Neighbor and it took in a Samaritan with one of Jerusalem though at more defiance and distance of heart and affection than of Place or Nation For this also see the 2. of the Hebrews and the 10. last verses And we may see what a stress God himself put and would have Us put upon This that Christ is our Brother by That Great Promise in Moses cited so often in the new Testament I will raise them up a Prophet from among their Brethren like unto Thee which words are also expressly repeated several times in the Acts. A Prophet of your Brethren like unto me Which is also the more considerable because in the very next Chapter before This Promise of Raising up a Brother Prophet It is also strictly commanded that when at any time they desired a King they might not choose a Stranger which was not a Brother but from among thy Brethren shalt thou set a King over thee Which is also several times pressed and repeated with an especial Emphasis on that of a Brother and from among your Brethren So that I may now tell Christ that I neither do nor may receive him either as a Priest or Prophet or King but as he is and so must be My Brother Else he is not That Prophet which the Lord promised to raise nor may I choose or set him King over me except he will own himself to be my Brother and so carry himself towards me and must not exalt himself above his Brethren Which was read it seems at the Coronation of their Kings and the Jews tell us of such piercing looks at the Reading of This before Agrippa was admitted or Crowned for their King that Himself also could not hold from Tears because he was not their Brother Born but only made And when their King was chosen and set over them He is bounded and limitted in that Law and the great Reason is added that his Heart be not lifted up above His Brethren One of the great things required of the King set over them was This That when he sate on the Throne of his Kingdom he should write him a Copy of the Law out of that which was before the Priests and he must read therein all the daies of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of this Law and these statutes to do them as we read expressly in the 17. of Deuteronomy The Phrase of Writing when he sate on the Throne of his Kingdom hath made me remember that when the Revelation hath with very great solemnity brought Christ or the Lamb to the Throne of his Glorious Kingdom He that sate upon the Throne said Behold I make All things even All things New Write saith He to St. John For these words are true and faithful And is it not a most sweet Promise seeing All in Christ Jesus must be New Creatures that Himself promiseth to make All New Yea and that also sitting on his Throne and bidding it be written with a Behold also before it as a faithful and True saying of Him also who before his death promised that being lifted up he would draw all men to him And being lifted up and set on his Throne instead of Writing the Law in Tables of stone or other materials he promiseth in the Prophets to Write it in our Hearts and by that also to make us New and to give us a New Heart and Mind and Spirit yea His Spirit in us and by This to make us New Another great matter to be pressed also upon Christ our King sitting on the Throne of his Kingdom out of that very Law of Moses is this That he must so Write the Law for himself that he must study it and Keep it also all his life Even the very same Law he gives and governs by he himself must Write it and study it and Keep it To us all his daies Which St. Paul also hath taught us saying That he was not only made of a woman as we observed before but also Made Under the Law and that he was made Like us in All things but sin and therefore in Obedience also Nay as if it would be vain to promise the Law written in our hearts before it was written in his own he professeth in the fortieth Psalm that it was written of him that he should do the Will of God even the whole Will of God yea it was written in his heart also so that he came to do it and delighted in it even with his whole heart As we also find the Law written over a second time by God himself in the new Tables also that Moses as the forerunner of Christ had prepared after he had broken the First Tables made and written by God as an Emblem of our Hearts written and broken also yea and renewed too by the Law new written in them and put in the Ark a Type of the Heart covered by the Mercy Seat representing Christ also covering and comprehending the Law over-shadowed also with the Cherubins of Glory as the Seat and Throne of God dwelling between the Cherubins who stand prying into the Ark or Heart of Man and the Law in it seeing by the Churches the manifold Wisdom of God is made known to the very Angels who thus pry into the mysteries of Christ. This I take to be one of the sweetest things I ever learned or can teach another that the same person who is to Teach and judg and govern me is made under the same Law with me Yea rather more than I or the first Adam was who was Put or Brought under the Law rather then Made under it as Christ Was. So that he can as soon cast out his own Being as he can cast out the Law of God or any one Title of it from his own heart Which hath it All so moulded and rivetted into it self that Heaven and Earth shall pass away much sooner than any one Tittle or Jota of the Law of God pass away or be unperformed by him For he came not to disanul the Law but to perform it in his own person most of All. And while others dispute for whom he did it I ask only Whether we think or doubt he did it not in his own person Which is one of the greatest things I therefore study that by seeing All the Law in its greatest Latitude I may see the Duty of Christ for I may so speak with Reverence and his great Obligation both to God and Man and his Joy and Delight being written in his Heart to do the whole Law of God So God spake to Joshua that great Type of Jesus Thou shalt divide the Land and make them possess it only be strong that thou mayest observe to do All the Law of Moses my Servant that thou mayest be wise or prosper in all thou dost which is Thence in the Psalms and to Solomon divers others and I will never leave thee Which is also applied to us
by him to a journey when he meets with great storms and danger of death by shipwrack or otherwise For the Lord met Moses in the Inn and sought to slay him in his way to Aegypt though he sent him thither on so great an errand Noah brought rest to the World through the Floud and many tossings in great Waters And we might have lost some of the sweetest portions of the Gospel but for such storms by Sea In one of them Christ is in the Ship but asleep and they wake him crying Carest thou not that we perish And he soon took care and rebuked the winds though blaming their unbelief and fear with amazement which is Peters phrase to the Daughters of our good Mother Sara and he might learn it from our Saviour in their storms and fears with such amazement which is a phrase used several times in the Gospel But doth God take care of bodies Will he not be more careful of our souls and pity them more If we would cry and wake him also when he seems asleep about or in us and among us and say to him Master carest thou not that our souls perish Even those precious and Immortal souls which thou seemest to value above the whole World saying What shall a man give in exchange for his soul It is said Our blood shall be precious in thy eyes and shall not our Souls be more precious O we of little faith At another time Our Saviour did not onely send away his Disciples but constrained them to go in a ship when they might have gone another way But they would have sent away the poor people supperlesse from him and when he had supped them He sends away his Hard Disciples to be tossed in the Sea while he blessed the poor people In the fourth watch of the night he shews himself God is nearer us in a storm then we believe or Expect and he saw them tossed some pretty while it seems but would not help them or appear till the last watch and then they are more afraid and cryed out supposing it to be an evil spirit So easily may we mistake the kindnesse of God and think him to be the Devil to devour us even then when he comes in goodnesse to save us But he first rebuketh their fears and saith It is I be not afraid And when Peter would venture out beyond his strength and ready to sink cryed Save me I perish He is moved with compassion and immediately stretcheth out his hand and catcheth him the very phrase used to the Hebrews He caught not the nature of Angels but he caught the seed of Abraham He suddenly reached out his hand and caught as we snatch a thing perishing in fire or water So he caught Peter As he would do us also if in our fears and sinking we would so cry out to Him Help Lord I perish How quickly did he bring him into the Ship and it with them all safe in a calme to their wished Haven O that men would praise the Lord for his goodnesse and wonderful kindnesse to the sons of men as the Psalmist repeats it several times in the 107. Psalm Such goodnesse and wonderful kindnesse did the Lord shew to Paul also in that stormy voyage to Rome wherein yet he did not onely preserve Him safe but all his fellow passengers also as he told him in a night vision saying Fear not Paul thou must be brought to Cesar and lo God hath given thee all them which sail with thee And when he came to Rome he expounded and testified the Kingdom of God perswading them of Jesus both out of the Law of Moses and out of the Prophets And for two years dwelt in an hired house receiving All that came to him Preaching the Kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence As we read in the Acts. That he also taught them to pray to Jesus Christ is plain enough from the stresse he putteth on it in his Epistle to those very Romanes in the tenth chapter Where to believing with the heart he joyns also confession with the mouth and explaineth it by praying to him For it is written Whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved For the same Lord over All is Rich unto All that call upon him But how shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed And the first Epistle to the Corinthians is directed to the Church of God at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints with All that in every place call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours And concludes thus The Salutation of me Paul with my own hand If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you my love be with you all in Christ Jesus Amen Which belongeth to every one that in any place calleth on Jesus Christ. And to All us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are All things and we by him as he speaketh in the same Epistle And the second Epistle concludeth with the Grace of Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the Communion of the Holy Ghost be with you All. As that Epistle so all his Epistles generally begin with Grace and Peace and some add Mercy also from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ who as the Epistle to the Galathians addeth gave Himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil World according to the will of God and our Father and I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the Grace of Christ. And concludes that Epistle From henceforth let no man trouble me for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Brethren the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit Amen And to the Ephesians among many other remarkable passages of Jesus Christ he prayes that Christ may dwell in their hearts by Faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye may be filled with all the fulnesse of God Namely by him in whom All fulnesse dwelleth Yea all the fulness of the Godhead And therefore He that desireth Him and prayeth to Him prayeth to the whole fulnesse of the Godhead and desireth it And in the same Epistle He that descended is now ascended far above all Heavens that he might fill All things and gave gifts c. for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the
but in three or four Generations as it may be born least the spirit that he hath made should fail before him And when he afflicteth He will not do it for ever For he doth it not willingly or from his Heart but he will Turn again and shew compassion because he delighteth in Goodnesse and his pitties and compassions never fail and his tender Mercies are over all his works yea all his works shall praise him the earth and all that is in it and the Sea also is full of his Goodnesse He openeth his Handwide and filleth all things with Good and giveth the desire of every living thing Every Tree in the Forest shall clap hands and sing and rejoyce the very Dragons shall praise him the Owls shall answer one another in his Praises Every thing that hath breath shall praise him All flesh shall see his glory and every eye shall see his Salvation For what is Glory in some places speaking thus is Salvation in others and so in the Gospel also Citing it out of the Prophets In a word there is nothing in that Threatning or in any other in this Law and why then should we fear the Gospel but what speaks Gods tender Love and Gratious Pities and Compassions Even his very Jealousie which yet is made the Foundation of all his visitting springeth from Love It is so in man much more in God who is love its self and when he means to shew his greatest Love to his poor people in recovering them from all captivity and sorrow he expresseth it by being Jealous over them and for them with a great Jealousie And St. Paul calleth his tender bowels to the poor Saints a Godly Jealousie or a Godlike Jealousie Lest a stranger should attempt to get away their heart which he had like God the Father Espoused to his dear Son Jesus And when the Lord resolves both effectually and speedily to recover his back-sliding people he promiseth to move them to Jealousie also as himself is moved with Jealousie for them lest another get their heart from him which would never trouble him if he did not very much love them and very tenderly And although Jealousie in Christ for it is proper to an Husband may seem as the Wrath of a man that will not spare or pardon in his day of visitation as the wise man expresseth it Yet even That very phrase of Not sparing or Not pardoning which yet is one of the hardest or harshest expressions in the whole Scriptures is no other than the very same Solomon doth not only observe and commend but require and commanâ—â—so in a tender hearted Father to the Son of his own bowels whom yet he must Chasten and not spare or pardon 't is that very phrase Which yet sure cannot mean that he shall be alwaies angry and never reconciled but that he sorely chasten and correct in earnest and as an Ordinance of God and not for lust or dalliance or so as may occasion sin or harden in the sin so visited May it not be possible also that the dearest children of God even Moses may commit such a Failor in his Generation work as may in such a sense be never forgiven that is Sorely chastened as David was and be still remaining as a Spot for that Generation work though they may and shall be saved May They also or only commit such Unpardonable sins And such a visitation may be threatned in the second Command as was promised rather than threatned to Davids children Who yet had the everlasting Covenant and the sure Mercies or as the Acts expresseth it the sure Holy things of David which are also promised to every Believer or every one that Thirsteth and thirsting cometh to the Waters even to them and their seed for ever So that if his children break the Law and shal despise his Statutes Then will I visit their Transgression with the Rod and their Iniquity with stripes He will chasten them with Rods and as Ezekiel expresseth it cause them to pass under the Rod and Bond of the Covenant So that Rods are a part of the Cevenant and its Bond. But he will not take away his Everlasting Kindness Yet as he speaketh of Solomon perhaps one of the greatest sinners ever living for this I will afflict or chasten the House of David but not for Ever Not for ever I will not retain my Anger for Ever which is expressly forbidden Man in general And so Christ also in the very Law that saith Thou shalt not avenge thy self or reserve thine Anger No not till the Sun go down For so this Law is pressed upon us and why not so upon every one made under that Law also and by consequence on Christ himself Nor shalt thou bear any grudg or thought in thy heart against the Children of thy People for my Covenant is with them and their childrens children also for evermore Therefore thou shalt bear no grudg against them or any of their Children But thou shalt love thy Neighbor as thy self Which our Savior and the Apostles so much the sum of the whole Law And to this very place and the phrase here used of not reserving Anger or not retaining ought in heart he very many times alludeth when he saith of himself I will not retain for ever or I will not reserve my Anger or I will not be alwaies Wroth or I will not contend for ever and the like expressions which himself and all the Scripture affirms of him divers times as one of the first and chiefest things we ought to believe os him Which is also a most comfortable acknowledgment that He also takes himself to be obliged with the following words of the same verse which he citeth also several times Thou shalt love thy Neighbor as thou lovest thy self Very sweet as Lying on Man to Man but yet much sweeter as it lieth on Christ the Son of Man to Man Man-kind every Man As I hope will be fully cleered anon Nor do I find any thing in any of the Commandements contrary to this No not That of Gods Jealousie which we touched before and his visiting the Iniquity of the Fathers on their children Even when he seeth so much Iniquity in the Father that by his general Laws of Justice Truth Equity and Mercy too for they go all together he must visit yet he is so slow to anger and so loth to afflict that he will do it by degrees and by steps and not so that may make the Father so miserable as he deserves and might very justly be But so that he may have some part of the rod as David had and his children also some other part of it so as may bring them to see and know and acknowledg the Iniquities of their Fathers also Which God promised rather than threatned to Moses on Mount Sinai also as we read in the 26. of Leviticus so much cited and confessed sor their Fathers also in the ninth chapters of Daniel Ezra and Nehemiah
deliver them from their destructions They even They also shall praise the Lord for his Goodness and for his wonderful Works to the Children of men Which is divers times repeated in one Psalm and that also by way of Prophesie or Promise and not only by Wishing as some now translate it Though the very Wishes of the Spirit of God writing the Scripture and it 's O that all the Lords People were Prophets and O that they would hearken and had Ears to hear or hearts to do as they say And O that they would consider and Turn and O that they would confess to God or acknowledg God or praise and bless God And Let All flesh praise him and every thing that hath breath praise the Lord and the like Sighs and Groans Wishes and Prayers of the good Spirit of God in the hearts of his People especially those that wrot the Scriptures are indeed both Prophesies and Promises or very strong convincing Arguments that such things so wished prayed and desired shall be granted to men and performed in them and in all the Earth also Even as Christs setting all his People to pray that our Fathers Kingdom might come and his Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Even in The Heaven or Heaven of Heavens is a very strong argument and great assurance with Evidence that It shall be so Even in Earth as it is in Heaven Yea and it is very usual in Scripture first for the Spirit to express its sighs and groans and ardent desires and longings for a thing and afterwards we read it prophesied and promised It shall be so First it cries Let All the Earth be full of thy Glory and then afterwards It shal be All full of my Glory First Let all thy Works praise thee and Then They shall All praise thee Let All Nations see thy Glory and Then All Nations and Every Eye shall see the Glory yea and the Salvation of God The Skies shall powr down Righteousness and the Earth shall open and they shall bring forth Salvation for the Lord hath created and commanded it He hath willed it and his people will it also For Concerning his Sons and his Daughters They will Ask him but concerning the Works of his Hands even All the works of his Hands They may and will and shall as they are bid command him And shall do the same works yea and Greater also than ever Christ did Then on Earth For he did but begin but Begin to do and Teach as we read in the beginning of the Acts and hath left All to be finished by his Servants after him who for This is gone to the Father and set down at his Right Hand and so hath Power or must and shall have Power over All the Works of his Hands And hath he received All that Power in Heaven Earth for Destruction or for Edification I trust verily for Edification and not for Destruction As S. Paul spake of His. So it is and much more and better much I hope in JesusChrist seeing that he can heal us if he will as the poor Lepar said and can quicken whom he will as himself saith why should we doubt his Will seeing with us it is one of the lowest steps of Grace and Goodnesse to be Willing to be Good and Graceful Yea and as Good and full of Grace as we can be and have any Power to be Why may we not hope it so in Christs Will also Is it Lesse and Narrower or Worse and Weaker then his Power Is his Heart Narrow as Mine is And his Bowels straitned also Or his Eye Evil and his Heart Envious also That he will not give or do or cannot abide to see the Good he might both See and Do and Give and Work very easily in us by that Power he hath received and the Gifts he had for Rebels also I have sometimes thought it might be better much and more Ingenuous farr to think our Saviour Weak or quite unable to do what he would then wilful or unwilling to do what he can for Good The one doth but make him Weak as a man the other Evil Envious or Malicious as a Wicked Man or Devil Or an Hypocrite that makes a great shew of Grace and good in his Face as the Heb Canaph or Knave is one that hath Grace which in Heb is Can ap-pearing But not in his Heart Or one that can but will not be Gracious Or makes a shew of Good without an Heart to it or a will to be so Good as easily he might if he would Especially when I plainly see Christ founding his Calls and Invitations of the Gospel on this very Botom and Foundation That he hath All Power given him by his Father and All things So in Saint Matthew All things are delivered to me of my Father Come unto me All ye that Labour and are heavy Laden I will givey ou Rest. Come Learn of me for I am Meek and Lowly even as Good in Heart as in Head or Arm or any Power whatever And you shall find Rest to your Souls And again at his Resurrection and before his Ascention All Power is Given me both in Heaven and Earth Therefore go Preach Do not fight or force though I have All Power and you shall have it also for I will be with you to the end of the World And therefore Preach And so also before he Cured a Poor Man that was borne by others and had no Tongue or Heart that we read to speak for himself Or it may be Faith to believe or expect it for it is said Christ seeing Their Faith not His but Theirs he said Son be of Good Chear Thy sins be forgiven thee and moved with Compassion also Healed him as divers also that were onely in his Sight though they said nothing for themselves and he never denyed any for themselves or others and This was That he might shew the Son of man had Power even power on Earth also to forgive sins And hath he lesse Power in Heaven Or lesse Heart to use it Seeing he is Exalted and set at the Right Hand of God and so hath Power over all his handy Works and made a Prince and Saviour for this very end and purpose that he may Give Repentance and Remission of sins to All that Ask and Wrestle for it as the Seed of true Seekers and that Brood of Travelers as Jacob who by seeking so and wrestling did become a Prince with God and Thence was called Israel And the Lord delighteth to call himself The God of Israel Though it might make him blush more then any Name or all the Names in all the Bible were not his Heart rather better then his Strength and Power was For every time he calls himself the God of Israel he remembers How a Poor Weak Frail Halting Man Overcame him at his own Weapons For he set upon him and was overcome and could not go he would not let him go till
Jesus Christ be with you all Which he wrote with his own hand it seems in all his true epistles From Antioch Paul and Barnabas came to Iconium and there spake boldly in the Lord which gave Testimony to the Word of his Grace granting signes and wonders to be done by their hands And returning again to Antioch and other places confirming the souls of the Disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God which St. Matthew onely calleth the Kingdom of Heaven and ordaining them Elders in every Church praying with fasting they commended them to the Lord Iesus in whom they believed Thence coming up to the Counsel at Ierusalem they there declared the Miracles and Wonders God had wrought by them among the Gentiles where Iames whom Paul calls an Apostle and so Peter also owned him as chief among the Brethren in the twelfth of the Acts which tells us before of Herods killing the Apostle Iames discourseth of Gods promise to raise up the Tabernacle of David that the residue of men might seek after the Lord and all the Gentiles upon whom My Name is called saith the Lord even Jesus who doth all these things For we may generally observe that by Lord especially where distinct from God they mean the Lord Jesus who is Lord of All as St. Paul to the Romanes and rich unto All that call upon him and we have but one God the Father and One Lord Christ Jesus And to Him the Apostles and whole Church prayed at the Election of Matthias calling him the Lord Jesus and then set two saying Thou Lord that knowest or searchest the Hearts of All men the proper character of Christ as he writes to Thiatyra all the Churches shall know that I search the reins and hearts and that also as God Man for as God only he need not search our Hearts From that great Counsel It seemed good to the Apostles and Elders with the whole Church to send chosen men with their beloved who had hazzarded their lives for the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ Barnabas and Paul For the Holy Ghost setteth Barnabas generally before Saul and often also before Paul which name is not given him till he taught Sergius Paulus that prudent Roman Governour Assaying to go into Bithynia the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them for so it is read in some of the best copies At Philippi called by a man of Macedonia in a vision Paul meets a Damsel possessed with a spirit of Divination tho she cried These men are the servants of the most High God which shew unto us the way of salvation For an evil spirit may preach true Doctrine but Paul being grieved turned and said to the spirit I command thee in the Name of Iesus Christ to come out of her and he came out the same hour And on this being beaten and cast in prison and there loosed at midnight to the Trembling Jayler they say Believe on the Lord Iesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house Thine House also Even as salvation came to Zacheus House also when to him and to Lydias Houshold also when to her At Ephesus finding certain Disciples they were baptized in the Name of the Lord Iesus Which seems equal therefore to the name of Father Son and Holy Ghost for the Apostles were commanded to baptize in the Name of Father Son and Holy Ghost and yet they did it in the Name of Christ onely and no wonder For the full latitude or fulnesse of the god-head dwelt in Him and there is no other God but in him and one with him and therefore he that sees him sees the Father also and he that worships him worships the Father also and him that serves him will his Father honour as himself saith and by consequence him that prayes to him which a great piece of worship and service He is thy Lord Worship him as the Psalmist to the Spouse or whole Church which therefore prayeth unto him all along the Canticles and Revelation also where the Bride or whole Church and Spouse of Christ and the Spirit also prayeth to Him saying Come Lord Iesus When Paul had laid his hands on the Twelve Disciples also of the Gentiles at Ephesus which then might be the head of the Gentiles and the first that received an Epistle from Christ in the Revelation the Holy Ghost came upon them and they spake with Tongues and Prophesied as the Twelve Apostles at Pentecost To which also Saint Paul seems plainly to allude in the first Chapter of his Epistle to that Church at Ephesus or to the Saints there and faithfull in Christ Jesus as he styleth them and not a Church as at Corinth and other places Some Vagabond Jews adjure evil spirits there in the Name of Jesus whom Paul preacheth and the evil spirit answering Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are you and leaping beat them through the man possessed Whence fear fell on them all and the Name of the Lord Jesus was magnified As we read at the close of that History Acts 19. At Miletus calling the Elders from Ephesus also most pathetically he discourseth how for divers years he had served the Lord Jesus among them with all humility of minde and with many tears and temptations testifying both to Jewes and Greeks Repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. But none of these troubles move me nor count I my life dear to me so I may finish my course with joy and the Ministry which I have received of the Lord Iesus to testifie the gospel of the grace of God even of the grace of God And now I know that ye all among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God shall see my face no more And yet that he came after this also again to that very place is probable or certain from his leaving Trophimus at Miletus sick in the 2. to Tim. who now went with him to Jerusalem Acts 21. 29. Or shall we say he was deceived when from Rome also he wrote to so many neer those countreys that he trusted to be given to their prayers and to come to them again O how watchful must a good man be least his own spirit rise too much with the true Spirit of God or least the Envio us one sow Tares with the good mans Wheat And when Agabus had bound his hands and feet with Pauls girdle he saith What mean you to weep and to break my heart For I am ready not only to be bound but to die also for the Name of the Lord Iesus Then they ceased saying The will of the Lord that Lord be done From Jerusalem where he spake often of that Name and in it and of praying to it as I observed before he is brought by a dangerous Voyage and shipwrack to Rome It is no sign that a man is out of the way or not sent by God or called
that I say nothing of David in the 50. Psalm and Ezekiel the Son of Man and so a special Type of Christ the Son of Man is bid to make his people Know their sins and the Transgressions and Iniquities of their Fathers Which are forgiven when Seen and acknowledged bemoaned and repented as God promiseth he will bring them unto For it is not as some read it If they shall confess c. But 't is an absolute Promise in Leviticus and Deuteronomy and so cited also by Nehemiah or Daniel and Ezekiel that he would bring them to confess and that they should confess their own Iniquities and their Fathers also and be ashamed for them That which also followeth in the second Command is very sweet and far from shewing God to be an Angry Wrathful God as Satan would fain represent him As at first in Paradice some of his very first spawn cast on our great Mother and continued ever since till Christ shall break his head and destroy his malice with his works was This That God was an Envious God the Root of all evil and hard thoughts of God Who even in Judging and in Chastening and in all his worst visitations There Threatned where yet he spake his heart and seems to speak his worst will still remember Mercy Even in Judgment and in visiting most as a Jealous God he will remember Mercy And will but correct in measure and will not contend for ever lest the Spirit fail which he hath made But will visit only to the third or fourth Generation even in those that Hate him Which yet we All do and could not but do Till he Turn us by manifesting Love to us Love which he still beareth in his heart and it is there Rivetted so fast that he can as soon Un-god himself I would speak with Reverence as he can cast out Love from his Heart or act to his poor creatures without Love Nay give me leave to tell you he loved Adam Better more or with a Better Love or more Godlike after his Fall than before Nay it may be Now much better since his long sorrows and sufferings than before in Paradice Nay I had almost said with a better Love than he loved Christ himself before his Fall or Sufferings For he tels us it is a Little Love to love our like our Friend one lovely fair and beautiful kind and thankful still to us for all our love A very smal and poor and little Love which sinners shew and Hypocrites and All to All their like But that God might encrease his Love to Adam or might shew a Better Love than he could manifest be it spoken with Reverence while Man was Like him Holy Wise and Just Truly Fair and Beautiful in All he let him fall into the dirt and dust of death Into the Pox or worse disease that might deform him wholly so that he might commend his love indeed to such as hated him and were unworthy ugly more deformed then poor Job when botched all and naked most forlorn and miserable in his own and others thoughts and left in the hand of Sathan at his will But onely save his Life or Soul as God expresseth it Not onely for a Type of somewhat yet to come unto All that will wait with Job and expect the Lords End but it may be representing Adam also as accused and tempted by Sathan and at length left in his hands till God could shew his love was not onely skin deep as we say but everlasting Nay encreasing more and more as it could make or find an Object for that pity and compassion and that gracious Mercy which could not appear but still had been unseen abroad from God or hid within him had not his Wisdom contrived an Object for it which was Misery and guilt which was not till Sin came in and so he let him fall and shut him up under sin and guilt that he migh shew him Mercy which he could not do before And as before his fall God did not absolutely tye himself to Punish him So After the fall he did not execute That upon him which he might have done but devised devices as the Wise Woman of Tekoa said to David that his poor Banished might not perish And yet still preserved his own Honour and Majesty Truth and Justice too with such a kind of Love and Tender pity merciful compassion which could not appear abroad or possibly be shewn till sin or guilt or shame or fear or sorrow grief or pain or some such misery or other made an Object capable of pity mercy or compassion I shall yet a little more insist on these Particulars shew I hope they very well agree and no way contradict the Words and Mind of God even in the Law or harshest part of all the Scriptures First I premise God loved him and could not but love him very intirely if he loved himself while he was in his own Image And having so loved him and being so Immutable in his Heart Love and Nature he loved him to the End And I do not yet clearly see how any Promise can Oblige God to a more Constant Love of Man restored to that Image Then his own Nature and Heart moved him to love Adam In that Image Now if his Heart be not so truly Tender Gratious and Perfectly Good and immutable also in his most Genuine and Natural Love but that it could really change towards Adam in his own Image yea and that also before his fall or any demerit what ever as to decree his everlasting ruine or at least to leave him to it so foreseeing that he would so fall and rise no more in himself and his Posterity How can any man be sure and rest upon his Word or Promise that he will not leave him when he is renewed again into that Image Seeing it may be still doubted whether any man living can fully know Gods heart and mind by his words or expressions except there be some way else to know it and to rest and trust in it then his words can expresse or import Or unlesse a man may also be taught to believe his Word is Better Truer and more Certain Fixed and Obliging also then his very Heart and Nature is Which as some Teach or Believe was Such even then when it loved most or as much as it could love its self or its own Image that it yet hated and forsook and left to I know not what Irrecoverable misery his own Image and his dearly beloved in his own person or at least his posterity even his very next Son and Sons Sons to all Generations yea to all Eternity for the far greatest part of his Posterity May we not therefore believe and say that with a true constant and Eternal Love of Delight and Complacence from all Eternity to all Eternity God loved himself and his own Image where ever it was And nothing else but kimself and his own Image with that kind of
Love And so before the fall he loved man And being fallen with a Sweeter better Greater Kinder kinde of Love of Pitty Mercy and most tender Bowels of Compassion Which was ever in that Infinite Fountain of All being But it appeared not abroad till the Wisdom of God contrived how to shut up some in fear and guilt that so he might at once shew Justice Truth and Mercy also which then Met and Kist Embracing one another And the Lord foreseeing and Resolving all this that so it should and so it must be while his Heart was such and such it must be while he was and is himself which was and will be ever and beyond all words that expresse Eternity He still spake so wisely that when he threatned most yet he lefr an Issue for goodnesse to come forth and shew it self with Truth and Justice too And therefore at the very first Command and Threatning to our Father Dying thou shalt Dye or thou shalt surely Die he did not tye his hands or bind himself without such Reservations as might still afford room large enough for Truth and Mercy both I shall not enquire at present upon what account it pleased the Lord to abridge Adam in Paradise of That which he granted before when he gave him for meat e-Every hearb bearing Seed and every Tree in which is the Fruit of a Tree yielding Seed which is not Usual with God To give and then to take away without demerit Nor do I say Adam obliged himself to that which he needed not if he had considered his former Pattent or his Deed of Gift But this I say in general there is not a Word Command or Threatning spoken to man that is not spoken by Christ And first therefore spoken by God in and to Christ who then speaketh nothing but what God said to him in him and As the Father spake it unto him so he speaketh unto man But certainly there was not any one word ever spoken by God to Christ either Precept or Threatning with any purpose to make him Despair But to Do believe and live And by consequence never any one Word or Threatning of the whole Law spoken by Christ to any man but As the Father spake it unto him not to make him Despare but believe and live For which also see Deut. 5. 29. 29. 29. Psalm 78. 5 6 7 8. 81. 13. Prov. 22. 19 20. Isa. 48. 17 18. Rom. 15. 4. John 3. 17. 17. 5. 34. 12. 47 48 49 50. 20. 31. Again I do not see plainly what God meant by Dying when he said thou shalt surely dye or dying dye Or that if he meant the worst of deaths for kinde he meant it so also for Duration Seeing Christ when he bore the Curse and its heavy weight did not dye such a kinde of death or at least for such duration as it is supposed to be here threatned And the very phrase here used to Adam is threatned to Davids Child by Bathsheba and to many others in the Scripture And to Hezechiah it is added Thou shalt not live And yet he did not die but live And David hoped that his Child might live notwithstanding that threatning dying it shall die or it shall surely die And sure when it did die he did not believe it dyed Etetnally or that this was threatned by that phrase so frequent also in Scripture And if God had meant any such Eternal death to Adam by that threatning it is somewhat strange that after the fall he removed them out of Paradise and guarded it so least they should yet eat of the Tree of Life and Live for Ever though he had said Thou shalt surely dye But to put the matter out of doubt We may see Gods Meaning of this Threatning in the 24. cha of Ezek. where he saith the people should so certainly die in their sins and pine away in their Iniquities with the most terrible expressions and most vehement assertions that can well be imagined as Because I would have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee I the Lord have spoken it it shall come to pass and I will do it I will not goe back neither will I repent But you shall pine away for your iniquity c. which is the terrible Threatning reserved for the last place in that famous and gradual Judgement so solemnly denounced in the twenty sixth of Leviticsn And As a Seal of this most heavy doom Ezekiel is strucken dumb and can no more admonish or comfort them so finally devoted to destruction so that he never speaks a word more to them from that 24. chap. to the thirty third And there God lets and bids him speak again unto the Children of his people By which very phrase we are led back to that sweet place we cited so lately out of the 19. of Leviticus of bearing no grudge against the Children of his people but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy heart but shalt certainly rebuke him and not suffer sin to lye upon him Which is the Text on which the Lord so comments to the Son of man whom God there setteth up as a mighty Type of Christ to be the great Watchman and warner to his brethren and his neighbours Or to be a light to lighten the Gentiles also each man and every Man that cometh into the World Adding also on that occasion that if a Nation or a people of a place do of themselves in a time of darknesse and danger choose a man and set him up for a Watchman or a Teacher or a Ruler among them there being alike reason God will own it as His Ordinance though but of Humane Choyce and Institution Which may be compared with That of the Apostle of submitting to Mans Institutions in Government even for the Lord or as an Ordinance of God To be much considered by those that reject Rulers or Teachers if they cannot shew a special Call or Mission by God Upon That occasion the Son of Man which also reacheth to Christ whose work is much described in Ezekiel hath his strict yet general Rules also when ever God threatneth Man And Then remembring the last solemn Threatning but now cited from the 24. chapter which was the last spoken to them He commandeth Thus O thou Son of Man speak unto the House of Israel Thus you speak saying If our sins be so upon us that we must Pine away in them which was the last great Threatning How then shall we or can we possibly Live Say unto them As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the Death of the wicked even of the wicked but that the wicked Turn from his Way and live Turn you Turn you from your evil waies for why will you die O ye House of Israel And then giveth that sweet and yet general Rule for interpreting All the
severall times in the Prophets and twice in Jeremy of his own dearest Children whom he saith he will not Cut off or destroy but only chasten visit or Correct in measure but not Hold Guiltless or acquit them wholly The very same Phrase used in the Third Commandement and in the Name of God Proclaimed in Exodus and Numbers 14. And the very same Phrase is used by Job of himself divers times although we may be sure he did not beleeve God had cut him off for ever or would never acquit him or hold him Guiltlesse though he so speak of himself But it is such a phrase as the Prophet Esays Therefore forgive them not which yet is no worse or more then we find commended and commanded also by Solomon to a tender Father who is bid to chasten his Son and not to spaâ—e him or forgive or acquit or Hold him Guiltless For they are much the same Phrases Yet I may ad to make us fear the Goodnesse of God rather then All his Wrath He that taketh the Good Name of God this gracious God in vain or he that so Turneth it into wantonness is the most guilty Person in All the Bible that I know or most in danger not to be quit or held Guiltless as we find hinted in severall places from the third Commandement Except haply we may also say the most Guilty Person in the World whom God will least acquit or hold guiltlesse is Jesus Christ In whom the Curses also are Yea and Amen or fulfilled rather more then the Promises For in These he joynes his Children who are Co-heirs in All the Promises and Purposes of God But in bearing the Threatnings and Curses He is more alone then in All the Promises He treads the Winepress of Gods Wrath alone and of the People there is none with Him He alone can bear it He alone need fear it All the Billows of the Almighty rowled upon Christ and All his Arrows stuck in his Heart and drunk up his Spirit more then All the world besides All else being little weak nothing lighter then vanity Compared with Him that was Gods Fellow and his Match Who thought it no Robbery to be Equall with God who therefore laid his stroaks upon H m who was only able to bear them with our guilt So that in a right sence He is the most guilty Person as Bearing Gods most Holy Name more then All the World besides And bearing all our guilt for bearing at in vain And as the third Commandement hath its not Acquitting So the second hath it's Jealousie and visiting the Fathers sinn upon the Children As if this were most proper to the false or Superstitious wayes of Worshipping the true God rather then to the having other Gods forbidden in the first As if God also were Jealous of none but such as were Marryed to him and had chosen him for their Husband But now wandred out in strange wayes of Worship which provokes his Jealousie and makes him visit more it may be then any other sinnes If it had been an Enemy I could easily bear it O but my Friend and my Familiar in my Bosome as the Lord may speak when his own Spouse dresseth her selfe in an Whorâ—sh Habit as it were inticing Strangers Which the Lord abhorreth more it may be then the grossest Idolatry of those that are Strangers Which is not so grievous as the Provocation of his Sonns and Daughters as Caesar also cryed What and thou my Sonn Brutus or his nerest Relations which perhaps also may be more properly called Haters of God in Hebrew Sone much akin to the Saxon English Name of Sonn rather then Strangers who have not knowledge enough to Love or Hate Him in a proper sence as those that by not walking in the light and love they have received come at length to be so guilty and full of slavish fear that they turn downright Rebbels and such Sonns as God commanded should be brought out to the Judges to be stoned for Rebellion Which is very neer perhaps if not the very sin against the Holy Ghost Or that presumptuous wickednesse which David so prayed against remembring that there was No Sacrifice for presumptuous Sinners but as the Epistle to the Hebrews speaketh A certain fearfull looking for of judgement and fiery indignation to devour the Rebbels As the Jews also had the Cutting off and the Hand of Heaven yea and that also they called the Rebels stroake But of All Images forbidden in the second Commandement as so much moving God to Iealousie Those which are most common and most dangerous as little taken notice of being most Spirituall or most Divelish are the Images we are so prone to make and mould of God by that within us which is therefore rightly called Imagination and the proper forge of Images which yet may reach farther higher and more inward then our sences or that which the Schooles call Imagination Worse much then Images made by hands which we are so long in Moulding and Carving that we blâ—sh to worship That we have sweat so much about and warmed our selves with part of But a deceived Heart makes us eate the very Excrements and ashes of those Images or Image-makers And as the great thing which brought the Flood was the evil Imagination of mans Heart continually So it is the great promise in many places of Scripture that his people should no more walk after the Imagination or the Image making or the Idols of their own foolish Hearts And it is the great Judgement and Punishment of those that when they knew God did not glorifie him as God nor were thankfull that they should become vain in their Imaginations or in Image making and their foolish hearts so darkened as to change the Glory of God into an Image or an Idol of their own fancies the most dangerous Idolatry And thus indeed they change the Image and glory of God in themselves to the Image of a Beast eating grass as Nebuchadnezar and it may be This is some emblem of worshipping the Beast or receiving that character which the Revelation saith All the World should do but those only whose names were written in the Lambs book of Life before the foundation of the World And That Beast or sensual beastly spirit may be more common than is thought And when man was made in the Image of God He was to Rule over all the Beasts or Beastly natures or spirits But now losing the Image of God and of man also he taketh the Image of a Beast and of The Beast so much spoken of in the Revelation But as Love was the foundation of the very Law also springing out of the Heart of God which is Love However it may now gender unto Bondage yet it rose from Love So it speaketh Love to the very worst of men as Saint Paul affirmeth till their Rebellion make them Outlaws and put them out of the Protection of that good Law which is given to them all saying to
and the Basest As the Psalms the vilest men are exalted Which may Humble Any Prince and keep Wise men from Ambition to be Rulers over others least as Solomon saith They that be Higher than others be more Highly punished by them that are Higher than They. As the Priest that often cryed on his Death-bed O Bury me in the Belfry I pray in the Belfry Government is a great Ordinance of God and to be Helped to be Born with All our Hearts and Prayers None can Envy it that know it As the Grecian said to the great Persian Thou seemest not to have Heard of Liberty For He that knoweth what Liberty is cannot but value it Above the Persian Empire And Dioclesian being once quit of the Roman Empire and invited again Cryed No I will Drink no more Poyson But thy Kingdom shall be Sure which is Hebrew also After those 7 Times which in That place are expressed by somwhat of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also And yet sure they did not last Ever Nay but 7 Years or 7 Months And they began at the end of 12 Moons as the Text speaketh just as he was saying After All his Warnings Is not This My Babylon c And then the Voyce as the Jewes yet call it Bath Kol the Daughter of the Voyce As in the Gospel also There came a Voyce and they said It Thundered The Voyce fell down from Heaven Is not this the Image that fell down from Heaven Of which They have more to speak that know Iconium also had its Name from such an Image saying They say to thee Thy Kingdom is Added as it was Increased after This with more Excellent Majesty as in Luke and Paul we read Most Excellent given also to Men of lower Ranck than a Soveraign King who is a God on Earth I said ye are Gods And Jacob Bowed to the Earth before the King of Aegypt Religion doth not take us off from any Duty to Princes and Kings as Supream and Governors under them but preserveth and increaseth it But some read Thy Kingdom is Passed or Departed from Thee Where yet is the Verb of Ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in English Yed or Yet also by which we may plainly see that it meaneth no Eternal Ever but somwhat Passing away And So may the English Ever also However it be used for it is plainly the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ever or as some sound it Heber Who had also Two Sons the Greater to Rule the Day from whom came Abraham and the Less to Rule the Night and from Him Jerach the Moon and Hasermaveth the Court of Death and Hadoram Their Age or Generation and 10 other Sons to make up 12 M. wâ—h the Moon And the very Name of Heber with the Jewes noteth Passing Ouer as They think the River Euphrates Where about it seems He lived If at least Ur of the Chaldees be Ptolomies Urchoa and not rather Ura in the March of Xenophon or of Crassus nearer Charan much where He was also slain Then the Out-lets of Euphrates into the Red Sea for So it is called There also in divers ancient Authors where about they now place Ur. Very far from Charan which is much out of the way to Canaan but in the way or near the way from Ura. And the Holy Watchers cryed Let his Heart be changed from Mans and let a Beasts Heart be given him and let Seven times Pass over him Heart is Lebab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and being turned backward it is Babel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where this King Reigned and the Beast is called Eeva 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As if it would minde us of our Mother Eeve who first made us become as Beasts She is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 near akin to This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chaveh the Living Beast as before But they sound it Eeve which may be Hatred as God saith I will put Eiva between Thy Seed and it may be Lust also which is Truly Eeva from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it may be a Beast which is also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As the English yet call a Beast Beeve and Beef and Theeve which is also to play the Beast And so Theves or Thebes the Cow City in Beotia or other places As in Aegypt for Their Apis and Sorapis Whence They learn'd to make the Golden Calf which the Psalmist calleth the Beast in the likeness of an Ox. They worshipped the molten Beast and turned their Glory which was the Image of God in which and by which They should have Ruled over All the Beasts As God himself Expounds it in Gen. 1. 26. Into the likeness or Image of a Beast eating Grass As Nebuchadnezar also did How just is it with God when we will first Turn our own Glory into the Image of a Beast to Turn us Really into the Shame of a Beast As it Here was with Nebuchadnezar I say not also with Adam which yet Turned or a little changed cometh to be Dama and Edom which was also Seir or Sire a Goat a Buck a Satyre a Devil And I must not add that All this came in by Eeva or Lust which made Him so dally with Her till he became in Hebrew Beast or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In his Wife And now I wonder not that in All their Sacrifices God ever required 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Woman or the Wife also as well as Fire-Offering to be consecrate with Salt as Lots Wife and Then to be offered to God also or Devoted which our Saviour may express by Hating a mans own Wife Whom yet he must ever love and cherish as Christ doth the Church For it is a Circumcision not made with Hands that maketh Eunuchs for the Kingdom of God Who promiseth such a Name much better than of Sons and Daughters Shem or Shame Olam that shall not be cut off But the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that was cut off may lead us to That Skin or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which God put on our Parents when they had fallen in to such Beasts as Then He Clothed them with And our Lords Conclusion is Let him that can Receive it Yet the Woman also shall be saved by bearing a Son But she must be Sileut in opposition to One of the sounds of Chaveh to which also Psalm 19. may allude For as at first by Hearing the Serpent and Tatling with him she believed him and was Great with him to This Day So if she be Slow to speak and Swift to hear Him that cometh not in his own Name by Faith she may also Conceive that is Understand which is proper to the Female or Passive Understanding As Knowing in all Languages is given to the Male or Active Intellect and the Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents Head Who is also the Head of the Beast and All the Beasts of