest." 
 >r Pareus observes, that the Greek (etcrekO^v) is in the Aorist, 
 it for the present; but that the context is clearly for the 
 ture. For in the ninth verse it is, " there remaineth yet a 
 st ;" and in the eleventh verse, " Let us labour therefore to 
 iter into that rest." Sins are most properly our own works, 
 because, (saith Pareus) they are done by us, and not approved 
 of God ; so that then we begin to act this Sabbatism, when 
 we cease from sin." This the prophet well confirms where 
 j calls sin doing our own ways, finding our own pleasure, 
 id speaking our own words. And therefore we (even though 
 
 o So Bucholcerus in his lad. Chron. P Micah i, 1 ; ii, 10. q v. 10. 
 
 L 
 
92 
 
 believers) are not yet entered into Paul's Sabbatism • because 
 we do not yet totally cease from those our own works. 
 
 But it is objected, that the third verse of this fourth chapter 
 must imply a spiritual rest, such as every believer immediately 
 enters upon, because the Apostle saith, " We, which have be- 
 lieved, do enter into his rest." To this Pareus well replies ; 
 " We have not yet entered into his rest, but we do ;" meaning 
 that do has a future signification : for there immediately follows 
 the proof of a rest yet remaining, into which all believers 
 shall enter. Theophylact therefore renders it in the future, as 
 also the old Latin version ; (from whence learned men con- 
 ceive, that it was thus in the ancient Greek copy, according tc 
 which that Latin translation was made ;) the Arabian transla- 
 tion is also in the future ; and so is Flutter's Hebrew translation 
 It is true, that by faith we presently enter into the rest of jus 
 tification of our persons ; and into the rest of expectation, o 
 hope, of the possession of glory : r but this will not serve t< 
 take in the whole sense of the Apostle, since he speaks of a res 
 ' yet remaining,' and yet a rest " to them that do believe.' 
 Nor can this be meant of ultimate glory for this further reasor 
 that we cannot be said there, in any tolerable sense, to enjoy 
 Sabbatism, or Seventh ; for if this Sabbatism be eternity, it i 
 then swallowed up in an infinite, that cannot be numberec 
 But if this Sabbatism be a determinate time, bounded with tw 
 resurrections, (the one at the beginning, the other at the end 
 then it will clearly stand numerable for a seventh. Yea furthe 
 • unless this be understood of a pure rest on earth, how shall w 
 be said to Sabbatise, as is intimated in a Sabbatism ? It is tru 
 that in an ordinary sabbath a rest is signified and enjoyed ; bi 
 we may rest thus on another day : and every day indeed 
 believer hath several rests. But we must have, according 
 the Apostle, a Sabbatismatical rest — a rare word being used I 
 the Apostle to signify a rare rest. 
 
 r Rom. v, l, 2. 
 
 rr: 
 
93 
 
 ISAIAH. 
 
 Chapter ii, 1 — 21. 
 
 v. 1. " The word &c. concerning Judah and Jerusalem/' 
 'his verse plainly shews, that the prophecy is ultimately and 
 ilainly concerning, for, or mjjeha]f*jy{ Judah and Jerusalem. 
 r or though at verse 6, the Jews are shewn the reason, why they 
 hould go into afflictions before they have the deliverance men- 
 ioned in this chapter j yet when it is said (vv. 2, 3,) " It shall 
 ' come to pass in the last days, that many peoples shall say, 
 : come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house 
 : of the God of Jacob, &c. for out of Zion shall go forth the 
 : Law, &c." there can be no less intended, than that this pro- 
 hecy doth ultimately concern the welfare of the Jews, when 
 liey and the Gentiles being converted shall make one glorious 
 hristian Church o n earth. Thp. learned indeed grant, f that 
 be promises in this chapter relate to the time of Christ's 
 oming ; and also that the Jews in a sublimer sense do under- 
 tand them of the times of the Messiah : and one of them steps 
 little higher, and bids us compare Dan. ii, 35, where all the 
 )ur metals of the image are utterly broken to pieces, and the 
 ttle stone cut out without hands becomes a great mountain, 
 ad fills the whole earth. 
 
 vv. 2, 3. But it must be, " in the last of days," or " utmost 
 id of days." (nnrtsn O^n) Therefore if the Prophet 
 ad looked at no further time than that of Christ's first 
 Dming in the flesh, he would not have called that " the last of 
 ays," since which have passed above 1650 years. " The last 
 f days" properly signifies those after which eternity next and 
 nmediately follows ; which it does after the completing of the 
 lousand years of this visible kingdom. 
 
 " The mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on 
 the head of the mountains, &c. (a? win D'nnn,) and peoples, 
 (C2^V) shall come and say, Come ye, and let us go up 
 
 * Heb. Sy super, propter, juxta, secundum; Sept. virep koi -rrept. Syram. ut 
 fert Nobilius et Drusius, pro. citat. Eus. A7ro0ii£. lib. ii, p. 43, in Hier. pro 
 icla et Jerusalem. 
 
 t See Junius, Piscator, Alapide, Grotius, and tlie English Annotationisfs. 
 
94 
 
 ' to the mountain of the Lord, &c." This has not been 
 hitherto fulfilled ; for as yet neither the visible power and glory 
 of Christ, nor of his Church (so as for Gentiles to say, Come, 
 let us go up, &c.) hath been established over the Pope, (the 
 head of the seven hills of Rome,) nor over the Turk, (the heaa 
 of the four hills of Jerusalem,) nor over the height of power and 
 glory of the hills of the generality of the peoples, or nations of 
 the world. The Church at Jerusalem, such as it was, in the 
 time of Christ, was in captivity under the heathen Roman 
 empire ; and presently after Christ's death persecution scattered 
 the christians from Jerusalem. And within forty years (or there- 
 about) after Christ's ascension the temple of Jerusalem was de- 
 stroyed, and after a while the city ; and for about three hundred 
 years onward, the Church of Christ was extremely persecuted 
 by the heathen Romans ; and presently after the time of Con- 
 stantine they were sorely persecuted by the Arian heretics. So 
 that instead of all nations going up to the house of the Lord on 
 the top of the mountains for divine worship, christian Jews and 
 Gentiles were scattered among all nations. And though there 
 was a handful of several nations at Jerusalem ; (if they were 
 Gentiles, and not rather Jews ;) yet this was far from all nations 
 flowing to it and saying, Come, let us go up to the house of the 
 Lord, and he will teach us of his ways, &c. : for the generality 
 of those very men mocked the apostles, whilst they taught them 
 the ways of the Lord. 
 
 v. 4. Nor hath Christ hitherto so " judged among the nations, 
 ' and rebuked many people, that they have beaten their swords 
 ' into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks, so 
 ' that nation hath not lifted up sword against nation, neither 
 ' learned war any more." 
 
 w. 10 — 17. Nor have "men so dreaded the majesty of the 
 Lord, that they have hid themselves ;" neither have " the lofty 
 looks of men been humbled, and their haughtiness bowed down ; 
 so that the Lord alone hath been exalted, &c." Alas ! ever since 
 Christ's coming in the flesh, the whole world generally hath 
 been very high and proud against the Lord Christ ; Antichrist 
 hath been much exalted ; and the Lord — his honor, his cause, 
 his people — have been trampled on. In the time of Constantine 
 indeed, some little was done in the Roman empire for the Church 
 
95 
 
 of Christ ; but anon Arianism arose, then Popery mounted up, 
 then ' the beast :' the Church is put into a wilderness con- 
 dition ; the witnesses prophesy in sackcloth 1260 years ; which 
 are not yet expired, for they have not yet lain dead in the grave 
 three days and a half. 
 
 vv. 18 — 21. Once more this is not accomplished, " That all 
 ' idols are abolished ; that God hath so shaken the earth, that 
 ' he hath made the inhabitants thereof to cast away all their 
 ' idols, and to hide themselves for fear." The territories of the 
 Papacy are full of idols ; as well as heathen countries. 
 
 Nor can it be rationally imagined, that these things shall not 
 be done till the ultimate day of the general judgement ; for then 
 there is no time to " establish the mountain of the Lord's house 
 ' upon the top of the mountains, nor for the word to proceed out 
 * of Zion, nor for men to run and hide from the presence of the 
 ' Lord ;" for the sea and grave, &c. shall give up their dead, 
 and all good shall be turned into an eternity of absolute glory.* 
 
 Chapter ix, 6, 7. 
 
 " For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the 
 ' government shall be on his shoulder, and his name shall be 
 ' called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting 
 ' Father, the Prince of peace. Of the increase of his govern- 
 ' ment and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of 
 ' David and upon his kingdom, to order it and to establish it 
 ' with judgement and with justice from henceforth even for 
 ' ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this." 
 
 This text is very comprehensive, apparently grasping within 
 its arms a large tract of time, from Christ's incarnation through- 
 out all the process of his government until the end of the 
 ultimate judgement; as the words "from henceforth and for 
 ever" do express. 
 
 It is not worth while to contend with the later Jewish Rabbins 
 who say, that this text is meant of Hezehah : the more ancient 
 Rabbins and Talmud, and their Targum, are contrary to that, 
 interpreting this text of the Messiah. 
 
 * The Reader may for more on this Lead consult Mr Mede's Diatribes pars 4, 
 which has come out since I penned this. 
 
96 
 
 Leaving therefore all improbable conceits of men, let us in- 
 quire concerning the excellent state that shall be set up under 
 the government of the Messiah, before the ultimate judgement. 
 
 Our recent Annotationists make for me a fair preface, meetly 
 conducing to the true sense of the words : " That the deliver- 
 ' ances (say they) of God's people, and the pulling down of such 
 ' mighty potentates, whether secular or spiritual, may not seem 
 ' impossible and incredible, the Prophet now proceedeth to 
 
 ■ declare who it is, and what manner of person, by whom all 
 
 ■ that hath been said shall be effected ; even the Messias, the 
 ' eternal Son of God, whom God shall raise up to be the king 
 ' and governor of his Church." But we have a more sure word 
 to confirm this interpretation in Luke i, 31 — 33. " And the 
 • angel said unto Mary, &c. thou shalt conceive in thy womb, 
 ' and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall 
 ' be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the 
 ' Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, 
 
 ' and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his \ 
 ' kingdom there shall be no end." 
 
 Now lay this of Isaiah and Luke together, and then note 
 their meaning. First, they speak not of spirituals only, but also 
 of temporals. The word ' for,' in the beginning, demonstrates an 
 assurance of the deliverance of Israel, as set forth in verses 
 4 and 5; viz. " Thou hast broken the yoke of his burthen,! 
 ' and the staff of his shoulder, and the rod of his oppressor, as 
 ' in the day of Midian,* &c. and it- shall be, ~ as with battle and; 
 ' blood, so with burning and fuel of fire." For these words 
 cannot without violence be wrested to signify only spiritual de- 
 liverances, as our Annotationists also affirm with us. " Having 
 ' declared (say they) the greatness of their joy, he proceeds to 
 ' shew the ground of it, their deliverance and freedom from the 
 ' straits and thraldom of their enemies, as well corporal as 
 ' spiritual." Secondly, these words shew that Christ was in- 
 vested with these attributes and omnipotential properties "on 
 purpose to multiply his princedom," and " for peace without 
 end." (See the Hebrew.-}-) Moreover the words princedom, 
 
 * The reference to Gideon's victories shews again that spiritual deliverance 
 alone is not intended. 
 
 t The Jews ohserve that the close shut D mem, in the middle of a word, as 
 
97 
 
 government, and for peace, spoken in a way of prophecy of what 
 should be added to the Church above that they enjoyed already, 
 cannot but signify more than spirituals. Thirdly, this is yet 
 more apparent by what follows both here, and in Luke i, 32, 
 of the " Messiah's sitting upon the throne of David, and upon 
 his kingdom, to establish it with jnsticejmd judgement." For it 
 needs not that Christ should sit on David's throne and kingdom 
 in order to spiritually .gov ern, and keep in peace his universal 
 Church ; nor is there need to assert the perpetuity of Christ's 
 spiritual kingdom, that it should be for ever. Further, the great 
 engagement at the close, " the zeal of the Lord of hosts will 
 perform this," must of necessity signify something more, than 
 the ordinary thing of Christ's having a spiritual kingdom on 
 earth ; for what need of such a solemn protest, to signify the 
 performance of that which had been long since done. Fourthly, 
 these two texts import, that after there should be an inter- 
 ruption of the sitting of David's race upon David's throne, it 
 should sensibly appear that Christ should possess that throne. 
 For the whole earth had long before been given up to the rule of 
 Christ, to be governed by his invisible providence ; s and in all 
 ages Christ hath continually poured down his judgements upon 
 the wicked, as Peter proves in his second Epistle, chap. ii. 
 And the Church was also given to him from the beginning,* 
 which he hath ever preserved on earth in all ages since by his 
 spiritual power and grace. But the line of David's race hath 
 been broken off from his throne ; nor hath Christ been upon it 
 at all, in any visible manifestation : therefore this last must be a 
 great part of the meaning of Isaiah and Saint Luke ;* and that 
 to be performed for ever, that is, so as no visible power must 
 reign after him. Fifthly, Isaiah prophesies in the time of the 
 division of the kingdom of the Jews into Judah and Israel ; u 
 
 here in roicS (which □ properly is a final letter) signifies the stability of the 
 thing spoken of; as open D mem (which 72 properly is a middle letter) in the end 
 of a word signifies brokenness, — as Dfl in Nehemiah ii, 13 means the brokenness 
 of the walls there spoken of : which observation I mention not as a foundation 
 strong enough for me to build upon, but merely to declare the opinion of the 
 ancient Jewish Rabbins concerning the stability of the Messiah's kingdom. 
 
 * As Piscator expresses it, " In solio Davidis tanquam hseres regni, et Alius 
 Davidis sedebit Christus. confer. 2 Sam. vii, 12, &c. 
 
 s Compare Gen. i, 26, &c. Psalm viii, and Heb. ii, 7, 8. * Compare Gen. iii, 
 15. and Rom. xvi, 20. u I s . j, l. 
 
98 
 
 and yet Saint Luke tells us, v that this must be fulfilled by 
 Christ's reigning over the whole house of Jacob, which contains I 
 all the twelve tribes, made up of Israel and Judah ; even as the 
 throne of David also was over both Judah and Israel. Finally, \ 
 all these must be so fulfilled, that Christ must appear to be 
 ' wonderful' and ' mighty ;' and to ' increase in his govern- 
 ment,' according to Isaiah — to be ' great' according to St. Luke. 
 Now surely this text was not fulfilled in the return of the 
 Jews from Babylon ; since the ten tribes did not then return, 
 to make up the house of Jacob, or the kingdom of David : and 
 besides, of that prosperity there was soon an end. Nor has 
 Christ ever yet sat upon the throne of David ; nor has the 
 visible government been upon his shoulders ; but rather on the 
 shoulders of the Roman Emperor, or the Pope, or the Turk. 
 Nor has it been fulfilled in Christ's spiritual government : for ' 
 this spiritual government, (if we may so call Christ's giving 
 ordinances and grace,) extending itself to Gentiles equally, if 
 not more, than to Jews, what pre-eminence is thereby given to 
 Jacob's house, or David's throne, more than to the houses or 
 thrones of Constantine, or Queen Elizabeth, or any other 
 christian monarch ? 
 
 Chapters x, xi, xii. 
 
 Chap. x. In this chapter the Lord threatens Judah, that, for 
 their hypocrisy in religion, and their unrighteousness in their 
 dealings, he will send against them the Assyrian. But it is also 
 threatened, that because the Assyrian would afflict the Jews 
 without consideration of God's hand in it, and manage the rod 
 with insolent cruelty, God will bring destruction upon the 
 Assyrian for deliverance of the Jews. The confirmation of 
 this deliverance (as is the manner of God in the prophets) hath 
 its foundation laid in the sending of Christ, chap, xi, 1 — 5. 
 So that although in Hezekiah's time, wherein Isaiah prophesied, 
 the host of the Assyrians were destroyed to the number of 
 185,000 by the angel of the Lord ; w and again, in the time of 
 Judah's captivity in Babylon, they were overthrown with a 
 
 v Luke i, 33. w 2 Kings xix, 35, 
 
99 
 
 mighty destruction by the Medes and Persians ; x yet this is not 
 the whole of the threat against Assyria : for it is carried on still 
 in Zach. i, 15, to the end of the chapter, though at that time 
 Judah was returned. And according to the length of the 
 foundation of this same prophecy of Isaiah, must the super- 
 structure be extended ; viz. to the coming of Christ ; which 
 coming, not being restrictively determined to his frst coming at 
 his incarnation, must be left at large to reach to his second 
 coming at the great restoration ;* which also his 'judging and 
 smiting the earth' seem to require. The context saith, 
 (Isaiah x, 24, &c.) " Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, O my 
 " people, that dwellest in Zion. Be not afraid of the Assyrian : 
 " he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against 
 " thee after the manner of Egypt. For yet a very little while, 
 " and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their de- 
 " struction, &c. And in that day his burden shall be taken away 
 "from thy shoulder, &c." Now in Hezekiah's time the Assyrian 
 did not smite the inhabitants of Zion, but were themselves 
 smitten by the angel of the Lord, as before mentioned. Nor 
 was the burden of the Assyrian taken away from off the shoulder 
 of the dwellers at Zion at their return from Babylon, by a de- 
 struction on those under whom they were then in captivity ; for 
 the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus their king voluntarily to 
 let them return. y 
 
 Chap. xi. And further, the apostles bring down many passages 
 Df Isaiah xi to the transactions of their own times and down- 
 wards, applying them to the coming of Christ, — yea to His 
 coming, even after his ascension. See for example Acts xiii, 
 22 — 42, which takes in the first verse. And again, Rom. xv, 
 
 x Dan. v, 30. Y 2 Chron. xxxvi ; Ezra i. 
 
 * Mr. Mede's notion is, that the old prophets for the most part spake of the i 
 coming of Christ indefinitely, without that distinction of first and second coming, 
 which we have more clearly learned in the GospeL For this reason, those pro- 
 phets (except Daniel who distinguishes those comings) speak of the things 
 which should he at the coming of Christ indefinitely and altogether ; which we, 
 who are now more fully informed hy the revelation of his Gospel, must severally 
 apply, each of them to its proper time. Which notion of Mr. Mede is the more 
 to be acknowledged, in that it may appear hy many instances from the creation 
 hitherto, that the grand promises of great deliverances have their successive and 
 gradual fulfilling, from their first promulgation unto the end of this world, of 
 which daily experience produces fresh testimonies. 
 
 M 
 
100 
 
 1 2, takes in the tenth verse, which the Apostle draws down to 
 Christ then ascended, and gives us this sense of the Prophet : 
 that Christ is not only the object of faith to the Gentiles j but 
 that the Gentiles shall be his subjects, he reigning over them. 
 How reigning over them? Mark well the Apostle's words. 
 " Again there shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to 
 reign over the Gentiles, in him shall the Gentiles trust." His 
 reigning, as in relation to David, does not commence from his 
 incarnation ; but he shall rise to reign : which is spoken by the 
 Apostle after Christ's resurrection and ascension, and rendered 
 by our translators in a future sense — "He shall rise to reign.' 
 Yea, follow the words to the original, and you will see, I think, 
 yet more : ecrrat r) pi£a rov lecraai /cat 6 avi<TTa\i£Vos apyj.iv, &c 
 " There shall be a root of Jesse, and he shall rise again to reigr 
 over the Gentiles, or stand up again, to reign over them." This 
 the prophet Daniel calls " His standing up as a great prince tc 
 deliver his people;" 2 which shall begin, saith the Angel, 129C 
 days (that is, so many years) from " the ceasing of the daily 
 sacrifice," and shall be 45 years in finishing, ere all the Jews 
 enemies shall be thrown down : after which immediately begin? 
 the great restitution of all things and the resurrection of th< 
 saints, Daniel standing up in his lot. 
 
 Again, in the fourth verse, the Prophet says, that Christ " witl 
 " righteousness shall judge the poor, and reprove with equity! 
 " for (or in behalf of) the meek of the earth, and shall smite th< 
 " earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of hi! 
 " mouth shall he slay the wicked." Now Christ did not reprovi 
 in behalf of the meek nor slay the wicked at his first coming 
 in the flesh ; but this is extended by the Apostle, 2 Thess. ii, t< 
 future times, when Christ shall destroy Antichrist, who was no 
 revealed when the Apostle wrote. 
 
 So in verses 6 — 8 it is said, " that the wolf shall dwell witl 
 the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, &c. 
 meaning the restitution of the creatures from the enmity of th 1 
 curse by Adam's fall, according to Rom. viii, 19 — 23, whic 
 never yet was accomplished. I know that many understan 
 this part of the prophecy metaphorically, of men by natui" 
 
 z Dan. xii, 1. 
 
101 
 
 ;rce as beasts, who were to be made tame and loving by the 
 )\ver of the Gospel at Christ's first coming ; for it is too 
 immon a fault in writers to take the scent from former 
 :positors, and to run with full cry after them. Calvin 
 deed more reasonably asserts hence the change of the nature 
 
 wild beasts, and the restitution of the creation as at first.* 
 ad with this the analogy of other Scriptures concur ; viz. 
 om. viii, 19, &c. Ps. viii, and Heb. ii, fully opened before. And 
 tiile some insist " that an agreement among men by the power 
 the Gospel" is the proper meaning of this place ; they would 
 ve us more satisfaction, had they shewn us an effect of the 
 ospel at Christ's first coming, answerable to the mind of this 
 •ophecv ; viz. that it should exceed the agreement and peace 
 at were in the national church of the Jews before Christ's 
 >ming. But this they cannot do ; for as Christ himself at his 
 •st coming said, " I came not to bring peace, but a sword, and 
 i set those of the same family one against another ;" so we 
 low by the histories of the four Evangelists, and by the Acts 
 
 the Apostles, that great oppositions, mighty tumults, and 
 deous persecutions followed Christ's first coming, and con- 
 nued from age to age ; so that the small first-fruits, that were 
 :conciled to God and to one another upon Christ's first coming, 
 ■e drowned as it were in the ocean and sea of enmity, that 
 om thence forward until now remains with great animosity. 
 nd therefore we believe another sense of these words ; viz. 
 tat at Christ's next appearance there shall be a general peace 
 itween men among each other, and also between them and 
 le creatures, as it follows in the next argument. 
 
 " They shall not hurt, nor destroy, (observe the words, not 
 istroy, nor so much as hurt) in ail my holy mountain." And 
 .stly, observe the confirmation of all, viz. " That the earth shall 
 e full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the 
 ia." (v. 9.) Now though there was an increase of knowledge 
 | Christ's first coming, which, like the stream from a fountain, 
 le further it ran, the larger it was ; yet from that time until 
 ow the knowledge of the Lord hath not increased to a sea, to 
 rcer all the earth, so as to drown all iniquity and opposition 
 
 * See Calvin in loco ; see also Mayer and others. 
 
If'- 
 
 y 
 
 102 
 
 against Christ or christians ; and so as to work in men sue 
 peace, as that there shall be neither destroying, nor hurting in a 
 the holy mountain. At least three parts out of four of the who] 
 world hath not been tilled with the knowledge of the Lord ; bn 
 have made opposition against it, hurting and destroying, an 
 that too in the holy mountain ; whether we take it strictly k 
 Zion, or largely for the Church wheresoever seated. 
 
 Further, it follows in the tenth verse : " And in that day ther 
 " shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of th 
 " peoples (tz^ny) to it shall the Gentiles seek ; and his rest sha 
 " be glorious." In which words the Prophet mainly looks s 
 the great call of the Gentiles ; as the apostles (the best ex 
 positors) have since alledged them, Rom. xv, 8 — 12. We lu\ 
 just seen how generally the Gentiles have and do oppose th 
 Gospel to this day throughout the world ; so that the words 
 " Ms rest shall be glorious" more evidently demonstrate, tha 
 this place of Scripture, as to the main intent, is not yet fulrillec 
 For if we will understand inward rest, the believing saints befoi 
 Christ's incarnation had it ; and the apostles also in thei 
 troublous times. a And if we would understand here eterm 
 glory ; yet we cannot, for two reasons : first, because it is sail 
 that unto the ensign, Christ, the Gentiles shall seek; (whio 
 cannot consist with eternal glory — no seeking then ;) secondl) 
 because it is said, verse 11, "And it shall come to pass in the 
 " day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to re 
 " cover the remnant of his people, &c. from Assyria, Egyp\ 
 " Pathros,&.c." — all inconsistent with the state of eternal glorj 
 v. 11. Observe well, the Lord must set his hand again th 
 second time, to recover the remnant of his people from th 
 fore-mentioned places. Now when Isaiah prophesied, the Lor 
 had not recovered his people from captivity in Assyria the fin 
 time; for the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin had not ye 
 been captive, nor the ten tribes either, for ought w T e can find 
 For, according to Bucholcerus, Isaiah prophesied forty year 
 before the captivity of the ten tribes, and above seventy year 
 before the captivity of the two tribes. But before this text cai 
 be fulfilled, they must have been in captivity in Assyria the firs 
 
 " •/•> 
 
 •1 
 
 or la 
 
 a Psalm cxvi, 7 ; 2 Cor. vi, 10. 
 
 
103 
 
 time, and be delivered the first time ; which at the most can 
 only refer to the return of the two tribes : nor can we find 
 where, at the soonest, to place the recovering God's people 
 the second time, but in that period when he shall bring back the 
 || rest of the tribes, (viz. the ten tribes, which were, and still are, 
 in Assyria,) from Assyria, and from Pathros, and Cush, and 
 Elam, and Shinar, and Hamath, and from the Isles of the 
 Gentiles.* 
 
 But this expression — " Again the second time, &c." — may 
 not only import two parts of the recovery ; or the deliverance 
 of the whole twelve tribes from Assyria — the first time of the 
 two tribes, the second time of the ten tribes : but two distinct - 
 times of deliverance of the twelve tribes, — the two tribes and 
 some of the ten, in the first instance, but more especially the 
 two. For God's setting his hand the second time to recover his 
 people out of Assyria, &c. cannot be limited to the return of 
 the two tribes under the conduct of Zerubbabel and Joshua with 
 Ezra ; for this was but the first time. They are again scattered ; 
 and the ten tribes, as well as the two, are his people ; and the 
 promise is, Rom. xi, of saving all Israel. Therefore the whole 
 work of restoring all the twelve tribes now lies on God's hands ; 
 and that restoration must also be from Assyria, Pathros, &c. 
 
 v. 12. Furthermore, " He shall set up an ensign for the 
 " nations, or Gentiles ; (that is, for the unbelieving people with- 
 " out the Church, that had not yet received the word ;) and shall 
 " assemble the outcasts of Israel (that is, the ten tribes) and gather 
 " together the dispersed oiJudah (that is, the two tribes) from the 
 
 * Mention is made in Gen. x, 14, of a people called Pathrusim, whose place 
 or land of habitation may very fitly be called Pathros. It was a province of 
 Egypt, according to Jer. xl, 1, 15, and Ezek. xxix, 14, and xxx, 14, which see. 
 And those Pathrusim were of the lineage of Mitsraim or Egyptius ; see Gen. x, 
 14 ; 1 Chron. i, 12. But others say, it signifies Parthos, the Parthians of the 
 country of Parthia, which is on the borders of Media. Others again, that it 
 may be Petra in Arabia (of which see'Lsa. xvi, 1. " the land from Sela," or as 
 it is in the margin, Petra) whence Arabia Petrea. Others say, it is a part of 
 Lybia, inhabited by the Pharusii mentioned by Pliny and Ptolemy, and seated 
 near the Atlantic Sea. Of the Jews being scattered, even in the apostles' times, 
 in the said Parthia, Media, Egypt, Lybia and Arabia, we read in Acts ii, 9 — 1 1 . 
 Cush is Ethiopia : compare chap, xviii, 1. Elam is Persia. Shinar is a region 
 in Chaldea ; see Gen. xi, 28 ; Jer. Ii, 24 and 35 ; Ezek. xxiii, 16. And of their 
 scattering, even to the apostles' times, in Elam and Mesopotamia, which was 
 part of Chaldea, see also Acts ii, 9 — 11, and 1 Peter i, 1. Hamath is 
 Cilicia in Asia the less. Of their scattering there, see likewise the places before 
 mentioned. Paul also, a Hebrew, saith of himself, that he was born at 
 Tarsus, a chief city of Cilicia. 
 
104 
 
 " four corners of the earth." Observe how distinctly the Prophet 
 here names "the Gentiles," "the outcasts of Israel" and "the 
 dispersed of Judah ;" and that the elect of all Jews, Israelites 
 and Gentiles, must be called and gathered together from the four 
 corners of the earth, (that is, from all parts of the world,) which 
 is larger than Babylon. This however is not done to this day, 
 but Jews and Israelites are still found dwelling in all quarters 
 of the world, as travellers and seafaring men behold with their 
 eyes, and the Rabbins confess in their books. 
 
 v. 13 to the end: the sum whereof is, " That all envy be- 
 " tween Judah and Ephraim shall cease ; and that all other that 
 " will not obey and comply with the Jews, in a right Gospel 
 " worship of God, shall be destroyed ; — viz. the Philistines in 
 " the west, and the people 6f the east, all them of Moab, 
 " Ammon, Edom and Egypt ; — and there shall be a way for the 
 " remnant of the Jews from Assyria, as there was when they 
 " came up out of Egypt." But none of their enemies have 
 been destroyed, neither do any nations comply with them in 
 point of religion to this very day. 
 
 Chap. xii. Lastly, it appears by the twelfth chapter (the seal 
 of the eleventh) that the prophecy of the eleventh chapter is not 
 yet fulfilled. For the Jews never yet were so delivered, as to be 
 enabled with propriety to sing that song of thanksgiving con- 
 tained in the twelfth chapter. Their harps are hung up, as at 
 their scattering in Babylon. I myself have heard some of them 
 bemoaning themselves, that this their last captivity, or dis- 
 persion, is longer than any before. They have not hitherto (as 
 it is in that song, verse 4) " declared the name and famous 
 acts of God among his peoples ;" but rather, in refusing Christ, 
 have obscured his name. Nor have they (as in v. 5) " praised 
 God for the excellent things that He should do for them in all 
 the earth." 
 
 Now let the wise and understanding Reader review all that 
 hath been said, and be judge himself, whether this eleventh 
 chapter of Isaiah hath been fulfilled to this day. And if not, 
 sure he will not dream of its fulfilment at the ultimate judge- 
 ment ; there being something, almost in every verse, incon- 
 sistent with that time. For then no "government" will be 
 remaining in Christ's hands; (1 Cor. xv, 28, &c. ;) there will 
 
105 
 
 be " no dwelling of the wolf and lamb together ;" no " lifting up 
 of an ensign," to bring men to a seeking after Christ ; no " filling 
 the earth with the knowledge of the Lord, &c." Therefore, as 
 sure as God is true, this is yet to be fulfilled before the ultimate 
 day of judgement. 
 
 Chapter xiv, 1 — 7. 
 
 It is worth noting, that our new translators, even in those 
 episcopal times which were so adverse to our point, do never- 
 theless concur with us so far, as to give us the contents of the 
 chapter in these words, — " God's merciful restoration of Israel." 
 And they speak w r ell, and are not alone in their opinion ; the 
 stream of interpreters generally concurring, that this chapter 
 intends, God's joining both Jews and Gentiles into one Church. 
 
 But some may be apt to imagine, that this making Jews 
 and Gentiles into one Church or sheepfold (John x) was ful- 
 filled when the Gentiles were converted in the Apostles' time, 
 beginning in Acts x. But they utterly mistake, if they so think. 
 For those Gentiles, and downwards, were but substitutions and 
 subrogations of them, whilst the Jews fall off, till the fulness of 
 the said Jews shall be brought in ; and then, and not till then, 
 is " the fulness of the Gentiles" brought in with the Jews into 
 one Church. So that the fulness of the Gentiles is not yet 
 brought in ; much less the fulness of the Jews. For whilst 
 Christ called the Jews, the Gentiles hung off; and whilst he 
 called many Gentiles, the Jews generally fell off. For thus the 
 Apostle tells us in Rom. xi, 30, — " As ye Gentiles in times past 
 " have not believed God, yet now have obtained mercy through 
 " the Jews' unbelief ; even so also have the Jews now not be- 
 " lieved, that through your mercy they also may obtain 
 " mercy." So that the Jews and Gentiles, for the generality, 
 have been like two buckets in a well, — if one were full, the 
 other was empty, — thus continually keeping their vicissitudes, 
 and by turns embracing or rejecting the word of Christ. 
 
 The Apostle further shews us the distinct graduals thereof, 
 giving two to each of them. The two of the Jews are thus ; first, 
 their root, or first-fruits, or initiation ; secondly, their branches, 
 
100 
 
 or lump, or fulness. *> The two graduate of the Gentiles are 
 thus: "Some wild branches ;" secondly, their fulness. c Then 
 mark the close of the Apostle concerning both : " When the 
 fulness of the Gentiles shall come in, then all Israel shall be 
 saved ;" d quoting several prophecies of the Old Testament to 
 prove the same. Whence we must necessarily infer, that the 
 conversion of the Jews and Gentiles heretofore, and downward 
 until now, are still but the root, first-fruits, and beginnings ; — 
 most of the Jews, and most nations of the Gentiles, not know- 
 ing the Lord Christ to this day. Secondly, Jews and Gentiles 
 are not to this day one Church, according to this prophecy of 
 Isaiah xiv, — that " the strangers of the Gentile nations shall be 
 joined to the Jews, and shall cleave to the house of Jacob : and 
 according to the stating of the question by Saint Paul ; — " That 
 when the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in, all Israel shall 
 be saved." This will be plainer if we carefully scan all the 
 passages in this text. 
 
 v. 1. " For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob and will yet 
 choose Israel." Jacob and Israel must here necessarily com- 
 prehend the ten tribes as well as the two ; for Isaiah prophesied 
 long after the division of the whole twelve tribes into tw T o 
 kingdoms, and therefore well knew the distinction between 
 Judah and Israel. e And again when he saith, " Strangers (or 
 Gentiles) shall be joined with them," (that is, with Jacob and 
 Israel,) he could not intend to leave out the greater part of 
 Israel, to whom those strangers are to be joined. Neither indeed 
 has it been fulfilled in the two tribes ; since at the return from 
 Babylon, Gentiles joined not with them : nor was it done at the 
 joining of the two handfuls, the one of Jews, the other of 
 Gentiles, in the history of the Acts of the Apostles ; since they 
 could no way answer to Jacob, and Israel, and strangers, inde- 
 finitely spoken. I have often admonished, that the grand pro- ' 
 mises, touching Christ's kingdom, have their gradual, successive, I 
 progressive impletions. Judah returning from Babylon was a 
 type. The conversion of a handful of them in the Apostle's 
 time was but the first-fruits ; (Rom. xi ;) but the fulness of 
 Gentiles and Jews is yet behind 
 
 b Rom. xi, 12, 16, 18. c vv . n, 25. «* vv. 25, 26. e Compare 
 
 chapters i, 1, and xi, 12. 
 
107 
 
 v. 2. Again, we have not seen, that christians have been 
 r servants and handmaids" to the Jews, in a right religious har- 
 lony and compliance : for that must be the sense of this 
 romise ; or else christians shall have loss, and that in things 
 oncerning salvation. Neither have we seen the captive Jews 
 ' take them captive, whose captives they were, and rule over 
 heir oppressors." For in their return from Babylon, it was 
 y voluntary consent of king Cyrus ; and at Christ's coming 
 hey themselves were captives under Augustus and Tiberius. 
 f any should be of so airy a fancy, as to evaporate this into a 
 igure, — that at Christ's coming, the Jews took their captivators 
 :aptive in a spiritual sense, viz. of conversion ; let such re- 
 nember that converts are the greatest freemen ; f and that as 
 egards the Jews at that time, alas ! " the vail was on them,"S so 
 ;hat they were generally in a spiritual captivity themselves, like 
 Sampson when his eyes were put out. Besides, Daniel intimates 
 ;hat the Jews' conquest over their enemies should be corporal ; h 
 3ut we do not yet see, that the Jews either corporally or 
 spiritually have subdued them that captivated them. 
 
 Neither again was that in the second verse ever yet ful- 
 illed, "That the peoples, or Gentiles, should take the Jews, and 
 3ring them to their place, &c." Calvin on this place grants, 
 " that this was not done after the Jews came out of Babylon ;" 
 ind gives this reason, " that the Gentiles were so far from 
 " being the conduct and assistance to the Jews in their return 
 " and settlement, or from contributing their service to them 
 " therein, that they troubled the Jews, and destroyed them from 
 " off the earth ;" — quoting Ezra iv, 4, and adding, " that therefore 
 this must be fulfilled in, through, and by Christ." But when 
 was this ever yet done by Christ ? Surely never, and cannot be, 
 till the " little stone (Christ) cut out of the mountain with- 
 " out hands, breaks to pieces the fourfold-mettled image of all 
 " the four monarchies of the earth." 
 
 v. 3. The twelve tribes of Jacob and Israel are not yet 
 " delivered from their sorrow, and fear, and bondage." They are 
 in bondage, being scattered amongst all nations. They are in 
 sorrow for that banishment from their own country. And they 
 
 t John vii, 33. 8 2 Cor. iii. h Dan. xii. 
 N 
 
108 
 
 are there in fear, being forced to pay tribute even for their own 
 freedom. Nor were they freed from that bondage in Christ's! 
 time ; being then captives under the Romans : nor from their 
 fear ; since for fear of the Romans, if they should own Christ, 
 they crucified him, and put him to death. 
 
 vv. 4 — 8. Therefore when this deliverance is fulfilled to the 
 purpose, it is done as follows : the Jews shall take up this 
 proverb, " How hath the oppressor ceased. The Lord hath 
 " broken the sceptre of the rulers, and the staff of the wicked, 
 " so that the whole earth is at rest and quiet, that they break 
 " forth into singing." 
 
 Chapter xxiv, 23. 
 
 " Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, 
 " when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in 
 " Jerusalem, and before his Ancients gloriously."* 
 
 The word ' then connects this with verses 22, 23. " In 
 " that day, it shall come to pass, that the Lord shall punish the 
 " host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the 
 " earth upon the earth, (meaning plainly, as the last clause tes- 
 " tifies, the Gentile potentates and powers,) and they (those 
 " Gentiles) shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered 
 " in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison. And after 
 " many days they (the Jews, saith Calvin, f) shall be visited. 
 " Then the moon shall be confounded, &c. when the Lord shall 
 " reign before his Ancients." You now see the context of the 
 word ' then ;' viz. that upon the great destruction of the impe- 
 nitent Gentile potentates and powers, the Jews (and if you will 
 include the penitent Gentiles, it shall not grieve us) shall be 
 visited in mercy ; and the moon shall be confounded, &c. : that 
 is, the glory of the Church shall be such, that the light of the 
 
 * R. Kimchi upon this chapter saith, " This section is to be (fulfilled) here- 
 after, in the destruction of Edom. Afterward he shall remember the salvation 
 of Israel." To understand what he means by Edom, he bids us (v. 16) look 
 upon the destruction of Rome, mentioned in the whole Book of God. 
 
 f Quum igitur hsec ad sustinendos fideles pertinerunt, non dubium quin Ju- 
 dais dicerentur, apud quos potissimum fides erat, aut potius nusquam apud alios 
 apparebat. 
 
109 
 
 noon and brightness of the sun shall be nothing to it. At 
 vhich time (as it follows) the Lord of host (in Christ Jesus, 
 ;aith Diodati,) shall reign on mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, 
 types of the universal Church,) and that in great glory before 
 lis Ancients, who were the Church of the Jews, by blood, as 
 veil as by profession ; Christ being considered as man, — the local 
 nrcumstances, Zion and Jerusalem, calling for that notion. 
 
 Calvin again clearly intimates, that his sense of this text is, 
 hat Christ shall hereafter establish his Church on earth in a 
 nost glorious estate. " I doubt not, (he says,) but the Prophet 
 ' prosecutes the consolation, which he had touched on in the 
 ' former verse, to this sense or effect : that when the Lord shall 
 ' visit his people, and shall purge his Church from its filthiness, 
 ' he shall settle his kingdom ; and that in so illustrious a man- 
 " ner, that it shall obscure the sun and stars with its splendor ; 
 " which kind of speech is usual with the prophets, as we have 
 ' already seen. But here Isaiah speaks of the body of the 
 '' Church, and not only of the Head. Seeing therefore the 
 
 • Lord will establish his kingdom upon mount Zion, so great 
 
 • shall be the magnificence thereof in the instauration of the 
 
 • people, as that the things that otherwise shone in the sight of 
 ' men, shall now be as darkness ; which, that he might express 
 ■ to the life, he names those things that are most splendent. 
 ' The world ruling is improperly explained of God's vengeance : 
 ' for although God be said to reign, when he acts the office of 
 ' a judge ; yet this speech, comprehending within it the king- 
 
 • dom of God in mount Zion, always hath the notation of 
 ' mercy and salvation. For he speaketh of the restitution of the 
 ' Church : whence it follows, that this is not fulfilled but in 
 ' Christ. Making a precise mention of elders or ancients, he 
 ' useth a synecdoche, which is exceeding usual in Scripture ; for 
 ' he taketh a special part of the Church for the whole body of 
 ' the Church, yet not without a deliberate purpose. He calls 
 'by the name of ancients, as well the priests as other rulers, 
 ' who were chief over discipline and manners, and by whose 
 '■' moderation, and prudence, the rest are to be governed. 
 : ' Under their names he comprehends all the people, not only 
 " because they represent the whole body,' (as under their shadow 
 
110 
 
 " the people were covered,) but also that believers might con- 
 " ceive hope of a future order. For otherwise it would little 
 " or nothing profit, that the multitude should be left dissipated 
 " in manner of a dismembered body, or confused mass. Nei- 
 " ther is it impertinently added, ' before the ancients ;' but that 
 " the Jews might know that the power of God should be manifest 
 " and illustrious, &c. For so he reigns, that we may perceive 
 " him present with us. For if it should be beyond our com- 
 " prehension, no comfort would redound to us thereby. 
 
 " For glory, others <read gloriously, others glorious: I had 
 " rather take it in the substantive, glory ; (although it makes no 
 " difference in the sense ;) for it teacheth how great shall be the 
 " magnificence and glory of God by erecting the kingdom of 
 " Christ, in that thereby all splendor is obscured, and only the 
 " glory of Christ must be eminent and conspicuous. Whence it 
 " follows, that then, at length, God shall enjoy his own right 
 " among us, and have his due honor, when all his creatures being 
 " gathered into order, he alone is resplendent in our eyes." 
 
 Chapter xxv, especially from v. 7; §* Chapter xxvi, 14, 19. 
 
 The late invention of chapters must not hinder our prospect 
 of the continued sense of this prophecy.* For the Prophet having 
 said, " then shall the moon be confounded, and the sun ashamed, 
 when the Lord of hosts, shall reign in Mount Zion, &c." now 
 follows with solemn praise to God, for his preparation to, and 
 manifestation of that his glorious reign : only that in this chap- 
 ter the sense is extended to the future state of the New Testa- 
 ment Church. This may be proved by apostolical expositions 
 and applications of all the main parts of it, which are three ; 
 viz. first the destruction of the enemies of the Church; {v. 2, &c.) 
 — secondly, the deliverance of the Church ; (v. 4, &c.) thirdly, 
 the joyful state of the Church upon that their deliverance, 
 (w. 6—8, &c.) 
 
 St. John, in Rev. vii, makes these three parts a state yet to 
 come. At verses 1 — 3, you have the destruction of the enemy. 
 
 * The division of the Bible into chapters and verses v/as not generally received 
 by christians till Robert Stephens adopted them in his edition of the Greek New 
 Testament published in 1552 
 
Ill 
 
 'here were four angels, that had power in their hands to hurt 
 tie four quarters of the earth, both by sea and land, as soon as 
 tie servants of God should be sealed. Those that were to be 
 urt, were those that had held the servants of God under tribula- 
 \on. (v. 14.) And those enemies were to be hurt by a storm, viz. 
 y the blowing of the four winds upon the sea, the earth, and 
 tie trees ; [vv. 2, 3 ;) even as Isaiah in this chapter calls the state 
 f the wicked a storm, and compares it in their opposition against 
 tie godly, to " a blast of a storm dashed against the wall," 
 diose fury the wall stops, breaks and scatters, so that those 
 mo stand under it are sheltered. 
 
 Next, for the deliverance of the Church, St John prophesies, 
 tiat the Lord shall be among his people, in manner of dwelling ; 
 9i 15;) and that his people "shall hunger no more, neither 
 thirst any more, nor shall the sun light on them, (or as it is in 
 the Greek, fall upon them, in a way of smiting, blasting, or 
 : scorching,) nor any heat. (v. 16.) For the Lamb which is 
 ; amidst them shall feed them, &c. and shall wipe away all tears 
 '■ from their eyes." (v. 17.) To which St. Paul, speaking of the 
 esurrection of the saints which is before the ultimate day of 
 ndgement, annexes this, " then shall be brought to pass 
 hat saying, ' Death is swallowed up in victory/ "* And again, 
 It. Paul, speaking of the conversion of the Jews, uses this ex- 
 iression, " But even to this day, when Moses is read, the vail is 
 ipon their heart : nevertheless when they shall turn to the Lord, 
 he vail shall be taken away ;"J viz. by the presence of the Lord. 
 Ul which expressions of John and Paul, in relation to the deliver- 
 .nce of the Church, are exactly in the sense and words of the 
 3 rophet — " This is the Lord, we have waited for him, for in this 
 aountain shall the hand of the Lord rest >" [vv. 9, 10 ;) whereby 
 s signified God's presence amongst his people. And He shall 
 >e a succour to his people from the fury of their enemies, as the 
 leat is sheltered off with the shadow of a cloud, {vv. 4, 5.) And 
 le will " feed them with a feast of fat things." [v. 6.) And he 
 kill " destroy the covering cast over all people, and the vail that 
 is spread over all nations ;" therefore among the rest, upon the 
 Jews. {v. 7.) "And he will swallow up death in victory; " [v. 8 
 
 i 1 Cor. xv. .">4. J 2 Cor. iii, 15, lfi. 
 
112 
 
 and 1 Cor. xv, 54,) and at chap, xxvi, 19, compared with 
 verse 14, " They shall not rise, but thy dead men shall rise."* 
 
 As for the third part, — the agreement between Isaiah and 
 John, prophesying of the joyful state of the Church, and their 1 
 joying in it, — he that hath but half an eye may see that it signi- 
 fies, that great will be the glory of the Church, when those things 
 mentioned by Isaiah and John shall be fulfilled ; and that it can 
 signify no less then a glorious restoration of the Church on earth, 
 as all circumstances concur in both places. Compare Rev. vii, 
 9 — 12 ; and Isaiah xxv, 1 — 4. 
 
 But we have a second instance. For in Rev. xxi, 1 — 4 ; 
 John applies those three parts of Isa. xxv (viz. the Church's sal- 
 vation, the enemies' destruction, and the Church's exaltation) 
 to a future glorious state of the Church yet to be upon the earth. 
 I saw, saith John, " a new heaven, and a new earth ; for the first 
 heaven, and the first earth were passed away, and there was no 
 more sea." Even Pareus confesses that new must be in quality, 
 not in substance ; which plainly condescends to a glorious state of 
 the Church to be on earth : for the highest heaven above is of 
 so much better a substance physically (as the philosophers ration- 
 ally contend) that it needs not be made better in quality. There- ( 
 fore the meaning must be, that the lower heavens, and the earth 
 below, shall be qualified with freedom from all evil, (as to the 
 Church, and the inhabitants of earth high and low,) and shall 
 
 * Upon Isa. xxvi, 14, 19, note what the Hebrew Rabbins, the Septuagint, the 
 ancient Jews, and the ancient Greek and Latin Fathers, say. R. Solomon saith, 
 " They shall live that died for THY sake : (bringing in the Prophet as speaking 
 " to God :) the royal decree went forth from thy presence, saying, ' my dead 
 " eodies shall rise again — the deadbodies of my people, whose bones fell for 
 " my sake, to them there shall be a resurrection.' " This by way of an antithesis 
 answers to that in v. 14, above written. " The CWSn Rephaim (expressed in the 
 Hebrew text, though omitted, I know not why, in the English ; which the Chaldee 
 and Jerome render giants) shall not rise again, but these shall rise again." 
 Thus R. Solomon. The Rephaim he interprets of the wicked " who remit, or 
 slack their hands from the law." The Septuagint renders it kva^rjcrovTat bi 
 vtKpoi nai tyep9i]crovTai bi tv toiq /nv^/xeioig. Jerome, " vivent mortui tui, in- 
 terfecti mei resurgent." And that the ancient Jews interpreted this place of 
 Isaiah touching the resurrection of the dead, appears by Gemara Sanhedrim, 
 cap. 11. " The Sadducees asked R. Gamaliel, whence he could prove that God 
 would quicken or make alive the dead. He answered them, ' Out of the Law, 
 Deut. xxxi, 16 ; out of the Prophets, Isa. xxvi, 19 ; out of the holy Writings, 
 Cant, vii, 9.' " The Greek and Latin Fathers likewise interpret this place of 
 the resurrection of the dead, viz. Irenseus, lib. v, c. 15, and c. 34 ; yea and of 
 the resurrection of the just. — Tertul. de Resur. c. 31 ; Aug. lib. xx, de Civit. 
 Dei ; Clemens Rom. in Ep. ad Cor. 
 
 I 
 
113 
 
 e made better both physically and morally. The old heaven 
 
 rid earth must pass away ; the enemies of the Church must be 
 
 amoved, or converted ; Adam'sL-Ciirsp. shall cease ; k and in this 
 
 :ate shall dwell righteousness, 1 and pure worship. And the 
 
 gssation of sea, signifies also the removing of all enmities 
 
 gainst the Church far from her. For if it be taken figura- 
 
 vely it signifies, no more brinish waters of false doctrine in 
 
 le Church ; (as waters sometimes in the Scriptures signify 
 
 octrines ;) and no more wicked men among the Church, which 
 
 re compared to the " troubled sea :" m for there shall be (as 
 
 ohn tells us in this of Revelation xxi) no unclean thing to 
 
 titer into this estate.^ If taken literally, (as it is by some 
 
 :ute wits,) it signifies, 'that at the time of this great restoration 
 
 le sea shall be no longe r totally fluid, but, at least at top, in 
 
 tost parts of the habitable world, crusted over, consol idated and 
 
 impact ed, to be as a chrystaline heaven below, and thus a high- 
 
 ay for all parts of the world to travel each to other for spirit- 
 
 al rojriTninnjo^ impediment of wind or weather. 
 
 hen there will be no need of trafficking for riches ; nor shall the 
 
 nowledge of the Lord be bound from the poor Indians, who have 
 
 ot the help of navigation. Then neither the Egyptian sea with 
 
 s seven streams, nor the great Euphrates, shall hinder Jews 
 
 r Gentiles from personal and spiritual communion and commu- 
 
 ication. God would rather thus alter, or else dry up, all seas, 
 
 lan that the glory and welfare of his Church should be hindered. 
 
 'o what we have said touching the meaning of the cessation of 
 
 id., our new Annotationists concur thus far : " No more sea (say 
 
 they) either literally, for there will need none for trade : the 
 
 fire perhaps at the world's end will dry it up : or figuratively, 
 
 no more war against, nor trouble in the Church, — the Church 
 
 shall not be Tike the raging sea, but like the quiet earth." St. 
 
 ohn goes on with the description ; " I saw New Jerusalem com- 
 
 ing down from heaven, &c. saying, the tabernacle of God is 
 
 with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his 
 
 people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God 
 
 (all which clearly relate to a state on earth) and God shall 
 
 wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more 
 
 k Rom. viii. i2lYt.iii. m Isa. lvii. 
 
114 
 
 " death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain." Which word* 
 exactly answer to Isaiah's words, in verse 8, of swallowing uj 
 death, and wiping away all tears. 
 
 In like manner St. John carries down other passages of Isaial 
 xxv to future times. For what is there spoken at verses 2 anc 
 12, (of making the city of strangers aheap, a defenced city t 
 ruin, a palace to be no city, a high fortress into dust,) an 
 applied by John to the fall of Antichrist, and the ruin of his nest 
 viz. the city where he rests : " The city of nations fell, am 
 great Babylon came in remembrance before God." See Rev 
 xvi, 19, and xviii, 2, 10, 18. 
 
 Chapter xxxiii, 20, 21. 
 
 I will only ask this question of all the men and books in th 
 world ; When was ever fulfilled, since Isaiah's time, that wind 
 is here spoken, " Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habita 
 " tion, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down ; not one of th 
 " stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of th 
 " cords thereof be broken ; but there the glorious Lord will b 
 " to us a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go n 
 " galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass by ?" For abor 
 seventy years after Isaiah prophesied, Jerusalem was taken by th 
 king of Babylon, and the king and nobles carried away captiv< 
 And whereas they returned again about 536, B. C. and enjoye 
 their country a good space of time ; yet about 167, B. C. Ant: 
 ochus Epiphanes, being ejected out of Egypt by the Roman 
 invades Jerusalem with a great army, and spoils and wastes bot 
 city and temple. About seventy one years after Christ's birtl 
 the temple was destroyed by Titus the Roman. About sixt 
 one years after that, (viz. A. D. 131,) the city was destroyed b 
 Adrian the Roman emperor. After this the Saracens an 
 Turks invade Jerusalem and Judea, and possess it to this da; 
 
 Chapter xxxiv, 1 — 18. 
 
 w. 1 — 7. " Come near ye nations to hear, and hearken i 
 " people ; let the earth hear and all that is therein ; the wor 
 " and all things that come forth of it : (observe, this prophe< 
 
115 
 
 1 concerns the whole universe :) for the indignation of the Lord 
 
 is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies, he hath 
 
 ' utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaugh- 
 
 ' ten" There follow many more such illustrations ; and all for 
 
 he sake of Zion, to be avenged of Zion's enemies, v. 8. But 
 
 lothing of this kind has been done at any period of the Jewish 
 
 istory ; therefore St. John carries this down to the New 
 
 'estament, and the later times thereof, unto the ruin of the 
 
 ntichristian nations, whereby to make way for the glorious 
 
 estitution of which we treat. In Rev. xi, " There was a great 
 
 earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and there were 
 
 slain of men seven thousand ;" (a number of perfection, to signi- 
 
 f a sufficient number for the design ;) " and then the Lord takes 
 
 o him his great power, and destroys them that destroy the 
 
 arth." And in Rev. xix, " One sat upon a white horse, called 
 
 : faithful and true, his eyes were as a flame of fire, &c. and out of 
 
 : his mouth went a sharp sword, that with it he might smite the 
 
 nations, and rule them with a rod of iron. And an angel cried 
 
 ' with a loud voice, saying to the fowls, &c. Come, and gather 
 
 ' yourselves together, &c. that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and 
 
 ' of captains, and of mighty men, and of horses, and of them 
 
 ' that sit on them, and the flesh of all men both free and bond, 
 
 ' both small and great, &c." 
 
 w. 8 — 10. It is said ; " It is the day of the Lord's venge- 
 
 ' ance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of 
 
 ' Zion. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, 
 
 ' and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall 
 
 ' become burning pitch, and it shall not be quenched, night 
 
 ' nor day, the smoke thereof shall go up for ever." Now St. 
 
 ohn, in the Revelation, (not only in my judgement, but in the 
 
 udgement of the old Geneva notes, and of our new Annota- 
 
 ionists,) carries down these prophecies to the destruction of 
 
 he antichristian world ; where it is said : " And the smoke of 
 
 J their torment ascended up for ever, and they have no rest 
 
 ' day nor night, who worship the beast, and his image, and 
 
 ' whosoever receiveth the mark of his name :" " And they saw 
 
 he smoke of the burning of Babylon :" " And her smoke 
 
 vent up for ever and ever." See Rev. xiv, 11 ; xviii, 18; 
 
 fix, 3. 
 
 o 
 
116 
 
 v, 11. It is said, that on the desolations of the enemies of 
 the Church " shall dwell the cormorant, bittern, owl, and ra- 
 ven ;" which again by St. John is carried down to the desola- 
 tions yet to be made upon Antichrist — " An angel cried mightily 
 " with a strong voice saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is 
 " fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of 
 " every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." 
 See Rev. xviii, 2. And (which is very considerable) the Hebrew 
 rabbins, especially Kimchi, and the Chaldee Paraphrase inter- 
 pret the judgements denounced in this chapter of the ruin of 
 Rome ; asserting that " The streams of Rome shall be turned 
 " into pitch, and its dust into brimstone, and its land into burn- 
 " ing pitch :" with which passages the Roman clergy being 
 offended, they leave out in their editions of those works the 
 word Rome, and substitute Cuthith and Javan, that is Grecia. 
 And as these things have not been hitherto fulfilled, so neither 
 can they be fulfilled at the ultimate judgement ; at which time 
 one place will be no more desolate then another, nor will there 
 be birds inhabiting desolations, &c. 
 
 If it be objected, that the threats of this chapter are directed 
 against Idumea (the country of Edom, or Esau) and Bozrah the 
 metropolis thereof, it is easily answered ; that though Idumea 
 be named in particular, as a most intestine Jew-hating enemy, 
 and is to be destroyed among the rest ; yet the threats are ex- 
 press in w. 1, 2, against all nations. Secondly, Moab, and Am- 
 nion, and the Ishmaelites, (or Hagarenes,) being knit to the line 
 of the Jews, n the same as was Idumea the country of Esau, they 
 are most fitly held forth as types of the antichristian enemies of 
 the Church of the New Testament ;° all of them being mother's 
 children,? but not acting as brethren ; even as St. John makes the 
 destruction of those enemies types and prophecies of the de- 
 struction of antichrist, as we have just seen. 
 
 Chapters xliii and xliv. 
 
 These chapters treat principally of the conversion and salva- 
 tion, spiritual and temporal, of the Jews ; and are yet unfulfilled. 
 We need but touch upon some passages. 
 
 n Gen. xvi and xviii. ° Psalm lxxxiii, 6, 7, &c. P Cant. i. 
 
117 
 
 Ch. xliii, 1 — 3. It is said, " Thus saith the Lord that created 
 
 thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel : fear not, for 
 
 I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by name, thou art 
 
 mine. When thou passest through the waters and fires, thou 
 
 shalt not be destroyed, &c ; for I am the Lord thy God, the 
 
 Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour ; I gave Egypt for thy ransom, 
 
 Ethiopia and Seba for thee." If we look on this place as a 
 
 istory of things done, then it may be justly queried, that 
 
 hough God destroyed Egypt for Israel's sake, yet when dealt 
 
 e so with Ethiopia and Seba ? Therefore generally, and most 
 
 afely, it is considered prophetical ; — answerable to the promise 
 
 a verse 2, that God would be with them in all difficulties ; and 
 
 v. 4, "I have loved thee, and therefore I will give men 
 mark the comprehensiveness of the term) for thee ;" — and 
 nswerable to verses 5, 6, "I am with thee, I will bring thy 
 
 1 seed from the east, and gather thee from the west ; I will 
 
 * say to the north give up, and to the south keep not back, 
 
 * bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends 
 ' of the earth ;" — and verses 18 to 21, " Remember not the 
 ' former things, behold I will do a new thing, &c. I will 
 
 * even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, 
 ' the beasts of the field shall honour me, because I give 
 
 * waters in the wilderness, &c. to give drink to my people, 
 ' my chosen. This people have I formed for myself, they shall 
 ' shew forth my praise." For this giving Ethiopia and Seba 
 'or the Jews cannot be understood (as Calvin and the Geneva 
 lotes hint) of the coming up of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia against 
 Assyria, whilst Sennacherib king of x\ssyria was coming up 
 igainst Jerusalem, c i for these reasons. First, the angel of the Lord 
 yoing forth into the army of Sennacherib, and slaying one hun- 
 dred and eighty five thousand of them, was the giving the As- 
 syrians, not the Ethiopians, for a ransom for the Jews. Second- 
 ly, if that slaughter of the Assyrians was a ransom for the two 
 tribes, yet is it nothing for Israel the ten tribes, so often men- 
 tioned in this chapter. Thirdly, as we have no sacred history 
 for it, so no human probability, that Sennacherib's army, thus 
 weakened by the angel, was in a fit condition to war against 
 and to worst that army of the Ethiopians, then gathered against 
 
 f i Isa. xxxvii. 
 
118 
 
 Sennacherib's kingdom of Assyria ; or to overthrow Seba : as it 
 is alike improbable, that Sennacherib could recruit the old, or 
 raise a new army, speedily enough to encounter with Tirhakah, 
 who was then fully ready for fight. Besides, the story concludes 
 Sennacherib's retreat from Jerusalem otherwise ; viz. that he re- 
 turned and dwelt in Nineveh, and worshiping in the house of 
 his idol gods, was slain there by his two sons. And in this our 
 new Annotationists concur ; saying, " that though most under- 
 " stand this of God's turning Sennacherib's forces against Egypt 
 " and Ethiopia, upon the tidings brought to him of Tirhakah's 
 " coming against him, when he was making towards Jerusalem 
 " to besiege it ; yet we cannot conceive that to be the meaning 
 " of the place, &c." But afterwards they add, " that this of 
 " giving Ethiopia and Seba for a ransom for Israel, may well 
 " have reference to the remarkable defeat of that vast army, the 
 " greatest upon record in Scripture, given to the Cushites under 
 " Asa, &c :" to which I cannot consent ; for this chapter is a 
 prophecy of things to come, speaking both first and last in the 
 chapter in the future tense. For if once or twice it speaks in 
 the past tense in the middle of the chapter, it is only usual in 
 prophecies, in order to shew their certainty, as if already done. r 
 Besides, it is spoken of Jacob and Israel, comprehending all the ; 
 twelve tribes ; certainly not the two only, called Judah, and over 1 
 whom Asa was king. And it mentions the ruin of Seba for 
 Israel's sake, that they might be delivered ; of which we have 
 nothing in past stories. And if this chapter be a prophecy, the 
 story of Asa's victory, above mentioned, over the Cushites will 
 not comport with the meaning thereof, since Asa died many 
 years before Isaiah prophesied ; — Bucholcerus says above one 
 hundred and fifty. 
 
 These things then (further amplified in the following chapter) 
 were never yet since Isaiah's time fulfilled ; and therefore there 
 remains yet a time to come, when the prophecies of these chap- 
 ters must be fulfilled, and that before the ultimate day of judge- 
 ment. There must be a distinct time on earth when Egypt, 
 Ethiopia, and Seba shall be destroyed for the deliverance and 
 freedom of Jacob and Israel ; and not only these, but all four 
 
 r Sec Romans iv, 17. Ed. 
 
119 
 
 quarters of the world, and the utmost ends of the earth (see 
 verses 4 — 6) shall be forced to let Jacob and Israel go free. 
 The Lord will do a new thing (which must properly signify a 
 thing never done before) to make way for their return and liber- 
 ty ; as it is expressed in v. 19, &c. Wanton wits may endeavour 
 to elude this with allegories and phantasms of their own hatch- 
 ing ; but these can neither convince a rational christian, nor 
 deliver the Jews according to the meaning of the Prophet : for 
 though before their deliverance the Jews will not call upon God 
 as they ought ; (but will be weary of the Lord, and will weary the 
 Lord with their iniquities, and therefore they are given up to 
 the curse, and to the reproach, v. 22 ;) yet, after these things, 
 the Lord promises, that they all shall have a glorious con- 
 dition ; saying — " Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant, and 
 V Israel whom I have chosen. Thus saith the Lord that made 
 " thee, &c. Fear not, O Jacob, and thou Jeshurun, (the name 
 " also of the twelve tribes, in Deut. xxxii,) I will pour water 
 " upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground. I 
 " will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine 
 " offspring. And they shall spring up among the grass, as 
 " willows by the water courses. One shall say, I am the Lord's, 
 " and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob, and ano- 
 " ther shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname 
 " himself by the name of Israel. Thus saith the Lord, the king 
 " of Israel, I am the first, and I am the last : who, as I, shall 
 " call, and declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed 
 " the ancient people, and the things that are coming, and shall 
 " come ?" Chap, xliv, 1 — 7. 
 
 Thus you see the present state of the Jews, as in the latter 
 end of the former chapter, viz. sinful, and doleful; — you see 
 their names, viz. Jacob, Israel, and Jeshurun, all names of the 
 twelve tribes ; — you see what is meant by pouring water upon 
 the thirsty, viz. pouring out of the Spirit ; — you see what is 
 meant by " growing as willows by the watercourses/' viz. by the 
 effusion of the Spirit, multitudes shall own the Lord ; — you see 
 what titles Christ hath, viz. " King of Israel," and " First and 
 Last ;" which are his titles when he prophesies of his visible 
 kingdom to be on earth, repeated several times in the Revela- 
 tion. 
 
20 
 
 Chapter, \lv. 14—25. 
 
 The Prophet having spoken to Jacob and Israel, {w. 17 — 19) 
 Baying, " Israel shal] be saved in the Lord with an everlasting 
 •• salvation, and shall not be ashamed nor confounded world 
 " withoul end ; for thus saith the Lord that created the hea- 
 •• \,i! .. and formed the earth, he hath not created it in vain, he 
 " formed it to be inhabited; &c. (which phrases refer that ever- 
 •• Lasting salvation to a blessed Balvation on earth;) I have not t 
 " spoken in secret, in B d;uk place of the earth ; I said not to I' 
 " the Beed of Jacob, seek ye me in vain;" — I say, the Prophet, M 
 having spoken thus to Jacob and Israel, (comprehending the II 
 twelve tribes,) nexl extends his speech more generally with them 
 to all the nations of the world, [w. 20, 21.) " Assemble your- | 
 •• selves and come, draw near together, ye that are escaped of the k 
 " nations, &C Tell ye, and bring them near, &C. Look unto ■ 
 - me. and be Baved, all the ends of the earth;" and so to the • 
 end of the chapter. So that by connexion it is evident, that tf 
 the words above quoted concern both Jews and Gentiles. For I 
 the words are not only a prescript, and precepl to all the ends of \ 
 the earth; (which must needs include Jews and Gentiles ;) but 
 also a prophecy and promise, that all the ends of the earth shall 
 look to the Lord for salvation, [v. 22.) And in the 23rd verse, 
 " I have sworn by myself, unto me every knee shall bow. and fa 
 " every tongue shall vow ; surely shall each one say, in the 
 " Lord have I righl eousness, &c ;" which is the plain language 
 of a promise, and is confirmed in the manner of a promise with 
 that greal confirmation, God's oath. 
 
 Now then " Looking to God," and " bowing the knee" to 
 him, mentioned in verses -'_'. 23, are twice applied in the New 
 Testament to that future submission and subjection, which all 
 tin' world shall yield to Jesus Christ, long alter his ascension. 
 The first time is in Rom. xiv, 8 — 1 1. " Whetherwe live, we live 
 
 " to the Lord; and whether we die. we die unto the Lord; 
 
 " whether we live therefore or die we are the Lord's. For to this , 
 " end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be | 
 " Lord both of the dead, and living. But why dost thou judge 
 " thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for 
 
we shall all stand before the judgement seat of Chirk- } - > 
 
 ' it is writter. . . - •",' 
 
 ' me, and every tongue shall confess to God/* In which words 
 tote the following. /«-.?/, Christ's Lovfohap aver mjl, both dead 
 mg, by this place of Isaiah, " that cmee shaD how 
 
 o the Lord/' >od made Christ a P/w*£ bjr an oath, 
 
 rtiich is elsewhere urged by the Aposti"; o here he tike- 
 
 rise makes him Lard and Kimg by an oath. Sexmdfy, the 
 rophecy being delivered in the fwtwre tense, must signify more 
 ban C...-- :■;:.: -r •.,: . ,. t:". v.-. -.-. -..* -.>.-: - ; -- : - v.-V /•;■,;-, 
 rophesied. TlarHy, the mention after Christ's ascension of his 
 >ordship ove: ^ . . - : • ■- • ■ - ?.-?.: \ 
 
 aust signify i '■•-.■ 
 
 ead ;" but they v 
 
 Jhrist himself expounds in -ngsiist^ Fmrtk, this must 
 
 -ate on anil before the ■ltimatf doom, in that the Apostle 
 sserts that all . • - ' 
 
 eemingly ; which :.v; 
 
 f judgement, which is the final destruction of al not sincere 
 y Christ, and th 
 
 'or the wicked to submit and perish in the same hour, were IIMe 
 onour to Christ ; and it were a short tram*- r all the *orld 
 
 d confess him £/:.?: ;. \ ■ \ ■- ' : 
 
 le beginning of the thousand i when Christ desfcroj'S all 
 le obstinate wicked, and sets urp I ' iiarch into a g}orio«s 
 state ; at which tir:. -. 
 
 f Christ, where the i .ionor and rewards ol and 
 
 OTor. jare with • - Nation mx, W — 2:1, 
 
 nd xi, II . — E •• accord. ohjt A$*5&fle, dais 
 
 owin: wmstbeztmm f Jnd^ment: hwt it cannot 
 
 eat the ultimate: day, and; tdoerel ore muist be at tie beginnMgrotf 
 le judgement, — ". >. 
 
 The 
 ussion of • ns in IM. ii, 8 — 11. " Being found 
 
 in fashi 
 
 ient ur.'. - . ''' "■'• '■ "-■'"-■ 
 
 God 
 
 .'■.--• - ' • ■ 
 
122 
 
 V which is above every name ; that at the name of Jesus every 
 " knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and 
 " things under the earth. And that everij tongue should confess 
 " that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." 
 By this it is evident, first, that the meaning of " bowing the 
 knee at the name of Jesus," is submission to the Lordly and 
 kingly power of Christ. Secondly, every knee both of things in 
 heaven, (that is of angels, as they shall specially be employed in 
 gathering the Church, and setting up the glorious state thereof,) 
 and in earth, (that is of all men,) and under the earth, (that is, 
 at Christ's pleasure there shall be no sea, Rev. xxi, 1,) must 
 needs import a state on earth. Which in the third particular 
 is further confirmed ■ viz. " that every tongue shall confess, that 
 Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the Father." 
 
 As for the two last verses of Isaiah xlv, I need but ask the 
 question, Was that ever fulfilled which is there spoken ; that 
 every knee and tongue shall come and say (for so is the con- 
 nexion, especially according to the Hebrew text) " surely in the 
 Lord have I righteousness and strength ?" Or is that fulfilled 
 there expressed also, " that all that are incensed against the 
 Lord shall be ashamed ?" Or that, which is the close of all, 
 " that in the Lord all the seed of Israel shall be justified, and 
 shall glory ?" * 
 
 Chapter xlix. 
 
 I shall only need to touch upon three or four places of this 
 chapter, which will give light to all the rest. The chapter 
 treats generally of bringing in Jews and Gentiles into the 
 Church. The Jews are again named by the terms that compre- 
 hend at least the ten tribes, if not the whole twelve : viz. Israel 
 and Jacob, " the tribes of Jacob," and " the preserved of Israel ;" 
 (vv. 1 — 6 ;) in way of distinction from whom, the two tribes are 
 called Zion, v. 14 : so that all the twelve tribes that came of 
 Jacob, are intended in this chapter ; in the close whereof, as a 
 seal, the Lord styles himself " their Saviour, their Redeemer, 
 
 * Mr. Mede's notes on this chapter, verses 14 — 22, were seen by me too late 
 to be inserted in the text : but it is plain he understands from it a glorious state 
 of the Church on earth, to be at Christ's second coming. 
 
123 
 
 the mighty one of Jacob." The Gentiles likewise are expressly 
 
 named in v. 6 ; " I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, 
 
 that thou mayest be my salvation unto the ends of the earth ;" 
 
 quoted by the Apostle, Acts xiii, 47, to prove the propagation 
 
 Df the Gospel for salvation to the Gentiles. The concurrence 
 
 }f both Jews and Gentiles in coming in to Christ, is expressed 
 
 o the life in verses 22, 23 : " Thus saith the Lord God, behold 
 
 ' I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, and set up my stand- 
 
 * ard to the people, and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, 
 
 ' and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders, and 
 
 ' kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens shall be 
 
 ' thy nursing mothers, &c." Great is the pledge of God, that 
 
 le will thus call home both Jews and Gentiles : " Can a woman 
 
 ' forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion 
 
 ' on the son of her womb ? Yea, they may forget : yet will I 
 
 ' not forget thee. Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of 
 
 ' mine hands. As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely 
 
 ' clothe thee with them all (that oppose thee) as with an orna- 
 
 ' ment, &c. And all flesh shall know, that I the Lord am the 
 
 Mighty one of Jacob." (See verses 13, 15, 16, 18, 26.) 
 
 These things being premised, we have again only to put the 
 
 [uestion on some verses, whether they were ever yet fulfilled ; 
 
 nd that will be sufficient to ingenuous reason, to confess they 
 
 re yet to be fulfilled, and that on earth. 
 
 v. 17. When was this ever accomplished : " Thy children shall 
 ciake haste ; thy destroyers, and they that made thee waste, 
 hall go out of thee V We read of no such thing at their return 
 rom Babvlon, but that the crew of Sanballat, Tobiah, &c. op- 
 osed them. Anon Alexander the Great, the Grecian monarch, 
 nters Jerusalem ; after him, Antiochus Epiphanes ; after 
 hese the Romans conquer it ; and now the Turks ever since 
 ossess it. 
 v. 19. On the same reasons I ask, when was this fulfilled : 
 Thy waste and desolate places, and the land of thy destruc- 
 tion, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the in- 
 habitants ; and they that swallowed thee up, shall be far away." 
 v. 22. Again, did the Gentiles and peoples ever yet " bring 
 le sons and daughters of the Jews in their arms and upon their 
 
 moulders V* If we should waive the literal sense, and conde- 
 
 p 
 
124 
 
 scend to spiritualize it of the generality of the Gentiles' compli 
 ance with the Jews in matters of religion, and union into the 
 universal Church, we still cannot tell when it was ever done. 
 
 v. 23. Nor can we say that ever the " kings of the Gentiles 
 and their queens have been nursing fathers and mothers" to th< 
 Jews, and " bowing down to them." Alas, poor Jews ! the^ 
 have ever since the beginning of the Grecian monarchy, (lon^ 
 before Christ,) been under the power of the Gentiles, and fo 
 the most part hardly used ; and in most places of the world 
 instead of receiving reverence, they have been much vilified 
 Therefore St. John tells us, that this is yet to come : " And th 
 " kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor [into Ne% 
 " Jerusalem] and they shall bring the glory and honor of thi^s 
 " nations into it :" and yet so as " there shall in no wise ente"?: 
 " into it any thing that defileth," &c. See Rev. xxi, 24 — 27. 
 
 vv. 25, 26. "We are likewise utterly at a loss, when thes 
 verses were fulfilled ; viz. " The captives of the mighty shall bjo 
 " taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered 
 " for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and 
 " will save thy children, and I will feed them that oppress the 
 " with their own flesh, and they shall be drunken with their ow 
 " blood." The Jews' history has so often been repeated, that i 
 need not again be referred to for proof, that this is yet future 
 
 u 
 
 Hi 
 
 k 
 
 Chapter liv, 11—17. 
 
 If we keep all these verses together in their twisted deper. 
 dance as here set down, and in their joint relation and inter 
 to the glorious estate of Jews and Gentiles conjunctively, (as 
 intimated, v. 3, &c. " Thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, &c.' 
 when were these ever fulfilled down to the days of Christ an 
 the apostles ? Therefore they do clearly carry down these thin 
 far beyond the age wherein they lived upon earth. St. Joh. 
 prophesies of that in vv. 11, 12, of laying the Church's found; I 
 tions with precious stones ; and says, that it shall be fulfilled ; 
 the great restoration of the Church. v So Christ carries dow 
 
 v See Rev. xxi, 18, &c. 
 
125 
 
 lat in the former part of the 13th verse, " All thy children shall 
 e taught of the Lord/' unto times beyond when he spoke ; in- 
 mating, from this pi ace, w that whereas the Jews then murmur - 
 
 I against him, yet the time should come that they should be 
 
 II taught of God. Its relation to future times is more evident 
 om the next clause of verse 13: "And great shall be the 
 eace of thy children ;" which being unfulfilled unto John's 
 me, he refers it also to the time of the glorious state of New 
 srusalem on earth ; " and God shall wipe away all tears from 
 teir eyes, &c." x So that the time must come, when the Jews 
 Lust not only have pure inward peace, being taught of God ; 
 .it " great" outward peace also : which is further confirmed by 
 jrses 14 — 17, " That in righteousness they shall be established, 
 and they shall be far from oppression, and from fear, and from 
 terror, that all opposing them shall fall, and no weapon, shall 
 prosper against them, &c." which Peter and John also apply 
 > the glorious state of the new earth, " wherein shall dwell 
 righteousness," " and no uncleanness, or abomination, shall 
 enter, but all tears, sorrow, pain and crying shall be removed, 
 &c."y 
 
 Chapter lix, 19—21. 
 
 " When the enemy (viz. of the Jews) shall come in like a 
 flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against 
 him ; and the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them 
 that turn from transgression in Jacob saith the Lord. As for 
 me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord j — My 
 Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put into 
 thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the 
 mouth of thy seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for 
 ever. 
 
 The Prophet having, in the preceding verses, shewn how God 
 ould " recompense the enemies of the Jews according to their 
 aeds," adds that which I have now presented before you : so 
 lat temporal and spiritual deliverances are here conjoined in 
 le and the same prophecy ; to which, in the first verse of the 
 
 w John vi, 44, 45. x Rev. xxi, 4. i 2 Pet. iii, Rev. xxi, 27. 
 
126 
 
 next chapter, he annexes the ylory of the Church of Jews and 
 Gentiles conjunctively. Now this present place, the Apostle 
 refers to the great call of the Jeivs on the coming in of the 
 fulness of the Gentiles, both making one glorious Church ; and 
 which the Apostle speaks of, as a thing to come to pass after his 
 time. His words are : " Blindness in part is happened to Israel, 
 " until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in ; and so all Israel 
 " shall be saved : as it is written, (quoting this of Isaiah) there 
 " shall come out of Zion the deliverer and shall turn away un- 
 " godliness from Jacob, for this is my covenant unto them, when 
 " I shall take awav their sins." * 
 
 Chapter lx. 
 
 Our late translators give us the sum of the chapter thus : 
 " The glory of the Church in the abundant access of the Gen- 
 tiles." " Arise, shine, for thy Light is come, and the glory of 
 " the Lord is risen upon thee. Darkness shall cover the earth, 
 " and gross darkness the people ; but the Lord shall arise unto 
 " thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles 
 " shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy 
 " rising. — Thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall 
 " be nursed at thy side. — And thine heart shall fear and be en 
 " larged, because the abundance of the sea shall be converted 
 " unto thee, and the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee. 
 " — They of Midian, &c. shall come ; they shall bring gold, and 
 " incense, and they shall shew forth the praises of the Lord, 
 
 * Isaiah says " shall come to Zion ;" the Apostle, " shall come out o/Zion.' : 
 The preposition S has a variety of significations as — in, at, according to, for thi 
 sake of, &c. And if the Deliverer come out of Zion, he must first have come 
 to Zion. Isaiah likewise says " and to them that turn from transgression ir 
 Jacob ;" the Apostle, " and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." The 
 Hebrew is 12wS which may be rendered, to the end to turn men from : for S wit! 
 the infinitive mood has the force of a future. And 3W, the root, sometimes i 
 used transively to turn a thing away, or to turn it from, viz. a termino a quo ac 
 terminum, ad quern; (Schindl.) or to convert from. (Pagn.) And i is ofter 
 paralogical, and sometimes put for 1 as the Masora gives instances. The Chal 
 dee renders it nearly as the Apostle, N'HVIE rO*r X3KP71 " To convert the trans 
 gressors of the bouse of Jacob." The Septuagint likewise (of the best edition ir 
 Bib. complut. and in Bib. Reg. and Gallicanis,) $£« citto 2jwj/ 6 pvofitvoc, ica 
 mro^pe^it «(Tf/3f(ac mro lafcw/3. The Arabic likewise, " There shall come i 
 Redeemer for Zion, who shall turn away wickedness from Jacob." 
 
127 
 
 " All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee, 
 " &c. — Surely the isles shall wait for thee. — The sons of stran- 
 " gers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister 
 " unto thee. — Thy gates shall be open day and night, that men 
 ** may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their 
 " kings may be brought : for the nation and kingdom that will 
 " not serve thee shall perish. — The sun shall be no more thy light 
 " by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto 
 " thee, but the Lord shall be thy everlasting light, and thy God 
 " thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy 
 " moon withdraw itself ; for the Lord shall be thy everlasting 
 " light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. Thy people 
 " also shall be all righteous and they shall inherit the land for 
 " ever, (i. e. none after them.) — I the Lord will hasten it, in his 
 " time." 
 
 Now I put the question to all the learned in the world, When 
 was ever any such estate of the Church since the Jews went 
 into captivity in Babylon ? If any dream, that all these passages 
 concern not a visible glorious estate of the Church on earth, or 
 that they are already spiritually fulfilled ; let them try on this 
 principle to expound this chapter congruously, telling us the time 
 and manner, and making all hang well together. St. John, a 
 surer commentator, having prophesied of the saints reigning with 
 Christ on earth, 7 - and in the 21st chapter having given us his 
 vision of a new earth, and of new Jerusalem, coming down from 
 heaven, proceeds to apply many passages of this sixtieth of 
 Isaiah to that glorious estate of the Church on earth after the 
 fall of Antichrist; which as we see is not yet performed. For 
 example, the third verse is so applied : " And the nations of 
 " them that are saved, shall walk in the light of it (that is, the 
 " light of the glory of God, and the Lamb, named in the former 
 " verse) and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and 
 't honor into it." (Rev. xxi, 24.) So verses 11, 12, are like- 
 wise so applied : " And the gates of it shall not be shut at all 
 " by day; for there shall be no night there. And they shall 
 " bring the glory, and honor of the nations into it." (Rev. xxi, 
 25, 26.) So the 19th verse : " And the city had no need of the 
 
 i Compare Rev. v, 10, with xx, 4. 
 
128 
 
 " sun, neither of the moon to shine in it; (mark, to shine in it; in- 
 " timating, that though those planets continue in being, yet there 
 " shall be no need of their shining ;) for the glory of God doth 
 " lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." (Rev. xxi, 23.) 
 The same is to be seen in the application of verse 20 : " Behold 
 " the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with 
 " them, &c. and God himself shall be with them, &c. And 
 " shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; and there shall be 
 " no more death,' neither sorrow, nor crying, &c." (Rev. xxi, 
 3, 4.) And lastly, we have the application of verse 21 : " And 
 there shall in no wise enter into it, any thing that defileth, 
 neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie." 
 Rev. xxi, 27. 
 
 Chapter lxiii, 1 — 6. 
 
 Christ is described in these verses as coming up from Edom, 
 with died garments from Bozrah, red in his apparel, by tread- 
 ing the wine-press alone, treading down his enemies in fury, 
 till their blood be sprinkled upon his garments. 
 
 John in the Revelation, (xiv, 18 — 20, and xix, 11 — 16,) ap- 
 plies these in the same phrase and figure to Christ's destroying 
 Antichrist. " Another angel came out from the altar, which 
 " had power over fire ; and cried with a loud cry to him that 
 " had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and 
 " gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are 
 " fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, 
 " and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great 
 " wine -press of the wrath of God. And the wine -press was 
 '* trodden without the city, and blood came out of the wine- 
 " press, even unto the horse bridles, &c." " And I saw heaven 
 " opened, and behold a white horse ; and he that sat upon him 
 " was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth 
 "judge, and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and 
 " on his head were many crowns, &c. And he was clothed 
 " with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the 
 " Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven fol- 
 " lowed him upon white horses, &c. And out of his mouth 
 
T2 ( J 
 
 " goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations ; 
 " and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the 
 " the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And 
 " he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King 
 " of Kings and Lord of Lords." 
 
 These are sufficiently obvious for every one to apply to the 
 point in hand, according to our former method. 
 
 Chapter Ixv, 17—25. 
 
 " Behold I create new heavens, and a new earth, and the 
 " former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But 
 " be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create ; for be- 
 " hold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people, a joy. 
 " And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people, and 
 " the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice 
 " of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, 
 " nor an old man that hath not filled his days, &c. — And they 
 " shall build houses, and inhabit them, and they shall plant vine- 
 " yards, &c. — Before they call, I will answer, &c. — The wolf 
 " and the lamb shall feed together, &c." 
 
 Every one who considers what he reads must say, that this 
 signifies a state of the Church upon earth, before the ultimate 
 judgement. And there is no man or monument can be pro- 
 duced, that ever this was so fulfilled since it was prophesied. 
 St. Peter and St. John both apply the 17th verse ; Peter in his 
 2d Epistle hi, 12, 13, and St. John in Revelation xxi. John 
 also quotes verses 18, 19, of this place of Isaiah. But it has 
 been so repeatedly shewn to refer to a glorious Church state on 
 earth, that I need not prove it again. 
 
 Chapter lxvi. 
 
 v. 5. The Prophet, in this verse,* directs his speech to them 
 that in a holy manner " trembled at God's word." The drift 
 
 * Justin Martyr, in his Dialog, cum Tryph. p. 312, testifies that this chapter, 
 from the fifth verse, belongs to the kingdom of Christ, that is to be at his second 
 
130 
 
 of his speech is, that though their false brethren hated them, 
 and cast them out on account of God's name, saying, Let the 
 Lord be glorified ; (that is, Let God appear in his glory to shew 
 favor to you, if we have not done well in casting you out ;) yet 
 that the Lord should appear to their joy, who had been thus 
 hated and cast out, and those their false brethren should be 
 ashamed. 
 
 w>. 7, 8. The Prophet here sets forth the manner of the con- 
 version of the Jews,* which shall be " as the birth of a child, 
 before the mother is in pain ; as the birth of a nation at once i" 
 which well may happen, since it is to be effected by the appear- 
 ance of Christ in the clouds. 
 
 w. 10 — 12. All nations must rejoice with Jerusalem, "be- 
 cause they shall suck the breasts of her consolations ;" (that is, 
 share in her comforts ;) and " The Lord will extend peace to 
 Jerusalem like a river ; and the glory of the Gentiles, like a 
 flowing stream." So that here we have again a glorious con- 
 junction of Jews and Gentiles. 
 
 vv , 13 — 21. In these verses is set forth the sensible comforts 
 of the Church, and the corporal destruction of their enemies. 
 " As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you ; 
 " and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And when ye see 
 " this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like 
 " a herb ; and the hand of the Lord shall be known towards his 
 " servants, and his indignation towards his enemies. For be- 
 " hold the Lord will come with fire, &c. For by fire, and by 
 " his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh, and the slain of 
 " the Lord shall be many :" illustrated verse 24 as follows ; — 
 " They shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men 
 " that have transgressed against me ; for their worm shall not 
 " die, nor their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring 
 " to all flesh." And then is held forth to us again the con- 
 gregating of all nations, both Jews and Gentiles, into union of 
 
 coming : " In which words (saith he) is to fiv^ijpiov 7ra\iv rng yevsffeojg i]fio)v 
 Kai cnr\b)Q ttcivtwv twv tov Xptrov Ev'IepecraXn/x <pav7]<T6<rSai irpog doKiovrcov 
 di epyiov evape^etv avrip aics§aZ ! ovTwv' * the mystery of our "being again gene- 
 rated, or made new, at the resurrection ; and absolutely of all, who expect Christ 
 shall appear at Jerusalem, and by well doing study to please him.' " 
 
 * I say conversion : their settlement will cost longer time, as it seems in Dan. 
 xii, the three last verses. 
 
131 
 
 true religious worship, and beholding the glory of God ; and 
 that (as the Jewish doctors expound it) in his destruction of the 
 enemies of the Church, in the days of the Messiah. 
 
 v. 22. But in this verse it is that we have the height and 
 length of this glorious estate of the universal Church of Jews 
 and Gentiles on earth. It is no lower than a " new heaven 
 and a new earth" state : and it is to be perpetuated ; it is to 
 remain unalterable and continue (say our new Annotationists) 
 for ever. 
 
 St. John in the Revelation, chapter xviii and three following 
 
 chapters, applies these things to the glorious state of the Church 
 
 on earth yet to come at the fall of Antichrist ; but having so often 
 
 made particular applications of them, I shall now 7 only sum 
 
 them up in brief. " Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen : how 7 
 
 ' much she hath glorified herself, so much sorrow and torment 
 
 ' shall be given her. Her plagues come in one day, death, and 
 
 ' mourning, and famine, and she shall be utterly burnt with fire. 
 
 ' Rejoice over her, thou heaven ; and ye holy apostles and pro- 
 
 ' phets, for God hath avenged you on her. And after these 
 
 i things I heard a great voice of much people, &c. saying, 
 
 ' allelujah, salvation, and glory, and honor, and power unto the 
 
 ' Lord our God, for true and righteous are thy judgements ; for 
 
 ' he hath judged the great whore that hath corrupted the earth, 
 
 ' and hath avenged the blood of his saints, &c. And the beast 
 
 f and the false prophet were taken and cast into the lake of 
 
 'fire : and the rest were slain with the sword. But the saints 
 
 ' reigned with Christ a thousand years, in the new heavens and 
 
 ' new earth, to whom the kings of the earth, and nations of the 
 
 [ world bring their honor." 
 
 JEREMIAH. 
 
 Chapter xvi, 14, 15, compared with chapter xxiii, 3 — 9. 
 
 Next we come to the Prophet Jeremiah. " Behold the days 
 " come, saith the Lord, that it shall be no more said, the Lord 
 1 liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of 
 I Egypt ; but the Lord liveth that brought up the children of 
 
 Q 
 
132 
 
 " Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands 
 " whither he had driven them, and I will bring them again into 
 " their land, that I gave unto their fathers." xvi, 14, 15. 
 
 The Prophet, calling these of whom he speaks by the name of 
 Israel, and in relation to their return out of the land of the 
 north, and out of " all lands whither they had been driven," 
 must needs comprehend the twelve tribes. And the more clear- 
 ly to intimate, that his meaning is, not only concerning their re- 
 turn to their own land, but of their conversion to God, — and 
 that it is not of zfew of them but of the generality of them all, 
 — he subjoins the bringing in of " the fulness of the Gentiles," 
 verse 19 : " The Gentiles shall come unto the Lord from the 
 " ends of the earth and shall say, Surely our fathers have inher- 
 " ited lies, &c." At which time of the coming in of the fulness 
 of the Gentiles, (as their coming from the ends of the earth fully 
 expresses,) " All Israel (saith the Apostle) shall be saved. " a 
 
 Now let us see chapter xxiii, wherein we have the same ex- 
 pressions, with further illustrations and explanations to confirm 
 them. '* I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all 
 " countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them 
 " again to their folds, and they shall be fruitful and increase. 
 " And I will set up shepherds that shall feed them. And they 
 " shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be 
 " lacking, saith the Lord. Behold the days come, saith the 
 " Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and 
 " a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute justice and 
 " judgement upon the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, 
 " and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is his name whereby 
 " he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 " Therefore behold the days come, saith the Lord, that they 
 " shall no more say the Lord liveth, which brought up the 
 " children of Israel out of the land of Egypt ; but the Lord 
 " liveth which brought up, and which led the seed of the house 
 " of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries 
 " whither I had driven them, and they shall dwell in their own 
 " land." 
 
 Mark now, what the Hebrew doctors and Jewish rabbins, 
 opposite as they be to Christ, say in their writings ; and that 
 
 a Rom. xi, 25, 26. 
 
L33 
 
 since the return of the two tribes from Babylon. " It is written 
 " in the book Berochoth, — Benzuma saith, it shall come to pass 
 " that Israel shall not remember their departure out of the land 
 " of Egypt, in the world to come (speaking just as the Apostle 
 " Heb. ii, 5, rnv oikov\xzvt}v n\v fxekkova-av) in the days of 
 " Messiah. And how doth this appear ? That which is written 
 " in Jer. xxiii, will prove it : Behold the days come, that they 
 " shall say no more the Lord liveth, &c. This wise men inter- 
 " pret thus : not as if the name of Egypt should be blotted 
 " out ; but because the wonders which shall be effected in the 
 " days of the Kingdom of the Messiah shall be principal, and the 
 " Egyptian less." 
 
 Observe next the phrases and circumstances of the place ; as 
 first, that here is mention not only of Judah's return and con- 
 version, but of Israel's also. Secondly, that they shall return 
 not only from the land of the north, but from all countries 
 whither they were driven. Thirdly, that, at the time the Prophet 
 intends, there must be a sweet compliance between Jews and 
 Gentiles in matters of religion. And lastly, that these things 
 must be when Christ, the righteous branch, springing from 
 David, shall be King, and reign and prosper and execute 
 justice and judgement in the earth." 
 
 Chapters xxx, xxxi, 
 
 These two chapters are both one continued discourse as the 
 connexion in verse 1 of chapter xxxi plainly shews. In them 
 are many things, which, upon bare reading only, shew them- 
 selves never to have been fulfilled to this day. For exam- 
 ple, mark well the following in chapter xxx : " Lo the days 
 I come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of 
 " my people Israel and Judah and cause them to return to their 
 | own land." {v. 3.) " In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, 
 i I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy 
 | bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him, but 
 ft they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their King* 
 
 * The Chaldee is very remarkable, "They shall obey the Messiah, or Christ 
 (the son of David) their king." 
 
134 
 
 " whom I will raise up unto them." (v. 8.) " Fear thou not, 
 " O my servant Jacob, saith the Lord, nor be dismayed, O Israel ; 
 " for lo I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land 
 " of their captivity, and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest 
 " and quiet, and none shall make him afraid :" repeated again in 
 chapter xlvi, 27- 
 
 None of the things in chapter xxxi, were ever yet fulfilled ; 
 especially verses 1 to 15, which concern their literal restitution 
 to their own country, and their visible peace and glory.* 
 
 Chapter xxxii, 37 — 44. 
 
 " Behold I will gather them out of all countries whither I 
 " have driven them in mine anger, &c. And I will bring them 
 " into this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. And 
 " they shall be my people, and I will be their God. And I will 
 " give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for 
 " ever, &c. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, 
 " that I will not turn away from them to do them good, §c. Yea 
 " I will rejoice over them to do them good, and will plant them 
 " in this land assuredly, with my whole heart, and with my 
 " whole soul. For thus saith the Lord : like as I have brought 
 " all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them 
 " all the good that I have promised them, &c." 
 
 I have sufficiently noticed before most things in this passage 
 as unfulfilled : note only in addition the following ; — that Israel 
 has not yet all had one ivay to fear God for ever with one heart. 
 
 Chapter], 17—20. 
 
 " Israel is a scattered sheep, the lions have driven him away : 
 " first, the king of Assyria hath devoured him ; and last, this 
 " Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones. 
 
 * That this chapter has heen alleged before Jerome's time, for the glorious 
 state of all things in the thousand years, of which we speak, is evident from his 
 comment on the place : " Omnes hujusmodi repromissiones juxta Judseos et 
 nostros Judaizantes, in mille annorum regno putantur esse complendfe, &c." 
 
135 
 
 I Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, 
 ' behold I will punish the king of Babylon, and his land, as I 
 ' have punished the king of Assyria. And I will bring Israel 
 ' again to his habitation, and he shall feed on Carmel, and 
 ' Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied on mount Ephraim, and 
 ' Gilead." Note first, that at least this concerns Israel, the ten 
 Bribes, who never yet were so delivered. Secondly, that the de- 
 iverance must be in a hostile way, viz. by the destruction of 
 kings and kingdoms ; but as yet the kings and kingdoms, who 
 m a constant succession down to this day have been the enemies 
 of the Jews, are not destroyed. Thirdly, that God promises to 
 come down in a methodical order, to punish their enemies, suc- 
 cessively in time and place. 
 
 For the king of Assyria had " devoured Israel," which can be 
 no other then Salmaneser's taking Samaria, &c. captive, b which 
 Samaria was the metropolis of the kingdom of the ten 
 tribes ; and Nineveh, where Salmaneser dwelt, being the metro- 
 polis of that kingdom, while it was called the kingdom of 
 Assyrian it is therefore said that " Assyria hath devoured him." 
 Then, secondly, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up 
 against Jerusalem (the metropolis of the kingdom of the two 
 tribes) and took it, and carried away all the considerable persons 
 of that kingdom, and all their substance of anv value, captive 
 to Babylon ; d and this was the king of Babylon's " breaking 
 his bones ;" called the king of Babylon, because Babylon then 
 was the metropolis of the kingdom of Chaldea, the Chaldeans 
 then ruling over the Assyrians : wherefore also the monarchy 
 was afterwards called the Assyrio-chaldean. Now as God hath 
 punished some of their enemies heretofore ; viz. Nineveh of 
 Assyria, according to the prophet Nahum, and Sennacherib 
 their king, and his host : e so must he according to his promise 
 descend in order with destruction in a hostile manner upon 
 Babylon, and upon the kings of Babylon, whatsoever, and who- 
 soever that Babylon and those kings be, in the Scripture name 
 and notion, and extended in the promises of the New Testa- 
 ment. And therefore as God did punish Nebuchadnezzar king 
 of Babvlon, by turning him as it were into a beast for certain 
 
 b 2 Kings xviii, 9, <■' 2 Kings xix, 36. d 2 Kings xxv, 1, &o. « 2 Kings xix. 
 
136 
 
 years ; f and afterwards punished Belshazzar king of Babylon, 
 by Darius the Mede invading it ;S and Darius the Mede (then 
 king of Babylon) by Alexander the Greek ; and Alexander's 
 successors (then kings of Babylon) by the Roman ; and the 
 Roman emperor (then king of Babylon, both old and new, that 
 is Babylon and Rome) by the Arabian, Saracen, or Turk, the 
 present king of old Babylon : h so according to the explication 
 and application, in the New Testament, of this promise, God 
 must yet go on corporally to destroy the Turk and the Roman, 
 (who once was the tyrant of old Babylon and after that con- 
 tinued to be the tyrant of new Babylon, first by heathen tyranny, 
 and after by papal and antichristian tyranny,) and this must be 
 done by the power of Christ and his Church. » Now neither the 
 Turkish king of Babylon, nor his kingdom, is yet destroyed ; 
 but rather mightily prospers and prevails. And God is in 
 arrears of judgements with new Romish Babylon for her ten 
 heathenish bloody persecutions ; and hath not given her present 
 pay for her late papal and antichristian massacres, inquisitions, 
 tortures, and blasphemies, as to the matter of destroying the 
 supreme power, and the kingdom of this Babylon, according to 
 the amplification of Revelation xvii and following chapters. 
 
 Note fourthly, that the punishing the enemies of the Jews 
 must so succeed, that Israel and Judah may be delivered from 
 their dispersion, and restored to their own land, and distinctly 
 to their several quarters there, viz. Carmel, Bashan, Ephraim, 
 and Gilead. One Carmel was a city of the tribe of Judah, 
 some tw T elve miles from Jerusalem southward ; — another Carmel 
 was of the tribe of Issachar, not far from Ptolemais ;J — Bashan 
 was of the country of Og, but afterwards became part of the 
 portion of the half tribe of Manasseh ; k — mount Ephraim was 
 the portion of Ephraim, and Manasseh, 1 and as one half of the 
 tribe of Manasseh stuck to Judah, so Ephraim is an usual ex- 
 pression to signify the kingdom of the ten tribes, or Israel ; m — 
 Gilead was a country that lay between the sea of Galilee, and 
 mount Gilead, some sixty miles from Jerusalem, and separated ' 
 the country of Galilee from Israel By this description it evi-i 
 dently appears, that God's mind in this prophecy of Jeremiah 
 
 f Dan. iv. E Dan. v. h Dan. vii. * Dan. ii and vii. J Josh xix, Jer. xlvi. 
 k Num. xxi, Isa. ii, 13. 1 Josh, xiii and xvii. m Isa. vii, tx ; Hos. v ; Ps. lix. 
 
137 
 
 j, that not only the two tribes, but also the other ten are to be 
 estored to their own land, though it cost the ruin of all kings 
 nd of all Babylons whatsoever. 
 
 EZEKIEL. 
 
 Chapter xxviii, 24 — 26. 
 
 " There shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of 
 j Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about 
 I them, that despiseth them ; and they shall know that I am the 
 j Lord God. Thus saith the Lord God : When I shall have 
 j gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom 
 ' they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them, in the sight 
 ' of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land, that I have 
 \ given my servant Jacob. And they shall dwell safely therein, 
 ' and shall build houses , and plant vineyards ; yea they shall dwell 
 j with confidence when I have executed judgements upon all 
 j those that despise them, round about them ; and they shall 
 j know that I am the Lord their God." . 
 
 Take notice, that God pledges himself as the Lord God, and 
 'heir God (twice repeated) that this prophecy shall be fulfilled ; 
 md fulfilled to the whole house of Israel, also twice expressed, 
 rhe pricking brier and grieving thorn are the adversaries of the 
 lews, whereof some are named ; (viz. Tyrus and Sidon ; n ) both 
 which are threatened with ruin on that account. Others are 
 intimated in the words, " Nor any grieving thorn of all that are 
 round about them, that despised them." 
 
 Now mark the matter of the prophecy. First, those ad- 
 versaries must be destroyed or removed, in order to bring 
 I Israel and Jacob into their own land, there to dwell safely, 
 and with confidence." Secondly, they must be gathered from all 
 places where they have been scattered. Thirdly, they must be 
 free from any pricking brier, or grieving thorn. And fourthly, 
 they must dwell in their own land, with full liberty — as of their 
 polity, to enjoy their buildings and plantations ; so of their piety, 
 to exercise the true spiritual worship of God. And lastly, they 
 must enjoy all this in " the sight of all the heathen." 
 
 n Verses 1—23. 
 
138 
 
 Chapter xxxiv, 11 — 31, and xxxvi, 9 — 37. 
 
 These prophecies are so like the former, that ye have need 
 only to read them to see, that the one in chapter xxxiv has the 
 same things of Christ, the Son of David, being a P?ince or King ; 
 and the happiness of Israel in their own land, their dwelling 
 safely, being delivered from all enemies and all evil. So that 
 prophecy in chapter xxxvi* is again concerning Israel and Judah ; 
 the universality of the mercy in all things ; (vv. 9 — 16 ;) the 
 great dimension of their deliverance ; [v. 24 ;) and their con- 
 version, (vv. 25 — 27.) 
 
 Chapter xxxvii.f 
 
 The two parables contained in this chapter set forth the sub- 
 stance of the deliverance of the Jews : the rest of the chapter 
 sets forth the notable circumstances of their state, being deli- 
 vered. 
 
 vv. 1 — 14. The dry bones described in thej^r^ parable, sig- 
 nify, as the Prophet explains it, " the whole house of Israel :" 
 so that it must concern the deliverance of the whole twelve 
 tribes. 
 
 vv. 15, 23. The second parable is the connexion of the two 
 sticks : the one to have written upon it " Judah, and his compan- 
 ions that were of Israel ;■" i.e. the tribe of Benjamin, which clave 
 to Judah in one kingdom ; the other to have written upon it 
 Ephraim, to signify " all the house of Israel, his companions." 
 Both these, integrated into one stick, signify the form of the 
 
 * Jeroine, when discussing this chapter, again confesses, that Jews and learn- 
 ed Christians before him allege this prophecy for the glorious state of the Church 
 in the time of the thousand years. " Hsec illi (Judsei) expectant in mille annoruni 
 " regno, quando civitatem Hierusalem asserunt extruendam, et templum quod 
 " in fine hujus voluminis describitur, et rerum omnium felicitatem, &c. Quod 
 " et multi nostrorum, et praecipue Tertulliani liber, qui inscribitur de spe fide- 
 " lium ; et Lactantii Institutionum volumen septimum pollicetur, et Victorini 
 " Pictavionensis episcopi crebrse expositiones ; et nuper Sevents noster in 
 " Dialogo, cui Gallo nomen imposuit ; et, ut Grsecos nominem, et primum 
 " extremumque conjungam, Irerusus et ApolUnarius." 
 
 f Jerome makes a confession, similar to that adduced before, concerning this 
 chapter. See in loco. 
 
 !; 
 
139 
 
 deliverance of the twelve tribes ; viz. that they shall be restored 
 into one entire kingdom as in the time of David and Solomon, 
 and that upon the mountains of Israel. See v. 22. 
 
 The eminent circumstances of this deliverance are First, that 
 they shall be as marvellously brought out of all quarters of their 
 captivity into their own land, as dry bones made to live, or dead 
 men to be raised out of their graves. Second, that they shall 
 have but one king ; and that must be David, that is one of Da- 
 vid's seed, — viz. Messiah, (as the Rabbins well understand it,) 
 " and he shall be their Prince for ever." (vv. 24, 25.) 
 Third, that " they, their children, and their childrens' chil- 
 dren shall dwell in their own land for ever. (v. 25.) Fourth, 
 the spiritualizing this their happy deliverance : — " Moreover 
 " (saith the Lord) I will make a covenant of peace with them, it 
 " shall be an everlasting covenant with them ; and I will place 
 " them, and will multiply them, and I will set my sanctuary in 
 " the midst of them for evermore. And my tabernacle also 
 " shall be with them ; yea I will be their God, and they shall 
 " be my people." vv. 26, 27. 
 
 Now some refer these things to the last resurrection ; mind- 
 ing more the fitness of the comparison to that in the simile of 
 the dry bones reviving, and God's bringing them out of the 
 graves, than that which is immediately annexed, — " O my peo- 
 ' pie, I will open your graves, &c. and bring you into the land 
 'of Israel;" (vv. 12 — 14;) which things are utterly incon- 
 sistent with the last general resurrection, but may with propri- 
 ty be applied to deliverance from captivity. P 
 
 Others again restrain this to Judah's return from Babylon, 
 md explain David their king to be Zerubbabel. In answer to 
 ;his we observe, First, that the things in this chapter were not 
 r ulfilled at that time. For though Zerubbabel was of the kin- 
 Ired of David ; yet was he no king, neither called a king ; nor 
 :ould he be accounted a king whilst they were under the Medo- 
 Persian monarch. Secondly, Daniel, and also the apostles apply 
 ;he phrases and things of this chapter to future times. Daniel 
 ;ays, " At that time (viz. after the tyranny of the Roman empire 
 ' shall have been long time rampant, chap, ii,) Michael shall 
 
 Verses 9 — 12, 19, 21. P See Grotius in loc. 
 
140 
 
 " stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of 
 " thy people, and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never 
 " was since there was a nation, &c. and at that time thy people 
 " shall be delivered, &c. and many of them that sleep in the dust 
 " shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame, and 
 " everlasting contempt :" c i which being prudently weighed can- 
 not be applicable to the last and general resurrection, or ulti- 
 mate day of judgement ; (as will be fully discussed presently ;) 
 but they clearly comport with the beginning of the great resto- 
 ration at the general call of the Jews. The apostle Paul applies 
 it to the general call of the Jews : " If the casting away of them 
 " be the reconciling of the world, what shall be the receiving of 
 " them, but life from the dead? 1 '" So likewise St. John shews 
 plainly, " that the witnesses must first rise, and then is a great 
 " earthquake, and then the tenth part of the city falls, &c." which 
 things can have no fellowship with the ultimate day of judge- 
 ment ; especially if we mark, that these things take place before 
 the sounding of the seventh trumpet, at the end of which hap- 
 pens the ultimate judgement : and therefore these things belong 
 to the great restoration at the ruin of Antichrist, and the call of 
 the Jews, and the setting up of the glorious Church of Jews and 
 Gentiles ; for presently after the seventh trumpet sounds, and 
 the kingdoms of the world become the kingdoms of our Lord 
 and of his Christ. 
 
 DANIEL. 
 
 Chapter ii, 31 — 45. 
 
 You have in this chapter the prophecy of the kingdom o 
 Christ, given by God to Nebuchadnezzar in a dream of a grea 
 image of four metals ; the head being of gold, the breast an< 
 arms of silver, the belly and thighs of brass, the legs and feet c 
 iron, but in the feet a mixture of clay. (vv. 31 — 33.) Dank 
 tells Nebuchadnezzar, by the Spirit of prophetical revelatior 
 that he, the said Nebuchadnezzar, is the head of gold, in th 
 
 q Dan. xii, 1, 2. ' Rom. xi, 15. 
 
141 
 
 the God of heaven had given him a kingdom, (viz. the Auyrio- 
 Chaldean) and power and strength, and glory. {m\ 37, 38.) 
 
 In verse 39 Daniel tells him, that after him shall arise an in- 
 ferior kingdom, which he applies to the breast and arms of silver. 
 This fitlv resembles the empire that next followed, (viz. the Me- 
 do-Persian,) which taking the said golden head, when Darius 
 took Babylon, s added to it this breast of empire, with the two 
 arms of Medes and Persians. And therefore this silver empire 
 is called inferior, not in respect of power, authority, or territory, 
 wherein it was evidently greater ; but in manner of government 
 relative to the Church, being far more harsh to the Jews than 
 the former : for the Jews enjoyed golden days, in comparison, 
 under Nebuchadnezzar's empire, although he was the first that 
 took the kingdom from the Jews. And this circumstance, viz. 
 that the history of the foreign state of the Jewish Church begins 
 at Nebuchadnezzar, is the reason why he is called the head : for 
 though the empire of Assvria and Chaldea existed lon^ before 
 him, yet the Scripture takes no notice of heathen kingdoms or 
 of the world, further than as they concern the woe or weal of the 
 Church. This Nebuchadnezzar therefore, beginning the desola- 
 tion of the Church of the Jews, (as to their temple -worship and 
 habitation in their own land,) is called the head of that mon- 
 strous image of monarchy. 
 
 In the same verse Daniel further tells him, that after that 
 second empire of silver, shall arise a third of brass ; which 
 metal intimates, bv the order of descent and degeneration, 
 that this third empire shall be as much baser than the second of 
 silver, (in the sense aforesaid,) as the silver was worse than the 
 gold. And this was to signify the Grecian monarchy : Alexan- 
 der the great being the belly, that possessed it in whole ; and 
 his two commanders who succeeded him are the two thighs or 
 hips ; for though four at first shared it, yet all soon fell into the 
 hands of those two ; whereof one had the northern moiety, 
 and was therefore called " the king of the north ;" the other the 
 southern, and was called thereupon " the king of the south/** 
 
 In verses 40 — 43 Daniel adds, that the fourth kingdom shall 
 be of iron and clay ; thereby again signifying a baser state than 
 
 s Dan. v. l Dan. xi. 
 
142 
 
 the former. And this must of necessity signify the Roman em- 
 pire, which next followed the Grecian ; in the days of which 
 Christ comes: {v. 44:) " Imperante Augusto, natus est Christus ; 
 imperante Tiberio, crucifixus," is known to every school boy. 
 This empire is called iron, both because it was harder to break 
 the former, and also more cruel to the Church ; witness the Vespa- 
 sian cruelty, foretold by Christ, 11 which came to pass about forty 
 years after his ascension ; and then the ten persecutions, for 
 three hundred years. This empire though for a time united by 
 the crossing or twisting of the legs, (if we may so say) after- 
 wards divided into two ; that is, into the eastern and western 
 empire ; and next it opportunely fell into subdivisions, till it an- 
 swered exactly to these ten toes, and to St. John's beast with 
 ten horns. 
 
 Thus you see how largely Daniel, by God's Spirit, shews us 
 the succession of the four great monarchies of the earth, extend- 
 ing from before Daniel down to us, and spreading themselves 
 over the face of the earth ; and how the latter eat up the former, 
 making itself stronger thereby. Now what should be the design 
 of God in noticing so much matters of state, and worldly poli- 
 tics ; and that in a prophecy to his spiritual Church whom he 
 loveth, and whom he would have to slight the world ? Surely a 
 a very considerable one : — viz. to the end he might methodically, 
 for their better capacity and understanding, prophesy to them 
 of a fifth monarchy, greater and better than any of the former, 
 which shall follow at the heels — yea tread upon the toes of the 
 fourth, and that by a glorious conquest. This fifth monarchy is 
 immediately under Christ, then the sole emperor thereof: and 
 it must as assuredly succeed after and prevail over all the places, 
 powers, and territories of the former, as they followed and foiled 
 one another ; — it must as really and sensibly be upon earth, as 
 any of the preceding were; — and it must have whatever was good 
 in all the four preceding, with an addition of divine grace and 
 glory infused into it.* 
 
 u Matt. xxiv. 
 
 * I have very learned and pious men to accompany me thus far in this inter- 
 pretation of Daniel ; viz. Mr. Huet, on Daniel ; Mr. Parker, in his Visions and 
 Prophecies of Daniel expounded ; and Mr. Archer, in his Personal Reign of 
 Christ. As some contend that the fifth empire is to be only a spiritual king- 
 
143 
 
 Note how aptly this monarchy of Christ (that is, Christ the 
 monarch, and the saints his monarchy) is compared to " a stone 
 cut out of the mountain," &c. We know that Christ is often 
 called, or typified by a rock or stone ; v and that the Church is 
 compared to a house built on a rock. w Now some stone (as the 
 adamant that cannot be filed) is harder than iron : and a huge 
 stone of any sort, falling from a mountain, will break the iron 
 that is under it, much more the iron that is mixed with clay. 
 So Christ and his Church shall make up a monarchy that shall 
 be too hard and weighty for the fourth or Roman empire to bear, 
 although it brake the rest : as Christ himself said — " Did ye 
 " never read in the Scriptures, ' The stone which the builders re- 
 " jected is become the head of the corner V Whosoever shall fall 
 " on this stone shall be broken ; but on whomsoever it shall fall, 
 " it will grind him to powder. " x And Zechariah has it : " In 
 " that day I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all peo- 
 " pies : all that burthen themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, 
 
 dom, note Mr. Huet's argument in reply. " Had this kingdom been merely 
 " spiritual, it needed not to have staid for the overthrow of the image before it 
 " filled the earth ; seeing Christ's spiritual kingdom doth not overthrow, but 
 " rather set up civil government ; and the Gospel hath flourished where the 
 " Church hath been under tyranny. It is such a kingdom also as doth break 
 H in pieces all the former metals, by smiting the feet, and then demolishing the 
 " image : whereas the spiritual kingdom of Christ doth rather invest, than dis- 
 11 robe earthly kings and emperors, commanding obedience to them whether 
 u good or bad, as the Scriptures abundantly testify. This ' smiting of the 
 " feet ' is left out as a cypher by them that interpret it spiritually of the preach- 
 " ing of the word. Consider further, if this were meant of the preaching of the 
 " Gospel, discovering the vanity of earthly things, why should it not strike at 
 " the more glorious metals, as the gold, silver, &c. ? Is there any reason, why 
 " Christ should declaim against the base things of the world, and pass by the 
 "eminent states?" Mr. Archer says on the same subject: "Its duration 
 " (meaning of the fifth monarchy) that it shall last for ever, shews that it is 
 " meant of Christ's kingdom. The Babylonian was left to the Medes and 
 " Persians, and this to the Grecians, and the Grecian to the Romans ; but this 
 " shall be left to none, but shall be for ever, (Dan. ii, 44,) that is, to the world's 
 " end. But the kingdom at the world's end, shall be Christ's ; for at the last 
 " end of all he gives it up to the Father. (1 Cor. xv, 24.) Therefore from the 
 " time the image is destroyed until the end, Christ hath the kingdom. Christ's 
 " spiritual kingdom, and his providential ruling were before this time : therefore 
 " that which is to begin, when these monarchies exd, must be Christ's 
 r monarchy ; wherefore from this prophecy we learn, that Christ shall have a 
 " monarchical state on earth, and a visible kinydom, (as other monarchs had,) 
 jj which shall swallow up or cause to vanish all other monarchies, as the latter 
 " monarchies did the former." 
 
 v Matt, xvi, 18 ; 1 Cor. x, 4, compared with Numbers xx, 8. w Matt, vii, 
 24, & xvi, 18 ; compared with Zech. iii, 7 ; " for the seven eyes on one stone 
 (saith Junius) is the Church built on Christ." x Matt, xxi, 42—4 4. 
 
144 
 
 " though all the people of the earth be gathered together 
 " against it."y 
 
 It is said, that the stone was " cut out of the mountain without 
 hands ;" but withall that it " smote" as a stone against the image ; 
 and as a stone " it brake" the matter of the iron and clay : 
 whence I cannot but conclude, that though Christ, the monarch, 
 was conceived without man by the Holy Ghost, &c. and his 
 Church both of Jews and Gentiles is effectually called and re- 
 generated by the same Holy Spirit without human help ; yet 
 Christ and his Church shall by a visible hand of power dash in 
 pieces the fourth monarchy, — viz. the Roman pope, and his ar- 
 mies, territories, and powers ; and the Turk and his, which 
 sprang out of the Roman. 2 
 
 The meaning of the continuance of this monarchy of Christ 
 for ever doth not signify that it should never have any end, as if 
 Christ should never lay down his power of government ; for the 
 contrary is expressed in 1 Cor. xv, 24, 28 : but the meaning is 
 this ; first, it shall never be destroyed ; a that is, shall not end with 
 a devastation and desolation, as the former monarchies did ; — 
 secondly, it shall not be " left to other people ;" b that is, other 
 people shall never succeed the saints to possess it, as another 
 people successively succeeded and possessed the other monarch- 
 ies ; — thirdly, that the end of this monarchy of Christ (so 
 far as it may have an end) is only formally, of the power or 
 mode of government by Christ, who resigns his power to God 
 himself : c not materially, for the saints shall continue for ever, 
 eternally happy, under the wing of the beatifical vision of God 
 himself. 
 
 Note finally, that this visible kingdom of Christ is to follow 
 the rest in an immediate order and succession of natural time, 
 and in the same physical place, viz. the earth. For if this mon- 
 archy of Christ succeeded only in eternity, in the empyrean 
 highest heaven, it can be no more said to succeed the said four 
 monarchies, (as Daniel would by all means have it,) than it suc- 
 ceeded any other empire or kingdom on earth ; especially those 
 that were contemporary with those four monarchies, yet not 
 subject to them, as some were all the time of their duration. 
 
 y Zech, xii. 3. r Dan. xii ; Rev. xvi & xix. * ?'. 44. b Ibid. 
 
 c 1 Cor. xv, 24, 28. 
 
 h 
 
145 
 
 Mr. Mede's Diatribe, pars \v, being lately published, I shall 
 conclude with an extract from it. — 
 
 " The four kingdoms in Daniel are twice revealed : first to 
 " Nebuchadnezzar, in a glorious image of four metals ; secondly 
 " to Daniel himself, in a vision of four divers beasts, arising out 
 " of the sea. The intent of both is, to point out, by that suc- 
 " cession of kingdoms, the time of the kingdom of Christ, which 
 " no other kingdom should succeed, or destroy. Nebuchadnez- 
 " zar's image of monarchies points out two states of the king- 
 " dom of Christ : the first to be while the times of those king- 
 " doms of the Gentiles yet lasted, typified by " a stone cut out 
 "of a mountain without hands," the monarchical statue yet 
 " standing upon his feet ; the second not to be until the utter 
 " destruction and dissipation of the image, when the stone, 
 " having smote it upon the feet, should " grow into a great 
 " mountain which should fill the whole earth." The first may be 
 " called, for distinction's sake, regnum lapidis, the kingdom of 
 " the stone ; which is the state of Christ's kingdom, which hi- 
 " therto hath been : the other, regnum montis, the kingdom of 
 " the mountain, i.e. of the stone grown into a mountain, which 
 " is the state of his kingdom which hereafter shall be. The inter - 
 " vol between these two, from the time the stone was first hewn 
 " out, (that is, the kingdom of Christ was first advanced,) until 
 " the time it became a mountain, (that is, when the mystery of 
 " God shall be finished,) is the subject of the apocalyptical vi- 
 " sions. Note here, that the stone is expounded by Daniel to 
 " be that lasting kingdom which the God of heaven should set 
 " up ; secondly, that it was hewn out of the mountain before it 
 " smote the image upon the feet, and consequently before the 
 " image was dissipated; and therefore that the kingdom typified 
 " by the stone, while it remained a stone, must needs be within 
 " the times of those monarchies : that is, before the last of them 
 " (viz. the Roman*) should expire. Wherefore Daniel inter- 
 " prets verse 44, " That in the days of these kingdoms (not after 
 " them, but while some of them were in being) the God of heaven 
 
 * See also Mr. Medes Opuscula, parsii, p. 20, wherein he proves, by a com- 
 parison of this of Daniel with 2 Thess. ii, 8, and Rev. xi, xvii— xix. that the 
 fourth monarchy is the Rornan, and succeeded when broken by the consumma- 
 tion of Christ's kingdom. 
 
146 
 
 " should set up a kingdom which should never be destroyed, nor 
 " left (as the others were) to another people : but should break 
 " in pieces, and consume all those kingdoms, and itself should 
 " stand for ever/ And all this he speaks, as the interpretation of 
 " the stone: ' For as much (saith he) as thou sawest that a 
 " stone was cut out of the mountain without hands ; and that 
 " it brake in peices the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and 
 " the gold.' Here make the full point ; for these words belong 
 " not to that which follows, (as our Bibles seem to refer them,) 
 " but to that which went before. The stone becoming a moun- 
 " tain, he expounds not ; but leaves it to be gathered by what 
 " he had already expounded." Page 631. 
 
 Chapter vii. 
 
 v. 2. Out of the blustering spirits of the inhabitants of 
 the four quarters of the world, in a sea of wars, there ariseth a 
 succession of four monarchies ; each in his turn ruling the 
 greatest part of the whole earth. This order, or series, began 
 with Nimrod, about A. M. 1788, and before Christ 2183, and 
 hath continued to this day. This same order the Prophet sets 
 forth in the third verse, under the symbol of four beasts ; 
 which he explains at verse 17 to signify four kings or monarchs, 
 that should arise out of the earth : that is, by earthly means 
 domineer. 
 
 v. 4. The first beast is like a lion, that had eagles' wings, 
 wherewith he was wont to lift up himself from the earth, till 
 they were plucked ; and then he was made to stand upon his 
 feet as a man, resting on the earth, and a man's heart was given 
 unto him. By all which is meant the Babylonian monarchy ; 
 which was strong like a lion, and had wings of celerity and vic- 
 tory, becoming the Assyrio- dial dean monarchy, whereby it was 
 lifted up to an imperial eminence above the generality of the 
 earth. d Those wings are plucked by Darius the Mede, and Cy- 
 rus the Persian, and so it is made to stand as a man upon his 
 feet ; (that is, it was brought down to the common rank of men,) 
 
 (1 Obadiah verse 4 ; Jer. chapter iv, verse 13. 
 
 a 
 
147 
 
 " And hath a man's heart given unto him — that is, the spirit 
 of an ordinary, plebeian man, no longer heroic and imperial. 
 
 v. 5. The second beast is like " a bear, that raised up itself 
 " on one side ; and had three ribs in its mouth, between its 
 " teeth ; and they said thus unto it, Arise and devour much 
 " flesh." By all which is meant the Persian monarchy ; which 
 was ravenously cruel like a bear, raising up one dominion and 
 enduring no rival, but, having first subdued the Medes and then 
 the Babylonians, united all into one monarchy. Between the 
 teeth of his power (yet still demanding and snatching more 
 dominion) he hath the three ribs of the eastern, western, and 
 southern parts of the world. e He ariseth and eateth much 
 flesh, in his cruel slaughterings in pursuance of his victories. 
 
 v. 6. The third beast " is like a leopard, which had upon the 
 " back of it four wings of a fowl, and had also four heads, and 
 " dominion was given to it." By which is signified the Grecian 
 monarchy, which was like a leopard in subtilty, celerity and 
 rapacity. f The subtilty appeared in the policy of Philip the 
 father, and Alexander the son, in laying the plot for this mon- 
 archy, and slily occasioning a quarrel, in order to fall out with the 
 neighbouring nations ; and in the cunning of Alexander in battle, 
 that would always fight his super-numerous enemy in straits, 
 where he might not have room to bring up more of his men in 
 fight than Alexander on his part could display in battle. The 
 celerity appeared in that the Grecians, under the said Alexander, 
 did so suddenly (within about twelve years) over -run the 
 greatest part of the world ; as if this conqueror had flown upon 
 wino-s : so that he is described in Dan. viii, by a " he -goat 
 that touched not the ground." The rapacity appeared especially 
 against the Jews ; for the four heads of this leopard and their 
 successors exercised matchless cruelty against them ; and every 
 where they were most ravenous and destructive. For Alexander 
 and the empire under him, being the body, his four captains that 
 immediately succeeded him in the empire were the four heads ;S 
 Cassander head of Macedonia, Antigonus of Asia, Seleucus of 
 Syria, and Ptolemy of Egypt ; all possessing imperial dignity 
 at once, and every where monstrously devouring. 
 
 { Dan. viii, 4. f Jer. v, 6 ; Hab. i, 8 ; Dan. viii, 5. g Dan. viii, 8 ; xi, 4. 
 
 S 
 
148 
 
 v. 7. The fourth beast is so strangely different, that no natural 
 beast nor name is found meet to describe him ; only he is said 
 to have ten horns, and iron teeth to devour, and feet to stamp 
 the residue of the beasts under him. By this description of 
 Daniel is set forth the Roman monarchy ; which (according to 
 Daniel's words) was dreadful and terrible to all nations, being 
 exceeding strong to annoy them all ; having such teeth of war, 
 as Scipio, Pompoy, Caesar, &c, iron victors. The addition of 
 " nails of brass," in v. 19, may signify their imperial senate, and 
 provincial magistrates, who held fast whatsoever the iron teeth 
 conquered. The ten horns are explained by St. John to be the 
 character of the Roman empire, and to signify the ten kingdoms 
 into which at last it was divided ; h and the breaking off three of 
 these ten, by the one horn that grew up among them, doth 
 further notably describe the body of Antichrist arising out of 
 the Roman empire, with its two sides : the Turk having one 
 eye, leg, and arm, and the Pope the other : and both making 
 up one antichristian body, to keep the world from embracing 
 Christ and his pure Gospel. 
 
 Before we can fairly go on with this seventh of Daniel, I 
 must insert here my thoughts touching the little horn, con- 
 cerning which the learned differ. Not to mention that im- 
 possible opinion, that it signifies Antiochus Epiphanes ; the 
 learned Parker and others hold, that it means the Antichrist of 
 Rome ; whilst the learned Graserus and others understand by 
 it Mahomet, and give very strong reasons for it ; the answers 
 given to which are not to me sufficient, any more than the 
 arguments for the Roman Antichrist. But I would propose 
 this expedient to the learned : viz. to consider the Turk and 
 the Pope to be the main integrals of Antichrist. For upon an 
 exact review of what has been said on both sides, touching the 
 little horn, it would appear that all may be accommodated to 
 either, though perhaps more appositely to the Turk. And if 
 they that make it a Roman horn, may be led thereunto, from 
 the fear of omitting any thing that foretels the ruin of the 
 Roman Antichrist ; so must we be jealous of waiving any thing 
 that threatens the ruin of the Mahometan Antichrist. For with 
 
 h Rev. xvii. 
 
149 
 
 me, I confess, it is a rule, (which diligent observation, as I have 
 gone through the Scriptures, has irresistibly ingraffed into my 
 reason,) that all the Scriptures, touching the great restoration 
 or restitution of the Church to her glorious estate on earth 
 before the ultimate day of judgement, do more directly and 
 immediately look towards the Jews ; consequentially and in- 
 clusively only upon the Gentiles : and therefore they do neces- 
 sarily more directly threaten the ruin of the Mahometan Turkish 
 Antichrist, who is their more immediate and cruel enemy, in- 
 habiting all their borders ; and next they extend to the Roman 
 Antichrist, taking him in under the general notion of a grand 
 enemy to the conversion both of Jews a.nd Gentiles unto Christ, 
 and of the glorious reformation of the Church, and of the pure 
 doctrine and ministration of the Gospel conducing to both. 
 
 Note then the points of coincidence between the two. 1st. In 
 their rise, which may be seen by comparing this chapter of 
 Daniel with Rev. xiii, — the Pope rising out of the Roman em- 
 pire, and the Turk out of the Pope : for the Pope ingrafted the 
 heathenish religion of the empire ; and the Turk's religion was 
 hatched by the counsel and advice of Sergius a popish monk. 1 2d. 
 Their dominions have a similarity, in- each plucking up three of 
 the ten horns of the fourth beast : for the Turk pulled off three 
 from the whole Roman empire ; viz. Syria, Egypt and Africa ; 
 (or as some reckon — Syria, Greece and Africa ;) and the Pope 
 arrogates a triple crown in the present Roman state. 3d. Their 
 seats are the same ; viz. " sitting in (or rather over, eis rov vaov) 
 the temple of God."J For the Pope ceased to be in the Church 
 since the Council of Trent, wherein he execrated all the chief 
 gospel truths : and the Turk is said to be "a star fallen from the 
 heaven of the Church. " k But both, I say, sit upon or over the 
 temple of God : for as the Pope sits over great part of the 
 spiritual temple of Christendom, (in which are many believers,) 
 and there suppresses the propagation of the Gospel ; so the 
 Turk by his power sits over the material temple, as it were, (at 
 least the place of it, Jerusalem,) there preferring Mahomet as 
 one greater than Christ. And their seats are both called by the 
 same name, Babylon, both in the Old and New Testaments. 
 
 i Z^r.r,, Tom. iii, and Car - J 2 Thess. ii, 4. * Rev. i\. 1. 
 
150 
 
 4th. Their name, Antichrist, is doubtless applicable to both ; 
 for the Turk keeps off the Jews, and the Pope the Christians 
 from embracing Messiah. But the Turk most decidedly merits 
 the name anti-Christ (i.e. against- Christ,) since he opposes him 
 openly ; and not only exjjressly advances Mahomet above him, 
 but has made him a new book of scriptures, which he calls 
 Alcoran : whereas the Pope acts more covertly, pretending in 
 some things to be for Christ fpro-Christ, as avn signifies in 
 John i, 16) though in his usurped headship of the Church, and 
 many other things, he is effectually against him. 5th. There is 
 another name in the nature of which they again concur. The 
 Pope is " the son of Perdition," 1 or destruction, and that both 
 actively and passively ; for he is the Destroyer or Desolator, m 
 and is at last destroyed : and the Turk is styled in the Hebrew 
 Abaddon, in the Greek Apollyon, n which means destroyer, as 
 does the word Turca in the opinion of the learned. 6th. His 
 number is applicable to both Turk and Pope, viz. 666.° For 
 as the numeral letters of the Greek Aareiz/os or of the Hebrew 
 HSTOIDI (both suitable names of the Pope who is a Latin and 
 Roman) make up that number ; so do the numeral letters of 
 Mahomet, written in Greek Mao/xertj. — Thus : 
 
 A 
 
 a 
 
 r 
 
 € 
 
 L 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 s 
 
 30 
 
 1 
 
 300 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 50 
 
 70 
 
 200 
 
 xo 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 V 
 
 ft 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 300 
 
 6 
 
 50 
 
 70 
 
 40 
 
 200 
 
 
 
 ft 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 p 
 
 € 
 
 r 
 
 i 
 
 s 
 
 40 
 
 1 
 
 70 
 
 40 
 
 5 
 
 300 
 
 10 
 
 200 
 
 I might pursue this comparison through several other parti- 
 culars, as their mouth speaking blasphemies, their mutual pride, 
 tyranny, cruelty, and the like ; but I must content myself with 
 having thus presented my thoughts ; which I cordially submit 
 to the judgement of the more learned, if they can produce 
 stronger reasons against what I have propounded. 
 
 vv. 9, 10. Now to return, the next consideration that offers 
 itself is, Who, or what is it, that destroys the fourth beast ? 
 
 l 2 Thess* ii, 3. m Dan. ix, 27. " Rev. ix, 11. ° Rev. xiii, 18. 
 
[f w. ' 
 
 " The thrones were set ;" for so we must read v. 9.* God the 
 Father sits, (called the " Ancient of days," as out-living all em- 
 pires,) and is said to have " garments white as snow," import- 
 ing his righteousness in judging ; " his hair white as wool," de- 
 noting the gravity of his wisdom ; " his throne a fiery flame, and 
 his wheels as burning lire," signifying that his sentence of judge- 
 ment is swift and severe in execution, according to his mind 
 and will ; " the fiery stream issuing, and coming forth from 
 before him," notes the continuation of execution, till all his 
 mind be fulfilled ; " the thousand thousands ministering unto 
 him, &c." signify the assession, assent, and assistance of saints 
 and angels in that execution. P 
 
 w. 11, 12. After this description of the posture of the judica- 
 ture, there follow in verse 12 the acts of it. For take it as a rule, 
 that when the Lord is to do some notable thing for his people, 
 or against their enemies, it is represented in Scripture in the 
 form of a day of judgement. q " The judgement being set, and 
 the books being opened, Daniel beholds till the beast was slain, 
 and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame ;" that 
 is, the judicature sat on purpose to condemn and execute the 
 fourth beast, the antichristian Roman monarchy, and to con- 
 sume them unto the end, — as the connexion of verse 26 evidently 
 implies. The meaning is, there must be a continual destruction 
 
 * Our late translators have mistaken in rendering it — " The thrones were 
 cast downy I suppose they took thrones tropically or figuratively for poicers, and 
 so they would make this sense of it, — The monarchical^owers were cast down. But 
 these were not all down, till after the judiciary sitting in verses 11, 21, 22. Be- 
 sides VD^3 (or TIEnD as some Chaldee copies write it) equally signify material 
 thrones ; even as the next word ven plainly signifies, icere lifted up, advanced, 
 or set tip ; so plainly, that I cannot imagine what shew of reason our last trans- 
 lators had to render it, " The thrones were cast down." Our old translation has 
 it, " The thrones were set up ,-" and most justly : for whether we suppose the root 
 to be QC1 (with Schindler,) en or NEH (as Pagnin, Arias Montanus, and Hutter 
 affirm,) still our old translation is right. And so runs the stream of the most 
 learned translators in several languages. Pagnin and Arias Montanus have it, 
 throni elati sunt ; — The Latin, called Jerome's, throni positi sunt ; — the S'yriac, 
 subsellia posita esse: — the Arabic, ecce sedes posita stmt; — the Greek Sept. 
 6i Spovoi irtStiaav ; — Tindal, in his English translation, the seats were prepared ; 
 — the best French translation, that of Diodati, les thrones fverent pose's; — 
 Bruccioli in his Italian translation, furono portate siede, and in his Commentary, 
 throni furono essaltati ; — the best High-Dutch or Gorman translation by Luther, 
 stule gesekt warden, i.e. the stools or seats were put ; — the Low-Dutch, stoelen 
 gesettet tcerden. Mr. Mede, whose work is out since this was penned, also agrees 
 in this view. 
 
 P 1 Cor. vi, 2, 3. f l Dent, xxxiii, 2 : Job i : Ps. 1 ; Judc v. 1 1. 
 
152 
 
 on the whole of the fourth beast, both of Turk and Pope, and 
 both of their secular and religious (alias irreligious) powers, till 
 a full end of his ruin be completed. The opening the books 
 signifies an open discovery of this beast and his impieties to 
 them that before admired, adored, or obsequiously submitted to 
 him, and to all others that will come in to the Lord Christ and 
 his cause to give the said beast a proportionable reward. Ob- 
 serve, it is said [w. 9, 10) that Daniel beheld the fourth beast, 
 till the judicature was set, and the books were opened ; and 
 then (v. 11,) he beheld till the beast was slain : which seems to 
 me aptly to set forth, that though a deadly blow be given to 
 the beast at the first erecting the throne of judgement, yet 
 his destruction comes on by degrees, and is not completed till 
 the end of the striving."* 
 
 Having: seen the destruction of the fourth beast, Daniel has 
 next shewn, in v. 13, who takes the kingdom or monarchy of 
 the beast, with an explication of all former passages in this 
 chapter. But it seems by the twelfth verse, that the former 
 three monarchies were not involved in the destruction of the 
 fourth ; but " they had their dominion taken away, yet their 
 lives were prolonged for a season, and a time." If however we 
 keep close to the words of the original, then we must render 
 the words, — " And they took away the dominion of the rest of 
 the beasts ; forf length of life was given to them but for a time 
 and season." That is to say, it was granted to them (by the 
 Ancient of days, v. 9,) to live in person and power but for a 
 time and a season : all which sets forth antithetically the ex- 
 cellency of this fifth kingdom, or monarchy, which is to be free 
 from all such shortenings, and in that sense to be for ever. 
 But if any prefer the sense that our translation hints, (as if the 
 three former beasts had a kind of life allowed them after their 
 dominion was taken away,) we can still give them this fair 
 answer ; — that though the three former monarchies were 
 
 * Compare Dan. xii, 1, 11, 12. Mr. Parker on Daniel fully concurs with me 
 in this gradual destruction of Antichrist, and goes on confidently to assert 
 further, that it shall be acting the space of those forty-five years hinted in 
 Dan. xii, 11, 12. (See Visions and Prophecies Explained, p. 32.) 
 
 f The Chaldee 1 accepts of various significations, and stands as a causal in 
 many places of Scripture ; as Ps. Ix, 11 ; Isa. Ixiv, ."> ; Isa. vvxix, 1 , &r. 
 
153 
 
 disrobed of their paramount imperially, the former by the 
 latter, yet those three had continued to them some degree of 
 regality, until a good space of time after the fourth had been 
 in being and power. Which is the more probable : for first, how 
 else could it be said, that the third trampled the second, and the 
 fourth the third and former ones, unless they had some being 
 to be trampled ? Secondly, the whole image is broken by the 
 ruin on the feet of the fourth and last ; and therefore there 
 were probably certain broken limbs of the three former, re- 
 maining to be beaten into dust with the fourth. And thirdly, 
 we have some such account given us in the best histories.* 
 
 Having cleared this knot, let us now go on with Daniel's 
 visions : wherein having shown us the posture and acts of the 
 session of judicature ; he next represents to us the person or 
 persons, the captain and his army, that took from the fourth 
 beast the Roman monarchy and all other kingdoms. Daniel 
 " saw in the night-visions (fitly signifying the antichristian dark- 
 ness that then clouded the Church) one like the Son of Man 
 come with the clouds of heaven." This is Christ, who (re - 
 latively, as King and Captain-general, and mystically, by union of 
 the Spirit) is Head of his Church, and therefore brings a host of 
 christians at his heels, as part of his session when he sits ; r all 
 which must necessarily be here understood by the words, — 
 "But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, &c. 
 " (v. 18.) But the judgement shall sit, and they (the saints) 
 " shall take away his (the fourth beast's) dominion, &c. And 
 " the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom 
 " under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the 
 
 * First, the Armenians, (part of Chaldea,) had a king and regal dignity even 
 unto the days of the Roman monarchy. Tigranes king of Armenia was subdued 
 by the Roman Pompev, and his country made tributary, and so stamped under 
 foot. But after a while, in the reign of Tiberius, the same Armenia was forti- 
 fied against the Romans ; and the emperor rather pacified it with promises, 
 than subdued it with war ; and they got the staff so far into their hands again, 
 that in the reign of Jovinian they were called friends, not vassals, to the 
 li Romans. Secondly, Persia had great power in the time of Antiochus the 
 Great, and so down into the times of the Roman emperors ; of whom Julian 
 i lost his life, Valerian went under ransom, and Jovinian was put to a shameful foil 
 1 by the loss of four whole provinces. Thirdly, the Greeks did so far shake off 
 | the Roman yoke, that they withstood divers of their stoutest emperors, viz. 
 1 Galienus, Aurelian, and Dioclesian. 
 
 r See Zech. i, 8 ; Hab. ii, 10 ; Rev. six, 11—11. 
 
154 
 
 " saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting 
 " kingdom, and all dominions shall serve Htm." (vv. 26, 27.) 
 Thus Christ, who is in this vision called " the Son of Man," 
 does as a public person, represent all mankind that believe ; 
 and they and he are so one mystically by faith, and relatively 
 as a corporation empire, that it is indifferent to the Holy Ghost 
 to mention Him or them to be the ruler of this fifth monarchy. 
 I only add, that, by the current and tenor of Scripture, this 
 phrase " coming in the clouds" signifies, that he shall visibly 
 and really appear in the natural clouds ; as Christ himself and 
 St. John expound the prophets. Matt, xxiv, 30 ; Rev, i, 7. 
 
 He is said, in the thirteenth verse, both to come to the Ancient 
 of days, (just as the Lamb is said to approach to Him that sat 
 upon the throne to receive the book,) and also said to be brought 
 before the Ancient of days ; " which words, (saith Mr. Parker,) 
 " until better light may shine, I cannot but conjecture do 
 " signify the saints, who bring Christ near to the Ancient of 
 " days, by importunity of prayers, for the obtaining the 
 " kingdom, and removal of it from the beast." Whereupon 
 the kingdom, with all the dominion and glory thereof, (following 
 in v. 14 to the end of the chapter,) is given to Him. The 
 character of it may be seen from the words, " that all people, 
 nations, and languages should serve him ;" signifying, that it is 
 the very same kingdom, or monarchy, in place and substance, 
 only the quality shall be better, and the quantity greater. 
 
 Mr. Archer's short argument on this chapter is important, 
 especially if put into the form of a syllogism thus : 
 
 Christ, the Son of Man, must have a monarchy on earth, 
 
 delivered to him by God, the Ancient of days, at the ruin of 
 
 the fourth monarchy, to be in his occupation at his second 
 
 appearance, and from thence to the end of the world. 
 
 But this cannot be meant of his spiritual and providential 
 
 kingdom, which he had before the four monarchies ; (1 Cor. 
 
 x, 1, &c ;) for after the end of this world, at the period of the 
 
 thousand years, he hath no kingdom, but resigns up all to 
 
 the Father. (1 Cor. xv, 24, 28.) 
 
 Therefore this is yet to come ; neither the fourth monarchy, 
 
 nor Antichrist, the main and greatest part of that fourth 
 
 monarchy, being yet destroyed. 
 
155 
 
 The resolution and reasons of learned Master Huet on the 
 scope of verse 14 are likewise worthy of regard. " This king- 
 '* dom (saith he) is ascribed to the person of the Messiah ; yet in 
 " verses 22 and 27 it is given to and possessed by the saints. 
 " It is Christ's authoritatively ; it is the saints' by delegation and 
 
 V ministry. And such as rule for God, and according to God, 
 " are said to rule with God. s This kingdom of our Lord is 
 " either merely spiritual and inward, whereof he maketh no 
 " vicar, saving his Holy Spirit ; (and this regency he reserveth 
 " with himself, as a peculiar royalty ;) or it is outward and mixed, 
 " being partly spiritual in the ordinances of worship, and partly 
 " civil in equity and justice, according to righteous laws, &c. 
 " and admits of deputation. And the exercise of it may be as- 
 " cribed either to God, or man ; the first and second causes never 
 " jarring. The dominion here mentioned is that whereof the 
 " Jews are deprived by the tyranny of the Roman monarchy ; 
 " but through the glorious appearance of the Deliverer it is re- 
 
 V stored to them again, never more to be wrested from them." 
 Finally, Mr. Mede, having learnedly shewn " that from this 
 
 " place, as from the mother text of Scripture, the Jewish Church 
 " grounded the name and expected the great day of judge- 
 " ment, with the circumstances of which almost all the descrip- 
 " tions and expressions thereof in the New Testament have re- 
 " ference ;" goes on to say : 
 
 " The kingdom of the Son of man and of the saints of the 
 *' Most High begins in Daniel when the great judgement sits. 
 " But the kingdom of the Apocalypse, wherein the saints reign 
 " with Christ a thousand years, is the same with the kingdom 
 " of the Son of man and saints of the Most High in Daniel : 
 " therefore it also begins at the great judgement. That the 
 " kingdom in Daniel and that of the thousand years in the 
 " Apocalypse are one and the same kingdom appears thus : 
 " First, because they begin from the same period ; viz. at the de- 
 " struction of the fourth beast : that in Daniel, when the beast 
 " (then ruling in the wicked horn) was slain, and his body de- 
 stroyed, and given to the burning flame; (it. 11, 22, 27;) 
 " that in the Apocalypse, when the beast and false prophet (the 
 
 s Hosea xi, 12 ; Rev. ii, 26, 27. 
 T 
 
156 
 
 " wicked horn of Daniel) were taken, and both cast alive into 
 " a lake of fire burning with brimstone, (xix, 20, 21.) Second- 
 " ly, because St. John begins the reign of the thousand years 
 " from the same session of judgement described in Daniel, as 
 " appears by the parallel expressions borrowed from thence. 
 
 St. John says, chap. xx. 
 Verse 4. I saw thrones, and 
 they sat upon them. 
 
 And judgement was given 
 unto them. 
 
 And the saints lived and 
 reigned with Christ a thousand 
 years. 
 
 Daniel says, chap. vii. 
 
 " Verse 9. / beheld till the 
 " thrones were pitched down ; 
 " (i. e. till the judges sat.) 
 
 " Verse 22. And judgement 
 " was given to the saints of the 
 " Most High. 
 
 " And the saints possessed 
 " the kingdom ; (viz. with the 
 " Son of Man, who came in 
 " the clouds, v. 13.) 
 
 " Now if it be sufficiently proved, that the thousand years 
 " begin with the day of judgement, it will appear further out of 
 " the Apocalypse, that the judgement is not consummated till they 
 " are ended : for Gog and Magog's destruction and the universal 
 " resurrection are not till then. Therefore the whole thousand years 
 " is included in the day of judgement. Hence it will follow, 
 " that whatsoever Scripture speaks of a kingdom of Christ to be 
 " at his second appearing, or at the destruction of Antichrist, 
 " must needs be the same which Daniel saw should be at that 
 " time; and so consequently be the kingdom of the thousand 
 " years, which the Apocalypse includes between the beginning 
 " and consummation of the great judgement. 
 
 Chapters xi and xii. 
 
 That I may deliver myself from the prejudice of singularity, 
 and save my labor in doing things already done to my hands, I 
 shall here put learned Mr. Huet and Mr. Mede in the van ; for i 
 they have well corrected some versions, punctations, and obscu- 
 rities of both these chapters ; which is necessary before any 
 solid inferences can thence be safely made. 
 
 " The whole eleventh chapter (saith Mr. Huet) concerns the , 
 
 ' 
 
 r 
 
157 
 
 ' state of the Jews under the three last monarchies, viz. the 
 ' Persian, Grecian, and Roman : the twelfth contains the Jews' 
 1 deliverance. The first mention of the Romans is in xi, 30 ; — 
 
 ■ For the ships of Ckittim 'alias Kittim) shall come against him ; 
 ' &c." This Mr. Huet paraphrastically reads thus. — " For the 
 ' navy of the Romans shall come against him, (Antiochus 
 ' Epiphanes,) for fear of whom he shall be forced to retire from 
 ' Eeypt, and by the way shall execute his fury upon the Jews, the 
 ' refractory Jews assisting him. And whereas the Romans' aid, 
 ' sent under the conduct of Popilius, are called ships of Kittim, 
 ' it is because originally they came of Kittim, who was one of 
 ' the sons of Javan ; (Gen. x, 4 ;) from whom, not only some 
 " parts of Grecia, but all Italy did originally spring:. Ancient 
 ' records declare how Latinus transported the Citians from the 
 ' Greek islands into Italy : which is the more probable, since 
 ' all antiquity concludes the Italians originally to have sprung 
 ' from Gnecia. And skips of Kittim are here mentioned, rather 
 ' than people of Kittim ; 1st, because the arrival of the ships 
 ' only, in the haven of Alexandria, drove Antiochus from Egypt, 
 ' without any other hostility, the soldiers being never landed ; 
 ' — 2dly, because the history of the Roman srreatness, beginning 
 ' from these times, the Lord would have his people at once 
 ' discern the rise and ruin of their last and sreat oppressor. 
 ' This he does by citing Balaam's unwitting prophecv, Numb. 
 ' xxiv, 24 ; " that the ships of Kittim should afflict Assu.r, trans- 
 ' lating it into a province,) and also should afflict Heber, the 
 
 ■ Jews, (sacking their city, and scattering their people on the face 
 ' of the earth ;) and yet in the end perish for ever." 
 
 Verse 31, " And arms shall stand on his part, and thev shall 
 ' pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the 
 ' daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that 
 ' maketh desolate ;" he thus paraphrases : " Wherein (that 
 ' is, in executing his fury on the Jews] having other power 
 ' to assist him, he shall defile the holy temple, and trample 
 ' under foot the strong holds of Zion ; and shall destroy the 
 ordinance of God's daily worship, placing in the temple an 
 :J abominable idol, causing desolation where it comes." 
 
 In these sore desolations and destructions bv mad Antiochus, 
 :l great trial of men's hearts appeared lows in verse 32 : 
 
158 
 
 " And such as do wickedly against the covenant, shall he cor- 
 " rupt by flatteries ; but the people that do know their God shall 
 " be strong, and do exploits." — Which Mr. Huet renders thus : 
 " In which trials many of the Jews shall be corrupted by fair 
 " speeches to deny their religion ; but such as are faithful with 
 " God shall gather courage and cleave to their religion." 
 
 In verses 33, 34 follows the event : " And they that under- 
 " stand among the people shall instruct many ; yet they shall 
 " fall by the sword and by flame, by captivity and by spoil, 
 " many days. Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen 
 " with a little help ; but many shall cleave to them with flat- 
 " teries." — Which in the way of paraphrase he makes : " Yea, 
 " such of them as have the knowledge of the law shall instruct 
 " and encourage their brethren in these sufferings ; yet many 
 " of them shall suffer the sword, fire, bondage, and spoil for 
 " many days. Yet in this distress they shall be holpen by 
 " the courage of some zealous of religion ; but among them 
 " many of false and treacherous hearts shall be joined." 
 
 " In verse 35 (which according to our last English transla- 
 " tion is, "And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, 
 " and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of 
 " the end, because it is for an appointed time,") we have, (saith 
 " Mr. Mede,) the close of Epiphanes' persecution ;" and there- 
 fore he reads it thus : " And of those that are understandinor 
 " (men) many shall fall, for the trial of them, and to make 
 " them pure unto the time of the end." — there putting the full 
 stop, and adding this note — " That is, to the end of the Gre- 
 cian kingdom." " For with this close of the Epiphanian per- 
 " secution, the Grecian kingdom, according to the reckoning 
 " of the Holy Spirit, is judged to have its end ; neither beyond 
 " that doth it come into the account of the prophetical te- 
 " trarchy, or quaternion of four kingdoms." He bids us for 
 proof of this compare Dan. viii, 23 : to which let me add, 
 that our English renders it " And in the latter time of their 
 kingdom;" but Pagnin and Arias, "in novissimo regni eorum." 
 i. e. in the last of their kingdom. 
 
 Verse 36, which in our English is rendered thus — " And the 
 king shall do according to his will, and he shall exalt himself and 
 magnify himself above every god, &c."— Mr. Mede begins from 
 
159 
 
 the last clause of verse 35 ; " Because as yet, unto an appointed 
 " time, a king shall do according to his pleasure, and shall ex- 
 $ tol and magnify himself above every god. For (saith he) 
 " these words are a transition ; and the article prefixed to king 
 I ("[bftn) is not here commemorative or repetitional of any 
 " thing mentioned before, but in this place only signifies some 
 " certain or eminent thing or person, as it does in Isa. vii, 14 : — 
 " " Behold a virgin shall conceive ;" of which virgin there is no 
 " mention before, though it is written with the article prefixed 
 " (Tlftbyn). — This 36th verse (he continues) is the charac- 
 " terism of the fourth, or Roman, kingdom, from the conquer- 
 " ing of Macedonia to the end of Augustus ; who, as it were 
 " with a fierceness and torrent of fortune, brought into subjec- 
 " tion to himself the gentiles, or nations, and their gods." See 
 the like phrase also concerning the rising Persian monarchy, 1 
 and touching the Grecian. 11 By a prophetical trope, the gods of 
 cities and nations are said to be made subject and conquered, 
 when the nations and cities themselves, over whom those gods 
 were supposed to be presidents and protectors, v are brought 
 into subjection : even as, on the contrary, (which you may 
 more wonder at,) those compelled to submit their necks to 
 those nations, whose gods they were, are said to serve those 
 gods.™ Here also it will be worth while to consider the solemn 
 custom of the Romans, when they besieged cities, of calling 
 forth in verse those gods or goddesses that were the protectors 
 of those places, in order to bring them to be on-their side. x 
 
 " In the latter part of v. 36 (which Mr. Mede renders, 
 " " Moreover he shall speak, or edict stupendous things against 
 " the God of gods, and shall prevail till the indignation be con- 
 " summated, for there is made a decision of the time ;") there 
 " is (saith he) the characterism of the same fourth or Roman 
 " kingdom, from the death of Augustus to the abrogation of 
 " Gentilism ; in which interval of time, the said Roman 
 " empire crucified Christ, that God of gods, then appearing in 
 " the flesh under Pontius Pilate ; and also exercised his wor- 
 
 * Dan. viii, 4. o x i, 4. v Isa. xlvi, 2 ; Jer. 1, 2, and li, 44 ; and xlviii, 7. 
 ™ Deut. iv, 28 ; xxviii, 36, 64 ; Jer. xvi, 13 ; 1 Sam. xvi, VJ ; on all which 
 places see the Chaldee paraphrase. x Formulain vide apud Macrob. lib. iii, 
 Saturnal. c. 8. 
 
160 
 
 " shipers with direful persecutions and butcheries for near 
 " three hundred years." 
 
 Verses 37 — 40. He renders, " Furthermore, (moreover, or 
 " henceforth,) he shall not regard, nor give any heed to, the 
 " gods of his ancienters nor the desire of women ; yea, he shall 
 " not give his mind to any Deity, but shall magnify himself 
 " above all. For together with God, he shall honour Ma- 
 " huzzim in his seat ; I say, with God, whom his ancienters 
 " acknowledged not, he shall honour (them) with gold, and silver, 
 " and precious stones, and desirable things.* And he shall 
 " make fortifications common to Mahuzzim and to the strange 
 " god, whom acknowledging he shall abundantly honour ; and 
 " shall make them (the fortifications, or Mahuzzim) to rule 
 " over many, and shall divide the land for a reward. And, 
 " (or but,) in the time of the end, the king of the south shall 
 " invade or set upon him by war, and the king of the north 
 " shall rush in upon him as a whirlwind, with chariots, and 
 " horse -men, and mighty ships ; and entering into the countries, 
 " he shall overflow and pass through." 
 
 " Note here, as regards these verses and the following one, 
 " (Mr. Mede says,) that the time of the end, wherein those evils 
 " from the south and from the north shall lie and press upon 
 " the Romans, is foretold to be the last period of the Roman 
 " state : which is elsewhere defined within the course, or cur- 
 " rent of a time, times, and half a time ; in which that 
 " king should audaciously presume to practise so great a wick- 
 " edness against the God of the Christians, whose worship not 
 " long before he had taken up." 
 
 Verses 41 — 45. " And he shall enter into the land of beauty, 
 " or renown ; (that is into Palestine, or the Holy Land ;) and 
 " many shall be overthrown. But these shall escape out of his 
 " hands, Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of 
 " Amnion ; (to wit, the inhabitants of Arabia Petrea, which 
 " were never yet provinces of the Turkish empire.) He (the 
 " Turk) shall stretch forth his hands also upon the countries 
 " (viz. of those parts) and the land of Egypt shall not escape ; 
 
 * He calls Defenders, or titular deifies, Mahuzzim, under which titles, given 
 to deceased saints and to angels, the Romans worship them as patrons, protectors, 
 and mediators. 
 
161 
 
 j " (though it should hold out long, under the Mamelukes ;) but 
 (" he shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and 
 I " all the precious things of Egypt ; and the Cushites (that is, 
 ; " the neighbouring nations, whether of Africa, or Lybia, as in 
 " those of Algiers ; &c. or of the Arabians, in Scripture called 
 )" Cushim ;) these shall be at his steps; (that is, at his de- 
 [" votion.) But tidings out of the east, and out of the north 
 I" shall trouble him ; therefore he shall go forth with great fury 
 " to destroy, and utterly to make away many. And (to that 
 I" end) he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between 
 f" the seas, in the glorious mountain of holiness. The tidings 
 I" (he adds) from the east and north may be the return of 
 [ " Judah and Israel from those quarters ; for Judah was carried 
 | " captive at the first into the east, and Israel by the Assyrian into 
 I " the north ; (namely, in respect of the Holy Land ;) and in those 
 |" parts the greatest number of them are dispersed to this daw" 
 
 Thus Mr. Mede ; who accounts (if I mistake not) that the 
 Roman and the Turk make up the fourth monarchy. I must 
 now take my turn. 
 
 The things concerning the fourth monarchy (from v. 36 of 
 chap, xi to the end of that chapter) do greatly conduce to un- 
 f fold the main passage in chap, xii, 1 ; — that at that time 
 Michael shall stand up for Daniel's people, the Jews, to deliver 
 ithem. For we have a clear description of the Roman, or 
 fourth monarchy, in its full latitude, as the last general enemy 
 .of Jews and Christians, and the ultimate predecessor and pre- 
 jjudicer of Christ's kingdom, hindering the setting up thereof, 
 until that time when Michael stands up. And this description 
 of the fourth empire holds forth the tyranny, impiety, heresy, 
 'apostacv and blasphemy thereof, in all the branches springing 
 thence, both Turkish and Papal. And (which is the wonderful 
 wisdom of God) they are all set forth by such characters, and in 
 ;such a dress of language and phrases, as admirably comport to 
 both of them, and to each in his several garb ; though only one 
 at a time is mainly intended. Which observation will easily 
 manifest itself to any understanding, that will compare their 
 .history and the passages of this prophecy fairly together. For 
 example: — "He shall do according to his will;" viz. leaving 
 all divine rules ; "and shall exalt and magnify himself above 
 
162 
 
 every god ;" viz. kings and princes, and God himself, in de- 
 spising his word, and setting up his own decrees above it ; 
 " and he shall speak marvellous things against the God of 
 gods," viz. Christ Jesus ; " and he shall rule over many 
 (countries ;)" " and shall enter into the glorious land ;" viz. the 
 country of the Jews, &c. 
 
 In verses 36 — 39 is chiefly described the Roman empire 
 as heathen, and afterwards pontifical. In verses 40 — 45 it 
 is described as it became first Saracenic and then Turkish. 
 For " the king of the south" means the Saracens ; who, 
 next to the Romans, were the immediate oppressors of the 
 Jews. The Saracens are a people of the south, — first, because 
 of their rise from Arabia, which is southward from Judea ; — | 
 secondly, because of their seat, having planted themselves in 
 Egypt, Alexandria being the imperial city of their Souldan. 
 The king of the north means the Turk, who, next to the 
 Saracens, was the immediate oppressor of the Jews, winning 
 from the Romans several countries of their empire. The 
 Turks have the notation of a people of the north, partly be- 
 cause they arose out of Scythia, which was north from Judea ; 
 partly because they possessed the country of Syria, which was 
 also north from Judea. Of the Romans, as instruments of 
 God's " indignation" oppressing the Jews, we have treated 
 before. The Turks, joining with the Saracens, beat the Romans 
 out of Judea and several adjacent countries ; but to no ad- 
 vantage of the Jews, who thereby only changed their op- 
 pressors. 
 
 The deliverance of the Jews from the Roman empire, as 
 Roman, is hinted in v. 36, in those words — " till the indignation 
 be accomplished, for that that is determined shall be done :" 
 that is, the time of God's wrath against the Jews is but for a 
 certain term of years. Their deliverance from the Saraceno- 
 Turkish portion is expressed in vv. 44, 45 — " But tidings out 
 of the east, and out of the north shall trouble him, therefore 
 he shall go forthwith great fury to destroy, and utterly to make 
 away with many; and although he shall plant the tabernacle of 
 his palaces between the seas, in the glorious holy mountain ; yet 
 he shall come to his end, and none shall help him." — That is, the 
 Jews, rising up in the bordering countries, lying east and north 
 
 U 
 I 
 
1C3 
 
 from Judea, shall thereby become the object of the Turkish fury 
 in their own land. The application of these rumors from the 
 east is ill referred to Antiochus, disquieted about the Parthian 
 wars : and as ill are the reports of the commotions from the 
 north applied to the success of Judas Maccabaeus : for they 
 plainly signify the rising of the Jews as aforesaid, in behalf of 
 which interpretation several arguments may be urged. 
 
 First, this prophetical book of Daniel, in all the chapters 
 .wherein mention has been made of the misery of the Jews under 
 ! the four monarchies of the world, hath constantly held forth this 
 iobject; — viz. to annex a close concerning the delivery of the 
 | Jews. For it is the scope of this whole book to set forth the 
 tragedy of the Jewish state ; the ante-scene or prelude to which 
 lis to be sad to the Jews and glad to their enemies; but the 
 .catastrophe gladness to the Jews and sadness to their enemies, 
 i The Holy Ghost well minds the sad captivity of the Jews at 
 ithe time of this prophecy ; and they had great need, upon 
 . any mention of their oppressions and the continuance of them, 
 [lof some comfort : unless therefore the comfort of their deliver- 
 j ance be here intimated, this method is quite broken. Second, 
 Daniel holds this method in the twelfth chapter. For mention- 
 ing the Jews' troubles in the first verse, and hinting them again 
 Ijin the third verse, he spends the rest of the chapter in discover- 
 ing their deliverance. Third, the conversion of the Jews is 
 . prophesied expressly to come from the east, in Revelation xvi, 
 .[[12 ; wherein the drying up of the great river Euphrates is said 
 to be, " that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared." 
 ! Fourth, it may be observed, that at this day the Jews are especially 
 D tconversant in those eastern parts near Judea, hankering after Ca- 
 •tnaan ; for the sake of whose residence there, the Arabian parts 
 Jithereabouts, (viz. Ammon, Edom, Moab, &c.) are spared, by 
 .special divine providence, as is intimated verse 41. Fifth, the 
 Jsnemy himself, for the prevention as I take it of the return of the 
 ., Tews into their own land, " pitches the tabernacle of his palace 
 ; n Judea ;" consequently there, and thereabouts especially, shall 
 .jbe the insurrection of the Jews. 
 
 . : But notwithstanding all the power and prudence of the Turk- 
 ish enemy, " he shall come to his end, (by the said rising of the 
 
 
 u 
 
164 
 
 " Jews.) For* at that time shall Michael stand up, the great 
 " prince, who standeth for the children of thy people ; and there 
 " shall be a time of trouble, such as never w r as, since there was a 
 " nation, even to that same time. And at that time thy people 
 " shall be delivered." By which w T ords, considered in their sub- 
 stance and dependance, we may perceive the necessity of our 
 opening so much of the eleventh chapter as hath been presented 
 to you : for the whole of that and this put together clearly 
 amounts to this ; that at the end of the fourth monarchy, Christ 
 (most fitly called Michael, which signifies, " who is as God") 
 stands up to deliver the Jews, and that as well from their civil 
 bondage as from their spiritual. 
 
 Now this cannot be at the ultimate general judgement. For, 
 first, the Jews are not then delivered more than the people of any 
 other nations who were believers. And it were a small comfort 
 to them now in captivity, that their full deliverance from under 
 tyrants should not be till the last day of the general judgement. 
 Jews cannot then be so delivered, unless they be first grafted in 
 again by faith ;Y the last judgement being a destruction, not a de- 
 liverance, of all but believers. This corporal deliverance therefore 
 of the Jews (besides their spiritual) from captivity under the 
 fourth monarchy, not having been yet fulfilled, is yet to come : 
 which conclusion is further confirmed, in that it is a time of the 
 greatest troubles ; whereas at the final judgement there is not an 
 increase of the troubles of them that are the Lord's delivered, 
 but a total and final end to them. 
 
 If any object, that this deliverance must still be at the last 
 judgement, because of two passages in this chapter ; — " They 
 shall be delivered that are found written in the book ;" and 
 " Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, 
 " some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting con- 
 " tempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness oij 
 " the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, as 
 " the stars for ever and ever ;'-' — we cannot but confess, that 
 learned and pious men, in times of greater darkness, did imaging 
 
 * Our translators render it and. But 1 is oft, and must here of necessity be 
 rendered for ; instances of which we have given before. 
 
 y Rom. xi, 23. 
 
 
 ] 
 
165 
 
 these Scriptures to intend the last judgement : but we must 
 openly oppose that sense for the following reasons. First, 
 it is said at the opening of that book, " Many of them that sleep 
 in the dust shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to 
 everlasting shame, &c :" but at the last judgement all shall rise. 
 Second, it is said, that the godly (called ivise, &c.) shall awake, 
 though to life, vet to great troubles ; the time of trouble continu- 
 ing from their awaking, to the time of their blessedness, viz. for- 
 ty-five vears. z So that it shall be a time of great trial " many 
 therebv being tried, purified, and made white ; the wicked on 
 the contrarv doing: wickedly. " But the sodlv do not rise at the 
 last judgement to troubles, or trials. Third, the question is 
 asked (verse 6.) " How long shall it be to the end of these 
 wonders'?" Observe carefully, " How long shall it be to the 
 end ;" not, How long to the beginning. And how long to the 
 end of these iconders ; (meaning those before mentioned;) not, 
 how long to the end of the resurrection. Had the resurrection 
 been meant, it would have been more proper to have inquired 
 of its beginning, not its ending. Fourth, it is said (verse 7) that 
 these things were to be finished, " when the Lord shall have 
 accomplished to scatter the holy people." But the accomplish- 
 ing the scattering of the holy people, the Jews, (which is by 
 conversion of them, and replacing them in their own coun- 
 try, as the prophets all along have foretold,) is generally confessed 
 to precede the resurrection and day of judgement. 
 
 1. These times are said to be troublesome times, [v. 1.) First, 
 because the great warlike oppositions that the enemy shall then 
 make against them shall seem but cold entertainment to new 
 converts. For their arch-enemy the Turk is then in a great fury, 
 contending to hold his tyrannical empire over them. Secondly, 
 
 fbecause of the length of these troubles, which will be forty-five 
 years (as before said :) so that by reason of both the greatness 
 and continuance of these troubles, many shall fall off from that 
 cause to which at first thev were awakened, and so thev rise to 
 their " shame and contempt" before men ; not (as yet) in hell 
 torment, (v. 2.) 
 
 2. The book mentioned (v. 1) in which, " all they were writ- 
 ten, and they only, that should be delivered/' must be also dis- 
 
 *w. 11. 12. 
 
166 
 
 tinguished. For there are divers books mentioned in Scripture ; 
 which cannot all be the same book, because in Rev. xx, 12, there 
 is mention of " books," in the plural, and of " another book." 
 Therefore we must at least distinguish a two-fold Book of Life. | 
 First, there is the book of God the Father's eternal election, 
 called in Phil, iv, 3, " the Book of Life," the writing in which 
 is unchangeable. a Secondly, there is the Lamb's Book of Life, 
 touching things in time, viz. of external vocation, to the em- 
 bracing the Gospel, and a subjection to the sceptre and kingdom 
 of Christ, as in Rev. xxi, 27. The antithesis of the words in 
 this place distinguishes between them that are written in the 
 Lamb's Book, and those that defile themselves, and make or do 
 abominations or lies ; and therefore intimates, that the former, 
 being free from outward evil conversation, are in all appear- 
 ance and likelihood holy ; and if any such fall off from this fair 
 show of holiness, and degenerate into an evil conversation, they 
 are blotted out of the Lamb's Book. b Suitable to this it is said 
 in Rev. xxii, 19, " If any man shall take away from the words 
 " of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out 
 " of the Book of Life, and out of the holy city, and from the things 
 " which are written in this Book." And thus the generality of 
 the Jews at present are blotted out of the Lamb's Book, whilst 
 fallen off from the profession of true godliness ; and those like- 
 wise are blotted out, named in the second verse of Daniel xii, 
 that at first shall arise in outward profession for the common 
 cause, and at last fall off to their everlasting shame. But those that 
 are in the book of election can never totally and finally fall away : 
 their effectual regeneration being once really begun, can never 
 utterly be extinguished. Once in Christ, and ever in Christ. 
 
 Their " awaking out of their sleep in the dust" (v. 2) signifies 
 no more, as I conceive, than the recovery of the Jews from their 
 dispersed and despised condition among all nations, wherein 
 they seem to lie politically dead: just as afflictions are called 
 death, c and a poor man, because distressed and despised, is 
 also called a dead man ; the rich being contrasted with such, as 
 a living man. d And again the restoration of the Jews from cap- 
 tivities under men, is compared to the " making dead bones to 
 
 » 2 Tim. ii, 10. b p sa lm lxix, 21—29. c Rom. viii, 36 ; 2 Cor. iv, 10 II ; 
 and vi, 0. d Eccles, vi, 8. 
 
167 
 
 live again, " e and their outward call thereunto, is likened to a 
 resurrection. f 
 
 Further, it is said many, not all, shall awake ; and of them that 
 awake, some only awake to everlasting life ; and the other to 
 everlasting shame : the meaning whereof must needs be that all 
 the native or natural Jews shall not be awakened to the general 
 call of the main body of them to their restoration ; but some 
 there shall be even of them, either so naturalized to heathenism, 
 or so diabolized to turcism, or so superstitionized to papism, or 
 so indifferent from infidelity, that they shall slight their call ; 
 I insomuch that they shall still sleep in the dust of their earthly 
 miserable condition, till the common deluge of destruction on 
 Christ's enemies sweeps them away, together with those to 
 whom they adhered. And again, of the main body of them 
 that are awakened, even some of them, embracing true religion 
 and the cause of Christ with a false heart, and flagging in the 
 pursuance thereof, by reason of the troubles then present, shall 
 be cast off by the rest of the Church, and so end in temporal, 
 and at last eternal shame. On the other hand, the generality of 
 the rest of them that were outwardly called (attending upon that 
 outward call, till they were inwardly effectually called, and so per- 
 severing in the faith and cause of Christ,) shall attain to a three- 
 fold life : first, the life of honorable liberty, never more to be 
 vassalized to other nations ; secondly, the life of a most glorious 
 religious church state, never more to be scattered ; thirdly, at 
 the end of their perseverance, to the period of the thousand 
 years, or life of eternal glory. 
 
 So that the resurrection (as some would call it) here meant, 
 is not to be understood literally : i.e. it is not a physical resur- 
 rection of deceased bodies out of their graves ; but a metaphori- 
 cal resurrection of the living ; first, political, of their persons 
 from bondage ; and then spiritual, of their souls out of the state 
 of unbelief. The physical resurrection of the dead elect Jews is 
 not till that resurrection of all believers, which is at the end of the 
 forty-five years mentioned verses 11, 12, and at the beginning 
 of the thousand years ; just as the resurrection of the wicked is 
 not till the end of the thousand years. Thus as the said thousand 
 
 e Ezck. xxxvii. f Rom. xi, 15. 
 
168 
 
 years of the restitution of all things is bounded with two physical 
 resurrections ; so this forty-five years of preparation to that resti- 
 tution is bounded with two resurrections, — the first metaphorical, 
 the second physical. 
 
 Finally, the amplification of the Jews' state in that 45 years is 
 held forth in the third verse, in two distinctions : first, of the. 
 glory of them that are then effectually brought in, secondly, of 
 their graces. 1. The distinction of their glory is, that they shall 
 " shine as the brightness of the firmament ;" and " as the stars 
 for ever." The meaning whereof is this : that whereas the 
 greatest glory of the elect is reserved to the ultimate day of 
 judgement, when they all shall " shine forth as the sun in the 
 kingdom of the Father ;"s yet, in the meanwhile, at this particular 
 metaphorical resurrection, the effectually called shall have great 
 glory proportionally to their relations. They that are private 
 converts, called here " wise," shall have much glory ; but they 
 that are instrumentally public converts, " turning many to 
 righteousness," shall have more. 2. The distinction of their 
 graces is this : the people's graces are expressed by the name of 
 wisdom, rather than by naming any other grace, because blind- 
 ness of mind and a foolish prejudice in heart was chiefly the sin 
 that caused them to reject Christ and his Gospel. h The teachers' 
 gifts are said to be a bringing many to justification, (the original 
 is Conn ''p'H^tt,) because formerly they had chiefly beguiled the 
 people in the point of justification, crying up the works of the 
 law as their righteousness, and did not teach Christ the true 
 righteousness. There might be other reasons of this compella- 
 tion of their graces : for the people's graces may be named ivis- 
 dom, because all grace enters by the beams of knowledge, though 
 all knowledge is not accompanied with grace ; and the teachers' 
 gifts may be styled " bringing many to justification," because 
 justification is the door to let in sanctification. Till we are united 
 to Christ for righteousness, there is no flowing forth of his ful- 
 ness for holiness. 
 
 g Matt, xiii, 43. h Acts xxviii, 27 ; Rom. xi, 25. 1 Cor. i. i Rom. ix, 
 
 32 ; Acts xv, 1. 
 
169 
 
 HOSEA. 
 
 Chapter i, 10, 11. 
 
 " Yet (or/or all that,) the number of the children of Israel shall 
 " be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor num- 
 , " bered ; and it shall come to pass, that instead of that which was 
 " said unto them,* Ye are not my people, it shall be said unto 
 " them, 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 shall be the day of Jezreel." 
 
 Vatablus doth well hit the nail on the head, when he saith 
 upon this place, " The prophets are wont, after they have threat - 
 " ened, afterwards to subjoin consolation : therefore this text 
 " ought to be understood of believing Israel, the true sons of 
 " Abraham. As if the Prophet should say, this that I spake be- 
 " fore, in way of threatening, ought to be understood of those 
 " that shall remain in unbelief : for otherwise, the number of 
 " the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, &c. For 
 " all the Israelites shall not perish : yea, the number of the sons 
 " or children of the Church shall be exceeding great." 
 
 But let us wind ourselves down a little deeper into the sense 
 of the text, that we may draw up thence the golden ore of com- 
 fortable inferences. Israel must at least signify the ten tribes : 
 but at verse 11 our Prophet names Israel and Judah distinctly, 
 which must include the whole twelve. Again, in the fourth 
 verse, he sets forth the kingdom of Israel by Jehu their king, 
 and threatens his house because he poured out the blood of the 
 family of Ahab in Jezreel, the royal city, where the kings 
 of Israel dwelt. The text therefore gives us to understand, that 
 the number of the twelve tribes that are to come in, to make up 
 the glorious Church in the last times, must not be a small glean- 
 ing only, but a most mighty multitude, even as the sand of the 
 sea, that cannot be measured or numbered ! 
 
 * See the margin. 
 
170 
 
 The state to which these Israelites shall be restored, shall not 
 only be a goodly temporal estate, in their own land, (as intimated 
 v. 11,) but also a gracious spiritual conversion : so that they shall 
 be truly called " God's people," and " sons of the living God ;" 
 though before they were said not to be his people. 
 
 The steps by which they shall attain to this are,— first, the ten 
 tribes being converted, they with the two tribes shall be 
 " gathered together ;" secondly, they shall " appoint themselves 
 one head," in common over them all ; thirdly, " they shall 
 come up out of the land" (or from the earth, "p^n p) where 
 ever they were scattered ; fourthly, they must return into their 
 own land, even to Jezreel, &c. named in the text. Concerning 
 these two last steps Vatablus notes well, " that they who re- 
 turned from captivity were said to ascend up out of the earth, or 
 land of their captivity." 
 
 Concerning the head they shall appoint over both, most are 
 led away by the aptness of the term, (and truth of the thing in 
 one sense,) to suppose that Chrict is intended : but I doubt 
 this to be the sense of the Prophet. For, by the order 
 of the text, they would all have Christ for their spiritual head 
 before, being by his means made " the sons of God." k And 
 secondly, this head is but to lead them up from their dispersion, 
 in opposition to the way-laying Turk, that they may come into 
 their own country, there to sit down under Christ's rule in his 
 visible kingdom. Whether in this expedition Christ will be 
 personally visible, either as a conductor or otherwise, I do not 
 know : if he is to be, I am disposed to think the struggle against 
 the Jews' enemies need not to be so long as 45 years. The Chal- 
 dee paraphrase saith, that this head shall be a prince, or chieftain 
 of the house of David — R. Jarchi says David himself Grotius says 
 Zorobabel ; Abenezra names another, and Alapide another. Our 
 new Annotations speak cautiously, to the effect that " hereby is 
 principally meant the Messiah Christ, the head of the Church." 
 I confess, I think no other to be here meant, than some wor- 
 thy fit man who is to be their commander in chief, subordinate 
 to Messiah. 
 
 The eminency of this expedition is, " that great shall be the 
 
 k Acts iv, 12 ; John i, 12. 
 
171 
 
 day of Jezreel ;" which is brought in as a reason and proof 
 — " because great shall be the day of Jezreel:"* that is, Whereas 
 (saith the Lord) I took away the kingdom of Israel for the 
 blood shed in Jezreel ; (the blood of Nabothby Jezebel, and the 
 blood of Jezebel by Jehu, who shed it extra -judicially, for his 
 own ends ;) great shall now be the day of delivering Jezreel. 
 This means the deliverance of Israel ; first, by a synechdoche, 
 or a part for the whole, Jezreel being the royal city of Israel : 
 and secondly, by the notation of the word Jezreel, which 
 Jerome interprets the seed of God ; for such the Israelites shall 
 be through Christ. Others interpret it, the solving, or scattering, 
 of God: in which case Jezreel shall be Israel, who have been 
 sown or scattered into all countries, as seed into so many fields; 
 and shall be brought together in the granary of their own coun- 
 try, as seed grown up to ripe corn at the time of harvest. 
 Thus the Chaldee renders it, — Great shall be the day of their 
 gathering tog ether. \ 
 
 Now chuse which interpretation you will, and show, if you 
 can, that this text has been duly fulfilled, according to the pur- 
 port thereof, since the first scattering of the ten tribes. When 
 was there such a multitude of Israel, like the sands of the sea, 
 &c, gathered from all the earth, and called " the sons of the 
 living God V* When did they and Judah put themselves under 
 one head, and returning to their own country settle in Christ's 
 visible kingdom ? The apostle Paul tell us, that up to his time, 
 at least, " blindness in part was happened to Israel ;" 1 so that 
 the conversion of the fulness of them was then still behind. 
 It is true, that two chapters before the Apostle cites this very place 
 of Hosea ; m but the object is to show us " the riches of God's 
 glory on the vessels of mercy, in them whom he calls, not only 
 of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles, as he saith in Hosea ;" 
 
 * Heb. 13, Chaldee i"tK, Sept. on, Latin quia. 
 
 •f" It may be well to notice here, once for all, that extracts from contemporary 
 or recent authors are occasionally omitted, when they merely repeat the sentiments 
 of Dr. Homes, and do not cast any new light upon the text. However desirable 
 such quotations might have been to shield the author in his own day from the 
 charge of novelty ; yet those names would not prevail against the prejudice of the 
 present generation ; and in the instances in which they are passed over, they add 
 nothing to the argument. Ed. 
 
 1 Rom. xi, 25. m Rom. ix, 25, 26. 
 V 
 
^ 
 
 172 
 
 wherein it is evident, (let some authors say what they please,) 
 that the Apostle minds chiefly the call of the Jews; insomuch, 
 that he feared lest others should suspect him to mean only the 
 Jews : for so the very phrase " Not only of the Jews, but 
 also of the Gentiles" plainly indicates. For, verse 1, he begins, 
 as passionatelv affected for the conversion of the Jews, ready 
 even to wish himself accursed for their salvation ; and continues 
 to regard them to verse 16, never mentioning or hinting at 
 the Gentiles but twice in all the chapter, viz. verses 24 and 30. 
 And in the two following chapters, he is chiefly upon the state 
 of the Jews. And when he quoted this place of Hosea, it is 
 most evident he did not think it was then commensurately ful- 
 filled : for after he had said, (ver. 24,) " that God hath shewed 
 the riches of his glory, even on us whom he hath called, not 
 only of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles ;" he closes the chap- 
 ter with a narrative, how Israel had not attained to the law of 
 righteousness, because they sought it not by faith, but as it were 
 by the works of the law ; and begins the next chapter by de- 
 claring, that his " desire and prayer to God was, that Israel 
 might be saved ;" and again closes that chapter with the com- 
 plaint, " that God hitherto had stretched forth his hand to 
 Israel in vain ;" whilst the subject of the eleventh chapter is 
 Paul's prophecy, that in after times all Israel shall be saved, 
 when the fulness of the Gentiles shall come. 
 
 Chapter iii, 4, 5. » 
 
 " For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a 
 ' king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and with- 
 '' out an image, (or statue,) and without an ephod, and without 
 " teraphim : afterwards shall the children of Israel return, 
 " and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and shall 
 " fear the Lord and his goodness, in the latter days." 
 
 Note in the first place, that this also is prophesied of Israel ; 
 on which Lyra speaks well : viz. " After the call of the Gen- 
 tiles is prophesied the, final conversion of the Jews in general." 
 
 Next consider the condition in which the people of whom 
 the Prophet speaks shall be ; and how long they shall remain 
 in it ere they be delivered. 1st. They shall be many days 
 
173 
 
 without a king, and without a prince ; i.e. without any civil polity, 
 either monarchical or aristocratical, of their own nation. 
 Grotius well observes, that they shall not only have no king, but 
 no man of their own nation endowed with any jurisdiction. 
 The Septuagint therefore rightly render 1W by Apyovra a ruler ; 
 and the Chaldee paraphrases it by — " without any that takes 
 the rule over Israel." 2dly. They shall so long be without a 
 sacrifice, and without a Mattzebah (rOVft ;) which, though our 
 English renders it image, is by Jerome, Grotius and our ordi- 
 nary Septuagint rendered altar* They shall also be without 
 an ephod, (which was part of the high priest's vestments, worn 
 upon his shoulders ; and it is put here synecdochically to sig- 
 nify all his glorious garments, f) and without teraphim. The 
 singular is taraph, which in itself signifies no more than an 
 image in general, and (as Grotius and Calvin observe) is a word 
 of a middle nature, or acception. For as it is used to signify 
 Laban's and Micah's images ; so also to signify the image 
 which Michal made and put into her bed to resemble 
 David. n Yea, it may here signify (as Jerome and Grotius note) 
 the Cherubim. These had wings and faces, and were stretched 
 over the mercy-seat, looking one upon another ; under which 
 was the ark, from whence was the oracle, or answer of God by 
 voice. The Septuagint accordingly in some copies has ovbe 
 bri\(tiv, without manifests ; in others ou8e bnkoxreoys, without 
 manifestation : and Aquila (as Jerome asserts) translates it 
 (fxaTLCT/jLovs illuminations. I cannot at all imagine (as many do) 
 that any thing idolatrous or superstitious is intended, in any one 
 particular of this second part of their destitute state. For 
 some of the things named are evidently good and lawful, as 
 the sacrifice and ephod ; to mingle which with what was im- 
 pious and evil appears incongruous. But still more irrecon- 
 cileable is the notion of any thing idolatrous with the circum- 
 
 * To justify this latter translation I have this to observe, that Mattzebah sig- 
 nifies a pillar or stone, erected in honor to God : and the Hebrews put only this 
 difference between it and Mdzbach, (nitfc) an altar ; viz. that the pillar con- 
 sisted of one stone, the altar of many. The pillar was erected for the offering, 
 or pouring out of oil upon it ; the altar was for sacrifice. See Gen. xxviii, 18, 
 22 ; xxxi, 13, 45, 51, 52 ; and xxxv, 14, 20. 
 
 t The Septuagint renders without an ephod, by ah *ff>/r 'ttpaTtiag without a 
 
 priest bood. 
 
 a 1 Sam. xix, 13. ° Exod. xxv. 
 
174 
 
 stance, that the being deprived of these things is threatened as 
 a punishment. For it is no loss to be deprived of idols ; but 
 to lose the privileges connected with their civil polity and 
 church administrations, was a grievous affliction. 
 
 Out of all arises a sure explication of the many days 
 wherein they shall be without these. For, as Pareeus (referring 
 to the period of Babylonish captivity) well observes, more than 
 seventy years of days must be meant : to which Jerome him- 
 self (though an adversary to our main position) rationally 
 agrees ; for he says, " Some of the Jews expound this chapter 
 " of the Babylonian captivity, in which for seventy years the 
 " Temple lay waste, and at last under Zorobabel it was restored 
 " to its former condition. But we refer it to a future time, see- 
 " ing no other cause can be found why they were forsaken so long 
 " a time, but their putting to death the Saviour." But not to show 
 you men, but demonstration ; First, in their time of captivity 
 in Babylon, they were not altogether without a king of their own 
 nation. For Jehoiakim lived many years in the time of that 
 captivity, and was raised to a throne. P Of Jehoiachin, alias Je- 
 coniah, came Salathiel, a prince ;<1 and so downward the sceptre 
 doth not utterly depart from Judah till Shiloh comes. 1 ' Se- 
 condly, they were not without a priest in that captivity ; nor 
 after unto Christ's time. Jeremiah and Ezekiel were both of 
 them priests ; s and after them, in the time of Antiochus 
 Epiphanes, was famous Mattathias ; and after him Judas Mac- 
 cabeus ;* and in Christ's time there were priests, and high- 
 priests, and sacrifices, &c. u We conclude therefore, that it is im- 
 possible to understand these " many days" to signify the time of 
 Judah's captivity in Babylon ; or (as our new annotations would 
 have it) the time since Judah's return from Babylon till Christ's 
 ascension : but they must be extended to the still future con- 
 version of all Israel. Dr. Mayer says • " Calvin ingenuously 
 "confesses, that by David, spoken of in the prophets, Christ is 
 " is always set forth ; and therefore this long time of the Jews 
 " being without a king, &c, must be understood of the time 
 "immediately previous to their embracing the faith of Christ, 
 
 P 2 Kings xxv, 27. q Jer. xxix, 2; 1 Chron. iii, 17; Matt, i, 12. 
 
 i- Gen. xlix, 10. b Jer. i, 1 ; Ezek. i, 3. t 1 Maccab. ii, 1 — 5 ; iii, 1. 
 
 u Luke i, 8 ; ii, 21 ; Matt, xwi, 3 ; John ii, 13, 14, &c. 
 
175 
 
 "and not of the time of their captivity ; for then they had not 
 " David for their kins:. Neither can it be understood of the 
 
 D 
 
 " time immediately before Christ's coming, and after their re- 
 " turn ; for then they had princes, and priests, and sacrifices. 
 " What remaineth then, but to understand it of the time that 
 " now is, at the end whereof the Jews shall turn to Christ ! 
 "And herein Gualter and Tossarius follow Jerome." 
 
 All that has been said will be made yet more evident by that 
 punctual specification of the time, in the next verse following, 
 when the Israelites shall be delivered and saved : viz. in the 
 latter days ; i. e. in the last or end of days, as the Septuagint 
 and Chaldee render it. Dr. Mayer says, " It is said, that this 
 "should be in the last days ; whereby the time of the Gospel is 
 " always set forth ; all the time before being counted old. Heb. 
 " i. 1, 2. But these novissima tempora are the newest times, be- 
 " cause all things are new. Yea, and at the latter end of them 
 "the Jews shall be new creatures, (as are all that are in Christ,) 
 " and then the world shall be destroyed, and God will make a 
 " new heaven and a new earth." It is worth while also to hear 
 Alapide, a papist ; because whilst an enemy to the truth in hy- 
 pothesis, he telleth the very truth in thesis. " In the last of 
 " days, (saith he,) that is, in the end of the world, when a lit- 
 " tie before, or at the coming of Antichrist, especially after the 
 " slaying of him, the Israelites and Jews, who clave to him 
 "while the said Antichrist was alive, and reigned, (partly by re- 
 " membering the sermons and miracles of Elijah and Enoch, 
 " and partly by the exhortations of other preachers,) shall be 
 " converted unto Christ ; even as I have said upon Revelation 
 "xi. For then all Israel shall be saved. (Rom. xi, 25.) So 
 " says St. Hieronym. Haymo. Albert. Hug. Lyran, and others. 
 " Isidore and a Castro think these things to be done in the in- 
 " carnation and first coming of Christ ; to wit, inchoatively : for 
 " then a few of Israel began to be converted. Others err, who 
 " think these things to have been performed in the relaxation of 
 " the Babylonish captivity by Cyrus." Thus Alapide confesses 
 twice over in his works the just time of fulfilling these things : 
 but like a papist he blindly supposes, that Antichrist is not yet 
 come ; that so his Pope might not be thought to be Antichrist. 
 
 Having now noticed the time of their deliverance, next comes 
 
176 
 
 the deliverance itself : viz. " they shall return and seek the 
 Lord their God, and David their king ;" — that is, God, and his 
 Son Christ, or God in his Son Christ. Their own Rabbins 
 render it in their Chaldee Paraphrase nearly the same : " After- 
 wards the children of Israel shall be led by repentance, and shall 
 seek the worship of their God j and shall obey Christ, the Son of 
 David, &c." And thus learned and pious Christians (e.g. the 
 Geneva notes, our new Annotations, and Dr. Mayer,) under- 
 stand it by authority of Scripture. "In the latter days, (Hebrew, 
 " the end of days,) when the world is now near to an end, they 
 " shall seek David their king, (that is, the Messias, Christ the 
 " Son of David, v ) and his kingdom ; in which David's kingdom 
 " is promised to be for ever, even to the end of the world. " w 
 For David himself is long since dead ; as the Apostle argues, 
 when he would prove, that by David, mentioned Isaiah lv, and 
 Psalm xvi, Christ is signified.* Nor shall David return again, 
 till the physical corporeal resurrection of the saints, which must 
 be preceded by the metaphorical resurrection, as we have before 
 proved. So this return of Israel is not only from captivity, but 
 from sin; as is plain by that which follows, " they shall fear the 
 Lord and his goodness." Fear is commonly, throughout the 
 Scriptures, put for all the inward graces and the worship of God 
 in the heart ; and this fear is to be for his goodness, — that is, in 
 and for Christ ; who, as he is called the Wisdom of God,y and 
 the Word of God, z so is he the Goodness of God ; because God 
 cannot be communicative of his goodness to the fallen sons of 
 Adam but through Christ. a 
 
 Which things being so, they speak of themselves, that they 
 were never yet fulfilled according to the purport of the text. For 
 the generality of Israel and Judah are to this day without a 
 king, without a prince, without a priest, without a sacrifice ; 
 (that ceasing, at least, ever since A. D. 366 ;) nor have they in- 
 stead of those princes, priests, and sacrifices, sought the Lord 
 their God and David, that is, Christ their king, as hath been 
 before expounded. 
 
 v Jer. xxx, 9 ; Ezek. xxxiv, 23, 24 ; xxxvii, 24 ; Matt.ix, 27 ; Rev. xxii, 16. 
 w Psal. lxxii, 17. * Acts xiii, 34—36. y 1 Cor. i. ' Johni. a Tit. iii, 
 4—6. 
 
177 
 
 JOEL. 
 
 Chapter ii, 28—32. 
 
 " And it shall come to pass afterwards, that I will pour out 
 " my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall 
 " prophesy ; your old men shall dream dreams ; your young 
 " men shall see visions : and also upon the servants, and upon 
 " the handmaids, in those days will I pour out my Spirit. And 
 " I will show wonders in the heavens and in earth, blood, and 
 " fire, and pillars of smoke : the sun shall be turned into dark- 
 ness, and the moon into blood, before that great and terrible 
 " day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass, that who- 
 V soever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered : 
 " for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as 
 " the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall 
 call." 
 
 Note first in general, touching this text, that though St. 
 Peter truly applies a part of it to the wonderful effusion of the 
 Spirit at Pentecost ; b yet it is not solely applicable to that event: 
 nor is the intent or meaning of the whole, or of any part thereof, 
 completely fulfilled and terminated therein.* Peter himself 
 tacitly intimates as much in translating the words p *nntf after- 
 ward by €v rais ecr^arats fjjitpais in the last days : and Joel him- 
 self drops expressions, which are inconsistent with limiting it to 
 Pentecost ; e.g. God's pouring out of his Spirit upon all flesh ; 
 &c. Mean while, let me entreat the Reader to remember that 
 golden rule, which I have laid down before, viz: — that prophe- 
 cies of this nature, touching the kingdom of Christ, have their 
 gradual, progressive, and vicissitudinous fulfilling, from the first 
 breathing of them to the end of the world ; as it were from 
 one type to another, till they come to the antitype and full 
 meaning and perfection of the whole. Thus the ark of Noah 
 might be an occasion of the ark of Moses : I am sure it signi- 
 
 b Acts ii, 16—21, &c. 
 
 * That I may not be condemned of singularity, the Reader may note what 
 (Ecolampadius, Calvin, Alapide, Lyra and others hint to the same effect, though 
 they do not speak ont to the same extent as I shall. 
 
178 
 
 fied baptism ; and baptism leads us to salvation in Christ. c 
 Just like parhelion, when we see two or three suns or rainbows, 
 the one carries up the sight to the other, till at last it be fixed 
 upon the sun itself, the substance of all. The Church hath its 
 growth, and her eyes are not able to endure all degrees of light 
 at first. The infant hath but the glimmering of the light of the 
 fire ; afterwards it can behold the candle ; at last it endures the 
 light of the sun : and the sun of the choicest Gospel-light is 
 not in its vertical point and apogee in an instant, but becomes 
 so by gradual ascension. 
 
 To come however to the particulars of the text ; that I may 
 deal faithfully with the precious word of God, and with my 
 Reader, and mine own heart, let us see, and say ingenuously, 
 what of it hath been fulfilled at Pentecost and afterwards, and 
 what not. These things have in part been fulfilled. 1st. — The 
 pouring out of the Spirit : for those mentioned in Acts i, 13 — 15 
 were all filled with the Holy Ghost. 2ndly. — The seeing visions : 
 for Peter had a vision, d and Paul had a vision, 6 and Ananias/ 
 and Cornelius, s and Stephen. 11 3dly. — The prophesying of their 
 sons and daughters : as Paul did, 1 and Agabus, k and Philip the 
 Evangelist's four daughters j 1 and afterwards John, Peter, and 
 Jude prophesied, as the Revelation and their Epistles testify. 
 4th. — The darkening the Sun : for before this notable day of the 
 Lord's pouring out his Spirit upon the disciples, there preceded 
 that terrible darkening of the sun at Christ's passion : m for 
 surely all that darkening of the sun, mentioned by our Pro- 
 phet, must not be made more dark by an allegory, or evaded 
 by a figure ; seeing it is set down as a mark of time, when God 
 is about to do some visible exploit. 5th. — There was a deliver- 
 ance : and in a certain sense in Jerusalem, and at Mount Zion ; 
 for there were converted at Peter's sermon about 3000 souls, n 
 which were soon after increased to 5000.° All these five heads 
 of this text were fulfilled in part ; and in regard to them Peter 
 had just reason to apply this prophecy of Joel. For although 
 the stream were to flow on and increase to the magnitude of 
 an ocean, when arrived at its fulness ; yet running first by 
 
 cl Peter iii, 21. d Acts x. e 2 Cor. xii, 1. *"Actsix, 12. gActsx, 3. 
 h Acts vii, 55, 56. ' l Acts xxvii, 22, &c. k Acts xxi, 10. 1 Acts xxi, 9. 
 m Matt, xxvii, 45. n Acts ii, 4. ° Acts iv, 4. 
 
179 
 
 Peter's door, he might well say these waters were for his use, 
 and so take up as many buckets full as he needed. 
 
 II. In the following respects this text was not fully accom- 
 plished by the Acts of the Apostles, nor is it yet fulfilled. 
 1st. The pouring out of the Spbit, and upon all flesh, and up- 
 on all sorts, — viz. on old men, young men, fathers, children, 
 men-servants and maid-servants ; neither in the variety of 
 gifts to them, expressed by visions, dreams, and prophecies. 
 Whether we expound these things of extraordinary gifts of the 
 Spirit, or of ordinary, (yet so as to be in order to salvation, as 
 the last verse constrains us to extend it,) they can intend no less 
 than a plentiful communication of the Spirit, not only to the 
 generality of the Gentiles, but also (and I should think chiefly) 
 to the generality of the Jews. But, alas ! what were five 
 thousand persons converted of the kingdom of Judah, to the 
 generality of the twelve tribes ? And to what does the story 
 of the Acts of the Apostles amount, as regards the fulfilling this 
 clause of Joel, when in the thirteenth chapter we find the 
 generality of the Jews give the Gospel a bill of divorce and 
 send it away ? so that the next news we hear of it is in the 
 Epistles of Paul to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, &c. — 
 i.e. to the Latin, Greek, and Galline* Gentiles, &c. And 
 therefore doth St. Paul give up all Israel into utter blindness, 
 till the fulness of the Gentiles shall be come in. That this fulness 
 is not yet come experience teaches us : " For one (saith Mr. 
 f Medef ) hath well observed, that Christianity at this day is not 
 " above the sixth part of the known world. For if we divide 
 " the world into thirty parts, Christianity is but as five, 
 " Mahometanism as six, and Heathenism as nineteen ; and thus 
 " Christianity is the least part of all, and plain Heathenism 
 " hath far more than one-half of the world ; and the better 
 " part of the other are also Mahometans." I only add, that 
 even in this account I suppose popery to be included in 
 I Christianity, and then the account falls far shorter of the ful- 
 ness of the Gentiles : yea, we may daily observe, that scarce 
 
 * Galatia minoris Asise regio, Phrygian contermina, a Gallis ita dicta ; qui 
 relicta patria ibi sedes fixerunt. Incolse appellantur Galatge, et Gallo-grseci, 
 Steph . 
 
 t Diatr. pars 4, p. 82. 
 X 
 
180 
 
 one of ten Christians is more than called a Christian ; and 
 not one Jew of ten thousand bears the name of a Christian. 
 
 2ndly. At the time the Prophet mainly intends, there must 
 be " wonders in heaven, and in earth, — blood, and fire and 
 '* pillars of smoke, — a darkening of the sun, and discolouring 
 " of the moon, &c." All these things must amount to the 
 making up of a " great and terrible day of the lord :" 
 and that to the destruction of them that do not so believe, as to 
 call upon God in faith ; as the last verse intimates, — " Whoso- 
 ever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." And 
 the destruction shall be especially of those unbelievers that are 
 enemies to the Jews ; as the same verse and two first verses of 
 the following chapter evidently hint : " For in Mount Zion and 
 " in Jerusalem, shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and 
 " in the remnant whom the Lord shall call. For behold in 
 " those days and in that time, when I shall bring again the 
 " captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations I 
 " and will bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will 
 " plead with them there, for my people, and for my heritage 
 " Israel, whom they have scattered." When the wonders took 
 place at the passion of Christ, there was no destruction of any 
 man ; neither at the effusion of the Spirit after his ascension. 
 And at the desolation of Jerusalem by Titus, there was indeed 
 the sad destruction of the Jews, but of none of the Jews' 
 enemies. 
 
 3rdly. The following is not yet fully accomplished : "In Mount 
 " Zion, and in Jerusalem, shall be deliverance as the Lord hath 
 "said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call." That 
 this was not completed in the few Jews converted at the Pente- 
 cost, or since, is evident from the following reasons. First, the 
 Apostle Peter when quoting Joel makes not the least mention of 
 this clause. Secondly, Christ's coming to Jerusalem as a 
 spiritual deliverer was previous to that pouring out of the Spirit; 
 whereas the deliverance mentioned (according to the Apostle's 
 method, yea, and of the prophets,) is after the pouring out of 
 the Spirit. Thirdly, the Prophet adds, — "as the Lord hath said;" 
 viz. by his prophets. But they mainly spake of the Jews' cor- 
 poral deliverance, as we have before abundantly shown. For 
 as for spiritual deliverance, they had it then : and there was no 
 
181 
 
 doubt but it should be continued in all ages ; else the Church 
 would be extinct, and God's covenant with Abraham and David 
 would fail. 
 
 Chapter iii. 
 
 The most (if not all) of the former passage in the second 
 chapter is again mentioned in this third chapter ; and with four 
 emphatic marks of connexion, confirming and explaining what 
 had been said before. 1st. — It begins with the word " for ;" as if 
 the Lord should say, — I bring this for a proof, that I will do as 
 I have said. 2nd. — " Behold ;" as much as to say, there shall be 
 some notable thing done, some grand event, as an eminent 
 sign that I will be as good as my word. 3rd. — "In those 
 days," and " at that time ;" (with great emphasis of pronouns, 
 &c.) which tend to this effect ; that methodically, and in a just 
 order, when I do the former things, I will do these following al- 
 so ; so that the plurality and magnificence of exploits shall force 
 the eyes of men to see my truth in the performance of all that 
 I have spoken. 4th. — I will, in pursuance of that deliverance of 
 my people mentioned, " gather all nations to the valley of 
 Jehosaphat, and will plead with them there for my people ;■" 
 which amounts to this, that the famous, remarkable circum- 
 stances (as before of time, so here of place) shall be undeniable 
 witnesses of the substance of my true performance : for as we 
 know that circumstances of time and place, &c. beget in us 
 great credence to a report, that such a thing was done ; so here 
 they are given as confirmation that it will be done. 
 
 vv. 1, 2. Next for the substance of this place. Take notice 
 in the entrance, that the people who, according to this prophecy, 
 shall be delivered, are named " Judah and Jerusalem," signi- 
 fying the two tribes. In the second verse however, they are 
 called his "heritage, Israel," and the "scattered among the na- 
 tions;" which most aptly sets forth the ten tribes. Their de- 
 liverance is so expressed in the Hebrew, Chaldee, and Septua- 
 gint, that the words may well be extended to a spiritual conver- 
 sion of their souls from infidelity, besides the corporal deliver- 
 ance of their persons from captivity ; as many translators ren- 
 der it. For confirmation of this observe, that whereas in 
 
182 
 
 Hosea chap, i, the Lord calls them (speaking of both the said 
 kingdoms) Lo-ammi, not my people, and Lo-ruhamah, I will 
 not have mercy ; (viz. whilst they are to be in captivity ;) so 
 here, the Lord, speaking of their deliverance, expresses it to 
 the effect of receiving them at their return, as his people and 
 his heritage. 
 
 In the next place we are to observe, that this must not be a 
 mere still and tacit deliverance of the Jews, but with a tumult- 
 uous destruction of the enemies who formerly caused their 
 bondage : " I will gather all nations, and bring them down into 
 the valley of Jehosaphat, and plead with them there for my 
 people, &c :" which last clause the Chaldee renders, — " and I 
 will take vengeance on them there for my people." This venge- 
 ance is further amplified in verses 9 — 12, &c. 
 
 The valley of Jehosaphat is particularly named, as the place 
 where God will avenge his people ; — First, because there Je- 
 hosaphat overthrew the Ammonites and Moabites and their 
 confederates, that rose up against the Jews.P Secondly, because 
 Jehosaphat signifies pleading, or judging ; viz. the thing that 
 God will do upon the incorrigible enemies that yet remain, (see 
 verse 12.) Thirdly, because this is also called the valley of Be- 
 racha, that is, the valley of blessing; for there Jehosaphat 
 blessed and praised God, first in hope of the said victory, se- 
 condly, for help in it, (compare verse 16.) Fourthly, because 
 this is called the valley of decision or threshing, twice in verse 
 14 ; for there God threshed his enemies (as the chaff from the 
 wheat) according to Isaiah xxv, 10, and thereby decided the 
 controversy between the Jews and their enemies. 
 
 But though the valley of Jehosaphat hath here these names, 
 yet they are to be understood appellatively in a larger sense, to 
 signify and typify any eminent place or places, where the 
 Lord shall overthrow the incurable enemies of the believing 
 Jews. For first, the Holy Ghost uses the name Jehosaphat 
 only as a paronomasia ; the original being literally, — " I will 
 bring them down to the valley of Jehosaphat, and there I will 
 Jehosaphatize them ;" i. e. overthrow them as Jehosaphat did 
 his enemies. Secondly, let any rational man judge whether 
 
 P 2 Chron. xx, 22, fcc. 
 
1 83 
 
 Jehosaphat, as a proper name of a place in Judea, doth sig- 
 nify, that there only God will judge the enemies of the be- 
 lieving Jews ; when their enemies are seated in every place 
 where the Jews are scattered, and will in those places oppose 
 them and the believing Gentiles that shall help in their return. 
 That very place may nevertheless be one, where a notable over- 
 throw of some chief enemies of the Jews, (as the Arabians, 
 Saracens, or Turks,) may take place. 
 
 Now the Jews were never delivered, as we have repeatedly 
 shown before, by a destruction of their enemies ; neither to such 
 an effect and degree, as that no stranger should pass through Jeru- 
 salem any more. (vv. 12 — 17.) The opening of this destruc- 
 tion, and the collation of the happy condition of the Jews when 
 delivered, will yet further demonstrate, that this prophecy of 
 Joel is not yet fulfilled. 
 
 From verses 14 — 19 the destruction of their enemies must 
 be very formidable. — " Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of 
 " decision ; for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of de- 
 " cision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the 
 " stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lord also shall roar 
 " out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem, and the 
 "heavens and the earth shall shake/' — " Egypt shall be a deso- 
 " lation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, &c." On 
 the other hand we read — " But the Lord will be the hope of his 
 " people, and the strength of the children of Israel." — " So shall 
 " ye know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion, my 
 " holy mountain ; then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall 
 " no strangers pass through her any more. And it shall come to 
 " pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new 
 "wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, &c." — " Judah shall 
 § dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation." 
 Thus the happy condition of the Jews appears to be inter- 
 woven w r ith their enemies' destruction, the better to intimate, 
 that they both occur at the same time. 
 
 Consider next how exactly verse 13, &c. is repeated and 
 applied in Rev. xiv, 15 — 20 to the ruin of Antichrist. " Put 
 " ye in (saith Joel) the sickle, for the harvest is ripe ; come, 
 " get you down, for the press is full, the fats overflow, for their 
 
 wickedness is great." — And then follows the destruction of 
 
184 
 
 the enemies of the Jews, as we before stated. St. John saith, 
 " An angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to 
 " him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap ; for 
 " the time is come for thee to reap, for the harvest of the 
 " earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud, thrust in his 
 " sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped. And another 
 " angel came out of the temple, which is in heaven, he also 
 " having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from 
 " the altar, which had power over fire, and cried with a loud 
 " cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy 
 " sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for 
 " her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle 
 " into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it 
 " into the great wine -press of the wrath of God ; and the wine- 
 " press was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the 
 " wine-press, even unto the horse-bridles, by the space of 
 " one thousand six hundred furlongs." 
 
 Compare Joel also, touching the valley of Jehosaphat and 
 God's judging there, with Isaiah lxvi, 24 ; Matt, v, 22 ; Rev. 
 xvi, 12 — 16. It seems from Isaiah, that there shall be a 
 slaughter of the enemy of the Church, at his great fall, in some 
 eminently conspicuous place, whither the Church (made up of 
 Jews and Gentiles) " shall go forth and look upon the carcases 
 of the men that had transgressed against God," and for which 
 they had been slain : "For (saith Isaiah) their worm shall not die, 
 neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an ab- 
 horring to all flesh." Upon which words our new Annotations 
 say well, that "it is apparent enough, that the execution of 
 " God's wrath on the wicked — either on the mountains near 
 " unto Jerusalem, as some of the Rabbins affirm, or in the 
 " valley of Jehosaphat, according to Joel iii ; or in Tophet, in 
 " the vale of Gehinnom, agreeable to Isa. xxx, 33 ; Jer. vii, 
 "31, 33 ; — is here described, by a resemblance taken from 
 " dead bodies ; which, after great slaughter made of them, lie 
 " a long time above ground unburied, either as deemed un- 
 " worthy to be at all interred, or because, in regard to the 
 " multitude of them, it cannot suddenly be effected. The 
 " worm hath reference to such vermin as are wont to breed in 
 " and feed on dead corpses ; on such carcases especially as lie 
 

 185 
 
 " so long above ground, that they rot and become as dung. 
 " The fire hath reference to the burning of such bodies ; which 
 " are not fit now to be removed, but must be consumed by fire 
 " in the place where they lie. And because the putrifying car- 
 " cases long time crawl with worms and maggots, ere the flesh 
 " be consumed ; and it would be a long time burning to con- 
 " sume the remainder with fire ; therefore it is said, their worm 
 " never dies, and their fire is never quenched, but are a long 
 " time an abhorring to all flesh, — viz. to all that shall behold 
 " them." 
 
 In St. Matthew v, 22, the Lord Christ speaks of such a 
 place of common execution of malefactors, — " Whoever shall 
 say to his brother, thou fool, thall be in danger of hell fire." 
 Teevva here (as Broughton learnedly disputes) does not of itself 
 signify hell : and I add, that it cannot possibly signify here an 
 eternal punishment in the hell of the damned ; for otherwise it 
 would follow from this text, that some sins are venial, and 
 others only mortal or damnable. For our Saviour saith, 
 " Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall 
 " be in danger of the judgement ; and whosoever shall say to 
 '■' his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council ; but 
 " whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." 
 Thus the latter only would seem to be adjudged to eternal 
 punishments ; but such a distinction would be contrary to all 
 Scripture, and therefore eternal hell fire, or the place of the 
 damned, cannot be meant. To keep however to the order and 
 nature of the Greek words : Ytevvav rov nvpos means the 
 Gehinnom of fire ; that is the valley of Hinnom, or the valley of 
 the son of Hinnom, taking its name from the first possessor. 
 This place is described to be in the borders of the lot of the 
 tribe of Judah ; and therefore not far from Jerusalem, even 
 near the East-gate ;<l and the sacred history tells us further 
 that in this valley of Hinnom was Tophet ; and that there they 
 burnt their children in the fire, as a sacrifice to the idol Moloch, 
 after the manner of the heathen. 1 ' Tophet signifies a drum, 
 because they used to beat a drum to drown the noise of the cry 
 
 q Josh, xv, 8 ; Jer. xix, 2. r 2 Kings xxiii, 10 ; 2 Chron. xxviii, 3 ; xxxiii, 6 ; 
 
 Jer. xxxii, 35. 
 
186 
 
 of their children. And further, in Jer. vii, 32, we have it set 
 forth as a place of the execution of God's vengeance : " Be- 
 " hold the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall be no more 
 "called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the val- 
 " ley of slaughter ; for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no 
 " place." Rabbi David Kimchi, on the words " the land of the 
 living," (Psalm xxvii, 13,) contrasts it thus: "even as the 
 "judgement of the wicked is called Gehenna, which was a valley 
 " near Jerusalem whereinto they did cast forth dead carcases and 
 " every uncleanness, and there the fire did perpetually burn 
 " them even into bones, &c." The name Geennua, or Gehenna 
 is compounded of H*3 Gi, which signifies a valley, and OSn 
 hinnom; the Syriac writes Gihanna. Doubtless as Kpicns, judge- 
 ment, signified a lesser civil punishment, (viz. that inflicted by 
 the judges ;) and avvehpiov, the council, signified a greater, (viz. 
 that which the sanhedrim, or great council, inflicted ;) so this 
 Gehinnom of fire must signify the greatest: and our Saviour 
 perhaps intended these words to be understood by way of par- 
 allel, thus : that if men did thus punish such faults accord- 
 ing to their degrees, how much more will the most righteous 
 holy God ? 
 
 We have yet to notice Rev. xvi, 12, &c. " And the sixth 
 " angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, and 
 " the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of 
 " the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits 
 " like frogs 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. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, 
 " which go forth unto the kings of the earth, and of the whole 
 " world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God 
 " Almighty. Behold I come as a thief. Blessed is he that 
 " watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and 
 " they see his shame. And he gathered them into a place called 
 " in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon." What is said touching 
 the River Euphrates and the kings of the earth must first be a 
 little explained, and then we shall the better understand this 
 Armageddon. The sixth vial (saith Mr. Mede) shall be poured 
 out upon the great river Euphrates, that, being dried up, a pas- 
 sage may be prepared for new enemies of the beast to come 
 
from the east ; that is, for the Israelites to be wonderfully con- 
 verted to the pure faith and worship of Christ, and to be now 
 seeking for the kingdom promised many ages since. Two things 
 lead me to think, that these kings who come from the east are 
 Jews. First, that this is the last vial save one : in the time of 
 which the Jews must be converted ; or else destroyed, with the 
 
 : of the enemies :: Christ in that great day of universal re- 
 venge and judgement, which the next vial shall bring upon 
 them. But their non-conversion or general destruction, are 
 both flatly against the tenor of Scripture. Secondly, Isaiah xi, 
 15, 16, whence the matter of the sixth vial is borrowed, moveth 
 me thereto. I translate it thus : " Like as the Lord hath de- 
 
 " stroyed HTTP ~ x the tongne of the Egyptian sea: so 
 
 "he shall lift up his hand upon the river (the Targum savs the 
 " River Buphr in ~ a strength of his Spirit, and shall smite 
 
 " it in the seven streams, so that men may pass over dry-shod. 
 " And there shall be a way for the remnant of my people, which 
 " shall be left by the Assyrians (a plain mark Euphrates is un- 
 " derstood as it was in that day wherein he ascended up from 
 "the land of Egypt:" — a good justification of that translation 
 of the words in the first clause. Parallel to this place is Zecb. 
 x, 10, 11, which the Chaldee renders: AiuJ even as I 
 "brought them out of the land of E2ypt, so wiV I _ :uer to- 
 " gether their captivity from Assyria ; and I will bring them back 
 " to the land of Gilead and of my sanctuary, and it shall not be 
 " sufficient for them : and miracles, and the marvellous great 
 " works of God shall be wrought for them, even as they were 
 " wrought for their fathers when they passed through the sea : 
 " and they shall see the vengeance on their enemie 
 
 But what shall we say that Euphrates is whose waters shall 
 be dried up ? Mystical Babylon must also have her mystical Eu- 
 phrates, which shall be the obstacle of those new enemies 
 from the east, and on that part the only defence of the beast. 
 Neither will such understanding of Euphrates be without ex- 
 ample : for Isaiah himself ' viii, 7) by the like parable of Eu- 
 phrates hath expressed the army of the Assyrians, bordering up- 
 on the same river. — " The Lord shall bring upon them (the 
 
 -vrians and Israelites the waters of the river, (for so Eu- 
 " phrates by way of eminency is called) strong and many, the 
 
188 
 
 " king of Assyria, and all his glory : (Targum, his army) ike." 
 Compare also Jer. xlvii, 2, 3, " Behold waters rise up out 
 " of the north, and shall be an overflowing flood, and shall 
 ''overflow the land and all that is therein; the city and them 
 " that dwell therein : then the men shall cry, and all the in- 
 " habitants of the land shall howl, at the noise of the stamping 
 " of the hoofs of his strong horses, at the rushing of his chariots, 
 " &c." — Where evidently by the waters of the north are under- 
 stood the armies of the north. Why therefore should not the 
 Euphrates of the sixth vial be understood of the Turks ; being 
 no less borderers upon the Euphrates than the Assyrians, the 
 inhabitants of the same tract ? It confirms this not a little, 
 that the loosing of that great army of horsemen, long stayed 
 at that great river Euphrates, (see Rev. iv, 15,) signifies the 
 Turks, who from thence over-ran the Roman empire ; as the 
 series of the trumpets and the apt truth of the matter demon- 
 strate. Therefore by the sixth vial this Euphratsean deluge shall 
 be dried up : which plainly accords with Rev. chap, xi, 13, 14, 
 in that next after the overthrow of the city, which shall come 
 to pass in a great earthquake, (agreeing to the fifth vial,) the 
 second woe shall be past ; — that is, the plague of the sixth trum- 
 pet. By what means and by what authors it shall come to pass, 
 we cannot certainly say : but whatsoever it be, this let being 
 removed, a way of going to some place is prepared for these 
 new Christians from the east ; and that (as it seemeth) to make 
 an expedition against the beast, to whose ruin all the vials 
 point. From whence otherwise should so great an apprehen- 
 sion suddenly assail the worshipers of the beast, (yea, even the 
 devils themselves, as it seemeth,) and minister occasion for so 
 horrible and unprecedented a preparation for war as is here 
 described ; unless they, with their whole diabolical band, should 
 fear themselves to be at the last extremity, by the coming of 
 these new kings of the east ? 
 
 The Armageddon, mentioned in verse 16 (being the Hebrew 
 jYOa in Har Mageddon ; that is, mountainous places, or downs of 
 Mageddon) was the place where good King Josiah was slain ; 
 whence Jeremiah takes the rise and beginning of his Lamenta- 
 tions, as the anti-scene to the ensuing captivity. See 2 Chron. 
 xxxv, 22 — 27 : where, though it be written ITID Mageddo ; yet 
 

 189 
 
 because in Zach. xii, 11 it is written in the Hebrew as above, 
 and in the Greek, even in this 2 Chron. xxxv, 22, zv ttcSig) 
 [xayehhoiv, therefore the Apostle writes it Armageddon. 
 
 By all this St. John intimates, that God will yet, before the 
 ultimate general judgement, give the Church's enemies, as they 
 come forth to oppose her, a notable overthrow in some notori- 
 ous eminent place. And it is most incongruous with the last 
 general judgement to speak of a particular place, wherein the 
 grand enemies of the Church shall be destroyed for her deliver- 
 ance : neither is it agreeable to Joel's close ; who declares, 
 upon that destruction at the valley of Jehosaphat, that it is in 
 order that Judah and Jerusalem may have a quiet and lasting 
 habitation. 
 
 Amos, Chapter ix, 11 — 15 
 
 Compared with Obadiah verses 17 — 21, and Acts xv, 13 — 17. 
 
 Amos ix, 11 — 15. " In that day will I raise up the taber- 
 " nacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches 
 " thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and will build it as in 
 " the days of old ; that they may possess the remnant of Edom, 
 " and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the 
 r Lord, that doth this. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, 
 " that the ploughman shall overtake the reaper ; and the treader 
 ' " of grapes, him that soweth seed ; and the mountains shall 
 " drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will 
 I bring again the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall 
 I build the waste cities, and inhabit them ; and they shall plant 
 I vineyards, and drink the wine thereof ; and they shall also 
 I make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant 
 I them upon their land, and they shall be no more pulled up out 
 I of their land, which I have given them, saith the Lord thy 
 
 I God." 
 
 Observe first, that the ten tribes as well as the two tribes 
 must be meant to share in this deliverance : being mentioned 
 in the terms David, who reigned the latter part of his life over 
 all the twelve tribes ; and Israel, which by God's assignation was 
 the name of Jacob, the father of all the tribes, and after the 
 
190 
 
 division of the kingdom the name especially of that part which 
 contained the ten tribes. Judah and Israel are the more neces- 
 sarily conjoined in this deliverance, because Jerusalem, though in 
 the kingdom oi Judah, was the public place of divine worship to all 
 the twelve tribes. Moreover this prophecy is expressly called 
 — " The words of Amos which he saw concerning Israel:" 
 though the Prophet sufficiently intimates in the words following, 
 that he well remembered the distinction of Judah and Israel ; — 
 " The words of Amos which he saw concerning Israel, in the 
 " days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the 
 " son of Joash, king of Israel. " s 
 
 Next observe, that in this deliverance all the twelve tribes and 
 the fulness of the Gentiles must be conjoined in a religious 
 church union. For the Lord having said, (v. 11,) " I will raise 
 up the tabernacle of David, &c." adds, "that they (the Jews) 
 may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen which 
 are called by name." This St. James fully applies in that sense ; 
 saying, " Men and brethren, hearken unto me : Simeon hath 
 " declared, how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take 
 " out of them a people for his name : and to this agree the 
 " words of the prophets ; as it is written, After this I will return 
 " and will build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen 
 " down ; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and will set it 
 " up ; that the residue of men might seek after the Lord and all the 
 " Gentiles upon whom my name is called, Sec." In this quotation 
 St. James minds the sense of the Prophet, rather than his 
 words ; and what the Apostle spake at large, and most likely in 
 his native Hebrew, St. Luke gives but the sum of, and in the 
 Greek tongue, following also chiefly the Septuagint version 
 of the Prophet. There may haply be some trifling differ- 
 ence in terms and reading, both from the Hebrew and the 
 Septuagint ; but none at all in the main intent and meaning. 
 For whereas the translation of Amos says, " that they (the Jews) 
 may possess the remnant of Edom,, &c. w^hich are called by my 
 name •" the original may be rendered " by whom my name is 
 called upon, even by them :" and the word which, ("iajs being 
 in Hebrew as in English of all numbers and genders,) may either 
 
 s Chap, i, l. 
 
191 
 
 relate to that same they ; — that is to Judah and Israel, who shall 
 possess the remnant of Edom, and being converted unto the 
 gospel shall thereupon be Christians, and thus not only be 
 called by the Redeemer's name, but also call upon God's 
 name ; — or it may be referred to the remnant of the Edom- 
 ites and of all the heathen, they being also converted to 
 Christ. To whichsoever w T e may refer it, the main purpose of 
 the prophecy will be the same : viz. that upon the eversion 
 of the incurable enemies of Christ, there follows the con- 
 version of them that submit to Christ, both Jews and Gentiles ; 
 w r ho, being converted, shall incorporate into one Church and 
 way of worship,* 
 
 If any require a more particular reconcilement of the Hebrew, 
 Septuagint, and New Testament on this passage, here it follows. 
 The Hebrew^ of Amos ix, 12 is CHS rfnSttrnK WT* )Vnb, 
 that they may possess, or inherit the remnant of Edom. The 
 Septuagint is, 6itg>s €K(rjrrj(TO)o-LV ol KaraXoi-noi tuv av6p<s>n0)v, 
 that the remnant of men may seek after. The New Testament, 
 in Acts xv, 17 is, — 077G)s av eK^r^o-cocrti; ol KarakoLiroL r<av 
 av0p<Dpo)v tov Kvptov that is, that the remnant of men may seek 
 (or seek after) the Lord.f 
 
 Mr. Mede would reconcile these places thus. For ns the 
 article, he would read b« the Lord : for CHS Edom, he would 
 read CIS Adam or man ; and for 1Bn v ' that they may possess, 
 IttnT that they may seek after : and he supposes the Septuagint, 
 the Apostle, and the Evangelist, all to have followed some such 
 copy ; and so reads, " That the remnant of Adam, (or man,) may 
 seek after the Lord." To this conjecture I can contribute a 
 little : first, that some copies of the Septuagint have instead of 
 Kvptov Lord, /xe me, relating to the Lord ; which is not only re- 
 ported by Nobilius, but I have the like Greek copy by me. 
 ! Secondly, that Edom is by the Hebrews commonly used to sig- 
 nify the nations that were not of their Jewish Church, and 
 
 * The great Hebrew critic, Mercer, Calvin also, and Dr. Mayer, admit that 
 these prophecies have not been literally fulfilled ; and they incline therefore to 
 a spiritual sense. To me this says no more in plain English than this ; — that 
 because God hath not literally fulfilled it, therefore he never icill nor can. 
 
 t This is rather erroneously set down in Mr. Mede's Diatribse, pars 4, p. 525. 
 For there is no copy of the Septuagint, or rarice lectiones of them on Amos ix. 
 12, that I know of, that has Kvptov, or tov Kvptov, the Lord. 
 
192 
 
 especially those under tLe Roman monarchy : and therefore 
 the Jesuits have often expunged out of the Hebrew Rabbins' 
 Commentaries the word Edom ; as may be seen in Buxtorfe's 
 great Hebrew Bible, with the Chaldee and Rabbins, compared 
 with that of Bomberg. Thirdly, That some copies of Jerome's 
 Latin translations have qucerant me, may seek after me. 
 
 De Dieu saves the Hebrew text without any supply or altera- 
 tion at all, by taking riS not as a note of the accusative case, but 
 of the nominative, as it often is ; and thus he renders it at 
 once, " That the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen on 
 whom my name is called, may possess the restored tabernacle 
 of David." 1 Neither have I any doubt that the Septuagint so 
 took the words : for they turn them 07tg>s eKCnrno-cacnv ol 
 KaTakonTOL, &c. i.e. " That the rest of men, and all nations, 
 (Gentiles or heathens) may seek after :" which words have no 
 sense, unless you supply what they are to seek after ; to wit, 
 that which but even now he had spoken of, viz. the tabernacle 
 of David that was thrown down, but now restored. Instead of 
 this, St. James does not ill substitute the words rov Kvptov, the 
 Lord: for whether we say, that they should seek after the 
 restored tabernacle, or after the Lord the restorer and master of 
 that tabernacle, it comes to the same thing. To this add, that 
 the Gentiles will seek after that tabernacle, not for its own sake, 
 but for the Lord's sake. 
 
 Here also must be shown, why instead of lt£H^ that they may 
 ])ossess, the Septuagint says, eKCrjrrja-cacriv, that they may seek 
 after. Some think that for IttH^ that they may possess, they 
 read ittnT that they may seek after : but I conjecture other- 
 wise. Among the Orientals it is a rule, that words which 
 signify to be do also signify about to be done ; that is, to 
 be moved towards that same being. Thus nnD signifies 
 to open, and to let loose ; because loosening is a moving 
 towards apertion. So also 715p means to possess, and to buy, 
 because buying is a moving towards possession. Again an*» 
 not only signifies to possess, but to move toward possession : 
 as for example, Deut. ii, 24, an \>Tir\ begin, possess, "D ""Onm 
 HDnbtt, and conflict with him in war. — They could not 
 
 t See his Animadv. in Act. Apostol. &c. 
 
L93 
 
 actually begin to possess, before they had conflicted and i 
 out the enemy ; therefore the sense is, Begin to enter upon the 
 possession. There are hundreds of similar instances. And so in 
 this place lET)^ tv^h that they may possess, the Septuaeiut 
 conceived did signify, not the possession itself, but the en- 
 deavour to possess, which they happily enough expressed by a 
 verb of seeking. Nor is it any wonder that they translated 
 CHS rPHSLtf by ol KaraXoLTTot to)v ai'0po)~a)v, the remnant 
 1 of men : for perhaps they read it lZHS Adam : or rather 
 they took the word IJdom in this place, as often elsewhere, to 
 be of a larger signification than to note the people properly so 
 called. For as Isaac, the younger of Rebekah's sons, typified 
 the Church ; so Esau (or Edom) the elder, typified all other 
 men that were strangers from the Church. Wherefore in the 
 writings of the Rabbins, the Roman empire was called noba 
 CH8 the kingdom of Edom ; and all christians CHS "02 the 
 sons of Edom* 
 
 Whichever way therefore we take the Hebrew and Greek, 
 they signify the conversion of the Jews and Gentiles, and their 
 church-union. 
 
 Obadiah, verses 17 — 21. 
 
 Our interpretation of Amos and St. James, just given, is well 
 confirmed and enlarged upon by the very next prophet ; viz. — 
 Obadiah. — " But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and 
 " there shall be holiness, and the house of Jacob shall possess 
 " their possessions. And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, 
 " and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for 
 " stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them : &c. 
 " And they of the south shall possess the Mount of Esau, and 
 " they of the plain, the Philistines ; and they shall possess the 
 " fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria ; and Benjamin 
 " shall possess Gilead. And the captivity of this host of the 
 " children of Israel shall possess that of the Cunaanites even 
 
 * Should any doubt if r« denotes sometimes the nominative C3?e ; — or grant- 
 ing it in regard to passive verbs, should yet deny it to others ; — let them co: 
 1 Sam. xvii, 34 ; 2 Kings vi, 5 and is, 25 ; Neh. ix, 34 ; Jer. xxxiii, 5 and 
 xxxviii, 16 and Ezek. xxxix, 14 ; xliii, 7 ; in which places it is thus <-o: s rued 
 with neuters and transitives. 
 
194 
 
 " unto Zarephath ; and the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in 
 " Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south ; and saviours 
 " shall come upon mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau, 
 " and the kingdom shall be the Lord's." w. 17 — 21. In 
 these words we have such a character of the future happy state 
 of the Church on earth, harmoniously and beautifully wreathed 
 and interwoven of Jews and Gentiles converted unto Christ, as 
 still lies upon the engagement of God's infallible truth to be ful- 
 filled. For on the Gentiles' part, here expressed under so many 
 names, they are not all to be destroyed, but possessed* with a 
 mixed cohabitation of Jews; according to the aforesaid place 
 of Amos, that there shall be a remnant of Edom, and a remnant 
 (for such is the grammatical sense of the word) of all the 
 heathen, among whom and by whom the name of God shall be 
 called upon. And on the Jews' part, both the kingdom of 
 Judah and the kingdom of Israel must be here understood : 
 else why doth the Prophet use one while such comprehensive 
 words as the house of Jacob, and the house of Joseph ? and after- 
 wards such distinctive terms, as the captivity of the host of 
 the children of Israel, and the captivity of Jerusalem ? And 
 then that which is added at the close, as the coronis of this 
 glorious salvation, — viz. that saviours (in the plural) shall come 
 upon mount Zion to judge the enemies, and the kingdom shall 
 be the Lord's, — is of that strength, that it bears down all 
 limitations of the meaning to their return from Babylon, or the 
 incarnation of the Saviour Christ : for the kingdom was then 
 his no otherwise than it was formerly, when he ruled the world 
 by his power, and his Church by his Word and Spirit ; whereas 
 this close — the kingdom shall be the Lord's- — must intend that it 
 shall be answerable to the description from verse 17 down- 
 ward ; viz. a most holy kingdom, and withal a visible, extensive 
 and glorious kingdom, and that on earth ; all corporal, in- 
 curable, antichristian enemies sensibly falling before it. 
 
 The above is not only my opinion ; Mercer also presents to 
 us Lyranus commenting on this Prophet thus — " The hatred of 
 
 * The Author omits an important sentence in verse 18 — " there shall not be 
 any remaining of the house of Esau ; for the Lord hath spoken it." This does 
 not necessarily signify that they are all destroyed; but it nevertheless apparently 
 conflicts with his argument, and needs to be explained. Ed. 
 
 
195 
 
 1 Esau against Jacob continued in the very seed ; therefore the 
 ' overthrow of them is foretold Isa. xxi, 34 ; Jer. xlix ; 
 ' Ezek. xxxv ; Amos i ; Mai. i. This Prophet doth chiefly 
 I and excellently handle this, — That as Christ is the Son of 
 ' Abraham and Israel, therefore all indued with the Spirit are 
 ' his brethren, and also belong to the seed of Abraham and of 
 ' Israel ; and all false brethren (that is, Antichrists and hypo- 
 ' elites) belong to the seed of Esau. To this agrees whatsoever 
 ' thou here readest against the Edomites. Obadiah's prophecy 
 ' is small in bulk but great in sense, comprehending many 
 ' things in a few words. He prophesieth in the behalf of Is- 
 1 rael against Edom, — foretelling the subversion of the Edomites, 
 ' and the glory of the true Israel, the Church of Christ, and 
 ' that He alone shall reign. He saith that on mount Sion shall 
 ' he deliverance and salvation : which are more perfectly fulfilled, 
 \ according to the letter, in the Church then to be in mount Zion ; 
 ' because the state of Mount Zion continued but for a time, 
 ' whereas the Church abides for ever ; and it shall be, we are 
 ' confident, more eminently famous in the very land of Israel, 
 ' when Israel in the last time shall receive Christ. And their 
 ' possessing those that possessed them, shall come to pass with 
 f illustrious glory, after the last conversion of Israel. It is in 
 some measure fulfilled daily in the elect, who overcome their 
 enemies with invincible patience ; but it is to be fulfilled 
 more sublimely and gloriously in the judgement, when the 
 wicked shall openly before all be judged of the elect. In 
 special, the house of Joseph is named, (albeit it is contained 
 under the house of Jacob,) lest for their worshiping calves 
 and their long captivity it should be deemed as rejected. 
 Joseph and Ephraim (of which tribe was Jeroboam) are the 
 ten tribes, whose captivity, say the Hebrews, is not yet dis- 
 charged. But as it is said in the end of the prophet Amos, in 
 the last time Israel shall he convoked." — " Zarepha (which 
 others write SarephtaJ and Separad, the Rabbins interpret to 
 be France and Spain. But this may safely be collected, that 
 because those nations are here named which most infested 
 the Israelites, — namely the Canaanites, Philistines, and 
 Edomites, — all enemies of the faithful are to be understood, 
 
 which haply is to be fulfilled according to the letter." 
 
 z 
 
196 
 
 GEcolampadius likewise says, " On mount Sion shall be de- 
 " liverance, — that is, salvation or safety. It is certain the 
 " apostles and others conjoined to the Church were by the 
 " sending of the Spirit upon mount Sion, delivered by Christ at 
 " his first coming ; and so we believe at this day every congre- 
 " gation of the faithful is delivered. But we expect a more 
 " ample felicity when the Lord shall come again, &c. In the 
 " last times we expect more perfect sanctity ; and these of the 
 " house of Jacob shall be lords of those who before oppressed 
 " them. We find not in history, that many of the Jews did 
 " bear rule in those countries, save only that the Maccabees 
 " seized upon certain towns. But those things do not seem to 
 " satisfy the prophetical majesty (majestati propheticee.) In the 
 " last times, (that is when Christ shall come,) we shall see the 
 " apostles and those that have imitated them judges of the whole 
 " earth : albeit at this day the elect are divers ways afflicted by 
 " the antichristian party, yet it shall come to pass that they 
 " shall be lords over others, &c. I am not ignorant that some, 
 '* agreeing with the Jews, do think that before the day of Christ, 
 " this kingdom shall be on earth. Christ did not tell his disciples 
 " this, therefore let not us be solicitous of this thing." No far- 
 ther shone the dim light of CEcolampadius in those ancient 
 darker times : yet hear him presently, almost in the next words, 
 how he doth in the general grant this truth : " By the people of 
 " Esau, we understand the enemies of the truth, who shall be be- 
 " fore it as stubble to the fire ; which began in the preaching of 
 " the apostles, overthrowing idolatry, &c. But in the day of 
 " judgement, when hereafter they shall with Christ pronounce 
 " sentence and condemn them, they shall perish by the word of 
 " God, &c. However the Jews expound it either of times 
 " before or after the return from Babel, yet still they have been 
 " adversaries ; albeit they spake of a happy age for a thousand 
 " years. Some do think that the just or righteous Jews shall 
 " rise and dwell upon the earth ; but I leave that as uncertain : 
 " yet most certain it is, that this Prophet doth promise to the 
 " people of God in these words, a most perfect felicity. Among 
 " the Edomites shall be no felicity, &c. In these verses, there- 
 " fore he teacheth, that the kingdom of Christ shall be most am- 
 " pie and large, &c." — " The Jews say that Canaan signifies all 
 
197 
 
 " Germany unto France, and that Sepharat signifies Spain ; 
 " which things are uncertain by this description of places ; but 
 " certainly all Israel shall be saved." Now compare (Ecolam- 
 padius, with CEcolampadius, and see whether he doth not in 
 the general grant the point in hand ; (viz. — a future gloriou* 
 state of the Church on earth;) and grant it as a thing certain. 
 
 MICAH. 
 
 Chapter iv. 
 
 Notice first, generally, that this prophecy of Micah is as 
 well concerning Samaria, the metropolis of the ten tribes, 
 as concerning Jerusalem, the metropolis of the two tribes, 
 (chap, i, verse 1.) Secondly, That this place was urged for our 
 opinion before Jerome's time; (which was 390years after Christ;) 
 as he himself confesses in his comment on this chapter. 
 
 To come to particulars, let us note first the time of fulfilling 
 this prophecy. Our last English translation saith, in the last 
 days. The Hebrew speaks higher own nnnN3 : which words 
 (differing in gender and number, and VnnN properly signifying 
 last) must be closely construed, in the last of clays. Thus also 
 Jerome renders it, in novissimo dierum ; the Chaldee WW FpD3 ; 
 and the Septuagint e7r' eo^a,™ tvv 7j[j,epo)v. So that the state 
 of the Church here prophesied is its last state, before the end 
 of the world. 
 
 Observe secondly, that the first three verses are altogether 
 the same with Isa. ii, 4, already discussed ; which shows, how 
 notable must be the prophecy to be thus twice mentioned by 
 two famous prophets, with so great emphasis, in the same 
 words, phrases, and figures. The Geneva notes assert in the 
 margin, that this prophecy relates to the time of Christ's coming, 
 and to the time when the temjile shall be destroyed : by which 
 I apprehend they meant, the time after the destruction of the 
 temple by Titus Vespasian. Our new Annotations refer it to 
 the time intended by Joel, chap, ii, 28 ; which we have already 
 proved is not yet come to pass. Dr. Mayer, on the fourth 
 verse — " they shall sit every one under his own vine, &c. and 
 there shall be none to make them afraid" — hath these word? : 
 
198 
 
 " And this is still to be fulfilled token this world draweth near to 
 " an end, the fulness of the Gentiles being come in, and the 
 " Jews who remain yet blinded, being converted to the faith of 
 " Christ." Indeed, let any only consider exactly the descrip- 
 tion contained in the remainder of the chapter, from verse 4 
 to the end, of the prosperity, piety, and victory of the Church 
 — yea of the Jewish Church, — and he will be unable to show 
 that these things have been ever yet fulfilled since the Jews' 
 first captivity in Babylon. 
 
 The prosperity is described at verse 4. " They shall sit every 
 man under his vine, and under his fig-tree, and none shall 
 make them afraid ;" and verses 6, 7. — " In that day I will as- 
 " semble 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 far off a strong na- 
 " tion, and the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion, from 
 " henceforth and for ever." [x£?VH TSi) Now when was this 
 prosperity made good to them since their Babylonish captivity, 
 and for so long time as for ever ? Though they were settled at 
 the first of their return, yet from A. M. 3518 to 3640 are but one 
 hundred and twenty two years, about which time Alexander 
 brought Jerusalem under subjection ; after which the Romans 
 immediately subdued them ; and then the Saracens and Turks. 
 A mark of remembrance of their subjection to the Greeks, is 
 the translation of the Bible, called the Septuagint ; because it 
 was done by about seventy Jews, at the command of the 
 Grecian powers. As plain a memento of their Romish sub- 
 jection is, that Christ was crucified under the Roman Pontius 
 Pilate. And a sufficient memorandum of their subjection to 
 the Turks is, that they possess Jerusalem at this day. So that 
 the time of their prosperity will not amount to above one 
 hundred and twenty two years : and is that a fulfilment of the 
 promise, " That the Lord should reign over them of mount 
 Zion, from henceforth and far ever?" His reign must here be 
 understood of such a manifest, visible reigning, as stands in di- 
 rect opposition to tyrannical men or conquerors reigning over 
 them : else the Prophet had told them nothing ; seeing God 
 doth equally reign by his power over all the world, and by his 
 spiritual grace over all believers. 
 
1 99 
 
 Their piety is characterized in the tilth verse. — " For all 
 people will walk every one in the name of his God ; and we 
 will walk in the name of JEHOVAH our God for ever and ever." 
 For these words are not only a promise, but a prophecy ; to 
 signify the piety they should practise when the"~"Lord should 
 perform the aforesaid prosperity unto them. For as for Alicah, 
 and his generation of religious men, they were soon dead ; and 
 the generality of the Jews were mightily corrupted, and stood hein- 
 ously guilty of ignorance, idolatry, injustice, oppression, cruelty, 
 &c. as the three first and sixth chapters abundantly testify. Yea, 
 in those chapters the Prophet reminds them, in regard to that 
 prosperous time, in which they should thus serve God for ever, 
 that they were to expect nothing at present but devastations 
 and captivities. Long afterwards, in the time of the Macca- 
 bees, great profanation was brought in as a flood upon their 
 Jewish religion." And in Christ's and the Apostles' times, we 
 find the whole body of their law to be exceedingly corrupted, 
 which our Saviour exposes in various parts of the Gospel. And 
 as for the Christian religion, they did, for the generality, refuse 
 both it and him \ — " He came unto his own, and his own re- 
 ceived him not." v And so they did afterwards in the Apostles' 
 ministrations ; rejecting their doctrine, and persecuting their 
 persons ; w and St. Paul saith they are to continue in blindness 
 till the fulness of the Gentiles shall be come in, and that then 
 , all Israel shall be saved. x 
 
 Their victory is set forth in the eighth verse to the end of the 
 
 chapter. — " And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of 
 
 ' " the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first 
 
 , " dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jeru- 
 
 1 " salem" — " Thou shalt be delivered from Babylon ; there the 
 
 ; " Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies." 
 
 They shall not only be delivered as by a common providence ; 
 
 ^ but shall be redeemed as relating to the fruit of a Saviour ; see 
 
 ' Luke iii, 31 — 38. " Arise, and thresh, O daughter of Zion : 
 
 " for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thine hoofs 
 
 " brass, and thou shalt beat in pieces many peoples. And I 
 
 \ " will consecrate their gain unto the Lord, and their substance 
 
 " 2 Mace, chapters v— vii. v Johni, 2. " Acts iv, and xiii. * Rom. xi. 
 
200 
 
 " to the Lord of the whole earth." So that the Jews must not 
 only be delivered from their enemies, but must be the destroyers 
 of them that continue enemies ; and that will be not a few, but 
 " many peoples." But whenever had the Jews, since their first 
 captivity, such prosperity, such victory, such a kingdom, and 
 such a conquest ? 
 
 Zephaniah. 
 Chapter iii, 8—20. 
 
 In this place three things are prophesied. I. The restitution 
 of the Jews, both in a way of conversion unto God, and of es- 
 tablishment in a glorious church state in their own country. 
 IT. The vocation of the Gentiles, both unto an effectual con- 
 version unto God, and a most harmonious union with the rest 
 of the Church. III. The subversion of the enemies of the Jews 
 and of the church of Christ. 
 
 I. The restitution of the Jews (as to the first part thereof, 
 viz. their conversion,) we have in verses 10 — 13, " From beyond 
 the river of Ethiopia, my suppliants, even the daughter of my 
 dispersed, shall bring mine offering." "My suppliants' (i. e. 
 those who call upon my Name,) are expounded to be " even the 
 daughter of my dispersed* there;" which plainly means the 
 
 * The Hebrews in their Chaldee Paraphrase translate WO Ethiopia by Viin 
 India ; where Rabbi Menasse Ben Israel saith, (in his book de spe Israelis,) 
 multitudes of Jews are. There are indeed three opinions touching Ethiopia, and 
 the river beyond it. 1st, That it signifies Eyypt, which is beyond the river 
 Nilus, which riseth in Ethiopia, and flows thence unto Egypt. 2ndly. That it 
 is Ethiopia sub Egypto, i.e. Abyssinia, for this was near to the Jews, and by 
 that name well known to them ; and so the Africans, and all inhabiting with 
 them, were " beyond the rivers of Ethiopia" in respect of Judea and Egypt : 
 so that here also may be understood all the countries beyond the sea, viz. Brazil, 
 Peru, the West Indies, &c. 3dly. That it is the East Indies unto Japan and 
 China : for Tigris and Euphrates are called the rivers of Ethiopia ; which slide 
 first by or through Chaldea ; (where reigned Nimrod the son of Chus who gave 
 name to Ethiopia ;) then by or through Mesopotamia ; and afterwards through 
 the midst of Arabia, (which sometimes in Scripture is called Chus ;) and be- 
 yond these rivers lie all Asia and India. And therefore the Chaldee Paraphrase 
 inclines to expound this of the Indians, as if Indian Ethiopia were here meant ; 
 whence the Sabeans are also Indians, as Pererius asserts out of Beroaldus and 
 Dionysius on Gen. xxv, 5. And indeed Seba and Havilah, the sons of Chus, 
 dwelt towards India ; so that Cyril, Theodoret, and Procopius call the country 
 of Sabea, by the name of Indian-Ethiopia. The sum of all is, that the Prophet 
 intends, that all the Jews and Israelites, dispersed into the remotest countries, 
 should be converted unto Christ. 
 
201 
 
 Jews. That they shall bring their offering implies, that they 
 shall worship God in a right manner : though this place does 
 not prejudice the glorious Christian state of the Church, inte- 
 grated of Jews and Gentiles, and intended by all the prophecies 
 we produce. For take this as a rule, for this and all other sim- 
 ilar places : that though in Moses' time they were taken accord- 
 ing to the letter to signify material Levitical sacrifices ; yet in 
 regard to after-times, not only the apostles of the New Testa- 
 ment, but the prophets of the Old, by offerings, sacrifices, altars, 
 &c. did signify unto us spiritual oblations, compatible and cor- 
 respondent to the Gospel. These are examples out of both : 
 " Offer to God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows, &c." — " Whoso 
 offer eth praise, glorifieth me."y — " The sacrifices of God are a 
 broken spirit/' 2 — " Let my prayer be set forth before thee as 
 incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice."*- 
 " Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously, so will we 
 render the calves of our lips." b — " Offer (or present) to God 
 your bodies as a living sacrifice." — "To do good and to com- 
 municate forget not ; for with such sacrifices God is well 
 pleased." — " If I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of 
 your faith, I joy, &c." d — " And another angel came and stood 
 at the altar having a golden censer, and there was given to him 
 much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all 
 saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne." 
 Thus you see how the tenth verse sets forth the conversion of 
 the Jews ; which is further amplified in the eleventh : — " In 
 " that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings, wherein 
 " thou hast trangressed against me ? For then will I take away 
 " out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride, and 
 " thou shalt be no more haughty, because of my holy mountain." 
 This is also evidently spoken of the Jews, in that the Lord pro- 
 mises to take away their sins ; and in particular, their pride of the 
 Temple, in which they had greatly indulged : f nor was it re- 
 moved in our Saviour's time ;S and therefore this text was not 
 then fulfilled. 
 
 Again, " I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and 
 poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord." 
 
 YPs. 1, 14, 23. z Ps. li, 17. ap s . cxli.2. b Hos. xiv, 2. c Heb. xiii, 1!'. 
 d Phil, ii, 17. e Rev. viii, .'3. f Jer. vii, 4. 8 Matt. xxiv. 1. 
 
202 
 
 (v. 13.) This last clause of trusting in the name of the Lord, 
 contains the very life and power of godliness : and for the first 
 clause, whoever can well weigh the Hebrew will confess, that 
 the words may equally and better be rendered, " I will cause to 
 remain in thee a people that is humble and meek or poor in spirit," 
 as Arias, the Septuagint, and the Syriac and Arabic render it. 
 This verse is aptly opposed to their pride in the former verse, 
 and is the ready way to that which follows in verse 13. " The 
 remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies, neither 
 shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth ; for they shall 
 feed, and lie down, and none shall make them afraid :" that is, 
 they shall there abide, because there shall be no danger ; and 
 they shall be so holy, because they shall have grace within, and 
 no temptation from without. 2. For the second part of the 
 Jews' restitution, (namely, their reversion into their own coun- 
 try) we have it in verses 16 — 20, " In that day it shall be said 
 " to Jerusalem, Fear thou not, and to Zion, Let not thy hands 
 " be slack. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty ; 
 " He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy, He will rest 
 " in his love, (a high and glorious expression !) He will joy over 
 " thee with singing. I will gather them that are sorrowful for 
 " the solemn assembly, who are of thee, to whom the reproach of 
 " it was a burthen." " At that time I will bring you again, even 
 " in the time that I gather you. For I will make you a name, and 
 " a praise among all the people of the earth, when I turn back 
 " your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord." All this can 
 signify no less than a glorious visible church state, making them 
 a spouse unto their Lord Christ. 
 
 II. For the second general head, the vocation of the Gentiles, 
 both an effectual conversion unto God, and harmonious union 
 with the rest of the Church ; we have it in the ninth verse : 
 " For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they 
 may call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one 
 consent :" more literally it might be rendered, " I will convert 
 in the peoples a pure lip, that they may call upon the name of the 
 Lord, to serve him with one shoulder." It is express, that the 
 peoples, nations, or Gentiles are here spoken of, who upon their 
 conversion should be exempted from the ruin on the nations 
 named in the eighth verse, and should return with the dispersed 
 
203 
 
 Jews, as in the tenth verse. Then their profane lips should be 
 purified ; and their idolatrous and blasphemous words before 
 their false gods should be turned into holy prayers to Jehovah ; 
 and they should serve him not only with one consent of mind, 
 but with one way of practice, — as when many lift, as with one 
 shoulder, to move a thing the same way, or draw equally in 
 the same yokes, fastened to the same chain or traces. 
 
 III. The third thing is, the destruction of the enemies of the 
 Church, contained in verses 14, 15, 19. These three heads, ob- 
 serve, are all interwoven, to signify that the whole of this visi- 
 ble glory comes together. — " Sing O daughter of Zion, shout 
 " O Israel, be glad and rejoice with all thy heart, O daughter of 
 " Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken away thy judgement, he hath 
 " cast out thine enemy. The king of Israel is in the midst of thee, 
 " even the Lord ; you shall not see evil any more." — " Behold, at 
 " that time / will undo all that afflict thee, and will save her that 
 " halteth, and gather her that was driven out ; and I will get them 
 " a praise and fame in every land, where they have been put to 
 " shame." 
 
 Thus you see the full extent and intent of the text, insomuch 
 as never to this day can be found an adequate fulfilment there- 
 of; and therefore it waits for its turn to be performed by our 
 " God that cannot lie." Others, the stream of whose opinion 
 runs a contrary way, do nevertheless intimate this. For ex- 
 ample, Dr. Mayer : — " I will turn to the people a pure 
 " language, intimates the conversion of the Gentiles ; but lest, 
 " when judgements should come upon all peoples by Nebuchad- 
 " nezzar, they should despair of any such work to be wrought 
 " among them, he saith, — My determination is to gather the 
 " nations, to pour out mine indignation upon them ; — meaning, 
 " that great destructions should before this pass through all 
 " countries, &c. after which the conversion of the nations to the 
 " Gospel should follow." Calvin and our new Annotations say, 
 that " this prophecy is extended unto the time of the Gospel ; 
 " when not only the Gentiles shall come into the Church, but 
 " also the Jews shall return into their own country, that they 
 " may make one body with the converted Gentiles." Observe 
 how many parties are here mentioned, that must have a share 
 
 in the fulfilling of this prophecy, when ever it be fulfilled : first, 
 
 2 B 
 
204 
 
 the Gentiles, [v. 9,) secondly, the two tribes called Judah, ex- 
 pressed in the words, Zion and Jerusalem, (w. 14, 16,) 
 thirdly, the ten tribes, called by their name Israel, (v. 14.) 
 Observe also the things to be shared among those parties : con- 
 version to the true God, congregating of them into a christian 
 church, and destruction of all that hate them, as you have 
 heard. Now when did all these parties jointly share in all the 
 mercies here promised ? Certainly not at the return from 
 Babylon, as will be very evident from the holiness described in 
 verses 9 and 13, compared with the pollution and abomination 
 charged on some of them, in Ezra ii, 62 ; Neh. vii, 64 ; xiii, 
 3. Observe, all these must, at the great time of fulfilling 
 them, be extant at once ; for though in the discuss I distin- 
 guished them into parts, according to their nature and sense, 
 yet the prophet, according to place and order of sentences, did 
 interweave and windingly wreathe them one within another ; to 
 the intent that no man might separate what God had joined to- 
 gether, but might behold them as a goodly coin, which, though 
 there be a distinction of the parts of the impressions on it, 
 makes but one image of Caesar. All those parts are but 
 the several sculptures of one and the same entire character of 
 that glorious period of the Church, yet to come on earth : 
 for hitherto the said three parties never enjoyed the afore-men- 
 tioned three parts together, but generally speaking they 
 have been visibly, to the eye of the whole world, under a con- 
 trary condition. For, observe, the high expressions the God of 
 truth gives forth touching the glory of the state, to be enjoyed by 
 the said parties at the time when this prophecy shall be fulfilled ; 
 viz. that the peoples, or Gentiles shall have pure lips, where- 
 with to call upon the name of the Lord, as it is in verse 9. 
 That Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies, nor shall a de- 
 ceitful tongue be found in their mouth, verse 13. That they of 
 Zion and Jerusalem, and Israel, shall be glad, and rejoice with 
 all their heart, verse 14; for it follows, (vv. 15, 16, 17,) the 
 Lord shall so take away their judgements, and cast down their 
 enemies, — and, instead of them, he himself, as king, will be so in 
 the midst of them, — that they shall not see evil any more, nor 
 shall their hearts fear, nor their hands faint. 
 
205 
 
 ZECHARIAH. 
 
 Chapter ii, 4 — 12. 
 
 Next we come to the Prophet Zechariah, who with Haggai, 
 prophesied after the return of Judah from Babylon. k 
 
 It often has been very grievous in my eyes, to see how Au- 
 thors commonly follow one another in expounding Scripture, 
 as if they were rather led by human example, than by divine 
 reason. Take this for an instance ; that they successively 
 dictate, (not demonstrate,) that the great call to the Jews in the 
 sixth verse " To come forth and flee from the land of the 
 north, &c." relates to those of the two tribes that tarried be- 
 hind, when the rest of them returned. (Ecolampadius indeed, 
 and Pellican are both with me ; and I confess, that I am glad of 
 the bare company in opinion of them that are learned, were it 
 only to wipe off singularity ; though I had rather have one of their 
 reasons than a hundred of their names. 
 
 Now it is clear, that this place of Scripture is a prophecy of 
 future things ; for from the fourth verse it speaks of things that 
 shall come to pass, and which God will do. And the exhortation 
 in the sixth verse is expressly extended, not only to the Jews in 
 " the north," viz. Babylon ; but to all of them " spread abroad 
 to the four winds :" the connexion of which shows, that to 
 gather them from the four winds means, their coming out of 
 the north. Accordingly the Septuagint reads it H, o>, (ptvyere 
 airo yr\s fioppa, Aeyet Kvpios : hion €K tcov Teoraapoiv av€ji<av tov 
 ovpavov crurafo) tyxaj i. e. " Ho, ho, flee from the land of the 
 north, saith the Lord ; because I will gather you from the four 
 winds of heaven." So at chap, viii, v. 2, " Behold I will 
 " save my people from the east country, and from the west 
 " country ; and I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the 
 " midst of Jerusalem." When Zechariah delivered this, the 
 two tribes had been returned from Babylon into Judea near 
 sixteen years. For, as the best chronologers reckon, they re- 
 turned from Babylon A. M. 3435, and Zechariah prophesied in 
 3451 : leaving a good time for those Jews to take heart to 
 
 k See Haggai i, 1 — 6 and Zech. i, 1, 6, 16. 
 
206 
 
 return, that are said to have lingered behind the rest, either 
 through fear of the king's sincerity, or of the success of their 
 fore-runners in Judea. Doubtless, therefore, by this time most 
 of the people of Judah were returned. Josephus boldly af- 
 firms,* and Sanctius approves the account, that there returned 
 of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin 4,628,000 ; which may 
 appear to have some truth in it, if we compare Ezra ii, 61 — 65 
 and Neh. xiii, 3. And truly the great work they did in re- 
 building the temple, repairing the city walls, and their bountiful 
 offerings at the dedication, speak aloud, that they were a very 
 numerous people. It is therefore very unlikely, that the 
 Prophet should in that exhortation chiefly mind a gleaning of 
 lingerers in Babylon. 
 
 But further, this exhortation is by the apostles carried down 
 to the latter, if not to the last, times of this world. For St. 
 Paul brings it down to his time, in those words ; " Come out 
 " from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, (mark 
 " his quotation of the Old Testament,) and touch not the un- 
 " clean thing, and I will receive you, and be a father unto 
 " you :"i just to the same effect as Zechariah vi, 17, 18, " Come 
 " forth, flee from the land of the north, &c. Deliver thyself, O 
 " Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon, &c. Lo I 
 " come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord." 
 Thus far St. Paul extends it ; but St. John extends it much 
 further, and that in a prophetical way, viz. to the time nearly 
 preceding the fall of Babylon : " I saw another angel come 
 " down from heaven, &c. and he cried mightily with a strong 
 " voice saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, &c. And 
 " I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her my 
 " people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye re- 
 " ceive not of her plagues." Which two last clauses, being of a 
 future signification, clearly show, that the words " is fallen, is 
 fallen" mean, it shall fall ; and that therefore the people of 
 God must timely come out thence. 
 
 But there are also high strains annexed to this prophecy 
 
 * Lib. xi, cap. 3. A gross and notorious error in Josephus. The utmost 
 that can be made from Ezra and Nehemiah is about 50,000, which number in- 
 cludes servants, &c. Ed. 
 
 » 2 Cor. vi, 17, 18. 
 
207 
 
 which effectually evince that it is not yet fulfilled. First, 
 " I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, 
 and will be the glory in the midst of her :" (v. 5) i.e. a fence 
 about the Church (consisting of Jews and Gentiles) of absolute 
 defence to them, and of devouring offence to the enemy. Again, 
 " Thus saith the Lord, after the glory hath he sent me to the 
 " nations, which spoiled you : for he that toucheth you, touch- 
 ** eth the apple of his eye. For behold I will shake mine hand 
 " upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants ; and 
 " ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me." (vv. 8, 9.) 
 i.e. after this glory of your famous return and rebuilt temple, 
 the Lord hath sent me, the Messiah, to the nations that spoiled 
 you, who, in touching you to hurt you, did as it were thrust 
 their fingers into mine eyes. Therefore I the Messiah will 
 shake mine hands upon them, to break them with a rod of iron ; 
 (as in Ps. ii, 9 ;) and so to make them a spoil to their servants, 
 i.e. to you, whom they rigidly made their servants. Lastly, 
 " Sing and rejoice O daughter of Zion, for lo I come, and I will 
 " dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. And many nations 
 " shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people, 
 " and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know 
 " that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee. And the 
 '■' Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the Holy Land, and 
 " shall chuse Jerusalem again. Be silent, O all flesh before 
 " the Lord, because he is raised up out of {awakened concerning 
 << — S ee the Heb.) his holy habitation." Now, when were 
 these sublime expressions ever yet fulfilled ? We have a watch- 
 word in the twelfth verse, that we must look for the fulfilment 
 of them far beyond Zechariah's time : for though, when he pro- 
 phesied, he saw the return of the Jews into the Holy Land, yet 
 still he says, " the Lord shall inherit Judah, his portion in the 
 Holy Land, and shall chuse Jerusalem again." Surely if we keep 
 the prophecy together, as the Lord hath said it, there was never 
 yet that time and state of the Church, which is here limned forth 
 to the life : — viz. that it should consist of Jews and Gentiles 
 joined to the Lord, and owned by him, as his people, even while 
 the Jews possess the Holy Land ; and the Lord as a wall of fire, 
 protecting them, and devouring their enemies ; and making the 
 Jews to be the spoilers of the heathen, instead of their servants ; 
 
208 
 
 and these things carried to that height of glory, that all spiritual 
 hearts * sing and rejoice ,' and all fleshly hearts are struck dumb 
 with silence. 
 
 Chapter vi, 12 — 15. 
 
 Though this second temple was founded, and by this time in 
 great part raised, (chap, viii, v. 9,) and the completion of the 
 work by sufficient and able men was now in progress ; yet the 
 Prophet here foretels, " that the man whose name is the branch 
 (the frequent title of Christ) shall build the temple of the Lord ;" 
 repeated again with great emphasis — " even he shall build the 
 temple of the Lord." [vv. 12, 13.) Therefore in these words 
 he looked far beyond his own time. Christ builds the temple, 
 first in his natural body, secondly in his mystical ; for subor- 
 dinates are no opposites, but emit a typical radiation successively 
 from the one to the other. First, in his natural body, by his 
 resurrection ; according to his own exposition, when asked 
 " What sign showest thou unto us, seeing thou dost these 
 " things ? Jesus answered, destroy this temple, and in three days 
 " I will raise, it up. Then said the Jews, forty and six years was 
 " this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days ? 
 " But he spake of the temple of his body."' 1 Secondly, in his 
 mystical body, the Church ; by communicating to whom his Holy 
 Spirit, he makes them ■ his temple,' and ' the habitation of 
 God.' k This mystical temple was founded long since ; but the 
 Prophet here chiefly points to its completion. Or, to speak in 
 a juster proportion to the first and second material temple, the 
 ■first mystical temple, the church of the Jews, being destroyed at 
 Christ's passion ; (the veil then being rent, to signify the tearing 
 down of Jewish worship;) upon his ascension he began, by send- 
 ing the Spirit, to build the second mystical temple, viz. the 
 Christian Church, and when this second mystical temple shall 
 be finished, 1 — of which finishing Zechariah (v. 15) gives us this 
 sign, " that then, they that are afar off shall come and build in 
 the temple ;" which can have no other adequate interpretation 
 than, that when the Gentiles, which are afar off in religion, 
 
 i John ii, 18—21. k 1 Cor. vi, 15—19 ; 2 Cor. vi, 16 ; Ephes. ii, 21, 22. 
 1 See Rom. xi, 25, 26, and the Apocalypse. 
 
•209 
 
 shall in full come in ; and when the ten tribes of Israel, that are 
 to this day afar off both in religion and place, shall come and be 
 built into the Christian Church ; — then, even at that very time, 
 the branch Christ, that built this second mystical temple, 
 " shall sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest up- 
 on his throne, and the council of peace shall be between them 
 both." (ver. 13.) That is, as Christ hath sensibly appeared in 
 acting his priesthood, when he prayed and paid for his Church, 
 before and at his passion ; m so shall he as manifestly be seen to 
 act his kingly office, in a glorious, universal evident peace, flow- 
 ing from both, in the time of his kingdom. Else nothing is 
 prophesied ; for mere inward and spiritual peace had flowed into 
 the hearts of the saints in all ages of the Church, from his 
 kingly and priestly office ; and the saints knew it upon good 
 experience : but here is prophesied such things, and such effects, 
 as many of the Church could hardly believe. And therefore 
 " there should be crowns to Helem and Tobijah, and Jedaiah, 
 and to Hen for a memorial in the temple ;" (ver. 14;) i. e. they 
 should be in Zechariah's time hung up in the temple, for the 
 conviction and condemnation of them that believed not on this 
 prophecy ; and to draw men unto faith to believe the same, as 
 Calvin, Pemble, and Junius expound. 
 
 Chapter viii, 20—23. 
 
 Here, and in ver. 22, " Thus saith the Lord of hosts : It shall 
 " yet come to pass, that there shall come peoples* and the in- 
 " habitants of many cities ; and the inhabitants of one city shall 
 " go to another, saying, let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, 
 " and to seek the Lord of hosts ; I will go also. Yea many 
 " peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of 
 " hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord. Thus saith 
 " the Lord of hosts : in those days it shall come to pass, that 
 " ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, 
 *' even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, 
 ; " we will go with you ; for we have heard that God is with you." 
 
 I shall add no more to this very plain prophecy, except boldly 
 to assert (till men or books can show us the contrary) that it 
 
 711 John xvii — xix. * D'ty Sept. Xavt iroWot. 
 
210 
 
 was never yet fulfilled. The Scripture tells us no such thing, 
 history tells us no such thing, experience shows us no such 
 matter, as that peoples and strong nations did ever join with 
 the Jews in prayer to God, &c. and that at Jerusalem. As for 
 those Parthians, Medes, Elamites, &c. mentioned Acts ii, 9 — 
 11, they were not nations ; neither were they Gentiles, but Jews, 
 born in those forenamed countries ; as Luke tells us, {v. 5,) 
 and Peter afterwards calls them, " Ye men of Israel." (v. 22.) 
 And that none put this off with the imagination that they were 
 proselytes, or Gentiles converted to Judaism, let them heed, that 
 proselytes are named distinctly from Jews, and Jews from them : 
 'the strangers of Rome/ were Jews and proselytes, {v. 10.) 
 The truth is, that Cornelius was the first Gentile that was con- 
 verted to the christian faith ; as plainly evinced by Acts x. 
 And by the time that a few more Gentiles began to hearken to 
 the Gospel, the Jews in general began to reject it, and so to 
 give it a pass to go freely to the Gentiles. n 
 
 Chapter x, 3—12. 
 
 " Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, &c. and I 
 " punished the goats : for the Lord of hosts hath visited his 
 " flock, the house of Judah, and hath made them as his goodly 
 " horse in the battle." The word 'for shows, that the period of 
 this wrath against the shepherds was at the late return of Judah 
 from captivity. The Chaldee and Septuagint have it, " he shall 
 visit them," " he shall make them as is goodly horse," making 
 thereby the visitation in mercy then begun extend to a vast 
 longitude of future times, being but the type, or first fruits, of 
 their future, final, full deliverance. The fourth verse is in- 
 definite in the Hebrew, being without tense or verb ; " Out 
 of him the corner, out of him the nail, out of him the 
 battle bow, out of him every oppressor, (or exactor of taxes, 
 tW!3.)" That is, the house of Judah being built on Christ the 
 corner stone, and thus incorporated into the Church, they 
 shall fasten the nail of union with Israel, and together with 
 them, and the rest of the Church, they shall be the battle bow to 
 wound and the goodly war-horse to trample down their enemies ; 
 
 n Acts xiii. 
 
v^ 
 
 \^, * - 
 
 so that from the Church shall proceed the exactor of tribute, (In* 
 stead of paying tribute,) to signify the dominion of the Churfck- 
 over the world. The rest of the chapter is so plain for our point, 
 touching the visible glorious state of the Church yet to come, 
 that a bare repetition of the words will suffice. " And they 
 " shall be as mighty men, which tread down their enemies in the 
 " mire of the streets, in the battle ; and they shall fight, because 
 " the Lord is with them, and the riders on horses (' their en- 
 *' emies') shall be confounded. And I will strengthen the house 
 <e of Judah, and will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring 
 " them again to place them ; for I have mercy upon them, and they 
 " shall be as though I had not cast them off, &c* And they of 
 *' Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, &c. Yea their children 
 " shall see and be glad, &c. I will hiss for them and gathei* 
 " 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 far countries, and they shall live 
 ** with their children, and return again. I will bring them again 
 " also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria, 
 " and I will bring them into the land of Gilead, and Lebanon. 
 " And he shall pass through the sea (not " with affliction" but as 
 Jerome, Arias, and the Septuagint render it) by a strait 
 of the sea ; and shall smite the waves of the sea, and all the 
 " deeps of the river shall dry up ; and the pride of Assyria shall 
 " be brought down, and the sceptre shall depart away, &c."f 
 
 Now in the first place consider who they are, that are here 
 mentioned, and that must share in the fulfilling of this prophecy; 
 viz. the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, all twelve tribes, clearly 
 expressed by Joseph and Ephraim, by which names they are 
 frequently referred to ; and they are to be united, as two walls join- 
 ed in a quoin or corner-juncture, or as two pieces of timber nailed 
 or pinned together. Next observe what they must enjoy or attain 
 to ; viz. the conquest of their enemies in battle, their domination 
 over them in a way of government, and the possession of their 
 own land. Notice further, that the main things insisted upon 
 are corporal, dressed forth in such language, and circumstanced 
 with such particulars, as suit not well to spirituals : e.g. " Battle- 
 
 * Compare Hosea i, 10, 11. t On all which, see the prophecy of Nahuni, 
 
 2 c 
 
212 
 
 bow ; treading down in the mire ; the riders on horses shall be 
 confounded, &c." And when there is a touch here and there of 
 spirituals, it is always distinct from the corporals, with an 
 inference from the cause to the effect ; as if rather intended to 
 ascertain the other to be corporals, than to draw them unto and 
 drown them in a spiritual notion : e.g. " They shall tread down 
 " their enemies in the mire of the street, and fight, because the 
 " Lord is with them." — " I will bring them again to place them ; 
 "for I have mercy on them ; and they shall be as though I had 
 " not cast them off; for I am the Lord their God, and will hear 
 " them, fyc." Moreover, this latter place parallels their future 
 state in outward things to the pattern of their former prosperity 
 in the time of David, Solomon, &c. — " They shall be as 
 though I had not cast them off;" and, "they shall increase, 
 as they have increased." And finally there are some passages 
 which the Holy Ghost elsewhere applies to a sensible, visible, 
 material performance ; as the return of the Jews from Egypt 
 and Assyria, over the sea and the 'deep of the river, which is ap- 
 plied by St. John, (Rev. xvi, 12,) in the pouring out of the sixth 
 vial, to the kings of the east, — that is, the Jews returning from 
 Assyria over the river Euphrates ;* which river Zechariah must 
 needs mean, when he speaks of their return from Assyria, by 
 the metropolis whereof Euphrates flows. The Jews go further, 
 and speak of a miraculous drying up of waters that shall lie as 
 a hindrance in their way, as formerly at the Red Sea and Jor- 
 dan ; which opinion, though I assert it not, is not so gross as 
 some conceive. 
 
 Now let the wise -hearted lay all together and find out if they 
 can, when, and where, and how this entire prophecy, as it is here 
 woven together, was ever yet fulfilled ; and let them show how, 
 if they can, the last resurrection and ultimate judgement may 
 be a meet time to fulfil it ? If they will hazard the dispute 
 upon the transforming all into an allegory, and make their re- 
 liance upon a spiritual sense, there they are gone, and we are 
 confirmed. In that way several of the learned have stumbled 
 
 * So Grotius in loco applies it, " Flumen cum simpliciter appellator, intelligendus 
 Euphrates. Ex hoc loco desumitur et ille qui est Apoc. xvi, 12. viz. e|e%cc r;;v 
 <piakt]v, &c." — When the river only is named, the Euphrates is to be understood. 
 From this place also is taken that in Rev. xvi, 12. 
 
213 
 
 and fallen j that is, have contradicted and perplexed themselves; 
 and could not fairly rise and come off, but by taking hold (more 
 or less, either expressly or implicitly) of our opinion. 
 
 CEcolampadius is very much for a spiritual sense, understand- 
 ing by the war-horse, the corner, the nail, the battle-bow, and 
 the strong men, &c. the apostles, evangelists, and pastors of the 
 New Testament. And at every verse almost he hath, " Nos ilia 
 spiritualiter intelligimus," — We understand these things spiritually. 
 But if he did so understand them, why does he upon the sixth 
 verse tell us " That the naming there of the house of Judah, 
 and the house of Joseph, is a plain demonstration, that the 
 speech of this prophecy is directed to all the " Israelites?" And 
 why on the seventh verse, " That the tribe of Ephraim, whose 
 " captivity was greater, shall be more greatly strengthened; and 
 " made like to a giant, refreshed with wine, as the country of 
 V Ephraim abounded therewith ?" And again, why does he 
 interpret the eleventh verse in a literal sense, (" he shall pass 
 through a strait of the sea,") and tell us this strait is Propontis ? 
 Many other like inconsistencies may be pointed out. 
 
 As for Calvin, though upon the fifth verse he gives for the 
 most part a mere spiritual sense, yet, before and after, he launches 
 forth into a further sense ; yea, and into times, beyond any that 
 have yet come to pass. For upon the fourth verse he hath 
 these words ; " From among the Jews shall be the corner ; that 
 " is, those in that people that shall bear the public government. 
 " And the battle-bow, that is, they shall be sufficient to conquer 
 " their enemies, And the exactor ; that is, they shall enjoy 
 I the empire, or rule over their neighbours, and require tribute 
 " of them, instead of paying it to them. If any ask, When this 
 " shall be fulfilled ? — I answer, There were some preludes of 
 " this, when God exalted the Maccabees : but it is certain, that 
 I the prophet comprises the whole course of redemption." And 
 in that clause, " I will bring them again and place them," (which 
 Calvin reads " I will bring them back, and cause them to dwell,") 
 he says " That God will not only brink back again the ten tribes, 
 but will give them a fixed seat in their own country :" which 
 words are full to our sense. 
 
214 
 
 Chapter xii. 
 
 This chapter is so full for a future glorious and visible state of 
 the Church on earth, that I shall but little more then name the 
 particulars. 
 
 First, it seems very clear, that this prophecy is intended as 
 well for Israel as for Judah. And therefore, as with Judah is 
 often mentioned Jerusalem ; (w. 2, 5, &c.) so with Israel, 
 expressed in the first verse, are mentioned the families of Levi, 
 and of Simeon, &c. which were of the ten tribes, (w. 13, 14.) 
 Now till any one show us, that these prophecies have been ful- 
 filled, both to Judah and Israel since their captivity, we must 
 conclude that they are yet unfulfilled : and the rather, because 
 although at this time the people of Judah had been returned 
 from Babylon near twenty years, yet in the sixth verse the Pro- 
 phet points at another returning, to a re -inhabiting of Jerusalem, 
 " in her own place, even in Jerusalem ;" and this to be done 
 at a notable day. 
 
 And when did God ever yet " make Jerusalem a cup of trem- 
 bling to all that besieged her ?" (v. 2.) When Alexander with 
 his army, about one hundred and eighty years after Zechariah, 
 came to Jerusalem, though he came as a conqueror, yet he en- 
 tered and was received in all peaceable manner, with reciprocal 
 respect between him and the high-priest. When after him, 
 about one hundred and forty three years, Antiochus Epiphanes 
 came against Jerusalem with his army, he prevailed against it, 
 and miserably spoiled both it and the temple, and slaughtered 
 the people. a When, about seven years after him Antiochus 
 Eupator came up against Judea and Jerusalem, he prevailed 
 against both, partly by power, and partly by policy, and threw 
 down the walls of Zion. b About ninety-eight years after him 
 the Roman Pompey took Jerusalem and the temple, sending 
 Aristobulus the king of the Jews bound to Rome, and subduing 
 the Jews to the Roman power. About six years after, accord- 
 ing to Josephus, Gabinius the Roman, invading Syria and then 
 Judea, conquered there Alexander King of the Jews, (son of 
 
 a 1 Mac. i, 20—24. b Ibid, \i, 17, 48, cScc. <"Buchol. Jud. Chron. A.M. 3939. 
 
215 
 
 Aristobulus) in a pitched battle, slaying three thousand Jews, and 
 taking as many prisoners. As for the history after Christ, it is more 
 familiarly known, that Titus, the Roman Emperor, about A.D. 70, 
 destroyed Jerusalem,bothcityandtemple; (as likewise did Adrian, 
 the Roman Emperor after him, about A.D. 133 ;) and so Rome 
 successively held it, till the Saracens and Turks won it from 
 them and continue to hold it till this day. And upon the 
 same ground of history I may put unanswerable questions 
 upon most of the chapter following : as, When since their re- 
 turn, was Jerusalem " ever a burthensome stone to all people 
 of the earth, to cut them all in pieces that shall burthen them- 
 selves with it V [v. 3.) When " hath every horse been 
 stricken with astonishment, and his rider with madness V 
 (v. 4.) When " could the governors of Judah say in their 
 heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem, under God, shall be my 
 strength V {v. 5.) When " have the governors of Judah been 
 " like a hearth of fire amongst the wood, and like a torch of 
 " fire in a sheaf, devouring all the people round about, &c. V 
 (v. 6.) When " hath the Lord so saved the tents of Judah, and 
 " defended the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that he that was 
 " feeble among them was made as David, and the house of 
 " David as Elohim, and as the angel of Jehovah ; and hath 
 " sought to destroy all the nations that come against Jeru- 
 " salem V Mind the breviat of history before recited, and 
 look upon the state of the Jews at this day, and we cannot 
 but expect the particulars yet to come. And upon the same 
 grounds (adding the history of the conduct of the Jews to- 
 wards Christ, penned by the Evangelists ; and the context in 
 the ninth verse, " At that day it shall come to pass," viz. at the 
 time that the former part of the chapter shall be fulfilled, with 
 a collation of Rev. i, 7 and Matt, xxiv, 30 ;) we may as boldly 
 question, When were those things ever yet fulfilled, mentioned 
 in verses 10 — 14; "That God would so pour out upon the 
 " house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit 
 " of grace and supplication, that they shall look on him whom 
 " they have pierced, and mourn for him with great bitterness, 
 " each family mourning apart ?" This cannot be imagined to 
 be fulfilled by the Jews, before Christ was pierced : the 
 argument of two Jews of late, with one of whom I had 
 
216 
 
 conference, is, — that they expect the Messiah yet to come, to 
 convert their nation, because they must see him with a peni- 
 tent eye after he is pierced. 
 
 Chapter xiv, 3 — 2 1 . 
 
 This, the last place in Zechariah which we shall bring forward, 
 was anciently (as Jerome confesses) urged both by Jews and 
 Christians, for the glorious time yet to come, of which we treat. 
 
 " Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those 
 nations, as when he fought in the day of Kerab :" {yip) which 
 word, as it signifies conflicting, so also beginning, or approaching 
 near ; and may be fitly applied to God's assisting the Jews in 
 the beginning of their wars, (as against Amalek and Og, &c.) 
 when they approached near towards Canaan. The word ' then' 
 points to the times following the coming up of all nations 
 against Jerusalem, &c. (v. 2,) which ruin was to take place long 
 after this prophecy, as is hinted in the future expression of the 
 first verse. For the Prophet dispatched in the thirteenth 
 chapter what belonged to the time of Christ's passion ; and it 
 was a long time after Christ, ere ' all nations' (confining the 
 word all to the four monarchies) did so miserably ruin Jeru- 
 salem, as is described in the second verse. For the Romans 
 did it not the first time, till seventy years before Christ's in- 
 carnation ; nor did the Saracens of Asia till about A.D. 1009. 
 But let the reader fix this devastation of Jerusalem where he 
 will, still we are at a loss, and all our books cannot help us to 
 tell, when " The Lord went out to fight all those nations, that 
 fought against Jerusalem, as he did at first when he overthrew 
 Amalek, &c." A mere spiritual notion will not help us out, 
 seeing the text expounds itself, " That the Lord will go out, and 
 fight against the nations that spoil Jerusalem — as he fought at 
 first," when the Jews approached Canaan ; or (to keep to our 
 common translation,) " as when he fought in the day of battle:" 
 which exposition were superfluous, had a spiritual sense been 
 mainly intended. And, if it were intended, yet is it not to this 
 day fulfilled ; for the enemies of Jerusalem are neither con- 
 verted by grace, nor confounded in hell. 
 
 It is true, that scarcely any prophecy is without some allegory ; 
 
217 
 
 but to convert all into a spiritual sense, seems to me impossible, 
 without either contradicting the text or one's self. For how 
 can we presume upon a spiritual sense, when it is said, " His feet 
 " shall stand upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem 
 " on the east, &c. which shall cleave in the midst, &c." And 
 again, " Ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains, which shall 
 " reach to Azal, &c. as ye fled from the earthquake in the days of 
 " Uzziah ; and the Lord my God shall come and all the saints 
 " with thee ?" Again, " That there shall be a distinct one day, 
 " and known to the Lord, not day, nor night ; but the evening 
 " shall be light V (vv. 4 — 7.) Surely, if the light of Gospel times 
 is meant, (as some will have it,) it is no distinct time, nor one 
 measured day of a round number of years, be it of few or many : 
 for it is now above 1620 years, since the first preaching of 
 Christ ; which also hath been as well known to us, as to the 
 Lord. And how 7 does the ninth verse consist with a mere spiritual 
 notion, " That the Lord shall be king over all the earth : in that 
 day shall there be one Lord, and his name one V For the Lord 
 from the beginning hath been king in power and grace ; secretly 
 ordering and sanctifying whomsoever and wheresoever he has 
 pleased, over the face of the earth : therefore this same shall, 
 must import a future visible monarchy, before which all must so 
 fall down, that they cast aw r ay their idols, and adore Him alone 
 with one uniform way of worship according to his will. And 
 it is equally difficult consistently to attach a spiritual sense to 
 the rest of the chapter ; as for example, That all the land shall 
 be turned " as a plain (pervious and profitable for habitation) 
 " from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem. So that it shall be 
 " lifted up (in the opinion of men) and inhabited in her place, 
 "from Benjamins gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the 
 " corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king's 
 " wine -presses. And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be 
 " no more utter destruction, but Jerusalem shall be safely inhab- 
 " ited. And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will 
 " smite all the people that fight against Jerusalem ; their flesh 
 " shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their 
 " eyes shall consume away in their holes, &c. And so shall be 
 " the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, of the ass, 
 " and of all the beasts that shall be in these tents, &c." All 
 this is wonderfully circumstantial. 
 
218 
 
 Men may fancy nevertheless that spirituals are meant, because 
 the residue of the nations that came up against Jerusalem shall 
 go up from year to year to worship the Lord, and keep the feast 
 of tabernacles, [v. 16.) But we showed, d that even in the Old 
 Testament, as well as in the New, Gospel truths are sometimes 
 clothed with Jewish language, and Levitical phrases ; and there 
 is scarcely a Gospel expression in the New Testament, that is 
 not dressed forth with one or more tropes and figures : as 
 " Come to me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will 
 give you rest ;" " a bruised reed shall he not break, &c." Yet 
 Christ is no porter, nor are Christians reeds, in a literal sense. Be- 
 sides, there is no more expressed in the words of Zechariah, 
 than that they shall go up, once a year, and at the feast of 
 tabernacles, to signify our deliverance from the Egypt of the 
 world ; as Israel going out of topical Egypt, first pitched in 
 Succoth, (that is booths) and, in memorial of that deliverance, 
 praised God yearly in the feast of booths. So we hereafter 
 shall often congratulate our Lord with hallelujahs for our de- 
 liverance from the Egyptian world, which is foretold in the 
 Revelation. e To this day we pray in hope ; but then, when the 
 great restoration of the Church, and restitution of all things is 
 come, we shall praise with joy. And whoever will not shall be 
 plagued with temporal plagues ; for all that will then exist in 
 peace must be holiness to the Lord. (w. 17 and 20.) 
 
 If all those material expressions and corporal circumstances, 
 before instanced, will not awaken some men ; but they will still 
 sleep and dream pleasant dreams of figurative meanings, and 
 will not see the visible glory here prophesied of ; then I would 
 entreat them to tell us their dreams, from point to point, upon 
 every verse : viz. when all nations at enmity with the Jews were 
 spiritually destroyed ; — when the rest, that united with them, 
 did jointly with them own the Lord as king over all the earth, in 
 one way of worship ; — when was Jerusalem safely inhabited, as 
 free even from spiritual evils ; — and how could the horse, and 
 the mule, and the camel, and the ass, and all beasts be spiritually 
 plagued ? 
 
 There is but one thing more that I will add, viz, that those of 
 
 d On Zephaniah, page 201. e Rev. xi, 8 ; xix, 1 — 6. 
 
219 
 
 the learned, that have endeavoured to force out of this text a 
 spiritual meaning, have (I know not how) been compelled to 
 let fall many considerable admissions of a literal sense. A. Lapide 
 applauds Jerome for his spiritual interpretation of this pro- 
 phecy ; and yet within a very few lines he says : "I say there - 
 " fore, according to the letter, it is here signified, that Jerusalem 
 " is to be taken by Antiochus Epiphanes, and to be restored 
 " by the Maccabees \" — which is not only untrue in itself ; but 
 contradictory of what he had just before declared. Calvin also, 
 whilst contending much for a spiritual sense, has these words on 
 the third verse, — " the Lord shall go forth and fight against those 
 nations, as he fought in the day of battle." " Zechariah (saith 
 " he) tells the Jews, You have often fought with the strongest 
 " enemies ; they have been conquered, and that when you have 
 " been very unequal in number and power : seeing therefore 
 " the Lord hath so often, and so many ways cast down your 
 " enemies, why shall ye not hope for the same thing from him." 
 
 MALACHI. 
 
 Chapter iv. 
 
 Calvin confesses that the major part of authors understand 
 this chapter of the second coming of Christ, though he and our 
 new Annotators incline to interpret it of his first coming. 
 They admit however, even in this sense, that the things con- 
 tained in this chapter shall not be completely fulfilled till the 
 second coming of Christ. Jerome, our great adversary, though 
 on this chapter he inveighs against the Jews and Judaizers, for 
 their expecting Elijah to come in person ; yet upon Matthew 
 xi, 14 and xvii, 11, he clearly teaches that Elijah must come 
 in person.* 
 
 That this chapter respects a state of the Church under the 
 
 * Sunt qui propterea Johannern Heliam vocari, quod quodam modo in secundo 
 salvatoris adventu, jv.xta Malachiamprcecessurus est Helias, et venturum Judicem 
 nunciaturus : Sic Johannes in primo adventu fecerit. Et uterque fit nuncius, 
 vel primi adventus Domini vel secundi. Jerome on Matt, xi, 14. Scribis et 
 Pharisseis tentantibus se, et de coelo signa poscentibus, dare noluit, sed pravam 
 postulationem confutavit responsione prudenti. Hie vero ut Apostolorum au- 
 geat fidein, dat signum de coelo, Elia inde descendente quo oonscenderat, et 
 Moyse ab inferis resurgente." Jerome on Matt, xvii, 11. 
 
 2d 
 
220 
 
 New Testament, I need not labour much to prove ; Malachi 
 being the last prophet of the Old Testament. The rising of 
 the sun, fyc. verse 2, is applied to Christ in John i, 9 ; as verse 5 
 also, touching Elijah, is applied in part to signify John Baptist, 
 the harbinger of Christ, Matthew xvii, 13. 
 
 But the great question is, How far into the times of the 
 New Testament does this prophecy run ? — to answer which, lay 
 this for a ground work ; that the time to which it reaches is 
 called the great and dreadful day of the lord ; — a day that 
 shall burn as an oven, consuming the proud and wicked as stub- 
 ble, &c. (w. 1, 5.) 
 
 Observe then, this cannot be extended to the ultimate day 
 of judgement, at the universal resurrection of the wicked, then 
 cast into the lake of fire, f for these reasons : First, because at \ 
 or after this dreadful and burning day, " Christ the Sun of I 
 righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings, to them that 
 fear his name ; and they shall go forth, and shall grow up as 
 calves of the stall ;" [v. 2 ;) whereas at the ultimate judgement 
 the elect have done growing. Secondly, because an " Elijah 
 " must be sent before the coming of the great and dreadful day 
 " of the Lord ; who shall turn the heart of the fathers to the 
 " children, and the heart of the children to their fathers :" (w. 
 5, 6 :) which again is not a work to be done at that ultimate 
 judgement ; for then " he that is unjust, let him be unjust still ; 
 and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still :"s then is a time of 
 destruction, not of conversion. Thirdly, it is added in the last 
 verse of Malachi, that Elijah must come, " and shall turn thel 
 heart of the fathers to the children, lest the Lord come, and; 
 smite the earth with a curse :" but at the ultimate judgement, 
 there is no further smiting and cursing of the earth remains. 
 
 On the other hand, this prophecy cannot be cut so short as 
 to terminate in Christ's first coming. For then was no dread- 
 ful day of the Lord, burning as a fiery oven, so as to consume 
 the proud and wicked doers, root and branch. He came then 
 to save, not to destroy : and therefore, though he cursed the fig 
 tree to warn men, yet with all his power and miracles, he never 
 killed or crippled any man ; being infinitely injured, he revenged 
 not ; yea, he rather healed the wound of Malchus, his enemy. 
 
 f Rev. xx, 12. s Rbv. xxii, 11. 
 
221 
 
 Thus it may be seen how straitly we are bounded ; so that we 
 cannot fall so short as Christ's first coming, nor launch forth so 
 far as to the universal resurrection of all the wicked at the ulti- 
 mate judgement : and therefore no time can shape and corres- 
 pond to the circumstances and characters of this prophecy, but 
 that abutting upon the beginning, entrance, or prelude of the 
 whole day of judgement, containing the thousand years. This 
 we shall endeavour to demonstrate by the arguments which 
 follow. 
 
 1. That " burning of all the proud and evil doers as stubble," 
 " leaving them neither root nor branch," (v. 1,) and that 
 " trampling them under the feet of the saints as ashes," (v. 3.) 
 do most harmoniously concord with the times of the last ruin- 
 ing of the antichristian enemies of the Church, before the rais- 
 ing her to her great restoration and the restitution of all things. 
 Compare Rev. xviii throughout, xix, 11 — 21, and xx, 1 — 5. 
 In which places we have a burning and tramj)ling, as in war ; 
 or destroying " bond and free, great and small," (answerable to 
 root and branch;) and all this before the rising and reigning of 
 the saints at the beginning of the thousand years, and a thousand 
 years or upwards before the general execution of all the wicked 
 body and soul in hell fire. For most emphatically it is said in 
 Rev. xx, 7 — 15 that after the thousand ijears are expired Satan 
 is loosed, and deceives the nations, and that then he is cast into 
 the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and false prophet 
 are, or were before. (Chap, xix, 20.) And with the Devil the 
 dead wicked, raised and judged according to the books there 
 opened, are cast also into the lake of fire. Whether this corpo- 
 ral destruction, as to the means by which it shall be accomplish- 
 ed, be ordinary or miraculous, alters not the case. But to dream 
 of a spiritual destruction by the word, and to be set forth by 
 fire and war, and in a continued speech that sounds of nothing 
 but opposition against Christ to the very death, appears to my 
 reason no better than a mere imaginary fiction ; and the rather, 
 because " slaying" some men, and " giving their flesh to the 
 fowls of the air," is emphatically distinguished from " casting 
 the other alive into the lake of fire ;" as this also is distinguished 
 from the general damnation in hell fire, in the last verse of the 
 twentieth chapter. 
 
222 
 
 2. The second verse, " Unto you that fear my Name, shall the 
 Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings," cannot be 
 more fitly applied than to 2 Pet. i. 16 — 19. " We have not 
 " followed cunningly devised fables when we made known untoyou 
 " the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye 
 " witnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the 
 " Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him 
 " from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son in whom I am 
 " well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, 
 " when we were with Him in the holy mount. We have also a 
 " more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye 
 " take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until 
 " the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts." Now 
 Peter writing to the Jews as their Apostle, h holds forth to them 
 in the words before quoted, three things : 1st, that all along he 
 there speaks of Christ. 2nd. That there is a two-fold coining 
 of Christ ; the one past when he wrote this second Epistle, viz. 
 when he came at first in the flesh, receiving that testimony by 
 voice from heaven ;i [v. 17;) the other to come, held forth by 
 the day dawning and the day-star to arise, &c. (v. 19.) That 
 this day-star is Christ is plain both by the context of Peter's 
 speech, which is all of Christ ; and by the sense of the day -star, 
 which is the sun, as the moon also is the night -star. k So that 
 " the Sun of righteousness, arising with healing in his wings 
 (that is, in his beams) and " the Day-star shining into the hearts 
 of men," is all one. It is further evident from the antithesis put 
 between " the word of prophecy," named as only " a light 
 shining in a dark place," (i.e. a candle, or small star, in the 
 night,) and the day-star making full day ; no person being to 
 be exalted above the word of the prophets but Christ ; who, 
 when he shines with a full body upon the whole compass of the 
 moon, his Church, makes her full of light, that before had much 
 darkness mixed with her light. 3rd. Peter holds forth to the 
 Jews, in the continuation of his discourse, when this day-star 
 shall arise in their hearts ; viz. when it shall shine in the gen- 
 erality of them ; that is, that Christ shall be effectually made 
 known to the lump of the Jews, (as Paul, Rom. xi, calls the nation 
 
 11 Gal. ii, 7 ; 1 Pet. i, 1. ! Matt, xvii, 5. k p ga lm cxxxvi, 8, 9. 
 
 
2 23 
 
 or l)ody of them yet unconverted, but in after time to be con- 
 verted ;) so that the " all of Israel shall be saved." And further 
 that he shall with a dawning of the day remove the long night of 
 their afflictions. For as for a spiritual shining by some grace 
 in the hearts of a few Jews, the Apostle acknowledges that to be 
 now done already ; (v. 1 ;) but this was only through " a light 
 shining in a dark place :" hereafter, however, when the day 
 dawns, the Sun, the Day-star, shall arise in their hearts. And 
 this, by the process of his discourse, shall be at the great de- 
 struction of their enemies, and the restoration of the Church. 
 (Chap. 3.) For having mentioned an adherence to the word 
 of prophecy until the day dawn, and the Day-star arise, &c. he 
 busies himself in advancing the true divine prophecies, dictated 
 to holy men of God by his Spirit, and the interpretation thereof 
 i according to the public tenor of the prophets and apostles ; {v. 20;) 
 I and declaiming against false prophets and teachers, damnably 
 ; teaching and seducing the people (chap. ii. throughout ;) I say, 
 j he occupies himself in these two things, till he return in the 
 third chapter (see verses 1,2) to exhort the Jews afresh to be 
 mindful of the words of the prophets, and consonantly of the 
 words of Christ and his apostles according to those prophecies. 
 To what end ? — Why to observe the time when this prophecy 
 shall have an end ; that the day may dawn, and the Day-star arise. 
 For, (saith he,) though some, through wilful ignorance, scoff at 
 !i the promise of Christ's coming ; yet, though it be a thousand 
 I years off and more, all this to God is but as one day ; and when 
 i that time is come, that day shall be a thousand years. So that 
 [ though it seem long to men, (yea, so long to impenitent men, 
 I as if he would never come,) yet he will be sure to come, and 
 I that suddenly as a thief in the night ; and formidably to the 
 wicked, as in a day of doom, the " heavens passing away," and 
 I the " elements melting" and the " works of the earth dissolving." 
 [ But not so to the Church, (expressed with a keen antithesis, 
 • — nevertheless :) " Nevertheless, we according to his promise (that 
 I ancient promise so particularly expressed Isa. lxv, 17 — 20, &c.) 
 | look for new heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righte- 
 I ousness ;" which cannot be the description of a state in the 
 highest heavens, which were never worn old, nor made of earth, 
 nor without the inhabitation of righteousness. So that the result 
 
224 
 
 of Peter's discourse is, that that Sun of righteousness, or Day- 
 star shall rise and radiate, at the time of the dissolution of the 
 power of the wicked, and the restitution of all things for the 
 glory of the Church on earth. 
 
 3. That coming of Elijah [v. 5.) before this great day, must 
 signify an Elijah yet to come, either personally, or personatedly. 
 For though Elijah is said to come in part, personatedly in John 
 Baptist, 1 yet Elijah's coming is not totally, nor mainly fulfilled 
 to this day. He must yet come again, either (as we said) per- 
 sonal!?/, — that is, he himself individually in his own person ; or 
 else personatedly, — that is, (if I may so speak) specifically, being 
 represented by one of the like kind and degree of parts exactly 
 like unto him ; viz. mighty in spirit and action, " to convert 
 the heart of the fathers to the children," before that great day 
 when he shall " restore all things." m That this truth may find 
 the better entertainment in men's apprehensions, I will for the 
 most part waive my own opinion herein, and present the words 
 of divers learned men. 
 
 The Scribes among the Jews asserted, after John Baptist's 
 death, from this very text of Malachi, that Elijah was to come. n 
 From them some of the disciples of Christ take up the same 
 tenet, as worthy of consideration touching the coming of Elijah, 
 and press it upon our Saviour. The Lord, in answer to them, 
 first clearly acknowledges at that time, a good while after John 
 Baptist's death,* that Elijah shall come, and asserts it with a 
 " truly," adding moreover that " when he comes, he shall 
 restore all things." Which is one main reason, that John 
 Baptist's time on earth, was not the all of Elijah's coming. 
 Besides, Christ speaks of Elijah's coming, so long after John 
 Baptist's death, in the present tense (epx ercu ) cometh, intimating 
 that he is still coming, or to come. Therefore as Christ comes 
 twice, so with a proportionable decorum, his harbinger comes 
 twice, both times to usher in his master. The one is past in 
 John Baptist ; the other is to come, in him that is still called and 
 expected by the name of Elijah. 
 
 Of the Christians, since Christ's ascension, there are many 
 
 1 Matt. xvii. 12. * Ibid, v, 11. n ibid. v. 10. 
 
 * For John Baptist was beheaded anno 32 after Christ's birth, and Christ's 
 transfiguration, after which this discourse ensued, was anno 33. Bitcholcems . 
 
225 
 
 men of fame for piety and learning:, both ancient and modern, 
 that do not only assert, but argue, expressly or indirectly, for 
 the coming of Elijah, yet to be fulfilled. TertuUian in his 
 Book concerning the Resurrection asserts, that Elijah was still 
 to come, by reason that his coming is as positively set down in 
 Scripture to be a sign of Christ's second coming, as any other 
 signs. Some of his words are these : " There is no tribe with 
 " tribe to this day smiting their breasts, acknowledging him 
 M whom they have pierced ; no man hath vet received Elijah ; 
 " no man yet hath fled from Antichrist ; (he means from the 
 " persecutions of Antichrist ; for he was not in his time risen 
 " to such power as to persecute ;) and no man hath wept over 
 " the ruin of Babylon." He goes on in another place thus : 
 " And behold I will send you Elijah the Tishbite. — But indeed 
 " their Metempsychosis* is the revocation of a soul that having 
 " Ions: since finished the death r f that bodv to which it was 
 " united] is re-instated in another body. But Elijah is to come, 
 " not from a departing out of this life [by death] but from his 
 " translation ; neither is he to be restored to the body from which 
 " he was never exempted, but to the world from whence he was 
 " translated; not by a returning from death to life, but by supple - 
 " ment of the prophecy, the very same man, and he himself, of 
 " his own name and human nature. "P Augustin also affirmed the 
 coming of Elijah upon the words of Christ in Matt, xvii, 11. 
 Some of his words are these : " Our Lord hath said, Elijah 
 shall come and shall restore all things ; that is, those whom the 
 persecution of Antichrist shall make desolate. ,,f i Theodoret 
 likewise argues for the future coming of Elijah (calling him 
 " Elijah the Great") from our text in Malachi, upon these 
 grounds ; " That he must teach the Jews Christ's coming, and 
 persuade them to be integrated into one Church with believing 
 Gentiles. " r 
 
 Thus we see according to the judgement and reason of 
 learned pious men, Elijah must come, a little before the second 
 
 o De Resurrect, cap. xxii. P Lib. De Amina, Cap. xxxv. Q Quest. 
 
 Evang. cap. xxi. r Theodoret in Mai. iv, 5, 6. 
 
 * When TertuUian saith, their Metempsychosis, he means the philosophers, 
 to whom he wrote that book, and in particular the Pythagorean philosophers, 
 whom in the context of the fore-cited place he mentions. 
 
226 
 
 or next coming of Christ, when shall begin the great restitution 
 of all things.* But we never heard of any Elijah, or of any- 
 great prophet of the Jews converting, or endeavouring the con- 
 version of the Jews to the true Messiah, since the deceasing of 
 the Apostles. But they continue still blinded, according to 
 Rom. xi, 25 ; and therefore this Elijah is yet to come, and 
 consequently, this prophecy of Malachi is yet unfulfilled. 
 
 * The reader may find this point handled more fully in Mr. Mede's Diatribae 
 (pars iv. p. 1) who goes over much the same ground to prove that there must 
 be a second coming of Elijah. He does not however expect Elijah personally, 
 but personated, and thinks perhaps it may be John Baptist himself ; so that 
 there will be two advents of Christ's harbinger, as well as of himself. 
 
 
 ir 
 

 CHAPTER III. 
 
 NEW TESTAMENT EVIDENCE. 
 
 MATTHEW XXIV, 13, 14. 
 
 Of our New Testament proofs we have occasionally opened 
 so many, in order to explain the prophets, that we have greatly 
 anticipated ourselves, and happily made our work so short, that 
 there is no fear of tediousness to the Reader. 
 
 The first place we touch upon is Matt, xxiv, 13, 14. — " But 
 ' he that shall endure to the end shall be saved. And this 
 [ Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a 
 I witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come." That 
 antithetical " but" points at a time immediately following the 
 universal transcendent impieties of the wicked world, mentioned 
 verses 10 — 12 ; which, by the apostles in their Epistles, is often 
 prognosticated to be as the night, preceding the sun-rising of 
 that glory of which we speak. The " end" here mentioned must 
 needs be the end of the world, (not of Jerusalem,) as we shall 
 presently show. And this end must be of the world of the 
 wicked; not of the world as a world, or material substance : else, 
 why doth our Saviour mention enduring, and " preaching the 
 Gospel for a witness to all nations'?" For when the time of 
 the aforesaid glorious state of the Church throughout the whole 
 earth is come (called the restitution of all things, s ) there will be 
 no putting men upon enduring, or suffering : they now are saved, 
 and glory hath dispelled suffering. And consequently there will 
 be no need to make the Gospel a testimony against all nations ; 
 for at this time all that survive shall wholly submit — at least 
 to all appearance. The sign, therefore, immediately antecedent 
 to this end is, the preaching of the Gospel in all the world to all 
 nations ; which is a glorious prelude to the glorious kingdom 
 then to begin. This radiant sun will soften all good plants toTj 
 
 b Acts iii, 21. 
 2e 
 
228 
 
 flowing of sap into the flowers and fruit trees of God's garden ; 
 and it will harden the dead earth into stones, to be trampled and 
 broken by the prancings of victorious judgements upon them. 
 
 That these things, thus briefly hinted, may duly be illustrated 
 by the words under consideration, let us make three observa- 
 tions upon them. 
 
 1 . That such an end must be here meant as cannot be applied 
 to the destruction of Jerusalem, but to the time immediately 
 before the end of the world. For there was little or no salvation, 
 temporal or spiritual, to them surviving at the destruction of 
 Jerusalem ; and therefore (in the sixteenth verse, &c.) our Sa- 
 viour advises the Jews to flee at this time, — and not to endure to 
 the end of those troubles. Indeed the Gospel was fled from 
 Jerusalem, and generally from the Jews, many years before.* sr 
 Besides, the evils, here set as marks of the end, are the same 
 which the Apostles make of the approach of the end of the 
 world ; for which compare verses 9 — 12 with 2 Tim, iii, 1 — 4. 
 
 2. " The Gospel must be preached ev dAn rr\ oiKov\kevn ets 
 ixaprvpiov irao-L rots eOveai in all the inhabited world for a witness 
 to all the Gentiles." A thing may be said to be proclaimed to 
 a whole town, if declared but in the market-place ; or to a whole 
 province or county, when it is done in the chief city : but this 
 preaching must be in the whole inhabited world, wherever men 
 inhabit ; as Jonah preached in every street of Nineveh, labouring 
 three days in that one city. And this preaching must be such, 
 as will justly amount to a ivitness to them ; viz. — a witness to 
 convince them beyond all excuse, that the Gospel was preached 
 to them. 
 
 3. It is here said, " This Gospel of the kingdom totov to evay- 
 yeXiov Tvs /3acriAeias) shall be preached in all the world ; by which 
 emphatical expression is given to us a clear distinction between 
 " this Gospel" and the " the Kingdom ;" insomuch that Christ's 
 mere spiritual kingdom cannot be here understood. The Gospel 
 is. the law of the kingdom ; the saints are the subjects or matter 
 of that kingdom. The Gospel comes from heaven ; the people of 
 the kingdom are, (ev rn oiKovfjLevrj,) in the inhabited world, and 
 converted by that Gospel out of all nations. The preaching of 
 
 
 • * ; 
 
 t Acts viii, 1, &c ; xiii, 46 ; Rom. xi, 25. 
 
229 
 
 the Gospel is the antecedent sign of the approach of that king- 
 dom : and the antecedent cannot be the consequent, nor the sign 
 the thing signified, nor can the cause be the effect. Besides, the 
 words "he that endures to the end shall be saved," are antithet- 
 ically put in opposition to both sorts of evils recounted immedi- 
 ately before ; viz. — false doctrines, and cruel persecutions ; and 
 therefore a corporal as well as spiritual salvation must be here 
 meant ; — a salvation to be performed on earth, viz. in the inhab- 
 ited world, just where the Gospel preached converted them, and 
 where thev endured to the end ; — and unto which, Christ doth 
 gloriously appear from heaven, (verse 30, &c.) to make up the 
 splendor of that state on earth. 
 
 Now all these things cannot be fulfilled at the ultimate gen- 
 eral judgement; nor are they hitherto fulfilled. The worship 
 of God in the earth is as yet but insignificant ; (compared with 
 the extent of its inhabitants, not a sixth part of it ;) though it 
 is to extend and spread over the whole earth, and be universal 
 Mr. Mede solidly proves this on Jer. x, 1 1 ; urging for his pur- 
 pose such places as this — Psalm xx, 27 ; xlvii ; lxvi ; lxvii ; 
 lxxxix ; and a multitude of other texts. 
 
 luke i, 31, 32. 
 
 - And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring 
 " forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. And he shall be 
 " great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord 
 " God shall give unto him the throne of his father David; and he 
 " shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his king- 
 " dom there shall be no end." 
 
 1. On these words observe first, that this promise, of giving to 
 Christ the throne of his father David, is taken out of Isa. ix, 7. 
 (See page 95.) 
 
 2. Secondly, it is not fulfilled ; for Christ's coming in his 
 incarnation was, from his birth to his ascension, a state of the 
 greatest humility that could be ;» excepting the fewminutes of his 
 transfiguration^ and his appearing also to his disciples after 
 his resurrection, and ascending up in their sight.* And therefore 
 
 u PhiL ii, 7, 8. v Matt. xvii. w Acts i. 
 
230 
 
 though these words are spoken by the angel on occasion of his 
 incarnation, yet are they not intended adequately to set forth 
 that state, but rather antithetically extended to carry the mind of 
 Mary far beyond ; as thus : " That though this Jesus shall be 
 " conceived in thy womb, who art a mean woman ; yet this Jesus 
 " shall be no mean person, but shall be great, and shall be called 
 " the Son of the Highest, and shall have the throne of his father 
 " David, and shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, Sec." 
 Nor was the period of his incarnation the time even of the full 
 revelation of these things ; but when the apostles, taking hint 
 from these words of the angel and the like places of Scripture, 
 asked our Saviour a little before he ascended, " Wilt thou at 
 this time restore the kingdom to Israel ;" x he denied not the 
 thing, but the revelation of it that time, saying (verse 7,) " It is 
 not for you, (viz. not now,) to know the times, or the seasons, 
 which the Father hath put in his own power." But about 
 seventy years after his ascension, God gave the full revelation of 
 it to Christ, to show it by an angel unto John, who might write 
 it to the churches. y 
 
 3. Further, at Christ's first coming, he was not in the throne of 
 his father David : he was in the manger, in the mountains, 
 more destitute than the birds and foxes ; — he was in a crown of 
 thorns, in garments of scorn, on the cross, in the grave, but 
 never in the throne of David. Yea, when it was offered unto 
 Christ to be made a king, and to divide the portions between the 
 brethren, he refused it. 
 
 4. The beginning of that kingdom of Christ which shall be for 
 ever, (i. e. after which no kingdom on earth succeeds ; as often 
 hath been expounded,) was not yet begun. For after Christ's 
 ascension, from that day to this, other kingdoms on earth over 
 the Jews succeeded ; viz. the Romans, Saracens, and Turks. 
 We have already given unanswerable reasons, why the mere 
 spiritual kingdom of Christ cannot be here understood, when 
 we parallelled this place with Isa. ix, 7 ; and the reason is at 
 hand, why this kingdom cannot be in heaven at the ultimate end 
 of the world ; viz. because then " Christ shall deliver up the 
 kingdom to God the Father, when he shall have put down all 
 rule, &c." 
 
 x Acts i, 6. v Rev. i, 1. 
 
23 1 
 
 luke xxi, 24. 
 
 " And they (the Jews) shall fall by the edge of the sword, and 
 " shall be led away captive into all nations, and Jerusalem shall 
 " be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times, (xcupoi, op- 
 " portunities) of the Gentiles be (TrAr/pwtfcoon) filled up." 
 
 1 . Observe first, that our Saviour, speaking of the two tribes, 
 that had been now returned from Babylon above five hundred 
 years, says, " that they shall be led away captive in all nations ;" 
 which must of necessity mean another, and a more dispersing 
 captivity : and doubtless it is that which was begun by Titus, 
 son of Vespasian, and continued to the present day. Therefore 
 the deliverance of the Jews, which is to follow this scattering 
 (intimated in the word " until/') is not yet fulfilled ; and till then 
 the glorious state of the Church on earth, to be made up of Jews 
 and Gentiles, cannot exist, as we have repeatedly noticed out of 
 the prophets. 
 
 2. Observe next, that the Jews must continue thus " scattered 
 into all nations, until the opportunities or seasons of the Gentiles 
 be filled up, or completely made up ; which was not done in 
 Paul's time, 2 since it is there added, " when the fulness of the 
 " Gentiles shall come in, all Israel shall be saved by a deliverer 
 " that shall come out of Sion, turning away ungodliness from Ja- 
 " cob, according to covenant." And as this is no opportune 
 business for the ultimate judgement, so it hath not had its op- 
 portunity hitherto to be fulfilled upon earth ; as is now apparent 
 in the non-conversion of the Jews, and the non-preaching of the 
 Gospel to all nations of the Gentiles, before discussed. 
 
 3. Observe lastly, that this " trampling of Jerusalem by the 
 Gentiles" is computed by the Holy Ghost a to continue 42 
 months, or 1260 days, (that is, years,) to commence from the 
 time that Antichrist should have that same e^ovaia Troinaai (as 
 some copies read it ;) i.e. power or authority to do, or act as An- 
 tichrist — as Antichrist grown up to act. Or, e^ovcna -oui<rai 
 iroXefMov (as other copies read) that is, power or authority to make 
 war. Now if we take the former account ; viz. from his power 
 to act or do ; this cannot well commence higher than from the 
 
 7 Rom. xi, 25, 26. :i Rev. xi. 2, 3. 
 
232 
 
 removing of him that " withheld and letted" the revealing of 
 Antichrist ; b i.e. the laying low of the Roman Emperor, A. D. 
 410, by Alaricking of the Goths taking and spoiling Rome, and 
 exposing her by this weakening to future depredations by the 
 Vandals, &c. And therefore the most learned Elias Reusnerus 
 boldly takes from thence the beginning of the computation ; in 
 which case they are not expired till the year 1670. If we take 
 the latter account, (viz. from the power of Antichrist to make 
 war,) and fix the beginning thereof with Pope Hildebrand, alias 
 Gregory the seventh, who was the first (saith Helvicus) " that 
 " excommunicated the emperor, and arrogated to himself the 
 " power of appointing and setting up the emperor, enfolding 
 " (as Reusner carries on the story) the Roman Empire in all 
 " manner of seditions and civil wars, &c." then it will be far 
 longer ere the 1260 years will be run out. For the said Hilde- 
 brand did not so ruffle in his power, till about the year of Christ 
 1070 ; to which if we add 1260, we make up a far larger reckon- 
 ing than the former, and so much farther from fulfilling ; whereas 
 our context affirms, {v. 28,) that when that time of trampling 
 shall be fulfilled, the Jews' redemption draweth nigh. 
 
 luke xxii, 28 — 30. 
 
 " Ye are they which have continued with me in my tempta- 
 " tions. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath 
 " appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in 
 " my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of 
 " Israel." 
 
 In the first place let us not forget that ancient rule, — we are 
 not to depart from the letter, or proper sense of the Saipture, un- 
 less some evident necessity compel, and the truth of the Scripture 
 seem to be endangered. Now there is no such necessity lies upon 
 this text, to recede from the literal sense thereof ; whilst, on 
 the other hand, there is a great importunity, if not necessity, 
 incumbent on this Scripture, to understand it generally, accord- 
 ing to the letter ; for the following reasons. 
 
 1. Therein is promised, as a peculiar reward to them that 
 had endured temptations with and for Christ, that he hath ap- 
 
 b 2 Thess. ii, 6,J, 8. 
 
233 
 
 pointed to them a kingdom ;" — yea, his kingdom, [v. 30,) with 
 which, let the studious Reader diligently compare Rev. xi, 1h ; 
 xx, 4. These temptations (or tribulations) all converts, that live 
 to profess their godliness in life and conversation, do more or 
 less undergo on earth ; c and therefore it is here promised that 
 they shall be rewarded on earth. If however there be no such 
 estate to be fulfilled upon earth, but only a state of glory in the 
 supremest heaven, then all the elect dying in their infancy (to 
 whom also the kingdom of heaven belongs, d ) who never endured 
 any temptations, &c. shall have as much privilege, as those 
 that have endured most and longest in temptations : which seems 
 contrary to the text. 
 
 2. Christ appoints unto them a kingdom, " as his Father ap- 
 pointed unto him a kingdom :" but the Father appointed unto 
 Christ no kingdom in ultimate glory, in the supremest heavens, 
 (which, as on all hands it is agreed, follows the ultimate judge- 
 ment,) for then Christ lays down his rule. e And it is most im- 
 proper to say, that the members (the saints) reign, when the 
 head doth not reign. Besides, reigning in a kingdom implies, 
 that some are subjects to them in that kingdom, being brought 
 under subjection to them; but in the highest heaven there is 
 nothing made subject to them. If the angels' ministration be 
 not at an end when the Church is perfected in glory, yet they 
 are said only to be servants for the Church, and not subject 
 under the Church, at their command ; being subject under 
 Christ alone. f But if Christ, according to 1 Cor. xv, 24, 28, 
 doth then lay down all his power and authority, we cannot 
 understand how the service of angels should be thence-forward 
 continued ; but in the glorious estate on earth the saints have 
 all the creatures, and men that truly believe not, subject to 
 them. As for the spiritual kingdom of Christ, believers were 
 in that in all past ages, and therefore that could not be the 
 meaning of this promise. Besides, the spiritual kingdom of 
 Christ is the kingdom of patience, (as St. John often intimates,) 
 where the saints endure those very temptations Christ mentions ; 
 and therefore it cannot signify the kingdom which Christ 
 promises as a reward of that patience. 
 
 c Acts xiv, 22. d Mark x, 14. e l Cor. xv, 24. 28. ' Heb. i, 6, 13, 14. 
 
234 
 
 3. Eating and drinking are unsuitable expressions to signify 
 supernal, eternal, ultimate glory, but very suitable to express 
 Christ's glorious kingdom on earth yet to come ; as we shall 
 presently show. 
 
 4. By the order of the words the saints must first be in the 
 kingdom, and then sit on thrones and judge the tribes of Israel. 
 But in the spiritual kingdom of Christ they had not so done ; 
 nor doth Christ's speech relate to past, but future. 
 
 acts i, 6, 7. 
 
 " "When they were come together they asked of him, saying, 
 " Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to 
 " Israel ? And he said unto them, it is not for you to know (or 
 " as it is in the Greek, it is not o/you to know) the times or the 
 " seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power." 
 
 1 . Though Christ's spiritual kingdom, in the height of it by 
 John, and by Christ's own ministry, had now been in being four 
 years past before the putting of the question in the text ; yet 
 the apostles expected another kingdom, in which also Israel 
 should be restored, and have the authority. 
 
 2. Note further, that Christ doth not deny the thing, but only 
 the time of manifesting of it ; (even as he speaks in the present 
 tense, — it is not, — not it shall not ;) and therefore the apostles 
 then present, were not by this beaten off from expecting it, but 
 rather went on preaching it.S Yea, in process of time, Christ 
 did fully reveal to John the Apostle the thing and the time 
 thereof. 
 
 3. Lastly, if Christ had here meant either his spiritual king- 
 dom, or the kingdom of ultimate glory, he would not have been 
 shy to declare those unto them ; having been always free to 
 preach and manifest them to all his disciples. h 
 
 Romans xi, 25 — 27. 
 
 " For I would not brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this 
 " mystery, (lest ye should be wise in your own conceit ;) that 
 " blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of 
 
 g Acts iii, 21 ; 2 Pet. iii. h See John xiv — xvii. and elsewhere. 
 
' the Gentiles come in. And so all Israel shall be saved, as it 
 " is written, there shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and 
 " shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my 
 " covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sin." 
 
 The Apostle would not have the Roman, or any other Gentile, 
 christian ignorant, that blindness is happened to the Jews but in 
 part, and for a time ; lest they should be wise in their own con- 
 ceits ; that is, applaud themselves, and despise the poor Jews 
 for their blindness touching the Messiah ; as most do, most sin- 
 fully, to this day. 
 
 The Mystery is, that after the time that this partial blindness 
 is over, which is to period when the fulness of the Gentiles shall 
 be converted and brought in, all Israel shall be saved ; accord- 
 ing as it is written, Isaiah lix, 20 ; which place we have before 
 opened. In this opinion Dr. Alsted and Dr. Prideaux concur 
 with me. I have to observe further, that the salvation of which 
 the Apostle speaks must be of " All Israel ;" viz. of the ten 
 tribes as well as of the two ; and it must be of the generality of 
 all twelve that shall be surviving at the time of fulfilling this pro- 
 phecy. The salvation of a few hundreds of Israel, or of the all 
 oiJudah, will not adequately answer to the comprehensive phrase 
 of the text. But neither of these hath been yet fulfilled, as our 
 eyes are witnesses. 
 
 2. This salvation of the all of Israel must be, when the fulness 
 of the Gentiles shall be brought in. But we see not yet the manner 
 or the means in any forwardness ; — the Gospel is not yet pro- 
 mulgated to many and mighty kingdoms of the Gentiles, as in 
 the east and west Indies, or under the Turk, Persian, and Tar- 
 tar ; much less hath the matter, the coming in of the fulness of 
 the Gentiles, been fulfilled : on the contrary, Antichrist, both 
 eastern and western is yet standing, and standing in the way 
 stiffly to oppose the salvation of the fulness of Jews and Gen- 
 tiles ; he being upheld by the kings, and potentates, and powers 
 of the earth, who hereafter shall hate and ruin him. 1 
 
 3. The fulness of the Gentiles, and the all of Israel, must 
 meet in effectual conversion, and centre into a blessed union 
 with the universal visible Church. For this text, " That there 
 shall come out of Zion a deliverer, &c." must be fulfilled accord - 
 
 r Rev. xvii. 16. 
 2 F 
 
236 
 
 ing to God's ancient covenant. Now we have abundantly heard 
 the prophets made very plain to us, touching the Deliverer, and 
 the future integration and incorporation of Jews and Gentiles 
 into one visible Church ; and touching the covenant of God 
 with the patriarchs respecting the matter, manner, and measure 
 of their deliverance ; and therefore neither is this fulfilled to 
 this present day. 
 
 1 Corinthians xv, 22 — 28. 
 
 " For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made 
 "alive. But every man in his own order ; Christ the first fruits, 
 " afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming. Then cometh 
 " the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, 
 " even the Father ; when he shall have put down all rule, and all 
 " authority and power. For he must reign till he hath put all 
 " enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed 
 " is death : for he hath put all things under his feet. But when 
 "he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that He is 
 " excepted which did put all things under him. And when all 
 " things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also him- 
 " self be subject unto Him that put all things under him, that 
 " God may be all in all." 
 
 I have so largely commented on these words, for explication 
 of the cx.th Psalm, that I have no need to enlarge now : I only 
 note, that the last clauses must be warily understood with this 
 distinction ; viz. that the destruction of death, as an enemy to 
 the saints and to Christ's visible kingdom on earth, is the be- 
 ginning and restoration to Christ's and the saints' reigning in 
 that kingdom. For that kingdom, and the thousand years of 
 glory, begin with the resurrection of the deceased saints. s But 
 the putting an end to death, in the raising of the wicked for the 
 ultimate general judgement, that it may no longer be an enemy 
 to God's ultimate design of punishing the said wicked in body 
 and soul, is indeed the end, or period, of Christ's reigning. t 
 
 Secondly, Paul's words clearly prove, that the reign of Christ, 
 as man, doth neither begin before his second coming, nor extend 
 itself beyond the last resurrection ; and therefore cannot, with- 
 
 » Rev. xi, 11, 12, &c. and Rev. xx, 4, 5. * Rev. xx, 12. 
 
237 
 
 out a palpable contradiction, be taken for the time when he 
 shall give up his kingdom to his Father ; or for the time that 
 now is ; betwixt which and his kingdom our Saviour hath put 
 an irreconcileable distinction, calling this, not the time of a 
 kingdom, but " a time of temptation." And if Christ shall reign 
 till then, and then give up his kingdom to his Father, the saints, 
 who are found alive at his coming, shall be excluded from his 
 kingdom ; but if his reign begins not till his second coming, 
 then the quick and dead shall both reign together. 
 
 The words — " After they that are Christ's," — intimate some 
 distance of time between the resurrection of them in Christ, and 
 other men ; or else it had been easy for the Apostle to have said, 
 they that are dead, or they that are in the grave. And if there 
 shall be a precedency of time, then no doubt it shall be such a 
 precedency, as may bring some advantage and honor to the 
 saints ; and therefore not of a few 7 hours, or days, but of a more 
 notable continuance of many years. 
 
 Finally I observe, that the Apostle in this text hints to us 
 three physical resurrections. First, the resurrection of Christ, 
 which the Apostle saith is past, [v. 20,) and calls it (it. 20, 23) 
 the first-fruits of the saints' resurrection, which is the second 
 intimated. Then, thirdly, we have the resurrection of the 
 wicked also, called the end, (v. 24,) which also follows the second 
 at a distance (eira) as the gleaning does the harvest. This 
 succession is that which the Apostle calls (v. 23) " order," — 
 each to rise in his own order. And it is a very distinct order : 
 for as there have been now' above 1600 years since Christ's 
 resurrection, and yet the saints are not risen ; so it will be a 
 thousand years between the resurrection of the saints and the 
 wicked, as St. John asserts, Rev. xx. And as, at the resurrec- 
 tion of the saints, death, as to them, shall be destroyed ; so at the 
 resurrection of the wicked, life to them shall be destroyed j 
 their living being w r orse than death ; and therefore called " the 
 second death," which shall have no power over the saints, 
 
 2 Corinthians in, 15 — 18. 
 
 " But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is 
 " upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the 
 
238 
 
 " Lord, the vail shall be taken away. Now the Lord is 
 " that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is 
 " liberty. But (or truly) we all with open face beholding, as 
 " in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same 
 " image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 
 In this text three things are evidently asserted concerning 
 the Jews. 
 
 I. What their present spiritual condition was in Paul's time ; 
 viz. that " even to that day, when Moses was read, the vail was 
 upon their heart/' In verse 13 the Apostle had said, " Moses 
 did put a vail over his face, so that the children of Israel could 
 not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished ;" ac- 
 cording to Exod. xxxiii, 32, &c. So that hereby are signified 
 two vails, the one typifying the other ; the former upon the 
 thing beheld, the latter upon the beholders. Thus the Jews 
 could not through Moses, representing the ministration of the 
 levitical law, look unto Christ, representing the ministration of 
 the Gospel : for (saith the Apostle,) first, there was a vail of 
 material types, (viz. of blood, sacrificing, washing, &c.) covering 
 and concealing the shining (that is the spiritual meaning and 
 Gospel glory) of Moses' law : and secondly, there was the carnal 
 vail upon the hearts of the Jews ; so that their apprehension 
 was terminated at that which was only sensible, not reaching to 
 that which was spiritual. Thus Rom. ix, 31, 32, and xi, 25, 
 assert, that the Jews " attained not unto righteousness, because 
 they sought it not by faith, (viz. not in Christ, the sense and 
 sum of the levitical law,) but as it were by the works of the 
 law ;" for by resting on the exterior and mere actings of levitical 
 ceremonies, they turned them, (in their true intent and evan- 
 gelical meaning) into works of the law. So if a man rest upon 
 the opus operatum — the labor, and mere deed done — of the 
 evangelical duty of prayer, praise, &c ; he makes those duties 
 legal. 
 
 II. Secondly, we have what their future spiritual condition shall 
 be at the time of their call ; viz. " that when their heart is 
 turned to the Lord, (i.e. converted,) the vail shall be taken away;" 
 to wit, both vails. First, the vail of Jewish worship, as it was taken 
 away de jure, when the vail was rent at Christ's Passion ; and 
 de facto, as to the sacrificial part, at the destruction of the temple 
 
230 
 
 by the Roman Titus ; so also it shall be taken away, as to the 
 Jews esteem, in the whole Mosaieal liturgy thereof. Secondly, 
 the vail of sense over their hearts shall be taken away ; so that 
 by the divine illumination of the Spirit they shall look beyond 
 mere sense and carnal reason unto the spiritual meaning of the 
 law ; viz. unto the Gospel and Christ Jesus, who is the Spirit 
 thereof ; which is plainly expressed in the following words, — 
 " now the Lord is that Spirit." For the word Lord in the 
 New Testament oft signifies Christ ; and Spirit often signifies 
 spirituality , and the spiritual sense and way of the Gospel, and 
 the communication of the efficacy of the Spirit ; of which many 
 instances might be given. It is added, " Where the Spirit of 
 the Lord is, there is liberty :" that is, when the Lord is spi- 
 ritually in the heart, the Jews shall neither rely upon the letter, 
 character, or outward acts of Judaical services, to which sense 
 and carnal reason held them in a kind of bondage. The law 
 indeed, whilst in force, obliged them to an actual performance 
 of all the material levitical services ; but even then, it was their 
 carnality, which held their apprehensions within those stinted 
 bounds, that they could not look further. But where the Spirit 
 of the Lord is in the heart by grace, there is a liberty of appre- 
 hension to look to the spirituality of all worship ; and a liberty 
 of action, to act more with the inward graces, than with the 
 labors of the body ; and a liberty of confidence, to rely upon the 
 object, (viz. Christ held forth in the Gospel,) and not on the 
 outward form of worship. 
 
 III. Next we have what their estate both corporal and spiritual 
 shall be when the vail is taken away ; — viz. when " we all 
 " (both Jews and Gentiles) with open face, beholding as in a 
 " glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, 
 " from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." The 
 verse is not to begin with ' but,' as in antithesis to that before ; 
 but with and, as in addition or further degree of attainment. 
 So the Greek jftjms 5e well bears, and so the sense requires : 
 for there was never yet an " all" of Jem so beholding, and so 
 transformed ; nor were the converted Gentiles yet so glorified 
 with that divine metamorphosis. The Jews must not be ex- 
 cluded, because the Apostle, himself a Jew, speaks in the first 
 person plural — we : and the converted Gentiles must not be 
 
240 
 
 excluded, because he writes these things to the Corinthians. 
 Thus is this verse knit on to the former, rather as an illustration 
 and amplification, than as an antithesis or opposition to the 
 former verse. It is true, this last verse is part of an antithesis 
 to the Jews' blindness, but not to their spiritual sight and liberty ; 
 for the plain sense of the whole may be thus paraphrased : 
 " The poor Jews at present are generally blind-fold ; but when 
 they shall be converted the vail shall be taken away. Now the 
 Lord is that Spirit, and wherever he is in any of our hearts, 
 whether we be Jews or Gentiles, there is liberty, &c. so that we 
 do see Jesus Christ. And, (or furthermore,) we all with open 
 face, beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are trans- 
 formed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the 
 Spirit of the Lord, or, (as the Greek and the margin assert,) 
 even as by the Lord the Spirit." 
 
 Now as the two former verses are not yet fulfilled to the Jews, 
 as to their conversion ; so neither is this last to Jews or Gentiles, 
 though converted, as to that transformation here expressed : for 
 this must be at the great restoration ; to which this text hath, as 
 I conceive, a special eye. This is evident, first, from the 
 context. For the whole preceding discourse of the Apostle is 
 concerning the general call of the Jews, from under the universal 
 vailing that was upon them ; mentioning the liberty they should 
 attain to ; which " liberty" is a word so comprehensive, that it is 
 used by the Apostle in Rom. viii, 21, to describe that great state, 
 the restitution of all things. 
 
 Secondly, the substance of the text evinces it ; which, though it 
 includes conversion and sanctification by way of a necessary 
 supposition, yet transcends higher into a large prospect of the 
 great restoration. For, 1st, there is a great emphasis in the 
 words " we all." For as the Apostle, in Rom. xi, 26, having 
 said, " Blindness in part is happened to Israel," concludes, 
 with " But all Israel shall be saved ;" so here, having said " The 
 children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that 
 which is abolished," now he asserts, " But we all with open face 
 beholding the glory of the Lord are changed, &c." For 
 although the word to behold be in the present tense, yet it is in 
 a participle {KaTvnTpiC,o\xevoi) " beholding ;" noting a continuance 
 of time and action, and so in effect signifies a future : even as 
 
24 1 
 
 in common we may say, " We are now miserable, but dying in 
 the Lord we are happy." 
 
 2dly, the Greek for " beholding as in a glass," Kannrrpi- 
 (o\ievoi, is but one word. The Apostle intends such a glass as 
 shall afford an open clear sight ; as the next words, " with open 
 face," evince ; as also the use of the word, which signifies the ap- 
 prehending a thing with a full imagination. Should we pursue 
 the metaphor under the notion of a looking glass, (which is most 
 ancient, and according to the proper idiom of the word,) it 
 would brighten and not obscure the state the Apostle means. 
 For a looking-glass supposes the object reflected to be near, repre- 
 sents it more plainly, and causes any glorious object (such as the 
 sun, fire, &c.) to give forth its radiation upon us with a spark- 
 ling glare ; all which notably suits to set forth Christ's presence, 
 and our extraordinary beholding him, in the time of the glory of 
 the Church on earth. We cannot see the Deity immediately ; 
 but we shall then behold that Sun of the godhead/ 1 in the glo- 
 rious body of Christ, as in a chrystal lantern. If Moses' face 
 so shone, by his standing forty days and nights under the beams 
 of a vision of God ; v how much more gloriously shall the body 
 of Christ radiate, not only by his presence with God in the ut- 
 most glory ever since his ascension, but principally by his hypo- 
 statical union with God himself; the time being then fully come 
 for him to radiate ! w If Stephen's elevated soul, through the 
 operation of God, saw, when on earth, the Son of God in heaven, 
 standing at God's right hand, and Stephen's face appeared like 
 the face of an angel ; x how gloriously shall Christ shine, and we 
 be irradiated into a glorious aspect, or transformation into glory, 
 at the time we contend for ! At present " we see darkly" through 
 the glass of material ordinances, and the dim eyes of imperfect 
 and mixt graces ;> r though, in comparison of Moses vailed, God 
 maybe said now to shine upon our hearts in the face of Christ : a 
 but hereafter, God will shine forth most gloriously through the 
 whole person of Christ, upon our whole persons, so that we shall 
 be like him in glory? and we shall " know as we are known. " b 
 The transfiguration of Christ on the mount, was a preface, as it 
 were, or earnest, how glorious it shall be ; so shining on Moses 
 
 u Ps. lxxxiv, 1 1 . v Exod. xxxiv, 29. * Mai. iv, 2. * Acts vi, & Tii. 
 
 y 1 Cor. xiii, 12. z 2 Cor. iv, 6". a Phil, iii, 21. b 1 Cor. xiii. 12. 
 
242 
 
 and Elijah, that they too were irradiated. But it was only a 
 glimpse or prelude of his glory then seen ; and hy three persons 
 only, who were not then themselves changed : though it is 
 thought that some glory still remained in the aspect of Christ 
 when he descended from the mount ; for the people, it is said, 
 were " greatly amazed when they beheld him," d But all are 
 hereafter to see him ; and all are to be " changed into the same 
 image ;" agreeably with 1 Cor. xv, 49 — 52. " For as we have 
 borne the image of the earthly Adam, we shall also bear the image 
 of the heavenly Adam," &c. What a wonderful and efficacious 
 beholding, which shall transform the embryo of the new crea- 
 ture, conceived in the womb of the soul, into the glorious image 
 of Christ, by beholding him in his glory in this state on earth ! 
 The divine plants of God, in this new paradise on earth, shall 
 so see the Sun of righteousness, that they shall blossom, and 
 flower, and fructify into like colors, stripes, and rays, as are in 
 that sun. 
 
 3dly, We must be changed into the same image " from 
 glory to glory ;" which must signify more than a process from 
 one degree of grace to another (as intended in Psalm lxxxiv, 
 " from strength to strength;" and Rom. i, 17, " from faith to 
 faith ;") for though that be the beginning touched upon in verses 
 16, 17 ; yet here the Apostle drives at the acme, — the exaltation 
 of a saint to his height. There is also a difference in the cause : 
 in the last clause it is " By the Lord the Spirit ;" but the former is 
 by the Spirit of the Lord : whereby is plainly held forth, that, 
 whereas our inward glory of sanctification is from the inward 
 power of the Spirit of the Lord, our personal glory of soul and 
 body, at the said coming of Christ, is from his personal presence, 
 transcendently and efficaciously radiating on our persons to a 
 change, and filling the earth with the beams of his glory. 
 
 Philippians ii, 9 — 11. 
 
 " Wherefore God hath highly exalted Him, (Christ) and 
 "' given Him a name above every name ; that at the name 
 " of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things 
 " in the earth, and things under the earth ; and that every 
 
 c Matt. xvii. (l Mark ix, 15. 
 
243 
 
 " tongue should confess, that Jesus Christ is LORD, to the 
 " glory of God the Father." 
 
 We have touched this place before, when opening Isa. xlv, 
 14. We now only notice from it, First, that " All things on 
 earth" do not at present submit or bow the knee to Christ ; but, 
 on the contrary, most things are openly against Him : so that, 
 as the Apostle saith, " We see not yet all things under him ;" c 
 and again the Apostle saith, that he still sits in heaven, " ex- 
 pecting till his enemies be made his footstool. " f Secondly, " all 
 things under the earth," (viz. the infernal spirits) are not univer- 
 sally and actually subject to him ; that is, they are yet permitted 
 of God to act against Christ's kingdom. But they will be made 
 universally and actually to forbear opposing Christ's kingdom, 
 when the seventh vial is " poured out upon the air ;"S — that is, 
 upon the prince of the air, (the devil) h and on his retinue, — 
 and Christ shall bind him for a thousand years, &c.i Thirdly, 
 much less to this day doth " every tongue," or the generality of 
 all tongues, " confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory 
 of God the Father ;" for most either do not name him, or name 
 him profanely, or blaspheme him. Fourthly, St. Paul tells us 
 in another place, k that this bowing to Christ is not fulfilled till 
 Christ shall sit in judicature on his seat of judgement ; and 
 which begins not till the first resurrection. 1 
 
 Revelation ii, 25—28. 
 
 " Hold fast till I come. And he that over-cometh, and 
 " keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power 
 " over the 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 have received of my Father. And I will give him the 
 " morning star." 
 
 Though in our last Translation the former part of verse 27 (and 
 he shall rule them with a rod of iron) is read in a parenthesis, yet 
 it is not so in the Greek edition of Stephanus, nor in Beza's Greek 
 or Latin, nor in our former English translation. The continued 
 speech in the third person throughout verses 25, 26, and former 
 
 e Heb. ii. 8. f Heb. x. 13. R Rev. xvi. 17. h Ephes. ii. 2. 
 
 » Rev. xx. 1,2. k Rom. xiv. 10, 11. « Compare Rev. xx. 4, with 
 
 Rev. xi. 15—18. 
 
 2 G 
 
244 
 
 part of verse 27, and the distinguishing transition to the first 
 person at the latter part of verse 27, makes it plain, that these 
 promises are made to the believer that " keeps Christ's works 
 to the end j" even as Christ goes on in verse 28 to promise him, 
 — and I will give him the morning star." So that it is the same 
 believer, that shall under Christ " have power over the nations, 
 and rule them with a rod of iron," &c. and to whom Christ will 
 give " the morning star." That perhaps which made our last 
 translators put in the said parenthesis was, the agreement of the 
 words they included with those of Ps. ii, 9, (quoted by them in 
 the margin) spoken of Christ. But it is a sure rule, subordinata 
 non esse contraria ; and also, qui facit per alium, facit per se. 
 If Christ by his saints overpowers the nations, and rules them 
 with a rod of iron, Christ himself overpowers the nations, and 
 rules them with a rod of iron. That which the carpenter 
 worketh with his tools, the carpenter is accounted to work, or 
 do. In this respect it is said in Dan. vii, 13, 14, that the king- 
 dom which is to succeed the four monarchies is given to Christ, 
 though at verses 22 and 27 it is said to be given to the saints. 
 
 The sense of these words is obvious, especially if we bear in 
 mind what hath been given by way of explication on Psalm ii, 
 and on 2 Peter i, 19. Suitably our new Annotations confess ; 
 " that ' holdfast till I come' signifies, till Christ's second coming, 
 " general, or special. ' Power over the nations,' signifies to join 
 " with Christ in judging the nations, &c. And ' giving the morn- 
 " ing star' signifies Christ's giving the full fruition of himself" 
 
 It is equally obvious, that these words have never yet been 
 fulfilled. Instead of the saints having corporal power over the 
 nations, (which the iron sceptre signifies,) the nations break the 
 saints and churches. And Christ's giving " the morning star," 
 can only mean the appearance of Christ again, — especially to 
 the Jews, according to 2 Peter i, 19 before expounded. For as 
 the converted Gentiles, spiritually considered, are said to be, not 
 in the night, but in the day ; m the unconverted Jews are in the 
 night, and in the dark ; n therefore this morning star (the sun- 
 rising, Mai. iv, 2,) must of necessity signify Christ's personal 
 appearance : which Christ hath not yet fulfilled to this dav. 
 
 m 1 Thess. y. 5. n Rom. si. 25. 
 
245 
 
 Revelation iii, 21. 
 
 " To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my 
 " throne ; even as I also overcame, and am set down with my 
 " Father in his throne." 
 
 What can we make of this text, unless we understand the 
 saints that persevere to the end reigning with Christ on earth ? — 
 As it is afterwards expressed by them ; " Thou hast made us 
 unto our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth." 
 On which our new Annotations confess ; '* that this may signifv 
 " the prosperous times of the Church under christian kings and 
 " emperors, Dan. vii, 27, and Ps. xxxvii, 11 — ' For the meek 
 •' shall inherit the earth;' and Matt, v, 5. 'Blessed are the meek, for 
 " they shall inherit the earth/" This must signify a state to come; 
 for not only is the expression in the future tense, but experience 
 shows us, that in past times the meek have not inherited the 
 earth, but have been sorely disturbed and distressed in it. 
 
 Further, it is granted here by Christ himself, (which is deeply 
 to be considered,) that, as the God-Man, he hath not hitherto 
 sat upon his own throne, but upon his Fathers throne. The 
 highest heaven of glory is apparently the Father's throne, as it 
 is often expressed in the Old Testament ;P and there Christ is 
 now : c i but the time is to come when Christ must have a throne 
 of his own, on which, together with him, those that overcome 
 shall sit. 
 
 Revelation, Chapters xviii, xix. 
 
 Note first Chapter xviii, 2 — " Babylon is fallen, is fallen:" for 
 whether we understand new Babylon, figuratively so called, viz. 
 Rome ; or old Babylon, properly so named ; neither of them 
 have so fallen, as is described in the following verses of this 
 chapter. Nor are verses 4 and 6 yet fulfilled, wherein the peo- 
 ple of God are commanded, saying, " Reward her, even as she 
 rewarded you, and double unto her double ; according to her 
 works, and the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double ;" 
 for the people of God have not yet rewarded either old or new 
 Babylon at all, but " she glorifies herself, and lives deliriously ;" 
 
 » Rev. v. 10. P Vi. xi. 1 ; Isa. lxvi. ], &<;, «J Col. iii. 1. 
 
246 
 
 (v. 7) yea, and oppresseth the people of God. Nor is verse 8 
 yet fulfilled ; that her plagues have come in one day, viz. 
 " death, and mourning, and famine, and utter burning." Nor 
 verse 9, " that the kings of the earth, that have committed 
 " (spiritual) fornication, and lived deliciously with her, shall 
 " bewail her, and lament for her, seeing the smoke of her 
 " burning ;" for generally they rejoice with her, and for the 
 glory which she has at this day. Nor verses 11 — 19, viz. 
 " the mourning of the merchants over her destruction ;" neither 
 verse 20, the rejoicing of the holy apostles and prophets over it, 
 mentioned again also in the first seven verses of the nineteenth 
 chapter. In which last passage, the coupling with the judge- 
 ment on the great Whore the declaration, that " the marriage 
 of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready," 
 clearly relates to the first resurrection, wherein all the saints, 
 rise ; so that the ruin of Babylon, and the raising of the saints, 
 immediately concur with the sorrow of the one, and the tri- 
 umph of the other. Once more, from the eighth verse of the 
 nineteenth chapter to the end of the chapter is not fulfilled ; 
 viz. of the glory of the Church, of the glorious appearance of 
 Christ, and of the corporal destruction of all whatsoever that 
 take part against him and his Church. 
 
 But these things, as sure as Christ is " the Truth" and the 
 " Faithful Witness," must be fulfilled, and before the ultimate 
 general judgement ; for after that Christ lays down " all rule, 
 and all authority and power," &c. as so often has been observed. 
 
•247 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE PERSONAL APPEARING OF CHRIST TO HIS 
 CHURCH AT HER RESTAURATION ON EARTH. 
 
 It appears to be of so much importance to shew, that the 
 Lord Christ will personally appear, at least in the clouds, at the 
 time of the Restauration of his Church and at the beginning of 
 the Millennium, that though it has been plainly expressed in 
 some places already handled, and may be gathered from most 
 of them, it will be useful to treat of this point in a distinct 
 chapter. 
 
 Our position therefore will contain these two particulars : 
 I. That Christ shall then at least appear visibly in person, more 
 or less. II. That the saints under him shall sensibly, and pro- 
 perly, reign over the whole earth. In order to establish these 
 we shall bring forward a few different passages of Scripture ; 
 not in the order in which they occur, but so placed, as that 
 they may best throw light on one another. 
 
 Zechariah xii, 10. 
 
 " And 1 will pour out upon the house of David, and upon 
 " the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplica- 
 " tion, and they shall look on him whom they have pierced ; and 
 " they shall mourn for him (or concerning him) as one mourn - 
 " eth for his only son ; and shall be in bitterness for him, as 
 " one that is in bitterness for his first-born." 
 
 It is evident from John xix, 37, (where this place is quoted,) 
 as also from Acts ii, that there was a handful of first-fruits (so 
 called Rom. xi, 16,) that truly then mourned for him whom 
 they had pierced. Acts ii. likewise shews, that there was 
 also some effusion of the Spirit ; but that again (accord- 
 
248 
 
 ing to Romans viii, 23) was plainly but a first-fruits. For 
 as the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning Christ 
 and his kingdom are exceeding comprehensive and extensive ; 
 so (as Calvin observes,) the fulfilling of them is progressive 
 and successive in all ages to the last end of all. This small 
 number of mourners cannot, in my apprehension, complete and 
 make up an answerable fulfilling of that which was promised 
 to the inhabitants of Jerusalem in general, and their several 
 families of " David, Nathan, Levi, Shimei," and " all the families 
 that remain," as they are expressly named in verses 12 — 14 of 
 this chapter. 
 
 Those that would avoid the force of this text for the point of 
 Christ's personal appearing at the great future restauration, 
 must of necessity make it relate, either to the time of Christ's 
 passion, or to the time of the last judgement ; but to neither 
 of them will it filly answer. 
 
 It will not fully suit the time of Christ's passion for these 
 reasons : First, this looking on Christ, " whom they pierced," 
 is to be at " that day," — that notable day, when (saith the 
 Lord) " I will make the governor of Judah like a hearth of 
 " fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf, and 
 " they shall devour all the people round about, &c. and Jeru- 
 " salem shall be inhabited again, in her own place, &c. The 
 " Lord also shall save the tents of Judah, &c." " In that 
 " day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem ; and 
 " he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; 
 " and the house of David shall be as elohim (potentates) and 
 " as the angel of God." " And it shall come to pass at that 
 " day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come 
 " against Jerusalem." Now surely nothing of all this took 
 place at the time of Christ's passion ! The Romans then pos- 
 sessed Jerusalem in subjection, and shortly after it was destroyed, 
 and has been trampled under foot by the Gentiles ever since. 
 Secondly, we read not that then they had any such public and 
 solemn humiliation, of " families mourning apart, or jointly, as 
 they did at Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon, for good 
 king Josiah's death ;" and those are the platforms of their 
 mourning, according to verses 11 — 14. 
 
 Next, this circumstance will not suit the ultimate general judge- 
 
249 
 
 ment, for these reasons ; First, that would be a late and un- 
 likely time of repentance, and of pouring out the Spirit of grace 
 and supplication. Secondly, that is no time of mourning, but 
 of joy to the saints. Thirdly, the mourning of the wicked (and 
 they will indeed generally mourn at that time) will not be a 
 mourning out of love to Christ, (as " one mourning for his only 
 son," or for his f first-born/') but a graceless wailing and 
 despairing. 
 
 The likeliest time therefore to make out the true and full 
 meaning of this text is, the period of the general call and con- 
 version of the Jews yet to come ; as will more plainly appear 
 from the next section, which is another quotation of this same 
 place. 
 
 Revelation i, 7. 
 
 " Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, 
 " and they also which pierced him ; and all kindreds of the 
 " earth shall wail because of him. Even so, amen." 
 
 The context evinces, that this is spoken of Christ, and as 
 adorned with such titles and exploits as are most congruous to 
 our position ; being him who is " the first begotten of the 
 " dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth ; — him that 
 " loved us, &c. and hath made us kings and priests unto God, 
 " and his Father; — to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever, 
 " Amen. Behold he cometh with clouds, &c." — So that he 
 must yet come, to make good all these things to the saints, and 
 to manifest yet more his own glory and dominion. What can 
 be plainer than that this verse 7 is a quotation of Zech. xii, 10, 
 nearly in the same main phrase and words, only with more of 
 explanation and illustration ? 
 
 It is still more evident, that the coming here named cannot 
 be meant of Christ's first coming in the flesh, because it is pro- 
 phesied so many years after his ascension : it must relate to 
 that coming, spoken of Acts i, 11, — " This same Jesus, which is 
 taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, in like manner 
 as ye have seen him go into heaven ;" — spoken when the. 
 " cloud received him." His disciples had just asked of him 
 " whether at that time he would restore the kingdom to Israel ;" 
 and he left his angels to give them this answer. 
 
250 
 
 Every word almost of this text intimates, that this coming is 
 meant of a time after his ascension, and yet before the ultimate 
 day of doom. " Behold ! He cometh" — implies a future thing, 
 now, after his ascension ; and some eminent coming. "He cometh 
 with clouds," that is, in the clouds ; as the Greeks in the same 
 manner say, a man with armour, for a man in armour. The 
 meaning doubtless is, that this coming of Christ shall not be 
 so obscure as at his incarnation, or as his coming among the 
 disciples after his resurrection ; but he shall come conspicuous 
 and gloriously visible to all upon the earth. His people now 
 see him with the eye of faith ; but they do not behold him 
 visibly : r then however " every eye shall see him :" which must 
 needs signify more than a sight by faith : for faith and sight are 
 so distinct, that the Apostle makes them opposite. s It is ques- 
 tionable, whether every eye, that is said here to see him, shall 
 first see him by faith : for every eye must see him, and all 
 kindreds of the earth shall mourn. Surely his enemies, whom 
 he destroys at his coming, shall not see him by faith ! 
 
 " Even so, amen." — John did certainly see Christ by faith ; 
 and yet he prays for that sight of him in the clouds, and raises 
 up his faith with a hearty Amen. 
 
 On the other hand this text cannot be understood of the 
 ultimate day of judgement : First, because it is the same with 
 Zech. i, 10 ; and therefore the same reasons prevail, which are 
 noticed under that head. Secondly, because this is set here, as 
 the main and general proposition to the Book of the Revelation ; 
 of which the subject therefore is, to set forth Christ to come, 
 and set up his Church into a most glorious estate on earth, be- 
 fore the day of judgement, (as we have seen abundantly,) and to 
 make her reign with him on earth. Thirdly, it were very in- 
 congruous for John, in the last clause of verse 6, to applaud 
 Christ's dominion as to continue for ever, (that is, while times 
 and ages last, as the Greek imports,) and in the first clause of 
 the next verse to say, he cometh to make an end of his dominion. 
 For the ultimate day of judgement is the last act of Christ's 
 dominion ; which he then lays down, that God may be all in all. 1 
 
 Thus then observe, that Zechariah and John both prophesied 
 in the aforesaid places of one and the same personal appearance 
 
 r 1 Pet. i, 8. s 2 Cor. v. 7, nnd Heb. vi. ' 1 Cor. xr. 21,-28. 
 
26] 
 
 of Christ. This, from the whole tenor and time of the vision 
 to John, must be subsequent to his ascension : but it cannot be 
 understood of the ultimate general judgement, because they 
 both speak of his pouring out grace on, and giving repentance to, 
 the families of the Jews, and of his dominion, to continue thence 
 for many ages. Therefore the said visible appearance of Christ 
 is yet to be before the ultimate day of judgement. 
 
 Matthew xxiv, 30. 
 
 " And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven ; 
 " and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall 
 " see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power, 
 " and great glory/' 
 
 Observe distinctly every clause and word. 1st, " Then shall 
 appear the sign of the Son of Man ;" that is, the Son of Man shall 
 appear for a sign that great things are at hand ; as it follows, 
 " they shall see the Son of Man, &c." 2nd, " The sign of the Son 
 of Man in heaven :" he was before in the highest third heaven, 
 but now in the lowest first heaven, namely of the " clouds," as 
 it also follows in this verse. 3rd, And then shall all the tribes 
 of the earth (intimating Jews as well as Gentiles) mourn :" 
 Why ? — They shall see the Son of Man ; that is, as man. And 
 how mourn ? — Doubtless, according to Zechariah and John, the 
 the Jews with godly repentance ; and his obstinate enemies 
 with desperation for the ruin that is coming upon them. 4th, 
 " Coming in the clouds," or upon the clouds : from which 
 John's meaning is proved when he said, Christ should come 
 " with clouds." 
 
 Now Christ spake this before his ascension and going away 
 above the clouds, and after he had come in the flesh. There- 
 fore it must needs be fulfilled after he hath so ascended above 
 the clouds ; for then, and not till then, will it be rightly said 
 and properly fulfilled, that he comes in the clouds. 
 
 Nor can this coming and appearance in the clouds be here 
 understood of the ultimate day of judgement, because of that 
 which Christ afterwards affirmeth, " Verily I say unto you, this 
 generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled." (t\ 34.) 
 And then he seals and binds it up in the next verse, viz. " heaven 
 
 2 H 
 
252 
 
 and earth shall pass away, but my words (and particularly those 
 words foregoing) shall not pass away." Thus heaven and earth 
 shall pass at Christ's coming, (that is in quality, not in substance, 
 saith (Ecumenius) for there shall be " a new heaven, and a new 
 earth ;" u but Christ's word concerning that generation and the 
 things spoken of should not pass. The Greek is "pass away," 
 it being the same word as is rendered pass away in reference 
 to the heaven. 
 
 But the difficulty is in the words, " this generation." Some 
 would fain refer these words to the time of the destruction 
 of the temple of Jerusalem, adverted to in verse 2 ; but 
 though that verse might have been then fulfilled, yet little reason 
 is there from thence to infer, that therefore " all things, spoken 
 by Christ from verse 3 to verse 34, were then fulfilled. Christ 
 in verse 3, is put upon speaking to three distinct things : viz. 1st, 
 of the time, when those things, (viz. the destruction of the temple 
 and city of Jerusalem) shall be ; — 2nd, of the sign of his coming; — 
 and, (mark the " and,") 3rd, of the end of the world. These 
 are the " all things" Christ speaks of, at the fulfilling of which 
 he himself will appear in the clouds. But at the destruction 
 of the temple Christ did not visibly appear in the clouds ; nor 
 did he then " send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet 
 to gather his elect from the four winds," as he promises, verse 31. 
 Therefore the words, " This generation shall not pass away, &c." 
 must signify, that whereas many other nations have passed away, 
 and been extinguished, leaving behind neither name, nor thing 
 to keep up their remembrance ; this nation of the Jews shall not 
 be so extinguished, or annihilated, but shall continue a distinct 
 nation, at least in note and name, till all these things be fulfilled. 
 For as Christ saith after, my word shall not pass away, (that is, 
 change, as the heavens and the earth shall pass away, or be 
 changed, when that great reformation shall come ;) so the nation 
 of the Jews shall not pass away to be changed into another peo- 
 ple, or so drowned among many others as to extinguish their 
 name and genealogies : but (as to this day, so from hence for- 
 ward till that great time,) their name, kindred, and habitations 
 shall be distinctly known, — at least of all them that are of their 
 own blood. 
 
 11 As Tsaiah Jxv ; 2 Peter iii ; Rev. xxi. 
 
0> 
 
 7%is cannot be deferred to the last judgement, becauseSw^fy 
 reason also ; that a little before this mention of all things to" 
 fulfilled to the nation of the Jews before they pass away, Christ 
 saith, that as, by the fig tree's tender branch putting forth leaves, 
 we may know that summer is nigh ; so, when we see all these 
 things come to pass, we may discern that the summer of the 
 great restoration of the elect and of all things for their use, like 
 the world in summer, is at hand. And further, in verses 46, 
 47, he intimates, that the time he speaks of is not the utmost 
 last judgement, but of a glorious previous time on earth ; viz. 
 " Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall 
 " find so doing : verily, I say unto you, he shall make him ruler 
 " over all his goods : (the Greek is, shall set him over all that he 
 "hath:") which suits far better to the saint's reign on earth, 
 than to anv thing of their condition at the last judgement, when 
 Christ lays down his own rule and power, and therefore gives 
 no power of rule to his people. 
 
 Upon the words., "this generation shall not pass," let me observe 
 that thus far Pareus and others are of our mind. He says, " That 
 " though others understand by generation the whole world, yet 
 " it better pleaseth me to understand the Jewish nation, as the 
 " generation upon whom these things shall be fulfilled. Matthew 
 " xxiv, 2. Therefore the nation shall not pas-, but continue 
 " scattered, till the end of ages, when they shall experimentally 
 " find the truth of Christ's predictions, though at present they 
 " do not believe." 
 
 2 Thessalonians , \\, 1 — 9. 
 
 " Now I beseech you brethren, by the coming of our Lord 
 " Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye 
 " be not soon shaken in mind, as that the day of Christ is at 
 " hand. Let no man deceive you ; &c. for that day shall not 
 " come except there come a falling away first, and that man of 
 " sin be revealed, the sow of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth 
 " himself above all that is called God ; &c. so that he, as God, 
 " sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 
 " &c. And now ye know what withholdeth, that he might be 
 " revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth 
 
254 
 
 " already work ; only he who now letteth, will let, till he be taken 
 " out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, 
 " whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of his mouth, 
 " and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming/' 
 
 It would appear by this place, that soon after the ascension of 
 Christ, there went abroad an expectation of his coming again be- 
 fore the ultimate day of judgement. This expectation probably 
 began in the Apostles themselves, upon Christ's discourse to 
 them during forty days, from his resurrection to his ascension, 
 touching the kingdom of God ; which moved them to ask him, 
 ■ Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel ?" 
 For this kingdom Christ did not deny, but only then put them 
 off, touching their knowing the time at presents I say then, 
 that when the Apostle wrote this, there was an opinion (though 
 a mistake in it, as touching the proximity thereof) that Christ 
 would come again before the ultimate day of judgement. For 
 this text speaks not of the general destruction of the wicked 
 world ; but of the destruction of Antichrist by the brightness 
 of Christ's coming ; whereby a way is made for the gather- 
 ing of the Jews and Gentiles into one universal visible church, 
 before the ultimate day of judgement, as we have so largely 
 proved. 
 
 We need not I conceive prove, that Antichrist is meant in 
 this text ; for it is'granted by all. Nor is it material to dispute, 
 whether the Pope or Turk be the Antichrist ; for Antichrist is 
 the body, (viz. the race of them that effectually oppose Christ, 
 as Christ,) and the Pope and Turk are the two main limbs, as 
 we have shown before. Our text then saith, " The Lord shall 
 consume Antichrist with the Spirit of his mouth, and destroy 
 him with the brightness of his coming :" and although these 
 two master-limbs of Antichrist should not fall together, but the 
 Pope shall be first bowed down, and the Turk be ruined after 
 him, (perhaps at the end of the forty-five years of the Jews' 
 struggle with him, w ) yet this text stands firm, that Antichrist 
 must fall by the Spirit of Christ's mouth, and by the brightness 
 of his coming. 
 
 The Spirit of his mouth is his word, called in Isaiah xi, 4, 
 " The rod of his mouth," and " the breath of his lips," with 
 ▼ Acts i. .'{, 6. * See Dan in. 12. 
 
J55 
 
 which he shall smite the earth and slay (VWi) the WICKED OM; 
 and this for the settlement of his glorious kingdom of peace on 
 earth, as the context of Isaiah xi evinces. With this word then 
 Christ prefaces and perfects the ruin of Antichrist ; that is, he 
 first destroys him morally, and then corporally. He destroys him 
 morally as he is Avofios, the lawless one, — one who leaves God- 
 word, and substitutes his own, (viz. alcoran, legends, traditions, 
 &c.) and by it sets up blasphemy, idolatry, heresy, impiety, and 
 tyranny over men's consciences. Christ's word discovers, con- 
 futes, and confounds. Secondly, Christ, by animating men, by 
 the same Spirit in his word, to a corporal war against Antichrist, 
 destroys him physically, that is with a corporal destruction. So 
 it is emphatically set forth in Joel, iii, 9 — 17, inserted between 
 two prophecies touching the glorious kingdom of Christ on 
 earth; with which compare Rev. xvii, 16, Rev. xviii, and Rev. 
 xix, 17, to the end. For, notwithstanding Christ shall have 
 rendered the wickednesses of Antichrist odious to the generality 
 of the world, and shall have dissected and cut them up by the 
 roots with the sword of his mouth, so that they take not with 
 enlightened men ; yet Antichrist will still act as Antichrist, op- 
 posing Christ in the power of his gospel, the purity of his saints 
 and worship, and the glory of his kingdom : and then, I say, 
 shall Christ's word, the sword of his mouth, put the sicord of his 
 hand into the hands of his people ; — i. e. the rod of his month 
 shall become a rod of iron in his hand. x And then as the pro- 
 phet speaks, " The cities of Moab shall be destroyed. — Cursed 
 " be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully (or negli- 
 " gently,) and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from 
 " blood." Thus, with this breath of his mouth, Christ prepares, 
 or begins, the ruin of Antichrist. For the Greek is avmkwci, 
 that is, — " shall waste him," as an estate is wasted ; — or " con- 
 sume him," as a body by a consumption pines away. 
 
 But by " the brightness of his coming" Christ shall make a 
 full end of Antichrist. Karapyna-ei, i. e. he shall abolish him, (as 
 Beza renders it ;) or shall make him a nothing, as the Greek word 
 is often used. " By the brightness of Christ's coming," would 
 perhaps be more closely to the Greek (tjj €7rt</)areta ths -napovcrias 
 
 * Rev. xix, 15. 
 
'J DO 
 
 avTov,) were it rendered " by the manifest appearance of his 
 coming." Thus our last translators could find the way to render 
 €7TL<f)av€ia, appearance, in relation to Christ's kingdom, in 2 Tim. 
 iv, i: " I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus 
 " Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead, Kara tt\v 
 " (TTufxxveLav avTov K.cu rrjv [3a(T€k€tav avrov, at, or according to 
 " his appearing, and his kingdom." And also 1 Tim. vi, 14 : " Keep 
 " this commandment, &c. /xexpt tt\$ eitMpavtias rov Kvpiov 
 " yiJLtov Irjo-ov XpLo-rov until the appearance of our Lord Jesus 
 " Christ." Suitably with this, it is our common phrase to call 
 the day of the appearance of the star' at Christ's birth Epiphany. 
 By all that we have said it is manifest, that as the first scene 
 of the ruin of Antichrist is acted by the Spirit of Christ's mouth, 
 so the second is performed by the appearance of his person; just 
 as in that quoted above from 2 Tim. iv, 1. First is his appear- 
 ance, and then his kingdom : for Antichrist must be down, ere 
 Christ shall fully have an apparent kingdom ; and Christ must 
 have his kingdom, before the ultimate day of judgment, for then 
 he gives it up. 
 
 It is possible that the breath of Christ's mouth will prevail 
 sufficiently with Christendom, (as they call it ;) and be effectual 
 to excite them to pull down the Pope root and branch : but to the 
 Jews, that to this day do not own the coming of Christ in the 
 rlesh, Christ must manifestly appear, at least in the clouds; and 
 thereby they are stirred up as one man to set against the Turk, 
 from whence proceeds his ruin. 
 
 Nor may any man put off what hath been said upon this text, 
 by devolving it upon the ultimate day of judgment. There is a 
 weighty consideration to the contrary ; for then is the destruc- 
 tion of all the wicked of the world ;> T but our Apostle here speaks 
 precisely of the distinct destruction of Antichrist as Antichrist ; 
 and therefore mentions him, and his brood, as a single man. 
 In verse 3, he is called 6 avOpcdiros rns a\iapTias, the man of sin ; 
 in the same verse 6 vios rrjs cnroXtias, the son of perdition ; 
 verse 4, 6 avTLK€LpL€vos, that oppose?' ; verse 8, 6 avofios, 
 the lawless one. Thus, as Antichrist is a distinct thing in pre- 
 cise notion from the openly wicked, so his destruction is dis- 
 
 > Rev. xxii, 10, 
 

 257 
 
 tinct before the ultimate day of judgement. Otherwise the 
 testimony of many chapters of the Book of Revelation is 
 destroyed, wherein it is shewn that he falls before new Jeru- 
 salem is set up ; and his fall is set forth as the cause that 
 Christ reigns (at least in and by his saints) on earth a thousand 
 years. So that the appearance of Christ, destroying Anti- 
 christ, is at the beginning of the thousand years. 
 
 Matthew xxvi. 29. 
 
 " But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this 
 " fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you 
 " in my Father's Kingdom." 
 
 Some may think this place is to be understood of Christ's 
 conversing with the disciples, after his resurrection r neverthe- 
 less, even Calvin, Marlorat, Grotms, &c. are against that ex- 
 position of it. Besides, it is not said in Luke xxiv, 42, 43, 
 that Christ did drink with the disciples after his resurrection : 
 eat with them he did, to shew the verity of his risen humanity ; . 
 but it is not said he drank, as if he needed it either for con- 
 coction, or to allay some corporal passion of heat. Peter also 
 says, touching himself and the rest of the apostles, " We did 
 eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead ;" z which 
 may signify their more familiar society with him, according to 
 Luke xiii, 26 ; " We have eaten, and drank in thy presence :" 
 but it doth not assert Christ's drinking. It is generallv con- 
 ceived that this cup was his last that he drank in this present 
 world.* 
 
 If any however will insist, that he did drink after his re- 
 surrection some sort of drink or other, let them duly consider 
 the emphasis in this sentence : ov ixn ttuo a-' aprt, / will by no 
 means drink from henceforward ck tovtov tov ycinjfjLaro^ r?/y 
 afj.TTekov of this, this same, fruit for kind) of the vine, until, & 
 So that beyond all dispute Christ will no more drink of this 
 
 * Acts x, 41, 
 
 * Surapto poculo, renunciat corporali potioui. Theophyl. Enarrat. in loco. 
 
 Quare non videtur hoc intelligendum de vino, quod una cum discipulis biberit 
 Dominus post resurrectionem suam. Nam etsi per dies illos quadraginta, sese 
 illis subinde ostendit, atque etiam cum iis edit, nulla tamen potus sit mentio. 
 Nee moris erat apud Judseos bibere vinum in prandiis ac csenis quotidianis. sed 
 tantum in >olemnioribus conviviis. Piacator. S'c/tol. in loco. 
 
258 
 
 kind, until that day, when he shall drink it new with them, in 
 his Father's kingdom : which emphasis at that day, with the 
 distinction of his Father's kingdom, cannot relate to three days 
 after ; Christ then being still in execution of his mediatorship, 
 rising again for our justification, as he was delivered to death 
 for our offences. a All which is further confirmed by the phrase 
 new being in the adjective and not in the adverb : for he saith 
 not, " I will drink it newly" but " I will drink it new ;" which 
 could not be within three days after, and in the winter time, 
 (when there was need in Judea of a fire in the high priest's 
 hall ;) b at which time there could not be any new w 7 ine. But at 
 the thousand years all things are made new ; c and the learned 
 Grotius saith " The fruit of the vine is said to be new, the same 
 as it is said New Jerusalem in the Apocalypse :" d and we know 
 that Jerusalem is new (in St. John's sense) in the time of the 
 thousand years, as appears by collating Rev. xxi. 1, with Rev. 
 xx, 1, &c. The great Joach. Camerarius on this text approves 
 of Theophylact's sense of the new wine, and thus recites it : 
 " New, that is, saith Theophylact, after a new manner ; not in a 
 vulgar or common, but in a new and singular way." e To which 
 let me add w T hat further Theophylact there adds ; — " Or else by 
 " new understand a new cup, and the revelations of the mysteries 
 " of God ; that is, in his second coming shall be revealed what 
 " things are truly new ; such as we have not any where heard. " f 
 Piscator saith, " That ' the kingdom of his Father' signifieth 
 " that royal nuptial, whereat Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and 
 " all the elect shall sit down together with Christ."s It is also 
 said, Rev. xx, 4, of the saints, " that they lived and reigned 
 with Christ a thousand years :" which agrees with Matt, xix, 28, 
 " Ye which have followed me shall, in the regeneration, when 
 " the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory, sit also 
 " upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel :"* 
 where we have the fruit of the vine new, explained by iraXiy- 
 yevtaLCL ; i.e. another Genesis, or creation of the world. And 
 
 a Rom. iv, 25. 1> Luke xxiv, 55. c 2 Pet. iii, 13 ; Isa. lxv, 17 ; Rev. 
 xxi, 1,4.5. d Grot, in Annot. in Matt, xxvi, 29. c Camerar. Comm- in Matt. 
 f Theoph. Eoar. in Com. S Piscator in loco, Schol. 
 
 * So Theophilus points it, and saith, Per reyenerationem autem resurrec- 
 tionem intelligc, which resurrection of all the elect defunct, is at the beginning 
 of the thousand years. 
 
259 
 
 (saith the Apostle,) this second creation is such, as that therein 
 the creature itself, (the whole creation, as well as the election 
 of believers,) shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, 
 into the glorious liberty of the sons of God, &c. — That is, the 
 creatures shall be delivered from the blasting curse brought on 
 them by Adam's fall : viz. both from the vexation, wrong, and 
 abuse they suffer by man's sinful use of them ; as also from the 
 vanity, weakness, and emptiness that is in them for fallen man's 
 sake. Now this royal and nuptial banquet must be at that 
 Wedding spoken of in Rev. xxi, 2, 9, and which, in its order, falls 
 into the thousand years before mentioned, and follows the ruin 
 of Babylon. 
 
 But some may object, that it is said in the text, Christ would 
 drink the wine new in his Father s kingdom ; and therefore 
 this place is not so clear for Christ's kingdom. To this we 
 answer two ways. First, that the kingdom may in this text be 
 called his Father's kingdom, because the Father gave it him ; 
 according to Psalm ii, 8, at verse 6 of which Christ is 
 consequently called his King ; and the apostles pray to the 
 Father, in the words of this Psalm, to maintain his Son in his 
 kingdom. 11 So Psalm viii, 4, 5, " What is man that thou art 
 " mindful of him, or the Son of Man (the common style of 
 " Christ) that thou visitest him ; for Thou hast made Him a 
 " little while lower than the angels, and (i. e. d. after that) hast 
 " crowned him with glory and honor. Thou hast made him to 
 " have dominion over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put 
 " all things under his feet." — All which the Apostle expounds 
 of Christ, and of the inhabited world to come, and saith, (though 
 Christ was ascended,) that all things were not yet put under his 
 feet. 1 
 
 Secondly, we answer ; that it is the kingdom of Cod his 
 Father, because Christ reigns over it in unspeakable union with 
 the Godhead : for though he be but one person, yet he hath two 
 natures; so that the sense is, the kingdom of a God-Christ, or 
 a God-man Christ. Now the term Father is ascribed in Scrip- 
 ture to the Godhead usually in relation to Christ incarnate ; so 
 that because the two natures are joined as colleagues in one 
 person, over this empire, therefore it is called, in Ephes. v, 5, 
 
 h Acts iv, 24, &c. > Heb. ii, 5—7 ; &c. 
 2 i 
 
260 
 
 " the kingdom of Christ and of God." It is also in effect 
 called the kingdom of God and of Christ, in Rev. xii, 10 : — 
 " Now is salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, 
 and the power of his Christ." So that Christ as Man doth reign 
 jointly with God in this millennary kingdom. 
 
 2 Timothy iv, I. 
 
 " I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who 
 " shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing, and his 
 " kingdom." 
 
 The kingdom of Christ, here mentioned, cannot be referred 
 to his past government of the Church ; for though he was now 
 ascended it is expressed in the future tense, that he " shall judge 
 the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom." Nor 
 can it signify any kingdom of Christ after the ultimate judge- 
 ment, for then Christ resigns his kingdom. But when Christ 
 next appears (to judge or rule among the quick and dead saints, 
 and to destroy the then living incorrigible wicked, by a particu- 
 lar day of judgement at the beginning of the thousand years,) 
 then he shall have a kingdom ; for he shall say to his saints, 
 " Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared 
 for you :" according to Matt, xxv, 34, and Rev. xi, 15 — 18. 
 
 The word appearing is the same in the Greek as in 2 Thess. 
 ii, ; so that Christ must appear to the inhabitants of the earth, 
 where this hi=; kingdom is. For the present, " Christ is gone 
 " into a far country, (viz. into heaven,) to take to him a king- 
 " dom :" k that is, in the metropolis, heaven, he is to be crown- 
 ed king of the kingdom he is to have on earth ; and he is to 
 return, and then " to take account of his servants" in this his 
 kingdom, and to dignify the well-doers. 
 
 Acts iii, 19—21. 
 
 " Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may 
 " be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come, from 
 " the presence of the Lord. And He shall send Jesus Christ, 
 " which was before preached unto you, whom the heaven must 
 
 k Lt\kc xix, 11, 32. 
 
261 
 
 " receive, until the times of restitution of all things, which God 
 " hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets, since the 
 " world began/' 
 
 This Scripture is the more important, in that it is urged by 
 some against Christ's glorious kingdom ; whereas, if well weigh- 
 ed, it speaks most strongly for it. For the phrase times, twice 
 mentioned in the plural, cannot relate to a state after the last 
 judgement ; for then " there shall be time no longer."^ Moreover 
 these times are said to be " spoken of by all the prophets since 
 the world began :" they therefore that pretend to be skilled in 
 the prophets disgrace themselves, in denying that which is the 
 chief thing in all the prophets. All the prophets since the 
 w 7 orld began have not spoken of the last day of judgement ; but 
 of the kingdom of the Messiah they have all spoken : and so 
 much and so plainly about it, that the apostles minds did much 
 run upon it, even at the first appearing of Christ, as is evident 
 from the Gospels. From hence arose the request of the Mother 
 of Zebedee's children, entreating Christ, " that her two sons 
 might sit the one on his right hand, the other on his left hand 
 in his kingdom ;" m hence the strife among the twelve, which of 
 them should be the greatest ; n hence the question of the apostles, 
 touching Christ's restoring the kingdom to Israel :° in all which 
 places Christ doth not in the least hint a negative to the thing 
 itself. And the Jews do yet much expect the coming of the 
 Messiah to restore them ; insomuch that one ancient learned 
 Rabbin on his death bed exhorted the Jews, that if the Messiah 
 did not come about 1650 they should embrace the christian 
 Messiah as the true one. 
 
 Peter also, speaking to the Jew 7 s in his second Epistle, quotes 
 the prophets for this state of the Church whereof we speak : 
 " We have a more sure word of prophecy whereunto ye do well 
 that ye take heed, as to a light that shineth in a dark place until 
 the day star arise in your hearts. P Now the Lord Christ had 
 come in the flesh, the Spirit had been abundantly poured out, 
 the Gospel openly promulgated to the world, and they to whom 
 Peter writes in part converted ; (v. 1 ;) and yet the Apostle calls 
 it a dark time, in comparison of the rising of the day-star (that 
 
 1 Rev. x, 6, 7. m Matt, xx, 20—24. » Luke ix, 46 ; xxii, 24. • Acts i, 6. 
 
 V 2 Pet. i, 10. 
 
262 
 
 is the " sun of righteousness") in their hearts. Nor can it be 
 the glory after the last judgement which he and they waited for ; 
 but — "We, according to his promise, look for new heavens and 
 a new earth, &c/ ,f i 
 
 Now there are four notable things to be considered in the 
 text. First that there is now, so long after Christ's ascension, 
 a time of refreshing to come for the Jews (to whom these words 
 were spoken) as well as for others ; at which time their sins 
 should be totally blotted out : for as regards the Church the state 
 whereof we speak will be sinless. Second, that this time of re- 
 freshing shall be as arising from, or proceeding from, the p resence 
 {oy face TTpoa-idiTov) of the Lor d, which. .evidently signifies a sight I 
 of Christ. Third, that God shall send Jesus which was before » 
 preached to them : he had sent him already by incarnation ; not - 
 withstanding, God will again send him. Fourth, it is said, Christ 
 comes for the restitution of all things : not for the destitution, or 
 destruction of all things. Restitution signifies restoring ; re- 
 storing signifies an attainment of that perfection that was lost, 
 either in men, or things. Now their spiritual condition was in 
 part restored ; but the creature itself also shall be delivered from 
 the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons 
 of God. For the whole creation groaneth, §c. until now : and not 
 only they, but we ourselves also, that have the first fruits of the 
 Spirit, groan within ourselves, waiting for the redemption of our 
 bodies." 1 ' 
 
 Now lay all together, viz. that both men and things groan after 
 this estate ; that the creatures shall share in it ; that it relates 
 distinctly, with an emphasis, to the bodies of the saints : and 
 then meditate, whether it be likely that a supernal state of glory 
 in the highest heavens be here meant ! No : the heavens ' 
 above need no making new ! nor have they any earth in "them. ! 
 The new Jerusalem, to which the kings shall bring their 
 honor, comes down from heaven ; so that it is a new state of 
 glory below. 
 
 This also should be well weighed ; that the restitution of all 
 
 things must of necessity be before the ultimate end of the world. 
 
 For according to the notion our opponents conceive of the end of 
 
 the world, there shall be the dissolution of the earth, and no need 
 
 q Chap. iii. 13. r Rom. viii, 21, &c. 
 
203 
 
 of the heavens. And if there shall be then a restitution of some men 
 (namely the elect) to supernal glory ; yet that will not amount 
 to the phrase in the text, viz. the restitution of all thmga : for 
 not only all the elect, but all the creation, expect a restitution. 
 
 Moreover it is said, that the heaven must contain Christ 
 until the restitution of all things ; which clearly infers, that 
 Christ must come out of heaven when he shall restore all things. 
 And how? even as it is expressed in Acts i, 11, spoken by 
 angels, and attested by St. Luke : " This same Jesus which is 
 " taken from you into heaven, shall so come in like maimer as ye 
 " have seen him go into heaven." 
 
 Matthew xxiii, 38, 39. 
 
 " Behold, your house is left unto you desolate ! for I say unto 
 " you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is 
 ■' He that cometh in the Name of the Lord." 
 
 This cannot be meant of Christ's coming immediately after his 
 resurrection ; for it is plain, that between the time of speaking 
 this and his coming with that acclamation, " Blessed is he that 
 cometh, &c." their house, or habitation, to whom he speaks, 
 must be left desolate. The speech is directed point blank to the 
 Jews, and more keenly to that portion of them inhabiting Jeru- 
 salem. So the connexion, — " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou 
 " that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto 
 " thee ; how often would I have gathered thy children together, 
 " even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye 
 " would not. Behold, (mark the connexion, or inference; ijuur 
 " house is left unto yoic desolate ; for, I say unto you, Ye shall 
 " not see me, &c." Luke inserts Christ's great asseveration, — 
 " Verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me ;" and expresses 
 it more fully, that this welcoming of Christ was not just at 
 hand, in that he saith, " Ye shall not see me until the time come 
 when ye shall say, Blessed, &c." And both Luke and Matthew 
 state it with the emphasis of a double negative — ov \ir] /xe t5);re : 
 that is, ye shall by no means (or manner) see me till that time ; — 
 which was verified in the circumstance, that only the disciples or 
 brethren saw him at his resurrection. 
 
 What this leaving their house desolate is, our Saviour ex- 
 
264 
 
 pounds presently ; for having said in the last two verses of 
 Matt, xxiii, "• Your house is left desolate, &c." in the first verse 
 of the next chapter he says of the city and building, " that 
 " there shall not be left there one stone upon another that shall 
 " not be thrown down ; — and that they should see the abomina- 
 " tion of desolation set up in the holy place ;" expounded by St. 
 Luke to be the compassing about Jerusalem with the heathenish 
 Roman armies. 
 
 Now the performance of this thing cannot be referred, 
 either to the time between Christ's resurrection and ascension, 
 or to the ultimate day of judgement. Not to the former period, 
 because this is spoken (as we have demonstrated) to the gener- 
 ality of the Jews, who had killed the prophets, and stoned them 
 that were sent unto them (verse 37) whose house therefore is to 
 be left desolate. Nor to the latter period ; because that is no 
 time of conversion of the Jews to cause the acclamation, 
 Blessed is he that cometh, &c. ; but of judging men according 
 to the condition they are found in.* 
 
 I add, that this cannot be meant of the Jews seeing him only 
 by faith. For it is opposed to their not seeing henceforward 
 with bodily eyes, between this speech and that same ' until.' So 
 that the result of the sense is the same with Acts i, 11. — "This 
 " same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so 
 " come in like manner, as ye have seen him go up into heaven." 
 Or with that of Rev. i, 7, — " Every eye shall see him." Clearly 
 therefore the meaning must be, that as Christ thought it requi- 
 site to appear visibly in the clouds to convert so resolute an 
 enemy to him as was Saul ; so shall he think it meet to appear 
 yet, before the ultimate judgement, to convert the Jews so long 
 blinded. Just as it is said in Daniel xii, 1, " Michael shall 
 " stand up, (that is, say some learned, shall visibly appear,) 
 " which standeth for the children of thy people." The word 
 hy, rendered for, may be translated over ; as much as to say, 
 he should appear over them in the clouds]; — which, according 
 
 * Learned Dr. Alsted on this text observes : " Quibus verbis Christus in- 
 dicat Judaeos ipsum tandem aliquando visuros, non equidem in ultimo judicio, 
 sed ante illud ; quia non in ultimo judicio acclamabunt ipsi Benedictus, &c. 
 (turn enim trepidabunt, qui non fuerint conversi ad ipsum) sed illo tempore quo 
 se ipsis ostendet ut convertat ipsos ad veram fidem." Alsted in loc. in Diatr. 
 Dc Mil. An. 
 
265 
 
 to the twelfth verse, is to be 1335 days, (that is years,) after the 
 ceasing of the daily sacrifice ; at which time Daniel shall stand 
 in his lot upon earth, (v. 13.) 
 
 The result is, that the coming here mentioned respects a 
 future period, and yet before the final judgement ; which is also 
 the opinion of the great critic Dan. Heinsius.* 
 
 Luke xix, 11 — 28. 
 
 " He added, and spake a parable, because he was nigh to 
 * Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God 
 " should immediately appear. A certain nobleman went into a 
 " far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return ; 
 " and he called his ten servants, and delivered to them ten 
 " pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come. But his 
 " citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We 
 " will not have this man to reign over us. And it came to pass 
 " when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he 
 " commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom 
 " he gave the money, &c. Then came the first, saying, Lord, 
 " thy pound hath gained ten pounds. And he said unto him, 
 " Well, thou good servant, because thou hast been faithful in a 
 " little, have thou authority over ten cities, &c. — But those 
 " mine enemies that would not Lave me reign over them, bring 
 " them hither and slay them before me." 
 
 The preface to this parable is a golden key to open its mean- 
 ing, that we may not rely upon a mere allegory. Christ spake 
 this parable, " because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because 
 " they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately 
 " appear." It doth not deny the appearing of the kingdom ; 
 
 * His words in his Annotations on this text are ; " Verba quibus caput hoc 
 concluditur hsec sunt « /X7] jit icijTt utt' apri &c. de quo, ut aliis quibusdam, 
 vere dici potest, quot Theologi tot sententiae. Alii enim de visione, non per 
 fidem, qua hie videtur Dominus, sed de ea qua cum ad judicium venerit, denuo 
 videbitur (quod non paucis placet.) Alii de ea intelligunt, qua a Judaeis, qui 
 in prima agnoscere eum noluerunt, turn videbitur. Quae opiniones cum ab aliis 
 refutentur singula? minori opera hie defungemur. Certe quam praecipue hie 
 amplectuntur, quo nitatur fundamento, nondum video ; cum prsesertim ea de 
 quibus hie agitur, non minori cum gaudio pronuncianda \ideantur, quam cum 
 Domino adveniente, Hosanna exclamavit populus. In judicio autem tribui 
 terrorem impiis, Judaeis vel in primis, de quibus fuse ad hunc Evangelistam alibi 
 Chrysostomus, quis ncscit ?" 
 
266 
 
 Christ is for it : only he is against the immediate appearance of 
 it. He must before that " go away into a far country/' viz. 
 to heaven ; and leave talents in trust with his servants, giving 
 them time to employ them ; and be so long absent, that his 
 enemies grow bold enough to send after him with this high 
 affront, " that they would not have him to reign over them :" 
 that is, some seeming professors should, by his long absence, 
 grow quite careless of improving the talents, or gifts of endow- 
 ments, to his honor ; and others by his delay (as they account 
 it) should become professed enemies against him. 
 
 But whatever these mistakers dreamed, the truth was, that 
 as the diligent talenters expected, and accordingly acted, Christ 
 went away to heaven, — not to be ever absent, but to take to 
 himself a kingdom ; (which phrase must signify a kingdom pe- 
 culiar to himself, as he is Christ ;) and being installed into it, 
 he is to return. He had his kingdom of grace before he w 7 ent 
 away, which he oft refers to in his discourses ; and he had the 
 kingdom of glory as his triumph over his kingdom of grace, 
 having finished his conquest on the cross : so he needed not to 
 return to receive either of these kingdoms. It remains there- 
 fore, that it is the kingdom we speak of that he returns to 
 receive. 
 
 Now Christ went to heaven to be installed into the kingdom 
 of this earth ; that being the imperiality , to which this is the 
 tributary, or province ; or that being the metropolis, and this 
 the territories. Express enough it is at all events, that he went 
 away into a far country ; which can be no other but heaven, 
 Christ having never travelled bodily out of his own country. 
 
 There are also several other pas ages in this parable for 
 Christ's visible appearance, and setting up his visible kingdom 
 of power on earth, yet before the ultimate day of judgement. 
 First, his giving to the improvers of their talents, — to one the 
 rule over ten cities, to another the rule over Jive cities. Secondly, 
 the different dispensations of justice towards him that had not 
 improved his talent, who is cast into outer darkness ; and to- 
 wards his enemies, whom he causes to be slain before his face. 
 All this suits not to Christ's mere kingdom of grace, neither 
 does it comport with the ultimate day of judgement ; but they 
 well agree with Christ's appearing to set up his visible kingdom. 
 
267 
 
 Indeed the whole parable will appear (to them that can leave 
 the common road of interpretation, and ingenuously weigh the 
 passages and preface thereof) to aim at Christ's next coming to 
 set up such a kingdom, as shall not only perfect the spiritual 
 i deliverance of the Gentiles, but also perform the temporal de- 
 ! liverance of the Jews from their dispersion and corporal miseries. 
 ; For the natural current of the parable runs thus : Christ being 
 near Jerusalem, the Jews thought the kingdom of God would 
 \ immediately appear. Doubtless, it was far from their thoughts, 
 in the captive condition they were now in, to expect the appear- 
 ance of the kingdom of glory in heaven : for the hundreds of 
 promises of their deliverance from the corporal captivity were 
 not fulfilled; and they little minded' the kingdom of grace; 
 while the better sort, (viz. the disciples and believers,) had seen 
 it appear already. Therefore it is the other kingdom of Christ, 
 I viz. that of his visible power and rule, to deliver them from 
 i their corporal enemies, that they supposed would immediately 
 I appear. Now to this Christ saith, as it were, " It will not im- 
 : mediately appear ; but I must first go into heaven, and there 
 be instated, and crowned King, and after that come again and 
 > actually and visibly reign. In the mean while, you, whom I 
 have endowed with gifts, must employ them ; and at my return, 
 as a sign of my visible actual power, I will take account of you, 
 and cause mine enemies that oppose my visible reigning to be 
 slain before me." Again bear in mind, that at the ultimate day 
 of judgement Christ receives no kingdom, but resigns all his 
 : kingdom, power, and dominion. (1 Cor. xv, 28.) 
 
 Daniel vii, 11—28. 
 
 This place throws much light on the parable just noticed. 
 In verses 1 1 and 12, the four beasts, (that is, the four monarchies ; 
 for it is expounded at verse 17, that the four great beasts are 
 four kings,) are slain ; and instead of them Daniel sees in a 
 vision, " one like the Son of Man, come with the clouds of 
 I heaven, to the ancient of days, and they brought him near 
 " before him." This notably agrees with the parable which 
 describes Christ as going into a far country, to receive to him- 
 self a kingdom, and to return ; which return, according to this 
 
 2 K 
 
268 
 
 place of Daniel, will be visibly in the clouds. And (saith 
 Daniel,) " There was given to him, that was like the Son of 
 " Man, dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, 
 " nations, and languages shall serve him :" just as in Luke, 
 (according to the Greek) he returned receiving the kingdom* 
 When he visibly returned, he received a kingdom here below ; 
 else why did he return ? 
 
 Jeremiah xxv, 5, 6. 
 
 " Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto 
 " David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, 
 " and shall execute judgement and justice in the earth. In his 
 " days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely, and 
 " this is his name whereby he shall be called, the lord our 
 
 " RIGHTEOUSNESS." 
 
 First, it is evident from the last clause, that the Lord Christ 
 is the person here meant, it being his incommunicable name. 8 
 Secondly, it is as apparent, by the whole series of Jeremiah's 
 prophecy, that this relates to the times after Judah's captivity 
 in Babylon, Israel having been carried away captive long before. 
 Lastly, it is beyond all objection, that Christ did never yet so 
 reign upon earth as this text holds forth, as may be made ap- 
 pear with few words. 
 
 1st. Christ must reign and prosper ; that is, must be every 
 way glorious and successful, so that Judah and Israel shall own 
 him for their king, and call him, " The Lord their righteous- 
 ness." 2dly. He shall execute justice and judgement in the 
 earth: it is not said, he shall preach justice or judgement, or 
 execute it in heavenly places ; but he shall execute it, and upon 
 or in the earth. 3dly. In his days Judah shall be saved, and 
 Israel shall dwell safely, being gathered out of all countries. 
 But the Lord Christ did never yet thus reign : for instead of 
 reigning and prospering in the eyes of Israel and Judah, he was 
 as a branch blasted, a thing accursed,* so that the Jews generally 
 disowned him, proceeding against him as a malefactor, guilty of 
 
 * sv rip £7rav£\$eiv avTOv XafiovTct tt\v j3acri\£iav, which Arias renders in 
 redire ipsum accipientein regnum. 
 
 ■ Actsiv, 12 ; 2 Cor. v, 21. t Isa. liii, 3, 4, &c. 
 
269 
 
 many of the highest crimes. And for matters of justice and 
 judgement in the earth, he refused to meddle with the small) 
 matters, even to give his opinion touching the adulteress, or to 
 divide the inheritance. 11 Neither did Israel then or ever return 
 from captivity, and dwell safely : if indeed we might say Judah 
 did, at Christ's first coming in the flesh, which is doubtful, be- 
 cause they were then under the Heathen Roman power as 
 conquered and tributaries. v 
 
 Nor may any put this off, with Christ's spiritual reigning ; for 
 this he always did from the creation : but this is in the future 
 tense, — the days are coming in which he shall reign ; which 
 signifies his reigning so as he never did before. 
 
 I shall now bring forward three other texts, which it is suf- 
 ficient to read only, without any comment, to shew that Christ 
 will visibly appear at the great restauration of his Church. I 
 will only premise, in regard to all three, that the things contained 
 in them have never yet been fulfilled ; and that they are wholly 
 unsuited to the general opinion of the character of things, as 
 they will be after the final day of judgement. 
 
 Zechariah ii, 10 — 12, 
 
 " Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for lo I come, and 
 " will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. And many 
 " nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be 
 " my people ; and I will dwell in the midst of thee, &c ; and 
 " the Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the Holy Land, 
 " and shall choose Jerusalem again." Compare this with Zech. 
 xiv, 4 — 9. " And his feet shall stand in that day upon the 
 mount of Olives," — " and the Lord shall be King over all the 
 " earth : in that day there shall be one Lord, and his name one." 
 
 Micah, iv, 1 — 8. 
 
 " In the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of 
 " the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the 
 
 a John viii. ; Luke xii, 14- v Luke iii, 1. 
 
270 
 
 " mountains, and many nations shall come and say, Come, let us 
 " go up to the mountain of the Lord." — " And He shall judge 
 " among many people, and rebuke the nations afar off; and they 
 " shall beat their swords into ploughshares : nation shall not lift 
 " up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any 
 " more ; but they shall sit every man under his vine, and under 
 " his jig-tree, and none shall make them afraid." — " In that day 
 " I will assemble her that halteth, and will gather her that was 
 " driven out, and her that I have afflicted, and I will make her 
 " that was cast off a strong nation, and the Lord shall reign over 
 " them in mount Zion, from henceforth and for ever." 
 
 Zephaniah iii, 14 — 20. 
 
 " Sing O daughter of Zion ; shout O Israel, &c. the Lord hath 
 " taken away thy judgements, he hath cast out thine enemy. 
 " The King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee, &c. 
 " In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not, &c. 
 " the Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, 
 " he will rejoice over thee with joy. I will gather them that 
 " are sorrowful. Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict 
 " thee ; I will gather her that was driven out ; and I will get 
 " them praise and fame in every land, where they have been put 
 " to shame, &c." 
 
 From the foregoing Scriptures I would have the reader ob- 
 serve, that Christ must be a king visibly, — i. e. it must visibly 
 appear that he is a king, — or else men that are only influenced 
 by their senses, and not by the Spirit nor by faith, will never 
 be convinced : whereas the main intent of Christ's visible ap- 
 pearance is, that the kings of the earth, and all men drowned 
 in sensuality, shall come and submit to his kingdom. w 
 
 And is there not reason that the King of kings, the Son of 
 Man, should be as completely and apparently King, as the kings 
 that are under him ? They have not only authority by writs, 
 warrants, proclamations, &c. to punish or encourage by their 
 officers ; but they are visibly crowned, sit in the throne, bear the 
 
 w Rev. xxi, and other places? 
 
271 
 
 sceptre, and are attended upon all just occasions with a visible 
 power. It is but equity therefore that Christ also should not 
 only have sovereign authority, but also a visible power, so as he 
 may visibly appear to his very enemies to be " King over all the 
 earth." Yea, as earthly kings have a providential care over all 
 their subjects, even to the punishing of the rebellious; so also have 
 they their secret way of insinuation and ingratiating towards 
 their favourites ; and their manifest glorious presence at court, 
 in the metropolitan and most magnificent place of the kingdom. 
 Therefore, this at least must be equally allowed to Christ : viz. 
 a providential power over all the world ; a spiritual efficacy 
 over his kingdom of grace, or visible Church ; and a visible 
 glorious reigning over all his true saints. 
 
 But Christ is not now King in glory in the highest heavens 
 with and over all his saints ; for all shall not be there (even ac- 
 cording to the common tenet) till the Lord Christ hath resigned 
 all his power.* And then (according to the common tenet 
 again,) when he hath brought all the elect souls to their bodies 
 by a resurrection, and changed them whom he finds alive at his 
 coming, and so brought them all to ultimate glory, just then he 
 lays down all his authority, and delivers up the kingdom ! so 
 that he doth not reign with and over all his saints in ultimate 
 glory at all. 
 
 But, according to the foregoing Scriptures, he must be a 
 visible King of visible glory over the Church, made very glori- 
 ous upon earth at his next appearance, before the ultimate 
 judgement. It is a great comfort to those departed, that their 
 bodies shall not lie in the grave so long as to the ultimate judge- 
 ment, when all the wicked shall be raised ; (as is evident, by 
 comparing verse 2, &c. of Rev. xx, with verse 8, &c.) and it is 
 a great comfort to them who shall be alive at his coming, and 
 that have waited for him faithfully to the last and worst of the 
 tragedy of evil times. 
 
 Finally, Christ must as visibly succeed in government the 
 four metals y and the four beasts, 2 (both signifying the four 
 monarchies,) as these four did visibly precede him in govern- 
 ments " The God of heaven shall set up a kingdom, which 
 " shall never be destroyed ; and the kingdom shall not be left to 
 * 1 Cor. xv, 28. Y Dan. ii. z Dan. vii. a Dan. ii, 44, 45. 
 
272 
 
 " other people, but it shall break in pieces, and consume all 
 " these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever/' And all this 
 comes to pass in that " the sto 1 ? (Christ Jesus) cut out of the 
 " mountain without hands brake in pieces the iron, the brass, 
 " the clay, the silver, and the gold." b " The rest of the beasts 
 had their dominion " taken away." " The Son of Man comes 
 " with the clouds, and the Ancient of days gave him dominion, 
 " and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, and nations, and 
 " languages should serve him." So that Christ, at his next 
 appearance, exhibits the fifth monarchy. 
 
 Though the Lord spake but little to Eve of his dominion 
 over the seed of the serpent, and consequently his succour of 
 the seed of the woman, yet did he anon and after act in types 
 this visible monarchy ? He appears to Moses in a burning bush, 
 to give a visible sign of his presence to deliver Israel out of 
 Egypt. He appears to Israel in a pillar of a cloud, and of fire, 
 sensibly to signify he was their convoy. They are a royalty, (as 
 Peter calls them) but God only their monarch. Moses, and 
 after him Samuel, were their interpreters between them and 
 their Monarch ; and therefore, when they rebelled against 
 Moses, it is reckoned as a rebellion against God ; and when 
 they refused Samuel, it is charged upon them that they refused 
 God to be their governor. The ark is placed amidst the camp, 
 as the pledge of God to be their General. Accordingly they 
 carried the ark in battle with them, as it is written : " The peo- 
 " pie sent for the ark of the covenant of the Lord of Hosts, 
 " which dwelleth between the cherubim. d " And so the Philis- 
 tines conceived : for when the Israelites shouted, at the coming 
 of the ark into the camp of Israel, they were afraid, and said, 
 " God is come into the camp." c This ark led them through 
 Jordan, (as it is conceived by the most learned) and through 
 the Red Sea. So when Israel was to re-build the Temple, and 
 to settle in their own land after the captivity, Christ appears 
 typified as a commander of an army, on horse back, with troops 
 behind him ; f and as the Son of man sitting in judgement, as a 
 king.s 
 
 Some will perhaps say these were types of his incarnation. 
 
 '' Dan. vii, 13, 14. c Num. ii. cl 1 Sam- iv, 4. e v. 7. f Zech. i. 
 
 R Zech, vi, ; Dan. vii. 
 
 
1T6 
 
 Grant that they were so, in some general semblance ; yet did 
 they more distinctly set forth his visible monarchy to come : 
 therefore his very incarnation is made a type or platform of his 
 coming as a Monarch. h And as he appears, in Rev. i, as a glo- 
 rious King, by way of prologue to his visible re-appearance to 
 reign as a Monarch, (Rev. xx ;) much more may we expect him 
 to come, and visibly appear at the setting up of his monarchy, 
 from the consideration of all that he hath said and done in 
 relation to it in the New Testament. He tells Pilate he was 
 born to be a King, and therefore must be a King ; but he would 
 not set it up yet, before his ascension : l he must first " go into 
 a far country, and after that receive his kingdom ;" k he must 
 first " ascend up on high, and lead captivity captive," spiritually, 
 as a preface to his visible appearance to make the Church spi- 
 ritually and corporally glorious. This the Apostle directly inti- 
 mates in the fourth chapter of Ephesians : " Until we come to a 
 " perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of 
 " Christ ;" which by and by he calls " the new man which after 
 God is created in righteousness and holiness," alluding to the state 
 of innocent Adam. And therefore, as the first Adam did visibly 
 appear as a glorious monarch over the visible world ; so shall 
 the second Adam, equally be the visible monarch of the world ; 
 according to the Prophet's and Apostle's doctrine in Psalm viii, 
 and Hebrews ii ; which are divine commentaries, as we have 
 seen, on Adam's monarchy, Gen. i, 26 — 28. 
 
 h Acts i, 11. i Acts i, k Luke xix. 
 
274 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE GLORIOUS STATE ITSELF 
 
 OF THE CHURCH ON EARTH. 
 
 We have necessarily anticipated much that belongs to this 
 head, inasmuch as that many of the Scriptures which set it forth 
 are interwoven with our former arguments. Nevertheless, we 
 have reserved a more particular discussion of this glorious state 
 itself for this place ; and shall distinguish it for clearer dis- 
 crimination into five heads : viz. 1. The Chaos, 2. The Creation, 
 3. The Dimensions, 4. The Qualifications, 5. The Privileges. 
 
 I. By the Chaos we mean the preparation to this estate, or 
 the manner of its beginning : that as, in the old creation, the 
 Chaos was the evening of the world, with which it began ; so 
 this new creation (as it is called,) a begins with an evening. And 
 as, after that, by way of antitypical memorial thereof, the church 
 of the Jews began their sabbath in the evening ; so this glori- 
 ous Sabbatism of which we speak, shall begin and have its ante- 
 scene, or prelude, in a kind of evening. Now as the evening 
 hath some obscure light, from a reflection of the sun's beams 
 darted backward upon the clouds, with a twilight following it, 
 but in the latter part it is dark ; so in the first part of this even- 
 ing, there shall be some manifestation of the " Sun of righteous- 
 ness" for the call of the Jews, b and the stirring them up to 
 contend for their liberty against the Turk, and all other enemies ; 
 after which there shall be a darkness of great troubles, — which 
 troubles may indeed last forty-five years before the Jews with 
 the Gentiles come to their glorious enjoyments at the resurrec- 
 tion of the elect. But when that evening and night is passed 
 over, " the righteous shall have the dominion in the morning ;" d 
 which learned Junius interprets of the saints' happy estate in the 
 morning of the resurrection. 
 
 Isa. lxv, 17 ; 2 Pet. iii, 13 ; Rev. xxi, 1. b Zech. xii, 10 ; Rev. i, 7. 
 
 c Dan. xii, 1. d Ps. xlix, 14. 
 
275 
 
 Now as, when the evening shuts in, there is a darkening ol 
 all the glory of the precedent day, and all glorious things and 
 persons are wrapt up in obscurity ; so in this instance theft 
 shall be a setting, or dark eclipsing, of all the worldly glory of 
 former times, things, and persons ; — viz. of the four former 
 monarchies, root and branch, with all their appurtenances, that 
 stand as hindrances of Christ's glorious kingdom on earth. e 
 Wonder not therefore at the pulling clown of human glory 
 and the many scuffles about it, even at this day. The sum of 
 worldly pomp is declining towards sunset, — the shadows grow 
 long, — it begins to be dusk upon all secular splendor : the night 
 approaches, when great storms will arise. 
 
 But as, in the dark night, there is a continued tendencv to- 
 wards the succeeding day, and the glory thereof; (for the sun is 
 still hastening to rise again ;) so, whilst the troubles are extant 
 and incumbent upon the Church, there is a continued ten- 
 dency towards the glory thereof ; these very troubles refining 
 the Church and preparing it for that state. f Yea, the day shall 
 suddenly dawn ; for at the end of these troubles, and for the 
 ending of them, the Sun of righteousness shall appear :§ so that 
 when they are at the highest, then Christ will shine forth most 
 gloriously for the destruction of the enemies of the Church : h 
 upon which destruction on the enemies by the presence of Christ, 
 the glorious time of the thousand years begins ; and it begins 
 with the resurrection of all the elect, as it most methodically 
 follows in Daniel xii, as a close of all the troubles mentioned in 
 the whole prophecy ; and as it also methodically follows that in 
 the Revelation xx, as the blessed catastrophe of all the confusions 
 in that whole prophecy. 
 
 II. Next follows the New Creation, mentioned both in the 
 Old and New Testaments. For John sees a new heaven, and a 
 new earth -.i but how so, unless created new? for the alteration 
 is such, that the old heaven and earth seem as it were to pa-s 
 away. So also Peter, and the rest that believed with him, ex- 
 pected, " that, all the former being dissolved, there should be 
 new heavens, and a new earth, according to God's promise. "J 
 
 e Dan. vii ; Rev. xi, xviii, and xix. f Mai. iii, 2, 3. 8 Mai. ir. 2 
 
 compared with 2 Pet. i, 19. h Dan. vii, 13, 14, &c. 2 Thess. ii, 8 ; Rev. 
 
 xix, 11, &c. iRev, xxi. 1, J 2 Pet- iii, 11— 13. 
 
 2 i. 
 
270 
 
 The promise is in Isaiah lxv, 17 : — " Behold, I create new 
 " heavens and a new earth; so that the former shall not be re- 
 " membered, nor come into mind." In all these places the 
 expression * earth' demonstrates that it is a state on earth : the 
 word ' heaven is no contradiction to it, being oft used to signify 
 the air, clouds, &c. which are appurtenances of the earth, and 
 which Paul calls, by implication, ' the first heaven. ' k 
 
 With the creation of this new world, are created its appurte- 
 nances. (1.) First, New Jerusalem; immediately after the 
 creation of a new heaven and a new earth, which St. John sees 
 coming down from God out of heaven j 1 (therefore, again, a state 
 on earth:) and Isaiah, at verse 18, having mentioned the crea- 
 tion of the new heaven and earth, immediately adds — " Lo, I 
 create Jerusalem." (2.) Secondly, the inhabitants of this new 
 world are then also created. For if no more than the conversion 
 of the Jews were meant, still it would be no less than a crea- 
 tion. A miracle is a kind of creation ; and the school -men 
 say, that though conversion be not a miracle properly, yet it is 
 more than a miracle. I would add, that miracles are wrought 
 on non-resistances, which have a disposition of submission to 
 the will of the Creator ; whereas man's unregenerate will is 
 obstinately opposite and resisting. But no man will doubt that 
 a resurrection is a creation : now the Scripture compares the 
 conversion of the Jews to a resurrection ; m as we have seen 
 before. Besides this, the inhabitants are further multiplied 
 and perfected by a physical resurrection of all the deceased 
 saints, n and a physical mutation of the living saints. So that, 
 as the Apostle saith, they shall have spiritual bodies (needing 
 neither meat nor drink, &c.) and made like to Christ's glorious 
 body.P (3.) Thirdly, the qualifications of places and persons 
 are created. As, first, righteousness : for Peter, when speaking 
 of this new earth, says, wherein dwelleth righteousness ;<l for 
 grace indeed is nothing else than divinely created qualities. And 
 St. John saith, that into this holy Jerusalem there shall in no 
 wise enter any thing that defileth ; but all shall be exceeding 
 good, as in the first creation. 1 ' Secondly, there shall be created 
 
 k 2 Cor. xii, 2. l Rev. xxi, 2. m Ezek. xxxvii, 5, &c. Dan. xii, 2 ; 
 Rom. xi, 15. n Rev. xx, 4. ° 1 Cor. xv, 51, 52. P Ibid. v. 44 ; Phil, 
 iii, 21. q 2 Pet. iii, 13. » Gen. i, 31. 
 
277 
 
 peace. ■■ I weate the fruit of the lips : Peace, Peace to him 
 " that is afar off (by captivity, or otherwise) and to him that is 
 " near, saith the Lord, and I will heal him." s 'Peace, peace,' 
 doubled, signifies very great, absolute, perfect peace : for that 
 period shall be a time of an universal perfection. Thirdly, 
 from Isaiah, already quoted, it appears that Joy shall be created : 
 " Be you glad, and rejoice for ever, in that which I create : for 
 " behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and I will rejoice in 
 " Jerusalem, and joy in my people ; and the voice of weeping 
 " or crying shall be no more heard in her." Consonant with 
 this is John's description of it : viz. " That there is the voice 
 " of triumph from heaven, saying, the tabernacle of God is with 
 " men, and he will dwell with them, &c. — and there shall be no 
 " more sorrow, &c. because he that sat upon the throne said, 
 " Behold I make all things new.'" 1 (4.) Fourthly, there shall be 
 at that time created a defence upon, or over the saints ; so that 
 their enjoyment in that glorious estate shall not be subject, as 
 formerly, to any invasions, subversions, interruptions, or dimi- 
 nutions from any power on earth, or in hell. " When the 
 " Lord shall have washed away the^ filth of the daughters of 
 " Zion, then the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of 
 " mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud of smoke by 
 " day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night, (alluding to 
 " the pillar of fire that led Israel in the Wilderness) for upon all 
 " the glory shall be a defence. " a 
 
 And as, in the first creation, things were brought into exist- 
 ence in an instant ; — God only saying " Let it be so," and pre- 
 sently it was so ; — so the parallel holds good as to the new 
 creation. For the call of the Jews shall be on a sudden ; 
 " Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? 
 " shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day, or shall a 
 " nation be born at once ? for as soon as Zion travailed, she 
 " brought forth her children. " v Secondly, the appearance of 
 Christ shall be on a sudden : "As the lightning cometh out of 
 " the east, and shineth even to the west ; so also shall the com- 
 " ing of the Son of man be." w Thirdly, the rising of the dead 
 
 s Isa. lvii, 19. t Rev. xxi, 1—5. u Isa, iv, 4, 5. v Isa.lxvi, 8. 
 
 w Matt, xxiv, 27. 
 
278 
 
 and change of believers, surviving at Christ's coming, shall be in 
 a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. x 
 
 There is a parallel also in regard to the parts created ; for the 
 new creation shall be perfected in all those things that are enu- 
 merated to be the workmanship of the six days. First in regard 
 to light — the light of the Church at this time shall be a super- 
 natural light, above any created light, according to Isaiah lx, 19. 
 " The sun and moon shall be no more light by day, &c. but the 
 Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light :" corresponding 
 with Rev. xxi, 23 ; " The city had no need of the sun, or of the 
 " moon, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the 
 " light thereof."* From these it seems, that the sun and the 
 moon shall in that new 7 creation still be extant ; but they shall 
 not be there to give light to the Church. Yea, " The light of 
 " the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the 
 " sun sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the 
 " Lord bindeth up the breach of his people ;"Y yet not used 
 for a light to the Church at that glorious time ; for then, to the 
 Church, there shall be no nights and days. Isaiah, in the above 
 mentioned passage, intimates this of the day — " The sun shall 
 " be no more thy light by day, &c. but the Lord shall be unto 
 " thee an everlasting light ;" and St. John, having said " There 
 shall be no need of the sun, neither of the moon," adds in verse 
 25, " for there shall be no night there." Secondly, as on the 
 second day was created the firmament, (as our translators render 
 it, following the Greek : alias the expanse, according to the 
 Hebrew,) that is, at least, the whole element of the air ; so in 
 this new creation, it shall be created anew, or perfected ; so that 
 there shall be no noisome fumes, or vapors, or any other nox- 
 ious exhalations, fiery, or watery, &c. to cause sickness ; death 
 itself being now swallowed up in victory. And the air shall not 
 be a habitation for devils, on account of which Satan is called 
 " the prince of the air ;" z but the devil shall be chained up, a and 
 every unclean spirit shall be removed far away from the Church. b 
 
 * Compare also Psa. lxxxiv, 11 ; Mai. iv, 2 ; Matt, xxiv, 27, 30 ; 2 Thess. ii, 8. 
 
 * 1 Cor. xv, 51, 52. i Isa. xxx, 26. ■ Eph. ii, 2. a Rev. xx, 2. 
 
 b Zcch. xiii, 2- 
 
n 
 
 Thirdly, as then were created the dry land, the plants, the fishes, 
 and fowls, and animals, &c. ; so, in the new creation, there shall 
 be a perfection of all those then in being ; (for of a resurrtction 
 of irrationals I know nothing) and they shall be freed and set 
 at liberty from all danger and hardship. Fourthly, as man 
 was created last of all, most perfect in soul and body, as the 
 subordinate end (next under God) for. which God made the 
 world ; d so in this new creation, Christ restores all things to 
 their perfection, and every believer to his ; to the end, that all 
 believers may jointly and co-ordinately rule over the whole 
 world, and all things therein, next under Christ their head. I 
 say, all, and not a part only, as some unwarily publish. And 
 I say jointly ; and not one part of the saints to usurp authority 
 over the rest, as many dream. And co-ordinately, all upon 
 equal terms ; not some saints to rule by deputies, made of the 
 rest of the saints, as men seem to interpret. 
 
 III. Having done with the Creation, we come next to the 
 Dimensions, or extent of this glorious Kingdom. As the other 
 four monarchies did overspread all the inhabited world ; e so 
 this fifth monarchy, of the saints' reigning on earth under Christ, 
 must be as large as those monarchies, — as large as the whole 
 world for ample dominion. For even if there be remaining a 
 secret seed of hypocrisy in some, which shall at last, (God so 
 foretelling, ) f break out in the war of Gog at the end of our 
 thousand years ; yet meanwhile all men, throughout that thou- 
 sand years, shall be demurely subject to the dominion of the 
 saints. Touching the latitude and largeness of this holy king- 
 dom, read Daniel ii, 34, 35. — " The stone cut out without hands 
 " smote the image on his feet that were of iron, and of clay, and 
 " brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay^ the brass, 
 " the silver, and the gold broken in pieces together, and became 
 " like the chaff of the summer threshing floor ; and the wind 
 " carried them away, so that no place was found for them ; and 
 " the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and 
 " filled the whole earth." So also Daniel vii, 26, 27 ; " And the 
 " judgement shall sit, and they shall take away his (the pre- 
 " ceding monarchies') dominion, &c. And the kingdom and 
 
 c Isa. xi, 6— 'J ; Rom. viii, 19—22. d Gen. i, 26. « See Dan. ii 
 and Lukeii, 1. f Rev. xx, 8. 
 
280 
 
 " dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom, under the whole 
 " heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints, &c." And 
 in Rev. x, 7, St. John having said, " In the days of the voice 
 " of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mys- 
 " tery of God shall be finished," goes on in chapter xi, 15, to 
 say, " The seventh angel sounded ; and there were great voices 
 " in heaven saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the 
 " kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign 
 " for ever ;" — that is, no monarchy shall ever be on earth after 
 his. The Jews also allege to this end Isaiah ii, 11, 17, — " The 
 " lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of 
 " men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be ex- 
 " alted." And one, both learned and godly, doth likewise to 
 the same purpose apply Haggai, ii, 21, 22 ; " By shaking heaven 
 " and earth once more, (saith he) the Prophet seems partly to 
 " mean, that there shall he a change, not only of the customs 
 " of the people, which are the earth ; but also of kingly powers, 
 " which are the heavens." Which place of Haggai, the Apostle 
 applies to the kingdom of Christ, (Heb. xii, 26 — 29,) of which 
 application, though part may comport with the kingdom of 
 Christ as spiritual, (which hath ever been) yet the rest seems to 
 look as far as Christ's kingdom to come on earth. For since 
 Haggai's, or Paul's time, God never so shook the material hea- 
 vens of orbs and stars, or the metaphorical of royalties and 
 majesties, that the kingdom succeeding (as the text plainly in- 
 tends) could not be moved. The place seems to allude to, and to 
 prophesy from, God's shaking of mount Sinai ; that as at that 
 time God shook his people out of Egypt, and separated them 
 by divine laws from all the nations of the earth to be a royal 
 Church by themselves ; so he will shake all the world of high 
 and low ones, when he sets up his last kingdom, (viz. Christ's 
 visible kingdom on earth,) and therewith makes all new. " For 
 " (saith my Author) that same ' once more' signifies the remov- 
 " ing of all former old things in earth, and heaven, (viz. of cus- 
 ■' toms and institutions of people, and crowns of kinglyhoods,) 
 " and making all new with sanctity and spirituality in the 
 " quality ; though men and creatures shall be in substance ex- 
 <e tant upon the earth, according to their species or kind, and 
 " His sovereignty in paramount glory ruling all." Just as 
 
 
281 
 
 Zechariah hath it, " And the Lord shall be king over all the 
 earth : in that day shall there be one Lord, and his Name one. "6 
 That is, (as some learned expound,) there shall be no more 
 lords, but the Lord Christ ; and his dominion shall be greater 
 than ever any was. Which the prophet Malachi doth notably 
 survey in these words ; " From the rising of the sun, even to 
 " the going down of the same, my name shall be great among 
 " the Gentiles, &c." h 
 
 IV. We proceed next to the qualifications, or qualities of this 
 Kingdom of Christ. 
 
 1 . It is sinless ; for it is not imaginable, that the deceased 
 saints should be raised and the living changed to enjoy this 
 glorious state with the least tincture of sin, either of their own 
 or others. This were to bring them again to sorrow ; which, as 
 we shall presently shew, cannot consist with this glorious state. 
 The places of Scripture asserting the sinlessness of this time are 
 very many and very clear ; so that I need but refer to them, to 
 convince the ingenuous reader : viz. Isaiah xi, 6 — xxxv, 8 — lix, 
 21 — lx, 21 — Jeremiah xxxii, 40, 41 — Ezekiel xxxvi, 23 to 30 — 
 xliv, 9 — Daniel xii, 3 — Zephaniah iii, 13 — Zechariah xiv, 20, 
 21— Malachi iv, 1—2 Peter iii, 13— Rev. xxi, 27. 
 
 But then the question will be asked, Where then shall abide 
 throughout those thousand years all those hypocrites, called 
 Gog and Magog, that shall at last break out, and go about to 
 oppose the Church ? though in vain, their opposition and sub- 
 version concluding in the same moment. 1 We answer, accord- 
 ing to the light we have attained, that most probably they shall 
 not be in, but without the Church : for without shall be dogs, 
 and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, 
 and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.J The heathen (as ap- 
 pears by Homer's Iliad, viii,) used to call the place of outcast 
 men Tartarus, alluding likely to some dismal and remote place 
 of the earth (as Tartary is) from us and from Jerusalem. The 
 Apostle takes up that word in 2 Peter ii, 4, and makes a verb 
 out of it {rapTapou) to signify the putting of men into a hellish 
 solitary place. So that most likely the unregenerate shall be as 
 remote from the Church, as Tartary is from Jerusalem and the 
 
 e Zech. xiv, 9. h Mai. i, 11. j Rev. xx, 8. J Rev. xxii, 15. 
 
282 
 
 Christian Church, — as far, as it were, from hell to heaven. The 
 Church being now as heaven on earth, the false hearted spawn 
 of future Gog and Magog shall be remote on earth, near their 
 future hell. To this, Rev. xx, 8, contributes some proof, in 
 that it saith, that Gog and Magog shall be fetched up against 
 the Church by the devil, from the four quarters of the earth. 
 
 But if these hypocrites were permitted to be nearer the 
 Church, they might perhaps be converted. We answer, no ■ 
 for it is (if we may use that word) the fate of this millennary 
 period, (I mean, God's righteous peremptory sentence,) that as 
 all that time there shall be no Regenerating of believers, so no 
 more regenerating of any unbelievers. There is a judiciary sen- 
 tence peremptorily passed to this purpose, Rev. xxii, 11. — " He 
 " that is unjust, let him be unjust still ; and he which is filthy, 
 " let him be filthy still ; and he that is righteous, let him be 
 " righteous still ; and he that is holy, let him be holy still:" 
 that is, they shall continue to be so. In order to which it fol- 
 lows, " without are dogs, &c. : and I come quickly, and my 
 reward is with me." The appearance of Christ at the preface 
 to this thousand years will be (as it is represented in the preface 
 to the Revelation, chap, i,) among the churches, that then are or 
 have been churches : therefore it behoves churches and all 
 professors to beware, that they be not found as the foolish 
 virgins, that never had the oil of regenerating grace in the vessels 
 of their hearts. For the oil of sound principles in their heads, 
 by which they made the blaze of profession, being spent, ihey 
 have lost their principles ; and so, being unready at Christ's com- 
 ing, they come (as Jerome saith) when the doors are shut ! 
 
 2. Next with good dependence we assert, it is a sorrowless 
 condition ; for sorrow came into the world by sin, and when sin 
 leaves the world, sorrow must go with it. Thus the Apostle 
 connects them — " O death where is thy sting ? O grave, where 
 is thy victory ?" k as much as to say, " Where is sin ?" for the 
 sting of death is sin, tending to it and the grave ; but the sting 
 is gone when sin is no more. Adam's state was a sorrowless 
 condition, and the state of the faithful at this time shall be the 
 same ; as we have often recited the parallel, Gen. i, 26, with 
 
 * 1 Cor, xv, 55, 
 
Psalm viii, Heb. ii, Psalm xcv, Heb. iv ; out of which ninetieth 
 Psalm the Apostle proves, that a rest yet remains on earth for 
 the people of God. The word in the Hebrew is WT*3B which 
 comes from the same root whence Noah's name is prophetically 
 given him, to foretel the comfort that should come to the 
 Church by him, — even the rest in the ark in the time of the 
 flood, Gen. v, 29. Much is couched in those words, Heb. iv. 9. 
 " Therefore, there is yet left (or there remaineth) a Sabbatism (or 
 a Sabbatical rest) for the people of God." Mark every word. 
 'Therefore,' because God rested on the seventh day in the be- 
 ginning, and after that gave them a seventh weekly and yearly 
 rest, with a rest also in Canaan, and after all he spake of anotl 
 rest to come; — therefore, there remaineth a rest. 'Remain- 
 eth' — or is yet left, imports something not extant before in 
 specie, but only in types ; but is next to come in order, in its 
 native kind and verdure. 'A rest' i. e. a Sabbatism : the word 
 is never used but on this occasion, and imports a limited time, 
 (not an everlasting unlimited duration) even as Adam lived near 
 a thousand years, and would have rested that time and longer 
 in paradise, without sin or sorrow, if he had not listened to the 
 diabolical temptation. "To the people of god:" which 
 beins; written to the Hebrews, must include them, (so often 
 called by God in the Old Testament My people,) and so must 
 necessarily signify, that this rest is for the Jews jointly with 
 the Gentiles, when the Jews shall be the people of God by 
 faith, as now the believing Gentiles are. 1 
 
 Another circumstance which will tend to make it asorrowless 
 state is, that tears shall cease in it. Isaiah says, " nation shall 
 not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they feam war 
 anymore."™ In another place he says of Christ, — " He shall be 
 called the Prince of peace" and "that of the increase of his 
 government and peace there shall be no end" n W Inch place 
 must plainly speak of external peace, as well as of internal, and 
 for a long continuance ; and it belongs to the time of which 
 we speak, (as before demonstrated,) which Christ hath not to this 
 day fulfilled, but hath brought a sword, rather than external 
 peace. Therefore the fulfilling of the sense of Isaiah xi, 1, &c 
 is yet to come. In another place we have these high promises. 
 
 1 Rom, ^i. ni Isaiah ii, 4. n Isaiah is, 6, 
 
 2 M 
 
284 
 
 " The Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose 
 Israel, and set them in their own land, and the strangers shall 
 be joined unto them, &c. And the people shall take them, 
 and bring them to their place, &c. And the Lord shall give 
 them rest from sorrow, fear, and hard bondage." And finally we 
 have it most fully and plainly, " That in that day the Lord will 
 wipe away all tears from all faces ; and the rebuke of his people 
 shall he take awav from off all the earth : for the Lord hath 
 spoken it."P The following Scriptures may be referred to for 
 further testimony on this head : Isaiah xi, 1 ; liv, 13, 14 ; lx, 
 14; lxv, 19; lxvi, 12; Jeremiah xxiii, 3, 4 ; xxx, 10; xlvi, 27, 
 28; Ezekiel xxviii, 24; Micah iv, 1 — 3; Zeph. iii, 13 — 15; 
 2 Thess. i, 7 — 10 : Rev. vii, 16, 17 ; xxi, 4. 
 
 Let this section encourage us to patience. Twice it is said 
 of the present state of sufferings, — " Here is the patience of 
 the saints ; ,,f i and once it is said, keep the word of patience : x 
 but after a while comes the kingdom of peace. Therefore Christ 
 seals up all the Bible, and all the Revelation almost, with this : 
 " He that is righteous, let him be righteous still ; he that is holy 
 let him be holy still ; and behold I come quickly, and my reward 
 is with me." Then — " Surely I come quickly, Amen, Amen." 
 
 3. It has already been seen, from the first place in the last 
 section, that it is a deathless condition : if more be wanted, we 
 may refer to Hosea xiii, 13, 14. — " I will ransom them from the 
 " power of the grave ; and I will redeem them from death. O 
 " death I will be thy plagues ; O grave, I will be thy destruction. 
 " Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes." Which words are 
 evidently spoken to Ephraim, the ten tribes, (v. 12,) and there- 
 fore cannot relate to the return of the two tribes from Babylon. 
 The Apostle also in 1 Cor. xv, 54, 55 evidently challenges this 
 place, as well as Isaiah xxv, 8. To these may be added Rev. 
 xxi, 4 and xxii, 2, 3. It is evident, that the latter, chapter 
 relates to the same state as the former : witness not only verses 
 14, 15 ; but also verses 1, 2, of the fountain of ivater and tree 
 of life, which signify a state on earth. In relation then to our 
 point, by reason of their partaking of the tree of life it is 
 said (v. 3.) " There shall be no more curse :" i. e. no death; for 
 
 o Isaiah xiv, 1 — 3. P Isaiah xxv, 8. q Rev. xiii, 10, and xiv, 12. 
 
 r Rev. iii, 10. 
 
death was the original curse to Adam, if he did eat of the tree 
 of knowledge of good and evil : had he not done so, he might 
 have eaten of the tree of life, and lived for ever. 
 
 My object however in this section is to deal faithfully ; there 
 being one place, relating to the time I speak of, that has some- 
 thing of an intimation of mortality to be in these times ; viz. 
 Isa. lxv, 20. " There shall be no more an infant of days, nor an 
 " old man that hath not filled his days ; for the child shall die 
 "a hundred years old, but the sinner being a hundred years old 
 " shall be accursed." Now as far as I can see into languages and 
 the context, these words (for tlie child shall die a hundred years 
 old) may be more fitly translated, " that the child should die a 
 hundred years old." For the word "o in the Hebrew is often 
 used (yea and very often so rendered by our translators) to sig- 
 nify that, as we have here rendered it ; and as for turning shall 
 into should, every grammarian knows, that "O so rendered will 
 necessarily infer that the verb speaks subjunctively. Read then 
 the words thus altered without the least violence to the native 
 acceptance of the Hebrew, and the meaning will be quite con- 
 trary to any intimation of the mortality of the saints. " There 
 " shall be no more thence (or from that time, viz. of the begin- 
 " ning of the thousand years of the new creation, verse 17,) 
 " an infant of days, or an old man that hath not filled his days, 
 " that the child (or young man) should die at a hundred years 
 " old." So that here is no mention of the mortality of the 
 saints, but rather of their immortality. For further clearing of 
 the text, this may be made out two ways. 
 
 First, he that is a hundred years old in those days, is but 
 a youth, (or young man, as our old translation renders it :) For 
 as a youth hath but the tenth part of that age which many 
 men live in these days, so a hundred years are but the tenth of 
 this millennary term of life to the inheritors thereof. Again, as 
 in the first age of the world, one of a hundred years old was but 
 a young man to one at his full age in those days ; (for Adam lived 
 a hundred and thirty years, and begat a son ; but Adam after 
 that lived eight hundred years, so all his days were nine hundred 
 and thirty — near a thousand ; s ) even so in this millennary age 
 of the new creation, one of a hundred years old, is but a young 
 
 5 Gen. v, 4. 
 
286 
 
 man, to the thousand years that he shall reign with Christ on 
 earth. So that the sense of the Prophet may fairly be taken to 
 be this : that in the time of this new creation, as the young man 
 must not have his days cut off, so the old man must fulfil his 
 days. And how are both these accomplished in this new crea- 
 tion, but by their both living on earth a thousand years, old and 
 young ? When I speak of old and young, you must understand 
 those saints that are found alive at Christ's coming, which anon 
 after are changed ; for all the deceased saints are raised to an 
 equal perfection and absolute maturity of age and nature ; even, 
 as the other are changed into the same exactness, though at 
 Christ's first appearance different in age.* Thus we may well 
 understand the Prophet to allude to the age of the first Adam : 
 that if, in a sinful state, his age at a hundred years was but as 
 it were youth ; (his whole age amounting to near a thousand 
 years ;) how much more shall the saints, by means of the second 
 Adam, live a thousand in a sinless condition ? 
 
 Secondly, it may be congruously made out, that the Prophet 
 in this text intends rather the immortality of the saints, than 
 their mortality, thus : " There shall be no more thence an in- 
 infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days ; that 
 the child, youth, or young man should die a hundred years old, or 
 the sinner a hundred years old should be cursed. Thus we make 
 the whole verse depend on the word *0 that, as before rendered, 
 turning our English ' but' in the latter clause into or ; the Hebrew 
 being the conjunction 1. The sense will then be, — that at that 
 time of the new creation there shall be neither he that shall 
 naturally die in his infancy ; nor he that shall naturally die in 
 his riper age ; nor he that shall be a sinner, whereby his days 
 should be violently cut off. Moreover the context bears out 
 my interpretation : for at verse 19 it is written — " I will re- 
 joice in Jerusalem and joy in my people, and the voice of weeping 
 shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying" Now 
 if weeping and sorrow must be gone, so that it shall be no more, 
 then, I think, there shall be no more death. 
 
 * Whatever may be the translation of Isaiah lxv, 20 ; it is clear that it cannot 
 relate to the mortality of the changed or resurrection saints ; for it is expressly 
 said of them, in a passage which the author seems to have overlooked, — " Nei- 
 ther can they die any more." (Luke xx, 36,) In the Appendix, indeed, it will 
 he seen, that he is aware of the distinction between the saints of the resurrection, 
 and those who remain in the Mesh, 
 
B7 
 
 That I may not seem presumptuous and singular, and wil 
 add something for illustration, give me leave to show you other 
 famous translations to the same effect. First, the Arabic ren- 
 ders this text " Neither shall there be any more a young man 
 " imperfect in age, nor an old man that shall not fulfil his tit. 
 " For the young man shall fill up a hundred years : but the 
 "sinner, that after a hundred years dies, shall be accursed.'' 
 Observe, this translation at least casts out mortality from the 
 saints, though it applies it to sinners ; which is by not regarding 
 the common pointing of the Hebrew. The Septuagint version is 
 much to the same effect ; — " Neither shall there be any more one 
 " that is not ripe (i. e. in age) nor an old man that hath not 
 " fulfilled his time. For the young man shall be a hundred yearn 
 " old- but the sinner that dies a hundred years old, shall be also 
 " accursed." The Chaldee Paraphrase also favours our reading, 
 though it a little differs from the Arabic and Greek. — " And 
 " there shall not be anymore an infant of days, and an old man 
 " that fills not his days ; because the youth that offends at the 
 " age of an hundred years shall die, and he that transgresseth in 
 *' the age of a hundred years shall be banished :" which reach- 
 eth thus far to our purpose, to signify that the sinners, not the 
 saints, shall die at this time of the glorious visible state of the 
 Church. But do I not stretch the sense of the Chaldee Para- 
 phrase ? — To answer this, and to give a further account of the 
 sense of that place according to the opinion of the Church at 
 Geneva, and of the Rabbins, hear the great critic, L ' ■ >b> 
 Dieu, in his animadversions on it. — " I see (saith he) they 
 " of Geneva do refer this same ZZWft THENCE to time, translat- 
 " ing it from henceforward. But Rabbi D. Kimchi refers it to 
 " place, saying, CE'to thence; that is, cbttfrPB from Jerusalem ; 
 " whom Vatablus and Junius follow, and I think he ought to be 
 " followed. Moreover, they of Geneva translate the n 
 " if the sense of the Hebrew were this : At that time bo great shall 
 " be the length of mens lives, that he that is now an old man, shall 
 " then be counted as an infant. And I see the Hebrews (as R. 
 " D. Kimchi, and Sol. Jarchi in their Commentaries, yea and 
 " Jonathan in his Chaldee Paraphrase) take the sense of this 
 " place to be, that no man at that time shall be carried out of 
 '" Jerusalem to burial, who is but a boy ; no nor an old man, unless 
 
288 
 
 " he hath filled up his days; that is, hath lived to that length of 
 " life which men had before the flood, &c." Thus far Be Dieu's 
 report of others : as to his own opinion on the place ; it is 
 true, he looks upon those hopes of the Jews (to use his own 
 words) " to be but dreams, wherein they do imagine such a mar- 
 " vellous kingdom of the Messiah, and such a most happy life 
 " of the Jews at that time on earth :" yet, while he himself 
 spiritualizes the sense, he speaks the same in effect, (as to the 
 literal meaning of the words,) as hath been already affirmed. His 
 words are these : " We know that these things are spiritual ; 
 " and so we interpret, There shall not exist from thence any more 
 "an infant of days, and an old man that fillet h not up his days ; 
 " that is, at that time there shall be another manner of the state 
 " of the world, than there is at present. For in this world many 
 " die infants ; others as it were old men, of sixty or seventy 
 " years of age ; few finish their just space of life, to attain to a 
 " hundred years old : but then there shall be the same condi- 
 " tion of all, whether of young or old; for all shall fully make 
 " up their days."* 
 
 4. From the three former qualifications there necessarily 
 arise several other particulars. For, first, if this be a sinless 
 condition, then there will be no need of magistracies to punish 
 political offences. In this state shall dwell all righteousnes ;* 
 for the wolf shall dwell with the lamb : men and beasts shall be 
 all at peace, and have peace one with another. Every subject of 
 this kingdom shall have the law so perfectly written in his heart, 
 as shall cause him exactly to walk in the same. Kings shall 
 submit, and do homage to New Jerusalem ; but not rule over it. 
 Rev. xxi, 24. 
 
 * Some make another argument out of a text that speaks no such thing ; viz. 
 Heb. ix, 27. — " It is appointed unto men once to die ,•" therefore men in the 
 thousand years must also die. To which we need only answer with the Apostle, 
 " we shall not all sleep." (1 Cor. xv, 51.) Besides, the distinction of times 
 must be noted : for though it is true that before the judgement men ordinarily 
 die ; yet, when the judgement comes (which begins at this thousand years, as we 
 proved before,) there is no more death. Others object 1 Cor. xv, 26 — " The 
 last enemy that is destroyed is death ;" as if this text argues for death in the 
 thousand years ; but it does not. For though death be the last enemy, yet that 
 is not the last thing done in the seventh trumpet, or thousand years : but death 
 is destroyed to the saints at the beginning of the thousand years ; as we have 
 largely shewed before. For at verses 23, 24, it is said, Every one shall rise in 
 his own order : Christ first ; afterward (already above 1650 years after) they 
 that are Christ's ; after that comes the ultimate end, viz. after a thousand years. 
 
 t 2 Peter iii. 
 
By the same rule there shall be no need of church censures 
 
 For though the form of this new created state is mosl I rth 
 
 after the manner of a church state ; yet here shall he no defect 
 in love, or want of order, or mistakes in judgement, or any 
 weakness in grace, — for these were sin. Besides all that, 
 " There shall in no wise enter any thing that deflleth. 
 that is, that shall deserve censure. 
 
 Further, there shall be no superiority of one saint over another, 
 as to precedency, subjection, or dependence, under any notion. 
 For if Christ shall give to some any pre-eminence of endow- 
 ments, internal or external, yet will it not thence follow, that 
 they shall have a supremacy of power over the rest. Christ's 
 special manifestation of his presence shall be the onlv immedi- 
 ate superiority; the saints among themselves being a joint co- 
 ordinate body. v For this cause St. John (as the learned con- 
 ceive) hath a vision of the saints sitting round the throne ; even 
 as they shall all sit on thrones. w The subjection even of Eve to 
 Adam came in by sin ; therefore when sin goes out, liberty 
 from that subjection comes in. Consult Romans viii, 21 : for 
 there is much to this particular, if well extracted, which I 
 leave to the wise Reader ; as also the inference of many other 
 particulars deducible under this head. 
 
 Secondly, if it be a sorrowless condition, then it will follow, 
 there shall be no fears ; " for fear, saith St. John, hath torment :" 
 and how often before have the prophets said, that the heirs of 
 this estate, once possessing it, shall fear no more. There shall 
 be no hunger, nor thirst ; x neither shall there be want of light, 
 &c.y The state is no less, than anew and better Paradise, Nor 
 shall there be any divine desertions, (one of the greatest sorrows ;) 
 for God is extraordinarily present, and manifested in his pre- 
 sence. " The tabernacle of Cod is with men, and he dwells 
 with them ;" z which must be with a speciality above a mere 
 state of grace, or else nothing new is promised to New Jerusa- 
 lem. Again, there shall be no painful labors : for this v. 
 Adam's sorrowful punishment for sin ; therefore it must have no 
 trcing here. In a word, whatsoever is sorrow, or causeth it, can- 
 not be here admitted : if no death, then no sickness, no feeble- 
 
 u Rev. xx, 27. v Dan. vii, 14, compared with r. 27. "" Compare 
 
 Rev. iv, and xx. x Rev. vii.l G. V Rev. xxi * Rev. xxi. A. 
 
290 
 
 ness, no waxing old, no need of procreation of children for the 
 continuation of the species of mankind ; for death shall not take 
 away any of the individuals of these reigning saints. Indeed, 
 our Saviour says, that at the resurrection, there shall be no 
 marriage ; but all the elect shall be in that respect i<rayyt\oi — 
 like, or equal to, the angels. 
 
 Finally, herein we shall be happier than Adam and Eve, who, 
 though they were in a sinless condition, were nevertheless liable 
 to temptation ; whereas we shall neither fall, nor be tempted to 
 fall. We must be conformable to Christ's glorious body after 
 his resurrections Christ was tempted before his resurrection ; 
 but after his resurrection he was not tempted. If we might be 
 tempted, this were not a sorrowless condition : for it was a part 
 of Christ's great humiliation that he was tempted, even though 
 he could not be prevailed against. Indeed, the wicked are re- 
 moved, and Satan is removed and bound up, that he should not 
 seduce the nations any more. All must be subject to Christ : 
 and he must destroy death, " and him that had the power of 
 death, which is — the devil."** If nothing that defileth shall enter 
 into this state, then not " the unclean spirit," as Christ calls 
 him. O glorious time ! when there shall be no disposition 
 within, nor temptation without, to sin ; but all shall be so fall 
 of God and of happiness in the manifestation of Christ, that 
 there shall be no thoughts but in relation to him. 
 
 5. The next thing is the restaur ation of the creatures. For 
 as in Isaiah lxv, it is said, there must be new heavens; (i. e. a 
 new church -state,) so a new earth, — a new natural politic state 
 of persons and things. For there is mention of planting, and 
 of the wolf dwelling with the lamb, &c. and that dust shall be the 
 •serpent's meat, who shall no longer devour or hurt ; for they 
 shall not destroy nor hurt in all the holy mountain. And the 
 reason of all is, " for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of 
 the Lord, as the waters cover the sea ;" which here imports, 
 that there shall be such an abundant manifestation of God's 
 presence, that all (whether taken literally or metaphorically,) 
 shall be as in Paradise, before Adam's fall. 
 
 Add to all this Rom. viii, 18, as the voice of nature. " The 
 " sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared 
 
 a Phil, iii, xxi. l) Heb. ii, 8, 14. 
 
291 
 
 " with the glory which shall be revealed in us. [Mark, ' reveal- 
 " ed,' and ' in us,' — it is a bringing down glory into us.] For the 
 " earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifesta- 
 " tion of the sons of God." Mark again, that the natural * crea- 
 ture' must be here meant, not the spiritual new creature, or re - 
 generated souls ; for regenerated souls now are " the sons of 
 God." c And mark further, that it is said, it waits for the man- 
 ifestation of the sons of God ; whereas glory in the highest hea- 
 vens would be a hiding of them from the creation, and would 
 disappoint it of its expectation ; which must not be, because that 
 expectation and waiting is the instinct of the creature, and can- 
 not be in vain. The curse is accidental to the creature, and 
 not of the essence of it ; — the creation still by instinct looks 
 for its former state in Adam ; — and as, notwithstanding the 
 nipping winter, the creature every spring hath its petty resurrec- 
 tions, as types and pledges of the great one ; so the expectation 
 which it has by instinct shall not fail of a great restauration. 
 That it was accidental, the Apostle argues in the next verse, — 
 " The creature was made subject to vanity j not willingly, (i.e. 
 not of its essential frame,) but by reason of him who subdued it 
 under hope." That is, the creature was made substantially glo- 
 rious, essentially exceeding good ; and then, after Adam's fall, 
 was subject to vanity, (i. e. fading, and unconstant with changes, 
 by winter and summer,) by him who subjected it, viz. by God's 
 curse on the creature, — not in anger to it, but as a punishment 
 to man. But God subjected it not for ever to that condition, 
 but under hope : just as he cursed not man for ever, but gave 
 him a promise of salvation by the seed of the woman, Christ. 
 And thus, as man by distinct hope waits, and God is mindful of 
 that promise above four thousand years after ; d so the creatures 
 have an instinct of hope impressed on their essence, that they 
 shall be restored. And here is a promise for it in verse 21. — 
 " The creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of 
 corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God." See 
 again, — the creature and the sons of God are two distinct things. 
 To understand these words better, note first, that bondage 
 imports, that the creature came into this condition, not from its 
 original essence and first constitution, but accidentally and 
 
 c 1 John iii, 2. d Rom. xvi, 10. 
 
 2 N 
 
292 
 
 violently, by man's corruption. Secondly, note, that * corruption 
 is of three sorts : first, physical or natural, as when things fade and 
 dissolve or grow unwholesome, as do plants ; or when they ac- 
 quire malignant qualities as air and water ; &c. — secondly in 
 civil respects or uses ; as when land or cattle are worn and 
 wasted ; — thirdly, in a spiritual respect ; as when by the sin and 
 corruption yet remaining in the best of men they are made to 
 serve for sinful uses. 
 
 Now to be delivered from this corruption into the glorious 
 liberty of the sons of God imports, that as the saints shall now 
 be advanced to the full liberty of the sons of God, being delivered 
 from corruption in all the above respects ; so all the creatures of 
 the whole creation shall partake of the same liberty, so far as 
 they are capable. They shall be delivered from the corruption 
 and fading that adheres to their nature ; — from the violence done 
 to them by men, as also from their abuse ; — and they shall be de- 
 livered to their right owner, viz. to the second Adam, and his 
 posterity, who shall only use them well. 
 
 How plain then is this text, of the restoration of the creation, 
 to them that will understand ! Nor was it ever yet fulfilled ; 
 but is spoken to saints even, as yet expecting it. " The creature 
 groans, and travaileth in pain till now, (viz. under the corruption 
 before explained ;) and not only they, but we ourselves, who also 
 have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan within ourselves, waiting 
 for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." Observe, 
 the creature and the saints are still distinguished. The text is 
 spoken to them that have the Spirit ; yet still they groan with 
 the whole creation for a restoration of all, as for a thing not yet 
 come to pass. And this cannot be in the supremest heaven : 
 the creation cannot groan for that ; nor can it groan for a dis- 
 solution at the last day of judgement. Let the wise understand 
 these things. 
 
 Lactantius saith of this restauration, " When the thousand 
 " years come, the world shall bring forth fruit alone ; and the 
 " rock shall distil dew, and no creature shall live upon prey. 
 " The dog shall not hunt, and the child shall not be afraid of 
 " the serpent." I add ; if in these corrupt times the beast 
 knows his master, sure then all creatures shall be most kind to 
 saints, and saints shall know more perfectly all the creatures, 
 
296 
 
 and be more kind to them. At the lowest, this state shall be 
 as good as that of Adam's innocency ; and therefore, as all 
 creatures came tamely before Adam, and Adam gave them all 
 names, e so all now shall be tame toward man. And if afterwards, 
 in that corrupt time of the old world, Noah and the creatures 
 were saved together in one ark ; then now also shall all the 
 creatures in their kind enjoy the liberty of the sons of God. 
 
 And if this knowledge shall be between man and the creatures, 
 how much more between man and man. I kngw no reason 
 why all the saints should not know one another by former rela- 
 tions, of husband and wife, father and child, brother and sister. 
 Adam in innocency saw Eve, and knew she was his wife ; and 
 yet without sin. In the transfiguration, Moses and Elijah are 
 known. The disciples know Christ risen, and Lazarus after he 
 was raised. And if some Jews shall see Abraham and Isaac in 
 the kingdom, and they themselves cast out ; therefore saints 
 shall much more know one another. — AVe shall know Christ, 
 and so all the members of Christ. 
 
 6. The next quality is, that when this visible glorious state 
 of the Church shall come, " time shall be no more." f Time is it- 
 self a quantity ; but no more time refers also to qualities* 
 
 Most likely there shall be no more motion of the heavens, 
 which is the cause of time : the stars shall rest.? There shall 
 be no more changes, which cause alteration and dissolution of 
 bodies, by becoming old : for if there be no more time, then 
 eternity is begun, and therefore all must stand fixed in their per- 
 fection, like eternity ; not well to day, weak to morrow j cheer - 
 
 * Note two circumstances of this assertion. First, it was spoken after the 
 sixth trumpet had sounded; (Rev. ix, 13;) and therefore has respect to the 
 seventh trumpet, viz. to the time of the visible glory of the Church. Secondly, 
 it is spoken (Rev. x, 1) by a mighty angel coming down from heaven clothed with 
 a cloud, and a rainbow about his head, his face as the sun, his feet as a pillar of 
 fire, and in his hand a little book. Therefore this was spoke in relation to the 
 time of Christ's appearing ; for he comes down from heaven, and clothed with 
 a cloud, at his appearance. (Chap, i, /.) The rainbow signifies that he cornea 
 as the angel of the covenant. (Mai. iii, 1 ; Rev. iv, 3.) The sun is also the de- 
 scription of Christ's coming; (Rev. i, 1(5, and Mat iv. 2;) as are his teet, 
 
 and caused the seven thunders, he swears time shall be no more. Now Christ'i 
 swearing it, and with such solemnity, imports some great matter. 
 
 « Gen. ii, 11). f Rev. x, 6. e laa. Ix, 20 ; Rev. x\i, 25. 
 
294 
 
 ful to day, and melancholy to morrow ; but the saints shaU.be 
 stable, and all things stable about them. Moreover, there shall 
 be no more time for abusers of time, nor for the things that 
 have caused sorrowful times to the saints. All which further 
 imports, that the happiness of saints shall not be given them by 
 measure of time. For even this thousand years is the prelude 
 to everlasting infinite glory : saints shall not need to wish, say- 
 ing, — " This is a happy condition if it would hold." Of this sta- 
 bility of things at this time, see further in Isa. xxxiii, 6, (spoken 
 in relation to the call of the Jews, &c.) " Wisdom and know- 
 ledge shall be the stability of times, and strength of salvation, 
 and the fear of the Lord thy treasure." '■'■ The sun shall be no 
 " more thy light by day, nor the moon thy brightness by night, 
 " but the Lord shall be thy everlasting light, and thy God thy 
 " glory. Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon 
 "withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be thy everlasting light, 
 " and the days of thy mourning shall be ended." 11 Now the 
 peculiar of eternity is, to give a man all parts and degrees of his 
 comfort at once, throughout every moment of it. In time is 
 succession, where is the beginning, middle, and the end, — the 
 embryo, augment, and the highest perfection which that comfort 
 will amount to ; but in eternity, a man is as happy the first mo- 
 ment as ten thousand years after, if there were any time in 
 eternity. 
 
 7. " The last quality is, that at this time there shall be a per- 
 fection of all qualities, both natural and spiritual, in the saints ; 
 and a confluence of all comforts." Then, " he that is feeble 
 shall be as David ; and the house of David as God, (better ren- 
 rendered as angels,*) and as the angel of God." The sense is, 
 they shall be as Christ, viz. — How strong shall the feeble be ? 
 as strong, firm, and sublime, in perfection as David. And how 
 shall David be ? as an angel, yea as Christ. Thus the Apostle 
 intimates in 1 Cor. xv, and Phil, iii, 21, that we shall be 
 conformable to Christ ; and in 1 Cor. xiii, 12, he adds, that we 
 
 h Isaiah lx. 19, 20. 
 
 * The Hebrew is Kelohim. Elohim oft signifies angels, and here is an incre- 
 ment in a climax, of which the last must be highest ; and the last that follows 
 is " as the angel of God." The Hebrew is emphatical, Hamaleak, the name 
 of Christ, Mai. iii. 
 
295 
 
 shall " know as ice are known," — our graces shall be as rivers in 
 the ocean. Further, it is said, 1 Pet. i, 3 — 5, " He hath be- 
 gotten us again to a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus 
 Christ to an inheritance incorruptible, reserved in heaven for you, 
 who are kept by the power of God ready to be revealed in the 
 last time ;" so now in this heaven (as it is called, Rev. xxi,) the 
 inheritance is kept perfect to us, and us in it. Of this see Isaiah 
 xxxv ; from which it is evident that all happiness is upon the 
 possession, and the possessor. The possession shall not be de- 
 fective and unserviceable ; and the possessor shall not by any 
 impediment be hindered of his enjoyment. All shall be varnish- 
 ed with beauty} environed with peace, k enlarged with liberty} 
 perpetuated with stable equability. Therefore now let not our 
 hearts be unstable in hope, nor our affections unstable in love, 
 nor our judgements unstable in principles, nor our practice 
 unstable in duties, and ordinances. Remember the evil of the 
 foolish virgins. Remember the good precepts and promises of 
 Christ, in the last chapter of his Revelation, " I come quickly ; 
 blessed is he that keepeth these sayings of this prophecy." — 
 " Behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me." — " Bless- 
 ed are they that keep his commandments, that they may eat of 
 the tree of life, and enter in through the gates into the city." 
 " Without shall be dogs :" (i. e. they that are found out of it. 
 shall go for dogs ;) — " I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify 
 these things to the churches" " He that testifies these things 
 saith, Surely I come quickly. — Amen, even to : come Lord Je- 
 sus, COME QUICKLY !" 
 
 V. We come now to privileges : that is to say, — The things 
 which the saints had before, either in common with others or 
 in an ordinary degree, they shall now have in a way of special 
 privilege and pre-eminence. 
 
 1. For the mysteries and prophecies which before they hud 
 but in the word, they shall now have in the thing. For mysteries, 
 see Rev. xi, 19. " The temple of God was opened, and there 
 was seen in his temple the ark of his testament." This clearly 
 relates to the time we speak of, as is evident from verse 15 : 
 " The seventh angel sounded, &c. and the temple of God was 
 
 S Isa, liv, 11 ; Is. 1—3. Rev. xxi, 18—21. k Psalm L\.\ii, :'■. 7 ; bfc 
 
 xi, 6 ; lvii, 19. » Rev. xx, 25. 
 
296 
 
 opened in heaven."* Thejneaning is, that "a temple they shall 
 have equivalently , but no temple properly : as it is said, Rev. xxi, 
 22, " I saw no temple ; but God and the Lamb was that (equi- 
 valent, yea that supereminent) temple." And the presence of 
 God in Christ shall be such with them, that that spiritual ark 
 shall not be hid, (as was the material ark in the Old Testament 
 temple,) but shall be seen. In the ark was the table of the law, 
 and the pot of manna : Christ is the end of the law, m and Christ 
 and his word is the manna. n The ark was in the holiest of ho- 
 lies, which was seldom seen, and only when the high priest 
 went in ; but now this spiritual ark in this glorious time is com- 
 monly seen. Observe, that the ark typified Christ and his 
 word ; and the temple was a pledge of God's presence, as the 
 tabernacle was before. So that the meaning is, that now God's 
 presence shall be such, in and through Christ, to his Church, 
 that the glory of Christ, and the mystery of his word, shall be 
 far more plain to them. 
 
 Further, all prophecies relating to the saints' welfare shall now 
 be fulfilled : they shall not have these things in types, visions or 
 knowledge only ; but in possession, and happy enjoyment. The 
 Revelation is the sum of all the prophets, and therein is declared 
 to John by Christ, — " The Lord God of the holy prophets sent 
 his Angel, to show unto his servants the sayings of the prophecy 
 of this book." The meaning is, that the Lord God, who spake 
 by the prophets, sent his angel to explain those things delivered 
 by the prophets concerning these times of which we speak. Now 
 this book of the Revelation, though it be far plainer than the 
 prophets, yet is not fully and wholly plain to us ; therefore it 
 is called a sealed book, which Christ must open.P This opening 
 is by the events,^ which will be completely done in this visible 
 glorious time of the Church. Christ is the yea and amen of 
 all the promises ; r therefore when he appears again, all will ap- 
 pear fulfilled : as the woman of Samaria said, " when Messiah 
 cometh, he shall tell us all things. " s Then, moreover, all those 
 gracious and endearing expressions which God uses towards his 
 
 * Compare also Rev. xxi, 22, and Ezekiel xli, xlii ; Malachi iii, 1, and many 
 other passages of Revelation. 
 
 ™ Rom. x, i. n Rev. ii. o R ev . xxii, 6. P Rev. v." 1 Rev. vi, &c. 
 * 2 Cor. i, 20. " John iv, 25. 
 
'297 
 
 Church shall be fulfilled ; as that she is the Lord's portion,* kk 
 pleasant portion* his inheritance? the dearly beloved of his BOttl,* 
 
 his love, his dove, his undefiled, x his treasure, and peculiar 
 treasure^ the Lord's house of glory, 2 yea his glory, and the 
 throne and crown of his glory, a the ornament of God, the beauty 
 of his ornaments, also the beauty of his ornament in majesty ^ 
 Yea the Church is called Christ's body, and Christ's fulness, pre- 
 sented without spot ! c 
 
 2. The second privilege is, a superabundant out-pouring of 
 the Spirit. The saints, ever since they believed, have had the 
 Spirit in some measure, (as the Spirit of adoption, and sanctif ca- 
 tion, &c;j but now they shall have it in a more exceeding 
 abounding manner and measure, both for gifts and graces. 
 Thus Joel ii, 28 ; " Afterwards I will pour out my Spirit upon 
 " all flesh, and your sons, and your daughters shall prophesy, 
 " your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall 
 " see visions ; and also upon the servants and upon the hand- 
 " maids, in those days, will I pour out my Spirit." And in Dan. 
 xii, 2 — 4 : it is prophesied of this time, " Many of them that 
 " sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, &c. and they that 
 " be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and 
 " they that turn many to righteousness as the stars, for ever and 
 " ever ; and knowledge shall be increased." 
 
 3. The third privilege is a wonderful return of prayers. 'It 
 shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer, and 
 while they are yet speaking, I will hear." d That these words are 
 within the body of a main prophecy of the visible glory of the 
 Church in the time we speak of, we have abundantly proved 
 before. Mr. Archer also urges this text to the same purpose, 
 (in his book of Christ's reign on earth, page 31,) saying, " That 
 at this time there shall be a full and present answer to all their 
 prayers. At this time, the reversion of all the prayers of all 
 former ages will come into the Church's hands ; the effect of 
 all those will flow in upon the Church unto a sea of happiness. 
 And if this Church at present makes any prayers, they shall 
 have a present answer." Before they call. — So that before 
 
 t Deut. xxxii, 9. u Jer. xii, 10. v Isa. xix, 25. * Jer. xii, 7. * Can- 
 ticles passim. 7 Ex. xix, 5. * Isa. lx, ". a Isa. xlvi, 13 ; Jer ni, 17 ; xi\, 21. 
 b Ezek. vii, 20. c Eph. i, v. d Isa. lxv, 24. 
 
298 
 
 they pray as men in extremity, or distress, God will answer ; 
 which is plain by that which follows : for while they are speak- 
 ing, even in their hearts, while they are but thinking prayer, 
 their desires shall be fulfilled. Mr. Bolton saith, " that while 
 the saints are but thinking — entertaining for example, the desire 
 of moving from one place to another, from one company of 
 saints and angels to another — they shall move thither immedi- 
 ately, even in an imperceptible time." Further, the word prayer 
 in Scripture comprehends praises ; as does praise, prayers. Thus 
 David calls his Psalms Thillim, (or Praises,) though they contain 
 many prayers. That in this state the Church shall abound with 
 praises the Revelation often intimates ; e and as Christ lays 
 not down his mediatorship till the end of the thousand years, 
 so perhaps the saints may make some kind of prayers : viz. for 
 the exercise of their communion with God, the use of their 
 graces, and for the finishing their present state to the utmost 
 supernal eternal glory. — I tenderly propose these things, for 
 herein my light is dim. Yet most probably Adam in inno- 
 cency spoke to God in some way of prayer ; and even the angel 
 made a request to Christ. f But I cease. 
 
 4. Upon the former privileges follows this, that the ordinances 
 of the Church shall be in a higher key, both in quality and 
 degree. For Christ, as the great ordinance of ordinances, shall, by 
 special communion with the Church, manifest to it the mind of 
 God. So that, as God spake to Adam in paradise, and gave 
 him as an ordinance the tree of life ; so in this second paradisian 
 state of the Church, there shall be a special manifestation and 
 communication, through Christ, who is the main Tree of Life.s 
 The saints shall have such manifestations of the presence of God, 
 that now mainly is that fulfilled — " they shall be all taught of 
 God." They shall have the high ordinance, (that high angelical 
 ordinance, already noticed) of praise to God ; whilst their medi- 
 tation and contemplation of God shall be as a vision of God, or 
 sight of his face. h In the midst of the street, and on either side of 
 the river, was the tree of life, yielding fruit, (the participation 
 whereof comes not in without meditation ;) and there shall be no 
 curse there, but the throne of God, and the Lamb shall be in it, 
 and his servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face."' 1 
 e Rev. xi, xiv, xix, f Dan. xii, 6. g Rev. xxii. h R ev -, xx ij > 2 — 4. 
 
299 
 
 And they shall have the word for inspection, Bend admirati 
 
 to see all revealed and all fulfilled. k They shall be ta i 
 God to know the full mind of that word ; and they themsel 
 shall see with their eyes that fulfilled, which out of the word 
 they had heard with their ears : so that their Joshua shall 
 to them, according to their experience, " Nothing hath failed 
 of all that God hath spoken." They shall have the effect of 
 sublime purity and glory of discipline, viz. angelic order, — 
 gates, and three angels at every gate. So that though the gate 
 be never shut, yet, no unclean thing shall enter in ; which is 
 the cream and quintessence of the effect of all discipline. 1 
 Finally, as the labor of the body in moving shall then be more 
 excellent, and without fatigue ; so the worship of the mind 
 shall be without irksomeness. 
 
 5. The fifth privilege is a union of saints throughout the world: 
 union of heads, and union of hearts ; viz. unity in judgement, 
 and unity in affection. " The Lord shall be King over all the 
 earth : in that day there shall be one Lord, and his name 
 one." m Is he not King now ? Yes, but not so visibly and 
 absolutely before the eyes of all, as he shall be then ; for many 
 great wicked ones still domineer. Is not his Name now our ? 
 Yes, in itself, he is the God of truth ; but by mens' pretend 
 that he favours their peculiar way, they make for him several 
 names, as Papist, Lutheran, Cakinist, Episcopal tan, Presbyterian, 
 Independent. But then it shall be clear, which is the only way 
 of truth ; and so God shall have one name : because, " they 
 shall serve the Lord with one consent, all being of a pure 
 language." 11 So that their judgements being one, and con- 
 sequently their practices one, great will be the oneness of affec- 
 tions : " the envy of Ephraim shall depart ; Ephraim shall not 
 envy Judah, nor Judah vex Ephraim." If so great was the 
 union of saints in the first fruits,P how much more when the 
 whole lump is fully perfected ! The history of dissension is now 
 grievous to saints : therefore, on the contrary, sweet will the 
 mystery be in the enjoyment of union. 
 
 6. The last privilege I notice is, that honor shaU be given to 
 all holy things, viz. to religion, and religious men. God hath in 
 
 k Rev. xxii, 14, 19. ' Rev xxi, 4, 12, 25. '» Zech. xiv. 9. 
 
 n Zeph. iii, 9. ° Isaiah xi, 13. P Acts W, 52, 
 
 2o 
 
300 
 
 several passages, already quoted, promised to take away the 
 reproach of his people. This is Gilgal the great, " to roll away 
 the reproach from Israel." In the day when the Jews shall be 
 converted, " ten men shall take hold of one Jew ;"<l therefore 
 it is said divers times in the Revelation, that " the saints shall 
 have the name of their father in their foreheads." Yea " kings 
 shall be thy nurses;"* and " the glory of Lebanon, &c. shall 
 come to beautify my sanctuary, and I will make the place 
 of my feet glorious. " fc " The Church shall be as the stones of a 
 crown lifted up." u " The governors of Judah shall say in their 
 hearts, The inhabitants of Jerusalem, my strength in the Lord 
 of Hosts. " v We know that of late days, governors have put re- 
 proachful names upon the saints and churches of the purest 
 judgement and profession ; (as faction, schism, puritans, &c ;) 
 but the time is at hand when they shall be convinced, and shall 
 know that saints are the best men, the interest and the stay of 
 kingdoms. 
 
 Let the consideration of these privileges make us walk like them 
 that shall see these times ! Let the dawning be upon us, now the 
 sun is about to rise ; cleaving to Christ in ordinances, and to one j 
 another in love ; honouring them most, that have most holiness! 
 Yea, let this comfort us, that all the glorious promises, and pro- 
 phecies shall then be fulfilled ! 
 
 q Zech. viii, 23. f Chap, xiv, 1 ; xxii, 4. s Isa. xlis, 23. 
 
 % Isa. Is, 13. * Zech. is, 16. v Zech xii, 5. 
 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 The object of tlie following Exercitations is to reply to some queries ; 
 and to remove some difficulties and obscurities, experienced by the ob- 
 servant Reader, in the course of this Treatise : and further to rectify cer- 
 tain misapprehensions, which some well minded and godly persons have 
 alien into, to the great prejudice of this glorious truth. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 THE CONFLAGRATION OF THE WORLD, 
 
 2 Peter hi. 10—14. 
 
 It is on all hands agreed, that 
 naterial fire shall be the dividing 
 )oint between this present world 
 ,nd the world to come ; as formerly 
 later was between the first old 
 jforld, and this present. But here 
 3 the question : whether this fire 
 hall annihilate this world, or only 
 enovate it ? — Whether again it 
 hall not happen till the ultimate 
 ay of universal judgement on all 
 le wicked, when Christ shall lay 
 own all his power ; or at the very 
 eginning of Christ's restoring all 
 hings, when his kingdom is mani- 
 sted. 
 
 In proceeding to expound this 
 2Xt, we must take heed, that our 
 xposition may harmonize with (yen, 
 e educed out of) the prophets of 
 le Old Testament. This rule is 
 ndeniably evident from verse 2 : 
 -" That ye may be mindful of the 
 words which were spoken before by 
 the holy prophets, and of the com- 
 mandment of us the apostles of 
 the Lord and Saviour." Here the 
 postle tells us plainly, that the 
 
 doctrine he was about to deliver, 
 touching the burning of the world, 
 was the same which the holy pro- 
 phets had before spoken of. For 
 example, Isa. ix, 5, — " Every battle 
 ' of the warrior is with confused 
 ' noise and garments rolled in blood, 
 ' but this (battle of Christ) shall be 
 'with burning and fuel of fire." 
 Again, Isa. lxvi, 15, 16. — " For be- 
 ' hold the Lord shall come with 
 ' and with his chariots like a whirl- 
 ' wind, to render his anger with 
 ' fury, and his rebuke with fiames 
 ' of fire. For by fire and with his 
 ' sword (or by his sword of fire) will 
 ' the Lord plead with all flesh; and the 
 ' slain of the Lord (because so imme- 
 ' diately slain by him) shall be ma 
 The context shews, that this is pro- 
 phesied as a transcendent comfort 
 to the faithful ; and in the last 
 times, after the conversion of the 
 Jews, v. 7, 8. Daniel likewise has 
 this declared unto him in a virion, 
 chapter vii, 9, 10. — " The thrones 
 * were cast down (or rather set up) 
 ' and the Ancient of days did sit, 
 
302 
 
 1 &c. his throne like the fiery flame , 
 ' his wheels as burning fire. A fiery 
 ' stream issued and came forth from 
 ' before him, &c. and ten thou- 
 ' sand times ten thousand stood be- 
 ' fore him. I beheld till the beast 
 ' was slain, and his body destroyed, 
 ' and given to the burning flame." 
 The fuel for this fire, (viz. the body 
 of the fourth beast,) is demonstra- 
 tion enough, to us of these last times, 
 when this burning shall be. We 
 will add but one place more, viz. 
 Malachi iv, 1.— " For behold the 
 ' day cometh, that shall burn as an 
 ' oven ; and all the proud, yea, and 
 * all that do wickedly, shall be stub- 
 ' ble, and the day cometh that shall 
 ' burn them up, &c. and shall leave 
 1 them neither root nor branch." 
 
 We must also expound this text 
 according to some ancient promise, 
 which God hath made by his pro- 
 phets, touching this estate of which 
 we speak. This rule is evident also 
 in v. 13. — " Nevertheless we ac- 
 ' cording to his promise, look for 
 ' new heavens, and a new earth/' 
 &c. But before St. Peter's time, 
 we have no promise of this new hea- 
 vens and new earth, except that in 
 Isaiah lxv, 17 ; and lxvi, 22, &c : in 
 which places, the Lord promises, 
 that " he will create and make new 
 heavens and a new earth, &c." The 
 circumstances thereunto annexed, 
 (as, dwelling on earth, rejoicing at 
 Jerusalem, with external worship of 
 God from new moon to new moon, 
 &c.) do invincibly prove, that this 
 state can signify no other than a 
 glorious state on earth. Thus the 
 discourse of Peter concerning this 
 
 k 
 
 burning must belong to the same 
 times as those referred to by the 
 Prophets. 
 
 It must also be noted carefully, 
 that our Apostle mainly intends, in ■ 
 this chapter, a parallel between the 
 destruction of the old world by 
 water, and of this world by fire, as I 
 to the degree of that destruction : 
 viz, that as then, all was not anni- 
 hilated, (neither all men, nor alii 
 creatures ;) so neither will they be 
 at this destruction by fire. This 
 part of the rule is so plain in the 
 context, that I need not enlarge. 
 For though the Apostle uses a strong 
 word, (v. 6) touching the destruction 
 of the old world; (viz. AttojXsto 
 perished ;) yet we know by the his- 
 tory of Genesis, that that perishing 
 was chiefly of ungodly men ; and 
 that after the flood the world was 
 renewed and fresh peopled. So our 
 Apostle, speaking (v. 7) of reserving 
 these heavens and this earth unto 
 fire, saith distinctly, it is for thev 
 perdition of ungodly men : and after 
 this (v. 13) there shall be a "new 
 heaven and a new earth, wherein, 
 shall inhabit righteousness," which 
 must of necessity signify righteous' 
 men. And as in the deluge of water' 
 on the old world, the starry heaven 
 suffered not at all ; so, in the destruc 
 tion by fire, those starry heaven 
 are not by Peter included in th 
 word heavens, used in this chapter. 
 For the Apostle tells us, (v. 13) that 
 the catastrophe and intent of this 
 fiery destruction is, to make new 
 heavens and a new earth, wherein 
 should dwell righteousness .-* but in K^ 
 the starry heavens there dwells no J 
 
 F 
 
 be 
 
 ali- 
 ble 
 
 on 
 
 iftei 
 
 I 
 
 tan 
 that 
 
 * For the better understanding of this, note, that the ancient Hebrew had no ona 
 word to signify the system or frame of the superior and inferior bodies, which we call 
 world: but use these two words VjS'l D"W (heaven and earth) joined together. So 
 that when St. Peter saith, " The world that then was, being overflowed by water, pe- 
 rished : but the heavens and earth which now are, by the same word are kept in store,, 
 reserved unto fire ;" in both places he means the same thing. So the antithesis runs, 
 the world, or heaven and earth, that then was, perished by water, and the heaven and 
 earth, or world, that now i<=, shall perish by /ire. 
 
 
 
303 
 
 unrighteousness ; therefore these 
 leavens cannot be they that are 
 lere meant. 
 
 It must be further observed, that 
 though there be mention in verse 7 , 
 lof the day of judgement ; yet the 
 Apostle means not the ultimate 
 judgement, — the great day of judge- 
 ment, when all the deceased wicked 
 shall be raised, and eternally judged. 
 For he does not say, in the language 
 he wrote, ri]v y/j.epav, or ttjq Kpiaswc, 
 
 the day, or day of the judgement; 
 but ijfxepay ^pursue, " a day of 
 udgement," or a day of judging, as 
 the succeeding copulative (and) and 
 the next word (perddtion) do strong- 
 ly intimate. The whole together 
 would fairly run thus : The heavens 
 and earth that now are, &c. are re- 
 served unto fire at a day of judging 
 and destroying ungodly men, &c. 
 We decline not to name the entrance 
 into this glorious estate, a day of 
 judgement, for we acknowledge it to 
 be such a day, wherein all open 
 and obstinate ungodly men then 
 alive shall be destroyed, and all the 
 deceased saints shall be raised ; who, 
 with all the saints then found alive 
 on earth (being changed) shall be 
 made happy in soul and body. But 
 I would have the Reader understand, 
 that St. Peter does not here intend 
 the ultimate and great day of judge- 
 ment ; since he clearly tells us, that 
 after this day of firing these hea- 
 vens and earth, there shall follow, 
 not only new heavens, but a new 
 earth also : and intimates (verse 8,) 
 that the space of the continuance 
 between this first judgement, which 
 I but now mentioned, and the last 
 judgement, is a day of a thousand 
 years ; as does also St. John, lie v. 
 x, 4, compared with verse 7, &c. 
 
 The chief difficulty with some 
 in regard to this text, is the word 
 
 zotxeta (verse 10 ) which our ti 
 lators interpret 'element*.* But it 
 cannot in this place (nor in dv 
 others) signify those physical things 
 
 commonly called elements, — viz. 
 fire, air, water, earth. For, first, the 
 world is here divided into heaven 
 and earth, (which include at 1 
 three of them — earth, water and 
 air ;) and yet toiytia elements are 
 distinguished from them both : 
 " The heavens shall pass away with 
 a great noise, the elements shall melt 
 with fervent heat, the earth 
 shall be burnt (note the distinction 
 of this word also) and the works that 
 are therein. The mode likewise by 
 which all shall be affected is also 
 distinguished : the heavens shall 
 away with a noise, the elements shall 
 melt with fervent heat, and the earth, 
 &c. shall be burnt. As for the 
 fourth element, xiz. fire, that is also 
 clearly distinguished from the ele- 
 ments to be burned, being that 
 which is to burn them. 
 
 Secondly, the heavens and the ele- 
 ments are set in contradistinction to 
 the earth and the works that are 
 therein. Therefore, as works signify 
 things on the earth, not the earth 
 itself; so elements must signify the 
 things under the starry heaven, 
 in the airy heaven, not the air itself. 
 The word toix £ih » here rendered 
 elements, must therefore signify the 
 furniture belonging to the heav 
 the air ; as the works on earth 
 nify the building and whole furni- 
 ture of creatures belonging to the 
 earth, called in Scripture " the 
 host of them." 8 To prove this to 
 be the true meaning of the Apostle, 
 (who, being a Hebrew, would take 
 such Greek words as would suit t lie 
 Hebrew ex] I i) note, that fcOS 
 
 tsaba signifies to stand or march in 
 a military posture; and so corns- 
 
 a Gen. ii, 1 ; Joel ii, 25. 
 
304 
 
 ponds well and suits with -a^w, 
 which is expounded by the learned 
 to march in a military posture.* 
 And accordingly the Septuagint 
 render the verb H32 tsaba by ira- 
 paraTTOjjLcu, to stand in an ordered 
 battalio. Now if this be the cor- 
 respondency of the verbs, why 
 should there not be a similar cor- 
 respondency in the nouns ? For if 
 the noun bO^ is oft rendered a host 
 or army of creatures ; why should 
 not the Apostle take ^oiyeLov to sig- 
 nify the same ? Indeed the Gentile 
 Greeks do use <zix°Q & ^ at X og ( com " 
 ing of the same verb <?Ei)(t>>) h* that 
 very sense, viz. for military order. 
 Further, in the Chaldee version of 
 the Wisdom of Solomon (which 
 Apocrypha I quote only for the use 
 of a word) in chap, vii, 7, there is 
 mention of &nb?';3, the same with 
 the Hebrew mbt?3 which signifies 
 the planets and stars, which are 
 the host of heaven. The Greek 
 Septuagint renders this by erepysLctv 
 <ro:;./£iwj/,the operation of the elements •, 
 as our English has it ; but it must 
 of necessity signify, according to 
 the intent of the Chaldee, the oper- 
 ation of the host of heaven. 
 
 Now it is granted on all hands, 
 that as there are three heavens (ac- 
 cording to 2 Cor. xii, 2) so each of 
 them hath its host. In the highest 
 heaven of glory is the host of the 
 glorious angels and blessed spirits. 
 In the next below, the ethereal 
 heaven, is the host of the planets 
 and stars. In the lowest or aerial 
 heaven, there is both a visible and 
 an invisible host : the visible con- 
 sisting of the clouds and meteors, 
 and also the fowls of heaven ; and 
 the invisible consisting of wicked 
 spirits and devils, — whose prince, 
 Satan, is called " the prince of the 
 
 power of the air,'''" and his host " th 
 riders of the world," and " ivickea 
 spirits in heavenly places'." Nor is- 
 it altogether improbable, that St. 
 Paul, in Gal. it. 8, 9, may mean ill 
 part by " the elements of the w or Id," '■ 
 (^oixeict re koc^is) wicked spirits,; 
 their suggestions and doctrines :1 
 for he plainly makes the antithesis* 
 so, — " When ye knew not God, yd 
 ' did service to them which by na- 
 ' ture are no Gods (for they were 
 ' idols and worship, taught them by- 
 ' the devil • and thus they worshiped 
 ' the devil in them ; see 1 Cor. x, 
 ' 20.) But now after that ye have 
 ' known God, how turn ye again to 
 ' weak and beggarly elements ?" 
 And in Col. ii, 8 : " Take heed lestj 
 any spoil you through philosophy,! 
 after the elements of the icorld "* 
 (see the margin.) Philosophy cannot 5 
 here signify the true doctrine of 
 God's works of creation, but must 
 .signify the theology of heathen phi- 
 losophers, touching the doctrine of 
 demons, &c. 
 
 It will immediately be perceived, 
 that it is not the empyrean heaven of 
 glory, neither the etherial heavens 
 of the stars, that shall be burned ; 
 but only the aerial or sublunary hea- 
 ven with its elements or hosts. The 
 manner or posture of this heaven at 
 the period when it shall cease, is 
 described as a " passing away ." 
 which is a usual Hebraism to signify 
 any change of a thing, Thus in 
 Psalm cii, 26, speaking of the 
 heavens, that they shall be changed ; 
 the Hebrew word is l^bn, which 
 the Arabic renders shall jyass aivay. 
 So that this phrase signifies not the 
 utter abolition of this heaven ; any 
 more than the word 'perished' (verse 
 6) signifies the utter annihilation of 
 the earth by Noah's flood ; which 
 
 tei 
 
 sevc 
 
 (a: 
 
 Q 1 
 
 ill 
 It: 
 
 k 
 
 on 
 b 
 
 yet, 
 
 fta, 
 mar 
 A.. 
 iej 
 \Y. 
 K : 
 
 * Srer^w ev raZsi rrapayivofica, in ordine niilitari incedo. Sea]), ex Etymol. 
 b Eplies. ii, 2. c Ephes. vi, 12. See margin. 
 
305 
 
 we know by Scripture and experi- 
 ence was not abolished. 
 
 The measure or degree of this 
 burning shall be ' dissolving' and 
 j melting' — " the elements (or hosts) 
 shall be dissolved and melt with fer- 
 vent heat." The Apostle uses a 
 metaphor from the refining cf metals, 
 which is dissolved and melted with 
 fire in order to be purified. To 
 this the word 7rvp&f.uvoi harmoni- 
 ously agrees : for when the Psalmist 
 
 veral times uses y)1¥ to refine, 
 (as Ps. xii, 6.) the Septuagint 
 expresses it by Trvpooj. And whence 
 indeed is our word pure, but of the 
 Latin purus ? and whence is the 
 Latin purus, but of the Greek 7rvp 
 or fire ? 
 
 But though the starry heavens 
 shall not be touched with this fire ; 
 yet, by the refining of the airy hea- 
 ven, the aspect of the starry heavens 
 may be more clarified to our sight. 
 All the stars and planets may ap- 
 pear more glorious, as transmitting 
 their beams through a purer medium ; 
 so that the heavens may seem as a 
 new light, and the world as a new 
 thing. And in regard to those 
 wicked spirits, mentioned Eph. vi, 
 12, which we observed are part of 
 the elements or hosts of this lower 
 heaven ; the efficacy of the fire shall 
 not reach their substance, so as to 
 burn them ; yet shall they so far 
 suffer by this fire, as to be cast 
 down from those higher mansions, 
 and confined in some lower place. 
 Thus St. Jude intimates,— " The 
 angels which kept not their first 
 estate, but left their own (or proper) 
 habitation, he hath reserved to be 
 bouncfl with everlasting chains of 
 darkness, at the judgement of the 
 great day." (v. 6.) 
 
 The time when this fire shall be 
 kindled is shown by comparing v. 13 
 
 with v. 7,8; viz. th the 
 
 thousand years of the Chur 
 stauration, is called th< re one day, 
 and a day of ju lire 
 
 is kindled in the In 
 day, in order to maJ < ! uy 
 
 of ruining j udge ment 
 wicked; as it will be also a happy 
 rewarding judgement on them that 
 believe, when the earth is purified. 
 For most evidently the Apostle there 
 makes this glorious time to follow 
 that great burning, and this burn- 
 ing to precede that ; or he not 
 not to have inserted so emphatically 
 his ' nevertheless — to prevent i 
 takings or misgivings of heart in 
 them that hope for a glorious state 
 of the Church on earth, accon 
 to the tenor of all the propheei 
 (Compare Rev. xix, 3, with x::. 1, 
 2, &c.) And why else does the 
 Apostle tell us of new heavens and a 
 new earth, and such as wherein 
 should dwell righteousness ? and 
 how shall they be so new, and a 
 habitation of such righteousu 
 but because this fire shall so pu 
 them of their dross, and make them 
 new. 
 
 I have given the most literal, and 
 therefore the most congruous sense 
 of this text : for according to the old 
 rule, we are not to seek an alleg 
 cal interpretation, when a | 
 literal one is at hand. Our I 
 indeed speaks in hyperbolical lan- 
 guage in Matt, xxiv, 2D in relation 
 to the heavenly bodies ; because lit- 
 erally the stars cannot fall from hea- 
 ven, having no space to fall to big 
 enough to receive them. And in 
 such passages as Isaiah li. lo — 19 ; 
 andxxxiv, 2 — 5 ; Jcr. iv. 23 ; Hab. 
 ii, 6 ; there is evidence from the con- 
 text that the mention of the lieu 
 is figurative. And even were we to 
 account these expressions in P 
 
 d Compare Rev, s:c, i. 
 
306 
 
 figurative, it would amount to much 
 the same thing ; considering that the 
 hosts of the figurative heavens and 
 earth are the inhabitants and politi- 
 cal rulers thereof. For in both senses 
 the body of the earth, and the 
 heaven of stars, are reserved from 
 the fire : so that nothing is burnt, 
 but what is noxious to the Church, 
 and impedes her happy estate on 
 earth. 
 
 That we may have the full intent 
 of the Apostle in this text, note that 
 verse 14, (" Seeing ye look for such 
 things, be diligent that ye be found 
 of him in peace, without spot and 
 blameless,") suggests a query that 
 must be answered; viz. what is the 
 place and state of the minis in the 
 time of this burning ? We answer; 
 that the Lord can miraculously keep 
 his people in this fire, as he did the 
 three children in the fiery oven ; e 
 and the Israelites in Goshen, whilst 
 fiery judgements were spread over 
 all the land of Egypt round about. f 
 Respecting these and similar preser- 
 vations it is said, "We went through 
 fire and water, but thou broughtest 
 us into a place of refreshing. "S 
 And it is promised for the future, 
 " When thou passest through the 
 fire thou shalt not be burnt, &c. I 
 am thy Saviour, that gave Egypt 
 for thy ransom.' 11 He can carry 
 them through this fire, by taking 
 them up into the air at his coming, 
 according to 1 Thess. iv, 17 — " We 
 which are alive and remain, shall be 
 caught up together with them in the 
 clouds to meet the Lord in the air." 
 On which words learned Mr. Mede 
 hath this ; "I will add what may 
 ' be conceived to be the cause of this 
 ' rapture or taking up the saints 
 • then alive, to meet the Lord in the 
 ' clouds, rather than to wait his 
 ' coming to the earth. What if it 
 
 ' be, that they may be preserved 
 ' during the conflagration of the 
 ' earth, and the works thereof? 
 
 Si.'- 
 
 t. 
 
 ' (2 Peter iii, 10.) that as Noah j^ 
 
 Uo 
 
 ' and his family were preserved 
 ' from the deluge, by being lifted 
 ' up above the waters in the ark ; 
 ' so should the saints at the con- 
 ' flagration, be lifted up in the 
 ' clouds, unto their ark Christ, 
 ' to be preserved there from the 
 ' deluge of fire, wherein the wick- 
 ' ed shall be consumed." And the 
 most learned of the Jews hold an 
 opinion agreeing with this, derived 
 from Elias, a Jewish doctor, who 
 lived under the second temple. He 
 says : " When the blessed God 
 ' shall renew this world ; ' when the 
 ' lofty looks of man shall be hum- 
 ' bled, and the haughtiness of men 
 ' shall be bowed down, and the 
 ' Lord alone shall be exalted ;' then 
 * (as Isaiah xl, 3) ' they that wait 
 ' for the Lord shall renew their 
 ' strength, they shall mount up with 
 ' wings as eagles ;' or like as eagles fc 
 ' do on their wings. For it is said, 
 ' Psalm xlvi, 2, ' Therefore shall 
 ' we not fear, when the earth shall 
 ' be changed.' " 
 
 The Apostle concludes with in- 
 struction to the godly ; for unto 
 such he expressly bends his speech, 
 calling them beloved. So that here, | 
 we that believe have a morsel of 
 importance to chew ; that though 
 we have certainly the truth of 
 saving grace, and an apostle to as- 
 sure us thereof, yet the considera- 
 tion of the conflagration of the 
 world and the renovation of it for 
 our use, is of great consequence to 
 us. As if the Apostle should say : 
 Ye that have truth of grace, though 
 ye cannot be damned, yet it is not 
 sufficient to dismiss all care from 
 your heads, nor fear out of your 
 
 Kx'. 
 
 1. 
 
 Cc: 
 V 
 
 io 
 
 its; 
 
 neci 
 
 T 
 i 
 
 e Dan. iii, 25. f Exodus is, 23. 8 Psalm lxvi, 12- & Isaiah xliii, 2. 
 
30V 
 
 learts, touching your salvation, 
 it the deluge of fire burning the 
 vhole world. The method the A- 
 >ostle uses in pressing believers to 
 
 deep consideration of this point, 
 S by an argument consisting of ante- 
 
 edent and consequence : " Seeing 
 
 these things shall be dissolved, (v. 
 
 11 J and seeing ye look for such 
 
 things, (v. 14.) as the renovation 
 
 of the "world ; it concerns you to 
 
 look to yourselves now, in prepar- 
 ation for that great day of burn- 
 ing. Though I will not tell you, 
 
 what may be the great thoughts 
 
 of heart in all dilatory saints, at 
 
 that day of burning ; yet you have 
 
 cause to have serious thoughts a- 
 
 bout it now, to your lives' end, 
 
 seeing such saints shall be con- 
 cerned in that fire ; even as my 
 
 brother Paul saith, 1 Cor. iii, 13." 
 
 jo that whatever antinomian spl- 
 its may dream, the Apostle plainly 
 
 rould have believers consider argu- 
 
 lents of dread, as well as arguments 
 
 f comfort. 
 The effect to be produced from 
 
 elieving and looking for these 
 
 tiings, is expressed in the form of 
 question and exhortation : " What 
 
 manner of persons ought ye to be 
 
 in all holy conversation and godli- 
 
 i Matt. xn. 24, 37. J James in, 1 7. k Matt. xxv. 1 , 3 
 5ph. v. 27 ; Col. i. 23 ; 1 Tim. vi. 6 ; Titus n. 5 
 
 * ness, &c." (w. 11—18.) In both 
 we must not be professors at large ; 
 
 — not such wheat as is like the 
 tares. Towards the end of the har- 
 vest there must be a sensible differ- 
 
 ence between the lowest saint and 
 the highest moralist ; between the 
 meanest true professor and the most 
 guilded hypocrite. This pre-eini- 
 nence in matters of piety Peter pre- 
 scribes in seven particulars, viz. (1.) 
 " In all holy co7iversation:" it is not 
 enough to say, " my heart is good," 
 but our conversation must prove it 
 to be so. 1 And that not only in 
 honesty, (which all moralist have,) 
 but in holiness, as acted by a holy 
 rule and to a holy end.j (2.) "In all 
 godliness:" that is, in a godly inside. 
 (3.) " Looking for, and hasting to 
 the coming of the da) r of God :" 
 that is to say, to meet Christ. k (4.) 
 " Be found of him in peace ;" viz. 
 peace with God and in your own 
 conscience, and not terrified. 1 (5.) 
 " Without spot and blameless." 111 
 (6.) "Be not led away with the 
 error of the wicked ;" viz. the scof- 
 fers and doubters of verses 3, 4 : 
 (7.) " but grow in grace;" viz. by 
 addition and augmentation, accord- 
 ing to chapter i, 5 — 8. 
 
 i Rom. v. 1--3. '■ - 
 
 Jude 21. 
 
 
 2p 
 
308 
 
 No. II. 
 GOG AND MAGOG. 
 
 REVELATION XX. 
 
 The occasion of this second exer- 
 citation springs from the first ; viz. 
 how or whence shall be left remain- 
 ing on earth, after the thousand 
 years of the glorious state of the 
 Church, such a wicked offspring as 
 Gog and Magog, if there shall be 
 such universal burning of the world, 
 as shall transform it into a new 
 heaven and a new earth ? To solve 
 this knot, we must first know, who 
 Gog and Magog are. 
 
 Verses 8, 9 state, " that at the 
 end of the thousand years, Sa- 
 tan, being loosed, shall go out to 
 deceive the nations which are in the 
 four corners of the earth, Gog and 
 Magog ;" whence we can rationally 
 deduce no less, than that Gog and 
 Magog are not this or that nation, 
 but an extract and collection of the 
 dregs and dross of many nations. 
 This the Prophet Ezekiel signally 
 confirms : " Son of man set thy 
 face against Gog in the land of Ma- 
 gog, the chief prince of Meshech and 
 Tubal, and prophesy against him ; 
 and say, thus saith the Lord, I am 
 against thee, O Gog, the chief prince 
 of Meshech and Tubal ; and I will 
 turn thee back, and put hooks into 
 thy jaws, and will bring thee forth, 
 and all thy army, horses and horse- 
 men, and all of them clothed with 
 all sorts of armour, even a great 
 company, with bucklers and shields, 
 all of them handling swords ; Persia 
 and Ethiopia, and Libya with them, 
 all of them with shield helmet ; Go- 
 
 mer and his bands, the house o 
 Togarmah of the north quarters, and- 
 all his bands, and many people with 
 thee :" n whence you have a fair 
 prospect to see who Gog is, with 
 his variety of nations embodied with 
 him ; as also what he is, viz. such as- 
 God will set himself against. 
 
 But then the grand question 
 necessarily falls in, How can it con- 
 sist with that glorious state an 
 time, included within the one thou 
 sand years, that after it, even imme- 
 diately at the very end thereof, there 
 shall be extant such a crew as this h 
 I confess this has been to me the 
 most intricate knot throughout th(| 
 whole doctrine of the Millennium 
 I was not thereby (as some learned 
 men acknowledged to me they were) 
 kept off from embracing so much off 
 that doctrine as was revealed to me ji 
 yet it still perplexed me as a labyr-* 
 inthian difficulty. I must there-* 
 fore prophesy of this submissively,! 
 leaving the Church of Christ t« 
 judge. For besides that in mys- 
 teries of this nature, Christ hath 
 usually some reserves, which he will 
 not unveil till near the very time of 
 fulfilling the whole ; there is also 
 a peculiar method in Christ's dis- 
 coveries of such great things as 
 these, whilst he intends and is intent 
 to reveal. So that, as the world was 
 made orderly and successively in. 
 six days, as an introduction to the 
 Sabbath of rest ; and several months 
 are appointed for the product ol 
 
 centr 
 
 k 
 whi 
 
 
 I- 
 
 
 
 " Ezek. xxxviii, 2 — ) 
 
 P r 
 
309 
 
 ;everal fruits and flowers, (the preface 
 ;o a complete summer,) Christ like- 
 ise is pleased to tell us his mind in 
 ;undry times or parcels. If there- 
 ore this be the day or the month in 
 Inch a clear light is to spring forth 
 n relation to this point, clearing the 
 ay to that millennian Sabbatism ;P 
 hat I can receive of it by prayer 
 d scrutiny into the Scriptures, I 
 hall cautiously communicate to the 
 .pocalyptical students among the 
 xpectant saints. 
 
 Many to whom I have propound- 
 d this gordian knot to be loosed, 
 entre towards this opinion — That 
 there shall be in the time of the 
 housand years a remnant of smooth 
 ypocrites, extant upon the earth, as 
 Jthe hidden putrid matter or spawn ; 
 hich at last, by the devil's influen- 
 ial brooding and hatching, shall be 
 enerated into Gog and Magog, 
 hey that are apt to conceive this 
 remnant shall be a distinct body by 
 themselves, seem to have in their 
 [eye some such passages as these : 
 ' he that is filthy, let him be filthy 
 till:" * — "no unclean thing shall 
 jenter :" r — " without there shall be 
 do^s." 3 Others, who think that 
 ithis remnant shall be a mixture 
 sprinkled among the glorified saints 
 ion earth, hanker after such notions 
 as these : that as the Gibeonites, 
 twere hewers of wood and drawers 
 of water to the Jewish Church, so 
 these to the glorified Church shall 
 be servile, — and that if the saints 
 must reign, they must have some- 
 body to reign over ; — and if they 
 must rule the nations, there must 
 be a communion, such as is between 
 the governors and the governed. 
 
 I must however adhere to my 
 principle before laid down (p. 281 ;) 
 I that this time of the thousand years 
 
 is a sinless time, and withal, a tor* 
 
 rowless time ; and that the raised 
 and changed saints shall not be 
 brought into such a dim glory or 
 cold comfort, as to have adjacent to 
 them, or interjacent among them, 
 men of sinful hearts. If believers 
 now have a great spirit of discerning 
 men, how much more will they 
 have it then : discernment of false 
 brethren amongst them, would, in 
 every respect, be incongruous to a 
 glorious estate. Christ, indeed, and 
 the angels conversed on earth, unpol- 
 luted, but not ungrieved : and surely, 
 in the same sense as angels are said 
 to joy at mens' conversion, 11 they also 
 grieve at their transgressions. And 
 if Christ hated hypocrites equally, if 
 not more, than the profane, (when he 
 said, that the publicans and harlots 
 enter into heaven before them ; and 
 that the burning of the world is an 
 universal deluge of fire on all evil 
 persons, that obey not the gospel 
 of Christ, w and on all evil things, 
 even to the very hay and stubble of 
 errors in his own elect ; x ) it cannot 
 be fairly probable, that he will leave 
 among his glorified saints such a 
 corrupt brood, who often do more 
 mischief secretly than the open 
 wicked ; — as Paul hints in hi- I 
 plaint of false brethren. 
 
 Now we hold, on the contrary, 
 that there shall be no men oh earth 
 during this period, but such is shall 
 attain to a perfect freedom in one 
 kind or other from sin, and so from 
 mortality also, throughout that time. 
 For as all they, who, under the 
 covenant of grace, have been incor- 
 porated into Christ by the spirit of 
 faith, shall be raised or changed 
 into an immutable state of perfection. 
 never to be altered for the worse 
 but for the better ; so there shall be 
 
 o Heb. i, 
 ■ Luke xv, 
 
 1. P Heb. iv, «J. 
 w 2 Tliess. i, 8. " 
 
 qRev. xxii, 11. 
 1 Cor. hi, 12—15. 
 
 r Rev. xxi, 2't 
 
 * Rev. xxii. 1 "•• 
 
310 
 
 many others, at that time alive on 
 earth, who shall be restored for so 
 long, only to an Adamitical state of 
 innocency, according to the tenor 
 of the covenant of nature made with 
 Adam ; and therefore shall be mu- 
 table, and shall fall, when in like 
 manner they are assaulted by Satan. 
 Out of these shall spring the brood 
 of Gog and Magog. Thus you see 
 how some shall never fall, whilst 
 others shall. And you see on what 
 grounds I have thus distinguished : 
 viz. by the difference of being in 
 Christ by the covenant of grace ; and 
 being in Adam, or as Adam in in- 
 nocency, according to the covenant 
 of nature. So that these that fall 
 cannot be said to fall from grace, 
 because they never had that which 
 is properly called grace. And the 
 reason of my so distinguishing is, 
 because the Sacred Scriptures do so. 
 In tumbling over books I have 
 found some learned companions in 
 this opinion thus far ; (if that will 
 enable it to go down better with 
 any ;) among whom I will name Dr. 
 Twiss, in his letter sent by Dr. 
 Meddus to Mr. Mede ; also the 
 learned author of " The Retired 
 Man's Meditations," in the last 
 chapter on the manifestation of the 
 sons of God. And learned Mr. 
 Mede himself says in his letter to 
 Dr. MeddusJ " I have discovered 
 ' my opinion of the thing ; (meaning 
 ' the first resurrection, &c.) but de 
 ' modo how it shall be, I could wil- 
 ' lingly abstain from determining. 
 * We must be content to be ignorant 
 ' of the manner of many things, 
 ' which for the matter we are never- 
 ' theless bound to believe. Too 
 ' much adventuring here, without a 
 ' sure guide, may be dangerous ; 
 ' and breed intolerable phantasies, 
 ' as it did among some in those 
 
 ancient times ; which occasioned, 
 as may seem, the death and burial 
 of the main opinion itself, so gene- 
 rally at first believed. Yet, thus 
 much I conceive the text seems to 
 imply : that these saints of the 
 first resurrection should reign here 
 on earth in New Jerusalem, in a 
 state of beatitude and glory, par- 
 taking of the divine presence and 
 vision of Christ their King ; as it 
 were in a heaven upon earth, or 
 new paradise, immutable, unchange- 
 able, &c. That (for the better 
 understanding of this mystery) we 
 must distinguish between the state 
 of ' the New Jerusalem,' and the 
 state of ' the nations which shall 
 walk in the light thereof :' they 
 shall not be both one, but differing. 
 Therefore what is spoken parti- 
 cularly of the New Jerusalem, 
 must not be applied to the whole 
 Church which then shall be. New 
 Jerusalem is not the whole Church, 
 but the metropolis thereof, as also 
 of the new world. The state of 
 the nations which shall walk in 
 her light, though happy and glo- 
 rious, yet shall be changeable ; as 
 appears by the commotion of the 
 nations, seduced at the end of the 
 thousand years. But the state of 
 those who dwell in New Jerusalem 
 shall be extra omnem mutationis 
 ale am : — "Blessed are those that 
 have part in the first resurrection, 
 for on them the second death hath 
 no power.' " 
 Though I agree with them in the 
 substance of their statement, yet not 
 in the latitude of it. For I include 
 the living, that are changed at the 
 coming of Christ, with those raised 
 from the dead at the first resurrec- 
 tion. I am not persuaded, secondly, 
 that all the nations that are said to 
 walk in the light of New Jerusalem, 
 
 y Diatribse pars iv, p 463, z 1 Thessalonians iv, 14 — 18. 
 
311 
 
 shall attain only to a changeable 
 
 perfection, to miscarry at last ; be- 
 cause the text does not say, either, 
 expressly, all the nations ; nor does 
 it, in that indefinite speech, ' the 
 nations,' any how intimate, that it 
 intends the universal of all nations : 
 for then it needed not to have dis- 
 tinguished Gog and Magog. And 
 that which follows in our text, that 
 they are gathered together, and they 
 come up, notes an extracted collec- 
 tion of j:>arts or parcels out of di- 
 verse nations, called out by the 
 devil's seduction ; not all the nations 
 themselves : for it were impossible 
 for any one place to hold all nations 
 mustered together for battle. But 
 that some shall be immutably happy, 
 others mutably, is undeniable. 1st. 
 Because, though the New Jerusalem 
 shall be enlightened with the glory 
 of God and of the Lamb, and the 
 nations of them that are saved shall 
 walk in the light thereof ; yet some 
 remain seduceable, and are seduced 
 at last to their own destruction. 
 2ndly. Because some encompass, as 
 enemies, the camp of the saints ; 
 others are the saints encompassed. 
 3rdly, Over some the second death 
 hath no power ; over others it hath. 
 If any think a state of happiness, 
 equal to that of paradise, incon- 
 sistent in regard to those who have 
 no grace, I answer : We know that 
 Adam himself, in a state of inno- 
 cency, had no grace", properly so 
 called, — either of justifying faith. 
 or sanctifying infusions of the Holy 
 Spirit, (which are additions to the 
 nature of them now saved,) but 
 only an exact rectitude of nature : 
 and yet God judged him meet, and 
 would make him no meeter, for that 
 glorious state in paradise. And 
 likewise all the angels had but a 
 natural perfection from their crea- 
 
 tion ; jrel v. 
 God himself fit for hi 
 sence in heaven. I: 
 received saving infu 
 could never have fallen from i f 
 all the Scriptures touching 
 severance do demonstrate: i 
 fore it was on account of their na- 
 tural perfect rectitude, that I 
 were at first put into heaven. T: 
 that fell, fell into a state of v 
 grace ; but those that stood, stood 
 not (I conceive) by inward sanctify- 
 ing grace. For they were in no 
 union with Christ as sons ; l but 
 were in relation to Christ as ser- 
 vants.^ 
 
 But besides these matters of fact, 
 let us heed what hints the Script : 
 give de jure, touching the influence 
 of Christ's mediatorship, in restoring 
 part of mankind into a changeable 
 happy estate in the time of the 
 thousand years. For though it be 
 not express, llev. xxi, 2, that the 
 nations shall eat of the fruit of the 
 tree of life, in the midst of the New 
 Jerusalem ; yet it is positively there 
 asserted, that the leaves of that tree 
 shall be for the healing of the naf 
 And in 1 Tim. iv, 10, '" (rod is the 
 Saviour of all men, especiall 
 them that believe." Yea, in 1 Tim. 
 ii, .3, 6, we have more, and in lf_ 
 terms : viz. " There is one G<kI and 
 1 one Mediator between God and 
 ' man, the man Christ Jesus, who 
 * gave himself a ransom for all, to 
 ■ be testified in due time.' 1 Observe 
 the last clause— 4 in duo time . 
 it is in the Greek, Kauxnr t< 
 (" in its own proper seasons-," in the 
 plural number ;") seeming to inti- 
 mate, a< if neither in the , 
 times, nor yet to our times, hath it 
 so clearly appeared how or wherein 
 Christ is a ransom for all, as it shall 
 before the ultimate end of the world : 
 
 a Hebrews ii, 16. '> Ibid, i, 7, 11. 
 
312 
 
 yea, as if it shall have its own pro- 
 per and peculiar season and opportu- 
 nity to appear ; and that with some 
 signal testimony. Lastly, we have, 
 Rev. xxi, 24 : " And the nations 
 ' of them that are saved shall walk 
 ' in the light of New Jerusalem :" 
 which relative word ' saved,'' must 
 needs have respect to a Saviour and 
 salvation. So that at the least it 
 seems to signify thus much : viz. 
 that Christ, when he burns the 
 world, reserves these out of the 
 fire, to be an appendix of the new 
 creation, (as Lactantius, Sixtus Sen- 
 ensis and Dr. Twisse understand,) 
 whatever Christ doth more for them 
 afterwards. 
 
 I propound these as things, that 
 are not absolutely put out of all 
 doubt by the Scriptures ; whereby 
 the candid Reader may either make 
 a stand and consider, or launch out 
 further, as he sees cause. At the 
 same time, he may be stayed from 
 invectives against my labors herein, 
 by considering that what we have 
 discoursed in this present section, 
 is not of what God does ordinarily, 
 but what he does extraordinarily — 
 viz. but once, and by extraordinary 
 means, to an extraordinary end and 
 degree. So that ordinary rules and 
 notions of men cannot be meet 
 judges of these things, but must 
 submit to the sentence of the sacred 
 Scriptures. 
 
 There is yet one knot concerning 
 Gog and Magog remaining : viz. 
 whether the time of their insurrec- 
 tion and destruction falls at the 
 end of the thousand years, or at the 
 beginning, as Ezekiel (chap, xxxviii 
 and xxxix) seems to fix it : who first 
 prophesies the insurrection and de- 
 struction of Gog and Magog ; and 
 afterwards (in chap, xl, &c.) pro- 
 phesies of the glorious state of the 
 
 Church, as if it were to follow the 
 other. 
 
 To clear this, fix we in our minds 
 that golden rule of Mr. Mede, "That 
 the old prophets for the most part 
 spake of the great things of Christ 
 indefinitely , as to the time." This 
 he instances of the coming of Christ ; 
 concerning which they spake with- 
 out distinction of his first and second. 
 Whereas then Ezekiel prophesies 
 the destruction of Gog in the land 
 of Magog by fire, c as St. John also 
 does,d some of the most learned 
 ancient fathers, (as Cyprian and 
 Ireneus, &c.) expected a double fire 
 of destruction to be executed upon 
 the world : namely, one at the be- 
 ginning of the thousand years, to 
 destroy the wicked that shall be 
 then extant ; another at the end 
 thereof, for the destruction of the 
 wicked that shall then rise up against 
 the kingdom of Christ. And this 
 they expected according to the 
 Scriptures : for of the first fire men- 
 tion is made, 2 Peter iii, (according 
 to our former exercitation ;) and of 
 the latter by St. John, Rev, xx, 9 : 
 though he also had before hinted the 
 first fire, Rev. xix, 20. Which things 
 being so, do very well reconcile 
 Ezekiel and St. John. 
 
 Furthermore, and yet nearer to 
 the matter, several others of the 
 most learned ancients (as Tertul- 
 lian, e ) conceive Ezekiel's Gog to be 
 the same with that of John. And 
 what is still more to the purpose, 
 Ezekiel himself, (notwithstanding 
 the order of placing his prophecy 
 before urged,) lets fall several pas- 
 sages which intimate to us, that the 
 final destruction of Gog and Magog 
 is not at the beginning of the glori- 
 ous state of the Church on earth. 
 He averreth, that first" the people 
 of Israel shall dwell safely in their 
 
 L> Chapters xxxviii, 22 : xxxix. G. fl xx, 9. e Lib. adv. Marc. c. xxiv. 
 
313 
 
 own land, before Gog shall come up 
 against them;" and then " in the 
 latter years shall Gog come into the 
 land of Israel. " f And he assures 
 us, that, after the destruction of 
 Gog, " there shall be seven years to 
 burn their weapons, and above seven 
 months to bury the slain of Gog :"g 
 which, (whether we take it figu- 
 ratively, to intend a long complete 
 time ; or literally,) is too long a 
 time, and too incongruous a condi- 
 tion, to be inserted into the very 
 body and heart of the glorious estate 
 of the Church on earth as it is 
 stated and terminated by St. John, 
 Rev. xx, 1 — 6 ; and therefore far 
 more fit to be placed at the end of 
 that glorious state, at which last 
 time, St. John is positive, that 
 there must arise an enemy. And 
 therefore, from the order of plac- 
 ing distinct histories or prophe- 
 cies in the Old Testament (the 
 weakest argument that can be, to 
 state the time and order of the 
 things themselves !) w T e have no 
 more reason to infer, that Ezekiel 
 puts the destruction of Gog at the 
 beginning of that glorious estate, 
 than that St. John does, w r ho also 
 describes the mode of that estate, 
 Rev. xxi, after he had spoken of 
 the destruction of Gog, chap. xx. 
 
 Thus, having set the goodly stem 
 (I say not every twig) of this dis- 
 course, and earthed the roots there- 
 of with the choice mould of sacred 
 ! Scriptures, at last there springs out 
 thence three chief branches, with 
 fair fruit hanging thereon, which, 
 being gathered, eaten and digested, 
 are very cordial for our practical 
 edification. 
 
 1 . First, that no external consider- 
 ation whatsoever is sufficient of it- 
 self to restrain a graceless creature 
 
 f Chap, xxxviii, 8, 14. 
 k Ex. xxxii ; Deut. ix, 12- 
 xxvi, 24. 
 
 from running into gross sins. Ham 
 
 saw the dreadful flood upon the un- 
 godly old world, and enjoyed hi-* 
 share in the miraculous preservation 
 
 of his pious father : yet he went, 
 graceless into the ark, and BUcb, or 
 worse, he came out of it ; inasmuch 
 as he survived upon the waters only 
 to receive his prophetical father's 
 curse on him and his posterity. h 
 In like manner, the Israelites had 
 seen the stupendous miracles of 
 God, — in bringing them out of 
 Egypt, in carrying them through the 
 Red Sea, and in his appearance at 
 Mount Sinai to give them a law, at 
 which they trembled, — and they 
 had also felt the hand of God upon 
 themselves, for the sin of murmur- 
 ing ;i yet for all these, they commit- 
 ted that horrid idolatry of dancing 
 about the molten calf, — and that 
 whilst the mount was burning before 
 their eyes ! k Likewise Judas Iscariot 
 heard the terrible threatnings which 
 his master Christ denounced against 
 obstinate, hypocritical and ungodly 
 men 1 — yea, against himself, when 
 Christ said, " Have I not chosen you 
 twelve, and one of you is a devil r" 111 
 and " woe unto that man by whom 
 the Son of Man is betrayed ; it had 
 been good for that man, if he had 
 never been born." 11 And on the 
 other hand, he heard those celestial 
 sermons, that Christ preached to 
 win melting sinners, and to comfort 
 the weakest saints; and had a sight 
 of all the glorious miracles his 
 master did, he himself also being 
 enabled by him to work miracles. 
 Yet a Judas will be a Judas ; Rl 
 sure as the devil (that entered into 
 him) will be still a devil. For not- 
 withstanding all that he had seen, 
 heard, and enjoyed from and under 
 his master Christ, he doth so un- 
 
 g Chap, xxxix, 9—14. h Gen. ix. ' Ex. xvi. wii. 
 -18. iMatt. xi, xxiii,cx<\ m John vi, 70. " Matt, 
 
314 
 
 naturally, ungratefully, and traitor- 
 ously betray him, that the horrid- 
 ness of the fact in his own eyes 
 caused him to shut his eyes by 
 strangling himself ! Yea let us as- 
 cend (for I rise by steps) unto that 
 perfect state of Adam and Eve> who 
 had heard sufficiently that direful 
 threat, — that if they did eat of the 
 forbidden tree, they should surely 
 die the death ; who also had seen all 
 the new created glory of paradise, 
 and felt the joy of their own perfec- 
 tion. Yet for all these (as ye well 
 know the story) they hearken to the 
 devil (and that in the unlovely shape 
 of a serpent) to an unbelief of God, 
 and to their own ruin. The angels 
 that fell, go beyond all these ; who 
 having no tempter, or matter of 
 temptation without them, (but, con- 
 trariwise, were in perfect glory, 
 beholding the face of God, and en- 
 joying all happiness to encourage 
 them tokeep their station,) yet temp- 
 ted themselves, fell from their own 
 stedfastness, and were tumbled (O 
 dreadful catastrophe!) down to hell. 
 Thus likewise do Gog and Magog ; 
 who (whether you will receive them 
 as in Adamitical perfection, or 
 whether you had rather look upon 
 them as in an inward state of cor- 
 ruption, whilst they live the thou- 
 sand years,) will have seen and heard 
 enough of the late burning of the 
 world, and all the open wicked ; of 
 the transcendent glory of the 
 Church, by a resurrection and mu- 
 tation ; and not have been unwarned 
 (out of this our text) of a future Gog 
 and the judgement to come on him : 
 and yet you see (for God cannot lie) 
 they will prove a Gog-Magog. Gog 
 will be Gog to be seduced, as sure 
 as the devil will be a devil to seduce 
 them, and to rise and attempt the 
 ruin of the most glorious Church 
 
 that ever was, to their own fatal 
 and infernal destruction by fire. 
 Out of all which, we have great rea- 
 son affectionately to infer the slip- 
 pery uncertainty of a graceless heart, 
 though otherwise as innocent as 
 Adam ; — the aptness of man to be- 
 lieve the devil before God ; — the in- 
 testine antipathy and enmity of all 
 that are not of the Church, against 
 the Church ; though never wronged 
 by the Church, but dealt well with 
 for their sakes ; — the audaciousness 
 of sin, when once it hath conceived: 
 in that nothing daunts it ; — and last- 
 ly, how little reason we have to rest 
 in any state whatsoever, (either of 
 innocent Adam, or the new created 
 angels ; much less in an unregen- 
 erate estate,) till we be established 
 with the inspiration and infusion of 
 never fading sanctifying grace from 
 Christ. 
 
 2. The second branch is, that the 
 highest created perfection of nature 
 cannot, of itself, persevere in that its 
 native goodness, without an estab- 
 lishment by addition of a gracious 
 immutability. The final intent ofj 
 God in such a frame of creatures is, 
 that all, both angels and men, might 
 see their need of God at last, as 
 well as at first, and so be held in a 
 dependance on him from first to 
 last : so that Christ in all 
 might have the preeminence.? 
 not any Adamitical perfection, or 
 angelical glory, but Christ alone 
 might bring the stability of a state. 
 And hereby is set forth a most glo- 
 rious manifestation of God's justice 
 and mercy : justice on them that 
 fall, for their non-pursuance of an 
 establishment ; and mercy on them 
 that persevere, who waited on him 
 till he did, through Christ, settle 
 them for ever. So that as we hereby 
 learn, that God hath so constituted 
 
 '0 
 
 ;er 
 
 jii i 
 f arc ; 
 
 fadl 
 
 Hitat 
 
 things 
 That 
 
 o 2 Pet. ii, 4 ; Jude 6. 
 
 P Col. i, 18. 
 
315 
 
 man, that he hath nothing in him- 
 self by nature ; yet by grace he be- 
 comes partaker of the divine nature, 
 and so united to God, as to stand by 
 lis power. This union is fully ex- 
 Dressed, Col. iii, 3, — " Our life is 
 lid with Christ in God;" and in 
 John xvii, 21—23,—" That they all 
 may be one, as thou Father art in 
 me, and I in thee ; that they also 
 may be one in us ; — that they be one, 
 even as we are one ; I in them, and 
 thou in me, that they may be made 
 Derfect in one." And the power 
 grounded on this union is fully ex- 
 Dressed, 1 Pet. i, 3 to 5, — " Blessed 
 De God, that hath begotten us again 
 to a lively hope, by the resurrection 
 Df Jesus Christ from the dead, to 
 in inheritance incorruptible and un- 
 iefiled, that fadeth not away, re- 
 erved in heaven for you, who are 
 kept by the power of God, through 
 r aith nnto salvation." Thus, upon 
 he ground of union and interest 
 n Christ's resurrection, through 
 : aith (a great bond of unions) we 
 ire kept infallibly, by the power of 
 jrod, to that inheritance of glory ; 
 is that glorious inheritance is kept 
 ncorruptibly and unfadingly for us. 
 Vnd then upon that union follows a 
 uitable communion : for as the 
 inion is continual, so from thence 
 lows a continued emanation of gra- 
 
 cious influences from God through 
 Christ into believers, — m a stream 
 from a living fountain, and 1>< 
 from the sun. 
 
 3. The third branch is, that there 
 is a superexcellency of tin state un- 
 der the covenant of grace in Christ, 
 above that under the covenant 
 made with Adam. For by virtue 
 of the Adamic covenant, men shall 
 be restored in soul and body to the 
 natural perfection which Adam had 
 in the state of innocency. But those 
 under the covenant of grace shall 
 have, superadded to this, a Bpiritoal 
 and angelic body, whereby the Spirit, 
 instead of being hindered, shall be 
 aided. And besides the perfection 
 of all their natural faculties, they 
 will have the perfection of all their 
 graces. And whereas those only un- 
 der the covenant of nature may and 
 will fall ; those under the covenant 
 of grace never can again decline. 
 Therefore never rest in any estate 
 but that of the covenant of grace. 
 If you have that, you have the cream 
 of all the covenants perfected and 
 perpetuated in you, and so will con- 
 tinue for everlasting. Neither be 
 confident that thou art really par- 
 taker of the covenant of grace, until 
 thou art by it effectually endowed 
 with spiritual light and life to a 
 sincere and inward holiness. 
 
 q Ephes. iii, 17, 
 
 2q 
 
316 
 
 No. III. 
 
 THE TWO WITNESSES. 
 
 REVELATION XI. 
 
 Time, the surest interpreter of 
 prophecy next to God himself, has 
 confuted the opinions of many con- 
 cerning the Two Witnesses, and 
 left others in hopeless darkness. I 
 venture, nevertheless, but with dif- 
 fidence, to propose another inter- 
 pretation. I confess it differs from 
 all I ever read or heard of : but on 
 this account I claim the more in- 
 dulgence, as venturing on so lonely 
 a task to serve others. 
 
 I shall first set my view of it 
 before the Reader in the following 
 short thesis, or proposition, which 
 I intend to discuss : viz. That be- 
 lieving Jews, as well as Gentiles, 
 from the time of Christ to his next 
 advent, may be of the Two Witnesses : 
 who shall more especially give their 
 testimony in the troublous times of the 
 last days. 
 
 Now, if we mind the definite num- 
 ber ttvo ; none can be more dis- 
 tinctly so than believing Jews and 
 Gentiles. And if we rather mind an 
 indefinite (i. e. a sufficient) number; 
 there is no readier way to find such 
 a sufficiency of witnesses, than to 
 look among believing Jews and Gen- 
 tiles. Yea, even if we hanker after 
 the opinion that the two Witnesses 
 are the Old and New Testaments • — 
 (though these w T ere rather the matter 
 witnessed, than the Witnesses ;) or 
 that magistrates and ministers are 
 the two Witnesses ; still the fullest 
 witnessing to both Testaments, and 
 the most magistrates befriending 
 them, will be soonest found by 
 putting believing Jews and Gen- 
 
 I shall give three reasons in 
 
 •o! 
 'tk 
 
 ioji 
 
 r 
 
 o:i. 
 
 thei 
 of: 
 
 L 
 
 in." 
 
 ?' '■■' 
 
 Wr 
 
 Eli 
 
 p.- 
 
 Wi! 
 
 tiles into the society of the two Wit- 
 nesses. Thus we see partly already 
 the harmonious convenience of the 
 thesis. 
 
 But some will ask, What neces- 
 sity is there to take in the believing 
 Jews ? 
 reply .- 
 
 1. First, it would be a wonder, 
 I think, to all intelligent readers of 
 the Scriptures, if the believing Jews, 
 who are brought in, throughout that 
 whole volume, as the principal holy 
 actors, (more especially in that fu- 
 ture glorious scene on earth ; the 
 Gentiles being mentioned only as 
 accessories,) should not act a part 
 also in the testimony of the two\ 
 Witnesses. Isaiah xiv, 1 — 3, sets 
 forth the priority of the Jews before 
 the Gentiles, at the time of the re-< 
 stauration of the Church ; inasmuch 
 as the people chosen, are before the 
 strangers adjoined to them. Isaiah 
 xlix, 22, 23, speaks more fully to.| 
 the same point : " Thus saith the) 
 « Lord God, behold I will lift up my 
 1 hand to the Gentiles, and set up \^. 
 ' my standard to the people, and 
 ' they shall bring thy sons in their 
 ' arms ; and thy daughters shall be| r , 
 ' carried upon their shoulders. And 
 ' kings shall be thy nursing fathers,!^ 
 1 and their queens thy nursing mo-to/ 
 ' thers : they shall bow down to thee,k 
 ' &c." The apostle Paul tells usL 
 plainly, a that we Gentiles are but ' 
 a subrogated Church, placed for a 
 time in the room of the principal ;lt 
 — the Jews being the genuine olivcj - ■ 
 tree, and we the wild olive tree J' 
 
 ;: 
 
 » Rom. xi, 11—33. 
 
••M7 
 
 they the natural branches, — we the 
 grafted. " And if the diminishing 
 ' of the Jews (saith lie) he the riches 
 I of the Gentiles ; how much more 
 ' their fulness ?" So that our 'much 
 more' depends on their ' fulness.' 
 
 The notions, types, and allusions 
 of Rev. xi, are not only all Jewish, 
 (as are the symbols and types 
 throughout the book of Revelation;) 
 but they are of such a character as 
 would seem to put the Gentiles to 
 their shifts to prove themselves to be 
 of the two Witnesses, if they deny 
 the Jews to be of them. For here 
 we have the temple, the altar, can- 
 dlesticks, and olive trees ; concern- 
 ing which latter, St. Paul tells us 
 plainly (as we have just seen,) that 
 we Gentiles are but the wild olive 
 tree, and the Jews the genuine one. 
 
 There is also a plain allusion to 
 Elijah and Elisha, (the former more 
 particularly,) inasmuch as both these 
 Witnesses are prophets ; they wear 
 \sackcloth, or rough garments ; c fire 
 proceedeth out of their mouths a- 
 gainst their enemies ; d they shut and 
 open heaven ; e and they ascend up 
 into heaven. f The allusion also to 
 Joshua and Zerubbabel is apparent, 
 throughout Zech. iv. 
 
 2. Secondly, there is a necessity (I 
 conceive) to take in the believing Jews 
 to be a part of the two witnesses ; 
 because their lying dead under the 
 pressure and conflict with the ene- 
 mies of the truth, and anon their 
 rising again, in the way of conquest 
 Dver those enemies, is as assuredly 
 prophesied in other Scriptures, as 
 the lying dead and rising again of 
 believing Gentiles is supposed to be 
 prophesied in Rev. xi. For thus 
 
 Isaiah xxvi, 19,—" Thy dead men 
 shall live; together with my dead 
 body shall they arise : awake ami 
 sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for 
 thy dew is as the dew of herbs ; and 
 the earth shall cast out her dead." 
 Ezekiel says; " He said unto me, 
 prophesy upon these bones, and 
 unto them, O ye dry bones hear the 
 word of the Lord; thus saitli the 
 Lord God, &c. Behold I will c 
 breath to enter into you, and ye shall 
 live."S Daniel says, " And many 
 that sleep in the dust of the earth 
 shall awake ; some to everlasting 
 life, and some to everlasting shame 
 and contempt ; and they that be 
 wise shall shine as the brightness of 
 the firmament ; and they that turn 
 many to righteousness, as the stars 
 for ever and ever." 11 And St. Paul: 
 " If the casting away of the Jews 
 be the reconciling of the world, 
 what shall the receiving of them be 
 but life from the dead."' 1 Sorely 
 these Scriptures cannot mean the 
 universal resurrection of the bodies 
 of all men, neither the general re- 
 surrection of the bodies of all be- 
 lievers ; for they expressly relate 
 particularly and closely to the Jews. 
 They signify, that the Jew.-, living 
 at the time intended in those Scrip- 
 tures, being in a dead estate, — that 
 is to say, some of them dead in un- 
 belief and sin, and others, though 
 alive in grace, yet in a state of disper- 
 sion, affliction and persecution, (of- 
 ten in the Scriptures compared to 
 death* as the rising from it is to 
 life ;) — the latter sort of them shall, 
 at or before the fulfilment of the 
 former of these Scriptures, effectu- 
 ally arise, and stand up out of the 
 
 b Rom. xi, 11—33. c 1 Kings xix, 13 ; 2 Kings ii, 13 ; Zech. xiii, 4. <l 1 Kin,-. 
 xviii, 38 ; 2 Kings i, 10—12. e 1 Kings xvii, 1 ; xviii, 42 ; Jas. v, 1/. [8, 
 ' 2 Kings ii, 11. g Ezek. xxxvii, 4, 5. h Dan. xii, 2, 3. ■ Rom. xi, Id. 
 
 * For misery see 2 Cor. i. 10 ; Hos. xiii, 14 ; Rev. vi, 8 ; 2 Cor. xi, 23 ; ICor. 
 kv, 31 ; Rom. vii, 24. For deliverance from it see Ps. lxxi, 20 ; lxxx, 18 ; lxxxv. 6 ; 
 xxxviii, 7 ; Hos. vi, 2, &c. 
 
318 
 
 dust of their death-like miseries, to 
 contend for the corporal and spiritual 
 liberties of the Church, against the 
 enemies of both. In which contest, 
 though they may for a short time be 
 as slain, by new calamities, on that 
 account ; yet they shall recover, 
 conquer, and possess that glorious 
 restauration on earth, which is to 
 commence from the resurrection of 
 all believers, both Jews and Gentiles. 
 
 That this is the main sense of the 
 aforesaid Scriptures, the Reader may 
 easily gather by observing the con- 
 text, and noting what is put as the 
 antithesis to' that rising to life ; viz. 
 that state from whence they are 
 said to rise. Thus in Isaiah xxvi, 
 it is from " dominion under other 
 Lords to the ends of the earth," 
 whither the Jews were scattered, 
 without hope or help of deliverance. J 
 In Ezekiel it is from among the hea- 
 then whither they were gone into 
 captivity . k In Daniel it is from the 
 invasion and tyranny of the Roman 
 monarch}?-. 1 In Romans it is from 
 the fall and casting away into spi- 
 ritual blindness. 
 
 3. The third reason I shall urge 
 is, that the crisis or critical days, 
 most nearly relating to the period of 
 that witnessing , have their clearest 
 calculations from the Jews appear- 
 ing on the theatre, and acting in 
 that wonderful scene which inter- 
 venes between the witnesses lying 
 dead and the commencement of the 
 glorious restauration of all things. 
 So that the Gentiles necessarily 
 take their signal and watch-word 
 from the Jews, to march after them, 
 to their assistance ; (I mean to fur- 
 ther their deliverance and settle- 
 ment ;) as owning them to be the 
 people of God by actual and effec- 
 tual vocation. For example, to the 
 
 point in hand ; it is prophesied by 
 Isaiah, " that the Gentiles shall 
 carry the Jews into their own land, 
 upon horses, and in chariots, and 
 litters, and upon mules, and upon 
 swift beasts, and in their arms, and 
 upon their shoulders, and shall bow 
 down before them, &c." m But how 
 can the Gentiles show the Jews that 
 great favour, till they find them in a 
 posture and forwardness to go ? or 
 that high respect, till they see them 
 first respect the Messiah, Christ 
 Jesus ? 
 
 Another example we have from 
 Daniel. It being revealed to that 
 Prophet, " that «£that time (mean- 
 ing the most miserable time of the 
 ' Jews' desolation, described, chap. 
 ' xi,) shall Michael stand up, the 
 ' great Prince, which standeth for 
 ' the children of thy people ; and 
 ' there shall be a time of trouble, 
 ' such as never was, since there was 
 ' a nation, even to that same time ; 
 ' and at that time thy people 
 ' (Daniel's people) shall be delivered, 
 ' &c. every one that shall be found 
 ' written in the book : for* many of 
 ' them that sleep in the dust of the 
 ' earth shall awake ; &c." — I say 
 these things being revealed to Daniel, 
 one of two angels standing by asked 
 the Lord, " How long shall it be to 
 the end of these wonders ?" — that is, 
 to when the wonderful rising of the 
 Jews, and the wonderful troubles 
 ensuing, shall be on foot and be 
 acted. For the angel does not 
 mean the end also of all the saic 
 troubles ; (as I shall presently show;] 
 nor does the answer mean so. The 
 answer, according to our last Eng-J 
 lish translation, is, " that it shall bu 
 for a time, and times, and a half (o I 
 part, as it is confessed in the margin I- 
 when he shall have accomplished t< 
 
 ]'.'■ 
 0! 
 
 Rat 
 
 Y.\ 
 
 ia 
 and 
 
 fc.: 
 
 IV;: 
 
 ': 
 
 3 vv. 13 — 18. k vv. 21 to end. * Compare chap, xi, latter part. m Isa. xlix, lxvij 
 * I have before shewn that the Hebrew 1 is often a causal. 
 
319 
 
 scatter the power of the holy people, 
 all these things shall be accomplish- 
 ed." We may understand this an- 
 swer tolerably as above ; but better, 
 if we read it thus, — " That at a time, 
 and times, and part of time, having 
 accomplished the scattering of the 
 power of the holy people, all these 
 things shall be performed." This 
 reading is close to the words and 
 phrase of the original* and in sense 
 is, — that at the expiration of the 
 term of many years, consisting of a 
 time, times, &c. wherein the Jews 
 shall have been scattered, their scat- 
 tering now being accomplished, these 
 things, (viz. their wonderful rising 
 and troubles thereupon) shall be 
 performed; that is, shall be upon 
 the stage of human action. By 
 which it evidently appears to us at 
 this day, that whilst the Jews con- 
 tinue scattered over the whole earth, 
 (as we now see, and they themselves 
 daily confess,) nothing can be deter- 
 minatively calculated by any, touch- 
 g the time of their deliverance ; 
 nor done by us Gentiles in assistance 
 of their return. But when their 
 scattering is accomplished, (I say 
 not their full deliverance, which fol- 
 lows certain years after,) — and which 
 is accomplished when they arise, 
 and strive against their arch enemy, 
 — there is the first note or mark of 
 time of the glorious restauration 
 approaching. 
 
 Daniel hearing all this, but not 
 distinctly understanding hereby the 
 
 time of their scattering to that 
 
 rising, puts this question : " my 
 Lord, what shall be the end of th 
 things?" (v. 8:) which in • 
 the same as " When shall be tin- 
 end of these things?" — that is, it" 
 we may judge of the intent of the 
 question, by the bent of the 
 For the answer is not of the quality 
 of the end, but of the time of the 
 end ; and to this effect : — " that at 
 the expiration of 1290 days, (that 
 is, years,) taking their beginning 
 from the ceasing of the daily 
 rifice, and the setting up of the 
 abomination that maketh desolate, 
 (all three being to be taken in. to 
 make a sure footing for the account) 
 shall that scattering be finished, and 
 terminate in that wonderful rising 
 and struggle." (v. 11.) This makes 
 the second note, or mark of time, of 
 the glorious restauraf ion approaching. 
 " And how long, (might Daniel 
 yet inquire,) shall that troub lesome 
 "time (whose beginning periods the 
 scattering) continue ?" The Lord 
 however prevents this question by 
 himself stating in substance as fol- 
 lows ; — " that though the com- 
 mencement of their rising and 
 struggling shall be with unparalleled 
 troubles, yet they shall not be any 
 thing like so long as their scattering, 
 but shall end inablessed catastn rphe ; 
 the interval between both lasting in 
 all but 4.5 years :"t for (saith the 
 Lord) " Blessed is he that shall wait 
 and continue after the expiration of 
 
 * See the Margin. In the original is no ' it shall be,' nor ' when he? and the word 
 5 and,' next before 'when he,' is redundant. We have many eiamplesof the like - 
 iv 10, " I have made the stink of your camps to come up land] into jroar do 
 the Hebrew of Leviticus vii, 16, and Genesis xxx, 30. Lastly, for the two Infinitive 
 moods (.2: rvfoDl) it is a rule, that when 3 is prefixed to the infinitive mood, unp 
 rignificationem temporis praeteriti, (as Ps. xii, 8;) and for the second infinitive, 
 put for a noun,— dispergere to signify dupereionem. As for the signification oi — : 
 to perform, to be doing of a thing, before it is finished or ended, it is well known I i 
 every ordinary Hebraist. 
 
 f Near about the space of time of the building of the second temple, (John ii. - 
 viz. within one dag, which may alter one year. 
 
320 
 
 the 1290 days, to the making them 
 up 1335 days or years ; which is 
 just 45 years more." (v. 12.) So 
 that the Reader may now see evi- 
 dently, what was hinted in the first 
 question and answer, viz. that the 
 end of the Jews' scattering was not 
 the end of their miseries ; but that 
 these will be greater, at their first ris- 
 ing and coming together to contend 
 for their liberty. But when they have 
 contended, and gotten the victory, 
 (which shall be within the space of 
 45 years,) then shall be a blessed 
 time. This makes up the third 
 note of time of the glorious restau- 
 ration now at the very door. 
 
 "Then (saith the Lord, again 
 unasked) shall be the resurrection 
 of the saints ; for then Daniel shall 
 stand up in his lot." (v. 13.) This 
 is the fourth note, or the glorious 
 restauration actually begun. 
 
 From the foregoing, taken alto- 
 gether, it invincibly appears to me, 
 that the Jews must be taken into 
 the account of the Two Witnesses ; 
 and that they shall hereafter (viz. 
 in the 45 years) be awakened to give 
 a divine testimony for the truth in 
 a more eminent manner, and in a 
 full body. Until this be done, the 
 glorious restauration cannot come 
 to pass ; which circumstance, not 
 being taken into the account, has, I 
 verily believe, been the reason, why 
 
 so many learned men have been de- 
 ceived in their calculation of the 
 times leading to it. 
 
 4. But some may ask, where 
 shall we find such a considerable 
 number of believing Jews, that have 
 given so much testimony to the 
 truth of both Testaments since the 
 time of Christ, as may deservedly 
 number them among the two wit- 
 nesses ? For the satisfying of this 
 doubt, we must first note their 
 several dispersions, habitations, con- 
 ditions, &c. 
 
 The Jews suffered four great dis- 
 persions, remarkable above all other 
 petty ones, which followed upon 
 the greater. First, the ten tribes 
 of Israel were carried away captive 
 about 721, B. C. by Salmanezer 
 king of Assyria, who is said to have 
 placed them in Halah, and in Habor, 
 by the river of Gozan, and in the 
 cities of the Medes. n These never 
 returned in any considerable num- 
 ber. Secondly, the two tribes, Judah 
 and Benjamin, were led away cap- 
 tive to Babylon, by Nebuchadnez- 
 zar, about 611, B. C.° Although a 
 good part of these returned again 
 after seventy years ; yet a great 
 number of them returned not, as is 
 evident from 1 Chron. iv. 21 — 23, 
 and John vii, 35 ;* and in that they 
 had academies and doctors not in- 
 ferior to those of Jerusalem : so 
 
 11 2 Kings xvii, 6. ° 2 Kings xxiv, xxv, 
 
 * How numerous the captives of the two first captivities were beyond Euphrates in 
 the time of the Apostles, we may gather from two considerable passages in Josephus. 
 The first is King Agrippa's speech, intended to dissuade the Jews from rebelling 
 against the Romans : " Would you associate unto you men of the zminhabited world ? 
 ' for in all the habitable world the Romans live. Unless perchance any of you extend 
 ' your hopes beyond Euphrates, and think your own countrymen in the region of the 
 ' Adiabeni [that is, of Assyria,] will help you. But neither will they involve them- 
 ' selves in so great a war, upon an irrational ground. Nor, if they would assent to so 
 * opprobrious a business, will the Part hians permit them." The second is out of the 
 Preface to his Bellum Judaicum, giving a reason why he penned it first in his own 
 country language, and after in Greek : " I judged it (saith he) very convenient that 
 ' the Parthians and Babylonians, and the remotest of the Arabians, inhabitants of our 
 ' nation beyond the river Euphrates, as also the Adiabeni, should know through my 
 ' diligence, the rise of this war, &c." 
 
321 
 
 the Greek kings reigning in E 
 about 320 years 
 
 that from them proceeded the Chal- 
 dee Paraphrase, and that great Doc- 
 tor and Patriarch of Rabbies, Hillcl. 
 The third captivity befel them in 
 the days of Ptolemy Lagus, one of 
 
 B. C. who carried 
 away into Egypt many of the off- 
 spring of them who had returned 
 from Babylon ; planting them at 
 Alexandria and thereabouts. P These 
 are in the New Testament called 
 Hellenists, because they spoke the 
 Greek tongue, and used in their 
 synagogues the translation of the 
 Greek Septuagint, which was made 
 in Egypt. Titus, son of Vespasian, 
 made the fourth captivity ; about 
 A.D. 71: carrying away a vast 
 number of the Jews (ninety seven 
 thousand, as Josephus says, 1 !) into 
 all parts of the world. 
 
 But ye will say, here are the men 
 of the Jewish nation, but where is 
 their testimony or witnessing ? Have 
 patience ; the point is high, and 
 steep above the common level ; and 
 therefore I cannot come to the aKfxn, 
 but by an advantageous winding 
 about and orderly ascending, ac- 
 cording to the footsteps of divine 
 truth directing me. 
 
 Ye have seen, then, the four 
 main dispersions of the Jews ; 
 now see how the Apostles (who 
 were Jews) gave their testimo- 
 ny of the truth to these their 
 dispersed countrymen. We speak 
 
 now to the tli: I dispersion 
 
 with their branches jointly ; beo 
 they were in being whilst the Apos- 
 tles were alive : afterwards we shall 
 
 speak to the. fourth, by itself, for if 
 
 came not to pass, till most of the 
 penmen of the New Testament • 
 deceased. 
 
 Peter, then, being at Jerusalem 
 on the day of Pentecost, (about 
 A.D. 33) finds there, then sojourning 
 (for so we must render du-r/ling*) 
 Jews, devout mkx, out of every na- 
 tion under heaven : vi/. Parthian*, 
 and Medes, and Elamites, (i. e. 
 Persians) and the dwellers 
 they dwell not at Jerusalem but) in 
 Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and 
 Cappadocia, and Pontus, and A 
 Phrygia, and Pamphilia, in Egypt, 
 and the parts of Lybia, about ( v- 
 rene, strangers of Rome, Jews and 
 proselytes, Cretes, and Arabians.* 
 Peter calls these " Men of Timet" 
 and charges on them the guilt of 
 crucifying Christ ; which they ac- 
 knowledged by being " pricked at 
 heart," and with deep repentance 
 asking the Apostle's advice, what to 
 do. 3 They could not be G 
 proselytes; for he distinguishes pro- 
 selytes from Jews saying, " Stran- 
 gers of Rome, Jews andprosehfi 
 signifying to us, that all die rest 
 were Jews by blood and race. Thus, 
 when St. Luke here nana s ** J 
 thians, and Mi fee, and Elamii 
 he means those of the ten tr 
 
 P See Agatharchides Cnidius, in Alexandri M. historic : and Joseph*! lib. I, oontr. 
 Appion p. 1, 50, cum lib. 12, Antiq. c. 1. q Lib. vi, Bel. Jud. c, 17. r I 
 P vv. 22, 23. 
 
 * The Greek is kcitoiksvtic. Now ountt and rarotccu bj - -'" :I y '" 
 
 dwell from year to year, so oft also to sojourn for 8 short time ; especial!] accor» 
 to the dialect of the Hellenists, who were the Jews that spake Greek, bj reason of 
 their Greek neighbours among which they dwelt in the Roman Empire. 1 
 out of the Greek Septuagint (which was translated into Greek, and Q» d in their S; 
 goguesbvthe HellenisticalJews) Gen. xxvii, 44, Rebecca Baith to Jacob, Son arise and 
 flee unto' Laban to Haran, kcu oncijnov per' avrn np*P"Q «>«C, ***■ i. e. and wjonrn 
 with him a few days until thy brother's fury turn away. So 1 Kings, Xi u, 
 hast thou brought 'evil on this widow, psO 7]g rjyio KarciKto, that is, with whom I so- 
 journ. Many more examples might be produced. 
 
322 
 
 carried away captive by Salmanezer, 
 unto Halah, and Habor, by the river 
 Gozen, and to the cities of the 
 Medes, (as before shewn ;) where 
 learned Jerome (who was a great 
 traveller and linguist) commenting 
 on Joel iii, 6, saith, that they lived 
 in his time ; and he was alive at 
 least in the year 392 after the birth 
 of Christ. 
 
 Further, when St. James directs 
 his Epistle to the " twelve tribes 
 scattered abroad" (observe the word 
 twelve) he means those of the three 
 first grand dispersions. And when 
 St. Peter directs his two Epistles 
 " to the scattered throughout Pon- 
 tus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and 
 Bythynia/'t he means those lesser 
 dispersions that issued out of the 
 three first greater; viz. those that 
 were drawn out of Babylon and 
 Mesopotamia, and planted elsewhere 
 in those foreign countries. Now in 
 the countries before mentioned, there 
 were not only, in the Apostles times, 
 divers synagogues of the Jews,* 
 (among whom also were believers ;) u 
 but there were also several famous 
 churches of Jews. At Jerusalem 
 (for example) 3000 Jews were con- 
 verted at the preaching of Peter, 
 when he found these " devout men" 
 of the dispersion ; and this number 
 was afterwards augmented to at 
 least 5000. v At Antioch also there 
 was a famous church. And at the 
 great city of Rome, was a church, w 
 in which were some believing Jew r s ; 
 as appears by the matter, scope and 
 
 phrase of the Epistle to the Romans, 
 but expressly from Acts xxviii, 24. 
 St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews 
 further intimates, that there were 
 Christian churches of saints among 
 them, wherever scattered. f In the 
 Roman Empire were also many 
 other churches mentioned in Scrip- 
 ture ; (as at Cenchrea and Corinth ; 
 divers in Galatia, Asia, and Mace- 
 donia ; at Colosse in Phrygia, and 
 in the isle of Crete ;) among whom 
 were doubtless many Jews scattered 
 in these places. 
 
 Touching the fourth and last cap- 
 tivity of the Jews, we can only be 
 confident of two of the Apostles, 
 that they lived to see that unhappy 
 day — viz. Jude and John. 
 
 First then of the Apostle Jude ; 
 the Centuriae Magdeburgenses tell 
 us, that he was one of those who ex- 
 ercised the ministry of the Gospel 
 from Christ's ascension, to the time 
 of Trajan the Roman emperor, x who 
 began his reign A. D. 99.Y And 
 our English Annotations, in setting 
 down the Argument of St. Jude's 
 Epistle, assert, that he survived 
 many of his colleagues: grounding 
 themselves on v. 17; wherein they 
 interpret him as speaking of the 
 Apostles, as though they were dead. 
 And indeed, the very placing his 
 Epistle next to that of St. John, and 
 the last of all the Epistles, signifies 
 that his was the longer life ; it being 
 probable that the Epistles were re- 
 ceived by the Church into the canon 
 of the authentic Scriptures, according 
 
 t 1 Peter i, 1 compared with 2 Peter iii, 1. u Acts xxii, 19 ; xxvi, 11. v Acts ii 
 and iv, 4. w Rom. xvi. 5. * Cent. Magd. cent. 1, lib. 2, c. 4, sect, de Minist. 
 Evangelico, Tit. de vitis Doct. Y Buchol. Jud. Chron. ad an. 99. 
 
 * There were synagogues at Antioch, Iconium, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth, 
 Ephesus, and Salamis. See Acts xiii, 1, 5 ; xiv, 1 ; xvii, 1, 10, 16 ; xviii, 1, 4 ; 
 xix, 1, 8. 
 
 f The following places shew that they were pious Jews addressed in this Epistle, viz. 
 chap, vi, 10 ; x, 25 ; xiii, 17 ; xviii, 19 ; xx, 21 : and these following in the Epistles 
 of James and Peter, shew the same in regard to the Jews to whom they wrote: viz. 
 James v, 14. 1 Peter i, 2. 
 
3-23 
 
 to the order of their penning and pub- 
 lishing. Now the circumstance that 
 St. Jude, himself a Jew, does not 
 inscribe his Epistle to any particular 
 people, but to all, (even as antiquity 
 
 that Antichrist was then beginning 
 to appear. 11 Further, St. John, 
 as well aa the other apostles, 
 cepting Paul,* 1 was ;i minister to 
 the circumcision, and therefore his 
 
 titles it, " The General Epistle of writings must be considered as bav- 
 
 Jude") implies, that he intended it as 
 well for believing Jews as Gentiles : 
 which is further probable for these 
 reasons. First, being about to give 
 three examples of God's judgements 
 on apostates, all out of the Old 
 Testament, (vu. 4 — 6,) he prefaces 
 them thus : " I will therefore put 
 you in remembrance, though ye 
 once knew this ;" which expression 
 must needs look more towards the 
 Jews, who more properly knew this 
 once, (viz. in tunes past,) than the 
 Gentiles. Secondly, there are divers 
 passages that are far more taking 
 with the Jews than the Gentiles ; — 
 as that of Michael contending with 
 the devil about the body of Moses, 
 (v. 9,) which was known only by 
 unwritten tradition among the Jews; 
 — and those passages concerning 
 Cain, Korah, and Balaam ; — and 
 that of Enoch's prophecy, (v. 11,) 
 the book whereof, if ever in writing, 
 was long since lost. 
 
 Touching St. John. 1. He had 
 the matter of his book of the Reve- 
 
 ing a special regard to the Jew 
 the four dispersions ; holding forth 
 to them, witli great testimony, the 
 truth and necessity of adhering to 
 the doctrine of the Gospel. 
 
 We cannot but admire the infinite 
 wisdom and goodness of God, in 
 turning those evils, which the Jews 
 suffered, into most advantageous op- 
 portunities for spreading the Gospel 
 by " devout men" among them : 
 whom he had preserved in that warm 
 temper, and stirred up to come to Je- 
 rusalem at the solemn feasts; making 
 them thereby ear, and eye, and some 
 of them feeling, witnesses of the j 
 er of miracles confirming the New 
 Testament doctrine, and the power 
 of doctrine confirming the mirach a : 
 so that they could go home to 
 Parthia, Media, &c. and tell to all, 
 what they had seen, heard, and felt 
 of the power of heavenly doctrine 
 and miracles at such or such a feast ! 
 Nor can we forget, how effectually 
 this testimony was given and taken ; 
 in that it is said of the saints Bcat- 
 
 j 
 
 lation shewed to him in the time of tered at Home (whereof were some 
 
 believing Jews ; as we showed be- 
 fore from Acts xxviii, 24,) "that 
 their faith was spoken of through- 
 out the whole world. " c And of the 
 Church of Smyrna, in which were 
 some believing Jews, (as is hinted 
 Ilev. ii, 9,) what glorious things 
 are spoken! — "I know (saith Christ) 
 thy works, and tribulation, and po- 
 verty, but thou art rich" &C. 
 
 It is not rationally to be imagined, 
 that all those aforesaid synagogues, 
 and churches, so far and wide cli-- 
 persed over the face of the whole 
 
 his banishment in the Isle of Pat- 
 mos, A. D. 96, (as the best chrono- 
 logers affirm, 2 ) which was about 
 twenty five years after the last of 
 the four captivities ; at which time, 
 for any to question whether there 
 were seven churches in Asia would 
 be as absurd, as to bid me shew him 
 the sun. The same chronologers 
 affirm that he wrote his gospel three 
 years after his vision of the Revela- 
 tion,— viz. A. D. 99. His epistles 
 were evidently written towards the 
 end of his life ; for they mention, 
 
 ■ Buchol. Ind. Chron. ad an. 9(5, citans Eus. Idem assent Ireneas, a 1st Epistle 
 iv, 3 ; 2d Epistle, 7. h Rom. ri, 3 ; Gal. ii, 7. c Rom. i, 8. 
 
 2 R 
 
324 
 
 earth, consisting of many thousand 
 believers, of which very many, (if 
 not all, in some instances,) were be- 
 lieving Jews, could be so soon ex- 
 tinct, either in their existence, or 
 testimony ; but rather that they 
 were successively propagated in 
 both, from generation to generation, 
 among Jews as well as Gentiles. 
 For, besides that strong text, Rom. 
 xi, 25, 26, — " Blindness in part 
 (only) is happened to Israel, till the 
 fulness of the Gentiles be come in ; 
 and so all Israel shall be saved ;" 
 (which is not only a description of 
 the state of the Jews at that time, 
 but a prediction of their future con- 
 dition in relation to their salvation ;) 
 — I say, besides this text, take 
 these six following testimonies. 
 
 (1.) The lodging among them 
 the Gospel of Matthew and the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, written in 
 Hebreiv, as it is commonly called ; — 
 written at least in the then Jewish 
 language, which Jews best under- 
 stood, and Gentiles little or not at all. 
 Jerome says of it, " that Matthew 
 composed it in Hebrew letters and 
 words, for their sakes, who, being of 
 the Circumcision, had believed in 
 Christ ; — that it was laid up in the 
 library of Eusebius Pamphilus, at 
 Csesarea ; and that he (Jerome) got 
 leave to write it out from certain 
 Nazarenes, who in Berea, a city of 
 Syria, did use the same :"d — i. e. 
 doubtless, they used it in public wor- 
 ship. Again, when commenting on 
 Matt, vi, and xii, he calls it '• The 
 Gospel according to the Hebrews," 
 and "The Gospel of the Nazarenes;" 
 so that Nazarenes and Hebrews are 
 all one with him. Once more ; he 
 says, — "that Pantanus, the philo- 
 ■ sopher, being sent by Demetrius, 
 ' bishop of Alexandria, into Judaea, 
 ' found there the Gospel of Matthew 
 
 dCatal. Script 
 
 Eccles. 
 
 e Widmanst. 
 
 ' written in Hebrew ; according to 
 ' which Bartholomew the Apostle 
 ' had planted faith in Christ among 
 ' the Jeivs :" e — a great testimony 
 that this Gospel of Matthew in 
 Hebrew signifies the conversion of 
 many Jews successively to Chris- 
 tianity. Nicephorus affirms the 
 same, and (together with Jerome) 
 states also that Paul wrote in He- 
 brew to the Hebrews — meaning, the 
 Epistle to them. f 
 
 Notwithstanding this, some con- 
 tend that this original Gospel of St. 
 Matthew which Jerome saw, must 
 have been written in Syriac. In 
 answer to these I add, that Jerome 
 not only saiv it, but copied it out 
 and translated it into divers lan- 
 guages ; which learned Widmansta- 
 dius proves he could not have done, 
 had it been written in Syriac, inas- 
 much as he was unacquainted with 
 that language. His reasons for so 
 concluding are, First, because when 
 he wrote his Catalogue of Illustri- 
 ous Ecclesiastical Writers, he omit- 
 ted Jacob, (alias James) the bishop 
 of Nisibena, a city of Persia, a Sy- 
 riac writer, because his works were 
 not then translated into Greek. 
 Secondly, because Jerome could 
 not read the works of Ephraim, 
 Archilaus, and Bardesanes, all writ- 
 ten in Syriac, until they were trans- 
 lated into Greek. "8 
 
 (2) I have already noticed, that 
 the style, types, &c. of the Re- 
 velation of St. John bespeaks it to 
 be written for the comfort and use 
 of the Jews ; more especially for 
 those who misrht be members of the 
 seven churches in Asia, and there 
 witnessing to Christ. It was at 
 first written in Greek, which was 
 the language best understood by the 
 Hellenistical Jews ; but it was after- 
 wards translated into Syriac, which 
 
 lib. iv, cap. 7. 
 
 e Ibid. f Niceph 
 
 Proef. in Nov. Test. 
 
325 
 
 was well known to thousands of 
 other Jews. In one of these church- 
 es, (viz. Ephesus,) we know from 
 Scripture there were many Jews, 
 among whom " the name of the 
 Lord Jesus was magnified." 11 And 
 in this city lived Theodotion, the 
 learned Jew,* who translated the 
 Old Testament into Greek in the 
 reign of Commodus, nearly 100 years 
 after John's death. 1 His translation 
 (many fragments of which we have 
 to this day) was preferred by the 
 learned ; (witness the testimony of 
 Origenand Jerome ;J) and the Church 
 in their public solemn worship read 
 Theodotion's Greek version of Dan- 
 iel, in preference to the Septuagint, 
 so late as Jerome's time, — viz. A.D. 
 390. Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, 
 (another of the seven churches,) ap- 
 pears also to have been a Christian 
 Jew ; k who, after he had preached 
 there for 86 years, 1 was crowned 
 with martyrdom for his testimony 
 about A. D. 170. 
 
 (3.) The translation of the Old 
 Testament into Greek -by Jews, and 
 by succeeding Jews read and used 
 in their synagogues and places of 
 worship; as the quotations of the 
 Apostles from the Septuagint suffi- 
 ciently testify. Chrysostom calls it 
 " the door to Christ ;" which shews 
 the importance of such a testimony ; 
 and Scaliger shews, that Greek 
 translations were publicly read in 
 the synagogues, throughout all Asia, 
 Greece and Egypt.™ I have al- 
 ready touched on the Greek Trans- 
 lation of Theodotion : there were 
 others by Aquila and Symmachus ; 
 the former of whom was first a 
 Christian, then a Jew; the latter 
 
 first a Jew and then a Christian. 
 
 The translation of Aquila is inu< li 
 commended by Augustine* And Je- 
 rome. After these three there v. 
 
 two other translations by chrial 
 Jews, whose names have not coin" 
 down to us ; but good testimon; 
 borne to them by Athana-ius ami 
 Jerome, who says, that they both do 
 in their translations well explain 
 the Scripture concerning Christ, and 
 that Jesus Christ is in one of them 
 termed the Saviour of the world .T 
 which is good testimony also to our 
 point in hand. 
 
 (4.) The translation and para- 
 phrase of all the Old Testament in 
 Chaldee by other Jews, which wa- 
 in like manner read in their syna- 
 gogues. Of the Pentateuch there 
 have been three Chaldee translation- : 
 viz. that of Onkelos, who lived 
 about 40 years before Christ ; — 
 that of Jonathan, the disciple of the 
 famous Hillel ; with which Jonathan 
 Simeon, who took Christ in his arms, 
 and Gamaliel, Paul's master, are- 
 reputed to have been fellow dis- 
 ciples ; — and the Jerusalem Targum, 
 the author of which is unknown 
 even to the Jews. All these para- 
 phrases render Gen. xlix, 10, " The 
 sceptre shall not depart. &c. till 
 Messiah come ;" and repeatedly 
 allude to Christ by the title of TBM 
 Word of the Loud. Thus, Dent. 
 xxxii, 39 is " When shall the W 
 of the Lord be manifested, that he 
 may redeem his people ?" and Gen. 
 xix, 24 is " Brimstone and fire were 
 sent down from the Word of the 
 Lord." There are also some remark- 
 able testimonies in the Jerusalem 
 Targum. Thus on Gen. i, 27 and 
 
 h Acts xix, 10—17. i Epiphan. Athanas. Itin. S.Scr J Pr*f. in Jobun. 
 
 k Euseb. Hist. lib. hi, c. 32. I Itin. S. Scrip. "» Ammad. in Luseb. ■ TM .Cm 
 Dei, lib. xv, c. 23. ° Jer. in Ezek. iii. P Athan. in Synop. Jerome in Hab. m. 
 
 * He is reputed to have been an EbioaiU; but there was a good sort of Ebioaka 
 as well as a bad sort. 
 
326 
 
 ing the Chaldee, did in their com- 
 mon converse mingle many remnants 
 of the Hebrew (yet sticking in their 
 memories) with the Chaldee ; where- 
 by their speech came nearer to the 
 Hebrew than to the pure Chaldee ; 
 from which time that mixture be- 
 came better known by the name of 
 Chaldee, and the Syriac was rather 
 the unmixed Chaldee." For there 
 were indeed three dialects of the 
 Chaldee or Syriac tongue : first the 
 Babylonian, which is the purest, r 
 and in which Daniel and Ezra were 
 very skilful ; both having left us 
 certain chapters in their books 
 written in it. Secondly, the Jeru- 
 salem ; so called, because the re- 
 turned Jews used it, who lived at 
 and about Jerusalem. Thirdly, 
 there was the Antiochian • i. e. the 
 Comagenian or Maronitican dialect 
 of the Chaldee or Syriac ; which 
 afterwards more specially obtained 
 the name of Syriac, though in sub- 
 stance (as before observed) it was 
 one with the Chaldee. So that for 
 distinction's sake we may say, in a 
 sense, that as the Chaldee is a dia- 
 lect of the Hebrew, so this Syriac is 
 a dialect of the Chaldee. This 
 dialect, so peculiarly called Syriac, 
 is that in which the most ancient 
 Syriac translations of the Old and 
 New Testament are extant among 
 the oriental christians : which dia- 
 lect, because it was in use at Anti- 
 ochia, where believers in Christ 
 were first called Christians* was 
 called by the name of the Antiochian 
 dialect. And from Comagena (a 
 district of Syria above Cilicia,) 
 it is called the Comagenian dialect, 
 
 <1 Preef. ad Lex. Chald. et Syr. ' Buxt. ad. Gram. Chald. Syr. s Acts xi, 26. 
 
 * There is one paraphrase of Jonathan on the Psalms, which we possess not : but 
 Helvicus brings forward a passage from it, cpioted by Jacobus Christopolitanus, (Epis. 
 in Expos, in Psalm xx,) which is as follows. — " Psalm ii, 7, ' Thou art my Son, this 
 day haye I begotten thee.' — Here are tivo, the Father and the Son, and three in one, 
 viz. in the Holy Spirit, and these three are one — one I say, in essence, one substance, 
 one God." 
 
 iii, 22, we read—" The Word of 
 ' the Lord created man. [See Heb. 
 1 i, 2, 3.] And the Word of the 
 ' Lord said, Behold Adam whom / 
 ' have created .■ he is my only be- 
 ' gotten son in the world, as I am 
 
 ' THE ONLY BEGOTTEN [See John Hi, 
 
 • 16,] in the highest heavens." On 
 Deut. xxxiii, 6, are these words — 
 " Let Reuben live in this world, and 
 ' let him not die the second death, 
 ' with which the wicked shall die 
 
 • in the world to come." Buxtorf 
 also bears witness to Jonathan's 
 paraphrase, q saying, " that many 
 
 • places of Scripture concerning 
 ' Christ, or the Messiah, not so ex- 
 ' plicitly written, doth Jonathan 
 ' expound in a christian sense con- 
 ' cerning the Messiah."* 
 
 (5.) There has been a further 
 propagation of the truth of the Gos- 
 pel by those Jews who had a hand 
 in translations of the Old or New 
 Testament, or both, into Syriac, 
 Arabic, Ethiopic and Persic. 
 
 Touching the Syriac language it 
 has varied in name according to the 
 circumstances and divisions of the 
 empire ; and has been called at differ- 
 ent times, Aramcean, or Aramitish, 
 Syrian, Assyrian, Chaldean, Baby- 
 lonian, and sometimes Hebrew. The 
 case stands thus : the Chaldee and 
 Syriac are essentially one and the 
 same language ; and both have been 
 called by both names, long before 
 the Jews' captivity in Babylon. Yet 
 is not the opinion of the learned to 
 be wholly slighted, who say, " that 
 the Jews at their return from that 
 captivity, having nearly forgotten 
 their pure Hebrew and chiefly speak- 
 

 because there also used ; and it is 
 also called the Maronitican dialect, 
 from the Maronites, inhabiting 
 Mount Libanus, Damascus, Tripoli, 
 and the smaller towns of Syria ; 
 who to this day do in Syriac read 
 their lessons out of the sacred Bible, 
 pronounce their form of public 
 worship, perform their ministerial 
 offices, and preach their expositions 
 
 translation! of th< Evangel! 
 antiquity of one of which appeal 
 the postscript, noticed by Brpeu 
 viz. " The writing of this book 
 finished on the sixteenth day of the 
 month liannn, in th< 
 martyrdom of tic just one§."- — i. e. 
 A. 1). 1171.' 
 
 Touching the Ethiopic, not' 
 that the Eunuch of Uandace, con- 
 
 of the holy Scriptures : which may verted by Philip," first planted the 
 suffice (though more might be said) faith of Christ, (as all historian! I 
 
 to demonstrate what testimony to 
 the christian religion these christians 
 gave, though Jews (at least most of 
 them) by blood ; as the countries 
 where they inhabit sufficiently de- 
 clare. 
 
 Touching the Arabic translation, 
 it is worthy of note, that the Jews, 
 born in and inhabiting Arabia, were 
 probably they who carried the first 
 news of the Gospel to that coun- 
 try ; as will better appear presentlv, 
 when I come to speak of the Per- 
 sians. Of the Jews, R. Saadias 
 translated all the Old Testament 
 into Arabic,* about A. D. 900 ; but 
 he wrote it in Hebrew characters 
 for the use of the Jews dispersed 
 throughout all the wide empire of 
 the Saracens. Of this translation 
 the Jews printed the Pentateuch at 
 Constantinople, only about a hun- 
 dred years since. Besides that of 
 Saadias, the Jews have another 
 Arabic translation of the Pentateuch 
 ^n Hebrew letters, set forth a long 
 time since in Mauritania. Scaliarer 
 printed it A. D. 1622 ; and calls it 
 a book of singular note. And Er- 
 penius prefers it before that of Sa- 
 adias, because it more closely fol- 
 lows the Hebrew. There were also 
 among the oriental christians Ara- 
 bic translations, either of the whole 
 book of the Scriptures ; or of some 
 parts only. And likewise various 
 
 tify) in the countries of Ethiopia. 
 
 Nor does it appear that they i 
 revolted from that faith; but per- 
 severe in it to this day. For though 
 (as Sealiger objects) the Anxnmites, 
 who are the smallest part of tin* 
 Ethiopians, were not converted till 
 about A. D. 553. Vet what is this to 
 the general conversion of the other 
 countries of vast Ethiopia, contain- 
 ing seventy kingdoms ? Afterwards, 
 (as the ecclesiastical histories also 
 testify) the Jewish apostle Thomas 
 preached the Gospel among the 
 Ethiopians and Indians. The foot- 
 steps of his ministry were found 
 there by the Portugese ; as the 
 observation of the Sabbath, togeth< r 
 with the Lord's day. ceasing ti. 
 in from all their labour-; (which 
 Scaliger himself con an 
 
 argument of their ancient Christi- 
 anity and not of .Judaism ;) and also 
 their not eating Mood, according 
 to the Apostles' canon. .\ 
 
 After their first conversion, and 
 settlement in the christian faith, we 
 have not much concerning them, in 
 ecclesiastical history; becausefew Eu- 
 ropeans have pierced into the hit . 
 of Ethiopia. 
 
 Lastly, note the won!- writ! 
 at the end of the Acta of the 
 Apostles, and of the four Evang* 
 in Ethiopic, as giving great light to 
 our point in hand. At the end of 
 
 1 Erpen. preef. ad Arab. Pentateuch. u Acts viii. » Emend. Temp. I. 7, ia 
 
 ad compuUim Ethiopicum. 
 
328 
 
 the Acts of the Apostles, we have 
 these words, — " Here are finished 
 the Acts of the Apostles, whose 
 prayers be with the writer Tispha 
 Zion, &c." At the end of Mat- 
 thew's Gospel are these words, — 
 " For the sake of the Father, Son, 
 
 * and Holy Ghost, and for the elect's 
 ' sake, and endowed with the cross, 
 ' be ye, O readers of this book, mind- 
 ( ful in your holy prayers of us your 
 
 * brethren, Tispha Zion, Melzazo, 
 
 * and Tansawald, &c. expecting the 
 
 * hope of the resurrection of the Son. 
 
 * For we are all the sons of our Fa- 
 ' ther Tecla Haimanoth of Mount 
 
 * Libanus ; we having laboured this 
 ' book in much affliction." At the 
 end of Luke's Gospel are these 
 words; — " Blessed be God who hath 
 ' made you mindful unto grace ; 
 ' that ye acknowledge the grace 
 ' of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am 
 ' poor and despised, after the man- 
 ' ner of my forefathers ; a pilgrim 
 
 * of Jerusalem." Now let the reader 
 lay all together, — viz. the habita- 
 tions of the Jews in Ethiopia, the 
 Jewish names of men, the situations 
 of places, the quotations of words, and 
 other circumstances ; — and collect 
 thence how much hand the christian 
 Jeivs had in promoting the truth of 
 the Gospel by the Ethiopic transla- 
 tions of the Scriptures. 
 
 Touching the Persic, let us re- 
 member, in the first place, that 
 some of the Jews who heard the 
 Apostles, on the day of Pentecost, 
 were Persians by country, though 
 Jews in blood and religion ; as is 
 evident from Acts ii, 5 — 10. This 
 forms a probable argument, that 
 these Persian Jews carried the first 
 news of Christ and his Gospel to 
 Persia ; for they who confessed, 
 " We do hear them speak in our 
 
 tongues the wonderful things of 
 God," would certainly tell, at their 
 return to their own country, this 
 strange and true story to their coun- 
 trymen ; were it only as a stupen- 
 dous piece of news, coming down 
 from heaven upon their great public 
 devotion ; but much more as a mat- 
 of salvation, if (as we cannot deny) 
 some of these Persian Jews would be 
 part of the three thousand that 
 thereupon believed and were bap- 
 tized, " w or of those daily added, 4 
 or of the five thousand afterwards 
 converted at the same feast. y For 
 though these Persian Jews be there 
 called Elamites, and others were 
 called Cuthites, yet must they be 
 understood to be native Persians ; 
 one Elymus and his Elamites being 
 the founders of the Persian nation. 2 
 Herodotus and other ancients tell us, 
 that the Persians had the whole en- 
 tire body of the holy Scriptures 
 translated into the Persian lan- 
 guage ; — and that many christian 
 churches were there founded, having 
 bishops or pastors over them; one 
 whereof was at the Council of Nice ; a 
 — and that many of them suffered 
 martyrdom for the christian religion, 
 as ecclesiastical histories shew us.b 
 They give us indeed this account ; 
 " That Sapores, king of Persia, did 
 by the instigation of the Magicians 
 raise great persecution against the 
 Persian christians ; so that their 
 churches being laid waste, Simeon, 
 a principal bishop of Seleucia, and 
 Ustazan, the chief of the Eunuchs, 
 and with them a hundred bishops, 
 and many other of the ministry, 
 were crowned with martyrdom, A.D. > 
 343. That afterwards under Isde- 
 gerdi, or Vararim, the Church of &, 
 Christ was there again propagated, c 
 by means of Theodosius junior, — , . 
 
 h 
 
 :o 
 
 Sre 
 
 tad 
 
 rhj 
 
 of I 
 
 H 
 
 ken 
 
 IDS 
 h 
 iinir 
 bed 
 P, 
 t! 
 tint 
 re; 
 
 
 w v. 41. x v. 47. y Acts iv. 4. z Jos. Ant. lib. 1. c. 7. a Eus. in vit. Constant. 
 3. 7. l> Sozom. lib. 2. c, 8, &c. Hieron. on Chron, Theod. lib. 1. c. 21. 
 
 
329 
 
 waging war against the king of 
 Persia, in defence of the Church, 
 about A. D. 420. But in the year 
 of Christ 618, it began to go ill 
 again with the Persian churches ; 
 for Cosroes king of Persia despoiled 
 all the churches in his dominions, 
 and by force and threats compelled 
 many of the christians to turn to 
 the heresy of the Nestorians, (who 
 detract from the deity of Christ,) 
 to the end he might be avenged on 
 them body and soul ; till at length, 
 By the most righteous judgement of 
 God, the said Cosroes was appre- 
 hended by his eldest son Siroes, who 
 i restored all the captives that were 
 imprisoned in all Persia, together 
 [with Zecharias, the Patriarch of 
 i Jerusalem, a Christian Jew, as his re- 
 lation, name and sufferings testify." 
 The Persic translations of the 
 : 1 Scriptures extant in Europe, either 
 in manuscript or in print, are the 
 >five Books of Moses, the Psalms, 
 land the four Evangelists ; neither of 
 'which is very ancient. The first 
 pi these was translated (which is 
 I much to our purpose) out of He- 
 Jbrew into Persic by Jacobus Ton- 
 -vosius, (alias Tusius,) a Jew, taking 
 this name from the city and famous 
 (university of Tus. This he trans- 
 lated for the use of the Jews living 
 Ijin Persia ; and this the Jews printed 
 ji the Hebrew character at Con- 
 stantinople, only about a hundred 
 shears since, — viz. A. D. 1551 . This 
 rPersic Pentateuch excellently ex- 
 pounds that famous prophecy Gen. 
 cxlix, 10, to be meant of Christ the 
 iMessiah ; contrary to the road of the 
 modern Rabbins. Of the four Evan- 
 gelists there are two Persic transla- 
 tions, the best of which is the learned 
 jiPocock's, printed in the fifth volume 
 Ibf the Oriental Bible set forth at 
 
 London. This translation waa written 
 about 300 yean since, and probably 
 by some Christian Jew or .kws, as 
 the words in Persic at the end 
 
 thereof seem to import, viz. — " The 
 four glorious Gospels of Matthew, 
 Mark, Luke, and John arc finished, 
 in the city of CafFa, in the third day 
 of the week, in the 9th month of 
 Tamuz, in the year of Christ the 
 Messiah, 1341, by the hand of the 
 weakest people of God, Simon Ibn 
 Joseph, Ibn Abraham Altabriz, 
 — which names, and the style people 
 of God, are quite Jewish ; as the 
 commendation of the Gospels 
 nifies their Christianity. 
 
 (6.) In the sixth place, as a proof 
 of Jewish witnessing to Christ, I 
 would just notice the Martyrdom or 
 other persecutions of Christian Jews. 
 On this head we may be more brief, 
 having anticipated ourselves, in 
 eral remarkable particulars. About 
 the 36th year of Christ, on the 
 stoning of Stephen for preaching 
 the Gospel, d (who is therefore called 
 thefirst martyr,) the Jewish Christian 
 Church at Jerusalem was scattered 
 from thence, preaching the Gospel ai 
 they went throughout the countries 
 of Judea, Samaria, &c/ About the 
 39th year of Christ, they of t In- 
 Church of Jerusalem, thus scattered , 
 do now travel as far as Phamiea, 
 Cyprus, and Antiochia j but "preach- 
 ing the word (mark well what fol- 
 lows) to none but unto Jew* only « 
 &c. and the hand of the Lord WW 
 with them, and a great number be- 
 lieved, and turned to the Lord :"' 
 at which place, Antioch, we have 
 further evidence of Bad p r-ecntions 
 of them in Acta xiv. 1!'. &C. About 
 the 4 2d year of Christ, .lames the 
 Apostle, brother of John, and snr- 
 named the Elder., is beheaded for 
 
 c See Buchol. Jud. Chron. ad A. D. G18 et 627. 
 
 f Actsxi, 19 — 21. 
 
 d Acts vii, ki viii. 
 
330 
 
 the Gospel by Herod Agrippa.g 
 And about the same time, Paul and 
 Barnabas, having travelled over Se- 
 leucia, Salamis, Cyprus, Paphos, 
 Pamphilia, Pisidia, Lycaonia, Ico- 
 nium, and other places of Asia, 
 preaching the Gospel ; — in which 
 " they so spake, that a great multi- 
 tude both of the Jews and Greeks 
 believed;" — did meet with persecu- 
 tion for it. h About A. D. 49, a 
 council (or synod, as they call it) is 
 held by the Apostles at Jerusalem ; 
 after which, the Apostles dispersed 
 themselves into the remoter parts of 
 the world to preach the Gospel. Of 
 this voluntary dispersion, Origen 
 and Eucherius Lugdunensis deliver 
 to us this tradition: — "that the 
 several Apostles did prescribe to 
 themselves several provinces, where- 
 in they would chiefly preach the 
 Gospel : e.g. to Thomas and Bar- 
 tholomew the east ; to Simon and 
 Matthew the south ; to Philip and 
 Thaddeus the north; to Matthias 
 and James the Just the Mediterra- 
 nean regions ; to John and Andrew 
 the provinces of the Mediterranean 
 Sea ; to Peter and James, the son 
 of Zebedee, the west ; to Paul, all 
 the world alike ; especially to the 
 Gentiles." 1 These, having all made 
 various arduous journeys, and suf- 
 fered persecution during them in 
 different ways, were finally crowned 
 with martyrdom : unless we except 
 the apostle John, who by some is 
 thought to have died a natural death; 
 though by others he is stated to 
 have been put to death by Trajan. 
 And in like manner we could pre- 
 sent you with a shoal of Jewish 
 martyrs during the first centuries : 
 though afterward it becomes more 
 difficult to trace them ; not because 
 
 they did not occur, but because his- 
 torians, either despising the Jews, 
 or laying too little emphasis on their 
 conversion, have merged the word 
 Jew in that of Christian. In the 
 next century however we may in- 
 stance Ignatius, who was reputed 
 to be one of the little children 
 brought to Christ that he should 
 touch them,j and therefore a Jew j 
 also Justyn MartjT, who tells us 
 himself, he was of Samaria. k We 
 have also one Rabbi Arita, a Jew, 
 martyred under Adrian, in A. D. 
 120. 1 Origen, who flourished about 
 A. D. 186, was reputed to have 
 been by blood an Egyptian Jew, 
 who both suffered great persecutions 
 himself, m and his father Leonides 
 was an eminent martyr. n But about 
 the year 43-1 the Jews of Crete were 
 converted to the Christian faith ;° 
 and, from among the now mixed Jew- 
 ish and Gentile Christian churches 
 in that island, bishops or pastors 
 were sent to the great synod at 
 Sardis, A. D. 547. These gave 
 great testimony to the truth of 
 Christ by their conversion and pro- 
 fession : all we can ascertain of 
 their sufferings was, that a general 
 persecution arose about that time 
 against orthodox Christians through- 
 out the world : — viz. by Genseric 
 king of the Vandals, by Anastasius 
 emperor of the Romans, by Cobades 
 king of Persia, Totilas king of the 
 Goths, and Albin commander of the 
 Longobards. But not to be too te- 
 dious on this point, by mentioning 
 all that I might, it shall suffice only 
 to name R. MordecaiBar. Hillel, mar 
 tyred in 1300, at Norimberg ;P — 
 Nicholaus de Lyra, who in 1310 wrote 
 the Glossary in several great volumes 
 upon the Bible ;<! — a certain Jew oi 
 
 g Acts xii. h Acts xviii. > Orig. in explicat. Gen. Vid. Alsted. Chron. convers 
 Populorum. J Niceph. lib. ii, c 35. k Dial, cum Tryph. 1 Alst. Chron 
 
 Doct. Judaeorum. m Epiph, Hcer. 64. n Magdeburgenses. ° Alst. Chron 
 Convers. populorum. P Alst. Chron. Doct. apud Judceos. Q Ibid. 
 
33a 
 
 Constantinople, being in the year 
 1528 converted to the Christian 
 faith, was for that cause there mar- 
 tyred by the Turks ; r — Elias Levita 
 Ascenaz, who in 1547 (a time of 
 persecution under Antichrist) de- 
 parted out of this life ; having a 
 little before given up his name to 
 Christ, and bringing with him thirty 
 other Jews to partake of baptism ; s 
 — Emmanuel Tremellius, who ended 
 his life in 15 SO, being the son of a 
 Jew, but converted to Christianity 
 by Peter Martyr. He was in Eng- 
 land in the time of king Edward 
 VI ; but after his death, by reason 
 of persecution presently following 
 under queen Mary, and an edict 
 for strangers to depart, he was 
 obliged to quit England, and went 
 to Heidelberg, where he was pro- 
 fessor of the Hebrew tongue. % 
 
 But it may seem a great obstacle 
 to the Jews bearing any part of the 
 two Witnesses, in that the crisis, or 
 mark of time, when the Spirit of 
 life enters into the Jews, is from 
 their rising to oppose the Turks ; 
 " when the sixth angel poureth 
 out his vial upon the great river 
 Euphrates, drying it up, to prepare 
 a way for the kings of the east to 
 fight the battle of the great day of 
 God Almighty, against the army 
 of the whole earth, that shall be 
 gathered together by the unclean 
 spirits of the dragon, the beast, 
 and the false prophet."* These 
 kings of the east are the Jews ; as 
 the word east intimates, and the 
 word kings, in the plural 
 
 signifies. 
 
 For Moses, calling the nation of the 
 Jews " a kingdom of priests," 11 
 the Chaldee paraphrase extend- it, 
 and calls them both " kings and 
 priests." St. Peter, in like manurr 
 writing to the Jews, calls them 
 fiaaiXeiov, that is royal, or kiatjlyy 
 And more plainly St, John, writing 
 his Revelation principally for the 
 Jews, (as before stated) saith, " He 
 hath made us (taking in himself) 
 kings and priests unto God :" which 
 latter title confirms his meaning to 
 be chiefly of the Jews-, since the 
 New Testament calls the ministers 
 of the gospel not priests, but by 
 other names. So again we have 
 the same thing, in the very same 
 terms, Rev. v, 10 ; adding, that they 
 are kings in relation to a future 
 reigning on earth. Now it is gener- 
 ally supposed, that the calling of 
 the Jews shall be at the appearance 
 of Christ ; which seems to be too 
 late a time for them to give any tes- 
 timony. To this we answer, — there 
 is a difference between the general 
 call of the Jews, (that is, of the 
 whole nation and stock of them,) 
 which call, it is justly thought, shall 
 be by some appearance of Christ ; 
 after the example of Paul, w who 
 therein was the type and first fruits 
 of such a kind of "call ; x — I say there 
 is a difference between this general 
 call, and a particular call of some 
 persons and parcels of them from 
 generation to generation, as just 
 shown. And, secondly, we must 
 carefully note, that " the appearance 
 of Christ and his kingdom," (inen- 
 
 * There are some who will undertake to tell you the date and duration of these in- 
 tervals and periods ; (see Claris Apocalyptica recusa ;) whom, because they seem to 
 he learned men, I leave to defend themselves : hut I stand exporting to see the rising 
 of the Jews in a considerable body to grapple with the Turks, before I can undertake 
 to compute matters of this sort with any certainty. 
 
 * Fox, Mart. Vol. 2. s Alst. Chron. Doctor, apud Judseos. 
 of Eccl. Hist. u Exod. xix, 6. v 1 Pet. i, 1 ; ii, 9. 
 
 x See 1 Eim. i, 16. 
 
 2 S 
 
 t M 
 
 S. Clark Mar. 
 «' Act? is, 'A. 
 
332 
 
 tioned 2 Tim. iv, 1 ; when it will 
 indeed be toolate to give testimony,) 
 and the appearance of Christ without 
 and previous to the appearance of 
 that kingdom, (accordingtoZech.xii, 
 10, 11. Matt, xxiv, 30. Rev. i, 7, 
 which is a time of the Jews' repent- 
 ance,) are quite distinct things. For 
 this latter, being a time of repent- 
 ance, is utterly inconsistent with a 
 time of happiness and glory ; but 
 most suitable to an effectual general 
 call of the Jews. 
 
 There is yet another difficulty, 
 (and I confess to me it has seemed 
 the greatest ;) viz. to keep the due 
 account of the two Witnesses prophe- 
 sying in sackcloth 1260 days (that 
 is, years) right and consistent. For 
 unless the Jewish witnessing comes 
 within the compass of that time, 
 how (it may be asked) can it be 
 accounted a part of the testimony 
 of the two Witnesses. To this we 
 give first this general answer ; that 
 a testimony to the truth of Christ, 
 once given in as a testimony, is from 
 thenceforward a testimony for ever, 
 let it begin when ever it will. For 
 example ; " By faith Abel offered 
 unto God a more excellent sacrifice, 
 by which he obtained witness that 
 he was righteous ; and by it his blood 
 (shed in his martyrdom by Cain) 
 yet speaketh " — it is still a witness 
 to the truth of Christ, after so many 
 thousands of years. So that all the 
 
 witness to the truth, given in by 
 the christian Jews, before the begin- 
 ning of that interval of the 1260 
 years, runs out in length to the end 
 thereof: for as it is not to be ima- 
 gined, that every person or parcel of 
 the witnesses should live just the 
 space of 1260 years; so it must 
 needs be most consentaneous to rea- 
 son, that the witness for the space 
 of that time is by a succession of 
 witnesses, (though possibly some- 
 times with some short interval be- 
 tween,) whose testimony lives when 
 they are dead. 
 
 Secondly, we answer, that very 
 many testimonies of Christian Jews, 
 witnessing to the truth of Christ, 
 have been given in precisely within 
 the space of the 1260 years, (as 
 ye have heard ;) even though we 
 cut the foot of the account far 
 shorter than most have done. 
 
 Finally, having seen that the 
 converted christian Jews shall be 
 the principal party in the glorious 
 restauration ;Y &c. and that they 
 shall most certainly give their tes- 
 timony to Christ at the last, before 
 the beginning of that glory afore- 
 said ; z therefore, whoever cannot yet 
 see, are yet by Scripture bound to 
 believe, that the Jews, being con- 
 verted to Christianity, shall yet 
 have a due time and place for their 
 testimony, 
 
 y Rom. xi. 
 
 z Dan, xii. 
 
No. IV. 
 EMENDATIONS 
 
 OF SUNDRY TRANSLATIONS OF SCRIPTURES, WITH ELUCIDATIO 
 
 OF THEIR OBSCURITY. 
 
 The following Emendations have not all of them a reference to prophet- 
 ical Scriptures ; but are added, as likely to prove generally useful and in- 
 teresting, to inquirers after divine truth. 
 
 Genesis ii, 4, 5. 
 
 Our Bibles have it — " These are 
 
 ■ the generations of the heavens and 
 ' of the earth when they were cre- 
 
 ■ ated, in the day that the Lord God 
 
 * made the earth and the heavens, 
 ' and every plant of the field before 
 ' it was in the earth, and every 
 ' herb of the field before it grew : 
 
 ■ for the Lord God had not caused 
 
 * it to rain upon the earth, and there 
 ' was not a man to till the ground." 
 
 But read — " These are the gen- 
 
 ■ erations of the heavens and the 
 
 ■ earth, when they were created ; in 
 
 ■ the day that the Lord God made 
 ' the earth and the heavens : and 
 
 * that before any plant of the field 
 ' was in the earth and before any 
 « herb of the field grew." Or verse 5 
 may be read thus : " Whilst any 
 ' plant of the field was not yet in 
 ' the earth, nor any herb of the 
 ' field yet grew/' 
 
 The plants were not created out 
 of the earth or before they were in 
 the earth, &c ; and the scope of the 
 text is to show, what was the state 
 of the earth in regard to plants and 
 herbs, before God sent rain and 
 planted Paradise.* 
 
 We might have cast out the 1 
 (and) in verse 5 as redundant (a 
 common thing in the Hebrew ;) 
 but, we have preserved it to signify 
 * and that, 1 or ' whilst ;' it being 
 capable of either expression. A 
 rendering every by any, he that 
 can but turn in any Hebrew Lex- 
 icon to ho in V?D will presently be 
 satisfied : and as for changing the 
 word before, into not yet, he that 
 doubts will likewise equally be sat- 
 isfied by turning to OTN3 
 
 Genesis iv, 26. 
 
 Our Bibles have it, " Then began 
 men to call upon the name ol I 
 Lord;" but the right reading is, — 
 " Then began men profanely to call 
 upon the name of the Lord," or 
 " Then began profaneness, m call- 
 ing (or, instead of calling) on the 
 name of the Lord." 
 
 My reasons for thus translati 
 are, (1) because the word Uw ~ 
 (the root of ^mn) when applied 
 to sacred things, mure commonly 
 signifies to profane, pollute or cor- 
 rupt . When it is applied to other 
 things, it signifies to begin. 
 Before this men " began to 
 
 * Mr. Sharon Turner, in his learned and scientific " History of the World from the 
 Creation to the Deluge," recently published, adopts a similar reading to Dr. Homes, 
 and argues very conclusively from it. Ed. 
 
334 
 
 upon the name of the Lord" in their 
 families, as may fairly be implied 
 from Heb. xi, 4. (3.) This was a 
 sorrowful time of corrupting reli- 
 gion ; as the name signifies which 
 Seth gave at that time to his son : 
 calling him Enos, — that is, sorrow- 
 ful, grieved, &c. For in those times 
 they prophetically gave names to 
 their children, suitable to times and 
 occasions, present or future. Agree- 
 able to this intimation of the sor- 
 rowfulness of these times, the order 
 of divine history adds another : for 
 as, before this text, we have the pro- 
 faneness of Lamech ; (Gen. iv, 23 ;) 
 so, in the next chapter, Enoch only 
 is singled out from all the rest to 
 be a man that walked with God. 
 And chap, vi, which by natural suc- 
 cession is to be linked on to this 
 chap. 4, (the vth chapter being in- 
 serted, saith Junius, by the figure 
 hyperbaton) shews us the coming 
 and cause of the flood, — viz. for the 
 wickedness of those times. And 
 therefore the learned Jews do in 
 their Chaldee Paraphrase translate 
 this text, — " Then in his days the 
 sons of men left off from praying 
 (or became profane, so that they 
 prayed not) in the name of the Lord." 
 
 Exodus i, 21. 
 
 Read — " And it was because the 
 midwives feared God, that he made 
 them (the sons of Israel) families." 
 
 That is, by means of the midwives 
 fearing God, and so sparing the 
 lives of the male children of the 
 Hebrews, God nourished and pre- 
 served them unto the just stature of 
 manhood, and to multiply into 
 families. By this translation the 
 true grammar of the Hebrew text 
 is preserved : in which Onb, them, 
 is in the masculine gender, and 
 therefore well agrees with tznVn 
 men-children, v. 18; but ill with the 
 
 midwives, whose name mVton, as 
 well as their sex, is feminine. Thus 
 the main intent of the story is di- 
 rectly carried on ; viz. to shew, not 
 the multiplying of the Egyptians, 
 but how Jacob's family, that went 
 down into Egypt, came to be a 
 mighty nation, maugre the malice 
 of the tyrant. 
 
 2 Chronicles xvi, 1. 
 
 Instead of "In the six and thir- 
 tieth year of the reign of Asa, Ba- 
 sha king of Israel came up against 
 Judah, &c." read — " of the kingdom 
 of Asa" &c. : meaning the date of 
 the separation of the kingdom of 
 Judah from Israel. For if Baasha 
 warred in the 36th year of the reign 
 of Asa, he warred after he (Baasha) 
 had been dead and buried ten years. 
 (Compare 1 Kings xv, 33.) But 
 the time of his invasion was really 
 the sixteenth year of Asa's reign, 
 which was now just thirty-six years 
 after the revolt of the ten tribes. 
 
 2 Chronicles xxii, 1, 2. 
 
 The common reading is, — " So 
 ' Ahazia, the son of Jehoram reign- 
 ' ed. Forty and two years old was 
 * Ahazia when he began to reign, 
 ' and he reigned one year in Jeru- 
 ' salem : his mother's name also was 
 ' Athaliah, the daughter of Omri," 
 But a more proper reading is, — 
 " So Ahazia the son of Jehoram 
 ' king of Judah reigned ; (v. 2,) 
 ' whose mother's name was Athaliah 
 ' the daughter of Omri, which Omri 
 ' was forty-two years when Ahaziah 
 ' reigned, who reigned one year in 
 ' Jerusalem." Thus there is here 
 a rhetorical trajection, frequent in 
 Scripture; as 1 Sam. xx, 16, &c. 
 Ahaziah is a son of forty-two years 
 old, (as in relation to the date of 
 his kingdom of Judah, since it was 
 divided from that of Israel,) though 
 

 he were but twenty-two years old, 
 for the date of his life. This is 
 clear from 2 Kings, viii, 26 : other- 
 wise he will be made twenty years 
 older than himself, and two years 
 older than his father ! 
 
 Psalm ii, 7. 
 " Thou art my son ; this day 
 have I brought thee forth" — not, 
 " have begotten thee." 
 
 1. That the Hebrew root *"iV 
 commonly signifies to bear, to be 
 born, or to bring forth, we have not 
 only the assurance of Pagnin, who 
 puts parere and parturire as its first 
 and more usual interpretation ; and 
 of Mercer, who says, " '^ 1 7 ,, idem 
 est quod Graecis Teirar, quod est tit 
 lucem edere generaliter ;" but we 
 have also infallible examples of the 
 sacred text, — as Gen. iv, 18; xvi, 
 11; xxix, 34; Deut. xxi, 15 j 
 1 Chron. ii, 46, 48 ; to which wc 
 might add many others. 
 
 2. That the Greek word Tivveuo 
 (by which the Apostle quotes and 
 translates this place twice ; viz. 
 Acts xiii, 33, and Heb. i, 5,) also 
 signifies to bear or bring forth, we 
 have also many examples in the 
 sacred text ; as Matt, ii, 4 ; xix, 12 ; 
 Luke i, 13, 35, 37 ; xxiii, 29 ; John 
 iii, 4, 6; ix, 2, 19, 20, 32, &c. 
 The Septuagint also translate this 
 text with the same word yewtuo. 
 
 3. The apostle Paul, quoting this 
 place — " Thou art my son, this day 
 have I begotten thee," — applies it 
 to the resurrection of Christ, when 
 God brought him forth out of the 
 grave; (Acts xiii, 32, 33.) " We 
 declare unto you (saith Peter) glad 
 tidings ; how that the promise which 
 was made unto the fathers, God 
 hath fulfilled the same unto us, their 
 children, in that he hath raised up 
 Jesus again ; and that as it is writ- 
 ten in the second Psalm — Thou art 
 my Son, this day have I begotten thee." 
 
 From what 1 have .-aid, mttcfa light 
 comes in on this text, which !>• I 
 has to me been alway- verv dark. 
 
 Psalm xii, ~>. 
 
 Our ordinary translation i- ; " I 
 the Oppression of the poor, for the 
 sighing of the needy, now will I 
 arise, saith the Lord ; J will set him 
 in safety from him that puffeth at 
 him." The last word- are t i 
 rectified thus; " I will set him in 
 salvation (or safety ;) He (meaning 
 God,) will give breathing or m 
 ration to him." 
 
 Consult the Hebrew well. 
 Septuagint, the Syriac, the Bthiopic 
 and Arabic, all refer it to Cod's 
 kindness to his oppressed people. 
 
 Isaiah viii, 22 and ix, 1 . 
 
 (viii, 22.) ''And they shall look un- 
 
 * to the earth; and behold trouble and 
 ' darkness, dimness of anguish ; and 
 1 they shall be driven to darkness. 
 
 (ix, 1.) 'Nevertheless the dim- 
 ' ness shall not be such as was in 
 1 vexation, when at the first he tight- 
 1 ty afflicted the land ofZebulnnand 
 
 * the land of Xaphtali, and afterward 
 1 did more grievously afflict her by 
 
 * the way of the sea, beyond Jordan. 
 ' in Galilee of the natioi 
 
 The fir?t thing here to be don 
 to separate from the first • 
 chapter ix the following clam 
 " Nevertheless the dimness shall mot 
 be sveh as was in in r ve, ration" — 
 and to annex it to the last ur- 
 the preceding chapt r. Th 
 thing is rightly to translate the 
 whole, which will then stand thttt: — 
 
 " And one shall look unto I 
 earth, and behold trouble and dim- 
 ness, so that he is obscured with 
 affliction, and driven up and down 
 in darkness ; for he is not dark 
 so as to be shut up with it." 
 
 The Chaldee paraphrase, and the 
 
336 
 
 ancient Latin of Jerome, distinguish- 
 ed these chapters, as I have done ; 
 and I have translated them as you 
 see, with good leave of the Hebrew 
 text. If, on the contrary, they be 
 left to be part and preface to the first 
 verse of chap, ix, they confound the 
 sense thereof; insomuch that they 
 puzzled the Septuagint (though 
 Hebrews,) so that they made their 
 Greek translation pure nonsense. 
 St. Matthew perceiving this, when 
 he quoted verse 1 out of the Septu- 
 agint, (see Matt, iv, 16) makes no 
 use of this former clause, but begins 
 with — " The land of Zebulun and 
 Naphtali, &c." As to the meaning, 
 I must leave them to judge that can 
 weigh these things : yet to me it 
 appears, that the Prophet, speaking 
 so much of darkness, might put 
 in " He is not darkened so as 
 to be shut up with it," in order to 
 distinguish it from the darkness in 
 Egypt, which so confined the people 
 that they rose not from their place 
 for three days. (Exodus x, 22.) 
 
 The remainder of verse 
 a new prophecy thus : — 
 
 "As in the first time, he made 
 ' vile (or debased) the land of Zebulun 
 
 * and the land of Naphtali. so in the 
 ' latter time he shall make them glo- 
 ' rious ; viz. the way of the sea be- 
 ' yond Jordan, Galilee of the Gen- 
 ' tiles." Or it may be read ; — " As 
 
 * the first time did make vile the land 
 ' of Zebulun, and the land of Naph- 
 
 * tali, so the latter time shall make 
 
 * them glorious, even the way of the 
 ' sea beyond Jordan, &c." To justify 
 this ; first, — it is well known to 
 every Hebraist, that \pTl signifies 
 to make vile, or to debase • and that 
 T*SDn signifies to make glorious. 
 What reason then was there, for our 
 translators to translate the first 
 1 lightly afflicted,' and the second, 
 ' heavily afflicted ?' For though bpn 
 hath the signification of lightness, 
 
 1 begins 
 
 it means of light worth. And also 
 TODn hath the signification of 
 weight, yet here (as in Piel oft) it 
 signifies weight of glory. 
 
 Secondly, the history informs us 
 (2 Kings xv, 29) that it was the sad 
 lot of Galilee, (or of Zebulun and 
 Naphtali two main parts thereof,) 
 to be the first in that calamity which 
 befel their nation by the Assyrians ; 
 on account of which calamity, then 
 newly acted, Isaiah comforts them 
 with this prophecy; viz. that in re- 
 compence of that heavy disadvantage 
 above the rest of their brethren, 
 they should have the first and chief- 
 est share of the presence and con- 
 verse of Christ, the Messiah, when 
 he should come in the flesh. For 
 the second verse continues ; " The 
 
 * people that walked in darkness (viz. 
 ' in that darkness of affliction, de- 
 ' scribed chap, viii, last verse) have 
 ' seen a great light ; they that 
 ' dwelt in the shadow of death, upon 
 ' them hath the light shined. Thou 
 
 * hast multiplied the nation, and 
 ' hast increased the joy thereof. 
 ' [How is this brought to pass ? — It 
 ' follows verse 6] For unto us a 
 ' child is born, to us a son is given, 
 ' and the government shall be upon 
 ' his shoulders, &c." St. Matthew 
 uses that portion which he quotes 
 directly in this sense, if you take the 
 full context, beginning chap, iv, 12. 
 And that first clause of verse 3, in 
 which 1 have left out the word not, 
 is equally consonant with the He- 
 brew, and more so with the sense. 
 The margin indeed gives it ' to him / 
 which would then thus read — "Thou 
 hast multiplied the nation and to 
 him increased the joy ;" and if we 
 rather read " to it" (viz. the nation) 
 the sense will be the same. 
 
 Matthew xxvii, 9, 10. 
 Read, — " Then was fulfilled that 
 4 which was spoken by Jeremy the 
 
337 
 
 ' prophet, saying, And / (not they) 
 ' took the thirty pieces of silver, the 
 ' price of him that was valued, whom 
 1 they of the children of Israel had 
 
 • valued, and / gave them for the 
 ' potter's field, as the Lord appoint- 
 
 * ed me." 
 
 According to the common digest 
 of our Bibles, there are no such 
 words found, but in the Book of 
 Zechariah ,• (excepting that Jeremiah 
 also bought a field, chap, xxxii ;) 
 whereupon Origen is greatly per- 
 plexed. Jerome and Augustine 
 think it a fault of the scribe, and so 
 do Eusebius, Erasmus, and Beza : 
 the last of whom conceives that 
 either the Evangelist cited only " the 
 projihet," (not naming ichich pro- 
 phet,) as the ancient Syriac reads 
 it ; or else that the Evangelists, or 
 their scribes, anciently writing such 
 well known things as names of pro- 
 phets by abbreviations, (as £« for 
 Zayapm,) some later scribes heed- 
 lessly turned £s into la, whereby 
 the following scribes wrote Jeremiah, 
 instead of Zechariah. Others, con- 
 ceiving it ought to be written Jere- 
 miah, inasmuch as all the Greek 
 copies known to us have it so, do 
 conclude, that either this prophecy 
 was at first delivered by Jeremiah, 
 but preserved till the Apostles' times 
 only by tradition ; or that Jeremiah, 
 prophesying this thing, and not lay- 
 ing it up (as the manner was) in 
 the archives of the temple, Zecha- 
 riah afterwards prophesied the same, 
 and left it in writing among the 
 sacred records ; he being a great 
 imitator in language and matter of 
 Jeremiah, as Grotius gives many 
 instances. Or, this quotation might 
 be taken out of both Jeremiah and 
 Zechariah ; or, Zechariah might 
 have two names. 
 
 To all these, let me add my sug- 
 gestion. And first, note, that it is 
 confessed of all, that the Jews might 
 
 commit some faults in mmdi . 
 
 and point-, in penning some <•: 
 copies of their Hebrew Bil 
 
 the most ancient Samarit 
 
 the Pentateuch, and t ; m 
 
 Punctationis (set forth by Brpenius) 
 do clearly evince. Next, thai I 
 inspired Evangelists do ton 
 of those faults: at in Psalm x\:i. 16, 
 where the Hebrew copii *TH3 
 
 as a lion, and St. John (Rev. i, 7) 
 reads it l nM3 they pierced} and tl 
 fore our translators have boldly, bat 
 justly, corrected the Psalm. So again 
 Isa. xxix, 13 is rectified by Matt. 
 9 ; — Jer. xxxi. 32 by I Eeb. viii, U ; — 
 and Amos ix, 12, by Act- xv. 17. 
 May not therefore our Evan- 
 Matthew rectify in this quotation 
 the wrong placing it by the Jews in 
 the volume of the prophet Zechariah, 
 when (as he here intimate-) it 
 should be placed in the Book of 
 Jeremiah ? 
 
 Now, whoever attentively w< 
 it, will at least perceive, that chap- 
 ters ix, x, xi, commonly accounted 
 part of Zechariah's prophecies, be- 
 long to more ancient times than 
 those of Zechariah : namely, to the 
 times before the Jews' captivity in 
 Babylon. For in chap. ix. 1. 2, 
 is pronounced the burden of 
 Lord on the land of Hadrarh and 
 Dtanascms, and Hamatk, and 7' 
 and Zidon, and AskeUtn an 
 and Ashdod, &C. of the Philitti 
 the most of which peoples (if any 
 of the names of the places remained) 
 were not extant after that retn; 
 Judah from the Babylonish captivity, 
 performed in Zechariah's time. In 
 chapter x. is plainly prophesied the 
 carrying away of Judah into • 
 tivity, with a promise of their sub- 
 sequent return : whereas now, in 
 Zechariah's time, they are already 
 returned. And in chapter xi. i- 
 foretold the destruction of Jeru- 
 salem, and also the captivity of the 
 
338 
 
 >eople of the land ; which is alto- 
 gether inconsistent with Zechariah's 
 irue, in which they are encouraged 
 >y him to rebuild the temple. And 
 herefore w r hat can we rationally 
 :onclude, hut that this quotation by 
 Matthew is out of Jeremiah ? For 
 here is no Scripture saith, they are 
 he words of Zechariah ; but here 
 s Scripture, (viz. the words of St. 
 Matthew,) to assert that they are 
 he words of Jeremiah. As for 
 heir being placed among the pro- 
 ihecies of Zechariah, that no more 
 iemonstrates that they are his, than 
 he inserting Agur's Proverbs within 
 he body of Solomon's evinces them 
 o be Solomon's ; or that ail the 
 'salms are David's, because joined 
 a one volume. And this misplacing 
 aight easily come to pass during 
 nd after the captivity ; which so 
 otally routed all things, that all the 
 istinct sermons of the prophets, 
 Lxed in writing upon some pillar of 
 he temple for a sufficient time of 
 mblication to every eye, (as Calvin 
 ollects from Hab. ii, 2, in which 
 ense it is also said, 1 Tim. iii, 15, 
 : The Church is the Pillar of Truth,") 
 nd afterwards laid up in the ar- 
 hives of the temple, might not be 
 o distinctly kept, and taken out, 
 nd set together. Which scruple 
 f misplacing may not be made upon 
 ny Scripture, to serve our own 
 iews ; but only where we have 
 ther sacred Scripture (as here we 
 lave Matthew) to testify and rectify 
 hat misplacing. 
 
 The next thing I have to defend 
 5, the proposed alteration of the 
 translation. First, " They took" 
 as our translators render it) must 
 >e, "I took ." for which I briefly 
 five two reasons — (1.) The Greek 
 >ears it : for sXafiov, being the se- 
 :ond aorist, may be as well the first 
 >erson singular, as the third person 
 )lural. (2.) The Hebrew TinpW 
 
 in express grammar requires it to 
 be the first person, if we would be 
 faithful to the text. Secondly, the 
 same reasons are ready to justify 
 my translating " I gave." For (1.) 
 f^wmi', in the first aorist, which the 
 Evangelist here uses, may be as 
 well the first person singular, as the 
 third plural ; the v at the end being 
 commonly paragogical. (2.) The 
 Hebrew ~pbtt?S1 compels us to trans - 
 late, ' and I gave.' Note further the 
 congruity of the sense and context : 
 for Matthew closes both phrases 
 with this, Kcc^a avvErat,e pot Kv- 
 piog, " as the Lord appointed me /' 
 but what sense can this be — " they 
 took, and they gave, as the Lord 
 appointed me ?" Therefore it must 
 of necessity be as I have translated, 
 / took, &c. 
 
 But it may be objected, it is not 
 in the Hebrew of Zechariah (alias 
 Jeremiah,) " as the Lord commanded 
 me " but, " in the house of the 
 Lord." That is the very question next 
 to be discussed. Surely it appears 
 by the Apostle, that instead of 
 TV\XV iVD. the house of the Lord (now 
 in our ordinary Hebrew copies) it 
 was formerly in the ancient copies 
 HIPP fTO as the Lord appointed, or 
 commanded. That m signifies a 
 command, and fVO according to 
 command, none will doubt, that is 
 acquainted with the Hebrew : (see 
 Esther i, 8, and oft in that book, 
 and elsewhere.) And that /T"0 may 
 easily by the pen be changed into 
 rVD. any eye is able to see. On 
 the contrary, to read it, " I cast 
 them to the potter in the house of 
 the Lord," makes little less than 
 nonsense ; and therefore I am bolder 
 to follow St. Matthew's reading, 
 than any Masorites whatsoever : 
 more especially as the Hebrew text 
 begins the verse, so as it appears to 
 require some such ending. For it 
 begins, — " The Lord said unto me. 
 
339 
 
 cast it unto the potter, ike." To 
 which, this close aptly answers, " I 
 took the pieces of silver, and cast 
 them to the potter, as the Lord 
 commanded me." And if it will add 
 any thing to the confirmation of 
 this reading, the ancient Syriac and 
 the Hebrew copy of Matthew read 
 it thus. 
 
 Mark xi, 13. 
 
 Instead of — " For the time of 
 figs was not yet," read — '* For 
 where he was, was a time of Jigs." 
 
 That the Greek will bear this, 
 note that the body of the words is, 
 « yap t]v Kaipoc avKwv. Now the 
 ancient Greeks did not write the 
 aspirates, accents, &c ; and why our 
 later scribes, copying out the Greek 
 Testament, have been so bold as to 
 accent « thus, ov, which signifies not; 
 and did not rather write it ov, which 
 signifies where ; I can see no reason. 
 All reason indeed pleads, that it must 
 be read as above written : for our 
 Saviour had as much reason to curse 
 all the fig-trees in that country, as 
 well as that one, had it not been 
 then a time of figs in that region. 
 But it was a time of figs then and 
 there in general ; though this fig-tree, 
 by its backwardness, merited the 
 curse : for the time of this miracle 
 was that of the Passover, (our 
 Easter,) when, even in so cold 
 a climate as England, young figs 
 appear ; but in the hot country of 
 Judea figs are the forward sign of 
 the spring, as may be seen from 
 Cant, ii, 12, 13. 
 
 As for making one verb i)v to 
 serve to two nouns, it is not worth 
 mention to any scholar. 
 
 John xviii, 28. 
 
 " And they themselves went not 
 into the Judgement Hall, lest they 
 
 should be defiled; but that they 
 might eat the Passover*" 
 
 This needs no alteration : what I 
 would observe is, that the Passover 
 here signifies not the Lamb, eaten 
 on one certain night by all alike ; 
 for this Christ had already eaten 
 with his disciples, before he wai in 
 hold : but it signifies an ox or ram, 
 offered at the same time that the 
 Lamb was, and which might be 
 eaten two days. Unless this be so 
 distinguished, Christ will be con- 
 demned of a breach of the law. as if 
 he had not eaten the Passover. 
 
 Galatians ii, 20. 
 
 " I am crucified with Christ : 
 ' nevertheless I live ; yet not I, but 
 ' Christ liveth in me : and the life, 
 ' which I now live in the flesh, I 
 ' live by the faith of the Son of 
 • God." 
 
 Read the last clause, — " I live bv 
 1 faith on (or concerning) the Son of 
 ' God." As if the Apostle should sav, 
 " I live, spiritually, by what I believe 
 concerning the Son of God;" — or, 
 " by that, my faith, which i< found- 
 ed on the Son of God." This order 
 of words is exactly justified by the 
 Greek j and the change of the word 
 of into on or concerning is constrain- 
 ed by the sense. For we do not live 
 by Christ's personal faith, (as some, 
 who are scholars have erroneou^ly 
 said,) First, because Christ's per- 
 sonal faith, does not advantage us, 
 unless there be in us a faith t<- 
 ceive Christ; as the Scriptures abun- 
 dantly testify. Secondly the just 
 must live by his faith," that is by 
 his own faith which is in himself." 
 Thirdly the Apostle speaks in the 
 very text, of Christ living in him ; — 
 which is, by faith in the believer: 
 see Ephes. iii, 17. So that this gen- 
 itive case (" of the Son of God,") 
 is not active, to signify Christ as the 
 
 O T- 
 
340 
 
 subject, acting that faith in himself ; 
 but is passive, to signify that Christ 
 is the object of our faith built on 
 him. Thus Acts iii, 16, " Through 
 faith of his name" ry ttl^ei th ovo- 
 parog avrs,) which our translators 
 render " through faith in his name." 
 So Phil, iii, 9, — " Having that right- 
 eousness which is through faith of 
 Christ," — that is, through faith con- 
 cerning or in Christ ; (the Greek 
 allows me to put out the word ' the/) 
 as if the sentence should run thus — 
 " Not having mine own righteous- 
 ness, &c. but the righteousness of 
 Christ through faith." 
 
 1 Tim. iii, 16, and iv, 1 — 3. 
 
 Read — " And confessedly (opoXo- 
 ' yupeviog) great is the mystery of 
 ' godliness, — God manifested in the 
 r flesh, &c. But the Spirit speaketh 
 ' verbatim (pr/rug, or, in the written 
 ' word) that in the latter times (or 
 ' seasons) some shall apostatize horn. 
 1 the faith, giving heed to errone- 
 ' ous spirits, and doctrines touching 
 ' daemons, (or deified souls of deceas- 
 ' ed men, &c.) through the hypocrisy 
 ' of liars, having seared consciences, 
 ' forbidding to marry, and com- 
 * manding to abstain from meats." 
 
 All I intend to notice on chap, iii, 
 16, considered by itself, is its rela- 
 tion to chap, iv, 1 ; the antithesis 
 being, that though many have con- 
 fessed this mystery of godliness, (viz. 
 God manifested in the flesh,) yet, 
 notwithstanding, the Spirit speaketh 
 in express words, that some shall 
 apostatize from their confession of 
 that faith. Some ancient Greek 
 copies do indeed unite these chap- 
 ters. 
 
 But my eye is chiefly intent on 
 chap, iv, 1 — 3 ; wherein I am forced 
 to depart from our English Bibles. 
 First, in the order of the words; 
 which makes " speaking lies in hypo- 
 
 crisy, &c." to answer to " giving heed 
 to seducing spirits, &e. and doctrines 
 of devils." But the first mentioned 
 words (speaking lies, &c.) are in the 
 genitive case, (xjsEvSoXoywp,) and con- 
 sequently they cannot agree with the 
 words ' giving heed,' which are in the 
 nominative case — Trpoae-^ovreg.' Nor 
 do they mend the matter that say, 
 those last genitives (speaking lies in 
 hypocrisy, having their consciences 
 seared, forbidding marriage, &c.) 
 should be construed with that first 
 genitive, devils : for it were most im- 
 proper to say, that the devils have 
 consciences seared, &c. Therefore 
 we must adopt another translation ; 
 wherein we make zv vTro^piaei (in 
 hypocrisy,) to note the cause and 
 means of this apostasy, (through 
 hypocrisy ;) and xjsevdoXoyiov, speak- 
 ing lies, to be as the latter of two 
 substantives, hypocrisy being the 
 former ; and so all the last genitives, 
 (having their consciences seared, 
 forbidding meats, &c.) to agree with 
 the first genitive liars. Further, the 
 Apostle here intends to set forth the 
 apostasy of the christian Church in 
 the latter times ; and it is not likely 
 that he would only give instances 
 of petty, circumstantial errors, (such 
 as forbidding meats and marriage,) 
 and omit the fundamental errors of 
 those times, which other Scriptures 
 tell us plainly to be spiritual forni- 
 cation, — viz. idolatry. Neither are 
 errors about meats and marriage pe- 
 culiar to the latter times ; but such 
 as were extant in the Apostles' days, 
 as their Epistles intimate. Seel Cor. 
 2. As I have departed from the 
 order of the words, so must I from the 
 translation of some of them; viz. " of 
 devils." First 'of must be rendered 
 touching, or concerning ; seeing it is 
 not an active genitive case, signify- 
 ing devils to be the authors of those 
 doctrines ; but a passive genitive, to 
 signify the subject matter of those 
 
341 
 
 doctrines, that should be sown in 
 the latter days. For though it is 
 true, that the devil is the author of 
 erroneous opinions ; yet that is 
 common to all ages, and not peculiar 
 to the last days. For so rendering 
 the genitive we have many in- 
 stances : let one, for brevity's sake, 
 suffice; viz. Heb. vi, 2. " The doc- 
 trine of baptisms, of laying on of 
 hands, of the resurrection of the 
 dead" means concerning baptisms, 
 &c. If any object, that devils are 
 persons, and therefore that Heb. vi, 
 2 is not pertinent, let such con- 
 sider Acts xiii, 12 ; where the 
 genitive of a person is to be ren- 
 dered passively. The words are — 
 " The deputy, when he saw what 
 was done, believed, being astonished 
 at the doctrine of the Lord ." — that 
 is, evidently, at the doctrine con- 
 cerning the Lord Christ. Tit. ii, 10, 
 is another instance. 
 
 Secondly, Aaipoi'iojy (which our 
 common translation renders devils) 
 w r e must translate demons ; which 
 in its own nature and derivation 
 signifies no such evil as a devil : for 
 &.cafUA)v (daemon,) is as much as to 
 say Aarj/joov, (dcemonj i.e. one that 
 knows much, or is skilful. In the 
 gentile theology it constantly sig- 
 nifLes'deastros ; — that is, an inferior 
 sort of deified powers, of a middle 
 nature between the sovereign gods 
 and mortal men ; and so of a mid- 
 dle office, viz. to be mediators be- 
 tween them both. For their highest 
 gods they called Qeoi, whom they 
 supposed to be in the heavens, 
 (distinguishing them by the titles, 
 dii superi, dii ccelestes";) and there- 
 fore, for their sublimity and purity, 
 not to be profaned with approach of 
 earthly things, or with the care 
 or management of the affairs of 
 mortal men. The original of these 
 daemons was, the deified souls of 
 men after death : for (say they) 
 
 " when those happy nen of the 
 ' golden age of the world wot 
 
 ' parted this life, great Jupiter pro- 
 
 1 moted them to to** ; tl. 
 
 ' to be keepers, protect ts, and 
 ' patrons of earthly mortal 
 ' seeing good and evil works, i 
 ' ing riches, &c." Further. I 
 would have all those that 
 valiantly in the field, to be 
 counted of the golden age, and to 
 be made daemons; and all sue 
 lived virtuously likewise. Abundant 
 antiquity shows, that the sou! 
 these daemons (or sancta animntia, M 
 they also called them) were wor- 
 shiped throughout every city of the 
 heathens ; who built certain images, 
 pillars, &c. in honour of them, in 
 order that they might thus find them 
 ready for their use. For assurance 
 of this, let the reader look into Plato 
 in Sympos. &c. Plutarch de I) I 
 Orac. &c. Hesiod, Origen contra 
 Celsum, Augustine it Civ. \)< i, 
 Eusebius de Prcpp. Evcngei. 
 
 The holy Scriptures use the same 
 distinction, in reproving the idola- 
 tries of the times. For example, in 
 Numb, xxv, their celestial soven 
 gods are called, the host of hear 
 the other inferior sort are called 
 baalim, that is lords. The same dis- 
 tinction exists in 3 Chron. xxxiii, 8 ; 
 
 2 Kings xxiii, 5 ; and Psalm cvj. 
 Thus again we are told of the Israel- 
 ites, " that they joined thcm-el\e- 
 * to Baal Peor, (Baal coming of the 
 ' old Bclus, the deceased monarch.) 
 ' and ate the sacrifices of the dead.'" 
 And inDeut. xxxii. 17, the BeptlUU 
 gint has — " Israel in their i 
 sacrificed to damans, and not fca 
 God." Many more places of the 
 Old Testament may be referred to, 
 containing allusion to these dsHBOOl 
 and to the worship offered to them : 
 see 1 Kings xviii ; Lev. xix, 18; 
 Dcut. xiv, 1 ; Isa. viii, 19 ; lxv, 3, 
 4 ; Jer. xvi, 6 ; xli, 5 ; xlviii, 
 
342 
 
 The same distinction of sovereign 
 gods and daemon gods is also inti- 
 mated in the New Testament, 1 Cor. 
 viii, 5 ; — " Though there be that are 
 called gods, whether in heaven, or in 
 earth, (as there be deoi ttoWol, gods 
 many, and tcvpioi troWoi, lords many,) 
 but to us (Christians,) there is but eiq 
 Qeoq, one sovereign God, the Father, 
 of whom are all things ; and we (eig 
 avTov) to him, (that is, to whom, as 
 supreme, we direct all our services ;) 
 and but elg Kvpiog, one Lord Jesus 
 Christ, by whom are all things, and 
 we by him." There is only wanting 
 here in the Greek, the actual expres- 
 sion — dcemon, when he said " lords 
 many " but then, in the application 
 of the distinction, he must have said 
 of Christ, that he was our only 
 dcemon ; with which idolatrous word 
 he would not pollute Christ's honor. 
 To make this exposition of daemon 
 clearer, let us observe, that though 
 the sacred Scriptures take Aatjuwv 
 and Aatpovioi (dcemon, and daemons) 
 in an evil sense ; yet do they also 
 use it in an opposite or an indifferent 
 sense. Thus in Acts xvii, 18, when 
 Paul preached that Jesus was risen 
 from the dead, the heathen philo- 
 sophers there oppose him with — 
 " This fellow seemeth to be a setter 
 forth of strange dcemons ; (Aaifxov- 
 iu>v ;) because they preached unto 
 them Jesus and the resurrection :" 
 upon which ground, Celsus in Ori- 
 gen calls Christ, the Christian's dae- 
 mon. (Lib. viii, Origen contra Cel- 
 sum.) Paul, in his reply, tells them, 
 Ye men of Athens, I perceive that 
 in all things you are deicricaipov- 
 a^epsQ, — too much given to dcemon 
 worship. So in Rev. ix, 20, the 
 worshiping devils, there mentioned, 
 is dcemons in the original ; meaning 
 these daemon gods • as is explained 
 by the " idols of gold and silver" 
 following. And in 1 Cor. x, 20, 21, 
 the word occurs three times with a 
 
 like signification. Some also of the 
 Fathers use the word dcemon, when 
 they expound our text. For Epipha- 
 nius, observing some in his days to 
 have made a goddess of the virgin 
 Mary, and to have offered a cake to 
 her as queen of heaven, urges this text 
 against them, with a little variation 
 in words only, viz, — " That also is 
 ' fulfilled on these, that some shall 
 ' apostatize from sound doctrine, 
 ' giving heed to fables, and doctrines 
 ' of dcemons ; for they shall be wor- 
 ' shipers of dead men, as they wor- 
 ' shiped in Israel." By which dead 
 persons he means their Baalim ; of 
 which he brings two examples : one 
 of the Sichemites, in his time, who 
 had a goddess under the name of 
 Jephtha's daughter ; another, of the 
 Egyptians, who worshiped Ther- 
 mutis, the daughter of Pharaoh, 
 that brought up Moses. 
 
 The intent of the Apostle there- 
 fore, in this phrase "doctrine concern- 
 ing dcemons," is to point out a main 
 corruption of the last times ; charg- 
 ing them with great idolatry, in 
 praying to glorified saints as media- 
 tors and agents with God. So 
 that, in the Apostle's sense, those 
 nominal Christians, the Papists, or 
 others that shall so pray, are not 
 only guilty of practising " a need- 
 less, foolish, and fruitless ceremony;" 
 (which is all the harm some Pro- 
 testants can see in it ;) but are guilty 
 of foul idolatry, lineally descended 
 from heathens, the worst of men. 
 For why does the Apostle, imme- 
 diately on mentioning that Christ 
 was received up into glory, (see chap, 
 iii, 16,) infer, that " some shall 
 apostatize from that faith, &c. ;" 
 but to signify that this embracing 
 the " doctrines touching dcemons" is 
 such an idolatry, — is a denial of 
 Christ's glory and majesty, where- 
 unto he is installed by his assump- 
 tion into heaven, there to sit at the 
 
343 
 
 right hand of God ? The Popish 
 party therefore, or whosoever they 
 be that pray to or through angels or 
 deceased saints, are great idolaters ; 
 and therein the great idolaters of 
 " the last times," intended by the 
 Apostle in this text. 
 
 2 Timothy ii, 6. 
 
 Read — " The husbandman ought, 
 first labouring, afterwards to par- 
 take of the fruits," 
 
 The two previous comparisons, 
 verses 3, 5, to animate Timothy to 
 endure hardship, before he receive 
 eternal glory, — the one from a 
 soldier, who must fight before he be 
 paid and honored ; the other from 
 a champion, who is not crowned till 
 after lawful striving, — do undeniably 
 require this translation. That fiera 
 signifies afterwards, and fxera\afi- 
 fiaveiv to take afterwards, I need 
 not prove to any scholar. 
 
 2 Peter iii, 18. 
 
 " But grow in grace, and in the 
 knowledge of our Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ. To him be glory, 
 both now, and unto the day of eter- 
 nity, Amen." 
 
 I have altered only the last clause, 
 rendering eig fijupav cuujvoq, with 
 due justice to the original. If trans- 
 lators will not see that Peter may 
 intend that same day he mentioned, 
 
 v. 8j (said there to be i rhfHitand 
 years ;) jret ought they to have faith- 
 fully kept to the idiom of the Ai 
 
 tie, Leaving others to have inn rn-d 
 as God should enlighten them. 
 
 Revelation xiii 
 
 " And all that dwell on the earth 
 shall worship him, whose nam< 
 not written from the foundation of 
 the world in the Book of the Life of 
 the Lamb that was slain." 
 
 The words 'from the foundation of 
 the world' are to be referred to, and 
 construed with, the 1 words ' in the 
 Book of Life ; which, speaking fig- 
 uratively, the Lamb hath always 
 kept by him ; writing in it every one 
 of his own people that hath lived 
 from the foundation of the world, 
 and believed on him to eternal life ; 
 and who therefore have never wor- 
 shiped nor wondered after the b 
 That they are not to be adjoined to 
 those words — ' of the Lamb sin in,' 
 appears plainly ; not only by the 
 matter, (Christ not having been 
 slain from the foundation of the 
 world, but " in these last da] 
 (compare Heb. i, 1, 2, with v, 7. 
 but also by a parallel place, in the 
 self-same words, repeating the same 
 matter, only leaving out the men- 
 tion of the slaying the Lamb ; — via. 
 Rev. xvii, 8, " Whose name- were 
 not written in the Hook of Life from 
 the foundation of the world." 
 
 FINIS. 
 

WORKS ON PROPHECY 
 
 RECENTLY PUBLISHED 15 Y 
 
 SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & CO. 
 
 I. THE INVESTIGATOR, or Quartf.rly Exfobitob on Phot, 
 
 in 4 vols. 8vo. published at Ten Shillings each Volume. Tl e thn e first 
 Volumes may be had in boards at the reduced price of Sevt n Shilling < ach. 
 
 The Investigator has been conducted upon the principle of affbrdii 
 opportunity of free discussion upon the various important and inl 
 subjects of Prophecy. It contains (1.) Original Comu 
 Begg, Birks, Cuninghame, Elliott, Frere, Maitland, Pvm. Tjrso, and nu- 
 merous other able writers. (2.) Reviews of various Publications on Pro- 
 phecy, among which are the works of Begg, Bickersteth, Biddulph, Bur] 
 Cuninghame, Faber, Frere, Gipps, Haldane, Holmes, Keith, Maitland, 
 Pym, Sabin, Sumner, Tilloch, Tyso. (3.) Republications of scarce and 
 valuable Works ; among which are — Sir Isaac Newton's Treatise on 
 Apocalypse ; — Vitringa's Treatise on the Interpretation of Prophecy ; — 
 Koppe's Excursus on the Kingdom of God. 
 
 In the course of the Work upwards of eight hundred Texts of Scripture 
 are expounded, (besides the numerous passages merely quoted,) comp] 
 Indexes of which are given with each Volume. 
 
 II. THE RESURRECTION REVEALED, or Thb Dawning or nu 
 Day Star ; by Nathaniel Homes, D.D. 1 vol. 8vo. price 7s. Gd. 
 
 The above Work is a Reprint of an excellent work on Prophecy ; in 
 the course of which almost all the eminent passages on Prophecv contained 
 in the Scriptures are expounded in order. It bears the Imprimatur and 
 unqualified commendation of Joseph Caryll (known by h: d com- 
 
 mentary on Job,) and of Peter Sterry, an eminent Puritan writer. The 
 original work was in one volume folio, to which a supplementary volume 
 in folio was added, containing much additional matter in continuation of 
 views, and separate Treatises on difficult subjects ; I 
 
 of the World, — The Two Witnesses, — Gog and Magog, &c. The latter 
 volume is rarely to be met with : both are here condensed in one vol. - 
 
 III. ABDIEL'S ESSAYS on the Advsnt and Kingdom orCBmifT, 
 and the Events connected therewith. In one vol. small Svo. half bound 
 in cloth and lettered. 3s. 6d. 
 
 This Volume contains original Essays on Our Lord's Prophecy. Matt, 
 xxiv, xxv ; — on St. Paul's, 2 Timothy III. 1 — 5 ; — and on the hiiiih r 
 Scriptures which relate to the character of the Advent. Judgement, In- 
 surrection - , Kingdom of Christ, &c. &c. The volume i- designed to 
 bring before the student of Prophecy the Scripture view of such of the 
 grand and prominent events of Futurity as are plainly revealed in Holy 
 Writ. The enigmatical or symbolical prophecies arc not discusf 
 
 IV. A DICTIONARY OF WRITERS ON THE PROPHECIES, 
 with the Titles and occasional Description of their Work-. Also an 
 Appendix, containing Lists of Commentators, Annotator-. 8tC, on the Holy 
 Scriptures. — By the Editor of the Investigator of Prophecy. Svo. 3s. 6d. 
 
 The Dictionary contains upwards of 2100 articles, com; de- 
 
 scription of Works upon Prophecy published in all Aires and Languages. 
 Ar>A fV«o AnTipnHi'v r>mihins a List nf no wards of 500 Commentators and 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which renewed. 
 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
 14 1966 
 
 flare to 
 
 NOV 
 
 CiSfc. o 
 
 &J3.9fk3 
 
 YOV 1 1 1970 7 
 
 imjz 
 
 J9SS 1 j 
 
 jyi'2b'Sb7 2RCO 
 
 MAR 15 1S6972 
 
 RECEIVED 
 
 MAR 1Q '69 -10 AN! 
 
 5 7n -9AM q 9 
 
 FEB 2 6 iQ7o 5 
 
 SEP 16 1S78 
 
 UOAN DEPT. 
 
 "Wft fflj flf 
 
 OCT 2 1972 4 9 
 
 LD 21A-60m-10,'65 
 (F7763sl0)476B 
 
 General Library 
 
 University of California 
 
 Berkeley 
 
 lEkCiH.AUG 16 7b 
 
 'WKBk