Of the Day of Judgment and World to Come
Extracted from Yahuda Ms. 6, folio 12-19, part of The Synchronisms of the Three Parts of the Prophetick Interpretation (Sotheby Catalogue, Lot 244).
RESTITUTION
The mystery of the restitution of all things is to be found in all the Prophets: which makes me wonder with great admiration that so few Christians of our age can find it there. They understand not that the final return of the Jews captivity and their conquering the nations of the four Monarchies and setting up a peaceable, righteous and flourishing Kingdom at the day of judgment is this mystery.
[In] the last chapters of Isaiah … the Prophet conjoins the new heaven and new earth with the ruin of the wicked nations, the end of weeping and of all troubles, the return of the Jews captivity and their setting up a flourishing and everlasting Kingdom, the springing up of the bones of the righteous as an herb, and the judgment of transgressors whose worm dieth not and whose fire is not quenched. So also in Jeremiah 30 and 31, Ezekiel 37 and 38, Hosea 3, Joel 2 and 3, Amos 9, Obadiah, Micah 3 and 7, Nahum 1, Zephaniah 3, Haggai 2, Zechariah 12 and 14, Malachi 4, Deuteronomy 30, Psalms 2 and other places.I forbear to cite the places because enough has been already said to confirm this synchronism. But yet for removing some prejudices which may make this synchronism difficult to be believed, I out of all the Prophets compared together observe the following particulars.
First, that the earth shall continue to be inhabited by mortals after the day of judgment and that not only for a 1000 years but even for ever. For at the sounding of the 7th Trumpet the Kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever and ever (Apocalypse 11). One like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven – and there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed (Daniel 7:14, 27). In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the kingdom shall not be left to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand for ever (Daniel 2:44). The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his Father David and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his kingdom there shall be no end (Luke 1:33). Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon his Kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever (Isaiah 9:7).
ISRAEL
I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen whether they be gone and will gather them on every side and bring them into their own land (Ezekiel 37:21). And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant … even they and their children and their children’s children for ever and my servant David shall be their Prince for ever. Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them: it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them and multiply them and I will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them. Yea, I will be their God and they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore (Ezekiel 37:25-28).
Thus saith the Lord which giveth the Sun for a light by day and the (Moon) ordinances of the Moon and of the stars for a light by night – if those ordinances depart from before me saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever; Jeremiah 35:35, 36.
MORTALS
In the Apocalypse where … they bring the glory and honor of the nations into the new Jerusalem, those nations are certainly mortals, for they are the nations whom the Dragon deceived no more till the thousand years were expired, and who being at the end of those years again deceived by him, did compass the beloved city and were devoured by fire from the throne, that is by war. Thus is there an end of those rebellious nations, but not of the beloved city. Their dominion is confirmed and perhaps enlarged by the conquest of those nations nor is the end of it any where described, but on the contrary tis said that they shall reign for ever and ever (Apocalypse 22:5).
That the citizens of this city are not the saints risen from the dead, but a race of mortal men like those nations over whom they reign, is evident from Isaiah’s description of the new heavens and new earth and new Jerusalem. For of this Jerusalem he saith: The voice of weeping shall no more be heard in her nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed and they shall build houses and inhabit them and plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them, etc. (Isaiah 65:19-21). These mortal inhabitants of this city the Prophet afterwards tells you are to be the nation of the Jews returned from captivity and saith of them that as the new heavens and new earth which he will make shall remain before him so shall their seed remain: which is as much as to say that both shall remain for ever.
To assure you that this is after the day of judgment he adds that they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed: for their worm shall not die neither shall their fire be quenched and they shall be an abhorring to all flesh. The state of this new Jerusalem [is] further described in Isaiah 60, namely how it is a city of mortals assembled from captivity and rules over the nations and continues for ever, and how (as in the Apocalypse) the Gentiles come to her light and the Kings to the brightness of her rising and her gates are open continually that they may bring unto her the riches of the Gentiles and the Sun is no more her light by day, nor the moon, but the Lord is her everlasting light.
So again in Isaiah 54 the same state is thus described. Thy seed [returning from captivity] shall inherit the gentiles and make the desolate cities to be inhabited – for thy maker is thy Husband (the Lord of Hosts is his name) and thy redeemer [from captivity] the holy one of Israel, the God of the whole earth shall he be called. For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit and a wife of youth when thou wast refused, saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken thee [during thy captivity] but with great mercies will I gather thee [from among the nations.] In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy redeemer. For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth: so have I sworn that I would no more be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.
Sir Isaac Newton at 46 in 1689 (Godfrey Kneller portrait).
O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest and [during thy captivity] not comforted: behold [the days come that] I will build thy walls with carbuncles and lay thy foundations with sapphires and I will make thy windows of Jasper and thy gates of carved Jewels and all thy borders of pleasant stones. And all thy children shall be taught by the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children. In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression for thou shalt not fear, and from terror for it shall not come near thee. Behold they shall surely gather together [in the war of Gog and Magog] but not by me. Whosoever shall gather against thee shall fall for thy sake. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord.
This prophesy I have set down at large because of its analogy with that of the new Jerusalem. For here by calling this people the wife of the Lord and describing her an holy and peaceable city built of precious stones and inheriting the nations, you may know that she is the new Jerusalem the Lamb’s wife. By her being returned from captivity, her inhabiting the desolate cities and her inheriting the nations and by their making war upon her with weapons formed by the smith you may know that she is a city of mortals; a city not in a literal sense, but mystically put for the whole nation of the Jews, the precious stones and pillars and foundations thereof being the saints and Apostles. And by God’s oath that he will never rebuke her as he did the old world you may know that she shall be eternal. The mountains, saith he, shall depart and the hills be removed but God’s kindness shall not depart from her nor the covenant of his peace be removed: an expression of the same kind with that whereby the eternity of the Son of God himself is in the highest manner asserted (Hebrews 1:11).
She is so far from ending with the millennium that the time of her captivity (which hath already lasted much above a thousand years) being compared with the time of her flourishing reign which is to follow it, is here represented but as a moment to eternity. In a little wrath, saith he, I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee. Seeing this Kingdom outlasts the Millennium in so vast a disproportion of time and its end after that is no where predicted: we may well conclude with Jeremy that it shall last as long as the ordinances of the Sun, Moon and stars; with Daniel, John and the other Prophets that it will stand for ever and ever, and with Luke that it shall have no end.
This was God’s covenant with Abraham when he promised that his seed should inherit the land of Canaan for ever, and on this (promise) covenant was founded the Jewish religion as on that is founded the Christian; and therefore this point is of so great moment that it ought to be considered and understood by all men who pretend to the name of Christians.
END OF THE AGE
In the next place I would observe out of the Prophets that in the end of this present world when Christ shall come to judge the quick and dead, the quick to be then judged are the people of this kingdom, both Jews and Gentiles. … The Book of life contains not only the names of the Saints in heaven but also the names of them that escape the captivity. … Michael shall stand up … the great Prince which is set over the people of the Jews, and they shall be delivered every one that shall be found written in the Book and that at the same time many of those that sleep in the dust shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Here Michael the Prince of the Jews at his second coming stands up in judgment and judges both quick and dead.
For the book here mentioned, wherein the captivated Jews as many as shall be delivered are written, is the book of life now opened in judgment, as you may understand by comparing this place with such another in the Apocalypse where tis said, There shall no wise enter into the new Jerusalem any thing that defileth or worketh abomination or a lie, but they which are written in the Lambs book of life (Apocalypse 21:27). This book was opened before in the general judgment and all the dead who were not found written in it were there cast into the Lake of fire (Apocalypse 20:15).
John the Apostle, who later received a vision of New Jerusalem
Here in the same day of judgment the living are also judged out of it and only those admitted into the new Jerusalem whose names are found written therein. Whence also the living (both Jews and Gentiles) as well as the dead are now said to be saved. The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it and the Kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it (Apocalypse 21:24).
… The saving in these and such like places of scripture is of mortals at the last day from misery and death both temporal and eternal. When Christ comes to judge the dead he comes also to smite the nations with his two edged sword and to rule them with a rod of iron and as the vessels of a potter shall be broken to shivers (Apocalypse 19:15, 2:27). And at that time he shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire (Matthew 13:41).
The rest of his kingdom are the nations of them which are saved and they are mortals remaining on earth, because Christ has a kingdom there which he now begins to rule with a rod of iron, and tis only out of this kingdom which the wicked could be gathered.
Conceive therefore that when Christ comes to judge the dead, he judges also the living and that as many as are found written in the Book of life are adjudged to life and saved by being either caught up into the air to be with the Lord or left below on earth in the Kingdom of mortals which he thenceforth rules with a rod of iron and that the rest are adjudged to death and cast into the Lake of fire (1 Thessalonians 4:16, Matthew 24:31). Thus Christ judges the quick and dead at his coming and his Kingdom (2 Timothy 4:1). Which being an Article of faith ought to be well understood.
SYMBOLIC LANGUAGE
It is a received opinion that this judgment shall be accompanied with a conflagration of the world; and some hearing that in the future world the Wolf shall lay down with the Lamb and all beasts shall become gentle and harmless and the earth become fuller of rivers and more fruitful; and the light of the sun and moon be much increased and the royal City be as it were of Jewels and gold like clear glass, have conceived that an amendment of the whole frame of nature shall ensue that conflagration. But these fancies have been occasioned by understanding in a vulgar and literal sense what the Prophets writ in their own mystical language.
… The conflagration of the world signifies the consumption of Kingdoms by war, as you may see in Moses, where God thus describes the desolation of Israel, “I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. For a fire is kindled in mine anger and shall burn unto the lowest hell and shall consume the earth with her increase and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. I will heap mischiefs upon them. I will spend mine arrows upon them. They shall be burnt with hunger and devoured with burning heat and with bitter destruction” (Deuteronomy 32:22).
But in the day of judgment there is also a literal conflagration of the world politic in the lake of fire and to those that are cast into it a conflagration also of the world natural, the heaven and earth where they are being on fire and the elements melting with fervent heat. And whilst the Apostle Peter tells us that none but the wicked shall suffer in this conflagration and that this is a time of refreshing to the Godly, I cannot take it for a conflagration of any considerable part of this globe whereby the rest of the habitable world may be annoyed. And if the world natural be not burnt up there is no ground for such a renovation thereof as they suppose. The glorious Sun and Moon, multiplied rivers and copious vegetables of the new world are its Kings and people, the peaceable and harmless Beasts it’s peaceable Kingdoms, and the new Jerusalem that spiritual building in Sion whereof the Chief corner stone is Christ.
The 12 Gates are the elders of the Tribe which used anciently to judge in the Gates. Christ and the rest of the stones and gold are the saints (1 Peter 2:4-6). Particularly the City and streets of pure Gold are the holy people purged from the wicked as Gold is refined from dross (Isaiah 1:25, Malachi 3:2). The 12 foundations are the 12 Apostles whose names are written on them and the rest of the precious stones and gold are the rest of its citizens. Tis represented of a cubical figure and the 12 Gates the Elders of the Tribes. For the names of the Apostles and Tribes are written on them. Gates are put for Elders because the Elders judged in them, and these Gates (1 Peter 2:4-6), the Gold being the holy people refined from the wicked (Isaiah 1:25), and foundations are of Pearls and precious stones to denote them Kings and Princes. For great and valuable men are known by rich and precious ornaments.
Tis represented of a cubical figure with the throne of God in it and without any Sun Moon or Temple, to insinuate that it is a spiritual building and that heavenly City which was prefigured by the most holy. For the most holy was cubical, and had in it the throne of God; but not any other Temple [nor] flame and fire of the Altar which are the sun and moon of the Temple, nor had it any windows to let in the light of the natural Sun and Moon. Neither had it any Temple in it, but is the Temple itself; that Temple in whose courts the palm-bearing multitude worship (Apocalypse 7:15) and the pillars of whose courts are the saints of all nations (chapter 3:12).
If you desire to know the manner of this city on earth and of the war of Gog and Magog you may see them both described by Ezekiel chap 38 and 39 (and particularly) where he represents how the Jews after their return from captivity dwell safely and quietly upon the mountains of Israel in unwalled towns without either gates or bars to defend them until they are grown very rich in Cattle and gold and silver and goods and Gog of the land of Magog stirs up the nations round about, Persia and Arabia and Africa and the northern nations of Asia and Europe against them to take a spoil, and God destroys all that great army, that the nations may from thenceforth know that the Jews went formerly into captivity for their sins but now since their return are become invincible by their holiness.
We have hitherto considered the new Jerusalem as a City of mortals only: but whilst Christ is the chief corner stone of this city, whilst he rules the nations with a rod of iron and gives power over them to the saints risen from the dead (Apocalypse 2:26) and makes them Kings over the earth (Revelation 1:6 and 5:10) and gives them to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God and to enter in through the gates into the City (Revelation 2:7, 22:14), and writes upon them the name of this new Jerusalem (Revelation 3:12), this city must be understood to comprehend as well Christ and the children of the resurrection as the race of mortal Jews on earth. It signifies not a material city but the (spiritual) body politic of all those who have dominion over the nation whether they be the saints in heaven or their mortal vice-regents on earth and therefore the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews chapter 11 understands it of the saints in heaven and in Galatians 4:26 calls it Jerusalem which is above.
– Isaac Newton (to be continued)