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
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
are They Guilty of Breaking it If it were not Given to them But for the present Let it be granted only that it was Given unto Christ as a Man and the Seed of Abraham also that was put Vnder the Law more it may be then Adam was and Circumcised also for a Debtor to the Whole Law and To Fulfill All Righteousness And he was not only Put under the Law as other men were but Made Vnder it For his very Being was made up of the Holy Righteous Image of God which was but shadewed in the Law Which was so written in his Heart also that he could as soon Vnmake himself and let out All his Being as ever break one Tittle of the Law Which was his Pleasure also and his choice delight and not a Burthen As to Vs. Nor can wee conceive him an Holy Good Man In Perfect Wisdom and Integrity But he must be Made Of With and Vnder the Moral Law of God as Near and Dear to him as his own Life and Being So that He cannot plead his own Death to Free him From it As we may to Free our selves from the Law which hath Power over us But While we Live For He that is Dead is Freed from Sin a Blessed Word and From the Law also But He was so Made Vnder it that he chose to Live again to Keep it more as his own Choisest delight and Happiness And Himself hath summed up All the Law into Love And of his Love to God his Father we nothing doubt but of his Love to Man is All the Question Yet we read It is Vain for a Man to speak of Loving God If he do not also Love his Neighbour which himself made As Great a Law as That of Loving God and Like or Equall unto That he made the First and Great Command Nay he may seem to make it More or of More Worth and acceptance which God to Love Ones Neighbour then any otherwise to Love God himself For That of Loving on 's Neighbour and Doing to All As one would wish to himself he saith Is The Law and the Prophets also Which is more then we read of All Other Love to God And the Law and the Prophets also do More forbid Evil Thoughts ond Words against a Brother or Neighbour then against God himself As Deut. 15. 9. Psal 50. 20. Esa 58. Zechar. 7. 10. 8. 17. And Man hath nothing else or very little to Express his love to God whom he cannot see or reach by All his Righteousness and Love but by Loving his Neighbour That is Every Man For he that Loved Another hath Fulfilled the Whole Law And All else is but a Tinckling Cymbal For even That which bids me Love God and his Name with All my Soul and Might requires me both to propagate his Name and Nature or Image and to Preserve it and Restore it All I may And is not This to Love my Neighbour As my self or More For Is there a Man in the World in whom I may not see the Name and Image and Glory of God as much or more then yet it is in me Or soon it may be so and that it may I must and cannot but endeavour All I can If I Love God with All my Soul and Might And thus I see the Saints of God still Measure All their Love to God by Declaring his Name to Men and Making known his Loveliness As the Spouse did Till even They that sinote her and took away her Veyle or at least knew him not whom her Soul loved Came and sought him with her And another Cryed Let him not spare For I have not hidden his Holy Word But I have and will Declare it to my Brethren Yea to the Great Congregation Loe I have not refrained my lips O Lord thou knowest I have not hid thy Righteousness within my Heart I have declared Thy faithfulness and Thy Salvation I have not Concealed thy Loving kidness and thy Truth from the Great Congregation And I will Declare Thy Name to All Congregations and to All Generations and I will Declare for Ever Thus it was with Job and David and Christ himself for it was He that Spake and Acted In Those Holy Men and most of All in those peculiar Psalms of Christ upon the Cross And his dying Prayer saith I have Glorified Thy Name I have finished My Work For I have Declared Thy Name and have made it Manifest And yet again I have done it and I will do it For it is so sweet that I cannot forbear and the more I spread it the more I see its beauty and its sweetness and the more I Rub This Precious Oyntment It Perfumeth more Thy Name is an Oyntment Poured forth and Therefore the Virgins love Thee And if We look on All the Laws of God through All the Bible we shall find Them More For Man and His Good then For God and His Gain or Glory but in Mans Happiness And All Established In and Through the Mediator Jesus Christ The Great Law Maker as God and the Great Law Keeper as Man both to God and Men also The Jews tell us that before the World was made God bowed down and put his hand under his Robe of Glory and brought out the Spirit of the Messiah which they say First Moved on the Waters and looking on it said Wilt thou Redeem Israel and when he answered Yea He said But Dost thou well to consider All the Toyle of That Great Work Art thou indeed content to lay aside thy Robes and Kiss their Raggs To Suck their Wounds and Wash their Sores and wipe away their Putrid flesh To be among the Chains and Tombes and rowle away their Clots and Worms To Love their Dust and raise them from the Grave of Death and Rottenness and when upon some pause he Said he would and was content and Glad to do it All The Father Kist him and made an Everlasting Covenant with him or to That Effect Which is but some of This before us Made of a Woman and made Vnder the Law Even All the Law of Love To Man as Well as to God and to Redeem Them that were Vnder the Law that so we might receive the Adoption of Sons And there is Somewhat in All the Laws and Promises that doth especially relate to Christ and is laid upon Him by God and expected from him As the First and Fundamental Promise that the Womans Seed shall Break the Serpents head Is Promised to Man but Required of Christ For it is not said It May but it Must and Shall Break the Serpent Or as the 72 Psal expresseth it He shall break in pieces the Oppressor and as other Scriptures have it He shall Loose his knots as proper to the Curling Crossing Serpent in Isaia 27. he shall dissolve All the Works of the Devil Yea and by Death destroy him that hath the Power of Death which is the Devil and shall Root up Every Plant the Heavenly Father hath
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
assisted by the Spirit of God and in Vnion with Divine Nature And yet still it is The Seed of the Woman God having chosen the Weakest Sex to overcome his Strongest Enemies and the most Foolish to destroy the Wisdome of the Wise and Subtili Serpent Who did First assail the Woman as the Weaker Vessel and is Vanquished by the Womans Seed And though in All this work we owe very much to the Love of the Son of God who Loved Our Nature and built us a Synagogue was the Blessed Seed of the Woman Yet the Root of the Matter is the Love of the Father And of His Person it is said in special God is Love Even God the Father and hath shewed That Love in sending his Son and the Sons Great Work is still to express the Love of the Father who sent him And God so Loved the World that He Gave His Only Son and none can come To the Son but whom the Father Draweth And although All the Saints in All the Bible use to address themselves very much to the Son in their Vsual Convers and Prayers As the 45th and 102 d. Psal is Cited in Heb. 1. and so the Canticles and Spouse in the Revelation and All the Vials of Odors or Praiers of Saints were To the Lamb yet in This the Apostle doth especially bow To the Father that He would Vouchsafe to shew them the Love of his Son Passing Knowledge That they might be filled with All the Fulnesse of God And although it be a Great Work of the Gospel to perswade us that Christ was the Son of God and a Great Man Thought All our Shakings came From not being Rooted in This yet there is also a very Great stress in This That he is The Son of Man and The Promised Seed of the Woman And the same Ap. that of All things bids his Son Remember This that Christ of the Seed of David was raised up according to his Gospel In another place hath summed up All in This. When the fulness of the Time was come God sent Forth His Son made of a Woman made Vnder the Law that We might receive the Adoption of Sons And so the Son of God is sent To make the Sons of Men become the Sons of God But for this also it Became him and was requisite and Necessary that he should be also the Son of Man and Seed of the Woman Made of a Woman Which was the Best and only Way To Bring in Everlasting Righteousness To Satisfie God and to Sanctifie Man For by This Vnion of Natures and All things consequent He comes to be Charged with Our Sins and we with His Righteousness being made Partakers of His Divine Nature as He of Our Humane And Then As Our Acts are Imputed unto Him So are His to Vs having the same Spirit by which He did them Else they be not Ours For if God had come and Acted in us as an Angel or a Dove Those Acts In us had not been Ours Except their Principle were made One with Vs and We One with Him For which God hath so Vnited himself unto Christ that He is become the Head of the Body And His Vnion to our Natures is the Root of Ours unto His Spirit And Till This be wrought In us we do not Act but are Acted by Some Other Not by an Inward Principle of Life and Motion This being the Great thing Our Saviour Prayed For in All that should believe on him that they All might come to be One in Him and Perfect in One. And Not only they In Him but He In them and abide in Them as another Chap. And so he concludeth his Solemn Prayer With Repeating That particular so much insisted on before And I In them By which we are not only His Brethren and Sisters But as Himself said His Mother also When He is Made Known and Formed In us Christ In you the Hope of Glory But I must onely Glance at This which is so Fully treated elsewhere And as God hath pleased to Manifest himself In Our Nature so he hath also Filled it with That which is Infinite so that it cannot hold it in but is even Forced to Vent it and Longeth to be Drawn and Sucked more then ever Anv Womans Brest As Elihu said I am full of the Spirit of God and I must utter it And our Saviour saith O How am Istraitned Till it be accomplished As a sweet Perfume or Oyntment in ones hand the more it be Pressed the more it Floweth out And when the Brest is Full the Mother calls for Any Child the Son of a Stranger If her Own be not Ready to Suck And This Great Advantage we have Gotten by Gods putting His Own Infinite Nature into Our Finite That it must flow Out to Ease its self as we may speak Being so Vastly Great beyond the Humane Nature that it cannot be contained in it but As the Great Ocean in a Little Shell Still Flowing Vp and Flowing Out Whereas If he had sent the Son only as God or the Holy Ghost They might have so Contained or Detained the Godhead that we might have seen it no more then in the very Father But now God is Manifest in Flesh which can not hold What it hath Too Great for the narrow cover We may add also that our Saviour himself said It is a more Blessed thing to Give then to Receive So that Himself was not So Blessed by Receiving All the fulness of the Godhead As he was and still is by Giving it Out And If we knew the Gift of God and Happiness to Give And Who it was that said it To us We would aske and He would Give us a Fountain of Living Water flowing out to God and Men about us For In our Fathers House is Bread Enough and to Spare and in our Brothers Heart enough to spare of Water Wine and Milk still Running out and crying Come Every One that thirsteth Come yea Come and Drink and Drink Abundatly My Friends This is the Good will of Him that dwelt in the Bush That ever Flamed but was not Consumed For by this Vnion in our Saviour the Divine Fire is cooled so in Humane Water the Piller in the Cloud that it is both Safe and Sutable and Pleasing to us Whereas else it had devoured us For Our God is a Consuming Fire And when All the People saw it They ran away and cryed O Let not God speak thus any more but let Him speak by Thee and We will hear And then he answered They have Rightly Spoken This was my Intent in All my Thundering but to make them see their Need of such a Mediator And now Therefore I will Raise up a Prophet From among their Brothren Like unto Thee And this is 4 times repeated in Deut. with the 3. and 7. of the Acts. And in every place it is still observed that the Prophet must be a Brother From among thy Brethren And the Scripture puts a
not Planted And if Sin come Vnder These Plants or Those Promises may we not hope it shall be Rooted out and quite destroyed As the Church is bid to Cry Take away All Iniquity Not onely Ours but All. and Let the Iniquity of the Wicked come to an end As it is Prayed and Therfore Promised in the Psalms and we are bid to cry for All Forgive Vs our Sins Yea and Christ Prayeth This In us and with us Therefore it shall be Granted for He sayeth Lord Forgive As I and These and All my Children Do forgive And we do not read God Cursed Adam or Eve but the Serpent Though he laid Pain and Travel on Eve with Labour Toyle and Sweat on Adam But of Noah it was said This Man shall give us Rest or Comfort in our work and Toyl because of the Earth which the Lord hath Cursed And when Noah built an Altar After the flood God smelt a savour of Rest as alluding to the Name of Noah Rest and said in his Heart his very Heart I will not again Curse the Ground Any more for Mans sake Which may speak it Cursed before for Mans sake or else For Mans sake I will bless it Now and Curse it no more And God Blessed Noah and his Sons which is not read of Adams Sons and did not only give him Leave to Rule the Creatures as before to Adam but a Larger Commission in the Beasts of the field which were not so put Vnder Adam and the Serpent was more subtile then All other Beasts and other Particulars which are now All put under Noah and delivered up into his Hands with a Promise also that his Dread should be upon them And That Promise is made Good in Christ In whom he makes a Covenant for us with the Beasts of the field when He hath Marryed Vs and saved us by the Lord Jehovah as the Prophet Hoze And Then the Earth also shall yeeld her increase and God even our God shall bless us and his saving light shall be Vpon All Nations As the Psalms in divers Places And our Saviour may allude to Those Promises to Noah and His name of Rest and Giving Rest from Labour when he calleth All That Labour and are heavy Laden Adding I will Give you Rest And again You shall find Rest to your Souls however it be to your Bodies That of the Rainbow we find in other Scriptures describing the Throne of God As by an Eye with its Rainbow and the Revelation Cloatheth Christ with the Rainbow As a Circle which himself can never break Which is also Round about the Throne that it may be Ever seen and Never out of Sight or Mind To witness the Everlasting Covenant with Noah and Mankind As afterward with Israel in the Prophets Esay and Jeremy And we All are In That Covenant made with Noah and it is no small Matter to be in Any One Covenant with God That of Slaying the Man-slayer may seem to put Every Man Vnder Coertion That cannot be dispenced with For if it be laid on All Mankind to slay the Blood shedder who can Exempt himself or others And is God indeed so careful for our Blood and is he not more for our Souls Is He so strict which Beasts and Men and every Mans Brother and is he not As strict with Satan or Any that devour our Souls And is not Christ in This also Seeing himself branded Cain for Hating his Brother or saying Am I my Brothers Keeper But God hath made Every Man his Brothers Keeper and our Saviour more then All. As Psal 72. He shall save the Soul of the Needy and Pretious shall their Blood be in his sight He shall Redeem their Souls from Deceit and Violence Men shall be Blessed in Him All Nations shall Call him Blessed The Blessed Seed for he speaketh not of Seeds as of Many but of One which is Christ to Bless All Nations and All Families or Every Family of the Earth As it is repeated both to Abraham and Jacob and the Psalmist saith God hath set him for Everlasting Blessings or Blessings for ever and to the Great Multitude in the Temple Courts The Apostle said God hath sent him to Blesse you by Turning Every one of you From your Iniquities God hath sent him on This Errand and hath put him Vnder this Law which is much to be pleaded with him And the 4th Command requireth him to Keep the Rest of God not only himself and his Sons and Daughters but his Men-Servants and Maid-Servants and Cattle and Stranger also in his Gate They must All be brought to Rest the Rest of God That thy Man-Servant and thy Maid-Servant may Rest as well as Thou That thine Ox and thine Asse may be refreshed And the Psalmist may allude to This as often as he Calls himself A Stranger with God or the Son of His Handmaid And This 4th Command may be found the Sum of All the 2 d. Table Which requireth Every Man and Christ also as a Man to Love his Neighbour as himself and to endeavour that Servants and Strangers also may be brought To the Rest of God and be Refreshed As well as We. And moulded into the Image of God For they All Groan for the Glorious Rest and Freedom of the Sons of God And the Beauty of That Image To be Formed in them will so recompence All the Labour of Christ that He will Never Repent it And He is so much in Love with That Image to be Formed in Vs that his Many years of Suffering and Service are but As a Few Dayes in his Eyes For the Rachel of his Love For he shall see the Travel of his Soul and shall be Fully Satisfied and be at Rest And the Sabbatical year of Rest was For the Earth also the Earth which the Lord Cursed Nor might they reap What grew of its Self For it is a year of Rest unto the Land and the Sabbath of the Land shall be meat for Thee and thy Maid and Hired Servant and for the Stranger that Sojourneth with thee and the Gleaning of every Harvest must be left for the Poor and Stranger As the 19th of Levit. Where we have also the Sum of All the Royal Law of Love As it lieth on Every Man as Man and so on Christ Also Thou shalt not Hate thy Brother in thy Heart Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour and not suffer Sin upon him A blessed Law to be pressed much on Christ And the Sum of our Coven ant is To submit to his Teachings and Rebukes or Chastenings which are called the Rods of the Covenant Very pretious things And Thus he promised the Holy Spirit to Reprove the World And we should beg it much As David Cryes O Search and Try me If any Evil way be in Me and Lead me in the Way Everlasting All other wayes will quickly end As Thorns in a fire Thoushalt not Avenge or Bear any grudge against the Children of thy People But
to hear him speak by Mases when they could not hearken for the Anguish of their hearts But I have seen I have seen Ephraim yea and seen his Frowardness also but I will heal And when the Poor want and cannot Cry For their Tongue Cleaves to their Mouth I will open a fountain in the Wilderness As of old I did to Hagar But we must see This also to be part of the Law that so we may lay it on Christ and plead it with him And God did not onely shew us This in his own Bowels Promising to Comfort All that mourn and to Replenish Every Empty Soul and Every sorrowful Heart on which the Prophets sleep was sweet to him But it was so in his Heart that now it is also a part of the Law Which is but an Image or shadow of the Heart of God Beware there be not a Thought in thy Wicked bea rt against thy poor Brother Saying so or so But then shalt sure'y Lend and Give him enough or sufficient for his want and yet not a word of Asking Make thy shadow as the Night in the midst of Noon Hide the out-casts and bewray not him that Wandereth Be a Covert from the Face of the Spoyler Let mine Out-casts Dwell with Thee O Moah As alluding to Davids bringing his Parents Vnto Moah till he knew How God would deal with him And again Is not This the Fast that I have Chosen to loose the bonds of Wickedness and to undo the Heavy Burthens and to let the broken go Free and that ye break Every Yoke Is it not to deal thy Bread to the Hungry and that thou bring the Poor afflicted or cast out into thy House and when thâ—u seest only seest the Naked that thou Cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh If thou draw out thy soul to the Hungry and satisfie the afflicted soul Then shall thy light arise in Obscurity and thy Darkness as the Noon day and the Lord shall Guide thee continually and satisfie thy soul in Drought and thou shalt be like a Watered Garden whose waters never fail or lie and from Thee shall be They that shall build up the old waste places and thou shalt be called the Repairer of the Breach One of the Sweetest places in the Bible As lying on our Saviour also when ever he Sees Vs Want For there is not a word of Asking but of Want When thou seest the Naked that thou Clothe him and hide not thy self from thine own flesh and may we not plead it with Christ Is not He Vnder This Law also That He Hide not himself from his own flesh or from That which is Lost or As Holy men cryed in the Scripture O Lord behold mine Affliction And again See O Lord and consider for I am become Vile I am full of Confusion O see my Affliction Or as Hezekiah O Lord I am Pressed Very Hard but Vndertake for me Or be my Surety and Mediator which is clearly spoken to Christ And so David cryeth out Iniâ—uities Prevail Over me But Thou shalt Thou shalt make Atonement or Expiation as the word signifieth Clearly spoken Unto Christ And so again Be surety for me and strike Hands for thy Poor Servant And the Disciple whom our Saviour loved tells us that If a man see his Brother in Wam he must not stay for Tears or Prayers but if he do but see him in Wam and shut up his Bowels How doth the Love of God Dwell in such a Man And again If any man see his Brother sâ—n a sâ—n which is not unto Death He shall Ask it is not left at pleasure but commanded He shall Ask and he shall give him Life A sweet Promise As God bid â—liphaz Go to Job and promised that He should intercede and my Servant shall pray for you and I will accept him Which we should Press on Him that was Typified out by Job Telling him that God hath Promised that He shall pray and He will Hear him for us And when Job prayed for Them God turned His Captivity and Healed Him and Them also And so Here He shall Ask and he shall Give him Life And though he say not He shall Ask for Him that sinneth unto Death Yet he doth not forbid him but only saith I say not that he should pray for such As Christ I say not that I will pray for you And when men do not only Trample Precious Pearls but Turn and burn and Tear those that bring them As they fall out of Others Teachings So they may do Out of their Prayers also that I say not Out of Christs Intercession Which is much in the hearts of his People and I wish and beg and Value This for me and mine Above the World And once a Father told me You may Hope or Know that Others Pray for you when you do Pray for them But we see the Prophet Jeremy praying most sweetly Then when he was forbidden to pray For that People And our Saviour had a Great Portion Given him for pouring out his Soul for sâ—n and making Intercession for Transgressors And the Great Command He ever received from his Father was to Ask Souls of him For it was not only permitted but Commanded As the Great Character by which he should be Known and Owned to be the Son of God And so it is in us also For when ever God begers a Son he gives him a Crying Praying Spirit As if he said Thou art My Son This day have I begotten Thee Nâ—w Ask of Me and I will Give thee Even as Abraham blessed God for Giving him one Great Victory by saying Lord God what wilt thou Give me However it is very Clear It was so required of Christ and expected from him As the Sâ—n. So that here we may Plead he must be More Faithful then Moses Who was Faithful indeed as a Servant But Christ As a Sâ—n. And his Great Work As a Son was This Ask of me and I will Give Thee And it was not only Commanded but written in his heart as himself saith in the 40 Psalm that he should do the Will of God and his Great Will is that he Ever be Asking Souls and what he doth Once in This he doth still and for Ever So that he is Ever Asking and Ever Receiving from his Father and ever Giving Out and This Last he counts his Greatest Happinesse For it is a More Blessed thing to Give then to Receive And he very much disappoints his Fathers End and Ayme in Sending him into the World or Raising him up from the Dead If he be not Very much in Asking of his Father For it is the Only Command he layeth on him when he brought him forth Aske of Me and I will Give thee All Nations and the Vtmost ends of the Earth And That of Solomon Open thy Mouth for the Dumb in behalf of All Appointed to Destruction was but a little Branch of the Great Law of God to Christ