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<DATE>2008-2-1</DATE>
<RESPSTMT>
<NAME>Elspeth Healey</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
</RESPSTMT>
<ITEM>Proofed text and corrected markup.</ITEM>
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<VID>155256</VID>
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<TEXT LANG="eng">
<FRONT>
<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<P>A TRVE REFORMATION, AND PERFECT RESTITVTION, Argued by <HI>Silvanus</HI> and <HI>Hymeneus;</HI></P>
<P>Where in the true Church of Chri&s;t is briefly di&s;covered here in this life in her e&s;tate of regeneration, as al&s;o her perfection in the life to come, As it hath been foretold by all the holy Prophets and Apo&s;tles, which have been &s;ince the world began.</P>
<P><HI>By</HI> J. G. <HI>a Friend to the truth and Church of God.</HI></P>
<Q><L><HI>Feare not little Flock, it is your Fathers plea&s;ure to give you the Kingdom,</HI></L>
<L><HI>For now is our Salvation neerer than when we believed.</HI></L></Q>
<P>LONDON, Printed by <HI>T. B.</HI> and are to be &s;old by <HI>S. B.</HI> in <HI>Corn-hill,</HI> 1643.</P>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="to the reader">
<PB REF="2">
<PB REF="2">
<HEAD>TO THE CHVRCH OF CHRIST IN <HI>ENGLAND.</HI></HEAD>
<OPENER><SALUTE>Faithfull and beloved,</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P><HI>_I</HI> The unworthye&s;t of ten thou&s;and of you have pre&s;umed to &s;peak while you all were &s;ilent of this Subject, and have made bold with your honourable and &s;pirituall conditions to make a brief de&s;cription of you, the Lords people, who are all of you the Chil|dren of wi&s;dom, and &s;o taught of God, that your own God termes you the wi&s;e that &s;hall under&s;tand, the keepers of his truth, his remembrancers, the people in who&s;e heart is his Law, to whom it is given to know the my&s;teryes of the Kingdom of God. I intreate you all fellow &s;ufferers, truly noble and honourable Chri&s;tians, that how much the
<PB REF="3">
neerer our &s;alvation approacheth, &s;o much the more let our joynt prayers and prai&s;es be to our God, the lambe that &s;itteth upon the Throne, let us not cea&s;e, nor give him no re&s;t till he e&s;tabli&s;h, and till he make <HI>Ieru&s;alem</HI> a prai&s;e in the earth; and if I have failed in negotiating your great af|faires, let our garment of love cover it: and your wi&s;e and grave reproof, or admonitions &s;hall be as balme to cure my weakne&s;&s;e; &s;o the God of truth, multiply the comforts of it in us all, in the clear de|mon&s;tration of the &s;pirit with power, that as we are the Children of <HI>Abraham</HI> by Faith, &s;o we may do the works of our Father <HI>Abraham,</HI> for which your Brother <HI>J. G.</HI> &s;hall ever pray with you, and for you to the Father of our Lord Je&s;us Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever,</P>
<CLOSER>Amen.</CLOSER>
</DIV1>
</FRONT>
<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="dialogue">
<PB N="1" REF="3">
<HEAD>A True Reformation, and perfect Re&s;titu|tion argued by <HI>Silvanus</HI> and <HI>Hymeneus.</HI></HEAD>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silvanus.</SPEAKER>
<P>_OLD Friend <HI>Hymeneus,</HI> how hath it been with you a long time, I heare &s;even years a go you were in new <HI>England?</HI></P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hymeneus: </SPEAKER>
<P>I thank you Sir, that you would acknowledge your long un&s;een, although longer known Friend, for I think it is neere twice &s;even years &s;ince I la&s;t &s;pake with you.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>What news in new <HI>England?</HI> I heare you are there at a hard-&s;hip, both for &s;oul and body, provi&s;ion for back and belly, foode and clothes very &s;carce, and Religion which &s;hould be as both to the &s;oul, is &s;o lo&s;t, that, that which &s;eemed unitie in the truth, is turned to di&s;&s;en|tion, the ground of error and fal&s;hood, which cu&s;tome the Church of Chri&s;t hath not, which is the Church of God.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>Friend, you may heare more than is true, yet I &s;ay, the &s;uperfluitie of this world is not alwayes expedient, and for Religion it is requi&s;ite that there &s;hould be difference amongst us that the approved may be manife&s;t.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>I &s;ee you have not forgotten your former Cu&s;tome frequently to alleadge Scripture-phra&s;e, but I perceive al&s;o you have not learned the A|po&s;tles rule perfectly, which &s;aith, <HI>if any man &s;peak, let him &s;peak as the O|racles of God,</HI> that is, the true meaning of it, for all that were in the Church of <HI>Corinth,</HI> were not of the Church.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>I hope I have done the &s;ame in what I have &s;aid.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>I &s;pake before of the truth and of the children thereof, which ad|mit of no di&s;&s;ention, and you &s;peak of the Church of <HI>Corinth,</HI> in which were &s;ome, which were Sectaries, and not the children of the truth, and though they were among&s;t them, yet they were not of them, but were fal&s;e Apo&s;tles and wicked inordinate per&s;ons.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<PB N="2" REF="4">
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>I pray, expre&s;&s;e your meaning to me more fully.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>My meaning is that Chri&s;tians &s;hould &s;till intend by their &s;peak|ing the &s;ame meaning which the holy Gho&s;t doth, in the termes he u&s;eth, for one and the &s;ame terme, &s;ometimes is to be under&s;tood in a &s;peciall &s;ence, &s;ometimes in a generall, as by Iew, &s;ometimes the &s;ame word in|tends the inward Iew, &s;ometimes the outward, &s;o of Religion and of the Church, vaine Religion a&s;well as pure Religion, the Synagogue of <HI>Sathan</HI> a&s;well as the true Church of God.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>The&s;e di&s;tinctions under one, and the &s;ame name are very profitable without doubt in the reading the Scriptures.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>I pray you Friend, tell me what matter, and what manner you have for the con&s;titution of your Churches in new <HI>England.</HI></P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>The matter are a company of believers; the manner or forme is this, we from amongst our &s;elves choo&s;e a pa&s;tor; the pa&s;tor and we being entred into a mutuall Covenant, the one to be faithfull in teaching and feeding, the other in hearing and obeying according to Chri&s;ts ordinance; by this reciprocall bond, we become one Congregation or body, as the head and members are one, and &s;o the pa&s;tor and people together choo&s;e other Church Officers, as Elders and Deacons.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>I under&s;tand you thus, that this is your fir&s;t way you take to give your Church the being or name of a Church, but what way do you take to encrea&s;e this Church, or ad unto it, for the Scripture &s;aith, there were day|ly added to the Church &s;uch as &s;hould be &s;aved.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>Our cu&s;tome is that we admit none to be Members of our Church, but &s;uch as cannot give an Accompt of their conver&s;ion, and that they do re|nounce all other congregations as Members to them; and doth make them&s;elves by covenant that is by a &s;olemne vow, calling God to witne&s;&s;e that they joyne them&s;elves to us to be our Members only, and &s;o to no other Church but to walk with us according to Chri&s;ts Ordinance; and though &s;ome of other congregations may come in Communion in the Ordinance of the word yet we account them no Members.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>And this is all you believe that the Scripture expre&s;&s;es, tending to the making and being of a true Church.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>I profe&s;&s;e unto you, I know no other.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>You now grow old, and therefore it &s;hould not be with you as it is with &s;uch as are Novicees in Religion, wherefore take heed of faire &s;peeches and holy pretences, for there is nothing &s;o common in the world as that which is like the truth, &amp; yet not the truth the name of the Church and pure &s;pou&s;e, and yet upon examination doth prove Strumpets and har|lots; for Chri&s;ts Church his Sanctuarie, his true Tabernacle, is that, which he her Lord pitcheth or buildeth &amp; not man: &amp; therfore that we may trie the truth of your Church, pray &s;hew me how you prove it by Scripture;
<PB N="3" REF="4">
and fir&s;t where it is proved, that the people of every particular Church are to call and choo&s;e their Pa&s;tor.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>In the &s;ixth chapter of the Acts; it is thus written, wherefore Brethren look ye out from among your &s;elves, &s;even men of hone&s;t report, full of the holy Gho&s;t and wi&s;dom, whom we may appoint over this bu&s;ine&s;&s;e; where it appeares to us, the Apo&s;tles gave the believers for ever power to choo&s;e their own Mi|ni&s;ters.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>There is not one word in the Text that proves your conclu&s;ion; that the people of every particular Church are to call their Pa&s;tor, but this it proves, that the Apo&s;tles times were wholly taken up in prayer and preaching, in regard the Di&s;ciples were &s;o exceedingly multiplied, that they could not have time touching the matter of receiving and di&s;tribu|tion towards the nece&s;&s;ity of the Saints, by rea&s;on of which there aro&s;e murmurings of the Graecians again&s;t the Hebrews, becau&s;e their widows were neglected in the dayly Admini&s;tration. So that there was a nece&s;&s;ity that Deacons &s;hould be appointed for that bu&s;ine&s;&s;e, who were comended by the people and confirmed by the Apo&s;tles; and this is the whole &s;cope of that Scripture.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>But what &s;ay you to that, <HI>Act. 1. 23.</HI> they appointed two, that is, the people pre&s;ented them to the Apo&s;tles.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>This place &s;hews that the Apo&s;tles and Di&s;ciples being together in one place to the number of 120 per&s;ons; Saint <HI>Peter</HI> took occa&s;ion to &s;peak to the Congregation of the prophecys of <HI>Judas</HI> trea&s;on, and of the Iudgment that did befall him, and al&s;o how the Prophet foretold that an|other &s;hould be cho&s;en in his place to his office of an Apo&s;tle; wherefore &s;aith he, of the&s;e men that have accompanied with us all the time that the Lord Ie&s;us went in and out among&s;t us, mu&s;t one be ordained to be wit|ne&s;&s;e with us of his Re&s;urrection; and they appointed two, that is the A|po&s;tles with the re&s;t thought none &s;o fit as <HI>Bar&s;abas</HI> and <HI>Matthias,</HI> but which of the&s;e two they could not determine of, &s;o they ca&s;t lots and it fell on <HI>Matthias,</HI> and he, by the whole Church, was reckoned among&s;t the twelve, this is all that place intends, and not the lea&s;t part of your inten|tion proved by it.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>Now I will &s;et you a place of Scripture that &s;hall not only prove the cu&s;tome and manner of our Church, but the matter al&s;o as before I have related to you, and that is the de&s;cription of the Church of <HI>Antioch,</HI> which will prove all that I have &s;aid to you. <HI>Act. 14. 22. 23.</HI></P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>Where&s;oever <HI>Paul</HI> and <HI>Barnabas</HI> came they confirmed the &s;ouls of the Di&s;ciples, and exhorting them to continue in the Faith, and that we mu&s;t through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God, he doth not here by this confirmation and exhortation enter into a reciprocall co|venant
<PB N="4" REF="5">
with the believers as you &s;pake of to &s;tand in a pa&s;torall covenant with them as the head and Members, for what one Apo&s;tle did, they did both, and the words are in the plurall number, they, and indeed they taught them &s;o effectually that they &s;trengthned them and built them up to a further increa&s;e and degree in the truth.</P>
<P>And as it follows they ordained them Elders in every Church, that is, the&s;e Apo&s;tles did ordaine, not the Di&s;ciples, &s;o that this Text is cleare a|gain&s;t your di&s;tinction both for the matter and forme you &s;pake of, for as the&s;e Chri&s;tians had received the truth before <HI>Barnabas</HI> came to them at the fir&s;t, &s;o they did abide in the comfortable profe&s;&s;ion of it till <HI>Barnabas</HI> brought <HI>Paul</HI> with him, and then they two ordained them Elders in e|very Church, that is preachers, and not the people as you affirme.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>Good Friend <HI>Silvanus</HI> I have another Scripture which I pray con&s;ider you of, and then I hope you will be of my mind, that is <HI>Act. 11. 19 20. 21. 22. 23.</HI> you &s;hall &s;ee there that in the 19. 20. and 21. ver&s;es, there is mention made of be|lievers and that the Gentiles had received the Faith: then in the 22. and 23. ver&s;. <HI>Barnabas</HI> from among&s;t the&s;e believers gathers a Church after he had de&s;cen|ded from <HI>Hieru&s;alem</HI> to <HI>Antioch</HI> by the Apo&s;tles Commi&s;&s;ion, and to me the words prove both the matter and forme of our Church who when he came &amp; had &s;een the grace of God was glad and exhorted them all that with purpo&s;e of heart they would cleave unto the Lord; to me it is plaine that with purpo&s;e of heart to cleave unto the Lord, is the covenant the people enter into with their Pa&s;tor, and Barnabas his rejoycing to &s;ee their grace from God and his rejoycing in it, his continuing to exhort them, and to this Church much people was added as in the 24. ver&s;e.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>I have often ob&s;erved old friend, that there is none &s;o ea&s;ily deceived as tho&s;e that would willingly be deceived, for if you would not willingly be ignorant the reading of the text would better informe you, for there is not one word in all tho&s;e ver&s;es you have read, proves what you &s;ay, the truth is this that the per&s;ecution that aro&s;e about <HI>Stephen</HI> was the occa&s;ion that many di&s;ciples were &s;cattered and di&s;per&s;t among&s;t the Gentiles, and by the witne&s;&s;e they bare to Chri&s;t, many believed, as many Greeks at <HI>An|tioch;</HI> tydings whereof came to the Church at <HI>Hieru&s;alem,</HI> who &s;ent <HI>Bar|nabas</HI> thither, and when he came to them found the report &s;o true that it rejoyced his heart, and his doctrine was of that power and authoritie that he furthered the grace begun, and begun it where it it was not, for he was a good man and full of the holy Gho&s;t and of Faith, that his exhortations wrought &s;o through their hearts that it prevailed with the thought and purpo&s;es thereof to cleave to the Lord &s;o full is the phra&s;e, as if he had gained the whole heart to the Lord, and be&s;ides he added much people un|to the Lord &s;aith the text, and then departed to <HI>Tar&s;us</HI> to &s;eek <HI>Saul,</HI> &s;o there
<PB N="5" REF="5">
is not the lea&s;t &s;hew for your opinion, for when he had found him he brought him to <HI>Antioch,</HI> and doubtle&s;&s;e for the love of them that walked in the truth, it came to pa&s;&s;e that a whole yeare they a&s;&s;embled them&s;elves with the Church and taught much people, but not all this while made any &s;uch covenant nor member&s;hip as you &s;uppo&s;e, (that is to &s;ay) to become Members to that Church only, and no other. Therefore now <HI>Hymeneus,</HI> I mu&s;t tell you plaine, by that you as yet know not the true Church, and be|ing ignorant of that, I feare you know not what belongs to a true Chri|&s;tian. And for that which you fancy to be the Church upon Scripture ground, there is not one Scripture rightly under&s;tood by you. And if your foundation faile you, your whole building cannot &s;tand.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>My good friend <HI>Silvanus,</HI> I pray let me heare your de&s;cription of the true Church.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>By the name of the Church of Chri&s;t in Scripture we are to under|&s;tand, Gods faithfull peculiar, cho&s;en and regenerate people, &s;uch and &s;uch only as are born of the holy Gho&s;t; and that I may the better de&s;cribe and manife&s;t the true Church, the whole body, building or hou&s;e, I will fir&s;t declare the making parts and true nature of every particular living &s;tone and member, of which, and which only the whole frame or fabrick con&s;i|&s;teth. Now to the making of any part thereof and &s;o of every part, 3 things are con&s;iderable and required; that is to &s;ay, the &s;pirit, water and bloud, whereof the fir&s;t is the worker, the two la&s;t the work, or matter or make|ing parts of every living &s;tone of the Church it &s;elf. Of the&s;e three termes the fir&s;t is literall, by which we are to under&s;tand the finger of God, the &s;pirit which proceeds from the Father and the Sonne: the other two are Metaphoricall, by which other things are meant, namely repentance and remi&s;&s;ion of &s;ins, as it is written, <HI>Except a man be borne againe from above of water and the holy Gho&s;t he cannot &s;ee the Kingdom of God.</HI></P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>I pray Sir expre&s;&s;e your &s;elf unto me concerning the two Metaphori|call termes.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>That I &s;hall willingly do, and give you their definition in their due place. For the fir&s;t, which is repentance, the Lord in the working thereof, unhardens the heart that naturally by &s;in is obdurate, hard, flat and quite contrary and di&s;obedient to God and his will, which graciou&s;ly God of his meete and alone goodne&s;&s;e by a kind of heavenly power, &s;of|tens and makes it plyable and inclinable to God and his will. And the word of God compares this humble broken brui&s;ed contrite heart to plowed ground, to &s;oft and tender fle&s;h, and to water, and &s;uch like, &s;etting forth by all the&s;e compari&s;ons the true nature and condition thereof.</P>
<P>That as fle&s;h differs from a &s;tone; barren, fallow, weedy ground from
<PB N="6" REF="6">
that which is broken up and plough'd; and as the plyablene&s;&s;e and &s;oftne&s;&s;e of water differs from the hardne&s;&s;e of a Dyamond, &s;o a broader and greater difference is there between this penitent heart and that it was before, for that which was plea&s;ant &amp; delightfull is now become nothing but grief &amp; &s;orrow of heart, that which before was chiefly fought after is now mo&s;t ab|horred. As formerly its joy and gladne&s;&s;e was in &s;uch &s;infull ways as car|ried him from God, now he unce&s;&s;antly &s;eeketh, prayeth, de&s;ireth and longeth after every way and meanes whereby he may be brought to God, to be refre&s;hed with his favour, which by his &s;ins and tran&s;gre&s;&s;ions he hath lo&s;t; and never did any hunted and cha&s;ed ha<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">t pant more after the water brooks, than this &s;oul doth thir&s;t and de&s;ire the favour and grace of God in Chri&s;t.</P>
<P>No undone man, no wounded man, no di&s;ea&s;ed man, no deadly &s;ick man, no man in bondage and thraldome &s;o mi&s;erable and wretched in a naturall &s;ence as this penitent man in his own apprehen&s;ion in a &s;pirituall and godly &s;ence.</P>
<P>Therefore it is &s;aid of <HI>Iohn</HI> the <HI>Bapti&s;t</HI> the great and powerfull preacher and worker of repentance, that he &s;hould prepare the way of the Lord, that is, make a people ready for the Lord to heale and cure, and in working the preparation, he brui&s;ed the reed, he cau&s;ed the flax to &s;moak, he turned the hearts of the Fathers to the children, the di&s;obedient to the wi&s;dom of the ju&s;t, he humbled and brought low the high and lofty, the rough, ridged, and untoward he made gentle and &s;mooth, the crooked and perver&s;e hearted, he bent, bow'd, and made &s;traight, he made the rich poor, the well &s;ick, the whole broken, in a word, all the&s;e terms do but &s;et out and declare his great and heavenly work of repentance which he wrought in the hearts of men.</P>
<P>According as it was prophecyed of him, that he &s;hould go in the power and &s;pirit of <HI>Elias</HI> and as the Angell &s;aid to <HI>Zacharias</HI> his Father, <HI>And ma|ny of the children of I&s;rael &s;hall he turne to the Lord his God.</HI></P>
<P>Yea, the whole life of this holy Prophet and every houre therof prea|ched repentance, for he cho&s;e the de&s;art place in the wilderne&s;&s;e to dwell in before the &s;tately City <HI>Ieru&s;alem:</HI> And hunger and thir&s;t before dainty fare, wine or &s;trong drink, and &s;ack-cloth rather then &s;oft rayment, his Garment was hair-cloth and his Girdle a leather skin. Neither boyld nor ro&s;t was his food but what he found unbought or uncared for; his meate was locu&s;t and wild hony. His life and Doctrine being thus one and the &s;ame, and both &s;o wonderfully powerfull and effectuall, that all <HI>Ieru&s;alem, Iudea,</HI> and the Region about <HI>Iordan</HI> went out to &s;ee and heare him, the like Prophet being never heard nor &s;een before.</P>
<P>And he preached unto them repentance for the remi&s;&s;ion of &s;ins, for &s;o
<PB N="7" REF="6">
powerfull was his mini&s;tery in working repentance in their hearts, that the holy Gho&s;t &s;aith of them, they were bapti&s;ed of him in <HI>Iordan</HI> confe&s;|&s;ing their &s;ins. An apt and plaine figure or re&s;emblance is the bapti&s;me of water, of that of repentance, for repentance it is the preparation of the way of the Lord, the &s;igne or badge of it is the bapti&s;me with water, and &s;o Saint <HI>Marke</HI> doth plainly preach, <HI>Iohn</HI> did baptize in the wilderne&s;&s;e, there's the &s;ignification; and preached the bapti&s;me of repentance for the remi&s;&s;ion of &s;ins, there's the &s;ub&s;tance, which heavenly gift repentance he calls the beginning of the Go&s;pell of Ie&s;us Chri&s;t, by which he proves cleerly, that the beginning of our new birth or regeneration, is the begin|ning of the new covenant of life and &s;alvation; herein agreeing with all the Prophets, who &s;peaking of the new covenant, &s;till begin with the unhard|ning the heart, taking away the &s;tony heart and giving an heart of fle&s;h.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>You have been large in the de&s;cription of repentance, and I de&s;ire to heare your definition of it, as you promi&s;ed.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>The &s;upernaturall grace and fir&s;t part of unregeneration may be thus defined, that it is the work &amp; gift of God by which the heart is turned from all the plea&s;ures and delights in &s;in, into great grief and un&s;peakeable &s;orrow for them, with humble confe&s;&s;ion and acknowledgment of all its &s;ins, expre&s;&s;ive an un&s;atisfied de&s;ire of pardon and forgivene&s;&s;e, and to be received into the love and favour of God through Ie&s;us Chri&s;t.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>You cald to me to prove the de&s;cription I made of the Church, I pray therefore proove this to me.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>It is well de&s;ired, this definition of repentance and every part of it is fully &s;et forth in the prodigall Sonne, who once was &s;o full of affe|ction to &s;infull plea&s;ures that he rejoyced in it, but God working repen|tance in him now is become forlorne and mi&s;erable in his own apprehen|&s;ion, and &s;eeing his ra&s;h rebellion and unadvi&s;ed &s;infulne&s;&s;e again&s;t God his mo&s;t bountifull and loving Father, Creator, and pre&s;erver, in utter di&s;|like of him&s;elf and all his doings &s;orrowfully re&s;olves; And in the &s;econd place returnes to his Father, by which is &s;et forth the di&s;plea&s;ure and di&s;|like he now takes again&s;t all his &s;ins which have been the cau&s;e of all his mi&s;ery and Gods di&s;honour, being con&s;cious thereof di&s;likes, for&s;akes, leaves them and goes from them, plainly and clearly declaring his return|ing unto God in his heart, Manife&s;ted in the third place by his penitent confe&s;&s;ion with ardency of affection in the&s;e words, <HI>I will &s;ay unto my Fa|ther. I have &s;inned again&s;t heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy Sonne,</HI> Every word declaring the true and reall &s;en&s;iblene&s;&s;e of his own guiltyne&s;&s;e, confe&s;&s;ing with dete&s;tation in the &s;trength of his re|que&s;t, like the penitent Publicain &s;miting his wofull brea&s;t with his guilty hand in a ruefull manner, as a man lo&s;t and undone; in the fourth and la&s;t
<PB N="8" REF="7">
place, &s;ee his un&s;atisfied de&s;ire of pardon and forgivene&s;&s;e, of mercy, peace and reconciliation, <HI>Make me as one of thy hired &s;ervants,</HI> which words for the matter and manner found of nothing but violence, and admit of no an&s;wer, no &s;atisfaction in the world but of grace and favour, to be admit|ted and received, though into the lea&s;t, the lowe&s;t office of all, even into the office of a &s;ervant.</P>
<P>Thus all the Prophets and Apo&s;tles, as doth their Lord al&s;o, de&s;cribe re|pentance, and the penitent, by the poor, the broken hearted, the lo&s;t, the &s;inners, the unrighteous, becau&s;e the&s;e only are &s;o truly in their own eyes and in the gift or work of God called repentance, or the preparation of God, happy man is he that heareth and obeyeth, for God hath &s;worn he &s;hall not peri&s;h.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym</SPEAKER>
<P>I mu&s;t now confe&s;&s;e you have both de&s;cribed and defined repentance; but yet me thinks you a&s;cribe too much to it, to &s;ay who&s;oever repents &s;hall not peri&s;h.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>I tell you the truth as it is written, <HI>Ezechiel</HI> 18. 28. becau&s;e he that con&s;idereth and <HI>returneth away from all his tran&s;gre&s;&s;ions he &s;hall &s;urely live, he &s;hall not dye:</HI> And &s;o &s;aith our Lord, <HI>Except you repent you &s;hall all likewi&s;e peri&s;h.</HI></P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>I pray let me heare you declare the other Metaphoricall terme which &s;etteth forth the &s;econd part of regeneration as you &s;aid.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>The &s;econd part of our new birth before called remi&s;&s;ion of &s;ins hath divers termes and expre&s;&s;ions in Scripture; &s;ometimes it is &s;aid to be the Bapti&s;me of fire, the Bapti&s;me of the holy Gho&s;t, the blood of Chri&s;t &s;hed abroad in our hearts, &s;ometimes called the ble&s;&s;ing, the life, the voice or promi&s;e of God, the mini&s;tery of the Lord, of <HI>Iohn</HI> the <HI>Bapti&s;t</HI> who&s;e &s;hooe latchet the &s;ervant &s;aid, he was not worthy to untie; this Lord of the prepared way in working this <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="missing" EXTENT="1 letter">econd and more &s;peciall work of the holy Gho&s;t preached; that is, giveth remi&s;&s;ion of &s;ins to the penitent, &s;anctifieth tho&s;e which <HI>John</HI> had prepared, bound up that which he had broken, healed that which he had brui&s;ed, perfecting the &s;moak into a light flame, fulfilling what was written of him, being anointed for that purpo&s;e, name|ly to preach glad tydings unto the poor, to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaime liberty to the Captives and to inlarge &s;uch as were bounden, to proclaime the acceptable yeare of the Lord, and to comfort all that mourne, to appoint unto them that mourne in <HI>Syon,</HI> to give unto them beauty for a&s;hes, oyle of joy for &s;orrowing, the garment of prai&s;e for the &s;pirit of heavyne&s;&s;e, that they may be called Trees of righteou&s;ne&s;&s;e, the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified; and this was the work of the Lord of the whole world, who as he was greater than this &s;ervant his foregoer, &s;o his mini&s;tration exceeded, and good rea&s;on, for it was of a
<PB N="9" REF="7">
more higher and more excellent nature, Even as healing exceeds break|ing, liberty, captivity, the &s;pirit of Gladne&s;&s;e that of heavine&s;&s;e, a rich and plenteous e&s;tate, that which is low and mi&s;erable, in the working and ef|fecting hereof the holy Gho&s;t applies the blood of Chri&s;t, to that fore broken and brui&s;ed &s;pirit, which is the only healing plai&s;ter unto &s;alvation and ble&s;&s;ed life; for this is the word &s;o much &s;poken of in the Scripture which cures and heales the wounded &s;pirit, that neither herb nor plai&s;ter can po&s;&s;ibly do, the word &s;peaking peace by Ie&s;us Chri&s;t, which began after the bapti&s;me which <HI>Iohn</HI> preached; thereby ingraving or writing in that Table of fle&s;h the everla&s;ting love and favour of God, never againe to be razed or blotted out, &s;o purging, purifying and &s;anctifying the prepa|red heart by the &s;princkling of the bloud of Chri&s;t the heavenly fire of l<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">ve, &s;o refining it, that it exceeds the pure&s;t tried&s;t gold beyond all com|pari&s;on. And this effect of the holy Gho&s;t, the Scripture al&s;o calleth the &s;pirit of his Sonne, the &s;pirit of adoption by which we call <HI>Abba Father.</HI> And this is that new covenant which God made with <HI>Adam</HI> and <HI>Abra|ham</HI> and all his &s;pirituall &s;eed: that life that <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> had and taught to others, that everla&s;ting Law and &s;tatute of grace and favor for ever, as it is written, <HI>whom he loveth once he loveth to the end,</HI> that is everla&s;tingly; for his &s;ure mercies and love are written, even written in the prepared heart, that God will be their God and they his people, for ever more &s;till te&s;tify|ing that this was he that was once dead but now liveth, was lo&s;t but now is found, from which work and te&s;timony of the holy Gho&s;t in the heart, ari&s;eth &s;uch an a&s;&s;urance to the man &s;o &s;anctified, that he is &s;o &s;ure, his &s;ins are forgien him, and that Gods favour and love is given to him, as he is &s;u<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">e his Lord who wholly bought and freely gave his mercy to him was once dead, than rai&s;ed, and now liveth for ever, never to die againe; this is the love of God &s;hed abroad in his heart, the Garment dipt in the bloud of the lambe, the an&s;were of a good con&s;cience to his good and gracious God, that as was his Father <HI>Abraham,</HI> &s;o is be fully per&s;waded, and in truth of Faith, with Saint <HI>Paul</HI> can &s;ay, <HI>I am per&s;waded that neither death nor life, principalities, nor powers, things pre&s;ent, nor things to come, nor height nor depth, <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">or any other creature what&s;oever &s;hall be able to &s;eparate me from the love of God which is in Chri&s;t Ie&s;us my Lord;</HI> And this is the birth and Bapti&s;me of fire, the ble&s;&s;ing and accompli&s;hment of the birth, the life and generation of Gods children, as that holy King &s;ingeth &s;aying, <HI>Ble&s;&s;ed is the man who&s;e &s;ins are covered, and who&s;e God is the Lord Iehovah.</HI></P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>Surely this mu&s;t be the de&s;cription of true ju&s;tifying Faith, yet I pray make a definition of it.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>This is the peculiar Faith, the Faith of <HI>Abraham,</HI> that which ju&s;ti|fieth a &s;inner, and by which the ju&s;tified liveth, as the Prophet &s;peaketh,
<PB N="10" REF="8">
and may be thus defined, that it is a gift of Gods &s;pirit, whereby a con|crite tender broken heart is given a&s;&s;uredly to believe that all his &s;ins are forgiven him, and that he is reconciled to God in everla&s;ting love and fa|vour, through the precious bloud of Ie&s;us Chri&s;t that hath bought and purcha&s;ed it for him, Which Faith is cleerly declared and fully proved in every part in the prodigalls acceptance when he was received from death to life; the compa&s;&s;ion of his Father was the only ground of the penitents forgivene&s;&s;e, and he a&s;&s;ured him of his love and favour by falling on his neck and ki&s;&s;ing him, &s;uch ki&s;&s;es of love as there is none to be compared to them as appears by the multiplyed following favors, by clothing him with his own be&s;t robe, by putting a ring on his hand, and &s;hoes on h<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">s feet; ye<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">, what is this all? but to be clothed with the compleat and perfect righte|ou&s;ne&s;&s;e of Ie&s;us Chri&s;t, and what more certain a&s;&s;urance then to eate Chri&s;ts fle&s;h and to drink his bloud, this was the fatted calfe, the lambe without &s;pot, who is the only food to eternall life, and on whom who&s;o|ever eateth and believeth, cannot but rejoyce with joy un&s;peakable and full of glory.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>But is all ju&s;tifying Faith an a&s;&s;urance?</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>Yes, it is a full a&s;&s;urance for as much as it is witne&s;&s;ed to our &s;pi|rits by Gods &s;pirit; and an a&s;&s;urance cannot be &s;o true from any witne&s;&s;e as from the &s;pirit of God that beares witne&s;&s;e with our &s;pirits (&s;aith the A|po&s;tle) that <HI>we are the Sonnes of God</HI> and &s;o to the <HI>Hebrews</HI> he exhorteth in the&s;e words: <HI>Let us draw neere with a true heart in full a&s;&s;urance of Faith, having our hearts &s;princkled from an evill con&s;cience and our bodies wa&s;hed with pure water:</HI> That which makes the heart true or good is the breaking it by repentance, and the purifying it by Faith; which Faith ari&s;eth from the bloud of Chri&s;t &s;hed abroad in the heart expre&s;&s;ed by &s;prinkling, and the &s;ame Apo&s;tle beareth witne&s;&s;e, that <HI>Abraham</HI> believing the promi&s;e, was fully per&s;waded, <HI>Ro.</HI> 4.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>But what &s;ay you of the Church of Chri&s;t which was our fir&s;t di&s;|cour&s;e?</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>The regenerated man before declared is the matter of the true Church. Of the&s;e precious living &s;tones is built Gods &s;pirituall hou&s;e, and of this heavenly nature is the whole building, being all begotten from a|bove of water and the holy Gho&s;t. As Saint <HI>Peter</HI> &s;peaketh of the&s;e new born babes, and calls them <HI>Stones,</HI> and &s;o he calls their Lord al&s;o to whom comming as to a living &s;tone; di&s;allowed indeed of men but cho&s;en of God and precious, u&s;e al&s;o (&s;aith he) as lively <HI>Stones,</HI> are built up a &s;pirituall hou&s;e, <HI>a holy Prie&s;t-hood,</HI> to offer &s;pirituall &s;acrifices, <HI>acceptable to God by Ie&s;us Christ&punc;</HI> And this is the &s;ame Apo&s;tle which our Lord &s;poke to, when he &s;aid, <HI>thou art Peter or a Stone, and upon this Rock will I build my</HI>
<PB N="11" REF="8">
<HI>Church, and the Gates of Hell &s;hall not prevaile again&s;t it.</HI> In which Scripture our Lord acknowledgeth him&s;elf confe&s;&s;ed by <HI>Peter</HI> to be but the chief foundation and corner-&s;tone, and the whole building to con&s;i&s;t of &s;uch &s;pirituall living &s;tones as Saint <HI>Peter</HI> was.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>I pray expre&s;&s;e in manner how they do become a Church?</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>The power of God as I have &s;hewed before, doth (by repen|tance) cut the&s;e &s;tones out of the Quarry of this world, that is out of the e|&s;tate of nature, and thereby cuts, &s;quares and fits them for this building; and the power of God (by ju&s;tification and acceptation) layes on the&s;e &s;tones on the lively building, the &s;pirit of God which proceeds from the Father and the Sonne Cements and &s;oders all together, by ingrafting or joynting them with the bloud of Chri&s;t, the love of God poured out on them all, and this is the holy Catholique Church, the Communion of Saints, as the Creed confe&s;&s;eth: Agreeing with that of Saint <HI>Paul</HI> to the Corinthians, <HI>The grace of our Lord Je&s;us Chri&s;t and the love of God, and the Communion of the holy Gho&s;t be with you:</HI> as al&s;o to the Colo&s;&s;ians, <HI>The head from which all the body by joynts and bands having nouri&s;hment mini&s;tred &amp; knit together increa&s;eth with the increa&s;e of God,</HI> this is Chri&s;ts body, his &s;pou&s;e, the lambs wife who though they be many Graines, yet make but one loafe.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>What authoritie and priviledge hath this Church?</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>Great authority and many priviledges in this pre&s;ent &s;uffering e&s;tate of hers: for of the&s;e our Lord &s;aith, <HI>if two of you &s;hall agree in earth</HI> (as touching any thing they &s;hall aske) <HI>it &s;hall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven;</HI> And al&s;o <HI>where two or three are gathered together</HI> (&s;aith our Lord) <HI>in my name, there am I in the midde&s;t of them;</HI> where (by name) he meanes his &s;pirit, &s;o that none can be &s;o congregated but &s;uch as are led by the &s;pirit of God, the&s;e have the priviledge to be called the Sonnes of God, even &s;uch as believe in his name, which were borne not of bloud nor of the will of the fle&s;h, nor of the will of man, but of God, the&s;e onely are the hou&s;e of the living God, the ground and pillar of truth; the&s;e are as it were Gods privy Coun&s;ell on earth, the Scripture &s;tiles them the keepers of his truth, and his dwelling place as &s;ay the Prophets. Though the heaven of heavens cannot containe me, yet will I dwell with him that is of a contrite &s;pirit; &amp; God dwelling with them teacheth them, and declareth his will, his mind and purpo&s;es to them, as he did to <HI>Noah, Abraham,</HI> and <HI>Mo&s;es:</HI> to the&s;e doth the Lord (that hath the key of <HI>Da|vid</HI> that openeth and no man &s;hutteth, and &s;hutteth and no man openeth) give the power and authority of the keys of the Kingdom of heaven, yea I &s;ay againe that great power and authoritie, to bind and to loo&s;e, to re|mit and to reteine &s;ins, by a decree intailed on them till time &s;hall be no more in the&s;e words, who&s;e &s;ins you <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 span"> <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 span"> <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 span"> who&s;e &s;ins
<PB N="12" REF="9">
you do reteine they are reteined, this is the commi&s;&s;ion of the Lord of Lords, and King of Kings, who by his own words hath bound him&s;elf thus to be with them to the end of the world.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>I pray tell me how may a man know this Church?</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>None can truly know this Church but they that are of her, for as they are &s;pirituall them&s;elves, &s;o they are &s;piritually di&s;cerned as the A|po&s;tle &s;aith, the &s;pirituall men di&s;cerne all things, even the deep things of God; Yet I will briefly declare &s;ome of her excellencies and &s;ome of her mi&s;eries by which &s;he is manife&s;ted, for may a candle burne and not bewray her light? may the Sunne &s;hine and not &s;hew his beauty? can a Ci|ty built upon a hill hide her face from the pa&s;&s;er by? or may a &s;acrifice &s;alted convey his &s;ea&s;oning from the mouth of the ta&s;ter, and if the&s;e crea|tures could forget their natures, yet cannot the true Saints in who&s;e heart the eternall covenant of love is once ingraven, forget to burne with like affection, fir&s;t towards God, that fir&s;t hath loved them with love of God, as the &s;ap puts forth this fruit, as the Apo&s;tle &s;aith: <HI>We love him becau&s;e he hath loved us fir&s;t.</HI> And none can love the Lord with all his heart, with all his &s;trength and with all his &s;oule, as <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> &s;peak|eth, but &s;uch only who&s;e booken heart the love of God hath comforted, refre&s;hed and healed.</P>
<P>So al&s;o loveth hee his neighbour as him&s;elfe, hee &s;orroweth, rejoy|ceth, lamenteth and is comforted, wanteth and aboundeth with him; as the Apo&s;tle &s;aith, <HI>Who is weak, and I am not weak, who is offended and I burne not?</HI> remember them that are in bounds as bound with them, and them that &s;uffer adver&s;ity as being our &s;elves al&s;o in the body; So &s;aith Saint <HI>Iames,</HI> the wi&s;dom that is from above that is the children of wi&s;|dom, of whom <HI>Ieru&s;alem</HI> from above is Mother to all, is fir&s;t pure, then peaceable, gentle and ea&s;y to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits; and Saint <HI>Paul</HI> &s;aith, their fruit is love, joy, peace, long &s;uffering, gentle|ne&s;&s;e, goodne&s;&s;e, faith, <HI>&amp;c.</HI> They are filled with peace and joy in believe|ing and it is given unto them not only to believe but to &s;uffer for his &s;ake, that is for the &s;ake of their beloved Lord and Redeemer. I might be large in all the&s;e excellencies, but I know you can inlarge them in your minde Friend <HI>Hymeneus.</HI></P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>How can this excellent Church be mi&s;erable?</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>The Apo&s;tle an&s;wereth in the&s;e words: <HI>If in this life only we had hope, we were of all men the most mi&s;erable,</HI> &s;o that the mi&s;ery hath only re&s;pect to this life.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>How can that be?</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P><HI>Paul</HI> and <HI>Barnabas</HI> makes it clear, &s;aying, we mu&s;t through much tribulation <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 span"> the Kingdom of God&punc; this &s;uffering and tri|bulation
<PB N="13" REF="9">
was it that was the cau&s;e why our Lord in the&s;e words comforts his Church, <HI>Feare not little flock it is your Fathers plea&s;ure to give you the Kingdom;</HI> for none &s;hall raigne with Chri&s;t in the world to come, but he that &s;uffers with him in this life.</P>
<P>Now as it was in <HI>Abraham's</HI> Family between <HI>I&s;hmael</HI> and <HI>I&s;aack,</HI> &s;o is it now between the outward and fal&s;e Chri&s;tian, and the inward and true, for then as he that was borne after the fle&s;h, per&s;ecuted him that was borne by promi&s;e, &s;o is it now, &s;aith the Apo&s;tle, the Chri&s;tians in name onely which are overca&s;t with a profe&s;&s;ion of Religion, cleane in skin and not in heart, like the Phari&s;ees, lay claime to be the true Church, and call her that is &s;o indeed barren, for&s;aken and de&s;olate, and ca&s;t her out with termes, let God be glorified and &s;uch like, when notwith&s;tanding with hatred they beate her; &s;o the Church cryes out in one place, <HI>My Mothers Children were angry with me when they were no more the true Mothers Children then I&s;hmaels,</HI> which was not <HI>Sarahs</HI> but the bond-womans, neither were the Phari&s;ees the children of the promi&s;e though <HI>Abraham's</HI> after the fle&s;h, nor righteous although they ju&s;tified them&s;elves.</P>
<P>This <HI>Jeru&s;alem</HI> that is from below, the common Chri&s;tians, I call them &s;o becau&s;e they are not capable but of common gifts, of which they may partake and peri&s;h, and except they repent &s;o it wi<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">l be with them, yet not|with&s;tanding the&s;e fi<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">l the world with voices of the Church of God, the cau&s;e of Chri&s;t, bragge and boa&s;t of their righteou&s;ne&s;&s;e, duties and perfor|mances, when notwith&s;tanding they never yet knew what it is, that is the true wor&s;hip of God, the acceptable &s;acrifice, they bragge of their prayers, their fa&s;ts and their charity, and yet know nothing at all of either as they are the offerings and &s;acrifice of the truly faithfull, but as the fat cattle the Prophet &s;peaks of, pu&s;h, gore and oppre&s;&s;e the leane, &s;o do the&s;e whole hearted, faire, rich, fat and full &s;eeming comfortable Chri&s;tians, contemne and de&s;pi&s;e, the humble, the low and emotie, although notwith&s;tanding the Lord filleth the emptie with good things, and &s;endeth the rich emptie away. I could inlarge my &s;elf in this exceedingly, having felt their cruelty and oppre&s;&s;ion, as being &s;lighted by them dayly, and made as the dirt in the &s;treet under their feet by treading dayly upon me, but as they are men for and of this world, &s;o we will leave them to it, and proceed to &s;hew you how mi&s;erable the Saints are here in this life in regard of their own corruptions, the fle&s;h lu&s;teth again&s;t the &s;pirit, and many times &s;o captivates it, that they cry out, <HI>Oh wretched Men that we are who &s;hall deliver us from this body of death?</HI> what is wor&s;e then a dead body among&s;t the living? and yet &s;o and wor&s;e are the corruptions of Gods people to their pure mindes, vexed
<PB N="14" REF="10">
and grieved by them dayly, as Righteous <HI>Lot</HI> in <HI>Sodom</HI> inclo&s;ed by them in a Citie who&s;e buildings are tran&s;gre&s;&s;ions, who&s;e &s;treets are wayes of error, who&s;e bul warks are the &s;trength of death, who&s;e gates do lead to hell, which makes them to dye dayly, to be tormented dayly, and cry day|ly to be delivered from &s;in and from the body thereof.</P>
<P>La&s;tly, the mi&s;ery of Gods people is aggravated by the devill, for, &s;o &s;aith the Apo&s;tle, <HI>he goth about like a roaring Lion, &s;eeking whom he may de|voure;</HI> And &s;o it is &s;aid, <HI>The Devill &s;hall ca&s;t many of you into pri&s;on,</HI> The righteous man <HI>Iob</HI> had mi&s;erable experience of this adver&s;ary Mi&s;ery in regard of the de&s;truction of his wealth, mi&s;ery in the lo&s;&s;e of his health, and mi&s;ery to his mind in regard of his wife and his childrens death, be|&s;ides the many temptations again&s;t his &s;oul, and this the Apo&s;tle knew well which moves him to exhort the <HI>Corinthians</HI> on this wi&s;e, <HI>For I am jealous over you with Godly jealou&s;ie, for I have espou&s;ed you to one husband, that I may pre&s;ent you as a choy&s;e Virgin to Chri&s;t, for I feare lest by any meanes, as the Serpent beguiled</HI> Eve <HI>through his &s;ubtilty, &s;o your minds &s;hould be corrupted from the &s;implicity that is in Chri&s;t.</HI></P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>You have clearly proved the mi&s;erable &s;ufferings of the Church in all the&s;e particulars you promi&s;ed, but is your meaning that the Church &s;hall never be free in this life? I meane from mi&s;ery and &s;ufferings by mens per&s;ecution, and Sathans, their &s;worn enemies.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>So long as there is any enemy, that is &s;o long as death and &s;in raigne, &s;o long &s;hall Gods people &s;uffer and undergo mi&s;ery.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>Then your meaning is to the end of the world.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>You under&s;tand me truly.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P><HI>How an&s;wer you this Scripture,</HI> And Sathan was bound for a thou|&s;and years, and the Saints lived and raigned with Chri&s;t a thou&s;and years, <HI>this is the fir&s;t re&s;urrection?</HI></P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>This error of the Millenaries is ancient, and as groundle&s;&s;e in the text you alleadge, as many more new mi&s;takes are, which were all forged in the Devils work-hou&s;e of lyes, and that they may all be an&s;wered if truth will do it, by their turns they &s;hall be tried and condemned.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>The Millenaries fir&s;t alleadge the words of Saint <HI>Paul</HI> to the <HI>The&s;|&s;alonians, The dead in Chri&s;t &s;hall ari&s;e fir&s;t,</HI> (that is &s;ay they) there &s;hall be a generall Re&s;urrection of all the Martyrs and righteous people a thou&s;and years before the generall Re&s;urrection, and they &s;hall have great plentie and ri|ches, abounding in worldly felicilic and greatne&s;&s;e, injoying Chri&s;ts bodily pre|&s;ence in this corruptible earth, grounding their opinion on the twentyeth chapter of the Revelation, as I &s;aid before, where it is &s;aid, <HI>Sathan &s;hall be bound for a thou&s;and years, and they lived and raigned with Chri&s;t a thou&s;and years;</HI> this is the fi<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;t Re&s;urrection, but the re&s;t of the dead, that is &s;ay, they the
<PB N="15" REF="10">
wicked, as by the fir&s;t Re&s;urrection, we are to under&s;tand the righteous, &s;o by the re&s;t of the dead, the wicked, which lived not againe till the thou&s;and years were fini&s;hed.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>The Scriptures they alleadge do not prove their conclu&s;ion, and we trye it thus, the Apo&s;tles words to the <HI>The&s;&s;alonians</HI> do clearly prove the generall Re&s;urrection, both of them that are out of Chri&s;t, and of them that are in Chri&s;t in the great day of the Lords coming, and that we, which &s;hall continue living till that time, &s;hall not prevent t<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">em that &s;leep, and this the &s;ame Apo&s;tle &s;neweth to the <HI>Corinthians;</HI> behold I &s;hew you a My|&s;tery, we &s;hall not all &s;leep but we &s;hall all be changed, that is though all &s;hould not be alike dead and buried yet their change &s;hall be all alike, that is to &s;ay, as our Lord &s;peaketh, they that have done good to the Re&s;urre|ction of life, and they that have done evill to the re&s;urrection of damna|tion, and both &s;hall come forth or be rai&s;ed. And whereas the Apo&s;tle &s;aith, the dead in Chri&s;t &s;hall arri&s;e fir&s;t, he there &s;heweth the order of the Re|&s;urrection, as in another place he &s;aith, as in <HI>Adam</HI> all dye, &s;o in Chri&s;t &s;hall all be made alive, but every man in his own order: Chri&s;t the fir&s;t fruits in that he &s;peaks of our Lords re&s;urrection that at this time was pa&s;t; afterwards they that are Chri&s;ts, that is, they that are dead in Chri&s;t, and the time, when, is at his comming, and the rea&s;on why he doth not nomi|nate the wicked by name a&s;well as the righteous, neither to the <HI>The&s;&s;alo|nians</HI> nor to the <HI>Corinthians,</HI> as our Saviour Chri&s;t doth to the <HI>Iows,</HI> is be|cau&s;e they are to ri&s;e to their condemnation, and therefore not worth the naming, yet to the former the terme of di&s;tinction, the dead in Chri&s;t &s;hall ari&s;e fir&s;t, &s;trongly proves the dead out of Chri&s;t &s;hall ri&s;e next, and in the latter, even &s;o in Chri&s;t all &s;hall be made alive comprehends good and bad.</P>
<P>And for their &s;econd ground, they lived and raigned with Chri&s;t a thou&s;and years, and as it follows this is the fir&s;t Re&s;urrection: The A|po&s;tle &s;peaks of the &s;pirituall Re&s;urrection through regeneration from &s;in, as Saint <HI>Paul</HI> &s;peaks to the <HI>Ephe&s;ians, Awake thou that &s;leepe&s;t and ari&s;e from the dead and Chri&s;t &s;hall give thee light,</HI> agreeing with that in the <HI>Colo&s;|&s;ians, if ye then be ri&s;en with Chri&s;t, &amp;c.</HI> And this fir&s;t and &s;econd Re&s;urre|ction our Saviour proves plainly as this faithfull witne&s;&s;e te&s;tifieth in his Evangeli&s;ts, <HI>Verily, verily I &s;ay unto you, hee that heareth my word and belie|veth on him, that &s;ent me hath everla&s;ting life, and &s;hall not come into condem|nation, but is pa&s;&s;ed from death unto life; And againe verily, verily I &s;ay unto you, the houre is comming, and now is, when the dead &s;hall heare the voice of the Sonne of God, and they that heare it &s;hall live;</HI> here he proves the fir&s;t Re&s;ur|rection by Faith, and be your &s;elf judge if in the next words he doth not, p<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">ove the generall Re&s;urrection; Marvell not at this for the houre is com|ing,
<PB N="16" REF="11">
he doth not &s;ay, and now is, as before but &s;aith in which all that are in the graves &s;hall heare his voice and &s;hall come forth, &amp;c. And by this word, all, here, as before is plainly proved good and bad.</P>
<P>And for the thou&s;and years of Sathans binding for any man to think it to be a time of peace, plentie, outward glory and felicity in this world, I think him to be more blind than <HI>Bartimeus</HI> who &s;aw men walk like trees, becau&s;e the text it &s;elf declares &s;uch wicked men to &s;it in &s;eates even in the whole time of his binding as &s;hould per&s;ecute the Saints even to death becau&s;e they would not receive the mark of the Bea&s;t in their hands nor in their foreheads, and though for their wickedne&s;&s;e they are not worthy to be named, as another Apo&s;tle de&s;cribes the &s;ame Antichri&s;tian power in the &s;ame manner, then &s;hall that wicked be revealed, not giving him the name of Angel, man, no<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter"> bea&s;t, becau&s;e exceeding the wor&s;t of all &s;orts; a|gaine even him &s;aith the Apo&s;tle, who&s;e comming is after the working of Sathan with all power and &s;ignes and lying wonders, this evill power and &s;ubtill wonderfull lyes, he gives his per&s;on no name but him, ju&s;t, as Saint <HI>John</HI> &s;peaks, as if they &s;pake by one &s;pirit, though two voices, as they did indeed, and I &s;aw Thrones and them that &s;ate upon them, and Iudgement was give unto them, the difference is only this, Saint <HI>Paul</HI> &s;peaks in the &s;ingular, Saint <HI>Iohn</HI> in the plurall number, and both one, for the &s;ucce&s;&s;ion of wicked ungodly men for a thou&s;and two hundred and &s;ix|ty years of domineering over, killing and oppre&s;&s;ing the Saints, they all in the totall &s;umme make but one Antichri&s;t, one, that is the man of &s;in, the &s;onne of perdition.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>Good Friend, me thinks this mu&s;t verily be the meaning of the place, but that which they much talke of is the binding of Sathan thereby affirming that all wickedne&s;&s;e and wicked men &s;hall be re&s;trained by the cen&s;ure of the true Church.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>If they rightly did know the condition of Sathan in his loo&s;ed or his e&s;tate of liberty, both before and after the time of his being bound, then they would plainly &s;ee there is no &s;uch thing as they conclude from it. He was loo&s;e and at large before in the Roman Ethnick e&s;tate, when the Divell rai&s;ed the primitive per&s;ecution again&s;t Chri&s;t and all that profe&s;t him, &s;o that it was pre&s;ent death for any man to profe&s;&s;e the Faith of Ie&s;us Chri&s;t, as appears by the wofull &s;ad &s;tories of the ten fir&s;t per&s;ecutions, in which &s;torme and great per&s;ecution, the Devill is the Generall in the heart of the heathen Emperors, for which re&s;pect the holy Gho&s;t calls him the great red Dragon, thereby declaring his great cruell and unmercifulne&s;&s;e in killing and de&s;troying all that did acknowledge Chri&s;t and profe&s;&s;e the Faith, and this appears plainly in the Scriptures, no &s;ooner was the Lord a&s;cended, but his &s;ervants for teaching in his name, were beaten, whipped
<PB N="17" REF="11">
and impri&s;onned, as <HI>Peter</HI> and <HI>Iohn</HI> at <HI>Ieru&s;alem, Paul</HI> and <HI>Barnabas</HI> at <HI>Ly&s;tra, Iames</HI> killed by the &s;word, and <HI>Stephen</HI> martyred without any mercy, and &s;o it continued for many years in all manner of &s;ufferings as cruell mockings, &s;courgings, bonds and impri&s;onments, &s;ome &s;toned, &s;ome &s;awen a&s;under with &s;awes, their fle&s;h torne to pieces, others &s;laine with the &s;word, with wilde bea&s;ts, and burnt to death: &s;o implacable was the Divell when he was at liberty that no tongue can expre&s;&s;e his crueltie, and as the battel was &s;trange and wondrous, &s;o was the victory more &s;trange and glorious, for verity overcame crueltie, by &s;uffering as it is written, and they overcame him by the bloud of the lambe, and by the words of their te&s;timony, and they loved not their lives unto the death, and when the Dragon &s;aw that he was throwen down into the earth, he per&s;ecuted the woman which brought forth the man child, for although in tho&s;e days, the bloud of the Saints was the &s;eed of the Church, and the more there died, the greater number were brought to live, yet the Divell &s;till continued his per&s;ecution by the hands of the Chri&s;tian Emperors, for though they were Friends to the outward State and name of Chri&s;tianity, yet they per&s;ecuted the inward grace and power of it, and from the prima|cy of the Emperiall Church of <HI>Rome,</HI> grew up the abominable &s;upremacy of the Church therof, and the Divell then went into the fal&s;e Prophets and began to play the Chri&s;tian, and to di&s;tingui&s;h between the Chri&s;tian Em|perors, and the governement and rule of Antichri&s;t the fal&s;e Prophet; the holy Gho&s;t &s;aith, <HI>And I &s;aw another bea&s;t comming up from the earth, and he had two hornes like the Lambe, but he &s;pake like the Dragon,</HI> by which the Apo&s;tle di&s;covers the My&s;tery of iniquity whereby the Divell would turne him&s;elf into the &s;hape of an Angell of light, and as <HI>Daniel</HI> &s;aith by policy or deceipt, pro&s;per or prevaile pretending Chri&s;t, the Church, the truth, and all the names and titles which belong to the true Spou&s;e there in putting Chri&s;ts coat upon <HI>Iupiters</HI> back, cunningly turning the wor|&s;hip of God into Pagani&s;me; marke but the de&s;cription, the holy Gho&s;t makes o<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter"> his per&s;on, that in outward &s;hew is the very cognizance of the Lambe, the Law and the Go&s;pell his own two hornes, wherewith he doth &s;ave and kill, but the d<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;cription of his doctrine is the voice of the Dragon, that when they did open either to teach the Law, or preach the Go&s;pe<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">l, they taught like the Prie&s;ts of <HI>Iupiter,</HI> teaching and preaching to the children of the world, that they ought to wor&s;hip the God of heaven as the Dragons Prie&s;ts had taught their Fathers to wor&s;hip the Gods of the Heathen, and by Sycophanticall Princely Prie&s;ts, under colour of pro|moting the Lambes affaires &s;hould cunningly clap <HI>Iupiters</HI> coate upon the Lambes back, and be&s;tow all the ceremonies and rituals of Idolatry upon Chri&s;t, as in &s;tead of their idolatrous bloudy &s;acrifices, Antichri&s;t
<PB N="18" REF="12">
mu&s;t have their abominable Ma&s;&s;e, as the Heathen had Idolis, &s;o Anti|chri&s;t hath Images, and as their Temples were dedicated to their Idolls, &s;o Antichri&s;t mu&s;t dedicate Churches to he Saints and &s;he Saints, &s;o that earthly minded men were &s;o &s;trongly &s;educed, that they verily thought the my&s;tery of iniquity fore-&s;poken by <HI>Daniel</HI> to be pure and un|defiled Chri&s;tianity.</P>
<P>In this re&s;pect only it is &s;aid, the Devill is bound, that is all the time of Antichri&s;ts reign, which &s;hall be 1260 years pretending Chri&s;tianity and working by deceiptfull meanes, &amp; yet all that receive not the mark of the bea&s;t in their hand or in their fore-head, are killed, and &s;laine by him.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P><HI>But it follows in the Text,</HI> And after that he mu&s;t be loo&s;ed a little &s;ea&s;on.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>That is as our Saviour Chri&s;t &s;aith, <HI>Immediatly after the tribula|tion of tho&s;e days &s;hall the Sun be darkned, and the Moone &s;hall not give her light, and the Starrs &s;hall fall from Heaven, the powers of the Heaven &s;hall be &s;haken.</HI></P>
<P>Where by the days of tribulation, he meanes the time in which the Di|vell &s;hould work by the fal&s;e Prophet, and in the expiration of tho&s;e days he &s;hould come out of him as out of pri&s;on: as it is in the Revelation; <HI>And I &s;aw three uncleane &s;pirits like Froggs come out the mouth of the Dragon, and out of the mouth of the Bea&s;t, and out of the mouth of the fal&s;e Prophet, for they are the &s;pirits of the Divels, working myracles which go forth unto the Kings of the earth and the whole world, to gather them to the battel of the great day of God Almighty.</HI></P>
<P>By the Kings of the Ea&s;t and the whole world is meant the <HI>Turks,</HI> and the Divell entring into them doth thereby inlarge him&s;elf againe into his former libertie, as in the heathen in &s;etting him&s;elf in open ho&s;tility again&s;t Chri&s;t and the profe&s;&s;ion of his name, for &s;o much is intimated, <HI>And the Sun &s;hall be darkned:</HI> now if Chri&s;t be denied to be the light, that inlight|neth every one that comes into the world, then all man kind, that is re|&s;embled by the Moone, mu&s;t lo&s;e their light, for &s;he hath none other light but from the Sun, then the Starrs; that is, all mini&s;ters and profe&s;&s;ing Chri&s;tians &s;hall fall from their profe&s;&s;ing of Chri&s;tianity that are not faithfull indeed to believe in the fal&s;e Prophet <HI>Mahomet,</HI> as the holy Gho&s;t &s;aith; <HI>Revelations 6, 12, 13. And I beheld when he had opened the &s;ixth &s;eale and loe there was a great Earth-quake, and the Sun became black as &s;ack|cloth of baire, and the Moone became as bloud, and the Starrs of Heaven fell unto the Earth:</HI> And in the next words expounds Saint <HI>Matthew,</HI> &s;aying; <HI>Even as a Figg tree ca&s;teth her untimely Figgs when &s;he is &s;haken of a mighty wind;</HI> meaning by untimely <HI>Figgs</HI> untimely Chri&s;tians, that is, &s;uch as are outward only, and in name among&s;t mini&s;ters and profe&s;&s;ors, and not in|ward,
<PB N="19" REF="12">
truly and &s;piritually, even all &s;uch as have not true grace &s;hall fall off from Chri&s;t to receive the fal&s;e-hood and abomination of <HI>Mahoumi&s;me,</HI> and that this wicked inlargement of Sathan in his cruell per&s;ecution and oppre&s;&s;ion of the Go&s;pell of our Lord Ie&s;us Chri&s;t appears in this, that the Elect then &s;hall cry day and night, and more certainly &s;hall God heare his own Elect to avenge them, then the unju&s;t Iudge, the importunate wid|dow, neverthele&s;&s;e our Lord makes this que&s;tion by rea&s;on of the great per&s;ecution that &s;hall be in tho&s;e days, <HI>When the Sonne of man comes, &s;hall he find Faith on the Earth?</HI> The con&s;equence of the que&s;tion is this, there will at my comming be &s;carce a faithfull man found on the Earth, and that this la&s;t Enemy &s;hall continue till the comming of the Lord to Iudgment; we need no other proofe then Saint <HI>Johns</HI> Te&s;timony in <HI>Revelation 20. ver&s;e</HI> 7. and &s;o to the end; <HI>And when the thou&s;and years are expired, Sathan &s;hall be loo&s;ed out of his pri&s;on; And &s;hall go out to deceive the nations that are in the foure quarters of the Earth,</HI> that <HI>Gog</HI> and <HI>Magog</HI> fore-prophe&s;ied by <HI>Ezechiel</HI> the Prophet, and as it followeth, <HI>to gather them to battel: the num|ber of whom is as the &s;and of the Sea;</HI> Therein declaring the multitude of the Enemy, the <HI>Turk</HI> to whom there is none of the earth like for multitude, nor for power as followeth, <HI>And they went on the breadth of the earth, and compa&s;&s;ed the camp of the Saints about, and the beloved City;</HI> By the Saints and the beloved City is meant the Elect of God called and &s;anctified, which Saint <HI>Matthew</HI> calls <HI>The &s;haking of the powers of Heaven.</HI></P>
<P>And when the Devill by his la&s;t battel &s;hall think to accompli&s;h his envious ends, utterly to de&s;troy Chri&s;t and all that are his, then &s;hall Chri&s;t the Lord ari&s;e and &s;catter his enemies in the&s;e following words: <HI>And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them;</HI> And the Iudgement of the enemie follows: <HI>And the Devill that deceived them was ca&s;t into the lake of fire and Brim&s;ton, where the bea&s;t and the fal&s;e Prophets are, and &s;hall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.</HI> And &s;o the holy Gho&s;t goes on in the de&s;cription of the generall <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">udgement by de&s;cribing, fir&s;t the Iudge him&s;elf in the&s;e words: <HI>And I &s;aw a great white Throne, and him that &s;ate on it, from who&s;e face, the earth and the heavens fled away, and there was found no more place for them;</HI> And &s;o proceeds to de&s;cribe them that are judged: <HI>And I &s;aw the dead, &s;mall and great &s;tand before God, and the books were opened;</HI> That is, all tho&s;e meanes were manife&s;ted, and tho&s;e &s;e|verall ways, by which the Go&s;pell and way of &s;alvation had been preached to them, whether they had the Scriptures or the Creatures, or only the more &s;ecret dictates of con&s;cience, all which preached the word of grace, and although it prove a Savour of death to &s;ome, yet to others a Savour of life by every of tho&s;e books as it followeth&punc; <HI>And another book was opened which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of tho&s;e things which were</HI>
<PB N="20" REF="13">
<HI>writen in the books, according to their works &amp;c.</HI> There needs no <HI>Paraphra&s;e,</HI> the Scripture is &s;o clear to prove the thing intended.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>It doth appear to me that the Millenaries opinion hath no ground in the Scriptures they alleadge, yet I mu&s;t tell you plainly in my judgement the Re&s;urre|ction is pa&s;t already, &amp; proved by your &s;elf in your de&s;cription of the fir&s;t Re&s;ur|rection.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>That was an old error which S. <HI>Paul</HI> condemns in his 2 Epi&s;tle to <HI>Timothy,</HI> where he taxes one of your name, &s;aying; <HI>their word doth fret as doth a gangrene of whom is</HI> Hymeneus <HI>and</HI> Philetus, <HI>who concerning the truth have erred, &s;aying, the Re&s;urrection is pa&s;t already, and overthrow the faith of &s;ome.</HI></P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>Shew me how that doctrine may be &s;aid to overthrow the Faith.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>This doctrine is the Religion of <HI>Homo-novus</HI> or of the new-man fal&s;ely &s;o called, in plaine termes the Famili&s;ts doctrine, who turne the whole Faith of our Lord Ie&s;us Chri&s;t into an allegory, affirming Chri&s;t to be a quality, &s;aying righteou&s;ne&s;&s;e is Chri&s;t, and &s;in is Antichri&s;t, teaching that all the Articles of the Creed are fulfilled in every one of their illumi|nated ones, and that now they them&s;elves are dead and buried, rai&s;ed and a&s;cended, &s;et at the right hand of the Father, de&s;cend, and come, and judge the world the quick and the dead, that they are the holy Catholique Church, that they only are the forgiven people and have the Communal|ty of the Saints, and enjoy life everla&s;ting, infinitely &s;ucceeding one ano|ther in this coedified condition, affirming al&s;o that God is cohominified with them, and &s;o this e&s;tate and condition, even this pre&s;ent evill world to continue for ever, &s;aying that as we come from God, &s;o againe we re|turn to God at our death, affirming no other Re&s;urrection then from that &s;infull e&s;tate to be illuminated, in which illumination they &s;ay, they are conceived of the holy Gho&s;t, born of the Virgin <HI>Mary,</HI> &amp;c.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>You know the Apostle &s;peaking of two &s;eeds of <HI>Abraham,</HI> one born of <HI>Hagar</HI> the bond woman, the other of <HI>Sarah</HI> the free woman, and he &s;aith that by them another thing was meant.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>As at the fir&s;t I told you, that Chri&s;tians when they &s;peak, they ought to &s;peak as the word of God, that is according to the meaning of the Scriptures, for though Saint <HI>Paul</HI> &s;ay the two &s;eeds are an allegory in regard of the two Covenants that either &s;tood in, the one thereby the child of death, the other the child of life; Yet he doth not, as you do, make them nothing but an allegory, turning the per&s;on of our Lord Ie&s;us Chri&s;t into a quality, and the per&s;on of Antichri&s;t into &s;in, which is no &s;ub&s;tance but a privation of good; take heed of this <HI>Hymeneus</HI> for it calls to my mind the Apo&s;tles words, who &s;aith, that &s;uch doctrine to the &s;oul is as dangerous and de&s;tructive as a gangrene is to the body, which is in|evitably
<PB N="21" REF="13">
de&s;tructive: for nothing can prevent the &s;aving of the next member but the death, the cutting off of that which is but infected.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>I am &s;ure if I be mi&s;taken in my opinion, yet that which you have de|livered in other re&s;pects concerning the &s;hort time of this worlds continuance cro&s;&s;es mo&s;t Mini&s;ters opinions both in new <HI>England</HI> and here too.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>What is that which they teach, that I have &s;aid, doth oppo&s;e their Tenents?</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>They almo&s;t all with one con&s;ent hold the nationall calling of the Iews, and that there &s;hall be a great and glorious e&s;tate of the Church both of Iews and Gentils, alleadging all the Prophets that &s;peak of the deliverance of <HI>Syon</HI> from all her Captivities, and bring the Jews into their own Land out of all Countries whither they have been disper&s;t and &s;cattered.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>What Scriptures do they bring to prove that the Nation of the Iews &s;hall be called and brought out of every Countrey into their own Land.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P><HI>The</HI> 11 Rom. <HI>in the&s;e words:</HI> I would not Brethren, that you &s;hould be ignorant of this my&s;tery, le&s;t you &s;hould be wi&s;e in your own conceits, that blindne&s;&s;e in part is hapned to <HI>I&s;rael,</HI> untill the fulne&s;&s;e of the Gentils be come in. <HI>And &s;o all</HI> I&s;rael <HI>&s;hall be &s;aved, as it is written, &amp;c.</HI></P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>In the&s;e ver&s;es there is not one word of the Nationall calling of the Iews, but &s;hews that the Apo&s;tle declared to the believing <HI>Romans</HI> a My&s;tery to take off their vaine boa&s;ting of them&s;elves, who thought that God had for&s;aken the &s;eed of <HI>Abraham</HI> wholly, and therefore he &s;e|cretly reproves them and &s;aith, <HI>It was but a part of the &s;eed that was hardned or blinded,</HI> as in the &s;eventh ver&s;e he clearly di&s;tingui&s;heth between the Elect part and the re&s;t: what then? <HI>I&s;rael</HI> hath not obtained that which he &s;eeketh for, but the Election hath obteined it, and the re&s;t were blinded or hardned, and in this ver&s;e he &s;aith, <HI>They &s;hall be hardned, untill the ful|ne&s;&s;e of the Gentils be come in, that is for ever;</HI> Agreeing with the Prophet, <HI>l<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">t their eyes be darkned, and bow down their backs alwayes;</HI> thus God put|ting no diff<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">rence between the Iews and the Gentils extends his free grace to both for the calling of the full number of his Elect in all the world; and &s;o all <HI>I&s;rael</HI> &s;hall be &s;aved, that is the whole hou&s;e, even every one f<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">reknown and cho&s;en of God &s;hall be c<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">lled, &s;anctified, and &s;aved both Iews and Gentils throughout the world, and this word &s;aved, hath re&s;pect unto the e&s;tate of perfection in the world to come, according to the Prophet <HI>E&s;ays</HI> words, <HI>I&s;rael &s;hall be &s;aved in the Lord with an everla&s;ting &s;alvation he &s;hall not be a&s;hamed nor confounded, world without end;</HI> That is all Gods Elect where&s;oever, of all kindreds, tongues, nations and people.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<PB N="22" REF="14">
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P><HI>In this Scripture it doth not appeare there is any word as they infer from the text, but what &s;ay you to the words of the Prophet</HI> Ezechiel 34. 14. And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the Countrys, and will bring them to their own Land, and &s;eed them upon the moun|taines of I&s;rael by the Rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the Coun|trey; <HI>As al&s;o the Prophet</HI> Ieremy 33, <HI>and</HI> 26. For I will cau&s;e their captivi|ty to returne, and have mercy on them.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>It greives me to &s;ee the Ignorance, and yet boldne&s;&s;e of many Mi|ni&s;ters among&s;t us, who erre for want of reading the Scriptures, for the very literall expre&s;&s;ion might teach them better then to tell us that from the&s;e two te&s;timonies is declared the calling of the <HI>Iews</HI> from their di&s;|per&s;ed and &s;cattered e&s;tate to the belief of the Go&s;pell in this la&s;t age of the world.</P>
<P>For both the&s;e Prophets writ within few years one of another, <HI>Ieremy</HI> a little before <HI>Ezechiel</HI> and both of the <HI>Babyloni&s;h</HI> Captivity, and of their returne againe into their own Land, which according to the word of the Lord was performed above two thou&s;and yeares ago, for their returne was in the days of <HI>Ezra</HI> the Scribe &s;ome years after the Prophet <HI>Daniels</HI> death.</P>
<P>And if you read the &s;econd chapter you cited with a &s;earching affection you &s;hall find the Prophets both of them &s;peaks of al&s;o the deliverance of <HI>Sion,</HI> the whole hou&s;e of <HI>I&s;rael</HI> from all their Captivities; <HI>Therefore will I &s;ave my flock, they &s;hall be no more a prey, I will judge between cattel and Cattel, and I will &s;et up one &s;hepheard over them, and he &s;hall feed them even my &s;ervant</HI> David <HI>he &s;hall feed them, and he &s;hall be their &s;hepheard, and I will be their God, and my &s;ervant</HI> David <HI>a Prince amongst them. In tho&s;e days</HI> Iudah <HI>&s;hall be &s;aved and</HI> Ieru&s;alem <HI>&s;hall dwell &s;afely, and this is the name wherewith he &s;hall be called the Lord our righteou&s;ne&s;&s;e:</HI> But this deliverance we will more largely open hereafter.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>Ma&s;ter <HI>Cotton</HI> in new <HI>England</HI> doth much preach of the&s;e things of the calling of the <HI>Iews</HI> and of the flouri&s;hing e&s;tate of the Church of the Gentils, and &s;ence I came to <HI>London</HI> I heard a preacher &s;ay, if the two la&s;t Chapters of E&s;ay were not to be under&s;tood of the glorious e&s;tate of the Church before the comming of the Lord to Judgement, I do not know (&s;aith he) what is meant by cho&s;e Scriptures.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>By what he &s;aith, I believe he doth not under&s;tand what is meant by tho&s;e Script. for the Proph. words are the&s;e, <HI>Behold I create new Heavens &amp; a new Earth, &amp; the former &s;hall not be remembred nor come into mind, but be thou glad &amp; rejoyce for ever in that which I creat, for behold I creat</HI> Ieru&s;alem <HI>a rejoyceing and her people a joy. And I will rejoyce in</HI> Ieru&s;alem <HI>and joy in my people, and the voyce of weeping &s;hall be no more heard in her, nor the voyce of</HI>
<PB N="23" REF="14">
<HI>crying, and there &s;hall be no more thence an infant of days, &amp;c.</HI> In which the Prophet &s;peaks as clearly (to my under&s;tanding) as words can expre&s;&s;e it of the world to come after the Re&s;urrection, the &s;alvation, that brings Gods cho&s;en people <HI>Jeru&s;alem</HI> from above into the &s;ame perfection a|gaine, which by &s;in we lo&s;t and fell from, in the day of our tran&s;gre&s;&s;ion&punc; and this agrees with Saint <HI>Peters</HI> and Saint <HI>Johns</HI> expo&s;ition, the two mo&s;t excellent and beloved Di&s;ciples and Apo&s;tles; Saint <HI>Peter</HI> &s;peaks directly of the end of this world, the di&s;&s;olution of this pre&s;ent Heaven and Earth, in the&s;e words: <HI>But the Heavens and the Earth which are now,</HI> that is now pre&s;ent, by the &s;ame word <HI>are kept in &s;tore, re&s;erved unto fire again&s;t the day of Iudgement, and perdition of ungodly men;</HI> And &s;o proceeds to other argu|ments, and proves that the Earth al&s;o, and the works that are therein &s;hall be burnt up, and the Heavens and the Elements &s;hall be di&s;&s;olved, con|cludes with notwith&s;tanding or neverthele&s;&s;e, we according to his pro|mi&s;e look for new Heavens and a new Earth in which dwelleth righteou&s;|ne&s;&s;e; Fir&s;t, the time when the&s;e things &s;hall be fulfilled is twice &s;poken to be in the day of the Lord which throughout the Scriptures notes unto us the day of Iudgement, as the time of his &s;econd comming; Secondly, the manner how it &s;hall be when righteou&s;ne&s;&s;e &s;hall dwell in the Earth, which mu&s;t needs be under&s;tood of the world to come, for in this world righteou&s;ne&s;&s;e is a Pilgrim, a &s;tranger, and a &s;ojourner; and Saint <HI>Iohn</HI> tran&s;cends in his expre&s;&s;ions of it after the generall Iudgement, in order after the Re&s;urrection of ju&s;t and unju&s;t, &s;aying; <HI>And I &s;aw a new Heaven and a new Earth, for the fir&s;t Heaven and the fir&s;t Earth were pa&s;&s;ed away, and there was no more &s;ea, and I</HI> Iohn <HI>&s;aw the holy City new</HI> Ieru&s;alem, <HI>comming down from God out of Heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, and I heard a great voyce out of Heaven, &s;aying, behold the Tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they &s;hall be his people, and God him&s;elf &s;hall be with them and be their God, and God &s;hall wipe away all teares from their eyes, and there &s;hall be no more death, nor &s;orrow, nor crying, nor &s;hall there be any more paine, for the former things are pa&s;&s;ed away.</HI></P>
<P>The former things are the corruptible things, and the things that &s;hall take place are the new created things of God which are all good, for no|thing can proceed from him but what is very good, the words are &s;o plaine that they need no expo&s;ition.</P>
<P>The other proof, they do bring to prove their mi&s;taken opinion, are the&s;e words, <HI>As one whom his Mother comforteth, &s;o will I comfort you, and you &s;hall be comforted in</HI> Ieru&s;alem, <HI>and when you &s;ee this, your hearts &s;hall rejoyce, and your bones &s;hall flouri&s;h like an herb, and the hand of the Lord &s;hall be known towards his &s;ervants, and his indignation towards his enemies, for by fire and by &s;word will the Lord plead with all fle&s;h:</HI> And the &s;laine of the Lord
<PB N="24" REF="15">
&s;hal be many, for any man to think that the Prophet in the&s;e words &s;peaks of any time of the Churchs &s;ufferings in this life, doth as much as if he &s;hould tell me, it was his own fooli&s;h conceit, and that he did not at all &s;earch the Scriptures, no<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter"> labour in the word and doctrine, for Saint <HI>Paul</HI> to the <HI>The&s;&s;alonians</HI> to me doth directly comment upon this place of the Prophet &s;aying, <HI>it is a righteous thing with God, to recompen&s;e tribulation to them that trouble you, and to you who are troubled, re&s;t with us when the Lord Ie&s;us &s;hall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire, taking ven|geance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Go&s;pell of our Lord Ie|&s;us Chri&s;t, who &s;hall be puni&s;hed with everla&s;ting de&s;truction, from the pre&s;ence of the Lord and the glory of his power, when he &s;hall come to be glorified in his Saints, and to be admired in all them that believe,</HI> And further note, that Pro|phet names the place where Gods people &s;hall be comforted, and he &s;aith, <HI>it &s;hall be in Ieru&s;alem,</HI> that is in new <HI>Ieru&s;alem.</HI></P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>I confe&s;&s;e it appears to me, the Scriptures are not rightly under&s;tood by them for you have an&s;wered them fully, but many of them have told me it is Ma&s;ter <HI>Brightmans</HI> opinion, and I am &s;ure it is Ma&s;ter <HI>Cottons.</HI></P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>Ma&s;ter <HI>Brightman</HI> is very corrupt and &s;o is Ma&s;ter <HI>Cot<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">on</HI> much to be blamed as I have read him in a Sermon preached in the We&s;t-Coun|trey, and in an expo&s;ition of his, on the Canticles, I remember the Text of his Sermon was in 1 <HI>Chron. 17. &amp; 9. And I will ordaine a place for my people</HI> I&s;rael, <HI>and will plant th<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">m and they &s;hall dwell in their place, and &s;hall be moved no more neither &s;hall the Children of wickedne&s;&s;e, wa&s;te them any more as at the beginning.</HI></P>
<P>This Scripture &s;peaks directly of the Re&s;urrection as our Saviour &s;aith, <HI>Let both grow together untill the harve&s;t, &amp;c.</HI> Then &s;hall the oppre&s;&s;or and Children of wickedne&s;&s;e be &s;eparated and <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">ot before, not till then &s;hall &s;poyling and wa&s;ting cea&s;e, the fat cattel and the leane, the &s;heep and the goates &s;hall not be &s;eparated &s;o long as this world la&s;teth, and the Prophet <HI>David</HI> fore&s;pake of the Re&s;urrection in this place, and not of any tempo|rall Tran&s;lation as Ma&s;ter <HI>Co<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">ton</HI> expou<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">ds it, and for that Treati&s;e upon the Canticles, he &s;peaks often of the calling the Iews, <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">ut proves nothing &s;o, as uncertain words I give no credit to them.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>Is it not true, that many Ministers preach that the Govern<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">ment of the Church of <HI>England</HI> is Popi&s;h and Antichri&s;tian?</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>No, for I have heard Ma&s;ter <HI>Callamy</HI> &s;ay in his prayer, that he thankt God that the evills in our Church were not a nationall &s;in, that is, as I un|der&s;tood him, that the Statutes and Ordinances of this Nation were free from tho&s;e &s;uper&s;titions and corruptions that were brought in by &s;uch corrupt men as were in chief and hi<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">h places heretofore among&s;t us.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>Then you ju&s;tifie the Church of England ever &s;ince the reformation in King Edwards dayes.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<PB N="25" REF="15">
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>I do affirme that tho&s;e Laws which were then made and &s;ince confirmed did wholly free us, and break a&s;under the Antichri&s;tian yoake and bondage of their abominable Doctrines, and though <HI>England</HI> were be|fore one of the ten hornes of the bea&s;t: That is a Kingdom that mainteined the abomination of de&s;olation, and &s;upported the whore that &s;ate upon the waters; that is, did rule over peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues, yet then it plea&s;ed God that his faithfull people, the Martyrs, did prevaile again&s;t the filthy fornications of the whore, the lyes and fal&s;e Doctrine of their Kingly Prie&s;ts, and the Kingdom might then truly be &s;aid to fall off from <HI>Rome,</HI> and &s;o &s;till hath continued an oppo&s;er and hater, and not a mainteiner.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>I remember you &s;pake thus long ago, but within this twenty yeares, things have been wor&s;e with you than before.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>Corrupt men endeavoured to bring in many innovations, but that is no more to the Chri&s;tian profe&s;&s;ion e&s;tabli&s;hed by Law in the Church of <HI>England,</HI> then ru&s;t to pure mettall, &s;oyle to a cleane garment, or du&s;t in Gods temple, which &s;couring, bru&s;hing and &s;weeping will do a|way, &s;o that the truth &s;hall &s;eeme more glorious.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>But what do you think of the Church of <HI>England</HI> in compari&s;on of the Church of <HI>Scotland, Low-countries, France, Germany,</HI> and other re|formed Churches?</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>I am &s;ure I have had either conference with, or reading of the mo&s;t religious profe&s;&s;ors in <HI>Europe,</HI> and truly of all both nationall or no|minall, I have found none in all re&s;pects &s;o free from &s;uper&s;tition, nor &s;o &s;ound in Doctrine as the Ch<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">rch of <HI>England,</HI> I meane as it &s;tands by acts and ordination of Parliament, not but that &s;ome things may be altered, but I would Chri&s;tians had wi&s;dom to pray for, and waite on our King and that great Councell which our good God hath guided already to pre&s;cribe &s;uch a forme as I know none extant like it, that they that have done &s;o much, may in their wi&s;domes do the re&s;t, and we to further it by obeying and praying.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>I have often heard you &s;peak of the &s;hort time that this world &s;hall last, and that here is to be expected no &s;uch reformation nor deliverance as many have conceived, I pray let us heare your Judgement of the Scriptures in this par|ticular.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>The Scriptures indeed are plentifull, fluent and large in their Te|&s;timony and witne&s;&s;e of the world to come, the glory, felicity, and perfe|ction of that world without end, a world endles, a world deathles, a world &s;innele&s;&s;e, a world cur&s;ele&s;&s;e, a world harmele&s;&s;e, in which there &s;hall be nothing but holine&s;&s;e, Godline&s;&s;e, thankfulne&s;&s;e, and righteou&s;ne&s;&s;e, and joyfulne&s;&s;e with the Saints, their captivity &s;hall be ended, then &s;hall the
<PB N="26" REF="16">
great deliverance and &s;alvation come to <HI>Sion</HI> when God &s;hall put away all her &s;ins; Therefore thus &s;aith the Lord to his deare daughter and her little children, <HI>Refraine thy voyce from weeping and thy eyes from teares, for thy work &s;hall be reward<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">d,</HI> &s;aith the Lord, <HI>and all that devoure thee &s;hall be de|voured and all thy adver&s;aries every one of them &s;hall go into captivity, and they that &s;poyled thee &s;hall be a &s;poyle, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey: And I will</HI> (&s;aith the Lord) <HI>undo all that have afflicted thee, and I will re&s;tore health unto thee, and I will hea<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">e thee of all thy wou<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">d<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">,</HI> &s;aith the Lord, <HI>becau&s;e they called thee an <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">ut ca&s;t, &s;aying, this is</HI> Sion <HI>wh<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">m no man &s;eeketh, the Sonnes of them that afflicted thee &s;hall come bending unto thee and all tho&s;e that di&s;pi&s;ed thee, &s;hall bow them&s;elves down at the &s;oles of thy feet and they &s;hall cal thee the City of the Lord, the</HI> Sion <HI>of the holy one of</HI> I&s;rael. <HI>Whereas thou ha&s;t been for&s;aken and hated &s;o that no man went through thee&punc; I will make thee</HI> (&s;aith the Lord) <HI>an eternall excellency, then &s;hall be the time of</HI> Sions <HI><GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">eliverance, which the Devill nor mans wicked|ne&s;&s;e ca<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter"> no more prevent, then they can prevent the &s;pring when the Sun by its operation cau&s;es the <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">arth to put it forth.</HI></P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>This is the thing I have a great de&s;ire to heare, having had formerly &s;ome &s;peech with you about it.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>That I may the morefully de&s;cribe the un&s;peakable glory of Chri&s;t the Lord, and the Church his &s;pou&s;e, I will ob&s;erve this Order, the time, when this Kingdom, heavenly Countrie, City with foundations, the in|heritance of the Saints, the purcha&s;ed po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion, the glory, the eternall life, the ma&s;ters joy, the promi&s;ed Land, the perfection, the re&s;urrection, the deliverance, the re&s;tauration, and aboundance more of &s;uch names the holy Gho&s;t gives to the Church, the new <HI>Ieru&s;alem,</HI> the lambes wife, the time when I &s;ay the Scriptures that foretell of, &s;hall be fulfilled.</P>
<P>Secondly, the place where it &s;hall be inj<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">yed; Thirdly, who &s;hall be the King in this glorious Kingdom; And la&s;tly, what are the &s;ubjects and in|heritors thereof.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>The names that the Scriptures give unto the eternall e&s;tate are very many and excellent, and your method very good, therefore I pray proceed.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>The time of the Churches deliverance to the e&s;tate of perfection is at the end of this world, when he that a&s;cended, &s;hall de&s;cend, as &s;aith the Scripture, whom the heavens mu&s;t conteine and receive untill the re|&s;titution of all things fore&s;poken by all the holy Prophets, hath been &s;ince the world began, which things therefore the world might not be ignorant of, which are te&s;tified by &s;o many witne&s;&s;es; for &s;o &s;aith the &s;pirit, every one that have &s;poke, have &s;poke of the&s;e things, but the cau&s;e of mens ignorance in this as in many other truths of God, is in regard people do not labour with God to under&s;tand and know the Scriptures, for although
<PB N="27" REF="16">
every one (for the mo&s;t part) hath a Bible, yet generally they are as igno|rant of the intent and meaning of the Scriptures as he that never &s;aw the written word of God at all, but no more by way of digre&s;&s;ion. And that the time of the Lords glorious Kingdom and the Churches deliverance &s;hall be at the end of this world is clear by our Saviours own words in pa|rable, <HI>The harve&s;t is the end of the world, and the reapers are the Angels.</HI> As therefore the tares are gathered and burnt in the fire, &s;o &s;hall it be in the end of this world, the &s;onne of man &s;hall &s;end forth his Angels and they &s;hall gather out of his Kingdom all things that do offend and them which do i<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">iquity, as al&s;o in that Scripture where the que&s;tion is made by the &s;ervants to the hou&s;e-holder, whether the tares the envious man &s;owed a|mong&s;t the good &s;eed &s;hould be pluckt up, the Ma&s;ter an&s;wers, nay, let them both grow together untill harve&s;t, and &s;heweth what &s;hall be done then both with the wheate and with the tares, &s;aying at his glorious com|ming &s;hall be gathered before him all nations, and he &s;hall &s;ever the Sheep from the Goates <HI>&amp;c.</HI> Then the King &s;hall &s;ay to them on his right hand comeye <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">le&s;&s;ed inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the begin|ning of the wo<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">ld, and to this agreeth the Angels words to <HI>Daniel; Go thou thy ways</HI> Daniel, <HI>at the end of the days &s;hall the end be, and thou &s;hall &s;tand up in t<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">y lot;</HI> meaning thou &s;halt then be rai&s;ed to &s;hine as the brightne&s;&s;e of the Fi<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">mament among&s;t them that have turned many to God, <HI>even to &s;hine as the Stars for ever and ever;</HI> There is none in all the world but the Child of God, the heires of &s;alvation have the benefit of the Prophet <HI>Iere|mies</HI> exhortation in the&s;e words, <HI>Ier. 31. Refraine thy voice from weeping and thine eyes from teares for thy work &s;hall be rewarded,</HI> &s;aith the Lord, <HI>and they &s;hall come againe from the Land of the Enemy;</HI> there is the returne from captivity of the naturall <HI>I&s;rael, and there is hope in thy end</HI> (&s;aith the Lord) <HI>that thy Children &s;hall come againe to their own border,</HI> there is the delive|rance of th<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter"> &s;<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">irituall <HI>I&s;<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">ael</HI> at their Re&s;urrection, as the Patriarks have expre&s;t their hope, as is more clearly proved in the next particular, the place where the bride &s;hall for ever enjoy her bridegroome, the King of glory his gloriou<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter"> Kingdom, which the holy Gho&s;t calleth <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">he earth in the&s;e wor<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">s, <HI>Behold the righteous &s;hall be recompen&s;ed in the earth:</HI> And &s;o &s;aith our Lord, <HI>Ble&s;&s;ed are <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">he meek for they &s;hall inherit the earth;</HI> Their in|heritance is their recompence, then and not before &s;hall the earth be filled with the knowledge of God, as the waters cover the Seas, which mu&s;t needs be under&s;tood of the new earth promi&s;ed and to come, &s;uch an earth as the Lord &s;hall make when he will make all things new, for the contra|ry is mo&s;t true now, here in this old cur&s;ed earth, that ignorance fills this earth as the waters cover the Seas.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>This is not under&s;tood in the&s;e days; for I never heard the&s;e Scriptures &s;o applied before.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<PB N="28" REF="17">
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>To make it more plaine, we will fir&s;t cite the Te&s;timonyes of the Prophets, our Lords and his Apo&s;tles, and then I will &s;hew you how plainly and clearly the heires of the promi&s;e have particularly declared her hope and confidence in it. <HI>Job</HI> had the true knowledge and comfort of it which ravi&s;ht him, and made him thus to cry out as if he were out of him&s;elf: <HI>Oh, that my words were now written! Oh that they were printed in a book, that they were graven with an Iron Pen in a Rock for ever, for I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he &s;hall &s;tand at the latter day upon the earth, and though after my skin wormes de&s;troy this body yet in my fle&s;h I &s;hall &s;ee God, whom I &s;hall &s;ee, for my &s;elf and my eyes &s;hall behold, and not another.</HI> In which he clearly expre&s;&s;es that the place of his ble&s;&s;edne&s;&s;e after the re&s;ur|rection &s;hall be in the earth where his Saviour &s;hall &s;tand, that is, &s;hall rule and raigne for ever.</P>
<P><HI>David</HI> a man after Gods own heart excells in this Faith and hope, what man is he that feareth the Lord? (&s;aith he) him &s;hall he teach in the way that he &s;hall choo&s;e, his &s;oule &s;hall lodge in goodne&s;&s;e, and his &s;eed &s;hall inherit the earth: And againe, <HI>Let all the earth feare the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world &s;tand in aw of him, for evill doers &s;hall be cut off, but tho&s;e that waite upon the Lord, they &s;hall inherit the earth, and though it be but a little while, and the wicked &s;hall not be,</HI> &s;aith he, <HI>and his place &s;hall not be found, yet the meek &s;hall inherit the earth, and delight them&s;elves in the aboun|dance of peace, for &s;uch as be ble&s;&s;ed of him &s;hall inherit the earth, and they that be cur&s;ed of him &s;hall be cut off;</HI> And &s;o he &s;ingeth P&s;a. 48. <HI>Great is the Lord, and greatly to be prai&s;ed in the City of our God, in the mountaine of his holine&s;&s;e, beautifull for &s;ituation, the joy of the whole earth is mount</HI> Sion: And al&s;o in another place, The Heaven, <HI>even the Heavens are the Lords, but the earth hath he given to the Children of men;</HI> So te&s;tifieth the Prophet <HI>E&s;ay,</HI> &s;aying, <HI>Thus &s;aith the Lord, that created the Heavens, God him&s;elf that formed the earth and made it, he hath e&s;tabli&s;hed it, he created it not in vaine, he formed it to be inhabited, I &s;aid not,</HI> &s;aith the Lord, <HI>to the &s;eed of</HI> Iacob <HI>&s;eek you me in vaine, I the Lord &s;peak righteou&s;ne&s;&s;e, I declare things that are right,</HI> And the &s;ame Prophet makes proclamation; <HI>Behold</HI> (&s;aith he) <HI>I create new Heavens, and a new earth, and the former &s;hall not be remembred nor come into mind, and as the new Heavens and new earth, (which I &s;hall make) &s;hall remaine before me,</HI> &s;aith the Lord, <HI>&s;o &s;hall your &s;eed and your name remaine;</HI> Which clearly &s;hews the intent of the promi&s;e to the Patriarks, and &s;o accordingly they under&s;tood it, as &s;hall be proved hereafter; The Apo&s;tles <HI>Peter</HI> and <HI>John</HI> both te&s;tifie to this truth without que&s;tion, as before I have briefly &s;hew|ed, and that it may be out of que&s;tion here, what Saint <HI>Iohn</HI> &s;aith of the Te&s;timony of the foure and twenty Elders, prai&s;ing and lauding the lamb their Lord, and they &s;ang a new &s;ong, &s;aying, <HI>that art worthy to take the</HI>
<PB N="29" REF="17">
<HI>book and to open the &s;eals thereof, for thou wa&s;t &s;laine and ha&s;t redeemed us unto God by thy bloud out of every k<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">ndred, and tongue, and people, and <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">ati<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">n, and ha&s;t made us unto our God Kings and Priests&punc; and we &s;hall raigne on the earth,</HI> Which Scripture without explanation is a full an&s;wer unto all &s;uch thoughts that concerne this inheriting the earth, may be in <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">his life in a My&s;tery; all which agrees with <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">ur Lords words to the Apo&s;tles at his parting from them, <HI>let not your hearts be troubled &amp;c. In my Fath<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">rs hou&s;e are many man&s;ions, and I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go an prepare a place for you I will come againe and receive you unto my &s;elf, that whe<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">e I am there you may be al&s;o.</HI> Now our Lord is gone into Heaven, and &s;its at the right hand of the Father, where he is preparing the ble&s;&s;ed and glorious e&s;tate for us, as the Apo&s;tle <HI>Peter</HI> &s;aith, <HI>Ble&s;&s;ed be the God and Father of our Lord Je&s;us Chri&s;t, which according to his aboundant mercy hath begotten us againe unto a lively hope by the Re&s;urrection of Ie&s;us Chri&s;t from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and und<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">filed; and that fadeth not away, re&s;erved in the heaven for us who are kept by the power of God through Faith unto &s;alva|tion ready to be revealed in the la&s;t time,</HI> of which la&s;t time and revelation of the glory, S. <HI>Iohn</HI> &s;peaks, where <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">e &s;aith, <HI>and I &s;aw a new heaven and a new earth, for the fir&s;t heaven and the fir&s;t earth were pa&s;&s;ed away, and there was no more &s;ea;</HI> In that he &s;aw no more &s;ea, he declareth that the great oppre&s;&s;ors of Gods Church con&s;i&s;ting of heathen as open enemys, or Chri&s;tians, as &s;e|cret and cunning enemys &s;hall all cea&s;e, there &s;hall be none to hurt nor de|&s;troy in all my holy mountaine &s;aith the Lord.</P>
<P>And S. <HI>John</HI> goes on and declares the place where the Lord &s;hall be with his at his returne, and I <HI>Iohn</HI> &s;aw the holy City new <HI>Ieru&s;alem</HI> comming down from God out of heaven prepa<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">ed as a bride adorned for her hu&s;|ban<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">, <HI>And I heard a great voice <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">ur of heaven &s;aying, the Tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them&punc; and th<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">y &s;hall be his people, and God him|&s;elf &s;hall be with them and be their God; and &s;o goes on in de&s;cribing the perfection of that condition, tha<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter"> there &s;hall be no more death&punc; &s;orrow, crying, and paine&punc;</HI> and as it follows after, <HI>no more cur&s;e;</HI> This is the glorious condition of Chri&s;t comming againe to his own people according to his promi&s;e, and that he will abide with them forever in the new things which he &s;hall create, &amp; that it may appear unque&s;tionable that the Saints &s;hall inherit the earth after th<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter"> Re&s;urrection, heare Gods promi&s;es to the Patriarks and their un|der&s;tanding of, and ho<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="2 letters"> and expectation in them; and fir&s;t we will begin with <HI>Abraham,</HI> where it is &s;aid <HI>and the Lord appeared unto</HI> Abraham, and &s;aid, <HI>unto thy &s;eed will <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter"> give this Land;</HI> and againe, <HI>I will give unto thee &amp; thy &s;eed after thee, the Land wherein thou art a &s;tranger, all the Land of Canaan for an everla&s;ting po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion, and I will be their God.</HI> No<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">e here that the Lord promi&s;eth the po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion of the Land to <HI>Abraham</HI> him&s;elfe, to his owne
<PB N="30" REF="18">
per&s;on, as well as to all, and every one of his &s;pirituall &s;eed, and &s;o witne&s;&s;eth the Author to the Hebrews, &s;aying, <HI>That</HI> Abraham <HI>was called to go into a place which he &s;hould afterwards receive for an inheritance,</HI> Marke it is, &s;aid he, that is him&s;elf not others for him as &s;ome unwarily have affirmed in the&s;e la&s;t times, and <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 word"> this &s;ence <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter">nly Saint <HI>Paul</HI> calls <HI>A|braham</HI> the heire of the w<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter">rld, by promi&s;e and grace included in Gods pro|mi&s;e above, <HI>and I will give unto thee &amp;c.</HI></P>
<P>So the the Lord Almighty engages him&s;elf to <HI>I&s;aack</HI> that he would performe the oath that he &s;ware unto his Father <HI>Abraham,</HI> &s;aying unto thee and thy &s;eed will I give all the&s;e Countries, and God appeared to <HI>Ia|cob</HI> his cho&s;en at <HI>Lu&s;&s;e</HI> in the Land of <HI>Canaan,</HI> &s;aith to him, the Land whereon thou lye&s;t to thee will I giv<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter"> it, and to thy &s;eed; and their &s;eed &s;hall be as the du&s;t of the earth, and thou &s;halt &s;pread abroad to the <HI>West,</HI> and to the <HI>Ea&s;t,</HI> and to the <HI>North,</HI> and to the <HI>South,</HI> and in thee and thy &s;eed &s;hall all the families of the earth be <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1+ letters">e&s;&s;ed.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>Mo&s;t Chri&s;tians under&s;tand that <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter">h<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;e promi&s;es were fulfilled by <HI>Io&s;hua</HI> when he divided the Land of <HI>Cannan</HI> by lot <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter">or a po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion to the Tribe of <HI>I&s;rael.</HI></P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>But had our Mini&s;ters and Chri&s;tians read and laboured to un|der&s;tand the Scriptures they would have been of the Apo&s;tles mind who affirmes and clearly &s;heweth that <HI>Abraham, I&s;aac,</HI> and <HI>Jacob,</HI> and all the faithfull and holy &s;ervants of God, ever under&s;tood thereby the everla&s;ting inheritance and po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion to them and their &s;eed for ever, when they in their own per&s;ons that never enjoyed it, yet &s;hall inherit it, for the holy Gho&s;t &s;aith by the te&s;timony of faithfull <HI>Stephen</HI> the Martyr; That <HI>Abra|ham</HI> had no inheritance in <HI>Canaan,</HI> no, not &s;o much as to &s;et his foot on, yet he (that is God) promi&s;ed that he would give it him for a po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion and to all his &s;pirituall &s;eed, which the afore&s;aid Apo&s;tle to the <HI>Hebrews</HI> in the eleventh Chapter, proves beyond all exception to be the heavenly Countrey: and the temporall <HI>Canaan</HI> no other or further, neither in pro|mi&s;e nor po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion of the following &s;eeds, nor otherwi&s;e (I &s;ay) then that it was a &s;peciall repre&s;entation, a tipe figure and &s;haddow, preaching and teaching unto them, the &s;pirituall, heavenly, holy, new and everla&s;ting Land, wherefore thus &s;aith the Apo&s;tle&punc; <HI>The&s;e all dyed in Faith not having received the promi&s;es, but having &s;een them a far of: and were pe<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;waded of them and imbraced them: and confe&s;&s;ed that they were &s;trangers and Pilgrims on the earth,</HI> for they which &s;ay &s;uch things declare plai<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="UOM" EXTENT="1 letter">ly that they &s;eek a Countrey, and truly had they been mindfull of that Country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunitie to have retur|ned but now they de&s;ire a better Countrey, that is a heavenly, where|fore God is not a&s;hamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a City, which City new <HI>Ieru&s;alem</HI> is that before &s;poken of, even that
<PB N="31" REF="18">
new and heavenly City that comes with our Lord at his de&s;cen&s;ion to the earth, where, and in which he will dwell for ever.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>I did not think the Scriptures had been &s;o plain for this matter as now I &s;ee them: I pray now proceed to the third particular, the King of this new and heavenly world.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>The King of <HI>Sion</HI> is her Saviour, and the Scriptures call him the King of Glory, and that title that was written on his Cro&s;&s;e in his humi|liation, in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, that is the title of his Crown and Dignity in his Exaltation, <HI>This is the King of the Iews;</HI> And as him&s;elf &s;aith, <HI>for this end was I born&punc; and for this end came I into the world;</HI> and &s;o te|&s;tifies the Angell unto the Virgin <HI>Mary,</HI> and tells her that her Sonne Ie&s;us &s;hould be great, and called of all, the Sonne of the Highe&s;t, and the Lord &s;hall give unto him the Throne of his Father <HI>David,</HI> and he &s;hall raigne over the hou&s;e of <HI>I&s;rael</HI> for ever, and of his Kingdom there &s;hall be no end.</P>
<P>Thus that great favourer and much beloved of God, the Prophet <HI>Da|niel,</HI> &s;peaking by the holy Gho&s;t of Ie&s;us the Lord, he calleth him <HI>the Sonne of God,</HI> and in the &s;pirit of prophe&s;y &s;aith, <HI>that there was given him Domi|nion and Glory, and a Kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, &s;hould feare him, his Dominion is an everla&s;ting Dominion which &s;hall not pa&s;&s;e away, and his Kingdom that which &s;hall not be de&s;troyed.</HI> The &s;ame Prophet in an|other place &s;aith, <HI>In the days of the&s;e Kings</HI> (meaning the great oppre&s;&s;ors of the earth) <HI>from the beginning of the world to the end:</HI> In their days, as be|fore I told you of the Kings of the Ea&s;t and the whole world. For although there be many differing powers, as of gold and &s;ilver, &amp;c. yet they all make but one enemy, one adver&s;ary, as it is &s;aid of <HI>Rome,</HI> in her &s;hall be found the bloud of all the Saints and Prophets, and of all that were &s;laine upon the earth. It is &s;o &s;aid, becau&s;e all per&s;ecutors make but one genera|tion; and it follows, <HI>and in the days of the&s;e Kings &s;hall the God of heaven &s;et up a Kingdom,</HI> which &s;hall never be de&s;troyed, and the Kingdom &s;hall not be left to other people, but it &s;hall break in pieces and con&s;ume all the&s;e Kingdomes, and it &s;hall &s;tand for ever.</P>
<P>For <HI>David</HI> &s;aith, though the heathen rage, and the wicked people ima|gine vaine things, yet &s;aith the Lord, I have &s;et my King upon my holy hill of <HI>Sion,</HI> who &s;hall &s;peak to them in his wrath, and vex them in his &s;ore di&s;p<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="missing" EXTENT="1 letter">ea&s;ure, his Dominions is from Sea to Sea&punc; from the River to the ends of the earth, they that dwell in the wilderne&s;&s;e &s;hall bow before him &s;aith the Prophet, and his enemies &s;hall lick the du&s;t.</P>
<P>How full doth Almighty God prove this him&s;elf, its more clear than the Sun in its full light, In the&s;e words thou art my Sonne, this day have I begotten thee, ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thy inheri|tance,
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the utmo&s;t parts of the earth for thy po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion, thou &s;halt rule them with a rod of Iron, and break them to pieces like a potters ve&s;&s;ell; Thus rea&s;oneth the Apo&s;tle for unto the Angels he hath not put into &s;ubjection the world to come whereof we &s;peak, but unto the Sonne he &s;aith, Thy Throne, oh God is for ever and ever, a Scepter of righteou&s;ne&s;&s;e is the Scepte<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter"> of thy Kingdom, thou ha&s;t put all things in &s;ubjection under his feet, and of that &s;ubjection more hereafter. And thus &s;peaketh another of the Prophets, the Lord is King for ever and ever, and againe the Lord &s;it|teth King for ever, for the Lord mo&s;t high is terrible, and he is a great King over all the earth.</P>
<P>And againe, &s;ing prai&s;es with under&s;tanding, for God is the King of all the earth, f<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">r all Kings &s;hall fall down before him, all nations &s;hall &s;erve him, &s;o long as the Sun and Moone endureth, <HI>Oh wor&s;hip the Lord in the beauty of holine&s;&s;e feare before him, all the earth &s;ay amongst the heathen that the Lord raigneth, the world al&s;o &s;hall be e&s;tabli&s;hed that it &s;hall not be moved, he &s;hall judge the people righteou&s;ly, and governe the nations on the earth.</HI> The&s;e Scriptures are &s;o plaine, they need no expo&s;ition, therefore let the Heavens rejoyce and let the earth be glad, <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">et the &s;ea roare and the fulne&s;&s;e thereof, let the field be joyfull and all that therein is, then &s;hall the trees of the wood rejoyce before the Lord, and the rea&s;on the holy Gho&s;t giveth in the&s;e words following, <HI>for he cometh,</HI> for he cometh, that is the Lord cometh to judge the earth, he &s;hall judge the world with righteou&s;ne&s;&s;e, and the people with his truth, <HI>Oh &s;ing unto the Lord a new &s;ong for he hath done marveilous things, his right hand and his holy arme hath gotten him the vi|ctory&punc; for its the Lord that &s;itteth upon the throne of his holine&s;&s;e, it is the Lord that raigne<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">h over the heathen; And another</HI> (&s;aith the Lord) <HI>&s;hall be King over all the earth, and in that day &s;hall there be one Lord and his name one:</HI> And the Apo&s;tle calls him the everla&s;ting King Ie&s;us, who is the faithfull witne&s;&s;e and fir&s;t begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the Kings of the earth, who alone is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings thus one &amp; all the me&s;|&s;engers of &s;alvation &s;ay unto <HI>Sion,</HI> thy God raigneth, and the &s;ame language the Lord him&s;elf &s;peaketh; Thus &s;aith the King of <HI>Ia<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">ob,</HI> the Lord, the King of <HI>I&s;rael,</HI> who is thy redeemer, even the Lord of ho&s;ts, I am the fir&s;t and I am the la&s;t, and be&s;ides me there is no God; and a<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter"> another time he &s;aith, all power is given unto me of my Father both in Heaven and earth; great and &s;peciall things do the Scriptures declare of this Kingdom, of its power and glory of which our Saviour acquainted his &s;ervants. Within the&s;e fourty days, &s;peaking to them of the things pertaining to the King|dom of God, which made them &s;o de&s;irous of the injoyment and po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion of it, that before his de&s;cending from them, their generall reque&s;t was un|to him in the&s;e words, wilt thou at this time re&s;tore the Kingdom to
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<HI>I&s;rael,</HI> ju&s;t like the Mother of the two Sonnes of <HI>Zebedee</HI> in the behalf of her Children, Lord, &s;aith &s;he out of a true affection of that perfection &s;he de&s;ired; that her two Sonnes might &s;it, the one at his right hand, the other at his left in his Kingdom, and truly now may we &s;ay, for thine is the Kingdom power and glory, for now we &s;ee it is the Lords only, and if all what hath been &s;aid will not &s;atisfie, we have Gods own oath for it, &s;ay|ing, by the mouth of the Prophet, I have &s;worn by my &s;elf, and the word is gone out of my mouth in righteou&s;ne&s;&s;e and &s;hall not returne, that un|to me every knee &s;hall bow, every tongue &s;hall &s;weare; and the Apo&s;tle affirmes it from the Prophet, that at the name of Ie&s;us every knee &s;hall bow of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue &s;hall confe&s;&s;e that Ie&s;us Chri&s;t is Lord to the glory of God the Father; I will adde one place more, which proves all that hath been &s;aid of the time, the place, and the King, and that is &s;hewed in the days of the voice of the &s;eventh Angel, when it &s;hall begin to &s;ound, there &s;hall be time no more, the my&s;tery of God &s;hall be fini&s;hed; theres the end of the world, the time; and the voice he &s;ounded &s;aith, the Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and his Chri&s;t, and he &s;hall raigne for ever and ever; theres the place and the King both as he hath declared to his &s;ervants the Prophets.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>To me the con&s;ent and harmony of the Scriptures thus applied, give great &s;atisfaction and is very comfortable; I pray Friend, make good your pro|mi&s;e in the other particulars.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>The next thing I promi&s;ed, was to con&s;ider what the Scriptures declare concerning the Subjects of this glorious King and Kingdom, for the Prophet &s;aith, <HI>the Lord &s;hall build up</HI> Sion <HI>when he &s;hall appear in his glo|ry;</HI> by <HI>Sion</HI> we are to under&s;tand Gods faithfull people, and by building them up a re&s;toring of them to an e&s;tate of perfection according to his promi&s;e. Now becau&s;e the Subjects of the world to come in a generall re|&s;pect is the whole creation, for &s;o intimateth the Apo&s;tle, not only we, &s;aith he, but every creature al&s;o waiteth for the glorious Liberty of the Sonnes of God; therefore we will con&s;ider them in their order; and fir&s;t for the Angels to prove they &s;hall be &s;ubject, it is written, and let all the Angels of God wor&s;hip him; Angels, &s;aith the Apo&s;tle, they are mini|&s;tring &s;pirits &s;ent forth, <HI>&amp;c.</HI> that is Subjects or Servants, and the re|probate Angels, they are included in the generall dimen&s;ions of the Pro|phets and Apo&s;tles before mentioned. Now in the next order of creatures we will con&s;ider man-kind; fir&s;t, the Saints, then the wicked.</P>
<P>And that the Saints &s;hall feare and &s;erve their Lord the King, is clear by that Oath which he &s;wore unto our Father <HI>Abraham,</HI> witne&s;&s;ed by <HI>Zacharias</HI> the Prie&s;t, that we being delivered out of the hands of our ene|mies,
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might &s;erve him without feare in righteou&s;ne&s;&s;e and holine&s;&s;e, be|fore him all the days of our lives: and the&s;e (of all other) the Prophet <HI>Da|vid</HI> calls the mo&s;t free faithfull and loyal&s;t Subjects in the&s;e and other words: <HI>O come let us wor&s;hip and bow down, let us kneele before the Lord our maker, for he is our God and we are the people of his pa&s;ture:</HI> and againe, <HI>Prai&s;e ye the Lord, &s;ing unto the Lord a new &s;ong and his prai&s;e in the Congregation of Saints, let I&s;rael rejoyce in him that made him, let the Children of Sion be j<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">y|full in their King; for the Lord taketh plea&s;ure in his people, he will beautifie the meek with &s;alvation, let the Saints be joyfull in glory, let them &s;ing aloud upon their beds.</HI> And Saint <HI>John</HI> hee joynes in the Angels with all the Saints, &s;aying, <HI>And I beheld and heard the voice of many Angels round about the Throne, and the holy Bea&s;ts and Elders, and the number of them was ten thou|&s;and times ten thou&s;and, and thou&s;ands of thou&s;ands, &s;aying with a loud voice, Worthy is the lambe that is &s;laine to receive power and riches, and wi&s;dom, and &s;trength, and honor, and glory, and ble&s;&s;ing, and the foure Bea&s;ts &s;aid Amen&punc; and the foure and twenty Elders fell down and wor&s;hipped him that liveth for ever and ever;</HI> &s;o <HI>David</HI> calls upon the hou&s;e of <HI>I&s;rael,</HI> the hou&s;e of <HI>Aaron,</HI> and the hou&s;e of <HI>Levy:</HI> Yee, that feare the Lord, ble&s;&s;e the Lord, ble&s;&s;ed be the Lord out of <HI>Sion</HI> which dwelleth at <HI>Jeru&s;alem,</HI> prai&s;e ye the Lord.</P>
<P>I find foure things in Scripture that doe &s;et forth and declare the ex|cellency of the glorious e&s;tate of the Saints in light; fir&s;t, by a cha&s;t &s;pou&s;e for purity and beauty; Secondly to a goodly City, for glory and &s;afety; Thirdly, to a high Court of commi&s;&s;ion for authority, wi&s;dom, and Iudg|ment; and fourthly, to a curious planted garden for plea&s;ure and delight, and all the&s;e are &s;ubject and &s;ubordinate to their King, and that the Saints in their glorified e&s;tate, are &s;et forth by a bride or cha&s;t Virgin, is plain, ful and admirably de&s;cribed in Scripture, the Prophet <HI>E&s;ay</HI> is very elegant, in this, &s;peaking of the Churches glorification, &s;aith, thou &s;halt al&s;o be a Crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a Royall Diadem in the hand of thy God, thou &s;halt no more be termed for&s;aken, neither &s;hall thy Land be any more termed de&s;olate, but thou &s;halt be c<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">ll<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">d, my delight is in her, and thy Land married, for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy Land &s;hall be married, for as a yong man marrieth a Virgin, &s;o &s;hall thy Sonnes marry thee, and as the Bridegroom rejoyceth over the Bride, &s;o &s;hall thy God rejoyce over thee <HI>I&s;a.</HI> 62. So the Apo&s;tle &s;peaks to the Corinthians, that his mini&s;tery, his labour and Godly jealou&s;y over them, was to pre|&s;ent them a cha&s;t Virgin unto Chri&s;t, and they that &s;ung before the throne as it were a new &s;ong which no man could learn but the hundred &amp; four|ty, and foure thou&s;and which were redeemed from the Earth, the&s;e are they which were not defiled with women faith the holy Gho&s;t for they are Virgins, and &s;o al&s;o this holy Apo&s;tle &s;aith, <HI>And I Iohn &s;aw the holy</HI>
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<HI>City, new</HI> Ieru&s;alem <HI>comming downe from God out of heaven prepared as <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter"> Bride adorne&aacute; for her husband:</HI> So al&s;o &s;he is called the Lambs wife; and againe, Let us rejoyce and be glad, and give honour to him for the Marri|age of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made her &s;elfe ready: And to her was granted that &s;he &s;hould bee arrayed in fine Linnen, cleane and white; for the fine Linnen is the righteou&s;ne&s;&s;e of the Saints; in the time of her temptation and &s;ufferings &s;hee was the Kings daughter, and all glorious within; but now in her exaltation and nuptialls &s;he is al&s;o all glorious without, excelling in ornament and perfection; and in that &s;hee is the Lambs wife, &s;he hath right &amp; intere&s;t in all his glory, that is, honou|rable above all Lords and Kings, being their Lord and King; for &s;hee is fle&s;h of his fle&s;h, and bone of his bone. And as her cha&s;tity and purity ex|cells, &s;o doth her beauty, &s;o that the Lord her Bridegroom calls her the the faire&s;t among women, glorious as the morning, faire as the Moone, cleare as the Su<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">ne. My beloved, &s;aith the Church, &s;pake and &s;ayd unto me, Ri&s;e up my Love and faire one, and come away, for loe the winter is pa&s;t, the raine is over and gone, the flowres appeare in the earth, the time of the &s;inging of Birds is come, the Figge tree putteth forth her green figs, and the Vines with the tender Grapes give a good &s;mell: Ari&s;e my love, my faire one, and come away: which place &s;hewes plainly the&s;e &s;peeches of love and beauty are &s;poken to, and of the Church in her perfection and re&s;tauration, and what &s;peeches can exceed for love and beauty the&s;e ex|pre&s;&s;ions?</P>
<P>Secondly, the eternall glory of Gods people is &s;et forth under the name of a City; And &s;o &s;aith that holy Prophet, Glorious things are &s;poken of thee, O thou City of God; yea even as a City &s;tately builded, gloriou&s;|ly ordered, impregnably fenced, prudently governed, &s;oundly and fully taught and in&s;tructed, &s;afely kept and watched, the beauty and lu&s;tre of who&s;e building a&s;toni&s;hes and amazes all that pa&s;&s;e by which con&s;ider and behold it: For thus &s;aith the Lord, Looke upon <HI>Sion,</HI> the City of our Solemnit<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">es, thine eyes &s;hall &s;ee <HI>Jeru&s;alem</HI> a quiet habitation, a Ta|bernacle that &s;hall not be taken downe, not one of the &s;tarks thereof &s;hall be removed, neither &s;hall any of the cords thereof be broken; and the in|habitant &s;hall not &s;ay, I am &s;ick; the people that dwell therein &s;hall bee forgiven their iniquities: And I will, &s;aith the Lord, make thy Officers peace, and thy exactions righteou&s;ne&s;&s;e; Violence &s;hall be no more heard in thy Land, wa&s;ting nor de&s;truction within thy borders; but thou &s;halt call thy Walls &s;alvation, and thy Gates pray&s;e: And be you glad, &s;aith the Lord, and rejoyce for ever in that which I create; for behold I create <HI>Jeru&s;alem</HI> a rejoycing, and her people a joy; and I will rejoyce in <HI>Jeru&s;a|lem,</HI> and joy in my people; and the voyce of weeping &s;hall be no more
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heard in thee, nor the voyce of crying, for from henceforth &s;hall no more come into thee, the uncircumcized nor the unclean; none &s;hal enter into this City but &s;uch only, which are both in heart and in fle&s;h circumci&s;ed, as the Prophet <HI>Ezeck</HI> &s;aith: And the holy Citizens of this heavenly Citie, the Sun &s;hall no more burn them by day, nor the Moon by night, they &s;hall neither &s;uffer hunger nor weeping, nor &s;in, nor dye more, &s;aith the Lord: Wherfore awake, awake &s;aith the Prophet, put on thy &s;trength, O <HI>Syon,</HI> puton thy beautifull garment, O <HI>Ieru&s;alem,</HI> the holy City: This is the City of the great King, wherefore ari&s;e and &s;hine; for the glory of the Lord is ri&s;en upon thee: For thus &s;aith the Lord, I will extend peace unto thee like a River, and the glory of the Gentiles as a flowing &s;tream: As one whom his mother comforteth &s;o will I comfort you, and you &s;hall be comfor|ted in <HI>Jeru&s;alem:</HI> This is <HI>Sion</HI> whom the Lord hath cho&s;en, he the Lord hath de&s;ired her for his habitation, this is my re&s;t for ever, &s;aith the Lord, here will I dwell. The glorie and &s;afety of this Citie is &s;o amply &s;et forth by the Apo&s;tle, when he &s;aw her in a vi&s;ion, where he &s;aith: And he car|ried me away in the &s;pirit to a great and high mountaine, and &s;hewed me that great City, the holy <HI>Jeru&s;alem</HI> de&s;cending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, and her light was like unto a &s;tone mo&s;t precious, and de&s;cribes the great City in her glorious building, her walls great and high, having twelve Gates kept by twelve Angels, and that &s;he had twelve foundations, &s;o precious for the matter of it, that it ex|ceeds pure gold, and all pretious &s;tones and pearles, magnificent for form, the length, the breadth, and the heighth of it equall; upon the twelve foundations were written the names of the twelve Apo&s;tles of the Lamb, the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof, the Nations of them that are &s;aved &s;hall walke in the light of it, and there &s;hall in no wi&s;e enter into it any thing that defileth, &amp;c. Here is both the glory and &s;afety of this happy City de&s;cribed; this is the City that God prepared for the Patriarchs, the City with foundations before &s;hewed, which all the faithfull expected and looked for, who&s;e builder and maker is God: And upon one and all the Citizens of this City I will write upon him &s;aith the Lord, the name of my God, and the name of the Ci|ty of my God, which is new <HI>Ieru&s;alem,</HI> which commeth downe &amp;c. And the&s;e faithfull Subjects of God the holy Gho&s;t calls by the name of the City it &s;elfe, &s;peaking of the evill reigne and time of Antichri&s;t: And they &s;hall &s;aith he tread the holy City under foot forty and two moneths; but when tho&s;e dayes of the Cities de&s;olation &s;hall be ended, then &s;he &s;hal have a <HI>Commi&s;sion</HI> under the great Seale of heaven, to tread her enemies under her foot, for &s;o faith the Apo&s;tle, <HI>The Saints &s;hall judge the world.</HI> And now we are come to the third particular, The commi&s;&s;ion of power
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and authority that the Saints &s;hall have with their Saviour, which the Scriptures doe largely declare. And thus the Lord &s;aith to prove it, <HI>He that overcommeth will I grant to &s;it with me in my Throne:</HI> There is the com|mi&s;&s;ion and authority too, even as I have overcome, and am &s;et with my Father in his Throne: and &s;o promi&s;eth our Lord to his Apo&s;tles, and a&s;&s;ures it with an a&s;&s;everation, <HI>Verily I &s;ay unto you, that yee which have followed me in the regeneration, when the &s;onne of man &s;hall &s;it in the Throne of his glory, yee al&s;o &s;hall &s;it upon twelve Thrones, judging the twelve Tribes of I&s;rael:</HI> and what in this he &s;aid unto them, he &s;aid unto all. And this the Prophet <HI>David</HI> well knew, when he &s;ung this &s;ong, <HI>Ieru&s;alem is builde&aacute; as a City that is compact together, whither the Tribes goe up, The Tribes of the Lord unto the te&s;timony of I&s;rael, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord, for there are &s;et Thrones of judgement, the Thrones of the hou&s;e of David.</HI> And &s;o in another place, <HI>Let the Saints be joyfull in glory, let the high pray&s;es of God be in their mouth, and a two edged &s;word in their hands, to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and puni&s;hment upon the people, to binde their Kings with chaines, and their Nobles with fetters of Iron, to execute up|on them the judgement written: This honour have all the Saints, prai&s;e yee the Lord.</HI> And thus &s;aith the Lord to the Church of <HI>Thiatira, To him that overcommeth, and keepeth my word to the end, to him will I give power over the Nations, and he &s;hall rule them with a rod of Iron: As the ve&s;&s;ells of a Pot|ter &s;hall they be broken to &s;hivers, even as I received of my Father.</HI> So like|wi&s;e doth he &s;peake to the Angel of <HI>Philadelphia,</HI> Behold I will make them of the Synagogue of Sathan, which &s;ay they are <HI>Iewes</HI> and are not, but doe lye; Behold I will make them to come and wor&s;hip before thy feet, and they &s;hall know that I have loved thee; So &s;peaketh <HI>Solomon</HI> in his Proverbs, the prudent are crowned with knowledge, the evill bow before the good, and the wicked at the gates of the righteous, then &s;hall it be mo&s;t true in the world to come, as hereafter &s;hall be &s;hewed: So the Lord by the Prophet <HI>Ieremiah,</HI> &s;peaking of <HI>I&s;rael,</HI> The rod of the Lords inheritance &s;aith, thou art my battell Axe and Weapons of warre, for with thee will I break in pieces the Nations, and with thee will I de&s;troy Kingdomes, and with thee will I de&s;troy old and young, and with thee will I break in pieces the Chariot and his rider: And I will render unto <HI>Babylon,</HI> and to all the Inhabitants of <HI>Chaldea</HI> all their evill that they have done in <HI>Sion,</HI> in your &s;ight &s;aith the Lord: And when thine eyes &s;hall &s;ee this, thine heart &s;hall rejoyce, as I have &s;hewed before; Sing O daugh|ter of <HI>Sion,</HI> &s;hout O <HI>I&s;rael,</HI> be glad and rejoyce with all thy heart O daugh|ter of <HI>Jeru&s;alem,</HI> for the Lord hath taken away thy judgements, and hath ca&s;t out thy enemy: the King of <HI>I&s;rael</HI> is in the mid&s;t of thee: thou wa&s;t humbled, but now thou art exalted; thou wa&s;t oppre&s;&s;ed, but now thou
<PB N="38" REF="22">
art delivered, thou wa&s;t judged, but now thou art freed; thou wa&s;t of low degree, but now thou art rai&s;ed: <HI>Ieru&s;alem</HI> is &s;et up the prai&s;e and Iudge of the whole earth.</P>
<P>According to this &s;peaketh the Prophet <HI>Micah</HI> to the Church concer|ning her deliverance from &s;ufferings to reigning: Behold at that time, &s;aith the Lord, I will undoe all that afflict thee, and I will &s;ave her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out: and I will get them prai&s;e and fame in every Land where they have been put to &s;hame: At that time will I bring you again, in the time that I gather you, and I will make you a name and a prai&s;e among&s;t all people of the earth when I turn back your captivity befo<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">e your eyes, &s;aith the Lord.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>I am much beholding to you for this excellent di&s;covery of Gods &s;ervants condition in the world to come; I pray declare to me the fourth parti|cular you promi&s;ed.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>I &s;aid that the &s;tate of perfection the Scriptures did well illu|&s;trate by a Garden for plea&s;ure and delight, And in this the Prophet <HI>I&s;aiah</HI> is very fluent in &s;peaking of the perfection of Gods people &amp; &s;aith; for the Lord &s;hall comfort <HI>Sion,</HI> he will comfort all her wa&s;te places, and he will make her wilderne&s;&s;e like <HI>Eden;</HI> and her de&s;ert like the Garden of the Lord; joy and gladne&s;&s;e &s;hall be found therein, thank&s;-giving and the voyce of melody. And &s;o in another place he &s;aith, And the Lord &s;hall guide thee continually, and &s;atisfie thy &s;oule in drought, and make fat thy bones; And thou &s;halt be like a watered Garden, and like a &s;pring of wa|ter, whole waters faile not. So &s;aith the wi&s;e King <HI>Solomon</HI> in the per|&s;on of Chri&s;t; A Garden inclo&s;ed is my &s;i&s;ter, my Spou&s;e, a &s;pring &s;hut up, a fountaine &s;ealed, thy plants are an Orchard of Pomegranets, with plea&s;ant fruits, Camphire, with Spikenard, Saffron, Cinamon, with all trees of Frankin&s;ence, with all the chiefe &s;pices: Awake thou North|wind, come thou South, blow upon my Garden, that the &s;pices thereof may flow out: And the Church &s;aith again, let my beloved come into his garden, and eate his plea&s;ant fruits: All which expre&s;&s;e nothing but plea|&s;ure and delight in reciprocal affection between Chri&s;t and his Church, the King &s;aith the Lord dwelleth in the garden: and the Lord him &s;elfe &s;aith, I have cho&s;en <HI>Sion</HI> to dwell in her. The beauty and excellency of this Church in her perfection was &s;hewed to <HI>Balaam</HI> in a vi&s;ion: And made him thus fall into admiration: yea, how goodly are thy Tents oh <HI>Iacob,</HI> and thy Tabernacles O <HI>I&s;rael;</HI> as the vallies are they &s;pread forth, as gardens by the River &s;ide, as the trees of <HI>Ligna aloes</HI> which the Lord hath planted, and as the Cedar Trees by the waters. And there is a great deale of rea&s;on that the holy Gho&s;t in the te&s;timony of the Prophets &s;hould &s;et forth the e&s;tate Eternall, the e&s;tate of perfection by a
<PB N="39" REF="22">
plea&s;ant Garden, for &s;o God created it at fir&s;t in that perfect conditi|on in which it &s;tood, where he gave his holy man <HI>Adam</HI> Domini|on over all, over the Fi&s;h of the Sea, and over the Fowle of the Ay<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">e, and over every living thing that moveth upon the Earth; And ju&s;t &s;o it &s;hall be againe in the Re&s;tauration, the &s;econd <HI>Adam</HI> the Lord from Heaven, &s;hall have a never fading and a perpetuall Dominion, as the Apo&s;tle &s;peakes; for unto the Angels hee hath not put in &s;ubjection the World to come, whereof we &s;peake: But one in a certaine place &s;peakes, which is <HI>David,</HI> admiring what was prophe&s;ied of Chri&s;ts Kingdome, breakes out in a Que&s;tion (being amazed at the great Glory and Dominion prophe&s;ied of) and asked, What is man O God, that thou art &s;o mindfull of him, or the Sonne of man, whom thou &s;o vi&s;ite&s;t to give him Domini|on over the Worke of thy Hands! Thou ha&s;t put all things in &s;ub|jection under him: And this the Apo&s;tle under&s;tands the Prophet &s;peakes of Chri&s;t and his Kingdome.</P>
<P>That holy Scribe <HI>Ezra,</HI> being largely &s;hewed the glorious e|&s;tate of the Churches Deliverance in the World to come, &s;ayth, For unto you is Paradice opened, the Tree of Life is planted, the Time to come is prepared, plenteou&s;ne&s;&s;e is made ready, a Citie is builded, and Re&s;t is allowed; yea, a perfect Goodne&s;&s;e and Wi&s;e|dome. O happy are they that have thus the Lord to bee their God, happy are the peohle that are in &s;uch a ca&s;e: Ari&s;e, &s;hake thy &s;elfe from the du&s;t, ari&s;e from trouble, and &s;it downe in quiet; Oh <HI>Ieru&s;alem</HI> en|ter into your Ma&s;ters joy.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Him.</SPEAKER>
<P>Good friend, &s;eeing the glory is &s;o great of &s;uch as &s;hall be &s;aved which are willing and obey; and therefore eate the good things of the promi&s;ed Land, what &s;hall become of &s;uch as peri&s;h?</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>They that would not in their life time learn obedience by mercy &s;hall be con&s;treined after death by paine; its true that <HI>Hagars</HI> generation the bond-womans Children &s;hall be ca&s;t out from inheriting with tho&s;e that are free born of <HI>Sarah,</HI> for &s;o directly &s;peak the Scriptures by a doub<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">e witne&s;&s;e, the Lord him&s;elf and one of his &s;ervants: <HI>Ca&s;t out this bond-wo|man and her Son for the Sonne of this bond-woman &s;hall not be heire, with my free born Sonne even my Sonne I&s;aac;</HI> Where its plaine and without all que|&s;tion that this generation &s;hall not inherit, that is, &s;hall not participate of the glory in the world to come, (whereof we &s;peak) with <HI>Sarahs</HI> free born Children, but that they &s;hall &s;erve, and be &s;ubject to their King and his Saints for ever, and this appears plainly by Scripture, thus &s;peaks <HI>Noah</HI> by the &s;pirit of prophe&s;ie, <HI>Cur&s;ed be Canaan, a &s;ervant of &s;ervants &s;hall he be unto his brethren, and Canaan &s;hall be Shems &s;ervant,</HI> and againe the
<PB N="40" REF="23">
Lord &s;aith in another place, <HI>the elder &s;hall &s;erve the yonger, and that the yonger &s;hall be Lord over his brethren, and then as all things &s;hall be made new, &s;o righ|teou&s;ne&s;&s;e and judgement &s;hall have the victory, and then &s;hall E&s;ay &s;erve Iacob, I&s;hmael I&s;aac, and Cain Abel;</HI> and although in their former life time, they hated, per&s;ecuted, &s;corned, di&s;dained, and killed them, even &s;erving them|&s;elves of them whom they ought to have &s;erved, if truth had taken place; yet at the returne of the Lord, as all his enemies &s;hall be &s;ubdued to him and brought under his feet, the&s;e enemies among&s;t the re&s;t &s;hall be &s;ubje|cted: now the principall enemies to God, Chri&s;t his truth and his children are the Devill, and the&s;e hard hearted, &s;tif-necked rebells his Children, that as their Father, &s;o are they implaceable and unreconcilable, and as he, &s;o do they re&s;i&s;t the holy Gho&s;t, and will not have this man to raigne over them, that is the Lord Chri&s;t; but they do and will break his bonds and ca&s;t his cords from them: and as they have always done, &s;o they do now and will continue, (till he comes to raigne in power and Maje&s;ty) profe&s;&s;e them&s;elves &s;worn enemies and adver&s;aries to him and his; but when this world &s;hall come to an end, and that world is come of which our Saviour &s;aith, his Kingdom is of; then even &s;hall he take, and &s;lay be|fore him all tho&s;e his enemies, <HI>Slay them before me,</HI> &s;aith the Lord, <HI>then &s;hall the head wholly prevaile and triumph over him that ever hath &s;o exceedingly brui&s;ed, mortified and per&s;ecuted his heele, then he &s;hall &s;o &s;ubdue and break in &s;under Sathan and his Children, by his invincible power and regall authority, that he &s;hall undo, fru&s;trate, and make void Sathans whole plot and work;</HI> and the Scripture <HI>then &s;hall be fulfilled which &s;aith, and he, that is Chri&s;t, &s;hall break his head, then the Devill that hath deceived mankind ever &s;ince the world began, &s;hall be ca&s;t into the lake of fire and brim&s;ton, and &s;hall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.</HI></P>
<P>Then there &s;hall not be one knee among&s;t all the reprobate Angels and men, but &s;hall bow, nor any tongue but &s;hall confe&s;&s;e (to the glory of God the Father) that Ie&s;us Chri&s;t is both Lord and King, and although now they rage and take Coun&s;ell together again&s;t the Lord and again&s;t his annointed, and invent lyes and mi&s;chiefs again&s;t the Lords truth and all his faithfull &s;ervants, yet he that &s;itteth in the Heavens doth laugh at them, the Lord &s;hall have them in deri&s;ion, for the begotten of God the King of <HI>Sion,</HI> &s;hall rule, governe and &s;ubdue tho&s;e heathens, yea, he &s;hall break them with a rod of Iron, &s;aith the Prophet, and da&s;h them to pieces like the ve&s;&s;ell that the potter makes of clay, as was before mentioned, and as the Lord, &s;o &s;hall all that are his, have dominion over all the out-ca&s;t, heatheni&s;h&punc; hard hearted and unregenerate gentili&s;h generation, for &s;uch names the Scripture gives them all, and therefore thus &s;aith the Lord him|&s;elf, he that overcometh and keepeth my words unto the end, to him will
<PB N="41" REF="23">
I give power over the nations, and he &s;hall rule them with a rod of Iron, <HI>&amp;c.</HI> even as I received of my Father, that is, they &s;hall execute the &s;ame power my Father hath given me; to this agreeth that Scripture which &s;aith, <HI>All nations &s;hall fea<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">e and obey him:</HI> And againe, <HI>the Children of tho&s;e that afflicted thee, &s;hall be &s;old for &s;laves unto thee;</HI> And againe, <HI>With thee will I break in pieces Captaines and Rulers, the old and yong man and maide, Kings &amp; &s;ubjects, none exempted of what language, &s;ex, e&s;tate, or degree what&s;oever:</HI> Fi|nally, the la&s;t particular is, that the whole Creation, that is to prove all o|ther Creatures be&s;ids men and Angels, they &s;hal for ever &s;erve, that is, mag|nifie, &s;et forth and further the glory of the great King and his Kingdom for ever without any oppo&s;ition, cruelty, &s;avagene&s;&s;e or evill what&s;oever, and therefore its conteined in Scriptures, that every creature that is in Heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and &s;uch as are in the Sea and all that are in them, heard I &s;aying, &s;aith Saint <HI>Iohn,</HI> ble&s;&s;ing ho|nor, glory, and power be to him that &s;itteth upon the Throne and unto the Lambe for ever and ever; this proof is &s;o generall, as it takes in all places, Heaven and Hell, the whole Earth and the Sea, and all that are within them, are heard by the Apo&s;tle, to prai&s;e, honour &amp; obey the Lamb, and this truth, the Prophet <HI>David</HI> declares excellently, where he &s;aith, <HI>What is man that thou art &s;o mindfull of him, or the Sonne of man that thou vi|&s;ite&s;t him? thou ha&s;t made him a little lower then the Angels, thou ha&s;t crowned him with glory and honour, thou ha&s;t made him to have Dominion over the work of thy hand, thou ha&s;t put all things under his feet, all &s;heep and oxen, yea, &amp; the bea&s;ts of the field, the foules of the aire, and the fi&s;hes of the Seas; which makes the Prophet cry out in admiration and wonder, O God our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!</HI> Now the Apo&s;tle to the Hebrews declares this, that <HI>David</HI> &s;pake of Chri&s;ts Kingdom the world to come, as hath before been de&s;cribed, and therefore, &s;aith he, for unto the Angels he hath not put in &s;ubjection the world to come, whereof I &s;peak, but one in a certain place te&s;tified rehear&s;ing the very words before repeated of the Prophet <HI>David,</HI> &s;o that if any man &s;ay, the Prophet is not &s;o to be under&s;tood, the Apo&s;tle him&s;elf makes an&s;wer and gives us an a&s;&s;urance &s;o to believe, and this doctrine he preaches for truth without exception to the holy Ro|mans, where he &s;aith for the earne&s;t expectation of the creature, waiteth for the manife&s;tation of the Sonnes of God, and he gives the rea&s;on cleare and plaine, becau&s;e &s;aith he, the creature it &s;elf al&s;o &s;hall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious Liberty of the Sonnes of God, for we know, &s;aith he, &s;peaking as if it were &s;o well known to them, as certain, as their hoped for inheritance, that the whole creation, that is e|very creature groaneth and travaileth in paine together untill now, note how exact and elegant he is, he expounds the whole creation to be every
<PB N="42" REF="24">
creature, &amp; that all the&s;e by a &s;peciall in&s;tinct of nature are like a woman in travel that nothing in the world can prevent her bringing forth; &amp; &s;o it &s;hal be with the whole creation in its re&s;titution to its perfection, &amp; le&s;t it &s;hould not be clear enough, the Apo&s;tle goes on and in particular and a|part &s;peaks of the adopted of God, the heires of the world to come, the in|heritance of the &s;alvation, &s;aying, and not only they, but our &s;elves al&s;o, which have received the fir&s;t fruits of the &s;pirit, even we our &s;elves groan within our &s;elves, waiting for the adoption, to wit the redemption of our bodies; the words are &s;o plaine they need no expo&s;ition, proving the re&s;tauration of the whole creation as well as the Saints, which is further confirmed by that knowing Evangeli&s;t Saint <HI>Luke,</HI> who &s;aith, <HI>And he &s;hall &s;end Ie&s;us Chri&s;t,</HI> which before was preached unto you, whom the heavens mu&s;t receive untill the times of re&s;titution of all things, which God hath &s;poken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets &s;ince the world began, which truth in times pa&s;t was well known unto men, although now the world through ignorance under&s;tand it not, for the Lord &s;aith by a holy Prophet; that his covenant with Sun and Moon, day and night is for ever, and a|gaine he &s;aith he made not the Earth for nought, but to be inhabited, and he hath e&s;tabli&s;hed it that it &s;hal not be moved; and in another place &s;peak|ing of the generall re&s;titution as Saint <HI>Paul</HI> doth, he &s;aith with righteou&s;|ne&s;&s;e, &s;hall he judge the poore, and with the breath of his lipps &s;hall he &s;lay the wicked; and then from man-kind goes on to other creatures, and &s;aith, then &s;hall the Wolfe dwell with the Lambe, and the Leopard &s;hall lye down with the Kid, and the calf and the yong Lion, and the Fatling and a little Child &s;hall lead them: and the Cow and the Beare &s;hall feed, their yong ones &s;hall lye down together, and the Lion &s;hall eate &s;traw like the Ox, and the &s;ucking Child &s;hall play over the hole of the A&s;pe, and the weaned Child &s;hall put his hand on the Cockatri&s;es den, they &s;hall not hurt nor de&s;troy in all my holy mountaine, &s;aith the Lord, for the earth &s;hall be full of the knowledg of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea; &amp; in another place the &s;ame Prophet &s;aith again, that the Wolfe and the Lambe &s;hall feed together, and the Lion &s;hall eate &s;traw like the Bullock, and du&s;t &s;hall be the Serpents meate; and againe he &s;aith, &s;eeke ye out of the book of the Lord, and read, no one of the&s;e &s;hall faile, none &s;hall want her mate, for my mouth it hath commanded, and his &s;pirit it hath gathered them, and the bea&s;t of the field, &s;aith the Lord by the &s;ame Prophet, &s;hall honour me: and againe, Oh <HI>Sion</HI> break forth into &s;inging, and let all the trees in the field rejoyce and clap their hands, for in &s;tead of the thorne &s;hall come up the Figg tree, and in &s;tead of the bryer &s;hall come up the mirtle tree, and it &s;hall be unto the Lord for a name and for an everla&s;ting &s;ignethat &s;hal not be cut off; and another of the Lords faithfull ones, &s;aith, moreover
<PB N="43" REF="24">
even the woods, and every &s;weet &s;melling tree &s;hall over &s;hadow <HI>I&s;|rael</HI> by the commandement of God, for God &s;hall lead <HI>I&s;rael</HI> with joy, with the light of his glory, even with the mercy and righteou&s;ne&s;&s;e that comm<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="apex" EXTENT="1 letter">th from him.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Hym.</SPEAKER>
<P>That all Creatures &s;hall be re&s;tored, me thinks the Scriptures are plaine and evident for, &s;o that I cannot but acknowledge it is &s;o; yet many obje|ctions al&s;o appear to me, &s;ome of the Scriptures you alleadge becau&s;e &s;uch ex|pre&s;&s;ions are u&s;ed which concern this pre&s;ent life, as the Calf, a Child, and Straw, as if there &s;hould be plowing&punc; and &s;owing, and increa&s;e, and multiplica|tion of Creatures againe.</P>
</SP>
<SP>
<SPEAKER>Silv.</SPEAKER>
<P>As you &s;ay the Scriptures, in &s;ome particulars, do &s;eem &s;o to &s;peak, both for fructification and &s;u&s;tentation; for the la&s;t our Lord &s;peaks as if there might be &s;uch a thing, even as <HI>Adam</HI> had for his delight and plea&s;ure to eate even in the time of his innocency in Paradice, the fruit of all the trees in Eden, and excepted none but the tree of knowledg of good and evill, and the words of our Lord are the&s;e, but I &s;ay unto you, I will not drink hence forth of this fruit of the vine, untill I drink it new with you in my Fathers Kingdom: Note here this fruit of the vine, as di&s;tin|gui&s;hed from that which &s;hall be new when the Kingdom of God comes, as <HI>Luke</HI> &s;aith, as al&s;o that our Lord &s;peaks further the&s;e words, &amp; I appoint unto you a Kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me, that you may eate and drink at my Table in my Kingdom, and &s;it on Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of <HI>I&s;rael,</HI> and that there &s;hall not be any more marrying or giving in marriage, by which I under&s;tand there &s;hall be no further increa&s;e, but that man &s;hall be as the Angels of God in Heaven in the re|&s;urrection; &s;ecret things belong unto God, and things revealed belong to us and our Children, and &s;eeing the Scriptures have revealed &s;o much, therefore break forth into joy, &s;ing together ye wa&s;t places of <HI>Ieru&s;alem,</HI> for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed <HI>Sion,</HI> the Lord hath made bare his holy Arme in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth &s;hall &s;ee the &s;alvation of our God: thy faithfulne&s;&s;e, Oh God, is unto all generations, thou ha&s;t e&s;tabli&s;hed the earth and it abideth, they continue this day according to thy ordinance, for all are thy &s;ervants.</P>
<P>Who &s;hall not feare thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy, for all nations &s;hall come and wor&s;hip before thee for thy Iudge|ments are made manife&s;t.</P>
</SP>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
</DIV1>
</BODY>
</TEXT>
</EEBO>
</ETS>
