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Light and Glory of the fore-going Day; fo Chrift's Kingdom fhall begin with the withdrawing of Peace and Comfort, and in following Darkness; in that great Troubles fhall begin to arife upon thofe, who Thall be the Subjects of Chrift's Monarchy, both believing Gentiles and Jews, with Ifraelites, or the ten Tribes, who fhall be all converted, and greatly troubled; but when that Trouble is at the height, then comes the beginning of Chrift's Kingdom. At the first fetting up then of this Kingdom, Chrift fhall come from Heaven vifibly, even as he went thither; which yet is not his laft coming to the laft Judgment, but a middle coming betwixt the two other; for Christ, he faith, hath three comings; the firft when he came to take our Nature; the fecond when he comes to receive his Kingdom, for the receiving of which he went to Heaven; the third when he comes to judge All and end the World: This fecond coming of Chrift shall be long before his coming to the laft Judgment. In which fecond coming Chrift will do thefe three things. First, he will raife up the Saints which are dead before this his coming, not only fuch as have been martyred as fome think, but all Saints who have died in the Faith; for which caufe he is faid to come with all his Saints. (Zach. xiv. 5.) But all the Dead which are not Saints, fhall lie ftill in the Duft, till the laft and general Judgment, for the second Death.

The Saints which are thus raifed in the very first Refurrection, fhall not return to a mortal State of Body again, nor yet be fo perfectly glorified as they fhall be afterwards; for then the People on Earth could not bear their Prefence, for they shall shine as the Sun, but they fhall be in a middle State, betwixt Glory and Mortality, as Chrift was after his Refurrection, before his Afcenfion: Secondly, he

will deftroy the wicked People on Earth, for they about the time of his coming fhall combine against the Saints; and then will Chrift fuddenly surprise them to their Ruin; now this Ruin of the wicked, fhall not be as yet univerfal to every one; only now he will ruin the Armies of them, and fo he will break the Head and Arm of them, as it was with the Egyptians at the Red Sea, and the reft he will make Slaves to the Churches; and it feems that fome wicked fhall be left for a Seed to thefe Nations, because by the End of Chrift's Kingdom, Gog and Magog fhall rife against the Saints, which cannot arife out of fuch as prove Hypocrites, or excommunicated, for there fhall be none fuch there; but thefe wicked ones left, fhall be the Nations ruled with Iron. (Rev. ii. 27.)

Thirdly, he fhall examine, blame and shame the Saints who are alive at his coming, if they be found to have walked loofely; he will not kill them, nor change them in a moment, but fhame them; therefore Peter exhorts to be holy, that we be not blamed at his coming.

Now when Chrift hath thus done, and put his Kingdom into Form, he will withdraw to Heaven again, and leave the Government to the dead Saints. raifed up; among whom the Apostles fhall be chief, and they fhall have the Government of thofe Saints which are found alive; that is, they and all Believers fhall rule the World, in which the twelve Tribes fhall be chief, and they shall not only rule as Kings, but as Priefts; that is, difcipline their Souls as well as their Bodies.

Now for that it might feem to be no fmall Damage for the Souls of Saints dead to be fetched from Heaven to live again upon Earth, with Men, in their, Bodies; he tells us that it is likely the Souls of the departed Saints are not in the highest Heaven, but

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in a middle Place better than thisWorld,but inferior to the highest Heaven, which Place is meant by Paradife in the New Teftament; which Paradife he conceives to be below the third Heaven, and therefore furely to be in the Region, or Element of Fire, where the Sun and Stars are, or in the highest Region of the Air, which is called Heaven in Scripture.

These Saints Souls fetched from this Paradife, and joined with their Bodies raised from the Dead (which is the first Resurrection) they rule Chrift's Kingdom, even all of them, tho' fome of them in more eminent Place than others.

The Perfons that shall be governed, or the Subjects of this Kingdom, fhall be all that live upon Earth, and the Place they fhall govern fhall be the whole World; the Saints fhall be ruled like the Iraelites under Solomon, the wicked as Slaves; thofe ten of the twelve Tribes that are loft, fhall be found out and made Subjects of this Kingdom; the Cities of the Tribes fhall be built again, especially Jerufalem, which shall be the moft eminent City then in the World. The Ifraelites fhall be first raised to this Glory, and at Jerufalem will Chrift begin to fhew himfelf; and from the Ifraelites fhall Glory defcend to the Gentiles.

The Privileges of this Kingdom fhall be wonderful: Firft, all the Subjects of it that are Freemen fhall be holy, and not feemingly Saints, but true Saints, not any Sinners. Nothing that defileth, fhall be then, no Hypocrite; no Perfon excommunicated, as proving bad; nor any of the Children of these Saints fhall prove naught, but all fhall be elect, and prove Saints, and the Seed of the Bleffed; for if any of their Iffue fhould prove Hypocrites, or wicked Perfons, it would fo affect them that they should not have everlasting Joy; neither could Sorrow

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Sorrow nor Sighing fly away; now in these times there shall be no Sorrow nor Weeping: They fhall be edified immediately from God in Chrift; the Sacrament is but to laft till the next coming of Chrift, to fet up his Kingdom: Chrift will hold them up in Fulness of Grace, tho' not in full Perfection of Grace till the laft general Judgment, or their Tranf lation to Heaven.

There fhall be a full and prefent Answer to all their Prayers, there being no Sin to keep good things from them.

There shall be a Fulnefs of all temporal Bleffings, as Peace, Safety, Riches, Health, long Life, or whatsoever can be had in this World.

They fhall have Exemption from all bodily Troubles.

Every one fhall live an hundred Years; no Infant, nor any other fhall die fooner; there fhall be no Sickness, or Grief to confume their Strength; altho' a natural Death fhall be, yet there fhall be no violent or untimely Death by any Grief, Sickness or Trouble : Satan fhall be wholly reftrained from tempting them to Sin; or others to trouble them.

Original Corruption fhall be kept in, not to break forth into any grofs way. To which he adds; they fhall not be infected with Popery.

This for the Evening or firft Part of Christ's Kingdom. Now when this Kingdom of Christ hath lafted to many Generations, the Slaves and Tributaries will be grown to Multitudes; thefe under the Name of Gog and Magog, upon whom the Devil fhall be let loofe, fhall be drawn by Satan to affault the Saints, which Trouble shall not be long; it shall be sudden and violent, but fhort; for Chrift fhall fuddenly come from Heaven, and with Fire kill all the wicked ones, not leaving one of them

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alive upon Earth. This Affault of the Wicked will Chrift take for the Occafion of his coming to the laft and general Judgment; before which he fhall in a Moment change the Bodies of all his Saints that are not dead but alive at his coming; and raise up the dead Bodies of the Saints, who lived and died during this Kingdom of Chrift; and they together with the changed Saints fhall meet the Lord Jefus in the Air, coming again from Heaven, never more to be parted.

Then shall all the Wicked be raised up from Cain to the last wicked Man that is found on the Earth; and now shall be the Judgment, which we call the Day of Judgment; which being finished the Saints fhall be carried with Chrift for ever into Heaven; and the Wicked fent with the Devil into Hell; which Hell fhall not be the fame which is now fo called, but Another; this being now but as a Prison; that, the Place of Execution and Torment.

The Hell that now is ferving only to referve condemned Spirits, which have no Bodies till the Execution at the laft Day; at which time this Hell fhall ceafe and be fwallowed up. The Hell that fhall be for Torment, fhall be all this lower and vifible World of Earth, Waters, and the lower Heavens reduced by God then to their firft Chaos of Confufion.

Now this Kingdom of Chrift, tho' for the Evening or firft Part of it, it is exprefly determined to Jaft a thousand Years, or ten Generations, yet the dawning or latter Part of it, is not expreffed in Scripture how long it fhall endure; but doubtless, will laft a long time; and though called but a Day of Judgment, yet it may laft a thousand Years, as the other is to do; because, this is the time in which God's Mercy, Juftice, Truth, Power is to be gloriously revealed before all Men and Devils;

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