litteral Esau or Edom. God sends his ambassadour Obadiah to declare their offence and proclaim war against them for it v. 1-3 They say in their hearts who shall bring me down to the ground This they Presumptuosly say in the very day of God's Controversy with them and Judgments upon them even when they feel that Power of his they know there 's no bearing up against or standing before Yet they say who shall bring us down from those Clefts of the Rock those Mystical high and strong places we have made and got for our Habitation This high Rocky Habitation does import that high and Heavenly place or appearance of Christ's truly Rocky new-Creation Life and Glory they most wickedly transform themselves into the likeness and resemblance of to fight against even against the true Rock of safety and everlasting Salvation which the poor wise children trust in run into and are safe for evermore The old foolish Kings get into these counterfeit Heavenly places or Gospel-appearances Satan's prepared strongest holds for them and there as fondly imagining themselvs out of the reach of Gods Wrath or Power do they boldly bid defiance to him and his Spiritof Grace as if they should say let God do his worst We fear him not For Who can bring us down from our high and strong place They have made their Eagles-Nest so high that they reckon themselvs secure from the Power of evil any Punishment from God Habac. 2. 9. Thus accoutred and fortified for self-defence do they most proudly daringly and Presumptuously send their challenge against the Almighty Divine and irresistibly mighty new-Creation Power of Christ and God as if higher and stronger then both and so in no danger of being brought down by either Who shall bring us down Here 's their confidence in their Mystical first-Creation Rocks and Mountains evil Angels their proud helpers who must all stoop under Christ's all-powerful Revenging hand helpers and helped which when actually upon them they 'l still persist obstinately in their Presumption saying of themselvs I am God before him that slay's them but say's God thou shalt be seen and found to be but a Man and no God in or under the hand of him that slayeth thee Ezek. 28. 9. They say Who shall bring me down I will says God Obad. 4. Though thou exalt thy self as the Eagle-ey'd Spiritual Saint as if Wiser then Daniel Ezek. 28. 3. and though thou set thy Nest among the Stars as if equal to my Holy Angels thence will I bring thee down saith the Lord. Thus will they by ouvert Acts give the utmost evidence of their most desperately wicked Hearts by which fully to ripen themselvs for the final Triumphs of Gods Justice upon them all Though hand joyn in hand Men with Angels in this desperate Confederacy and Combination against God most high for the practice of the utmost Spiritual wickedness against him they shall not scape unpunish'd He is infinitly above them in all their proud dealings against him and will do as he sees meet to them all They pretend to all the safety Strength and Wisdom of Spiritual Saints and Angels All this will not do their work but ripen them for God's strang and wonderful work in Judgment upon them all The things of this Esau-party of Angels and Men shall be search'd out and their hidden things sought up v. 6. their hidden Works of darkness not only hidden under the form of Godliness and Righteousness of natural Man or Angel but under the disguise and counterfeit resemblance of the very Power of Godliness and Righteousness of God All won't secure their Mystery of Iniquity from God's infinite divine and all-searching all-discovering infallible new-Creature understanding All their first-Creation Vanities and Deceits under whatever Artificial Gildings and Glittering appearances will be discovered blasted and destroy'd by him they have to do with 'T is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God They 'l too late find it so All the disguise and deceit used by them has bin to manage their design for offring Violence to their Brother Jacob God's poor wise children true Spiritual Saints For this Shame shall cover them and they shall be cut off for 〈◊〉 v. 10. Cruelty and Persecuting Enmity to them Christ takes as done to himself Why Persecutest thou me Act. 9. 4 5. Mat. 25. 45. No kindness from the old foolish Kings is to be expected by Christ's little ones his poor wise children The season for Jacob's absolute deliverance will be the season of Esau's absolute destruction Obad. 21. When the Kingdom shall be the Lord's Saviours even Christ with his Angels and Saints shall come upon Mount Sion to judg the Mount of Esau. Then shall it appear whose Rock or 〈◊〉 is strongest or greatest Their Rock will dash all Enemies Rocks in pieces their Mountain or Kingdom crush and sink all the Enemies Mountains or Kingdoms under-Foot and be set on the top of them over all Spiritual Saints out of all Nations shall flow unto it Isai. 2. 2. as their invincible strength and safety against above and from all the Powers of darkness and Gates of Hell itself For on this Mount Zion shall be deliverance and the House of Jacob and Joseph shall be a fire and a flame and the House of Esau for Stubble to be devour'd by them Will any doubt or question this The Mouth of the Lord the Mouth or new-Creature Wisdom the Living Word or Supream Prophet of God Christ himself hath spoken it Obad. 17 18. The fire and flame of Jacob and Joseph signify the irresistibly burning and bright-shining Light of Christ's new-Creation Gospel-Life and Spirit in true Saints at that day of Judgment that shall undeniably evidence the unpardonable wickedness of their implacable Enemies and irresistibly burn and consume all their Glory and Power for ever So shall the whole Babylonish party of incorrigibly wicked Angels and Men as fitted fuel for the said Mystical fire and flame sink and never rise more as is figur'd in God's denounced Judgment on Litteral Babylon Jer. 51. 64. They shall be punish'd from the presence of the Lord and Glory of his new Creation-Power in himself in his Saints and in his Mighty Angels 2 Thes. 1. 7-9 This get the old foolish Kings by their obstinate return to build up the desolate places or that State and Life in themselvs and others God is blasting and pulling down in them all by his righteous Judgments upon them This work and design of theirs is the highest aggravation of their wickedness under a self-condemning Light within them and the certain effects of God's evident displeasure upon them God will render their final destruction and the cause of it so manifest to themselvs and all others that they shall be seen by all to be justly called the People against whom he hath Indignation for ever And thus have we some account of the poor wise Child and old foolish King here and what conclusion they
wisdom of man is nothing in the case The words of God's Wisdom his oracles whether given in Dreams Visions or by his true Prophets are too hard for that interpreter The new-creature wisdom of God in Daniel and the three Children was ten times better than that in all the Magicians or wise men in the Realm Dan. 1. 20. In this could Daniel tell both the oraculous dream of Nebuchadnezzar and the interpretation those wise men neither Dan. 2. The great prophetical Image of worldly Monarchy from that day to the end of this World Man's day and Satan's reign was the matter of the Dream Then the Dream of the great high Tree which more particularly related to Nebuchadnezzar himself was interpreted by Daniel also Dan. 4. 22. And after this in the reign of Belshazzar grandchild to Nebuchadnezzar did the same Daniel interpret the Mene Tekel on the Palace-Wall none of the wise Men of Babylon knew what to make of Dan. 5. 15. and v. 25 28 Daniel as an awakened spiritual Saint knew the interpretation of the thing or word no wisdom of Man could interpret Yet does the but restored righteous first-covenant Saint Wise Strong and Honorable in Christ there figur'd by the wise Men of Babylon Egypt and the King of Tyre presumptuously reckon himself wiser then Daniel or Paul Ezek. 28. 3. 1 Cor. 4. 10. The Queen recommending Daniel to frighted amaz'd King Belshazzar when she saw his thoughts trouble him and Countenance chang'd said there 's a man in thy Kingdom in whom is the Spirit of God an excellent Spirit having the light understanding and wisdom of God in it by which he had knowledge and understanding for interpreting dreams shewing hard sentences and dissolving doubts or untying knots as the Chaldee reads Daniel interprets the Mene Tekel and the execution was speedy For that night was King Belshazzar slain by the Medes and Persians who after two years siege then enter'd the Town by diverting the River Euphrates Dan. 5. 5 -- 31. Here 's the truly 〈◊〉 man His Wisdom consists in and is evidenced by a right interpreting of Parables and dark sayings of important concern in their significancy but too obscure and difficult for man's wisdom at best to deal with or unriddle Neither literal nor mystical Magicians Men or Angels in any first-creation understanding or learning can interpret them Such another as Daniel was Joseph long before Pharaoh had two Oraculous Dreams that by their impression upon his mind signified that they signified some important thing to him and his people but what he could not tell This was left for the true interpreting Spirit in Joseph to declare Nebuchadnezzar knew tho' his Dream was slipp'd from him that 't was an Oracle from God and had a concerning significancy so his spirit was troubled as Pharoah's in like case till they both knew what their Dreams meant Dan. 2. 1. Gen. 41. 8. They were both perfect puzzlers to the wisdom of man None of the wise men in Egypt or Babylon could interpret either of these Kings Dreams Pharoah's doubled Dream in two distinct Sleeps signified the same things seven years Plenty and then seven of Famine The fat and lean Kine coming out of the River Nile signified the same cause of the Plenty and Famine of the Plenty by its wonted overflowings and of the Famine by failing therein The two Kings for the signal benefits they received by the hand of these two choice Saints advanc'd them to great worldly dignities in their several Kingdoms and days The Reason given was because the Spirit of God was in them Gen. 41. 38. Dan. 2. 48. 5. 11. Is this a qualification for preferment with Kings now a-days tho' call'd Christian that these two Heathen Princes preferr'd Joseph and Daniel for Were there true Gospel-Saints in Heathen Cesars houshold Phil. 4. 22. in Paul's time Where are such now in Christian Cesars housholds The Wisdom then or Understanding that judges or 〈◊〉 all things 1 Cor. 2. 15. and so can interpret all words into those things signified by them as God's full intent and meaning in them this renders the happy 〈◊〉 thereof the wise man here meant It makes him a Seer of God one that can read understand and declare the whole Counsel of God about the Salvation of men Such Wisdom as reaches the deep things of God's very Divinity and most excellent spiritual creature-things of Christ and God sure natural the lowest general rank of things in Man and Angel's first-creation-make can't lie hid from The divine and spiritual things of God knoweth no Man or Angel in their single natural make or state but in the Spirit of God the new-Creature Gospel-spirit of Christ becoming the Principle of their Life and discerning by a new-Creation of them 1 Cor. 2. 10 15. Such Wisdom is not found in the first-creation Land of the living or State of Life Visible or invisible natural things first-creation Vanities are the bounding utmost immediately discernable objects of the highest Wisdom in that state No fowls of the Air Angels by their mystical Vultur's Eye or quickest clearest natural sight do so much as reach that place or spiritual state in Christ where true Wisdom and Understanding are found Job 28. 7 12 13 20 21. Spiritual Light darted on the natural Understanding of Man or Angel may convince them both that there are not only Divine but Spiritual new-Creature things which are quite out of the reach of their bare natural Understandings And that 't is in the awak'ned principle of spiritual Life only they can properly and fully see and enjoy such things All then that undertake to handle the written Oracles or Word of God without this only Key or true interpreting Wisdom of God communicated to them in his Creature-Spirit of Grace we may easily judg what work they are like to make on 't or what recompence they 'l have for their pains How Men that handle the written Word of God in a Wisdom and Spirit that 's foolishness and enmity to the living Word Spirit and Wisdom of God will be handled by that living Word at last may easily be guess'd Man in all first-Covenant Life Light Wisdom Righteousness Holiness is but holy flesh wise strong and honourable in Christ yet but the natural Man that can't receive the things of God for they are foolishness to him and Paul or any true Spiritual Saint is reckon'd a fool for owning or asserting any such things 1 Cor. 2. 14. 4. 8 10. They are not the objects of the natural understanding are only spiritually discern'd And he is offended and stumbles at the cross-doctrine of death to his natural state as undispensably necessary to his coming at true Wisdom or spiritual Understanding Such doctrine he reckons folly and madness 1 Cor. 1. 23. Joh. 10. 20. Hos. 9. 7 8. First then negatively where is true Wisdom not to be found not in the first-Creation Land of the living Then affirmatively where is it to be had
no Redemption Psal. 49. 8. The first-covenant holy Place wilfully kept up against the second and most holy turns it into a most unholy Place a state of unchangeable enmity to God and death to Man 2 Pet. 2. 20 22. Heb. 10. 26 27. On this complicated twofold wilful sin against God and the distinct lights of his twofold Covenant as an enemy of all Righteousness does God bury and cover him with a spirit of unchangeable darkness So comes he to 〈◊〉 wholly forgotten in the City place or state where he hath so done The very name and memory of the whole earthly 〈◊〉 City or party of Men fix'd in the first-covenant holiness as turn'd into unchangeable enmity to God and the second will 〈◊〉 for ever They 'l be blotted out of all favourable regard or remembrance with God for ever The very state by them rebelliously chosen will 〈◊〉 made 〈◊〉 final prison and burying-place in which to 〈◊〉 for ever This get they by trusting in lying vanities Ver. 11. Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil Here 's a sad Account of the 〈◊〉 of all hearts as ready to abuse all the goodness and patience of God in deferring the execution of his sentence against their evil works God is of purer eyes than to behold with approbation any iniquity One time and way or other all sinners must be punish'd for all sorts of sins pardonable or unpardonable God punishes every evil work in Saints and puts the evil-worker in them their natural spirit to death at long-run under the fatherly chastisements of his Cross as we find it in Solomon's own case and all the posterity of our spiritual Lord David Psal. 89. 26 -36. Then he quickens and sets up the life of his Spirit of Grace in them that never can sin 1 Joh. 3. 9. In this can they fully please God and overcome the Devil This get they by the Gospel exchange-traffick God's infallible Gospel-Spirit and Wisdom for their fallible Law-spirit All that fix in their Law-spirit become unchangeable enemies of God and his Gospel And all God's patience towards them herein do they abuse to a farther hardning and waxing confident in their folly setting their hearts to do evil because his declar'd Sentence against them is not speedily executed upon them v. 11. and Rom. 2. 4 5. God 〈◊〉 them line and opportunities of manifesting the utmost of their wicked thoughts and intents against him and so do they ripen themselves for the Sicle of his just Vengeance Rev. 14. 19 20. God will be abundantly clear'd and justified in all his ways and dealings towards them his long patience with them and then final severity upon them after all No Men without the Law or in the Law no Heathens in the rational light of Nature no Jews or Christians in the first-Covenant life of the Law will be found destitute of such conviction of the insufficiency of their natural state for Salvation as will expose them to judgment for their secret enmity to God in staying there by his infallible Gospel-Spirit Rom. 2. 12 -16. 'T will then be undeniably evident that neither from the fashion of being or changeable life given them by a first-creation nor from want of sutable helps for directing them towards eternal blessedness in the second the miscarriage of any to their eternal ruin has bin necessitated Their evil mind growing worse and worse under all a Sentence of unchangeable Death comes at length to be most justly executed upon them Under all the favour of a first-Covenant life a-fresh restor'd in them and the life of the second in its own light shew'd and offer'd them in such a Land or State of Uprightness do they deal wickedly in enmity to God and the second Isa. 26. 10. Pharaoh under all the wonders in Egypt hardned himself more and more against the messages of God presumptuously calling them vain or lying Words Exod. 5. 9. The Priests Scribes Pharisees and professing Jews in the view of all Christ's Miracles grew more wilfully hard'ned against his Gospel-doctrin and murther'd his Person Thus did they in a Land of Uprightness the holy Place or first-covenant State of their enlightned righteous natural Spirit Man's just demeaning himself therein is an obedient submitting to God's doing Judgment on it out of love to his mercy or unspeakable Gospel gift of eternal Life Mic. 6. 8. By humbling himself with Christ Phil. 2. 8. to the Death of the former comes Man to walk for ever with God as Enoch Gen. 5. 24. in the latter A surrender of all our own in the first-creation for God's own in the second is a doing righteously in and with our Land or State of Uprightness This answers the very end for which God restores unto Man or brings him again into his first-creation 〈◊〉 or Land of Uprightness If Man will not then honour God with his substance Prov. 3. 9. by giving it all up in sacrifice to his Will but rebelliously keep it up in a known enmity to him his destruction is undeniably of himself as fully setting his heart to do evil Ver. 12. Tho' a sinner do evil an hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely I know that it shall be well with them thatf ear God which fear before him In this and the next 〈◊〉 Solomon positively asserts a twofold truth concerning the obedient Saint and the incorrigible Sinner The Saint who alone truly sears God it shall be well with And as certain is it it shall not be well with the wicked because he does not fear before 〈◊〉 This fear of God that carries such great and certain good in it to the Saint and the want whereof causes great unchangeable misery to the incorrigible Sinner can import no less than an universal obedience to God and compliance with every of his 〈◊〉 Such obedience is seen by God in the incorruptible Seed of spiritual life and true Holmess before quickned into life or motion in the Saint This holy Seed secretly disposes men to obey the Lord according to their various degrees of natural and legal light as honest moral Heathens or first-covenant Believers Cornelius an Heathen Captain was own'd as such a fearer of God with all his Family under his conduct and example Act. 10. 2 22. and as so accepted with him v. 35. This Fear consisted in a faithfulness to his present light against the workings of corrupt nature and a readiness to receive and obey a greater light when offer'd as by Peter's Ministry So 〈◊〉 before his Gospel-conversion was faithful to his Law-light under that higher dispensation of God then Cornelius was before his Gospel conversion and forthwith obedient to Christ's Gospel-light as soon as shining upon him and made God's new dispensation to him Gal. 1. 16. Act. 9. 6. 26. 19. Both Cornelius and Paul walk'd according to their light yet not so resolutely confident or
teach and endeavour to reclaim him from his heretical and blasphemous Enthusiasms as they call the very Inspirations of the 〈◊〉 Job 32. 8. The teachings of God Does the spiritual Saint need that any such Men should teach him 1 Joh. 2. 27. who themselves may be or are the most criminal Enthusiasts under the inspirations of seducing Spirits preaching the very doctrines of Devils 1 Tim. 4. 1 2. Christ as our risen Lord is the supream Gospel-Minister in the said Spirit And there are no Ministers of his Gospel save in and of the same Spirit given to and quickned up in them Thus see we who is the true Gospel-wise Man Paul was such an one when a fool weak and despicable in the Eye or Judgment of first-covenant Professors or Brethren wise strong and honourable in Christ there 1 Cor. 4. 8 10. Having then dispatch'd the two questions come we to the declar'd Priviledges of this wise Man t. Such a man's wisdom maketh his face to shine and the boldness or strength of his face shall be chang'd These effects of the Spirit of true Wisdom in man were eminently seen upon the natural Man of Chr'st in his transfiguration prefatical to what would be fully accomplish'd upon him in the Resurrection His Face shone as the Sun and his raiment was white as the light Mat. 17. 2. After his Resurrection and Ascent also he shone brighter then the Sun to Paul in his way to Damascus Act. 26. 13. The Divine King greatly delights in this beauty put upon men and men therein Psal. 45. 11. This beauty gives men a holy boldness in God's presence No first-creation beauty or righteousness will do this Filth of Spirit or enmity to God's Divine and Creature-Spirit renders all that deformity and filthy rags Isa. 64. 6. See what all garments and works in the but restor'd natural state of Man amount unto Isa. 59. 6 -8. No flesh or man in fleshly first-creation life and best performances thereof and in can stand with boldness be justified before God Gal. 2. 16. or saved 1 Cor. 15. 50. In the clean unspottable incorruptible life linen or clothing of the new-creation Spirit of Christ can men come boldly to the Throne of Grace or appear before God with success in their addresses and prayers Heb. 4. 16. Vers. 2. I counsel thee to keep the King's Commandment and that in regard of the Oath of God The strict confining these words to the literal sense may overthrow the very advice given in them For literal Kings oft require what 's contrary to the Oath of God yea to the common light of Nature Both the moral Heathen faithful to his first-Covenant light or Law of rational Nature and the Jew or Christian possess'd of first-Covenant Life also both these are to keep the Command of the King here meant who gave them both the said Light and Life as the enlightner of every man that comes into the World Joh. 1. 9. As fast as Christ set up in Paul one light after another light of Nature light and life of the Law and then light and life of his Gospel-Spirit he walk'd faithfully in obedience to him Act. 23. 1. He obey'd him morally and then legally in first-Covenant light and then evangelically in the light of the second Man in all variety of light ought to be faithful to that King that gives all following that light as his Law in and to him for directing his steps in desire thought word and action Now a literal King oft establishes mischief by an evil Law or commands things contrary to establish'd good Laws and wants not for Flatterers that will tell him all are bound to obey such his personal Commands under pain of damnation from that of Rom. 13. 1 2. most falsly interpreted in a perfect contrariety to God's meaning in it Zedekiah swore Allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar who gave him that name signifying the Oath of God to mind him of his Covenant His rebelling and sending to Egypt for help against Nebuchadnezzar God revenges upon him Shall he prosper shall he break the 〈◊〉 and be deliver'd with the King that made him King whose Oath he despis'd in Babylon shall he die Ezek. 17. 14 -- 16. Yea v. 19. God calls it his Oath and Covenant the breach whereof therefore himself would recompence upon his guilty head Nebuchadnezzar and his Council of War at Riblah cause his Sons and all his Nobles to be 〈◊〉 before his eyes then put out his eyes and carry him prisoner to Babylon where he dies 2 King 25. 4 -- 7. So Jer. 39. 4 -- 7. and Jer. 52. 8 -11. This got he by rebelling against the words of the Lord by his two eminent Prophets Ezekiel in Babylon and Jeremy in Jerusalem A passive obedience to the Civil Magistrate in suffering for well doing 1 Pet. 2. 20. is what God requires even from Saints as acknowledging Civil Government an Ordinance of God under which by Providence they are put sigurative to a great spiritual Truth which is the full meaning of this advice for keeping the King's Command here in passive obedience under his Cross and Spiritual Sword on their natural state however faithfully they have demean'd themselves in it as Job Not then denying these literal Truths as to a right stated active or passive obedience to Civil Magistracies let 's turn our understandings to the ultimate sense of the counsel here given The absolute King here is Christ over all the Earth Psal. 2. 6 -8. This not in the spirit and life of the Law as the Jews would have made him Joh. 6. 15. but of the Gospel into which he rais'd our nature in himself In his resurrection-state is the Man Christ the universal Monarch as Paul interprets Psal. 2. 7. Act. 13. 33. By love or force shall every knee bow to and tongue confess this King All friends and foes must and shall pay homage to him when he takes to himself his great reigning Power Rev. 11. 17 or actually comes forth in the visible exercise thereof None shall be able to hurt or hinder him or his true subjects in his peaceable Reign over all He will dash enemies in pieces like a Potters Vessel with his Iron Rod or Scepter Psal. 2. 9. Isa. 11. 1 9. In that all-powerful new-creation life and name into which he has raisd our nature will he do all this to foes Nor is there Salvation in any other name or life for friends not in his partaken-of Law-name or life by the knowledg of him after the flesh or conformity to him in that perfect changeable first-covenant life of the Law he took as born of a Woman but that into which rais'd out of the death of that Act. 4. 10 12. He says that of himself in his Law-life he could do nothing The obedience he had to perform in that was passive as commanded of his Father John 10. 17 18. This suffering obedience appointed by the Father when finished Joh. 17. 4. our nature in him