For What in one place is a Brothers Ox or Asse In another is an Enemies and His that Hateth us and yet His Laden straying Asse must be Pitied and Helped Wilt thou Cease to Help him Or to leave thy Business for him as the Margent of our Bible Thou shalt surely Leave it to joyn with him and help him Exod. 23. 15. And although our Souls be as the Wild Asses Colts yet we may plead This Law also with our Saviour Though they be the Asses of his Enemies and them that Hate him Yet in straying or being Laden He will keep This Law and surely Joyn to Help them And to This he might allude when he sent his Disciples to loose the Asse Tyed in the Broad way where 2 wayes met and then came Meek and Lowly As the King of Zion upon an Asse the Foal of an Asse And the paralel place in Deut. speaking of a Brothers or a Strangers Ox or Asse by That Occasion giveth a General Rule of All things that are Lost In like manner shalt thou do with his Asse and so shalt thou do with his Rayment and with All Lost things Thou mayest not Hide thy self A very sweet Law and much to be pressed on our Saviour when we fear our Souls Most Lost As they may be most in them that are Least sensible Doth he not say he came to seek and Saâ—e That which is Lost And so he clearly expresseth it diverse times In the Last Sheep Lost Groat and the Great Joy in Heaven at Finding Any lost Sinner And This is written in his Heart also both to the Lost Image of his Father and our Lost Souls and the Law saith Thou Mayest not plainly Mayest not Hide thyself from That which is Lâ—st And How doth God complain against the Evill Shephards that did not strengthen the Weak or heal the Sick oâ— bind up the Broken or bring home that which was Driven away or seck out That which was Lost But I will search and seek them out and I will bind up that which is Broken and I will strengthen that which is sick and I will bring home That which was Driven away and I will seek out that which is lost and I will set One Shepard over them which our Saviour also Took upon him for His Duty And Other sheep I have and them also I must bring in And whoever These were How many so ever or How few yet He plainly owneth Men as Sheep before Conversion In their Natural State of Wrath as wel as others And so Peter also speaketh of some before Conversion that they were As sheep going astray but Then returning to the Great Shepard of the Flock And Esay saith We Alâ— strayed As Lost sheep and the Lord made our Inicuities to meet upon Him And in divers Psalmes Al Nations and People of the Earth are Called in because they are His People and the sheep of his Flock and the sheep of His Hâ—nds And As a Sinner in a state of Sin may be a sheep so a wicked man is a Brother and Owned so in the Law that saith The Judge shall beat the Wicked Man deserving stripes and yet but 40 Least Thy Brother Though a Wicked man be Vile in Thine Eyes And Christ himself may allude to This when he speaketh of Many stripes to him that knew his Masters Will and yet but 40. For he is a Brother And the Great Law of Redemption Is but a Branch of Loving God and our Neighbour and of Seeking All that is Lost or ready to be Lost from God and His Vnder Tenants For you are Mine saith the Lord and Your Land is Mine You shall not sell or pawn or Alienate your selves or your land from me for Ever But There shall be a Redemption Either the Person himself or his next Kinsman that can shall Redeem him and his land Is there Any Kinsman Nearer then Christ that Can Redeem us Doth not This Law lie upon him also Dotb God indeed take care of Oxen Asses Bodies Lands and Houses of Clay And did he not take care of our Souls the Souls which He hath made as himself speaketh more Pretious then the World beside And This Redemption of Persons and Lands is but a shadow of Redeeming Souls and a â—ledge or Earnest hereof As we may see plainly by comparing Lev. 25 and 26. As the sum of the Law and Gospel also Which After Dreadful Threatnings Concludeth sweetly in the 44. vers Yet nevertheless For All This or That I will not cast them away neither will I abhor them to destroy them Vtterly or Break my Covenant with them Which is often pressed on God in the Psalms and Prophets Forsake me not Vtterly And Hast thou Vtterly rejected Zion And be not our Souls as Little our own and as Much the Lords as the Jews Bodies Lands and Houses were Yet These might not be Sold or Alicnate for Ever But There must be a Redemption Because they are the Lords and He will not part with His Right and careth he not that we sell our Selves to Sin or Sathan for Ever and hath he not provided a Redemption in This Case also and shall not the Lawful even the Lawful Captive be delivered Even when a Man hath Sold himself for nought as God expresseth And If none Either would or Could Redeem them Yet were All to go out at the Jubile Which was also but a Type of Christ our Great Redeemer and our Jubile Yea and in the mean time They must not be Ruled with Rigour which is often forbidden and complained of in the Pastors and Rulers in Ezekiel that They Ruled with Force and Rigour Which was so contrary to the Rule of God and Christ Who was told his People should be Free in the Day of his Power By the Beauties of Holinesse And he told his Disciples he had All Power in Heaven and Earth and Therefore They should Teach But not Compel or Command with Rigour Not as Lords over Gods Inheritance but Ensamples to the Flock And so our Ancestors told Austine in This Island That Religion Ought to be Free and not Compelled or Forced and the Apostles left it so and the Laws also To That Time As we read in Bede And Alfreds Will declares his subjects Free as his own Thoughts and following Kings were sworn to the Saxon Laws and Customs of our Ancestors And how much God was against Ruling with Rigour we may see by his forbidding to deliver up Any Slave that had run away from his Master which may be a great encouragement to run to Christ for the Law forbids him to deliver us back to Sin or Sathan or any hard Master And when God threatned Hard Masters unto Aegypt as they had been to Israel yet in That oppression he declareth they should Cry and be would hear for he is Gracious and would send a Saviour and a Great One and He shall Deliver Them and They shall Come to be a third with Israel and Assyria
Throne of his Kingdom should Write out the Law and read it and keep it All his dayes that he might not exalt himself above his Brethren but might so prolong his Kingdom So When he was Brought In Great Solemnity to sit upon the White Throne of his Kingdom in the Revelation He biddeth it be Written As a most True Saying of God Behold I make All things New A very sweet and Precious Promise Which we ought to plead and press when ever we finde our Hearts Old or the Old man stirring or abiding in us And it may mind us of That strict Injunction on their coming to enjoy their Promised Land to Break down All Idols Groves and Temples with High Places and Images and what ever was or might be any meane or Inclination to Idolatry or Superstition So that They might follow none of the Old manners of the Land before them In Worship of Their Gods or of the True God in their manner For the Lord declares himself As Strict or more in Manner of his Worship then in Matter Or as Jealous in the Matter of the 2d Command or more then in the First Which hath not That note of Jealousie which the 2d hath And yet This also springeth from Love Being as the Apostle expresseth it a Godly Jealousie Least having Espoused us to one husband We should wander to the flocks of his Corrivals And for This also we are bid to call Wisdom our Sister that she may preserve us from the deceiving flattering Spirit And Christ hath also undertaken All This to God and Man also So to Declare the True and Right way of worshipping the Only True God that There shall be No more Idol or Superstition As in Esay the 2d And the Idols he shall Vtterly Destroy Which is also Promised as well as commanded in the first and second Commandement For so the Words in Hebrew are promissive in the Future rather then Imperative Thou shalt not have Or Worship Any Other God Or me in any other way then I prescribe And so the Psalm repeateth it Open Thy Mouth wide and I Will fill Thee O that thou wouldest Hearken And Thou shalt have no strange God We are come to Christs Peculiars and his Proper Work As Heyr of the World As the Seed of Ab. and the 2d Adam As the First was in the Image of God and Therefore made to Rule Let us make man in our Image and after our Likeness and let Them have Dominion As if This did only follow That And though the Prophets call it the Kingdom of God and Matthew the Kingdom of Heaven Yet it is a Kingdom on Earth And so the Psalms and Daniel plain enough For God doth Reign in Heaven still and so he will upon Earth but In and By and Through a man And therefore he hath Given Christ All Judgment Because he is the Son of Man For God will Judge us by our Peers And He hath Given Earth to Men. And though the Baptist and our Saviour and Apostles preached that the Kingdom was at Hand or Coming Yet it was not Come And Christ doth never call himself a King Till his 2d coming Then the Son of Man shall send His Angels which before he calls his Fathers Angels and the Holy Angels to gather out of His Kingdom And the King shall say Come ye Blessed and the King shall say Go ye Cursed And he had a Tast of This Kingdom at his Transfig As he said Some shall not tast of Death Till they see the Son of man coming in His Kingdom And from That Time Forth he spake of That Kingdom As beginning In them But when They looked that it should appear he hinted first that he must take a Long Journey to receive his Kingdom and after a Long time come again And at length he plainly told them that the Kingdom was offered Them To Thee O Daughter of Zion shall the Kingdom come the First Dominion But should Then be Taken From Them and be Given To A Nation some peculiar Nation as in Moses and the Romans which should bring forth Its Fruits When They should be scattered and Trodden down by the Gentiles and not a Stone left upon a Stone in all Their Glorious Temple And when They asked the Signs of Those things and of His coming and of the End of the World He gave them Signs of the 2 first and confesseth the Last was Hidden But addeth When you see These Signs of the Son of man coming Lift up your Heads with Joy O Jews For your Redemption commeth or Return and Then the Kingdom of God is Coming at the very door Till then he bid us say Thy Kingdom Come and Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven And that it meant a Kingdom on Earth also we may learn in the Church Chatechisms of Edward 6th with Notes on the Lords Prayer and Creed of the Catholique Church and Communion of Saints And yet His Kingdom is Spirituall To command the Spirits of men and other Spirits For If I by the Spirit of God which was Then as the Little Finger cast out Evill Spirits know that the Kingdom of God is among you And now is Salvation and the Kingdom of our God and of Christ Come For the Accuser of our Brethren is cast out And for a Type of This also Coming from Transfig he cast out the Foul Spirit which his Ministers could not And yet he left them Power Over All Vnclean Spirits But they met with one they could not Tame 3 Evangelists agree in One but give it 3 Epithets As if Sathan also must have His Trinity The Dragon Beast and False Prophet In the World In the Temple and our Heart also The Man of Sin The Old Adam with the Serpent and Eve or False Prophet in Paradice But All must out when he commeth to Walk in his Garden At the Cool or Evening of the World As he came From the Holy Mount as Peter calls it speaking of his Power and Coming which they joyn with his Kingdom As Paul to Tim. And when he came from the Holy Mount the People left Contest and Run and Salute him As All Kingdoms shall at his Coming From the Mount Where he now is But Receiving his Kingdom And the Psal For the Afflicted tells us When the Lord shall Build up Zion he shall appear in his Glory When the Peoples are Gathered together and the Kingdoms to serve the Lord. But may we hope to finde when this shall be In the Great and Good things of the Bible With the Meek and quiet Spirit of Christ and Prayers of his People For it searcheth All things Yea the Baths and Hidden things of God And in them of Old it searched Times also And so it may do now in the Gospel-Times Our Saviour Called all the People Only Twice To shew what makes a Christian what Free Moses Twice or Thrice To hear the Law To Consecrate the Levits by Their Hands in Ordinatiâ—n
4 in breadth do make 1320. And so many days do make 44 months and beginning at Nisan they end at the 9th month of the 4th year which had the Great Feast of Dedication for the Temple freed from the Rams or Goats hair of Antiochus Or beginning in Tizri as in Civils They bring up All the 3 years Tithes and Offerings with the First Fruits and First born and both Solemn Confessions and Doxologies of Deut. 26. At the Pentecost of the 4th year Which was 1320 days After the Passover of the 4th year before it As 1335 days After the Feast of Trumpets or the Trumpet of Release As 1335 Hours After the first Hour of the day of Trvall And so many years come from the Tabernacle Reared To the Great Dedication in the Machabes Death of Antiochus or Nicanor As we may find at the Temple Gate Nicanor If the 3 Outer Coverings are equall of 330 by 4 in each They make 3960 Cubits 40 short of Ezechiels 4000 As the 40 years After Christ to the City Sacked And to our Saviours First Acting in the Temple there are just 3960 years of the World in Scaliger and Those that follow him And from the Flood so many years come out about 1666 now coming and so do the 2 Utter Coverings from Jeroboams Flood As a Type of that to Fill the Breadth of Thy Land O Emanuel which come out at 1666. The Badgers Skins as uppermost may be Largest And 1335 as in Daniel But 1320 come from Christs Being in the Temple or the Temples End To the Templers End in one day and the Popes Flying to Avignion At the shaking Times of Ottoman and the Imperial States Protesting against the Popes Right in Electing Emperours And from the Great Apostacy in Julians days They come to the Times in which we live But we come to the Temple Measures And if Josephus rightly place the 2 d Walls on the first Pillars called Solomons Walks or Porches in our Saviours Time They were 500 Cubits every side As the Sept. Vulgarlat read Ezech. 42. not 500 Kanes as others So that All the Sides of the Square did make 2000. As the Levites Suburbs the Distance of the Ark and the Sabbath days Journey and the Square Cubits in the Tabernacle before the Oracle And the years from Abraham to our Saviour 2000. We shall begin As They Entred with the Sun from East to West and so from Haran at first and from Moab Over Jordan and from Babylon and Persia With its Royall Shushan on the first Eastern Gate of the 2 d Temple called Shushan 80 Cubits to the Rising of the Womens Court. As 80 days before the Woman came Thither of a Woman Child As Zion of her Daughter in Mic. 4. The Man-childe was not Born till her Last Throwes as themselves express on Es 66. As 80 Hours of Creation before the Moon and Sun did meet For they were not seen till the 4th Morning And 80 years From Shushan and Cyrus to Ezra Seperating the strange Women and making This Womens Court called Aezra from Ezra Help and so they Blessed as the Ps taught them when the Women or the Mourners took the Left hand Walk as others did the Right The Lord Bless thee out of Zion and send thee Help Out of his Holy Place though thou may not come in it But only look towards it As Jonah did when he was cast out of His Holy Place or Presence The 80th year from Cyrus Taking Babylon As he is called K. of Babylon in Ezra 5. And Thence he gave the Temple Vessels falleth within the 80th Olymp or the 8th of Artaxerxes Long and just 490 years before the Last of Olymp 202 d. Agreed for our Saviours Passion by the Great Earth-make and the strange Eclips in Phlegon and many others The 13 First Cubits in the Gate-house as Ezech. 40. 11. may represent the First Light coming up at 13 Hours of Creation and the 13 Days of their year before the Passover and the first 13 weeks in the year between the Solstice and the Tropick As the 13 months of the year and the 13 years between the Temple Founded and Finished or at least Revived in the 2 d of Darius in the 65 t Olympiad And the 65 Cubits before the Holy Courts As 65 Hours to the Noon of the 3 d Day and the 65 Days in the Jewish year as before and 65 years between the 2 d of Darius in the 65 t Olympiad and the 7th or 8th of Artax When Ezra came up at Olympiad 80 and 80 years After Zerubbabel from about 80 Degrees of Longitude To Jerusalem at 65. As the first Fruits of Emanuel in Esay 7 were 65 years before Jerusalem was freed from Those 2 Kingdoms and our Emanuel 65 years before the Christian Persecutions and the Roman Times Shadowed in the Cuthites contending with Nehemiah Who came after Ezra full 11 years and so there were 11 Cubits in the first Verge of the Holy Courts they called Heb Between The Hill and the Help As Heaven After Hell with its Staires and Latices As the Canticles allude in the Gentiles or Unclean Vnder the Staires and behind the Latices Then came the Womens Court and Ezra's Great Work was To Seperate the Women As their Ruine came by Women Esay 3 d and 32 d with Ezra and Nehemiah just 135 Cubits Long and in the Talmud Square As 135 Hours of Creation before Any Woman Or To the First Morning of Adam and From Tying up the Lambs to Heaving up the First Omer were 135 Hours As 135 Days between the Pentecost and Palms or Great Hozannah Closing the Tabernacles And 135 years To the Great Era of the Greeks and Jews Great Friend Nicanor And 135 more to Antiochus and their Great Enemy Nicanor As the Gate Nicanor At this Womans Court 135 Cubits from Hell and the Death of Nicanor on the 13th of Adar 135 Dayes After the Day of Solemn Covenant both of Men and Women in This Womens Court At the close of the Tabernacles Nehemiah 8 and 9. As 135 years before from the First Temple Founded to Joash who Repaired it From the Gate of Nicanor The Inward Court of Israel and the Priests In length 187 Cubits that is 135 and 52 for Nehemiahs Days As Weeks in a year and 187 Hours came to the Evening Sacrifice of the 8th Day For Circumcision and the Christian Sabbath And 187 Days To the Great Atonement As Autumnal Equinox 187 Days After the Vernal And the Great Feast in Ester was 187 days And the Pentatcuch 187 Chapters And 187 years From the 2 d Temple Begun or Finished To Alexanders Reign or Coming To it Or Taking Babylon and Dying at it much about 11 years before the First Nicanor As there were 11 Cubits From the Gentiles Court To That of Nicanor and 11 more from the Gate of Nicanor To the Levits Railes and Ducans parting Israel and the Priests As Twice 11 Before the Altar Twice 11