that I say nothing of David in the 50. Psalm and Ezekiel the Son of Man and so a special Type of Christ the Son of Man is bid to make his people Know their sins and the Transgressions and Iniquities of their Fathers Which are forgiven when Seen and acknowledged bemoaned and repented as God promiseth he will bring them unto For it is not as some read it If they shall confess c. But 't is an absolute Promise in Leviticus and Deuteronomy and so cited also by Nehemiah or Daniel and Ezekiel that he would bring them to confess and that they should confess their own Iniquities and their Fathers also and be ashamed for them That which also followeth in the second Command is very sweet and far from shewing God to be an Angry Wrathful God as Satan would fain represent him As at first in Paradice some of his very first spawn cast on our great Mother and continued ever since till Christ shall break his head and destroy his malice with his works was This That God was an Envious God the Root of all evil and hard thoughts of God Who even in Judging and in Chastening and in all his worst visitations There Threatned where yet he spake his heart and seems to speak his worst will still remember Mercy Even in Judgment and in visiting most as a Jealous God he will remember Mercy And will but correct in measure and will not contend for ever lest the Spirit fail which he hath made But will visit only to the third or fourth Generation even in those that Hate him Which yet we All do and could not but do Till he Turn us by manifesting Love to us Love which he still beareth in his heart and it is there Rivetted so fast that he can as soon Un-god himself I would speak with Reverence as he can cast out Love from his Heart or act to his poor creatures without Love Nay give me leave to tell you he loved Adam Better more or with a Better Love or more Godlike after his Fall than before Nay it may be Now much better since his long sorrows and sufferings than before in Paradice Nay I had almost said with a better Love than he loved Christ himself before his Fall or Sufferings For he tels us it is a Little Love to love our like our Friend one lovely fair and beautiful kind and thankful still to us for all our love A very smal and poor and little Love which sinners shew and Hypocrites and All to All their like But that God might encrease his Love to Adam or might shew a Better Love than he could manifest be it spoken with Reverence while Man was Like him Holy Wise and Just Truly Fair and Beautiful in All he let him fall into the dirt and dust of death Into the Pox or worse disease that might deform him wholly so that he might commend his love indeed to such as hated him and were unworthy ugly more deformed then poor Job when botched all and naked most forlorn and miserable in his own and others thoughts and left in the hand of Sathan at his will But onely save his Life or Soul as God expresseth it Not onely for a Type of somewhat yet to come unto All that will wait with Job and expect the Lords End but it may be representing Adam also as accused and tempted by Sathan and at length left in his hands till God could shew his love was not onely skin deep as we say but everlasting Nay encreasing more and more as it could make or find an Object for that pity and compassion and that gracious Mercy which could not appear but still had been unseen abroad from God or hid within him had not his Wisdom contrived an Object for it which was Misery and guilt which was not till Sin came in and so he let him fall and shut him up under sin and guilt that he migh shew him Mercy which he could not do before And as before his fall God did not absolutely tye himself to Punish him So After the fall he did not execute That upon him which he might have done but devised devices as the Wise Woman of Tekoa said to David that his poor Banished might not perish And yet still preserved his own Honour and Majesty Truth and Justice too with such a kind of Love and Tender pity merciful compassion which could not appear abroad or possibly be shewn till sin or guilt or shame or fear or sorrow grief or pain or some such misery or other made an Object capable of pity mercy or compassion I shall yet a little more insist on these Particulars shew I hope they very well agree and no way contradict the Words and Mind of God even in the Law or harshest part of all the Scriptures First I premise God loved him and could not but love him very intirely if he loved himself while he was in his own Image And having so loved him and being so Immutable in his Heart Love and Nature he loved him to the End And I do not yet clearly see how any Promise can Oblige God to a more Constant Love of Man restored to that Image Then his own Nature and Heart moved him to love Adam In that Image Now if his Heart be not so truly Tender Gratious and Perfectly Good and immutable also in his most Genuine and Natural Love but that it could really change towards Adam in his own Image yea and that also before his fall or any demerit what ever as to decree his everlasting ruine or at least to leave him to it so foreseeing that he would so fall and rise no more in himself and his Posterity How can any man be sure and rest upon his Word or Promise that he will not leave him when he is renewed again into that Image Seeing it may be still doubted whether any man living can fully know Gods heart and mind by his words or expressions except there be some way else to know it and to rest and trust in it then his words can expresse or import Or unlesse a man may also be taught to believe his Word is Better Truer and more Certain Fixed and Obliging also then his very Heart and Nature is Which as some Teach or Believe was Such even then when it loved most or as much as it could love its self or its own Image that it yet hated and forsook and left to I know not what Irrecoverable misery his own Image and his dearly beloved in his own person or at least his posterity even his very next Son and Sons Sons to all Generations yea to all Eternity for the far greatest part of his Posterity May we not therefore believe and say that with a true constant and Eternal Love of Delight and Complacence from all Eternity to all Eternity God loved himself and his own Image where ever it was And nothing else but kimself and his own Image with that kind of
seemed Thus. Divine Sophia Though I spraul in Clay Yet Thou art neer ally'd and for a Day Of Wo Made of Woman Reach out thy skirt Bow down thine Hemm For It can Heal my Heart Vouchsafe to know me and to let me know Thee When thou hast thy Blackest Mask and though My guilt present thee Frowning Let me see The Frowns I fear are Love that Vaileth thee Made under That most Royal Law of Love That bids thee Love us Heere as Those above Thy Neighbour As thy self And who is He The Stranger Any Man in Misery 'T is Little Love to Love our Like or Friend And Less to Love one Lovely Fair and Kinde All Sinners may do This and Hypocrites Thy Law is Love thine Enemy that fights And Hates Reviles and Offers All Despites Yet if he Want Or if his Ass but stray Thou saist Relieve him Lead him to his way Nor may we stay for Tears But Misery Must melt our Eyes and Heart to Sympathy How dwelleth Else the Love of God I am That Behemoth That Beast that stray's That Ishmael Wild Asses Colt that bray's For want of Fodder Thou art sent to Seek and Help and Save All Lost and Needy That No Helper have To Comfort All that Mourn To Sacrifice For every One that Errs or is Unwise And to Redeem their Soul Their Precious Soul From All Deceit and Violence Thou hast Received Gifts Then Freely Give It makes thee Blessed more then to Receive And Thou hast Gifts for Rebbels And Thy Breast By Flowing alwayes Out is more increast And every little Drop that falleth over Is so Precious that it can recover Any fainting swooning Heart and can stretch out My Narrow Soul As All the Heavens about Thou art gone Over All that Thou mightst fill All Things with Good Then do his Holy Will That sent thee with Eternal Love to Dwell In us to Conquer Wrath and Death and Hell As David Saul To Break the Serpents Head And All his Works and Power To raise the Dead And make All new Which Thou hast also Promised Upon thy â—rone and Lifted up to Draw All Men To Thee Then Do it As Thy Law Requires of All. My Son Give me thy Heart Do Heartily And Do not Act a Part. Nor offer with an Evil Eye lest All Abhorr Thy Dainties Do To All men As thou wouldst be Done unto Or if thou Hate Us Love thy Fathers Name With All thy Might and Propagate his Fame And Manifest his Love As Thou hast said 'T was written in Thy Heart and seen and Read Of All that Reade Thy Words But do the same Do it again 't is sweet Declare his Name In us We shall believe Thou wilt not cease Till Thou hast brought Us All to Rest in Peace Thy Children and thy Servants Hand-maids Child The Strangers in Thy Gates and Cattle wild Must Rest the Rest of God and Sabbath keep Then see our Woful Miseries and Weep With All that Weep And let thy Bowels yearn To Pitty and thy Patience make us Learn It s perfect Work And when we Most thee Grieve O Then Most sweetly Teach us to Believe And know Thy Heart is Love And when we Hear Thy Loudest Thunders and do feel or fear Thy smartest Lightnings Make us sweetly Bow And silently adore and pay the Vow We made thee in our Youth or fears And Pray And Praise for what and whom we ought or May While in us Praying Thou dost say the same Our Heavenly Father Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdome Come and let Thy Will be Done On Earth As it is in Thy Heavenly Throne Give us this Day the Bread we need to Live And As We Debtors So do Us Forgive Into Temptation Lead us not But Free Us from The Evil Evil One. For unto Thee Belongeth Kingdom Power and Majesty Through All Eternity Eternity THE Translator also being a Stranger would bespeak his pardon if in any thing his Language shall not suit the Reader or the Subject which yet he hopeth may be the more excusable because he durst not hide some particulars of this following discourse which it may be some after ages may improve or at least excuse the Authors well meaning in describing some of the many things he met in so strange a way So much speaking the goodnesse and bounty of God the great Giver with the Liberal hand upbraiding none nor accepting Persons but in all Nations devising how to keep his Banished from perishing as the woman of Tekoa spake to David and still accepting and rewarding those that fear and diligently seek him hoping in his goodnesse through Jesus Christ the onely way of pleasing him to whom be given as of right belongeth Kingdom Power and Glory through all ages for ever more Amen Touching the Author it may be we should not ask or enquire his Name Nation or Quality seeing himself so Silent in it and it may be as unlawful to pry into others secrets especially of their mind and spirit as to unseal a Letter break open an house or discover that which is committed to ones greatest Trust. Yet by some passages he seemeth to intimate his Parents Christian and Religious who bred him tenderly and yet strictly in the best way they could both in Learning and Religion which seemed to have taken a deeper impression in his tender years then he well retained afterwards in the croud of this World and worldly employments both in War and Peace with many Civil Relations In all which he found himself so much entangled beyond his expectation or desire that for some years together it seems he wrestled with something within him that oft moved him to a more retired life which yet seemed to flie from him the more he pursued it About the height or greatest heat of the late Plague in Naples having lost his Father with other near and dear Relations he became so disconsolate that in a sad forlorn manner he wandred a while rather then Travelled all alone till among other places coming at length too neer the great City of Rome in that contagious season when he hoped for some little rest he fell into great danger of Death among some strict searches for suspected Persons from infected places But by great mercy escaping that danger also he was yet it seems so followed by the al-seeing eye that he was scarce got out of sight of Civita Vechia or some other place about that City whence he might escape by Sea But in a terrible storme and Tempest he was also seized and arrested with many privie Seals on his Conscience in most unutterable pangs of fear Terror and amazed Horror with a most heavie weight of guilt from all his former course of life which then lay gnawing on him with a grim vizage of death that King of fears staring and gaping on him with its open jaws ready to devour him This grew up to that height at length the storm still lasting and encreasing that there needed no other Processe or
deliver them from their destructions They even They also shall praise the Lord for his Goodness and for his wonderful Works to the Children of men Which is divers times repeated in one Psalm and that also by way of Prophesie or Promise and not only by Wishing as some now translate it Though the very Wishes of the Spirit of God writing the Scripture and it 's O that all the Lords People were Prophets and O that they would hearken and had Ears to hear or hearts to do as they say And O that they would consider and Turn and O that they would confess to God or acknowledg God or praise and bless God And Let All flesh praise him and every thing that hath breath praise the Lord and the like Sighs and Groans Wishes and Prayers of the good Spirit of God in the hearts of his People especially those that wrot the Scriptures are indeed both Prophesies and Promises or very strong convincing Arguments that such things so wished prayed and desired shall be granted to men and performed in them and in all the Earth also Even as Christs setting all his People to pray that our Fathers Kingdom might come and his Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Even in The Heaven or Heaven of Heavens is a very strong argument and great assurance with Evidence that It shall be so Even in Earth as it is in Heaven Yea and it is very usual in Scripture first for the Spirit to express its sighs and groans and ardent desires and longings for a thing and afterwards we read it prophesied and promised It shall be so First it cries Let All the Earth be full of thy Glory and then afterwards It shal be All full of my Glory First Let all thy Works praise thee and Then They shall All praise thee Let All Nations see thy Glory and Then All Nations and Every Eye shall see the Glory yea and the Salvation of God The Skies shall powr down Righteousness and the Earth shall open and they shall bring forth Salvation for the Lord hath created and commanded it He hath willed it and his people will it also For Concerning his Sons and his Daughters They will Ask him but concerning the Works of his Hands even All the works of his Hands They may and will and shall as they are bid command him And shall do the same works yea and Greater also than ever Christ did Then on Earth For he did but begin but Begin to do and Teach as we read in the beginning of the Acts and hath left All to be finished by his Servants after him who for This is gone to the Father and set down at his Right Hand and so hath Power or must and shall have Power over All the Works of his Hands And hath he received All that Power in Heaven Earth for Destruction or for Edification I trust verily for Edification and not for Destruction As S. Paul spake of His. So it is and much more and better much I hope in JesusChrist seeing that he can heal us if he will as the poor Lepar said and can quicken whom he will as himself saith why should we doubt his Will seeing with us it is one of the lowest steps of Grace and Goodnesse to be Willing to be Good and Graceful Yea and as Good and full of Grace as we can be and have any Power to be Why may we not hope it so in Christs Will also Is it Lesse and Narrower or Worse and Weaker then his Power Is his Heart Narrow as Mine is And his Bowels straitned also Or his Eye Evil and his Heart Envious also That he will not give or do or cannot abide to see the Good he might both See and Do and Give and Work very easily in us by that Power he hath received and the Gifts he had for Rebels also I have sometimes thought it might be better much and more Ingenuous farr to think our Saviour Weak or quite unable to do what he would then wilful or unwilling to do what he can for Good The one doth but make him Weak as a man the other Evil Envious or Malicious as a Wicked Man or Devil Or an Hypocrite that makes a great shew of Grace and good in his Face as the Heb Canaph or Knave is one that hath Grace which in Heb is Can ap-pearing But not in his Heart Or one that can but will not be Gracious Or makes a shew of Good without an Heart to it or a will to be so Good as easily he might if he would Especially when I plainly see Christ founding his Calls and Invitations of the Gospel on this very Botom and Foundation That he hath All Power given him by his Father and All things So in Saint Matthew All things are delivered to me of my Father Come unto me All ye that Labour and are heavy Laden I will givey ou Rest. Come Learn of me for I am Meek and Lowly even as Good in Heart as in Head or Arm or any Power whatever And you shall find Rest to your Souls And again at his Resurrection and before his Ascention All Power is Given me both in Heaven and Earth Therefore go Preach Do not fight or force though I have All Power and you shall have it also for I will be with you to the end of the World And therefore Preach And so also before he Cured a Poor Man that was borne by others and had no Tongue or Heart that we read to speak for himself Or it may be Faith to believe or expect it for it is said Christ seeing Their Faith not His but Theirs he said Son be of Good Chear Thy sins be forgiven thee and moved with Compassion also Healed him as divers also that were onely in his Sight though they said nothing for themselves and he never denyed any for themselves or others and This was That he might shew the Son of man had Power even power on Earth also to forgive sins And hath he lesse Power in Heaven Or lesse Heart to use it Seeing he is Exalted and set at the Right Hand of God and so hath Power over all his handy Works and made a Prince and Saviour for this very end and purpose that he may Give Repentance and Remission of sins to All that Ask and Wrestle for it as the Seed of true Seekers and that Brood of Travelers as Jacob who by seeking so and wrestling did become a Prince with God and Thence was called Israel And the Lord delighteth to call himself The God of Israel Though it might make him blush more then any Name or all the Names in all the Bible were not his Heart rather better then his Strength and Power was For every time he calls himself the God of Israel he remembers How a Poor Weak Frail Halting Man Overcame him at his own Weapons For he set upon him and was overcome and could not go he would not let him go till
Precious in his eyes shall be their Bloud and yet more precious their souls which himself said was so exceeding precious as not to be compared with the World must it only be precious in our own eyes and shall it not be so in his also Let us then bowe down to him as the third Captain of 50. did to Elijah saying Let my soul be precious in thine eyes and the soules of thy servants for so the words are in the original And himself summed up all the Law into Love adding also that it was a little love to love a friend or one that was lovely or like us fair and beautifull kind and thankfull even sinners and Hypocrites do so but I say unto you love your enemies and them that hate you pray for them that persecute you revile you blaspheme and offer all despite to you Blesse them that curse you yea blesse and curse not be ever blessing and never cursing In a word Be mercifull as your Heavenly Father is mercifull and then addeth Judge not that you be not judged Which is the more to be marked because himself so often intimates that although the Father hath committed all judgement to him and authority to execute it also as we shewed before yet that he neither came to judge the world nor will judge it or any man it may be in his own person but will commit it to his Children who shall judge the world and Angells also and then the Son of man shall sit on the Throne of his Glory to seperate those that are judged And there also none are condemned but those that justifie themselves for if we could or would Judge our selves we should not be judged Yet even then also we are judged by the Son of man For we must all stand before his judgement seat who yet loved our nation and our nature and was made our Advocate and under the same Law with us The same Law of Love And did any man ever Hate his own flesh though he may chasten it and keep it in subjection Plucking it under the eyes as some render the Apostles phrase Or if he could hate his own flesh will he not love his own Spirit and his owm Image Will not That love seek to propagate it all he may he hath received the Spirit without measure He is infinitely full of that as Elihu speaks which is as New Wine yea as Fire in his bones and heart which as the Spring in the watch is ever clicking and the cause of all the beating in the Arteries and all the Pulses and it must have vent he cannot hold it in So it hath now pleased infinite Wisdome and Goodnesse to screw it selfe into the finite heart of Christ in his humanity so that he cannot hold it in or stifle it if he would as that which is infinite might have done and so swallowed it up as that we might never have seene or felt or any way enjoyed it But infinite is now so riveted into finite that this finite cannot comprehend it or detain it if he would He cannot detain it in unrighteousnesse not so much as he may the wind in his hand or all the great Ocean in his bowels So that if his eye were evil or his heart hard and narrow when he seems so kindly to invite and call and woo us to his dainties which the Scripture yet forbids us once to tast from an evil eye or from one that cryeth eat and drink but his heart is not with us which the soul of God abhors Yet indeed if Christ do but love himself and his own Spirit and his own ease he still will and still must give out freely having received that which is too great and strong for him to hold in and keep down if he would being an infinite Fountain still flowing up and still flowing out with Rivers of living water round about him So it is in all that do but receive some little drops of it from him How much more is it so in himself that hath it without such bounds and limits O how is he straitned t is his own expression till he poure out himself and his Spirit among us It cannot be taken from him against his will and yet it cannot be held in but is as an Ointment or a sweet perfume in ones hand the more it is pressed and heated the more it flows out and sends forth it's sweet Odours And she came behind him saying If I can but touch him or so much as the hemme of his Garment I shall be healed and vertue went out at every touch As the sweet perfume and precious Ointment on the Sacrificers head it drencht his Beard even Aaron's beard which yet was but an Excrement and to be cut off with every Sissors and it ran down through all his Garments and to every hemm and Fringe of them although to be changed and laid off very many times besides every nights rest And the Laver of old in the Tabernacle had no cover how much lesse the great Molten Sea in the Temple which had such a Fountain or Fountains still flowing up in it or into it as the very words in the Hebrew may teach us Have you not seen a tender Mothers breast so full and swel'd for want of sucking that she hath been glad of a strangers Child to draw it when her own could not or would not So and much more is it with the full breast of Jesus Christ which is such an infinite Fountain that the more it gives the more it may And if thou knewst the gift of God and who it is that giveth thou wouldst ask and ask again and never give over asking as we found before in Acksa and divers others till he filleth thee also with the upper and the lower springs Rejoyce yee then and be glad with him all yee that love him rejoyce with him all yee that mourned after him that you may suck and be satisfied with those breasts of Consolation And a drop that runneth over for he hath enough for his Children Servants Strangers Cattle all his Creatures every drop hath power enough to make us hunger and thirst and long for more till it may stretch out our narrow hearts and make them as wide as the very Heavens And he hath received gifts for Rebels also and his own Law was he that received freely mâ—st give freely yea and he said It is a more blessed thing to give then to receive As if he thought himself also and made himself more blessed by giving out freely then by receiving all the fulnesse he hath which would be a burthen to him if he could not did not give out freely as he receiveth And for more clear expressing his own mind and heart and will for doing good according to his Power which is still the measure of goodnesse also He hath not only promised to receive All that come to him and by no means no means to cast them off or out but also to
severall times in the Prophets and twice in Jeremy of his own dearest Children whom he saith he will not Cut off or destroy but only chasten visit or Correct in measure but not Hold Guiltless or acquit them wholly The very same Phrase used in the Third Commandement and in the Name of God Proclaimed in Exodus and Numbers 14. And the very same Phrase is used by Job of himself divers times although we may be sure he did not beleeve God had cut him off for ever or would never acquit him or hold him Guiltlesse though he so speak of himself But it is such a phrase as the Prophet Esays Therefore forgive them not which yet is no worse or more then we find commended and commanded also by Solomon to a tender Father who is bid to chasten his Son and not to spaâ—e him or forgive or acquit or Hold him Guiltless For they are much the same Phrases Yet I may ad to make us fear the Goodnesse of God rather then All his Wrath He that taketh the Good Name of God this gracious God in vain or he that so Turneth it into wantonness is the most guilty Person in All the Bible that I know or most in danger not to be quit or held Guiltless as we find hinted in severall places from the third Commandement Except haply we may also say the most Guilty Person in the World whom God will least acquit or hold guiltlesse is Jesus Christ In whom the Curses also are Yea and Amen or fulfilled rather more then the Promises For in These he joynes his Children who are Co-heirs in All the Promises and Purposes of God But in bearing the Threatnings and Curses He is more alone then in All the Promises He treads the Winepress of Gods Wrath alone and of the People there is none with Him He alone can bear it He alone need fear it All the Billows of the Almighty rowled upon Christ and All his Arrows stuck in his Heart and drunk up his Spirit more then All the world besides All else being little weak nothing lighter then vanity Compared with Him that was Gods Fellow and his Match Who thought it no Robbery to be Equall with God who therefore laid his stroaks upon H m who was only able to bear them with our guilt So that in a right sence He is the most guilty Person as Bearing Gods most Holy Name more then All the World besides And bearing all our guilt for bearing at in vain And as the third Commandement hath its not Acquitting So the second hath it's Jealousie and visiting the Fathers sinn upon the Children As if this were most proper to the false or Superstitious wayes of Worshipping the true God rather then to the having other Gods forbidden in the first As if God also were Jealous of none but such as were Marryed to him and had chosen him for their Husband But now wandred out in strange wayes of Worship which provokes his Jealousie and makes him visit more it may be then any other sinnes If it had been an Enemy I could easily bear it O but my Friend and my Familiar in my Bosome as the Lord may speak when his own Spouse dresseth her selfe in an Whorâ—sh Habit as it were inticing Strangers Which the Lord abhorreth more it may be then the grossest Idolatry of those that are Strangers Which is not so grievous as the Provocation of his Sonns and Daughters as Caesar also cryed What and thou my Sonn Brutus or his nerest Relations which perhaps also may be more properly called Haters of God in Hebrew Sone much akin to the Saxon English Name of Sonn rather then Strangers who have not knowledge enough to Love or Hate Him in a proper sence as those that by not walking in the light and love they have received come at length to be so guilty and full of slavish fear that they turn downright Rebbels and such Sonns as God commanded should be brought out to the Judges to be stoned for Rebellion Which is very neer perhaps if not the very sin against the Holy Ghost Or that presumptuous wickednesse which David so prayed against remembring that there was No Sacrifice for presumptuous Sinners but as the Epistle to the Hebrews speaketh A certain fearfull looking for of judgement and fiery indignation to devour the Rebbels As the Jews also had the Cutting off and the Hand of Heaven yea and that also they called the Rebels stroake But of All Images forbidden in the second Commandement as so much moving God to Iealousie Those which are most common and most dangerous as little taken notice of being most Spirituall or most Divelish are the Images we are so prone to make and mould of God by that within us which is therefore rightly called Imagination and the proper forge of Images which yet may reach farther higher and more inward then our sences or that which the Schooles call Imagination Worse much then Images made by hands which we are so long in Moulding and Carving that we blâ—sh to worship That we have sweat so much about and warmed our selves with part of But a deceived Heart makes us eate the very Excrements and ashes of those Images or Image-makers And as the great thing which brought the Flood was the evil Imagination of mans Heart continually So it is the great promise in many places of Scripture that his people should no more walk after the Imagination or the Image making or the Idols of their own foolish Hearts And it is the great Judgement and Punishment of those that when they knew God did not glorifie him as God nor were thankfull that they should become vain in their Imaginations or in Image making and their foolish hearts so darkened as to change the Glory of God into an Image or an Idol of their own fancies the most dangerous Idolatry And thus indeed they change the Image and glory of God in themselves to the Image of a Beast eating grass as Nebuchadnezar and it may be This is some emblem of worshipping the Beast or receiving that character which the Revelation saith All the World should do but those only whose names were written in the Lambs book of Life before the foundation of the World And That Beast or sensual beastly spirit may be more common than is thought And when man was made in the Image of God He was to Rule over all the Beasts or Beastly natures or spirits But now losing the Image of God and of man also he taketh the Image of a Beast and of The Beast so much spoken of in the Revelation But as Love was the foundation of the very Law also springing out of the Heart of God which is Love However it may now gender unto Bondage yet it rose from Love So it speaketh Love to the very worst of men as Saint Paul affirmeth till their Rebellion make them Outlaws and put them out of the Protection of that good Law which is given to them all saying to
Flood was such a Baptism to the Earth also As helped to wash away its Curss and Then God said in his Heart I will no more Or I will not yet add or go on to Curss the Earth for mans sake For or although all the mouldings of his heart be evil continually Which was the great reason brought for the Flood and yet now against it and the Curse or its continuance So gracious was God seeing the Flood also did not change mans heart but still left it as bad as it found it he resolved another Course and that he would Overcome Man with Kindness For it it was not only the Heathen Poet that told us Love would Conquer All Nor the Apostle only that Love covereth a multitude of sins but Solomon expressly saith Love covereth or shall cover as the Original expresseth All Transgressions Which St. Paul also Comments on Love beareth All believeth All hopeth All endureth All. Which was seen before in Davids that is Loves perfect Victory over All his Enemies Yea and Saul also which is the Grave and Hell to which David also alludeth perhaps in That very Psalm Crying the Kables of Hell laid hold of me Kable Seol I shall not digress Here to shew How the Flood it self was a Blessing also to the Earth and a Type of a greater Blessing to come When the skies shall pour down Righteousness and the Earth also shall bring forth Salvation When we shall receive the great showrs and the Latter Rain of the Spirit as we have received the Former little drops and first fruits of it hinted in divers places of Scripture For the whole Earth also must be full of the Knowledg of God as the Waters fill up the Sea and did once cover the Earth yea once and again But the Spirit also moved on the Waters and formed out the Heaven and the Earth so also it shall bring forth a new Heaven and a new Earth in which Righteousness shall dwell And in the Revelation the Earth also holped the woman and drunk up the Flood cast out of the Dragons mouth May it not also be about 1656 from Christs Resurrection or the New Creation as the Flood was so long after the Old Creation And That very Earth which God so cursed even This Cursed Earth must become the Blessed of the Lord. Yea so much his Darling That he resolveth to make it the very Centre of All his Glory and to fill it so with his glorious presence that the very Saints or Angels in Heaven rejoyced in the Revelation that they should come out of Heaven to reign upon the Earth Which is many times also hinted in the Psalms and All the Prophets to be compared with that most remarkable Discourse of God with Moses on Mount Sinai of the Lands enjoying her Sabboth of Rest in Leviticus And the very Song of Moses which is as the Bass to All following Prophesies concludeth with This He will be gracious to his Land as to his People or he will Cover or Atone or Expiate his Land Yea the very word by which God named the Earth which is one of the few things God Himself named and would not leave to Adams Naming as he did other things is such a word as might be also rendered I will delight or be pleased as if Here he meant to take his pleasure and delight rather than in All the Heavens Which must pass away as a Scroul of Parchment before the fire and They shall be no more being only as a Canopy or Curtains now to hide the Glory of God which must ere long fill the Earth which therefore shall Endure for ever and be never moved though renewed and filled both with Righteousness and Peace And God will come to keep his Sabboth of Rest and will delight on Earth and take his pleasure Here and Here also accept his People as himself seemeth sweetly to allude to the very Name Erets by which he named the Earth in the 40. verse of the 20. chapter of Ezekiel Where also This allusion is more sweet and fuller much in the Original than other Languages can well express Berets sam eretsem And in the 34. of the same Prophet he saith I will make them and the places about my Hill a Blessing I will cause the showr to come in his season there shall be showers of Blessing And the Tree of the field shall yield her fruit and the Earth even the whole Earth shall then yield her Increase Which we also read in the 67. 96 97 98 99. and divers other Psalms and in the second of Hosea and divers other Prophets And this Land of Canaan more Accursed than the whole Earth besides while it was held by those accursed Nations so devoted to destruction came to be the Pleasant Land the Holy Land the place of Gods Delight and Residence on which his Eyes and Heart were fixed All the Year And This also but as the First fruits of the Earth For it must All be Full of the glory of God And All Nations must worship him and All Kingdoms must be His. So it is prayed and promised in many places of Scripture Let All the Earth fear the Lord let all the Inhabitants of the World Reverence him For he looketh on them and fashioneth their hearts alike and his Eyes are on them that fear him and Hope in his Mercy All his Works are done in Truth He loveth Righteousness and Judgment All the Earth is full of his Goodness And the next Psalm is Davids Heart or Christs when driven out from Abimeleck the King my Father or the Father of the King he Changed his Habit c. And among other sweet Expressions That may be One When the Face of God is against the wicked to cut them off from Earth They Cry for so is the Original and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all their Trouble And again All the Ends of the World shall remember and Turn unto the Lord. And All Nations and Kindreds shall worship him Yea All Kings shall fall down before him and All Nations shall serve him For he shall deliver the Needy when he Cryeth the Poor also and Him that hath no Helper And again All Nations which thou hast made shall come and Worship before thee O Lord and glorifie thy Name And the reason is in the same Psalm For the Lord is Good and ready to forgive and plenteous in Mercy to all that call upon him O sing unto the Lord a New Song which is cited also in the Revelation Sing unto the Lord All the Earth Fear before him All the Earth Say among the Heathen the Lord Reigneth and the whole World shall be Established that it thall not be moved Let the Heavens rejoyce and let the Earth be glad Let the Sea Dance and Rowl with All the Fulness thereof which hereafter we may understand Let the Field be Joyful and All in it Yea Then shall all the Trees of the Wood rejoyce before the
End of Jehojachim or in Jehojachin but 3 Months after was Ezekiels and That he so often calleth Our Captivity And after 70 years God promised to visit Them with Jechoniah in the 29th As in the 24th of Jeremy they are called the Good Figs in comparison of Zedekiahs Captives Eleven years After And as Assyria was brought on Israel and Babylon on Judah like the Waters of the Great Flood So they must be Dryed up I will Dry up her Sea and make her Springs Dry Which was to the very Letter fulfilled by Cyrus Turning away their great River and cutting it out into as many Streams as Dayes in the year and so he brought in his Army when and where they little expected it in a time of great Feasting and jollity as we read in Heathen Authors And so also the same 51 Chapter of Jeremy by that meek and quiet Prince we saw before sent this Heavy Doom to Babylon In their Heat or Humming jollity I will set ashite in Hebrew on their Feastings I will make them Drunk So it is first said Pharaoh Hardned his own heart and then that God hardned it and so here God will make them Drunk that They may Dance and sleep a perpetual sleep and not Wake saith the Lord. So in the 39th Verse and so again in the 57. I will make her Princes Drunken and her wise men her wise men her Captains and her Rulers and her Mighty men and They shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not Wake saith the King whose Name is the Lord of Hosts Which we see fulfilled sadly in the 5th of Daniel When the Mans Fingers writing on the Wall made their King all those Drunken Feasters quake and tremble so that the Kings Countenance or Brightness was changed and his Thoughts pierced him so that the joynts of his Loyns were loosed and his Knees smote him and themselves also that should have been otherwise imployed than in drinking Healths or Carousing Prayses to the gods of Gold and Silver as the words may intimate But how sudden or in English Hebrew Phrase How soon That Evening came with it s most sad Catastrophe Thou Fool This night They shall take away thy Glory and thy soul also Thy precious and Immortal soul And then whose will All these things be As our blessed Saviour speaketh as alluding not only to the History of Nabal that is a Fool when his Heart dyed in him and became like a stone in his Drunkenness But also to This in Daniel and That also of Nebuchadnezar an Empty Pitcher sealed or His Prophecy as of a Treasure They shall take away thy soul and They shall Drive thee out from men and They shall make thee eat grass as an Ox alluding to the Psalmists Image of a Beast eating grass as an Ox. Adam lost the Image of God and became as a Beast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in or with his wife hearkning to her after the Serpent who was Head of all the Beasts had possessed her or as it were filled her with His Spawn which she got by Hearing and Believing That Beast whence from Isha she becometh Chavah the Beast yea the Mother to All Animals and Beasts This was at Eden both Pleasure and Time in Shinaar the Teeth and Years of the Watch of Time in Babylon Thence it came with Abraham also through Haran that is Wrath to Canaan and Aegypt and Back again to the Wilderness and There it came out in the Image of a Beast eating grass as an Ox as the Psalmist saith And then it was set up in Dan that is judgement as Dinah before and Bethel also the House of God And He that built Jericho came out of Bethel the House of God For Antichrist must sit As God in the Temple of God At length It goes to Babylon whence it first came and So the Prophet Zechary seeth First Isha So the Woman was before she fell and then Eve or Lilith as before or a woman in an Epha or Eva with an heavy Risk of wickedness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carryed by two women also with the wings of a Stork Piety and seeming Holiness Alluding plainly to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Stork and Holiness also yet such as may be the greatest Wickedness or as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also the very Root of All Uncleanness or Fornication And those two Women with the Storks wings carry it between Earth which Here is set Before Heaven into the Land of Shinaar whence it first came And there it becometh Mother of All Fornication as Revelation 17 5. And there it was settled on her Base Vehunnicha shame al Mekunnatha And the Angel added This is their Ein or likeness or Image or Type of that Image of the Woman Beast which must be in all the Earth also For All the world Worship the Beast which was First and Last at Babylon Being come to Babylon It is again as before in the Wilderness turned into the Image of a Beast eating Grass as an Ox. First the King of Babylon maketh an Image of 60 High and 6 in Breadth 360 as Dayes in their Year till at length it comes to be 666 and sets it up in the Plain of Dura That Age or Generation As it will be in every Dor or During of every Generation Till Babylon it self perish like this Talent of Lead Kiccar is both a Plain and a Talent or as a Milstone in the great Deep And so did the Prophet Jeremy bid that Meek and Quiet Prince Seraiah to say O Lord thou hast spoken against this Place This Babylon to cut it off that none remain either Man or Beast but that it shall be desolate for ever as in Esay 13 also So that now we onely say it was near That City they now call Bagdad but cannot tell where but in old Rubbish and ruines found at many Miles distance And when thou hast made an end of Reading this Book Thou shalt binde a stone about it and cast it into the midst of Euphrates and thou shalt say Thus shall Babylon sinck and shall not Rise c. The Text to very much in the Revelation But when the King of Babylon had made an Image and set it up to be Worshipped De Te narratur fabula Then Himself is turned into the Image of a Beast Eating Grass as an Ox. And they shall Drive thee out from among men and they shall make thee eat Grass as an Ox They Even the Watchers as Himself said he heard the voice of the Watchers and the Holy Ones saying Let his Heart be changed from a Mans and let a Beasts Heart be given him and 7 Times pass over him till he know the Most High called afterwards the Heavens as the Jewes speak at This Day Ruleth in the Kingdoms of Men and giveth it to whom he will and setteth up over it the Basest even the Basest of men As a Vile Person reigned in the same Daniel and a Base Kingdom in Ezekiel Yea