Christian religion

But all this while here is no mention made of the saying of Elijah, touching the time of the last day; which is, that there shall be two thousand years before the law, two thousand under the Law, and two thousand after the Law; and then that these days shall be shortened for the elects sake.

But all this while heere is no mention made of the saying of Elias, touching the time of the last day; which is, that there shall bee two thousand yeeres before the law, two thousand vnder the Law, and two thousand after the Law; and then that these daies shall be shortened for the elects sake.

There is no cause why, considering it is without authority of the word, as that which is not in the Scripture, and of Elijah the Prophet; but of another Elijah, neither Prophet, nor son of a Prophet. Beside that, the untruth thereof doth manifestly appear; considering that both before the Law, there were more then two thousand; and under the Law there were less then two thousand, by sundry hundred years. And where it is said, that for the elects sake those ⟨p. 277⟩days shall be shortened; it is spoken of the slaughter days of the Jews by the Roman, in the destruction of Jerusalem, and not of the latter day. For it is rather true, that the end of the world is deferred for the elect; for that there shall be an end thereof, as soon as the number of the elect be come into the world and fulfilled;¹ and for that the day of the Lord shall not come, until all the prophecies in the book of the Apocalypse be fulfilled: Last of all, that the iniquity of the wicked be come to a full measure, which the Lord observing in other judgements, will in that most fearful judgement much more observe. Howbeit, this opinion is strengthened, in that the world shall be governed six thousand, in a proportion of one thousand years to every of the six days wherein it was created: the proof whereof is drawn from Saint Peter; who saith, that with God a thousand years are as a day. This reason interfereth with the other; for the other saith, that there shall be cut off from the last two thousand; where this presupposeth a full accomplishment of them; otherwise it cannot be proportionable to the days of the creation, which was not accomplished but in the full number of six days; the same space and time being taken in the creation of the last day, which was used in any of the rest. And as for the place of Saint Peter, it is not so narrowly restrained to one thousand years, but that it may be retched out further: for unto God two thousand years is not so long as one day are unto us; which is the comparison which Saint Peter speaketh of.