in case of Pure Chance Meadling and for no stroak or stabbing or any other kind of That now called Man-slaughter which I doubt may lie very heavily upon some Nations might have Refuge to the Cities of Refuge and be There preserved by the Judges in the Gates from the Kinsman or Avenger of Blood Till the Death of Him that represented our great High Priest And the 3 Cities of Refuge on the Right side of Jordan were Higher than the 3 on the Left which were also out of Canaan the Land of Rest. But we saw before How Jacob Crossed his Hands in Blessing the Sons of Joseph who lift up his Fathers hand to remove it but could not and afterwards put his Hand upon his Fathers Eyes which we may consider again With Eglon the Calf or Beast destroyed by Ehud a man of Benjamin or of the Right Hand but Turned Left handed and Sodom also set at Judahs Right Hana when her Captivity is Turned in Ezekiel Though she be There also called the Younger sister As Ephraim was the Younger Brother and yet as most or all younger Children in all the Bible to be preferred before the Elder And God owneth it also saying in the Prophets Ephraim is my First Born And so the Lost son also among the Millions of Ephraim who must make the Fulness of the Gentiles must have the Best Robe and the Fatted Calf and be Preferred before his Elder Brother In a word the First shall be Last and the Last First and you know not what you ask when you speak of sitting at his Right Hand or his Left Shall I add that although the Right Hand was generally Best with the Jews Yet with the Romans directly contrary in This also the Left hand Thunders and other Auguries were judged Better than at Right Hand Was it because Their Left hand was neerest or opposite to Heavens Right Hand or God giving them all their Blessings Or shall we say that After the Temple God himself seemed to Turn his Face Westward As Christ on the Cross and so That was now at his Right Hand which before at his Left and That Now before him which was formerly behind him It is True we read That Expression of Gods Turning But in the 80 Psalm and many other places it speaketh His Turning of Us. Yet in a Right sence As we cannot Love Him till He Love us so we cannot Turn To Him Till he Turn To Us or be Turned As the Phrase is of the Great Mystery of God in Christ Turning himself Toward us and us to Him Reconciled to us Did the ancient Christians also that prayed Towards the East do it in opposition to the Jews still Bowing to the West as we touched before Or Believing God or Christ on the Cross was now Turned quite contrary to the Posture He was in before Or supposing Christ the Mercy Seat of the Divine Presence to be still over the Mount of Olives where he went up into Heaven and There sitteth at the Right Hand of God till All his Enemies are made his Foot-stool But if This were All That Posture or Bowing Eastward becometh None but Those only which are in the Western Corner of the World For They that are more Eastern than Jerusalem must on that account Turn Westward and the Southern Christians Northward and the Northern Southward O but when shall we come to believe and know that Our Blessed Savior is In us as his great Prayer and Promise was As his Father is in Him and yet when Here on Earth he lifted up his Eyes and Hands to Heaven as his Fathers chiefest Residence And so we also Even Then when it shall please God to reveal Him in us As in Paul and to make him In us the Hope or Evidence of Glory All the Elders bowed to the Lamb with all their Vials full of Odours which are the Prayers of Saints as we read in That Blessed Book which Blesseth All that Read and understand it But in our little Body we have Hot and Cold Moist and Dry Muscles pulling up and down drawing in and out and yet All Those All other contrarieties make excellent Harmony So in His great Body the Church of his First Born and the World also much greater contrarieties than we can well express are reconciled and accepted also by Him who hath purposed in himself to Reconcile All things Even All things To Himself in and by and Through our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and by the Blood of his Cross. Who is God over All Blessed for Ever Amen And to All that are called to be Saints or in Any place for it will be in All places call upon Jesus of Nazareth Their Lord and Ours I am bold to say because God hath said it and written it also Let Him that standeth Take heed lest he fall And there is No Temptation on you to you but what is common to man But God is Faithful who will not suffer you to be Tempted above your ability but with the Temptation will also make a way to escape that you may not run away but be able to Bear it However God may bear it from you or bear it with you and upon you Wherefore my Dearly Beloved flee from Idolatry I speak as to wise men Judg what I say And How comes in This Wherefore unless the Temptations to Idolatry be of All the Greatest and most dangerous And of All Idolatries That of our own Fancy or vain Imagination that is Image-making of our own Hearts more dangerous and more provoking God to Jealousie than All other Idols As we touched before in the second Command But who art Thou O man that judgest another or settest at naught Thy Brother If in any thing we differ God shall reveal This also Yet a little while and we must stand before His Throne who said This is my Commandement and yet again My New Commandement that you Love One another and Take Heed you fall not out by the way and by This shall all men know you are my Disciples if you love one another And it must be also Even as He hath loved us And by This we have boldness and confidence to pray and hope and believe he heareth us and loveth us when we love one another And to Brotherly kindness Add Love And that your Love abound and increase to One another and to All men To All men Yea and Honor All men And the Time is coming and already come he said that ye shall worship the Father neither at This Mountain nor at Jerusalem but in every place True Worshipers shall Worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth For the Father Seeketh such to worship him and such he will Finde O Thou that Hearest Prayer unto Thee shall All Flesh come and to Thee shall the Vow be performed Praise waiteth for Thee O God who dost both possess and inherit All the Praises of Israel in silence For so the Phrase speaketh and so the Jews
solitary a while as if she had left her Husband and her heart also behind her when she came down from Heaven and her cry all along even to the very end of all the Revelation is Come Lord Iesus Come quickly As if Christ were not with her on earth But the greatest stresse of the Argument may seem to be in this thaâ— God speaks nothing to us now but in and through his Son Our Prayers Praises sighs and groans if right are but reflections back of somewhat spoken to us spoken in us Which must therefore be through Christ and to Christ Immediately by His Spirit in us Which or who for that is the Scripture Language as he knows the mind of Christ and so of God in him and brings it into us So he toucheth our heart and makes it warble as the Heart of Christ did when God spake to Him and in Him to us And he whose Spirit it is that helps us by sighs and groans unutterable knows the meaning of his own Spirit For it is he that maketh intercession for us Yea and in us also so that all our breathings out to God are but his breathings by his Spirit in us And in this sence we may and do pray to the Father as Christ in us the hope of Glory prayeth to the Father of Glory so he is called and the Father of mercies as he is the Father of Christ who therefore is both Grace and Glory as the Psalmist expresseth him and yet still the onely begotten of the Father Let me add also that the Spirit in us crying Abba Father is the Spirit of God made Flesh or in actual Union with Humanity For else it calls not God its Father and in us it speaks its own Natural Language for it speaketh in us Praying Crying Abba Father Our Father For Christs Spirit speaketh boweth prayeth in us Hollowed be Thy Name let Thy Kingdom come for it is ours also And if God be glorified in us He will also glorifie Us with himself Yea he will straight way gloryfie us Let thy will be done in our Earth as in thy Heaven Even in thy Highest Heaven For in this Petition it is in The Heaven but in the preface it is in the Heavens even all the Heavens For Thy will is ours also and not only wiser but better for us also then our own will is till fully moulded into thy Will And then a poor Soul dare say forgive us even as we forgive We and not I but we as all the members together with the Spirit of the Head also and in his Person too which hath often made me hope he meant and had promised also for our Prayers or His in us are good Promises also to forgive more of his Enemies then it may be I ever thought or believed Which I cannot much wonder at when All his enemies must come to be at peace with him as his wayes please the Lord. And when the spirit also shall come to Act His Kingdom which it shall do in the Heart of His Spouse for the spirit the Bride shal abide and Act and shal stil Live together as they cryed together here I hope it will also forgive more then it may be all men now believe or hope Yet as the Soul should generally say and pray to Christ as the Apostles did Lord shew us the Father which is also his great promise to us and his Father also in his solemn prayer John 17. I have declared Thy Name and I will declare it that the Love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them Yet there may be some seasons also in which a poor soul may think it self so great a stranger unto Christ or at such a distance from him that it may and doth cry to the Father Draw me to the Son shew me thy Son and acquaint me with thy Son for I am a stranger to him or at a losse in seeking Him And yet sure this is not very usual in a Woman or it may be handsom or civil for her to come to a strange man and say Pray Sir acquaint me with your Son that I may woe him But when the Good man hath first broken the matter in discourse to the Virgin soul and hath Invited and woed for the Son Then doth the Son come and is sent of the Father and woes the soul for himself and yet perhaps till the marriage be or at least the contract or betrothing It may sometimes not onely be fit but requisit to Treat with the Father also for settlement of state or other things But Then she goes and speaks and converseth with the Son when she is Married or at least betrothed which indeed is Most if not All that is yet done between Christ and our souls it may be the whole Church yet is no more but betrothed onely till the New Jerusalem Which yet in some measure doth come down and appear unto and in every poor soul betrothed unto Christ. For Jerusalem which is above is Mother to us all The good Sarah spouse to Abram The High Father as the name signifies before it was Abraham a Father of many rather then to Isack the Son who was not married till his Mother Sara was dead Though perhaps That was onely to the Gentile Church brought out of Syria a Gentile Land after Sara the Jewish Church was dead or gone But she must appear again and that out of Heaven also where the Woman first appeared as a great wonder in the person of the Wife of Jaacob as some think or Mother to the twelve Patriarchs presented there as in Josephs Dream also by twelve stars round about her But there is more in it seeing she was also in the Sun or clothed with His Light and Glory Having also the Moon at her Feet and a crown of twelve stars about her head of which we may speak more hereafter And when the Virgin is espoused then she begins to speak freely to Her spouse And I know not any more sure character of being so betrothed unto Christ then such a free converse with him as our friend our Brother Yea our neerer Relation And yet truly we do not receive His spirit but some glances onely through his eyes or mouth at a distance if we may so expresse it till we be actually married which is scarcely consummate in this Life though it may be also at the coming of the new Jerusalem So that all we speak or do of Praying or such manner of converse as is yet usual with Christ is in our way only Yet as betroathed rather than in our end or spiritual enjoyments of him in the marriage bed where only we shall fully receive his Spirit And those whom he sent as his Father sent him received it but as in his breath for he breathed on them saying Receive the Holy Ghost And afterwards also they received but the first fruits of the Spirit as themselves expressed it saying also it belonged
OLBIA THE NEW ILAND LATELY DISCOVERED With its Religion and Rites of Worship Laws Customs and Government Characters and Language With Education of their Children in their Sciences Arts and Manufactures with other things remarkable By a Christian Pilgrim driven by Tempest from Civita Vecchia or some other parts about Rome through the Straits into the ATLANTICK OCEAN The First Part. From the Original For Samuel Hartlib in Ax-yard Westminster and John Bartlet at the Guilt-Cup near Austins-Gate London and in Westminster-Hall 1660. The sum of this Discourse HAving lost his Father and other Relations about the great Sickness in Naples the Author becometh a sad disconsolate Pilgrim all alone by Land till unexpected dangers force him from Rome or there about to the Sea Where in a great Storm and Tempest he falleth into unexpressable Horror and Anguish of Minde till at length by Shipwrack losing all his Company he is cast on a scraggy Rock and There by a Religious Person as an Hermite entertained till recovering his Peace and strength with a quiet minde he also Learned the Religion Laws Customs Language and Characters of That New Iland fully described in the Books following this First Part. In which the Father discourseth the Danger of wrong Judgeing our selves or others with the way to a right understanding and Judgement the great Work of the Spirit promised to the World by Jesus Christ Who was sent to Redeem our souls from All Deceit and violence and to offer sacrifice for every one that Erreth and for him that is simple Cleered from Ezech. 45. 20. with Psal. 72. Of our Access and addresses to Him by Prayer As Saint Paul Learned from the first Martyr at his Death and thence made it the great Character of a Christian cleered from His Epistles and the Acts with the Revelation and other Scriptures in Harmony to the Psalms and Canticles Conversing with Christ and Praying to him From the 17. page to the 44. How Christ taught his Disciples and others to pray Our Father c. How He prayed to His Father and How a Christian to Christ and the Father in and through Christ. As Calebs Daughter to Her Father by her Husband and Her self Of Zelophehads Daughters and Edoms Widows and Orphans from Jer. 49. 11. from 44 page to 53. The great Arguments to be pressed on Christ as our Brother Born for a Day of sorrow made of a Woman made under the Law to Redeem them under the Law How the Law lay upon Christ as the great High Priest and Prophet promised to Moses to be raised from our Brethren and Like us in All things and so in the Law also And as our King to write out the Law by which he Ruled and to keep it all his Dayes that so he may do it and prolong his Dayes and Reign in the Heart of his People Where also the way to settle a perpetual Monarchy to a King and his Sons for Ever As God to Moses Joshuah David Solomon or others from 53. to 59. How the Suffering part of the Law lay upon Christ and sor whom but especially the Doing Part. How All was by himself summed up into Love and that but little if onely to Persons Lovely and Loving again How God Commended his Love to the worst of men to whom the Law it self saith I am the Lord Thy God and I have Redeemed Thee and therefore thou shalt Love me and worship me and Glorifie my Name and keep my Rest because I have provided it for Thee and Do and will both Love Honour and Glorifie Thee from 59. to 64. and 94. to 101. How Gods Jealousie speaketh his Love and all his Visiting from 64 to 70 How God Threatned Adam in Paradice and how he visits to fulfil those Threatnings on Him or others from 70 to 77. How much better for us that infinite Goodness and Riches now fill a Finite Nature that longeth to be sucked as a Breast ready to break with fulnes still flowing up still flowing over and a Drop that runneth over can Enrich our Souls and make us ever Bless him who hath said It is a more blessed thing to Give than to receive And He that hath received freely must give freely Of his having All Power in Heaven and Earth being the Wisdome and Power of God and Better for himself to use it for Edification rather than Destruction from 77 to 81. How Christ Loved the World and Prayed for the World how not from 81 to 86. 94 to 101. Of Gods Hating Cursing in order to a Change and how Places or Persons Hated or Cursed may be Recovered Blessed from 85 to 149. 161 308. Of the Earth cursed for Man but Washed or Baptised by the Flood And of Baptising Children how Holy things of old belonged to every one redeemed by the Priests or born in their Families 18 120 186 365. How cursed Canaan was blessed again 122 c. And cursed Jericho Recovered 128 129. And Gibbeon And Aye And Sodom Moab and Ammon Edom and Amaleck of Esau. Egypt and Assyria with the Philistines Of Death and Hell in Saul conquered by Love in David bound up for 1000 Years As coming loose again in Saul of the same Tribe struck down as with Lightning and Named Paul after Sergius Paulus that Prudent Roman Deputy Of Shimei Cursing David or other Shimeis and of Judas and Pauls rising in the House of Judas Of Aeneas Ananias and Saphira Tabitha Dorcas or others Recovered by the Apostles Of Christs Love to his Father and duty by the Law requiring him to propagate his Fathers Love with all his might and manifest his Name and True Worship to bring in all his Children servants sons of his handmaids Strangers and Cattle also to keep the Sabbath to Rest the Rest of God from 100 to 117. 141. Of the Law of Redemption Laid upon Christ as the Kinsman that is able and hath Power and Riches in his Hand and a Tender Heart and Eye when he doth but see the naked and miserable that hath No Helper though they cannot weep it out to him or do not see him who will not hide himself from his own flesh when their Land or Person but especially their pretious and immortal Soul is Sold or pawned or mortgaged or forfaited How he hath promised to draw All men to him and to make All things new 56. 107. 124. to 163. How a man may put himself out of Christs Neighbourhood by degenerating from a Man to a Beast and of Worshipping the Beast receiving the Name Character Image or Number of the Beast Serpent or Dragon and how all the World worship the Beast but those that are written in the Lambs Book of Life How God with all his goodness knoweth how to punish the wicked but especially those that walk in Lust of the flesh and speak Evil of Dignities the sin of Corah c. the crying sins of the last dayes and how there was no sacrifice for
Lord. For he Cometh He Cometh to Judg the World The Lord Reigneth let the Earth rejoyce and let the many Isles be glad The Heavens declare his Righteousness and all the People see his Glory Which in the next Psalm is All the ends of the Earth have seen the Salvation of God As in Luke also All flesh shall see the salvation of God Which in Esay is Thus The Glory of God shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together And in the same Prophet Sing O Heavens for the Lord hath done it Shout O lower parts of the Earth break forth into singing ye Mountains O Forrest and every Tree therein And again Look unto me and be saved All the ends of the Earth For I am God and there is None else I have sworn by my self for there is No Greater that to me every Knee shall bow and every Tongue shall swear and pray and praise and confess to the Glory of God and my Father who said Ask of me and I will give thee the utmost ends of the Earth And while our Saviour lived on Earth he travelled to Aegypt and to other places about the Holy Land As taking possession of them Blessing them also by his blessed presence For the time was coming yea and Then come when not only at That or other Mountains of that Holy Land but in All places men should Worship God in Spirit and in Truth For the Father Seeketh such to worship him Yea and Those Lands also that had so afflicted and oppressed the People of God in all Ages even Aegypt and Assyria must come to sharers with the Land of Israel it self in the greatest Blessings For in that day shall Israel be a Third and but a Third with Aegypt and Assyria even a Blessing in the midst of the Earth whom the Lord of Hosts himself shall bless saying Blessed be Aegypt my People and Assyria the work of my hands as we read in the Prophet Esay to be compared with other places And the Reason given in the very Law of Redemption speaketh This because the Land was Gods Land and they were but Gods Tenants in it though in the Best and freest Fee for it was given to Abraham and his seed for Ever who was Heir of the World as the Apostle speaks And yet So that they must still acknowledg God to be their Lord Paramount their Grand Landlord And They might never give or sell or aliene no nor forfeit it which is very comfortable but so that it still must and should and shall be Redeemed again by the Tenant himself or his Kinsman Or however which was still to be observed it must go out Free wholly Free at the great Year of Jubilee of which more ere long And the Reason was This Because the Land was Gods Land and He would still retain his Right to it and in it and would still dispose it as he pleased whatever the present Tenant did And doth not the same Reason hold for All the Earth Yea did it not hold from the very first Fall of Adam and Man-kind in him Was not Then also the Earth even the whole Earth the same Landlords Had he not as much Right to it as to This Land of Canaan Would he so easily quit his Right in it Though Man a weak and vain and foolish Creature made a Forfeiture of His Possession or His Right shall it not then be as it was divers times with this Land of Canaan that when he shall have purged out the filth thereof by the spirit of Judgment and of Burning That which remaineth shall be Holy And why may it not be Thus also with our bodies and our flesh which hath so long been As the accursed Earth Yea as Babylon it self an Habitation of unclean spirits and a Cage of all unclean birds Why may it not also become the blessed Land of Promise and the Land of Rest Yea the Holy Place and Temple of the Lord of all the Earth Which is a Phrase very much to be marked As a name in which the Lord himself seemeth to glory being also the same Lord that is stiled the God of the Spirits of All flesh Which may be the Foundation of That Prayer and That Promise also that All flesh may and shall be brought to praise and bless the Lord as also that All the Earth must be full of the Glory of God For the place of his very Feet must be Glorious And what Glory Then will be upon This Earth when the Curtains or Canopy of the Heavens shall be drawn and the Glory of God shall appear and will the Earth as his chiefest Residence Will he not Then Give the Greatest Honour to the Weaker Vessel and the more abundant honor to the most uncomly parts or That which lacked most before It might be added also that the very City Jerusalem was not only Accursed as the rest but longer than other parts of the Land Trodden down by the accursed Jebusites which had their very name from Tredding down as the Revelation also seemeth to allude and These Jebusites grew up to be so Odious that before he conquered them 't is said His Soul even Davids Soul that is Love it self Hated them Even Them who possessed That very Fort which was afterwards his Darling and the dearly beloved of his Soul Yea That which God Chose-above all the Gates or Cities of Judah Yet in it self besides its accursed possessors it was but a dry barren Rock and so called Zion Drought or a Dry barren place And Morijah also where the Temple stood was but the Threshing place of one of these accursed Jebusites though as a Liberal Prince to David himself And though in Hebrew it may signifie the Lords Teaching yet others bring it up to Myrrh or Bitterness and in Greek it signifieth Foolishness to which also the Apostle may allude in several places And by This time I may conclude this Discourse of Turning accursed places or unholy into Blessed and Holy with That solemn saying of our Saviour The last shall be first and the first last Which he repeated so that I often think it might intimate a greater Mystery than I am yet sensible of As if All the Course of Gods Providence were as a Wheel in constant Motion pulling down the high Spoaks and bringing up the low ones Which Moses also long before described in his Psalm of Nature Grace and Glory Thou turnest man about as grinding him with the upper and the lower Milstone of Grief and Pain to clay or dust and Then thou sayest Return again Again ye Sons of Man Return again O Lord How long and let it repent thee concerning thy servants That is Make them Turn and Repent as we find it plain enough in the 80. Psalm and divers other places that Gods Effects In Man are expressed as His Affections To Man O satisfie us with thy Free Grace in the morning when our Night of pain and sorrow is past For Though sorrow
Knees and Loines also In my turning and behold on the Rivers Lip a Tree mighty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on this side and that And he said unto me these waters c. And upon the River shall come up on this side and that Every Tree for Food Are we not come to Eden as in Daniell also Where Time is called Eden whence perhaps the English Then His lease shall not fade as Ps. 1. and Jer. 17. nor fruit â—e consumed For the Righteous shall be green and flourish as Tamar in the Hezrons of God They shall bear in old Age as Tamar did for Judahs Kid after she had stayed long for Shela or till Shilo come We track it in Characters from Joshuah's fixing the Ark at Shilo till it was Captive at Gath Ekron and other places till David brought it in fear for Uzziahs Death to the house of Edom And his Servants also Obed Edom blessed by it or a Watcher and Singer to it Till at length it came to be setled in Zion which God chose before all other places of Judah and Jerusalem As many Psalms speaking of a Temple also before that of Moriah which must be made as Shilo But Zion shall endure for ever and in the latter dayes shall be exalted above All Mountains And All People shall flow to it as if it were below them All. It shall be new or first born or First fruits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 According to it's Moons or Months which are therefore to be considered For his waters from the Sanctuary they are still going And all his Fruits shall be for meat and leaves for Medicine and healing of the Nations also as the Revelation addeth The Chapter endeth with parting that holy Land among Strangers also Strangers All Strangers that would come and stay There till they had a Child and then themselves and Child and Children must have a Portion of Land also for a Possession that is little For an Inheritance also for ever as much or as well as the Children of Israel In our Fathers House is Bread enough and to spare and Land enough and many Mansions and it is a more Blessed thing to give than to receive Amen Halelujah And there shall be no more Curse But the Throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it And his servants shall serve him and delight themselves in God as Esay 58. and they shall see his face But O! His Heart How sweet How Gracious which no man ever did or can see But we may have the Mind of Christ and shall come to see eye to eye and know as we are Known And his Name shall be upon their foreheads And the Sons of Aaron shall put my Name upon the Children of Israel and I will Bless them Numb 6. And soon after they are called Men of name even Korahs Company Whence the Sweet Singers of Israel As the Sons of God and his Children And the Revelation speaketh of Names of Men and 7000 Names and Name of the Beast and his Character or Badge and Livery as of old on Servants who yet had a note above the Slaves Which may be distinguished in Scripture But without are Dogs and Sorcerers to be compared with Ezekiels Caves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Ditches or Witches or not healed and Whoremongers and Murderers and Idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a Lye As Cosbi slain by Phineas In the midst of the street and of either side of the River the Tree of Life as at first in Eden Pleasure and Time which Adam fell into by falling into pleasure and must be recovered by Sorrow Bearing 12 manner of Fruits or 12 Kinds in Hebrew Min. in Numbers 100. or 750. And Minim or Minnim 140. 150. 700. and 750. And yeilded fruit every Month 12 by 12 144. As his wall 144 Cubits And Ezekiels Altar is 12 by 12 144 Cubits But it 's settle 14 by 14. 3 times 4 and an half That signall number in All Times and first in Dayes and Hours as the measure to All other Measures As the Cubit made of two Zereths or Spans each of which had three Taps of four Digits apeece So that every Cubit had 24 Digits as the Day hath 24 hours And if the sacred Cubit had an Hand-breadth more of 4 Digits than it will be 28 Digits in all as made of two Hands or Jads and Jad is 14 as we saw before And although the Jews counted their Night alwayes Even as the English still call it Even and Evening to the Day Yet besides the neernesse of their longest Night to 14 hours in Winter they might ever have just 14 Hours between their Evening Minha and their Morning Tamid and 7 more from This to That again So that still 3 and an half which in whole numbers are not lesse than 7 and 14 made up the Moads of the Ceasing Resting Hiding or slaying of the Witnesses both in Heaven and Earth The Temple and it's Courts and Altars Sacrifice and Minha with the Two Lambs And in in our Bodies also where our eyes and ears or other witnesses are bound or laid asleep as Dead in our Sodom also where oùr Lord is slain for 3 and an half during the Raign of the Beast of Night and darknesse rising as smoak out of the Bottomlesse pit and slaying or at least Laying the Witnesses for 7 or 14 hours we speak of Dayes and Months and yeares anon and then commeth the End That is Kets and Chetsi my end or half and also the Waking or Rising and Resurrection as also the Summer following the cold night of the Year or 3 Months and an half of Winter And than cometh Harvest or Ketsir as before as Christ speaketh in the Gospel Amos 8. And did not All these meet in David That fulnesse of time also in his Generation He was the 7th Son of Jesse my Essence As if God should say in every 7 My essence shall appear David that is Love And David was also the 14 from Abraham as the 14 th 70 years And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 14. it may be also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4 and 4 or 8. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is also a neer Kinsman as Love And again He was the 24 from Noah Rest and Love As they shall Rest in my Love and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 24. And being the 24 and last hour of that great Day he began another of 24 more and setled all the 24 Courses we have spoken of in the Temple But of All his Times and Turnings of his Hour-glasse Nods and Neods also that is Wandrings and Bottles of water in Characters as God shall give to the Prayers of his people so much wished and valued In the mean time we may remember what a Rest and turn and change we found every 7 hour in the Sun and Moons dayly motion from the Evening Horizon to the Nadir Rising Zenith setting again And as every 7
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
returned Sara with Riches and Blessing as before from Aegypt And a solemn Covenant made between them Not onely Abimelech Healed by Abrahams Prayer but with Picol also the Mouth of All as saying Amen to the Covenant and the Blessing also For it may be observed how God himself to bring out a Great Blessing will prepare the People common People also to desire and expect it and then to confirm it by saying Amen So that Christ himself the Power and Wisdom of God could do no great Work till the People did consent believe expect or cry Amen And indeed the Women and the common Law-Takers are the great Law-makers Receive the Instruction of thy Father but the Law of thy Mother As we touched before in his Mothers bidding them Do whatever He bade them before he did Any Miracle And now also though at the Right Hand of God and so hath Power over All his Handy-works which he saith we may command also yea and come to Do as much or more than He then did Yet That Hand of God is too great for Him to weild as a man and so he pleaseth to Act to us and not to Force us but to Woo us and he never Wears us till he win us fairly by his Wooing us as first by Power he conquered us from Death and Hell And so He hath None till the Father in Them give them up to him which is also called Their giving up themselves Till which he Wooeth or Weepeth but unless the soul come to give it self to him He seeth that the Father for He is the Son of man or Every man the Father doth not give him such a soul and so the match is never made but by consent of Both. But when once his Thunders or his Earthquakes or his Fire in the Bush do make us startle so as to say I will now turn aside from the Noise and Dust and Croud of the world to see this Great sight and to Do it Then he quickly calleth to us as to Moses with a little 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which they say he made the World with a soft still voice and a meek quiet spirit he begins by Kindeness he hath Art enough to conquer All our fears and frowardness so much as to begin to try and then to mark remember and consider All his dealing with us Till we come to Hope and then to Trust his Heart and Fathers Heart in Him The work is done And though to try us once or twice perhaps he may put on a Mask or Veil or seem to frown yet when once we begin to know his Heart we kiss him when we Tremble and with Reverence bow and Pray and long to see him More and more and yet still more and do not fear his worst his Blackest Mask His heart is good O my want of words a thousand fold much Better than we ever heard although it be a Good Report or can as yet believe When we so know him we shall quickly know if we follow on to know and see and feel he knoweth us and knew us first by Name And now he will not leave us till we break off speaking to him as Abraham in his Intercession for Sodom The Oyl will never cease while we can Buy or Begg or Borrow Vessels to receive it And it is yet plainer that although God Bless us oft alone by Himself yet he never Curseth men without themselves not onely to joyn with the envious One but even pull or force it on themselves and cry Amen when others wash their hands and say Be it so Let his Blood be on us and our Children also Poor Children of Wrath and Curse before they heard or saw O that we could consider what a Parents words may do when we little think what we say as before we saw in Jacob and Laban of Rachel God did but propose the Law it self and bade Moses ask if They would take it They accepted This Enacted it a Law to Them And so its Curses God proposed them but so that They must say Amen before they did or could oblige or hurt them Deut. 27. 30. 15. c. And to Aegypt God put them not till They put themselves There in fear of Famine As in Abrahams time and Isaaks Onely Joseph was carried against his will As Moses also was thrust out of Egypt as a Type of them that were to be thrust out Thence also though they now cryed Who made thee a Judge among us But God exalted Both. And God never carryed them to Babylon or Assyria till they Hired or called those Rasors to shave them and shewed them their Treasures or their Nakedness So it was in Syria So with Nahash the Serpent as in Paradice also till they Chose a King and Then God gave him and set him Over them But yet He also even Saul himself or all the Sheols in the world could never Curse them till themselves consented to the Curse and cryed Amen As we see in the famous case of Jonathan Whom the People Blessed and He shall be Blessed though his Father and the King also Cursed with an Oath also So was That Covenant with Abimelech confirmed both with Picol the Mouth of All the people and by an Oath also Both with Abraham and Isaak afterwards And for the Land also in which they sojourned as Gen. 21. 23. Often remembred in Scripture And we should remember it as often as we read Beersheba the Well of Seven and the Oath also Madc at this Covenant with Philistines And as David fulfilled that part also of sojourning among the Philistines as the Ark had done before him So I doubt not but he Blessed Them also as Abraham and Isaak did according to their Covenant for the Land also which God mentions so often in which they sojourned and sware before Abimelech both King and Father with Picol also at Beersheba That famous Bound of All the Land of Rest and Hope or Promise Blessed and for ever Blessed be my Rock and Blessed be the God of my Rock who delivereth me from the strivings of the People and maketh me the Head of the Heathen Strangers will submit themselves As soon as they Hear they will obey For He will speak the People under me by his Holy Word As the English singing Psalms do rightly tune Tha tword so often used by David With his Gittits also And his Mictam of Aram Naharaim and Zoba as before Cryeth O Philistia Triumph over me Nor do I know that Solomon thought it any Solecism or any scorn or Irony to set the Philistines so near the very Top of his Triumphant Arch or Pillars in the Holy Temple Porch The Left hand Pillar is called Boaz as the Judge that married Ruth a Root of Davids Jesse Jachin is the Right So weak a thing is Strength it self or Boaz when it is compared or opposite to Prudence and Order Wisdom and Knowledge shall be the stability of Thy Times and Strength of Salvations