deceived and God needeth not your Lye for him or against your self in any thing And if you judge amisse of your self God is so Holy and Just that you never need fear that He will confirm or execute your wrong Judgement And if you judge rightly of your self you are not so miserable as you conceive your self but as you do that which is one of the Highest and Hardest Acts possible which is to judge ones self rightly so you have one of the Greatest Bbessings which God giveth to the Sons of men or to his own Son which is a right understanding of a right Judgement which was the Great Argument used by the greatest and best man that ever lived to prove that he was of God and had His Spirit and a Will also moulded into His Holy Will for else he saith he could not Judge Righteous Judgement And who ever doth this of himself and his own sins is in a special manner partaker of the Holy Ghost whose proper work is to convince us rightly of sin Righteousnesse and Judgement and who ever judgeth himself rightly shall not be judged of God Here he stopt and sweetly bowed and turned aside a little but returned soon again looking as cheerful as he could well force himself It being not very easie so to clear up his eyes and face but that it might be seen though he hid it that he had wept Which also pierced his Guest both to see the Fathers affection and his own misery Who was still so unhappy as he some way expressed to be a burthen to himself and all he conversed with supposing he had grieved or displeased him by some of his expressions But when the Good Father perceived those thoughts with a most sweet tender and melting look he replyed No my Dear Brother no you do not burthen me at all or in any thing displease me But as my general duty bids or helps me in some measure to mourn with every one that mourneth and to weep with every one that weepeth So my particular respect and affection now forceth me if at least it can be force upon a Fathers tender bowels to yearn over his son or a brother over his own dearly beloved brother Yet there is somewhat in You that maketh me melt in Joy rather then sorrow tho it may be unutterable for I cannot expresse it I saw you were my Neighbour at the first as a Man and so I found my self obliged This is Little and low both to Love and Honour you for that Image of God I ought to acknowledge in you and the great Law of Love that commands Brotherly kindenesse bids us adde Love also yea and to strangers also for the same chapter that bids us Love our Neighbour as our self bids us Love a stranger also as we love our selves And among divers reasons why we should love strangers it is sometimes added Because God loveth strangers Yea and we are bid to entertain them so As if they were or might be Angels seeing some had unawares so entertained Angels But now I see somewhat more in you not onely a Man and my Neighbour but a Christian also and my Dear and pretious Brother whom the Angels do attend and love and honour as a lively Image of their great Lord and Master Jesus Christ. And how is it that the Brother of my Lord thus cometh to visit me And you are so far from having committed that great sin against the Holy Ghost which you so much fear that you are still under the most gracious workings of that Holy Spirit Whose great work is to convince the world even the world and not onely the Apostles or Disciples but the World of Sin Righteousnesse and Judgement which is also promised to the World even to the World and is fulfilled in you who are thus under the convincing spirit of Promise And it will also comfort you for the same spirit that convinceth is also the Comforter and where it wounds it heals and when it hath convinced both of Sin Judgement and Righteousness which is there promised it will also comfort It being the promise or indeed the property and nature yea and heart of God to heal and quicken whom he wounds and kills which from Moses Song runs all along through the Psalms and Prophets Who tell us If he wound he will heal Yea though he kill for two dayes He wil revive and quicken on the Third For he will turn again and have compassion on us because he delighteth in mercy though he cause grief for a while and yet not willingly or from his heart afflicteth the children of men which is his Strange work But Mercy is his Child his Son and comes as naturally from him as a child from any father For he is the Father of Mercy yea of a multitude of mani-fold Mercies which are also One with the heart of Christ for He is the onely begotten of the Father and yet His Father is also the Father of Mercies so that Christ and Mercies lay together in one womb and indeed are the same for how else is Christ the Onely begotten of the Father And you are under the tender mercies of Christ even that Christ who is Mercy it self and this holy Spirit of Promise will certainly be your Comforter being already I see your Remembrancer to bring to mind his words one of his proper Works having also convinced you of Righteousnesse enough in him Everlasting Righteousnesse to satisfie God and sanctifie you And I hear you not onely acknowledge him to be the Son of God and sent of God to be the Saviour of the World but also you are convinced of sin because you have not believed on him the great promise of that Comforter and are made most truly and highly to value defire long and pray for him and To him which you could not but by the gracious workings of that Holy Spirit of promise whose great work was and still is to set up Christ as he set up his Father Which Character given by Christ of his own spirit is repeated also by the Apostles And St. John gives it as the Touch-stone whereby we should try the spirits saying Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus is come in the flesh is of God and again he that confesses that Jesus is the Son of God dwelleth in God and God in him and again whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and again He that is born of God sinneth not that sin or worketh not sin which is a common phrase in the Language of the Law of Moses and other places of Scripture Doeth not sin So but that the seed of God still remaineth in him as the sap of an Oake or Teile when it casteth its leaves as the Prophet Isaiah in that most remarkable Chap. cited in the six first books of the New Testament For the Jews rejection and return again as an emblem of the whole Worlds Restoring or Resurrection it being plain in the
and clean contrary to our words As when we say O well done perhaps they know we mean Ill done and when we say now fall or go do so or so they understand we mean they should not fall or do so and many other things we speak by way of tempting or of Irony or otherwise directly contrary to our words It being Thus also in the Scriptures where oft times the sence might be gathered by accents stops or pauses with the signs of questions parenthesis and Ironies with many other things which are now very hard to understand especially in the old Testament This is one of the many reasons why we cannot pretend to the full or True sence and meaning of the Scriptures without That Spirit which did make them and interpret them as Christ pleased to give out through all the several Ages of his Church Which yet possibly might differ as the sence and understanding of an Infant or Minor differs much from That of a Man a Wise Man who now sees another sence and meaning of his Fathers words spoken or written long since than he once did or could do by many readings And this differing sence and understanding even in Principles may somtimes occasion or cause different Practice also among good men and children of the same Father in the same or several Ages Which we might observe from the difference of Judgment and Practice that I say not Affection found among the Apostles themselves and the most primitive Christians about the good Will of God to the Gentiles and about the Law and Circumcision that I say nothing of the Nature and Office of the Holy Ghost or of Christ himself in Person Natures Offices the manner and the Vertue of his Death and Resurrection with the Form of his Government and Kingdom with his Coming again and Judgment which are so cleerly written in the old Testament and yet so little understood by Them or Us either even to This day And as the Spirit of God in Christ doth say and do all that Christ saieth prayeth worketh so also doth the Spirit of Christ in his Members so that every one of them may truly say I cannot speak or pray or do any one thing pleasing to God or my self if I know my self but what the Spirit of Christ my Head and Father also as my Spouse saieth prayeth doeth in me I do nothing of my self and I say nothing of my self but what my Fathers Spirit worketh speaketh in me What and How he saith in me I say and what he doth I do My Father worketh hitherto and I work but my Father worketh what I work And This takes me off from solicitous Care what to say or do as well as what to eat and drink because it is given in that hour by our Fathers Spirit For Without me saith Christ you can do nothing and by Him we may both do and bear and suffer All things All our Fruit is found in Him whose Dew is as the dew of Herbs As the Dew of the morning from the Womb of Eternity Now as the spirit of God never comes on us or speaks in us or to us Immediately as from the Father to his Onely begotten Son but only mediately through Christ who is the Mouth and Word of God which may be one character to try the spirit in some these dayes that pretend to immediate voices from the Father concerning His Son Jesus whereas God speaketh not to us but through his son Jesus So when we speak to God we do not may not yet speak to him Immediately but through Christ and to Christ that He may speak it unto God his Father Even as God speaks to Christ and sent him a new Revelation after his Ascension that he might speak and give it to his Members As I cannot speak Immediately to the soul or spirit of a man though he be with me but through his ear or eye or somewhat of his outward man or body So I yet cannot may not speak to God but through his outward man if I may so speak of Jesus Christ and yet I speak to a mans ear or eye or outer man that it may reach also to his heart and soul or spirit and may affect that also And so I speak to Christ also as the Outward Man of God that yet it may affect his heart the very heart of God his Father who is in him And I tell him that I do no so worship him or pray to him or trust in him as a Man only or mainly for I am forbidden to put my trust in any man or in the Son of Man himself as Man onely but as he hath God in him and the Heart of God in his heart Yea is One with God his Father and so One that there is no other God besides him as himself often speaketh in the Prophets where he also calleth himself the first and the last as in the Revelation and the onely True God and so he is called the Onely Wise God our Saviour He is so perfectly One with the Father that when we see him we see the Father also and we pray to the Father when we pray to him who is the everlasting Father or the Father of Eternitie or World to come as some translate the Prophet Isay. So that we may say to him Our Father let Thy Name be glorified and Thy Kingdom come for it is the Fathers also And it may be marked that Our Saviour taught that Prayer Twice first to the Multitude in his sermon on the Mount and 't is no little comfort for them All to see their leave or Right to cry Our heavenly Father Afterwards alone and praying some or one of his Disciples came and said Lord teach us to pray for Thou hast Told us a Prayer before but now we pray thee Teach us to pray even as John taught his Disciples Then he said When you pray say Our Father c. much as before but then he said After this manner therefore pray ye and 't is there Forgive us as we forgive our Debtors but in Luke to his Disciples in private it is Forgive us for we also forgive all our Debtors Which is better rendred so then some that read it Those that Trespasse against us But it seems plainly to allude to that Law and custom of remitting debts to all their Debtors as the Law required in the Jubile and other sabboth years and so they might speak it more sensibly then it may be we or I now can if we should render it Forgive us as we forgive all that trespasse against us Yet I have sometimes thought that Christ even drives us to Himself when we dare not speak those words to the Father Yet to speak freely the spirit of Christ in a Christian is or will be very free and 't is hardly at Any time much lesse at All times tied up to a form of words or kept in rank and file of any One mans Method but as God leads
Prophets and our Saviour also that God would never deal worse with any then with that Nation And the Prophet Ieremiah saith he that believeth shall never cease from giving fruit and the Psalmist that his leaves shall never quite fall off and Christ saith that he which beareth any fruit in him shall be purged that he may bear more In him is all our fruit found and in him we go in and out and still find fresh pasture and he that once drinketh of His living waters never thirsteth more or is quite dry but still findeth a fountain in him flowing up to Eternal Life And St. Paul saith If thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the Dead thou shalt be saved For which also he citeth two great Prophets Isaiah and Joel which is cited also by St. Peter in his first publique Sermon For whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved For this Jesus is Lord of All even Davids Lord also and Rich unto All that call upon him And Paul also saith that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost Which was oft no little stay to one I sometime knew in great anguish fearing the good Spirit had forsaken him And to all that so acknowledge Christ for their Lord and as their Lord worship him as the Psalms bid us and call upon him the same Apostle saith that no temptation comes but common unto man And that God is faithful and will not suffer them to be Templed above their strength but with the Temptation will provide an Issue that they may be able to bear it Which is also the last Petition in Our Lords Prayer and so sure to be granted And to All so acknowledging Christ St. John saith If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse And to All such he saith If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father even Jesus Christ the Righteous and he is the Propitiation for our sin and not for ours onely but for the sins of the whole World which are some of the sweetest places in the Bible and belonging to All that call on Jesus of Nazareth which I see you do And to All such and therefore to you also St. Paul the great Teacher of the Gentiles writeth as from God in Heaven and his Son Jesus the Judge of all men and Angels also that if we judge our selves as I see you do we shall not be judged by him which is one of the greatest and highest Prerogatives or Royalties a mortal man can be capable of The Jews speak of it as one of the first things delivered by God to Moses and by him to Joshua and so down through all their Elders and Wise men in all ages to be Slow to judge or very slow in judging and it is one of the greatest and most difficult things in the world to be a righteous Judge in any matters of concernment more of our selves and yet more in matters of another world and yet most of all for all eternity so far above our sence and reason also that we know not how to guess about it but by Revelation The great thing foretold of Christ in the Psalms and Prophets is That he was to be the great and most supream Judge of all Persons in all Causes Which we might track through all the Bible up as high as Enoch Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints to execute judgement upon all c and for this he received a most solemn Commission and was fitted and filled also with the spirit of Wisdom Knowledge Understanding Councell Power and Fear of-the Lord yea to make him very quick or tender in the Fear of God that he might judge righteous judgement And this was one great reason of his being made Man that he might be our Peer and an equal daies-man between God and us that should not make us afraid with his Terror when he judged us it being so consonant to Reason and to Scripture also that the Power Legislative Judiciall and Executive should be in distinct persons and run in distinct Channels God would have it so in himself also and came out in the person of the Father giving the Law though indeed the Free persons that receive and submit even the Law-takers are the great Law-makers But the Sonne is the Judge and the Spirit executes his judgements For the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgement to the Son that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father For as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself and the Son quickneth whom he will and hath given him authority to execute judgement also because he is the Son of man Jesus Christ therefore being the great and only Judge having all judgement committed to him no man may pre sume to make himself a Judge or take it on him but when Christ committeth it and then onely As he commandeth and directeth Let me therefore first desire you to consider that you run not on a Premunire or be Anti-christian or a Traitor against the main office of Christ while you judge your self or any other for who hath made you a Judge or a divider If you say Christ hath bid you judge your self you must be sure of your Commission that you have it and can read and understand it also For his own general rule out of his own mouth was Judge not that ye be not judged And he that taketh upon him to judge and condemn another or so much as to think evil of his neighbour and t' is worse of a stranger whom he knoweth not speaketh evill of the Law and judgeth or condemneth the Law yea and it may be the Law-maker also And though Christ did promise first to his twelve Apostles Judas also it seems being among them that they having followed him in the Regeneration should sit on twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel And afterwards even after his last supper before his death he said to them Yee are they which have continued with me in my Temptations and I appoint you a Kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me that you may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom and sit on Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel there being then also it seems twelve with him and so Judas also though Saint John saith he went out immedately after the sop Yet this was not to be till he himself was to receive his Kingdom and As he did receive it at his Fathers hand and appointment which was not till after Death and Resurrection and Ascention to his glory Then he received gifts for men and for the Rebel also Then and not till then he gave out the Spirit which was not to be
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
it And our experience may shew us that some times we think to speak to God and we find our selves such strangers to him or at such a distance that we flie to Christ and cry Lord shew us the Father and Lord teach us to Pray as John taught his Disciples Yea and better too as Thou art a better Teacher At another time it may be we bow down and think to speak to Christ and then perhaps we find a damp upon our spirits unto him and some estrangement from him so that we flie to the Father and cry Good Father shew us Thy Son Draw us to thy Son yea draw us heartily that so we may know him more and better then ever for we are strangers to him And I have known some that usually began their prayers unto Christ or at least bowed their spirits silently to him before they spake to God and desired Christ both to help them expresse their own wants and then also present them to His Father Praying in them to His Father while they bowed in his spirit crying as he bad his children say Abba Father for all persons and for all things they ought or might pray for which perhaps are more then they are Tied to and so usually they concluded with the plainest sence rather than words of the Lords Prayer Which also seemeth to have been a more ancient custom in the Church than only of late when some discoursed only what they wanted or would beg of God Which yet I should not disallow if done with such an Heart and life and Power and Spirit as it may and yet I hope it will be done among the Churches of Christ. But I may sum up all in this the good Father by the Holy Ghost in his Ordinances first breaks the Match to the Virgin soul and shews her great want of an helper in her wretched and forlorn estate He tells her also he hath a Son who will use her kindly and tenderly if she will accept him Then he sends the Son a woer and till all be agreed for portion and joynture and other things the Treaty is much with the Father who also giveth assurance of his hearty consent to the match and to his making good all the Son shall promise and indeed is as it were his Sons surety to the poor soul. And when the Son is admitted yea and contracted he still useth his Fathers Name and bids the spouse be confident of all his Father ever promised And if there do arise any doubt or scruple in the matter or manner of contract dowrie or the like the soul hath not onely leave but most great encouragement to go and speak to the Father as also to reconcile any difference or strangenesse that at any time shall rise or seem to be between the parties But when they be married or espoused the Son useth her so sweetly and kindly that she never hath occasion much lesse cause to complain to the Father which yet she might freely do upon any cause but she is so wholly taken up with the spouses affection and most hearty love that her main converse and solace of her life is with Him Though she often ask her Father Blessing and very often bow to him with most child-like Reverence and dutiful Love rather then fear which if servile or slavish is exceeding much displeasing unto God and Jesus Christ and to the true genius of a Christian established with a free Noble Royal spirit Have we not a Type and Emblem of this or somewhat more in Caleb and his son and daughter Achsa Caleb As the Heart it signifies and may shadow out the Heart of God whom he wholly followed with an honest plain upright which in scripture Language is a perfect heart He saith who ever conquers Kiriath Sepher which may note the book of scripture which was also called Dehir that is the Oracle shall have my Daughter and my blessing with her Othniel conquers it and afterwards is made a Judge and saves his people from the cruel Tyrant and he getteth Calebs Daughter Who first moveth her Husband to ask a field of her Father and afterwards freeing her self from her Asse or bestial nature she boweth her self to her Father and asks him in her own person saying O my Father Thou hast given me a piece of Earth O but give me thy Blessing with it and a spring of Water So he gave her both the Upper and the Lower Springs An History so repeated in the Bible that I have often thought some great matter is in it Besides that it cleerly shews us the Heart of God such an infinite Fountain still flowing up and flowing over that he is so far from being drawn dry by our sucking or from being displeased at our Asking and Begging of him that he expects rather that all we have received from him even by his Sons Asking should but encourage us yet to ask more and more still as we receive more from him And when he hath given us a Field or a piece of Earth He expects we should ask his Blessing even the rather and the Springs of Water Even as our Father Abraham when God came to him after his great deliverance from the four great Kings which may be Types as their names import of the four great Monarchies that should captive his people and the good men of the world also till He should bring back their Captivity and the Captivity of Sodom also to be paralel'd with the 16. of Ezekiel just before the appearing of Melchizedech resembling Christ in his second Coming Pursuing them to Dan even to the great Judgment as the place imports And when God might so justly expect that Abraham should have been bowing down in great Thankfulness for That deliverance Abraham saies not a word of That but is Begging a new boon O the mans confidence and cries Lord God what wilt thou give me as if he had received nothing yet or at least very little in comparison of That he knew the Infinite Heart of God still had for him and was straitned till it was more drawn and sucked And the Mothers Breast is somtimes so full that she is glad of a strangers child to suck that which her own child cannot master And when it might have been expected of the Daughters of Zelophehad that the modesty of their Sex should have kept them silent or the shame or sorrow which they should have born for their father being cut off in the Wilderness and dying in his sin and they left Orphans and Virgins Yet they sue for their Inheritance And the Lord heard it and it pleased him so that upon this occasion he Enacted a new Law very beneficial to Women who had therefore much cause to remember and bless the memory of these Daughters And God was so far from upbraiding them or their father that he answers They have well done or well said and rightly too in what they say in that they do not judg themselves unworthy
given while he was not glorified Or till he was exalted and set on the right hand of God and made a Prince and a Saviour for to Cive repentance and remission of sins Nay he never speaks of himself as a King or Judge till his second coming Being as himself said to go a great journey to receive a Kingdom and after a long time to come again and call his servants to account And if the wicked servant shall say in his heart My Lord delayeth his comming and shall begin so much as once begin to beat or strike his fellow-servants for the Lords servant must be gentle towards all and be no striker when he shall but begin to strike his Master will come when he looketh not for him and will cut him asunder and give him his portion with Hypocrites the Doom of Antichrist who thus took on him so before his time to sit and rule and judge before his master gave him power or leave or indeed was come to sit and reign and judge in his own Person Which was not till other Thrones be cast down or set as we read in Daniel and the Revelation For he must sit at his Fathers Right hand till all his enemies be put under him and then his Throne and Judgement shall sit and judgement shall be given to them also that shall sit with him who still called himself the Son of man and never a King or Prince or Judge till That Comming and That judgement And then he saith They shall see the Son of man come in the Clouds with great power and glory and when you see those things and that sign of the Son of Man comming in the Clouds Then know the kingdom of God is come even at the very doors Then and not till then it is come actually come and till that time but comming and he bids us pray and say Thy Kingdom come And then shal the Son of man send forth his Angels which before he called his Fathers Angels and the holy Angels now His Angels the Son of Man shall send forth His Angels and they shall gather out of His Kingdom which is Then his Kingdom all things which offend and them which do iniquity And then and not till then the Son of Man shall sit upon the Throne of glory and then the King shall say to them at his Right hand and again the King shall answer them But to the goats at his left hand He shal say he saith not the King shall say as if he were only a King to the sheep or they only were members of his Kingdom but to the goats he saith Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels For as the Son of Man hath his Angels so the Devil hath his Angels also of which we read again in the Revelation Where as also in Pauls great charge to Timothy several other Texts of Scripture we read of his Kingdom joyned or annexed to his second comming or appearing again after his Ascention at which time he was asked If he then would restore the Kingdom unto Israel which he doth not deny but waveth only forbidding their curious prying into times and seasons which the Father yet had kept so secret that the Son then knew them not but had them afterwards it seems by Revelation Which God gave him also to shew unto his servants unto whom he saith it was given to know the secrets or the mysteries of that Kingdom and to search them out also by that Spirit which was given to make known the things which were freely given them of God yea and to search the hidden Depths or Baths of God as that Apostle saith who also tells us The natural man believeth not the things of God or of the Spirit of God nor can he know them being only discerned spiritually And no man can so much as see the Kingdom of God till horn again of that Spirit which the World as such neither knoweth nor receiveth but it is promised to the World also and to convince the world also and when a worldly carnal man is born again of the Spirit and so made Spiritual then he also judgeth all things but himself is judged of no man Nor may any man judge another man or any person whatsoever or can judge himself rightly till he be made spiritual and so fitted by Christ the great and only Judge of all Causes and of all Persons And to whom and in what cases Christ committeth this Prerogative of judging either themselves or others I know not any hath declared better then Saint Paul in divers places of the same Epistle But as Christ gave that general rule Judge not according to appearance and then surely we may not judge things that appear not or things of another world and for all Eternity Whereas the Wise man saith A man cannot know Love or Hatred and much less Eternal Love or Hatred by all before him or appertaining to him So Saint Paul giveth us that generall Rule Judge nothing even nothing at all before the time That is as himself addeth Till the Lord come For his comming is the time of judging and his Kingdom as we have seen from that Apostle and from many other scriptures And I would to God your time were come that you might judge and reign that we might reign also But the Kingdom of God and this judging also is not in word but in Power As our Lord taught us Thine is the Kingdom the Power and Glory And in the Revelation Now is salvation and strength the Kingdom of God and Power of his Christ for the Accuser of our Brethren is cast down For Christ also maketh the kingdom of God to be a Power to cast out Satan by the spirit or finger of God and when Judas was gone out as a Type of Satan or Antichrist he saith Now is the Son of man glorified and God glorified in him And so Christ said Some standing there should not taste of death till they saw the Kingdom of God come with Power Which another Evangelist expresseth by the Son of man comming in his Kingdom And S. Pet. One of the Eye-witnesses of that glorious Transfiguration which was an Emblem or preludium to his Kingdom calleth it The Power and coming of our Lord Jesus And himself being asked if he would restore the Kingdom bad them stay till they received Power from on High or the Power of the Holy Ghost coming on them which he also calleth the Promise of the Father For the Spirit of Promise which is to be given to all the Lord shall call yea to be poured out on all flesh is called by Esay the Spirit of Power and it is so observed of them that received it in the Acts that they were full of the Holy Ghost and Power And Saint Paul also calleth it a spirit of Power and Love and of a sound mind and saith he came with demonstration of the Spirit and of
of eternal life seeing it is the gift the free gift of God For the Fathers sin may not forfeit the childrens Inheritance Nor shall the child die or lose his Inheritance for the fathers sin Which may not only be considered by those that so deeply stain the childrens blood for the fathers sin perhaps contrary to the Laws of God and Practice of his People in several Ages through the Scriptures But it may be also carried much further and Higher also perhaps even to our first Father in Paradice then I shall urge it now But the very Orphans of Edom even of hated cursed Fsay are yet bid in Jeremy to come to God and trust in him who will preserve them alive and be the God and Father also of the fatherless and widdows even of those also that die in their sins and are out off for their Transgression or Rebellion Which is also but suitable to that good Law in Deut. which I hope ere long we shall find and see lying on Christ also who was made under the Law even the whole Law and so under this Law also When thou goest to War with any people How the excepted Cananites were also received to mercy we may shew anon Thou shalt offer peace and if they Take it Well They all shall live But if they refuse Thou mayest slay the men and so 't is said they slew the Males of Edom or Amalech a branch of Esau and the Jews add a story of Joabs wrath to his Master that should have taught him the difference between Zachar Zecher Male and Memory But though the Men might be cut off yet the Women and children might not but even by that Law and so Christ practised to Edoms Widdows and Orphans They must be kept alive Thus ere I am aware I am come to that great Argument for speaking and Praying to Christ which I shall more fully insist upon as the richest Pearl of all I can yet produce for comforting afflicted minds and consciences I speak and Pray to Christ and have great comfort in it through his grace not only because he speaketh All that ever God speaketh unto me and so sure in all Christian civility I should speak to him again But also I may and can and dare and should say That even many things to Him which I dare not cannot may not speak to the Father as Father But that he see them answered and Done by his Son whom I Therefore press upon And it may be These Things which I so may speak to Christ only are the best and sweetest I can yet present to Him or expect his Returns upon Which also flesh and Blood I hope did not reveal to me but my Heavenly Father in his Drawing me to Jesus Christ and Teaching me some little os That Truth which is in Jesus and some little of his Love which passeth All knowledg which yet All Saints must come to Tast and see that so they may be filled with All the Fulness of God And He that hath heard and learned of the Father will come unto Christ and by Him to the Father I may say to Christ O Lord Thou art the feed of the Woman promised to bruise or break the Serpents Head to loose his knots dissolve his Works yea to destroy him who had the Power of death which is the Devil Or as the Psalm expresseth it He shall break in pieces the Oppressor And the Prophet Esay Thus With his sore and Great and strong Sword he shall punish Leviathan the piercing or the Crossing Serpent even Leviathan for he that made him can cause his Sword to approach to him That crooked Serpent laughing at the shaking of our spears and ratling of our Quivers and shall slay quite slay the Dragon in the great Deep To which the Revelation alludeth plain enough both in the Serpent and the Dragon in divers places And as he is the Womans Seed so is he also the seed of Abraham and That blessed Seed of Promise in whom not only All Nations but also All Families and every Family of the Earth shall be blessed as is expressly promised more then once And St. Peter citing that Promise concludeth thus God hath sent him to Bless you in Turning every one of you from his Iniquities So that I may also say to him Thou wert promised to Bless me and sent to Turn me from my Iniquities Thou wert made Man for my sake Thou art also my Kinsman Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh and did Any ever hate his own flesh May I not call him Brother and say unto him that a Brother is born for a day of distress and sorrow as the wise man tells me And he doth not only give me leave but councels and commands me not only to lift up my voyce to Wisdom and cry after her but also to call her my Sister and to Understanding I am bid to say Thou art my neer Kinswoman And is not this Wisdom the Spirit of Christ Which is yet promised to stand in every street and path and that she shall cry for so it is promised in the future time yet to come and not only time past or present as some render it Yea she crieth and shall cry to All the sons of men to All the simple ones Yea 't is expressly said she shall cry to the Scorners also How long will you love scorning Turn ye yet at my Reproof and I will yet powr out my spirit on you And again in another Chapter 't is also Shall not Wisdom cry shall she not give her voyce by the way in the paths at the gate she shall shout and at the entry of the City and the coming in at doors Unto you O men I will call and my voyce to the Sons of man O ye simple understand Wisdom and ye fools be ye of an understanding Heart And again I love them that love me and they that seek me early shall find me And my delights both were and are with the sons of men Now therefore hearken to me And to this Wisdom which is There described as begotten by God the same word used by Eve of Cain I have Gotten the man Jehovah even in the beginning of his waies before his Works of old c. which is plainly Christ and yet to This Wisdom I am bid to call her my Sister and my neer Kinswoman So that I wonder not at the Divine Rhetorick of Those that cried after Christ O thou Son of David have mercy on me For by This he was their Neighbor and their Brother born for a day of sorrow Which was also caught and pressed by the poor forlorn and cursed Woman of Canaan though Christ was first silent and then called her as a Dogg but at length helped her with much compassion as a Neighbor or a Brother which is large enough to reach a stranger also and an Enemy as we see by his own answer to him that said Lord who is my
more than That I will not be your God or I will not shew you mercy Or Thou shalt Die and thou shalt not Live as it was said to Hezekiah and yet he did not Die but Live Or that to Samuel or Jeremiah Thou shalt not Pray for This man or This people Which yet it may be made them Pray More than they did before and so perhaps was One good means to recover them that else might have been so irrecoverable And so This very saying of Christ if he had so said I will not Pray for the world might have been a great means to save the World and to recover them by convincing them of their forlorn and desperate estate For This may be one great End of the heaviest Threatnings in the Scripture not only to shut men under fear and guilt that so they may be fitter Objects of Pity and Mercy but to Convince them also that they may be in a way for mercy It being the great Art of the Holy Ghost to work along with the Word sutable to the Subject and Object it hath to work upon And in a sharp Threatning it is as Vinegar or burnt Allum or some Corrasive to putrid flesh that must be taken off And How will a poor Soul Tremble under This That Christ who is Love it self should once say I will not Pray for you As every one is ready to apply it to himself while under the Convincing Work of the Spirit which is promised to Convince the world also of sin and Righteousness But he doth not say I Will not Pray for the world but only I Do not Just perhaps as in the Chapter before he said to his own Disciples I do not say I will pray for you for the Father himself loveth you And in That day you shall ask me Nothing And hitherto you have asked Nothing Which are Negatives comparative not absolute And why not This also I do not pray only or mainly and chiefly for the world but for Those thou hast given me out of the world And it may be Christ finds enough upon him as a Man and so only he Prayes to mind his Elect and care for Them Though God and He also as God Loveth the world also and the Peoples in distinction from Israel as Moses expresseth it Yea and He was given also for the world and sent to bear away the sins of the world and not to condemn but save the world and to be a Propitiation for the sins of the world As we read with many such passages in This very Apostle who records This Prayer And if we take the words asstrictly as we may being only in the Present Tence I do not yet Pray for the world We know not how soon he yet might pray for the world also Though he Now did not Seeing in this very Prayer towards the end he prayed for others Many others then he Now Prayed for at the beginning of it And I know not but the VVorld might Then come in also if I should grant it did not Now. Epecially seeing One great End of all he asked for his Disciples also and for all others was that the World may come to know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me And in the beginning of this very Prayer Christ sheweth that it is Eternal Life to know God and Him whom God had sent And by this he proved that his Disciples knew the Name of God and kept his Word because they now believed that God sent him and knew surely that he was come out from God And yet in the latter end of this Prayer he beggeth so and so for His and all that should believe that the whol World also might come to know that God had sent him and had loved them as he loved him Which may be added to That we noted in the chap. before VVhen the Comforter shall come to You he shall Convince the VVorld also of sin and of Righteousness And yet as himself and St. Paul also said the World as the World and the Carnal man as Carnal did not receive conceive or understand the Spirit or the things thereof So in a safe sence also we may say Christ did not Then Pray for the World that As the World they might be saved or be Happy while they remained Such But that they might be changed and called out of the World and so Turned from Darkness to Light from the Power of Satan unto God and then might also receive an Inheritance among them that are sanctified through Faith in Christ. Which was the sum of This Prayer it may be and the great Commission given by our Lord himself when he sent Paul to the Gentiles and made him a Minister and Witness or Martyr also to the whole World And He gives us This Sum of the Gospel he was to preach That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself and Not imputing their sins And the Mystery of Godliness God manifest in the Flesh and believed on by the VVorld And if any take the VVorld here for the Systeme of Elements and not for Men of the World I may say Christ also might mean only the Worldly Systeme which he prayed not for but for all men of the world and in the world But St. Paul in several places saith and that also in the Spirit or person of Christ whom we found before as Ezekiel the strong God and yet the Son of Man to be the great Watcher and Warner for every man and as Ezekiel bid to order a Sacrifice for every one that erreth and is simple he was Warning every man and Teaching every man in all Wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus And he bids us Love All men and prayes they might Love All men even as He loved them Yea and we are bid to Honour All men For Man is the Image and Glory of God And directly against the sence which some suppose in Christs words I pray not for the World but for These St. Paul exhorts first of all That Prayers Intercessions Supplications yea and giving of Thanks also be made for All men Which he saith is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour Who Will directly Will have All men All men to be saved and to come unto the knowledg of the Truth For there is One God and One Mediator between God and Men All Man-kind the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransom for All for he is the Propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole World to be testified or witnessed or manifest in due season or its proper seasons For it is plural in the Original expressing divers several and proper seasons for the manifestation of That Truth to the World Of which we may speak again in Times and Seasons And yet also in a True and safe sence we may say Christ loveth not the World as the World nor
every one of them I am the Lord thy God and upon this Rock I will build my whole Law and therefore thou shalt have no other God or make to thy self any Images c. For I am a jealous God which yet I could not be if I did not Love thee dearly as a spouse Or else I should not much care whither thou goest or what thou doest But for my great and spouse-like Love which maketh me so jealouse over thee But this very jealousy causeth such visiting as is most like to recover us again from all our wâ—oorish wanderings from the God of Love and the Guide of our youth And so intended by God to recover them so visited as we may clearly see by Elihues discourse unto Job and the Psalmist in the 107 th and many other Psalms to be compared with the 3 d. of Jeremy and the 2 d. of Hoseah with the first and second of Zechariah with divers other Scriptures And our great comfort is that all the Law also lay on Christ as much or more than any of us or all of us And besides his love to his own flesh and nature or to himself or his Father His very Duty to Him by this Law requires him so to love his God with all his Might also as to propagate his love to all he may and to manifest his Name and Worship with the true way and means thereof That is as the 72 d. Psalm expresseth to redeem our souls from all deceipt and violence or as Ezekiel hath it in the Laws of the New Temple to order a sacrifice for every one that erreth or is simple And the Psalmist saith He hath received gifts for Rebels also that the Lord may dwell among them Yea and to cast down all our vain Imaginations as Saint Paul expresseth it And though we strangely degenerate into very Beasts or to the worst of Beasts or worse than Beasts Yet the very same Law which biddeth us and Christ also to Love a Neighbour biddeth also to love a Stranger and an Enemie Yea and the very Oxe and Asse of an Enemie so as to help it under a Burthen or straying out of the way And is not our heart as Ishmael was foretold to be the wilde Asses Colt on which no man can sit till Christ send his Apostles as in the Gospel who finde it bound and tyed in a broad place where two waies met and They loose our Asses Colte and bring it to Christ who then rideth on it O daughter of Zion Meek and Lowly on an Asse the foal of an Asse And may we not find All this in the very fourth Commandement where every Man and so Jesus Christ also is bid to remember to keep the sabboth so that not only his Children but his servants and his Cattle and the Stranger in his Gate may Rest and keep that Rest of God That they may Rest as well as Thou as it is repeated in Deuteronomy And in the 23. of Exodus it is that thine Oxe and thy Ass may Rest and the Son of thy Handmaid to which the Psalmist may allude several times calling himself the Son of thy Handmaid And that the stranger also may be Refreshed The very same Phrase and word that is used by God of himself and his own Kest and Refreshing on That Sabbath day in the 31. of Exodus And our Saviour maketh the helping of an Oxe or Ass and their Loosing and leading to the Water to be a special work or duty of the Sabbath daies Rest. Which we may compare with that of the Prophet Esay He led them gently as an Horse in the Wilderness or as a Beast is led down a Valley or to a Brook So his spirit caused them to Rest. And in the Proverbs Agur saith I am more bruitish than any Man and the Psalmist so Bruitish was I yea Behemoth with thee as alluding to Behemoth in Job and That some render Congregation of thy People in several Psalms is Beasts or Thy Beasts As under Those Banners of four Beasts or Animals of which we read in Ezekiel and the Revelation Yea Solomon saith the great design of God that is Christ who as Man also is the great Searcher of hearts is to Try us and to make us know we are but Beasts She hem Behema Hemma lahem And that the Stranger also may be Refreshed Which is but a piece of that great Law in the very same chapter of Loving our Neighbor Thou shalt also love a Stranger as thou lovest thy self And in several places it is added For thou wast a stranger and thou knowest the heart of a stranger in Aegypt And the word for stranger in the Heb. is so neer to Hagar as if God would put them in mind of that Bond-woman who was an Aegyptian also and as Paul saith Gendered unto Bondage with a spirit of Fear which is another signification of its Root also And Gods Love to Hagar and to her son Ishmael that is God will Hear as he will appear also in the Mount may shew the Heart of God and his Goodness more than all his Kindness to Abraham who was Kind and Thankful unto God also And among other reasons for our Loving strangers it is added that God loveth Strangers and in a special manner provideth for them And it hath been an especial argument used by good men in all ages of the Bible For we are strangers and Pilgrims And when we consider that the Sabboth day did Typifie some greater Rest may it not be hoped that at length we may hear the Lord of that Day also saying to his children and his servants and the Sons of his handmaids also and his Cattel and the stranger also within his gates Come enter into your Masters Rest seeing it is greater than can enter into you For this Commandement I have received of my good Father Do we not also read that the Owles and the Dragons and the Beasts of the field and every thing that hath breath yea and All his Works shall praise the Lord but his Saints shall Bless him Do we not find Sabbatical Years â—nd Jubilees provided for the Poor and Strangers that had no Harvest and for the Beasts of the field and for the Earth also that it might Rest the Rest of God and that every one might return to his own Inheritance and the possession of his Fathers and why not also of our Father Adam in Innocence and that All Debts and Debtors might be remitted which it may be is minded us dayly in the Lords Prayer not only in That Clause of Forgiving our Debtors which yet He doth also for it is He that speaketh in us who else dirst not say Forgive us as we forgive but also in That Thy Kingdom come and Thy Will be done on Earth as in the highest Heaven And He that set us All on Praying so knew very well that it should be so He hath willed it and his people will it also Let it be
34. Gen. 15. 9. cometh up to minde them of their Golden Calf while Moses was in the Mount as many Daies from the Law as now perhaps he had been Years in Heaven And Eglon was destroyed by Josuah 10 34. But about the Evening Minha of the 6th Day Ehud helpeth them and Shamgar so that they Rest from That Moed all the 6th and 7th or Sabbath Day Which may be observed also in all the Sabbaths of those Daies or Years which we are now measuring by Hours of the first Month. Othniels 40 Ehud and Shamgars 80 make up 120 Years the Great Moed for Man as we saw before And 120 Hours make 5 Daies which added to Moses and Josuahs 2 Daies bring us quite through the Sabbath or 7th Day into the 8th And Then Jabin Instructeth or Teacheth them to understand as the word may intimate akin to the Hebrew Phrase we saw before to Correct and Instruct As the men of Succoth were Taught with Briers made to Know Judg. 8. 16. and Jabins 20 bring us about the Morning watch of the 9th Day And Then Awake Awake Deborah Awake Awake As there were 4 Hours to the Morning Utter a Song Arise Arise O Morning Star or Bright and Light Barak Lead Captivity Captive Let All thine Enemies fall O Lord as Saul with Lightning But his Lovers be like the Sun in his brightness For This Barak was also the son of Abinoam the Fatbers Brightness or Beauty As we saw before in glancing on That song in Judges 5. Barak and Deborahs 40 made them Rest till about the end of the 10th Day And Then the Lamb is prepared for the Passover As being Then tyed up by Midian oppressing them And now comes out Gideons Fleece as alluding to That Lamb and his Lamps also in Earthen Pitchers as St Paul remembers and the Barley Cake rouling in a Dream at the Middle Watch or soon after Midnight For the 7 Hours or Years of Midian came to Midnight and an Hour after And Then Gidion as a little Kid Rising by night to destroy Baal Lord of Darkness is Jerubbaal and the Watchman of Israel for That morning and offers the 2d Bullock yet akin to Eglon that Calf and his 40 giveth them Rest till the 11th Daies Evening There is more to be spoken of the Times of Sibboleth and Shibboleth and of Abimelech or King Father and of Sechem and Dinah Judgement and Jotham the Orphan If indeed you dealt kindely with my Father for he did deliver you Then c. But Quis talia Abimelech dwelt at Aruma from Rome to Roam and Ramp in Hebrew letters 254 which may be the very year of his Coming up though others make it about 260. And so with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 added as Verse 31 it will be near 666 when he slew his 70 Brethren of which again His 3 and Tola's 23 and Jairs 22 make up just 48 as 48 Hours of two Daies more which bring us to the 14th Day or 2d Sabbath It had a very sad Night to paralel the Time when Angry Pharaoh said to Moses Get thee from me see my Face no more but Dye So God himself frowned on Israel in that Night of Darkness under Ammon son to Lot the Veyle as we saw before saying Go and and see my Face no more Or Go and cry to the gods which you have Chosen Let Them deliver you in the time of your Tribulation For you have forsaken me and Feared other gods of whom I said You shall not Fear them as it is often pressed and given for the great Reason of their final Captivity 2 Kings 17. from Judges 6. 10. and 10. Therefore I will deliver you no more As in Hosea I will no more have mercy on you and you shall be no more My People Loammi and Loruhamah and I will be no more your God As bad or worse I think them That I do not yet Pray for the World Of which so much before But the Children of Israel said unto the Lord as Job saith it is still meet to say I have sinned I will bear the Rod till he turn and have pity on me For He will will Turn again and have pity on us and Who is a God as Thou art that is Micha Do unto us what seemeth good in thine own eyes If he will he can bring me back and shew me his Arck also and the New Jerusalem but if not and that he have no pleasure in me which yet is worse much worse than Brown bread and my own Tears for Water Here I am by his Grace I will not worship the Golden Image or of the Beast slain with the sword but his Deadly wound was Healed and the World all worshipped but Those in the Lambs Book of Life Let him do what seemeth good in his own eyes Father if it be possible it is possible Save me from this hour of Temptation But However let Thy will which is Holy still and wiser and better also for me than my own will Let Thy will be done and not mine in My Earth as in thy Heaven So we Chatter as a Crane or a Swallow when we cannot mourn as a Dove even Then when we reckon at Morning He will break all our Bones And they put away the strange gods from in and among them and served the Lord And his soul was grieved sor the Misery of Israel It shortned his very Spirit and Breath as in us when we would sigh and cannot O! how is our Heart Burnt as bound and straitned in us O! How am I straitned till it be Accomplished we saw it before Then Ammon encamped in Gilead thestones of Witness and Israel at Mispa the Watch they prayed and also set the Watch and we shall come to Mahanaim For we are already at the times when Jacob said The Lord Help me and watch over me and Laban also God is my Witness and These also for there be Witnesses in Heaven and They are All One as on Earth they agree in One And to what But That Haran or Wrath shall pass away but never Pass over these Stones of Witness to do me Hurt and that I never pass These Witnesses to grieve thy Spirit or to wrong thy Daughters Though thou hast changed my wages 10 or 12 times as often as the Moon or Lebana Now Jephta was a Mighty Valiant man but the son of a common woman which they call an Harlot though the greatest Norman Princes came from Arlott the Mother to That English word And Boaz also that mighty man of whom before in Ruth the Jewes count him Ibsan the Judge was son to Rahab the Harlot as she is called but the mother of Christ in David so that it is almost impossible there should be 580 Years from Aegypt to Solomon or Solomons Temple As that great man will have it from Acts 13 with other Arguments And God perswaded Japhet or his Anagram and Names-sake Jephta to dwell in the Tabernacles of Sem and to
the Lords Goodness and Jedaiah the Lords Knowledge and of All These Make Crowns for Jeshuah and for Zorobabel also For He is bid to go to to the House of Josiah in the North or Hidden Secret of the Lord which is Zephaniah As alluding to the Prophet Zephaniah who was in the Dayes of Josiah as we saw before And now also the House of Josiah was in the Lords Zephaniah Secret Councels of the North or if you please in the Holy Spleen of God As our Spleen is at our Left side As Babylon and All of Spleen or Wrath is at the North or Left Hand of God which is also the Hidden Secret as the Hebrew word intimates And the Temple North Gate Tedi was named from Hiding as Hidden by Antonia or by the Hill Bezetha From This House of Josiah Hidden in the North came first Jeconiah through a Northern Gate of the Temple called Jeconiahs Gate and Then Zorobabel a Nephew of Josiah by Jehojachim who begat this Jechoniah the Cursed Man in Jeremy 22. They shall not lament for him saying Ah my Brother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we saw before As I live saith the Lord If Coniah were the Signet on my Right Hand yet would I pluck thee Thence to put him on his Left But Do not his Bowels begin to yearn already In that pathetical Question following Is this Coniah a Despised broaken Idol Is He a Vessel of no Pleasure Good for Nothing Why is he Driven out c. Hear O Earâ—h Earth Earth Not a word of Heaven What Write you For He must be written in the Dust as Jer. 17. 13. Or esteem and reckon you This Man Ariri as akin to Arur Cursed As Childless But yet he was not Childless As This very Text may shew us For it Asketh before Why is he cast out and his Seed also to a Land they know not And to put it out of Doubt the very Gospel tells us that After his carrying into Captivity He begat Zalathiel in the 1st Chron. 3. Shealtiel that is I Sought God the son of Jehojachin Assir or Bound As Psal. 146. The Lord Raiseth them that are bowed Down He openeth the blind Eyes as Christ was sent for these ends and He looseth the Prisoners Assyrim and so Here Assyr the Prisoner And his Name was Jehojachin the Lord will Establish both Jachim He will Raise and Jachin He will Establish And so we have Jachin a Prince as before Jachin a Priest Two Witnesses Jeshuah salvation or Jesus the son of Jozedek the Lords Justice so near akin to Jachin the Priest and Zerubbabel the stranger or Fan of Babel from Jachin the Prince also but in Bonds Assyr he Bowed and besought the Lord it seems as may be sweetly promised in Jeremy 22. 22. Compared with Ezek. 16 and 37. and so was freed also from his Bonds set above All the Princes with him So gracious is God in afflicting us as we saw before in Menasseh and many others So he calls this son of his bonds as Pauls Onesimus alluding also to That Is Jechoniah a Vessel of no profit Shealtiel I sought God As alluding also to Saul as if He were Here come up again who Dyed as we read 1 Chron. 10. because he would not seek God but Ob or the Devil Lisheol As alluding to His Name also as we saw before And that God heard Him also may be Hinted in His Sons Hosama which is He was Heard and Pedaiah the Lord Redeemed Who begot Shimei that Cursed David and Zerubbabel and Shelomith as we saw before on the Canticles By which and other things we may see Solomon had also a Prophetick spirit when he cryed Return Return O Shulomith Return Return And That of Mahanaim also from Padan may allude to Pedaiah Their Redemption And His Right Hand Pillar Jachin Yea and what If his 400 Pomgranates might look Forward also as well as Backward Seeing from His works finished There were very few years if any more than 400 to this Jachin we are now getting out And as we touch'd before in Jachins Tenth So also by Ezra 2. we mâ—y see there returned but a Tenth and scarce a Tenth of those that came from Aegypt Whence were above 600000 and Here not 60000 12 years old as in Esdras Though He reckons the very Servants and Handmaids also not a Pin must be lost of the whole Tabernacle and the Vessels in full tale Yea and the very Camels Mules Horses Asses and the very Hairs of your Head are All Numbred As remembring that we saw before in the 4th Command Thy Servant and thy Handmaid Yea and the Son of thy Handmaid often urged by David Thine Ishmael Thy Ass and thy Ox must Rest and be refreshed also or New Souled All their Sons and all the Congregation were but 360 as Dayes in their Year and 12 years old as Hours in the Day above 42000. As alluding to their 42 Mansions in the Wilderness as 42 Months in the Revelation and 42 Children by Elishas Bears To which God may allude in that of Hoseah I am God and not a Bear or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to devour you Yea I will give you 42000 from Babylon for Chose 42 Children devoured and the Years also or Women Eaten by the Cankers and the Locusts that had Hair as Women in the Prophet Joel and the Revelation Being returned to Jerusalem with 12 Elders Neh. 7. 7. as the 12 Hours of Day and Adonikam also My Lord Riseth or Commeth with 666 Sons as Ezra 2. 13. They set up the Altar in fear 3. 3. and Offered the Daily Tamid c. From the First Day of the 7th Month the Great Month we seek and kept the Tabernacle Feast before the Temple Founded in the 2d Month as Solomons in the 2d Year as Moses Tabernacle Raised Ex. 40. And Then they sung and sounded Trumpets with great Praises but others wept and yet God Accepted Both though there is a way He Best accepteth and That he will teach the Humble As in our Bodies Hot and Cold Dry and Moist Up and Down Draw in and Thrust out Yet All good Harmony So in Israel So in the Body of Christ. Even After Babylon also Some Weep and Pray when others Sing Praise and with Musickalso and yet Both I hope for a good End and from a good Heart and God accepteth our calling him Father As a Childe calling Dappo Though we know not why the Childe so calleth Him or whom it meaneth by its words perhaps but by its signs and looks or sighing somwhat else O the Heart and Kindeness of God our Father Do but go forward or if you cannot go forward Do but stand still quietly and you shall see the salvation of God O the Heart of God which cannot be seen but you shall see the Face of God But Do not fall out by the way Nor be Afraid with any Amazement Love will cast out Fear And Ezra called them Even All His Company to Ahava