The Revelation Unrevealed Concerning the Thousand Year Reign, Section 11
§ 11 Thus have I faithfully related the opinion, That strain of errour which runs thorough the whole discourse of M. Archer; and is the common ground of this misopinion.and summarily contracted the larger discourse of Mr. Archer, who upon the grounds of Alstedius and Mede, runs his own descant, plausibly enough; for every clause of his tractate calling up the Testimonies of the sacred Scripture; the severall allegations whereof, upon every passage, I could be most willing throroughly to scan, if I had lesse care to spare my self, then the Reader; for whose satisfaction that I may be neither unpardonably tedious, nor in any sort deficient in the managing of this subject: I shal first shew that universall strain and ground of errour, which runs through the whole writing of this Author; then I shall note some of the chief of those bold paradoxall and unwarrantable assertions, which I meet with in this opinion and discourse; in the third place I shal lay forth those strangely improbable consequents which wil inevitably follow upon both; and lastly, I shall subjoyn such fair, safe, and orthodoxe constructions, as may be warrantably admitted of that darke passage of Scripture, the misprison whereof is guilty of this controversie.
For the first; That which is the generall fault not of this Author onelyonly, but of all other that look towards the Millenary way and indeed, the main ground of all their Heterodoxie in this point; is, that they put a meerly-literall construction upon the prophesies and promises of Scripture, which the holy Ghost intended onelyonly to be spiritually understood; hence it is, that those frequent predictions, which we meet in every page of the Prophets, concerning the Kingdome of Christ, the re-edifying of the Jowish cities, the pompe and magnificence of restored …, their large priviledges and marvailous atchievements, are altogether drawn to a grosse, corporall, and syllabicall sense; which the judgement of the whole Christian Church, seconded by the event, hath upon good grounds ever construed not of the letter, but the Spirit: I remember some thirty yeares or more agoe, a learned Gentleman, an eminent Serjeant at law, a man very skilfull in the holy tongue, and that professed no lesse acquaintance with the Lawes of God, then of man, published a large Volume concerning, not the imminent conversion onelyonly, but also the Royall State of the Jewes, their absolute, and universall Monarchy, their awfull Soveraignty over all the Kings of the earth, the glory of their Empire, the splendour of their Court and Cities, gathering up to to this purpose, all the glorious promises, which occurre every where in the Prophets; at the sight whereof that deeply-judicious King James of precious memory, was highly offended, and after the perusall of some offensive passages, commanded mee, then attending him to carry the book to the Synode at Westminster then sitting, for their censure; who upon a serious examination, with much Zeale unanimously sentenced it to a speedy suppression, as that which did haerere in cortice, and savoured too strong of the flesh; as being to servilely addicted to the letter. And now, those very texts, whole mis-understanding hath hitherto led the Jewes into a fools paradise by expecting an earthly glory, are no less cōfidently taken up by the favourers of this opinion, as the main ground of their defence; For instance, the Lord by his prophet Zechariah hath said; Zech. 2.12.The Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land: and shall choose Jerusalem again, sing and rejoyce: ô daughter of Zion, for lo I come, and will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord; This is by the Author of Zions joy applyed to that repaired and happy estate of the city Jerusalem at this second comming of Christ in glory whereas tho Ioropher onelyonly fore … the bestauration of that city and country after their thenpresent captivity, and under that figure describes the comfortable condition of the Evangelicall Church: So again by the Prophet Isaiah, Isa. 65.9.God saith; I will bring forth a seed out of Iacob, and out of Judah an inheritance of my mountain, and mine elect shall inherit it; and my Servants shall dwell there. This the same Author cites in a literall way to make good the resettlement of the Jewes in that ancient city of their inheritance; why doth he not as well adde that which followeth; And Sharon shall be a field of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the heards to lie down in; But ye are they that forsake the Lord, that forget my holy mountain: Surely if one of them be appliable to the new Jerusalem, the other must be so also: The truth is, these prophesies have their reference either to Gods mercifull dealing with Jerusalem upon their returne from their Babylonish captivity; or by an usuall allegory, expresse his gracious purpose to the Church, under the Gospell; without any respect at all to an earthly re-establishment of the Jewish nation in their long-since forgotten possessions; It were as easie, as tedious to passe thorough all those Scriptures which are wont to be alledged in this case; whereof I dare say there is scarce any one, whose either words or context do not evidently bewray their mis-application; or, if that did not, yet the event would; for as much as the time is now at hand, wherein these promises of the Generall call, and outward magnificence of these ancient people of God, should according to the construction of our new Chiliasts be either well forward or accomplished (as we shall see in the sequel) whereas there is not yet the least motion towards it in all the world.
Besides some of their mis-construed Texts will necessarily crosse the way of us, upon occasion of the severall passages which we are about to examine.