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A54056 Some considerations propounded to the Jewes that they may hear and consider, and their hearts at length may be turned towards that which alone is able to convert them to God, that they may once more become His people, and enter into an everlasting covenant with Him that may not be broken, that so they may abide in His love and covenant of life, and remain His people for ever. Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679. 1660 (1660) Wing P1192; ESTC R14965 6,472 8

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SOME CONSIDERATIONS Propounded to the JEWES That they may hear and consider and their Hearts at length may be Turned towards that which alone is able to Convert Them to God that they may once more become his People and enter into an Everlasting Covenant with him that may not be broken that so they may abide in his Love and Covenant of Life and remain his People for ever Consideration I. WHat great Love Mercy and Kindness God shewed to that People above all Nations and Peoples under Heaven Of his own free love he set his heart upon them chusing them to be a People to himself He brought them out of Egypt by a mighty hand and outstretched Arm he mightily preserved them in and led them through the Wilderness He entred into a Covenant with them to become their God and betrothed them unto himself for his own Lot and Inheritance He gave them righteous Laws Judgments Statutes and Ordinances both of Worship towards him and of an upright Demeanour and Conversation among themselves and towards all men He drove out the Heathen from before them and gave them a pleasant Land to possess even the glory of all Lands a Land flowing with Milk and Honey He built an habitation for himself among them first a moving Sanctuary or Tabernacle afterwards a more setled abiding place or Temple which Solomon built wherein was the Ark of his presence where he was to be sought unto and enquired of by them and towards which their Prayers were to be directed and there was a Mercy-seat whereof they had large experience and he ever and anon sent Prophets among them to reprove their errors and blackslidings and to set them to rights again He raised up Judges likewise to defend them and although they were weary of his Government desiring a King after the manner of the Nations so vehemently that they even forced a King from him yet he took him away from them and after him chose a man after his own heart to feed Jacob his People and Israel his Inheritance who fed them according to the integrity of his heart and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands What should I say more what was wanting of Love of Care of Goodness of Kindness of Mercy of Gentleness of any thing that a People could desire of their God I say what was wanting of all this on Gods part What could he have done more for his Vineyard than he did do Nay he emptied upon them all the Goodness all the Mercy Love Favour c. that that Covenant would hold to the full yea and more too for he bare with them more than that Covenant required him to bear and redeemed them oftner than that Covenant engaged him yea many time turned he his anger away and did not stir up all his wrath as he might often have done according to the tenour of that Covenant Yea in all their afflictions he was afflicted and the Angel of his presence saved them And he was still ready to say in his heart Surely they are my People Children that will not lie at length they will see their error repent and be true to me insomuch as he was never weary of saviug them of trying them again and again of stirring up his Bowels of Love and Pitty to Redeem them of sending his Servants and Prophets among them to warn and reclaim them even till at last it was manifest that there was no remedy but he must cast them off and provoke them to jealousie by a foolish Nation Deut. 32. 20 21. drawing them nigh to him who had been Worshipping Stocks and Stones making them become a People who had long been no People and casting these out of his sight making them become no People who had so long been his chosen peculiar People in Covenant with him and nigh unto him above all the Families of the Earth Consid. II. What constant Rebellion and stiffness of Spirit that People all along expressed towards the Lord what wild sowre Grapes they still brought forth to him sowre Love sowre Obedience sowre Worship and Sacrifices such as the pure pallate of the Lord could find no relish nor savour in but as Moses had told them that it was not for their Righteousness God chose them to give them the good Land to possess for they were a Rebellious and stiff-necked People Deut. 9. 6 7. So it was not for their Goodness that God continued his love to them for they were all along provoking him Jer. 44. 4. When God came to shew that great Mercy to them of Redeeming them out of Egypt and bid them cast away their Idols they would not cast away their Idols Ezek. 20. 7 8. neither did they regard that Mercy of Redemption from the House of Bondage and from the Iron Furnace but said to Moses it was better for them to stay in Egypt and to serve the Egyptians Exod. 14. 12. Again in the Wilderness how did they provoke him all that forty years of Mercy how did they err in their hearts from his pure fear and from Love to him and from Faith and Confidence in him how did they murmur against him and against Moses and Aaron their Leaders how did they forget his Works and his Wonders continually When they came near the Land and should have gone in to possess it then they would not but repined and rebelled because of the talness and strength of the Enemy and of their Cities and when they were forbid to go then they would go and fight with them What should I mention the time of the Judges and of the Kings how often the Lord made them smart by their Enemies in their own Land how often he gave them up to Captivity out of their Land even till at length that great Captivity of Babylon befel them and since that a greater Captivity and Desolation than that of Babylon Consid. III. Whether God having tryed this People even to the utmost by that Covenant which he made with them by Moses in Mount Sinai may ever please to try them so any more Or if there yet remain any Mercy or Love from God towards them whether it is not to be expected another way and upon another account This is very necessary and profitable for them to consider that they may not be looking that way for Mercy and Favour from God in which it is never to come and so have their eyes and hearts diverted from that way according to which it is to come for this must needs put them back exceedingly if their eyes be looking out one way and the Love of God hath chosen another channel to run towards them in This may make them refuse the very Mercy Love and Redemption when it comes suspecting it not to be it because it comes not in the way and after the manner that they look for it Now God hath expresly said that when he shall be pacified towards them and shall look again upon them with an eye
of Favour to do them good it shall not be by their Covenant which could never last but was still broken on their parts but by his own everlasting Covenant which he would establish to them Ezek. 16. 60. c. It would therefore diligently be enquired by them What Covenant it is which is called their Covenant vers. 61. And what Covenant it is which is called Gods Covenant vers. 62. That they may withdraw their eyes and hopes from the one from whence their Redemption Recovery and Mercy cannot come towards the other from whence it is to come To which Query for their sakes it is in my heart to return this Answer Answ. Their Covenant is that which they entred into with God the Covenant that their hearts chose to unite with God by and that was to this effect That if God would shew them his Will they would obey it Go thou near said they to Moses and hear all that the Lord our God shall say and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee and we will hear it and do it Deut. 5. 27. Thus they thought but the Lord knew otherwise for O saith the Lord that there were such an heart in them c. vers. 29. and Moses knew otherwise he knew that they would corrupt themselves and that evil would befal them in the latter dayes Deut. 31. 29. But Gods Covenant was the free Covenant he made with Abraham Isaac and Jacob the Covenant of his Grace the Covenant of his free Love whereby he was able to reach them in Egypt upon the cry of the Seed in them in the midst of their Idolatries and to bring them out and do them good notwithstanding their stubbornness and stiff-neckedness even before the other Covenant was made This Covenant of Love was Gods Covenant This is the Covenant God remembred to them in the days of their youth while they were young and tender and not yet grown up to be a people under the other Covenant and this is the Covenant which lasts for ever which is not founded upon their obedience but on God's free Love to them for his own Name sake and for their Fathers sake with whom he freely made it Quest What doth this Covenant contain Answ. putting his Fear in the Heart writing his Laws in the Mind pouring of pure clear Water upon them to wash away the pollutions of their inward parts circumcising the filth of the Heart healing the backsliding Nature by creating of a right Spirit within and keeping of the created Spirit right by the presence of that Spirit which created it See Jer. 31. 31 32. Ezek. 36. 25 c. Hosea 14. 4. This is God's Covenant this is the new Covenant which is to be made with the House of Israel and Judah when God redeems them and they can never be redeemed but by this Covenant but are to remain desolate until the Spirit be poured out from on high upon them Isai. 32. 15. until their Hearts be circumcised to love the Lord their God untill his fear be placed there and they thereby caused to walk in his ways As therefore they receive the Spirit are brought into the fear have the Law written in their minds and become subject thereto so will they tast of this Covenant be brought into Redemption by it and become a glory inwardly and outwardly also upon the Earth Quest What is the way for them to have the fear of God put in their Hearts to have their Hearts circumcised to receive the Spirit and his Laws into their minds and so to come into this Covenant Answ. There is no other way but that to which Moses himself directed them after God had made the other Covenant with them and tryed them long by it together with many Temptations Signs and Wonders both before and after it and seeing by all these they had not had an Heart to perceive nor Eyes to see nor Ears to hear Moses at length directs them to another Covenant the Word whereof would give them Eyes to see and Ears to hear and an Heart to understand Which Covenant was a Covenant besides the former Deut. 29. 1. And was indeed the Covenant concerning Life or Death eternal chap. 30. 15. the other being but a Covenant of their outward state made with them after their coming out of Aegypt upon their deliverance there from and according to their choise to become a People to God according to it This Word Moses tells them was near them nearer then that which was spoken by God on the Mount and afterwards written in Tables of Stone The voyce of this Word and the Commandment thereof was nearer that they need not seek anywhere abroad for it but only listen at home to hear its speech obey it in the faith and live for ever Deut. 30. 11 c. This is the way for them and all Men to come into this Covenant and there is no other There is a Light shining in the Darkness of Mans heart which Springs up in him and casts forth it's rayes to discover and draw him out of the Darkness Now as this Light is felt loved understood in Spirit hearkned and cleaved to in the pure Faith which it begets that which cleaves to it is drawn out of the darkness by it into the Covenant of the pure eternal Light where God is and whither all they are translated who are drawn to him in and by this Covenant as they are kept preserved and continue in the Faith Love and Obedience of it Now I would yet put these few things more to them First Whether that People of the Jews as they stood related to God in that Covenant given by Moses at Mount Horeb with the Covenant it self and all things appertaining thereto were not a shadow of some inward and Spiritual thing afterwards to appear and be made manifest in its season Whether they themselves were not a shadow of a more inward and Spiritual People to be gathered to God by the inward and Spiritual Covenant and whether their outward Covenant was not a shadow or visible representation of that Covenant and the Laws of it a shadow or representation of the inward Laws which were to be written in the hearts of that Spiritual People Was not their Tabernacle or Temple a shadow of the true Tabernacle or Temple seeing God dwelleth not in Temples made with hands but in a poor humble contrite Spirit and in the Heart that trembles at his Word Isai. 57. 15. and chap. 66. 1 2. So was not their circumcision a shadow of the circumcision which is to pass upon the Hearts of God's chosen Were not their Sacrifices types or representations of the Sacrifices of praise and of a broken Heart Psal. 51. 17. and Psal. 50. 14. Was not their Canaan or Holy-land a type of the true Holy Spiritual rest which the faith gives entrance into Their City Jerusalem a Tipe of the Jehovah-shammah Their Priests and Levites Tipes of the