In each a Court with Chimneys or Incense-Places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Keturah 715 or 721 Of 40 long and 30 broad 1200. And there was a Tower 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 round each of the four and Boylers under the Towers or Tires Attires 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 630. But the Courts 100 long and 50 broad as the old Tab. to be compared with the 5000 fed by Christ as after by Peter rancked by 100 and by 50. The front Eastward as of Old the Waters from under the Eastern Threshold to the Right hand that is Southward from the Altar And he brought me out the Track 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Northern Shaar or Shoar or Gate brought me round the Track without to the outward Gate the Track looking Before or Eastward and behold Waters running out from the Right side And in the Mans going forward with a Line in his hand he measured 1000 in or with a Cubit and he brought me through the Waters Waters of the Ankles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 191. or 751. and he measured 1000 and brought me through the waters Waters Knees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 272. 832. As alluding to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fishponds as Acts 2. and Blessings And he measured 1000 and brought me through Waters of the Loines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 540 1100. And he measured 1000 a River which I could not passe over for the Waters were Gay High or swelling Waters of Soaking Sacking or Swimming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a River which shall not be passed over And he said These Waters going out to the Eastern Roule and they go down upon the Plain or Arabia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And they bow to the Sea and going out at the Sea the Waters are healed And again They shall Bow to the Sea and there shall be aboundance of Fish and every thing shall live where the River cometh And Fishers shall stand upon it Fishing from Ein to Ein As they shall see Ein to Ein or themselves in my Eyen And these Fishers or Eins shall be to Shoot or Shut out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Harms or Charms or Armes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Curses or Nets for such Fishers of Men and Souls from the Dead Sea of Sodom also And that it is the Dead Sea of Sodom is clear by comparing it with the Great Sea uers 10. and by the places here named En Eglaim of the two Calves of Aarons Cow as the Jews speak that first Calved Eglon the little Calve and at length the Great Eagles that sucked or sacked the Carkas when it 's Spirit was Drawn out to Pella or Piell the Mouth of God But they were bid to say Take away All iniquity Receive us Graciously and we will offer the Calves of our Lips Engedi The Famous Valley where Moab Ammon and Goats of Seir gathered against Jehosaphat the Lords Judgement But the Valley of Jehosaphat in the 4th day is called Beraca the Vale of Blessing as we read in the 20. of the 2. of the 2. of Chron. to be compared with the 3. of Joel It signifies the Fountain of the Goat or Kid as the English render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the place where Saul saught David among the Rocks of the Goats But he was safe in a Sheeps Coat and Thence made the 57. Psalm And Mical saved his Life by an Image with Goats or Goats-Hair And the Spouses Locks are as Flocks of Goats more than once as alluding to the Hebrew Seirs both Locks of Hair and Flocks of Goats as Seirits of Esau. She is not afraid of his Left hand under her head She is bid to feed her Kids 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Engedi sindeth Copher Some read it Camphire But it may allude to the Goats of the great Day of Attonement which is also Copher to Cover All Transgressions as Solomon speaks of Love And Noahs Ark was made of Gopher and covered with Copher And the very Mercy-Seat was called Caphoreth and the Veile by turning it Parocheth whence perhaps Parochie Pariche Parish And the very Lake of Sodom is famous for Copher The Prophet Joel closeth his Discourse of Judgement in the Valley of Jehosaphat with the Sun and Moon or two Witnesses being darkned and the Lords Roaring and shaking Heaven and Earth as in Amos and Haggai and then the holy Jerusalem where no strangers in Zachary Cananites shall abide or passe through her more And than the Mountains shall drop New Wine the Vintage and Feast of Tabs and the Hills Milk and the Rivers of Judah shall flow as in Harvest Jos. 3. 15. And a Fountain from the Lords House shall reach through Jordan and the Dead Sea to Sittim That notorious Vale of Peor where their Lust destroyed 24000 as the 24 Hours of the Day and brought up a new Race of Witnesses both in Priests and Princes For the old ones were hanged up before the Lord and an everlasting Priesthood and Covenant of Peace setled on Phineas for turning away the wrath of God by his Zeale in slaying Zimri and Cosbi Lies Treason For Had Zimri Peace who slew his Master But Sittim also must be Healed by the Holy Waters And it helped also to build a Synagoge or an Ark made of Sittim Wood. And the Sittah Tree must come to see and know and consider that the Holy One of Israel hath Created it as Esay 41. In Zechary Those Holy Waters are parted East and West to both the Seas The great One in the West and the Dead Sea of Sodom in the East Which yet was before the Face of God as the Temple stood And the Fire and Brimstone as the Lake of Soodm in the Revelation were before the Throne of God and his Lamb. As the Molten Sea in the Temple But it is said also there shall be no more Sea as no more Curse but as a Sea of Glasse Harping which may allude to the Sea of Cinereth the Harp which is severall times in the Revelation and the New Jerusalem as Pure Glasse The last Resolution of Bodies And He that can makeit rightly Malleable or can Manage the true Asbeston or live on Hearbs need not much soft Rayment But the Hie-places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Bushes Vitches or Witches Bitches or Beasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and such as shall not be Healed shall be given for Salt For every one shall be Salted with Fire and every Fire Offering in the Law must be salted with Salt Have salt in your selves and let your speech be savoury seasoned with salt and peace one with another And he caused me to turn How Gracious to the Lip of the River May it not be Daniels River of Time also where we have both the Heels of Messiah as David speaketh as alluding to Gen. 3. 15. and to Jacob named from the Heel and the Ancles also the words used for the Ends of the earth with the
Prophets and our Saviour also that God would never deal worse with any then with that Nation And the Prophet Ieremiah saith he that believeth shall never cease from giving fruit and the Psalmist that his leaves shall never quite fall off and Christ saith that he which beareth any fruit in him shall be purged that he may bear more In him is all our fruit found and in him we go in and out and still find fresh pasture and he that once drinketh of His living waters never thirsteth more or is quite dry but still findeth a fountain in him flowing up to Eternal Life And St. Paul saith If thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the Dead thou shalt be saved For which also he citeth two great Prophets Isaiah and Joel which is cited also by St. Peter in his first publique Sermon For whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved For this Jesus is Lord of All even Davids Lord also and Rich unto All that call upon him And Paul also saith that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost Which was oft no little stay to one I sometime knew in great anguish fearing the good Spirit had forsaken him And to all that so acknowledge Christ for their Lord and as their Lord worship him as the Psalms bid us and call upon him the same Apostle saith that no temptation comes but common unto man And that God is faithful and will not suffer them to be Templed above their strength but with the Temptation will provide an Issue that they may be able to bear it Which is also the last Petition in Our Lords Prayer and so sure to be granted And to All so acknowledging Christ St. John saith If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse And to All such he saith If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father even Jesus Christ the Righteous and he is the Propitiation for our sin and not for ours onely but for the sins of the whole World which are some of the sweetest places in the Bible and belonging to All that call on Jesus of Nazareth which I see you do And to All such and therefore to you also St. Paul the great Teacher of the Gentiles writeth as from God in Heaven and his Son Jesus the Judge of all men and Angels also that if we judge our selves as I see you do we shall not be judged by him which is one of the greatest and highest Prerogatives or Royalties a mortal man can be capable of The Jews speak of it as one of the first things delivered by God to Moses and by him to Joshua and so down through all their Elders and Wise men in all ages to be Slow to judge or very slow in judging and it is one of the greatest and most difficult things in the world to be a righteous Judge in any matters of concernment more of our selves and yet more in matters of another world and yet most of all for all eternity so far above our sence and reason also that we know not how to guess about it but by Revelation The great thing foretold of Christ in the Psalms and Prophets is That he was to be the great and most supream Judge of all Persons in all Causes Which we might track through all the Bible up as high as Enoch Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints to execute judgement upon all c and for this he received a most solemn Commission and was fitted and filled also with the spirit of Wisdom Knowledge Understanding Councell Power and Fear of-the Lord yea to make him very quick or tender in the Fear of God that he might judge righteous judgement And this was one great reason of his being made Man that he might be our Peer and an equal daies-man between God and us that should not make us afraid with his Terror when he judged us it being so consonant to Reason and to Scripture also that the Power Legislative Judiciall and Executive should be in distinct persons and run in distinct Channels God would have it so in himself also and came out in the person of the Father giving the Law though indeed the Free persons that receive and submit even the Law-takers are the great Law-makers But the Sonne is the Judge and the Spirit executes his judgements For the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgement to the Son that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father For as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself and the Son quickneth whom he will and hath given him authority to execute judgement also because he is the Son of man Jesus Christ therefore being the great and only Judge having all judgement committed to him no man may pre sume to make himself a Judge or take it on him but when Christ committeth it and then onely As he commandeth and directeth Let me therefore first desire you to consider that you run not on a Premunire or be Anti-christian or a Traitor against the main office of Christ while you judge your self or any other for who hath made you a Judge or a divider If you say Christ hath bid you judge your self you must be sure of your Commission that you have it and can read and understand it also For his own general rule out of his own mouth was Judge not that ye be not judged And he that taketh upon him to judge and condemn another or so much as to think evil of his neighbour and t' is worse of a stranger whom he knoweth not speaketh evill of the Law and judgeth or condemneth the Law yea and it may be the Law-maker also And though Christ did promise first to his twelve Apostles Judas also it seems being among them that they having followed him in the Regeneration should sit on twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel And afterwards even after his last supper before his death he said to them Yee are they which have continued with me in my Temptations and I appoint you a Kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me that you may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom and sit on Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel there being then also it seems twelve with him and so Judas also though Saint John saith he went out immedately after the sop Yet this was not to be till he himself was to receive his Kingdom and As he did receive it at his Fathers hand and appointment which was not till after Death and Resurrection and Ascention to his glory Then he received gifts for men and for the Rebel also Then and not till then he gave out the Spirit which was not to be
it And our experience may shew us that some times we think to speak to God and we find our selves such strangers to him or at such a distance that we flie to Christ and cry Lord shew us the Father and Lord teach us to Pray as John taught his Disciples Yea and better too as Thou art a better Teacher At another time it may be we bow down and think to speak to Christ and then perhaps we find a damp upon our spirits unto him and some estrangement from him so that we flie to the Father and cry Good Father shew us Thy Son Draw us to thy Son yea draw us heartily that so we may know him more and better then ever for we are strangers to him And I have known some that usually began their prayers unto Christ or at least bowed their spirits silently to him before they spake to God and desired Christ both to help them expresse their own wants and then also present them to His Father Praying in them to His Father while they bowed in his spirit crying as he bad his children say Abba Father for all persons and for all things they ought or might pray for which perhaps are more then they are Tied to and so usually they concluded with the plainest sence rather than words of the Lords Prayer Which also seemeth to have been a more ancient custom in the Church than only of late when some discoursed only what they wanted or would beg of God Which yet I should not disallow if done with such an Heart and life and Power and Spirit as it may and yet I hope it will be done among the Churches of Christ. But I may sum up all in this the good Father by the Holy Ghost in his Ordinances first breaks the Match to the Virgin soul and shews her great want of an helper in her wretched and forlorn estate He tells her also he hath a Son who will use her kindly and tenderly if she will accept him Then he sends the Son a woer and till all be agreed for portion and joynture and other things the Treaty is much with the Father who also giveth assurance of his hearty consent to the match and to his making good all the Son shall promise and indeed is as it were his Sons surety to the poor soul. And when the Son is admitted yea and contracted he still useth his Fathers Name and bids the spouse be confident of all his Father ever promised And if there do arise any doubt or scruple in the matter or manner of contract dowrie or the like the soul hath not onely leave but most great encouragement to go and speak to the Father as also to reconcile any difference or strangenesse that at any time shall rise or seem to be between the parties But when they be married or espoused the Son useth her so sweetly and kindly that she never hath occasion much lesse cause to complain to the Father which yet she might freely do upon any cause but she is so wholly taken up with the spouses affection and most hearty love that her main converse and solace of her life is with Him Though she often ask her Father Blessing and very often bow to him with most child-like Reverence and dutiful Love rather then fear which if servile or slavish is exceeding much displeasing unto God and Jesus Christ and to the true genius of a Christian established with a free Noble Royal spirit Have we not a Type and Emblem of this or somewhat more in Caleb and his son and daughter Achsa Caleb As the Heart it signifies and may shadow out the Heart of God whom he wholly followed with an honest plain upright which in scripture Language is a perfect heart He saith who ever conquers Kiriath Sepher which may note the book of scripture which was also called Dehir that is the Oracle shall have my Daughter and my blessing with her Othniel conquers it and afterwards is made a Judge and saves his people from the cruel Tyrant and he getteth Calebs Daughter Who first moveth her Husband to ask a field of her Father and afterwards freeing her self from her Asse or bestial nature she boweth her self to her Father and asks him in her own person saying O my Father Thou hast given me a piece of Earth O but give me thy Blessing with it and a spring of Water So he gave her both the Upper and the Lower Springs An History so repeated in the Bible that I have often thought some great matter is in it Besides that it cleerly shews us the Heart of God such an infinite Fountain still flowing up and flowing over that he is so far from being drawn dry by our sucking or from being displeased at our Asking and Begging of him that he expects rather that all we have received from him even by his Sons Asking should but encourage us yet to ask more and more still as we receive more from him And when he hath given us a Field or a piece of Earth He expects we should ask his Blessing even the rather and the Springs of Water Even as our Father Abraham when God came to him after his great deliverance from the four great Kings which may be Types as their names import of the four great Monarchies that should captive his people and the good men of the world also till He should bring back their Captivity and the Captivity of Sodom also to be paralel'd with the 16. of Ezekiel just before the appearing of Melchizedech resembling Christ in his second Coming Pursuing them to Dan even to the great Judgment as the place imports And when God might so justly expect that Abraham should have been bowing down in great Thankfulness for That deliverance Abraham saies not a word of That but is Begging a new boon O the mans confidence and cries Lord God what wilt thou give me as if he had received nothing yet or at least very little in comparison of That he knew the Infinite Heart of God still had for him and was straitned till it was more drawn and sucked And the Mothers Breast is somtimes so full that she is glad of a strangers child to suck that which her own child cannot master And when it might have been expected of the Daughters of Zelophehad that the modesty of their Sex should have kept them silent or the shame or sorrow which they should have born for their father being cut off in the Wilderness and dying in his sin and they left Orphans and Virgins Yet they sue for their Inheritance And the Lord heard it and it pleased him so that upon this occasion he Enacted a new Law very beneficial to Women who had therefore much cause to remember and bless the memory of these Daughters And God was so far from upbraiding them or their father that he answers They have well done or well said and rightly too in what they say in that they do not judg themselves unworthy
given while he was not glorified Or till he was exalted and set on the right hand of God and made a Prince and a Saviour for to Cive repentance and remission of sins Nay he never speaks of himself as a King or Judge till his second coming Being as himself said to go a great journey to receive a Kingdom and after a long time to come again and call his servants to account And if the wicked servant shall say in his heart My Lord delayeth his comming and shall begin so much as once begin to beat or strike his fellow-servants for the Lords servant must be gentle towards all and be no striker when he shall but begin to strike his Master will come when he looketh not for him and will cut him asunder and give him his portion with Hypocrites the Doom of Antichrist who thus took on him so before his time to sit and rule and judge before his master gave him power or leave or indeed was come to sit and reign and judge in his own Person Which was not till other Thrones be cast down or set as we read in Daniel and the Revelation For he must sit at his Fathers Right hand till all his enemies be put under him and then his Throne and Judgement shall sit and judgement shall be given to them also that shall sit with him who still called himself the Son of man and never a King or Prince or Judge till That Comming and That judgement And then he saith They shall see the Son of man come in the Clouds with great power and glory and when you see those things and that sign of the Son of Man comming in the Clouds Then know the kingdom of God is come even at the very doors Then and not till then it is come actually come and till that time but comming and he bids us pray and say Thy Kingdom come And then shal the Son of man send forth his Angels which before he called his Fathers Angels and the holy Angels now His Angels the Son of Man shall send forth His Angels and they shall gather out of His Kingdom which is Then his Kingdom all things which offend and them which do iniquity And then and not till then the Son of Man shall sit upon the Throne of glory and then the King shall say to them at his Right hand and again the King shall answer them But to the goats at his left hand He shal say he saith not the King shall say as if he were only a King to the sheep or they only were members of his Kingdom but to the goats he saith Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels For as the Son of Man hath his Angels so the Devil hath his Angels also of which we read again in the Revelation Where as also in Pauls great charge to Timothy several other Texts of Scripture we read of his Kingdom joyned or annexed to his second comming or appearing again after his Ascention at which time he was asked If he then would restore the Kingdom unto Israel which he doth not deny but waveth only forbidding their curious prying into times and seasons which the Father yet had kept so secret that the Son then knew them not but had them afterwards it seems by Revelation Which God gave him also to shew unto his servants unto whom he saith it was given to know the secrets or the mysteries of that Kingdom and to search them out also by that Spirit which was given to make known the things which were freely given them of God yea and to search the hidden Depths or Baths of God as that Apostle saith who also tells us The natural man believeth not the things of God or of the Spirit of God nor can he know them being only discerned spiritually And no man can so much as see the Kingdom of God till horn again of that Spirit which the World as such neither knoweth nor receiveth but it is promised to the World also and to convince the world also and when a worldly carnal man is born again of the Spirit and so made Spiritual then he also judgeth all things but himself is judged of no man Nor may any man judge another man or any person whatsoever or can judge himself rightly till he be made spiritual and so fitted by Christ the great and only Judge of all Causes and of all Persons And to whom and in what cases Christ committeth this Prerogative of judging either themselves or others I know not any hath declared better then Saint Paul in divers places of the same Epistle But as Christ gave that general rule Judge not according to appearance and then surely we may not judge things that appear not or things of another world and for all Eternity Whereas the Wise man saith A man cannot know Love or Hatred and much less Eternal Love or Hatred by all before him or appertaining to him So Saint Paul giveth us that generall Rule Judge nothing even nothing at all before the time That is as himself addeth Till the Lord come For his comming is the time of judging and his Kingdom as we have seen from that Apostle and from many other scriptures And I would to God your time were come that you might judge and reign that we might reign also But the Kingdom of God and this judging also is not in word but in Power As our Lord taught us Thine is the Kingdom the Power and Glory And in the Revelation Now is salvation and strength the Kingdom of God and Power of his Christ for the Accuser of our Brethren is cast down For Christ also maketh the kingdom of God to be a Power to cast out Satan by the spirit or finger of God and when Judas was gone out as a Type of Satan or Antichrist he saith Now is the Son of man glorified and God glorified in him And so Christ said Some standing there should not taste of death till they saw the Kingdom of God come with Power Which another Evangelist expresseth by the Son of man comming in his Kingdom And S. Pet. One of the Eye-witnesses of that glorious Transfiguration which was an Emblem or preludium to his Kingdom calleth it The Power and coming of our Lord Jesus And himself being asked if he would restore the Kingdom bad them stay till they received Power from on High or the Power of the Holy Ghost coming on them which he also calleth the Promise of the Father For the Spirit of Promise which is to be given to all the Lord shall call yea to be poured out on all flesh is called by Esay the Spirit of Power and it is so observed of them that received it in the Acts that they were full of the Holy Ghost and Power And Saint Paul also calleth it a spirit of Power and Love and of a sound mind and saith he came with demonstration of the Spirit and of
Power And again when you meet with my spirit and the Power of our Lord Jesus Christ. That this was a Judging Power is plain by all that Chap. speaking of casting out and judging them which are within while God only judgeth them that be without And in the next Chapter Do you not know The Saints shall judge the world Are you not worthy then to judge the smallest matters Know ye not that we shall judge Angels how much more things that pertain to this life Set ye them to judge who are least esteemed in the Church Is there not a wise man among you not onethat is able to judge between his Brethren And in that very Chapter you presse so much against your self he saith Judge in your selves Is it comly that a woman pray to God uncovered And of their Church-meetings he saith If ye speak with Tongues speak by two or three at most but if ye Prophesie do it by two or three at the least for so seems the opposition and let the others judge For you may all Prophecy and you should all desire earnestly and pray that you may Prophecy even above all other spiritual Gifts but it must be in order and not confusion while some Iudge and still the spirit of all Prophets are subject to the Prophets both old and now also while you be in Churches you must keep Church Order and your spirits must be subject to the Prophets before you and among you also But of the Sacrament he saith You must here Iudge your selves and be not concluded by others Judgement But let a man examine himself and so let him eat and drink For He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh Damnation or at least Judgement to himself and for this cause are many weak and sick and many sleep For If wee would judge our selves we should not be judged but when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the World Which is one of the most sweet and comfortable places in the whole Bible as before we observed in this Epistle also about Temptation Which also may and should comfort you So far are you from being condemned as you think by God who will never confirm or execute any wrong judgement though you give it against your self And yet you should be tender how you judge your self unworthy of Eternal Life which is the free gift of God least the spirit say as Paul and Barnabas to the Iews Seeing you put the Gospel from you and judge your selves unworthy of Eternal Life Lo we turn to the Gentiles But if you judge a wrong judgement God is so merciful and just also as not to confirm it And if you judge Rightly you are so far from being so wretched and miserable as you think your self that you are one of the happiest men in the World and not onely still under the gracious Spirit of Promise convincing you ofsin and also of righteousnesse setting up Christ in you and making you bow and long for him but also receiving from him one of the greatest and highest gifts possible which is a right Judgement and a power and priviledge to judge your self the hardest and highest work in the world so that you never shal be judged by the Lord. A Royalty not given unto any but the Kings and Princes or first-born of Jesus Christ his Churches as at Corinth or the members of them or such as are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints and to such as in any place call upon the Name of Jesus Christ the Lord both theirs and ours as I hear and see and know you do And therefore I pronounce it written to you also as a letter from Heaven or the Throne and Heart of God in Jesus Christ our Lord and yours whom you so call upon and trust in For how could you call upon Him if you had not believed on him As you may read in the Tenth of the Epistle to the Romans compared with the beginning of the first Epistle to the Corinthians which we now speak of Nor do I wonder Paul should put such a stresse upon calling on Christ when by his own experience and observation of all Christians he had found it the great Badge of a Christian and the greatest Character he could well expresse of one taught and drawn by God to come to Jesus Christ who though the Mediator to God yet indeed is the end also of all the Teaching and Drawing of the Father which I will therefore on this occasion more largely insist upon as one of the greatest and sweetest things I can declare to you especially in this great hour of darknesse and temptation When Paul saw Stephen the first Martyr stoned consenting to his death and standing by keeping the clothes of them which stoned him he might easily observe and remember that he died calling on Jesus Christ and saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit And again kneeling down he cryed Lord lay not this sin to their charge and saying this he fell asleep He might very well wonder that in the very Infancy of Christian Religion any could so quickly speak and pray to Christ and that also with such courage and boldnesse as daring to die in it and to desire no other rest or happinesse then that Jesus only should receive his spirit and forgive his stoners Doubtlesse it could not but take deep impression in so wise a man as Paul or Saul was And so it seems it did for presently he went and got a Commission from the Rulers to bring bound to Jerusalem all that he should find calling on Jesus Which he could not but see a most distinguishing Character between Jews and Christians for the Jews also called on God but the Christians only called on Jesus Christ and by that character he might easily discern who were only Jews and who were also Christians and so binde All he found calling on Christ. And when Christ appeared to Ananias in a vision he bad him Enquire in the house of Iudas Which we may consider again when we see Paul rising up in the room of Iudas and of Saul also being of the same Tribe much about a Thousand years after David that is Love had cast him out and bound him up as Satan must be bound for a Thousand years and then perhaps struck down as Saul here was by fire from heaven Saul also signifying Hell or the Grave and so might well be an Emblem of Satan which is the very Phrase used by David of Abishai to which Christ also might allude when he called Peter Satan And when Ananias or the Lords grace was sent by Christ to look out Saul he said Lord I hear he hath authority to bind all that call on thy Name To which Christ replyed Go for he is a chosen Vessel to bear my Name to the Gentiles and to Kings and the children of Israel though the Jews shall reject and persecute him yet he shall bear
Jesus Christ be with you all Which he wrote with his own hand it seems in all his true epistles From Antioch Paul and Barnabas came to Iconium and there spake boldly in the Lord which gave Testimony to the Word of his Grace granting signes and wonders to be done by their hands And returning again to Antioch and other places confirming the souls of the Disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God which St. Matthew onely calleth the Kingdom of Heaven and ordaining them Elders in every Church praying with fasting they commended them to the Lord Iesus in whom they believed Thence coming up to the Counsel at Ierusalem they there declared the Miracles and Wonders God had wrought by them among the Gentiles where Iames whom Paul calls an Apostle and so Peter also owned him as chief among the Brethren in the twelfth of the Acts which tells us before of Herods killing the Apostle Iames discourseth of Gods promise to raise up the Tabernacle of David that the residue of men might seek after the Lord and all the Gentiles upon whom My Name is called saith the Lord even Jesus who doth all these things For we may generally observe that by Lord especially where distinct from God they mean the Lord Jesus who is Lord of All as St. Paul to the Romanes and rich unto All that call upon him and we have but one God the Father and One Lord Christ Jesus And to Him the Apostles and whole Church prayed at the Election of Matthias calling him the Lord Jesus and then set two saying Thou Lord that knowest or searchest the Hearts of All men the proper character of Christ as he writes to Thiatyra all the Churches shall know that I search the reins and hearts and that also as God Man for as God only he need not search our Hearts From that great Counsel It seemed good to the Apostles and Elders with the whole Church to send chosen men with their beloved who had hazzarded their lives for the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ Barnabas and Paul For the Holy Ghost setteth Barnabas generally before Saul and often also before Paul which name is not given him till he taught Sergius Paulus that prudent Roman Governour Assaying to go into Bithynia the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them for so it is read in some of the best copies At Philippi called by a man of Macedonia in a vision Paul meets a Damsel possessed with a spirit of Divination tho she cried These men are the servants of the most High God which shew unto us the way of salvation For an evil spirit may preach true Doctrine but Paul being grieved turned and said to the spirit I command thee in the Name of Iesus Christ to come out of her and he came out the same hour And on this being beaten and cast in prison and there loosed at midnight to the Trembling Jayler they say Believe on the Lord Iesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house Thine House also Even as salvation came to Zacheus House also when to him and to Lydias Houshold also when to her At Ephesus finding certain Disciples they were baptized in the Name of the Lord Iesus Which seems equal therefore to the name of Father Son and Holy Ghost for the Apostles were commanded to baptize in the Name of Father Son and Holy Ghost and yet they did it in the Name of Christ onely and no wonder For the full latitude or fulnesse of the god-head dwelt in Him and there is no other God but in him and one with him and therefore he that sees him sees the Father also and he that worships him worships the Father also and him that serves him will his Father honour as himself saith and by consequence him that prayes to him which a great piece of worship and service He is thy Lord Worship him as the Psalmist to the Spouse or whole Church which therefore prayeth unto him all along the Canticles and Revelation also where the Bride or whole Church and Spouse of Christ and the Spirit also prayeth to Him saying Come Lord Iesus When Paul had laid his hands on the Twelve Disciples also of the Gentiles at Ephesus which then might be the head of the Gentiles and the first that received an Epistle from Christ in the Revelation the Holy Ghost came upon them and they spake with Tongues and Prophesied as the Twelve Apostles at Pentecost To which also Saint Paul seems plainly to allude in the first Chapter of his Epistle to that Church at Ephesus or to the Saints there and faithfull in Christ Jesus as he styleth them and not a Church as at Corinth and other places Some Vagabond Jews adjure evil spirits there in the Name of Jesus whom Paul preacheth and the evil spirit answering Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are you and leaping beat them through the man possessed Whence fear fell on them all and the Name of the Lord Jesus was magnified As we read at the close of that History Acts 19. At Miletus calling the Elders from Ephesus also most pathetically he discourseth how for divers years he had served the Lord Jesus among them with all humility of minde and with many tears and temptations testifying both to Jewes and Greeks Repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. But none of these troubles move me nor count I my life dear to me so I may finish my course with joy and the Ministry which I have received of the Lord Iesus to testifie the gospel of the grace of God even of the grace of God And now I know that ye all among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God shall see my face no more And yet that he came after this also again to that very place is probable or certain from his leaving Trophimus at Miletus sick in the 2. to Tim. who now went with him to Jerusalem Acts 21. 29. Or shall we say he was deceived when from Rome also he wrote to so many neer those countreys that he trusted to be given to their prayers and to come to them again O how watchful must a good man be least his own spirit rise too much with the true Spirit of God or least the Envio us one sow Tares with the good mans Wheat And when Agabus had bound his hands and feet with Pauls girdle he saith What mean you to weep and to break my heart For I am ready not only to be bound but to die also for the Name of the Lord Iesus Then they ceased saying The will of the Lord that Lord be done From Jerusalem where he spake often of that Name and in it and of praying to it as I observed before he is brought by a dangerous Voyage and shipwrack to Rome It is no sign that a man is out of the way or not sent by God or called
fulness of Christ. And concludes that Epistle Peace be to the Brethren and Love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Grace be with All them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity Amen So to the Philippians every where Especially in that famous place of Bowing in the Name of Jesus paralel to that of the Psalm Early will I seek thee and ever will I bless thee and lift up my hands as here bow the knee in thy Name when I pray I will pray in thy Name and confesse to the glory of God which Christ challengeth to himself in the Prophet Isaiah and at conclusion The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all Amen And in the Epistle to the Colossions For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell and having made Peace by the blood of his cross by him to reconcile All things unto Himself by Him whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven Which to the Ephesians is according to the good pleasure of his will which he had purposed in himself that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather All into One in Christ All things in Heaven or Earth even in him And to the Thessalonians Now God Himself and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way to you and the Lord make you to increase and abound in Love to One another and to all men even as we to you that he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God And again That the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and ye in Him according to the Grace of our God and the Lord Iesus Christ. And again Now our Lord Iesus Christ himself and God even our Father which hath loved us for the Father is Love and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace comfort your hearts and stablish you in every good word and work And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and patience of Christ. Now we command you brethren in the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ that you withdraw from every brother walking disorderly yet count him not an enemy but admonish him as a brother Now the God of Peace himself give you Peace alwayes by all means The Lord be with you All. The salutation of Paul with mine own hand which is the token in every Epistle so I write The Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ be with you all Amen And it may also be observed that what we read be with you might be read is with you and so it is not onely a prayer but a promise and assurance that the grace of Christ is with All calling on Christ and so believing on him for how can they call on him on whom they believe not And Timothy This is a faithful saying and worthy of All Acceâ—ation as much or more then all the Mazoreth or Kabâ— that Christ Jesus came into the World to save sinners of whom I am chief Now unto the King Immortal Eternal Invisible the onely wise God which Jude also calleth Our Saviour speaking in the language of this very Text be honour and glory for ever and ever Amen Which he subjoyns on this Great Cause I obtained Mercy that in me first Iesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a patern to them even to all them that should hereafter believe on him to Eternal life So that Christ did not mainly mind Paul in shewing him that patience and kindnesse but did it to Him that he might be a patern unto others even unto all others that should ever after believe even to all Eternity And to the same Timothy he writeth Flee also fleshly lusts but follow Righteousness Faith Charity Peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart And concludes the Lord Iesus Christ be with thy spirit Grace be with you Amen The great businesse of St. Peters Epistle is to presse forward in the knowledge of Jesus Christ and so he concludes Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ to him be glory both now and for ever Amen Which also runs very much through the whole Epistle The Revelation of Jesus Christ wch God gave to him to shew to his servants is ful of prayers praises blessings of and from and to the same Jesus Who so plainly calling himself the first and the last which is and was and is to come the great Iehovah Lord God Almighty leads us plainly to the paralel places in the Prophet Isaiah where he saith the same of himself adding also that there is no other God or indeed no other True Being besides himself Representing himself in several species or Idea's For Plato was not the first that taught there was but One which yet was All. And yet again in the same chapter of that Prophet he saith Lo here I am and His spirit hath sent me even the Lord God and His Spirit though I am God and there is none besides me or none else but I and in me and One with me as the Root and every Branch is One with the Vine And in the same Prophet It is this One True God the First and the last and so All True Being which yet is sent by God and anointed by his Spirit and so the Messias or-Jesus Christ which plainly sweareth by Himself and therefore hath no greater that every knee shall bow or pray to Him and every tongue shall confess to Him which the Apostle citeth in that noted place of praying in the Name of Jesus and confessing to the glory of God even the Father also And may we add or may we not add what Christ of himself said If God be glorified in Him or in Them will not God also glorifie Him or Them with Himself Yea he will shortly do it nay he hath already done it before any other can glorifie Him for who can give him first or lend to him that it may be paid again To this also we might refer those passages of holding fast his Name and not denying his Name and confessing his Name as he will also confesse their names before his Father and the holy Angels both in the Gospels and Revelation and the call and Counsel of Christ as also the Fathers Drawing being that we come to Christ and learn of Him and buy of Him and open to Him that is still knocking to come in till his locks be wet with dew and his spirit be not onely abused but dispised and blasphemed argue much our speaking praying to him as well as hearing him who indeed is the end of the Fathers Teachings and Drawings so that he that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh wil come to Jesus Christ and converseth with him as a man with his friend whom he most loveth and honoureth also And the Angels of Heaven for they are all bid to worship him as we
read in the Psalmes and Epistle to the Hebrews with the four Watches or Watchers and the four and twenty Elders of which again when we shew all measures borrowed from the twelve hours of darknesse or the twelve sons of Ishmael and the twelve sons of Light or of Israel they all fall down and Worship Praying and singing Praises to the Lamb also even as cloathed with flesh as well as to him that sat on the Throne which yet was Christ also as is clear from many passages but Christ in more Majesty and Glory of the Deity then onely as a Lamb slain For it was the Lamb exalted and set down in Glory even in his Fathers Throne As of old the 24. courses of Priests and of Levites and of Porters or Watchers or Singers and other Officers so ordered by David who was also the 24th from Noah as the number of his Name in Hebrew and the 14th from Abraham as also his Name when written without a jod as frequently it is and signifieth love and a Fathers Brother or a very neer kindsman so in the Revelation those 24. Elders did fall down in Adoration to the Lamb even to the Lamb that was slain they had Harps it s said and golden Vials full of Odours which are the praiers of Saints Which may intimate that as our great High Priest over all the Houshold in Heaven and Earth The great Angel of the Covenant offers up his own Incence with the Prayers of all Saints to his Father So these Intercessors also to the Lamb even the Elders of Churches offer up their Churches yea and other Saints Prayers to the Lamb. For the whole Bride and the Spirit acting the Bride also do not onely converse with Christ as her Husband but Worship him also as Her Lord as Sarah called Abraham and she is so commanded in the Psalmes both to Kisse him and to Worship him And she so practiseth in the Canticles and the Revelation also crying to the last come even come and so come Even come Lord Iesus come quickly It may also be easie to shew very many if not most or all of the Prayers and praises in the Psalmes are plainly directed to Christ and many commands and encouragements to call upon him there also As He arken unto my cry my King and my God for unto Thee will I Pray my voice shall thou hear in the morning O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayers to Thee and will look up And again they that know Thy Name will trust in Thee for Thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek Thee And again Lord thou hast heard the desire of the humble Thou wilt prepare their heart and thou wilt cause their ear to hear And again Blessed be my Rock and blessed be the God of my Rock and my Saviour clense me from my secret sins and keep me that presumptuous sins prevail not over me and let the words of my Mouth and the Meditations of my Heart be acceptable in Thy sight O Lord my Rock and my Redeemer And again Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever and ride on prosperously because of Truth and Meeknesse of Righteousnesse And to the Spouse of Christ He is thy Lord Worship thou him And again Be still and know that I am God Clap hands all People sing unto God with Triumph He shall speak the people under us He shall chuse our Inheritance for us even the Excellency of Jacob whom he loved and his blessing prevailed over all the blessings of his Ancestors And again gather my Saints together and I will speak and then declares the forme of the great Judgement both to the good and evil And concludes call upon me in the day of thy trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me plainly spoken by Christ and repeated by the Psalmist afterwards Saying In the day of my trouble I will call upon Thee for Thou wilt answer me And in an other Psalm Thou calledst in trouble and I did deliver thee and answered thee in the secret place of Thunder And what time I am afraid I will trust in Thee And again Trust in him at all times ye People and power out your Souls before him And again Praise waiteth in silence for thee And to thee shall the Vow be performed O thou that hearest prayer unto thee shall all flesh come Iniquity prevaileth over me but thou hast made Atonement for our transgressions O our Jesus or our Salvation The hope of the ends of the Earth and them that are a far off in the Seas And again my lips shall ever praise Thee and and in thy Name will I lift up my hands when I pray And again Thou hast ascended up on High Thou hast led Captivity Captive Thou hast received gifts for men even for the Rebbels also that God may dwell among them And thy God hath commanded thy strength Strengthen O God that thou hast wrought c. And again In the day of my trouble I will call upon Thee for Thou wilt answer me and Thou Lord art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in Mercy to all that call upon Thee Or as St. Paul to the Romans Lord of All and Rich unto all that call upon him plainly spoken of Christ. As that also of the Lord speaking unto my Lord Sit at my right hand c. And then the Psalmist speaketh to him the Lord at Thy hand shall smite through Thy enemies and Thy people shall be a willing people in the day of thy power and the Lord hath sworn and will not repent Thou art a Priest for ever cited so remarkably in the New Testament by the Apostles and by Christ also asking the Jews who it was there or how David called him Lord. And the 102. Psalm being entituled a prayer of one afflicted when his soul is overwhelmed in him and poureth out his sighing before the Lord is plainly spoken to Christ as we see by divers verses cited in the Epistle to the Hebrews as spoken to Him and proving Him to be the Son of God and so are many other like passages cited in the New Testament and applyed to Christ. As also the context will shew speaking somewhat that belongeth properly to Christ and not to God but as he is in Christ and the Humane Nature and so he hath eyes ears heart and hands and passions also and affections which are else improperly given to God or supposed to be in him and so he descends to earth ascends on high Returning also to judge the World Which is oft spoken by David to Him he calleth Lord and King and Judge of All. But the Father judgeth no man but hath committed alâ— judgement to the Son and authority also to execute judgement because he is the son of man And often doth the Psalmist speak to a Lord or King or Judge as Job also saying I will make supplication to my Judge and my Redeemer liveth a phrase also frequently
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
unto all the Lord should call For it was then but the Feast of Pentecost or fiftieth Day of first Fruits and that but of Barley O but now we wait and hope and expect the Feast of Tabernacles also and the latter Rain as the former little drops even the greatest Feast of Tabernacles which all Nations also must keep with Israel when they shall joy as at Harvest even at the end of full Harvest when all the fruits of the Earth shall be gathered in and all Nations also shall come flowing in as the fruits of all the Earth in that solemn Feast Which was acted also in a Type as we may say of somwhat to come when in the last and great day of the many Feasts of that great Feast of all the Feast of Tabernacles Christ stood out and cryed as the Gospel saith O every one that thirsteth come unto the Waters and he that believeth on me as the Scripture saith out of his belly shall flow Rivers of Living Water as alluding both to their custom of drawing and powring out Waters from Siloam with joy from the wells of Salvation and also to the most remarkable place in Zech where all Nations are invited to that Feast that they might have Water and the Rain of Heaven And it may be he that can rightly count the time between the Feast of Pentecost and Tabernacles may guess also when that latter Rain or fuller powring out of the Spirit shall be Which in general was in the seventh Month yet by another reckoning at the end of the yeer as the seventh Day was the end of the week Even as Gods appearings and Angels also were generally towards the end of the day or about the evening Sacrifice which is one of many Reasons why I think the Lords Supper was and now should also be at Supper or at Evening rather then Morning And to all yet said to perswade us in our prayers to direct our hearts and words to Christ and to God only as he is in Christ as of old in the Tabernacle between the Cherubims of Glory over-shadowing the Mercy Seat covering the Ark I may add That Prayer is a Dialogue between our Soul and God indited by the Spirit of Christ which differeth from the Spirit of God as being That cloathed with flesh and actually united to a Humane Spirit which the Spirit of God as God or of the Father as such is not Which distinction it may be St. John observeth by the Holy Ghost in Heaven One with the Word and Father and by the Spirit on Earth or in the fleshly Members of Christ. Now as Christ in the daies of his flesh did offer up strong sighs and groans and tears and prayers yea and himself also by his eternal Spirit unto him that was able to save him and was heard in all he feared or prayed So doth he now by the same Spirit in the hearts or flesh of his Members which are here on Earth Yet so as all those Members give up their Spirit to their Head As the Elders also in the Revelation present their Vials full of Prayers of Saints to the Lamb and he as the great Angel of the Covenant mingles them with his dayly Incense in his Temple and presents them all even all the Prayers of all Saints to his God and his Father and their Father in and through him They all being indeed but his own sighs and groans or motions of his own Spirit in his Members That we may yet more cleerly understand this let us first consider how Christ prayed to his Father and then how the Christian prayeth unto Christ or to his Father through Christ. As the Apostle saith God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself so in a right sence I may say God was in Christ Praying or speaking to himself even as our Soul communes with it self or as a man communes with his own Heart a Phrase we find in the Psalms or other places of Scripture and we may use it to illustrate This. For which also I may cite that notable passage of our Saviour which I somtime look upon as one of the Keys to open and discover the rich but hidden Cabinet of the Mysterious Scripture where he doth so plainly tell us that he never said one word of himself and yet he said all that was ever said by God for he is the only Word and Mouth of God and in the Prophet Esay he tells us plainly that he said all that was ever spoken and yet now he tells us that he never spake one word of that is From Himself or of his own but of and from his Father and what He said yea and As He spake it unto Him so he repeated it Being as it seems but Gods Holy Echo to repeat those Words and only Those his Father speaketh of himself and in himself and to himself As if Christ also compared with God were such an Infant that he could not speak one sentence word sillable or letter but as God sounded it before him and In him and To him and so He only Ecchoed back some little part it may be as the latter end or loudest part of that Infinite Discourse the Father had and hath to Him from all Eternity to al Eternity Thus when God saith in and to Christ My Son Give me thy Heart Christ then as it were ruminating or repeating in himself what the Father saith He Ecchoes back Give me Thy Heart And so it sounds as a Prayer To Bow down He cries Bow down To Seek my Face Seek my Face And at length his Spirit cries in his Members also Thy Face I will seek Lord Hide not thy Face from me So that the Head only properly speaketh in Prayer but His Members draw also by the spirit of the Head resting and sighing In Them Thus we have seen a tender Mother or a Father Teaching their children to speak and do and go by speaking To them in them as it were and going bowing kissing their hand and Doing All before them and as much as they can in them That they would have them to Do and say Bow down They say and kiss your Hand and say I am your servant or the like by doing and by saying what they mean their child should do or say And then he stammers after them and after many Essaies comes at length to stumble on that gesture posture carriage word or work the Parents have been often Teaching Him or speaking In him For one may speak his heart out to a child or other person who will never learn and Do till he have the Fathers or the Teachers spirit or his meaning and his Meen by accent gesture or some other way rather than by word only impressed on him So that we see our children and such as are acquainted with our spirit can discern and understand our minde by becks or nods or looks or otherwise somtimes without words and somtimes directly against our words and quite
All in the Epistle to the Hebrews with so many repetitions as God spake it several times to Joshua That which destroyed Israel was observing the Laws of Omry or other Kings among them and leaving the Law of God which was so good and just and wise that all Nations also should say they were a wise people that had such a Law Which indeed made them the people of God and so owned by him so long as they accepted and owned his Law for their Rule And he never cast them off till they chose a stranger for their King and a New Law to govern them Yea the great badg of Antichrist which we should hate may be to place himself above the Law and think to change the Law which God hath promised to magnifie among all Nations And although it be exceeding sweet to see and know that he was made under the Suffering part of the Law In all its heavy Threatnings and its Curses also so that all the Waves of God and all his Billows rowled over him and all his Arrows did stick fast in Him and in Job David Heman Jonah but as Types of Christ and partakers of his Spirit and acting some part of his Sufferings and when God had so powred out his Anger his Soul rested his Spirit was quiet and he will be no more angry as he often speaketh as an angry person that hath vented his heat and is quiet So was he in Christ when he had born his Wrath the Fathers Soul Rested in him and his Spirit is quiet so that he can be no more angry But we may come to him as the Psalmist Lord Thou hast turned from the fierceness of thine anger and hast put away all thy wrath even All thy Wrath in Christ Why then should it lie on us thy poor Worms O Turn us therefore as thou hast turned thy self and Reconcile us also seeing Thou art Reconciled and art in Christ also Reconciling the World to thy self and not imputing sin Yet because this hath occasioned so many disputes How far and for Whom or How many he so bare the Curses of the Law I shall therefore Now rather consider the Doing part of the Law and what it required of Man to Man as well as to God There being no doubt at all that I know but that he was made under this to All and for All the Law required it So that now look what ever was required of man either to God or to man Christ was surely made and put himself under all that as his Duty to God also whose Law lay upon him and was written in his Heart also as his Pleasure Honor Joy Delight and Happiness as to be made and kept in the Image of God Though also the Suffering part would soon be cleerer to us if we did consider That the Infinite God could have no other fit and full Object of his Infinite Power and Justice or could shew the strength of his Almighty Arm the Power of his Wrath or its heavy weight in no other But himself only or his own Match and his Fellow which surely no meer finite Beeing was or could be If we therefore may imagine God could be any more Angry in Time then he was from all Eternity before the fall or sin of any Creature which sure he could not be in himself but to manifestation and as he maketh us afraid we judg him Angry Or that he had a mind or saw it requisite to shew his mighty Strength and Justice with the Power of his wrath to the uttermost yet sure he would not chuse a little Worm to shew it on or such as are much less than the dust of the Ballance or a drop of a Bucket even nothing less than nothing When he had his full Match and Fellow which his Sword might challenge when it most would wake and shew it self in all its sharpness hardness with all power and strength of that mighty Arm that held and drew and brandished that flaming Sword Which therefore none have cause to fear or strength to feel as Christ but such only as are high and strong and stout to think themselves Gods fellows or his match and so challenge him As He or she that sits as God even in the Throne of God and Temple who must therefore look to feel the Sword of God and all that take that Character which All will take whose names are not written in the Lambs Book of Life even before the Foundation of the World And yet These also shall not feel the Sword of his Hand or Arm as Christ felt it but only the Sword of his Mouth a bright two edged blessed Sword which shall scatter and pierce them so that as the Psalms and Prophets speak in several places He will speak them under him for so the Phrase is and may be so translated rather than he shall destroy or subdue them under him or under us Which Phrase of Speaking them under him even then when they have most cause to expect destruction makes me remember a notable place in the 3. of Zephany Which the Jews also have marked as one of the most especial places in all the Scripture having in one verse every letter of their Alphabet and those also that are only final as they call them with other things observable Which it may be also bids us often read and meditate upon it as One of the most notable descriptions of the mind and purpose of God even in his greatest Judgments or in that we use to call the great or last Judgment Which perhaps is There also hinted While he speaketh Thus Therefore wait upon me saith the Lord to the Day of my Rising up to Eternity which some read to the Prey for my Judgment is to gather the Nations that I may assemble the Kingdoms to powr upon them my Indignation all my fierce Anger for by the fire of my Jealousie All the Earth shall be devoured For though it seem a strange For Then I will turn to the Peoples it is plural in the Original a pure Lip or Language Is not this a Blessed Speaking of them under him That all of them may call upon the Name of the Lord with one consent or with one shoulder Or one Sechem For That is the word in the Hebrew Text being the very same with His Name that circumcised himself and All the men of his City Sechem for the Love of Dinah which also signifies Judgment and may perhaps lead us to the great or last Judgment which may circumcise more men than may be is expected and be a sore surprize or ravishment to those that think to ravish it Which should also be compared with the Judgment on Sechem in Judges But I will come rather to the plain things of the Gospel cleerly comprehended in the Doing Part of the Law Which I am therefore made to study that I may see not only my Duty to God or man but Christs Duty unto me a poor Worm sprauling
deliver them from their destructions They even They also shall praise the Lord for his Goodness and for his wonderful Works to the Children of men Which is divers times repeated in one Psalm and that also by way of Prophesie or Promise and not only by Wishing as some now translate it Though the very Wishes of the Spirit of God writing the Scripture and it 's O that all the Lords People were Prophets and O that they would hearken and had Ears to hear or hearts to do as they say And O that they would consider and Turn and O that they would confess to God or acknowledg God or praise and bless God And Let All flesh praise him and every thing that hath breath praise the Lord and the like Sighs and Groans Wishes and Prayers of the good Spirit of God in the hearts of his People especially those that wrot the Scriptures are indeed both Prophesies and Promises or very strong convincing Arguments that such things so wished prayed and desired shall be granted to men and performed in them and in all the Earth also Even as Christs setting all his People to pray that our Fathers Kingdom might come and his Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Even in The Heaven or Heaven of Heavens is a very strong argument and great assurance with Evidence that It shall be so Even in Earth as it is in Heaven Yea and it is very usual in Scripture first for the Spirit to express its sighs and groans and ardent desires and longings for a thing and afterwards we read it prophesied and promised It shall be so First it cries Let All the Earth be full of thy Glory and then afterwards It shal be All full of my Glory First Let all thy Works praise thee and Then They shall All praise thee Let All Nations see thy Glory and Then All Nations and Every Eye shall see the Glory yea and the Salvation of God The Skies shall powr down Righteousness and the Earth shall open and they shall bring forth Salvation for the Lord hath created and commanded it He hath willed it and his people will it also For Concerning his Sons and his Daughters They will Ask him but concerning the Works of his Hands even All the works of his Hands They may and will and shall as they are bid command him And shall do the same works yea and Greater also than ever Christ did Then on Earth For he did but begin but Begin to do and Teach as we read in the beginning of the Acts and hath left All to be finished by his Servants after him who for This is gone to the Father and set down at his Right Hand and so hath Power or must and shall have Power over All the Works of his Hands And hath he received All that Power in Heaven Earth for Destruction or for Edification I trust verily for Edification and not for Destruction As S. Paul spake of His. So it is and much more and better much I hope in JesusChrist seeing that he can heal us if he will as the poor Lepar said and can quicken whom he will as himself saith why should we doubt his Will seeing with us it is one of the lowest steps of Grace and Goodnesse to be Willing to be Good and Graceful Yea and as Good and full of Grace as we can be and have any Power to be Why may we not hope it so in Christs Will also Is it Lesse and Narrower or Worse and Weaker then his Power Is his Heart Narrow as Mine is And his Bowels straitned also Or his Eye Evil and his Heart Envious also That he will not give or do or cannot abide to see the Good he might both See and Do and Give and Work very easily in us by that Power he hath received and the Gifts he had for Rebels also I have sometimes thought it might be better much and more Ingenuous farr to think our Saviour Weak or quite unable to do what he would then wilful or unwilling to do what he can for Good The one doth but make him Weak as a man the other Evil Envious or Malicious as a Wicked Man or Devil Or an Hypocrite that makes a great shew of Grace and good in his Face as the Heb Canaph or Knave is one that hath Grace which in Heb is Can ap-pearing But not in his Heart Or one that can but will not be Gracious Or makes a shew of Good without an Heart to it or a will to be so Good as easily he might if he would Especially when I plainly see Christ founding his Calls and Invitations of the Gospel on this very Botom and Foundation That he hath All Power given him by his Father and All things So in Saint Matthew All things are delivered to me of my Father Come unto me All ye that Labour and are heavy Laden I will givey ou Rest. Come Learn of me for I am Meek and Lowly even as Good in Heart as in Head or Arm or any Power whatever And you shall find Rest to your Souls And again at his Resurrection and before his Ascention All Power is Given me both in Heaven and Earth Therefore go Preach Do not fight or force though I have All Power and you shall have it also for I will be with you to the end of the World And therefore Preach And so also before he Cured a Poor Man that was borne by others and had no Tongue or Heart that we read to speak for himself Or it may be Faith to believe or expect it for it is said Christ seeing Their Faith not His but Theirs he said Son be of Good Chear Thy sins be forgiven thee and moved with Compassion also Healed him as divers also that were onely in his Sight though they said nothing for themselves and he never denyed any for themselves or others and This was That he might shew the Son of man had Power even power on Earth also to forgive sins And hath he lesse Power in Heaven Or lesse Heart to use it Seeing he is Exalted and set at the Right Hand of God and so hath Power over all his handy Works and made a Prince and Saviour for this very end and purpose that he may Give Repentance and Remission of sins to All that Ask and Wrestle for it as the Seed of true Seekers and that Brood of Travelers as Jacob who by seeking so and wrestling did become a Prince with God and Thence was called Israel And the Lord delighteth to call himself The God of Israel Though it might make him blush more then any Name or all the Names in all the Bible were not his Heart rather better then his Strength and Power was For every time he calls himself the God of Israel he remembers How a Poor Weak Frail Halting Man Overcame him at his own Weapons For he set upon him and was overcome and could not go he would not let him go till
It shall be so Amen For the whol Earth also must Rest and keep its Sabboth And not only the Land of Israel which was but as the First Fruits of the Earth and That had such a strict Command of observing Sabbatical Years that they must stay so many yeers in Babylon as the Land should have kept Sabboths by the Law while They were in it As we may find in that remarkable Discourse of God on Mount Sinai in the 25 26. of Leviticus which I have somtimes thought not only the Epitome of the whole Law but the Foundation of the Gospel also to be very often considered Yea and the Wilderness shall be as Lebanon and Carmel Yea Every Tree of the Forest shall clap hands and sing and rejoyce in praising God As we read in many places of the Psalms and Prophets Yea and the Gospel must be preached to every Creature under Heaven and the whole Creation longeth and travelleth for it is now made subject to Bondage but in Hope for it shall be delivered from the Bondage of Corruption into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God For God is able even of stones to raise up sons to Abraham Whose seed must be as the Dust and more than all the stones of the Earth And we also can dayly Turn Plants and Beasts yea and Pearls and other stones also into our own selves and our spirits so as that they give us also a New spirit and refresh and joy our souls yea and the Heart of God also as Jotham saith in That remarkable Parable of the Trees choosing them a King How much easier is it for an Infinite God to Turn All these into himself and his own Image by his Spirit making All things New as they All came out first from him and must All return to him For of him and from him and To him are All things From the Throne of God and his Lamb when His Kingdom comes shall issue out Waters of Life Yea to the Sea also even the Dead Sea and they shall bring Healing with them And where ever the Waters come there shall be Life and Healing For the very Leaves of the Trees on the Banks of those Waters shall serve for Healing os the Nations even of the Gentile Nations And the VVilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them and the Desert shall rejoyce and blossom as the Rose It shall rejoyce abundantly with joy and singing The Glory of Lebanon shall be given to it The Excellency of Carmell and Sharon They shall see the glory of the Lord and the Excellency of our God Yea All the Earth shall Rest and Rejoyce and be full of the Glory of God as Waters fill up the Sea And Then the Lord shall be called the God of All the Earth and the Possessor of Earth as well as Heaven Which was the phrase used by Melchizedeck in blessing Abraham when he had pursued the four Monarchs or four Monarchies to Dan even to Judgment and brought back the Captivity of Sodom also of which we read in several places Although Sodom was so accursed and made a Perpetual Desolation that it is a Type of Hell or of the worst Judgments in all the Bible Yet even Sodom must return again and her Daughters And when our Lord Jesus Exulted in spirit as he saith Abraham did to see his Day he said I bless thee Father Lord of Heaven and Earth even of the Earth also as of Heaven as alluding to that Blessing of Melchizedecks at the return of Sodoms Captivity And the Revelation tells us that when the seventh Angel sounded there was great Voyces or Joy in Heaven saying The Kingdoms of this world are become the Lords and His Christs and he shall reign for ever and ever And the twenty four Elders blessed God that yet at length he had taken to him his great Power and reigned and the Nations were Angry and thy Wrath is come and the time of the Dead that they should be Judged and that thou shouldest Reward Thy Saints c. and shouldest destroy them which destroy the Earth And Then the Temple of God was opened in Heaven c. Where before the twenty four Elders and the four Watchers also had blessed the Lamb that They should come even out of Heaven to Reign upon the Earth even upon the Earth As if the Earth should be the Centre also to All the Glory of God and that it should be more and greater on the Earth than it is in Heaven And yet it may be remembred that from the very first sin of Adam in Paradice the Earth was the Great that I say not the Only Object of the Curse of God The Serpent it self was not Absolutely Cursed but above all Cattel and above every Beast of the field And when the Earth shall be New moulded yet Dust shall be the Serpents meat as we read Esay 65. Adam must labor and sweat the Woman must be in subjection and bring forth in pain but not a word of Cursing them For God had loved them and Blessed them Yea and they shall be Blessed But the Ground is Cursed for Mans sake and in sorrow must he eat thereof All the daies of his life Yea it shall bring forth thorns and thistles and when Nothing else comes after Dews and Rain of Heaven It is nigh unto Cursing as we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews And when the Cursed Earth had also drunk up the blood of Righteous Abel every word of our Savior is Remarkable Then Cain the Murderer as every One is that Hateth his brother was also Cursed from the Earth but not from Heaven that we read and yet a Sacrifice was provided and laid at his door for sin that he may have Dominion over it Though I shall not here dispute the Jews Tradition that Cain also was saved Or that the Earth it self was cursed as a Type of our Heart or somwhat in us more spiritual than our fleshly Heart which is a Metathesis of Earth as in Hebrew of Babel which is Lebab the Heart turned backward And an Heart turned back from God is but Babel Confusion As the Earth which the Lord cursed Bringing forth nothing but Thorns and Thistles yet its Conception is greatly multiplied and its sorrow But I must not here shew How our Body represents the whole World with its three Regions of Heaven above in our Head and the Earth below in our Heart with its Pericardium of Waters compassed with the Lungs as the Air separate by the Firmament of the Midriff from the Heaven above in the Head and the Waters under the Earth in the Bowels which in Heb are expressed by the same word with the Waves of the Sea whose Rowlings and Ebbings and flowings are much akin to the motion and yearnings of our Bowels And in Scripture the off-spring of our Bowels is compared to the Sand of the Sea and the gravel thereof As the Hebrew words for the Thoughts of
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
siner Loaves at Pentecost were but the first fruits of all the Increase of the Earth which was not gathered All in till the end of all the Harvest and Vintage also about the great Feast of Tabernacles at the End of the yeer Which yet is called on the New account from Exodus the Seventh Month. Which also made every Seventh Month Holy As also every Seventh Year was especially the seventh Seventh as we shall find in the Jubilee and every seventh Week or every seventh Day or Sabboth and perhaps every seventh Hour also in each Day As we see it makes a great Turn in the Sun and Moon beginning our reckoning from Sun-set as the Jews and many other Nations did which we see Dayly attended also with a constant Ebbing and flowing of the Sea six Hours apiece in the great Ocean as we may discourse more largely in the place of Times and Seasons I might add also that although the Curse that was due enough to Man fell on the Earth in general our common Mother crying to us as Rebecca did to her son Jaacob Thy Curse be upon me my son yet there have been several places which in several Ages have been especially under this Curse and yet none of them lay so under it but that they grew up to be Blessed again Yea it may be the more Blessed because they were once so Cursed For it was not only Micha's Mother that blessed her son in the name of the Lord because she had cursed so before but even God himself doth so earnestly Remember One that he hath spoken against as himself saith to Ephraim that his Bowels do the more yern over him and it may be blesseth them more because they were formerly cursed That is under Sorrow as we find the Curse of God so rendered in the Lamentations Give them O Lord thy Curse even Sorrow on their heart And our first Parents had sorrow and sweat and pain for their portion when the Curse fel on the Earth bearing Bryars and Thorns Thistles and Nettles to express this Curse or Wrath of God as the very name of a Nettle in Hebrew may import If there be any place in all the Law more under the Curse than the Land of Canaan it seemeth to be Idumea one of the Neighbor Countries which is expressly called the People of my Curse and threatned to Perpetual desolations when the whol Earth shall rejoyce Edom must mourn and be so cursed also that it is the very Type of Hell as may plainly appear by reading the 34. of Esay It being also the Land of Him or them that God so Hated as was toucht before And yet I know not one word in all the Curse of Edom that we do not also find Inflicted and not only Threatned on Jaacob and Israel Whom God himself saith he had given or devoted to the Curse by that very phrase which is used in that place where Edom is called the People of my Curse And what more frequent than Jerusalem it self to be a Scorn Reproach and Curse yea a Curse to all Nations Yea â—nd Perpetual Desolations never to be Built again or more Inhabited And yet we find That Ever or Eternity run out at the end of seventy years Captivity in which not only the Threatnings but Curse also was accomplished and powred out as we find in that remarkable Prayer left us in the 9. of Daniel to be compared with That of the Apostle Wrath is come upon them to the uttermost and Then it is a Blessed Land again and a Blessed People and a Blessing also to the World and Nations round about For It shall come to pass that As you were a Curse to the Heathen round about so shall you be a Blessing as we read in Zechary yea and a Blessing to All Nations as the Promise is in Malachy and divers other Prophets who doth not only shew them a way how from a Curse they should come to be Blessed and a Blessing also to All Nations But in the very close of that Prophet and so of the whole Law God himself provideth a Cure for the Earth also Lest he should come and smite the Earth with a Curse Even the Earth which was That which God had Cursed so much more than Adam Yet Elijah must come lest That very Cursed Earth should be smitten with the Curse And as the Jews repeat That verse of Elijahs Coming after the last verse lest the Scripture should end in Curse so it seemeth God also meant to repeat His Coming Or to send him or his spirit Twice Or before the latter Coming of Christ as before the Former There being also Two daies of the Lord There spoken of One is called Great and so was his first Coming and the other Dreadful or Terrible which seems the Epithet of his latter Coming much rather than his former And it may be marked that after John the Baptist was dead even at our Saviors coming from his Transfiguration which was such a Type of his second Coming and Kingdom He Then promiseth that Elijah Shall first Come and Shall restore All things Which is a Proverb with the Jews to this day and was also the constant Belief and Expectation of the Primitive Church of Christians as may be shewed by a full Jury of Ancient Fathers of the Christian Church And as John the Baptists Time was called the Day-spring from on High So it may be Elijahs second Coming also before the second coming of Christ is hinted in all those Scriptures which speak of a Morning Star to appear before the Sun of Righteousness which is also the phrase used by the same Prophet Malachy who promiseth the coming of Elijah And the Revelation plainly promiseth That Morning Star in the dark time of Jesabel and in Jesabels time Elijah slew her Prophets and the Prophets of Baal and so made that great change both in Church and State that in the Revel may be hinted by a Power to break the Nations Though That phrase reach up as High as Josuab breaking the seven Nations As the Manna in the Church before may intimate their passing through the Wilderness towards Canaan And that phrase of Breaking the Nations being coupled with that Promise of Elijahs coming under the Notion of the Bright Morning Star may put us in mind of a speech of God himself to Job Hast thou considered the Day-star or the Day-spring which I have made to shake the wicked out of the Earth They shall be turned as wax to the seal c. And when the wicked are cut off Thou shalt see those Promises fulfilled that the Meek shall inherit the Earth As we read in the Psalms and in our Saviours Blessings also and the Revelation addeth to That Blessing that there shall be no more Curse No more Curse For the very Leaves of the Trees about the Waters of Life shall heal the Nations And those Waters flow out round about Even to the Dead Sea or Lake of Sodom for even
God promiseth to bring back the Captivity of Ammon as of Sodom also in Ezechiel and of Moab in the latter dayes or Time of Messiah as the Jews use to expound that Phrase of the latter Dayes And in the Tenth Generation They also may enter into the Church of God though it was threatned They should Never enter And as David was the fourteenth Generation and the fourteenth seventy Years from Abraham so was Boas the Tenth or eleventh who married Ruth a Moabite who might be the Tenth from Lot who by a former Man of Iudah was Daughter to Naomy Beauty Wife to Elimelech who had two Sons Mahlon weaknesse and Chilion consumption or perfection or Espousal who had Orpha stiffneckednesse who left her Mother The other Ruth who choosing her Mothers people and God is led to a field of Boaz and is bid stick close to his Maidens O tell me where thou feedest and restest at Noon for why should I stray and at length is bid to lie at his feet and say Thou art my Kinsman as Solomon bids us say to Wisdome Thou art my Sister And Christ is both Iachin and Boaz the Wisdom and Strength of God and so very near a kin to Elimelech my God the King see the third of Esay compared with the 7 8 17. 22. of the 23. chap. and see the Women of Moab and Ammon married to Kings of Israel and Judah And David in his straits carried his Parents to the King of Moab saying Let my Father and Mother be with you till I know what God will do for me Or as Esay Let my Out-casts dwell with Thee Moab be thou a Covert to them And in Mercy shall the Throne be established as we found before in the Psalms and Proverbs and he shall sit upon it in Truth in the Tabernacle of David judging and seeking judgement and Hasting Righteousnesse And my Heart shall Cry for Moab O the Tender Heart of God! Let his Fugitives flee to Zoar. As his Father Lot did from Sodom to Zoar which seemeth therefore to have stood in Moab on the East of Iordan and not on the West as the Tables place it And again send ye the Lamb to the Ruler of the People to the mount of the Daughter of Zion as alluding to the King of Moabs paying Lambs for Tribute to the King of Israel But about Ahabs Death Moab and Edom also brake their yoak and freed themselves from Iaacob under Iehoram the high Lord in the dayes of Elisha or God Iesus as the Name implies who had a double portion of the Spirit of Elijah the Lord my God And shall a Man be able to give a Double portion of his Spirit and That at his Parting and going away and shall not He that hath the Residue of the spirit in opposition to shear Baser the Residue of the Flesh which is so many times in Scripture Language for near Kindred or He that hath the Spirit without Limits or not by measure shall not He be able and willing also to give His Holy Spirit unto all that ask it and a Double Portion unto All his First Born Who saw and yet see him ascending and cry to him my Father my Father the Charriot of Israel and the Horsemen thereof And it may be That remarkable promise of the Spirit unto all that ask it may allude to This very History of Elijah giving his Spirit to Elisha crying my Father my Father As in Luke it is not as some read it your Heavenly Father But Your Father who is Out of Heaven or came out of Heaven And he took the Mantle of Elijah and smote the Waters saying as we may now say Here indeed is the Mantle of Elijah O but Where is the Lord God and the Spirit of Elijah and the Waters parted Hither and Thither Though I do not yet say when they so parted as before at Josuahs coming over Jordan there began an Other Generation or a New Age of the World As at first dividing the Waters by the Firmament of Heaven with the Waters above the Heavens of which in the Psalms and divers other places that I speak not of Esdras Ecclesasticus or Wisdom of Solomon And the Sons of the Prophets said the Spirit of Elijah resteth on Elisha and they bowed down or Worshipped him and afterwards he enlarged their Colledge and it may be their Spirit also The Hebrew Word Saul used in That History puts me in mind How Saul cut off the Lords Priests and How he fell and How the Jews say He was Recovered aand saved though I dare not say by the Mediation of Elias or Elisha Who they say must come and loose all knots or as our Saviour saith He must Restore All Things yea and that after John the Baptist was beheaded And some other words in That History put me also in mind How Elijah destroyed the false prophets of Baal and Jezabel and how Elisha did encourage and enlarge the True Prophets and at length by one of the young prophets annointeth Jehu which yet was given in charge to Elijah himself One of the best Texts I know for Deputations And Jehu destroyeth Jezabel who had not onely Destroyed and Corrupted the Lords Prophets and driven away Elijah and Elisha but had even quite stifled the very Spirit of Prophecy in the Seed of God as the Hebrew words Naboth in Jezreel may import Which may be compared with That of Jezabel opposed by the Bright morning Star breaking and scattering the Dark Clouds and bringing in the Morning and Our Rising and cloathing with White and fresh Linnen in fourth and fifth Churches and thâ—slaying of the two Witnesses with the Spirit of Prophecy in the Revelation And the sixth Church of Philadelphia or Brotherly Love is plainly the New Jerusalem as Christ himself expresseth in his Epistle to that Church before the General Iudgement of the People or Laodicea as the Word signifies Which may also be compared with the latter part of the eleventh and also the four last Chapters of the Revelation Where the great Judgement also is Described which the Prophets place in the Valley of Jehoshaphat whose very Name implies the Lords Judgement Which was also called the valley of Beraca or Blessing When they had troden down Moab and Ammon and Edom. Which we find also cited in the Prophets as foretelling somewhat yet to be done in the Revelation And had it not been for Jehoshaphat Elisha said he would not have seen the other two Kings met against Moab also saying Nay but hath God gathered these Kings and their people also together to Destroy them But as Jehoshaphat smarted sorely for joyning with Ahab and his Sons so They Got by His good Company In which we may see God pitying a Wicked man and Hearing his Cry and Prayer as most remarkably after he did the Prayer of Jehoahaz 2 Kings 13. 4 5 6. 23. How the Waters came at the morning Sacrifice and How he multiplyed the VViddows Oyl that was like to
before the worst of sinners And we see how gracious Christ was also to the Woman of Canaan although she were as a Dog or one degenerate into a Dog-like spirit and nature Yet the Dogs also enjoy Crumbs and in great Families and Christ is Lord of All the Family in Heaven and Earth The very Dogs have better Diet than it may be Children have in other houses And That Dog-like Woman of Canaan was received into favor and had great Grace and Faith given her though a cursed Woman under the greatest Curse both of God and Man Noah cursed her and God also cursed her so that he commanded all his people to hate and curse her Nation so that they might neither Treat with them nor seek their good all their daies Which we see how Christ observed towards her when he would not so much as Treat with her or speak to her till his Disciples as the Representatives of his Church interceded with him for her or it may be against her for the Text is somwhat doubtful Yet by Faith Her heart also is purified and there is No difference between Jew and Gentile No not a Cursed Canaanite Which might also be seen long before when the high and proud and stout Gibeonites some of the chiefest of those cursed Canaanites bowed down and though by a Wile only they got into a Covenant with Joshua a mighty Type of Jesus yet they could never be cast off No by no means by no means But when Adonizedech the Lords Justice King of Jerusalem and other Kings with him would have chalenged them back again as to have brought them back into the Curse again Joshua must not only stand up and rise early Yea and march all night in defence of these poor late accursed Canaanites but also the Sun and Moon must stand still over Gibeon and the course of Nature must be changed rather than Gibeon must be deserted or so much as left into the hand of Gods Justice in his own Throne which is Adonizedech King of Jerusalem And Gibeon is not only made one of the greatest Scenes of Gods presence a long time together as we often find in Scripture before it was Solomons greatest High Place Where God also appeared to him after such great Sacrifices in Gibeon But also This very History of the strange Works of God in defending Gibeon is made the Type of what God means to do Hereafter also I suppose for his People and his Enemies also When he shall rise up to do his great and strange Work of Gibeon or as he did at Gibeon or Mount Perazim Where also at Davids coming up the five great Lords of the Philistins rose up against him as at Gibeon the five great Kings of the Amorites or Canaanites against Joshua And about Gibeon also the great Quarrel was ended between David that is Love and the House of Saul that is the Grave or Hell Acted by Abner the Fathers Light or Understanding and by Joab his Will or Affection which were here reconciled and a New Heaven and Earth brought up As afterwards the New Jerusalem when David beat the Jebusites which had their name from Treading down for the Holy City must be Trodden down till the Times of the Centiles be fulfilled And a Type of This Fulfilling of Time might be in That when the twelve men of Joab and Abner ran through one another as the twelve hours of Day and Night and there fell down slain on Sauls side 360. For their common Year had so many Daies in it And though Saul himself was dead cut off by God because he sought to the Devil and would not seek to God as we read in Chronicles although he complained that God would not answer him But the Truth was he would not seek to God who could yet have pardoned All but he would not ask it and God therefore cut him off and for his sparing Amaleck himself was slain by an Amalachite if at least he Lyed not to David who could not be quiet in the Throne till he had also cut off the Amalachites whom Saul spared even after Sauls Death His House and Family was sorely punished and Davids Kingdom also afficted with divers years Famine for Sauls afflicting the poor Gibeonites though it were in Zeal to Israel So much doth God abhor All Cruelty and hard Usage of any poor men though in never so much Zeal for God or his Cause or any of his People Which the Lord make me and all mine and all His still to remember in all my Actions lest I afflict some poor Gibeonite in Zeal to Israel and thinking I do God good service By All which we may also learn that even Those that are most Hated or cursed by God as These Gibeonites and Canaanites were and Children of Wrath and curse as much as any Nation or People we read of Yet they may come to be Blessed and Loved by the same God who so hated and cursed them And yet He changeth not himself but Them whom he first cursed and so shut them up in guilt and sin and sorrow That their cries that is His in them might draw out his own bowels and compassions more to them by how much more he had cursed or afflicted them Which is one of the great Mysteries of the Gospel running Through the Law and the Prophets and the Curses thereof Which should teach us not to despair under the hardest and worst words God doth or ever will speak against us while we live O do not say This Evil is from God and why then should I wait or Hope on Him Yea rather make hast to bow down and Worship and seek his face as the 3d Captain to Elijah For the King of Israel is a merciful King He is a gracious God and He delighteth in those that sear him and Hope in his goodness Trembling at his Word For it is still good for a man to Hope and patiently wait for the salvation of God Let me also tell you It is an honor that God will speak to us though he do but chide us Threaten us sharply rebuke or chasten us which himself and we may call Hating or cursing us But His Frowns and Chidings and Hatings and Cursings as we may interpret them may be better than the Smiles and Loves and Embracings of the whole World besides And we do not only read him saying I have forsaken the dearly beloved of my soul as we see Christ himself was so forsaken but also that he Hated Her even the dearly beloved of his soul as we read in Jeremy and did not only strike her with an hard and sore and Cruel stroke as an Enemy but even Curse her and make her a Curse As we know he dealt with Christ himself his dearly beloved Son and as a Type of Christ with Israel Because he knew them and they should have known him above All Nations of the Earth Therefore he would punish them above All Nations So that he never
are by Thee Thou shalt not press him with Usury or be as an Userer to him nor any way Hard for if he Cry unto me I will Hear for I am Gratious and will God Hear when we cry of a man oppressing or pressing us and will he not hear us against the Devil also and our spiritual pressors or Oppressors seeing he Fxecutes Judgement for All that are Oppressed And His Word is as pure silver seven times refined from Earth sweetly applyed to this very thing If thou meet thine Enemies Ox or Ass going astray and in another place This Enemy is called a Brother which may shew us how far that Phrase of Brother or Neighbour reacheth even to an Enemy and One that Hateth us As also Christ sheweth us in his Parable of the good Samaritan and divers other places Where he tells us 't is â—a little Love to love a Friend or one that is like us or friendly to us Thankful and Kinde which even sinners and Hypocrites use to do in Their Love But his Children and Servants and himself also must love Enemies and such as hate backbite blasphem and offer all despite unkind and unthankful and all this that they may be like their Heavenly Father Who with love of delight and complacence loveth only himself and his own Image but with pitty and compassion which may be a better or a kinder kind of love he loveth and is kind and Merciful to his very enemies and those that are unlike him froward and unthankful Yea to their very Ox and Asses also even as the Law here bids in Exodus If thou meet thine Enemies Ox or Asse going astray thou shalt surely bring it back to him again If the see the Asse of him that hateth thee lying under his Burthen Thou shalt surely leave thy businesse or lay aside thy Garments to help him up or help with him Which may be improved much in our addresses to Christ. For we may justly tell him Our poor souls are as the very Asses of his Enemies and those that hate him nay yet worse as the wild Asses Colt as the Scripture expresseth it and that is more unserviceable then the Ox or Asse or other beast of burthen is I am Behemoth with thee as the psalmist expresseth it But though I stray yet Thou hast put thy self under That Law which bids us help a straying Beast and much more when he lies under an heavy Burthen under which he cannot stir much lesse come to Thee as thou callest All that are heavy laden Now sherefore shew thy pitty and compassion to the poor Asse or the poor soul the bruitish Heart of him that is thy Enemy and Hateth Thee And I know one that said He never received a more sweet and kind return from our Saviour then when in great anguish of spirit he bowed unto him crying onely This Now shew thy kindness to thy Poor Enemy the Kindnesse thou hast spoken of to a Poor Enemy which is now at thy foot and mercy whom thou hast taken captive with thy Sword and thy Bow and while I am speaking Thus I think also of That spoken by the Prophet to the King of Israel when he had so many of his Enemies at his Mercy in the midst of his great City Shall I smite them my Father shall I smite them and the Prophet answered No by no means wilt thou smite them thou hast taken captive with thy sword and thy bow give them to eat and drink and let them go and he prepared great provision for them and sent them away so overcome with this Kindnesse that they could hardly be drawn to come any more as Enemies against the King of Israel who was so Merciful a Prince And Mercy doth preserve and establish a Kings Throne more then any thing in the World as Solomon shews and David also in divers places and so it doth and still shall establish Christs Throne also Which is a white Throne even when he cometh to Judgement and Mercy shall still go before him and be the stability of his Throne and Kingdom and blessed be they that hear and know and believe that joyful sound which is sweeter then all the Trumpets or the Bells about the fringe of Aarons Garment Which yet had a better Ornament even that sweet perfume of the Good Oyntment a meek and quiet spirit as Saint Peter expresseth it and the Psalmist compareth it to Love which with God is of great value and it drencht his beard throughout even Aarons Beard which was yet but an Excrement and often to be cut away and ran down through all his Garments even to the seams and fringes also round about And as if God had not yet enough provided for the Poor through all the Laws in Exodus and Leviticus He repeateth and addeth in Deuteronomy Thou shalt not harden thy Heart or shut thy hand from thy Poor brother As if all shutting of hands came from Hardnesse of Heart and that This also was mainly or onely against a poor man But thou shalt open thy hand wide and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need in That which he wanteth Beware there be not a word or thought in thy wicked heart saying the seventh year the year of Release is at hand and thy eye be evil against thy poor brother and thou givest him Nought and he cry unto the Lord against thee and it be Sin unto Thee Thou shalt surely give him which before was lend him but at or near the year of Release it was a gift because to be forgiven then and Thy Heart shall not be grieved when thou givest to him a most sweet Command and Promise because that for This thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in All thy Works and in All that thou puttest thy hand unto VVhich is the great promise to the Reading and Observing of the whole Law so that love and pitty to our poor Neighbour is rewarded as keeping of the whole Law As Daniel also to Nebuchadnezar even when the decree was made against him I councel thee to break off thy sins by justice and by shewing Pity to the poor And when the people asked John the Baptist What shall we do He said nothing but Pity the poor And so our Savior also to the wicked Pharisees Give Alms of all you have and All things shall be clean to you And lest All This might yet be too little or too narrow because it begun with a Poor Brother It concludes as general as well can be expressed Thou shalt open thy hand wide unto thy Brother to thy Poor and thy Needy in the Land Which Phrase is remembred to Christ several times in the Psalms crying Thy Poor and Thy Needy and forget not the Congregation of Thy Poor c. Where it is also Kite as the English sound the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Kite or Knite the Beast or Beasts of thy Poor As alluding to the Oxe or Ass or wild Asses Colt
of Iohn lead us plainly to the Feast of Tabernacles and its Evening Songs and joy for Drawing of Water as the Jewes expresse it in their Talmud Adding also That He that never saw That Drawing of Water never saw Ioy in all his Life for more could hardly be expressed on earth then was expressed There And themselves confess it was to shew the Pouring out of the Spirit on All flesh in the Latter Daies which we saw beginning at Pentecost As the fiâ—st Drops of the Former Rain was followed by the great showrs of the Latter Rain After That Feast to prepare the Earth for the Wheat Then to be sown As Barley in the Spring Yea the Prophet Zechary tels us that the very Fast of the 7th Month How solemn and How strictly commanded should be Turned into Ioy and Gladnesse and Solemn Feasting And Then Many peoples plurall and Inhabiters of many Cities Yea the Rabble as the word soundeth shall Goe and say Come and let us Go speedily to seek the faee of God the Lord of Hosts and the Lambs Bride and the Spirit also will say I will Go also Yea Many People and strong Nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem Yea and Damascus it self shall become his quiet Rest his Menu hath when the Eyn of Men or Mankind shall be to the Lord as All the Tribes of Israel And He that remaineth shall be for our God Yea as a Governor in Judah And then are Both Comings of Christ described as before in the second Chapter First on an Ass the Foal of an Ass of which before on the Fourth Command â—nd other places of the Law And then he shall speak peace to the Heathen and have Dominion srom the River to the Ends of the Earth And to Them afar off in the Sea Which we touched before in America And yet Farther And As sor Thee also by the Blood of thy Covenant I have sent forth thy Prisoners out of the Pit where there is no Water Turne ye to the strong hold O Prisoners of Hope even to day do I declare that I will render Double to Thee And then follows the Conquest of Turk or Greece c. And Then the Lightning from the East So shall his coming be we must touch it again in our Discourse of Barak the word here used And Then the Feast of Trumpets in the Seventh Month and so of the Year of Release at the solemnity of Tabernacles As Moses expresseth it And the Jews bring it as High as Isaacs Release for the Ram and Thence they blow with Rams Horns the Jobelin alluding also to the Turnings and overturning of Jericho that is His Moon before the Sun of Josuah Then follow the Songs and other solemn shoutings of That Feast of Tabernacles of which also Lament 2. 7. and it may be Psalm 74. 3 4. Where Perpetual Desolations shall be Ended And the Chapter concludeth How Great is his Goodness How Great his Beauty Corn shall make the young men speak or sinq and New Wine the Maids A sure Character of That Feast at the Great Vintage of which also before in that chapter and the next and 12th also And in That day I will make the Governors of Judah like a Torch in a sheaf another Character of Harvest And the Lord shall save the Tabernacles of Judah first another Character that David or Jerusalem do not glory or exalt themselves against Judah And I will pour on the House of David and Inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of Grace and Supplication and they shall look upon me It is Jesus who speaketh This and All whom they have Pierced Of which also St John in his Gospel and yet again how often in the Revelation And we may touch Megiddon again in our Paralels of Kings and Judges And in that day there shall be a Fountain opened for Uncleanness And I will 〈◊〉 off the Names of Idols And then again of Both Comings of the Man that is Gods Fellow And of that Great Feast of Tabernacles which himself also cited or remembred on the Last and Great day of That Feast as we spake before And again in Hosea Great shall be the day of Jesreel it signifies the Seed of God But I will first take away her Corn and Wine and Oyl in the Moads or Seasons thereof and will cause her Mirth to cease her Sabbaths Moons and solemn Moads But I will allure her into the Wilderness and There I will speak comfortably to her And I will give her Vineyards and the Valley of Achor for a Door of Hope How Gracious and she shall sing There as in the Daies of her youth when she came out of Egypt and dwelt in Tabernacles as we read in That Prophet also And in That Day thou shalt call me Ishi my Man and Husband and shalt call me no more Baali my Lord or Master for I will take away the Name of Baalim or Lords out of her mouth and they shall be No more remembred by Their Name And I will hear the Heavens and they shall hear the Earth and This the Corn and Wine and Oyl and All shal hear Jesreel But the children of Israel shall abide many daies without a King and without a Prince and without a Sacrifice But afterwards they shall return and seek their Lord and their God and David their King and shall fear the Lord and his Goodness in the latter daies or End of the Year And as That greatest Feast of Tabernacles was at the End of the year so was their Greatest Meal at the End of the Day Whence we read of the Lambs Supper and the Lords Supper rather than Dinner which with Them was slight and little or nothing else but a Break fast As the Ravens brought the Prophet Flesh at the Morning and Flesh at the Evening Yea and God also had a Lamb at the Morning and another at Evening And Blessed is the Land whose Princes are Noble Offering Tamid before Break fast and Minha before Supper As the old Targum and other Jewish Writers on That of Solomon And although there were 12 kinds of Minha Yet That in Evening and Time thereof alone was called The Minha Being offered at the End or Evening of the Dayes As we read in Abels Minha or â—ains in Gen. 4. being just at the Time of the Evening Incense the Ketureth As Abrahams Evening Marriage if we may so call it of Keturah brought him More sons then his Morning Marriage of Sara Let my Prayer come like Ketureth and the lifting up of my Hands As the Evening Minha And the Priests of Baal cryed till Minha Then and not till Then God shewed himself by the Prophet Elijah Who was Then As the Evening Star Though in the Revelation compared to the Morning Star scattering the dark Clouds and Nightbirds of Jesabels time as we saw before in the Fourth Church And Then Elijah Treadeth Carmel or Cramel the Vintage of God which from Esay 63 and
Seriah was also Menuah from Noah Rest a Meek and Quiet Prince As Christ speaketh of Moses and of Himself Rejoyce O Zion For thy Prince is Meek and Lowly which with God is of Great Price and Value As Saint Peter speaketh Who yet struck down Ananias and Saphira But this Boanerges must become a Barnabas Ye know not what spirit You must be And Barnabas Took Saul and knit him to the Church of Christ who sent him back to Tarsus his Native Countrey As Israel to Babylon the Hole or Pit whence they were taken and called And then was Great Peace and Comfort of the Holy Ghost for Jerusalem it self was scattered through All Judea and Samaria and Galilee of the Gentiles also the three Regions of Heaven and Earth and the little World also as we have touched divers times And Then Peter also must come down to Lydia as alluding to Lud with Tarsis and Ludi and Lydia Saint Pauls Convert of Thiatire Divine Tyre or the Sacrificer For Her Hire also must be Holinesse to God and Sarran Tyrian or Sharon of which before with Carmel For That also must blesse Him and Hermon the Cursed Hill And Tabor the very Navel of the Belly or the Lower VVaters Here must Christ be Transfigured an Emblem of this Kingdom and Then must cast out the Foul Spirit which so Mastered All his Apostles Till Himself came down and found the people in a very hot dispute with his Apostles about a Devil they could not master And yet at his going up He had given them Power over All Unclean spirits But This was Beelzebub it seems the Prince of Devils with his Legions Every one 6000 and 666 also If a great Author besides Hesychius do not deceive us A strange spirit with Three Epithites in Three Evangelists As if Cerberus with his Tripple Throat The Devil in the VVorld Or Utmost Court and Antichrist in the Church or Temple But the Old Man in our Heart There the Dragon Then the Beast and the Image of the Beast and the False Prophet also directly opposite to God and Man who was made to Rule the Beast with the Image of God in Man or God-Man and the True Prophet the Holy Ghost See Ja. 3. 16. 1 Cor. 3. 3. Rom. 8. 6. But How long Ever since there was a Childe In the VVaters Above As the Crossing Serpent which we shewed before in Shemes Samson and his 12 Labors also through the Zodiak full of Beasts Aries Taurus Cancer Leo worse In the Earth Below Even in Paradise The Serpent the most subtile Beast and Head of all Beasts Turning Isha into Eva 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Before whom Adam only conversed with Lilith the Nights Darkness and Dreams which the Jewes call the Mother of Hobgoblins and make a white Circle with Chuts Lilith Out Night In the Waters Below Leviathan and Tannin the Dragon in the Great Depth or Bottomless-pit as Esay 27. with Iob of Behemoth Leviathan and the Revelation But He shall be cast out of Earth also as first he was out of Heaven Whence he fell like Lightning Though That but as a Prophecy before Apoc 11 and 12. Which brings up the Kingdom of Christ with Casting out Satan As Christ also said If I by the finger of God Cast out Beelzebub Then know the Kingdom of God is very near you But you must say Let it Come on Earth as it is in Heaven Where yet Satan came among the Angels to accuse and resist the Brethren as we may find in Job with Dan. Zech. But at our Saviours coming from the Mount All the three Foul Spirits shall be cast out Yet they may Tear us first and leave us as Dead But for Three dayes and Half and Then Come up hither And the Father said with Tears Lord I believe Help thou my Unbelief Being told that All things even All things are possible to Him that Believeth The same Works Yea and greater Works For I go to my Father And a Grain of True Faith can remove This Mountain also where I was transfigured while Peter would have built three Tabernacles Howbeit This strange and strong and last kinde of Devils go not out but by Fasting and Prayer Yet They had Oyl and so raised the Sick and laying on of Hands Cast out Devils For it was and still is and will be and appear a very Mighty Name of Jesus of Nazareth And Peter at length coming to Japho the old Town of Japhet Who began it before the Flood as hinted in Heathen Authors Having first healed Aeneas Aeneas And after eight years By the same Name by which Himself and Iohn had cured the Cripple at the 9th Hour the Time of Prayer As to Cornelius also the first fruits of the Gentiles He findeth Tabitha Dorcas a Doe of a Goat which in Hebrew and Syriac is also Saphira 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Raiseth Her also from the Dead A greater work perhaps than curing a Daughter of Abraham whom Satan had Bound Lo and Behold these 18 Years And another with the Bloody Flux of which before for 12 years And a Third Talitha 12 years old Here are three Twelves and an Half And a man at the Pool of Bethesda the House of Chesed Tender Mercy 38 Years Here are three Twelves and two also for a Cheâ—si Which I note the rather because it was first shewed Abraham in a Map that his Friends and Tenants of Promise and Sodom also must serve the four Monarchs 12 Years And not be delivered till the second after the 12. or second Sabbath which is the 14th Year as Assyrians broken in the 14th year of Ezekiah as the 14th of Genesis And the 14 Teeth of either Jawe may represent Years also as we shewed before from Shinim Teeth and Shenim Years Where we touched the Turtle and the Pigeon as the two little Witnesses preserved undivided which is their only way of safety between the Divided Heifer and the Ram and Goat also and All of Three years old And Then the Fiery Furnas and Great Horror But at Evening or Sun-setting God speaketh to him in a Vision which he saw not till he had said to the King of Sodom Thou shalt never make me Rich. And After Those words God came in a Vision and said Fear not Abraham for c. And they brought him to an Upper Chamber it is oft spoken of and should be marked where the women were and shewed the Coats of Dorcas For she also loved us and helped to build us a Tabernacle As we touched before in the Curtains or Coverings of Goats-hair and Badgers-skins But He put the Women All out O Woman what have I to do with Thee And Touch me not for I am not yet Ascended Which he had learned also from Him that so Acted before Him and James and John which were His three VVitnesses generally Who put them All out and cryed Talitha Kumi May it not be Rise up the Third Day or Year or Moed As They
he was the near Ancestor of Selah or Siloah Rising up 35 years after his Father Arphaxad and 3 and an Half also The great Reconciler of the Sun and Moons Motions more perhaps than 19 or any other Number Half 70 5 times 7 And next to 6 times 6 perhaps the just Age of our Saviour at his Death In Hours it brings us to the Light of the 2d Morning 36 As 360 Dayes bring up the second Year I will love them freely Though before he had said From my House I will drive them Agarsem As Hagar from Abraham and I will not add to Love them Oseph As minding Joseph sold to the Stocks c. All their Saras are Sorerim Sorry Sirs As the English Proverb to this day They shall be Nodding and Noddies Among the Gentiles Gogim perhaps of Gog and Magog also Both in England and other Northern Countries As we finde in Heathen writers But return O Israel to the Lord thy God Even yet Thy God! As Jeremy 3. and many other places And the great Complaint in Zephany is that the Polluted and Rebellious City would not trust in the Lord Nor draw near to Her God As Manasseh but a Type of their Return though They thought themselves Forgotten as that name may intimate after All his sins Yet Bowed to His God and his Fathers God who Heard him Take words and say Take away All Iniquity Not Ours onely but All. O let the Iniquity of the Wicked wicked also come to an end And He was Heard in what he prayed Receive us graciously This Tob mindes me of Tobiah the Lords Goodness There are strange things in that Book and of These Dayes perhaps in the true Hebrew Copy I will be as a Dew to Israel yet the great complaint and punishment was That His Goodness and Mercy was but a Dew He shall flourish as the Lilly Or as Shushan of which before and in Ester 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 661. Or as Susanna Recovered by Daniel from the Elders as Shushan by Ester and Mordecai There is another Mistress also First His Roots under Ground and out of sight like Lebanon Then his little young Suckers Yonikothau as Younger is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 66. 588. His Glory or Beauty or Head Hodo As India How like to Judea Hodi in Ester also And in English Hoddy is joyful and glad As the Olive-Tree and his Reak as Lebanon Jasuâ—u Joseve Betsillo And again His memorial as the Wine of Lebanon From me is All thy Fruit found See Esay 26. 19 20. and Psalm 107. 40 41 42 43 and 91. and 37. 34. with the close of This Prophet Hoseah In the Prophet Joel we have a Form of Prayer prescribed before the Spirit be poured out as There also promised And Esay 32. My Land shall be desolate for ever c. Till the Spirit shall be Poured from on High And then the Wilderness shall be a fruitful Field and That which is Now fruitful shall be accounted but as a Wilderness And Then you shall sing as in the Night of the solemn Moed Chap. 30. to be added to that before of the Feast of Tabernacles And Chap. 59. They shall fear the Name of the Lord from the VVest and his Glory from the Sun-Rising when the Enemy shall come in like a Flood to end That Generation Then even Then the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a Standard against him And the Redeemer or Goel and Kinsman shall come to Zion or out of Zion and shal Turn away Ungodliness from Jacob. As St Paul renders the words in Rom. 11. applying it to the Fulness of the Gentiles as the Resurrection from the Dead when All Israel shall be saved For This is my Covenant with them when I shall take away their sins My Spirit upon thee my words which I have put in thy mouth for the word which I Covenanted with you in your coming out of Aegypt and My Spirit is still standing in you Fear yee not Hag. 2 They shall not depart from Thy mouth or from the mouth of Thy seed or from the mouth of Thy sâ—eds seed saith the Lord from now and for Ever And though they Rebelled and Vexed his Holy Spirit so that he turned to be their Enemy and fought against them yet he remembred the dayes of Old Moses and his people saying VVhere is He that brought them up out of the sea with the Shepherd of his Fock and where is He that put his Holy Spirit within him And again The Spirit of the Lord caused him to Rest c Chap. 63. And then followeth a most sweet and pathetical Prayer for the time of their Captivity to be Paraleld with that in Joel 2. And Then the Lord will be jealous for his Land or for his Earth and will pity his People Yea the Lord will answer and say Behold c. And fear not O Land Be not Tyred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be glad and Rejoyce For the Lord hath been Great to Doe or to work Great things Be not afraid ye Beasts of the Field Be Glad then O children of Zion and Rejoyce in the Lord your God He hath given you the Former Rain for Righteousnesse and He will bring the showre also the gushing waters as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may sound in English the former Teaching Rain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and That also which filleth up the straw or the stalk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in the first Month or beginning of the year which was also the End of the year before And you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the Name of the Lord your God that hath been so Marvellous for you and my People shall never be ashamed And you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel and that I am the Lord your God and none else and my People shall never be ashamed And it shal come to pass Afterward Afterward I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh c. And I will shew Wonders in the Heavens and in the Earth the Sun shall be turned into Darknesse and the Moon into Blood and may not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the Great and Terible Day of the Lord come and it shall come to passe that whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord Iesus as is plain by This cited in Rom. 10 shall be saved or delivered As Paul at Melita which in Greek may be Care but in Hebrew Cure and Deliverance For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be Deliverance Here is also Pelitah which we had before in Paltiel as the Lord hath said and in the Remnant whom the Lord shall call And Peter by these words proveth that This was only begun in Act. 2. and that the same spirit of which They had Then the First fruits as Paul also speaketh was promised to Them and Their Children and to All to All that are afar off even All the Lord shall
with odd Minutes Preter propter And as He was the 7th from Adam as Moses the 7th from Abraham the 10th from Noah the 10th from Adam So he was born in the 7th Hundred or 3d 7th Year of that Hundred or 621 or 22 Year of the World Now is Israel become Loammi and Loruhamah Not my People and I will not have mercy on them Yea and God called to contend with Fire But Amos prayed O Lord God Cease I beseech thee As before spare and forgive by whom shall Iacob Rise for he is very small And God repented of the Evil and said It shall not be And yet when God had called the Fire to devour It must devour and so it did But what Even the Great Deep or Abyss which was the great thing to be feared and the Spirit of God also to kindle the Fire but in devouring the Deep or the Devourer it also devoured a Part of Israel as the words may hint Amos 7. 4. And the word Clack which we often saw before for a Click Clack Clakin of Time as in a Clock And from a part of Time it is also used for a part of other things and may hint to us How Time and All else below may perish by Fire Devouring the great Deep or Abyss of Waters the same word used Gen. 1. 2. when there shall be No more Sea As in the Revelation or Fishes Zeph. 1. 8. but a Sea of Glass with Harpers as on Cinnereth we saw before Amos also saw a Tenth reserved for Israel 5. 3. to Help her up Though his doleful Ditty was The Virgin is fallen and shall Rise no more Nafela lo Tosiph Kum Bethulath Israel Which the Iewes say should have been in the Psalm of Praise 145. which gives Title to the Book of Psalms in Hebrew Praises and there wants the Letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But when David was bringing it out they say the Spirit stopt and said The Lord upholdeth All that Fall and Raiseth All that are Bowed down As that Psalm We have now but One Moed more to the 70 Years Captivity in Ioachin As if God would now give Iudah that Moed of 120 Years for Repentance as he gave it to the Old World before the Flood Ahaz had hired Assyria that sharp Rasor to shave off Rezin and Syria but he came to the Neck and Throat also And because This people refuse the Waters of Siloah that run softly and rejoyce in Rezin and the son of Remaliah the Lords Height Now therefore behold the Lord Bringeth on them the waters of that great Flood the King of Assyria and all his Glory who shall overflow and reach to the Neck and with his stretching Wings fill the breadth of thy Land O Emanuel a Type of Antichrist to fill the Church or Emanuels Land As the Wings of the Cherubins filled the Breadth of the Oracle As Ezekiel also speaketh of a Covering Cherub and Annointed also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 388 so near His 390 Or as the English George on Horsback a Covering Cherub and from Those parts also where yet they shew his Castle or the Reliques of the Dragon which from Thence might come to the Saxon standard or from the Dragon seen in Heaven also as so many great Historians speak besides the Dragon in the Revelation so long before Merlins Dragon Hezekiahs Revolt from this King of Assyria hired by his Father Ahaz is called Rebellion 2 Kin. 18. 7. And it cost him Dear besides That humble Confession Verse 14 with All his own and the Temples Tresures So little did God ever countenance Rebellion Yet when Assyria becommeth Insolent and sendeth Rayling Rabshakeh from Lachish that Mother of Idolatry the Lord rebuketh him while Hezekiah spreads the Rayling Letter having also sent to the Prophet Esay It is a Day of Trouble of Rebuke and Blasphemy the Children c. Now therefore lift up thy Prayer for the Remnant left after the 10 Tribes who first parted themselves from David with Sheba c. before God ever parted them In the Mount God will be seen Iehovah Jireh And the Decree was that Assyria must be troden down in the Holy Mountain And That also but a Type of what God meant to do in All the Earth as we read in Esay 14 24 c. So that it may reach through All the Times of the Witnesses also Till That Fire came down on Them that compass the Holy City As now the Destroying Angel came down on the Assyrians round about Ierusalem A story famous enough in Iosephus Berosus Herodotus with divers others How This great Deliverance was in the 14th year of zekiah As Abraham freed his friends and Sodom also in the 14 year and Joreph was freed in the 14th year being then 30 years old when he stood before Pharaoh but 17 when he was sold as Gen. 37. 2. 41. 46. we saw before With many other things of 14 being the 2d Number made of 3 whole Numbers and an half as 7 is the first The next Half Moed may carry Menasseh to Babilon As a Type of Judahs Captivity and Return also As Manasseh returned and Zedekiah was visited in Babylon it self and Jeconia freed and advanced above All the Princes with him And How after All his horrid sins Menasseh judged himself and Bowed greatly praying to His God! O the mans confidence and to his Fathers God a Blessed thing to have a Fathers God! and How he heard and Bowed down to Hear we saw before And though God brought him to his Throne again as also Nebuchadnezar Yet the Blood he shed is often brought as a great Cause of the following Captivity Yea and That also although Josiah was so good a King and made so great a Reformation Yet God sent him even Him This Message My Wrath shal be poured out on This Place and shal not be quenched Yet it was so quenched that from This also a poor soul may learn how to interpret All Gods Frownings and Threatnings on it So also the Prophet Zephany concludeth his most terrible Threatnings in the time of Josiah I will gather them that sorrow for the solemn Moed c. I will undo them that afflict thee As to Abram They that Curse Thee shal be Cursed I will save Her that Halteth and Gather Her that was driven out and I will get them Praise and Fame in every Land where they are put to shame For I will make you a Name and a Praise among All people of the Earth Their Last 40 years as the 40 from Christ or his Baptism to their End beginning with Jeremy in Josiahs 13 or his solemn Covenant and Passover a while after run out with Ezekiels 390 for All Israel from the great Schism in Jeroboam As their sister Sodoms Flames were 390 years from the Great Flood 365 hefore the Promise 370 as in Salem before Melchisedeck met Abraham 372 as in Sheba before his â—nant at Beersheba The 70 years Captivity beginning with Daniel at the
who reigned 36 more and thence 390 to the Cities End and Temples make 906. Thence 70 to Cyrus and 80 to Ezraes 7th of Artaxerxes and 490 Thence for Daniels Weeks to the Month of our Saviours Passion make 1546 or 47. So that the Passover at which he suffered and the 3d Day following for the 16th Morning or Barley-sheaf the first of All First-fruits to be Heaved up before the Lord as our Saviour Rose from the Dead upon the 3d Day after his Death and then his Ascension 40 Daies After the Grave As he was presented in the Temple 40 Daies after the Womb by his Mother coming to the Sactuary 40 Daies after her Son was born And Pentecost the 50th Day from his Resurrection might be All in the Year 1547 or 48 From Aegypt But if the 70 Years ending at Cyrus did begin at Jehojakim which is Daniels or Jehojakin Ezekiels often called Our Captivity as many Great men begin them Yet in some respects there may be Greater Harmony For Then abating 11 years from 1547 or 1548 there will remain 1536 or 1537 the very first Hour of the Day of Pentecost beginning from the Evening and allowing 12 or 14 more for Nehewiahs coming after Ezra to finish the Cities Walls and Government we come to the very Tamid of That Day of Pentecost when the Holy Ghoâ— came down in the Third Hour of the Morning Acts 2d But However 1536 Hours bring us just to the Beginning and 1548 to sun-Rising of the Day of Pentecost the 65th of the Year As 65 or 66 Hours bring us through the Tamid of the 3d Day to Noon or Dinner time To 65 135 make just 200 which in Hours bring us quite through the 8th Day on which the Son was Circumcised And in Daies they bring us quite through the Feast of Tabernacles and conclude the 8th or Last and Great Day of That Feast which they call the Great Hosanna Which may also intimate that as a new Year began from their coming out of Aegypt at 360 Hours So also from the First Day of Tabernacles which is the 15th of the 7th Month as That was the 15th of the first Month. And now we may begin all our Acounts from This 7th Month As from the First and from the First of Tabernacles on the 15th of the 7th as from the First of the First Seeing 15 Days in either make up just 360 Hours As Dayes in their Year From 65 the Day of Pentecost taking out the Days before the Passover we leave but 52 as Weeks in the Year and so many just there are between those two Holy Courts of the Temple 135 and 187 But 65 out of 135 leave 70 for the Area of the Porch Temple and Oracle As the 70 Elders many other Seventies in Scripture And as 65 with 135 brought us to the great Hosannah So 187 the Length of the Priests Court in Hours bring us just past Noon or Dinner of the Day of Circumcision or the 8th Day So in Daies they bring us just to the great Day of Atonement or the 10th Day of the 7th Month which as we saw before was by a perpetual Rule 123 Days from Pentecost And as Pentecost did respect All the People who were All to bring and All concerned in the First-fruits which might not be offered before Pentecost or after the Dedication so the Priests were in special concerned in Circumcision though it might be done by Others and yet more in that of Atonement which yet concerned All Israel also And so the same Court of 187 Cubits coming up just to the Day of Atonement was for the Priests and the People also that were Clean men of Israel standing in the same Court about the Altar as we saw before with little Rails And the Standers also came within the Rails and so did All that laid their Hands upon their Sacrifice And though Only the Elders and Watchers said those words in the Revelation Thou hast Redeemed us by thy Blood and hast made us Kings and Priests to God and we shall Reign upon the Earth Yet they said it As the 24 Orders of Standers for All Saints for so 't is said They had Viols full of Odours to the Lamb also the Prayers of Saints And at Solomons great Dedication in the 7th Month also we found the Cloud so filling all the House that the Priests could not enter but stood without among the Common-people as if Then there should not be or need Any such Dictinction as there yet must be observed wâ—reverence lest we fall into the great and proper crying sins of the Last Times and Last Daies also which St Paul distinguished And those are Corahs Rebellion and speaking Evil of Dignities Of which St Peter and Jude also with This Addition that God knoweth How to punish such Sinners in the Flesh and against the Spirit which the Lord forgive in me and All his People Healing us and let his People say Amen I must not omit One more Harmony of Numbers and in These Courts also And that is the famous Number 666 with All its Parts but especially 333 its Half and Half the Moons Course from the Sun or Full Moon Or Hour of the Minha Passover 333 of the Year And All the Courts of Israel made up just 333 Cubits from East to West as we saw before in the Chell before 135 of the Womens and 187 of the Priests and People All concerned in the Full Moon and Passover of 333 Just Half 666 which is but 3 times 3 lesse than 135 by 5 the steps up to it and 5 times 135 make just 675. â—ut if we begin at the bottom of Those 333 Cubits where the first steps began if those were 12 as Some say Then 333 by 12 as the Full Moons and Changes in every Year want onely 4 of 4000. But the 12 are but Half Cubits or 6 Wholes and 333 by 6 make 1998 which want but two of 2000. And Josephus an Eye-witness reckons 14 steps of Half Cubits or 7 whole which may be more sutable to all we saw before of 7 and 14. And so 333 by 14 Halves or 7 wholes are just 3 times 666 and an Half or 2331. Which in Hours bring us into the 98th Day and 98 Daies make just 3 Months and an Half So that This may be the 3 Moeds and Half for the Witnesses If God so please to help us reckon it The rather also because with All we found of 7 before we saw it the very first Number that was made of 3 and an Half in whole Numbers and now by these very Measures of the Temple-Courts we are come to a Number made of 7 and of 3 and an Half Which may contain the Fates as they speak of the Jewish State or Church or if you will of Benjamin and Judah or of Israel and Judah that is indeed both Jew and Gentile For we saw before that Ephraim must make the Fulness of the Gentiles Or what ever other
the Field as we read in Gen. 3. to be compared with the Revelation in divers places Which yet were not so subject to Adam though he had a Command rather than Power or Knowledge how to use it As to Noah who had All the Beasts delivered over by God into his Hand as Job was into Satans with Permission and Commission and a Promise also that God would keep them under with Fear renewed also in Hos. and other places Onely Spare their Blood that is their Soul as also God said of Job For a Goodman is merciful to the Soul of his very Beast as we read in Wise Solomon who yet saith He and We and All are Beasts So also was God and our Saviour merciful to his poor Beast Nebuchadnezar A great man and yet greater than we may imagine First a Man and So a little God and on Horsback a Cherub Covering Cherub As they Picture George on Horsback over the Dragon of great Worship among the old Saxons or English and He hovered so long till he received also the Dragons Power and seems to Conquer Him But O! by This Power He becomes a Serpent and bites the Horses Heel till his Rider fall Backward also Lebab turned into Babel and bow to the Beast But He that made Leviathan can cause his Sword his Great and sore and strong and long Sword to approach him And shall visit the Crossing Serpent and slay the Dragon in the great Deep And Behemoth also the Great Beast the Feminine Plural Beasts Mother of Beasts and Fornication even Great Babylon Of which in Job the Psalms Prophets and Revelation in divers places And All shall worship the Beast whose Names are not written in the Lambs Book of Life from the Foundation of the World For All Tongues and Nations and Kindreds are under his Power and the Dragons that gave Power to This Beast Are they not the same words that are spoken of Nebuchadnezar in the Prophet Jeremy Chap. 27 But He that leadeth Captive shall be led Captive and He that slayeth with the Sword shall be slain with the Sword Here is the Faith and patience of the Saints And He that will not open his Prison Doors or visit his Captives shall be Bound himself and not visited for a long season And He that maketh Others worship the Beast or Image of the Beast in Dura or any other Province of Babylon shall himself be Turned into a Beast and eat grass with an Ox. He would be a Beast he played and Acted the Beast the Roaring Tearing and Devouring Beast and He that Giveth every thing the desire of his Heart Gave that Beastly Man a Beastly Heart But How Long Holy and True Remember how short my Time is Why hast thou made All men so Vain Seven and but Seven Times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Then shall pass over Thee As if Here also God would intimate that All Time and Times and all their Ever also Pass and shall Pass quite away As we noted before in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also or Wrath For so the English sound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also by W as in With For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or many other words As Esay Cryeth Hide thy self a little moment till the Wrath be Passed Or as Jonathan said to David Hide thy self till my Fathers Wrath be over Till the Morning or to morrow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 666. For The sun must not go down on Wrath and if Sorrow last All Night Joy shall come with the Morning Sun But what are These 7 Times They are said to be Years But These are Masculine and Feminine Solar and Lunar Yea and as Shanah a Year in the Singular is very near akin to Nahash a Serpent as we noted So is Shanim Years but Nashim Women also by a Metathesis which yet I name not Aversa Venus as some of their Poets may Jeremy tells us that All Nations must serve Babel yea and Tongues also must Babble As at the Tower of Babel for 70 years As they tell us of 70 Nations that rose up at that Babbling And if Then the King of Babylon himself become a Man again and be restored to the lost Image of God from the Image of the Beast Is it not possible that All Tongues and Nations also may be restored with him But in That Gospel which I cited so much already Levit. 26. Our Saviour tells them that If they will not hearken unto Him but despise his Statutos as Nathan chargeth on David himself and their soul abhor his Judgements and quite Break his Covonant or be Uneircumcised He will Then Then What not till Then and All That Will not and Despise and Soul abhoring and All Covenant-breakings He will Then begin to consume their Eyes we touched it before in Sampson and cause sorrow of heart fair warnings and they shall sow their Seed in Vain And I will set my Face my Face but not my Heart against you And They that Hate you shall Reign over you And if you will not yet Hearken unto me I will punish you Seven as we saw before And if yet you will walk Keri c. I will yet Seven more And I will also send the Beast as alluding plainly to that in Gen. 3. Where the Serpent is more subtile 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used of Adam and Eve in the Verse before Then Any Beast of the Field the very Phrase here used in Leviticus But yet I will yet remember my Covenant as we saw before And there was much need of This Memory in God and His Remembrance of his Holy Covenant at this Time of Babylon And as Hezekiahs Queen was Hephzibah to which Esay 62. 4. may allude So his Mother was My Father Abi of Zechariah the Lords Remembrance slain it seems between the Porch and the Altar Though they Acted this again after our Saviour also in another Zechary of Baruch also as we may learn from Josephus And though Manassehs Name may hint that He forgot his Duty yet the Lord still Remembred his Covenant and his Promise to Remember it And although he had now cause enough given him by Ammon the people also to Despair of their Amendment which may be Hinted in Josiah the Lord Despairing Yet his Mother was Beloved Jedidah as Solomon was Jedidiah and Jedidoth we saw before in the Psalms and the Daughter of the Lords Eternity Adaiah And he gave Josiah 4 Sons First Johanan the Lord Gracious And then Jehojachim the Lord will Raise again And Zedekiah the Lords Justice Shallum Satisfied or Pacified As in another Zechary when the white Horses had gone out after the Black he said My Spirit is Quieted even towards the North or Babylon Haran Hamath and other Places or Persons also at my Left Hand which was Northwards as we saw before And then presently followes Go to them of the Captivity even of Cheled my Age or Cheled and Tobiah
the Lords Goodness and Jedaiah the Lords Knowledge and of All These Make Crowns for Jeshuah and for Zorobabel also For He is bid to go to to the House of Josiah in the North or Hidden Secret of the Lord which is Zephaniah As alluding to the Prophet Zephaniah who was in the Dayes of Josiah as we saw before And now also the House of Josiah was in the Lords Zephaniah Secret Councels of the North or if you please in the Holy Spleen of God As our Spleen is at our Left side As Babylon and All of Spleen or Wrath is at the North or Left Hand of God which is also the Hidden Secret as the Hebrew word intimates And the Temple North Gate Tedi was named from Hiding as Hidden by Antonia or by the Hill Bezetha From This House of Josiah Hidden in the North came first Jeconiah through a Northern Gate of the Temple called Jeconiahs Gate and Then Zorobabel a Nephew of Josiah by Jehojachim who begat this Jechoniah the Cursed Man in Jeremy 22. They shall not lament for him saying Ah my Brother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we saw before As I live saith the Lord If Coniah were the Signet on my Right Hand yet would I pluck thee Thence to put him on his Left But Do not his Bowels begin to yearn already In that pathetical Question following Is this Coniah a Despised broaken Idol Is He a Vessel of no Pleasure Good for Nothing Why is he Driven out c. Hear O Earâ—h Earth Earth Not a word of Heaven What Write you For He must be written in the Dust as Jer. 17. 13. Or esteem and reckon you This Man Ariri as akin to Arur Cursed As Childless But yet he was not Childless As This very Text may shew us For it Asketh before Why is he cast out and his Seed also to a Land they know not And to put it out of Doubt the very Gospel tells us that After his carrying into Captivity He begat Zalathiel in the 1st Chron. 3. Shealtiel that is I Sought God the son of Jehojachin Assir or Bound As Psal. 146. The Lord Raiseth them that are bowed Down He openeth the blind Eyes as Christ was sent for these ends and He looseth the Prisoners Assyrim and so Here Assyr the Prisoner And his Name was Jehojachin the Lord will Establish both Jachim He will Raise and Jachin He will Establish And so we have Jachin a Prince as before Jachin a Priest Two Witnesses Jeshuah salvation or Jesus the son of Jozedek the Lords Justice so near akin to Jachin the Priest and Zerubbabel the stranger or Fan of Babel from Jachin the Prince also but in Bonds Assyr he Bowed and besought the Lord it seems as may be sweetly promised in Jeremy 22. 22. Compared with Ezek. 16 and 37. and so was freed also from his Bonds set above All the Princes with him So gracious is God in afflicting us as we saw before in Menasseh and many others So he calls this son of his bonds as Pauls Onesimus alluding also to That Is Jechoniah a Vessel of no profit Shealtiel I sought God As alluding also to Saul as if He were Here come up again who Dyed as we read 1 Chron. 10. because he would not seek God but Ob or the Devil Lisheol As alluding to His Name also as we saw before And that God heard Him also may be Hinted in His Sons Hosama which is He was Heard and Pedaiah the Lord Redeemed Who begot Shimei that Cursed David and Zerubbabel and Shelomith as we saw before on the Canticles By which and other things we may see Solomon had also a Prophetick spirit when he cryed Return Return O Shulomith Return Return And That of Mahanaim also from Padan may allude to Pedaiah Their Redemption And His Right Hand Pillar Jachin Yea and what If his 400 Pomgranates might look Forward also as well as Backward Seeing from His works finished There were very few years if any more than 400 to this Jachin we are now getting out And as we touch'd before in Jachins Tenth So also by Ezra 2. we mâ—y see there returned but a Tenth and scarce a Tenth of those that came from Aegypt Whence were above 600000 and Here not 60000 12 years old as in Esdras Though He reckons the very Servants and Handmaids also not a Pin must be lost of the whole Tabernacle and the Vessels in full tale Yea and the very Camels Mules Horses Asses and the very Hairs of your Head are All Numbred As remembring that we saw before in the 4th Command Thy Servant and thy Handmaid Yea and the Son of thy Handmaid often urged by David Thine Ishmael Thy Ass and thy Ox must Rest and be refreshed also or New Souled All their Sons and all the Congregation were but 360 as Dayes in their Year and 12 years old as Hours in the Day above 42000. As alluding to their 42 Mansions in the Wilderness as 42 Months in the Revelation and 42 Children by Elishas Bears To which God may allude in that of Hoseah I am God and not a Bear or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to devour you Yea I will give you 42000 from Babylon for Chose 42 Children devoured and the Years also or Women Eaten by the Cankers and the Locusts that had Hair as Women in the Prophet Joel and the Revelation Being returned to Jerusalem with 12 Elders Neh. 7. 7. as the 12 Hours of Day and Adonikam also My Lord Riseth or Commeth with 666 Sons as Ezra 2. 13. They set up the Altar in fear 3. 3. and Offered the Daily Tamid c. From the First Day of the 7th Month the Great Month we seek and kept the Tabernacle Feast before the Temple Founded in the 2d Month as Solomons in the 2d Year as Moses Tabernacle Raised Ex. 40. And Then they sung and sounded Trumpets with great Praises but others wept and yet God Accepted Both though there is a way He Best accepteth and That he will teach the Humble As in our Bodies Hot and Cold Dry and Moist Up and Down Draw in and Thrust out Yet All good Harmony So in Israel So in the Body of Christ. Even After Babylon also Some Weep and Pray when others Sing Praise and with Musickalso and yet Both I hope for a good End and from a good Heart and God accepteth our calling him Father As a Childe calling Dappo Though we know not why the Childe so calleth Him or whom it meaneth by its words perhaps but by its signs and looks or sighing somwhat else O the Heart and Kindeness of God our Father Do but go forward or if you cannot go forward Do but stand still quietly and you shall see the salvation of God O the Heart of God which cannot be seen but you shall see the Face of God But Do not fall out by the way Nor be Afraid with any Amazement Love will cast out Fear And Ezra called them Even All His Company to Ahava