Even a Blessing in the midst of the Land Whom the Lord shall Bless saying Blessed be Aegypt my People Which was gotten by some Cruel Lord Oppressing them For the Lord shall smite and he will Heal. As Esay 19. And though Christ be also a King yet even so also He was Vnder the Law and Made Vnder it For the great Law of the King was This that even when he sat upon the Throne of his Kingdom he should write out the Law and read it All his dayes that so he might be sure to keep it and not exalt himself above his Brethren but Prolong his Kingom in the Midst or heart of his Subjects And it is a Great Character of Antichrist to think himself Above the Law or to attempt to Change the Times and Laws As in Dan. 7. 25. and if God have put All men below Coertion of the Law Then who can Exempt them or set them Above it And perhaps there is nothing more Dangerous to Any Man then to presume or to pretend himself to be Above the Law which God hath set a bound to Kings it may be Rather then to Private Men whom others still will bound enough as Deut. 17. And the Great Law of a King is Mercy Rather then Any thing else For so Solomon saith Mercy and Truth preserve a King but his Throne is Established by Mercy By Mercy rather then Any thing else or before All other things As the words plainly imply And shall a Man Dye This Day Am I not King of Israel And we may press it much on Christ as the Great Law of a wise King to Preserve his Throne by Mercy that it do not Totter For of Him and His Throne it is especially said In Mercy shall the Throne be Established As Esay 16. In allusion to That of Solomon The Throne is Established by Mercy And the Psalms say His Throne is Everlasting because Mercy and Truth are Ever before it and above it and he fings of Mercy with his Greatest Judgements and Happy are They that Hear and Vnderstand That Joyful Sound For In Thy Righteousness Thy very Righteousness they shall be exalted All the day long or as another Psalm They shall rejoyce in All thy Righteous Judgements For If his tender Mercy be above All his Works Then sure Above his Judgements also which he calls his Strange Acts. But Mercy is his own Child For he is the Father of Mercies which are therefore One with Christ his Only Son and yet a little while and Mercy shall Triumph against or Over Judgement as we read in James And Christ also bids them Go and learn That I will have Mercy rather then Any Sacrifice And to him it was spoken Ride on Prosperously because of Truth and Meekness of Righteousness And He hath shewed thee O man what is Good and what the Lord Delighteth in To do Justice but in that Also To Love Mercy Or as Jeremy expresseth it To Exercise Loving Kindness and Judgement For in These I delight And in the next Chapter the Prophet prayeth For Gods Correction O the blessed Rods of the Covenant and with Judgement also but with such Judgement as the Chapter before still tempered with Mercy And Solomons Son lost the Kingdom of the 10 Tribes by not observeing his Fathers Good Rule of Establishing his Throne by Mercy neglecting the Wise Councel of the Old Men that told him his Way to get and keep the hearts of his Subjects was to be more Merciful then his Father Which we may Presse on Christ as the wisest Councel that he get and keep his Subjects Hearts by being More Mercifull then his Father yet hath shewed himself And yet our Saviour gives it As a sufficient Reason why the Father also should grant All that is asked of him because he is a Great and Glorious King And so he concludeth All his Prayer with no other For but This For thine is the Kingdom Power and Glory As if This alone were Cause enough why he should do All that is Asked And when Solomons Mother describeth the Law of Kindness in the Good Womans Tongue She gives her Son This Law of Kindness for his Heart Open thy mouth for the Dumb in the Case of All appointed to Destruction And again Open Thy Mouth Judge Righteously and Plead the Cause of the Poor and Needy So that while the King sits upon the Throne As Judge His own Heart and Bowels must be Advocates to Plead for All the Prisoners at the bar Yea for All that be Appointed for Death Even for the worst offenders who may not have Councel in some Cases and Places because indeed the Judges are to be their Counsel in All they can and that was Lemuels Councel to her Son and the Prophesie she taught him as for a Great King to come in the Last of Proverbs And Solomon gives it to his Son also If thou forbear to deliver them that are Drawn unto Death and Those that are ready to be Slain If thou sayest behold we know it not Doth not He that pâ—nders the Heart consider it and He that keeps Thy Soul even Thy Soul that hath so often deserved Death and Liveeth still but on the Free Grace of God! And the 102 Psal that is made For One Afflicted tells us that God looked down from the Height of his Sanctuary to Hear the Groaning of the Prisoners and to Loose Them that are Appointed unto Death And Were we not All Appointed to it And may we not Presse it on Christ to open his mouth and Plead for All Appointed unto Death And will not This shew his Intercession Larger then we do believe not only a King as Solomon was but a Priest also and so the Great Intercessor For the â—riests that were Men only were the Great Mediators and They had the Work of Expiation with a Wo if they did it not Yea and that with Tender Pitty and Compassion to the Souls of Men. And Every High â—riest Taken from among men is ordained For men in things partaining to God that he may offer Gifts and Sacrifices For sins Who can have Compassion on the Ignorant and on them that are out of the Way For that he Himself is Compassed with Infirmity and by reason hereof He ought He ought to offer for sin As we read in the Hebr. and the Law also Which did not leave it to Aarons Choise and Pleasure to do it If he would and when he would but laid it on him and his Sons As their Great Duty to make Expiation for Sin and to Bear the Iniquity of All the Congregation and of All their Holy Things And to Heal the Lepers Or pronounce them Clean when Ever they Could And Wo unto them If they did it not And how Zealous was Moses himself the King of Jessuron in Interceding when he saw the Marks of Gods displeasure How did he fall on his Face and Bow his Heart by Fasting 40 daâ—es together how quickly did he bow for them
thoushalt Love thy Neighbour As thy Self I am the Lord. Doth it not lie on our Saviour also Not to Avenge or bear any grudge against his People or the Children of his People May not This Include the Children of his Servant Noah the Thousand Generations of Him that Loved God and Served him with an Vpright heart which God himself owned for a Perfect heart To Noah David Job and Abimelech also As the Words in Hebrew Gen. 20. 5 6. And it is not only said that God did Covenant with a Thousand Generations But also Commanded it for a Thousand Generations As Ps 105. 8. And the Law is plain Thou mayest not bear a Grudge against the Children of thy People Thou shalt not Retain For So is the Word and often used against Retaining Anger So directly Opposite to Gods Retaining mercy Which he maketh so Great a part of his Name to Moses and with such an Emphasis that Moses left it Noted with a very Great Letter in the word of Keeping Mercy As the Jews yet observe it in Exod. 34. and again in Numb 14. They have another Great Letter in That Let the Power of My Lord be Great as thou hast spoken And Gods Keeping Mercy is the Tenor of the Song in all the Scripture And by Davids Last Words Some were set to sing it still and keep it up in the Peoples hearts And when they did agree in This the Glory of God appeared and some strange Return of Prayer 1 Chron. 16. 41. and 23 24. with 2 Chron. 5. 13. and 20 21 22. And there is scarce Any thing more Clear in all the Bible then that he will not Retain his Anger and much less For Ever Seeing he bids us not Let the Sun go down upon our Wrath. And himself gave us an example of it at the Fall and Afterwards the Cursed person must not Hang beyond Sunset As in Moses and Joshuah The Case of Saules Nephewes Hanged up before the Lord was Extraordinary and seemeth branded with Rispaes Goodness in Watching them which occasioned David to bury them with the bones of Saul and his Sons Hanged also And It is Giveing place to Sathan or Closing with the Devil To Reserve Anger but for One Evening As Ephes 4. and Wrath doth Rest or Lodge for a Night in the Bosome of Fools And Wrath is an Hebrew word implying somewhat to pass away or passing As Come my People Hide thee a little moment Till my Wrath be Past And the Great Cause of Gods taking up such a Lasting War with Esau and Amalech a Branch of Eâ—au was for that he Forgot the Brotherly Covenant or Kindness to his Brother Jacob and Let his Anger Tear perpetually and cast off pity and Kept his Wrath for Ever As in Amos and Ezek. 35. Yet Edoms Widows and Fatherless Children are called in to God in Jer. 49. And so the Law of War requireth in Deut. 20. Which is much to be pressed on Christ If thou Go to war thou shalt first offer Peace and if Peace be Rejected yet thou must Preserve the Women and Children So that In Judgment thou must still remember Mercy And wilt thou not yet say My Father the guide of my Youth Will be reserve his Anger for Ever will he keep it to the End as Jer. 3. And again Return O Back-sliding Israel saith the Lord. I will not cause my Anger to fall upon you For I am Merciful saith the Lord And I will not Keep Anger for Ever And in Lam. It is good for a man to wait and hope for the Salvation of God For He will not cast off for ever but though he cause grief yet he will have compassion according to the Multitude of his Mercies For he doth not afflict from his Heart or Grieve the Children of Men. And in the Psalms The Lord is Merciful and Gracious slow to Anger and plenteous in Mercy he will not alwayes Chide Nor will he keep his Anger for Ever And the 30th Psal Give thanks at the Remembrance of his Holiness Because or For his Wrath Endureth but a Moment As if During Lasting wrath could not consist with Holyness and least of All in God whose â—ure and Holy eyes Turn away from All that causeth Wrath or may prolong it and Therefore he blotteth out Iniquity For his Own Names sake Because he cannot endure to see it And he bids us Put him in mind of This Word and Plead it with him that we may be Justified Esay 43. And This Holynesse of God is Divers times made the Great Object of our Praise Or Reason Why we should Praise the Lord. Who might be Feared for his Power or Wisdom but Praised Only for his Holiness which is Godness in divers places Psal 22. 30. 97. 99 100. 136. with the former places in the Cronicles And Micah saith He will not Retain his Anger for Ever because he Delighteth in Mercy And in Esay I will not contend for Ever neither will I be Alwayes Wrath For the Spirit should fail before me and the Souls which I have made A Great Argument for Mercy Thy hands have made me and fashioned me Forsake not the Work of thy Own Hands And Hast Thou not poured me out as Milk And Curdled me as Cheese and Thou wilt have desire to the works of thy own hands And in our Greatest Sufferings we are bid to commit the Keeping of our Souls our Souls to God in Well doing As to a Faithfull Creator and a Faithful preserver also O Thou Preserver of Men What shall I do to thee I have Sinned but why Wilt thou not Pardon my Transgressions and Take away mine Iniquities Wilt thou not seek me in the morning And all these may comment on That Law of Love in Leviticus Thou shalt not avenge or Retain against the Children of thy People But Thou shalt Love thy Neighbour as thy self As plainly shewing that Any Retaining Anger is not consistent with the Good Law of God or Love of our Neighbour And lest we should mistake the Phrase of Neighbour and Brother used here the very same Chapter requireth to love a Stranger As ones self the 19. of Levit. 34. and the 25. doth also make a stranger as a Brother Saving If Thy Brother wax poor thou shalt relieve him though a Stranger or a Sojourner And to other Arguments for Strangers as that They were Strangers in Egypt and must know the Heart of a Stranger It is added also that God Loveth Strangers And the Hebrews are bidden not to Forget to entertain Strangers because some have so Entertained Angels unawares And yet One of the hardest words of our Saviour is I know you not or you are Strangers Though himself observeth the Law of strangers saying I was a stranger and you took Me not in as Job saith the Stranger did not Lodge without his Doors And in the Good Samaritan the phrase of Neighbour or Brother is plainly made to reach a Stranger and an Enemy And so in the Law also
Aske of Me and I will Give thee Most of All for the poor Prisoners and such as are Ready to Perish And the Psalme for the Afflicted telleth us That God looked down From Heaven and the hight of his Sanctuary to hear the Groaning of the Prisoners and to Loose those that are Appointed to Death It being the Great Quarrel he had with the King of Babylon That he Smote in Anger with a Perpetual Stroke and made the Earth to Tremble and did shake Kingdoms and make the World a Wildernesse and Then Opened not his Prison doores to Visit his Prisoners and let them go home again As in Esay 14. and 24. Now we All were Prisoners and Appointed to Dye Till God Pleased to Raise up the Interceding Spirit of Christ which is Ever Crying in the Language of the Psalmist O Let the Sighing of the Prisoner come before thee and by the Greatness of thy Name or Power Preserve them that are Appointed to Dye For Unto Christ it was first said If thou shalt forbear to deliver them that are drawn Vnto Death and those that are ready to be slain If thou sayest Behold we know it not doth not he that pondereth the Heart Consider it And He that Keepeth thy Soul doth he not know it and will he not render unto Every Man the Best of Men according to his works which Solomon hath now laid upon his Son or on Every Man And what Christ doth For All Appointed for Destruction is not easy to determine But we find him Praying for All that Crucified him As Stephen did To Him and by His Spirit for All that stoned him Whence Paul might learn the Certain Character of a Christian so to pray to Christ As Act. 9. 14. 21 and 22. 16 17. Rom. 10. 12. 1. Cor 1. 2. And Solomon saith that Wisdom doth and shall Call to the Scorners also And the Man of God must be Gentle Even unto Those that oppose themselves As Paul writeth to Timothy And our Saviour Received Gifts for Rebels also and saith it is a more Blessed thing to Give then to Receive and that They which Receive Freely must Give Freely And if God be Glorified most in Us when we bring forth Most Fruit and do All the Good we can do Is it not So in Christ also will he not do All the Good he may do Or will he not Aske All he may Will he not have as much as he can and the Full Price of his Death and bitter Passion Dyed he as a Fool dyeth Were His Hands bound or his Heart rather and his bowels unto Poor men or to his Father or his Own Glory that he would not Aske for All he might Seeing it was the First and Chiefest Only thing his Father laid upon him Aske and I will Give thee Yea and Aske again and yet again that so Thy Joy may be Full. And I never speak but What the Father spoke to Me and As the Father spoke to Mee the Great Key to open All the Bible And the Prophet was displeased that the King of Israel shot but Thrice And sure we may plead it with Christ that he bids us Pray Continually and be Ever Asking that we may receive And it is backed with This For For Every One that Asketh shall Receive And may we not say to him Aske us of the Father and he will Give us to thee But Aske as thou biddest us Fervently and Heartily For thou hast said to us What ever you do Do it Heartily As to the Lord. And how he Asked or his Father Took his Asking We may See by Gods Giving and His Receiving What was Promised upon his Asking Even All Nations for his Inheritance and the utmost ends of the Earth for His Possession Yea and to sustain his Spirit in his Dying Pangs upon the Crosse in Psal 22. it is expresly promised that All the Ends of the World shall Remember and Turn unto the Lord and All Kings and Nations shall worship before him For he is the Blessing to all Nations and to Every Family And in the 72 Psalm All Kings shall Fall before him All Nations shall serve him For O the Mighty Fo rs of the Bible For he shall deliver the Needy when he Cryeth the Poor and him that hath no Helper Though he cannot Cry He shall Redeem their Souls from Deceit and Violence And again All Nations shall come and Glorifie Thy Name For It is Holy And in many Places His Holiness is the Great Cause and Object of All our Praising him and yet All shall Praise him and his Holy Name So that he is bold to Swear by himself which he would not do If there had been a Greater then himself That Every Knee should how to Him and yet to the Glory of the Father And if God be Glorified in Them shall he not also Glorifie them with himself Yea he will straitway Glorifie them As himself Argueth And This he maketh the Great Foundation of his Calling All to him because the Father hath loved the Son and bath given All things into his hands As Mat. 11. 27. Luke 10. 21. John 3. 35. And again in the 13. of John Knowing that his Father had Given All things into his hands he riseth from Supper and Girded himself An Emblem of Power and Freedom as when thou wast Young Thou diddest Gird thy self And in his Great Prayer he saith As thou hast Given him Power Over All flesh that he should Give Eternal Life to as many as Thou hast Given him And All thine are mine and I om Glorified in them And will not he Then Glorifie them with himself Or where is the force of that Argument Nor doth he say I will not Pray for the World but I do not in That instant or present time And so he saith I came not to Judge the World but to save it and yet he did come to Judge it also And so he said I say not that I will Pray for you and yet he did Pray for them And so also I pray not that thou take them out of the World which yet he would and did desire in due season but not Then At that present And so he did not Then Pray for the World but only for them which God had Then Actually Given him and Chosen out of the World and for them Only at that present and not Them that should Come After Yet before the End he doth also pray for Others whom at first He did not Pray for And how many might come into the Latter End of That Prayer I know not Or how many may come to Believe on him by Their Word But if he had before expresly said I will not Pray for the World which yet he doth not say but only I do not Yet he also said I will no more have Mercy on the House of Israel and yet it was but Conditional or for such a Time or Season Only For in the same Chapter it is said Even Unto Them
of the Tabernacle had but Two only Visible and yet a third Included The Spirit in the Blood at the Altar and Water in the Laver as the Piller in the Cloud And the 2 daily Witnesses in the Morning and Evening Sacrifice As the Minha with Perfume at the Altar of Incense With the Loaves of Shewbread and the Lamps As Spirits before the Throne or the Ark and Mercy Seat with the two Cherubins of Glory Like our two eyes in our Face and 2 ears in our Head and the Spirit within the Wheels As in our Heart with 2 Auricles as 2 Loabs of the Lungs and Two yet Lower called Testes or somewhat of Witnesse in divers Languages As putting the Hand under the Thigh in solemn Witnessing As the Great World also hath its several Pairs of Witnesses in Earth and Water Fire and Ayr and yet much Higher and Brighter as the Eyes of Heaven called also the Faithful Witnesses in the Ps the Sun and the Moon Which were as Dead or Hidden Asleep in their Causes as the Schooles speak for 3 dayes and an Half Or Till the Morning of the 4th Day of Creation when they first appeared And at Every New Creation or at bringing up a New Heaven and a New Earth The Witnesses of That Generation may lye hid and be as Dead For 3 Dayes and an Half Till a voyce come from Heaven saying Come up Hither As at first Let there be Lights in Heaven and it was so Darknesse As the First Beast or Dragon Draco Dark and Tenebrae the Dragon of the Evening in Hebrew where also Eeve or Eeph is Darknesse a Beast or Serpent as in english Evet and the Jews tell us that Adams Wife was Lilis First or Night and Then Eeve which is also Night as in english Eeve and Evening Day and Night being as Man and Woman Husband and Wife As the Womb of the Morning in the Bible This Dragon fighteth with the Two Faithful Witnesses the Sun and Moon Which are weekly Hidden 3 dayes and half or 7 nights in a week as at first 3 dayes and half together And when These Witnesses meet with the Crossing Serpent in Heaven or the Ecliptick with its Nodes of Dragons Head and Dragons Tail They be Eclipsed which may hold 3 Hours and Half as at the Passion And the Moons monthly Hidings are about 3 dayes and half as Emblems of the Worlds and Churches Changes and her Absence From the Sun and shinings are about 3 weeks and Half And for 666 in This Beasts Fighting with Those Witnesses we found 6 hours or Great VVatches Turning the Tides as Sun and Moon at the Cardinal Points and making up 666 and its lower Root 25 the First hour that Ever Turned Light into Darkness And as many make the Moons Apogeum 65 or 66 of the Earths Radâ—i So do some make the Suns Radius 65 times Greater then the Earths or his Apogeum Twice 666 as we saw before And all made his daily Motion about a Degree and some made That about 666 Furlongs as Ricciolus from Posidonius in Cleomedes Where also the Moons Periodick Month is 27 dayes and half Which in others is 27 â…“ but in Martiaw Cap. 27 days 16 hours but 2 lesse then 666 which is also very near the Month for Anomaly and Latitude As often For Appearance Though Vncertain And the Suns Monthly Rotation now agreed is from 26 dayes as the Caroline Tables To 29 half and the mean is 27. ¾ Which is just 666 hours As Apelles or Scheinar and Galileus When they found One of the Semicircles to be 13 dayes and 20 hours and an half Which doubled maketh 27 dayes and 17 hours but One lesse then 666. 12 such Months are 333 dayes and 24 666 and 666 Moons about 54 years As 54 Sections of the Law in 669 Little Ones And that the 7 Churches also may shadow out Successive Times as the 7 dayes of the week and 7 months of the Jewish year and 7 years To Release I do the rather believe From the Glanâ—es on Successive Times As Paradise and Tree of Life in the first Church the Flood or Egyptian Death in the 2 d. The VVhite Stone and Manna from Aegypt in the 3 d. And Breaking the 7 Nations by Jâ—suah To the Times of Elijah slaying the Prophets of Baal and Jesabel the Type of the Great Whore in the 4th and to the Coming of Christ in the 5th and the New Jerusalem in the 6 t and General Judgement in the very Name of Laodicea With All things New again as the 3 last Chap. of that Blessed Revelation which doth Blessits Readers From our Blessed Jesus who received it to Give Or that he might shew it To his Servants Or beginning at Christ or at That Revelation to John The name of Ephesus may hint Declining Times of the Primitive Church As at Adams Fall in Paradise There Named Smyrna may signifie Beaten Myrrh As in the Christian Persecutions and Antichristian Jesabel Till the Morning Star arise before the Sun of Righteousness shadowed in Elijah at Jesabel and so to the coming of Christ and the New Jerusalem The Poets say the Great Io wandring came to Ioppa built before the Flood in Mela with Solinus Thence to Egypt and there had a Son from whom came Belus Father to Egyptus and Danaus with Agenor Who returning to Joppa begat Cadmus Phoenix and Europâ— that played with a white Bull Till he swam away with her to Creet and There she had Minos and other Judges in Hell From whom they bring K. Erithrus and the Lycians As Cilicians from Cilix an other Brother to Cadmus Who being sent to seek his Sister came so near as Greece and there was bid to build a City Where he saw a Beast Lye down and Thence Baeotia with Thebes in Greece and Egypt also from Thebeth Noahs Ark and Beasts And though he killed the Serpent he became a Serpent with his Wife and Children very Miserable One being Mother to Acteon Turned into a Stag and Torn by his own Dogs for seeing Diana Bathing Two others destroying themselves and Children The 4th Burnt by Jupiter Thundring as with Juno But catching his Bacchus from her and Hiding him in the Hollow of his Thigh Their Brother wanders up and down till at length One of his Ravisheth a Child of Pelops who had maintained him But Then Prayed for Vengeance Till Oedipus killeth his own Father and marrieth his own Mother knowing neither Till some secret Characters discover it And then for shame and grief They hide a while till all the Family destroy themselves or one another But a Child comes out at length called Tisamenus Or Revenged And His are glad to leave the Country and to wander To an Iland That had Risen out of the Sea and was called Thera The Beast And thence came Battus As Batten and Batein to Play the Beast with His Cyrenians in the Acts. And our Saviour bids us not Battologise as Battus did This may