seemed Thus. Divine Sophia Though I spraul in Clay Yet Thou art neer ally'd and for a Day Of Wo Made of Woman Reach out thy skirt Bow down thine Hemm For It can Heal my Heart Vouchsafe to know me and to let me know Thee When thou hast thy Blackest Mask and though My guilt present thee Frowning Let me see The Frowns I fear are Love that Vaileth thee Made under That most Royal Law of Love That bids thee Love us Heere as Those above Thy Neighbour As thy self And who is He The Stranger Any Man in Misery 'T is Little Love to Love our Like or Friend And Less to Love one Lovely Fair and Kinde All Sinners may do This and Hypocrites Thy Law is Love thine Enemy that fights And Hates Reviles and Offers All Despites Yet if he Want Or if his Ass but stray Thou saist Relieve him Lead him to his way Nor may we stay for Tears But Misery Must melt our Eyes and Heart to Sympathy How dwelleth Else the Love of God I am That Behemoth That Beast that stray's That Ishmael Wild Asses Colt that bray's For want of Fodder Thou art sent to Seek and Help and Save All Lost and Needy That No Helper have To Comfort All that Mourn To Sacrifice For every One that Errs or is Unwise And to Redeem their Soul Their Precious Soul From All Deceit and Violence Thou hast Received Gifts Then Freely Give It makes thee Blessed more then to Receive And Thou hast Gifts for Rebbels And Thy Breast By Flowing alwayes Out is more increast And every little Drop that falleth over Is so Precious that it can recover Any fainting swooning Heart and can stretch out My Narrow Soul As All the Heavens about Thou art gone Over All that Thou mightst fill All Things with Good Then do his Holy Will That sent thee with Eternal Love to Dwell In us to Conquer Wrath and Death and Hell As David Saul To Break the Serpents Head And All his Works and Power To raise the Dead And make All new Which Thou hast also Promised Upon thy â—rone and Lifted up to Draw All Men To Thee Then Do it As Thy Law Requires of All. My Son Give me thy Heart Do Heartily And Do not Act a Part. Nor offer with an Evil Eye lest All Abhorr Thy Dainties Do To All men As thou wouldst be Done unto Or if thou Hate Us Love thy Fathers Name With All thy Might and Propagate his Fame And Manifest his Love As Thou hast said 'T was written in Thy Heart and seen and Read Of All that Reade Thy Words But do the same Do it again 't is sweet Declare his Name In us We shall believe Thou wilt not cease Till Thou hast brought Us All to Rest in Peace Thy Children and thy Servants Hand-maids Child The Strangers in Thy Gates and Cattle wild Must Rest the Rest of God and Sabbath keep Then see our Woful Miseries and Weep With All that Weep And let thy Bowels yearn To Pitty and thy Patience make us Learn It s perfect Work And when we Most thee Grieve O Then Most sweetly Teach us to Believe And know Thy Heart is Love And when we Hear Thy Loudest Thunders and do feel or fear Thy smartest Lightnings Make us sweetly Bow And silently adore and pay the Vow We made thee in our Youth or fears And Pray And Praise for what and whom we ought or May While in us Praying Thou dost say the same Our Heavenly Father Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdome Come and let Thy Will be Done On Earth As it is in Thy Heavenly Throne Give us this Day the Bread we need to Live And As We Debtors So do Us Forgive Into Temptation Lead us not But Free Us from The Evil Evil One. For unto Thee Belongeth Kingdom Power and Majesty Through All Eternity Eternity THE Translator also being a Stranger would bespeak his pardon if in any thing his Language shall not suit the Reader or the Subject which yet he hopeth may be the more excusable because he durst not hide some particulars of this following discourse which it may be some after ages may improve or at least excuse the Authors well meaning in describing some of the many things he met in so strange a way So much speaking the goodnesse and bounty of God the great Giver with the Liberal hand upbraiding none nor accepting Persons but in all Nations devising how to keep his Banished from perishing as the woman of Tekoa spake to David and still accepting and rewarding those that fear and diligently seek him hoping in his goodnesse through Jesus Christ the onely way of pleasing him to whom be given as of right belongeth Kingdom Power and Glory through all ages for ever more Amen Touching the Author it may be we should not ask or enquire his Name Nation or Quality seeing himself so Silent in it and it may be as unlawful to pry into others secrets especially of their mind and spirit as to unseal a Letter break open an house or discover that which is committed to ones greatest Trust. Yet by some passages he seemeth to intimate his Parents Christian and Religious who bred him tenderly and yet strictly in the best way they could both in Learning and Religion which seemed to have taken a deeper impression in his tender years then he well retained afterwards in the croud of this World and worldly employments both in War and Peace with many Civil Relations In all which he found himself so much entangled beyond his expectation or desire that for some years together it seems he wrestled with something within him that oft moved him to a more retired life which yet seemed to flie from him the more he pursued it About the height or greatest heat of the late Plague in Naples having lost his Father with other near and dear Relations he became so disconsolate that in a sad forlorn manner he wandred a while rather then Travelled all alone till among other places coming at length too neer the great City of Rome in that contagious season when he hoped for some little rest he fell into great danger of Death among some strict searches for suspected Persons from infected places But by great mercy escaping that danger also he was yet it seems so followed by the al-seeing eye that he was scarce got out of sight of Civita Vechia or some other place about that City whence he might escape by Sea But in a terrible storme and Tempest he was also seized and arrested with many privie Seals on his Conscience in most unutterable pangs of fear Terror and amazed Horror with a most heavie weight of guilt from all his former course of life which then lay gnawing on him with a grim vizage of death that King of fears staring and gaping on him with its open jaws ready to devour him This grew up to that height at length the storm still lasting and encreasing that there needed no other Processe or
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
that I say nothing of David in the 50. Psalm and Ezekiel the Son of Man and so a special Type of Christ the Son of Man is bid to make his people Know their sins and the Transgressions and Iniquities of their Fathers Which are forgiven when Seen and acknowledged bemoaned and repented as God promiseth he will bring them unto For it is not as some read it If they shall confess c. But 't is an absolute Promise in Leviticus and Deuteronomy and so cited also by Nehemiah or Daniel and Ezekiel that he would bring them to confess and that they should confess their own Iniquities and their Fathers also and be ashamed for them That which also followeth in the second Command is very sweet and far from shewing God to be an Angry Wrathful God as Satan would fain represent him As at first in Paradice some of his very first spawn cast on our great Mother and continued ever since till Christ shall break his head and destroy his malice with his works was This That God was an Envious God the Root of all evil and hard thoughts of God Who even in Judging and in Chastening and in all his worst visitations There Threatned where yet he spake his heart and seems to speak his worst will still remember Mercy Even in Judgment and in visiting most as a Jealous God he will remember Mercy And will but correct in measure and will not contend for ever lest the Spirit fail which he hath made But will visit only to the third or fourth Generation even in those that Hate him Which yet we All do and could not but do Till he Turn us by manifesting Love to us Love which he still beareth in his heart and it is there Rivetted so fast that he can as soon Un-god himself I would speak with Reverence as he can cast out Love from his Heart or act to his poor creatures without Love Nay give me leave to tell you he loved Adam Better more or with a Better Love or more Godlike after his Fall than before Nay it may be Now much better since his long sorrows and sufferings than before in Paradice Nay I had almost said with a better Love than he loved Christ himself before his Fall or Sufferings For he tels us it is a Little Love to love our like our Friend one lovely fair and beautiful kind and thankful still to us for all our love A very smal and poor and little Love which sinners shew and Hypocrites and All to All their like But that God might encrease his Love to Adam or might shew a Better Love than he could manifest be it spoken with Reverence while Man was Like him Holy Wise and Just Truly Fair and Beautiful in All he let him fall into the dirt and dust of death Into the Pox or worse disease that might deform him wholly so that he might commend his love indeed to such as hated him and were unworthy ugly more deformed then poor Job when botched all and naked most forlorn and miserable in his own and others thoughts and left in the hand of Sathan at his will But onely save his Life or Soul as God expresseth it Not onely for a Type of somewhat yet to come unto All that will wait with Job and expect the Lords End but it may be representing Adam also as accused and tempted by Sathan and at length left in his hands till God could shew his love was not onely skin deep as we say but everlasting Nay encreasing more and more as it could make or find an Object for that pity and compassion and that gracious Mercy which could not appear but still had been unseen abroad from God or hid within him had not his Wisdom contrived an Object for it which was Misery and guilt which was not till Sin came in and so he let him fall and shut him up under sin and guilt that he migh shew him Mercy which he could not do before And as before his fall God did not absolutely tye himself to Punish him So After the fall he did not execute That upon him which he might have done but devised devices as the Wise Woman of Tekoa said to David that his poor Banished might not perish And yet still preserved his own Honour and Majesty Truth and Justice too with such a kind of Love and Tender pity merciful compassion which could not appear abroad or possibly be shewn till sin or guilt or shame or fear or sorrow grief or pain or some such misery or other made an Object capable of pity mercy or compassion I shall yet a little more insist on these Particulars shew I hope they very well agree and no way contradict the Words and Mind of God even in the Law or harshest part of all the Scriptures First I premise God loved him and could not but love him very intirely if he loved himself while he was in his own Image And having so loved him and being so Immutable in his Heart Love and Nature he loved him to the End And I do not yet clearly see how any Promise can Oblige God to a more Constant Love of Man restored to that Image Then his own Nature and Heart moved him to love Adam In that Image Now if his Heart be not so truly Tender Gratious and Perfectly Good and immutable also in his most Genuine and Natural Love but that it could really change towards Adam in his own Image yea and that also before his fall or any demerit what ever as to decree his everlasting ruine or at least to leave him to it so foreseeing that he would so fall and rise no more in himself and his Posterity How can any man be sure and rest upon his Word or Promise that he will not leave him when he is renewed again into that Image Seeing it may be still doubted whether any man living can fully know Gods heart and mind by his words or expressions except there be some way else to know it and to rest and trust in it then his words can expresse or import Or unlesse a man may also be taught to believe his Word is Better Truer and more Certain Fixed and Obliging also then his very Heart and Nature is Which as some Teach or Believe was Such even then when it loved most or as much as it could love its self or its own Image that it yet hated and forsook and left to I know not what Irrecoverable misery his own Image and his dearly beloved in his own person or at least his posterity even his very next Son and Sons Sons to all Generations yea to all Eternity for the far greatest part of his Posterity May we not therefore believe and say that with a true constant and Eternal Love of Delight and Complacence from all Eternity to all Eternity God loved himself and his own Image where ever it was And nothing else but kimself and his own Image with that kind of
then he will dispence with loving our Neighbour yea but shewing pitty to his Oxe or Ass fallen into a pit And as if God would measure all our Love to himself by our loving our poor Neighbour St. John saith Let a man never talk of loving God whom he never saw if he do not love his Brother whom he hath seen and if he do but see him in want and shut up his bowels though his wants be not wept or worded out but only Seen How doth the love of God dwell in such a man as we found also in Esay when thou Seest the naked that thou cover him Which hath sometimes been very sweet to me when I had no words or tears to expresse my miseries to Christ or was sensible enough of any of my wants Yet I have often spoken to him from that place and others in the Psalmes or Job or Lamentations Crying See my affliction though I do not see it or am afflicted for it as I should or would Yet do thou See my miseries Even when I see them not and let thy tender eye affect thy tender heart for the Love of God dwelleth in thee Do not therefore shut up thy bowels when thou seest my want though I do not see it or am not affected with it Give me Eye salve that I may see And thou hast promised an holy Spirit to Convince the world of sinne Righteousnesse and Judgement Withhold not Good whilst it is in the God of thy hand to do it Why then wilt thou send me away saying Come again to morrow when it is in the power of thy hand to do me good For thou hast All power in Heaven and Earth Thou art the Wisdome of God and the Power of God And a Brother is born for a day of Adversity And there may be also the greatest â—ffering where there is but little sorrow yea and the greatest sorrow where the least Expâ—ession either in tears or words A piercing look with an eye fixed on Christ in a promise as one able to help and made for it and why then do we doubt of his Will may be a better Prayer than a great many words or tears They are little Griefs that speak or are spoken Great ones are stupid or at least silent So also are Praises They may be best when they attend God in Silence As the Jews also teach us on those passages of the Psalms My soul is silent before thee and Praise waiteth on thee in silence for so it is And Silence is commanded us all not only in those places which bid our words be Few as Solomon and our Saviour also But when God ariseth and doth manifest himself out of his Temple or in his Holy place as his Presence Chamber we are especially commanded to be Silent before him as we read in the last words both of the second of Habakkuk and the second of Zechary And there is not only an Evil but a Good Day also when All prudent men will hold their Peace as we read in another Prophet But it is yet sweter than many words or any can express to consider that if Christ did neither love Us nor Himself nor his Father as he surely doth Yet his very Duty to Him and that Law which bids him Love the Lord his God with all his heart and soul and minde bâ—ddeth him do it also With all his Might And so also to propagate his love to All he can by all means he may Yea and to work while it is Day and to do whatever is in his hand to do with all his might least the night cometh on him also and there be no more working or Councel in the place whether we are all going Is it indeed enough for Him in himself and his own person to have no other God or other wayes of worship than are Right and set by God and not to bear his Name in vain who yet beareth it more upon him both in words and Actions than all men living Except he also propagate this Love of God his waies of worship and his Name his True Name which is his Nature all he can or may and he may quicken whom he will with all his Might to all his Children Servants Neighbours Subjects and Relations under him and in his Povver and they are All. May I indeed suffer any Servant or any other though I may bear vvith children vvhile they are children and vvith Naturals or Ideots alas vve are All so to Him all our lives May I suffer any man within my power or Family to worship a false God or the True God in a False manner or to take his Name in vain while I can help it Is He not Lord of All the Family both in Heaven and Earth Are we not All in his hand and under his power who hath All Power in Heaven Earth and hath All things delivered to him of his Father Can we wonder now why he so often promiseth to manifest the Name of God that All may know it from the greatest to the least Yea and his Enemies also It being so usuall in Ezekiel and other Prophets to close up all his Threatnings with this You shall all know me or I will bring you to Know my Name Which is also the great end of the Psalmists sharp and bitter prayers against All the enemies of God which we find mustered up together in the 83. Psalm That they may seek thy Name O Lord and that they may know that Thou whose name is Jehovah art the most high God over all the Earth which was also the great end of that great work on Nebuchadnezar And the same Psalms tell us also that when men come or are brought to Know the name of God they will trust in it And there also Christ often promiseth He will declare his Name to his Brethren and as if they were too few to the great Congregation also And how great that Congregation is or shall be I cannot tell When also he came to dye he acknowledgeth this for the great work he had to do in the World I have finished thy work I have manifested thy Name unto the men thou gavest me out of the world And as if this were not yet enough towards the end of that prayer he prayeth for More this being the Covenant Ask of me and I will give thee All Nations and Peoples and persons even the utmost ends of the Earth and those also afarr off in the Seas And is his heart so narrow that he will not Ask when he might have us All and all things for asking Ask then heartily that thou maist receive seek us All heartily and thou shalt find us All Knock heartily at the door of our hearts and by virtue of the promise and Covenant of God they shall be opened to thee Neither pray I for these alone which thou hast yet given me shallâ—at â—at any tâ—me hereafter beleeve on me through their word That they All may be
deceived and God needeth not your Lye for him or against your self in any thing And if you judge amisse of your self God is so Holy and Just that you never need fear that He will confirm or execute your wrong Judgement And if you judge rightly of your self you are not so miserable as you conceive your self but as you do that which is one of the Highest and Hardest Acts possible which is to judge ones self rightly so you have one of the Greatest Bbessings which God giveth to the Sons of men or to his own Son which is a right understanding of a right Judgement which was the Great Argument used by the greatest and best man that ever lived to prove that he was of God and had His Spirit and a Will also moulded into His Holy Will for else he saith he could not Judge Righteous Judgement And who ever doth this of himself and his own sins is in a special manner partaker of the Holy Ghost whose proper work is to convince us rightly of sin Righteousnesse and Judgement and who ever judgeth himself rightly shall not be judged of God Here he stopt and sweetly bowed and turned aside a little but returned soon again looking as cheerful as he could well force himself It being not very easie so to clear up his eyes and face but that it might be seen though he hid it that he had wept Which also pierced his Guest both to see the Fathers affection and his own misery Who was still so unhappy as he some way expressed to be a burthen to himself and all he conversed with supposing he had grieved or displeased him by some of his expressions But when the Good Father perceived those thoughts with a most sweet tender and melting look he replyed No my Dear Brother no you do not burthen me at all or in any thing displease me But as my general duty bids or helps me in some measure to mourn with every one that mourneth and to weep with every one that weepeth So my particular respect and affection now forceth me if at least it can be force upon a Fathers tender bowels to yearn over his son or a brother over his own dearly beloved brother Yet there is somewhat in You that maketh me melt in Joy rather then sorrow tho it may be unutterable for I cannot expresse it I saw you were my Neighbour at the first as a Man and so I found my self obliged This is Little and low both to Love and Honour you for that Image of God I ought to acknowledge in you and the great Law of Love that commands Brotherly kindenesse bids us adde Love also yea and to strangers also for the same chapter that bids us Love our Neighbour as our self bids us Love a stranger also as we love our selves And among divers reasons why we should love strangers it is sometimes added Because God loveth strangers Yea and we are bid to entertain them so As if they were or might be Angels seeing some had unawares so entertained Angels But now I see somewhat more in you not onely a Man and my Neighbour but a Christian also and my Dear and pretious Brother whom the Angels do attend and love and honour as a lively Image of their great Lord and Master Jesus Christ. And how is it that the Brother of my Lord thus cometh to visit me And you are so far from having committed that great sin against the Holy Ghost which you so much fear that you are still under the most gracious workings of that Holy Spirit Whose great work is to convince the world even the world and not onely the Apostles or Disciples but the World of Sin Righteousnesse and Judgement which is also promised to the World even to the World and is fulfilled in you who are thus under the convincing spirit of Promise And it will also comfort you for the same spirit that convinceth is also the Comforter and where it wounds it heals and when it hath convinced both of Sin Judgement and Righteousness which is there promised it will also comfort It being the promise or indeed the property and nature yea and heart of God to heal and quicken whom he wounds and kills which from Moses Song runs all along through the Psalms and Prophets Who tell us If he wound he will heal Yea though he kill for two dayes He wil revive and quicken on the Third For he will turn again and have compassion on us because he delighteth in mercy though he cause grief for a while and yet not willingly or from his heart afflicteth the children of men which is his Strange work But Mercy is his Child his Son and comes as naturally from him as a child from any father For he is the Father of Mercy yea of a multitude of mani-fold Mercies which are also One with the heart of Christ for He is the onely begotten of the Father and yet His Father is also the Father of Mercies so that Christ and Mercies lay together in one womb and indeed are the same for how else is Christ the Onely begotten of the Father And you are under the tender mercies of Christ even that Christ who is Mercy it self and this holy Spirit of Promise will certainly be your Comforter being already I see your Remembrancer to bring to mind his words one of his proper Works having also convinced you of Righteousnesse enough in him Everlasting Righteousnesse to satisfie God and sanctifie you And I hear you not onely acknowledge him to be the Son of God and sent of God to be the Saviour of the World but also you are convinced of sin because you have not believed on him the great promise of that Comforter and are made most truly and highly to value defire long and pray for him and To him which you could not but by the gracious workings of that Holy Spirit of promise whose great work was and still is to set up Christ as he set up his Father Which Character given by Christ of his own spirit is repeated also by the Apostles And St. John gives it as the Touch-stone whereby we should try the spirits saying Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus is come in the flesh is of God and again he that confesses that Jesus is the Son of God dwelleth in God and God in him and again whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and again He that is born of God sinneth not that sin or worketh not sin which is a common phrase in the Language of the Law of Moses and other places of Scripture Doeth not sin So but that the seed of God still remaineth in him as the sap of an Oake or Teile when it casteth its leaves as the Prophet Isaiah in that most remarkable Chap. cited in the six first books of the New Testament For the Jews rejection and return again as an emblem of the whole Worlds Restoring or Resurrection it being plain in the
fulness of Christ. And concludes that Epistle Peace be to the Brethren and Love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Grace be with All them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity Amen So to the Philippians every where Especially in that famous place of Bowing in the Name of Jesus paralel to that of the Psalm Early will I seek thee and ever will I bless thee and lift up my hands as here bow the knee in thy Name when I pray I will pray in thy Name and confesse to the glory of God which Christ challengeth to himself in the Prophet Isaiah and at conclusion The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all Amen And in the Epistle to the Colossions For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell and having made Peace by the blood of his cross by him to reconcile All things unto Himself by Him whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven Which to the Ephesians is according to the good pleasure of his will which he had purposed in himself that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather All into One in Christ All things in Heaven or Earth even in him And to the Thessalonians Now God Himself and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way to you and the Lord make you to increase and abound in Love to One another and to all men even as we to you that he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God And again That the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and ye in Him according to the Grace of our God and the Lord Iesus Christ. And again Now our Lord Iesus Christ himself and God even our Father which hath loved us for the Father is Love and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace comfort your hearts and stablish you in every good word and work And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and patience of Christ. Now we command you brethren in the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ that you withdraw from every brother walking disorderly yet count him not an enemy but admonish him as a brother Now the God of Peace himself give you Peace alwayes by all means The Lord be with you All. The salutation of Paul with mine own hand which is the token in every Epistle so I write The Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ be with you all Amen And it may also be observed that what we read be with you might be read is with you and so it is not onely a prayer but a promise and assurance that the grace of Christ is with All calling on Christ and so believing on him for how can they call on him on whom they believe not And Timothy This is a faithful saying and worthy of All Acceâ—ation as much or more then all the Mazoreth or Kabâ— that Christ Jesus came into the World to save sinners of whom I am chief Now unto the King Immortal Eternal Invisible the onely wise God which Jude also calleth Our Saviour speaking in the language of this very Text be honour and glory for ever and ever Amen Which he subjoyns on this Great Cause I obtained Mercy that in me first Iesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a patern to them even to all them that should hereafter believe on him to Eternal life So that Christ did not mainly mind Paul in shewing him that patience and kindnesse but did it to Him that he might be a patern unto others even unto all others that should ever after believe even to all Eternity And to the same Timothy he writeth Flee also fleshly lusts but follow Righteousness Faith Charity Peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart And concludes the Lord Iesus Christ be with thy spirit Grace be with you Amen The great businesse of St. Peters Epistle is to presse forward in the knowledge of Jesus Christ and so he concludes Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ to him be glory both now and for ever Amen Which also runs very much through the whole Epistle The Revelation of Jesus Christ wch God gave to him to shew to his servants is ful of prayers praises blessings of and from and to the same Jesus Who so plainly calling himself the first and the last which is and was and is to come the great Iehovah Lord God Almighty leads us plainly to the paralel places in the Prophet Isaiah where he saith the same of himself adding also that there is no other God or indeed no other True Being besides himself Representing himself in several species or Idea's For Plato was not the first that taught there was but One which yet was All. And yet again in the same chapter of that Prophet he saith Lo here I am and His spirit hath sent me even the Lord God and His Spirit though I am God and there is none besides me or none else but I and in me and One with me as the Root and every Branch is One with the Vine And in the same Prophet It is this One True God the First and the last and so All True Being which yet is sent by God and anointed by his Spirit and so the Messias or-Jesus Christ which plainly sweareth by Himself and therefore hath no greater that every knee shall bow or pray to Him and every tongue shall confess to Him which the Apostle citeth in that noted place of praying in the Name of Jesus and confessing to the glory of God even the Father also And may we add or may we not add what Christ of himself said If God be glorified in Him or in Them will not God also glorifie Him or Them with Himself Yea he will shortly do it nay he hath already done it before any other can glorifie Him for who can give him first or lend to him that it may be paid again To this also we might refer those passages of holding fast his Name and not denying his Name and confessing his Name as he will also confesse their names before his Father and the holy Angels both in the Gospels and Revelation and the call and Counsel of Christ as also the Fathers Drawing being that we come to Christ and learn of Him and buy of Him and open to Him that is still knocking to come in till his locks be wet with dew and his spirit be not onely abused but dispised and blasphemed argue much our speaking praying to him as well as hearing him who indeed is the end of the Fathers Teachings and Drawings so that he that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh wil come to Jesus Christ and converseth with him as a man with his friend whom he most loveth and honoureth also And the Angels of Heaven for they are all bid to worship him as we
terrour of the Lord might perswade men yea and save them by fear and with much compassion catch them as brands out of that horrible pit of which we read so much in Job and the Psalmes and our Saviours own words also besides other Scriptures And dyed this Abner Father of light or Fathers light as Naball or a Fool dyeth Was he drunken also as Naball Or did his heart dye in him or becmoe as a stone before he died Will he not improve his death and all his sufferings all he may Is his heart narrow or his eye evill to himself also Doth he envy us shall I say or himself his full recompence of Reward for which he despised the Crosse and endured the shame and pain being promised that he should see the travell of his soul and be satisfied not only contented but fully Satisfied for all the travel of his soul which should have a full recompence yea a Reward also Will he then lose the things that he hath wrought and Suffered also Which hath oft sounded in my eare or heart from his beloved Disciple to the elect Lady which might represent the whole Elect and Church and Spouse of Christ who cryeth to us all in the words of that Disciple Look to your selves and I am taught to say Lord Look thou to it also that we lose not the things we have wrought or born but that we may receive a full a very full Reward also I should tire you much to observe one quarter of that St. Paul speaketh of the Sufferings of Christ and the mighty weight and stresse he layeth on them yea and upon the very little drops of them he felt or bore in his own person which yet he calleth the sufferings of Christ and to fill up the sufferings of Christ. Which in himself also he is bold to say were for the Consolation and Salvation also of others yea of many others as he writeth to the Corinthians and with them also he joyned all that in all places called on Jesus Christ as we noted before And to the Colossions having said of Christ that it pleased the Father that in him all fulness should dwell and having made peace through the blood of his Cross by him to reconcile all things to himself which afterwards in that very Chapter and to the Ephesians also he calleth the Mistery of his will according to his good pleasure which he had purposed in himself to be compared with the 5. to the Romans many other Scriptures He addeth also that this Gospell was preached to every Creature under heaven as our Lords commission was Whereof I Paul am made a Minister who now rejoyce in my sufferings for you and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions or sufferings of Christ in my flesh for his Bodies sake which is the Church And to Timothy he writes For the which cause I also suffer these things Therefore I endure all things for the Elects sake for the Elects sake that they may also obtain the Salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternall glory And to the Philippians In my Bonds you All are partakers of my grace Yea and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your Faith I joy and rejoyce with you all But if Christ neither loved us nor himself or valued his own Glory or his own Sufferings yet his love to his Father or his very duty to him though he did not love him may be found a great foundation of our Faith and Hope in him and in God through him And for this I may not only cite the Scriptures that speak of Gods loving Christ because he loved us and laid down his life for us One of the sweetest and the strangest sayings in the Bâ—ble But also as Paul said A necessity is laid upon me and wo to me if I do not preach the Gospell Even so our Saviour also This Commandement I have received of my Father And had he not received it he neither would nor could have given that Commandement to others which he so often presseth and repeateth as his own his new Commandement to all his Children Friends or servants that they love one another as even as he loved them which was to lay down his life for them and this Commandement he received of his Father and solemny professeth he never said a word but what and how and as the Father spake it to him nor did ever do a work but what he saw the Father do and what he did as if the Father also Suffered in him Nor shall we go far to search for this Commandement of God to him either in that of Ezekiel the son of man the great Watch man and the great Warner at whose hand God would require the soules of all that were under him who are all men yea and at the price and weight of his own blood with which he must therefore prepare a sacrifice for every one that erreth and is simple as we touched before to be compared with the 53 of Esay and divers other Scriptures And the 58 of the same Prophet sheweth how it delighteth the soul of God that Christ should break every yoak and deal his bread to the hungry and bring the poore and them that are cast out or banished into his own House when he doth but see a man naked though he weep not beg not yet to cover him and not to hide himself from his own flesh If then thou draw out thy soul thy very soul to the hungry and satisfie the affâ—icted soul the Lord shall guide thee continually c. One of the sweetest promises in all the Bible and yet sweeter if we consider it spoken to Christ before it was to us and then follow the gracious promises upon the keeping of the Sabboth in which also we shall find our Saviour very much concerned But the very ten Commandements and all the Law of God through all the Bible which he took upon him and was made under it was written in his heart and so rivetted in that he can unmake himself again as soon as leave or lose one tittle of that Wise and Just and Holy Law of God which is all yet one Royall Law of Love Did not himself summe it all up into Love Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and mind and might and there is another word of Love yet like to this a strange expression like to this or as good as this or as much required and accepted as this and of as much stresse and strength or force as this which is Thou must love thy Neighbour also as thou lovest thy self Yea and this is not only as the former of loving God but rather before iâ— in Gods account as we may find in his beloved Disciple and divers others So that God will much sooner dispence with his own love and hâ—s worship even of the Sabboth day as we find in our Saviours own words
Flood was such a Baptism to the Earth also As helped to wash away its Curss and Then God said in his Heart I will no more Or I will not yet add or go on to Curss the Earth for mans sake For or although all the mouldings of his heart be evil continually Which was the great reason brought for the Flood and yet now against it and the Curse or its continuance So gracious was God seeing the Flood also did not change mans heart but still left it as bad as it found it he resolved another Course and that he would Overcome Man with Kindness For it it was not only the Heathen Poet that told us Love would Conquer All Nor the Apostle only that Love covereth a multitude of sins but Solomon expressly saith Love covereth or shall cover as the Original expresseth All Transgressions Which St. Paul also Comments on Love beareth All believeth All hopeth All endureth All. Which was seen before in Davids that is Loves perfect Victory over All his Enemies Yea and Saul also which is the Grave and Hell to which David also alludeth perhaps in That very Psalm Crying the Kables of Hell laid hold of me Kable Seol I shall not digress Here to shew How the Flood it self was a Blessing also to the Earth and a Type of a greater Blessing to come When the skies shall pour down Righteousness and the Earth also shall bring forth Salvation When we shall receive the great showrs and the Latter Rain of the Spirit as we have received the Former little drops and first fruits of it hinted in divers places of Scripture For the whole Earth also must be full of the Knowledg of God as the Waters fill up the Sea and did once cover the Earth yea once and again But the Spirit also moved on the Waters and formed out the Heaven and the Earth so also it shall bring forth a new Heaven and a new Earth in which Righteousness shall dwell And in the Revelation the Earth also holped the woman and drunk up the Flood cast out of the Dragons mouth May it not also be about 1656 from Christs Resurrection or the New Creation as the Flood was so long after the Old Creation And That very Earth which God so cursed even This Cursed Earth must become the Blessed of the Lord. Yea so much his Darling That he resolveth to make it the very Centre of All his Glory and to fill it so with his glorious presence that the very Saints or Angels in Heaven rejoyced in the Revelation that they should come out of Heaven to reign upon the Earth Which is many times also hinted in the Psalms and All the Prophets to be compared with that most remarkable Discourse of God with Moses on Mount Sinai of the Lands enjoying her Sabboth of Rest in Leviticus And the very Song of Moses which is as the Bass to All following Prophesies concludeth with This He will be gracious to his Land as to his People or he will Cover or Atone or Expiate his Land Yea the very word by which God named the Earth which is one of the few things God Himself named and would not leave to Adams Naming as he did other things is such a word as might be also rendered I will delight or be pleased as if Here he meant to take his pleasure and delight rather than in All the Heavens Which must pass away as a Scroul of Parchment before the fire and They shall be no more being only as a Canopy or Curtains now to hide the Glory of God which must ere long fill the Earth which therefore shall Endure for ever and be never moved though renewed and filled both with Righteousness and Peace And God will come to keep his Sabboth of Rest and will delight on Earth and take his pleasure Here and Here also accept his People as himself seemeth sweetly to allude to the very Name Erets by which he named the Earth in the 40. verse of the 20. chapter of Ezekiel Where also This allusion is more sweet and fuller much in the Original than other Languages can well express Berets sam eretsem And in the 34. of the same Prophet he saith I will make them and the places about my Hill a Blessing I will cause the showr to come in his season there shall be showers of Blessing And the Tree of the field shall yield her fruit and the Earth even the whole Earth shall then yield her Increase Which we also read in the 67. 96 97 98 99. and divers other Psalms and in the second of Hosea and divers other Prophets And this Land of Canaan more Accursed than the whole Earth besides while it was held by those accursed Nations so devoted to destruction came to be the Pleasant Land the Holy Land the place of Gods Delight and Residence on which his Eyes and Heart were fixed All the Year And This also but as the First fruits of the Earth For it must All be Full of the glory of God And All Nations must worship him and All Kingdoms must be His. So it is prayed and promised in many places of Scripture Let All the Earth fear the Lord let all the Inhabitants of the World Reverence him For he looketh on them and fashioneth their hearts alike and his Eyes are on them that fear him and Hope in his Mercy All his Works are done in Truth He loveth Righteousness and Judgment All the Earth is full of his Goodness And the next Psalm is Davids Heart or Christs when driven out from Abimeleck the King my Father or the Father of the King he Changed his Habit c. And among other sweet Expressions That may be One When the Face of God is against the wicked to cut them off from Earth They Cry for so is the Original and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all their Trouble And again All the Ends of the World shall remember and Turn unto the Lord. And All Nations and Kindreds shall worship him Yea All Kings shall fall down before him and All Nations shall serve him For he shall deliver the Needy when he Cryeth the Poor also and Him that hath no Helper And again All Nations which thou hast made shall come and Worship before thee O Lord and glorifie thy Name And the reason is in the same Psalm For the Lord is Good and ready to forgive and plenteous in Mercy to all that call upon him O sing unto the Lord a New Song which is cited also in the Revelation Sing unto the Lord All the Earth Fear before him All the Earth Say among the Heathen the Lord Reigneth and the whole World shall be Established that it thall not be moved Let the Heavens rejoyce and let the Earth be glad Let the Sea Dance and Rowl with All the Fulness thereof which hereafter we may understand Let the Field be Joyful and All in it Yea Then shall all the Trees of the Wood rejoyce before the
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
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
of eternal life seeing it is the gift the free gift of God For the Fathers sin may not forfeit the childrens Inheritance Nor shall the child die or lose his Inheritance for the fathers sin Which may not only be considered by those that so deeply stain the childrens blood for the fathers sin perhaps contrary to the Laws of God and Practice of his People in several Ages through the Scriptures But it may be also carried much further and Higher also perhaps even to our first Father in Paradice then I shall urge it now But the very Orphans of Edom even of hated cursed Fsay are yet bid in Jeremy to come to God and trust in him who will preserve them alive and be the God and Father also of the fatherless and widdows even of those also that die in their sins and are out off for their Transgression or Rebellion Which is also but suitable to that good Law in Deut. which I hope ere long we shall find and see lying on Christ also who was made under the Law even the whole Law and so under this Law also When thou goest to War with any people How the excepted Cananites were also received to mercy we may shew anon Thou shalt offer peace and if they Take it Well They all shall live But if they refuse Thou mayest slay the men and so 't is said they slew the Males of Edom or Amalech a branch of Esau and the Jews add a story of Joabs wrath to his Master that should have taught him the difference between Zachar Zecher Male and Memory But though the Men might be cut off yet the Women and children might not but even by that Law and so Christ practised to Edoms Widdows and Orphans They must be kept alive Thus ere I am aware I am come to that great Argument for speaking and Praying to Christ which I shall more fully insist upon as the richest Pearl of all I can yet produce for comforting afflicted minds and consciences I speak and Pray to Christ and have great comfort in it through his grace not only because he speaketh All that ever God speaketh unto me and so sure in all Christian civility I should speak to him again But also I may and can and dare and should say That even many things to Him which I dare not cannot may not speak to the Father as Father But that he see them answered and Done by his Son whom I Therefore press upon And it may be These Things which I so may speak to Christ only are the best and sweetest I can yet present to Him or expect his Returns upon Which also flesh and Blood I hope did not reveal to me but my Heavenly Father in his Drawing me to Jesus Christ and Teaching me some little os That Truth which is in Jesus and some little of his Love which passeth All knowledg which yet All Saints must come to Tast and see that so they may be filled with All the Fulness of God And He that hath heard and learned of the Father will come unto Christ and by Him to the Father I may say to Christ O Lord Thou art the feed of the Woman promised to bruise or break the Serpents Head to loose his knots dissolve his Works yea to destroy him who had the Power of death which is the Devil Or as the Psalm expresseth it He shall break in pieces the Oppressor And the Prophet Esay Thus With his sore and Great and strong Sword he shall punish Leviathan the piercing or the Crossing Serpent even Leviathan for he that made him can cause his Sword to approach to him That crooked Serpent laughing at the shaking of our spears and ratling of our Quivers and shall slay quite slay the Dragon in the great Deep To which the Revelation alludeth plain enough both in the Serpent and the Dragon in divers places And as he is the Womans Seed so is he also the seed of Abraham and That blessed Seed of Promise in whom not only All Nations but also All Families and every Family of the Earth shall be blessed as is expressly promised more then once And St. Peter citing that Promise concludeth thus God hath sent him to Bless you in Turning every one of you from his Iniquities So that I may also say to him Thou wert promised to Bless me and sent to Turn me from my Iniquities Thou wert made Man for my sake Thou art also my Kinsman Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh and did Any ever hate his own flesh May I not call him Brother and say unto him that a Brother is born for a day of distress and sorrow as the wise man tells me And he doth not only give me leave but councels and commands me not only to lift up my voyce to Wisdom and cry after her but also to call her my Sister and to Understanding I am bid to say Thou art my neer Kinswoman And is not this Wisdom the Spirit of Christ Which is yet promised to stand in every street and path and that she shall cry for so it is promised in the future time yet to come and not only time past or present as some render it Yea she crieth and shall cry to All the sons of men to All the simple ones Yea 't is expressly said she shall cry to the Scorners also How long will you love scorning Turn ye yet at my Reproof and I will yet powr out my spirit on you And again in another Chapter 't is also Shall not Wisdom cry shall she not give her voyce by the way in the paths at the gate she shall shout and at the entry of the City and the coming in at doors Unto you O men I will call and my voyce to the Sons of man O ye simple understand Wisdom and ye fools be ye of an understanding Heart And again I love them that love me and they that seek me early shall find me And my delights both were and are with the sons of men Now therefore hearken to me And to this Wisdom which is There described as begotten by God the same word used by Eve of Cain I have Gotten the man Jehovah even in the beginning of his waies before his Works of old c. which is plainly Christ and yet to This Wisdom I am bid to call her my Sister and my neer Kinswoman So that I wonder not at the Divine Rhetorick of Those that cried after Christ O thou Son of David have mercy on me For by This he was their Neighbor and their Brother born for a day of sorrow Which was also caught and pressed by the poor forlorn and cursed Woman of Canaan though Christ was first silent and then called her as a Dogg but at length helped her with much compassion as a Neighbor or a Brother which is large enough to reach a stranger also and an Enemy as we see by his own answer to him that said Lord who is my
prayeth for the World as such No more than a Man ought to love or cherish his Flesh as such But only in order to change it and make it New And this indeed seems one of the most proper sences of Gods Hating any Which in Hebrew is expressed by a word so neer That which is to Change as if Hating were but in order to a Change which is also very neer the sound of the words that in Hebrew signifie both to Change and to Hate And as Sone comes from their Sana to Hate as we touched before So doth Sin which is Hate or Shun And That which English Saxons whose Language is much Hebrew do call Sin is in Gods Language Hatred For he hateth Nothing but Sin And the Eng Sin is in Heb Hate or Chate or Hhate So that God Hateth Nothing but Sin And no person but as Sinful and so in Order to Changing of him As we see in his own Covenant His First Covenant and so his First Creation and the First born in all Dispensations must give place to a Second which is Better And the Elder must still serve the Younger or give place to it God will still shew himself Better and Better and so will ever to All Eternity And finding fault with his first Expressions or Manifestations he Disanuls and rejects or Hates and reprobates them in order to change them and make them Better VVhich he is still Doing For what he doth once he doth ever And the VVheel still goeth round as we find in the 90. Psalm and Solomon in divers places to be compared with that of our Saviour so often repeated They that are First shall be Last and the last first And behold I make All things New As in the beginning so it shall be ever I may add also That in divers Scriptures we may find Love and Hate to be but relative Terms or comparative God as God Loveth Himself only with an Absolute Love and Hateth nothing but sin with absolute Hatred But among Creatures He Loveth One before another as it cometh neerer to himself and his own Image So he prefers it before another which he hateth in comparison So Leah was Hated that is Less loved than Rachel preferred before Leah who was loved also but below Rachel And in such a sence God speaketh If a man have two Wives the one Loved and the other Hated that is less Loved For else sure God would never countenance any mans Hating his VVife But only as he doth a mans Hating his own flesh in order to change it and prefer somwhat before it And so Christ telleth us that no man can be His Disciple except he Hate his Father Mother Brother Sister Wife and self Whom yet he never should or could Hate if he be His Disciple and be moulded into Love But his meaning is as we find in another Evangelist Except he prefer Christ and so Love Him before All Those Which therefore in Scripture Language are All said to be Hated in comparison of Christ. And why may not Jacob the Younger be Thus Loved that is preferred before Esau who in This sence is Hated and rejected that is set behind his younger Brother But however These may be used or looked upon as Types of the Elect and Reprobate we cannot from Thence determine Final Reprobation as the Schools express it in the person of either Though the Scripture give us very sad Characters of Esau calling him a Profane Person yet I know not that it ever shews him to be Eternally Reprobate That Repentance which is spoken of in the Hebrews being his Fathers and not his own but the changing of his Fathers mind towards him which he could not obtain though he sought it with Tears But yet his Father also Blessed him and though he must serve his younger Brother it was but for a season till he could break his yoak as we shall see anon And This also but as generally in all the Dispensations of God out to the World the Elder as we may commonly see in most or All the Elder Sons named in the Bible or the first must give place to the Second Even the first Covenant it self must be rejected and disanulled and judged Faulty also that is Reprobate in order to a Second Better and more Gracious So it was said The Elder shall serve the Younger And Christ himself came to Serve and to Minister and not to be Ministred unto As it is said Joseph in Prison was Trusted with the Care or Government of all the Prisoners and set to serve them As indeed a Governor is a great Servant to his Servants As it is written Jacob have I Loved is it indeed an Interrogation rather than affirmation But Esau have I hated But How Hated The very next words of the Prophet who is cited by the Apostle shew us that This Hating was some frowning of Gods Face as we may say but not of his Heart and but upon the outward Man or Estate of Esau whom he therefore saith he Hated because he laid his Mountains and his Heritage waste for the Dragons of the Wilderness But may or can any man know or judg of True Real Love or Hatred especially That which is Eternal by All that is without or before him Is there not much worse spoken of Jacob and Israel in that very Prophet than of Esau Doth not the same Malachy say of Israel VVill the Lord regard your persons Even your persons And no wonder then his Soul abhors their Sacrifice Which yet is one of the worst things that Solomon observes of a wicked man But How frequent in the Prophets against Israel And in Jeremy 12. we see How God Forsook and Hated the deerly beloved of his soul. As an Emblem of Christ himself so forsaken Hated cursed and Rejected by God or of all the Elect who once were as Paul to the Fphesians children of VVrath or curse as well or much as Any others And the same Malachy doth not only observe the Jews so neglected and rejected but Cursed also by God himself several times Yea and that the Lord would also curse their very Blessings Yea and had cursed them already One of the heaviest or worst Curses in the Bible And This is for Spiritual Adultery and Judahs marrying the Daughter of a strange god As Gen. 38. Judah leaving his Brethren for it is not good for man to be alone Turned in to a Canaanite who bore Er and Onan so wicked that the Lord slew them Which is also in Malachy though lost by reading it Therefore will the Lord cut off the Master and the Teacher which in Heb is Er and Oneh And the Scripture seems often to allude to Tamar also at the end of that History Mother of All Judahs Posterity As the Church or every Christian waiting for Christ that Shilo or Shela till with child by his Father also leaving his Signet and Bracelets which save her at the fiery Judgment But we translate Tamar the
Naball or a natural fool before the wisest man or Angel of the Lord and like a little childe and lesse and weaker much before the strongest and most mighty Giant clothed with double armour Will he contend for ever when our spirit that is His in us must fail and if it should not yet by conquest he can get no glory from us but a blush to think he should be grieved or provoked to contest with that which is so far below hâ— and so much unworthy of his wrath and so uncapable oâ— bearing the power of it If he would or could express it abroad out of himself He hath already learned much of God that knoweth how that great and infinite Being is one pure simple Act without all shadow of change as he is in himself and yet in Christ is all doth all beareth all suffereth all for he is Love and can ungod himself for ought I yet see as soon as do or speak or think a thought or any thing or act without Love Though he may hide his love which yet must hide and cover all transgressions if the Proverbs do not deceive us So that in a veile or mask it may appear as frowning or an angry face when yet Love is at the heart and the Lamentations say he doth not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men and I never read any Scripture praying that God would alter his heart towards any but very many that he would alter his face and turn again and shine upon them or lift up the light of his countenance that so they might be saved He that seeth how that which is Infinite mâ—st be principle and end subject and object to it self and all it 's own actings yea and Passions or Sufferings also to eternity wil not wonder to hear that God never spake a word or did an act or struck a stroke but on or in and through his own Bowels Jesus Christ. As a tender man How much more a tender God never striketh any but it even pierceth his own soul or Bowels and the harder the object is the more it makes our hand also to ake in striking it but it is because our hand is hard also How easie is it to darken Counsell by words without knowledge But how soon also would True Wisdome come and teach and lead us if we would cry after her and call her Sister and wait early at her gates in a silent freedome from the noise and crowd and dust of this world and vain thoughts or forms of words darkning Counsel without knowledge I have yet said nothing or at least very little of the great sufferings of God in Jesus Christ And indeed what can any man or Angel say of his Sufferings when as all the Gospel is but a little short discourse of some few things which he began and but began to say and do Nor is it much wonder that we should hear or know no more of that of which he spake so Little For he did not cry or cause his voyce to be heard in the streets when hungry thirfty harborless not knowing where to rest his head slâ—ghted Contradicted by Sinners betrayed by his own Disciple accused by a multitude scorned spit upon reviled buffe ed and bound scourged by Pilat Crowned with Thornes wearied with the Crosse and broken on it and so cruelly pierced that the hardest heart shall see relent and mourn over him and yet as a sheep is dumb before the shearer so he opened not his mouth Nor did Living Man complain but Dying God cried to his Father My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Thou art holy still and inhabiâ—st the Praises of Israell Our Fathers trusted in thee they trusted and then cried and still trusted Faith begot Prayer and that increased Faith and they were delivered many times at all times never confounded or ashamed But I am a Worm and no man a reproach of men and despised of all people But thou art Holy still We are yet but in the Porch and have scarce touched the threshold of his Sufferings which the old Greek Liturgy so rightly tearmed as well unknowable as unutterable O how he loved us How great is his goodnesse How great is his Beauty which was yet deformed more then any man or any Creature Surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows He was wounded for our transgressions He was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was on him and by his stripes we are healed All we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all I might add also that sufferings are of such account with God that though he never promise ought but sutable to all our doings Yet our light afflictions or sufferings which are but for a moment work unto us also but his shadows a far more exceeding and eternall weight of glory with so great Hyperbole as cannot be expressed And because he made his soul an offering for sinne he did prolong his daies raised from the dead and shall see his seed and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand And therefore he shall divide the spoile with the strong and have a portion with the mighty And for suffering of Death he was Crowned with Honour and Glory that by the grace of God he should taste death for every man For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sonnes unto glory to make the Captain of their Salvation Perfect through Sufferings and though he were a Sonne yet he learned Obedience by the things he suffered For as it pleased the Lord that All fulnesse should dwel in him so it pleased him also in bringing in that fulness into his narrowness as a man to put him to sore pain and thus to make and keep him still quick or of tender sence in the Fear of the Lord which of all he needed most because he knew and saw and felt most Love Which was therefore poyzed with most Holy fear which kept him still in aw and made him most tender also unto others as we see discoursed in the Epist to the Hebrews God would not trust him or us in his hands while he was only taughr his fear or his love by precept till he had it also by the deepest experience And when he put him under the Law â—or us he did not only tell him what measure thou meetest shall be meet again pressed down and running over And he that killeth with the sword shall be killed with the Sword and he that leadeth Captive shall be led Captive And he that diggeth a Pit shall fall into it which are often repeated in the Scripture and spoken to Christ also as well as to us But he also shewed him the horrible Pit and shut him up in it that he might still remember it and by his own experience knowing the
severall times in the Prophets and twice in Jeremy of his own dearest Children whom he saith he will not Cut off or destroy but only chasten visit or Correct in measure but not Hold Guiltless or acquit them wholly The very same Phrase used in the Third Commandement and in the Name of God Proclaimed in Exodus and Numbers 14. And the very same Phrase is used by Job of himself divers times although we may be sure he did not beleeve God had cut him off for ever or would never acquit him or hold him Guiltlesse though he so speak of himself But it is such a phrase as the Prophet Esays Therefore forgive them not which yet is no worse or more then we find commended and commanded also by Solomon to a tender Father who is bid to chasten his Son and not to spaâ—e him or forgive or acquit or Hold him Guiltless For they are much the same Phrases Yet I may ad to make us fear the Goodnesse of God rather then All his Wrath He that taketh the Good Name of God this gracious God in vain or he that so Turneth it into wantonness is the most guilty Person in All the Bible that I know or most in danger not to be quit or held Guiltless as we find hinted in severall places from the third Commandement Except haply we may also say the most Guilty Person in the World whom God will least acquit or hold guiltlesse is Jesus Christ In whom the Curses also are Yea and Amen or fulfilled rather more then the Promises For in These he joynes his Children who are Co-heirs in All the Promises and Purposes of God But in bearing the Threatnings and Curses He is more alone then in All the Promises He treads the Winepress of Gods Wrath alone and of the People there is none with Him He alone can bear it He alone need fear it All the Billows of the Almighty rowled upon Christ and All his Arrows stuck in his Heart and drunk up his Spirit more then All the world besides All else being little weak nothing lighter then vanity Compared with Him that was Gods Fellow and his Match Who thought it no Robbery to be Equall with God who therefore laid his stroaks upon H m who was only able to bear them with our guilt So that in a right sence He is the most guilty Person as Bearing Gods most Holy Name more then All the World besides And bearing all our guilt for bearing at in vain And as the third Commandement hath its not Acquitting So the second hath it's Jealousie and visiting the Fathers sinn upon the Children As if this were most proper to the false or Superstitious wayes of Worshipping the true God rather then to the having other Gods forbidden in the first As if God also were Jealous of none but such as were Marryed to him and had chosen him for their Husband But now wandred out in strange wayes of Worship which provokes his Jealousie and makes him visit more it may be then any other sinnes If it had been an Enemy I could easily bear it O but my Friend and my Familiar in my Bosome as the Lord may speak when his own Spouse dresseth her selfe in an Whorâ—sh Habit as it were inticing Strangers Which the Lord abhorreth more it may be then the grossest Idolatry of those that are Strangers Which is not so grievous as the Provocation of his Sonns and Daughters as Caesar also cryed What and thou my Sonn Brutus or his nerest Relations which perhaps also may be more properly called Haters of God in Hebrew Sone much akin to the Saxon English Name of Sonn rather then Strangers who have not knowledge enough to Love or Hate Him in a proper sence as those that by not walking in the light and love they have received come at length to be so guilty and full of slavish fear that they turn downright Rebbels and such Sonns as God commanded should be brought out to the Judges to be stoned for Rebellion Which is very neer perhaps if not the very sin against the Holy Ghost Or that presumptuous wickednesse which David so prayed against remembring that there was No Sacrifice for presumptuous Sinners but as the Epistle to the Hebrews speaketh A certain fearfull looking for of judgement and fiery indignation to devour the Rebbels As the Jews also had the Cutting off and the Hand of Heaven yea and that also they called the Rebels stroake But of All Images forbidden in the second Commandement as so much moving God to Iealousie Those which are most common and most dangerous as little taken notice of being most Spirituall or most Divelish are the Images we are so prone to make and mould of God by that within us which is therefore rightly called Imagination and the proper forge of Images which yet may reach farther higher and more inward then our sences or that which the Schooles call Imagination Worse much then Images made by hands which we are so long in Moulding and Carving that we blâ—sh to worship That we have sweat so much about and warmed our selves with part of But a deceived Heart makes us eate the very Excrements and ashes of those Images or Image-makers And as the great thing which brought the Flood was the evil Imagination of mans Heart continually So it is the great promise in many places of Scripture that his people should no more walk after the Imagination or the Image making or the Idols of their own foolish Hearts And it is the great Judgement and Punishment of those that when they knew God did not glorifie him as God nor were thankfull that they should become vain in their Imaginations or in Image making and their foolish hearts so darkened as to change the Glory of God into an Image or an Idol of their own fancies the most dangerous Idolatry And thus indeed they change the Image and glory of God in themselves to the Image of a Beast eating grass as Nebuchadnezar and it may be This is some emblem of worshipping the Beast or receiving that character which the Revelation saith All the World should do but those only whose names were written in the Lambs book of Life before the foundation of the World And That Beast or sensual beastly spirit may be more common than is thought And when man was made in the Image of God He was to Rule over all the Beasts or Beastly natures or spirits But now losing the Image of God and of man also he taketh the Image of a Beast and of The Beast so much spoken of in the Revelation But as Love was the foundation of the very Law also springing out of the Heart of God which is Love However it may now gender unto Bondage yet it rose from Love So it speaketh Love to the very worst of men as Saint Paul affirmeth till their Rebellion make them Outlaws and put them out of the Protection of that good Law which is given to them all saying to
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
not that Watches and Catches also might come from the Hebrew Chatsa Which in This sence is akin to their Kaets to Watch or wake out of sleep which is also applied to God himself the Great Watchman of Israel And what if the Watchers singing Holy Holy Holy at every Watch might allude to the Three Hours in Each of them as well as to the 3 Persons in the Blessed Trinity Though some ancient Copies square the 3 also and make it 9 times Holy Holy Holy c. And seeing All things Here below were but shadows of somwhat above and shewed also in the Mount Why may not That Half Hours Rest or-silence in Heaven of which we read in the Revelation be As the Sabbath to Half Hours There being 7 Halves in 3 and an Half As we found before a Sabbath both in Rest and Turning in every 7 Hours and Daies and Months and Years also Or it may be the Cardinal Watches were distinguished by their Songs as the Temple Waits or Trumpets as David may allude by Rising at Midnight to sing Praises c. As the Others by Rest or silence Which we see cleer enough in 2 of them at the Morning and Evening Incense while the People stood without Praying in silence till the Priest came out and blessed them As we read in That of the Baptists Father strucken Silent also And in all the Jews upon Those places we touched before in the Psalms and Prophets The Lord is in his Holy Place Let all the Earth be Silent and the Lord is Risen Let All flesh keep Silence before him And I charge you that you awake not my Love till He please And as Every seventh Day was Holy from the first Creation As we see by divers things in the Flood and many Scriptures So was Every seventh Honr as we saw before distinct or Holy from the Six before it bringing in some Great change of Midnight or Morning or Noon or Evening whence All Time did first begin And from That First beginning of Time there were Three Daies and an half or 4 Evenings and Three Mornings before the Sun and Moon were seen in the Firmament Which they were not till the fourth Day of Creation as we read in the first of Genesis So That for the whole 3 Daies and an half before That fourth Day those 2 Witnesses of Heaven lay Dead as it were or Asleep in their Causes as the Schools use to speak And at the End of Those 3 Daies and an Half there was a voyce saying Come up hither and Be you placed in Heaven As my 2 Faithful Witnesses So long as These Heavens and This Earth shall Endure And when These are to pass away and be renewed Then also 2 other Witnesses that correspond to These shall lie as Dead or asleep 3 daies and an half As These did at first till a voyce place Them also in Heaven Crying Come up Hither And Then shall be such a spiritual Earthquake As at first a Temporal that made the Rivers break out and the Hills rise up or Valleys sink down of which we read in the 104 Psalm and other Scriptures We cannot wonder that Daniels 3 Times and an Half should bid us look to That or Those set in Heaven to make Times and Seasons or Moeds also And in Hours That Number may Expresse the Duration of an Eclipse As in the Gospels we read of Darknesse from the sixth Hour to the ninth and Then it passed off by Degrees with divers Cries of which again And in Dayes besides the three First before the Sun it may be the Proper Time of the Moons Hiding under the Beams of the Sun as Hours might be under his Body and so long the Sun may be Hidden by Eclipse Or the Moon rather And three Weeks and an Half make up the Time of Distance or Absence of Moon from the Suns Rayes Or her Liberty till she come under Them again and so draw nigh to a Change And it may be added that Three Weeks and an half bring us quite through 24 dayes as the 24 hours of each day to the very morning of the 25th which may be considerable for other things besides the square root of 666. And in Years Our Daniel speaketh of causing the Daily Sacrifice and Minha to Cease in the midst of a Week Which is generally taken for three years and an half that is half a week of years in which onr Saviour preached publiquely and Then by his Own Great offering of Himself Once made put an End in right to All other Sacrifice and Offerings Though they were in Fact continued till the Temple was also beaten down about 40 years after our Saviours Death And That very War Endured just Three Years and an Half But three Moeds and an Half in Daniel may speak Months as well as Hours or Dayes or Weeks or Yeares Though in All and Each of them there may be some Correspondence as we touched before And when the Lights an Hebrew word from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were made at sirst they were for Dayes and Years and Moeds which are therefore properly Neither Dayes nor Years but distinct from Both. And as Dayes and Years in Scripture are generally ascribed to the Sun So are Moeds to the Moon As he appointed the Moon for Moeds and the Sun knoweth his Bowing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or his going Down in that Great Comment on the whole Creation if rightly translated which we Cited but now the 104. Psalm And the very next verse hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Iob and Solomon for Goats as alluding also to the Solemn Goat-offering at every Olam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Hiding of the Moon which so made the Moeds How also Mans Seasons or Moeds are made by the Moon in Him as in Heaven we may see by comparing the third and twelfth Chapters of Ecclesiastes with other places of Solomon and David speaking of his Months and Hidden Times or Allamim or Allamuth As Paul also speaketh of our Life Hidden with Christ in God of which we read in Other places besides many verses of the 89 Psalm as in Hebrew And if we should render the Hebrew Moad or Mognadh by Monach as in Almonack we might easily shew their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be made of N. C. As the figure may hint and more the Number 70 being made of 50 and 20. the number of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 begins a word or syllable the English sound it much by Cn. Gn or Kn. But when it ends by nc nk or ng And if we consider Three Months in Generall They are to the Year as Three Hours to the Day or Night a Watch or Season as we call it of Winter Summer Spring or Autumn Which are All it seems Some how in every Day also As the very words of God to Noah may seem to intimate saying not only that there should be
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