draw All men to him and to make All things new being as the Psalms expresse not only to satisfie the desire of every living thing which is no great matter except also they have great and good desires for else I know not ought I feare or more oppose or pray against then his giving me the desire of my own foolish narrow heart but also that he shall give forth Good and goodnesse so that all things shall be filled with it As we may find by comparing the 85. Psalm concluding thus Yea the Lord shall give forth Good or goodnesse and Righteousnesse shall go before him and direct or set us in the way of his steps with the 104. and 145. Psal. which of all is to be marked most as that which giveth name to all the Book of Psalms as the Jews tell us being thence All called Praises or Songs of blessing The Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and of great mercy the Lord is good to All and his tender mercies are over All his works All thy works shall praise thee O Lord and thy Sainis shall bless thee The Lord upholdeth All that fall and raiseth up all that are bowed down which is again so repeated and enlarged in the next Psalm also that it may teach us how Christ put himself under that Law also to mourn with every one that mourneth and to weep with every one that weepeth yea and to make us sensible of our own wants and emptinesse that so he may fill us being sent to comfort every one that mourneth and to replenish every empty soul. At this I awaked and my sleep was sweet to me as the Prophet expresseth it Yea and Christ is such an Head to every man as Paul expresseth and such a Root to all our soules and Spirits that our mourning and our sufferings reach and pierce his soul also And in all our afflictions he is afflicted For if any one member suffers all suffer but especially the head and heart and if one be honoured all rejoyce with it The strength of a King is in his Subjects and his glory in their multitude and greatnesse Riches Honour Happinesse and Freedome it being more honour also to govern one freeman then many slaves And it is a union with free Subjects that maketh a King so strong that as Solomoâ— saith There is no rising against him Where the Arabick also may help us to a better sence and notion of Alkum then is yet common May we not all say to our Saviour as Abigail did to David When my Lord shall sit on the throne of his Rest and when the Lord hath done to my Lord according to all he promised shall it indeed be any offence or grief of heart to my Lord that he spared us and did not shed our blood or avenge himself which is so much forbidden or reserve a grudge in his heart against the Children of his people When he shall see us all come bowing to him to his glory and his Fathers glory also who is glorified he saith when we bear much fruit And is not he so also When He beareth much And as much as he can If he could have been contented to be happy glorious all alone he never needed any world of men or Angels But O! how was he straitned in himself till he had found a means to multiply himself his Image Happinesse and Glory by Creation How much more than by Redemption while we live we shall praise him and shall ever bless him if he save us But the grave cannot praise him death cannot celebrate him the living the living shall praise thee as Hezekiah said And what profit is there in our bloud He did not care to drink the bloud of beasts doth he now delight in eating mans flesh and drinking mans bloud Or what doth he gain by losing us Can the enemie give a recompense for us As Esther spake of Haman And if he cut us off will he not look in the morning and when he sees our places empty will he not have desire to the work of his own hands as Job and the Psalmist to that needle work he curiously wrought in his closet When he hath ground us to powder will he not say return again againe yee sons of men O that God would perswade us even in suffering according to his will to commit our souls to his keeping as to a Faithfull Creator Can he be angry more in time then from eternity before he made the World or ought that could provoke him Or if he can may little children so provoke him with their raising dust or dirty pies against him that he must also turn and curse them in the name of God and give them up to Bears to teare them will he offer children also and his own to Moloch Or with musick drown their yellings in Gehinnon or in Tophet which he so much hates and threatens and his soul abhors so much in others Or if fury can be in him which yet himself denyeth in the Prophet Isa. can it rest in such a bosome When as Solomon saith it resteth in the bosome of fools Can it remain in such a soul which hath so often spoken it self well pleased satisfied and infinitely delighted in himself and his Image his Son and his own most glorious and most gracious Righteousness Can the Sun go down upon his wrath Or if he must for some great reason act a part awhile and wear a mask or frown and cast abroad his Thunderbolts and shew the fierceness of his sore displeasure or the Power of his anger or wrath can it be shown upon a moath a bubble nothing weaker than nothing will he also set his eyes or heart or heavy hand on that which is not What Glory Honour Profit Pleasure can the Power and Wisdom that we lay aside awhile the Goodness of an Infinite God beget it self in crushing us Will the King of Israel hunt a Partridge in the Mountains or pursuite a fly will he prosecute dry stubble or the little moats of dust in the balance can his Almighty Arm delight to strangle little worms or wrestle with a shadow will he create a mighty whirlwind to contend with nothing less than nothing and lighter than vanity when his very thoughts may easily create the Angels and his Word this glorious World and think it down again at pleasure Drawing in his breath or spirit and they perish and then giving it out again and they are created as the Psalmist shadoweth out his Respiration or his hearts Diastole Syslole VVill his sore and great and strong sword contend with feathers or lead captive atomes will it boast it self in cutting little straws or glory in a Triumph over that which is more feeble than the tender grass when yet it might awake against a man that is his Fellow and his equal match Mighty to bear his weight and power and wrath and strongest blowes when we are all to him as
wilful sinners Of the patience of Christ to a man turning into a Beast and how he deviseth Devises to prevent it or recover him How he fulfilled the Ceremonial Law also and how he was in all the Sacrifices as a Lamb for the Lambs and as a Goat for the Goats Of Benjamin the Son of the right hand with other Children of Rachel a sheep in Hebrew at his right Hand and of the Children of Leah or others at the Left Hand where also of Seir a Goat and of the Goats offered at the New Moons solemn Feasts c. and of the Rams of Ishmael accepted on the Holy Alter Of Gods face in Scripture toward the East and of Bowing to the East and of his Right Hand to the South and Left to the North and of Northern Judgments turned to Mercies and Blessings and of great and good things to come out of the North in the Latter times of the World as from Babylon at the return from Captivity How Christ came in the fulness of time Of Seven Ten the full Rich Numbers of their Powers Compounds for Ages Ever or eternity which yet in Scripture oft hath such or such an End or Revolution in such or such Generations How Christ came out in several Ages and Persons of Note in the Bible to do the Great things of Gods Power Wisdome and Goodness for Man To Man and in Man through all the Times and Seasons of the Scripture and in special the Times of the Witnesses In Heaven the Father and the Word Dabar Bar Bara Creating Heaven and Earth where also the Spirit of the Messiah as the old Jews call it on Gen. 1. 2. Mooving on the Waters an other Witness and parting them by A Dam and Adam of Adama dryed Red Earth akin to Dam in Hebrew Bload the other Witness John 5. and Acts 17. Of one Blood he made all Nations of men and determined the Times appointed and bounds of their Habitations which in parting the sons of Adam he bounded according to the Number of the Sons of Israel Deu. 32. which were 12. and to be measured by the 12 Hours of Day and Night Shadowed on the Tabernacle by the Cloud Pillar of Fire for Light that Beginning of the Creation and works of God and in its outer Court by the Laver of Water and Blood on the Alter of Witness as That called Ed a Witness by the waters also of Jordan where afterward the Baptist heard or saw all the Witnesses of Heaven and Earth to which he bare Record or was made a witness also as divers other in several Ages And All the 7 Washings or Sprinklings of Blood or Water so often required in the Law to represent the 7 Nights and 7 Dayes of the Week As the 7 Lamps in the inner Court or Holy Place as the visible Heavens with its Planets about the Sun in the midst as the greatest Lamp was in the middle of the other 6 or 3 on either side by the 12 Cakes of Shewbread changed every 7th or Sabbath day and made of 24 Omers out of 24 Seahs as the Jewes 24th of Leviticus for the 24 hours of Day and Night Made by the Sun mooving 2 of His Diameters the Moon 24 of Hers in each diurnal motion of 24 Hours parted into 4 great Watches as the 24 Elders in the Revelation had also 4 watchers with 6 wings a piece as in the Prophets And in the Temple also there were 24 courses of Priests and of Levites 24 of Porters and 24 of Singers and 24 courses of Standers or men of the Station representing all the People or 12 Tribes as in the 12 Cakes of 24 as 12 Sons of Jacob or 12 Hours of Light came after the 12 hours of Darkness or 12 Sons of Ishmael or Esau for the 24. Elders And as God gave 24 things to the Priests so they gave 24 to him in their dayly Minha of 12 Rouls at morning and 12 also at Evening And the Seventh in Hours also is very Signal as in Days and Moneths and years by the great Rest and Turn of Sun and Moon as Water and Blood also in the Sea and bodies of Animals after every six hours with Them and All that accounted Lilith that is Night the first Wife to Adam and do call her Eve or Even to the Day As it is to them that are about the Aequator and to All at either Aequinox when Time seemeth to begin And beginning at Sun-set as the Jewes and many other Nations did the First six Hours brought down the Sun to the Midnight Nadir and six more brought it up to the Morning Horizon and six more to the Noon or Zenith and six more to Setting again So that every seventh Hour made a Pauz and Turn And Sabbath is Both in Hebrew As if the watchers stood at the four Corners of Earth or quarters of the Heaven which are called Winds and Spirits also in the Scripture alluding perhaps to the four watching Spirits or Angels to Turn the Sun and Moon or Hour-glass of Waters or Clepsydra in the Seas c. After every six Hours of Day and Night the walks of the Sun and Moon but shadows of the good things within the Vaile or 3d Heaven where the 2 Cherubins of Glory shadowed the Mercy Seat or Heavenly Throne over the Earth or Ark of the Testimony also or Witnes with its 2 Tables or Testaments also For the 2d Covenant as in 29 of Deuteronomy was both Law and Gospel also written in the Ark of the Heart of Christ and all his Members after the first Tables of Stone were broken and disanulled being never put in the Ark or in our Hearts For know you not that your Bodies are the Temple of God As Paul speaketh to the Gentiles also Where our Heads as the Heavens above with two Eyes or Cherubins of Glory The Mercy seat or Throne of God and his Rainbow as in all the Scriptures like our Eye And our Heart Or Altar of Incense As the Earth beneath in the middle Court or 2d Region with its Pericardium of Water and Blood in the Pleura with twelve Ribs on either side and seven distinct from the other Nothi As also the seven Rackets of the neck with its spirit or spinal marrow from the Cerebellum As the Brain hath also seven spirits or pair of Nerves with Animal spirits Veyles and Ventricles which are shadowed in the Lower Regions both of the Earth below in the Heart and Waters under the Earth in our Bowels where the Duodenum and Ilea with all the Rest are but shadowes of things above As of the Laver or Molten sea or great Ocean with its Ebbings and flowings as the Earning of our Bowels and the Altar of Burnt-offerings in our Stomack with its heat or fire never quenched and the seven Planets with the Firmament of the Midrif parting between the Bowels or Waters under it and those above it as high as the Brain
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
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
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
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
VVisdom it might ocasion us to think how neer Sophia or Sophos which was the great word with them that called it and their wise man a Die for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 turned backwards also is still the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes to that very number of 666. Which we find also in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his Name may be written who was so notorious in the VVest with Mahomet in the East about the year 666. And although I cannot deny but Ireneus scholar to St. John or his scholar found That number in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as others also in Romijith and divers other VVords or Names yet Some interpret That Phrase of the Number of a man as if it were a mans reckoning or to be counted onely by Him who of all the Creatures can onely so Number Numbers As if man an Hebrew word also came from Mana to Number And Manath or month is reckoning and 490. As if That Solemn Number of 7 Sevenights as we read in Daniels VVeeks were some way That which in Gods reckoning was The Number or the Manath or Month and it may be some way in every month also And in Hebrew manim or minae Pounds or mans or if you will men are 700 as mani number 100. And when Jacob complained that Laban had changed his wages so many times it is manim in Hebrew as the English also use many and for many also they use some which is Hebrew also as we found before in sum a sum or end of number and in numerals 666. as in Latine also Sexcenti for Many Shall I add also that as money or Monie is plainly an Hebrew word for Numbring as with English so also Zemanins which is Times or seasons as the word soundeth for every thing as Solomon speaketh is but 7 added to 700. That is monim or numbring or reckoning by seven as if all seasons were made up of the number Seven And as the Hebrew Sum is a kin to the Latine Sum and Turned backward is their Mus as Sumus also turned backward is still Sumus as if all our being and our summing also were but mus a mouse and all our musing also which is English and many other languages so also both sums are very neer to the Greek soma by which they expresse our body And it may be some will so render That phrase in the Revelation For it is the Number of a man as if it were not onely of mans numbring or of mans reaching or bearing or using as in Scripture often the Rods of a man and the Cords of a man and the pen of a man and the words of a man and the way of a man and the son of man and Children of men and to speak or walk as a man and Temptations of a man or common unto men But also some special Thing in mans body just of that Number And what if it should be That which makes him a man and yet so much and so oft to degenerate into a Beast For as man in the Image of God he was above all beasts and made to Rule them all with all his lusts and beastly Passions as we shewed before from Gods own words and great consult at mans Creation But lust conceiving brought forth sin and sin complete or grown up to be of age brought forth Death as we read in St. James and in Peter also that fleshly lusts Fight against the spirit and that it is very dangerous for any that have once escaped the pollution of the world which came in by lust to return with the Dog to his vomit or the sow to wallowing in the mire in a word to degenerate into a beast or beastly nature VVhich is very much by lust and that which causeth lust in our Bodies and Minds VVhich indeed is a strange kinde of Beast rising out of the sea or our lower Region or VVaters under our Heart or Earth Where also we found the 7 fleshly heads or Planets answering also to the 7 above and in our Brains also the heavens above or the waters above the Heavens as we shewed before where we glaunced at the Serpent also or Hydra a strange beast with 7 heads and 10 horns VVhich are somewayes in the worlds both great and little also which they call the Microcosm and in all its Regions also and in All Generations Most of All perhaps in That or Those which may be called the very Principles of All or every Generation What in our Bodies answered to the Two Faithful Witnesses in Heaven was hinted before May I now add that as Shemesh the Sun in Hebrew where yet it is Feminine is neer akin to somwhat we may scarcely Name at least As the Rabbines often use that word So is Jerach which is Moon and Masculine akin to That which the Scripture makes so much the Instrument of Generation the Thigh or Jareck whence the English Jerk or Yerk to strike upon the Thigh As we read also in Scripture And if the Latine Thorus were but written in Hebrew or Syriack might it not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which would also be Taurus a Beast And either of those words is just 666. And How neer is Ferus as in Greek also Beastly or Fierce to that Name or Number also May I not add that Shimshon or Samson or Hercules in Greek stories signifies the Little Sun crossing the Crossing Serpent of the Zodiack and its 12 Signs as the Labors of Hercules where also the Hydra or the Dragon or Beast and Serpent with 7 Heads and that it may be 666 or 700 in its numeral Letters also Or How Samson Dallyed with Dallilah till he was overcome by Lust also that cut off his Hairs as the Rayes of the Sun and at length put out his Eyes or the Two Witnesses in one Region which have Two also in other places called Testes or Witnesses by Many Nations And they bring Fire also from our Heavens and do strange wonders in us All. But they must be Put out before That Great Change will come which is so generally expected at 666. Which He may understand perhaps that knows why Christ himself did no Miracles till at a Wedding also he could say Woman what have I to do with thee and Then she said to the servants Do whatever He bids you So that Christ himself Did no Miracle Till his Mother bid it also If one should ask a Jew what maketh Men to be Men He might answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their VVeapons or their Vessels what they mean by those expressions one may easily know that understandeth Pauls discourse to the Corinthians about Marriage and keeping their Vessels clean or Holy or separate As David also spake to Ahimelech in number 665 or 666. And so also is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Heb. Vessels Yea and the Reins also or very neer akin to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and That to Kalla or
of Iohn lead us plainly to the Feast of Tabernacles and its Evening Songs and joy for Drawing of Water as the Jewes expresse it in their Talmud Adding also That He that never saw That Drawing of Water never saw Ioy in all his Life for more could hardly be expressed on earth then was expressed There And themselves confess it was to shew the Pouring out of the Spirit on All flesh in the Latter Daies which we saw beginning at Pentecost As the fiâ—st Drops of the Former Rain was followed by the great showrs of the Latter Rain After That Feast to prepare the Earth for the Wheat Then to be sown As Barley in the Spring Yea the Prophet Zechary tels us that the very Fast of the 7th Month How solemn and How strictly commanded should be Turned into Ioy and Gladnesse and Solemn Feasting And Then Many peoples plurall and Inhabiters of many Cities Yea the Rabble as the word soundeth shall Goe and say Come and let us Go speedily to seek the faee of God the Lord of Hosts and the Lambs Bride and the Spirit also will say I will Go also Yea Many People and strong Nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem Yea and Damascus it self shall become his quiet Rest his Menu hath when the Eyn of Men or Mankind shall be to the Lord as All the Tribes of Israel And He that remaineth shall be for our God Yea as a Governor in Judah And then are Both Comings of Christ described as before in the second Chapter First on an Ass the Foal of an Ass of which before on the Fourth Command â—nd other places of the Law And then he shall speak peace to the Heathen and have Dominion srom the River to the Ends of the Earth And to Them afar off in the Sea Which we touched before in America And yet Farther And As sor Thee also by the Blood of thy Covenant I have sent forth thy Prisoners out of the Pit where there is no Water Turne ye to the strong hold O Prisoners of Hope even to day do I declare that I will render Double to Thee And then follows the Conquest of Turk or Greece c. And Then the Lightning from the East So shall his coming be we must touch it again in our Discourse of Barak the word here used And Then the Feast of Trumpets in the Seventh Month and so of the Year of Release at the solemnity of Tabernacles As Moses expresseth it And the Jews bring it as High as Isaacs Release for the Ram and Thence they blow with Rams Horns the Jobelin alluding also to the Turnings and overturning of Jericho that is His Moon before the Sun of Josuah Then follow the Songs and other solemn shoutings of That Feast of Tabernacles of which also Lament 2. 7. and it may be Psalm 74. 3 4. Where Perpetual Desolations shall be Ended And the Chapter concludeth How Great is his Goodness How Great his Beauty Corn shall make the young men speak or sinq and New Wine the Maids A sure Character of That Feast at the Great Vintage of which also before in that chapter and the next and 12th also And in That day I will make the Governors of Judah like a Torch in a sheaf another Character of Harvest And the Lord shall save the Tabernacles of Judah first another Character that David or Jerusalem do not glory or exalt themselves against Judah And I will pour on the House of David and Inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of Grace and Supplication and they shall look upon me It is Jesus who speaketh This and All whom they have Pierced Of which also St John in his Gospel and yet again how often in the Revelation And we may touch Megiddon again in our Paralels of Kings and Judges And in that day there shall be a Fountain opened for Uncleanness And I will 〈◊〉 off the Names of Idols And then again of Both Comings of the Man that is Gods Fellow And of that Great Feast of Tabernacles which himself also cited or remembred on the Last and Great day of That Feast as we spake before And again in Hosea Great shall be the day of Jesreel it signifies the Seed of God But I will first take away her Corn and Wine and Oyl in the Moads or Seasons thereof and will cause her Mirth to cease her Sabbaths Moons and solemn Moads But I will allure her into the Wilderness and There I will speak comfortably to her And I will give her Vineyards and the Valley of Achor for a Door of Hope How Gracious and she shall sing There as in the Daies of her youth when she came out of Egypt and dwelt in Tabernacles as we read in That Prophet also And in That Day thou shalt call me Ishi my Man and Husband and shalt call me no more Baali my Lord or Master for I will take away the Name of Baalim or Lords out of her mouth and they shall be No more remembred by Their Name And I will hear the Heavens and they shall hear the Earth and This the Corn and Wine and Oyl and All shal hear Jesreel But the children of Israel shall abide many daies without a King and without a Prince and without a Sacrifice But afterwards they shall return and seek their Lord and their God and David their King and shall fear the Lord and his Goodness in the latter daies or End of the Year And as That greatest Feast of Tabernacles was at the End of the year so was their Greatest Meal at the End of the Day Whence we read of the Lambs Supper and the Lords Supper rather than Dinner which with Them was slight and little or nothing else but a Break fast As the Ravens brought the Prophet Flesh at the Morning and Flesh at the Evening Yea and God also had a Lamb at the Morning and another at Evening And Blessed is the Land whose Princes are Noble Offering Tamid before Break fast and Minha before Supper As the old Targum and other Jewish Writers on That of Solomon And although there were 12 kinds of Minha Yet That in Evening and Time thereof alone was called The Minha Being offered at the End or Evening of the Dayes As we read in Abels Minha or â—ains in Gen. 4. being just at the Time of the Evening Incense the Ketureth As Abrahams Evening Marriage if we may so call it of Keturah brought him More sons then his Morning Marriage of Sara Let my Prayer come like Ketureth and the lifting up of my Hands As the Evening Minha And the Priests of Baal cryed till Minha Then and not till Then God shewed himself by the Prophet Elijah Who was Then As the Evening Star Though in the Revelation compared to the Morning Star scattering the dark Clouds and Nightbirds of Jesabels time as we saw before in the Fourth Church And Then Elijah Treadeth Carmel or Cramel the Vintage of God which from Esay 63 and
Charan may see the motion of the Moon in her double state of New and Full crossing the Ecliptick with North and South Latitude attending the Sun also in all his Declinations North and South As Their Journeyings were In all places the Spouse is Lebana so with Laban so at Lebanon so in Aegypt and so also in Arabia whose Frankincense was Lebona And Solomons spouse had the smell of Lebanon and Lebona As alluding to the Temple Ketoreth of which before or to Keturah married to Abraham about the Time of Rebecca's coming from Bethuel and Laban so that she was also Lebana And when the Manna fell they cryed Man or called it Man being like the Good or Goat seed of Laban As the words may sound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which yet some render As Coriander seed or Goid in Dioscorides and it was White Alban a Methathesis of Laban whose Goats also were White and streaked And that of Manna and the white Stone in the Revelation may perhaps allude to That white Good Seed or Saviour which they also called Man not knowing what it was and the Seed of Gad or God whom they also call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in Esay they sacrificed to Gad whence some bring Godt and God and Guid and Good and Good Nese the Good â—le of Gades the old Elyzian Fields Hesperides or Fortunate Ilands And as Man is the great Reckener on Earth as we touched before from the Hebrew Mana to reckon so is the Moon in Heaven Mone Reckoning or the Counter And as she is called Lebana from VVhiteness so she is called Jareach As Reaking like Incense Lebona Which in the Temple was a VVitness as the Moon in Heaven to the Great Covenant which God made with Man and Mankinde in Noah when he offered Sacrifice at his coming out of the Ark and God smelt a sweet sauour of Rest which should be still remembred all the many times we read that Phrase and said in his Heart However his Face may seem to frown yet All the words of his Heart shall stand and he said in his Heart I will no more Curse the Earth for Adam For or although every would of his Heart be Wrong from his youth or before his youngers neither will I add to sâ—ite or Hack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Flesh or Any Flesh As Any Work in the 4th Command and divers other places As I have done c. And this Everlasting Covenant was made when he smelt that sweet savour of Rest which in Hebrew may sound The Moon a Reak of Night or Rest. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As if the Moons Intercessions betwee the Sun and the Earth might also represent the sweet Odours of the Church to Christ and of Christ to his Father who hath made That everlasting Govenant with man for His sweet Odour of Rest as sure as the Moon a faithful VVitness in Heaven as the Psalms express it speaking of the Covenant made with David and his Seed for Ever As before with Abraham and His Seed and with Noah and His Seed for Ever Which is made the measure of all other Covenants So that If This which God made with Noah for Day and Night or other seasons can be disannulled Then also may his Covenant with Israel As himself speaketh in the 33 of Jeremy And as Jareach may come from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Reak so also from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the common word for Spirit as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the English Racket a Fan or Vane But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Vaine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yet a little while and God will pour out his Spirit on the Earth as the Sun doth on the Moon He will give us the Upper and the Lower Springs as before in Achsa The Precious things of the Sun and Precious things of the Moon of the Heaven above and the Deep Couching beneath And the good will of him that dwelt in the Bush And when he saw that Moses said I will now turn aside to see This great sight and that he turned aside to see He called to him c. It is This Moses speaketh so of Joseph whom his Father also blessed with the Blessings of Heaven above and the Deep below the Breasts and the Womb. And These on Him that was separate from his brethren see Prov. 18. 1. as in Heb. And they scorned him as they Thrust out Moses also saying Who made thee a Judge among us But God exalted him and so he did Joseph also Sophie the Dreamer And Lo this Dreamer cometh And his Dreams were Sun and Moon and a Crown of 12 Stars also Rachel was the Sheep but He the Shepherd and the Stone of Israel to be compared with Dan. 2. and other Scriptures comparing Christ to a Stone And may we not finde Three Tribes of Rachel in Canaan with an Half also beyond Jordan Or what if Rachels Two sons should also be Stones of VVitness As Jacob spake at Gilead parted also or measured by Three and an Half As we see they were and the Lord dwelling at their Shilo and Mispha Sechem and other Shoulders also While the very Temple it self or its Court was parted between the Tribes of Benjamin and Judah That I speak not of the Tabernacle settled so long at Gibeon and the Ark at Kiriath-jearim another City of the Gibeonites saved on the 3d or 4th day in Josh. 9. who yet were Cursed by Joshuah that is solemnly Devoted to God and His service As the Nethinims in all the Bible I have yet said nothing of the Candlestick in the Tem ple parting it self into three Branches with three Bowls and three Flowers and three Lamps on either side of the Great Lamp in the Midst as the Sun in the middle of the seven Planets which yet so inclined to the West that they commonly call it the Western Lamp still burning Day and Night And measuring Time by Three and an Half on each side or Seven in the Whole while the 12 Cakes of Shew-bread lay by and were changed also every Sabbath or 7th Day And the Incense offered at 7 and 14 as we shewed before With the other Altar without for the Tamid where the Fire was not quenched Day or Night And the Salt Frying as the Worm never Dying And the Spirit of God as the Ayre or Sulphure also which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 somwhat Divine as a River of Brimston Kindling it Yea and the Sea of Sodom also before the Throne as we touched before in the Molten Sea so placed in the Outward Court as the Lake of Sodom was to Jerusalem On the Right Hand South-East As we may read in several places How the Seas Lamps or other things came to be multiplyed by 10 in Solomons Time we may speak in Characters if God permit In the mean time let me add That He that believeth is Childe of the Promise with Isaac and Blessed with faithful Abraham Yea He that is weak in
he was the near Ancestor of Selah or Siloah Rising up 35 years after his Father Arphaxad and 3 and an Half also The great Reconciler of the Sun and Moons Motions more perhaps than 19 or any other Number Half 70 5 times 7 And next to 6 times 6 perhaps the just Age of our Saviour at his Death In Hours it brings us to the Light of the 2d Morning 36 As 360 Dayes bring up the second Year I will love them freely Though before he had said From my House I will drive them Agarsem As Hagar from Abraham and I will not add to Love them Oseph As minding Joseph sold to the Stocks c. All their Saras are Sorerim Sorry Sirs As the English Proverb to this day They shall be Nodding and Noddies Among the Gentiles Gogim perhaps of Gog and Magog also Both in England and other Northern Countries As we finde in Heathen writers But return O Israel to the Lord thy God Even yet Thy God! As Jeremy 3. and many other places And the great Complaint in Zephany is that the Polluted and Rebellious City would not trust in the Lord Nor draw near to Her God As Manasseh but a Type of their Return though They thought themselves Forgotten as that name may intimate after All his sins Yet Bowed to His God and his Fathers God who Heard him Take words and say Take away All Iniquity Not Ours onely but All. O let the Iniquity of the Wicked wicked also come to an end And He was Heard in what he prayed Receive us graciously This Tob mindes me of Tobiah the Lords Goodness There are strange things in that Book and of These Dayes perhaps in the true Hebrew Copy I will be as a Dew to Israel yet the great complaint and punishment was That His Goodness and Mercy was but a Dew He shall flourish as the Lilly Or as Shushan of which before and in Ester 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 661. Or as Susanna Recovered by Daniel from the Elders as Shushan by Ester and Mordecai There is another Mistress also First His Roots under Ground and out of sight like Lebanon Then his little young Suckers Yonikothau as Younger is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 66. 588. His Glory or Beauty or Head Hodo As India How like to Judea Hodi in Ester also And in English Hoddy is joyful and glad As the Olive-Tree and his Reak as Lebanon Jasuâ—u Joseve Betsillo And again His memorial as the Wine of Lebanon From me is All thy Fruit found See Esay 26. 19 20. and Psalm 107. 40 41 42 43 and 91. and 37. 34. with the close of This Prophet Hoseah In the Prophet Joel we have a Form of Prayer prescribed before the Spirit be poured out as There also promised And Esay 32. My Land shall be desolate for ever c. Till the Spirit shall be Poured from on High And then the Wilderness shall be a fruitful Field and That which is Now fruitful shall be accounted but as a Wilderness And Then you shall sing as in the Night of the solemn Moed Chap. 30. to be added to that before of the Feast of Tabernacles And Chap. 59. They shall fear the Name of the Lord from the VVest and his Glory from the Sun-Rising when the Enemy shall come in like a Flood to end That Generation Then even Then the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a Standard against him And the Redeemer or Goel and Kinsman shall come to Zion or out of Zion and shal Turn away Ungodliness from Jacob. As St Paul renders the words in Rom. 11. applying it to the Fulness of the Gentiles as the Resurrection from the Dead when All Israel shall be saved For This is my Covenant with them when I shall take away their sins My Spirit upon thee my words which I have put in thy mouth for the word which I Covenanted with you in your coming out of Aegypt and My Spirit is still standing in you Fear yee not Hag. 2 They shall not depart from Thy mouth or from the mouth of Thy seed or from the mouth of Thy sâ—eds seed saith the Lord from now and for Ever And though they Rebelled and Vexed his Holy Spirit so that he turned to be their Enemy and fought against them yet he remembred the dayes of Old Moses and his people saying VVhere is He that brought them up out of the sea with the Shepherd of his Fock and where is He that put his Holy Spirit within him And again The Spirit of the Lord caused him to Rest c Chap. 63. And then followeth a most sweet and pathetical Prayer for the time of their Captivity to be Paraleld with that in Joel 2. And Then the Lord will be jealous for his Land or for his Earth and will pity his People Yea the Lord will answer and say Behold c. And fear not O Land Be not Tyred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be glad and Rejoyce For the Lord hath been Great to Doe or to work Great things Be not afraid ye Beasts of the Field Be Glad then O children of Zion and Rejoyce in the Lord your God He hath given you the Former Rain for Righteousnesse and He will bring the showre also the gushing waters as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may sound in English the former Teaching Rain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and That also which filleth up the straw or the stalk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in the first Month or beginning of the year which was also the End of the year before And you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the Name of the Lord your God that hath been so Marvellous for you and my People shall never be ashamed And you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel and that I am the Lord your God and none else and my People shall never be ashamed And it shal come to pass Afterward Afterward I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh c. And I will shew Wonders in the Heavens and in the Earth the Sun shall be turned into Darknesse and the Moon into Blood and may not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the Great and Terible Day of the Lord come and it shall come to passe that whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord Iesus as is plain by This cited in Rom. 10 shall be saved or delivered As Paul at Melita which in Greek may be Care but in Hebrew Cure and Deliverance For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be Deliverance Here is also Pelitah which we had before in Paltiel as the Lord hath said and in the Remnant whom the Lord shall call And Peter by these words proveth that This was only begun in Act. 2. and that the same spirit of which They had Then the First fruits as Paul also speaketh was promised to Them and Their Children and to All to All that are afar off even All the Lord shall
will not forsake his People for his great Names sake because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his People Moreover as for me God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you but I will Teach you the good and the Right way Onely fear the Lord and serve him in Truth with all your Heart as Davids Dying words to Solomon and Christ also God is a Spirit and they that worship him must do it in Spirit as here with All the Heart and Truth also For Such the Father Seeketh to worship Him And such he will finde For consider How great things he hath done for you But if you will still do wickedly you shall be consumed both you and your King There is yet much more in That History of Nahash of Ammon of Lot the Veyl which must be separate from the face of all people As at first from Abraham as we saw before from Esay and divers places And now Here also he would not onely cover their Eyes but put them quite out or at least their Right Eyes and that also must be A Reproach for All Israel Though This was onely at Jabesh-Gilead the Reliques of that woful business at Gibeah which did not onely cut off Benjamin but Jabesh-Gilead also by 12000 chosen men of Israel as the first Fruits to God and the Lamb as we may see in Judges 21. Where also both Gilead and Mispeh lead us to the Watch and Stones of Witness we saw before in Jacob their Father and Laban when Rachel was going to her long home at Bethlehem Ephrata with this Benjamin the youngest of her sons for whom she wept so much and so long because They were not Joseph was not and Ephraim was not see 1 Chron. 7. 21. and now they Take Benjamin also All these things are against her And yet little Benjamin that had so ruined Jabesh-Gilead must now save it by Saul the first King of that Tribe coming up because of Nahash besieging Jabesh-Gilead And the men of Jabesh-Gilead said Forbear us 7 Dayes and if none can save us we will come out to thee Then came Messengers to Gibeah of Saul That very Gibeah which had caused all the mischief both to Benjamin and Jabesh-Gilead also Then the people wept and Saul yearneth over their Tears so good it is to go or be with a Mourning weeping people of God For who can tell but their tender Eyes may affect and soften our hard Heart and Then the Spirit of God came upon him and remembring that All the mischief came by hewing a woman into pieces He now slayeth the Beast and heweth it into 12 pieces and by Those summons the 12 Tribes as One man with one consent or as the Prophet speaks with One Sechem He had now 300000 of Israel and 30000 of Judah a bad Omen that they should be so Divided and they must be Parted into 3 Bands and by Night also as Abraham his 300 and Gideon his 300 and Jacob his at Mahanaim and Joshuah his at Gibeon and David his for Ziglag and again As Jacob at Mahanaim and in the Morning Watch as before in the Red Sea and Barak or Gideon against the Midnight Midianites who though so near akin to Abraham and Isaak and Moses yet had been the Buyers of Joseph in the Pit and Sellers to Aegypt so that Moses must not dye before he had avenged God on Midian and recovered such a spoyl as possibly may help us to number all the Times and Numbers in their Bondage ever after Now is Nahash defeated and his Ammonites scattered so that two remained not together while Israel was as One man the onely way to destroy the Serpent and to break his Head And when also They shall be As a Beacon on an Hill the Lord will Wait that he may be Gracious to them and Therefore be exalted Therefore That he may have mercy on them and on All that wait for him For the Lord is a God of judgement Blessed are All They that wait for him As we read in the 30th of Esay How Jabesh-Gilead remembred and requited This of Saul even to his Dead body we observed before How David also blessed them for it when he shewed the kindness of God to the House of Saul Dead Saul And which is yet stranger even to this very Nahash or his Son or Namesake King of Ammon also Till they so abused his Embassadors An History that may be more considered And the people said to Samuel Who is he that said shall Saul Reign over us Bring the men that we may put them to death But Saul said There shall not a man be put to death this day for to day the Lord hath wrought salvation in Israel And David also in his sweet Return after his Banishment from his Kingdom would not slay Cursing Shimei because he knew he was That day King of Israel As we saw before with divers circumstances Then said Samuel to the People Come and let us go to Gilgal and Renue the Kingdom There Even There where God in Joshuah Rouled away the shame of Israel And now They rouled away This shame also of Nahash the Serpent on All Israel Though I add not here again how Circumcision it self was a Type or Pledge of their cutting off Nahash or the Serpents Head in every Age and World and Region also of the little World as we saw before How David or any other of the Kings cut off this Serpent or Nahash also in that remarkable History 2 Sam. 10. we leave for another season as God shall please And though Solomon had but One War as we saw before with Hamath Zoba the Wrath of an Army or fighting Rage or Fury Yet These also as All within the River Euphrates became his Servants or his Tributaries Even to the River of Aegypt whence he married his Queen as we saw before Of Solomons Temple I have little to add to Those Excellent Books lately written by English men also of Both Temples with That of a very Learned man before the Great Bible there also published That may never dyâ— Or Those that did or yet do labour to perfect it But I suppose Many if not All the Numbers we have spoken of may be in those Temples also with the Tabernacle and Noahs Ark in proportion to a mans body with its Three Regions also 30 Cubits High and 50 Broad and 6 times as Long. 300 by 50 is 15000 and the Waters prevailed 15 Cubits Upwards and that by 30 is 450000 filled up with 8 Persons and Beasts Unclean also with their Food and Ayre and other requisites of which again as God shall help us The Tabernacle 30 long and 10 broad that is 300 as the Ark and 10 high 3000. And its Court 100 long and 50 broad 5000. As we touched before in the 5000 fed by our Saviour as after by Peter Ranked by 100 and 50. Solomons Temple Double to the Tabernacle 60 long and 20