men who must be Honoured and Loved also as the Image of God our Father And the Greater Honour must be Given to the Weaker Vessel even as God also hath given it to That which might seem the most uncomely Which is an Argument that may be well pressed on Christ not only to bear with them that are weak but to give them the more Honour as the Weaker Vessel And those commands yea and Prayers also that we love and honour all men speak more of the unspeakable love of Christ who is the Root of this Spirit in All then can be Here exptessed by many Words The sixth Command Thou shalt not kill or thou shalt do All thou mayest to preserve thy own Life and thy Neighbours lyeth also on our blessed Saviour as the Text commented by many Scriptures Being by his Death to bring in Life and Immortality and to destroy Him who had the Power of Death the Devil and to redeem them who through fear of Death were all their life time subject unto Bondage Even as that pretious Psalm foretells He shall save the Children of the Needy and shall break in pieces the Oppressor He shall spare the Poor and Needy and shall save the souls of the Needy He shall Redeem their soul frrm Deceit and Violence from force and fraud and pretious shall their Blood be in his sight He shall Live and shall be tender of his Neighbours Life and how much more of his Neighbours Soul which himself hath said is so exceeding pretious and unvaluable From whence come Wars and Contentions Come they not from our lusts within us but the Wisdom from on high and sure then more as it is on high is Pure and then peaceful for without Peace and Holiness No man shall ever see God Gentle and easie to be entreated For the man of God must be gentle towards All men even those that oppose themselves being in the snares of Sathan and led Captive at his will A very sweet place when it is applyed to Christ also who is the great and good and best Man of God and therefore must be gentle unto All. No striker no quareler but gentle unto All. The man of God must not strive or fight Which also puts me in mind of That prophecyed of him He shall not strive nor Cry or braul in the streets the bruised reed he shall not break nor quench the smoaking flax till he bring out Judgement to victory over all Lusts and Pride Passions and Contentions Seeing This is the great Rule given us in the Psalms and new Testament also that he that loves Life and would see long dayes as Christ ever shall must refrain from strife and guile must follow peace and persue it and who will harm you in so doing when Himself also said next to the Pure in Heart Blessed are the Peacemakers which is much to be applyed in our Prayers unto him for They shall be called the Children of God as if himself also came to enjoy That Glorious Title of the Son of God by being so Peaceful and the Great Peace-maker To which also I may add Davids Blessing of Abigael and her Councel saying that when himself should rest from all his Enemies and Troubles it should be no Grief of Heart to him or offence that he had spared his Enemies also and had not shed their blood All This or much more lyeth in the sixth Command and from Thence is branched out in divers Laws in Exodus and other books of Scripture which all lie upon Christ made under the Law as much or more then any man to Man also as well as unto God his Father And we lose very much of the sweetnesse of the Gospel by not pressing the Law Yea the whole Law upon Christ that he may still keep it to us also as to God his Father seing it is vain to talk of Loving God if he do not also Love his poor Neighbour And who his Neighbour is we may see by divers places of the Law and Gospel compared especially in those which are branches of these great commands for loving our Neighbour as our self He that smiteth a man that he dye shall be surely put to death As of old to Noah the great Father of us all and so the very Law of Nations or Nature He that sheddeth Mans blood by Man his blood shall be shed for in the Image of God he created Man And that Image is still so continued and preserved by Christ who is the Head of every Man that the same Apostle calleth Man not onely the Image but glory of God If a man smite his servant or his maid with a rod that he dye under his hand he shall be surely avenged Which should keep a man in aw even to All under him For the Man of God must be gentle towards all c. If an Ox and by Consequence any other Beast or offensive Creature be wont to push with his Horn and it be told his Owner and He do not keep him in the Beast killing a man or woman shall be stoned and his Owner also shall be Put to death Which may be sweetly applyed to Christ who is the great Owner and Master of Sathan and all other pushing Horns of which if we complain as wont to Push and goar us or our Children is he not bound to keep him in and set us at rest from Him that pusheth at us Which may be hinted also in the Psalms where we find some complaining of pushing Horns as in the Prophets also and of the tearing Lion and Bear and the power of the Dog or other Beasts of Prey which the great Owner and Master must keep in upon Complaint that they were wont to push yesterday and the day before If a man dig a pit or do but Open a Pit digged by some other and do not cover it again so that an Ox or Ass fall into it he shall surely make it good How much sorer punishment if a man or his Child fall into it and perish which we may haply come One day to presse upon Christ also least he suffer us to fall into a Pit of his own digging or opening or any other Ye shall not afflict any Widow or fatherlesse Children for if thou afflict them in any Wise and they cry at all or do but begin to cry to me I will hear and surely hear their cry and my wrath shall be hot and I will kill you with the sword and your wives shall be widows and your Children Fatherlesse The word used in Heb for an Orphan is Jathom He shall be made perfect as well as He is wanting And the whole History of Jotham the Orphan of Gideon should be often read in These and all Times and the rather because That of Arma Gedeon in the Revelation may perhaps lead us to Gedeon As that of Sechem to Dina or Judgement as we touched before If thouâ—end mony to any of my people who are They the Poor that
their Motions that to each 12 Hours we may allow 12 of the Moons Diameters and one of the Suns As Silver and Gold the Measure to other Weights and Measures with the Jews and other Nations here discoursed With Great Changes made in 666 years as Hours to Sun and Moon in special to Jerusalem the Great Sun-Dyal to the World with its Lines of 666 so near 2 3ds of 1000 which is but one more than 3 times 333 or Half 666. As to the Evening Sacrifice at the Passover were Hours 333 and the Length of All the Temple Courts 333 Cubits With 14 steps out of the Gentile Court as 14 Hours to the Morning Sacrifice and 14 days to the Passover and 50 more to the Pentecost which was the 65th day of the year and 135 more to the Great Hosanna closing the Tabernacles As 187 Dayes before the Great Atonement by the Greatest Preist in the Temple which was 70 Cubits Long. Which Numbers are signal in the years of the Patriarchs As in the Measuring Kane of Kainan the 4th from Adam as 4 is the first and measure of All Compound Squares and the Sun on the 4th Day to measure all Motions and Seasons Before Mahalaleel 70 to Jared 65 more that is 135 362 before Methusala 65 after Enochs Birth and before Lamech 187 and Noah 369 4 times 333 or twice 666 before the Flood but 3 times 3 less than 5 times 333 or twice 666 and an half from the Creation and but 3 more than 666 After Enoch The 7th from Adam Born just after the 3d 7th year of His 7th Hundred and the 7th 70 of Seth 491 or 2. He lived on Earth but just so many years as there be dayes in a year 365 As from Mahalaleel to the Flood 365 and from the Flood or Arphaxad the 7th from Enoch and the 12th from Adam were 365 years to the Promise in Abrahams 75 who lived 75 years After the Birth of Isaac As Enoch lived 75 years After Adams Death and 370 before we read of Salem or Beersheba 372 as the Numbers of Sheba and Salem may be in Hebrew and 390 to Isaacs Birth and 430 to his Marriage Noah Lived with Abraham 58 years the Jewes say as the number of his Name in Hebrew He waâ— born 661 years After Mahalaleel and 666 before Eber or Ever being the Longest Liver that was boru after the Flood and Father of Time parted as the World between Peleg his Greater Light and Joctan the Less as in Hebrew with the Moon and 12 Brother-Months among his Children From Sems Birth 100 years to Arphaxad I will dissolve as the Destroyer and I will heal as Shaddais 135 to Sala 35 before Eber 200 to Peleg 260 to Serug 290 to Nahor 320 to Terah 390 to Abraham if his eldest son and to Isaac just 490 years which are 10 Jubilees or 7 times 70 years as to Jacob 550. From the Flood there were 100 years to Peleg 222 to Terah 70 more to Abraham that is 292 and to Noah's Death 350 and 390 to Sodom Burnt as Jerusalem 390 years After the Flood of Schism in Jeroboam 440 to Arphaxads Death to Salahs 470 and to Sems 502 to Eber's 530 to Isaaks 572 which was after Noah 222 the 3d part of 666 and to Jacobs 600 to Josephs 653. So that Israels Cruel Bondage might be in 666 and Levies Death 676 and from the Creation 2331 which is just 3 times 666 and an Half the whole time of Babylons Rule over Israel and the People of God All their Pressures and Darkness being measured by 666 years as the Sun and Moons in 666 Hours So from Egypt to Jerusalem Taken from the Iebusites 444 as we saw before and to Joash sack in the 14th of Amaziah 222 more in all 666. And thence to the Abominations of Antiochus 666 more and to the Sanctuary cleansed by Maccabeus 3 more which make up Daniels 1335 Days of Antiochus But as Ezekiels 390 Days of Jerusalems Siege answered to the years of its Sin from Jeroboam so Daniels Dayes of Antiochus to the years of Antichrist or any defiling the Temple whom God will therefore destroy as Paul witnesseth to the Corinthians and Thessalonians Thus His 1335 Dayes were just so many years from Egypt to Those Times of Antiochus which were also 3 times 430 as Mahalaleels Death from the Creation or just 1290 from their setling in Canaan 45 years after Egypt or Caleb sent to spy the Land as Jos. 14. 10. And so many years there were between their first coming out of Haran in Abraham to their Going thither again in their Captivity to Babylon For Abraham left Haran at 75 430 years before they came out of Egypt Then Calebs 45 or 46 and 430 to David's Death and Then 430 more in Solomons 40 and Ezekiels 390 to Their going into Babylon or Shushan where Daniel was when he heard the Sanctuary should be fully Cleansed in 2300 Days yet sealed up for many dayes or years as we read in Dan. 8. This was in the 3d year of Belshazzar in Baruch Berosus Josephus others 31 years after the City Burnt and All carried Thence to Babylon And 2300 want only 31 of 2331 the whole Time of Babylons oppressing the Israel of God Being also 333 the Temple Courts multiplied by 14 steps upon them from the Court of the Gentiles Treading them down and beginning from the Gate of Shushan in remembrance of Daniels Shushan of Persia Conquering Babylon To Nicanor in the Maccabees and Coponius Gate in the West So many years as Cubits here from Shushan to Coponius the Roman Governor of Judea after Archelaus when Cyrenius was President of Syria 333 by 14 half Cubits or 7 whol is 2331 Which is 3 times 666 aad an half Or 3 Months that had only Fasts and no Feasts as the 3 last Woes and and an half Month from the Month of Pentecost to the Tabernacles when the Fulnesse of the Jew and Gentile with All the Fruits of the Earth at the Full Moon of the Full Month or 7th beginning with the Feast of Trumpets called the 7th because of the 7th Month Though Every Month began with Trumpets The First of Those 3 Months or Moeds of 666 Was from the First Temple to the Second sack'd by the Romans as That by the Babylonians just 666. That is One 70 to the 2d of Darius Hystasp or rather twice 70 to Ezra the Helper before Nehemiah the Lords Comforter in Artaxerxes Long and Thence Daniels 70 weeks or 490 years to our Saviours Death and Half 70 to the Seige of Jerusalem sacked by the Romans after a War of 3 years an Half as our Saviour preached 3 Years and Half and suffered 3 Days and Half but on the Crosse 3 Hours and Half in his last Eclipse a shadow of the Witness Times And for Harmony between 70 and 666 3 times 70 makes 210 the number of the Heb. Dor a Generation or a Great Age. 2 of Those or 6 times 70 make 420
witnesse Judges or Jury to Indict arreign condemn and execute this Malefactor but Himself and his own hands in his own bowels had not some over-ruling secret Power restrained him or prevented opportunities Which ere long yet might seem to be offered when he heard the sad doleful shreekings of his fellow passengers while All at once saw their hopes and ship broken together spliting on a scraggie Rock where they all bid adieu to themselves and Time Now lanching out as they all thought into the boundlesse Ocean of Eternity Wearied with expectance and pursuit of death which they feared and he wished as a little pauze to that Horror which he judged worse than Death rather then struggling for life he lay gasping on the top of a scrag somewhat higher then his fellows where those waves that had cast him up seemed to leave him a while as stepping back a little in regret rather then pitty that with greater and renewed force as he was like enough to fear they might return again to assault and afflict him In these hoping fears and strength enough to recollect so much of his bewildred reason as to think he yet lived though he knew not how or where a grave aged Person came or was rather sent from some higher power that had seen and pittied him it seems as having been a mournful spectator of that shipwreck After some real expressions of most cordial sympathy with his sad forlorn condition which came out in sighs and groans and Tears rather than words the grave Hermite for such he seemed carried rather then led him into his Cell which was hard by the place and in the same Rock where the proud swelling waves had been commanded so to leave him As he was preparing such repast as that distance from the World could afford he perceived such a meen and carriage with other characters in his wearied Guest as made him much guesse of his native Countrey and Education to which therefore he suited his Language as he judged likest to be understood by his Stranger Who yet replyed little but so many sighs and broken groans onely as with piercing looks might intimate he was very sensible of his goodnesse and compassion but that it could not avail him now since he was become the most wretched object of the Creators wrath and the whole Creations scorn and hatred There needed no more to melt the good Fathers heart and make his bowels yern over his Strangers soul and spirit more then before on his broken and distressed body Yet it was some comfort to discern such a sense of his sore and what it was For which also he was the better prepared by the like workings and sufferings in his own spirit which by many years experience of much affliction and sorrow had been taught to sympathize with all dejected spirits and to long much for their cure and healing To which therefore he now soon applied himself after some few questions onely to discover more clearly the breadth and depth of the wound that so he might more perfectly discern what Teincts Plaisters or other remedies were proper for his oure The poor Soul had very few words to answer any question not that he would not but he could not speak his grief and sorrows of a heart too full to vent it self in ought but Horror and amazement when a necessity of Breathing sometimes forced out such sighs and groans as otherwise were unutterable In those breathing pawses when he had not strength enough to weep more his eyes and spirit rather then words expressed such an ingenuous willingnesse to speak his heart without any reserve or such shinesse as is usual to strangers that the Father had no need to presse him to Confession which he waved rather seeing his poor Guest ready enough to pour out his soul when ever he could and in some things which he thought not meet to hear much lesse to presse him to All particulars which might occasion such Horror as was like enough to overwhelme his soul and body both so that he thought it very requisite to apply Cordials as soon as he might seeing him ready to faint and swoon away in his spirit almost every moment Here the Authour craveth pardon if he be forced to be more confused then becomes so great a Subject But the poor soul being then in great sorrow and confusion of spirit could not keep method in asking questions or returning answers or be clear in stating their discourse It being written also some pretty time after so that he cannot be punctual in saying this was first and this next His intent being matter and substance much rather then Manner or circumstance Nor must the Reader wonder if he sometimes find a long discourse of many things added together which came out by degrees at several times and occasions as their mutual discourse or dialogue invited or lead rather then drew them although one part of the Dialogue Questions and Objections be omitted now He is also desired to consider All things are better much in their Original or native dresse and Language then they well can be in a Translation and from such a Language as constraineth the Translator to conjecture that I say not divine at the Authours meaning in some places Where haply also a broken line and points may hint the Original there imperfect or somewhat wanting Which yet possibly might be supplied from some other copy which is not yet found and the characters of this in some places also scarce Legible Yet All things material and of consequence are as faithfully represented and expressed as they well may be from such a discourse as sighs and great pangs of sorrow and perhaps also some other causes make abrupt and broken more then is usual especially in the first Book which is therefore presented by way of Abstract rather then a literal Translation and as the Ancients did their Parables To all the poor soul said against it self it was replyed to this purpose All this may arise very much from mistakes of God and your self and although you cannot have too great and high thoughts of God in any thing yet you may have too great thoughts of your self in every thing yea in your very sins God hath made all our hearts so much alike that there is perhaps no great difference in Temptations Thoughts or Actions but what is common unto men And to think our selves better or worse then other men may be from Ignorance of our own and other mens heart which is general and special is so desparately evil and deceitful above all things that it may be worst when we think it best and it may be best when we judge it worst Yea it may be great Pride and no Humility to judge one self a greater sinner then others from conceit of having greater Light or Love then our neighbours have Or if you think you have more abused these though not more of these then others yet in this also you may be
my Name even to the Ten Tribes of Israel and I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my Name even for my Name which now he fights against And when Ananias came he laid his hands upon him saying Brother Saul the Lord even Jesus who appeared to thee in the way hath sent me that thou mayest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost Adding also as Saint Paul observeth to the chief Captain and people of Ierusalem The God of our fathers hath chosen thee that thou shouldest know his Will and see that just One and hear the voice of his mouth for thou shalt be his witnesse unto all men And now why tarriest thou Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins for even those that were baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire like the Apostles at Pentecost yet were to be baptized with water also as we see in the History of Cornelius calling on the Name of the Lord. And that it was the Lord Jesus on whose Name he bad Paul pray and that he prayed to him is very plain by that which Paul himself addeth to those words Arise and call upon the Name of the Lord And while I prayed in the Temple I fell in a Trance and saw him saying to me Hast and get thee out of Ierusalem for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me And I said Lord they know that I imprisoned and beat in every Synagogue those that believed on thee And when the blood of thy Martyr Stephen was shed I also was standing by and consenting to his death and kept the raiment of them that slew him And he said unto me Depart for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles As before Unto my people Israel Which may be one among other divers other Reasons why I may think the Ten Tribes scattered among them were then also called Gentiles yea and that they might be even some of those Gentiles while they were to be called Loammi and Loruhama though afterwards the very same people were to be called Ammi and the people of God as an Emblem also that the world should come to be the Lords Ammi and Ruhama from Loammi Loruhama Israel being but the first fruits of the world as we may clear anon And there are many things which makes me a little suspect that some Gentile Nations as they seem may be some of the Ten Tribes or at least the posterity of Abraham by Keturah or by Ishmael if not by Isaak also through Esau especially the old Saxons and those Northern people whose very Lawes Customs and Language savour so much of the Hebrew in very many things and words besides their common use of A and The for Articles with very many Monosillables and words written with ch gh gn cn or kn th dh wh wr. fr. And many others plainly Hebrew sounds In another place also Paul giving an account of this matter to Agrippa the King saith I verily thought I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus of Nazareth which I did also having received authority from the chief Priests and I punished them in every Synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme styling himself also a Blasphemer And being exceeding mad against them c. But being strucken down and hearing a voice speaking I said Who are thou Lord And he said I am Jesus whom thou persecutest But arise and stand upon thy feet for I have appeared to thee for this purpose to make thee a Minister and a Martyr both of these things which thou hast seen and those in which I wil appear unto thee Delivering thee from the people of the Jews and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgivenesse of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith which is in me Which I cite so largely because I take it for the best compendium of the Gospel and a true Ministers Commission that I remember And that phrase of Faith in me not only on me but in me seemeth not by chance but so considerable that Saint Paul often useth it in divers places especially to the Galatians where he calleth it Faith of Christ or Christs faith as if he would say He lived and was saved by faith indeed but that which was in Christ rather then in himself or Christs faith rather then His as if Christ by believing for he was justified by faith also in a true sense did not only carry out himself but all his Members also from the Grave and Death and Hell to life and glory And to summe up all I have or should deliver of Pauls observing prayers unto Jesus Christ 't is said in the Ninth of the Acts That when he Preached Christ in the Synagogues that he is the Son of God all that heard him were amazed and said Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this Name and came hither that he might bring them bound to the chief Priests So that it is clear it was in Pauls account the great Badge of a Christian and the distinguishing Character of Christian profession And it is worth observing How he useth that Name and what a stresse he put upon it all along his life and writings Having obtained help of God saith he I continue witnessing to small and great saying no other things then what Moses and the Prophets said that Christ should suffer and should be the first the very first that should rise from the Dead though others might be raised before him and should shew light unto the People and to the Gentiles Which also he cites to the Jews in that most remarkable Sermon at Anioch Acts the Thirteenth of the sure mercies or holy things of David promised to every one that thirsteth and cometh to the waters and many other particulars concluding with their turning to the Gentiles as the Lord commanded saying I have set thee to be a Light to the Gentiles and for salvation to the utmost ends of the earth And the Psalm addeth To them also that are afar off in the seas and America in the Hebrew may signifie a People afar off though I believe that Phrase in the Psalms may mean some farther or mere lost or miserable then the poor Americans So old Simeon said Christ was to be a Light to lighten the Gentiles first to lighten the Gentiles and then to be the glory also to Israel his people Israel Whence People often opposed to the Gentiles And another Simeon at the great Council Acts 15. saith God put no difference between them and us purifying their hearts by faith But we believe saith he that through the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they Here Paul learned or might learn his Character or proper mark he giveth them of his genuine Epistles The Grace of our Lord
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
shave again his Head and Beard and Eye-brows and all his Hair Lev. 14. 9. and Then after Blood and Oyl upon his Ear and Thumb and Toe in All the Three Regions of the Great little World He was cleansed by the Priest O what work he had to do for the Poorest man that was Unclean and could not bring the offerings prescribed And for every House infected also Doth our God take care of Houses and of Clay that Cursed Adama The Hysop Cedar-wood and Scarlet to the Hebrews and Two Birds in Heb. nere akin to Goats One killed in Earth over Water as St Peter on Genesis and Psalms and 2d Command and the other a Scape Bird as the Scape Goat And the Plants and Trees and Fishes and Fowles and Earth and Water and All must Hear and serve Israel and Jezreel also near in Hebrew to the Leaper as the Seed of God! There was also an other shaving for the Nazarite when the Hair of his Separation is shaven as we read in Numb 6. immediately before the Solemn Blessing prescribed As if This had some relation to the Nazarite or Separate person after his coming in again And the very word in Jeremy 7 29 Nizrek may allude to the Law of the Nazarite But yet there was more Hope and Comfort in a Womans shaving than a Mans. For if Her Lord bid her shave off her Hair it might be a sign he meant to marry her For so the Law was If thou lead Captivity Captive as Christ hath done and see a Woman that thou lovest She shall shave her Head and pair her Nails or Goatishness Sipharnea We saw it in Saphira the Goat as also Seir is Hair and a Goat Yea the very Time may be There Hinted perhaps for God is Infinite How long Christ must stay for his poor Captive Spouse before he may be Married to her though she be prepared and adorned as Ester was in order for her going in to the King As the Lambs Bride in the Revelation cometh down from Heaven As if There All the Saints departed were but perfuming and preparing to be his Bride on Earth and Reign on Earth at the End of the Weeks How Long Thou shalt bring her Home to thine House and the souls under the Altar cryed How long Lord and she shall put off her Captive Weeds and shall remain in thine House and bewayle her Father and her Mother in their Enemies Land they shall confess their Fathers sins we saw it before A Full Month or Moon of Dayes And after That Thou mayst be her Husband And if afterwards she please thee not Thou mayst leave her to her own soul which is the great thing to be feared of a Backsliding heart from Christ But thou mayst not sell her because thou hast Humbled her Jacob also stayed with Laban before he asked his Daughter a full Month or Moon of Dayes Chodesh Jamim but in the Law of Deut. it is Jerach Jamim As also 2 Kings 15. 13. May we not also compare That in Jer. 2. Thy own wickedness shall instruct thee thy backslidings shall rebuke thee See and know that it is an evil and a bitter thing that thou dost forsake the Lord and yet more Thy God! For of old I broke thy Yoke and burst thy Bonds Ezek. 16. and Epistle of Baruck I planted thee a Noble Vine wholly a Right seed How Then art thou Degenerate And How canst thou say I am not Polluted A Wilde Ass as the Angel said to Hagar we are now There with Ishmael But God will Hear Taught in the VVilderness as Hagar was and snuffing up the VVinde or snuffing at the Spirit in the Lust of her own heart or soul the very word we saw in Deut. 21. 14. VVho can turn her All that seek her will not weary themselves to finde her Or rather Let them not faint or despair For in her Month Chodsha They shall finde her Then withhold thy Foot and Throat But thou saidst It is Desperate But can a Maid forget her Ornament and a Bride her Attire Yet My People My people have forgotten me Dayes without number But why do My people say We are Lords or have Power Radnu VVe will come no more to Thee But then follows the sweetest Chapter of the Bible to an Adulterous Spouse Yet turn again Yet Turn again Return return O Shulamith For I am Married to You c. Which at length melts her into Tears and sweet supplications In the close of the 3d Chapter and God answers in the 4th If a woman bear a son she was Unclean 7 Dayes as in her common separation not observing which cut off and spued out the very Heathens Levit. 18. Ezek. 18. Esay 30. 22. Lam. 1. 17. and her son not Circumcised till the 8th Day and Then she must remain 33 Daies as the Moon 333 Hours and then she may eat the Holy things and come into the Sanctuary with two Turtles or Pigeons if she could not bring a Lamb which made them so dear that the Sanedrin altered this Law it seems and our Saviour scourged the sellers of Doves also which were brought by his Poor Blessed Mother Who presented her self and Him also in the Temple at 40 dayes being the Sabbaths of his 40 Weeks in the Womb As at 40 Daies after his 40 Hours in the womb of the Grave He was presented to his Father in his Heavenly Temple 40 Years before the Sack of Jerusalem But for a Daughter the Woman was Unclean 14 Daies the 2d Sabbath and the Day of Passover and Then she must not enter the Sanctuary in 66 Daies Which is the very Number of Pentecost or Feast of first Fruits or 50th Day after the sheaf which was the 16th Day of the Year And as this was 66 Daies so the Moon returneth to the Sun in 666 Hours And when any Woman or the Church is freed from the Power or Rule of the Moon and her Changes or Courses at the Jubilee of 49 or 7 times 7 Then she need not fear That or any other separation in common course And if she should be sick so long as the Woman in the Gospel spending all her Substance yet she may be healed if she come behinde him and but touch the Hemb of his Garment It is all Perfumed with precious Ointments as we saw before from Psal. 133. Jephtas Daughter returned after Two Months bewailing her Bethulia which again in Judith and the Daughters of Israel went from Dayes to Dayes a Day for a year to lament the Daughter of Jephta 4 Daies in the year Jephta's 6 and Ibsans 7 Elans 10 and Abdons 8 bring us to the Sun of the 15th Day with some Healing in his wings also though but a little Sun as Samson may signifie with his 30 Companions as their Month had 30 Daies and 7 Daies also for the Week and Sabbath Both his Eyes or Witnesses put out He pulls down the House and more are slain by his Death than all his Life And there