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
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
wherewith he loved him might be in us and he in us also which is the great thing he promised and prayed for that All that did and shall believe in him through all ages might be One with Him He that is joyned to the Lord is One spirit with him and know you not that Christ is in you and the hope of glory in you also except you be Reprobates and that they might be made perfect in One They in Him and He in them For if they be In him onely they may bear little fruit except he also be In them as the sap of the Root is in the Branch or the spirit of the Head is in every member of the body knit together by bands or nerves receiving nourishment from the Head yet so also that every joynt supplies to one another so blessed a thing it is to be in union with Christ Jesus our Head and in communion of Saints and fellowship with them as his Members and fellow Members to each other So that as the eye may not say to the hand I have no need of thee so neither may the Head say a very sweet scripture to the foot or least toe of the foot I have no need of you For he doth not onely take care of the least pin of the Tabernacle but indeed is made up of a multitude of differing Members for if they did not differ they were All One and the whole Body were but One Member and as in all our bodies one part is Hot another cold One Hard another soft one puls up another down and so it must be and yet most accurate Harmony in All parts and in the whole So is it and so must it be with the Body of Christ the fulnesse of Him a most remarkable expression that filleth All in All and yet they are All in Him and His Body and have all His Mind and spirit flowing acting and abiding in them even the same spirit which is in the Head but in several and differing measures and proportions to several ends and uses as in all the differing Organs and Members of our Bodies For All are not eyes or ears or hands or feet and yet All are Members And as it is natural to the spirit that is now in any of our members on the least touch of fear or other passion presently to run to the Head or Heart as its fountain and thence soon to bring out new supply of more spirits as occasion is whence we first look pale in our passions and then quickly redder then before so in the Body of Christ any little Touch upon any of his members makes the spirit of that Member presently run to the Head which is chief or to the very heart of God the Root of the matter in him also and soon returns with a Legion of Angels as a stock of new spirits or it may be with Christ himself calling as to Saul when he pinched some of his little fingers and toes or other parts of his body Saul Saul why dost thou pinch or persecute me Even me the Head or Heart of all these Members and the whole Body for if any one member be pressed or hurt the Head and all the Body is grieved or pressed also And why do you press me saith Christ for in all their affliction he is afflicted And certainly it is not more Natural for the Spirit of the Body or any one Member of it to run up to the Brain or Head then it is for the Spirit of Christ and those that have received it upon all occasions yea alwayes to be breathing to God in Christ Yea to Jesus Christ himself the head of the Body And through him onely to God the Father that is the whole Deity who is the head of Christ also As Christ is the Head of his Members Yea as St. Paul saith the Head of every man and the Church is his Glory also as his Fulness even as the Woman is the glory of the man and man is the Image and glory of God So is the Church and special Members or Messengers of it as Titus was the Glory of Christ. So also Christ speaketh in the Prophets I will place Salvation in Zion for Israel my glory And again Thou shalt also be a Krown of glory in the hand of the Lord and as a Royal Diadem in the hand of thy God Thou shalt be no more termed forsaken but Hephzibah Which also was the very Name of Hezekiahs Queen living about that time And again that they might be unto me as a People and a Name and a Praise and a Glory And although they then rejected that great honour offered them yet it must be and shall be For God hath said it and ordained it The skies shall power down Righteousnesse and the Earth shall open and they shall bring forth Salvation And again I will build them as at first and I will cleanse them from all Iniquity and I will pardon all their Transgressions And it shall be to me not onely a name of Joy But a Praise and Honour or Glory before all the Nations of the Earth Should not a Spouse converse with her Husband Or should she be runing to his Father rather or Himself in all her wants or desires And yet his Father also will hear and Answer For he that speaks to the Son speaketh to the Father also And the Son speaketh nothing of Himself but as the Father speaketh And That surely is one great Reason why we should speak to Christ Immediately to Christ and to God onely through Him As of old they might not offer up their own sacrifice but by the hand of the Priest So now he is our Priest our High Priest also to receive all the Vials of Insence even from the Elders who are Priests also but the High Priest as the great Angel of the Covenant offers up the Prayers of All Saints And we should bring them all to him and desire him to present them with all our wants and all our returns also of praise and service unto him And this seemeth clearly the sence of those Scriptures that bid us offer all we offer unto God not only in his Name but also Through Him presenting them to Him that he may present them to the Father And our Immediate coming to the Father while we say 't is through Christ though it may be lawful also in its season if rightly understood Yet surely may be fitter for that time when the Son also shall give up the Kingdom to his Father that God may be All in All. Though it may be Then our Prayers shall cease Or be turned to Praises or Embracings as also with the Spouse when she is not onely betrothed as now but maried also to Christ as she shall be As the Revelation also represents her when the New Ierusalem comes down from Heaven as a Bride decked for her Husband And yet Then also which I have a little wondered at She seems to be
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
he had Blessed him He appeared to Abraham by the Name Elshaddai God Almighty and Abrahams believing but This Power was imputed for Righteousnesse But afterwards by the Name Jehovah which speaketh his Will also And I will be what I will be or what I can be As the Words are and not as some read them I am what I am which the lowest Creature may be said to be And at the Close of the Baptists Testimony of Christ in the third of John This is made the very Ground work of our Faith and Hope in Christ and coming to him because the Father hath loved him and given All things into his hand And so doth himself also make it several times in That very Gospel For the Father Loveth the Son and sheweth him all he doth and will shew him greater things then these that you may Marvel For as the Father quickens the dead even so the Son quickeneth whom he will For the Father judgeth no man but hath commited 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 the Son also to have Life in himself and hath given him Authority to execute Judgement also because he is the Son of Man And again the Hour is come that the Son of Man should be Glorisied But as a Corn of Wheat he must first die that so he may be made a quickening Spirit and then he shall bring forth much Fruit for he will not die as a Fool dyeth But will improve his death to the utmost and do as much good as he Can and will Work while he may VVork Least the Night come and then he cannot VVork He will therefore do what is in his Hand and Power to do and will do it with all his Might Remembering him that said withhold not thy hand while it is in thy Power to Work Say not to thy Neighbour goe and come again to Morrow When it is now in thy Power to do him Good And now shall the Prince of this World be cast out And I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw All men unto me and Him that cometh to me will I in no wise I will not I will not cast him off or cast him out But walk while you have the Light least Darknesse come upon you These things he spake and did Hide himself from them But he came and Cryed again He that seeth me seeth him that sent me I am come a Light unto the World and he lighteth every one that cometh into the World that whosoever believeth should not abide in Darknesse If any Man hear my Words and believe not I judge him not for I came not to judge the World but to Save the World and these things I say that you might be Saved And again Jesus knowing that the Father had given All things into his hands and that he was come from God and went to God he riseth from Supper and took a Towel and girded himself and washed his Disciples feet O see his Heart when he hath Power for all this is because the Father had given All things into His Hands And when Judas was gone out immediately after the Sop though St Luke seem to make him present at the Sacrament and one of the twelve of whom or to whom he spake of twelve Thrones and Judging the twelve Tribes of Israel he saith Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him and if God be glorified in him God shall also glorifie him in himself and shall straightway glorifie him And shall not All bow to him and to the Glory of God also And if God be glorified in them God will glorifie them with himself or where is the stress of our Saviors Argument And again It is expedient that I go for else the Comforter will not come and when he comes he shall convince the World of sin For so God loved the World that he sent his Son not to condemn the world or Judg it but to save the world by That which he will give for the Life of the World And again which he shall give unto you for Him hath God the Father sealed And again I have many things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now Howbeit when the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth for he shall glorifie me and shall receive of mine and shew it unto you All things that the Father hath are mine therefore I said that he shall take of mine and shew It unto you And again Father Glorifie thy Son that thy Son also may glorifie Thee a Good Comment on the Lords Prayer for who can first give to God that it may be given or can lend that it may be paid again As thou hast given him Power over All flesh that he should not onely may but should give Eternal Life to as many as thou hast given him And if That be not yet plain enough before in That very chapter he repeats it again saying I pray for them I pray not for the world but for them which thou hast given me For they are Thine And all Mine are Thine and Thine are Mine and I am glorified in them And his saying here I pray not for the world stands as much alone without a Fellow or any like it as most words in all the Bible And how can we build any great matter of Faith upon That which hath not two or three Witnesses to confirm it Yet if it were said I Will not pray for the world Is it more or more obliging or concluding than That in Hosea Call her Lo-ruhamah I will no more have mercy upon the House of Israel and I will not have mercy on her children and I will not be their God And yet he did turn again and had pity on them because he delighted in Mercy and where it was said You are not my People There it shall be said You are the Sons of the Living God So also Thy Name shall be no more called Jaacob but Israel And yet God himself often called him Jaacob after This. So also I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice And I did not command your Fathers or speak to them concerning Sacrifice And in the same Prophet They shall teach no more saying Know the Lord. And You murmur not against us but God And they have not rejected Thee but Me. As in the Gospel I came not to Judg the world nor will I Judg you And again I do not or I will not call you Servants And You shall ask me Nothing And when thou makest a Feast Thou shalt not invite thy Friends In all which and divers other places sure we do not believe any absolute Negative but Comparative Or at least not so definitive but such as may be reversed And why should that saying I will not Pray for the world if he had said so oblige Christ
Precious in his eyes shall be their Bloud and yet more precious their souls which himself said was so exceeding precious as not to be compared with the World must it only be precious in our own eyes and shall it not be so in his also Let us then bowe down to him as the third Captain of 50. did to Elijah saying Let my soul be precious in thine eyes and the soules of thy servants for so the words are in the original And himself summed up all the Law into Love adding also that it was a little love to love a friend or one that was lovely or like us fair and beautifull kind and thankfull even sinners and Hypocrites do so but I say unto you love your enemies and them that hate you pray for them that persecute you revile you blaspheme and offer all despite to you Blesse them that curse you yea blesse and curse not be ever blessing and never cursing In a word Be mercifull as your Heavenly Father is mercifull and then addeth Judge not that you be not judged Which is the more to be marked because himself so often intimates that although the Father hath committed all judgement to him and authority to execute it also as we shewed before yet that he neither came to judge the world nor will judge it or any man it may be in his own person but will commit it to his Children who shall judge the world and Angells also and then the Son of man shall sit on the Throne of his Glory to seperate those that are judged And there also none are condemned but those that justifie themselves for if we could or would Judge our selves we should not be judged Yet even then also we are judged by the Son of man For we must all stand before his judgement seat who yet loved our nation and our nature and was made our Advocate and under the same Law with us The same Law of Love And did any man ever Hate his own flesh though he may chasten it and keep it in subjection Plucking it under the eyes as some render the Apostles phrase Or if he could hate his own flesh will he not love his own Spirit and his owm Image Will not That love seek to propagate it all he may he hath received the Spirit without measure He is infinitely full of that as Elihu speaks which is as New Wine yea as Fire in his bones and heart which as the Spring in the watch is ever clicking and the cause of all the beating in the Arteries and all the Pulses and it must have vent he cannot hold it in So it hath now pleased infinite Wisdome and Goodnesse to screw it selfe into the finite heart of Christ in his humanity so that he cannot hold it in or stifle it if he would as that which is infinite might have done and so swallowed it up as that we might never have seene or felt or any way enjoyed it But infinite is now so riveted into finite that this finite cannot comprehend it or detain it if he would He cannot detain it in unrighteousnesse not so much as he may the wind in his hand or all the great Ocean in his bowels So that if his eye were evil or his heart hard and narrow when he seems so kindly to invite and call and woo us to his dainties which the Scripture yet forbids us once to tast from an evil eye or from one that cryeth eat and drink but his heart is not with us which the soul of God abhors Yet indeed if Christ do but love himself and his own Spirit and his own ease he still will and still must give out freely having received that which is too great and strong for him to hold in and keep down if he would being an infinite Fountain still flowing up and still flowing out with Rivers of living water round about him So it is in all that do but receive some little drops of it from him How much more is it so in himself that hath it without such bounds and limits O how is he straitned t is his own expression till he poure out himself and his Spirit among us It cannot be taken from him against his will and yet it cannot be held in but is as an Ointment or a sweet perfume in ones hand the more it is pressed and heated the more it flows out and sends forth it's sweet Odours And she came behind him saying If I can but touch him or so much as the hemme of his Garment I shall be healed and vertue went out at every touch As the sweet perfume and precious Ointment on the Sacrificers head it drencht his Beard even Aaron's beard which yet was but an Excrement and to be cut off with every Sissors and it ran down through all his Garments and to every hemm and Fringe of them although to be changed and laid off very many times besides every nights rest And the Laver of old in the Tabernacle had no cover how much lesse the great Molten Sea in the Temple which had such a Fountain or Fountains still flowing up in it or into it as the very words in the Hebrew may teach us Have you not seen a tender Mothers breast so full and swel'd for want of sucking that she hath been glad of a strangers Child to draw it when her own could not or would not So and much more is it with the full breast of Jesus Christ which is such an infinite Fountain that the more it gives the more it may And if thou knewst the gift of God and who it is that giveth thou wouldst ask and ask again and never give over asking as we found before in Acksa and divers others till he filleth thee also with the upper and the lower springs Rejoyce yee then and be glad with him all yee that love him rejoyce with him all yee that mourned after him that you may suck and be satisfied with those breasts of Consolation And a drop that runneth over for he hath enough for his Children Servants Strangers Cattle all his Creatures every drop hath power enough to make us hunger and thirst and long for more till it may stretch out our narrow hearts and make them as wide as the very Heavens And he hath received gifts for Rebels also and his own Law was he that received freely mâ—st give freely yea and he said It is a more blessed thing to give then to receive As if he thought himself also and made himself more blessed by giving out freely then by receiving all the fulnesse he hath which would be a burthen to him if he could not did not give out freely as he receiveth And for more clear expressing his own mind and heart and will for doing good according to his Power which is still the measure of goodnesse also He hath not only promised to receive All that come to him and by no means no means to cast them off or out but also to
Flood was such a Baptism to the Earth also As helped to wash away its Curss and Then God said in his Heart I will no more Or I will not yet add or go on to Curss the Earth for mans sake For or although all the mouldings of his heart be evil continually Which was the great reason brought for the Flood and yet now against it and the Curse or its continuance So gracious was God seeing the Flood also did not change mans heart but still left it as bad as it found it he resolved another Course and that he would Overcome Man with Kindness For it it was not only the Heathen Poet that told us Love would Conquer All Nor the Apostle only that Love covereth a multitude of sins but Solomon expressly saith Love covereth or shall cover as the Original expresseth All Transgressions Which St. Paul also Comments on Love beareth All believeth All hopeth All endureth All. Which was seen before in Davids that is Loves perfect Victory over All his Enemies Yea and Saul also which is the Grave and Hell to which David also alludeth perhaps in That very Psalm Crying the Kables of Hell laid hold of me Kable Seol I shall not digress Here to shew How the Flood it self was a Blessing also to the Earth and a Type of a greater Blessing to come When the skies shall pour down Righteousness and the Earth also shall bring forth Salvation When we shall receive the great showrs and the Latter Rain of the Spirit as we have received the Former little drops and first fruits of it hinted in divers places of Scripture For the whole Earth also must be full of the Knowledg of God as the Waters fill up the Sea and did once cover the Earth yea once and again But the Spirit also moved on the Waters and formed out the Heaven and the Earth so also it shall bring forth a new Heaven and a new Earth in which Righteousness shall dwell And in the Revelation the Earth also holped the woman and drunk up the Flood cast out of the Dragons mouth May it not also be about 1656 from Christs Resurrection or the New Creation as the Flood was so long after the Old Creation And That very Earth which God so cursed even This Cursed Earth must become the Blessed of the Lord. Yea so much his Darling That he resolveth to make it the very Centre of All his Glory and to fill it so with his glorious presence that the very Saints or Angels in Heaven rejoyced in the Revelation that they should come out of Heaven to reign upon the Earth Which is many times also hinted in the Psalms and All the Prophets to be compared with that most remarkable Discourse of God with Moses on Mount Sinai of the Lands enjoying her Sabboth of Rest in Leviticus And the very Song of Moses which is as the Bass to All following Prophesies concludeth with This He will be gracious to his Land as to his People or he will Cover or Atone or Expiate his Land Yea the very word by which God named the Earth which is one of the few things God Himself named and would not leave to Adams Naming as he did other things is such a word as might be also rendered I will delight or be pleased as if Here he meant to take his pleasure and delight rather than in All the Heavens Which must pass away as a Scroul of Parchment before the fire and They shall be no more being only as a Canopy or Curtains now to hide the Glory of God which must ere long fill the Earth which therefore shall Endure for ever and be never moved though renewed and filled both with Righteousness and Peace And God will come to keep his Sabboth of Rest and will delight on Earth and take his pleasure Here and Here also accept his People as himself seemeth sweetly to allude to the very Name Erets by which he named the Earth in the 40. verse of the 20. chapter of Ezekiel Where also This allusion is more sweet and fuller much in the Original than other Languages can well express Berets sam eretsem And in the 34. of the same Prophet he saith I will make them and the places about my Hill a Blessing I will cause the showr to come in his season there shall be showers of Blessing And the Tree of the field shall yield her fruit and the Earth even the whole Earth shall then yield her Increase Which we also read in the 67. 96 97 98 99. and divers other Psalms and in the second of Hosea and divers other Prophets And this Land of Canaan more Accursed than the whole Earth besides while it was held by those accursed Nations so devoted to destruction came to be the Pleasant Land the Holy Land the place of Gods Delight and Residence on which his Eyes and Heart were fixed All the Year And This also but as the First fruits of the Earth For it must All be Full of the glory of God And All Nations must worship him and All Kingdoms must be His. So it is prayed and promised in many places of Scripture Let All the Earth fear the Lord let all the Inhabitants of the World Reverence him For he looketh on them and fashioneth their hearts alike and his Eyes are on them that fear him and Hope in his Mercy All his Works are done in Truth He loveth Righteousness and Judgment All the Earth is full of his Goodness And the next Psalm is Davids Heart or Christs when driven out from Abimeleck the King my Father or the Father of the King he Changed his Habit c. And among other sweet Expressions That may be One When the Face of God is against the wicked to cut them off from Earth They Cry for so is the Original and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all their Trouble And again All the Ends of the World shall remember and Turn unto the Lord. And All Nations and Kindreds shall worship him Yea All Kings shall fall down before him and All Nations shall serve him For he shall deliver the Needy when he Cryeth the Poor also and Him that hath no Helper And again All Nations which thou hast made shall come and Worship before thee O Lord and glorifie thy Name And the reason is in the same Psalm For the Lord is Good and ready to forgive and plenteous in Mercy to all that call upon him O sing unto the Lord a New Song which is cited also in the Revelation Sing unto the Lord All the Earth Fear before him All the Earth Say among the Heathen the Lord Reigneth and the whole World shall be Established that it thall not be moved Let the Heavens rejoyce and let the Earth be glad Let the Sea Dance and Rowl with All the Fulness thereof which hereafter we may understand Let the Field be Joyful and All in it Yea Then shall all the Trees of the Wood rejoyce before the
Her Captivity must return again as we saw in Abrahams History compared with Ezekiel and where ever those Waters came there was Life and Healing and no more curse It s possible also that the Time of This great change may be hinted in the fourteenth year or second Sabboth of Prophetical years as David also was the fourteenth from Abraham as the Number of his Name imports after the four great Monarchies had Lorded it Twelve whole years which may be also Prophetical years from Nimrod Or from Abrahams Time or Promise And as Israel got off their Curss and Gods goodnesse turned it into a Blessing as our evil sometimes turns our Blessings into Curses so doth his Goodnesse turn his Curses in Blessings whence it may be the very same Word in Hebrew signifieth both to Curse and to Blesse as we find in several places of Job and other Scriptures So did Edom also cast off his Yoak and his Curse also it seems and got a Blessing As we see in his Fathers Blessing and Prophecy Which was also hinted by his Brother when by wrestling he had got the Name of Israel a Prince with God and had prevailed also with men he useth his Power for Edification presently as the Apostle speaketh and not for Destruction And cometh out in the Power and Spirit of that God whom he had so conquered and doth not only carry a Blessing to his Brother Esaw and intreateth him but with an Holy violence forceth him to take it Receive the Blessing which I bring thee from God and he urged or forced him by pressing on him and he took it And we read how he cast off the Yoak of Israel even to this day at the time of Jehoshaphat or the Lords Judgement Yea he did not only cast off Israels Yoak but came to rule and reign over Israel himself at the comming of Christ. As we find in the Herods and Agrippa the King from the Seed of Edom hated cursed Esaw Which we may consider when we read of Gods Shining out from Seir Coming from Teman or appearing from Paran And the Prophet Esay cryeth Who is This that cometh from Edom with Dyed garments from Bozra I that speak Righteousnesse mighty to Save And his Red Garments may allude to Edom if it signifie Red as many will have it which may be rather a Glutton And though Balaam say the Star of Jacob or the Scepter of Israel shall smite the Corners of Moab and Destroy all the Children of Seth and Edom shall be a Possession to be compared with Obadiah yet the Prophet Amos speaketh of Edoms Possessing the Tabernacle of David when raised up As we may Translate the words cited also in the Acts where Edom also is coupled with Those that call upon or are called by the Name of the Lord. in Dan we read that Edom with Moab and Ammon shall escape out of the hand of the Destroyer which some make Antichrist or the Turck who to this day payes Tribute to those Arabs of Edom Moab and Ammon rather then Ruleth over them Yet as Babylon is threatned with perpetual Desolations because he laid the World wast and would not open his Prison Doors to let his Prisoners loose and send them home a-again which hath been very comfortable when I have applyed it to Christ in prayer So also the great Curse Threatned to Edom was because he forgot the Brotherly kindnesse and the Covenant that should have been between Him and his Brother Jacob and let his Wrath tear for ever Which hath also been sweet to my thoughts when I have applyed it to Christ and asked whither He also would put himself under the perpetual Curse of Edom by forgetting the Brotherly Kindnesse and Brotherly Covenant and by letting His wrath also Tear for Ever God forbid Next unto Cursed Edom Moab and Ammon may be well placed the Incestuous Children of Lot which signifieth a veil or cloth as God himself seemeth to allude when after Lot was Separate from Abraham for Israel must dwell alone God said Lift up now thy eyes and look c. And again in the Prophet Isa. I will take away the Veil or Lot for that is the Word in Hebrew from the face of all people Even in that Mountain where he will tread down Moab who was Son of that Lot twice named There in Heb. Of Moab and Ammon it is said they should never come into the Church of God one of the worst threatnings in all the Bible and the cause in Deut. and Neh. is because they met not their Brethren with Bread and Water and hired Balaam to curse them but God turned his curse into a blessing and so I hope he did This Curse also of Moab and Ammon For their Ever or Never is in another place limited by Ten Generations Seeing God himself hath expounded ever and never in the Case of Ammon and Moab by Ten Generations Why may not we Take it so in other places also Especially seeing it is often used where it cannot be meant of Eternity As the Servant bored in his ear must serve for ever which is but till the next Jubile as we may find in the twenty fifth of Leviticus and all the Jews on those places And Christ also tells us the Servant abides not in the House for Ever And how often is it said Jerusalem shall Ever be desolate and never be built again or Inhabited As we found in Idumeah And yet it was built again after the seventy Years Captivity and may be yet again after all This. As we find Ay was built again and inhabited in the return of Nehemiah the Lords Comfort or Repentance Though Josuah himself that mighty Type of Jesus had made it so signally Desolate and that for Ever also a Desolate heap for ever As the very Name may intimate in Hebrew Greek and divers other Languages As the Stones also placed by the same Josuah are called a Memorial for ever And so are the Rites of the Passover and the Shew-bread and Aarons Priest-hood Yea in the very Family of Phineas though it was soon changed nay the very Garments of the Priests are a Statute for ever And his Trimming the Lamps and Restraint of blood and fat also for ever and Circumcission is called an everlasting Covenant in their Flesh. And Samuel was presented at the Tabernacle to abide There for ever And David was chosen to be King over Israel for Ever and his Son Solomon saith I know that whatsoever God doth it shall be for Ever And I know not any Word or Phrase for Eternity in Scripture that is not applyed to Heaven and Earth or other things which pass away But Christs Words shall Never passe away And for Moab and Ammon As I live saith the Lord the God of Israel and the Common Rule is that Threatnings with an Oath are never reversed Surely Moab shall be as Sodom and Ammon as Gomorrah and Perpetual Desolation as we read in Zeph. And yet in Jeremy
lose her two Sons for bondslaves which may be a great Mystery and how he gave a Son to a barren VVoman and then raised him from the Dead and how he Healed the Pottage when Death was in the Pot and fed a great Multitude with a few barly loves and Healed Naaman the Syrian Lepar and struck Gehezy with Leprosie for seeking things of the VVorld in an ill time or season And How his dead bones raised a dead man and many other things we might observe in this great Type of Jesus Christ. But especially His striking his Enemies blind and then bringing them into Samaria and when the King of Israel said shall I smite them my Father shall I smite them He said Noe. Wilt thou smite them whom thou hast taken Prisoners with thy sword and thy bow Set bread and meat before them c. And I have often heard one say he knew not that he ever had a sweeter return from Christ then when once in great anguish he could onely say Now shew thy Kindnesse to thy Poor Enemy Whom thou hast taken Captive with Thy sword and thy bow And the King of Israels Feasting Those Prisoners for he made great provision for them may be more considered hereafter and compared with That of Solomon if thy Enemy hunger feed him and the Lord shall not onely requite but reward thee and this History may be the more considerable because it may perhaps be found the most desperate or most forlorn condition here on earth VVhen a man Degenerates into a judicial blindnesse Except it may yet be worse to come unto a Beastly Spirit and Nature VVhich is when after great and perhaps very long Abusing Light and Love shewed from God and Christ a man doth not only disobey but grieve and quench that good spirit so much and so long that at length it leaves him to degenerate into a blind and seared conscience and a Bruitish Nature till he becomes as a Dog biting and snarling at all about him and returning to his vomit and as the Swine to wallowing in the mire and also Turning and Tearing those that lay good things before him Who now tramples them under his feet and offers despite to the spirit of Grace and accounteth his Saviors blood as unclean and profane This was It perhaps the Psalmist so prayed against not only when he cries against Presumptuous sins but Then also perhaps when he prayeth so earnestly to be kept from the Dog or Dog-like Nature of which he speaketh divers times And This it may be is also in the Revelation under the Notion of Worshiping the Beast and receiving his character where it is also said that All the world should so follow the Beast but those that were written in the Lambs book of Life From the Foundation of the World And I have somtimes inclined to believe that Christ is not only the True Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world but that he Truly loves every man as he loves himself so long as he is a Man But when he degenerates into the Nature and spirit of a Beast and it may be the evil spirits are in the species of Ravening Beasts as good Angels in others and when one so degenerates into the Beastly Nature Then one falls out of Christs Neighborhood Yea and it may perhaps come so far that they may be no more warned lest they Turn and Tear those that cast such precious Pearls before them And in such a forlorn case it may be hard to shew why they should or how they can expect any more favor from Christ than a Beast or why so much And It may be This is That Sin unto Death of which the Apostle speaks when he addeth also that for such He doth not say that one ought to pray But yet he Doth not say One ought not to pray even for such also Which is One of the reasons why I pray for All I ought and All I may pray for When I am crying to an Infinite God for All my Relations and Truly they are very many as I somtimes say to God for I am Related to the whole Creation of God and yet farther than I can express and I know not But I may somtimes pray for some That I am not Tyed in duty or by express Command to pray for But I am still Tyed to Love my Neighbor as my self and so is Christ also I Trust or else I lose one of the sweetest pieces of the whole Bible and himself also brings the Notion of a Neighbor out so large that it may not only include Strangers but Enemies also And when a mans waies please the Lord he will make his Enemies his greatest Enemies to be at peace with him And if an Angel or if God himself forbid a man to pray for such or such a person City Nation or number of men yet This may be but to draw him larger out by shewing the danger of such persons As we see in the Prophet Jeremy and others that never prayed more sweetly than when they were forbidden to pray for such or such and yet they prayed Then most because they saw there was most need And Gods commands never do never will forbid us to Love our Neighbor as our self And that No man may ever despair we found Gods Love of pity and compassion so to reach to Beasts also that his great Command is that They also must be brought to keep the Sabboth and to rest the Rest of God and a good man and Christ is the Best of men must be and will be Merciful to his very Beast also Yea to the Beast of his Enemy and Him that hates him as we see commanded And for Those also that degenerate into the Beastly Nature lest They also should at length despair not to speak how often men are invited in the Prophets and the Revelation to come back again from the Beast and out of Babylon which shews they might return Repent and live we see How graciously God dealt with Nebuchadnezzar Though he so degenerated into a Beast which may be much worse than to be made a Beast at first and so born How Wisdom also crieth unto Scorners and How it is promised She Shall yet cry even unto Scorners may be here again observed out of the Proverbs To be compared with the 48. of Esay sweetly calling inviting and wooing the most obstinate sinners and Treacherous Revolters Yet for my Names sake and again for my Names sake I will resrain For How shall I cut thee off O that thou hadst or wouldst yet hearken For He speaketh in the present Tence I am yet teaching thee c. And how shall I give away the Glory of my Patience and my Goodness Shall I be weary also of well doing and having begun in the spirit of Goodness shall I also end in a fleshly Wrath or Passion God forbid The Psalmist also saith He received Gifts for Rebels also even for Rebels as we saw
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
Children of Rachel which signifies a Sheep Who died also at Bethlehem Ephrata or very neer where Christ was Born And at His Birth was heard Rachel mourning and weeping with expressions neer akin to Hell and its Gnashings As we read in Matthew and the Prophet Jeremy As the English use the word Rakell And it may be marked How she Died As her Father and her Husband judged her for Having and keeping Idols O that man would consider How Great and Powerful His Words also might be If he could learn the 39 Psalm with the three Sons of Ishmael Misma Massa Dâ—ma And it may be Christ also may allude to Rachels Children which he calleth Sheep and sets them at his Right Hand as Benjamin the Son of the Right Hand in comparison of Leahs or the Left hands Children Or of Esaus that is Goats For Seir or as the Saxon English sound it Sire is a Goat and very neer a Satyre in Heb or a Devil But may there be no Mystery in That of Jacobs Crossing his hands upon the sons of Joseph also or Rachel before he died and That Benjamin was so often cut off As his Mother wept because they were not but they must come in again and she shall have Comsort in the latter daies as we read Jer. 31. As if the First should come to be Last or Lost in comparison of Those that were Dead or Lost or at the Left hand but now found again and made the First For All their shame or Losses they have Double O thou Prisoner of Hope I now declare it to thee How a Lamb was offered every Morning and Evening Doubled also upon the Sabbath As it were a Sacrifice for the Lambs or Sheep we touched before And How a Goat at the New Moon or every Great Change of the World which they called Olam also as the Hidden or the Hiding Time As also the Hebrew Kesse as the English Kiss was the Suns Embracing the Moon or Covering her with his Robes and Throne of Glory which they also called Kisse And a Goat was offered so for a Publique Sin Offering at Every New Moon which the Jews called also Chodesh akin to Kodesh Holy or New As also the Month following the New Moon And at All the Three Great solemn Feasts at which All the Males were to appear under pain of Cutting off Which we may call a great Arcanum of their Civil Government also For by This they did not only meet and Feast as a badg of greatest Peace or Union and Communion but also They must then appear to All Suits or Actions which might else fall Heavy enough on the Sheriff of each Tribe or County But as the feast of Tabernacles was the Greatest of the Three so it had more solemn Attendants A peculiar feast of Trumpets especially at the years of Release and Jubilies which now began at That end of the year and the great Day of Expiation or Atoning or Covering as the word Capher or Cover signifies And the Jews Tradition is that Then the very next Night or thereabout the great God beginneth to sit in Judgement on all the dead of that year Which they therefore attend with great watchings and Fastings with other solemnities But more to our present purpose are the Goats offered on That day Double or Treble to the sin offering or Goats of any day of the year before That One of them also the Scape Goat was not onely carried out without the Camp as the great sin offering for the people whose blood was carried into the holy place as we see in Aarons great Failor at his Sons Burning beside the Epistle to the Hebrews but it was also carried out and sent by a Fit Messenger a great way off into the Wildernesse to go as far as He would abroad into All the World So that he might visit All Goats in All Countries For he was let loose to all the Wilderness and all the World And now it will be no great wonder that All Nations are so solemnly called and invited to the following feast of Tabernacles represented by all the Fruits of the earth Then gathered in and that under a great penalty of botches of Aegypt or of wanting Rain or Water also Unto which our aviour plainly alludeth in his standing out on the last and Great day of that Greatest Feast and crying while thy ran with joy to fetch Waters from their Siloam or Well of Salvation as the Prophet Esay speaketh O every one that Thirsteth Come unto the Waters and He that believeth on me as the Scripture saith shall have such rain from Heaven and such Water that out of his belly shall flow Rivers of Living Water Which he spake of the spirit not yet given till He was glorified and so received Gifts for Rebbels also and to Draw All men Shall we now wonder that more Rams and Goats and Bullocks were accepted on his Holy Altar 't is his own expression of Nebaioth or Edom also in This Month or Moon then in any or it may be All of All the Year besides Which we may see even filling an whole long Chapter and from Gods own Mouth in Numbers O that we could number it and so we shall in Gods due Time and ours also Let his People say Amen It is Finished and Done Amen Hallelujah Is there not a strange Twisting of Bullocks Rams and Goats together As in the Tabernacle it self with Rams skins dyed Red and Goats hair As they all met once in the Ark as an Emblem of our Bodies also and its Three Regions and beasts in it as the Church That I say nothing of the five sorts of Trees also to cover their Booths or Tabernacles to be compared with Esay 41. and 60. and Nehemiah 8. After Babylon as also Ezechiels New Temple and Sabbaths were to be kept in the Christian Church yea in the New Jerusalem or after Their Babylon also Is it not strange to the Jews that of the Seventh Months feast of which also in Solomons Time the Seventh day is described by Seven words in one verse And all the seven end in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their M final or Mystical Letter of which we spake but now And though I do not say they may note the 40 Sevenights or Weeks of Life as we spake before yet with St. Paul I say Christ came out in the Fulnesse of Time or in His seventh also or in the seventh Month or to fulfil That Feast also to be yet fulfilled O how Long How Soon at the End of the Year But when shall That be fulfilled which our Blessed Iesus of Natsareth the Branch also did but Begin to say and do of This Feast also of Palm Branches which we touched before in Tamar Though he cryed on the Crosse It is finished as the Scripture saith a Thing was fulfilled Or indeed there may be Several fulfillings according to the several Ages which must All be run through and that perhaps also by Sevens As we
first Day from Babylon But at Ahava fasteth and chooseth his 12 Apostles or Elders on the 12th of the first going Thence to Jerusalem on the first of the 5th Month and stayed 3 Days and Then to the Great Feast of Tabernacles in the 7th Month. As also in Cyrus at the 7th Month they came as One Man and kept the Feast of Tabernacles as it was Written But the Temple was not founded Ezra the 3d much less come to that End or Motsa of which Ezra 8. 9. and 10. with Neh. 8. 9. 10. which may also lead us from the 7th Month to the 10th in Ester and in Maccabes also for the great Dedication which our Saviour himself pleased to Honour with his Presence in Iohn though not required by God but by the Jewish Church As also That of Purim which they keep with great Solemnities to this day I have not yet said that These great things done in the Womens Court might be but shadows of That yet to be Done by Them also when he shall pour his Spirit on their Daughters and Handmaids also and They shall Prophecy And God shall give a Word and great shall be the Feminine Preachers And so he cries Receive the Law of thy Mother That I say nothing of Miriam Deborah Sampsons Mother or Lemuels Hannah and Anna with Elizabeth and our Saviours Mother with Priscilla Lois Eunice and the Brittish Claudia in a better Calender than Martial with other Women Prophets or Writers of Scripture From the Middle Gate Leading into the Womens Court 135 Cubits to the Gate of Nicanor and 135 years from Nehemiahs coming up in the 20th of Artaxerxes To Seleucus Nicanor the Jewes friend and His Greek Era so much used in the Maccabes And if you please to turn again as they often did in this Court 135 Years more bring us to That Little Horn or Great Type of Antichrist or Antikeimenos Antiochus Epiphanes from 137 of That Era to 145 he confirmed the Covenant as the Learned Diatribe for That Week or for 2300 Natural Days But Then Prophaned the Temple for 1290 Days although there be not so many from the 15th of the 9th of 145 to the 25th of the same Month 148 when it was clensed as we read 1 Mach. 1. and 4. Yet the Weeks may be just 62 to his coming up if we grant them to begin 70 Years before Cyrus in 140 Nabonassar and Epiphanes in 573 7 more for the next week make 580 and 3 Years more and as many Days as from the 17th of the 4th Month in which they fast for the first Temple to the 25th of the 9th Month in which they Feast for the 2d clensed by Judas Machabeus make up near half another Week in the year 444 after the first Temple which may make it the more considerable because it is 2 Thirds of 666 of which again But if Ezekiels 390 Days of the last siege of Jerusalem from the 15th of the 3d Month to the 9th of the 4th in the next and last year of Zedekiah as the Great Primate of Learning and Religion hath observed were as Types of those 390 Years from the great Schism to the Temples End Why may not these also in Antiochus be Types of Years in Antichrist and All Defiling of the Temple to its clensing Seeing Daniel himself is bid to shut or Seal them up being for many Dayes or Years to come as that Phrase of Dayes is in many places we saw before Even Then when the Angel speaks of Evening and Morning the usual Character of Natural Dayes Which we may consider again But first we may note That as first This Gate of Nicanor might remember the first Nicanor their Friend so it might not forget Nicanor their Enemy slain Here as Some or near Jerusalem As 1 Machah 7. by the same Judas about the End of the 64th Week from the Captivity Or 151 of Selâ—ucus soon after Antiochus And from this Last Nicanor Then slain to Herods Samaria finished or Caesarea Or the Temple begun may be just 135 Years As from Epiphanes first to Herods first 135 Years As 135 Cubits from the Middle-Gate to Nicanor From which Gate of Nicanor began the next Court of Israel and the Priests being 187 Cubits as there were 187 Years between That Nicanor slain and our Saviours Baptism Or Pontius Pilate that put him to Death As also from the Death of Antiochus the Great Dan. 11. 19 to our Saviours Birth 187 Years And if we look on Hours as Years The first 7 Hours make the first Rest and Turn of the Sun from the Nadir towards the Morning Horison and 7 Days make the Sabbaths Rest and the first 7 Days of a Woman before her Son Circumcised The first 14 Hours come up to the Morning Sacrifice when it was appointed and their longest Night was 14 Hours the Hiding Resting Slaying Sleeping of the Witnesses And 14 Days brought up the Passover The first 40th Hour is the 2d Morning Tamid or their Breakfast As 40 Days the Womans first coming to the Sanctuary after a Son As their 40 Years before Canaan were for a Son the first-born Son For Out of Aegypt have I called my Son my First-born 49 Hours begin the Third nights Rest as 49 the Jubile 65 Come up to the Third Days Noon or Dinner as the 65th Day is the Pentecost 72 Hours closed the 3d Day as 72 their Sanedrin 80 Hours the 4th Morning Watch and 84 Sun-Rising as the 4th Day from Creation brought up Sun and Moon as the two Witnesses of Heaven measure to All other Witnesses on Earth 120 the number of Moed in Hebrew letters the Hours in 5 Days before Man and Woman Created If about the Tamid Hour of the 6th Morning it might be in Hour 135 As the Men and Womens Court 135 Cubits 144 Hours the square of 12 close the 6th Day and begin the 7th or the Sabbath and their Clakins or Jewish Minutes of 144000 as the First-fruits of Time to God and His Lamb shadowed by the Lamb of the Sabbath distinct from the Daily Tamid 240 Hours close the 10th Day And from Aegypt the Pascal Lamb was Tyed up from the 10th Day of the Month as 3 Daies and Half before he was slain in Hour 333 the Evening Minha of the 14th Day Ending in 336 Hours But they went not out of Aegypt till the close of the next or 15th Day at Sunset which was Hour 360 as Daies in their Year And so Years from This Exodus out of Aegypt are reckoned as Hours from the beginning of their Year to the Passover Pentecost Tabernacles and All their Feasts 1200 Hours in 50 Dayes between the Passover and Pentecost Whose Morning was in 1548 Hour of the Year And so the Great Pentecost Acts 2d might be 1547 or 48 Years from Aegypt If there were 70 Years between the first Temple and Cyrus taking Babylon in 210 of Nabonassar That is 480 from Aegypt to the Temple in Solomons 4th 1 Kin. 6.
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