here in dust or thick clay And yet his Wisdom and the Best in him being now united to Flesh will not must not say to the Foot I have no need of Thee yea must not disdain to say to this Worm Thou art my Brother or my Sister and Corruption is my Mother or my neer kindred And while others talk of Doing the Law and performing it to others I am mainly bent to see and hope believe and pray that Christ will Do it and perform it unto me and so by working in me teach me and help me also so to Act to others in some measure As he doth to me What is the Law which hath so long kept us in awe As if it had or could disanul the free Grace of God and Covenant thereof which was made with our Fathers and with us in them also so many hundred years before the Law rose up As also the Goodness and Pities of God were from everlasting to everlasting and so much longer and stronger than his wrath which we use to call his Justice which is not in him but as a stranger coming cross his way or calling on him and at most was but of yester day when some poor creature had sinned Is not the Law the very mind and Heart of God even That God which is Light and Love and perfect goodness Is it not summed up by Christ himself into Love All the Law nothing but Love Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God with all thy mind and heart and might and the other is like unto this Like unto This For Man also is like unto God and thou must Love yea and honor Man too But Like as thou dost God Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self But how can I possibly Love God or my Neighbor before God Love me yea and some way manifest his Love to me Can I first give unto God or lend him that it may be paid again Is it Probable or Possible that I say not noble generous or Ingenuous for my God to ask and expect my Heart and Hearts Love to him before he had given his Heart and Hearts Love to me What shall we say then Having loved Man once he loved him still being his own in his own Image which he yet owns still in him after the Fast and after the Flood too Thou shalt not shed Mans blood for in the Image of God He is created Nay St. Paul is so bold as to call man not only the Image of God but also his Glory the Image and Glory of God And yet he speaks of Man as Man and of every man saying also that Christ is the Head of every man and that Man is the Image and Glory of God And Wisdom which is Christ plainly saith His delights were not only with Man but with the Sons of men or Man-kind And there were no Sons of men till after the Fall and when man had sinned And Gods Philanthropy or Love to Man-kind so much spoken of by St. Paul and others in the New Testament is also observed by Moses himself who beginning to bless the twelve Tribes of Israel plainly saith God loveth the Peoples also for the word is Plural and may take in all the Gentile Nations also in the Earth yea he carries them all in his bosom as the word he there useth may import Though he have also some especial to them that sit at his Feet and receive the Law at his Mouth which he there giveth for a sure Character of Gods especial Love even his Giving and their Receiving of his Law the Good and Royal Law of Love And God so loved the World even the World that he gave his Son for the world not to condemn the World but to save it for God even the Father himself is Love and hath sent forth his Son in Love and hath also promised his Spirit to convince the world even the World of Sin and to powr it out on all flesh that All may see the Glory of God Yea every eye may see his Salvation And hath therefore given his Law to the World even to the worst of men as St. Paul argues to Timothy that by it he may convince them and draw them to Christ. Having so shut them all up in unbelief and conclude them All under sin and breach of the Law that he might have Mercy on them Which indeed and properly speaking could not be shewed till there was an Object for it and there was no Misery which is the Object of Mercy till Sin was in the world And doth not This very Law this Holy perfect Royal Law of Love express and speak this Heart and Love of God to every man that it speaketh to and that is the worst of men living Doth it not say Thou shalt love me because I love thee Doth it not begin to every Man to whom it speaks and say I am the Lord thy God even Thy Lord and Thy God! and Therefore Thou shalt have No other God because I am Thy God And therefore thou shalt not bow to Images but Worship me only because I only am the Lord Thy God And therefore thou shalt honor my Name and not abuse my Love or take my Name or Goodness in vain or turn it into Wantonness because I am the Lord thy God And wilt thou not both love and honor That is Reverence that great and Reverend Name The Lordthy God Not a Terrible Name but a Reverend Name and therefore to be loved and greatly honored or Reverenced as God bids us Reverence his Sanctuary and a Woman must Reverence her Husband and the time is coming that we shall not call our God Baali that is My Lord or hard Master But Ishi my Husband And yet we shall then most Love and Reverence him with Godly Sonly Fear and Reverence And because this Name of the Lord my God is so great and holy and reverend Therefore I am bid to reverence it and hallow it even as the first Petition of our Lords Prayer teacheth us to pray and by no means to take it in vain For they that name it must depart from Iniquity And although the words added of not holding him guiltlesse that takes his Holy Name in vain ought still to keep me in great aufull Reverence yet they ought not to make me have any hard thoughts of God as if he were an Hard Master which our Saviour shewed as the Root of all miscarriage And those words may seem to speak a selfish person and so hard to please and so unexorable when displeased that do little suit the sweet and Gracious Heart of God which is Pure and Peaceful hardly provoked and Gentle easie to be entreated Slow to anger and without fury which rest onely in the bosome of Fools Delighting in Mercy and abounding in Goodnesse The Father of Mercies pardoning Iniquity Transgression and Sin And when he is provoked to visit and chasten yet he doth it Gently and Slowly and by degrees not at once
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
used by the Psalmist and his Rock which yet had a God had a Lord or a Father which is a plain character of Christ. As very many others which an attentive Reader will easily observe through the whole book of Psalmes yea the Prophets also in very many places And the Proverbs do not onely bid us lift up our voyce to Wisdom and cry aloud to Understanding but commands us also to call her our Sister and our near kinswoman which is a plain character he means That Wisdom which was hid in Christ in whom are hid All Treasures of wisdom For He is the Power and Wisdom of God who hath made him also Wisdom for us and unto us Being our Brother who of old dwelt with Prudence and was brought up with him But His delight was with the Sons of men whom he is not ashamed to call His Brethren Nay he commandeth us to call him Brother saying also that a Brother is Born for a Day of Trouble and to call His Wisdom our Sister and His Understanding our near Kinswoman which is a Comment on that of the Psalmes He is Thy Lord and therefore Worship him But He is also Thy Brother and therefore Kisse him also least thou displease and grieve him which we see all along through the Canticles also Shall I add yet more to perswade or encourage you in praying to Christ Or why rather to Christ then to God otherwise Though we may speak to the Father also and with great comfort and boldnesse If at least I can and dare say My Father forgive me as I forgive others which yet I desire to do and in some measure do but oft found it so hard to make it the measure of Gods forgiving me that it made me oft turn to Christ and say Lord teach me to pray this Prayer as John taught his Disciples And at length I hope he taught me and to speak and pray to Him also as He to His Father For he is not onely my Lord but my Father also and the Father of Eternity or as some read it of the World to come Yea and my Father in Heaven where he then also said he was Nay the Son of man which is in Heaven and your Father which is out of Heaven or came out of Heaven in that remarkable passage of our Saviour added by St. Luke to the Lords Prayer taught his Disciples in a secret place as they found him praying and said Lord teach us as John taught his Disciples and he taught them with some difference from what he said before all the People in his Sermon on the Mount whom yet he bid say Our Father c. But in Luke he addeth If you that be evil can give good gifts to them that ask you How much more your Father who is or who came Out of Heaven For so it is in the Original and by that character he may perhaps hint That very prayer may be spoken to him For He that seeth Him seeth the Father also and He that worships him worships the Father also and Him that serveth Him the Father will love and honour He that speaketh to him speaketh to the ear and Heart of God For the whole fulnesse of the Godhead is in Him and that I may not separate the Persons or have wrong conceits of God as I am apt enough to and so it may be worship Idols of my own making in my own brain which may be easier and so more dangerous then Idols made by my own hands I chuse much to speak to Christ and to God onely as in Him As of old They were to pray to the God of Abraham that spake to Moses and dwelt in the Tabernacle between the cherubims of glory shadowing the Mercy Seat covering the Arck so I speak to God onely as He is in Christ where he dwelleth for ever And though it may be very lawful to pray to God through Christ and for Christ Yet not to speak of out aptnesse to look on God as wholly wrath in Himself when he is Love even the Father is Love and so loved the world also that he sent his onely begotten Son to save the world and not to destroy it If one should run me in to the heart and I should cry to God the Father to cure me for Christs sake would he not answer and all wise men Go also to the Physitian or to the Chyrurgion who is to work out thy cure under God and is so appointed by God So when sinne or Satan Tempts or wounds me to the heart if I cry only to God to heal or help me for Christs sake will he not say Go to Ioseph I have trusted him with all things go to the proper Physitian or Surgion for the heart Jesus Christ whom I sent sanctified for that end to heal your soul and body both And He that heareth and learneth of the Father will go to him who indeed is the End of the Fathers Teachings and Drawings as he is the End of all the Law And Himself also crieth Come unto me and learn of me and buy of me and I will give you drink and Ease and Rest and Ey-salve thst you may see And though none come to him but whom the Father drew yet himself also promised that lifted up he would draws All men even All men unto himself And out of his belly shall flow Rivers of Living Waters And to the Woman of Samaria he said If thou knewest the Gift of God and who it is that speaketh to thee Thou wouldst Ask and ask of Him surely and He would give thee Living Water which should be a Fountain still flowing up to Eternal Life And they did pray to Him here on Earth and sure we might do so again if we should meet him here or could see him with our bodily eyes or could lay hold of him with our hands and wash his feet with our Tears and wipe them with the hairs of our heads If I should meet him as I walked why might I not speak to him as Paul did when he saw him in the way or afterwards in the Temple as he was praying Or as Stephen did when he died And is he not as neer us and as ready to hear and help and save us Now though we see him not with our bodily eyes as he was then And yet sure if we could but learn to speak and do all we do in the Name of Jesus Christ as we are bid we should even see and feel and taste Christ in our selves and in one another When it shall please God to reveal Christ in us as St. Paul speaketh to the Galathians intimating that he may be in us when we do not see him or believe him so for God onely can manifest himself and him to us and how or why doth he manifest himself to us and not unto the world But he hath promised to be among and in us and manifest himself and his Fathers Name that the love
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
are by Thee Thou shalt not press him with Usury or be as an Userer to him nor any way Hard for if he Cry unto me I will Hear for I am Gratious and will God Hear when we cry of a man oppressing or pressing us and will he not hear us against the Devil also and our spiritual pressors or Oppressors seeing he Fxecutes Judgement for All that are Oppressed And His Word is as pure silver seven times refined from Earth sweetly applyed to this very thing If thou meet thine Enemies Ox or Ass going astray and in another place This Enemy is called a Brother which may shew us how far that Phrase of Brother or Neighbour reacheth even to an Enemy and One that Hateth us As also Christ sheweth us in his Parable of the good Samaritan and divers other places Where he tells us 't is â—a little Love to love a Friend or one that is like us or friendly to us Thankful and Kinde which even sinners and Hypocrites use to do in Their Love But his Children and Servants and himself also must love Enemies and such as hate backbite blasphem and offer all despite unkind and unthankful and all this that they may be like their Heavenly Father Who with love of delight and complacence loveth only himself and his own Image but with pitty and compassion which may be a better or a kinder kind of love he loveth and is kind and Merciful to his very enemies and those that are unlike him froward and unthankful Yea to their very Ox and Asses also even as the Law here bids in Exodus If thou meet thine Enemies Ox or Asse going astray thou shalt surely bring it back to him again If the see the Asse of him that hateth thee lying under his Burthen Thou shalt surely leave thy businesse or lay aside thy Garments to help him up or help with him Which may be improved much in our addresses to Christ. For we may justly tell him Our poor souls are as the very Asses of his Enemies and those that hate him nay yet worse as the wild Asses Colt as the Scripture expresseth it and that is more unserviceable then the Ox or Asse or other beast of burthen is I am Behemoth with thee as the psalmist expresseth it But though I stray yet Thou hast put thy self under That Law which bids us help a straying Beast and much more when he lies under an heavy Burthen under which he cannot stir much lesse come to Thee as thou callest All that are heavy laden Now sherefore shew thy pitty and compassion to the poor Asse or the poor soul the bruitish Heart of him that is thy Enemy and Hateth Thee And I know one that said He never received a more sweet and kind return from our Saviour then when in great anguish of spirit he bowed unto him crying onely This Now shew thy kindness to thy Poor Enemy the Kindnesse thou hast spoken of to a Poor Enemy which is now at thy foot and mercy whom thou hast taken captive with thy Sword and thy Bow and while I am speaking Thus I think also of That spoken by the Prophet to the King of Israel when he had so many of his Enemies at his Mercy in the midst of his great City Shall I smite them my Father shall I smite them and the Prophet answered No by no means wilt thou smite them thou hast taken captive with thy sword and thy bow give them to eat and drink and let them go and he prepared great provision for them and sent them away so overcome with this Kindnesse that they could hardly be drawn to come any more as Enemies against the King of Israel who was so Merciful a Prince And Mercy doth preserve and establish a Kings Throne more then any thing in the World as Solomon shews and David also in divers places and so it doth and still shall establish Christs Throne also Which is a white Throne even when he cometh to Judgement and Mercy shall still go before him and be the stability of his Throne and Kingdom and blessed be they that hear and know and believe that joyful sound which is sweeter then all the Trumpets or the Bells about the fringe of Aarons Garment Which yet had a better Ornament even that sweet perfume of the Good Oyntment a meek and quiet spirit as Saint Peter expresseth it and the Psalmist compareth it to Love which with God is of great value and it drencht his beard throughout even Aarons Beard which was yet but an Excrement and often to be cut away and ran down through all his Garments even to the seams and fringes also round about And as if God had not yet enough provided for the Poor through all the Laws in Exodus and Leviticus He repeateth and addeth in Deuteronomy Thou shalt not harden thy Heart or shut thy hand from thy Poor brother As if all shutting of hands came from Hardnesse of Heart and that This also was mainly or onely against a poor man But thou shalt open thy hand wide and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need in That which he wanteth Beware there be not a word or thought in thy wicked heart saying the seventh year the year of Release is at hand and thy eye be evil against thy poor brother and thou givest him Nought and he cry unto the Lord against thee and it be Sin unto Thee Thou shalt surely give him which before was lend him but at or near the year of Release it was a gift because to be forgiven then and Thy Heart shall not be grieved when thou givest to him a most sweet Command and Promise because that for This thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in All thy Works and in All that thou puttest thy hand unto VVhich is the great promise to the Reading and Observing of the whole Law so that love and pitty to our poor Neighbour is rewarded as keeping of the whole Law As Daniel also to Nebuchadnezar even when the decree was made against him I councel thee to break off thy sins by justice and by shewing Pity to the poor And when the people asked John the Baptist What shall we do He said nothing but Pity the poor And so our Savior also to the wicked Pharisees Give Alms of all you have and All things shall be clean to you And lest All This might yet be too little or too narrow because it begun with a Poor Brother It concludes as general as well can be expressed Thou shalt open thy hand wide unto thy Brother to thy Poor and thy Needy in the Land Which Phrase is remembred to Christ several times in the Psalms crying Thy Poor and Thy Needy and forget not the Congregation of Thy Poor c. Where it is also Kite as the English sound the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Kite or Knite the Beast or Beasts of thy Poor As alluding to the Oxe or Ass or wild Asses Colt
OLBIA THE NEW ILAND LATELY DISCOVERED With its Religion and Rites of Worship Laws Customs and Government Characters and Language With Education of their Children in their Sciences Arts and Manufactures with other things remarkable By a Christian Pilgrim driven by Tempest from Civita Vecchia or some other parts about Rome through the Straits into the ATLANTICK OCEAN The First Part. From the Original For Samuel Hartlib in Ax-yard Westminster and John Bartlet at the Guilt-Cup near Austins-Gate London and in Westminster-Hall 1660. The sum of this Discourse HAving lost his Father and other Relations about the great Sickness in Naples the Author becometh a sad disconsolate Pilgrim all alone by Land till unexpected dangers force him from Rome or there about to the Sea Where in a great Storm and Tempest he falleth into unexpressable Horror and Anguish of Minde till at length by Shipwrack losing all his Company he is cast on a scraggy Rock and There by a Religious Person as an Hermite entertained till recovering his Peace and strength with a quiet minde he also Learned the Religion Laws Customs Language and Characters of That New Iland fully described in the Books following this First Part. In which the Father discourseth the Danger of wrong Judgeing our selves or others with the way to a right understanding and Judgement the great Work of the Spirit promised to the World by Jesus Christ Who was sent to Redeem our souls from All Deceit and violence and to offer sacrifice for every one that Erreth and for him that is simple Cleered from Ezech. 45. 20. with Psal. 72. Of our Access and addresses to Him by Prayer As Saint Paul Learned from the first Martyr at his Death and thence made it the great Character of a Christian cleered from His Epistles and the Acts with the Revelation and other Scriptures in Harmony to the Psalms and Canticles Conversing with Christ and Praying to him From the 17. page to the 44. How Christ taught his Disciples and others to pray Our Father c. How He prayed to His Father and How a Christian to Christ and the Father in and through Christ. As Calebs Daughter to Her Father by her Husband and Her self Of Zelophehads Daughters and Edoms Widows and Orphans from Jer. 49. 11. from 44 page to 53. The great Arguments to be pressed on Christ as our Brother Born for a Day of sorrow made of a Woman made under the Law to Redeem them under the Law How the Law lay upon Christ as the great High Priest and Prophet promised to Moses to be raised from our Brethren and Like us in All things and so in the Law also And as our King to write out the Law by which he Ruled and to keep it all his Dayes that so he may do it and prolong his Dayes and Reign in the Heart of his People Where also the way to settle a perpetual Monarchy to a King and his Sons for Ever As God to Moses Joshuah David Solomon or others from 53. to 59. How the Suffering part of the Law lay upon Christ and sor whom but especially the Doing Part. How All was by himself summed up into Love and that but little if onely to Persons Lovely and Loving again How God Commended his Love to the worst of men to whom the Law it self saith I am the Lord Thy God and I have Redeemed Thee and therefore thou shalt Love me and worship me and Glorifie my Name and keep my Rest because I have provided it for Thee and Do and will both Love Honour and Glorifie Thee from 59. to 64. and 94. to 101. How Gods Jealousie speaketh his Love and all his Visiting from 64 to 70 How God Threatned Adam in Paradice and how he visits to fulfil those Threatnings on Him or others from 70 to 77. How much better for us that infinite Goodness and Riches now fill a Finite Nature that longeth to be sucked as a Breast ready to break with fulnes still flowing up still flowing over and a Drop that runneth over can Enrich our Souls and make us ever Bless him who hath said It is a more blessed thing to Give than to receive And He that hath received freely must give freely Of his having All Power in Heaven and Earth being the Wisdome and Power of God and Better for himself to use it for Edification rather than Destruction from 77 to 81. How Christ Loved the World and Prayed for the World how not from 81 to 86. 94 to 101. Of Gods Hating Cursing in order to a Change and how Places or Persons Hated or Cursed may be Recovered Blessed from 85 to 149. 161 308. Of the Earth cursed for Man but Washed or Baptised by the Flood And of Baptising Children how Holy things of old belonged to every one redeemed by the Priests or born in their Families 18 120 186 365. How cursed Canaan was blessed again 122 c. And cursed Jericho Recovered 128 129. And Gibbeon And Aye And Sodom Moab and Ammon Edom and Amaleck of Esau. Egypt and Assyria with the Philistines Of Death and Hell in Saul conquered by Love in David bound up for 1000 Years As coming loose again in Saul of the same Tribe struck down as with Lightning and Named Paul after Sergius Paulus that Prudent Roman Deputy Of Shimei Cursing David or other Shimeis and of Judas and Pauls rising in the House of Judas Of Aeneas Ananias and Saphira Tabitha Dorcas or others Recovered by the Apostles Of Christs Love to his Father and duty by the Law requiring him to propagate his Fathers Love with all his might and manifest his Name and True Worship to bring in all his Children servants sons of his handmaids Strangers and Cattle also to keep the Sabbath to Rest the Rest of God from 100 to 117. 141. Of the Law of Redemption Laid upon Christ as the Kinsman that is able and hath Power and Riches in his Hand and a Tender Heart and Eye when he doth but see the naked and miserable that hath No Helper though they cannot weep it out to him or do not see him who will not hide himself from his own flesh when their Land or Person but especially their pretious and immortal Soul is Sold or pawned or mortgaged or forfaited How he hath promised to draw All men to him and to make All things new 56. 107. 124. to 163. How a man may put himself out of Christs Neighbourhood by degenerating from a Man to a Beast and of Worshipping the Beast receiving the Name Character Image or Number of the Beast Serpent or Dragon and how all the World worship the Beast but those that are written in the Lambs Book of Life How God with all his goodness knoweth how to punish the wicked but especially those that walk in Lust of the flesh and speak Evil of Dignities the sin of Corah c. the crying sins of the last dayes and how there was no sacrifice for
given while he was not glorified Or till he was exalted and set on the right hand of God and made a Prince and a Saviour for to Cive repentance and remission of sins Nay he never speaks of himself as a King or Judge till his second coming Being as himself said to go a great journey to receive a Kingdom and after a long time to come again and call his servants to account And if the wicked servant shall say in his heart My Lord delayeth his comming and shall begin so much as once begin to beat or strike his fellow-servants for the Lords servant must be gentle towards all and be no striker when he shall but begin to strike his Master will come when he looketh not for him and will cut him asunder and give him his portion with Hypocrites the Doom of Antichrist who thus took on him so before his time to sit and rule and judge before his master gave him power or leave or indeed was come to sit and reign and judge in his own Person Which was not till other Thrones be cast down or set as we read in Daniel and the Revelation For he must sit at his Fathers Right hand till all his enemies be put under him and then his Throne and Judgement shall sit and judgement shall be given to them also that shall sit with him who still called himself the Son of man and never a King or Prince or Judge till That Comming and That judgement And then he saith They shall see the Son of man come in the Clouds with great power and glory and when you see those things and that sign of the Son of Man comming in the Clouds Then know the kingdom of God is come even at the very doors Then and not till then it is come actually come and till that time but comming and he bids us pray and say Thy Kingdom come And then shal the Son of man send forth his Angels which before he called his Fathers Angels and the holy Angels now His Angels the Son of Man shall send forth His Angels and they shall gather out of His Kingdom which is Then his Kingdom all things which offend and them which do iniquity And then and not till then the Son of Man shall sit upon the Throne of glory and then the King shall say to them at his Right hand and again the King shall answer them But to the goats at his left hand He shal say he saith not the King shall say as if he were only a King to the sheep or they only were members of his Kingdom but to the goats he saith Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels For as the Son of Man hath his Angels so the Devil hath his Angels also of which we read again in the Revelation Where as also in Pauls great charge to Timothy several other Texts of Scripture we read of his Kingdom joyned or annexed to his second comming or appearing again after his Ascention at which time he was asked If he then would restore the Kingdom unto Israel which he doth not deny but waveth only forbidding their curious prying into times and seasons which the Father yet had kept so secret that the Son then knew them not but had them afterwards it seems by Revelation Which God gave him also to shew unto his servants unto whom he saith it was given to know the secrets or the mysteries of that Kingdom and to search them out also by that Spirit which was given to make known the things which were freely given them of God yea and to search the hidden Depths or Baths of God as that Apostle saith who also tells us The natural man believeth not the things of God or of the Spirit of God nor can he know them being only discerned spiritually And no man can so much as see the Kingdom of God till horn again of that Spirit which the World as such neither knoweth nor receiveth but it is promised to the World also and to convince the world also and when a worldly carnal man is born again of the Spirit and so made Spiritual then he also judgeth all things but himself is judged of no man Nor may any man judge another man or any person whatsoever or can judge himself rightly till he be made spiritual and so fitted by Christ the great and only Judge of all Causes and of all Persons And to whom and in what cases Christ committeth this Prerogative of judging either themselves or others I know not any hath declared better then Saint Paul in divers places of the same Epistle But as Christ gave that general rule Judge not according to appearance and then surely we may not judge things that appear not or things of another world and for all Eternity Whereas the Wise man saith A man cannot know Love or Hatred and much less Eternal Love or Hatred by all before him or appertaining to him So Saint Paul giveth us that generall Rule Judge nothing even nothing at all before the time That is as himself addeth Till the Lord come For his comming is the time of judging and his Kingdom as we have seen from that Apostle and from many other scriptures And I would to God your time were come that you might judge and reign that we might reign also But the Kingdom of God and this judging also is not in word but in Power As our Lord taught us Thine is the Kingdom the Power and Glory And in the Revelation Now is salvation and strength the Kingdom of God and Power of his Christ for the Accuser of our Brethren is cast down For Christ also maketh the kingdom of God to be a Power to cast out Satan by the spirit or finger of God and when Judas was gone out as a Type of Satan or Antichrist he saith Now is the Son of man glorified and God glorified in him And so Christ said Some standing there should not taste of death till they saw the Kingdom of God come with Power Which another Evangelist expresseth by the Son of man comming in his Kingdom And S. Pet. One of the Eye-witnesses of that glorious Transfiguration which was an Emblem or preludium to his Kingdom calleth it The Power and coming of our Lord Jesus And himself being asked if he would restore the Kingdom bad them stay till they received Power from on High or the Power of the Holy Ghost coming on them which he also calleth the Promise of the Father For the Spirit of Promise which is to be given to all the Lord shall call yea to be poured out on all flesh is called by Esay the Spirit of Power and it is so observed of them that received it in the Acts that they were full of the Holy Ghost and Power And Saint Paul also calleth it a spirit of Power and Love and of a sound mind and saith he came with demonstration of the Spirit and of
it And our experience may shew us that some times we think to speak to God and we find our selves such strangers to him or at such a distance that we flie to Christ and cry Lord shew us the Father and Lord teach us to Pray as John taught his Disciples Yea and better too as Thou art a better Teacher At another time it may be we bow down and think to speak to Christ and then perhaps we find a damp upon our spirits unto him and some estrangement from him so that we flie to the Father and cry Good Father shew us Thy Son Draw us to thy Son yea draw us heartily that so we may know him more and better then ever for we are strangers to him And I have known some that usually began their prayers unto Christ or at least bowed their spirits silently to him before they spake to God and desired Christ both to help them expresse their own wants and then also present them to His Father Praying in them to His Father while they bowed in his spirit crying as he bad his children say Abba Father for all persons and for all things they ought or might pray for which perhaps are more then they are Tied to and so usually they concluded with the plainest sence rather than words of the Lords Prayer Which also seemeth to have been a more ancient custom in the Church than only of late when some discoursed only what they wanted or would beg of God Which yet I should not disallow if done with such an Heart and life and Power and Spirit as it may and yet I hope it will be done among the Churches of Christ. But I may sum up all in this the good Father by the Holy Ghost in his Ordinances first breaks the Match to the Virgin soul and shews her great want of an helper in her wretched and forlorn estate He tells her also he hath a Son who will use her kindly and tenderly if she will accept him Then he sends the Son a woer and till all be agreed for portion and joynture and other things the Treaty is much with the Father who also giveth assurance of his hearty consent to the match and to his making good all the Son shall promise and indeed is as it were his Sons surety to the poor soul. And when the Son is admitted yea and contracted he still useth his Fathers Name and bids the spouse be confident of all his Father ever promised And if there do arise any doubt or scruple in the matter or manner of contract dowrie or the like the soul hath not onely leave but most great encouragement to go and speak to the Father as also to reconcile any difference or strangenesse that at any time shall rise or seem to be between the parties But when they be married or espoused the Son useth her so sweetly and kindly that she never hath occasion much lesse cause to complain to the Father which yet she might freely do upon any cause but she is so wholly taken up with the spouses affection and most hearty love that her main converse and solace of her life is with Him Though she often ask her Father Blessing and very often bow to him with most child-like Reverence and dutiful Love rather then fear which if servile or slavish is exceeding much displeasing unto God and Jesus Christ and to the true genius of a Christian established with a free Noble Royal spirit Have we not a Type and Emblem of this or somewhat more in Caleb and his son and daughter Achsa Caleb As the Heart it signifies and may shadow out the Heart of God whom he wholly followed with an honest plain upright which in scripture Language is a perfect heart He saith who ever conquers Kiriath Sepher which may note the book of scripture which was also called Dehir that is the Oracle shall have my Daughter and my blessing with her Othniel conquers it and afterwards is made a Judge and saves his people from the cruel Tyrant and he getteth Calebs Daughter Who first moveth her Husband to ask a field of her Father and afterwards freeing her self from her Asse or bestial nature she boweth her self to her Father and asks him in her own person saying O my Father Thou hast given me a piece of Earth O but give me thy Blessing with it and a spring of Water So he gave her both the Upper and the Lower Springs An History so repeated in the Bible that I have often thought some great matter is in it Besides that it cleerly shews us the Heart of God such an infinite Fountain still flowing up and flowing over that he is so far from being drawn dry by our sucking or from being displeased at our Asking and Begging of him that he expects rather that all we have received from him even by his Sons Asking should but encourage us yet to ask more and more still as we receive more from him And when he hath given us a Field or a piece of Earth He expects we should ask his Blessing even the rather and the Springs of Water Even as our Father Abraham when God came to him after his great deliverance from the four great Kings which may be Types as their names import of the four great Monarchies that should captive his people and the good men of the world also till He should bring back their Captivity and the Captivity of Sodom also to be paralel'd with the 16. of Ezekiel just before the appearing of Melchizedech resembling Christ in his second Coming Pursuing them to Dan even to the great Judgment as the place imports And when God might so justly expect that Abraham should have been bowing down in great Thankfulness for That deliverance Abraham saies not a word of That but is Begging a new boon O the mans confidence and cries Lord God what wilt thou give me as if he had received nothing yet or at least very little in comparison of That he knew the Infinite Heart of God still had for him and was straitned till it was more drawn and sucked And the Mothers Breast is somtimes so full that she is glad of a strangers child to suck that which her own child cannot master And when it might have been expected of the Daughters of Zelophehad that the modesty of their Sex should have kept them silent or the shame or sorrow which they should have born for their father being cut off in the Wilderness and dying in his sin and they left Orphans and Virgins Yet they sue for their Inheritance And the Lord heard it and it pleased him so that upon this occasion he Enacted a new Law very beneficial to Women who had therefore much cause to remember and bless the memory of these Daughters And God was so far from upbraiding them or their father that he answers They have well done or well said and rightly too in what they say in that they do not judg themselves unworthy
All in the Epistle to the Hebrews with so many repetitions as God spake it several times to Joshua That which destroyed Israel was observing the Laws of Omry or other Kings among them and leaving the Law of God which was so good and just and wise that all Nations also should say they were a wise people that had such a Law Which indeed made them the people of God and so owned by him so long as they accepted and owned his Law for their Rule And he never cast them off till they chose a stranger for their King and a New Law to govern them Yea the great badg of Antichrist which we should hate may be to place himself above the Law and think to change the Law which God hath promised to magnifie among all Nations And although it be exceeding sweet to see and know that he was made under the Suffering part of the Law In all its heavy Threatnings and its Curses also so that all the Waves of God and all his Billows rowled over him and all his Arrows did stick fast in Him and in Job David Heman Jonah but as Types of Christ and partakers of his Spirit and acting some part of his Sufferings and when God had so powred out his Anger his Soul rested his Spirit was quiet and he will be no more angry as he often speaketh as an angry person that hath vented his heat and is quiet So was he in Christ when he had born his Wrath the Fathers Soul Rested in him and his Spirit is quiet so that he can be no more angry But we may come to him as the Psalmist Lord Thou hast turned from the fierceness of thine anger and hast put away all thy wrath even All thy Wrath in Christ Why then should it lie on us thy poor Worms O Turn us therefore as thou hast turned thy self and Reconcile us also seeing Thou art Reconciled and art in Christ also Reconciling the World to thy self and not imputing sin Yet because this hath occasioned so many disputes How far and for Whom or How many he so bare the Curses of the Law I shall therefore Now rather consider the Doing part of the Law and what it required of Man to Man as well as to God There being no doubt at all that I know but that he was made under this to All and for All the Law required it So that now look what ever was required of man either to God or to man Christ was surely made and put himself under all that as his Duty to God also whose Law lay upon him and was written in his Heart also as his Pleasure Honor Joy Delight and Happiness as to be made and kept in the Image of God Though also the Suffering part would soon be cleerer to us if we did consider That the Infinite God could have no other fit and full Object of his Infinite Power and Justice or could shew the strength of his Almighty Arm the Power of his Wrath or its heavy weight in no other But himself only or his own Match and his Fellow which surely no meer finite Beeing was or could be If we therefore may imagine God could be any more Angry in Time then he was from all Eternity before the fall or sin of any Creature which sure he could not be in himself but to manifestation and as he maketh us afraid we judg him Angry Or that he had a mind or saw it requisite to shew his mighty Strength and Justice with the Power of his wrath to the uttermost yet sure he would not chuse a little Worm to shew it on or such as are much less than the dust of the Ballance or a drop of a Bucket even nothing less than nothing When he had his full Match and Fellow which his Sword might challenge when it most would wake and shew it self in all its sharpness hardness with all power and strength of that mighty Arm that held and drew and brandished that flaming Sword Which therefore none have cause to fear or strength to feel as Christ but such only as are high and strong and stout to think themselves Gods fellows or his match and so challenge him As He or she that sits as God even in the Throne of God and Temple who must therefore look to feel the Sword of God and all that take that Character which All will take whose names are not written in the Lambs Book of Life even before the Foundation of the World And yet These also shall not feel the Sword of his Hand or Arm as Christ felt it but only the Sword of his Mouth a bright two edged blessed Sword which shall scatter and pierce them so that as the Psalms and Prophets speak in several places He will speak them under him for so the Phrase is and may be so translated rather than he shall destroy or subdue them under him or under us Which Phrase of Speaking them under him even then when they have most cause to expect destruction makes me remember a notable place in the 3. of Zephany Which the Jews also have marked as one of the most especial places in all the Scripture having in one verse every letter of their Alphabet and those also that are only final as they call them with other things observable Which it may be also bids us often read and meditate upon it as One of the most notable descriptions of the mind and purpose of God even in his greatest Judgments or in that we use to call the great or last Judgment Which perhaps is There also hinted While he speaketh Thus Therefore wait upon me saith the Lord to the Day of my Rising up to Eternity which some read to the Prey for my Judgment is to gather the Nations that I may assemble the Kingdoms to powr upon them my Indignation all my fierce Anger for by the fire of my Jealousie All the Earth shall be devoured For though it seem a strange For Then I will turn to the Peoples it is plural in the Original a pure Lip or Language Is not this a Blessed Speaking of them under him That all of them may call upon the Name of the Lord with one consent or with one shoulder Or one Sechem For That is the word in the Hebrew Text being the very same with His Name that circumcised himself and All the men of his City Sechem for the Love of Dinah which also signifies Judgment and may perhaps lead us to the great or last Judgment which may circumcise more men than may be is expected and be a sore surprize or ravishment to those that think to ravish it Which should also be compared with the Judgment on Sechem in Judges But I will come rather to the plain things of the Gospel cleerly comprehended in the Doing Part of the Law Which I am therefore made to study that I may see not only my Duty to God or man but Christs Duty unto me a poor Worm sprauling
every one of them I am the Lord thy God and upon this Rock I will build my whole Law and therefore thou shalt have no other God or make to thy self any Images c. For I am a jealous God which yet I could not be if I did not Love thee dearly as a spouse Or else I should not much care whither thou goest or what thou doest But for my great and spouse-like Love which maketh me so jealouse over thee But this very jealousy causeth such visiting as is most like to recover us again from all our wâ—oorish wanderings from the God of Love and the Guide of our youth And so intended by God to recover them so visited as we may clearly see by Elihues discourse unto Job and the Psalmist in the 107 th and many other Psalms to be compared with the 3 d. of Jeremy and the 2 d. of Hoseah with the first and second of Zechariah with divers other Scriptures And our great comfort is that all the Law also lay on Christ as much or more than any of us or all of us And besides his love to his own flesh and nature or to himself or his Father His very Duty to Him by this Law requires him so to love his God with all his Might also as to propagate his love to all he may and to manifest his Name and Worship with the true way and means thereof That is as the 72 d. Psalm expresseth to redeem our souls from all deceipt and violence or as Ezekiel hath it in the Laws of the New Temple to order a sacrifice for every one that erreth or is simple And the Psalmist saith He hath received gifts for Rebels also that the Lord may dwell among them Yea and to cast down all our vain Imaginations as Saint Paul expresseth it And though we strangely degenerate into very Beasts or to the worst of Beasts or worse than Beasts Yet the very same Law which biddeth us and Christ also to Love a Neighbour biddeth also to love a Stranger and an Enemie Yea and the very Oxe and Asse of an Enemie so as to help it under a Burthen or straying out of the way And is not our heart as Ishmael was foretold to be the wilde Asses Colt on which no man can sit till Christ send his Apostles as in the Gospel who finde it bound and tyed in a broad place where two waies met and They loose our Asses Colte and bring it to Christ who then rideth on it O daughter of Zion Meek and Lowly on an Asse the foal of an Asse And may we not find All this in the very fourth Commandement where every Man and so Jesus Christ also is bid to remember to keep the sabboth so that not only his Children but his servants and his Cattle and the Stranger in his Gate may Rest and keep that Rest of God That they may Rest as well as Thou as it is repeated in Deuteronomy And in the 23. of Exodus it is that thine Oxe and thy Ass may Rest and the Son of thy Handmaid to which the Psalmist may allude several times calling himself the Son of thy Handmaid And that the stranger also may be Refreshed The very same Phrase and word that is used by God of himself and his own Kest and Refreshing on That Sabbath day in the 31. of Exodus And our Saviour maketh the helping of an Oxe or Ass and their Loosing and leading to the Water to be a special work or duty of the Sabbath daies Rest. Which we may compare with that of the Prophet Esay He led them gently as an Horse in the Wilderness or as a Beast is led down a Valley or to a Brook So his spirit caused them to Rest. And in the Proverbs Agur saith I am more bruitish than any Man and the Psalmist so Bruitish was I yea Behemoth with thee as alluding to Behemoth in Job and That some render Congregation of thy People in several Psalms is Beasts or Thy Beasts As under Those Banners of four Beasts or Animals of which we read in Ezekiel and the Revelation Yea Solomon saith the great design of God that is Christ who as Man also is the great Searcher of hearts is to Try us and to make us know we are but Beasts She hem Behema Hemma lahem And that the Stranger also may be Refreshed Which is but a piece of that great Law in the very same chapter of Loving our Neighbor Thou shalt also love a Stranger as thou lovest thy self And in several places it is added For thou wast a stranger and thou knowest the heart of a stranger in Aegypt And the word for stranger in the Heb. is so neer to Hagar as if God would put them in mind of that Bond-woman who was an Aegyptian also and as Paul saith Gendered unto Bondage with a spirit of Fear which is another signification of its Root also And Gods Love to Hagar and to her son Ishmael that is God will Hear as he will appear also in the Mount may shew the Heart of God and his Goodness more than all his Kindness to Abraham who was Kind and Thankful unto God also And among other reasons for our Loving strangers it is added that God loveth Strangers and in a special manner provideth for them And it hath been an especial argument used by good men in all ages of the Bible For we are strangers and Pilgrims And when we consider that the Sabboth day did Typifie some greater Rest may it not be hoped that at length we may hear the Lord of that Day also saying to his children and his servants and the Sons of his handmaids also and his Cattel and the stranger also within his gates Come enter into your Masters Rest seeing it is greater than can enter into you For this Commandement I have received of my good Father Do we not also read that the Owles and the Dragons and the Beasts of the field and every thing that hath breath yea and All his Works shall praise the Lord but his Saints shall Bless him Do we not find Sabbatical Years â—nd Jubilees provided for the Poor and Strangers that had no Harvest and for the Beasts of the field and for the Earth also that it might Rest the Rest of God and that every one might return to his own Inheritance and the possession of his Fathers and why not also of our Father Adam in Innocence and that All Debts and Debtors might be remitted which it may be is minded us dayly in the Lords Prayer not only in That Clause of Forgiving our Debtors which yet He doth also for it is He that speaketh in us who else dirst not say Forgive us as we forgive but also in That Thy Kingdom come and Thy Will be done on Earth as in the highest Heaven And He that set us All on Praying so knew very well that it should be so He hath willed it and his people will it also Let it be
before the worst of sinners And we see how gracious Christ was also to the Woman of Canaan although she were as a Dog or one degenerate into a Dog-like spirit and nature Yet the Dogs also enjoy Crumbs and in great Families and Christ is Lord of All the Family in Heaven and Earth The very Dogs have better Diet than it may be Children have in other houses And That Dog-like Woman of Canaan was received into favor and had great Grace and Faith given her though a cursed Woman under the greatest Curse both of God and Man Noah cursed her and God also cursed her so that he commanded all his people to hate and curse her Nation so that they might neither Treat with them nor seek their good all their daies Which we see how Christ observed towards her when he would not so much as Treat with her or speak to her till his Disciples as the Representatives of his Church interceded with him for her or it may be against her for the Text is somwhat doubtful Yet by Faith Her heart also is purified and there is No difference between Jew and Gentile No not a Cursed Canaanite Which might also be seen long before when the high and proud and stout Gibeonites some of the chiefest of those cursed Canaanites bowed down and though by a Wile only they got into a Covenant with Joshua a mighty Type of Jesus yet they could never be cast off No by no means by no means But when Adonizedech the Lords Justice King of Jerusalem and other Kings with him would have chalenged them back again as to have brought them back into the Curse again Joshua must not only stand up and rise early Yea and march all night in defence of these poor late accursed Canaanites but also the Sun and Moon must stand still over Gibeon and the course of Nature must be changed rather than Gibeon must be deserted or so much as left into the hand of Gods Justice in his own Throne which is Adonizedech King of Jerusalem And Gibeon is not only made one of the greatest Scenes of Gods presence a long time together as we often find in Scripture before it was Solomons greatest High Place Where God also appeared to him after such great Sacrifices in Gibeon But also This very History of the strange Works of God in defending Gibeon is made the Type of what God means to do Hereafter also I suppose for his People and his Enemies also When he shall rise up to do his great and strange Work of Gibeon or as he did at Gibeon or Mount Perazim Where also at Davids coming up the five great Lords of the Philistins rose up against him as at Gibeon the five great Kings of the Amorites or Canaanites against Joshua And about Gibeon also the great Quarrel was ended between David that is Love and the House of Saul that is the Grave or Hell Acted by Abner the Fathers Light or Understanding and by Joab his Will or Affection which were here reconciled and a New Heaven and Earth brought up As afterwards the New Jerusalem when David beat the Jebusites which had their name from Treading down for the Holy City must be Trodden down till the Times of the Centiles be fulfilled And a Type of This Fulfilling of Time might be in That when the twelve men of Joab and Abner ran through one another as the twelve hours of Day and Night and there fell down slain on Sauls side 360. For their common Year had so many Daies in it And though Saul himself was dead cut off by God because he sought to the Devil and would not seek to God as we read in Chronicles although he complained that God would not answer him But the Truth was he would not seek to God who could yet have pardoned All but he would not ask it and God therefore cut him off and for his sparing Amaleck himself was slain by an Amalachite if at least he Lyed not to David who could not be quiet in the Throne till he had also cut off the Amalachites whom Saul spared even after Sauls Death His House and Family was sorely punished and Davids Kingdom also afficted with divers years Famine for Sauls afflicting the poor Gibeonites though it were in Zeal to Israel So much doth God abhor All Cruelty and hard Usage of any poor men though in never so much Zeal for God or his Cause or any of his People Which the Lord make me and all mine and all His still to remember in all my Actions lest I afflict some poor Gibeonite in Zeal to Israel and thinking I do God good service By All which we may also learn that even Those that are most Hated or cursed by God as These Gibeonites and Canaanites were and Children of Wrath and curse as much as any Nation or People we read of Yet they may come to be Blessed and Loved by the same God who so hated and cursed them And yet He changeth not himself but Them whom he first cursed and so shut them up in guilt and sin and sorrow That their cries that is His in them might draw out his own bowels and compassions more to them by how much more he had cursed or afflicted them Which is one of the great Mysteries of the Gospel running Through the Law and the Prophets and the Curses thereof Which should teach us not to despair under the hardest and worst words God doth or ever will speak against us while we live O do not say This Evil is from God and why then should I wait or Hope on Him Yea rather make hast to bow down and Worship and seek his face as the 3d Captain to Elijah For the King of Israel is a merciful King He is a gracious God and He delighteth in those that sear him and Hope in his goodness Trembling at his Word For it is still good for a man to Hope and patiently wait for the salvation of God Let me also tell you It is an honor that God will speak to us though he do but chide us Threaten us sharply rebuke or chasten us which himself and we may call Hating or cursing us But His Frowns and Chidings and Hatings and Cursings as we may interpret them may be better than the Smiles and Loves and Embracings of the whole World besides And we do not only read him saying I have forsaken the dearly beloved of my soul as we see Christ himself was so forsaken but also that he Hated Her even the dearly beloved of his soul as we read in Jeremy and did not only strike her with an hard and sore and Cruel stroke as an Enemy but even Curse her and make her a Curse As we know he dealt with Christ himself his dearly beloved Son and as a Type of Christ with Israel Because he knew them and they should have known him above All Nations of the Earth Therefore he would punish them above All Nations So that he never
beginning of the 15th which is shut up with 360 Hours as their Year with 360 Dayes We are now in the Feast of Unleavened bread and at Full Moon As if That were to shadow out the Sun of the â—d Year to be 10 times better then the Light of the â—d Day coming up in 36 Hours And 360 is 3 times 120 Gods Moed for Man which is 3 times 40. 372 Bring up the Morning of the 16th Day the Wave sheaf of Barley the first of First-fruits Heaved up as our Saviour Raised on the Third day after the Passover was slain And from This Day 50 Days to Pentecost are 1200 Hours Added to 360 they make 1560 for the Moed of Pentecost Or Biccurim the first Fruits Of wch 420 bring up the Morning of the 18th Day or Crisis of Their Passing through the Sea or end of three Dayes and Half their Hour of Temptation Beginning from the Passover though they got not out till the Sun-set of the 15th Day or Hour 360 As a new year Deut. 16. 6. Nunb 33. 3. 430 The Evening Minha of that Day answering to their coming from Aegypt 430 Years after the Promise to Abraham That very Night 444 Brings up the next Morning with its Tamid It is Two Thirds of 666. 450 the Noon of That Day But after Moses song and the Lambs they wanted water 3 Days and came to Marah Bitterness till the 12 Fountains and 70 Tamars 480 Brings up the 21st Evening As the Temple after Aegypt Though a very Learned man would have it 580 and 490 the Morning of That great Feast of Unleavened Bread as Daniels Weeks 490 Years 500 To the Minha of That great Feast or the 7th Evening from the Passover And 555 to the first watch of the 24th Evening 600 Hours are in 25 Dayes 36 more bring us to the Morning of the 27th Day By which time the Moon beginneth to approach the skirts of the Suns Robe or Clamyd in Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Mantle Mantle is Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an upper Garment There she becometh Gloomy Glum in Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 639 As the Sun is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 640. And the Hebrew Galum is not only Glum or sad and Glummed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but also Turned or Twisted as Galume Lace And so the Moon in the Suns Rayes an Hebrew word as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then she is Calm and Clam and Clammed or Clummed as English use that Phrase which is Hebrew made to Blush or be ashamed as the Latine Calumn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 650 and 656. Which in Hours brings us to the Morning Watch of the 28th Day And 666 to the Point of Noon in That Critical Day to the Moon of 4 times 7 and 3 times 9 and 3 quarters And her Cloud or Clade or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which before makes up the perfect Olam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so near the Morning of the 30th Day And Olam may signifie their Hight as well as Hiding or their Secret as Sodom and Let not my soul be in Their seeret or in Sodom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 just 666. Or their Yoaking or Childing or Fooling or being Naught as English use that word akin to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Night and Râ—sting as we saw before But Sleep may be frm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is to slip off ones Clothes and to slâ—p a Flower Psal. 120 6 7 8. and Ruth 2. 4. or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to slop or sloop or throw down as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or else from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Both slow and slouth which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Safe or Salf and Salve as akin to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Slack ones hand or to Pardon and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 akin to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to send out Siloam and Shilo As 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Jacobs blessing Judah or Shâ—lah Judahs Son Of which befor in Tamar And what if Childe be Shiloed As Birth may be from Bar a Son as Bara Create and Bar Bare sent out or Bear as also from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Covenant which ever included Children Through all the Bible and mainly for them And Abrahams Berith Olam much about the Burning of Sodom and from Beritus to Sodom was the Length and Cross Bredth of the Land promised in His Berith Olam And the Flames of Sodom might possibly intimate the Ole or Whole and Holy Burnt-Offerings as Seals of That Olam Berith Especially at the Change and Full of every Moon as flaming Fire or as the World Burning at the End of the great Olam when she shall be As Gold afire rather than Ophir Which yet may be akin to the Greek Pyr and English Fire as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as alluding to Ur of the Chaldes whence He was called Or to Ire Wrath which may be onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Fear and that Where no Fear needed As the 90 and other Psalms tell us But That Ketem Ofire Perfect Fire of Love shall cast out Fear and Curss and Sorrow As it did Gomorrah the People of the Curss or Rebellion The Spot fixed on them Gen 14 Though but in Freeing themselves from Tyrants or Usurping Monarchies So little doth God countenance Oppression or Rebellion or such Fighters As Zeboim may signifie And those be the first Goats we read of I think in all the Bible For so also does Zeboimâ—ignifie â—ignifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Zebaoth Armies or Militia and Goats also much akin to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Woolves and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Flies as we see in Baalzebub the Lord of wanton lustful fighting Flies But our Jesus by the finger of God shall cast him out and even by Silence shall destroy Babling and Babylon He is the Great Zerubbabel and Jerubbaal also And Solomon That King of Peace had but One War I remember and That was onely to destroy Lust and Wrath and Rage of an Army That is in Hebrew Hamath Zobae From Zeboim we go to Admah which are joyned in Genesis and in Hosea also A most Pathetical Scripture He had said Come and let us return unto the Lord For he hath Wounded us and He will Heal us He hath sâ—itten He will binde us up After Two dayes He will quicken us Here are Two Moeds In the 3d Day or 3d Moed He will Raise us up As he raised Jesus so he will Raise his Witnesses And we shall live in his sight Will he also shorten the Time for his Elect as Christ or Esay promised so that he will prevent the last Moed after the 3 are past As he put up his Sword before the last Moed In Davids Pestilence We shall know if we follow on to know the Lord. His going is prepared As the Morning to the Evening Or as the Evening or Dark time and he
from the Right Hand or South of the Altar in Benjamin the Highest of That Land they say whose Borders ever Go up in Josuah never Down and an other was the Gate of the Firstlings which may be of use ere long to determine its Place and Times also as God shalldirect us The 11 Outermost Cubits of This Inward court were Rayled in for the clean men of Israel Level with the Gate Nicanor The 11 next going up by one cubit and 3 half cubits where the Levites stood singing in their VVainscot Ducan on the Highest step were for the Priests who had no Bar from the Altar but a Row of Pillars Supporting the covering Moses Altar of Sittim-wood and its Plates and Grate of Brass 3 Cubits High and 5 square Solomons Brazen Altar 20 square and 10 High Ezekicls 12 by 12. Which yet they interpret a square of 24. As 12 from the middle to either side And so the Altar of the 2d Temple was Yet so that its bottom of a Cubit hight and bredth was a square of 32 Cubits Onely they cut off the Southeast Corner that All of it might be in Benjamin who was to be the Ravening Wolf on the Lambs But in the Morning to devour the Prey and in the Evening to Divide the spoil As we saw before in the Morning Seeking and the Evenings Finding As Job also In the morning Thou wilt Seek me O but Do it Heartily And in Hoseah They will seek me in the Morning From a Cubit Height where each side was 32 it Rose Up to 5 Cubits at 30 Bredth One more at 28 called its Circuit And One more at 26 brought up the Horns from a Cubit Base to a Cone bending outward at a Cubit Height and Thence One Cubit Higher brought it to 24. and so it was at the Top. Which from the Circuit Upward being 4 Cubits was called Gods Hill on Gods Lion Or Harel on Ariel as Ezek. 43. 15. But they went not up by those or any other steps which was forbidden even at the first giving the Law in Exod. 20 But by a slopeing kinde of Causey at the South side which they called by a Phrase somwhat near the English Cabesh but nearer to the Hebrew Lamh and to make Tame as a Lamb we saw it before As if God would intimate a Lamblike spirit was the best way to Tread on a Lion as they called That part of the Altar As the 91st Psalm Thou shalt tread upon the Lion and the Serpent The Young Lion and the Dragon shalt thou Trample under foot Because he hath set his Love upon me I will deliver him and I will set him on High because he hath known my Name Which I choose for my Portion rather than the World and desire my friends to begg it also Ezekiels Altar hath other particulars which deserve more notice as God shall give us opportunity And That also The whole Mountain and its limits round about shall be Most Holy as we saw before in Jeremiah reaching to Tophet also or the very Ashes of the Children burnt to Moloch in Gehinnon From the Altar to the Porch were 22 Cubits as the Porches Floor was Higher than the Floor of Shushan Gate by 22 Cubits that is Twice 11. And if the Altars Bosome as the Prophet calls it were Thrice Eleven the Court will be 7 times 11. or 77 to the Porch 12 Steps or half cubits high but whole cubits broad besides half paces every 3d step Led up the Priests and Down again from Thence to Bless the People after Incense as we saw before With the Migrepha between the Porch and Altar with the great Laver also as the Sea of Sodom still before the Lord at the Right Hand Southeast As Solomons molten Sea at the Southeast corner Of 3000 Baths or about 24000 Gallons which we may consider again although 2000 filled it up to the usual coks or Pipes at that distance as might best suit Their Bathings which could not be when the Sea was Full of 5 cubits Depth 1 Kings 7. 26. 2 Cron. 4. 5. The Porches Gate was 40 cubits High and 20 Broad without a Door being alwaies Open as a Type of That within that must be ever Open also As the Gates of New Jerusalem Esay 60. 11. Apoc. 21. 25. The Front was as Gold to the Eye with curious work Full 70 cubits High and 25 Broad The Bredth of This Open Gate was equal to the Inward Bredth of the whole Temple which was 20 cubits As before in Solomons which was Double to the Tabernacles Breadth But the whole Bredth was Treble to Solomons Inward House and Double to the whole with All its Side chambers And its Height Double also but in the Porch which in Solomons also was 120 cubits As Cyrus commission Lay its Foundations strong as we saw in Esay 60 Cubits High and 60 Cubits Broad So that Their weeping at These was not for quantities which Here were Greater but qualities and loss of the cloud and Holy Fire and Ark and Urim and the 5th perhaps yet Greater though the Jews made it less than the Holy Ghost The Spirit of Prophecy hinted they say in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is 5 wanting in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will be glorified and will Take pleasure in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hag. 1. 8. Where we may also finde the Etymology of Erets as we saw before Ezek. 20. 40. 30 side-chambers 6 cubits Broad and so were the 8 at the West End but There the Two Uppermost were longer than the other 6 but 12 long With 4 Out-doors on either side between the 5 Chambers of 5 cubits Height in 3 Stories with Enteries 7 or 8 cubits broad and Stairs to the 2d Story besides the great winding stair Case at the North-East corner to the Top of All and Bothside Galleries of 3 cubits before all the Chambers but the West End which had only their Entries and stairs of each story on either side But the Southside Galleries were called The Conduits As curiously laid from the Rock Etam or Nepthoah seeming the Highest place of that Land or the World Whence Water came to the Water-gate or Well at the Southside as Rivers turn in the South and Ezekiels waters in the South and Thence they came to the Great Laver c. So that Water could be brought up for Bathing or other uses to the Top of all the Gates and Buildings Which we may shortly understand without much charge and Cruelty to Horses The Length of All the Porch and House and Oracle within was 70. But the Walls about made 70 broad and 100 Long from East to West And so the Porch they say from South to North 100 cubits And the Height of Herods Temple was 100 As the Middle Isle of a Church between the Side-chambers As the Middle walk of this Royal Stoe we saw before was Double to the other two in Height of 50 cubits and above 30 Broad as both the other Walks
the Lords Goodness and Jedaiah the Lords Knowledge and of All These Make Crowns for Jeshuah and for Zorobabel also For He is bid to go to to the House of Josiah in the North or Hidden Secret of the Lord which is Zephaniah As alluding to the Prophet Zephaniah who was in the Dayes of Josiah as we saw before And now also the House of Josiah was in the Lords Zephaniah Secret Councels of the North or if you please in the Holy Spleen of God As our Spleen is at our Left side As Babylon and All of Spleen or Wrath is at the North or Left Hand of God which is also the Hidden Secret as the Hebrew word intimates And the Temple North Gate Tedi was named from Hiding as Hidden by Antonia or by the Hill Bezetha From This House of Josiah Hidden in the North came first Jeconiah through a Northern Gate of the Temple called Jeconiahs Gate and Then Zorobabel a Nephew of Josiah by Jehojachim who begat this Jechoniah the Cursed Man in Jeremy 22. They shall not lament for him saying Ah my Brother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we saw before As I live saith the Lord If Coniah were the Signet on my Right Hand yet would I pluck thee Thence to put him on his Left But Do not his Bowels begin to yearn already In that pathetical Question following Is this Coniah a Despised broaken Idol Is He a Vessel of no Pleasure Good for Nothing Why is he Driven out c. Hear O Earâ—h Earth Earth Not a word of Heaven What Write you For He must be written in the Dust as Jer. 17. 13. Or esteem and reckon you This Man Ariri as akin to Arur Cursed As Childless But yet he was not Childless As This very Text may shew us For it Asketh before Why is he cast out and his Seed also to a Land they know not And to put it out of Doubt the very Gospel tells us that After his carrying into Captivity He begat Zalathiel in the 1st Chron. 3. Shealtiel that is I Sought God the son of Jehojachin Assir or Bound As Psal. 146. The Lord Raiseth them that are bowed Down He openeth the blind Eyes as Christ was sent for these ends and He looseth the Prisoners Assyrim and so Here Assyr the Prisoner And his Name was Jehojachin the Lord will Establish both Jachim He will Raise and Jachin He will Establish And so we have Jachin a Prince as before Jachin a Priest Two Witnesses Jeshuah salvation or Jesus the son of Jozedek the Lords Justice so near akin to Jachin the Priest and Zerubbabel the stranger or Fan of Babel from Jachin the Prince also but in Bonds Assyr he Bowed and besought the Lord it seems as may be sweetly promised in Jeremy 22. 22. Compared with Ezek. 16 and 37. and so was freed also from his Bonds set above All the Princes with him So gracious is God in afflicting us as we saw before in Menasseh and many others So he calls this son of his bonds as Pauls Onesimus alluding also to That Is Jechoniah a Vessel of no profit Shealtiel I sought God As alluding also to Saul as if He were Here come up again who Dyed as we read 1 Chron. 10. because he would not seek God but Ob or the Devil Lisheol As alluding to His Name also as we saw before And that God heard Him also may be Hinted in His Sons Hosama which is He was Heard and Pedaiah the Lord Redeemed Who begot Shimei that Cursed David and Zerubbabel and Shelomith as we saw before on the Canticles By which and other things we may see Solomon had also a Prophetick spirit when he cryed Return Return O Shulomith Return Return And That of Mahanaim also from Padan may allude to Pedaiah Their Redemption And His Right Hand Pillar Jachin Yea and what If his 400 Pomgranates might look Forward also as well as Backward Seeing from His works finished There were very few years if any more than 400 to this Jachin we are now getting out And as we touch'd before in Jachins Tenth So also by Ezra 2. we mâ—y see there returned but a Tenth and scarce a Tenth of those that came from Aegypt Whence were above 600000 and Here not 60000 12 years old as in Esdras Though He reckons the very Servants and Handmaids also not a Pin must be lost of the whole Tabernacle and the Vessels in full tale Yea and the very Camels Mules Horses Asses and the very Hairs of your Head are All Numbred As remembring that we saw before in the 4th Command Thy Servant and thy Handmaid Yea and the Son of thy Handmaid often urged by David Thine Ishmael Thy Ass and thy Ox must Rest and be refreshed also or New Souled All their Sons and all the Congregation were but 360 as Dayes in their Year and 12 years old as Hours in the Day above 42000. As alluding to their 42 Mansions in the Wilderness as 42 Months in the Revelation and 42 Children by Elishas Bears To which God may allude in that of Hoseah I am God and not a Bear or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to devour you Yea I will give you 42000 from Babylon for Chose 42 Children devoured and the Years also or Women Eaten by the Cankers and the Locusts that had Hair as Women in the Prophet Joel and the Revelation Being returned to Jerusalem with 12 Elders Neh. 7. 7. as the 12 Hours of Day and Adonikam also My Lord Riseth or Commeth with 666 Sons as Ezra 2. 13. They set up the Altar in fear 3. 3. and Offered the Daily Tamid c. From the First Day of the 7th Month the Great Month we seek and kept the Tabernacle Feast before the Temple Founded in the 2d Month as Solomons in the 2d Year as Moses Tabernacle Raised Ex. 40. And Then they sung and sounded Trumpets with great Praises but others wept and yet God Accepted Both though there is a way He Best accepteth and That he will teach the Humble As in our Bodies Hot and Cold Dry and Moist Up and Down Draw in and Thrust out Yet All good Harmony So in Israel So in the Body of Christ. Even After Babylon also Some Weep and Pray when others Sing Praise and with Musickalso and yet Both I hope for a good End and from a good Heart and God accepteth our calling him Father As a Childe calling Dappo Though we know not why the Childe so calleth Him or whom it meaneth by its words perhaps but by its signs and looks or sighing somwhat else O the Heart and Kindeness of God our Father Do but go forward or if you cannot go forward Do but stand still quietly and you shall see the salvation of God O the Heart of God which cannot be seen but you shall see the Face of God But Do not fall out by the way Nor be Afraid with any Amazement Love will cast out Fear And Ezra called them Even All His Company to Ahava
How near to Love in Hebrew There they Fast and Pray and seek a way for Themselves and for their Little Ones For he was ashamed to ask of the King because he had spoken saying The Hand of our God is on All for Good that Seek him Davids dying words to Solomon but his Power and Wrath on All that for sake him We are now come to one of the hardest Knots of Time Daniels Weeks And though it may not be so easie to fix Their beginning Or their End as it is their Number of 490 that is 7 times 70 years Yet for an Essay as God shall enable us Esay saith of Cyrus He is my Shepherd and shall perform All my Pleasure Saying to Ierusalem Thou shalt be Built and to the Temple Thy Foundations only shall be laid And in 45. He shall Build My City and let go My Captives And Ezra 4. 12. Be it known unto the King that the Iewes are come from Thee to Ierusalem Building the Rebellious City c. And the King returned Cause the men to cease from Building the City Or that it be no more Built till farther Order So the work ceased till the 2d of Darius Then stood up Haggai saying Is it time for you to dwell in Cieled Houses and This House lie waste And again Verse 9. Ye run every man unto his own House This was the First of the 6th Month and Then They came and wrought in the 24th of that Month but so slowly that he spake again on the 21st of the Seventh Monrh the Last and Great Day of Tabernacles and again on the 24th of the 9th Month And now I pray consider from this Day and Upward from before a Stone was laid upon a Stone in the Temple of the Lord But consider now from This Day and Upward from the 24th of the 9th Month from the Day the Foundation of the Lords Temple was Laid c. By which it seems plain enough that They had leave to build the City and had Will enough to Build it and to Ciel their own Houses rather and much sooner than the Lords Which by Esayes words was onely to be Founded by Cyrus when Jerusalem should be Built And so Ezra found it plain enough and Nehemiah was told indeed that the Remnant of the Captivity were in great affliction and Reproach and that the Wall of Ierusalem was broken down and the Gates burnt with Fire Which yet may seem some Later matter then That Sack in Zedekiah which sure was known enough to Nehemiah That he needed not be told of That But now he heard some late or New affliction and Reproach upon the Remnant that had built the City up again after their Return And when Himself came up He did but onely Repair the Walls and set up the Gates And There also the men of Iericho repaired next to the Very High Priest Of so great repute was Iericho the cursed City even in Those dayes and Returning from Babylon also being as the Iewes say the 2d to Ierusalem Or as the Moon as it soundeth to the Sun Yea some observe that in the very Hebrew Letters of Ierusalem there only wanteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of All in Iericho and Salem its first Name It may not therefore be said but That Cyrus also gave forth a Word to Return and Build Ierusalem as we read in Daniels Weeks Which were given out to Him in the very first Year of Darius the Mede which seemeth also the First of Cyrus the Persian though not in Babylon and at the very beginning of his Prayer the Word went out as the Angel tells him Verse 23. with the very same Phrase in the 25th From the Going sorth of the Word to Return and Build Ierusalem But the Phrase Motsa doth not onely note the first Going out of a Word or Thing but a Continued Motion and going on or growing up or constant flowing As in a Spring of Water Esay 58. the growing up of the Grass Job 38. Or a Mine of silver or other Mettal Job 27. Or Sun-Rising and going forward Psal. 19. Or the East it self Psal. 75. And His going is prepared as the Morning we found in Hoseah And his Goings forth from Eternity the Dayes of Old in Micha Where we still read the same Phrase and in many other places So that Here also in Daniel we may not tye it up to the First word of Cyrus or any other to return or build but to the Whole Matter as Dabar signifies as well as a Word or Command or full Process and Progress of That Business with All its full Execution which is Motsa also the End Issue or finishing of a Matter as well as its first going out So that if the Word or Command of Cyrus were in Doing or delaying very many Years yet it was still so going forth and going up as the Sun from East to West And so Cyrus may signifie in the Persian or in Hebrew also being a Vessel of Fire as the sun is or at least seemeth And there is a famous Record of Cyrus seeing the Sun at his Beds Feet as Joseph and others perhaps have seen it as Bowing or coming towards And his Catching at it Thrice was Thrice 10 Years they said of his Reign And the Sun also was the Persian Armes or God And the Prophet brings him up from the East like the Suns Rayes upon the Temple and Jerusalem And though the Sun stood still for one whole Day in Josuah and went backward in Hezekiah So that some that had fixed Nabonasses Era in Babylon came to enquire of That VVonder 2 Chron. 32. 31. yet it went forward again and got ground perhaps by staying So did Cyrus also For Darius did but Build on Cyrus Foundation and the Decree of Cyrus So that it may be said of Him as of Zerubbabel His Hand began and His Hand finished And I will make thee a signet on my Hand also for I have Chosen thee As I threatned to Cast off thy Grand-Father Though a signet on my Right Hand How long this City or this Temple should be in Building by That Decree may be very hard to determine from the Scripture which yet must determine All great matters of Faith and Doctrine and other things also of great moment before we can much rest and be confident in them Which is One of many things I so much love in the Chain of Scripture Chronology by T. A. So industrious in clearing Scripture which I am loath to leave in This or any thing else in which we differ But for This also by Scripture That Israel and Judah those two VVitnesses were now slain or lay as Dead in That Captivity and that Judah returned but in Childe-bed and newly Delivered Is so clear from Mich. 4. 10. that it needeth little other proof And but of a Daughter the Daughter of Zion For the Man-childe was not yet Born Though before she Travelled her last Thraws she must bring forth a Man-childe