A Complete History and Mystery of the Old and New Testament

Irenaeus Tract. contra omnes Heresies. (3.) Justin Martyr (who of a Philosopher became a Christian) about thirty years after the death of this John the Divine, the Penman of this Book of the Revelation. (4.) Papias, who was St. John 's Scholar, and a godly Bishop in that Time. (5.) Hilarius, a Divine of eminent Endowments. (6.) Lactantius, that Eloquent and Candid Writer (called the Christian Cicero) Instit. lib. 7. where he expresseth this Golden Age of the Church in Virgil 's Verses, only with a little change of their Order. (7.) Yea Augustine himself. And (8.) His Contemporary Jeronimus (in his Catalogue of Antient Fathers) do afford their Suffrages, as to the main of this comfortable Doctrine. All these Fathers were Stars of the first Magnitude in the Firmament of the Primitive Church, all grounding their Opinions upon Isa. 65.17. and 66.22. Behold, I Create New Heavens, and a New Earth, &c. and upon Mich. 4.1, 3, &c. with Isa. 2.2, 4. in both which places it is said, that in the last Days, the Church shall have a glorious Victory, and a Kingdom, &c. and that then Swords shall be beaten into Plow-shares, and Spears into Pruning-books; Nation shall not lift up a Sword against Nation, neither shall they learn War anymore; but every man shall sit under his Vine, and under his Fig-tree, and none shall make them afraid, &c. Yea, and upon more such Prophetick Scriptures, both in the Old and in the New Testament (too many to mention here) which never had their Accomplishment in any Age to this Day. It must indeed be acknowledged, that the Heresy of Cerinthus, and the old Chiliasts, or Millenaries, were long ago exploded, &c. But we find this Reason for condemning them, namely, because this Cerinthus, being a Jew, had his foolish Conceits concerning the Thousand Years from his Judaism, and the Chiliasts, his Followers▪ did Judaize also with him; they all entertained Carnal Conceits concerning Divine Matters, and carnally interpreted this Scripture of a Thousand Years, as if it held forth only a Temporal Felicity, to wit, that the Earth during these Thousand Years, should be, not a Paradise of Spiritual Delights, but a Stew of all Impure Pleasures, and a Stage of all Libertinism and Sensual Licentiousness: Not unlike to that stupid Phantastick Paradise which the Turks doatingly dream of from their Impostor Mahomet, in their abominable Alcaron: This also is the fond Fancy of the Blinded Jews concerning their Mock-Messiah, whose Coming they do expect. To this Tremellius the Jew excellently answers [de mille annis, in Rev. 20. nihil eorum narratur quae Cenrinthus tam impre garriebat, &c. that is, Here is (in the Thousand Years) nothing told of which Cerinthus profanely prated; for, where is any luxurious Eating and Drinking? where is Marriages, and mad Merriments? and where are Sacrifices and Festival Days to be observed at Jerusalem, &c? The holy Scripture names not anything of such unholy practices; therefore Cerinthus and his Followers are justly Branded for Heretics by both Antient and Modern Divines, who unanimously affirm, that this Beloved City, the New Jerusalem, shall enjoy a Thousand Years, not of Carnal Pleasures, but of Spiritual Joys, wherein holy Men and holy Women shall live in peace from Persecutors, and in love one with another, without Differences either of Opinion or Practice, &c. rejoicing together in a most blessed and heavenly manner, while Satan is Chained up, &c.

To conclude; Though this Golden Age (called a Day of Refreshing, and of the Restitution of all things, Acts 3.19.21.) be affirmed by Antient Fathers, and confirmed by Modern Authors, both Foreign (as Alstedius, Keplerus, Cunaeus, Daubricius, Piscator, Molinaeus, and Tychobrake) and Domestic (as Dr. Hackwil, Dr. Twisse, and Mr. Mede, &c. which shows it is no Outlandish Toy, nor any Yesterday Fancy: Yet in what Year this New World shall begin, all these great Lights of the World looked upon it, as one of the great Secrets of Heaven, which (as Nuncius Propheticus, who subscribes himself T. B. saith well) Our Dim Eyes cannot pierce those Ten-fold Orbs above to discern. Indeed so many Men, so many Minds. Alsted determines upon Ninety four, others upon Ninety seven for the first Year hereof: Others judge the time uncertain; and certainly their Judgment (in my Judgment) is most certain: Let us turn our private Opinions into both public and private Prayers, that the Lord Jesus may hasten his Glorious Kingdom, and be like a Roe upon the Mountain of Spices, &c.

The 5th Remark; I have inserted some more of my fifty years Collections out of many learned Authors about this Millenary point which hath been canvased pro and con as a profound Mystery in all ages of the Church, &c.

(1st.) Jerome on Ezekiel saith in Lib. 11. Cap. 36. that Tertullian, Lactantius, Victorinus, Irenaeus, and Apollinarius, five learned men, were all of the Millenarian opinion. And Ibn-ezra upon Isa. 65.22. [as the days of a Tree, so shall the days of my People be, and they shall long enjoy the work of their hands.] saith thus, As this Tree, there mentioned, doth endure a thousand years before it perisheth, even so those that shall be raised at the time of the Messiah's appearing [tamdiu victuri, quamdiu patriarchae ab Adamo ad Noam] Shall live so long as the Holy Patriarch's did, from Adam to Noah, some of which lived very night to a thousand years: Other Rabbinical Criticisms carry the same congruity, namely, that John in the Revelation doth number all by sevens, as 7 Churches, 7 Spirits, 7 Stars, 7 Candlesticks, 7 Angels, 7 Seals, 7 Vials, 7 Thunders, all which numbers do plainly point to the seventh, or Sabbatical year, and under the six Seals, Angels, Vials and Trumpets, is comprised the sixth age of the world, or the last six thousand years thereof, allowing 333 years, and the third part of a year to each, which make up about two thousand years: of the same alloy is that curious Notion; As the first Adam did fall upon the sixth day, and upon the sixth hour of that day, and was judged in the same hour at Evening: And as the second Adam was Crucified upon the sixth day and at the sixth hour of that day, &c. So on the sixth age of the world expiring▪ God will take away all evils out of the world, and then begins that seventh or Sabbatical year of rest to his Church, &c. Moreover, Justin Martyr reads that phrase aforesaid; • s • . 65.22. [the days of my people be as the day of the tree of life] which words (saith he) do implicitly point at the thousand years that the first Adam should have lived in his Paradise-felicity had he not eaten of the forbidden Tree, &c.

(2dly.) Learned Weems in his Ceremonial Exercitations observeth a three-fold •• rour concerning Christ. 1. Error personae, a mistake of his person: Hence we are told of False Christ's, &c. 2. Error Conditionis, a mistake of his condition, thus the Je • s looked for a Messiah to come in worldly grandeur and glory at his first Appearing, &c. And, 3. Error Temporis, that is, a mistake about the time of his coming the second time, &c. How many mistakes have been made about this abstruse point, I have discovered at large in my Discovery of Antichrist, Chapters 12, 13, 14, 15. I shall add a little here to what I have related there, and before here in foregoing paragraphs Dr. Fulk and Diodate, take the time of Satan's binding for a long time indefinitely, Zegerus, Immanuel Sa, and Esthius all say, 'tis meant all the time since the first publication of the Gospel; Ribera, Haimo and Gagneus take it for the time until Antichrists rise, who (as they say) must continue but three years and an half before the day of Judgment: Junius begins these thousand years, thirty six years after Christ's death, for then Satan raged against the Christian Church until Hildebrand, before he was restrained, &c.

Brightman reckons at Constantine to Pope Boniface • the eighth, and so do Napier and Mr. Fox the Martyrologist. Cotterius begins them at 1517 when Luther arose to a reformation, at which time was the rising of the witnesses: But Alsted and Archer begin them at 1666 and 1694, the latter of these two Dr. Hall (in his Revelation Revealed ) most highly honoreth, saying of him, that Mr. Archer was a London Divine of such Sanctity, and Estimation, as none doubted (saith the Doctor) to file him among men as precious as any the Earth bore in his time, yet some mistakes attended this precious man, both in reckoning Christ's Reign to begin at 1666 year, and in fixing the call of the Jews and the ten Tribes upon 1650, or 56 year, both which time itself hath confuted: Tho' Dr. Hall give this high character to Mr. Archer, yet was he of a differing opinion to him, saying, the Ten Tribes were 2340 years ago so dispersed as dust before the wind, so that now they have no known Being in the world, and for them to be fetched again out of the Rubbage of Paganism and Mohammedanism, credat Judaeus Apella, let the circumcised Jew believe it, &c. As to Alsted, he is an Author of Universal Reputation, as appeareth by his Encuclopaedia and other learned Works. He wrote in Latin his Assertion of the glorious Kingdom of Christ here on earth; Illustrates it from sixty five places of holy Scripture, and answers thirty five Objections against it, which is faithfully Englished by famous Mr. Burton, who calls it [The beloved City] and well-worthy of serious perusal; Yet this great professor of the University at Herborne hath his Mistake also, in fixing the beginning of Christ's Reign on Earth upon 1694 year or sooner. This his Conjecture is likewise expired Re infectâ, as well as the former: we may well suppose the cause of so many men's mistakes as to times and things is this, that seeing the sense of those dark prophecies layeth [not in Superficie, sed in medulla Scripturae (as the Father phraseth it) not in the outside of the letter, but in the marrow of the Spirit, therefore was it a prudent answer of Dr. Andrew's, when a plain man asked him his opinion about those obscure passages in the Revelations, he modestly said, [ My Friend, I am not yet come so far, &c.] Yea and great Calvin (if Bodinus wrong him not) was forced to acknowledge that he was Nullus in propheticis, and knew not what many obscure passages of the Revelations meant. Seeing (as Jerome saith) Quot habet verba, tot Sacramenta, so many words so many Mysteries as before.

(3dly.) There be many great lights of the Church that are in the dark about those difficult points, rendering their Reasons for their dissenting, such as learned Dr. Lightfoot, who in his comment upon the Acts, pag. 12. doth condemn the Millenarian opinion as erroneous, &c. And other learned men argue thus:

1. The first Lesson that God taught Adam (after he had taught him the Lesson of Christ ) was, that he should not expect Christ's Kingdom upon Earth, because he then cursed the Earth to him, and what should Christ's blessed ones forever in Heaven, do a thousand years on the cursed earth? seeing Christ saith, His Kingdom is not of this world, &c.

2. Tho' Millenaries (say they) understand Satan's binding to be, that he shall no more persecute the Church, but 'tis expressed, Rev. 20. v. 3.8. that he shall not deceive the Nations; now there is vast difference betwixt persecuting, and deceiving, and betwixt Church and Nations.

3. They say also that the first Resurrection, Revel. 20.5. is meant the calling of the Jews, which is called a life from the dead, Rom. 11.15. and John 5.24, 25.

4. They add likewise, that the Resurrection of the Gentiles, or the thousand years of chaining up Satan from deceiving the Gentile Nations, did begin at the destruction of the Jewish Temple; for then (though' the Gospel had been preached before) did Judaism cease, and Christianity began, &c. Hence was that day called a Terrible day, Joel 2.31. Acts. •• .20. as if it had been the day of Judgment; and Christ discourses so of them together, that you cannot know them asunder they are so alike, in Matth. 24, &c. Many more Arguments against the Millennium may be found in Dr. Willet 's Hexapla on Rom. 11th. and on Daniel, &c. in Dr. Hall and in Ross 's Pansebeia, too long to inserit here, which Alsted and others have industriously Answered. The safest choice (I Judge) in polemical points is only to speak by permission (as the Apostle's phrase is, 1 Cor. 7 6.) and not over Dogmatically, &c. Dr. Goodwin concludes his Sermon on the fifth Monarchy with this prudent caution, saying, Whether so, or so, I leave undetermined. And the Rabbies old Salvo' (with a little variation) seems now very seasonable, namely [Elias cum venerit, solvet Omnia] when the Messiah ( Elias 's Master) cometh, he will resolve all those Sacred Riddles; we must therefore pray with the Spouse, Make hast my Beloved, and run like the swift Roe to unriddle all Mysteries, &c.

The last Remark is; What became of John after he had delivered this Revelation to the Churches of Asia the Scripture is silent. We are told his Epistles and Gospel were writ after his return to Ephesus from Patmos where he had his Revelation, & were pubished by Gaius his Host and Deacon, mentioned, Romans 16.23. N. B. And that he was put into a vessel of boiling oil at Rome which did him no harm, and that he slumbereth yet under the earth at Ephesus where he made his own grave out of which he had preached, &c. But these & many other stories ficta magis quam facta esse videntur, seem vain fictions rather than real facts saith Pareus, and be but monkish Evaporations, saith Prideaux. No better what is told concerning Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Simon the Canaanite, Matthew (saving that he wrote his Gospel) and▪ Matthias, chosen by Lot in Judas 's stead, is, if not Fabulous, at least uncertain: N. B. Where the Scripture hath not a Mouth to speak, we may not have a Tongue to ask. Now unto the King Eternal, Immortal, invisible, the only wise God be honor and glory forever and ever, Amen. 1 Tim. 1.17. Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great Shepherd of the Sheep, through the blood of the everlasting Covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his Sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever, Amen, Heb. 13.20, 21.