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
Palm tree which it also signifies as That which Riseth by Pressing down and was used at the Feast of Tabernacles and yet also by the Jews shaking their Palms Thrice every way crying Hosanna Hosanna As their Fathers did to Christ spreading Palm branches as we read in the Gospel But how Hated and Cursed Things and Persons may be Loved and Blessed as changed by Him that is not changed as we read in the same Prophet to which also St. James alludeth who also telleth us We are All begotten by One Father and that He hateth putting away in himself also I hope more than any person We must speak anon When I consider the solemn engagement of God to his Son Ask of me and I will give thee all Nations and the utmost ends of the Earth or in the Gospel-words Ask and thou shalt receive seek and thou shalt finde knock and it shall be opened which was first said to Christ before he said it unto us and he saith it to every one and with that also Because it is so to every one therefore so to you or them that then heard him I have often thought it such a ground of Faith and Hope that instead of doubting whether I was given to him or not I have often pressed it on him Ask me that thou mayst receive me seek me and thou shalt finde me and by vertue of the Covenant my hard heart also shall be opened to thee if thou wilt knock heartily Now thou saist thou standest at the door and knockest O but do it heartily which is the great Law of All Servants and thou art the Lords Servant and so called through the Prophets Gospel all the Bible And the Lords servant must be gentle towards all even to them which oppose themselves c. I have also judged it an unworthy thought of God to think he would so solemnly bid him ask what he would and whom he would and then to tye his tongue or narrow his heart so as he durst not or he would not ask as many as he could dispose or manage And to put it out of doubt I see him very solicitous to perswade and assure us that the Father hath so far prevented all his asking or our fears doubts that he hath given him all Things all Persons all Power in Heaven and Earth And on this Rock he grounds his Calls and all our Faith and Hope and coming to him For we must needs have staggered at all his words and promises till with Abraham we were fully perswaded that he was able to perform what ever he promised and this was imputed to him for Righteousness and not unto him only but unto us also it shall be imputed a strange expression to the Gentile Romans If we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our Justification We erre greatly not knowing the Scriptures and the mighty Power of Christ which if we knew we should not dispute his will but rowle our selves upon it as we daily pray and say Lord if thou wilt thou canst make us whole and cleane The God whom we worship is able to deliver us out of this Pit and fiery Furnace was it not a great mystery But however we will not worship the Golden Image of the Beast or him that was or is to be a Beast and to eate grass as an Oxe nor will we receive his character or name or number of it though set up in the plain of Dura every Generation of this World made up of 6. in bredth and 60. in height 666 was also the number of Talents of Gold brought yearly unto Solomon But of this again in our discourse of times and numbers weights and measures And when our Saviour himself came to dye and all the Scripture was against him that he could not live yet he was not afraid to put himself upon the infinite Power of God with Father if it be be possible and all things are possible The Angel to the Virgin said all things shall be possible with God and Christ several times with God all things are possible and at his coming down from the Mount an embleme of his second coming he addeth all things are possible to him also even to a poor weeping man that believeth All things are possible to thee O Father and to mealso they shall be possible But not my will but thine be done on Earth and my Earth also as in thy highest Heavenly Throne which shall also be my Throne And Father I will that those which thou hast given me to whom thou hast given all things may be with me and see my Glory and sit on my throne also And his Throne is established with Mercy as we read in the Prophet Isa. Yea rather with Mercy than Truth or any other thing for so the Proverbs say Mercy and Truth preserve the King but his Throne is established with Mercy So that if he cannot hold both he must let go Truth and all Justice rather than Mercy For Mercy shall triumph over all Judgement and in Judgement he still will still doth remember Mercy And he that sheweth not mercy in all things and all times shall have no mercy shewed him and himself bid them go learn what that meant I will have mercy and not sacrifice or mercy rather than any sacrifice He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what the Lord delighteth in to do Justice but especially to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Ride on prosperously because of Truth and Meekness of Righteousness and seeing God accepteth mercy rather than any other sacrifice let him guide thee also in the way he shall chose and best accept as the Psalmist speaketh I will therefore sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever for I have said mercy shall be built up for ever Mercy and Truth shall go before thy face O blessed are the people that know that joyfull sound and understand it They shall walk O Lord in the light of thy countenance in thy name they shall rejoyce all the day for they that know thy name will trust in it and in thy very Justice they shall be exalted Mercy and Truth are met together Righteousness and Peace do kiss each other Melchizedek the King of Righteousness is also King of Salem that is Peace and his Throne of Judgement in the Revelation is a white Throne and is established with mercy For his mercy endureth for ever for his mercy endureth for ever Even that Mercy which is Over all his works and his compassions never fall And Solomon saith he that honoureth his Maker hath Mercy on the Poor He shall hear the Poor when he cryeth and him that hath no Helper no Helper He shall save their souls and shall redeem them from deceipt and violence or as this Psalm is expressed in Ezechiel He shall offer sacrifice for every one that erreth and is simple
wilful sinners Of the patience of Christ to a man turning into a Beast and how he deviseth Devises to prevent it or recover him How he fulfilled the Ceremonial Law also and how he was in all the Sacrifices as a Lamb for the Lambs and as a Goat for the Goats Of Benjamin the Son of the right hand with other Children of Rachel a sheep in Hebrew at his right Hand and of the Children of Leah or others at the Left Hand where also of Seir a Goat and of the Goats offered at the New Moons solemn Feasts c. and of the Rams of Ishmael accepted on the Holy Alter Of Gods face in Scripture toward the East and of Bowing to the East and of his Right Hand to the South and Left to the North and of Northern Judgments turned to Mercies and Blessings and of great and good things to come out of the North in the Latter times of the World as from Babylon at the return from Captivity How Christ came in the fulness of time Of Seven Ten the full Rich Numbers of their Powers Compounds for Ages Ever or eternity which yet in Scripture oft hath such or such an End or Revolution in such or such Generations How Christ came out in several Ages and Persons of Note in the Bible to do the Great things of Gods Power Wisdome and Goodness for Man To Man and in Man through all the Times and Seasons of the Scripture and in special the Times of the Witnesses In Heaven the Father and the Word Dabar Bar Bara Creating Heaven and Earth where also the Spirit of the Messiah as the old Jews call it on Gen. 1. 2. Mooving on the Waters an other Witness and parting them by A Dam and Adam of Adama dryed Red Earth akin to Dam in Hebrew Bload the other Witness John 5. and Acts 17. Of one Blood he made all Nations of men and determined the Times appointed and bounds of their Habitations which in parting the sons of Adam he bounded according to the Number of the Sons of Israel Deu. 32. which were 12. and to be measured by the 12 Hours of Day and Night Shadowed on the Tabernacle by the Cloud Pillar of Fire for Light that Beginning of the Creation and works of God and in its outer Court by the Laver of Water and Blood on the Alter of Witness as That called Ed a Witness by the waters also of Jordan where afterward the Baptist heard or saw all the Witnesses of Heaven and Earth to which he bare Record or was made a witness also as divers other in several Ages And All the 7 Washings or Sprinklings of Blood or Water so often required in the Law to represent the 7 Nights and 7 Dayes of the Week As the 7 Lamps in the inner Court or Holy Place as the visible Heavens with its Planets about the Sun in the midst as the greatest Lamp was in the middle of the other 6 or 3 on either side by the 12 Cakes of Shewbread changed every 7th or Sabbath day and made of 24 Omers out of 24 Seahs as the Jewes 24th of Leviticus for the 24 hours of Day and Night Made by the Sun mooving 2 of His Diameters the Moon 24 of Hers in each diurnal motion of 24 Hours parted into 4 great Watches as the 24 Elders in the Revelation had also 4 watchers with 6 wings a piece as in the Prophets And in the Temple also there were 24 courses of Priests and of Levites 24 of Porters and 24 of Singers and 24 courses of Standers or men of the Station representing all the People or 12 Tribes as in the 12 Cakes of 24 as 12 Sons of Jacob or 12 Hours of Light came after the 12 hours of Darkness or 12 Sons of Ishmael or Esau for the 24. Elders And as God gave 24 things to the Priests so they gave 24 to him in their dayly Minha of 12 Rouls at morning and 12 also at Evening And the Seventh in Hours also is very Signal as in Days and Moneths and years by the great Rest and Turn of Sun and Moon as Water and Blood also in the Sea and bodies of Animals after every six hours with Them and All that accounted Lilith that is Night the first Wife to Adam and do call her Eve or Even to the Day As it is to them that are about the Aequator and to All at either Aequinox when Time seemeth to begin And beginning at Sun-set as the Jewes and many other Nations did the First six Hours brought down the Sun to the Midnight Nadir and six more brought it up to the Morning Horizon and six more to the Noon or Zenith and six more to Setting again So that every seventh Hour made a Pauz and Turn And Sabbath is Both in Hebrew As if the watchers stood at the four Corners of Earth or quarters of the Heaven which are called Winds and Spirits also in the Scripture alluding perhaps to the four watching Spirits or Angels to Turn the Sun and Moon or Hour-glass of Waters or Clepsydra in the Seas c. After every six Hours of Day and Night the walks of the Sun and Moon but shadows of the good things within the Vaile or 3d Heaven where the 2 Cherubins of Glory shadowed the Mercy Seat or Heavenly Throne over the Earth or Ark of the Testimony also or Witnes with its 2 Tables or Testaments also For the 2d Covenant as in 29 of Deuteronomy was both Law and Gospel also written in the Ark of the Heart of Christ and all his Members after the first Tables of Stone were broken and disanulled being never put in the Ark or in our Hearts For know you not that your Bodies are the Temple of God As Paul speaketh to the Gentiles also Where our Heads as the Heavens above with two Eyes or Cherubins of Glory The Mercy seat or Throne of God and his Rainbow as in all the Scriptures like our Eye And our Heart Or Altar of Incense As the Earth beneath in the middle Court or 2d Region with its Pericardium of Water and Blood in the Pleura with twelve Ribs on either side and seven distinct from the other Nothi As also the seven Rackets of the neck with its spirit or spinal marrow from the Cerebellum As the Brain hath also seven spirits or pair of Nerves with Animal spirits Veyles and Ventricles which are shadowed in the Lower Regions both of the Earth below in the Heart and Waters under the Earth in our Bowels where the Duodenum and Ilea with all the Rest are but shadowes of things above As of the Laver or Molten sea or great Ocean with its Ebbings and flowings as the Earning of our Bowels and the Altar of Burnt-offerings in our Stomack with its heat or fire never quenched and the seven Planets with the Firmament of the Midrif parting between the Bowels or Waters under it and those above it as high as the Brain
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
my Name even to the Ten Tribes of Israel and I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my Name even for my Name which now he fights against And when Ananias came he laid his hands upon him saying Brother Saul the Lord even Jesus who appeared to thee in the way hath sent me that thou mayest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost Adding also as Saint Paul observeth to the chief Captain and people of Ierusalem The God of our fathers hath chosen thee that thou shouldest know his Will and see that just One and hear the voice of his mouth for thou shalt be his witnesse unto all men And now why tarriest thou Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins for even those that were baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire like the Apostles at Pentecost yet were to be baptized with water also as we see in the History of Cornelius calling on the Name of the Lord. And that it was the Lord Jesus on whose Name he bad Paul pray and that he prayed to him is very plain by that which Paul himself addeth to those words Arise and call upon the Name of the Lord And while I prayed in the Temple I fell in a Trance and saw him saying to me Hast and get thee out of Ierusalem for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me And I said Lord they know that I imprisoned and beat in every Synagogue those that believed on thee And when the blood of thy Martyr Stephen was shed I also was standing by and consenting to his death and kept the raiment of them that slew him And he said unto me Depart for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles As before Unto my people Israel Which may be one among other divers other Reasons why I may think the Ten Tribes scattered among them were then also called Gentiles yea and that they might be even some of those Gentiles while they were to be called Loammi and Loruhama though afterwards the very same people were to be called Ammi and the people of God as an Emblem also that the world should come to be the Lords Ammi and Ruhama from Loammi Loruhama Israel being but the first fruits of the world as we may clear anon And there are many things which makes me a little suspect that some Gentile Nations as they seem may be some of the Ten Tribes or at least the posterity of Abraham by Keturah or by Ishmael if not by Isaak also through Esau especially the old Saxons and those Northern people whose very Lawes Customs and Language savour so much of the Hebrew in very many things and words besides their common use of A and The for Articles with very many Monosillables and words written with ch gh gn cn or kn th dh wh wr. fr. And many others plainly Hebrew sounds In another place also Paul giving an account of this matter to Agrippa the King saith I verily thought I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus of Nazareth which I did also having received authority from the chief Priests and I punished them in every Synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme styling himself also a Blasphemer And being exceeding mad against them c. But being strucken down and hearing a voice speaking I said Who are thou Lord And he said I am Jesus whom thou persecutest But arise and stand upon thy feet for I have appeared to thee for this purpose to make thee a Minister and a Martyr both of these things which thou hast seen and those in which I wil appear unto thee Delivering thee from the people of the Jews and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgivenesse of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith which is in me Which I cite so largely because I take it for the best compendium of the Gospel and a true Ministers Commission that I remember And that phrase of Faith in me not only on me but in me seemeth not by chance but so considerable that Saint Paul often useth it in divers places especially to the Galatians where he calleth it Faith of Christ or Christs faith as if he would say He lived and was saved by faith indeed but that which was in Christ rather then in himself or Christs faith rather then His as if Christ by believing for he was justified by faith also in a true sense did not only carry out himself but all his Members also from the Grave and Death and Hell to life and glory And to summe up all I have or should deliver of Pauls observing prayers unto Jesus Christ 't is said in the Ninth of the Acts That when he Preached Christ in the Synagogues that he is the Son of God all that heard him were amazed and said Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this Name and came hither that he might bring them bound to the chief Priests So that it is clear it was in Pauls account the great Badge of a Christian and the distinguishing Character of Christian profession And it is worth observing How he useth that Name and what a stresse he put upon it all along his life and writings Having obtained help of God saith he I continue witnessing to small and great saying no other things then what Moses and the Prophets said that Christ should suffer and should be the first the very first that should rise from the Dead though others might be raised before him and should shew light unto the People and to the Gentiles Which also he cites to the Jews in that most remarkable Sermon at Anioch Acts the Thirteenth of the sure mercies or holy things of David promised to every one that thirsteth and cometh to the waters and many other particulars concluding with their turning to the Gentiles as the Lord commanded saying I have set thee to be a Light to the Gentiles and for salvation to the utmost ends of the earth And the Psalm addeth To them also that are afar off in the seas and America in the Hebrew may signifie a People afar off though I believe that Phrase in the Psalms may mean some farther or mere lost or miserable then the poor Americans So old Simeon said Christ was to be a Light to lighten the Gentiles first to lighten the Gentiles and then to be the glory also to Israel his people Israel Whence People often opposed to the Gentiles And another Simeon at the great Council Acts 15. saith God put no difference between them and us purifying their hearts by faith But we believe saith he that through the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they Here Paul learned or might learn his Character or proper mark he giveth them of his genuine Epistles The Grace of our Lord
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
read in the Psalmes and Epistle to the Hebrews with the four Watches or Watchers and the four and twenty Elders of which again when we shew all measures borrowed from the twelve hours of darknesse or the twelve sons of Ishmael and the twelve sons of Light or of Israel they all fall down and Worship Praying and singing Praises to the Lamb also even as cloathed with flesh as well as to him that sat on the Throne which yet was Christ also as is clear from many passages but Christ in more Majesty and Glory of the Deity then onely as a Lamb slain For it was the Lamb exalted and set down in Glory even in his Fathers Throne As of old the 24. courses of Priests and of Levites and of Porters or Watchers or Singers and other Officers so ordered by David who was also the 24th from Noah as the number of his Name in Hebrew and the 14th from Abraham as also his Name when written without a jod as frequently it is and signifieth love and a Fathers Brother or a very neer kindsman so in the Revelation those 24. Elders did fall down in Adoration to the Lamb even to the Lamb that was slain they had Harps it s said and golden Vials full of Odours which are the praiers of Saints Which may intimate that as our great High Priest over all the Houshold in Heaven and Earth The great Angel of the Covenant offers up his own Incence with the Prayers of all Saints to his Father So these Intercessors also to the Lamb even the Elders of Churches offer up their Churches yea and other Saints Prayers to the Lamb. For the whole Bride and the Spirit acting the Bride also do not onely converse with Christ as her Husband but Worship him also as Her Lord as Sarah called Abraham and she is so commanded in the Psalmes both to Kisse him and to Worship him And she so practiseth in the Canticles and the Revelation also crying to the last come even come and so come Even come Lord Iesus come quickly It may also be easie to shew very many if not most or all of the Prayers and praises in the Psalmes are plainly directed to Christ and many commands and encouragements to call upon him there also As He arken unto my cry my King and my God for unto Thee will I Pray my voice shall thou hear in the morning O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayers to Thee and will look up And again they that know Thy Name will trust in Thee for Thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek Thee And again Lord thou hast heard the desire of the humble Thou wilt prepare their heart and thou wilt cause their ear to hear And again Blessed be my Rock and blessed be the God of my Rock and my Saviour clense me from my secret sins and keep me that presumptuous sins prevail not over me and let the words of my Mouth and the Meditations of my Heart be acceptable in Thy sight O Lord my Rock and my Redeemer And again Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever and ride on prosperously because of Truth and Meeknesse of Righteousnesse And to the Spouse of Christ He is thy Lord Worship thou him And again Be still and know that I am God Clap hands all People sing unto God with Triumph He shall speak the people under us He shall chuse our Inheritance for us even the Excellency of Jacob whom he loved and his blessing prevailed over all the blessings of his Ancestors And again gather my Saints together and I will speak and then declares the forme of the great Judgement both to the good and evil And concludes call upon me in the day of thy trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me plainly spoken by Christ and repeated by the Psalmist afterwards Saying In the day of my trouble I will call upon Thee for Thou wilt answer me And in an other Psalm Thou calledst in trouble and I did deliver thee and answered thee in the secret place of Thunder And what time I am afraid I will trust in Thee And again Trust in him at all times ye People and power out your Souls before him And again Praise waiteth in silence for thee And to thee shall the Vow be performed O thou that hearest prayer unto thee shall all flesh come Iniquity prevaileth over me but thou hast made Atonement for our transgressions O our Jesus or our Salvation The hope of the ends of the Earth and them that are a far off in the Seas And again my lips shall ever praise Thee and and in thy Name will I lift up my hands when I pray And again Thou hast ascended up on High Thou hast led Captivity Captive Thou hast received gifts for men even for the Rebbels also that God may dwell among them And thy God hath commanded thy strength Strengthen O God that thou hast wrought c. And again In the day of my trouble I will call upon Thee for Thou wilt answer me and Thou Lord art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in Mercy to all that call upon Thee Or as St. Paul to the Romans Lord of All and Rich unto all that call upon him plainly spoken of Christ. As that also of the Lord speaking unto my Lord Sit at my right hand c. And then the Psalmist speaketh to him the Lord at Thy hand shall smite through Thy enemies and Thy people shall be a willing people in the day of thy power and the Lord hath sworn and will not repent Thou art a Priest for ever cited so remarkably in the New Testament by the Apostles and by Christ also asking the Jews who it was there or how David called him Lord. And the 102. Psalm being entituled a prayer of one afflicted when his soul is overwhelmed in him and poureth out his sighing before the Lord is plainly spoken to Christ as we see by divers verses cited in the Epistle to the Hebrews as spoken to Him and proving Him to be the Son of God and so are many other like passages cited in the New Testament and applyed to Christ. As also the context will shew speaking somewhat that belongeth properly to Christ and not to God but as he is in Christ and the Humane Nature and so he hath eyes ears heart and hands and passions also and affections which are else improperly given to God or supposed to be in him and so he descends to earth ascends on high Returning also to judge the World Which is oft spoken by David to Him he calleth Lord and King and Judge of All. But the Father judgeth no man but hath committed alâ— judgement to the Son and authority also to execute judgement because he is the son of man And often doth the Psalmist speak to a Lord or King or Judge as Job also saying I will make supplication to my Judge and my Redeemer liveth a phrase also frequently
unto all the Lord should call For it was then but the Feast of Pentecost or fiftieth Day of first Fruits and that but of Barley O but now we wait and hope and expect the Feast of Tabernacles also and the latter Rain as the former little drops even the greatest Feast of Tabernacles which all Nations also must keep with Israel when they shall joy as at Harvest even at the end of full Harvest when all the fruits of the Earth shall be gathered in and all Nations also shall come flowing in as the fruits of all the Earth in that solemn Feast Which was acted also in a Type as we may say of somwhat to come when in the last and great day of the many Feasts of that great Feast of all the Feast of Tabernacles Christ stood out and cryed as the Gospel saith O every one that thirsteth come unto the Waters and he that believeth on me as the Scripture saith out of his belly shall flow Rivers of Living Water as alluding both to their custom of drawing and powring out Waters from Siloam with joy from the wells of Salvation and also to the most remarkable place in Zech where all Nations are invited to that Feast that they might have Water and the Rain of Heaven And it may be he that can rightly count the time between the Feast of Pentecost and Tabernacles may guess also when that latter Rain or fuller powring out of the Spirit shall be Which in general was in the seventh Month yet by another reckoning at the end of the yeer as the seventh Day was the end of the week Even as Gods appearings and Angels also were generally towards the end of the day or about the evening Sacrifice which is one of many Reasons why I think the Lords Supper was and now should also be at Supper or at Evening rather then Morning And to all yet said to perswade us in our prayers to direct our hearts and words to Christ and to God only as he is in Christ as of old in the Tabernacle between the Cherubims of Glory over-shadowing the Mercy Seat covering the Ark I may add That Prayer is a Dialogue between our Soul and God indited by the Spirit of Christ which differeth from the Spirit of God as being That cloathed with flesh and actually united to a Humane Spirit which the Spirit of God as God or of the Father as such is not Which distinction it may be St. John observeth by the Holy Ghost in Heaven One with the Word and Father and by the Spirit on Earth or in the fleshly Members of Christ. Now as Christ in the daies of his flesh did offer up strong sighs and groans and tears and prayers yea and himself also by his eternal Spirit unto him that was able to save him and was heard in all he feared or prayed So doth he now by the same Spirit in the hearts or flesh of his Members which are here on Earth Yet so as all those Members give up their Spirit to their Head As the Elders also in the Revelation present their Vials full of Prayers of Saints to the Lamb and he as the great Angel of the Covenant mingles them with his dayly Incense in his Temple and presents them all even all the Prayers of all Saints to his God and his Father and their Father in and through him They all being indeed but his own sighs and groans or motions of his own Spirit in his Members That we may yet more cleerly understand this let us first consider how Christ prayed to his Father and then how the Christian prayeth unto Christ or to his Father through Christ. As the Apostle saith God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself so in a right sence I may say God was in Christ Praying or speaking to himself even as our Soul communes with it self or as a man communes with his own Heart a Phrase we find in the Psalms or other places of Scripture and we may use it to illustrate This. For which also I may cite that notable passage of our Saviour which I somtime look upon as one of the Keys to open and discover the rich but hidden Cabinet of the Mysterious Scripture where he doth so plainly tell us that he never said one word of himself and yet he said all that was ever said by God for he is the only Word and Mouth of God and in the Prophet Esay he tells us plainly that he said all that was ever spoken and yet now he tells us that he never spake one word of that is From Himself or of his own but of and from his Father and what He said yea and As He spake it unto Him so he repeated it Being as it seems but Gods Holy Echo to repeat those Words and only Those his Father speaketh of himself and in himself and to himself As if Christ also compared with God were such an Infant that he could not speak one sentence word sillable or letter but as God sounded it before him and In him and To him and so He only Ecchoed back some little part it may be as the latter end or loudest part of that Infinite Discourse the Father had and hath to Him from all Eternity to al Eternity Thus when God saith in and to Christ My Son Give me thy Heart Christ then as it were ruminating or repeating in himself what the Father saith He Ecchoes back Give me Thy Heart And so it sounds as a Prayer To Bow down He cries Bow down To Seek my Face Seek my Face And at length his Spirit cries in his Members also Thy Face I will seek Lord Hide not thy Face from me So that the Head only properly speaketh in Prayer but His Members draw also by the spirit of the Head resting and sighing In Them Thus we have seen a tender Mother or a Father Teaching their children to speak and do and go by speaking To them in them as it were and going bowing kissing their hand and Doing All before them and as much as they can in them That they would have them to Do and say Bow down They say and kiss your Hand and say I am your servant or the like by doing and by saying what they mean their child should do or say And then he stammers after them and after many Essaies comes at length to stumble on that gesture posture carriage word or work the Parents have been often Teaching Him or speaking In him For one may speak his heart out to a child or other person who will never learn and Do till he have the Fathers or the Teachers spirit or his meaning and his Meen by accent gesture or some other way rather than by word only impressed on him So that we see our children and such as are acquainted with our spirit can discern and understand our minde by becks or nods or looks or otherwise somtimes without words and somtimes directly against our words and quite
Neighbor and it took in a Samaritan with one of Jerusalem though at more defiance and distance of heart and affection than of Place or Nation For this also see the 2. of the Hebrews and the 10. last verses And we may see what a stress God himself put and would have Us put upon This that Christ is our Brother by That Great Promise in Moses cited so often in the new Testament I will raise them up a Prophet from among their Brethren like unto Thee which words are also expressly repeated several times in the Acts. A Prophet of your Brethren like unto me Which is also the more considerable because in the very next Chapter before This Promise of Raising up a Brother Prophet It is also strictly commanded that when at any time they desired a King they might not choose a Stranger which was not a Brother but from among thy Brethren shalt thou set a King over thee Which is also several times pressed and repeated with an especial Emphasis on that of a Brother and from among your Brethren So that I may now tell Christ that I neither do nor may receive him either as a Priest or Prophet or King but as he is and so must be My Brother Else he is not That Prophet which the Lord promised to raise nor may I choose or set him King over me except he will own himself to be my Brother and so carry himself towards me and must not exalt himself above his Brethren Which was read it seems at the Coronation of their Kings and the Jews tell us of such piercing looks at the Reading of This before Agrippa was admitted or Crowned for their King that Himself also could not hold from Tears because he was not their Brother Born but only made And when their King was chosen and set over them He is bounded and limitted in that Law and the great Reason is added that his Heart be not lifted up above His Brethren One of the great things required of the King set over them was This That when he sate on the Throne of his Kingdom he should write him a Copy of the Law out of that which was before the Priests and he must read therein all the daies of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of this Law and these statutes to do them as we read expressly in the 17. of Deuteronomy The Phrase of Writing when he sate on the Throne of his Kingdom hath made me remember that when the Revelation hath with very great solemnity brought Christ or the Lamb to the Throne of his Glorious Kingdom He that sate upon the Throne said Behold I make All things even All things New Write saith He to St. John For these words are true and faithful And is it not a most sweet Promise seeing All in Christ Jesus must be New Creatures that Himself promiseth to make All New Yea and that also sitting on his Throne and bidding it be written with a Behold also before it as a faithful and True saying of Him also who before his death promised that being lifted up he would draw all men to him And being lifted up and set on his Throne instead of Writing the Law in Tables of stone or other materials he promiseth in the Prophets to Write it in our Hearts and by that also to make us New and to give us a New Heart and Mind and Spirit yea His Spirit in us and by This to make us New Another great matter to be pressed also upon Christ our King sitting on the Throne of his Kingdom out of that very Law of Moses is this That he must so Write the Law for himself that he must study it and Keep it also all his life Even the very same Law he gives and governs by he himself must Write it and study it and Keep it To us all his daies Which St. Paul also hath taught us saying That he was not only made of a woman as we observed before but also Made Under the Law and that he was made Like us in All things but sin and therefore in Obedience also Nay as if it would be vain to promise the Law written in our hearts before it was written in his own he professeth in the fortieth Psalm that it was written of him that he should do the Will of God even the whole Will of God yea it was written in his heart also so that he came to do it and delighted in it even with his whole heart As we also find the Law written over a second time by God himself in the new Tables also that Moses as the forerunner of Christ had prepared after he had broken the First Tables made and written by God as an Emblem of our Hearts written and broken also yea and renewed too by the Law new written in them and put in the Ark a Type of the Heart covered by the Mercy Seat representing Christ also covering and comprehending the Law over-shadowed also with the Cherubins of Glory as the Seat and Throne of God dwelling between the Cherubins who stand prying into the Ark or Heart of Man and the Law in it seeing by the Churches the manifold Wisdom of God is made known to the very Angels who thus pry into the mysteries of Christ. This I take to be one of the sweetest things I ever learned or can teach another that the same person who is to Teach and judg and govern me is made under the same Law with me Yea rather more than I or the first Adam was who was Put or Brought under the Law rather then Made under it as Christ Was. So that he can as soon cast out his own Being as he can cast out the Law of God or any one Title of it from his own heart Which hath it All so moulded and rivetted into it self that Heaven and Earth shall pass away much sooner than any one Tittle or Jota of the Law of God pass away or be unperformed by him For he came not to disanul the Law but to perform it in his own person most of All. And while others dispute for whom he did it I ask only Whether we think or doubt he did it not in his own person Which is one of the greatest things I therefore study that by seeing All the Law in its greatest Latitude I may see the Duty of Christ for I may so speak with Reverence and his great Obligation both to God and Man and his Joy and Delight being written in his Heart to do the whole Law of God So God spake to Joshua that great Type of Jesus Thou shalt divide the Land and make them possess it only be strong that thou mayest observe to do All the Law of Moses my Servant that thou mayest be wise or prosper in all thou dost which is Thence in the Psalms and to Solomon divers others and I will never leave thee Which is also applied to us
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
but in three or four Generations as it may be born least the spirit that he hath made should fail before him And when he afflicteth He will not do it for ever For he doth it not willingly or from his Heart but he will Turn again and shew compassion because he delighteth in Goodnesse and his pitties and compassions never fail and his tender Mercies are over all his works yea all his works shall praise him the earth and all that is in it and the Sea also is full of his Goodnesse He openeth his Handwide and filleth all things with Good and giveth the desire of every living thing Every Tree in the Forest shall clap hands and sing and rejoyce the very Dragons shall praise him the Owls shall answer one another in his Praises Every thing that hath breath shall praise him All flesh shall see his glory and every eye shall see his Salvation For what is Glory in some places speaking thus is Salvation in others and so in the Gospel also Citing it out of the Prophets In a word there is nothing in that Threatning or in any other in this Law and why then should we fear the Gospel but what speaks Gods tender Love and Gratious Pities and Compassions Even his very Jealousie which yet is made the Foundation of all his visitting springeth from Love It is so in man much more in God who is love its self and when he means to shew his greatest Love to his poor people in recovering them from all captivity and sorrow he expresseth it by being Jealous over them and for them with a great Jealousie And St. Paul calleth his tender bowels to the poor Saints a Godly Jealousie or a Godlike Jealousie Lest a stranger should attempt to get away their heart which he had like God the Father Espoused to his dear Son Jesus And when the Lord resolves both effectually and speedily to recover his back-sliding people he promiseth to move them to Jealousie also as himself is moved with Jealousie for them lest another get their heart from him which would never trouble him if he did not very much love them and very tenderly And although Jealousie in Christ for it is proper to an Husband may seem as the Wrath of a man that will not spare or pardon in his day of visitation as the wise man expresseth it Yet even That very phrase of Not sparing or Not pardoning which yet is one of the hardest or harshest expressions in the whole Scriptures is no other than the very same Solomon doth not only observe and commend but require and commanâ—â—so in a tender hearted Father to the Son of his own bowels whom yet he must Chasten and not spare or pardon 't is that very phrase Which yet sure cannot mean that he shall be alwaies angry and never reconciled but that he sorely chasten and correct in earnest and as an Ordinance of God and not for lust or dalliance or so as may occasion sin or harden in the sin so visited May it not be possible also that the dearest children of God even Moses may commit such a Failor in his Generation work as may in such a sense be never forgiven that is Sorely chastened as David was and be still remaining as a Spot for that Generation work though they may and shall be saved May They also or only commit such Unpardonable sins And such a visitation may be threatned in the second Command as was promised rather than threatned to Davids children Who yet had the everlasting Covenant and the sure Mercies or as the Acts expresseth it the sure Holy things of David which are also promised to every Believer or every one that Thirsteth and thirsting cometh to the Waters even to them and their seed for ever So that if his children break the Law and shal despise his Statutes Then will I visit their Transgression with the Rod and their Iniquity with stripes He will chasten them with Rods and as Ezekiel expresseth it cause them to pass under the Rod and Bond of the Covenant So that Rods are a part of the Cevenant and its Bond. But he will not take away his Everlasting Kindness Yet as he speaketh of Solomon perhaps one of the greatest sinners ever living for this I will afflict or chasten the House of David but not for Ever Not for ever I will not retain my Anger for Ever which is expressly forbidden Man in general And so Christ also in the very Law that saith Thou shalt not avenge thy self or reserve thine Anger No not till the Sun go down For so this Law is pressed upon us and why not so upon every one made under that Law also and by consequence on Christ himself Nor shalt thou bear any grudg or thought in thy heart against the Children of thy People for my Covenant is with them and their childrens children also for evermore Therefore thou shalt bear no grudg against them or any of their Children But thou shalt love thy Neighbor as thy self Which our Savior and the Apostles so much the sum of the whole Law And to this very place and the phrase here used of not reserving Anger or not retaining ought in heart he very many times alludeth when he saith of himself I will not retain for ever or I will not reserve my Anger or I will not be alwaies Wroth or I will not contend for ever and the like expressions which himself and all the Scripture affirms of him divers times as one of the first and chiefest things we ought to believe os him Which is also a most comfortable acknowledgment that He also takes himself to be obliged with the following words of the same verse which he citeth also several times Thou shalt love thy Neighbor as thou lovest thy self Very sweet as Lying on Man to Man but yet much sweeter as it lieth on Christ the Son of Man to Man Man-kind every Man As I hope will be fully cleered anon Nor do I find any thing in any of the Commandements contrary to this No not That of Gods Jealousie which we touched before and his visiting the Iniquity of the Fathers on their children Even when he seeth so much Iniquity in the Father that by his general Laws of Justice Truth Equity and Mercy too for they go all together he must visit yet he is so slow to anger and so loth to afflict that he will do it by degrees and by steps and not so that may make the Father so miserable as he deserves and might very justly be But so that he may have some part of the rod as David had and his children also some other part of it so as may bring them to see and know and acknowledg the Iniquities of their Fathers also Which God promised rather than threatned to Moses on Mount Sinai also as we read in the 26. of Leviticus so much cited and confessed sor their Fathers also in the ninth chapters of Daniel Ezra and Nehemiah
that I say nothing of David in the 50. Psalm and Ezekiel the Son of Man and so a special Type of Christ the Son of Man is bid to make his people Know their sins and the Transgressions and Iniquities of their Fathers Which are forgiven when Seen and acknowledged bemoaned and repented as God promiseth he will bring them unto For it is not as some read it If they shall confess c. But 't is an absolute Promise in Leviticus and Deuteronomy and so cited also by Nehemiah or Daniel and Ezekiel that he would bring them to confess and that they should confess their own Iniquities and their Fathers also and be ashamed for them That which also followeth in the second Command is very sweet and far from shewing God to be an Angry Wrathful God as Satan would fain represent him As at first in Paradice some of his very first spawn cast on our great Mother and continued ever since till Christ shall break his head and destroy his malice with his works was This That God was an Envious God the Root of all evil and hard thoughts of God Who even in Judging and in Chastening and in all his worst visitations There Threatned where yet he spake his heart and seems to speak his worst will still remember Mercy Even in Judgment and in visiting most as a Jealous God he will remember Mercy And will but correct in measure and will not contend for ever lest the Spirit fail which he hath made But will visit only to the third or fourth Generation even in those that Hate him Which yet we All do and could not but do Till he Turn us by manifesting Love to us Love which he still beareth in his heart and it is there Rivetted so fast that he can as soon Un-god himself I would speak with Reverence as he can cast out Love from his Heart or act to his poor creatures without Love Nay give me leave to tell you he loved Adam Better more or with a Better Love or more Godlike after his Fall than before Nay it may be Now much better since his long sorrows and sufferings than before in Paradice Nay I had almost said with a better Love than he loved Christ himself before his Fall or Sufferings For he tels us it is a Little Love to love our like our Friend one lovely fair and beautiful kind and thankful still to us for all our love A very smal and poor and little Love which sinners shew and Hypocrites and All to All their like But that God might encrease his Love to Adam or might shew a Better Love than he could manifest be it spoken with Reverence while Man was Like him Holy Wise and Just Truly Fair and Beautiful in All he let him fall into the dirt and dust of death Into the Pox or worse disease that might deform him wholly so that he might commend his love indeed to such as hated him and were unworthy ugly more deformed then poor Job when botched all and naked most forlorn and miserable in his own and others thoughts and left in the hand of Sathan at his will But onely save his Life or Soul as God expresseth it Not onely for a Type of somewhat yet to come unto All that will wait with Job and expect the Lords End but it may be representing Adam also as accused and tempted by Sathan and at length left in his hands till God could shew his love was not onely skin deep as we say but everlasting Nay encreasing more and more as it could make or find an Object for that pity and compassion and that gracious Mercy which could not appear but still had been unseen abroad from God or hid within him had not his Wisdom contrived an Object for it which was Misery and guilt which was not till Sin came in and so he let him fall and shut him up under sin and guilt that he migh shew him Mercy which he could not do before And as before his fall God did not absolutely tye himself to Punish him So After the fall he did not execute That upon him which he might have done but devised devices as the Wise Woman of Tekoa said to David that his poor Banished might not perish And yet still preserved his own Honour and Majesty Truth and Justice too with such a kind of Love and Tender pity merciful compassion which could not appear abroad or possibly be shewn till sin or guilt or shame or fear or sorrow grief or pain or some such misery or other made an Object capable of pity mercy or compassion I shall yet a little more insist on these Particulars shew I hope they very well agree and no way contradict the Words and Mind of God even in the Law or harshest part of all the Scriptures First I premise God loved him and could not but love him very intirely if he loved himself while he was in his own Image And having so loved him and being so Immutable in his Heart Love and Nature he loved him to the End And I do not yet clearly see how any Promise can Oblige God to a more Constant Love of Man restored to that Image Then his own Nature and Heart moved him to love Adam In that Image Now if his Heart be not so truly Tender Gratious and Perfectly Good and immutable also in his most Genuine and Natural Love but that it could really change towards Adam in his own Image yea and that also before his fall or any demerit what ever as to decree his everlasting ruine or at least to leave him to it so foreseeing that he would so fall and rise no more in himself and his Posterity How can any man be sure and rest upon his Word or Promise that he will not leave him when he is renewed again into that Image Seeing it may be still doubted whether any man living can fully know Gods heart and mind by his words or expressions except there be some way else to know it and to rest and trust in it then his words can expresse or import Or unlesse a man may also be taught to believe his Word is Better Truer and more Certain Fixed and Obliging also then his very Heart and Nature is Which as some Teach or Believe was Such even then when it loved most or as much as it could love its self or its own Image that it yet hated and forsook and left to I know not what Irrecoverable misery his own Image and his dearly beloved in his own person or at least his posterity even his very next Son and Sons Sons to all Generations yea to all Eternity for the far greatest part of his Posterity May we not therefore believe and say that with a true constant and Eternal Love of Delight and Complacence from all Eternity to all Eternity God loved himself and his own Image where ever it was And nothing else but kimself and his own Image with that kind of
Love And so before the fall he loved man And being fallen with a Sweeter better Greater Kinder kinde of Love of Pitty Mercy and most tender Bowels of Compassion Which was ever in that Infinite Fountain of All being But it appeared not abroad till the Wisdom of God contrived how to shut up some in fear and guilt that so he might at once shew Justice Truth and Mercy also which then Met and Kist Embracing one another And the Lord foreseeing and Resolving all this that so it should and so it must be while his Heart was such and such it must be while he was and is himself which was and will be ever and beyond all words that expresse Eternity He still spake so wisely that when he threatned most yet he lefr an Issue for goodnesse to come forth and shew it self with Truth and Justice too And therefore at the very first Command and Threatning to our Father Dying thou shalt Dye or thou shalt surely Die he did not tye his hands or bind himself without such Reservations as might still afford room large enough for Truth and Mercy both I shall not enquire at present upon what account it pleased the Lord to abridge Adam in Paradise of That which he granted before when he gave him for meat e-Every hearb bearing Seed and every Tree in which is the Fruit of a Tree yielding Seed which is not Usual with God To give and then to take away without demerit Nor do I say Adam obliged himself to that which he needed not if he had considered his former Pattent or his Deed of Gift But this I say in general there is not a Word Command or Threatning spoken to man that is not spoken by Christ And first therefore spoken by God in and to Christ who then speaketh nothing but what God said to him in him and As the Father spake it unto him so he speaketh unto man But certainly there was not any one word ever spoken by God to Christ either Precept or Threatning with any purpose to make him Despair But to Do believe and live And by consequence never any one Word or Threatning of the whole Law spoken by Christ to any man but As the Father spake it unto him not to make him Despare but believe and live For which also see Deut. 5. 29. 29. 29. Psalm 78. 5 6 7 8. 81. 13. Prov. 22. 19 20. Isa. 48. 17 18. Rom. 15. 4. John 3. 17. 17. 5. 34. 12. 47 48 49 50. 20. 31. Again I do not see plainly what God meant by Dying when he said thou shalt surely dye or dying dye Or that if he meant the worst of deaths for kinde he meant it so also for Duration Seeing Christ when he bore the Curse and its heavy weight did not dye such a kinde of death or at least for such duration as it is supposed to be here threatned And the very phrase here used to Adam is threatned to Davids Child by Bathsheba and to many others in the Scripture And to Hezechiah it is added Thou shalt not live And yet he did not die but live And David hoped that his Child might live notwithstanding that threatning dying it shall die or it shall surely die And sure when it did die he did not believe it dyed Etetnally or that this was threatned by that phrase so frequent also in Scripture And if God had meant any such Eternal death to Adam by that threatning it is somewhat strange that after the fall he removed them out of Paradise and guarded it so least they should yet eat of the Tree of Life and Live for Ever though he had said Thou shalt surely dye But to put the matter out of doubt We may see Gods Meaning of this Threatning in the 24. cha of Ezek. where he saith the people should so certainly die in their sins and pine away in their Iniquities with the most terrible expressions and most vehement assertions that can well be imagined as Because I would have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee I the Lord have spoken it it shall come to pass and I will do it I will not goe back neither will I repent But you shall pine away for your iniquity c. which is the terrible Threatning reserved for the last place in that famous and gradual Judgement so solemnly denounced in the twenty sixth of Leviticsn And As a Seal of this most heavy doom Ezekiel is strucken dumb and can no more admonish or comfort them so finally devoted to destruction so that he never speaks a word more to them from that 24. chap. to the thirty third And there God lets and bids him speak again unto the Children of his people By which very phrase we are led back to that sweet place we cited so lately out of the 19. of Leviticus of bearing no grudge against the Children of his people but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy heart but shalt certainly rebuke him and not suffer sin to lye upon him Which is the Text on which the Lord so comments to the Son of man whom God there setteth up as a mighty Type of Christ to be the great Watchman and warner to his brethren and his neighbours Or to be a light to lighten the Gentiles also each man and every Man that cometh into the World Adding also on that occasion that if a Nation or a people of a place do of themselves in a time of darknesse and danger choose a man and set him up for a Watchman or a Teacher or a Ruler among them there being alike reason God will own it as His Ordinance though but of Humane Choyce and Institution Which may be compared with That of the Apostle of submitting to Mans Institutions in Government even for the Lord or as an Ordinance of God To be much considered by those that reject Rulers or Teachers if they cannot shew a special Call or Mission by God Upon That occasion the Son of Man which also reacheth to Christ whose work is much described in Ezekiel hath his strict yet general Rules also when ever God threatneth Man And Then remembring the last solemn Threatning but now cited from the 24. chapter which was the last spoken to them He commandeth Thus O thou Son of Man speak unto the House of Israel Thus you speak saying If our sins be so upon us that we must Pine away in them which was the last great Threatning How then shall we or can we possibly Live Say unto them As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the Death of the wicked even of the wicked but that the wicked Turn from his Way and live Turn you Turn you from your evil waies for why will you die O ye House of Israel And then giveth that sweet and yet general Rule for interpreting All the
he had Blessed him He appeared to Abraham by the Name Elshaddai God Almighty and Abrahams believing but This Power was imputed for Righteousnesse But afterwards by the Name Jehovah which speaketh his Will also And I will be what I will be or what I can be As the Words are and not as some read them I am what I am which the lowest Creature may be said to be And at the Close of the Baptists Testimony of Christ in the third of John This is made the very Ground work of our Faith and Hope in Christ and coming to him because the Father hath loved him and given All things into his hand And so doth himself also make it several times in That very Gospel For the Father Loveth the Son and sheweth him all he doth and will shew him greater things then these that you may Marvel For as the Father quickens the dead even so the Son quickeneth whom he will For the Father judgeth no man but hath commited all judgement to the Son that all men should Honour the Son even as they Honour the Father For as the Father hath Life in himself so hath he given the Son also to have Life in himself and hath given him Authority to execute Judgement also because he is the Son of Man And again the Hour is come that the Son of Man should be Glorisied But as a Corn of Wheat he must first die that so he may be made a quickening Spirit and then he shall bring forth much Fruit for he will not die as a Fool dyeth But will improve his death to the utmost and do as much good as he Can and will Work while he may VVork Least the Night come and then he cannot VVork He will therefore do what is in his Hand and Power to do and will do it with all his Might Remembering him that said withhold not thy hand while it is in thy Power to Work Say not to thy Neighbour goe and come again to Morrow When it is now in thy Power to do him Good And now shall the Prince of this World be cast out And I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw All men unto me and Him that cometh to me will I in no wise I will not I will not cast him off or cast him out But walk while you have the Light least Darknesse come upon you These things he spake and did Hide himself from them But he came and Cryed again He that seeth me seeth him that sent me I am come a Light unto the World and he lighteth every one that cometh into the World that whosoever believeth should not abide in Darknesse If any Man hear my Words and believe not I judge him not for I came not to judge the World but to Save the World and these things I say that you might be Saved And again Jesus knowing that the Father had given All things into his hands and that he was come from God and went to God he riseth from Supper and took a Towel and girded himself and washed his Disciples feet O see his Heart when he hath Power for all this is because the Father had given All things into His Hands And when Judas was gone out immediately after the Sop though St Luke seem to make him present at the Sacrament and one of the twelve of whom or to whom he spake of twelve Thrones and Judging the twelve Tribes of Israel he saith Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him and if God be glorified in him God shall also glorifie him in himself and shall straightway glorifie him And shall not All bow to him and to the Glory of God also And if God be glorified in them God will glorifie them with himself or where is the stress of our Saviors Argument And again It is expedient that I go for else the Comforter will not come and when he comes he shall convince the World of sin For so God loved the World that he sent his Son not to condemn the world or Judg it but to save the world by That which he will give for the Life of the World And again which he shall give unto you for Him hath God the Father sealed And again I have many things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now Howbeit when the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth for he shall glorifie me and shall receive of mine and shew it unto you All things that the Father hath are mine therefore I said that he shall take of mine and shew It unto you And again Father Glorifie thy Son that thy Son also may glorifie Thee a Good Comment on the Lords Prayer for who can first give to God that it may be given or can lend that it may be paid again As thou hast given him Power over All flesh that he should not onely may but should give Eternal Life to as many as thou hast given him And if That be not yet plain enough before in That very chapter he repeats it again saying I pray for them I pray not for the world but for them which thou hast given me For they are Thine And all Mine are Thine and Thine are Mine and I am glorified in them And his saying here I pray not for the world stands as much alone without a Fellow or any like it as most words in all the Bible And how can we build any great matter of Faith upon That which hath not two or three Witnesses to confirm it Yet if it were said I Will not pray for the world Is it more or more obliging or concluding than That in Hosea Call her Lo-ruhamah I will no more have mercy upon the House of Israel and I will not have mercy on her children and I will not be their God And yet he did turn again and had pity on them because he delighted in Mercy and where it was said You are not my People There it shall be said You are the Sons of the Living God So also Thy Name shall be no more called Jaacob but Israel And yet God himself often called him Jaacob after This. So also I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice And I did not command your Fathers or speak to them concerning Sacrifice And in the same Prophet They shall teach no more saying Know the Lord. And You murmur not against us but God And they have not rejected Thee but Me. As in the Gospel I came not to Judg the world nor will I Judg you And again I do not or I will not call you Servants And You shall ask me Nothing And when thou makest a Feast Thou shalt not invite thy Friends In all which and divers other places sure we do not believe any absolute Negative but Comparative Or at least not so definitive but such as may be reversed And why should that saying I will not Pray for the world if he had said so oblige Christ
draw All men to him and to make All things new being as the Psalms expresse not only to satisfie the desire of every living thing which is no great matter except also they have great and good desires for else I know not ought I feare or more oppose or pray against then his giving me the desire of my own foolish narrow heart but also that he shall give forth Good and goodnesse so that all things shall be filled with it As we may find by comparing the 85. Psalm concluding thus Yea the Lord shall give forth Good or goodnesse and Righteousnesse shall go before him and direct or set us in the way of his steps with the 104. and 145. Psal. which of all is to be marked most as that which giveth name to all the Book of Psalms as the Jews tell us being thence All called Praises or Songs of blessing The Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and of great mercy the Lord is good to All and his tender mercies are over All his works All thy works shall praise thee O Lord and thy Sainis shall bless thee The Lord upholdeth All that fall and raiseth up all that are bowed down which is again so repeated and enlarged in the next Psalm also that it may teach us how Christ put himself under that Law also to mourn with every one that mourneth and to weep with every one that weepeth yea and to make us sensible of our own wants and emptinesse that so he may fill us being sent to comfort every one that mourneth and to replenish every empty soul. At this I awaked and my sleep was sweet to me as the Prophet expresseth it Yea and Christ is such an Head to every man as Paul expresseth and such a Root to all our soules and Spirits that our mourning and our sufferings reach and pierce his soul also And in all our afflictions he is afflicted For if any one member suffers all suffer but especially the head and heart and if one be honoured all rejoyce with it The strength of a King is in his Subjects and his glory in their multitude and greatnesse Riches Honour Happinesse and Freedome it being more honour also to govern one freeman then many slaves And it is a union with free Subjects that maketh a King so strong that as Solomoâ— saith There is no rising against him Where the Arabick also may help us to a better sence and notion of Alkum then is yet common May we not all say to our Saviour as Abigail did to David When my Lord shall sit on the throne of his Rest and when the Lord hath done to my Lord according to all he promised shall it indeed be any offence or grief of heart to my Lord that he spared us and did not shed our blood or avenge himself which is so much forbidden or reserve a grudge in his heart against the Children of his people When he shall see us all come bowing to him to his glory and his Fathers glory also who is glorified he saith when we bear much fruit And is not he so also When He beareth much And as much as he can If he could have been contented to be happy glorious all alone he never needed any world of men or Angels But O! how was he straitned in himself till he had found a means to multiply himself his Image Happinesse and Glory by Creation How much more than by Redemption while we live we shall praise him and shall ever bless him if he save us But the grave cannot praise him death cannot celebrate him the living the living shall praise thee as Hezekiah said And what profit is there in our bloud He did not care to drink the bloud of beasts doth he now delight in eating mans flesh and drinking mans bloud Or what doth he gain by losing us Can the enemie give a recompense for us As Esther spake of Haman And if he cut us off will he not look in the morning and when he sees our places empty will he not have desire to the work of his own hands as Job and the Psalmist to that needle work he curiously wrought in his closet When he hath ground us to powder will he not say return again againe yee sons of men O that God would perswade us even in suffering according to his will to commit our souls to his keeping as to a Faithfull Creator Can he be angry more in time then from eternity before he made the World or ought that could provoke him Or if he can may little children so provoke him with their raising dust or dirty pies against him that he must also turn and curse them in the name of God and give them up to Bears to teare them will he offer children also and his own to Moloch Or with musick drown their yellings in Gehinnon or in Tophet which he so much hates and threatens and his soul abhors so much in others Or if fury can be in him which yet himself denyeth in the Prophet Isa. can it rest in such a bosome When as Solomon saith it resteth in the bosome of fools Can it remain in such a soul which hath so often spoken it self well pleased satisfied and infinitely delighted in himself and his Image his Son and his own most glorious and most gracious Righteousness Can the Sun go down upon his wrath Or if he must for some great reason act a part awhile and wear a mask or frown and cast abroad his Thunderbolts and shew the fierceness of his sore displeasure or the Power of his anger or wrath can it be shown upon a moath a bubble nothing weaker than nothing will he also set his eyes or heart or heavy hand on that which is not What Glory Honour Profit Pleasure can the Power and Wisdom that we lay aside awhile the Goodness of an Infinite God beget it self in crushing us Will the King of Israel hunt a Partridge in the Mountains or pursuite a fly will he prosecute dry stubble or the little moats of dust in the balance can his Almighty Arm delight to strangle little worms or wrestle with a shadow will he create a mighty whirlwind to contend with nothing less than nothing and lighter than vanity when his very thoughts may easily create the Angels and his Word this glorious World and think it down again at pleasure Drawing in his breath or spirit and they perish and then giving it out again and they are created as the Psalmist shadoweth out his Respiration or his hearts Diastole Syslole VVill his sore and great and strong sword contend with feathers or lead captive atomes will it boast it self in cutting little straws or glory in a Triumph over that which is more feeble than the tender grass when yet it might awake against a man that is his Fellow and his equal match Mighty to bear his weight and power and wrath and strongest blowes when we are all to him as
one as thou Father art in me and I in Thee that they also may be One in us And for this also I pray and make it my dying request That the World even the whole World may beleeve that thou hast sent me As now my Disciples do and are happy by it For it is Life eternall to know thee the only true God and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ. Yea I have yet one thing more to desire for the World even for the World also though I did not so pray for them in the beginning of my Prayer And the glory that thou gavest me I have given them that they may be One as we are One and that the World may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me And again I have declared thy Name and I will declare it that the Love wherewith thou lovest me may be in them and I in them Plainly intimating that All that come to Know his Name which he will ever declare shall come to Love God being Loved of him with the same love he loved Christ. To whom he gave many great Revelations not for himself as he said when the voyce came from heaven I have glorified my Name and will glorifie it again But that He might shew them to his Children and so great is his goodnesse to his Servants also Thus his Father Abraham was called the Friend of God because he knew his mind to which also Christ alludeth it may be more then once and was made his Privy Councellor For how or why should I hide from Abraham the thing or any thing I do seeing that Abraham shall surely become a Great and mighty Nation All the Nations of the Earth shal be blessed in him For I know him that he will command his Children and his Houshold after him his Houshold after him for he took his Enocks or his Catechised men to pursue the four Kings And they shall keep the Way of the Lord to do Justice and Judgement that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him Which was to be a Blessing to All Nations yea and to All Families and by consequence Housholds of the Earth Which is perfectly fulfilled in Christ that Blessed Seed whose seed also must be as the sand on the Sea shore yea and as the Dust of the Earth for multitude for I saw a multitude which none could number in the Revelation and as the stars also through All the Heavens for Glory And yet these are only the First Born or those that turn others to Righteousnesse Being Kings and Priests to God and his Father But there are others also that shall be as the Firmament though not so bright as the Starrs For so we read in the last of Daniel and of Starrs also there is great difference and severall Magnitudes as St. Paul tells us in the 15. to the Corinthians As his Master also said In my Fathers House are many and it may be very different Mansions Every one also of that Blessed Seed and of the first Born hath the Blessing of Abraham and is a Child of the Promise as Isaac was and is so made Blessing unto All Nations and Families of the Earth and hath the Sure Mercies of David also as we touched before to Him and his Seed after Him Which may be hinted also in the close of the second Commandment For what is there said Of Gods shewing mercy unto thousands is plainly meant of Thousand Generations as appeareth by the opposition of three or four Generations before in the same Commandement And in the 7. of Deutronomy it is so expressed Know therefore that the Lord thy God he is God the faithful God Which keepeth Covenant and Mercy also which is hence remembred by Daniell and Nehemiah wiâ—h them that love him and keep his Commandments even to a Thousand Generations Which also plainly sheweth that the words of the second Commandement are not to be restrained to those only that actually love God and walk in his Commandements themselves But to their Seed also even to a Thousand Generations And in the name of Goodnesse proclaimed to Moses this of Keeping Mercy for Thousands is written with a very Great and unusuall Letter as to intimate some unexpressible Greatnesse of Goodnesse as the Jews will teach us And those which are not the Seed of Abraham may yet be within the thousand Generations of Noah who was also a Perfect man in his Generations and very dearly beloved and Blessed by God who also blessed his Sonns and made an everlasting Covenant with them And his mercy is to a thousand Generations yea to All Generations as the Psalmes expresse it from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and their Childrens Children Whereas on the other side when he would expresse his great Jealoufie and visiting the Fathers Iniquity upon their Children it is but for three or four Generations VVhich is so far from such a Threatning as may be taken by some that it is very great Goodnesse That the worst of Gods Visitations here threatned shall be only for three or four Generations was so proclaimed by God when he caused all his Goodnesse to passe before Moses who also repeated this on God as a promise when he interceeded for Israel at their making the Calf which sure he would not have then pressed if he had not taken it for a great peece of Goodnesse as it was the last in that great Proclamation and God useth to reserve his Best for the last And when Moses heard it he made hast to worship as if he had now seen the very worst of God to be Very Good and much better then he knew before Though it was a good Report he had long had of Gods Goodnesse but not half or it may be the thousand part of that which will be known When he shall come to be Admired by All that Beleeve Yea and That also of Not holding guiltless or not Quitting the Guilty speaketh Goodness also and was in his Name of Goodness Proclaimed to Moses and so taken by Him and repeated and pressed on God as an argument for Pardoning and sparing the poore People when the Calf was made And God answered I have Pardoned according to thy Word And truly All the earth shall be filled with the Glory of the Lord or with the Salvation of God as we have found by comparing two Psalms together and the 40 of Esay with the Evangelist câ—ing it which is a very Sweet and Gracious Promise By which we may clearly see that the worst of those Expressions did not mean Eternall Punishment but only such a Visitation for some few Generations as might very well stand with Pardoning So that the persons so Visited should not be destroyed for the Lord visits not to destroy but to save but yet Chastened and Corrected in measure and not wholly left unpunished As we find the very same Phrase used by God
man saw such a stress on This that citing Moses and the fulfilling of his Threatnings so that never was the like done under Heaven as at Jerusalem nor ever shall be as we saw before And yet saith he We have not sought the Face of the Lord our God to turn or that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy Truth And yet according to all thy Righteousness a strange expression I beseech thee let thy Anger and thy Fury in other Prophets and Psalms Thy Hating Loathing Abhorring Cursing be turned away from thy City Jerusalem the Mountain of thy Holiness And concludeth For the Lords sake Or the Messiah as That Phrase in their most antient Authors Or as himself expresseth it clear enough Because Thou art Our Lord Adonai Their usual expression of That God-Man As other Lords onely by Adoni or at most Hadoni Their common Salutation when they met as we may finde in Plautus sounding it much as the English How don ye For it is Christ he speaketh to Or the whole Trinity Bow down thine Ear to hear and open thine Eye to see Hear Adonai Adonai Pardon Adonai Hearken and Doe Defer not for thy own sake O our God! And not for our Righteousnesses which are as filthy Raggs even All of them and worse But for thy great Mercies Which in other places are also Manifold Mercies as manifold and more than All our sins Or as his 9th and 9th To the Lord our God belong Multitudes of Mercies and Forgivnesses in the Plural as also cited by St Paul Though we have Rebelled even Down Right Rebelled against him And Then comes out the Angel at the Minha with the 70 Weeks and after with 1290 and 1335 Dayes Which may be also in that 26 of Leviticus Where we read of 4 Sevens and Chastning or Instructing which is the same in Hebrew 4 times 7 which make a Month or 28 in Dayes or Hours or Years or somwhat worth enquiring after In general it may Hint the 4 7 Dayes or Month of the Moon from the Sun As if Here also God would intimate They should return again after Those 4 Sevens as the Moon to the Sun as we saw in 4 7 Dayes or 666 Hours The word Seven is Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Numerals 372. which in Hours is the very Morning of the 16th Day of the First Month or the great Heave-offering or Wave-sheaf of Barley the Resit or First of First Fruits In memorial of the Morning after their coming out of Aegypt which was the 15th Day at Sunset just in the 360 Hour as their year came out in 360 Dayes and the 2d Morning from Creation in 36 Hours as we saw before and how this First Fruits was also a Type of our Saviours Rising up from the Dead as this Sheaf of Barley Heaved up on the 3d Morning after the Passover was slain on the 14th Minha 333 Hour or 40 the 40 Hours of Christ in the Grave before 372 the Morning of the Wave-Sheaf The morrow after the Passover the 15th Day of the Month or first of Unleavened Bread was a solemn Sabbath or Rest from servile Labour and a Feast of joy as the Jewes call it because of the Peace-Offerings then to be offered and eaten which they also called the Feast of Passover As in the Gospel They would not go into Pilates Hall lest they might be kept from the Passover or Paschal Feastings for the Lamb was Eaten on the Night before as we see in our Saviour though some think he was before the Jewes in that also of which Deut. 16. 2. 2 Chron. 30. 24. and 35. 7 8. But the next or 16th Day was for Offering the Sheaf or Omer both an Handful and a 10th part of an Epha equal to the Bath 3 Seas the 10th part of an Homer gathered in the Dusk of the 15th Day called the Sabbath after the Passover yet by 3 men saying On This Sabbath sabbath sabbath In This Basket basket basket with this Sickle Sickle sickle the Men 3 and the Baskets 3 and the Sickles 3 and they must reap enough to make 3 Seas from the Valley of the Brook Kidron He shall drink of the Brook in the way and so lift up his Head Then they pass it through the Fire that it may be Parched Corn and Ground also For it pleased the Lord to put him to pain though a Son that he might learn Obedience and by sufferings be made perfect From this Sickle they must count the 50 Days as Deut. 16. 9. Which in Levit. 23. 15. are begun from the Morrow after the Sabbath or First Day of Unleavened Bread after the Passover or the Day of the first Sheaf So that the morrow after the 7 compleat weeks or 50th Day as the Jewes themselves call it was the Day of Pentecost and of Biccurim the First-Fruits in two loaves of fine Flour leavened The Jewes observe no Rejoycing commanded at the Passover which must be eaten with Bitter Herbs but at Pentecost they sang the great Hallel Once being Once commanded to Rejoyce and Twice at Tabernacles Double and more then Double or seven-fold to the joy of Pentecost As we may finde in Deut. 16. and 11th for Pentecost but 14. and 15 for Tabernacles on the 15th Day of the 7th Mouth And thou shalt observe the Feast of Tabernacles 7 Dayes the Pentecost but one when thou hast gathered in thy Corn and thy Wine and thou shalt Rejoyce in thy Feast Thy Feast Thou and thy Sou and thy Daughter and thy Man-servant and thy Maid servant and the Levite the stranger and the fatherless and the Widow that is within thy Gates 7 Dayes shalt thou keep a solemn Feast unto the Lord thy God in the Place which the Lord shall choose because the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy increase and in all the works of thy Hands Therefore thou shalt surely Rejoyce They observe also the Pure Unleavened Bread of the Passover was a Memorial to endure for ever But not that of the Pentecost being to fall or be little spoken of when All was brought in as we saw before of Tythes and First-fruits in Ezekiel and Revelation And though the Passover and all its Week had onely Pure Unleavened Bread a Type of Christ without sin yet the Pentecost had both Unleavened in its Minha and Leavened also in its two Cakes of Biccurim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Elect as we saw before in Bahurim And might not Those two Cakes represent the two Churches of Jew and Gentile or the two Witnesses to be Broken as the two Cakes Or the Turtle Dove and the young Pigeon in Abrahams Vision Sara and Hagar or Keturah whom the Jewes account Hagar with Rebecca or Rachel and Leah Abigail and Ahinoam and divers others as before and yet again Types of the two Witnesses Those two Cakes were attended with 7 Lambs and two Rams and a Bullock for an Ole a young Goat for
34. Gen. 15. 9. cometh up to minde them of their Golden Calf while Moses was in the Mount as many Daies from the Law as now perhaps he had been Years in Heaven And Eglon was destroyed by Josuah 10 34. But about the Evening Minha of the 6th Day Ehud helpeth them and Shamgar so that they Rest from That Moed all the 6th and 7th or Sabbath Day Which may be observed also in all the Sabbaths of those Daies or Years which we are now measuring by Hours of the first Month. Othniels 40 Ehud and Shamgars 80 make up 120 Years the Great Moed for Man as we saw before And 120 Hours make 5 Daies which added to Moses and Josuahs 2 Daies bring us quite through the Sabbath or 7th Day into the 8th And Then Jabin Instructeth or Teacheth them to understand as the word may intimate akin to the Hebrew Phrase we saw before to Correct and Instruct As the men of Succoth were Taught with Briers made to Know Judg. 8. 16. and Jabins 20 bring us about the Morning watch of the 9th Day And Then Awake Awake Deborah Awake Awake As there were 4 Hours to the Morning Utter a Song Arise Arise O Morning Star or Bright and Light Barak Lead Captivity Captive Let All thine Enemies fall O Lord as Saul with Lightning But his Lovers be like the Sun in his brightness For This Barak was also the son of Abinoam the Fatbers Brightness or Beauty As we saw before in glancing on That song in Judges 5. Barak and Deborahs 40 made them Rest till about the end of the 10th Day And Then the Lamb is prepared for the Passover As being Then tyed up by Midian oppressing them And now comes out Gideons Fleece as alluding to That Lamb and his Lamps also in Earthen Pitchers as St Paul remembers and the Barley Cake rouling in a Dream at the Middle Watch or soon after Midnight For the 7 Hours or Years of Midian came to Midnight and an Hour after And Then Gidion as a little Kid Rising by night to destroy Baal Lord of Darkness is Jerubbaal and the Watchman of Israel for That morning and offers the 2d Bullock yet akin to Eglon that Calf and his 40 giveth them Rest till the 11th Daies Evening There is more to be spoken of the Times of Sibboleth and Shibboleth and of Abimelech or King Father and of Sechem and Dinah Judgement and Jotham the Orphan If indeed you dealt kindely with my Father for he did deliver you Then c. But Quis talia Abimelech dwelt at Aruma from Rome to Roam and Ramp in Hebrew letters 254 which may be the very year of his Coming up though others make it about 260. And so with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 added as Verse 31 it will be near 666 when he slew his 70 Brethren of which again His 3 and Tola's 23 and Jairs 22 make up just 48 as 48 Hours of two Daies more which bring us to the 14th Day or 2d Sabbath It had a very sad Night to paralel the Time when Angry Pharaoh said to Moses Get thee from me see my Face no more but Dye So God himself frowned on Israel in that Night of Darkness under Ammon son to Lot the Veyle as we saw before saying Go and and see my Face no more Or Go and cry to the gods which you have Chosen Let Them deliver you in the time of your Tribulation For you have forsaken me and Feared other gods of whom I said You shall not Fear them as it is often pressed and given for the great Reason of their final Captivity 2 Kings 17. from Judges 6. 10. and 10. Therefore I will deliver you no more As in Hosea I will no more have mercy on you and you shall be no more My People Loammi and Loruhamah and I will be no more your God As bad or worse I think them That I do not yet Pray for the World Of which so much before But the Children of Israel said unto the Lord as Job saith it is still meet to say I have sinned I will bear the Rod till he turn and have pity on me For He will will Turn again and have pity on us and Who is a God as Thou art that is Micha Do unto us what seemeth good in thine own eyes If he will he can bring me back and shew me his Arck also and the New Jerusalem but if not and that he have no pleasure in me which yet is worse much worse than Brown bread and my own Tears for Water Here I am by his Grace I will not worship the Golden Image or of the Beast slain with the sword but his Deadly wound was Healed and the World all worshipped but Those in the Lambs Book of Life Let him do what seemeth good in his own eyes Father if it be possible it is possible Save me from this hour of Temptation But However let Thy will which is Holy still and wiser and better also for me than my own will Let Thy will be done and not mine in My Earth as in thy Heaven So we Chatter as a Crane or a Swallow when we cannot mourn as a Dove even Then when we reckon at Morning He will break all our Bones And they put away the strange gods from in and among them and served the Lord And his soul was grieved sor the Misery of Israel It shortned his very Spirit and Breath as in us when we would sigh and cannot O! how is our Heart Burnt as bound and straitned in us O! How am I straitned till it be Accomplished we saw it before Then Ammon encamped in Gilead thestones of Witness and Israel at Mispa the Watch they prayed and also set the Watch and we shall come to Mahanaim For we are already at the times when Jacob said The Lord Help me and watch over me and Laban also God is my Witness and These also for there be Witnesses in Heaven and They are All One as on Earth they agree in One And to what But That Haran or Wrath shall pass away but never Pass over these Stones of Witness to do me Hurt and that I never pass These Witnesses to grieve thy Spirit or to wrong thy Daughters Though thou hast changed my wages 10 or 12 times as often as the Moon or Lebana Now Jephta was a Mighty Valiant man but the son of a common woman which they call an Harlot though the greatest Norman Princes came from Arlott the Mother to That English word And Boaz also that mighty man of whom before in Ruth the Jewes count him Ibsan the Judge was son to Rahab the Harlot as she is called but the mother of Christ in David so that it is almost impossible there should be 580 Years from Aegypt to Solomon or Solomons Temple As that great man will have it from Acts 13 with other Arguments And God perswaded Japhet or his Anagram and Names-sake Jephta to dwell in the Tabernacles of Sem and to
will not forsake his People for his great Names sake because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his People Moreover as for me God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you but I will Teach you the good and the Right way Onely fear the Lord and serve him in Truth with all your Heart as Davids Dying words to Solomon and Christ also God is a Spirit and they that worship him must do it in Spirit as here with All the Heart and Truth also For Such the Father Seeketh to worship Him And such he will finde For consider How great things he hath done for you But if you will still do wickedly you shall be consumed both you and your King There is yet much more in That History of Nahash of Ammon of Lot the Veyl which must be separate from the face of all people As at first from Abraham as we saw before from Esay and divers places And now Here also he would not onely cover their Eyes but put them quite out or at least their Right Eyes and that also must be A Reproach for All Israel Though This was onely at Jabesh-Gilead the Reliques of that woful business at Gibeah which did not onely cut off Benjamin but Jabesh-Gilead also by 12000 chosen men of Israel as the first Fruits to God and the Lamb as we may see in Judges 21. Where also both Gilead and Mispeh lead us to the Watch and Stones of Witness we saw before in Jacob their Father and Laban when Rachel was going to her long home at Bethlehem Ephrata with this Benjamin the youngest of her sons for whom she wept so much and so long because They were not Joseph was not and Ephraim was not see 1 Chron. 7. 21. and now they Take Benjamin also All these things are against her And yet little Benjamin that had so ruined Jabesh-Gilead must now save it by Saul the first King of that Tribe coming up because of Nahash besieging Jabesh-Gilead And the men of Jabesh-Gilead said Forbear us 7 Dayes and if none can save us we will come out to thee Then came Messengers to Gibeah of Saul That very Gibeah which had caused all the mischief both to Benjamin and Jabesh-Gilead also Then the people wept and Saul yearneth over their Tears so good it is to go or be with a Mourning weeping people of God For who can tell but their tender Eyes may affect and soften our hard Heart and Then the Spirit of God came upon him and remembring that All the mischief came by hewing a woman into pieces He now slayeth the Beast and heweth it into 12 pieces and by Those summons the 12 Tribes as One man with one consent or as the Prophet speaks with One Sechem He had now 300000 of Israel and 30000 of Judah a bad Omen that they should be so Divided and they must be Parted into 3 Bands and by Night also as Abraham his 300 and Gideon his 300 and Jacob his at Mahanaim and Joshuah his at Gibeon and David his for Ziglag and again As Jacob at Mahanaim and in the Morning Watch as before in the Red Sea and Barak or Gideon against the Midnight Midianites who though so near akin to Abraham and Isaak and Moses yet had been the Buyers of Joseph in the Pit and Sellers to Aegypt so that Moses must not dye before he had avenged God on Midian and recovered such a spoyl as possibly may help us to number all the Times and Numbers in their Bondage ever after Now is Nahash defeated and his Ammonites scattered so that two remained not together while Israel was as One man the onely way to destroy the Serpent and to break his Head And when also They shall be As a Beacon on an Hill the Lord will Wait that he may be Gracious to them and Therefore be exalted Therefore That he may have mercy on them and on All that wait for him For the Lord is a God of judgement Blessed are All They that wait for him As we read in the 30th of Esay How Jabesh-Gilead remembred and requited This of Saul even to his Dead body we observed before How David also blessed them for it when he shewed the kindness of God to the House of Saul Dead Saul And which is yet stranger even to this very Nahash or his Son or Namesake King of Ammon also Till they so abused his Embassadors An History that may be more considered And the people said to Samuel Who is he that said shall Saul Reign over us Bring the men that we may put them to death But Saul said There shall not a man be put to death this day for to day the Lord hath wrought salvation in Israel And David also in his sweet Return after his Banishment from his Kingdom would not slay Cursing Shimei because he knew he was That day King of Israel As we saw before with divers circumstances Then said Samuel to the People Come and let us go to Gilgal and Renue the Kingdom There Even There where God in Joshuah Rouled away the shame of Israel And now They rouled away This shame also of Nahash the Serpent on All Israel Though I add not here again how Circumcision it self was a Type or Pledge of their cutting off Nahash or the Serpents Head in every Age and World and Region also of the little World as we saw before How David or any other of the Kings cut off this Serpent or Nahash also in that remarkable History 2 Sam. 10. we leave for another season as God shall please And though Solomon had but One War as we saw before with Hamath Zoba the Wrath of an Army or fighting Rage or Fury Yet These also as All within the River Euphrates became his Servants or his Tributaries Even to the River of Aegypt whence he married his Queen as we saw before Of Solomons Temple I have little to add to Those Excellent Books lately written by English men also of Both Temples with That of a very Learned man before the Great Bible there also published That may never dyâ— Or Those that did or yet do labour to perfect it But I suppose Many if not All the Numbers we have spoken of may be in those Temples also with the Tabernacle and Noahs Ark in proportion to a mans body with its Three Regions also 30 Cubits High and 50 Broad and 6 times as Long. 300 by 50 is 15000 and the Waters prevailed 15 Cubits Upwards and that by 30 is 450000 filled up with 8 Persons and Beasts Unclean also with their Food and Ayre and other requisites of which again as God shall help us The Tabernacle 30 long and 10 broad that is 300 as the Ark and 10 high 3000. And its Court 100 long and 50 broad 5000. As we touched before in the 5000 fed by our Saviour as after by Peter Ranked by 100 and 50. Solomons Temple Double to the Tabernacle 60 long and 20
with odd Minutes Preter propter And as He was the 7th from Adam as Moses the 7th from Abraham the 10th from Noah the 10th from Adam So he was born in the 7th Hundred or 3d 7th Year of that Hundred or 621 or 22 Year of the World Now is Israel become Loammi and Loruhamah Not my People and I will not have mercy on them Yea and God called to contend with Fire But Amos prayed O Lord God Cease I beseech thee As before spare and forgive by whom shall Iacob Rise for he is very small And God repented of the Evil and said It shall not be And yet when God had called the Fire to devour It must devour and so it did But what Even the Great Deep or Abyss which was the great thing to be feared and the Spirit of God also to kindle the Fire but in devouring the Deep or the Devourer it also devoured a Part of Israel as the words may hint Amos 7. 4. And the word Clack which we often saw before for a Click Clack Clakin of Time as in a Clock And from a part of Time it is also used for a part of other things and may hint to us How Time and All else below may perish by Fire Devouring the great Deep or Abyss of Waters the same word used Gen. 1. 2. when there shall be No more Sea As in the Revelation or Fishes Zeph. 1. 8. but a Sea of Glass with Harpers as on Cinnereth we saw before Amos also saw a Tenth reserved for Israel 5. 3. to Help her up Though his doleful Ditty was The Virgin is fallen and shall Rise no more Nafela lo Tosiph Kum Bethulath Israel Which the Iewes say should have been in the Psalm of Praise 145. which gives Title to the Book of Psalms in Hebrew Praises and there wants the Letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But when David was bringing it out they say the Spirit stopt and said The Lord upholdeth All that Fall and Raiseth All that are Bowed down As that Psalm We have now but One Moed more to the 70 Years Captivity in Ioachin As if God would now give Iudah that Moed of 120 Years for Repentance as he gave it to the Old World before the Flood Ahaz had hired Assyria that sharp Rasor to shave off Rezin and Syria but he came to the Neck and Throat also And because This people refuse the Waters of Siloah that run softly and rejoyce in Rezin and the son of Remaliah the Lords Height Now therefore behold the Lord Bringeth on them the waters of that great Flood the King of Assyria and all his Glory who shall overflow and reach to the Neck and with his stretching Wings fill the breadth of thy Land O Emanuel a Type of Antichrist to fill the Church or Emanuels Land As the Wings of the Cherubins filled the Breadth of the Oracle As Ezekiel also speaketh of a Covering Cherub and Annointed also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 388 so near His 390 Or as the English George on Horsback a Covering Cherub and from Those parts also where yet they shew his Castle or the Reliques of the Dragon which from Thence might come to the Saxon standard or from the Dragon seen in Heaven also as so many great Historians speak besides the Dragon in the Revelation so long before Merlins Dragon Hezekiahs Revolt from this King of Assyria hired by his Father Ahaz is called Rebellion 2 Kin. 18. 7. And it cost him Dear besides That humble Confession Verse 14 with All his own and the Temples Tresures So little did God ever countenance Rebellion Yet when Assyria becommeth Insolent and sendeth Rayling Rabshakeh from Lachish that Mother of Idolatry the Lord rebuketh him while Hezekiah spreads the Rayling Letter having also sent to the Prophet Esay It is a Day of Trouble of Rebuke and Blasphemy the Children c. Now therefore lift up thy Prayer for the Remnant left after the 10 Tribes who first parted themselves from David with Sheba c. before God ever parted them In the Mount God will be seen Iehovah Jireh And the Decree was that Assyria must be troden down in the Holy Mountain And That also but a Type of what God meant to do in All the Earth as we read in Esay 14 24 c. So that it may reach through All the Times of the Witnesses also Till That Fire came down on Them that compass the Holy City As now the Destroying Angel came down on the Assyrians round about Ierusalem A story famous enough in Iosephus Berosus Herodotus with divers others How This great Deliverance was in the 14th year of zekiah As Abraham freed his friends and Sodom also in the 14 year and Joreph was freed in the 14th year being then 30 years old when he stood before Pharaoh but 17 when he was sold as Gen. 37. 2. 41. 46. we saw before With many other things of 14 being the 2d Number made of 3 whole Numbers and an half as 7 is the first The next Half Moed may carry Menasseh to Babilon As a Type of Judahs Captivity and Return also As Manasseh returned and Zedekiah was visited in Babylon it self and Jeconia freed and advanced above All the Princes with him And How after All his horrid sins Menasseh judged himself and Bowed greatly praying to His God! O the mans confidence and to his Fathers God a Blessed thing to have a Fathers God! and How he heard and Bowed down to Hear we saw before And though God brought him to his Throne again as also Nebuchadnezar Yet the Blood he shed is often brought as a great Cause of the following Captivity Yea and That also although Josiah was so good a King and made so great a Reformation Yet God sent him even Him This Message My Wrath shal be poured out on This Place and shal not be quenched Yet it was so quenched that from This also a poor soul may learn how to interpret All Gods Frownings and Threatnings on it So also the Prophet Zephany concludeth his most terrible Threatnings in the time of Josiah I will gather them that sorrow for the solemn Moed c. I will undo them that afflict thee As to Abram They that Curse Thee shal be Cursed I will save Her that Halteth and Gather Her that was driven out and I will get them Praise and Fame in every Land where they are put to shame For I will make you a Name and a Praise among All people of the Earth Their Last 40 years as the 40 from Christ or his Baptism to their End beginning with Jeremy in Josiahs 13 or his solemn Covenant and Passover a while after run out with Ezekiels 390 for All Israel from the great Schism in Jeroboam As their sister Sodoms Flames were 390 years from the Great Flood 365 hefore the Promise 370 as in Salem before Melchisedeck met Abraham 372 as in Sheba before his â—nant at Beersheba The 70 years Captivity beginning with Daniel at the