was a great Earthquake and the City fell with 7000 Names c. This Angel in the Sun might Preach the everlasting Gospel and Judgement also Bedan In Dan or in Mahane Dan as the Hebrew of Judges 13. 25. 1 Sam. 12. 11. which may shew us He was After That History of the Danites Judges 18. 12. An Angel also appeared to Josuah to Gideon as now to Manoah from Noah Rest. This man must give them Rest also and carry them through the Flood of His Generation As Noah did in His and Moses in His. And as they came out of Aegypt on the 15th Day at Sun-set or 360 Hours So this Sun also set about 360 Years from Aegypt or the Minha of the 15th Day 3 Times 40 make 120 the Moed and 3 of these Moeds make 360. 3 Times 40 more in Elies 40 Samuels 40 with Saul and Davids 40 bring us to Solomon Peace and the Temple founded in his 4th Year as the close of the 4th Moed or 4 times 120 or 12 times 40 being just 400 and 4 score Years from Aegypt as we read in the 6th of the First Book of Kings And 480 Hours bring up the last and great Day of Unleavened Bread the close of the Feast of Passover or 21st Day of the Month For Solomons great Feast of Dedication To be compared with the great Feast of Tabernacles in the 7th Month of the Year As His Feast was the 7th Month of the 7th Year of the Temple when it was fully finished and 14 Dayes as 14 Hours we saw before And although the Tabernacle was a good while at Gibeon of Benjamiu As the Ark at Kiriath-jearim of Judah as the very Temple Courts were parted between Those two Tribes Yet little Bethlehem also became a great Scene of Action during these Times of the Judges Thereabout was Rachel buried with her Idols which we may finde growing up Thence again In Michaes 〈◊〉 and the Falss Prophet also a poor Levite of Bethlehem Ephrata Spreading also to Dan as a Type of Jeroboams Calves of Aarons Cow to Dan also with Jonathan of Gershom of Manasseh where the Mazorites observe a signal Character to bid us pause till the Captivity of the Land as we read in Judges 18. Though it may lead us also to the Ark taken by the Philistines at Elies Death And as Elimelech carried his Wife and Children from Bethlehem to the Land of Moab so did David also of the same Bethlehem and of Elimelech by Ruth carry His to the same Moab And afterwards also to the Philistines where he sojourned as the Ark and Abraham and Isaak had done before him Dayes or a Year and 4 Months And so the Levites Concubine of Bethlehem also played the Harlot and stayed Dayes or a Year 4 Months In which places as that also of Rebecca Let her stay Dayes or a Year or 10 Daies in the Plural seem to speak a full Year As Two Daies in the Dual seem to intimate a Month. As Numb 9. 22. Dayes or a Year or a Month or Two Dayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 just 666. As the Moon returneth to the Sun in 666 Hours and to them at the Poles in Twice so many Dayes as the Sun in Months as we saw before We see how Idolatry was followed with Adultery and Both from the same Bethlehem as in divers Scriptures So St Paul ranketh their sins in the Wilderness by Idolatry Fornication Tempting of Christ and Murmuring 1 Cor. 10 and Jesabels Charge even in the Revelation is enticing to Adultery or Fornication with Eating but Eating things offered to Idols Both those Adulteries were severely punished For notwithstanding his Infinite goodness he knoweth How to punish the Ungodly but especially those that walk after the Flesh and speak evil of Dignities 24000 slain at Peor about 66000 at Gibeah which infected all the 12 Tribes with the 12 pieces of the Concubine and cut off Little Benjamin All but 600 men that fled and hid themselves 4 Months and Elizabeth hid her self Five Months in the Rock of Rimmon As Saul of that Tribe also had but 600 men left him after God had rejected him 1 Sam. 13 and chosen David who had also 600 men with him and parted also as These 600 by 200 and 400 to recover Ziglag and these 600 were kept up for his Guard we see in his flying from Absalon As also the Danites that Sacked Laish and set up Idolatry were 600 men as Shamgar slew 600 Philistines with an Ox goad of which we may read in Hoseah with other Prophets To be added to All before of 600 and 666. And as those things in the Wilderness followed Israels Vow Numb 21. So do These in Judges Jephtae's Vow and the peoples also for putting away their strange gods And as Serpents seized on them There so did Nahash the Serpent Here also till he was swallowed up by Saul as Death and Hell must swallow up the Serpent also in the Revelation Moses was bid to make a Seraph as the Serpents are called Seraphim the word for Angels in the 6th of Esay But Moses made a Nahash of Nehust a mighty Type of Christ who only can deliver us from the Serpent as old as Paradise and the Dragon and the Beast and its Image also made by Aaron or Micha or Babel or any other And yet Hezekiah durst destroy That Brazen Serpent and call it Nehustan a little piece of Brass So Dangerous is a lawful expedient or requisite Matter of Worship also when it degenerates to Idolatry or Superstition As the sourest Vineger from the quickest Best and sweetest Wine There was a strange Fate may we say that followed Those Serpents which bit Jacobs Heel so that he Halted ever after and their very next step was to Oboth Pytho's or Pythons As from the Serpent to the Devil And so also in Samuels time They were bitten with the Serpent Nahash and they murmur for Saul which is Hell Sheol Gods Scool and Mans Soul if God leave it as he did Israel here till they chose and sought their Saul As Samuel alludes and gives its Etymology 1 Sam. 12. And when you saw Nahash the Serpent You said Nay but a King shall Reign over us when the Lord your God was your King And now behold the King whom you have chosen and sought him or Saultem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1331 coming up to the double of 666 the number of the Serpent just 1332. But 3 less than Daniels 1335. And again he threatens a sign to make them see their great evil in rejecting God to Saul them a King Lisheol Verse 17. And when they heard the great Thunders in Harvest which should be remembred when ever so they cryed unto Samuel Pray for thy servants Nay but a King and now Thy servants Lest we Dye For we have dded to All our sins This evil also to Saul us a King Lisheol And then comes One of the sweetest places in the Bible Fear not c. For the Lord
10 Cleds or Clades or 3 Moeds and an Half as 70 is 3 score and an Half But 3 of those Dors or Generations being 3 times Thrice 70 or 9 times 70 and an half make just 665. And Dorothenu Our Generations in Hebr. letters may make 666 670 676. And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word so often used by God For your Generations makes 4 above 1260 which is 10 Moeds and an Half As in the Revelation also 1260 for a Time and Times and Half which is Moed Moeds and Half a Moed in Daniel And His 1335 is but 3 more than Twice 666 or 4 times 333 As the 14th Day ended in 336 Hours 3 more than 333 the Evening Sacrifice or slaying of the Passover And the Temple Witnesses lay as slain by Antiochus 3 years and then Recovered by Iudas Macchabeus in the 148 year of Seleucus Nicanor the very same Month the Temple was polluted 3 years before 1 Macc. 1. 54. 4. 51. That was Twice 666 from Egypt or 1332 years and the Clensing 1335 Which was also 1290 years from Their setling in Canaan as Iosh. 14. 10. which was in the 46th or 47th from Egypt As Noah went into the Ark on the 46th or 47th Day of the Year And if we There fix the Pentecost which was not till they were in Canaan as Levit. 23 25. There may yet be Greater Harmony For as the years before This setling in Canaan may be as Hours from the beginning of the Year to the Day of Pentecost so all the years following This in Canaan may be reckoned as Hours After the Pentecost the 65th Day of the Year and Therfore about the 5th of the 3d Month. 430 more come up to Solomon 470 to Ieroboam As 470 Hours from the beginning of the Day of Pentecost end about the 23d or 24th Day of the 3d Month when the Jewes Fast to this Day for Ieroboams stopping all the First-Fruits of Israel from Ierusalem 430 more to the City Taken by Nebuchadnezzar ending as Hours about the 9th of the 4th Month the very Day when it was broken up As we read in divers places of the Kings and Ieremy 39 and 52. 430 more which make up Daniels 1290 to the Times of Epiphanes for which They Fast also in the latter end of the 4th Month as also for Moses breaking the First Tables at their Golden Image in the Wilderness which themselves account as a Type or cause of the Babylonian Image oppressing them or That Abomination of Desolation as the Macchabees call it of Antiochus that mighty Type of Antichrist Or of any other since On them and the Israel of God And yet again 222 more added to 1290 make 1512 the number of Hours in 63 Dayes between the Day of Pentecost and the 10th of the 5th Month. That Fatal Day when Amalek Canaan destroyed them to Hormah the Curss upon that Heavy Doom of Not Entring into Rest And for the first Temple Burnt by the Chaldeans Jer. 55. 12. and the Second also by the Romans on the very same Day of the 5th Month. The 65th from the Day of Pentecost as This the 65th Day of the year and its Morning Sacrifice was in Hour 1526 from Pentecost As the second Temple Burnt 1526 years from their setling in Canaan 1512 years After Enoch On the 18th of the same 5th Month they Fast for the Lamps put out in Ahaz time and for them that defamed the Good Land on the 17th of the 6th Month but All the first half of the 7th is little else but Fasts as the first half of the 7th Day was Darkness and the latter half was Light and Joyful Feastings ending all that years sorrow and their scatterings which Damel makes the Measure of All things foretold in Him As Chap. 12. 7. And his 9th saith Desolations shall be determined at the End of That War whose very first Crisis lasted till That season of the year in the 7th Month we are now Seeking Shall we view a Map of All in the 39 40 41 52 Chapters of Jeremiah First The City Broken up on the 9th of the 4th Month about 860 Hours after Pentecost As That 860 years from Their First Pentecost in Canaan Then the Temple Burnt on the 10th of the 5th Month As a Type of the 2d Temple Burnt by the Romans on the same Day of the same Month and same Course of Joyarib 666 years after Or 1526 years from That Pentecost in Canaan As 1526 Hours from Pentecost to the Morning Sacrifice of the 10th Day of the 6th Month. In which also they Fast for Aaron's Death a Type of our Saviour Dying before That Temple Burnt Then the Great and Rich and Mighty men were All carried Captive and the Vineyards and Olives c. Left to the Poor As promised Zeph. 3. Ezek. 34. Levit. 26. with Ex. 23. adding that What the Poor left the Beasts should eat Then the Witnesses slain First Gedaliah a Type of Christ the Great Lord and Then the 70 Elders those solemn Witnesses in Mourning and their Hair shorn c. And at Mispa the Watch of Witnesse to Jacob and his two Wives as we saw before And slain by the 10 Great Captains as the 10 Horns of Ishmael the Beast as the Angel called him Pere first mocking Isaac and now slaying him in a Name-sake and of the Seed Royal. And Then the Witnesses Rising again Or All the Captives recovered by Johanan the Lord's Grace or Gracious And at Gibeon where the Sun stood still for a new Heaven in Joshuah and a new Earth and Age in David yet but Types of more when God shall do his Work his strange Work as at Gibeon Isa. 28. Thence they go to Egypt as Christ when Herod slew the Children For Out of Egypt God alwayes called his Son And the Prophets and Revelation speak of their last Return as both from Babylon and Egypt And for the Times also besides the great and only Fast prescribed on the 10th of the 7th Month They Fast on the 7th for the Golden Image of the Beast They made as Psalm 106. a Type of the Beast slaying the Witnesses and on the 3d for Gedaliah slain in the seventh Month as Jer. 41 and the other 70 on the 2d Day after And 1290 Hours from the Temple Burnt on the 10th of the 5th Month 53 dayes and 18 hours come up to this Time which may be compared with Daniels 1290 dayes or years or 1260 in the Revelation written about 30 years After the Temple and City Burnt by the Romans As Daniel's Great Prophecy of 2300 days was just 30 or 31 years after the City sacked by Babylon Whose Times are All but 3 times 666 and an half or 2331 years and so but just 2300 from the 31st year of that account which was in the 3d of Belshazzar as we read in Dan. 8. to be compared with Baruch whence much of Daniels Prayer in the 9th expounding Levit. 26 as an absolute Promise of
Power And again when you meet with my spirit and the Power of our Lord Jesus Christ. That this was a Judging Power is plain by all that Chap. speaking of casting out and judging them which are within while God only judgeth them that be without And in the next Chapter Do you not know The Saints shall judge the world Are you not worthy then to judge the smallest matters Know ye not that we shall judge Angels how much more things that pertain to this life Set ye them to judge who are least esteemed in the Church Is there not a wise man among you not onethat is able to judge between his Brethren And in that very Chapter you presse so much against your self he saith Judge in your selves Is it comly that a woman pray to God uncovered And of their Church-meetings he saith If ye speak with Tongues speak by two or three at most but if ye Prophesie do it by two or three at the least for so seems the opposition and let the others judge For you may all Prophecy and you should all desire earnestly and pray that you may Prophecy even above all other spiritual Gifts but it must be in order and not confusion while some Iudge and still the spirit of all Prophets are subject to the Prophets both old and now also while you be in Churches you must keep Church Order and your spirits must be subject to the Prophets before you and among you also But of the Sacrament he saith You must here Iudge your selves and be not concluded by others Judgement But let a man examine himself and so let him eat and drink For He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh Damnation or at least Judgement to himself and for this cause are many weak and sick and many sleep For If wee would judge our selves we should not be judged but when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the World Which is one of the most sweet and comfortable places in the whole Bible as before we observed in this Epistle also about Temptation Which also may and should comfort you So far are you from being condemned as you think by God who will never confirm or execute any wrong judgement though you give it against your self And yet you should be tender how you judge your self unworthy of Eternal Life which is the free gift of God least the spirit say as Paul and Barnabas to the Iews Seeing you put the Gospel from you and judge your selves unworthy of Eternal Life Lo we turn to the Gentiles But if you judge a wrong judgement God is so merciful and just also as not to confirm it And if you judge Rightly you are so far from being so wretched and miserable as you think your self that you are one of the happiest men in the World and not onely still under the gracious Spirit of Promise convincing you ofsin and also of righteousnesse setting up Christ in you and making you bow and long for him but also receiving from him one of the greatest and highest gifts possible which is a right Judgement and a power and priviledge to judge your self the hardest and highest work in the world so that you never shal be judged by the Lord. A Royalty not given unto any but the Kings and Princes or first-born of Jesus Christ his Churches as at Corinth or the members of them or such as are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints and to such as in any place call upon the Name of Jesus Christ the Lord both theirs and ours as I hear and see and know you do And therefore I pronounce it written to you also as a letter from Heaven or the Throne and Heart of God in Jesus Christ our Lord and yours whom you so call upon and trust in For how could you call upon Him if you had not believed on him As you may read in the Tenth of the Epistle to the Romans compared with the beginning of the first Epistle to the Corinthians which we now speak of Nor do I wonder Paul should put such a stresse upon calling on Christ when by his own experience and observation of all Christians he had found it the great Badge of a Christian and the greatest Character he could well expresse of one taught and drawn by God to come to Jesus Christ who though the Mediator to God yet indeed is the end also of all the Teaching and Drawing of the Father which I will therefore on this occasion more largely insist upon as one of the greatest and sweetest things I can declare to you especially in this great hour of darknesse and temptation When Paul saw Stephen the first Martyr stoned consenting to his death and standing by keeping the clothes of them which stoned him he might easily observe and remember that he died calling on Jesus Christ and saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit And again kneeling down he cryed Lord lay not this sin to their charge and saying this he fell asleep He might very well wonder that in the very Infancy of Christian Religion any could so quickly speak and pray to Christ and that also with such courage and boldnesse as daring to die in it and to desire no other rest or happinesse then that Jesus only should receive his spirit and forgive his stoners Doubtlesse it could not but take deep impression in so wise a man as Paul or Saul was And so it seems it did for presently he went and got a Commission from the Rulers to bring bound to Jerusalem all that he should find calling on Jesus Which he could not but see a most distinguishing Character between Jews and Christians for the Jews also called on God but the Christians only called on Jesus Christ and by that character he might easily discern who were only Jews and who were also Christians and so binde All he found calling on Christ. And when Christ appeared to Ananias in a vision he bad him Enquire in the house of Iudas Which we may consider again when we see Paul rising up in the room of Iudas and of Saul also being of the same Tribe much about a Thousand years after David that is Love had cast him out and bound him up as Satan must be bound for a Thousand years and then perhaps struck down as Saul here was by fire from heaven Saul also signifying Hell or the Grave and so might well be an Emblem of Satan which is the very Phrase used by David of Abishai to which Christ also might allude when he called Peter Satan And when Ananias or the Lords grace was sent by Christ to look out Saul he said Lord I hear he hath authority to bind all that call on thy Name To which Christ replyed Go for he is a chosen Vessel to bear my Name to the Gentiles and to Kings and the children of Israel though the Jews shall reject and persecute him yet he shall bear
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
God promiseth to bring back the Captivity of Ammon as of Sodom also in Ezechiel and of Moab in the latter dayes or Time of Messiah as the Jews use to expound that Phrase of the latter Dayes And in the Tenth Generation They also may enter into the Church of God though it was threatned They should Never enter And as David was the fourteenth Generation and the fourteenth seventy Years from Abraham so was Boas the Tenth or eleventh who married Ruth a Moabite who might be the Tenth from Lot who by a former Man of Iudah was Daughter to Naomy Beauty Wife to Elimelech who had two Sons Mahlon weaknesse and Chilion consumption or perfection or Espousal who had Orpha stiffneckednesse who left her Mother The other Ruth who choosing her Mothers people and God is led to a field of Boaz and is bid stick close to his Maidens O tell me where thou feedest and restest at Noon for why should I stray and at length is bid to lie at his feet and say Thou art my Kinsman as Solomon bids us say to Wisdome Thou art my Sister And Christ is both Iachin and Boaz the Wisdom and Strength of God and so very near a kin to Elimelech my God the King see the third of Esay compared with the 7 8 17. 22. of the 23. chap. and see the Women of Moab and Ammon married to Kings of Israel and Judah And David in his straits carried his Parents to the King of Moab saying Let my Father and Mother be with you till I know what God will do for me Or as Esay Let my Out-casts dwell with Thee Moab be thou a Covert to them And in Mercy shall the Throne be established as we found before in the Psalms and Proverbs and he shall sit upon it in Truth in the Tabernacle of David judging and seeking judgement and Hasting Righteousnesse And my Heart shall Cry for Moab O the Tender Heart of God! Let his Fugitives flee to Zoar. As his Father Lot did from Sodom to Zoar which seemeth therefore to have stood in Moab on the East of Iordan and not on the West as the Tables place it And again send ye the Lamb to the Ruler of the People to the mount of the Daughter of Zion as alluding to the King of Moabs paying Lambs for Tribute to the King of Israel But about Ahabs Death Moab and Edom also brake their yoak and freed themselves from Iaacob under Iehoram the high Lord in the dayes of Elisha or God Iesus as the Name implies who had a double portion of the Spirit of Elijah the Lord my God And shall a Man be able to give a Double portion of his Spirit and That at his Parting and going away and shall not He that hath the Residue of the spirit in opposition to shear Baser the Residue of the Flesh which is so many times in Scripture Language for near Kindred or He that hath the Spirit without Limits or not by measure shall not He be able and willing also to give His Holy Spirit unto all that ask it and a Double Portion unto All his First Born Who saw and yet see him ascending and cry to him my Father my Father the Charriot of Israel and the Horsemen thereof And it may be That remarkable promise of the Spirit unto all that ask it may allude to This very History of Elijah giving his Spirit to Elisha crying my Father my Father As in Luke it is not as some read it your Heavenly Father But Your Father who is Out of Heaven or came out of Heaven And he took the Mantle of Elijah and smote the Waters saying as we may now say Here indeed is the Mantle of Elijah O but Where is the Lord God and the Spirit of Elijah and the Waters parted Hither and Thither Though I do not yet say when they so parted as before at Josuahs coming over Jordan there began an Other Generation or a New Age of the World As at first dividing the Waters by the Firmament of Heaven with the Waters above the Heavens of which in the Psalms and divers other places that I speak not of Esdras Ecclesasticus or Wisdom of Solomon And the Sons of the Prophets said the Spirit of Elijah resteth on Elisha and they bowed down or Worshipped him and afterwards he enlarged their Colledge and it may be their Spirit also The Hebrew Word Saul used in That History puts me in mind How Saul cut off the Lords Priests and How he fell and How the Jews say He was Recovered aand saved though I dare not say by the Mediation of Elias or Elisha Who they say must come and loose all knots or as our Saviour saith He must Restore All Things yea and that after John the Baptist was beheaded And some other words in That History put me also in mind How Elijah destroyed the false prophets of Baal and Jezabel and how Elisha did encourage and enlarge the True Prophets and at length by one of the young prophets annointeth Jehu which yet was given in charge to Elijah himself One of the best Texts I know for Deputations And Jehu destroyeth Jezabel who had not onely Destroyed and Corrupted the Lords Prophets and driven away Elijah and Elisha but had even quite stifled the very Spirit of Prophecy in the Seed of God as the Hebrew words Naboth in Jezreel may import Which may be compared with That of Jezabel opposed by the Bright morning Star breaking and scattering the Dark Clouds and bringing in the Morning and Our Rising and cloathing with White and fresh Linnen in fourth and fifth Churches and thâ—slaying of the two Witnesses with the Spirit of Prophecy in the Revelation And the sixth Church of Philadelphia or Brotherly Love is plainly the New Jerusalem as Christ himself expresseth in his Epistle to that Church before the General Iudgement of the People or Laodicea as the Word signifies Which may also be compared with the latter part of the eleventh and also the four last Chapters of the Revelation Where the great Judgement also is Described which the Prophets place in the Valley of Jehoshaphat whose very Name implies the Lords Judgement Which was also called the valley of Beraca or Blessing When they had troden down Moab and Ammon and Edom. Which we find also cited in the Prophets as foretelling somewhat yet to be done in the Revelation And had it not been for Jehoshaphat Elisha said he would not have seen the other two Kings met against Moab also saying Nay but hath God gathered these Kings and their people also together to Destroy them But as Jehoshaphat smarted sorely for joyning with Ahab and his Sons so They Got by His good Company In which we may see God pitying a Wicked man and Hearing his Cry and Prayer as most remarkably after he did the Prayer of Jehoahaz 2 Kings 13. 4 5 6. 23. How the Waters came at the morning Sacrifice and How he multiplyed the VViddows Oyl that was like to
own already Seeing in this case Polygamy is not only permitted but commended and commanded And Sauls wives were Given it seems by God himself into Davids Bosom And the omission of this Law of doing the office of a Kinsman had a perpetual brand of disgrace By loosing the shoe and spitting to be added to the blessed History of Ruth or Truth or Drouth as a Saxon may sound it the dry barren widdow of Mahlon that is VVeakness married unto Strength in him As Boaz signifies But I am unworthy to unloose his shoo That was here also Typified And the Reason of This Law is That his Brothers or his Kinsmans Name be not put out of Israel or out of the Book of the Living or blotted out from under the Heavens of the Lord. Threatned to Amalech a branch of Esau by a Concubine or others when their Males were to be rooted out as we touched before For the Male in Heb speaketh Memorial or Remembrance And yet Edoms Children and VViddows also are called to Come and Trust in God with promise to be kept alive Though all the Males were rooted out or their Memorial perished Although I say not that This was but according to This Law of marrying the Kinsmans Widdow But However God abhorred Edom for letting his VVrath Tear for ever and forgetting the Brotherly kindness and Covenant yet in that very place where Israel is forbidden to seek the Peace of Moab and Ammon All their Daies for ever They are forbidden also to abhor an Edomite because He was and still is Thy Brother as we read in Deut. 23. And though the Lamentations say that God wil visit Edom and accomplish the Iniquity or Punishment of Zion yet Edom also is There bid to rejoyce And as alluding to the word Edom which Job also useth for I will be Dumb he saith it is good for a man to be Dumb and quietly wait for the Salvation of God as Jacob also on his death bed He sitteth alone and is Dumb c. For the Lord will not cast off for ever the very word used by David to Solomon or Forsake even for Adultery being neer akin in Heb. And when God seemeth resolved to cut off Edom or Moab yet it is with such regret and so much tenderness of Heart and Bowels as a most tender Father or Mother going to chasten a dear child O give wings unto them that they may flee away Leave the Cities dwell in the Rock and be like the Dove in the Clefts of the Rock O my Heart my Heart shall sound for him I will Howl and Cry and Mourn sor him O Vine of Sibma I will weep for thee I will water thee with my Tears O Heshbon And again My Heart shall Cry out for Moab Let his Fugitives flee unto Zoar. Take Councel execute judgment Hide the Ontcasts bewray not him that wandreth Flee ye Turn back dwell deep O Inhabitants of Dedan c. As if he foresaw That which Job or the Psalmist speaketh when he shall have cut off he will look in the morning and see his place empty as Davids was before Saul and he will have desire to the work of his own hands And when David had conquered Ishbosheth and all Sauls Family he melted and said to Ziba Is there not yet any of the House of Saul that I may shew the kindness of God unto him The kindness of God! Even towards dead Saul And there came an halting Son of Jonathan or Jaacob Trembling and hardly believing the King would look upon such a Dead Dog But it was to shew the Kindness of God to an House he had cut off And how sweetly and solemnly did David celebrate Sauls Funeral and bless the men of Jabez that shewed kindness to his dead body Blessed he ye of the Lord that have shewed this Kindness to your Lord even unto Saul and have buried him And now the Lord shew Kindness and Truth unto you And I also will requite you this kindness because you have done this thing And the Kindness of Rispa to Sauls Sons that were Hanged up before the Lord for Gibeon was not only told David but remaineth on Scripture Record to all Eternity And it also occasioned David to shew new kindness to Saul and the Bones of his dead children And though Shimei cursed with a bitter heavy Curse as if David had been cruel or bloody to the House of Saul Yet David bears it patiently saying Let him Curse because the Lord hath said unto him Curse David And again Let him Curse for the Lord hath bidden him And again at his Return to his Kingdom when Ahishai pressed that he might die who had so cursed the Lords Annointed David replied You are Satan to me Shall there a Man he put to death this day in Israel For do I not know that I am this day King of Israel A saying so remarkable and repeated so that it may not only be pressed on a King especially when God hath so restored him to his Kingdom as David After banishment But on Christ also I hope when he shall come again and be restored to His Great Kingdom Will he not Then also say Shall a Man be put to death This day Am I not King of Israel and the rather because himself seems to allude to This very saying of David to Abisai when he said to Peter Get thee behind me Satan Thou savorest not the things of God but men and therefore art Satan an Offence or Adversary to me The very Phrase used by David to Abishai the Father of Jesse or My substance Doth not Solomon allude to This of Shimei also when he saith Hearken not and Shimei is Hearken what thy servant saith lest thou hear thy self cursed Or accuse not a servant to his Master and Thou knowest that Thou also hast cursed others I have yet said nothing of the Ceremonial Law O what a Sea of Love under which Christ was Made also to Fulfil it Time would fail us but to flie with the Bee and suck Honey from every Flower All the kinds of Sacrifice seem hinted to Abraham in the Vision sealing his Everlasting Covenant Which preserved his seed and all the Elect Gentiles also as the Turtle Dove and the Young Pidgeon whole and undivided or unbroken in the midst of the Heifer Gods own Emblem of Aegypt Moab Babylon or other Beasts about his People the Ram which in Daniel is a Type of the Mede and Persian Empire and the Goat in Him also the Grecian Kingdom or Aegeans which with many persons and places Thereabout had their name from Goats As we read in divers Authors or All men of the world or Seed of the Serpent That is the head and chief of Beasts that so signally pressed or oppressed the poor Dove which was also the Ensign of the Assyrian Banner as we are taught from Semiramis a Dove or fed by Doves whence the Prophet Jeremy cryeth Flee ye from the Dove coming out of the North. Though it
Schools express it It makes 144 if M be only 40. But if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Mazorites do often reckon makes 600 Then it may be as we reckoned Olam only 4 above 700. which is 10 Generations or 10 times 70 as we found God himself expounding Ever in the case of Moab and Ammon As Ruth also the 10th from Lot might be married to the 10th from Abraham and about the 10th 70 Years as David was the 14 Generation and the 14th 70 Years who also lived 70 Years Though Christ lived but about half so many Which may shew us more ere long than that Mans Age was Then also shortned As from the Flood or other great Epochaes Ten times 70 may be expressed also by the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ay which is 70 with Ten. Being also joyned with Kedem in Gen. 12. 8. to be compared with Joshua who made it a Desolate Heap for Ever which is Ay in Greek or many other Languages And yet it was rebuilt and Peopled in the Time of Nehemiah as before And if Letters may be so joyned for Multiplication as well as Addition Then may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also their great word for Ever be 4 times 70 or 70 times 70. that is 70 squared Which is the Great Power of 4 in Scripture Language speaking somwhat Squared as the very figure also of 4 in Heb. which yet is not much unlike 7 or Seven the Full number and so often squared in Scripture that is drawn into 4. or so as 4 is powerful in it as it is in Every Square Which is still made up of 4 and to be so Resolved As Cubes also by 8. whose Character in Heb. represents a Dye Which is yet more visible in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their final M. which is the Mystical Letter as the Jews write in Esay 9. 7. or many other places That God also did intend we should Multiply somtimes by adding Letters to a word may be seen in the Plural Numerals we read in Scripture which are Ten times more than their Singulars and it may be So were All Plurals made by Jod only in Regimen which is 10 and by im which is 50 at length As of Three and Four the Plurals are Thirty and Fourty And by the way it may be considered whether in the Second Command it might not be read Visiting Iniquity for 30 or 40 Daies or Months or Years Seeing 40 was the great Number in Punishing Theirs also in the Wilderness where they stayed 40 Years in 42 Mansions As the 42 Months in the Revelation for Treading the outward Courts and for the Reign of the Beast As also for the Womans being in the Wilderness though reckoned by 1260 Daies which make up 42 Months For their Murmuring and Worshiping the Beast also or the Image of a Beast as we read in Psal. 106. And they have One word for Age and the World also which in Numerals is 42. and That is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eld as Eng. Elder and Old Whence the old Weld for World that is We are Eld or Old And we do not reckon a Man Old till over 40. And if Final 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with them also be but 40 Olam Then without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will be but 140 or Twice 70. And so is Kum their word for Rising up or Resurrection as with English Come But if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be 600 as the Mazorites Then both Kum and Olam is 700 that is 10 Generations or 10 times 70. as we saw before Which may be also more considerable If the Moons Hiding or Covering in so many Hours the measure of All Ages and Changes might also intimate Gods Hiding or Covering of Their Iniquity which is implyed also in Olam And the Taking off Their Yoak which is also Olam so often hinted in Scripture as the great Work of Gods Rest in Sabbath Daies and Years and Jubilee Which was the 7th 7th Year or 49. a Number of Rest as we found it in Hours the beginning of the Third Nights Rest. Yet it brought in Great Motions and Changes also but for the Better still which the Schools call Perfective and not Corruptive Motion So that the very Hebrew Mot which is Motion or Mutation is in Numbers 49. And every 3d. brought up a Change as we found before in Night and Day Rest and Motion as in Leaps or Hopping and in all our movings One foot resteth while the other moveth Mot Turned is Tom and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 turned into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tam or Tom which as we saw in Jathom an Orphan signifieth Perfect And in least reckoning is 440 and their Tamid Ever or the Daily sanifice 444 without Jod or else 454. But if M Final be 600 Then Tom is 1000 a very Perfect number both in Years or Months or Hours For 1000 Hours bring us to the Morning Sacrifice of the 42 Day of Creation or other Time which is the sixth Sabbath As 444 Hours bring us to the first Sabbath I may add also that if M final be 600 in Hebrew words we may find out many making up the very Number of 666 of which we spake before as the Number of Change in the Moon and all other great Motions and Revolutions in all Generations For the very word Sum which is not only Eng but Heb. is just 666. As if This were the Summ of each Generation or of every Age of the World which is called Age also in many Languages And in Latine Sum is the great Verb of Being As in Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or English Is and Jessi is my Being or my Essence Which is much or most or all in the Heb Ish a Man Though not a vulgar low and Weak man which they called Adam or Enos but a great or noble man or an Husband As we see in That famous place Thou shalt not call me Baali my Lord or Master but Ishi my Man or Husband They shall look eye to eye Till they see themselves in my eys or Eishon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Eyn is the Heb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Eye and a Fountain And among the Rabbins or other Eastern Writers Sum is not onely the Summ but End of all reckonings As in Hebrew Soph. and Sophia or Wisdome is the Lords Perfection or his End To which Solomon also seemeth to allude in his End of man or End of All written with such great Letters in the Hebrew of his Book of Wisdome or Ecclesiastes the Woman Preacher As the 68 Psalm and 11 verse God shall give a Word so it is in Heb and Many shall be the Women Preachers And as Sophia in Hebrew a metathesis of Joseph is with the Grecians Wisdome so with them Foolishness or Moria is in Heb the Lords Teaching or Death or Mountain of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And when it is said Let him that is Wise count the number of the Beast And here is
Such Seasons and Changes VVhile the Earth endures but also that All Dayes of the Earth should be Those Seasons or such Seasons As the words in Hebrew may be read and we find it so by daily Experience that every Day hath its Seasons and its quarters As the year also And the Half Month added to the Three brings us through the second sabbath of Weeks or 14 Weeks As before we found Abrahams Tenents and Others in Sodom freed from the four Monarchs or Monarchies in the 14 year And our Teeth in Each Jaw are 3 times 4 with 2. Watchers But yet more especially These Three Months and an half bring us from the Pentecost and Sack of Ierusalem That Great New Moon or Change beginning the Month following That Feast of Pentecost as we hinted before to the very Time of that Last and Great Feast of Tabernacles At the fifteenth Day of the Seventh Month and so just 3 Months and an half after the month of Pentecost which was followed by such a visible Change of their Moon or Olam when the Romans fired their City and so made That Full Moon And That also much about the middle of September answering so much to their Seventh Month and Feast of Tabernacles At which Time also their Release and Liberty must begin again as Thereabout it Ended And that their Coming in again with the Fulness of the Gentiles also promised to Ephraim as we saw before was to answer that Full Moon of the Full Month that is the Seventh and Great Feast of all the Feast of Tabernacles Or In gathering All the Fruits of the Earth may be cleer not only from the very Reason and Nature of That Feast and Season but also from many places of Scripture which do so compare them together As the 102 Psalm made as a Form of Prayer for Him that is Afflicted with his soul overwhelmed and pouring out his sighing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the Lord Jesus As we find it cited in the first to the Hebrews I am withered as Grass cut down for Hay in Summer but He shall come down upon the mown Grass in Psal. 72. But Thou wilt arise and have mercy on Zion For the Moed is come the Time and the Moed also And Psal. 75. I will judg Equities when I receive or come to the Moed The very same word used here in Daniel and in many Scriptures for that Great solemnity of Tabernacles which of all the Three Moads was the Moad of Moads Or the most solemn and Greatest of All. And then presently the Psalm addeth So or Then the heathen shall also fear thy Name and All Kings of the earth thy Glory as before in the 72 and divers other Psalms When the Lord shall build up Zion he shall appear in his Glory He will regard the prayer of the Destitute or Naked and will not despise it As our Saviours Dying Words on the Crosse Ps. 22. 24. This shall be written for the Generation to come for he looked down from the height of his sanctuary to behold the earth and hear the sighing of the Prisoners and to loose the sons of Death When the Peoples in the Plural are Gathered together as at that Feast of Tabernacles and the Kingdoms also to serve the Lord. That which followeth of shortning his Dayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may allude to Katsyr Summer and Harvest Or the years End When the Dayes Shorten and their Tradition is that Adam quickly found the Sun declining and the Dayes Shortning Which They should consider that beleeve Him and the World Created at the Vernall Equinox So the 126 Psalm In the Lords Turning the Captivity of Zion we are or were like Dreamers Turn again our Captivity O Lord as the streams in the South we touched it before They that sow in Tears shall reap in Joy He that went Weeping and bearing precious Seed shall come with singing bringing his sheaves Which is plainly of Harvest and the Joy of Harvest which we find also in the Prophet Esay coupled with breaking his yoke and staffe of his shoulder and Rod of his Oppressor As in the day of Midian so famous for the Barley Cake of Gideon as alluding to the First Fruits and the Lamps in Earthen Pitchers of which also Saint Paul to the Corinthians And it ended at Succoth or Tabernacles which were Taught by Gideon Yet Plainer in Hoseah There is an Harvest set for thee O Judah when I bring back the Captivity of my People And again I the Lord thy God from Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in Tabernacles As in the Solemn Feast or Moed of which also before What will you do in the Solemn Day of Moed Or That Solemn Feast which is also the Solemn Day or Solemn Feast in Deut. 16 15. 31. 10. Ps. 81. 3. Lament 2. 7. with divers other places And in Zephany I will gather them that Moan it is Heb The Solemn Moed And at That Time I will get them Fame and Praise in Every Land where they have been shamed and at That Time I will bring and gather you and I will make you a Name and a Praise among all people of the Earth when I turn back your Captivity before your Eyen saith the Lord. And the Last of Zechary telleth us that All nations that fought against Jerusalem shall go up to worship the King the Lord of Hosts and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles And again the punishment of Egypt and All Nations that come not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles And in that Day On the Bells of the Horses shall be Holinesse to the Lord yea every Pot in Jerusalrm and Jndah shall be Holinesse to the Lord of Hosts and there shall be no more Cananite in the House of the Lord of Hosts The Heb Canange may be Saxon Change Cunning or Koning And in That Day there shall be One Lord and his Name One and the Lord shall be King over all the Earth and in That Day Living Waters shall go out from Ierusalem and Half of them to the Dead Sea or that of Sodom also plain enough in the Text and Ezechiel both the 16. and 47. and in Ioel also Even of that Great Day of Iudgement in the Valley of Iehosaphat which yet was the valley of Blessing or Beraca Crying Put you in the sickle for the Harvest is Ripe Yea and the Vintage also for the Presse is Full. Which we read again in the Revelation where it runs out also by the space of 1600 surlongs which we compared before with Dayes and Years to be added perhaps to the Time of Saint Iohns writing about the 60th year after the Ascention And after All he Seeth the pure River of Life with Trees bearing Fruit every Month whose very leaves were to Heal the Nations And there shall be no more Curse of which before in Iericho And whosocver will let him take the Water of Life Freely Which being compared with our Saviours words in the 7th
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
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
Lords Threatnings and This in particular used to Adam Dying thou shalt die or Thou shalt surely die The very Words spoken to Adam and the worst of All that was Threatned to Him When I say to the Wicked as I did once to my dearly beloved Adam in Innocence Thou shalt surely die Yet if he Turn and Thou must warn him of those very words that he may Turn and Repent and Then he shall surely live he shall not die Which is several times repeated notwithstanding that Doom Thou shalt surely Die. Which in general God hath here interpreted when ever he so speaketh or shall so speak for it is the Infinite Mood or Manner of speaking In my saying or when ever I do say or shall say Dying thou shalt Dië or Thou shalt surely Die Yet it is not nor may be taken as any Absolute Doom but a conditional Threatning Which in case of Repentance shall never come to Sentence and much less to Execution And yet it was to a Wicked Man as Wicked O Thou wicked Man and so to one in a much worse condition and more desperate than Adam was when it was so pronounced to him in Paradice And upon This Occasion also God Comments on that Clause in the second Command of visiting the Fathers sins upon the Children which the Jews judged not Equal and expressed by their usual Proverb The Fathers have Eaten the sowr Grapes and the Childrens Teeth are set on Edge Which he confutes at large in the 18 of Ezekiel and sweareth it shall not be used any more Which is to be compared with That most sweet Chapter the 31. of Jerem. Where also That Evil Proverb is commanded and promised Down with such a sweet and gracious Context both before and after it as can never be too much considered And the Lords Discourse against That Proverb may be a good Comment on that passage in the second Command of visiting Iniquities of the Fathers on the Children But on Those that go on in their Fathers Iniquities And Then also the Children never Die for the Fathers sin They may be visited or chastened But They shall not Die for their Fathers sin No not for their Great Father Adams Which is a very comfortable thing and much to be considered by All and in special with relation to Infants that die without Actual sin having not sinned after the similitude of Adams Transgression But the Lord hath here promised the Children shall not die for or Bear the Fathers sin Nor indeed was That Expressed to Adam or for ought appeareth was intended that His Children should Die for His sin Nay rather God hath expressly declared the contrary that They shall not And yet Death came in by sin and passed over All seeing All have sinned and came short of the Glory of God And yet They do not Die and sure Then not Eternally for their Fathers sin Which may be compared with That of our Savior touching the man born blind and yet neither for His Own sin or his Fathers but that the Glory of God might be seen in his blindness And yet the Fathers Iniquity for That is the Phrase May be visited upon the Children and are the Visitations of God Smal things But yet why should we despair of the Goodness of God even in his visitation seeing Himself also hath chosen such a Phrase that with God and man speaketh kindness And a Love visit rather than any Hatred And if we rightly understand Gods heart in All we would long for his visits though he should come but to chide or to chasten us and we should value the very lowest and the meanest of his visits at a very great rate Sure it is not a little thing to be visited by a great Man How much more by a good Man which if we understood and saw the person they represent to us and the Embassage they still come about we should cry as Elizabeth to the Virgin Mary How is it that the Mother Brother Sister of my Lord vouchsafeth thus to visit me for every one that is His and doth His Fathers will is his Mother Brother Sister as himself speaketh And have not many Thus entertained Angels How much more is it then for God and Jesus Christ to come and visit such poor Worms as we are For What is Man that thou shouldest so magnifie him even so magnifie him and that thou shouldest set thy heart upon him and That Thou shouldest Visit him every morning and Try him every moment Yea as if David would lead us up to the very Visits made by God to Adams Children after the Fall he expresseth it Thus Lord what is Enos that thou shouldest remember him and the Son of Adam that thou shouldest visit him For he very well knew it a great condescention in God and happiness to Man that God should come to visit him For his Visitations sustain our spirits and preserve us alive I need not tel you what the Jews say of Sampsons visiting his Wife with a Kid or Abrahams visiting of Hagar in the Wilderness a Type of what is on her and her Children to this day as St. Paul speaketh Or what is promised to all the Kings and great men in the Terrible Pit that after many daies they should be visited as we read in Esay to be compared also with Zech. 9. 11 12. Yea even when his Visit is to chasten us it is an Honor and an Happiness My Son despise not thou the Chastening of the Lord neither be thou weary of His Correction for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth even as a Father doth a Son of his delight Behold Happy is the man whom the Lord correcteth Therefore despise not thou the chastising of the Almighty For be maketh sore and bindeth up He woundeth and his hands make whole Which in That very Book also is more largely repeated by Elihu in the person of Christ as his Name imports He is my God who sheweth Gods designs in afflicting of Man yea and Then when he visiteth in Anger though he know it not in great Extremity a very considerable Expression whether we take it of God or of Job who was taught that all Gods Angry visits were for Good of man to shew him his Way and to hide Pride from him and to recover him from his sins and sorrows also Which is confirmed also by the Psalmist in divers places Especially after he hath so solemnly called Invited and Wooed all Nations and People of the Earth to come in and bow to God because of his Goodness and marvelous Kindness to the children of men from the 95. onward Shewing also that Afflictions and the Lords visits even unto Fools the worst of men is to make them cry to God and stir up his Pities and Compassions that never fail and to make his tender bowels yearn over them so that he will hear them in their trouble and will save them out of their distress He will send his Word and heal them and