leave him for Ever I believe in part From that he saith of the Ostrich and her cruell folly to her Eggs and of the Bears Dragons Ouls and worst of Creatures to their young Ones and of a Woman to the Son of her womb And yet she may forget but I cannot For I have Graven thee on the Palmes of my hands And was not Adam Graven on his heart Or Rooted in it But yet more from That he Is. For God is Love and Vnchangable Love And having Loved himself and his own Image he Loved it to the End and for Ever And if That Love could not hold him to Adam in Innocence It may be hard to know or believe his Word can bind him so to any Creature but he may desert it in the best estate attainable Seeing it is very hard to Vnderstand his Word or any Verbal Promise or to plead it so with him as to oblige him by it If his own heart do not more hold him to Good and Goodness Then All Outward Words and Promises Or at least then Any Creature can do by Them And although Eternal Love might be Eternal Hatred unto Sin which in the mother Language speaketh Hating As their Hate is also Sin Yet That also might be a Better argument why God should Keep him From Sin then why he should Leave him In it For by this it seemeth God is Love and no Hatred only that he Hateth Hating and Putting away Love Thinketh no Evil is not Easily Provoked Suffereth Long Endureth All Believeth All or Hopeth All Beareth All and doth not only Cover a Multitude of Sins but as Solomon saith It shall or will Cover All Transgressions For it is the Glory of Man to Pass by Transgressions And the Glory of God to Cover a Matter And most of all That which his pure and Holy Eyes cannot endure to see And if nothing could preserve him From Sin Or excuse him In it Yet there might be somewhat found to Intercede for the Sinner or to distinguish between his Sin and his Person Who at best was but As a Little Very Little Infant Vnto God And when a Sinner yet His Off-spring and His Image still so remained As a man And So Owned by God to Noah Yea and our Saviour bids them All say Our Father For we Are His Off-spring still and he is the Father of our Spirits Yea and Man that before the Fall was but the Image of God is now called The Image and Glory of God I must not dispute or enquire How Man came to Fall or God to Change his State or Place before the Fall Or to abridge him of somewhat he seemed to Grant before When he gave him All Trees for his food But then came and forbad the Tree of Knowledge Which yet haply may be meant of some other kind of Knowledge then is commonly taken Nor can I determine What God meant by That In Dying thou shalt Dye Seeing even Since the Fall also Job describeth Death as That which might be Loved More then Life And the Wisest man asserts the Day of Death is Better then of Birth and God might set the Cherubins in Love to keep us from That Tree which would have made us Live for Ever notwithstanding All the Threatening of Death Which it seemeth was not so certain but that a Tast of the Tree of Life might have Turned it into Life Eternal But Eternity it self may be a Burthen to One that is Vnhappy In his Life and Being So that it might be an Happiness to Dye And the words Threatning Death to Adam are no worse then God used to David of his Little Child or Other Children of God which sure was not Eternal Death And to Good Hezekiah It was added also Thou shalt Dye and shalt not Live and yet he did not Dye but Live And to Ezekiel God hath said When I say or shall say to a Wicked Man In Dying thou shalt Dye the very words Threatened to Adam yet if he Turn and Repent he shall surely Live he shall not Dye And sure we may hope God meant no worse to Good and Holy Adam in Innocence then he Professeth that he meaneth To a Wicked Man in Wickedness To whom yet the Threatning is but on Condition and he addeth an Oath That he taketh no Pleasure in the Death of a Wicked Man and less in the Death of a Righteous man As Adam was in Innocence And yet he let him Fall To draw out Attributes which could not well appear on Holy Happy Objects Or in a word to Love him More Or draw delight and self complacence which may seem a kind of selfish Love to Better Higher that is Lower yet more Noble Love of Pity and such Tender bowels of compassion as could not be shewed But to Miserable Objects Shut up under Guilt through Vnbelief that so he might have Mercy on them which can appear Only in Misery By which Eternal Wisdom did Contrive at once to Propagate it self and Magnifie its Love So that it now can Truly Love a Loveless Object with the same or a Better Love then he Loved Adam in Innocence That I say not Jesus Christ himself Who saith a Little Love can love a Friend or One alike and it may be Less to Love One Lovely Fair and Kind For Sinners can do This and Hypocrites Nor did he Only defer his Anger For his own Names Sake But that Himself might be the Great Example and Pattern of All Long-suffering and Goodness which he knew Great enough to Conquer All Evil He would not Let the Sun go down upon his Wrath. But on the very same Day in which Adam Fell Vnder the Law God brought out the Gospel and the First Gospel Promise whence some think the Same Day of the Jewish year was both the Great Fast for the Fall and the Feast of Atonement or Expiation For as the Wise woman of Tekoah summed up the Gospel God is no Accepter of Persons But he Still Deviseth Means or Devices that his Banished or those that might be so do not Perish From him who still Hateth Putting away And he Then Devised such a Way as Far surpasseth all our thoughts and Then our Words are like to Darken Counsel without Knowledge Yet there is a Spirit that can make us know the things which are Freely Given us of God The Poets have a Tradition that when the Gyants Rose and Fought against Heaven They could not be Conquered but by the help of some Mortal Man and so the Gods asked avd of Hercules Who slew one of the Greatest Gyants but he soon revived again and waxed Stronger then before Till Minerva Caught him and threw him out of the Moon and so he dyed This and that they have of Hydra and of Python and the Serpent slain by Cadmus or others may be grounded on the First Gospel Promise Vpon the fall The Seed of the Woman shall Break the Serpents Head And yet not by its own Strength or Wisdom but
CHRIST Under the Law WITH The Times of the Gospel AND Fullness thereof LONDON Printed in the Year 1664. ERRATA Page 30. line 15. for years read months p. 33. l. 19. 24 Aldermen Add In divers Cities as it was long in London p. 3. l. 12. in the 2 d Colume and 24 Aldermen to be left out p. 40. l. 1. for Luminations r. Lâ—â—ations p. 44. l. 16. Colume 2 d for the Red Sea r Reed Sea l. 17 18. for Mimum r. Minium l. 39. for Psalms r. Palms p. 59. l. 9. Col. 2. for 2705 r. 2805 without the Parenthesis p. 62. l. 7. Col. 2. Add And their Longest Night was above 13 Hours As the first Night of Creation was till the 13th Hour p. 69. Parag. 3. That of Cubits in some Copies to be left out or amended by the 2 d Paragraph of the 59th page In the Preface p. 6. l. 25. Col. â— for Tabernacles read Tabernacle The PREFACE and SCOPE THis Discourse was written more large and it may be less confused but the Authors distance from the Press and little time to correct it with so many numbers and other occasions prevailed to contract and croud it out as he could being only for private Friends and such as can excuse both matter and manner The first is to express some little part of the unexpressable Goodness of God and Love of Christ which passeth knowledge and to help shed it abroad into our hearts that it may mould us into love to God and all men Have we not all One Father Hath not One God created us Why do we then deal treacherously every man against his brother by prophaning the Covenant of our Fathers And our Saviour did not only bid them all say Our Father but repeated it and pressed it on the multitude that they had All One Father in Heaven and One Master or Teacher even Christ which is twice repeated in Mat. 23. And as Love was his last and great Command on Earth so his first Complaint out of Heaven was of some that had lost their first Love And may he not complain that we have lost All Love which is not only waxen cold but even Dead and quite put out by Lust or Love of the World and Cares thereof which himself said would Choak the good Seed And what Hope is left or means to recover us but in himself Made under the Law of Love to God and Man also So that it is written in his heart to Love his God and his Neighbour As himself To propagate the Name and Love of God with All his Might and to bring his Children Servants and the Strangers in his Gate to Rest the Rest of God as is required in the fourth Command And seeing he bid it be written as a True Saying of God that He would make All Things New the Author doth believe it though he doth not yet see it And he thought it worth enquiring When That great Change is to come into the minds of Men to mould them into Love of God and One another And finding the Psalm for the Afflicted to tell us that God will appear in his Glory when he buildeth up Zion and when the Peoples are Gathered and the Kingdoms to serve the Lord he searched what the Law or the Prophets say of such a Gathering And he found that Moses Dying Charge on Joshuah with succeeded Kings of Israel which he hopes may come to Christ at length was to gather All Israel and their Strangers also and to Read the Law to them All that they may Hear and Learn and fear the Lord and his Goodness in the Latter Dayes At the end of Seven years in the Solemnity of the year of Release in the Feast of Tabernacles which they call the Feast of In Gathering And although this was acted every 7th year in some measure yet seeing God himself doth sometimes use a Day for a Year or a year for as many years as it hath Dayes he began to consider whether it might not be So in This also that the Sabbatical years of Release might intimate their Release from all their Scatterings and Bondage at the Close of seven Prophetick years or in 2555 years which are seven times 365. And first he found that so many years After the Fall did bring Israel to rest in Canaan and so many more did bring the Christians to reign in Jerusalem and that from their First Scatterings out of Canaan in Jorams time when they were first led Captive so many years came out about 1666 now coming and from following scatterings after Joram so many years are out about 1690 and that Daniels greatest number of 2300 dayes or years is then also finished from the time of his Captivity And for beginning those Prophetick years about the time of Joram there are many reasons besides their first scattering out of Canaan Then For it was a very Great Change of the World or as the Jews express it a New World which they believed to be seven or eight times renewed As the old Tuscans also in Plutarchs Sylla and that every such New World was foreshewn by Great Prodigies in Heaven and Earth yea and Divers times by signal Tydes or Turnings and Parting 's of Waters as the great Clepsydra So at the first Creation and again at the Flood and again at passing the Red-Sea and at entring Canaan When Jordan was divided As again by Elijahs Mantle At His Ascension a little before Joram which was followed by their first Captivity As their Last followed our Saviours Ascension shadowed by Elijahs The Assyrian Empire was Then shaken and broken as Israel by Syria and Judah by the Philistines Arabians and Edom which Then first revolted and broke Jacobs Yoak as was foretold by Isaac and rested not till it forced Ahaz to hire Assyria which destroyed Israel about the time of Romulus who might be shadowed by Rummili or Remaliah that in the mask or vizor of Religion Ravished 683 Virgins or 783 as it was 683 years before the Romans first Ravished the Virgin of Zion and 783 before they crucified Christ From that time the Prophets began to threaten Edom by which the Jews say they meant Rome as in that Map of Hell in Isa 34. directed against Edom and the Raemim or Romim v. 7. And as Judahs breach and cutting off might be Typed by Athaliahs cutting off the Royal Seed as Joram had cut off his brethren so might those seven Great years of Scattering and Return be Typed in the seven years of Famine and Wandring of the Widow who then Returned and found the K. talking with Gehazi freed it seems from his Leprosy And by the seven years of Joash Hiding and then coming up and repairing the Temple and by many other seven years which are here touched In this search of Times it is found that 1260 or 1290 and 1335 which are the Great Numbers in Dan. and the Revel may be Years and Dayes and Hours of Jewish years As from the
thoushalt Love thy Neighbour As thy Self I am the Lord. Doth it not lie on our Saviour also Not to Avenge or bear any grudge against his People or the Children of his People May not This Include the Children of his Servant Noah the Thousand Generations of Him that Loved God and Served him with an Vpright heart which God himself owned for a Perfect heart To Noah David Job and Abimelech also As the Words in Hebrew Gen. 20. 5 6. And it is not only said that God did Covenant with a Thousand Generations But also Commanded it for a Thousand Generations As Ps 105. 8. And the Law is plain Thou mayest not bear a Grudge against the Children of thy People Thou shalt not Retain For So is the Word and often used against Retaining Anger So directly Opposite to Gods Retaining mercy Which he maketh so Great a part of his Name to Moses and with such an Emphasis that Moses left it Noted with a very Great Letter in the word of Keeping Mercy As the Jews yet observe it in Exod. 34. and again in Numb 14. They have another Great Letter in That Let the Power of My Lord be Great as thou hast spoken And Gods Keeping Mercy is the Tenor of the Song in all the Scripture And by Davids Last Words Some were set to sing it still and keep it up in the Peoples hearts And when they did agree in This the Glory of God appeared and some strange Return of Prayer 1 Chron. 16. 41. and 23 24. with 2 Chron. 5. 13. and 20 21 22. And there is scarce Any thing more Clear in all the Bible then that he will not Retain his Anger and much less For Ever Seeing he bids us not Let the Sun go down upon our Wrath. And himself gave us an example of it at the Fall and Afterwards the Cursed person must not Hang beyond Sunset As in Moses and Joshuah The Case of Saules Nephewes Hanged up before the Lord was Extraordinary and seemeth branded with Rispaes Goodness in Watching them which occasioned David to bury them with the bones of Saul and his Sons Hanged also And It is Giveing place to Sathan or Closing with the Devil To Reserve Anger but for One Evening As Ephes 4. and Wrath doth Rest or Lodge for a Night in the Bosome of Fools And Wrath is an Hebrew word implying somewhat to pass away or passing As Come my People Hide thee a little moment Till my Wrath be Past And the Great Cause of Gods taking up such a Lasting War with Esau and Amalech a Branch of Eâ—au was for that he Forgot the Brotherly Covenant or Kindness to his Brother Jacob and Let his Anger Tear perpetually and cast off pity and Kept his Wrath for Ever As in Amos and Ezek. 35. Yet Edoms Widows and Fatherless Children are called in to God in Jer. 49. And so the Law of War requireth in Deut. 20. Which is much to be pressed on Christ If thou Go to war thou shalt first offer Peace and if Peace be Rejected yet thou must Preserve the Women and Children So that In Judgment thou must still remember Mercy And wilt thou not yet say My Father the guide of my Youth Will be reserve his Anger for Ever will he keep it to the End as Jer. 3. And again Return O Back-sliding Israel saith the Lord. I will not cause my Anger to fall upon you For I am Merciful saith the Lord And I will not Keep Anger for Ever And in Lam. It is good for a man to wait and hope for the Salvation of God For He will not cast off for ever but though he cause grief yet he will have compassion according to the Multitude of his Mercies For he doth not afflict from his Heart or Grieve the Children of Men. And in the Psalms The Lord is Merciful and Gracious slow to Anger and plenteous in Mercy he will not alwayes Chide Nor will he keep his Anger for Ever And the 30th Psal Give thanks at the Remembrance of his Holiness Because or For his Wrath Endureth but a Moment As if During Lasting wrath could not consist with Holyness and least of All in God whose â—ure and Holy eyes Turn away from All that causeth Wrath or may prolong it and Therefore he blotteth out Iniquity For his Own Names sake Because he cannot endure to see it And he bids us Put him in mind of This Word and Plead it with him that we may be Justified Esay 43. And This Holynesse of God is Divers times made the Great Object of our Praise Or Reason Why we should Praise the Lord. Who might be Feared for his Power or Wisdom but Praised Only for his Holiness which is Godness in divers places Psal 22. 30. 97. 99 100. 136. with the former places in the Cronicles And Micah saith He will not Retain his Anger for Ever because he Delighteth in Mercy And in Esay I will not contend for Ever neither will I be Alwayes Wrath For the Spirit should fail before me and the Souls which I have made A Great Argument for Mercy Thy hands have made me and fashioned me Forsake not the Work of thy Own Hands And Hast Thou not poured me out as Milk And Curdled me as Cheese and Thou wilt have desire to the works of thy own hands And in our Greatest Sufferings we are bid to commit the Keeping of our Souls our Souls to God in Well doing As to a Faithfull Creator and a Faithful preserver also O Thou Preserver of Men What shall I do to thee I have Sinned but why Wilt thou not Pardon my Transgressions and Take away mine Iniquities Wilt thou not seek me in the morning And all these may comment on That Law of Love in Leviticus Thou shalt not avenge or Retain against the Children of thy People But Thou shalt Love thy Neighbour as thy self As plainly shewing that Any Retaining Anger is not consistent with the Good Law of God or Love of our Neighbour And lest we should mistake the Phrase of Neighbour and Brother used here the very same Chapter requireth to love a Stranger As ones self the 19. of Levit. 34. and the 25. doth also make a stranger as a Brother Saving If Thy Brother wax poor thou shalt relieve him though a Stranger or a Sojourner And to other Arguments for Strangers as that They were Strangers in Egypt and must know the Heart of a Stranger It is added also that God Loveth Strangers And the Hebrews are bidden not to Forget to entertain Strangers because some have so Entertained Angels unawares And yet One of the hardest words of our Saviour is I know you not or you are Strangers Though himself observeth the Law of strangers saying I was a stranger and you took Me not in as Job saith the Stranger did not Lodge without his Doors And in the Good Samaritan the phrase of Neighbour or Brother is plainly made to reach a Stranger and an Enemy And so in the Law also
Even a Blessing in the midst of the Land Whom the Lord shall Bless saying Blessed be Aegypt my People Which was gotten by some Cruel Lord Oppressing them For the Lord shall smite and he will Heal. As Esay 19. And though Christ be also a King yet even so also He was Vnder the Law and Made Vnder it For the great Law of the King was This that even when he sat upon the Throne of his Kingdom he should write out the Law and read it All his dayes that so he might be sure to keep it and not exalt himself above his Brethren but Prolong his Kingom in the Midst or heart of his Subjects And it is a Great Character of Antichrist to think himself Above the Law or to attempt to Change the Times and Laws As in Dan. 7. 25. and if God have put All men below Coertion of the Law Then who can Exempt them or set them Above it And perhaps there is nothing more Dangerous to Any Man then to presume or to pretend himself to be Above the Law which God hath set a bound to Kings it may be Rather then to Private Men whom others still will bound enough as Deut. 17. And the Great Law of a King is Mercy Rather then Any thing else For so Solomon saith Mercy and Truth preserve a King but his Throne is Established by Mercy By Mercy rather then Any thing else or before All other things As the words plainly imply And shall a Man Dye This Day Am I not King of Israel And we may press it much on Christ as the Great Law of a wise King to Preserve his Throne by Mercy that it do not Totter For of Him and His Throne it is especially said In Mercy shall the Throne be Established As Esay 16. In allusion to That of Solomon The Throne is Established by Mercy And the Psalms say His Throne is Everlasting because Mercy and Truth are Ever before it and above it and he fings of Mercy with his Greatest Judgements and Happy are They that Hear and Vnderstand That Joyful Sound For In Thy Righteousness Thy very Righteousness they shall be exalted All the day long or as another Psalm They shall rejoyce in All thy Righteous Judgements For If his tender Mercy be above All his Works Then sure Above his Judgements also which he calls his Strange Acts. But Mercy is his own Child For he is the Father of Mercies which are therefore One with Christ his Only Son and yet a little while and Mercy shall Triumph against or Over Judgement as we read in James And Christ also bids them Go and learn That I will have Mercy rather then Any Sacrifice And to him it was spoken Ride on Prosperously because of Truth and Meekness of Righteousness And He hath shewed thee O man what is Good and what the Lord Delighteth in To do Justice but in that Also To Love Mercy Or as Jeremy expresseth it To Exercise Loving Kindness and Judgement For in These I delight And in the next Chapter the Prophet prayeth For Gods Correction O the blessed Rods of the Covenant and with Judgement also but with such Judgement as the Chapter before still tempered with Mercy And Solomons Son lost the Kingdom of the 10 Tribes by not observeing his Fathers Good Rule of Establishing his Throne by Mercy neglecting the Wise Councel of the Old Men that told him his Way to get and keep the hearts of his Subjects was to be more Merciful then his Father Which we may Presse on Christ as the wisest Councel that he get and keep his Subjects Hearts by being More Mercifull then his Father yet hath shewed himself And yet our Saviour gives it As a sufficient Reason why the Father also should grant All that is asked of him because he is a Great and Glorious King And so he concludeth All his Prayer with no other For but This For thine is the Kingdom Power and Glory As if This alone were Cause enough why he should do All that is Asked And when Solomons Mother describeth the Law of Kindness in the Good Womans Tongue She gives her Son This Law of Kindness for his Heart Open thy mouth for the Dumb in the Case of All appointed to Destruction And again Open Thy Mouth Judge Righteously and Plead the Cause of the Poor and Needy So that while the King sits upon the Throne As Judge His own Heart and Bowels must be Advocates to Plead for All the Prisoners at the bar Yea for All that be Appointed for Death Even for the worst offenders who may not have Councel in some Cases and Places because indeed the Judges are to be their Counsel in All they can and that was Lemuels Councel to her Son and the Prophesie she taught him as for a Great King to come in the Last of Proverbs And Solomon gives it to his Son also If thou forbear to deliver them that are Drawn unto Death and Those that are ready to be Slain If thou sayest behold we know it not Doth not He that pâ—nders the Heart consider it and He that keeps Thy Soul even Thy Soul that hath so often deserved Death and Liveeth still but on the Free Grace of God! And the 102 Psal that is made For One Afflicted tells us that God looked down from the Height of his Sanctuary to Hear the Groaning of the Prisoners and to Loose Them that are Appointed unto Death And Were we not All Appointed to it And may we not Presse it on Christ to open his mouth and Plead for All Appointed unto Death And will not This shew his Intercession Larger then we do believe not only a King as Solomon was but a Priest also and so the Great Intercessor For the â—riests that were Men only were the Great Mediators and They had the Work of Expiation with a Wo if they did it not Yea and that with Tender Pitty and Compassion to the Souls of Men. And Every High â—riest Taken from among men is ordained For men in things partaining to God that he may offer Gifts and Sacrifices For sins Who can have Compassion on the Ignorant and on them that are out of the Way For that he Himself is Compassed with Infirmity and by reason hereof He ought He ought to offer for sin As we read in the Hebr. and the Law also Which did not leave it to Aarons Choise and Pleasure to do it If he would and when he would but laid it on him and his Sons As their Great Duty to make Expiation for Sin and to Bear the Iniquity of All the Congregation and of All their Holy Things And to Heal the Lepers Or pronounce them Clean when Ever they Could And Wo unto them If they did it not And how Zealous was Moses himself the King of Jessuron in Interceding when he saw the Marks of Gods displeasure How did he fall on his Face and Bow his Heart by Fasting 40 daâ—es together how quickly did he bow for them