OLBIA THE NEW ILAND LATELY DISCOVERED With its Religion and Rites of Worship Laws Customs and Government Characters and Language With Education of their Children in their Sciences Arts and Manufactures with other things remarkable By a Christian Pilgrim driven by Tempest from Civita Vecchia or some other parts about Rome through the Straits into the ATLANTICK OCEAN The First Part. From the Original For Samuel Hartlib in Ax-yard Westminster and John Bartlet at the Guilt-Cup near Austins-Gate London and in Westminster-Hall 1660. The sum of this Discourse HAving lost his Father and other Relations about the great Sickness in Naples the Author becometh a sad disconsolate Pilgrim all alone by Land till unexpected dangers force him from Rome or there about to the Sea Where in a great Storm and Tempest he falleth into unexpressable Horror and Anguish of Minde till at length by Shipwrack losing all his Company he is cast on a scraggy Rock and There by a Religious Person as an Hermite entertained till recovering his Peace and strength with a quiet minde he also Learned the Religion Laws Customs Language and Characters of That New Iland fully described in the Books following this First Part. In which the Father discourseth the Danger of wrong Judgeing our selves or others with the way to a right understanding and Judgement the great Work of the Spirit promised to the World by Jesus Christ Who was sent to Redeem our souls from All Deceit and violence and to offer sacrifice for every one that Erreth and for him that is simple Cleered from Ezech. 45. 20. with Psal. 72. Of our Access and addresses to Him by Prayer As Saint Paul Learned from the first Martyr at his Death and thence made it the great Character of a Christian cleered from His Epistles and the Acts with the Revelation and other Scriptures in Harmony to the Psalms and Canticles Conversing with Christ and Praying to him From the 17. page to the 44. How Christ taught his Disciples and others to pray Our Father c. How He prayed to His Father and How a Christian to Christ and the Father in and through Christ. As Calebs Daughter to Her Father by her Husband and Her self Of Zelophehads Daughters and Edoms Widows and Orphans from Jer. 49. 11. from 44 page to 53. The great Arguments to be pressed on Christ as our Brother Born for a Day of sorrow made of a Woman made under the Law to Redeem them under the Law How the Law lay upon Christ as the great High Priest and Prophet promised to Moses to be raised from our Brethren and Like us in All things and so in the Law also And as our King to write out the Law by which he Ruled and to keep it all his Dayes that so he may do it and prolong his Dayes and Reign in the Heart of his People Where also the way to settle a perpetual Monarchy to a King and his Sons for Ever As God to Moses Joshuah David Solomon or others from 53. to 59. How the Suffering part of the Law lay upon Christ and sor whom but especially the Doing Part. How All was by himself summed up into Love and that but little if onely to Persons Lovely and Loving again How God Commended his Love to the worst of men to whom the Law it self saith I am the Lord Thy God and I have Redeemed Thee and therefore thou shalt Love me and worship me and Glorifie my Name and keep my Rest because I have provided it for Thee and Do and will both Love Honour and Glorifie Thee from 59. to 64. and 94. to 101. How Gods Jealousie speaketh his Love and all his Visiting from 64 to 70 How God Threatned Adam in Paradice and how he visits to fulfil those Threatnings on Him or others from 70 to 77. How much better for us that infinite Goodness and Riches now fill a Finite Nature that longeth to be sucked as a Breast ready to break with fulnes still flowing up still flowing over and a Drop that runneth over can Enrich our Souls and make us ever Bless him who hath said It is a more blessed thing to Give than to receive And He that hath received freely must give freely Of his having All Power in Heaven and Earth being the Wisdome and Power of God and Better for himself to use it for Edification rather than Destruction from 77 to 81. How Christ Loved the World and Prayed for the World how not from 81 to 86. 94 to 101. Of Gods Hating Cursing in order to a Change and how Places or Persons Hated or Cursed may be Recovered Blessed from 85 to 149. 161 308. Of the Earth cursed for Man but Washed or Baptised by the Flood And of Baptising Children how Holy things of old belonged to every one redeemed by the Priests or born in their Families 18 120 186 365. How cursed Canaan was blessed again 122 c. And cursed Jericho Recovered 128 129. And Gibbeon And Aye And Sodom Moab and Ammon Edom and Amaleck of Esau. Egypt and Assyria with the Philistines Of Death and Hell in Saul conquered by Love in David bound up for 1000 Years As coming loose again in Saul of the same Tribe struck down as with Lightning and Named Paul after Sergius Paulus that Prudent Roman Deputy Of Shimei Cursing David or other Shimeis and of Judas and Pauls rising in the House of Judas Of Aeneas Ananias and Saphira Tabitha Dorcas or others Recovered by the Apostles Of Christs Love to his Father and duty by the Law requiring him to propagate his Fathers Love with all his might and manifest his Name and True Worship to bring in all his Children servants sons of his handmaids Strangers and Cattle also to keep the Sabbath to Rest the Rest of God from 100 to 117. 141. Of the Law of Redemption Laid upon Christ as the Kinsman that is able and hath Power and Riches in his Hand and a Tender Heart and Eye when he doth but see the naked and miserable that hath No Helper though they cannot weep it out to him or do not see him who will not hide himself from his own flesh when their Land or Person but especially their pretious and immortal Soul is Sold or pawned or mortgaged or forfaited How he hath promised to draw All men to him and to make All things new 56. 107. 124. to 163. How a man may put himself out of Christs Neighbourhood by degenerating from a Man to a Beast and of Worshipping the Beast receiving the Name Character Image or Number of the Beast Serpent or Dragon and how all the World worship the Beast but those that are written in the Lambs Book of Life How God with all his goodness knoweth how to punish the wicked but especially those that walk in Lust of the flesh and speak Evil of Dignities the sin of Corah c. the crying sins of the last dayes and how there was no sacrifice for
severall times in the Prophets and twice in Jeremy of his own dearest Children whom he saith he will not Cut off or destroy but only chasten visit or Correct in measure but not Hold Guiltless or acquit them wholly The very same Phrase used in the Third Commandement and in the Name of God Proclaimed in Exodus and Numbers 14. And the very same Phrase is used by Job of himself divers times although we may be sure he did not beleeve God had cut him off for ever or would never acquit him or hold him Guiltlesse though he so speak of himself But it is such a phrase as the Prophet Esays Therefore forgive them not which yet is no worse or more then we find commended and commanded also by Solomon to a tender Father who is bid to chasten his Son and not to spaâ—e him or forgive or acquit or Hold him Guiltless For they are much the same Phrases Yet I may ad to make us fear the Goodnesse of God rather then All his Wrath He that taketh the Good Name of God this gracious God in vain or he that so Turneth it into wantonness is the most guilty Person in All the Bible that I know or most in danger not to be quit or held Guiltless as we find hinted in severall places from the third Commandement Except haply we may also say the most Guilty Person in the World whom God will least acquit or hold guiltlesse is Jesus Christ In whom the Curses also are Yea and Amen or fulfilled rather more then the Promises For in These he joynes his Children who are Co-heirs in All the Promises and Purposes of God But in bearing the Threatnings and Curses He is more alone then in All the Promises He treads the Winepress of Gods Wrath alone and of the People there is none with Him He alone can bear it He alone need fear it All the Billows of the Almighty rowled upon Christ and All his Arrows stuck in his Heart and drunk up his Spirit more then All the world besides All else being little weak nothing lighter then vanity Compared with Him that was Gods Fellow and his Match Who thought it no Robbery to be Equall with God who therefore laid his stroaks upon H m who was only able to bear them with our guilt So that in a right sence He is the most guilty Person as Bearing Gods most Holy Name more then All the World besides And bearing all our guilt for bearing at in vain And as the third Commandement hath its not Acquitting So the second hath it's Jealousie and visiting the Fathers sinn upon the Children As if this were most proper to the false or Superstitious wayes of Worshipping the true God rather then to the having other Gods forbidden in the first As if God also were Jealous of none but such as were Marryed to him and had chosen him for their Husband But now wandred out in strange wayes of Worship which provokes his Jealousie and makes him visit more it may be then any other sinnes If it had been an Enemy I could easily bear it O but my Friend and my Familiar in my Bosome as the Lord may speak when his own Spouse dresseth her selfe in an Whorâ—sh Habit as it were inticing Strangers Which the Lord abhorreth more it may be then the grossest Idolatry of those that are Strangers Which is not so grievous as the Provocation of his Sonns and Daughters as Caesar also cryed What and thou my Sonn Brutus or his nerest Relations which perhaps also may be more properly called Haters of God in Hebrew Sone much akin to the Saxon English Name of Sonn rather then Strangers who have not knowledge enough to Love or Hate Him in a proper sence as those that by not walking in the light and love they have received come at length to be so guilty and full of slavish fear that they turn downright Rebbels and such Sonns as God commanded should be brought out to the Judges to be stoned for Rebellion Which is very neer perhaps if not the very sin against the Holy Ghost Or that presumptuous wickednesse which David so prayed against remembring that there was No Sacrifice for presumptuous Sinners but as the Epistle to the Hebrews speaketh A certain fearfull looking for of judgement and fiery indignation to devour the Rebbels As the Jews also had the Cutting off and the Hand of Heaven yea and that also they called the Rebels stroake But of All Images forbidden in the second Commandement as so much moving God to Iealousie Those which are most common and most dangerous as little taken notice of being most Spirituall or most Divelish are the Images we are so prone to make and mould of God by that within us which is therefore rightly called Imagination and the proper forge of Images which yet may reach farther higher and more inward then our sences or that which the Schooles call Imagination Worse much then Images made by hands which we are so long in Moulding and Carving that we blâ—sh to worship That we have sweat so much about and warmed our selves with part of But a deceived Heart makes us eate the very Excrements and ashes of those Images or Image-makers And as the great thing which brought the Flood was the evil Imagination of mans Heart continually So it is the great promise in many places of Scripture that his people should no more walk after the Imagination or the Image making or the Idols of their own foolish Hearts And it is the great Judgement and Punishment of those that when they knew God did not glorifie him as God nor were thankfull that they should become vain in their Imaginations or in Image making and their foolish hearts so darkened as to change the Glory of God into an Image or an Idol of their own fancies the most dangerous Idolatry And thus indeed they change the Image and glory of God in themselves to the Image of a Beast eating grass as Nebuchadnezar and it may be This is some emblem of worshipping the Beast or receiving that character which the Revelation saith All the World should do but those only whose names were written in the Lambs book of Life before the foundation of the World And That Beast or sensual beastly spirit may be more common than is thought And when man was made in the Image of God He was to Rule over all the Beasts or Beastly natures or spirits But now losing the Image of God and of man also he taketh the Image of a Beast and of The Beast so much spoken of in the Revelation But as Love was the foundation of the very Law also springing out of the Heart of God which is Love However it may now gender unto Bondage yet it rose from Love So it speaketh Love to the very worst of men as Saint Paul affirmeth till their Rebellion make them Outlaws and put them out of the Protection of that good Law which is given to them all saying to
lose her two Sons for bondslaves which may be a great Mystery and how he gave a Son to a barren VVoman and then raised him from the Dead and how he Healed the Pottage when Death was in the Pot and fed a great Multitude with a few barly loves and Healed Naaman the Syrian Lepar and struck Gehezy with Leprosie for seeking things of the VVorld in an ill time or season And How his dead bones raised a dead man and many other things we might observe in this great Type of Jesus Christ. But especially His striking his Enemies blind and then bringing them into Samaria and when the King of Israel said shall I smite them my Father shall I smite them He said Noe. Wilt thou smite them whom thou hast taken Prisoners with thy sword and thy bow Set bread and meat before them c. And I have often heard one say he knew not that he ever had a sweeter return from Christ then when once in great anguish he could onely say Now shew thy Kindnesse to thy Poor Enemy Whom thou hast taken Captive with Thy sword and thy bow And the King of Israels Feasting Those Prisoners for he made great provision for them may be more considered hereafter and compared with That of Solomon if thy Enemy hunger feed him and the Lord shall not onely requite but reward thee and this History may be the more considerable because it may perhaps be found the most desperate or most forlorn condition here on earth VVhen a man Degenerates into a judicial blindnesse Except it may yet be worse to come unto a Beastly Spirit and Nature VVhich is when after great and perhaps very long Abusing Light and Love shewed from God and Christ a man doth not only disobey but grieve and quench that good spirit so much and so long that at length it leaves him to degenerate into a blind and seared conscience and a Bruitish Nature till he becomes as a Dog biting and snarling at all about him and returning to his vomit and as the Swine to wallowing in the mire and also Turning and Tearing those that lay good things before him Who now tramples them under his feet and offers despite to the spirit of Grace and accounteth his Saviors blood as unclean and profane This was It perhaps the Psalmist so prayed against not only when he cries against Presumptuous sins but Then also perhaps when he prayeth so earnestly to be kept from the Dog or Dog-like Nature of which he speaketh divers times And This it may be is also in the Revelation under the Notion of Worshiping the Beast and receiving his character where it is also said that All the world should so follow the Beast but those that were written in the Lambs book of Life From the Foundation of the World And I have somtimes inclined to believe that Christ is not only the True Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world but that he Truly loves every man as he loves himself so long as he is a Man But when he degenerates into the Nature and spirit of a Beast and it may be the evil spirits are in the species of Ravening Beasts as good Angels in others and when one so degenerates into the Beastly Nature Then one falls out of Christs Neighborhood Yea and it may perhaps come so far that they may be no more warned lest they Turn and Tear those that cast such precious Pearls before them And in such a forlorn case it may be hard to shew why they should or how they can expect any more favor from Christ than a Beast or why so much And It may be This is That Sin unto Death of which the Apostle speaks when he addeth also that for such He doth not say that one ought to pray But yet he Doth not say One ought not to pray even for such also Which is One of the reasons why I pray for All I ought and All I may pray for When I am crying to an Infinite God for All my Relations and Truly they are very many as I somtimes say to God for I am Related to the whole Creation of God and yet farther than I can express and I know not But I may somtimes pray for some That I am not Tyed in duty or by express Command to pray for But I am still Tyed to Love my Neighbor as my self and so is Christ also I Trust or else I lose one of the sweetest pieces of the whole Bible and himself also brings the Notion of a Neighbor out so large that it may not only include Strangers but Enemies also And when a mans waies please the Lord he will make his Enemies his greatest Enemies to be at peace with him And if an Angel or if God himself forbid a man to pray for such or such a person City Nation or number of men yet This may be but to draw him larger out by shewing the danger of such persons As we see in the Prophet Jeremy and others that never prayed more sweetly than when they were forbidden to pray for such or such and yet they prayed Then most because they saw there was most need And Gods commands never do never will forbid us to Love our Neighbor as our self And that No man may ever despair we found Gods Love of pity and compassion so to reach to Beasts also that his great Command is that They also must be brought to keep the Sabboth and to rest the Rest of God and a good man and Christ is the Best of men must be and will be Merciful to his very Beast also Yea to the Beast of his Enemy and Him that hates him as we see commanded And for Those also that degenerate into the Beastly Nature lest They also should at length despair not to speak how often men are invited in the Prophets and the Revelation to come back again from the Beast and out of Babylon which shews they might return Repent and live we see How graciously God dealt with Nebuchadnezzar Though he so degenerated into a Beast which may be much worse than to be made a Beast at first and so born How Wisdom also crieth unto Scorners and How it is promised She Shall yet cry even unto Scorners may be here again observed out of the Proverbs To be compared with the 48. of Esay sweetly calling inviting and wooing the most obstinate sinners and Treacherous Revolters Yet for my Names sake and again for my Names sake I will resrain For How shall I cut thee off O that thou hadst or wouldst yet hearken For He speaketh in the present Tence I am yet teaching thee c. And how shall I give away the Glory of my Patience and my Goodness Shall I be weary also of well doing and having begun in the spirit of Goodness shall I also end in a fleshly Wrath or Passion God forbid The Psalmist also saith He received Gifts for Rebels also even for Rebels as we saw
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
may be from News brought by Pigeons As in Those Countries To This day And Jonah signifies a Dove sent to Nineveh as Israel to Assyria and Babylon When All or any of These were Burnt Offerings or Sin Offerings for the whole Church or Priest They were All the Lords consumed by Fire as pledges that the persons offending were guilty of cutting off or perishing for their sins But in particular Sin Offerings or Trespass which were greater guilt and Shame as the Heb sounds the Priest had His and in Peace-Offerings the Offerer had also His part to eat besides the Blood poured out and the Fat and Inwards consumed by Fire to the Lord. Which might not only be a Token of Their Peace with God as the Apostle speaks but also that God accepted and pardoned Those who were represented by such Offerings Gods receiving or eating them as himself expresseth it seemed an Emblem of his Turning them and their natures into His As we dayly do to all we eat and wel digest Or that Christ who was Typed out in All of them was made All to All or for All. As Not only a Lamb for the Lambs in the dayly Sacrifice in which God had his Bread and flesh at morning and Bread and flesh at Evening as he allowed to Elijah and other persons But a Goat also for the Goats At the change of the Moon and the solemn Feasts especially the Feast of Atonement About the end of the Year or Fulness of Times as the Apostle speaketh which we shall consider a little more distinctly As there is a measure of Syncerity which the Scripture calls Integrity Perfection or Fulness of Heart as Calebs Heart filled after God and Sardis Works were not filled up before God And the Lord answered Abimelech Thou didst it in the Perfection of thy Heart which yet is not Absolute Perfection So there are such or such periods of Time which the Scripture reckons Perfect and calleth Fulness of Time or some kind of Eternity which yet are not such Absolutely but to man So Long or so uncertain or Hidden as the word intimates which is used for Ever or Eternity Seeing God hath so Hidden some Times and Seasons in his own Breast that the Son himself saith He knew them not Which yet some interpret as That saying I pray not for the World as if he said I do not now speak or manifest My knowing owning or praying for them till its proper season And there were such seasons also or Revelation of Times and Seasons as appeareth in the Revelation And Blessed is He that Readeth That Book Which is cleerer perhaps for the great things of Doctrine Worship and Discipline also than every eye seeth at one or two readings And may we not say with Job Seeing Times are not Hidden from the Almighty why do They that know Him not see his Daies or Times also For That is the sence in the Original rather than as some read or comma the words Thus VVhy do they that know him not see his daies As the Schools make Motion to begin from Rest as in Heb Resit or Rest is the Beginning of Creation and all Motion So the Jews and other old Nations did begin to reckon Time which is the Measure of Motion from Night in Heb Nihat Rest which is as proper to Night as Motion is to Day As our Saviour also speaketh I must work O happy necessity while it is Day for the Night cometh when No man can work And again Walk in the Light and are there not Twelve hours in the Day And so many also they made in the Night Observing perhaps that the Moons mean Motion was her own Diameter Twelve times to the Suns moving One of His and so twenty four for his two breadths of Day and Nights Motion round the Heavens which is also the proportion which the Ancients made and kept between their Sun and Moon in Metals Gold and Silver But on the Twelve sons of Darkness as of Ishmael or Esau and the Twelve sons of Israel which are called Children of Light We glaunced before in the twenty four Elders and the Watches or Watchers also As in our Bodies are twelve Ribs on the one side and twelve on the other with such and such distinctions and Vertebres And in either Jaw or Pallat like the two Hemispheres of Day and Night There are twelve Teeth with their Watchers also which some call Dogs And the common meetings of our Jaws and signal Pulses are in many Languages called Times or Tempora the Temples As the Jews also called Teeth by a word next akin to Years and our Ears are neer our Temples growing up as Time and Years did after the Creation Changing All things by chewing and devouring them as Time and Saturn did with the Poets and so Turning them into our own Natures And the very Name of Year as of Teeth also in Heb intimates Changing and its Numeral Letters make up Three hundred fifty five As there were Daies in their Lunar Year and Three hundred sixty in the Plural Regimen as in their Solar Years as we touched before at the great Change of Time in the last Battel between David and the House of Saul And Their word for Year hath a double Plural both Feminine and Masculine as their Years were Lunar and Solar And such periods of Exact meeting of Sun and Moon after such Courses and Motions make up such or such a Fulness of Time or Perfection which in Scripture Language may be called an Age or Ay or Ever or the like Phrase by which they express the World also which is usual in many languages As where some read He hath set the World in our Heart it is Eternity or the same VVord which is so Rendred in very many places And though it may be hard to determine what the Scripture meaneth by Fulnesse of Time or Times which is so spoken about our Saviour Time especially as if it were the end of one World and beginning of another Or the end of that which was to answer to the first Night of Creation or the Time before the Sun appeared in the World and the beginning of Light or Day as we may often read in the new Testament yet for some little Essay towards it we may remember that the Hebrew word for Seven or Sevang as some sound it the English Saxon being much Hebrew is very neer a kin to That which signifieth Fulnes and their word for Ten is also Riches which turned backwards maketh their Rash or wrech or Rich or Rushing wicked and unquiet man and by a little changing of places the same letters make a Goat and a Devil also to which there may be frequent allusions in Scripture which we may touch again Shall I add that All the Words I now remember in all the Bible to expresse such a Fulnesse or perfection of Time as is stiled Age or Ay or Ever or Eternity in their very numeral Letters if no more
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